#instead of actually learning how to properly react to and manage incidents

[gay-jewish-bucky]

this has always confused me, but it's crazy that the co-pilot in the crash that lead to the 1500 hour rule, which has been empirically shown to not increase safety and was not even the cause of the crash (pilot fatigue was, this is still a problem for commercial pilots), had around 1.5x that many hours

[shihalyfie]

A meta and analysis on Takaishi Takeru

Of all of the Tokyo Chosen Children, Takeru is lucky enough to get significant attention for two full series from beginning to end, and his character also goes through some drastic changes in the process, especially through Adventure and 02. There’s so much going on with him that it makes it hard to give a short answer to the question “what is Takeru like?” because there’s so much you could say about him at so many different times.

Fortunately, that’s what we’re here to talk about today!

Takeru in Adventure

At first glance, Takeru seems to be the “tagalong kid” -- the obligatory “little kid character” you have whenever you have a party in a fantasy story. Generally, these “obligatory kid characters” are the kind constantly struggling to catch up with the older ones. Adventure being a series that loves to play with tropes and expectations, though, very quickly says no to that.

Seki: ...We also mixed up the children’s ages, for a bit of variety. Kakudou: The oldest one would be the most unreliable, and the smartest one would be one of the third youngest. Just a little to throw you off the usual, conventional track. Seki: The youngest one would feel too much like a burden to everyone else, and conversely would actually have himself together.

Takeru “doesn’t want to be a burden” -- meaning his feelings on this issue are actually rather much like Hikari’s. Unlike Hikari, though, Takeru reacts to this compulsion differently -- instead of simply repressing things and pretending the problem doesn’t exist, Takeru’s reaction to his own negative feelings is to “have himself together” and act as if he’s got everything under control.

Or, more accurately, pretend he has it together and has everything under control.

Takeru, for all intents and purposes, was not supposed to be on the camping trip the others were on, not having gone to everyone’s school -- he had to get special permission to go. Takeru’s family is very, very split harshly at this time, with his mother not even able to treat Yamato comfortably. Yamato deals with the familial estrangement badly -- alternating between approaching everyone awkwardly and exploding like an emotional fuse bomb -- but Takeru tries to take it as a sign  that he needs to be “responsible”. A lot of his actions in Adventure are him basically exuding this aura of “I can take care of myself!”, and in fact he works very hard to “assert” himself as if he were yet another peer. We even see him make the complaint directly in Adventure episode 43 -- while he is correct in calling out Yamato for coddling him and him only while recklessly disregarding the others, the fact he specifically complains about Yamato approaching him as someone holding them back if he’s not protected reveals a lot about his own mentality regarding the situation.

One of his first major scenes in episode 2 is him offering his own food for the pile of supplies everyone has, even though it’s just snacks. Which is, probably, a pretty accurate summary of Takeru’s character at this point: on the surface he’s responsible, well-behaved, and capable...but, in fact, he’s still about as immature as an average eight-year-old child would predictably be.

Yamato spends his Adventure character arc pretty openly angsting about his relationship to Takeru and how his family’s split has affected them, but throughout the entirety of Adventure (and, eventually, 02 as well), not only does Takeru rarely if ever touch on it, there are indications that Takeru deliberately tries to dodge the subject or not dwell on it too much. In Adventure episode 12, he actually outright lies to Patamon about his younger childhood memories, claiming he “probably doesn’t remember” anything about it despite the audience very clearly being shown that he very much did, and in episode 26 he comes very close to leaking his actual feelings about the group being separated being tied to what happened to his family, before quickly covering it up and trying to move on with the topic.

In other words, unlike Hikari, who knows exactly what she’s feeling but is compulsively unable to vocalize them, Takeru actively suppresses his negative feelings and tries not to dwell on them too much. Again, this comes from his desire to “not be a burden” on others -- he’s got this situation under control! Everything is fine!

And this has a very, very nasty payoff. While Yamato clearly deals with his emotional issues badly, tending to get very explosive about it, Takeru’s way of coping isn’t actually all that much better in the long run, because Yamato’s frustration and openness about his emotions at least lead him to being very straightforward about his feelings, incredibly self-aware and sometimes even self-conscious, and ultimately able to get at least some degree of catharsis from the situation. Takeru...not so much.

Takeru is a child, no matter how much he tries not to act like one, and it ultimately results in him reacting disastrously whenever something hits him too emotionally hard -- which results in Takeru suddenly becoming irrationally stubborn and even angry. We later see what it takes to actually break through Takeru’s facade of “totally having this together” in Adventure episode 22, which is also the first time he openly breaks down wailing in front of anyone besides Patamon -- and it’s, of course, when PicoDevimon convinces him that Yamato hates him. The interesting part is that this is so blatantly a lie that even Tokomon is able to quickly call bullshit on it, but Takeru, previously having worked so hard to maintain this facade of being responsible, falls for it completely with utter irrationality -- and it really does suggest that Takeru’s fear of losing yet another member of his family, and being a burden to Yamato, runs so deep that it causes that entire facade to shatter in one blow.

Which is where the problem lies: Takeru’s habit of suppression is so bad that once one of his triggers is hit, he completely loses all sense of rationality and blows up, and it becomes nearly impossible to reason with him because he locks down on becoming stubborn. It’s also dangerous because even he isn’t particularly self-aware of what he’s doing when he blows up like this; at least Hikari was very consciously aware of her suppression problem, but Takeru never really seems to have any awareness of the fact that his covering up of his feelings is directly related to some of his worst moments. We see it cause problems between him and Patamon again in Adventure episode 33, when Patamon asks a rather innocuous question about the brothers, and it hits Takeru’s trigger so badly that he snaps at him, resulting in the fight that kicks off the plot of the episode.

Adventure episode 52 is basically a major test for Takeru as to whether he really can hold himself together in a situation where everyone else older than him is gone, and “having himself together” is something he has to actually do instead of just have the surface facade of. He does, ultimately, pass, and this is why the Crest of Hope glows this episode -- but it’s also made clear that it wasn’t quite as easy for him as he would normally pretend it is. Of course, it also helps that Piemon is genuinely the scariest threat they’d faced during that time, but it also reveals that, yeah, ultimately, Takeru is an eight-year-old child who still has to struggle to put on a brave face so that Hikari doesn’t get impacted by his own fear.

For all it’s worth, although we get a ton of depth into his background and mentality, Takeru does not actually change that much as a character over the course of Adventure. This incident is probably what changes him the most in terms of him gaining a more solid core, and he also learns to accept the inevitability of fighting after his stubborn refusal to engage in it all the way back in Adventure episode 12 -- but for the most part he still does remain a bit naive about the world at large, and, more importantly, his issue with trying to cover up his problems with a confident smile never really gets addressed. At most, he’s willing to admit his grief over being separated from Patamon in Adventure episode 54, but even that is something Takeru tries to bounce back from quickly, much like with the first time he cried with Patamon in Adventure episode 12. But there’s nothing to indicate that his problem with emotional management isn’t going to continue being a problem from here on out if left unchecked.

That problem ends up taking another three more years to get addressed.

Takeru in 02

Takeru is one of the first people we meet in 02 (for reasons that end up revealed in the final episode), and right off the bat we learn that he’s a bit...evasive. He leaves a cryptic line to Daisuke about his goggles without coming even close to what we all know is the full extent of what’s on his mind (that the goggles specifically remind him of someone important to him), and later just...deflects Daisuke throwing accusations at him with a mild dismissal. In fact, even though Takeru pretty clearly understands very quickly what’s going on with Daisuke and how touchy he gets with the Hikari issue, he keeps dodging the question and constantly saying things that are evasive about it and therefore never truly helps his case until episode 17, when the circumstances between why Hikari and Takeru knew each other are finally properly clarified to Daisuke and he stops getting on their case about it on his own.

There were multiple points in time before this -- especially in episode 7, when Daisuke is practically at his worst in regards to approaching Takeru -- when Takeru could have easily said something to at least attempt to get Daisuke to stop bothering him, but Takeru never even asks him to cut it out! He simply continues to handle everything with a “yeah, okay, sure! :)” attitude, which of course confuses Daisuke (who’s rather allergic to people not being straightforward) rather thoroughly, and you wonder if he’s practically enjoying seeing Daisuke’s antics to the point he’s just enabling it further.

As a point of aside trivia, the official 02 website adds the fun detail that apparently he's popular with the girls at school but doesn't show much interest in them himself, and the Animedia audio commentary CD for Armor Evolution to the Unknown had his voice actor even express the opinion that he saw Takeru as someone who wasn’t really the type to think about romance at this age (adding in a separate interview for the 02 DVDs that he felt Takeru was respectful of girls primarily due to having been taught by his single mother to be such). The latter part of course isn’t something that comes from the writing, but given the website trivia I’m inclined to personally agree with it -- and, more importantly, the implication is that Takeru is at least aware of these kinds of things, but actively chooses to not think about it and deal with it when the time comes.

So in other words: That part about how Takeru actively suppresses things that are negative or inconvenient to think about, all for the sake of keeping a smile plastered on his face? Yup, still there.

In fact, a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moment from 02 episode 17 implies heavily that, even with their parents having developed a more cordial relationship after the events of Adventure, Takeru is now emotionally dealing with the aftermath of his parents’ divorce worse than Yamato is, since Yamato is at least able to speak about it casually and even joke about it openly, whereas Takeru keeps his mouth shut and the framing of the shot heavily implies he’s still extremely sensitive and unable to vocalize his feelings on it. Takeru never brings this up as something eating away at him for the entire series -- but BelialVamdemon uses it against him in episode 49, revealing that, yes, this is a problem that’s still tearing away at him, and yet he’s refusing to be open to anyone about it, even to Yamato himself. (Especially since, again, Yamato seems to be doing a great job trying to move forward; why kill his mood and thus be a “burden” to him?)

Even so, Takeru is very different in 02 partially because his circumstances are completely different. Adventure had him as the youngest in a group of older kids, so in terms of “being a responsible child”, that naturally meant being deferential and polite to everyone due to standards of propriety. 02 is where we learn a lot more about how Takeru interacts with peers his own age and people who are outright younger than him, when he has a bit more leeway to be more assertive.

On top of that, back in Adventure, Takeru was a young child who had a very small “range of periphery” -- as a young child still rather naive about the world, his emotional investment in things primarily pertained to loved ones and the people around him. But now that he’s a bit older, he’s gained a certain degree of strong feelings about “what’s the right thing to do”, and now has very strong opinions on it.

These things ultimately manifest in, unfortunately, Takeru losing his composure much more often than he did in Adventure, and for reasons that pertain to much wider things than just his brother. Still not having recovered from the trauma of losing Patamon back in Adventure episode 13, Takeru starts physically fighting Daisuke in 02 episode 11 because he perceives Daisuke as not doing enough to prevent Patamon from potentially becoming a slave to the Kaiser, and in 02 episode 13 he lashes out at Hikari in frustration about her refusal to do anything about her situation (which he of course ends up deeply regretting later in the episode).

Takeru’s infamous scene of suddenly switching modes on the Kaiser and punching him out in 02 episode 19 is basically the pinnacle of this -- because, yes, the Kaiser really did deserve it, but this really is not a good thing for Takeru either. This is Takeru getting the closest we ever see him to being a genuine sadist, and it’s basically everything to do with his emotional stuntedness coming out at once -- blowing up in anger out of nowhere with a passive-aggressive demeanor, succumbing to the weight of his trauma in the worst way possible, and mixing the ^^ front he puts on with his tendency to blow up angrily at anything that cuts him a little too emotionally close.

And for the first time, we see someone actually acknowledge how bad this is. Iori, one of the most consciously perceptive of the group, witnesses, for himself, the sheer jarringness of Takeru seeming to only really have two modes between “all smiles” and “unreasonably angry”. Sure, Takeru had shown a penchant for getting active as soon as there was something he needed to protect, but the moment it got personal, Takeru suddenly blew up in front of his eyes and almost turned into a completely different person. (Perhaps he’s not that different from Yamato after all...)

This is a very important moment because it sets up the base for what ultimately becomes the Jogress arc between Iori and Takeru. Daisuke ended up reaching out to Ken because Ken was someone who needed someone to accept him and teach him to move forward instead of drowning in the past; Miyako ended up reaching out to Hikari because Hikari knew herself to have a suppression problem but had difficulty doing anything about it, so the extremely in-your-face and aggressive Miyako could go in deep. But with Takeru, since his personality is genuinely volatile, and because Takeru goes out of his way to hide the fact he’s having emotional problems, personalities like Daisuke and Miyako wouldn’t help much because they’re too straightforward for someone like this who’s a bit unpredictable -- whereas Iori, who’s assertive but also methodical and thinks through everything consciously, is eventually much better able to reach out to him.

Once the relevant arc kicks in, in 02 episode 34, Iori continues to observe Takeru, and quietly notes the many “contradictions” in Takeru’s behavior -- since, after all, Takeru starts to sometimes violate what you’d think would be common sense whenever he gets too emotionally compromised. The fact that ostensibly one of the outwardly “nicest” kids in this group suddenly blows up in certain circumstances and basically goes “absolutely nope, needs to be killed!” in the midst of a few moral debates over killing sentient Digimon disturbs him deeply, and really, it’s not even about the killing part (after all, it’s later established in 02 episode 43 and after that Takeru and Hikari have a certain degree of acceptance of the inevitability that the others don’t) as much as Takeru’s being pretty gung-ho about it. Not “I don’t like it, but we have to” like he said earlier, but NOPE, GOTTA DO IT.

Iori refers directly to the duality of Takeru that he doesn’t quite understand multiple times in this episode (including in regards to the incident back in 02 episode 19), and it continues to torment him until the end, when Takeru only gives a very cryptic “clarification” that he doesn’t necessarily hate the darkness per se.

Iori, too intimidated to ask Takeru about it directly, goes to ask Yamato in 02 episode 35, and Yamato finally clarifies the background that we as the audience knew but Iori didn't: the story behind Takeru's trauma regarding the loss of Angemon back in Adventure episode 13. Yamato also makes a conjecture about why Takeru has been acting so ambivalent towards Ken -- you'd think he'd still be under Takeru's scorn after the events of 02 episode 19, but in fact Takeru's judgment of him in episode 25 was simply that he was certain something had changed, yet he couldn't tell what he was thinking (really rich coming from someone who refuses to tell anyone else what he's thinking himself!). Yamato guesses that Takeru is inclined to be a bit more forgiving of Ken due to understanding the feeling of losing a partner -- and the ultimate conclusion here is, basically, that Takeru's behavior is contradictory because he's acting based on what's personal to him, not necessarily via principles that make sense. After all, back in Adventure, it was clearly demonstrated that Takeru isn’t exactly rational when things hit too close to home.

The other important thing that happens this episode is that Takeru learns that Iori is actively trying to reach out to him, when Yamato drops him a line informing him that Iori asked. Despite complaining that Iori could have just asked him directly, after Takeru witnesses the face-off between Iori and BlackWarGreymon and a demonstration that Iori is clearly trying his best to make sense out of this entire mess, Takeru actively reaches out to Iori and says something to comfort him -- “a life is beautiful simply by existing.” It’s still cryptic as hell, but it’s not something he would have said in the midst of his anger in prior episodes.

It would be one thing if it were simply that by itself, but the following episodes further push the idea that Takeru really is starting to change after witnessing all of this. 02 episode 36 has him explicitly acknowledge what Iori’s been doing this whole time in trying to understand him for the sake of their Jogress, and, finally, during their meal later that episode, he says, very openly and honestly, that he thinks they’ll be able to do it now. After two instances of Jogress, these kids are very aware of what that entails -- so this is basically Takeru consciously acknowledging to Iori “yes, I understand that you’re trying to reach out to me, and I accept it and want to understand you.” Because Takeru is such a convoluted sort of person, this “understanding” ended up being something that didn’t span a single magical moment as much as it took several episodes and a diplomatic, conscious affirmation on both ends -- but it’s a fitting way to go for someone who had always indicated some pretty poor conscious awareness of where his feelings were taking him.

This is especially because, in 02 episode 37, his statements to comfort Ken are in pretty significant opposition to the sort of anger he’d displayed in earlier episodes, and are now a more pragmatic view of the issue in light of Iori’s efforts and everything he’d just witnessed with BlackWarGreymon -- and to drive the point home, the episode has, at the very end of it, Takeru making his first true explicit show of goodwill towards Ken after having been a bit touchy with him for so many episodes.

Iori himself, being the youngest of the 02 group, still has a lot to learn, and so Takeru, who had previously been one of the youngest in the Adventure group himself, now has his role inverted to effectively be a guiding mentor to Iori as he finds his own way. Basically, Takeru becomes responsible for the welfare of this young child, and so his way of treating Iori is markedly different from the more detached and playful way he would treat others from here on out. This is especially because, earlier, Yamato had informed him that Iori had taken a very roundabout way to help understand him better, and so Takeru probably understands that he scared the hell out of Iori earlier and needs to do better. While the Takeru of 02 episodes 38-50 still has a way of being playful, and while he still isn’t completely straightforward about his intentions, he is definitely much better about being open with the others, especially Iori, instead of doubling down on his “everything-is-fine” mode.

And perhaps this is what the other meaning of “hope” thus became in this situation -- learning to be forward-facing even in the midst of truly knowing and understanding everything that’s wrong with the situation.

Post-02

Although Takeru’s Spring 2003 track is addressed to no one in particular, meaning that it’s the most likely reason he’s so willing to be open about it, Takeru outright admits he’s having problems with his emotions -- especially those pertaining to Angemon’s death. We do, however, learn that Takeru’s started writing the early, early drafts of what’ll eventually end up becoming the novels he writes as a future career.

This being only a year after the events of 02, Takeru’s position is interesting. His decision to start writing is that he wants to have a record of everything before it’s forgotten -- because these things are very personal to him -- but he’s not emotionally ready for the huge task of finalizing everything in words, to the point he still hasn’t told his mother he’s started writing yet. After all, this is a book we eventually find out takes upwards of twenty years, and so this is the presumable reason why -- being able to get this down in a rational way that’s not emotionally compromising is going to be an upwards battle for him.

Even come Kizuna, there’s still a long way for him to go, because an actual line (in a very fast-paced movie) is dedicated to establishing that he’s still uncomfortable with his novel progress to the point he won’t even let Yamato see it. His official character profile and background details are revealing, too -- although he’s currently taking language classes in university and is even part of a children’s literature club, he still hasn’t actually decided on what to do with his future, meaning that he hasn’t determined that he’s going to be a full-time novelist with these yet. That means that even though he’s clearly still clacking away at his novel (multiple indications in the movie are given as such), his memoirs are still at the level of being so deeply personal, and not something he feels comfortable telling well, just yet.

I’ve pointed out before that despite not appearing directly with them in the movie, Takeru and Hikari have more in common with the others in the 02 group than they do with their Adventure seniors, and this is fully codified in the drama CD when Takeru is content to basically just “do whatever” with the rest of his friends instead of having any particular concerns about his future. And as someone who has a tendency to kind of just let his emotions take him wherever they’re going, this isn’t too surprising. Although he approximates as the closest to level-headed during most of the group’s antics during the CD, he’s still completely guilty of enabling them full-force, after all...

So, with the 02 epilogue, we get the massive meta reveal that the entire series was Takeru’s novels the whole time. This was planned to be the ending for Adventure before recording for the first episode had even started, but was postponed to the end of 02 when the second series was greenlit -- and if you’d followed the Japanese version, there are a ton of meta hints scattered around from day one:

The narrator of the series is Hirata Hiroaki, who played Takeru and Yamato’s father, and is revealed in this episode to voice him as an adult as well;

Episode 12 of Adventure is named “Adventure! Patamon and Me” and is the only episode title in Adventure or 02 to use a first-person pronoun -- and it’s of course a Takeru-centric episode, with the episode title using Takeru’s boku;

02′s first episode kicks off narrated by young Takeru opening the story, with Takeru himself suspiciously omitted from the opening vignettes;

02 episode 18 suddenly has the narration cut in when discussing Takeru’s trauma from Adventure episode 13, with the younger Takeru even filling in part of it himself;

02 episode 49′s “next episode” preview for 50 suddenly also starts using “we”, which also includes Takeru’s boku;

Finally, Takeru starts narrating right after Oikawa’s death, which fades into what’s revealed to be his adult voice.

In the context of Adventure, Takeru was “the youngest child”, so the idea makes sense that “the littlest one” would be the one to grow up and reflect on all of the adventures they had as kids -- and once 02 was added, it practically made sense that Takeru would be the one to recap both adventures, being the one person who was there to completely witness both (it also explains why Takeru and Hikari’s character arcs remain somewhat unresolved by the end of Adventure compared to others, since by this time it was apparent their story would be continued in the second series). So on a meta level, Takeru is, in a certain way, one of the most important characters in both groups.

On a level relevant to his personal character arc, on the other hand, the point here is that Takeru finally managed to put together his book and story in a way that he was comfortable telling the entire world about, to the point of choosing to make his entire career into it. That’s something that requires a lot of coming to terms with what happened, how he feels about it, how others feel about it, and everything about the whole ordeal in general, without compromise or (too much) bias.

And in the end, that’s really a lot!

[anarmorofwords]

I kinda wanna write a better version of tlh where Tatiana is still insane but there's no Belial bc that makes zero sense to me

In this version there would be:

Kamanna done correctly with actual genderqueer rep and not toxic relationships

Barbra and Oliver bc fight me she didn't die

Genie and Filomena bc I love them and all the lightwoods are queer

The gracelet doesn't even happen bc I refuse to write that

Grace is pretty much still the same but she breaks off their(hers and james') relationship bc she notices that he loves Cordelia

No bad James. He's not a shitty person to Alastair, and he doesn't treat Cordelia like a sex object

Anna puts a stop to Kellington and Matthew's relationship before it gets serious. She also tries to get him to stop drinking all the time

Alastair apologizes around seeing them again for the first time. The merry thieves are a little reluctant because of some of the things he did but they don't actively try to keep him away from events that they're at

Matthew notices how Alastair looks at Thomas and locks them in the sanctuary with Genie and Cordelia's help

Grace gets badly injured due to a mistake in necromancy and Christopher helps her treat it without letting people know

Lucie meets Jesse, and falls in love ofc, so in order to bring him back successfully she asks Malcolm to train her in using her magic

Matthew opens up to his mom about the incident. She doesn't blame him at all and instead apologizes for often putting her work before him

Matthew finds out about Charles and Alastair because he found Alastairxs break up letter to Charles

Matthew, the mother hen he is, decided to attempt to murder his older brother, only being stopped by James who had been there at the right time

Kamala ends things with Charles and tells Anna that she still loves them and hopes that she will give her another chance

Anna told her that they needed time to think, and that she is worried how Kamala's reputation will be affected if anyone besides their friends and Anna's family finds out

Kamala respects her decision and doesn't contact her until Anna's ready to talk about things

The merry thieves don't ignore Christopher and they actively listen and help him

The merry thieves also aren't terrible to Grace bc they realize she's been isolated alone with Tatiana and 1) she might not understand what's saying/doing is wrong or 2) that sometimes she's trying to push them away so her abilities don't accidentally make them do something

Good tid parents

James and Alastair being respectful to each other despite personal differences

Matthew, Alastair, Kamala, Christopher, and Grace being besties, or as I call them, the neglected squad

No fetishizing mlm/wlw

Domestic cuddles and taking care of the other one when they're sick

Jesse/Lucie/Matthew pairing bc I love them and I refuse to pick between lucie/matthew and lucie/jesse

Christopher teaching Grace the elements(at the time) on the periodic table

Tatiana dies at the end yay

It's very unpolished and I'm open to b hearing any feedback and/or suggestions that anyone may have

The idea came to me and I decided it would be best if I told someone before I forgot

hi, I'm sorry it took so long,but I wanted to properly answer this and I keep having either internet connection issues or little time

DON'T BE SHY, WRITE THIS 👀

In all seriousness tho... THIS IS ABSOLUTE PERFECTION?!? I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHERE TO START I AM UTTERLY IN LOVE WITH THIS IDEA, I NEED IT

Look, I've been on the verge of rewriting ChoI, and I keep saying I want someone to write a TLH that will live up to its potential, but I've never actually came up with a proper idea for it, and you?!! YOUR BRAIN DARLING THIS IS GENIUS

ok hold up I'll just react to each and every single one so

yes please?!? I mean it started off so sweet in EEV?! Also actually genderqueer Anna and not dancing around the subject like CC is doing now?! That's what they deserve, and that's what we all deserve too

yesss please. also just,,,, Barbara, the feminine, not-wanting-to-fight-which-doesnt-make-her-less-badass queen that she is, getting the page space and appreciation she deserves

that's actually brilliant?!? it would be so great, just imagine the new girl arrives for her travel year and Genie is completely awestruck. I'm so invested in Joshwood it's difficult to imagine not having them, but this is actually the only valid alternative?!

ok that's fine. I think it could still happen and be done well, but tbh for now... the gracelet doesn't seem to have done anything relevant to the plot itself? I mean yeah it messed up James's life and Jordelia, but what did it give Belial? Tatiana? nothing. It makes no sense atm.

could be! maybe she's still encouraged by Tatiana to befriend/seduce him, but without the gracelet it doesn't work out? or maybe James somehow manages to realize that she's in danger and he actually like,,,, kidnaps her? idk idk

yes. YES. just,,,,z James is a sweet compassionate literature nerd who accidentally makes a good leader and he actually cares about people, and not just judges them from his high horse; he does still have hero syndrome, but he's kind and respectful and overall a good character

ANNA INTERVENES ABOUT KELLINGTON PLZ. PEOPLE ACTUALLY NOTICE MATTHEW'S STRUGGLES. JAMES DOES, TOO, BECAUSE THERE'S NO GRACELET.

ok yes, so what about: basically TMT don't harass Alastair and accept his apology, and realize they were also being stupid and mean at times at the Academy (especially Math). Matthew doesn't want to accept Alastair's apology, because of The Sin, but his behaviour alerts the rest of TMT and they inquire what's wrong and he tells them about the sin and that's how he later tells his parents (because his friends encourage him) and as you say, she just hugs him and reassures him it's not his fault; so after that Matthew slowly begins to heal and accepts it wasn't Alastair's fault, and also since they've kind of adopted/started including Alastair in things, he can't help but notice he's actually changed and he even starts to grow fond of him

then like you said, Matthew notices Thomas likes Alastair PLEASE HE SO WOULD. I'm not sure about the Sanctuary, if it actually happens (I'll get to why later on), but him and Lucie get really invested in the matchmaking schemes, they include Genie/Kamala because these two are friends with Alastair (both? Or at this point only Kamala?) but they also share some Moments during their scheming/talking about love 👀 (yes I'm a Fairdale shipper, I think it's time to expose myself lol)

Which leads me to (sorry I'm going off order rn) YES YES YES LUCIE AND MATH PLEASE. A FELLOW SHIPPER, HELLO, NICE TO MEET YOU. But since we're actually fixing him then we can give Jesse a personality and I'm totally down for poly Math/Lucie/Jesse

Lucie seeking Malcolm's help in secret, morally gray heroine style?!? no, it's probably not legal. but also has there ever been a Shadowhunter like her? If the Law doesn't expect such situations, it can't really forbid them...

Plz Matthew ready to strangle the carrot when he learns about their relationship, YES. sure, maybe he's still not the biggest fan of Alastair, but he's seen how much the boy's been through and starts to develop an attachment to him, and besides, NO ONE DESERVES TO BE GROOMED AND TREATED LIKE THAT. He's SO MAD at Charles, and he confronts him about it - remembering Kellington as he does, and it makes him sick to think his brother would do the same thing to someone. Maybe he gets very emotional over this and later finally tells his friends about Kellington? Maybe they didn't know before, only Anna did? So when they all realize what was happening then they comfort him etc? Or maybe it's just Alastair that learns now, and the others knew before, and they share a bonding moment over that?

Injured Grace seeking Kit's help is a genius idea I didn't know I needed

Kamanna giving each other time and space and deciding they need to question their relationship and figure out if it actually makes sense would be great. Anna realising she's very privileged and Kamala doesn't have those same opportunities, and also in general realising coming out should never be pressured or forced. Just,,,, Anna being self-aware and respectful towards Kamala. Well-written Anna. Plz. Also Kamanna is actually developed and not just "in love" because,,,,, they're attracted to each other? Maybe even remaining friends while Anna makes up their mind?

yeah just TMT being more compassionate and less judgy because they're not written by Judith so her bias isn't projected onto them

It's not a want, it's a need. They adopt Alastair and Grace eventually. Like, maybe not literally - although, Grace? - but you know what I mean.

I think they all should just have various friendship dynamics and switch between them, because people need more than one friend group

no fetishizing, no watching your brother make out with his lover, yessss

yes domestic cuddles, affection, taking care of wounds, all those things. plz.

Gracetopher bonding over science yes

obviously. or maybe she's imprisoned?!

ok, now for some more notes/my ideas etc., if you don't mind:

I actually think Belial could still be featured? After all, I don't think Tatiana could do much on her own, and since she seeks help from demons, it makes sense to include a Greater Demon as well. But Belial would have to be a stronger villain, written better; I'll think more about this

if that was the case, the serial killer plot could still happen, but be done better. and it would allow for a scenario I talked about with @littlx-songbxrd to happen, where it's Alastair who's falsely accused of murder. It creates a great opportunity to explore some things, because we know Alastair is much more likely to be seriously suspected, considering all the prejudices and bad rep his family has and all that

...what do you say to well-written Jordelia? 👀 Cordelia hasn't been obsessively in love with James since childhood, she only had a crush then. And now that they meet again, she's fond of him but not in love, not straight away. They're both grown up, and different people, but as they spend more and more time together, they fall in love. What if Cordelia gets to flirt with some other boys first? What then. What if she ends up choosing James, instead of going for the only boy she's ever had feelings for and idealized since childhood. What if we even make it friends-to-lovers and have James be a little jealous at some point?! but not in a possessive awful way, just "oh damn oh no"

Now I won't know peace until this exists BUT THANK YOU

[olivia-anderson-fanfic]

Satisfied, Part 33

First

Previous

Next

Updating today instead of tomorrow so I can spend the whole day on the work I procrastinated :/

~~~

How did she end up staying at Wayne Manor for a week and a half? Deception. She’d never felt more betrayed than she did in that moment. And to think, she and Tim had been friends. 

She’d rolled her eyes when Wayne Manor came into view.

“I can go home, you know.”

“Says the person who got kidnapped on her way there,” responded Tim with a sigh. He paused at the gate as they waited for it to open. “Besides, your ankle’s messed up. You shouldn’t be walking.”

She groaned and tipped her head back against his arm so she could glare at him. “I’m fine.”

He had looked away for a moment, using the gate opening as an excuse, then he started walking. After a while, he hesitantly looked at her. “But I’m not! You got hurt because of me. Please, just... let me take care of you for a little bit.”

Her face burned. “Fine. I’ll stay until Halloween. Happy?”

He seemed to consider this, then shook his head. “But, bean, that’s tomorrow! At least stay here for proper treatment, then you can go.”

She raised her eyebrows. “I could get proper treatment without you.”

He had only sighed in response.

She bit the inside of her cheek. “Fine. Fine. I’ll stay until I’m healed.”

“Really?” He asked, his face full of hope.

She nodded.

And then, much to her horror, a smug smile stretched across his face. “No take backs! Sucker!”

Truly horrible. She’d never trust again.

~

Still, she'd be lying if she said she didn’t have a good time.

After ‘convincing’ (begging) them to go to her apartment and get her supplies she’d started working on the outfits for the steadily approaching Gala. She’d intended to do most of her embroidery while she was there, because it was calming and repetitive and she’d be able to relax with Tim... but then Dick had seen what she was doing and had nerded out with her about outfits and design. It turned out one person in their family did have a little bit of style, and she was ecstatic. Now she lazed on his way-too-comfortable bed and worked while babbling on about her designs. And he actually understood what she was saying. It was great.

And, when she wasn’t designing, she’d often be found drinking coffee with Tim (the Waynes had bought another machine for her after the first day’s... ‘incident’). They would lean against each other and drink in comfortable silence, which is exactly what everyone wants in the early morning. Who cares if it was three in the afternoon? With their sleep schedules it was practically like being awake at five in the morning anyways.

At other times she and Jason could be found together. This was less fun, because he was the one most pressed about her ankle. While everyone knew that her foot would probably be fine in a week’s time, he was the one to practically carry her everywhere like a damsel in distress. He’d learned to stop when she kicked him in the shin (with her bad leg, it was not a good time for either of them), but he was still extremely worried for her and not at all concerned with hiding it. Still, he made it up to her by sneaking her extra coffees (Dick had set a limit when he’d seen the way Tim and her binge-drank when with each other).

The only bad part was...

Her and Damian locked eyes across the table and they sent each other a glare. She didn’t even know why his presence irritated her to no end, didn’t know why her veins buzzed whenever he got too close; she only knew that she didn’t like it.

She didn’t act on it that much, surprisingly. She had no real reason to be angry with him, the slight rudeness he’d presented the day they’d met was perfectly justified. Marinette settled for the occasional snide comment at the table.

This only seemed to upset him more and more as time went on.

Finally, when her leg was healed (Jason had managed to convince her to stay an extra day to be sure), he’d grabbed her by the wrist and dragged her away from Tim before either of them could really react.

“What’s your problem?” She hissed as he pulled her along, struggling to not spill her coffee due to their brisk pace.

He dragged her into the dojo and crossed his arms over his chest. “Me? You’re the one who’s been rude the whole time you’ve been staying here!”

She couldn’t respond. He had a bit of a point. She settled for sending him a glare over the rim of her cup.

“What do you have against me?”

Marinette rolled her eyes. “Does it matter?”

“Yes! Obviously!”

“Maybe I just don’t like people.”

“You made friends with the Rogues!”

Oh. So that’s what this was about. She lowered her drink slightly. “Maybe I just don’t like you,” she corrected herself.

Damian scoffed and shook his head. “Whatever. You don’t want to answer? Fine. Fight me.”

Marinette felt like she had whiplash. He’d gone from being annoyed that she wasn’t being nice to him to wanting to fight in approximately half a second. Still, she had to admit, fighting him would probably be nice. Not only did she miss the adrenaline of a fight, but a tiny part of her hoped that her anger would dissipate if she gave him a punch or two.

She set down her drink. “Sure. Whatever.”

He looked a bit smug. They walked along the walls and pulled off equipment that they deemed necessary. Basically they both pulled on some grappling gloves and she added an ankle brace to make sure she didn’t instantly mess up her leg again.

After a few minutes of stretching they squared up to each other on the mat.

She grinned and raised her hands to her face. She didn’t actually know how good he was, but she wasn’t all that intent on going easy on him. They had a dojo, he had to have some kind of fighting expertise, that only made --.

Marinette was pulled from her thoughts as a punch came at her face. She dodged with ease and backed up a few steps, raising her guard properly. All she needed was to take her time to learn his fighting style.

She smiled as she dodged his attacks. He was getting angrier, sloppier, with every miss. His style was getting more and more obvious. Just a few more attacks and she would be completely sure --.

His fist came for her throat.

She had to do a backflip to avoid the blow.

His eyes widened.

She cursed mentally. She’d given up her one possible advantage: the high chances of him underestimating her.

Her element of surprise gone, she forced herself to go on the offense. She threw a short jab at him and raised her eyebrows at the almost practiced nature of his block, like he’d done this exact motion a million times.

Her lips twitched. Amateurs are usually the ones who choreograph their moves like that --.

Realization struck her just as his fist did, sending her back a few steps.

Her body moved on autopilot, sending a kick at his chest to get him away so she could recover. His hand locked on her foot and one of his legs swept hers out from under her. A curse slipped from between her lips as her back hit the mat, but it was nothing compared to her reaction when he dropped a bit of weight on the leg he held. Pain pulled a strangled sob from her throat and she thought her leg would shatter.

Her hand slammed the ground twice.

Damian stopped instantly at the motion a worried expression flickering across his features. Red Hood wasn’t lying, the reaction had been instantaneous in both of them. They’d both been drilled, both had the same cues. It didn’t take a genius to put two and two together.

And, unfortunately, Damian wasn’t completely stupid. She saw confusion find its way across his face. And then shock. Denial. Understanding. Anger. And then acceptance.

He dropped onto the mat beside her and covered his face with his hands. “You’re Ladybug.”

“And you’re Robin,” she agreed, pulling her still throbbing leg to her chest. “You suck with and without the outfit. It makes sense,” she muttered.

And, sadly, it really did make sense. The buzzing under her skin she’d interpreted as anger was just the cat miraculous calling out to her, to its guardian, waving its arms and screaming at her to just let him use it. And, now that she thought about it, it could only have been him. She’d probably recognized the feeling she had around Damian as the one she had around Robin subconsciously and transferred that anger onto him.

“You can’t tell anyone,” she warned.

He scoffed. “Why would I hide it? They already suspect you. Besides, it’s not like the rest of my family would care, they love you with and without the costume.”

She sat up and sent him a glare. “It’s not about that. I keep my identity secret because I want to. It’s my privacy, my secret, and you don’t get to a choice in this.”

Damian -- no, Robin -- no -- He opened his fingers to peek at her serious face and she caught an eye roll.

“And, if you don’t...” She added, her voice sickly sweet. “I’m sure your family would love to know exactly how I found out who you all were.”

It was a guess, really. She assumed that, because they were pretty open about being family as vigilantes, they all had to be in on it when they told someone about their identities. But it was still a guess. She gave him her most confident look so he wouldn’t think she was bluffing.

His eyes narrowed and he sat up as well. She scrutinized his face; she looked for fear or annoyance or something, but he’d managed to put together a perfect mask.

And then...

He sighed and stuck his hand out. “Fine. I don’t tell them anything, you don’t tell them anything. Deal?”

They shook on it.

“Deal.”

~

She spent the next three days (because Jason had thrown a fit when he’d realized she had messed up her ankle more) observing the family. It would be beneficial to learn which bat corresponded to which Wayne, it made it easier to keep her lies consistent.

She could go off of ages, of course. It was the easy way to guess, but she’d never been one to take the easy way.

Besides, the ‘hard way’ wasn’t actually all that hard.

Bruce Wayne was a reclusive billionaire known to adopt kids faster than they could say ‘hi’. Batman was a reclusive billionaire known to take vigilantes under his wing just as quickly.

Dick Grayson-Wayne was an ex-acrobat who was determined to figure out if Marinette and Ladybug were the same person. Nightwing incorporated acrobat-like flexibility and technique in fighting and was determined to figure out if Marinette and Ladybug were the same person.

Jason Todd-Wayne was a sarcastic guy with gray morals and a tendency to joke about committing murder. Red Hood was a sarcastic guy with gray morals and a tendency to actually commit murder.

Timothy Drake-Wayne was a coffee-addicted workaholic that was smart enough to become CEO of a company at a young age. Red Robin was a coffee-addicted workaholic that was smart enough to figure out Batman and Robin’s identities at a young age.

Honestly, she felt like banging her head on a wall for not realizing it sooner. Sure, she’d suspected it, but she’d been so determined for ‘proper’ proof that she didn’t realize that there was some pretty good proof right in front of her.

Well, at least she’d figured it out at some point, she supposed.

~

She sent Jason a glare as she scooped some coffee pods into her bag. “I am fine.”

“But --.”

“I am fine.”

He huffed. “You’re still limping.”

“I. Am. Fine.”

He opened his mouth one last time, but was cut off by Tim pushing past him to wrap her in a hug. “Beeeeaaaaan, please let me --.”

She rolled her eyes and didn’t bother to push him off, only detaching an arm so she could drink from her mug. “Not working a second time.”

He groaned and buried his face in her hair. She sighed and glanced at Jason. “Help.”

“Only if you promise to stay a bit longer,” he said without missing a beat, his lips curved into a Cheshire grin.

Marinette sent him a look before leaning into Tim. “You’re all allowed to come to my house at any point.”

“Yeah, but your house is boring,” complained Dick.

She threw a cup of coffee creamer at him and he dodged it without even sparing it a glance.

“It’s true, bean, it’s pretty empty in there.”

Marinette laughed quietly. “Fine. If you guys don’t like it then you’re not allowed back.”

Jason gasped and joined the hug. “How dare you?”

“Why do I get the feeling you’re trying to trap me here?”

“Whaaaaat? Us? No,” said Dick as he, too, walked over and wrapped his arms around her.

Marinette decided she’d give them a few minutes. She could still reach her coffee, and that’s all that really mattered.

At least, until she saw Damian in the hallway. Her shoulders tensed slightly at the sight of him. Ever since their agreement they’d come to a kind of truce. After all, if they really wanted they could spill the secret. Sure, there was incentive to keep quiet, but if one of their tempers got the better of them...

“Help?” She tried.

He looked away and continued walking, leaving her to suffer.

She sighed and went to work prying arms off of her. There was a lot of whining, but none of them resisted.

Outside of Tim.

Dick broke into a grin and pulled Jason out, yelling that they were going to help pack her stuff over his shoulder. She didn’t believe that was quite it. For some reason.

“Tim,” she said, rolling her eyes.

“Come back for Thanksgiving?” He asked.

She blinked. A little over a month beforehand he’d been desperate to keep her away from this place. She couldn’t help but smile a little. “Fine. I’ll stay for Thanksgiving. But only if you let go.”

“Fine.”

Marinette raised her eyebrows when he didn’t let go immediately.

“Um...?”

He smirked. “I said I’d let go, I never said when.”

She groaned and pushed him off. This time he let her. “You’re so annoying.”

“You love me.”

“Mmm,” she said, determined to not say yes or no.

He didn’t seem to notice, giving her a wide grin. “Right, ready to go?”

She smiled. “Yep!”

~~~

Taglist

@comet-kun @thatonecroc @trippingovermyfeet @swiftie-miraculer13 @nickristus-dreamer @moongoddesskiana @i-am-ironic @indecisive-mess-named-me @thebooki3h @insane-fangirl-of-everything @deepestobservationwombat @theymakeupfairies @fatimaabbasrizvi @clumsy-owl-4178 @fanofalittletoomuch @iamablinkmarvelarmy @nathleigh @lilkymilky @silvergold-swirl @dino-lovingreen-angel @thestressmademedoit @kissa-chan @ladybug-182 @alysrose-starchild @t1dwarrior-of-earth @spyofthenightcourt @rowanrouge @nik-nak-3 @momothefemur @aestheticnpoetic @labschaos @our-preciousss @mochinek0 @eliza-bich @mythogaychic @severelyenchantedwonderland @sashakoi @smolplantmum @bluesimani @tropestropestropes @kitsunebell @keepingupwiththemalfoys @sassakitty @2confused-2doanything @too0bsessedformyowngood @all-mights-asscheeks @demonicbusiness @meg-an-ace @fantasiame @qualitypeacepainter

<3

[bonjour-rainycity]

Odin’s Ward ~ Chapter 5

Link to previous part: https://bonjour-rainycity.tumblr.com/post/630063393754284032/odins-ward-chapter-4

Pairing: Loki x Reader

Word count: 2240

Warnings: None

Y/n: 18 // Loki: 20 // Thor: 24

Y/n’s POV

Jovial music fills the air, encouraging the plethora of people in attendance to dance. Since I came of age weeks ago, I am eligible to join in the festivities. Today is Thor’s birthday, and Asgard has spared no expense. Food and drink line every available surface, people don lavish dress, and the hall boasts various shades of red and gold. The King and Queen sit at the high table, eyes sparkling in humor.

Thor’s booming voice cuts through the music, and all sound ceases immediately. “Ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much for joining me here tonight.” He stumbles a bit, clearly under the influence of alcohol. “I—I….” He purses his lips, trying to gather what he wishes to say. His friends begin to chuckle, but everyone else knows better than to laugh at the Crown Prince. “I am so happy that this party is happening.” He licks his lips and leans on the nearest person for support. “I love you all, and I know you all love me.” A cheer goes up at that, and I can’t help but join in. Thor is behaving utterly ridiculously, but that doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy myself. “Thank you for being here, and enjoy the festivities. Music!” At his command, the music begins once again, filled with a vigor it didn’t quite have before.

“Lady Y/n! What a delight it is to finally have your luminous presence at one of Asgard’s little gatherings.” Fandral saunters up to me with a sultry smile. “Might I be so bold as to beg a dance?” He offers me his hand.

“A dance is fine,” I respond. “But I will not be joining you in your bed this evening.”

His eyebrows shoot up and he freezes. Then, he bursts into laughter. “How charmingly direct. I shall endeavor to change your mind.” He takes my hand and kisses my knuckles.

“And I shall endeavor to watch you fail.” I keep a smile on my face so he knows I’m still his friend, then take his arm and allow him to escort me to the center of the floor.

Asgardian dances are more complicated than the ones I saw on Alfheim when I was younger, but I have had nearly a year of practice during my lessons with Queen Frigga and her ladies. Fandral keeps me occupied for the next two dances, twirling me around and stepping on my toes due to his level of intoxication. Still, I laugh along with him, enthused to finally be allowed to attend the festivities.

When the second dance is done, Fandral bows to me and I curtsy in response.

“Lady Y/n, thank you for your company. Perhaps I shall encounter you later this evening?” He waggles his eyebrows in time with his words.

A laugh barks past my lips. “You wish!”

He chortles good-naturedly and takes his leave, already looking for the next person upon whom to bestow his ‘charms’. A man with light blonde hair shyly asks me to dance, and I accept. He’s nice enough, but too quiet to hold my attention.

Three dances in a row is a little tiring, so I curtsy to the man and excuse myself, going off in search of a drink. I find one of the many stations to the side of the room and pour myself a glass of water. Before I can take a sip, a series of hard claps on my back causes me to tumble forward, effectively spilling water all over the table.

“Hey!” I whip around to yell at whatever idiot caused the incident.

I’m met with the chest of a grinning Prince Thor. “Lady Y/n! I’m so glad you could make it. Are you having a good time?”

Knowing now that he didn’t mean to cause me to spill my drink and that he’s just too strong—and drunk—for his own good, I let it go. “I am! Happy birthday, Your Highness.”

A radiant smile lights his face. “Why thank you! Allow me to fix you a drink.”

I’ve never had alcohol before, but now is as good a time as any to try some, so I nod eagerly. Thor grabs a cup about the size of my face and fills it with a mixture of sharp-smelling liquids.

“My creation is complete!” Cheers erupt from the ten or so people around us, and I can’t help but laugh at Thor’s exuberance. “Drink up, Lady Y/n.”

Shrugging, I bring the goblet to my lips and confidently take a gulp.

The sting has me doubles over and coughing before I can even properly swallow. Thor laughs heartily and takes the goblet, patting me on the back until I can stand up straight.

“A valiant effort, Lady Y/n,” he decrees, and the people respond with enthusiastic claps.

A smooth voice comes from behind my left shoulder. “Brother. Do you think it wise to begin Lady Y/n’s evening with one of your more…powerful concoctions?”

“Ah, Loki!” Thor claps him on the back and even Loki sags a bit under the weight. “My well-meaning brother. It would be so sad to let this drink go to waste. Besides, Lady Y/n handled it well, didn’t you, Lady Y/n?”

“Oh, yeah,” I respond with manufactured enthusiasm, my eyes still watering from the sheer force of the drink.

Loki sees through my facade and eyes me warily. “Very well. I shall not let it go to waste.” He deftly plucks the goblet from Thor’s hand, presents it to him with an exaggerated bow, stands up straight, and downs the entire cup without taking a breath. The group surrounding us reacts wildly: jumping up and down, cheering, tripping over each other. Loki maintains his composure and proudly presents the empty cup. He doesn’t so much as grimace. I stare at him in disbelief, and he offers me a smug grin. “All in due time, Lady Y/n, shall you be as strong as I. Now, brother,” Loki turns to Thor, “I wish you the happiest of birthdays. Would you now permit me to steal Lady Y/n from your presence?”

Thor guffaws and begins making himself a drink, nodding absently.

Loki offers me his arm and we walk in tandem to the opposite edge of the room. I frown, realizing something. “I never did get my water.”

With a flourish of his hand, Loki conjures a goblet from thin air and hands it to me.

I drink gratefully. “Thank you. I must say, your ability to down that entire drink was impressive! I could have done it myself with a bit more practice.”

The gleam in his eyes tells me he very much doubts that, but retains enough politeness to refrain from saying so. “I’m sure.”

I take a sip of my drink and lean casually against the stone pillar behind me. “Too bad you didn’t actually drink Thor’s concoction.”

Loki blinks. “I’m afraid I don’t know what you mean.”

I give him a long look from over the side of my shoulder. “So you’re saying it’s not stored away in whichever secret dimension you favor?”

His lips twitch as he fights a smile. “My dear friend, it is rude to question a prince of Asgard.”

“Is that a threat?”

He’s fully grinning now. “Perhaps.”

“Mm,” I respond, not taking my eyes from his. “I will keep that in mind in the future. Perhaps until then, however, you could humor me with the truth, just this once.”

What follows is quite a lengthy staring competition. Feeling my eyes begin to burn, I make a face that causes him to break with a laugh.

“Alright,” he concedes. “You have me.” With a sigh and a playful roll of his eyes, he procures the drink he pretended to consume earlier.

“Ha! I knew it!” I point a finger at him, solidifying my victory. “You liar.”

He grins. “Trickster god, you mean to say.” He takes my outstretched hand in his. “Since you have found me out, I do believe I must occupy the rest of your evening. I’m afraid I cannot allow you to be left alone to spread word of my deceit.”

“No.” I try to bite back my smile and fail. “I’m sure you can’t.”

“Then may I have this dance?”

I shrug, pretending not to care. “Only because you’re the Prince of Asgard and you’re so important.”

With a roll of his eyes and a noise of playful exasperation, he leads me to the center of the room. The music starts and he draws me only as close as propriety allows. We sway and spin in time with the music. He’s far too graceful for my liking, so I try to trip him about halfway through.

“Why you—” He cuts off with a laugh as I spin away. He chases after me, but each time I deftly avoid his grip. We weave in and out of the other dancers. Some laugh, some grimace, but no one interferes with our game.

With a quick glance back, I see Loki just behind me. Intending to speed up to evade capture, I instead crash into an innocent bystander.

“Oh wow, I am so sorry, I—Loki!”

He laughs with abandon, throwing his head back and circling his arms around my upper body. “Silly girl, thinking you can escape me.” Still laughing, he pulls me once again to the side of the room.

“How-how did you do that?!” My voice is made higher with surprise.

He leans in conspiratorially. “I have learned to create doubles using my magic. There’s still a lot to perfect, but I feel as if I could one day be quite skilled.”

“Yes,” I laugh along. “And then you can continue to catch unsuspecting women who are just trying to enjoy a simple dance.” I do my best to put on an innocent air but can’t quite manage it.

“Mm, that will surely be the case.” He rolls his eyes yet again. I’m certain it is one of his most practiced skills. I tell him so.

“Well,” he responds with a fake huff, “I wouldn’t have to get so much practice if I didn’t have such an exasperating woman in my life.”

I shrug. “Not my fault it worked out like this. You should have better social skills, maybe then you could score better friends.”

He chuckles wryly. “Perhaps. In the meantime, however, I will just have to learn to cope.”

Now it’s my turn to roll my eyes. “Poor you.”

We stand in comfortable silence for a moment, taking in the scenes around us. Out of nowhere, Loki grabs my waist and turns me so that I can see the far right side of the hall. “Y/n, look!” His voice is equivalent to that of a child discovering a wonderful gift has been left for him.

I immediately see why.

Thor, who is quite drunk at this point, is making a fool of himself trying to catch a woman’s attention.

“It seems as though my brother is trying to convince that poor maiden to accompany him to his bed.” It doesn’t escape my notice that Loki’s hands have not left my hips. I swallow and do not mention it.

I don’t intend to be so quiet when I speak, but I can’t force any more volume behind it for fear that my voice will begin to shake. “She won’t refuse him. Most women here tonight are trying to earn his affections. Haven’t you noticed? They’re doing the same to you.”

He scoffs. “No, they’re not.”

“Yes,” I counter, a little too forcefully. I demure. “It would be quite advantageous to gain the attention of one of the princes.”

Loki grins. “How jealous they must be of you.”

“What can I say?” I put on a haughty air, feeling much more comfortable in the realm of humor than intensity. “I’m just that important.”

We chuckle at our shared joke and return our attention to the spectacle.

Thor has now succeeded in getting the woman to take his arm. Two seconds later, however, he trips over his own two feet and takes quite a stumble. Loki laughs so hard he has to lean against the pillar for support. This causes him to take his hands from my hips, and I suddenly feel cold.

The unnamed woman kindly helps Thor from the ground and tries to tug him out of the ballroom. A light that I am quite familiar with enters Loki’s eyes.

“Loki, no—” before I can stop him, Loki conjures up an extra pillar in front of Thor’s face, causing him to smack straight into it and go crashing to the ground. Loki practically explodes in laughter. Thor begins to suspect something is amiss and whips his head wildly around the room in search of his scheming brother.

“Ope!” Loki quickly grabs me and sprints to the dance floor, burying us in the array of couples. Nearly breathless with laughter, we take turns twirling around so we can see Thor’s progress with the woman. Tired of all the antics, she leaves Thor standing by himself with a frustrated look on his face.

“You are bad,” I scold, turning back to my favorite prince. I’m sputtering too hard to put any real reproach behind my voice.

Loki just winks and twirls me once more.

A/n Let me know what you thought and if you would like to be added to the tag list :)

Masterlist

Link to next part: https://bonjour-rainycity.tumblr.com/post/631916582484017152/odins-ward-chapter-6

Tag list: @80strashbag @dark-night-sky-99

[this-solaris-life]

I’m Sorry

Writer’s Notes: This is set in my arranged au; In this au, Jin Ling’s parents where his mother died in child birth. His father is alive just stepped down now that his son has married; 

Kiss Prompt: A Kiss Where It Hurts // Prompt List 

---

“If my husband asks you who was injured during the hunt. I do not want you telling him I was among them.” Jin Ling ordered, trying to keep still as the healing disciple lathered a salve over his wound just above his right hip below his ribs. A deep gash from the claws of the monster he’d hunted with Lan Sizhui last night. 

“With all due respect, Sect Leader, I am not telling Senior Lan that.” Liao Ting stated, bluntly before bowing in apologetic respect. The younger man’s face thinned into a frown. They both knew that Lan Jingyi would be upset that his husband had been injured, and most importantly he didn’t react well to not being informed. They both visibly shivered at the memory the last time it’d happened. 

Jin Ling huffed in displeasure. He didn’t want his husband to know that he’d been hurt during the hunt last night. He’d promised Lan Jingyi that he wouldn’t be careless, and he wasn’t...honestly! It’s just that the beast they thought was causing trouble hinted that it was a solitary one. However, that wasn’t the case. It in fact had a pack and one of them had managed to get the slip on Jin Ling as he was protecting Lan Sizhui. Thankfully, Ouyang Zizhen had shown up shortly afterwards. They were able to get rid of the pack and head back to Baling. 

“Whatever.” Jin Long grunted gesturing for the disciple to resume wrapping up his side. He hoped that by the time that his husband had returned from his trip to Leling that he’d be mostly healed. The first being that he didn’t want to explain how he’d gotten hurt and two…

He stopped his thoughts, feeling heat rise to his cheeks. His husband had an insatiable appetite. Something he should have seen coming after the many times he’d overheard conversations between his jiujius.  Which led him to another thought that had him paling. 

“Will it scar?” Jin Ling asked as the disciple finished dressing his wound.

“The claws dug deeper in certain places. I believe there will be a bit of scaring.” Liao Ting answered, nodding as he started to clean up his supplies. 

“Damn it.” Jin ling cursed, low making the disciple still. “You can go, thank you, Liao Ting.” 

“It was my pleasure.” Liao Ting answered, giving a respectful bow, then taking his things and leaving Jin Ling pondering just how he was going to tell his husband. 

Lan Jingyi was back from his visit to Leing with the small group of disciples that he’d taken with him. The request to aid Leling had arrived shortly after Jin Ling had left for Baling. So, he’d gone there in his husband’s stead to assist the city. It hadn’t taken him long to find out that it was a group of bandits trying to trick the city into giving tribute to appease the deity they’d claimed the city angered.

I didn’t think he’d be back so soon Lan Jingyi thought as he spotted Jin Chan and Xue Qing talking in the courtyard just outside the great hall. He gestured in dismissal to the disciples that followed him before making his way to the great hall. The doors open allowing the cool spring air inside. He stood just in the doorway taking in the sight. Elder Tang is standing in the center of the room speaking while the other elder’s were seated at their tables. Looking past Elder Tang, to his husband sitting on the large golden throne on the dais at the far end of the room. 

Lan Jingyi eyes narrowed at Jin Ling’s posture though. Instead of sitting in the center, the man was seated beside the right arm. The perfect posture he’d no doubt learned from his during his youth wasn’t present as he was leaning back and to the side putting most of his weight on the armrest. The happy smile on his face thining a bit. He hadn’t heard of his husband being injured when he’d come through. So it was confusing him as to why his husband was sitting as he was. 

It’d taken Jin Ling a few moments to realize that it was his husband standing in the doorway. The robes had thrown him off because they were actually his and the least flashy robes he owned. The outer robe is made from a white opalescent silk with golden thread embroidery on the collar and sleeves. His long ink colored hair only half up with a white ribbon that matched his forehead ribbon. His hazel eyes staring intently at him had him realizing how he was sitting. 

Instantly, Jin Ling went to correct himself but felt the pull of the stitches from the part of the wound that was still healing. He’d actually made his stitches come undone yesterday which is why he’s so tender and can’t sit properly today. He immediately looked away from his husband to Elder Tang, who’d stopped speaking at his sudden movement. Elder Tang turned around to see what his sect leader had been looking at making the other elder’s realize that Lan Jingyi was standing there. All of them rising and bowing to him in respect.

Lan Jingyi hadn’t missed how his husband had moved or the quickly fleeting grimace he’d made either. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what was wrong.

Lan Jingyi forced a bright smile on his face gesturing for the man to continue speaking. Elder Tang understood immediately and went back to speaking to Jin Ling as the others returned to their seats. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a disciple carrying a tray of apples walking by. He grabbed one of the apples making the female disciple chuckle. Lan Jingyi waited for Jin Ling’s gaze to meet his. When they finally did, he took a bite of his apple before leaving without saying a word. 

Jin Ling was already in their private quarter’s when Lan Jingyi returned. He knew  that his husband was upset when Lan Jingyi hadn’t come to have dinner with him. Losing his appetite he’d sent his food back but kept some for when Lan Jingyi would return. He’d gotten word from Xue Qing that he’d gone to the training grounds and had taken over the evening training. That’d been two hours ago now. The sun almost gone for the day. 

Jin Ling was sitting at their vanity table. The hair piece he’d worn today was already out and he was working the braids in his hair. He continued to take them out as he watched Lan Jingyi. The other stopped at the table to grab a hand full of the mandarian orange slices that Jin Ling had separated for him while waiting for him to come to dinner. Glad that the effort wasn’t wasted as his husband slowly walked towards him only to stop and lean against the archway separating the two rooms. Jingyi’s gaze dropping down to his waist then flicked back up to his face. The two of them waiting for the other to break the silence. 

Jin Ling bit the inside of his bottom lip not really wanting to be the first one to cave. However, it was his fault that his husband was upset. So, he let out a heavy sigh before moving to stand. He first went for his mother’s clarity bell, untying it from the ring sewn on his belt. 

“I’m sorry that I tried to hide that I was injured.” Jin Ling apologized, making sure to keep eye contact with Lan Jingyi. The indifferent expression on Lan Jingyi’s face wavered a bit. Jin Lin could tell that Lan Jingyi was thinking of what to say next. He’d broken the promise he’d made not to hide injuries after the last incident that caused the scar on his leg and a week spent in Lotus Pier. When Lan Jingyi looked away from him, Jin Ling leaned down to set the bell on their vanity. He stilled as he felt a painful pull at his side.

“Let me.” Lan Jingyi finally said finally stepping into the room. He helped Jin Ling to stand back up straight as he could then he started with untying the jade token he’d given him as a wedding present off. Lan Jingyi laid it beside the bell before stepping in close to him.  His hands carefully untying the leader belt. Though he’d dropped it promptly on the floor before working on the silk sash beneath. It too joined the belt on the floor. 

“Arms.” Lan Jingyi instructed looking at Jin Ling’s hands that’d moved to hold onto his biceps for stability. Jin Ling looked away dropping his arms to allow his husband to remove the pale silk outer robe leaving him in the thin white inner robe and trousers. Slowly, Lan Jingyi undid the stay keeping it closed then pushed it off his shoulders letting it join the rest of his clothes. 

“It’s not that bad and it doesn’t hurt.” Jin Ling offered, finally looking at his husband’s now worried expression. Lan Jingyi gently ran his fingertips over where the bandage appeared to be the thickest earning a sharp gasp from Jin Ling.

“Oh? It doesn’t hurt, husband?” Lan Jingyi asked teasingly, a knowing smirk sweeping across his face. Jin Ling felt the heat rising on more than just cheeks. 

Lan Jingyi couldn’t stay mad at him any longer despite wanting too. They’d talk more about breaking promises but Jin Ling was just too adorable like this. Especially with that delicious blush spread down his neck turning splotchy on his chest, making the freckles of his sun kissed skin more pronounced. He decided to give his wounded husband some mercy...or not.

Lan Jingyi started undoing the bandages around Jin Ling’s waist. The bandages joined the clothes on the floor exposing the wound. Most of the scratch was healed  with pinkish white scars except for one strike from the middle claw. The cut had been the deepest there and the neat row of black stitches had Lan Jingyi closing his eyes. He pushed away all the fear that sprung up and knelt down opening his eyes. His hands moving to rest on Jin Ling’s hips to keep him in place. 

“Hey…” Jin Ling started but stopped as Lan Jingyi leaned in pressing a feather light kiss to reddish tender flesh. Jin Ling let out another sharp gasp tensing beneath his touch. Before Jin Ling could say anything more Lan Jingyi stood back up and leaned in kissing him. One hand still gripped his hip while the other moved channeling qi to heal the wound. The healers of Lanling were good but their shared cultivation is stronger. Jin Ling reached out grabbing his husband’s arms again as he felt the cooling numbness of the other’s qi taking away his pain. 

“Better?” Lan Jingyi asked, smiling as they parted for air. Their foreheads resting against each other. 

“Yes.” Jin Ling answered honestly, leaning back to check the wound. The stitches gone leaving only a ugly red puffy scar. Lan Jingyi used his thumb to trace the scar making Jin Ling shiver from it being sensitive. 

“Good.” Lan Jingyi answered, tone turning serious “I understand that you’ll get hurt. It’s the nature of being a sect leader just don’t hide your injuries from me. We’ve both seen what that has done with our families. You’re my other half, Jin Ling. There will never be another.”

“And you’re mine. I am truly sorry. I will not hide them again.” Jin Ling replied earning a bright smile from his husband knowing he’d been forgiven. 

“Good, because I know the perfect way for you to make it up to me.” Lan Jingyi smugly smirked. His hands traveling down the back of the taller man’s thighs, gripping them and lifting him up. Jin Ling squirmed a bit laughing as his husband carried them to their bed. 

[haiky-u-lously]

Mimi’s Gift--Chapter 2

Summary:

 It is said, that on your 25th birthday, one of your soulmate’s most embarrassing moments will appear to you in the form of a dream where you view as though being a fly on the wall. It is the night before your 25th birthday, and you are nervous because not everyone remembers the dream they have when they awaken. Will you?   

Themes:

Fluff, Humor, Soulmate AU

Warnings:

Embarassement, Teasing between friends, Self-judging (reader judges themselves on how they think about others).

Word Count:

~7,300 words total

Enjoy!

-Admin Red

______________________________________________________________

While eating your breakfast, your mind focused on trying to figure out just how to bring up what happened in your dream to your friends, well at least what you remember from your notes. Holding the phone in one hand and rereading the simple phrases over and over again as your mouth blindly searched for the spoonful of cereal held in your other hand.

You were trying to think of details about the dog instead of the boy, hoping that a not so important detail might trigger something with deeper meaning, and felt the milk from the hovering silverware splash over your lap before you realized you had tipped the spoon so far.

Chiding yourself as you put the spoon back into the bowl. “Man, why’d I have to be this stupid. Today of all days too!” You grumbled as you went to change yet again.

Buttoning up your fresh jeans, you checked yourself out in the full body mirror hanging off the door to the master bathroom. Chuckling as you checked yourself out for good measure, “Well, at least all my effort into this look wasn’t wasted by having to change pants...That’s a plus!” 

As soon as your uplifting comment was spoken out loud, you could hear your phone start buzzing from where you left it back in the kitchen. Racing to pick it up in time in case it was something important.

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY (Y/N)!!!!” Yama yelled from his end of the line.

You cracked a smile in between huffs for air after your quick sprint. Taking a deep breath to calm down before responding properly, “Thanks Yama! I’m finally 25 hahahaha!”

“YES! Now you’ve joined the old people’s club officially. I am here to welcome you to long working hours and even shorter periods of fun for the foreseeable future.”

Face starting to hurt from the grin you’d been sporting since the call began, you teased right back, “Well then we just gotta make those short periods of fun even better than anyone’d expect.”

Both of you laughed for a few minutes after that.

“Well, now for the serious bit.” He sobered up quickly and got to his point, “Did you remember your dream last night?”

Thankful for your friend being the absolute best, and realizing you should not have worried about how to bring up the topic at all, you explained your situation. “So, I’m not as bad off as Hinata was, or how we thought Tsukki would be without his recording...But at the same time, I am not nearly as lucky as you and Kageyama. I recalled a few things. And...Well...Actually….uhhhh how do I put this?” You were dragging it out, you knew, but you couldn’t just say, ‘Well, hey, I don’t remember my soulmate at all but apparently you know him and were there so if I tell you what few details I do remember can you be an even better friend and put the pieces together for me? Thanks.’ Like, no. You can’t just use your friend for your own personal gain, how rude would that make you.

“(Y/N)!” He yelled to cut off your murmurs and mumblings, “just spit it out. Actually what?”

Taking yet another deep breath to calm down, and managing to take a seat back at the kitchen table, you visibly relaxed a smidge. “I don’t remember much, but I know you were there, and it looked like your old high school gym for the most part.”

“Wait! Your soulmate went to Karasuno?!” He sounded so excited, “(Y/N)! That’s awesome. Whatever you remember, tell me I can help you figure out who it is! I mean I was captain for a year. I should be able to tell you who was on our team no matter which year it was for.”

You really did want to ask him for help, but you also felt you’d just be using your friend. “I don’t think he was on your team. Sorry, Yama, thanks for the offer though.”

He seemed to think about that before responding. “Not on my team? Hmm, well depending on the team I may still know them. Come on. Hit me with the details. Stop dillydallying.”

“HAH!” Releasing a sound somewhere between a scream and a laugh, you quickly moved your free hand to clamp over your wide-open mouth. You had to shake your head a few times before you could answer his pushing, “Fine, fine! I didn’t want to make you help me cause I really don’t remember much and it’s not your job to figure out my soulmate for me. And I feel like I am just using you, but if you are going to throw around words like ‘dillydallying’ I may as well.” It really hadn’t taken much pressure from him to make you crack, you thought a moment about how to strengthen your resolve for next time before finally telling him what other little you knew about the dream. “I remember the most blindingly beautiful smile, a dog, chicken...as in like the food chicken, not the live animal chicken...that was probably obvious though. I mean, obviously, if I had meant a live chicken that would have been weird right? I mean--!”

“(Y/N). (Y/M/N). (Y/L/N)! Just tell me the rest already!”

“Oh right!” You stopped rambling yet again, “the only other thing I can remember past that is a red uniform.”

He went silent there.

You waited.

No comment.

Waited longer, checked to make sure the call was still connected.

No comment.

Checked again and saw he had been silent for 2 whole minutes, “Hello? Yama? You still there?”

“Are you kidding me?!!!!” He legit screamed so loud you dropped your phone out of shock. You could still hear him shouting while you reached to pick the device off the floor. “A red uniform, a dog, chicken, and a smile? That’s all you remember?!”

“Well, that and that most of it happened at your high school gymnasium and that you were there of course.” You corrected.

Despite not being able to see him, you could just hear the fed-up look on his face as he whisper-counted to 5 to calm himself down. A trick you learned he developed when he was captain of the team and had to deal with Hinata and Kageyama. “(Y/N). We didn’t play too many schools that had a red uniform. So I can pretty much guess what school your soulmate is from. But...And I mean this in the nicest way possible...IF YOU DO NOT GIVE ME ANY ACTIONABLE DETAILS ABOUT THE PERSON THEMSELVES HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO HELP YOU AT ALL!????”

“And this is why I really didn’t want to bother you with it. I told you I didn’t remember much.” You tried to skirt your way out of trouble.

“You all are going to be the death of me.” He said as you imagined him rubbing his hand down his face. “Are you sure you don’t remember anything else? Like what was so embarrassing about that moment in their life that your dream was what it was? Nothing?”

Thinking about the dream some more, and remembering that Yamaguchi’s sport was volleyball you remembered an additional detail, your hand shot up with the pointer facing the ceiling, “WAIT! I did just remember something!”

“That’s great!” He exclaimed alongside you, “what’d you recall?”

“He got hit in the face with a volleyball.” You were so proud of yourself for remembering.

“He,” You could hear Yama repeating to himself, “he got hit in the face with a volleyball?”

“Yepp!” You were so proud of yourself, the pure joyous feeling would be shown to anyone who chanced upon you at that moment.

The audible sigh from the other end of the line of course made you backtrack your excitement.

“Is that not helpful?” You questioned, now not so happy with your development.

It wasn’t possible to imagine how he was physically reacting this time, but thankfully his silence was short-lived. “That depends on your answer to this question. Did he get hit from a serve or hit, or was the ball on his side when he got hit in the face?”

This brought your happy mood back right away because you actually could give full detail about it now that you remembered this part of the scene. “OH, his side, definitely. Because, and now that I remembered it happened I remember this whole bit of the scene. He was going to hit it and I guess something had been wrong because the ball flew in front of his arm before he’d even started really swinging and it hit him in the face and he fell onto his buttocks! Hahahahhah!” Your giggling continued as the images played out in your mind.

“OH!?” Yamaguchi yelled, reminding you you weren’t talking to yourself that time around. “I know exactly who it is then! Yes! I remember that whole day actually! Man, that was a bad day for him.” Yama also joined in laughing, though you knew it was because he remembered more than you. “It actually makes sense why you’d remember a dog and chicken now, yea hahaa.”

“Wait!” You interrupted him this time, “So if you remember the event and you know who it is, then you can just tell me, right?!” You were so hyped.

Waiting in anticipation.

Waiting for him to confirm your thoughts.

“Right, Yama?”

Waiting…

“Yama!?”

“Sorry, sorry, I am messaging about his whereabouts and to see if he is free today. I don’t have his number but Hinata does. So just be patient.” Apparently he put you on hold because you didn’t hear anything again.

Taking the time to rinse out your bowl from the now soggy cereal, you wondered what your soulmate was like. Thinking how great it was that he is already connected to your friend group. Washing out the bowl, you tried to generate his image in your mind, but you couldn’t see anything past red sportswear and a blinding grin.

“Okay, sorry about that.” Yama’s voice caught you off guard and you almost dropped the bowl, thankfully you got a better hold on it right in time to set in on the drying rack without incident. “Hello? (Y/N)?”

You respond with a yell since you were drying your hands off, “I’m here, just drying my hands. One second.” And legit one second later you held your phone once more. “So, what’s up?”

“Great, so he’s actually in town today! But doesn’t want me to share any details if you don’t remember anything hahaha.” You sulked at his teasing but listened with determined intent as he continued, “So basically it’ll be like a blind date for you for lunch. We decided 1, is that okay for you? I can also get him back and tell him you need to go later? But we have dinner at Kusa No le at 6, so you don’t want lunch to run too late. Hmm...”

“Yama, 1 is fine. Thank you so much for being such a great friend and helping me despite how difficult I can be.” You smiled as you said your piece, hoping he really understood how grateful you were.

“It’s what best friends are for. Now, I told him you’d wear red because you remembered that, but I also told him you’d wear a crown because it’s your birthday and you should get to be a royal sometimes.” He meant it as a tease, since you made him wear a crown on his 25th birthday as you took him on a scavenger hunt around Tokyo. But, you were so grateful you gave no mind against it.

“Sure, I have that tiara we stole from Kuroo still anyway. I can just wear that.”

It was nice talking with him about random things after that. Just being able to chill and enjoy your friendship was one of the things you’d learned to love the most since meeting Yama and Tsukki at university. You’d been super stressed, moving to a new area and not knowing anyone? Starting a new way of life away from friends and family and the support system you’d created for yourself up to that point? You’d been scared out of your mind. But that first day of classes, you happened to legit run into the nicest guy possible, who helped you up with a smile highlighting all his freckles as his friend asked after your well being. It was the beginning of a beautiful friendship and you couldn’t believe how lucky you had been.

“Yama,” You accidentally interrupted his comments about some television show he’d been hooked on recently, “I just want to thank you for helping me back to my feet all those years ago at Uni. I don’t know what would have happened or where I’d be today without you, and Tsukki and even Hinata and Kageyama too. But none of these past few years would have happened if it wasn’t for how kind you were to me back then. I am very grateful for your friendship.”

He seemed to hum back before speaking, “Well it wouldn’t have happened at all had you been watching where you were going, as Tsukki likes to remind you.”

You laughed at his tease. And he joined in.

This is what a good friendship was. You knew it.

“I wonder if it’ll be anything like this with my soulmate?” You questioned yourself out loud while contemplating the outfit choices laying on your bed.

[thetriggeredhappy]

9 “My head hurts.” for Speedingbullet ~ also you're now my new fav fic author

thank you very much, you’re very sweet!! (warnings for me being mean to scout again)

9.) “My head hurts.”

Sniper really didn’t intend for things to go the way he did. He really didn’t mean any harm. Honest.

Before he joined the team, Sniper was aware of the concept of pranks and whatnot, sure, but he’d never really been subjected to any, or done them to other people. He didn’t go to college (a place where, allegedly according to Engie, pranks happen a lot) and he didn’t technically finish his last year of required schooling and even before that the closest thing to a “prank” that his classmates would do was essentially beat him up. Black eyes and bruises and bloody noses were their idea of a hilarious after-school activity to rope him into.

But on the base, he was introduced to actual pranks. The inside of Demo’s eyepatch being coated in syrup while he’s asleep, Soldier’s helmet being covered in dozens of sparkly stickers, plastic wrap over the door to the kitchen, things like that. Things that were actually a bit funny and not anything worse than annoying and inconvenient to the person being pranked.

At some point, Scout, main prank-maker of the team (years of experience under his belt, apparently) had tried to get Sniper. Salt in the sugar bowl. He’d sat down with coffee, the terrible “acquired taste” stuff that Spy occasionally drank because he mysteriously couldn’t find the normal stuff, and put a spoon’s worth into his mug to make it more bearable. Stirred it. He hadn’t noticed what Scout’s expression was until he lifted the mug to take a sip and made eye contact over the rim. Absolute interest in what Sniper was doing, just a smidge too much to be normal, and no focus at all on the bowl of cereal before him, which just wasn’t normal.

He took his sip, and it was only with that suspicion in the back of his head that he managed to keep from making a face at the taste of it. And then Sniper had a choice to make, and he did so quickly.

He drank the entire mug without flinching. Scout’s confusion rose with every bob of his adam’s apple.

“Something on my face?” Sniper asked neutrally when he put the empty mug down again, the very picture of normalcy.

“Uh,” Scout said, and shook himself from his shock, “I, uh, no. No, you’re good.”

A few beats passed, then Scout picked up the sugar bowl, glancing down at it. He hummed to himself, tipping a bit into his cereal, then putting it down and taking a bite.

He choked immediately, then looked up at Sniper, who was trying very hard not to laugh. “Oh, fuck you.”

That had been the beginning of a little prank war between the two of them.

Scout had done plenty of things. A glitter bomb from an envelope that looked just like the envelopes they received with information for contracts. Taken about half a dozen stray cats from the nearby town and put them all in Sniper’s camper while he was in the base doing laundry. Replaced all the cans of beans and soup that he had stocked up in case of emergencies big or small with cans of brussel sprouts. Given Engie twenty dollars to make a tiny little device that made a little beeping noise every two minutes and fifteen seconds, and promptly hidden it under Sniper’s mattress, driving him bonkers for a total of an hour and a half before he finally found it. It was worth noting that Sniper did lock his door, the little bugger just knew how to pick locks apparently.

Sniper’s major form of retribution for most of the pranks was to act either like it didn’t bother him or like he enjoyed what Scout did. He ended up cooking the brussel sprouts for dinner one day, and talked to Scout about how friendly all the cats were and what their names now were, and Scout was clearly extremely annoyed to see Sniper acting completely normal when he went to battle the day after the beeper incident. But for pranks like the glitter bomb, which left him in a sparkly uniform when he went to dinner, he did feel the need to deliver actual retribution.

Which is why he put an armadillo in Scout’s room. And a small non-venomous snake in Scout’s room after he then started locking his door. And the friendly owl that liked to pester Sniper for snacks in Scout’s room through the window when he asked Demo for help moving his door slightly closer to the floor. He just found that Scout tended to react a lot to animals and kept running with it.

Also he broke Scout’s door once, but to be fair that wasn’t part of a prank. That was a different thing. Which was only tangentially Sniper’s fault technically sort of. He apologized. He got a second glitter bomb.

And admittedly, their little prank war had died down a bit after that, mainly because they’d gotten on somewhat friendlier terms somehow during the mayhem. He wound up talking to Scout occasionally, the younger man just sitting himself down when Sniper was making a campfire or otherwise sitting outside his camper and doing things. In return, sometimes he tried to say hello to Scout when he passed him in the rec room. But then Sniper had suddenly been faced with what he thought was the perfect opportunity.

He’d been out doing his shopping, having headed to a bigger town to get some more specific things that he needed that weren’t easy to find elsewhere, when he’d seen it. The energy drinks Scout chugged like water most of the time, big palettes’ worth of them. Three different flavors, although he’d only ever seen Scout drinking two.

And next to them, the same three again. He walked closer, pondering if maybe Scout would appreciate getting a bulk package of the drinks instead of having to do a twice-weekly run to the store in town to buy a few six-packs. And he’d picked up one of the packs, looked it over, and noticed a little blurb written on it.

“Caffeine-free!”

The plan hit him almost immediately, and he moved to start piling cans into the cart he’d gotten.

From there it was simple—a trick he’d learned years and years before from an oddball “friend” to sneak alcohol into concerts. Sealed drinks being all that was allowed, he learned how to open cans and close them again without it looking any different. It was the work of an afternoon to empty out the cans of Bonk! into the sand (both the Cola and the Fruit Punch flavors just to cover all his bases) and replace them with the caffeine-free versions. Then he waited for the next time they did a supply run, and put it in with the rest of the groceries.

But then, things got… strange.

Scout was fine that first day, a Friday, not particularly groggy at all. During the lunch break in the middle of the day he chugged a good bit more of the soda than even he was usually known for, and didn’t eat anything else, but otherwise acted about the same.

By Monday, things had taken a significant dive.

He first noticed that Scout was almost late. That was extremely strange for him. Scout was usually among the first to report, and would mingle and pester the rest of the team. But instead, he was dashing in five minutes before they were headed onto the field, sleeves not even rolled properly and one shoe untied, looking completely out of it. He stammered an apology, then set about fixing his whole situation.

Through his scope, Sniper kept cursory track over the team so he’d be able to know whether someone could feasibly be passing by or if it was a spy. And what he saw of Scout was funny for a little bit, but quickly grew worrying, and then terribly guilt-inducing.

Scout was fully off his game, running erratically but in a way that was clearly unintentional, getting his attention diverted by sounds of gunfire only to miss the sounds much closer to him. His chatter on the comms was limited, and Sniper caught sight of him getting gunned down over and over and over again.

When the mid-day break was called, a bit earlier than usual, his first sighting of the kid since that morning was of him sitting on a crate, elbows on his knees, head held tight in his hands, talking quietly to Medic, who looked extremely concerned about the situation. Within a few moments the scene had brought over Engie and Demo, and everyone looked fairly grim.

Spy noted the scene happening, then glanced at Sniper, and his posture went rigid at Sniper’s expression. Presumably it was one of guilt, because that’s what was rapidly overtaking Sniper.

“What did you do?” Spy asked sharply, voice a hiss.

“Nothing,” Sniper said quickly, defensively.

All at once, Spy was stood just behind him, a hand on his shoulder, the other holding a knife in the bend of his back, cutting through the stitch of his vest and pressing hard enough to make Sniper’s heart skip a few beats. “Interesting answer. Because our local little idiot has been feeling horribly, terribly under the weather all day, and this is rapidly becoming the sort of problem that gets him in trouble with noteworthy individuals,” he said, voice the kind of lighthearted that made Sniper aware that he was probably about to be killed if he so much as stuttered. Then the weight of what Spy was saying to him sunk in, and he paled in realization. Scout could get in very real trouble for such a drop in numbers. Very, very real trouble. And in their line of business, bad things usually happened to those who got in trouble with their employers. “I just found it interesting, the way you were staring at him just now.”

“I didn’t mean any harm,” he managed, voice hoarse. “Really, I didn’t!”

“I’m going to ask you this exactly once, bushman,” Spy said, voice low now. “What. Did. You. Poison him with?”

A pause. “Oh! No, no, mate, you’ve got it wrong, I—I didn’t poison him! I just—“

The slightest bit of additional pressure from the knife.

“Really! I just switched out that caffeine nonsense he drinks for the same stuff but without the caffeine. It was just supposed to be a prank, I, I didn’t think he would get like this. Figured he’d be a bit groggy and that’s all!”

Spy swore to himself under his breath. “You’re an idiot, bushman,” he hissed. He shoved Sniper a step forward. “Go explain to him what you did. Now.”

Sniper did walk over.

Medic had moved away to talk quietly with Demo, but Engie was still there, sitting next to Scout, a comforting hand on his shoulder. He looked up as Sniper approached, giving him a little, worried smile.

“Er,” Sniper said, fidgeting with his hands for a second before just sticking his thumbs into his pockets. “Scout, can I talk to you for a mo’?”

Scout hummed out a little noise like agreement.

Sniper glanced at Engie again, who took a moment before he realized what Sniper meant and went to get up and give them space. He gave Scout one more pat on the shoulder before he went.

Sniper took his place, hands to himself. “Er. So… you’re not doin’ so well,” Sniper tried.

Scout groaned, shoulders sinking further. “I dunno what the fuck is wrong. This shouldn’t be happening,” he said, voice quiet. “I’m fuckin’ dying over here.”

“Yeah?” Sniper asked, guilt corroding at him quicker by the minute.

“My head hurts,” Scout started. “I feel like I’m gonna throw up. My hands won’t stop shaking and I can barely reload a gun. I didn’t sleep at all last night or the night before that or the night before that and I can’t get a good breath in and I feel like I’m five fuckin’ seconds away from freaking out. Just the usual gunshots and screaming make me start shaking even worse and basically I fuckin’ hate everything right now an’ wanna die. I felt like shit all weekend too but it’s just getting worse and worse.”

Sniper swallowed hard.

“And I dunno what the fuck the issue is, I—I only ever start gettin’ shaky and gross feeling whenever I go without getting caffeine for a few days, and, and I’ve drank like three cans and kept ‘em down and everything and I—I dunno the fuck else to do,” Scout said, and there was an underlying kind of distress, dismay, panic, misery that made Sniper fold in on himself.

“Didn’t realize… you needed it that much,” Sniper said carefully.

Scout sighed, his breath leaving him almost explosively. “Yeah, because I didn’t want nobody to know. Only the Doc was supposed to know, because we kept tryin’ all kinds of meds but none of ‘em worked right, and we figured out if I just drink a fuck ton of caffeine it works better than most meds. So he found some stuff with a ridiculous amount of the stuff and now I drink it all the time or I can’t think right or do anything.” A second sigh, and Scout looked like he was trying to melt and sink into the ground. “And now everybody knows that I’m a fuckin’ idiot who can’t do shit or think right without drinkin’ enough liquid energy to give a bear a heart attack. And I’m maybe having the worst day ever and I just wanna go curl up and down half a bottle of headache meds and try and sleep until everything stops sucking so much.”

Sniper was pretty sure he was going to keel over dead.

“But hey,” Scout said, a dreary, sarcastic attempt at optimism in his voice, and lifted his head enough to look at Sniper, and he hadn’t noticed earlier, but his face was pale and his eyes had bags and circles under them that may as well have been bruises they were so dark. “At least you’re over here. Talkin’ to me. That’s really not like you. Good to know you give that much of a shit about me to come listen to me whine.”

Sniper had to look away, squeeze his eyes shut.

“Anyways, you said you wanted to talk to me?” Scout asked, putting on a terribly brave face despite how objectively horrible he was feeling.

“It was me.”

A pause. Sniper couldn’t look up. “What?”

“It was me. I switched your Bonk! out for some caffeine-free rubbish.”

Another, different pause. “You what?” Scout asked, voice quiet.

“It was meant to just be a prank,” Sniper said, head falling to his hand. “I thought you’d get all drowsy for a little while, be sleepy and a bit off your game and confused. I didn’t mean to make you feel this sick, and… and I’m sorry.”

Silence for a good minute or so. “Snipes, I’m gonna fucking kill you.”

Sniper nodded. “I’d deserve it,” he conceded, glum.

“I’m gonna fucking kill you.” Sniper got shoved, and was sent sprawling on the dirt. “You fuck! I can’t believe you!”

“I know, I’m sorry,” Sniper tried, sitting up.

“God damn it if you weren’t so cute I’d break you right now!” Scout exclaimed, bat in hand, red-faced and positively fuming.

“You think I’m cute?” Sniper asked, a bit surprised.

“Not the topic of conversation right now! You’re a bastard!”

Sniper fell back onto the dirt, staring up at the sky. “I’m sorry,” he said again.

“You owe me,” Scout declared.

“I know.”

“Big time,” Scout added.

“I know.”

“You’re takin’ me out after we clock out today and you’re buying me more soda and then you’re getting me dinner,” Scout finished.

“That sounds fair.’

“…Fuck you,” Scout said once more before he stormed off.

Sniper remained on the ground for another few moments, silent.

“…Cute?” he repeated to himself quietly.

[thefaithie]

WC, Chapter 8

Wrong Conclusions Chapter Eight: Reconsideration

"What're you two so down about?" Cyborg asked, turning momentarily away from his own metallic arm and lifting up the goggles he had been using to protect his organic eye from electric sparks. Robin and Raven had entered the Tower no more then ten minutes ago, and from Robin's somber expression and Raven's colder-than-usual attitude, the metallic Titan had been able to tell something had gone wrong.

"Nothing," Robin spat out as bitterly as possible. "Nothing at all."

"And my mother was a toaster," Cyborg rolled his natural eye. "What happened?"

"I said 'nothing'!" Robin growled through gritted teeth, but Raven sighed and answered properly, instead.

"Robin's jealous of the fact that Beast Boy's the one going out with Starfire."

"So they are actually datin', huh?" Cyborg asked in mild surprise, ignoring Robin's indignant look. "I was wonderin' when it'd happen. I mean, they both changed a lot after you two got together-"

"We're not together!" They both cut him off at once.

Robin grinded his teeth and balled his fists in fury, and the shadow over Raven's face revealed four red, glowing eyes. Cyborg ducked just in time as a Bird-a-Rang and a wave of black energy went for his table, causing a small crater to form in the middle of it.

"DUDE!" Cyborg looked up from the crack and glared at the two of them to assure they wouldn't repeat those motions again. "I know, okay!? I was just messing with you two!" The mechanical man straightened back up carefully, staring at his friends in disbelief. "Seriously, if you two're THAT jealous, maybe you should just tell 'em instead of bein' all moody with me?"

"I'm not jealous of anything!" the Boy Wonder snapped again before turning on his heel and heading towards the gym, still utterly seething.

"I don't do 'jealousy'," Raven said coldly, floating a few feet in front of her metallic teammate. "And furthermore, there's nothing for me to be jealous of whatsoever."

"Will you two stop foolin' yourselves?" Cyborg sighed, pulling out a screwdriver and ignoring how taken-aback his comment made Raven look. "You've had it bad for BB ever since that mirror-thing. But you're never gonna admit it because you think you're this awful demon or whatever and you think that means you don't deserve someone nice like him. Just like Robin's been droolin' over Star for as long as I can remember, but won't say anythin' 'cause he's too scared it'll mess up the team or whatever way he phrases his excuse. All of ya gotta just suck it up, tell each other how ya feel, an' finally give me some peace and quiet."

Raven was now emanating an energy so black that it made her leotard look grey. She glared at Cyborg, wondering what she could do to make him regret saying what he had dared to utter.

She could encase him in energy so he couldn't breathe...no, that was stupid - he probably had an oxygen mask. She could take all his bolts out of him...No, no, he could just pull himself back together with whatever magnetized sensors he had inside him. Something, something to get him back for daring to say that she had feelings for that stupid monkey of a boy...

After a few seconds, the furious glow around Raven faded and a satisfied smile appeared on her lips.

"...Says the guy who fell for a pink-haired villain, of all people."

Cyborg's head shot up, blushing in surprise and embarrassment, sputtering, "H-Hey! That's low!" but it was too late. Raven was already floating back towards her room and shutting the door behind her, leaving nothing but a peeved teammate in her wake.

But after the door slid shut and she floated onto her bed, Raven couldn't help but begin to wonder...

Her? And Beast Boy? Sure, she liked him enough to tolerate him, but that was it, wasn't it? He was just an annoying, green, obnoxious boy who never knew when to keep his mouth shut!

She managed to hold that thought for a moment, then sighed. That isn't true... She told herself instantly. He's a lot deeper than that, even if he acts like he isn't...

Her eyes became fixated on the ceiling as the memory of Terra's betrayed ran through her mind. Beast Boy had shown off some of his true, darker colors during that crisis, but despite everything, he had given the Earth-user a second chance, and Terra had redeemed herself because of it as a final act.

Then there was Malchior... Beast Boy had turned into a fly on her wall just to watch Raven, to make sure she was alright. She had taken it as him being overly nosy at the time, but now appreciated how it had merely been the green teen's way of showing concern. And, of course - it had turned out his instincts had been correct, to have been concerned.

And then there were all the times he had tried to make her laugh. It was easy enough with the other Titans, but Beast Boy tried extra-hard for her, even if she didn't appreciate it outwardly...

Raven let out a small sigh, feeling her face break into a warm smile, just at the memories of some of his more recent attempts. He could be so stupid.

Wait. A smile? Her, smiling, thinking about Beast Boy? No, no, that...that wasn't possible! He was loud, annoying, stupid...There was no way she had any feelings for him!

She sat bolt upright and scanned her room momentarily. The jewel on her forehead glowed and a nearby drawer opened, causing a black mirror to float towards her. She looked at it, inhaling deeply.

She needed to know. She's been behaving so strangely, not at all like herself. She was constantly on the verge of letting her powers loose. She needed to be honest with herself, no matter how she didn't want to, and face whatever the truth was. She needed to go inside of herself and see what she truly thought about Beast Boy...What all the sides of her thought of him.

With a final deep breath, she concentrated, feeling herself being drawn into the mirror, and found herself within the gates of her own mind...

Downstairs, the punching bag flew back a few feet into the air before falling back and causing the chain that held it to the ceiling to jangle violently. Before it even had a chance to swing back to its original position, it was punched again and flew even further than before.

Robin panted, continuing his barrage of upper-punches. He was dressed in his gi with ripped sleeves, and sweat was pouring down the sides of his face and into his mask. But the Boy Wonder didn't seem to notice as he continued to abuse the bag before him, trying to keep his mind free of thoughts: empty, vacant, clear-

...What's he got that I haven't!?

"Augh!" Robin cupped his hands over his ears in an attempt to block his own thoughts out, only to be hit in the face by the punching bag on its swing-back. The Boy Wonder was sent back and found himself on the floor before he could even think to react to the bag's act of vendetta.

"Stupid bag-!" Robin growled, rubbing his nose and glaring daggers at his inanimate assaulter. He thoroughly considered standing and giving it another beating, but after several seconds of thought, instead decided to take a short breather. He sat up and ran a hand through his spiky hair, exhaling slowly, his thoughts now free to roam again on the matters that he had so attempted to avoid.

...Why did she pick him? What did Beast Boy do to get her? Is it his hair? The jokes? What?

...Why didn't I say anything to her sooner...?

Robin groaned, another voice in his head quickly answering his questions for him.

He's not scared of telling people how he feels, and that's all he had to do to make Starfire feel special. Where as I stayed quiet, lying and telling myself she was like a sister for the past...what, three years, now?

Robin sighed and glanced up at the ceiling. Growing up with Batman had, indeed, taken a toll on him. All the constant talk about 'job first, personal matters later' had made him too jumpy to ever talk about...feelings. What drove Robin crazy was that it was EXACTLY why he had left the Batcave, anyway - to prove to him there was more to life that kist "job first" and he could still lead a team to victory, despite it. But in his desperation, all that happened was that that obsessive need to win and show Batman he could make it as a leader overtook him, and he ended up pushing most other things aside, instead, especially his own feelings. It had always been Starfire who had made Robin realize that he had to think of the whole team, not only himself or how to get the job done as quickly as possible... Which was quite surprising, considering how the two had met.

Starfire had been the one he had considered the villain at first, and in all honesty, he had been wary of her their first few months together because of it. Robin had avoided making her angry or annoyed, thinking of her as only a war-class fighting, above anything else. He learned to think of her as a friend, that much was true, but more as a friend who could break him in half than someone like a possible girlfriend. The more Robin avoided her, the more Starfire had tried to get to know him, doing her very best to grasp the concepts of kindness and love. But even she had eventually started to lose hope in ever getting Robin's full trust, in those early days.

That was, until the cooking incident. Starfire had never used a kitchen before, and had been asked by Beast Boy to make some toast. She had agreed, and attempted making them. Somehow (none of the Titans had ever found out quite HOW, as the cameras were also damaged beyond repair), Starfire had managed to set half of their kitchen aflame, as well as half of the living room.

After seeing half of the files he had worked so hard to obtain and put together burnt to a crisp, Robin had lost it. The Boy Wonder had spent almost twenty entire minutes yelling at Starfire about how she had to be more careful and ask if she didn't know how to use something, rather than risking turning their entire home into a pile of ash. He had even called her stupid, air-headed, and several other things he still deeply regretted to this day. But the moment he had finished his rant and actually realized what he had said, Robin had cringed, expecting to be hit into the next week. But to his amazement, all he had heard was a whimper. A small, weak whimper, followed by the sounds of crying and rushed footsteps.

That had been the first time Robin had ever made Starfire cry, and the first time he realized being physically stronger than him didn't mean she couldn't have her feelings hurt by him.

Robin sighed, but despite himself, he was unable to keep from smiling when he thought of the incident. True, he felt nothing but guilt for having made tears fall from those beautiful green eyes, and he absolutely hate himself for the things he'd called her without thinking and had made sure never to do that again, but it had also been the first time he had hugged her. For almost the entire night, while she cried, muttering apologies, half in Tamaranian, half in English.

After that memory, more avoided memories began to rush into the mind of Robin. All good ones, about how he and Starfire had become very close friends, how she had slowly learned more things about Earth, how he had learned to be a better person all because of her. And the more Robin remembered, the more glaring the realization became:

I'm in love with Starfire.

He breathed in deeply, the thought coming to him as much less of a shock than he would have expected. Truthfully, he really had been fooling only himself with all his excuses. After all, if he had only felt platonically about Starfire, he wouldn't have gotten jealous about her being forced to marry, and his heart wouldn't have skipped a beat when Cyborg had called Starfire his girlfriend. He could have carried on normal conversations with her without worrying what she thought of him, or have wanted to protect her as much as he constantly did. The feelings had been inside of him for so long, but he had always pushed them aside, calling them 'friendly', or mentally referring to Starfire as a sister, even though the term never sounded right.

And now, it was too late. She was with Beast Boy. They were having a good time, he had put her hand around her and she had leaned close to him. All was lost...

...Or...was it?

Robin thought back to when Kitten had asked for a date from him. He had far from enjoyed it, considering how annoying she was, but Starfire had acted very, well...jealously then. She had even dressed up just to follow Robin to the dance and make sure no harm came to him. And she had also been jealous when she had thought that Blackfire had replaced her, on the Titans, too...

So, maybe there was a chance? Maybe...maybe if he told Starfire, then she could still have feelings for him! Maybe Beast Boy and she really were just friends. Heck, maybe she'd seen one of those old 80's flicks and has asked Beast Boy to stage something to make Robin jealous. Maybe Starfire was hoping Robin would say something!

'Maybe' was usually not something Robin would dare gamble with, but for Starfire, he really had no other choice.

Just as Robin began pulling his last piece of uniform on to go find Starfire again, the door to the gym slid open and Raven and Cyborg stood outside of it. A Communicator was flashing in Cyborg's large hand and his expression was grim.

"Robin, there's trouble at that hospital from a week ago. Starfire and Beast Boy are there, but they said they can't hold out alone much longer!"

Disclaimers:

Starfire, Beast Boy, Raven, Robin, Cyborg, Silkie, and pretty much everything but the plot at hand belongs to © D. C. Comics/Cartoon Network/Kids WB

9/2019 Update:

Woof. This is kind of a fun chapter. I forgot about all the back and forth and inner acceptance and everything, haha. Hopefully it's still fun to read.

[nijicx]

BNHA Oc- “Peril” the U.A. Traitor

Name: Izumi

Nationality:

Japanese

Hero Villain Name: Peril

Quirk:  

Percieved Peril

Quirk Characteristics:

Percieved peril is a quirk activated when the weilder expiriences fear. Once activated, anyone within eyesight of the holder becomes locked in a complete illusionary state. The illusion takes the form of a situational peril. For example, if activated with an open flame nearby, the person might see the flames travel towards them and crawl up their body, making the victim think they are being set aflame. Other times it can take the form of falling objects, windows breaking and glass raining down, or the crumbling of the ground beneath them. This hallucination often causes people to react hysterically and try to escape or sheild themselves in some way. To break the effect the person needs to realize it is a hallucination, usually occuring when they don't feel the flames actually burning them after a few moments of rolling/patting them, or not feeling hurt when the glass cuts them.

It also can be broken when the person emitting this quirk slows their heart to under 70 beats a minute or the weilder loses conciousness.  

Quirk Weaknesses: This quirk has a number of weaknesses, including the length and intensity of the hallucination. These are largely out of the weilders control, they are often completely situational in order to concince the victim that they are truly in life threatening danger. Because of this, occaisionally it can be broken quite easilly.

For hallucinations where a person thinks they have been set on fire, it only takes several moments for them to realize the flames do not burn. Similarly, for times where the hallucination appears as the ground crumbling beneath them, it only takes a person a jump to realize that they are still standing on completely solid ground. One very large weakness of this quirk is that if overused or used in large groups simultaniously, the user can be pulled into their own hallucinations. While it would not make them hysterical they would not be able to see their true surroundings which would leave them vulnerable to approaching assailants from any direction. The hallucinations are unique to each indicidual who is caught within it, therefore, if a group is hit by the quirk, than each gets their own completely individual scenario. They cannot see the rest of the group while in this hallucination and that is incredibly taxing upon the user themself.   Smaller weaknesses include eye irritation, drowseyness, and nightmares.

Personality:

Izumi is a rather soft spoken boy with a penchant for being a bit of a doormat. He likes to please and goes out of his way to do chores or errands others dont want to do just to be included or to have someone say something nice about him. He is rather gullible and his lack of education allows for the members of the organization to tease or mislead him in order to get something done. This also causes him to be a little bit naive, which is something he is very aware of. He sees everyone around him as a role model and relies on them in order for him to understand what is happening. Hence the reason he follows his group of friends without question. They built his worlds infrastructure. 

Izumi is a little socially awkward and chooses to be quiet most times, observing conversations at length before actually contributing to get a feel for how he should act in order to fit in. When goaded to speak or give an opinion without preperation he tends to panic and excuse himself, rather than speak his mind without having prepared a response first. That being said this also allows him to be rather funny, usually dropping a perfect subtle joke based on the situation when the conversation gets dull to fully revitalize it.

Background: 

Izumi grew up in Tokyo with his single mother until the age of about five. When his quirk suddenly materialized one day, fire and ambulance had to be rushed to the house. When they arrived they had to subdue the mother and several of her friends who were clawwing at the windows and shrieking, finding a five year old Izumi hiding beneath his bed. It was later discovered that his mom had invited some other mom-friends over for a get-together and she had read a story to Izumi and tucked him in. He had been asleep for while until he had a nightmare about a monster and ran out to his mom terrified there was a monster in his closet. When he called for her and entered the room he met eyes with all in attendance and they were all caught in a group hallucination. Nobody was hurt but it caused Izumi a lot of stress which causes micro-hallucinations to appear in public, such as fire hydrants bursting or things being set on fire. Several times the police had to return to the house because Izumi had accidentally caught someone in a hallucination simply by breaking an egg by accident and feared he'd get in trouble if he didnt clean it up in a hurry. It wore deeply on his mother as it was an almost weekly occurance and Izumi was taken to many specialists in order to try and control his fear and minimize the effects of his quirk on others. Eventually he was pulled from school and schooled at home by a tutor. Eventually though the tutor had to also quit as the stress of answering questions and being tested one-on-one with Izumi caused the same sort of events.

Unable to pay for any more specialists or tutors his mom made the incredibly tough decision to send him to a home for unmanagable quirks called the The Saffron House. 

There he was taken through special care in order to properly adjust him to controlling his stress and try to control his heart beat so that he wouldn't cause so much harm. He was doing incredibly well, he was even allowed out of the home sometimes for dayy or weekend visits with his mom or to go on trips with the other members of the house. The only unfortunate thing about Saffron house is that it also homes children who purposefully mis-manage their quirks. It was here that he met a group of delinquent teens who invited them into their group. This is because one time while watching a horror movie together he entrapped them all in a hallucination where a man with a chainsaw burst through the door. Peril quickly contained his heartbeat but  instead of screaming, everyone was laughing hysterically. Telling him that was the best scare they'd ever gotten. He quickly fell in with the group and enjoyed being accepted for all that he was.

On an outing one day the group tricked him into using his quirk on a crowd of people watching some music preformers just to see what would happen. This quickly caused a mass-hysteria and the event was quickly in complete chaos. That night, the kids all snuck out of Saffron house, knowing that it was only a matter of time until the police tracked them down. The group convinced Izumi to come with them until things calmed down and then they would bring him back. But there never was a day where things were "safe" enough to go back, and whenever he asked his friends if they his home town would be their next stop on their ever changing travel plans, that was the excuse he would get. Eventually they became his family and he was more or less their errand boy. High off of their "fame" from the scene they caused in the downtown preformance, they decided they wanted to do it again. 

When Stain's popularity suddenly went sky-high, they decided to profit off of it by making a name for themselves as well. They enlisted the help of Fumino (Hangnail) and Asuka (Scab), two petty villains they knew operated in the area, to pose as parents to get one of them accepted into UA. Thinking that the League of Villains had never actually gotten INSIDE UA, and that if they could pull something big off, that they could get in easy with them. 

They got ahold of Izumi's actual records in order to doctor them for the applications to UA and found out that while in Saffron house, after the numerous incidents, Izumi's worn out mother had released her parental rights to the home for the unimanigable quirks. Making Izumi a ward of the state. The group then used this to convince Izumi to act as the planted student as they were his only family now, and he was the only one currently young enough to pass as a first year. 

Izumi was accepted into the General course and quickly began to actually do quite well in his studies. All the while keeping a close watch on Class 1-A and in particular, their transfer division. Originally, the plan was to kidnap one of the rich transfer students in order to both get some cash coming in so they can sit pretty and wait for the League of Villains to hit them up, but also to cause an international stir. Therefore, cementing their names in national news. Originally their sights were set on Yun-Yeong, (Miss Diss) but their sights quickly shifting instead to Winston Astley, the American transfer student who was admitted on scholarship due to a nationally syndicated essay. They then simply waited for the right place and the right time.

The raid on UA: 

During the year, the transfer students would be brought in to coach students wanting to learn English, Izumi, (under the orders of his group) asked Winston for English lessons. Winston accepting only because of how eceoptionally bad Izumi was at English and mainly just enjoying him butcher sentences. He noticed Izumi getting noticably discouraged and would often observe him becoming quiet and reserved and began inviting him along afterschool to have noodles and visit the arcades with Arturo. Izumi appreciating it albiet Winson repeatedly making the point that him moping about at the school would ruin his good time out if he didn't. Soon Izumi was introduced to most of the Transfer students and became a regular face in the dorms. 

It was one day after regular training that Hangnail and Scab came to sthe school, getting in by making a meeting with the teacher about his grades, once inside, they collected Izumi and took him to the training yard where they brought him out infront of the transfer students, simply pushing Izumi off  one of the steps from behind and causing a natural surge of fear whilst they all had eye contact. Locking all of the transfer students in hallucinations. Knowing that they only have a short time to grab Winston and go, Hangnail and Scab go to grab him but are shocked to find Izumi turning his quirk against them, trapping them in a hallucination of the teachers arriving to the rescue. Deciding on his own to simply hold everyone still until the pros could truly come in help. 

This being the first time Izumi purposefully used his quirk he easily overdid it and ended up getting trapped in his own hallucination, realizing after a moment that he could see Winston expiriencing his. Winston spotted him and told him to stay put, not knowing or understandign that what he was expiriencing wasn't real and that this was all just an effect of his quirk. Losing conciousness quickly and unable to explain anything to him, Izumi begins to fall over, to what looks like to Winston anyhow, is falling into a chasm opening up below them. 

Since Winstons quirk is that he gets increased strength equal to the pain he expiriences, he quickly grabs a rock off of the ground and strikes himself hard in the head with it, using the boost to leap the chasm off of his crumbling foothold and grab Izumi just before he falls from his. This prolongs the hallucinations for only a few seconds more until Izumi becomes too dizzy is disoriented to control it and his heart rate slows breaking the effect on everybody. When it lets up Hangnail and Scab take a moment or two to re-orient themselves before attacking, Jin using his sheild intiatially to block the first of the blows while everyone is still coming back to reality. 

Shortly after the teachers arrive and Hangnail and Scab are forced to retreat using another members quirk to cloak them as they escape. Izumi and Winston sit while the police take statements from everyone and while sharing the police blanket they were given waiting to be questioned, Izumi loses conciousness against Winstons shoulder. 

When he wakes up he is in a hospital room and immedietly assumes the worst, shocked when Winston comes in and gives him the updates on whats going on and how everyone is doing. Realizing right then that nobody knows that he had anything to do with it and bursts into tears, unable to handle the intense pressure of his secret any more. Winston actually remaining to awkwardly comfort him despite his usual manner of just leabing situations like this. It being the first time he actually comforted somebody without a selfish reasoning. Izumi eventually tells Winston to send the teachers in and to close the door, deciding that he would tell them everything.

After explaining to the teachers and having the police track down the proper records everyone was sort of at a loss as to what to do with Izumi.

He was pulled from classes for a few days until suddenly he appeared again, the teachers having a very careful sit-down with the transfer students to fully explain the situation. Izumi would remain a student in name only at the school so that they can try and establish contact with the group again, if they think nothing is wrong they will try to contact him and they will be lead straight to their hideout. Paloma being the one to overtake the careful surveillance of him to make sure he didn't resume whatever plans the group might come to him with in secret.

Not all of the transfer students are happy about this though and it actually causes a massive rift amongst them. Yun-Yeong completely disowns Izumi and anyone who decides to stick by him, and Eite and Bunta join her in that thinking. Jin doesnt understand enough to pass any judgment and tries to remain neutral but feels the tug between his two closest friends. Monomiya is there to welcome him back with open arms and Winston is hurt but slowly begins to build his trust back up with him again. 

Fast forwards past a bunch of very big events I will expound upon later, the group overcomes this and becomes close once more again, its graduation time and during off season and holidays, Paloma also took in Izumi. On graduation day she handed him his diploma and the adoption papers which had been approved just a few weeks before. Having carefully moulded him into a wonderful support hero.

Fun Facts: -Wouldn't admit it to another living soul, but having had the biggest puppy-dog crush on Winston following his rescue of him after the UA attack. -He is terrified of Yun-Yeong, not because she is loud or scary, but because of her ability to speak the truth so bluntly, he's afraid he'll be confronted with the idea that he's beyond saving when he sees her. -His favorite food is crab and ramen. Having lived from place to place with a bunch of vagrant teens having gotten himself very accustomed to what makes good and bad ramen. He can actually  name and differentiate most different kinds of ramen as well as a myriad of facts and tipsfor cooking. This is because when his crew would roll into a ramen place, he was usually left out of the conversation, he would either listen to the stories of those close by or would talk to the cooks themselves who would sometimes engage him just because he looked lonely.

-Can sleep almost anywhere because he has slept almost everywhere. The crew was constantly moving from place to place and sometimes you had to make due. One day during pack-up day Jin found him sleeping in between two boxes with his knees to his chest. Having thought he found a dummy at first and. He has also been caught sleeping amongst gym equiptment since the gym supply room is very warm. -During off seasons and holidatys Paloma took him in and he'd have Christmas Dinner and shrine visits with both Miho and Paloma. They even took him to their hometown one year for its Lanturn festival. 

Credits to @unofficialperson12 who pitched Paloma having kids~

[gravyinvader]

i finally made a ref for flin and it’s been a long time since i’ve done any digital art so don’t clown me. I’ll type what i wrote b/c my handwriting is dookey

Flin:

kind

crybaby

clumsy

Likes:

her tallest

being useful

attention

Dislikes:

being alone

being treated as a burden

not being allowed to make her own choices / being told what’s best for her

she’s very tall, about a head shorter than the tallest

a few years younger than zim

very long lore under the read more b/c i love my girl and can’t shut up ever

pak was removed shortly after being “born”; it was removed by rebels as part of a mission to learn more about paks. it failed and cost the rebels a lot of lives and yielded very little results. her pak was practically destroyed in the process and not much could be taken from it.

somehow managed to survive without a pak but occasionally “glitches” because it’s improper removal. glitches happen when she’s too tired or emotional; her brain clings to whatever emotion she’s feeling and she has a violent tantrum depending on what it is. on top of glitches, she gets very tired easily and has to rest often as well as being generally weak and fragile.

was raised by a vortian, tan, who was there for the original mission because he felt bad for basically ruining an innocent child’s life. She was never properly programmed from the start and was raised by rebels, so she didn’t have very many irken traits. however, they lived on a small planet away from the rebellion because how fragile she was and how easy of a target she was. they lived alone outside the occasional visitors tan got, the most frequent being a pilot named zip who was an irken rebel and is very fond of flin.

Despite her usually gentle personality, not many of the rebels liked her, most of them associated her with the huge failure that mission was. she wasn’t able to help the rebellion either, so she was seen as a burden and a sour reminder. once she’s old enough to live on her own, she encourages tan to rejoin the rebellion so he could actively help them instead of being stuck on a tiny rock in the middle of nowhere.

both tan and zip visited her frequently, but as they got more important, their visits became more and more spaced apart as they got busier and it was more dangerous for them to frequent the same areas. days became weeks became years before she saw them again.

eventually an invader came to a planet in the solar system she was in and they were curious about the irken that lived alone in the middle of nowhere, who he couldn’t pick up any readings for. finally tan and zip came to visit again, but it was too much for her and too short of a visit after years, so she snapped and started destroying things in a violent glitch. basically all of this attracted the invaders attention and he decided he couldn’t just ignore them anymore.

tan and zip tried to flee so the invader would follow them, the obvious rebel leaders, but he was much more interested in the pakless irken that was just trying to fight them. he picked her up and took her off to the massive before the two could really react.

while she was recovering from her glitch, irkens on the massive were trying to figure out how she managed to survive without a pak and the incident involving a smeet being stolen and their pak being destroyed was brought up. they decided that was her and they wanted to keep her around for testing. 

of course the tallest were curious about her, so when she finally woke up she was brought before them. because she was so tall, it was decided that she would be a snack girl for them instead of being cut up and experimented on. Eventually she basically became their assistant and was always by their side when she wasn’t resting and having her health monitored. after a few weeks of their almost constant attention, she easily latched onto them. 

red started to get confused because he was worrying about flin getting hurt because how fragile she was, he would get flustered when she would dote on him, and he would get jealous when she doted on purple too much. he was the leader of the irken empire so he decided that these feelings were stupid, so he transferred her to work with some scientists. He couldn’t bring himself to transfer her off the massive or too far away though, so she was put in a very safe section of researchers.

flin was not very happy about this, but figured there was a reason behind her tallests decision and went along with it. she didn’t cling to any of them like she did with the tallest and was pretty bored and emotionless through the whole thing. It didn’t last that long though because purple eventually yelled at red for being so pissy after sending his little defective away, so red did a random inspection on the area she worked at.

it took him about two seconds after seeing her to realize that sending her away would not solve his problem because flin basically sprinted over to hug him once she noticed him. she cried and asked him why he sent her away and he said because he was an idiot and scooped her up to take her back to the control room with him. after he accepted that he was absolutely infatuated with her, he got more worried about her getting injured and dying, so he made her a pak. 

her pak is very large because its programmed to protect flin no matter what happens. red was worried how her body would react to a traditional pak, so it just clings to her instead of attaching to her. since it’s more of a protective backpack, she still has glitches and gets tired easily but the tallest don’t mind that. They actually love having an excuse to take naps and ignore their duties.

now she is very much so at home on the massive, and most irkens on board like her. she’s usually very nice to them all but also she seemed to mellow the tallest out so they’re much less likely to throw a random irken off the ship whenever they’re slightly annoyed or mad. when they do get mad, she’s very quick to try and settle them down or try to get them to take a nap or eat their favorite snack to cool off.

she is generally a sweet baby but sometimes can get very pissy. the tallest aren’t alarmed by her tantrums, because they’re almost never at the receiving end of them, but the rest of the crew has seen how easily she can break stuff, especially after she gets her pak and it helps her throw irkens around and destroy things. again she’s usually very sweet but if anyone is too mean to her or too rude to her tallest or kidnap her while shes asleep and wipes her memories and steals her pak and implants false memories about how she’s always lived with rebels even though that’s not how it even was when she was with them, she gets mad and violent. especially when that last thing happens, she gets very loud about her ranking and her importance to the tallest.

the tallest, and red especially, are very proud of her when she gets like that. their baby, off destroying lesser races and all that. they’re both very attached to her and love getting affection from her. red gets jealous when purple gets too much of flin’s attention and purple gets annoyed when red is hogging flin. red is very possessive and isn’t fond of anyone else touching flin, though purple is the exception. flin is very affectionate but at the end of the day gets cranky when she doesn’t have enough time with red to herself and nobody really wants to get between the two.

[3w-writer-with-wings]

The end of VRAINS season 2, why was Lightning a failure and future predictions.

To those of you who follow my theories and predictions for future VRAINS episodes and are wondering why I haven’t posted anything lately - there are two reasons:

1) This show is continuing to surprise me, by throwing the most insane plotlines on me that I simply don’t even know what to think anymore. Shin Yoshida is truly a talented scriptwriter and I’m both terrified and excited about what he’ll think of next. Barian Arc and ARC V manga were just a warm-up - VRAINS is the real deal.

2) I still haven’t got over how both Bowman’s duels that were completely underwhelming and made to win. I mean I get it, he is supposed to be an AI that can learn and had to win, but not like that! I was sort of okay with Blue Maiden’s defeat, but Takeru? It was downright disgusting to watch him pull the exact cards he needed and got rid of damage or direct attacks with complete luck. If you want to show off his duelling skills, then do so - not make him overpowered just because he has to be. You basically made him cheat and sure if he was an episodic villain, that’s okay but for a major boss opponent that’s a bit no-no for me. It felt like Pegasus duel (who mind read every one and practically killed off Yugi in order to win) and Don Thousand duel (who actually had a card that makes you LOSE the duel automatically if you didn’t do something), so that was one of the major flaws in the otherwise a really intense round of episodes.

 Okay, now that I have this out of my system, I can finally focus on the main topic - what will happen next. So I am one of those people who checks the cast lists and episode summaries every Tuesday, so if you don’t want any spoilers to stop reading at this point. I apologize, but my thoughts will be heavily centred around the info that came with the summaries for what appears to be the final episodes of season 2.

So where are we right now? Team Playmaker has been massively reduced to only Yusaku, Ai, Ryoken and Ryoken’s loyal generals aka. Faust, Vyra and Dr. Genome. Bowman has absorbed four Ignis, including Earth. I was a bit confused about how he got Earth when I remembered back in episode 79 during the conversation between Windy and Lightning, it was mentioned that Bowman was on a “special mission” and that mission was probably to hack in SOL and take Earth’s data. Ryoken brought it up many times that SOL is not even close to as experienced as he is, so it was most likely really easy for Bowman to get Earth.

Then there’s Yusaku who has just been through another traumatizing experience. The duel between him and Kusanagi has shown just how little Yusaku actually knows about himself as it was clear that he knew something like this would happen, but when it actually happened, he froze completely. As sad as it was, it was shown really realistically since this is something that is very likely to happen to victims of past abuse like Yusaku. I was already impressed by the Takeru vs. Ryoken duel - the pure emotion and amazing pacing and Yusaku’s reaction to the duel with Kusanagi was even better. It showed that no matter how strong Yusaku makes himself to be, he is just a traumatized child underneath a superhero suit. The pain he suffered was the one he was trying so hard to avoid hence why he was reluctant to call Kusanagi his friend or make friends in the first place - he was afraid of the pain of loss. At the moment Ryoken and Lightning are facing off in a duel that will likely last three full episodes and here’s what I think - Ryoken will be the next one to fall.

But why Ryoken? Well several reasons. I’m not saying Ryoken will lose due to a poor strategy - Lightning will most likely play dirty. The summaries revealed that Lightning will use Jin as a hostage and knowing Ryoken, it will work. The guy might’ve been one of the most ruthless rivals so far but at the same time he is also the one to suffer the most. His brutality has been always projected towards the Ignis, namely Windy who killed/seriously injured his partner and Lightning who is using Jin as a puppet. Ryoken might not show it, but he has a great sympathy for the Lost Incident victims and despite him stating that he “regretted saving them” I think that he still believes that he did the right thing by reporting the incident. It was revealed that Jin will be speaking in both episodes as well, so if Lightning pulls a cruel trick like threatening to destroy Jin’s soul right in front of him or use Jin in some other sickening way. It is also possible that there will be a draw or something else will happen to Ryoken. It was also revealed that even Ryoken’s generals will sacrificed themselves to stop Bowman. Akira and Emma might also be absorbed in that data storm that takes the souls of the people logged in VRAINS - awfully similar to how those charms for Earthbound Immortals in 5Ds worked. 

And the result of all this - Yusaku and Ai are completly on their own against Bowman. This will be the final boss of this season. Yusuku will not only have to be the hero everyone depends on, but will have to keep his emotions under tight control. If Kusanagi’s death wasn’t enough, just think how will he react to Ryoken’s death - a person who has been his symbol of hope for the past ten years is gone too. I imagine it will be a really intense reaction which will cause yet another breakdown, but unlike with Kusanagi, I believe Ryoken will say something really meaningful just before he will fade away or even give him three reasons to defeat Bowman and Yusaku will use that as a coping mechanism to defeat Bowman. How will this duel conclude - I have no idea really. At this point, Yusaku will have to win - too many people had died in front of his eyes and this very same person plans to go after more people and change the world to his perfect image. And there’s another thing that sort of bugs me:

Bowman and Haru strangely look a lot like Shoichi and younger Jin. It is probably becuase Jin is Lightning’s Origin and because Shoichi was likely Jin’s three reasons. Also Lightning most likely didn’t have much to chose from when designing new AIs. Though this may have a much deeper meaning - I already kinda brought it up with my Haru is Real Jin theory, but just think - what if this has to do with the reason why Lightning was the only Ignis with no bright future with humans? Why did Light Ignis become an error in the first place? I believe it is because Jin gave up first. Apart from Yusaku, Takeru, Specter and Miyu, we don’t know much what was going on over those excruciating months, but I think Jin has lost his will to fight far before Lost Incident was over. Shoichi described him as a cheerful and kind person, a lot like Yuya and Yuma, and if those two would be put through such hell, they would likely break the most and give up at one point. Jin’s Ignis therefore didn’t recieve all necessary data to be properly developed like other Ignis. This may also be the reason why he kiddnaped Jin - using him as a puppet is a sort of a punishment since he probably blames him for all of this. “It is your fault I have no future! So you will spend the eternity as my prisoner.” 

Another less believable theory is that Lightning represents Jin’s anger. Because really, we’ve only seen Lightning being pissed off in the last few episodes. Before that he was calm and collected, like highly educated person in charge. But the second his insecurities were brought up, he completly lost it. Maybe Jin did develop strong hatred during the Lost Incident, resulting in Lightning’s own rage. Maybe Jin broke down at some point, crying and asking why that happened to him. After some time those tears might’ve turned into anger and swore to punish the people who did that to him, but then more time passed and Jin realized it was impossible and instead of plotting revenge he slowly became an empty shell of himself until he was rescued. That pushed down anger was then passed to Lightning.

One last detail that I would like to point out - Kusanagi Shoichi. Ryoken specifically ordered Faust that he has to get Shoichi. But why? Why would he need him for? One reason is kinda obvious - he needed him to wake up Yusaku. Faust and Dr. Genome entered the truck with unconscius Shoichi and after a while Yusaku woke up after hearing Shoichi’s voice. Coincidence? I think not - Faust and Dr. Genome did soemthing to wake Yusaku up. Let’s not forget - both Yusaku and Takeru are also in the truck, logged in VRAINS. Could be possible that they wired Shoichi’s duel disk to Yusaku’s chamber or something?

Plus that might not be the only reason why Ryoken needs him. The summories stated that Lightning will use Jin as a hostage. What if Ryoken will use Kusanagi’s body and his consciusness data that Ai holds in order to save Jin? What if Shoichi is in fact the ultimate weapon against Lightning? There is a high possibility that Jin was kidnapped while Shoich was looking after him, hence why he blames himself so much. Maybe Jin kept calling after his brother for months and Shoichi so became Jin’s three reasons. This may be the reason why Bowman looks like toughed up Shoichi - he represents the perfect savior. So what would happen when Jin sees his big brother? Will he manage to break through Lightning’s prison and finally be free of his hold? Breaking through the mind prison has been a common theme in yugioh so I won’t be surprised if VRAINS uses it as well. Maybe that’s what will lead to the happy screenshot in the new ending, of the two of them watching stars together. 

But what were to become of Yusaku, Ai and other Ignis. I imagine that no matter what happens, Bowman will absorb Lightning and maybe Ryoken as well (that way we will actually have Yusaku indirectly fighting all Ignis except for Ai, his entire team plus Specter and Blood Shepard - kinda like how possessed Yuya fought all of his friends) and the final battle will occur. Playmaker will have to save VRAINS once more.

And then? Maybe Bowman will give human society one more chance after his defeat. Considering how developed and honorable he has become in the last few episodes, I believe that he will realize that humans cannot be surpassed by AIs since they have something he will never be able to have. Bowman so releases everyone that he has absorbed and restores VRAINS back to the way it was, returning the souls back to the people who were sacrificed during the duel. Then he lets himself being absorbed in VRAINS, saying he won’t be alone since Haru is in there somewhere. This may be the last calm before the storm that is SOL (that still deserves to pay for all of their crimes!). And judging from this screenshot from the new ending, only Ai will be left.

 Now another source of what we may see is the new ending that is actually a one big tease. Right after Ai is shown, mourning after other Ignis, the scene switches to Roboppi watching the stars as the shooting star crosses the sky. What if that shooting star was Ai? What if this is the hint that Ai will sacrifice himself for others? There’s even a scene with Yusaku’s duel disk without Ai. The Dark Ignis has become really protective of Yusaku, so what would happen in the next fight against SOL, if something happens to Yusaku? Queen has proven to be the most merciless memeber of SOL, willing to kill a living being and risk an employee’s life for the good of the company. What is stopping her from getting her hands on the last Ignis in order to power up their own Artificial Ignis. SOL basically means sun and when you get too close to it, you get burnt. There’s no doubt Yusaku will do anything to keep his promise to Ai, especially now that he is the only one left. But what if SOL will discover Yusaku’s real identity and attack him in the real world? What if that will anger Ai to the point of turning completely against humans and become the very Ignis that Dr. Kogami was so afraid of?

Ai already hates SOL for killing Earth, so just imagine what he would do if they would capture and torture Yusaku, like Akira did in the first first few episodes. Maybe they will make it even more emotional by showing the flashbacks of how Yusaku was tortured during the Lost Incident while Ai’s eye couldn only observe. I often see Ai and Yusaku as Astral and Yuma and Astral has sacrificed himself for Yuma and also became corrupted. Shin Yoshida wrote a lot of Zexal episodes with such scenes, so there is a great possibility he will be in charge of the concluding story. 

What I would like to see? Ai becoming that terrifying Ignis when SOL invokes him by hurting Yusaku. Maybe Ai loses it to the point that he starts attacking everyone and Yusaku duels him in order to get him back to his senses. Maybe this last ending flashes before his eyes - showing the perfect reality where Ignis never existed and knowing that as long as he is there, more harm will come to Yusaku and the people he knows. So my prediction is - Yusaku will defeat Ai in one last duel to bring him to his old self and when it seems like Ai will be willing to recreate Cyberse and stay there, Ai will ultimately change his mind and instead sacrifice himself to wipe up any signs of Ignis research and data. The Lost Incident will once again become lost, but maybe this will be finally a chance for Yusaku and others to move one and live peacefully.

Happy, sad or bittersweet ending - I don’t really care as long as it is conclusive.

[lachalaine]

He wouldn’t, and couldn’t, wait any longer. He had to meet Jackie in his human form, no matter what, even if it meant a bit of quick and sneaky work on his part in order to make it happen. Getting the time to head back to his own place and freshen up beforehand had been only half the battle…but he had made it through and now stood on the somewhat-busy street; showered, dressed, and feeling human.

As his eyes took in the details around, he raised a hand and ran his fingers through his hair. There was a faint breeze carrying around the scent of coffee, food, and of the rain which had fallen earlier. In the sky, the clouds were pulling away to reveal peeks of blue, it was turning into a beautiful day.

And if he was right about Jackie’s schedule, she would be coming around the next corner to make his day better, right about now…

Nope.

That wasn’t her.

Worry pressed at his shoulders and tugged the corners of his lips down. The thought that maybe he wouldn’t even recognise Jackie like this whispered into the forefront of his mind. He knew her hair was dyed, but had never seen its colour (or rather, had never seen it in colour), which meant he had no idea what to keep an eye out for. He would just have to rely on other things about her that were obvious, such as her clothing style perhaps…

It was just as he was really starting to second-guess himself, that he caught sight of vibrant, purple hair as a woman emerged from around the corner. His eyes widened (and lit up) as he recognised Jackie. His ridiculous worries had been all for nought. There was no way he wouldn’t recognise her, colour or no.

Purple hair, huh? Purple was the colour of royalty, so it made complete sense to him that it was what she had, and what suited her so well. He couldn’t imagine any other possibility.

His gaze tracked her as she headed along the street, towards him (though it seemed she wasn’t exactly paying attention). Wow, what a delight this was. As she came closer, he noticed how there were a multitude of tones within her hair, and his hands begged to touch and learn each shade. So pretty…

Oh wow. She was so short, he noted while she drew nearer. So cute…

And he was getting distracted, wasn’t he.

Nervousness came in and set his heart at a quicker pace, he used the burst to start himself walking towards her. And…

He ‘accidentally’ bumped into her of course. With quick reflexes (aided by the fact this had been planned and mentally practised throughout the previous night), he caught her before she could tumble down. Her scent and the warmth of her presence washed over him as he held her (one hand on her arm, one on her waist). Oh, this was so strange, but wonderful. Their faces close together, but the colours so brilliant, with no feline features or fur in between them. He could hold her. Finally.

Instead of letting out the purr which wanted to rumble up through him, he grinned at her in a somewhat apologetic manner, and he slowly took his hands off her once she was steady.

“Sorry,” he said, his eyes leaving hers only to momentarily study her hair.

The temptation to touch it twitched at his fingers, but he restrained himself with a promise that one day (hopefully soon) he would be allowed to take such an action. It would be worth the wait.

He refocused on her eyes but took a step back from her, his earlier grin coming back as a teasing curve this time.

“You might wanna watch out, you almost fell for me at first sight~”

What a line. Did he really just say that? Yes, yes he did. And there was not a drop of shame in his body as he gave a wink and moved around her to keep walking. Leaving her already. Was all his effort worth it for a brief minute of close contact with her? Definitely. Of course, he wanted to stay around her, but this was all part of the plan to meet her properly another time…

// @bestiatexere

“Ouch.” Smack went the ringing sound that’d resonated through the poor unlucky street lamp, yet another ill-fated victim in the female’s unwitting warpath.

…okay, so maybe that was a bit of an exaggeration – by a lot – but still, the fact remained.

The pole was turning out not to be the only casualty of her day.

And gods, but to think she’d just woken up. “I’m so sorry.“ What’d felt like the 4th apology in the last hour, and to an inanimate object nonetheless. And oh, but she still has about enough sense ( despite the possibly forming concussion ) to her to recognize that the pole didn’t exactly seem very contrite, and yet the sigh that left full lips would make you think otherwise. She pats it softly in apology, a short incline of her head, before with yet another sigh; she continues on her way. Keeping her eyes a little more open now, of course, to try to prevent anymore particular incidents – and yet still, the mood remains.

Between having the bad luck of waking up late, stumbling upon a hornets nest as soon as she was out the door, and being chased off down the street by an old man with a cane who’d apparently deemed the entire sidewalk of an entire block to be his property, amongst other smaller inconveniences – Jackie was convinced she’d legitimately finally run herself fucking ragged.

And to think it was only two in the afternoon, too.

“I just shouldn’t have gotten out of bed today. Shouldn’t have gotten out. Should have stayed in bed with Kit.” Soft utterance beneath her breath as hands patted against fair cheeks in efforts to wake herself up a little more, lashes fluttering closed for just a moment - only for female to just as suddenly let out a small “Meep!” at the realization at having almost walked right into an open manhole.

Two inches away and she would have been a goner. A stinky, sludge stricken goner.

‘Maybe try not to kill yourself today, yes? Especially because if you do, you have no will to your name, and thus your house will be passed along to two fussy felines that will be taking complete command only to potentially turn it into a huge litter box. Also Kit will finally have the chance to turn all your lingerie into his personal scratching post.’

Snap. That was the sound of her consciousness fusing together again. 

Well, that was one way to wake a girl up. “Sounds good.” She agrees blithely to absolutely no one at all, shaking her head as she scooted carefully around the opening, before just as quickly speed walking away from it as fast as possible.

Zoom, zoom, zoom – she’d needed caffeine in her, stat! Preferably before she got run over by a car. Such a feat wasn’t entirely beyond her current capabilities after all, now was it?

God, she’d certainly hoped not.

That would just be sad. Terribly, terribly sad.

And the thought alone prompts a grumble to issue forth as female finally turns the corner down the street, tossing her head about as though that alone would help ease off some of the haze that’d taken root inside her skull. She manages to clear it somewhat, but only just enough. Enough to keep her eyes peeled on the passing shop fronts at least, wandering gaze adamantly searching for anything that might’ve remotely resembled anything at all to do with the word ‘coffee’.

She’d barely managed to scan through for any semblance of the term before she’d once again smacked headfirst into what she’d prematurely deemed was yet another pole or postbox, and if it were anyone else – Jackie might have honest to god finally gone down screaming to the high heavens to seriously Fuck The Hell Off.

And in fact, she was just about to actually do it – before suddenly, the breath of sharp air she’d sucked in for such an attempt was just as abruptly stolen from her.

By – a man.

‘Oh my god.’

Not a lamp post. We repeat, this was not a lamp post.

‘Yeah,’ Oh boy. ‘Kinda got that part.’

Lamp posts tended not to have eyes as striking as his.

Caught within his grasp, it was hard not to notice them. A most particular shade of hazel, with an almost familiar feline like quality that shone brightly from beneath a tousled arrangement of dark golden brown curls, they were enough to make her feel most definitely warm – from far more than just the heat of the afternoon sun and the sensation of the strong arms that’d caught and held her up against an equally as toned chest. The man was so close, and so recognizable - in a way that was making her heart pound. Eyes intense, and a smile that’d made her weak. As overwhelmed as she was, it was all she could do to not go almost breathless in the aftermath of it.

Holy help her.

She wasn’t prepared for this. Not prepared for any of it.

But then was she ever really??

Though luckily, it soon appears as though she’d have never even needed to be. For before she can even get a single word out – with an admittedly rather dim thought still in the process of vaguely forming within her mind – the male’s already let her go; steadying her upon her feet, a soft apology already issued past his lips. The words are uttered with the tenor of a deep voice, a rumbling tone that’d seemed to wrap around her – that for all intents and purposes, she could swear almost inexplicitly resembled the vague inklings of that of a purr.

Oh god. She was just spending too much time with the cats now, wasn’t she?

It certainly felt that way. For why else would she so suddenly feel as though she didn’t know how to react to a human male?

Granted he was a very gorgeous human male – but still.

She wasn’t usually this caught off guard by ones presence, and yet his effect upon her was so obviously prominent, the female finding herself almost confused by the loss of contact; thoughts scrambled enough by mere presence that his following words take more than a moment to register – but when they finally do, accompanied by that wink, she almost can’t seem to prevent her most damnable blush.

“Wh – what – ?” The partial inklings of laughter, an attempt to speak, only for her voice to falter as brain races to play catch up. Instead, she remains blinking back at him as mahogany remained locked with that of hazel, bright flush still high upon rose tinted cheeks as he brushes past, leaving her alone to stand unaided and looking back at him – uncertain of what she could say to even refute such a coy statement.

Though should she have even bothered? Something inside told her she needn’t have worried.

It felt like there’d be more than enough time for that in the future.

[dogtrainingscoop]

How did your dog react when you took them home for the first time?

Author: Vernon Mclean

We finally took the first step: we got our own puppy! "My first dog (and best friend) was Rex, a sweet, playful pup. I knew it would be labor intensive and a big obligation, but that “holy crap” feeling I had when I first picked him up was just a subtle hum of the screaming siren of uneasiness I’ve come to know a few moments after.

When we prepared his crate for him, my son tied his leash to the leg of a chair, he did not like it to sit still and tried to get up and run towards a ball or something, and the next thing TERRIFIED to find that the chair was CHASING HIM:)

How did your dog react when you took them home for the first time?

Anyway I’m including some photos of his first day,,,, Tanya Gorelova took these photos:)

After a long day, My Best, most gentle and patient dog I've ever met…

The Famous Chair...

The Famous Ball…..

Getting into trouble

Doing the right thing:)

Anyway, I’ve learned some things and also managed to put together a few important points to take note of….

If you are thinking of bringing a puppy into your home, you may have encountered these questions: how old should a puppy be when you pick it up and what will you do with it before it receives all vaccines against infectious diseases?

If you are buying a dog, do not take it before it is 8 weeks old

For starters, as a partial answer to the first question, clearly and loudly: if you are buying a dog, don’t let the breeder (in this case it should be written in quotes) force you to take the puppy home before he is 8 weeks old. And don't be fooled, so in the desire to get cheaper, take the dog from someone who just "punches" the dog and does not care at all about the welfare of these animals.

The calculation is very clear here:

When they are 4-5 weeks old, puppies become much more physically and financially demanding, so a person who sells dogs just for the sake of making money then eventually wants to get rid of increasingly demanding puppies.

However, puppies that are prematurely separated from their mother and the rest of the litter, as adult dogs, show much more (serious) behavioral problems than puppies that remain with their mother and siblings for at least 8 weeks and in a crucial period of socialization seen lasts up to 4 months of age) were properly socialized . This is shown by many researches conducted at world scientific institutions.

What if you decide to adopt an abandoned or discarded puppy?

If you have decided to adopt a dog from a shelter or save a puppy found abandoned and thrown on the road, it is a very commendable gesture and you should not be discouraged by not knowing how this puppy spent the earliest months of life, but you should definitely leave as soon as possible to some organized form of dog training (for example to some quality individual or group course).

Don't wait for a "suitable" moment because the right moment is exactly when you brought the dog home. The longer you wait, even if there are no behavioral problems at first, the harder it will be to solve the problems once they arise.

And what about vaccines?

You’ve probably heard from someone before (probably your vet) that a puppy should be in isolation from other dogs and the outside world until it receives all the vaccines against infectious canine diseases (i.e., by about 4-5 months of age).

You definitely need to be careful where you take your puppy, but it is by no means good to keep him in isolation from all living beings, all experiences and stimuli. Infectious canine diseases are often deadly and unfortunately are very common in some areas. But keep this in mind: your puppy will not receive all the vaccines until he is about 4 months old. If you wait until then, the opportunity to socialize your dog properly will already be missed.

And not only that: according to the American Veterinary Society for Animal Behavior (AVSAB), behavioral problems, not contagious canine diseases, are the leading cause of death in dogs under 3 years of age ! (This refers to the fact that in the U.S., more dogs are killed each year due to behavioral problems than are killed by infectious canine diseases). The same veterinary society recommends that dogs be introduced to new places, people and other dogs before receiving all vaccines against infectious canine diseases (ie, puppy owners are advised not to keep puppies in isolation from the outside world while receiving these vaccines).

What does all this actually mean for puppy owners?

It means you need to be careful where you take your puppy before he receives all the vaccines, but not that you need to keep him locked up in the house. For example, going to dog parks, pet stores, and other places where a lot of dogs come that we don’t know if they’re vaccinated and if they’re healthy is not a good idea. Instead, get your puppy used to driving with you in the car; introduce him to many children and adults; take him to hang out with friends who have healthy, vaccinated dogs and other pets accustomed to dogs; go with him to the mall (at a time when it is not crowded); walk with him around in your backyard; enter a course for puppies in a verified place that you know is safe for puppies, etc. But always make sure that all these experiences for your puppy are positive experiences. Proper socialization of a dog is a pleasant experience, not something that will traumatize him for the rest of his life.

Either way, don’t wait for the dog to cross the 16-week limit to start socializing, because you’re already very late by then. In the case of proper early socialization, time plays a key role. Also see more Interesting Articles: Here

Don’t make these 15 Mistakes with your New Puppy:

1. DON'T LET your puppy eat when he wants to

There is a very fine line between new puppies to make them feel comfortable at home with you and let them do whatever they want and get into bad habits and one of the main pitfalls to avoid this view concerns food.

Food and food are arguably the biggest motivators when it comes to dogs and can help you achieve everything from successful training to encouraging a shy dog out of its shell to help your puppy commit to you. . a coin to buy your puppy happiness is a big but also easy to make mistake!

Your puppy should have reliable feeding hours with his food divided into appropriate portions and the food should be measured for them just every day. You should also work on calculating how much fun your dog can have in a day - taking into account both the calories and the value of the reward.

Bribing your puppy with too many treatments or providing food wherever they ask will not only make your life more difficult, but it will also make your puppy worse.

2. Delay in training

You are probably already thinking about training your puppy and how it will work when you first bring it home - but training a dog is not like sending a child to school for the first time and is not something that has to start at a set time. and on a set date! The training should start from the first day your puppy comes home - not from picking them up in a class or field and performing them through exercises, but in terms of letting them know what they are and are not you are also allowed to correct your puppy to praise them appropriately as they begin to learn.

3. Do not spend enough time around other dogs

An astonishing number of new puppy owners may be reluctant to encourage their puppies to socialize with other dogs as much as they really should, believing the puppy is too small, too small, or the other dogs are too big and noisy and thus a potential danger to your puppy.

However, once your puppy pulls out the eighth after vaccinations, you should start taking precautionary measures to allow them to meet and communicate with other dogs at every possible opportunity and try to ensure that this is a good mix of different dogs that include many chances to meet strange dogs.

Puppies learn as much, if not more, from other dogs as they do from humans, and avoiding socializing is one of the biggest mistakes a new puppy owner can make.

4. Unintentionally allowing unreasonable fears

Because puppies are small, cute, and sensitive, they tend to trigger protective instincts in humans, which often translate into a desire to wrap them in cotton and protect them from the world! However, just as this approach is counterproductive when it comes to children - for example, if your child is playing on their knee, causing a lot of noise it can cause them to cry, minimizing and dealing with it, as there is no greater chance to encourage them to continue normally.

The same goes for puppies - if they are scared, shy or nervous, or something happens that makes them wary, do not push their shower with sympathy - this is the fastest way to amplify their fears and create a nervous adult. dog.

Instead, behave normally and this will reassure your puppy that there is nothing to fear and encourage them to continue normally.

5. Tell your puppy when they do not understand something

So go down in the morning to find that your puppy has made a mess on the floor… your instinctive reaction may be to tell them, but bite your tongue! First of all, if a young puppy is ruining things or fishing indoors, it may be due to a lack of understanding or because you have not met your needs in this regard - and also, your puppy has no idea what they were wrong if you told them after the incident.

Do not make a big fuss, but clear up immediately and see ways you can avoid the problem that will arise again in the future.

6. DO NOT leave the puppy home alone

Book a holiday for at least a week or two to ensure your puppy gets used to his new home. The puppy should initially be fed four times a day. A small dog also needs to potty train more often. Always take your puppy out after waking up, playing, eating and drinking.

7. DO NOT stretch the loneliness But must get used to it

Get your dog used to being alone during the first few weeks. For example, you can go to another room first. Exercise when the puppy is already tired and your pup would be calmer.

Leave your pup a treat, say "Wait!" and go away for a moment. Many times the treat will sooth him and your pup will go to sleep after eating. When you come back, go back to your normal chores. Most importantly, there is no big difference between the first arrival and the next day.

If the dog keeps making noise when alone, go play with him, go for a walk, do activity and repeat the exercise so many times that loneliness begins to disappear.

8. DO NOT think that learning to be tidy happens all at once

Few dogs learn to be tidy all at once. The dog cannot be managed in the event of an emergency when it happens, so it should not be penalized for peeing on the floor.

Do not pay too much attention to the mess, but rather clean it up and continue. The dog likes attention, whether it’s positive or negative. The dog also does not remember the booboo done an hour ago. It looks repentant because it reads its owner’s scornful behavior.

9. DO NOT put the dog on a leash immediately

The dog doesn’t immediately realize that while on the leash, it has to obediently paddle alongside its owner. Teach your dog to keep an eye on you and walk close to you first, only then turn your attention to the leash. Also teach the dog to walk past his companions and people without making a fuss. Other dogs are found in a safe place without a leash.

10. NOT allow the puppy to wean in your arms

Getting used to a person's bosom and to calm him down will make it easier in the future, for example, to visit a veterinarian. Teach your puppy that you can only get out of your arms when the rattle has stopped. When the puppy is calm in your arms, keep your grip gentle & comfortable. If the puppy is rattling, tighten the grip.

However, do not hurt your pup. Also don’t instantly let him down. Let your puppy down after he has been rattling for at least ten seconds. Often the puppy needs dozens of exercises to get it right.

11. DO NOT forget to investigate health issues on a timely manner

Once the dog is already at home, it is too late to start figuring out health / vaccine issues. Find out in advance what vaccines your dog needs to be given.

The dog is given the first vaccinations at three months of age and booster vaccinations one month after the first vaccinations. After a year, booster vaccinations will be given, followed by veterinary instructions.

12. DO NOT leave valuables in the open, visible & accessible to your new friend

Hide any items that your dog may break when raging. Also remove dangerous items, such as cords, that your dog should not chew on. Keep the environment safe for your dog.

13. DO NOT let your dog rage without limits

A dog needs to be set clear boundaries of what it’s allowed to do and what it’s not. Together agreed rules must be followed by all family members. If it is agreed that the dog is not allowed to jump on the couch, no one will let the dog jump on the couch.

The dog gets confused if one member of the family lets go and the other scolds. When speaking to a dog, one word must also be used. If one says "No!" and another “Stop!”, the dog will get confused.

14. DO NOT forget to teach good healing practices

If the dog bounces and rages when you arrive, you yourself have taught it how to greet you. If you don’t want your dog to jump against yourself, don’t give your dog attention.

Turn your back and look at the ceiling. When the dog behaves, notice the dog. It gradually learns that the bouncing & jumping is not worth it.

15. DO NOT write off expert help

Breeders often give good advice on how to train your dog. Experts from different dog breeds can be found, for example, on the websites of Kennel Club’s.

Also see more Interesting Articles: Here

[g0ldpainted]

23rd December - CtC’17

Ignis + his S/O’s life after the “incident”

Hey guys! :3

Just fyi, this idea goes well with Ignis & his S/O meeting for the first time after “the incident” and Ignis reacting to a pregnancy announcement.

This contains spoilers for the endgame!

Words: 2200+

Genre: Slice of life

Spoilers: YES! Spoilers for both the FFXV endgame!

Trigger Warnings: Don’t think any are needed - if you think so, feel free to hit me up and I’ll correct it :)

Being a blind advisor was far from easy. It was even worse that he never had enough time to properly adjust to his new life. The moment Noctis woke up and was ready to continue his journey, Ignis was also back up on his feet. Being as stubborn and selfless as he always was, he surely accompanied him. He'd stick to the prince until the very end - and he did. 

After the world was covered by darkness and Noctis had entered the crystal, Ignis was on his way back home. His girlfriend already knew about the incident, even managed to visit him in Altissia. She sure was devastated but she knew she would always stick to his side. There was no way she'd leave him. They considered themselves soulmates, never failed to shower one another with love - but now they were facing a new challenge.

For the sake of monitoring Ignis and ensuring he wouldn't accidentally hurt himself, his girlfriend moved in with him. It was important that he'd stay in his home, in an environment he knew by heart. But it was also mandatory that he wouldn't be alone - so this was the perfect opportunity to take their relationship one step further. 

Especially the first weeks were filled with frustration and anger. Ignis bumped into furniture, stumbled up and fell down the stairs, cut himself while trying to cook,.. The list went on and on. Every once so familiar movement had to be re-learned. Although he never meant to, he did take his anger out on his beloved S/O. They often ended up fighting - which just further frustrated him as he couldn't see her expression and how she felt about it. He only heard her voice. If she was only acting tough, tears were already running down her cheek, he wouldn't know. To say the first months were anyhow easy would be a tremendous lie - they were far from it. Ignis often felt helpless. He couldn't read incoming bills anymore, couldn't make a payment on his own, couldn't drive, couldn't go shopping on his own, couldn't even go out for hunts as he simply couldn’t fight. There were so many things he simply couldn't do anymore, so many tasks his S/O had to take over - he felt utterly terrible. 

It took him a while to find some motivation to improve but once he finally found it, he was determined to work hard. Eventually, his senses finally adjusted as well - which made this whole situation a lot easier. Nonetheless, it was still a struggle and the whole process certainly wasn't fast enough for him. He wanted to lift all pressure off his girlfriend, wanted to become as independent as he possibly could. 

Ignis attempted to cook on his own, asked his girlfriend to write a letter to contractors providing any kind of service to him, asking for them to send the bills in braille. On top of that, simply to have some distraction, he bought books in braille. Together with his dearest S/O, he learned how to read it and with those books, he could at least still follow his favorite calming hobby. Aside from that he started leaving his apartment, he was no longer staying inside, sulking. However, he was a little too eager for his S/O. She didn't want him to leave on his own so shortly after the incident. She wanted him to rest up and let his burns heal instead. An exception would've been if someone had accompanied him - but that was not the case. She frequently arrived at home and was met with an empty apartment. The cherry on the icing was that Ignis didn't take his phone with him. So, full of worry, his S/O rushed through the city, almost had a breakdown because she feared for the worst.. Only to come back home with a tear-stained face, finding him in the kitchen cooking their dinner. Instead of Ignis letting out his anger and frustration on his S/O, it was her turn to vent. In the end, they set different ringtones for each caller and activated voice control on his phone. That way, even if he wouldn't use it anymore, she could at least reach him at any time. 

The more months passed by, the more confident Ignis became in his abilities. Walking freely was no issue in their house and closest surroundings, cooking was good again as long as he knew where the ingredients were and spices weren't moved - he could easily engage in life again. With his confident boost came the longing for his S/O. For months he had been to shy to try anything sexual but now he was actually eager to give it a shot. It sure was different not being able to see his partner but it was also incredibly exciting. He started to notice the tiniest moves, could read their body language so much better - as long as he felt it. 

Their relationship gradually improved while they explored and experienced all-new options together. Suddenly, his disability didn't matter anymore. It didn't stop him from living his life to the fullest. Thanks to Gladio's help, he even managed to regain his fighting ability. He was no longer nearly as helpless as he used to be and that benefitted all his relationships greatly. Sooner or later no one longer recognized him as the advisor that lost his vision and purpose but as the advisor who didn't need his vision to be brilliant. 

For a few years, everything seemed to go great. There were little to no troubles, Ignis kept adjusting amazingly to the point he no longer required any kind of assistance unless he actually had to see something. It was when his now-wife announced their pregnancy, that they were faced with new challenges. They had to set up a room for their child, had some preparations to do. Both were uncertain about how this would work out. But before they knew it, a tiny bundle of joy was born into their family. They were both incredibly grateful and immediately fell in love with it. But at the same time, Ignis was silently weeping, crying about how he couldn't see its faces and would never witness their first crawls or first time standing on its feet. He hated the thought of not being able to enjoy these moments. Although he carefully caressed the body of his kid, mainly its face, to get it memorized, it clearly wasn't the same. He could only use his imagination for a clear picture of their child. It really beat him up knowing that he was forced to be the more-or-less passive parent. There was a lot he couldn't do, a lot that was exclusive to his wife but also a lot he simply refused to do out of fear he'd hurt the little bean. 

Throughout their child's entire first two years, Ignis could hardly help his wife. She didn’t mind, not once complained. But now it was time to take some responsibility as well. His wife was no longer on maternity leave, had to go back to work, so he often found himself home alone with their little bean. Although it was great that it could already move around so freely, it also was a lot of trouble to Ignis. TV's, radio's - any kind of music and noise-making thing - had to be turned off so he could hear his child roam around the house. Thankfully, Ignis was still - by far - faster than his little devil, catching up with it wasn't hard at all. It was only hard finding out what it was planning or already doing. At least it was easy to keep the little bean busy. From playing inside with some toys, Lego, Playmobil or Barbies, to building a sandcastle at a public playground, Ignis did it all. He gladly spent time with his child, enjoyed hearing it laugh and giggle. Much to Ignis' dismay, playing in the snow in winter was his kid's favorite activity, so, of course, he joined in on those as well.

"Dearest, it seems it snowed some, do you want to build a snowman?" Ignis asked his little sprouse that was currently sitting on his lap, fondling around with some of his books.

"A snowman!?" it replied, glancing up at its father with widened eyes.

"Yes. Let's surprise mommy and build her one" he suggested, slowly helping his child slide down onto the ground so they could get going to their garden.

"Awesome!" his child exclaimed, running towards the door leading to the garden.

"Not so fast, champ!" Ignis called out, hurrying after it, "We need you to wear proper clothing first."

After reaching the door, Ignis started patting for his kid's jacket and shoes, then hastily helped put them on. Once his little cutie was all dressed up and ready, Ignis dressed himself.. Accidentally put on his wife's shoes on first, though. Today wouldn't be his day, nothing would go right. Or at least that's what he was convinced off as he stumbled out into their garden, almost falling as he slipped. Their child had made its way into the garden before its father even wore his jacket. Ignis could hear how it was walking around. 

"Daddy, right here!" it called out, pointing at a spot for where to build the snowman. 

Instinctively turning his head towards the direction he heard the noise from, he nodded, then he slowly started approaching it. It was then that he realized just how much it had snowed as his shoes and parts of his pants were getting soaked. 

"No, you walked over it!" his kid complained as he apparently walked past the designated spot. 

Sighing, he took a few steps back until his tiny bean was happy.

"Did you build a snowman with your mom before?" he asked, slowly kneeling down to form a snowball in his hands.

"I did! But it melted before you could see it" it replied, pouting lightly. 

As he took note of the tone his child spoke in changed, he knew it was potentially pouting and carefully reached out towards it's cheek to stroke it.

"I'm sure you did a good job" he encouraged it.

"Yes.." it whispered.

After a quick, reassuring hug, Ignis and his child started rolling snowballs and slowly building their snowman. Every now and then, Ignis was hit by a snowball - clearly coming from his child who wanted to tease him. Although he knew he probably wouldn't hit it anyway, he refused to throw some back. The risk was too high that he would accidentally take up some stones into the snowball and end up injuring his child. Instead, he just laughed about it and congratulated his sprouse whenever it landed a hit and didn't miss. 

However, this still wasn't exactly Ignis' day. 

Since he couldn't see what was ahead of him, he didn't notice that a branch had fallen off their tree. On his way back to the snowman, he tripped over it and landed face first in the snow. While shivers ran down his spine and his face immediately started to freeze, his kid giggled, made fun of how clumsy its father was. On the bright side, at least he couldn't break his glasses since he didn't need them anymore.

"You.. Little.." he grumbled, grinning as he could easily locate his child, then rushed over to it.

Instead of tickling it, which was something it hated, he picked it up and carefully swung it around. The only trees their garden had were very tall, he was confident that no branch was low enough to reach them - and he was right. It's too bad that he didn't consider his balancing issues that sometimes tended to occur when the ground was fairly soft. His left foot accidentally slipped on ice while his right one still stood on snow - but nonetheless, he fell over, with his child in his arms. They didn't just fall anywhere, they fell right into their snowman. Ignis ensured his kid would only land on him, held it tight to his chest while his own back crashed into their almost finished snowman. Needlessly to say, it fell apart.

"What're you doing?!" his S/O laughed from the door, watching her husband lie in the snow and their child run towards her, "Careful sweety, there's ice everywhere."

Groaning, Ignis slowly got up. Ice really was his worst enemy nowadays. He couldn't see it, couldn't hear it, couldn't smell it - it was just there.

"Did you injure yourself, Iggy?" she called out to him.

"Mommy our snowman is dead" their child whined, interrupting her by pulling on her sweatshirt.

"Ugh, I'm fine.." Ignis murmured, carefully walking back to the entrance while he was upset about himself - once again did his disability get in the way.

"We'll build a new one with daddy's help later, okay?" his wife suggested to their child which immediately nodded, "Good, sounds like a deal then."

Although Ignis really didn't like winter and anything associated with it, he was glad to be spending time with the two most important people in his life. He loved them both dearly and really appreciated how patient they were being with him. That was something he really didn't take for granted. The only thing he really didn't appreciate was all those bruises from falling over and over again… But he would take on all challenges in his life to be the best father he could possibly be. Because that's exactly what his little angel deserved.

2nd December ; 3rd December ; 4th December ; 5th December ; 6th December ; 7th December ; 8th December ; 9th December ; 10th December ; 11th December ; 12th December ; 13th December ; 14th December ; 15th December ; 16th December ; 17th December ; 18th December ; 19th December ; 20th December ; 21st December ; 22nd December ; 23rd December ; 24th December ; 25th December

Masterlist

[introvertsrights]

My way of defining the MBTI types

I have always learned new things better when I describe them with my own words -with/without adding my own opinion, instead sticking to the exact way that I was taught. I have always questioned what we’re studying : like “ why?” or “how?”, and rejected directly memorizing the data.  There were times I had to memorize the information without completely understanding to pass an exam. Aside from that, my learning method was not appreciated by some of the instructors sometimes, -even though I didn’t share any of my opinions(if I had at the moment) regarding the subject , ultimately affected my grades negatively during my school years. Now here I am talking about how I perceive the MBTI types with no fear. :)

I vs E

I: introversion/introverted = requiring more alone time to recharge. feeling more comfortable being alone. Too much human interaction may cause serious anxiety and fatigue. The more introverted a person is, the more anxious he/she feels. Even though considered as shy individuals -which is NOT entirely true, they are more independent than extroverts. Their unique ability is self-recharge.

E: extroversion/extroverted= human interaction becomes a must most of the time. They recharge each other. Lack of it may cause serious depression. No matter how social and energetic they are, they are prone to codependency.

Example: extrovert = a car with a dead battery jumper cable= a social event other people= potential cars to charge the dead battery.

N vs S

N: ability to think out of the box. Being an original thinker. Like Einstein said “Imagination is much more important than knowledge because imagination describes everything that we can potentially know.”

The “N” enhances introversion. When it’s combined with the “I”, the individual becomes more introverted, on the other hand combination with the “E” creates ambivert tendencies.

Examples: INXX = “The actual introverts” 

ENXX= extroverts who need a certain amount of “me time”.

S: Motto: “I don’t have time to think what could possibly happen. What’s around is what we have. What we have is what’s around.” Almost no wish to search for what’s beyond the obvious. Living in the moment. So-called realism.

Enhances extroversion. Extroverts become more extroverted while introverts begin to show ambivert tendencies.

ISXX: 1. Shy extroverts.

2. Individuals who enjoy extrovert activities and spending time with their own friends and family. (Not so necessary to meet new people.) However they still need some alone time to recharge.

ESXX: “The actual extroverts”

T vs F

T: having an imaginary “no feelings” button and being able to switch it on/off. Simply, ability to control feelings.

F: the button doesn’t work properly sometimes or there is no such button at all (highly sensitive individuals)

J vs P

J: having a plan B -in fact a plan C, 90% of the time. Ability to deal with unexpected problems -considering the fact that those issues have been previously thought about. Working with strategies, calendars. Time management. Simply, being organized. Intensifies the “N”.

XSXJ: thinking about incidents that could possibly happen in the current time and location. Example: being prepared when organizing a social event.

P: figuratively and literally “panic”. Since making plans is not the big part of the concept here, the individuals may panic when a crisis occurs or the unexpected happens. However how they react to that varies depending on other functionalities they have.  Intensifies the “S”.

XNXP : most likely seeking help from others because they don’t know what to do at the moment or considering the most current - trendy, well-known, valued or used( basically what’s around), solution to handle the issue. (the “J”s usually go with what’s well-known as well, but  a “J” may choose to follow an old-school method or even something new if he/she thinks that’s the best way -since the potential problem has been reviewed before.)