#now he really is the ultimate assassin why did they let him do this

[eorzeashan]

Watcher X: we're gonna reprogram your body. are you ready

Eight: ya

Watcher X: what do you want it to do

Eight: I want it to kill faster than ever before

Watcher X: oh fuck yeah that's sick as hell

(LIMIT BREAK PROTOCOL ACTIVATED)

[xoxoavenger]

could you do any teen wolf character x reader where she doesn’t know she’s supernatural until the deadpool and everyone is trying to keep it from her bc maybe she’s a character’s sister?

thank you ❣️

Who's Gonna Tell Her?

pairing: Jordan Parrish x Fem!Reader

word count: 2876

warnings: canon typical gore (no detail)

12 Days of Christmas masterlist main masterlist

"Have you told your sister?" Scott asked as they got ready for the game.

"I'm not really sure how. Even I don't fully understand it." Liam told him, pulling his jersey on over his pads.

"Well, she's adopted, right?" Liam nodded at Scott's question. "She could have been born a supernatural but never known. It happened to Lydia."

"The assassin is going to be out tonight. You have to tell her soon." Stiles butt in, and Liam shook his head.

"She's dating Parrish; he can protect her until I figure out what to do." Liam told them, grabbing his stick and shutting his locker. They had been having the same rendition of this conversation for at least thirty minutes, and he was tired of fighting.

"Parrish doesn't know about the deadpool. He doesn't know that she's on it. He can't protect her if he doesn't know what to protect." Stiles pointed out. Scott nodded as he look to his beta.

"We have to at least tell him." Scott agreed, shutting his locker in unison with Stiles.

"Can't we just play lacrosse?" Liam asked. Scott and Stiles shared a look, frowning. They both knew Liam would never be able to 'just play lacrosse' again. "Look, the assassin is on the lacrosse team. Y/N and Parrish have a date night tonight anyway. We just need to worry about ourselves not getting killed." He pointed out, making the older boys nod.

"Alright, but after tonight, we have to figure out a plan." Stiles said as they turned their attention toward coach. He had been talking, giving some kind of speech, but it apparently wasn't important.

"It's only one night. She won't even be here." Liam said, mostly to himself. He was trying to keep from freaking out, because not only was he at risk of dying, but now his sister was too. The worst part was that he didn't even know what his sister was, and he wasn't sure anyone else would either.

~

"I don't want to have to cancel." Jordan said from his desk. His girlfriend was sitting on top of it, frowning. She had gone all out for this date, even shaving, and of course her boyfriend was busy.

"I know you don't." She looked down, trying not to let her emotions get the best of her. She knew that he wouldn't cancel if he didn't have to, and it did look like he was drowning in work, but it still made her sad.

"The Sheriff is going to the lacrosse game and with all the murders happening-"

"Hey," Y/N grabbed his chin and made him look up, and he sighed as he looked at her gorgeous face. It always grounded him. "It's okay. Maybe I'll go to the lacrosse game too." They shared a kiss, and Jordan wished he could just leave his job.

"How's Liam?" He asked, making Y/N groan.

"I know you are not asking about my brother in the few short moments we have together." He chuckled, kissing her again. He wanted to tell her about Meredith, who was in the Sheriff's office and the reason why he had to cancel, but that meant he could lose his job. He knew that weird things were happening, but he didn't know how to describe it. And part of him - the selfish part - didn't want to somehow endanger or worry her.

"Sorry." He smiled, and Y/N returned it. She got up to leave, giving him a few quick pecks before walking out. "I love you." He called making her smile wider and turn around

"I love you too."

When she got to her car, she tried to call Liam, but it just went to voicemail. She figured he was warming up, so she'd just go anyway. She let his recorded voice ring out as she turned the car on, putting it in reverse as the line beeped.

"Hey, Liam, it's me. Jordan had to cancel, so I'm gonna be coming to your game." It was silent for a second as she thought about what else to say, but ultimately came up empty. "Alright, well, see ya soon! Love you!" She hung up, throwing her phone into the passenger seat and pulling out of the station.

~

"Liam, is that your sister next to Mason?" Stiles asked the group. They all turned to look into the stands, and Liam put his hands to his head, trying not to break his helmet as emotions ran quickly through him.

"What is she doing here?" Scott turned, and Liam shook his head as he began to freak out.

"She had a date with Parrish! She isn't supposed to be here!" Liam said, the others looking at each other to figure out how to calm him down. She smiled and waved from her place in the bleachers, alone, without Parrish. She was sitting with Mason and Violet, which honestly almost made Liam feel worse. But, she didn't know Malia or Lydia - she had only heard Liam talk about the juniors at random times. As Liam scanned the crowd, he wasn't even sure they were here anyway.

"It's okay, we'll keep an eye on her. As long as she doesn't come out onto the field, we'll be good." Scott patted Liams shoulder before jogging to his position as Coach began to yell at them.

They were losing by one point, only a couple minutes in, and Y/N could tell something was wrong.

"Who are you guys playing?" She asked Mason, who looked at her as if she were crazy. The two had only been introduced once at the Dunbar house, but Y/N didn't know anyone else to sit with; her step-dad was working and her mom had some sort of club tonight.

"You don't know?" Mason asked as Liam got knocked to the ground. Y/N gasped and stood, not even noticing the other team had scored. When Liam got up and took off his helmet and began to shake off his gloves, she realized.

"Oh my God." She whispered, sitting back down. "We're playing Devenford."

"Yeah." Mason confirmed, watching Liam get held back from a fight. Y/N looked around, realizing the Sheriff had never made it. She wondered what the hold up was at the station, and what Jordan was doing.

The game passed, Kira scoring the first goal but then immediately being taken out. There was definitely some extra tension on the field, Y/N noticed, even within their own team. The game kept getting more brutal, and sure enough soon Liam was being flipped over two other players. Y/N didn't have time to think before she was running down, her brother's screams igniting her older sister instincts. She made it to the field, pushing everyone away until she got to her little brother on the ground.

"Liam! Oh my God, are you alright? What's hurt?" She asked. She went through her mental checklist, but she didn't finish before two other players were hauling him up. "Hey!" She screamed, pushing them away.

"How hard did you hit him?" Number 11 asked her bother, and Liam shook his head slightly.

"I didn't." He answered, and Y/N pushed the other boy away.

"Liam, where does it hurt? Is anything broken?" She asked, checking his arms. It wasn't long before she found the broken bone bulging out of his arm.

"Ow." Number 24 commented, but Y/N ignored him.

"Alright, let's get you to the hospital. I can try to reset it, but-"

"No," Liam breathed as Number 11 took off his gloves. He looked at Liam as he took his arm, and Y/N tried pushing him away again.

"Hey, stop! You're going to hurt him!" She yelled, but Liam shook his head.

"Y/N, let Scott fix it." He told her. She stood still, not sure what was going on. How was this high school senior going to fix a broken arm? Her heart was racing, head spinning as all she could think about was if Liam would be okay.

"Close your eyes." Scott told Liam. Y/N watched as Scott twisted the bone back in and Liam cried out, and she really pushed him that time. Scott went flying back, and she quickly began to check Liam's arm. She didn't notice the looks the others gave her at the display of unusual strength.

"I-I don't understand, how is there no discoloration? No blood?" It seemed Liam's arm was as good as new as she checked it, and Liam moved to place his hands over her's.

"Y/N, I promise I'll explain, just wait until after the game, please." Liam told her. She nodded, trusting him, but a terrible feeling began in her gut. She watched Scott and Liam both shoot their heads toward another player, Scott immediately searching his own body.

"Are you cut? Did Garret cut you?" He asked Liam. Liam looked at his arms, shaking his head.

"No, no. I'm okay." He told Scott, the two of them looking at their teammate. Y/N placed her hands over her abdomen where the pain was coming from, surprised to feel a liquid there. Apparently her gut feeling was a bit more than a feeling.

"Then he missed." Scott said, but Y/N just shook her head. She was beginning to feel faint, like her head was clouded.

"I don't think he missed." She muttered, pulling her hands away from her dark sweater to reveal the blood on them. She began to fall, and Scott and Liam moved to grab her as she fell. She grabbed Liam's jersey, pain coursing through her stomach. Unbeknownst to her, her eyes flashed purple. Scott and Stiles looked at each other.

"What does that mean?" Liam asked, holding her close.

"I don't know, but we have to get her out of here without anyone else seeing." Scott told Liam, the two of them looking around. They had no idea where to go, where someone wouldn't see them.

"We just have to go for it." Stiles said. Everyone was focused on Brett, who was still down, so the four of them slinked out, Scott holding Y/N. They made it to the jeep, where Y/N was laid in the backseat with Liam.

"Should we call Parrish?" Scott asked, and Stiles just shook his head.

"Lydia just cracked another third of the deadpool." He said, looking between his phone and the road. Scott took the phone, looking at the list.

"Am I on it?" Liam asked, scooting up.

"What the hell are you all talking about?" Y/N groaned, her eyes flashing purple once more. "And why is everything so loud?" She cried, pressing her hands to her head. The engine sounded like it was inside her brain, echoing and rattling her skull.

"Someone else is on it." Scott commented, showing Liam. He sucked in a breath as the Alpha took back the phone. Of course Parrish was on the list.

"Please someone call Jordan. I want to talk to him before I die." Y/N said, sitting up. She groaned, realizing the shirt Liam had been wearing under his uniform was pressed to her abdomen, which was still profusely bleeding.

"You aren't going to die." Stiles rolled his eyes before looking in the rearview mirror. "Probably."

"Stiles!" Scott scolded. They couldn't be telling her that she was going to die on her first supernatural experience.

"Where are we going, this isn't the way to the hospital." Y/N commented as she focused her eyes. She had never been in this part of town, only having moved with Parrish last month. Before, she had lived in the neighboring town with her family. When her mom had married Dr. Geyer and moved to Beacon Hills, Y/N had already moved out.

"Don't worry about it." Stiles winked at her through the mirror, but she wasn't looking. She was on her phone, trying to find Parrish's contact. Just as she was going to press on it, it was pulled from her.

"You can't call him." Liam said, snatching her phone out of her hand.

"Why," Y/N stopped, falling back against the wall of the car and groaning as a wave of pain hit her. She opened her mouth in pain, not even realizing her incisors had grown. Liam looked terrified as she cried out, eyes flashing purple once more. This was not the face of a werewolf.

"Guys!" Liam called. Scott turned, eyes widening when he saw what was going on. Y/N was still withering in pain, oblivious to what they were talking about. She flopped against Liam finally, who was freaking out.

"Holy shit," Scott whispered as Stiles turned into the parking lot. Her eyes closed and the incisors went back to normal, but she was barely breathing now.

"We need to get her inside!" Liam yelled, helping Scott get her out. They made it to the door and into clinic quickly, Deaton looking only mildy surprised as they burst through the door.

"She has purple eyes and fangs!" Stiles yelled, but Liam growled at him immediately.

"She was stabbed. It has to be poison." He informed the vet. Deaton nodded, then looked at them.

"I have to cut her chest open to extract the poison. See how she's foaming at the mouth?" Once Deaton pointed it out the obvious, and the other's nodded. "I need you to hold her down." He told Liam and Scott. The two move to each side, where she was seizing.

"Won't cutting her open kill her?" Liam asked as Deaton cut her clothes open. He grabbed a scalpel, pressing it to her skin.

"If she is what you say she is, and she is effected this bad by the wolfsbane, then she'll be fine." Deaton couldn't waste any more time, pressing the scalpel into her skin and cutting. Just as he had finished the incision, police sirens were heard outside.

"Did you tell your dad?" Scott turned to Stiles, able to let go of the girl now. She was laying still on the table, breathing evenly.

"No, dude, I swear." Stiles shook his head, and Parrish came running in.

"What did you do to her?" He yelled, pushing past everyone until he was right next to her.

"You cut her open? What the hell are you thinking?" Jordan held her hand, pushing her hair out of her face. He was shaking as he looked at the bloody cut, holding her hand but not sure what to do to help. He couldn't even think of a plausible reason why the boys would take her to a vet when she was clearly hurt, and he was even more baffled by the fact that the vet thought he was qualified enough to cut into her like a surgeon.

"Parrish, just-just calm down, okay?" Liam said cautiously, but Jordan looked at him with fire in his eyes.

"This is your sister we're talking about! How are you fine?" Jordan had tears falling out of his eyes, then turned to Deaton. "You! You're a veterinarian, not a human doctor! This is illegal on so many levels! As soon as I make sure she gets to the hospital, you're coming with me!" Jordan yelled, not paying attention to Y/N anymore.

"Parrish, she's okay." Scott told him, making him look at her. She no longer had the long gash going down her torso. Jordan simply stared, not sure what had just happened.

"Is this some kind of joke?" He asked, sniffling as he looked around the teens and doctor in the room. There was no actual explanation for this, he was sure of it. They had to be pranking him for some sick reason.

"There's a conversation we have to have." Scott told him, but before he could get any further, Y/N was breathing in and opening her eyes. They were purple, making Jordan even more confused.

"Y/N, what's going on?" He asked, but she just closed her eyes and groaned. When she opened her eyes again, they were normal.

"Jordan? What happened?" Y/N asked, looking around as Jordan took his jacket off and wrapped it around her, letting her zip it up. She felt her torso, realizing her stab wound was gone. "What is going on?" She looked up at Liam, who was blinking dumbly.

"I have no idea." He said, and Y/N was about ready to lose her shit.

"What do you mean?" She cried out, feeling Jordan tense next to her. She turned to see Liam looking completely fine. "Your arm was broken, like twenty minutes ago!" She saw her brother looking completely fine.

"I told you so," Stiles muttered, and Y/N wished she had something to throw at him.

"You didn't tell us shit," Liam said, instantly annoyed.

"Yes! I did!" Stiles exploded, looking very offended. "I literally said 'You need to tell her.' I believe those were the exact words that came out of my mouth."

"Tell me what?" Y/N asked, tired of watching her brother and his friend bicker.

"What?" All three teenagers asked at the same time, wide eyes looking completely guilty.

"Liam," Her big sister eyes came out, which made Liam cower slightly.

"It's a long story," He starts, turning to Scott as if he would explain everything. Y/N was staring intently at Liam, brows furrowed and eyes angered. She screamed when Scott turned to her with red eyes.

"Oh my God," She whispered, leaning back against Jordan. She closes her eyes. "What the actual fuck?"

//

taglist: @mcueveryday

[in1-nutshell]

I have been thinking a lot about the neutral teen not buddy Who is skillied in combat and edgy, like maybe they keep meeting with smokescreen and eventually properly meet the others?

Another Buddy we haven't seen in a while, lets see how this works!

Hope you enjoy!

Bot Buddy the edgy neutral assassin meeting with Smokescreen again

SFW, Platonic, Cybertronain reader

It was a couple of days before Buddy realized the bot they had been chatting to wasn’t another Neutral.

He was an Autobot.

One of the new recruits named Smokescreen.

That was their mistake for assuming.

They originally thought of just ignoring him since he did give them a nice talk.

But soon enough they found it nearly impossible to ignore the mech. He seemed to be everywhere Buddy was going and they did not want to draw attention to both.

They weren’t going to lose the only other nice bot in this war.

Not again…

Ultimately, they decided to maybe talk to him again. At least then they would be able to talk with peace of mind that no one would be watching them.

Hopefully.

Maybe they could even get him to see their side of the war, maybe join forces.

Become an assassin duo.

Oh, how were they kidding, Smokescreen was not assassin material.

He was more Wrecker material than anything.

Not good for stealth.

Buddy waited at the same place again a month later.

They found him seated in the same spot.

They quietly joined him when he waved and patted the ground next to him.

His grin grew once they sat down next to him.

“Hey! It’s been a while!”--Smokescreen

Buddy nods and takes the spot next to him.

“I saw a cool looking bird heading north with a whole other group of the same one. Where do you think they’re going?”--Smokescreen

“Maybe they’re heading home? Doubt it’s because of any cold temperatures.”--Buddy

“Why would they want to get away from the cold? That white stuff that falls from the sky is awesome!”--Smokescreen

Buddy chuckles a bit.

“Yeah, it kind of is when is falling.”--Buddy

He didn’t say anything about the war much to their surprise.

Or maybe it was because he didn’t know who they were yet.

Smokescreen talked more of the things he saw around while on patrol.

This little routine continued for about another two months.

It was a nice change of pace for Buddy.

A little breather from their usual activities.

“I have a question.”--Smokescreen

“Yeah? And what would that be?”--Buddy

“How come you haven’t offline me yet?”--Smokescreen

Buddy stiffens.

“You came across one of my friends not too long ago, you spared her. But we’ve been meeting for a while now and have had multiple times that you could have…you know. So, why?”--Smokescreen

Buddy looks down, playing with some of the sand.

“I’ll admit. I didn’t know you were an Autobot before, I thought you were another Neutral. When I realized that you weren’t I planed on just ignoring you.”--Buddy

“Why not…”--Smokescreen

“You were nice to me. It’s been a while since I had any nice talk like the ones we have. Nothing with the war, nothing about political views… just peaceful things.”--Buddy

“So, if I wasn’t so nice to you—”--Smokescreen

“You wouldn’t have made it back to your team.”--Buddy

“…”--Smokescreen

“…Listen I know this could change our thing and that you probably want to leave… I’ll respect your decision and I won’t—”--Buddy

“Who says I want to leave?”--Smokescreen

Buddy looks at him with wide optics.

“Any bot with any common sense would leave.”--Buddy

Smokescreen chuckles a bit.

“Well, I have been told I lack some of that.”--Smokescreen

“…You really want to keep meeting? Even after all I admitted?”--Buddy

Smokescreen pats their back.

“I still want to be friends with you Buddy. You’re a good bot.”--Smokescreen

Buddy smiles at him.

Both look back at the horizon in silence

Smokescreen did bring up the option of bringing them to the base to meet the others.

But they declined.

They didn’t want to give either side any idea that they were going to join a side.

He pestered it a couple more times before just dropping it.

Smokescreen knows he’ll wear them down eventually.

But for now, he was happy being their friend outside of the base.

[kindlyre]

thinking more v3 thoughts. it wouldve been REALLY interesting if kaede didnt die in trial 1 and lived so she and shuichi could be foils to kokichi and rantaro, which would be interesting bc the main character always has a partner, but the rival never has. and the difference in ideology could split the group, but as it stands now the v3 cast treats kokichi worse than tbe sdr2 cast treated komaeda, and komadea was a THREAT since the beginning. for the most part, all kokichi did was lie a lot and be rude, so this animosity kind of feels undeserved. like, hajime had a lot more patience for komaeda's shit than shuchi does for kokichi's. so his interactions w the rest of the v3s seems kind of... underhanded and rude. they accepted an assassin into their group but not him, is all im saying.

and it just feels kind of undeserved until chapter 4 where kokichi goes off the deep end. like, before that, he DOES talk about liking the killing game and all, and is insensetive, but he by his own admission a LIAR- why do all the v3s assume the bad things he says are the truth? hell in chapter 2 he spells out MULTIPLE TIMES what his end goal is and what he's doing (trying to caution people from overtly working together because when they do, monokuma punishes them for it, so they shouldnt let on that theyre cooperating) and no one listens?? at all. like its just so blatant because ive been playing sdr2 and v3 side by side, alternating between the two frequently. try it-! the dissonance between how the v3 cast treats kokichi and the sdr2 cast treats komadea is VERY apparent. like sure they tie him up and arent NICEYS to him, but hajime makes a genuine effort to try and understand komaeda, especially in FTEs. shuichi does not extend that same effort to kokichi and imho thats really lackluster writing for the ultimate detective

it just seems like they were going for an ideology clash in v3 but in practice, kokichi is ostracized VERY early on for the crime of Being Annoying, and because of that is placed under a lot of undue scrutiny, with absolutely no one bothering to TRY to understand him. and this happens because he has no genuine foil for his ideology, so theres no ideological conflict, so the writers had to manufacture one by having everyone focus on his (largely just mischevious and at worst annoying) lies and repeat "but all lies are bad!!" unfixingly w/o trying to understand him. which is not really an ideological conflict, it's... kind of childish and they- esp shuichi as the ultimate DETECTIVE- never try to understand kokichi's pov and don't interact with kokichi's TRUE ideological opposition- that they can't trust each other. and kaede and him couldve been great foils in that regard, having the opposite ideological approach to the killing game, but kaede was fridged early on for a male character's development. so thats fine too i guess.

and shuichi and rantaro couldve been foils as well, both leaning hard into detective work but having opposite ideas on what to do with their respective findings- do they trust the group, or not?

also this is just a "hey this would be imo cool" aside, but if it was a kokichi/rantaro pairup.... IMAGINE THE 4TH TRIAL. imagine if it was ambiguous if rantaro was manipulated into killing miu or if it was a willing sacrifice. rantaro doesn't remember, but he admits before execution that, knowing himself, he feels like it was a willing sacrifice on his end, while kokichi insists he manipulated rantaro into it and that he's the true blackened. and we cant see rantaro's memories, so we don't know. and it could be a really tragic trial a la peko's, which would finally allow the cast to know more about rantaro and his true feelings on everyone and the game, in his final moments.

also the sting of the ultimate survivor reveal being so so close by, the tragedy of rantaro surviving a DIFFERENT KILLING GAME only to die in this one, so close to the end... and the implication that he survived his last game by being detached and secretive, only to die because of a connection he had with someone. but thats less meta analysis and more me going "goddamn wouldnt that be fucked up or what. anyway im tumblr user kinderlie"

[i-might-be-a-simp]

I need your opinion, do you think Ron knew that Cale was no longer the same person?

I was stalking the fandom (as usual) and I saw a comment, by who I assume to be a new reader, wondering how Ron would react finding out Cale was actually KRS, that the child he watched grow wasn't actually the man he believes and it made me think a bit.

When I read tcf the first time, one of the things I was most curious about was all the odd looks Cale got in the first few chapters, and my biggest question was, surely a very sharp and experienced assassin who knew the know-hows of blending into different crowds would have immediately noticed that "Young master" was no longer the same person.

I'm sure you caught this too when reading, but there were many moments when Ron's expression turned odd after Cale did or said something.

Ron the whole first chapter:

It starts by something he dismisses, such as Cale waking up immediately after Ron calls out to him, on the very first attempt. But as the chapter progresses, Ron gets more and more intrigued.

He notices how Cale says thanks after he receives water and when servants dress him. Along with his other odd actions, asking the date, repeating his own name, asking to go to the study, not breaking things etc.

And then finally, Ron gives him the ultimate test, the lemon tea. I think this was his way of confirming that Cale had changed. It proved to me Ron was definitely onto something.

Now this is where I need your opinion. From my interpretation of Ron's character, yes he "loved" ogCale or held at least a bit of affection for him. Let me pull up some receipts:

^(sorry for light mode)

Although Ron treated him like his grandson he did not think Cale had a soft spot for him nor that he treated him like a person and never really took much interest in him aside from his duties.

And while I was doing a deep-dive I went on the wiki and saw this.

So Ron saw ogCale, his situation and therefore pitied him, yet he thought of him as a helpless impertinent puppy, which is why he did not have much issue with following Beacrox who wished to leave with Choi Han in BOAH. But only after Cale changed is when he begin to be interested.

Now the question is, was the lemon tea experiment he did, just to test whether Cale had become aware of Ron's true identity, or was it to confirm Cale was a changed person entirely???

Personally I think it was both, and that Ron was aware from the very beginning. However this is where I am conflicted, because the idea of Ron watching that small boy become so big and smart is so satisfying to me, because the author wanted to paint this as a "cale finally stopped pretending to be a dumb oblivious trash and started to take matters into his hand" like it was all a plan cale had to hide his powers and get stronger in secret while acting unsuspecting. This is what the public believes and it sounds very cool but... hmm I wish we got a chapter focusing more on Ron's feelings.

Like I am aware he loves Cale very much and especially after getting the new arm he started to feel a sense of loyalty for Cale he didn't have before but the fact that he was one of the few people og Cale was very close with since he was very young, the fact that a whole new person was in the body is kind of not addressed in its full concept, this transition from no interest to loyalty was also a transition from og cale to krs cale so I wish we got more on it.

Thanks for reading my ramble. I love them.

[thecomfywriter]

🤬AITA tag game 🤬

thank you for the tags @mysticstarlightduck @theink-stainedfolk @drchenquill @wyked-ao3 and @the-golden-comet. if you also tagged me and i missed you, SORRY. i'm super excited for this one because it seems super interesting, and AITA threads are my guilty pleasure. OKAYYY, let's get into it :)

This will be for ToV. Guess who the narrator is lol.

｡ ₊°༺❤︎༻°₊ ｡

AITA for saving the life of the man who killed my mother (by indirectly causing a massacre) and making him my mentor?

Okay. I understand the title sounds bad. I promise you-- the situation is more nuanced than the whims of my clickbait. Please read this post in full, as, while all my peers do not treat me as an asshole, they certainly treat me as a dunce for getting involved.

I (17M) live in a queendom called Soilaila. Our queen (Von Doro, ??? age) is a dragon, I should mention, and lives within the volcano that landmarks our nation. It is her monarchial responsibility to ensure the volcano does not explode. Which is why I do not understand why more blame is not denoted to her for detonating the volcano 16 years ago and killing all her citizens. My mother included.

Everyone blames Hilbert (~150+?? M), and while I understand Hilbert may have murdered all of the queen's children and made an attempt on her life as well, he only made his assassination attempt under the counsel of the Jervees, so really, they are to blame. And besides-- it was not as though Hilbert killed all the dragons alone that he should solely be blamed! Everyone in Soilaila acts as though they did not take up arm and spear alongside him during the Dragon Hunts that inspired Von Doro's wrath.

Apologies. I am rambling. My point being, Hilbert had self-exiled himself 16 years ago after the Incident, and none of us had seen him since. Until last Tuesday. I was on a walk in the Bazaar when I see a mob of people holding an old man up by his arms, using him as a punching bag! They were kicking him black and blue, taking their belts off to use as whips, lashing his skin with leather and steel.

This is the part where, apparently, I am the asshole. I go up to the crowd and I tell them to stop. They were beating up an old man after all! And then they tell me the old man is Hilbert, and I cannot simply back out of my allegiance at this point, so I tell these grieving parents, "Does it matter?" and that they were ultimately in the wrong for choosing revenge over peace.

I got them to stop (a very painful pursuit, may I add. One that has resulted in bruises and lashes on my own back and legs), but at the end of it, I had promised to take Hilbert to the Jervees for his arrest.

This is also where I may have screwed up.

I did not take him to the Jervees. I tried to take him home, and on the way, as he told me stories of his youth and the truth of the Incident... Trust me-- after the truths and conspiracies he revealed, I have no trouble believing him when he says he is a victim to the Incident, more than anyone else in Soilaila. Regardless, seeing such an impressive man in front of me, I requested he become my mentor in exchange for my allegiance and protection from all those who wish to convict or harm him in Soilaila.

But now, everyone thinks me idiotic for believing him! Even though I know he is telling the truth.

I do not think I am an asshole for giving this old man a chance. Yes, he has made some mistakes in his past. And yes, his ledger is unbearably red with violent crimes. But do people not have the liberty to change? To try to improve themselves and be better? Why is it all "second chances!" and "heal and forgive!" until it actually comes to healing and forgiving? And why are all my friends trying their absolute damnest to separate me from Hilbert? If anything, I would reckon they were the assholes more than Hilbert or myself.

--

EDIT: everyone keeps asking me how my father feels in this situation. I will admit-- he is rather betrayed and sees me as a failure of a son. But if he saw me as anything more than that to begin with, perhaps I would not need to seek out Hilbert's company at all.

EDIT #2: This post is reaching unfathomable audiences who are all calling me naive. Trust me-- you do not know the whole story. Hilbert's methods of convincing me of the truth are not so much as manipulation as much as they are "revelations of reality."

EDIT #3: This is going to be my last edit on this post, as it seems some people are simply bound to their opinions. That is alright. We are fated to disagree with one another. But for everyone asking me why I am comfortable blaming Von Doro for the death of my mother and not Hilbert, I would like you to read your question out loud. Why do I not blame the man who indirectly triggered the person who killed my mother in rage? Does that makes sense to you?

EDIT #4: you all were right.

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leaving this as an +open tag for any and all of my followers to enjoy! Happy Writing :)

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PREORDER THRONE OF VENGEANCE

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[amageish]

People seemed to like my post chronicling the queer history of Felicia Hardy, so I'm going to do something similar to that... Let's chat about the queer history of Marvel's unwitting power couple, Ellie Phimister and her girlfriend Yuki Ohara.

Let's dive in!

Content Warning: This summary will include discussion of anti-mutant hate crimes and genocide, as that is part of Ellie's comic book story.

Like a lot of queer X-Men stories, this one begins with queercoding in the 80s.

While Jim Shooter famously prohibited any queer storytelling in Marvel Comics during his tenure as Editor-in-Chief of the company and, on top of that, the Comics Code Authority also banned it, Chris Claremont, the architect of the X-Men as we know them today, never really followed those rules - and neither did his editors, artists, and co-writers. There are so many queer-coded relationships throughout his runs on the X-Men and the modern X-Men stories are still playing catch-up to this day, canonizing the intentions of him and his collaborators one character at a time. Mystique and Destiny are probably his most famous pairing nowadays, as that is canon now, but he also wrote the Juggernaut as being with Black Tom Cassidy, Kate Pryde as being bisexual for most women she encounters in her life, and, the topic for today, Storm being in a romantic relationship with the Japanese assassin Yukio.

Yukio is, to put it mildly, a risk-taker. She runs through life with seemingly no self-preservation instincts whatsoever and, for some reason, always gets by nonetheless. She and Storm have a fling while Storm is in Japan (Uncanny X-Men 172-173) and this leads directly into Storm's famous punk era, which certainly does recontextualize some of the vibes of her having suddenly gotten a mohawk and a taste for leather.

Their later reunion in Uncanny X-Men 311-313 is extra funny to me - both because of the narration textually referring to them as "more then friends" and because of Yukio justifying her daredevil attitude by suggesting it would have been "politically incorrect" of the villain to have attacked them in public.

These two "kindred spirits" hang out for a bit, but Yukio is ultimately a Wolverine character and not a larger X-Men team member, so they naturally split off as time goes on. Their last appearance together was during the 2014 Death of Wolverine event - though their affair was mentioned by an angry Kitty during the Storm flashback mini earlier this year.

That said, Yukio is obviously a Sapphic and I guess when the team behind the movie Deadpool 2 decided to give their version of Negasonic Teenage Warhead a girlfriend, they looked at the list of queer-coded characters and decided she was the right one for them...

Now, as for Ellie...

Eloise Phimister AKA Negasonic Teenage Warhead debuted in Grant Morrison's New X-Men, but her name was not said on-panel until after she was already dead. She was one of Emma Frost's students, a gothic woman with telepathic powers that foretold the death of her and her classmates at Genosha... and yet she died nonetheless.

This is a very tragic character. She has a silly name, but that is part of the heartbreak of this moment. Ellie is a child who died as a result of a genocidal desire to kill all mutants. Her silly name emphasizes her youth... which makes it REALLY tonally dissonant when it played for comedy from here-on-out.

She was briefly brought back by the camp gay villain Selene when she revived horrific versions of many deceased mutants as part of X-Force... and then she was revived for real with a new design fter the release of the first Deadpool movie. She maintains her precognitive abilities and future-sight here, but otherwise... Well, she's now a comedy character in a Deadpool book. She also can warp reality now, partially as an explanation for why she looks/acts different then her first appearances.

She paled around with Deadpool for a bit, but didn't do anything explicitly queer in the comics until 2022 (good god) where she kissed an unnamed woman, causing Wolverine to wonder if she'll one day lead a X-Men team that is exclusively made up of her multiple girlfriends. This comment is also a subtle not to the implied status quo of the Krakoa era, where Wolverine himself has two partners - dating both Jean Grey and Scott Summers.

This is a funny moment, though I do wonder why it took so long for her to be queer in the comics - Marvel comic books are generally the most queer media Marvel puts out, so I do wonder if it was something specifically about her being a Deadpool character that caused people to hesitate to greenlight queer stories about her.

Finally, in 2023, Ellie got her first solo series in the form of an Infinity Comic.

This series uses the increasingly-popular approach of having "fate" be a stand-in for "the concept of being a loyal adaptation in a multimedia landscape," as she is fated to kiss a girl named Yuki Ohara or else the fabric of reality as we know it will be destroyed.

While Deadpool is only in it for a bit, it is a very meta narrative, with a lot of commentary on the way that female characters are written in comics in general and female reality-warpers specifically, with Ellie having a lot of anxiety about the risk of her becoming like Jean Grey or Scarlet Witch - not helped by the TVA chasing her down and declaring her a threat. However, in the end, she meets her girlfriend-to-be and pauses time itself to get know her properly before having their universe-saving kiss. Good for them!

Since then, she has appeared exactly once - in a Pride issue fashion show - but I imagine she and her girlfriend Yuki are just in a little reality-warp bubble, hidden away as Fall of X finishes up.

Synergy is a dirty word in the comics landscape, but I personally like Ellie and her romance with Yuki - and I'm very relieved that they introduced a new, younger Yuki O. based on the movie for her to date instead of just retconning the established Yukio into becoming Eloise's girlfriend... Storm doesn't deserve to have her girl stolen away like that!

Also, Yuki has a giant mech and electricity powers. Maybe a little cliche for a Japanese character's powerset, but it is badass...

I hope we see more comic book stuff with these two eventually... There is potential there that is as of yet untapped - especially as they are probably two of Marvel's most notable queers by virtue of being in wildly popular movies, even if their comic queerness is a relatively modern thing.

[phoenixcatch7]

Thinking about a 'sqq transmigrates (reincarnates) into dc' (specifically the jl because I don't know much about the rest), and who do you think would be funniest? I have narrowed it down to One but if anyone has anything better I'd love to hear it - Constantine, cap marvel and Manhunter were my top choices until:

Batman. Of course. Mainly because of the adoption problem and dozen kids with attachment issues, but also sqq spending his entire time internally shrieking I AM NOT CUT OUT FOR THIS I AM NOT PREPARED SYSTEM WHY DID YOU CHOOSE BATMAN. Trying so hard to fit the theme. Over preparing and stressing over every detail. A bit autism coded. 'I don't fall in love with anyone unless I choose to' wrong. 'You want me??? To?? Share my emotions?? My troubles??? I want to be a good parental figure but I would RATHER DIE'.

*internal sarcasm at local iq* *encyclopedic knowledge* *forgets he's not supposed to know everyone's identity*. "HOW DID YOH EVEN KNOW THAT??!!" 'oh I uh figured it out lol *bluffs sherlock style deduction*'. *repressed* 'Trauma? What trauma? I'm doing Great.'

Alfred is best man but sqq has been fundamentally a rich kid for THREE lifetimes now. He is unsavagable. Acts all high and mighty for the show but self esteem is garbage. UTTER COMMITMENT TO THE BIT at this point (way post svsss canon) I think sqq would genuinely implode if he didn't have a mask to show the public.

System has followed him of course and has him by the scruff of his neck every time he thinks about a more peaceful life. It has very high ooc standards as always until he first puts on the mask.

I can see superman taking over lqgs role a little. Casual friend and bestie. Always ready to help (and occasionally sky uber). Brawn to his brain but smarter than people give him credit for. Ultimate power team. Romantic tension through the roof but never wants anything more (and Bruce is completely oblivious anyway). Everyone sees it though.

Everyone assuming Bruce spent a huge amount of time training in some ultra secret Chinese mountain range (technically they're not wrong!) but no system sent him to the league of assassins he's just using the excuse to work on his cultivation. (talia tried SO HARD to seduce him but it failed utterly so she gave up and stole his dna while he was asleep (he woke up the next morning to a mission success notification and freaked)).

Unlike what his kids except, is fully caught up with memes. They hate it but that just makes him use them more. On the plus side he is susceptible to rickroll. Peak 'my darling child would NEVER how dare' at events. The only ones who know he had (has???) a husband pre reveal.

He teaches them all cultivation like a little qj peak but without the proper environment, which doesn't exist here, they're never going to reach immortality like him. He's fine about that, really :). He's accepted it. Either way that means pit influence doesn't stick, whoo!

Would like nothing more than to kill the joker :). System won't let him. He can't explain that to anyone :).

Meanwhile an lbh centuries old is Missing His Husband and Its Been MONTHS Where are his kisses from shizun??? But seriously WHERE IS HIS HUSBAND BLOOD WILL BE SPILT THE ONE WHO TOOK HIM WILL BE WIPED FROM THE FACE OF THE REALMS THEIR LIGAMENTS STREWN ACROSS THE NORTHERN DESERT AND THEIR ENTRAILS FED TO HYDRA VULTURES WHERE IS HE

Cue an enraged ancient demon emperor breaking through the walls of reality on a universe shattering rampage only for him to be batmans husband :). Who wants kisses.

[raayllum]

by the end of s5, what do you think separates claudia and callum (if anything) from being a villain vs a hero?

Oh, there's plenty that differentiates them! This may not be as articulate as I want it to be as I've spent most of the past 3+ years pointing out / trying to convince people of Callum's similarities to Claudia and Viren (which S5 finally cinched for me, beautifully) than having to describe their differences, but I'll do my best!

Callum very much has both the best and worst of Viren and Claudia when it comes to dark magic, where he kind of borrows from each of them in distinct ways to be the most.... reasonable 'dark mage' in a lot of ways, due to 1) his views on dark magic and 2) his motivations for using it. So let's dig into it.

1) Views on dark magic

Unlike Claudia, to Callum dark magic isn't something frivolous (hi dark magic pancakes) or something to aspire after. He's far more like Viren (and even then I don't think Callum would ever consider dark magic "brilliant and clever" even if it is very much practical) in terms of seeing dark magic solely as a last resort since, as I've laid out before, Callum knows it's wrong. That it's a dangerous, slippery slope, for him in particular. Callum is also just willing to do something he Knows is wrong and see it to fruition anyway.

(Now, this also plays into the series' theme of how it's always Easier to play into / perpetuate the Cycle than it is to take the harder path of breaking it, but post for another day.)

Claudia has come closer to this viewpoint in some ways in S4 (crying as she explains what she had to do to bring Viren back) but ultimately, she doesn't think/see/know Aaravos is 'evil'. She doesn't think she's doing anything Wrong But Justified because she doesn't see anything wrong with what she's doing in the first place ("Humans were born with nothing, but we still found a way to do amazing things. That's what dark magic is really all about" / "The elves and the dragons did nothing. They judged us. They pitied us" / "All through history dragons have had the power while humans lived in fear. Well times are changing"). Callum is not that, at all, hence the guilt (even if I think more of it stems now in S4/S5 from what he knows dark magic allows - Aaravos' possession that then in turn also puts his immediate loved ones in danger).

Therefore, Callum's views on dark magic are far more akin to Viren's - powerful, dangerous, a necessity that chips away at you and you alone if you do it right, if you can successfully spare other people. Viren's comfort with dark magic goes further than that, and Callum's comfort with it is lesser than that, but they are more similar I think in their views of dark magic than either of their views are to Claudia's.

Like, regardless, Callum fundamentally disagrees with dark magic - he doesn't like or want to hurt innocent people/creatures if he can help it (again, big difference between him and other two mages, even if there are definitely areas where who Callum views as 'innocent' could be improved). It's a Last Resort, but it's a Resort. His aversion, those reservations, those lines, those morals? They exist (which is a distinction) but ultimately do not matter when Ezran or Rayla are threatened.

Which is, I suppose, as good a time as any to talk about

2) Motivations

Viren's hierarchy is the 1) the world (which his family is a part of), 2) himself, usually (because he believes he is uniquely positioned to be able to help the world & make the right choices) and 3) his family. We see this hierarchy play out pretty succinctly in 1x02-1x03 with Harrow, almost beat for beat. As Viren says there (and in S5) Harrow is his family and means everything to him... but Viren is not willing to reveal or relinquish the dragon egg in hopes of stopping the assassination, because he would rather have himself or Harrow die rather than put a weapon into Xadia's hands. This is also why he's willing to warp Soren into a cinder beast in 3x07. Not only is he personally pretty far gone at that point, but he is willing to sacrifice his family (gaslighting Soren to keep Claudia tethered in 3x03, for example + "I would've asked you to choose the egg over my own life, if it came to it"). In some ways, S5 is showing that he lost that part of himself and is now reclaiming it, making it true in ways it hasn't always been. Love is what made him Lose Himself but also how he ultimately Found Himself again (which bodes very well for Callum's S6 arc, but anyway...)

Alternatively... Callum says "I value those close to me more than Anyone or Anything" (Tales of Xadia bio) and he unequivocally means it.

Callum loves Harrow dearly, but he still knows the safest place for Ezran in 1x03 is to get the fuck away from the castle, so he goes. He breaks the primal stone after watching Rayla and Ezran mutually cry and console each other as Rayla blames herself for Zym's imminent death. As discussed, he'll do dark magic in 2x07 even though he knows it's wrong because it's Rayla's life on the line. He'll jump off the mountain for her. He'll threaten and demand answers from Soren before and after learning that Ez could be in danger, and run right into a trap. He'll do literally everything he did in 5x08 for Rayla, as we know.

In this way, he is very similar to Claudia, who would likewise Do Anything for her family and always mean it, particularly her father (after all, Soren 'walked out' on her, not the other way around; she was still trying to keep them all together). It is worth noting now, though, that Viren has now circled back, so arguably all three of them are sharing in this Motivation, and prime for Aaravos' manipulation if Viren still has a further role to play (although his curtain may have closed lmao). After all:

But yeah, Callum and Claudia are two characters who have always had a steady flow of parallels and a particularly brutal slant toward each other (because their selective loyalty is not and never has been to each other) and the easiest way to have an audience still remain sympathetic to an antagonist is to draw parallels between them and a protagonist, so...

Obviously in TDP there are 'good' guys and 'bad' guys but I don't think the series is that interested in a pure black-white good vs evil dichotomy. Almost every antagonist character is still sympathetic, developed, interesting, and we can understand where they're coming from. The protagonists make plenty of mistakes and have plenty of their own biases and contradictions; it's what makes them interesting too! People aren't necessarily Villains or Heroes so much as they are people stuck in cycles of grief and violence, and the series being an exploration of how and where and why they do or don't (or can't) break those cycles. At least, that's what I find is most useful from a meta perspective.

I think ultimately what differentiates Callum and Claudia in my head is, as mentioned, the different ways they view dark magic even if they have exceedingly similar motivations for using it, as well as Callum striking me more as the type to fight so hard to save his loved ones while they're still alive, but not quite as inclined to go as far as Claudia did and follow through on a resurrection spell the way she did. He's better at emotionally processing (although it's a low bar to clear for her) and better at letting things go, and more respectful of his loved ones' wants (most of the time). If Ez and Rayla both died in tragic/traumatic ways, I think that could (understandably) really warp him to something close to Claudia, but so long as one lived, I think they could keep him from going off the rails.

Claudia left the train station a Long time ago.

More metas that may be of interest (written before S4 and S5):

How Viren and Callum stack up flaws wise (S1-S4, screencap S5 update)

How Callum's initial view of Zym differs from Ez and Rayla (S1-S3)

Callum's morality (S1-S4)

TDP's Perpetual Trolley Problem, or How the Show Frames / Deals with Sacrifice and Exchange (S1-S4)

The Interlocking of the Cycle's Wheel with Viren, Claudia, Callum, and Rayla (S1-S4)

[linkspooky]

oh mannn that cycle meta got me thinking (I love your metas btw) since the story is slowly wrapping up do you think that the story is going to end on a “the cycle is broken” note or more like… “the cycle is destroyed” note? I mean the whole jujutsu system is not only made up of the higher ups, it also consists of the big three jujutsu families, the zen’ins, the Kamos and the Gojos as Megumi mentioned in the goodwill event arc and they all desperately try to uphold the current system and keep the toxic cycle going, but I’ve been wondering… cause I don’t think killing kenny and sukuna is going to solve the entire problem (like at least to me these two are just using and toying with the current system. they don’t really seem to care about it, since they have their own plans) and now… well since maki annihilated the entire Zen’in clan, and THEN gojo (at least it was implied it was gojo, but who knows) killed the higher ups maybe there’s a pattern forming lolol so that only leaves the Kamos and the Gojos, so assuming once they’re gone (along with the heian boomers)… would that break/end the cycle? I mean I don’t think playing safe politics would ever work or really change anything, because the system only cares about upholding itself, so the only way to end is to completely destroy it..?.. but I don’t know

I'm not actually sure about whether or not the system is going to be truly broken by the time the manga is over, because you yourself said that both the higher ups and the Zen'in Clan have been purged now by someone slaughtering them, but... that's the exact kind of slaughter that Gojo was speaking out against and said would not work in the first ten chapters. For Gojo to suddenly approve of slaughter and the story to take that route in the end game is just odd.

We have not seen the fallout of Maki killing the Zen'in Clan and if there is actually going to be any consequences from that in-story, or if Gojo's even heard the news of that happening so it's hard to comment on that event.

However, we have witnessed the immediate result of the slaughter of the higher ups. ALl that ends up happening is Gojo places Gakuganji in charge instead, someone corrupt enough to organize an assassination of Yuji, and who killed Yaga under orders with no consequences.

Which is what Gojo warned of earlier in the first ten chapters, that if someone did bother to slaughter the higher ups, then the people who replaced them would not be much better. I'm going to borrow from some tags @hxhhasmysoul put on a post of mine.

Gojo wanted to raise strong and intelligent allies who would replace him as the next generation and a better alternative to the previous generation that's still currently in charge and holding onto power by sacrificing the youth.

However, he didn't raise them to do political reform of think for themselves about how things could be better, he raised them to be Mini-Gojos. Gojo's students for the most part do not look at Jujutsu Society as a whole, and use might makes right as justification for their actions. Gojo's students have declared on multiple occasions that they don't care whether or not what they're doing is right or wrong.

Gojo's students all call themselves cogs in a machine. He hasn't raised a set of political reformists, he's raised a set of kids who are all individually very strong, and also loyal to him. Which is like the underyling motivation of Gojo's goals all along of going with education to raise up pupils, he was always going to do this, just replace whoever was in charge with people he handpicked. Gojo's students not really caring that much about reforming the system isn't really a flaw in Gojo's plan, it's a feature.

Which is why when Gojo is sealed in the box, his students don't even try to defeat Kenjaku or Sukuna, their only goal is to get him out and let him take care of everything. Gojo's students are all ultimately loyal to Gojo's agenda because he raised them to be that way.

If Gojo dies against Sukuna however, it will show that Gojo's methods have failed and the main characters will have to scramble to find some other way of dealing with the problem. They'll no longer have "Just get Gojo out of the box" as the magical key to their problems. If there is going to be a big change in the story, it's probably going to be pushing things away from Gojo's individualist mindset. When Hakari is convinced to come with Yuji, Kirara mentions that despite hating the higher ups Hakari's always felt a strong connection to the people at Jujutsu High.

THe only reason that Gojo came out of the box in the first place, is a weak person who Gojo would write off as a random extra, saved Kurusu when she was falling off a building when all of his super strong students absolutely failed in that situation.

The most toxic attitude of sorcerer society is that individual strength means everything. Gojo hates the collectivism and tradition that requires people to continually sacrifice themselves for the collective good that keeps the higher ups in power, but collectivism isn't always a bad philosophy the same way that individualism isn't always good, they can both be taken to toxic extremes. The higher ups maintain their power through toxic ideas of collectivism requiring the sacrifice of others. Whereas Gojo's faction is the toxic extreme of individualism, which is why Maki, and then either Gojo or Yuta went on a murder spree with the elders. The true advancement from the toxic ideas of sorcerer society would be finding a balance between those two.

Which is probably where the real challenge in the manga is going to come, where Gojo's individual philosophy fails him and he gets either defeated, or just eaten by Sukuna and the kids finally have to learn how to function as a group instead of a loose collection of individuals. If Jujutsu Society is destroyed effectively by the end, then it's likely Gojo their biggest and most useful cog in that machine will perish alongside of it to make room for all of his students.

[irenewsky]

Anime I watched in 2023 (Part 1)

In honor of the new year, I’m gonna be casting a look back at the anime I watched last year. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a lot of free time to watch anime at the beginning of the year due to university kicking my ass, but after I finally graduated with my master’s degree, I could finally work through some of the backlog I had accumulated on Crunchyroll and Netflix.

Anyway, without further ado, this is a list of anime I watched in 2023 with some short descriptions and my own personal opinions. Let it be known, there is a lot of text in this one.

Also, since there ended up being a lot more shows that I watched than I thought there would be, this had to be cut in two -> Click here for part 2

Some of my older lists:

My favourite animes (Old. Tells of my tastes back in, like, 2018-2020 or something. Updated list coming once I get around to it)

Feel good anime Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3

Handa-kun

Handa Seishuu is a calligraphy prodigy and a high schooler. For years he has been living under the assumption that his student peers all hate him. This is, of course, a huge misunderstanding. In reality, Handa is very much admired in his school, to the point of being popular. Where did this misunderstanding stem from and how can it be resolved?

12 episodes - comedy, slice of life

I liked this one! Although I did have a little bit of distaste towards one of Handa’s so called friends. You’ll understand who and why if you decide to watch this.

Barakamon

Handa Seishuu, now a 25-year-old man, punches a famous, older calligrapher judging his latest work. As a consequence of his own actions, he is sent to live in small town in the countryside where a group of kids rutinely keeps breaking into his house. Beautiful friendships bloom between Handa and the people of this town.

12 episodes - comedy, seinen, slice of life

Took me an episode or two to get in to, but once I did I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Backflip!!

Shoutaro Futaba enters high school with intense love for sports, especially men’s rythmic gymnastics after he saw Shoushukan high school’s team perform in a competition. He enrolls into said high school and hopes to join the team despite not having any prior experience with gymnastics. Another boy, Ryouya Misato, get recruited alongside him and together with their senpais they start to work towards Inter-high tournament.

12 episodes and an OVA - sports

I started this in the beginning of the year and only got around to finishing it in November. Actually liked this one a lot! The final movie left me feeling so happy yet bittersweet. I recommend this one!

Skip and Loafer

Mitsumi Iwakura leaves her small countryside town and moves to Tokyo to live with her aunt in hopes that attending a prestigious high school would aid with her ultimate goals in life. As the new school year begins, Mitsumi leaves for school with high hopes, gets lost at the subway station, runs into classmate called Sousuke Shima and together the two barely make it to the entrance ceremony. What will her school life shape up to be?

12 episodes - romace, shojo

Nao-chan supremacy! The bestest aunt!

I really liked to animation animation style of this anime. For me, the show looks very soft and fresh in a spring and pastels kind of way. It’s hard to explain but I hope at least one person gets what I mean. I like the characters a lot and their interactions feel nice and grounded. The romance isn’t the main focus in this one, at least not in this season, which I liked since it’s always lovely to just see friendships put into the spotlight.

Buddy Daddies

What do you get if you combine two trained, professional assassins who live together and an accidental child acquisition? A riot of a family dynamic. Katsuki Kurusu and Rei Suwa fumble through their new shared life as parents to a four-year-old Miri Unasaka. What seemed like a temporary situation at first, stops looking temporary when genuine affection and care for the little girl and her well-being start to blossom in both men’s hearts.

13 episodes - action, comedy

This one was so good. I loved every minute of this and the characters’ dynamics worked so well together. Anyone in the shows comment section who complained about Miri being annoying had clearly never been around young children and it showed. Miri is a delightful little girl who loves her dads very much. There was also a fair bit of action in this which was a nice change of pace amidst all the parenthood things.

My New Boss Is Goofy

Momose Kentaro is a 26-year-old office worker working for a marketing firm, Minette. He is new to the job, having just recently quit his previous job due to power harrassement and abuse he received from his former boss. Can his new clumsy and little goofy manager Shirosaki Yuusei make him feel comfortable in his new job?

12 episodes - comedy, slice of life

I love everything about this show. The characters, the storylines in each episode, the art style. This just makes you feel happy and a little giddy. Definitely my favourite show of the year. This one earned the top spot on my rewatchable shows list.

If you liked Play It Cool, Guys or The Ice Guy and His Cool Female Colleague, you might like this one.

Ron Kamonohashi’s Forbidden Deductions

Kamonohashi Ron was the best stundent of an elite detective school until an incident took away his future career path and made him live as a recluse as he refused to receive any information about the world outside his four walls. One day a police detective Totomaru Isshiki is adviced to approach Ron about a series of cases that have stumped the police for a while now. But because Ron is not allowed to do any sleuthing, Totomaru has to work as Ron’s puppet of sorts. Oh, and there is also the thing about having to keep Ron from influencing the killers to take their own lives. Oh well.

13 episodes - comedy, mystery

I’m a sucker for anything ’Sherlock Holmes’ type of media so this show was right up my alley. Eagerly waiting for the confirmed second season.

Play It Cool, Guys

Group of goofy and clumsy guys from different stages of life happen to meet one another and develop heartwarming friendships. Little mishaps won’t ruin their day!

24 (short) episodes - slice of life

Easily one of my favourites of the year. Watching this felt like sipping a cup of hot green tea while wrapped up in a blanket. Instant rewatch.

If you enjoyed The Ice Guy and His Cool Female Colleague or My New Boss is Goofy, you might also like this one

Vanitas no Karte

A vampire named Noé Archiviste is looking for a book called ’the book of Vanitas’ in the 19th century Paris, when he unexpectedly meets a man calling himself Vanitas and carries the book he’s searching for. The Vanitas he meets isn’t the original maker of the book but a doctor who possesses the ability to save vampires by returning their true names to them.

24 episodes - action, fantasy, mystery

Me, mere minutes into the first episode: ”If anything were to happen to Noé, I would kill everyone in this room and the myself.” Anyway, love me some vampire action, especially with that late 1800s, early 1900s Paris vibe. Delicious.

Vampire Dies in No Time

One day vampire hunter Ronald is tasked to infiltrate a castle and save a woman’s son. Things don’t quite go as he expected. Inside the palace, he meets a vampire called Draluc, who is truly so pathetically weak that he turns to ash from smallest of things that ahppen to startle him, and Draluc’s companion, armadillo John. The kid he seeked was totally fine and playing with Draluc’s video games. Oh and Draluc’s castle gets destroyed. Yeah… Ronald has a new roommate now.

2 seasons - comedy, supernatural

This truly is armadillo John’s world and we’re just living in it.

Love me some more vampire action. Only this time it’s a lot less angsty and violent and a lot more ridiculous and goofy. I laughed so much while watching this.

[samgirl98]

Cain and Abel Wept 16/?

Prev | Next

Gasp, two chapters in less than 24 hours! Wow, don't get used to that lol

Bruce liked to pride himself on his self-control.

Right now, his self-control was seconds away from snapping. (Talia seemed to have that effect on him.)

“What are you doing here, Talia,” he asked as he led her away from his children. He didn’t want the woman anywhere near Jason, Danny, or Damian. (His three children that had a history with her and the League.)

“What does it look like, beloved? I’m here to make sure my children are safe. You didn’t notice that these cretins were in your city. What if they attacked Danny? Or one of our other two boys?”

Bruce frowned before what Talia said hit him, “Jason isn’t your son,” he growled.

“Really? Last I checked, I nursed him back to health and gave him back his mind. I taught him and gave him what he needed and then some.”

“You mean you kept him away from his family, brainwashed him, and used him as your weapon while turning him into a killer,” Bruce countered, “Just like you did Damian like you did Danny.  Make no mistake, Talia, I will do everything in my power to keep you away from my children.”

Talia sneered before composing herself, “I’m not here to fight, Bruce. I want to make sure my children are safe. Under these so-called laws, all our children would be considered ecto-entities, and they’re here. What are you doing to keep them safe?”

“Keeping Danny off your property isn’t keeping him safe. Jason is still doing patrols, and Damian left the manor with little protection. So, Bruce, why shouldn’t I take our children from this forsaken country and put them somewhere safe?”

“They won’t go with, and you know that. Do you think I don’t want to keep my children safe? Don’t you think I want to wrap them in bubble wrap and keep them in the manor? I do, but I don’t want to alienate them, either.”

“Grow up, Bruce. Being a parent means making decisions that make your children mad at you. They’ll get over it.”

“The way Damian has gotten over it? Or Danny? Jason? I don’t claim to be perfect, but at least I haven’t turned my children against me permanently, Talia. Last I checked, none of the boys want to talk to you, let alone love you.”

Everyone turned to look at the sound of the slap Talia gave Bruce.

“I have done everything in my power to keep my children safe; I regret many things, Bruce, but do not take that away from me. Keep our children safe, or I will.”

Bruce watched as Talia left with her assassins.

“Bruce, what did Talia say,” Jason asked as he approached him.

“Hm,” he said before turning to the Fentons, “I need to talk to Danny and the Fentons.”

____

Danny didn’t like his choices, but he wanted to keep his family safe. It was either moving to the manor until his parents could meet with the UN in a few days or moving to another country and letting the Justice League take care of the GIW.

“Dann-o, whatever you want, we’ll follow. As long as we’re together, it doesn’t matter. Right now, we have to think about the bigger picture, not just us.”

Danny bit his bottom lip. At this point, it wasn’t about being selfish; it was about the pros and cons.

Cons if they stayed: his family would be in danger, he would have to stay with the Waynes, and Danny’s life would be in danger.

Pros: Danny could control the narrative of the Anti-Ecto Act laws, and Danny would be in familiar territory. Danny would be able to protect any ghost that accidentally got in the clutches of the GIW…and he could stay closer to Damian.

Ultimately, the pros outweighed the cons.

“It’d be better if I stay here, even if it means moving to Wayne Manor, but only if it’s okay with you guys. And not because you think it’s what I want; you have to be fine with this. Also,” Danny took a deep breath, “I need to be there during the UN meeting. At this point, it would be better if the King of the Infinite Realms were there to assure the people of Earth that there would come no harm from the inhabitants of the realms.”

His parents looked at each other.

“Danny, we are so proud of the young man you have become. If you think this is the best course of action, then we will follow you,” his mom said.

“Yeah, Dann-o, we don’t want you there in the UN meeting; it’d be dangerous, but if you think this is what you have to do, we’ll be there to back you up.”

Danny smiled; he was glad he had his family behind him.

____

Wayne Manor is huge, was Danny’s first thought.

My family will be safe here, was his second.

His league training and living with the Fentons had taught Danny to see security measures that would otherwise be well hidden. Wayne Manor had top-notch security. Danny was already thinking of ways to make it better. He wondered if he could convince Bruce to add ghost shields. One could never be too careful, even if Danny were the Ghost King…

Danny and his family left the GAV just in time to see Jason stalk out of the Batmobile, looking angry.

“Is everything okay,” Danny asked Damian once he got close to his brother.

“Tt, yes. Todd is being difficult. Father told him that until we can chase out the GIW, it would be better if he were to stay at the Manor and not do patrols. He didn’t take it well.”

“Huh,” Danny said. He could see why Bruce did it, but he also knew how annoying it must be to be essentially grounded as a grown adult.

“He told me the same thing.”

“And you just accepted without complaint,” Danny asked incredulously.

Damian shrugged, “Father knows what he is doing. I trust him to know what’s best for me.”

Danny’s incredulity grew until he thought of something.

“This lax and accommodating attitude has nothing to do with the fact that I’ll be here at the manor, does it?”

Damian blushed deeply and said, “Aw, Danny, this is Pennyworth.”

“Nice to meet you, Master Danny. Miss Jazz, Mr., and Mrs. Fenton. My name is Alfred Pennyworth. I am the butler of the Wayne Estate.”

Before them stood a balding British gentleman wearing a suit. There were ghosts following him around. Huh, this man had killed many people before. Best not to mess with him, considering he had raised the Batman…

“Hello, Alfie,” Jack said boisterously, “Please, call me Jack!”

“Hello, call me Maddie, please,” his mom said.

“Uh, hello. Can you drop the miss, please,” Jazz asked.

“Hmm, unfortunately, I cannot do something so uncouth. You are Master Bruce’s guests and son; what kind of butler would I be if I disrespected you by calling you without your proper titles?”

Even as he said that Danny got the distinct feeling that Alfred Pennyworth was making fun of them.

Alfred and Damian took them to the west wing, where they would stay. Thankfully, it wasn’t with the rest of the family. (That would’ve been too soon, too fast.)

Danny gave Damian permission to stay while Danny packed out his little bit of belongings. Eventually, Dami had to leave to feed his animals, including a cow.

“I saved her from a slaughterhouse,” he told Danny, proud, “I’ve been a vegetarian ever since.”

“That’s awesome, Dami. You would get along with my friend, Sam. She’s a vegetarian, too, and a proud animal activist. She’s one of the reasons I found out about one of the last purple-back gorillas being female.”

“Wait, that was you? I always wondered how zookeepers could be so incompetent that they missed that?”

“Right, it’s literally their job to know what the gender of the animals under their care is!”

Danny had decided to take a nap while he waited for dinner. He knew his family was doing the same thing.

(Fighting took a lot out of them.)

Not even an hour later, his parents and Bruce entered his room. Bruce looked frantic.

“Jason is missing.”

Danny felt his stomach drop.

Not proud of the second half, but I needed to leave you at that cliffhanger mwahahahaha. See you Thursday

[niobiumao3]

oh my god what an episode

The opening was SO FUCKING FUNNY I was howling.

"Leia didn't authorize your mission." "Sure she did. Just now!"

'a mere droid' and Chopper is like 'bitcH YOU DID NOT' and Teva immediately going to put a hand out knowing Chopper is a second from resuming his career as a political assassin

I am so glad they used 3PO as a go between and not CG Carrie Fisher. Thank you for learning your lesson guys.

Poor whales in the minefield :( Glad they all appeared to make it out though. I really love their design, especially the octopoid like behavior of their tentacles.

Baylan sending Shin off in a very Sith-like way here, but I more suspect he knew that she wouldn't be killed by Our Heroes because they're who they are, so she'd be safe. This is relevant because whatever he's about to go do is plainly insane, dangerous, and probably going to get him killed. (Eating the sun usually does.) He just doesn't care. But he doesn't want Shin to die.

Hilarious that Thrawn a) calculated his strategy precisely to include Baylan and so b) when Baylan surprises him by fucking off the whole thing is a failure. Thrawn talks big about it but I bet you anything he went to the Mothers all 'wtf is this guy up to tell me it's nothing I need to worry about PLEASE let is be nothing important'.

Sadly for Thrawn my Watsonian analysis indicates he's fucked himself badly by not suspecting Baylan earlier and killing him right there in the hangar because Baylan is almost for sure being called by (affixing my tinfoil hat) the Zeffo, who are like

'BRO! BROOOOO! Can you let us out. PLEASE the space witches won't listen and it sucks in here.'

And he'll be like

'I can for a moon-yo's paw deal.'

'what is a moon-yo'

'not important. I'll let you out if you come with me into the world between worlds'

'why would you want to do that'

'not relevant. then after I do a thing the universe is ALL YOURS.'

'this doesn't sound like a bad deal for us yet your tone implies--'

'It's not! not for you. :) do you want out or not.'

'fine whatever'

Cue a massive mountain-sized templed erupting from the ground and now Ahsoka and Thrawn who are no doubt engaged in mortal combat have a momnet of 'hm. we may need to team up.' which they both H A T E but this is what you get for letting the wolf eat the sun, Thrawn. You had ONE job.

That's just my tinfoil hat. Baylan is releasing the Zeffo because what does he care he's going back in time to kill Baby Hitler the Emperor/Anakin/Plagueis (choose one).

Poor Shin. :( I feel like she was basically a way for Baylan to fill in the aching crater of grief inside him from Order 66 long enough to be able to function, so he cares for her, but ultimately he knows she too will be destroyed when he remakes the universe.

Oh well!

Props to Filoni for letting some other character be better than Ahsoka at light saber duels. I really didn't think that was going to happen but it did.

[tarisilmarwen]

Rebels Rewatch: "Kindred"

Do you think Filoni has hit peak wolves yet? Lol.

Live reaction version.

Soft Kanera moment is Soft.

And brings up some interesting questions that don't really get fully answered. What was the inextricable pull that kept drawing them back to Lothal again and again, even before they met Ezra? Was it the Lothal Temple, and by extension the gateway within? Was it some kind of connection Kanan had to Lothal? Was it his planet of origin too? He was able to manifest through the Force as one of the wolves after his death after all.

It's not something that's fully played out, this plot thread, I think perhaps owing to the writers having to shorten the last season down to 16 episodes, more akin to Season One, so it's ultimately left an ambiguous mystery.

Pryce having the realization that she's not actually Thrawn's Favorite lol.

Ruhk is accompanied by appropriately menacing drums and woodwinds. Fun fact: Warwick Davis apparently bullied Filoni into giving him this role lol.

You don't even know it's him the voice is so good.

Ruhk's movements are also excellent. He hunches, only straightening when he needs to smell, easily goes down on all fours to lope across the plain like an animal. His run cycle is like some kind of perverse feline or gorilla. There's a bestial quality to him. Unlike his Legends incarnation, which depicts him as more hulking and burly, this version is deceptively small but stocky, solid and almost wirey-looking. It's a great creature design.

The Noghri assassin is also immediately, extremely competent, identifying Zeb in the area by scent at once, probably detecting it lingering on Ezra's scout trooper armor and launching immediately into a surprise attack. He has Ezra flipped onto the ground in a leglock within seconds.

He then charges Jai, forcing Ezra to reveal himself as a Jedi with a hefty Push.

I'm sorry I'm cackling at Zeb sneaking around literally behind Pryce's back. This is why Thrawn replaced you, lady.

<333

The chase scene is brief and kind of basic but does the job. And OH BOY now we're at another Weirdass Kanera Walkback Conversation, with Kanan suddenly pushing for reassurance about what kind of future Hera wants after all the fighting and whether he's a part of it and what her feelings actually are towards him.

Right, so the way I reconcile this one is that Kanan is starting to sense the stirring, growing life inside Hera and is trying to roundabout confront her to think about what this means for them. And at this point she knows, but she doesn't know he knows, and is still trying to hold him at arm's distance while she mentally processes the discovery and how to tell him.

Because what do you mean, "Do I [know how you feel]?" this was clearly already a settled issue! WHY ARE YOU ASKING THAT QUESTION LIKE YOU DON'T ALREADY KNOW? YOU GUYS ARE SPACEMARRIED AARRRRHGKJHGJ.

So yeah, moving on.

There's a great moment where Ryder almost shoots Zeb that makes me lol and then after we've installed our hyperdrive the Empire makes a hasty exit from the area necessary, again, owing to Ruhk's incredible competence.

Hera, perhaps feeling the need to reassure Kanan of her affections and devotion since he's acting so rattled, finally plants an onscreen one on him.

This is clearly not the first time they have kissed. Possibly the first time they've done it this publicly, as Sabine immediately nudges at the others to look, but this is practiced and comfortable, seasoned, if you will.

:))))

Like I said the previous rewatch, I don't understand being secretive to normies then but being okay guiding them all out of danger now. I dunno, maybe it took Ezra befriending the one for the others to decide, "Oh okay, they have Jedi, they're cool. Let's help them."

"How have you people stayed alive so long?!" The literal will of the Force, Ryder, lol.

"We're going to finish them my way." Which is, per Pryce tradition, bombing the living shit out of things.

~ANYTHING TLJ DID, REBELS DID BETTEEEEEEERRRR~

The chiming from before continues throughout this sequence, so now we have something in the score to musically denote the wolves.

Kanan, come on, you should know by now this is his "thing".

Yeah so this is one of the sequences where the wolves just kinda DO things and the show doesn't really explain why because ~mysterious~. Why did they want Kanan? Were they checking to make sure there was a Master/Padawan pair? Do they recognize him as one of their own kind since they keep repeating "Dume"? How do they know Kanan's former name? What do the cave paintings mean?

*shakes writers*

ANSWER ME DAMMIT!

Kanan and Sabine inexplicably switching places so that Ezra can hold Sabine's hand again. XD

As frustrating as the mystery of the Loth-wolves can be sometimes, this sequence is hella cool. Blue light igniting the depths of the tunnel, Ezra's eyes reflecting it like the hyperspace eyes he got with the purrgil...

Soft white footsteps on inky liquid blackness. The muted sound, as if from far away.

The only truly trippy part that throws me is the little grassland shot in the middle of it all, with the white Loth-cat.

But whatever the wolves did, it worked. Our heroes have now been literally teleported out of danger. The Force Theme rings out to confirm the wonder of it all.

There's even some kind of actual structures here, an abandoned mountain village maybe?

It's also really pretty. Per standard for this show lol.

"Babe, you are holding back on me."

The chimes again, I'm pretty sure that's a specific instrument but for the life of me the name of it is escaping me, but it's denoting the wolves again, as they move back into the cavern. I do recognize the harp glissando there, though.

*sits on hands, sighs, bites lip about how I hate mystery boxes, especially ones that don't open*

Kanan dropping the first hints that the wolves are the guardians of Lothal, Force entities specifically assigned to protect the planet because of the gateway to the WBW, whose energies they can also tap into and use, which is now under threat by Palpatine personally.

...Yeah you know what, we'll go with that.

And of course after hearing Kanan express faith that Hera made it out we confirm that ourselves.

Good job love.

So. This episode gets weird. The kind of anime mind-trippy weird that used to be way too dense for me to parse through. (Still have a hard time of it, in fact, I dunno what it is Japanese directors just kind Do They Thing and don't bother explaining much, they just vibe.) But on the rewatch it does seem clearer that--aside from the elements in the wider plot they were going to explore about Kanan that Freddie Prince Junior hinted at in interviews that probably got severely cut out with the episode trim--most of the weirdness is actually misdirection in order to set up the wolves as Special Force Entities who need Very Specific Jedi Help to save the World Between Worlds.

The wolves don't come out and say this yet, probably very cautious and testing Kanan and Ezra out to see if they're worthy, but the implications are already there.

Oh, and I guess this episode made Kanera shippers happy too, or something. Happy for y'all, enjoy it while it lasts.

Next time, our last little bit of fun before shit hits the fan.

[aita-blorbos]

AITA for refusing to give up on my friend?

Hi! I (13M) have this really cool friend group. Or at least… I did. The other members were F (13F) and K (13M), and we were super super close. We met at our middle school.

But… we’re not normal middle schoolers. I was the first one to find out. I’m actually the reincarnation of a super cool super-powered alien (who was not actually an alien, but it’s more fun to describe it that way) who died 15 years ago.

I know I’m him, btw. I’m not just making it up. Dude was a super big public figure, and I have tons of his memories. My teacher (who was one of his students at one point) (30m) even agrees with me. He thinks I’m the real deal.

F is the reincarnation of someone, too. Specifically, someone I knew in my past life. In our past lives she was a normal, albeit REALLY NICE person who inspired me a lot… someone who I accidentally got killed. I was heartbroken when I remembered how she died and super stoked when F told me she was her. That’s not why we became friends, of course— F has always been my ride or die, but I was so, so happy my dear friend had been alongside me all this time.

But while on the topic of how F… died in our past lives, I should probably mention what my job was before I was an alien.

I was a serial killer. I called myself an assassin, but that’s giving myself too much credit, really. Ultimately, I was just a murderer— and an INFAMOUS one, too. I had a kill count in the thousands. I was an honest-to-god no good, selfish, terrible guy. It makes me feel sick to even think about.

I even had an apprentice in killing, and one I treated like garbage. I stole him away from his bad family and instead of showing him love only showed him more hatred. I treated that boy like trash.

The only reason I stopped being a serial killer is that he handed me over to authorities. And authorities… well, for reasons I still don’t really understand, they handed me over to this… guy. I’ll call him Y. Y was a no-good, rotten, nasty piece of work. Every bit as bad as I was… and that’s saying a lot! He instantly began to perform extremely painful human experiments on me, doing so with the excuse that no one would miss me.

But it wasn’t all bad. In Y’s custody is where I met F in our past lives. She was working for him. And he treated her like garbage, too. He’d hit her and call her names and make her feel so unsafe. She was miserable when she was around him.

I… tried my best to help, but there’s not a lot I could do from behind a glass screen. Still, I came to empathize with F, and it was actually becoming her friend that made me want to give up killing.

Eventually, I escaped Y’s lab, but at a terrible cost. I turned into a alien monster and went on a horrific rampage— killing tons of people. And even worse, F got killed, too. Like I said: it was an accident, a result of a trap that Y set up, but at the same time it really, REALLY felt like my fault. I hated myself. Both in that life and now when I learned about it.

Still, I lived an okay life after that. I ended up taking in some students that F originally cared for and nurtured them. And I treated them right, unlike I treated my original apprentice. Because of them and F, I learned to love. Eventually, I died, but only after sending Y into hospice and getting to say goodbye to my beloved kids.

I was content with that.

But... here I am now.

Originally, I didn't remember all of this. I just remembered being a cool superpowered guy. Learning how messed up all of it was really, REALLY scared me. I was glad when I learned that F was... well, F, so I could apologize to her, but that didn't fix everything. After all, there were still so many people I hurt. I felt like an awful person who didn't deserve to be alive. My friends and family tried to comfort me, but it was... really hard, for a time.

And even worse than that, soon after, K started drifting away from me.

I know I haven't talked about K much, so let me describe him a little. He's a real stand-up guy. A little cowardly... but he has a big heart. He was always-- and I mean ALWAYS there for me and F, even as we learned all the weird stuff about our past lives. He's funny and sweet and supportive. The kind of person I'd do anything for. I really, really loved him, and so did F.

So... things were stressful when he started to pull away. He stopped hanging out with us. Kept giving us the cold shoulder. I didn't understand why. I thought maybe it was because he was scared of me now, but that wasn't fair to F. I confronted him and told him that if I was a bad person then F shouldn't have to suffer for it. That he was really important to her, and he should keep being her friend, at least!

But that's when K told me something, and it was something I NEVER expected to hear.

...K was Y.

He told me he just remembered recently. That he really didn't know. He broke down in tears, telling me that that's why he pulled away. He remembered abusing the two of us and felt like he no longer deserved to our friend. It was well and truly heartbreaking to hear.

Because... here's the thing. I hate Y. Like really, REALLY hate Y, but K is nothing like him. K is one of the best people I know. He's never treated me like anything less than a superhero. He wouldn't hurt a fly.

I told him it was alright. I told him I didn't care. I told him that the past was the past and that Y was dead now and he was someone new. He was shocked, but I really, really believed it. And for the first time, in saying so, I actually felt alright about myself. I realized that if K wasn't responsible for his actions in a past life-- if he never asked to be born, then neither did I. I realized that if I didn't hate him, then maybe... I didn't have to hate myself.

I gave him a BIG hug and told him we could go back to being friends. I told him it didn't matter. And I thought everything would be alright.

But K... also wanted to tell F the truth.

I get why he did. He kept saying she deserved to know. But at the same time, F is a pretty... standoffish person. She's not like she used to be-- all kind and forgiving. It took me a very long time to befriend her. She gets angry easily and she makes a lot of snap judgements. I was so certain she'd get upset with K.

And F... really needed me and K, I think. She had a bad life. Her parents weren't at all nice to her and she had a lot of self esteem issues. K and I were the only friends she had. I knew that if she ditched K, then she wouldn't have anyone. No-one would be there to support her.

And I'd be asked to take sides. How could I possibly do something like that?

So I convinced K to hide it. I told him that he was a new person now and F didn't need to know. All telling her would do is break her heart. I didn't want to hurt her like that.

And so for a while, the secret remained between us.

But then something really bad happened to K's family. I won't go into details, 'cause I'm not sure it's my place, but it was something truly awful. He nearly lost a parent, and even worse... he was convinced it was his fault. He CERTAIN that the universe was punishing him in some way for being Y, or at the very least, for not telling F about it, and that if he didn't spill the beans then even worse stuff would happen.

...So he did. He told her.

And F reacted just like I thought she would. Angry and crying, she said she couldn't believe she ever trusted him. She accused him of just pretending to not know... and manipulating her so he could hurt her. She was pissed. She punched K in the face and told him she never wanted to see him again.

I tried to reason with her, but she wouldn't hear me out. And when she learned I knew about this before she did... that I suggested hiding it from her, she got even more upset. She told me that I was taking her abuser's side over her-- someone that I'd been friends with for two lifetimes now, and that she never wanted to see me again, either. She called me a selfish jerk and ran off sobbing.

And... that's where things are at. Our little friend group's torn apart. I really want to fix things, but I don't even know where to start. Did I do the wrong thing? By taking K's side? By telling him to hide the truth? I just wanted to protect he and F... I really love them both. But now I'm being expected to choose, and I hate that.

Even K thinks I made the wrong call. That I shouldn't have told him to hide it and that F had every right to react how she did. But at the same time... I just feel so sick. I know he's better now. He's my friend. He has to be better. If he's not, then I'm not. I'm just a no-good killer. Why can't F just see that? Remember all the nice stuff K's done for her?

What do I do? How do I repair things? I feel like if I were still the guy I was in my past life then I'd know how to. But instead, I'm clueless. I feel lost and useless. I'm really, really sorry and afraid.

AITA?

[ultimatedetectivequeen]

Kyoko, why did you choose to be Shuichi's mistress instead of marrying Makoto? Shuichi already has mistresses besides you, won't you be jealous of him?

Lewd topics lie below!

(Technically NTR, but barely)

"Don't get me wrong, Makoto is lovely and all, but I have certain needs as a woman. One of those needs is having an obedient toy who is good at doing their job. All it took was politely asking Kaede and the others for them to share that experience with me." Kyoko explained as she walked down a set of dorms separate from her own class, before stopping at Kaede Akamatsu's room.

Ding Dong!

Kyoko patiently waited before the door eventually swung open.

"Kyoko! I'm so glad you could make it!" Kaede greeted cheerfully.

"Of course, Kaede. I'm the one who requested this, after all."

"Oh right, that was sweet of you. But I kinda figured you were already secretly screwing him with how much he talks about you. Anyway, come on in! Most of the other girls were busy today, but Maki was able to make it. She sorta already started, though..." The pianist informed with an amused expression as she let her upperclassman inside, allowing her to see the twin-tailed girl in question, sitting on Kaede's be— was that Shuichi under her?

"Sup Kyoko?" The assassin greeted casually, not at all embarrassed that she had her bare ass out and was gently grinding on her classmate's face.

"Mmph!" The poor boy attempted to greet his upperclassman, raising one of his hands that rested on Maki's sizable cheeks.

"Oi! Did I say you could stop?" The stone-faced girl started to grind harder once his tongue stopped moving for a moment.

"Geez, go easy on him, Maki!— You're doing great, sweetheart!~ Keep that tongue moving, and me and Kyoko will give you a reward!~" Kaede crawled onto the bed and poked the tip of his member, giggling when it twitched and erected further.

Upon hearing his sweetheart's words of encouragement and enticing offer, Shuichi gripped the thick ass cheek's resting on his face and begun to move his tongue furiously, making Maki uncharacteristically gasp in surprise.

"Hah!~ I-Is that really all it took for you to take initiative? Boys..." She sighed as she tried to suppress her moans to no avail.

"What is it we'll be rewarding him with, exactly?" Kyoko questioned, looking at Kaede.

"Oh, just an idea that I've had for a while~" She got up and whispered her plan in Kyoko's ear.

"Hm, you never told me you had good taste, Kaede."

—————

"Hehe~ told you we could drive him crazy by doing this~" The Ultimate Pianist giggled at the sound of her sweetheart's muffled moans as she stroked his shaft delicately with both of her hands.

"I never doubted you. Frankly, I've dreamed of being able to do this~" The lilac-haired girl smirked in satisfaction as she massaged her apprentice's heavy balls with one hand and used her other to finger his prostate.

"HMMPH!~" Even with his moans muffled, it was crystal clear that the boy was in a state of absolute bliss.

"D-Don't you fucking dare stop now, Shuichi!~" Maki cried out as the boy continued to eat her out.

"You hear that, Shuichi?~ Good boys make their mistress feel reaally goood~ And only good boys get to cum~ So be a good boy and really let her have it, sweetheart~" The second that Kaede had finished speaking, Shuichi audibly began to give his all into making out with his classmate's fat ass.

Maki started to make unintelligible grunting noises.

"...Is she okay?" Kyoko gave a genuinely concerned look.

"Don't let up till' she cums, Shuichi!~" Kaede ordered and looked over to Kyoko. The two shared a nod, and sped up their efforts, resulting in Shuichi doing the same.

"Oh SHIT!—IMGONNACUMIMGONNACUMIMGONNACUM—"

"IM GONNA FUCKING CUM!~"

Maki spoke for herself and the boy beneath her as she shouted at the top of her lungs.

Kyoko and Kaede watched in amazement as Shuichi's cock started spewing a thick rope of cum that shot straight up into the air before literally raining down on them and painting their faces white.

Kyoko took a moment to catch her breath.

"Phew... that was— Mmmph!!~" She started to speak before the blonde beauty beside her pounced and crashed her lips onto Kyoko's, passionately making out with the girl like there was no tomorrow.

Kyoko thinks she might be in heaven.