#they're trying to save the world from UNIMAGINABLE horror!!

[scattered-winter]

devastated to announce that I'm back in my maze runner era thanks to this fucking au.

[hyeahgaku]

The Seba brothers are precious; trying to protect and save each other in their own ways.. it shows their bond is actually real strong since they're willing to go lengths to keep the other safe.

Natsuki's willingness to fulfil his father's dream by offering himself to go to Al-Kamar. A place of possibly unimaginable horrors that Slur's team know too well. Assumingly Natsuki also knows whatever the individuals sent there were subjected to, then all that he was doing was so that he could spare his beloved younger brother from unspeakable pain or torture. As well as further trauma to a still-developing kid. Something that their deadbeat of a father fail to realise.. So young, so quiet & stoic, yet still so thoughtful, caring & sweet. I bet young Natsuki understands that Mafuyu is still young & hasn't had his own ambitions yet so I'm certain he's making way for his lil bro to enjoy his childhood more & be relieved from the burden that their dumb dad was abt to shoulder on the poor youngling. Honestly, Natsuki's actions in chap 145 is enough to reflect how much of a doting, protective & selfless big brother he is. Young Mafuyu may not have realised it when he was upset with his aniki, but Natsuki's actions are proof of it. I bet that bladed shoe was designed specially for him cuz Natsuki knows how much of a clean freak his lil bro is.

Meanwhile, Mafuyu deeply cares about Natsuki too in his own way. And he's also very supportive of his aniki's inventions, like he's the only one in the family to do so. On top of that, young Mafuyu even have faith in his aniki, he believes that Natsuki is capable of achieving his dream in future cuz he knows that Natsuki is talented & will be successful in his goal. And Mafuyu has a really big heart thou he was more reckless in his plan to save his brother. Young Mafuyu's main aim is to free Natsuki from their deadbeat father's unhealthy obsession so that his aniki can pursue his biggest dream. And Mafuyu's goal to free & help his aniki is so strong that he is willing to do whatever & by any means necessary. Even if that involves putting his own life on the line, so long as he can make sure that Natsuki achieves his ambition of becoming a professional weapons maker, then Mafuyu really thinks that all these efforts are worth it. What reckless selflessness!

How young Mafuyu is able to realise the important of supporting someone's dreams, or in his case right now is to see through that Natsuki can continue to pursue & achieve his dreams, that is beyond amazing & I tip my hat to him. A little kid versus a full-grown adult. Likewise with Natsuki -as an older brother, you should protect your younger sibling & that's what he does. Such brotherly love. PROTECT! These kids deserve only the best & also doting parents who would give the world to them, respect & support their goals to the ends of Earth.

Seriously, zero respect for Mr Seba for oppressing his kids to be who HE want them to be just for the sake of getting back at those mfs who insulted his family. Saving his own face matters more than ensuring his own children's safety, protecting their well-being and encouraging them to pursue their own paths & dreams. Natsuki & Mafuyu don't deserve the toxic environment they grew up in, nor whatever he has put them through. Their mental & emotional healths... 😭 Dammit Mr Seba how could you even look at your two boys in their eyes after all that and still see yourself as their parent..? I hope there's at least an ounce of guilt now, thou i doubt. So I hope karma hits you back, aye. Hit you hard, yeah. Congrates, you have proven yourself worthy to be placed among the Worst Manga/Anime Fathers list.

[chloearit]

// discussion of organised sexual abuse

"We ran the DNA test. She is his daughter. We will try to identify a mother, but..."

"I know. Thank you."

I knocked on her door.

"Come in," she said with a flat tone.

She was sitting on her bed, eyes looking down at the floor. She was wearing shorts and an oversized t-shirt, a combo I would almost never see her wearing again. She looked incredibly meek, almost emaciated, and deathly pale where her body wasn't covered in bandages. An IV was stuck into her left arm.

Lúcia, age 14, 1.50m, 40kg.

"Hey," I tried to greet her with a smile.

She didn't look up. "Hello."

"Are you alright?"

"I feel sick." She sounded sick too. Her voice was incredibly raspy.

"That's understandable. You lost a lot of blood."

"I did?"

I tried to touch her cheek, but she grabbed my arm, her nails so sharp and grip so strong that she drew blood. Not as weak as she looked.

"Don't touch me." was all she said before letting go.

"I'm sorry."

She licked the blood off her fingers. I grabbed a chair and sat down across from her.

She was silent for a while. Then she asked: "So that wasn't a dream? And I'm not dead? This is real?"

I nodded. "It's real."

"How many did I kill?"

"You don't-"

"I wanna know. How many?"

"It's difficult to say, but... In total there were 46 found dead. A good number of them your work."

"Wow." She smirked. "I'd never held a gun before."

"How was that?"

"It felt good. Powerful."

"Did you know you would survive?"

"No. Fuck no. I thought I was gonna die. I just didn't care. It would've been a mercy."

I wasn't sure what to say to that. "I... can't imagine what it must have been like."

"Whatever you're thinking, it's worse."

"You don't have to-"

She looked at me, just for a moment, and once again I saw that look in those green eyes, the same one she had when I found her. Unimaginable horror mixed with determined, righteous anger.

"It's called rape, right? What they did to us."

There was a weight to that word when she said it, that made it sound wholly different from the countless reports I had read and written including it.

"Yes."

"My... He said it was love. Then he told me it was work. At the start he rewarded me for it. That was years ago."

"Your father? Francisco?"

"Yes."

"Would it... help you to know that he's-"

"Dead. I know. I shot him."

"You remember that?"

"Yes."

"The doctors said you told them you couldn't remember anything."

"I remember now."

I nodded.

"I'm glad he's dead," she continued. "Is that bad?"

"I think it's very reasonable. What he did to you is worse than killing."

"Have you killed before?"

"Yes. I shot several people during that raid, and that wasn't the first time. This city is a warzone now."

"Really?" There was a sincerity to the question I didn't expect.

"Not literally, but... the organisation that... those people were a part of is... a very well-connected international group that managed to take over parts of the city. They're quickly falling now, but they've left a lot of chaos behind."

"I see."

"Did... you ever wonder why nobody was coming to save you?"

A naive question, I know.

"No."

And yet the answer hit me like a punch to the stomach. No.

"Never?"

"Never."

Fuck.

"I almost never thought about the outside world. As far as I was concerned, it didn't exist. All I saw of it were the clients that came in. Some of them were... gentle, but usually we were just treated like... toys. Not people. Just things to fuck. Like..."

"Dolls?"

"Dolls. Yes, they called us that, sometimes."

"Why do you always talk about "us"?"

"It wasn't just me. You know that, right?"

"The other kids?"

"Yes... Where are they?"

"We are trying to find their families and... return them home."

"You think they will be happy there?"

"I hope so."

"I hope so too..."

This seemed like a good opportunity to ask her.

"Do I have a family?" She got to it first.

I shook my head. "No. Your... father was your biological father. We don't know about the mother, but..."

"She's gone."

"What?"

"I saw her once..." For the first time in our conversation she seemed genuinely uncomfortable and like she was holding back tears. "He..."

"You don't have to say it."

Lúcia nodded, swallowed, shook her head like she was a wet dog, took a deep breath and straightened her back.

"I won't, then."

Silence.

"So... usually, a child like you would enter the foster system, but... if you want... I could adopt you."

"Adopt?"

"You would legally become my daughter. I would be your mother."

"Mother... daughter..."

"It's up to you."

"I... think I would like to know you more... if you're going to be... my mother."

"Of course. There's a whole process we need to go through..."

She nodded. "Thank you."

I smiled.

She reached out a hand and touched my arm. "Strong..."

"Yes. I'm pretty strong."

"Good."

Poor girl. Adjusting to normal life won't be easy.

"What is a doll?"

"What?"

"A doll. What they called us. What is that?"

"A... doll is a figure, out of plastic or fabric or something else... that's made to look like a person, at least somewhat. Children sometimes play with them, or people collect them, or... you know..."

"A plaything... a toy. That looks like a person?" She tilted her head.

"Yes." I pulled up an image on my phone. "Like this."

She looked at it, almost transfixed. "A doll..."

"Did you ever have things to play with?"

"No." She shook her head. "Why would someone give toys to their doll?"

Astute question for someone who seemingly didn't know what a doll was until just now.

"Some other children I've rescued were treated with more... love, for lack of a better word, I guess."

"The only love I know is being fucked. - Raped," she corrected herself.

Another gut punch. Fuck. And she said it so matter-of-factly. "I'm sorry," was all I could say.

"What are you sorry for?"

"I'm sorry those things... happened to you."

"Why are you sorry? You didn't do it."

"It's... an expression. To express sympathy."

"I see."

"I... do wonder if we couldn't have stopped it sooner, though."

"No way to change that now."

She said that like it was something she'd had to tell herself. Probably best not to probe that now.

"You're right."

14 years old. Stuck in that place for as long as she could remember...

"How do you know how old you are?"

"They told us. Clients have preferences with regards to age. If they asked us how old we were they wanted us to answer truthfully."

Clients. Preferences with regards to age. We had found children as young as four. Somehow I didn't think too much of it. Now it made me want to throw up.

"14-year-olds are the most desirable."

I was going to have some beer tonight. Or maybe something stronger. Maybe just pure vodka. That would taste appropriately clinical for the day.

"They... did something to me. They said that I wouldn't age anymore, and wouldn't die if they were... too rough with me. I didn't think they had actually made me immortal."

"What?"

"I don't know what they did. I just remember how they experimented with me, and what they talked about. But they said they had ways to keep me in check. I was the first one, I think. I don't know what they did before when we got too old.""

Definitely pure vodka.

I wasn't sure if I should dare to ask. "Did they... kill-"

"Yes. They'd kill you if you were too much of a problem." Her voice was monotone again. "They..." She was staring off into the distance. Dissociating.

"Hey, do you want some water?"

Again, she shook herself like a wet dog. I brought her a cup of water. She started crying, but she found back to reality.

"Okay. I think that's enough questions for now," I set the chair back where I'd taken it from.

"Yes."

"You okay?"

"Yes."

"Do you need anything?"

"No."

"Really?"

"Yes."

"Okay. Do you have a phone?"

She looked at me like I was insane. "No? Where would I have gotten a phone?"

"Right... I will be around for the rest of the day. If you'd like to talk, just tell a nurse, okay? You know how to call for them?"

"Yes."

"Good. The door is unlocked, but everyone will knock before they come in. Get some rest, you deserve it."

"I know."

"And make sure you get enough water!"

"I will."

"Okay. Bye!"

"Goodbye."

Good God, I was already acting like her mom.

"Did you talk to her?"

"Yeah... You know, I never really talked to them, like this. That's someone else's job. And even then it's so... procedurised. You don't really feel it."

"Sal, you know that's not a word, right?"

"And yet you know exactly what I meant."

He didn't say anything to that.

"That girl is... something. There's a lot she doesn't know, but... she has a way with words. And she's bitter. I'd be willing to believe she survived by sheer force of will."

"You know, a few years ago this would've baffled me - but now? I'd believe it."

"She says it's something they did to her."

"What? Why?"

"She says they did something to her so she wouldn't age and wouldn't die, no matter what they did to her."

"That's fucked."

"Worked out well for them."

"I don't understand what drives these people. I mean, there's so many things you could be doing. Why risk all this to get to fuck some child?"

"It's about power. Any adult can see they don't have hearts. Hurting people is the only way they can feel like they're in control."

While we were waiting around at the hospital, I briefly excused myself to seek out the nearest electronics store and pick up a phone for her. I installed some things I thought she might find interesting, saved my number, that of the hospital, all emergency numbers were already pre-saved.

"If her condition continues to be stable we will transfer her to the psychiatric wing tomorrow. A psychiatrist has already had a look at her. She has authorised us to share her full medical information with you, but only as a private individual, not in your capacity as an officer of the law. Will you be able to maintain that separation? - Please sign here. - Alright. We're sending you the reports."

// by Chloe, Silvy and Lúcia

[demenior]

get to know the blogger night: top ten ships you have and why they're great. [you can do five if you want i just thought you might find it hard to choose]

Top 10 Ships in No Order:

Dean Winchester/Castiel

Steve Rogers/Sam WIlson/Natasha Romanova/Bucky Barnes

Shiro/Ulaz

Jake/Cassie

Rachel/Tobias

Derek/Casey

Rose Tyler/The Doctor/Jack Harkness

Will Graham/Hannibal Lecter

Sora/Kairi/Riku

Larka/Kar

Reasons below, cut for length!

Dean Winchester/Castiel from Spn

I will always love these two. The narrative set them up so incredibly well. They were both raised by absent fathers to be soldiers and to never question orders. But where Dean started to realize the abuse his father heaped onto him and was working away from this, Castiel remained loyal to an increasingly corrupt system. Their early interactions, where Dean is afraid of the powerful creature hiding in a human body that Castiel is, and Castiel’s absolute faith in Dean and curiosity about humanity, which leads to them slowly dancing around one another and ultimately forming such a strong relationship that the forces of heaven rushed to rip them apart rather than let them realize they could create their own destiny!!! just!!! end me i love it.

They are totally a case of ‘both think the other is way out of their league’ but at the same time don’t expect each other to be perfect, and accept one another for whom they are. And one is a human with the weight of the world on his shoulders, who’s been forced into so much evil that he doesn’t think he’s capable of being loved, and the other is an indescribable force of nature and love that took a human form just to meet him :))))

I’ve long-since moved on from Spn but I’ll always be fond of the dynamic of Cas & Dean. 

Steve Rogers/Sam Wilson/Natasha Romanova/Bucky Barnes (and any combination of) from the MCU

My ot4. My loves. CAtWS ruined my life and gave me this dynamic 4-some that are all broken and hurting in one way or another and find some support in each other. They’re all such wonderful characters and the idea that they could find what they need in each other just delights me. I want them all to be happy!!!

Shiro/Ulaz from Voltron: Legendary Defender

This is nearly a crackship, considering Ulaz dies the same episode we meet him.

But Shiro is nearly my ideal character-- someone striving to be good and be solid ground for others in constantly-changing, difficult times-- who also suffered unimaginable hardship and suffering. Shiro’s not a character that we see opens up much, and yet he nearly threw himself at Ulaz when they met. He argued against all possibly logic that Ulaz had to be a friend, had to be trustworthy, and even though the group had never met a friendly Galra at this point, Shiro (who, again, was held captive and tortured for a year by the Galra) was the one who advocated for him.

From there, the best part about them is the potential. Why did Ulaz free Shiro in the first place? What were his intentions? Was he honest in the things he said to Shiro or was he playing a deception and Shiro believed it?

Also, height differences. And alien differences B^J

Jake/Cassie from Animorphs

While Animorphs is primarily a story about the horrors and the consequences of war, it also deals with the rammifications of how the battlefield destroys personal lives as well.

I love all of the Animorphs kids, but we all know Jake is my special darling child. Jake and Cassie are childhood sweethearts that everyone knows like each other. Sometimes they even sit beside each other on the bus!! Even if they don’t know what to say. Just, ah, my darlings. It’s such a sweet setup. They’re going to date, get married, and be happy together forever.

Except, war happens. And Jake is forced to become someone Cassie’s not sure she can love. That’s a lie- I believe Cassie still loves Jake, but she won’t be happy with him.

Jake’s proposal, at the end, when he knows he’s about to paint his hands red with his family’s blood and win the war through attrition, and he hasn’t told anyone else yet... he reflects on all they’ve been through in 3-4 short, long years and who they are and he, he wants to go back. He wants to hope they can still have a happy ending. 

Jake and Cassie forever give me heartache because they both did get their best possible ending. And it wasn’t together. 

Rachel/Tobias, from Animorphs

How could I talk about Jake&Cassie and not mention these two? The (arguably) beta couple who fell in love with the dichotomy of each other, who loved each other to oblivion. They wrestled with huge issues like Tobias’s body, Rachel’s bloodthirstiness and yet despite it all they loved each other until the end. 

He wore a human face so she could see him mourning her before she died. Her last words to him were ‘i love you’ and he carried-- the description that he actually struggled to lift the urn always breaks my heart-- he took her ashes to spread them as his final goodbye. These poor kids didn’t deserve the harsh hand fate dealt them, but they made the best of it with one another.

Derek/Casey from Life with Derek

THEY’RE MEANT TO BE TOGETHER. DON’T LOOK AT ME LIKE THAT. HE’S A REBEL AND SHE’S A GOODY-TWO-SHOES. THEY COMPLETE EACH OTHER.

[they’re also step-siblings thru marriage and IT’S MEANT TO BEEEE]

Rose Tyler/The Doctor/Jack Harkness from Doctor Who (primarily 9th Doctor)

I love the dynamic of these three so much. There’s a huge fondness in my heart for how the three of them normalized what was, the show was hinting at, essentially an open relationship. From the show I believe it was to remain un-consummated and ‘will-they-won’t-they’ but the dialogue and body language of all three always indicated they these three were more than just friends.

More fun with aliens!! You can never go wrong!!! Also, Jack is involved and y’all should understand the huge imact that Jack Harkness had on wee Dem.

Will Graham/Hannibal Lecter from NBC Hannibal

I love the incredibly awful way these two come together, fall apart, and sew themselves up again. I love the dynamics of this show in general. But how refreshing to have leads-- antagonists, often-- who are also in love with each other but also in love with life and morality and the meanging of emotion. These two mainly went into otp status after the ending of Hannibal, in which it was confirmed that the whole series was/is essentially a long, dark, macabre urban fantasy love story/fairytale. 

Sora/Kairi/Riku from the Kingdom Hearts series

Again, all childhood best friends who end up in the middle of a war that’s been happening since before they were even born. They were all naiively chasing adventure, and then found themselves seprated across different worlds, part of all sorts of manipulations and, in Riku’s case, eventually falling into darkness trying to protect the other two.

The first game started off almost setting them up to be a gross love triangle, and while elements remain, it’s actually become a story about three friends who adore each other and want to be together and protect one another.

The three of them spent three whole games trying to get back to one another. Sora gave up all of his memories and was locked in a coma for a year, Kairi lost her heart/soul and then her memories (and then she gaind them back because she loved them so much!!!), Riku eventually gave up his own body and became what he feared the most in order to protect Sora and Kairi. The three of them united KNEW Riku even when he had the face of their enemy and they all bawled at being together again and I bawled too.

I love these three so much.

Larka/Kar from The Sight

The Sight is my absolute favorite book of all times and I usually reread it at least once a year. 

Romance isn’t the forefront of this story either, but love itself- in all it’s forms- is continuously shown to be one of the strongest forces in the universe. 

Larka and Kar endure a lot of ordeals together, and he is pivotal in saving her life several times including her depression after most of her family dies and she is under the impression it is because of her. Kar is the only one who can bring Larka back from the dead! When she travels to the red meadow to gain answers, and wants to stay with her family where she won’t have to suffer anymore. But she returns!! Because Kar pours out his heart and calls her back!!!

And in the end, Larka knows she is going to her own death. And has accepted it. But at the last moment she looks up and sees Kar waiting for her to come back to him, so they can have a life together, and it’s her love for him that makes her fight against fate and destiny to get back to him.

And, to loosely quote the scene because it’s beautiful, “between Larka and the cliff, between hope and fairy tale, stepped reality. What really happens. Larka missed the ledge, and they all watched as she fell towards the rocks below”

And now excuse me while I cry.