#which he wasn't present for and barely knows about. in general he just has no prior involvement in the leaders' story but now that he's here | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

messylustt · 1 year

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౨ৎ ‧˚

𝐞𝐥 𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐨 (𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐥) — 𝐛𝐫𝐮𝐢𝐬𝐞𝐝 𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐚𝐥

miguel o’hara x fem!reader. 2.7k words

fic masterlist previous part pt two next part

learning spanish (I don’t speak spanish, so please correct me if I’m wrong with anything here); non detailed mentions of injuries; male masterbation — after a mission, a group of spider-people come back bruised and for the most part injured, all including a seemingly unbothered miguel. miguel offers a first spanish lesson, one that ends with the reminder of something in return—I wonder where your new home is…

You hear the crash and commotion of a group arriving. You watched as medical spiders’ rushed towards the injured. They were all practically injured in some way. You quickly stood, making sure everything was out of the way, like rolled away chairs and random cords.

Your brows creased in concern as you spotted different spider-people holding their wounds, their suits ripped. You shift your gaze to the only one standing, appearing fine, besides his cut up suit and bloody face, bruises forming by his cheek. Before you know it, you're walking up to him. "O'hara."

He turns his head, his chest still breathing heavy. "You should sit." You suggest, watching as the rest of the group heads towards the large door, most likely heading to the medical room.

Miguel just walks past you, heading to the space you barely see him away from—by the big spider that teleports. You watch him walk, noticing the continuing tear of his suit, that gives you a good look at fractions of his bare muscled back.

You turn, quickly heading towards the exit, remembering something that might be helpful.

"Where are you going?" Miguel's sudden voice makes you slow as you briefly glance back. You catch his gaze. "You should be working." His general solemn expression is present, and oddly that makes you feel settled. Familiarity is always nice, especially after a clearly hard mission.

"I'll be back." You say quickly, before you rush out the door.

When you arrive back, Miguel is looking at his cuts, some clearly deeper than others. You tighten your hold on the large spider suit as you near him.

He instantly notices your presence, most likely a 'spider-sense' thing. His gaze shifts to the material in your grasp. "I know you'd rather someone else's help, but I know for a fact that we don't have spare spider suits, which is kind of stupid considering how dangerous your guys' job's are."

You near him, now noticing the way he's sitting, legs slightly spread, his body leant back in a swivel chair. And as you look closer, you realise that it's your swivel chair. You extend your hand with the suit, which he takes, eyeing the matching material and design of the worn-out one he has on now.

"I made a replica when I first arrived—when I was learning about how things worked here. Your suit is rather unique and I wanted a closer look. Not to mention that the design correlated to data I have saved on all of you."

Miguel raises a brow. "Data?"

"Lyla's data, to be exact. Since I'm working with her, she had to show me."

You watch as he runs the material between the pads of his fingers, his tongue coming out to lick his cut lip. A shiver runs down your spine as you notice his fangs. You'd noticed them before, but was never confident enough to ask him about them. No other spider-person had teeth like that.

You begin to step back. "Wear it if you want. I'm just heading to lunch."

And that was the nicest conversation you think you’ve had with Miguel. Mainly because you did all the talking.

Miguel watched you go, a nervousness very obvious to him practically flowing off you. Nerves he noticed heightened when you gave him the new suit.

He brings said suit into view, tilting his head in observation. He's thankful nobody was there to witness the small smile that had begun to edge his lips.

;;

"I'm sorry, when did you ever think that the patriarchy wasn't something terrible?" You ask Hobie, who had decided to join you for lunch. He had just showed you a new song on his guitar, the lyrics completely different from what you knew Hobie to be.

"Oh, society’s fucked. But I want to keep up an element of surprise." He says, continuously eating most of the food on your plate. "Can't stay predictable, now can I?"

You chuckle, slightly shaking your head, snatching some of the food out of his greedy hands. "Did you know what that mission was about, with all those injured spider-men?" You suddenly ask.

Hobie pauses, before shaking his head. "Though I did hear it got cleared from the database. Miguel asked Lyla to scrap it."

Your brows furrowed. "Why? I wasn't stationed for that mission, so, I was a little surprised to see the bloody fists and faces. Usually when Miguel leads a group things go so..."

"Smoothly?" Hobie fills in, to which you nod. "I don't know, mate. Maybe they lost, and poor Miguel's embarrassed."

Your lips curve up in a smile, as Hobie snickers at the thought.

"And weren't you just saying that you'd kiss my non-existent boots the other day?" Miguel's voice abruptly makes both you and Hobie swivel in your seats.

You instantly catch on to Miguel's clean suit. You hold back a smile threatening to surface at his semi acceptance of your help. Miguel notices your expression. "Don't take it personally, y/l/n."

You forming smile drops as you try to display indifference. "Did you need something, boss?" Hobie partially jokes.

"Not from you." Miguel looks back to you, before tilting his head to the side, silently asking you to follow him, as he turns and walks away.

Nerves crawl up your spine as you stand. You slide your plate closer to Hobie, as you speak. "Don't worry, you can finish it." Your sarcasm in your assurance is obvious, knowing he would have helped himself anyway.

Hobie places his hand over his heart, touched. "You're honestly an angel, y/n."

You scoff, quickly following the now disappeared Miguel.

When you near the tech and teleportation room—or in other words your office—you spot Miguel bringing up a second swivel chair to be placed beside yours.

When he catches your confused expression, he speaks, leaning back into the chair. "I have some spare time now for your first Spanish lesson. And Lyla is occupied, as of now."

You're quick to take a seat, a slight determined shine in your eyes that makes Miguel's throat tighten, which only sets a more prominent scowl on his face. "Te ves como una niña ansiosa mirando los regalos."

You blink, eyes narrowing as you try to decipher any of what he just said. "You look like an over eager child staring at presents." Miguel translates.

The shine in your eyes shifts to a glare of your gaze as you click your jaw. "As I said: I like this job."

"Mm." Miguel hums. "You've made that clear."

You lean back in your chair, trying to match his relaxed posture. "Can we start with something more simple?" You ask, wetting your slightly dry lips. Your nerves seem to do that to you.

"Don't worry, I don't think you're a genius or anything." His tone makes your nose twitch as you take a breath. You'd love to tell him how infuriating he can be.

"Repeat after me: Me llamo…" Miguel says.

"Me llamo."

Miguel is surprised by your rather accurate accent, his gaze shifting to your lips. "Me llamo y/n."

Your body becomes stiff as you hear your first name spill from his lips. You gulp, your throat now feeling dry. "Me llamo y/n."

"I'm sure you can guess what that means." Miguel says, his dry humour shining through.

"My name is y/n." You prove.

"Good." He says.

"Gracias." (Thank you.) You say the one word you do know, a hint of pride filling you as Miguel's eyes meet your own without the usual spite hidden behind.

"Since you know a basic word, let’s learn another." He rests his arm against the armrest, your eyes betraying you as they flicker to the tense of his muscles. "Por favor." (Please.)

"Por favor." You repeat.

Miguel's lips slightly curve up in a smirk. "You sound good being polite."

You narrow your eyes, before realising what 'por favor' means. "Please." You sigh.

Miguel's smirk hasn't dropped. To which you quickly speak. "Next word."

"Let's try a sentence using 'por favor'." He says. "¿Me puede ayudar, por favor?" (Can you help me, please?)

"¿Me puede ayu..." You drift off, unsure.

"Puede ayuder..." Miguel helps.

"¿Me puede ayudar, por favor?" You say, with a small smile.

"You're gonna be using that one a lot." Miguel says, licking his lips. What you don't know is that Miguel made you use the formal 'you', just adding more onto his layer of superiority. That's when you get reminded of his cut lip, which looks like it hasn't been tended to, most likely on his call.

"Are you sure you don't want to make sure that that doesn't get infected?" You ask, gesturing loosely to his bottom lip.

He raises his hand to it. "It's fine."

"Yeah, now it is." You say with a slight scoff. "It might not be—"

"It's fine, chaparrita."

"What does that mean?" You ask. "You've said it to me before."

Part—no, most—of Miguel doesn't want to tell you. Sure, he could play it off as an insult, but the way he can't help but let his tone drop to one of softness when he says it would give away the fact that he uses it as a form of endearment rather then one of hatred. He can't have you knowing that.

His silence makes you speak. "Fine, I'll just search it up then." You go to grab your phone—which sits rather far behind you—when he intercepts, using his web to snatch it up, pulling it back into his awaiting palm.

Miguel stands, taking the device with him. "Hey!" You call after him. "I need that."

"No you don't. Nothing of work importance is on here." Miguel calls back. You scoff, staring after him. Just as he's about to disappear through the exit he speaks. "Oh, and y/l/n?"

You wait in annoyance but also expectancy. "Don't forget you owe me something in return." Then he's gone, leaving you to lean into your chair, feeling heavy with all the different heights of nervousness you had just felt.

;;

It was dark, only a few spider-people wandering around headquarters. You’re preparing to teleport back to your universe, holding the wrist band you were given, when a certain voice stops you.

“Y/l/n.” You spin to see Miguel. You can’t help but let your gaze drop down his body. He wasn’t in his normal spider suit, wearing instead, grey sweatpants, and a loose (very large) shirt.

You had planned to say something, maybe ask what he wanted. But all you could muster was the open and close of your mouth.

You let your gaze shamefully drag back up to his face. His red eyes seemed to stand out more with the monotoned colours of his clothes. You gulp, refraining from shaking your head to clear your…interesting thoughts. You force a smile, maybe one too wide.

Miguel watches you, wishing he didn’t feel so amused by your confusing display of emotions.

You cough. “Did you need something, O’hara?”

He lets his gaze drift down your body, making you stiffen. And of course, he notices, holding down the curve of his lips. He wouldn’t smile in front of you. Though, he’s sure that self-made rule has already been broken by today’s Spanish lesson.

“Stay.” Miguel finally speaks, meeting your gaze.

“Stay?” You repeat.

“Mhm.” He hums, crossing his arms.

“What do you mean?”

Miguel raises an unimpressed eyebrow. “What do you think it means?” He asks dryly.

You narrow your eyes at his tone, running your tongue along your teeth. “I thought only spider-men and women can stay in headquarters?”

“I thought you wanted to do anything to prove your worth?”

Realisation hits you. “Oh, this is part of the deal? Your end?”

“In return for today’s lesson, yes.” He replies, walking closer to you.

He grabs your teleporting wristband, pocketing it in his sweatpants before he’s turning and heading towards a side door.

“Come on.” He orders.

You hurry your steps catching up to him.

Soon you’re beginning to walk up what looks to be the stairs to heaven. So. Many. Steps. You glance up at them, then shift your gaze to Miguel. “We’re walking all the way up there?”

“Feel free to web your way up instead.” The jabbing hasn’t left, which sets a small scowl on your face.

You wave your hands in the general direction of the higher steps. “You can do that, I’ll catch up.” You say as you begin to mount the stairs.

Miguel watches you for a second, pressing his lips together to hold back an unwanted laugh at the preparing deep breath you took.

He follows you up the stairs. You reach halfway when you realise he’s behind you. You spin, your chest slightly heaving. You’ve always felt jealous of all the spider variants’ fitness.

“Why aren’t you swinging?” You ask between breaths.

“Last I remember, you report to me, not the other way ‘round.” Miguel answers.

You scoff while trying to slow your breathing. “It was just a question.”

“Maybe we should switch lessons—do fitness instead of Spanish.” You watch as Miguel passes you, continuing up the stairs.

Your eyes are narrowed as your gaze follows him. “You’re funny.” You call after to his leaving form.

“No tan divertido como que estes sin aliento, chaparrita.” (Not as funny as you being breathless.) Miguel calls back.

“What?” You ask, breathlessly.

Miguel just chuckles. Your brain halts. Miguel just chuckled? Miguel seems to be thinking the same thing as his face returns, rather quickly, to its normal moody expression.

You’re both soon at the top, Miguel having reached it in a decent amount of time before you. Just as your bent of your knees, breathing heavy, Miguel turns, walking away again.

“O’hara.” You call, placing your hand over your rapidly beating heart. He doesn’t answer, continuing to walk.

“Miguel!”

At the mention of his first name he freezes. He doesn’t like the fact that his mouth goes dry, forcing him to gulp. He hasn’t liked the fact that you’ve made him ‘chuckle’, smile and actually forget about his morning’s mission.

“Your room is to the right. Be awake before six.” Miguel says monotonously, as he turns towards you, passing your now straightened body to assumably head to his own room.

You watch him go, your breathing slowing as a small frown forms. But it soon goes, grateful that this new room means O’hara is warming up to the fact of you staying.

;;

When Miguel reaches his room, he slams the door shut, some of the wall’s plaster crumbling off in sprinkles. He was mad. How dare you make him feel that many emotions in one day. One. Day. That’s all it took.

But what he hated more was the fact that underlying his anger towards you, was lust. No matter how hard he tried to deny it, your face and your voice was the thing that helped him late at night.

He hits back against the headboard of his bed, not caring about the creaks and groans of the wood. Because all he could think about was the way your chest looked heaving up and down. The way your mouth opened in pants.

He hated you. His hand slipped down to his pants, sinking into his sweatpants. He hated the way you smiled. His fingers wrapped around his hard on, beginning to stroke, his eyes shut as his head stayed pressed against the wall.

He hated the way you looked at him—big eyes staring with a mix of curiosity. His breathing began to hitch, as his pace quickened, a small groan falling from his lips. He hated the way you smelt—cherry following you everywhere you went. His hips began to thrust up into his palm.

He hated the way…

He hated…

“Coño...” (Fuck.) He whisper-hisses, his cock throbbing with the want to release.

His other hand gripped tight on his messy sheets, as he bites down on his lips, his eyes beginning to roll. His abs contract as his mouth hangs open in a pant. “Ay, dios.” (oh, god.)

Miguel O’hara hates the fact that only you can bring him to an orgasm that makes him desperate to feel another.

Fuck you—he thinks to himself. Fuck you, y/n.

I’ll admit— I didn’t expect this to get so much love, thank you so so much all of you angels, MWAH

I promise more parts are to come!

also some words/how things work in the ‘spider-multiverse hero crew’ might be different then how you picture it—certain details I just made up, hope you all don’t mind

taglist: @ilovedilfjake @toastlover21 @wlellsl @k1rbb @bitchotine @guacam011y @blnk338 @wolfiepirate @kurxxmi @corpsebridenightamare @ohantonia @yunonaneko @irenered-20 @z3r0art @sunflowercandie @perilous-pasta @gloriouskryptonitecrown @whyamistillhere78 @ritzzzsblog @mm1sta @tealcoloured-murder @aweebsimp101 @livelaughlaurv @s0dium @roguepancake @sunshiines-stuff @internal-soundtrack @oscarisdaddy69 @clairacassidy @captainquake42 @nanaloverz @ilyless @sindulgent666 @shine101 @thebadasssass @hibeejibees

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dawndelion-winery · 2 years

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Dumb Ways To Fall in Love

The silly things they do to impress you when they're in love

Ft. Childe, Diluc, Kaeya, Dainsleif, Scaramouche

Childe:

He's always liked to think he was charming in his own odd way

And he does fully expect said "charm" to work on you

Which is why he's pretty confused as to why you don't seem smitten by his obvious attention

He cooks for you a lot! But they're normally,,,,unique dishes with whatever he fishes himself

Because he wants to impress you with how he can whip something up from scratch

Which doesn't really work out well because...well we've seen his signature dish

More often than not, the dessert is far more appetising

Please use that as motivation to finish the main course, he tried his best and it would hurt his feelings if you didn't even try it

Diluc:

He knows him being a rich, gentlemanly bachelor is a very big seeking point of his to most of the Mondstadt population

Which is why he not so subtly tries to subtly flex his wealth in front of you

Now he's already normally generous, which is what makes it so jarring when he does it with you

Because mentally he's just "Yeah, I'd do this for the average Mondstadt citizen, which means I have to one up that now"

But of course who's to determine what "one" is?

Hence the huge leap of obvious favouritism

Not even a hint of hesitation when you seem to want something from him

The number of times he's just agreed to whatever favour you've asked for before you've even specified the favour should give you an idea of what he's like

Kaeya:

He once heard you mention how you feel he's too cool and unapproachable for you, as nice as he was

So he makes an effort to slip up in front of you

Internally he thinks you'll appreciate it - "Notice me being a dumbass and find it endearing please"

Surely that should change your mind about him, right?

Until he overhears another of your opinions on him and how you (affectionately) called him a goofball playing a suave captain

Which he couldn't quite refute but he wasn't entirely sure if that was positive

Leading him back to his initial bravado, once again creating that rift because the dork you thought you noticed had disappeared

And then he panics again because you seem distant again

And the cycle repeats itself until he gets some sense slapped into him or you take a chance and ask him out

Dainsleif:

It wasn't easy being captain of the royal guard

But it was somehow easier than baring his heart to you

Brings you fruits and flowers as he travels with you

Definitely the type to silently bring you cut and peeled fruit as a nonverbal "I love you"

He's gotten really good at food presentation because of it, and adds little edible flowers as decoration

If you ever decide to take a break and read, he offers to feed you the fruit

Honestly at some point it's more like you would naturally assume y'all are dating?? But he doesn't really get the memo and keeps wondering why you never bring it up like is he not being obvious enough for you?

In pain whenever you snuggle up to him assuming you think it's platonic but accepts it nonetheless because it's nice to be able to hold you and be held

Scaramouche:

All people do is disappoint so why put in the effort to woo you?

So he says as he proceeds to try impress you anyway

Subtly flexes quite literally every strength he has in front of you

For no apparent reason he'll cook over a campfire he started out of nowhere just because

Yeah, y'know, just to show he can work with what he's got, he's very resourceful

You're not entirely sure what his intentions are though, since he's more of proving his usefulness instead of showing you he cares about you

And you'd probably only pick up on that if you knew his past

He does pick up on what makes you feel loved and enjoy his presence over time though, so give him a little adjustment time to work out how to best express himself to you

Taglist[send an ask to be added/removed]: @myluvkeiji @pluvioseprince @aqui-soba @favonius-captain @tiredsleep @raincxtter @gensimping-for-all @irethepotato @almond-adeptus @mx-kamisato @yuzuricebun @chaosinanutshell @heizours @haliyamori @callmemeelah @sadlonelybagel @plinkuro @thevictoriousmoon @mastering-procrastinating @lovers-on-the-eiffel @cxlrosii @miss-fantazmagoria @lychme @kokomist @lemonswriting @eowinthetraveller @ajaxstar @boundedbyfate

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yelspyder · 11 months

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gnt do ceu, fico tao feliz de encontrar outro br 😍😍

poderia pedir miguel x reader, em q a lyla percebe q ele gosta do reader e ela tenta dar um jeitinho p ajudar o miguel

enfim oq só as melhores i.a podem fazer😉

˚‧⁺.-"All you need is to be struck by one of Cupid's arrows"

↳ summary: Miguel lives in denial about his little crush, so Lyla is forced to help.

↳ characters: Miguel O'Hara

↳ Gn! Spidey Reader

↳ notes: another brazilian? I didn't think I'd find another one, but it's a pleasant surprise. we must stick together 💪Honestly, I don't have much confidence in my writing, but I hope you like it and thanks for asking.

Miguel was in love and it was obvious. At least for Lyla. He occasionally glared at you, looked like an abandoned puppy when you left, and was absolutely more than willing to do anything you asked.

What irritated Lyla the most was that he never had the nerve to ask you out. Come up to you and ask for a mission report? That was easy for Miguel. Send you on a complicated mission? Pft, he did that almost all the time. But simply asking you out? He had no idea how to do this, not that he planned to do that.

She couldn't take Miguel anymore with the face of a dog that fell off a moving truck when you're not around. It wasn't hard to ask you out. If Miguel didn't do it, she would do it for him herself. Deciding to change that, Lyla started checking Miguel's schedule and your own. Lyla smiled when she found a vague moment in common in the two schedules. Now, it was simple. All Lyla had to do was make a date and everything would be fine.

Miguel was confused when he got a notification from his schedule saying he had an event in two hours. He was pretty sure he didn't have any other meetings that day.

As soon as he checked his calendar and saw that he had an appointment with you, he panicked and called Lyla, demanding an answer.

"Lyla, what does that mean? You take care of my schedule and I never set up this meeting." His heart was beating fast now. A date with you? This could only be a joke.

Lyla materialized beside Miguel and glared at him with a mischievous smile before speaking. "That's exactly what you saw, boss. You have this meeting in two hours. You better start getting ready and maybe even buy some gifts. People like presents, you know?"

"But I never scheduled this meeting!" Miguel looked at Lyla with a mixture of anger, despair, and confusion. "Exactly why I, your amazing assistant, did this for you. If it were up to you, you would be stranded for the rest of your life."

"I never gave you permission to do this-" "But now it's done. At this point, the calendar notification has arrived and has probably already been read. There's no way to stop it anymore. And since I'm a very generous assistant, I'll help you get dressed for your first date with your crush."

At this point, he was mortified not knowing how to respond. He would never have expected to go on a date like this. Miguel didn't answer anything and just stood there, not knowing what to do.

"Don't worry boss, you'll thank me later. Oh, and the appointment I made is in earth 57, at that restaurant you like to go to. I made a reservation in your name."

After taking a moment to compose himself, Miguel still wanted to argue with Lyla, but he already knew he couldn't cancel the meeting anymore. He sighed before speaking. "Just....guide me"

Lyla laughed excitedly and began to ramble on about which outfit he should wear.

Hours later, Miguel could be seen wearing a casual outfit and with a bouquet of flowers sitting at the table while waiting for you. As soon as you arrived and greeted him, he quickly got up from the chair he was sitting in and greeted you back, offering you the bouquet of flowers. You can barely thank him before he pulls out a chair for you to sit down.

He was slightly flushed in the face the entire dinner while you carried on a casual conversation. At first, Miguel only gave a few short and brief answers because he was embarrassed. However, after some time of conversation, he opened up more and it really started to have a date atmosphere.

Right after the two finished eating, Miguel insisted on paying the bill. He ended up accompanying you for a short night walk in Central Park and, before you opened a portal and returned to your house, you gave him a quick kiss on the cheek thanking you for the pleasant encounter.

Miguel was paralyzed for a while after you left, but he traced his cheek with his hand as a small, dreamy smile formed on his lips.

Maybe what Lyla had done wasn't all bad.

Maybe...

#across the spiderverse #into the spiderverse #miguel o'hara #miguel o'hara x gender neutral reader #miguel o'hara x y/n #miguel o'hara x you #spiderverse x reader #miguel o'hara x reader #miguel spiderman #atsv x you #atsv miguel #atsv x y/n #atsv #atsv pavitr #gwen stacy #miles morales #hobbie brown

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ahoyimlosingmymind · 2 months

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i have compassion for Fitz Vacker in the same way I have compassion for Child stars in Hollywood.

He is perceived as a living dream, while he exists in a nightmare that people have so little understanding and empathy for. There's a level to him that is fundamentally unrelatable to most. He has no perceived lacking. At least, not when you're taking in the situation at face-value.

And this^ way of seeing him is fundamentally isolating. It strips him of depth and realness, and it makes him into an image to ascribe ideas and false perceptions onto. A blank canvas to project all of your worst insecurities . After all, He's not real- it doesn't hurt him, right? In fact, it's trendy among the lower class to dislike him. If you aren't obsessed with him to the point of a parasocial relationship, then you resent him. He cannot struggle or have any issues whatsoever because the perception of what luxury is, is so powerful.

This is reflected in the way Dex saw the Vacker's in books 1 and 2. It's reflected in the fandom's inability to empathize with Fitz is any way shape or form (at least on Pinterest/YouTube/Instagram)

He's socialized more around adults than his peers, because of the idea of giftedness and notoriety. Which just puts him on a higher pedestal, and makes him a larger target to hate among kids his age.

He is known, but he is not known. If anyone pursues him as a friend, it is for the sake of making connections and being popular. It's disingenuous. It's to use him as a stepping stool on a rapid rise to fame. to exploit him for personal gain. His trust issues don't come from nowhere, after all.

He had one friend his entire childhood. and what do you know? It's a kid who is trying so hard to outrun the exploitation of his dad's dreams and wishes for him.

Sure, Fitz's parents are present in his life, but they can only mitigate so much of the outside world before it starts seeping right through the walls of their home.

I just think it would be so strange to have so many people barely know you and either obsess over you to the point that you are more fantasy than reality, or resent you so much that you can't say a word without hearing some snide comment in response. And to know that NONE of it is real. None of these people know you.

Fitz's family obviously represents a really big issue in society. Because Dex, Sophie etc... they are RIGHT, that the standards of their world aren't fair. They are right to call it out. They are right to have anger towards the 'upper class' who does nothing to help the lower class. It's understandable. and it's far more relatable than Fitz's situation. but the thing is, shame is shame. and scorn is scorn.

the upper class may whisper. But the lower class does too.

and that's just it. Therein lies the issue with the lost cities.

IT"S NO ONES CHOICE. It was not Dex's choice to born into a bad match marriage, it was not Keslar and Juline's choice to be born in a world where a system like mathmaking even exists. It wasn't their choice to have triplets. But it also wasn't their choice to raise them in a society that hates them.

But no more was it Fitz's choice to be born a Vacker. No more was it his choice that his parents happened to be a good match. It's not his choice to be born into a society where that stuff matters. He's a kid.

But because he represents something at face value that people tend to hate, he is undeserving of compassion when compared to a character like Dex. Fitz is dismissed and disliked because he represents something about their society, even though he's a child who has no real way to combat what generations older than him have enforced.

He is the vessel that is easy to target and to hate, because people need to find someone to blame. Even if that person technically has not contributed in any way to the thing that the people wish to destroy.

and it can only cause resentment to build between the two classes.

Idk man the perception of Fitz Vacker will forever have my head spinning.

#“And they'd all be so disappointed but who am I if not exploited?”#Fitz vacker #biana vacker #alvar vacker #kotlc #kotlc meta

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crowsongcaws · 4 months

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Double Life Thoughts with Desert Duo (Grian/Scar) and Tragicomics (Jimmy/Scar): Everyone already knows about the whole thing with Grian essentially cheating on Scar with Big B in Double Life, and I'm not sure if anyone else has thought about this, but I'm far too lazy to go searching for similar posts. So, let's remember that Big B was, before the events of Secret Life, known for Cookie Castle, which he built in 3rd Life. You can see this with all the fanart of him wearing cookie related stuff or holding cookies. Anyways, when Scar "confronts" Grian about the secret soulmate thing, he gives Grian cookies, which has this barely concealed meaning of saying that he knows who Grian's secret soulmate is without explicitly saying so. Even with this sign clear as day, Grian denies even knowing what Scar is talking about and even looks away from him as he says it. So there Grian is, someone who is (at least in fanon) widely accepted to barely blink and stare into people's souls, actually backing down and looking away, and that's all the confession Scar really needs. So now imagine when Scar was baking these cookies. Obviously it's a bit of a stretch, but imagine Scar scavenging for the materials to make those cookies, taking the time to hide away from danger to bake them, rolling the dough so the cookies come out in nice, mostly round shapes rather than edible lumps. He bakes it fresh for Grian, he wraps it up nicely to present it, he gives them to Grian while they're still vaguely warm, and the only thing Grian can seemingly manage to do is to sound mildly annoyed for whatever reason (poor food source/useless to sell/generally just useless item to have in a death game).

So Scar is left to wander off and stew in his hurt, betrayal, grief, denial, and anger. The prior events happen after the water bucket clutch event, so as he's walking around, he realizes he hasn't seen his horse since the night before. He decides to investigate his first suspects, the Ranchers, because it would make sense that they'd be pissed at him after he not only burned down their ranch in episode 2 but also left them to die in episode 4 (again, water bucket clutch event. Jellies got prioritized over Ranchers). He confronts Jimmy and Tango in his usual charismatic way, except it's very clear that he isn't feeling well, and he eventually lets them in on what's been happening between himself and Grian. Jimmy and Tango are quick to empathize with him, and Tango briefly leaves the conversation to retrieve the horse that, as it turns out, he actually did steal from Scar. While Tango's gone, Jimmy asks if Scar still has extra cookies on hand, explaining that he and Tango had been craving something sweet and hadn't really had the time to go looking for the resources to make it themselves. Scar says he does, but he's hesitant to hand them over, reasoning that the cookies have probably gone stale by then, that they're definitely cold, that he had barely found the right ingredients to make them anyways, so they would probably taste off or unpleasant. Jimmy laughs it off and says he barely has room to be picky in a death game anyways, but when he bites into the cookie, his eyes go wide and he immediately starts loudly rambling about how good it is and how Scar clearly has some sort of talent with cooking outside of the games to have made such good cookies with such little resources or opportunity. And, of course, Scar isn't over Grian. He's only barely managed to accept what's happened, but the way that Jimmy looks at him, the way that Jimmy seems absolutely overjoyed over such a miniscule thing that wasn't even meant for him, Scar gets the feeling that his heart isn't going to start and stop beating because of Grian. At least, not after this.

#trafficblr #life series #traffic life series #desert duo #tragicomics #scar/jimmy #jimmy/scar #I decree that their ship name is tragicomics #double life #jimmy solidarity #goodtimeswithscar

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ln4-llingforu · 11 months

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Hey!! Specific request for you :) meeting Lando at a post Vegas GP party. You message back and forth as he goes to Abu Dhabi, but then he surprises you and flies to your hometown to spend his first week post season. You get to show him around and introduce him to your family and friends, etc?

There's Something So Magic About You

I love this idea!!

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Your Tiktok had blown up in the past few months, with breaking down and generally commentating on the ongoing of F1 both on and off of the grid. This had led to you getting invited to the brand new Las Vegas grand prix with Ferrari. But it wasn't the boys in red that were catching your eye, it was a certain British boy in his 'papaya-esque' uniform, he'd been growing out his facial hair all season and was now starting to look a lot more mature. Little did you know you'd caught his eye aswell, he'd seen you on tiktok breaking down his great overtakes and massive progress McLaren had made throughout the season.

Sundays race hadn't went amazingly for Ferrari with one driver DNF-ing mid way through the race and the other receiving multiple penalties during qualifying leading to a very difficult start to the race, they had not ended where they had wished, some who did however, was a certain Lando Norris who had came second, his best result all season.

Obviously, with it being Las Vegas, the after party was huge, drivers, friends, mechanics even a few team principals had shown their faces. The drinks were flowing, the music was booming and the whole club was alive, you were simply observing until you felt someone tap you on the shoulder.

"Hi" you heard, shouted over the music by a voice you'd come to know very well, "I'm Lando, its a pleasure to meet you"

"I'm very aware of who you are" you replied, you words slightly slurred after what was maybe one too many drinks.

"So do i get a name? Or am i just gonna have to call you 'the girl that would look 100x better in orange?" He added, a slight of hope in his voice.

"I quite like that actually, it has a bit of a ring to it, guess if you want a name you're gonna have to work for it, papaya boy" you replied, in a half-serious way, as you turned to walk off into the night, he grabbed you by the waist pulling you back in .

"If i can't get a name can i at least get a number??" He was almost starting to sound desperate.

You complied, exchanging numbers and sending a quick text just to make sure they were right. At this point you knew you'd had one too many, you could both tell this as Lando, who had also had a few too many tonight suggested you shared a ride back to the hotel.

When you arrived you parted ways and got in separate elevators. It was then it hit you, not only did he notice you, he wanted you.

The week between Vegas and Abu Dhabi went by in a blur with you and Lando barely leaving each other alone, going from awkward hellos to spilling secrets and learning about one another so quickly it was hard to remember a time before you knew him. Sadly, for both of you, you couldn't attend the finale race of this season, promising Lando that you'd watch every second and call him when he was alone.

The weekend went by, Lando had done well by all means, but he didn't win, he'd made it into P4 which was still amazing, but Lando seemed very upset and you felt horrible that you couldn't be there. You asked if he was doing any celebrating to which he said he had some 'important business' to attend to and honestly, you were too afraid to ask.

And oh, were you glad you didn't, on Monday morning you were woken up by a loud knock at your door, expecting it to just be a package you had ordered, you put very little effort into making yourself look presentable so when you opened the door and saw a smile you had longed for for so long, it took you a minute to even process what was happening.

He almost luged at you hugging you tighter than you'd ever been hugged, you asked what he was doing here to which he replied that he wanted to spend time with his new found favourite person.

You spent the week visiting different places in your hometown, your favourite restaurant, the park where you learned how to ride a bike, he even met some of your friends.

It got to Friday, almost time for him to go, though it was likely you'd go with him at least for a little while. Casually, while you were getting ready to go for your weekly family dinner, which Lando had begged to go to until you asked your mum who was delighted to have him over, he said he wished you two could be more, something serious, you asked why you couldn't, he didn't give you a direct answer, he simply asked if you would be his girlfriend, of course you agreed.

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I hope this fit what you imagined :))

If you have any other weirdly specific requests please send them :))

Masterlist

#lando norris #lando norris smut #lando norris fluff #lando norris x reader #f1 x you #f1 fluff #f1 mclaren

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joesalw · 5 months

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Ok, that's gonna be long one.

One jet is around $50 million. She has two. And now she had the ig tracking account taken down claiming that's an invasion of privacy. Very interesting considering the account existed for a few years and she didn't have any problems with it and now suddenly she gets called out for abusing the environment it's become invasive. The lady is shady. And the fact that her answer about not going to therapy is 'i feel very sane'. Oof. She's republican raised for sure. Those people think that any mental health issue equals clinical insanity and if you're seeing a therapist there must be something wrong with you.

She's jumping from one relationship to another and doesn't even know who she is. She just molds into whatever her man wants or what looks best for the image. She doesn't know how to exist on her own. For someone who presents herself as a 'girlboss' she sure doesn't have a sense of self-worth and always has to have a man next to her. No matter how bigoted he may be. She's not getting any younger so she's getting desperate and that's probably why she's unleashing on Joe. If she wants a kid, she doesn't have much time left so she latches on to every man throwing themselves at her in hopes of a happily ever after. It doesn't work like that. Fix yourself first then move on to look for someone to build a life and future with. There's no way any sane grown man would want a self-sabotaging, fight-picking, obsessive overgrown teenager with no sense of boundaries to even marry let alone have a child with. She doesn't know where her public life ends and private one begins.

I'm sure Joe saw all of that and dipped. It's not good to bring a child in that environment. And if they'd ever had one, she'd go on with her life and he'd be a house husband. I've never seen TS as maternal, nurturing or even mature enough to have a child because she seems not to have the capacity to take care of herself. In 2016 Joe was the one who took care of her and 'saved her'. It wasn't her own doing. And when he left, she started spiraling again. She portrayed herself as a mature grown woman in her 2020 albums and that turned out to be a farce. She's still that same insecure 16 year-old but richer, more influential and famous. Her recent interviews are a solid proof of that.

Her music is also nothing special. Some generic pop with repetitive and recycled melodies. She's not a vocalist, not a dancer, doesn't have a superb instrument skill, there's barely any emotion in every song she sings. Her lyrical topics are the same and don't hold any though provoking themes. She uses nonsensical metaphors and uncommonly used words to make her lyrics look better and herself seem smarter. It doesn't change the point of the song though. Argumentative antithetical dream girl is just a glamorous way of saying manic. Machiavellian is a way of saying manipulative, being morally indifferent and self-serving, lacking empathy. Sure does sound nice, huh? "I'm only cryptic and Machiavellian (manipulative, selfish, deceptive, cunning. call it whatever you want) 'cause I care". Machiavellianism in psychology is described as one of the traits in the Dark triad model. Right along narcissism and psychopathy. Mastermind is masterminding out in the open and no one bats an eye. The psychologists that named the trait after Niccolo Machiavelli said that one of the core features is lack of concern for conventional morality (they aren't concerned about the morality of lying and cheating). If you're into psychology Richard Christie and Florence L. Geis (the ones that named the trait) have a book "Studies in Machiavellianism" which is a pretty good and insightful read.

(just my assumption) I'm sure Joe dropped that word on her and she was like 'ooh, sounds nice and Machiavelli was like very political, a bit controversial and cool and people refer to him a lot, I'll definitely be using that in a song'. lmao. little did she know. I think she thought he meant it in a political sense and not a psychological one. Which are totally different things. And I'm sure he was like 'lol, she thought'.

There're a ton of celebrities bringing her up on talk-shows as well. At least once a week there's a bit on some show about a certain celeb's interaction with her. As someone who enjoys learning english trough media that's quite disturbing. I see her everywhere, TV shows, news articles, social media outlets. She's becoming inescapable. And that makes me wonder about the proportion of celebrities and journalists who genuinely like her and the ones who bring her up to get more attention. God forbid you say anything negative about her. Her Karen army will immediately send death threats your way, make fun of every aspect of your life or even dox you. And with her silence she's enabling this behaviour because she's a self-proclaimed Machiavellian (whether she chose a psychological meaning for the song or not) and doesn't care what her minions do as long as she doesn't get called out for it.

She only allows non-critical journalists to interview her. I mean, what kind of self-suck is that? An interview should be a form of discussion and not an ass kissing session. Any negative article about her will have your whole outlet blacklisted from interacting with her and her team. She needs to be in full control of the narrative all the damn time because she knows that once she lets go of the rein all of the skeletons in her closet will fall out on their own.

She's digging her own grave and I'm here for it. Last time she could make Kim and Kanye the villains and this time she'll have no one to blame but herself. Her narcissistic flat ass would make Tree the scapegoat if there's no one else she could point her finger to. It's always someone else's fault but hers. A chronic victim of this cruel patriarchal world.

I have studied psychology briefly and have learned about the dark triad and machiavellianism. What's surprising to me is that high mach people can gain advantage in the short run but ultimately lose their power in the long run because people start seeing through their surface level acting, which is what we're seeing through her behaviour right now. She acts to be an activist only when it benefits her. But swifties have so much obsession with her that even if they find it disturbing, they will try to justify it. Also idk how Taylor flexes about her machiavellianism, like to me that's not something to be proud of, the ends do not justify the means when you hurt so many people in the process. The fact that she's accepting she's cunning, manipulative, deceptive and lies to get things according to her own interest tells a lot about who she is as a person! no wonder why Joe didn’t want to marry her. Her machiavellianism trait only benefitted her in the short run

#anti taylor swift #joe alwyn #swifties dni

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danse--macabre · 5 months

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jaheira/astarion headcanons:

he constantly flirts (which is par for the course for astarion), as early as the end of Act 2, but it is just so ineffective. so ineffective. your lies mean nothing pretty boy!

jaheira enjoys rebuffing this and coming up with creative ways to tell him his lines do nothing, lol.

he also constantly winds her up as well. will joke about her being a bare-foot hippie for simply being a druid. has called her 'the great jaheira' and 'the high harper' before ('and what does the high harper think?'), just to annoy. attention-seeking behaviour!

this is admittedly something jaheira will also do. loves to rib him for complaining about the damp, the wet, the cold, the mud, nature in general, walking too much, carrying too much, etc. will call him a soft little baby and an aged old man at the same time.

they are a bickering couple

the fact that astarion couldn't give a shit about nature while jaheira is literally a druid is a running joke and theme when it comes to dunking on each other tbh.

another related running theme: when they finally do hit it off, it's a running joke they never actually have sex in a bed. at camp, in a field, in the dirt, on the floor or against the wall in an abandoned building - but almost never in a bed. (real reason: I did not realise you could rent the elfsong out, sorry. but also astarion does complain about this of course.)

astarion LOVES to try and get jaheira to talk shit. she presents herself as somewhat above it, but jaheira is probably partial some gossip and I think a habit that does begin in the early stages is they will share a bottle of wine and they will start being old judgy queens together

'you're becoming a bad influence,' she'll say, wrinkling her nose, hitting him lightly on the shoulder. 'Was I not already?' She rolls her eyes, walks away. 'All the best things are, darling!' he'll call out, with a cackle, as she walks away.

when jaheira actually turns and gives astarion a genuine and sincere compliment... critical hit, maximum damage, hits the fucking bullseye.

other ways of critically hitting: any gentle caress to his face after a genuine compliment.

lots of genuine arguments as well about adventuring choices. I think one thing that does draw me is that yes, astarion does have people pleasing tendencies but he does tend to be quite vocal about his opinion. I'm fairly sure he and jaheira will clash often BEFORE he becomes super drawn into any kind of romance arc & I think in some ways that's fairly good for him.

astarion thinks the fact that she can turn into a panther and just tear into something is the hottest thing and quite frankly I think he was interested as soon as he saw her do this in the moonrise towers fight.

on jaheira's end... quite frankly if he wasn't a vampire and if they didn't have a job to do she would have just bedded him sooner, he's easy on the eyes and good fun, so why not? It does hit her in the middle of their flirting period that in another universe she wouldn't have hesitated.

when they do hook up jaheira tries to keep it a secret / on the down-low. this lasts about five days LOL.

it's not actually astarion's fault - he can be discreet and respects her wishes - it's just this camp is full of gossip mongers and lae'zel has bat ears. within five days everyone Knows.

at least one person (probably wyll, since he's fairly insightful) thought they'd been hooking up since they hit rivington.

jaheira doesn't realise astarion is slightly older than her until she tries calling him cub.

he laughs her off as a flatterer. she's confused, he tells her to just go on and guess his age. she thinks he's 120 years old.

'Add another century to that darling and you're almost there'. Cue jaheira being slightly stunned and astarion absolutely revelling in it.

I think she will still sometimes refer to him / treat him as if he is younger and he to her as if she is older though. It becomes a running inside joke.

biting: very much off the table when they do finally hook up.

(this does not stop astarion brushing his fangs against her skin to tease her when they hook up. 'Careful. No biting.' 'Oh, I wouldn't dare').

the fact that he is a vampire actually is one of jaheira's concerns and a small point of contention. jaheira has an interesting banter where she explains about a time she killed a spawn quite dramatically - while she's not a 'kill on sight' reckless moralist, she's got no great love for the creatures, and as much as she does come to enjoy the banter and the company, it's tinged with wariness in the first half of Act 3, because Jaheira is slow to trust and quick to suspect

the first bite happens well after cazador is dealt with. honestly I can see it happening on the eve of the final battle. because of jaheira's initial wariness, it becomes a real moment of intimacy and trust. she lets him drink from the arm, rather than the neck, just to maintain more control, has healing and resurrection scrolls prepared (she does not tell him this because she doesn't want to freak him out), etc. But he's able to stop when she asks. After it's over there is a very warm moment, after astarion gives her his sincere, genuine thanks, of her cradling his face and calling him a messy eater (lol)

speaking of Cazador, that's... honestly, it's a Lot given they're having a 'light & breezy' romance and they're still in the casual dalliance stages, have only just started hooking up if at all. jaheira ends up learning about some of the horrific trauma through seeing rather than Astarion telling and I think it'd be a bit mortifying if he weren't so singularly focussed on the goal.

I think Jaheira offers to share a bottle of wine with him the night after. I think he takes up her offer and it's a mix of talking about what happened in his own words (Astarion is actually fairly direct when it comes to talking about traumatic incidents) and also talking about something completely different when it gets too much.

Things definitely do ramp up in the final stretch / final few days before the Battle with the Elder Brain. Lots of post-battle shenanigans with some honest and quite raw moments? It's one of the most intense points of their fling (which increasingly feels NOT like a fling).

But I think Jaheira instinctively draws back after the final battle and tries to walk back some of the intensity and intimacy that developed due to 'it might be our last chance', due to some ingrained fears of intimacy and loss + trying to rationalise it as an impulsive, heat-of-the-moment thing + an expectation that Astarion would just move on anyway (false).

Astarion goes off to become a hero in the spawn ending. He does often return to the gate and they always arrange to meet for a drink. There's a lot of catching up, chatting shit, but also Jaheira increasingly turns to him for advice and to get his perspective on an issue. I think she trusts his viewpoint and when she can get in her head about not being able to save everything or everyone, or a hard choice she has to make, he'll often just go, somewhat bluntly, 'well you did the important thing, didn't you?' and put things in perspective. You killed the bad guy, you stopped the plot, you saved that woman's life. Trust yourself more. (He'll attempt to walk this back with a joke about how he's still a libertine scoundrel; Jaheira will laugh him off)

'You work too hard' is a common complaint of Astarion's. He's right. Jaheira always appreciates hearing it.

I think it's here we might also get touches of Astarion's 'I want to be close without having sex' we see in Act 2. I think there's at least on occasion where they initiate sex, he backs out, she's supportive and they end up cuddling.

Something Jaheira discovers way too late, following the events of the game: he's damned good at giving a massage. 'You didn't think to tell me this while we were sleeping in the dirt?' (Response is something like: 'Oh Jaheira, you wish you'd used me more for my body? My my.')

As said before, the 'I actually have sincere feelings for you' confession comes unexpectedly during the epilogue party, astarion impulsively ends up telling her. Jaheira... has to suddenly deal with the distance she put up like a wall coming crashing down because Astarion is impulsive and bad at holding things in

I think in an interesting mirror to Astarion's request to go slow with sex, Jaheira says she'll need to go slow with intimacy and romance. It's been a while (more than long enough), but she's not really had anything serious since her husband died.

I think as a compromise they maintain long distance for a bit, Astarion continues to adventure, but he'll visit with increasing frequency and for increasingly long periods. Jaheira will, after a while, insist he stay with her and not just in a tavern, and this gradually morphs into him spending months at a time in Baldur's Gate before a lead will pull him in another direction.

Which I think is good for them both. I think Astarion does well from a chance to just develop an identity for himself without being 'a partner' and grow on his own through adventuring. I think it also helps things develop at a pace Jaheira's comfortable with and means Jaheira can set some very concrete boundaries.

As things become serious and Astarion just drops the mask, they're very much 'fondly rib each other in public whenever one of them is even a displays affection, but deeply soft and sweet with each other in private'

Takes them a long while to say anything like 'I love you'.

Personally I can see them doing it after the other gets injured in battle. Berating them for being reckless and then telling them they love them, they're terrified, etc. Quite frankly I can see this happening to them both, but given Jaheira has lost a love before... more meaningful from her mouth.

Astarion is nothing like Khalid and Jaheira is very thankful for this. He's a different thing entirely, but it's not any kind of lesser love either.

#astarion #jaheira #jahstarion #jaheira/astarion #please enjoy these sets of headcanons i wrote at 4am because i was dealing with back pain. most fucking 30s thing ever.#i turn 30 i develop backpain i get obsessed with old queen/old queen. standard.

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comicaurora · 1 year

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hii hello 👋 just wanted to start by saying that the comic is still so cool interesting and I love how things are progressing so far, at first I wasn't sure if i was going to enjoy the current arc as much but its honestly really enganging with the bits of Falst backstory being revealed, seeing Dainix in action and put in situations, and also more interactions of the party members without Kendal really being present there (i love him sm but its interesting to see how the group dynamic is starting to really shape up, even though falst and dainix have only known each other for like a day(?), putting them in a perilous situation is a really good choice we can see open guy and closed off guy interacting and its so !! its cool) also the lighting for the cave with the fire and the ancient tech is great!

(this is already such a long ask im so sorry)

but ... speaking of ancient tech, i wanted to know how much of it has survived? we know that Erin's bag of holding is also Ancient made (iirc), and so is the storm pedestal, but is there still some other known Ancient tech used in the world? are there also significant populations/communities of people with Ancient ancestry that have gathered and do they have most of the access to that tech? If they do exist, are they more of a closed-off community or are they kind of subsumed into the local population (of ppl with no Ancient ancestry and stuff) ?

tl;dr really digging the current arc i love zombie dungeon funtime adventure. more info abt ancient tech / ppl descended from ancients pls?

anyway thank you very much and have a good day ^_^ love your work Red and it's honestly amazing how far the comic has progressed and the community's grown over the past 3-4 years ! (damn i cant believe 2019 was 4 years ago)

glad you're having fun! dropping dorks down a hole for Character Development is always a fun idea

Most Ancient stuff is in ruins, but the automatons are quite sturdy, especially the stuff created in the final days of the civil war. Ancient war machines will sometimes reactivate and un-bury themselves, wreaking havoc based on long-belayed and half-remembered orders. Dainix's desert home deals with these on occasion, which is why he's familiar with the basics of how they work.

Most Ancient tech works in ways that nobody has quite figured out how to replicate, but it can sometimes be repurposed if it's well-preserved enough - although the fact that most Ancient tech reacts with alarms at the presence of humans and elves makes it pretty hard for most people to make them do anything particularly useful. Things like Erin's bag are rare but not unbelievably so - there seem to have been a lot of them, and they're hard to break.

Ancient ancestry has been almost entirely subsumed into the overall population, and it almost never presents in any visible way - just about its only telltale signs are unusual height, and the combo of earthtone-skin and light-earthtone-hair with pale jeweltone-eyes, which is not naturally found in uninfluenced humans or elves and is rarely found even in elementally adapted populations of either (elves can have jeweltone eyes but always have skytone skin, typically patterned; influenced humans like crystal-caste will have jeweltone eyes and hair; etc)

Ancient tech responding positively to anyone is quite rare, and typically occurs in people who seem to have a significant number of Ancient ancestors on both sides of their family and consequently visibly resemble the phenotype to an unusual degree. It's very difficult to measure this sort of thing, but the general rule of thumb seems to be that a person needs to be at least 10% of Ancient descent before the tech doesn't panic on sight, and at least 20% in order for it to actually respond to them in any meaningful way. So the equivalent of one Ancient great-grandparent would work as a bare minimum, which doesn't sound too bad - unless you start doing the math of how many generations have actually passed since there were a surplus of Ancients around.

After the Ancient civil war ended and the "cave-folk" left the Singing Caves, there were barely a thousand Ancients left alive and scattered across the northern continents, in contrast to hundreds of thousands of humans and elves. And since this was over 4000 years ago, with generations happening at a rough average of three per century, there have been over 120 generations since the Emergence. One way to look at this is that every person of the Elder Races currently alive is a descendant of some set of those people alive at the Emergence, 120 generations back - they had kids 119 generations back, those kids had kids 118 generations back, etc etc, eventually leading to a person alive today whose great-great-great-(115-more-greats) grandparents were all around at the Emergence. However, this numbers game gets complicated when we do the basic math of asking "how many (118-greats)-grandparents would anyone have)" and find the answer is 2^120, or a little over 1 undecillion, which is a one with 36 zeroes after it, which is a billion billion billion billions. This many people have never been alive anywhere, because the uncomfortable truth is that after a certain number of generations back everyone's family trees stop forking and start looping, though if it happens far enough back it's not a genetic liability like it is in certain colonizing nations' royal families. So this math is already falling apart, but it is giving us some idea of how catastrophically unlikely it is for someone's Emergence-era ancestry to beat the odds and have enough Ancient make it to the modern day to be detectable.

To dramatically simplify the math and pretend generations are cleanly delineated at 3/century (and that genetics actually works like clean 50%s every time, or even that genetics as we understand it applies to this fictional fantasy world), at the time of the Emergence, the world population was around 0.1% Ancient, and in order for a modern person to make the tech work for them, their first-generation ancestry - the sum of all those Emergence people whose descendants eventually produced this kid, weighted to account for the people who are technically the 118-great-grandparents multiple times over thanks to family tree loops - needed to be at least 10-20% Ancient. It's not impossible, and there were parts of the world where the Ancient population at the Emergence was easily that high, but they're likely to be vastly outnumbered in the rest of the pile of 118-greats-grandparents as the family tree approximately doubles in size every generation.

So it happens, but it's rare and getting rarer. Most people in this field are instead trying to crack how to reprogram or build automaton control units from scratch, rather than dealing with them freaking out all the time.

#asks #aurora

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kingslionheart · 3 months

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I was wondering, do you think alfred and uhtred had feelings for each other in canon?

ALRIGHT SO. I'm so extremely sorry for taking so long to answer, life has been messy for a while now and I think it has been almost 3 months since you sent this. I have basically written this entire answer little by little every single day since I first received the ask and I have only just now finished reading it again.

EVEN MORE APOLOGIES BECAUSE IT TURNED OUT TO BE EXTREMELY LONG, I'll keep it under the cut!!

Please bear in mind that there are spoilers for the entire show and film and please forgive any possible typo.

OFF WE GO NOW!!

In general I think it is important to note that the last kingdom is a show FULL of queer characters (and I will die on that hill), mostly because there's just so much subtext in the whole show, and Alfred is 100% queercoded.

There are so many aspects of his character that just betray his queerness and the first thing that does that is literally the thing so many blame him for: the way he treats Uhtred.

NOW.

Let's look at Alfred's first scene ever. Alfred appears in 1x02 and he's introduced as someone who considers himself a sinner because of his inability to control his lust. When Beocca speaks to him about the girl he’s currently feeling guilty about, Alfred's immediate first reaction is to banish her, but instead he's presented with the option of bringing her into his service. Now the reason why it is proposed by Beocca is to keep her close to show God that he's able to resist temptation and, when he does resist, to thank this higher being he so desperately believes in. This is something that comes again in 1x03 when Beocca tells him to pray for strenght the moment he almost fails again.

In brief we know that there are two moments when Alfred has to pray: when he resists temptation and when he's tempted.

After he becomes king he reserves a very particular treatment for this girl who tempted him. In 1×04 we can see, for example, that soon after washing his hands, he basically throws a towel at her without a single glance. The treatment he gives her is a cold and distant one and that's the exact same way he treats Uhtred.

Indeed, as he did when he accepted Beocca's suggestion about the servant girl, I actually believe that proving God that he could resist temptation is one of the two reasons why Alfred has brought Uhtred into his service in the first place. The only other important use he had was his knowledge of the Danes, because, at least at this point of the story, the reason of him being such a fantastic sword genuinely does not stand.

In S1 it is very obvious that Uhtred isn't that much of a great warrior, and that makes sense because he's still very young, and at the end of the day he only first made his reputation when he killed Ubba, which, by Uhtred's own admission in the books, was entirely by luck, since he was actually the one who was about to get killed. Of course it is absolutely clear why he would have never admitted such thing, he needed that reputation and that was the first significant chance he got, but the thing is that he had been in Alfred's service for a few years already when that happened.

Alfred gave lands and a title of ealdorman to someone who was a 18 years old who came from Northumbria, a some guy who had absolutely nothing and no reputation whatsover, and that he himself barely knew, even worse a man who looked like a dane and that was a pagan. If you ignore Uhtred's point of view, that's absolutely insane of someone who just became a king who didn't even have that much support from his nobles yet.

It was serving Alfred that granted Uhtred to become an actual warrior with reputation, before that he wasn't one, as Uhtred himself told Alfred in 1×02.

As I said, the only good reason for Alfred to take such a man into his service was to have danish knowledge in court, but even that could have been something quick, you know, learning the basics and then just keeping contact with him as a spy, exactly as he did with Haesten at the end of S2 and at the beginning of S3, but no. Alfred tried his very best to tie him down to Wessex and make sure that he would remain. Why is that? It is to prove that he was able to resist temptation and being in control of his own body.

Alfred was an extremely pious man as many say throughout the whole show and even in the film. He needed to prove himself to God so that he would have had favour from his part and back then there was also the whole concept of "a king who's not able to control his body is not able to control his kingdom". Resisting temptation with a man would have proven it even more than resisting temptation with a woman, especially because, compared to the other servants, Alfred genuinely arrives to a point where he's actually and sort of obviously in love with Uhtred, so it isn't any longer just a body thing but a mind/heart thing, so even worse because that would cause his judgement to be clouded, Alfred himself admits this in 2x06, where he also says that Uhtred is a temptation to him.

The word temptation is an interesting one because Alfred always uses it with a sexual connotation, we saw that in s1 especially, but I want to talk about the episode I just mentioned. Here Alfred talks about Uhtred to Aelswith and he says:

What if all this time, it has been the work of the Devil tempting me? Offering me this warrior, this seemingly loyal and brave man, who piece by small piece, is eating at my soul and clouding what I believe to be right and wrong.

Alfred here, as I said already, explicitly says that he considers Uhtred a temptation sent by the devil, which, with the knowledge of his specific use of that word, can only mean one thing. The fact itself that Aelswith then replies that "this is what the devil would do" is noteworthy because that is a topic once called to attention by Asser in 1x06 when talking about Iseult he tells Uhtred "I know the devil exists, hiding within beauty is a trick he will use often, I'm sure". Aelswith gives Alfred a solution to the problem by telling him to get rid of him, and that's what does, he banishes Uhtred. Alfred talked of Uhtred as a temptation and then he chose to banish him for a while, does it by any chance remind you of something? His first instict in 1x02 about the servant.

Another thing that is very important to point out is that, as I said before, Alfred is considered a pious christian, so we know that Alfred prays daily and a lot, he even uses prayers to establish a political connection most of the times, but that can't prove his piety because many did too. The only times Alfred proves his piety are those when he prays alone and that happens 3 times in 3 seasons, which is funny since we could have expected way more for his reputation, but since it happens so little there has to be a meaning. As we said, we know that Alfred has to pray in two specific moments: when he has to thank God for resisting temptation and when he's tempted.

So very casually the times where he prays alone are always connected to Uhtred.

The first moment it happens is in 2x06, before the scene when Alfred admits that Uhtred tempts him and after the scene when Alfred screams at Uhtred "I do not know you and I could never know you", which is totally "know" as the biblical meaning of the word, if we consider everything that I have said before. The two other times are in s3, when Alfred's love for Uhtred is way more obvious and rather in a more romantic way than just attraction. The first time in that season is in 3x03 when he's there praying, with tears in his eyes, a few weeks (perhaps even a month) after Uhtred has betrayed him, and there he speaks of him and we see that he's hurt and wants to hurt Uhtred in return, so there's an element of heartbreak. The second time is in 3x06, after he has seen Uhtred again for the first time since his betrayal, and there we can find something close to worry for Uhtred's condition as a pagan, because he says that "He is a man in great need of the guidance of God". In 3x08 there's also an interesting hint about his prayers when Beocca hypothyses that Alfred prays for Uhtred's return and the truth behind it is written plainly on Alfred's face. His prayers shifted from a physical attraction type of temptation to something that could very clearly be recognised as love.

S3 is THE proof that Alfred was in love with Uhtred and, while you can already see it in the first episode of it when he watched Uhtred ride away from the city (which he also did in 1×02), that love becomes more obvious immediately after Uhtred betrays him in 3x02, YES THAT SCENE WHEN HE’S CRYING ALONE IN THE ROOM. While I do realise that it could be interpred as crying because his dream of an england was in danger, STILL you know that it is not just that, that man was heartbroken and the worst thing about it is that Alfred totally knew that he had no one to blame but himself, because Alfred is always perfectly aware of the way he treats Uhtred, think about the “I do not, I cannot” in 2x06 when Aelswith asks him if he trusts him, Alfred cannot trust Uhtred because if he did then he would totally fall into temptation, I MEAN LOOK AT WHAT HAPPENED TO AETHELSTAN WITH INGILMUNDR.

From that episode onward Alfred is on another level of misery, and that’s truly an achievement considering how miserable that man always is. First of all he’s angrier than ever and that anger reaches levels of revenge, confirmed by Alfred himself in 3×09 when he says this:

It was done to damn you. To inflict pain, possibly. I try to make decisions rationally. However, taking your children was not a rational decision. It was thoughtless. It was selfish.

Here Alfred admits that he wanted to hurt Uhtred and why did he do that? Because he wasn’t thinking rationally, and why wasn’t he thinking rationally? Because it concerned Uhtred. This literally always goes back to 2x06, because Alfred did say there that Uhtred clouded his judgment and that is the proof. When it comes to Uhtred, when Uhtred is around, he just can’t think rationally. That’s literally some romantic shit there.

I made the example of Aethelstan and Ingilmundr earlier and that truly fits this whole part really well, because in the film Aethelstan is portrayed as someone who’s blind and acting in a completely irrational way because he’s in love with Ingilmundr, his oathman. I would also love to point out how Aethelstan is portrayed as a pious christian king who prays and acts only for his own salvation, since he considers himself a sinner for his queerness. There’s so much guilt in that boy and, especially, more than once he’s compared to Alfred: first by Ingilmundr who tells him that he has to be pious so that men would speak of him as they spoke of his grandfather, and second when Aethelstan talks to Uhtred and indirectly compares his sins as worse than the ones of Alfred, so the connection between them is not only about piety, but also sins. Then, no less important, I think it is quiet obvious who Ingilmundr reminds of considering how he was “born a dane but raised saxon”. The parallels are right there and have never been louder.

Another parallel that I want to point out is the connotation between homosexuality and England, that’s particularly connected to the film because in SKMD Aethelstan wants to unite it simply to redeem himself for having a male lover:

Ingilmundr: Perhaps return to your grandfather’s vision for England. Perhaps now there is an urgency to bring the pagans to light.

Aethelstan: Will that cleanse me? Us?

Ingilmundr: Well, surely the greater the lands, the greater the faith. Go beyond what Alfred dreamed of. Look to the islands God made, not the countries ordained by men, and bring all to Christianity. So when you are judged, you will be found in balance. And thus may accept both the sin… and the conquest against it.

Notice how even in this whole thing Alfred sort of remains the greatest sinner of them all, because Ingilmundr here says to bring to christianity the lands that God created and not the ones that men, Alfred, wanted to make, it almost feels as if he’s saying that his sin would only be accepted if he does what God offers him in lands and therefore if he doesn’t put himself above God by being the one who decides which parts to unite and which not. Here Alfred is truly portrayed as someone who has put himself above God in his decisions and thus England would have never cleansed him for his sins, because he was directly sinning while planning it and actually, always back in 2x06, Alfred too considered himself a sinner for the way he was laying the fundations of the country, but not in the way Ingilimundr meant but because “I am reaching out for an England, all in the name of God, yet I am relying upon the strength of a heathen”, so what made him a sinner was his connection to Uhtred.

The thing is that as a consequence in the film England is connected to carnal sins and, indeed, as you have probably realised already when you watched the show, that country has ALWAYS been put in some sexual way, you may call it Alfred’s fav kink. That seriously begins in 1x03 when Alfred is making out with that servant (the same one we have talked about before) and he literally goes like “I will defend you with my life, you stand as everything that is precious, you are Wessex, England, always to be cherished, never to be violated, only to be loved, vigorously”, therefore Alfred arrived to the point of seeing someone as a personification of England and that happens only another time in the show and that is in 2x03 when he says to Uhtred “You are a Saxon who is also a Dane, The very embodiment of the England that must emerge”.

THE VERY EMBODIMENT.

To him Uhtred was the personification of England and now this might be a bittttt too much from me, but even in 3x09 when Alfred is dying his last conversation is about Uhtred and the role he will have in the formation of England, and there Aelswith is trying to make Alfred see that it is wrong because being guided (SO RELYING) by a pagan means straying from God’s rightenous path, but what does Alfred do? He literally defends Uhtred and those are his last few breaths, what has Alfred said to that servant? “I will defend you with my life, […] you are […] England”, and look at Alfred’s final words:

Aelswith: Why are the Danes forever at our door? Because we are being punished, Lord, for the presence of this heathen.

Alfred: He is for England.

Aelswith: He is an outlaw.

Alfred: My England... my love.

Alfred basically dies defending Uhtred and while “My England” could be interpreted as him thinking about the actual country, the whole conversation and the whole parallels both between 1x03 and 2x03, so with the knowledge that to him Uhtred is England, I DON’T KNOW I JUST CAN’T HELP BUT THINK “HMM YOU KNOW WHAT, PERHAPS HE WASN'T TALKING ABOUT ENGLAND ENGLAND”

As you have probably understood, I believe that the moment when Alfred confessed his feelings for Uhtred was in 2x06 and he literally confessed them to Aelswith, so at beginning of S3 she has been knowing it for years.

Now let’s see all of S3 from Aelswith’s point of view. In this season her beloved husband is dying and she's painfully aware he is, even more after Alfred confirms it in 3x02. She knows it will happen, thus she tries to stay at his side as much as possible because Aelswith loved Alfred so much and despite everything (cough cough despite his cheating cough cough), then at some point she witnesses her husband's life be put in danger when he is taken as a hostage by the same man she knows he has feelings for. That man escapes and her husband is abandoned by him and, instead of seeing the anger he's showing to everyone, she sees how broken he is because of that, because she knows that Uhtred did not only break his oath but wholeheartedly broke Alfred’s heart. She has to witness not only her husband’s suffering because of his illness, but also the pain he feels because that man he loves has left him. The nearer her husband gets to his death, the nearer she notices the way he wants to forgive that same man who has made him suffer for years now (s3 starts in 891/892 and Alfred’s death happens in 899), then right before her husband’s passing she finds them together in his study, completely alone. She tries to make her husband reason (indirectly even trying to remind him of how much pain he went through because of him) but instead her husband orders her to leave, she probably hasn’t even seen Uhtred return from the room until late in the evening. Her husband dies not long after and she’s hurt because she has lost the man she's stood by and loved for most of her life, but in all of this… Who’s the one who left her husband? Who’s the one who broke his heart? Who’s the one who in a way could have worsed his condition because of the mental pain he had to go through because of him? Uhtred. So she imprisons Uhtred, threatens to kill him, but then accepts to just exile him, but then, in front of the whole of Winchester, Uhtred gives an entire speech about his relationship with her husband arriving to a point in which he even says that he loved Alfred. This is worsened by the fact that, in her last conversation with him, Alfred was going against her just to defend him.

Aelswith’s anger towards Uhtred is the most understandable reaction ever.

A very interesting scene to me, with the knowledge that Aelswith has this insight of Alfred’s feelings for Uhtred, is the scene where she prays in 3x08, because... THE THINGS SHE SAYS!!

Lord God, give me strength and guidance to do your work. If it is right and proper to rely upon a heathen, albeit for violence, then I beg you... show me a sign. Help me. I want my son to remain untarnished by heathen ways. I wish him to be God's king. Pure.

Here she’s praying for Edward in the prospect of a possible connection to Uhtred in case the latter becomes his oathman once he’s king, but it is the last part of the whole prayer that is fascinating, because in this moment she says what a king is if he’s connected to him and, therefore, the reference to Alfred is undeniable: the king had to be “untarnished by heathen ways” so that he could be “God’s king” and “pure”.

Alfred was connected to Uhtred so he was tarnished by heathen ways, he was not God’s king and he was not pure, all because of it.

Alfred eveasdropped this whole thing and when Aelswith noticed him, they both understood exactly what she was truly talking about and the expression on Alfred’s face was one of someone who actually believed those things about himself as well, and indeed you see that a lot in S3 when he shows more than once that he’s scared that he won’t end up in heaven. In 2x06 there's also another hint at that when he says “I am reaching out for an England, all in the name of God, yet I am relying upon the strength of a heathen, the iron of a pagan”, and when Aelswith tells him “You are God's king, lord" his answer is "Yet at my right hand is a pagan”.

Alfred has always been terrified at the possibility of not ending up in heaven because of what he had with Uhtred, but despite all of that he's always defended him and saved his life multiple times, just as Uhtred did with him.

Since Uhtred arrived in Wessex he has risked death more than once in every season, and Alfred has always tried to find a way to save his life:

1x03, Ubba offered Alfred a peace for silver and Uhtred’s head, Alfred refused and told him that he would have returned to the sword if he didn’t accept only to be paid.

1x05, Uhtred unleashed a sword in front of Alfred during prayers, while screaming at him in front of many people of Winchester. That’s a crime that is supposed to be punished with death, Alfred made him crawl instead.

1x06/1x07, Uhtred, claiming to do Alfred’s business, plundered Cornwall and sided with a Dane against a christian king, Alfred was supposed to kill him immediately, even more when Uhtred, supposed to beg for forgiveness, decided to scream in his face that he would never kneel neither to him nor to his God, but instead Alfred accepted Leofric’s proposal of a fight to the death so that “God would decide”, that means he left the possibility of Uhtred’s survival, even more because he chose the exact day for that fight to happen, which, casually, was on the day of a saint he liked a lot, and indeed the day after he called Uhtred and told him that he didn't like the thought of someone dying on that day. He tried to save him by offering him the option of giving everything back and resuming the debt (since it was with the plunder that he paid it), but Uhtred didn’t want to leave Iseult, so he refused.

2x03, he sent Ragnar to rescue Uhtred from slavery.

3x02, first, he was most likely going to forgive Uhtred for desecrating the cemetery; second, he should have senteced Uhtred to death for killing a monk in front of the whole witan and then escaping (thus worsening his actions), but instead he asked for an oath and spared his life; third, after he threatened his life Alfred did order for him to be killed, but as soon as he escaped he simply banished him from Wessex, he could have made someone follow him, but he didn’t.

3x05, Uhtred was an outlaw, while he was in Mercia Alfred could have still had him killed, since at the end of the day he was one of his enemies, but instead he used the excuse of him having Aethelflaed’s protection. Alfred could have killed him and no one would have said anything about it, but he did not.

3x08/3x09 Uhtred was still an outlaw here and Alfred claimed before that he would have killed him if stepped foot into Wessex, but he did not, instead he even assured his protection for when he knew he wouldn’t have been alive anymore to protect him.

Now, I feel like Alfred has a sort of codependency when it comes to Uhtred. That man constantly wants him next to him and he almost needs him to be there, the fact itself that in 2x05 Odda mentions that Alfred always says the same thing about Uhtred’s hall in Coccham “every time we visit”, hints at them being there quite ofter and there was only a 3 years time jump between the first and second half of S2, so Uhtred has had those lands for 3 years, probably even less, so… Exactly how many times have you visited this man in 3 years, Alfred? But, whether there's actually an element of codependency or not, there's certainly something that pulls them together, and indeed it is explicitly said that Uhtred and Alfred are “bonded" and that for that fact alone they can't kill each other even when they should.

In 3×09 Alfred points a sword to Uhtred's throat and asks him if he believes he could kill him, and to that Uhtred answers “we are bonded, you cannot kill me just as I cannot kill you”, and it’s really fascinating because there's a parallel between that scene and the scene in 5x07 when Uhtred and Brida are fighting and, when she tells him to kill her, he screams at her that they “are bound as one, killing you would be like killing a part of myself”, and Brida and Uhtred were romantically involved.

My point is that it is for this exact reason that Alfred was never able to look at Uhtred and excute him as he was supposed to do so many times, even the only time it very nearly happened (1x07) he left before he could see it, and whenever Uhtred was hit by Leofric during the fight, if you look specifically at Alfred, it almost seems as if he couldn't breathe, so you know there’s a kind of “without you I would be lost and I wouldn’t be myself anymore” for the both of them, and you can see that especially in the one who had to live further when the other actually died: Uhtred.

Uhtred very much always clings onto a few things and people, but the more he loses those he cares for the most, the more he loses himself. S3 is truly the start of Uhtred’s sort of radical change, indeed the man in SKMD is almost nothing like the man in S1, and what made it possible was that season.

In S3 Uhtred faces many losses: first he loses Gisela, so literally the love of his life (she was and I will die on that hill), second his brother Ragnar, then he loses Alfred, and not even a few days after his sister Thyra dies.

Gisela’s death has started Uhtred’s fall, and since he got cursed and was, very understandbly, in so much pain, everything escalated very quickly.

He killed Godwin to defend Gisela’s honour and he was obviously hurt by what he perceived as Alfred’s disinterest in defending Gisela, as he himself in 3x04 complains about in a very hurt way that Alfred “allowed her to be called a whore” (even though Alfred did try to make Godwin stop, but Uhtred simply couldn’t hear it because he was too enraged), therefore he betrays him and then subsequentially feels absolutely so guilty about it that he arrives to the point where Leofric, as the personification of his conscience, lets us know that he believed he deserved to died because of what he did to Alfred. As soon as the first occasion arises (Aethelflaed is in danger) he immediately leaves, which you can see was already on his mind as soon as Brida suggested him destroying Alfred, thus he abandons his brother. He then finds out that Ragnar died and he thinks it’s his fault because he left him (though there could have probably been little he could have done to prevent it even if he stayed there), then he suddenly meets Alfred again and he sees how much he's hated by him, or so Uhtred believes, so he falls in an even worse emotional state than before. After some time, Beocca asks him to meet Alfred and Uhtred himself wonders “what makes you think he would speak with me?”, which just shows how much he truly thought that Alfred despised him, but he goes to meet him anyway and he speaks to him. For the first time since they have met they are honest to each other and Alfred shows him actual trust and even love in a way, but then Alfred dies not even a week after (probably the day after they talked actually), so even if they were finally at peace with each other, Alfred still died and they had no way to enjoy that tranquility.

Now all of this took a very obvious emotional toll on Uhtred and I believe that Alfred is one of the biggest because he knew that he going to die, and yet, because of Skade's curse as Uhtred believed it to be, he wasted those final years they could have had together. That man meant a lot to Uhtred and in the books there's this quote that always gets me:

I stood beside Alfred’s coffin and thought how life slipped by, and how, for nearly all my life, Alfred had been there like a great landmark.

And that’s so terribly true because, compared to all the deaths before, it is important to notice that Alfred was the one who was there the most, more than Gisela and even more than Ragnar himself, since the latter left for Ireland right before Uhtred became Earl Ragnar’s son. Indeed when Alfred dies you can immediately see a change in demanor in Uhtred, which is striking because compared to many other deaths he went through, Uhtred remains silent in face of many things, for example during Alfred’s funeral he's imprisoned but doesn’t say a word, the only time he utters something is to tell Finan to do nothing. S1 Uhtred would have never reacted in such a way.

Still in prison, you can see that he goes near a very dangerous edge when he finds out that Thyra died, and that edge is finally overstepped in 4x03 with Beocca’s death, and it is from this death onwards that Uhtred is a completely different person. The process started with Gisela's death, culminated with Alfred’s and exploded with Beocca’s.

As I said Uhtred always clings to people and Uhtred has always been sort of in denial for Alfred’s death. He always dismissed the actual possibility of him dying, even when he himself noticed the signs, even when Alfred himself told him that he was about to and yet that man was still there like “Skade preys on men's fears, Lord”, says the man who at that time believed every single word she said. The thing is that I believe Uhtred remained in denial even after Alfred died, because yes he was with his God, but there was a part of Alfred that still lived: his dream.

From Alfred's death onwards, Uhtred works both directly and indirectly for the dream of an England, indeed he actually proves his loyalty to that man more after he died than when he was alive, and that has a lot to do with the fact that it was the last connection he had with him, as in a way it was also for Aelswith if you think about it, but also there was the aspect that, before dying, Alfred entrusted it in his hands and, since Uhtred spent the whole of S3 considering himself a traitor and blaming himself for it, if that man shows you one last trust, a trust you have yearned for your whole life, even more with the thing you know is most precious to him, what do you do? You are willing to do anything you can to make sure that that dream happens, to make sure that you can prove your loyalty, to show that you can keep one last oath to him and make it up for the one you broke.

That is painfully obvious in the film.

In the film Uhtred has made Northumbria an unified place, and it is actually the first time the whole of it is under one single king (even if Uhtred doesn’t call himself that), which was what Alfred has wanted all along, because he knew that the main problem would have been that particular kingdom, so with this action Uhtred has paved the way for the upcoming unification of England.

In 3x09 Alfred told him that his last act as king was to make sure that good men held power and that's one of the main things Uhtred was doing. Uhtred has known Alfred for 28 years of his life, he spent countless times with him, so he knew what Alfred would have wanted and every single decision he took in the film was so obviously made with the thought in mind of Alfred's wishes, and indeed Uhtred held the reins until he knew there was someone fitting to rule, a good man, just as his king would have wanted.

One of the most beautiful things to me is that Uhtred was lord of Bebbanburg at the time, so lord of the fortress he has waited his whole life to get back to, and yet he was mostly and more concerned about Alfred’s dream dying rather than the survival of that. Uhtred was also in a situation where he didn’t want to fight anymore, he didn’t even particularly believed he was still a warrior, and yet as soon as that dream was threatened, he didn’t hesitate once. That man was even forbidden to take part of the battle, since it would have been too dangerous for him, but he didn’t trust anyone else to protect Alfred’s dream and thus Uhtred went and died for it.

That man would have never died if he listened to Aethelstan's commands, but he defied them to not betray the little trust Alfred put in him right before he passed.

When he went back to Bebbanburg he didn’t even allow himself to die until he knew that there was an England out there and that Alfred’s lineage was on the throne of it, and during that scene he says that all he wanted was to be honoured in valhalla for “standing by an oath”, which yes can be interpreted as the oath of protecting Aethelstan, but remember that in S3, in Uhtred's mind, he did the most terrible thing of them all by breaking his oath to Alfred. Making England happen was the only way he could have forgiven himself for it, absolutely striking is the moment when the dream is fulfilled and you can how Uhtred is on the verge of tears and I think that has to do with two main reasons: first, he knew that with that Alfred would have finally known and understood how he could have never have betrayed him, and second, Alfred’s work was finished and there was nothing that kept him alive in his mind anymore.

Uhtred died soon after that so, in my mind, he totally met Alfred again at some point. In the show, for Thyra who was in a situation where she still believed in valhalla but was actually a christian, it was accepted the view of being in both places, therefore it is most likely the same for Uhtred, you know, a whole concept of peace rather than an actual place.

Dying for England is the most obvious declaration of love from Uhtred’s part, but if we want to point out actual words, Uhtred in 3x10 says that Alfred was “a man I loved and despised”, and he even calls him “my king”, which is something Uhtred will never do again for anyone. For the other kings he always just refers to them as “our”, therefore he speaks for his people and not for himself, but for Alfred? Oh, that’s a “my”.

For Alfred the thing was different because the man was a christian with so much guilt inside, it would have been way more difficult for him to say out loud that he loved Uhtred.

I do believe though that he did say it in subtext when he told him that “I should have closed my eyes and rattled at Heaven’s gate some time ago, it was the hope of this meeting that has kept me alive”, which is a lot, considering that the man was suffering like hell because of his illness, and yet he held onto life just for the purpose of seeing Uhtred one last time. It is also very interesting that on his deathbed he asked Uhtred “are you here or is it my sickness?”, because it hints at the possibility of Alfred having hallucinatione of Uhtred in the past when he was ill and WHY WOULD YOU EVER SEE SOME MAN WHEN YOU FEEL UNWELL? AND ESPECIALLY WHY ARE YOU NOT EVEN SURPRISED THAT YOUR MIND COULD HAVE CONJURED UHTRED COMING TO YOUR CHAMBERS IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT? There’s only one answer to that:

You are gay for that man and you are in love with him.

They both were.

So anon, the answer to your question is: Yes, I do believe that they had feelings for each other.

Thank you for coming to my ted talk!

#if anyone seriously read all of this know that you have my most devoted love #i first focused on alfred and then on uhtred #there's a double space when i switch to uhtred's part #so many other things would be interesting to point honestly #like for example the way from the books you know that uhtred doesn't want to be called king because of alfred #but it was too long already #hopefully some of this makes sense #thank you for asking and sorry once again for taking such a long time!!#the last kingdom #alfred x uhtred #tlk alfred #uhtred #seven kings must die #god even in the tags i have made a typo #forgot to add 'out' to point so it is supposed to be 'point out'#it's 2am okay #asks

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The bad batch has some of the shallowest writing I've seen in ages. The wrong character interactions get the attention, while the audience is left with a "tell, don't show" style of narrative storytelling that just leaves people unsatisfied left right and center. Hunter is upset because he feels guilty (a generous read imo) for letting omega get captured while Crosshair was the one to escape with her. Hunter is not mad at Crosshair for his decision to choose the Empire, which led to Tech's death. Hunter is not mad that Crosshair joined the regime that literally mind controlled him into attempting to set them on fire.

Omega afaik never had a solid, positive interaction with Crosshair the way she did with the rest of the bad batch all during seasons one and two. Crosshair tried multiple times to kill her, under influence of the chip. He objectively knew this and still chose the Empire. Omega also objectively knew this and forgives him anyways? And still has faith in him? She was hurt over his decision to stay, but never harbored any fear or resentment. Just pure and total love. And now she's guiding him through dealing with his trauma by meditating on sunset-lit beaches.

Wrecker is still a non-character who doesn't lead and hardly participates in any meaningful way in conversations. I don't recall him having any extensive conversations with any of the other batchers. I remember Tech being snappy with him, and Crosshair saying he has a tiny mind back in season 1. He has cute moments with Omega, but doesn't get developed outside. He doesn't get developed at all, really, besides following the narrow track of the trope set out for him.

The entire emotional arc of the series is dedicated to everyone around Crosshair forgiving him for his choice to join the Empire, but...he's never once thus far actually seemed remorseful. Does he condemn the Empire's violence? Does he look sad or regretful that he got so many of Howzer's men killed on Ryloth? Does he say "I hate what the Empire did to clones, I hate that they used chips on us, I hate that they made me oppress people throughout the galaxy, I hate that the Empire is a violent oppressive regime hurting innocents"? No. He says "The Empire wasn't loyal to me." He doesn't justify what he did, but he definitely doesn't regret it.

(Which is funny because soon afterwards, Rex is able to sow the seeds of doubt into Wolffe's mind that the Empire is bad because they're making him hunt a child.)

And the writers do the laziest thing in the world by having this potentially massive conflict between two characters and using rescue/saving their life as a stand in for a real conversation. Crosshair saves Hunter from the ice worm, they nod, and now they're chill/more chill. They present this as if anything else was a viable option, as if Crosshair would have reasonably or realistically left Hunter to get eaten by the giant ice worm. Then they frame Hunter and Crosshair's mistakes (for the former, I have no idea what) as on par with one another. After their non-argument, Crosshair saves Howzer's life (?), they nod, and that's it. Forgiven.

Halfway through the season and the writing still feels just as unbalanced as it did in season 1. Multiple people keep talking about how they feel like coworkers and roommates with guns rather than brothers. The writers do a better job saying the word loyalty than actually showing it. The majority of the emotional burden is being put on Omega, the only prominent female character in the series and a child. Why is she the emotional support group for a group of grown men? It's just classic misogyny. I'm amazed that type of trope even reared its head again, it's been so long since I've seen it.

Even the writers don't seem to know how to express the batchers' supposed love for one another. No, saving each other's lives is not proof of a deep love or even respect for one another. That's bare minimum. That's SoP. Them leaving each other to die would be the extreme thing, not the other way around. They hardly mention Tech. They had a forced-feeling "hang our heads in silence at the mention of tech's name", and every time after that he's been mentioned as far as his usefulness to the squad. Maybe the second half of the season will have people actually confront Crosshair about Tech. The "Don't have the heavy emotional conversations" thing has been a problem since The Clone Wars, unfortunately. Pretend Teth didn't happen. Pretend Umbara and the Kadavo arc didn't happen. Don't show Rex's reaction to Ahsoka leaving at ALL. Don't show Omega informing Crosshair of Tech's death, which is WILD to me.

Some people claim that the Bad Batch have had six or so months to grieve and mourn, and they're seasoned soldiers who've experienced loss and death before, so they're used to this. The former I can see, but the latter? Who would they have been losing? They're not connected to other clones, rarely worked with them, and never liked them. What losses have they fielded beforehand? They don't even act like 99 or share his values.

I know I'm not alone in this, and at this rate I'm probably beating a dead horse, but it bears repeating: Crosshair hasn't condemned Empire violence, he's only condemned how they treat him in particular. This is a dangerous way to present fascism and why people choose fascist organization/regimes. There's absolutely a personal element to it. Arrogance. Ego. Material or emotional insecurity. But there's an external part as well: desire for control, hierarchy, order, violence. Fascists understand that the ideology is violent. That's why they join the regime. They want and support the subjugation of those they believe deserve it. In real life, this is people of color, women, disabled people, immigrants, the "degenerates" of society, and others. In Star Wars, that's the aliens and the enslaved, the "traitors" and the Rebels. Fascists being "lead astray" or "misguided" by thoughts of loyalty or personal power come secondary to oppressing others.

Maybe they'll address that in the second half of the season. It's a generous read, but I don't want to make any calls til I've seen everything. Unfortunately, every interaction Crosshair has with people has been designed to service their forgiveness of him, all without him actually apologizing for anything. Yes, he must explicitly apologize. He joined a fascist regime after they made him do terrible, heinous things. The text tells us that Crosshair only left because the Empire wasn't loyal to him. Anything other than a clear apology would be bad and frankly dangerous writing.

#ch posts #tbb critical #tbb negative #tbb spoilers #long post #its so like. status quo. generic. regressive in a way? so many words but i feel like im still not being clear #persistent writing issues from s1 #legacy writing issues from tcw #somehow #its so. weird to see.#shallow empty vague show v tell problems racist ableist #goes out of its way to retcon the clones and then doesnt even make the central characters interesting?#like huh #tbb neg #tbb crit

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the-s1lly-corner · 1 year

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Eyeless Jack w/ S/O who surprise visits him

Been a while since I done one of these! Admittedly this is a randomly generated prompt but it just.. fits so well with my take on the dude.. plus my brains dry

Usually it's Jack who comes to you, for a few reasons

One, he lives deep in the woods and he doesn't want to force you to make the trip to his cabin all alone... doesn't want you getting hurt from any of his traps

Two, the cabin he lives in is in shambles, really. Just barely livable, not at all presentable.. it may be the only shelter he has, now that he's outcasted himself from society, but he can't help but feel... ashamed

Three, he wants to shield you from his... side activities for as long as he can. He knows you know of his situation; needing to survive off flesh to survive.. its not like he asked for it.. but he'd much rather you not see the specifics and how he rations stuff

Thankfully, on the day you decided to drop by unannounced he wasn't doing any meal prep

Remembering the few times Jack had led you to and from his cabin, you managed to get there in one piece.. it seemed Jack hadn't gotten to putting his traps back up now that it's spring

He always took traps down before winter hits; snow covering them up is just too risky for everyone involved

Getting into the cabin wasnt too hard either, the lock to the front door was broken long before Jack had moved in; and he didn't exactly have the means to fix or replace it

So you let yourself in and called out, as not to startle the man who was hopefully inside

His reaction?

Initially he scolded you, "what if you got stuck in some trap?" "What if some animal attacked you-" "You do realize I'm not the only weird dude who lives in these woods, right?"

Wow that last one was cryptic

But he's still rattling off before you could ask for clarification on that one

He lets slip that he does in fact appreciate the gesture, though

He softens when he sees you smiling at him; for as much as he believes he's the worst thing in this world, he feels.. nice having you around

The afternoon is uneventful, but you can tell the usually gloom and doom man cheered up; even if you couldn't see his face, you could see it in his demeanor

You tell him about things going on in the outside world, he tells you about some of the weird things he's come across

The cabin is still cold from the thawing winter, so you're snuggled up close to him... which isn't all that effective as his body is cool, but his jacket is just oh so comfortable.. and he seems to enjoy the affection

He insists to walk you home, like he always does on the rare occurrences you've visited his cabin

Keeps you close the entire afternoon

Though he does say that he'd prefer he come to you, just in case something ever happened on your walk to him

#creepypasta headcanon #creepypasta #creepypasta x reader #creepypasta x you #eyeless jack imagine #eyeless jack headcanon #eyeless jack x you #eyeless jack x reader #eyeless jack

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reallyromealone · 1 year

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We need more mochi content so how about headcannons on dating mochi

Also random headcannon i I have of this lovely boi is that he’s a heavy sleeper and sometimes moves in his sleep so if you were to sleep in the same bed there’s a chance he might sleep on top of you without even noticing or his arm just slams onto your face by accident

Ohooo okok

♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️

♥️Mochi? Amazing lover

♥️ Caring and loving

♥️If you're shorter than you're wearing his sweaters, he leaves one out for you

♥️Bedtime though? He's a koala

♥️Which would be fine if he wasn't a tank of a person

♥️like he will hold you like a teddy bear and sometimes will sleep on you

♥️So be prepared to overheat and barely breathe

♥️Play with this man's hair

♥️Let him be baby

♥️Mochi deals with so much and is always the big bad gang member

♥️In Bonten, he's very overprotective

♥️You only get the finest shit with him

♥️As teens he always promised to make sure you had the best shit when you two were adults and now that he can?

♥️He's always been very busy so you two have designated date nights that work around his schedule

♥️He's definitely a dad

♥️Not daddy but a dad

♥️Lowkey wants kids and if you do too? Well y'all are gonna get some kids somehow

♥️you two both have morning routines

♥️After peeing and showering (y'all shower together usually, nothing sexual... usually) he gets ready for work and you get breakfast ready

♥️ Mochi likes hugging you while you cook, the smell of after shave and Cologne is always present with him

♥️He is a very present husband and very observant

♥️ You two go grocery shopping he's very much scary dog privileges

♥️ Pushes the cart so you can look around more

♥️ He's stupidly in love

♥️ Makes sure to keep you out of any of his...work

♥️If y'all dated as teens, he would probably lie or just keep you away from it at all costs

♥️ He really tries to keep you away from his coworkers

♥️ You only met Mikey and that was by accident

♥️ He wanted to know how Mochi was getting such good lunches because those were definitely home cooked

♥️Mochi came home to you feeding Mikey and doting on him once you learned he was Mochis boss and being a generally good host

♥️Now he brings two lunches to work

♥️One for him and one for Mikey

♥️He finds it cute how you worry for Mikey, unaware of who he is

♥️He has designated vacation times

♥️ Basically anywhere where he gets to see you with minimal clothing

♥️He's a good man (sort of) but he's a weak weak man for his husband

#tokyo revengers x reader #tokyo revengers x male reader #tokyo revengers fluff #bonten x reader #tenjiku x reader #mochi x male reader #kanji mochizuki #tokyo revengers headcanons #hc #tokyorev headcanons

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ladybellissima · 7 months

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Finding Love Katakuri x Reader Part 25

The first thing (Y/N) noticed was the unbelievable warmth around her body. Slowly her eyes opened and she found herself in Katakuri's strong embrace. Looking up to his peaceful, sleeping face, she smiled slightly. The first raise of the morning sun shone through the window. The warmth tickled on her skin and let her face snuggle deeper into his strong bare chest. Sighing in delight (Y/N) felt her husband moving. Compared to her, he wasn't a morning person and moaned frustrated of the sudden light. Smiling her gaze wandered up to his tired expression which lighted up after seeing her.

"Good morning…", her sweet voice reached his ears and let him smile. It wasn't a dream. Their shared night together really happened. He always thought how amazing it would be to wake up next to her. That the first thing he was able to see was his beloved wife. He had to admit that reality was much sweeter.

"We have to get up Katakuri…", she spoke with a hint of sadness.

"Sadly yeah…", he whispered and brushed her rosy cheeks lovingly. He didn't want to let her go. He wanted to have her by his side every single night. How cruel to taste heaven and the next moment it was taken away from him.

Turning (Y/N) got up from his embrace and crawled out of the bed. The blanket loosened around her and with it her carefree attitude. Realization hit her after feeling a cold shiver ran down her naked back.

"I totally forgot!", she hushed and quickly grabbed the blanket to hide her body. Red as a tomato she was met with a smirking General Charlotte who was laying on his side and enjoying the view.

"Shy? After what we did?", he spoke amused and his smile grew even wider after she become a stuttering mess.

"Maybe I should take you again to remind you.", he spoke in a seductive way. God was he making her nervous right now and embarrassed. Most of all embarrassed.

"Pervert…", (Y/N) replied and quickly ran into the bathroom to get ready. Sighing in delight Katakuri got up as well and stretched his arms. It was a wonderful morning. A perfect day with, what it seemed, also with a beautiful weather. Nevertheless he felt strained.

"Let's start this awful day…"

xxx

If (Y/N) would have known what was about to come, she sure would have take much more time to come to whole cake. And mostly would have stayed as long as possible in Katakuri's arms. Standing before his mother who had an evil grin plastered on her face, Katakuri looked down to his beautiful wife and struggled to say goodbye. Not because they weren't alone. At this moment he really didn't care about that, even if it meant to come out of his comfort zone. Not only that. It was also the realization of not knowing how long he wouldn't be able to see her.

"Katakuri I can't wait to finally have this treasure in my hands. You will leave immediately. Do whatever is needed to get it.", his mother's voice broke the silence and let him look up. That his mother already got a duty for him wasn't surprising, but that it would be such a dangerous one, even for his standards, let him get quite uncomfortable. On top of that he had to leave for god knows how long.

" Mama this Island is far away. Wouldn't it be better if someone supports him out there? It's brother Katakuri yeah, but all alone?", Smoothie stepped next to them with a worried expression on her face. On the other hand, Big mom just let out a laugh. Katakuri gave his sister a dangerous glare, which let her shiver of fear. Never would he take one of his siblings with him to such a suicide mission.

" He will do as I say and he will bring me this hidden treasure like it's described on this map here. I found it in one of the few treasure chests, which I got at Pudding's wedding. How sweeeeeet and exciting. Katakuri has to prove his loyalty and strength. I lost some of my presents, because of this damn Gummy boy. So I need this….. I want this treasure!! ", she shouted angered and let her daughter step back scared.

" Smoothie, You should prepare yourself for your own duty. You will go to Wano. The straw hats will soon get there….", Big mom added pissed of thinking about Luffy.

" I will go Mama. Don't worry.", Katakuri cut in to calm his mother's mood, which gladly lighted up immediately. Her look wandered to (Y/N) who felt devasted after hearing about Katakuri's soon to be journey. She knew that they get separated, but this was beyond her imagination.

"And you cupcake. My top chefs are already waiting outside. Go to the kitchen and surprise me with one of your doughnuts.", she sang happily and hushed her out of the room. Quickly (Y/N) took Katakuri's hand who pulled her closer and lead her out and away from his mother.

"I will guide her. You can leave."

Giving the top chefs an angered look, they quickly grabbed (Y/N) 's bags and rushed forward to the kitchen. Before she was able to let out her desperation, she was ingulfed into a strong embrace.

"Katakuri….", she whispered, while tears rolled down her face. Looking into her sad expression he brushed her cheeks lovingly.

"I am glad we could be alone for a moment…", he whispered and pulled his scarf down. Quickly he pressed his lips onto hers and kissed her deeply. She didn't want to stop. She couldn't imagine being here all alone while he was out there, risking his life for a stupid treasure. Grabbing his jacket by its collar he could feel her desperate try to hold him in place, to keep him by her side. Smiling bitterly he ended the kiss and rested his forehead against hers.

"(Y/N)…you still have my vivre card.", he spoke and kissed her cheek.

"I don't care. It's not the same…", she whispered exhausted and let him chuckle of her sweet words.

"I know.. But for now we have to endure this till we could be together again.. Do as you are told, then nothing will happen. My siblings will help you. And…", he spoke with a sad smile.

"wait for me (Y/N)…", he kissed her passionately which let her knees go weak and tears fell down even more. She knew that there is nothing to stop this nightmare. Breathing heavily they seperated and looked into each other's eyes. Giving him a weak smile she nodded, while brushing her tears away to calm down. Sighing Katakuri pulled up his scarf and looked around if anyone was in sight. Relieved that their moment was unseen he got up to take her hand in his.

"I will give my best Katakuri. But promise me to come back save..don't be reckless out there…please.", (Y/N) looked up to his intimating expression, which nodded seriously.

"I promise. I will come and get you as soon as possible back into my bed.", he spoke and let her gasp flustered.

"Katakuri!", she spoke embarrassed and avoid his amused expression. How he loved to see her like this. It pained even more to let her go, but it was worth it.

Slowly they walked along the corridors and (Y/N) could already hear the sounds of clashing pots, shouting people and excited footsteps. The sweet smell ingulfed their senses and soon she was met with a unbelievable baking show. The kitchen was huge. There was no place without spotting sweet ingredients or big machines. Gasping she stepped into the room and got the attention of the others.

"There she is! His wife in real!", the workers sang happily and took her hand to guide her. Quickly (Y/N) looked back to the door and got a short image of Katakuri who waved torwards her as a goodbye and left the scene. She couldn't stop, couldn't run back. How awful to let him go this way. Now she was really alone. Biting her lips to surpress the tears, she was pushed before Streussen who was sitting on a big chair made by a cookie and ordering everyone around. Wrapped up in bandages he seemed stressed. After he laid his eyes on (Y/N) his face lit up and he smiled more relieved than happy to see her. (Y/N) wasn't really paying attention to his outburst of joy, because she still felt her body shaken of her husband's leave. In a way it felt unreal.

"Here is the list.", Streussen pulled her back from her thoughts, while he shoved a long paper roll into her hands. Irritated her look fell onto the different described doughnuts and mostly on the delivery date.

"That's what Mama wants?", she asked in disbelief and looked into the amused expression of the head chef.

"Oh and don't forget the specials. You have to make some to support me.", he added amused to have all time in the world while (Y/N) was already late.

Looking back onto the list (Y/N) already knew that she would stay in this kitchen all day long. But in a way she didn't complain. It was a time killer. An exhausting one yeah, but she would be able to focus on something else than her husband's whereabouts. Sighing she nodded and took the cooking apron from one servant to put it on. Normally she was motivated after wearing this special piece of fabric, but this time everything seems dull and colorless. Nevertheless she obeyed, because that was the only way. Reaching into her pocket she touched Katakuri's vivre card for a mental support. Wherever he was, she had something to relay on, even if it was just a piece of paper.

On the other side Katakuri was packing a bag in front of his ship. He couldn't see that far into the future, but still he had a bad feeling about following this mysterious map.

"Katakuri!", Oven and Daifuku rushed to his side worried. Stopping he waited paitently for them to go on with his all too familiar cold expression.

"Is it true? You have to follow a map which leads you out of our territory?", Oven asked shocked, while Katakuri just kept his emotionless look. Sighing he lifted his bag and turned towards his ship.

"Mama is obsessed to know what treasure is hidden on this island. I will get it for her to gain her trust again and most of all my status. I want my wife back. At any costs.", he spoke seriously and was about to leave, but stopped in his tracks to give his brothers one last glance. Feeling completely helpless they watched him worried.

"I want you to keep an eye on (Y/N). Help her as much as possible.", he spoke strained and got onto his ship. The wind gave it a kick start and quickly Katakuri made his way out to the open sea. His look fell back to his home, which got smaller and smaller with every minute. He was wrong about the weather. It was a cold day. Droplets of rain landed on his face and fitted perfectly to his mood. Looking down onto his map he knew that things would take awhile, but hopefully successful in the end.

"(Y/N)…"

Whispering her name let his heart flutter. Just the thought of their sweet night together let his body shiver of excitement. God he would miss her. Every single minute would be a torture.

"Don't worry (Y/N) … I will be successful. "

#fanfiction #romance #katakuri x reader #karakuricharlotte #one piece #charlotte katakuri

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