#little to nothing in the show contradicts that unfortunately

[hotvintagepoll]

Will Scarlett has lost his temporary lead in the Hot Medieval and Fantasy Man Melee, so I'm back with screenshots to prove my point that Will is the Hottest Boy in the Land. I normally avoid these types of long posts but I will do anything for my Slutty Merry Boy, so buckle in.

To introduce Will Scarlett—oh by the way here's the link to his whole movie—I think it's important context to know that when we first meet him, Robin is saving a man's life and Scarlett is staring at nothing in particular. His head is empty of thoughts. He looks this way the entire scene. I'm not sure he blinks.

As soon as the danger is over (a danger he did absolutely nothing to help with) he has a chuckle with Robin! Sunshine and laughter and roses!

The next time we see him (which is soon, because this movie loves Will Scarlett too), he is bitching because Robin had them sleep in the woods (???) and he got stabbed in the back by some acorns.

Here he is falling over a log.

Here he is getting smacked with a branch.

HERE HE IS AFTER GETTING SMACKED BY THE BRANCH.

He serves cunt continuously through the entire Little John sequence, and we don't have time for all of my screenshots, so just a quick smattering:

Here he is being hot and unsupportive when Robin decides to fight the biggest guy he's ever seen. (Scarlett literally says "your skull not mine" and then just stands there.)

Here he is getting in Robin's way.

Here he is, picking the hottest pose possible so he can be the bard and play little showtunes while Robin gets his ass kicked.

Oh my goddd fuck me.

Worth mentioning that Little John does loudly identify Will Scarlett as "a pretty fellow" and nobody contradicts this. In a world where all of Robin's men have one personality trait (big, friar, or tiny), Will Scarlett's is Slut.

Once we get out of the Will's Musical Singalong chapter and Robin goes in disguise to the archery contest, Scarlett does too, except whoever told him he couldn't wear his normal Versace didn't tell him what normal people wear because he shows up looking like this.

Absolutely nobody else in the crowd looks like that. That's just what he thinks the Normies are doing.

With Robin captured, you'd think it's time for Will Scarlett to contribute something. Unfortunately he is constitutionally incapable of not serving cunt at all times to the exclusion of all else, so Maid Marian thinks of the plot while he stands by looking really hot.

Here he is serving cunt as a monk. Jesus Christ.

HERE he actually does something during the climatic battle! I had forgotten but he does swing his sword around a little bit. He doesn't actually look hot while doing this which explains why he has never done it before.

i saved this screenshot with the caption "the beatles" and i'm not wrong.

here he is doing new things with blood eyeliner. very brat.

SUCH A SERVE THERE IN THE BACKGROUND AND FOR WHAT

in conclusion, Will Scarlett is a hot hot man who is clever (by his own estimation, never proven within the story) and extremely hot (by everyone else's estimation, proven twenty-seven thousand times over). He serves several different looks in the movie, all of them incredible, and is apparently brought along by Robin just for his charming good looks and lack of thoughts because he's certainly not good at anything else. He is the hero to all of us who want to hang out in this movie but not actually work out or hold a weapon, and the bard that every Sherwood story deserves. Vote Will Scarlett, my legend, my icon, my idiot.

@medievalandfantasymelee

[shippingmyworld]

Youtuber!Danny AU

Don't think I have the creative energy to expand this brainworm into an actual fic so ya'll just have to read a wall of text instead.

After a few close encounters where Danny's halfa identity almost gets revealed, Sam suggests the trio start a Youtube channel where they go about investigating all the so called "Ghostly Encounters" around Amity Park. Their goal would be to debunk as many ghost sightings as possible and establish themselves as well-known ghost deniers. After a bit of debate they eventually settle on naming the channel Chasing Phantoms.

Tucker really gets into it and eventually becomes the face of the channel. With Sam's coaching he learns how to play devil's advocate extremely well and figures out exactly how to craft his questions to manipulate people's responses. This way they can make these supposed "witnesses" discredit themselves within just a few minutes; Tucker will make them get worked up, angry, and confused about what they saw and trick the witnesses into making contradicting statements. This way they can throw out the witness statements as shoddy evidence because they're nothing more than a stress-induced hallucinations brought about by a gas leak. (They accidentally lean into the gas leak story a little too much in their early days - Danny uses his ghost powers to safely break piping in the places they're investigate to create evidence to back up their claims - thus triggering a mild panic in the citizens of Amity Park because one town should really not be suffering from this many gas line breaks.)

Sam is the director and editor, and has them film everything like it's in the style of found footage (she got the idea after watching The Blair Witch Project). They’re constantly making the "Looks directly into the camera like they're on The Office" joke whenever they interview someone who claims to have been attacked by a ghost.

Danny is the cameraman for the channel, but never shows his face because every time they tried to filmed him, his eyes would flash green in the lens flare and cause them to have to scrap the footage. He's still pretty chatty and viewers latch onto his sassy and sarcastic nature. They love his one-liners and the top comments of each video are usually just a repost of something witty he said (Sam leans into it and start naming the videos after lines that Danny drops while filming). Fans of the channel are constantly asking him for a face-reveal in the comments section. In fact, there's a whole subset of viewers that are dedicated to figuring out what he looks like. They have a poor quality jpeg file that's passed around and updated whenever a glimpse of Danny's appearance is reflected in a puddle of water or broken glass (which means Sam has to comb over the videos about ten times before they post them to make sure she didn't miss anything while editing).

Any time Danny ends up fighting a ghost and there's a witness, the trio will break into the site of the fight the next day (using Danny's ghost powers off-camera of course) so they can do an overnight stakeout. It always just amounts to the three of them goofing off and finding no evidence whatsoever. They do all the standard ghost hunting stuff but have to fib the data because Danny’s presence alone triggers the EMF reader and if they try and take the room temp anywhere near Danny it’s always like 10 degrees colder.

As time goes on, the channel starts to really kick off as people latch onto their goofy energy and start to get invested. However, they've also made themselves a lot of enemies within the student body at school, as most of their classmates have become discredited witnesses on their channel (with a few unfortunately souls even becoming trending memes for a few days). This also means Jazz learns about it and keeps volunteering to tag along or help out. She even gets Mr. Lancer to recognize the four of them as an official school club (she took initiative and made herself a part of the club AND club president without asking them), which he gladly approves since he doesn't believe in any of this ghost nonsense either.

Jazz is just really happy that there’s finally someone else in the family that is willing to stand up to their crazy parents' belief about ghosts, so she wants to be the supportive older sibling. However, she literally will not give the trio any space to deal with the ACTUAL ghost stuff. There are several pieces of unedited footage that lives on Sam's computer of Jazz showing up unannounced to an overnight stakeout asking Tucker and Sam “Where’s Danny?” and the camera would catch a glimpse of local menace Inviso-Bill getting his butt kicked by Skulker in the distance.

To get her off their back, Danny ends up publishing an hour long video essay about how ghosts ARE real, but that everything happening in Amity Park is just people making up bullshit for attention. He has to really commit to the act at home, but Jazz will eventually drop it and leave the trio to their own devices. This backfires however, as Danny's parents now believe he’s interested in ghost hunting and try to join him as well. Thankfully Danny is able to deter them by suggesting that they should all do their own research and compare notes later. You know, the more data the better, right? However, this means that in addition to his chores, homework, ghost fighting as Danny Phantom, and ghost hunting as Chasing Phantoms, he also now has to peer review his parents work so he's constantly exhausted. Tucker and Sam will usually let him copy their homework when the time crunch becomes really bad, and they will let Danny conk out for a much needed nap whenever the group gets together to brainstorm channel content or edit footage.

Following one of his encounters with Plasmius, Danny decided they should follow up the "Ghosts ARE real" video with a clickbait video titled “Top 10 places in Wisconsin that are ACTUALLY haunted!!!” They make Vlad’s Castle is #1 on the list and offer a reward to anyone that can bring them proof of a ghost haunting. They include a photo of Plasmius (that's been edited to look like bigfoot photos) so that people know what to look for. This means Vlad now has to hire extra security because the video triggers a mass influx of people that are constantly trying to break into his house and find evidence of this ghost for the reward.

Eventually Valerie and her dad end up on Chasing Phantoms as well, but as some of the discredited witnesses. It pisses her off so much that she starts up her own ghost hunting channel, Ghost Hunter Grey. She's constantly discrediting Chasing Phantoms in her videos and is very vocal on social media about how they give actual ghost hunters a bad name. Every time Chasing Phantoms uploads a new video, she stakes out the same place they did and uploads a video of her own a week later that includes all the evidence they clearly missed and a genuine, uncut interview with witnesses. She doesn't reveal her face (because of the reputation Chasing Phantoms has within the school) and uses a voice modifier when she edits her content.

Grey's videos aren’t nearly as popular as Chasing Phantoms content because Valarie tries to keep her videos more grounded in facts and backs everything up with proven science (unlike the trio’s videos which are just a constant barrage of ghost-themed brain-rotting jokes and funny reactions). It only frustrates her more and so she leans into the Popular Kids clique in order to low-key bully them as an act of revenge. 

When the trio catches wind about Ghost Hunter Grey's channel, they will film a fake video and wait the next day to see if someone shows up. Sure enough, Valerie makes an appearance shocking all of them. Sam holds the braincell and say that since they know, they can just be careful and the group shouldn't try and provoke her anymore. Tucker agrees, but Danny has other ideas and starts greifing her as Phantom. At first he will purposefully reveal himself to her when he knows she doesn't have a camera on her, but once he starts getting a little more bold he will start to photo bomb her with the dumbest expressions and just being an overall annoyance. It basically boils down to him doing shit like saying "Nobody will ever believe you." or "It's been five years, you have to let me go." before slowly turning invisible and flying away.

[shakingparadigm]

Seeing all those analysis posts about how Till liked Mizi because she was gentle while not giving the same attention to Ivan because he wasn't... how Ivan might have made Till uncomfortable because he expressed his admiration for Till through violence because he liked how Till had the courage to fight back...

I was wandering if Ivan ever realized that the way he went about showing his feelings wasn't positive for Till and he fucking did. "I wish I had been kinder" he fucking regrets dude, fuck me man.

(This veered wildly off-topic I am so sorry.)

Coming back to this ask after the most recent R6 update is interesting.

I've always wondered why they chose the title Cure in particular. I was expecting a song title along the lines of Star or something abyssal. Then I thought about Till's affiliation with experiments and drugs and the various ways he was hurt. Cure... It also brings to mind how the content for Ivan highlights his "oddness", how he's framed as someone different, almost wrong in a sense. There's something that he lacks, something that he feels the need to fix, to cure.

In the recent ROUND 6 production post, the true meaning is revealed. You're right on a certain level, but as always, it's complicated.

Both Ivan and Till seek a certain type of "healing", maybe to compensate for their pain, their oddness and their loneliness. They wish to be cured of their suffering somehow and they seek the solution in other people.

QMENG states that Till desires a type of healing that Ivan cannot provide, and vice versa.

It goes without saying, pretty common knowledge at this point, but Till is a lot softer under his rebellious front. As someone who's been beat and abused his whole life, it makes sense that that type of love he'd want is something gentler, something stable. It's incredibly obvious in the way he acts towards Mizi. She's so genuine, so bright, untainted by the cruel reality of the world. Till softens around her, since she has only showed him kindness he in turn shows her the sweetest side of himself. He's had nothing stable to cling onto before, so he immediately becomes attached to this idealized version of Mizi. He believes she's the only person who can provide him with what he needs, the only one who can "heal" him.

It's outright stated that Ivan cannot provide that type of "healing" that Till is looking for. Ivan does try, of course. Unfortunately, he lacks something fundamental. Because of this he expresses himself in rather childish ways, which may involve a little cruelty and attention-seeking. A lot of Ivan's actions are muddled by his complicated feelings as well, as its stated that his true emotions and intentions are difficult to grasp. With Till, Ivan wants to save and be saved, hurt and heal him, keep him and set him free. Live for him and die for him. He criticizes Sua on the ethics of self-sacrifice and then goes on to do the same himself. With Ivan, everything contradicts.

He tries desperately to be the cure that Till needs, but due to his incredibly complex nature that "healing" will never be just healing. It may come with more pain and confusion despite his best efforts.

I don't think Till refused to give Ivan attention because he wasn't gentle enough, rather I think it's because everything was so complicated whenever Ivan was involved. Ivan is there for him in his times of need and causes a fair bit of trouble during the rest. He's strange and hard to grasp, but he's familiar. Calling each other "friends" seemed like such an inadequate label because they're simultaneously too close and not close enough. Ivan does wish he was kinder, though. Not only to Till, but to Sua and most likely a few other people as well. There's a lot of aspects in which Ivan wishes he were different, and it's tragic to hear how he deprecates himself in his final moments for it.

There's the second half of QMENG's statement as well, "vice versa". Till cannot provide what Ivan needs either, but Ivan desperately desires it anyway.

Ivan views Till as his cure. He wants to not only "heal" Till, but to be healed by him as well. This desire can be seen in the lyrics of Cure:

Notice my pain

And mend me right now

To quiet my fears

I'll drown in you

(The wish for "healing" is stated.)

In your gaze, where I’m seen

Consume me, yes, me, oh, oh

(Ivan urges Till to "consume" him like medicine, he wishes to be what Till needs.)

Ivan lacks something, and he believes that Till can make up for that lack which is why he's so fascinated by him. If Ivan is a black abyss, Till is a supernova, bringing life to an empty void. Unfortunately, Till is explosive and rather inept at handling his own extreme emotions, which causes him to either lash out violently or retreat further inward and push Ivan away. He's also a thoroughly destructive and hurt individual, seeking his own cure in another form. He cannot provide what Ivan needs.

Both Ivan and Till are incredibly volatile. That's not to say they don't have their gentler sides, but overall they've been doomed from the start. Ultimately it's no fault of theirs, they did what they could with their complicated feelings and fought through their own respective hells.

In the end, Ivan had to come to terms with the fact that he couldn't get the "healing" he needed and could never be what Till needed, either. That's why he finally acted on his impulses and let his complicated feelings win over, resulting in his death. Despite all the heartache, his final thoughts are a statement of gratitude. Truly a tragedy.

[alilixx]

Heard that requests are open so I thought I could give my women cuddy some love HAHA,, how about, for smut, cuddy being stressed with hospital management issues so you voluntarily help her relax by eating her out in her office ;) a spicy funny plot you could consider is that, reader had an infatuation with house, but house being house, rejected them, so reader is infatuated and persues cuddy and cuddy gives reader a chance. When reader and cuddy is done with their little eat out sess, house walks in. You could put in some house-ass dialogue like “This place smells like sex” and reader sassily replying “What? You jealous?” tryna get back at him HAHA,, honestly yea, have fun with this request, change the plot, add more, just have fun !! I’m just really glad people are writing for cuddy

I love your request, i will do it with PLEASURE!

You still remember that evening with unsettling clarity, as if it were yesterday. You had met in that small, intimate restaurant, chosen for its cozy ambiance and refined dishes. House was on time, which was an accomplishment in itself.

From the start, the conversation flowed easily. House, with his sharp mind and usual sarcasm, led the discussion. You were fascinated, hanging on his every word, trying to follow the thread of his labyrinthine thoughts.

Then, things started to go awry. Maybe it was when you mentioned your admiration for his work while adding that his methods were sometimes controversial. House raised an eyebrow, a smirk on his face. He began asking more personal, more invasive questions. It was his test, and he showed no mercy.

"So, you think my methods are controversial? What makes you so sure of your judgments?" he had shot back. Every answer seemed like a trap, a new subject for him to analyze.

You tried to defend yourself, explaining that you respected his ingenuity but also believed in traditional medical ethics. House listened to you, or rather let you talk, waiting for you to entangle yourself in your own contradictions.

Then, without warning, he abruptly cut the conversation short. "You know, you are interesting, but not enough for me to want to extend this evening. I appreciate the effort, really, but this isn't what I'm looking for."

You were left speechless, the raw truth hitting you hard. Without even tossing a bill for the check, House stood up and, without a backward glance, left the restaurant.

Left alone, your thoughts swirled. The evening you had so eagerly anticipated had turned into one of those stinging memories. Going out with Gregory House was no small feat; it was an ordeal, a battle of wits where you had failed.

───✱*.｡:｡✱*.:｡✧*.｡✰*.:｡✧*.｡:｡*.｡✱ ───

It was a few months after that memorable incident with House, and now you were engaged to Cuddy. You wanted her to be your wife, to share the same name, whichever that might be. You just wanted to show that she was taken, as a femme fatale like her often attracted attention, and it sparked your jealousy. Of course, you said nothing because she rebuffed them or you defended her when some were too persistent, but you had faith in her power and authority.

You were the only one who could help her in the evenings when she came home tired, sick, or sad. And that was worth its weight in gold. Unfortunately, Cuddy's stress had significantly increased. She often sent you messages asking to discuss, have lunch, and other things, but over time, these solutions were no longer enough. You had to negotiate for… sex. She was initially against it, but she eventually relented, though only in private places like an examination room. She enjoyed it a lot, so you continued in various locations. Up to her office.

She enjoyed the thrill of risk, and she knew how to stay stoic. So, it wasn’t a problem for you to tend to her intimate areas while she worked, at least until House walked in.

That day, you were in her office. Cuddy was sitting at her desk, her legs slightly parted under the table, and you were kneeling in front of her. She wore a pencil skirt that, when lifted, revealed elegant yet practical underwear. You gently pushed the fabric aside to access her intimacy, your fingers and tongue exploring every inch of her delicate skin. She kept one hand on your head, guiding you gently while nervously tapping on her keyboard with the other hand.

Cuddy was a master of control, but you could feel her body reacting to your touches. Her breath grew shorter, and her thighs instinctively tightened around your head. You loved the feeling of driving her wild with desire while knowing she had to remain calm and composed. The contrast between her stoic face and what you were making her feel below was incredibly exciting.

Suddenly, the door opened and House walked in, without knocking. You immediately felt Cuddy’s legs close around your head, hiding you from his view. "I see you’re busy," he said with a smirk, unfazed.

Cuddy, despite her compromising position, remained composed. "Greg, this is really not the time. Leave," she replied, her voice calm but firm.

House, still nonchalant, didn’t seem in a hurry to leave. "Interesting choice of office for a private consultation," he remarked, glancing around the room. Finally, with a final pointed look, he turned and left, closing the door behind him.

Cuddy gently released you, her breath still rapid. "We need to be more careful," she murmured, her tone a mix of reproach and relief. You nodded, understanding the need for discretion. Despite the risk, you knew these moments of intimacy were essential for her, for both of you.

You resumed your touches, more softly this time, sensing that she was relaxing again. She placed her hands on your face, guiding you to where she needed you most. You could feel her tension dissipate, her pleasure rising once more. And this time, nothing and no one would interrupt this moment of pure connection between the two of you.

This wasn’t the first time House had tried to negotiate a threesome or used this situation to unsettle you, but neither you nor Cuddy reacted to his provocations. He had been coming into Cuddy’s office more frequently, using this leverage to get what he wanted. One day, not seeing her just before a meeting, he knew where to look. He headed to a storage area and watched from a distance. Cuddy was lying on a cart while you were playing with her, neither of you having noticed him.

To reward him, you suggested placing a vibrator on her during the meeting. Her reaction was unanimous: "No." But with some pleading and a few kisses here and there, she eventually relented. You were thrilled to tease her, as that was all you planned to do. Throughout the meeting, she felt vibrations in her intimate areas, but she never reached her peak, as coming during a meeting would almost certainly cost her job, so you intended only to torment her.

Cuddy was seated at the conference table, surrounded by her colleagues, maintaining a stoic expression while the vibrator, controlled remotely by you, sent gentle pulses at irregular intervals. You watched discreetly from the back of the room, savoring every micro-expression that betrayed her pleasure. Seeing her tense up at times, watching her breath catch, was the most exquisite sight.

At one point, she met your gaze, her eyes shimmering with a mix of challenge and desire. You slightly increased the intensity, watching her tense up a bit before regaining control. You knew that the tension between professional duty and personal pleasure excited her just as much as it did you.

The meeting ended without major incident, but you knew Cuddy was on the verge of exploding. When she returned to her office, you were waiting there, a satisfied smile on your lips. "You're amazing," you whispered, kissing her softly. She responded with restrained fervor, her hands gripping your waist firmly.

"You too," she replied, her voice husky with desire. "But now, it's time to finish what you started." And with no further preamble, she pushed you against the desk, determined to regain control of the situation. Her expert hands roamed your body, each touch sending waves of shivers through you. You shared deep, passionate kisses, your bodies pressing against each other with palpable urgency.

Cuddy pushed you onto the desk, her lips never leaving yours. Her skilled fingers quickly found their way to your vagina, causing you to moan uncontrollably. She knew exactly how to drive you wild, each movement, each gesture calculated to bring you to the brink of ecstasy. With her deep, sensual voice, she simply said, "Control your moans, my love, no one must hear you." You placed your hand over your mouth to stifle the sounds, but Cuddy had other plans, using her mouth to kiss you and swallow every one of your moans.

You were in perfect harmony, each sensation amplified by the risk and excitement of your environment. Cuddy took her time, savoring every moment, every reaction of your body beneath hers. She loved seeing you succumb to her touches, and you surrendered, relishing the intense and intimate connection.

The tension built up to a crescendo, each second bringing you closer to the point of no return. You were alone, lost in this bubble of pleasure, forgetting everything else. The outside world ceased to exist; there were only the two of you, bound by this burning, insatiable desire. You came on her hand, and a few seconds later, you saw her licking her fingers with your taste on them, which made you blush, and her response was a simple wink.

[imarriedchrisredfield]

Training - Hanzo Shimada

Hanzo Shimada x Female!Reader

Summary : For some time now, you started to learn how to use a bow. Hanzo is here to help you.

Warnings : None

Words : 903

Note : English isn't my first language, so if you see any mistakes don't hesitate to tell me :)

There was a gust of wind, during which you did nothing. When it passed, you took a deep breath with your eyes closed, then exhaled.

"Ok, focus." You whispered for yourself.

Your eyes stared at the target for a few seconds, frowning. And suddenly, your right hand let go of the bowstring, making the arrow soar. Your tongue clicked against your palate when you saw that the arrow didn't land on the center.

"It'll never land on the center." You grumbled, taking another arrow.

"You got better." You turned around recognizing your boyfriend's voice. He was leaning against the trunk of a large tree behind you, his arms crossed against his chest.

"You think so?" You asked doubtfully. "I think I should stick with the Beretta." You contradict, turning back to the target.

"Let me observe your movements so I can help you." He said as he came toward you.

You nodded, cocking the bow. You took the same inspiration and made the same exhalation as earlier. No sooner had you cocked the bow than you felt Hanzo's hands on your shoulders.

"Your shoulders are too tight."

You moved your shoulders slightly until Hanzo removed his hands. He moved to stand on your right. He raised the bow a little, then put his hand on your right wrist. He pulled it back gently, until my hand reached my face and the bowstring was tighter. He then walked back behind you.

"Stabilize your breathing correctly, it's a bit erratic."

"I have to admit that it's hard to stabilize it when you're so close and you touch me that much." You said with a glance at him.

"Focus." He ordered with a bit of amusement all the same. You smiled, trying to indeed stabilize your breathing as you could. "Let go of the string."

You obey immediately. The arrow landed closer to the center, although it wasn't exactly there.

"Not so bad." He said while you were turning toward to him.

"Unfortunately, you won't always be able to guide me that much."

"You just have to tell yourself that it's quite similar to the gun. With a little practice, you won't need me anymore." He assured.

"If you say so." You sighed.

His lips gently rested on your forehead. Your free hand rested on his forearm, before you kissed him tenderly on the lips. You removed the quiver hanging from your back before handing it with the bow to Hanzo.

"Show me, I'll learn easier if I look at you doing it."

"You've already told me this many times." He reminded you, taking the bow and the quiver. "And everytime you absolutely don't pay any attention at what I was doing."

"This time, I really will look at your moves." You said while standing next to him.

"I won't make you promise that."

You couldn't hold back an amused smile. Meanwhile, he put the quiver before getting into position in front of the target. He took an arrow, fully concentrate in his actions. The swift movement of his tongue on his lower lip was the thing that made you forget about the initial purpose of this. Your eyes landed on his tattooed arm. Everytime you were looking at it, it felt like you were discovering again his tattoo and its hypnotizing patterns, which were fitting perfectly his muscles. You knew it by heart, feature by feature, and yet it still amazed you.

"Mh… it wasn't super great." He suddenly said. I snapped out of my thoughts to shake my head sharply in response.

"It was perfect, as always." You assured with a smile.

He looked at you for a moment without saying anything, before having a thin amused smile. You remained silent, not understanding what made him smile like that. And, to your surprise, he let out a very short chuckle, making you even more lost than you already were.

"What did I say?" You asked, completely lost.

"Well…" He raised his bow. You then saw that the arrow was still there, and that there were only the arrows that you had shot on the target. "You will always be the same."

"Excuse me, but it's really hard not be distracted."

He shook his head slightly, then in one swift motion and quick succession, he drew his bow and fired the arrow at the target. Of course, it landed right in its center without a problem.

"It's a compliment, in case you weren't aware of this." You explained with confidence, your head nodding and your arms crossed on your chest.

"Fortunately for you, I don't have any focus problem as soon as you do something." He said, getting rid of the bow and the quiver.

"I wouldn't mind it…" You murmured.

"I actually prefer not to shot any arrow on you." He said.

You nodded with a smile to confirm his words. Your hands on his shoulders, you placed a chaste kiss on his lips. His hands ended up on your cheeks as he kissed me back. He just put his lips on yours, you didn't move them. It was just a nice little peck that still gave you as many butterflies as the first time.

Needless to say, despite all this time and all the effort in the world to concentrate during a training, it would still be difficult for you as long as Hanzo was close enough to make your heart beats fast.

[peachymilkandcream]

Fraud | Part 13 | Yandere All Might x Hero!Reader

(A/N: This one is a tad bit shorter, Hope you enjoy and comment to be added to the taglist!)

WARNINGS: noncon, dubcon, manipulation, domestic abuse, yandere themes, forced marriage, forced pregnancy, stockholm syndrome, graphic depictions of violence, mind breaking, misogyny, power imbalance, age difference, cheating, forced orgasm, suicide, etc.

================================================

The third he had set his sights on to tear down due to her fame. All Might was supposed to be the old-fashioned all around hero, likeable and charismatic across the board. He appealed to all sorts of citizens for his more family friendly nature and lack of ego. Everyone knew he was the best, and yet they enjoyed it so much more that he was down to earth like them.

One of the people.

However news travelled of a new hero pushing her way to the top of the charts, all the qualities that had set him apart were being outdone by this new woman. She was even more down to earth than he was, more humble, more modest and innocent, pure but not condescending.

Nothing made his blood boil more.

That self-righteous attitude pissed him off, what he wouldn't give to just punch her in the face, come off the high horse and be human like everyone else. Only he was supposed to be superior.

She was damaging his career, that was for certain, people were following her heroic escapades and ignoring everything he did. His public approval rating slowly but surely going down while hers went up.

Nighteye couldn't seem to find any dirt on her record, it was as clean as her image. There were no leads that could be accidentally handed over to the press that would damage her beyond recovery.

He would have to take matters into his own hands.

That pious nature would be the first to fall, that was the entire identity of who she was and what she represented. Without it she would be another nameless and faceless void. No one would trust her if she couldn't practice what she preached.

=============================================

Unfortunately for All Might, she really was devoted to her beliefs, refusing to indulge in any sort of flirting or thing of the sort. She pretended to be innocent, or rather she didn't care, he didn't know which. But it made his advances loose all their weight as she constantly acted like he would never be good enough or worthy of even her attention much less her affection.

All Might of all people, the Symbol of Peace, not worthy. That bitch.

If she thought she could get away with turning down his charms then he would show her just how serious he could be.

=============================================

The only record Nighteye could find was basic personal information, and with a little more digging he was able to find an address. Which was all All Might needed to enact his plan to take her down.

Even as such a huge man snuck into her house at that hour, she wasn't aware until he had blocked all of her exits and turned the house into complete lockdown where she could escape if she wanted to.

The hours that followed were brutal, she hadn't been lying about her piety, her innocence completely intact. Perfect to add to her humiliation of it all crumbling. That persona that she had painstakingly built reduced to nothing. Especially when he would be done with her.

==============================================

When headlines hit, it was only a matter of time before support dwindled to nothing.

The hero who condemned anything she deemed anything that contradicted her as something to be taken care to avoid. Now she was being shown as no better than the very people she condemned.

Tapes of her reduced to taking All Might's dick flooded every media outlet. Now Nighteye had taken great care to ensure that nothing in the video could be traced back to him, he was scrubbed clean and even altered in the video to look different enough that she could never even accuse him.

But she did. She accused All Might of being her attacker, attempting to paint him in a bad light that inevitably blew up in her face when the public called her on her behavior. What little support she had left disappearing when someone could make an accusation on another hero because she got caught contradicting herself.

Threats, harassment, all sorts of calls for her to be stripped of her title of hero followed. All Might using this as a chance to make a public statement that he forgave her for the false accusations, which only drove his public appeal to new heights. Each time she tried to tear him down the public silenced her into submission.

When the word came that she had killed herself due to the overwhelming negativity revolving her platform, no one batted an eye, convinced she was filled with guilt, which was why she did it.

Everything was back to normal, All Might reigned supreme, all other heroes never dared cross him out of fear of making a mistake and turning his aggressive fans on them.

It was all so perfect how he intended.

Taglist:

@toomuchdabi

[land-of-holly]

Rings of Power Season 2 Episode 5 Liveblog

Ooh nice landscape shot over the Misty Mountains

The Seven!

Is all of King Durin's bling also gonna fall victim to the Ring's jealousy?

Narviiiiiiii

The King's just going mad with power, nothing to see here

He may have brought the light back, but it's still an OSHA violation

THE DOORS OF DURIN!

If this is all we get of the Celebrimbor/Narvi teamup I will be disappointed but LOOK ANNATAR!

Tyelpe is on to him!

Love the conflict over the rings for Men. This is the kind of development upon previous work I look for in an adaptation. It fits well into the previous themes.

Annatar had NO SENSE OF PERSONAL SPACE

Well obviously Annatar isn't just going to take no for an answer.

NO he's just going to make them himself?? Just disregard Celebrimbor entirely?

Ooh, here comes Pharazon's Elf envy

Damn this guy is hardcore, who says that to their own son?

I do see why people ship Miriel/Elendil, damn

Oh girl, you don't really believe not fighting back is the answer. I can see it. You wanna fight back so bad.

Mass resignation?

Oooh, nope

I love the father-daughter conflict! It's a role women don't get to play very often in this exact way

Political unrest in Numenor!

Just because Pharazon is anti-elf doesn't mean he's anti-power lol

Dead...fish?

Normally I'm against disparaging the wielding of a perfectly useful tool to attain valid goals as "cheating", but one, I can't contradict my wife Disa, and two, that ring is obviously super sus

New taxes??

An extended scene of ball chasing is a little silly but I am not immune to DISA LEGS

She has echolocation??

More dwarf extras!

Okay now King D's just getting nasty

I've made peace with Early Balrog. It's not like they have a 3rd age timeline to fuck up, after all

I guess not even a ring can separate a dwarf from his bling, it's still there

Forge is haunted.

Aw damn he nerdsniped Celebrimbor

Wonderful convo between Celebrimbor and Durin

So Mirdania did see Annatar's true form, and he admits it, but he convinced her not to tell an adult like a FUCKING CREEP

Oh THAT'S why everyone was talking about Annatar rizzing Mirdania up, JESUS

DON'T TOUCH HER

Damn, Kemen, you shouldn't have cultivated such a punchable face

And Valandil, unfortunately, shouldn't have let himself been named after a canon character's future canon kid

The dropping of 'Faithful' and 'King's Men' felt clunky to ME but it's possible I'm biased

Annatar once again proves to be made ENTIRELY out of red flags. Protip, kids: if someone is all "Well now we've been bad together, we have no choice but to never talk to anyone else about this or we'll be in trouble"--RUN

(Seriously)

Elf extras!

Oh no now he's just sinking more cost, trying to make things right. Poor Tyelpe.

Oh, right! What's Adar up to?

Oh the elf armies need help? Whoever could come to their aid?

Everyone wants Galadriel on their team!

Wow there was a bunch about this episode that I liked a lot. Annatar continued to be the absolute star of this show, the fucking creeper

[trainingdummyrabbit]

Woe. Extended Cocoa Monologue Be Upon Ye.

So. Her name is Cocoa. Theoretically. She's been around for a pretty long time, if not the longest when going by current employee terms. She's the one who works with Nothing There because shes the only one who. Can. A bit odd, she's almost entirely mute aside from a handful of phrases and words, and occasionally mimicking things said to her recently. She's considered to be a bit airheaded, not really paying attention to her surroundings and more often than not just kind of... cycling around the facility when not on the job.

She does a lot of things that would Seem normal on first glance, but are just.. kinda strange, when you actually pay attention to her. Like background actors pretending to be passerby, but when they get a lil silly with it and start like. Putting whipped cream on a carrot and eating it raw. Y'know. Girl Things. Most folks don't give her much mind aside from common pleasantries-- mostly because she just doesn't answer anything else. She just kinda stares blankly, no thoughts head empty, as if she doesn't understand. She's just silly that way though, so nobody minds.

When shes given a task, though, she's just. Entirely Different. Shes very methodical, cutting straight to the point-- oftentimes literally. It's where her experience with the whole Being A Lobcorp Employee really makes itself obvious. She can take a Lot of shit and just... Wont Die. She just gets back up! Easypeasy. It's almost mechanical-- and she barely seems affected at all by any of the Horrors(tm) that come with the whole... y'know. When it comes down to it, shes a little scary.

Nobody really Knows this necessarily, but before she was an agent, she was actually a clerk ! :] She just kind of... did her job. Was polite and enthusiastic, all that good stuff, model employee or whatever. but then, evidently, there was a pretty bad abno breach at some point, and she completely managed to hold her own, going so far as to be Almost Helpful! Astounding ! So they moved her around to being a fully functional agent! Something that has absolutely no consequences whatsoever !

. So, the horrors, right? Stepping out of exposition speak, Cocoa is an exploration on the split between human, monster, and object-- and what it means to define yourself within those terms. (It's honestly a common theme between the group as a whole, but they all tackle it differently.) Cocoa-- previously known as Holly-- was pretty much always a Highly Volatile person. Not that she ever showed it. A lot of her hinges on her desperate desire to be seen as Worthwhile, to be worthy of being kept around. Truthfully? She was always terrified of death.

She knew how the world worked. Either you made yourself useful and did what you were supposed to, or you were thrown out to the cruel whims of what the world does to people like her. She was, functionally, a Nobody. And she knew this. So she did her best to fit into the vision of somebody Useful. Polite, easy to herd around, noncombative-- all that stuff. It was grating, sure, but anything to keep her out of the bad books of people who could so easily crumble her already fragile life without a second thought. It was just what she needed to do.

So um. Unfortunately, pinning your entire identity on the whims of a conglomerated image of "other people" was never really sustainable. Not even remotely. Especially not for somewhere like the city. These sorts of things contradicted themselves, looped around, formed uncrossable chasms of expectation that she could never live up to even if she tried. And god, did she try. Constantly putting up a front was exhausting, but rewriting yourself completely every time you moved somewhere new? god can you even imagine.

She was just about Always tiptoeing a thin line between roles, teetering delicately between the gazes of those above her. Any action or expression or emotion contradicting from that image had to be immediately smothered, every step out of line earned a warning shot from herself that nobody else could really see. So like, no pressure!

So, going into Lobcorp, she was a model employee, secretly harboring the unstable energy of a dying star. Easypeasy. The abno escape was, as the kids say, "the last fucking straw in her miserable life," and she kind of just. blacked out, woke up, and it was over. She helped about as much as a clerk Could, but the fact that she was alive was an anomaly. Again, she is very very good at just... Staying Alive, when she shouldn't. So that was a pretty good vouch for her skill, even if she didnt present that at first. She, obviously, was pretty nervous about the whole thing, but if this is what she was being told to do, then so be it! Easypeasy! No big deal ! I'm sure Lobotomy Corporation is just an office comedy! She is very normal.

So, again, the thing about Holly is just that she. Doesn't Die. But the people around her sure do!! What happens around here is a bit of a blur, both to me and to her, but the long and short of it is pretty much this. Through the course of her acting as a full-title Agent, it did, shockingly in fact, Make A Lot Of Her Issues Worse ! Now not only did her Own life rest in her hands, but also a bunch of other people's! Crazy how that works.

She seems perfectly fine, mostly just because her immediate instinct in stress is to just. shut off. Panic, fear, anger-- none of that has any place in the role of a Useful Employee. She can't have doubts, cant have regrets, she just has to Move. So she just lets her body do what needs to be done, and tunes back in when everything is over again. It's not Easy getting to know people in a situation like that, but somehow she Did actually manage to make a friend! Though, I suppose, not that difficult, because "being friendly" is a very good Employee Trait to have, so obviously she has it. But, well, it Was nice! Was. Lobotomy Corporation Is A Tragedy ! Whoops.

So obviously, having a small bit of solace taken away from you is, to put it lightly, Not A Great Experience. But well, it wasn't exactly just that necessarily. To her, that person was everything that any model person Should be. Effortlessly. Intrinsically. They simply Were, and through the plain act of Being A Person, Unapologetically, was... well, it was refreshing! Silently, it was everything Holly Wished that she could be, but just couldn't gain the courage to reach. It wasn't even any huge event that killed them, it was just... some stupid mistake. The core of it simply came down to... well, if they couldn't do it, how could she? Her, hoping to be better than someone like that? Was that even possible? And this is about where things start . going sideways.

So. Her whole deal with Nothing There. It wasn't anything big. Not really, in the grand scheme of things. In all honesty, it was more of a Resignation. At this point, she'd already been kind of spacey and distant-- even for her own standards-- so of course, nobody would really notice much of anything. (Again, another good trait of a Useful Employee.) Working with NT for the first time was. odd. Nobody really knew what to make of it at the time, but Holly hadn't died Yet, so she was as good a choice as any. And seeing the damn thing, well. yeah, it was disgusting, but it wasn't what affected her the most. Rather, it was when it tried to start Speaking.

Calling it Horror isn't exactly correct, but it wasn't exactly... incorrect, either. All she could really do was watch it try to form words over and over, messy and stilted, inherently flawed. A crude imitation of something she should understand. Disgusting, sure, but not for the right reasons. Because all she could really see was a microcosm of herself. A horrible little excuse for a creature trying to pretend to be human, pulling itself together by the seams and stumbling over and over, painfully close yet uncomfortably alien to those it was trying to imitate. And she could only watch, as emotions she'd done her best to suppress slowly clawed their way back up.

It was then she had a choice. To confront what exactly it was that she'd been desperately locking away, that raging sensation of emotion, of desire, of anything-- or to resign herself into disappearing completely, letting herself drop all of the baggage of that flawed facade of "humanity" and allowing it to be replaced with... for lack of a better term, a Variable. an Anything Else. But... she was never very good at confronting herself, was she? So she sat down, and began correcting the entity's speech, forming both It and Her back into the shape that they "should" be. And at the same time, letting go of a "self" that could no longer exist anymore.

The thing about her, simply, is that-- again-- she doesn't die. Not the way that people do, not the way that people Should. But then again, "Holly" hasn't existed for a long time, by the start of everything. Anyone who Knew who she was never really had the chance to, with the way she was-- not that any of them were alive to be able to tell. She never answers anyone asking what her name is. or what her job is, or... well, much of anything. So people just call her Cocoa, because that's the only thing she seems to like :) And well, people say it confidently enough that others just Believe them, and Cocoa doesn't care enough to correct them, so like. whatever. Cocoa is here to do her job. Nothing more, nothing less. And nobody is going to stop her, because she's damn good at it. Nobody knows there was even a problem to begin with. Silently, wordlessly, the "person" she used to be simply... disappeared. And nobody was there to hear it. Which makes things... difficult.

Because she doesn't remember any of that. None of her peers do, either. She feels "fine," simply enacting whatever it is she needs to do. And because of that, people simply just Believe Her. It was as if "she" had never really existed at all. And at the end of it all... she was entirely indifferent. There was work to do, you know? No use worrying over some kid who couldn't handle the pressure. Happens all the time, right? And so the world moves on, without a second thought.

Not a second thought at all.

[melodrangea]

MORE KILIK HCS PLEASEE😭!! I am in NEED.

when one does not want to write, one does it anyways and picks a favorite character!!

i'm not sure if you meant as a person or as a significant other so the voices are telling me both!!

(and again I'm a faker that hasn't read the manga so if I contradict something I apologize)

----------------------------------------------------

Kilik Rung Headcannons

As a person

-southern boy!!! nobody can convince me that Kilik isn't from Tennessee or Louisiana

-probably has a lot of fighting experience, always throwing himself into martial arts, jujitsu and even boxing!

-he has a commanding yet calming presence, making him impossible to ignore and a shoe in for being a meister

-if he wasn't a meister he would most likely be a police officer

-odd one but I feel like he doesn't like fruit, don't know why but do not go near this man with a fruit

-i love him and I'm sure he eats his veggies but with all the candy he consumes natural sugar just doesn't taste as good

-is the total opposite of only child syndrome! he definitely has older siblings

-also is a total family man, loves his mom, loves his grandmom, is always home for sunday dinners etc...

-doesn't have a favorite music genre, listens to a little bit of everything but prefers music with a more upbeat vibe. will go from Bon Jovi to Sia to the my little pony theme song, he does not care

-early riser!! sorry to night people but Kilik is up with the sun and in bed before 10 pm

-will not admit it to anyone but Kilik is the biggest pokemon fan you will ever meet. knows all of the different shows, regions, regional variants, gym leaders etc...

-ironically can't stand pokemon go since he let the twins play once and they almost walked into the middle of the street for a shiny lotad...

-speaking of twins i also believe that he legally adopted them when he turned 18 since they don't have parents ( i think lol )

-you best believe the first time they made him fathers day cards he cried

-will obvs let the twins decide if they want to keep being weapons or not. like if one day thunder says she wants to quit Kilik would be totally fine with it

-he is unfortunately a gym rat, you want to find this guy just look for the barbells, he doesn't work out for looks, more that he wants to better himself and become stronger

-is a canonic tired parent cause I said so

-listen he loves fire and thunder like his own children but mans is TIRED

(went on a lil rant there so onto romantic headcannons)

As a significant other

-bro is seriously SLEPT ON

-honestly one of the best partners for people of all different personalities

-if you're more shy and introverted he is very encouraging and ngl appreciates the peace and quiet

-if you're loud and rowdy so is he!

-if you wanna be a bit of both even better for the guy!

-also does not have much of a preference appearance wise

-if you want to date Kilik Rung you do have to prepare to be around the twins a lot

-he will never ask or try to shove you into a parenting role with them but the twins are just always around unless Kim and Jackie or Harvard are watching them (Ox cannot be trusted to nurture children...)

-he can cook a little bit, its nothing like mama's sunday dinner but he can get by

-he is very reliable, you need help with homework? he'll try his best or find someone else to help you. you need help picking out an outfit? not quite his thing but will give you an honest opinion (with lots an lots of compliments)

-it's hard to have a bad day with Kilik around, he's just so calming and uplifting that it's hard to feel bad for yourself around him! but on the offchance of a rough day he will do whatever you need to make you feel better. he can go on for hours about how he finds you absolutely perfect or he could sit and listen to you rant with a hot beverage

-cuddlebug!!!! you can't escape him! he has a spidey sense for you being in a 200 foot radius! you're always either holding hands or he has his arm on you somehow

-will also not let you carry anything! he knows you can carry your bag but why should you when he's right there??

-you and Kilik would be one of those couples that genuinely seems to always just coexist in perfect harmony

-you're not apart that often because he doesn't do much that would make you want to be apart anyways

-one of Kilik's flaws is unfortunately his adherence to logic, to him there is nothing that can't be solved, there isn't any emotion or insecurity that doesn't have a reason

-so he might accidently mansplain your feelings to you a bit (he's too used to gentle parenting I'm afraid)

-would so be a sucker for matching anything (though i think he'd prefer rings or earrings)

-most dates would either be things like hiking or study dates! with the occasional spontaneous dance class ;)

---------------------------------------------------

and that's all folks!

god i love Kilik sm

[metvmorqhoses]

If Alina’s hatred for Aleksander felt a little too contrived and compensating then perhaps that’s exactly what it was? Her character this season came off as someone desperate to prove herself; she was steamrolling ahead with blinders on and covering her ears at anything that challenged her (her goal of tearing down the fold and tada! happily ever after). It would make sense then that whatever feelings she has for Aleksander would be deeply suppressed and instead used as fuel in her anger towards him since she isn’t someone yet who is ready to deal with the messy nuance of the world she’s in and it’s contradictions, much less the complications of her own feelings. I do think Mal is boring but he wasn’t wrong for breaking up with her since he realizes he doesn’t really know who Alina is anymore. Aleksander on the other hand does know her in a way that only a soulmate can (“I have never turned away. I never will”). This whole season he was unhinged but in that desperation was a genuine worry for her. He wanted her to understand where he was coming from because he’s walked her path, he’s known what it is to hope and want to be a hero, and the inevitable heartbreak and pain it causes. It seems like he wanted to her to skip over that painful step if he could just get through to her. Unfortunately it is something she has to go through to grow. If season 2 was her stubbornly naive self in full mode, then hopefully season 3 shows us a more mature Alina who struggles to balance power and what it means. I don’t expect her to ever fully be on Aleksander’s side but I would like to see the understanding and at time’s tenderness, she feels towards him that was missing this season. Sorry I know this is nothing new to you but I’m still processing this season and always love your thoughts! An aside, Aleksander letting Alina kill him even while deeply disagreeing with her on a political and philosophical level, and still being amazed by her light as he marvels at “blue skies” killed me. I don’t care what anyone says really does love her.

From a pure storytelling point of view, this season and specifically Alina's arc (whatever it might be and under whichever lenses we might choose to look at it) was a writing failure. There is sadly no escaping that. It was crass, nonsensical, exaggerated, dull, colourless, problematic.

Even conceding her over-the-top and baffling behaviour was indeed done on purpose, no talented writer in their right mind could have possibly thought that good protagonist material, not even for the most black-and-white, simplest children's saga - especially having for canon a far more complex and valid characterization from the literary source (I can't believe I'm typing this, but here we are).

The fact that they managed to produce the worst books-to-show adaptation I've probably ever seen out of fear of a bunch of woke American mums and teens is genuinely disturbing.

This said, there are ways a good writer could salvage this, twisting this into sense and depth even, and you listed a lot of good points in this regard.

This idiocy galore could indeed be spun as Alina's hubris and blindness, her inexperience even, backfiring at her. It could absolutely be the arc that led to the wall she had to crush into in order to listen to what Aleksander was trying to warn her about, the proverbial finger children have to put into the fire themselves before believing it burns.

I could even raise the bar a notch and state that, psychologically speaking, when someone who isn't intelligent enough to understand their own being in denial is frustrated and angry with themselves, they funnily tend to project their own self-hatred and fury upon the person they trust the most and in general hold most dear. And this, even if I'm sure it wasn't absolutely intended, strikes me as particularly true regarding their dynamic in season two: no matter what Aleksander told her, no matter how much sense it made, no matter the obvious honesty of the feelings he was showing her (he opened a lot with her this last season despite her stubborn deafness, almost as if he had wanted to make up for the previous pretences and half-truths), she did nothing but choose him as her universal scapegoat and, quite absurdly, right because he was still the person she unconsciously felt closest to.

He was still her mentor and lifeline even the moment she decided to blindly sacrifice him on the altar of her own naive self-righteousness and hypocrisy. And he let her. Even in death, he wanted to serve the purpose of teaching her a lesson, open her eyes, and I don't think that ultimately, deep down, this truth completely escaped her.

A good writer would use all this to build season three. But I've honestly lost all hope at this point.

What I really don't think could be savaged is who Alina has time and time again proved to be as a person - she is someone who is in her twenties but has the brain of a not-particularly-bright infant; she is someone with the emotional capability of a rock; she isn't capable of complex thoughts, but above all she is self-centred and ignorant even when her personal life experiences should have at the very least taught her otherwise. I didn’t like her before, but now she is honestly ruined for me as a character. Aleksander deserved much better than her. He is everything she'll never be.

[vacantgodling]

#21: Erik Soori

From your birth, you’ve always been known to have a bleeding heart. You can’t help it; love is the strongest force in the universe and you’re particularly sensitive to them. Friends, family, enemies, lovers—you pour your heart out to them, even if they only take your tidings and leave you with nothing in return. Still, you love, and you give, and you fight because you love them. No matter the loss, you persevere for love. Even if that very arm that holds your heart is taken from you, you can’t bring yourself to regret it. Not for a second.

“erik” means mighty ruler. “soori” means red flower

31, cis male (he/him), romance: YES but perhaps has the Worst taste ever (not only because its awful, but because it seems that he can never win. poor boy is just a bleeding heart). sex: definitely. preference: both masculine and feminine.

erik stands at about 5’10” with broad shoulders. he has a large, pointed nose, and his skin is tan like the wheat of a field. his eyes are a light brown, bordering on yellow but with enough darkness to make the distinction and his hair is a deep, almost sea green color. it’s wavy and reaches about his shoulders. he has a short, somewhat scraggly beard that is the same color as his hair and he usually keeps it neat but it always looks a little patchy. his smile is crooked and his eyes are narrow but warm. he has a very strong Diisaian accent (similar to a Scottish accent) since he grew up far away from the city of Mordiga.

a RANGER, wielding the famed diisaiian longbow—its much different than the bows frequently used by guilders on the mainland (such as forte or helix). the longbow is nearly the size of erik’s body, and takes nearly one’s full strength to pull it—it’s so large because it was meant to fly across the wide open plains of the diisaiin landscape to hunt big game monsters and predators. erik got his start in archery from his father and was already learning to pull his own bow by the age of 14. he has powerful arms and back muscles, but also an unwavering stance that can withstand the heavy draw of his bow. unlike rangers from the mainland, erik’s bow style is more about power than precision, and his arrows can and have taken monster’s heads clean off.

erik is a down to earth man, but he’s highly superstitious and often won’t do certain things because of the potential luck associated with it. his loyalty and love for his homeland show even as he speaks, and he’s the definition of a lover, not a fighter. that doesn’t stop him from drawing his bow; in fact he always claims that love is what spurs him on—love for his culture, his family, and his newfound friends and guildmates and his desire to protect them or bring them pride. he’s very self depreciating despite any of his talents yet in the same sentence can be prideful. erik seems to be a man of contradictions to many; he’s open but secretive, humble but boastful, kind but can be surprisingly cold. much of the more dour turns in his personality were definitely extrapolated by his time coming to the mainland and specifically bloomed when he had the unfortunate hand of falling in love with dion, who he is also on a team with. he’s loved dion since about they met perhaps, but with a love so strong that it only sought to see him happy. this hasn’t stopped him from pursuing other interests, such as galen (though that was cut short), even fia (as a tease and a bit of payback to dion, but also because it’s hard not to love fia) before she and dion became a couple. now, he’d say his closest friends are miona and papa because they are also from diisai. when he’s not training or with dion, he can always be found at papa’s bar reminiscing about home. 

3 fun facts about them: he collects bird feathers as he was told as a child that the only way to rid himself of the bad luck he carries is on the wings of a bird. what sort of specific bird, he doesn’t know and he has yet to tell anyone, but he collects any feather he finds all the same in hopes of combating his birthday curse. he tends to always wear one singular feather in his hat as a good luck charm. the death of their teammates did affect erik greatly, but he’s pushed down that feeling as he helped dion through it mostly—he still hasn’t opened up about his pain in that regard, and part of him vows that he never will. he’s very dramatic and is prone to tears and throwing himself across the bar when he’s mildly disconcerted. miona and papa love teasing him for this.

[idledreams4]

ok so I thought of something and it won't leave me alone so I'm going to try and explain myself and hopefully it makes sense.

Echo and Narcissus as Ecco and Jeremiah.

In case anyone here doesn't know the story of Narcissus and Echo, here's a very short summary:

Echo is a nymph who comes across Narcissus one day and falls madly in love, unfortunately Narcissus is only interested in himself and slowly Echo fades away till there is nothing left but her voice. Narcissus then gets turned into a flower but that's irrelevant to what I'm trying to do here.

Hear me out okay: (Imma be really cynical and contradict literally everything I ever say about Jeremiah but that's because this is based in the actual canon. I normally live in a perfect little fantasy world in my head.)

Canonically Jeremiah is a narcissistic sociopath, and if you want to argue "but he feels love for Bruce" no. No he doesn't. His desire is to change Bruce, to shape him, and to control him. He does not feel love. And if you want to argue against him being a narcissist... Did we watch the same show? He's always going on about his genius and how he's so much better than everyone.

Ecco is a sweet, naive little thing and it makes me sad to see how hopelessly in love she is. She met Jeremiah (most likely) in Saint Ignatius and completely devoted herself to serving him but gets absolutely nothing in return. The Psyhcocuties brainrot is SCREAMING at me because Masacrick and Ushka are the same way. Whatever Jeremiah requests of Ecco, she interprets as the key to his heart. She is a tool, so she is useful, so she is "loved". And that's enough for her.

She died because of Jeremiah. She died in his service. Her love was her downfall. Unfortunately for her, unlike Echo, she didn't have anyone to take revenge for her.

But uh... yeah I dunno I just think that they parallel Narcissus and Echo really well and that line "My dear Ecco no longer my Echo" broke me permanently.

[holy-rarepairs-batman]

Does Qi Rong "Deserve It?"

Before I dig into this, I want to explain context. This meta came about because of a few tweets and tiktok comments I saw recently that said Qi Rong deserves how he's treated by Xie Lian and Hua Cheng in canon, and I want to look at that, specifically pointing out the arguments I see people raise often; namely, that he deserves how he's treated because of all the atrocities he's committed. The atrocities listed are usually some combination of the four I talk about below: the carriage, Lang Qianqiu's family, cannibalism, and humiliating the main pair.

I want to look at all of these a little closer, with canon source quotes and my own experience with working with kids, to see if how he's treated is justifiable, or not.

1. Dragging Hong-er behind his carriage intending to kill him

The novel directly contradicts this and says that his intent was not to kill him. Vol 2, ch 26 shows Qi Rong saying explicitly that he "was careful," and that Hong-er "won't die."

If you don't trust Qi Rong's words, there's further proof. Despite the doctors being shocked by the fact that Hong-er is sitting as if uninjured, they further confirm that Hong-er's injuries will be healed without problem. While they are severe injuries, Hong-er was not injured grievously enough that he was going to die, which helps with believing Qi Rong's own words.

Now don't misunderstand me, I'm not saying Qi Rong shouldn't have consequences for what he did or that it was okay. He absolutely should have some kind of punishment for it! And he does get punished for it!

The first thing is he gets his carriage taken away, the object that allowed him to cause hurt in the first place. This is a great consequence, because of how much he hates it, on top of it being the thing he used to hurt. He is also to be confined to his room in solitary confinement for a month to "reflect."

Neither of these consequences will erase the hurt that's been caused, but nothing can. However, as the goal of consequences is to keep an unwanted behavior from repeating, both of these are actually very appropriate consequences for his actions. They keep him from being able to repeat the behavior, and if he had the correct tools to understand what he's reflecting on, he could do better in the future.

Unfortunately for Qi Rong, he doesn't have the tools to understand, and no one asks him why he did that or explains to him what he could have done differently. Since Qi Rong likely already has PTSD and has been spoiled and indulged in the palace after his father's abuse, when no one explains, he genuinely cannot understand what he did wrong, so he does not get better.

The point here though, is that he's already received a very fair consequence, even if he views it as unfair. Bringing it back up and punishing him later for it, repeatedly and violently, is not going to do any good, and actually will make him worse. It's the same reason you don't punish a child six hours after an action that needs correction, because they've moved on already and don't remember it or relate the consequence with the action.

(It's understandable why, I'm not talking at all about whether Hua Cheng is justified in his anger and hate for Qi Rong. I'm only talking about Qi Rong.)

2. Killing Lang Qianqiu's family was to hurt Xie Lian

Not even sure where this came from considering we know from Vol 2, ch 22 that Qi Rong didn't even know the identity of Fang Xin. He didn't know it was Xie Lian; none of his actions were even remotely done with Xie Lian in mind.

Killing the Yong'An royal family was revenge for Qi Rong, both for the fall of Xianle and subsequent treatment of Xianle citizens, and revenge against his father, who he hated. An eye for an eye. And Lang Qianqiu is entirely justified in seeking revenge for that, even expected to, cultural speaking.

Qi Rong does deserve to be punished by Lang Qianqiu.

He does not deserve to be punished by Hua Cheng or Xie Lian for this. The only one who deserves to punish him is Lang Qianqiu. The only one justified in deciding how to do that is Lang Qianqiu. Point blank.

3. Cannibalism (sub point - even the heavens think of him as gross, so it's justified)

Qi Rong is a ghost. I don't know why fandom seems to think cannibalism is unique to him only? This scene from Vol 2, ch 13 shows ghosts thoughts on eating humans pretty well.

Certainly, if Hua Cheng were against cannibalism in general, or if he thought ghosts deserved to be punished for cannibalism, he wouldn't allow it in his city. He's one of the most powerful ghosts, the ruler of the city, I don't believe that if he disliked it, he couldn't get rid of it.

So if he doesn't dislike it enough to get rid of it or punish any of the ghosts that live in Ghost City, why should he be allowed to punish Qi Rong for cannibalism? I don't understand why fandom thinks it's Hua Cheng or Xie Lian's right or duty to punish him for that.

Not only that, but even the heavens don't call him vulgar just for the cannibalism. They call him vulgar because they think of him as a copycat. They're proud, arrogant assholes who become gods based on their own actions (which is why Shi Qingxuan's ascension is a scandal and covered up). A copycat is classless.

They also call him vulgar for being loud and annoying and cursing. Basically, he has bad manners. How does that justify being beaten?

(Spoiler: it doesn't).

4. Repeatedly humiliating Hua Cheng/Xie Lian

I'm not even going to expand on this for long, but seriously?

Qi Rong is humiliated and talked down to constantly, for the laughs. But he does the same back and now being punched into the ground is justified?

Qi Rong is treated horribly in the novel, repeatedly and cruelly. It's vicious, vindictive, and not justified at all. I'm all for him having consequences for his actions and being held accountable for the shit he's done wrong, but these examples fandom uses are not it. They're just revenge gone too far.

In conclusion...

The thing I think people don't realize about Qi Rong is that it's SO hard to see accurately how he's treated, because he's so often used as the comedic relief character. His dramatic reactions disguise the severity of his other people treat him. To me, that's what makes him so tragic and compelling as a character. It's not on purpose, but the use of him as a literary tool disguises so much of his actual treatment, just like it disguises his childhood and past by burying it in plain sight.

And that's part of why he's such a tragic and compelling character.

[terrence-silver]

Could you please do beloved meeting Terry’s parents? If, of course, that would ever happen!

Honestly, it is so unfortunate we've so little actually canon details concerning Terry Silver's parents that everything I write on this blog about them is almost entirely my creation from tiny scraps we've been given and can be proven to be entirely inaccurate if the series, as much as I doubt it, ever decides to show us a glimpse of Papa and Mama Silver, but basically, that being said ---

I very much imagine a "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner" sort of situation on the subject of Terry bringing anyone home to meet his parents. And I do mean anyone. Doesn't even have to be a romantic partner. Can be a friend. Can be John Kreese. An acquittance. A stray dog, for all we know. Irregardless, they'll initially treat this person like someone at a pop quiz is being treated and 'Who's your daddy and what does he do for a living' manner of questions would be frequent during this rendezvous. Oh, you mean your family isn't in fact a member of an prominent Country Clubs around the West Coast area? How interesting and yeah, the subject of class differences, religious differences and economic differences would be an issue, because I do envision Terry's parents had big (possibly even huge) expectations of him as an only child and heir. That, at least his father, was unflinching and strict towards him reaching these standards and then some.

Yet, at the same time, I imagine his parents being just as egoistic and possessive.

Just as hellbent on claiming, contradictively enough.

Terry had to get it from someone.

Furthermore, Terry must've observed it and learned it from someone.

Beloved might not have been what was expected (rich, connected, upper crust), but if their Terry wants them, beloved will honor his wishes and be his, adapting, becoming in ways, like The Silvers, until it is unrecognizable they were ever from outside their circles. If someone as powerful as them says a duck's a duck, surely it must be a duck. And by the way, their son's a war veteran, don't you know? The conflicts of this country returned him damaged in ways and so far, nobody's answered for it. Nobody's paid and someone should've, because nothing's for free, and that sort of thing certainly shouldn't be. That service (and by extension his training in Korea and funding the first Cobra Kai dojo) took precious time out of him running the family company, and goddamnit, if Terry wants a shiny toy to keep him homebound, anchored and focused on more domestic affairs and his actual inheritance, becoming the man he was always supposed to be before all these distractions he should put behind himself popped up, he'll get the shiny toy. That's exactly what you'll be. They'll make sure of it. By any means necessary. They've an agenda and they'll see it to fruition. You don't get to just opt out of this now and flip-flop in your indecision. There's no retreat. That's not how things work. Are you trying to disrespect their family and their son? Are you trying to make very powerful enemies? Once you cross their threshold, it's their 'dojo' and their rules. No mercy. You belong to them.

Terry Silver's parents being familial, platonic!Yanderes anyone? 👀 Hey, possible!

[broken-clover]

OKAY!! kydizzy with clinging!! the sweethearts deserve a bit of desperate contact methinks

Unfortunately I took 'desperate' and probably took it in the wrong direction. Uh, apologies if you wanted this to be fluffy, I guess it sort of is in a way, just not the usual. I'm digging up the pre-overture era stuff because that offers so much for protective Dizzy

-

Leo had come back with nothing to show for it but a heavily bleeding arm, prompting panic among the people who had been waiting for him.

“Y-your majesty?” One of the castle staff covered their mouth in horror. “Good lord, what happened?”

Daryl quickly intervened, trying to keep the peace. “Someone will escort you to the infirmary immediately in order to stop the bleeding.”

“Gah, of course, of course, Daryl, I’m not so thickheaded that I would just let this bleed.” Leo huffed back at him.

“...I take it that your discussion didn’t get very far?”

He hung his head. “She won’t listen. I tried to explain, but either she can’t understand like this, or she just doesn’t want to hear it.”

“Your majesties, will we be moving on to firepower as an option?”

”Absolutely not.” Daryl immediately shut the man down. “Barring any concern we may have for it also harming the First King, it is likely that it will only aggravate her further.”

Someone in the back muttered to themself. “This is what we get for having a Gear as a queen.”

“Pardon?” Said Leo, looking for the individual among the group. “Would someone like to say that louder for us?”

Daryl shook his head. “Leo, don’t. Focus on yourself right now. Ellsworth, escort King Leo so he may receive some kind of medical treatment before he passes out.”

“Yessir.”

“For now,” he turned back to the rest. “I will attempt diplomacy of my own accord. No disrespect to my colleague, but I feel I could offer a more careful form of negotiation. We all want the same thing, after all.”

Several of them looked hesitant, but nobody could bring themselves to contradict the remaining king. They only watched as he headed down the same hallway that Leo had returned from, breath held in the hopes that this time wouldn’t involve more bloodshed.

Daryl was always good at putting on a stoic front. That wasn’t to say he was frightened, but negotiations with Gears wasn’t something richly illustrated in the history of debate. This wasn’t quite a hostage situation, but it wasn’t much of a pleasant chat, either. He simply hoped it would be over fast.

The castle started to show its damage as soon as he rounded the corner. Nobody had been able to remove the door yet, so it remained firmly lodged in the wall opposite of where it should have been. The remaining doorframe jutted out like a splintery flower. It had all been pushed back by one strong blow, and the carpet was scorched, decorated with a hearty blood spatter. 

However, Daryl never thought he would say it, but the horrible mess would have to go ignored for now. He did his best to give off the air of politeness and calm, and stepped into the doorway.

“Miss Dizzy?

In the darkness, a pair of scarlet lights snapped to face him. A shiver ran down his spine. He tried to stifle it. 

“We have spoken before. I am Third Ki-”

A spike of ice soared past his head, missing by little more than an inch. While he winced, Daryl realized it had been intentional. A warning shot. Just speaking to her had been enough to get that response. This was worse than he had thought.

Ky was still passed out in her arms, shivering and pale. When he stopped to look, it was obvious now- the thinness, the shaking, the vigor vanishing from his body- of course, nobody had thought to care until Dizzy decided that they were going to, and very quickly. That was the funniest part of this whole thing, if he could dare to call any of it funny. Despite the half-mad bioweapon he was currently in the hands of, Ky wasn’t in any sort of danger whatsoever. She had made that very clear. Dizzy was protecting him from everyone else.

Daryl reminded himself of that. Dizzy wasn’t a monster to be subdued, he was supposed to be there to coax a truce.

“I’m sorry,” he ventured, careful but pleased to see her not immediately go on the offensive again. “We all are. Truly, so very sorry. We want to help him. We can’t give him the help he needs here. If you let us bring him to-”

He was cut off by a sharp, catlike hiss. “YOUR FAULT.” Her pupils narrowed further into slits. “IT’S ALL YOUR FAULT.

He nodded. “I know. We made a terrible mistake. I understand that now. You have helped us to understand. Please, let us do what is right now.”

“NOBODY ELSE WILL PROTECT HIM. I WILL. I MUST.” Her tail lashed at the air, showing off its razor teeth. What he had thought was a shadow at first was a dark stain on otherwise-immaculate white. Daryl knew it could extend, but he wasn’t sure by how much. He could never assume full safety here.

“I know.” He said again. “You just want what’s best for him. I admire that. I want to help him, too.”

Dizzy stared him down, teeth gritted. Now there were two separate sets bared in his direction. “NO. NO YOU DON’T. YOU NEVER DID.”

“Miss Dizzy-”

“DON’T LIE TO ME!” She roared, the walls shaking from the force. “LEAVE BEFORE I MAKE YOU!”

This was treading on very thin ice now. Daryl didn’t want to throw in the towel just yet. “You can’t even consider?”

“NOBODY ELSE WILL HELP HIM. LEAVE.”

Her long tail lashed out at him, forcing a retreat. He squeezed out into the relative safety of the hallway, looking himself over for wounds he may not have noticed. Dizzy hadn’t left a scratch.

A complete and utter failure. He hadn’t gotten anywhere with her. Maybe he hadn’t deserved to. For all her inelegant rambling, she hadn’t been especially wrong.

After waiting several minutes, Daryl hesitantly peered into the room. He expected Dizzy would attack him properly as soon as she saw his face again, but she didn’t even look up. Through the low light, he could see her carefully wrapping Ky up in a quilt, butting their foreheads together and clinging onto him tightly. If he strained his ears, he swore he could make out a soft, sniffling humming.

[whumpdoyoumean]

Whumptober #28

This is an AU based on the 2009 film Push. So, The Man From UNCLE but with super powers!

xxx we might not make it to the morning 

“Ah, there you are. I was wondering if you’d come.” One corner of her mouth is upturned, and there’s nothing in Victoria’s tone, in the way she speaks, that’s out of the ordinary. And yet…There’s something there, something that tickles the back of Napoleon’s mind and then disappears the moment he reaches for it, like grasping at smoke.

It unsettles him, even as he puts on a false smile of his own, calm and full of charm. “How could I not? When a stunning woman such as yourself extends an invitation, one would be a fool not to accept it. I brought champagne.” He lifts the bottle slightly, and she steps out of the doorway so Napoleon can enter the suite, closing the door behind him. Napoleon sets the champagne down and turns to Victoria with one eyebrow quirked. “So what is it you wanted to discuss? An art deal, perhaps?”

Victoria grins broadly, showing pearly white teeth that remind Napoleon of a wolf’s, and she lets out a laugh. “Come now, Napoleon. Neither of us is that naive, so let’s not pretend.”

Napoleon’s stomach ties itself in knots at the use of his real name, but he’s careful not to let his shock show. His cover is blown, but he has to keep his head. “Damn,” he says. “I thought I was doing so well.”

“Oh, don’t sell yourself short, Agent Solo. You were doing very well!”

“What, so you found a Watcher, then? A Sniff?”

The woman watches him out from under heavy, dark lashes. There’s something predatory in her gaze, and Napoleon feels the hair on the back of his neck stand up. His strategy shifts immediately from gathering what intelligence he can to finding a way out of here, now.

But then…she speaks. And realization barely has time to hit him before her words crash over him and into him, entangling her lies with his reality.

“You really shouldn’t trust that big Russian ape, you know.”

Napoleon frowns. She’s only barely started to Push, and the contradicting thoughts in his mind confuse him. Surely she can’t mean…“Illya?” 

“Kuryakin, yes. He’s still working with them. It’s dreadful, really, the way he’s using you and dear little Gaby. Playing you for fools.”

Confusion slowly turns to anger, and Napoleon feels his hands curl into fists. “I’ll kill him.”

He doesn’t notice Victoria’s amused smile, or the blackness of her eyes. “Now, there’s an idea. He’ll see you coming, though. The man is tracking you, after all.”

Napoleon’s thoughts are heavy and plodding, like there’s weights around their ankles, and it takes him a long moment before he says, “That’s impossible. I check my clothes, and my shoes.”

Victoria sighs, walking past Napoleon and to the nightstand next to the bed. He turns to watch her. “No, no darling. You misunderstand me. He didn’t place the tracker on you, did he? He planted it in you, in your belly.” 

Napoleon’s heart rate picks up, hands breaking into a sweat. His head hurts. This doesn’t seem right, but she’s said so and--

“The bastard,” he says.

“Indeed.” She opens the nightstand drawer and pulls something out, lifting it to show him. A small paring knife. She places the point against the tip of her finger and looks at it thoughtfully. “If you want to kill him, which you do, you’ll need to get that pesky tracker out first and destroy it.”

A tracker, a Russian tracker inside him all this time, Kuryakin and the fucking KGB aware of his every move, his every secret…All of it lies. His trust given to the enemy, to a man who’s needled his way into his life and used him. 

He needs to get the tracker out and smash it to pieces. And then he needs to find Illya and smash him to pieces, too.

Victoria closes the space between herself and Napoleon and reaches up with one hand, gently running the back of her long fingers down his face, lingering at his jaw. 

“I’d love to stay and watch, I really would, but unfortunately I’ve more important matters to see to. Much less entertaining, though. Pity.” She sighs wistfully and holds out the knife. “You’ll need this. A bit short, but it’s sharp enough.”

Napoleon takes the blade from Victoria and she plants a kiss on his lips, lingering a long moment before she pulls away with a smile. 

“Goodbye now, Napoleon. We shan’t be seeing each other again, I don’t think. And do be quiet, we don’t want anyone coming in here and trying to stop you.”

Napoleon nods idly, staring down at the small weapon he’s been handed as Victoria leaves the suite.

The agent turns the knife in his hand so it’s pointed toward his belly. His body’s instinct to survive is shouting at him, trying to seize control of his limbs. But there’s a tracker inside him, put there by a man who has lied to him, violated him, betrayed him. And he needs to get it out. He has to. Mind overrides body and he drives the knife forward, plunging it into the right side of his torso, halfway between ribs and hip. The pain pulls the breath out of him and the blood is instant, welling up around the blade and soaking his crisp, white shirt. He’s on the floor before he knows he’s falling, sitting on the carpet against the settee, his legs outstretched before him. His heart pounds in his chest, in his ears, as he starts to pull the knife to the left (the woman wasn’t lying, the knife is sharp) and his hands begin to tremble as more blood spills from him. His body shakes as he continues, quaking with the effort of containing the screams that want to erupt from him--screams of agony, of hurt, of rage. He doesn’t let them out though, he can’t. Only the occasional whimper or groan slips through his lips, though the sounds are quickly stifled. Mostly he gasps, rapid, sharp breaths through flared nostrils, his mouth drawn into a thin grimace.

He wants to stop.

But then Victoria’s voice again, and her words push every other conscious thought aside so that he’s focused only on his task. To get the tracker out. 

He’s shaking so badly he can hardly hold the knife, so he wraps his left hand around his right and then he keeps moving. He doesn’t think about the fact that his lap is becoming increasingly wet and warm as blood spills from the lengthening split in his belly. Doesn’t think about the fact that, despite the sweat on his forehead, he’s growing colder. 

He has to get the tracker out.

And then he’s going to kill Illya Kuryakin.

xxx 

They don’t wait for the girl at the front desk to give them a key. They don’t have the time, and Illya can blast the door open anyway, and does so with more strength than Gaby has seen in a while, nearly knocking it from its hinges. He bursts into the room and then freezes so abruptly that Gaby runs into the back of him. 

“Illya!” she gripes, and steps out from around him and then she freezes, too. “Mein Gott.”

Napoleon is on the floor, slumped against a settee, his face shiny with sweat and a sickly shade of gray and there’s blood, there’s so much blood all over his front and his hands and the white carpet beneath him and she’s seen a lot since working with Waverly but this…Bile rises in her throat and she has to turn away, doubling over and clutching her stomach and waiting for the moment to pass. This seems to rouse Illya from his daze and her charges forward. 

“Cowboy!” he cries, and Gaby looks up in time to see the Russian fall to his knees beside the agent. He’s muttering in Russian, words too low and fast for Gaby to understand but she thinks he may be praying as he puts two fingers to Napoleon’s neck, searching for a pulse. 

“Is he--”

“He is alive,” Illya says. “Go find clean towels, we must try and control the bleeding.”

Gaby nods, hurrying off to the bathroom, and she’s grateful to have a moment to herself, to collect herself as she collects the towels. She’s strong and Napoleon Solo is strong and it’s going to be okay. 

That’s when the shouting starts. 

She hears Illya first. “Solo, what are you--You are badly injured you must--”

And then Napoleon, and the tone in his voice sends ice in her veins. 

“Get the fuck off me, I’ll kill you!” There’s a tiredness in his voice, a slurred quality to his words that she knows comes with being badly hurt, but even so the words are laced with fury and hatred and she hurries back to the two agents. 

Napoleon has a knife in his red-with-blood hand, holding it up in front of him, and Gaby can see it shaking. Illya is a step back, hands up in a gesture of retreat, face twisted in hurt and confusion. 

“Napoleon!” 

Gaby’s cry gets his attention and he looks over at her, then down at his belly. “I have to get it out. Gaby, I--I have to get it out!” 

And then he’s aiming the knife at himself, moving quickly but Illya is quicker and grabs both his wrists. The knife clatters to the ground and Napoleon’s face darkens with rage. 

“Cowboy, it’s me!” Illya cries. “You’re badly wounded, we have to get you to help, do you understand?”

“You’re a liar,” Napoleon snarls, jerking slightly as he tries to free himself from the Russian’s grip. The action is quickly followed by a sound of pain and his eyes squeeze shut.

“Illya, let him go,” Gaby says, barely keeping her voice from shaking. “He’ll hurt himself more trying to fight you.”

“He will hurt himself anyway if I let him go.” There’s desperation in Illya’s voice, written on his face and in his body, in the uncertainty that is as plain in his grip as the strength. “It--it is bad, Gaby. The towels--he needs the towels.”

Gaby nods, kneeling beside the two men and it’s only then, with the blood on the carpet soaking through the knees of her trousers, that she fully takes in Napoleon’s injury. It’s nothing short of ghastly--a long, ragged cut running from one side of his belly to the other. It's hard to tell but she notes that there doesn't seem to be anything other than blood spilling from the gash. It offers some comfort, but not much. 

She’s seen what a powerful Pusher can do, and Victoria is obviously not short on power. It’s plain that Napoleon doesn’t have much strength left in him, but whatever she’s planted in his mind is compelling him to use every ounce of it acting on whatever she’s told him to do, even if it kills him. 

She positions herself next to Illya, who’s still holding Napoleon’s wrists, and presses a towel to the long gash, and another, and it’s obvious that he’s in agony but he doesn’t scream, just writhes weakly and lets out small, hair raising whimpers.

“We can’t move him like this,” Gaby says. “Maybe if he were calm, but he is bleeding too much and there’s no way he’ll let you get him out of here. He needs a Stitch. You know one here in Rome, don’t you? Go make the call.”

Illya’s jaw works, eyes growing watery, and he shakes his head once. “I will give you the number. I won’t leave him.”

“You have to!” she snaps, then sighs. “Illya, you have to.”

He reluctantly releases his hold on Napoleon, who immediately reaches for the towels Gaby’s holding against his wound. He’s weak, though, and Gaby easily stops him, taking his bloody hands in hers.

“Go!” she barks, and Illya hurries away. 

“He--he--” Napoleon gasps, looking at Gaby with eyes wide and wild.

“What is it, Solo?” she says gently, hoping that she can coax something out that will help her deal with whatever lies Victoria has forced on him.

“He lied to us. The--the--the bastard! Put a tracker in me…I have to get it out.”

So that’s what Victoria told him. She has to think quickly.

“You did!” she says, and his brow furrows in confusion.

“What?” His hands relax in hers, just slightly. 

“You already got it out,” she says, slowly releasing one of his hands and waiting for a moment to make sure he doesn’t try and hurt himself again. Then she reaches into her pocket and draws out one of the beads from her broken bracelet and holds it up. “See? It was on the floor, you must have missed it. You already got it out.”

He still looks slightly bewildered, but he nods slowly. “I got it out,” he murmurs, and lets out a long sigh, and as he does his eyes drift shut and his head dips down toward his chest. 

“Solo!” Gaby puts her hand on his face, tilting his head upward. Her already hammering heart beats so fast that it aches, with fear, with desperation. A Stitch can’t help a dead man. “Solo, come on. You have to stay awake until help comes. Napoleon!”

She almost weeps with relief when she hears Illya’s voice in the hall, and he appears a moment later, a short, harsh-looking older woman in tow. 

“Christ, that’s a lot of blood,” she says in a thick Dublin as she sets eyes on Napoleon. “Is he still breathing?”

Gaby nods. “He’s alive.”

“Alright, help me get him onto his back.”

Illya and Gaby move quickly and carefully, shifting Napoleon so that he’s lying flat on his back on the blood-soaked floor. The woman places her hand on Napoleon’s belly, one on either side of the wound. She glances up at Illya. 

“Your friend is about to make a lot of noise. Might bring some unwanted attention.”

“I will deal with it, Brigid,” Illya practically growls. “Just help him!”

Brigid nods and slowly starts to move her hands. Gaby watches in fascinated horror as the torn flesh deep within the wound begins to knit. As it does, Napoleon stirs, just a little at first, a pained whimper escaping his lips. Whimper becomes groan, and he writhes under Brigid’s hands, and then his back arches and he screams and the sound makes Gaby’s stomach churn. Brigid doesn’t seem phased, barely even seems to notice, just continues her bloody work. Gaby has to blink back tears and she looks up to see Illya doing the same, the big Russian’s jaw tense as he stares up at the ceiling while Napoleon cries out. 

And then it’s over and Napoleon’s body goes limp, sweat beading his forehead as his head lolls to one side, his breath coming in high, breathy gasps.

“Boy’s just been through hell,” Brigid says, standing. “But he’ll be back on his feet in a few hours.”

“Thank you,” Illya says. “Thank you.”

Brigid just nods. “You owe me one, Kuryakin.” And she leaves the apartment without another word. Illya watches her go, then turns to Gaby. 

“Are you alright?”

“I’m fine. Are you?”

Illya sniffs once, looking away, then looks back at her. “The way he spoke to me…He was so angry.”

There’s a noise in the hall and Gaby swears under her breath.

“Illya, we need to get him out of here.”

“He does not trust me.” Illya’s voice is small. Broken.

“We’ll figure it out,” Gaby says softly. 

Illya nods, his expression darkening. “And then we find Victoria.”

“And then we find Victoria,” Gaby agrees.

It doesn’t matter how powerful Victoria Vinciguera is. She’s going to pay for this.

xxx