#I got two hands not three

[sp0o0kylights]

Part One / Part Two (You are Here) / Part Three 

A03

Hopper had undersold Harrington's condition. 

Wayne hadn't expected anything pretty, but the face that turned to them as they walked through the door almost had him freezing in place. 

Black eye, bruised chin, split lip. 

More and more bruises, some faded and some very new, trailing down the kids neck. 

 The rest was hidden by his preppy little polo shirt, but Wayne didn't doubt that there were more.

Harrington tried to stand when they entered the room and the way he moved--entirely unbalanced, clearly in a lot of pain--made Wayne think the only thing the kid really needed was a hospital. 

Because Steve Harrington hadn't just been beaten. 

He'd been tortured--and very recently strangled. 

(Abruptly, Wayne realized that Hopper had implied the boy had been in the mall fire--just as much as he implied the mall fire was anything but. 

He also hadn't stated how Harrington had escaped the Suites trying to break into his house.) 

"Sit down." Hopper commanded, and Wayne expected Harrington to do anything but listen. 

Say something cocky, or act the part of a demanding little shit maybe, despite the condition he was in.

Instead the kid just sighed in relief and dropped like a stone, right back into the chair. 

Hopper came around his desk, talking all the while. "Steve, this is Wayne. Wayne, Steve."

"Hello Sir." Steve croaked politely. His voice was wrecked, no doubt from the necklace of finger shaped bruises around his neck.

"You're going to stay with him for a while, and you're gonna pay him for the privilege." Hopper informed him, as he began digging around his desk. "Money, chores, whatever Wayne wants." 

Wayne held his gaze as Steve turned to appraise him. 

Would Harrington pitch a fit? 

Would he look at Wayne's work clothes, streaked with dirt and sweat, with the name of the warehouse embroidered in the corner and crinkle up his nose, just like his daddy did? 

Hopper didn't lie, but a part of Wayne wanted to see just how different this Harrington was. If the respectful demeanor was an act done for Hopper. 

Or perhaps, Hopper had mentioned Steve's father for a reason, instead of his mother. Did he adopt her ice-like approach to life? 

Micro managing and long-held grudges were Stella Harrington’s game, and she excelled at it. 

Steve however, did nothing of the sort, instead settling with the situation in a way that reminded Wayne far too strongly of the men and women who'd come home from war.

"Okay." The kid said simply, after a long moment of consideration. He turned back to Hopper. "But we need to tell the rest of the Par--" 

Here he cut a look back to Wayne, correcting himself. "the kids. I don't want them showing up at my house trying to find me and freaking out." 

"They wouldn't--" Jim paused, fingers freezing from the rummaging they'd been doing. "they absolutely would, goddammit." He muttered darkly.  

"I'll tell the kids. The only thing I want you doing right now is laying low. I need to get a hold of Owens, but it's gonna take time to do that, and more time to fix this, so as of right now, Harrington? You're on vacation." He pointed sternly, as if Steve might argue.

The kid looked too tired and messed up to bother trying. 

"I mean it. You're out of the country, where is anybody's guess. No one's seen you and no one better be seeing you, got it?" His voice held firm, and Wayne had to blink because the tone here wasn't one of a police chief warning a teenager--but of a father talking to his son.

He knew, because his own voice did that now. Took on a worried tone that masqueraded as something more like annoyance and seriousness. 

"Yes, Sir." Harrington said, remaining weirdly compliant. "Consider me gone." 

A hand came up to briefly press above one eye, and Wayne wondered if the kid had been looked over, or if they had just crammed him into Hopper's office without offering so much as a tissue box. 

How many painkillers did they have back at the house? Wayne usually kept a good bottle around, but Steve was going to need more than that…

He found himself once again cataloging Steve's wounds, this time comparing them to the medicine cabinet he had at home. 

"I expect you to be a damn good house guest, you hear me?" Hopper continued, trying to cut a menacing figure. He finally found what he was looking for; pulling out a large, padded envelope. 

He handed it over to Harrington, who took it without looking, shoving it into the duffle bag he'd had sitting at his feet. 

There was a smudge of red on the handle of said bag, that matched perfectly up to a shittily done wrap on Steve's right hand. 

Wayne mentally added 'buy more bandages' to his list. 

Steve nodded at Hopper again. "Yes, Sir."

Jim’s eyes narrowed. "Quite that, you know I hate that." 

The briefest glimmer of mischief crossed Harrington's face. "Sorry, Sir. Won't happen again, Sir."

'Ahh.' Wayne thought. 'So there's a teenager in there after all.'

Jim rolled his eyes. "Get out of my office."

"Thanks Hop." Harrington said, finally dropping that odd obedience, a hint of a smile on his battered face. 

He stood, and Wayne had to stop himself from offering an arm out as Steve reached for his bag and limped towards him. 

He paused right before he left Hopper's office, hand on the doorframe.

 "You'll check up on Robin too, right?"  He asked, and for the first time his tone took on something more alive--and filled with worry. "And Dustin? Erica?" 

"Dustin and his mom are finally taking me up on my suggestion to see their family in Florida for a while, and the Sinclairs are taking a sabbatical from Hawkins. I'm working on the Buckley's." Hopper drummed his fingers on the desk. "So far, no one else besides you and El have been targeted, and we're going to keep it that way."

Steve let out a breath, and while Wayne could tell the worry hadn't left him, he could almost physically see Steve force himself to put it away.

Another act that was far beyond the kid's years. 

A different officer popped up as they walked down the hall towards the exit, waving his hand madly. "Harrington! Chief says you forgot this!" He barked.

(Or tried to anyway. Callahan wasn’t the most aggressive of officers and frankly, never would be.)

A slim sports bag was held in his hands, and Steve nearly tripped over his own feet when he tried to turn and claim it.

"I'll get it." Wayne said, knowing his tone sounded gruff.

No use for it. He could either sound gruff or sound sad, and Wayne knew better than to start off the relationship with yet another hurt young man by acting sad.

Pity wasn't gonna win him any favors here. 

He took the bag, slinging it over his shoulder, uncaring of the wince on Harrington's face until something sharp poked at his shoulder. 

Several somethings, in fact. 

"What the hell do you got in this thing?" He asked once they hit the parking lot, voice low as he escorted Steve to his truck. 

"Just a baseball bat, sir." Steve said, in the exact same tone Eddie used every time he thought he was bein’ slick. 

Considering the thing in the bag could have passed for a baseball bat if not for the sharp pokey bits, it wasn’t a bad attempt. Steve just hadn’t accounted for the fact that Wayne lived with Eddie. 

An unfair advantage, really. 

‘Least there can’t be any baby racoons in the damn bag.’ Wayne thought idly. 

Went on to gently put the bat in the backseat, watching as the kid struggled to lift himself into the truck.

"You can drop that, I take too being called Sir about as well as Hop does." He said, keeping his tone nice and calm, hoping to ease into calling Steve out on his lie. 

Fussed with a few dials on the stereo, giving Steve an excuse to take his time before starting the engine and taking the long way home.

Wayne wanted to talk a little-- without the chance of Ed’s interrupting. 

"Son,” He started off. “I was born in the morning, but not this morning. I'm hoping to make the next few weeks as easy as I can for both of us, and I can't do that if you're starting off with a lie." 

Steve blinked, turning to face him in a matter that was too fast for his injuries. He didn't bother hiding the hurt it caused him, but his voice stayed even as he spoke.

 "What do you mean Si--Wayne." 

"Nice catch.”  Wayne said. “We’ll get you there yet.” 

It was a trick he'd learned with Eddie--little tidbits of praise went a long way when it came to gaining trust.

Especially with kids who hadn't ever been given much. 

Harrington seemed smart to it, or perhaps was just hesitant to speak in general because he remained quiet, not offering up any info. No further lies, but nothing towards the truth, neither. 

Which was fine. Wayne didn’t think a little pushing would hurt.

"That bat of yours was digging into my shoulder like a bee swarm." Wayne continued, when it became clear Steve wasn't talking. "I'm more a fan of football than baseball, but last I checked they hadn't changed the design of a bat." 

"What teams?" Steve asked, perking up a touch. "Of football. Which ones are yours?"

Wayne could ignore it of course, or demand Steve give him an answer to the question he asked. 

He did neither. "I’m liking the Colts since they got moved here. You?" 

"Green Bay Packers, though I like the Colts too--that trade in 84’ was crazy." Steve said. After a second he proved that answering instead of pushing was the right move because he added; "What did Hopper tell you? About…" He trailed off, making a gesture Wayne didn't bother trying to interpret. 

"He said some things. I've guessed a few others." Wayne admitted. Cut a little look out of the corner of his eye as he came to a stop sign. "I know the feds are real interested in you after Starcourt." 

Steve took that in, hands tightening on the handle. 

"It really is a baseball bat." He said, a little fast and with the tiniest hint of that challenge Wayne had been looking for. "It just also has nails hammered into one end." 

Wayne took that in with one nice, slow blink. 

"A bat with nails in it." He said, and it made a hell of a lot of sense compared to the sensation he'd felt carrying the case. "You use it against anyone?" 

"Some of the feds." Steve admitted, and even with his eyes on the road Wayne could tell he was being stared at.

Judged.

Not in the way one expected a rich kid to judge, but in the way Eddie had, those first few months he'd lived here. The times when  he'd push, just a little, to see what Wayne's reaction would be. 

Eddie hadn't done it in a damn long time, but Wayne recognized the behavior nonetheless. 

"Anybody else?" He asked. 

"Nobody human." Steve replied. 

"Alright." Wayne said, and made a mental note to drop all questions related to that. 

He didn't need to know, definitely didn't want to know, and had a feeling if he did know he'd find himself being watched by the same spooks after Steve.

"I've got a few deck boxes that lock on my porch. Think you'd be agreeable to leaving the bat in one?" 

Steve paused, hand clenching tighter around the strap of his duffel bag. "If you gave me a key so I could get it in an emergency,  I'd be happy to." 

He tried to sound calm, even a little charming in that sort of upper-class businessman sort of way, but the fear bled through. 

The kid wasn't happy separating from the bat, and given it sounded like it might have saved his life recently, Wayne understood the hesitation. 

With an internal apology to Eddie, he promptly threw his nephew under the proverbial bus.  "I've got my nephew at home and he'd be far too interested in it, is all. Blades and weapons and such tend to attract him, and I don't need to be rushing anyone to the ER." 

All of which were very true facts (one Wayne learned the time he'd allowed Eddie to bring a sword  home, only for him to nearly cut his own nose off winging the thing around) but he figured it might make Steve more amenable to separating from it. 

Sure enough, some of the tenseness bled out of Steve's shoulders. "Yeah that's fair." 

The truck hit a few potholes as they finally turned into the trailer park, and the kid hissed, a quiet sound. 

Judging by the uncomfortable wince, and hands clenched into his jeans something painwise was giving him trouble. 

"When was the last time you took a pain pill?" Wayne asked, doing his best to weave around the other holes that dotted the gravel roads.

Steve blinked. "Uh…" 

"You take any today son?" 

Steve his head. 

"Didn't have time to grab it." He said, offering a sad look to his pack. 

Course he hadn't. 

"Let's get you inside then and get you some." Wayne said with a sigh. Thankfully Eddie's van wasn't here--Wayne was fairly certain he had band practice today but knowing him it could be a million other things.

Just meant he had to acclimate Steve as fast as he could, to try and get the poor guy settled before Ed’s came in. 

He just hoped life and lady luck would work with him, for once. 

#hands on knees #this is gonna have more than three parts fffffff #FAIR WARNING I do jump between Wayne and Eddie’s pov in this. #Everything Ive written so far while in parts for tumblr would basically be chapter 1 on A03 #Eddies POV change would be chapter two #Ugh Im gonna have to put this on A03. Dammit brain. #also I updated this very fast for me #no one get excited Idk the brain is doing #steddie #beat to shit Steve Harrington #wayne pov #outsider pov #wayne as a BAMF #I tried to get to the part where Eddie shows up but it just got too long for a tumblr post #pre steddie #wayne and Hopper both as psuedo parents to Steve #tw injuries #0o0 fanfics #stranger things

[egophiliac]

Do yoy like their silly little dance

the inside of my brain at any given moment:

#twisted wonderland #twisted wonderland spoilers #stage in playful land #stage in playfulland #gif warning #gifs that bop along to your music warning #gidel is SO little #look at him compared to everyone else! #three apples tall! #i could put him in my pocket and still have space to pack him a lunch #this rhythmic is so silly. i love when we get a cutesy upbeat rhythmic right before everything goes straight to shit. #fellow and gidel: (dance around all cutely and throw confetti) #fellow and gidel: anyway now it's time to sell you #just the most adorable little kidnappers 🩷 #so glad they made an official gidel chibi because otherwise i would have tried to and it would not have ended well #i'm trying to do a meleanor right now and she is giving me enough trouble. she doesn't even have any STRIPES. #do you think the riggers got handed the designs for this event with all the stripes and swirlies and patches and patterns #and just had to go stare at a wall for an hour or two #'okay look people are going to see this on a small screen with a rhythm game going on in the foreground' #'nobody is going to take a high-res screen recording and then go through it frame-by-frame to scrutinize our rigging breakdowns' #'what kind of HUGE NERD do you think plays this stupid game' #(shifty eyes)

[surreal-duck]

newly moved in farmboy enamored by atrocious spring onion doodle on local help wanted poster

#sdv update finally got me around to drawing this au somewhat after like. two years #doodles #duck scribbles #enstars #midoyuzu #i have like. the entire span of three years plotted out way too much #both new to town while yuzurus working at the general store owned by the himemiyas sent there while a certain pink thing is over at uni #rooming with his childhood friend slash rival. i promise this is integral to the plot #he doodles on his request posters and thus kicks off the entire thing #midori takamine #yuzuru fushimi #yuzumido #rest of ryst is over there too kanatas over at the fishing shop and in what should be the fishing rod attaining cutscene he shrimply #pops out of the water to hand it over and get back to pukapukaing #chiaki at the saloon i think. he puts on tokusatsu shows on tv and everyone has to deal with it #i could go on with a bunch of others ive thought out its genuinely too much #sketchbook stuff #sdv au

[bogkeep]

fletcher from this episode of drawfee!! jacob keeps designing characters that really appeal to me...

#drawfee #drawfee show #fletcher drawfee #drawfee fletcher #what are the drawfee tagging convetions. #art #fanart #digital art #I STARTED THIS PIECE OVER TWO WEEKS AGO....... ive been Busy #but i had archery today so i got my mom to take a reference pic of the one hand pose that kept eluding me hahaha #also i toyed with the idea of them having different weapons but i decided to split the bow into three different bows instead #i love archer characters so much #(and also knife characters. and sword characters. and polearm-)

[laniidae-passerine]

I made my post about Dean Highbottom and then as I was writing my tags realised that his Hunger Games counterpart is Haymitch. and now my head is in my hands and I don’t think I’ll ever recover

#IM GOING TO CRY. I am part of the system I never wanted anything to do with it #I killed so many people without laying a hand on them. I never ever asked for this. I tried to say no. my hands are still bloody. #both turned to drugs to cope. both had a mentee who reminded them of someone they hated so much #(snow reminded the dean of his old friend. katniss reminded haymitch of himself) #both knew exactly how the games worked and all of its consequences because one made it and the other lived it #both lived in the shadows of the past and never really got out from it #but in the end one of them chose to be cruel to the children who they were asked to mentor #and the other loved even when it was killing him #god. twenty three years and they never managed to drown the fire out of him. his heart broke again and again #but he held onto those shards even as they made his hands bleed. and then one day two children appeared and pieced it back together #and some of it was missing and always would be. you can’t undo twenty three years of alcoholism and pain and grief and self loathing #but a lot of it was still there. far more than he ever even believed could have survived #Haymitch I love youuuuuuuuu I will always love you #and Dean Highbottom you were kinda cringe and lame. guynobody ass bitch. do better #haymitch abernathy #dean highbottom #thg #the hunger games #a ballad of songbirds and snakes #abosas

[autixel]

Made this venn diagram of the ships I think about most often and realized some trends. Spoilers for tged and orv. Yes one of these ships is not like the others I'm well aware

#this message was brought to you by autixel #I SPENT 49 MINUTES ON THIS SHITPOST WHY DID I DO THIS #jinjae #llojavi #joongdok #wizardbaron #tged spoilers #orv spoilers #ah yes let's see we got korean novel... korean novel... korean novel and ig sequel... AMERICAN BOOK SERIES 🦅🦅 #seventeen goddamned books and only two pieces of accurate characterization. release me. #one scene. AND ONE SHORT STORY IN ANOTHER SEPARATE BOOK. #Marcone. dear sweet Marcone. please be in Twelve Months. i fear I'm just now knowing you as a character. #for the other three it's like their authors got hands on gay concentrate and dumped 3 metric tons of the stuff into their respective stories

[surven-snacks]

Uh? She's a good listener? Possible continuation of this

#I'd like to think that Nemona has scars where her glove thing is #she's right handed #and i have a headcanon that when she failed the Pokeball throw #she got attacked? #anyway yeah it really helps get one to champion rank in a matter of two months if you have three battle freaks /aff to grow up with #pokemon #pokemon swsh #pokemon sv #pokemon scarlet and violet #pokemon sword and shield #pokemon leon #pokemon dande #pokemon hop #pokemon victor #pokemon masaru #pokemon nemona #nemona #pokemon oc #pokemon scarlet oc #pokemon scarlet sunny

[hyperfixatinator]

I've seen headcanons of Phoenix Wright having heterochromia; either due to him being born with it or due to head trauma via fire extinguisher in AA2. They often come with headcanons of why he'd hide them with colored contacts, of course.

But I haven't heard anyone bring up the headcanon of Phoenix's eye turning blue because of Dahlia's bottle pendant.

First off, the poison Dahlia used had possible side effects including loss of pigmentation and eye damage. This is evident in Diego Armando's hair turning white and vision problems.

Fun fact: blue eyes aren't caused by blue pigmentation. In fact, they have little to no pigmentation at all. The blue we see is just light reflecting weirdly until only blue light is all we perceive from them.

Secondly, the poisoned pendant Phoenix ate in Turnabout Memories was empty at the time, but the risk of it containing leftover traces was very real. He even chewed it, raising the chances of those traces entering his system.

Diego had a significantly higher dose than Phoenix, but let's not forget Dahlia had faith that 1 contaminated pill of Cold Killer X would do the trick. Even if there was less than a drop remaining in that bottle, it had the potential to at least do some damage.

Damage that could result in the loss of pigmentation in someone's eyes.

#ace attorney #headcanon #heterochromia #phoenix wright #dahlia hawthorne #I like this interpretation for it's narrative opportunities #Throughout the first three games we see Phoenix with two brown eyes #because he's covering up the blue eye he got from Dahlia's poison #Like how he tried to keep quiet about his past relationship with Dahlia even when it became relevant to the case #Then after the 7 year gap he gets his job back #Now instead of covering up the blue eye he's hiding it in plain sight #No one notices the eye color change because there's no brown eye to compare it to #It's like he's tricking everyone into believing his eyes were always blue and that nothing changed #This can be a great metaphor for Phoenix's character AA4 onward #Phoenix had been through a lot even before he became a lawyer #The hardships and trauma of his early adulthood had a hand in shaping who he is now #Maybe he's not ready to open up about that yet #So he instead convinces others that none of that affected him and that he was always like this #Something something finding peace with who you used to be and the path you took to become who you are now

[bylertruther]

yk. the resistance ppl have to so much as considering the idea that mike might not jump to immediately and enthusiastically engaging in obvious n indisputably gay shit with will publicly is kinda funny in a puzzling way when season three and season four, where he does exactly that the entire way through, are literally right there for us all to watch on netflix.com. like. Okay ❤️

#i get not liking angst. but it's not an insane idea. do you think it's a coincidence that mike quit touching will after season two? do you #think it was just for shits and giggles when he stopped himself from hugging will and put distance between them by ''bro''-ing #out and maintained that energy throughout the entire rest of the season until he finally got over it because he realized they were #in danger and will really needed his support? do i need to remind anyone of his season three + ongoing arc and the iconic legendary #lucas look my arm and it's not my fault you don't like girls moments? #no one HAS to write or entertain those ideas but to act like it's INSANE when we've seen him do literally just that already...... #we all know mike's got a mean bite and that he is absolutely losing the fight rn to conformity like 😭 huh.. #like even in AU contexts that gets thrown out as being preposterous. since s3 will has been the one trying to ''fight'' for #their friendship and in s4 we see him initiating contact and getting rebuffed so it's just like . dsfhbjkjhbdfkjhsbdkjfhbdkj #like do u get what i mean. why do people act like it's crazy that he'd ever be hesitant why is that never considered for even a second #why is will the one that's written as being resistant in every way!!!!!! #anyway. clasps my hands together. I Love Yelling At Clouds #byler #mine

[swiftlymurmurs]

It's fascinating to me to watch Fantasy High as a Dutch person because a lot of the "universal high school student" stuff they mix into the story is pretty much equally alien to me as the actual high fantasy elements. Brennan mentioned how the 3am diner hang with friends was so integral to his teenage experience but here there are no diners. Nothing is open at 3am, not even the McDonalds drive through, so unless a friend's parents are out of town, you're either on the street or in bed. I was not a cool kid. I was in bed. And then there's all the stuff about extracurriculars, trying to get into good schools, having to hustle to get colleges to notice you, and uhhh I clicked a button on a website and my uni said "cool see you next year". I wasn't an exceptional student or anything, I was extremely worried about my grades at age 16, I was worried I'd be bumped down to a different level of high school or held back a year, but dropping out is illegal until you're an adult so that was definitely not on the table. My experience was also not universal for here, and I'm sure this is all also not representative of every US kid's high school experience, but it's still interesting just how far apart the averages are.

#dimension 20 #fantasy high #fhjy #fantasy high junior year #the only time I felt really seen was when lou went #'I wish I could be the kind of student who looks at a bunch of Fs and goes hey look at these two Cs I got though' #Because I was cruising through my third year on a handful of threes #several fours #and then like a 6 for computer science #and an 8 for english #(our scale is 1-10 with a 5.5 being a pass. A three is miserably bad)

[elusive-mayfly]

If there was one thing Nai never thought would happen, it's that he'd have any empathy towards a human. When that happened, the new "it will never happen" thought was that he'd fall in love with them. And when that happened too, it was already too late.

Nai's a complex man with many thoughts stored away in his mind. He's tactful. Nothing happens without having deliberately been thought out.

The Great Fall was mentally his undoing. He believed he was doing the right thing. He believed he was giving not only himself freedom, but his brethren. It didn't matter what stood in his way, he would face it and he would be victorious. And when his actions presented fruitful, there was no turning back.

He did what he set out to do. A chain of events were presented to him and there was no other option. A never-ending battle was presented to him and he was the crux. That never bothered him.

What did bother him was when he extended a hand to Rem, his own mother, she chose them instead of him. Whether or not Nai admitted it, he loved Rem in his own way and having her reject them was the nail in the coffin: if his own mother chose the monsters over her own sons, she was also a monster.

And when Vash chose the monsters immediately after, that was enough. The sacrificial act of saving them was not appreciated. That was proof enough that Vash had been manipulated and was too far gone, at least at that point. In time, Vash would come around. In time, Vash would open his eyes... just like Nai did. It was inevitable.

Nai hid his sorrow, burying it deeper and deeper until it was just a fragment of a memory. He might not have even realized he held that grief.

Whatever lingering feelings he had were a waste of time. The love he held for his brother was what drove him to continue, but other than that, he didn't need these useless human feelings. Was he disappointed Vash didn't immediately side with him? Yes. But it would all be rectified eventually, so why process those emotions at all? Nai would always protect his brother.

But that disappointment in both Rem and Vash's rejection would fester in ways he didn't realize.

The fateful day you two met, these disappointments came to light. It doesn't matter how it happened, or what happened at all. One act of kindness or empathy and Nai was immediately hooked, much to his dismay.

He was starved for some kind of positive reinforcement and he would continue to seek it out whether he realized it or not. He was crippled beneath the weight of your actions and surprisingly... he didn't want it any other way.

He spent a long time denying it. You were a human and therefor you were the enemy. He could kill you if he really wanted to... but he never did.

Eventually, he began feeling... empathy for you, something he never thought were possible. Was it an eye-for-an-eye mentality? Because you showed him kindness, he felt like he needed to do the same? Maybe not to the same extent, but...

Maybe it was the looming threat of your rejection. Nai had cared only for two people in the past and they rejected him. Could he handle being rejected again?

He wouldn't give you a chance to reject him. Ever. You want to live? Done. You want an apology? Begrudgingly, it will happen. You want attention? It will be done. You want... love? ... you can have it.

At first, he just believed you were the exception. All humans are disgusting abominations... except you. All the humans needed to die... except you. It took him a long time to accept that your empathy towards him was what made you human. Your humility towards him is what made you human. Your forgiveness towards him is what made you human. And maybe humanity wasn't... all bad...

Maybe a small part of his ideology was wrong.

Maybe.

Begging him to leave everything behind was excruciating. Asking him to give up everything he had worked for and everything he believed was asking him to give up every part of who he was. You were asking him to tear down a century of growth in the (possible) wrong direction. The humans needed to be punished for their misdeeds and he was the messenger. To deny the messenger the act of delivering justice was, in his mind, cruel.

What convinced him was the conceiving of your child. Neither of you knew if you could conceive until it happened. But when it did, there was no denying that he already betrayed his cause. Plants would always be superior. Plants would always deserve more. And humans were a product of destruction, and deserved just that...

... but the middle ground, this child of both plant and human blood, was such a beautiful sight to behold...

And the thought of killing you or the child was something he could not do.

How do you rid the planet of an entire species save two people? Because if you make the exception, where is the line drawn? Humans were filled with flaws such as hypocrisy, and Nai could not fall to these weaknesses else he become exactly what he despised.

So what do you do when you feel you are forced to give up your life's purpose? You find a new purpose.

And finally, the tale of Millions Knives was over. Gone without a trace. The looming threat of his return would always be present, but people could finally breath a sigh of relief... at least for now.

There wasn't a bone in this man's body that knew how to live a domestic life. When you don't need to eat, you don't cook. When you don't need to sleep, you don't dream. There were many things he felt were expected of him that he could not bring to the table. How do you provide what you have not had provided to you for over a century?

Running away from his problems would never be an easy answer. He was forced to lay down a lot of his pride and ego to be able to fit into this... quaint life that he never wished for but so desperately wanted to keep.

But he can learn. If a mere human could do it, so could he.

Eventually, he got used to lying beside you during the night. Despite not needing it, he would sometimes sleep... but most of the time, he'd lie awake and think many a thought.

Did he regret his actions? That was complicated. What he did was for the plants. For his brother. He would never regret his loyalty. He would never regret his beliefs.

But something would always gnaw at him knowing to hate all humans meant to hate you and his child, and he couldn't bring himself to do that.

He would never be able to take back what he had done, and in truth, he didn't want to. Whether that painted him as a villain or not didn't change his mind. He could never adapt a new line of thinking, not entirely.

You knew this. And he knew you knew this.

But the one thing he didn't know you knew... is in the middle of the night when the whole household was supposed to be sleeping, Nai would sneak out of bed.

Maybe it was a need to feel a connection to something he had lost. Maybe the child called to him in a way you couldn't hear. Something drew him from your side during the dark of night that begged him to hold your child.

And with the infant in his arms, the two would glow in the small nursery. The communication between plants that you could not hear but could see. It coloured the room with a dull blue light and lingered in your mind as a beautiful and comforting scene.

Nai would never tell you he did this. And as your child grew and eventually forgot these kindred moments, he would never tell them either. But the message he was trying to convey would always ring true: he would always protect his family.

#Knives headcanons #Millions Knives #Knives x Reader #Knives x You #Knives x Y/N #I got into Trigun knowing I'd be simping for one plant #I didn't sign up for both #Someone PLEASE take one from me #Cause otherwise I will just rant about both of them endlessly and I can't live like this man- #I CAN'T BE SITTING HERE AT THREE IN THE MORNING WRITING STUPID KNIVES FLUFF #But on the other hand y'all liked the glowstick boyfriend? Have two

[mattodore]

if i can get these hair ties to work first try i'll be unstoppable

#river dipping #blender #got home and immediately opened blender where i've been for the last few hours #i made some draft hair ties which were just circles i popped into s4s and tested in cas #took me at least four attempts to figure out how to get the uv maps to work but now that i've got it!! #i'm working on the actual hair ties i want. i just finished getting both hair ties all nice and snug with matthias's wrist #so now i'm onto the actual uv mapping and vertex assigning... #i'm going to make three packages one with both hair ties joined and two with them separated then i'll merge them into one #i'll also scale them down and fit them onto theo's wrists after #like... they ARE for theo's hair after all so he should get to wear them too lmao it's just... yk. matthias's acts of service... #gotta make sure he has them on him at all times so he can put up theo's hair for him #now that i'm thinking abt it tho theo is right handed unlike matthias... so for him the hair ties should be on his other arm... #i think you can mirror meshes right??? idk if i can't figure that out i'll just make new ones #...also hello <3 i've been offline for most of the day #would feel weird not saying hi here bc of it lmao #.....had to change the caption bc i was like. ykw maybe i shouldn't say that abt someone i don't know just bc they made something #<- tags typed after looking through the guy's likes on twitter lmaoooooooooooooo

[moregraceful]

i made what was a huge medical decision today that has been received very badly by my family and i feel absolutely nothing but pure freedom and joy about it. the thing i'm really fixated on rn is when should i post this fic i just finished

#i think october 1. for halloween #it was for skelly season but it took such a weird turn in the end that i feel weird about gifting it to someone lol #very short list of people i would subject this particular rarepair agenda to on purpose. maybe just beryl #the medical decision is legitimately life-altering and i should be stressed but i'm just like it's my body. my body horror. and i'm free :) #i'm stressin way more about the fic bro #and like if i don't gift the fic do i then go back and commit to making it even weirder and rarepaired.... #stars future leadership polycule (two guys who are dating and their captain who holds their hand in high stress situations) #what am i even talking about..................... #today my boss was like thank you for your (insane 11 paragraph long) email! i used it as a meeting agenda with my boss :) #i was like oh no now my grandboss knows i use my boss's inbox as my work livejournal #i got to remake my schedule tho now that i'm almost done with my training!! i gave myself a three day weekend... #...so i can go to the therapy i need to deal with this job. was anyone gonna tell me abt secondary trauma or was i #just supposed to find that out on my literal first day of work lol #my therapist was THRILLED she was like oh i have SO many books to recommend we're gonna have SO much fun!! i was like oh no #fridays off and life is good tbh!! except for the fic. i don't know what to do abt the fic #fresno oilers.txt

[not-an-anagram]

The "While you were busy being heterosexual I was studying the blade" meme implies that sword skills are inherently homosexual. Likewise, dual wielding swords has been commonly used as a euphemism for bisexuality. Ergo, the use of three swords can be interpreted as a declaration of polyamory. In this essay I will

#while you were busy being heterosexual I was studying the blade #dual weilding #three sword style #sword #sword skills #ok you got me this is just about zoro from one piece #seriously who else wields three swords? #anyway #what im saying here is that zoro has two hands #I specifically ship Zulu and Zosan but it works with other ships too #the point is #polyamorous roronoa zoro #roronoa zoro

[worldsokayestdragon]

The Transitive Property

Read on AO3

Ed couldn't sleep the first night after Greed joined his little crew-sorry, after they joined Greed.

The voice of reason in his head (sounding annoyingly like his little brother) pointed out that this was probably because he wasn't trying to sleep, but that wasn't the point. 

The point was he found himself sitting awake by the dying fire-long after Darius and Heinkel had turned in for the night and started snoring loud enough to alert all of Amestris to their location-staring at Greed while trying not to let the homunculus catch him looking.

And it was stupid! Why should he have to hide what he was doing? It wasn't like he even really cared about Greed. He was looking for any signs of Ling. His boyfriend had been possessed right in front of him (willingly, on purpose, like the stubborn asshole he could be when he felt like it) and then disappeared for months only to show back up long enough to freeload all of Ed's food-again-and have a five minute conversation before getting reabsorbed into the monster possessing him. Quite frankly, Ed thought he was more than justified in staring. He had every right to interrogate, to poke and prod, to demand to speak to Ling.

The voice that sounded too much like Al reminded him that pissing Greed off and potentially driving him away wouldn't help him get Ling back, that just because something was justified didn't mean it was smart, and that eventually he'd have to stop flying off the handle all the time and learn to be more strategic.

So Ed restrained himself to observing. It didn't make him feel better. It was Ling's face in front of him, except that it wasn't. Familiar features of a person he cared about forming expressions that were all wrong, his boyfriend's body with someone else's posture. Greed hadn't spoken for a while, but Ed knew that his voice would be too low, too rough, the Amestrian accent grating on Ed's nerves when it came out of Ling's mouth.

But there were glimmers of hope. As they sat in silence, Greed's expression changed every so often. The shifts were tiny, subtle, but Ed knew Ling's face well enough to spot them even if he couldn't be sure what they meant on Greed. The corners of his lips twitched as if fighting a smile, his eyebrows furrowed in the barest start of a frown. occasionally he tilted his head as if listening to someone or formed his mouth around words without vocalization. There was no one else around, and he wasn't talking to Ed, so all signs pointed to Greed and Ling having some sort of internal conversation. Really the fact that he was sitting quietly supported that hypothesis; the Greed they'd met in Dublith had never shut up, and this version had seemed just as chatty back in Central.

If Ling was aware and strong enough to keep a running commentary to Greed, he might be able to seize another opportunity to take back control of his body. If nothing else, maybe the dumbass could annoy the homunculus into trading a few minutes conversation for some peace and quiet.

Or maybe he'd annoy Greed too much and get his consciousness completely destroyed, pushed so deep into the philosopher's stone it would never resurface. Greed may have turned on the other homunculi, but that didn't mean he was a good person now. For all Ed knew he might hold no more value for human life than the rest of his wacko little "family". 

Ling could be in very real danger, could already be suffering, and there was nothing Ed could do about it, he couldn't even know for sure, and what kind of useless boyfriend-

Greed broke the silence with a low growl, effectively interrupting the spiral of doom Ed's thought had been trapped in. He was glaring at Ed now, apparently having caught on to all the staring and not appreciating it. The growl sounded more frustrated than aggressive, but still. Ed shifted, getting ready to jump to his feet and run or fight if necessary.

"Alright short stack, if you're gonna sit there angsting at me all night you could at least tell me what your deal is."

Ed shot to his feet, hands balled into fists as he shouted down at Greed, "Who are you calling short?! I'll kick your ass right now!" So much for not flying off the handle, but a man had to have standards.

Greed didn't rise to meet him. He looked calmly up at him from his seated position, apparently completely unconcerned with Ed's rage. He looked more amused than anything, which did nothing to improve Ed's mood.

"Yeah, sure you will," Greed agreed, too easily to be anything but patronizing. "But seriously, would you tell me what your problem with me is? As your new leader, I can't have this kind of hostility from my henchmen."

Ed bristled at the henchman comment, but bit back any retort to it. He had agreed to following Greed after all, and it really wouldn't bother him if he wasn't already so pissed.

"My problem with you?" Ed scoffed. "Well, putting aside what happened in Dublith-"

Ed cut himself off sharply when pain flashed across Greed's face, different from how Ling would wear it but still unmistakable. It occurred to him that everyone Greed had known in Dublith had ended up dead, and that Ling had been pretty vague about what had caused Greed to freak out and let him gain control.

Maybe poking that particular sore spot wasn't the best idea. Ed might not have a reputation as the nice Elric brother, but he didn't try to be outright cruel.

Before Ed could beat himself up too much about putting such a sad look on Ling's face, even by proxy, it disappeared behind Greed's usual smug expression.

"What happened in Dublith, huh?" he asked. "I thought I remembered seeing you there. Honestly though, that whole scene's a little fuzzy, so I still don't know why you're looking at me like you wanna kill me."

"You kidnapped my brother and beat the shit out of me!" Feeling bad about how things turned out didn't give Greed a pass for starting the whole mess.

Greed tilted his head. "Huh? Doesn't everyone do shit like that to you, though? I mean, you said those chimera guys were trying to kill you when you met."

"That's..." Ed faltered. Technically it wasn't an incorrect assessment. Lots of people attacked him when meeting him for the first time, and he didn't usually hold a grudge over it. Hell, Ling had ordered his personal guards to beat some answers out of Ed and Al, and then Ed had agreed to go on a date with him a few hours later. Lan Fan hadn't pulled her punches either. 

But just because their fight in Dublith hadn't been too out of the ordinary (god his life was weird) didn't mean Ed didn't still have plenty of reason to hate Greed.

"Fine then, maybe I'm pissed because you're possessing Ling! You stole his body and now you're walking around wearing his face, doing who knows what to him in there, and you won't fucking let him go!"

"Whoa whoa whoa." Greed held up his hands as if trying to hold back Ed's anger. He didn't look exactly apologetic, but he'd dropped the smirk and seemed to be taking the conversation seriously for the first time. "Couple of problems with all that. One, it wasn't my idea to possess the guy. I can't exactly control what dear old dad does with my stone when I don't have a body, and it's not like I can just leave once I'm in here. Two, I didn't steal shit. He agreed to give me his body. We had a whole conversation about it. This is my body now, and you not liking it doesn't change the fact that it was Ling's choice. And three, I'm not doing anything to him. If anything it's what he's doing to me, damn princely brat's been talking my ear off since I got this body, it's seriously annoying.”

Ed really wished he could believe that.

“So you're not torturing him to prove you're better than humans or punish him for defying you or whatever? Because I talked to Envy about how you homunculi feel about humans, and it doesn't seem like you'd be cool with sharing a body just like that.”

Greed gasped and put a hand to his chest like he'd been shot. “Did you just compare me to Envy? Envy's a fucking asshole! Their whole ‘humans are garbage I'm so much better’ thing is their own personal problem, I don't give a shit about any of that. Humans, chimera, any of the other homunculi that don't end up dead, it doesn't matter. They'll all belong to me once I take over the world!”

Ed should maybe be concerned about his new ally casually bringing up world domination, but he couldn't really bring himself to care. 

“You're serious? Ling's really okay?”

Greed rolled his eyes. “Yeah, he's fine. I keep saying I don’t lie, but no ever listens. Look, he agreed to let me have his body-which makes him my possession-and I take good care of my things. He's got nothing to complain about!” Greed paused, tilting his head slightly, then pinched the bridge of his nose. “Actually, he's great at finding things to complain about, but since I don't need to eat and I also can't control the amount of screaming from people who are grumpy they got turned into a rock, none of his complaints are my problem.”

Ed’s right knee went weak with relief. The left stayed strong, Winry's handy work as sturdy as ever, but he sat down heavily anyway, finally giving up his position standing over Greed.

He'd been trying not to think about it-and there'd been one crisis after the other to distract him-but it had been eating at Ed, not knowing if Ling was okay. And after sending his best friend and baby brother off with a literal serial killer and hoping for the best, the accumulated weight of uncertainty about the fates of his loved ones had been almost too much to bear. Now hearing that Ling hadn't been suffering horribly, that he wasn't in any danger (or at least not from the being controlling his body) had Ed feeling so much lighter he almost didn't know what to do with himself.

Maybe he was crazy for taking Greed's word for it, but he sounded so sincere. Really there was no reason for him to lie, it wasn't like Ed could do anything about it if he had been hurting Ling. If anything he'd probably want to gloat if he was anything like Envy (and it seemed like maybe he wasn’t). 

Looking back, Ling hadn't seemed that bad off at the cabin. Sure he'd collapsed, but he just kind of did that sometimes. He'd bounced right back after eating, just like he had back in Rush Valley, and Central, and Gluttony's stomach. Greed kept complaining about Ling being annoying, but now that Ed was a few more steps away from panic he realized there had been a hint of fondness in his voice as he did so. And, well. Ed could understand finding Ling extremely irritating in an endearing sort of way.

“What’s your guys’ deal anyway?” Greed interrupted Ed's thoughts.

“Our–What?”

Greed waved a hand impatiently. “You know, you’re obsessed with each other. First Ling was all ‘Stop fighting Ed, you might hurt him. No I can’t tell you where Lan Fan is, you have to find Ed and give him the message. I wonder where Ed is. I hope Ed’s okay. Hey, we should totally join Ed’s stupid little group and wander through the woods together!’ And now you won’t stop creepy staring at my face and you’re having some kinda breakdown over the idea that he might possibly be unhappy. It’s weird.”

“Ling didn’t tell you?” Ed tried not to let himself feel too hurt by that. There could be lots of reasons for Ling to keep their relationship to himself. Even if he was apparently talking to Greed all the time, there must be a good reason he never brought up Ed in the months they'd been apart.

“No! He won’t shut up about anything else. Yapping on and on about Xing, and his clan, and Lan Fan and Fu, and he mentions you constantly, but every time I ask about you he says it’s none of my business. Can you believe that? He’s my possession, his business is my business! Not to mention he’s thinking about it inside my brain, which makes it double my business.”

That made a certain kind of sense. It was probably hard having any privacy while sharing your body with another person, so of course Ling might want to keep something to himself. And, Ed remembered, Greed's stupid speech about wanting everything rather pointedly included women. He maybe wouldn't appreciate the fact that his new body’s owner was dating a man when he himself was aggressively straight.

“If Ling says it's none of your business then it's none of your business.” Even if Ed didn't love being kept a secret, he wouldn't betray Ling by giving out information he wanted to keep private.

“Ugh, come on!” Greed whined, flopping back dramatically to lay on the ground. “I'm the one in charge here and still no one tells me anything. You even looked all sad about me not knowing, and yet you're not gonna–”

Greed cut himself off mid sentence and sat back up to look at Ed.

“Your boyfriend?” 

Somehow Ed got the idea the question wasn't for him even though Greed was staring right at him.

A grin grew slowly across Greed's face.

“Our boyfriend.”

The hell did that mean?!

SMACK

Before Ed could react, almost faster than his eyes could follow, Greed raised his right hand and slapped himself across the face.

“Ow! What the hell, Ling?” Greed pushed his right hand down by the wrist before reaching up with his left to rub his cheek. “That fucking hurt, you asshole! Why–you know I can't understand the Xingese when you talk that fast. Stop yelling at me!”

“What did you mean by–”

“Give us a minute,” Greed said, holding up a finger in Ed's direction.

“No I will not give you a minute!” Ed yelled. “You can't just say some crap like that then ignore me! Explain what you're talking about right now or I swear I'm gonna…”

Greed was no longer looking at Ed. He was staring off into the distance, eyes unfocused. If Ed had to guess, he'd say the homunculus was so tuned in to whatever argument he was having with Ling he wasn't even hearing Ed anymore. No amount of yelling would help with that, and despite popular belief to the contrary, Ed could recognize a losing battle when he saw one. He just usually chose to fight them anyway.

Ed picked up a twig from the ground and threw it at Greed's face. It bounced off his nose and he blinked, eyes focusing back on Ed with a startled look.

“If you're going to talk about me in front of me, at least have your half of the conversation out loud, would you?”

Greed nodded. “Yeah that's fair.” He shifted his gaze slightly, looking near but not directly at Ed as he continued. “I don't see what the problem is. He's your boyfriend, and you're mine, so it makes sense–yes that is how it works, it's science.”

Ed already wasn't crazy about how this conversation was going. “When you say he's yours–”

“What do you mean we're not dating?” Greed sounded genuinely confused now. “You agreed to share your body with me, and you asked me to rule a country with you! How is that not–Oh, so you can have fifty wives, but two boyfriends is too–”

“He's not gonna have fifty wives,” Ed interrupted. “He's getting rid of–”

“Yeah yeah, we're doing away with that custom, I know.” Greed waved a hand in Ed's direction as he spoke, still looking at nothing as he had been for his whole conversation with Ling, as if responding to both of them at the same time.

“Why are you getting so worked up over this anyway?” Ed asked. “Aren't you straight?”

Greed's eyes snapped to Ed's face, expression scandalized. “Aren't I what?” he gasped, as if this was the most offensive thing anyone had ever said to him.

“Straight?” Ed didn't see what the big deal was, it had seemed like a fair assumption. “You had a whole speech about wanting women or whatever.”

“I'm Greed.” He spoke slowly, as if explaining something obvious that he'd been forced to go over many times. “I want everything. Gender isn't even a factor for me. Honestly I don't get why humans are so obsessed with it. People would get weird sometimes if I mentioned wanting men too, so I stopped saying that part to avoid the hassle. Still, I can't believe I��ve been giving off straight vibes.” He looked down and tugged at his coat. “Maybe it's the outfit? I told his highness he should have let me pick out better clothes. There was this great vest and also these awesome sunglasses I wanted to get, but he wouldn't go for it. Kept bitching about how awful they were until I chose something more simple.”

“Oh yeah, you had something like that the first time I met you. That was such a cool look!” Ed had pretty much hated Greed's guts back in Dublith, but he couldn't deny the man had style.

“Thank you!” Greed threw up his hands. “Ya hear that, Ling? He thinks it's cool too…Hey, don't call me and our boyfriend tacky in the same way, asshole! Huh? Oh, good point.”

Greed turned back to Ed, leaning forward and fixing him with a serious look. “Hey, do you want to date me too, instead of just Ling?”

“Uh…” Ed hesitated, debating for a moment whether the personification of greed would respond well to being denied something he wanted. Then again, Ling wouldn't have had him ask Ed if he thought the reaction would be dangerous. And he had asked, rather than just demanding. “No, not really. I don't even know you.”

Greed sat back with a shrug. “Oh, okay. Was worth a shot.”

“Really? You're cool with me just dating Ling?” Ed had been expecting at least a bit of an argument.

“Well, yeah.” Greed said. “People have to want to be mine, or else what's the point? Kind of sucks that Ling will have something I don't, but that's just the way it'll have to be. You're still my henchman after all, so it's not like you don't belong to me anyway. Besides,” Greed smiled at Ed, “there's plenty of time between now and the promised day for you to get to know me.”

An hour ago Ed would have taken that statement as mocking at best, and maybe as a downright threat. But now that he knew that Ling was not only okay but on good terms with the deadly sin inhabiting his body, and after having what was by his standards a perfectly friendly conversation with the guy, Ed was willing to see it a bit more charitably. Greed's smile was genuine, nothing taunting or creepy in the expression at all. In fact, if there was any similarity between how Ling and Greed showed their emotions, he might be trying to hide a bit of nervousness.

Ed smiled back at Greed. “Yeah, I guess maybe there is,” he said, then laughed when Greed's mouth dropped open in shock. “It’s getting late. I'm gonna get some sleep. Goodnight Greed and goodnight Ling.”

The last thing Ed heard before sleep claimed him was Greed talking quietly as he threw more wood onto the campfire.

Ed got up to find a soft patch of ground to sleep on, only half listening to Greed stumble over his words as he wished him a goodnight from himself and Ling. Ed felt himself drifting off as soon as he laid down, more tired than he'd realized.

“Wow, I didn't think I'd get that far. I'm totally going to show him I'd be the best boyfriend ev–Ling, do not slap me again, you pissant, I swear to god!”

#fma #fmab #edward elric #greed fma #greedling #edling #greed/ed #greed/ed/ling #<-seriously what is the ship name for that? because all i can think of is gredling and thats completely unacceptable #is this based on that bugs bunny meme joke post i made a while back? #yes #did it get away from me and end having a few thousand words of introspection and moping before i got to the joke? #also yes #its the duality of man #anyway i think all three of them should date #ed has two hands most of the time #and he doesn't even need both of them because ling and greed share a body

[metamatronic]

oh thank goodness the d1 polycule is in tact. FALSE ALARM GANG

#mikan was useful for once #also this is small but kazucihi!! didn’t call her ‘miss sonia’ and also gundham’s hair went back to normal #also those three stood together. a lot. #and also kaz couldn’t resist complimenting gundham that one time #whatever this was a good series #dark as hell though #ALSO SAKAKURA WAS??? ACTUALLY GAY??? #i knew there was something i liked about him. he gave me mondo vibes #apparently those vibes were ‘being in love with a high-ranking student council member’ #dr3 spoilers #danganronpa spoilers #dr3 anime liveposting #oh hey also i can’t believe kyoko gets two dads and their both dead now #keeping this tabbed for non-despair aus #hey if they’ve got the tech for brainwashing and robo-hands and all that jazz #do you think they’ve figured out cloning #or at the very least like. the ability to make a human body. #for. i don’t know. a ghost to possess and potentially bring everyone back #just spitballing here #OR WAIT #MAYBE BECAUSE KYOKO DIED SHE CAN SEE GHOSTS NOW #HOLY SHIT WAIT #I CAN WORK WITH THIS