#purely because of the loyalty and the 'i would follow you to hell but why are you going there' personality

[monty-glasses-roxy]

You guys remember that short lived Jurassic Bark Castaway AU? Where everyone was in groups on different islands and Roxy, Monty and Chica become a Thing cause it's Jurassic Bark?

Castaway AU that's the same except Cassie is a mutt puppy that's also there in the group with the three of them and a Mini. I want Roxy to teach her how to hunt seagulls in the most wolf-like way possible and Cassie to be nervous and hesitant cause she's always been told not to do that... She fails countless times when she finally decides to ask Roxy to teach her and she's so frustrated by it until she finally catches one, fucking devours it and Roxy ends up gently carrying her back to camp cause she's in a food coma lmao Roxy is so fucking proud of her oh my god

Cassie waking up a few hours later, still sleepy as hell and immediately getting swamped in praise cause she did it!!! Wooo!!! She's worked so hard for this!!! They're so proud of her!!! Baby's first kill!!!

[anexperimentallife]

So you want leftist candidates? Here's how you get them:

First off, you have to understand that the far right didn't just wake up one day and say, "We should fuck up the country!" They have been OPENLY working for decades to fill literally every elected or appointed government position they could with Christian Dominionists and other right-wingers, and these folks show up to the polls EVERY SINGLE TIME.

When I was a kid in a far right church in the 1960s, they openly discussed how important is was to get their people into office who would help pass legislation to persecute/imprison/kill anyone who didn't follow their religion. If there's no one sufficiently right-wing running, they'll vote for whomever is closest, even if it gags them. And I cannot emphasize enough that they have long term goals that they are willing to take--and HAVE taken--generations to achieve.

The overturning of Roe v. Wade, for example, is a DIRECT RESULT of the decades-long effort by the far right to boost the most far-right-leaning candidates they could find. They've been talking for decades SPECIFICALLY about getting enough far right judges in SCOTUS to overturn Roe v. Wade. And these SCOTUS appointments are for LIFE, so these judges get to set policy for your GRANDCHILDREN.

So yes, the overturning of Roe v. Wade was only made possible because Trump was able to appoint three SCOTUS judges, in addition to all the other federal judges he appointed. Amd they're talking about going after same-sex marriage, minority rights, etc.

(Hell, the judge in charge of his secret documents case is one that he appointed--she has indefinitely postponed that case,by the way.)

And you don't think local school board elections are important? Have you not seen the news about all the anti-queer policies, and all the book-bannings? This, also, has a generational effect.

Meanwhile the left refuses to turn up to the polls because none of the candidates are pure enough. So guess why things are getting worse?

If the Left turned out for the most left-leaning candidate at EVERY SINGLE ELECTION, whether local or state or whatever, including primaries, we'd start seeing more leftist candidates. Yes, that means that if there's a choice between two extreme right wing candidates, you vote for the least extreme one.

I know I keep emphasizing that this is not just about POTUS, but POTUS does figure in, of course (among other things, who do you think appoints judges for congress to approve?).

So swallow this pill: Anything shitty Biden is doing, the shitgibbon will do MORE of.

"Not gonna vote Biden because he supports genocide, so I'd rather the guy win who ALSO supports genocide, wants Russia to invade more countries, thinks it's fine if China retakes Taiwan, wants a nationwide abortion ban, removal of civil rights for minorities, wants to overturn same-sex marriage (which the right-leaning majority in SCOTUS are already talking about), to cut back the role of congress in checking executive actions (including workarounds to avoid the need for congressional confirmation for presidential appointees), to remove federal employee protections so federal personnel can be replaced with Trump loyalists, and so on! That'll teach those Dems a lesson! THEN they'll be sorry. And fuck everyone the bad guys hurt, because I'll still be PURE. So what if top GOP officials want to actually NUKE Gaza?"

That's fucking kindergartner thinking.

Yes, Biden is a piece of shit, but I am not waxing at all hyperbolic when I say that a second orange shitgibbon term, with a far-right-majority SCOTUS--especially if the GOP manages majorities in both houses of congress--may be the end of what little is left of Democracy in the US. Not gonna argue about it, because I don't waste my time with petulant children.

Look at the GOP's plans for a Republican administration, and tell me you think it sounds better than another term of Biden. Hell, they've even set up online trainings and loyalty tests to narrow down potential federal hires to those who will commit to follow Trump without question.

I repeat: If you want more leftist candidates, if you want more worker power, if you want billionaires taxed, if you want to protect minorities and the queer community, you have to adopt the strategy that the right has used, educate yourself about what candidates stand for, and show up EVERY SINGLE TIME. Again, that includes primaries.

So many of us on the left would rather sit in the basement dreaming of some magical revolution that's going to fix everything, giving ourselves and others purity tests, and proudly announcing that we're... boycotting democracy by not voting(?), "because none of the candidates are a good choice."

Yeah, the left refusing to vote--or only voting in presidential elections--while the right turns up every time is exactly how we got here.

And you have to support the most left-leaning candidate even if it makes you gag, and even if "most left-leaning" means "not as openly fascist." This is the ONLY way you can be assured of candidates getting further to the left in the future. (Note that this means learning about your local candidates.)

"But voting won't fix--" I never said it was going to fix everything. There's no rule that if you vote, you can't volunteer with Food Not Bombs, or run for school board, or demonstrate, or circulate petitions. It takes more than voting, but voting has to be PART of our strategy.

You also have to accept that it may take decades to change course, and that you're not going to like every candidate you have to vote for.

The right didn't just magically get the orange shitgibbon into office overnight. It took decades of work. And if we want decent human beings in charge, we have to be willing to do the same.

[gay-jesus-probably]

Let me just preface this by saying everyone is allowed to have their own opinions, TOTK is a really fun game, and I'm glad that other people have been able to enjoy the story as well.

...But I'm being dead serious with my complaints about the narrative being 100% imperialist propaganda. And I'm getting really tired of people replying to those posts by saying it can't be imperialist propaganda, because imperialism is bad and the game says that Hyrule is the good guys.

Like, guys. That's not the argument you think it is. Yes, I am aware that the game tells us Ganondorf is a flat, one dimensional character with no ambitions, interests or motivations beyond destroying the entire world for the hell of it, and also it's totally not racist because he's green, not brown like literally every other member of his race. Unfortunately literally all of these things are kind of the entire goddamn problem.

See, the thing is, everyone trying to make these arguments is accepting the game at face value. Hyrule is the perfect and almighty nation chosen by the demigod Zonai, and whose royal family has the right to rule due to their divine heritage. The other races exist to serve the glory of Hyrule, and they're happy to do it. Ganondorf is pure evil and must be stopped at any costs.

But that's not how anything works. The story informing me that Hyrule is the ultimate good that has done nothing wrong is the whole goddamn reason why I don't trust Hyrule at all. There's always more of a reason than that. And the game fucking suggests there was more going on! Ganondorf mentions Rauru has repeatedly 'invited' the Gerudo to become Rauru's subjects, and let's be clear here, it doesn't matter how peaceful those 'invitations' were, when the guy who owns every single magical nuclear missile in the world repeatedly demands you surrender to him, there's always going to be an implied threat of 'do it or get magically nuked'. Just that power difference alone shows us exactly why Ganon would feel threatened enough to invade. It's because Rauru was holding a gun to his head, and Ganon was expected to just trust that he'd never pull the trigger.

And yes, even if it wasn't intentional Hyrule was always threatening to wipe out the other nations, considering the entire royal family walked around openly wearing their magical nukes as cute accessories. If they couldn't be safely hidden away, there wouldn't be four other secret stones sitting untouched in a vault until the last second.

But that's never acknowledged. Of course Hyrule is the only nation with the right to the secret stones; even if other races get to touch them, they can only have them if they swear eternal blind loyalty and servitude to the glory of King Rauru and Princess Zelda. Ganon wanting to have one magical nuclear bomb out of a stockpile of eight of them is proof that he's dangerous and evil. I mean my god, what if he just walked around all day wearing a magical nuke and using its power for his own benefit, that would be terrifying. It's only okay when Hylian royalty does it.

And you can't argue that Ganon betrayed his own people, considering we don't get to know fucking anything about his relationship with his people. He's shows as the leader of the Gerudo, we're told he's a hero to his people, he has soldiers that loyally follow him into battle... and then oh nevermind, they all hate him and will spend eternity trying to atone for sharing a race with him. How did the entire race do a complete 180 in the span of at most a few months? Who cares, what's important is that now they accept they exist to serve Hyrule so they get to be the good guys now and we don't need to know why they were following Ganondorf, or why they stopped following him.

Basically my point is that yeah, I fucking know how the game insists everything went down. That's the entire reason I think it's imperialist propaganda, because the entire story feels like Hylian propaganda to conceal and justify some horrific atrocities that caused all of this. I literally do not believe that I'm getting the story through reliable narrators, especially considering that the only people allowed to actually tell me the story are all the characters that have the most reasons to be heavily biased in favour of Hyrule.

When the game shows me protagonists that have a massive amount of power and control over the entire world, then says the bad guy doesn't like that system just because he's evil, and literally nothing and nobody in the game says anything to oppose that take, I have some questions about what the fuck the story isn't telling me. And I'd really appreciate it if people would stop trying to argue with me just by telling me to stop asking those questions.

[k-s-morgan]

Hey, I was re-reading ATLWETD when I noticed something so obvious in this paragraph that I stupidly didn't notice the first time.

"Riddle was taller than him, so now his lips were almost brushing against Harry’s forehead. 

“I don’t need to live in a Muggle world to own someone,” he murmured. Belatedly, Harry realised why he was standing so close — he didn’t want others to overhear his outrageous statements. “You should know this. After all, you know me better than anyone.”"

He wasn't gloating only about the death eaters, like Harry thought, he was mostly referring to the Horocrux situation and their own really unique relationship (also, the fact he almost kisses the scar as he speaks made me scream).

Will we see more moments like this in the next chapters?? (If you don't want to spoil us, just ignore this part.)

This all brings me to the actual question: Harry replies:"It’s because I know you that I’m not going to entertain your disturbing fantasies,” he said. Somehow, he managed to sound less harsh than he intended. “No matter what loyalty anyone promises you, it is not infinite. If you treat people who pledged themselves to you cruelly, they are not going to stay. I saw it happen. And by the rate you’re going, I think it might happen again.”

What the hell did Tom assume from this reply? And most importantly, what assumptions did he make about the connection between Harry and fake!Tom based on this answer?

Hoping the best for you and your loved ones in these hard times <333

Hi! Thank you <3 I'm glad that you saw the second meaning of Tom's words. It was related to how Tom envisions their relationship and to the Horcruxes both.

The more Tom imagines what life he and Harry might have had, the more feelings and desires are born in him. He's certain that Harry was his in every way and that he had absolute control over him because in his eyes, that's the only possibility for them to have a relationship. This is what he began to want now, so he's sure that any other version of him must have wanted the same. Harry cannot relate to it, ownership doesn't interest him, so he didn't fully comprehend what Tom meant.

I cannot say specifically what kind of moments of closeness and possessiveness we'll get because I never plan these things, they pop up by themselves as I write! But there will definitely be a lot of them))

As for your second question, Tom and Harry are having somewhat different conversations here. Harry is talking purely about Tom's followers, Tom is talking about them and about his bond with Harry at the same time. Harry's words made him think that he lost the devotion of some of his Death Eaters in that other reality, but most importantly, he contemplates the fact that his attitude cost him Harry. He doesn't know the specifics, but he thinks that his insanity pushed Harry away and resulted in him being snatched into some other world. Harry doesn't seem to be actively trying to go back to it, which Tom considers as another proof of their broken bond. In his mind, with their connection, Harry would have to be obsessed with reuniting with 'his' Tom. Since he isn't, it means that the other Tom failed him so much that Harry is now more interested in building something new with his other version.

Tom is confident that he'll be a better partner. At the same time, while he places Harry above everyone else, he doesn't see him as his equal, and he cannot imagine a relationship without any violence and control in it. He thinks Harry mostly accepts it, only that 'his' Tom overdid it because of the Horcruxes. So after Harry's reply, Tom's trying to assure him him that some violence is an inherent part of a relationship, and that he's in his right mind, so he'll know how to keep a balance between violence and fondness - basically, that he'll succeed in being a leader that Harry (and the others) would be glad to respect and follow both in 'professional' and personal capacities.

This probably sounds a little messy, but Tom's mind is still reeling from all the (fake) revelations, so he cannot always settle on a specific picture) It keeps changing.

[e-the-village-cryptid]

Don't you feel Andor is a better version of Rogue One?

Diverse cast of characters of day-to-day people played by actors of different enthicities, the villains' danger coming from their loyalty to the imperial machine, an indiferent protagonist that re-learns why they hate the empire?

I guess it's not fair to Rogue One because Andor had way more hours to develop its story and Gilroy had so much control over the story. Besides, Rogue One's script was re-written so many times. I mean just look at how many scenese from the trailer don't appear on the actual movie.

Idk, I wonder what this show could've been had ir had Jyn as a protagonist instead (I haven't read rebel rising, but what's one more retconned book?); specially because I think Cassian has a lot of Jyn's characteristics. Hell—they both went to prison!

I agree with you that it feels like Andor is what happens when there's enough space and time to do what Rogue One was trying to do. I really like the concept of Rogue One and also Jyn as a character, but I feel like the execution was a bit disorganized and often poorly-written.

If I had had to pick one character from Rogue One who I would have wanted a prequel on before I saw Andor (in the interest of honesty: this is purely a hypothetical as Andor was my introduction to the Star Wars universe), it would definitely have been Jyn, not Cassian— in particular, I find that whole concept of her having been raised and then abandoned by Saw fascinating and would have loved to have seen how that went down. But, having seen Andor, I see how necessary it was to have Cassian be the central character, because Andor isn't really about Cassian at all, it's about this world that he's moving through. Cassian is often playing the "straight man" in this story— he's the observer, the less commanding presence that everyone else plays off of. He's just this lens through which we see how exactly this world would radicalize someone like him. He's the point around which all these other stories turn— the fulcrum, if you will. Cassian often steps back— he advises Vel to say his suggestions are her ideas, he gives credit for his ideas to Taga, he pushes Kino to make the speech in the prison break, and the season ends with him offering himself up to Luthen as a willing fighter— something which he also does for Jyn in Rogue One.

I think this manner of de-centering the "main" character is central to the storytelling of this specific show, and it just wouldn't work with Jyn— she's the type to make the speech, to rally for the cause, to have her own ideas and follow through with them with or without support from others. She's a much more classic hero character, and there are all kinds of fascinating stories to tell about her, but they wouldn't be Andor. I would love the show about Jyn too, I just think it would have to have a very different method of storytelling.

[riken-leather-co]

Bapzo Propaganda | Day 22 & 23 |

Baptiste had a total of three people he’d considered friends during Talon. Sombra - despite her general decision to not get close to people, they’d clicked rather quickly. He considered her a sister. And, even though he didn’t know what nickname she’d taken to calling him, he figured it was something good. Her loyalty wasn’t purely with Talon either. It allowed for tentative contact even once he’d left. Maybe he should leave her a secret ‘IOU’ note somewhere she’d find it.

There was Mauga. But, when he thinks back to the man there’s just as much fondness as there is wariness. Baptiste doesn’t know much of Mauga’s backstory but he knows that once the man considered you his, you were his. He’s just glad Mauga let him go initially - even if it was just because of his misguided belief that Baptiste would return. Sombra warned him that Mauga’s growing impatient though. The next time they met Baptiste is sure it’d lead to a fight. One that he doesn’t believe both of them will be able to survive.

Then there was Hanzo. It was more of a one-sided friendship, Baptiste is pretty sure the man didn’t like him. But, it was difficult to tell. He was short with everyone, just shy of constantly on edge or violent, and liked being alone. After the first few times, though, Baptiste was able to stay in the man’s company for extended periods of time without him itching to pull out his bow on him. He’d even started getting full sentences from him. There wasn’t a particular reason why Baptiste had been hell bent on befriending the man. He liked a challenge and well, Hanzo was easy on the eyes as well. Not that he could try to make any moves with Mauga breathing down his neck.

When he left it’d been a couple of weeks before he felt it. Baptiste was in the middle of a crowded street - there was a risk to it, but it would also help him lose anyone on his tail. Or so he’d thought. Hair prickled on the back of his neck as he felt eyes on him, a shiver racking his spine. But, when he spun around he didn’t see anyone actively watching him. But the feeling remained. He’d quickly exited the crowd and slipped into the back street. His eyes remained peeled, fingers itching to grab his weapon and defend himself. The eyes didn’t follow him but the message was clear: “I’m watching you.”

It continued to happen. No matter where Baptiste went - alone or with a crowd - he’d feel eyes watching him. He felt like he was put on a display case, vulnerable. But, despite how often he was watched, they never acted on anything. It made Baptiste’s paranoia worse - surely by now they would’ve done something? What did they want from him? They weren’t consistent either. Sometimes he’d feel watched for days, other times only for hours. Then, whoever it was would leave for varying amounts of time. At least they have their own life, Baptiste mused internally. Would he be more concerned than he already was, if his stalker had nothing to do but watch him?

It couldn’t be Mauga. Baptiste had entertained the thought early on when he realized he was being stalked. But, Mauga wasn’t exactly known for his stealth. I mean, look at the man. And, while Mauga was intelligent and could have the patience of a saint - Baptiste didn’t think this was the case. Mauga could be oddly impatient when it came to Baptiste. If Mauga had been watching him, he would’ve attempted to snatch Baptiste up within one week of watching him. Just in case, he had asked Sombra who confirmed it wasn’t Mauga. She did say she’d look into who could be watching him.

Could it be a Talon agent? He doesn’t see why it couldn’t be. But, he also doesn’t see why they haven’t moved in on him either. No matter what he did he couldn’t lose his stalker, so they would’ve had plenty of chances to surround him. They wanted him dead or a part of their group, after all. It could be someone not a part of Talon. But, Baptiste had been a part of Talon for so long he didn’t know who it could be. He remained vigorous, it’d be a mistake to get too comfortable.

Baptiste had a lapse of judgment at the worst time. In the middle of a busy street where cars never stopped moving and it was every man for themself. He’d felt the eyes and couldn’t help stopping and looking around, like he always did. Even though he knew he wouldn’t find anything. Then he heard a horn, saw some bright lights, and heard a vaguely familiar voice shout, “Watch out!”

He awoke in a small hospital room - head pounding and body aching. Immediately Baptiste wanted to leave despite his injuries. As it was he couldn’t afford being in a hospital either financially or personally. Too many questions and people they may have contacts with Talon. But, when he went to sit up the doctor entered and Baptiste tensed, preparing for the worst. To his surprise, there were no questions about his name or identity - only about his injuries. Baptiste had a few bruises, cuts, and a sprained ankle but nothing worse than that thanks to being pushed out the way. When he asked who saved him he got no answer.

Baptiste stayed long enough to ensure the bruising along his ribs wasn’t going to cause any underlying issues, and then left. He was there no longer than two days. The sprain in his ankle made his trip back to his hotel room slower than he’d like. The entire trip there he didn’t feel any eyes on him. It gave him time to think about what he’d heard before he’d been hit - the voice sounded very familiar, but from where? Baptiste arrived in his room and came to one conclusion, his stalker had to be a cat. Metaphorically of course. It was the only way to explain the care package of medical supplies on his bed with a note that read: “You shouldn’t have left.”

Left? Left where? Talon? The hospital? His hotel room the day he’d gotten hit? Too many questions, not enough answers. At least his stalker knew which medical supplies Baptiste would need to take care of himself. Which tentatively dismissed the idea that his stalker wanted to cause him harm. That left only a few reasons and with one of those reasons being a crush, only a few possibilities. Baptiste didn’t interact with enough people deeply to have a list of people who could like him. He was confident, not cocky.

Baptiste had come to a conclusion just as his burner phone rang, Sombra being on the other line.

“What’s the secret password?”

“What are we, mijo? Seven years old?” Sombra’s voice was loud and clear through the phone and it brought a smile to his lips. “Aye, anyway, you remember your stalker, yes? You still being stalked?”

“Very much so. They left me a gift, actually. For causing me to be hit by a car - they’re a real romantic.”

“You got hit by a car?” She sounded more amused than concerned. “Your skills are slipping, huh?”

“I got distracted. Like you are right now. My stalker, you know who they are?” He was thinking of one person right now, and just wanted confirmation. Baptiste sat down and lifted his shirt, inspecting his bruises.

“It’s our resident ninja, or was our resident ninja,” she corrected. “Seems Hanzo disappeared from Talon not too long after you left, ‘tiste.”

“Hanzo? Left? Why?” Baptiste couldn’t help but ask. Sure, he’d had his suspicions that the man never intended on staying too long, but he didn’t think he’d leave that quickly. He also doesn’t believe that Hanzo left because Baptiste had.

“Mhm, something with Overwatch I believe.” she said, sighing. “That’s all I risked looking into, I’m afraid.”

“I thought they disbanded.” Baptiste eyes drifted to his window when that gaze fell upon him again.

“I thought so too. But, maybe you should use this to your advantage, huh? Get lover boy to introduce you. Even Mauga would find it tough to get you away from them.”

“How do you suppose I do that?” Baptiste asked, turning away from the window and lowering his voice. “Hanzo’s been watching me for roughly about a year now and just now made a move. When I was about to be hit by a car.”

“Why not some other life threatening interactions then? I’m no cupid, it’s your job to figure out how to flirt.”

“Thanks for the help,” Baptiste said, dryly.

“You’re welcome!” Sombra chirped. “Now I’ve got better things to be doing besides being a couples therapist. Try not to die, mijo, adios!”

Baptiste pulled his phone away and stared at it. At least he had an answer for who was watching him. He was less concerned now and more…flattered. Even though he was still actively being stalked. And now he had the goal of trying to get Hanzo close enough to ask some questions. Hopefully, he could find himself a part of Overwatch, and maybe more intimately involved with Hanzo. A win-win, if he could pull it off. All he had to do was figure out how to endanger himself without actually getting himself killed.

[awholelottayeehaw]

I know, another post by me. If you're going "oh my god not again just stfu Billie" I absolutely will not and I am not sorry so anyone who doesn't want spoilers, just skip over this, otherwise enjoy my 3/5 A.M episode 7 thoughts/theory.

Who's Behind the Betrayal?

I know, another post by me. If you're going "oh my god just stfu Billie" I'm not sorry so anyone who doesn't want spoilers or to hear my dumbass 3 A.M thoughts on who it could be just skip over this, otherwise enjoy. Or suffer. Whichever you prefer.

The Armorer

I know a lot of people have their eyes set on The Armorer, but I'm not completely sold on her being the one who sold everyone out. I could see The Armorer wanting Bo out of the picture so that she can go back to having a tight lead on her cult again and didn't plan on Din or even Paz getting hurt, but it's still a leap of faith to trust someone like Gideon to keep up his end of any bargain. One I can't see The Armorer risking. She's not dumb. But in terms of not wanting to get people hurt, I honestly wouldn't put it past her that she doesn't care. I know people may get offended over that but after 35+ years with Din, she was willing to toss him out the moment he admitted he had gone helmetless and that was all I needed to know that her loyalty ends the moment you stop following her standard of the Creed. Even her reaction to being at the forge surrounded by the empty helmets of following Mandos in Season 1 felt empty, like she's able to disconnect from loss like that and she either has experienced it enough to where it's water off her shoulders or she just doesn't care.

It IS suspicious as hell that Gideon's goons had Beskar armor, but she would have had to sneak away from the covert enough times to not be detected and I have a hard time believing no one would notice her constantly coming and going at all hours. Even if she came up with an excuse to go off world, it just feels contrived that no one would pick up on odd or questionable behavior like that. We're assuming one must be trained to forge the Beskar armor and isn't something anyone can just pick up and do, but someone from the Survivors on Mandalore or even Bo's fleet could easily have been Armorers before the Purge.

The other thing that tripped me up at first and I know many others is why she changed her mind so quickly to make Bo out to be this person of prophecy after dismissing her Mythosaur claim when she warned Din in BOBF that:

"Bo-Katan is a cautionary tale. She once laid claim to rule Mandalore based purely on blood and the sword you now possess. But it was gifted to her and not won by Creed. Bo-Katan Kryze was born of a mighty house, but they lost sight of the way. Her rule ended in tragedy. They lost their way, and we lost our world."

At first, I had a hard time believing The Armorer would willingly follow someone who she knows was the reason for Mandalore's downfall. But after re-thinking it, I realized The Armorer never went into detail as to how Bo was a cautionary tale outside of being a tragic leader victim of circumstance when the Armorer only mentioned "they" and not "she." Pair this with how she told the Mandalorian Survivors that

I realized The Armorer may not have any idea that Bo is the reason for Mandalore's current state nor does she realize that Bo had been a member of the very terrorist group she mentioned. The Armorer said she was from the Moon just like Din was, and it's possible that everything she heard was second hand information because she genuinely didn't seem to know that Bo has a crime rep sheet as long as she is tall.

Bo, throughout this season, has been made out to be a broken leader who lost her way and Bo has been playing into that. This is probably the first time she's had a semi-clean slate. And if the Armorer knew about Bo's past and is just fucking with her... I guess we'll find out but I genuinely do think that The Armorer wouldn't follow someone like that if she knew they were part of their people's/planet's downfall and is doing this purely out of a change of heart for Bo, but we'll see.

Koska Reeves

I know others are guessing Axe, but between him and the Armorer it feels way too obvious. We already know Axe's loyalty starts and ends with whoever he thinks is worthy of owning the darkaber, and we already know even then there's no true loyalty to Bo or anyone else from him, so I honestly wonder if the spy/whistleblower would be Koska and not Axe. Koska's loyalty to Bo is much like Axe's despite the fact that Bo treats her like a close friend/confident. When sitting together on the survivors' ship and Bo barely scratched the surface as to what she had done and her involvement in Mandalore's current state, Koska opened her mouth as if to spill the beans and Bo just waved her off like

Koska clearly knows of Bo's tragic past to some extent, probably the most out of any of the other Nite Owls, and would be the last Bo and Axel would expect to be a spy. However, I just can't think of a good motive for her to side with Gideon. But it's hard to rule her out when, as I mentioned, the whole fleet and even Din's cult behind Bo aren't there because she's a worthy leader to follow, but is someone that Din has put his faith in and is the current "owner" of the darksaber." Loyalty to Bo, outside of Din's naivety, doesn't exist. At least, not without major conditions. And this leads me back to...

Bo-Katan Kryze

Do I think Bo is the spy/traitor? No. At least not intentionally.

If you've seen Bo in CW and Rebels, there's two things that have always been consistent about her character: Bo will do anything to achieve her goals regardless of who or what gets hurt and she never learns her lesson. In the past, she worked under both Maul and Count Dooku until both betrayed her. Her loyalty starts and ends with who best benefits her goals, and that has remained the same even in Mando. When she mentioned:

“In exchange for submitting to the Empire and disarming, all remaining cities and Mandalorian lives were to be spared. It was the only chance I had to save our people.”

I couldn't put my finger on why that confession bothered me the way it did. And it clicked: that doesn't sound like Bo. This is Bo-Katan Kryze, the woman who joined a terrorist group because she disagreed with her sister's pacifist ways. This is the woman who burned down a village and enslaved the people there for fun. This is the woman who trusted TWO Sith lords to help her and her fellow terrorists to achieve their goals and only fought against them the moment they were betrayed and not because "Siths are bad." This is the self serving woman who will do anything to get what she wants, including hiding the Mythosaur from Din after gaslighting him that it doesn't exist, and I have a very hard time believing what she said is true when she's never done anything like that in her history as a SW character because it requires the type of sacrifice that Bo wouldn't do willingly. So her comment made me wonder if that was a white lie pertaining their current predicament.

I could see Bo originally planning on sacrificing Din and his cult to Gideon in exchange for them to leave Mandalore alone and the darksaber so she can rebuild the planet just as she's been saying she's wanted to for decades. It's the only reason I can think of (other than bad writing) to explain why she openly lived in a castle in the same sector as Mandalore despite knowing an Imperial presence was present. It would explain why she felt so confident walking around Mandalore despite knowing the true threats were Imperial and not the Troll species or angry robots. It would explain why TIE fighters chose to blow up her home only AFTER Din was in her presence and wasn't too bothered by it. And it explains why she hide the Mythosaur from Din. Bo losing her home means now having a reason to be welcomed into Din's cult and earning their trust to push them into Gideon's trap, but I don't think Bo expect to end up experiencing what it's like to actually like to have people around you who are there because of honor and loyalty and not because you're waving around an ancient, glowy sword that people need to listen to.

Bo witnessed first hand, finally, how respected Din is within his covert and even the people of Nevarro. She saw how much foundlings meant to them, and how far they'd go to ensure the safety of their people that didn't come with strings attached. She witnessed Din's selfless acts and how he gave her unfair credit for a lot they got accomplished and, even if all of that was part of her initial plan, I don't think Bo realized how good it felt to be seen and welcomed as a hero for once and not a terrorist. Although she made a weak attempt at admitting out loud how she may have had a part in Mandalore's current state, she still hid the truth from everyone to have control over the siege because she knew people would back out of helping her. Because until Din volunteered himself and Grogu

No one was willing to volunteer. As I said: no one here willingly follows or trusts Bo. She hasn't earned that trust between her history and her "onward!" and not "follow me" leadership tactic. So with Din not only volunteering but saying this to Bo:

Bo, for the first time, experienced someone believing in her and willingly following her as a leader and not as a resented leader who people only follow because she had the planet's royal talking stick in hand.

She expected Din to reject her as a leader after her weak admission to her sins and that look she gives him after he walks away isn't because she's fallen for him (I won't piss on people who want to see it as such), she's looking at him with awed guilt. She's touched that she finally has someone who respects her as a person and not as the Heiress and that makes her feel guilty if it is revealed that she had planned on sacrificing him and his covert to Gideon all for a chance to rule again and awed that maybe, just maybe, she could be something other than a selfish jinx to their people. Her expression is very bitter sweet.

So where I think, if my theory is right, that her intensions had originally been malicious, I think her experiences with Din's cult inspired her to try to turn the tables on Gideon. That would explain why he wasn't surprised to see her but was surprised to see her fleet working with Din's cult. I don't think Bo knew or expected there to be a full on base built right under her nose like that nor did she expect Imperial soldiers to have Beskar armor. I have no doubt her reaction to Din being kidnapped and Paz potentially killed was genuine, along with her trembling in panic not just from losing her two best fighters, but also from the grief of once again setting history up to repeat itself. I think she'll try to use the darksaber to get people to help her save Din and Paz but will be met with silence because she's not the person they followed and believed in in the first place. I can see her trying a last ditch attempt at winning everyone over by finding and riding the Mythosaur but will be unable to find it. I'd put money on Din, Grogu, or even Boba being able to ride it before Bo does. And I know some people may be upset by this, but I also wouldn't be surprised if she dies doing the first selfless thing with her people in mind in her decades long journey. When Din mentioned Bo's song was not yet written without realizing that it's been told three times over, it was a perfect set up for Bo's death to be a "Swan Song." It would honestly be a beautiful way for Bo to go and giving the saber and title to Din before going out with a bang, recognizing that he's the one that the galaxy and strangers on the internet trying to figure out how to get to him through their TV would follow and be the peace bringer the galaxy has longed for. But like I said: we'll see.

No One's a Spy

I know some of you may be wondering why I didn't mention the surviving Mandalorians they run into, which is fair, but I think they'd be too obvious to be the spies. I am surprised Bo and Din's respected people didn't suspect them of anything and trusted them right off the bat on top of them somehow not knowing that the Empire built a whole base without their knowledge and somehow either forgot or choose to forgive Bo for being the reason they're even like that in the first place, but I would put money on that being bad writing cause it would be really out of character for Din and his people at the very least to not suspect these strangers of any malicious intent. They're so distrusting it wouldn't be logical for them to be blindsided by the most obvious choice. So in the end, the other option is no one is the spy. No one set anyone up to be betrayed and it was an unfortunate circumstance cause by poor planning and strategy and now everyone's paying for it. But we'll see tonight/tomorrow!

I meant to post this earlier this week but I've had a bad chronic flare up from a food allergen. I'm fine, but I'm exhausted and in a lot of discomfort waiting for the flare to pass. Until it does, I'm curious to hear all of your thoughts and I'll see you on the other side.

[cqlfeels]

hello fellow lqr fan!! do you mind sharing more about why you like lqr? he needs more love :)

Hello fellow fan! LQR does indeed need more love, and he deserves it, too!!!

Like every single character in this story, LQR is a hot mess in need of heavy duty therapy. Which, given I love would-make-a-therapist-quit 3zun, is obviously something I appreciate about him. I don't think he's processed the whole QHJ situation anymore than JC has processed the WWX situation, and oh boy does that influence how he raises the Jades. He's doing his best to be a good parental figure but there are so many unaddressed issues getting in the way of him being as good as this as he clearly wants to be. I say this because I often see people conflate his mistakes in raising the Jades with his entire being, which strikes me as a bit unfair since that's not generally how we treat anyone in the Sunshot generation.

But anyway, none of this is why I love him so much, I just wanted to get that out of the way.

The reason why I think he's profoundly underappreciated is mainly because he's so, so, so moral. You can't possibly accuse him of not doing his best to be as good a person as he knows how to be. It's fair game to disagree with his worldview, but very, very few characters are as earnest about their beliefs as LQR is. He sincerely believes with all his heart that the way he's living life is the most virtuous way and he does that not because he has any sort of agenda, it really is as simple as wanting to be a good person because being a good person is the most honorable of goals. He's not particularly after power or prestige or ego trips or an easy life. He knows being righteous is a narrow road and the work is never finished, but he tries as best as he can to stick to it with a sincerity that I find very touching. Compared to other people of his generation, there's something disarmingly pure about LQR. When he gets things wrong, you can be sure it's still coming from a place of good intentions. The only person I can think of who is as heartfelt and unwavering in their convictions is XXC, though of course, LQR is basically a Confucian scholar, while XXC is a follower of Daoism, and these two can be at odds.

Anyway, whenever I think of LQR, I'm reminded of the Analects 12.14-15, which one translation renders as

Fulfill your office untiringly, perform your duties with loyalty. . . . Once a junzi (1) has studied broadly in patterns and constrained them with li (2), indeed he will never turn his back on them.

(1) Junzi 君子 – often used to denote an ideally ethical and capable person; some-times simply meaning a power holder, which is its original sense.

(2) Li 禮 – the ritual institutions of the Zhou, of which Confucius was master; the range of behavior subject to the broad category denoted by this term rang-es from political protocol to court ceremony, religious rite to village festival, daily etiquette to disciplines of personal conduct when alone.

This is an extremely Confucian way of seeing the world and LQR is very intense about it. Once you have learned the way it is proper to act, it's unethical to turn aside from it. And after a lifetime of studies and reflections (which are different skills, both of which LQR is shown to regularly attend to), LQR is fairly sure he knows a fair amount about how it is proper to act, and he doesn't allow anything, be it external pressures or internal turmoil, to deviate him from these things. I don't think that's a particularly healthy or even wise way to live, but I can respect the hell out of him for his commitment to his understanding of his duty as a man, a scholar and a teacher. I just... Look, he's doing his best and he's genuinely trying to be a good person, and I don't know how to not find that admirable, whatever his flaws might be.

[moonlightdancer26]

Who do you think is better? Voldemort or Grindelwald?

Hmm, I don’t quite understand what you mean by “better.”

Do you mean who was the more powerful wizard? If yes, then it’s obviously Voldemort, that’s just a fact.

Or do you mean who was more dangerous, who had a better argument, who was more skilled?

If that, then it’s Grindelwald.

Let me explain:

Dumbledore, as a man over 100 years old, managed to duel Lord Voldemort whilst protecting Harry (and also pinning Bella), yet Voldemort was still unable to break his defences.

Grindelwald, as an old, wandless man imprisoned inside Nurmengard, laughed right in front of Lord Voldemort’s face, not fearing him (nor death), gave me the impression that Gellert knew damn well he would completely destroy Voldemort in his prime.

Grindelwald mastered both Light and Dark magic, whilst Voldemort solely based himself within Dark magic, practically neglecting half of magical wisdom to wizardkind.

The thing about Grindelwald which genuinely terrifies me, is that he can feel love. He fell in love with Dumbledore. He may be evil, but evil doesn’t mean heartless, evil doesn’t mean you can’t feel love.

Hell, he couldn’t even stay in the same room when a baby was killed, he refused to kill the baby, whilst Voldy Moldy had no hesitation. Grindelwald has humanity and a soul, and he can manipulate people using that.

And Voldemort only uses the killing curse, and literally no other spells. While Grindelwald is seen performing different kinds of magic. (Did y’all see the fire spell he used in The Crimes of Grindelwald? Goddamn!)

Grindelwald has conviction, an actual goal, and no fear of anyone when it comes to achieving that goal, and that’s very dangerous.

Voldemort, to me, is weaker than Grindelwald when it comes to his fears. He fears death, more than anything, which is why he made Horcruxes.

Grindelwald, to me, is the greatest villain the Wizarding World has ever seen, as he uses the power of manipulation to gain followers.

Voldemort’s followers almost always join out of fear, however, Grindelwald’s followers joined because they genuinely believed in his cause, because they genuinely respected him, not feared him.

Voldemort’s argument is basically “KILL MUGGLES! KILL MUGGLEBORNS! DIE DIE DIE NYAHHHHHH” while Grindelwald’s argument is “We will change the world, we can be free, this is for the greater good”.

One intended to be the strongest wizard, one intended to make the entire world ruled by wizards.

One put fear on others, one is charismatic and uses manipulation as a weapon.

One tried to get rid of an Albus Dumbeldore, one tried to make use of an Albus Dumbledore.

One is the personification of pure evil, one has an actual goal and purpose which makes them seem more human.

And most importantly, one of them has a nose so he can sniff out his enemies.🤪

Voldemort is an aggressive fighter, is impatient, and is arrogant. Grindelwald, however, is calm, knows how to use the Elder Wand correctly, is patient, and was the rival of the greatest wizard in the world. Grindelwald knew his limits, Voldemort refused to acknowledge he had limits.

The difference between Voldemort and Grindelwald, is that Grindelwald has friends, Voldemort has followers.

Voldemort had one fatal weakness: Arrogance.

He viewed himself above all others and refused to believe the concept of how loyalty of the wands work, even though Harry told it him to him. He couldn’t acquire the power of the Elder Wand, while Grindelwald and Dumbledore did. Hell, he even got a Horcrux snatched by a house elf. He thought no one knew about the Room of Requirement, and that idiot ACTUALLY thought that Severus Snape would still be on his side after he murdered Lily.

Grindelwald knew about love, and didn’t underestimate it’s power. Not understanding love was Voldemort’s downfall. Grindelwald didn’t fear death, and he actually respected his followers, not placing a taboo on them or a marking invade of treason. Even when he was old, powerless, and imprisoned he didn’t fear Voldemort and accepted that he was going to be the new Dark Lord to start a global revolution.

Grindelwald terrorised more areas, we can see it in the movies that he had a larger army with an Obsecurus, he came closer to his goal by threatening the statue of secrecy, he dueled Dumbledore and Aberforth simultaneously, and not only got the best wand in history at the age of 18 but practiced with it till perfection. He was a seer, could turn invisible without a cloak, and he was an amazing Occlumens (the 2nd best ever). And he had so much knowledge, he knew about the Deathly Hallows since teenager-hood, and Voldemort only got to know that weeks before dying. Voldemort bit more than he can chew.

Also, Grindy kept the greatest wizard of all time at bay for years, even after Dumbledore got the blood pact, he didn’t advance against Grindy until nearly a decade later. And his speciality is dueling, and he dueled 20 highly trained Aurors alone, with a wand he hadn’t even mastered. And his wandless magic is so powerful that he disarmed and chained three people at once whilst simultaneously summoning an object towards himself (in Fantastic Beasts 1).

Who was the more powerful and darker wizard?

Voldemort, obviously.

Who was more dangerous and skilled?

Grindelwald.

Have a nice day!❤️

[jujutsuflavoredpeach]

Choso, Chapter Three.

Pairing Choso x fem!reader Content angst, hurt, choso neighbour, slow burn romance Warnings mentions of domestic violence, metions of pshysical abuse

CHAPTER FOUR

"¿What the hell was that? ¿Who was she?"

The pink haired boy couldn't stop asking Choso question after question while he just stood there, with a clenched jaw and a hardened look in his eyes. The hand that touched you was clenched into a fist by his side.

"Quit it, Yuji."

He didn't want you to leave. In fact, he was going to ask you if you wanted to have lunch with him and one of his siblings.

"¿Are you into her? ¿Where did you guys meet? Man, she looked sad a-"

"¡I said quit it!"

This time Choso raised his voice at his younger brother, grabbing the back of a chair to lift it off the ground, only to bring it down again with all his might with a hard, sharp thud.

Yuji remained completely silent, and only limited himself to following his brother's order to follow him, and thus be able to solve the problem with the oven. Unfortunately, it would take a couple of hours. Hours that didn't really help Choso to distract himself from the image of your body, shrinking due to the weight of his thick and meaty fingers on your shoulder.

'Of course she feels it now. That damn bastard.' he thought, remembering the things you had told him about that your ex.

Unlike most people, Choso didn't like others to bottle up their feelings. Usually, when he couldn't stand something, it was out of pure rage and frustration, and he did feel helpless sitting in that chair while he listened to you. He thought about how a diligent and dreamy girl like you must've felt all this time, stripped of a love that you thought was forever, because the person who had led you to fulfill that wish had betrayed you and thrown you out on the street like garbage, leaving you with nothing. As if you were nothing.

'A girl with no family.'

Choso's chest inflated with air, letting it out as if it burned him from the inside. The biggest pillar for him was his family, and even though his mother was not with them, he did not let that separate them. Love was the greatest value that she transmitted to them, and Choso took it to create a path for him and his brothers. Although it was not only affection, it was a commitment for him, a form of respect for his mother as the saint she was. He turned it into patience, tradition, loyalty, honesty, empathy, forgiveness, responsibility, generosity, and the list went on.

Yuji, being the youngest of the litter, could not be left behind. That is why he had brought him with him to the city, and Choso let him enjoy his freedom. He had already made friends, and he spent more time out of the apartment than he did, but Yuji knew better than to be late for work, or to miss a single day. Choso was not to be messed with. Sometimes he was a bit harsh, he had admitted it to himself many times. The thought of his mother softened him often, and would make him take long breaths when it came to his little brother. He was harsh because, thanks to that woman they were good men. Everything that made him was thanks to her, and that was sacred. He had tattooed it on his brothers' brains, that the girls who still walked the earth were to be treated better than them.

That's exactly why Yuji wasn't afraid to speak up once Choso reacted the way that he did. The bubbly lad knew his brother wouldn't hurt a fly, and it was pretty evident that it had been an accident, but he still put his hand on that girl. He couldn't help but to pry, and even though Choso kept to himself for the rest of the afternoon, one thing was clear on Yuji's mind… If Choso wasn't speaking about it, it had to be a difficult matter, because they shared pretty much everything with each other.

Taking a short break after preparing the sweets for the afternoon, Yuji wandered around the counter looking for Maki, the clerk, but she was nowhere to be seen. Yuji was scared to death when she appeared out of nowhere with a tray from the back to start stocking the shelves with bread.

"Just look at you, you're a skittish little cat." he told Yuji without taking his eyes off her task.

"Very funny." He replied with his hands in his pockets, trying to appear relaxed. "Hey, what's this doing here?"

He asked the girl, noticing a white paper bag that was next to the register to inspect its interior.

"Nama chocolate? Is this and order or-?"

"They're from a young woman who came here today, but she left too quickly. I don't think she heard me. Maybe she'll come back for them, or your brother can-"

The second Maki mentioned his brother, a smirk spread across Yuji's face. He watched as the girl tried to turn her back on him, hiding her face more and more as the boy got closer and closer to her.

"Say, Maki…" she shuddered, feeling Yuji's breath in her ear. "¿Do you know what's going on?

After a while, Choso was still struggling with the equipment. He'd have to call someone else to do the work, and it was going to be expensive. He prayed they wouldn't have to replace it, because that would be out of the question. Business wasn't bad, but he had already made other investments and it would only be a pain in the ass.

"Bad for production, but we'll make it work. Don't worry bro." Yuji told him giving Choso a few paths on the back for reassurance.

"Hm."

Choso was a tad bit annoyed at the inconvenience, but that didn't erase Yuji's smirk from his face.

"You look content." he said to Yuji matter of factly, while he poured himself a big glass of water.

"¿You weren't going to tell me about our new neighbour?"

'Maki' Choso sighed internally, scratching his temple with two fingers.

"¿What's there to tell?" he replied in a toneless voice as Yuji leaned back against the big ass shiny silver door of the freezer, shaking his head from side to side in disbelief.

"¿Think you can fool me?" he asked Choso raising his eyebrows, tone defiant. "¿Hm?"

The two brothers wouldn't take their eyes off each other, playing an intense game of stare.

"She's got no one." Choso took a few steps towards Yuji and towered over him, leaving him with his back totally pressed against the hard metallic surface. "And that's as far as I'll go."

Taking the last sip from his glass, Choso lifted the hem of his shirt to reveal a nice toned set of abs, swiping the beads of sweat from his forehead and took his apron from the rack to continue his work. Yuji followed him with his eyes until he was out of sight, brows furrowed.

Breathing through gritted teeth, he grabbed the bowl with the previously rested dough and threw it on the work table. A loud noise followed, as he slammed the metal bowl down hard on the wooden surface.

'Yeah, this is a whole different thing.'

[sweet-art-o-mine]

Hi! Since you are doing Arcane, I was wondering if you could write Parent Silco x Child Jinx fanfic? Maybe the first time Jinx gives him a gift and Silco sees himself as a father figure?

I saw you are already writing Silco fanfics, so I’m sorry if this repeating and/or annoying. I’m still reeling and upset from Act III and need more fluffy Silco and Jinx content. Thank you!

[[Author Allie here. Hi! Thank you so much for your request. Firstly let me make this clear: you are never annoying for requesting stuff!! We love getting requests, and since I love Arcane a lot, I definitely don't mind getting a ton of Arcane requests now lol. Silco is my favorite character.

This is my first time writing his character, so I hope it feels right to you! I'll get better at it the more I write him, so feel free to request more stuff (:

PS: I know that you mean Silco x Jinx as father/daughter, so this isn't directed at you, but I want to make this clear to anyone reading this: we will NOT write Silco x Jinx as a romantic or sexual relationship. They are purely familial on this blog.

That's it. Enjoy!]]

There were times in the beginning where he'd regretted picking her up.

Not enough to want to throw her out, no, of course not - he sympathized with her plight, had gone through the same thing himself (well, a similar thing, he supposes - the added trauma of being the reason most of your family is dead was one he was not familiar with). But he’d never had to deal with a child before, he’d especially never been the sole guardian of a child before.

Her moods were erratic, she'd say one thing then do another, and she had grown very fond of pranking the members of his ever growing inner circle of workers. They were largely harmless pranks other than a few scrapes or bruises that might ensue when her contraptions didn't work the way she had intended for them to work, but... as previously stated, largely harmless. But it was just enough to cause unrest, annoyance and aggravation in his followers. When they came to him complaining about her actions, he'd tell them that she was only a child and that anyone who couldn't handle the humor of a little girl was certainly not fitting to be on his roster of paid muscle. They shut up quick after that, but he had to admit that he still thought about it from time to time, about how she was turning out to be quite the nuisance.

There were nights where she would cry and scream into her pillow as waves of raw, angry memories flooded her mind, trashing her room in a temper tantrum and kicking and clawing like a wild animal at anyone who tried to get too close to her. He wasn't sure what to do then - he'd never had a child of his own. He could put on a smile and a cheerful demeanor to play at a tea party when she was in a good mood, but he had no idea how to calm a traumatized girl in the midst of her most recent meltdown.

So, yes, there were plenty of times in the beginning where he'd second guessed his own decision to take her in. And though they were never big enough feelings to warrant an actual attempt to get rid of her, they still sat there, settling in the back of his skull and whispering about how he'd gone soft and weak for a child, about how she was more trouble than she was worth.

But the day she snuck into his office while he was away, giggling to herself childishly while she decorated the room with crayons and colorful paper confetti, he'd gotten a taste of just why he kept her around even through all of the torment she put him and his men through.

He walked into his office with a sigh, looking down at the paper in his hands. Expanding his network was proving to be a difficult task, and he knew better than most that not everyone could be controlled with force. Finding a delicate balance between inspiring loyalty in his men and needing to use fear as a control method was... challenging, to say the least. But he was skating by, for now, and he sure as hell didn't intend on giving up just because the task at hand was a difficult one.

He was so focused on his paper that he didn't notice the changes to his office for a few seconds after entering. Only when he heard a small, childish giggle belonging to one headache of a girl did he finally look up. First, he looked to the source of the sound, and he saw her right there plain as day - Jinx, ten years of age, sitting in his office chair with a bright grin on her face streaked with an odd mixture of both dirt and vibrant paints that never seemed to wash off. He had learned, over the few months he's had her in his care so far, the difference between a genuine smile of childish happiness and the excited grin that told of a plan hiding behind her eyes. Today, it was the latter.

But before he could narrow his eyes - his one eye, as the left was paralyzed almost entirely and never narrowed or blinked with the right - and ask her what she was planning today, he finally took note of the rest of his office. Streaks of vibrant pinks and blues and greens all over the walls, mostly in crayon but it seemed there were splashes of paint thrown in at random as well.

There were strips of torn up colored paper all over the floor, her attempt at confetti no doubt, and a few streamers that had been precariously stuck to the walls with pins and needles. He looked around the room, slack jawed in surprised, and didn't know at first how to respond.

"Jinx," he began slowly, looking back down at the girl sitting in his chair. Her smile dimmed for just a moment at the word, a hundred terrible memories flashing in her blue-grey eyes at the origins of her new name, but she blinked away the bad feelings and looked up at him with another bright grin. "What is all of this for?"

"It's a celebration!" She explains simply, swinging her legs back and forth. The swivel chair shook with her movements.

"Ah," he managed a small smile, remembering - this is a child, young and naive and eager to please. He couldn't put on his stern face like he did with his men. "What are we celebrating today, then?"

She giggled and leaned back in his seat, and he could see now that she was holding something in her hands. It was just below his line of sight, hidden partially by the lip of his desk, so he couldn't tell what it was from where he stood. He hoped it wasn't another one of her paint bombs - while he enjoyed her gadgetry and wanted to encourage her creativity, he had lost count already of how many times he'd had to order his office cleaned from all the paint and colored smoke she would trail behind her. Everywhere she went, her brightly colored pranks followed.

"Your birthday, of course!" He paused at that. His birthday? Was it his birthday?

Oh - yes. He vaguely remembered telling her when his birthday was, months ago. It had been her own birthday then, and instead of waking with a smile and asking for gifts and treats like most children her age would on such a day, she had spent most of her morning in bed, weeping. It had taken him hours to coax her out of the blanket cocoon she'd wrapped around herself, only to learn that she had thought about how she had nobody left to celebrate her birthday with this year, which had lead into the inevitable fate of another meltdown as memories of her dead family flooded her mind.

He'd done everything she wanted that day - had breakfast in bed with her, took her out to play some made-up game she invented, had ice cream for dinner at her request, and then spent the night sipping on hot chocolate and teaching her how to play cards. And at the end of it all, when she was tucked into bed and her eyes slid shut as her lids grew heavier by the second, she'd asked him when his own birthday was. We'll celebrate together, just like we did today, she'd told him. He'd smiled and told her that he didn't need a gift and that he wasn't really in the habit of celebrating his birthday, but she'd been adamant and he'd given in.

He had no idea she would have actually remembered.

She saw the look of surprise on his face and scooted off the chair, leaving whatever she had been holding on the seat as she skipped around the table to grab hold of one of his hands with both of hers.

"Did you forget your own birthday?" She giggled, finding the idea quite silly.

"Well, I..." He turned his head sideways, like a curious puppy. He smiled. "I suppose I did. Thank you for reminding me, Jinx."

She beamed up at him, eager to please. She dragged him back to his desk, hopping up and down excitedly. She grabbed her hidden item off of the chair before he could see it, hiding it behind her back as she edged around him while he sat down.

“And what are you holding there, I wonder?”

“It’s a secret. Close your eyes.”

He chuckled softly, obliging even as he said in a teasing tone, “Well, I can only close one.”

“You know what I mean!”

He put his hands on top of both eyes, covering them. The vision in his right eye, though not completely gone, was dim and blurry enough that he could barely see anything out of it. Jinx had asked about it once, and he had explained that it was like trying to see the world through a dirt-caked, grease-smudged lens. Dark and grainy and blurry.

Silco listened as she clambered up on top of his desk, one of her newest favorite places to sit. He turned in his swivel chair to face her even with his eyes covered, and she quietly rested her feet on his lap. She was a very physically affectionate girl and almost always liked to be comforted by touch in some way - holding his hand as they walked, sitting close enough for their knees to touch when they sat together, leaning against him at random…

It was something he found himself struggling to get used to. It’d been a long time since anyone had been so affectionate to him.

“Okay,” Jinx said in an eager, childish voice. “Open!”

Silco removed his hands with a flair and a smile, earning a small laugh from the girl sitting on his desk and partially in his lap. She was holding something out to him, cupped in her two hands.

A… cup?

“For me?” He asked, hand hovering over it. He can’t honestly say he remembered the last time anyone had given him a birthday gift - it seemed such a frivolous, childish thing to him, to celebrate your birthday with streamers and gifts when a simple ‘happy birthday’ was more than enough. Jinx nodded her head at him, and he picked up the mug delicately.

It was a mostly brown mug with two small round handles, one on either side, and it had been drawn over in neon crayon. At first glance it seemed like random scribbles, something the girl in front of him was fond of drawing all over the walls of her bedroom - but looking closer showed that there was method to the madness in all the bright colors.

Of course, he chuckled. The monkey toy, the one he found most annoying with its constant clanging of the cymbals, had become an almost obsessive favorite of hers in the last few months. And here, she’d designed the mug to resemble it with a light grey face, round black eyes, and pink frown.

“So…?” Jinx asked nervously. He looked up at her and noticed that she seemed shy all of a sudden, as if he’d taken too long to answer and she was already assuming all the worst things about her gift. He smiled softly at her, an act that felt more genuine every time he did it.

“It’s beautiful, Jinx. Thank you.”

She perked up at his reassuring words, leaning forward on the desk to point at the bright colors excitedly. “I made it myself! I hope the colors don’t come off when you drink from it…”

“Well, there’s a good way to test that, my dear,” he trailed off as he looked at her with a raised brow.

Her eyes grew wide as she realized what he was saying, and twinkled with excitement as she grinned and nodded. She jumped off of his table and landed on the ground with a thud. A tea party! She loved having those. "Yes, yes! I'll go get my own cup!" She shouted as she ran out of the door in a hurry, not even slowing at the shouts of those in the hallway telling her to watch where she was going.

Silco smiled softly as he watched her go, turning the mug in his hands slowly and running his fingertips over the rim and handle. Every doubt of picking the girl up off the streets, of taking her into his arms and promising her strength and comfort, fled his mind as he looked at the brightly colored monkey face she had scribbled onto the mug. What a fool he had been, he thought.

He wouldn't give her up for anything.

[itsthestutterforme]

Becoming Mine (Vincenzo)

Summary: Y/N is working with Vincenzo and a loyal ally from Italy. Han seok captures her and tortures her for information. She holds out longer than he hoped and wants her loyalty for himself.//SMUT WARNING, MINORS DNI

--

Jang Hanseok sent Ms. Choi to get her hands dirty and oversee the torture of Y/N for information. Y/N and Vincenzo grew up in the Mafia together. They taught each other everything.

He has asked Y/N for help with taking down Babel and she said yes without any questions asked. And now she has to suffer the consequences of loyalty.

First they started with electrocution. They tied her to a metal chair and put spark plugs on the back side of the chair. They would send a jolt, each longer than the last. "Go to hell!" She yells at Ms. Choi after the jolt that lasted 20 seconds.

Then they moved on to cutting with the thinnest daggers. Death by a thousand cuts, she always thought it was a cliche thing to use. But hey, to each their own torture method.

Her hair sticks to her forehead and the sides of her neck as he digs his knife across her collar bone. "Fuck!"

Ms. Choi walks into Hanseok's office with a grimace. "What's wrong?" "She's not breaking. She's a lot stronger than I thought." Ms. Choi says, linking her hands behind her back. Hanseok stands from his chair and rounds the desk.

"What tactics have you used?" He asks. "Electrocution, cutting, waterboarding, fire and even bludgeoning and she still tells me to go to hell." Choi rambles.

"I could use someone of her loyalty," Hanseok states. "I want to meet her," he adds. "With all due respect, sir, she'll never agree to that. She's endure days of torture for Vincenzo, she isn't going to give him up or betray him. She's willing to risk her life for him." "Will you risk your life for me?" He asks, searching her face for a response.

"I'll kill anyone you tell me to, sir," "That didn't answer my question. I still want to see her." He says. Ms. Choi drives him to the warehouse where they keep Y/N. She was currently unconscious from the pain she has endured. Hanseok's face grimaced and he says, "You took get your hands dirty a little too literally."

Y/N gasped as she regain consciousness and she groaned softly. She looked up to see Jang Hanseok and he smiles. "Who the hell are you?" She asked before spitting out some blood in her mouth. "Hopefully, I'll be your new boss." He says, stuffing his hands in his pockets. "In your dreams, tough guy." She snarks.

A man punches her across the face and she looked at him with pure annihilation and vexation. That look gave Hanseok butterflies in his stomach. The feeling was beyond the norm and he had no idea what the origin was. She opened her mouth to say something else but Hanseok intercepted.

"Touch her again, and I'll have you thrown off a building." He threatens. Hanseok watched as the man stepped away from her. "You, cut her loose," He adds, pointing to another man.

"Sir, are you sure about this?" Choi asked and he didn't answer. She was cut free and the first thing Y/N grabs is the man's throat before breaking it.

Another man came at her and she ducked under the punch before punching him twice in his armpit before punching his throat. She limps over to the table where her weapons were and grabbed her smaller knives.

She tossed them in the air and within seconds, three men dropped dead with the knives in their skulls. Which only left Ms. Choi and Jang Hanseok.

She grabs a gun from one of the corpses and aimed it at them. "Tell me why I shouldn't kill you both," "Do that and my men sets that entire plaza on fire with everyone inside."

"I'm calling your bluff lady, you're just trying to save your ass because you know that I'll put bullet in your head without blinking," she says as she cocks the gun and applies steady pressure on trigger.

"Wa-" she pulls the trigger and sends a bullet straight through Ms. Choi's head. Hanseok chuckles wryly before saying, "Now I'm in need of a new lawyer and strategist," he says, his hands still stuffed in his pockets.

"Who are you?" "The CEO of Babel," he answers nonchalantly. "So you're the one who started all this,"

"Well I can't take all the credit. She had her fair share," he says, referencing to Ms. Choi. Red dots appear on Y/N chest and she notices. "I have this place surrounded. One move to shoot me and you'll get shot to pieces. Just take the easy way and work for me. It'll be a lot of fun." "Right, like killing innocent people is fun,"

"It seems like you enjoy killing people." "Only those who deserve it," she snaps. "Regardless of your intentions, my guys wills drop you before you can fire. Question is, do you want to live and be treated like a queen?"

She doesn't respond and he adds, "Or I can kill both you and your mother. She loves to visit a little shop in.. Siena, right? What's it's called again?"

Her grip tightens on the gun before tossing it across the room. "Kill her and I promise to kill you and every single one of your sponsors," "Looks like you and I have more in common than we thought. Come on, let's get you cleaned up." He walks out of the warehouse and she hesitantly follows.

Y/N's POV

You sigh softly as you stepping into the cold, crisp in contrast of the warm, misty air in bathroom. You had pulled your hair into a loose ponytail before you put on Hanseok's shorts and t-shirt. You hate to say it, but his clothes were extremely comfortable. He promised to take me out shopping tomorrow for clothes.

"I didn't know what you liked so I bought everything," he says, referencing to the various plates of food on the kitchen counter. Your eyes settle on kimchi jiagae and you make your way over to the table.

You a grab a few bowls to try some of the kimchi jiagae, bulgogi, dakdoritgang, dakgangjeong and mixed rice. You set them on the tray sit on the pillow he prepared for you.

"You like spicy food, huh?" He says and you nod. "Yeah, my brother likes spicy food too." You wait until he comes back with his tray of food to dig in. You hum lowly as you eat your bulgogi and you feel a hand touch my chin. You pull away and look at him with confused.

"What the hell are you doing?" "I'm sorry, I just.. you look.. you're beautiful," "If you think that you can someone convince me into sleeping with you, you have another thing coming,"

"What? I can't appreciate your beauty without something in return?" He asks innocently. "Hell no," you sneer. He chuckles before saying, "I'm going to have some fun with you."

Over the next few weeks, he has bought you a whole new wardrobe, shoes and jewelry. He's even made sure my hair and nails are done with complementary spa days.

He's been pampering you ever since you were a part of his life. You've been enjoying it but you've developed a sense of waiting for the other shoe to drop.

It also raises questions. Why did he choose you? How long will this pampering thing last? Is your mom still held hostage? What is he planning on doing with Vincenzo?

"Hey, kitten." You roll your eyes at his new pet name for you. You have no idea where he got it from because you are nothing like a kitten. You were playful or adventurous, but you were high maintenance.

"How many times do I have to tell.." you trail off as you see him in a light blue three piece suit with white leather shoes. His hair was combed to the side with gel and you could smell his cologne from where you sat.

"Why are you dressed like that?" "Do you like it?" He say, nearing you slowly. "No," you lie and he smiles at you. "You sure about that?" He leans his hands on either side of you and ducked his head to be at your eye level. "I bought you a matching dress. Get dressed, we leave in an hour."

He nudges his nose against yours before leaving the room and leaving you hot and bothered. Ever since you walked in on him lifting weights without his shirt, your mind came up with various, filthy scenarios that made your panties soaked.

You stand up from the chair and walked into the bedroom to see a goregous silk, light blue dress with diamond seam around the midrange of the stomach.

You take a shower and apply your favorite lotion and perfume before you slide on the dress. You latch on the sparkly, light blue heels. You put on your robe and sit down to apply some foundation, highlight and mascara on to your face.

You were just about to clip your hair up and leave a few curls out but you hear Hanseok say, "Leave your hair down." You look at him through the mirror to see him leaning his arm on the door frame, pulling his dress shirt taught around his solid biceps. He eyes you with a soft smile on his face. "You look beautiful," he says as he nears you once again.

"I know." You stand up and meet him half way across the room. "Shall we?" He says , offering you his arm. "Let's just get this night over with,"

**

You two return at one in the morning and you were infuriated. He spent the whole night flirting with random women at the gala. "You make no sense to me, Jang Hanseok." You say, taking off your earring and tossing them on the dresser.

"What makes you say that?" He asks, sitting on the bed to take off his shoes. "You pamper me with all these gifts, clothes, jewelry to convince me to stay in your life and then you spend the entire night flirting with every one you could lay your eyes on." You snap.

He takes off his vest with a sigh and loosens his tie. "I wanted to see if you cared. Cared about me and my attention." "Well, do you?" He adds. "If I didn't care, do you think I would have said anything?" You snap.

He grabs the back of your neck and pulls you inches away from his face. He tightens his grip and says through gritted teeth, "I've had enough of your attitude, just answer the question."

"I just did." His fingers dig into you neck enough to cause discomfort but not enough to break skin. "Do you care about me?" He asks. "Unfortunately, yes." "Why unfortunately?" "It only makes it harder to-" "

"To betray me?" You push his hand away and say, "What the hell makes you think of something like that? I was going to say it makes it harder to say no but you always think everyone is out to get you. It should be me asking the qu-"

He stops your rant by slamming his lips on yours. One hand rests on the back of your head and the other smooths over the dip of your back.

Your fingers work on unbuttoning his shirt as you walk him onto the bed. He sits on the edge and pulls you into his lap. You pull his shirt off his shoulder and leave kisses up his chest in it's wake.

He moans softly and you could feel his hard on press against your inner thigh. You tug the rest of his shirt off and push his back on the bed. You buck your hips against him and a soft whine leaves his lips.

You quiet him by tenderly biting down on his bottom lip. His lips latched onto yours and presses your core harder against him.

He pulls your hair gently to evade your attention from his lips. He rolls you on you stomach and stands. "Han seok, what are you-" he rips the dress open from the back, making you yell out in surprise.

"Damn it, I liked that dress." "There's plenty more where that came from kitten," he smooths his hands up the back of your legs and squeezes your ass.

You pull off the rest of your mangled dress, leaving you in your white lace set. "And don't you dare rip-" he rips the lace underwear in two and pulls you so your knees are on the edge of the bed. "I'm going to kill you, Han seok."

"I've been wanting to get a taste of you since I set my eyes on you." You let out a squeak when you feel his hot breath agaisnt your core.

You've never been in the position before so you have no idea what the expect. He licks up the stripe with slow, deep licks, each lick lasting longer on your clit. "Oh God," you grip the sheets with a white knuckle grip when he curls his tongue along the upper wall and caresses a g-spot. Your legs started to shake and loud moans leave your lips when he slips in two fingers and curled them hard.

You tried crawling away from him, feeling overwhelmed of the pleasure but he holds you back by your thighs. With a few more licks, you release yourself on his tongue and he hums with satisfaction.

"You taste a lot better than I thought, baby." Your body already started to twitch and you could tell that this was going to be a long night.

You roll onto your back and chills roll down your spine when you see him licking your juices off of his fingers. Pushing yourself backwards, he pulls you closer to him by your ankles. "Han seok, please. It's too much."

"You're doing great, kitten. Just relax and let it wash over you." He says softly, pecking your lips before settling himself between your legs once again.

He spreads your legs wide before he sucks on your clit harder and faster than the first time, sending shock waves through your body. "Fuck! Oh my God!"

Looking down at him, he locks eyes with you and he completely devours your bundle of folds. He alternate between licking side to side and up and down with a curl of his tongue.

Your back arches and stars cloud your vision as you come down from your second high. He pulls away from you with his lower face covered in your juices. "Come here," he lifts your trembling body and dropping it into his lap. He smooths his hands over your ass before unbuckling his dress pants.

He pulls down his boxers and his erection stands up tall, making your whimper. He's going to destroy you. "I'll be gentle," he whispers, lifting your chin to meet his gaze.

You nod your head in agreement and lines himself up at your entrance. Throwing your head back as your walls expand and contract around him. You wrap your arms around him and bury your face into his neck and he bounces you in his lap.

Time slows a few seconds when you meet his gaze. "Oh God," you chant as the knot intensified in your stomach. "I'm close, Han seok."

His lips locked with yours and your boys jolts forward when his thumb rubs hard circles on your clit. Your entire body spasms as he cums inside of you but he continued to rub circles until you came.

He stayed buried inside of you while you sat in his lap as you both catches your breaths. Resting his forehead against yours, he says, "I love you. You believe me what I say that, right?"

You nod and holds the sides of your face. "Say it," "I love you," "Good girl," he pulls out of you and slides you both under the covers.

You lay directly ontop of him with a thin sheet covering the both of you, sighing as he draws circles on your back.

[itsclydebitches]

The Bad Batch: A Crosshair Analysis

Hello, Star Wars fandom! I have just completed watching—and loving—The Bad Batch, which you know means I now need to dump all my thoughts about the first season into the tumblr void. Specifically, thoughts on the complicated drama that is Crosshair. I have no doubt that the majority of what I���m about to say will be old news to anyone who watched the show when it came out (I’m slow...), but I’m writing it all out anyway. Largely for my own sanity enjoyment :D

I want to preface all of this by saying that the above is not an exaggeration. I love the show and I love the entire cast. My enjoyment in each of the characters is directly connected to my enjoyment of the season as a whole, which I say because I’m about to get pretty critical towards some of the characters’ choices and, to a lesser extent, the writing choices that surround those. Does this mean I secretly hate The Bad Batch? Quite the opposite. I’m invested, which is presumably just what Filoni wants. I’m just hoping that investment pays off. 

But enough of the disclaimers. Let’s start with the matter of the inhibitor chip. I’ve seen fans take some pretty hard stances on both sides: Crosshair is completely innocent because he’s definitely been under the chip’s control this whole time, no matter what he might say. Crosshair is completely guilty because he said the chip was removed a long time ago and he chose to do all this, no moral wiggle room allowed. However, the reality is that we don’t know enough to make a clear call either way. The audience, simply put, does not have all the necessary information. What we have instead is a couple of facts combined with claims that may or may not be reliable. Let’s lay them out:

Crosshair was definitely under the chip’s control at the start of the series.

He was able to resist it to a certain extent, resulting in a pressure to obey orders coupled with a primary loyalty to his squad. See: telling Hunter to follow the Empire’s commands—which includes killing kid Padawans—but not turning his team in as traitors when they did not. It’s an in-between space.

Crosshair’s chip was then amplified to an unknown extent. I’m never going to claim I’m a Star Wars aficionado—I’m a casual fan, friends. Please don’t yell at me over obscure lore lol—but within TBB’s canon, no one else is undergoing that experimentation. The effects of this are entirely unknown, which includes Crosshair’s free will, or lack thereof.

Crosshair then becomes a clear tool of the Empire, hunting down innocents, killing on a whim, the whole, evil shebang.

In “Reunion” he’s caught by the engine and suffers severe burns to his face. One leaves a scar that covers precisely the place where the chip would have been extracted.

Removing the chip leaves its own scar behind. If Crosshair’s was removed, we can’t see that scar due to the burn.

After these events Crosshair seems to mellow a bit. He does horrible things under the Empire’s orders—like shooting the senator—but is still loyal to his squad—killing his non-clone teammates to give TBB a chance, saving AZ and Omega, etc.

Crosshair claims that his chip has already been removed. However, Crosshair is arguably an unreliable source if he’s been lied to or if the chip is still there, encouraging him to manipulate the team.

Crosshair claims it was removed a long time ago, which is incredibly imprecise. As we can see from just some of the events listed above, precisely when the chip came out—if it came out—makes a huge difference.

Hunter realizes this and presses for clarification, but Crosshair dodges giving it. Again, a legitimate belief that it doesn’t matter, or evidence that he can’t say because something else is going on? We don’t know.

Hunter checks Crosshair’s head and finds the burn scar which proves… nothing. As stated above, they wouldn’t be able to see the surgery scar one way or another: its existence or its absence. It’s useless data, as Tech might say. I’ve seen a few fans claim that Hunter was also feeling for the chip with his enhanced senses, but 1. I didn’t catch any evidence of that in the scene and 2. Even if we assume Hunter did that anyway, the chips are notoriously hard to spot. Fives and AZ couldn’t find the chip at first when examining Tup. Ahsoka had to use the force to find it in Rex. TBB themselves couldn’t find it at first in Wrecker. If machinery consistently fails to find the chip on the first couple of tries—it’s meant to be a hidden implant, after all—why would we believe Hunter’s senses could pick it up instantly? Maybe he missed it, or maybe it wasn’t there at all. 

Crosshair appears to be struggling with a headache in the finale, just as he was at the beginning of the season and just like Wrecker was for the first half.

The point of listing all this out is to emphasize how ambiguous this whole situation is. I don’t want to use this post to argue one way or another about whether Crosshair’s chip is really out. I have my preferred theory (the chip’s still in, but only partially functional), but at the end of the day none of this is conclusive. The writing takes us in what I hope is deliberate circles. Crosshair says the chip is out? Crosshair is not a reliable source of information until we know if the chip is out. What other evidence is there that the chip is gone? A scar? We can’t see if there’s a scar. Hunter’s abilities? He only checked once for a canonically hard to find implant—if he actually checked at all. And why would the Empire want the chip out? Well, maybe it has to do with that push towards willing soldiers, but if that were the case, why leave Crosshair behind and have the “clones die together”? By that point he was one of the most willing, chip or not. Did they have to take it out because of the engine accident? Pure speculation. We just don’t know and THAT is the point I want to make.

Because it means the rest of the Bad Batch didn’t know either.

The core issue I have here is not whether the chip is in or out, or even how long it may have been in if it is out now. The issue is that TBB spent 99% of the first season believing that Crosshair was under the chip’s influence… and they didn’t try to do anything about that. They abandoned him. They left a man behind. Does this make them all horrible monsters? Of course not! This shit is complicated as hell, but I do think they made a very large mistake and that Crosshair has every right to be furious about it.

“But, Clyde, they couldn’t have gone back. It was too dangerous! Hunter had a duty to his whole team, not just Crosshair.” True enough and I’d buy this argument 100% if Hunter hadn’t spent the entire season throwing his team into dangerous, seemingly impossible situations to save other people. Crosshair became the exception, not a hard rule of something they had to avoid. They went back to Kamino for Omega, a kid they’d only had one lunch with, despite knowing how dangerous the Empire was. They went into the heart of an occupied planet to rescue not just a stranger, but one belonging to the Separatist government. They helped Sid when she asked and there was plenty of compassion for the criminal trying to take her place. Most significantly, there wasn’t the slightest hesitation to go rescue Hunter when he was under the Empire’s control, in precisely the same place. Every explanation I’ve seen fans come up with—Kamino is too fortified, they don’t know where Crosshair is, they can’t risk Omega being captured, etc.—also holds true for Hunter, yet there wasn’t a second of doubt about needing to at least try to help him. And his rescue was arguably far more dangerous given that TBB knew they were walking into a trap. Going after Crosshair would have at least had some element of surprise.

I think the problem with these justifications is most easily seen in “Rescue on Ryloth” and, later, “War-Mantle.” In the former, we do watch Hunter decide that going on a rescue mission is too much of a risk, only for Omega to talk him into considering it.

Hunter: “It’s a big galaxy. We can’t put ourselves on the line every time someone’s in trouble.”

Omega: “Why not? Isn’t that what soldiers do?”

Hunter: “It’s not worth the risk.”

Omega: “She’s trying to save her family, Hunter. I’d do the same for you.”

The arguments that sway him are ‘Soldiers should help people’ and ‘Soldiers should specifically help their family.’ So… what does that say about their feelings for Crosshair? They’re willing to put themselves on the line for the parents of a girl they met once at a drop site, but not their own brother? That’s the message the writing sends. “But, Clyde, the difference is that they had an advantage here. Hera’s knowledge of her home planet tipped the odds in their favor.” Yeah… and Crosshair is stationed on TBB’s home planet. Even more than them collectively having the same knowledge that Hera does, “Return to Kamino” reveals that Omega always had additional, insider knowledge of the base: she has access to a secret landing pad and the tunnels leading up into the city. That knowledge was given and used the second Hunter’s freedom was on the line, but it never once came up to use for Crosshair’s benefit. 

“War-Mantle’s” mission puts this problem in even sharper relief. Another claim I’ve seen a lot is that TBB only took risky rescue missions because they needed to be paid. The guys have got to eat after all. Yet Tech makes it clear that going after Gregor will lose them money. They’re meant to be on a mission for Sid and deviating for that won’t result in a payment. He explicitly says that if they decide to do this, they won’t eat. They do it anyway. No money, no intel, a huge risk “on a clone we don’t even know.” But that’s not what’s important, the show says. All that matters is that a brother is in trouble. This time it’s Echo pushing that message instead of Omega. When Hunter realizes that they’re about to try and infiltrate an entire facility and they don’t even know if this clone is still alive, Echo points out that they took that risk once before: for him. “If there’s a chance that trooper is being held against his will, we have to try and get him out.”

Yes! Exactly right! So why doesn’t that apply to Crosshair?

“Because he tried to kill them, Clyde!” No, that’s the easy, dismissive answer. A chipped Crosshair tried to kill them. AKA, a Crosshair entirely under the Empire’s control. The only difference between his enslavement and Gregor’s is that Gregor’s chains were physical while Crosshair’s were mental. And again, the point of everything at the start of this post is to show that no one knows when or even if that chip was removed. TBB definitely didn’t have any reason to suspect that Crosshair was working under his own power until Crosshair himself said as much. We might have been able to make that case at the start of the season, but “Battle Scars” removes any possible confusion. The entire team watched Rex reach for his blaster when he learned their chips were still in. The entire team watched Wrecker become a totally different person and attack them, just like Crosshair did. The entire team forgave him instantly and had their own chips removed. So why in the world didn’t anyone go, “Wow, Crosshair has a chip too. He was no more responsible for attacking us than Wrecker was. We need to try to get him out, no matter how hard that might be, just like we had to try for all these other people we’ve helped.”

But they didn’t. No one even considered rescuing Crosshair. They only went back for Hunter and, when they realized Crosshair was there too, they didn’t change their plans to try and rescue him as well. He’s treated as a particularly threatening inconvenience, not another team member in need of their help.

The problem I have with how this all went down is that the team treated Crosshair like an enemy despite all evidence to the contrary. Despite Omega outright saying that this isn’t his fault, it’s the chip, the group seems to decide that he’s gone crazy or something and that there’s nothing they can do. “It’s fine,” I thought. “They don’t really get what the chip is like yet. They don’t understand how thoroughly it controls someone.” But then “Battle Scars” arrives and Wrecker is treated with such compassion (which he deserves!) only for the group to continue acting like Crosshair is somehow different. It’s easy to say, “But Crosshair shot Wrecker” and ignore the easy pushback of, “and Wrecker nearly shot Omega.” Up until Crosshair’s own accusations and Omega’s ignored comments, TBB’s understanding of the chip’s influence and the lack of responsibility that accompanies mysteriously disappears when the show’s antagonist becomes the subject of conversation. This is seen most clearly in how Hunter tries to frame things during his talk with Crosshair:

“You tried to kill us. We didn’t have a choice.”

“Can’t you see that they’re using you? It’s that inhibitor chip in your head.”

“You really don’t get who we are, do you?”

Hunter mentions the chip, but he acts as if it’s Crosshair’s responsibility to overcome it: “Can’t you see…” Of course he can’t see, that’s the entire point of the chip, the thing he currently believes Crosshair still has stuck in his head. But Hunter and the others—with Omega as a wonderful exception—never seem to have accepted this like they did for Wrecker. When Crosshair “tried to kill us” it’s seen as a deliberate act that he chose, not something forced on him like with Wrecker. When Hunter talks about their ethics, he subconsciously separates the team from Crosshair: “You really don’t get who we are, do you?”, revealing a pretty ingrained divide between them. Even Wrecker gets in on the action, the one brother who truly understands how much the chip controls someone: “All that time, you didn’t even try to come back.” What part of he couldn’t try is not hitting home here? Again, for the purposes of this conversation it doesn’t matter whether Crosshair was chipped this whole time or not. The point is that TBB believed he was chipped… and yet still expected him to somehow, magically overcome that programming, writing him off when he failed to do that. He’s consistently held responsible for actions that they were told (and, through Wrecker, saw) were completely outside of his control. Even when we factor in his claim that the chip was removed, TBB has ignored all the evidence I listed at the start. No one, not even Omega, challenges this super vague and strange claim, or seeks out proof because they don’t want to believe that their brother could willingly do this. There’s just this... acceptance that of course Crosshair went bad. Why? Because he was an asshole sometimes? Taking it all as written, it doesn’t feel like the batch considered him a true part of the team. Certainly not like Wrecker or Hunter. As shown, the batch will go out of their way, risk anything, forgive anything, for them. They have a level of faith that was never shown to Crosshair. 

“Severe and unyielding,” Tech says and he’s absolutely right, but I’d seriously challenge this idea that any of the others would have automatically done better if the situations were reversed. It stood out to me that each batch member has a moment of doubt throughout the series, a brief glimpse into how they think the Empire isn’t that bad, at least when it comes to this particular thing. Basically, a moment that could lead to a very dangerous line of thinking without others to stomp it down. Wrecker announces that he’s happy working for whoever, provided they give him food and let him blow things up. Tech finds the chain codes to be an ingenious strategy and is clearly fascinated with their development. Hunter initially wants Omega to stay on Kamino, despite knowing that this Empire has already, systematically killed an entire group of people: the Jedi. Doesn’t matter. She’s still (supposedly) safer there than she would be running with the likes of them.

There’s absolutely no doubt that those three made the correct choice in defying the Empire, but I believe that their ability to make that choice is largely dependent on them having each other. They survive together, not apart, and it’s their unity that allows them to make the really hard calls, like setting out on their own and opposing such a formidable force. But if Tech’s chip had activated and he’d been left behind, would he have muscled through to escape somehow...or would he have gotten caught up in all the new technology the Empire offered him, succumbing to both his chip and the inevitability that if his squad no longer wanted him, why not stay? Would Wrecker have escaped, or been easily manipulated into a new life of exploding things? Would Hunter have been able to push through without his brothers, or would he have become devoted to a new team to lead? Obviously there’s no way to ever know, but it’s always easier to make the right decisions when you have support in doing so. Crosshair had no support. His team left him and yes, they had to in that specific moment, but the point is that they never came back. As far as we saw throughout the season, they never planned to come back. They all talk about loving the Crosshair who existed when life was easier, but they weren’t willing to fight for the Crosshair that most needed their help. When he says “You weren’t loyal to me,” he’s absolutely right. The same episode, “Return to Kamino,” gives Omega two powerful lines that the group rallies behind:

Omega: “[The danger] doesn’t matter. Saving Hunter is what matters.”

AZ: “You must leave.”

Omega: “Not without Hunter.”

The key word there is “Hunter.” Danger, stakes, risk, probability… none of that matters when Hunter needs help. Crosshair did not receive that same level of devotion.

Which creates a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy. The group is upset that Crosshair isn’t rejoining them, but they fail to realize that he has no reason to trust them anymore. He’s not joining the Empire because he’s inherently evil and that’s that, end of discussion. He’s joining it because above all Crosshair wants a place to belong… and TBB has made it clear—unintentionally—that he does not belong with them. The horrible actions that Crosshair took under his own free will (theoretically) came after he realized that doing bad things while under the Empire’s control was, apparently, unforgivable. If it wasn’t, his team would have come back to rescue him. They could have at least tried. But they didn’t, so Crosshair is left with the conclusion that either what he did under the Empire’s control is something the group can’t forgive him for, or they can forgive that (like with Wrecker) and he’s the problem here. He’s the one not worth that effort.

“The Empire will be fazing out clones next,” Hunter says. To which Crosshair responds, “Not the ones that matter.”

He wants to matter to someone and events show he no longer matters to his brothers. So why not stay with the Empire? I mean, we as the audience ABSOLUTELY know why not. Self-doubt and feelings of isolation aren’t excuses for joining the Super Evil Organization. Crosshair, if he is under his own control, is still 100% in the wrong for supporting them, no matter his reasons. So it’s not an excuse, but rather an explanation of that very human, flawed, fallible thinking. He needs to be useful. He needs to be wanted. Crosshair is an absolute dick to the regs and I have no doubt that a lot of that stems from the harassment TBB has experienced from them (with a side of his inflated ego), but I’d bet it’s also due to Crosshair’s intense desire to be valuable to someone. He keeps pointing out the regs’ supposed deficiencies because it highlights his own usefulness. When Crosshair fails to find Hera, the Admiral says that soon he’ll get someone who can, looking straight at Howzer at the door. It makes Crosshair seethe because his entire identity is based on being useful, yet no one seems to need him anymore. TBB seems to no longer want him. The Empire no longer wants clones. Now even regs are considered a better option than him, the “superior” soldier. Everywhere Crosshair turns he’s getting the message that he’s not wanted, but he’ll keep fighting to at least be needed in some capacity, no matter how small. Even if that means overlooking all the horrors the Empire commits.

“All you’ll ever be to [the Empire] is a number,” Hunter says and he’s absolutely right. But to TBB recently, Crosshair hasn’t even been that. He’s been nothing. Nobody worth coming back for. To his mind, at least being a number is something.

I hope that all of this resolves itself into a conclusion that is kind to each side (preferably without a Vader-style death redemption), especially given the still ambiguous state of the chip, but from a writing standpoint I’m admittedly a bit wary. We’re obviously meant to believe that the batch all love each other, but as established throughout this entirely too long post, this season did a terrible job imo of proving that they love Crosshair. Or, at least, proving that they love him as much as the others. If this was really meant to be just a matter of miscommunication, with Crosshair making terrible life choices because he only thinks he was abandoned, then we as the audience would have seen the batch trying and failing to get him out. Or at least establishing a very good reason why they couldn’t take that risk, hopefully with entirely different side-missions so the audience isn’t constantly going, “So you can risk everything for Gregor... but not Crosshair?” I’m VERY glad that Crosshair was allowed to air his grievances to the extent he did, but the end result of that—Hunter continually denying this, Omega walking away from him in their rooms, neither Tech nor Wrecker actually sticking up for him and acknowledging the chip’s influence during at least some of all this—is making things feel rather one-sided. It’s like we’re meant to take Crosshair at his word and accept that he’s this garden-variety antagonist who joins the Empire because yay being on the winning side… despite all these complications that clearly have a huge impact on how we read the situation. It doesn’t help that the show has already embraced an inconsistent manner of portraying chipped-clones. We know every clone has one, we know only a couple clones are aware of the chip’s existence (and can thus try to get it out), we know they enter a “Good soldiers follow orders” mindlessness once activated… yet towards the end we see a lot of side character clones thinking for themselves. Howzer decides that he’s no longer loyal to the Empire, giving a speech where a couple other clones throw down their weapons too. Gregor was arrested because he likewise realized how wrong this all was. But how is that possible? Do the chips completely control the clones, or not? Are these clones somehow exceptions? Are the chips beginning to fail? All of that has a bearing on how we read Crosshair—what were his own decisions, how much he was capable of overcoming the chip, whether that changed at all during certain points—but right now that remains really unclear.

It’s details like that which make me wonder if all these other questions will be answered. Will the story resolve all those ambiguous moments surrounding the chip, or brush them off with the belief that we should have just taken Crosshair at his equally ambiguous word? Will the story acknowledge Crosshair’s points through someone other than Crosshair, allowing it to exist as a legitimate criticism, rather than the presumed excuses of an antagonist? I’m… not sure. On the whole I’m very happy with TBB’s writing—despite what all this might imply lol. Until my brain picks over the season and discovers something else, my only other gripe is not allowing Omega to form a solid bond with Tech and Echo, instead putting all the focus on big brother!Wrecker and dad!Hunter. I think it’s a solid show that does a lot right, but I’m worried that, unless there’s a brilliant answer to all these questions and an intent to unpack both sides of the Hunter vs. Crosshair debate with respect—not just falling back on, “Well, Crosshair is with the Empire so everything he says is automatically bad and wrong” take—we’ve just gotten the setup for a somewhat messy, ethical story. For anyone here who also reads my RWBY metas, I’m pretty sure you’re not at all surprised that I’m invested in going, “Hey, you had one of the heroes suddenly become/join a dictatorship and do a lot of horrific things, but within a pretty complicated context. Can we please work through that carefully and with an acknowledgement of the nuance here, rather than throwing the ‘evil’ character to the proverbial wolves?”  

God knows TBB is leagues ahead of RWBY, but I hope things continue on in not just a good direction, but one that tackles the aspects of this situation that many fans—and Crosshair—have already pointed out. As much as I adore the cast—and I really, really do—it was discomforting to watch a found family show where 4/5th of that family so completely wrote off one of the members and crucially have, at least so far, refused to acknowledge that. I want complicated, flawed characters, but that’s only compelling when the storytelling admits to and grapples with those flaws. We have quite firmly established Crosshair’s flaws in Season One. I hope Season Two delves into the rest of the team’s too.

Aaaand with that meta-dump out of my system, I’m off to write TBB fic. Thanks for reading! :D

[cto10121]

but can we talk about how ooc it was for Aleksander to slaughter the second army and destroy the little palace. Yeah he's very 'either you are with me or against me' but come on...he built that place from the bottom up, he trained all those soldiers. He may not have been as emotionally connected to the Grisha around him the way he is in the show but to just wipe out what would have made up his main supporting base? When you conquer a kingdom you take over the armies like why didn't he just leave them alive and re conscript them lol it's a waste of time and resources even IF he believes he can just wait for more Grisha to be born to fill the ranks

Yes. So glad I’m not the only one who just could not accept this Idiot Ball of wanton destruction on the Darkling’s part. I literally have a post with these points in my drafts waiting, but here will do just as well.

You mean to tell me someone who spent decades serving kings, kissing ass, building the Little Palace from the ground up, leading the Second Army (all him!), sending scouts out to locate Grisha to house and train and protect them...would just decide to destroy at least a century’s worth of work and progress just because some of his Grisha turned on him? Would throw a talented and still useful Tailor like Genya to the volcra just because she hesitated to shoot a person of interest he also has a soft spot towards? This is more than just dumb, it’s self-destructive. It’s suicide.

I have always joked that this is where the Darkling got Voldemorted, but even Voldemort knew to reward his followers and accept even those who had previously betrayed him. Hell, he even accepted Snape back after he persuaded him of his loyalty. And Voldemort’s eroded humanity was well-established even before we knew of Horcruxes and splitting the soul into seven pieces. The Darkling’s time in the Fold gave him with scary new shadow powers, but in terms of his wits, I don’t find him much changed to justify this. Besides, he already used merzost to create the Fold. Didn’t prevent him from trying to secure a safe place for them, so it obviously did not make him less committed to his goal. Didn’t prevent him from catching feelings for Alina. It’s character assassination, pure and simple.

[misha-moose-dean-burger-lover]

for @bend-me-shape-me 's SPN advent calendar 2020. prompt: phone calls and late night texts.

Cas isn't a serial texter.

And Dean's a-okay with it.

But for all that's worth, they sure seem to have a ridiculous amount of emotionally significant conversations via, or starting off as, texts. And most often, in the middle of the night.

*

>>> hello, dean. [12:07 am]

Dean jolts up at the sound, realizing he fell asleep still wearing his headphones, with the laptop on his lap (and a new episode of The Good Place playing) and rolls his eyes at himself, hitting pause before he can see what’s happening (because he has good reflexes, and because screw spoilers that’s why) and rummaging for his phone.

At this hour of the night, it has to be something important.

It doesn’t really strike him that Mechanical Engineering majors whose only other selfprofessed skill is air guitar aren't exactly the frontline warriors for midnight emergencies.

Cas's name shows up when he squints at the too-bright screen, and he sits up a little straighter.

<<< hey [12:09 am]

<<< you OK? [12:09 am]

The response is immediate.

>>> do you have peanut butter? [12:09 am]

And as if it's an afterthought, Cas adds.

>>> yes, I'm fine. how are you? [12:10 am]

Dean blinks.

<<< peachy. peanut butter? [12:10 am]

At least this time the response takes a while. Dean wonders if Cas realized it was midnight, and not exactly a time to run inventory on your best friend's stash of condiments.

>>> I ran out. [12:12 am]

Dean sighs, unable to help smiling.

It's not like he's a stranger to Cas's weird cravings when he's high. (There'd been this one time with pie and a traumatized Gas 'N Sip cashier that still sits heavy on Dean's conscience.) But he doesn't think Cas is supposed to be high right now — Dean's usually either invited or informed by an unspoken rule — which just means this is regular "jelly, not jam"-Cas, at his core a weird, persistently sleep-deprived economics major and astronomy nerd, that Dean may or may not have had a crush on for an embarrassingly long time, and who's also prone to grammatically perfect texting, deadpan, Disney references, and bluntness when the occasion calls for it.

<<< pretty sure i have some [12:14 am]

>>> :) [12:14 am]

>>> I'm coming over [12:14 am]

*

And weird as it may sound, that had turned out to be the night Cas told him he was gay. Said it had been a revelating moment, unprecedented and wholly unexpected — and apparently revelations come in pairs because it had been followed by an intense need for peanut butter, and the rest, he explained emphatically, was history.

Dean had just snorted, congratulated him, and brought out the fancier plates for sandwiches — shipped in from home instead of a sale at Target — all the while, repeating to himself in a loop, that this changed nothing between them, nothing at all, and Cas having the capacity to be attracted back to him didn't mean that he ever would be (or for hell's sake, he'd scoffed at his traitorous chick-flick-nonsense brain, is.)

*

The second time had been early — way, way too early and it was by pure chance that Dean was awake to respond at six friggin' am on a Sunday. Like, that’s practically nighttime. 

Goddamn stupidly-fit running-freak.

Dean picks up his phone blearily, tongue in cheek as he clicks on it.

>>> I miss you [6:28 am]

>>> I'd* miss you [6:29 am]

Dean's stomach twists, and he's not sure if it's in a good way, or a bad way, or what-the-sincere-fuck-are-you-talking-about way.

<<< what [6:32 am]

<<< wtf are you talking about? [6:32 am]

Nothing.

<<< cas? [6:33 am]

<<< dude [6:34 am]

<<< cas???? [6:34 am]

Dean swears at his screen, more queasy than irritated. He can't stop fidgeting, so gives up on lying down altogether and hoists himself to his feet. Better to get his friggin' toothbrush since he's already up, and now definitely awake. Cas was so paying for this later.

He comes back, mouth mint-fresh in theory but still tasting awful and of fear and dread, and practically sags when he sees his screen blare with two messages from Cas.

>>> sorry, I had to make a call. [6:42 am]

>>> I'm not taking the job. [6:42 am]

*

And that's how Dean finds out about Michael (Cas's oldest brother, entitled asshole) inviting Cas to join his and Lucifer's (second oldest, bag of dicks) firm the year he graduates — invite, of course, being a loosely used word here for expecting it blindly (out of some crap he calls 'loyalty') and being readily willing to manipulate him into it.

And it's how he finds out that Cas turned them down.

"It's not who I am anymore." Cas had repeated, third time probably, and surer than before, and Dean had nodded earnestly before realizing Cas couldn't see him through the phone, and humming his affirmation instead. "And if I go back there, I'm never getting out again."

Dean'd swallowed.

"I don't want to." Cas had said, voice trembling. "I am — my own person here. It shouldn't be like this but this is the first time I have autonomy, Dean. Here is free will, and here are you. I don't — I can't. I'm not going to let them take it away."

"Good." He'd sounded shaky to even himself. "Don't."

"Yes." Cas had promised. "I'm not going."

*

And eventually they'd moved past the heavy talk into why-didn't-I-hear-about-this-before territory, Dean being righteously annoyed at his best friend for keeping something so huge from him, and Cas making lame (but probably valid) excuses in the name of not knowing how to explain the situation until he knew himself what he was going to do, because Dean may've been the first person he'd confided in about the insane fuckery that been his childhood and adolescence, but that still didn't mean he'd understand this, broken and convoluted.

And then Cas had nicely segued himself out of Dean's target of irritation and added, "They asked Gabriel too, by the way."

"And?" Dean didn't ever have much care for Gabriel (third oldest brother, cares about Cas, still a jerk) but Cas shared an apartment with him, so he had to face him plenty.

"He's running off to Miami."

And Dean had thrown his head back and laughed until Cas had smoothly added, "And I was wondering if you would consider moving in with me." 

At which point, of course, he'd started coughing instead, because holy shit, it actually made sense (Sammy had left for Stanford two months back, and Dean lived alone in a space that had probably been two big even when there were two of them) and might actually happen, but Dean wasn't really sure how much longer he'd be able to hide his crush, sharing a friggin' kitchen with the guy.

*

The third time's after their first date.

(Because, well. It happened.

It happened with Dean leaning across the breakfast table to prove to Cas his bacon was superior (to cookie friggin' crunch, because goddamn is Cas a dork) and Cas taking a bite with their eyes fixed on each other's, and Dean turning red when Cas licked his lips and then, just like that, Cas swearing under his breath (definitely filed for later pondering, that bit), grabbing Dean, and kissing the living daylights out of him.

And Dean had kissed back with everything he had, hands cupping his face, and nearly melting in his arms - but then they'd separated for air and Cas had had an apologetic look on his face and when Dean had tried to lean in to kiss it away, he'd received half a smile and a shake of his head.

"Let's do it the way we're supposed to."

And Dean had known immediately what he'd meant. Let's not fuck this up by becoming best friends and roommates who sleep together. Let's...play safe.

"Okay. Uh," he'd rubbed the back of his neck. "Would you like to go on a date with me?"

"Thursday." Cas had promised with twinkling eyes, though Dean had already known he was going to say that since he knew Cas’s week at least as well as he knew his own, and two days and an anxious half of a thursday later, they went on their first date. Burgers and beer, and Led Zepp, and hands held in the Impala. Four hours later, they were back, and in their respective rooms, and Dean couldn't stop thinking about Cas.)

When his phone vibrates, Dean reaches for the bedside table.

It's at least midnight, it feels like he's been in bed for ages, and the only reason he isn't asleep is because all his brain seems to be capable of at the moment is thinking endlessly about the date. Fortunately, he's not the only one — although he's better at hiding it (practise, he'd say) because his heart is in his mouth the moment he reads Cas's text.

>>> I think I'm falling in love with you [11:43 pm]

>>> already. [11:43 pm]

Dean is very grateful for autocorrect as he types back with too-excited thumbs and a racing heart.

<<< so much for doing it the regular way cas mosby [11:44 pm]

>>> in my defense, it's been years. [11:44 pm]

<<< that part i get [11:44 pm]

<<< me too [11:44 pm]

<<< but youre supposed to wait three days before calling dumbass [11:45 pm]

Jesus, he'd never expected to blush cause of texts, but here they are.

>>> I'm texting. [11:46 pm]

And he guesses he'd never expected to giggle (he's alone there, sue him) cause of them either, but Cas apparently exists to prove him wrong about himself.

<<< good for you [11:46 pm]

He sends, biting his lip, and then lies in the silent darkness for a couple of minute, devoid of text notifications entirely, thinking uneasily — before he gives up.

They're idiots, sure, but nobody is this dumb.

<<< so when the fuck are you coming over then [11:50 pm]

>>> on my way <3 [11:50 pm]

And thinking about the lightening speed of that reply and the fucking heart emoji is enough to sustain him the entire one minute it takes Cas to get there, gently opening Dean's door, and climbing into bed — fitting in Dean's space like it's been made for him, and kissing him in greeting after leaving his phone on the table next to Dean's.

*

As it goes, with the confessions and the midnight cravings (and the grocery lists that keep getting piled onto through the day, and random pickup lines Cas decides are perfect to send Dean daily once he's found a website for puns, courtesy of Claire, and of course, pictures of Grease, which clog Dean's cloud in dozens whenever the ridiculously cute cat does something even slightly out of routine, god bless her lazy soul) Cas might just be a texter.

But Dean's pretty sure he's more than okay with it, so it doesn't really matter.

[imagination-mess]

Why Sousuke is so loyal to Shinichiro?

Baji Sousuke / The Hellhound of the Black dragons Masterlist

When they are young teenagers, Shinichiro joins a fight despite knowing he is gonna get his ass beaten.

Sousuke was being overpowered by a group of gangsters. He was being attacked from all sides. He had beaten up their gang leader who brought his whole gang. He was clearly told Shinichiro to run away, this was his mess. But that stubborn boy refused to leave him for dead.

Sousuke was more worried about his friend than his own life. He couldn't focus. He knows Shinichiro may get killed which he did get stabbed when Sousuke was being held down to be stabbed but Shinichiro took the blow for him.

Takeomi had shown up last minute to see Shinichiro holding the blade in place. Takeomi saw Sousuke lift grown men from the ground where he was held down. He never has seen Sousuke so livid with anger. Veins were popping out of the neck and forehead.

Sousuke was covered in blood that wasn't his, with a few scratches and bruises. His uniform was rid of dodging knives.

"Take him out of here. I will cover for you! GO!"

Sousuke kept his word making a pathway through the crowd and becoming a demon from hell. He found using everything he would find to his advantage. He wasn't smiling because he was happy. He was grinning out of madness and pure rage.

He was cutting people with their own blades. Takeomi felt complete fear run through his body. Sousuke was a psycho of madness when it comes to fighting.

When Takeomi was carrying Shinichiro to the closest hospital, anyone who tried to follow them. Sousuke was using them as target practice and immobile them from running after them. He was throwing blades left and right all while laughing like a madman.

Sousuke can go all out without worrying about Shinichiro being caught in the crossfire.

Once he was done, he left a bloody mess behind. Gang members bleeding from their wounds with numerous bones broken. Sousuke personally called the hospital for them from one of the fallen gangsters.

When Sousuke came to visit Shinichiro in the hospital covered in bruises and covered with cuts with his siblings. Mikey and Emma were anxious to see their older brother. When Sousuke asked Shinichiro why didn't he run away knowing he could have lost his life.

"That would be cowardly of me, leaving my best friend for dead. You don't have to do things alone. "

It pulled Sousuke's heartstrings and declared to him his guard dog which cause Shinichiro to become frizzy.

Sousuke saw him as a true friend, a brother who was willing to stay behind despite knowing the consequences. Shinichiro was stubborn but wasn't afraid to stand up against the odds. A quality that Sousuke admired and appreciated.

Shinichiro was the first of many who wasn't afraid of him and genuinely wanted to become friends with him. He didn't want to use him for his strength. Shinichiro enjoyed his company and never had a boring moment with each other. He didn't see him as a tool, but a friend of a brother.

Shinichiro is worth being a loyal friend, who wouldn't ever backstab him. He wasn't that kind of person. He will be there through thick and thin.

Shinichiro was his first official friend ever. His past doesn't count as friends. They were fake friends who wanted to use him.

Sousuke and Shinichiro shared the same moral of loyalty, doesn't matter what happens.

BONUS: Sousuke earned respect from that gang, he has beaten the complete shit out of them. They wanted him to become their leader, which he straight-up refused numerous times. However, when the black dragons were formed. Shinichiro convinced him to become the captain of that division from the previous gang when they were absorbed into the black dragons. They followed Sousuke like a king. He hated it, but was an excellent leader for his division.