#if someone shipping something upsets you to this extent... you are giving them too much power over you

[bridge-demon]

3 and 4 for the hc ask board?

for the SOUL EATER ASK BOARD. (p.s. tysm holly for making this it was such a good idea)

3. A romantic headcannon about your favorite SE ship! Ex : Domestic shenanigans or, even what struggles they might have becoming a couple.

so if youve been around on my blog long, its probably p obvious that deathstar / kidstar is my fav SE ship gjsjflsj i just have. so many feelings about it,,,,,, like they are foils for one another. they hold so much respect for each other (kid sees blackstar's drive and determination and feels inspired by his passion, while blackstar recognizes kid being a god and appreciates his powers and abilities) and while i agree to some extent that they would have a "you idiot" "but im your idiot" type of relationship, i dont think kid would be quite as annoyed / irritated with him as some people portray them. there would absolutely be things about blackstar that gets under kid's skin, but it would be a lot more silly or trivial than people believe. and blackstar is a lot more compassionate and thoughtful than people realize i think, too; if he thought he was genuinely upsetting kid (or anyone really) i think he'd chill.

there are times when he goes too far (like while he was arguing with maka when they were trying to resonate souls) but he's more perceptive than ppl give him credit for imo. uhm but as for struggles when becoming a couple, ive seen a lot of different takes on this and i like p much all of them and i think it could go a number of ways, but i really like the idea of blackstar being adamant to make it work and kid having deep reservations (being immortal while blackstar will age, all of kid's responsibilities, feeling that blackstar could and should be with someone else, etc.) but blackstar would be like "kid. you like me, and i like you. isn't that enough?" for domestic cuteness, i love the idea of kid showing off (intentionally or not, be it fighting, training, skateboarding, playing music, or surprising star with a random skill he has from being lord death's son and growing up virtually alone as a demigod) and blackstar hanging slack jawed in awe and going from "i have to kill this guy he's too cool" to "im blushing so hard i have to kiss him right now only the most awesome dude can date the biggest star". they are both enraptured by the other and soulmates and in love and and and i rambled a lot but i could ramble more they make me so normal.

4. Offer a hobby-related headcannon for any character.

y'all already know how feral i am over dtk so this goes out to him, too. i think this boy can also play the piano (something he and soul have bonded over) and he can also waltz and slow dance. his father had him taught at a young age since he’s probably attended galas and such (once yk ppl were allowed to know he existed or w/e). in terms of music, soul can play just abt anything; brass instruments, the clarinet, guitar. i think blackstar would kill on the drums. maka can play the guitar too, i think. tsubaki can play the flute.

[mdhwrites]

How would you write Amity, Hunter and Lilith to be good while still having their edge?

Shoot Hunter in the face, give Lilith the anger she needed, and let Amity be bad at being a girlfriend.

...

If you're expecting me to apologize for being harsh, don't. Even the writers to some extent recognized the case for Amity and Lilith but instead time and focus was diverted to Hunter and Amity was decided to be the ULTIMATE GIRLFRIEND who never makes mistakes except that she cares too much which is something you say during a job interview so you don't claim to have no faults but don't actually seem like trouble. Meanwhile, Stranger Tides admits that Lilith's ambition and inner rage wouldn't go away after losing her magic. At least then she's trying to help the house but you get the idea that unlike Eda, who submitted to her life long ago, she isn't going to sit there and take it.

And then... She sits there and takes it. And Amity, despite only knowing transactional and manipulative love up until now, who overthinks and worries about everything, only doubts herself during Eclipse Lake and then doesn't even decide "Wait, what has Luz upset might be me and her phone might tell me what I've been doing wrong" and open it up. It would be a different angle on the same problem that would be absolutely in line with her character, especially if Willow is going to decide to be OOC in order to let Amity make the decision all by herself when there is NO reason she should make the right one.

But for Lilith to actually strike back at Belos, or at the Isles in general, to prove that even without her magic she deserves respect, going back to those initial motives that led to her cursing her sister but now with supposedly 'noble' goals, would have taken time. To have Lumity have a push and pull in their relationship where they both make mistakes and both learn from it, something Luz explicitly NEVER DOES because she never stops lying, would have taken time. Where do you get that back?

Kill Hunter. Just remove him from the story. He is absolutely redundant as just a second Amity who is filling in the obvious narrative role that Lilith should have had. After all, he is meant to eventually rebel against the EC. Lilith also clearly had that potential in S1 and was primed for it in S2. He is our connection to Belos as someone who was by his side for years. Lilith was the EC COVEN HEAD. He is meant to have a rivalry with Kikimora. Lilith also had a rivalry with Kikimora. He is meant to be disempowered due to a lack of his own magic and must embrace wild magic and the Isles in order to get stronger when he is without the support of the EC. LILITH. LOST. HER. MAGIC. And befriended a demon. And needed to find other ways to deal with problems.

When I say TOH REFUSES to actually start using the elements it has setup and instead introduce new, worse, redundant ones, Hunter is THE example while Lilith breathes. Worse yet, Lilith then takes King's spot as a dedicated comic relief character in a series with already too many comic relief characters, too few jokes, and VERY few good jokes, especially when they're losing one of their only straight men by Lilith's change in attitude.

And what do we gain with Hunter? An allusion to a backstory that doesn't matter? The one straight ship in the show allowed to be alive? A sad emo boy for the Hot Topic crowd? A lot of this stuff doesn't add to the story and while Eda was a compelling way of redeeming Lilith without discrediting the EC, Hunter CONSTANTLY discredits the EC, Kikimora, and pretty much every threat in the show, including Belos to some extent for the sake of his half assed redemption that comes down to the moment he's told Belos lied to him... AND LILITH DID IT ALREADY AND BETTER.

The show reveals all its concepts in S1. Almost everything is shallow recycling and frankly that goes to the edges of characters. Keeping those edges means exploring their redeemed selves. Removing them? Means you can make a joke and then wave them into the cameo cast as you move on to make a new character who is going to do them worse.

And Hunter's greatest sin, above anything else, is being the embodiment of this. I am curious though: Who would have been the replacement for Hunter in S3 if we'd gotten a full one? Food for thought.

Edit: Btw, being a troublesome girlfriend, needing to learn, is a concession to time. If theoretically I only had like two half episodes to explore her edge more and keep it there, stuff with Lumity, and real stuff unlike the B plot in Sport in a Storm, is your main option. Her relationship to her old desires, her parents, the coven system, etc. like that in a way that would have been in keeping with her desire to be the best and what not, the effect her parents had on her and more, would simply take too much time and Lumity was the most important thing to the show when it comes to Amity so making Amity an interesting love interest, one that makes mistakes and could maybe call out Luz during her mistakes, like ALL THE LYING, is the main reasonable way to have kept her edge, just like 3-4 episodes/half episodes dedicated to Lilith's rage at Belos and about her magic beyond just Stranger Tides and KIND OF Affearances. That is also about as many storylines/episodes (though most of Hunter's plots are full episodes or 75%) as Hunter got. I try to keep this stuff in mind with these blogs so as to try to be reasonable to a show's schedule.

==========

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead, If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

And finally a Twitter you can follow too!

[nekoannie-chan]

Secrets Chapter 16: The beginning of the team

Pairing: Steve Rogers X OFC, Brock Rumlow X OFC.

Word count: 1301 words.

Summary: Sometimes keeping secrets can be dangerous or a heavy burden, which is what Kathleen has been doing for years. She will also be in charge of guiding Steve Rogers into this century; meanwhile, S.H.I.E.L.D. will be looking for a way to kick-start the Avengers Initiative by integrating her as one of the superheroes, but that won't be the only danger they face.

Warnings: Canon fighting, guns.

A/N: After long time working on this longfic, I finally post it. If you wanna be added to the taglist, let me know.

My native language is Spanish so I wanna improve my writing skills in English if you notice any mistakes, please let me know and I will correct them.

I don’t give any kind of permission that my fics to be posted on other platforms or languages (I translate myself my work) or the use of my graphics (my dividers are included in this), I did them exclusively for my fics, please respect my work and don't steal it. There are some people here who make dividers that anyone can use, mine is not this type, please look for the other's people. The only exception is the ones I gifted 'cuz now belong to someone else. If you find any of my works on a different platform and are not one of my accounts, please let me know. Reblogs and comments are always welcome.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Marvel's characters (unfortunately), except for the original characters and the story.

Add yourself to my taglist here.

My other media where I publish:  Ao3, Wattpad, ffnet, TikTok, Instagram, Twitter. 

If you like it, please vote, comment, and give me feedback to improve my skills and reblog.

You can read it on Wattpad and Ao3 too.

Secrets masterlist.

Previous chapter.

Next chapter.

Natasha was with Barton, who had already emerged from Loki's mental manipulation in one of the ship's private compartments, he wanted to know the extent of the damage he caused, but her friend didn't think it was convenient, Kath came in.

“ How are you feeling? “she asked Clint.

“Confused," he replied, he couldn't remember everything that had happened.

“Anzai, could you erase what happened since Loki showed up that night or do something so he can forget? “Asked the redhead, the mutant nodded and approached, the request was simple to fulfill.

“No, I need to remember everything that happened," Clint refused as he stopped the girl's hand, Natasha looked at her imploringly.

“I can do it Romanoff, but if he doesn't want to, I don't think it's fair, it's his decision, I can't go against people's wishes, not when it comes to his mind “ she wasn't going to force anyone or take advantage of her powers, Nat sighed defeated.

In another part of the ship Steve was looking at Tony, he didn't know how to start a conversation with him, even though Kathleen had warned him not to expect him to be Howard's equal, internally he wished he could find his friend in Howard's son.

“ Was he married or did he have a family? “Steve asked her to start a conversation.

“I think there was just a cellist," replied the other, both were grieving, so much so that one began to blame the other for what had happened.

“ Is this the first time you have lost a soldier? “asked the blond, making the other even more upset.

“ Is that how you see us? Do you think that girl is a soldier? She's nothing more than a girl with powers, we're not soldiers and I don't work for Fury," the brown-haired man answered.

“I don't work for him either, he has blood on his hands, but now the most important thing is to stop Loki," the super soldier assured.

“Loki is a diva, he wants to raise a great monument to be worshipped and he needs a great source of unlimited energy..." Tony opened his eyes wide when he realized that his Tower would serve Loki's plans, Steve seemed to understand the same thing.

Immediately Tony went to fix his suit that was damaged when repairing the Helicarrier's engine, so while Steve went to look for Kathleen and Natasha, he entered the compartment where the others were, and Clint was washing himself.

“ Does anyone know how to fly a jet? “asked the Captain.

“I do, I have experience in that," the archer stepped forward before Kath could say anything.

“ Do you trust him? “He turned to the girls, both of whom nodded firmly so there was no doubt. Then put on your uniform, we leave in less than ten minutes," he ordered.

The girls looked at each other confused because they already had it on and everything they needed with them.

Once ready the four approached one of the jets and entered, they were not going to wait for Stark, as he had to get as fast as possible to his Tower, one of the technicians who was inspecting the jet tried to deny them entry, the Captain confronted him and the technicians ended up leaving the jet and the team set off towards Stark Tower.

“ Have you gone on many missions together? “Steve asked Kath.

“Not really, they just trained me separately, well, sort of, it's complicated, mmm... We haven't had any missions together, in fact, they have had several together, mine are with Brock or alone “she answered.

“ Are they together? “He thought it was strange how close the other agents were.

“I don't know, I don't think so," answered the girl, she knew the truth, she had read their minds, but she knew she couldn't tell any details if it didn't appear in the Organization's documents it meant it was secret.

Before they arrived, Stark found the Asgardian in his Tower, after an exchange of words Loki flew Tony out of the Tower, and the billionaire sent for one of his suits.

The Chitauris began to enter the earth through the portal, the people surprised and frightened without knowing that they were those monsters, run terrified to take refuge where they could. Thor arrived at the Tower trying to make his brother see reason without success.

At first, they did not know well where to start counterattacking, Tony did it in an aerial way, while the others arrived on the ship, realizing the presence of the others, Loki launched a power with the scepter causing damage to the jet, so they had to make an emergency landing in the middle of the street, the four left the ship and began to get rid of the monsters. Tony asked if Banner had arrived yet, they still hadn't found him, and at the same time, Loki and Thor were still fighting.

Kath separates a little from the group to try to heal some injured people, protect others and throw energy balls against some Chitauris, there was a lot of confusion, and there was really no plan of attack, she cursed mentally, the STRIKE team and the rest of the Organization's teams were supposed to coordinate with the emergency services to protect the citizens. Elsewhere, Natasha and Clint were fighting together against the monsters.

“This reminds me of Budapest," the agent commented animatedly.

“ Does it? I remember it very differently," she launched other arrows.

Suddenly the council told Fury that they decided to launch a missile to end the threat, they began to argue until the director realized it was in vain, he ran to the surface of the Helicarrier to try to stop the ship that would launch the missile without success, he immediately warned Stark through the transmitter, it was probably easier for him to reach him.

“Kitty, if Stark doesn't manage to get rid of the missile, I'll need you to open a portal to get rid of it, they can't mess up the plan we have," he ordered through another transmission channel to Kath so no one else would know.

“I understand, there's not much time left, is there? “She felt more and more tired, which meant she had to save a little more power for that emergency.

“If she doesn't make it in two minutes, you know what to do," she told her, the girl replied in the affirmative.

In the Helicarrier, everyone was watching attentively through the screens what was happening, they saw how Stark managed to put the missile through the portal, but he was running out of energy and the oxygen began to decrease, seeing that it did not return, Steve gave the order to close the portal to Natasha, she closed it, but Kathleen opened another one without anyone noticing so that Stark could get out, so it seemed that he had returned before they closed the portal, in the Helicarrier everyone began to celebrate, Fury was satisfied with the results, it would be easier to get what he wanted before the council.

Tony took them almost dragging them to the shawarma place, they no longer had much energy to argue, the owners of the place when they saw that those who entered were the heroes who had saved the island from those monsters did not refuse to serve them despite how destroyed the place had been. They ate in silence when they finished Natasha and Clint left together, and Bruce stayed with Tony who was trying to calm down a hysterical Pepper over the phone, Thor went to where they had his brother, he felt the obligation to make sure he did not escape again.

Ꭲꭺꮐꮮꮖꮪꭲ:

@saiyanprincessswanie  @sinceimetyou @unnuevosoltransformalarealidad

@navybrat817 @angrythingstarlight @shield-agent78 @charmed-asylum @pandaxnienke @real-fbi @smokeandnailz @white-wolf1940  @tenaciousperfectionunknown @xoxonotme  @bluemusickid @leyannrae  @harrysthiccthighss @marvelatthisone @caplanbuckybarnes  @sapphire-rogers @lizzieolseniskinda​ @notyourtypicalrose @hallecarey1  @nana1000night​ @talia-rumlow​ @mylifeispainandiloveit @writingshae​ @alexxavicry @azulatodoryuga @daemonslittlebitch  @sweater-daddiesdumbdork​  @jtargaryen18​ @chaoticcollectivenightmare​ @endlesstwanted​  @chemtrails-club​  @marigoldreamer​  @whiskeytangofoxtrot555​ @here4thefanfics​ @theestorm​ @patzammit​

[suzumenoken]

Genji Shimada Relationships/Intimacy Headcanons

Levels of intimacy for shipping/relationship purposes as headcannoned by me.

Under the cut, cause just like my Hanzo, I go into detail, but even more so here with Genji since I write him in varying points of his life. Admittedly its really complex and situational, so brace yourself, this gets long!

All SFW, angst and fluff included!

Sexuality: I HC him straight. He's definitely been experimental a bit in his past, though.

Young Genji:

Theme song: Death of a Strawberry - Dance Gavin Dance

Lvl 1) Someone's interested in him? Well, it's not the first time and certainly not the last. He's on a high horse and doesn't really filter his words and actions. He plays the fuckboy card damn well, it's all anyone sees when he's outside the walls of his estate. It will be no different towards someone who's actively trying to pursue him at first. They'll have to catch his attention for reasons other than the bullshit he's actively involved in. He'll just assume they're the same as everyone else if they show more interest in the delinquency/partying and his family name/history than him personally.

Lvl 2) They caught his attention by consistently showing interest in him, and just him. It likely won't be terribly pleasant for the pursuer because of his cheeky quips as he catches on, cause he does, and quickly, (or maybe they're into that, who knows) but persistence is an eye catcher. He'll be more inclined to talk to them.

Lvl 3) He's seeking them out specifically to talk to, hang out with and bother, trying to pull at their strings. He's pulling a bunch of tricks out his sleeve with a playful attitude to keep them on him. He'll slow down on certain activities, not holding as much of an interest in those things anymore as he does in the other person, now holding a bit of hope for the possibilities. Yet, that hope now grows with fear. He still holds his façade very strongly and struggles to be truly vulnerable. He'll need something to break him out of it/give him confidence that it's ok to show himself.

Lvl 3.5) A confession wouldn't really phase him, per-se, since he's been confessed to before, but as long as genuine time and effort has been given up front, he'll be more receptive, yet still clinging to his mask and won't put it down for just anyone. It'll either have to be forced off him or guided off. Depending on which path the other chooses to take with him, he'll respond accordingly, and this is either a dead end, or the start of something pretty wild. (Or it could already have been, he's a bit of a thrill seeker, so there you go.)

Lvl 4) So, he accepted their confession. Returned it, even. Whether he asks or they do, now he's giving it a shot. There's a crack in the front he's put on for so long, and out of it seeps heaps of genuine passion. He hasn't given up all of his habits, though, and still smokes (primarily), drinks (not as much), etc. Whether or not this is an issue to his s/o is interchangeable and he will accommodate where he can for them. They're something truly different and he slowly grows more attached with each day that passes.

Lvl 5) He's attentive, protective (very, considering his occupation) and god does he know how to love. He keeps disappearing from his home when he's not worked to the bone training or has to do anything for clan purposes to see his s/o, basically living a double life. That is until the canon event happens where he fights his brother and is struck down by him.

Note: if the s/o truly knows the extent of his family history and business, if their relationship is secret or not and more is up to the plot lines.

Blackwatch Genji:

Theme song: WANNA DIE - n9neful & WHYTYLXR (Lyrics)

To be completely honest with you, he's not interested in a relationship at this point in his life. He'd be thrown off and even upset at anyone showing romantic interest in him when he's like this, and genuinely would wish better for them. He's got too much on his mind and is violently angry. He's really not going to be able to be pulled out of that right now, but they're welcome to try.

In the case it's an old flame/the person he was with before he became a cyborg, they won't know who he is instantly. He will try to keep it that way. If they do find out, he'll fight tooth and nail to keep them out of his life beyond anything that's necessary for several obvious reasons.

Note: Whether or not he recognizes its the old flame/partner is also up to plot.

Current Genji:

Theme song: Sunset Memories - Tales of the Forgotten

Lvl 1) He doesn't really pay attention to anyone but his direct circle in Overwatch, so getting his attention is a little tough unless he's worked with directly. Also, if it's a verse based in canon, he's interested in Mercy, so any feelings would be unrequited, anyhow. However, in a verse where that's not the case, it'll definitely start with him not being interested in anyone. A friendship would have to build first, so obviously the interested party would need to introduce themselves somehow.

Lvl 2) Now he at least knows who they are, they're talking here and there, maybe they're a fellow agent and go on missions with him, it's purely business related. He's kind. Quiet. Sweet. The best way to appeal to him is to share his calm, and if they respond well, he will in return.

Lvl 3) The peace he begins to feel with the other grows to friendship. He appreciates their presence and keeps in contact. Nothing romantic, purely platonic. As friendship grows and time passes, the closer they get, the more attentive he becomes to them.

Lvl 3.5) They confess. He's known. If things have gone well up to this point, it's possible he has thought about it at least a little, himself, and isn't against it. If nothing has sparked at this point beyond the friendship, he'll keep it where it is and it will not progress. However if they did click, he will admit he is open to the opportunity if they are.

Lvl 4) He's got them & they've got him. Adding more romantic actions to their relationship, he's always near by when he can be. He's their support. Their protector. Their lover. He trusts them with his mask off, with his life, and will often show any physical affection he can as long as they're ok with it. He's not an incredibly jealous person, but will make it known just who he is if necessary.

Overall, in order:

Quality Time - (time spent in silence, in noise, anywhere, he wants to be there with them.)

Physical Touch - (even though he can only feel it on certain parts of his person like his face and anywhere the armor melds with his skin, he craves that because it reminds him he's still human.)

Gift giving - (he adores making them smile and wants to spoil them now and again.)

Words of affirmation - (voiced affection is important to hear, though he'll always place what's shown over what's said.)

Acts of service - (he never expects much to be done for him since he can very much handle himself, but it absolutely warms his heart when it is done.)

[catb-fics]

Honestly it could have been just Van and Benji in the studio at first while they figured out drums and potentially lead guitar (if they don’t plan on making Van the sole guitarist). Considering it’s essentially Van writing all the music, all that’s really needed to start recording is him. I’m sure they had something in place for drums. I don’t know who but it’s LA. Anything is possible.

Record labels will tell their artists not to work with producers who are lie to fans about music coming. It becomes a liability issue and looks bad for the band and label being associated with liars. So bullshitting is really a no-go for producers cause they need clients so they can get paid to do what they love. Producers need to keep a positive history with labels.

As upsetting as it is, sometimes silence is better when it comes to situations like this in the long run. Ambiguity gives them freedom to do what they need to do. Sometimes waiting for the last minute to say anything is the way to go cause if the band won’t announce anything, someone else will. Giving the band more control over the things they want to put out when they’re ready. Seems backwards but it’s really not. It’s the same concept as throwing someone under the bus lol. There’s much more business than most people realize. Sardy started teasing right after they missed Cardiff and Bondy’s statement. I fully see it as him saying “they’re busy in the studio which is why they’re not playing Cardiff, don’t worry and surprise!” very subtly. Makes e fully convinced their silence is a form of marketing. Sardy’s not a part of the band he can be trusted to some degree because he’s worked with the band before.

You can spend years asking “why can’t Catfish just say something?” or try to understand that silence drives us to want more and that translates to immense hype, sales, attention and much more when they return. I mean seriously, if Catfish came back today, you all would be in tears and throwing your money at them. Not “oh that’s cool they’re back. I love them”. There’s a lot of psychology that goes into the music business and industry as a whole. Hope this makes sense. Trying to condense this whole thing coherently is very difficult. - 🌴

No offence to Van but I don’t think he could be the lead guitarist (he would say so himself too!)

I can see all this but surely if they’re jetting off to LA weeks after cancelling a huge gig there must be someone driving it (management/record label) and if this was the case then why didn’t they utter a word about pulling out? Fans paid out literally thousands to see them, to cancel with no word and jet off to record an album seems very off. I know I probably don’t ‘get’ these shitty marketing tactics and I’m probably just still miffed on behalf of fans I’ve personally spoke to who were beyond gutted about wasting all their hard earned cash, but I struggle to get my head around it. I mean if this was true you don’t just decide to fly off to record across the world last minute - this would mean they knew they weren’t going to perform way before they pulled out.

The deathly silence surrounding the last minute cancellation felt to me personally like Van (and possibly Benji - who knows) were the sole survivors at the helm of a sinking ship 😢

I do totally get the anticipation thing and agree with this to an extent but I do wonder if leaving things too long would have a detrimental effect? Catb were and are big in the UK and have solid fanbases overseas but they aren’t AM level (who could dip out for years and come back as big and bold as ever.)

Aghhh I really don’t know, I would love to totally get behind this theory but I just feel kinda cautious to get too excited ya know? 😭

And thanks for coming to chat - I know we don’t all agree on some stuff but it’s nice to have a friendly and civil discussion about it! I see another long ask in my inbox so I’m gonna answer that one in a mo!

And I’m gonna give you your own tag if you don’t mind as all this is interesting and people might wanna refer back…

[dark-visitors]

Okay, your opinion on ships? This is just for fun xP and research 😉 nah jk just fun because why not?

~~~Which do you prefer?~~~

Wyler or Wenclair?

Wyler or Tynid?

(Answer can't be wyclair because it's all 3 that's cheating🤣🫣) I do know you like both but do you like one higher than the others?

~~~Thoughts on these ships?~~~

Petroclair? (Just to see if you'd be interested in reading fics if I post of them) ~

Bucas? (Bianca and Lucas) (I feel like I'm the only one who ships them HARD) ~

Yoko x Divina? (Idk their ship name) and same with these two I feel like I'm the only one who ships them)

(This next one is a friendship because i don't ship young kids)

would it be sweet to see a friendship between Eugene and Pugsley?

(I know you're a multishipper & I'm not used to it, but I just want to know your thoughts on these ships for fun)

You want—you want me to CHOOSE between the loves of my life!?! Why would you do this to me? Did I do something to offend you?

I will amuse you. But you’re stressing me out dude.

Wyler vs Wenclair: If we’re looking at just the ships themselves I genuinely don’t think I have a favourite. I started in the Wenclair fandom but I tend to interact with the Wyler fandom a tad bit more these days. I love them both so much it hurts. But if I HAD to choose probably Wenclair because my favourite character is Enid and I’m going to get a lot more Enid content with Wenclair than I am for Wyler. Also I’m just a femslash kinda girl. 80% of my ships since I started in fandom at 11 have been femslash. Likely because I’m bi and complex queer women that actually interest me are hard to come across in media. And I already read a lot of published romance books that portray straight relationships that I enjoy so it would hurt slightly less to give up Wyler. SLIGHTLY! But I’m not happy about you making me figure that out. I’ve been sitting here for like 20 mins already.

Wyler vs Tynid: Wyler probably takes the cake here. Emphasis on PROBABLY. But because we have very little canon Tynid content it harder to make content about them and it’s a rare pair so I rarely come across other people making content about them either. Whereas Wyler has a very active and engaged community and that’s what fandom and shipping is all about. Like to an extent I already don’t have Tynid (when something does pop up it’s the best thing ever though). Also despite the lack of Enid (rude and unacceptable) Wyler as a solo couple has a very intriguing dynamic that is a lot of fun to pay with. They’re dark romance and obsessive devotion and that’s what I live for.

Now that torturous occasion is over (WYCLAIR ENDGAME) the rest of these are a lot easier to answer.

Enid x Ajax: Not really? I don’t have anything against it. I love Ajax and Enid really seems to like him. They’re cute. But I’m weird about Enid ships. I have a very specific idea of who Enid is and what type of relationship would suit her in the long run. And Ajax is too chill for Enid in my opinion. I think she’s better with someone who’s as intense as she is. Someone a little less hinged. Ajax is sweet and I think he makes a very good first boyfriend. That guy you go to school dances with. That you remember fondly. That very rarely upset you. And who was always by your side, holding your hand. Your first kiss. Maybe even your first time. But it’s as if something is missing. Love isn’t sweet. It’s intense. It’s obsessive. It’s always burning and sometimes it hurts like a bitch and you feel like your drowning. But it’s also fucking everything and it’s what makes life worth living. I’m in a ranting mood apparently, but to summarise, for some people sweet is enough, but I don’t think Enid is one of those people. It’s a valid ship but it’s just not for me.

Bianca and Lucas: Love it. Underappreciated ship. Will be writing it into the Wyclair fake dating AU. We haven’t seen much of them but from what we have I think they’re really compatible.

Yoko and Divina (Yokovina): Also love it. You’re obviously from the Wyler fandom and not the Wenclair fandom because A LOT (tbh literally all of us) ship it. It’s a big thing. You should check it out. Both of their screen times were lacking so most of the headcanons I have about them have come from their fandom curated personalities. But they’re endgame. I won’t take arguments about it.

Pugsley and Eugene: They’re already besties. They haven’t met but they’re inseparable. Wednesday herself thinks they’re super similar and she would know. Plus they’re both lacking in the friendship department and Pugsley would corrupt Eugene and I’m here for their antics. Also headcanoning that Pugsley has a crush on Enid too, and Tyler and Wednesday are like… you’re lucky we love you. You’re the only two people who could get away with that.

[acourtofthought]

I don’t think what went down with that e/lriel was fair. I think it was beneath you. I am also using my phone, so I apologise for any weird formatting.

Let me preface this by saying - You made valid points. I just don’t understand why you went to their post, and commented at all? To be honest, I don’t think you were in the right on that, and it makes us look bad. We’ve been accused of baiting in the past, and I’ve always scoffed at it..but you undeniably did go onto their post to seemingly start a fight. I also don’t think it’s a fair claim, that they could stop responding - when it was their post and blog to begin with, and not some random post that invited discussion. That is an unrealistic, and unfair expectation. I would tell someone who came into my space like that to “fuck off” too. That e/lriel you engaged with IS problematic, undeniably so. Everyone knows it. I just feel you gave them something valid to whine about this time. I am genuinely confused and frequently disgusted by our ACOTAR community as a whole. We call each other hypocrites, and yet do the very same thing we accuse our antis of. One of your reiterated points is “you hate when e/lriels say Eluciens lack reading comprehension” - a very fair gripe to be sure! However I’ve seen numerous posts from “our” side of the line, claiming that very thing of E/lriels..I’ve seen much worse claimed of them, by us..Truly, I wish you would have just vagued that E/lriel instead of engaging like that. It was disappointing, and I’m annoyed that today I actually feel bad for them.

I apologize that my responding to something in the Elain tag has upset you to the point that you felt the need to message me.

I LOVE a lot of the people that I've interacted with through Tumblr. I love reading their blogs, their ideas, their thoughts. And I love that there is a collective group who love Elucien like I do.

At the same time, I am still an independent thinker and operate based on my emotions and thoughts. If I feel angered over others being attacked then I'm not the kind of person who's going to sit back and do nothing. If something frustrates me and I feel driven to speak up, I'm going to do it.

Truly, I apologize if that somehow gives the collective Eluciens a bad name. But the Original Poster was ridiculing others under the Elain tag which leaves it open for anyone following the Elain tag to comment on.

I was presenting an opinion to her, in response to a post which I felt did not provide accurate information. If she did not like my reblog response, she could have ignored me. She could have blocked me. But she chose to respond and progressively got nastier. I don't think there is anything wrong with responding to an open blog that has the tag of Elain in it, regardless of whether or not that blog was created by her or not. She blogged something with a tag that would be seen by both Elucien and Elriels. That's like saying when an actor posts a promo for their movie, only people who agree with a certain group of critics should be allowed to comment. The Elain tag belongs to no one in particular which, in my opinion means it's open for discussion. When a neutral tag is used, people are going to speak up. I don't think that means anyone is giving their ship a bad name if it's done in a certain way. What gives certain sides of a fandom a "bad name" is not the back and forth discussion with someone. It's when name calling and belittling others happens. It's when people forget how to have any actual debate and resort to pettiness.

I'm not sure what more to say because while I'm sorry it bothered you to this extent, I'm not going to be the kind of person who doesn't speak out when I feel like it's in defense of others. I know I don't always succeed but for the most part, I try to discuss the book rather than turning into a personal attack. And while I don't enjoy having someone upset with me, I can't promise I won't speak out again in the future.

[daenerys-daario]

Etherealdany is nothing more than a pathetic liar and a fucking coward.

Okay, just to be clear, here is a list of CRIMES that @etherealdany had committed:

she was in tumblr a while back with a group of mutuals who were very much into puritan shipping. however, she wasn't. she was into asoiaf (a piece of problematic media) and hence her ships were also problematic (possibly, age-gaps or incest). because she felt pressured and was apprehensive about revealing her ships, she quit tumblr and went to twitter. later she rejoined tumblr, but obviously didn't contact the people who would probably shame her for her ships. so, these people thought navya shipping whatever she wanted and not wanting to be in a negative fandom space is "a betrayal" and that "it felt like a personal attack".

Firstly, I have a genuine question for you people:

Do You Guys Hear Yourselves?

Do you realise how utterly deranged, petty and out-of-touch you sound?

Somebody shipping whatever the hell they want is not a violence against you! Somebody going in and out of online-fandoms or irl-fandoms is not a violence against you! Somebody staying in touch with their old friends or is not a violence against you!

I did not know that we are doing a live-action version of Mean Girls! "On wednesdays, we wear pink! And then Navya didn't wear pink on a wednesday! And now she even dares to go and sit at another table. And then she was even laughing and enjoying with those other people! Now, she says she doesn't like pink, but blue?!?! And she didn't even give us an explanation or jusification!"

Listen... I am not a stereotypical high-school girl from a 90s romcom movie. So, I don't care.

Secondly, I wish I had your problems! I truly truly do. I would sincerely pray to god that at least in my next birth I would get to be you! You guys seem to be living my dream life!

I wish I was so privileged that one of my chief issues was that an internet friend I had two years back, started to ship something I hate or stan a character I hate!

I wish I had your level of problems. Compared to yours, my level of problems seems to be on a completely different level.

During my high-school years, I had to stop someone from physically assaulting my friend in the middle of a road, and now they are my good friend! During my college years, people who called me names behind my back were the ones who stood up and (physically) fought off political party members who came to harass me. Classmates who plotted against me during college are the people I would gladly shake hands and hug, whenever I meet them for a reunion. Because in hindsight, those matters seemed trivial and petty, and I could only laugh at our pettiness and foolishness.

These are the level of fights-between-friends I am used to. This is the society I've lived in. This is the level of maturity and magnanimity I deal with on a daily basis.

So, these complaints of "she stanned a fictional character I didnt like and didn't tell me" can only seem ridiculous to me! They would seem ridiculous to anyone in my society. In fact, they would seem ridiculous to anyone who has to actually deal with people in their daily life and whose world is not limited to internet drama.

So, please understand that these "receipts" that you bring only expose how privileged you are, instead of exposing Navya. Also, despite searching high and low you could NOT find any true "crime" to pin on Navya, except that she lied about her ships and the chaaracters she stanned.

Just reflect on that.

Thirdly and lastly, just... how much effort did you put in for this?

You had to take screenshots of all these old blogs that you had to find. In fact, this upset you so much that you were taking screenshots for a whole day - from morning 6am, to 9pm to midnight!

Then, you had to make it sound controversial. After which, you send this ask to over 20 people who interacted with the blog of @etherealdany. Not just her mutuals, or her followers, even people who ever reblogged something from her! You found that many of them don't have anon-ask on. You had to create an empty fake blog. Then, send these exact copy-pasted asks to over 20 blogs.... Is all this effort worth it?

This is not me mocking you or being sarcastic:

A Genuine Piece of Advice: Don't invest this much time and effort into things or people you hate! You are giving Navya too much power over you!

This almost seems like you have a secret-crush on Navya!

Maybe Navya reblogged a post of yours with a rude comment - either reply to it, or you can block and move on! In fact, block her and all her mutuals and friends, and then continue with your fandom life. Curate your fandom space. Or maybe she was your friend and she ships something you find disgusting, tell her that you can't continue to be in contact with her, then block and move on!!

Or else, be like me: understand that people have different tastes and thoughts, and they don't exist solely to cater to your whims. Many of my mutuals ship things I dislike (not just in asoiaf fandom but other fandoms too)! It is not a crime that I need to accuse them of. If I really can't stomach the ship, I'd use tag filtering so that I dont have to see it on my dash.

I wish I could live in your world - where everyone had the same thoughts as mine, and stanned the same characters, and shipped the same things; and any deviation was a heinous crime. And I could claim to be "betrayed" when I find it to be otherwise.

Unfortunately, I live in the real world! I have bigger things to worry about. In short,

And I would ask you to kindly exit my blog

[regrettablewritings]

Hi!😁 I'll give you another ship with my dear Lucifer morningstar from Lucifer cuz as it turns out I'm a hoe for a lot of characters but what can ya do? Thank you!

Aw hell yii, somebody's talkin' my lingo! 😎

Who the fuck put the Peeps in the microwave?: Lucifer. And no, it's not because he actually likes them or is curious about what would happen; he's seen plenty of Youtube videos enough to know exactly what happens. No . . . It's far more malicious . . . Generally speaking, you don't like the constant comparison of cats to the devil. But after getting to actually meet The Devil, you think that those believers might be on to something. Lucifer's whorey ways bleeds into his need for attention like red bleeds into white in the wash, and he's completely shameless about it. For example, if he feels like you may be focusing too much on work or, gasp, other people besides him, you run the risk of encountering a very . . . mischievous Luci. Not that he's not already a prankster, but he somehow becomes a bit more childish. Catlike in some respects. He puts your mugs up higher than what you can normally reach without having to climb on the countertop. He joins you at your kitchen table while you're reading over files for work and puts on his most angelic face, insisting he just wants to keep you company and will be as quiet as vermin in Dear Old Dad's house . . . then proceed to obnoxiously click a pen while pretending to solve a word problem, or eat cheese puffs obnoxiously loud. And then . . . the Peeps: The absolute prettyboy bastard used your microwave as a casualty of war, plopping the unplated, mutant-colored marshmallows directly on the glass and letting them go. To be fair, it technically didn't ruin anything. But at least he had your attention now -- because after fussing at him for making a mess, you were currently supervising him scrubbing not only the effected areas of the glass dish, but the rest of the microwave as well. Unfortunately, you can't say a lesson was really learned because now Luci knows that if he wants to get a rise out of you, what he needs is a bunch of candies from the bargain bin.

Who forgot to put the cat out before sex?: It's not that either of you forgot the cat was there -- it was that Lucifer wanted the bloody animal to give the both of you some privacy. And because Lucifer forgot the cat was there. He was simply too busy embracing you in a liplock and laying you down on the couch to notice the glaring eyes of the cat you had rescued from the shelter. Thankfully, you two didn't get very far before the lovingly-named Lucipurr released a meow, indicating that he had become flesh and bone in the few hours it had been since you'd last fed him. Suffice to say, after a startled Lucifer flung himself off of you and onto the floor, nearly breaking his ass on the coffee table (and the laughing fit that had induced on your end), the mood was killed. For the next fifteen minutes, that is. The next time he tried anything, Lucifer made sure that his efforts would be continued in the bedroom (but not before he did a complete check of every nook and cranny in there to make sure the furry bastard wasn't trying anything).

Who posts Vines/TikToks of the other doing embarrassing shit?: Lucifer absolutely lacks boundaries. The moment he discovered smartphones, social media, and all their potential, he was all in and recording as many videos of friends and coworkers as he could in as many awkward or unideal situations as they came. You felt bad for Dan being his constant target, but you were somewhat sure that Dan felt bad for you in a way: After all, you were dating the freaking guy and yet Lucifer had few qualms about posting a video of you, drunkenly singing karaoke in what was supposed to be a private room? Harsh.

Who breaks the most phones?: Lucifer does. He's not necessarily careless, but his part-time occupation does lead him to circumstances that tend to put his phone in danger. You, Chloe, Dan, literally everyone has told him to just leave his phone in the car if he's going to get it broken that often while on the job, but the dumbass never learns. Not that he really seems to care all that much: With his wealth, he can always buy a new one. Though, the only times he gets frustrated is when photos or videos don't quite make it to the transfer and things get lost along the way. Funny photos, suggestive videos, photos and videos of you . . . Photos and videos of you being funny or suggestive . . . Downright pornographic videos he had recorded of you -- Though don't worry: He's sure you'll be more than happy to help recreate the latter. He'd gladly help you . . .

Who dies first?: It should go without saying. It really should. But that doesn't make it hurt any less. Lucifer was always one to get caught up in his indulgences, after all: Somewhere along the way, he must've gotten too swept up in the thrill, the feeling of adoration. He tells himself this but it's really just denial. Closer to the truth is that it all really was just denial: He denied the idea that you would ever leave him, that you would ever die. Luci was never good with his own thoughts and feelings, but the way you made him feel was nearly enough to convince him that, in some way, you would just plain live forever. But of course, this was not the case: It didn't matter that you were fantastical enough to love and be loved by the Devil; you were still very much a human. Very much mortal. So susceptible to things like time and illness and injury. Lucifer was the King of Indulgences. It was extremely rare for him to experience regret. But when your time inevitably ran out, remorse filled him like smoke filled his lungs with every cigarette he ran through from the moment your funeral arrangements were decided. He could never regret knowing you, as much as part of him thought doing so would spare him this pain. He tried to think of how much better he might've been had he never met you, and it always felt like he was stuck in his own personal Hell Loop with everything going wrong over and over no matter how hard he tried to change it. He regretted that for as much time as he lived up with you, he felt like he didn't use nearly enough of that time to just . . . enjoy you. You in your mortality, your fleeting beauty and love that would nonetheless haunt him for however long he might go on for. So maybe . . . for eternity? This didn't feel like his own personal Hell Loop: This was his own personal Hell Loop. And until he learned to forgive himself, it would never end. So he'd be stuck here for maybe . . . eternity.

Which one I could see as being lactose intolerant: Neither. Unless they get brought down to mortal enough, Celestials generally don't suffer ailments, let alone from things like food allergies.

Who thinks they can do something really well even though they can't?: Lucifer . . . It's not that he's not smart. But by Dad, he is lacking in so much self-awareness that it can be maddening. He thinks he's pretty good at following Dr. Linda's advice (and, to an extent, he's progressing). But the fact of the matter is, he's incredibly troubling at best. Not nearly as bad as some patients, mind you, but when Linda admitted to you that one or two sessions of Lucifer completely misinterpreting her advice nearly drove her to consider adding a secret bar into her desk, you believed her and didn't blame her for one bit.

Who is more likely to get kicked out of bed?: Lucifer is a changed devil. But it's a very slow change. You're more than happy to understand and accept this, but that doesn't mean you have to let him and his issues walk all over you. Sometimes, the big dummy just says or does things without thinking -- or because he thought too hard and thought this was the best decision to avoid further strife. And you try to be patient with him about these tendencies, you really do. But that doesn’t erase your ability to be upset by these habits, or your right to be. And no amount of him buttering you up is going to be acceptable, even when he comes by your place, armed with a dish he so thoughtfully prepared for you. Nope, he can literally go to Hell with that (really, you’re sure the demons there would appreciate a nice beef wellington); you just need some space. Ironically, this may create a cycle wherein his need to make you happy again and have your attention on him drives him to constantly hover around you and attempt to win you over, which in turn just further frustrates you. It’ll likely keep going until you either snap or a loved one pulls Luci to the side and gives him a heads up that maybe he should respect your boundaries. After all, intention isn’t the problem here: It’s the actions taken. And as much as it hurts him knowing that he accidentally hurt you, he has to respect your need for time to cool off. He forces himself to go back to his place and tries to think less about how he feels and more about how you might feel, and try to work out ways to avoid similar incidents in the future. And even though the conclusions he comes to may not be perfect, you at least respect the effort -- particularly when he next sees you, no longer armed with snacks from your favorite bakery or bouquet-carrying teddy bears. Instead, all he has is an apology. It’s sheepish, and it feels foreign to someone who rarely experiences shame or regret, but you know his whole heart is in it even if he himself doesn’t understand entirely why that is. Which is good because that’s just part one of the process; part two involves him warming up that spot in your bed that’s reserved for him!

Who uses the computer the most?: You, absolutely. Lucifer's adorably but altogether completely crap when it comes to technology. Besides, he can easily find other things with which to amuse himself, and doing the paperwork is for other people anyway.

Thank you sooooo much for participating again!!! It really means a lot!!! ❤️ ❤️ ❤️

[sentinelpri]

Could we maybe get some Sentinel falling for a human and hating it headcannons/scenario? The human is just really nice and very smart! An ex Sumdak scientist who moved in with the bots and Sari after Sari got kicked out? They help them find the AllSpark? Magnus has a lot of respect for them as they've helped find the All Spark shards and done a lot of research on autobot and decepticon history and found out weaknesses. Sentinel is so angry cause Magnus clearly favors them over other humans so he has to get used to that and them? Maybe Optimus likes them and that sets Sentinel off?

Sure thing! May have twisted this a bit, but hope you enjoy!

Oh my God, he hates it with everything in his entire being.

It starts simply enough. When he arrives on earth, he notices that, like the tiny rude organic known as Sari, you’re around the Autobots all the time. Like... All the time. Helping them find All Spark fragments, doing research for them, helping Isaac Sumdak with his creations, taking care of Sari.

So, since you’re a tiny adult human and he has unchecked mental health issues that he likes to take out on others, he starts off trying to be mean to you. 

The first time, he trips you while walking past you in the hallway. You don’t notice it was intentional, but fall pretty hard and scrape your hands up so badly that you’re tearing up. Sentinel refuses to apologize or acknowledge that he’s in the wrong but feels oddly guilty and decides to help you take care of your hands. You’re very thankful, offering him a hug, which he denies and runs off because of, spewing some half-assed insults on his way out.

He can’t get you off his processor after that. He feels like a shitbag for not even owning up to being the one who tripped you and feels like a loser for helping you. You’re an organic, he hates you like the rest of them, he doesn’t feel bad for you.

Next time he sees you, he tries again to be mean to you, making a comment on what you’re wearing and asking what trashcan you dug it out of. Most humans get frustrated and yell at him or insult him back when he talks to them like that unprompted, but you only shrug him off and asks if he’s feeling alright or wants to sit down to cool down for a moment. Uh. Huh? He’s confused at first, utterly perplexed that you might think he’s weak, upset, or hurt, or... Something, but then his confusion turns to anger, and again, he storms off, unsure of how to handle someone who’s not angry at or annoyed by him.

You pay a lot of attention to him after that and he hates it; always trying to offer him things, share smalltalk, take him places, etc. He hates it even more when he notices just how much everyone else loves you, too; Sari was fine, and so was Optimus and his stupid pile of scrap metal that he called a team, but ULTRA MAGNUS? Oh, it had him fuming from his exhaust pipes. Even Ultra Magnus was charmed by you and looked for whatever excuse he could get to talk to you on earth. 

Okay, whatever. Everyone and everybot likes you, so Sentinel is convinced he hates you for that and for having a holier-than-thou attitude that won’t allow you to retaliate against him when he’s rude to you even though all he wants is for you to feed into it. Totally.

That is until he starts getting... Jealous, namely of Ultra Magnus and Optimus Prime for talking to you so much. The embarrassing thing is that he can’t even pinpoint it at first; all he knows is that he gets pissed off when he sees Optimus giving you a shoulder rub after a long day and having a conversation with him over dinner (for you) and energon (for Optimus) and gets pissed off when he sees you, a human, walking by Ultra Magnus’s side and casually conversing with him like he’s your equal. 

“I don’t get it, Jazz! Why is she talking to both of them like that? Why is it making me so mad?” 

“Could it be... You aren’t so much mad that she’s a human who’s close with Ultra Magnus, but that you’re jealous of O.P. and Ultra Magnus for being so close to (y/n) when you’re not?”

The conversation with Jazz had been impromptu and a big mistake, as he blew a fuse immediately after and had to be taken to Ratchet for some minor repairs. Everyone is concerned, no one has any idea what’s going on, but he’s stuck in Ratchet’s medbay for a day and you’re asked to watch him overnight since you’re the most qualified to do any fixes should he have any issues, and Ratchet needs to recharge. 

“So... What happened?”

“Don’t worry about it! Primus, you humans are always so nosy-” Sentinel starts scolding you and moves to get up from the medberth, but you place a gentle hand on his servo and he can’t help but freeze in place. 

“I’m not doing this with you tonight, Sentinel Prime. Recover and let me stay by your side to make sure you’re okay.”

“Just leave! I’ll be fine, I’m a member of the-”

“I know.”

“Then why do you care!?”

“Because I know you can be kind, and whether you want to or not, you need to rest and have someone monitor you over night! You blew a fuse in your head, and while that itself is a minor injury, if you do it again it’s going to be harder to fix and you could blow more. I’d rather not extent your stay in here.”

Naturally, he asks what you, as a human, could possibly know about robots/Cybertronians and their health. After getting him to lay back down, you tell him about how you used to work for Isaac Sumdac as a scientist before you started taking care of Sari when he disappeared, and that right after the Autobots arrived on earth, you studied them closely enough to figure out most of their anatomy and received some training under Ratchet to act as a second medic for them.

Oh. That makes sense. Sentinel feels a bit foolish but doesn’t say anything and waits until he can fall into recharge, but when he wakes up the next morning, you’re sitting on a stool by his berthside, passed out with your head resting on his thigh.

He doesn’t have the heart to wake you up and pretends to still be resting with his optics shut until Ratchet comes in and wakes you up himself.

He’s released with a clean bill of health and immediately goes to find Jazz.

“What do you mean by that!?”

“Uh, slow down before you blow another fuse, S.P., but you know what I meant,” Jazz laughed at him, and naturally, Sentinel took a few to process what had been said the previous day.

Jazz was implying that Sentinel wasn’t mad at you for being a human and interacting with Optimus/Ultra Magnus, but that he was mad at Optimus and Ultra Magnus for interacting with you because...

Oh. Sentinel realized that he was jealous, and in not being able to be mean to you anymore, he found himself watching you a lot. You were intelligent, kind, attractive... The opposite of him, to be honest, but when it hit him all at once, he ends up having a melt down of sorts.

Locking himself in his berth on Ultra Magnus’s ship for days on end, not drinking enough energon, going between sleeping to escape his feelings and pacing around doing nothing but dwelling on them, Sentinel Prime is a mess when he realizes that he has a crush on you. It makes sense, but... Why did it have to be an organic? He can’t even cope with it.

Eventually, he snaps out of it and decides that he’s going to take the logical approach with this; ignore his feelings and push them deep, deep down in his spark so he doesn’t have to acknowledge or deal with them. He shouldn’t like you anyways, right? You’re just a stupid human!

Except... You’re not. You’re beautiful, you’re brilliant, you’re caring, and a million other things he cares not to admit. So he’s stuck. He won’t confess his feelings to you or really think about them because he knows all he’s ever done is be mean to you, and honestly, he doesn’t deserve you and is afraid of you rejecting him.

Things stay stagnant for a while, but he’s a little nicer to you. Still rude, still making unnecessary comments about you being a human, but hey, he doesn’t try to trip you anymore and is always defending you when anyone/anybot brings up your name behind your back. Every other Autobot catches on to what’s happening but just doesn’t say anything because they know Sentinel will try to pummel them LMAO. 

But then... Valentine’s day rolls around. For whatever reason, he decides to hang around earth that day and learn about the customs since you and Sari seem excited to teach him and the other Autobots about it.

A day of romance where lovers give each other gifts... Okay, so basically, nothing to do with him, but he notices that Sari, Bee, and Bulkhead decide to go see a movie since they don’t have anyone/anybot to do anything with, and Ratchet goes off to work in his medbay, while Jazz and Prowl suddenly disappear to do their own thing and Ultra Magnus is preoccupied with work on his ship. That just leaves Sentinel, you, and Optimus.

The amount of frustration in him when Optimus hands you a bouquet of (f/c) roses is something he can’t even comprehend. So, when you walk off to go find a vase to put them in, Sentinel turns to his old friend with a glare.

“Who do you think you are? How long have you felt that way towards her?”

“Uh, Sentinel? (y/n) and I are just really good friends? I know she’s what her species would refer to as “single” at the moment and I didn’t think you’d do anything for her, so I got her those to make her feel special tonight.”

“What’s that supposed to mean!?” Sentinel exclaims at Optimus’s bold assumption that he wouldn’t do anything for you for Valentine’s day... Which was totally true. He didn’t have the guts to buy you flowers or chocolates or any of the other things that Sari said humans liked for the occasion, but apparently Optimus did, and while he now knew that Optimus didn’t have any romantic feelings towards you, it still hurt. 

“It means that even though you’ve been obsessed with her since the Elite Guard got here, you treat her with no kindness whatsoever because you’re too prideful to admit your feelings and want to cover them up,” Optimus puts a hand on his shoulder. “Now, I’m going to go spend the rest of the night with Ratchet so he isn’t by himself, but I’ll leave you to figure this out. Good luck, old buddy.”

Optimus walks off, and the words hit hard. Sentinel knows that what his friend said is right, so when you get back with the roses in a vase to set down on the table and ask him where Optimus went, he decides it’s time. Without dwelling on it too much, he grabs your hands to hold in his servos, standing in the middle of the living room and spilling his guts out to you before telling you “Happy Valentine’s Day... Or whatever,” and pulling you in for a kiss.

Thankfully, you reciprocate.

[pthalomars]

Grounding

Cole stood outside of Kai’s door, a sour feeling pooling in his gut. It was late, he would undoubtedly be asleep. Why should he wake him up? Just so he can have someone to remind him that he’s real? That he’s alive- well, sort of.. 

It just felt like so much of a burden to put on his friend. However, Cole couldn’t ignore the feelings of dissociation that crept through his fragile mind. 

Ever since he had been turned into a ghost, he could never really ground himself; both in the literal and psychological sense. It was hard for him to feel present when he struggled to hold a plate in his hands. His barely corporeal form seemed to phase through surroundings like there was nothing there. Maybe it was him that wasn’t really there. Everything was so cold. So distant. Now more than ever, he felt like if he didn’t have someone to bring him down to earth, that he might fade away all together. 

Straining with concentration, Cole focused enough energy to knock on Kai’s door. It came out a bit louder than anticipated, upon which he cringed and recoiled his hand. The drawn out moment of silence made him reconsider his options. Maybe this was a bad idea after all. 

However, just as he was about to tuck tail and run, a shuffling sound arose behind the wooden door. Footsteps slowly approached the threshold. Cole held his breath as the door creaked open and the bleary eyed fire master looked up at him.

“Cole?” Kai mumbled, rubbing the sleep from his eyes, “ ‘s early, what’s up..?”

“Ah, erm..” Cole began, “I’m sorry I-I know it’s probably not the best time, but can I uh.. I just.. I need someone.” The earth ninja began to crack his knuckles and wrists, each one letting out a dull, muffled pop. A nervous habit. 

Kai looked at him, drowsiness subsiding enough for him to put the pieces together. Cole’s hunched posture, tired eyes, furrowed brows, and wavering voice. He nodded, opening up his door and allowing his friend to enter. 

“Watch your step, sorry it’s a little messy in here.” Kai warned. Lighting a small flame on his finger, Kai led Cole to his bedside.

“So what’s goin’ on?” Kai asked softly, patting the space next to him on the mattress. After a beat, Cole moved to sit, letting out a dismal sigh. The bed sank beneath his weight, pushing him and Kai to be attached at the hip. 

“Nothing feels real anymore, Kai.” Cole said plainly. His friend looked at him with concern, but refrained from interrupting. The black ninja continued. 

“Ever since this,” he gestured to himself, “I just feel so.. Distant. Cold. Everything is so far away- I’m so far away. I don’t really feel anything anymore. I’m just..” He looked at Kai, hazy greens locking with deep browns, “I’m scared.”

Kai’s brows pinched upwards as he eyed his friend. He knew the transformation had affected him, but he didn’t realize it was to this extent. Though he had never been turned into a spirit, he knew what it felt like to lose his ground. 

There had been times in his past when he became so high strung that he couldn’t come back down on his own. It was moments like that when Nya would swoop in and anchor him. She always knew how to help calm his nerves, and as time passed, he was able to do it himself. Maybe now, he could do the same for his aching friend.

“Cole, I’m.. god, I’m so sorry. I can see that you’re hurting, and I wanna help. What do you need?” Kai said, turning to face the larger man.

Cole’s gaze dropped to his hands, pausing before muttering his answer. “I think I need someone to hold onto. Like an anchor. If that.. Makes sense. If I have someone there to hold me down, the fading feeling usually goes away.”

“You need someone to ground you?”

“Mhm.”

“I can do that. There’s something my sister showed me that I think might work. It’s a mix of physical contact and mutual breathing exercises. But there’s another element I want to add. I think it might help you feel better.”

“Sure, I’m willing to try anything.” Cole said before shifting to face Kai. The two of them sat criss cross and the red ninja held out his hands with his palms up. 

“Cole, I’ve seen you be able to touch and hold things with your hands. Can you tell me how you do that?”

“I uh, well I usually have to put a lot of concentration into a part of my body that needs to be solid. It takes a lot of energy, but if I try hard enough, I can maintain it.”

“In that case, I want you to put all of your concentration into your hands. Then put your hands in mine.”

Cole hesitates, but then takes a deep breath and begins to pool his focus into his palms. A strange tingling sensation spreads from the tips of his fingers, up to the knuckles and ending at his wrists. He lowers his hands and prays that they don’t fall through Kai’s. They fall through.

Seeing Cole become visibly upset, Kai chimes in. “It’s okay buddy, you don’t have to get it on the first run. Just try again, and take your time, alright?”

“Okay” the larger man sighs. Once again, he channeled his energy into his hands. 

“Remember to breathe,” Kai says in a soft, low voice. Cole obliges, letting air fill his lungs and leave in a steady flow. With closed eyes, he lowers his hands again. They don’t fall through. 

“Good! You’re doing great, Cole. Keep that concentration, okay? Let your hands become heavier and heavier. I’ll make sure to hold the weight.” Kai encouraged. The smaller man noted the soft gravity of his friend’s hands in his own. Even in his ghostly state, the calluses of his hands felt so tangible. His fingers were thick and his palms were wide, and his nails had been bitten so very short. Another nervous habit.

“Alright, Cole, I’m gonna breathe with you. Just follow my lead.” Kai said before taking in a large breath through his nose. The master of earth followed suit, mimicking his friend as he exhaled through his mouth. Cole opted to keep his eyes closed as he did this, instead trying to focus on his breathing and keeping his hands from slipping through Kai’s. 

“You’re doing good, keep breathing just like that, okay? Now there’s one more thing I’d like to try. You said that you feel cold, like really cold, right?” said Kai. Cole hummed in response.

“I’m gonna channel some of my fire into my hands. Not a lot, but just enough to heat up my palms. I’m thinking maybe the heat will make the physical touch more grounding. Are you okay with that?”

“Yeah, I’m okay with that.”

“Okay good, you just let me know if it gets too hot.” With that, Kai gently tightened his grip on Cole’s hands and let his element flow freely. Like coals in a fire pit, his palms began to glow with a soft warmth. 

“Do you feel anything?” the brunette asked.

“Not yet.”

Kai added more heat.

“Feel it?”

“No.”

He added more heat. 

“Anything?”

“A little bit. It’s faint, but there’s something.”

He then added more heat. At this point, Kai was worried about whether or not ghosts were capable of getting burned.

“It’s warm..” Cole murmured. He opened his eyes to see the light of Kai’s fire glowing through his own translucent hands. 

“How does it feel? Does it help?” Kai asked, his eyes searching for an answer in Cole’s expression.

“Good, it feels good. Grounding.” 

“I’m glad. We can stay like this as long as you need, Cole.”

“Thank you, Kai.”

The two of them sat together, hand in hand, for what felt like an eternity. Not that either of them could complain. Cole let himself be brought back to reality by the warm hands that anchored him down. Kai quietly enjoyed the subtle intimacy of the physical contact. 

Cole finally broke the comfortable silence that hung tenderly between them.

“I’m feeling a lot better. Thank you, genuinely. I can’t tell you how much I needed this.”

“Yeah, of course! And if you ever need me, all you gotta do is ask. And as for this-” Kai gestures to their hands, “You don’t even need to ask for that. Just grab me when you need to come back down, okay?”

“Thank you.. I-I really appreciate that.” Cole felt a soft blush blooming on his cheeks. He couldn’t deny that he had wanted to hold Kai’s hands for other reasons. However, he decided that those reasons weren’t relevant in the moment.

“Anything for you, man.” Kai affirmed, giving Cole’s hands a squeeze before pulling away to rub his eyes. Sleep had begun to creep up on him as the time had passed. Cole glanced at the red numbers on his friend’s digital clock. He noted how it was strange that time had escaped them.

“Jeez, sorry I know it’s late-”

“Don’t worry about that, I promise I don’t mind.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah, and it’s not like the sun is up yet. There’s still time to catch some z’s.”

“You have a good point. Well, I won’t keep you up too much longer, I can head out if you want. I think I’ll be able to get some sleep now that I’m feeling better.”

“Did you want to stay?”

“Stay?”

“Yeah, like, stay the night. You don’t have to, obviously, but I just figured that maybe you wanted company.”

“That would.. Be nice, actually. Are you sure I wouldn’t be intruding?”

“Not at all, and I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t appreciate the company either.”

“Ah, fishing for a cuddle buddy I see.”

“I never said that,” Kai let out a chuckle, lightly punching Cole’s shoulder. It was solid. 

“Well I wouldn’t mind, even if you did.” the larger man retorted, landing a similar punch on Kai’s shoulder. 

The two of them weren’t strangers to that level of physicality. Though, most previous instances were purely platonic; like resting on each other during long ship rides, laying together on the couch with the rest of their friends for movie nights, and keeping contact with each other in most settings. This should be the same, but both of them felt a slightly different twinge in their hearts. 

This whole grounding experience had strengthened their bond and brought them closer. Both of them usually had trouble expressing their emotions, so this was a huge step forward. 

“Then get over here, why dontcha?” Kai chuckled, flopping backwards. Cole chortled, slowly crawling up to be next to his friend. The smaller man reached his arm out to the side, allowing for the black ninja to curl up against him. With a sigh, the noirette let his head rest gently on Kai’s chest. The quiet beat of his heart vibrated against his ear and he let his eyelids grow heavy until they shut completely. For the first time in a while, he slept through the rest of the night.

[alderjayne]

isaac? :3c

HIM HIMHIM

Sexuality Headcanon: you see he's already canonly gay and canonly demiace so there's only so much to hc, saving how for he fits on the ace spectrum, which kai mentioned a while ago to someone was fine to mess with a tad bcause trying to identify where exactly on the aspec you fall is finicky and difficult to pinpoint anyways. ACTUALLY now that I think about it I do pretty often consider him... probably demi-aro as well, but also simply more likely to have romantic attraction to someone than sexual once they meet the qualifications for either. that's just the vibe in my head tho this is not upset by seeing different portrayals about it at all. and also if he's at a point where/if he manages to like multiple people. poly. obtaining this however assumes that he not only has the emotional comprehension, initiative, and articulation to establish a relationship with one person, but in fact 2+ persons. he can't do that. probably they'd have to come to this conclusion and propose it first.

Gender Headcanon: that depends on my mood lol. most often either cis or mlm nb, typically either agender or a little bit genderfluid about it perhaps or both.

A ship I have with said character: OTPs isward and whatever the ship name is for drew's there too. with one of the jocks could be interesting potentially I think I'd like to see that sometime.

A BROTP I have with said character: Cody called him a little knife man.

A NOTP I have with said character: honestly nevin and Chris w him. not in the sense that I dislike content of them together or it existing. They're both dynamics that appeal to me! but I tried a few times and simply could never make myself care. Neither ship invokes any particular feelings or keep my attention, so I frankly just don't think about it much. (wasn't always the case, but currently this happens to be true for me and Nevin-or-Chris + everyone else that isn't each other, so they can go candoodle in peace ig.) also Felix or the evil jocks + Isaac. I've seen a little bit of it and I simply don't have any feelings about the concept, probably even less so than the above since while they're fun to watch cause problems, they exist solely to cause problems and give Cody jock lore so I'm not actual attached of them as people, as opposed to Nevin and Chris who obviously we're all already fond of as individual characters. as for actual NOTP in terms of NOTP. gross age dynamics, and the girls, I guess? The obvious? (one of those is worse than the other, but nonetheless)

A random headcanon: if I remember right it's outright canon he doesn't tell his parents jack because he doesn't want to deal with the trouble of it, but I think about this a lot so putting it here anyways?? and I'm definitely projecting at him about something that I don't even do anymore, (albeit I think everyone has to do this to some extent, ESPECIALLY in terms of you what you mention to your parents when you're a teenager, because the truth is that they genuinely don't need to know all about everything always. He's just bad about it worse.) but he has a habit of. simply not mentioning things that happen if he decides that it being mentioned won't directly a trigger an immediately drastic tangible improvement, and occasionally even when it would. hes only sometimes right that it won't. Telling his parents he got thrown into a bookcase isn't going to unconcussion him, so while there's not going to be negative consequences from telling them, it sure would be slightly inconvenient for him to explain and upsetting for them to find out about and then might try to do something about, and potentially lead to the magicky stuff being mentioned to them, which he hasn't told them about because.... uh. well, not that they would hurt him, but it could complicate things? and he wouldn't gain anything from them knowing, so it would be the same level of positive impact regardless, except that he wouldn't have to hide it which doesn't matter that much, not that he's... hiding it, exactly, but net no change vs the potential for it to be slightly worse or more annoying or inconvenient or take energy or be awkward or upsetting somehow without it curing cancer or anything, so yes he is actually. that said by now it'd kind of have to be a habit because I don't think he thinks enough in general to consciously be making that decision this much. negative points in thinking thoughts and negative points in communication. At this point I feel like it would take a BIG BIG payoff to get to him be open about Literally Anything, and regardless of whether he's right about the amount knowing about things will or won't fix, EMOTIONALLY he sure is a lot worse off for it. tbh I'm not even sure if this is technically even headcanon because it's kind of just an apsect of canon I latched onto really hard and had thoughts about. Unrelated but when he was younger (middle school + first grade probably) he bit people. He just did. If he was in a situation where biting someone would help him enough he would do it again. also unrelated again but I think he gets kind of weak about being kissed on the neck.

General Opinion over said character: I THINK ABOUT HIM A LOT AND EVERY TIME SOMEONE MAKES CONTENT ABOUT HIM I GET SO HAPPY ABOUT IT.

[falconstarfall]

Having had a look at the chapters its funny (but not surprising) how the people who criticise Sansa for forgetting to ask where Arya was during the interrogation don't seem to realize that Arya is guilty of the same thing. While fleeing from the Red Keep, it doesn't enter Arya's mind that Sansa could be in danger or that she needs to find her. Her mind is only on escape. Does that make her a bad person? No it only means she is in a traumatic situation and not thinking clearly. Like someone else I can think of....

It’s just yet another example of how Sansa is held to different standards than Arya... And all the other Starks, because truly this isn’t even something that’s unique to Sansa and Arya.

Let’s see.

Sansa: Thinks that Jeyne is too lowborn for Beric. Notices and is attracted to physical beauty (to the extent that an 11 to 13 year old can be attracted, in the aesthetic more than the sexual meaning of the word).

Fandom: “What a snob! Ugh so superficial. She needs to learn better, and it’s a regression of her arc if she doensn’t marry someone ugly.”

Jon: Bullies the other recruits with his superior skills. Notices physical beauty and finds it attractive.

Fandom: “Well he just had it hard in the beginning. Never been out in the world before and been confronted with his own privilege. Aw, he thinks Val is pretty - let’s ship them until he meets someone more beautiful.”

Ned: Doesn’t dwell on Mycah’s death. Is more upset about Lady.

Fandom: “The hero. We love him. Ned has no flaws except being too hounourable which isn’t really a flaw.”

Sansa: Doesn’t dwell on Mycah’s death. Is more upset about Lady (you know, the one she actually was attatched to).

Fandom: “Here is a 2000 words meta, which beautifully displays my limited understanding of psychiatry, on why Sansa is actually a psychopath.”

Robb: *Calls Jon bastard to his face and reminds him he can never have Winterfell* *Is awfully rude to Tyrion when he is trying to do something nice for Bran* *Doesn’t prioritize trading his sisters* *doesn’t execute the Karstark men himself, only the highborn lord*

Fandom: Well he was just a boy who was repeating what his mother told him - he couldn’t know Jon would be so sensitive about it. And Tyrion was a member of a family his parents mistrusted. Jaime was worth far more on the battlefield than the girls, and don’t you see the difficult position Robb was in and how young he was?

Sansa: Calls Jon half brother, and doesn’t want to be married to Tyrion.

Fandom: “She abused Jon too. She shouldn’t just have followed her mother’s views. And she is such an ungrateful, ableist little bitch to Tyrion, ugh she deserves to stay married to him.”

It’s really just the same thing all the time.

Arya forgets about Sansa.

Fandom: “Well duh, she was running away. She had a lot of other things to worry about.”

Sansa forgets to ask about Arya.

Fandom: “See how self absorbed she is? What’s that you say? She remembered asking about Jeyne’s father? Who gives a fig about Jeyne, she is just a place holder for Arya. Anyway, Arya is the most important person in the books, and her horrible sister just forgot about her. It’s not like anything truly stressful is happening to Sansa. She just sits a little in her room and then has a nice chit-chat with her mentor Cersei and a few other people who are not at all being emotionally abusive and manipulative towards her.”

With Arya this is enhanced because the books (especially Arya’s own POV) encourages direct comparisons. And I think there is this tendency that people feel Sansa is the one who should have worried about Arya, because a certain section of fandom has decided Sansa owes something to Arya - You know because she was a bully™️, and responsible for their relationship not being ideal and for every insecurity Arya has (Septa Mordane who?), and she should have felt bad about this now that Arya is gone.

Sansa not spending all her time thinking about how much she regrets being terrible to Arya can’t be because she has a lot on her mind, and is repressing memories as a coping mechanism (or because she wasn’t really a terrible bully to her at all...). And it certainly can’t be because Sansa also lost several other people who were quite naturally more important figures in her life than the sister she had little in common with, because how dare anyone not have Arya as their number one? So of course it must mean that there is actually something very wrong with Sansa.

[beskarhearts]

The Dragon (Din Djarin x reader)

gif credits @bestintheparsec​

Connection series Pt. 13

Pairing: Din Djarin x f!reader (no use of Y/N)

Warnings: cursing, canon typical violence/death, angst, mentions of death, chapter 2 spoilers

Word count: over 11.0 K

Summary: Having to kill a Krayt Dragon comes with many concerns and worries for you about Din and your future with him.

Notes: I FINALLY finished it! I am so sorry for such a long wait but last week was really quite the shit show for me so I didn’t have much time to write. I really hope you like this chapter and let me know what you think!

Previous Part ____ Next Part

_______________________________________

“I think he might kill you.”

“He will be fine.”

“I don’t know. I mean, you did just volunteer his village to be appetizers for a Krayt Dragon.”

Din looked over at you, his helmet tilting. “We will be fine.”

You rolled your eyes. Din was always so sure and confident. It was one of the many characteristics you admired about the man. You wished you had the ability to conjure up such confidence in yourself and your plans. You didn’t know how he always did it (or how they somehow always worked out), but it was admirable and impressive. But he seemed to be taking it a step too far this time. It wasn’t that you weren’t confident in his abilities or sure that he was extremely capable. You knew he was stronger. Stronger than anybody else you knew. If anybody could do it, it could be him. But your fear was that this was simply impossible. The dragon seemed like too big of a task, especially for a group so small (and especially when said group hadn’t even agreed to the plan yet). At this point, you had watched this beast eat creatures larger than you and Din in one go like it hadn’t even noticed they were there. And you didn’t want to see the man you cared about so much because dinner for it. “This is too big.”

“We will get help.” Din calmly said, his voice holding no tinge of worry or fear. Sometimes it drove you crazy, his inability to express fear. You didn’t necessarily think he never felt it. Actually you know he had before, though it was always in very specific situations. But when it came to hunting or taking down something about a thousand times bigger than him, he didn’t seem to be scared. It was like it was second nature and you understood that on some level it was. Except this wasn’t a normal bounty or some group of scoundrels attacking him and the kid. This was a dragon. That ate people. And destroyed everything in its path. And the fact that that didn’t seem to scare him at all was mind boggling to you.

“What if Vanth’s village doesn’t volunteer? Are you going to keep being stubborn and insist on killing it yourself?” You retorted. You didn’t often get upset with Din. Getting mad at him honestly seemed hard to do with his patient and sure nature. Sure, there were little quirks that annoyed you but nothing that made you snap back and get mad. But right now your own fear was brewing inside of you more and more, eating you from the inside and peaking through in the way you spoke to Din. Seeing how large this dragon was truly supposed to be and hearing only bits and pieces of the Tuskens plans instilled no confidence in you. If anything, it only left you feeling hopeless. Din on the other hand seemed ready to go.

“I am not being stubborn.” Din quietly said, his helmet looking around as the village people made their way into the cantina in town. It had already seemed like such a long day but it was probably only noon, if that. You had only spoken to the Tuskens about a course of action for a little while because it seemed pretty clear: kill the dragon. The problem was that killing it required a lot of manpower and weapons. And those were two things Tuskens didn’t have much of and you and Din couldn’t supply. Vanth on the other hand could so Din had volunteered The marhsals town without asking for much permission. After a bickering match between the two, the three of you made your way back to the town to give them the game plan. But as you looked at the people funneling into the small building, all giving you weary eyes, you felt no reassurance that they would be willing to help. Or if their help would prove to be useful at all even if they gave it.

You looked back at Din, whose helmet was tilted down at you. The child was sat between you two, looking at the people passing by who gave him confused looks. “You are being stubborn. I respect your Creed and I don’t care about your helmet or how you live or anything but... do we really need this random armor so badly?”

Din froze, looking at you straight on and you suddenly felt ashamed, your cheeks flushing even darker than they already had been from the heat. You had always been extremely careful about what you said regarding his Creed and his way of life. You never wanting to offend him or make him think you cared about trivial things that would betray his loyalties to being a Mandalorian. You understood some people liked to live a certain way or had to. This was Din and you could accept all his little quirks with relatively no problem. But this seemed outrageous to you. It wasn’t like the armor would lead you directly to a Mandalorian. It would just sit on the ship, an empty shell, and you guys would once again have to start over and try to find a Mandalorian to help. Nearly dying for this seemed like a bizarre concept to you. But it didn’t to Din, and you knew it. If there was one thing he might of been more dedicated to than you and the child, it very possibly could of been his Creed. And if it said that Vanth couldn’t wear the armor because he wasn’t a Mandalorian, then he was going to get back the armor no matter what. 

“You know what, forget I said that.” you mumbled, bringing your face to look down at your shoes instead of the intense gaze of the Mandalorian standing in front of you. “Let’s just get this over with.”

You expected Din to walk away, get started on explaining what had to go down with the people waiting in the cantina. But instead he remained stood in front of you, not moving an inch. “I won’t let anything hurt you two.”

You looked up at him and felt your heart soften. He didn’t even have to say it. You knew that was true, beyond any shadow of a doubt. He’d kill whatever he had to to keep you guys safe. But it wasn’t you or even the child that you were worried about. It was Din. You knew he would insist on being hands on with this and it made sense, considering his strength and abilities. But you couldn’t stop imaging him getting swallowed hole by this creature and everything being for nothing. “I’m not worried about us. I am worried about you.”

Din paused, looking back at you as if he had been frozen into a state of shock. Din wasn’t used to people being worried about him. He had never had someone who wanted him to be safe and to make it to bed every night in one piece. Someone who watched out for him. Someone who would hurt even more than he would  if something happened to him. You understood that to some extent, having been alone for many years now with no one who really cared about your wellbeing. But this had been Din’s whole life and it took some adjusting to get used to that. To wrap his mind around what seemed to be such an incomprehensible thought to him, there mere idea of something caring about him being so bizarre.

Din finally cleared his throat and looked down at you. “I will do my best. It will be fine.”

You noted the way he didn’t make a false promise. Didn’t say nothing would happen to him or there was no risk or you were worrying about nothing. Din wasn’t the kind to do that and you were certainly not the type of woman to dumbly believe him if he had. But it still made your shoulders sag and your whole body curve into yourself. He was a noble man and while you knew he was doing this for the armor, he was also doing it being he was selfless. He saw a town that needed help and knew he could do something about it, or certainly as hell try his best to. And he wasn’t going to walk away because of the potential consequences that could result from doing the right thing. 

“What do I do if something happens?” You barely were able to get the words out but Din heard them. He rested a hand on your shoulder, squeezing lightly but you kept your eyes trained on the ground as you tried to hold back your emotions.

“You will get the kid to a Jedi.” 

You rolled your eyes and finally looked up at him. He shifted lightly, taking note of your reaction but not sure what he said wrong. You pulled away slightly and looked at him as plainly as you could. “Of course I will do that. I mean what will I do?” 

You hated to sound so dependent, no needy. You had never been like that before. You had spent your whole life trying to become more independent and find yourself. But now you had found yourself and a part of you was in Din. And if anything happened to that part, you were afraid you would just lose yourself entirely. And that terrified you. 

Before Din had the chance to respond, Vanth popped up in between the both of you. You looked over at him and took note of his nervous expression. He had expressed plenty how he didn’t have high hopes for a good response from his people, given their deep hatred for the Tuskens. And you saw that concern deeply etched into his face. “This isn’t going to work.”

“It will be fine.” Din said, repeating the very words he had said to you multiple times. But Vanth seemed to also take no comfort in them.

“They attacked us less than a year ago. Killed half a dozen of us by the mining camp. I’d say I took down about twice as many Tuskens.” Vanth said, looking at him incredulously. You wanted to side with Din, but you also found yourself hesitant to believe this town of people would push aside all the tension and hatred for the Tuskens and work side by side with them. 

“The town respects you. My guess is, they’ll listen to reason.” Din explained.

Vanth lolled his head over to you and gave you a questioning look. “What do you think?”

You shrugged slightly and saw worry flash in his eyes at your significantly less confident response. “I mean, you’ve got to try at the very least. What is the worse that will happen?”

“I get run out of my own town and then they all get eaten by a dragon.” Vanth said plainly.

You shook your head and twisted your face up. “Well, that is pretty shit so let’s make sure your town agrees to this.” 

“Great.” Vanth muttered as he turned, heading into the cantina.

Din turned to you, helmet tilted like he was belittling you and you scoffed. “What? We aren’t wrong!”

Din sighed and followed the marshal into the cantina. You grabbed the child and followed behind. Once you entered the building, you found yourself a little shocked. This was the most people you had seen in this town so far and you definitely hadn’t seen people meeting up to hang out or converse. The town had seemed completely dead, almost void of life. But now the room was full of a small group of people but instead of looking joyful to see their neighbors and get a drink, they all looked contemplative and concerned. You could practically feel the unease and tension in the room as they all gave their marshal and the strange Mandalorian weary looks. They also talked amongst themselves and you picked up bits and pieces of some conversations, hearing the word Mandalorian and dragon thrown around a couple of times. A few stray eyes even landed on you, gesturing their heads to where you and the kid stood before talking to the person beside. 

Vanth and Din stood in front of the bar, looking over the crowd of people as their murmuring began to simmer into silence. You took a seat at the bar, holding the child tightly against you as the people looked at you three with expectant looks. 

Vanth broke the silence and gestured a hand over to Din. “This here is a Mandalorian. You know what that means?”

The bartender earlier was the first to speak up. “Well, we’ve heard the stories.”

Vanth nodded before continuing on. “Then you know how good they are at killing. Now, this one’s got a problem. I got a suit o’ salvaged armor and the Mandalorian creed says it’s his to take.”

The people broke out into a small burst of murmuring, discontent looks and panicked voices filling the room. Vanth nodded, as if he himself was saddened by the idea of giving up the armor, but he began speaking again, capturing the attention of the room. “But I’ve got a problem, too. A Krayt Dragon has been peeling off our pack animals, and sometimes, taking our mining haul with it. It’s just a matter of time before it grows tired of Banthas and goes after a couple of you townsfolk, or even, so help us, the school.”

The muttering became a little louder as fear filled the people, all concerned at the prospect of the creature that terrorized them doing even worse and possibly attacking their families and children. You saw some disapprovingly shake their heads and for the smallest second, you felt hope. You saw the desperation in their faces, their fear and anguish. They wanted to get rid of this dragon. No, needed to. You just hoped they were not stubborn enough to refuse the assistance of the Tuskens who were also their sworn enemies.

“As much as I’ve grown fond of the armor, I’m even more fond of this town.” You looked over at Vanth and you felt the authentic concern for his people. You could say what you wanted about the man but it was undeniable that he cared for his town and his people. It may of been small, but it was his to protect and serve. That loyalty was something you could admire and you imagined that same loyalty was what made all these people listen to him so intently with such trust and reliance. “The Mandalorian is willing to help us slay the leviathan in exchange for returning the armor to its ancestral owners.”

People in the crowd began to nod, the bartender chipping in again with a “Well, that settles it.” You felt yourself begin to smile softly but you held back, knowing the worst part of this agreement was yet to come and could very likely make all the people storm out. 

“There’s more.” Vanth spoke out, causing the people’s smiles to drop as they took in his change in demeanor. “We can’t take on the Krayt alone. And the Sand People are willing to help.”

There it was. Immediately, you saw the enraged looks strike on all their faces, looking up at the three of you angrily. A few even began to rise from their seats, shouting out words of hate and disbelief. The agreement that had been there mere seconds ago had dissipated entirely. 

“They raid our mines!” one man yelled.

“They’re monsters!” The bartender shouted in agreement.

Din turned to look at you for a moment and you gave him a small shrug. You didn’t mean to be cocky but “I told you so” was written all over your face, along with a solemn look. If these people refused to help, Din would insist on doing this with just himself and the Tuskens and Maker knows what would happen then. He turned away from you and you both looked over to Vanth, who looked defeated.

“I’ve seen the size of that thing, it will swallow your entire town when the fancy hits it. You’re lucky Mos Pelgo isn’t a sand field already.” Din spoke out. You raised an eyebrow slightly, feeling a little shocked. You don’t think you’d ever seen Din speak to such a large group of people but hearing him talk to them all was fitting. He naturally took command of all of their attention, his deep voice causing all the others to fade away slowly as they turned to look at him curiously. He exuded the same confidence that had frustrated you earlier, but was now serving a better purpose for the townspeople. 

“I know these people. They are brutal. But so is the Dune Sea. They’ve survived for thousands of years in these sands and they know the Krayt Dragon better than anyone here. They are raiders, it’s true. But they also keep their word.” He continued, giving a small pause as the room looked up at him with speculation and interest. “We have struck a deal. If we are willing to leave them the carcass and its ichor, they will stand by our side in battle and vow never to raise a blaster against this town until one of you breaks the peace.”

You waited for the yelling and shouting to resume, for people to begin walking out of the building. But instead the townspeople looked at each other, contemplating their fate and whether to trust this plan, strumming their fingers along the tables as their eyebrows furrowed. Slowly, a few people began to nod and the rest slowly and somewhat reluctantly joined in solemn agreement. You swore you saw Vanth let out a big sigh of relief as he looked over at Din in gratitude. Din began to back up from the center of the room, making his way over to you as Vanth took center stage and began to lay out the plan in more detail.

“You did well. Like really well.” You whispered to Din as he looked down at you and the child sat in your lap, who cooed at him with big eyes.

“You sound shocked.” Din said and you chuckled.

“I admit I wasn’t the most confident that they’d be willing to help.” you admitted and Din nodded.

“They are desperate. They need this more than we do.” 

You nodded in agreement, looking up at him. You wanted to grab his hand that had made it’s way to rest on the bar’s counter but you refrained from doing so, not wanting to engage that way publicly. “Mando?”

“Yes?”

“Do you really think this is going to work?” 

Din looked up from the child and aimed his visor at you. “Yeah. Now that they are joining forces, I think it will work.”

You looked up as all the people began to rise from their seats and funnel out of the building, all looking a little more hopeful than before but still somewhat worried or frustrated with the conditions they had agreed to. Vanth made his way to you two and let out a big sigh. 

“You okay?” you asked and Vanth gave you a grunt.

“I need a drink.” he said and you gave a small chuckle. You handed the child to Din, who looked up at him happily as he was taken into his arms, and reached over the counter to grab a bottle of spotchka. 

You handed it to the marshal, going to look for a cup next but finding yourself amused when he just brought the bottle right to his lips and drank straight from it. He eventually lowered the glass and let out another sigh, but you think this one was from relief. “That’s better.”

“What are they doing?” Din asked, his mind seeming to be solely focused on the mission ahead.

“Gonna start gathering supplies before the Tuskens show up.” He paused and looked over at Din. “I really hope you know what you are doing.”

“Tuskens are the experts here.” Din responded.

Vanth grimaced. “That makes me feel better.”

He placed the bottle back down on the counter and you and Din followed him to the entryway. Sure enough, the people had been quick to work and were grabbing crates and boxes from a shed. Vanth didn’t look over at the two of you but spoke once again. “Think it’ll work?”

“It better. Joining forces is their only hope.” Din responded.

“It is.” you agreed and Vanth nodded, lifting himself off the frame of the entry and walking onto the deck, watching as people began to lift what looked like explosives from some of the crates.

You began to hear mumbling amongst the people as all their heads whipped to look to their left. You eyes followed up to find a single file line of Tuskens beginning to make their way into the town, all sat upon Banthas. They eventually made their way in and all froze, looking into the faces of the fearful townspeople. 

“Well, boys. I believe it is show time.” You muttered and Vanth gave out a grunt.

“I believe it is.” He agreed. You gave him a small pat on the back as the three of you made your way towards the two groups of people. You had initially thought one of you would have to step in but to your surprise, the Tuskens began to jump off their Banthas, reaching over to begin helping the people of Mos Pelgo unload their cargo. You looked over at Din in shock but he only watched the interactions, the child joining in and looking at the Banthas with much interest. You couldn’t see his face, but you swore you could feel a confident smile radiating off him in waves.

The people were hesitant at first and while they still gave the Tuskens curious and questioning gazes, the two groups began to fall in a rhythm as they began to hand each other the white canisters to store on the side of the Banthas. You even walked over, joining and trying to instill some confidence in the people as you smiled up at the Tuskens, who merely nodded to you in acknowledgement. You bent down and began helping a woman who lived in town with handing some of the white explosives to a Tusken. The woman gave you a small look but nodded as she accepted your help, seeming to not have a problem with you but rather the Tuskens who she kept giving the side eye to. 

You both worked in silence until she began to speak. “You help come up with this stupid idea?”

You let out a small chuckle at the inflection of her voice and the way she raised an eyebrow at you dubiously. “I admit I wasn’t the biggest fan of this plan initially.”

“Why? Cause it’s going to get us all killed?” She asked roughly.

You looked up at her. Her face was twisted into some kind of inexplicable emotion, seeming to encompass a wide range of emotions, some of which you couldn’t pinpoint. But the one thing that seemed to stand out to you was the smallest sliver of hope you could see in her eyes. You didn’t think she was asking this to be argumentative or wanting to start a confrontation. As far as she knew, she saw you with the Mandalorian and Vanth and figured you knew what was happening and the likelihood of this going well. She was looking for something to hold on to, someone to confirm that this plan wasn’t a death sentence. You guessed you had given Din the same look earlier. And while his answer itself hadn’t been very reassuring, his confidence as he spoke to the people had been. He believed in this plan and you knew that he thought that if everyone could work together, this was possible. And even though you were scared, you knew Din. And if he trusted it, you had to.

So you gave the woman a confident nod that probably eerily matched the one Din always gave you, even offering up a small smile. “As long as we work together, we are fine. We need to just push aside our differences and find some peace.”

“Differences?” She snorted. She looked away from the Tusken and whispered to you. “They kill our people.”

“And they look at you as people who stole their land and water. To them, you are just as great of a threat.” You reasoned. A hint of realization seemed to flash across her face. “Not everything is so black and white.”

The woman nodded and gave you a mysterious look. “You always this smart?”

You let out a chuckle. “Oh, Maker, no. I am a dumb ass most of the time.”

The joke seemed to get rid of any tension there had been, her laughter joining in with yours as her eyes crinkled up. You found yourself enjoying the moment but it was cut off as shouting rang out.

“What, are you trying to blow the whole place up? What? Is that what you want?” you heard a townsperson yelling and your head whipped up to find a man staring up at a Tusken who seemed to take each word as a personal insult (even though he couldn’t even understand the language).

“Oh, shit...” you mumbled and the woman looked over at you.

“What were you saying about peace?” she sarcastically said to you and you gave her a small smirk, enjoying her joking nature. 

You made your way to the two right as Vanth pushed past the Tusken who looked ready to fight. “Take it easy. It was an accident, okay?” the marshal said, but neither of the two looked convinced.

“What do you want to do?!” The man shouted back, anger flashing in his eyes.

You watched Din begin to near the situation, studying the situation. 

“It was an accident!” Vanth repeated sternly. The townsperson seemed to back down, but a weary look now hit all the townspeople at the first hint of confrontation.

The two got back to work, along with the rest of the people. Vanth looked up at Din and scoffed. “It’s gonna be great.” he sarcastically muttered.

__________________

You wouldn’t say things were going great so far, but they seemed to be going smoothly at the very least. Everybody had reached the cave, standing a far distance back from it but beginning to prepare for the battle to come as they unpacked all their supplies from the Banthas. Some people looked prepared for battle with determined looks. Others look not quite so convinced and pretty hesitant. You were stood next to the woman you had been talking to earlier, whose named you learned was Jo, and she gave you a critical look. “That is where that thing lives?”

“Yup.” you replied.

“Great. This should be a piece of cake. We won’t die at all.” she muttered.

Jo and you watched as a single Tusken approached the cave very slowly, down on the knees and pressing his hand into the sand. He looked like he was intently listening and the townspeople and other Tuskens fell silent as they watched him intently. Cobb and Din stood a few feet ahead, speaking to themselves and you nearly let out a chuckle at the sight. Just yesterday Din had been exchanging short, curt words with the man but now upon first glance, they looked like two pals just having a chat with each other. 

“That Mandalorian a friend of yours?” Jo asked, making you tear you eyes away to look at her.

“Something like that.” you let out until you remembered the discussion you had had with Din just the night before. “Partners, actually.”

You couldn’t help the small quirk of your lips, causing you to have a lopsided smile that made Jo give you a smirk of her own. She didn’t address the word you had used, seeming to understand. “What about the small green thing?”

You looked over at the child, who was sat in the pouch on Din’s side with his small wrinkled head poking out, eyes looking into the cave with equal parts wonder and fear. “That is his kid.”

Jo raised her eyebrow. “Does he look like that thing under all that metal?”

You let out a chuckle, having remembered how you had asked him a similar question shortly after you two met. “Maker, I hope not.” you joked.

Jo let out a chuckle, shaking her head at you. Both of you turned to look to the side as you watched Din approach, hearing the kid’s cooing as his eyes landed on you. “I’ll leave you two alone.” Jo said before walking off to help the others.

Din stopped a couple feet in front of you and you stepped forward, grabbing the child and holding him in your arms. He gave a small, soft sigh as he cuddled into you. Normally when you two were on the ship, you would spent a majority of the day playing with him and holding him. But with how busy it had been the last few days, it hadn’t given you a lot of time with the small child and you could tell he had noticed. “Aw, poor baby. Not getting enough attention, are you?” you cooed softly to the child.

One of his ears perked up as he seemed to let out a small noise in response, grabbing at your hair with one of his small, stubby hands like he loved to do so often. “I think the kid likes the attention being on him.” you said to Din who shook his head in agreement.

“Yeah, he does.” Din said and you let out a small chuckle. “You made a friend?”

You looked up at Din, who’s helmet was aimed towards Jo and gave a shrug. “I like her. She is convinced we are gonna die, but otherwise she has a very cheery disposition.” You sarcastically joked. “How about you and Vanth? I’m pretty sure you guys are going to start making friendship bracelets for each other any second.”

Din aimed his helmet back on you, tilting it slightly and you couldn’t help but to chuckle at his reaction. “I don’t know about that, sweet one.”

“Well if you do, I will only be slightly jealous.” You teased and Din finally let out a small chuckle. You looked over his shoulder, seeing the townspeople and Tuskens working together in a rushed but organized manner, handing each other supplies and putting Banthas in their places. “What is the plan?”

“The only weak spot of this thing is it’s belly.”

“So we have to blow it up from below?” you asked.

“Exactly.” Din confirmed. 

“And we do that by?”

“We bury the explosives in the sand, wake it up, and then...” Din trailed off and you gave a grunt.

“I’m not going to like this part, am I?”

Din gave you a small nod of the helmet. “No. But we’ve got to get it angry and make it charge at us.”

Your jaw dropped only slightly as you look up at him in bewilderment. “That sounds like the dumbest thing I’ve heard. We’ve seen that thing when it’s not even pissed but just hungry!”

“We just need to get the stomach above the explosives and hit the detonator. We don’t even have to be that close.” Din reasoned.

“I’m pretty sure being anywhere near this thing is too close.” You countered. You attention was broken from a loud sound and you looked over to find people wheeling out what looked like giant crossbows, aiming the massive arrows right at the mouth of the cave. You saw Jo and a few other towns people digging holes and dropping the white explosives into them, setting them up and powering the detonators for use.  

Before you had the chance to go on, Vanth walked up to the two of you. “You catching her up with the plan?” Vanth asked Din.

“Oh, you mean the suicide mission?” you interrupted, sarcastically directing your question at Vanth who let out a small sigh and gave you an unconvincing smile.

“It’s our best bet. And I’m just trusting your partner here to not get us killed.” Vanth replied.

“We will be fine.” Din said once again, a hint of exasperation in his tone from repeating the same phrase for what must of been the hundredth time that day.

“Let me get this straight.” You started. “We have explosives, a few crossbows, a handful of Banthas, some Tuskens who have never successfully defeated one of these things, and some townspeople, who no offense, but have very limited experience and no clue what they are doing?”

“And a Mandalorian.” Vanth finished, a grin now gracing his features as he found amusement in your tone.

You gave a small chuckle, not being able to help yourself with the outrageousness of the situation. “Well then, boys, this sounds like a great way to spend the day.”

As you finished your sentence, Jo walked up the the three of you. She held a detonator out to Cobb, giving him a hesitant smile. “Careful, Marshal.”

Vanth grabbed the button from her hand and gave her a small nod. “Thank you, Jo. And you stay safe, hun.”

Jo gave a nod before walking off, giving you one last small smile before she joined the other townspeople. Before you had the chance to ask what was next, you joined everybody in watching three Tusken Raiders steadily make their way towards the cave. You felt a chill run down your spine as you watched the scene. Next to the entrance of the cave, the Raiders looked minuscule. Like flecks of sand. Which meant nothing good as for the size of the creature within it.

You held your breath as they all paused at the mouth of it. A moment of heavy silence rang throughout the area, everybody including Tusken and townspeople alike staring at the scene with a burning curiosity and trembling fear. The three held their hands up to their mouths and loudly yelled in their language, in hopes to wake the creature up. Part of you hoped it would be a deep sleeper and not rise from its slumber, but a growl was emitted from within the cave that sounded more menacing than you could of even imagined. You winced as everybody seemed to freeze up with the deep rumble of the sound. While you remained frozen in your spot, the three Tuskens began to run away from the cave as soon as they were aware they had awoken the creature.

You squinted your eyes, waiting to see the dragon peak through. You almost worried for a moment it was going to stay in the cave until the enormous head of it popped out of the sand, the force of it sending a rumble through the ground that shook your legs. You watched with wide eyes as the crossbow-like devices began to shoot at the beast but in comparison to it, they looked like tooth picks rather than huge arrows. The creature seemed to not even notice them as they hit against his thick hide, not even when a few metal ones pierced into his head. His sights seemed to only be set upon the creatures who had dared awake him.

You felt a shiver run down your spine as one of them tripped and stumbled, falling behind the other two who continued to run away. “No!” you yelled out but your voice seemed to drown out with the sound of the Tuskens yelling and the dragon.

The dragon crashed down onto the Tusken that had fallen, swallowing him whole as he sank back into the sand. You watched as he began to slither back. “What the hell?” you muttered.

Din seemed equally as frustrated as you, watching the scene through a spyglass. “Dank farrik. It’s going back in.”

You looked over at Cobb, hoping perhaps they had a plan for this but a terror-stricken look was the only thing you found, his face paled in horror. He didn’t even look over at you, merely staring at the creature who had eaten a man like it was nothing.

Some of the Raiders held onto the ropes of the few arrows that had managed to puncture the beast, but it seemed to be no use as they were dragged along the sand like little play things. A few Tuskens ran after the ones being dragged as townspeople shot at the dragon, though you assumed most of them knew it was a fruitless effort. Nothing seemed to have an effect on this dragon like everyone had hoped and it hadn’t even made it to the explosives.

If you couldn’t even get it to where it was supposed to go, how the hell were you supposed to kill it?

“It’s retreating.” Din said.

You let out a loud curse, shaking your head in frustration. “Dammit! This thing is smarter than we thought.”

“I’m going to hit it.” Vanth said and you both looked over to see him looking down at the detonator in his hands.

“No. Wait, we only have one shot. We’ve got to get it out.” Din explained. Part of you wanted Vanth to just blow the sucker up, but you also didn’t want to pull the trigger too early. If the weak spot was only in one place, you couldn’t risk wasting all the explosives preemptively.

The Tuskens and people didn’t give up though. If anything, they seemed to grow more determined. Perhaps they knew this was their one chance or maybe adrenaline was simply coursing through their systems. But they all joined together to throw grenades at the creature and shoot at it, their primary goal to make it come out of its cave more and get it in the perfect spot.

And luckily, it seemed to be working. The only downside was it pissed off the dragon who now was heading right towards the people, letting out loud screeches that made your ears ring. It opened its jaw wide, preparing to swallow the people whole who began to run away, a few brave ones still throwing things at it in an attempt to get it further out.

The dragon just barely missed the people, it’s teeth and head crashing into sand again. “Now?” you asked Din, yelling over the noise of the dragon wreaking havoc.

“Not yet. It’s gotta come out further.”

Cobb seemed to hold on even tighter to the detonator as he watched more Tuskens shoot hooks into its head, grabbing on to them and trying to pull it further. This time, the Krayt took notice and threw its head back, causing the brave Raiders who had held onto the rope to be catapulted into the sky. You winced at the sight, thinking it couldn’t get worse. Until it began spitting.

You narrowed your eyes, wishing you had a spyglass like Din had as you looked at the scene. It took a moment but you realized it wasn’t just saliva, but rather some venom that seemed to be killing people upon immediate impact. Your eyebrows shot up the top of your head as you looked over at Din and yelled. “No one mentioned venom!”

He totally ignored you, keeping his eye looking through the spyglass held in his hand. He watched the creature slam its head into the sand again and began yelling. “Almost, almost. Now!”

Vanth immediately clicked the button and instantly a huge explosion rang out. The loudest roar yet was released and seemed to echoed as sand splattered everywhere, the people closest to the creature ducking from the flying debris. You narrowed your eyes as you looked into the explosion. The creature led out a pained roar as it sunk back into the sand and you felt any bit of hope from earlier dissipate.

The people and Tuskens began to step forward and investigate the area where the Krayt dragon had once been but you were already shaking your head in disappointment.

“I don’t think it’s dead.” Vanth said cautiously.

“It’s not. It’s still alive. Dank farrik!” you shouted, feeling every hair on your body stand up as your nerves tore through you.

You didn’t have a moment to properly ask Din what was next when another rumble rang out and your heat dropped into your chest. “They need to move back!”

Instead, everyone looked up at the cliff above the cave, where the sound was coming from. In a matter of seconds, the Krayt dragon smashed out of the rock and looked as angry as ever, spraying it’s venom from a much more effective angle that lead to more devastation that you had hoped for.

“It’s picking us off like womp rats! Let’s get after it.” Vanth yelled out, grabbing his rifle and putting his helmet on his head.

You looked at the two and realized what the plan was immediately. “Dammit, don’t you two dare-“

Before you even had the chance to finish, the two men were shooting in the sky with their jet packs. The child and you both watched from your spot on the ground as they landed on a ledge and you let out a curse. “Oh, your dad is totally buying me a fucking jet pack.”

You didn’t mean to curse with the kid so nearby but anger was the way your fear was coming out. But not even using your upset to try to mask the fear that struck through you as watch the two men shoot at the dragon with the rifle seemed to work. Your voice trembled and your hands shook. All you were able to do was grab a rifle but you were no help from here. If anything, you might just screw up whatever mad plan Din had if you shot at it.

On the other hand, you couldn’t just watch. You stared in shock as the two men continued shooting until the head of the dragon finally whipped towards them. You winced and looked away, not wanting to see what would happen. “Maker, Force, whatever is out there: please don’t let him die. I haven’t even told the idiot I love him.”

You hadn’t realized you were saying the words out loud until the kid cooed up at you, as if agreeing with your plea. You were about to console the kid when you saw the two flying back to the ground out of the corner of your eye.

“Stay here, kid!” You yelled, running full speed to the area where they had landed, rifle tightly gripped in your hand. The Dragon was slinking back, away from the gun shots, but you thought at that point all of you were aware that this wasn’t the end of the terror this monster would impose.

As soon as you made it to the men, Din whipped his helmet over at you. “Get away!” he yelled at you.

You rolled your eyes, trying to not let him notice the way your legs wobbled and your worry could be seen in your eyes. “Screw off! I promise to protect you, idiot. Can’t let you get eaten by a damn dragon!”

Din didn’t have a chance to argue further when the three of you heard a rumble behind you. You all turned around to find the dragon had once again emerged and was steadily making its way to you three and the rest of the people left.

“There he is.” Din said and you couldn’t help but to think ‘no shit’.

You looked over at Din, waiting to see what he had planned as the dragon continued to quickly tear through the Tuskens and towns people in its way. You caught the way his helmet looked over at a Bantha a few feet away and you looked over at it, instantly seeing what caught his attention.

“Mando, what are you doing?”

He looked back at you quickly. “I’ve got an idea. Get its attention.”

Your eyes widened slightly and you tried your best to sternly look at him. “What is the plan?!”

Din paid no attention to your question. Vanth went along immediately, shooting off a back rocket that landed right into the beasts head and causing an explosion. The pained roar it let out was so loud it made your ears ring but you paid no mind, lifting your rifle and shooting at its head, trying your best to help.

“We’ve got its attention. Now what?” Vanth asked as the creatures head turned to look directly at the three of you. You sucked in a deep breath as it’s eyes seemed to burn into you like the venom in its mouth. Oh, shit. You were going to die.

“You still have that detonator?” Din asked.

Vanth tossed it to Din. “Take it.”

You looked at Din. “What’s the plan?”

Din froze for just a second, almost so quickly that most wouldn’t notice it but you did. Noticed the way his helmet looked straight into you like his eyes were burning a whole into your chest. You felt your whole chest squeeze tight. “You’re gonna take care of the child.”

You couldn’t help the way your eyes seemed to instantly start to water, your hands balling into fists. You told him. You knew it. He was going to get himself killed for a set of armor. For a damn town that you hadn’t even heard of until a few days ago. You wanted to damn his honorable courage and his need to help others. You wanted to slam your fists into him and drag him away from this whole scene, pretend like it had never even happened.

But you knew Din too well. And that was never going to happen. It was part of the reason you loved him but it was also the reason why you knew it would always be a risk that you’d lose him. Whether it was to be a good man, for his Creed, or for you and the kid. This was the kind of man he was.

And you knew it. But it still didn’t ease the pain you felt.

“Dammit, Mando! You are going to get yourself killed!” you yelled, now registering a tear running down your cheek.

Din looked away, as if he couldn’t handle seeing you. Vanth grabbed onto your arm and began pulling you back. “What’s the plan?” he asked.

“Grab her!” Din demanded.

You tried to pull away but Vanths arms wrapped around you, pulling him tight against his chest. You tried to tug away but you don’t know if he was too strong or your pain was making you weaker, but it was a fruitless effort.

“What’s the plan?” Vanth repeated, holding onto you tight. You looked at Din with wide eyes. You needed the answer. You needed to know he had a plan, one that was reasonable or at the very least possible. You couldn’t have him going in with no course of action and a death wish. But your heart plummeted at his answer.

“I don’t know, but wish me luck.”

You grunted and tried to tear away again, but with no result. “MANDO, NO!”

You didn’t have the chance to see his reaction before he slammed the butt end of his rifle into Vanths jet pack. The man instantly clutched onto you tighter than you had ever been held before, both of you lifting up instantly as you began to soar into the sky and away from Din.

You tried to find him but your eyes were now full of watery tears and you were slamming back too quickly so everything was just a frenzy of sights. It wasn’t until you both slammed into the ground far away from where you had once been that you desperately dragged yourself away from Cobb and crawled onto your knees.

Your eyes instantly landed onto Din. Your mouth went completely dry and you felt your breath being sucked into your body as you found him right next to the Banth, whose explosives were being activated. The dragon headed straight for the two and you let out a strangled scream. “He is gonna kill him! STOP!”

But it was no use. Din probably couldn’t hear you and even if he did, it wouldn’t stop him. Vanth crawled up the you and grabbed onto you. You didn’t know if he was trying to hold you back or if he was simply steadying himself, but you felt yourself drop into him like your body had stopped working.

You wanted to look away. You probably should have in all honestly. You probably should of found the child and covered his eyes, shielded him from the travesty you were all witness to. But you couldn’t tear them away from Din, watching the man standing there and not moving or making any effort to run.

Time seemed to go in slow motion and you didn’t know what was happening. You felt like you were outside of your body as you finally watched the Dragon reach them and swallow the Bantha and Din whole, like it didn’t care that it had taken what had become your whole world.

You couldn’t even hear the scream you let out, or feel the way your body fell into the sand. You couldn’t feel Vanth slip his helmet off and hold onto you. Didn’t see the way the dragon slipped back into the sand. Didn’t hear the silence that fell over what had been a war zone, all the Tuskens and townspeople that remained watching in shock at what had happened. Didn’t see the Tuskens that approached where the monster had slithered back into the sand and taken Din with it. Couldn’t hear or see the way the child whined in his pouch, not even realizing that the only father he had was gone.

All you felt was a piercing pain. A familiar one. The same one you felt the night your family died. The same one you swore to never feel again, even if that meant never caring for a person again because the pain was too much and it would consume you completely the next time. You had let yourself feel with Din and he was gone. Just like everyone you cared about.

You didn’t even hear the rumble and almost didn’t even see the way the Dragons head had poked back out of the sand. Once your brain registered what you were seeing, you broke even more. Din had killed himself and it hadn’t even worked.

You saw the creature open its mouth and prepared for it to swallow more innocent people whole. Then you realized it wasn’t going to swallow something. Something was coming back up.

You lifted yourself onto your knees and Vanth pulled back. “Holy shit.” he muttered.

Your brain could barely process it. It seemed so fast. Din was flying out of the creatures mouth and within a few seconds after that, an explosion set off within the creature that sent out a huge shockwave, knocking both you and Vanth back onto your behinds.

You pulled yourself up as quickly as you could and watched Din land on the ground and turn to look at the creature he had slayed, his armor dripping in the venom.

Vanth stood up and had a big grin on his face, shaking his head in disbelief as he looked at the Mandalorian. The towns people and Tuskens also let out sounds of joy, whooping and cheering at a victory they thought was impossible.

But you were still feeling the numb aftereffects of the incomprehensible pain that had torn through you. You didn’t smile, only brought yourself up on shaky legs and kept your eyes on Din, as if he would disappear if you looked away.

Vanth began to walk towards the people celebrating and the Mandalorian hero. The townspeople made their way to examine the carcass. But you just turned away and made your way to the child in the sac.

He looked up at you eagerly, also seeming overwhelmed from everything happening. You picked him up and grabbed onto him, holding him tightly to your chest as he made soft noises in response. You closed your eyes and made yourself breathe in and out calmly.

————

It had been a while and by now the Tuskens were digging in the flesh of the beast and spreading its carcass apart to harvest what they wanted. The Mandalorian made his way towards your direction, holding a large piece of Krayt Dragon meat which the child stared at with much interest. If you were in a better mood like the others were, you would probably have laughed at the childs willingness to eat anything. But you felt like you couldn’t even laugh if you wanted to and turned away, continuing to hold the child tightly.

You heard his footsteps near and heard the slap of the meat as he dropped it onto his speeder. He was only a couple few behind you but you still didn’t turn. You couldn’t look at him yet. You didn’t know what you would do. Instead you avoided his gaze and tucked the child back into his pouch.

“I’m sorry for-“

“Don’t.” you interrupted, hissing the world more harshly than you intended.

You heard Din freeze behind you and you let out a big sigh, finally daring to look at him. He seemed to have wiped most of the venom off his armor but a sticky residue seemed to be left on it that would require further cleaning (something you certainly as hell wouldn’t be doing). His helmet was aimed straight at you and you wanted to tell him to look away, anywhere else. But you just looked right back at him, you jaw set and your eyes looking straight into his visor.

“You... you should of said something.” you finally muttered out. You intended to sound much firmer but your voice croaked out the words.

“I didn’t have time.” Din argued.

“Didn’t have time to tell me you were going to get swallowed by that thing?” Din froze and you rolled your eyes. “I thought you died.”

“I didn’t though.” Din said, sounding confused.

“It doesn’t matter!” you said back, shaking your head in disbelief. “You could have. Hell, I don’t know how you didn’t. I mean, did you even think you were going to make it?”

The silence that followed your question was answer enough and you let out a strangled chuckle, not finding anything funny but your body didn’t seem to know how to react. “Not even a warning, Din. A goodbye. Nothing.”

“I didn’t have time.” he repeated.

“What if that had been it? Last thing you say is wish me luck and then you get swallowed by a creature unnecessarily?!”

“It wasn’t unnecessary. We needed to kill it.” Din seemed to be growing slightly more frustrated but still keeping his cool.

“No, Din. We all could of accepted our losses and turned around.”

“And let that town and those people die?” Din asked.

You froze at the question but quickly regained your composure, blinking away any logic. “They could of moved. Somewhere else. Somewhere that didn’t have a fucking dragon hunting them down.”

“Now they don’t need to move and there is no dragon hunting them. That is good.”

You finally looked away from, wanting to bury your face into your hands. “I can’t do this.”

“Do what?”

You faced your body to look at him. “Is this gonna be your thing? We land somewhere, people need your help, and you put yourself in a situation where you aren’t just risking getting hurt, but risking loosing your life? Because I can’t handle that.”

“I can’t just not help these people.” Din argued. You understood the logic. You supposed if you were in a position like his you probably would have acted similarly. If you’ve got the tools to help others, why not use them? And with his past and everything he had lost, he understood how things could harm people and cause everlasting trauma. So if he could prevent that happening to someone else, why the hell not do it? No matter the risk.

“Why do these people mean more to you than me?” you asked, crossing your arms over your chest. It was a selfish question. Perhaps all you were being was selfish but it seemed like a justifiable question to ask. Because all you worried about was him. Losing him or hurting him or him hurting himself or a million other things that could happen. And he didn’t seem to even think twice about you or what would happen today. Hadn’t even said goodbye, just in case.

Din let out a small sigh and tried to reach a hand out for you but you pulled away. He lowered his helmet before looking back down at you. “They don’t mean more to me.”

“Really? Because you gave me a heart attack today! I thought I lost you. I thought I lost the thing I care about most again.” You could now feel tears begin to leak at the corner of your eyes. You wanted to stop, brush them away, but you couldn’t.

“I’m sorry. I promise I didn’t try.” Din said but you shook your head.

“Maybe I shouldn’t have come back.”

Din froze. “Don’t say that.”

“I can’t have you do this.”

“Then you shouldn’t have agreed to be with me!” Din responded and you looked up in shock, raising an eyebrow.

“What does that mean?”

“You knew what I am. What I did. I am a bounty hunter. I am a Mandalorian. Putting my life at risk is part of the life. You can’t expect me to give that up.”

“You aren’t just a bounty hunter or a Mandalorian anymore! You are a father to this kid now, no matter how much you don’t want to admit it because it scares you.” Din looked down at the kid briefly, who looked up at the two of you in confusion. “And you are a person who... who I love!”

Din froze and you realized it was the first time you had said it out loud. You knew you had loved him for a while. And sure, you two had shown each other your love in various ways. But the words hadn’t actually left either of your mouths. It had seemed to scary to do. But it had happened before you could think about it and it seemed to open a floodgate within you.

“I love you, Din. I love you so much and I care about you so much. I just want you to be safe and I want you to make it to the bed on the Crest with me every night in one piece. I want to know what is happening and I know you aren’t used to it, but we need that communication.” You took in a deep breath before continuing. “I want to have a future with you. I want you to be able to want a future that doesn’t just consist of bounty hunting for the rest of your days until you get killed. I’ve never wanted this with anyone else but I want to settle down with you and get married or something and hell maybe even pop out a few of your kids and get old.

“And maybe it is too early to say this or you don’t want any of that, but I do. That is all I want. All I want is you. And the kid. And fine, you need to be brave and try your best to safe people because you know the world won’t do it because it’s a shitty place. But you need to let me in a little more and let me help or... fuck, I don’t know. Try not to put yourself in situations where you are literally getting swallowed whole!”

You finally finished, not realizing you were panting until a silence filled between you two that made your whole body freeze up. You had just laid a lot on Din. And you were worried it was too much. He was good with you but he still sometimes had a hard time communicating with you properly. It wasn’t his strong suit and a conversation like this was enough that you were worried you had scared him away.

“I love you.”

You felt your chest tighten up. He said it loud and clearly, without any hesitancy. He had said it like he meant it wholeheartedly and had said it plainly, like he often spoke about things that were obvious and completely true.

“Yeah?” you quietly asked and Din nodded.

“I love you, sweet one.” Din paused for a moment before continuing. “I understand what you are saying. I will be more careful and I wasn’t trying to cut you out. Everything today was just... so fast.”

You nodded slowly. “You just... you scared the hell out of me.”

Din finally grabbed onto your arms and you let him. “I’m sorry. I will try to be better about that. I’m still not really used to having somebody around.”

“I know.” you said softly.

You almost thought he was done until he spoke again, much softer and quieter. “I want all of that too.”

You couldn’t help the small smile that broke out onto your face. “Yeah?”

“Yes. It all sounds... great.”

You grinned a little bigger. “It does. But you will have to, y’know, survive in order for it to happen.”

Din nodded. “I will try my best while we get the kid to his kind. And then after that, we can start it.”

“Start what?”

“Our future.”

Your heart melted like mutter and you leaned into his strong grip. “That is... all stuff you want?”

“Nothing sounds better.”

You wanted desperately to rip his helmet off and plant a big kiss on his lips, convey to him physically how you were feeling. But instead you opted for a smile and small nod. “Well then that sounds like a plan.”

“Sorry to interrupt, love birds. But I have something you probably want.” you both looked over at Vanth, who had managed to make his way to the two of you without you noticing. In his hands he held the armor you had both come for in the first place. He gave a small smile of appreciation as he shoved it towards Din, who grabbed it slowly. “It was well-earned.”

“You can say that again.” you sarcastically mumble and Vanth let out a chuckle, nodding his head in agreement.

The Mandalorian reached out a hand and Vanth grasped, shaking it firmly.

They both let go and Vanth turned towards you, giving you a big smile. “It was an absolutely pleasure meeting you.”

You gave him a lopsided grin. “Well, dont I feel special?”

Vanth laughed. “You definitely are. That’s for sure.” he looked over at Din. “You are lucky. Treat her well.”

“I will.” Din said firmly.

“Oh, he definitely will. If he doesn’t I’ll make sure he suffers.” you teased.

Vanth gave you a grin. “I think I’m going to miss your humor.”

“If you need a good joke, bother Jo.”

“I’ll take note of that.” Vanth said before opening his arms out. You gladly gave him a big hug and he patted a hand on your back before pulling away.

“I hope our paths cross again.” he said.

“As do I.” Din said.

“Hopefully under much better circumstances.” you said.

Vanth shook his head in agreement. “Now you can say that again.” The Marshal began to turn around but paused for a moment, pointing the armor. “Oh, and you tell your people I wasn’t the one that broke that.”

The man then walked away, towards his townspeople.

You stood next to Din and watched them all gather together, joyful smiles on their faces. You caught a brief glimpse of Jo who smiled at you, giving a wave which you reciprocated.

“Y’know, I actually like that marshal.” you said.

“Me too.” Din agreed and you smiled.

“Look at you, being a social butterfly.” you teased and Din chuckled.

You both turned at the sound of commotion, all of the Tuskens cheering in joy as they pull what looked like a large pearl out of the dragon. Even a few townspeople joined in on the celebrating, looking at the item. You watched the two groups of people who had once not been able to stand next to each other now communicate in harmony (at least as best as they could with the language barrier).

“You were right.” you finally said.

“About what?” Din asked.

“About helping them. It was the right thing to do.” you admitted.

Din only nodded and turned to look at you. “You ready to head home?”

You smiled softly, yearning for the Crest you now called home and to lay in a bed with Din again. “Yeah. You stink like Krayt dragon innards so you need to shower.” you said with a small grin.

“Shut up and get on the speeder.”

“Can I drive it?” you asked.

“No.”

You let out a grunt and crawled onto the pack of it, making sure the child was securely attached to the side. “Fine, but you better remember you are getting me one of these.”

“Of course, sweet one.”

“And it better be a good one after what you put me through today.” you joked and Din grunted as he crawled on the speeder after strapping the armor to the back of it.

“Yeah, we will see about that.” he muttered.

You let out a big laugh as you grabbed your arms around his waist and held on as the bike whirred to life. You looked down at the child, who looked eager for the ride to begin. And you thanked whatever was out there for making sure your family made it through the day.

Tag List: @ilikethoseodds @dindaddy @poguesvixen @starspangledwidow @fangirlalexia @the-scandalorian @ka-x-in @keepcalmandblogstuff @the-lady-of-stars @orneryscandalousevil @spaghetti-666 @afootnoteinyourhappiness @the-darkempress @dream-alittlebiggerdarling @dee-vn @eury-dice3 @rb4writers @just-me-and-my-obsessions00 @lxdyred @queen-since-97 @honey-hi @periptill @seninjakitey @guiltyegg @the-bottom-of-the-abyss @altarsw @itsaviicf @greeneyedblondie44 @buffnatalieportman

[your-brilliant-lady-m]

Part 1 - Basic Concepts of Miraculous Ladybug: Miraculous Jewels

Alright! I promised you meta and now I deliver!

I feel like people mostly watch Miraculous for the romance these days. Shipping is all everyone cares about. I wonder why? Probably because writers themselves don't take their worldbuilding very seriously and because they don't put much effort into making the audience care about something other than Love Square, like the mythology behind the Miraculous, or motivations of the main villain, or some pretty heavy topics for a kid's show that they bring up and then refuse to touch again. You know, all the good things. And this is coming from someone who is a passionate multishipper. I have lived through several shipping wars in different fandoms and came out victorious after all.

I am probably the only person out there who cares about the big picture, the overall storyline and the worldbuilding of Miraculous in addition to all details and implications that could develop into fascinating plotlines relevant to the main story. It is a rather lonely fandom experience, I must confess. But, hey? Who cares? I am here to have fun and bring to the table discussions no one wants to have.

So, let's talk about the basics.

If you, as the writing team, are capable of keeping only 1 thing consistent, then please, I beg you, let it be the basic concepts of your universe. Because in this case, one has to actively put effort into writing characters and conflict resolutions badly. And also because nothing can save bad worldbuilding.

I don't have high worldbuilding standards for Miraculous. They certainly aren't as high as the ones I had for Legend of Korra (which was a badly written trainwreck, that ATLA doesn't deserve as a sequel) or the ones I currently have for Dragon Prince. Therefore I won't be too harsh in my criticisms. Granted, I think that Miraculous has better worldbuilding and lore consistency than Winx Club for example (I haven't seen the reboot yet, so writers might have fixed their worldbuilding at least a little bit). Even though I enjoyed Winx when I was younger and some elements of this story still attract me.

Both serialised and episodic shows as well as movies to the lesser extent must have some flexibility in worldbuilding and plot because you can never be 100% sure where your story is going. Maybe, you'll get money for more seasons, maybe not. However, you must never lose sight of your basic concepts. They have to stay the same no matter what, because rewriting lore and retconning major developments every new season is not and never will be called good writing.

Forgive me for using architectural metaphors, but you need a solid foundation to build any kind of structure. Otherwise, everything falls apart.

I like to apply this logic to writing as well. When designing a world where your story takes place, you must lay a few ground rules. It's especially important if you have a magic system. What kind of ideas absolutely must exist? What kind of conclusion do you want your story to have? Does your magic system has limitations? Where is the grey area? Could you introduce new elements later on?

And I feel like the writing team of Miraculous Ladybug did not ask these questions. This may feel like I am nit-picking canon material and looking for problems that simply aren't there, but I promise that I am not. You see, things that I am about to point out only seem small at first glance. But these details are actually the source of the largest plotholes in the series. And their presence negatively affects character development, conflicts and resolutions of said conflicts.

That doesn't mean that I have nothing good to say about the magic system of the show and its elements. There are a lot of great ideas and concepts. And some of them have the potential to contribute to the delightful story.

Let's dive right into it, shall we?

Camouflage

I have to give credit where it's due because the idea of camouflage and shapeshifting for Miraculouses is brilliant. It seems like Miraculous can't fundamentally change its type of jewellery or accessory. The ring will always be the ring but with a different ornament, colour or shape. This is true most of the time (Monkey Miraculous is an exception since it transformed into earplugs/headphones/headband/circlet) It makes sense and avoids plotholes. Grimoire doesn't have the pictures of each Miraculous in disguise for identity protection. That was very neat too. I have no comments. This concept was very good.

Also, since Marinette wore a nose ring of the Ox in "Kwamibuster" without any problem and Adrien wore Ladybug's earrings in "Reflekdoll", we can assume that you don't need to have piercings to wear a Miraculous. Miraculous just magically passes through your skin.

I'm interested to know the following. Can Kwamis recognise a camouflaged Miraculous on a person? Can the holder order them to confess the identity of this person? This shouldn't be possible for identity protection just like with Kwamis sensing each other. But more on that in later posts.

Power Levels

For a long time, we assume that there are only 7 Miraculouses. Turtle belongs to Master Fu, Gabriel has Butterfly and Peacock, Marinette and Adrien have Ladybug and Black Cat. Everything is pretty straightforward. Then it's revealed that there are more jewels and more boxes. It makes the worldbuilding interesting, but it also majorly complicates things, making them inconsistent.

Their position in the Miracle Box implies their power levels. Creation and destruction are the most powerful forces in existence, therefore they are at the top. Moreover, it makes this Box the most important, the most powerful out of all others. Su Han in "Furious Fu" calls it "Mother Miracle Box". Fox, Turtle, Bee, Butterfly and Peacock have less power than the main pair, but more than the Miraculous of the lower Zodiac tier (since they correspond with animals of the Chinese Zodiac).

1. Ladybug can create anything out of nothing (Lucky Charm, which gives what you need the most at the moment). This Miraculous can resurrect the dead, reverse the effects of the Cataclysm. The power of Miraculous Cure or Miraculous Ladybug can work in several ways:

it simply repairs the damage (puts stuff back together, heals injuries and so on)

it reverses time for the matter, restoring things back to the state they were before the destruction occurred (however, the Cure doesn't erase people's memories of everything that happened unless they were mind-controlled, frozen in place or transformed by Akuma into something else - this is an important point that I'll discuss some other time)

How does Miraculous Cure work when there are no supervillians? In NY Special Marinette just says this.

Excuse me, what? What was that? You can't do anything when the villain is gone? What the hell?

*insert here every scene where Ladybug fixed Paris after destroying akumatized/amokized object (this action causes the Akuma victim to detransform/sentimonster to disappear - villain is gone) and purifying butterfly and feather*

It was such cheap angst. I couldn't even be upset when Adrien gave up his Miraculous, because that whole situation is just stupid. But, never mind. We aren't talking about that today.

Apparently, Lucky Charm and Miraculous Cure only work when summoned to battle a specific villain. What is the point then? Huh? You can't tell me that Ladybug has the power of unlimited creation and then say that she can't repair the damage without a special Lucky Charm that was magically synchronised with specific big bad of the week.

Ladybug also can purify Akumas. It makes sense for Ladybug to have the ability to reverse the magic of less powerful Miraculous. But this power can't be applied universally. How does this power of reversal apply to different situations where there is no evil Butterfly holder? Can Ladybug reverse the magic of any Miraculous?

The unlimited power of creation introduced in season 4 ("Mr. Pidgeon 72") is another fascinating thing. On one hand, it's logical and proves the status of this Miraculous as the most powerful. On the other hand, by introducing this power, you have created a plothole. Look, Marinette can create the charm which repels Akumas. If Ladybug can create anything then what stops her from creating a tool for finding Hawkmoth (like special glasses for discovering identities or a compass)? I mean, the show says that the power of creation is unlimited, it means that the creation of such tool is possible.

2. Black Cat can destroy anything with Cataclysm, even other Miraculous. He can kill living things and turn them into ash, but not himself. This Miraculous is supposed to have other special abilities that we don't see. And they should be equal to powers of Ladybug, both in number and in potency. Unfortunately, after 3 seasons writers didn't give us anything. It makes laughable the idea of balance between Ladybug and Black Cat.

Now, to the second tier. These Miraculouses have a singular ability, but they need a second one to keep the power balanced between Zodiac and the main pair.

3. Butterfly creates champions with different superpowers. But how does the time limit of children work for Butterfly? In theory, the countdown should start right after the creation of the Akuma since for Ladybug and Chat Noir countdown starts after activation of their powers even if they don't use them. However, if the countdown of the Butterfly begins after Akuma creation then there's no point because the holder has to stay transformed to guide their champion. The charged butterfly won't have time to even grant powers before the transformation of the child-holder drops. This issue is never explored because Gabriel doesn't have a time limit. However, I feel like it should be addressed in flashbacks of past Butterfly holders for example.

This Miraculous should be less powerful than Ladybug and Black Cat. It's often not. Some Akumas are too overpowered. Stormy Weather can move the Earth away from the Sun, Timetagger can send people through time and jump through time as well, Chat Blanc destroyed the world with a single energy blast, Miraculer could steal powers of those more powerful than her by default. These are the most notable examples. One could argue that Chat Blanc was a different case. Hawkmoth simply gave the most powerful Miraculous a boost. However, we know that even without a holder (the wildest and the most powerful form of uncontrolled Miraculous magic) Plagg's Cataclysm can't destroy the universe just like that (he presumably wiped out dinosaurs and sunk Atlantis on his own without a holder). I think that the less powerful Miraculous (Butterfly) shouldn't be able to increase the power of destruction to such a degree and give Black Cat the power to destroy celestial bodies and galaxies.

Writers want us to see Hawkmoth as the formidable villain. But it's not easy because he is less powerful than your main heroes by default of your worldbuilding. Sometimes writers make the Butterfly more powerful than creation and destruction to raise the stakes, breaking the laws of their magic system. So, how do you solve this? Let Ladybug and Black Cat keep their status as the most powerful and instead of giving Hawkmoth more magical power, make him smarter, more cunning, inventive. Gabriel is a fashion designer, whose creativity makes him a very good Butterfly holder. He has a life full of experience, he knows much more about things than the main teenage characters. Catalyst was very interesting for this very reason. Gabriel sort of discovered a cheat code to boost his powers. Show us how he experiments with his powers, how he analyses his past Akumas and tries to find the most effective ones. Maybe Gabriel tries to design Akumas that can specifically neutralise Ladybug and Chat Noir. This exploration could also give writers an opportunity to explain how the powers of Butterfly work. Can he control the type of powers he grants? Can he control the appearance of Akumas? There are many things to be explored.

4. Peacock creates sentimonsters. I remember that fans were very disappointed when the power of the Peacock was revealed at the end of season 2. I was one of them. The concept of Amoks is far too similar to akumatized butterflies. Other Miraculouses have unique abilities and keywords for their powers, while Peacock just looks like Butterfly 2.0. That glowing mask effect just adds insult to injury.

You have to start by figuring out the powers of the Peacock in a normal situation. If a holder is a good person, then how does their power work? For example, make them related to sight (because of the "eye" pattern on feathers). Maybe, Peacock grants the ability to see the several possibilities of the future, but only a few minutes ahead. Maybe, this Miraculous gives you the ability to see through someone's eyes for a few minutes (and the victim is completely unaware of the intrusion). Perhaps, Peacock allows the holder to use feathers (or tiny peacocks) as cameras one at a time and be all-seeing. These feather-spies can be destroyed by the holder or disappear on their own after some time. Such power could be devastating when used against heroes in canon.

5. Bee can paralyze. This power is pretty straightforward. Once I read a fanfiction focused on very vell done Chloe Redemption, where she fights alongside Ladybug and Chat Noir. Eventually, she grows and becomes a better person. This fic ends with an Akuma battle, where LB and CN are trapped and Akuma is ready to kill them. But Chloe uses a second power of the Bee on the villain - Miraculous Stinger. It's deadly both for the holder and for the victim (because bees die when they sting someone). Chloe kills the Akuma with a Stinger before it can get LB and CN, but she too dies making the ultimate irreversible sacrifice. I will add a link if I find it again.

6. Turtle can create a shield. I don't have much to say on this either. It feels underpowered compared to others in the second tier. Maybe Turtle can also slow down opponents (because turtles aren't the fasters animals out there).

7. Fox creates illusions and acts as their puppeteer. In order to create a balance between other powers, these illusions must hold for as long as the holder needs them to. I propose this mostly because we see that Venom of the Bee lasts very long, the shield of the Turtle lasts either until it's destroyed or the holder wants to remove it, same goes for Akumas and sentimonsters who disappear only when the holder wants them to or their affected object is destroyed.

Let's talk about Zodiac tier. Miraculous of the third tier shouldn't have the second ability like more powerful ones. These powers are the most inconsistent. Even if we haven't seen all of them yet.

8. Mouse can create many small clones of the holder. It is unclear how these clones communicate with each other and how many of them this Miraculous can create. The holder can control the number of clones. This power was very convenient in "Kwamibuster" and it makes sense symbolically for the mouse. What activates the time-limit for children? Marinette didn't have any problems with it when she became Multimouse.

9. Snake can create a 5-minute time loop and has the ability to come back in time. This Miraculous feels a bit overpowered for the Miraculous of the Zodiac Tier. The holder can reset the time as many times as he/she needs to. It's was a good source of drama and trauma in "Desperada". I was honestly surprised that Adrien was capable of fighting after spending months in a loop. But this doesn't change the fact that Snake is overpowered. You can give this Miraculous the power to hypnotise or keep the time ability but place a limit on the number of resets. How does the lyre work as a weapon? Who knows? No one!

10. Dragon can shapeshift into elements: water, wind and lightning. It has the coolest transformation words hands down (Bring the Storm and Open Sky). Apparently this Miraculous doesn't have the time limit.

11. Rabbit can time travel or jump through alternative realities, even writers aren't sure. Time-travel in this show is so badly written it gives me a headache. This Miraculous shouldn't exist just like its powers. Snake belongs to the same tier, but 5 minutes and whole centuries of time jumps aren't comparable in power levels. They are not and this is the hill I will die on. Give the Rabbit powers related to its symbolism in China like an ability to de-age people, heal them or give them a speed boost in contrast with Turtle who might have the ability to slow down.

This Miraculous is so special that its Kwami - Fluff can live separately from his Miraculous in a Miracle Box for millennia (Fluff lives in the Box in "Sandboy", but his Miraculous, pocket watch, was passed down for generations in Alix's family). This is a discussion for a separate post, however. There's a lot to unpack. We'll do that some other time. You will suffer with me but at a later date.

12. Horse can create portals. They could lead anywhere, which is pretty cool. On the other hand, this power is not very useful in direct combat, especially when it's used by a child since we can have only one portal per transformation.

13. Monkey can cause a malfunction in powers of other people. What is the point of this? This power was specifically created by writers to defeat Akuma in "Party Crasher". That's it. What if your target is not magical? How does this Miraculous work in different circumstances?

14. Pig shows people their greatest desire. Both the holder and the recipient of this power can see this desire. Chat Noir wasn't impressed in "Guiltrip" and neither was I. It's underpowered compared to other Miraculous in this tier. Also, why does the tambourine can shoot energy beams? Why?

That's all I have to say on the matter. I'll update the power analysis as needed.

[d4rkwr1t3s]

Ticking Time

Ships: Prinxiety, maybe platonic/mentioned romantic Dukexiety, mentioned other ships

Trigger Warnings: Apathy!Roman, a few innuendos, talk of gore, suicidal thoughts, depressive states, talk of bodily fluids (by Remus)

Roman had enough with everything. His ideas weren’t cutting it. Everything he knew had been tilted on its axis over and over. He was silenced quite often and made fun of. He had to apologize to everyone but no one had to apologize to him. He sighed and placed his head in his arms. 

Everyone had just assumed he had hit a creative block and he had to some extent. Nothing felt interesting or good enough anymore. The once vibrant red of his sash was now a muted grey. Usually, he would be upset by that but now he just felt nothing, numb. He looked over at the door to the imagination. It wasn’t just his but it was better than his slowly greying room. There it would be bright. Didn’t Logan say something about sunlight helping with depression? He couldn’t remember and he could feel himself caring less and less about it. He stood from his desk and stepped into the imagination. 

Usually even just stepping inside made him feel better. Usually his horse Merida was there to greet him. There was nothing vibrant or lifelike in his realm. The forest was alive as usual with Remus’ creatures. Each creature curses and spits at seeing him. Right, they’d get out eventually. Why didn’t he care though? The people weren’t real. There wasn’t even anyone there to protect anyway. The streets were barren and there were no bright colors in what he created. There were no decorations for some sort of festival. The town’s buildings were crumbling and slowly wasting away to become nothing but rubble. Even the castle seemed in ruins but not from a war, from time. 

Roman stepped inside and the doors shut behind him firmly. He sighed at it and looked up at the tapestry behind the throne. It seemed faded and the picture was no longer decipherable. He sits at the throne and lounges a moment. He listens to the creaking, breaking, dripping. His head hits the back of the throne but no sound escapes him. He looks to the side with a heavy breath. He feels like he’s drowning but there was nothing there. He didn’t feel panicked though. He felt strangely calm. Did it just feel like a suffocating hug? Roman couldn’t tell. He moved his hand in a circle to conjure something but nothing appeared. He looked up once more before he felt the gentle dripping of water. He put a hand to his face and wiped some tears away. Why was he crying? He wasn’t sad. He wasn’t feeling anything really. The tears didn’t even make it to the ground, blowing away as ash after it left his face.

He just sat on his throne and looked out across the empty throne room. It wasn’t comforting but it wasn’t haunting him either. It was a weird place to be. He looked up at the timer on the castle wall. It started and was just going up, ah, that’s what it was for. He hoped he could get out of this alone but he highly doubted it. He glances again at the clock. How long would it take for the others to notice? A day? A few days? A week? He highly doubted it but he didn’t hope for any less.

~~~~~~~~~~

A week had passed and no one had heard from Roman at all. While this wasn’t too much of a surprise considering his romps in the imagination, it was odd that no one was told, and that there was no influence by Roman. Every idea Thomas seemed to have came from Remus. Patton and Virgil had been working overtime to keep Thomas from actually streaking through his neighborhood, or hitting his friends with the fake morning star, or even doing dangerous stunts. Some were a bit more concerned than others but it was taking a toll on everyone. There were no new videos since all ideas came from a less than spectacular source. 

Virgil sighed heavily with his headphones blasting his playlist. Where the hell was Roman? He grunted at a sudden pressure on his stomach and peeled his eyes open to see who it was. He groaned when meeting a certain side’s eyes. “Remus,” he groaned out, “get off.” “No thanks! I know you feel it too!” “Feel what you insufferable prick?” “Oooh, nice one but sadly I’m not talking about a boner this time.” “Gross. Get off.” “No. You know something’s wrong too.” “I always feel like something’s wrong. Now get off!” Virgil moved to throw him off which barely even budged Remus an inch.

“Just look!” Remus pulled out a clock in a circling green and grey pattern.

Virgil looked at it with confusion, “uh-huh? What about it? It’s a clock? It’s the wrong time but nothing seems off about it.” “That’s the thing! Ever since the split it’s been red and green and broken. Now it’s green and grey and working. Something’s off with Robro and you’re the only one in this stuffy pile of horse shit that gives a shit. Some-” “Stopping you right there,” Virgil cut him off with a look of disgust before he shook his head, “even if there was something wrong Roman’s door is locked.” “Oh? Little bat tried to sneak in?” Remus teased, “gonna grab something to-” “Oh shut up. No,” Virgil's face still heat up at the implications, “what about your side?” “Haven’t been,” Remus shrugged, “besides it’s crawling with nightmares.” “I know that much but can we get over?” “Probably. Especially if something happened to the prince himself.”

“Okay. So can we go?” He questioned while he motioned for Remus to get off. “Yeah. We can go. If you’re ready to face some of your worst nightmares,” Remus teased him again with a grin. “Oh fuck off,” Virgil shoved him off this time and got up, “let’s go before this gets any worse.” “Ugh fine. You’re no fun anymore,” Remus pouted again but got back up and shook himself down before he grabbed Virgil and threw him over his shoulder. “Remus!” Virgil yelped and struggled in his grip. “Off we go to the piss-yellow road!” Remus cackled as Virgil groaned.

~~~~~~~~~

“Will you put me down now?” Virgil asked from his place on Remus’ shoulder. They had been walking for a little while and his stomach had started to get sore.

“Mhhhh nope!” Remus replied cheerfully while he shifted Virgil’s position.

“Why not? Your shoulder is not comfortable and I can’t fight like this.” “That’s the point! We don’t need to fight right now. As long as you’re attached to me you’re fine. I’ll put ya down when we get to Roman’s side.” “Which is how much longer?” “Not too long.”

“Very reassuring,” Virgil spat out sarcastically before sighing and just got comfortable. Remus hummed a sea shanty under his breath as he walked.

A little while later Remus stepped into the meadow right near the border with a whisper of, “wow.” “What? I can’t see.” “Look down.” “What?” “Look down.” Virgil sighs but looks down at the grey dying grass, “holy shit.” “I know,” Remus shifted to let Virgil down, “that’s not a good sign. We gotta hurry and look out for falling crumbling rubble and of course my little nightmares,” Remus grinned.

“Of course. It can never be that easy,” Virgil huffed and stepped to bolt into the kingdom. Remus not too far behind him with his morning star at attention.

~~~~~~~~~

“Next time,” Virgil panted, “just tell your nightmares to fuck off.” “But this was so much more fun!” Remus chirped with his morning star on his shoulder.

“Ugh,” He doubled over for a moment before standing straight up again and walks into the castle with another groan, “you’ve got to be kidding me!”

Remus cackled at the thorns, “sleeping beauty? Where’s the dragon?” Just as Remus uttered those words the ground started to rumble. Virgil glared at him, “you just had to open your fat mouth!” “Well I open it for-” “Don’t you dare finish that statement,” he snarled and dashed towards the left where there were fewer thorns for him to cut through, “you can deal with whatever that is!”

“Fair enough!” Remus cackled and turned to go outside where there was a thundering roar.

Virgil huffed and cut his way to Roman’s room in the castle where he was not. He sighed, “okay einstein, where would he be?” 

He started checking all of the rooms he passed with no luck in finding Roman. He walked back to the throne room, or thorn room now. Virgil looked over where the thorns were the thickest, around the throne. It was quiet inside aside from the ticking of a clock. A clock? He looked around for it and found it at the top of the tower of thorns before it flattened to create a ceiling. Could he be up there? Virgil looked for any sign he was up there but finds nothing. He sighed heavily before a glint to the side caught his eye. On the throne was a figure of stone but the glint of a sword at the statue’s side lured him closer. He hissed in pain when a throne vine grabbed his wrist. Virgil cut the vine and continued trudging forward to the statue. The thorn vines continued to slice at him even as he cut them down. He was panting once more when he got to the thorn column. Virgil raised his weapon to carefully slice through the column. He reached his hand through the incision he made and barely brushed his fingers against the statue’s. He couldn’t see the statue’s face but he could see the sleeve, “Roman…” The statue didn’t move, of course. Virgil cursed under his breath and forced his body through the column even if it caused the thorns to drag across his body. He made a small noise of surprise when he fell into Roman’s lap. He took a breath before pressing a soft kiss to the edge of Roman’s mouth. Virgil laughed softly when it didn’t work, “of course. This isn’t a fairytale. I can’t just magically make it better for you. I wish you had talked to me or even someone else. I want to help. You helped me so much and I should’ve checked on you. I went through hell to get here Roman. Please come back to us…” He sighed and moved to get up from where he was, “I’m sorry we didn’t protect you, Roman.” Virgil shook his head as he swallowed the lump in his throat and turned to leave and tell Remus he failed. He jumped as a weight was pressed to his back and arms wrapped around his waist. “V?” Came the weak and rough question. “Roman!” Virgil turned to hug him tightly even if it caused him to wince, “you’re okay. I got you.” “I’m tired,” he mumbled into Virgil’s chest. “Alright princey. Let’s get you home, okay?” “Mhm,” Roman’s breathing was slow and even which made Virgil chuckle before picking him up. “Rest now princey. I’m not going anywhere,” he reassures but Roman was already asleep. The ticking had stopped as Virgil walked out of the castle and back to Roman’s room.