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withacapitalp · 2 years

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Cocaine Bear AU

BLAME THE SERVER DO NOT BLAME ME

Part Two

“Steeeeeeeve, why are you forcing us to do this?” Dustin groaned, letting his head droop down against his chest as they continued to plod through the woods.

“Because you guys can’t just sit in my living room every day playing Dragons and Danger with all the curtains drawn,” Steve replied cheerfully, not losing the spring in his step despite the fact that all seven of the kids following him were giving him the evil eye.

“You know what it’s called. Besides, we don't sit in your living room every day,” Mike complained.

“Yeah, sometimes we sit by the pool!” El tacked on, adjusting the straps of her bag as she spoke.

Steve rolled his eyes, shaking his head with a far too fond smile. He turned so he was facing his charges, putting his hands on his hips as he raised a brow.

“We agreed that you guys would spend one afternoon a week getting fresh air as long as I agreed to babysit you this summer,” He reminded them, quickly checking to make sure they were actually just bellyaching. They looked annoyed and sweaty, but none of them were breathing too hard, and their cheeks were flushed, not pale.

No heat exhaustion, just lazy fourteen-fifteen year olds who wanted to hide in the house all day long.

“We only agreed to that because we figured you would forget,” Max muttered, continuing to carefully pick her way over the rocks along the trail, “Or you would be too busy,”

“Since when am I ever too busy for my favorite brats?” Steve asked rhetorically, flipping Dustin’s cap off as the teen walked past him. Dustin growled at him and waved a hand somewhere in Steve’s direction.

Truthfully, Steve had been too busy for them the past few months. Between starting his community college courses, keeping both of his part time jobs, and continuing his training as a paramedic, he had barely had time to sleep, much less entertain a bunch of high schoolers.

But now that all of their classes were on break, it was the perfect time to catch up and show them that he meant to keep his promises to them. It was going to be a good summer. Starting with this hike.

He had it all planned out. They would go up to the peak of blood mountain, eat some lunch, and he would take them for ice cream in town afterward as a reward for sticking it out. It wasn’t exactly a beginner’s trek, but the kids were tougher than they looked. They could handle it.

“How about this- the first one to get over the crest of the next hill gets to take the beemer for a spin around the parking lot of the school tonight?” Steve offered.

Instantly all of their previous annoyance vanished. Quick as a flash Erica kicked her brother’s shin, taking out her biggest competitor, and they all began to scramble away from Steve and towards the hill. Lucas hung back rubbing the spot on his leg that she had hit.

“Son of a-”

“Unless you wanna put a dollar in the jar when we get back you’ll stop that sentence right where it is,” Steve said in a warning tone. Lucas pouted from where he was kneeling, screwing his face into a scowl. Steve contemplated for a second before offering up a hand and a compromise.

“I’ll let you practice tomorrow after basketball practice when it’s just us,” Steve said, breaking into a smile as Lucas grinned up at him and eagerly accepted Steve’s hand. They walked up the rest of the hill together, listening to the others screaming at each other from the other side.

Steve opened his mouth to tell them to knock it off- he was going to give them each a little bit of driving time if they wanted it- but he was cut off when a body barreled into his stomach. Steve’s arms came up to wrap around the other person automatically, catching Will in a hug as he buried his face into Steve’s chest.

“What’s wrong?” Steve asked, his heart hammering in his chest as Will didn’t answer, just continued to hang onto Steve in a death grip.

“What happened?!” He asked the rest as they ran over, still screaming. It was hard enough for him to pick up sounds when it was just one of them, but when they all talked over each other, it was nearly impossible to pick up words inside the wall of sound. But what he did hear made his entire body break out in chills.

Blood. Hanging. Body.

“Max,” Steve barked, choosing the kid who was most likely to keep calm and still talk when under this much stress. She understood immediately and shouted to get the others quiet.

“There’s a body in a tree,” She said, looking painfully terrified, “He’s hanging from a bunch of wires? And it’s like, totally bloody.”

“Mike, El, take Will,” Steve ordered, unlatching the boy from his middle and placing him in between his twin and his best friend.

The three of them collapsed to the ground in a huddle, muffled sobs coming from the boy in the middle as the other two began to comfort him. Steve’s heart went out to Will, but as much as he wanted to stay right where he was and take care of Will, he knew someone else needed him more right now.

“The rest of you stay right where you are,” He snapped, hurrying away as his mind slipped into EMT mode. If the person was still alive, they needed triage as soon as possible.

If they weren’t alive…well he didn’t want his kids to have to see that again.

“We can help,” Dustin started to say, but Steve cut that idea right off.

“Stay here!” He yelled over his shoulder, knowing that he only had a few minutes before they inevitably ignored his orders and came over anyway.

The sight on the other side of the hill was gruesome, to say the least. There was a pretty clearing at the bottom, soft tall grass dotted with wildflowers, but it was marred by splatters of dark red blood all over the place, and the body swaying in the wind.

He was hanging by a…a parachute?

Steve’s sneakers kicked up dust as he ran the rest of the way, shoving two fingers against the guy’s neck. A pulse. Thready, and too fast, but there.

Steve let out an unconscious sigh, looking at the man’s face. His eyes were shut, and his skin was pale, but he was still breathing, and that was a good sign. There was a nasty cut along his arm, and his shirt was ripped in multiple places, but nothing appeared broken as far as Steve could see. There was no way to know about any potential internal damage, but Steve could figure that out after he got him out of the tree.

And the guy was kind of cute. That wasn’t as important, but his brain filed that away anyway.

“Is he dead?” A quiet voice came from behind him.

Steve whirled around to see all of the kids staring at him with wide eyes.

He had a couple of choices here. He could send them back the way they had come and ask them to flag someone down to call the police. He could take them back himself and leave the guy alone, hoping that nothing happened to him, or he could do the thing that made the most sense, even though it was the most daunting.

“Not yet,” Steve said, making a decision, “Dustin, give me your knife. Let’s get him down and back to my place.”

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bullet-prooflove · 1 year

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Matriarch - Filip 'Chibs' Telford x Reader

Tagging: @anime-weeb-4-life @redpoodlern @ravencrow83 @kishie8 @thelonewolfwillsurvive @thanossexual @nu1freakshow @im-just-a-mississippi-girl @jtelford @the-wandering-lunatic @darqchilddaydreamz @yourwinchesterbros @lexondeck @keyweegirlie @poppyrose33 @belovedbastardremus @trublu2u @thebaileybugle @ambassadortotrilliusprime @yvette22 @legally-a-bastard @thequeenoftheisleofavalon @joyfulfxckery @justreblogginfics

Companion piece to Punishment & Silver & Gold

You’re sitting at your desk, smoking a cigarette when Chibs enters your office. You look at the clock on the wall and realise it’s gone past midnight, you’re not sure when that happened. Time’s been fluid since you watched the light die in Galen’s eyes. You remember something similar happening when you’d killed your ex-husband.

He looks down at the body on your floor and you see the way his jaw tightens, the muscles in his shoulders tensing. It’s his job to keep you safe but you’ve managed to do that all by yourself. He’s old fashioned sometimes with his thinking, he has no illusions about being a white knight, but he hates the fact you’ve been forced to take action.

“Couldn’t have happened to a nicer scumbag.” He spits on the corpse before turning to face you. His eyes come to rest on the gun that sits in the space between the two of you, the one he had given you just in case. He had never dreamed that you would need to use it.

You offer him a cigarette from the cardboard carton on your desk and he removes one before using the gold Zippo to light it. He takes a drag before leaning against the wall, his gaze straying to the blood pool underneath Galen.

“You’re going to need a new carpet love.” He tells you. “There isn’t enough bleach in the world to get that up.”

Realistically it would be simpler to burn down the entire office, eradicate the evidence but that would bring the police calling and he thinks they probably hate you as much as they despise the club. It was the downside to being good at your job.

“The place needs refurbishing anyway.” You remark, tapping the ash from your cigarette into a silver ashtray. “I don’t think it will take Allie much convincing, she’s been wanting to change things up for a while.”

“I can get Juice and some of the guys on it, get rid of the body and the carpet but…” He trails off and you know that the ‘but’ is. It means that news of Galen’s death, the manner of it, spreads around the M.C like wildfire. Nobody would believe that Chibs had done this, it’s too personal.

“They need to see that I take care of my shit.” You state, blowing a stream of smoke out of your mouth and watching it evaporate into the air. “That I’m still taking care of their shit.”

Secrets is what it all came down to.

The Club’s secrets.

Galen had wanted to pluck each and every one of them out of your head and twist them to leverage his position with the M.C. Not a single one had passed you’re lips during your time together. He respected that, he’d told you, your loyalty. You couldn’t buy that shit, it was born out of love.

You weren’t sure when that had happened.

There were moments though, ones that stuck in your mind.

The look in Tig’s eyes when he told you about his girl, how proud he was of her whilst the two of you hammered out his investment into Cara Cara. The enquiry he’d made about making sure she received his share of the business in the event of his passing. He’d worried about that, you remember, making sure that she was taken care of, along with the two daughters he barely saw.

The taste of Bobby’s banana bread as he told you that his kid was better off not knowing him, that he had always been bad news, which was why he was on his third divorce. You knew a thing or two about making bad choices, you’d reminded him. He wouldn’t always be unlucky in love, especially not when he baked like that. His smile had warmed your heart.

Tara��s guardianship and adoption of the Able after you’d helped facilitate her marriage to Jax. You’d been invited to both the wedding and the subsequent adoption party. You remembered standing in the kitchen, talking to Juice about his weed shop when Jax had passed you baby Thomas for a minute because he’d had his hands full with Able. You think that was the moment it dawned on you how much trust they had in you, that they’d come to see you as one of them.

All of these things they weren’t just legal affairs; they were snippets of people’s lives. Important pieces that meant something deep to each and every one of them.

Strung up in that barn you had known that you could never let Galen have that. To him the M.C was a device to be wielded, a tool to build up his side business but to you they’d become a part of your life.

It would have been easy to relent. To divulge how the M.C were diversifying, making more money with legit businesses like porn and escorts than they ever had with gun running, which was why they were starting to pull out of the trade but the damage of revealing something like that…

It would have been catastrophic.

Noone would have blamed you, Tig had told you in the aftermath when he was helping Tara see to your wounds.

I would have, you’d responded.

You’re distracted as Chibs removes his phone from his pocket. You see him hesitate, his thumb hovering over the buttons before he looks at you helplessly.

“This will bind you to them.” He tells you, tilting his head towards Galen’s corpse. “After this there’s no going back, they’ll start looking to you. You’ll go from their lawyer to their matriarch.”

You understand what he’s saying, you’ve protected them once, allowing Galen to take his pound of flesh. This thing that you’ve done will reinforce the action, you’ve taken care of something that was very much a Club problem. Before his presidency, before killing Galen, you could have been viewed as collateral damage, an affiliate of the Club who been caught up in their mess but now…

You know how this looks. That they’ll see it as you defending them.

“Right now, you can walk away from me, from the club…” he trails off when he sees the look in your eyes. The glint of steel underneath all of that silk. “That was never going to happen was it?”

You shake your head.

“I didn’t want this for you.” He tells you honestly. “When I kissed you that night at my kitchen table, I had no idea we’d end up here.”

You know what he means. Him with the presidency, you standing along side of him, a part of the Club’s bloody history. Nobody could have foreseen this, the course of circumstances that has led you to this moment.

“Maybe it was always meant to happen.” You tell him stubbing out your cigarette before casting a glance at Galen’s corpse. “This feels like the beginning of a joke. What do you do with a dead Irish Man?”

He laughs, he can’t help it because it does. He feels that pressure in his chest relinquish as the edges of your mouth tip up into a smile. Anyone else would be horrified by what had happened here tonight but you’re anything but. He senses the relief in you, you’ve slayed another of your monsters, you can sleep easy knowing that Galen can never touch you again.

“I love you.” He finds himself saying.

He means it. He always has. He’s just never been able to vocalise it until this moment. He’s never doubted your commitment to him, but accepting the Club, that’s always been at the heart of his reluctance. You don’t shy away from the life he leads; you embrace it. You understand that it’s part of him and now it’s a part of you too. It may not be what he envisioned but it’s the future the two of you are stepping into and he treasures it with every fibre of his being.

“I know.” You tell him, clasping his hand. “I’ve always known Filip.”

Love Chibs? Don’t miss any of his stories by joining the taglist here.

Like My Work? - Why Not Buy Me A Coffee

#chibs telford x reader #chibs telford #chibs imagine #chibs x reader #filip chibs telford x reader #filip chibs telford #chibs sons of anarchy #soa chibs #filip telford #filip telford fanfiction #filip telford drabble #filip telford x reader #filip telford imagine

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c-is-for-circinate · 2 months

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MCU Rewatch #3: THOR (2011)

General Impressions: I'm allowed to like this one for reasons unrelated to objective quality! I'm also allowed to dislike it for same!

Thor does a good job at a bunch of things. It manages to really succinctly outline what Asgard's deal is, who the major players are, and how this complete fantasy world works, while remaining in the context of a two-hour movie that mostly doesn't even take place there. It's very funny in places! It's not at all a deep movie, but it's entertaining and fantastical and that's fun. This is -- and was! -- the perfect movie to watch in a cold movie theater during a hot summer, munching popcorn and explosions, and that's a perfectly valid thing to be.

Anyway, for me the best parts and the worst parts of this movie were the same, ie Loki. We'll get there -- he was by far the most complex part of this really quite simple film, and that has its plusses and minuses!

All in all, there's nothing wrong with a simple film, and for the most part that's what I'll say about Thor: it was a simple film with good fight scenes, and nothing much was wrong with it.

OH. Except the sound balancing/editing. That was absolutely criminal and whoever was in charge of sound design for this movie should be shot, not just for their crimes here but for the many years of emulation to come.

The Hero: Like the movie, simple but endearing, with a genuine heart.

Thor is definitely not as compelling as Tony Stark, but he's likeable, and his emotional arc is definitely both present and the most genuine part of this movie. In a lot of ways, what we see here is that Thor is a big kid. He makes decisions without thinking about consequences. He does not bother to try and read a room. He's arrogant in a way that reflects his position, but he's also arrogant in a way that suggests he hasn't considered his position -- having his powers, hammer, and home taken away from him is a shock because he's never thought about the fact that he had them in the first place. Getting sent to Earth is more or less a boy being grounded by his father to try and teach him responsibility. Thor is almost a coming-of-age movie, except that it never quite feels like Thor actually gets there -- he's better, by the end, but not quite a man standing on his own two feet just yet. Breaking the Bifrost is a sacrifice on his part, not a decision carrying the weight of the responsibilities Thor will have as an adult and future king.

That said, I really enjoyed the sincerity of his confusion and grief over being told Odin was dead. He's a hurt little kid, asking his brother if please, can I go home. The scene with Selvig in the bar is one of the best in the movie, with Thor admitting vulnerability and doubt and regret over how he left things with his father. (And again, telling that all of these are feelings about his dad, with a man old enough to be a dad/granddad, and that's the energy Thor needs to lean on right now -- Selvig, not Jane, gets Thor's emotional breakthrough moments, because Thor is a tall handsome child who hasn't grown past needing a parent.)

Also, I vaguely remember some fan back-and-forth about whether Thor is kind of dumb, or very smart but trolling, or very smart and just ignorant of local customs. Upon rewatch, Thor may or may not be smart, but he doesn't particularly care. He does shit on Earth because he doesn't care enough to pay attention to whether it's appropriate. Nobody else is smashing coffee mugs, and the diner is totally lacking in raucous celebratory energy, but Thor wants to be raucous and celebrate, so he's going to do so whether it's appropriate or not. Doesn't matter that he's been driven around in cars his whole time on Earth, he doesn't spend thirty seconds to think about what might be appropriate travel, he's going to make assumptions. This is more of that self-centered teenager logic, where he doesn't bother to try and think about the existence of points of view outside his own.

The Villain: If I end up having Loki Feels by the end of this marathon I'm going to stab something. I refuse.

Anyway, Loki was the most complex part of this really quite simple film, which has good and bad sides! I can and will be objective about how well/poorly that complexity was rendered, but sitting here thirteen years after this movie came out, I can admit it: I really fucking hate the Evil Adopted Kid trope. It's a shitty trope and I don't like it, for personal reasons, and that is always going to color my experience with Loki in any movie where he shows up

That aside, Loki's actual motivations and plans in this movie were baffling and kind of a mess. The problem is that Loki is a complex character, with a lot of doubts, full of love and jealousy and insecurity and pride, but we very rarely get to see him from the inside. It feels like the movie was really invested in surprising people with the end twist of Loki killing Laufey in front of Odin, revealing that actually he was on Asgard's side all along! and does not hate his family! So therefore, for the movie before that, we had to be witness to everyone else's doubts about him and only seeing his actions from the outside, to keep that a surprise. I can see how it'd be effective on a first watch, when the suspense of 'what is this guy going to do and what side is he on?' can pull a viewer through the movie. On a rewatch, knowing what Loki's ultimate deal is, it just feels confusing and inconsistent. What exactly was your plan for when your dad woke up, Loki? Did you actually intend to leave Thor on Earth forever? Were you or were you not actually hoping to kill your brother? What the fuck was your endgame here?

I think there is probably a very interesting story here where Loki's plans seem muddled because he's muddled, awash with emotions and doubts and the inner conflict between love of his brother, twisting jealousy, the objective truth that Thor would be a terrible king, and the fact that Loki, like Thor, is also still very much a grown-up kid. He's making dumb decisions by the seat of his pants and his motivations are contradictory and messy. That tracks, with what we see, but we don't get to see that because this movie is too invested in its twist and its simplicity. Allowing Loki the time and space to be this complicated would steal the entire show from his simpler, genuine brother, and because the movie itself wanted to be simple and straightforward, there wasn't room to hold the layers of its complicated villain. No wonder the Tumblr girlies went wild for him.

The Ensemble: Weak romantic lead with an A+ comic sidekick, hobbled by needing to run two casts at once.

I think this is where we really see Thor suffer from the problem of having to establish two casts at the same time. The New Mexico side of the equation, Jane and Selvig and Darcy, simply doesn't get time for character development. We know next to nothing about Jane, except that she cares about her research and once dated a doctor. Why this research? How did she get into it? How long has she been in New Mexico? What university does she even work for??? It's true that we don't get a lot of details about, say, Pepper's backstory, but it doesn't matter because we understand from the very beginning how she fits into her life and also Tony's life. Jane is a brief three-day whirlwind in Thor's existence, and that's not enough time for him or us to understand who she is or why we should love her. It feels like the movie went through the motions of having a Lady Love Interest, and it doesn't work out great.

Darcy and Selvig actually fare better, simply because there's less need for them to be more than they are. All we know about Darcy is that she's a polisci major who's working a summer internship way outside of her field, but we don't need to know more -- she's there to be fucking hilarious and indeed she is. Selvig is there to help facilitate Jane's choices and Thor's emotional development, and he does his job well.

The Asgardians have a similar problem. Thor's four friends are basically interchangeable (Sif's only notable distinction being that she's a girl). Thor's mom...shows up? We get the impression that there's more going on with Odin than we've seen, but I wonder if some of that is just me remembering Ragnarok -- either way, given that Odin is literally in a coma for 3/4 of this movie, it doesn't mean much. Heimdall probably has more characterization than anyone else in Asgard other than Loki, and that is...not a lot.

It's a lot of just not very much, across the board.

The Franchise: We're already seeing the formula start to get built and tested in the moviemaking labs.

It's fascinating watching Thor on screen directly after two back-to-back movies of Tony Stark, because Thor has some of Tony's same growth arc with none of his fascinating complexity. On the surface they've got the same vague sketched outline: careless, self-involved privileged prettyboy must learn to think outside himself and care for others to become a hero. Thor takes that plotline in a very different direction, which means the movie doesn't feel same-y, but a more cynical viewer might wish to speculate about what boardroom or producer's office suggested that the writing team follow that.

I think Thor actually does better about wasting time trying to set up the future of the franchise. We don't spend a ton of time on Coulson and Hawkeye here -- if we watched this movie with no idea who they were or that they were here to set up anything at all, they'd function fine as Generic Government People (with an inexplicable thing for archery). I think the place where the setting-up hits worst, actually, might be with Loki: he needs to be complex and sympathetic enough to be interesting as the main villain of Avengers, but we can't resolve anything about him before that. (Not sure how far they'd planned the plot of Avengers at this point in the production run, but I wouldn't be surprised if they'd already called him as their bad guy.)

Thinking about the big thematic MCU premise of a superhero world without secret identities -- the choice of Thor as our next hero in the franchise, somebody who neither has nor needed a secret identity to begin with, is clever there. They're not going back on the freedom from overworked secret identity bullshit that they've promised, but they're also not stuck making a second movie about the lack of them, which would just end up looking like a retread of IM2. The secrets we do find here are all kept by SHIELD, which is clearly trying to keep superhero stuff in, and just as clearly is not managing it. (Loki also has a secret identity, with his discovery of his Jotunn heritage...hmm, much to think about there for the future.)

We pretty much lose all themes around the military-industrial complex here, and the movie is probably the better for it, considering what a hash IM2 made of the subject.

VERDICT: A breezy, light 6/10

Thor is in every respect a perfectly fine movie. It's simple, it's straightforward, it manages to do a bunch of things and establish a brand new fantasy setting without actually putting much depth into any of them.

I suspect that, as I get further on in this franchise, 'perfectly fine and no great flaws' is going to be the verdict on a lot of these movies, and I'm going to start dropping my number rating lower and lower every time something shows up that's simply fine. For now, with the context of only IM1 and 2, 'does light summer adventure flick competently with some sincerity and doesn't fuck it up' feels like an improvement over IM2's messiness, so that's where I'm rating it.

Except for the sound design. Anyone who thinks their battle sequences need sound effects roughly 800% of a standard dialogue scene should be forced to watch their own movies with the sound on a pair of unremovable headphones set to a flat however-loud-it-needs-to-be-to-hear-people-talking. Perhaps, after the deafness ensues, they will change fucking careers.

#C watches MCU 2024 #Thor #MCU #every version of this character and title are just different variants on saying Thor #well and also I guess #Loki #oh Loki #not looking forward to the Avengers rewatch segment about you

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judgementdaysunshine · 2 years

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Hi, micheleamidalajedi. I hope you're having a lovely day/night. Can you do headcanons on, How would Bruce, Dick, Jason, and Damien react to fem S/O being a witch, who goes by the hero name Athena. One night they are going on a date/at a party/walking home Together and the Joker's henchman or any other villain suddenly attacks them and tries to kill them. Suddenly their fem S/O jumps in front of them and uses their magic to protect them and scare off joker's henchmen/the villain. If this is too much for you ignore this. I hope you know that I really do enjoy your writing and it's a lot of fun to read.

Absolutely my lovely thank you ♥️

Bruce

He knew you had powers and they were magic related like Dr Fate and Zatanna but he had never seen you use them before even in training that you and the whole family would have from time to time

He also knew that the hero alias you went by was Athena both from your love of Greek mythology and as well as it being an unusual hero name as well which made you choose it

The two of you went to a party hosted by his good friend Oliver Queen and also had dinner after considering that the two of you hadn't been on a date in a while due to the jobs of being heroes and helping raise the kids he still had in his care

On the way back the two of you decided to take a shortcut to the batcave to get ready and go out on a small patrol before actually going back to the manor and going to bed for the night

While taking the shortcut behind an abandoned factory the two of you heard noises and soon you were cornered by people mostly likely working for Bane or someone else who was after Batman and decided to just have you was sometime of sick bonus

They hit bruce while holding you against the wall and were fixing to do it again if it wasn't for you kicking the guy holding you in the knee and used your magic to create a shield in front of bruce right before he got hit bruce in the face with the butt of a gun

The next thing you knew was that you had fought them off and the two of you ran until you were by a small gas station walking until you had finally reached the manner deciding to skip out on patrol for the night

The two of you showered and got ready for bed but soon after you had dried off and gotten dressed he finally asked you about your powers "How come you don't use them?" you turn and look at him looking at the wall then sighing "I don't really have good control over them and I'm terrified of hurting innocent people.."

After awhile you slowly learned how to suppress and control your powers so that you wouldn't hurt someone on accident or lose control where you would hurt yourself as well along with some help from his friend and Zatanna's father Giovanni Zatara

Dick

The two of you were going back to your apartment after a night out at the movies and dancing with some of your friends at a local club

The two of you noticed how much closer you were to your place than his so you decided to spend the rest of the night in at your home until you both went to bed for the night

You heard a loud crack turning around to see a man and woman who clearly weren't normal just by their looks alone and the obvious fact that the man was carrying a gun and knife and the woman was carrying a big hammer that she carried over her shoulder

Soon they attacked and had the two of you tied up planning to do what with both of you neither of you knew but they were having the time of their lives by you being afraid and laughing like it was the funniest thing they had ever seen

You noticed dick moving around and soon you hear him take a quick breath looking to see that he had managed to free himself from the rope tied around him and the tape that was on his mouth helping you until you noticed the woman behind him watching and holding her hammer making you pull your partially loose arm out and form a shield around the two of you as she swung the hammer down for his back

After getting free you manage to restrain her with your powers long enough for dick to wrap and tie both ropes around her giving just enough time to escape before the man came in the room or found out while you were still in the room

The two of you ran until the batmobile pulled beside the two of you getting in and letting dick explain what happened while you and his brother tim just casually talked

You knew of dick and his family being vigilante heroes and they knew of your powers and that you didn't use them a lot but you had used them in front of a couple of them just for them to see the extent of what type of powers you had

After being in the cave for awhile you went to your apartment slowly talking about what happened and after talking about your powers

After slowly learning from many different heroes how to control your powers you soon became a founding member of the teen titans and became both a mentor and a mom to Raven who soon became your daughter by heart,love,and legally adopted her along with dick

Damian

The two of you had spent the day at your house and decided to go out and not only have dinner with a couple of his friends but you all went to an arcade and the mall just hanging out until you both got tired taking a short path back to his house for the night

You had noticed a bunch of different people staring at the two of you but didn't think much of it for the first while until you started seeing the same people again and soon you started getting real nervous hoping to just get to the manor and cuddle with damian

But soon you were held on the ground and damian by his neck against a wall laughing at the frightened look on your face while damian helplessly watched

You closed your eyes tightly and started crying and hitting someone in front of you after you felt a hand grab your face but soon you opened your eyes seeing damian but before you could reach up and hug him you saw one of the men behind him

You raised your hand and made a full circled shield as he held a pipe halfway in the air ready to swing down on him

After he takes down the last guy he picks you up and carries you the rest of the way to Wayne Manor letting you cry and as soon as he walks in and closes the door he quietly sobs in your neck

Not too long after the two of you are on the couch telling his brothers Tim and Dick what happened and soon they tell Jason and Bruce along with everyone else who immediately double up on patrol especially when the two of you are out on Gotham

#dick grayson #bruce wayne x reader #batfamily x reader #damian wayne #bruce wayne #dick grayson x reader #batfamily #damian wayne x reader

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frankencanon · 1 year

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One Piece AU: Not only is Buggy's nose fake but it's actually his really pathetic attempt at a disguise.

Buggy has been a part of the Revolutionary Army since he was very small — much like Sabo and Koala — and the first time he had to come up with his own disguise, well...

Let's just say Kid Buggy thought the clown nose was a brilliant idea.

Except, whoopsie! This job unexpectedly ended up being a pretty long term thing when he got picked up (kidnapped) by Gol D. Roger himself.

There wasn't much a kid like Buggy could do against a determined Roger, and he was on the ship and out to sea before he could blink.

And so began Buggy's unintentional journey disguised as a clown-nosed pirate on-board the ship of the Future Pirate King!

—

Unexpectedly, Buggy ends up getting pretty attached to the Roger Pirates, especially Roger himself and fellow apprentice Shanks.

He gets so attached in fact, that in the wake of Roger's execution he elects to not return to Baltigo.

Instead, he humbly requests that Dragon allow him to continue playing his role as Buggy the Clown.

Dragon accepts, but requests that if he's going to camp out in one of the Blues, to do so in the East not too far off Dawn Island.

Buggy accepts, unexpectedly and unknowingly causing Dragon's son to become a pirate (the only reason Shanks was in the East Blue so often was because he was visiting Buggy).

—

But back to the subject of Buggy's "nose"!

There's a reason why he chose something so obvious and distracting...

You might've heard this before, but it's said that if you don't want witnesses to remember what you look like, wear something eye-catching.

It sounds counterintuitive, but if you rob a bank whilst wearing a wedding dress... All that the witness are going to remember when being interviewed is "the robber was wearing a wedding dress".

They're not going to remember what you specifically look like, they're just going to remember the most glaring aspect of your appearance.

Thus, Kid Buggy found the clown nose to be a perfect disguise — who would recognize him without it?

And to really hammer it in, Buggy ended up unintentionally developing a bit of a complex over it.

The first time someone pointed out his clown nose, correctly assuming it to be fake, Buggy panicked and got really defensive about it.

Truthfully, Buggy freaked out because he was worried about being discovered — but from the other pirate's point of view? It just seemed like Buggy had a huge complex over his nose.

And so, Buggy's stupid clown disguise ended up being a really good one...?

Because just taking off the clown nose and make-up makes Buggy literally unrecognizable — he would know, he's tried it!

People who know of Buggy the Clown — people who have seen his face — would recognize him from the back, but when he'd turn around and there'd be no clown nose or make-up they would startle and apologize, saying:

"Sorry, I mistook you for someone else!"

Somehow, unexpectedly, Buggy has wound up with the most iron-clad alibi in the entire Revolutionary Army.

There's not a single person in the world who would guess that Buggy was a part of the RA.

—

BONUS:

With Buggy near constantly stationed by Dawn, Dragon would have no real reason to check-in himself — so what happens to Sabo?

Buggy happens. Buggy finds the kid instead and decides to take him in, training him to be both a Pirate and a Revolutionary with the intention of letting the kid decide for himself which path to follow when he grows up.

And so Sabo ends up with a similar role to Buggy himself, and all his other "crewmembers" — Revolutionaries undercover as Pirates.

(...you can imagine Luffy's shock when he first meets Buggy and his scarred blonde sidekick First Mate over in Orange Town...)

("S-Sabo...?!")

(Or would he not recognize him? What if Sabo mimicked Buggy's disguise? Maybe not the nose, but mixing some clown make-up with his noble shtick... What if Luffy invited him onto his crew having no idea that he was Sabo? Maybe Sabo remembers his name, maybe he doesn't, but either way he might've given Luffy an alias — as he was technically a revolutionary afterall.)

Edit: ...what if his hair was dyed, too? Like, I absolutely adore Buggy's pretty blue hair, but for the sake of the AU... What if that was part of the disguise? Blue hair is definitely far more eye-catching than blonde.

And I'm mentioning blonde specifically because of that one look Buggy had in Stampede:

#buggy the clown #one piece #buggy the star clown #buggy the genius jester #boke no buggy #one piece au #one piece fanfic #fan fic #fan fiction #fanfiction #fanfic #revolutionary army

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epickiya722 · 9 months

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As dark as a story JJK can get, I love there are moments that are funny, some being moments that when you actually think about it, it's funny. Sometimes it would be something so outrageous that you have to laugh.

The MC was already a powerhouse before the plot really kicks off. He is known to be such a powerhouse that some people believed he's the reincarnation of Mirko Cro Cop... WHO IS STILL ALIVE. That is a real person, folks!

The funniest thing Yuji be doing in fights for me is chucking things at people and curses. He has thrown cars, signs, etc.

Sukuna's introduction. This guy is known as the King of Curses and yet, Yuji is the first person of the story to actually humiliate him. He sasses him. "It's my body!" A 15-year-old sasses the King of Curses and even after he learns who he is really, Yuji is not intimidated by him in the slightest. At best, Sukuna annoys him.

Sukuna's outfit of choice in his soul room is a kimono with a bow tied in the back. He's a fashion icon, for real.

Nanami is the one who envisions the Gojo "I'll murder you" scene. He's responsible for that.

Jujutsu Kaisen has became known for jumping. A rather smart decision to do when facing a strong opponent. Like, jump that fool!

Speaking of jumping, Mahito has became a meme. Him getting jumped is pretty much why he set out to kill Yuji and Nanami, when you think about it.

Megumi had to take tame his shikigami to control them, except for the Divine Dogs. That means he had to tame frogs, a horde of rabbits and a damn elephant.

Nobara's weapon of choice? Hammer and nails. She's building houses out of curses with some voodoo thrown in there.

Shoko got her doctor's license by cheating. But she's still good at her job.

Gojo's forehead flicks are strong enough to send someone to Shoko.

Sukuna, during the Fearsome Womb Arc, actually waited for Yuji to switch back with him instead of immediately causing some havoc. The King of Curses, evil incarnate, waited.

One of the upperclassmen is a damn panda that's not really a panda.

Because Inumaki speaks in rice-ball ingredients, conversations with him will be funny.

Geto has an arsenal of squid curses. Where did they come from?!

Geto became a cult leader at 17. The biggest question I have is where the hell did a teenager get monk robes from?!

He was also called mommy by a worm curse. Was that foreshadowing? I don't know!

To think, later, his body is put in a nurse outfit. With lipstick and nails done, too.

Toji really had beef with kids. (Teen Gojo and Geto.) Dude even forgot his own kid's name. And it's probably the most ironic name of the series. MEGUMI'S NAME MEANS "BLESSING".

Yaga looks tough and he is, but this man has a weakness for cute things. Bro makes cute, creepy cursed dolls... I think we should hype Yaga up more.

Toji actually got in a fight with Red Lobster and Miruko's (BNHA) cousins.

Jogo got to live every fan's dream of being close to Gojo and Sukuna. He also got in Choso's face and touched Nanami.

Tengen's gender is "granny" apparently. They're so real for that.

Sukuna's right hand is Uraume and the reason being because they can cook.

Yuji is a fan of Jennifer Lawrence and will introduce himself as such.

Todo really beat Megumi's ass because his type are kind people. And when he was getting his ass beat, Megumi was gonna summon Mahoraga.

When Megumi finally does summon Mahoraga... it's against Haruta, of all fucking people.

Haruta tells Megumi "Fuck you" for that.

Nanako's technique is literally taking pictures. With her cell phone. I know for a fact she runs out of storage fast.

MAPPA be devious with the openings. "Oh, that character died? They're staying in the opening." "Oh, a city was destroyed? Here's a reminder during this fire ass song."

Choso and Todo's "false memories" of Yuji. That is all.

Choso's choice of hairstyle? High spiky ponytails. And it's iconic!

If you pay attention to the Sukuna vs. Mahoraga fight, you can see that Sukuna chucks a piece of the airplane at Mahoraga.

Before the fight really gets crazy, Sukuna comes out of a building with popcorn and soda. Mind you, the district was probably closed and evacuated.

Why did Megumi react like that towards Ozawa? "Oh, it's like that?!"

In dub, Nobara calls Mahito a "bitch".

Panda wants to punch a zebra one day.

Kenjaku is a dad and a mom.

Can't believe Gojo and Geto broke up in front of the KFC.

There's a guy who wears a costume that has him half nude. And he's funny.

Look, there's a lot of things.

#just kiya's thoughts #jjk #jujutsu kaisen #jjk manga spoilers #jjk spoilers

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inkpot909 · 1 year

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Can I get a Spike x raeder

The reader was kind with Spike and all but he didn't need a kid adult like in his team so he was always treating them like..idk "whatever" "ok." "Just leave me alone" and so on

But one day the reader gets in the way of a criminal taking the bullet for Spike and they say "thanks goodness you're ok" while bleeding out and Spike regrets it,he doesn't want them to go away,so he apologizes,saying that he needed them taht he would stop teasing them or treating them bad

They get together in the end :)

U can add as much angst as u want

A/n: Thank you thank you so much for the fun request! I feel awful for not being able to finish it for a while; getting caught up in personal matters. I appreciate the support and truly hope it was worth the wait. Have a lovely day; as well as all others reading. <3

Warning(s): Swearing; brief mentions of blood/canon-typical violence; light angst.

This isn’t how tonight was supposed to go.

It’s a dreadful thought lingering in the back of Spike Spiegel’s mind. Instead of pulling him away from them, fully in the present where he should be, a ricocheting gunshot nearly grazing across his shoulder only hammers the point home.

It seems that’s the route most bounties have gone down as of late. Realistically, he knows he shouldn’t even pretend to be surprised anymore. And usually, high-stakes entice him. But tonight was supposed to- no, it had to be different for safety’s sake. That much so was made very apparent.

What was originally meant to be a sneaky, difficult yet rewarding job, has mutated into a public gunfight taking place within a famously high-class bar. Having tracked the bounty to this location, things quickly went array upon the realization that most of the security in the building is in the palm of their hand. The bounty himself has presumably slipped away in the commotion, letting others take care of the dirty work for him.

The messiness of the situation has forced Spike and you both into a corner, desperately having to duck for cover. If it weren’t so tense- bullets flying in the air seemingly at every turn -Spike would almost laugh. It’s delightful (if not, a tad bit macabre) to see the place be wrecked to hell in a contextless vaccum. A handful of bodies are scattered across marble flooring along with broken tables and seats. By now, most innocent bystanders are either in hiding or found a way to flee the scene. Blood pouring onto the floor from bodies or light droplets from those still standing contrast heavily with a monochrome color scheme. It’s the kind of joint Spiegel usually wouldn’t ever think to step foot in; mingling with rich types isn’t exactly his cup of tea. On the flip side, maybe the owner at least has hope of being able to repair the mess themselves (a vain hope; as both him and you will most likely have to pay for property damage regardless of the owners funds).

Finding an opening to do so, Spike whirls his body around while swiftly reloading his revolver. Sticking his head up from behind the bar, he barely has enough time to understand the positions of those firing.

Just a few yards away from him on his left, you keep yourself hidden behind a table turned onto its side. Spike ducks below the bar once more, cursing underneath his breath. Blood is trickling down your right leg, clear signs of an injury. From what, exactly, eludes him for the time being.

The dark look on your face is unwavering, however. In fact, you’ve maintained a serious exterior for almost the entire night. It’s enough to put a hindrance on Spike’s breathing, albeit briefly. Such an intense presence doesn’t suit you at all.

You momentarily pull your attention from the action across the room, sensing someone’s eyes on you. Sure enough, you meet Spike’s gaze immediately. Nodding to one another, a beat comes and goes before the two of you move in tandem. Raising your guns, you both rise up quick enough to fire a shot or two.

This isn’t how tonight was supposed to go.

Crouching down, Spike stares at his feet. Despite holding his head low, his eyes give the impression that he’s looking at something far away. His lips press together in a thin line, letting out a long sigh. Jet’s going to have our heads for this, he expects.

Despite your cool front, you’d been as reckless and clumsy as ever (Spike’s words not yours). He had half a mind to blame you for the shootout, but even he has to admit he knows better than that. Although you fired the first shot, he might as well have done so himself via his own thick headedness. Just as Spike predicted would happen earlier the same day, you ended up hurt. However, he’d done just about everything his older companion told him not to, and here you are suffering the consequences along with him.

...

“Isn’t the whole point of this bounty to be discreet?” Spike muses, arms crossed. His expression is soured, and shoulders stiffened in defense. Sprawled out against the Bebop’s couch, he’s sat himself opposite of Jet. Well aware of how uncomfortably upright the yellow furniture is, his vegged out form is working to drive home a point more than anything else.

“That’s what I said, isn’t it?” Jet replies, voice gruff and short.

The younger man scoffs, raising his arms and gesturing to his right wildly. “Then why the hell-...” Spike pauses, rubbing his temple, “Then why… do you think I need to bring along Y/n? Surely it’d be better if I-”

“Because they work swiftly and are the most likely to keep you from inflicting your usual brand of collateral damage. I’d say they’ll do well to keep you from messing this up well enough.” Jet cuts him off casually.

“What? So they’re my babysitter? You know how they are- they’ll just get in the way.”

Jet bites back, “Spike, I swear this’ll go smoothly if you just accept their help. Don’t you dare think of going off on your own. The bounty’s got connections and has reportedly been on high alert since the price on his head increased. We don’t have all the details, but there’s enough to know it could get ugly. You’ll be kicking the bucket if you don’t get your head screwed on straight.”

“We both know the chance of that happening,” Spike huffs.

“Yeah, right… less likely than you admitting to yourself the real reason you get so high-strung about Y/n.”

The fluffy-haired man raises an eyebrow.

“It’s because you like them, but saying so must not be in vogue nowadays, so you tell yourself it’s just because they’re childish- or whatever made up reason it is this week.”

“They are childish.”

“And you aren’t?” Jet questions, “I’d think refusing to follow a well-informed decision just to avoid who you’re going to be working with is pretty immature.”

Silence follows, the moment thick with thought.

Making a face, Spike abruptly kicks his leg forward and smacks his foot against the side of Jet’s cute coffee table. He doesn’t even open his eyes at the booming, metallic sound. “As if a bright green racer with a goddamn flower plastered on the side of it won’t make us stick out everywhere we go!” Spike exclaims, clearly still hung up on Jet’s previous statement or sending him an implicit warning to shut his mouth.

“I’m sorry, but how many repairs have you needed on that obnoxiously red racer of yours in the past month!?” Jet snapped, finally looking his crewmate in the eye. “Y/n and you are the best choice for this sort of job. You’re going with them; end of story. The sooner you get the bounty the sooner you can come home sulking about it.”

Not twenty minutes later, Spike found himself begrudgingly walking next to you heading towards the Bebop’s garage. You maintain a youthful spring to your step, while he practically drags his feet on the floor following you.

“Hurry up, slow poke!” you jest, stopping in front of the garage door. Turning towards him, you tap your foot repeatedly as if you’re being forced to wait for him.

“Maybe you should start practicing blending into the shadows for when we land,” he suggests, moving past you, “You know… being unnoticeable.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” you giggle, “You’d miss out on what you like the most about me!”

Sneering, he responds non-committedly, “Yeah… sure.”

“Oh, don’t deny it, Spiegel.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.”

You huff, a playful edge to your tone, “C’mon… at least admit I’m more fun than Faye; that can’t possibly be difficult to voice out loud.”

“I’m not admitting shit,” he suddenly snaps, “I just want to get this done; I could really use that reward- so let’s go.”

Frowning, your gaze hesitates on his person as he turns on his heel and shuffles away. He moves with hasty steps towards his precious racer for extra measure.

Your shoulders fall, but his back is turned to you. And even if it wasn't, you are certain by now that it wouldn’t make a difference. The wall he’s built between the two of you is sturdy and unmoving, but hell if you haven’t tried your hand time and time again at tearing it down.

But unknown to you, his thoughts haven’t moved his attention away.

Select bounty missions notwithstanding, nothing ever seemed to truly wipe the smile from your face. Even then, most times you can keep a playful edge to your actions and attitude. Spike Spiegel hates that. It’s hypocritical, considering his own behavior at times, but logic is (apparently) irrelevant. Nothing ever seems to get to you either, and that’s the most frustrating. Nothing he ever says or does gets to you. From the tiniest comment to the very reasons behind Jet's latest stream of lectures- he hardly has witnessed you bat an eyelid at it all.

It’s not that he necessarily dislikes you as a whole, but something angry inside him bubbles over around you. Still fresh in the bounty hunter world, your attitude just appears… too naïve. The feeling you fill him with is foreign, and why someone ‘so simple’ can get his mind racing is beyond him. Within the dim lighting the Bebop offers, barely reaching the inside of his racer, Spike has long been so sure you’d never find common footing he doesn’t even consider it an assumption anymore.

...

Amidst his thoughts, the two of you manage to shave the number of shooters down by a considerable amount.

Still eager to be done with the case (even if it means coming back empty handed at this rate), Spike takes the opportunity to fully rush away from behind the bar completely. Taking a dive, he shoots another individual just before tumbling to the floor. As he rolls himself over to find complete cover once more, he loudly lets out a curse after a loud gunshot fires in the air.

“Spike!?” you squeak, whipping around to see the man on the floor cradling his foot. Both his hands are clasped around his shoe, knuckles turning ghost white from applied pressure. Your eyes widen, dropping your adopted expression. “Are you alright!?” you shout.

“Less worry; more shooting!” he barks, wincing at a shot of pain trailing violently up his leg.

Not needing to be told twice, you focus your efforts back on the task at hand. He hears three distinct gunshots from your side of the room. Two thuds come from the far end his back is facing, a sound he recognizes as clothed bodies hitting the floor. To Spike’s relief, deafening sounds of guns firing comes to a complete halt.

You drop to the floor as well, buttocks making harsh contact with marble. Turning just your head this time, you meet Spike’s gaze once more. Not a second passes before the two of you share an exhausted laugh. Your tone is light and thankful, his is booming and pushing through fierceness beginning to fade.

“As best as we can… we’re keeping this from getting back to Jet or Faye,” Spike mumbles, leaning his head back after calming himself down.

Smiling warmly, you tuck a loose strand of hair behind your ear and move your attention. Your eyes scan the back of the bar, squinting slightly. The walls are littered with bullet holes, and you’ve no doubt the amount of which are near impossible for one person to count alone. A shady figure lingers in a bathrooms door frame, and at least two tables in the back are snapped in half-

Wait…

Realistically, the figure in the distance moves fast. To you, the gut reaction is so quick hindsight allows you to fool yourself into believing you had even a moment to think about your actions. To understand what exactly it was you’re doing. To process all that transpires within the next couple of seconds.

But that isn’t really the case. You merely registered the shadowed individual’s frame, and the reflective light bouncing off the pistol in their hand. It was all you needed to act, diving to the side so quickly that ‘desperate’ wouldn’t be enough to describe the action.

A shout erupts from behind you, frantic and unfathomably angry. More sounds of gunshots fill the air; curse words and other profanities fill any available space. You can distinctly make out Spike’s voice, and one more that’s unknown to you. It’s very deep and masculine, though, from what you can understand.

You attempt to roll your body over, but a sharp pain just below your collarbone and near your shoulder keeps you from doing so. Vision blurs at random, and you can scarcely make out your companion (roommate?) standing in front of you. When exactly did he get there?

Your eyes flutter open and shut.

You feel someone kneeing you in the side, and your eyes snap open to observe Spike bending down beside you. Slowly but surely, your vision stabilizes. When did he…? Is the mysterious shooter still around? You attempt to move again, but this time the pain you feel is so prominent you cry out and screw your eyelids shut.

“Oi oi oi…” you hear Spike’s voice call. “Don’t strain yourself, dummy,” he tells you, having absolutely no bite behind his words. At least, none you could make out. Still, you're inclined to wonder if it’s still just your own shock over getting shot making you misunderstand.

“Bounty got away…” he huffed, gently sitting you up against a fallen table. Giving you an apologetic look, he rips the side of your top open. You put up no fight, watching him wrap your bullet wound with whatever makeshift materials he’s found lying around.

“Was that who was standing in the back?” you ask, voice kept low.

“Yeah,” he replies, “ I thought the coward hightailed it and ran… but I guess he wanted the last laugh. Erm- tried to at least. He ended up running anyway.”

“Him and this ‘team’ if his will probably persue us, then,” you sigh, “Now we have to hunt him down before he gets us…” Pausing, you take a minute to mull over your words. “I’m really sorry. This is all my-“

“Don’t,” he cuts you off calmly, gesturing to your injuries. “Not when you’re like this.”

Smiling despite yourself, he stops his movements at the display. Ignoring the shock on his face, you ask, “What? You worried about me?”

Spike hesitates, physically moving his chest away from you. “Don’t be absurd,” he scoffs, speaking unconvincingly. He continues, wrapping around the wound once more before stopping himself yet again. His frown deepens, adding, “And stop smiling like that.”

“Why?”

“Because you were just shot!” he snaps, “And nearly slipped out of consciousness!”

“Ah…” heat rushes to your face, “So you were worried…”

“I-… yes, fine, okay?” his head falls, giving in.

You snort, “That sounded painful.”

“Tonight’s been stressful; you haven't been acting like yourself all night. Even on a job… it’s not like you to get so serious. What was with you?”

You shrug sheepishly, avoiding his gaze. “Thought you’d like it better that way.”

“It freaked me out, why would-“

Spike halted his words. He knew exactly why, but the night has been a long string of his own mistakes so it’s been tough keeping up. And here’s the biggest one yet, coming straight towards him holding a steel chair: How he treats you. More specifically, how he spoke to you earlier. How indifferent, borderline annoyed, he always acts. It’s true, he’s long been trying to figure out how to press your buttons. But all at once it’s clear that it does get to you. Now that it’s showing, even just a small bit, his wall between you two starts to crumble.

“Couldn’t let anything happen to you either…” you mumble when he doesn’t continue, “Jet was telling me how easily the job could be slipped up. I was a bit intimidated… and when you spoke to me earlier I guess I just accepted that it would be a little out of my league. This was my first real ‘big gig’ after all… and I couldn’t accept the idea of disappointing you.”

Nodding, he finished up the last of tending to the wound for the time being. Regardless, his hand lingers on your shoulder supportively. “I’m… sorry I’ve been hard on you. This lifestyle’s really roughened me out; guess I should be glad it hasn’t gotten to you yet,” he mutters, adding a quick, “You did good.”

The moment it slips from his mouth, he is taken aback. He means that too, but that’s the part that surprises him. Then again, you’d surprised him yourself.

A grin flashes across your face. Sweet and genuine, without a sting of pain. Spike’s heart feels heavy with just a simple glance. It’s like the first time he ever saw you, back when he was keen to notice a glowing aura you possessed. He’d describe it as a pure beauty, if he could have swallowed his pride. However, it’s the added context of knowing who you really are that keeps his attention on you this time around.

“You think I have hope of becoming a ‘real’ bounty hunter like you someday?” you ask, referencing a conversation you’ve shared once before.

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, sweetheart,” he replies, a tiny smile appearing on his face.

Sharing a breathily laugh, the two of you soon sit and stare at one another in silence. Outside, people are shouting and police sirens are flaring. Yet his diligent ogling isn’t hindered in the slightest.

“What about respect…?” you test the waters, voice quiet and careful, “You think I’ve at least earned that?”

Smirking, Spike’s head slowly moves from your shoulder to the back of your head. His own leaning down crookedly in correlation, speaking now in a low whisper, “Don’t be modest… you’ve earned more than that.”

In one swift motion, his lips press against yours in a surprisingly soft kiss. Even as people began to pile into the building, police enforcements leading the way, the two of you stayed glued to one another. A news crew even caught a glimpse of the display of affection, only adding to outside confusion.

Breaking away from the kiss, you giggle against his lips, “We’re on TV.”

“Give ‘em a show, then, yeah?” he smirks, leaning closer and planting another kiss on your lips.

At home, within the Bebop’s common area, Jet plops down in his favorite seat with Ein at his side. The man nearly falls out of his chair upon turning on his television.

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axe8472 · 1 year

Text

I have thoughts in my brain about six of crows and they may or may not make sense. So. The thing is when people talk about how the crows couldn't possibly be 16-18 because they're overly mature and competent and have life experience etc etc. i get that BUT is that not the whole point? I mean the books really hammer it home that notions of childhood in their world are entirely different from ours, like to the point where i would even say it's a main theme and kinda the driving force behind all the events in the duology.

Kids are taken away from their parent at like 11 to train as soldiers. Kaz was all alone in Ketterdam at 9 years old and there doesn't seem to have been any functioning system of care for kids like him, nor mandatory schooling. In Fjerda, it seems like the closest thing to foster care is being taken on by the Druskelle. Inej started training as an acrobat pretty much as soon as she could walk and was playing starring roles in performances by the time she was 14 (and probably a fair bit younger). I don't remember Jesper's backstory perfectly but I think he was put to work in the jurda fields (a hazardous agricultural job) as a small child, then worked with guns in some way, then got sent to school in a different country when he was like 15. This isn't exclusive to the crows - it's mentioned a lot that there are many kids in situations similar to Kaz and Inej in the Barrel. Even Joost, despite seemingly being quite sheltered, is working full time night shifts as a guard when he's not even old enough to grow facial hair.

It seems that there's just much more of a vocational focus for kids/teenagers in the grishaverse. This makes a lot of sense because many elements of culture across the grishaverse countries come from the ~1800s when the attitude towards kids was that they weren't all that different from small, inexperienced adults, especially in working-class and rural settings where you just had to get on with things. Kerch especially took inspiration from victorian England, where kids as young as 9 could legally work up to 60 hours a week in dangerous conditions. So yeah that's kind of the whole point imo. It's especially interesting because I read the soc duology as a (potentially semi-unintentional?) criticism of capitalism. This is highlighted by the fact that Wylan, the only one of the crows from a rich background, is also the only one who had a childhood and got an education even vaguely comparable to what we would consider normal. So clearly the whole childhood innocence vs being put to work at like 4 thing is closely tied to class. (obviously Wylan did not have A Good Childhood but it seems from the books that the standard for merchers' kids is to give them a really good and varied education with 1-to-1 tutoring etc, which is very different from what all the other characters seem to have had as kids.)

And okay yeah they're unrealistically skillful and competent and just generally smart, but that would be the case even if they were adults. Like you kinda have to just take liberties with your characters of they'll never manage to do anything, especially in a world that's so hostile toward them. And it's actually kinda hard to even say how unrealistic their capabilities are because their experiences are so different from the experiences of real-life modern teenagers. Like kids are crazy adaptable and good at learning things, especially when they've had no other choice, and the crows actually mostly have quite a lot of experience and had time to develop their respective skills because they haven't spent 8+ hours a day in school for most of their lives. The same goes for the degree of adult-ness in their general behaviour - they're really quick thinkers and less likely to panic in a crisis than any teenager I've ever met. Again I'd say that's the whole point. The charaters are acting older than they have any right to because the experiences they've had have forced them to develop the capacity to do so.

Idk maybe i just read it differently to some people but yeah i think that cross-cultrually throughout the grishaverse children just have very very different experiences to kids in real life. It makes sense that they would then grow up to be very different from real-life teenagers, and obviously the crows are an extreme example of that but there is like. clear historical inspiration behind a lot of the crows' backstories and the general cultural backdrop of the duology. And the whole thing with the books is yeah they're doing all of this stuff and they're capable of these amazing things but actually they are literally children and they are doing all of it mostly for the sake of survival and taking back the things that they deserve from the world. And everything they've done for years and the people that they've become has all been for the sake of survival. And they're kids.

#my posts #soc #six of crows #i hope this makes sense i did not proofread it and i took like a total of one english class in school rip #there's also something to be said here for survivor bias like the book is written about this group of kids who've survived in a very #hostile world #partially because of certain capacities or gifts they already had and partially because they are unusually smart and adaptable #if they weren't then they wouldn't have lived to that age anyway yk?#okay ill stop now #also i know this piece of writing is not up to academic quality its because im using it to procrastinate on my academic work #dont go to school kids its not worth it #the fact that i wrote these 800+ words in less than an hour and im still gonna have to write twice as fast in my 4.5 hour exam next week #okay ill stop now im done

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toomanyplotbunnies-sendhelp · 7 months

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Hello and welcome to Day 19 of "Let's Explore My Plot Bunnies"

Another day, another zany MHA Crossover/AU that I wanna cross off my list of plot bunnies that I wanna explore. This time, I wanna make a Pokemon AU (it's kinda a fusion more cause Pokemon Regions exists still), where people either choose to go and become a Pro-Hero or become a Pokemon Trainer.

This unfortunately doesn't have a title yet, so ideas are always welcome. (I will update this when I find a title for it - temporary one or not)

The premise is more or less like this:

Midoriya Izuku is 4 years old when he is declared Quirkless. This puts a stop to his dream to become a hero, but doesn't stop him from being a Pokemon Trainer.

When Izuku turns 7, his mother gets a new job as a Professor Sycamore's Assistant in Kalos, so they have to move. Inko sees this as a good thing since she knows Izuku is being bullied for being Quirkless. People in this world still put more importance on the Pro-Hero job than on being a Pokemon Trainer, even though Pro-Heroes also use Pokemon as their sidekicks during missions.

And so, at 10 years old, Izuku starts his Pokemon Journey in Kalos together with his new partner, Shinx.... after he falls down the Lumiouse Tower trying to calm Professor Sycamore's Garchomp down only to be caught by a Mega Lucario. (Look, I LOVE that scene in the anime. My brain will not permit me to have a Kalos Pokemon Jouney of any kind without someone falling from Lumiouse Tower *looks at my other Kalos based Pokemon AUs* Yup, all of them include the scene)

Despite the ... surprising start to his jouney, Izuku ends up traveling through Kalos with two other kids: Reina, a more strategic minded trainer, and Akira, a spitfire who is ready to have Words™️ with whomever treats their pokemon badly.

Izuku challenges all the gyms in Kalos and wants to challenge Diantha as well, but Team Flare's plans of "destruction of humanity" interfere. As it is the norm, rather than Pro-Heroes doing their job, it is, in fact, Izuku and his friends that save the day/world. A fact that hammers down to Izuku that Heroes don't really do as much as they could to help people.

This makes Izuku and his friends determined to help people out more in their adventures from then on.

Four years and many other adventures later, Izuku and his friends are contacted by Principal Nezu with a proposition: the 3 of them will become new teachers at UA who need to teach the students how to not only battle and work together with their Pokemon, but also how to use items during battles correctly and how to take care of their pokemon correctly. Izuku is the Battle Teacher, Reina is the Items Use and Strategy Teacher, and Akira is the Pokemon Care Teacher. The three accept.

And so, their next few years will be filled with making training programs for the students, butting heads with All Might who thinks their training regiment is not suitable for the Hero hopefuls, dealing with villains who seem to be flocking towards UA because of All Might, and general chaos because this is UA afterall.

Details to note:

There will be time travel shenanigans involved here because Celebi/Dialga is a thing, and I wanna put Izuku and his friends through the Kalos, Hoenn, Sinnoh and Unova regions - with the Movies included. Meaning Jewel of Life is a thing here. Celebi is also kind of a jerk and pulls Izuku through time. Because of this Izuku meets people that in the present time are long dead and ends up saving maybe one of them *cough* Oboro *cough*.

Inko, during her stay in Kalos as Sycamore's Assistant, marries again (this time with Augustine Sycamore). This makes Izuku and Alain brothers and Alain is ready to throw hands with anyone that bullies Izuku.

Katsuki and Izuku’s friendship never truly healed since Izuku left early which makes Izuku being one of Katsuki's teachers quite problematic at the beginning.

As a teacher, Izuku is ruthless. He kinda emulates Aizawa in his examination of the classes: the students will choose one of Izuku’s Pokemon, and it will be a 1vs20 battle. If they can understand that they need to work together and impress Izuku during the battle, they pass and are allowed to take his class. (His classes are mandatory to pass into the 2nd year, so if Izuku won't bother teaching them, it means they already failed the year)

Since Izuku is not in 1-A, Shinso Hitoshi takes his place in the class.

Izuku's favorite class (out of all the ones in UA) is definitely 1-B since they grasped the meaning of his teachings from day 1 and just improved from there. The only one that Izuku is impressed by in 1-A is Hitoshi.

All Might (supposedly) has a Lucario here. What the public doesn't know is that his Lucario left him since he decided to be an idiot and shoulder everything by himself instead of relying on others. All Might's Lucario is the same Lucario that saved Izuku after he fell from Lumiouse Tower and later he also joined Izuku as part of his team.

All Might is not quite pleased with Izuku and his friends because he sees their efforts to teach about Pokemon Battles unnecessary and also is heavily against Izuku being at UA since he is Quirkless. (He wants Izuku - who is fragile in his eyes - away from danger. Who wants to tell him that Izuku and co. took on like 4 evil teams set on world destruction/domination ever since they were 10? Cause I won't tell him all that fast and neither would Nezu)

Since this includes time travel, yes, Nezu met Izuku when Celebi threw Izuku at the point in time where Oboro should have died and Izuku changed history by saving Oboro. Aizawa, Oboro and Hizashi became friends with Izuku during his stay in the past and Nezu was impressed by Izuku's intellect and ability to battle and decided UA should also teach something similar to their students. This is how Nezu played the long game to get the best Pokemon Battle teacher possible for his students.

All Might wants to give Mirio OFA, but Mirio seeks Izuku's advice about taking it. (Mirio feels like Nighteye will just tell him to take the Quirk and he wants the opinion of someone who doesn't know anything about this so he asks Izuku, without truly explaining the Quirk itself, just that it will make him stronger) Izuku tells him to his face that if Mirio feels like this is a good idea for HIMSELF then he should take it, but also tells him that it might make things difficult since he will have to learn, in a short period of time since he will graduate soon, how to handle the 2nd power and use it reliably in battle. Izuku also tells him that if his mentor (Nighteye) is the one that decided this for Mirio, he should confront him about whether he is doing this for Mirio's sake or for his own (Nighteye's) sake, cause Izuku thinks that Nighteye is too emotionally invested in Mirio getting a new power-up for his Quirk.

Reina and Akira are my OCs - remember their names cause I tend to reuse names for other OCs in other fic ideas. Personality wise, in this one, Reina is the more down to earth, calm, and collected girl who gets frustrated when things don't go according to her plans. She hates being late to anything since it derails her entire plans for the day. She loves stategy games and finds Izuku to be a very good opponent - be it in Pokemon Battles or in general games. Akira, on the other hand, is more hot-headed. He hates people who mistreat their Pokemon - whether they are aware of their faults or not. His parents own a Pokemon Daycare, so he is very knowledgeable about the ways in which you can raise Pokemon correctly and how to make sure their diet is well-balanced. Akira thinks Izuku is too nice of a kid and that he will be taken advantage of due to this nature of his. So he decided to tag along to make sure Izuku isn't going to be in too much trouble. Akira is the one that says, "I told you so," to both Reina and Izuku whenever something bad happens - especially if he told them that they will end up in said situation. He is also the one that bemoans the amount of trouble they get dragged into constantly - Akira is still not over the "Jewel of Life" shit; by the gods, Akira kinda hates Arceus by the end of that entire thing.

And this is about all I can think/remember about this plot bunny.

Honestly, having both Pokemon and Heroes together in one universe would make people think, "Oh, Heroes know how to handle Pokemon and use them in rescue missions." Yeah, sure. They don't. Half the Pro-Heroes can't truly handle Pokemon all that well. Especially because most of them never fought with Pokemon before. So Pokemon are relegated to "sidekicks that are meant to look cool but rarely do shit." This is why Lucario left All Might. He felt like his own trainer won't rely on him to help in battle any longer, and Lucario didn't want to be some wall-flower during a fight. So he left, and All Might is kinda disappointed in himself (as he should be). I want to explore the whole Heroes and Pokemon Trainer relationship in this, since in this world you can only be one and not both - at least not until Izuku and co. show up to mess with people's expectations. And making them teachers is fun since they can actually teach something useful rather that just teaching the kids how to punch someone's face in.

My ramblings aside, I hope you enjoyed this idea of mine. Did you find it interesting or not? Do you want me to go more in detail about it or not? Or would you be interested in what Pokemon everyone has? Let me know!

Hope you will have a great day/night and that you take care of yourselves!

See you tomorrow,

-TooManyPlotBunnies-Send Help

#bnha #pokemon au #kalos region #fanfic ideas #fic ideas #quirkless midoriya izuku #izuku midoriya #ocs #all might #bakugou katsuki #teacher midoriya izuku #principal nedzu #nedzu said “I want me some of that Pokemon Trainer Izuku as a teacher at my school”#and preceeded to wait till present time to have him as a teacher #pokemon trainer Midoriya Izuku #Izuku is ruthless #but Shinso Hitoshi and Class 1-B are his favorites to teach #class 1 b #oboro shirakumo lives #as a human this time #all might is not that good here #at least at the beginning #gran torino needs to kick his ass a bit but he will get better #all hail gran torino - the one who kicks sense into people #aizawa oboro hizashi and izuku are friends because #time travel #blame dialga and celebi for that one #arceus's has a favorite human #spoilers: it's Izuku #we are giving the students at ua both therapy and actual training here

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st-just · 2 years

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Opinions on the novel and novella categories excluding Elder Race?

Okay so, uh, 3 months late finally answering this (sorry - but I DID read Elder Race in the meantime!)

So, novels-

A Desolation Called Peace by Arkady Martine The central metaphor of how an empire can only understand something by consuming/assimilating it into itself was imo well-done, one of the better uses of a hive mind alien I've seen in a while. Mahit and (especially) Three Seagrass continue to be delightful. The whole palace drama plot in the City leaned a biiiiiit too close to 'the Empress is just and good! Sadly scheming ministers and self-interested officials have attempted to mislead her for their own ends' for my tastes, which absolutely made me start rooting for scheming vizer guy out of spite. Still kind of confused what happened to the Judiciary Minister who vanished 2/3 of the way into the first book without comment. Excellent read, would recommend

The Galaxy, and the Ground Within by Becky Chambers Absolutely my favorite thing Chambers has written, but that is a very low bar. There were a few pages of actual interpersonal conflict that wasn't just a silly misunderstanding! (Even if they had apologized and agreed to disagree by the end of the next chapter). In principle I approve of any sci fi with no human characters in major roles. Aeleon demography continues to give me a headache (how do you spend so much time on worldbuilding and just mess up the basic math?) - though honestly Pei's whole conflict over the societal expectation to have a kid would have had a bit more tension/drama to it in a setting where her species was legitimately endangered and at risk of extinction (the sheer angst potential!) Anyway, yeah, well-executed but Not For Me.

Light From Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki I did, uh, not much like this book. In a 'spent a couple hours cathartically ranting about it on discord after finishing it' sort of way. The central romance didn't work, every character arc was perfectly predictable, the whole incessantly hammered home bit about the magic and wonder of home-cooked food just makes me want to gag, I can kind of see what Aoki was going for with the sci fi half of the worldbuilding but it just didn't work at all, and so on. Still not entirely sure what to make of the fact that if you did the 0.5 degree shift necessary to turn the finale into a Christian morality play the quirky alien family plays an identical structural role to where the angels would be. The cursed/demonic-violin repair lady was fun, though.

A Master of Djinn by P. Djèlí Clark This was fun! Nothing hugely ground-breaking and extremely trope-ey, but in a good way? Like the process was clearly 'buddy cop story in into steampunk urban fantasy Cairo' more than anything that evolved naturally out of the characters or setting. But like, eh? The finale involved a giant robot controlled by enslaved ifrit and a mad sorceress trying to restore the British empire attacking the city, nuance and subtlety clearly weren't the goals here. The central mystery was barely a mystery, though. You could pick out the villain by the end of the first act like three or four different ways. Still, yeah, great time. Very pulpy.

Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir If you don't know that this is by the The Martian guy going in, it will be extremely clear by the time you're 50 pages in. It's a writing style with a real personality bleeding through - if you don't like it, the book will I'm sure be torture. But anyway, I'm a sucker for first contact stories and properly weird but still sympathetic and agentic aliens, and that's the beating heart of the story so I mean, of course I enjoyed it. The science also all seemed plausible/not-obvious-bullshit to me, and Weir did a really good job of getting tension and drama without ever making anyone a villain, with all the threats being faced being natural/environmental. Fun read, assuming very high tolerance for technobabble and also magic amnesia that you don't apply anywhere near the standards of the rest of the books' science to.

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan I mean the whole premise of 'mythic/low-fantasy retelling of the founding of the Ming dynasty but with lesbians' feels like what you'd get if you simmered down my reading consumption of the last year or two and poured out the reduction. So like, yeah, of course I liked it! Probably would have been my vote for winner, though not at all sad that Desolation got it instead. As a character type, I really, really love the whole 'arranges everything to work out perfectly through desperate, furious scheming, then absolutely never breaks character and insists it must be providence and they're but a simple monk/scholar/whatever" so Zhu's whole bit there was just catnip to me. The whole melodrama in the mongol court was great, too. And how can you not love a book that ends with the heroine murdering the messiah in cold blood?

novellas-

Across the Green Grass Fields by Seanan McGuire The only other thing I'd read by McGuire before this was Middlegame, which may have given me unrealistic expectations but, like, this was fine? Or, like, I get the sense that this is very much a YA/Middle-grade book, insofar as it really feels like the literary equivalent of a tv special you'd watch with your kid niece and nephew because hey, it's not painful for you or anything? Really funny that this exists entirely independently of the apparently-a-real-thing cartoon Centaurworld, though.

Elder Race by Adrian Tchaikovsky This was fun classic sci fi. Like, really classic - I kind of thought 'fantasy setting that's secretly a post-apocalyptic sci fi setting where all the 'magic' and 'monsters' are just poorly understood hypertech' went of fashion with the millennium. Anyway I adore things that play with POV and have different people see the same events and process/interpret them radically differently, so the whole book was catnip that way, and it managed to authentically feel like just a small slice of a vaster, weirder universe, and both deuteragonists really work for me. Don't have a solid pick for my preferred winner but this is one of the two I'm torn between.

Fireheart Tiger by Aliette de Bodard First and so far only thing by de Bodard I've read, which I should probably fix given how big a name she is. Anyway, this was fun! Nothing too groundbreaking, but that is 100% down to my reading habits rather than, like, 'lesbian court drama in a fantasy analogue of an asian country under threat of colonization' is an over-filled niche, or anything (really the only surprising thing was that I hadn't read this already).

The Past Is Red by Catherynne M. Valente The other one I might have voted for. On the level of stories she's a bit hit and miss but on the sentence-to-sentence and paragraph-to-paragraph levels Valente is seriously one of my favorite writers working, and this was no exception. Just an absolute delight to read. Also, 'post-apocalyptic magical realism on the city-sized garbage heap floating in the ocean populated by a culture of survivors after the world drowned' is just a great premise. And my shriveled husk of a soul appreciates just committing to the character study and the ruin and the elegy without giving into the urge to make a grand redemptive quest of it all.

A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers I, uh, liked this significantly less than Galaxy and the Ground Within. Utopias are basically necessarily didactic but, like, you really don't have to lean all the way into literally having the heart of the story be conversations between the protagonist and a sacred and innocent alien whose always correct about everything. Also the whole 'we 100% could be immortal but we chose not to because, like, nature or something. Aren't we so amazing?' thing with the robots is bullshit. Which, combined with the entire aesthetic of the world just left be feeling peevish and asking questions which really weren't the point (Where are the mines? The foundries? You can't make solar panels or modern antibiotics in a basement workshop! And you sure as hell can't cobble together and repair fully mobile and sapient robots in a cave with a box of scraps.)

A Spindle Splintered by Alix E. Harrow So it's not that this was bad, exactly. But, like, I feel like it should have come out sometime in the '90s? (Okay without the explicitly gay bits but that's a matter of a few sentences tbh). Like, the deadline for metafictional feminist retellings of classic fairtails being genuinely novel or subversive was sometime before Disney got in on the game, sorry. Also, like, I'm sure it's just down to me being a weird morbid kid, but the whole shocking revelation about how fucked up the original Sleeping Beauty myth is was, like, something I knew before I hit puberty? Only other thing of Harrow's I've read was the Ten Thousand Door's of January and I'm really, really disappointed comparing them, honestly. (Also, as a general rule I dislike anything where it's very clear whether you're supposed to like or trust a character from the scene they're introduced and this is never wrong)

In other categories L’Esprit de L’Escalier should obviously have one novelette, "Where Oaken Hearts Do Gather" short story, Terra Ignota series, and Monstress comic, based off the foolproof criteria of 'those are the ones I've read'

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priestbit · 15 days

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[ ˑ ˑ ˑ ] 𝑫𝑶𝑵𝑵𝑰𝑬 𝑾𝑨𝑻𝑻𝑺 & 𝑭𝑨𝑴𝑰𝑳𝒀 , a comprehensive study.

This meta will discuss Donnie's relationship with his actual family members and his relationship with family as a concept. Here I'll be exploring how his attitude towards it has shifted and changed throughout his life. I will be touching on some fairly triggering topics in this meta, all of which have been tagged and listed below. For that reason, this meta is under a read more. Please take care when reading, and don't worry if you aren't in the headspace to read this, there's no hard feelings.

Please be aware that the following topics will be discussed, some in greater detail than others: addiction, child neglect/abuse, allusions to csa, religious trauma, homophobia, pregnancy, addiction, drug use, alcoholism, family death, suicide, trauma, and discussions of war.

Donnie, despite all the misconceptions one may have of him, is motivated by family and legacy. It haunts him in a way that nobody talks about. Every man in the Watts family tree, as far back as they can trace being in the States, has served the military in one way or the other. Every man in the Watts family, since the end of the Civil War, has owned and trained horses for one purpose or the other. They may not have been in that profession their entire lives, but they all started there. Donnie did. His father did. His brother did. You get the idea. This is part of the reason why Donnie always felt so conflicted about what he'd do once he'd graduated high school. Would he continue the family legacy and enlist like his father had? Would he follow in his brother's footsteps and look to make a name for himself as a rancher? Or would he follow his heart and become a rockstar?

Ultimately, Donnie decided to follow his heart. He's always had something to prove, his mother made sure of that. He was going to make his family (and to him, at the age of nineteen, his family consisted of his brother, his sister-in-law, his niece, and his nephew) proud. He was going to do something that would, in his eyes, make him worthy of their love. Achieving his dreams would also show them how good of a job they did in taking him in, as he always feels as though he owes them for that (even though they volunteered to do it, and were happy to help out their little brother. Brody especially, as he carries so much guilt for leaving Donnie alone with their mother in the first place.)

I think that, as a child, Donnie based his notion of family off of what his mother told him. His idea of what a family should be was very much in line with the nuclear family, a mother, a father, the white picket fence, and two children. The idea of it was hammered into his head so often-and so brutally-that he felt othered by the fact that he was being raised by a single mother. This othering led to him resenting the very idea of the family home. He hated it whenever his mother would try to engage in things like family dinner at the dining table. Or dragging him to church every Sunday because that's what families were supposed to do.

When he was taken away from his mother at the age of twelve, he was introduced to what an actual, healthy family unit looked like. Brody Watts had gotten away from Texas and made a damn good life for himself. He had two beautiful kids, a wife who adored him, and Dogwood Ranch in his care. Spending his teen years with Brody and Cassidy helped heal a lot of childhood wounds, so much so that by the time his eighteenth birthday rolls around and his mother contacts him for the final guilt trip he'll ever receive from her all he can do is feel hatred for her. Hatred for her and love for the brother who'd taken him in, love for the sister-in-law who had become the older sister he'd always wanted, and love for the kids who called him 'Uncle D!' whenever they saw him. He wanted that. He wanted a home like theirs, warm and welcoming and the total opposite of the crucifix-infested battlefield that his mother had raised him in.

His early twenties were rough. Addled by fame he was not prepared for, and an addiction to anything that takes him skywards for a couple of hours. Heroin was the real killer. He overdosed twice, and was saved twice by a family he didn't share a single drop of blood with. Rancid Creature wasn't just a successful metal band, Rancid Creature was Donnie's entire world, and a love letter to the dear friend he'd lost in Lee Bennett (who had conceptualised the band when they were thirteen and still fumbling their way through learning how to play their instruments. Lee played bass, Donnie was the drummer. The dream rhythm section.) Izzy, Sammy and Clara were, and still are, like siblings to Donnie. He would drop anything to help them... he knew it wasn't the conventional family, but it was his. It was the only one he could have around all the touring and the TV interviews anyway.

Family wasn't just a loving partner and a couple of kids running around to Donnie anymore. But it's the prospect of a family that ultimately pushed him into getting clean. Anita Huerta, a long-term on and off girlfriend, revealed that she was pregnant, and that she wanted to keep the baby. She wanted to get clean for the baby, and so did Donnie. He'd swore years before that he'd never abandon his children, he'd never subject them to his bullshit the same way his mother had. Donnie, wanting nothing more than to cultivate a warm, safe, family environment for his and Anita's child, got clean.

Now that he's in his early thirties, he knows that he doesn't need to have the conventional nuclear family to be happy. A happy family home doesn't look the same for everyone, and despite the fact that he's always stressing over being as good a dad to Emma as possible, he knows this. Family is whoever you feel safe with, family is whoever helps when you're at your worst, family isn't just blood. Donnie took a long time coming to this conclusion, and he still struggles with undoing the mess his mother made of his brain, but he's there. And he doesn't intend on backing away from it anytime soon.

For some quick-fire headcanons about Donnie's family members and his relationships with those family members, look no further!

𝑅𝐸: 𝑀𝐸𝐿𝐼𝑆𝑆𝐴 𝑊𝐴𝑇𝑇𝑆 ( fc : Willa Fitzgerald & Mary Mcdonnell. )

Melissa Rose was the youngest of five daughters. Her father detested the fact that his wife would only ever give him daughters when what he really wanted was sons. This made him angry, abusive, unfaithful, and a drunkard. Her father, Adam, was a Baptist pastor. His sermons were the very definition of 'Brimstone and Hellfire.' He was a stern but charming man, with an agreeable face and the picture-perfect family. He was all about image, and this attitude would stick with Melissa all her life.

She actually wanted to run away from Texas her whole life, she had dreams of becoming a Hollywood star. She was always told that she was pretty enough to be in the movies.

Melissa married Colton Watts on a total whim, their romance was an intense whirlwind of emotions and intimacy. She'd never been treated so kindly by a man before Colton came along. He promised her the world. And then he went to war.

When Colton returned home, he was a totally different man. He was emptier than she remembered him, and she was resentful. He would have weeks, even months, of being the happy-go-lucky sweetheart she'd married. Then he'd retreat into himself and would prefer to speak to the horses he cared for than he would to her.

Eleven years of unsteady marriage later, Brody Watts was born. The euphoria of being a new parent didn't last long, Colton would soon retreat back into the stables. The same would happen ten years later when Donovan was born.

After Colton's death, and after Brody ran away from his mother's venomous tongue, Melissa was left alone to raise her youngest son. She never called him Donnie, she would only ever call him Donovan.

Donnie, as a toddler, would actually prefer the company of his mother. He enjoyed being bounced on her hip while she went about the household chores. He enjoyed listening to her read. He found his father to be something of a ghost. However, he did run and hide under Brody's bed whenever she'd get into one of her bad moods. She was vicious, a caged animal unleashed on her family.

When Colton died, Donnie was seven. And Melissa fell hard into heavy drinking. Her fuse grew shorter, and even the smallest of mistakes made by Donnie would set her off. If he cried? She'd shout. If he spilt or dropped something? She'd shout. Without even realising it, Melissa had become her father.

Donnie grew older, more vocal, and pushed back against Melissa's temper. He was rewarded with violence, with unwarranted sermons. She would punish him by making him copy entire verses from the Bible by hand. She would take scissors to his hair whenever he refused to go and get it cut. Donnie's defensive, and often explosive temper, was born here. As was his desire to solve everything with his fists.

Melissa didn't hide what she thought of her son from him. She thought he was gay, and would tell him so. She would often fling slurs at him. She thought he was a sinful child, a demon given to her as punishment for running away from her family with his father. She would tell him this too.

She would also blame him routinely for his father's death. Something that Donnie still hasn't been able to shake.

Donnie was sent to a "summer camp" that the local church ran by his mother to "fix" his behaviour. The children would learn to camp, would learn to work, and would learn to be "more Christian" in their attitudes. It was essentially a behaviour retreat for delinquent kids. It was here that one of the pastors would assault Donnie.

The second he returned home, Donnie bypassed telling his mother anything and took himself straight to the local sheriff's station. He told them everything about the pastor, and about his mother. The sheriff was an old army friend of Colton's and had suspected that something was amiss for years. He was the one who saw to it that the social services took Donnie away from Melissa.

Donnie hasn't seen his mother since, and he hasn't heard from her since his eighteenth birthday. He doesn't even know if she's still alive or not, he hasn't thought to check. He's glad to have cut her out of his life, even if there has always been a longing in him to try and get through to her. Sometimes he misses her reading to him as a child, sometimes he misses her embrace. Sometimes he just wants his mom.

He only ever refers to her as 'mother' or 'Melissa.' Only in really vulnerable moments does he ever slip up and call her 'mom.'

A lot of Donnie's self-loathing stems from the way his mother treated him. A lot of Donnie's internal homophobia stems from his mother. A lot of Donnie's issues with his own masculinity stem from his mother. All of his issues with religion and the idea of a benevolent god stem from his mother's attitudes and the fact that she sent him away to that "summer camp." He's slowly coming to terms with this and feels so much resentment towards her for it that whenever she's mentioned he tends to get stiff and oddly quiet. It takes him a long time to learn to talk about her without feeling angry, and he does so for Emma's sake.

Donnie looks most like his mother, with her soft features, curly hair, and pretty green eyes. It's why he'd always take great offence to anybody ever calling him a girl when he was a teenager.

𝑅𝐸: 𝐶𝑂𝐿𝑇𝑂𝑁 𝑊𝐴𝑇𝑇𝑆 ( fc : Robert Redford. )

Colton was the middle child out of three. His older brother, Tristan, died in France, and his youngest brother, Michael, moved to Europe in the summer of forty-seven. His parents owned Dogwood Ranch, as many Watts had before them. It was the ancestral home of the Watts family.

He was raised Catholic, as many are in Longing.

He moved to Texas with his older brother to pursue a Rodeo career. Colton was a promising young Bronc rider and adored working with horses more than anything else. He also enjoyed playing guitar and singing. Music was always going to be a huge part of Donnie's life.

It was there he met Melissa Rose, who looked as though she'd just wandered off of a movie set. Colton was smitten with her, and she was smitten with him. They were young and reckless and felt invincible, and Colton wanted to give Melissa the world. They were married within six months, and, with Tristain's help, living on a plot of land in Copeville within the year.

Then he enlisted and went to war. Colton took his guitar with him to France and would sing for his fellow soldiers whenever he was able. He kept them entertained and happy despite the horrors they saw. He burned his candle at both ends and returned with bullet holes in his guitar, and holes in his heart.

He tried to fight the numbness with all his might. He tried to be present for his sons, but he'd often find himself feeling the chill of The Bulge even in the height of a Texan summer and would slip into his own mind for hours at a time.

To cope, Colton hid himself away in the shed or the stables, fearing what he might do if he was around his family for any longer than a few hours at a time. He could not trust his own body or mind.

As a result, his sons often saw him as a stranger. He tried to make up for it by teaching them guitar chords, showing them how to handle horses, or singing with them. He felt especially close to Donnie, who seemed to take better to his musical inclinations than Brody did. Brody seemed more interested in horses.

Donnie recalls several key moments with his father. Being taught to play the guitar, how to handle a gun, how to ride, how to be a Bronc rider, and being taken to Dallas when his father was due to meet with old war buddies.

Whenever talking about his father, Donnie often calls him his 'old man.' He seems to talk about him with far more respect than he ever does with his mother, despite feeling like he hardly knew him. Donnie also feels an affinity with his father now that he's an adult, especially since he's been through trauma and had to deal with the aftermath.

Donnie still owns his father's guitar, it's easily his most prized possession. He owned a silver signet ring with a cursive 'W' on it that his dad took with him to France and gave to Donnie for good luck. The ring had been in the Watts family for as long as anybody can remember. Donnie gives it to James Gallowes for good luck and as a symbol of his love for him.

In terms of appearance, Donnie takes after Colton's physical build. Looking at photographs of the two of them where their faces aren't visible, you could be forgiven for thinking it's the same person. Donnie also has his father's toothy smile and, according to Brody, Donnie's voice is freakishly similar to their dad's.

Donnie used to resent the fact that Colton put a bullet in his own mouth. It sent Brody away because it made Melissa worse.

𝑅𝐸: 𝐵𝑅𝑂𝐷𝑌 𝑊𝐴𝑇𝑇𝑆 ( fc : Charlie Hunnam. )

Brody is ten years older than Donnie. Has their mother's softer face shape like Donnie does, but the rest of his face is all Colton. Right down to the scruffy blond beard and pin-straight hair. Brody's whole demeanour is gruff, but kind. He's quick to smile and far more optimistic than his younger brother.

When they were kids, Brody would jokingly refer to Donnie as Yosemite Sam from Looney Tunes whenever Donnie lost his temper. It's why Donnie has a Yosemite Sam tattoo on his arm.

Brody always stepped in and took Donnie away from their mother whenever her temper would flare, and would play with him or read to him to keep him occupied. Sometimes he'd take Donnie up to the stables to look after the horses with him. In that way, Brody was more a parent to Donnie than their actual parents were.

At first, Donnie was confused when Brody took off after Colton's death. Then his mother got worse, and then he got angry at him for abandoning him with their mother. He was so angry that a month into being put into Brody and Cassidy's care, the two had a fight that almost came to blows. It didn't, because Brody outright refused to hurt Donnie anymore than he'd already been hurt. This made Donnie break down and cry. Brody held him and the two spoke about things more calmly.

This blowout didn't diffuse Donnie's resentment entirely, but it helped Donnie understand his brother's reasons for leaving.

The ten-year gap between the two meant that talking as brothers was often difficult for them. But Brody always did his best to be patient with Donnie, to be careful around his trauma and what might set him off. He would also cut through Donnie's moping and ensure that he wasn't self-sabotaging.

Brody also gives full embarrassing dad energy whenever Donnie's got friends over. He endearingly refers to Donnie, Lee and James as 'The Three Stooges.' James would also often find himself staying over at Dogwood Ranch after Donnie discovers that his uncle is mistreating him. Brody allows it because he really wants to encourage Donnie to be more emotionally vulnerable and have more friends.

Donnie and Brody love each other fiercely and will jump to one another's defence without question, even if they find it hard to have deep discussions without the help of a few beers.

Donnie hates disappointing Brody (and by extension, Cassidy), and so doesn't reach out to him for help when he should. He often needs pushing into contacting Brody by his bandmates whenever something's going wrong or he's struggling with Emma on his own.

Donnie's object permeance (yay ADHD!) extends to people. This means, that if things aren't in his immediate everyday life, he tends to neglect them. This makes him terrible at calling Brody and keeping in touch, thankfully, both Brody and Cassidy understand this and will often check in with him of their own volition.

𝑅𝐸: 𝐶𝐴𝑆𝑆𝐼𝐷𝑌 𝑊𝐴𝑇𝑇𝑆 ( fc : Freema Agyeman. )

Cassidy Jonas met Brody Watts and immediately fell in love. They bonded over a love of horses, rock music, and spicy food. They just clicked. Their friendship turned into love and ended with them married at the age of twenty-one. It was the most natural thing in the world.

Cassidy Watts was pregnant with twins when Donnie Watts crossed the threshold of Dogwood for the first time. He reminded her of her grandmother's three-legged cat, Nelson, who used to swipe at newcomers whenever they entered whichever room he happened to be sleeping in. He was jittery and jumped at every little noise. It broke her heart to learn what had happened to him, it made her angry too. Brody had to talk her out of driving to Copeville and giving Melissa Watts a piece of her mind. She couldn't conceive of ever hurting her children.

At first, Cassidy attempted to approach Donnie with kid gloves. That seemed to send him further into his shell. What seemed to appeal to him was being spoken to like an adult. A person in his own right. So she did. Because of the honesty between them, Donnie and Cassidy grew close.

Donnie had the messiest, most unhealthy head of curls when he came to Longing, and not a few months later, Cassidy had them styled and healthier than ever. Being a black woman with tight, coiled hair, she was perfectly qualified to help Donnie treat his curls properly. It was a long, careful routine that Donnie keeps to even now in his early thirties.

After the twins were born, Donnie took to being an uncle like a duck to water. He helped Cassidy with feeding them whenever Brody was out working, and would often keep them entertained when he wasn't out causing mischief with his new friends.

When Donnie's fifteen, Cassidy started to attend classes in hopes of becoming a Doctor or a Nurse, as she'd always dreamed of becoming one as a child.

If asked, Donnie would name Cassidy as the woman who raised him. She was the one who helped him out of panic attacks and soothed him whenever he couldn't sleep, she was the one who talked to him about his romantic feelings for James, she was the one who encouraged him to follow his heart after he graduated. She was also the person who put him in his place whenever he was letting his anger get the better of him.

Donnie almost exclusively calls Cassidy 'Cass', and it's always with the utmost affection. He adores her with his entire being.

Cassidy is also the first person Donnie comes out to, officially. She's the person he turns to whenever he finds himself stuck. He knows she won't judge him or think less of him for messing up. Neither would Brody, but Donnie isn't so confident with that knowledge. He's getting there.

𝑅𝐸: 𝐺𝐼𝑁𝐴 𝐴𝑁𝐷 𝐽𝑂𝑁𝐴𝐻 𝑊𝐴𝑇𝑇𝑆 ( fcs : undecided. )

Georgina and Jonah Watts are fraternal twins and are the only two children of Brody and Cassidy Watts. Donnie views the pair of them as his younger siblings.

The twins refer to Donnie as 'Don' or 'Uncle D' pretty much exclusively.

Gina falls in love with rock music because of her parents and falls deeper in love with metal and alternative music because of Donnie. Donnie often catches her rifling through his tapes when he's not keeping an eye on her. When he leaves Longing, he actually leaves the vast majority of his tapes and vinyl at Dogwood, so that Gina can listen to them. Gina also gifts Donnie with an Iron Maiden poster on his fourteenth birthday, Cassidy informs him that she wanted to give her uncle a present that meant a lot to him. He still has the poster now, it's in a frame on the wall of his office.

Jonah and Donnie bond over horses. Brody held no interest in actually participating in any kind of Rodeo events, and neither did Donnie, but Donnie knew a couple of tricks to help Jonah get started. He showed him how to ride and how to tend to the horses alongside Brody. Jonah also shares Donnie's love of Star Wars and sci-fi. He even starts to copy Donnie when Donnie starts keeping journals and writing things like song lyrics down. Jonah's got a big imagination and an even bigger heart. Donnie encourages him to feel things unapologetically and to talk to his parents when things are bothering him. When he leaves Dogwood, Donnie leaves a good chunk of his books with Jonah, knowing he'll take care of them.

Donnie misses a good chunk of the twins' milestones while he's touring with Rancid Creature, but that doesn't stop them from sending him letters and getting excited whenever he calls. He feels guilty for not being there more for them during this time, and he's always trying to make up for it, even though they hold no hard feelings over it.

Donnie also misses these milestones because he's too high, which he feels deeply ashamed of, despite the understanding he gets from Brody, Cass and the twins.

He might be terrible at calling, but Donnie has an uncanny ability to remember dates, even when he's deep in the throes of addiction and depression. He always sends thoughtful gifts and birthday cards/letters to his niece and nephew. He dedicates more than a couple of songs and awards for his music to them and their parents.

He's their favourite uncle, despite being their only uncle. And they will die defending him. They even show up to one of Rancid Creature's shows in Santa Fe to surprise him one year, and Donnie almost cries with happiness at seeing them. That's his little sister and his little brother! And he will die for them!

#& * a terribly real thing in a terribly false world . [ metas ]#& * a child weaned on poison considers harm a comfort . [ study ]#csa ment //#abuse //#child abuse //#addiction //#discussions of mental health //#religious trauma //#homophobia //#alcoholism //#war ment //#suicide ment //#ask to tag //#long post //#( please please please read the trigger warnings on this one babes! )#( i don't want anybody getting upset or uncomfy )#( pls take care )#( BUT whew this one got long )#( i hope everyone that does read it enjoys learning more about donnie )#( there's stuff i've mentioned here that he himself will never talk about )#( primarily the stuff re: his childhood and his parents and the dreaded 'summer camp' )#( donnie is such a family oriented character... and he both loves the idea of a family and hates it )#( i'll probably touch back on this again when i do the rancid creature & the james & the lee metas )#( because his band / his friends are also his family )#( he learns as he's accepting his queerness that family isn't just blood )#( it's who you choose y'know? )#( i know i've missed emma anita and anita's parents off of this meta but that's because i wanna tackle them in the meta i do about )#( donnie and being a dad )#( which is a seperate thing )

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nopeferatu · 9 months

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Rewatching brokeback mountain in my 20s and realized so many good stuff about this film but what i love most is probably how it didn't blame everything on women and how strong they are to be able to move on from their failed marriage, like even ennis said it was not alma fault and how alma still has a job to support her family so she has a choice to divorce ennis to find her new partner because there are many women who stuck in their marriage because of financial situation too. It was neither alma nor ennis fault it's society fault because alma and ennis didn't really get to experience much before marriage. Also my friend said lureen is the husband and jack is the wife in their marriage because of how jack nagged to bobby tutor too 😭

it's crazy how intricate the relationship dynamics are in the story, huh?! one thing the screenwriters really hammered home about their adaptation is that they wanted to expand on the roles of the wives in the story, and how their husbands' love affair affected their relationships to them. you're right that it's nobody's fault and that they didn't get to experience much before getting married, and that's part of the tragedy. like...society was too hostile for Ennis to feel comfortable going after what he truly desired, which was Jack. he felt pressured to marry a girl and settle down and have kids, cause that's what you're supposed to do when you're a man growing up in rural Wyoming. and so even though he did have this grand revelatory sexual experience before getting married (he was only engaged to Alma when he met Jack), it was his background that ultimately pressured him into going forth with the marriage, cause that's what you're supposed to do. and I mean...Alma wouldn't have known any better either, yanno? she was also raised in a society that taught women that getting married and raising a hard working man's kids is the ultimate goal.

i do find it interesting that you bring up alma's financial independence, though... it's true that her having a job probably afforded her more freedom to get her divorce, but also, you get the feeling that both of them resent the fact that she had to get a job in the 1st place 🤔 ik that to an extent this is still the case, but especially in the midcentury, men were viewed as the providers of the family, and it was very desirable to find a husband who could support a family on his salary so the wife could stay at home. it was just what Real Men did, yanno? so the fact that they needed Alma's supplemental income to make ends meet would really have hurt Ennis' pride as a man, and it probably also hurt Alma's sensibilities as a woman who was brought up thinking she shouldn't have to work.

also, your friend is soo right about Jack and Lureen, lol. ik it was probably said as a joke, but i think it's another example of the theme of masculinity and the ways that the characters can't live up to the standards of masculinity the way they'd like to. sigh... my poor guys...

thank you for telling me about your new experiences with this story!! i love hearing about the revelations people have when they watch it again and are able to soak in more of the messaging inside of it, haha 💕

#asks #brokeback mountain #still brokeback posting

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thoodleoo · 2 years

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Hi! Sorry to bother, you've probably talked about this before, but I wanted to ask you about your experience with studying and teaching latin? I starting uni in a year and I'd love to study latin and history (to become a teacher obvi) but am still a bit unsure... I've been learing latin for 6 years at school and I acc think I'm quite good at it but I'm a still afraid that it'll be too difficult... thanks in advance!

i mean...honestly, at your point i wouldn't be thinking too much about whether or not you're good at the content you're thinking about teaching. you're relatively young, so you have plenty of time to hammer out your expertise in the subject area.

what you should really be thinking about right now is do i really want to teach?

do you like kids? not just tolerate, but like them? are you okay working long hours in a difficult, sometimes thankless job? as someone interested in latin, are you prepared to advocate for whether or not your subject should be taught? are you okay with having a relatively low-paying job, especially given the amount of work you're going to be putting in? do you actually like teaching people?

i have met a good many people who are fantastic latinists but would not enjoy or be good at teaching- which is perfectly okay! teaching isn't easy. it's often seen as something of a backup job, but i would highly recommend that you spend some time actually thinking about what teaching entails.

i teach exclusively level 1 latin. it's the sort of job where you could feasibly skate by even if you aren't the best latin student. in fact, some of the best teachers are those who really struggled with their own content area, because they sometimes have better insight towards helping students who are also struggling.

my advice would be to talk to some teachers you know, try tutoring, see if you can't get your hands on some opportunities to be in a classroom on the teaching side of things. knowing whether this is something you would enjoy doing will be far more helpful to you than knowing whether the material will be too difficult.

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wander-wren · 9 months

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always gold is such a ronan song and someone else said this a long long time ago but they said it wrong and it’s lived in my brain ever since. the right way.

because always gold is about a brother who is good and solid and dependable talking to his fuckup of a brother and telling him that even if no one else thinks he’s worth anything, he still is to the speaker.

which, i can see why one would then interpret ronan as the subject of the song, the “you” if you will. but i dont think he is. come with me. take my hand.

this song is not about declan and ronan. this song is about ronan and adam, circa call down the hawk.

We were tight-knit boys, brothers in more than name

You would kill for me, and knew that I’d do the same

do i have to explain this one. it’s them. except ofc for the brothers bit but note the past tense

And it cut me sharp, hearing you’d gone away

harvard. do i need to say more?

But everything goes away, yeah, everything goes away

But I’m going to be here till I’m nothing but bones in the ground

the fact that ronan is tied to the barns both literally and metaphorically, and adam wants out of henrietta more than anything???

the “everything goes away” bit you can chalk up to ronan’s immense number of losses and also his general depression/suicidal tendencies

And I was there when you grew restless

You left in the dead of the night

And I was there when three months later

You were standing in the door, all beaten and tired

And I stepped aside

POINTS WILDLY. HARVARD. THE VISIT TO HARVARD. THE MURDER CRABS. YOU KNOW?? technically ronan left but close enough. and then adam came BACK to the barns to visit and ronan almost shot him. do you see the vision

We were opposites at birth, I was steady as a hammer

No one worried ‘cause they knew just where I’d be

“this isn’t a ronan line” says the poor naive children. i’d argue that it is! maybe not in the way it was originally meant, but generally people know where ronan is and what he’s doing because he’s reliable even in his self destruction. you know? he gets into trouble but always in the same way, in the same places. and to be honest most people except declan and gansey dont seem to worry about him so much as write him off because he’s never going to change. also i think the hammer comparison is very ronancore.

They said you were the crooked kind, that you would never have no worth

But you were always gold to me

the way adam is ostracized for being poor and the way he is described as looking strange….boy literally gets POSSESSED. he even thinks this about himself when he buries his real identity and lies to his harvard friends. but the first moment ronan lays eyes on him he prays to god and asks please. this is the most pynch line ever

And back when we were kids, we swore we knew the future

And our woods would take us halfway ‘round the world

the fact that adam is a literal psychic and they had a literal magical forest is so fitting. but also metaphorically they did have plans for their future together, and those plans did get wrecked in the dreamer trilogy. theres two lines after this about that but i cant really relate them to pynch directly theyre just about the broken dream

But I am fine with where I am now

This home is home and all that I need

But for you, this place is shame

But you can blame me when there’s no one left to blame

Oh, I don’t mind

these lines are why i cant see this as a declan & ronan song, i’m sorry. ronan loves the barns too much for it to be a shameful place. but we KNOW that adam sees his past/henrietta as shameful. we KNOW ronan would take the brunt of adam’s anger if that’s what he needed. declan is a nicer brother than ronan wants to believe but that’s not really his sentiment

And all my life, I’ve never known where you’ve been

There were holes in you, the kind that I could not mend

adam and all his secrets….adam and all his problems that his pride won’t let ronan fix. that ronan isn’t enough to fix because it’s not his job and boy needs therapy!

And I heard you say, right when you left that day

“Does everything go away?”

Yeah, everything goes away

not entirely sure how i want to interpret this, because i like the idea of it being a more positive spin on the first time its said, but also in book context adam leaving in cdth is not really a positive, nor is everything that happens after. it almost feels worse if you think about how adam is the one who loses ronan for a time right after this. adam can’t trust good things, and ronan can’t lie and say he’s not going to go and, uh, become an ecoterrorist

But I’m gonna be here till forever

So just call when you’re around

the end of this song in general makes me cry bc of the way it cuts off RIGHT at the last second, as opposed to the like, 1:30 second intro. especially when the last time they did the chorus (i didnt include it bc repetitive) it went “i’m gonna be here till i’m nothing but bones in the ground (so quiet down)”

something something….no longer talking about dying. that’s very ronan’s character arc-shaped. but the way the familiar music and the extra bit of “so quiet down” isn’t there, it feels cut off, unfinished.

like you’re waiting.

it’s unbearably sad but also soso tender, i know you can’t be here, i know you can’t stay and i can’t fix it, but if you need me, just call.

and let’s not even mention ronan’s aversion to phones that doesn’t quite seem to extend to adam parrish.

so. there you have it. always gold is a ronan song but also, more importantly, a pynch song. [bows]

#the raven cycle #call down the hawk #pynch #ronan lynch #adam parrish #the dreamer trilogy #wren wrambles

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