#so basically the whole bodyguard thing becomes useless

[icharchivist]

[..]

she's such a menace i love her so much. Cloud didn't stand a chance.

[bnbc]

Ok! Did you do the Johnny ask meme one for Kou yet? 👀 I'm rly curious whats her take on him >:3c

OH YES THANK YOU I WAS WAITING FOR IT

They started as rivals, Kou hated him and the whole situation. Quite soon tho, the hatred reduced to 'we are in this shit together, but don't get me wrong I'll do everything to get you out of my damned mind'.

But the time went on, and both Relic and Johnny were doing their thing. Kou started to feel for him, and she made a mistake of giving him her body, which lead to the point she actually started trusting him, which is not the most common thing to her. But Johnny is Johnny allright? He can be hella pesuasive.

[For the note, I HC that game events take much more time then two weeks the game offer us, and I also altered the timeline a bit, so the parade happens in mid august, during the Obon, and it's a key point of the story, and all the side quests happen before it]

So, they become friends, at least that what Kou was thinking. She helped Johnny to deal with his shit, she was sititng on his grave, full of rage and sorrow, ready to help him, eating from his palm whatever shit he wanted to feed her. She was basically in his pocket, but during the parade events he fucked up.

When shit hit the fan, and Kou ended up on the first floor of the building during Arasaka's storm, she of course, wanted to come back to save Goro, and Johnny was like "Leave him, save us." And then she relized clearly he is nothing but a manipulator who cares only about himself.

It wasn't because he underastimates her feelings towards a certain ex-bodyguard, it was about him not understanding her at all. She was always the kind do anything for the ones she loves, and how could someone who lived in her head, who claimed to be her friend, who sweared he cared about her, not understand this?

They had a major fight while she was slicing through the 'saka troops, but then he dissapeared just to come back and take full control over her once she and Goro were out of the building. This was the first and only time Goro and Johnny met, but not for long.

Johnny tried to make it up to her, but once she saw through him, it was useless. Kou ended up in the situation when she could trust only two people: Panam and Goro. She didn't want nomads to die for her, yet she understood Johnny would never let her side with Arasaka, and she knew she was too weak to resist him. These last days were complete horror, but at the end, she won.

She tricked Johnny, she made herself - and him - to belive she's gonna call Panam, and it was enough for him to let her take the pill — Kou insted on it, it would be his gesture to prove he is who he says he is, her friend, somene who trust her, right?

So, she called Hanako, and that was it. She never regretted yeeting him out of her mind.

[asbestos-11]

not to rant about areori, but since it's been on my mind lately, my brain has thought of a potential rewrite thingy.

basically it all boils down to me hating how the original cast was handled in areori (orion specifically) and how poorly set up some new characters were. like my main gripe about that is with inakuni raimon and nishikage.

first thing i'd change abt areori is to just to minimize the involvement of the original cast. keep them as reinforcement committe members, but like make their role in the plot just that and nothing else. bcs it gets really annoying in orion. with the way certain characters had their whole personality stripped away from them and/ or were rendered completely useless bcs of plot reasons. like shirou and tatsuya literally had their personalities shredded while saginuma, fudou and gouenji took such a fat l, that it made me want to gouge my eyes out.

now for like the new characters, most of them are so bland. like i'm talking i can't even remember your design or name bland. inakuni raimon got handled even worse than og and go raimon, at least those two had characters do shit and you could get attached to them. but inakuni raimon is literally nothing. like i couldn't tell you anything about most of them, cuz they're just there to fill space and nothing else.

and then there's like nishikage and kozoumaru ... they're umm handled like bad. ughh kozoumaru could have been so cool!! if only they kept his original design in orion and actually gave him a character arc (i'm not counting that bear shit, fuck you). he started out as a gouenji fanboy, copied his moves and generally just looked up a lot to him. but like in orion he literally becomes a reskin and idk goes beast mode as a power up, literally sacrificing every other sorta interesting part about his character for a pending impersonation lawsuit.

ughhh there's nishikage, who's just wasted potential. he could have been actually interesting, but instead they made his whole character nosaka. genuinely i think if the writers put more thought into his character, we could have gotten a character who went from just being a bodyguard to his own person.

idk i feel like areori in general suffers from having way too many characters with little to no development and not enough character arcs, as well as a very confusing plot (orion mostly). and those really drive people away from getting invested into the story

[thatgirl4815]

...I think the main thing that has set me off is the fact that they punished Porsche so severely despite the fact that he was drugged. Good judgment would probably tell you not to drink anything while on the job (even if it does look safe), but I wouldn't exactly call Porsche's actions "careless" here. Kinn ordered the punishment, but I have a hard time believing he specifically directed what the punishment should be.

I am personally neutral about Big and Ken.

In fact, I'm waiting for those feelings to change into something negative considering what Nodt said about Big in the Character Story about "doing it all for love" and I am inclined to believe that Ken is the mole cause in that same video, Perth said Ken is ambitious and can basically be bought for the right price. Also, the protagonist always has to have antagonists (I won't say villain, that's Vegas' job lol) in order to show growth and resilience. So I'm fine with Big and Ken pushing Porsche around as I'm waiting for him to finally snap and finally put them in their place, it'll be satisfying.

However, remember that in episode 2, Ken had a front row seat to Porsche getting drunk on the job whilst he was supposed to be guarding Kinn (and it nearly got him killed by our favorite ✨assassin✨ girlboss 💞). In that same vein, Big and the rest of the bodyguard gang has no idea that Kinn basically "allowed" Porsche to drink the water (I don't even think Kinn himself knows that Porsche was seeking his permission to drink the water, after all, he was just indulging TimeTeh in smiling over at Porsche). So really, from Big and Ken's perspective, he's, once again, drinking on the job (they also probably don't even know it was just water). They both still think that although his skills have improved, he's still not taking the job seriously and its the reason he drank a spiked drink, due to his irresponsibility and thus should be left to deal with it on his own hence the whole "he's fine" from Ken.

They don't have the information we, the audience, have, so looking at it from their perspective I don't think it was cruel, I think maybe they even wanted to push the punishment even further but obviously the purpose was to show him a lesson without making him completely indisposed and useless to not get back to work effective immediately. After all, Kinn said Punishment not handicap him or kill him lmao.

Now, looking at it from the audience's perspective (what we are shown), yes, it was cruel and it seems unjustified because we everything: we see the morning after, the shower, the bathroom breakdown, the "I'm replacing you" from Kinn convo, the boytoy Kinn flaunts, the conversation with Khun Korn, Porsche being unable to hookup with a girl like before, the sadness his friends can see in his eyes when he goes back home, etc., Porsche was really at an all time low in episode 5, but Big and Ken don't see that, so looking at it from their perspective I really can't bring myself to hate Big and Ken (yet).

They're just a nuisance made to make our little Phoenix rise and become stronger, is the way I see it.

You make a lot of great points here. I will admit that my judgment is clouded by my bias towards Porsche. And yeah, as an audience, we have a different perspective of Porsche's drugging than the other bodyguards do. I do think the show will point us in a more definitive direction regarding how we should feel about Big and Ken in the coming episodes. The Character Stories video does make me highly suspicious of both of them. I think we're not supposed to suspect Big at this point since he's shown to have a crush on Kinn, but based on what Nodt said in the video, I think Kinn's unrequited love could motivate him to turn against the major family down the line? Maybe Big will try to convince Kinn that Porsche is the mole and his affection has all been a disguise? No matter what, I think Big will be used to stir up some drama, but in what capacity, I don't know. All I really know at this point is that I don't trust anyone. 😅

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 317: My Boy Was Just Like Me

Previously on BnHA: AFO randomly blew up Lady Nagant as a good reminder of why you should never make a deal with this fucking guy, smdh. Hawks was all “well if it isn’t my two best friends, Deku and Lady Nagant, both of whom I respect and love tremendously.” Everyone was all “??” and Horikoshi was all “shh... just pretend” because it was too embarrassing for him to admit that he forgot to write a couple of set-up flashbacks I guess. Anyway so Hawks got Lady to tell them where AFO was hiding out, and everyone said goodbye to her and Overhaul, who never did get to see his boss (sorry buddy, I’ll send you a vial of my tears in the mail), and headed out to a house in the woods. AFO was all “hello Deku :) :) it sure is fun making you suffer :) :) :) anyways this is a trap”, and blew up the house. Yeah, we all here are getting reaaaaaaaal tired of your shit, AFO.

Today on BnHA: The Hawksquad and Edgeplatoon meet in a warehouse and are all “what should we do about the fact that everything sucks?” Mt. Lady is all “here’s a thought, what if we tried battling AFO with more than six people.” Hawks and Endeavor are all “great initiative, but just a friendly reminder that our friends also suck and would probably betray Deku which would suck further still.” Shouto is all “ANSWER THE PHONE DAD” and Endeavor is all “[IRONICALLY DOESN’T ANSWER THE PHONE].” Meanwhile over in Sadtown, capital of Sadland Prefecture, Japan, Deku is all “All Might, as you can clearly see I am completely fine and good, never been better in fact, definitely not caught up in the throes of an epic mental breakdown which is shutting me down emotionally, anyway so on that note I would like to leave you now goodbye!!” All Might is all “[can’t actually form any words because he’s too distraught].” Fandom is all “o(╥﹏╥)o.” Horikoshi is all “(*＾-’) 乃 [pew pew finger guns and barrel rolls into the darkness].”

sweet jesus lord

this literally doesn’t even look like Deku anymore?? this looks like Dark!Deku who shows up to fight you in that one room in the Water Temple. he looks like he’s about to crawl out of my television set and murder me with his psychic powers good lord

holy shit lmao Horikoshi is really just shrugging his shoulders and resolving last week’s cliffhanger with a single line of dialogue

fire is no one’s weakness. idk what other options you’ve got, AFO, but you’re gonna have to go back to the drawing board. maybe try bees or something. I’m just saying. we’re all expecting fire at this point but nobody is expecting bees

anyway so now they’re all sitting in some warehouse somewhere chatting about it I guess. shoutout to Horikoshi for finally giving my man Edgeshot some more dialogue at long last

well, Edgeshot, to answer your question, she exploded. so naturally she’s fine

nah just kidding, Hawks says she won’t be able to help them out much because she’s recovering from being exploded. this is the part where we all ignore the fact that Hawks got set on fire for like a full ten minutes back during the War arc and was only in the hospital for a day. anyways enjoy your temporary plot hiatus Nagant

man there’s a lot of dialogue here and I’m trying to figure out where to insert commentary but it’s kinda difficult lol. basically, Edge and the others are saying that they should gather up the other remaining heroes and get them all caught up on the whole OFA situation. which, hmmmm

like on the one hand, these guys definitely aren’t going to cut it on their own, so it’s a reasonable suggestion on the face of it. but on the other hand, do we really want to entrust the OFA secret to a bunch of other people, most of whom shat the bed during the War arc to be quite frank? is it really worth the additional risk? especially given that any one of them might go spilling the beans to the public -- or worse, betray them to AFO??

also just a quick side note here, Mt. Lady’s character development never ceases to delight me. she’s become so committed to her responsibility as a hero these days, and it fucking suits her. I genuinely consider to be one of the elites now. I mean it doesn’t hurt that all the other elites are fucking dead lol but still

wait what? Death Arms retired??

Death Arms as in the guy who was too afraid of a little fire to try and save a terrified 14-year-old kid who was slowly suffocating right before his eyes?? that Death Arms???? color me surprised. shocked, I tell you

...okay but holy fuck

Death Arms. bro. my expectations for you were low but holy shit. like I’m sorry, but I don’t even have it in me to try and pretend like I feel the slightest bit of sympathy for him or Old Man Samurai or any of those other guys today. thanks for a whole lot of nothing my dude. good riddance

(ETA: so I’m rereading this the next day and realize this comes off as kind of harsh, so let me just try to clarify. it’s not the fact that he’s quitting that bothers me, to be honest. it’s the fact that he’s quitting specifically because he feels like the public is being mean to him. that’s it.

seriously. it would be one thing if he was quitting because he was scared, because now that is human. nobody wants to die, and I doubt any amount of training can ever fully prepare someone to go up against that fear. but the thing is, he never once mentions that, or talks about the danger aspect. instead, I got the distinct vibe from this speech that Death Arms is one of those people who only became a hero because of the limelight. and I just don’t have any patience for that. if all you care about are likes and subscribes then go become a fucking youtuber or some shit. nothing wrong with that! but you didn’t; you signed up to be a hero and protect these people. they gave you their respect and admiration because they trusted you to protect them. and now that they’re no longer in the mood to worship and applaud your every move on account of them being scared shitless because they’re living in the literal end times, you decide to dip. so like okay, fine then. don’t let the door hit you on the way out. anyways lol sorry for the rant.)

anyway so yeah. perfect example of why I don’t exactly have a ton of faith in most of the remaining heroes out there lol. also let me just once again give a shoutout to my best girl Mt. Lady whom I suddenly find myself appreciating all the more

“please calm down makeste. drink some water and enjoy this fresh new jeans pun” listen Horikoshi don’t tell me what to do dammit

fine. it is a nice pun, I guess

-- damn so now Endeavor’s saying that the media is already being fed info by the retired heroes. so for some of these guys it wasn’t enough for them to abandon all the people they swore to protect and to leave their fellow heroes out in the cold; they decided they might as well actively make things worse for them while they were at it, huh. like I get wanting to spill all the dirty secrets from your old job that you just quit, but this isn’t Jeff Bezos you’re screwing over, this is a sixteen-year-old kid

-- like, yes!! this, right here!!

exactly!! let’s not forget that there are already two prior instances of this happening. Endeavor arguably deserved it, but Katsuki not so much

huh. Endeavor seems to have a more optimistic outlook regarding this than I do lol

I mean, this is the same public that didn’t hesitant to blame a kidnapped child for his own kidnapping, and then later on for being the downfall of the Symbol of Peace. but okay then

anyway so blah blah blah, more talk about how they need to use Deku as bait, which basically puts them back at square one, and then they’re all just trailing off into silence and sitting around in the dark lmao this is getting very depressing

SKDJFLSDKJ:LFKJ

SHOUTO?????

NOOOOOOOO ARE YOU KIDDING ME

OH HOW THE TURNTABLES OMG. THE GHOSTER HAS BECOME THE GHOSTEE. Endeavor you petty son of a bitch. and what a brutal cut to that flashback too. “let’s stop Touya together” nah Shouto I’ve got a better idea why don’t I abandon you in U.A. and sally off with Hawks and Jeanist to found the “let’s pretend like we’re doing something to help Deku” club, which basically consists of us sitting around making terrible decisions all day long

Shouto, honey. you deserve better my little Coca Cola can. .........but if you really do have something important you need to tell your dad you could just text it to him. all the love and support, hugs and kisses, you’re doing amazing sweetie. but if you need to pass on any vital information you can just write it down and hit send honey that’s all I’m saying love

now he’s getting another call?? -- or, no, Hawks is getting a call from All Might

ARE YOU FOR REAL HAWKS OMFG

so while you all were sitting around talking about how useless you are, the kid you’re supposed to be protecting was battling another hired gun. I see. please pardon me for one second, I have a phone call to make. the phone call is to RockLockRock and Manual. the reason for the call is to apologize for calling them the worst bodyguards ever back during the War arc. the reason for the apology is because it turns out I WAS SEVERELY MISTAKEN OMFG

JESUS CHRIST DEKU DID YOU JUST KILL THIS MAN LMAO

shoutout to Horikoshi for offscreening this fight. we get it, lol. Deku strong and scary, villains ineffectual and feeble, and AFO... [checks notes] yep, still a dick. the angst arc continues

-- the angst arc continues, SIR

jesus christ I may have to rethink all of my opinions about Deku being framed for murder in movie 3 lmao. never mind. he did it, your honor

holy fucking shit Deku. “he might blow up, so please be careful” fdlskjflk jlskdjflk lwkejflk anyway so I’ve decided the explosion running gag can stay, actually

DEKU WAIT YOU FORGOT YOUR LUNCH!!

lol why do I get the feeling some serious shit is about to go down. ALL MIGHT NEVER MIND BACK OFF I THINK HE NEEDS HIS SPACE

OH MY FUCK I GASPED OUT LOUD

NO NO NO. I KNEW THIS WAS COMING GODDAMMIT BUT NO. NEVER MIND, I CHANGED MY MIND ABOUT IT, I’M NOT READY TO CRY TODAY

shit. shit shit shit shit and OF COURSE all I can fucking think about is that stupid fucking prophecy and gahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Deku please. please please please if you really are going to leave All Might here, please be so very careful in choosing your farewell words to him now because have this sudden horrible fear that this might be the last time you ever see him alive and oh god. oh god oh god

DEKU NO, YOU’RE REALLY NOT!?!?

I HAVE NEVER SEEN ANYONE LESS FINE IN MY LIFE, ACTUALLY????

holy shit. and the fucking callback to the prophecy now. just in case we forgot. WHICH FYI, WE DIDN’T. but that’s basically confirming that this is all still very much on the table and HORIKOSHI NEVER FORGETS oh my god someone please hold me

and the fact that Deku’s flashing back to it now too, though?? because he never forgot either, because of course he didn’t, and now all this stuff is happening, and AFO’s words are getting to him, and this is literally his worst fear come to life and so of course he’s distancing himself from everyone, and now it’s finally come to even this. even the person he admires most

-- OKAY NO, FUCKING COME ON ALREADY I CAN’T TAKE THIS

I GET IT OH MY GOD, I ALREADY UNDERSTAND THE EMOTIONAL IMPACT OF THIS MOMENT WITHOUT ALL OF THE DEVASTATING FLASHBACKS THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH!! YOU ACTUALLY DO WANT ME TO CRY, HUH, IS THAT IT. THIS MAN THAT HE THINKS OF AS A FATHER, THIS MAN WHO HAS BEEN EVERYTHING TO HIM SINCE HE WAS A VERY YOUNG CHILD. EVERYTHING THEY’VE BEEN THROUGH, JUXTAPOSED AGAINST EVERYTHING DEKU IS UP AGAINST, EVERYTHING THAT’S AT RISK. LET’S JUST PUT IT ALL SIDE BY SIDE. LET’S JUST PILE ON ALL OF THE FEELS

(ETA: just a quick note that even though some of the posts I’ve read have described these as All Might’s flashbacks, I’m pretty sure they are Deku’s. most of these are scenes that only he was there for, so yeah. even though All Might is the one thinking the thoughts on the next page, the flashbacks are what’s running through Deku’s mind right now, and so we’re getting that emotion from both of them, which makes it extra devastating lol.)

wait, what???

WHAT??? do you really think that’s why he’s been so determined to protect you this entire time?? simply because you’re his successor?

-- oh no wait lol I think I got that mixed up, this is All Might saying that Deku feels the need to protect him. well that makes more sense lol

oh my god I cannot

his last words. his last words to him. and we can’t even see if he is smiling, like All Might always encouraged him to do. but what are the odds he can’t actually bring himself to do it. what are the odds he’s actually crying. oh god this scene is going to rip my heart out and STOMP on it in the anime isn’t it. Deku’s VA is going to full on murder me with emotion. not that there’ll be much of me left to murder after the thorough job that Horikoshi has already done here

YOU’RE CRYING. DEKU IS LEAVING ALL MIGHT AND IGNORING HIS OUTSTRETCHED HAND AND YOU’RE CRYING. AND BY “YOU” I MEAN “ME”, FUCK

nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope nope no words just feels just a big ol’ pile of feels. I do not have the strength. future me... [broadly gestures] good luck with all that

(ETA: LOL, WELL THEN.

what breaks my heart here is All Might. All Might, and everything he’s been through, and history repeating itself, and forcing him to live this moment from both sides because he wasn’t strong enough to fix things.

Toshinori had only just turned eighteen when Nana died. like, I feel like we don’t mention this enough. the All Might we know is a sixty-something-year-old man, and so everyone always talks about him like he’s basically been an adult forever. but he was a child when he met Nana. and he was still just a child when she died. barely a year older than Deku is now. younger than Mirio was when we first met him.

and we don’t talk about that. we don’t talk about how devastating that was for him. and we don’t talk about how the reason he grew up to become so reserved and withdrawn -- for all that he always tried so hard to outwardly project the image of a bold, confident, smiling hero -- was specifically because of what AFO did to him. because AFO targeted him in the exact way that he is now targeting Deku. because that’s what he does. he goes after every new user of OFA, and he finds out what’s most important to them, and then he destroys it. and for Toshinori, that was Nana. if you’ve read All Might Rising, you know that AFO basically killed her in front of him (and only killed her, while letting Toshinori and Gran get away). Toshinori (while crying) later says she was like a mother to him. and interestingly enough, during this same conversation, Gran tells Toshinori that he can see “that madness in [his] eyes” when Toshi talks about becoming strong enough to defeat AFO. madness in his eyes. sound familiar??

what’s happening to Deku now is the exact same thing that happened to Toshinori when he was a boy. AFO tried every bit as hard to break him as he’s trying with Deku now. “the path you’ve chosen is a thorny one. every battle grinds away at your soul with no end in sight.” we don’t talk about how Toshinori experienced this same thing for forty fucking years. and all the while isolating himself, exactly like Deku is doing now. pushing people away, exactly like Deku. because he never had anyone who was able to reach out and pull him back. and those words that he now finds himself frozen and unable to speak -- “don’t push yourself”; “you can rest” -- are the same words that no one ever said to him until decades later, when it was already far too late to make any difference.

everything that Deku is experiencing now is what Toshinori also went through. and it’s only now, as he watches it happen to his student, the boy he loves like a son, that he’s finally starting to realize the full extent of how wrong it was. you shouldn’t have to fight alone. you shouldn’t have to bear that kind of enormous burden alone. you shouldn’t have to push yourself, and you can rest. you can rest.

but it’s too late. just as he’s finally coming to understand it all, it’s all too fucking late. and he can’t say the words, he doesn’t know how to say the words, and then just like that, Deku is gone.

and he’s alone. again.)

I can’t. this can’t be their goodbye. I’m not ready. for this to be how they finally part, and then they never see each other again except in OFA. how is that fair. how is that fair. how is that fair

fuck me. lol. how many pages are left in this thing. let’s just wrap this up lol. so now of all the times for this fucking guy to finally show up

I can’t believe Stain has been here literally this entire time hiding behind this random wall and cutting onions. that was you who was cutting the onions, right. no need to answer that we’ll just say it was

HORIKOSHI JUST END THE CHAPTER PLEASE I’M OUT OF SPOONS. YOU HURT ME SO GOOD AND I LOVE YOU FOR IT BUT YOU NEED TO LET ME GO NOW SO I CAN BEGIN THE PROCESS OF TRYING TO PUT MY LIFE BACK IN ORDER HERE. SO WHERE ARE WE CUTTING TO NOW WHAT IS HAPPENING

Stain did you also let AFO give you a new quirk. what’s with you guys. do you like blowing up

oh nvm lol because they were talking about THIS GUY ohhhhhh my fucking god

THAT’S BECAUSE HE’S SAD, LINDA!! jesus

omfg. and so yes, good, the chapter is ending here now on page 15. for once I am FULLY on board with that lmao

anyway so tune in next week for more adventures of Werewolf Deku!! that is, assuming we don’t finally cut back to U.A. at long last, which is actually a strong possibility considering that this chapter will likely mark the end of volume 31. it sure wouldn’t kill Horikoshi to start giving us some hope after everything he’s just put us through lol. KACCHAN COME GET YA BOY

[headcanonsandhijinx]

I watched a few clips from ‘Black Widow’ and this au just popped into my head. (Be warned, this whole is incredibly messy and disjointed. I apologise for that. I’m just writing this as it pops into my head in a stream of consciousness because I’m kinda tired rn.)

Black Widow/Winter Soldier Wild AU

Can you imagine if when Wild’s really young and is discovered to be the hero, he’s just ripped away from his family and life to be trained as the hero. Except the training is pretty much just training him to be an obedient assassin who does whatever he is ordered to. He’s essentially got the training of Black Widow and the Winter Soldier and is just used by the royal family for whatever they want him to do basically.

***

I imagine parts of his training be things like…

1. The obvious weapons training. He’s trained with pretty much any weapon you can find in Hyrule until he’s a master at all of them. Sword, spear, bow and arrow, bommerang, etc.

2. Hand to hand combat as well. Again, he’s pretty much mastered it.

3. Pain resistance. He’s basically trained to ignore pain and they did this by beating him over and over until he learned not to flinch and show a physical reaction.

4. He speaks pretty much every language in Hyrule (Hylian, Goron, Gerudo, Rito, Zora, and Sheikah) fluently.

5. Any other stuff you can think of that he could be trained in basically.

***

Of course, as the hero he’s still Zelda’s bodyguard, they just never get along like they start to in the game before the Calamity awakens. Mainly because Wild has to follow her father’s every order and, like in canon, she hates that she has to be protected and feels useless because she can’t access her goddess given powers. And because Wild literally doesn’t even have the freedom to even think for himself, there isn’t really anyway for them to bond, so Zelda never ends up becoming nice to him like she is after he rescues her from the Yiga attack in one of the memories. (Yeah, this AU probably isn’t going to be super Zelda friendly, basically for more angst purposes when the LU boys come in).

A way to make the situation worse is by having all the champions, even Revali as much as he teases, be deeply uncomfortable by the way Wild is treated by the royal family. (I kinda imagine Revali still being a prick but he’s a bit nicer to Wild then he is in canon.) When they all first visit Hyrule Castle and see how he basically is treated more like a tool than a person, they are all absolutely furious. They all end up volunteering to train Wild in their various fighting styles as a way to get him away from the castle and his orders for a bit so that they can actually treat him kindly. But they treat him so differently to how he’s treated back in the castle that he’s actually confused by them treating him kindly. They’d all gotten back to their respective quarters that night and shed a few tears, the boy didn’t even know proper kindness.

The champions just see Wild as a member of their family and, although he doesn’t say it, he becomes fond of them too. He’s like a brother to all of them. They hate having to leave him to go and prepare the Divine Beasts and pray they see him soon.

Calamity Ganon rises.

The champions are killed in their respective Divine Beasts, and the makeshift family they had with Wild is broken apart.

Wild runs across a muddy field in torrential rain with Zelda’s hand in one of his and the Master Sword in his other. He’s running on nothing but orders and adrenaline. He has several cracked ribs, his left arm is broken even as he grips Zelda’s hand, there is blood pouring out of several cuts and gashes across his body, but still he keeps running. He has too, his body will not allow him to stop as he was ordered to run and protect the princess. She is his mission and he cannot fail.

But moments after Zelda finally unlocks her powers as she shields them from a guardian, he fails his mission. He collapses under the weight of his injuries and moments later, he dies in the middle of Hyrule Field. He has failed his mission and Hyrule has fallen. (Sorry, I don’t really know when I slipped into story mode there?)

But Zelda still manages to have him placed him the resurrection shrine as they still need him, and so, 100 years later, Wild wakes up.

The whole thing gets sadder if you imagine Wild’s training being so strong that it sticks after his resurrection. He doesn’t even understand it, he just hears a voice in his head yelling at him to not do this and not do that. (Extra sad thing, the reason he does all the side quests is because Zelda is the highest authority figure in Hyrule, but as she’s trapped in the castle and unable to give him orders, Wild just obeys anyone because he assumes that they’re a higher ranking than him, even though they are just normal people. And most of the time, they aren’t giving him orders they are asking for help, but he just doesn’t know the difference.)

Anyway, Wild completes his mission and defeats Calamity Ganon and everything seems okay. He’s still at Zelda’s side as she’s the current ruler and part of his programming is to obey the current monarch. They still don’t really get along, but Zelda is trying to be kind to him now, but I imagine that it’s just kind of too late for that now.

However, everything changes when the LU gang turn up (finally!) and look for this Hyrule’s hero, they do find him. But they just don’t expect him to be an emotionless 118 year old assassin. They talk with Zelda to discuss their quest and she says that Wild can go with them, blah blah blah. So they take Wild with them on their quest and just get more and more outraged the more they find out about him (oh, also Wild is mute in this and uses sign language.)

Since Time seems to be the leader of the group, Wild starts to treat him like he treats Zelda. Listens to whatever he says as Wild sees it as an order, protects him more during fights, that kinda stuff and it breaks Time’s heart when he figures it out.

Also i imagine that it’s also really strange for Wild to visit the other Hyrules and meet the other Zelda’s who have great relationships with their respective Links, because he doesn’t have that with his Zelda. (Although, I do see Malon immediately taking a liking to him and wanting to hug the poor boy, which would be super emotional for him as he hasn’t been hugged in years and can’t even remember his own mother).

***

But there are two times that the gang really learn how much his training messed him up and oh boy, are they fucking fuming!

The first time happened when Wild gets stabbed during a fight and doesn’t even flinch. Nobody notices until after the fight when they all sit at the camp fire that night and Wild just starts sewing his wound up as they all watch in horror. Hyrule asks why he never said he was injured and Wild says ‘it wasn’t important.’ And doesn’t understand why they make a fuss and insist he wastes a healing potion on himself (yes, Wild has an absolutely crap self-esteem here and doesn’t actually think he’s worth anything other than what he can do for people.) Hyrule has to be stopped from tackling Wild to check on the wound himself.

The second was when Wild put himself in danger during a fight to protect the others and when the fight was over Time yelled at him. It was out of concern for Wild’s wellbeing and asking why him had put himself in danger, but Wild thought he was in trouble and asked if Time wanted to punish him. Everyone, especially Time, was horrified and confused. Time asked what Wild meant by punishment and then almost wished he’d never asked. Wild just went into explanations of various punishments he’s had. They were all incredibly harsh, including being whipped, having to stand outside holding a sword outstretched in his hands all night while not being allowed to lower his arms, having to fight other full-armoured and equiped soldiers without any armour or weapons himself, etc. Wild is then the subject of a very big cuddle pile.

***

Basically this AU can be summed up as Black Widow/Winter Soldier Wild gets treated nicely for the first time in years and is very confused/uncomfortable, while the gang all immediately see Wild and are like ‘ahh yes, our amnesiac assassin now’ while they try to convince him that there is more to him than just being a puppet for people. Of course, while the quest with the black blooded monsters takes place as well.

[trancegnder]

me and @error-is-bae were talking and started joking about a crackship between the sheriff and hank but then we both just got to thinking like. hear me out here

the sheriff is a coward and not really good at any kind of battle obviously (hence like, him shooting and missing hank and accidentally killing one of his men, constantly hiding behind his bodyguards, generally just Running Away yada yada), so i can imagine him like. Hiding out in nevada after all the shit went down (let's pretend he just like. got stabbed once by hank and bandaged it up so hes fine now or some shit) and he's recognized as like. a traitor of sorts at this point i guess? bcs hes fought off agents before n doesnt help the auditor anymore or something; either way the agents will attack him

n he tries to go and fight one day but he ends up cornered n injured Real Quick and hank san and dei happen to be there n they manage to save him bcs theyre not jyst gonna let him die

so then like.shenanigans ensue bcs hes like "i want to help" cuz he still feels horrible about the whole improbability drive thing, he didnt think any of this would be happening, and he wants to try and help fix everything and hank is like "what? no fuck you you're lucky i didn't let you die you're literally useless in battle" but he still tags along everywhere

n hank is also like "how do i know youre not a weasel or something how do we know youre not gonna betray us outta nowhere we know you used to work for auditor" so there's an added level of mistrust

doc and dei get that cus they both came from the agency and doc's like "we can't trust him, he's from the agency" and dei's like "c'mon mate i'm a fucking clone and i'm still good what's this guy gonna do" but doc still has no semblance of trust because he knows what the agency is like and dei is technically a defective clone and he never saw the willingly recruited agents cus clones and agents were separate so he doesn't know

n dei gets frustrated with everyone's lack of trust; of course they can't trust him instantly but there's no need to be this fucking mean. so he ends up becoming friends with the sheriff and everyone's like "dude. you're setting us up for betrayal." and dei's like "bro fuck off he's chill"

basically i just like the idea of deimos and sheriff being friends

[kitty-does-stuff]

Hardcore Henry Lore (Aka for Payday fans wondering what Hardcore Henry means for the world of payday)

Now this isn’t a perfect breakdown of everything, if you want full context you should watch the movie & then read Hardcore Akan (aka the one issue vcomic tie-in). But this should go over the whole backstory & lead up along with answer stuff like basic ages of Akan & Jimmy

Since this is rather long it is going under the cut, if I am missing anything lmk.

Also warning that this spoils all of hardcore henry.

The Timeline

The events of the Hardcore Henry world notblely start on April 26, 1986, aka the chernobyl disaster, during the disaster Akan’s mother was starting to give birth, with how things are told within the comic she died due to a pill that those going to the disaster were given to trick them into killing themselfs, that she took after being told by her husband that it would save her. 

The newborn Akan was taken in by a doctor working at chernobyl, that within this world was the one at fault for the disaster, the man (Dr. Akanov) was likely the one that named Akan, given that the first name seems based on the last name.

It is likely that during the 80’s that Jimmy is old enough to watch the news & remember details about it, mainly this is likely due to a joke he makes about watching a news story in the 80’s

Sometime around here is when Henry may have been born.

During Akan’s childhood & teen years he us bullied by his peers due to how he looks and likely some traits he showed around others his age, in his late teen years before going to university he convincses his father to no longer use animal testing at his labs & as a whole behaves in ways that make it hard for his father to later believe his crimes

Within university Akan is still bullied but he is able to join an underground animal fighting ring, said group as a twist that the animals (only seen with frogs) were made into cyborgs, this means it’s likely that Akan himself had talent with robotics & making cyborgs. During this time he does nearly get a girlfriend but he unwisely took her to the fighting ring & she did not approve of the animal abuse.

Shortly after schooling Akan became a part of the clubbing & partying scene, likely starting with selling others drugs before he ended up making his own, which was meant to be one that would activate at the same time no matter when tooken, he was very sure in this drug so took himself (either meaning he was overconfident or skilled at drug making).

Sadly the drug did not do it was meant to and instead more- melted, those that took it, Akan being the only person that took it that lived, though after making up from his coma he had the power to move things with his mind (likely he always had this power, the drug just made it show itself).

After this he learned what his father had done by mistake & more about his past, after this he kills his father and everyone at the head of Akan industries

After taking control of the company Akan shortly after hiring James “Jimmy” a biolesit from the uk who wished to use dead bodies in his studies, it is likely that Jimmy had a pretty good idea on what the company was doing.

Sometime after Jimmy is hired but before he is uh… “fired” Slick Dimitry was hired, likely at first as a bodyguard as he is seen with Akan when Akan breaks Jimmy’s back. It is unknown when Slick Dimitry became a cyborg but I believe he is likely a beta test for one, maybe he willingly became one or maybe it was Akan’s way of saying thanks for a loyal worker.

Jimmy makes the first prototypes of the super soldiers, but they are mindless & overall useless, which makes Akan decide to break Jimmy’s back & fire him, likely thinking Jimmy won’t have the nerve to fight back afterwards or would be unable to.

Jimmy makes his clones, likely starting with Nerd Jimmy as this clone is the closest to the Jimmy that worked for Akan personality wise, it is unknown how he was able to do this, set up his lab or where he even got the money for all of this.

Estelle likely becomes the head of the super soldier project, she may have already been married to Akan or they became close during this time, what is likely is that she is a big part of the project.

Shortly before the events of Hardcore Henry the timeline splits, in the main timeline Akan does not try to hire the Payday Gang (As they likely do not exist as anything other than a video game that Jimmy is likely a fan of given his mask which would fit the game). Meanwhile the 2nd timeline is the Payday timeline, in which Akan tries to hire the Payday gang but Jimmy pays them more & is able to steal research about making super soldiers, which likely means Henry is never made into a super soldier & the events of the movie never happen.

Henry somehow dies & his body is found/already agreed to be used as the main super soldier for the first field test/programing phase, it is unknown as to why Henry was picked or why he naturally has a lot of skills that other super soldiers don’t have (he is able to beat other 200 of them, so it’s likely he has a past with fighting in it)

At the start of Hardcore Henry’s movie Akan is 29-30, Jimmy is likely in his 40’s, Henry is likely the same age as the maker of the flim, & the other characters are unknown/likely the same as their actors.

The events all take place during the same day, by the end of the day almost all named characters are dead other than Henry, who is left within a helicopter after killing Akan & Estelle. The screen goes black and hears that Jimmy left a message for after he died, with one last job (it is unclear when he would’ve made this or how Henry (who likely is the one listening) found this message.)

Other Events

It is likely that Hardcore Henry is within the same world as the music videos of the music vidoes that inspired the movie, the story follows a highly skilled spy (who’s skillset is like Henry’s, they may be the same character at different points within the timeline, Henry being a spy that was looking into Akan but was killed by Akan’s forces would make sense) who has blended into a evil unknown company, there is a hacker also posted there. They are there to get a device that can teleport. When he tries to get it the alarm goes off and the mission goes loud.

At first he is unable to get away with it & is catched, his partner is killed and he is then able to get the device back after fighting his way through the company forces & the one with it, the last of the fighting takes place within a baby’s room, who after the fight is other grabs the device and uses it by mistake, it is unknown where the baby went or what became of the spy.

Fixing the whole chernobyl problem

So the way the chernobyl disaster is shown in Akan’s comic does not make sense and would’ve made things go a lot worse worldwide & would’ve made history different (Butterfly effect problems)

So my best try at fixing this is that Dr. Akanov lied or Akan made up his own version of events, here’s what both would mean:

Dr. Akanov lying likely would mean that he likely blames himself for the event or at least a lot of the death around the event, he was a doctor after all so it isn’t unlikely that most people he tried to treat would die in horrible ways, making there be trauma that could’ve had him make a version of the events where those he treated died quicker, in more peace. Akan’s mother was likely a women close to giving birth when the disaster happened & got readied, later dying in childbirth with Dr. Akanov adopting the child due to the birth father dying from the disaster & the radian

Akan making up likely means the story is just his way of explaining his own powers, him having albinism & getting rid of any guilt he may have had about killing his own father.

What is missing

So there are parts of the story missing, mainly because everything that was meant to come out hasn’t, mainly another movie & more comics.

We know very little about what happened between Akan hiring Jimmy & firing him, this likely would’ve been covered by comics, along with the stories of some of the notable people that worked for Akan, like Slick & Estelle.

We don’t know how Henry’s body ended up in Akan’s & Estelle’s hands, nor do we know anything about his past outside one moment from his childhood & that he got a tattoo.

We also don’t know what Jimmy’s last job was.

We don’t know what the serious version of the story would’ve been like

No clue on when Hardcore Henry Meets Rooster Teeth fits into any of this, maybe it’s the happy end au where Jimmy doesn’t day & him and Henry are like roommates or something

[astrovagrant]

the prime cantor has a vague, extremely lofty and esoteric goal that she's been pursuing for centuries, and it's the basis of like. pretty much Every Thing in the carillon and every decision the pc has made in her rulership of it. nobody really knows this, because she plays pretty much everything close to the chest, but besides [redacted, ancient event], she's had two major breakthroughs within the timeline that roz and co. live in, and they center around people that the prime cantor uses and discards when they can no longer be made to obey properly or she's tired of them.

anaïs (roz's mom) - veritable genius, highly conceptual researcher, high and abstract mathematics, heavy theory and calculation. useful to the prime cantor for gathering information, finding fundamental patterns, and building a strong understanding of basics that had been eluding her after centuries of stagnation. was ?killed? either accidentally or on purpose, and her death (and the circumstances/variables/effects thereof) was a keystone moment of understanding for the pc that had not had any equal for centuries. pc realizes a new direction she needs to take her country in, and starts pouring resources into r&d and general technology advancement to replace the dying magic systems (a consequence of choices and systems she made a long time ago, and on the whole intentional) - anaïs had been mistrustful of the pc and her intentions for her research for years, and much moreso after having roz; roz has a deeply veiled breadcrumb trail that she will one day follow to better understand her mother and the circumstances of her death, as well as her work, the potential consequences of it, and the responsibilities she's passing on to roz. anaïs was terrified of being unexpectedly taken away from her daughter by the prime cantor, and thus made concerted efforts to protect and hide information for roz, just in case. some of this has been destroyed by time or by roz's abusive grandmother, but anaïs was incredibly canny and a lot of her legacy still remains for her daughter to uncover.

stiffcollar - pc's despised secretary/bodyguard/bitch boy. he had no value to her and everything he did for her while in her service was basically pointless, because she ends up ritualistically sacrificing him to try to capture the same effects from when roz's mom died (?) - but it doesn't work, stiffcollar becomes... what he is now, and the cantor is tilted because she doesn't understand why he couldn't be useful for ONCE in his entire life. he is her tool in her system and she made him - hundreds of years ago, she made a society that would produce thousands of him, all useless and stupid and devoted to her - and it's unconscionable and deeply offensive to her that in half a millenia he's the first tool that she couldn't just dispose of after using (it's so unsettling to think of all the things - people - that may have slipped through the cracks in her flawless, ordered system -) - but even though he didn't die and even though she banished him from being anywhere near her because of that outrage that disguises a sliver of fear, him Not dying has given her new variables, new insight, and allowed her to start a whole new slew of living being rights violations in the three years since his un-death.

arkwright: latest 'recruit' (she didn't have a say in the matter), and in many ways intended to be a replacement for anaïs. aw is an engineer and an inventor whose main focus is flight, but her improvements to an archaic, thought-impossible design called a 'null engine' caught the prime cantor's eye. basically kidnapped and taken to serve as an advisor (???) / pet inventor for the pc, arkwright has begun to sense that this isn't just about an engine or a fat government commission and has started to be immensely careful and stall for time. she starts the narrative in this precarious position, making up materials requests (some genuine!) that take her to remote chords and get her out of the cantor's direct line of sight while she tries to get to the heart of something so much more massive and decayed than she was ever prepared for. she is Not as theoretical and calculation-exclusive as anaïs, and instead wants experiments, prototypes, and physical results, which is both good and bad. she's also less attuned to healthy magic (anaïs was much more closely aligned with non-carillon mathemagics after she had roz, bc reasons) and much More attuned to whatever it is that the prime cantor is affiliated with, due to her fucked up heart situation. again, both good and bad. probably mostly bad for her, in the long run.

[devil-in-the-d3tails]

It’s the End of the World as We Know It - Chapter 4

summary: During the international quarantine in your first-ever pandemic, the people around you slowly begin to disappear. As the world grows quieter and quieter, you find yourself all alone-- no power, no friends, and only one goal: to find whoever of your friends might be left and reunite with them.You're naive to think anything can be that simple. As you're faced with ever-increasing loneliness, you run into some boys who apparently went to the same high school as you. Will you join forces with them to figure out your strange circumstances together, or will you brave loneliness in a world that is slowly crumbling apart?

Link on AO3!

words: 3,721

rating: M - Mature

genre: angst/humor, romance, adventure, apocalypse AU, reader-insert

warnings: sort of depressing content, a smidge of violence, cursing

a/n: there's finally some ACTION y'all!! i had so much fun writing this chapter haha, reader is really finding her footing and putting an end to the bullshit! thank you for reading!!

- Fuck Outta Here -

“You huh?!”

You slam on the brakes, and Kuroo and Bokuto yell in surprise-- Bokuto didn’t put his damn seatbelt on, so his face smushes right into Kuroo’s headrest, earning you a glare from the dark-haired boy.

“I said don’t freak out! Keep driving, what are you doing?!”

You look in your rearview mirror-- the street is empty. Were they running from anyone chasing them?

“Dude, you were whispering at me when you ran out, and you guys were like, running on your little tippy-toes trying to be quiet, and nobody’s behind us right now. Were they asleep, or something?” You demand, and Bokuto gasps.

“You’re so smart-- how did you figure that out?” Bokuto exclaims, and Kuroo just looks even more annoyed. “Oh, your groceries were there, too! Like, just chillin on the floor.”

“What? No way!” You exclaim,

“Bokuto, shuuuuut iiiit,” Kuroo groans at the same time, and upon a fierce glare from you, he pinches the bridge of his nose.

“Yeah, they were asleep, but there’s no way in hell I’m going back in there. I get why you were scared-- one of ‘em looks like a damn school shooter, and the other one looks like a roided-out football player.” Kuroo huffs out a breath, trying and failing to get some wayward hairs out of his eye. “I’m surprised we got out alive-- I’m also surprised at how bad Asahi is at hiding weed. Did his parents just not give a shit?”

“So you were willing to stay in there to look for your weed after you knew they were there, after you saw them, but you’re not willing to go back in for my groceries? Meaning, shit that can actually help us?!” You exclaim, having fully turned in your seat to face the boy beside you. He looks at you for a moment, blinking twice to make sure he heard you correctly.

“Uh-- yeah!” He says, as if it’s the most obvious thing in the world. You throw your hands in the air incredulously.

“Kuroo, you yourself said that food is hard to come by right now-- why would you prioritize weed over food?!”

“She’s kinda right, bro.” Bokuto says, and Kuroo rolls his eyes.

“You guys were so down to be heroes and shit and protect me from those guys if they turned out to be in my house; where’s that energy now?” You fling the car into park, and move to open your door.

“Woah, woah, woah!” Kuroo exclaims, and lunges across the center console to yank your door closed again. “The fuck are you doing?”

“I’m going to get my shit! I looted it, fair and square!” You shoot back, and you realize how incredibly childish you sound, and also how close Kuroo is to you. He sets his jaw, and heaves a sigh.

“[Y/n]...” He leans back, and shares a look with Bokuto, who already looks guilty. “They had guns with them.”

Your heart sinks. Well, that changes everything.

“I didn’t wanna mention your groceries, ‘cause I had a feeling this exact thing would happen.” Kuroo explains, and scratches his eyebrow. “It’s not a bad thing how you’re so hell-bent on proving yourself and proving you’re not scared or whatever, but that mentality is gonna get dangerous. Like, right now, you’re really willing to storm in there and go get some-- what, some poptarts? Totinos pizza rolls?”

“I didn’t know they had guns before.” You mumble defensively. “...and there weren’t anymore Totinos left in the store in the first place…”

“Aw, man.” Bokuto mourns under his breath at the last part of your sentence.

“Even if they didn’t have guns, you were willing to storm in there after those guys hurt you once before.” Kuroo shoots right back.

“Well, she has us now, Kuroo.” Bokuto pipes up, and you both turn to him in surprise-- he’s been uncharacteristically quiet this whole time. “She’s right, dude, we were all down to be her bodyguards this morning, but now there’s actual danger, we’re not willing to back her up?”

“There’s always been danger, but it’s exponentially worse now.” Kuroo says, and you haven’t heard anyone use ‘exponentially’ in a sentence ever since AP Calculus.

“If she wants to go back in there, I’m going with her.” Bokuto says, and crosses his arms to give you an encouraging smile. Your heart warms at the sight-- his smile, his encouragement, is all you need in this moment to get the courage to go back and take what’s yours.

“Let’s go.” You say to Bokuto, who nods once, and slips out of the car. You give a pointed look to Kuroo, his handsome features unreadable. You open your door, and step one leg out, when Kuroo speaks up.

“Wait.” He says, and you turn back hesitantly, unsure of what he might say. “You’re forgetting your mighty hammer.” He holds it out to you, and you’re so irritated to find the corners of his lips twitching up.

You swipe the hammer out of his hand, narrowing your eyes at him before slamming the door closed to stalk around the car to join Bokuto. You really weren’t expecting to get pissed off this early in the morning.

“Let’s do this!” He says loudly, and you leap to slap your hand over his mouth.

“Shh! We don’t wanna wake them up, dipshit!!” You hiss, and Bokuto’s eyes widen.

“Awww, fuck, I’m sorry!” He whispers as you pull your hand away.

A car door slams closed, and you turn to see Kuroo sauntering towards you two with his hands in his pockets. “Yeah, be quiet, dipshit.” He leers, and Bokuto actually squares up. You cross your arms.

“The car’s still running, so we need someone to watch it.” You say, channelling the bitchiest ‘you-can’t-sit-with-us’ attitude you can. “Plus, I have Bokuto and my ‘mighty hammer,’ so we’ll be fine.”

“Who’s gonna steal the car?” Kuroo gestures around him, and playfully swipes Bokuto’s arm away, the latter of whom delivers two harmless jabs to his side. The two boys laugh, but you won’t forgive Kuroo that easily. “C’mon, let’s go, grumpy.” Kuroo strides past you, ruffling your already messy hair on the way.

You have no choice but to follow behind them, and the closer you three jog to the house, the tenser you become. Steeling your nerves, you refuse to be intimidated by these guys a second time. They’re asleep, and are clearly heavy sleepers if they can’t be disturbed by the two jocks stomping around with you, so that gives you some comfort.

They didn’t close the door behind them when they rushed out, so Kuroo just has to gently ease the door open and you three slip inside silently. It seems like this house has been untouched— they probably sought shelter here last night, since your home was basically useless in terms of keeping warmth in. Your eyes dart to the hardwood floor, and you look up to hook Bokuto with an accusatory glare. He responds silently with an expression like a hurt puppy, his face reading, ‘what? What did I do wrong??’

“You said the groceries were on the floor!” Your voice is just barely a whisper, and based on Bokuto’s continued distress, you can tell he can’t hear you. You fight back a loud sigh, and tip-toe over to him, yanking his shoulder down so that his ear is on level with your lips. You repeat yourself, and Bokuto straightens up, understanding now.

“They’re upstairs! Next to those guys, in Asahi’s room.” He whispers back, and your heart sinks even lower. This is going to be riskier than you thought. You can practically feel Kuroo’s ‘I-told-you-so,’ hanging in the air, and upon glaring at the tall boy, it’s painted all over his face, too. You jerk your nose in the air, absolutely refusing to pussy out now.

The three of you cautiously ascend the stairs-- they’re on the left, as opposed to the right, like in your home, and it sort of trips you out how similar but different the two houses are. At the top, Kuroo passes you and nods to the door at the end of the hallway, slightly ajar with snores emanating from the inside. You suck in a breath as you follow him, and jump a little as Bokuto grips your hand without warning. You whip around to face him, and he gives you a smile and a thumbs-up. That just warms your heart, and you feel a little bit of confidence from the exchange-- you nod to him, a brave smile pulling at your lips.

The room itself is pretty average, just like any other high school boy’s room you knew. There’s a few volleyball posters on the walls, and clothes are still spilling out of the hamper. You’re getting less and less shocked at how everything seems to be frozen in time, since everyone just disappears without a trace, these days.

Sure enough, there’s a handgun resting on the floor next to the red-head, and another similar one resting on the bedside table by the brunette. The sight of actual guns sitting before you is jarring, to say the least— you don’t feel particularly confident about your hammer anymore.

The taller brunette is sound asleep on the bed, and the red-head is slumped on the floor, sitting against the desk with his head drooping down. You swear you can see a bit of drool hanging from his mouth, but your sole focus is on the three bags resting against the closet doors.

That’s your stuff-- you share a glance with Kuroo and Bokuto, take a deep breath, and cautiously tip-toe to the bags, picking them up as quietly as possible. As you straighten up, you keep your gaze trained on the red-head, and you successfully retreat outside of the room-- Kuroo and Bokuto follow behind you with bated breath, but it’s when you start to carefully descend the stairs that shit hits the fan.

In an instant, a bullet ricochets off the wall in front of you, and you duck down, effectively losing your footing to end up tumbling down the stairs. You hear Kuroo shout your name from above, but once you’re on solid ground, you spring up to your feet, and are met with Bokuto crashing into you. He barrels into you, and you tumble to the floor once again, landing on your back with Bokuto sprawled out on top of you.

“Get-- get off me, you fuckn-- mammoth!” You wheeze out, and Bokuto scrambles to his feet. After scooping up your groceries (with the exception of a few wayward items spilling out in the midst of the crash), you are pulled up by Bokuto, and Kuroo swiftly passes you, a slew of “shitshitshit”s running from his mouth as he sprints out the door.

You don’t have time to look behind you, up at the stairs where the red-head scrambles after you three, frantically cocking his gun, clearly very inexperienced in the art of shooting. Instead, you race after your even more athletic friends towards your van, which is still running and not stolen-- another thing Kuroo was right about, you think somewhere in the back of your mind.

Speaking of, the dark-haired boy rips open the backseat door, and after he tosses his bag of groceries inside, he frantically turns back to you just as you’re sprinting up to him.

You’re maybe two feet away when strong arms wrap around your middle, halting you in your panicked sprint, and your grocery bag tumbles out of your arms in front of you. Furious, you twist around in the grasp of whoever is holding you, only to come face-to-face with the red-head.

“You!” You both exclaim at the same time, and the guy narrows his eyes dangerously. You don’t have the patience to find out what sort of masochistic shit he has in plan for you-- instead, you summon all of the strength and frustration that’s been building up inside of you the past few days, and deliver the strongest punch you’ve ever dealt straight into his nose.

For some reason, you screech, “Fuck outta here!” as you deal the blow.

He yelps in surprise, and tumbles back, which gives you enough freedom to spin out of his grasp, only to be caught in Bokuto’s arms as you reach for your groceries strewn on the asphalt.

You’re lifted off your feet, groceries still strewn on the damp street, as Bokuto hurls you into the backseat of the car, slams the door closed, and leaps over the hood of the car to slip into the driver’s seat. Kuroo isn’t in the passenger seat, you realize, and your gaze darts out your window to spot him rushing back, scooping up your groceries to toss them into the open passenger door, where they tumble onto the floor of your car.

“Kuroo!” Both you and Bokuto yell just as the red-head recovers, his hand clasped over his now bleeding nose, blood trickling through his fingers and down his chin to stain his already filthy white shirt. The red-head raises the gun to Kuroo, who freezes in fear-- you scream, and just as you are about to shove your door back open to help, the red-head pulls the trigger, only to be met with an empty click!

“Fuck!” The red-head yells, and Kuroo actually laughs in his face-- if that wasn’t surprising enough, he slaps the gun out of his hand before he has a chance to reload, and promptly punches him, certainly harder than you had, and your face splits-- miraculously-- into a smile.

Kuroo turns, and dashes inside of the car-- as soon as his ass hits the seat, Bokuto slams his foot onto the gas as Kuroo hauls his door closed.

Bullets shatter the windows in the very back a second later, and all three of you scream and duck down as glass rains down behind you. Bokuto swerves the car, but keeps speeding ahead nonetheless, and you turn around to see the tall brunette, standing proudly in the street, gun raised and smoking. It looks like a shot out of a movie, with your shattered back window as the frame that keeps zooming out. The red-head is just barely beginning to stand, and they get smaller and smaller as you drive further away-- from your home, your biggest fears, your childhood. It’s all ruined, disappearing with every house you pass, and eventually Bokuto swerves around a corner, and it’s gone forever.

[-]

The brunette slowly lowers his gun, and lets out a disappointed sigh. The rain starts up again, drizzling on the two boys left behind in the car’s exhaust.

“Tendou,” He begins in his deep voice, which so rarely gets used to deliver pleasantries.

“I know, I know,” The red-head says, his voice blocked off slightly from his grip on his bleeding nose. “I should’ve been on watch. Sorry, Ushijima, but I’m fucking exhausted.”

“Our food is gone. Now we have to find more, and we are back in the same situation we were in three days ago.” Ushijima says evenly, and Tendou can hardly believe this is the same man that’s been starving with him for the past few days. He’s still so calm and collected-- well, he is a natural-born leader, he supposes.

“Relax. We can find them again, and take all our shit back. I’m sure they have a cute little hiding place somewhere with even more food for us. Shouldn’t be too hard to find.” Tendou assures, smiling his same unsettling smile he’s had since elementary school. Ushijima isn’t put off by it, though-- he never is.

He stays unbothered as he shakes his head.

“No. I’m tired of chasing after them. Let’s look around these houses, and then we’ll look for more grocery stores.” Ushijima says decisively, and picks up Tendou’s gun to hand over to him nicely. “You need to remember to keep this loaded, especially right now when there’s crazy people after us.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Tendou begrudgingly takes the gun from his friend with a sigh. “Not my fault I didn’t grow up knowing how to shoot a target from miles away.”

“I can only shoot a target with extreme accuracy when it’s about ten or maybe even twenty feet away.” Ushijima responds, confused as to why Tendou would give him so much credit when it comes to shooting. He pauses, then asks, “Are you alright?”

Tendou blinks, a little surprised at Ushijima’s sudden caring tone. “Yeah, I just need a towel or something-- it should stop bleeding soon.”

Ushijima nods, and pats him on the shoulder. “Let’s find some bandages, and then we’ll look for food.”

Tendou nods as he follows Ushijima back inside the house.

“Kyotani’s gonna be pissed…” He mutters under his breath.

[-]

“Ho-holy shit!” Bokuto yells, swerving around another corner without letting up on the gas.

“I know!!” You exclaim as you sway in your seat, the adrenaline just now beginning to ebb away. Your hands are shaking, but you’ve never felt more empowered. “I literally punched a guy in the face!!” You laugh, and pinch your cheeks to make sure this is real.

Kuroo laughs with you, wiping sweat off his brow, and turns around to look at you with that grin of his.

“‘Fuck outta here’? When did you become an action hero?” He teases, and you giggle, tossing your hair over your shoulder playfully.

“I guess I’m just that bitch.” You declare, and Bokuto laughs boisterously from the front seat.

The rest of the ride goes smoothly as the three of you shake out the rest of your jitters from earlier. It turns out, this is the safest and most at ease you’ve felt since the quarantine started two months ago-- Kuroo and Bokuto are some of the nicest guys you’ve ever met. You sort of can’t believe your luck; if you hadn’t run into them at the grocery store, who knows where you’d be right now?

A dopey, happy smile stays on your features the whole rest of the way back to the gym. Even though it’s started raining again, you feel on top of the world as you gaze at your two newfound friends in the front seat.

“I know I’m sexy, but you don’t gotta keep staring.” Kuroo pulls you out of your little daydream with his teasing, and you roll your eyes, but don’t stop smiling.

“Thanks, you guys. Seriously.” You say sincerely. Bokuto looks into the rearview mirror to give you another one of his heart-melting smiles.

“Ehh, don’t mention it.” Kuroo rubs the back of his neck as Bokuto turns onto a dirt road you don’t recognize.

“Uhhh… Bokuto? Where ya goin, bud?” You ask.

“Shortcut!” Bokuto declares proudly. “This side street cuts through all that traffic on the main streets.”

“Nice!” Kuroo praises, then snickers. “Except there’s no traffic right now, dude.”

“Oh.” Bokuto blinks, and blushes. “Sorry, um… force of habit?”

It actually tears your heart in two just seeing Bokuto even slightly deflated, so you leap to comfort him.

“No, don’t worry!” You lean forward, wrapping your arms over his shoulder to hug him from behind. “It’s the scenic route!”

Bokuto blushes even deeper, but his spirits are definitely lifted as he presses on. Trees drape over the unfamiliar road, and you pass by lots of beautiful shrubs and grassy areas which have only grown larger since the huge absence of people. You sit up quickly as a blue Toyota comes into view-- you’d recognize that stupid Death Star foam antenna tip anywhere. As Bokuto drives closer and closer, you have no doubt in your mind that that’s your father’s car just up ahead, the front completely crashed into a large oak tree.

“Stop! Stop,” You exclaim, but don’t wait for Bokuto to do as he’s told as you rush out of the car. Luckily, he was already slowing down as you tumble out, much to the displeasure of the boys inside the car.

You don’t quite feel your legs as dread and worry settles over you the closer you walk to the car. Had your dad been killed in a crash? Was he injured, and didn’t have the strength to call for help, and then died when you didn’t come looking for him? You cover your mouth as you feel tears prick your eyes as all sorts of terrible thoughts and scenarios overwhelm your brain, but when you finally reach the driver’s seat, you’re met with nothing.

There’s no blood stains, only a now-deflated airbag, and you notice that the seatbelt is still clicked into place. A chill goes up your spine-- it’s as if your dad just… disappeared.

“Yo, what’s going on?” Kuroo’s voice coming up behind you snaps you out of your little trance, and you turn to Kuroo and Bokuto in distress. They frown at your expression, and you can’t help the sniffle that escapes you.

“This is, um… this is my dad’s car.” You say, and your voice is so small. Kuroo and Bokuto exchange a glance, unsure of what to say. You don’t expect them to have any words of comfort, anyway-- you’ve all lost those closest to you, so you’re all familiar with this feeling but… seeing your dad’s car, how it’s crashed in such a peculiar way with zero trace of your dad ever being there… it hurts so much more when you don’t even have a body to bury, or ashes to hold onto.

You bite your lip, and open the driver’s side door to flip the sun visor down, revealing a picture of you, your dad, and your mom on vacation, clipped in place next to the mirror. With a sad smile, you gingerly take the photo, and run your fingers over the faces of your mom and dad.

A warm hand rests on your shoulder, and you look up with teary eyes to meet Bokuto’s bright ones. He’s smiling, if only to comfort you.

“Let’s go.” He says gently, and you suck in a breath, and nod. The three of you pile back into the car, and you tuck the picture into your jacket’s inside pocket, placing your hand over it just to make sure it’s safe as Bokuto continues the drive back to the gym.

[motherfated]

AREUM’S ROUTE / BAD ENDS / GOOD ENDS / AFTER ENDING STUFF. this is a super long post, please don’t feel like you gotta read it, i just wanted to write it.

HOW TO EARN AREUM HEARTS:

Complimenting Mei-Shin or just asking about her daughter’s wellbeing in general with usually get you to earn a heart along with telling areum you’ve eaten, show interest in her baking & show concern for the other members once everything starts to go downhill.

HOW TO GET AREUM’S HEART BREAKS:

if mc thinks of only herself openly in chatlogs, is rude towards any of the members, speaking negatively about areum’s comfort in alcohol, makes any rude/hurtful comment towards rika. ( areum had high respect towards rika! )

COMMON ROUTE.

areum is actually pretty skeptical of MC, she’s closed off and very quiet, only making small inputs of her opinion in the prologue. she’s distant to mc and doesn’t tend to stay long in chatrooms after the prologue. areum had high respect towards rika and what she did to get guests to the party so of course areum is going to be standoffish and distant when a stranger comes in. in the prologue, areum openly argues with v’s decision to let MC stay and do rika���s work. of course, not meaning to give any disrespect towards MC, but areum is a single mother to a one-year-old, she can’t help but be a nervous wreck when some stranger comes into the messenger, a place where she feels safest. she’s not happy and only sends a “Fine.” before leaving the chatroom at the end of it.

DAYS 5 & 6

after all the chatrooms and calls, you got areum’s route she most likely part of the DEEPER STORY part of mystic messenger! she’s slowly opening up more to you as the chatrooms go by and get to know you. she even apologizes for how cruel she must have been in the beginning, of course super embarrassed and timid in reaching out to MC. her hearts are a lot easier to earn, and almost like zen hands out hourglasses, areum hands out hearts depending on if you do what’s said above. she really is the sugar momma for hearts.

throughout these two days, areum is a lot friendlier after apologizing for her behavior when she first met MC, she even suggests for them to bake together after the party! asking MC what her favorite sweets are & makes promises to bake them for her! if MC calls areum, sometimes she’ll let MC talk with Mei-Shin over the phone! she really growing wowie. she even mentions how she’ll casually drink from time to time which is actually hinting towards her severe addiction to it.

DAY 7.

when the bodyguards are sent out / the bomb is revealed, areum is super active in the messenger, continuously asking if MC is okay, desperately wanting to help her out in some way but obviously, she can’t actually do anything. areum openly expresses her concerns and unease towards her own bodyguards, making comments on how she feels like a bigger target with a group of people in suits following her, escorting her to places. she even starts to speak about her parents and how they disowned her for getting pregnant before marriage, etc to mc (and basically the rfa bc the messenger.) and revealing her damaged relationship with them and her younger brother. and even though she’s angry with her parents, she desperately wants to fix things... but just doesn’t know how and is too stubborn to let go of the fact they shunned her and their only grandchild...

DAYS 8 & 9.

IN THE CHATROOM AT 3:40 AM areum, drunkenly, reveals the past about her abusive ex-boyfriend to MC and basically the whole RFA when in a chatroom with MC. speaking of the verbal/psychological, and sometimes physical abuse that happened, how she felt so useless then & when rika’s suicide happened, and now, with MC in danger, she feels like she’s back in that mindset. she can’t help but worry constantly about MC, drunkenly expressing how her heart can’t take the worry, that it aches too much to the point she can’t focus. Areum reveals that alcohol has helped her feel better in the means of forgetting the ‘ache’ in her chest every time she thinks of her ex-boyfriend, rika’s suicide, MC’s safety... Areum brings up that her baby daddy ran into her today, which was also the second reason why she decided to drink so heavily.

As the days continue, it’s clear Areum is sinking into a deeper depression and deeper into her addiction as she shows more typos, becomes more sentimental, or if she calls MC her words are slow & slurred. News gets out that Myung is filing for custody over mei-shin and Areum can’t stop the panic attacks she gets in the story branch that’s unlocked. It’s revealed how unstable areum's mental state is, holding her daughter and crying uncontrollably, slurring apologies for everything to ghostly ears.

BAD END # 1 BRANCH DAY 8.

if MC were to take Areum’s brother’s side with taking mei-shin and make playful comments instead of being serious and constructive in ways to support the woman and offer help, Areum suddenly goes radio silent, rarely logging into the messenger. The last time she does log in is at night when no one else is logged in, being completely wasted, she sends a picture of the stars from her rooftop, making comments on how they sparkle and how beautiful they are before she logs out of the chatroom. When Areum gets up to go inside, she loses her balance and ultimately slips, falling off the 10 story building, too drunk to catch herself and ultimately ending in her death.

BAD END # 2 BRANCH DAY 9 - 10.

Myung wins full custody of mei-shin and that’s the snapping point for areum. she’s in a dark place mentally and can’t find a way out, her depression becomes more apparent and obvious down this branch as she makes comments in chatrooms on how empty everything seems, she doesn’t post pictures of home-made sweets like she used to, you’ll see her name in the chatroom but she won’t speak unless spoken to, and even then her answers are short and cryptic. eventually, she doesn’t login anymore, doesn’t go to work, doesn’t eat. she’s empty, SHE’S LOST. on day 10, a mint eye believer comes knocking, areum on auto-pilot opens the door, she’s then told of paradise and how it’s she is so close to being welcomed into it, of course advertising their organization and with areum in her robotic / auto-pilot state, she starts to believe them. in depressive thoughts believing that possibly her daughter would be waiting in paradise for her.

after hours of not logging on, areum finally does, just to send ‘Please do not worry. I’m going to be fine now, everything will be fine now.’ before logging out with no further explanation, either destroying or leaving her phone in her apartment, areum disappears, allegedly joining mint eye. Her brother puts up Missing Person posters for Areum at local convent stores, park billboards, etc. But she has just vanished.

DAYS 10 - 11. GOOD ENDING.

If MC stays supportive but also realistic with areum in her battle with her addiction, she’ll start to see reason, and see that if she doesn’t clean up her act, her daughter will be taken away from her. she finally agrees to seek out help from local AA meetings, tossing out a bottle one day every other week, of course, baby steps. she will fall and struggle sometimes but with this new determination thanks to MC’s support and somewhat wake up call, she refuses to stay down. when it’s the day of the party, areum doesn’t log into the morning chatroom. but at the party, areum has mei-shin in her arms, standing at the mic, thanking all the guests for attending, speaking of the rfa and their purpose before she switches the topic to her own battle and how she wouldn’t be standing there to greet them all if it wasn’t for one special woman, lololol it’s mc surprise. areum makes a speech of how mc has changed her life for the better and how she wants to continue to work on herself for not only her daughter, but for MC and the rfa members, and ofc u know this girl is gonna look at MC and do a cheesy thing like “if you’re by my side, i know i can defeat my demons... i love you, mc... thank you for being the light at the end of the tunnel for me...” BEFORE COMIN DOWN WITH HER DAUGHTER AND SMOOCHINTF OUTTA MC SDKKJSDKJFD

AFTER ENDING.

o ha ha. EVERYTHING’S GREAT BRUH. areum is 4 years sober now, she has her own bakery but also teaches young children how to play the violin, and u know areum is big gay for mc. even putting MC’s name on the bakery’s name along with hers, and mei-shin is happy with her two moms don't even @ me bro. areum’s hair is longer, usually tied back, and she’s so happy, you can see the fucking SUNSHINE RADIATING OFF OF HER BRO. she bakes mc cute cupcakes almost every weekend and is a lot more open with her past to all her friends now. she even fixed her broken relationship with her parents and younger brother, having them involved in her life & mei-shin’s. there’s family photos hanging up in the bakery and everyONE IS JUST SO HAPPYYYY.

[actualbird]

i just relistened to doctor horrible’s sing along blog and got inspired so. dghda superhero/supervillain au where todd is an up and coming hero vigilante and dirk is the world’s worst villain

now hear me out

okay so dirk’s life is actually very depressing, as per usual. unfortunately, he was adopted by riggins as a child along with other children and trained and brought up to be villains for his supervillain team, Project Blackwing. fortunately, nearly all of the children are terrible at being villains. bart was trained to be a killing machine, but she only ever seems to kill bad guys. the rowdy 3 were trained to be robbers and chaos makers, but they always do robin hood-esque deeds of good. mona is a shapeshifter and riggins makes her transform into giant monsters to attack the city, but usually all she does is curl up on the roads as a giant rabbit and cause traffic. francis didnt like being a villain so when he was ten he just fucked off into an alternate dimension of his creation. dirk was....

dirk didnt have any immediately noticeable powers, but riggins noticed his propensity to see the innerworkings of the universe. he had no idea how to weaponize that though, so he just made dirk learn. learn a lot. dirk becomes the supervillain who makes wacky inventions and ray guns and -inators ala dr. doofenshmirtz from phineas and ferb. riggins wants him to make some really deadly stuff, but dirk always says the universe wants him to make an -inator that makes frogs sing, this will set the universe right this week!!!!

riggins and dirk have a very bad bad relationship where riggins forces dirk to do a lot of things he doesnt want to do and dirk finds a way to do them but ducking under causing any real harm. really, all dirk is is an incredible nuisance, a big enough nuisance that he gets to save himself from riggins’ manipulation for a while. sometimes.

anyway, dirk is known by the city as Icarus (segue to talk about dirk’s supervillain outfit which is absolutely inspired by dr. horrible. colored coats and huge black gloves. dorky looking goggles that are on his face whenever hes out being a villain. he changes color of his coat every appearance) thanks to his first invention which was a pair of mechanical wings he made to help aid the Incubus and Marzanna rob a bank. he very famously fell out of the sky and into a dumpster while holding a gigantic bag of money because his wings failed. he got arrested, but like all of Project Blackwing, theyre easily out of jail in like 3 to 4 days tops, much to the irritation of Detective Farah Black.

speaking of! let’s check out our roster of heroes!!!!

farah is a cop by day but the magnificent Athena at night!! Athena is the city’s most popular and well known superhero. she has super strength and even if shes wearing a mask face mask and a visor, everybody just knows she is beautiful. she fights crime at night to make up for the fact that bad guys keep getting away at her job. she got her power from her last job, being the bodyguard of patrick spring, a retired superhero inventor. one of his experiments went wrong and blasted her with a ray that granted her super strength. okay half the reason i gave farah super strength is because i cannot stop thinking about farah effortlessly lifting a truck.

tina!!!! tina isnt a superhero but she comes from a family of empaths. she works alongside farah as a detective and the empath thing means she can basically tell when somebody is lying or not. tina thus knows that farah is athena and farah knows tina is an empath and tina thinks farah is the coolest thing EVER. tina wants to be farah’s sidekick SO BAAAAD but farah never lets her. tina follows her anyway when farah goes nightwatching as covert backup.

now todd and amanda are complicated. pararibulitis exists in this universe the same way it does in canon, todd lied about it, amanda got it, and hes been wracked with guilt ever since and says he’s been cured. it is a terrible terrible condition until both of them learn, independently, that it’s actually a power. nobody else in the family ever learned this. with enough practice, they can make whatever their hallucinations are real and direct them and lengthen them. getting electrocuted? congrats, you have electricity powers for 20 minutes. however, the downside is that it hurts until you control it. amanda also has cool seer powers, and her discovery of these powers leads her to going out more and meeting the rowdy 3 and realizing theyre pretty cool people!!!

meanwhile todd develops pararibulitis for real and realizes it’s a power and decides the Only Way to make amends for his sins is to become a vigilante superhero. it’s so todd. be a superhero by using a power that deliberately hurts him in the process. hoo boy.

ANYWAYYY. todd becomes a masked vigilante known as Spectrum, dubbed by the public because to an outsider’s perspective, it just look like todd has completely random powers (trending twitter hashtag #SpectrumsPowerOfTheDay. is it gonna be electricity? fire? making wasps appear out of nowhere? pulling knives from thin air?? WHO KNOWS!!!)

todd is SHIT at fighting with any finesse and soon meets Athena who begrudgingly teaches him the ropes. they both dont know their secret identities until todd gets hurt and farah has to drag him to his apartment.

ANYWAY MY WHOLE POINT WITH THIS AU IS THAT ICARUS AND SPECTRUM BECOME RIVALS. icarus is DELIGHTED with spectrum because athena isnt too big on fight banter, but spectrum is SO FUN TO RILE UP. please please please imagine icarus and spectrum just squabbling while fighting on top of a building that has icarus’s new useless ray gun, or something.

icarus and spectrum both become quite attached to each other, and if they werent on different sides, theyd consider each other friends!!! icarus uses a healing ray gun to heal spectrum’s wounds when he gets injured. spectrum protects icarus from a falling telephone pole. their fight banter slowly turns into thinly veiled flirting, and they both can feel the tension. because it is....a Lot.

meanwhile, todd in his normal life, suddenly meets dirk gently at a laundromat. he gets a crush on him immediately. dirk gets a crush on todd too. both of them have a crisis about having a crush on “two different people.”

okay okay im done

[chierafied]

Chie! Could you possibly do a sequel to the yakuza one shot you wrote for SessKag? That would be super awesome if you could!

Thank you for the prompt sweet Anon! 💙

It’s very rare for me to feel like I could continue a one shot after I’ve finished it, but the Yakuza fic was one of those. Ofc I never got around to it before this prompt... And maybe that’s for the best?

When I started writing this continuation I realised some issues I had with this scenario that would have made expanding this into a longer (romantic) fic problematic…

Anyway, all rambling aside, for reasons this is a platonic SessKag fic. 

Underwhelmed (a sequel for Entangled)

Kagome had thought her life would change irrevocably.

She wasn’t sure what she’d been expecting, exactly – that she would suddenly be adopted by the criminal syndicate and become some kind of a yakuza princess, like the ones you saw in manga.

Or to have a group of big burly bodyguards following her around.

Or – because he’d told her “I will take care of you” and promised to be in touch – to have the scary but intriguing Sesshoumaru Taishou personally guaranteeing her safety…

But life was not a manga plotline.

The decision to accept the yakuza gang’s offer of protection – one which she had believed to be so monumental that she’d needed several days to think it over – changed very little in the end.

She still continued to attend school as normal. There were no thugs lying in wait to threaten her with violence. There was no influx of criminals in her life. There was no sign of Sesshoumaru Taishou, either.

Really, the only thing that was different now that she’d agreed to be protected by gangsters was Jaken.

Presumably, he’d been tasked with guarding her. He tended to appear wherever Kagome went and follow her at a discreet distance. And he had claimed to have been sent by Mr Taishou when he’d first – and very briefly – introduced himself.

Having Jaken around didn’t make Kagome feel particularly safe.

He was an old, bald man scarcely taller than Kagome was and a little overweight. He walked with a waddle and enjoyed grumbling under his breath.

Although there had no longer been any incidents with her father’s rivals, Kagome still worried. And Kagome might as well be followed by her grandfather than Jaken, for all the security he’d be able to provide.

She supposed she could have dug out the business card and contacted Mr Taishou, but she didn’t want to bother him. Surely Mr Taishou had his hands full with… whatever illegal dealings yakuza bosses usually had.

So Kagome turned instead to her friend Sango. 

Kagome arrived at Sango’s house and found Sango in the dojo that her family owned, wearing her white gi.

“Kagome!” Sango greeted her with a warm smile. “How are you?”

“I’d like to learn martial arts,” Kagome blurted.

Sango’s eyes widened in surprise. “Really?”

“Yes. If it’s not too much of a trouble, I mean,” Kagome amended.

Sango shook her head. “It’s no trouble at all! You’ve just never, well… Seemed interested in martial arts?”

Kagome blushed. Her little brother Souta had been taking karate lessons at Sango's family's dojo, but she'd never bothered, though Sango had offered to teach her in the past. 

“I wasn’t, before. It’s just now that…”

“Now that what?” Sango prompted.

Kagome bit her lip and stayed silent. She hadn’t told anyone – except her mother – about that confrontation with those violent thugs or about meeting Mr Taishou.

Sango crossed her arms. “Kagome? Is everything all right?”

What could she possibly say to that? Kagome offered a feeble shrug.

Sango scowled at her.

“Whatever it is, you need to tell me. Right now.”

Kagome’s anxious gaze skittered around the empty dojo. She pulled Sango with her into a corner, trying to find what privacy she could.

“You have to promise not to tell anyone,” Kagome told her in an urgent whisper.

Sango’s eyebrow rose. “Of course I won’t tell anyone if you don’t want me to.”

“Promise me, Sango.”

“I’m getting worried now,” Sango huffed. “Fine, I promise.”

Kagome’s breath left her in a relieved sigh. “Okay. A couple of weeks ago, I was walking home from school after supplementary maths…” Kagome grimaced. “And there was this group of guys near the shrine steps. Big and scary guys. Real ruffians. They asked if I was Higurashi and before I knew it they’d circled all around me. One of them grabbed my arm so hard it hurt so I couldn’t run away.”

Sango gaped at her, horror and outrage glinting in her eyes. “What the hell?”

“So this guy comes and barrels in,” Kagome continued, “hits the thug holding me hard enough so he loses his grip. I run and this guy’s now beating up the whole group. Then he comes and grabs my arm and pulls me away. He seems really scary from up close, like a proper criminal; tattoos on his face kinda criminal.”

Kagome paused.

Sango was struck speechless.

“So this guy, he tells me there is some kind of a feud going on with his gang and a rival yakuza gang because the rivals had just killed his boss. And that I was in the crossfire – and my family too – because his boss was my dad.”

Sango’s eyes bugged. “But that’s – No way! Your father died when you were a kid right?”

“That’s what my mom had always told me,” Kagome said, hugging herself. That particular wound still felt raw. “But apparently that was just so we wouldn’t have to have anything to do with the yakuza.”

Sango started to speak but stopped before a single fully formed word made it out of her mouth. She had to visibly collect herself.

“So… basically, your dad’s a yakuza boss and died recently and his rival gang wants to get to your family?” Sango summarised after a while.

“Yeah. And I asked protection from the guy who saved me so now this gangster from my father’s gang follows me around but he seems pretty useless and I don’t know when the bad guys will come back…” Kagome laughed a little. “Not that there are really any good guys here anyway.”

“You’re a good guy,” Sango told her and patted her shoulder. “Let’s go grab a spare gi from my room and get you changed. The sooner we start, the better.”

Warmth flooded Kagome’s chest. She felt lighter already after telling the whole crazy tale to someone. And the gratitude of how Sango had taken it all in a stride and immediately agreed to help made her heart soar.

 Mr Taishou did keep his promise and was eventually in touch.

It was on a Thursday evening and Kagome was already in bed, leafing through a textbook and hoping it would make her sufficiently sleepy so she could call it a night.

The ringing of her cell phone startled her so badly she actually jumped and dropped the textbook. Unease slithered in her belly – who could possibly be calling her so late and why?

But as soon as she picked up her phone and heard the greeting in that deep, easily recognisable voice, she calmed down.

“Hello, Miss Higurashi.”

“Hi, Mr Taishou.”

“I hope you have been well.”

“Yeah, I have. Thanks.”

Kagome was about to return the pleasantry and ask how Mr Taishou was doing, but then swallowed the words. Though a part of her was morbidly curious as to what exactly the life of a yakuza boss entailed, a bigger part really didn’t want to know.

“I have received regular reports from Jaken,” Mr Taishou continued. “He’s told me there have been no more altercations.”

“Mmh,” Kagome hummed in affirmation. “It’s been really quiet.”

“I’m glad. In this case, the more uneventful things are, the better.”

“That’s true, “ Kagome agreed.

“I still wanted to check on you, though. Hear how you’re doing.”

Kagome realised she was smiling.

It was odd, that this man who she barely knew and who by all accounts was a hardened criminal, could make her feel so safe.

“Thanks, I really appreciate it. I mean, you must be busy and all,” she finished lamely.

“Even when busy, there are some things one needs to make the time for,” Mr Taishou said.

The implication that Kagome was someone to make the time for was incredibly flattering.

Yet, the wise words touched a chord in her, one attached to a sore spot in her heart.

Yearning flooded her without a warning, made tears prick in the corners of Kagome’s eyes. For a moment she teetered between fear and longing.

Then, she steeled herself and took the plunge.

“Mr Taishou, could you possibly make enough time at some point to meet up?”

A stretching silence met her tentative question.

Then, after a while, he reluctantly replied. “I’m not sure that’s a good idea, Miss Higurashi.”

Kagome tried to swallow past the lump lodged in her throat.

“Please. I would like to know more about my father.”

The silence again was long – but this time it also seemed a little gentler.

“Very well, if that’s what you wish.”

“Thank you, Mr Taishou,” Kagome said, her voice quivering with gratitude.

“It’s very late,” Mr Taishou replied tonelessly, as if he’d only know noticed the time. “You should go to sleep, Miss Higurashi.”

“I will. Thanks again!”

“Goodbye.”

The line went dead.

Kagome put her phone aside and snuggled under her blankets, but it took her a long time before she finally slipped softly and peacefully into sleep.

To be continued??

[ourimpavidheroine]

So a few weeks ago someone reblogged a few stills from a Chinese webseries called Oh My General. The basic plot is that a triumphant general from the border, Ye Zhao, is returning to the Imperial Palace to be rewarded by the Emperor. There’s just one problem; Zhao is actually a woman!

The solution is to marry her off to the Emperor’s nephew, Yujin, an extremely pretty, lazy, and generally useless guy. (Who, as it happens, does NOT want to marry Zhao.)

There’s 60 episodes at around 45 minutes each; they’ve been subbed into English by a fan (who does not have English as a native tongue so there are some errors; as someone who teaches English as a second language this did not bother me at all but some people are snooty about that kind of thing, so YMMV).

It’s wildly funny; plenty of physical humor and farcical moments. Zhao really does think of themselves as male (and their soldiers keep getting it confused, even after the reveal). The idea is that Zhao will learn to become a “real girl” and Yujin - who does things like dress up in flowing gowns and makeup and dance at the local brothel - will learn to be a “real man” and each will find their place in a proper cis hetero traditionally Chinese marriage the way it should be. But...they don’t, not really. Zhao continues to be a general and serves the Emperor that way and Yujin, while becoming a public official, is actually incredibly compassionate and empathetic (as in, more feminine). While it is true that Zhao starts to learn how not to bully their husband into submission and Yujin grows a backbone there is still the fact that Zhao is a general and still thinks of themselves as male.

One of the things that really delighted me is that Yujin has three concubines; they are in a state of terror when Zhao first shows up, afraid that their new mistress the General will beat them or cast them off in jealousy. The exact opposite happens; Zhao positively DELIGHTS in how pretty they are and indeed gives them gifts of clothes, makeup, jewelry, etc. (It’s mentioned many times how Zhao has an eye for pretty girls.) The concubines end up adoring them and in fact Yujin starts to feel slighted because his concubines are always fluttering after the General and commenting on how handsome they are, serving them the best tea, etc. They also like to watch the General training. (Me too, concubines. Me, too.)

I am the first to admit that I was waiting for the show to really crack down on the gender roles and shoehorn them into being cis but it just doesn’t. Zhao continues to wear military/male garb and does their hair in a male style (although the hair ornaments get more elaborate and feminine the hairstyle itself doesn’t waver) and never wears cosmetics, while Yujin still wears these gorgeous, colorful, flowing robes and lip gloss. There are two people with unrequited loves for Zhao; one is one of their military officers (male) and the other is a cousin (female). Zhao also has two female military officers who serve as their sort of bodyguards/assistants.

There’s also a political plot going on against the Emperor which does take up part of the show, of course. And there are quite a few other things that really turn gender roles on their ears that I’m not spoiling! But I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by the whole thing. If you’re looking to binge something, I recommend it!

[fyheiran]

a wild jada has appeared !! ( 19 / she&her / est ) hello everyone !! i’m so sorry i’m popping in late ( as usual ), i’ve been peeping around the dash but wasn’t satisfied with my blog yet !! i’m incredibly excited to present to you my new muse, bo heiran !! she’s 23, the makeup artist, and overall messy and unpredictable !! she’s mostly harmless...but i wouldn’t write her off completely. i’m honestly so excited and i’ve been all over this roleplay since i saw it !! so, if miss heiran sparks your interest - check out her plots, stats, interview, and the info below !! or give this a great big LIKE and i’ll pop into your ims !!

hey !! i didn’t want to spam the dash so i put this under the cut, but if you’d like to view her instagram page please click here !!

she’s truly a small town girl!! she was kind of seen as the town sweetheart, but in comparison to everyone else her family was one of the most well off!!

when she was four, she almost drowned on a day at the beach, when she’d wandered off from her family. they were devastated, and, ever since, she’s had a phobia of water. this is kind of random but dwdw you’ll hear more about this!!

always always always wanted to be an actress. surrounded herself with dramas, movies, and everything involving her favorite stars!!

in high school, she attended a performing arts school, where a lot of the skills she has now were developed!! but for some reason....acting just wasn’t her strong suit??

despite her teacher and parent’s advice, the awfully stubborn little thing pranced off to seoul, where she wanted to pursue a higher education majoring in theatre arts!!

eeeeeeverything was different to her. unlike home, she was a nobody there, and her wallet seemed a lot smaller surrounded by all those rich folks!!

she truly hated it at first, but pushed on and continued college for two years. but, it just....wasn’t working. she wasn’t getting any progress and she was never called back after auditions!!

that’s when she got an idea - skip out on 2 years of useless tuition, hop on over to cosmotology school, and become a makeup artist!! 

it seemed crazy, but after all, she loved doing it. after years of experimenting she’d gotten really good and her friends always asked her to do theirs for her!!

so she did it. and....it was kind of great!! her business began to thrive almost instantly, and december of 2018 she went to america for 3 months to work for various western actresses and artists!! she was so happy and overall living her best life

homesick, she returned to korea soon after. things had been kind of dull until the end of last year, when she’d been asked to be the makeup artist for ats!!

it...was...crazy?? the last opportunity had been great, sure, but around stars she knew and idolized?? she couldn’t believe it!! she agreed almost right away, stoked to meet all her favorite stars.

but it wasn’t quite how she’d envisioned!! she didn’t really think she was getting the appreciation she deserved, hardly ever saw the actors outside of work, and it was just kind of eh in comparison to her hopes.

this is where bad heiran comes in!! really, she’s a good person.....but she has a bit of a jealousy problem you see. she can grow incredibly self-conscious without validation, so when she gets envious she’s very impulsive and just...not good. people like somi really get to her!! back home, she’s used to being the special one, so with somi being the talk of the town she’s grown some animosity towards her!!

after the allergy incident, where she accidentally triggered somi’s allergies, she just didn’t like her! to her, she felt the whole image somi had made was fake and that she didn’t care about her staff, because the matter had never been brought up with somi herself.

but somi’s also got like a thousand unofficial bodyguards surrounding her 24/7...so heiran kind of just backed away from  that one and has kept her distance since.

basically, she’s salty she never made it as an actress and has to be the one caking their faces instead, so now she’s just sticking around for the ride and her favorite actor/actresses while half-heartedly caring about this whole dissapearance 

[lavvyan]

Continuing the Thing for @antares04a , part 2 of now 3 (or maybe 4, I’m so sorry!). Will make absolutely no sense whatsoever if you don’t read part 1 first. Um, cliffhanger warning. 

~~~

He explores his... power? His gift? This freakish thing that he can do? What does he even call something like that? Who does he tell about something like that? He kind of wants to tell Steve about his lightning-induced... affinity? Affinity sounds less dumb than superpower; he'll just go with that, then. He wants to tell Steve about his affinity, but a lifetime of watching movies makes him think about sterile labs and horrific experiments and has visions of top secret Navy research divisions pop into his mind, and it's stupid, he knows it's stupid. If there's anyone in this world he can trust to keep his secrets, it's Steve. But knowing, rationally, that he's being an idiot and working up the guts to do something about it are two very different things, so he keeps his head down and his mouth shut.

In the meantime, he explores his affinity to figure out its boundaries. After a week or so, he knows that if a thing has wires or moving parts, he can kind of talk to it. He can un-jam the office printer, fix the external hard drive that stores Grace's precious files of some TV show Danny's never even heard of, and stop Kono's fountain pen, inherited from a well-meaning uncle who seems to have only the foggiest concept of Kono's job, from leaking all over the place.

He can't convince his laptop to uninstall Cortana, talk the spilled coffee into leaving his shirt and hopping back into the mug, or stop his Enemy Mine DVD from doing that annoying freeze-skip during the Mickey Mouse dialogue.

Basically, Danny's affinity for technology is less scary than he thought. It's also, as far as his job is concerned, completely useless.

So he tries to find a use for it.

~~~ READ MORE ~~~

It's not that Danny has a habit of fixating on his issues. Except he totally does; he fixates and blows things out of proportion and pursues his goals with a sort of tunnel vision that might worry him if he had any attention left to spare.

Steve's gun sometimes jams when it gets too hot. Their firefights hardly ever last long enough for this to become an issue, but 'hardly ever' isn't the same as 'never.' Danny's been trying to make him get a replacement for years, but Steve's weirdly attached to this particular piece. Now, when Steve gets a call in the middle of cleaning it and walks out of the room, Danny seizes the chance to touch every part of that gun, sternly telling it to work like it's supposed to and keep Steve safe.

Chin's bike has been running less than smoothly. Probably dirt particles in the gas, Chin said, sighing as he added that he tried everything short of taking the whole engine apart, so that'd be his weekend sorted out. Danny spends his lunch break outside and casually reminds the bike that it's not supposed to jerk and stutter. Stop that, please, and keep Chin safe.

Kono's laptop when its connection to their server gets too slow. Lou's emergency sat phone. Jerry's ridiculous collection of USB sticks. The funny little GPS gadget Adam likes to take along on hikes. Grace's fitbit. The cooking station in Kamekona's truck. Hell, even Kawika's diving equipment.

Be better, he tells them. Work faster. Stay reliable.

Keep them safe.

~~~

More than a week goes by and the red marks on Danny's arm have almost faded completely. A few more days and he might even wear a t-shirt for a change. Just as well; Steve's been eyeing him in that way he has when he's plotting how to get the prissy mainlander to relax, so Danny sees surfing in his immediate future.

For now, though, there's a case to focus on. Someone tried to kidnap the son of one of Governor Māhoe's main campaign contributors, and while the boy has been whisked off to Europe for a fun holiday with old castles and a gaggle of bodyguards, Five-0 is under orders to find the would-be perps.

Which is, of course, when Steve goes missing.

~~~

Danny has this thing, okay, where he needs to know the location of the important people in his life, preferably every minute of every day. After the past few years, he thinks he can be excused for getting twitchy. Luckily for him, Steve has this thing where he likes to indulge Danny's more rational fears, though he can't resist mocking him for it.

So with Steve five minutes late and no text from him, Danny sits a little straighter at his desk and taps his finger on his silent phone. Ten minutes, and Danny's call goes straight to voicemail. Fifteen minutes, and Danny tells Jerry to check Steve's GPS signal. Twenty minutes, and Kono is going through traffic cameras, Chin is calling Hickam to see if they ordered Steve in, and Lou checks with HPD if anyone has called them about anything that might be even vaguely related to Steve. Twenty-five minutes, and they know that Steve took the Marquis that morning, that he and his car vanished from footage almost an hour before Danny called him, and that neither the Navy nor HPD have any clue about Commander McGarrett's whereabouts.

Thirty minutes, and Chin and Kono are on their way to Steve's house, Lou is back on the phone, Jerry is doing god knows what on the internet, and Danny...

Danny is back in his office, quietly freaking out. His laptop is open, showing their current investigation because maybe there’s a connection, but all he can think about is Steve, out god knows where with god knows what being done to him. The images refuse to leave his mind: Steve, bruised and bleeding, in the back of a truck in North Korea. On a gurney in Afghanistan. Sprawled across a basement floor, the groove left by a bullet that barely missed his brain bleeding sluggishly at his temple.

Breathe, he tells himself. Think. You're a detective, figure this out!

If only there was something he could do. He scratches absently at his arm, stares sightless at the images on the laptop screen. Of course he'd end up with the most useless superpower in the world. What good is fixing Steve's gun if Steve can't use it? What if some bad guy uses Steve's own gun to-

No, he thinks, vicious, scared, no, no way, you keep him safe, you hear?

Something tickles at the back of his brain, not quite a headache. Something almost like a whisper.

Keep him safe, Danny thinks again, more purposeful, trying to give the thought direction and it's weird, the order echoing in his head like he's shouting into a vast auditorium, screaming at silent spectators. All of you, keep him safe.

For a long moment, he's left with nothing but the fading reverberations of a desperate command. Then the audience breathes in, all at once, with a roaring, hissing sound that fills Danny's brain with static. He moans, warm liquid dripping down his upper lip as the audience says, YES.

He's dimly aware of sliding out of his chair.

He's unconscious before he hits the floor.

~~~

I’m so sorry! I swear I’m not going to take as long for the next update. Also, if you spot a typo, be a dear and tell me about it.