#the only developments i can think of is like kidnapping or murder but its starting to become boring

[blue-madd]

I didn't know my brain could be so creative before I started making one AU a day for this new paracosm but I still feel kinda sad that these AUs can't seem to last more than a day or two bc even tho I got plot/characters ideas I'm struggling with the storyline on the long run

Like yeah "pink fairy marries an ogre who turns out to be nicer than anyone else" is easy to think of, I can design these characters in a heartbeat but as soon as the fairy marries her ogre and realizes they're nice the story is over bc wtf do they do after that

[evilminji]

Dani should Kidnap The Clones.

It's basicly protective custody. Preemptive child services, if you will. NONE of these fuckers out here makin adorable clone baby just cause they want kids!

*kicks down the door to your shady lab* Knock Knock! ITS THE POLICE! *Walker's Shock troopers swarm the place as Dani secures the kids*

Look me in the eyes. You KNOW he'd love an excuse to enforce The Rules on people technically outside his jurisdiction. It's for The Children(tm)! Why, he simply had no CHOICE!

Meanwhile? Dani is shoving all these mal-adjusted Murder Clones into her Lair? Which is? Basicly a Door style Lair she hid inside Danny's Lair for safe keeping. It's shoved behind a vending machine just outside the observatory. And the inside? Goes on for DAYS.

Like national parks and every beautiful beach she ever came across. She smashed together the BEST sights and places she's found in her travels, like a collection. Always adding more. New waterfalls, new noodle shops, new fields of wine grapes. It's... beautiful. Snapshots of every wonderous little thing about Earth, stitched together.

They can't hurt anyone. Can't achieve their "objectives". Are just treated like actual individuals and the children they truely are. Are surrounded by other Clones. So it's NORMAL here. Just? All of it.

But also?

Dani and Dan? Teaming up to make History's Scariest Adoption Agency(TM). Dan runs it. Dan wants to know why EXACTLY you want a kid. Explain yourself to Dan. What are your references? Qualifications. He's doing a home visit to inspect the premises. He BETTER not find any suspicious Labs.

And? It just? Appears out of nowhere. It's powered by Zone Bullshit. One second you're thinking "oh woe is me D:> I will never have a child to fill my lovely home, because of all my Superhero Secrets and also because government bureaucracy!" And the next?

.....wasn't that an out of business taco bell? "Zone Adoptions"?

"....Free Clone Baby?"

Okay that is HIGHLY suspicious and as a hero you are basicly legally obligated to investigate. But now it's bigger on the inside? Fancy waiting room? You are being interrogated? Wait, no, you're supposed to be the one doing the-?

Somehow? You leave with your Clone Son from another Dimension. And a pamphlet. You're scheduled for a home visit in three days. You... you never told them where you live.

Somehow that doesn't seem like it will slow them down.

Did the Fae just Suprise Baby you with a clone baby? Can they DO that? W... what's happening? What days is this? Who ARE YOU PEOPLE?! HUH!?!?

Just? Imagine. IMAGINE. I was gonna say Bruce... but?

Damian.

He finds himself... pondering What Could Have Been. Had his Clones not wanted him dead. Wondering if he could have saved them. If, perhaps, he had found them as infants. Raised them. Could he have given them a good life? Been a good father?

He gets emotional. Fatherly. He's about 14.

Dan's been around Ghosts too long to remember how humans age or how age relates to development. This one TALKS like An Adult. Must be one. Probably just short.

And Damian? Never backs down. The second Dan starts challenging him? His character is flawless and his morals divine. He has never done anything wrong, ever, in his LIFE. Fuck you. And on TOP of that? He not only will be the SINGLE GREATEST FATHER TO EVER FATHER, his home is the most loving and beloved ON THE PLANET!

In entirety of EARTH'S history, no less!

....what are they arguing about?

*is handed a baby and kicked out of Dan's adoption agency*

See you in a few days!

(o.o ) *happy gurgling from the baby* *Damian.exe has stopped working*

Smash cut, after Damian speed runs his stages of grief at his own Dumbass Life Choices, to his rocking back up at the Manor like? Congratulations, Father. I have brought you your first grandson! Do Not ask how I obtained him. It was likely dubiously legal but I will not be returning him. We have bonded.

And just? Annihilating the collective Bats on one go. You did what? You have What?! That is a baby! WHY IS THERE A BABY?! How is there a baby!? WHOS BABY!? *sirens going off and everyone panicking*

Will Damian be allowed to KEEP the Baby? Ha! Hell no. Bruce will. Damian is a child. But it will be a Needlessly Dramatic Bat Cold War Of Dramatic Drama to pry that small cherubic baby from his grip long enough for Bruce to fill out the paperwork.

Child thieving bastard that he is. How dare he. That is Damian's SON! D:<

*happy oblivious baby noises as Alfred feeds him in the background, while the Bats do their Dramatic Custody War*

@hdgnj @babbling-babull @hypewinter @nerdpoe @lolottes @mutable-manifestation

[old-school-butch]

I’m confused as to why so many people on Tumblr (and elsewhere) see this as situation where you have to pick a side. It’s possible to think that two groups are both doing bad things to innocent people, to varying degrees at various times. The people losing in this conflict are the civilians of *both* countries who are at the whims of their governments and bear the brunt of the poor (and sometimes horrific) decisions made by those governments. This “Good Guys” versus “Bad Guys” mentality is not sufficient for a conflict as long and complicated as this one and, again, the people who will suffer from that mentality are the civilians they claim to be standing up for.

Maybe the reason I like history is that if you follow a story for long enough it gets very hard to define anything that happens as 100% good or bad. The reasons for a war, how a war is fought and how a peace is made can all be - independently - better or worse.

This war is being fought because Hamas took hostages. A lot of hostages. Too many to ignore. And that was a strategically good for them because it gave Israel no options, just dilemmas. But for everyone chanting for a ceasefire, they need to remember that this war didn't need to start, and could be stopped, at any moment by returning those hostages. All this terrible, pointless death is on Hamas' hands. Israel's best hope at this point is to truly root out Hamas, but even then finding peace will be a difficult task.

But that's the proximate cause for the war. There are also bigger wars being fought.

Islamists form the majority of the world's extremists right now. I can name a dozen major Islamist movements happening, and this war unlocked a huge victory in their PR strategy that works better on the Western audience than live beheadings. As long as you make white people feel bad about colonialism, and say the rights words like 'liberate' and 'decolonize', you will be able to manipulate millions of useful idiots to make apologizes on your behalf and support your naked grab for power. Hamas invaded Israel 3 times in the last 8 years, but only now got the attention it craves to stay relevant in the 21st century. I hope everyone really enjoys watching mass murder, suicide bombings and terrorist tactics, because there's plenty more where that comes from and now they know the right words to say to appease you while they do it. Prepare to be amazed just how many ground invasions, property seizures and destruction, kidnappings, mass murders and violent suppressionare actshually acts of liberation resistance that empower freedom-loving indigenous people to resist neocolonial oppression - even if not a shred of that is believable. I'm serious. This is one of those times when peace ceasefire movements are actually creating the perfect conditions for everlasting war.

This is also a non-nuclear nuclear war. The U.S. doesn't normally announce where they have sent its nuclear submarines but it notified the world that it sent 4 of them to the Red Sea in November. It's part of deterrence to have these beasts in undisclosed locations and able to quickly response to any attacks. Move them close and the response in even quicker - a clear message. Eliminating the advantage of a surprise attack really is important in holding off nuclear war because of mutually assured destruction (MAD). One problem with MAD is that it assumes that the attacking party don't want to die which... if you watch even a little jihadist propaganda you might get worried about how the death cult vibes undercut that deterrence. Now... as unmanned rockets get better and smarter and faster without those pesky human pilots, it's raising concerns about whether countries like Iran can develop its nuclear capability. Even if they can build a warhead, delivering it to its destination has always been a limiting factor, this is why the US dropped them from planes in WW2. In this war, Iran is (getting the Houthis as their proxy) testing out their latest weapon developments. The Houthis/Iran tried to attack Israel with a ballistic missile (it didn't have a nuclear warhead but is the kind of missile that could be equipped with one), which prompted Israel to test drive their brand new and unproven missile defence system called Arrow. It shot the Iranian missile out of the sky. This is huge. I can't stress this enough - technically speaking, humanity's first space battle has just been fought and Israel won. This is what Reagan's 'Star Wars' program was all about - essentially stopping a bullet by shooting it with another bullet. Because this favors defence (if your surprise attack might not penetrate the defenses but you still find yourself on the receiving end of a nuclear counter attack - you are less likely to want to strike) much more thoroughly than mere mutually assured destruction. It means an attacker will face the risk of being turned into carbon while their enemy yet survives - not easy for even the most dedicated fanatic to swallow.

On top of that, Israel has also developed a laser beam - as yet untested in this conflict - that could potentially address the ammunition supply and reloading problems that plague air defense systems. To overwhelm Israel's Iron Dome on Oct 7, Hamas fired 3,000 rockets in about 20 minutes. There are simply limitations to how quickly a defence system can target, fire and reload a physical rocket, plus they are disproportionately expensive compared to the homemade rockets that Hamas fires (that didn't cost anything except redirecting international aid that was supposed to be for water pipes and fertilizer, because civilians dying of thirst and hunger doesn't appear to be an issue for Hamas). A laser beam will speed everything up immensely. You see, when the Soviet Union fractured and collapsed, about a million Jews fled to Israel and since Jews are very experienced with the fleeing-the-country routine, they brought with them the greatest of riches - knowledge. Those Jewish scientists and engineers brought the electronic warfare and rocket development capabilities of the Soviets into the development pipeline of western military doctrine. This is a good, good thing not just for the West but for everyone. The war in Ukraine was demonstrating that lifting the fog of war was absolutely deadly - good communication platforms like drones means that targets well behind the front line are in view and within reach of missile and drone attacks. The only way, it seemed, to win a war was a surprise attack because once the defence was mobilized, any ground assault would be pinned down to a stalemate on the battlefield. Effective air defence turns the tables on the effectiveness of that first strike advantage. The odds of human survival have possibly extended beyond my lifetime again, and I'm grateful for that.

This is also a global local war. We've seen interest in the Russia-Ukraine war ebb away as a younger, hotter war emerges. But what about a war between Venezuela and Guayana? If the US gets involved in one, two, is that three different conflicts... can it cope with that? How are Taiwan's defenses going to hold with 1/3 or 1/4 of American military support? Israel doesn't need help of the U.S. to win this conventional war, although the U.S. could potentially help create a winnable peace to follow this, but Iran and its allies would love to drag the U.S. more directly into the conflict. So far, it's resisted.

But I don't know how this conflict evolves, that part of the story is not yet written. I pray for more good, and less bad, to come and hope peace can be found in time.

[monsterblogging]

So I rewatched Pacific Rim: The Black to refresh myself on how bad it was, and once again I am just kind of in awe at how god-awful it is.

The Black very literally takes the magic out of Pacific Rim. You know how "drift hangover" refers to a persistent psychic connection between pilot and jaeger? Welp, here "drift hangover" is used to refer to a headache after drifting. Ghost drifting (you know, when pilots get psychic with each other) is turned into ghost piloting, which is when a pilot drifts with the memory of another pilot. Like, it's understandable if most people don't clock the mysticism and animism underpinning Guillermo del Toro's vision of Pacific Rim, but this is a very deliberate effort to erase where humans can just have funky psychic shit happen to them sometimes.

The Black doesn't really seem to understand how drifting works. Two characters have a heated argument without falling out of alignment. Another character functionally has a mind-reading ray. There's no real comprehension of what drift compatibility is and how it works.

The child soldiers are younger than ever. Taylor looks like he was maybe twelve at most when he was taking his pilot's test. Like. Actual twelve year olds are getting certified as jaeger pilots in this world. And this is framed as a good and desirable thing. Literally what the fuck.

The Black calls Horizon Brave "Horizon Bravo," and claims it's a Mark IV jaeger. If you have literally any access to any information about Horizon Brave at all, you know it's a Mark I jaeger.

The jaeger piloted by the children (Atlas Destroyer) is claimed to be a Mark III jaeger, yet uses the type of fuel cells introduced in Uprising. Like it was a whole fucking plot point that Lady Danger was a nuclear jaeger. Literally all they would've had to do was make Atlas Destroyer a Mark VI. It would have been fine.

Atlas Destroyer has a bunch of features Mark IIIs definitely didn't have. Remember how Raleigh and Yancy needed a crew to help them into their drivesuits? Atlas Destroyer just automatically tosses 'em on itself. Remember how Lady Danger's AI mostly just gave status updates? Atlas Destroyer's AI holds entire conversations. Again, you could've just made it a Mark VI, show.

And speaking of Atlas Destroyer's AI, for some goddamn reason the PPDC gave her an emotion chip. Because it's not hard enough to be a pilot already, now your jaeger gets to have anxiety.

The Black claims that Trespasser "smashed the Australian wall in the first attack." This is wrong on every conceivable level. Trespasser attacked San Francisco in the first attack, in 2013. The first kaiju to attack Sydney was Scissure, in 2014. The kaiju what smashed the wall was Mutavore, in 2025.

There is one queer-coded character. He is murdered in gory fashion.

There is one Indigenous-coded character who studies kaiju and their biology. He is depicted being into New Agey woo and wrongly believing that the kaiju he raised can love him. He dies when one of his kaiju eats him.

A major antagonist is depicted as a ruthless man who will kidnap, mindwipe, exploit, and even murder children. Then the show attempts to give him a redemption arc and we're supposed to actually care.

The PPDC refused to let the children's father retrieve them and the other survivors left behind in "the Black." (Read: Australia after the PPDC literally bombed it from space after a bunch of breaches started opening all over it.) Yeah, the PPDC can bomb an entire continent from space, but they can't spare a goddamn rescue helicopter.

Despite all of this and the aforementioned child soldiers, the PPDC is framed as the good guys and the only respite from the horrors of the Black; getting to the Sydney shatterdome is an unambiguously happy ending.

Early on we're lead to think that the PPDC might be getting its hands dirty with kaiju genetic experiments/bioweapon development. Later on we learn that it's the local kaiju cultists doing it. Now come on, which suspect actually makes sense here; the PPDC who can afford to build a killsat, or the kaiju cultists who apparently can't even afford a sterile room to perform a blood transfusion in?

The kaiju cultists are pretty obviously inspired by far right conspiracy theories about evil cults, rather than the actual behaviors of actual cults.

The kaiju sisters recruit by kidnapping women, turning them into kaiju hybrids, and forcing them into their hivemind. For some reason they kill all men. Despite this they are really obsessed with the idea that the half-kaiju smol, who for all appearances is a boy, is going to be their kaiju messiah. It really doesn't make sense, but then again, what can we expect from a slapdash job of far right conspiracy theories?

By the way, this is the PPDC banner literally hanging from the PPDC training center, in the show that is very firm in insisting that THE PPDC IS THE GOOD GUYS WHO PROTECT YOU:

[jalebi-weds-bluetooth]

Hello JWB!

I Went through your analysis and threads about ipkknd and it felt i watched a show with another perspective. Your Analysis is so beautiful that it makes me want to rethink about everything i watched. So here's a question i wanna ask, what made you watch and then get attached to it that you were able to write such beautiful analysis? Very few shows can ACTUALLY connect with people with depth that wants us to write detailed analysis. What was your attachment to this crazy ride of 300 plus episodes?

Hello there!

Thank you so much and I am so so humbled that you feel my interpretations give you a new way to watch IPK - I'm excited!

IPK executed many tropes to perfection. And their characters had solid motivations that didn't fizzle after a few episodes.

Anjali always played a prominent part in Arnav's life. We see that. Arnav had a valid reason to dislike Khushi (thankfully it was NEVER gender based - which most of the shows are. At no point of the show is any of the rage Arnav throws to Khushi stems from her being a woman. And we know that because Arnav views Khushi similar to Mool Rajani and his uncle. It all comes from the first impression he had and we all know how horrid it was.)

The audience understood why Arnav would have such a harsh opinion of Khushi and not believe in coincidences because Shyam on the other hand is doing everything Arnav thinks Khushi is doing! If only Khushi had Arnav's cynicism then Shyam would've never wormed his way into the Guptas and if Arnav had Khushi's optimism he would've accepted his love much earlier.

Also a lot of this show is written like a novel instead of 'tracks' in a trp. It went track to track post Shyam revelation. Oh here's a birthday track. Here's adopted child track. Here's a Mrs India track. Tracks often have little relevance to consistently developing a character.

But until the elopement you saw LITERAL changes in character as they lived lives. They met, had an argument, she ends up working at his place - twice, their sexual attraction is revealed at the worst moment, once he learns how deeply prejudiced he was upon learning his misunderstanding of the sheesh mahal moment he starts changing as a person, she grows more uneasy around her fiancé, omg her fiancé is the hero's very married sister's husband!, he breaks up to be a better human being for once, she keeps quiet because she fears the result of the truth and he has painted her worse for much less, slowly without any barriers they find themselves drawn to love and the fact he never apologized (hence wholly accepted his mistake of understanding khushi) to her and that she hid the truth has its results - their hearts are broken the night they're about to be together.

So you can see, it's a literal story until the night they elope - every plot line brings a cohesive change in the characters. They grow, learn, adapt, change.

Which tragically stops after the elopement. I honestly see some growth from the kidnapping track. Then during the remarriage - the charm never equals to the previous episodes but it's good enough. There's no actual villain in this show apart from Shyam. And he wasn't doing the same thing a million times.

We also saw the villain rise with the plot. He goes from hiding, to lying, to remaining dubious, to having other intentions, to threats, murder, infidelity, bigamy, manipulation, kidnapping, harassment - you would never know his plans on day one.

So this is the reason why I find IPK to be perfect to analyze because there's so much in this show. So less exposition, so much more for the audience to understand.

And they understood opposites attract. In a good way. Arnav never became religious to fit in Khushi's life and she didn't have a random modern makeover to fit in his. Also, the passion between the two stays post confession and post sex! That's difficult to achieve.

Of course the show goes downhill but because it ended so quickly after it went down the slope that it's easy to ignore those episodes!

Hope you liked the lengthy answer!

Love,

JWB

Also, Arnav was the perfect anti-hero ever made. There's not been a single character written better in grays after him in the history of Hindi tv. Aryan nearly started off in the right track but they dragged him so much down the hill that... ugh... the potential Advay had is heartbreaking but they lost the character even before they started.

Other characters have had stellar scenes but in an overall consistency point of view, Arnav always remains as the perfect anti hero. He's flawed and no one is asking you to believe in his 'heart of gold'.

[nehswritesstuffs]

fly little seagull, the world awaits - Part 1 of 4

If you had told me this time last year that I would be this attached to these characters after a series reread/catchup session (with a more developed fangirl palate and sense of storymaking compared to when I was forced to drop), I would have seriously laughed hysterically at you.

While this is 7423 words to start, I’m breaking it up into bits so as to not murder everyone’s eyeballs; starts vaguely in the beginning of the timeskip; I’m mostly sticking to canon events here but there will be some deviations so be warned I guess; do I have other fics? Yes but you’re getting this one instead

fly little seagull, the world awaits; Bepo finds something on a morning walk that brings massive change to the Polar Tang. [7423 words; Heart Pirates’ Accidental Child Acquisition AU]

According to the Heart Pirates, life was good.

They had honestly one of the coolest ships on the Grand Line: an underwater-going vessel called the Polar Tang. They had each other, which was pretty neat considering they all got on like close, on-great-terms, siblings. They had their captain, who was just given the title of Shichibukai, meaning that they basically got a free card to do whatever the fuck they wanted. Rad ship? Great comrades? A fucking newly-minted Warlord for their secretly-nerdy captain? What more could they possibly, truly, fathomably, want?

So when Bepo said that he found a cool addition for the ship while out on the island, everyone was understandably confused.

“Is it the new intercom system I’ve been asking for?” Ikkaku asked, pointing at Bepo with her fork. All the Hearts save for Law—who was passed out from studying all night—and the currently beaming Mink were sitting around in the mess hall eating breakfast. “You know how the den dens like to crawl off.”

“Nope! It’s even better!”

“New pots and pans?” Penguin asked.

“Nope!”

“Air freshener that actually works?”

“Even better!”

“Air conditioning that actually works?

“Even better-better!”

“I think you got us, Bepo,” Hakugan said. “What did you find?”

“A cub!”

The mess hall went silent.

“You found a… you found… found…” Uni kept on trying to complete his sentence, yet couldn’t. “What the fuck?”

“Let me show you!” Bepo said. He plodded over towards the bunkroom, followed by the remainder of the crew, and plucked a pile of blankets from his bunk—the only one unmade.

There, in his arms, was a sleeping little kid. A Human kid. At least, it looked Human underneath all the dirt and grime…

“Oh, fuck, Bepo kidnapped a child,” Shachi grimaced. Bepo tilted his head curiously.

“It followed me,” he claimed. “I asked around on the island, and no one’s missing, so the cub’s ours now!”

“Its parents are going to kill us,” Penguin said. “Our captain is going to kill us.”

“It’s just a little thing… I thought it could be our mascot.”

“You’re already kind of the mascot by virtue of being the fuzziest,” Clione reminded him. He looked at the sleeping kid and raised an eyebrow. “Does it at least have a name?”

“It didn’t say, sorry.”

“At least have the decency to ask the kid its name first before you kidnap it,” Ikkaku frowned.

“I didn’t kidnap it!”

“We really should tell the captain so this can get straightened out,” Jean Bart said. Bepo shivered.

“…and wake him up?! No, not yet! Let him get up on his own! He’ll be less cranky that way! Then maybe we can keep it!”

“Keep what…?”

Everyone froze and turned towards the bunkroom door—there was Law, holding his favorite Sora, Warrior of the Sea mug filled with coffee. He took one look at the bundle in Bepo’s arms, sipped his drink, and walked away.

Oh… fuck.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Needless to say, Law was a bit livid once he woke up enough for his brain processes to function. It took everything in his power to not dice everyone into tiny pieces so that they could think about why they would even entertain the notion of keeping a child aboard, let alone actively bring one on, and he instead stomped off towards the small village on the island they were moored at in order to talk with whomever the fuck was in charge.

Except, the thing was, no one was missing a child. In fact, no one had ever seen the wee foundling before.

“Okay kid, start talking,” he ordered. He was back on the Tang, arms folded across his chest as he stood across the table from the child, who was now awake and eating cookies in Bepo’s lap. It had understandably panicked when it first woke up, but now that it knew it was safe, the only things it was biting was chocolate chips and baked oatmeal. “Where are your parents?”

“I don’t know,” it squeaked. “We were sailing, but there was a storm.”

“What’s your name?”

“Nauja.”

“Then, Nauja-ya, why didn’t you tell anyone on the island you were there?”

“I was doing fine.”

Law stared at the child; judging by her severely matted hair and filthy clothes that didn’t quite fit anymore and the way she was inhaling the oatmeal cookies, she had been doing exactly the opposite. It did not take a medical degree to see that she was experiencing cases of dehydration and malnutrition brought on by mild starvation—all it took to know was surviving. He pinched the bridge of his nose and groaned. “How old are you?”

“Six.”

“Worse than I thought.” He shot a glare at Penguin and Shachi, who were hiding in the kitchen. “…and you just let him bring this kid aboard?”

“We didn’t know until she was here,” Shachi defended.

“All we were doing was having a decent breakfast for once!” Penguin added. He saw how happy Bepo was with the kid and his heart could barely handle it. “It’s all Bepo’s fault!”

“Sorry; the cub was following me when I was taking a walk before breakfast,” the Mink claimed. “I thought it looked cold, so I brought it in here.”

“We don’t call six-year-old girls ‘cubs’,” Law explained. “I thought you would have figured out by now that Humans don’t have cubs… they have kids.”

“You aren’t going to leave her on the island, are you?” Bepo asked. “No one will know what to do with her!”

“Actually, they will know everything to do with her,” Law replied frankly. “Do you know how to take care of a Human child?”

“I can learn! Besides, we can take her to her parents! It can be fun!”

“The bear’s determined!” Ikkaku shouted from the corridor. Without looking, Law activated a Room and transported the offending mechanic to Bepo’s side, making her swallow hard.

“Thank you for volunteering to clean her up,” he said.

“Why me?!”

“…because you are literally the only other girl on the ship, even if generally aged-out of the descriptor,” Law said. Ikkaku opened her mouth to protest, thought about it, then closed her mouth again. Fuck. “In the meantime, we’ll be discussing what to do with her.” He narrowed his eyes at Bepo, who looked as though he wanted to cry.

“C’mon, kid,” Ikkaku said. “Auntie Ikka’s gonna get you cleaned up and looking a bit more like a kid and less a wild animal.” She plucked the girl from Bepo’s lap and placed her on the floor, holding her hand as she led her from the mess hall.

Sooner she could get the kid away from ground zero, the better off everyone was going to be in the end.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Later on, after Nauja was bathed and Bepo was thoroughly reamed-out, Ikkaku carried the towel-clad small child into the infirmary, where Law was waiting with his mug refilled with coffee and an opened book on pediatrics. He saw Nauja and raised his eyebrow as the child-towel lump was placed on the main examination table.

“Where’s her hair?”

“It didn’t cooperate, so I got rid of it,” Ikkaku shrugged. She looked again at the impromptu pixie-cut she had to fake and reassured herself that it wasn’t bad. “It was a real mess—matted in place while still braided and filled with gunk—there was nothing I could do to get it clean.”

“How long were you out there by yourself, kid?” Law asked through his coffee. The girl pouted.

“My name is Nauja!”

“Okay; how long were you out there by yourself, Nauja-ya?”

“Oh… I dunno.”

“A week? A month? A season…?”

The little girl shrugged as Ikkaku shoved one of Law’s old t-shirts on her. It was monstrously big to the point it nearly fell off her shoulders, but it was at least something. “I dunno.”

“Can you swim?”

“Why…?”

“Just answer the question.” Ikkaku rolled her eyes at him—his bedside manner was terse at best for adults, so this made sense.

“Well, yeah, of course I can swim.”

“Any allergies? Things you’re not allowed to have?”

“Uhh… pudding…? But that’s only if I don’t eat the rest of my dinner first.”

“Any times you sneeze or get itchy? Like after you smell flowers or touch a pet or eat certain foods?”

“No…? Should I…?”

“Ideally, no, but it’s important to know if you do.”

Nauja thought about that for a moment before allowing herself to flop backwards onto the examination table. Law took another deep gulp from his mug—this was already fucking exhausting.

“Okay then,” he scowled. “Do you know where you live?”

“With Granny and Granddad—we’re on the top floor and they’re on the bottom.”

“…and this house is where…?”

“An island.”

“Well, of course you live on an island, but which one?”

“It was far away,” the child said. “We were on the boat for a long time before the storm came. Mom and  Dad said we weren’t far from where we were going.”

“Where were you going?”

“My aunt and uncle’s house.”

“…and where is that?”

“…another island.”

“Have you been there before?”

“Nope!” Nauja grinned widely, making Law’s eyelid twitch and Ikkaku stifle a giggle. “But we had to go over this BIG rock! Mom said that it’s so big that the train can’t even go over it!”

Ikkaku and Law glanced at one another. The train? That meant…

“So you live on the other side of the Grand Line? Over the Red Line? In Paradise?”

“I guess…?” She began to roll around on the table, falling off. Law put her back with his Devil Fruit powers; he was clearly unamused.

“Please tell Bepo that his foundling needs us to backtrack.” He grabbed the pediatrics book and placed it open on the table next to Nauja. “In the meantime, I’ll make sure she’s medically stable enough for such a journey.”

“Captain, we just got to the New World. You want to go back now that we made it?”

“We have an easier time of it than anyone outside of Fish-men,” he reasoned, “and there aren’t exactly many Marines I’d trust a kid with, even with my privileges. We can at least get her to her grandparents while charting alternate routes to and from Fish-man Island; she’d just get dumped in an orphanage otherwise.”

“Whatever you say,” Ikkaku shrugged. She watched as Law looked from the diagram to the little girl’s face, concentration set in his resting-bitchface. Thank goodness he wasn’t scaring the kid, or else things were going to be very different.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Adjusting to Nauja being on the ship was… interesting.

She had only been on the Polar Tang for a few hours and it was already a struggle to get everyone to their daily tasks. When she wasn’t wandering around, she was asking an innumerable amount of questions, disrupting pretty much everyone’s day at one point or another. She was passed off from crewmate to crewmate, eventually landing with Bepo, who kept her on the top deck as they sailed back towards the Red Line.

“This is frankly embarrassing,” Shachi frowned. He and Penguin were also on the top deck, watching Bepo play with Nauja. “We are not going to get any action with that around.”

“I thought women like kids?”

“Yeah, but maintaining that kid is going to be the troublesome part. We have her all the way to the Sea Train Zone—what the fuck do we do until then?”

“Leave the kid with Bepo and Ikkaku?”

“Penguin, listen to yourself. We leave her with Ikkaku for longer than half an hour and she’s going to end up with even less hair and gear grease everywhere.”

“…and Bepo…?” Penguin grimaced as he watched his best friend ponder that. “She’d just develop an allergy to him, wouldn’t she?”

“Knowing our luck? You know she would.”

Both men nodded in commiseration at their imagined fate. As they did, Clione came atop deck, a newspaper in his hand.

“Well, my contact in Pucci is doing a little bit of digging while we’re en route,” he offered. “Uni’s looked through all the old newspapers we have in the archive for the past three months and there’s nothing about a family of three going missing during a storm.”

“Would they even cover that?” Penguin scoffed.

“Well, yeah,” Clione shrugged, “if they were rich enough.” He held out the paper and the other two looked: there, on the page the paper was opened to, was a small, grainy photo of a family. It was clearly not Nauja’s family, as it looked like the youngest of the three kids was about ten years old. “They got caught in something in the New World on the way to Dressrosa and it took being a literal billionaire for their faces to get on page eight. If Nauja’s normal as we think… I dunno.”

“Fuck… it’s a worse disaster than we thought,” Shachi groaned. “We’re definitely stuck with her.”

“At least for a little while.” Clione watched as Bepo tossed Nauja into the air and caught her in a fit of giggles. “Isn’t the captain risking, you know, everything getting this kid back? It doesn’t seem like him.”

“Yeah,” Penguin sighed. “It makes sense though.”

“How…?”

“Kids are your best non-Bepo bet at finding a soft spot for him—especially if they remind him of kids he used to know when he was just a tyke himself.” Penguin settled back in his chair and adjusted his hat so that it blocked the sun from his face. “Who knows? Maybe she reminds him of his little sister.”

“He has a sister?”

“Legend has it,” Shachi scoffed. “I’m sure you can guess what happened to her.”

“Ouch,” Clione grimaced. He saw Nauja decide to sit on Bepo’s shoulders like a perch, bringing a small frown to his face. “…and going back is the only way?”

“Not like we can get out of her where they were going,” Penguin replied. “The best lead we have is that she lives in the STZ. If her grandparents are there, then we’re off the hook, and you can’t ignore the potential of alternate routes in and out of the Red Line and Fish-man Island’s influence, especially since we’re not that far removed.”

“True… I just don’t know if this is really going to do us much good.”

“Relax,” Shachi assured. “The only worry we should have is if they make boiler suits in her size.”

“…you can’t be serious.”

“Weirder shit’s happened.” Clione looked to Penguin for backup, the other man staying silent under his hat. “The fact he agreed to take her back is a good indication that, should things go a certain way, we might have a communal kid.”

Clione grimaced. “Twenty dads and one mom… poor thing.”

“Eh,” Shachi shrugged, “she might turn out half-decent with Jean Bart for a mom. Time’ll tell.”

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Later that evening, after dinner and overnight duties had been assigned, Law sat hunched over his desk as he nursed some tea and attempted reading the dusty pediatrics textbook further. While he was generally comfortable with the treatment and general conditions involving adult bodies, he had no idea about ones that were still developing. Children themselves were… okay, he guessed, but there was so much to them he didn’t understand. Their individual growth rates alone were enough to make his head spin, let alone all the extra things that they needed or lacked or simply had for no reason. He was so engrossed in the book that he didn’t hear the knock on his cabin door, only noticing someone was there when Ikkaku led Nauja inside.

“…what is this?”

“Do you really want her in the bunkroom?” the mechanic frowned. While the sight of him bent over his studies like a goblin possessing several doctorates wasn’t new to her, she really wished he would act more normal while they had company. “We don’t have private guest quarters and Jean Bart is still having night terrors. She’s going to have to stay with you.”

“She will not; Bepo brought her, so he can bunk with her.”

“You’re the only one with a private room.”

“This was not part of the plan.”

“It’s only until we get her back to her family,” she reminded him. Law looked at Nauja, who grinned happily at him.

“Fine—one toe out of line and you’re sleeping with farts and screaming all night.”

“Yay!” Nauja scurried into the room and climbed into Law’s bed, where she settled down underneath the blanket. She took the large, squishy plush fish from atop the pillow and hugged it aggressively without so much as asking permission.

“Goodnight,” Ikkaku smirked. She went back to the bunkroom, leaving the new roommates to their devices. Law turned off the overhead light and switched his desk lamp on, darkening the room considerably.

“I still have reading to do,” he explained. “You go to sleep, alright?”

“Don’t you need sleeps too?”

“Not as much—I’ll join you later.”

“Okay! Goodnight!” The child allowed him to tuck her in and he went back to his book. The text was admittedly dryer than normal, which really was saying something, and before long, his tea was cold and he was beginning to feel the day’s events hanging over him.

Fuck… what was he going to do…? He ran his fingers through his hair before dragging his hands down his face. He was a Warlord now—he was at the Government’s beck and fucking call—and there was nothing on his ship for a small child to do, let alone anywhere for one to simply exist. The sooner he could drop her off the better, even though the pessimist in him was telling him otherwise. Touching the worn, faded photos on the wall in front of him, he thought about the only people whose advice he wanted to ask… whose answers he was never going to hear.

‘Lami, what do six-year-old girls like to do other than go to festivals?’ he wondered silently. ‘Moeder, how do I handle such a ball of energy? Vader, what happens when she asks a question I don’t know the answer for? Cora-san, how do you go about taking care of a kid that isn’t even really yours to care about?

‘How much trouble am I really in?’

Only silence met him, as expected.

What he would give to ask just one of them a single question… he ached to think of it.

Knowing his mind was not going to soak in any new information, Law resigned himself to sleep. He clicked off the desk lamp and nearly rolled into his bed. With the stuffed toy between them, he stared at the child in the faint moonlight, wondering what it was she was dreaming about so peacefully.

Trafalgar D. Water Law closed his eyes and dreamt of happier days.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Waking up with the stuffed fish in his arms, Law at first wondered if the prior day had been a dream. He hugged it tight and opened his eyes, only for his thoughts to be spoiled by a note stuck to the wall via a magnet.

Got the cub.

It looked close enough to Bepo’s handwriting that Law didn’t even really care anymore. Fuck, he was so damn tired… it was such a good thing they weren’t too far into the New World, or their proposed route wouldn’t even be a consideration. After a piss in his closet of a toilet, he shuffled out into the rest of the ship, wondering how it was so quiet in the afternoon. He eventually found everyone in the mess hall, clapping politely as Nauja spun atop a table… showing off a new dress…?

“What did I miss?” he groaned.

“We… uh… might have stopped at an island for a quick shopping run a couple hours ago when you were sleeping…” Shachi admitted, scratching the back of his head. “Didn’t think it was right for her to be wearing nothing but old t-shirts.”

“Are we still at this island?”

“Nope!” Nauja beamed. “The Pose already reset! We didn’t want you to worry!”

“There was nothing that could stop them,” Uni claimed, holding out Law’s coffee-filled mug. The captain accepted it, taking a large gulp to steel himself against whatever nonsense was soon to come.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

Hakugan was honestly minding his own business when he felt a tiny tug on the hem of his sleeve. It was a gorgeous day as he was on the top deck tending to the rigging, letting the cool ocean air cut through his boilersuit and ruffle his hair as he checked its stability in relation to the steering apparatuses. His attention was caught by the crew’s wee guest, who was looking up at him with wide eyes.

“What?” he asked, knowing the kid couldn’t see his expression.

“I want to color. Can I color something?”

Ah.

“You might want to ask Clione about that,” he shrugged. “I just don’t have anything up here to color with.”

“Is that why your mask is white?”

“My mask is white because it freaks people out. Now go ahead and find Clione. Wiggly hat.”

“Okay!” Nauja left Hakugan, climbing back down below deck. She wandered around until she found Clione, who was in the laundry room mending some boilersuits.

“You look like you’re hunting for something,” he chuckled. “What’s the problem?”

“I want to color something, but Hakugan said to look for you! Do you know what I can color?”

“Well, not these,” he shrugged, gesturing to the garment in his hands. “Why don’t you ask Ikkaku? She knows what’s best for girls to color.”

“’Cause she’s a girl too! That’s right!” Nauja tapped her right fist in her left palm as though she’d had a revelation. She then rushed about until she found the woman in question in the engine room, where she and Uni were recording a bunch of readouts from some valves. “Auntie Ikka?”

“I’m busy…” she warned. Not that Nauja realized that, as the girl beamed brightly at her.

“I want to color, but Hakugan said that I can’t color his mask so I had to ask Clione, and then Clione said he didn’t know what I should color either, but that I should ask you because you’re a girl too and would know what it is I’d like to color!”

Ikkaku stopped writing and stared at the child, completely flabbergasted. She looked to Uni for confirmation that this was happening, only to see that he was actively trying to ignore and stay out of the entire conversation. This is what she got for traveling with a bunch of fucking babies.

“Listen kid: I don’t know what there is to color around here because I don’t have anything to color, just write.” She gestured with her clipboard in order to get the point across. A thought then crossed her mind; might as well take this directly to the top and save everyone else a bunch of fucking hassle. “Say, why don’t you go ask the captain? It’s not just that the captain’s name is Law, but his word is law too. He’ll figure it out for you.”

“Really?”

“That’s what captains are: problem solvers.” She saw that Uni was now looking at her, giving her a worried expression at the fact she was bringing the captain into this. Oh well. “Now run along. He should be able to get you your answers.”

“Okay!” the little girl replied cheerily. She then left the engine room and went into the infirmary, where she found Law carefully mixing some chemicals together, seeming rather pleased with himself as the two clear liquids merged and became green. “Do you have something I can color?”

Law narrowed his eyes as he looked at her—what the fuck?

“There was literally no one else on the ship you could ask that?”

“I did, but now I’m asking you, because the captain’s word is law like your name… whatever that means.”

“It means they’re all cowards,” he deadpanned. Law put the green-filled flask into a holder and began rummaging around in the drawers. Eventually he found a couple markers, some colored pencils, and scrap paper. “Here; draw on this.”

“Thank you!” Nauja squeaked. She hugged his leg before running off, taking the supplies with her.

For fuck’s sake—the crew needed to at least pretend that they weren’t afraid of a small child.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

“Why are you always studying?” Law didn’t even look away from his textbook to know that Nauja was changing into her pajamas in his bathroom. “You’re an adult—adults don’t have to study!”

“They do when they find themselves facing something they never knew about before,” he replied dully. “Good minds always learn things.”

“I thought captains always knew things…?” She climbed through the gap between his arm and his leg, crawling her way into his grasp. “What don’t you know?”

“I’m a doctor, but I don’t know a lot about growing bodies, like yours,” he grimaced. He waited before she settled in his lap before tilting the book so she could see easier. “Kids are very different from adults. You being here reminded me of that.”

“You didn’t learn about kid stuff before me?”

“Not extensively; pediatrics is an admitted and pronounced weak area of mine. Mostly I’ve concentrated on adult patients and surgical maneuvers.”

“That’s a lot of bones,” Nauja said, pointing at an illustration in the book. “How many are there?”

“In an adult, the number is around two-hundred-six, but in children it is greater, more like two-hundred-seventy.”

“Whoa… that’s neat.” She marveled at the textbook, which gave Law an idea.

“Would you like to see the difference between my hand and yours?”

“Yes!” she gasped, gazing up at him with sparkles in her eyes. The sight of her tugged at something deep within him, hearkening back to days in decades past.

“Then hold still while I use my Devil Fruit,” he said. She did and he dissected both their left hands, showing her how their bones compared. “See how these match up, even though my bones are bigger?”

“So, these will look like those when I’m older?” she asked, pointing out the phalanges.

“Not exactly, but close. I don’t know how big you’ll get, because that’s a significant factor, as are congenital and environmental conditions that alter bone growth.”

“Ohhh… neat…” Neither her nor Law noticed the knock on the door, nor it creaking open. “Why do I have more bones than you?”

“Children’s bones form from softer cartilage and fuse together as they get older, if they have the correct nutrients. There is more of them because they aren’t fully formed yet, which makes it easier to do things like be born and grow up.”

“Careful, Cap, or you might get into a weird conversation you don’t want to have,” Shachi smirked. He unloaded his tray on the desk—two mugs, a small pot of tea and Jean Bart’s famous chocolate chip cookies—and raised an eyebrow at their skeleton-hands. “Huh… so that doesn’t freak you out, kiddo?”

“Nope!” Nauja claimed. She then looked at the tea and cookies, and then at Law. “Can I have the rest of my hand back?”

“I guess so,” he sniffed. Law returned their hands to normal and dropped the Room in order to grab a cookie. He looked at Shachi, who gave him a look right back, the two silently conversing.

‘Aren’t you settling into the role a little quick?’

‘She gave me no choice.’

“How are babies born if they need more bones?” Nauja asked through a mouthful of cookie. Shachi choked down a cackle, while Law calmly shambled a book on obstetrics to the desk and opened it up.

“Although the birth canal is generally wide and elastic enough for them to go through, babies need the extra flexibility involved with having more bones in order to decrease complications,” he explained. He took a sip of his tea and gave the mortified Shachi a smirk. “Are you interested in how that works, Nauja-ya?”

“Oooh, yes please!”

“I’m moving her to coffee,” Shachi deadpanned. Law simply ignored him, instead flipping to a page illustrating a lateral cross-section of a thirty-eight week pregnancy.

“See that right there? That’s the birth canal, and all that baby has to go through it. It’s why skulls aren’t fully formed until years after birth, so they can fit.” He watched as Shachi recoiled in fear and scurried away—a great way to get most of his crew to scram was talk frankly about certain medical things in casual conversation, and Shachi was no exception. Nauja grabbed at her tea—in one of the smaller mugs Uni normally used for espresso—and drank a large gulp.

“That’s still really big for that bit there,” she noted. “Is there a drawing about that?”

Eh; it wasn’t quite giving her The Talk, but considering the ease of everything, he’d take it.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

“Wow!” Nauja’s eyes went wide as she pressed her hands and nose to the porthole glass. The Polar Tang was diving underneath the Red Line, going deeper and deeper than most divers could on their own. “Everything looks so cool!”

“While you can see,” Shachi smirked. He wiggled his fingers and made a groaning, ghosty sound at her, causing the child to squeak in fright. She hopped down from the chair she’d been standing on and went to the Captain’s chair, where she crawled into Law’s lap.

“He’s being mean!” she declared.

“Nauja-ya, hush, I’m concentrating,” Law said, not taking his eyes off the controls and readouts in front of him. He did not make a motion to move her, however, allowing the girl to stay where she was at. “Hakugan-ya? How’s hull pressure?”

“Stable,” was the reply. “There’s a lot more she can take before we need to get worried.”

“Good. Bepo-ya?”

“Course steady!”

“Nauja-ya?”

“…yes…?”

“It’s getting cold and will only get colder—I want you to have whoever is in the kitchen help you make hot chocolate for everyone. Got it?”

“Yes, Captain!” she gasped. She had a job to do! He then shook his head at her.

“I am not your captain.”

“Okay then… yes, Law-san!”

She left immediately after, unable to see the absolutely panicked look on Law’s face as she skipped out into the corridor. The rest of the people in the control room ignored it, instead concentrating on the instruments’ readouts.

By the time Nauja returned, she was wearing a blanket like a shawl-cape and helping to carry her own tray of hot chocolate. Once all the other cups were distributed, she crawled back into the captain’s lap with her mug and settled in the crook of his arm, keeping herself cozy against him. Everyone else in the control room saw, of course, though knew better and kept their mouths shut.

Law-san. She called him Law-san. To those who knew, the coincidence was too much to ignore. They instead filed it away for later and continued concentrating on navigating the waters around them, watching out for the inherent dangers of the sea.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

“Why do you say some people’s names like that?”

Law glanced down at Nauja on the barstool next to him, seeing that the little girl was staring at him curiously. He paid for the crew’s drinks and the barman went off to fill the mugs. “Like how?”

“You called him Barkeep-ya. I am Nauja-ya. Why is everyone a-ya?”

“Oh. It’s just a habit. It was common to say in my hometown.”

“Where’s that?”

“The North Blue, like most of the rest of the crew.” He watched as she kicked her feet and thought, absolutely devastated at how cute she was. Every time she set herself next to him, he could feel the desire to laugh emanating from his crew, as though seeing him suffer was one of the funniest things in the world.

“Can I go there?”

“No,” he said abruptly. She flinched, and a part of him felt bad. “It’s… uh… not an easy place for travelers. As the adult currently in charge of your well-being, it would be irresponsible for me to suggest otherwise.”

“Oh.” She sipped her milk thoughtfully. “Do you ever go back?”

“Only once; it wasn’t fun.”

“That’s sad,” Nauja decided. “Don’t your mom and dad miss you?”

Instead of answering, Law took a drink from his mug. He wasn’t really in the mood to be opening up to anyone, let alone a small child in their temporary care. The child stared at him, waiting for a response, before nodding.

“It’s okay, my mom and dad don’t miss me either.”

“I’m sure they do, Nauja-ya…”

“No, they don’t,” the girl replied. “They would have found me before Bepo-ya did if they missed me. They were gone a really, really long time. It was always Granny and Granddad who bothered.”

Law raised his eyebrow at that. Instead of concentrating on the statement about her parents, he consciously chose to scoff before drinking some of his ale. “Copycat.”

“I’m allowed!” Nauja pouted. “You can’t stop me!”

“From being a snotty little copycat? Hearing you call Bepo-ya that makes you sound like an old woman.”

“Then it must make you sound ancient!” Law choked on his drink. “Nahaha! I’m right! I’m right!”

“Nauja-ya…”

“Shachi-ya! Does Law-san sound like an old man?!”

“You know it, kiddo!” the offending crewmate cackled, raising his drink. Law glared at him—the other man too drunk to care—before turning back to Nauja, who was smugly triumphant.

“I am not an old man,” Law groused.

“You’re drinking beer,” Nauja pointed out. “Stinky old men drink stinky beer.”

“Shachi-ya’s older than me, you know, and is on his fourth mug of the night. What does that make him?”

“Weird and drunk.”

“…but not old…?”

“Nope!”

Law pinched the bridge of his nose, grit his teeth, and tried not to yell at the child or his crewmate. What did he do this time to deserve this?

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

No one was entirely certain as to exactly why Nauja was crying, but she was, and that was why everyone else was panicking. She had been left on the Polar Tang with the bulk of the crew while Law and Bepo went ashore to acquire navigational information, meaning that there was no one around that seemed to be able to placate their guest.

“This is not what I signed up for,” Ikkaku grimaced. She put her hands over her ears as Nauja flopped face-down on the top deck, screaming into the Tang beneath them. “Remind me to murder the captain when he gets back.”

“What do you think’s wrong?” Penguin asked. He tried poking Nauja, only for her to scream louder. “Fucking seas—there’s no off button.”

“Wishful thinking, considering you don’t have an off button either,” Clione snarked weakly. “At least my contact was able to find out where she belongs.”

“Yeah, I guess there’s that,” Penguin sighed. The three crewmates exchanged looks of absolute desperation—they had tried everything. They tried holding her, talking to her, trying to get her to laugh, and nothing fucking worked. Now they were banished to the outside deck, making it so that at least her screams didn’t carry through the rest of the ship.

It was then that the captain and navigator decided to return. Law looked at the scene in front of him and rolled his eyes, collecting the child from the deck and holding her in his arms. She instantly quieted, snuggling in the shoulder of his feather-trimmed coat he was currently wearing as a cape. Penguin, Clione, and Ikkaku all stared slackjawed at the pair as Law went below deck as though everything was normal.

“What was wrong with the cub?” Bepo wondered.

“We don’t know,” Ikkaku replied, absolutely incredulous. “Now, if you losers excuse me, I gotta make sure the boiler room’s ready to go. Later.”

Yeah… none of the rest of them wanted to think about what just happened either.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

“Ever hear of something called Aqua Laguna?”

Nauja squeaked in terror, confusing the pirates that were with her. Once the Polar Tang had reached Water 7, Law and Bepo made quick work of tracking down Nauja’s house. Penguin and Shachi tagged along as well, and now they were talking with someone claiming to be a neighbor, with the house they needed being the only one boarded up on the street.

“Does it have something to do with water?” Shachi joked. The neighbor stared at him flatly—they were in Water Fucking 7… of course it had something to do with water.

“It’s a yearly flood that does a lot of damage to the island,” he replied. “If people aren’t careful, they can get swept up in the waves and drown.”

“How awful!” Bepo shivered.

“We were waiting to hear back from the kids before we did anything to the house aside from basic cleanup, but…” The neighbor looked at Nauja, who was doing a very poor job of trying to not cry. “Hey, don’t worry; we’ll take care of you.” The girl hid her face against Law’s leg and sobbed.

“My navigator found her on an island in the New World,” Law explained. The neighbor looked at him with raised eyebrows.

“The New World? They left for that ages ago.”

“It’s what we gathered. She said something about visiting an aunt and uncle.”

“Really? I didn’t think they had family that way.”

An alarm bell went off in his mind as Law reached out subtly with his Haki, still not entirely used to the sensation. He couldn’t tell anything about the supposed neighbor. Hm. Someone called out from a few houses down, catching the neighbor’s attention.

“Excuse me,” he said. “I’ll be right back.

The four pirates looked at one another cautiously, unsure of how to continue. There was no way they could leave Nauja in an empty house, nor were they going to leave her with someone who claimed to be a former neighbor. It all felt too suspicious for their liking. Nauja clung to Law’s pant leg and sniffled, causing him to idly stroke her hair.

“So, now what are we going to do?” Shachi wondered.

“I guess there’s only one thing to do,” Law said.

“Flex your Warlord powers to find her parents?” Penguin asked. Law shook his head and picked up the child. She clung to him, her arms loose around his neck and her head resting on his shoulder.

“What I should have done from the beginning.” He carried the girl as he walked back through the streets, eventually reaching the Polar Tang and the rest of the crew waiting on the deck.

“No luck…?” Clione wondered. “My contact…”

“It doesn’t matter,” Law said. “Oi, Ikkaku-ya.”

The mechanic’s stomach went to her throat. “Yeah, Captain?”

“I think you need to build that extra room after all.” He watched as her eyebrows shot up curiously, as did most of the rest of the crew’s. “Get the parts you need for it while we’re here—we can stop on Leyteena for a bit of peace and quiet.”

“Aye, aye, Captain,” she said, giving him a mock salute.

“Where are the others?” Hakugan noted. Law shrugged.

“Their problem, not mine,” he said. He then brought Nauja down into the galley and placed her on the counter as he made them both something hot to drink. Before long, two steaming mugs of tea were sitting on the counter. Nauja reached for one, only for Law to intercept her hand to keep her still. He activated a Room around her head and, quite suddenly, her face felt weird.

“What did you do?” she asked quietly.

“I cleared your sinus cavity best I could, as ignoring it would be courting a headache and mouth-breathing for the rest of the day,” he said, gesturing to the sink. Sure enough, there was a glop of translucent boogers laying there. “Now you can have tea. It will help with the rest.”

“Thank you.”

Law watched Nauja as she gingerly picked up her mug and held it, letting the steam waft up into her face as she blew on the liquid to cool it. A smile crossed his lips as she took a sip and grimaced—it was still hot and he didn’t put milk or sugar in either mug.

“You know…” he said, hesitating, “my little sister was about your age when she passed away.” Nauja’s eyes grew wide as she stared at him in horror. “I never go back to my hometown because there is no place for me to go to; my parents and sister died a long time ago, along with a lot of other people. You can’t find the city on a map anymore—there’s not much left if there’s anything at all.”

“…but you escaped with your friends…?”

“No. Only I escaped. The crew came later.” He leaned his hip against the counter and wondered if he should have been telling her all this—it was stuff that not even his closest crewmates knew the whole story about. “I was on my own for a while too, and it made me very angry.”

“You’re not angry now.”

“That’s because Cora-san found me.” He could feel his voice threaten to crack. “He rescued me from a bad place, that had a bad man in charge, and he loved me with all his heart. I was…” he swallowed hard, “…like a son to him.”

“Where is he?”

“Cora-san died protecting me when the bad man came after us. I still love him today because of how easy it was for him to love me all those years ago. He had no reason to, but he did, and his love made me better.”

“Is that why…?” Nauja pointed at Law’s chest and the tattoo there. He nodded.

“Yeah.” He cradled her head with his free hand as he leaned down and kissed her hair. “I remember how much I needed him. If he hadn’t found me and taken me away… my life would be very different.”

Nauja sipped some more tea—now cool enough for her to drink—and nodded. “If you needed him, does that mean I’m allowed to need you?”

“Yeah. It is.”

“Okay.”

The two of them stayed there, drinking their tea in silence until Penguin came into the galley and paused, pointing at his captain, then the child, and back, all while keeping his other hand hidden.

“Everything okay?” he asked.

“I was just having a very important conversation with Nauja-ya about how she’s staying,” Law said. The little girl nodded quickly, bringing Penguin to a chuckle.

“Well, it’s a good thing we went into your house and grabbed a bunch of shit,” he said. He brought his other hand out from behind his back and presented Nauja with a stuffed toy, the sight of which made her brighten.

“Professor Nanuk!” she gasped, holding out her arms. Penguin handed it over and she hugged it tightly. “How did you know I missed her the most?!”

“I had a sneaky suspicion soon as I saw her,” he replied. The sink then caught his eye and he cringed. “Oh… what the fuck is that?!”

“Mucus,” Law replied plainly. He took a sip of his tea as Penguin grimaced and Nauja giggled quietly. “It was a preventative measure.”

“Why you gotta be like that, Cap? That’s my sink. It’s gross now.”

“It’s a prementative measure,” Nauja declared, nodding importantly. “Or I would have gotten a headache.”

“Preventative, Nauja-ya. We took a preventative measure against a headache.”

Penguin honestly didn’t know what was worse: the fact they now had a kid, or that she latched onto Law of all people, or that Law himself was seemingly latching onto her. What a fucking nightmare.

-_-_-_-_-_-_-

It wasn’t much, but Ikkaku enlisted Uni’s help and the two of them were able to turn a poorly-utilized cupboard into a proper room for Nauja, with her own bed and a desk and space to put all her things. They even reorganized the storage area, where they were able to place not only all the extra bits from the former closet, but also the trunk full of her family mementos stolen before they left Water 7.

The little girl cried when she saw the room, which turned into the captain fighting back an outward emotion as his twenty-strong crew of fully-grown adults bawled their eyes out.

Nauja was there to stay.

[tcotnccircus]

𝙼𝚘𝚛𝚋𝚒𝚍 𝙾𝚋𝚜𝚎𝚜𝚜𝚒𝚘𝚗|| 𝚂𝚕𝚊𝚜𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚡 𝙵𝚎𝚖!𝚁𝚎𝚊𝚍𝚎𝚛🔞

𝙿𝚛𝚘𝚕𝚘𝚐𝚞𝚎|| 𝙱𝚎𝚏𝚘𝚛𝚎 𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚂𝚝𝚘𝚛𝚖

(Rewritten)

Rating: Explicit

⚠️Warning⚠️

(Cursing, Violence, Emotional Breakdown, Blood/Injury, Attempted Murder, Trauma, Implied Kidnapping, Implied Death, Physical Assault, Implied Sexual Assault, Implied Past Rape)

First Person P.O.V

When people are born into this world, our first instinct is to survive. Born with a clear conscience, born with no bad intentions, and born with innocence. Yet, where does evil first come from? Evil is shown to embody many different types of shapes and sizes. It never seems to die or go away, and over the years— I've realized that there's always some little bit inside of all of us. Dormant; ever—so growing the older we get.

Sometimes people break; snap from the amount of negativity weighing over their heads, and sometimes people are just drawn to the darkness around them. Humans have evolved to the point that we can think more critically and develop new types of emotions that no other animal could have; Such as guilt. Animals may show empathy and compassion, but guilt is a unique trait that only humans could feel and display.

Anyone can make a difference, and I thought I could as well. Yet, there was something else that I had forgotten; something far more important that I should've known before. No one can truly heal if they don't allow themselves to be helped. And that was one of the worst mistakes I've ever made in my life. The minute my eyes had laid upon the small square ad in the New Jersey Times newspaper; my fate was sealed. Doomed from the start as I hurriedly picked up the newspaper from the sidewalk, not caring for the dirt-stained footprints and the faint smell of cheap booze that was emitting from the stains on the paper.

Eyeing the newspaper before me, my pupils dilated at the sight of a hiring ad. The potential of helping those in need at a place called, "Egg Harbor City Maximum-Security Psychiatric Hospital." It piqued my interest. Many would have left that paper by the side of the road by the time they had read the name, yet I kept on going. My warm hands clenched excitedly and accidentally crumpled the paper within my grasp even more than it already was.

I was in a dire need of a nurse job after being let go from the one I was in before. The psychiatric hospital had to let go of most of its workers due to the last-minute relocation of the hospital, leaving a now decrepit and desolate building behind. By the time I had come back to the newly relocated hospital, the job openings had already been filled up and I was left aside, jobless, and in extreme need to pay off rent for the month. I used to think that the newspaper that I had found was some sort of blessing, that I could finally do what I couldn't in the past! I was wrong.

So—very wrong. The events that followed after had left me traumatized; left me with only a shell of myself.  I was never much of a religious person, but those days... Those days had left me praying, pleading for a god, for some otherworldly being, for someone to help me. To help me escape from what I knew now as hell, but no one came.

I could remember the first warning sign I had before all went to shit. It was in a form of a dream, well—more like a nightmare at that. I remember how the pain and anxiety filled my senses, as my mind teetered from the constant feeling of trepidation. I was kept in a cold, old, and dusty room that seemed to have belonged to a child. The floral designs on the wallpaper were faded and torn to shreds.

Stains stuck to the loose hanging paper with the foundations of the house exposed to see. The mattress of the bed ripped with large gashes and holes, leaving small surprises of metal springs to poke and prod at the next person who dared to rest on it. Crude child drawings litter the floor, accompanied by shattered glass from mirrors and windows. The door was locked and I was forced to wait as a punishment for god knows what—. I couldn't remember, nor could I recall how I got into such a predicament in the first place.

I only knew that I was scared for them to come back. I didn't know who they were either, yet I could only assume by the state of my body—battered and bruised. I was stripped down to complete bareness; merely a victim to the cold as I was left to the aftermath of the abuse that I had endured. Cuts, scars, and stitches were scattered throughout my delicate human form, with dry and old blood painted on the surface of my skin. My skin was sticky with some white unknown fluid that I was afraid to even think was a possibility. My eyes could only dart from every dark corner of the room; dread wracking my brain from the unbearable and continuous cycle of anxiety.

As I looked around, I caught the sight of my reflection in the dusty mirror—causing my breath to hitch in response. My left eyelid was bruised black and almost swollen shut with a large patch of crimson red on my sclera. It caused immense pain and inflammation that I could only assume was due to a busted blood vessel. My eyelids threatened to close and expose me to another world of slumber, yet I resisted the seemingly blissful release. I knew that even sleep couldn't save me— it was a danger to me instead. I muttered incoherent words to myself, as I wrapped my arms around my freezing body.

Deep red scarring surrounded my wrist, ankles, and neck; hearing the clanking of chains every time I moved. The shackles bound my body parts so tightly that I could see the purple bruises and red irritated scars under the metal. Letting out small, muffled whimpers into my crossed arms, I attempted to comfort myself from the confusion that harrowed my brain. I took a second to slightly ground my thoughts and scanned the room. From what I could see, I noted that the wood was stale and dank, making the mansion eerily creak from old age and deterioration.

The wooden floors would whine at the slightest bit of weight put upon them; even the air was barely breathable from the dust and decree constantly falling from the floor above me. Drenched in a cold sweat— I'd almost gotten used to the grime, dirt, and oil that had collected upon layers of my skin. More and more thoughts entered left just to circle back into my head, a torturous sequence that only came back after it had finished. I was finally snapped out of my internal struggle when I heard a whispered, yet prominent notice.

"𝚙𝚜𝚜𝚜𝚝.."

I froze. The silence in the room was louder than I could've imagined. I could feel my heart drop to the deepest darkest pits of my stomach whilst my breathing became ragged and exaggerated. My eyes bulged from how much I had widened them as they turn to fixate on the space between the closet doors. I merely watched as I saw the closet doors slowly, yet surely—widening within each second that had passed and wasted.

'Please no... No more.....' I pleaded in my mind. My mouth dried significantly as I saw the closet doors widening, revealing what was hidden in the deep darkness. A crouched body; skin and bone at first glance. Their voice— it was raspy and whiney. It's as if their vocal cords were strained or damaged. And that smell.. god that smell!

"𝚙𝚜𝚜𝚜𝚜𝚜𝚜𝚝..!!.."

My breathing turned into panicked wheezes, as I could feel the horror wrapping itself around my damaged mind and senses. Whoever or whatever that thing was, it wanted my attention, badly. Saliva and tears smeared my face, as I slowly crawled back to only push myself up against the wall. I was in a petrified state.

"(𝚗𝚊𝚖𝚎..)"

I abruptly stop, my mind slowly processing the recognition of this voice. Memories that had used to be long forgotten reappear in my mind in a quick flash. My vocal cords were strained to form simple sentences, yet I managed to speak through the painful rawness of my throat. "...Sweetie...? Is that you...?" I whimpered as warm tears had finally fallen from my eyes, painfully trailing over the cuts and bruises on my face. My lip quivered, as I saw the figure slightly move when I quietly called out to them.

It was silent, and I took the chance to slowly make my way by crawling toward the slightly ajar closet doors. When I had come closer, their body had disappeared into the darkness of the closet. "Sweetie...? Come back...! Don't leave me...!" My voice had risen in tone, making my desperation noticeable. I had squeezed my body through the opening of the closet doors, cringing at the loud noises of clanking chains the more haste I moved.

"𝚜𝚑𝚑𝚑..." My body freezes at the cold air that had hit my ear.

The closet doors slowly close, enveloping me in pure darkness. I was unable to see, and worse was the unbearable stench of death that had me gagging within the same blinding darkness. It was next to me, heaving, croaking silently. "𝚚𝚞𝚒𝚎𝚝... 𝚠𝚎 𝚍𝚘𝚗'𝚝 𝚠𝚊𝚗𝚝 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚖 𝚝𝚘 𝚑𝚎𝚊𝚛 𝚞𝚜... 𝚍𝚘 𝚢𝚘𝚞...?" I shook my head in disagreement.

"N-no..." I sniffled, as I attempted to wipe away the unending falling tears.

"𝚐𝚘𝚘𝚍..." I felt the cold air next to me shift, gaining my attention on the other side of the unusually spacious closet. I remembered the way I jumped in surprise, as a bony hand placed itself on my cheek; wiping away my tears. Compared to the warmth of my tears, the hand was cold as a corpse. The rotting stench was stronger than ever, as it invaded my sense of smell. It was so pungent that I had practically felt the hairs of my nose burn and incinerate at the first whiff of the smell.

Yet, through all the stench, I somehow noticed a second smell—something faint, yet still lingering; it was sweet. I had leaned into the figure's hand: finding a sense of comfort in the caring touch of the figure and the smell of nostalgia. "𝚊𝚝𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚜𝚝... 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎𝚗'𝚝 𝚋𝚎𝚎𝚗...𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚙𝚕𝚎𝚝𝚎𝚕𝚢...𝚝𝚊𝚒𝚗𝚝𝚎𝚍..." I had painfully furrowed my brows in confusion at their statement. "What do you mean...?" I had waited for an answer to my question, yet, our conversation was interrupted by the faint, but clear enough to hear the sound of the locked door knob jiggling. The beating of my heart was deafening to my ears, as the same dread washed over my body from the sound of jingled keys.

"N-No... No, no, no!" My bottom lip quivered, anxiety clouding my thoughts and mind. From next to me, I could hear the person make a sound of scorn. I quickly turned to where I had assumed the figure was and began to incoherently plead, as tears rapidly stained my cheeks. "Don't let them hurt me! D-Don't let them take me! I-I—" I was then grabbed by my shoulder; their frigid hands sent chills down my spine. I inhaled sharply in response to how their sharp and jagged nails dug into my fragile skin.

My eyes were wide and wild, as I stared into the darkness in front of me, knowing that a different set of eyes were staring back; hiding where the light couldn't expose them. I heard the door open with a click and many pairs of heavy-to-light footsteps entering the room I was in before.

"(𝙽𝚊𝚖𝚎)... 𝙻𝚒𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚗 𝚝𝚘 𝚠𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝙸 𝚊𝚖 𝚊𝚋𝚘𝚞𝚝 𝚝𝚘 𝚜𝚊𝚢 𝚝𝚘 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚛𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝 𝚗𝚘𝚠—" Their grip on my shoulders grew excruciatingly tight; surely drawing blood from the crescent-like marks that they had left on me. "𝙳𝚘𝚗'𝚝 𝚐𝚘 𝚝𝚘 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚙𝚕𝚊𝚌𝚎, 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚕𝚒𝚏𝚎 𝚠𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚍 𝚝𝚘 𝚊 𝚍𝚊𝚛𝚔 𝚙𝚊𝚝𝚑 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚒𝚗 𝚠𝚑𝚒𝚌𝚑 𝚒𝚝'𝚕𝚕 𝚎𝚗𝚍 𝚋𝚢 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚑𝚊𝚗𝚍𝚜 𝚘𝚏 𝚎𝚟𝚒𝚕." I had heard them calling my name alongside the crash of furniture,  presumably turning the room upside down to find me. We were running out of time, and both of us knew it.

"W-What are you talking about? What place?" 

"𝚈𝙾𝚄 𝙺𝙽𝙾𝚆 𝚆𝙷𝙸𝙲𝙷 𝙾𝙽𝙴 𝙸𝙼 𝚃𝙰𝙻𝙺𝙸𝙽𝙶 𝙰𝙱𝙾𝚄𝚃." They shrieked with so much force that they made my ears ring painfully. "𝙳𝙾𝙽𝚃. 𝙶𝙾. 𝙳𝙾𝙽'𝚃 𝙻𝙸𝚂𝚃𝙴𝙽 𝚃𝙾 𝚃𝙷𝙴𝙼. 𝚈𝙾𝚄 𝚆𝙸𝙻𝙻 𝙱𝙴 𝙲𝙷𝙰𝙸𝙽𝙴𝙳 𝙰𝙽𝙳 𝙱𝙾𝚄𝙽𝙳 𝙳𝙾𝚆𝙽 𝙻𝙸𝙺𝙴 𝙰 𝙳𝙾𝙶 𝚃𝙾 𝙳𝙴𝙰𝚃𝙷 𝙷𝙸𝙼𝚂𝙴𝙻𝙵." I felt one of their hands detach itself from my bleeding shoulder with a sickening squelch and suddenly yanked at the chain that was tightly bound around my neck. "𝙹𝚄𝚂𝚃 𝙻𝙸𝙺𝙴 𝙷𝙾𝚆 𝚈𝙾𝚄 𝙰𝚁𝙴 𝚁𝙸𝙶𝙷𝚃 𝙽𝙾𝚆..." They hissed out;  their words dripping like venom as they pulled at the chains one last time. They let the chain fall from their wicked hands making my head snap back.

I gasped and wheezed dryly from the aching discomfort around my neck. The creaking footsteps came to a halt, filling the room with silence and a thick tension. "𝙼𝚊𝚢 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚏𝚞𝚝𝚞𝚛𝚎 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚖𝚎𝚛𝚌𝚢 𝚘𝚗 𝚢𝚘𝚞, 𝙲𝚊𝚙𝚝𝚊𝚒𝚗." The figure whispered one last time, making an odd sense of sadness overcome my heart.

"Captain?" I croaked, my voice low and broken. Before I could get a response, the door to the closet slammed open letting the blinding light from outside overpower the darkness that surrounded me.

It burned into my retinas making my eyes squeeze shut from the sudden ache of my eyes. A small gasp left my lips as someone grabbed onto my hair tightly and snatched me out of the closet; flinging me onto the ground. The burning of my scalp was quickly interrupted by the sound of a crack from my head connecting to the floor beneath me and I was then consumed by total blackness. If only I had listened to the advice the people around me had given.

If only I knew that I would regret brushing the red flags off and continuing with my life as if nothing occurred. If only I knew that finding out the horrors of that place would permanently change my life. If only I knew, what I had to endure was just the calm before the storm.

Credits:

Co-Editor: L0W_ig

Story Tester: zeezop

(Users Can be found on Wattpad)

[sketching-shark]

Why do people defend six eared macaque lol I don’t think he actually deserves to have a redemption arc after everything he’s done in monkie kid and the og novel lol.

WATCH OUT BECAUSE I'M ABOUT TO BE MEAN TO A MONKEY ON MAIN but hhhhhh I'm guessing it's partially a result of the current culture-wide obsession with/insistence on redemption arcs no matter what & the way that redemption arcs are increasingly used as a stepping stone to get two characters who hate each other into a romance.

In this particular case I also think Monkie Kid so far only showing Macaque's side of the story in regards to his relationship with Sun Wukong & its depiction of the monkey king as a deeply flawed individual whose actions could easily be interpreted as him just being an unthinking fumbling dumbass who never grew out of his unthinking fumbling dumbass ways also lends itself to fandom-ish tendency to brush aside the bad actions of the blorbo d'jour so that their eventual inclusion into team good guy seems less jarring. Like if Macaque sucks but SWK actually sucks even more then in context Macaque has the moral high ground & as such he can't justifiably be called out for anything by SWK or can't be called out by any other character unless they're also going after the monkey king. And indeed in Monkie Kid we've had SWK get yelled at by many character for being stupid & destructive & I don't remember that ever happening with Macaque outside of Qi Xiaotian's "What's wrong with you?!" after the shadow simian had just uhhhh kidnapped & mind-controlled his loved ones before forcing them to beat up Qi Xiaotian while he watched and laughed (X_X).

I've also seen a number of people argue that Monkie Kid and Journey to the West should be considered two completely different stories and fair enough to some extent (like yea SWK probably shouldn't have the past of smashing tons of humans and yaoguai into "meat patties" in a children's cartoon lol). Buuuuuuut I do suspect that a lot of this stance is about justifying a rewrite so that Macaque could be an innocent monkey before getting involved with SWK rather than dealing with the violence he deliberately chose to inflict on the Mt. Huaguoshan monkeys & SWK himself in the og classic. In addition, I do think that, especially for a western audience, a lot of people simply DON'T KNOW about what the Six Eared Macaque did in Journey to the West. Like I've said before that one of my current favorite parts of being in the online JTTW fandom is seeing people go from "oh people are exaggerating about the monkey king's trauma" to "oh dang actually the monkey really did go through it" after they've read some of Wu Cheng'en's work, but my general sense is that at present many people know about these characters through Monkie Kid more than through Journey to the West, and as such aren't aware of the stuff LEMH pulls or even that his entire thing was making himself SWK's doppelganger in an attempt to murder-replace the monkey king and get all the glory for completing the journey for himself. Any translation of a work often means that a lot of context will be lost, and I think that can be particularly true when you're only aware of/been exposed to a child cartoon manifestation of a character, especially if you don't have access to at least a good translation of the work they originally came from.

ANYWAY those are my general impressions about the matter, and I still maintain that lego show Macaque would be best served by either staying a shifty dude or having a "redemption without forgiveness" narrative arc in which he does decide to become a better person but does so without being forgiven by team monkie for everything he put them through. If anything such an arc might help him start developing into his own character rather than forever remaining the jerk violently obsessed with getting one over the monkey king.

[perhapssomething]

Naruto Fic Rec List

Some little shit I enjoyed - not all of them but some that come to mind

The ways of him who holds the blade by Dissenter; Not Rated

In the quiet hours between midnight and dawn, who's to know or care if Senju Tobirama is sharing drinks with ghosts.

(Beautifully written characters, all of them - a perfect insight on the hearts and minds of the Founders)

Snow Storms & Snake Wine by writer168; Rated Teen And Up Audiences

Four strangers get trapped in a cabin, and it's the start of something beautiful.

(Unexpected hilarity and wholesome in its own special way, made me laugh my fucking ass off)

no time for survival by sazzafraz; Rated Mature

A 'What If' starting from the premise of Itachi's apparent demise at the hands of a rebel group attempting to overthrow the established shinobi system. Sasuke is quickly blackmailed into joining and thrust into a world of politics and hard choices, only to discover that his world is made of many threads and choices he could have never foreseen. Featuring the authors love of world building, deeply maladjusted protagonists and politics.

(Sasuke has so much potential - fics like this show it)

How To Save The World With No One Even Realizing by IncompleteSentanc (Erava); Rated Teen And Up Audiences

Minato knows at the beginning of the week that it's going to be a hellish one. Mostly because it starts with the kidnapping of one of his two remaining students, only a year after they'd lost the first one. He just doesn't realize at the time that it's not going to be a hellish week - it's going to be hell for quite a bit longer than that.

It all starts with Rin's kidnapping, and her subsequent rescue at the hands of a mysteriously appearing, monstrously strong, murderously violent woman.

A woman with cotton candy pink hair.

It only devolves from there.

(I'm laughing obnoxiously just thinking of this one, absolute gem that it is - all you could want in a fix-it story)

How To Survive The Weirdest Experience Of Your Life by IncompleteSentanc (Erava); Rated Teen And Up Audiences

Obito has lived through the single weirdest experience of his life. Not many could say that they'd gotten crushed by a boulder, had half their body replaced by creepy alien flesh, was promptly held captive for a year by a supposed-to-be-dead Madara Uchiha, was saved by a randomly raiding pack of supervillains, then promptly killed by them, fixed up again, then dumped in a forest, and finally, FINALLY, returned home again.

Yeah.

His life has gotten pretty weird. But he's home, he has his family, and he has hope that someday soon he'll be able to say he didn't just survive the experience - but that he also come out of it pretty okay.

(Sequel to How To Save The World)

(As mentioned, sequel to the above story, the chaotic and beautiful thing that we all need)

(Force) Trick or Treat by Hiruma_Musouka, squidspawn; Rated General Audiences

Uchiha Tajima has developed a "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy regarding his sons' social lives since Madara and Izuna met the Senju family. This is because whenever Izuna tells him things, he generally regrets asking. (Or: The only thing more ridiculous than Uchiha and Senju in proximity to one another are Uchiha and Senju in proximity to Halloween parties.) "

(*cackles*)

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle by blackkat ; Rated Teen And Up Audiences

Obito snatches up the abandoned bottle, jogs three steps, and hurls it with all the force he can manage at the back of the white-haired litterer’s head, snarling, “Hey, asshole! It’s called recycling!”

(I've re-read this more times than I can count)

Let Us Live by TakaGang; Rated General Audiences

Uncle Naruto thinks smiles will fix everything even if they're forced. Her mother dusts the cabinets like she wants to break them, and refuses to answer the questions that burn on Sarada's tongue. Her father is a mystery and an absence everyone tiptoes around.

AU. Sarada is an Uchiha in every aspect.

(Beautiful and heartbreaking - the dramatic irony burns)

Why we build the wall by Dissenter; Not Rated

A Kiri nin gets trapped in a cave with a Konoha nin near Kannabi bridge. Some things are inevitable. Or the AU where Kakashi is born in Kiri but still somehow ends up as team seven's teacher.

(I have no words for how amazing this one is)

Gem of the Eddy by beetlebee; Rated Teen And Up Audiences

"The fall of Uzushio collapsed our economy, our protections. You might think I'm being rosy, but they really cared about us. And they knew how to party. You know they had a seal that could swap body parts? Wildest night of my life,” the boatman’s eyes go distant for a long moment, “...but you kids are too young to hear about that.

“Anyway,” he continues, “our economy’s been a shambles since; maybe gets going for a year or two before it collapses again. No security of stability, so assholes like Gato think they can waltz in here and take charge. Boy, he'd be singing a different tune if the Uzumaki were still around." 

Sakura’s eyes widen a bit at that, and even Sasuke looks up. Naruto opens his mouth to say something, but Kakashi puts a firm hand on his shoulder.

“What an… illuminating piece of history,” says Kakashi, “Thank you for sharing.”

-----

(Kiri may have won the battle, but not the war. The island of Uzushio might not be as dead as previously believed. 

All Kakashi knows now is that he really should have refused that mission to Wave.

An island lives, people change, foxes laugh, and Team Seven goes on a wild journey!)

(aaaaaaaaaa perfection)

[meancaroline]

Knotty List, by Taylor Fox

Ratings:

GoodReads Rating: 3.95 ⭐️

My Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Spice: 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

Purchasing:

On Kindle Unlimited?: Yes

Kindle E-book: $2.99

Paperback: $15.00

Length:

302 pages

Review:

Olivia stops to get gas after a disappointing, but not unexpected set of texts from her emotionally distant mother. And, spurred by the kind gas station owner, decides to make a pit stop at the town of New Obernzell.

But she is quick to discover that New Obernzell isn't as friendly as she imagined it would be. Local legends say that Krampus stalks the woods surrounding the town.

And recently children have been found dead; killed by some kind of monster.

Things get worse for Olivia when her car breaks down, forcing her to spend the night in New Obernzell's inn, which she is promptly kidnapped from. The locals tell her a sacrifice to Krampus is the only way to stop the killings.

And, unfortunately for Olivia, she is the perfect candidate.

Stranger still, Krampus actually comes to "accept" the sacrifice and takes Olivia back to his home.

But when Krampus tells Olivia he can't leave the forest, she has to try and piece together what's actually going on in New Obernzell, all while fighting her attraction to her monstrous host and kidnapper. Will Olivia and Krampus be able to tolerate each other enough to save the town? Or will their passion burn everything to the ground?

This book is marked as a "dark romance." Now, I cannot say that I have read enough dark romance to really know if this book qualifies as such. I thought that a dark romance book would be more disturbing to me. Either I have read more dark romance than I realized, or this book is not as dark as it would like us to think. If you are a connoisseur of dark romance and have read this book, please let me know your thoughts.

However, dark romance or not, I thought this was a sweet book. If monster romance is your thing, Knotty List will not disappoint in that regard.

Where it may leave you wanting more is in the plot itself. The murdered kids mystery takes a huge backseat to the romantic development between Olivia and Krampus.

That's not to say the romance is bad: the spice is well written, and from the start you can feel the tension between the two and the scenes where Krampus is talking to Olivia about her past, validating her feelings, and helping her overcome her struggles are well done and wonderful to read. But it does come at the expense of the mystery and Krampus' personal development. We are told Olivia has changed Krampus for the better, but we really don't have enough information to see that change for ourselves.

The killing kids mystery only shows up a few times between the spice and really only comes into its own at the very end of the book. It would have been nice to see an enraged Krampus actively trying to use Olivia to clear his name, and watch him change and mellow out through the story. The two could have played off each other's issues and worked to make each other better while trying to figure out how to save the town. It would have been a longer story, sure, but it would have provided us with the Krampus development, and story tension, that we are missing at this point.

Overall, Fox's story is enjoyable, but if you are looking for more of a story, this won't be it for you. However, if you are looking for a feel-good spice-a-thon to end your yearly reading, Knotty List will not disappoint!

Originally posted on Lemon8 12/29/2023

[ace-hell]

Bc someone wanted me to clarify :

"genocide" and "ethnic cleansing" -

Definition:

genocide- "the deliberate killing of a large number of people from a particular nation or ethnic group with the aim of destroying that nation or group."

Ethnic cleansing- "Ethnic cleansing is the systematic forced removal of ethnic, racial, and religious groups from a given area, with the intent of making a region ethnically homogeneous. "

Yall focuz on 2.3 million gazan citizens you forget the 3 million palestinians in the west bank that wow could you believe don't get bombed rn? Shocker, maybe bc they DIDN'T decide to wage a war on a saturday and on a sacred holiday morning. believe me if israel wanted to get rid of gaza and the west bank would've been wiped out already in 2008. By the agreement with ariel sharon in 2005 after the hitnatkut from gaza strip he said that the second gaza attacks israel they'll be WIPED OUT but he got into a coma and since then hamas took over gaza and doesn't stop being the first to attack. Israel DOES care about palestinian lives- israel calls and send papers ASKING gazan citizens to evacuate and SAVE THEMSELVES otherwise gaza city and 1.1 million ppl would been dead already.

The target is hamas. Not palestinians

Unfortunately they sit under and inside residential areas like hospitals, schools, houses and ofc the tunnels under there. Believe me the SHOCK i got from witnessing first handedly seeing jihadists soldiers creep around an elementary school in the middle of the night... Its horrible and not only in gaza but also in syria and lebanon newr the borders. In 2014 an israeli women accidentally discovered a hamas tunnel that went from gaza to her house. There's even a special group in the IDF that specializes in discovering these tunnels, again they started it also in lebanon and even one was discovered from syria.

The idea is to wipe out all of HAMAS, who doesn't even give a shit about gazan citizens themselves

With all their budget gaza could flourish into a mini dubai yet they focus on only attacking israel while not defending gaza

After the 1948 war and the nakba day there were less than 150,00 palestinians if israel wanted to "ethnically clean" israel from palestinaisn they would've done it in less than 75 years, now almost 21% of israel are arabs and there are 5 million palestinians. How can someone be SO bad at genocide that the numbers of palestinians went up from 150,000 to almost 7 million (including the ones who live in israel- with full rights)

Palestinians suffer from hamas so much some even work for the IDF in secret.

These past two weeks happened bc hamas murdered 1500 innicent civilians and kidnapped 200 people, if they didn't do it nothing would've happen

If hamas and the jihadi islam didn't overtake gaza i assure you they would've thrive into a beautiful place bc again - israel was the one to initiate every peace agreement with palestinians and THEY were the ones to break it.

So yes get educated people, develop your critical thinking beyond what ppl who discovered the middle east yesterday has to say

[astralbooks]

Stardust in Their Veins - Laura Sebastian

Read: 07/01/2023 - 14/01/2023

Rating: 5/5

Rep: gay side characters, m/m side relationship

CW: grief, on page death, death of a sibling (in backstory), imprisonment, discussed executions, discussed filicide, murder, kidnapping, potential harm to children, discussed sexual assault (none occurs)

This review will contain spoilers for Castles in their Bones

This was one of my most anticipated books of this year, and I was delighted to be given the chance to review an early copy! Castles was an unexpected surprise for me last year, I loved it a lot and way more than I was expecting to, and I had high hopes for its sequel. Given the way that Castles ends, Stardust had a lot to live up to.

Even though Sophronia was my favourite of the three sisters, I’m glad that her death stuck. It wasn’t a trick and there are no resurrections. Sophie is dead, and a lot of the emotional weight of this book stems from the people she’s left behind having to come to terms with that. Grief can be messy and it can look different for everyone, and I think this book managed to reflect that well. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that this is a book about grief, but the grief is very present throughout.

Daphne was my least favourite of the sisters in the first book, but with this one I’m pretty sure she’s nudged her way into second place. She was always the most loyal of the three to their mother, and that loyalty is still sticking in this book even despite the building evidence that their mother may have had a hand in Sophie’s death. The thing with an upbringing like the sisters had is that unquestioning loyalty as a survival mechanism isn’t an unrealistic outcome, and it’s inevitably going to take a long time for that loyalty to break down. Daphne’s arc over the course of this book is slow as she deals with her grief and her suspicions and her denial and her mother’s new shocking orders that might just be a step too far, and it can be a little frustrating as a reader, but I strongly suspect that that’s the point. It all just serves to make her actions nearer the end hit all that much better. The build up most definitely pays off.

A few months ago, Sebastian posted on Instagram to say that where Castles is Sophronia’s book, Stardust is Beatriz’s. The book’s dedication reinforces this, as it’s dedicated to ‘all the difficult girls’, a description which is lobbied at Beatriz near the book’s end. But do I think this is truly Beatriz’s book? No I do not. Beatriz’s pov was largely dedicated to her exploring her newfound magical abilities and the limits of the magic system. Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad for this exploration. I thought it was interesting and it answered some questions I’d had about it from the first book while also investigating some other questions I hadn’t thought of. But Beatriz as a character didn’t develop alongside this. Daphne and Violie grow by leaps and bounds over the course of this book, with the people they are by its end being far from the people they are at its start. Beatriz doesn’t change. Beatriz from the end of the book is very much the same girl she was at the start. The moment that I’d probably describe as The Emotional Climax of the book happens to Daphne, not Beatriz. I enjoyed this book, and I enjoyed Beatriz’s chapters, and this is basically my only complaint about it. It hasn’t affected my star rating because it’s technically not something that came from within the book itself. As the most typical YA protagonist of the bunch it’s not wholly surprising that her arc would be the least intricate, but if this was supposed to be Beatriz’s book then Beatriz is simply not getting a book.

I did really love the level of ride-or-die Beatriz and Pasquale are at for each other though. Beatriz has found a best friend in the most unlikely of places and I hope they never let each other go.

Violie my beloved. Sophronia’s maid, and Margaraux’s spy, from Castles is a point of view character alongside Daphne and Beatriz here, and oh does she shine. It’s about the grief and the regret and the trying to make it right in whatever way you can while knowing that no matter what you do it will never, ever be enough to make up for what you did. I love her. I also enjoyed watching her relationship with Leopold go from her barely being able to tolerate him to a genuine friendship that has outgrown her original promise to keep him safe. Maybe saying this is jinxing it, but I hope their friendship doesn’t turn into a romance in the next book. I’m enjoying their friendship as it is. Not everyone needs to be coupled up.

Where Castles felt very much like three books in one, with each narrator having their own separate plots with very little crossover, the same doesn’t hold true here. Beatriz and Daphne are still separated, but Violie is under no such restrictions. As a result these three girls’ actions have a much bigger impact on each other than the previous trio’s did.

I listened to an audio copy, and Roisin Rankin did a good job narrating! She was engaging and her use of differing accents where appropriate helped make the wide world of Vesteria feel more realistic. There were one or two lines here and there where the pauses in a sentence felt a little unnatural, but in the grand scheme of things it didn’t make much of a difference. If you were looking to give the audiobook a go I’d thoroughly recommend it.

If you liked the first book then this follow up won’t let you down! If you want a series with fairytale vibes, star based magic, politics and plots, and princesses who are nowhere near as helpless as it benefits them to pretend to be, then I encourage giving this series a try!

Thank you to NetGallay and Hodder & Stoughton for providing me with a free e-copy in return for an honest review.

[impyssadobsessions]

(YJ Anon) Okay so, first off, I just finished Young Justice... the bad news is they screwed over Slo-bo and stuck him with a fate worse than death and no way out. Which I'm not jazzed about. BUT! This blog is mostly centered on Danny Phantom, and the way they ended Secret's arc has some implications: First off, I've mentioned in previous asks that Secret was kidnapped by the government and painfully experimented on before the rest of her team broke her out and the Justice League put pressure on the U.S. to get her specifically rights to exist. After that, Secret developed this unhealthy obsession with Robin (III, Tim Drake's version) and started holding him to an impossible standard and generally expecting him to always be there for her. He was like, 14-15 maybe? Absolutely not prepared for that kind of responsibility. When he inevitably let her down, she started to spiral. It didn't help that in teleporting them away once she ended up showing them the edge of death- causing all of her friends to be low-key afraid of her.

She started worrying about herself being inherently, secretly evil. She, along with Slo-bo, broke her dad out of death row (he killed her brother, who was a serial killer himself and also her murderer, but the court didn't know or believe that). The break out was streamed live on the internet. As a result, she was no longer welcome with Young Justice and they were about to apprehend her when Darkseid, a big bad of the DC universe with godlike power, took advantage of her insecurity and self-obsession with her own inner darkness to turn her fully over to the dark side (heh). She left with him for a bit, and returned later to lay waste to huge swathes of people. Everyone who had every wronged her, including Young Justice, was on the menu. Robin eventually talked her down, and she was turned human by Darkseid for betraying him.

This is what she wanted, and is very much the good ending for her, but as far as public opinion goes? Secret was a ghost who the Justice League trusted and backed 100% despite everyone telling them she was dangerous. She betrayed them, and she started hurting a lot (hundreds) of people before being stopped by her former team. As the first ghost to really stand in the public eye in the DC universe (possibly, I don't know enough about Spector or Deadman to say that with 100% certainty) she probably set maybe the worst possible precedent for ghost rights. Danny is SCREWED public opinion wise.

Oh my gawd yes... Danny has no chance, because the ppl won't even believe the Justice League anymore. And then Danny knowing full well he could cause just as much a damage if not more if he ever allowed himself to become Dan. So Danny struggling with his own issues of wondering if some part of him is inherently bad. But unlike secret, he's determined to prove it wrong/and naturally does so because he wants to protect ppl and ghosts alike. But yeah, Danny getting any help to defend him from the public is going to be a bust. Either something where the world has to see Danny being the hero he is or maybe the fact of him being half-human put them in some ease... though Danny himself would hate it if it was the later. Not wanting to think he's good just because he's half human. Because he knows plenty of good ghosts.. but it is a step forward in allowing ppl to accept ghosts. But he be bitter if it was the broadcast saving world thing.. oo or if it was both. Danny just be bitter by the public regardless, so even after being accepted the most he sticks around for is a wave and let others handle the rest. Only on public display when its absolutely necessary. Though can catch him correcting ppl randomly like "Not evil."

[wh6res]

chase — renhyuck

“needy kitty. i can’t wait for purge night.”

tw bullying, violence, swearing, yandere themes, possessive themes, blood, weapons (a gun, a grenade), implied noncon, implied kidnapping, mentions of stalking

disc i dont condone this behavior

wc 5k

‏‏‎ ‎

29 hours before the annual purge

“hold her down—i said hold her down, idiot!”

putting everything into account, they saw you more like a glorified chew toy than an actual person. 

they ruined your life simultaneously and it's ironic, that despite being sworn rivals, it seems you were their neutral ground—after one has had their own fun, you’re passed on to the other person so they can deliver that final, shattering blow that weakens your resolve. 

it was meant to be that way because it had always been that way. you’re the unlucky loser that ignited the worse sides of both lee haechan and huang renjun. 

they’re like oil and water; they don’t mix but with you, they found a compromise. stealing your lunch money, trashing your homework, quickies in between lectures. all of these should’ve been enough to give them a good power trip. but they’ve developed a hunger so severe that these past instances are but mere crumbs that hardly satisfy their cravings. 

it was beyond exhausting, being caught in between two headstrong people that were unwilling to back down at any cost. their aggression and anger towards each other directly being channeled onto you as they shove and swing you around like some ragdoll. 

you weren’t a bunch of kids, you knew that. you don’t cry and sob and say that it’s unfair, you hold your chin high and walk up to the guidance counselor’s office to report them for bullying. but you never should’ve underestimated the power of money and their respective families’ broad network of connections. 

without a doubt, the empty promises for justice is what broke your heart the most. it breaks with every bruise, every tight grip, and every nasty name the people willingly turned a blind eye to. 

it’s sad but it was a reality you taught yourself to get used to—the meek mouse learning how to evade the cats hot on her trail. 

but you weren’t as lucky today. 

“i am holding her down.”

a pair of lips comes in contact with your neck. its feathery and light at first until its biting down to mark you with his teeth. not too strong to draw blood, but enough to dent the surface of the skin. 

haechan has an oral fixation. biting his lips. his nails. whenever you see him, he always has a lollipop on his mouth and if he doesn’t, he’s painting hickeys across your skin. you hated his oral fixation, especially when makeup and clothes proved useless to hide the marks he gives you. 

“why run?” renjun asks you, slipping his fingers underneath your skirt as he kneels. “you know you have nowhere to hide in the campus.”

haechan snorts. “or anywhere else.”

it’s always the same thing. you go to school. you sit in your first period for thirty minutes until one of them shows up. then the other boy probably felt a gut instinct that he’s missing out on the fun. last time, it was an empty classroom in the abandoned left wing. 

they like taking you there all the time, it was always dark, the blinds pulled and shut tight. not to mention it was incredibly dusty. but both male knew you’re afraid of the dark, exactly why it’s their favorite spot. but empty classrooms and supply closets are close seconds, too. 

“you’re so pathetic. useless—only know how to whine like a fucking pornstar,” he quickly comments, feeling you arch against him when renjun’s tongue comes in contact with the pearl between your legs. “my cumdump.”

you feel a sharp exhale against your lower lips. you shudder. renjun clicks his tongue in annoyance. “can you shut up? you’re making my dick soft with all that talking.”

but haechan had ignored him completely, blissfully ignorant of the petite boy’s frustrations as he angles your head up to crash his lips onto yours. when he slightly pulls away, still playfully nibbling your bottom lip, what he said next made your blood run cold. 

“needy kitty. i can’t wait for purge night.”‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎ ‎

6 hours before the annual purge

the price to pay for protection started rising again this year and you, much like your neighbors, are in a sense of turmoil. jamming the doors with cabinets and nailing your windows with wood is hardly enough to satisfy the gnawing feeling in your stomach. much less when you didn’t even have a weapon to wield other than a wooden bat and a cheap taser you bought on sale. 

“its not like anyone will be coming for you, right?” the little girl says, touching the randomest stuff in your apartment. her name was naeun and she never really liked pink and sparkles like most girls her age, maybe that’s why she took a liking to you. 

her mom works a 9 to 5 and her grandma stays with her on occasion. but the old lady loved to sleep, naeun said, so she gets the chance to slip out and come knocking on your door. you tried shooing her out of your apartment countless times but she’s stubborn. 

she reminds you of yourself. 

“well, i hope no one does.” you joked, putting on a turtleneck. 

naeun’s mom doesn't like you as much as it is, but if you yourself let naeun see the bruises on your skin? you’d hate yourself forever. “now, come on little missy, go back to your grandma. i need to head over to the bank to settle my protection fees.”

“but you just said no one is going to come for you anyway,” she whines stomping towards the door. “mom already settled ours yesterday becase grammy forced her to. mommy said it was just a waste of money because who’d bother to rob us anyway?”

a memory flashes in your head. two boys who’ve sandwiched you between them in the dark of a fucking supply closet at uni. wandering hands, labored whispers, curt giggles, one pair of lips trailing up your neck while the other up your inner thigh.

“needy kitty. i can’t wait for purge night.”

you needed that protection. that was no slip up because haechan never makes mistakes. if he wanted to make you feel like some animal on the run after catching a whiff of trouble then he sure is doing a good job. 

“hey! i think you just went someplace else there,” naeun says, nudging your side irritably to get your attention again. 

you try forcing out a chuckle but it doesn't work, still deeply peeved by a memory from last week replaying vividly in your mind. if they ever mean what they meant (which you know they do) then this is now more than just trying to get through the night—you have to survive, prepare, and pray neither of them finds you. 

“i think your grandma’s right in doing what she did, naeun. with humans, you’ll never know.”

and just like that naeun went silent, bid you goodbye, and disappeared behind the apartment door.

the bank was a quick walk from your apartment. you hardly broke much sweat and you even managed to stop by the grocery store to make some last-minute runs. the store’s nearly empty, deserted of any human being as the seconds slowly but surely ticked away. it was only when you walked past aisle seven did you pause, the hairs on your back standing as a slow chill crawled up your spine. 

you look over your shoulder. 

no one’s there. 

you swallow, quickly looking down your watch to check the time as you made your way to counter. 3 hours before the annual purge. you needed to get your ass moving. you just need to grab one more thing and you’ll best be on your way. 

you practically ran towards the dairy section and just as you spin around, strawberry ice cream pint in your hands, you jump as he appears before you in thin air and you drop whatever you’re holding. 

“such a skittish little kitten,” renjun clicks his tongue, bending down to retrieve the ice cream on the floor. “here you go.”

you couldn’t even stare at him in the eye. your hands shook but it wasn’t because of the cold desert. now you get it. it’s his eyes you felt on you earlier, ever intrusive and piercing as he watched you from afar. was he stalking you?

“i didn’t quite catch a thank you, kitty.”

how foolish of you to think he’ll let you duck away without at least speaking to him, hm?

“thank… thank you?”

renjun grins, satisfied with your stuttering as he raises a hand to ruffle your hair—he ignores how you flinched away from him—before walking away with one hand in his coat pocket, whistling an eerie tune that can haunt your nightmares way after purge night. 

“see you later, kitten.”

if it wasn’t the whistling that set you on edge or that clear promise of your doom—it’s the pack of zip ties and duct tape in his hands.‏‏‎ ‎

you were watching a rerun of your favorite morning reality tv when it cuts to the dreaded blue screen showing the flag of korea. 

this is not a test.

this is your emergency broadcast system announcing the commencement of the annual purge sanctioned by the south korean government. 

weapons of class 4 and lower have been authorized for use during the purge. all other weapons are restricted. 

commencing at the siren, any and all crime, including murder, will be legal for 12 continuous hours. 

police, fire, and emergency medical services will be unavailable until tomorrow morning until 7 am when the purge concludes. 

may god be with you all.

you’ll never get used to the blaring siren that echoes through the empty streets. you can feel the floor vibrating and it travels throughout your whole body as the dread starts sinking deep into your skin. 

you’ve already double checked all your windows and the front door. activated the security system provided by the bank. and you’ve also already charged your taser and have hammered down nails into your wooden bat. fine. if they wanted to scare and bully you into a panicked frenzy, it did its job but fuck no will you go down without a fight. 

you shut all the lights, the apartment basking in the moonlight glow brought by the translucent curtains as you make your way to your bedroom, nearest the emergency exit just in case they barge through your front door by force. 

at first, nothing happened. it was peaceful. tranquil. you can hear a pin drop with how quiet it was. both inside and outside. you were almost tempted to cover your mouth in case you were breathing too loud. 

it’s silent. until it wasn’t.

your phone rings. it’s there, vibrating on your desk and you make long strides until you’re face to face with a set of numbers on your screen. an unregistered contact. there’s a debate inside your head whether to answer it or not, fingers hovering between the red and green button… until it eventually lands on the green. 

you put it up to your ear, hands sweating as you wait with bated breath for the person on the other end to speak. 

“kitten?”

it’s renjun. you don’t answer. 

“i can hear you breathing, you know. i can’t wait to see you. we’ll have so much fun together. it’s sad that i have to share with that imbecile but better half of you than nothing of you, right?” he laughs and you feel a rush of anger surge through you. yet, you don’t bother to give him the satisfaction of a reply. 

“i can see you’re angry, little kitty. while it’s cute and hot… don’t be. turn that frown upside down for me, wouldn’t you?”

but the blinds are drawn he couldn’t have seen you—

“you’re never going to get me, you fucking bastard. i’m not scared of you,” you sure do hope he can’t hear the tremble in your voice. “whatever you plan on doing to me, you’ll fail.”

you walk back slowly, eyes darting everywhere to look for a camera they could’ve installed in your room. they have connections and the money to do it so you won’t put it past them. 

“oh, my stupid kitty. how can we fail when we already got a head start?” 

the floorboard behind you creaks and before you could turn around, someone slams your head against the desk. you hear a crack, whether it’s the screen of your laptop or your nose, you couldn’t tell. the person is agile and silent as he maneuvers you to the ground and seals your lips with duct tape. 

“after all,” haechan giggles. “you can’t lock out what’s already inside, kitten.”

your phone lands somewhere near your head. renjun has already dropped the call and the line goes silent. 

squirming, you glared at the person on top of you. is this how you’re gonna go? you can’t deny, even you yourself find this pathetic. the security alarms you bought, the nail-studded bat, your taser, everything was all for naught? just because you didn’t check under your bed to make sure no one was there?

how long was haechan waiting? when naeun was still here? when you went out to buy groceries? 

you thought it would be fear you’ll be feeling as you get caught but the emotion isn’t present at all. instead, it’s white hot anger that overrides your system and forces you to act without thinking—and it just fucking saved your life. 

haechan always saw you as a vulnerable, sad little human being who couldn’t do shit on her own. it’s easy to underestimate you and that’s his first mistake. 

the second is rather foolish—not tying your legs up first. it’s all too easy to slam your forehead against his before jerking your leg up to knee him in the balls. 

you can see the anger in his eyes clear as day as you made a run for it to the kitchen, having come up with another escape plan—because surely if you went down the emergency exit, haechan would’ve caught up easily with those long legs after he’s recovered from your assault. 

your nose was probably bleeding and your head is in the early stages of a full blown migraine, at least you were able to function enough to wobble your way towards the trash chute situated near the stove. you had cursed that chute the first day you moved in here (who would put a trash chute next to a fucking stove) but the day has come for you to thank the gods that you have that in your house. 

going for a swim in all your neighbors’ trash is disgusting and unplanned (plus, falling down maybe six floors to your doom) but you’ll choose that over lee haechan and huang renjun any day. 

“don’t you dare fucking think about it!”

you flashed him the middle finger to tick him off. a petty retaliation for all the bullshit he and renjun put you through but it felt good nonetheless. 

“catch me if you fuckers can.”

and you were falling down the trash chute.‏‏‎ ‎

okay, yeah—maybe you should’ve thought it through before hurling yourself six floors down only for some half-filled dumpster to catch you but at least you’re still alive, right? alive and free, mind you. but you don’t have time to celebrate. 

it smelled awful and you swear your knees and elbows are bruised but you scramble to climb out and run away as fast as you can. 

it was only haechan inside your apartment. no sign of renjun but he did see you somehow and you have no doubt it was a camera inside that room. you didn’t have much time to ponder for how long they were installed in your room. it’s the least of your worries at the moment.

you’re outside. 

during purge night.

even if you did manage to escape it felt more like a win than a lose, forced out of your own apartment in nothing but shorts and a shirt—heck, you don’t even have shoes on!—it felt like they won. again. 

if you’re not going to die in the hands of some other wacko, you’ll die of hypothermia. how nice. 

you didn’t know where you were running to, the only thing you knew was you need to get the hell out of this neighborhood as fast as you can. you didn’t want to run in alleyways and risk getting stabbed for fun. maybe the sewer system… oh, right. you don’t have your phone on you and it’ll probably be pitch black down there. 

you really, truly, genuinely didn’t want to run so out in the open but it was the best you can impulsively come up with. 

when you feel like you’ve put a reasonable distance between you and the apartment, you stop, hands resting flat on your knees as you crouch to catch a breath. just as quick the adrenaline appeared as fast as it had disappeared. you feel the weight and tension crushing your legs, not to mention you’re really starting to feel that headache settle after headbutting haechan. 

you almost collapse against the brick wall. 

the last person you ever thought you’ll see jumps out from the corner of the alleyway and you almost broke their nose. 

until you saw who it was. 

“NAEUN?”

their apartment got raided, some buffy sickos who they had the misfortune of breaking into their house to purge. luckily they got away, but after getting attacked on the streets, naeun got separated after she ran for her life just like you did. you can’t help but feel sorry for the little girl, who experienced the full effect of this godforsaken holiday. 

this is bad. you can’t leave her but it’s tough enough to have to fend for yourself. you’re not so sure whether you can protect another human being but you’ll have to try. 

“did your mom or grandma tell you anything? anything at all?” you ask, crouching to her eye level. “you said your mom knew the way… where? what do you mean?”

“mom said they’re providing refuge on the other side of town but it’s a 30-minute drive. walking would take longer.”

shit. you didn’t want to risk it. you don’t have a car and you’d rather die right here right now than walk another step out in the streets—

“who’s ‘they’?”

“i don’t… i don’t know. she didn’t say.”

you licked your chapped lips. you can’t trust what she’s saying, not when you didn’t even know these people. it’s too risky, not to mention you’re already running from not one, but two people.

naeun sits next to you against the bricked wall of the alley, looking down at her lap. “i’m scared,” she admits. you hear a tremble in her voice. “are mom and grammy de—”

“no,” you cut her off, pulling her tiny body against yours. when you feel her fists clutching your jacket, you swear to protect this girl with your life. “no, they’re not. i’m sure they’re heading there now to the refuge center just like we are.”

her head pokes out, looking up towards you. “we’re going? i thought you didn’t want to.”

you shake your head, wiping her tears. “well, it’s the one way for you to meet your mom and grammy, right?”‏‏‎ ‎

walking down the streets during purge night—man, this has got to be the most ballsy thing you’ve ever done after that one time you spat at renjun in the eye. you managed to find a litter of bodies way into thirty minutes of walking and you nearly sent naeun flying onto the asphalt with how hard you pushed her back. she couldn’t see this mess, you’d be damned to allow a nine-year-old walk right into psychological trauma. 

you pocket a gun—you didn’t have enough courage to fight with a knife. you wiped the blood off using your shirt before shoving them down onto the garter of your shorts. you didn’t bother to take their shoes, none of them would’ve fit you anyway and it’ll just slow you down. 

“hey, are you alright? is that blood—”

“it’s not mine, naeun. come on, let’s get moving.”

for two hours you walked towards this mysterious refuge center on the other side of town and both you and naeun managed to evade death three times. 

the first attack: a group of high schoolers with their uniforms on. there were three of them, about your height, and while you weren’t responsible for the blood on your shirt, you’re not so sure about their lot. they looked crazy, excited even, but sloppy in the way they flung their knives and bats around. their first purge, you assumed, so it was fairly easy to take them down. a bullet to the head worked like a charm. naeun didn’t say anything when you urged her out of her hiding place to flee the scene. three bullets left. 

the second attack: it was a surprise, one that got you stabbed in the shin of your right leg. it was a drunkard with a knife, you could smell him as you walked past by his slumped form in the sidewalk. he wasn’t moving, so you thought he was dead and it was poor judgement on your part. it’s pathetic getting injured this way, you thought, but at least it was you who faced the consequences and not naeun. two bullets left.

the third attack: two men but deadlier than the girls and the drunk. you didn’t get to reason out with either of them, not when they drove their cadillac at 140 miles per hour and nearly ran you over. a chill crept up your spine when you saw the bloody, naked women strapped down onto the hood. victims. you didn’t engage in any form of combat, it’s impossible, so you took naeun in your arms and ran straight to the back alleys. number of bullets remain the same.

three lucky strikes. 

three times you’ve cheated death. 

but time is up and your luck has run out. 

“beating up a girl? what a coward, if you ask me,” you say, spitting out a tooth after someone kneed you in the face. you were in no position to say such things when they’ve got you busted up and bloody, left eye swollen after one hard punch. 

naeun is nowhere to be seen. 

good. 

who knows what these assholes could’ve done to her. you told her to run so she better fucking run and make sure she lives through this nightmare. 

another kick flies to your ribs and you lie sprawled on the dirty pavement of an alleyway—what an uncool way to die but at least you’ll die with a clear conscience. 

you passed by city hall a few minutes ago. surely, the refuge center is not too far from there. naeun will make it safe. she’ll make it. 

“what’s that look on her face? is she dead?”

another one scoffs. “well… if they’re after her then she’s as good as dead.”

you blacked out. ‏‏‎ ‎‏‏‎

you hate the scent of disinfectant. it crawls up your nose and you hate how the stench is so strong you can taste it on your tongue. this isn’t heaven, not when you know you’re better off burning in hellfire.

unless you weren’t dead—your eyes shoot open, sitting up in haste as you clutch the thin blanket. 

rows upon rows of the same cot you were lying on greets you. people injured, some standing, some sitting. there were people treating them, too, but they were in normal clothes so this can’t be a hospital. in fact, it looked like you’re in some warehouse, stacks of metal crates sealing off all entrances. 

“it’s the refuge,” you whisper. 

“you’re awake!” before you could even turn around, a body launches itself onto you and nearly makes the cot collapse. judging by the small frame and the pitchy voice—

“naeun, be careful!” her mother hisses but the girl in between your arms couldn’t care less. if she’d been an adult, she’d be squeezing the life out of you. when she pulls you closer, your healing ribs made a strike of pain surge through you. 

you groan, bowing in the pain. distantly, you can hear the mother and daughter fighting and it was a banter you’ve never experienced with your own mom. it nearly made you tear up from the overwhelming wave of emotions you were feeling but all else disappears when a person tenderly grips your shoulder. 

“thank you for taking care of my granddaughter.” the old lady was smiling appreciatively as she stared at you. 

that was it. it could’ve been the happy ending to a gruesome and bloody storyline—it should’ve been, family of three reunites again and that was all thanks to you, right?

but even heroes have their own bad endings. 

you heard the ticking of the grenade only seconds before it detonates. the other refugees didn’t even have the time to take cover as some closest to the sealed doors were sent flying so far back they crashed into the row of crates behind you. 

you were severely injured, limping, ribs broken, and you only had one good eye to rely on—yet the first thing you thought of was protecting naeun. maybe the midget had a way of worming herself into your heart. but before you even push yourself off the cot, a figure emerges from the smoke. 

petite and harmless, pretty as the tips of his hair grazed porcelain cheekbones. renjun’s eyes are as cold and calculating as can be and it’s the only thing that terrifies you to no end. when he opens his mouth, anger is hidden well underneath that calm tone. 

“i’ll give you one minute to come here willingly.”

there’s no room for bargain, he needn’t when he knows you have absolutely nothing to offer him but yourself. he doesn’t finish his sentence but he trusts you’re smart enough to figure out the silent threat—come, or he’ll turn this place into a fucking bloodbath. 

cornered and weak, defenseless. weird how they have a fixation for calling you ‘kitty’ when they’re the cats in this chase. 

“naeun,” you whisper, trying to crane your neck to look for her in the filth of rocks and debris. please don’t be hurt.

you freeze when you feel a barrel pointing at your head. it was only there for seconds, haechan probably doesn’t have the guts to hurt you in any way permanently (unless it’s inflicted with his own hands and not through some other medium). 

“ah, look. now we have matching black eyes,” he giggles like a madman, craning your neck up and the leather in his globes brings discomfort to your skin. 

you see the way the other refugees looked at you—scum, dirt on their feet that brought about trouble in their lives. they were already badly hurt as it is and now, this happened? you don’t blame them. 

not one man tried to stand up for you as haechan hauls you up and throws you down on renjun’s feet. your ribs were screaming and you’re cold and so, so afraid. with shaky fingers, you gestured towards the crowd. “just... please, don’t hurt them. they don’t have anything to do with this.”

renjun coos. such a cruel smirk for a pretty face. “aw, such an angel my darling is. always thinking of others instead of her own safety. funny because i don’t think you’ve ever done such a thing for me and haechan, though. i wonder why...”

the latter digs his heel in your injured legs and you scream as black starts to surround the corners of your vision. you tried to crane your neck back, pleading eyes wanting to look at the assaulter but renjun’s calloused hand is gripping your chin too tight.

“should we make a bargain, kitten?”

you stare deep into renjun’s eyes. he knows you don’t have anything left, he can see it in your glassy eyes, too wide and vulnerable. he’s doing this all for show, trying to make you even more desperate and self-aware of your eventual demise.

and you thought haechan was the only cunning one.

“what… what bargain?"

renjun practically gleams in pride. “i’ll let everyone walk free—even your precious little naeun—that’s her name, right? the little girl you’ve been protecting the whole night?—we’ll let her and everyone in this building walk away unharmed. that’s my bargain. you know how those work, right? now, you need to give me something i want.”

forcing you to offer yourself up to them.

what a brutal way to crush your pride.

choice wasn’t an option. if you don’t oblige and choose to run away on your own, they’ll kill them and still hunt you down. you gotta say, it was a tempting bargain that appealed to the sense of heroics in your heart. naturally, you have to choose where there is less blood shed. and as renjun lets go of your chin and lets you look over your shoulder to meet little naeun’s eyes, how she sobbed against her mother’s arms and shook her head and screamed…

“hurry, kitten. i don’t like to be kept waiting.”

you know what needs to be done.

“me. i’ll give you… me.”‏‏‎‏‏‎ ‎

they stood playing a game of pool in the dead of night. it’s peaceful inside the estate while the city beyond rampaged and burned. they achieved their goal, had finally seen an end to a plan that had been set in motion for years. they’ve succeeded and the broken woman lying on the bed meters from the pool table is proof of their victory. 

“don’t you just love it when an elaborate plan works like clockwork, injun?” he asks, voice like trickling honey as he hits number 9 with the cue ball. 

the other, more petite male, rolls his eyes but doesn’t disagree. “oh, please, people like us always triumph, donghyuck. it’s nothing new. although i am surprised that little girl and her so-called “family” played along so well. almost had me fooled.”

“i agree. it's such a shame they had to go.”

‎

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jenoluck (c) all rights reserved

[thatblackboianarchist]

Thinking About Steven Universe Future

I love this show so much, I just wanted to start off with that. The Steven Universe verse is a tremendous one and it's so interesting. I love the idea of the Gem species, it's such a unique idea to me.

I like how we were shown the long-term ramifications of Steven's traumatic upbringing. It's weird to think about, but Steven was 13-14 during the main series. It was so, cheerful and compassionate and helpful, which is odd to consider with regard to real life. He had a kind of childlike innocence that I have never seen in a 14 year old; hell, especially not in me.

SUF gets a lot of praise, and criticism, for its portrayal of mental illness, and both are warranted. On one hand, it is incredibly realistic for a teenager, after enduring trauma after trauma, being turned into a on-site therapist for the Gems and gems in general, being attacked, assaulted, almost murdered, kidnapped, whatever, to break down. To no longer have the ability to keep up appearances, to snap and lose control. Him murdering Jasper honestly made a lot of sense, since he has been suppressing himself this entire time and eventually just couldn't anymore.

It's realistic for a kid to be traumatized like that and show all of those signs of something being seriously wrong. Ofc, SUF isn't the first show to do this. Season 4 of the Legend of Korra also did, which is part of why I love LOK and think Season 4 is the second-best or best season, but I digress.

My only criticism is I had wished SUF was darker and longer. SUF needed to be twice as long, at the least, or possibly two seasons for the portrayal of mental illness to be the most realistic and developed. So we can see the real ramifications of Steven's trauma and mental illness. If you want any idea about how this could have played out, I recommend this fanfic.

Either way, love this show and I'm gonna write a fanfic of my own.

[fyodorsteacupblood]

Bsd yandere headcannons (ADA edition)

(S/o= significant other,

Gender neutral pronouns aswell)

There will be spoilers for anyone early into the show-

tw- kidnapping, murder, stalking and general yandere stuff

Dazai Osamu:

ADA Dazai is a little less likely to be a Yandere than PM Dazai though they would be very similar

ADA Dazai would most likely be less unhinged

I'd imagine ADA Dazai taking his s/o to work with him so that he can keep an eye on them, though he keeps them on a tight leash(not litteraly-)

he'd probably just be very protective due to what happened with Oda and he's most likely got some insecurity deep down about how he's "not very human" and how he baisicly thinks his s/o would leave him for someone "more human" though that's most likely not the case

PM Dazai is very likely to kidnap his s/o due to his career(yknow mafia things🙄)

I think that ADA Dazai might try to manipulate his s/o into living with him if they don't ask to early on, honestly I think that's the furthest he'd go about it since he seems like he wouldn't want his s/o to hate his guts

tho both ADA and PM Dazai will be stern with creating and enforcing rules ;-;

In terms of affection its pretty obvious that Dazai would be all over his s/o so they better like being touched-

PM Dazai won't hesitate to have a "talking to" with anyone who looks at his s/o too much for his liking, these "talks" end with said person in a ditch

ADA Dazai would just shoot them a glare and causally touch his s/o as much as possible-

He would probably find his s/o in the most random place and be like: I want that one 😋 and then proceeds to go and stalk you

Yosano Akiko:

With the amount of shopping she does I'd assume that she would spoil her s/o rotten(only if they have behaved ofc🙄)

shes also not exactly unhinged, just a little sadistic

Like ADA Dazai she would also manipulate her s/o into moving in with her

She would enforce her rules alot ofc that depends on how troublesome her s/o is

I can imagine her being very affectionate too

She would probably find her s/o in a shop and fall in love instantly, she'd then follow them home and start stalking them

She also might tell her s/o that they have some kind of illness and that they better stay by her side so that they don't die or something

like her s/o would tell her that they have a headache or something and Yosano would pull a google and be like: omg darling your dying😟

I'm not sure if she would go as far as murder for her s/o, after all she is a member of the ADA, so she would simply "rough them up a little"

If anyone looked at her s/o the wrong way she would probably just stare at them coldly and raise an eyebrow

Overall she wouldn't be that bad of a yandere to have, unless her s/o isn't obedient.

Doppo Kunikida:

It would take a looonngg time before he becomes a yandere for his s/o

He wouldn't fall in love at first sight, seeing as he has so much criteria for his dream s/o

First he would pick out someone who has the physical appearance of his dream s/o and then awkwardly slide into their life

He would then take his time getting to know them and then see if they fit all of his criteria

If they do then he will start in his romantic pursuit

His s/o would probably find it adorable/funny due to how formal he is about it

He would become a yandere while trying to develope a romantic connection with his s/o

Once he wins them over he would politely suggest that they move in with him

His reasoning is that they could spend more time with each other and that his job can put them in danger

He would show his yandere tendencies a little at a time so that he can ease his s/o into his rules

He would make a strict routine for his s/o to follow daily

Or else they will get his famous lectures

He is the kind of person to only express affection privately

If anyone looked at his s/o the wrong way he would probably have the same reaction as Yosano

Also he wouldn't physically hurt anyone for his s/o, I just can't see him getting violent easily, he might just lecture the person until their soul leaves their body

Overall he's a very mild Yandere, he'd more or less be the "I need to know everything about you darling😊" kind of yandere

Edogawa Ranpo:

This man has a superiority complex, this means that he will most likely demand affection/attention from his s/o

Oh and due to his deduction skills he will know every single little lie his s/o tells

Since he's a man who practically lives at his job his s/o most likely works there

He would pay extra attention to them

And he would pull some strings to make sure that his s/o goes with him to his cases

Since he's not able to navigate public transport (cough cough trains cough cough) He makes sure that another member of the ADA suggests that s/o should go with him

I can see him planting tracker's and secret camera's on his s/o, it would would be done very subtly

He would check up on you every now and again this way and just munch on his snacks while watching you😋

By "very subtly" I mean him putting it on his s/o while clinging to them like a little kid

There is no way in hell that he'd confess to having any romantic feelings for his s/o

He would much rather manipulate them into loving him and then make them confess on the spot

He would then insist that his s/o move in with him because "we're together now so we should spend as much time as we can together😌"

Just like Dazai this man would be all over his s/o and want them to be all over him

He doesn't necessarily have "rules" it's more just "listen to me because I'm the best detective to ever walk this earth😊"

If anyone looks at his s/o for roo long give them affection right then and there because why not?

Like Kunikida he wouldn't hurt anyone physically he would simply overpower them with his words until the person begs him for mercy

Overall he doesn't really harm his s/o he more or less just manipulates them

Nakajima Atsushi:

He's more on the "I won't let anyone hurt you, your my reason to live, I love you so much" kind of yandere

Baisicly he's overprotective and suffocates you with his love🙂

He would also know his s/o from work, like he probably thought they were kind and attractive so he would get all flustered around them

He would ask his s/o if they needed anything/any help

He would also daydream about his s/o and end up staring at them-

His s/o probably confronts him about him being nervous around them and he ends up caving in and confessing

If s/o says yes then they automatically move in with him

He seems like he'd be too nervous to show physical affection for the first month or so

He also doesn't have rules he just starts making his s/o paranoid due to his constant "don't do this or else this will happen" etc etc

If anyone looks at his s/o the wrong way he would probably give them a little glare and squeeze his s/o's hand tight

He wouldn't hurt anyone physically or mentally, this boy is too nervous for that

Overall he's just suffocating so it just depends on what his s/o is like