#yep. good game! does violence to me

[800db-cloud]

4 am doodle

[oneatlatime]

The Blind Bandit

I had honestly forgotten that the Gaang were trying to find an earthbending teacher, so the 'previously on' segment was actually useful instead of spoilery.

Nobody's face is having a good time.

Look at this sweetheart. You go ahead and treat yourself honey. You've single-handedly escorted a pair of earth-shatteringly overpowered tweens around the world for months; the least you deserve is a shopping trip.

"You kids like earthbending?" Has the same energy as "wanna buy a sun dial?" from that animated Hercules movie.

This guy is one of those strip mall karate types.

I take back everything I ever said about Zuko's season 1 haircut. This guy has a dust bunny poop on his head.

Momo's bag now.

My absolute favourite girl power: incredible violence!

The acoustics at this earth rumble place must be great. I don't see any microphones.

"That's what I paid for." Sokka is a simple creature at heart. Likes food and violence.

Something very strange about this guy's face. I think his mouth moves but his eyes don't.

So apparently earthbending gets you mad air.

Oh! I get it. This is a WWE parody. Somebody on the writing team did their homework too. Don't ask me how I know, but this is a very accurate parody.

Sokka thinks listening to big muscles is a very good idea actually.

And here's the heel. Complete with russian accent. And oddly homoerotic anthem. And cowardice when challenged! Yep, total heel.

I LOLed at the zamboni badgermoles and hockey organ.

She's like two feet tall!

I'm. in love.

I could watch little girls beat up grown men all day.

Earthbending sonar?

Omigod it predicts. She can see moves before they happen.

Well it's a good thing Bumi said to look for someone who Waited and Listened rather than Watched.

"I don't really want to fight you. I want to talk to you." Says the guy who just volunteered, in front of a full stadium, to FIGHT her. Time and place, Aang.

Get back on the ground you flighty airbender. She sees with that ground. No fair.

This is about the face I made when Aang pulled that move. Does this boy think at all? I love him, but what part of stealing her well-earned title is supposed to convince her to talk to him?

You messed up.

I love sartorially inclined Sokka. It's a tiny an innocuous little trait, but it rounds out his character so well.

I get to watch two different girls terrorise idiots this episode. I am blessed.

So I'm guessing the two idiots at the earthbending academy are doing that excercise where kung fu people stick their hands in sand (I've seen videos of it) but it really looked like they were in the 'beat back the dough' phase of making bread.

In this universe of plot-convenient clothing blindness, how do Dumb and Dumber recognise Aang as the one who beat the Blind Bandit?

I think the voice actor for the dumb kid with actual hair did a bunch of voices in season 1. The soldier who gives Aang Bato's map comes to mind.

Have I said recently how much I love Sokka and Katara?

These wrestling guys keep switching between first and third person. Too many rocks to the head.

This could be a board for a murder mystery board game. Or a map for a DND dungeon.

It's her hair. I thought the Blind Bandit had a cap type thing with a little brim for her costume, but it's just a pile of her hair? Like a beehive?

A lesson in character writing: if you want to make someone look super dumb, have them earnestly believe in the credentials and authenticity of a guy you have previously set up as a borderline con artist. Lookin at you, Blind Bandit's dad.

"Basic forms and breathing exercises only." That line is just so funny. And they're all so stupid. She snapped like half a dozen spines last night and this guy is preaching breathing exercises.

Wow! I hate her dad!

I hate him more!

Sokka going ham on some rice rather than listen to the idiots. Good priorities.

This passive aggressive fight between the girl and Aang at the dinner table is so fun.

Looking for somewhere to store your meal after you've face planted into it? Try the top of your head!

I need to get a hold of some of those magic napkins. Wiped up a whole multicourse meal in like 5 seconds.

That is indeed the appropriate reaction to this pint sized badass. Glad Aang is learning. (Also this episode needs more Appa. The last couple have been sadly bereft.)

Called it. Earthdending sonar. Or is it more like echolocation? No! Whiskers!

How does this pint sized badass - who if I am understanding correctly, is not known to exist outside the walls of her house - have more emotional intelligence than the entirety of the Gaang put together?

So much for the guards in the garden. They'd actually be useful now.

Sokka. Priorities. Although given how many times Aang has escaped custody/kidnapping he's probably ok to take a minute to fangirl over an autograph.

These idiot parents don't know their daughter at all. That chafes.

"I'm not smiling." I LOLed at that too. Perfect delivery.

Hippo man having a snack before he gets down to business. No wonder he's missing teeth.

All this blind and tiny and helpless and fragile talk is really making me hope someone smacks the crap out of the dad. What an awful thing to say, nevermind saying it where your daughter can hear.

SMACKDOWN INCOMING

This is gonna be good.

If this girl does join the Gaang the writers are going to have to nerf her in every major conflict. She's too powerful. I bet she could take on the firelord now.

And that's why you don't announce sneak attacks.

So remember how Sokka was absolutely losing his shit over the Boulder? That's me right now.

She waits. All these idiots are losing because they're getting impatient and attacking first. Which means that, to her senses, they're telegraphing their moves. That is so cool. And so is this visual.

Here's your chance Dad. Are you going to mess it up?

"I love fighting. I love being an Earthbender. And I'm really really good at it." me:

I don't have words for how much I LOVE when little girls STAND UP for THEMSELVES and THEIR INTERESTS. This would have had me HOLLERING if I'd seen it as a kid. It was a message I needed to hear too.

Wow I want to kill her parents.

OH FUCK OFF

COME ON

You made my girl cry.

Get wrecked belt stealer. I LOLed at this too.

Sokka just beaned a blind girl on the head. Not a good look. I laughed though.

Fun fact: everyone in this picture is a piece of shit.

I haven't been this steamed since Zuko's dad burned half his face off.

Final Thoughts

IT WAS SO GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Seriously, this episode feels like it's movie quality. This show is usually excellent, but this feels like a cut above. I feel like I could sense the love the writers, animators, voice actors, everyone had for this episode. They had a good time making it and were enthusiastic about it. And there were lots of tiny background details in this episode too. I'm sure I missed quite a few. Oh No! I'll have to rewatch it!

New team member! That hasn't happened since Momo. Actually, no wonder the episode was so good. Introducing the first new team member in at least a season's worth of episodes is a delicate operation. I bet they were workshopping this episode since early in the first season.

And Toph! (thank you credits for how to spell that - I was really hoping it wasn't Toff). Be still my heart I love Toph. She may well take Sokka's spot as my favourite character. Strength of character, self-assurance, emotional intelligence, badassery, mastery of violence, what's not to love!!!

How did she get so emotionally intelligent and articulate if her parents have kept her caged her whole life? I don't know but I'm not complaining!

How did her parents get away with caging her for her whole life? I do know (money) and I am complaining. Very much so. And yet Toph can still find it within herself to have an honest conversation with them, including apologising for leaving said cage. I never would have had the maturity to do that in a similar situation. I would have gone the Katara explosive rage route.

A little girl who stands up for herself. Against HER PARENTS. I just. Do you know how amazing that is? Especially in a kids' show? I was ROBBED by not being able to see this show when I was Toph's age.

Does bending work like a muscle, in that you build up stamina? Because if so, then Toph is the strongest human earthbender in the world by default. If she's using it in place of seeing, then she's using it 100% of the time that she's awake, all day every day. By the time she was like 5 years old she'd probably used her bending more than the average earthbender does in their whole lifetime.

My one complaint is Toph's voice. Nothing wrong with it; this is a me thing. It fits her perfectly, but my ears do not play well with nasal voices, which hers is. I had to rewind quite a few times and resorted to subtitles by the end. Hopefully I'll get used to it like I did Zuko's.

Sokka! My soon to be demoted beloved! He shone in this episode. I love that he has fashion sense and is not afraid to show it. I'm thinking, what with how hung up he was on masculinity at the start of the show, that the water tribes have a different conception of masculinity: one that classes fashionability as a masculine or gender neutral trait. Even back in season one it didn't take much to get Sokka into the Kyoshi warrior uniform, and he's shockingly good at applying face paint symmetrically. Which I still cannot do with winged eyeliner.

Katara! Not headed for a career in diplomacy but so satisfying to watch. I would love to have a Katara in my pocket that I could unleash on people. And her and Sokka bouncing off each other this episode was great. Every one was at peak performance this episode, except Aang. Not at his brightest this episode.

Checking for typos before I post this and I realise I'd already forgotten that Toph is blind! Just like in the Northern Air Temple, this is how you do disability right: as just a part of who they are, rather than an entire personality. This show is so good.

In sum, Toph:

[goldensunsetchild]

♱ Odd Eye ♱ | SAGAU fanfiction|

[CW: SAGAU, cult themes, violence, imposter!creator, isekai'd reader, fem! reader. A little self indulgent.] Word count: 2.2k Author's note: please keep in mind that english is not my first language and that there may be some mistakes. I do hope that the story is coherent enough 😅.

Honestly I never ever considered the possibility because it was down from 0.001% so when it happened it surprised me, it really did. I was just laying down on the grass while looking at the clear blue sky completely flabbergasted still processing the situation, everything around me was different there was no doubt about it but what if I was actually dreaming? No, it can't be I already slapped myself to see if I was dreaming but it hurt the hell and nothing happened. Alright but what if maybe is just a lucid dream? Impossible, I already moved around a bit and normally you can't control your own body or anything that happens inside a lucid dream. I sighed before getting up on my feet once more.

What are you supposed to do after getting isekai'd? Interacting with the locals doesn't sound like a good idea, mainly because I don't know if I'm going to understand their language... In these kinds of situations I wish I had the assistance of something like great sage but I guess I wasn't lucky enough to gain a skill like that. I was so absorbed into my thoughts that I didn't realized that I got close to the borders of a city and it wasn't until I looked up from the ground that I noticed how familiar that city looked, I could never forget it... Mondstadt the city of freedom. Then I finally understood that I was in Teyvat.

Oh! Then entering the city might not be a good idea after all, what if I were to be stuck in this whole creator imposter situation? ... Yeah that's not going to happen absolutely not, so I drifted away to the path that led towards Springvale and if I kept following the route that I remember I could perfectly arrive at Dvalin's lair, yep that sounded pretty much safe. I did my best to hide from any person that I could find alongside the path because I didn't wanted to grab undesirable attention that might end up making me have to run away and to be honest my stamina sucks. Right! I forgot that I have bad stamina so is probably going to take me a while to get where I plan to go quickly.

I decided to stop when I entered to Wolvendom, noticing almost immediately that just a couple of steps from where I was, it was Boreas lair. I sat on the ground taking my time to catch my breath as I glanced at my surroundings, there was really no point of comparation between what was shown in the game versus the actual thing. I closed my eyes for a bit trying to catch the sound of the nature as almost no one dared to wander around the wolves territory, then the sound of footsteps startled me making me get up really quick ready to run away.

"There's no doubt, I could never mistake this scent, for is the one that belongs to the mighty creator."

I heard a voice speaking almost immediately recognizing it as Boreas voice.

"Yes, the smell.. It's Lupical."

Another voice spoke and by the lack on their vocabulary it was easy to deduce who it was: Razor.

"Creator? I'm just an ordinary traveler, I was just passing by and... I was about to leave, yes!. If you excuse me, I'll take my leave now."

I said trying not to sound nervous as I stepped back and turned away ready to leave.

But the young boy was more faster than me and he quickly blocked my path by standing in front of me.

"Lupical don't leave. Lupical can stay. Razor knows, the smell and the right eye."

He said and I blinked a little confused. Right eye? What does that mean?, in the end I decided to stay with them but just for a little.

"Alright, I'll stay with you guys." I said and Razor's eyes shined with happiness. "But only a little, I don't want to bother you guys too much."

What in the beginning was only meant to be a quick-stay ended up in a more than a month stay, every time I intended to leave Razor stopped me pleading me with staying a little bit more so in the end I obliged and stayed. But as time was passing by I started to get this feeling of uneasiness, because I soon noticed that the patrols of the Knights of Favonius were starting to come to Wolvendom more frequently like they were searching for something... or someone in particular.

It was only a matter of time before even the Acting Grand Master of the Knights, ended up coming and not greeting me in a friendly way like my instincts were telling me. It seemed that Razor was doing his best to keep the knights away from getting too much close to Boreas lair but the efforts seemed to get more ineffective with the passing of the days. I needed to come up with a strategy for the worst-case scenario: that the imposter alternative universe was an actual thing and if it's truly like this... escaping was meant to be difficult and negotiating wasn't going to be on the table.

If I put at use the variable that, I'm the truly the creator, then there are a few more variations that I would need to include. First, in case that a = me has x = a power I would need to figure out x to see if I could get a chance in scaping from f, the knights, and have a 0.01% of chances of surviving. The game changing is if x is or not a power that would allow me to get away without getting harmed, if it ends up being something useless I'm not going to make it alive and would die at the hands of the super duper loyal acolytes of the fake creator. But how do I figure out if I have powers? Do I just do random gestures to see if something happens? Well I guess that's better than just not doing anything at all.

I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, concentrating on feeling any possible sign of a flow of elemental energy running inside of me. But as much as I tried I couldn't feel anything, maybe I didn't have any powers... no, wait; it's too early to give up come on, think! Then I remembered something, according to Hinduism the human body has seven main circles of energy, the chakras and these often can get blocked and misaligned... maybe I cannot feel the flow of elemental energy because my emotions are blocking everything.

Normally one would start with the one at the base of the spine, but for now let's try to unblock the chakra that corresponds to air, or in this world, anemo. Anahata, the heart chakra that it's associated with the air element - located at the center of the chest; it deals with feelings such as love, compassion, emotional security, forgiveness and kindness. But, it tends to get blocked by one particular emotion: grief; so I took a deep breath concentrating once more in finding what was the grief that kept my heart chakra closed. After finding it, I needed to let it go and forgive so the pain would go away freeing not only my heart but also allowing the anemo energy to flow inside of me.

Then, I finally started to feel it and I imagined a wind current lifting me up so, when I opened my eyes I found myself floating in the air high up above Wolvendom. Upon seeing everything on the ground from so high in the sky and feeling how the wind softly kept me up from falling I understood why air was the element of freedom; it was as the imaginary shackles that kept me tied to the ground had suddenly disappeared. Then I slowly started to descend to the ground, it was as if the wind was holding me with care and when my feet touched the ground my body felt more light than before.

Now, if I can fly then I should be able to escape if things get messy. Though, for the next two months I kept practicing levitation and a little bit of flying secretly awaiting my signal to leave in other words the Knights of Favonius arrival to Boreas lair. I honestly don't have the desire to hurt anyone but if it means that I can guarantee my freedom and survival, I'll do whatever it takes to achieve that... even if it means taking extreme measures.

After a while without them appearing I initially thought that they might have just gave up but when I saw Razor running inside of Boras lair as fast as his legs allowed him I knew that they finally arrived. As I predicted Jean was leading the party that came to face me, of course between all the faces there I saw Kaeya too but the one who surprised me the most was Lisa... because she usually never got involved in things of these matters. I stood up from where I was sitting and put myself in front of Razor in a protecting manner, he was breathless and glanced up at me with a face that was saying that he should be the one doing that and not me.

Jean looked at me and without her saying a word I understood... for them I'm an imposter.

"I see, so the reports are true. There's someone who is trying to impersonate our holy creator, taking her face is enough of a blasphemy but affirming to be her is even worse."

She said.

"That's not true. Lupical does not lie. Razor knows, it's creator."

Razor said in an attempt to defend me from what Jean said. I gave him a glance and shaked my head.

"There's no need for you to defend me, Razor. I know it upsets you but arguing with stubborn people will lead you to a blocked road. If they want me to leave this place, I'll do as they ask."

I said softly to him. His eyes looked saddened, I knew that he was probably feeling so powerless right now but if leaving was the most peaceful answer then all I would have to do was leave. But my peaceful intentions were clearly not what they came for in the first place and I understood that when Jean drew out her sword.

"You are not going to leave, you are going to pay for your sins right here and now. Knights, seize her!"

I sighed.

"Just as I expected."

I mumbled softly before turning around to glance at Razor, I smiled warmly at him.

"Thanks for your hospitality, Razor. I hope one day we can see each other again."

After that I created a wind current that lifted me up from the ground, I floated high in the air and glanced up at where the Knights were. It probably lasted about a second but my eyes never let the eyes of the people gathered in there, after that my body went higher and I left my body be guided by wind. Soon I left Wolvendom behind, the wind currents slowly were guiding me to where I first intended to go: towards Dvalin's lair.

[ Kaeya's POV ]

Right after Jean gave the order to capture the imposter, she suddenly created a wind current and lifted from the ground. As she kept going more higher she glanced up at everyone and when she did that... I don't know why but I felt a sense of familiarity. It was so strange but for a reason I felt like I had seen those eyes so many times. After that failed attempt in capturing the imposter we returned to the headquarters, there Jean summoned me and Lisa to her office so we went there. Upon entering she stayed silent for a while before starting to speak.

"That imposter... I never thought she could be able to hold elemental power. It seems that she has an anemo vision that's the only explanation at why she used the power of the wind to fly and upon hearing what she said it seemed that she already knew about our plan of capturing her. If only we could have arrived way sooner maybe we could have captured her by surprise. Lisa, where do you think the imposter left to?"

Lisa stayed silent for a bit.

"I'm not completely sure but the direction seemed to be towards the Stormterror's lair."

Jean huffed. That was quite the difficult place to get access to.

"Without mentioning Dvalin himself, that place is infested of hilichurls and Abyss mages. It seems we are going to be unable to move without a proper strategy, Acting Grand Master."

I commented. And Jean rubbed her temples, she knew that I was right so even if we wanted to go right now we couldn't do that. It was going to take some time before we could be able to chase her clue and even so... Why do I still keep thinking about her? Why does her eyes look ... so oddly familiar to me?

To be continued.

[pizzapasta23045]

KAEYA HANGOUT ANALYSIS

Qubad: Fate means to send the machinations of war to every corner of the land, to fan the flames of conflict till they engulf the entire world...  Qubad: Fate would see my sword tainted with the blood of innocents, that the bright banner of my homeland might fly in every nation known to mankind. 

It so perfectly tells you what will happen in Kaeya's story without actually saying it. It's utterly lovely.

Firstly, it points out that Kaeya does not like violence, does not want it and he hates that fate wants him to be active participant in the creation of violence.

The homeland in the story could seem to be reffering to Khaenri'ah if you don't think about it too hard. But, weirdly, it reppresents both at different times of the play. In the beginning, fate wants the homeland to win, which would imply it's not exactly a 1:1 to Khaenri'ah unless the heavens have a weirdly convuluted plan as they themselves are the ones that destroyed it to begin with. It is also a place with a god, as you can tell in multiple points in the story.

Qubad: When I departed my beloved home to fight in a foreign land, I did so to honor his wishes and for my duty to our people.  Qubad: Alas, is this fate's grand design... Is this fate's grand design... Qubad: Must it be so...?

Kaeya was, in a way sent to fight in a foreign land. Not in the sense of physically fighint but in the sense tha he's an agent there for a specific goal we are not privy through.

He's placed in the impossible position of having to choose between Mondstadt, the place he loves and Khaenri'ah, his homeland who he owes a duty to. Fate, not his father decided this. His father has not helped the situation, his father has harmed him, but in the end he is not the one that created the problem in the first place. As Kaeya's himself points out here.

Kaeya: Yep, "inept" is a good word for it. Honestly, it might even be a little too civil to describe a god who turns fathers against their sons and is bent on endless warmongering... don't you think?

While there is clearly an arger towards his father, Kaeya does not see him as a bad person but as someone who was forced to be evil. A victim of manipulation, just as much of a pawn of this game as Kaeya himself is. The god (Celestia) is in the end the main problem. Because he set up the twisted system in teh first place.

 Qubad: I, Qubad, will spend the rest of my days in a foreign land, till I breathe my last in a place far from home. Qubad: But I shall not bow to the will of fate. I am no pawn in heaven's plan. Qubad: Gundafar, my dear mentor... You have always been like a father to me. It brings me only anguish to bid you farewell.  Qubad: But I must walk this path, or freedom dies by my hand. Goodbye, my tribe and kin. Farewell, sweet land of my birth.

The important part of the hangout is this. "I shall not bow to the will of fate. I am no pawn." Kaeya makes his decision. He's made up his mind finally. He knows what he should do.

Now. What is that?

Well, we can see in the play in Kaeya's improv that he'll say goodbye to his mentor who was like a father to him. He also says goodbye to his kin and his tribe. He isn't picking either the side of his family of choise and his blood.

What we see here is fundamental. Kaeya shouts it at us. He is not picking either side, because both have significance to him. It's important to realize that the thing with his sides, that is also made up. It's a construct set up by the gods. Neither side is whooly right or whooly wrong. The Heavens WANT kaeya to choose.

Kaeya: If you don't like the script, just walk off the stage and join the audience. You always have a choice.

You always have a choice. There is always a less obvious choice. The Heavens do not control anything.

Qubad: My dear audience, I ask you this: Do you believe in fate? If fate decreed that your life was to end in tragedy, what would you do?

The point it's making about Kaeya's story is fundamental to both his and the travler's story. Kaeya's life is to end in greatness and tragedy as his constellation says. It's written in the part. But Kaeya is no pawn, and Kaeya will not turn back, as freedom itself, as a concept dies. Unlike his father, he will not let himself be tainted by hate and preperpetuate the cycle of violence that the warmogering gods want him to do.

Anyways this is my coming out as a "Kaeya isn't picking either Khaenri'ah or Mondstadt he's picking the secret third option the heavens don't want you to know about."

[mirkwoodshewolf]

Gamer’s rage; Rocket raccoon x gn! reader

*Author’s note*

Okay so this is a combined request for an anon and @itsscromp​ but first I must apologize because I no ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about video games, I did some minor research for Call of Duty so if there are any COD fans out there and I’ve f-ed it up about what the first game does, I’m sorry because I’ve never played it and nor any real video games for that matter (my last video game was Bratz Rock Angels).

Not really any warnings just gamer rage, swearing, and gun violence (both video game and in the story. C’mon it’s Rocket guys what’d you expect?)

Taglist:

@plethora-of-things​

@waddles03​

@psychosupernatural​

@jd-johndeacon-or-jackdaniels​

@queen-paladin​

@queensdivas​

@gay-and-ready-to-cry​

@austynparksandpizza​

____________________________________________________________

Rocket and I sat a few feet apart from each other but refused to look at the other while Peter was pacing in front of us and the rest of the Guardians were scattered throughout the ship.

“Okay, can you please tell me why the hell the ship looks like a bomb went off in the southern deck?”

“As him!” I snapped.

“Ask me! You’re the one who had the blasters in your hand!” Rocket yelled at me.

“Well I wasn’t the one who threw the actual bomb!”

“Well how else was I gonna stop you from acting like a psycho!”

“You know what?!”

“What!?”

“ALRIGHT ENOUGH!!” Peter screamed at us to stop.  “I don’t care who started it or who used what, I just want to know why the hell you guys blew up my ship!?”

“I am Groot.” Said Groot.

“Wait what?” Peter asked.

“I am Groot.”

“It wasn’t that big of a deal.” Said Rocket. I laughed sarcastically as Rocket snarled at me baring his teeth.

“I let you take one round and then when I start winning, you go ballistic!”

“Oh bull!”

“Hold on, you mean to tell me the reason you guys nearly destroyed my ship and aren’t speaking to each other is over a stupid video game?!”

“Not just any game Quill, it was a battle for one’s right to destroy the villainous monsters that were the pansies.” Drax said in awe.

“Nazis, Drax. They were called Nazis.” I corrected him.

“Like the ones Steve fought.” Mantis added.

“Well he mostly fought off Hydra officers but I guess they’re the same thing. They were both douchebags of history.” I said.  I guess you’re wondering just what the hell is going on, well let me take you back to how this whole mess began.

*Flashback*

On our base at Nowhere I was going through the itinerary supplies for the Nowhere Trading Company (or NTC as I called it).  I was going through the black market goods we managed to swipe from some pirates just 4 quadrants from reaching Xandar’s atmosphere.

I opened up the crate and looked inside to see that it was filled with some classic video games back on Earth.

“Holy shit.” I reached in and grabbed a Spyro the Dragon (yep the first ever Spyro game).  “God I hadn’t seen this game since I was a kid.” I continued to dig through and found Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure.  “Oh my god, they got almost everything in here.”

The first Mass effect games, the original Super Mario Bros, Mario cart, Sonic the Hedgehog, but I let out a gasp as I quickly dug through the games and pulled out my all time favorite game and felt my arms shaking with excitement.

I ran across Nowhere with the game in my bag, I just had to find him there’s no way he’d ever refuse a game like this.

“Rocket! Rocket! Yo Rocket answer me! Rocket! ROCKET!!”

“Geez I’m right here what’d you blow a gasket or something kid?” Rocket said.  I quickly turned to see him remodeling one of the buildings into our storage units, he lifted his goggles over his head and set the blow torch down.  I bounded on the balls of my feet excitedly.  “You sure you don’t need to use the bathroom kid?”

“You’re not gonna believe what I found.” I sung out.  He sighed and came down from the building and walked up to me.

“Alright I’ll bite. What’d you find?” I reached into my bag and handed him the game still bouncing excitedly.  “Call of Duty?”

“The first Call of Duty game ever made. No other game could beat out the overrated game that is Halo but this game doubled not only in sale ratings but graphics and story as well.”

“It’s another mind-numbing game. I swear you and Groot are cut from the same cloth when it comes to video games.”

“Come on! I’ve got a feeling you’re really gonna like this one.”

“Not interested, now if you don’t mind I gotta get back to work before Quill gets on my back about finishing this storage unit.” He handed me the case back and climbed back up the stairs.  That’s when I said.

“You get to shot at people and blow things up.” He stopped midway up the stairs and turned back to me and said lowly.

“I’m listening.”

“Like Halo, this is a first person shooter game. That’s when you become the character, not just you controlling a character like most video games are. And this takes place during a real life war that happened in my world, the one that Captain Rogers fought in, and you get to shot and kill all the Nazi soldiers you want.”

“What about the blowing things up? You said I could do that right?”

“Oh yeah. Trust me Rocket, this was the first Mature rated game I played at my friend’s house and my god did we blow some shit up.”

“Well screw Quill then! If he wants this storage unit done, he can do it himself. Now uhh—how do we play this thing exactly?”

“There’s gotta be a game station in one of the other boxes where I found this along with a bunch of other games. C’mon.” we raced back to my station and we looked through a couple of more crates until Rocket game across the one that was filled with a bunch of various gaming stations.  “Ah-ha! Here it is, PlayStation. Just what we need!”

“Think I might have the perfect place for that.” I followed Rocket back to our ship and that’s where we had set up the game console in the Southern levels of the ship where we had all the monitors and TV/Radio transmitters.

Rocket hooked up the PlayStation to the monitors and after a few switches and wire sparks (better not to ask about that part), once I turned on the game the PlayStation opening rang off and showed off its logo.

“Oh yeah! Alright Rocket hop and squat and prepare to get your virtual ass kicked.”

“Please, I’ve been firing guns since you were in diapers.” He said as he grabbed his controller and I took mine and went through the menu to choose our battlefield.

“Well shooting people in real life vs. virtual works a little differently. But I’ll take that bet there Rocket.” Once the menu showed our options and the title card of the game, I selected my character while Rocket chose his.  Next I chose our mission and once we were ready, I scrolled down to the BEGIN MISSION option and the screen went black as it began to load.

The first round of our mission obviously I won but it gave Rocket a chance to learn the ropes of the game and how it worked.  So when the next round came in, he got the upper hand and killed me.

“Alright kid, final round is mine for the taking!” Rocket exclaimed.

“Don’t get cocky Rocket just cause you won this round.”

“Please I got this game in the bag.” He selected our final mission and we began our mission.  Guns were fired and each side of our screens went red with blood until I came out on top and won the final round.  “WHAT THE—”

“HA! In your face Rocket! I am the winner! I am the winner!” I said doing my little victory dance.

“No fair you cheated!”

“Yeah right you just can’t admit that when it comes to virtual shooting you suck at it.”

“I’ll show you who sucks at shooting!” he soon pulled out his gun and fired a warning shot right at me.  I flipped over the shot and ducked down.

“What the fuck man!”

“You wanna say I suck again!? Go ahead and say it.” He challenged me.  I took out my own gun and fired it at him as he jumped out of the way.

“Warning shot. Next one wont miss.” I warned him.

“You better hope not.” Next thing I knew, the two of us were shooting at each other trying to kill the other, throwing insults at the other for a terrible shot.

Which leads us back to the present.

*Flashback ends*

At the end of our story, Peter pinched the bridge of his nose and shook his head disappointedly.

“So can you tell a certain Terran that they’re an arrogant asshole and shouldn’t mess with a true professional?” Rocket said.

“Only if a certain rodent knows that real life shooting and virtual shooting aren’t the same. And that they’re a sore loser and should just suck it up and put on his bog boy pants and accept that someone else can be as good as he is.”

“Like I’d ever admit that!”

“You know you are such a pest you know that!?” I snapped.

“Takes one to know one don’t you think Flea!?”

“I told you to never call me that again!”

“I’ll call yah whatever I want and right now you’re a flea!” I roared as I pounced on him and the two of us began to rumble with each other.  Growling and screaming at each other until Peter forced us apart.

“ALRIGHT! I’M CALLING A TIME OUT!!”

“No Quill. I was placing all my money on (Y/n) to win.” Drax said.

“Drax what have we said about placing bets on each other to die whenever a fight breaks out?” Peter said.

“You really suck the joy out of everything. Groot do not take my money, the bet is on halt.”

“I am Groot.”

“After these two, I’m having a talk with the both of you.” Quill released us and began his reprimanding.  “You two wanna act like children? Okay then. Go to your room and I don’t wanna see the two of you until you learn to make up and be friends again.”

“As if.” We both said as he still refused to look at each other.

“If not I could always use some target practice dummies.” Nebula suggested.

“We’re not dummies!” we both exclaimed.

“Then it’s your choice. An hour or so in isolation together, or one of you is going to be holding this on top of your heads.” She pulled out a crushed piece of tin and held it out to us.  With no other choice we grumbled as we walked away.  Shoving each other nonchalantly as we grumbled insults at one another.

*3rd Person POV*

“Ugh I swear those two. Being as good friends as they are, when they fight oh god. It’s literally like trying to separate two dogs who want to kill each other. But thanks for that reverse psychology move on them Nebula, I appreciate it.”

“That wasn’t a psychological move.” She said.  Everyone went silent before one by one each decided they needed to be somewhere other than where they were right at that moment.

*My POV*

One bad thing about sharing a room with your (ex) best friend, is having an intense argument and having to be in that same room with your (ex) best friend.  Rocket and I sat back to back of each other with our arms crossed and a permanent scowl on our faces in dead silence.  The air so think with our anger it could be cut with a knife. But after a while of cooling down, I uncrossed my arms and said.

“I’ve heard how the video games have turned people crazy, but I didn’t think it’d ever happen to me.”

“So you finally admit it?”

“What I’m trying to say asshole, is that I don’t want our lifelong friendship to end over something so stupid. We were both in the wrong.”

“Yeah. Guess you’re right kid.” Finally we turned and looked at each other and I said to him.

“Maybe it was better I didn’t find those stupid games.”

“Now don’t go blaming yourself kid. You were hit with uhh—what did you call it again, nausea?”

“Nostalgia.”

“Right yeah that. Hell if I had a life like yours before I was made, I’d be doing the same thing.”

“I’m sorry Rocket, for nearly trying to shoot your brains out.”

“And I’m sorry (Y/n). For calling yah flea and for…..being a sore loser.” We smiled softly at each other before I hugged him.  He tensed up at first but relaxed and I felt his arms wrap around me.

[marvelwitchergilmore]

In Love

Summary: Clint Barton x Fe!Reader ~ Turns out, you’ve been keeping a massive secret from Clint despite being his friend and co-worker for the last six years. 

Disclaimer: violence, swearing (I think), pining, life-or-death situations, kiss to keep cover, fluff, hand holding, angst, blood, torture, Clint does not have kids or a wife or has ever, 16+ themes (Criminal Minds kinda thing). MDNI - This is your warning - If you read on, you have agreed to read 16+ themes.

The moment you came home your first day in the field, you knew what was to come. 

You never fell in love. Never even fell into ‘like’. But the moment you met him…it was game over. Your future self laughed at your younger self. 

“I’m never gonna fall in love.” you would say. “I’m never gonna like a boy like that. I’m not going to want someone to come home to. I want my own space. I don’t want anyone by my side. I don’t need anyone but my dogs. They can keep me company when I’m old and grey.”

God, you wished you could be like that again. Despite knowing none of it would be true, you wished you still had those ideologies. That you would never fall in love. That you would never date or marry or want children and turn out to be a Sports Mom with a minivan filled with gear, orange slices and cases of water you got on sale from Costco. 

But the moment you saw him…that ideology died. In fact, it burst into a ball of flames. 

You had never had that feeling before. That kind of feeling that sent a tornado through your stomach, blood pumping around your body as if you’d just fought for your life in a cross country race and your heart doing somersaults against your lungs that knocked the air out of them. 

But the moment you saw him…you had to scold yourself. 

And you scolded yourself over and over and over and over again, for years. 

Agent Clint Barton was first and foremost your teammate. You could only trust one another to the extent that the other did. Same with the rest of your team. 

Without trust, there would be no foundation for anything. 

And he trusted you. That much was clear. 

Afterwards, you, Clint and the rest of your team became friends and before long, you were a unit. A family. 

Each and every one of you knew the other like the back of your hands, except…Clint felt like he was missing something with you. 

He knew you were keeping something from him. And sometimes it felt like the rest of the team were trying to keep your secret, too.

Though, you knew that the rest of the team didn’t know for certain about your feelings towards Clint. They knew you but when it came to your love life, you were the only one none of them could figure out. Your cards were kept firmly against your chest. 

One evening, Willa (one of your teammates) spotted you in a small cafe getting a drink with a guy and when she saw you Monday morning, she instantly asked you about him. The whole team was there. Were you about to reveal that you have a secret boyfriend this whole time? Perhaps he was your husband and you had 4 kids and secretly owned a private school in Nebraska?

But, no. 

“He was just a guy and we had a good time but I don’t think I’m gonna see him again.”

“Why not?” Clint asked you. 

“Because the day after I saw him in the park with his girlfriend and their dog.” 

“Ooh,”

“I’m sorry, honey.” Willa frowned. 

“It’s okay.” 

For the next couple of months, you went on more dates. Some were set up by Willa and Jerry (another teammate) and the rest by online sites. And, some were more successful than others but in the end, none of them gave you that feeling that you had when you first met Clint. That kind of feeling, the moment you dropped your bag and closed your front door had you nodding your head and accepting, “Yep, this is it.” as you realised, somehow, miraculously, you’d managed to have a loving crush on someone. But it wouldn’t matter, because he is your teammate. 

And, after two years of trying to get rid of your feelings for him, or at least, trying to accept them and move on with your life, Clint sent your heart spirally and fell even harder when yourself, Willa, Jerry, Una and Clint were all sent on a mission together. 

It was an extraction. 

The host of the gala was a multi-millionaire and would be auctioning off his prized possessions in a secret auction. The gala was simply a front. After all, why would more than three dozen highly wealthy people all come to the same country for “a holiday”. 

His prized possessions included a hard-drive that opened the buyer to a world of information surrounding offshore accounts that were used to help free-lance agents that still had ties to any and all government organisations. 

Shield included. 

Only, after the initial smooth sailing, things took a turn. 

“It’s not here.”

From the other side of the bar, your eyes met with Clint’s and you spoke into your drink as you lifted it to your lips. “What do you mean it’s not there?”

“I mean it’s not here.” Jerry told you down comms. “The harddrive. It’s not in this room.”

“Then where could it- oh no.”

“Oh no? What oh no?” Clint asked. 

Willa turned her back to the column. “It’s in his jacket.”

“What do you mean it’s in his jacket?”

“Ten O’clock.”

Low and behold, there the host stood, the silver USB stick in his hand, smiling as he waved it around three other potential buyers. 

One of them went to touch it and the host pocketed it before he could, smiling before removing his jacket and handing it to his butler beside him who folded it up and began to walk away with it. 

“Where’s he taking it?”

Willa lip-read what she could from the conversation. 

“His bedroom.”

“His bedroom is heavily guarded.” 

“You don’t say.”

“Guys, what are we going to do? We need that hard drive.” Jerry’s voice rang through.

“Someone needs to get his attention.” Willa replied. 

“How?” you asked. 

“I have an idea.”

Moments later, Clint was by your side. 

“What are you-”

“Just trust me. You can punch me later.”

You placed your hand in Clint’s as he led you to the dance floor and suddenly you were very aware of your own skin. It was an odd feeling. 

“Just do what I do. But backwards. And in heels.”

“Thanks, Fred. What exactly is your plan here?”

Clint’s eyes met yours. “He looks in your direction every 45 seconds. I’m going to give him an excuse to make his move.”

You yelped in shock as Clint pulled you flush against him, his hand flexing on your lower back. 

“Just trust me?”

You caught the sincere look in his eyes and all you could do was nod. 

It worked. 

Just as Clint was moving you around the dance floor, your mind going elsewhere, there came a tap onto Clint’s shoulder. 

“May I cut in?”

“Of course.”

Clint pressed a kiss to your cheek, quickly whispering in your ear. “Flirt. You look beautiful, by the way.”

You smiled and nodded as he walked away, letting your hands slip from his and into the host’s. And, after flirting for the length of a song, feeling his hands go lower down your back, your own hands stopping him, he finally walked you up the stairs and towards his bedroom. 

“Don’t worry, I’ve got eyes on you.” Clint spoke down comms. 

You looked over your shoulder as you climbed the grand staircase with the host’s hand at your back, and you saw Clint to the left of the dance floor, watching you carefully. 

Once you found yourself with the host, alone, in his bedroom and the guards told to clear away and take their break for an hour or so, you made quick work in knocking him out, finding the jacket and removing the hard drive. 

Only, once you left and met Clint outside the bedroom door, a new to duty guard came around the corner. 

“Just follow me.” Clint took your hand in his as he pocketed the hard drive into his jacket. 

You only got half-way walking down the hall when the guard, who had peaked in on the host, came back out and shouted for you both to stop. 

Of course, you didn’t. 

You both ran instead. 

Then an alarm was pulled and every guard the host paid seemed to be after you and Clint. 

“What are you going to do?” Willa asked as Clint pressed something into her hand as he ran past her and out of the door.

“We’ll meet you back at the safe house.” Clint told Willa. “Just take the hard drive and get it to Jerry. Una, tell me you’ve got the van ready.”

“Ready. I’ll meet Willa and Jerry at the extraction point.”

“Good.”

And for the next ten minutes, you and Clint were running through the streets and back alleyways of the town, running in separate directions for a while before bumping into each other down a side-ally. 

Footsteps were coming closer and the sound of bullets were flying through the air. 

“They don’t know what they’re aiming at.” 

“But they’ll find us soon.”

“If we run out now, they’ll shoot at us.”

“So what do we do?”

“I don’t know.” you looked at him, breathless, before looking back down the alley. 

Then it hit Clint. 

“I have an idea but I need you to trust me. Like, really trust me.”

“Jesus Christ, Barton. Just get on with it.” you finally called out as he tried to prevent the inevitability of his plan - despite you not knowing what it was. 

The footsteps were drawing closer and for a moment they stopped, a light flashed down the alleyway and voice talked before the running continued.

But none of that registered in the moment because your brain was short-circuiting since Clint’s bright idea was to kiss you. 

His hands came to your face and he could feel your hands on his arms, ready to push him off and probably punch him. But you didn’t. And, rather than the kiss being stiff and awkward…it was unlike any other. 

One of his hands still remained by the side of your face when the light shone down the path but his other came down your body, sending goosebumps in their wake, before he pulled you against him and he stepped closer pressing you between him and the wall. 

Your own hands travelled up to his neck and pulled him closer but once the footsteps died away, the kiss slowly came to an end leaving you both breathless against one another. 

“I think it worked.” 

Clint nodded, swallowing hard, as he looked at you. 

How had he never noticed the reflection of the stars in your eyes before? 

“I think it did. Are you gonna punch me now?”

Clint watched as you paused for a moment. 

“Not right now. But if they come back, I might.”

“We better go?”

You nodded. “We better go.”

You had to push yourself along because you knew, if you didn’t, you’d kiss him again and he’d simply kissed you to avoid getting caught, right? There would be no dire consequences after that kiss. 

But all Clint could do was scold himself as you both made your way back to the safe house. How had he never noticed the stars in your eyes before? Or how, in the morning, the rays of the sun shone back just as bright? He also scolded himself from allowing himself to emotionally indulge in the kiss he shared with you. You are his teammate. And he knew himself. 

He couldn’t let his heart get involved, or else there would be dire consequences. 

Initially, things felt…awkward. But, after four years, it was just an old memory, right? And, yeah, sure, the memory would be revisited from time to time whether independently or shared…kinda. Mostly, this was when the team would have drinks one night and would be talking about love lives and first kisses and worst kisses. 

“Alright, alright, alright. I’ll give you that one.” Una said, swirling her bottle of beer. “But kissing to avoid something, that can't work, can it?”

“It can.” 

Your mouth spoke the words before your brain could stop you. 

“And how would you know?”

You caught Clint’s smirk as he looked down to his beer. 

“I just do.”

“Oh, really?”

“Come on, tell us!” Willa cried. 

You shook your head with a suppressed laugh. “I’ve said too much.”

“No, come on!”

“Maybe some other time.”

“No fair.”

“Okay,” you smiled. “You tell us about what happened with Derek and your ‘worldly knowledge’ and I’ll tell you my story.”

Willa narrowed her eyes at you, playfully. “You play a clever game.”

You just sat back and smiled.

But despite all of this, four years on, neither you or Clint had seemingly changed. But he still felt like you were hiding something from him. 

Except, he’d find out soon enough. And not in a way either of you hoped he would. 

This time, you’d been called in on your day off. 

“What’s going on?”

Clint turned around from the monitor and was at first taken aback from your clothing. Usually, you wore black pants and a black t-shirt to work or a work shirt or, if the situation called for it, sand coloured cargo trousers and a breathable t-shirt. Though, that was usually when having to attend a military base outside of cooler weather. 

Instead, you wore a cosy jumper and dungarees that had paint splatter all over them, including your white pumps and small freckles of pain on the baby hairs that had escaped their cover of the hair bandanna. 

Clint also spotted the remnants of nail polish in your cuticles and light paint on the side of your hands. 

“We’ve just got- have you been decorating?”

You looked over yourself. “Oh, yeah. Felt like a change. Anyway, what’s going on?”

“We’ve just got wind of a hostage situation. We can’t make verbal contact with the abductor but they did send this out.”

It was a note. 

And it was through that note that led you and Clint making an extraction which was initially successful until you did a final sweep afterwards only to be knocked out when you spotted a door had been left ajar and the lights turned off. 

Clint, after not hearing your reply, came in after you. 

And that was how you both ended up waking up inside some beat down old home that had probably been designed in the 40s. 

His voice was hazy, but you heard Clint call your name. You also tried your best to take in a breath but was only met with a damp stench and the feeling of your lungs crushing you into shock. 

“Take it easy, he hit you pretty hard.”

After a few minutes, you finally gained some normality in your lungs but the sting was still there. 

“What happened?”

“After he went all sleeper agent on you, I came in and found you unconscious. I was trying to wake you when he stuck something in my neck.”

“I see you got the peaceful option.” 

“Funny.”

“Where the hell are we?” you asked, trying your best to look around. 

“I don’t know. I haven’t heard any cars so I’m gonna take a guess and say we’re in the middle of nowhere.”

“Well, that narrows it down.”

“Did you see who took us?”

“No.”

“Would you like to?”

You and Clint snapped your heads to the open space in front of you both. 

Out from the shadows appeared the guy who you had seen just before his gun came across your head and your body hit the ground. 

The man walked from one side of the room, to the other, screwing in the light-bulbs beneath the lampshades causing both you and Clint to squint at the brightness. You’d both been submerged in darkness for quite some time. 

“My name is Jack. I know, how original. It was actually my mother’s father’s name. Named after my grandfather, grand ol’ Jack. Lived till he was 92. Always said the best way to survive was to always tell the truth. That lies weighed on the soul. And to have a small shot of whiskey before going to bed. Said that was good for the heart since it quietened the mind.”

“Really touching story,” you cut him off. “But why are we here?”

“Don’t you get it?”

You and Clint looked at one another. Had you both missed a part of this conversation? 

“I tried to save those people in the warehouse.” Jack told both of you as he straddled a chair. “People in this world need saving from themselves. People are dying younger than they ever did. And it’s because of all the lies. The lies they keep from their parents, and their children and themselves. It’s all crushing their soul. And I knew…” Jack smiled, wagging his finger. “I knew the moment I saw you down there that yours was being crushed the most.”

“Saw me?”

Jack stood from his chair. “I was in the corner office, on the top floor. It has an excellent view. Whoever has that office next will love it. The accents on the wall, ah magnificent.” Jack kissed his fingers before continuing. “But it gave me a good scope. I understand not everyone will…agree with my methods, per say.”

“No, because you took people hostage.” Clint pointed out. 

“I was trying to save them! And I was finally getting through to them until those SWAT guys pulled out my team.”

“Again, because you had taken them hostage. And now you’ve taken us hostage.”

“This world needs saving!” Jack yelled. “It needs saving from the lies people tell and the secrets they all hide.”

“Alright!” you yelled out before calming your voice. “Alright. So…the world needs saving? Jack, do you really think you’re saving it…by killing people? The hold-up down on 9th? That was you, right? Those people you let go-”

“They let their souls free. They told the truth.”

“So, if we-” you looked at Clint before turning back to Jack. “If we tell you the truth, will you let us go?”

“Yes.” 

For a moment, the feeling in the room got lighter. Maybe there was a way out after all. 

“But you’ll only lie. No, you…your secrets are too big to just give up freely. You…you’re a take em’ to the grave kinda gal. So, no. I won’t let you go. Not until I know that it’s the truth.”

“How will you know?”

Clint regretted asking the question. 

“Because she’ll be begging to tell me. You both will.”

Neither of you knew how much time had passed but the spots from the light were getting duller and bigger. 

“No, no. You can not sleep yet. You haven’t freed your soul.”

“Why do we have to free our souls?” you asked, the taste of blood coming to your mouth. “What if I don’t want to be saved? You said it yourself. I’d rather take mine to the grave.”

“Oh, but you don’t. Not really.” 

Jack had been circling you and Clint for a while, as if he were a hunter, teasing you - waiting for you to beg to be killed. 

“No, I can see it in your eyes. The eyes never lie.” 

Jack levelled himself though he wasn’t close enough to knock out. His hands gripped your thighs as he hummed, annoyance clear in his expression as he tried to figure out your secret. 

“Perhaps you killed someone? No, that isn’t it. Maybe you ran away? Have a secret family? No, that’s not it either. The eyes never lie to me. What is it? What are you not telling me? What are you not telling yourself?”

Clint called your name and Jack saw the slightest change in you. So slight, in fact, even you didn’t feel it. 

“It’s him. It had something to do with your team. No, teammate. It’s him and just him.”

Jack pushed against your thighs so he could stand up straight. Quickly, he made his way over to Clint and circled him. 

“What is it? What is it about you, huh? What has her secret got to do with you? Let's see if we can find out.”

You heard the snap of a switchblade as it opened and the fight for Jack to steady Clint but before he could make the first cut or slice, you cried out. 

“Stop! He doesn’t know! He- he doesn’t know. Please…just…just don’t hurt him. Please.”

Jack looked over to you and Clint’s name escaped your lips, both in pleading and question. 

“Oh…oh, this runs so much deeper than just a secret.”

You lowered your head for a moment. The pounding in your heart was only made harder by your own silent cries telling you to not say anything else. But there was a chance you’d both die, so why not tell him? Right? Maybe it would save your lives? Or would it only give Jack more ammunition to use? 

 “Doesn’t it?”

“Please…don’t.”

Jack knelt in front of you and gently touched your cheek before moving his hand down and grasping under your jaw, forcing your head up. 

“Tell me. Let me free your soul.”

Tears rolled down your cheeks, your heart crushing your lungs inside your chest. 

“If you don’t tell me, I will only hurt him more. And you don’t want to hurt him. Tell me. Help me save both of you. Tell me. No, tell him.”

Jack moved your head, forcing you to look at Clint with tear stained cheeks. 

“I’m sorry, Clint. I’m so sorry.”

Your name came from Clint’s voice, barely above a whisper. 

“You can admit it,” Jack said your name. “You committed the most heinous act an agent such as yourself can do, didn’t you? You created a danger, not only for him, but yourself.”

Clint said your name again, trying to move his hands only to find them still shackled to his chair. 

“You fell in love.”

You took in a breath, the beating feeling in your chest, turning into a stabbing feeling against your lungs. Your head remained down as you squoze your eyes shut, more tears escaping from your lids, down your lashes and onto your lap. 

“Please…”

You didn’t even know if Jack could hear you, but you pleaded with him anyway. 

“We need to hear you say it.”

You remained silent but then-

“Say it!”

Jack’s hand came to your face and pushed you to look at him. 

“Say it! Say it!”

You continued to plead with him until he pushed you back further and you screamed out. 

“I fell in love! I fell in love! Please! Stop! No! Please! I-I fell in love! I fell in love with him! Please! I-I fell in love with him. I’m in love with him!”

Jack stopped and waited a moment before pulling you back so all four legs of the chair were on the ground and he finally removed his hand from your face. 

“And there it is.” 

He was smiling. The look and sound of fear in your body had pushed him further but the defeated look on your face…that couldn’t be bought. That had to be created, by his hands. 

Clint looked between Jack and you and he didn’t know what to be more worried about. What Jack could possibly do to you next, or the fact that even he knew you were telling the truth to Jack. 

You were in love with him.

But he didn’t have long to sit and think about it because flashing lights suddenly came from behind the thick fabric that covered the broken windows, blocking out the light of the day and night. 

“No! No!” Jack shouted. “I still need to save them!”

It all happened so quickly, Clint barely caught the fact that Willa had rushed inside, Una arresting Jack and detaining him. Willa rushed over to Clint as Jerry came over to you.

“How did you find us?” Clint asked Willa as Jerry came behind you and picked the locks of your handcuffs. 

“Are you okay?”

Jerry knew it was a stupid question, even when you didn’t answer him. 

“A dog walker called it in. Said they could hear someone yelling as if they were in pain. He also knew no one has lived in this house since 1982.”

As Willa picked Clint’s handcuffs, Jerry had managed to get you out of yours and without looking back, you darted for the door. 

“Wait, wait,” Una called after you. “We need to wait for the medics.”

“Can you take me to the hospital?”

Una looked you over. She could see the clear look in your eyes. You didn’t want to stay here for another second. 

“Don’t you want to wait for Clin-”

“Now?”

Una nodded, radioing into Willa who was standing behind Clint, letting Jerry finish unpicking the locks. 

“Sure, I’ll call ahead.”

“Thank you, Willa.”

Hoping into the passenger seat, you shut the door as Una climbed into the driver’s seat and took off down the road and to the local hospital. 

“What happened in there?” Una asked you as she flicked her eyes from the road to you and back again. 

“I don’t wanna talk about it.”

Even with your hand shaking, you pushed your fingers across your face to try and wipe away the tears. 

By the time you arrived at the hospital, you were taken to a separate room where Una stayed in the waiting room, filling out your forms. Your hands were too shaky to even hold a pen and you could just about remember your own name. 

The doctor ran multiple tests and pushed the small cuts together with closure slips. 

“You’re all good but I’d like you to remain here for a couple hours, just in case there’s any change.”

You nodded and quietly thanked the doctor as she left. 

There were patches of dirt on your hands, as well as blood and old tears where they washed away the stains. 

After an hour, Una came in only to leave a few minutes later since she was called back to base to interrogate Jack. And, as she left, you slowly lowered yourself down on the hospital bed and, despite the noise in your head, you fell asleep. 

A few hours later, a nurse came in and woke up. 

“You can go home now, honey. We’re gonna need this bed.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.” you tried to get up quickly but the nurse only laid a hand on your shoulder. 

“It’s okay, honey. Take your time. I read your chart, you took quite the hit. Your friend is waiting for you in the waiting room to take you home.”

You nodded, swinging your legs over the side. 

“Here. Take these for the headache.”

“Thank you.”

“No worries, honey.”

By the time you had grabbed your jacket and started walking down the hallway, you stalled when you saw who the nurse was talking about. 

If you had the energy, you probably would have run in the opposite direction. But you didn’t. You were tired and if the nurse hadn’t woken you, you probably would have slept for the next 24 hours. 

“Una was gonna come but I fought her for it.” Clint tried to smile but he could see your’s was just forced. 

“Look, what happened-”

“Clint, please…I– I don’t want to talk about it. I just want to go home.”

“Okay.”

The drive back was silent and awkward and by the time he pulled up, you looked at him for as long as you could stomach (which wasn’t long) before opening up the door and thanking him. 

And, the moment you pushed your key inside your door, you thought you were safe. That everything was finished for the day and you could deal with it tomorrow. 

But Clint got out of the car and called your name. 

“Wait!”

He took the porch steps two at a time and when he finally reached you, you forced yourself to look at him. 

“I need to say something.”

“You don’t have to say anything, Clint.”

“But I want to.”

“Please…I’d…I just want to forget what happened today. Please…I can��t do it again.”

“I know you’re scared and watching what he was doing to you…I was scared, too. I am. I am scared.”

“Clint,” you could see the look in his eyes and you shook your head. “No. Don’t. Don’t say anything you’re gonna regret.”

“The only thing I regret is not telling you earlier.” Clint told you. “Then maybe none of this would have happened.”

“Clint-”

“I-”

“Please.” 

Your hand flew to his chest and he stopped talking. “Please. Whatever you’re about to say…please wait. Wait for the right time.”

Finally, you looked at him and his hands came to the top of your arms, stroking downwards before holding you close. 

“Please…just wait.”

“Okay.”

That was all he said before kissing your head and saying it again. 

“Okay. I’ll wait.”

By the time you woke up in the morning, your mind had stilled and before it could get loud again, you started painting again. All of your furniture was covered and two out of the 6 walls you had planned to paint had been cleaned, stripped, sanded, coated and painted. 

And, just as you started on the third, a knock came to your door. 

“I just want to help.” Clint told you. “And, let’s be honest, last time you tried decorating this place on your own, you nearly knocked yourself out with paint cleaner.”

You, for the first time in the last 48 hours, smiled. 

“You can take the kitchen. There should be some new cupboards to keep you company.”

“You’re finally changing them?” Clint asked, entering the kitchen, his tool belt around his hips. 

“I am. Picked them out last week.”

“Thank god.” he said. “I hated the last ones.”

“Same.”

The rest of the day ran smoothly enough, despite what the last couple of days had revealed. Clint informed you that you and him both had the next two weeks off before either of you could go back into the field. He also helped fix the kitchen cabinets to the wall as well as install your new oven. You could have done it on your own, but having someone else there made it easier. Clint also helped you move around the heavier furniture and, when fixing the wiring to the lightbulb, he held the ladder steady under you so you wouldn’t fall. 

And for the following two days, neither of you mentioned anything about what happened with Jack. It was like nothing had ever happened in the first place. 

Until Clint decided he couldn’t wait anymore. 

It was easier, before the kiss, to shut off his feelings for you; that worry, that concern, that joy that exceeded more than just the smile of friendship. But after, they became much more clear. He saw the stars in your eyes and the light in your smile. He was more than just amazed at your talents of being an agent. Of course, those who joined Shield all had similar talents, but there was just something more about you. More to be figured out, more to learn, more to be desired and most of all, more to be loved. 

He couldn’t wait any longer. 

Sure, he’d been called stubborn before but now he was impatient. He’d let time slip by for six years and in that time there had been moments where he wanted to call out from the top of buildings that his feelings for you were more than that of a friend, of a teammate. But he couldn’t. 

There was always a mission or a job to be done or a date that got in the way. And now, there had been a raging lunatic that, if Willa and the rest of the team hadn’t landed when they did, could have killed you. He’d set your soul free, you’d been able to tell your secret. What was to stop him from not letting the rest of you go? What was stopping him from shooting you where you sat or using your life against his? 

Nothing. 

Because Clint couldn’t free himself. He couldn’t free himself from his chair or the shackles that kept him there. No matter how many times he called out your name or shouted for Jack to stop, he couldn’t free himself. He couldn’t get there. He couldn’t stop Jack from doing whatever he wanted to the women he fell in love with all those years ago. 

But he could do something now. 

So, as you stood beside him in the kitchen measuring out a plank of wood to fit on the wall above your stove, Clint looked at you and finally told you what he’d been wanting to tell you for years and what he was about to tell you two days ago before you begged him to wait, you not fully knowing whether he was going to reject you or tell you that he loved you. 

“I’m in love with you.”

Whatever you had been saying about the plank of wood and how you needed to get some more sandpaper from Home Depot quickly came to a stop as you stumbled over your words and looked at him. 

“What?”

“I’m in love with you.” Clint repeated. 

“No, Clint. Don’t-”

“I’m not just saying it because of what happened.” Clint assured you. “I should have told you years ago but I kept making excuses. But, after what happened, I don’t want to be able to find an excuse. I nearly lost you because I didn’t tell you sooner. I’m not losing you again. I’m in love with you.”

You were stunned to say the least. 

“I know, two days ago, you told me to wait. I was going to tell you when I got to the hospital but they told me you’d just fallen asleep. And then you told me to wait when I dropped you off and maybe I should, but I don’t want to. I don’t want to miss a chance to tell you again.”

Again, you were stunned into silence. 

“I’m in love with you.”

“I’m dizzy.” 

That was all you could say. All the information and realisation of every action made in the last six years all hit you at once. 

Swiftly, Clint pulled out one of the bar stools and you sat down holding your head. 

“You’re in love with me?”

“I’m in love with you.” Clint repeated. 

“You’re in love…with me? Me? The woman sat in front of you? Me?”

“Yes. I am in love with you.”

“Have you inhaled paint cleaner?”

Clint chuckled and pulled out a chair himself, sitting with his knees locked into yours before he took your hands in his. 

He stated your full name, “I am in love with you. And have been for the last six years.” Clint also stated your birthdate, star sign, address and badge number. “Does that clear it up?”

Your heart was beating in your chest so fast you thought it might actually explode. 

“Clint, I…I need to know you’re not just saying this because of what happened.”

Clint gave a small nod. “I have an idea but I’m gonna need you to trust me. Like, really trust me.”

You nodded and a moment later, Clint’s hands had moved from yours to your face, cupping your cheeks before pulling you in for a kiss. 

It was gentle and loving and unlike any other kiss you had experienced before. Other guys had taken what they wanted, forced the kind of kiss they wanted out of you. But not Clint. 

Somehow, he conveyed every emotion he could into the kiss and you couldn’t help but feel your mind wander back to your first kiss, down the side alleyway. That felt real. You had to convince yourself it was fake but this, and that, was real. 

It was all real. 

For a moment, you felt Clint smile into the kiss as your hands gripped at the collar of his checked shirt to pull him closer. A smile which you returned. 

“I’m in love with you.”

“I’m in love with you, too.”

Clint smiled and kissed you again, and again, and again. 

Despite everything that had happened, and everything that you had previously thought, you had come to realise that maybe it wasn’t so bad to learn to love and accept love in return. And in the years that passed, despite the dangers the job put you both in, it was nice to come home and be greeted with a familiar face and a warm embrace and to have a family you could both call your own. 

[randomnameless]

As claude is my fav character in FE16 one of the things that confused me about people praising Three Hopes GW as the "true claude" because GW Claude uses more violent methods to get what he wants and therefore somehow that means he's the manipulative schemer we the devs always intended , it just made me go ??? Like what??

Cause as your post pointed out, he already was a manipulative schemer in FE16. like we know he uses people to try to push things in his favor, but because it wasnt outright violent then somehow that made him a goody two shoes???

Like uh no. He's not a goody two shoes and he has always been morally ambiguous. he always had these flaws. it's one of the reasons I like his character.

the difference was he drew a line at how far he'd go.

Like why bother using force or violence when you have Hilda to charm people into doing what you want? Why fight the church when you can use them to bring in recruits to take down Edelgard and end her war? Why not use Byleths influence to bring people together in Fodlan and then use them to establish peaceful relations between Fodlan and Almyra? Why use violence at all when you can use guile.

Anyway hes always been a little shit lmfao. I can't blame people for not liking him for it either its totally understandable! The reasons you dislike him are why I like (and hate) him. He's secretive and he's manipulative, always has been.

But to his credit, he does have his limits and when he goes too far he steps back , apologizes or admits his faults, reevaluates and tries to do better- with ehh varying outcomes. And that's so realistically human. He's a work in progress.

He chooses to seek the truth, he always wants more information, and he's willing to hear people out. This plus his self awareness and willingness to change his view based on new information is IMO his greatest strengths. Everyone has biases, but how many of us are able to look at ourselves and consider what if I'm wrong.

By the end of the game his character is very different from where he began. His stance on Rhea and Fodlans faith by the end of VW is perhaps one of the most obvious changes.

whoops my venting warped into this LOL sorry 😭😭😭

Ooh don't worry!

I actually don't mind talking about characters with people who don't share the same opinions, if I had to talk to myself it'd be pretty boring lol

But yep, as you said, Claude is a work in progress, and I'll even say he still evolves between VW's end and his epilogue card*!

Yellow units have always been a wild card in FE, they're not your allies like green units, but they have their own allegeances and might become enemy units later on, or not.

And even if Claude has a manipulative streak and sometimes prioritizes his goals instead of the means used to reach that goal, Fe16's Claude is a Claude who is shown being able to take a step back, reconsider, realise he's wrong and ultimately move in another direction.

Claude can apologise and learn.

But there are lines Claude will not cross to reach his goals, at least in Fe16. And those lines are what Flamey jumps over during WC.

Come Nopes and... Clout crosses the same lines VW's Claude wouldn't have crossed, Claude can manipulate and be sneaky, Claude doesn't start wars. Fe16's Claude offers his sympathies to Billy after Jerry kicks the bucket, he doesn't give Billy his best Caellach impersonation.

And when his Nopes version refuses to consider other POVs or even reconsider, it's annoying because, hey, we know Nopes wasn't supposed to portray the lords in a good light else the player who inserted in Billy would feel bad, but we came from a Claude who learns and admits (even if it's subtle) he was wrong...

To a 1st year undergraduate student who thinks he is smarter than everyone in the room, and doesn't even bother to read his syllabus. Claude graduated, Clout didn't, and we have to follow the "non developed" Clout in Nopes making bad decisions on top of bad decisions... Yeah, I can see why it's really annoying for fans of guys character.

* I earlier checked the VW ending painting thingie, Claude apparently is holding a treaty to alliance lords and they are negotiating? But while both sides are backed up by soldiers, only the Almyran ones have weapons?

I know Almyra is a sour subject - I can think of both doylist and watsonian reasons why Claude never adresses the elephant in the room, even in the Fe16 room - but ultimately in his ending cards Almyra and Fodlan finally have their famous peaceful relationships and king Claude even furthers bonds with the two states, so it sort of worked in the end!

[waitingforwinterwinds]

A Clash of Kings - 64 ARYA X (pages 800-816)

Arya discovers there's about to be yet another change in Harrenhal management, and decides to get herself and her boys out of dodge.

-

The cook was spared (some said because he made the weasel soup), but stocks where hammered together for pretty Pia and the other women who'd shared their favors with Lannister soldiers, Stripped and shaved, they were left in the middle ward beside the bear pit, free for the use of any man who wanted them.

I've changed my mind on violence. All these men deserve death. This isn't justice, it's an excuse to rape women and call their hands clean.

If it were about justice, the women would have been killed clean like the men.

... and now there's another person threatening to object-rape Arya. GRRM, turn on your location. I just want to talk.

Arya punched his arm. "It was just hot broth. You hated Ser Amory too." "I hate this lot worse. Ser Amory was fighting for his lord, but the Mummeers are sellswords and turncloaks. Half of them can't even speak the Common Tongue. Septon Utt likes little boys, Qyburn does black magic, and your friend Biter eats people." The worst thing was, she couldn't even say he was wrong.

Utt's perversion is not better. He needs to die.

wait. Qyburn? the hell are you doing here? other than foul magicks.

I legit hate that Roose's command is worse than Tywin's. I mean, it's not surprising, I might strongly dislike Lannisters, and Tywin, but he was just ornery, Roose is a grade-A whack-job. I wish that this wasn't a lesson Arya had to learn like this, that sometimes a person you personally hate is the better man.

(Mind you, when it comes to "who's a better man" comparing Roose and Tywin is like comparing a dry poop and a wet one. Not exactly good examples.)

She still had the stupid coin he'd given her, a piece of iron no larger than a penny -

Hang on. Penny? Do they have pennies in Westeros? brb googling. Dragon, Moon, Stag, Star, Groat, Halfgroat, Penny, Halfpenny. So yep, apparently they do. ... sorry, almost tripped down a research spiral re: the word origin and etymology of 'penny.' I need to not think about it. Actually, for my sanity, unless someone can provide me with a Watsonian explanation, I'm just going to pretend there's some connection with the coins of Pentos, and that the word is slang.

"The castle is so large that it needs an army to hold it, and once surrounded we cannot feed and army. Nor can we hope to lay in sufficient supplies. The country is ash, the villages given over to wolves, the harvest burnt or stolen. Autumn is on us, yet there is no food in store and none being planted. We live on forage, and if the Lannisters deny the to us, we will be down to rats and shoe leather in a moon's turn."

I'll bet the smallfolk aren't fairing any better. Not that this lot would care about them.

...yes, good, continue to talk in front of Arya, let her know all your secre- oh shit, I forgot she didn't know about fake Bran and Rickon yet.

If Winterfell is truly gone, is this my home now? Am I still Arya, or only Nan the serving girl, for forever and forever and forever?

:( Poor Arya, she's not just facing the loss of her family, but her identity. Up til now, she's been changing identities like a weather appropriate jacket, but she's always had that chance, the goal, of going back to Arya of Winterfell, now even that might be gone with her brothers and her home.

She chewed on her lip, hoping. If I had wings I could fly back to Winterfell and see for myself.

I feel like I should add "If I had wings" or general wishing for wings to my drinking game, I swear I've seen it several times by various Stark siblings.

He hates me too, or else he's scared of me,

Arya is not enjoying the consequences of her actions. She might be enjoying them more if the 'victors' weren't complete garbage, to be fair.

Roose: I am a fair man who will forgive small slights

*looks at the shit his men are allowed to get away with. looks at the rumours surrounding House Bolton. looks at the shit he personally does.* Are you though? Do you though?

Press F to doubt.

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFfffffffffffffffff

"Tell me what to do, you gods," she prayed. For a long moment there was no sound but the wind and the water and the creak of leaf and limb. And then, far far off, beyond the godswood and the haunted towers and the immense stone walls of Harrenhal, from somewhere out in the world, came the long lonely howl of a wolf. Gooseprickles rose on Arya's skin, and for an instant she felt dizzy. Then, so faintly, it seemed as if she heard her father's voice. "When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies, but the pack survives," he said. "But there is no pack," she whispered to the weirwood. Bran and Rickon were dead, the Lannisters had Sansa, Jon had gone north to the Wall. "I'm not even me now, I'm Nan."

The pack survives = 🥛 (was it on the list? well it is now, because I love this line.)

also, it's interesting in a "is it a coincidence GRRM?" kind of way, that the four she lists are the four who survive the up coming turning of the tables.

But also this chapter is going hard with Arya and her shaken sense of self and identity, not just who she is as Arya, but also a little with the "who are the good guys really?" (Spoiler, there aren't any in war, just people who will be less awful if they're in charge, and people who will be less awful to people they see as people if they're in charge. *le shock* oh wow, it's almost like ASOIAF is secretly anti-war! who could have foreseen this? not D&D that's for sure! sorry, I'm putting the meanness away now.)

For a moment, she did not think he understood, but then he slid out from under the blankets. Naked, he padded across the room, shrugged into a loose roughspun tunic and climbed down from the loft after her.

roughspun = 🥛 Gendry sleeps in the buff: confirmed 😳

... pft, Arya getting the horses like, the only thing missing from this ruse is a clipboard of +20 "I'm totally supposed to be here doing this"

the 'con' in 'conartist' is short for 'confidence'~

His throat, it must be his throat, but he's too tall, I'll never reach it. ... "Silver you say?" He did not believe her, but he wanted to; silver was silver after all. "Give it over then." Her fingers dug down beneath her tunic and came out clutching the coin Jaqen had given her. In the dark the iron could pass for tarnished silver. She held it out... and let it slip through her fingers. Cursing her softly, the man went to a knee to grope for the coin in the dirt, and there was his neck right in front of her. ... "Valar morghulis," she whispered as he died.

YES!

good girl! clever! ... *smacks D&D with the steel chair for the hell of it* actually, hang on...

D&D suck at their job = 🥛

I've been skipping drinks.

No but, let's just talk about this for a second. Arya understood she was in danger, that her time of relative safety was over, and put together a plan to get not just her, but her two companions out, despite the fact they were the reason she was stuck there in the first place. She thought about exit strategy, transport, and supplies, (plus extra layers of clothing,) and then this fabulous piece of improve? Delightful! It really showcases her adaptability and ability to think under pressure.

In the show this escape was mastered by Jaqen start to finish, but D&D absolutely wanted to push and Arya "not like other girls/action girl" Stark narrative, so why the hell would they cut this? why give it to Jaqen? Like I get that they changed the script and voided the Harrenhal take over but why remove Arya's contributions to the escape so completely? Why not at least "here' what I want to happen, make it happen and I'll unname you"????

Also, also: her first time using Valar morghulis as a murder punchline or whatever it is you call the quippy remarks or ominous quotes that are said to your murder victim.

[ghoulgeists]

Speaking of OotA and Karrion, I'm curious how your game is doing the lycanthrope thing! Can Karrion shift whenever they want? How are they during a full moon? What sorts of immunities and traits do they gain from the lycanthropy? Also I'm just curious about their story, if you are willing to divulge. :3c

THEYRE LIKE... lycanthrope lite haha, they're actually a shifter and a beast barbarian! I've been thinking of switching them to blood hunter just for the extra kick of true lycanthropy, but I'm not too read up on that class yet :'D I've got until level 5 to switch!

But to answer the rest of your questions, yep they can shift whenever they want! Usually it's for an extra boost in a fight or when they need some of their senses boosted (like smell), but other than that and the base of what happens when a shifter does their thing I haven't flavored it too much mechanically! Visually though it's a pretty gnarly and gruesome change which is so delicious to me. Real bone-snapping stuff >:]

The full moon doesn't affect them too strongly! It does make them a bit more sociable though, I guess you could say seeing the full moon improves their mood more than anything. There's none of that right now though because we're in the underdark so they're persistently moody :')

As for their story, they keep their past under wraps for the most part. They were raised by some... mmmmmmm not very good people! After losing their family. A while before the campaign started they freed themself through extreme violence, but were captured by drow and brought to the underdark where they were imprisoned along with the rest of the party. They definitely put up a fight though lol

I'm keeping most of their past secret because the players could see and I'd rather have Karrion reveal bits and pieces themselves in character! But I can say that their primary motivation for escaping the underdark is to just have one day of freedom and peace. Maybe to fall asleep under a pile of mulch or something.

I originally intended for it to be kind of a scary, imposing character but between immediately growing attached to a bunch of the npcs and pcs, me not being able to be mean to save my life, and the fact that they got mega wasted on one mug of dwarven ale, this huge weewoo is INCREDIBLY gap moe and I'm living for it.

[chiakinanami82]

My Sides discuss Harvester

Athena: Sachiko, why are we here?

Sachiko: I wanted to talk about Harvester with you guys.

Sophia: I see. By the way, Harvester is a FMV point-and-click adventure game that was released in 1996. It was known for its gore and violence.

Athena: And it’s satirical as all hell.

Rebecca: Did someone say Harvester?

Athena: Yeah, Sachiko, why didn’t you invite her?

Sachiko: I gave her a note. Sophia: She probably just threw it away.

Rebecca: Excuse me, nerd! Anyways, I love the overall uniqueness and the soundtrack isn’t too bad, considering. Sure, the concept of waking up in a strange town is nothing new, but it pushes it so much that it ends up feeling unique.

Athena: Yeah, the music is great. I love the humor, the gore, the atmosphere, and the social commentary. One of my favorite quotes is from this game.

Sophia: I’m not the biggest fan of Harvester, but it’s certainly thought-provoking.

Sachiko: I love the gore and the body horror. It’s so good!

Sophia: It’s disgusting, but it contains oodles of social commentary.

Sachiko: It’s also a delightful middle finger to those moral guardian types. Athena: Yeah, the ones who scapegoat media in order to avoid the realization that their “precious little baby” is an animal with a penchant for violence like the rest of us.

Rebecca: It was a hot topic in the nineties and early aughts. I even remember news stories about parents blaming CoD and GTA, despite their ratings.

Athena: Yep. It’s awful.

Sophia: Honestly, those moral guardians are aggravating and self-important. Even if the media one consumes does affect us, it’s still our choice to be violent in the first place.

Athena: Agreed.

Rebecca: That’s why I think it’s important to have dark topics, though there is a difference between stuff like Johnny the Homicidal Maniac and Happy Tree Friends. One is full of philosophical pondering, and the other is a simple cartoon gore fest that parodies toddler shows.

Sachiko: And I love all of them!

Athena: Of course you do.

Rebecca: I suppose, since you all have ceased discussion, that we are finished here. *Everyone nods* Well, I’ve got to go read up on the Snicketverse lore, so I’ll be busy as a new,

Athena: I’m gonna go listen to the NitW OST in my room. See ya.

Sophia: I’ll be reading about birds.

Sachiko: And I’ll be having fun mutilating some bodies! If you have any specific questions or topics for us, feel free to leave them down below. Otherwise, we’ll catch you later! Bye!

[preppernewstoday]

(Psst: The FTC wants me to remind you that this website contains affiliate links. That means if you make a purchase from a link you click on, I might receive a small commission. This does not increase the price you'll pay for that item nor does it decrease the awesomeness of the item. ~ Daisy)By the editor of The Conspiracy Files: “Crazy” Theories That Turned Out to Be True Conspiracy theories. What to some is a sign of critical thinking is, to others, a sign of dangerous insubordination. I was taught by my father that a good argument can stand up to criticism and that finding someone who disagreed was a fine way to test your theory. I’ve never been too bothered when folks disagree with me. In fact, I’m eager to know why. I want to learn whether or not I’m missing something. But these days, it seems that I’m in the minority. The “danger” of conspiracy theories The term has long been used in a derogatory fashion to belittle the ideas of a person who doesn’t necessarily accept that everything can be taken at face value.  These days, it’s used to denote a train of thought that is downright dangerous, even an existential threat to civil society. What’s everyone so afraid of? Normies – folks who aren’t big questions of the status quo – used to just shake their heads and smile at the “quirky” conspiracy theorist in their life. They considered it a harmless past-time, an eccentricity. However, now we have the media breathlessly warning people of the innate deadly danger of conspiracy theories and the people who espouse them. Outright FEAR is being stoked. Let’s take a closer look. The FBI warning Back in 2019, the FBI said that conspiracy theories posed a domestic terrorism threat: “The FBI assesses anti-government, identity based, and fringe political conspiracy theories very likely motivate some domestic extremists, wholly or in part, to commit criminal and sometimes violent activity,” the document said. “The FBI further assesses in some cases these conspiracy theories very likely encourage the targeting of specific people, places, and organizations, thereby increasing the likelihood of violence against these targets.” The document continued to say that the bureau reached its conclusion “with high confidence” and based on information it obtained from other federal agencies, open source information, court documents, FBI investigations, and human sources. Yep, this is the same FBI whose own documents concluded that they had investigated the Trump campaign without justification. The one whose director was caught violating DOJ policies and breaking protocol in a lackluster investigation of Hillary Clinton’s emails. Pardon me if I’m not too worried about what the FBI thinks. The academic warning Then we have the people who consider themselves smarter than the rest of us: the academics. The website “The Conversation” boasts that their content “is written by university scholars and researchers with deep expertise in their subjects, sharing their knowledge in their own words.” So it must be true, right? Anyway, a postdoctoral research fellow in philosophy warns us of the “dangers” of conspiracy theories. He kindly dumbs it down for the peons by comparing it to “the floor is lava.” When a child declares that “the floor is lava,” few if any believe the declaration. But that child, and others, begin to act as if the declaration were true. Those who do may clamber onto furniture, and repeat the declaration to others who enter the space. Some children play just for fun, some play to show off their climbing and jumping skills, and some play to appease the child who initiated the game. Some kids quickly tire of the game and wish to stop playing, but like or respect the child who initiated the game, and don’t want to upset that person by stopping. As the game progresses, some take it too seriously. Furniture is damaged, and some get injured while attempting to leap from one raised surface to another. The lava is fake, but real things get broken.

More seriously, when Donald Trump claimed that the 2020 presidential election was “rigged,” some officials and ordinary citizens acted accordingly. Whether out of sincere belief, partisanship, loyalty to Trump or financial opportunism, many Americans behaved as if the 2020 election was unfairly decided. Some people acting as if the election conspiracy theory were true assembled in Washington, D.C., some stormed the Capitol building and, behind the scenes, some developed a scheme to submit fake slates of electors supporting Trump’s reelection despite his loss at the ballot box. The people involved in these activities could count on the support of others who endorsed the rigged election claim, even if these endorsements were largely insincere. The costs of acting as if the 2020 election were rigged are no doubt greater than those for acting as if the floor is lava. The costs of acting as if the 2020 election were rigged led to millions of dollars worth of damage to the Capitol building, led to hundreds of arrests for Capitol rioters, led to multiple deaths and imperiled American democracy. My goodness, that’s a lot of rhetoric, isn’t it? I guess he missed that documentary 2000 Mules, huh? Of course, a journalist on NPR said that 2000 Mules is a “wild tale” and a “conspiracy theory” with “absolutely no evidence.” Heck, it’s downright “extremism.” But the film is the latest in a long line of movies that use the tropes and signifiers of documentaries to gain credibility. In recent years, documentary style films about the 2020 election, the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccines have spread conspiracy theories and recycled debunked lies. “Documentaries have been used for decades to try to make bad actors and folks who are trying to push conspiracies or push disinformation or push a specific political agenda look more professional, look glamorous, look like something that you can believe,” said Jiore Craig, head of elections and digital integrity at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, which tracks online extremism. My question is: what makes their conspiracy theory more valid than the original conspiracy theory? The “assault on democracy” warning The Economist interviewed Nancy Rosenblum and Russell Muirhead about the “dangers” of conspiracy theories. They are the co-authors of the book, A Lot of People Are Saying: The New Conspiracism and the Assault on Democracy. Nancy and Russell call it “conspiracy without the theory,” claiming it’s all nothing more than baseless accusations and somebody ought to do something about it. (Emphasis mine.) The new media—social media, of course, but even basic things like internet message boards—challenge the traditional gatekeeping function of editors and producers. Today anyone can say anything to everyone in the world instantly and for free. And because validation of conspiracy claims takes the form of repetition and assent, even the most casual “likes” and “retweets” give authority to senseless, destructive charges (“a lot of people are saying”). We are seeing the political effects of this change and one of the first things we’re seeing is the spread of a politically malignant form of conspiracy without the theory. Can the same technology that disseminates charges like “fake news” or the “deep state” also disempower it? Can political representatives and citizens who grasp the effects of conspiracism, the way it delegitimises democratic institutions, exile it again to the fringes of political life? No one has figured out how to do this yet, short of some form of public- or corporate-censorship of egregious conspiracy-entrepreneurs like Alex Jones or, what is now unthinkable, censoring irresponsible political officials who endorse conspiracist claims. Nancy and Russell believe we need to defer to the scholars. The counter-force comes from the authority of knowledge-producing institutions (that is, courts, expert-staffed agencies, research universities) on one side, and democratic common sense on the other.

Wherever conspiracism is reshaping public life, two preventatives are vital: to defend the integrity of knowledge-producing institutions and bolster confidence in the ballast of common sense. After all, it’s only “rational.” Interestingly, painting women as irrational and hysterical was a tool that was used to oppress them for centuries. But I guess it’s A-OK to do that to political opponents. (How do you starve the beast? Check out our free QUICKSTART Guide to learn more.) The thing is, conspiracy theories are often more valid than the “news.” When you read those arguments in a bubble, they sound perfectly reasonable. It’s only when you look at them through the lens of the things going on in the United States, and heck, the world, that you see how stifling it is. For a decade, I’ve written about “conspiracy theories.” I’ve shared information and suggested that while it might seem innocent at first, it’s a slippery slope. Then people call me crazy, and then the next thing you know, we’ve slid down that slippery slope, and when we’re in a pile at the bottom, nobody steps up and says, “Whoops, I guess you were right. Instead, they memory-hole (thanks, Orwell) their initial (incorrect) arguments and gaslight us, acting as though they never disagreed with us in the first place. That’s why I put together a PDF book this week with many of the “conspiracy theories” I’ve written about over the past ten years. The Conspiracy Files: “Crazy “Theories That Turned Out to Be TRUE is a limited run – the book will only be available this week. It discusses propaganda, censorship, Covid-19, the Ukraine war, the election, the Great Reset, dangerous technology, and much more. It’s 543 pages, and I think, if you are a conspiracy theorist like me, you’ll find it very interesting how many of these “crazy conspiracy theories” turned out to be true. You can get your copy here, and it’s name-your-price. Repeatedly, we’ve seen our theories and opinions publicly mocked, the purveyors of those opinions defunded and shunned, and the people who believe them belittled and degraded. Sure, some conspiracy theories are truly nuts – but the beauty of free speech means that we can decide for ourselves through research and reason what we believe to be the most accurate portrayal of the facts. If you think about the scientific method, it all starts with a theory. Then the person tests it and holds it up for examination to see whether or not it’s true. Why are conversations looked at differently? I should be able to provide my evidence and converse with someone who provides evidence to the contrary. Nobody should be cast as a villain for that, but it seems rather villainous to silence people for daring to believe something other than what the media tells us is true, without question. Of course, I guess us thinking for ourselves instead of believing what we’re spoon fed is what makes conspiracy theories so darned dangerous. (Want uninterrupted access to The Organic Prepper? Check out our paid-subscription newsletter.) What about left-wing conspiracy theories? The argument that conspiracy theories are dangerous often overlooks left-wing conspiracy theories. All of the things below have been proven objectively WRONG but nobody seems to think these are dangerous. That conservative kid from Covington was disrespectful to the Native American guy Donald Trump colluded with the Russians The Covid pandemic started in a wet market because someone ate a bad bat Hunter Biden’s laptop didn’t exist Covid vaccines will keep you from getting Covid There are a whole bunch more and most of them are about President Trump. Whether you love him or hate him, he didn’t say that neo-Nazis were very fine people and he did not tell folks to drink bleach to cure Covid. Nobody in the mainstream media is running around calling these attacks on the former President a threat to democracy. Nobody in academia is calling the nonsense about Covid that destroyed our very economy dangerous. In fact,

you have to really dig to find out anything about those subjects online and a lot of folks still believe them. I’d say that there was a coverup of left-wing conspiracy theories but then I’d sound like a crazy conspiracy theorist. What are your thoughts on conspiracy theories? I’ll proudly wear the tin foil. I refuse to just “absorb” the opinions of the mainstream media. Conspiracy theories give me another perspective, another way of looking at the world. And it’s a way I’m free to take or leave. Just like I should also be free to take or leave what passes for “news” these days. I’m not saying you need to be delusional, but there’s absolutely nothing wrong with questioning things, coming up with a theory, and having a conversation about it. Obviously, you shouldn’t use those questions to harm others. Folks who act in violence based on a conspiracy actually are crazy, regardless of whether that is a left-wing or right-wing conspiracy theory. There will always be crazy people out there. But most people don’t do that. They just discuss it and ask questions. Long live the conspiracy theory and the freedom to discuss things. Do you believe in conspiracy theories? Are you “dangerous?” Do you think those conspiracy theories are something that should be silenced? Let’s talk about it in the comments. About Daisy Daisy Luther is a coffee-swigging, adventure-seeking, globe-trotting blogger. She is the founder and publisher of three websites.  1) The Organic Prepper, which is about current events, preparedness, self-reliance, and the pursuit of liberty; 2)  The Frugalite, a website with thrifty tips and solutions to help people get a handle on their personal finances without feeling deprived; and 3) PreppersDailyNews.com, an aggregate site where you can find links to all the most important news for those who wish to be prepared. Her work is widely republished across alternative media and she has appeared in many interviews. Daisy is the best-selling author of 5 traditionally published books, 12 self-published books, and runs a small digital publishing company with PDF guides, printables, and courses at SelfRelianceand Survival.com You can find her on Facebook, Pinterest, Gab, MeWe, Parler, Instagram, and Twitter.

[mayihavethisdanse]

Dugouts & Deathclaws??

This was pretty inevitable, wasn't it.

Individual images on my Twitter (tanaleth_tweets); alignment chart & analysis under the cut!

Disclaimer: YMMV on any of these interpretations. I tried to avoid repetition and the temptation to multiclass, which is why I limited the number of characters to the base game. (Strong fought Cait for the Barbarian slot and lost.)

I also stuck to core D&D 5E archetypes and backgrounds… except where I didn’t. Call it my Chaotic streak.

Acknowledgements: Hat tip to @bigbraincel for a lot of these ideas (like warlock Deacon). Thanks also to @theggning, @minuteminx, @third-rail-vip, and everyone else who's mulled this over with me on Discord.

Alignment chart

All the characters I drew, plus a few extras:

Why the little arrows: a lot of the characters’ arcs or core conflicts could be represented as a tension between squares on the alignment chart. Not all of the characters are comfortable in their alignments or even destined to remain static where I placed them.

Character breakdown

A couple more notes on alignment in general:

As I'm using it here, alignment is first and foremost a roleplaying tool that guides a character’s choices and actions. FO4 has a great cast of companions with really rich characterization—richer, I think, than fans sometimes give it credit for.

The lack of clear-cut LG and CE characters among the companions is notable and I think it reflects the writing's deliberate tilt to ambiguity and shades of gray. You could argue for CE among the raiders, etc., but the Fallout universe really isn't one that lends itself to LG characters. It’s very hard for a character to be both Good and Lawful in a world where institutions are all basically corrupt.

It's not entirely crapsack either, though; there’s reason for hope and there’s goodness and resilience among all the muck. Very few people or even factions are all good or all bad. (Except the Legion. All my homies hate the Legion.)

Once again: YMMV! Even where canon agrees on a character’s actions, you might interpret their motivations differently or weight the consequences differently. It’s all for fun. (Please don’t leave me nasty notes. That is not a Good action.)

Also, can I just say that formatting this kind of post for Tumblr is a pain in the butt. Tumblr is Chaotic Evil.

Lawful Evil - X6-88

Pretty much a textbook example of this alignment. X6 is driven by loyalty to authority in a way that many of the other Evil-aligned characters aren’t (e.g. Gage, who I’d put as comfortably Neutral Evil).

Equally driven by a desire for order, but less willing to commit atrocities for it is Danse.

Lawful Neutral - Danse

Danse aspires to be a Good guy—he tries really hard to be one—but when we meet him, we see him actively suppressing his own, more humane instincts in service of the ideals of the Brotherhood.

Here are some possible adjectives describing lawful neutral characters: reliable, responsible, truthful, orderly, loyal, respectful of authority, regular, structured, rigid, neat, methodical, and precise. (source)

Yep. That’s him.

Chaotic Neutral - Hancock, Cait, MacCready

Cait and Mac are solidly Chaotic Neutral. Cait is a little further south on the Good/Evil axis, but neither of them are bad people: their focus is on them and theirs. Survival first, everything else second. A very Neutral attitude.

This one is going to be controversial, since I think a lot of people read him as Chaotic Good, but I’d put Hancock over the border into Neutral too. I think his intentions are good, but he does a little too much stabby-stabby and overlooks a little too much gang violence to be Good; really, his character is all about the contradiction between his ideals and his (in)actions.

Actually, Danse and Hancock are good foils for each other. They're almost polar opposites on the law/chaos axis, but in terms of morality land at about the same place: both want to be good guys, but—at least when we meet them in FO4—neither of them are doing what they would need to to be Good guys.

But someone else is, and that's...

Chaotic Good - Deacon

Deacon was a really interesting character to ponder. I actually suspect his original or “natural” alignment is something closer to True Neutral… but he’s dragged himself into Chaotic Good by virtue of his actions and his desire to atone for past mistakes. (Looking at it in that light, when we meet him in FO4, he’s still “balancing out” that dip into Evil in his youth. Aiming for a lifetime average of Neutral??)

Neutral Good - Preston, Curie, Codsworth, Nick, Piper

The busiest square in the chart!

Within it, Nick and Piper lean Lawful and Chaotic respectively, but I’d argue that they both still fall within the bounds of Neutral Good. Piper opposes authority because it’s corrupt, not because she believes in fighting authority for its own sake; Nick supports order in general but also recognizes the potential for the abuse of power.

Codsworth might be a little lower on the Good/Evil axis than the others, I think (some of his commentary is hilariously/alarmingly violent) but overall, he’s pretty committed to being a good bot.

Preston and Curie are comfortably Neutral Good, in my reading. Both are very concerned with doing good and improving the world; both will defy an unjust law but also disapprove of unnecessary shenanigans.

And last but not least, on an alignment chart all his own:

Good Boy - Dogmeat

You know it's true. ૮ ・ﻌ・ა

[c-is-for-circinate]

As promised: let's talk Hades, and how acts of abuse can create toxic environments for everyone around them, and also how people react to those environments--and to them being disrupted.

(For reference, I have just kicked Theseus's ass for the first time, it was exactly as satisfying as it was intended to be, and then I got predictably slaughtered a couple of chambers into Styx. Spoilers for everything through that point, but please no spoilers in reblogs/comments for anything after that!) Also, TW for a whole lot of discussion of abuse, particularly verbal and emotional abuse, and abusive familyworkplace dynamics.

Okay, so. To start out with, Hades is an abusive parent. He engages in innumerable acts of verbal and emotional abuse towards his son, because yep, that's what you call it when a parent constantly berates and belittles their kid for every perceived failure, including the ones the parent themselves could have prevented. Sometimes especially the ones the parent could have prevented. Zagreus failed at his office clerk job because Hades refused to teach him how to do it and then blamed him for not already knowing how. Cerberus tore up the lounge because Hades, who was actually there, chose not to stop him. Hades created, possibly deliberately, and then took full advantage of every opportunity he saw to insult and demean his kid, and the clerk job flashback shows us that he was doing so even before the escape attempts started. I'm pretty sure we're all on the same page here, but: yep, that all constitutes abuse, even if they're gods. Even if Hades has reasons for Being Like That. Even if you think Zagreus seems okay and unharmed by it (which: repeatedly throwing yourself into a gauntlet of violence that inevitably ends in your own pain and death because you're so desperate to escape home, not actually an indicator of someone who's okay). We all good on that?

Cool. Because I'm not really here to talk about how Hades' abuse directly impacts Zagreus right now (although there's for sure an essay in that too). I'm thinking about how it impacts everybody else.

Hades isn't as obviously unreasonable with anybody else in his kingdom the way he is with his kid. When we see him lecture somebody else, it's usually for an actual failure to do their job: Hypnos for literally falling asleep on the job and not doing anything that was assigned to him, Megaera for letting us past her so many time, Orpheus for being a court bard who refuses to sing. His attitude is super confrontational and unpleasant, but on the surface it doesn't necessarily look as fucked-up. Thing is, though, whether any individual act of aggression towards an employee/family member is justified or not (I would generally argue 'not', because aggression towards employees/family members is, y'know, not justifiable)--it's not about the individual acts. It's about the entire cultivated atmosphere of toxicity and abuse.

One of the very first things Meg ever says to us is, "I'd rather be on your bad side than his." Up until that point, we've got no reason to believe Meg has any history whatsoever of fucking up at her job. In fact, we've got plenty of reason to believe she's good at it. She's fiercely proud of it, she's frequently Employee Of The [Time Period], and we've apparently never even met her sisters because she handles her shit herself. But she's still scared of Hades. Dusa, who is an anxious wreck at all times because oh god what if she gets fired what if she gets fired what if she gets fired, in spite of apparently being absolutely exemplary at her job, is scared of Hades. Every single shade in the Hall is clearly terrified of Hades, and it's not because of what he's done to each of them. It's what they've seen him do to other people.

Which is how toxic environments work, whether they're work environments or families. The Court of Hades is of course both, always, with the bonus hell layer of you can't quit even if you DIE. An abuser in authority doesn't have to target you in order to make you feel scared, cowed, and desperate to please them. Humans (and gods who are basically extra-powerful humans) are good at learning by example. The residents of the Court get the picture.

So this Court is a minefield--and everyone except Zagreus is very good at tiptoeing around mines. We see it in Meg, so desperate to do her job well. We see that Hypnos very clearly does not give a shit about anything, but he still makes sure to have a list of excuses ready if/when Hades ever confronts him about failure to do his job, just in case. We see it when Achilles tells us that my ability to help you is constrained by the authority your father gives me, or whatever the line was sixty runs ago when he couldn't let me into locked chambers. The system, such as it is, works, and if Nyx talks to Hades as little as possible, if Thanatos avoids the Court entirely, if Achilles treads very carefully and knows how to keep his head down--well that's just the system, right? That's just how things are.

Even Zagreus seems to have had a role in that system as the court fuckup. He's the kid who didn't have a real job or purpose. He could take the focus of Hades' generalized, day-to-day ire off of everyone else, without triggering some of the more direct and violent ire because the work he was doing didn't really matter (a LOT of Hades' rage-triggers seem to be related to job performance, which means that the people with real jobs are of course the most at risk). And he could do so "safely" (big emphasis on the quotation marks there) because he alone of the court is Hades' actual kid, who's Prince of the Underworld no matter how much he fucks up. If one of Nyx's other kids gets something really really wrong, she might be able to protect them from some consequences, but Hades doesn't have any layer of supposed parental affection holding him back from getting violently furious about it. Zagreus gets a nice bedroom and the abuse is limited to words rather than divine power, and Hades is a dick to everyone but he only occasionally condemns people to eternities of torture, and only for good reasons like refusing to sing when your job is to be court bard, so it's fine, everybody's fine, everything's totally fine, right?

Except it's not fine when everybody is so clearly worried about anything going wrong. And it's especially not fine for Zagreus, who's the person to finally say no. He's leaving, for his own sake, because he deserves better and he's finally convinced he can have it. And that turns the whole system into disarray.

I am endlessly fascinated by the ways this game portrays different characters reacting to this upheaval in their carefully-mapped minefield. It's different for authority figures and peers and servants, different based on how people are positioned in the house under Hades' rule, and it's so spot-on and I love it.

Nyx, for instance, is absolutely calm about the whole thing, because Nyx has power. Hades can't hurt her. Hades can't even really do much against her children, not when Hypnos and Thanatos are gods in their own right. Yes, Hades rules the kingdom, but Nyx owns the land, and she gives no shits about his rages. And it's interesting, too, to see the lines she doesn't draw. The deal seems to be that Hades doesn't fuck with her, and doesn't outright threaten her kids (because Hypnos is bad at his job, demonstrably so, and Hades hasn't ruined him yet), and she doesn't interfere with the way he treats the people around him. She gives Zagreus advice and support and the mirror, but she also doesn't take a direct stand against Hades. He can't hurt her, but he could make life...difficult. She's protected, her position in the minefield is more of a safe viewing platform than slogging through the middle of it, but the mines are still there.

And then we have Achilles, who is one of my favorite characters in the whole game because of how he reacts to this whole situation. Achilles, like Nyx, is so supportive. Every single time you see him he has something encouraging to say. He gives us his Codex, secretly finds us weapons, trained us for years, clearly wants us to succeed. And still he's limited, not necessarily out of fear for himself (though he has to be scared for himself, he knows what Hades does to people who anger him), but out of concern that if he gives Zagreus too much help in one way, he won't be able to provide help at all later. He's still so careful.

Achilles and Nyx are so fucking important to this story because they're the only authority figures Zagreus really has in his life except for his father, and they are so supportive. They're what keep this story from being a nightmare of psychological horror and depression. They can't stop the pressure from Hades and this life in his house being miserable for Zag, but they can give us hope, remind us that Zagreus is still loved. And they have such an incredibly important role when it comes to guilt, which is one of the biggest ways toxic systems maintain themselves.

If Zagreus leaves, what happens to everybody else? Who takes Hades' wrath then? Who becomes court scapegoat if he's not there, and also, who gets punished for his escape? These questions matter, and we see him worry about it! He asks Nyx and Achilles both, is it going to be okay that you're helping me, are you going to be alright, will my father hurt you for this? And they are both so firm about telling him no. No, I will be fine. See, here's the list of reasons about why I'm going to be fine, why my position in this minefield is secure. They make a point of telling us that it's fine, that we do not need to hold ourself back from getting out of this abusive situation for their sake. That is instrumental in Zagreus's ability to keep making these escape attempts without feeling too guilty and worried and selfish to go on. (Another thing that's actually really important in setting up that dynamic--we see that Hades cares about Cerberus, even if he's using him as a pawn against us, and Cerberus seems to be the one figure in court who Hades doesn't get mad at. The dog isn't at risk, and that is really essential in keeping the story from getting too grim.) These people who we care about refuse to let themselves be held hostage to secure our good behavior.

It's also really useful for raising the stakes later in the story--we see Hades arguing with Nyx once or twice, and we see Zagreus feeling guilty about it, but it's also a sign that we're making enough progress to piss him off. After I finally made it out of Elysium on my last run, I came home to find him furious with Achilles in a way that actually makes me nervous, because Achilles does not have nearly as much security in his position as he says he does. (Achilles is such a good teacher/authority figure, because he knows goddamn well what Hades could do to him, and still refuses to let fear for his own situation stop him from helping the abused kid under his care escape his. And no, not everybody has the capacity to do that, but it matters so much coming from the guy who helped raise us. It matters so much. I do not even have the words for how much.)

It's also no mistake that many of the people we find supporting us along our journey are either the people with the most power in their immediate environment, or the least. Sisyphus helps us because what more could they do to me than this? Orpheus is a little wild around the eyes and somewhat disconnected from reality, and he wishes us the best because someone should get what they want and also he no longer gives a single fuck what happens to him. Eurydice has her own cozy little corner of Asphodel, as safe from Hades' rage as anybody anywhere in his realm because she's tucked in such an out-of-the-way middle place she's outside his notice. Dusa is so scared of everything anyway that, crush aside, she isn't any more threatened by us escaping than she is just by her everyday life here. Charon is unfathomable and unstoppable; Skelly literally exists to be a punching bag, and yet he also seems basically immune to pain, no matter what we do to him. There's no threat from Hades there.

So the people most at risk when I flip the world on its ear are the ones who have so much standing that they have something to lose, but not enough to protect them from losing it. Which of course brings us to Than and Meg--who are, of course, the two people who also seem by far the most upset by my attempts to leave.

As authority figures, Nyx and Achilles are constantly reinforcing the message that it's Hades' fault, not ours, if they or anybody else get caught in the crossfire of his wrath. I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing, and it's not my guilt to bear. From Megaera and Thanatos, we get the opposite message--I am fucking with things, I am hurting people, and I need to stop. Zagreus isn't just abandoning them, as a friend or brother or lover or all of the above they're Greek gods who even knows. He's betraying them. They were in this together, as friends or lovers or whatever, but now Zagreus is sending earthquakes through the minefield they both still have to stand in. He is about to capsize this boat in the middle of a thunderstorm, he is fucking with the system, and they're the ones who are going to get most hurt.

I'm so curious how this is going to work for Than, who out of everyone we meet holds the closest role to Nyx's in terms of being sheltered from Hades' wrath. He's the guy who gets to leave, after all, even though he always has to come back. I've seen the least of him out of anybody so far because it took forever for me to get to Elysium, but two things really stand out and I'm so interested to see where they go. One, he really genuinely does care about Zagreus. He wants us safe, he wants us unhurt, the accessory he gives us only grants its bonus if we clear a room without taking injury, he keeps showing up to help. And two, he wants us to give up and go back and recognize how good we had it. Which is SO fucking interesting, considering how miserable Zagreus so clearly was, and how legitimate his reasons for being miserable were.

It makes me wonder so much about Than's standards for comparison. Does he know something we don't about what's waiting for us on the surface, something that might theoretically hurt Zagreus even more than staying down below? Has his life, which apparently allows him more freedom than anybody else in the Court, sucked horribly in ways we haven't seen, and that's why he spends so little time there in the first place? Either of those things is plausible, both of those things are plausible, and yet either one leads to this sense of patronizing, because he refuses to simply tell us. If something terrible is awaiting us, don't give us vague warnings, tell us what it is and let us decide for ourself! If you're fucking jealous because we might get out entirely and you're still stuck coming back here, say so. If you're worried about your mom--and he does bring her up, how could Zagreus turn his back on her like that, does seem to worry for her--then let's have an actual conversation about how many times she has insisted I do this and also how much I love her.

And, right, it's clear that a lot of Thanatos being upset is simply, you were going to leave me without even saying goodbye, you want to leave ME, which is understandable! But, like, he is demonstrably the one god who gets to visit the surface. He's the one person we actually COULD expect to see again. And he is absolutely also upset because there's an Order To Things, and we're fucking it up. We used to be his careless callow reckless friend who could talk back to Hades and get away with it, and now we're not, and everything is changing and we might leave him altogether, and we might leave him alone in that court without us, and he hates it.

Is it a short-sighted, selfish fear on his part? Yes, absolutely. Even if he's not scared of Hades on his own behalf, he is still frightened by what happens if we upset this system--and maybe it's the sanctity of a much bigger system than the Underworld that he's worried about! Maybe it's the whole divine and cosmic order. Whatever system he wants so badly to protect is enabling the abuse Zagreus has been dealing with for however-long he's been alive. Whatever system he wants so badly to protect OUGHT to be overturned, or at least shaken up. But this is what toxic systems DO. They convince the people within them that they have to be maintained, that a broken system that hurts the people within it is far better than no system at all, that changing the world is too scary and too dangerous. And Thanatos wants his whatever-Zagreus-is-to-him to be there, because he loves him and also because that's how the world works, and those things are all tangled up in one another, and that is how relationships are in a messed-up family like this so therefore I love it.

And Meg. Meg, the best for last, my dear, beautiful, furious, bitter, scared angry tired girl. I adore her. I am absolutely never going to date her, because the thing Zagreus needs most in his life hurts her, more directly than anybody else in the story, and that sucks, and it's not Zag's fault but they still shouldn't be together. Meg has taken more injury from this situation than anyone, quite literally as well as metaphorically, and it's not her fault any more than it's ours, but oh boy it has made her lash out and it's awful and it's perfect.

Meg's place in the Court of Hades is unique because she's not dead, not a mortal, not anything other than a god--but she's also not family. Nyx is not her mother. She's very much part of this system, she and her two sisters belong to Hades-the-realm and therefore also Hades-the-king, she can't leave, but she also doesn't have that protection of Nyx watching out for her in the same way. She's not royalty. She and her sisters (if you ask Hesiod instead of Virgil, which seems to be the interpretation the game's going with here) sprang from the blood of maimed Uranus at the same time as Aphrodite, but fuck knows Aphrodite isn't claiming them as siblings. And she can't be fired, exactly, but she sure can be demoted, and she sure can be made miserable in her job. Meg is vulnerable in a way very few people in Hades' employ are. She's a lot harder to do away with than any one random shade, but she's also a lot harder to miss blending in with a crowd.

What's more, she's the one person in this whole mess who is specifically tasked with stopping us from leaving. Hypnos isn't ordered to put us to sleep and keep us in our room. Thanatos can't be compelled or punished if he doesn't hunt us down. Achilles isn't told to lock us up and keep the keys. Meg is the one stationed at the doorway to Tartarus to keep us in. Meg is the one who gets in trouble when we leave. Meg (who Hades knows goddamn well Zagreus cares for, or cared for, who he absolutely knows we used to date) is the one who has to fight us again and again and again. And she's the one who keeps dying.

Again, it's this incredibly fucked-up guilt/hostage situation deliberately designed to keep people from fleeing abusive situations. Meg's insistence on fighting us now puts Zagreus in the position of having to hurt her himself again and again. Now suddenly we're the ones sticking a sword in our ex-girlfriend. Now suddenly someone can point to our desire to leave, to flee, to escape, and say, how selfish. How cruel. How terrible of us to want to go, when we're even willing to hurt the people we love to do it.

Except, right: Hades is the one who demands Meg stand there and stop us. Hades is the one who puts both of us in that position. Meg is also in an abusive situation, and she's willing to hurt us to protect herself. "I'd rather be on your bad side than your father's." It's easy to blame her at the start for being complicit, for being a tool of our father's abuse, for being on his side. It gets harder as the game goes on. I've killed her so many times. There's no way for her to beat me. She knows at this point that she can't beat me. She still fights, every single time, still throws herself upon that spike, not because she thinks she has any chance of stopping me but because she is so damn scared of what will happen if she doesn't try.

In fact, Meg's the one person we have actually seen face consequences for our actions so far, instead of just facing the threat of them. Her sisters are here. Her sisters, who she clearly does not want here, who are wild and violent and who she does not want in her life or anywhere near her, let alone near the job she takes so much pride in. She gets to deal with them now. (Hades doesn't have to deal with them. They're still not allowed in his court. But Meg does.) She gets stabbed, and bludgeoned, and shot, and lightning-struck, and poisoned, and every other thing we do to her. Thanatos doesn't. Nyx and Achilles and Hypnos don't. Bug Meg? Oh yes. Meg pays.

And yes, ok, she is complicit in this system. Everybody is complicit in this system. Zagreus who's trying to escape on his own behalf instead of overthrowing his father for the sake of everyone he'd otherwise be leaving behind is complicit in this system. Pointing fingers and pulling strings of who's more at fault? and who do we blame for this? is exactly how this sort of system perpetuates itself. Your sister always talked back at the dinner table and put everyone in an even worse and more violent mood. Your coworker refuses to work more than forty hours a week so now you have to take overtime to pick up their slack. You're enabling your dad by asking your sister to shut up, you're enabling your employer by working as hard as you do so you don't get fired, everyone's at fault, everyone's to blame, everyone is--

It's not everyone. It's Hades. It's Hades at the root of everything, and probably something big and institutional and fucked-up even beyond him. But even if everyone down in this Underworld does have to be trapped here forever, even if he's trapped here forever, Hades is neither challenging the system that put them here nor trying to make that fate better for anyone else stuck with him. He's just created an entire kingdom of backbiting and misery and people who can either go along with his whims or suffer the consequences.

At this point in the game, Meg is so fucking tired. Every time we run into her in the lounge, hunched over a table, the venom in her voice when she tells us "Do I look like I have anything to say to you?" is so bitter and so exhausted. There was a system, and she knew her place in the system, and it was a system divinely ordered by the gods themselves, and sure it was cruel but that's the literal will of the universe as far as she knows it. She had a role, and her role was vengeance and punishment and violence against those who'd committed the most egregious of sins in life, and there was a point to it, she was the divine deterrent to convince people not to do those things, and that was just, and that was right. The GODS THEMSELVES said so. How do you argue with that? You can't possibly argue with that!

And Zagreus is arguing with that. In trying to leave, he's questioning the unbreakable rule that nothing in the Underworld ever gets to leave it. In disobeying his father to do so, he's questioning the unbreakable rule that what the gods say is LAW. He's breaking everything.

And of course he's not trying to do any of that. He's not trying to destabilize the system at all. He's just trying to get himself out of it, to a place where he feels like he belongs and maybe a parent who's slightly nicer to him than this one. But toxic systems like this one break when the people within them have access to another option. When the kids find a way to actually leave, and not answer the phone, and not come home for holidays, and not deal with it any more. When the employees have the economic freedom to quit. When opportunities granted by education, money, social support, etc etc etc, show up and give people a choice. Even if the option is only ever for Zagreus--he's demonstrating that an option exists. Which is, of course, the one thing the system cannot ever allow.

I really like this game.

[im-not-a-simp-i-swear]

Hello!! I love your writing! ❤️ Can I request a Brothers and side characters react to MC who is a famous Voice Actor.

Stay Safe and Take care!

I was actually already planning on writing something that involved this exact scenario 😁😁

Also thanks for the kind words!!

BROTHER'S REACTION TO A VOICE ACTOR MC

💙LUCIFER

- he was just passing by your room when he then heard a sniff coming from inside

- he of course gets concerned and decides to check on you, however as he grabs the doorknob he is stopped by your voice

- "i cant believe you.. after everything we have been through, youre just going to through me aside?"

- it sounds like... a breakup? But who could the future corpse be!?

- he enters the room as he hears cries come from the other side only to find you sitting on a chair and talking through a microphone that you got while being down in the devildom

- yep, this exchange program isnt going to stop you, there is work to be done!

- "MC what are you doing and who are you talking to?" He asks confused by your lack of sadness.

- you explain to him that you are voice acting

- now he is slightly embarrassed for interupting your recording

- he finds you to be a very good actor considering he actually thought you were breaking up with someone

💛MAMMON

- The avatar of greed was heading to your room for help, what exactly is this help for is up to our imagination

- however he stops infront of your door when he hears some weird noises coming from your room

- *donald duck noises*

-" what is that? ... omg what is that!?"

- he enters your room extremely confused but also a little bit scared, what if it was a ghost or something that shouldnt be in there?

- instead its just you makin impression through a microphone for some comic you are dubbing

- "wait... MC... that wasnt you was it??" He is so confused but also fascinated

- will ask for more impressions and will want you to say certain stuff in certain voices

🧡LEVIATHAN

- he had tried texting you to head to his room to play a game he just got but seeing you wouldnt answer he decided to go check

- what he proceeds to hear as he gets closer to your room is the voice of the one and only ruri-chan

- he ♡lovingly♡ kicks the door with pure violence as his ears cant believe it and for the most part he is dissapointed

- he caught you voice dubbing a ruri-chan comic

- while it isnt ruri-chan he does find amusing how good of an impression you can do of the character and he will totally ask you to do more of it

- he will also want you to read every single text manga that he owns since its just such good acting and he can feel the emotions when you read what the characters say

💚SATAN

- the fellow was just heading to your room to get back a book he borrowed to you when he hears you talking.

- however he is a bit confused at first since he heard some kind of narrator voice

- when he enters he finds you reading out a certain text while recording it on a microphone

- he is quite surprised actually, you almost confused him

- now he wants you to read to him everytime you two are reading together, not only is it you who is reading it but its also in an incredible voice

💖ASMODEUS

- just wanted to spend some quality alone time with you, now he is listening to you read the script for your job and wow is he impressed

- "MC, i need to hear every single voice you can do, i wanna know what you can do"

- loves your talents without a doubt

- is probably also trying to figure out your sex voice

- sorry thats all i can think about asmo i dont see much with him...

❤BEELZUBUB

- big boy was hoping you'd accompany him for a snack

- as he arrivee to your bedroom he heard your voice read out some kind of monologue, the only issue is that it was done in a very silly voice

- he finds it unnerving since perhaps it could be a skinwalker or shapshifter trying to steal yuur identity

- this man, knowing full well that something is off, barges into your room to discover the source

- it is you, but he is still going to probably lift you up and shake you until you confess your identity theft crimes

- when you explain to him that you were just acting he puts you down

- couldve been much worse to be honest

- he might just keep a close eye at you for the rest of the day... just to make sure...

💜BELPHEGOR

- he was heading to your room for a nap, your bed is comfy for him so.

- When he grabs the doorknob however he is stopped by an unfamiliar voice

- you should be inside right? Then who is this poor excuse of a chainsaw then?

- he opens the door carefully to find you reading the script you needed to read while youre in the call thata recording

- he waves at you and lays down on your bed, just listening, he finds it fun how you can do that funky voice

- once you finish he asks about it and so you explain thay you were just acting out a part that needed to be done.

- will fall asleep to you doing dumb impressions of characters probably

🤎 DIAVOLO

- after barging into the HoL to pick you up to go hang out, he catches you finishing a monologue that you needed to read and record.

- was a bit unsettled by the unrecognizable voice however, so of course he is going to break into your room ready to confront whatever fool was in your room

- is surprised to see you there pressing pause to the recording audio

- oop

- you'll have to explain to him what voice acting is because i doubt he knows

- you'll also have to act out every single character and impression you have done in your life because he is now curious

- "this is so fascinating! Who wouldve known you could change your voice like that?"

- will 100% ask you to teach him

🤍SIMEON

- is fascinated when he finds out

- you were just entertaining luke with some cartoon impressions when he walked in, and he loves it

- the ability to both recreat classic voices while also being able to create new ones calls hia attention

- will join in to see what else you can do and will totally ask you to redo certain voices just because it catches him so offguard with your appearance

- will love to watch you teach luke

💚BARBATOS

- kind of knew already but it still catches him offguard sometimes

- who knows, if you managed to do diavolo's voice right, and do it in the right scenario, you might just pull out a great prank on him

- will join the prince and you as you teach diavolo how to do certain impressions

- finds it both funny and weird at once

- like i just said, if you have enough expierence you might manage to trick some people

- otherwise doesnt really mind it

- its fun to listen you do certain voices

🖤SOLOMON

- teach him

- he was going to ask you to help him out with a spell but instead caught you doing a narrator voice and now he wants to do it

- oh the possiblities that you have given him if you accept to teach him

- the inner jokes will be great considering he too is a human, adding the fact that you can do voices? Oh the memes...

- have fun confusing literally everyone

- (sorry i cant come up with more for solomon xd)

[creamwh0re]

Treasure

Warnings: dub con?, piss kink,cum eating ,spit, choking, slight restraining,blood,gore,really bad Niragi,knife play, violence Word count:2k remember that idea I had but never got around to it? Yep came back to the idea and with a different plot and stuff A/N ;@niragis-right-hand-rabbit

“♡︎” You arrived at the Beach not to long ago but you already hated it here, this hell hole was terrible the man behind it all being a flawed man. As man as you wanted to say that his plan sucked and it was flawed you couldn’t begin yourself to tell him so you mind your business atleast you had electricity and food to keep you clean and fed as you continued playing games for your life.

You don’t even know how this happened? How does the world just randomly end and now your stuck in this world, what if the world never ended and this all an illusion? So many thought and possibility you didn’t know what to think so you didn’t think about it to much. This was a fresh start for everyone, messed up in the real world? Oh well you can practice being a better person here. Had troubles with family or friends, being treated wrong? You could get revenge or start over. This is your new life basically.

You were low on the list when it came to who would be on the list leaving but you didn’t care cause your old life was rather basic this was a care of events, but you missed your friends and everything they were nowhere to found at the beach.

There were the militants , they had access to the weapons and protecting the beach if rules were broken then oh your in big trouble that Niragi guy with the slick back hair with his machine gun, he mostly got the females they broke rules and it wasn’t good for them. Let’s just say their fate was worse than death. Sitting next to Kuina in the lobby you and talked about your life back in the real world. Kuina saying she doesn’t really care anymore what happens she just wants to see her mom one more time.

It’s sad to see what she had to go through with her parents but that’s just how people are you feel empathy for her you really do. She left saying she had a meeting to attend you dismissing her, you got up and made your out the main area ignoring all the people catcalling you. Getting into the pool you relaxed tuning out all the noises around you, you heard people voice get quiet looking around you saw them. Niragi walking to a woman with a peach jacket on with short with a male that looked dirty.

Niragi causing a bunch of unwanted drama by ordering the male with the sword to grab the girl getting closer to her the male that looked dirty defended her your skin crawls knowing how battles like this end their blood all over the swords while their balled up on the floor slowly fading into darkness. It’s why no one tries to help or defend anyone your really not suppose to trust anyone here but people don’t listen like always. The battle ends with Aguni calling both of them back and scolding them he gives you the chills the most so calm you’ve never seen him blink it creeps you out.

Hopping out the pool grabbing a towel and wrapping it around your body making your way to your room stopping by the bathroom to do a quick check up you stumble upon a group of girls in the bathroom surrounding a stall scolding someone in there.

Excuse me, is everything alright “ they look at you up and down better responding “our friend is a little sick and we don't wanna mess with her”You look at the girl puking into the toilet trying her absolute hardest to make sure hair doesn't get in the way walking over to her you pull her hair into a ponytail gently she can't even react to action as she's back to throwing up.

The girl starts talking “Do you wanna join the conversation with us”you nod your head before the girl with orange hair takes a puff from her vape before blowing out “We were talking about the executives and the militants”The 2 girls look at while the other two roll their eyes the girl raises her head coughing slightly as the other girl runs water under a paper towel walking over to me and handing it to me you wipe off her face throwing the paper towel in the toilet and flushing it.

The girl stands up smiling “Thank you for the help I got kind of carried away while drinking” patting her back gently jumping on the restroom counter clearing your throat “it's okay we all have those days” you guys continue talking until your uncomfortable from the wetness of your swimsuit you tell them your leaving and they wave as you leave the bathroom.

You finally make your room freshening up and getting clean clothes checking yourself out in the mirror before heading right back out your room it’s the only thing you can do chilling in your room alone is boring cause you have no one to talk you and your not sleepy yet.

You spot Kuina talking to the male from earlier but you rather not interrupt their conversation. Laying against a wall and closing your eyes you can feel the presence of someone walking up to you making you open your eyes to see Niragi. “hey beautiful I saw you looking at me you like what you see” he stuck his tongue out making it visible clear he has a piercing declining his offer he gets angry. Trying harder to  persuade you but your budging he goes physically grabbing your waist your body having a quick reflect swinging your foot up around kicking him the nose, he stumbles backwards almost falling. 

You can see the anger in the eyes everyone silence a lot of people leaving the room while others look the other way, he walks up to you grabbing you by your hair making sure it hurts as he drags you out the room you cry out from the pain as it burns feeling like your scalp is being ripped off. You look around for anyone to intervene but your on your own begging and kicking for him to let go some people looking at you with worried and sad faces as the door closes loudly. Bringing you up still gripping your hair he drags you all the way to his room throwing you into hard flooring not caring if your hurt or not.

Grabbing your jaw tightly his hot breath hitting your face “Now, you listen here you little slut I don’t who you think your are but your whole night is about be ruined” letting go of your jaw as you fall back hitting your head on the floor. He fumbles with his leather pants he pulls them off along with his underwear, you gasp at the size you’ve never had sex before and you don’t want to with him. Sliding backward Niragi grabs your legs dragging you back to him putting you on your necks infront of him, his tip oozing with precum he spreads it against your lips “open” you don’t want to open your mouth but your afraid what for what’s to come if you don’t obey him.

Opening your mouth he inches his cock into your mouth staying in place feeling your warm and tight mouth, you can feel how heavy he is on your tongue he grips your hair as he starts thrusting it your mouth not far enough to hit your throat but far enough for you to gag on his cock. He keeps fucking your mouth carelessly and sloppily pulling all the out your mouth just to shove it right back in. He pulls out your mouth once more thrusting all the way to the point of hitting the back of your throat you choke around his cock drooling pouring out the corners of your mouth onto your chest.

He floods your mouth with his cum not pulling out making sure you choke on it “swallow it savor it” He slides his cock out of your mouth allowing you to swallow his cum it’s salty making you scrunch your nose up while swallowing it down. He grabs you kissing you despite his cum still in your mouth he throws you on the bed disappearing to grab something, coming back he has a knife in his hand you shake your head nothing wanting any marking but he just chuckled at you and your pathetic attempt to move grabbing your legs and holding them. He drags the blade on your top cutting the thin fabric off the blade glazing your skin making you shiver it’s cold against your hot body your core damp already from the previous action. Trying to keep it hidden from him he drags the knife a little bit slower on your lower region you don’t move at all your frozen if you move anything could happened.

Discarding the fabric he turns the knife over on the handle part hitting your nipples the handle part still frozen at the action this is risky play. Taking the other side of the knife and placing on your stomach trailing downwards making you quiver a sadistic smirk tugging at his lips. Throwing the knife away he spreads your legs to see your pussy it’s dripping wet as he takes a finger, dipping it into your folds you letting a soft whimper as he invades your insides rubbing and thrusting his finger inside you. Not to long after he adds another the stretching sensation making you moan out it feels good he takes his other hand and slaps you across the face “slut. Your getting off to this” he’s completely right your getting off to being used as a toy. Tears are at the brims of your eyes from the stinging pain on the left side of your cheek, thrusting his fingers into your hole curling them hitting your spongy bits making you moan out.

Thrusting his finger inside you hitting the spongy part over and over your breathe getting ragged, your eyes hooded as he keeps thrust inside you moving up and rubbing circle on your clit making your body jolt, you don’t feel an orgasm it feels different and familiar, shaking under his touch you start begging him to stop “s—stop please !!” the feeling getting stronger and stronger until you can’t handle it anymore, pidding all over Niragi finger. He stops to admire you, your chest heaving up and down,tears rolling down your face as your lower region covered in your essences.

He spits on your core using his cock to rub it in using it as lube he looks up at you as you look scared at what’s to come he thrusts into you pushing all of it in at once you letting out a loud scream that’s cut off by Niragi hand around your throat gripping so tight it might cut off your air flow, he continues thrusting into your pussy dragging in and out teasing the tip inside slamming it right back in everytime you tried to scream or something he gripped onto your throat. It was very pleasureful it was rather painful your not sure were pain ends and the pleasure starts but you hope it starts soon, you look so pathetic under him maybe next time you know not fight someone who has more power as you.

Small moans leave your mouth your lips as Niragi has one your legs resting on his shoulder allowing him to enter deeper, he throws his head back groaning out as he continues fucking into you like a fucktoy just what you are to him. He growls thrusting faster and faster making your boobs move and down as moans continue to stream out your mouth, curses following by. He’s getting closer to climax as his pace is getting faster, he bottoms out inside of you cumming filling you up as he continues fucking you overstimulation the both of you.

Stopping and pulling out as his cum oozing out leaving you there a mess as he quickly fixes himself up “Look at you fucked out pathetic under me such a little bitch” and with that he disappears out the room leaving you to clean yourself up.

[plutofromafar]

please don’t take my sunshine away

Summary: Set in 6x18 ‘Lauren’ after Doyle stabs Emily. JJ holds Emily during her last moments and as always, Emily comforts her like she always does when JJ is sad.

Warnings: angst, character death, physical violence/fighting, blood

Read on AO3

.·:*¨༺ ༻¨*:·.

“Come home, please,” Penelope begged on the other line. “God, Emily, what did you think, that we would just let you walk out of our lives? I am furious at you right now!”

Emily sniffles, her eyes stinging as tears begin to form.

“Then I think about how scared you must be, how you’re in some dark place all alone. But you’re not alone, okay? You are not alone. We are in that dark place with you. We are waving flashlights and calling your name. So if you can see us, come home. If you can’t, then…” Penelope sobs, as does Emily. “Then you stay alive. ‘Cause we’re coming.”

Emily’s heart wrenches as she turns off her phone.

She looks out the window and sees Ian Doyle and his group of men exit the bar. She takes a deep breath before putting in her earplugs and swiftly grabs the rifle and a flash-bang grenade.

As the men are getting into the car, Emily sneaks up from the side and fires at the windows and tosses the grenade inside. Doyle’s men cough and they fall out the door, gasping for air. Emily walks up to the front of the car, her rifle still held up. Ian was gone.

“Hey,” Emily says to the coughing man. “I only want Doyle, where is Doyle?”

“Right here, love,” a voice comes from behind her. She whips around to see Ian standing behind her with a gun, and before she can process what was happening, she’s on the ground with a searing pain on the side of her stomach.

»--•--«

Her head is pounding as she wakes up, taking in her surroundings. Her arms are tied behind her back and her legs are strapped onto the legs of the chair. Her bulletproof vest has been taken off.

Ian walks up from behind her and places his large hand on her neck.

“Where’s my ring?” he asks.

Emily sighs.

“I flushed it.”

Ian chuckles. Emily laughs along nervously.

“I spent seven years in hell because of that ring,” Ian begins to unbutton Emily’s shirt. “So now… I’m going to give you another gift, one you won’t get rid of so easily.”

Ian pulls up a cart of tools.

“A four-leaf clover should be a nice addition to your other tattoos.”

Emily gasps.

“You still have two, right?”

“Yep, and that’s enough ink, thanks,” Emily remarks sarcastically, trying not to show fear.

Ian laughs. “Ink? North Koreans can’t afford ink.”

He turns on the machine, a low rumbling echoes in the room.

“No, no. They brand themselves.”

“No,” Emily pleads. Ian presses the pen onto her chest as she groans.

“The more you fight, the more this will hurt.” Ian continues drawing into her skin, smoke lifting as she screams in pain.

»--•--«

The next-- however long it had been-- went by in a blur as Emily was running on adrenaline. She hears a gun click behind her head.

“Game’s over, love,” Ian smirks. “Time for your last confession.”

Emily’s eyes filled with tears. All she could see was the team-- her team. And JJ, her beautiful JJ. She had to try.

“Take me to where he died,” Emily whispered.

Ian is caught off guard, but her plan works as he takes his finger off the trigger and lowers the gun. He kneels down to untie Emily’s hands and legs from the chair. Emily breathes out shakily.

»--•--«

Back at the precinct, JJ paces across the carpet. Her heart was thumping against her ribcage and she had a fluttering feeling in her stomach.

“I got it!” Garcia yells.

JJ runs over to Hotch, who is leaning over Penelope, looking at the computer.

“1518 Adams Street,” Penelope points to the computer screen.

“I’m coming with you,” JJ says breathlessly to Hotch.

“Okay. Penelope, send the GPS points to JJ’s phone, let’s go,” Hotch says sternly.

»--•--«

Ian kicks Emily in her stomach and she groans, rolling around on the cold floor.

“You want to hear his last words to me?”

Ian kicks her again, harder.

Emily gasps for air. “He said, ‘I looked pretty good for a dead kid, didn’t I?’ and then he got on the plane and I never saw him again.”

“He’s alive?” Ian kicks Emily, this time in the ribs.

“Just because I held a gun to him doesn’t mean I shot him. I only had to make you and the North Koreans believe he was dead.”

Doyle grabs her by the hair and slams her into the brick wall. Emily screams in agony.

»--•--«

“Agent Prentiss is the only friendly in the building,” Hotch ordered. “Rescuing her is our primary objective.”

“Our only advantage here is stealth,” Derek joined in. “Once they know we’re on site, there’s nothing to stop them from killing her. So we keep it quiet until we get to her.”

The team stormed into the building, shooting Doyle’s men from wherever they popped up. JJ could hear Emily and Doyle fighting in another room.

»--•--«

“I beat you, Ian,” Emily chokes him from behind. “I beat you before you even got to North Korea. ‘Cause I gave Declan his life back.”

“I’ll find him,” Ian chokes.

“No, you won’t. Ever since you told me my people had Fahey, I’ve been stalling you.”

The lights cut off and Emily looked up, Doyle takes advantage and slams her body over the top of a table. Emily picks up the broken table leg and hits Ian across his face, blood starting to spill out of his mouth. Ian wrestles the table leg out of Emily’s hands and pierces it into her stomach. Emily groans and collapses on the floor.

“Where is Declan, Emily? Tell me. Tell me,” Doyle pushes the table leg in further.

“No… no.”

A round of gunshots go off. JJ and several other agents make it into the room, but not before Doyle escapes. JJ runs up to Emily.

“I got her! I got her in the south side of the basement, I need a medic!” JJ yells into her earpiece. “Emily.”

“JJ,” Emily groans.

“Hey, it’s me, you’re gonna be alright. Stay with me, baby.”

JJ lifts Emily’s head, kneeling down and resting Emily against her body.

Emily shakes her head.

“Let me go.”

“No!” JJ yells, sobbing. “No, no. I am not letting you go, you hear me? I love you so so much, Em, I can’t do this without you. Please don’t make me.”

Emily groans again, looking down at the broken table leg sticking out of her body.

“I-I know what you did for Declan. I am s-so proud of you,” JJ says softly. “I am proud of you because you’re my best friend, you’re my partner, you’re the love of my life. Please, I c-can’t let you go.”

The sobs JJ let out shattered Emily’s heart. She never wanted to be the reason for JJ’s pain.

“Hey,” Emily raises her hand to cup JJ’s chin. She strokes JJ’s tears away, softly. She musters up all the energy she has and begins singing.

“You are my sunshine…”

-

“...my only sunshine.”

It had been a particularly hard day. The recent case, involving kids, got on JJ’s nerves. The last kid was okay, the team brought him back to the station and he was reunited with his parents.

JJ was laid out across the couch, her head in Emily’s lap and she sang and stroked her hair.

“You make me happy, when skies are grey.”

Emily had a beautiful voice, one that JJ could listen to for the rest of her life and would never get tired of it. Emily started singing to JJ to comfort her after a difficult case two months ago. Since then, Emily would sing to her after a hard case, when JJ felt down, or just while they relaxed on their days off. Emily had always comforted her, it was one of the many things that JJ loved about the woman.

And not once did JJ ever think that Emily would be comforting her in this position.

»--•--«

“You’ll never know, dear--” Emily chokes, clearly beginning to fade away. “H-how much I love y-you…”

Emily’s eyes close, her body completely going limp. She was seconds away.

JJ strokes Emily’s hair, shushing her. A tear rolls down from JJ’s faded blue eyes and lands on Emily’s cheek. JJ wipes it away and clears her throat. Her voice was barely above a whisper. Emily gasps her last breath as JJ finishes the song.

“Please don’t take my sunshine… away.”