#my dumbass assumed he was gonna battle me so i immediately avoided him

[aqqleshiqqing-archive]

ever since I stopped posting here i finished bw and bw2 completely (it was fuckin fantastic) but i had more plans.

I FOUND YOUYUUYYYUYUUUIYYYUUUYYIO‼️‼️‼️‼️ U AND YOUR GOOFY ASS SPRITE HELLOOOOOO

[thisaccisdead]

montreal - roman hurt/comfort

pairing: this was written to all be platonic prinxiety, but can definitely be interpreted romantically !

warnings: unconventional self harm, non-graphic descriptions of wounds/injury

summary: a post-POF roman hurt/comfort fic in january 2021? yes <3

word count: 3.2k

notes: large portions of this were salvaged from one (1) night last summer at 4am when i was having a . time. the rest has been mainly recently written before i go to bed, with some extra bits added during my history classes B)) also shout out to [REDACTED]. u may not read this but if u do, i hope u know who u are & ilu

Virgil had been trying to calm himself down for the better part of an hour, as soon as they got back from the wedding fiasco; and he was doing a relatively okay job. Considering the circumstances, at least. Or so he thought, when he registered a spike in Thomas’s anxiety. This only served to make Virgil more anxious, because he had thought he had been doing well—until, he realized it wasn’t anxiety, not exactly, not fully—and it wasn’t coming from him.

Once he'd figured that out, it wasn't hard to trace the feeling to the imagination. He paused at the door. If this was where the strongest negative emotions were coming from, he already knew which side this was about. And could he really be surprised? Roman had wanted that callback for so long. Even at the court case, even when Roman gave Thomas his sentence, Virgil knew it killed him. And Virgil didn't do anything. Because he was so fucking scared of Thomas being bad, or of Janus winning, or something, and now whatever was going on was his fault, and--

And now was not the time for these thoughts. He breathed in. He opened the door.

Immediately, he was coughing out soot, heat burned his cheeks, his eyes blurred with protective tears forming against the smoke. It was hard to see, let alone process, what was happening. Then, he caught sight of the Dragon Witch. And he caught sight of—

“Roman!” Virgil choked on the yell, coughing again.

Obviously Roman couldn’t hear him from the distance, especially considering the brutal roar of the creature. Adrenaline kicked in, and as Virgil began to sprint towards the prince, he took in the entirety of the scene with alarm. Roman was...fighting, sure, except that Virgil had seen him fight before, and this... wasn’t right. Roman bested manticore-chimeras like it was a breeze, he HAD bested the Dragon Witch herself in every form she took, “just for training.” He always moved like he was in a ballet, not a battle, like it was more for show than challenge, and now...

Virgil watched Roman fall to a hard swish of the creature’s tail, and stay there. He almost expected the Dragon Witch to take mercy, or at least, to accept an early victory. But he watched her rear back, raise a taloned hand, the magma-red in her throat glowing brighter and brighter—just as Virgil got close enough to let fight win over flight.

Virgil crashed into Roman; they rolled just far enough that the swipe of claws only ripped the edge of Virgil’s jacket.

Immediate danger out of the way, Virgil clenched his eyes tight, trying to do it how Logan taught him. He found something that didn’t make sense--the grass. The grass was dry, therefore it should have been burning, but it wasn’t. He took that foothold to dispel all the fantastical elements of the scene, Dragon Witch and all her carnage blinking from existence. The new calm of the scene was jarring.

That just left a great big field, Virgil, and one absolute dumbass.

"What the fuck, Princey?!"

Virgil’s voice was distorted with stress, and Roman stared up at him wide-eyed, unsure—even terrified in a way that hurt. Virgil quickly pushed himself up so he wasn't pinning the other. Roman tried to copy this movement, only to groan, start coughing, and fall back again.

“Shit, I—“ Virgil looked at his hands and found red on them, looked at Roman and saw the color painting his chest. “I thought I dispelled all the imaginary stuff, why—?“

“Left brain sides can only dispel so much of what right brain sides feel,” Roman said, voice rough and thin and upsettingly casual, “Since they feel so real to me, you can’t get rid of them.”

“They feel…? Christ, ok, you need a medical kit, uhm—“ Virgil closed his eyes again; he was notoriously shitty at summoning things, and he had to concentrate for this—

“That’s ok; I’ve got it,” Roman said, letting out a quiet hiss as he propped himself up on one arm, and summoned the medical kit with the other, “You can go now.”

Virgil gaped at him in disbelief. When Roman attempted to stand up, and Virgil could no longer deny he wasn’t joking, he exclaimed, “Like Hell am I going, idiot!”

Roman just stared at him, and Virgil cursed under his breath. “Ok ok, let’s just... we should do this in the bathroom, uhm—“

Virgil awkwardly clambered over to Roman again, taking his hand, so he could blink them over together. He knew it would probably be more comfortable for Roman to sink in and out, but considering Virgil wasn’t practiced at that, he wasn’t going to risk screwing it up.

They apparated into the bathtub, and Virgil scrambled up, taking the med kit from Roman's hands.

Ok, ok, now Virgil just had to remember that one time Logan lectured them all on “Side Safety.” He took a shaky breath and washed his hands quickly, before turning back to Roman. He allowed himself to fully assess the prince this time and… Jesus. He was slumped against the back of the tub, having given up his attempts at composure while he thought Virgil wasn’t looking. His litany of scrapes, cuts, bruising, his shallow breathing, and--most of all--the wet, red patch slowly growing on his shirt, sparked renewed panic in Virgil.

“Ok, fuck, ok--let’s do this,” Virgil said, mostly to himself, as he knelt down by Roman to undo his already tattered shirt and take a wet towel to his chest. He had to suck in a breath at the sight of the jagged wound, a nauseous feeling catching up to him.

“You’ve already done a lot, you know,” Roman insisted. “You can--”

“If you tell me to go, Princey, I swear I’ll make these wounds worse myself,” he said, not meaning it in the slightest, which he would assume Roman knew--but the way Roman flinched and shut his mouth told a different story. “Shit, I didn’t mean that. Of course I didn’t mean that!”

Roman glanced away, and Virgil reached to cup his cheek, an instinct he didn’t know he had. Luckily, he caught himself in time to retract his hand. They both avoided eye contact for a second; Virgil cleared his throat; and he reached for the bottle of hydrogen peroxide before pausing. He vaguely recalled Logan mentioning how strong alcohols would only cause more harm, and they should just stick to mild soap instead. He gave the cut a longer look-over—it was certainly not a pretty sight, but probably not as bad as it looked. It was large, but not too deep. Plus, as sides, it would heal itself without needing anything like stitches or professional medical work. The past scars littering Roman’s body were proof of that. Actually--had he always had this many scars? Virgil squinted. How often did he do this?

Virgil finished cleansing and bandaging the wound to the best of his ability, with little talk beyond the occasional, soft “sorry” at Roman’s winces. When he had finished, he gave Roman his hoodie (an action the Prince was too tired to take much notice of), since summoning a new shirt seemed like a waste of whatever energy he had left.

“Ok, Princey, all done. Uhm, are you—how, how are you?” Virgil mentally kicked himself.

A small, bitter smile tugged at Roman’s lips for just a moment. He opened his mouth and then closed it, and finally shrugged. “Thank you for your help.”

It hurt, Virgil realized. Roman’s quiet voice, where near-shouting was his usual speech. His unkempt hair sticking to his forehead, where it was usually styled to be very lightly and intentionally ruffled. The bags beneath his eyes where there was usually concealer. All of it hurt.

Virgil sucked in a breath. “Look, I’m sorry if I’m being annoying, but I hope you know there’s absolutely no way I’m leaving yet.”

“Virgil,” Roman almost said it as a whine, which was closer to his usual style, so Virgil considered it progress.

“Roman,” Virgil deadpanned back.

Roman huffed. “Maybe I need space to really explore my feelings, and you’re actually being a terrible friend right now,” he argued.

“Uh-huh, well being a terrible friend is always my favorite, so,” Virgil leaned down, fumbling slightly as he picked Roman up bridal style, “We’re gonna get you to bed, and you can explore your feelings by sleeping.”

“Great, now you’re damsel-in-distressing me,” Roman said sarcastically, but he leaned his head into Virgil’s chest as he did so, which kind of ruined his point.

“Yeah, yeah. Act more like Megara next time, and maybe it’ll be different.”

•••

Roman groaned upon waking up. His whole body ached, but mainly it was focused around a sharper pain in his chest. He let his eyes flutter open, only to find Virgil staring at him from his desk.

“Ah,” Roman uttered, a jumble of memories from the past few hours returning. They felt foggy and mildly icky, but mainly the pain in them was the numb kind of pain, the tired kind. Really, it was indistinguishable from the dull ache of his bruises and cuts.

“Yeah,” Virgil said, as though he understood, even though he couldn’t possibly. “Uh, wanna talk about it?”

It was clear Virgil felt awkward asking the question. It was unclear whether that was due to his tendency to be embarrassed by everything he said, or—far more likely—that he wanted to stop babying a stupid prince, and just go about his business.

Roman sat up, suppressing a wince as best he could. “Do you want to hear about it?”

“Of course I do.” Virgil said it without an ounce of hesitation. Roman’s breath caught.

“Oh.” Roman shifted slightly over, and Virgil took a seat by him on the bed. “Okay. Uhm. I don’t know, I just—I messed up.” What else was new?

“...What did you mess up?” Virgil asked, with an inkling of suspicion, like he knew what this was about. But it wasn’t that; it wasn’t the callback—that was over and done and dead. Roman had created so many fantasies, so many crazy scenarios where they could somehow still make it in that stupid movie, and it had always filled him with hope or crushing pain or something, but as of this afternoon? He didn’t even care. It didn’t matter.

So, Roman ignored the question, and instead commented, “Janus got accepted.”

“What the fuck.”

Roman observed Virgil’s stricken expression like an unsettling kind of mirror of himself when—

My name is Janus.

“Yeah,” Roman sighed, “I didn’t take it so well either.”

Virgil looked at him for a long moment, seeming to go through several series of emotions, before he was able to ask, “...What happened?”

Roman inhaled sharply. “I was wrong about being wrong about the wedding. Patton was also wrong; Janus was right, and then Patton was right because he wasn’t a total asshole to Janus, and I’m evil; Thomas hates me; whatever, you get it.”

He thought he would break down, saying it, but he felt oddly… fine. He sat, staring at the same spot as he was before, absentmindedly annoyed at the way his bandages itched. The normalcy of the situation almost made it worse. This sucked. This wasn’t even bad.This was the worst he had ever felt.

“Oook,” Virgil said, clearly not knowing where to start, “I—you—what do you mean: Thomas hates you?”

“Thought that one was self-explanatory.”

“He can’t hate you,” Virgil said with a laughable amount of conviction. “You’re still his… y’know.. goals. Desires. Hopes. Whatever. Just because this one didn’t go… perfectly, doesn’t mean you won’t keep—“ he struggled to find the phrasing for a moment— “...fighting, uh, valiantly for Thomas’s dreams!” he attempted at the encouragement with a weak smile.

Roman just shook his head. “No. I don’t know what he wants.”

Virgil’s smile dropped into confusion. “But… you are his wants.”

“That’s kind of the problem.”

Virgil seemed at a loss, and Roman felt like an asshole. Here he was trying to help him, and Roman couldn’t even be bothered to put on a smile to dismiss him from the duty.

“Please go,” Roman attempted weakly when he couldn’t find a more convincing argument in himself. He was meant to be an actor, but he knew he couldn’t hide the fact that he wanted him to stay, of course he did, so badly. He hoped Virgil would just quit with the chivalry and go despite that.

Virgil sighed deeply and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Shit, I'm going about this all wrong.”

Roman knew it probably wasn’t really him Virgil was mad at, but it was hard not to shrink away anyway.

“Look, Roman—“ Virgil turned to him, looked at him seriously, took his hands in his— “To be honest? I don’t care what happened. I don’t care who was right or wrong—I mean, we all know I’ve been in the wrong more than my fair share. It doesn’t change how I feel about you.”

Roman didn’t miss the ambiguity of the end statement. “But… look, you don’t get it. When you mess up, you’re still you. You’re still...,” Roman gestured vaguely, which upset his bandages, and when he looked down at himself, he took note of the black/purple hoodie he was wearing. He melted slightly. This was exactly the point he was trying to make, “You’re still... y’know. Important.”

“Wh—? Of course you’re important, Ro. You’re creativity—“

“Thomas has two of those.”

Virgil looked at him like he was stupid. “Right, as if you’re anything like Remus.”

Roman’s lip quivered at that, and he had to look away, which was so stupid. And suddenly he felt all of the embarrassment at once—of this situation, of everything that had happened before, of the way he was about to cry, in front of Virgil, after he said that, which must look so—

“Roman?”

A hand was on his cheek, softly turning his face towards Virgil’s, though Roman still refused to meet his eyes.

Virgil cursed to himself under his breath. “Shit, this is exactly what I was trying not to say.” He sighed, and Roman hesitantly looked up at him. “Look. Even if you weren’t creativity, if you weren’t hopes or dreams or any of it—if you were a completely pointless side, which you aren’t, but if you were—I wouldn’t care. What I care about is that you’re... Roman. That you bother me until I sing Disney with you, that when you put your heart into something, you do it to a stupid amount, that you make Thomas take trashy buzzfeed soulmate quizzes when he’s stressed, and that you fucking try so hard for everything, even when I’m being a little bitch about it,” he paused. With the hand on Roman’s cheek, he traced the line of a scar down his jaw. It was one of the ones Roman usually made sure to put an illusion over, he noted offhandedly. “I care, because you’re my best friend.”

“Don’t say that,” Roman choked out. He couldn’t handle it if it was a lie, and part of him couldn’t manage hearing it as anything but exactly that. “Just—just—“

“Oh, Princey..”

Virgil held him as he broke. Roman didn’t know how long they sat like that as he let everything wash over him for a final time, let it all truly sink in at long last. He took heaving, messy sobs, no doubt ruining Virgil’s shirt in the process—he was quiet, though. He shook silently, save a couple choked breaths, in the other’s arms--that was a habit he had taught himself long ago.

When Roman had tired himself out, when all that was left was the pain in chest, (which was also suddenly duller—he was healing fast, even for a side—) he pulled back from the embrace. Virgil didn’t move by much, kept them so their fingers were laced together, as they sat staring at each other.

“Uhm. Thanks,” Roman gave a shaky smile, “You really—uh... I... I said some stupid stuff, huh?”

Virgil hesitated before he spoke, as if he knew he shouldn’t ask this right now, but needed to anyway. “...Roman, why’d you go to the Imagination?”

Roman felt ice stab at his chest upon the question. He didn’t want to do this. They had already talked about so much that he shouldn’t have gotten into; this was meant to be the part where they either parted or watched a stupid movie. And this, out of everything, was the conversation he most needed to avoid.

“Uh—I mean, to let off steam?” Roman gave a laugh as best he could. “Obviously, it didn’t go to plan—“

“Didn’t it?”

Roman’s face fell immediately. He struggled to come up with an answer, and even if he had had one, he didn’t think the sound would come out. This was enough of an answer in itself

“Shit,” Virgil breathed. Roman couldn’t help but be mildly annoyed by his surprise—clearly he had already known, he didn’t have to make it a big deal now.

“I… Princey—Roman…” Virgil looked him up and down, and Roman wanted to curl up and hide. “...how many times?”

“Not many,” Roman mumbled. Virgil must have known he was pushing the subject too far, because he just frowned and said,

“OK. I mean...it’s not OK, obviously, but you already know that, I just—“ he sighed. “Just… can you talk to me? Instead? Please? When you feel like… that.”

“Yeah, that sounds good,” Roman responded hastily, wanting an out from this topic.

Virgil gave him a look. “I’m serious. I mean—look, you don’t even have to talk about it if you don’t want. Just, come to me first, yeah?”

Roman’s face burned; he was embarrassed; he wanted to shrug this whole thing off, or roll his eyes, or maybe scream in annoyance. But the rational part of him knew Virgil was right. “OK,” he agreed softly, “...Thanks. For everything.”

Virgil looked surprised, and then flustered, and then waved off the earnest reply. “I mean, it wasn’t--I didn’t--it’s not like I did anything really--”

“You did.”

Virgil’s face softened. “Yeah, well... you’d’ve done the same for me. You... have done the same for me.”

Roman smiled gently at him. “By the way, Virge--” He hesitated. He was about to sound like a real dumbass if Virgil had only been saying this stuff for comfort’s sake. But making a fool of himself was becoming a theme for him anyway, so he continued, “You’re my best friend too.”

I love you.

In the same beats Roman thought it, Virgil squeezed his hand lightly 3 times. A breath passed between them. An understanding. That Roman couldn’t say it out loud, and Virgil wouldn’t.

Instead, Virgil fell back across the bed, bringing Roman with him in the motion. Roman let out a startled gasp and elbowed him lightly. “Hey! I’m injured, that could have been a fatal impact for me!” he whined.

Virgil snorted. “Yeah, yeah, OK. So, do you wanna watch a stupid movie, or what?”

[middleofnowhere92]

Ranking all ATLA Villains/Antagonists from worst to best (by someone who loves villains)

This post was inspired by this ask 

Warning: I swear quite a bit in this post and I’m a dumbass, not an ATLA scholar, so take this with a grain of salt. Also I have no idea wtf my ranking criteria was. I assigned arbitrary and meaningless points like Dumbledore giving all the points to Gryffindor at the end of the year. 

Iroh

 I have a secret for you...Iroh is an antagonist.... Say it with me... Iroh is an antagonist. For the people in the back, IROH IS AN ANTAGONIST. He’s not particularly good at at it, but he belongs on this list. Primary reason being, his siege on Ba Sing Se, which was a major battle in the 100 year war and all the other things he did in the war to become a general. If he was good at being a villain, he would at least have the decency to conquer the city, but as Ozai points out, Iroh excels at tea and failure. When we see Iroh in Book 1, He’s a very chill antagonist for the same reason a lot of our other antagonists are (June, the Yuyan Archers, Combustion man etc)-they are helping a villain achieve their goal. In Iroh’s case, he does help Zuko in many ways ( like sneaking him onto Zhao’s ship) and these in turn help Zuko get closer to his goal of capturing Aang. I love Iroh as a character, but he’s not good at being an antagonist, which is why he is ranked the worst. 

Circus Trainer

This man is straight up, evil. I like villains, but I do not like this man. He’s cruel and not in a fun way, which is why he’s near the bottom of the list. The whole point of being a villain is to be cool and do bad things, but he’s not even a little fun to watch. He’s the least interesting to look at... 

Yon Rha

This man is a coward. Like how did he lead the Southern Raiders? He went soft when he got old. He was more savage back in the day. Like this man is a firebender, but he cowers from Zuko before Katara even pops up. He needs to grow a pair. Like Katara said man is pa-thet-ic. 

The Rough Rhinos (ignoring the comics)

They get points for creating my favorite antagonist, Jet. But the first time we see these clowns in the show, the gang just rides away on Appa, easily avoiding them. And then the gang easily defeats them in their next run in. These clowns are good at destroying things, but not really fighting or pursuing others. 

Ozai

I expected more from this man. He was hyped up for three seasons and I just didn’t feel like he was smart enough to be the bad guy for the whole ass show.  The man clearly doesn’t think for himself or show up throughout the series doing  menacing things. The final agni kai overshadowed Ozai and Aang’s showdown. That’s the theme, Azula outshines a grown man as the star villain of the show. He does get some points for his fashion and flair for the dramatic. 

Mai's Uncle (Boiling Rock Warden)

This man, is a dumbass with the reflexes of a sloth. Suki overpowered him in 2 seconds flat. How is this grown man getting defeated by a little nugget like Suki? She was only holding his wrist. He could have just kicked her? Like you are a prison warden, look alive man! And he should have captured Zuko’s little ass and sent him right over to Ozai to get some street cred, but instead he just gets pissed cause Zuko broke up with Mai? First lesson in being a villain/antagonist- power over everything (including family). He does get points for ordering them to cut the line. That’s straight savage. 

Xin Fu and Yu

Toph gets it right, these are two dunderheads. How did they not hear Toph bending metal? They react almost as slowly as the Boiling Rock Warden, letting Toph easily overtake them. They are two skilled benders and they didn’t even stand a chance. 

General Fong

This man gets points for being a bat shit crazy. And I think he’s one of the first non fire nation antagonists we see in the show, so points for him. He’s an underrated antagonist. He does cool bending and his emotional manipulation to get Aang into the Avatar state is A+ villain work. 

Azulon

Azulon gets villain points for keeping the war going. He didn’t fuck it up like Ozai. But Azulon gets his villainness handed to him on a platter, he didn’t really do much, besides maintain status quo. We do get the scene where Ozai asks for the throne. But I don’t think Azulon assumed Ozai was going to kill Zuko. Azulon was trying to make a point, that Ozai’s request was absurd, but he obviously didn’t know Ozai well enough...

Koh

Koh almost didn’t make the list. I don’t really consider him to be an antagonist. Aang came to him asking for information and Koh was trying to do what he does..steal faces. He was just vibing. I included him on this list, because he antagonized us (the viewers). Dude is easily the most terrifying part of the show. 

Ghashiun

He muzzled Appa! He’s not ranked high on this list, because he didn’t know Appa was Aang’s so he wasn’t intentionally trying to fuck with the Avatar. I do like the sandbenders as a whole. They just run around causing chaos with their cool bending. This character, however, loses points, because when he is confronted about stealing Appa, he gets defensive and tries to lie. If you do something bad, at least have the balls to own up to it. 

Wan Shi Tong

Gets points for his flair for the dramatic a la Ozai. I did like Wan Shi Tong’s logic around not giving the gaang information: “You think you're the first person to believe their war was justified?!” He had more brain cells than some of our other villains/antagonists, but was also dumb too? Sokka pretty easily outsmarted him. This Spirit has been alive forever, he shouldn’t be outsmarted by a child. 

The Old Man

Oooof. I almost put him in the number one spot tbh. He did us and Haru so dirty. Like he could have died,but he turned in the person that saved him??? He gets points for shock value and pettiness. I personally think Jet should take him out...

June

June gets points for being a bad bitch. I like her vibe. She’ll do anything as long as you’re paying her the right price and I can respect that. She isn’t higher on the list, because she is executing someone else’s plan, not her own. 

The Yuyan Archers

Speaking of bad bitches, the Yuyan Archers are so cool and I wish they got more screen time! We see very few antagonists that can keep up with Aang the way that this group does. They add a bit of spice and a different flavor to what we know about Fire Nation fighting styles, which I approve of. I hope we see more of them in future ATLA projects. They aren’t higher up, because they are still doing someone else’s bidding. If they had their own leader and their own agenda, that would be some cool shit. 

Combustion Man

This man gets points for giving the gaang a lot of trouble. As viewers, we really worry about whether they will be able to defeat him. I like that he has a different style of bending, which in and of itself is terrifying. He still doesn’t make it up higher on the list, because he’s still doing someone else’s (Zuko’s) bidding.

Rig Warden

On second thought, I may have him ranked a little too high. But oh well, fuck it. He gets many many points for being voiced by George Takei. This man also gets points for having general villain swag. He is sassy and I am here for it. He’s highly effective at crushing the souls of the Earthbenders on the rig. Also, he does not stutter when Haru throws those rocks at him.Came at him full force which is what all the other himbos on this list should have been doing when these children played them! He outright told Katara he was gonna kill her “You’re one mistake away from dying where you stand.” Loses points for begging as he’s dragged off the rig. Go down with some dignity!

The Southern Raiders

So the Southern Raiders get ranked separately from Yon Rha, because he led them towards the end of their conquest. I think they started under Sozin’s reign. This group gets ranked fairly high, because they were very effective at their task. They came, they saw, they decimated-leaving the SWT defenseless and barely able to sustain itself. 

Mai

I like Mai and wish I could rank her higher. I like her knives, they are very cool form of defense that was unique to her. I also love how she just immediately flung arrows at Aang, no hesitation. She does get style points, her aesthetic is everything. Her one liners are pretty funny, “You’re so colorful, you’re making me nauseous.”  She lacks in her commitment. Anytime anything inconveniences her she’s just like eh, no thanks. Hardcore antagonists need to be have some dedication to their cause, which Mai does not.  I feel like she would eventually run out of weapons in a longer battle, which would be a big issue for her. 

Long Feng

Gets instant points for villain swag, creepy vibe and sass. This man kept news of a whole war from Ba Sing Se, even though the city was filled with refugees? Long Feng had his work cut out for him. He loses points, because he lets the children get away with too much. He should have locked down Aaang and co immediately, because they were trouble as soon as they rolled up. Also, he should have fought Azula. He let a fourteen year old take his whole career away. He was never even a player.

Sozin

Sozin gets a  large amount of hypothetical points from being the one to start it all. He’s the one who initiated the 100 year war. He did not play around. He used that comet to its maximum potential. Also he has a dragon, which is fucking cool. He gets bad bitch points for leaving Roku on the exploding island. Like that’s a power move right there. He wiped out the air nomads and invaded the Southern Water Tribe, which is why his successors  are ranked much lower on the list. They really didn’t do shit.

Hama

Gets points for being a waterbender, which is something cool that we hadn’t seen in a villain yet. She also gets points for executing her own deranged agenda. I would love to see her and Jet link up, cause that would have been chaos. She also gets heaps of points for inventing bloodbending. Many of the villains of this list can barely think and homegirl has big brain energy. She is cunning and quick, like when she utilizes Sokka and Aang to attack Katara. I like her general bruja (witch) vibes. She gets more points because she does not motherfucking stutter when Katara figures her out, she just starts bloodbending immediately. She really enjoys her power and I can’t blame her for it. She’s a baddie and she knows it. More points for Hama, because she gets Katara to carry on her legacy (whether she wants to or not) and goes off to jail with her dignity. She’s an all-star villain and I love to see it. She loses a few points, because her bloodbending is limited to the full moon, but she still has her waterbending which is terrifying enough...

Dai Li

Like the rig warden, I probably ranked these himbos too high, but I love them as henchmen. Their bending is amazing, they are sneaky and they can brainwash you? Like fuck me up man. They really are just a joy to watch and their betrayal of Long Feng is so unexpected. This group really creates the creepy/ominous aesthetic the creators were going for in Ba Sing Se. Don’t think their bending is good? They one upped Toph and almost had her, but Jet saved her at the last second. 

Zhao

I feel like Zhao’s characterization is inconsistent (sometimes he has a bad temper, sometimes he doesn’t?) which makes him hard to rank, but let’s do it anyway. He gets points for being voiced by the guy that played Lucius Malfoy, like yaaas work that Slytherin aesthetic. Gets points for using the Yuyan Archers. Loses a lot of points in his fight with Aang, like that child was obviously baiting him. He has a lot of ambition and actually has to work to his rise to power, which he obviously relishes. He’s the perfect antagonist for Zuko. He accomplished his goal of frying the fish/moon and he actually captures Aang. I think the writers added in his hot temper later on, because they realized he was too competent and had to give him a flaw. 

Zuko

Ohhh my morally confused prince, Where do we even start? Zuko gets a lot of points for his sheer determination. I would love to see an unhinged Zuko without Iroh. Zuko’s tenacity and unpredictability make him a fantastic antagonist. Iroh and Azula try to control Zuko, but they never really know what he’s gonna do next and neither do we as the viewers. He’s near the top of the list, because even with so many struggles he kept Aang on the run for two seasons. I like that he actually struggled to be good. He obviously loses points for joining the good guys, but we still love him. 

Jet

Speaking of morally grey, cue up Jet’s theme music. He gets instant points for swag and cool swords. Like the Yuyan archers, Jet is one of the few antagonists we see that can keep up with Aang. Like Zuko, Jet’s dedication to his cause get him high on this list, because he will defeat the Fire Nation at any cause. The creators lose points for being cowards and killing him off. We saw plenty of other people (Sokka) get hit with similar rocks and not die. Jet is a fantastic antagonist with a backstory that the audience can sympathize with. He loses points for not being more versatile in his tactics. I’ve written more on this here. 

Ty Lee

Katara is terrified of her, do I need to elaborate? Ty Lee by far has the scariest skill set on the show. It’s too easy for people to underestimate her. Katara and Suki make that mistake once and then never do it again. Like Toph, Ty Lee knows to wait for the right time to strike, making her highly effective at taking out our favorite benders and whole groups of benders (The Terra Team). Her betrayal of Azula is ICONIC and unexpected, but as always, Ty Lee knows just the right time to strike. I think Ty and Mai were perfectly capable of getting away at the Boiling Rock and I’m disappointed they were captured so easily. 

Azula

Look down, you’re talking to your highness. Can’t see her? She’s the reason for your blindness. 

To the surprise of absolutely no one, Azula is the baddest bitch in the game. PERIODT. She is ruthless, cunning and powerful. Her lightning bending is at a whole other level. She is the smartest person on this list. She takes Ba Sing Se from the inside out, utilizes the Da Li perfectly and has antagonized Zuko from the beginning. As far as I’m concerned, she was made to be Firelord. 

[sinhnhi678]

His Majesty's Dark Queen Chap 3

Note: yeah, got me whole week to write this chap. It's like 4A.M in my country now, and I'm still typing :D Oh and I forgot to introduce the background of the series. Let's assume everything in this fanfic is just like the main series, except that Star doesn't erase magic in the end, okay? Good. Now, let's enjoy chapter 3 ^^

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“So, what's that all about?” In the end, Tania can’t just let her friend out of the bar, and because this time seems kinda serious. She gets Tom the “dumped-seat” then comfort him.

“About what?”

“The GIRL, man!! The GIRL! It must be a girl, who dumped you, so you were so sad like this! No, this time must be very serious. I have never seen you sad like this ever since… since… you broke up with that Nana…”

“It’s Jana.”

“…. That Jana. The weird lady from Erath, you said. Man, maybe I have never met your Starship and know about you two’s past, but I've heard enough about your Janna. You two were like… born for each other. What could be better suited for a demon, like a demon lover? You talked to me about Jana like this, Jana like that. You were so happy, I thought when I finally get a chance to met your girlfriend, is when I received the wedding invitation. But then you came here, told me that she broke up with you, and you was sad for a long time. I also had to take you to places like Amethyst Arcade or Quest Buy to make you feel better, even introduce you new girlfriend. It took you half a year to get over it.” Tania tried to sound dramatic. She stretched her voice, deliberately pressing, waving, rolling her eyes. Tom could not resist this, hugging his stomach and laughing non-stop. Tania is always a caring friend, she does not care about her image getting worse, every time Tom is sad, she always uses this way to comfort and make fun of Tom. And it works every time. That is the first step.

“Stop, Tania, stop. You crack me up!!!” Tom tries to stop laugh, “And… what makes you think this time is worst like that?”

“The eyes, my friend. You can try to look sad, try to look happy, but your eyes always tell me the truth. That’s the reason I make friends with you in the first place. Because there is no way a ‘heartless demon’ can have eyes like that. Your three eyes, especially this one,…” Tania pointed to her forehead, “are very honest. Outsiders might think every time you broke up, you sad the same way. But those eyes tell me when you really sad, or just annoyed.”

“This is the reason why sometimes I said I just got dumped, but you still kick me out?”

“Yes. Because your eyes said you just a little bit annoyed, so I just kick you out. No one can stand after see their friends broke up like… 4 or 5 times in one month, you know? It’s very annoying. I am your friend, not your mama, remember that.”

“I guess. But you are the only one left I can talk, literally. I have few friends, but only two of them are my BF. One is very busy with her life, I can’t just chat with her hours about my relationship like that…”

“And you think I can?”

“Tania, that’s Star. She’s my ex. Even now we are friends, but I still can’t talk with her about that stuff.”

“Good point. And what about another one? If I remember correctly, that’s a he, right? What his name again? Ma… Marcus…? No.. no… co… MARCO! Right, Marco. Why wouldn't you told to him? He is, well, a guy. Sure, he has a feeling for your Starship, but you said you are cool with that, and this thing is 5 years so far, and you two still be friends. Why not?” And there we go, step 2: Make Tom said the problem. Make he feels comfortable, then draw a way so he could go with the flow, says the problem so Tania can help him. Usually, this step took quite a lot of time, since Tom is just want drinking and whining, avoiding the problem, having to lure him to say it takes half a day. But this time, Tania did not expect Tom to speak from the beginning.

“The truth is…” Tom stopped talking. He closed his eyes, rubbed his face, took a deep breath, and sighed, seemingly pondering something extremely difficult to say. “The truth is… I'm here today has something to do with him.”

“Shit!” This is what Tania doesn't want to hear the most. “This is worse than I thought!” She thinks. In fact, Tania didn't really understand Tom's romantic relationships before the two knew each other. Tom didn't tell, and neither did Tania because she knew it was a sensitive issue. That great battle took many people away, some lost their loved ones, some lost their possessions, Tania herself struggled hard to rebuild her Lily Dog bar. As for Tom, he didn't tell much about it, but Tania sensed that he seemed to have lost himself in the great battle. He still looks normal, but Tom's change in such a short time cannot be due to the fact that he is trying to be an intern king, only love. From a kid who was grumpy all day with everything (despite trying to be normal), he turned into a calm gentleman, only talk to solve the problem. Maybe for Tania, Tom has always kept the attitude as when he first befriended her, warm and cheerful, but with strangers, his attitude and way of talking are different. He is calm and aloof when talking to them, even talk to them in a voice has a semi-sarcastic style imbued with nobility to normal people, like in the movie. “This love triangle thing is really troublesome!!” Look what it did to Tom, made he looks miserably.

Miss Star Butterfly is a trouble-maker. But this Marco boy is also one, too. Tania only knows him through Tom’s story. She gave a good impression with him at first. To Tom, he is a dear friend, the one who always helps him to keep calm, when he needs and has the same hobby with him. Even when he was dating Janna, the conversation between Tom and Tania always have Marco in it, more or less. If it wasn't for Tom dating only girls, Tania thought he had something with Marco. But then, Tom starts to open with her, starts to talk about his relationship with those two. It’s broke his heart to realize that he and Star can’t belong to each other anymore, and the fact that she and his best friend have “a thing”. He chooses to broke-up with her, told them he is cool with this, hopes them would go on with each other. Poor little one still tries to smile with those two. “I swear to God, I gonna kill that damn brat right…”

“Four days ago, me and he met. We drank and talked about the old days. I don’t know how, but we end up have sex.” Tom confessed.

The silence is in the air.

“Have sex… with who?” Take long enough for Tania to dare ask him again.

“With Marco.” He answered softly.

“Ho… ho… How?? How??” Tania can’t believe what she just hears.

“I don’t know. We were drunk, and… and… Love Sentence! Tania, it’s Love Sentence! Everything was dizzy. I'm pretty sure he took the initiative first, but it was me who did the last step. I mean, how could I not? He looked cute at that time. And honestly, I've wanted to do that to him for a long time...” Tom kept on babbling and dreaming about that night, unaware that Tania was having a huge shock at his side. “This can be true!” Tania denied, “If it’s true, then…” the whole thing about love triangle that she knew, the whole time, will completely different. She quickly squeezed his shoulders, turned him back to her, asking slowly: “Tom, dear! So, what are you saying, is you have feelings for him? For… that Marco boy?”

Tom did not answer immediately but looked directly at Tania. In his eyes filled with many things, there is heartache, there is love, there are concerns, feeling like about to spill out of the eyes.

"You DO have feelings for that boy." Tania did not need Tom to speak, his eyes answered for him. She let go of his shoulders, immersing herself in her thoughts. She knew Tom had suffered because of that relationship, she also blamed the other two for making Tom change himself so much like that. But what Tania can’t think to, even in her wildest dreams, Tom is indeed being hurt by that love, but not because the person he loves cheats on him with his best friend, it rather because he has feelings for that friend. But, for how long? Since when did he have that kind of feeling? Is it ever since that great battle? Or, worse, even earlier? She didn’t dare to think. How did her friend, after all, endure himself so he could suppress his emotions all those years? “Oh, Tom…” There are some tears in her eyes, she feels sorry for Tom. “And… and then what? What did he say? Is he said he hated you or something?”

“No. He doesn’t say anything. The next morning, we woke up. Then he ran away. I haven't said a word to him yet.”

“Wha… So you mean, you haven't spoken to Marco, like at all, since that night? Even just texting?” Oh no, he better be NOT.

“Yes… because I’m…”

“And… and you said you ARE the one who done it, right?”

“Yeah… Yes?”

“…”

“…”

The silence is in the air. Again.

“OMG! OMG! OMG! I make friends with a dumbass demon. OMG! OMG! OMG!” Tania muttering. “Tom, do you realize the seriousness of this?” She turned to stare at the demon. Tom became extremely confused by his friend's fast-changing attitude.

“Uhm… Tania? I… I do realize. So I must talk to you about this, then find out how to solve this problem…”

“No, you DON’T. Because if you do, you wouldn't wait until 4 days, then come to my place to ask me how to solve this problem. Tom, I know you have suffered greatly from this love, you are also very confused, but try to stand under that boy's perspective. Suddenly his best friend done that thing with him, and then the subject went silent without any explanation or inquiry for 4 days. If it were you, do you suffer?” Tania stopped, she should not go too deep. Saying more will only make things confusing. Tom endured that was enough. She patted his shoulder, then went out to settle the bar, giving him space to think for himself.

Tom was left alone. He took a deep breath, trying to calm his mind to think. None of this would have happened if that damn instinct didn't inspire him. But Tom knows, he can't blame all on instinct. Marco Diaz, that name also made him sleepless all day and night. From the beginning because of jealousy with Marco when he was a close friend of Star, until he knows that for the first time, he had made a close friend besides Star. He treasured this friendship very much because not everyone could stand his normal temperament. Tom treasured it so much that he didn't want to break it. At one point, he almost lost this friendship. Luckily, Tom tried to calm down, so nothing happens. But now that he thinks about it, if at that time, he passed that point, maybe everything will be better.

Tom took another deep breath, took up his courage, and opened the compact. Before going to see Marco, he needed to talk to this person first.

___________Marco’s POV___________

Marco's whole body was exhausted after that night, his head was hot, stomach still felt yoke and burning hot don’t know why, but these injuries are nothing compared to Marco's feeling right now.

“Tom, what is he doing right now? Why doesn't he call me? Is it ... he hated me because I had proactively kissed him first?” Marco kept muttering like that. That morning, he was embarrassed so he runaways, but he still wanted to see Tom again. He had hoped Tom would come to see him, scold him, or take pity on him, whatever. But he didn’t come. Marco felt extremely uncomfortable, wanted to cry but couldn’t because doing so only made his parents more worried. He had been lying in bed for 4 days, taking the excuse that he had a cold, taking some medicine, and then resting was fine. The discomfort in his abdomen became increasingly uncomfortable. The lower was getting hotter and burning, and sometimes the pain was throbbing so he had to bend over to hug his stomach. This discomfort continues even in dreams.

In the dream, he was swimming in a black sea without a shore. Above the black border is a blood-red moon, as red as the Blood Moon night that Tom once determined to invite Star to attend. Blood moonlight shone on the surface of the dark, turn one spot in the black sea into dark red. Marco hurriedly swam there, feeling that if he could swim there, he would be safe. But every time, every time he swam near that red spot, there was a hand holding him back. He tried to pull away, but that hand clung too tightly. When that thing saw him still trying to swim to the blood moon, it got angry, decided to drag him down. Marco could not breathe, that thing still pulled him further and further away from the red light, down to the bottom of the black sea. He tried to turn to look, but could only see three bright lights gleaming on the black seafloor. Then, he woke up.

He wanted to sleep, but if he slept he would have to go through that dream again. But if he didn't sleep, his body would collapse. Marco closed his eyes again, really determined, certain this time, he would win that light, to swim to the red light.

___________The Present___________

Tom crouched in the Star's bedroom at Butterfly Castle. Star is pacing in front of him. Her face was completely distorted, hard to describe the feelings of Star right now. Several times she turned to look at Tom, frowned, then turned away, muttering to herself, pacing the room.

“No! No! No! Tom, why? Why is this thing happen??” Eventually, Star stopped pacing, turning to ask Tom. “It’s only 4 days, Tom. 4 DAYS. Then you just called me, saying, ‘Oh hey, Star! I accidentally have sex with Marco on the evening of your birthday party and I have run away for like 4 days. What should I do now?’ WHAT SHOULD YOU DO? What should I say, you tell me?”

"Star. I don't need you to do much for me. It's just ... you heard, I haven't seen Marco for almost a week. And to be honest, I'm more scared now. Listen, you're the best friend of ours. As it turned out like this, having a friend like you with me was better than I go alone to see Marco. And to be honest, I didn't dare to imagine Marco's angry form. Maybe he's cursed and never wish to see me ever again. ”

“He better be! You deserve it! ” Star angry said.

“Star, I know it. I should have died hundreds of times. However, Starship ... " Tom stood up, holding Star's hand earnestly," ... Please, just this once. The truth is, I have feelings for Marco too.”

“You… do?”

“I ... I ... Do you still remember the day I said I wanna break-up with you? The truth is ... I discovered that I liked Marco before that, liked… a lot. But I know that you and Marco had something at the time, I couldn't say it, or else I would not only hurt you two but also lose both my best friends. ”

“Oh… Tom…”

“So at that time, I made the best choice is to break up with you and encourage him to be with you. But Starship, I didn't expect him to choose not to come with you. He even decided to return to Earth, finish his studies, and live a normal life. For years, I tried not to say anything. I'm like a madman, trying to find a relationship like our old relationship, hoping that thanks to it, I could forget about Marco, about my love for him. But in the end, the new left faster than the previous one. And during those years, Marco was always single. I thought I had a chance. Just unexpectedly, things were happening so quickly... So fast, I didn't know how to handle them."

"Tom ..." Star softened, hugging his friend tightly. She was too heartless, didn’t realize Tom's feelings were so confused. Five years, neither long nor short, but enough to torment a person into crazy. She still knew that Tom's relationships were usually not last long, and she used to worry about him, but come to think about that… “Tom, about your feeling with Marco, is Janna know any about that? Is that the reason you two broke up?” Every time Star have a chat with her girls, and if she told about Tom’s relationship lately, Janna just laughs and telling that he deserved that, nothing to worried. At first, Star thought Janna was still angry with him because of the breakup thing, but after that, Janna still met Tom when the whole meeting and didn’t show any discomfort. That always confuses Star.

“I… I don’t know… Everything between me and Janna is fine, can say it’s perfect. The two of us enjoy doing weird things to her liking. To be honest, she’s the only one that made me think, maybe I can move on with, and someday, I can over Marco. I even prepared everything, told my parents, introduce her to those two. Everything was so smooth, but suddenly one day, she called me out to talk, then said nothing, just punched me in the eye… Then… after that… she said she wants to break-up… She doesn’t even answer my phone. If… if it’s true, that she knows about my feeling for Marco…” Tom held his head, not sure what to say. “Oh my god, I’m such a jerk!”

“Tom! We can talk about Janna later. I know she, if she can still show up at our group meetings without complaining, it means she wasn’t too angry with you. You still can find and apologize to her later. Now, MARCO!”

Encouraged by the Star, Tom felt that he was calm. He thanked Star, saying, “Thank you, Starship. You really are the best friend a demon king can ask for. Can this good friend follow me now to Marco's house to talk with him? ”

She smiled at him.

___________About 2 hours later___________

“ARGHHH! Can you just hurry up? How the hell does your dressing take two hours to complete?”

“Relax, Star! Bathing, choosing clothes, beautifying yourself need time. Not to mention I'm about to talk to Marco. I want to be beautiful in front of him.” As he said that, Tom remodeled his tie, though it looked perfect.

“Ohmygod! Don’t tell me, that EVERY TIME our group meeting, you always like this. No wonder you always look so… fancy like that. Turn out you want to flirt Marco ~~” Star pulled Tom while giggling teasing him.

“Star!!!!” Although it is true, but being so explicitly made Tom blush. His cheek turns to purple quickly.

Star still giggled, pulled Tom to Marco's door, and quickly rang the bell. She turned, instructed him. "Listen, maybe Rafael or Angie will open the door, just let me talk to them. While I was talking to them, you said you had something to tell Marco and…."

“Creak.”

The door opened, but behind it wasn't Rafael or Angie, but Marco. Neither Star nor Tom had expected it, since the one who opened the door was still one of the Diaz couples, they love to have someone visit them. Marco looked extremely tired, his red eyes looked like sleeplessness, even the puffiness became black. He was very pale and lethargic, but his hair was still neat, and in his arms, Marco was holding a cup of coffee, Star guessed that he had just washed his face and was drinking coffee to regain consciousness. Marco pulled back his bathrobe so he wouldn't get cold, intentionally not paying attention to Tom who was standing next to him, only smiling at Star: "Star! What are you doing here?"

“Oh, hi Marco! Uhmm… WE are here to talk. Can we… come in?” Star tried to smile brightly.

Marco glanced coldly at Tom. His brown eyes once full of affection are now as cold as ice. It hurts Tom's heart, he feels more guilty for ignoring him for 4 days.

“Sure, why not? Come on in, it’s cold out there.” Marco stepped aside, inviting the two to go inside. Both of them noticed Marco's cold attitude, but still went inside the house. The heat transfer between cold and hot made them shudder.

“Marco! Who is that?” It’s Rafael, resounded from the kitchen.

“It’s Star! She has something to tell you and mom!”

“Is she? Then tell her to sit down and wait a minute. We are in the middle of something!”

Both Tom and Star were amazed at Marco's attitude. Marco is a lousy liar, if not basically he can't lie. But just now, Marco lied extremely smoothly, even choosing an extremely natural reason without any loopholes. The two were not yet over surprised, Marco returned, coolly speaking. “Star, you're here waiting for my parents to come out and talk. And Tom, I need to talk to you.” Then he turned upstairs, seemingly unwilling to hear any more words

“Okay, we know for sure that Marco is extremely angry at you now. You go up there, trying to console him. Acting very sorry for the ‘incident”, trying to appease as much as possible. If he takes the bait, you go ahead. If he gets really angry, remember to call me, I'll go up there.”

Tom nodded, then gathered his courage, went upstairs. Tom has never felt so scared like now, as if he's now fighting thousands of monsters, not going up and talking to Marco. He tried to reassure himself, hypnotizing himself that he was just going to talk. Ah, wish it was just a simple talk. This conversation means a lot to him. It was not just his own show of affection for Marco over five years, but also its result. If Marco agrees, then he and Marco can finally be together. But if not, then he feared that even friendship would be gone. Who would accept that his best friend has feelings for him, and then willfully did such a thing like that to him?

Tom took a deep breath, then turned the door handle. He saw Marco standing with his back to him, his face turning to the window. He felt Marco was skinny and gloomy than before. He sighed, closed the door, and said his line: "Marco..." But before he could say anything, Marco quickly turned around and walked in front of Tom. And then, he leaned up, wrapped his arms around the back of Tom's head, and kissed him.

Tom was very surprised. He could not guess this was coming. Marco is proactively kissing him. His full lips are plastered on Tom's lips, soft, cool, and extremely real. Tom was overwhelmed, but he quickly regained consciousness, his hands quickly hugging Marco’s waist, picking him up to press the kiss deeper. Tom could smell the scent of his shampoo and shower gel, and felt the bitter coffee he just drank as they both kissed. It all made Tom infatuated. He leaned against the wall completely, one hand lifted Marco's butt, one hand pulled his leg around Tom’s waist, then kissed him passionately.

“Tom, do you love me?” Marco stopped the kiss, but his forehead rested on Tom's, their lips only a few centimeters apart. Tom looked into his eyes. It was not as cold as it used to be, it was glittering with emotion, reflecting Tom's image in it. Tom felt revived, the whole body energized. He hurriedly kissed small kiss on Marco’s face and lips, answering: "Yes, Marco. I love you. Love you very much. Love you till the day I die."

“Is that so? So if I want anything, you can give it, right?”

“Yes, anything, even my heart.” Tom hurriedly answered. Marco giggled, rubbing his ear. "You goofy, I don't need your heart." He gently kisses back, “I just need you to love me, with all your souls!”

“Yes, I will.” Tom leaned over, kissing Marco once more time.

___________Down stair___________

Star sat opposite the Diaz couple, holding the teacup they were invited to and extremely confused. If Marco was said to be a lousy liar, then Star lied worse, the truth proved that. Star tried to smile, asking some silly questions to the couple. She was hoping Tom would comfort Marco soon to get herself out of this situation, or she was afraid she might flush it out. But before she could tell the truth as she feared, Rafael changed the subject. He looked confused and worried when asked Star. “Star, on your birthday night, did something happen to Marco?”

“Wh… What~~? No… No! Nothing happens! Everyone is fine. No one gets trouble or something… hahahaa…Ha!” Star negated in a soaring high voice. “Oh shit! Oh shit! Help! Tom, hurry up!!!” She tried to keep calm but her forehead was still sweating, even a sip of tea she just drinks couldn’t make her throat less dry.

“Is that so?” Rafael sighed. He looked hesitant, even giving Angie a look when he saw her nod, he turned to Star and continued. “Star, we really don't want to say this, for fear you will be worried. But before we start, we just want to say that everything is okay, everything is under control. No need to be overly worried.”

“Yes?” Star realized the strangeness of the two.

“It’s about Marco. He has severe depression.”

“Severe… depression?”

“Simply put, it is a disease caused by long-term stress. It causes patients to have trouble sleeping, tired, irritable, and especially thinking about committing suicide.” Rafael explained. “At first, the two of us just thought that Marco was not used to normal life, maybe it would be fine later. But he is getting more and more strange. He often has insomnia, cries often, and the teacher at school often complains about his distracted attitude. And then one morning, Angie found him holding a razor blade in front of the mirror, right at his neck as if about to cut down. Although Angie had stopped Marco at that moment, and he didn't seem to recognize or remember that suicide, but we were forced to take him to a psychiatrist.”

"The doctor concluded he had severe depression." Angie burst into tears, trying to hold back her tears but unable to. “At that time, we did not know what to do. Oh, our mijo! Marco promised us he would try to get through, telling us not to tell this to anyone else. But how can it be overcome so easily? He had been miserable for a long time, only when he went to meet his friends, he seems to have returned to normal. It took more than two years for Marco to no longer have the thought of committing suicide. But the depression is still there. We were so afraid that one day, he couldn’t think and then commit suicide like that morning.”

“Two years? That… the time when Tom and Janna...?”

“For that reason, we forced him to stay with us, even though he went to college now. Maybe with his friends, he said that he wanted to save up for student’s loan, but actually it was because of his depression that we couldn't stop watching him.”

“Lately he's been better than before. We were extremely excited, thinking that he might have returned to being old Marco. But, four days ago, after your birthday party, it became strange again. Even though he told me he only had a cold, he tried not to cry and sleep well, but why didn't we realize that.”

“That why, we want to ask you, do you know what happened that night?”

Being looked at by both Diaz and the couple, Star felt like a criminal being questioned. She couldn't keep her word, sorry Tom, but she had to say it.“Uhm… Actually… That night…”

“STAR!” Glossaryck from nowhere naturally appeared right next to Star, screaming her name.

“AHHHHHHHH! Cheese and crackers! Glossaryck?! What are you doing here?” Star feels confusing. A few days ago, Glossaryck suddenly said he has something important to deal with, then disappeared from that moment. But now, he suddenly appeared here.

“No time to talk! Where is Tom? We need to save him. NOW!”

“Tom? What are you talking about? He is fine. He with Marco now. The two of them were talking about their problems…” Star quickly turned to the Diaz “… at the previous four days. But it’s like 10 minutes has passed, and there was no sound of fight or argument, so I think we're okay, it's all right. You two can be chill. Marco will soon…”

“No, Star! Marco IS the problem.” Glossaryck protested.

“What are you…”

BOOMM!!!

A loud bang, coming from upstairs. The four of them stopped talking and quickly ran upstairs. Star went upstairs first, and quickly ran to Marco's room, she realized that loud noise came from the direction of his room. But when she got to the door, she felt something amiss. The door of Marco's room was still closed, but there were cold, chilling breezes coming through the door, along with a frightening green light. Star recognized that light.

“Star, you better be prepare beforehand.” Glossaryck flew close, reminding Star. Star took a deep breath, then turned the door handle.

Behind the door was a scene, that perhaps until the end of her life, Star can not forget. Tom was lying near the door, unmoving, his pale lilac skin even paler, almost becoming white, as if he were dead. The room was disturbed by a hurricane, everything was lifted by the wind, scattered in the air. The roof has a very big hole, snow poured everywhere. Looking up, Star sees something even more terrifying. It was Marco, float in midair. But that was not normal Marco, it was a monster with Marco's face. His eyes are completely black, from the pupil to the sclera. Marco grew a small horn on the right, which resembled Tom's. There was a crescent moon shaped magic mark on his cheek, but it was not like what she had ever seen. Marco's magic mark is shown in bright red, but now it shows in the formidable green of dark magic.

“Mar…Marco?!” She couldn't believe it was her friend.

“Oh, princess Butterfly! We meet again.” "Marco" smirked, responding softly.

“Be careful, Star. He was no longer Marco.” Glossaryck appears, alerting Star. He also quickly closed the door to prevent Rafael and his wife. Can't let them see this situation. “So I guess you were the cause of the disturbance in the Realm of Magic, right?”

“The Realm of Magic has its own consciousness, Glossaryck. You can't blame us because it's been unstable lately. It simply... is welcoming a new member of it. A Prince! Prince of Darkness!”

“Marco” laughed maniacally. And, he began to change again. Two pairs of huge wings sprouted from his back. It has color of purple and green, with skull and hypnotic patterns on it. He also grows 4 more arms. He looked exactly like one of the Butterfly members when they transformed. “Marco” tried flapping the butterfly's wings and pleased to see it flap naturally.

“You… Who are you? Why did you take Marco? Give him back to me!”

“Ouch! It’s hurt, princess. After all, you did KILL us! Remember?”

As if something awakened, Star was scared, unable to believe in the truth. “You… you… Toffee?!” It can’t be! It can’t be! Toffee is dead!

“Close enough! Actually, it takes more than just one spirit to get this form, you know. But luckily, thank to you, this boy had absorbed enough evil spirits. But still, it takes a little more energy to convert. And then, you brought that guy to me, just in time.” He pointed to Tom, who was lying motionless on the ground, laughing. “Oh, men! I have nothing to say. You are just like my guardian angel. Tricking him is really too easy, it was like taking candy from a child's hands. All that because he loves 'me'! Hahahahahaha….!”

Star felt unprecedented despair and regret. If that's what he said, was that her fault, so Marco turned into that? And also because of that, so Tom got involved? Did she harm her loved ones?

“No! Give him back to me!” Star screamed, transformed, and took the magic wand, rushing towards “Marco”. But before she could get close, she was repelled by a wave of dark magic, shot back.

“Oh, Princess Butterfly. Although we would love to stay here to have a little chat with you, but unfortunately, we have to go. See you soon!” Marco smiled tenderly, then created a portal. Star has never seen such a gate. It was similar to the gate she went to the Realm of Magic, but instead of the inherent color, it was black and green. “Oh, one more thing. Send Tom a kiss for me. He really loves me with ALL his souls. Well, half of it is enough. Hahahahaha… Bye~~!” Marco chuckled, then disappeared behind the portal.

As soon as Marco disappeared, the whirlwind in the air gradually dissipated, the furniture gradually lowered, scattered everywhere. Star sat motionless on the ground, unable to believe what he had just heard or seen. She just sat there, staring into the air, enduring every wave of snow and wind blowing in her face. Outside, Rafael and Angie, despite being prevented by Glossaryck's magic to prevent them from entering or hearing anything, but they were too nervous, standing outside and try to knock the door.

Glossaryck sighed. He removed the magic from the door, letting them enter. Upon entering the room, both of them were rendered speechless by the scenery. But before they can be saying anything, Glossaryck took the initiative to say it first. “Star, we need to go now. Bring Tom and the Diaz family back to Mewni. I'm afraid this is not gonna end well.”

_______________

From this chapter I will post on tumbler too. Because the previous 2 chapters are too ... hahaha...

[bthump]

what are the things you like and dislike about the '97 anime and the films?

ty for asking, i’m just gonna write a few long lists lol

97 anime likes:

the animation, including the like, yk the more detailed stills they pan over in place of action or to punctuate important moments, i love it

the gorgeous backgrounds

most of the colour choices. red eclipse, femto’s blue eyes, casca’s skintone, griffith’s mauve clothes, etc.

how close it is to the manga. like, it’s a solid adaption just by virtue of making very few changes.

so like, most of it really, because i like the manga

special mention to the entire lead up to the eclipse from griffith’s reality break to the sacrifice tho, because i think that was all pretty damn perfect. it’s the most important scene and they did it right.

actually also shout out to casca’s flashback to griffith and the dead kid, gennon, the river scene, all that. another difficult v emotional sequence that they nailed imo.

griffith thinking about how he “loves” guts during the monologue

skipped most of the griffith/charlotte sex scene iirc which i approve of

the glimpse of black swordsman guts in ep 1. it’s not perfect but it’s way better than the ovas starting w/ 15 yr old guts

the opening and closing themes. fucking love both songs ngl

also the opening monologue. never get tired of hearing it

the score

the portrayal of griffith was honestly pretty solid imo. i have very few issues there. and lbr that’s important lol

97 anime dislikes:

not a big fan of griffith or guts’ character designs.

just about everything that isn’t identical to the manga is a change for the worse

turned griffith’s scratch marks into that giant unexplained scar

adding extra scenes where casca is secretly impressed with guts’ skills in battle in an attempt to build up their relationship better, which instead just made casca look unfair for still being a dick to him for 3 years and made guts stupidly gary stu-ish

obviously the straightforwardly romantic portrayal of guts and casca’s relationship

through several seemingly minor changes (eg, skipping guts’ night of self-doubt after he leaves, giving guts’ stay with godo its own half-episode, making guts inviting casca along super romantic rather than the incredibly casual and assholish way he does it in the manga, etc) it makes Guts’ dream seem legitimately noble and worthwhile, with none of the like… implicit critique the manga has. like honestly it completely fucks up what i consider one of the central themes of the story lol

the pre eclipse stuff also fails to sell guts’ sense of regret - through things like playing guts’ theme while judeau is telling guts to leave, not repeating guts’ statement of regret after casca tells him to leave again, the tone remains consistently in favour of guts’ dream. wrong and bad.

like it really reads like the suggested tragedy is that guts doesn’t get the chance to ditch griffith with judeau and take off with casca and the raiders lol

also fucks it up by never directly mentioning guts’ csa trauma

also fucks it up by losing guts’ self-destructive single-minded urge to fight monsters that we saw thru the wyald stuff. i’m not gonna say that losing wyald was a bad decision, but they should’ve at least moved erika suggesting that guts just wants to fight zodd again to the fucking waterfall scene in question, which they portrayed completely sans zodd discussion, completely sans implication of the self-destructiveness of guts’ dream

like in the manga he nearly gets killed by the falling logs and just laughs it off like a dumbass while erika is concerned and suggests that guts is driven by something irrational and not actually a ~noble~ dream, ie, wanting to fight zodd again (ie, going deeper, his csa trauma), while in the anime we get a 2nd scene where he successfully slices through the logs as a super basic symbol of growth and a narrative pat on guts’ back that shouldn’t be there!

honestly just fucking everything about the portrayal of guts’ dream lol it just takes it at face value in a way the manga consistently never did and always undermined and critiqued, and it bugs the hell out of me.

guts is just drawn in a way that makes him look angry way too often and he often feels ooc to me bc of it. like he lacks a lot of the warmth he has in the manga imo

showing that griffith is awake when guts says “i’ll stay too” even tho in the manga those words are placed over a panel of him asleep for a reason like, ffs

lots of other random nitpicky details that only i give a fuck about because my opinions and feelings about the story are too strong lol. like not showing griffith’s face when he asks if guts thinks he’s cruel

oh huge one: moving the scene where the torturer rips off griffith’s behelit from about a day after he was imprisoned to right before his rescue. completely trivializes griffith’s torture because it still looks like he’s been in there for a day at most

why on earth did it end where it ended????????????? who’s bright idea was that? the perfect ending is skull knight riding tf out with guts and casca and femto not killing them, but then they also cut out skull knight’s first appearance so idfk man.

oh some downplaying of griffguts, like i can’t complain too much about this because it was still p homoerotic, but things like omitting guts assuming griffith wants to fuck him right before their first duel. boo.

ultimately at the end of the day as much as i do genuinely like the anime, it’s not telling quite the same story the manga was - the story it’s telling is more boring and basic. but because it sticks so close to the manga the good story still shines through? it just means there’s inconsistent tone choices and stuff, like the aforementioned grievances.

it’s like, they kept casca’s diatribe at guts line for line while she’s screaming that griffith needed him and a man can’t live on dreams alone, but they don’t extend that train of thought to guts going off to pursue his dream, while the manga does.

anyway despite that giant list of dislikes i still think the anime is pretty fantastic overall. i just also like, blame it for a lot of wrong fandom takes lol.

movie likes:

character designs! honestly imo everyone looked pretty great.

they played up the homoeroticism and i appreciate that

illustrating griffith being torn between guts and his dream through that lovely moment when he catches guts when he nearly falls off the stairs right before he catches charlotte, and in a more romantically suggestive way

the whole scene where griffith shows up at charlotte’s window thoroughly improved on the manga, so hats off there. loved how completely out of it he was to the point where he barely realized where he was and immediately turned to leave when charlotte was like ‘woah dude wtf,’ love that charlotte was the one to ask him to stay and then physically move his hand back to her tit, love how emphatically griffith was thinking about guts during that sex scene, etc. like it’s still not perfect, but it is a vast improvement.

griffith showing up in person after the hundred man fight was a nice touch

it was cool that they got a lot of the same english vas from the anime dub back, and they all did a gr8 job. like it’s a pretty good dub imo.

i liked that they moved ‘the crystalization of your last tear shed’ to after guts’ post-eclipse breakdown

compared to the anime at least gtsca was more low-key and chill rather than dramatically romantic. still don’t want it there, and still not as… unromantic as the manga, but i’ll take what i can get

the animation during griffith’s transformation into femto, yk that whole sequence, was cool

slan’s english voice was super sexy

ummmmm i feel like they conveyed the whole dreams are stupid theme, and guts’ decision to leave being a mistake, better than the anime? like i got the sense that the ova ppl recognized that was a theme, at least. i’d have to watch them again to really be sure of that tho

movie dislikes:

GRIFFITH’S. NARRATIVE.

like holy fuck they completely destroyed his character lmao

i cannot believe

no backstory! no tombstone of flame! no ‘do you think i’m cruel?’ THAT WAS THE REASON HE MADE THE SACRIFICE FFS HOW DO YOU SKIP IT????

no dead kid angst, gennon only in vague implication, no self harm - oh no wait we saw self inflicted scratches, they were just completely contextless and meaningless to the point where we could assume charlotte’s nails made them

no torture chamber monologue

no guts monologue in the tavern either for that matter

no rooftop scene

again barely the implication of guts’ childhood trauma, both the sexual abuse and the general parental abuse. one vague flashbacky nightmare doesn’t cut it, it’s the cornerstone of the story

like i get it, it’s a movie trilogy, you have to cut some things, but goddamn, cut out gtsca. trim the hundred man fight. add 20 minutes to the first ova and take the insanely long rape scene out of the third. trim down the whole eclipse sequence. don’t cut out like… the story. like they cut out SO MANY emotionally relevant scenes and kept so many much less relevant scenes, idek.

and like let’s be real here, they turned griffith from an immensely interesting and complex character into a 1 dimensional dude who is torn between a vaguely evil ambition and being in vaguely evil love with guts, just for the sake of streamlining the least interesting aspects of the story

they don’t even try to pretend otherwise lol, look at his fucking hilarious evil smile here

also while i’m looking at it, in general i think they failed at the whole eclipse sequence. looks, lighting, colour, build up of tension… there are a few minor improvements here and there (eg casca’s point of view shot of femto, femto telekinesising guts back a la the black swordsman arc which emphasizes his failure to act when he escapes), but overall it doesn’t work for me at all. like imo the anime has the exact same highs and lows as the manga, but while the ova avoids some lows it never reaches those highs.

they also had griffith overhear guts saying he wants to stay. i really don’t get why this happened twice lol, like… ok his face is kind of shadowed here but he’s still very clearly asleep? this is an important detail, guts’ interrupted words are even on that very panel, so why would you go out of your way to show that he’s awake and listening at that point.

the pacing sucked. 3rd movie was too long, 1st was too short, and they skipped waaaaaay too many significant scenes that should’ve been there as emotional beats

honestly the movies are pretty, they’re nicely fanservicey in ways, they capture some good subtleties and nuances at times, but they’re a husk of the story

oh did i mention the music during the eclipse rape? incredible.

also i am actually generally positive about the movies too despite what it seems like here lmao. i’ve watched them all like, 3 or more times and i find them v enjoyable.

i just have a way easier time listing nitpicky flaws than positives honestly. the flaws stand out to me, the virtues pass me by because i’m just enjoying them and not dwelling on them

and lbr here at the end of the day no adaption will ever really satisfy me unless i somehow find several million dollars lying around and make my own lol. and that would probably be a flop anyway.

[stickswrites]

Where’s My Epic Background Music? (Her Shadows, Ch. 6)

“Alright, villains,” I heard All Might say in the earpiece I had been given. “Your five minutes are up! Heroes you may enter the building!”

I looked over at Makoto and nodded. I pulled my goggles up over my eyes and he pulled his hood up and his bandana over the bottom half of his face. He held his fist out for a fist bump and I responded by bumping my fist with his. As soon as we did that, we ran into the building. I knelt to the ground, feeling the shadows out with my hand. I closed my eyes to focus on the shadows of Kirishima and Bakugo. I felt Kirishima’s presence on the fourth floor and opened my eyes.

“Kirishima is on the fourth floor,” I told Makoto. “I’d assume that’s where the missile is as well. He’s a better shield than Bakugo.”

“Alright,” Makoto said. “And Bakugo? Where is he?”

“He’s on the move,” I responded. “I can’t get a solid location on him.”

“Okay,” Makoto said. “Don’t do anything stupid. I’m gonna go up to the fourth floor and get the missile. Can you keep Bakugo off my tail long enough for me to do that?”

“As long as you can handle Kirishima,” I started, tightening my ponytail. “It would be my genuine pleasure.”

He nodded and ran down the hall toward the stairs. I walked around the building, trying to feel out Bakugo’s shadow. I stopped when I got to one of the floors when I sensed it somewhere. I couldn’t figure out where exactly it was, so I walked around slowly, keeping my guard up. I was turned down a hall when I finally got an exact location on Bakugo. He was directly behind me.

Without turning around, I jumped to the side and avoided the explosion Bakugo had let off. I landed in a fighting stance, the shadows at my feet looking as if they were bubbling up.

“Shadows,” Bakugo said, looking down at my feet. “That’s your quirk?”

While he was distracted by the shadows at my feet, I lunged forward and landed a solid punch on his face. I jumped back away from him as he swung his arms out, explosions following his hands. He growled as he glared at me.

“You really shouldn’t get so distracted, Bakugo,” I told him. “It leaves you wide open for an attack.”

“Shut up,” he growled. “What, did you leave your friend all alone so you could take the glory of winning a fight for yourself? I don’t see Saeki anywhere.”

“Honestly,” I started. “He’s probably more capable than I am to get that missile. I’m just here to keep you occupied.”

Bakugo lunged toward me, swinging his arm out in a punch. I sidestepped and grabbed his arm as I felt for a strap on his gauntlet. I didn’t find it quick enough, so I dropped his arm to avoid any suspicion. We did that a few more times before I finally found the strap that fastened his gauntlet. I dodged one more punch before we both stepped back and sized each other up.

“You’re only dodging,” Bakugo said. “What, are you scared you’re gonna lose in a flat out fight?”

“More like I don’t want to hurt you too badly,” I said with a smirk.

He growled as he lunged toward me again. This time I didn’t dodge and instead grabbed the arm he was punching with and unfastened his gauntlet. As he pulled back from me, I slid the gauntlet off of his arm. As he stood back, he stared at his arm. He looked back up at me in shock as I gave him a cocky grin.

“What’s wrong?” I asked innocently. I held his gauntlet up with one arm. “You missing something?”

“Give that back!” he yelled as he lunged forward for it.

I sidestepped and tossed the gauntlet down the hallway, as far away from us as I could. The gauntlet landed further down the hall and I turned back to Bakugo, who had taken my momentary distraction as an opportunity to attack me. He tackled me to the ground and pinned me down by sitting on top of me.

“What was that you said?” he asked, his right hand raised with explosions popping while his left hand pinned my arms down. “Don’t get distracted because it leaves you wide open for an attack?”

I grit my teeth in annoyance as Bakugo grinned down at me. I tried moving my hands, but his grip on them only tightened. I stopped trying to move my hands and was about to try and flip us over, but Bakugo stopped me from doing that by punching me in the face. My head snapped to the side as his fist made contact. He punched me a few more times, more power behind each punch. My goggles cracked at some point and my nose started bleeding. I also felt my lip split, but I finally had an idea. When he reeled back to punch me again, I touched my fingers to the floor beneath me so that they were touching my shadow. Letting out a breath, I felt myself sink into the shadows and away from Bakugo. I appeared behind him as he fell to the ground, no longer able to use me as a support. I pulled my broken, and now useless, goggles down to my neck before jumping into action.

As Bakugo turned around, I leaped forward and punched him in the face. Before he could stand up all the way I brought my knee up and hit him in the jaw before kicking him in the stomach and launching him across the hallway.

“How you doing up there, Mako?” I asked while trying to catch my breath, touching my finger to the communications device that we had all been given at the beginning of the test. “You almost done?”

“Give me another minute or so, Koko,” he grunted. I guess he had just been hit by Kirishima.

“One minute,” I told him. “Or else I’m coming up there.”

“Yeah, yeah,” he said. “I hear ya.”

Bakugo got back up to his feet and shot out a large explosion from his gauntlet. I immediately pulled the shadows from the ground up in front of me to form a wall to protect me. I let out a grunt as I was pushed back from the force of the explosion hitting the wall. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be though. Maybe the shadows could help to neutralize his explosions!

I let the shadows fall back to the ground as I stood in a ready stance. The fight was getting really serious now that Bakugo was no longer holding back on me. As Bakugo geared up to send another explosion my way, I gathered the shadows into a ball that floated by my side. As Bakugo’s explosion left his hands, I pushed the ball forward and wrapped it around the explosion, containing the attack within the ball. I could feel the strain of it on my muscles, but the explosion was neutralized and I let out a laugh as I released the shadows. There was a bit of smoke leftover from the explosion, but other than that there was nothing left of it.

“My turn,” I told Bakugo, stalking toward him with a shadow slithering up my arm.

I shot my arm out and the shadows that Bakugo was standing on rose from the ground around him. I waved my arm around to change the shadows from a cocoon that encased him to bonds that wrapped around his arms and legs. I forced him to kneel on the ground by making the shadows shorter. Sweat started to drip down my face from the effort I had to put into forcing Bakugo down. Finally, he was kneeling on the ground, his arms and legs tethered by shadows. Keeping him there with one hand, I grabbed the capture tape that we had been given with the other and walked toward him. I tore off a piece of tape and put it around Bakugo, showing that I had succeeded in capturing him. I let out a heavy sigh once I was sure he had been officially “caught” and released the shadows. A wave of fatigue washed over me as I stumbled backward a little bit.

“You’re strong Bakugo,” I told him. “Doing what I did to you doesn’t usually take that much out of me.”

Bakugo just huffed as he turned away from me, like a child throwing a tantrum. I let out a little laugh as I put my finger to my ear to talk to Makoto again.

“I got Bakugo,” I told him. “How’re things upstairs?”

“I literally just caught Kirishima,” Makoto said, out of breath. “We did it.”

I let out a sigh as I fell backward onto my butt. I landed on the ground just as All Might declared our victory. I rested my arms on my knees as I sat against the wall. I looked up and saw Bakugo extending his hand to me. I stared at it, not expecting him to be any kind of sportsmanlike with me.

“What, are you just gonna refuse my offer, dumbass?” He asked. “I’m trying to help you up.”

I smiled and took his hand. He lifted me off the ground and made sure I was able to stay on my feet without falling over before letting go and grabbing the gauntlet I had thrown down the hall during our fight. I waited for Bakugo to grab his gauntlet before walking back to the stairs, him supporting me to make sure I didn’t fall over. We walked down together and met our teammates outside. Before I walked over to Makoto I turned to Bakugo again.

“Thanks for not holding back,” I said with a small smile.

“Anytime, shadows,” he said with the tiniest of smiles.

Bakugo stopped supporting me and I walked over to Makoto, who looked like he was gonna be bruised all over with the way he was carrying himself. He was hunched over and groaning every time he moved. It could just be that he was being dramatic of course. I walked up to him and he immediately stood up and grabbed my face in his hands, inspecting the damage.

“Koko, what happened?” he asked.

“A fight, Mako,” I joked. “Or did you forget what that whole thing was?”

Mako looked at me, deadpan, before mindlessly talking again. The four of us walked back to the viewing room where our fight would be reviewed. We stood in the room, everyone’s eyes on us as they discussed our fight. I slightly slouched against Makoto, not sure that I could stand on my own without wobbling.

“Well done, heroes,” All Might said. “You defeated the villains and saved the day!” He paused before continuing. “Now, the MVP of this exercise is young Saeki!” I nudged Makoto in the arm and silently congratulated him. “Can anybody tell me why he is the MVP instead of one of the other students?”

“Well,” Midoriya started. “He was the one to come up with the winning plan. So the credit for this battle should go to him. Although Keiko was the one to locate the other team, she likely wouldn’t have known what to do beyond that if Saeki hadn’t come up with a plan for the two of them to follow. And Kacchan and Kirishima came up with a plan as well, but it didn’t go as well for them because of the sheer power that both Keiko and Saeki have.”

“Very well put, young Midoriya!” All Might said. “I am very much inclined to agree with all of that. Having said that, young Kirishima, you put up an excellent fight against young Saeki and you didn’t give up. That must be commended.”

“Thanks, All Might,” Kirishima said in thanks.

“Young Bakugo,” All Might started. “You did well in your fight. A loss can sometimes teach you more than a win and I think you learned something valuable: always respect your opponent’s strength. You did well in your fight and you should be proud.”

Bakugo huffed, reverting to his tantrum-like state. I let out a small laugh but Makoto nudged me and I quickly stopped laughing.

“Finally, young Keiko,” All Might started. “Your tenacity, even in the face of what seems like defeat, is admirable as well as the faith you have in your partner. Well done.”

I gave All Might a tired smile standing up fully before swaying back and forth on my feet again. Makoto steadied me before I could fall over.

“You alright, Koko?” he asked.

“I’m fine,” I said. “Just a little light-headed.”

“Young Keiko, you should probably go see Recovery Girl,” All Might said.

“I’m fine,” I said firmly.

I was proven wrong as soon as Makoto let go of me. I fell backward and was caught by someone else. My eyesight got blurry, the way it did whenever I used my quirk too much. I guess I never knew how much tracking shadows in a big building could take out of me, especially after a visit to Gran’s office. I looked up to see Kirishima looking down at me, worry written all over his face.

“Keiko,” he started. “I think you should go see Recovery Girl.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” I said, groaning as I stood up from his arms.

“Head down to the nurse’s office,” All Might said. “Young Saeki, please take her and make sure she doesn’t pass out on the way there.”

“Yes sir,” Makoto said as he helped me walk out of the monitor room.

We made our way to the nurse’s office, Makoto scolding me the whole way there.

“I told you to not do anything stupid,” Makoto said.

“It’s not like it was something I’d never done before,” I explained. “But my visit to Gran’s office this morning affected me more than I thought, and the space I had to scan was much larger than I’m used to.”

“You’re an idiot,” he said as he practically carried me to the office.

“I know,” I said, wincing as I took another step.

The adrenaline from the fight wore off and I could feel pain everywhere in my body. Bakugo really did a number on me. I was finally given relief when we got to Gran’s office and Makoto opened the door and helped me inside.

“I figured you would be coming,” Gran said as she got up from her chair.

“Were you watching the fight?” I asked, looking at the computer screen.

“I got Principal Nezu to connect my monitors to the cameras in the training ground so I can prepare for students coming in,” she explained. “Now let’s get you on the bed.”

Makoto gently lifted me onto the bed and I was finally able to relax. I laid down as Gran came over and looked my injuries over.

“I think this is more quirk overuse than anything,” Gran told me. “There’s not much I can do about that. I should have told All Might to make sure you didn’t overwork yourself today. I will fix up your nose and lip though.”

“It was my fault, Gran,” I told her. “I didn’t want to let Bakugo win, so I had to use my quirk more than I probably should have.”

“I understand,” Gran said as she took my arm braces off and inspected my wrists, making sure I hadn’t injured them more. “It was an excellent fight, by the way. Both of you did well.”

“Thanks,” Makoto and I said in unison.

“And Keiko,” Gran started. I looked at her when she started talking again. “You’re learning how to use your shadows as a shield better! Your wrists are showing minimal strain.”

“That’s a relief,” I said, happy that I hadn’t injured them during my fight.

Gran kissed my forehead and I instantly felt the pain in my face subside as it healed. The rest of my body was still in pain because she didn’t want to overheal me and totally drain my stamina. The blood did stop flowing though and my lip was no longer split.

“Now, then,” Gran said. “I think it would be best if you stayed in here with me until the end of the day, Keiko. You can watch the rest of the fights on my monitor, but you should be resting, not standing up.”

I nodded, agreeing with her plan. I pulled my hair out of its ponytail and unpinned my bangs, letting them fall in my face. I brushed them out of the way with my fingers before taking my boots off and setting them on the ground next to the bed.

“Mako,” I started. “You can go back and watch with everyone else.”

“You sure?” he asked, unsure if I would be okay with him leaving me.

“Yeah,” I said. “I’ll be fine. I have Gran to keep me company!”

“Alright,” Makoto said. “I’m gonna head back then. Good job, Koko.”

“You too,” I responded with a smile. “Now go watch the rest of our classmates.”

He chuckled at me before walking out of the room. I relaxed on the bed as Gran worked on some paperwork as we waited for the next fight to start. I noticed movement on the screen and sat up a bit more.

“They’re starting, Gran,” I told her.

She looked up from her paperwork at her monitor just as the next two teams showed up on the screen. It was Midoriya, Uraraka, Bakugo, and Iida. Gran set her pen aside as she watched the screens, scanning to see if she could predict who would win.

“Bakugo has to fight twice in a row,” I noted. “That’s not going to be easy.” Gran agreed and I started talking again. “This will be an interesting fight,” I said. “Bakugo seems to really hate Midoriya and his loss to me will only make him that much more upset in this fight.”

“Hm,” Gran said. “I get the feeling I’m going to have to prepare another bed for that Midoriya kid. He hasn’t got a clue about how to use his quirk without breaking his bones.”

“That does seem to be the general consensus,” I replied, taking a sip of the water Gran had given me.

We watched the fight, but we didn’t have sound so we couldn’t hear any of what was happening. It was extremely intense. Bakugo, just as I suspected, was being reckless and excessively angry. His hatred for Midoriya and his loss to me were both driving every action he took. The fight ended with Midoriya absolutely destroying his arm and Uraraka throwing up from quirk overuse while the villain team was almost completely unscathed. It was surprising, but not entirely unsuspected, that Midoriya and Uraraka won, even if it was a bit risky. Scratch that. A lot risky. If it had gone wrong and the missile was real, they could have exploded it, the building, and the whole block along with it. They’re lucky it was only a training exercise.

“Looks like I was right,” Gran said as she fluffed the pillow on the open bed. “Midoriya will be coming in today.”

I look up at the screen to see two smaller robots carrying a stretcher with Midoriya on it out of the building, presumably toward Gran’s office. Everyone else cleared out of the building so that they could talk about the exercise. Midoriya arrived at the office not long after everyone cleared out of the building and Gran went to work on healing him. The robots left the room and soon the rest of the pairs went. There weren’t any that really stood out to me until Todoroki went. His ice covered the entire building. It was insane. He was more powerful than I had originally thought. There was something about him that resonated with me though. I had never met him before the entrance exam and I knew that, but there seemed to be something in the way he went all out and the way he acted so withdrawn that was really familiar to me. It was like he was trying to prove something to someone that wasn’t even watching.

It clicked when the next match started. I saw myself mirrored in Todoroki. I didn’t know much about him, but I knew his father was Endeavor, the number two hero in Japan. Having a dad that worked so hard to try to surpass All Might would put some pressure on you to be as strong as possible and beat everyone. He felt the need to either rebel against his dad or gain his approval all the time. There was no in-between. It couldn’t have been an easy childhood for him, that’s for sure.

The rest of the matches flew by and, before I knew it, they were all over. I had a better grasp of what people’s quirks were now, so I didn’t feel as on edge anymore. I was starting to lace up my boots when All Might, in his weakened form, walked in.

“Hey, All Might,” I said as I finished tying one boot.

“Hello, young Keiko,” he said with a smile. “How are you feeling?”

“Much better,” I responded. “I just overused my quirk today during training, but Gran helped me out.”

“Yes I did,” she said, walking up to me with an orange pill bottle in her hand. She handed it to me as I finished tying my other boot. “Now here’s your medication.”

“Thanks, Gran,” I said, sitting back up and tying my hair back into a half-up ponytail.

“The same schedule as last time,” she started. “One a day.”

“Got it.”

I said my goodbyes to Gran and All Might, not talking to Midoriya because he was asleep, and walked to the locker room to get changed into my uniform. I got there and put it on, wincing when I put my blazer on because I was already starting to feel sore from my fight. I finished getting changed and put my hero costume back into its case, setting the broken goggles aside to drop off in the support workshop to get them fixed.

I walked to the support class workshop, dropping my goggles off with Power Loader. He told me they would be fixed by the next day, so that was good. I knew we would have some training soon and I wanted to be able to wear my whole costume. Once I was finished in the workshop, I walked out of the room, closing the door behind me. As I turned back around to walk down the hallway to the classroom, I ran right into someone and fell onto my butt, dropping the case that held my hero costume.

“Oh, my goodness,” the boy I had bumped into said as he looked down at me. “I am so sorry!”

“It’s fine,” I responded, wincing a bit as I sat up all the way. “I should have been watching where I was going anyway.”

I looked up and saw a tall boy, probably my age, with fluffy purple hair and eyebags standing over me. He held his hand out for me to grab, which I did. He helped me stand up and I brushed myself off as he grabbed my hero costume case.

“Are you okay?” he asked as he handed me my case.

“Yeah,” I said, taking it from him. “I’m fine. Just a little sore from training.”

“You’re a hero course student,” he realized. There was something in his voice that sounded a bit envious.

“Yeah, I am,” I responded. “Who are you?”

“I’m Hitoshi Shinsou,” he responded, holding a hand out for me to shake. “1-C General Studies.”

“Keiko,” I responded, shaking his hand.

“Just Keiko?” he asked.

“Just Keiko,” I said. I let go of his hand and decided I should head back to the classroom. “It was nice meeting you, but I should get going. My friend is probably waiting for me.”

“Can I walk you to your destination?” he asked. “It’s the least I could do for knocking you over.”

I thought about it for a few seconds but didn’t see any harm in Shinsou walking me back to the classroom, especially since he seemed so guilty about knocking me over.

“Sure,” I responded nonchalantly. “I’m just heading back to the classroom, but you’re more than welcome to accompany me.”

Shinsou offered a small smile, to which I offered an even smaller smile. As we started walking, he insisted on carrying the case with my hero costume in it for me. I didn’t see the point in arguing and let him take it. As we walked back to the classroom, we made small talk.

“So, what’s your quirk?” he asked, genuinely curious and not just trying to fill in the silence.

“Shadow manipulation,” I responded.

“Wow, really?” he asked. “That seems pretty cool.”

“I guess it is,” I responded with a dry chuckle. “It’s pretty hard to handle though. I messed up my wrists pretty bad when I first started using it.”

“That doesn’t sound great,” Shinsou said with dry sarcasm.

“Yeah, but I’ve gotten better at using it,” I said. “What about you? What’s your quirk?”

There were a few seconds of silence. I thought that I had crossed a line and was about to apologize when he responded.

“Brainwashing,” he said quietly.

“That sounds interesting,” I said, intrigued. “What can you do with it?”

“Well,” he started. “If someone verbally responds to me, I can control their actions and make them do whatever I want them to.”

I looked at him in shock. He could make someone do whatever he wanted? That’s a crazy powerful quirk. It would be super helpful against villains, so why was he stuck in the General Studies class?

“It’s like a villain’s quirk, I know,” Shinsou said as if expecting me to hate him now. “If you don’t want to talk to me anymore, I understand.”

“That’s an amazing quirk!” I said, truly believing it. “How come you aren’t in the Hero Course? You would be such a great hero!”

“You really think so?” he asked. I nodded in response, letting out a quiet ‘yeah’. “Well, I applied for the Hero Course but didn’t get in because it’s geared toward applicants that have physical quirks. We had to fight robots, so that didn’t give me anything to use my quirk on.”

“That sucks,” I said. “Honestly, the entrance exam is extremely flawed if it lets students like you not join.”

“So, you’re not scared that I could take control of you during a conversation?” he asked incredulously.

“No,” I responded. “I’m not too worried about it. You’re at a hero school after all”

Shinsou’s shoulders relaxed and the rest of our walk to the classroom was actually quite nice. I actually enjoyed Shinsou’s company, which was surprising because I’m not known for being a very social person, but the two of us clicked really well. Our conversation on the way back was very relaxed because Shinsou realized I wasn’t scared to actually talk with him. We made it to the classroom and stopped in front of the closed door.

“Thanks for walking me back,” I said as he handed me my hero costume case.

“Thanks for letting me,” he responded with a small smile. “It was really nice meeting you, Keiko.”

“You too, Shinsou,” I said sincerely. “Hope I see you around.”

He nodded and said a quick goodbye. I waved to him as he turned and walked away down the hall. I turned back to the classroom and opened the door, walking into the classroom, where a bunch of my classmates were still sitting. I put my hero costume back into its proper slot and walked to my desk to grab my stuff.

“How are you feeling?” Makoto asked as I started to zip up my bag.

“Much better,” I responded. I stood up after putting my pill bottle in my bag and closing it. “You ready to go?”

“Yeah,” he said, standing up from his desk.

Before we could even start walking out, Kirishima, Kaminari, Sero, and Ashido all walked up to us.

“Hey, Keiko!” Ashido said, far too cheerily for my liking. “Your fight with Bakugo was awesome! You’re super strong!”

“Thanks,” I said as I adjusted my bag on my shoulder. “It wasn’t an easy fight, I can tell you that. Bakugo is really strong.”

“How are you so humble?” Kaminari asked. “If I had a quirk as powerful as yours, I would be bragging about it all the time.”

“I don’t like to brag,” I said simply.

“That’s so manly,” Kirishima said, anime tears falling down his face. They stopped as he started talking again. “Thanks for our training exercise today.”

“Thanks for not going easy on us,” I responded with something that might have resembled a smile.

“Yeah,” Makoto said. “Seriously man, thanks. It was an awesome fight.”

“Anytime, bro,” Kirishima said, giving Makoto a “bro” hug.

I raised my eyebrows slightly. When did they get so close? I thought to myself. I glanced up at the clock and saw that we were running late.

“Shoot,” I said. I tapped Makoto’s arm to get his attention. “We have to go, Mako. Dad is probably waiting for us already.”

“Oh, you’re right!” he said. “We gotta go guys, but it was great talking to you today!”

“See you guys later!” Kaminari and Sero yelled after us.

Makoto and I waved to them as we walked out of the room and rushed down the hallway to get to the teacher’s lounge. We made it to the lounge and opened the door, walking in. Midnight and Present Mic greeted us and we saw Dad standing by the coffee counter, drinking coffee out of a mug. He saw us walk in and set his cup down to wash it.

“You guys ready to head out?” he asked us.

We both nodded as he walked over to his stuff, cleaning up and grabbing it. He stuffed some papers into his bag and met us over by the door. We all said our goodbyes to the heroes that were still in the lounge before walking out to the staff parking lot. We got in the car and drove home. Dad asked us about our training and we told him all about our fight with Kirishima and Bakugo, which he praised us on. That conversation took up the whole drive and it didn’t seem very long until we were pulling into our driveway. We got out of the car and said goodbye to Makoto, who walked over to his house.

“Let’s get inside,” Dad told me as we walked up to the front door.

He unlocked it and we walked inside, greeted by our two cats. I took off my shoes and walked into the kitchen, setting my bag on the table. I opened the cupboards and remembered something.

“We forgot to go grocery shopping,” I told Dad.

“Shoot,” he said. “You know what? I’ll go tomorrow morning while you’re on your run with Makoto.”

“Sounds good.”

The rest of the evening was quiet. I took a shower to clean myself from training and got changed straight into pajamas. It was gonna be an early night for me. Dad and I ate some leftovers from the takeout we had last night and both went to bed soon after. Makoto didn’t come over because he was also extremely tired from training. I got into bed and wrapped myself up in the red hoodie I had stolen from Makoto. Yuzuki crawled up next to me and shoved himself between my arms. I fell into a dreamless sleep not too long after that happened.

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A/N: It's been a while hasn't it lol. I didn't mean to take that long of a break, but school happened. I'm hoping to get back into writing this story because I have so many ideas for this! Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and are excited for the next one (which I have written already :p) Have a great day and I'll see y'all next chapter!

-Sticks

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