#ronin being a therapist

[basicallyjaywalker]

The fact that being possessed by Morro for a short enough time to create a video left Ronin shivering and curled in a fetal position on the ground

(Ronin, who is characterized as being tough as nails and unbothered by most things)

Says a lot about how fucked up Lloyd must've been by being possessed for multiple days, actively fighting the possession at the same time

The fact that in the same scene he can stand and sass Morro is IMPRESSIVE. Lloyd's resiliency is insane and he deserves like the top five therapists in Ninjago rn

[ornii]

You’re Overthinking, Kate

Clint Needs to get Kate a good teacher, Luckily he knows a guy.. You.

Christmas was rousing around, closing in more and more during the winter. While this was a time of celebration for many, for two in particular they weren’t so lucky. Kate Bishop has put herself in a pickle and Clint, being her hero and a stand up guy, threw his arrow into the quiver to help her. The Tracksuit Mafia wasn’t one to let vendetta’s go, and unfortunately, Kate made the list. With her life on the line, Clint made a decision to help her by making a bold decision.

Standing in an Elevator the two silently stood there as it ascended.

“So… this guy..” Kate started, slowly trailing on not really able to form a coherent idea.

“Is he an Avenger?” She said with a gleam to potentially meet another, Clint coldly shook his head. “No, Shield Agent.”

“That’s.. cool too.” She said, a bit disappointed but still somewhat excited. The elevator halts with a swoosh and the door opens after a song ding. They step out to a wood tile floor and exquisite hallways. Clint heads left as Kate looks around at everything. “This is, awesome! They even have those little dove soaps!”

“Hey, focus, please?” Clint says, getting her attention. “Your life literally depends on it..” he mutters. They head to the hall and specifically to door number 195. Clint calmly knocks on the door.

“So, what’s the agent like? Is she like a Spy or a Double agent?”

“No, well something like that..”

“Something?”

“Former Shield Agent, now hired Mercenary.”

“You took me to a hired assassin?!” Kate yells and Clint glares at her to lower her voice. “Mercenary, it’s different.. plus he’s like you.”

“An archer?”

“Annoying.”

The door casually opens to a man in his twenties, dressed in causal wear. His eyes undress Kate up and down and he smiles.

“What can I… do for you?” He asks, his eyes look over and sees Clint, his demeanor changes and he sighs. “Oh, hey Clint.”

“(Y/n), we need your help.”

“Therapists are on the 14th Floor.” (Y/n) replies and prepares to close the door, Clint puts his foot in to keep it from closing.

“I’m serious..”

“So am I.. I doubt Shield wants you talking to me, plus I don’t want to put the girl in any trouble. So will you please take your foot and—“

“We need the Taskmaster.” Clint huffs, (Y/n) halted in his steps and slowly opens the door. He didn’t say much to Clint and simply let them in. Clint follows him and he motions for Kate to follow. They enter a modest studio apartment. One part seemed normal, bedding, Kitchen, small living room, the other half had what seemed to be a training ground, flat surfaces, mats, weights, weapons, all wood. (Y/n) stopped in the middle of the training Ground and turned around to face them.

“So, what do you want?” He said pretty bluntly.

“Tracksuit Mafia. What do you know?” Clint asks first.

“Them? Small town Gang running in New York, went big after the snap. last time I checked Ronin put the sword to them. Why ask?” (Y/n) said.

“They’re the issue.”

“Ah, okay.. but what does she have to do with this?” (Y/n) asked, his eyes turned to Kate, she didn’t really know what to say, until she just blurts something out.

“Is that a Keurig?” She points to his kitchen. Specifically at his Keurig coffee maker. Pristine condition, a Keurig K elite Maker.

“Uh, yeah? has Hazenut, Dark roast, French Vanil—“ (Y/n) trails off and stops talking. “Are you about to ask for some? Absolutely not I’ve known you for 2 minutes.” He said, and Kate puts on a puppy dog eyes bit. “Please?” She asks, Clint watches (Y/n)’s face contort, he was always known to be a stone cold merc. But now his face looks. Conflicted.

Kate sits sipping her coffee, relishing the rich flavor. (Y/n) was staring at her, arms folded.

“Okay so let me get this straight, you’re the one who broke Stane tower shooting an arrow at it?” (Y/n) reiterated the information he’s been told, “Which is why my credit cards are Maxed out.” Kate adds in.

“I didn’t ask— whatever. Point is the Track suits think you’re ronin. Why? You don’t look that threatening.” (Y/n) was confident in his analysis. Kate her coffee down, “I can show you.” She replies, (Y/n) eyes Clint, who waved them off as if to say “Go for it.”

The trio stand on the roof of the Apartment and (Y/n), Kate and Clint were standing in the pure snow, five targets stood across them and he motioned Kate to go first.

“Watch and be amazed.” Kate let five arrows loose and hit bullseyes on each one, Clint gives (Y/n) a look, and he nods in approval. Kate turns to (Y/n).

“Pretty good, not gonna lie. My turn i suppose.” He says and she hands him the arrow and he takes a deep breath.

“So, when did you learn how to shoot?” She asks.

“Just now.” He responds, Kate was obviously confused by the reply. “What did you just—“ (Y/n) with Zero hesitation let loose 5 arrows as well, each one splitting hers as they also hit perfectly dead on. Kate was obviously confused by this.

“How did you just—“

“Photographic Reflexes.” Clint says, “Kid can duplicate any physical move he sees moments later, even copy fighting styles. Basically.” Clint says and (Y/n) finishes for him

“Anything you can do, I can do better~” he says in a sing song voice, mockingly.

“Your archery skills are impressive, I might keep them.” He said. “You’ve got potential though.” He adds in, turning to Clint.

“So, this is why you came to me, to train her.”

“You’re someone I trust…” Clint admits, and (Y/n) turns to Kate.

“Alright, one last test, hand to hand combat.”

Back in the Apartment, Clint stood in the middle of them as (Y/n) didn’t seem particularly worried about fighting her, Kate on the other hand was pretty worried that she’ll get her butt kicked, and she was pretty right.

“Alright.” Clint steps back and (Y/n) looked so aloof and relaxed. Kate moves in with a few martial arts, swift jabs and strong kicks, (Y/n) was playing mostly Defence, dodging or blocking her hits. Simply gathering information until his body calculates hers. He gets all the information he needs, he counters by slamming his foot down, ducking a punch and using her momentum to toss her across the room as she goes sliding across the room, getting up frustrated she moves back in, (Y/n) this time implements the Black Widow style, acrobatic dodges and well placed strikes to the body to weaken her. And with another judo throw she winds up on the ground.

“Fighting someone who keeps changing seems impossible, I know. But you’ll be fine”

(Y/n) says, but Kate was dead silent.

“Uh, you okay?” He asks, she nods.

“You sure? You look, pale.”

“Nah. I’m good.” She replies, he helps her up as Kate tries to play off how much pain she’s in.

“I just need to sit down for a sec that’s all.” Kate tries to walk to the couch like she’s fine but the small limp says a lot. (Y/n) turned to Clint.

“She’s definitely better than most… a little green but who isn’t at her age.”

“You’re only three years older.” Clint flatly points out.

“Hey.. I’m trying to look cool here.” (Y/n) says. “I’ll teach her what I know, after that we’re square, okay?”

“Promise.”

Day 2

Kate this time came on her Own, no Clint around, this time the two can spar without any trouble. (Y/n) kept his eyes locked on her, he didn’t have much trouble doing that. Kate went in with a flurry of stuff kicks, a few land on the body but (Y/n) blocks most and retaliates with a heavy strike to the body, the impact almost sent her flying back. (Y/n) was moreso the aggressor this time, trying to go for an overhead strike, Kate rolls out of the way and back up, each deflecting an attack.

“I know it’s hard! Trying to fight someone who knows your every move!” (Y/n) says mid battle, trying to help her. “Try something else, you gotta have something else.” He said, with a palm strike Kate was stunned, (Y/n) prepares for another judo throw, but as he tosses her, she locks her leg with his, halting his throw, she breaks her arm free and wraps around his waist for a stunningly beautiful German Suplex. (Y/n) hit the ground hard, Kate sits up breathing hard, but proud of her win.

“Did you see that? I—“ Kate turned to (Y/n) who slowly stood up, wobbly.

“Shit are you okay? Please tell me you’re okay?” She grabs his wrist. Keeping him from wobbling, (Y/n) looks at her, his daze and confused expression slowly faded as he looked at the worry in her eyes. Kate sighs with relief.

“I’m good, that just caught me off guard, you’re getting better Bishop.” He said, she smiles, proud of herself. It was silence in the room, until Kate realized they’re holding hands, she pulls them back embarrassed.

“I am so sorry!”

“Nah it’s cool, it’s cool.” (Y/n) says, “So.. uh, good workout.. maybe you wanna.. go get a smoothie?” (Y/n) asked, Kate tilts her head a bit.

“Like.. a date smoothie?” Kate ask, almost sounding hopeful.

“N-no like a, post-workout-after-getting-a-German-suplex smoothie.”

“They make those?” She asks.

“They would if I asked, I mean I’m paying for it, you got your cards taken.”

“You don’t have to keep reminding me.”

“Yeah but, I like to.” He replies. And this got an honest laugh out of Kate, seeing her smile did something to (Y/n). He couldn’t put his finger on it but.. he wanted to see it so much more.

(Hey, so like.. I’ve never watched a single episode of Hawkeye, I just did this from general information and memory so i apologize for the lack of consistency to the MCU but let’s say the Black Widow Taskmaster was Task Manager. Besides that I hope I did justice and more Nat and Wanda coming. I promise I’m working on shit.)

[juniperjellyfish]

Ninjago headcanons because my alarm goes off in two hours and I don’t think I’ll be sleeping anytime soon

Kai is very hot/cold resistant. If it’s super cold outside, you can watch steam rise from his body

Cole gives everyone nicknames. Kai is HairGel. Nya is WaterLily. Jay is ZapTrap/MotorMouth/HalfStack. Zane is Popsicle. Pixal is just Pix because she doesn’t really like nicknames and Cole respects that.

Lloyd calls everyone Buddy

Zane has the sass of my nine year old little sister who wears her baby crown proudly

Pixal sees herself as a lesser being than the other ninja, and has identity issues

Nya struggles with depression

Whenever Jay gets excited, sparks fly off of him, and there’s been times when he accidentally shocked Nya when he kissed her.

Speaking of Jay, he is covered in lightning scars

Cole can play the violin!

Kai is a homophobic bisexual

Master Wu feels guilty about making the ninja team in the first place because he sees how he has added so much hardship to their lives, he doesn’t realize that at the end of the day, the ninja love what they do

Except lloyd. If he could retire, he would

Lloyd has enhanced hearing, vision, smell, etc because of his Oni/dragon blood

Lloyd suffers from chronic migraines (I have these so he gets them too)

Jay used to be the tallest of the ninja, but now he’s the second shortest and thus the nickname “HalfStack

KAI HAS FRECKLES

Dareth does crack (long story)

Pixal has a smal crush on Nya, but she won’t say anything because of Jay

Jay reads fanfiction about himself

Wu doesn’t allow the ninja to have alcohol, but Kai has secret stash on the hydro bounty

Jay wants kids one day

The ninja got so sick of the electric chicken that they made Lightning chicken nuggets

Nadakhan is gay

Mr. F has a reputation if ya know what I mean

Cole plays DND with the Upply twice a month. Vania is the DM

Ultra Violet and Kilo are distant descendants of Oni and the people from the first realm

Akita thinks furries are cultural appropriation

Cole hates heights and hasn’t really gone mountain climbing since his fall

Skylor and Benthomaar are besties

Skylor had never seen a dog while living on Chen’s island, so when she saw one for the first time, she freaked out and thought it was a monster

Christofern is now Christotree

Jay and Nya are the only ones that can remember Skybound. Whenever they tell someone the story, they forget within the hour because of magic

Lloyd got his blonde hair because of genetics. No one cheated, no hair dye, so sun bleaching. Just basic genetics

Jay’s birth mom cheated on Cliff and got pregnant, so cliff walked out on her and she abandoned Jay because she couldn’t take care of him.

Kai’s brown hair is a recessive gene

Nya doesn’t like drinking water, because she can feel its energy traveling into her body and it grosses her out

Ronin has almost asked Misako out

Pixal likes butterflies

Lloyd loves to read

If pixal was a human, she would have vitiligo that somewhat resembles her purple markings

Cole and forest green eyes

Lloyd loves root beer

Nya’s powers have been permanently weaker since coming back from the sea and it gives her severe anger issues

Cole occasionally walks into walls and doors because he forgets he’s not a ghost

Cole can see ghosts

Cole is the group therapist

Kai realized he was bi when he saw Cole do the glow worm song

Every Friday, the group does a movie night

Jay loves his buff gf

Cole likes to paint

Jay likes to draw

Kai made everyone weapons for their birthday

If Kai is mad, he starts smoking. No- not like that- like smoke rises from his body

[ducknotinarow]

Sooo I have mikey brain rot apperently soo have mikey gead cannons too uwu that no one asked for. Look last Ronin is still on my mind and I want good things for mikey ;3;

Applies to all

* The heart of the team

* The one who embraces being a turtle mutant the most he's very comfortable in his shell

* The most trusting of the batch so if he thinks something is up? Usually his hunch isn't too far off on something be wrong

* 2012 has light blue eyes and I won't change that buuut I like to think 2003 and rise have brown eyes uwu

* Deff feels he has it the easiest as the youngest and often down plays his own struggles and hangup.

* The most physically affectionate one a big hugger uwu

[2003]

* A full time pop culture nerd from.movies to comics. Mikey would absolutely love the mcu

* Feels he and his brothers shouldn't live in hiding because they could do so much good for people

I

* Is very influenced by his comic books in his idea of being a hero which can conflict with the whole being a ninja thing

* Won the battle championship once and will never shut up about it

* knows he has it easy in the family but hates how he's not taken very serious by anyone. Sure he's fine with his role as the 'clown' but he wants his brothers to see he isn't nothing but a joke

* Also only feels he's nothing but a joke u_u

* He has the most intrest in human culture for sure and it's why he got so into comics and such.

[2012]

* Likes to draw pictures for donnie to hang in his lab

* A very orthodox fighter and loves it cause he knows it passes people off but it's what he feels is his biggest strength

* Loves finding old TV shows to watch and get into.

* Has a tumblr where he find fellow fans of the old stuff he watches ofc they don't know he's a turtle.

* Draw himself as an oc

* Very empathic, even towards Raph when he feels he needs it most at least.

* Since he deals with raph do much he handles people anger pretty well but sometimes he also the one instigating it because it's kind of fun todo so

* His biggest thing is he just wants his family to stay together and loves that he can bond with his brothers and friends as he dose but can he always have everyone together?

* He tries to always keep up his mindset as being the sunshine one, the one never bortrs by anything so he tends to lock himself up in his room on days he jist can't be that for others but dosent want anyone to know

[Rotmnt]

* Whenever his brothers got in trouble and put in time out he demanded to be given time out as well because it's not fair that his brothers got something and he didn't

* Splinter gave up trying to explain why mikey wasn't getting time out.

* Did this the most when Leo got in time out just sit with his older brother uwu

* When mikey get art block he can annoying to deal with because he just can not relax till he's able to draw again

* Mikey acts as family therapist because he wants to give back to brothers in some way as theu do him all the time.

* However he dosent open up himself he's very good at actting like he's fine all the time

* Likes to steal his brothers partners cause they his friends now uwu usagi complies the most sorry Leo xD

* Since the movie he's had some power explosions because he forced his mystic powers to work in order to get Leo back

* Mikey has Essential tremor in his hands now ever since opening that portal to the prison dimension.

* He hides this from the others but it's been upsetting him when his hands start shaking and he can't control it and for a bit he'll stop drawing till he can understand what's going on.

* When he's upset he'll hide in his shell. He's gone days in there before

* Mikey is obsessed with celebrity chefs like meatsweats

* loves goofing around with Leo the most

* dose get annoyed woth how much raph can baby him in terms of what he thinks he can and can't handle

[alt-writes-stuff]

Some hc from itjh:

Splinter is more of an active father and has better mental health thanks to Ronin!Mike. A combination of having someone else to talk about this + pulling his ass off his room every time he starts to close up.

Mike forces him to be more open, which Splinter is allergic. Donnie and Leo got that from him.

Their relationship is… different. They act a lot like college roommates.

Mike is more open to talk to his problems. Is a Michelangelo constant to be natural therapists.

They’re both on the boat of “not wanting the kids to become child soldiers”. Splints trains them bu showing them the Lou Jitsu movies when they were kids and Mike decided to give them a bit of training when Raph becomes 12, just so they can learn self defense. They got formerly train when they got into more troubles.

Splinter isn’t as small like his canon counterpart. More active exercise and better health.

Leo and Donnie are twins, but neither is the oldest nor the youngest one. They alternate between older/younger depending on the day and on who’s acting more responsible/more chaotic on that day.

Raph is not as mother hen as in canon. Thanks on having two adults being more present on his and his siblings life he’s more allowed for freedom. He stills worry tho, but it’s more bc older sibling than anything else.

Mikey gets babyfied and he both loves it and hates it. On one side he has everyone around his finger, on the other side he hates being treated has a baby. Mike can sympathize with the feeling.

Ronin!Mike acts as an older brother for the kids.

When the guys were younger they thought that Mike was like a second dad for them and they tried to set a date for both Splints and him. It became the most embarrasing moment of their lives and the adults don’t let them leave that down.

Bc of that incident Mike clarified that he was their brother (which is true). The tots never question it a lot, they were like “he’s an adult and a turtle. We’re turtles too, so he must be our dad.” And “the rat is our dad too, so we got two dads”.

Mike is the eldest by over 20 years, but Raph is still the older brother between the kids.

Mike had a power trip with this knowledge.

Mike was 33 when he died in his original universe. But he was returned to his 20s in the Rise verse. He got a young body but with those old man joints pain.

Mike wears a new color of bandana: an amber orange with a gradient to black on the tails of the mask. One of his tails also has three beads, red, blue and purple representing his fallen brothers.

They find out who their eldest brother is, eventually.

Leo is transmasc (female to male). No one knew that Leo was afab until he had his first period, but Leo got used to male pronouns so he stuck with it. (Note: this is the first time that I write a trans character, any help will be useful thanks).

Leosagi happens in the background. Mike’s not surprised.

And that will be all! Feel free to ask questions in my inbox. Whoever sends me a dm will be silenced /j.

[grimbeak]

Pt 2/the aftermath of Mistakes. 

Tws for this drabble- attemped suicide (sort of. no one actually gets hurt), discussions of suicide/self-harm attempts (neither suicide or self-harm are directly mentioned, but it’s obvious that that’s what the characters are talking about.), and descriptions of a panic attack/mental breakdown.

let’s continue.

Mistakes- pt 2 

Jay had lost his friends the other ninja somewhere in Ninjago city, dissipating his dragon halfway through the chase and hiding in an alley for a few minutes. 

After he got out of the city, he had flown to Stix- didn’t take too long when you were flying, surprisingly. 

And now he stands in front of Ronin’s shop, wondering if it would be rude to simply phase through the door. 

He looks down at the water slapping against the poles below him.

He could just jump in. 

Jay knocks, eventually, and it takes a few seconds for Ronin to answer. When he does, he’s holding a sword. For some reason. “If you’ve come about the stolen gold, I swear, I didn’t do anyth-” his eyes land on Jay. “Oh.” 

“Yeah. Hi.” Jay fidgets where he’s standing. “I’m assuming you already know about what happened on the island?”

Ronin nods, not setting down his sword, but lowering it. “Mhm. Few tribe members passed through here a couple weeks ago- I managed to drag the story out of ‘em.” 

“Great,” Jay says sarcastically, “so everyone knew what happened before I did.”

“Yeah, I guess- wait, knew?” Ronin narrows his eyes. “So you know.”

“That I went insane and tried to kill my fri- my team? Yes. Yes, I do. That they then killed me? I also know that.” 

“...Good for you,” Ronin says slowly, leaning his sword against a cabinet. The duo stand there in silence for a moment until Ronin sighs, stepping back inside and holding the door open. “It’s gonna rain soon,” he notes, glancing up at the thickening clouds. “You coming in or not?” 

Jay hesitates, looking up at the gray sky. 

It would be so easy to stay out here and just burn. 

The wind whips up around him as he finally steps into Ronin’s shop, the first few droplets of rain darkening the wood.

It’s... less messy than the last time Jay was here, but it’s still full of probably-stolen items. Ronin directs him towards a chair near his desk. “Here. Sit.” Jay obeys, plopping down onto the chair and drawing up his knees to his chest. Ronin wanders over to the door, locking it (probably so the police can’t get in.) before going back over to the counter, where he drags a chair out and sets it a few feet away from Jay’s. “So. What happened?” 

Jay takes a moment to look at an only mildly-broken clock hanging in the corner of Ronin’s shop. It took him about three hours to get here, considering he had to walk through most of Ninjago City. “I,” he starts, “overheard some... things. On purpose.” 

“Ah. Eavesdropping.” Ronin gives him an approving nod. “Well done.”  

Jay looks at him.

“Sorry. Go on.” 

So Jay tells him.

The Aeroblades are in the left corner of the room, around ten feet away from where he’s sitting. They’re lying on the second self from the floor. 

“Well,” Ronin says eventually, “that sucks.” He eyes Jay warily. “So why’d you come here, anyway? Seems kind of a weird place to run away to.” 

Jay shrugs. “Seemed like a good idea,” he lies. “They won’t... the others won’t think to look for me here. With all the water and all. I just need some time to think, anyway.”

Ronin eyes the singular window in his shop, looking at the rain pouring down onto the docks. “Well, you have plenty of that. And, if you want, I can just tell them you’re not if here if you come by.”

“You’d... you’d do that for me?”

“I mean I’m stuck with you until the rain lets, which, in this place, can take hours. Maybe even a day, if we’re lucky.” His tone is sarcastic, and Jay offers a weak smile. “‘course you can stay here, kid. Just don’t touch anything.” 

“...Thanks,” Jay whispers eventually, turning to stare out the window. 

Idly, he wonders if the rain would be so kind as to redirect itself through a hole in the roof and spray directly onto him.

The rain, being inanimate, doesn’t reply, and instead keeps doing what rain does best: falling. 

***

Ronin knows the kid didn’t just come out here to hide out. He could’ve done that anywhere- the mountains, someone’s house (he can turn invisible, right?), or even a crappy store somewhere in Ninjago City. 

But no.

He chose Stix. Specifically, Ronin’s shop in Stix.

And Ronin thinks he knows why. 

Jay is... definitely not in the right state of mind at the moment. And for a good reason- your friends indirectly telling you that they were forced to kill you in self-defense after you tried to kill them and raze your home has gotta mess you up. 

Ronin locked the door to his shop so Jay wouldn’t go outside to purposefully disintegrate himself (now that he thinks about it, the blue ghost can go through walls.... still, he tried). 

But Ronin has other items in his shop. Some of which, unfortunately, are used for taking out ghosts.

Which is why he’s not at all surprised to see Jay holding an Aeroblade as Ronin comes out from the back room. 

“Jay, put it down.” The blue ninja jumps, nearly dropping the weapon as it starts to phase through his fingers. He catches it, though, being careful not to touch the sharp bits. He turns, and Ronin can see his eyes.

Wide and wild.

Scared.

This isn’t going to be easy, is it.

“Jay, please put the Aeroblade down.” Ronin’s voice is calm, despite himself, and some part of him wonders why. 

“I don’t-” Jay’s voice is shaky and unstable, and Ronin mentally prepares himself for the worst in a few minutes. “I could just- I could-” His hands are shaking too, Ronin realizes. 

“You had a chance a few hours ago,” Ronin says slowly, “over the water. And even now it’s still raining. You can phase through walls, can’t you? So why this? Why now.”

“I- I’m-” Jay hesitates, for a second, breath still coming out in short, tiny little gasps. “It’s- I don’t- I don’t want to hurt them.” 

The other ninja. 

He’s scared that he’ll lose it again and try to hurt them.

“Well,” Ronin starts, “the first thing you did after finding out what you did was run here, right?” Jay nods, warily, and Ronin continues. “If you were going to hurt them, then wouldn’t you have done it back at the temple? You ran here to protect them from you. Or,” he adds after seeing Jay’s hesitate expression, “you came here to protect yourself from them.”  

“It was- I- it was both, I-I think,” Jay manages, breath calming slightly. His grip on the Aeroblade is still tight, though, and if his fingers weren’t a shade of green and see-through, Ronin thinks they would be white from squeezing the weapon so tightly. “I don’t- they killed me.” 

“I know,” Ronin whispers, stepping closer. Jay lets him, although he does pull the Aeroblade slightly closer to his chest- the spikes are pointing at various walls, though, not at the ghost boy, so that’s good for now. “I know they did, and they shouldn’t have, even if you tried to hurt them. They should’ve tried to contain you, not kill you.”

“I hurt them, too.” 

“It wasn’t your fault- you weren’t thinking straight.” Ronin hesitates, for a moment, thinking. “Didn’t the tribe pull some voodoo stuff on you? That would’ve messed anyone up, even me.”  

“Yeah,” Jay whispers, “messed up my head. But- but they had a lot to work with, I mean- the feelings that my team didn’t- doesn’t care about me, the feelings that I was abandoned by my parents, my real parents... I had those already. ‘s not like they put those thoughts in my head when they were messing with it.” 

“That’s still OK. Kid, from what I’ve seen, your friends treat you like crap. Even if they’ve been trying to make up for it, that still doesn’t excuse their actions. Doesn’t mean you didn’t do anything wrong, though. But you weren’t in control of yourself for most of it, and... ‘sides. Power corrupts even the best of people unless it’s handled carefully.” 

“Yeah.” Jay looks at the Aeroblade in his hands. “...Zane was being controlled in the Never-Realm, once. Evil staff. Evil henchperson. He froze a lot of people.”

“Ooookkkk.” Ronin’s gonna have to ask exactly why the heck these kids haven’t gotten therapy yet. “So, you and him have something in common, then. You’ve both been controlled by forces you couldn’t stop. Maybe you should try talking to him about it. When you’re ready, of course,” Ronin adds quickly. “I don’t think the rest of your guys have the brain cells to come looking here.” 

Jay doesn’t respond, but he does allow Ronin to step closer. Ronin reaches for the Aeroblade. Jay hesitates, drawing it worryingly closer to his chest, but eventually lets the other man take it, setting it down on a table beside him. 

Ronin takes a moment to look into the kid’s eyes, which are suddenly welling up with tears and oh there’s a child in his arms, isn’t that weird.

(He remembers why he was so calm, now. He’s done this before.

Maybe this time, the kid will live.) 

Jay’s arms are tight around him, and Ronin freezes before letting him bury himself in Ronin’s coat, muffled sobs cutting through the soft pitter-patter of rain outside. 

Do tears burn ghosts?

Maybe, but Ronin’s not entirely sure that Jay wants it to stop. 

Jay’s obviously not concentrating hard enough for Ronin to be able to touch him at the moment, so he settles for awkwardly patting the kid’s shoulder while trying to stop his hand from going through his body.

Maybe... maybe this time, things’ll be OK.

***

It’s nearly four A.M before the ninja come knocking on Ronin’s door.

Jay’s been asleep for almost six hours now, passed out on the couch in the back room. Ronin’s not sure how much longer he’ll sleep, but hey, at least he’s not having any nightmares.

Ronin, however, has been awake for nearly twenty-four hours now, and he wants to gouge his eyes out. Even thieves need a good nights rest. 

(He doesn’t want to admit that he’s staying awake in case Jay has another breakdown. Ronin just can’t sleep because of the rain. The rain that’s been lightly sprinkling for about an hour now. The rain that no one can hear from inside. That rain.) 

The rest of the ninja, presumably, are standing outside the door, exhausted and soaking wet. 

Ronin opens the door.

The rest of the ninja are standing outside the door, exhausted and soaking wet. 

“Hello,” Ronin says.

Kai, who has apparently no idea what manners are, asks immediately, “Is Jay here?” 

Ronin narrows his eyes, pulling the door slightly closed. “And what are you going to do if he is?”

Kai opens his mouth and gets nudged by Zane, who gives him a stern look like ‘remember what we talked about’. Kai, re-opening his mouth after a moment, says awkwardly, “We’re just going to talk to him. About... how we should have told him what happened on the island. And we’re gonna apologize, for, uh, killing him.” 

Ronin considers this, and eventually the door open the rest of the way. “It might be a while before you can apologize,” he says, and adds upon seeing Kai’s confused face, “don’t wake him up.” 

He leads them into the back room, where Cole immediately, for no reason other than seeing Jay asleep on the couch, goes ‘awwwww’. He is instantly shushed by Zane. Nya, however, studies her boyfriend (ex-boyfriend? Ronin’s not invested in all these relationships.) before going; “Is he using your coat as a blanket?”

Ronin, clearly not wearing his coat, glares at her. “No.” 

Lloyd studies the sleeping ghost for a moment. Finally, he says, “How long has he been here?” 

Ronin bites his lip, beginning to herd the team out the doorway so Jay doesn’t wake up. “Around... half a day now. Since yesterday, at least.” 

Kai thinks about this for a moment, like he always does when he has to think about things that are ridiculously easy to understand. “And what was he doing here, exactly?”

They’re all back in the main shop area, now, and instead of answering directly, Ronin walks over to the table and the shelf and hands Kai the two Aeroblades that remain in the shop. “I think you should take these.” 

Kai takes one as Cole takes the other, the fire ninja looking up in confusion. “What, is Jay gonna hurt us- did you hurt him?” 

“I didn’t.” 

“Then who-” Kai trails off as he thinks for a moment. His eyes widen. “Oh,” he whispers. “Did he- I mean, was he...”

“He tried to,” Ronin says simply. “He wanted to. I talked him out of it, though.”

“God,” Kai whispers, staring in horror at the weapon in his hand. “Thanks.” 

“There’s another thing I wanted you to talk about.” Ronin pulls out the chair Jay was sitting on earlier and sits down. The ninja have nowhere to sit. Ronin doesn’t care. “I have... a house. Up in the mountains.”

Cole narrows his eyes. “Is it your house or someone else’s house.”

“...You don’t need to know the answer to that right now. Anyway, even if Jay wants to talk to you guys, I doubt he’ll want to live with you for a while until he gets his head on straight. So, he can come to the mountains with me for a while- I need to stock up on some rare items only found up there, anyway. Plus, we’ll be away from all the... water.” 

“Isn’t snow made of water?”

Ronin looks at Cole. “Did snow affect you when you were a ghost?” Cole hesitates, then shakes his head. “That’s what I thought.” 

“Wait,” Kai interrupts, “Jay has parents. Can’t he stay with them instead of some thief in the mountains for a few months?”

“Have you told them about his situation?”

Kai hesitates. “We told them he was dead.” He goes quiet. “We, uh, forgot to tell them he was back as a ghost. I think he just assumed we told them at some point.” 

...This kids are all idiots. “You’re all idiots. Jay can stay with them if he wants to, of course. Just a suggestion since you guys won’t know where we live and won’t come to bother us every two days.” 

“Oh.” Kai considers this. “Yeah, that makes sense.”

Ronin stands up (and pretends not to notice Cole immediately stealing his seat), sighing. “You guys can either come back in a few hours or sleep on the floor, I don’t care.” And with that, he walks off to the back room where Jay’s still fast asleep.

(Later, after they come back, the ninja will find him asleep on the opposite side of the couch. He’s sitting up fast asleep, sword having fallen to the floor a while ago.

He looks peaceful.

And Jay does too.) 

[kraniumet]

textpost that says "the only thing that's stopping me from being a perfect killing machine is my medically diagnosed social anxiety disorder" so I can put it on a picture of masa from house of five leaves

[valkyrieandstrangeridingaragorn]

Bucky's arc should have been about self forgiveness, being able to move on and learning NOT to blame himself. Clint's arc should have been about atonement and truly facing what he did. Why is it so backwards?

I wish I had an answer. The strangest thing to me is that they wouldn't have had to change much in TFATWS, just a few scenes here and there and mostly the framing.

Like, they wanted Raynor to be a terrible therapist? That's fine, but make a point of showing she was bad, turn her into a villain or make her work for a government that wanted to use Bucky for their own purposes and allow Bucky the chance to confront her, set things straight, give us a scene where she realizes she was completely wrong about him and that forcing him to make amends was 100% victim blaming.

You want to show Walker losing it and feeling envious of Bucky's serum? Good, he lashes out but let Bucky reply that he never consented to that serum, that it was forcefully given to him while he was being tortured by Hydra. You want to show Sam's refusal of the serum as a heroic decision? Good, do the same with Bucky.

You want to change Zemo's characterization and portray him as oh so knowledgeable about superheroes? Well, when they make an exception for Steve saying the serum never corrupted him include Bucky there because it didn't corrupt him either - and holy hell can we please acknowledge that Steve was treated with care throughout the whole thing but Bucky never was?

You want the families of the victims killed by the Winter Soldier to get some form of closure? Cool! That's the government's job not Bucky's (he's a victim just like they are!). Get a group of people, mostly therapists, to contact these people, tell them what happened to their loved ones, offer psychological assistance. Portray Bucky as one of them and don't ever not even once imply any of those crimes were his fault.

They could have done all that without changing much of the story, just the framing. And yet they did the exact opposite: Raynor is never corrected, Bucky never gets to express himself, he's still blamed for what happened during the WS days and what's worse: he gets an earful about Isaiah when the series is supposedly implying that Bucky should have done something about him (with what authority?!!!) even though in the end they have Sam deny his wishes and include his name in the museum (my Sam would have never done that, terrible writing right there) and in the end they have Sam tell Bucky he has to do the work as if approaching those victims as a victim himself and telling them "Hi, I was forced to kill your loved one by a nazi organization, I'm so bad, please forgive me" was ever going to make him or the families feel any better.

But oh there's more! Here comes the Hawkeye series and Clint can talk about his time as Ronin ("everyone dealt with the Blip in their own way"), in the auction in ep 1 they claim the Ronin "brought justice to the victims" and in ep6 he gets to burn the suit and all is forgiven.

Look, I'm glad Clint was treated with compassion but where the hell was all that compassion in TFATWS? Why do they treat their characters so differently? I will never understand.

[thequeenofmyownscreen]

Fourteen things I noted about CR2E84 “Titles and Tattoos” and the Talks Machina about it :

Last episode of Talks, Matt talked about bringing Tharizdun in the background, and the recuring themes of hunger and insanity, and said that Marisha did pick up very early on the "hungry" theme. So I am overjoyed that in game, Beau is having the time of her life connecting the dots, between the nergalid who went crazy hungry, the not-regular gnolls, and later strange events of the rifts opening.

Matt : "It's good to have a Marisha in every party." A-fucking-MEN ! Her notes seems amazing. She drew a cat to remember that Oremid Hass liked Frumpkin !! Come on !!

I love Yussa talking shit about the members of the Assembly : Ludinus is dangerous, Jenna seems distracted, and Trent "is just creepy" (fair).

Sam the comedic genius, always ready to physically act, as Nott is silenced by Caduceus and Beau steals the gem from her hands, and he acts out her anger. Beautiful, I laughed so much.

Yussa is like "oh, Halas can only re-enter his body, huh ? WELL it would be a shame IF" and just proceeds to burn the body, he is so great.

Beau, about Jester being 'fucking ripped' in the words of Matt, as she is getting her tatoo half-naked except from the sash : "I try to make it not seem like I'm checking her out." BEAU YOU USELESS LESBIAN.

holy shit their tatoo designs are amazing

Caduceus' perspective on destiny and faith, with a nice plant metaphor, is amazing. I love this cow-man.

Beau and Nott confinding in each other : it started as a joke, but Beau quickly realized she was actually confinding in Nott that she doesn't know why her immediate thought was to lie, and that she's trying to be better at being honest. Alos I love that Taliesin was like "Can we make a therapist class ?". Because that's FCG's thing in Campaign 3 !! Did Sam had the idea at this epiosde ??

I like how they are honest with Oremid Hass (Caduceus is proud), and already have learn that it is Ludinus that is very interested in the beacons, and so it's probably him that has the one they're looking for. Big risk, reward.

Matt is gonna murder his players if they keep asking him who's on the Tal'Dorei council.

WHAT THE FUCK THEY ARE UNDER ATTACK POOR CADUCEUS what a cliffhanger oh my god

Laura and Travis are on Talks and they are just disgustingly in love (affectionate). At one point, they take 5 minutes to check on Ronin going to bed on the baby cam, and it is so cute.

I can't remember any good answers (though there was one about Jester and her feelings about seeing people trapped and lonely that was very good) because after Brain straight-up left while Laura was stealing his camera and his job, they're ending the episode vibrating their lips and laughing at how it looks on camera. This is so much chaos.

[littlethingwithfeathers]

Writing Update: 8-12-19

Publishing now!

Stolen Season (Friendship is Unnecessary): Steve/Natasha vignettes during Endgame’s five year jump. I thought I would do a set of scenes, some sexy some not, of how we get from Steve and Natasha working together at the end of IW, to them halfway living apart at the end of the five year jump. It also covers some of the hunt for Ronin!Clint, Steve taking up the mantle of group therapist, and Natasha stepping up as a sort of hybrid of Cap and Nick Fury. Definitely a trip to angsty-town, but I promise to fix it in the end.

Excerpt:

"This channel's always open. I'll be here if you need me. Take care everyone. Romanoff out."

"Good night. Rhodey out."

"Good morning." Okoye grinned. "Wakanda out."

"Catch you later. Rocket out.

"See you next time. Danvers out."

And that left Natasha alone, bathed in the blue glow of her blank holo-screens. And the moment they were gone, the dread descended like a mudslide, carrying her facade of calm with it. For a moment, she could only breathe. Could only will air into her lungs and back out again. She might've been shaking, but she couldn't feel her body. Everything was numb. Like the first seconds after a concussing blow stretched out to a horrible eternity.

Clint was killing people. In droves. By the dozens. No chance for repentance. No chance for reform. No questions or conversation at all before the killing blow. 

She shook her head hard. So hard her vertebrae popped. This wasn't Clint. This wasn't her Clint who had given her a chance. 

He was gone too. Just like Steve. But unlike Steve, he was going to get himself killed. She had to find him.

***

Other “Friendship is Unnecessary” fics at various stages:

But Most of All Because They Offend Thee: Based off this post. Probably just short, upbeat, porny little one-shot of Nat being a shit and teasing Steve. Because honestly… this series needs some levity.

One of Those Things (Prologue): Since I’ve written this beast of a series completely out of order, and thus all my author notes are no doubt VERY confusing, I thought I’d put a short prologue on the front. Just a couple of short scenes to plant some seeds and give an actual starting place to this whole sprawling, intertwining mess, but also to give me a chance to address new readers so my forewords on the rest of the fics don’t seem weird. I’ve got a little more than a thousand words written on it which is probably about a third to half way.

Untitled Pre-War Steve/Bucky and Pre-Avengers Phil/Clint/Natasha: Partially a request from @crazyevildru that I’m toying with. Probably a flashback or a memory. This series really does need more Steve/Bucky, and I feel bad about it. I’m thinking of also adding a prequel/flashback of Clint/Phil/Natasha as well… maybe have the whole thing be a discussion over dinner.

Sweet and Honorable (Title pending):  Set post Civil War. Bucky insists on coming with Sam and Natasha to rescue Steve when he gets captured. This is starting to take shape in my head as a sort of work through for some of the issues that get raised in “Echo in my Soul.” Given what we know about the new Black Widow movie, I may hold off on this one for a bit. At least until I can figure out how I’m going to squirm around or ignore the added canon. (can’t wait for that movie BTW)

***

Other works coming soon!

Intercalation: A Ulana/Boris/Valery fix-it fic for HBO’s Chernobyl. 72k words and counting. This will be the next big thing coming after “Stolen Season.” And it’s looking to be very big. It’ll come close to 80k words easy, I think. I have a few gaps to go back and fill in but the rough draft is about 90% finished. Ten full chapters and an epilogue. It’s been challenging. Lots of moving parts. It’s a continuation picking up just after the trial and that arc is studded with flashbacks. There’s a lot of character exploration… and a lot of honest to goodness physics lectures which I’ve been getting help from an actual physicist and story enthusiast, @cactusowl, to write. Fingers crossed to start publishing on Sept 9.  STOP LOOKING AT ME LIKE THAT.

Hymn of Acxiom: Scarlet/Vision. I’m really just toying with an idea so don’t get too excited. It would be post Endgame, with Wanda helping a newly reconstructed Vision who has no memories and no personality without the Mind Stone to network all the pieces and facets of his personality. Again… I make no promises… but I have an idea.

A Maelstrom Whirls Below: I’m toying with the possibility of a sequel to my Darcy/Eddie/Venom fic “A Room for Rent in the Fourth Estate.” A rough outline is in place, and I’m starting to sketch around on a few scenes. But right now it’s just some ideas and a few zippy one-liners. It’s starting to get some traction though! Likely won’t start work in earnest until all this Endgame fix-it stuff is done, but I’m definitely letting it percolate.

Hang By Every Word: The outline for my Stucky fic is still coming along but it will be awhile yet before I start writing on it in earnest. The basic theme (and I’m sure this has been done, but fuck it) is the undoing of Bucky’s conditioning one trigger word at a time. And each trigger word locked down a memory that HYDRA deemed integral to Bucky’s personality. And of course… they all involve Steve. So I have to write things from Steve’s point of view, and all ten memories have to be written from Bucky’s point of view, and they have to tie together into a cohesive narrative. The memories are out of order, but Steve’s timeline isn’t and… It’s a challenge. I’m still largely in the brainstorming phase… writing little snippets here and there. Nothing’s solidly taking form just yet. Again… just letting it percolate.

Untitled Sarge/Melinda May fic: I know. I KNOW! Don’t give me that look. You’re watching the same show I am and you’re seeing what I’m seeing. This shit writes itself. I’ve been sketching on a few things, and now that the season’s wrapped up I have an idea of what I want to do. I might crowbar in a few days just so that I can have some exploration time... sometime between (SPOILERS) May shooting Sarge and them heading for the Temple.

[parabcllums]

⌜   DIEGO LUNA, CIS MALE, HE / HIM   |   the war by syml, melancholic, the jester   ⌟    ⏤   blink and you’ll miss CLINTON FRANCIS BARTON, the hero for hire that goes by HAWKEYE ! last i heard, they’d settled down and had children with BARBARA MORSE, though apparently they’ve SEPARATED. they’re a professor of ARCHERY & GYM at paragon academy in addition to being a SHIELD AGENT ASSIGNED TO CAMPUS, and i’ve always found them to be pretty INNOVATIVE & BENIGNANT, though i’ve heard that they can also be really UNDEPENDABLE & OBSTINATE. do you think they’ll give me an autograph? you can check out his stat page HERE and his pinterest board HERE.

  CONGRATULATIONS,              on the mess you’ve made of things.

SECTION ONE OF THREE : BULLET POINT HISTORY. trigger warnings for talk of child abuse and death.

clinton francis “clint” barton was born on june 18th, 1974, in waverly, iowa. his mother was edith, and his supposed father was harold - an abusive, alcoholic butcher shop owner who always kinda knew that clint wasn’t his kid, and let his feelings about that out with his fists. his older ( half ) brother was charles bernard - also known as “barney” - and over his early years, he would become the most important figure in clint’s life. as mentioned, harold was wildly abusive ; both to his wife, and to his sons. clint hated him, and he hated his mother - a weak willed woman who even now he harbors some degree of contempt for, left over from a childhood of her turning the other way and allowing harold do what he did.

he suffered through a lot, in a very short amount of time, and hospital visits were numerous for the youngest barton - coming to a head when one night, his father’s attack on him left him partially deaf in one ear. he didn’t want to invest in helping clint, so barney took it upon himself to not just teach clint some asl, but also to teach him how to protect himself. in his words, teaching clint to think of everything like a weapon - something to hit harold with, when he came knocking. the boys would hide out for hours at a time on the roof of their home or in the barn, and as both got older, tried to go toe to toe with harold on more than one occassion. things would have gotten worse for them, if it hadn’t been for the accident.

harold crashed the family car into a tree on his way home one night. edith was in the passenger seat. the two of them died instantly, and clint and barney were shuttled off fairly quick to a foster home. and then another. and then another. you get the picture. if they weren’t sent away because of being generally unruly, the boys found a way to run. eventually, that led to them running into a literal circus, which they proceeded to join, seeking out the family that they had never really have.

clint was obsessed with it all - the glitz and the glam isn’t exactly the right turn of phrase, but he lived for the adrenaline rush. he was a talented gymnast, and he eventually came under the wing of the original swordsman and trick shot, who built on barney’s earlier lessons of self defense, but honed his skill with weapons. he was good with a sword. he was better with a bow. and when barney tried to sway clint into caring about his future - into doing his GED, like him - they would argue. their relationship, deteriorating a little more each time.

eventually, clint discovered that the swordsman was embezzling money - and his moral compass, though dusty, kicked in. he would’ve turned him over to the police, had it not been for him proceeding to get the shit kicked out of him, and barney choosing to turn his back on him once and for all. barney joined the army and left - and after witnessing heroes on the news, clint decided that maybe he could use his talent ( at this point being a star attraction at the circus ) for good. he donned a costume, he went out making an attempt to fight crime - and the local authorities confused him with an actual thief, which only led to him deciding that if that was what people were going to view him as, he might as well be one. the black widow - natasha romanoff - enlisted him as a partner, and the two clashed with the betterknown costumed heroes on multiple occasions.

soon enough, clint got tired of that life, and he approached the avengers with a proposition. he would use his talents for them, instead, and... feel better about himself in the process? unclear. tony stark vouched for him, he joined a team with steve rogers & wanda and pietro maximoff, and though they were thought of as being lesser than the original avengers team... they all, clint included, proved themselves.

he fought with steve, resenting that he was leader and clint was not - but over time, learned to respect him. he operated as goliath, he left the avengers a couple times, he did a bunch of stuff and saved the world tons, and then on one such leave of absence where he became the security chief for cross technological enterprises, he was kidnapped ( alongside bobbi morse ) by crossfire as part of a master plan to kill the avengers ( first by killing him, and then by killing the rest when they showed up for his funeral ). the plan was to use hypnotic ultrasounds to force the two of them to kill one another, but clint stuffed a sonic arrow of his own creation into his mouth in a brief moment of lucidity and managed to disrupt the ultrasounds by deafening himself even more - allowing him to knock bobbi out and defeat crossfire, once and for all. this was a pivotal point in his life, not just because of being rendered 80% deaf and being forced to readjust his life to this. he also fell for bobbi, who felt responsible for what had happened to him and wanted to try and help. they met, they loved, they married within nine days - and their relationship, or lack thereof at times, has been continuous ever since.

he led the west coast avengers, he got stranded in ancient egypt, he fought his own brother who then died and cam back and died again ( and came back ), he and bobbi broke up, they got back together, it was revealed she was a skrull, the real bobbi apparently died, he took a break from being a hero to mourn, he rejoined the avengers, got killed by an exploding kree ship ( thanks wanda ), came back to life thanks to an altered universe, died again, came back again ( thanks wanda ), operated as ronin for a time after the apparent assination of captain america,  found bobbi safe and well ( ok, after a whole big skrull thing ), learned that his beloved ( ex ) wife had wanted to divorce him before she had gotten replaced by a skrull, became leader of the new avengers, saved the world a bunch, made mistakes, joined a new team, started sharing the hawkeye monikor with kate bishop, almost went blind, joined the secret avengers, started to lead them, fought against the x-men due to the whole phoenix force / hope summers thing, sacrificed himself for scarlet witch so that phoenix powered emma frost wouldn't kill her, almost died, got healed, moved into an apartment in brooklyn with a brand new purpose in life and.. that's kind of, really, more where we sit. there was a bunch of other stuff ( like all the civil war business, etc ), but i like to kind of ... come at things from a point after matt fraction’s hawkeye, where clint took on russian thugs and ended up buying an apartment building. not in that exact order. also with more details thrown in.

SECTION TWO OF THREE : HEADCANONS. trigger warnings for talk of miscarriage, depression and ptsd.

currently, clint is still in his... rediscovering exactly what he wants to be stage of life, and working for shield as an agent assigned to campus works for him. he still considers himself an avenger, still works under his alias and is still, you know, doing what he’s gotta do - but he’s taking days as they come

he and bobbi have a nine year old son named lark sein morse, and he’s... pretty much clint’s whole reason to get up in the morning, though there is a feeling that he’s closer to his mother than he is, him. they ( clint and bobbi ) are not currently together, and haven’t really been so as long as lark has been alive - though they were on again, off again a lot over the years, and clint will always sort of class her as the love of his life... even if they aren’t married. bobbi suffered a miscarriage early on in the first version of their relationship to one another - lark is their rainbow baby.

he suffers from post traumatic stress disorder from his childhood, and from... a lot of the things that have happened to him, over the years. he’s also heavily depressed, and has only really recently begun to seek out the kind of help that he really needs ( the fact that shield offers free therapists to people working for them? a huge plus )

 he has a dog named lucky who he absolutely ADORES, but who gets swiped semi regularly by kate.

he’s also... actually pretty well off, though you would NOT know that just from looking at him. clint owns his apartment building in brooklyn and has a lot of money saved up from over the years. he could live a high class life, if he so chose, but he prefers to live modestly.

SECTION THREE OF THREE : WANTED CONNECTIONS.

friends :(

also . believe it or not. clint has been... a huge ladies man for a very long time, so by all means - past flings, past serious relationships, the whole thing.

bobbi morse !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

also nat romanoff

his two kids. they’re between the ages of 17 - 26, and he doesn’t know about them, though it’s ENTIRELY possible that they know / have been told who he is / to them, and i am rly into the idea of getting to play it out. 

[thecomicsnexus]

FRANK MILLER’S RONIN JULY 1983 - AUGUST 1984 BY FRANK MILLER AND LYNN VARLEY

SYNOPSIS (FROM WIKIPEDIA)

In feudal Japan, a young, nameless samurai has sworn to protect his master, Lord Ozaki, from assassins. Ozaki is assassinated at night by a demon called Agat in the guise of a geisha, in an act of revenge for Ozaki stealing his sword. The sword is powered by blood — if it can be fueled by the blood of an innocent, the sword will become powerful enough to destroy Agat. Ozaki has hidden the sword, so Agat cannot find it. The young samurai prepares to perform seppuku at his master's graveside. The spirit of Ozaki appears before him and demands that he find the sword and keep it from Agat until his skills are great enough to destroy the demon lord. The young samurai becomes a rōnin, wandering the countryside for many years. He comes to Agat's castle, and fights his way inside. Since the sword has never killed an innocent, it is not powerful enough to destroy Agat, so when Agat approaches him from behind, the ronin thrusts the sword through his own abdomen, impaling Agat. As Agat dies, he curses the ronin, and both their souls are trapped inside the sword until someone releases them.

Eight centuries later, social and economic collapse has left New York a lawless wasteland, populated by squatters, factions, and mutants. In the heart of the city is the Aquarius Complex, the headquarters of the Aquarius Corporation. The Aquarius Corporation is an idealistic company founded by three people: Peter McKenna, inventor of biocircuitry, his wife, Casey McKenna, Aquarius' head of security, and Mr. Taggart, who funded and controls Aquarius. The company is successful developing and marketing biocircuitry as a means of saving a world on the brink of war. Biocircuitry is a new model of plastics-based electronics, capable of self-organization and self-repair under the direction of Virgo, the artificial intelligence at the heart of the Aquarius Complex.

Aquarius's ward, Billy Challas, was born without any limbs due to a genetic defect and has telekinetic powers. Virgo works with him to develop his psionic abilities and Billy tests cutting-edge prosthetic limbs for Aquarius. Billy has been having vivid dreams of the story of Ozaki, the ronin, and Agat. Billy and Virgo are confused by the detail and historical accuracy of the dream since his education had never covered feudal Japan.

Back at Aquarius, Virgo explains what has occurred to Casey McKenna, who assumes Virgo's logic units have been affected, but begins an investigation anyway. Agat infiltrates the complex, where he murders Taggart and assumes his form. In this guise, Agat begins negotiating a weapons deal with the Japan-based Sawa Corporation. Peter McKenna is outraged; he had created the technology under the agreement that it would be for non-violent purposes only. He confronts Taggart and realizes that he's an impostor. He informs Virgo, who is not only unshaken by this revelation, but immediately informs Taggart, forming a pact with him. Peter infiltrates Virgo's memory bank and forces her to show him what happened to Taggart. Even with the video replay, Peter refuses to believe the story and accuses Virgo of killing Taggart. He is kidnapped and held prisoner by Agat.

Head, an aging hippie who realizes that the ronin is his ticket to security, tells the ronin that he'll 'manage' him and take care of him; the ronin passively acquiesces. Head plans to sell the ronin as "The Elvis of Violence", and makes deals with the heads of both the Nazi and Black factions to kill the other faction's leader in exchange for rice, beer, sterno, and a place to sleep.

Casey McKenna gets authorization to pursue and retrieve the ronin, understanding from Virgo that Billy Challas has somehow been transformed into a killer, and that the absence of effective law enforcement means that capturing him is Aquarius' responsibility. The three man team who finds the ronin, however, is killed without hesitation. Convinced of Virgo's story, Casey seeks permission to kill the ronin. Taggart denies this when Virgo informs him that the ronin is, in fact, Billy, complete with telekinetic power and, as such, might be useful in cybernetics. Casey finds the ronin dealing with the Nazi and Black factions and, despite her orders, attempts to kill him. Casey is knocked unconscious by the two factions before she can accomplish this and is thrown into a pit. The ronin kills both faction leaders, discards Head, and goes to rescue Casey.

The pit leads into sewers infested with cannibals, who swarm and kidnap Casey and the ronin. The ronin breaks free and slaughters the cannibals. Casey is surprised to find herself falling in love with the ronin. It snows shortly thereafter, for the first time in five years, and the ronin speaks English out of the blue. Casey and the ronin sleep together in the snow.

Peter, bound and gagged, is met by therapist Sandy. Peter convinces Sandy to free him and they try to make sense of all that has occurred. Peter concludes that Virgo kept the extent of Billy's powers a secret in order to exploit them, and that Billy created the ronin based around the television programs he loved so much as a kid, using his powers to create arms and legs built for himself and control Casey. Sandy, hearing this, thinks Peter is insane, and leaves him alone with Virgo.

Robots sent by Taggart attack the ronin and Casey, removing the ronin's mechanical arms and legs. Virgo, controlling the robots, starts a mental attack on the ronin, bringing forward Billy's repressed memory of murdering a local bully. Billy, enraged, regains his limbs, but a horde of flying robots subdue him and blast the subway tunnel where Casey had been trying to make her escape. Trapped, the ronin mentally reaches out to Casey, who regains consciousness within the rubble and kills a robot. Casey breaks into Aquarius, which by this point has engulfed the entire city. The ronin causes a blackout that allows Casey to escape the guards and find Peter. Virgo forces Agat to restrain himself, and address the workers about the blackout. Virgo confronts Billy mentally. Virgo soothes Billy and convinces him to stop helping Casey.

Casey, with the help of Learnid and Sandy, whom Learnid convinces of Peter's sanity, finds Peter. A physical wreck, Peter informs Casey that Billy is being manipulated by Virgo into turning fantasy into reality. A Virgo robot attacks and kills Peter. Reinvigorated by Casey's sadness, Billy begins questioning Virgo. When Casey is attacked by another robot, Billy is enraged and lashes out, destroying it. Virgo verbally castigates Billy, threatening to send him away (as his mother did after she saw him murder the bully) if he doesn't stop. Billy backs down.

Taggart, trying to calm the workers, is confronted by Learnid who accuses him of having been corrupted. Before Taggart can attack, Virgo orders him away, stating a life-threatening hazard has occurred. Learnid notes that regulations give him authority in such situations to evacuate non-essential personnel and forces Virgo to carry out the order.

Casey runs into Peter, now a deformed half-man/half-machine, who attacks her. Peter explains that Billy's powers gave Virgo a consciousness and Virgo wanted more. In order to increase his power, while keeping him under control, she manipulated him into creating the ronin, thereby releasing his power, but trapping him in fantasy. Virgo wants to make biocircuitry the new dominant life form on Earth. Casey kills Peter and tells Virgo to take her to the ronin. Once near him, she is transported back into fantasy, and keeps playing along. Kissing the ronin, they are confronted by Agat. Casey turns to confront him but rather than taking out her sword, she shoots him in the head. Agat's wiring explodes, revealing him to be a robot.

Sensing danger, Virgo tries in vain to talk Casey out of acting, to no avail. Casey frees the ronin, then humiliates him, as a woman had avenged his master where he had failed. Casey then gives him a sword to commit seppuku while acting as his second. As the ronin guts himself, Billy cries in agony. Virgo tries to scold him to take control but Billy can't control himself, blaming Virgo for making him feel worthless. The ronin shoves the sword into his heart, Casey decapitates him, and Billy unleashes a telekinetic blast which destroys Aquarius, and by extension, New York. The only ones left standing are Casey and the ronin.

CONTEXT

REVIEW

There are too many things to have in mind with this novel, I do not recommend analyzing individual chapters, while this was published as a mini-series, it is pretty clear that it has to be read like a book.

This is important, because for the first three episodes, it felt pretty much like the average Frank Miller “toxic masculinity” western adventure. But then, everything changes completely and you no longer know what is real or not. Even the ending is a bit ambiguous. Did Billy survive only to live in a fantasy world?

There are also many references to social problems of 1983, like the world going to hell, world war III and humans feeling replaced by machines. Half of this story feels like many other Frank Miller’s stories where big corporations are free to bend the laws and nature for a profit. (RoboCop comes to mind).

But then, the second part of this story blows up into a very different story that doesn’t even match the premise of the novel. It’s like the last three chapters are not the ending of the first three. And the fact that it’s all a fantasy, makes up for what could be considered artistic errors (like a Japanese having blue eyes).

Frank Miller’s art is polarizing. His faces are not always human, and much like John Romita Jr. his characters tend to look to much alike. But this fluctuates a lot and sometimes we get perfectly human faces. So my guess is that this is intentional. I read somewhere that Miller was conscious about the similarities in his art with Moebius. This is notorious, in fact, I would say that the whole novel has an European feel to it. But it also draws from manga, and his influences are balanced enough not to look like he is copying others.

Lynn Varley takes advantage of the print technology used for this book (not Newsprint), and while not making the comic full of colors (the one thing the change in technology allows), but full of shades. So while her palette is still limited, there are many tones of each color. She also decided for a bi dimensional feel that matches Miller’s art. Other graphic novel at the time had gradients, I don’t those would have look good with the art.

As with many westerns, female roles are complicated. They are either a sexual distraction or macho women. This case in particular shows inverted roles in Casey’s home life, with her husband being a bit more effeminate (and possibly bisexual). At the same time, she falls prey for a macho fantasy, and while she puts an end to the bigger menace, one would have to think that she is still prisoner of Billy’s imagination. So I don’t know, you tell me...

I give this novel a score of 10

[oofurixmas]

This time (it will be alright)

From: @ichikonohakko

To: @the-bug-witch

Soulmates and reincarnations are a given-thing, but skeptic Abe Takaya would never be a sappy believer… until he met a certain Mihashi Ren.

Merry Xmas and Happy New Year! I’m really sorry if this is a bit messy, I hit a writer’s block and this piece was pretty much my try-to-start-again piece. Your request stated you wanted AbeMiha snuggly fluff (or memes) and you like AUs… so here’s an AU with a fine spice of fluff and angst (sorry again, I’m just way better at writing angst). Please enjoy your gift!

i.

Abe Takaya knew that the universe wasn’t so simple.

Soulmates are not predetermined, reincarnations are not real, and people around him were just screwing around with him and someday they would finally tell him that it was just one big fat joke. Shinooka wasn’t the reincarnation of some princess and Mizutani wasn’t a ronin samurai who had fallen in love with her. They didn’t ‘find each other again after so long in a destined fate’ or anything. They were just a sappy couple who loved sappy tropes.

Even his mother and father had thought that the reincarnation thing was a load of croak, but they do believe in soulmates. After all, Takaya could see the beautiful lilies blooming on his mother’s shoulder every time she and Dad were close to one another. And those lilies should have looked ridiculous on his Dad, but it wasn’t. And people are all proud to show their marks to the world or flaunting to the magazines about the previous lives they remembered. Takaya hated it and he swore that he would never ever be a sap. This world also had plenty of people who didn’t meet their soulmate and yet still got married and functions as normal members of society. Takaya expected to be one of those people.

“Oh you shouldn’t be so negative, Taka,” Shun said lightly as he stared at the small dot on his hip. “Who knows that you’re going to find someone who’s not only your soulmate, but also your lover from the past. Mom and Dad happened to not remember their past lives, but they found each other again just fine. Don’t you think that’s amazing?”

“Not really.” Takaya rolled his eyes as he got around the room, trying to prepare for morning lecture he would probably be late for if he didn’t finish up soon. “Well, whatever floats your boat, I guess. But I am going to find my soulmate someday. Just you see.” Takaya sighed as he stood up and ruffled Shun’s hair. “Sure you will. See you later, kiddo.”

Yeah, right.

ii.

Takaya’s skepticism was sort of a running joke in his current circle of friends.

And he really couldn’t blame them, because they were all already going out with their soulmates. Shinooka and Mizutani, Sakaeguchi and Suyama, even Izumi had been converted the first week of university when he was ran over by an excited Hamada, who yelled at the entire campus that he had finally found his soulmate. The only sane man in Takaya’s circle of friends was one Hanai Azusa.

The former captain of Nishiura baseball club had a healthy amount of skepticism, which was the only reason why Takaya genuinely liked the guy, but he was also open to the concept of finding his own soulmate. Unlike Takaya who actively tried to shut down any arguments regarding his own past life or soulmate, Hanai very much knew that he was a cook somewhere in Spain in his past life.

Takaya genuinely thought that their circle of friends would stay like that forever, with his friends being fools and him and Hanai being the straight-men of the world. But it all changed when a certain Tajima Yuuichirou from the veterinarian faculty came crashing down on Hanai after the other slipped off the stairs in their favorite café.

It was the first time Takaya saw it with his own eyes. The way those sunflowers bloomed on Hanai’s wrists and all the way until it covered his right arm, feverish and warm and magical as the guy who fell on him groaned and scrambled away from Hanai with identical sunflowers wrapping his left arm. “Whoa!” The stranger said loudly as he eyed Hanai from head to toe. “Are you Mariana?! You’re bald!” Hanai exploded into red when he screamed ‘SHUT UP ANTONIO’ and dragged the other to have a private conversation.

That had been three months ago, and now Tajima Yuuichirou is a part of their group and Takaya had never cursed his life more than he does right now when Tajima was the only person waiting for the others in their favorite booth by the café.

“You know, Abe,” Tajima started as he leaned towards the wall next to him. “Are you really not interested about your soulmate? Or at least what your soul-mark looks like?”

“No.”

“How about your past life? I can remember up to three lives ago perfectly, others kinda blur. But I know that I’ve only been a girl once and Hanai’s been the girl twice.”

Which was hilariously fitting and has been the topic of the group’s running joke for the two months since Tajima told them the story of Mariana the Spanish cook and Caroline the church organist. But really… “I’m not really interested at it, no.”

And unlike Hanai and Tajima, Takaya never had a dream about his own past life. He couldn’t remember them and didn’t really care to remember. He knew that sometimes people would go to hypno-therapist to find out more about themselves but Takaya was not some people.

“Well, suit yourself then,” Tajima said as he took a comic from the table and began reading. Takaya was thankful for the silence between them.

iii.

Takaya woke up feeling terribly hot and feverish, but he had a pop quiz worth forty percent of his grade today and he would not miss them.

His mother was worried and fussed over him and it made him feel nostalgic. She didn’t really fuss over him all these years, but there was someone who… would…?

What?

Takaya shook his head, dismissing his unreasonable déjà vu on his feverish state. The soul-mark on his collarbone was particularly hot, but he slapped it with some cold patch and he was out running to the nearest bus stop.

That day was a particularly blurry day for Takaya when he told the story years after, but there was always one part he could remember clearly more than any other part.

He remembered that it was a spring, and flower petals were falling around campus, and Takaya woke up to a stranger’s crying face.

“-ou o-okay?”

Nowadays when Takaya told the story, he would say that there were two things that caught his attention at that time. The first one was how beautiful the stranger was and the second one was the scattering baby breath flowers on the stranger’s neck.

But really, the first thing Takaya did was knock the stranger’s forehead with his own as he abruptly tried to sit up from the stranger’s lap.

“You’re… Mihashi Ren, right? Best pitcher of Gunma and Tajima’s former pitcher…?”

He was dressed like a typical university student, with a varsity jacket and baseball cap that seemed to hide his eyes. But he was unmistakably Tajima’s best friend, the other half of Gunma’s star-battery of Mihoshi Academy. Takaya knew him from both TV and Tajima, and yet…

It didn’t prepare him for the scattered baby breaths blooming on his collarbone and all the way to his cheek.

Mihashi Ren kept his eyes on the ground, fingers fiddling on his shirt as he struggled to give Takaya the answer to his question. His eyes flitted from the ground and to Takaya’s neck and then to the ground and anywhere but his eyes. “Well?” Takaya pushed, earning a startled garble from Mihashi Ren, who then leaped back on an instant.

“Y-y-yeah! I-I’m Mihashi… Ren…”

Takaya had a really high fever, and he also had a pop quiz worth forty percent of his grade today and he would probably miss them if he didn’t run soon. But…

But that day, Abe Takaya ended up not running to the classroom.

He ran to Mihashi instead.

iv.

When Abe Takaya woke up, he didn’t know why he felt angry that Mihashi Ren was not the first person he saw after he opened his eyes.

It was stupid and ridiculous, and horribly irrational and Takaya hated it and…!

“A-are you… awake…?”

Mihashi Ren was standing behind the curtain that separated Takaya’s bed with the other bed in the infirmary. His fingers curled at the edge of the curtain and only his face was visible. Takaya breathed in relief. He’s okay. He’s safe.

…what?

“Sorry I scared you, Mihashi…” Takaya began as he tried to calm the weird gnawing worry that just won’t leave him alone. Mihashi nodded then shook his head (it was really confusing, but Takaya figured that he just didn’t understand Mihashi) before sitting down on a chair on Takaya’s left. “You… collapsed all of a sudden…” Mihashi mumbled, eyes not meeting Takaya’s own. “I was. Worried. About you.”

“I’m sor-“

“But I always. Worry. Last time, you… didn’t make it…”

Takaya snapped his head at Mihashi, who was still staring at his own lap. His heart was ramming onto his chest, probably because of the fever, but also because of what Mihashi just said. Was this… his past life…?

“Do you remember… your past life?”

There was a nod, and for the first time since their really bizarre encounter, Mihashi stared at him with undeterred determination. Takaya noticed just how… pretty Mihashi looked. Hazel eyes, orange-ish brown hair, furrowed brows and all Takaya could think of was he was home.

“I-I should probably get going. It’s. Weird. I mean, you clearly don’t remember? So…”

Somehow, the notion of Mihashi not being with him ticked him very much. So Takaya grabbed the other’s wrist so hard he could have left a bruise if Mihashi wasn’t wearing a jacket. “Please, stay. I don’t really get it but I don’t like the feeling of you not being with me.” Mihashi stared at him, shocked and scared and relieved all at the same time. It confused Takaya, but he just knew that he had to make Mihashi stay.

“S-sorry…” Mihashi said as he sat on Takaya’s bed, his eyes glued on the baby breath scattered on Takaya’s neck. “I-I don’t think I’ve caught your name…?”

“I’m Abe. Abe Takaya,” now Takaya didn’t know why he cried or why he went on to hug the star baseball player of Gunma whom he knew nothing about, but it felt right and it didn’t feel sappy.

It felt just right.

v.

Tajima Yuuichirou was the first person to scream when Takaya brought Mihashi to his favorite booth at the café.

“SEE?! I TOLD YOU THAT ABE IS PROBABLY YOUR SOULMATE!”

It was deafeningly loud, but Mihashi laughed and it was all that mattered.

(And yes, Takaya knew that he sounded like a lovestruck sap. But it was for Mihashi, so…)

Bonus

Mihashi Ren always loved to sleep in.

It reminded him—grounded him—to the fact that he was not living in his past life when things could go wrong at any time anymore. He was not sleeping in the barracks, where he had to be extra careful not to let anyone knew that they were sharing a blanket together. He was… here.

“Ren… stop wiggling…”

He stilled at the sound, reflexes from his previous life still somehow there. Unlike most people who remembered their past life as something like a dull memory, everything felt too real to him to the point that he had trouble differentiating between his memories and reality. He lost count of the time he broke down and cried whenever the explosion happened and ripped them both apart, only to have his mother and doctor calming and reminding him that nothing was happening to him…

But here he was, Mihashi Ren, sleeping in the arms of Abe Takaya on a lazy Sunday morning. He ran his fingers on Abe-kun’s cheek, slowly noting the peaceful look on his usually-grumpy face, down to the baby breaths scattered around his neck and chest only to converge on a spot on his collarbone…

“Are your perving on me, Ren?”

Ren startled, but Abe-kun pulled his waist until they were even closer than before. “I don’t mind though. You should perv on me some more.” Abe-kun put his face on the crook of Ren’s shoulder and slept.

It was alright. Everything was fine.

This time, they are together.

[grimbeak]

Pirate Jay AU drabble based off the theory that Jay’s gonna be sacrificed in the new special but then come back bcuz of the power of friendship or some shit-

###

He didn’t knock.

Of course he didn’t, this was his house, for fuck’s sake, he lived here. Well, lived here with the rest of the ninja, but still. 

Jay found absolutely no logical reason to knock, so instead he just kicked the door open. At least it wasn’t locked this time- that had been a nightmare to fix, he’s stronger than he originally thought... 

He ended up in the living room, which was good, because if he had kicked down the door to Kai’s room there would have been a lot of yelling. 

Jay scanned the area- it wasn’t that brightly lit, which was odd for this time of day- plenty of sun, which now meant that apparently no one found it necessary to turn on a light. One glance at the windows confirmed his suspicions- they were covered by blinds, albeit mostly see-through ones, ones that hadn’t been there the last time Jay had been here.

...To be fair, it had been... a while. The whole island business messed him up a bit, and it took ages to get off said island. 

A startled gasp snapped Jay out of his thoughts, and he glanced over to see Cole on the couch. Ah. Very nice. 

“Hello,” Jay grinned, flinging his arms out and doing a lovely little spin that caused his coat to nearly knock a vase over. “Miss me much? Sorry I’ve been a while, that weird purple lightning kinda messed up my powers- do you know how hard it is to get off that island without your dragon? Seriously, it takes ages. Ronin came by, eventually, and I hitched a ride on his ship, but it still took a-”

“You’re alive,” Cole breathed, and Jay paused. “You’re- I can’t believe it, you’re actually- oh my god you’re alive.” 

“Good observation, sweetie. Turns out that lightning-shock thing they strapped me up to was actually a teleport thing, if you can believe that, either that or my powers fucked it up more than I thought. Still, I-”

“Shut up,” Cole whispered. “Shut up.” He stood up, shaking, and raised a trembling finger to point at Jay. The pirate frowned. “We thought- we thought you were dead, for fuck’s sake, Jay, we thought you were gone.” 

“Oh.” Jay considered that idea. “Well, I’m not, so... no reason to worry. How long have I been gone, anyway, few weeks?” His boyfriend remained close to tears, and Jay hesitated. “A month?”

“Six months,” Cole managed eventually, and Jay’s stomach dropped. “We thought you were dead for six months.” 

“Oh,” Jay said again, not really sure what else to say. “I’m... not, in case you were worried.” He patted himself. “See, not dead. Or a ghost, either, in case you were wondering,” he added. 

“You fucking-” And suddenly Cole had nearly tackled Jay to the floor in his hug, wasn’t that nice, and his boyfriend was shaking and crying and to be completely honest Jay didn’t entirely know what to do. So, he just awkwardly patted Cole on the back before returning the hug, because god dammit he had missed this bastard. 

“Cole, do you need anything, I can-” Zane trailed off as he exited the kitchen. Jay gave him a helpless wave as Cole tightened his grip around the pirate. “Oh my god.”

“Yeah,” Jay muttered, returning his grip to be around Cole. “Everyone keeps being so surprised at the fact that I’m alive. I mean- I’ve died twice, come back both times, d’you really think I’d die just because of some stupid lightning machi-” and now Zane was around him too, and Jay didn’t often get hugs from the nindroid and when he did he refused to admit that they were kind of nice, and now he was a few seconds away from admitting they were because damn. 

He had missed his team so fucking much. Even Zane, for some reason, despite the two only agreeing to be each other’s therapists. 

Jay mentally prepared himself for the hug pile this would soon turn into as he heard Lloyd’s footsteps padding down the stairs.

Yeah.

...This was nice. 

[elastigirl72]

Day 21: Shkoder>Lizbahd

620km to go...I’m finally in the mountains!

7 May: Shkoder 07:27am

Given I am a certified and ex practicing sports and rehab massage therapist who still actively promotes stretching and regular massage for active people, lying in my €35 spa having the massage of my life, I was alarmed to fail to recall without some effort my last similar session. It was well over a year ago. Also apparent was my failure on good, regular stretching. I’d been on a cycling yoga week last year, trying to will myself into better self-care with the lovely Sinead, cycling yoga star in Ireland. I am proud to have kept a few of hers, which should only be done in the confines of privacy as they could be taken as some sort of lap dance in the wrong setting. I have my own MASH stretch which I have to say is pretty damn awesome 😊. This young lady, who combined this job with school was one of the best therapists I’ve stumbled across, including myofascial release as part of her treatment. Weirdly, even knowing I was a cyclist, time ran out before she got to my quads. I paid her extra and she spent a good 15 minutes on each, each stroke reminding me how much abuse my legs had taken, largely over the last few weeks. I didn’t train hard for my adventure, and this was by design. Looking at my training log, you could be forgiven in thinking that I might have retired completely from cycling in November, only seeing an ember burning almost undetectable in January. Then, one dark, wet, typical Forest Saturday morning, making Kalamata olive ciabatta toast, I wondered “Where exactly is Kalamata?”. About an hour later, I not only knew where, I’d booked a return flight, and figured out a 2,200 mile route there in April, how long I’d ride each day, and about 1000 permutations of getting there. This was it. It was set. Only it wasn’t. Work threw in the possibility of a work event a day after I was due to fly back...and 3 days before setting off, it was confirmed as Istanbul.

Flying home from Kalamata on 11 May and back to Istanbul a day later would have meant a minimum of 16 hours travel doors to doors. The options I considered were to fly home, cycle to Istanbul, charter a yacht (yes, seriously, I did look into this!), get a bus from Athens to Istanbul (no pre-booking possible for the bike). After much deliberation, cogitation and planning, Athens won, with my bike case and work clothes being shipped to a hotel I booked on hotel rewords points. It seemed fitting too, as I’d never made it to the Athens Olympics as an athlete, but I got close, and next to qualifying, this trip is the biggest sporting conquest I’d attempted. It would be great to finish my ride at the Acropolis, but let’s see...thinking about how close I got to being an Olympian still is a bittersweet memory. Less than two minutes, a toilet stop in fact, and just a little bit faster and I’d have been there. But what I take from trying is that even though I ran my first marathon when I was 18, and didn’t think I was any good at running (this left it in the past until the months after my mum died in 1998, and from that event and to this day, sport has been my Lynch pin in coping with and celebrating life’s rollercoaster), I qualified as a mum o two young children, who to this day, probably still don’t see what hard work went in, and may well believe if you dream it, you can do it. It’s not a bad philosophy to have! That and blessed with good genes 😊.

And yet all so laughable! Here I sit, waiting for breakfast, the barista chuckling at my need for a third cappuccino (they’re tiny really, but delicious, and I giggle too, explaining I’m very tired 😆). I need it, it’s a big day today.

I’ve decided to cycle into the mountains, towards Pogradec, a village or town by a mountain lake. To check the route, I’ve planted in Athens a billion times and plotted by car (avoiding motorways, ferries and tolls) and by foot, put a pin in what looks like a country lane or a busy road to check the road conditions, and loosely made a plan: get past Tirana and head South East. It looks like I’ll spend another two nights before hitting Greece. Dare I say it, but the weather forecast and maps look fairly decent, but for now, the gear stays stuck on my back...

May 9: Librazhd - 05:19

Well, so much to digest from the last 40 or so hours in Albania. There’s still around 120km here to cover, and if my bike and body survive, we will make Greece today and my bed in Kastoria in around 100 miles...another big day - in the mountains.

In just 120 miles in this country, I have seen so much. The good, the bad, and yes, the ugly. Hearing that this is one country my pioneering explorer dad has not visited (I think this is a lifetime first between his coverage of the globe and mine) because its borders were closed when he ran is Overlander business, and learning from a Roman Empire history documentation that whilst the Roman Empire ruled all of the Mediterranean, except Albania, leads me to believe this country has an incredible past, and I need to investigate.

I learnt that Albanians have an industry built on roadside trade, most notably, car washes, petrol stations and attached to every petrol station, a hotel. Most of the people visible in daylight appear to be men; I barely saw a woman, either in the villages or city, and as a woman, this felt quite overwhelming, for no other reason than the imbalance. It meant that whilst the multitude of coffee shops were on offer, I didn’t want to stop. Already looking like an alien dropped from space, putting myself directly amongst gangs of rugged men who seemed to have nowhere to go and nothing to do was too much. That’s just me! But cycling past the many who stood at the side of the road and had stopped doing whatever they were doing, if in fact they were doing anything at all, they stood frozen, eyes and mouth agape. In no other country have I passed through have I had so many positive shouts and I guess, encouraging comments (for all I know they could have been shouting “loser!”). The contrast between those that have and have not was huge.

The road surfaces were very curious. In most places I’d visited, as you entered a town or city, the roads in Europe would be pothole free and markings better than the surrounding country roads. But in Albania, any town or city, the roads dissolved. A network of potholes you could disappear into and a patchwork of concrete “plasters”, and for no apparent reason, countless and pointless road jumps, unmarked, without any warning, which all cars, bling or ancient, rolled over so slowly, as if dampners and suspension were extinct and they had to maintain what they had.

Tirana, Albania’s capital, brought all my observations to a massive climax. Any Highway Code had not been introduced, and for a long time I decided they needed traffic lights at the very least (they did eventually appear). I saw the most insane driving I’ve ever seen in my life, making the film Ronin look like a police training video on how to drive safely around a city. At no other point during this trip had I felt as petrified for my safety as here. Checking my options at the worst point, I stopped at an intersection where coaches pulled up and double parked, a large verge, covered in mud, waste and men, sitting between and on it, police standing close, travellers trying to wheel suitcases over uneven verges, and me needing to make a decision on how the hell to get it out with my life. Google suggested what looked like the motorway, which started at this same junction. I confirmed with the police standing close by and they confirmed I could ride my bike on this road, and stopped the traffic to let me go. It was Russian roulette, but as soon as I hit the ring road’s massive hard shoulder, I felt my life had been saved and escape was nigh.

7km later, and I had reached the mountain road, SH3, the old Elbasan Road, replaced by the recently completed A3 that ran parallel. Order restored, the road started to climb. Given this was recently a major thoroughfare to the mountains, I wondered what would happen to the many restaurants and hotels that flowed with the road, through villages up towards the sky. It was quite haunting, and the stray dogs began to reveal themselves again. Children waved and one even raced me up a section, whilst another shouted “Hallo! Have an enjoyable day!” The climb was amazing, good road, and it felt like I owned it. I saw three cyclists in all, all heavily laden with panniers. I past cheerily one octogenarian going up and two coming the other way going down. It’s easy to see why they built a tunnel to take cars through the mountain, but it was their loss and my gain.

Here, in the land where I have seen more people walking their cow than their dogs, who in turn, run free , civic pride does not exist for what I have seen of Albania so far. It contrasts the most breathtaking landscapes, and shows diversity to the rest of Europe, yet fly-tipping is common, expected even, and mounds of wrecked cars are all to frequent. There are many ruined buildings and near Lehze, I passed what can only be described as a ghost town and factory, which was really sinister. Is this down to a poor state and government? Clearly there are people here who have wealth but the overriding feeling is this country is poor. It wants to be western but can’t quite bridge the gap. I feel very keen to explore its history.

Approaching the top of the mountain, which seemed like the top of the world, I happened upon the most cunning canine skullduggery I’ve ever witnessed. The mountaintop restaurant invited guests to it for 6km, and it was a real possibility that I might drop in. But as it appeared, there appeared to be a dead dog lying in the road directly in front of it, with two more dogs lying in wait to the side. Feeling both sad, but also danger, I pedalled slowly and quietly, not wanting to alarm the dogs to my side, and hoping to pass the dead dog without seeing too much gore. Then, just as I ran parallel, BOOM! he was up, his mates joining him in charging for me, up the remaining mountain! Luckily, I’d anticipated this ambush, and put down the biggest power of my life, as if being chased by a bear. I escaped, but my god! How brilliant of these stray masters of terror? Please, no more like this!

The climb was the day’s highlight, and telling myself that whatever hotel arrived at 100 miles, that’s where I was staying. As if my magic, a petrol station and a Swiss chalet looking hotel.

There’s not much to say about this place, except a stark contrast from the same priced oasis I had stayed at near Shkoder. Here, the food was bland and sparse, and the staff didn’t care as much as my last hotel. At Launi-A, seeing how much food I had put away the night before, at breakfast, they just kept bringing basket after basket of food! That hotel and its staff will keep me going for many years to come as the nicest surprise, and a great introduction to Albania.

And now, breakfast. A lovely Albanian who speaks good English and has lit the fire me and I have amazing coffee. It will be a good day! Ξεκίνα 😃 Even here, this far south, there’s snow on the mountains ahead! Titanium by David Gueta and Sia playing on the empty restaurant speakers...bring on the day 🌈

[lycaran]

Okay since I've pondered it, heres characters and relations to shorts:

Mordeo- Morro, mainly as the desperation and being lost in the woods with most likely a human Bansha, Wrayth, and Ghoultar(srry soul archer), would lead him, when one or all of them die, and he becomes desperate for food, to eat them. Thus beginning his transformation into a Mordeo( In Mordeo, anyone who eats human flesh within the woods, only out of desperation, will become a Mordeo and hunt the woods for god knows how ling)(also, more looking like the Mordeo from the original short because the new ones designs look...fucked up)

Stoneheart - Admittedly? Don't remember much about these shorts but I might say Nya. Because. It sounds kinda...neat...a.

Sunny Familly Cult - Skylor, Chen, the whole of that Cult for sure. And I'd peg Clouse for the one who is trying to find a way to becone a Crypt Tv monster. Kai is probably going to be one of the kills that happen here unless I can find a short to throw him in.

Crypt Fables: This is a bit of a sub category. Kinderfanger, Brad and Gene would be the main kids and the rest of the darkley's batch would be the, well...Murder children puppetered by the piper. Then with Rapunzel...I'd like to use Tox and Chamille(Thought to decide the one doing the killing and the one barely living is hard), for Mira Mira...I can't peg anyone here yet mainly because lack of female characters. Gheppetto, sadly I might have to link this Zane and Julien, they seem the most likely candidates for this story, as long as it's tweaked appropriately. The Little Mermaid, this I want to put with Ray and Maya(Note, relationships in this AU do not reflect how I view them in the show), though Ray is more compassionate then the ring master featured, and would have some tweaks here and there. Cheshire, this one I'm torn on, mainly because I want the Therapist to be Neuro, but at the same time I stand iffy here, while the girl who is getting Therapy I have mo clue on. Next we and I think finally, we have Knave. And honest to god, the temptation to make it Griffin is incredibly strong in this one, and maybe Chamille as his friend(pre-incident?)(these might be connected or not)

Soot - Oof, this is a hard one. But I'd like the idea to be it hunts down Ronin first, as he narrowly slides by death for the upteenth time and the creature has finally caugh up to him, leaving its half circle mark seared and burning on his neck. Appearing to him in his home, while he's surounded by beer bottles most likely, and forcing it down his throat. Tying things up where they should have ended so much earlier. Though I'm not sure on the next three victims.

Shelley - Cole, and I must apologize for that. He would pull the roll of Shelley, vengeful spirit out to get the people who killed her or covered up her death. Tempted for Jay to take the place of Shelley's boyfriend who died view some nasty chemicals. Murder gays(as in, gays that murder people not murdering gays). Thought who to have Cole murder is quite up in the air.

The Birch - Lloyd gets a defensive Oni/Tree protector that traumatizes and saves him. 'Nough said.

Terra - This is more of a bonus. But she is the incarnation of all elements and mother earth itself. Taking revenge on those who wrong it. I just need to mention she exists.

Now, I'm trying to think of shorts that match other people(Wu, Garm, other elemental masters, etc.)