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the-arctic-commune · 1 year

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Belief and Activism in Media

Or, why Technoblade is the villain.

Before we get started, I want to acknowledge my debts. I owe the seed of this post to.... someone. Probably at least a year and a half ago, a post in Techno’s tags about this topic is what got me thinking about it. I particularly owe that poster for linking this wonderful article [x], which dives into the topic with more detail and broader scope. I highly recommend reading it if you’re interested. However, that was, as I say, many months ago, and I have no idea who the poster was. So if this topic seems familiar to you, please let me know so I can give credit where it’s due!

Now, let’s set the stage. I brought this up in relation to the Red Festival. In particular to the climax of the Festival, in which Technoblade, under threat by Schlatt and his administration, was forced to kill his ally Tubbo.

This was, shall we say.... controversial.

Both within the server and without. Tommy fought with Techno over the murder/execution multiple times (strangely, perhaps, Tommy was much more distraught than Tubbo in the immediate aftermath, but that’s a different post), and it was still being brought up as late as the “Rescuing Michael” streams, when Technoblade apologized to Tubbo for the incident. The fandom, meanwhile, has spilled a great deal of ink discussing whether this was an acceptable or even justified action on Technoblade’s part.

In relation to this incident, and more broadly to the often-controversial actions of Technoblade and his fellow anarchists on the server, I think there’s a very interesting way to understand why many people were (/are) so vehemently adamant that Techno made the wrong decision.

Anarchy, you see, is villain-coded.

(This post is going to be heavily discussing mainstream media in the US, particularly media produced by Hollywood, Disney, and related giants. If you go to smaller producers or other cultures, you will certainly find plenty of counter-examples to what I’m about to say, but hopefully we can all agree that Hollywood has a big impact on what many English speaking audiences expect from stories and media, and that this is a big portion of the Dream SMP audience.)

Part 1: Activism Is Evil

The article I linked above is “Outlaw Kings and Rebellion Chic,” by Alister MacQuarrie for the New Socialist on March 27, 2019. It discusses the phenomenon of the non-ideological hero.

Mainstream media loves rebellion, but it doesn’t want to discuss why we rebel. Heroes rarely have a defined cause, ideology, or even plan for the future once tyranny is overthrown. Instead their motivations are vague notions of “freedom” and “justice,” defined mostly by how the villain is preventing them, and their greatest victory is a promise of return to “normalcy,” a presumably-democratic and prosperous society but we don’t have to get into the details.

Villains, in contrast, often do have a defined ideology. In common storytelling wisdom, heroes only react; it’s the villains who provoke them by acting, and thus the villains who need a cause to fight for or an ideology to drive them.

Ideology, then - the simple fact of having beliefs about the society and politics around you - becomes a feature of villains, while heroes promote an artificially constructed non-ideology, a vague liberal-centrist position which licenses reaction but not action and tolerates change only insofar as it doesn’t make anyone uncomfortable.

You see this in the trope of the activist who goes too far - a side character who the hero must prevent from causing harm, because they care too much about their cause and, depending on the story, may be willing to sacrifice life or morality to get it. You also see it more prominently in the trope of the villain who has a completely rational reason to want to tear the system down - and also is totally ok with murdering babies and kicking dogs, so the story doesn’t have to engage with their philosophy and it’s fine to just kill ‘em and leave things the way they are. To “engage” with current activist movements, issues of climate change are filtered through the ecoterrorist; issues of racial justice are filtered through the extremist or separatist; and so on and so forth.

“The Legend of Korra” is possibly the most absurd example of this trope in popular media. Multiple season villains in this TV show are activists whose ideology is then twisted into cartoonish evil in order to avoid actually engaging with the critiques they present.

The Season 1 villain is Amon, leader of the Equalist movement. He and his followers critique their society’s prioritization of benders (in-universe magic users); benders preferentially control the government and military and even, due to their unique skills, have access to job opportunities that non-benders are barred from. This leads to non-benders having little say in society and being more likely to live in poverty; the Equalists want to change this.

Also they commit multiple acts of terrorism and kidnap benders to forcibly strip them of their powers. And Amon is actually secretly a water bender which means he’s a hypocrite and we don’t have to listen to him anyways. The Equalists are defeated and the problem of non-bender inequality is never mentioned again.

Season 3 introduces Zaheer and his fellow anarchists. They fight for freedom and wish to tear down the governments of their world; they assassinate at least one major world leader. Also they want to brutally torture the protagonist Korra to death. For, uh, reasons. Anarchy! Once they’re defeated discussions of freedom and tyranny are completely dropped; oppressive empires are good because anarchists are worse.

So hopefully you see what I mean. In mainstream media, belief and activism are the domain of villains, and thus they are villainized.

A character who comes onscreen speaking of tyranny and revolution is not to be trusted. If someone cares enough about their ideology to become an activist and fight for it, they’re almost certainly the bad guy.

And, to the vague change-averse liberalism that Hollywood likes to project, few ideologies are quite so ideological as that of the radical anarchist.

Part 2: Compromise Is Never An Option

Ok, so you can probably see the seeds of what I’m arguing here, but there is one slightly tangential point that’s important to bring in. Because there are things that the “non-ideological” hero is allowed to fight for: life and friendship.

These are usually supposed to be the highest priorities of the hero, and I’m not saying that’s a bad thing! Heroes fight to keep people safe, especially their friends, and they don’t compromise. One for all and all for one; we don’t trade lives.

No matter how hopeless the odds, heroes are supposed to keep fighting, and they must refuse to sacrifice for their victory (unless it’s self-sacrifice, which is usually ok). This is what motivates them in absence of any more sophisticated ideology; the villain kills or threatens people, so the hero defends them.

In “Star Trek,” Spock repeatedly insists on the Vulcan adage that the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. This is treated as cold and alien, and is something he’s supposed to give up as he learns to value and rely on his friends. It’s all right when it’s self-sacrifice (Spock subjects himself to lethal radiation to save the ship), but it’s not all right when it sacrifices others (the rest of the crew rejects Spock’s concerns when they decide to risk their entire ship for the sake of a few crew members).

In “Star Wars,” Lando Calrissian betrays the heroes to Darth Vader. He does this because he’s responsible for an entire city. Darth Vader and his Empire have threatened Cloud City if he doesn’t comply, and they are far too powerful for Cloud City to fight off on its own. Lando can betray his friends, or he can let millions of his citizens die. The choice, though hard, seems obvious, but the narrative still treats it as an unconscionable betrayal. It’s only once he seems to truly regret his actions - and thus to, at least tacitly, admit that he should have let his city die rather than betray his friends - that he can be redeemed.

So: heroes don’t sacrifice, and they don’t compromise. They’re supposed to always keep fighting, no matter the odds. After all, they’re in a story. Victory will come, no matter how improbable.

Right?

Part 3: Technoblade’s an Anarchist

When he first logged onto the Dream SMP, Techno (IRL) had a plan. He needed a way to fit himself into the narrative, distinguish his character, and explain his presence in the story. So he decided that he would play an anarchist, someone who had come to support his friends in their fight against Manburg’s tyranny.

This started out as a pretty media-typical portrayal of anarchy as an unprincipled “the strong survive” approach (see his pitch to BBH), but quickly evolved into an actual, principled, self-consistent ideology, as IRL Technoblade seems to have taken an interest in the philosophy.

Genuinely, Technoblade’s portrayal is probably one of the best depictions of anarchist politics I’ve ever seen in popular media. But most people’s expectations are based on the caricature of the philosophy that is usually presented, and the one he started with.

So I argue that many people were simply primed to assume that Techno was, narratively speaking, a bad guy. He wasn’t solely fighting for Wilbur or Tommy - he was fighting for their cause. He had beliefs to fight for outside of his loyalty. And in the tropes of popular media, that made him suspicious.

(Of course, in one sense this is correct! He did end up abandoning the Pogtopians when their victory put them in power, and thus in conflict with his ideals.)

At the Red Festival, killing Tubbo a was an indefensible act not because killing in general is wrong (that would be pacifism and thus ideological and suspicious), but because it wasn’t the act of a hero. A hero would have found a different way. No one ever seems to be able to say what that “different way” should have actually been, but it doesn’t matter: our sense of narrative justice says that there must have been one because it’s what a hero would do. It doesn’t matter that, in-character, Technoblade has no idea he’s a hero; he should operate like one, and he’ll make an incredible last-minute escape because that’s how stories go. How the story does go is replaced with how the story should go. Never mind that in MCRP a single misclick could completely upend such a story.

So Technoblade gets double strikes. First, he’s an “activist,” which is narratively suspicious. Second, he doesn’t operate as a hero (at least early on), placing no trust in deus ex machina to save him and his friends.

In the language of narrative tropes, Technoblade is “villain-coded,” especially prior to his “retirement arc.” His actions at the Red Festival are particularly villainous, both because he, essentially, gives up and because he expects his friends to share his dedication to their cause.

That makes it quite easy to end the analysis with Techno as the bad guy!

To be clear, though it’s probably been clear throughout, I’ll end by saying that this isn’t a perspective I agree with. The media’s vilification of activism is something I greatly dislike. Technoblade as a hero with a radical cause is an enormous part of why I liked his DSMP story so much.

#dream smp #words #lore analysis #technoblade #I finally wrote it folks hope it makes sense.

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immaturityofthomasastruc · 2 years

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The Temp Heroes - Why They’re Not Exactly the Justice League (Late 1500 Follower Special)

A common hallmark of most superhero shows is the wide variety of heroes and villains who appear as the story develops. The idea of a wide ensemble cast of heroes is an interesting one, as it leads to all kinds of character dynamics, as shows like X-Men, Justice League, Teen Titans, Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes, and Young Justice have demonstrated. Ever since Season 2 of Miraculous Ladybug, it's clear that the show is trying to do something like that, but hadn't really pulled it off for a number of reasons.

IOTA Complains About the Rent-A-Miraculous System Again; More at 11

Look, I've already griped about this when I talked about Master Fu, so I'll try to keep this brief.

Yes, this whole gimmick introduced in “Sapotis” was meant to justify why heroes like Rena Rouge and Carapace can't help Ladybug and Cat Noir all the time, but the problem is how it affects the other temp heroes. Not only does the sequence of Ladybug rushing to get a Miraculous from Master Fu pad out the runtime (which is why I think connecting the Miracle Ball to Ladybug's yo-yo in Season 4 was a smart move), not only would it be incredibly impractical to implement in real life, but this takes away from the focus on the temp heroes in question. Yeah, the scene of Nino trying his hardest to fend off Anansi using Cat Noir's staff was pretty badass, but most of the time, they don't really get a lot of focus outside of a single scene. Episodes like “Desperada”, “Party Crasher”, and “Pentalteam” are all guilty of doing this.

I get that the focus of the show is meant to be on Marinette and Adrien, but would it really kill the writers to dedicate a handful of episodes to focus some of the side characters? Because, even after they become heroes, not much changes about them as characters.

“I’m Just Another Member of the Team”. Yeah, Define “Team”, Cat Noir

I remember back when Season 2 was first airing, and we knew that Alya, Nino, and Chloe would all get their own Miraculous, there was a lot of hype around the idea of how the team dynamic would change, or how it would affect the characters in general. Then the Rent-A-Miraculous system was introduced, and it pretty much established how there wouldn't actually be a lot of focus on these characters. The status quo basically stays the same, and the other Miraculous used are no different than whatever object Ladybug's Lucky Charm gives her in terms of always being used the right way to stop the Akuma.

Okay, in-universe, I can understand why it's too dangerous for the temp heroes to have their Miraculous full-time, but the problem I have isn't that they're not full-time heroes, but rather, how little being a hero actually affects their lives. A common trope utilized in superhero media is the drama that comes from living a double life, and we've already seen how that applies to Marinette and Adrien, but we never get any of that from most of the temp heroes. They're all perfectly okay with risking their lives to save the city whenever Ladybug needs their help, and then they just go on like nothing ever happens. Sure, we get a little hesitance occasionally, but it's just thrown in there to make the audience think these characters are complex (Queen Banana, Mega Leech, Penalteam).

We also never really get any conflict stemming from the temp heroes struggling to get used to their newfound powers. As soon as they transform, they instantly know what to do, and are more than able to keep up with Ladybug, even if they aren't athletic in the slightest. Because, of course, the writers forgot how much Ladybug and Cat Noir struggled to get used to their powers in “Origins”. The only times we got this kind of conflict was when Chloe became tried to “save” that train as Queen Bee in “Queen Wasp”, and when Adrien struggled to master the power of the Snake Miraculous in “Desperada”. Even then, those conflicts were focused more on other aspects like why they chose to use the Miraculous for those reasons, not about how new they were at the job.

Even putting that aside, because of how rarely we get to see these characters as heroes, it's really hard to get invested whenever Ladybug recruits someone for help because of how little focus they have, or what they bring to the team other than their power needed to help save the day. How does Cat Noir feel fighting alongside his ex-girlfriend Ryuko? Does Vesperia struggle to fit into the group because she's the second heroine to use the Bee Miraculous? Do heroes like Pigella and Polymouse ever feel insecure about their powers not being as flashy as what King Monkey or Minotaurox can do? Would someone like Rooster Bold or Carapace feel like they're not cut out for the hero life? What if Pegasus secretly believes that he should be in charge of the team's tactics over Ladybug? Well, the answer to all of these questions is a resounding...

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The temp heroes all just blindly follow Ladybug and never really contribute to the episode other than whenever they use their powers. There's no real interesting character drama or subplots relating to their civilian identities. They're pretty much blank slates who come across more like summons in a video game, not a wide variety of allies Ladybug has the help of. The only exceptions to this are Chloe, Alya, and Luka, because the show dedicated episodes that focused on their dedication to the cause and genuinely wanting to help her. Of course, now, the first two won't ever get to use a Miraculous ever again due to going behind Ladybug's back, and the latter option was only given more plot relevance to make sure that he would never come close to being a threat to the Love Square, but hey, it's something. Wow, it's almost like the show should have taken more opportunities to explore the team dynamic in this ensemble cast before writing off all the temp heroes to make Ladybug feel guilty for something that wasn't her fault.

Secret Identities? What’s So Important About That in a Superhero Show?

Ever since the very first episode of the show, one of the biggest rules established was the importance of secret identities, to the point where Ladybug and Cat Noir couldn't even know who the other was. Later episodes would go on to show the reasons behind that rule by having Hawkmoth exploit the fact that he knows Chloe's identity as Queen Bee (Heroes' Day, Miraculer, Battle of the Miraculous), and what would happen if Ladybug and Cat Noir figured out who the other was (Cat Blanc). The point I'm trying to make is that for the most part, the show has mostly been consistent in how the secret identity rule was handled. Unfortunately, with all the other heroes being introduced, the writers decided to throw that rule away after Season 3.

Even though the whole reason she turned against Ladybug was because of the identity rule that prevented her from being Queen Bee again for her own safety, and even though it was also why she exposed the identities of the other temp heroes, when said temp heroes' identities are exposed at the end of Season 3, Season 4 decides to ignore what happened completely.

To be fair, it was pretty vague how many people actually knew about what happened, but no matter how you slice it, the identities of Rena Rouge, Carapace, Viperion, Pegasus, and Ryuko were exposed to Hawkmoth, yet for some reason, Ladybug still calls on them for help. Again, the whole reason Chloe betrayed the team in the first place was how poorly she took the secret identity rule being enforced, yet as soon as pretty much the same thing happens to the others, now, the rules don't matter? Hell, when Astruc explained it, he somehow implied that Ladybug still relying on the temp heroes is okay because somehow, it's a risk she can take.

You know, the same risk she didn't want to take again after Chloe was explicitly put in danger as a result of Hawkmoth knowing she's Queen Bee, yet is perfectly fine with the other heroes' identities being known to Hawkmoth now? How Astruc thinks this isn't confusing at all eludes me.

The whole identity rule is very noticeable when we know it's entirely possible to use different Miraculous, not only evidenced by “Reflekdoll”, “Desperada”, and “Kwamibuster”, but also the fact that Ladybug outright chose a new temp hero for the Bee Miraculous in “Queen Banana”. Why the hell doesn't she do the same with the other temp heroes, or at the very least, try to find other temp heroes to use the remaining seven Miraculous in the Miracle Ball?

You could have easily explained all of this hypocrisy away by saying that once someone uses a Miraculous for the first time, they're bonded with the Kwami, sort of like what Power Rangers RPM did with their powers to justify a screw-up like Ziggy (no relation to the Kwami of the same name) remaining on the team. That way, it would make more sense because Ladybug has no other choice but to rely on heroes like Queen Bee and Rena Rouge more despite their identities being known by Shadowmoth. But I guess if that was the rule, we couldn't introduce the unification system, which only serves to further complicate things.

The Unification Situation

In concept, the idea of using multiple Miraculous at once sounds like an interesting idea due to all of the potential combinations you could make, but like pretty much everything else in this show, the execution is where things fall flat.

When the idea of unifying Miraculous was first introduced in “Kwamibuster”, it was portrayed as very risky, with Master Fu warning the affects all the power could have on Marinette if she tried wearing almost every Miraculous they had at the moment to fight Kwamibuster with. How do the writers follow up on this potential danger? Marinette gets dizzy a single time, uses several Miraculous perfectly, and the closest thing we get to an explanation is that “Marinette is special”. Sure, you could have shown off the risks more to explain why Ladybug and Cat Noir don't always do this, but no, let's just throw away any tension for the sake of introducing more hero forms to sell dolls for the show's nonexistent toyline.

Then Ladybug unified with the Dragon Miraculous in without any issues in “Miracle Queen”. Then Ladybug unified with the Bee Miraculous without any issues in “Optigami”. Then Ladybug unified with the Horse Miraculous without any issues in “Sentibubbler”. Then Ladybug unified with the Horse and Rabbit Miraculous without any issues in “Strikeback”. Do you see the point I'm trying to make here? The only time we actually got to see the consequences for unifying multiple Miraculous was at the beginning of Season 5 (Evolution), though I'm pretty sure it was only done to explain why Monarch didn't just beat the crap out of Ladybug and Cat Noir on his own.

If it's so easy for Ladybug, and by extension, Cat Noir (Miracle Queen, Evolution) to use multiple Miraculous, then why doesn't she do it all the time, especially when she can pull any Miraculous out of her yo-yo whenever she wants? The unifications show absolutely no downside, and the show never explains why the heroes don't use other Miraculous more often in favor of the temp heroes. Did Ladybug really need Polymouse's help to defeat Malediktator in “Mega Leech” when she was shown to be an expert at using the Mouse Miraculous herself? Did Ladybug really need Rena Rouge's help to defeat the rest of the Gang of Secrets when she was shown to be an expert in using the Fox Miraculous herself? Did Ladybug really need Viperion's help to defeat Wishmaker when Cat Noir was shown to be an expert in using the Snake Miraculous himself?

For something that was introduced as a very risky move, there's almost zero consequences for unifying Miraculous at all, so it's hard to really get that excited for a new form because the additional Miraculous is treated no differently than the Lucky Charm Ladybug normally needs to save the day. And of course, it only raises more questions about why Ladybug still relies on the temp heroes when she can use other Miraculous on her own. Sure, you could argue that there are moments where she needs additional manpower, but the other heroes never really do much fighting other than using their one power, so it's hard to really see why Ladybug still asks for their help.

Even the powers obtained when unifying are just underwhelming. Just think, you're using two Miraculous at the same time, and what makes it different from using a single Miraculous? You get to use the same established powers that could have easily been done using two heroes. That's it.

The actual unification episodes usually don't have a lot of impact because nothing is really done to explore the concept. It's pretty much an excuse to advance the plot by having Ladybug do stuff a temp hero could normally do without going through the process of recruiting someone. Why not get creative when unifying, and give each unification a new power that uses the abilities of both Miraculous, like Dragonbug being able to manipulate the elements instead of transforming into wind, water, or lightning? That way, it would actually explain why Ladybug still needs heroes like Ryuko to help her even though she can use the Dragon Miraculous on her own just fine.

In general, even though the show tries to make a big deal about the risk of unifying Miraculous, actually doing so just comes across as boring, as it doesn't feel like the risk was worth it, and it's not even that fun to watch compared to other temp hero episodes. The writers could have gotten creative with the unification powers, but maybe they already realized how weird the power system for this show actually is.

It’s Pretty Miraculous Any Writer Went Along With a Magic System Like This

I think we can all agree that the power scaling for the Miraculous makes less sense the more temp heroes we get to meet.

Originally, the idea for what each Miraculous could do was pretty simple: Use your power, but you only have five minutes before your Kwami needs to recharge. With Ladybug's Lucky Charm, Cat Noir's Cataclysm, Rena Rouge's Mirage, Carapace's Shelter, Queen Bee/Vesperia's Venom, their powers were all single-use and for the most part, felt evenly balanced, while Hawkmoth and Mayura's powers were justified by them being adults, and therefore, able to stay transformed and keep their respective creations out for however long they want. But then the Zodiac Miraculous were introduced, and the power scaling just went out of control.

While I see the powers like Pegasus's Voyage, Pigella's Gift, and Miss Hound's Fetch being on a lower tier in the Miracle Box, Viperion's Second Chance, King Monkey's Uproar, Ryuko's Wind/Water/Lightning Dragon, Bunnix's Burrow, Polymouse's Multitude, Purple Tigress' Clout, Caprikid's Genesis, Minotaurox's Resistance, and ESPECIALLY Rooster Bold's Sublimation just feel way too overpowered for this show. How can the Snake Miraculous handle constantly traveling back through time? Why does the Dragon Miraculous have three powers to use instead of one? Are there any powers the Monkey Miraculous can't screw with? How exactly does the Rabbit Miraculous' pocket dimension work? Just how powerful is the Tiger Miraculous when its user doesn't hold back? How many clones can the Mouse Miraculous create, and how small can they get? Can anything break through the user of the Ox Miraculous' power? Is there a limit to what kind of object the Goat Miraculous can create? What self-respecting writer would think it would be a good idea to introduce anything like the Rooster Miraculous and make it so easy to access?

The point I'm trying to make is that there are so many Miraculous in this show that are supposedly less important than the Ladybug and Cat have powers with very few limits. The show keeps saying it's too dangerous to have multiple Miraculous out, but it's obviously an excuse to limit the use of the temp heroes because of how so many conflicts could be ended quicker with the help of the Ox or Rooster.

I'd be more okay with these powers if they were more unpredictable to balance how effective they are. For example, what if Second Chance takes Viperion back to a completely random timeframe within the time he set up his power? What if Ryuko couldn't control which elemental power she chose, and could only use that one power before the timer starts? What if Sublimation gave Rooster Bold a completely random power he'd have to learn to master instead of choosing whatever he wanted? You could have easily made the Zodiac Miraculous like double-edged swords in comparison to the more reliable Fox, Turtle, and Bee, as it would justify why Ladybug doesn't use them all the time.

You Really Expect Audiences to Keep Up With All of These New Characters?

Part of the appeal of an ensemble cast is to see all the characters interacting with each other in different ways, but there's a point where the cast can be too big to handle.

I've already talked about how the Rent-A-Miraculous system only serves to harm the characters due to how brief their screentime can be, but I feel like it only gets harder to connect with all the temp heroes due to how many there are. By the end of Season 4, there is a total of fifteen temp heroes to keep track of: Rena Rouge/Rena Furtive, Carapace, Queen Bee/Vesperia, Viperion, Pegasus, Ryuko, Bunnix, King Monkey, Polymouse, Pigella, Purple Tigress, Miss Hound/Flairmidable, Rooster Bold, Caprikid, and Minotaurox. Do you really expect audiences to remember all of these characters, much less children?

The temp heroes are already underdeveloped, but the sheer number of them only limits their screentime even more in the later seasons. Yeah, about hald of the temp heroes' debut episodes were pretty memorable because of the focus on the characters (Sapotis, Startrain, Ikari Gozen, Timetagger, Mega Leech, Guiltrip, Crocoduel), but with the other half, the first appearances of the temp heroes feel more like afterthoughts compared to what else goes on.

“Desperada” focused more on both Adrien and Marinette than it did Luka, as his debut was kind of undermined by simply being available rather than his determination to save the day.

Kim barely got to do anything before becoming King Monkey in “Party Crasher”, and even Master Fu questioned choosing Kim at first.

Likewise, Zoe was almost nonexistent in “Queen Banana”, as the writers felt like it was a better idea to spend time giving the audience reasons to hate Chloe, who we already know is bad from earlier episodes, instead of giving the audience reasons to like Zoe.

And do I even need to repeat how much I thought it was a terrible idea to introduce Miss Hound, Rooster Bold, Caprikid, and Minotaurox in “Penalteam”, an episode that already had way too much going on with almost every other temp hero joining the action?

For a show that is trying really hard to sell the audience on the idea of Ladybug leading this huge team of heroes, it doesn't really work because of how little screentime they get. I get it, Ladybug and Cat Noir are the leads, but with twenty-six episodes per season, surely, the writers can give more focus to the other temp heroes to viewers have more of a reason to get excited whenever they show up, right?

If I may bring up yet another tokusatsu show none of you have ever heard of that I thought pulled this idea off better, Uchu Sentai Kyuranger had a similar idea of focusing on a massive team of nine (eventually twelve about halfway through) heroes. The difference is that as a way for the writers to save money for bigger action scenes in later episodes, a roulette system was introduced that would randomly select about five or six members of the team to former a smaller unit that the episode would follow. That way, the writers could focus more on various character interactions and give every member of the team their time to shine while still devoting plenty of focus to that season's Red (even if he tends to hog the spotlight at times). In addition, later episodes would focus on separating the team into smaller groups to go on their own missions, and because of how often the show relied on this format, it made the instances where all twelve Kyurangers headed into battle together all the more special, as it highlighted the severity of the threat they had to stop.

The fourth season of Miraculous Ladybug tried something like in a handful of episodes by enlisting the help of a couple of temp heroes (Mega Leech, Kuro Neko, Strikeback), but it wasn't nearly as effective as what Kyuranger did because again, the temp heroes barely got to do or say anything other than use their one superpower as part of Ladybug’s plan. Even though there were three separate episodes where Ladybug and Cat Noir had to fight multiple Akumas at once (Gang of Secrets, Crocoduel, Dearest Family), they never got help from more than a single temp hero in two of the examples I mentioned.

I just don't get why the show doesn't think about setting up more battles with multiple heroes and Akumas, because the potential is there. Maybe Ladybug needs a team of heavy-hitters for a really powerful Akuma in one episode, like Ryuko, King Monkey, Purple Tigress, and Minotautox. Maybe there's an Akuma that requires more stealth to defeat them, so Ladybug needs the help of heroes with more discreet powers, like Rena Furtive, Viperion, Polymouse, and Miss Hound. Maybe a team of heroes are needed for their distinct personalities and civilian skills to deal with the Akuma, like Pegasus' intellect, Pigella's compassion, and Vesperia's acting skills.

When Shadowmoth got all the Miraculous at the end of Season 4, there's not much of a reason to be worried for any of the temp heroes like Alya, Nino, or Luka, because not only are they in any specific danger the other of civilians of Paris don't go through every day, as of the first two episodes of Season 5, they don't even seem to mind not being heroes anymore. Even in an episode where the first act revolved around Paris adjusting to Monarch's upgrade, none of the temp heroes vent about feeling helpless now that they can't help Ladybug anymore (outside of Chloe complaining about how bad Ladybug is, because even when trying to make her seem like a jerk, the writers still do more with Chloe than they like to admit). There was this one episode of Kamen Rider Saber where one of the Riders lost his powers, and it just devastated him. He broke down crying down at the idea of the magical sword he uses to transform being reduced to nothing more than a useless piece of metal by someone he once considered a friend. Imagine if we got something like that to show the vulnerability of any of the temp heroes.

There is so much that can be done with the temp heroes as a whole, but instead, the writers just refuse to get creative with how they utilize them, even with how many new additions we get by the fourth season. In fact, the way the temp heroes were written in the fourth season was one of the bigger reasons why I wanted to write this in the first place. So, let's get into my problems with how the fourth season struggled to make up its mind on how we're supposed to feel about the temp heroes.

We’re Supposed to Like These Guys, Right?

By Season 4, Miraculous Ladybug can pretty much be called “Mixed Messages: The Series”, and not much would chance, and nowhere is it more apparent than with how the temp heroes are handled in this season. I've already talked about how much I hated Cat Noir this season, so I'll try not to rag on him too much, considering this is about the temp heroes, but keep in mind, he's one of the reasons why this is so confusing.

Throughout Season 4, a major plotline was the growing rift in Ladybug and Cat Noir's partnership over the former relying more on the temp heroes, especially Rena Rouge, but putting aside my feelings for Cat Noir, the problem I have is that the writers keep going back and forth on whether the temp heroes are good or not. It's weird, because throughout the whole season, they keep Cat Noir's motivation to get Ladybug to trust him more consistent for the most part, but it seems like for every episode that introduces or glorifies a new or preexisting temp hero (Gang of Secrets, Mr. Pigeon 72, Queen Banana, Mega Leech, Guiltrip, Crocoduel, Wishmaker, Penalteam), there's another episode that makes a big deal about Adrien being left out (Optigami, Sentibubbler, Hack-San, Rocketear, Ephemeral, Kuro Neko, Risk/Strikeback). Even though he was perfectly fine with meeting most of the temp heroes, other episodes that feature those same characters make it seem like it's bad that Ladybug needs their help, like “Ephemeral” and “Kuro Neko”.

It'd be one thing if Cat Noir gradually started to resent the other heroes for overshadowing him and causing Ladybug to not trust him as much as she used to, but it just seems like the temp heroes are either awesome additions to the team that Cat Noir appreciates the help of, or a sign that Ladybug doesn't care about Cat Noir because she's a terrible human being. There's just no inbetween, and even though the season tries to make the case that Cat Noir is just as capable of a hero, most of the time, the episodes focusing on the temp heroes either incapacitate Cat Noir to up the stakes, or portray him as an incompetent buffoon (Anansi, Malediktator, Desperada, Party Crasher, Ikari Gozen, Mr. Pigeon 72, Mega Leech, Guiltrip, Sentibubbler, Wishmaker, Penalteam).

“Penalteam” in particular is especially guilty of this, as it takes place right after “Kuro Neko”, an episode where Ladybug learns to value Cat Noir as a partner. What happens when she starts to boast about how amazing the two are together to the Penalteam? Cat Noir admits that this just happens to be a situation where he admits he's not good for, so Ladybug has no other choice but to enlist every available temp hero and four new ones just to make up for Cat Noir's lack of soccer skills, and then they have to save him yet again. But then there's what happens in the season finale. Even if I agreed with the idea of Cat Noir being mistreated, how am I supposed to feel when Ladybug loses all of the other Miraculous, and by extension, the help of the temp heroes? Yeah, it's obviously a bad thing that Monarch has all of these Miraculous, but should I be happy that Cat Noir sort of got what he wanted? Should I be upset Ladybug lost the help of the temp heroes? I'm not saying the show should spell out how we should feel, but with the way Season 4 made a big deal about how bad it supposedly was for Ladybug to rely on the temp heroes, it's weird that her punishment was losing access to the temp heroes as a whole when the temp heroes both helped her save the day, and in the case of Felix/Flairmidable, screwed her over.

The writing just goes back and forth on whether we should cheer or boo whenever the temp heroes are on screen, saying stuff about how proud Ladybug is of her team while also making her out to be a control freak. Even putting aside all the evidence to the contrary, it just feels like the writers either can't make up their minds on how the temp heroes should be viewed, or the higher-ups are forcing them to glorify their existence to boost merchandising sales.

Nothing More Than a Temporary Thrill

At the end of the day, the temp heroes are essentially like candy: Fun in the moment, but you won't really gain anything from it after a while other than a whole slew of problems from indulging too much in it. And oh boy, did the writers indulge too much when introducing all of these temp heroes. They put way too much effort into making the temp heroes a thing while simultaneously doing nothing interesting with the concept in the name of once again preserving the status quo that's been established since the first episode. The whole point of introducing new characters is to see how they shake up the current dynamic, but the writers just don't do anything with them.

You could have built up a massive team of heroes to potentially rival the likes of the Justice League, but instead, nothing was done with almost every single temp hero introduced. The way this idea was haphazardly executed is the definition of mediocrity.

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princess-of-the-corner · 5 months

Note

One thing to note about RWBY is that it REALLY "grew the beard" over the course of its runtime.

Volumes 1-3 were animated in Poser (software that wasn't intended for use in animation), with rougher backgrounds and more simplistic writing related to complex themes. They were also only ever intended to be an extended prologue to the ACTUAL show, with the Big Twist of the Volume 3 finale being that the climax was actually just the inciting incident to the show's ACTUAL conflict.

Starting from Volume 4, the crew switched to Maya (software that's intended for use in animation), got better at writing more complex topics (the White Fang is treated more sympathetically than in the "Beacon Arc"), and Jaune was actually an interesting character for the entirety of the "Anima Arc" that lasted from Volumes 4-6.

Volume 7 is probably the best season of the show (I don't have a Crunchyroll account and so I haven't had the chance to watch Volume 9 in its entirety yet, even if I know what happens there). It deconstructs the whole "America Saves the World" trope with Atlas, and has some pretty good political satire that wound up being eerily prophetic. Also, Robyn Hill is one of the best characters the show has ever introduced.

Volume 8 contains both the best and worst moments of the series. V8C1-V8C11 features some of the best storytelling and most tense action from the franchise ever, but V8C12 has the overall message of "Okay but, the people who dehumanized Penny over her mechanical body KINDA had a point, let's fix what isn't broken!", V8C13 is a pretty descent villain episode, and V8C14 is by far the most offensive piece of media I've ever been subjected to. But still, up until those last three episodes, it was basically flawless.

I've heard Volume 9 is pretty good, but I'm side-eying everything involving Jaune because I honestly DESPISE the direction they took his arc in. But if we ignore EVERYTHING related to Jaune's role in the Volume, I like basically everything I've heard about it.

RWBY: After the Fall is a very good spin-off novel focused on popular side characters Team CFVY and shows what they've been up to since the Fall of Beacon in Volume 3. it also has a really interesting gimmick, as every other chapter is a flashback to something that happened in Team CFVY's past, further fleshing out their minor roles in the show.

RWBY: Before the Dawn is actual garbage. Sun's character arc (wherein his hypocrisy from the show is actually acknowledged and challenged) and Coco's and Velvet's shiptease are probably the only redeeming qualities. Taking this book into account actually makes Ironwood's reluctance to call Vacuo for help look REASONABLE. 2/10.

RWBY: Roman Holiday is a prequel novel focused on Roman and Neo, but Neo is the true protagonist here. The first few chapters leading up to their first meeting alternate between their perspectives, with the book being largely Neo focused after they finally meet.

RWBY: Fairy Tales of Remnant is an anthology of in-universe fairy tales. You can read it at any point in the series, but the further into the series you are when you read it, the more hints to RWBY's overarching plot you'll notice. While all of the Fairy Tales are works of fiction, some of them are dramatizations of actual events in the shadow war that RWBY's plot revolves around.

RWBY x JL: Super Heroes and Huntsmen is a 2-part film series wherein Team RWBY teams up with the Justice League. Part 1 features the Justice League visiting Remnant (kinda) during the events of Volume 7, and Part 2 features Team RWBY visiting DC Earth after the events of Volume 9.

There's also some ambiguously canonical comics published by DC, as well as 2 explicitly non-canon RWBY/DC crossover comic series. One features alternate versions of the Justice League cast who were born on Remnant, another features Remnant and DC Earth fusing due to Salem tricking Lex Luthor into helping her by playing off of his hatred of Superman. Neither of these crossovers are in continuity with the crossover movies.

Fascinating actually

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honey-minded-hivemind · 2 months

Note

omg ok I’m sending in a summary

MINOR SPOILERS AHEAD!

ima try to make it so you can still play the game (so not spoiling the actual story, if you want to know the whole story I can send it to you)

in this world there are seven Gods, each corresponding to a element. Each god has a godly name and a more human name

There’s anemo (wind) ruled by the god of freedom. City name: mondstatd

Geo (earth) ruled by the god of contracts. City name: liyue

Electro (electricity) ruled by the god of eternity. City name: inazuma

Hydro (water) ruled by the god of justice. City name: Fontaine

Dendro (plants) ruled by the god of wisdom. City name: Sumeru

Pyro (fire) ruled by the god of war. City name: Natlan

Cryo (ice) ruled by the god of love. city name: snezhnaya

the gods in this world are called archons.

there is also a place/person called celesta

war between the gods was started by celesta to see who gets a seat as one of the archons.

after the archon war the seven archons were chosen. After that celesta ordered the archons to destroy a kingdom named khaenri as it had no god. the gods killed without mercy and all who ran were turned into the enemies we know as hilichurls.

in this world humans with enough ambition can be blessed with a thing called a vision, which depending on what kind of person they are allows them to use one of the seven elements.

I just realized there is no way I can compact it better then this so I will tell you someone who makes lore videos who can help

https://youtu.be/NJMXtI9f13s?si=iW4EpcQdBrqHTqNP this is mondstatds lore without all the unnecessary stuff

she made a video on liyue but it’s kinda outdated

and she made some others, there is a wiki you can read, and other lore videos on YouTube.

It’s kinda scary getting into it because of how much there is, but all you really need is what I typed out and that link I sent you for the vision types :))

Okay! Thank you so much, @crowwithguns! Once I have read this stuff, I will be adding a Genshin AU to the list! Seriously though, this stuff sounds like my cup of tea! Mystical gods and visions, special powers and elements, and a compelling story arc! If you want, you can tell me the whole story with spoilers. I don't mind at all. It will likely help some clear up extra questions I might have. I WILL look up the wiki for this, try to find that video discussing the elements and their visions, and will look up the TV Tropes page for this. With all of that, I can hopefully start writing requests for a Genshin AU. Who are your top five favorite X-Men characters (heroes and villains)? What is your favorite relationship (platonic and romantic) from X-Men? And who is your favorite Genshin character? And your favorite element/vision type? Hopefully I can do a special request to thank you for your extra help. I have a request I need to fulfill for Silk🦋 Anon, too, a sa thank you for trying a Wings of Fire request. Also, little toad Toad says hi, as well as Moth Logan and both Moth Victors.

#honeycomb thoughts #platonic yandere marvel #yandere platonic marvel #platonic yandere xmen #yandere x-men #platonic yandere #platonic yandere x reader #platonic yandere marvel x reader #platonic yandere xmen evolution #platonic yandere xmen: the animated series

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frogzzai · 1 year

Text

Ranking MHA villains because I've ran out of ideas

Send in requests I have no motivation :'( (I write for MHA, Creepypasta, Slashers, Demon Slayer, JJK, Harry Potter, Rick and Morty, Fantastic Beasts, Winx) Any underage characters are not permitted unless it's platonic

Characters included: Shigaraki, Dabi, Toga, Twice, Mr. Compress, Spinner, Big Sis Mange, All For One, Overhaul, Gentle Criminal, Mr. Smiley, La Brava, Nine, Slice, Doctor, Mummy, Chimera, Mustard, Moonfish, Muscular, Kuroguri, Geten, Skeptic, Trumpet, Lady Nagant

Multi-Masterlist! Back to Masterlist!

Shigaraki

BARK BARK 😍

I love Shigaraki, he's pretty cool. He babbles though, that's why some of his victims get away. HE TALKS. I guess all the villains do that but even so. For that reason I'm gonna give him an 8/10.

Dabi

Dabi is cool, I like his backstory although I think he's a tad overrated (don't come at me)

A bit like Shigaraki, but not quite as bad, the reason he doesn't reach his full potential as a villain is because he talks. To be honest, if the villains didn't do that the whole anime/ manga would be over in one episode/ book.

I do like his character design though (emos>)

I'll give him a 7.5/10.

Toga

Classic yandere villain trope. Who doesn't love them? I love her character design and I also love how, even as a villain, she has empathy and isn't completely cold.

She's one of the strongest villains in the league physically even though her quirk isn't.

I feel like she has much more potential so I'll give her an 8.5/10.

Twice

I like the way Twice was written, his backstory is pretty origional.

Definitely had a massive upgrade in his character when he broke through all that trauma in season 5.

One of the more humane and compassionate villains.

9/10

Mr. Compress

Where do I start? Sure, I love Mr. Compress but he would be so much better if he could just keep his mouth shut! He would've gotten away with both Bakugou and Tokoyami if he were able to stfu :(

His ego is a lil too big for my liking <3

6/10

Spinner

Spinner deserves more love!

His quirk is a little underwhelming, all those looks and he can only stick to walls.

One of the more rational members of the LoV.

Good morals.

The reason for Deku surviving, he saved him from Mange.

7/10, Stain dupe.

Big Sis Mange

Chill ig, not my favourite but not my least.

Not much to say actually, she didn't last long.

6/10 had more potential.

All for One

Fuck you.

Younger him was hot.

1/10

Overhaul

Fuck you.

I hate him but he's hot.

1.5/10. Justice for Eri, extra 0.5 because he's hot and he had a cool quirk

Gentle Criminal

One of my favourite villains!

Shares my love of tea.

Deserves justice.

10/10

Mr Smiley

Another one of my favourites!

One of the best character developments. Fight me.

11/10

La Brava

MY FAVOURITE VILLAIN!!

Most underrated.

She deserves better.

She has the best character design.

Literally fight me if you disagree. La Brava solos your favourites. Definitely best as a vigilante.

100/10

Nine

Hot and powerful.

Proudly holds one of the best fight arcs.

8/10, not liking the fact he went after that kid, don't care bout your needs, leave the kid alone.

Slice

EXTREMELY CLOSE SECOND FAVOURITE VILLAIN!

Also one of my favourite character designs.

Her few minutes of screen time were the highlight of the movie.

Marry me

99/10

Doctor

Hope your nomus eat you x

1/10

Mummy

He had so much potential!

I loved his quirk, he was definitely fit for a bigger group than the one he was in. Would give the LoV a run for their money.

I wish he had more screen time.

All the villains in 'Heros Rising' are better than the main ones in the series.

10/10

Chimera

He was pretty cool.

His quirk was powerful, would like to see him fight Tamaki.

Not much to say about him.

6/10

Mustard

Weak.

Do better.

4/10

Moonfish

Another of my favourite villains!

One of my favourite quirks despite it being kinda freaky.

Justice for his poor teeth.

9/10

Muscular

Ew.

I don't like his quirk it freaks me out in a bad way.

Leave the child alone you prick. Hope someone throws salt at you whilst your muscles come out x

2/10

Kurogiri

He's chill

I know he's a main villain but he just doesn't feel like one.

Smash 🤷‍♀️

6.5/10

Geten

His character design is sick.

His fight scene was cool.

Has so much potential.

I want him and Todoroki to fight.

8/10

Skeptic

BARK BARK BARK

Greasy electronic guy??

Sign me up.

He looking for a table? I'll bend over for him..

Definitely has skilled fingers.

10/10 would let him use me as a puppet.

Trumpet

AWOOGA.

SO UNDERRATED.

How have people missed his beauty??

I love him. Marry me 🙏🙏🙏.

10/10 for his beauty.

Lady Nangant

She was hot.

An icon.

She deserved better :(

I hate All for One.

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justmenoworries · 1 year

Note

I saw you reblogged an alphabet based ask meme so do you mind answering

J U S T M E O W R I N

Sorry but your url repeated some letters haha

J - Name a fandom you didn’t think about until you saw it all over Tumblr. (You don’t have to care about it or follow it; it just has to be something that Tumblr made you aware of.)

What We Do in the Shadows. Honestly, I still don't know much about it. From what I've gatjered it's a parody reality show with vampires instead of normal humans.

And one of the characters shares a name with my favorite director, is a vampire hunter but also dates one of the vampires, I think?

U - Three favorite characters from three different fandoms, and why they’re your favorites.

Soundwave from Transformers. Because he's cool and his bond with his little cassetes is adorable when it's done right. Even Evil has Loved Ones at its finest.

Shadow the Hedgehog from the Sonic franchise. He's cute and I love him and he's my blorpo and Sega hasn't treated him right since Sonic 06. Fingers crossed for the third Sonic movie.

Undyne from Undertale. Cool knight-fishlady who gets overshadowed by funny bone man a lot of the time. She's a badass, I wish the fandom would treat her as more than a one-off joke. Justice for the Murder Mermaid.

S - Show us an example of your personal headcanon (prompts optional but encouraged)

Ummm, my personal headcanon is that Pokémon can communicate verbally with their trainers and their trainers will be able to understand them just fine.

This isn't based on anything, I just write my Pokémon ocs that way because it's easier than playing Lassie-pantomimes in-story.

T - Do you have any hard and fast headcanons that you will die defending?

Not really.

All of my headcanons are pretty malleable.

(M was already answered in a previous ask.)

E - Have you added anything cracky/hilarious to your fandom? If so, what?

Not that I know of.

O - Choose a song at random. Which ship or character does it remind you of?

I Really Want Go to Stay At Your House by Rosa Walton

Reminds me of White Tiger, an OC ship of mine.

W - A trope which you are virtually certain to hate in any fandom.

Easily Forgiven.

I hate snapshot redemptions with all my heart.

Let redeemed villains face consequences for their actions instead of portraying them as misunderstood woobies who just need to have a good cry to make the heroes forget all the orphanages they burned down.

R - Which friendship/platonic relationship is your favorite in fandom?

Papyrus/Undyne.

They're both dorks, but one is also a jock. It's a really underrated dynamic.

I - Has Tumblr caused you to stop liking any fandoms, if so, which and why?

The Klancers (Keith x Lance shippers) really soured Voltron: Legendaty Defender for me.

They made practically everything about their ship and harassed anybody wo just didn't see it.

I'm glad Allurance got canonized.

Reading the dozens of salty Klancers crying about it was funny. Which is probably the only positive impact those people will ever have on my life.

N - Name three things you wish you saw more or in your main fandom (or a fandom of choice).

I'm picking the Undertale fandom, just because.

I'd like more AUs that revolve around characters other than the skelebros. I've recently come across Undying Determination, an AU where Undyne in her Undying form goes up against a genocidal human after Sans dies and I loved reading it so far. More of that, please.

I want people to stop demonising Toriel. She's not perfect by any means, but she really doesn't deserve the hate she seems to getfrom the majority of the fandom nowadays. People seem to forget that at the end of the day she is a traumatized mother trying her best. She's not some heartless harpy out to ruin Asgore's life and I wish people would sop portraying her as such.

Also, I wish people wouldn't use Undyne solely to prop up other characters. Whenever she shows up in AUs you can bet it's only to get upstaged. Mostly by Sans, because even five years later the fandom is just obsessed with him. Undyne is a badass in her own right, stop reducing her to the hypeman or the character who gets beaten up to establish the severity of the threat. My girl didn't whoop the players' asses with nothing but her own determination in the genocide run to be disrespected like this.

#ask meme

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supercupcakecollector-love · 1 year

Text

I posted 232 times in 2022

56 posts created (24%)

176 posts reblogged (76%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@youlltrytobreakmetoo

@bn-draws

@multifandomthoughts

@supercupcakecollector-love

@lowpolysolidsnake

I tagged 106 of my posts in 2022

#metal gear solid - 13 posts

#rwby - 12 posts

#metal gear - 12 posts

#young justice - 11 posts

#mgs - 9 posts

#metal gear series - 6 posts

#otacon - 5 posts

#solid snake - 5 posts

#otasune - 4 posts

#cowboy bebop - 4 posts

Longest Tag: 93 characters

#but seriously i can deal with other peoples problems about as well as a snail deals with salt

My Top Posts in 2022:

Me after scouring the internet for all the MGS x reader content I could find

50 notes - Posted March 5, 2022

Young justice is a misunderstood show

I think one of the reasons why Im more open to the writing decisions the show makes is that I was a DC fan first before I got into the show, I just want to see the dc universe characters written in a compelling and unique way and for the most part they’ve been able to pull that off.

This show seems to get more flak for what it doesn’t show than what it does show but I think that’s because literally every other superhero show is about a specific character or team. Young Justice is different, its a serialized anthology show of the dc universe that’s primarily about older heroes passing the torch to younger heroes

it’s also fundamentally also about maturity and overcoming one’s trauma. Not just younger sidekicks maturing into proper heroes, but about even older heroes maturing by overcoming the obstacles life throws at them or their personal trauma.

its not a just a character based show its a theme based show

yes It might have too many characters and a lack of focus but its themes about family, finding your identity, and overcoming trauma are present though the entire narrative

55 notes - Posted May 19, 2022

See the full post

138 notes - Posted June 25, 2022

Im not sure if I should be concerned or excited that Young Justice is setting up elements from two of the most hated storylines in DCs history (Countdown and Heroes in Crisis)

the writers were able to make “Rise of Arsenal” work and they also removed the problematic aspects of “The Judus Contract” and “The Killing Joke”

Then again, the Heroes being controlled by villains trope is becoming a bit played out in Young Justice at this point ( Roy, Blue Beetle, Halo, Superboy)

But I know that they will do the sanctuary plot better, that was screwed up by editorial not the writers

157 notes - Posted June 9, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Sorry I had to

1,125 notes - Posted June 9, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review

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lizzyverydizzyyo · 2 years

Text

D.E.A.N | Chapter 22 - Battle

Masterlist and overall summary of the whole novel is here. | Prompt on trope-appreciation-tuesdays that inspired this is here. | @whumptober-archive

Fandom : Original Work

(I) (II) (III) (IV) (V) (VI) (VII) (VIII) (IX) (X) (XI) (XII) (XIII) (XIV) (XV) (XVI) (XVII) (XVIII) (XIX) (XX) (XXI) (XXII) (XXIII) (XXIV) (XXV) (XXVI) (XXVII) (XXVIII) (XXIX) (XXX) (XXXI - END)

AO3

A/N I'm officially a completionist of Whumptober 2022!!!!!!!!!

Wordcount: ± 4235

TW: Mention of Medical Procedure, Mention of Underage Sexual Assault and CSAM (noncon)

With their expected explosive encounter against their long-awaited enemy looming closer, Mark and his team now have to juggle their compromised mission and the safety of their newly pivotal member.

Whumptober 2022 Tropes:

Day 1 — A Little Out of The Ordinary | “This Wasn’t Supposed to Happen”

Day 9 Alt. — Protective

Day 14 — Die A Hero or Live Long Enough to Become a Villain | Desperate Measures

Day 18 Alt. — Carried to Safety

Day 28 — It’s Just the Tip of The Iceberg | Anger Born of Worry

Day 31 — A Light at The End of The Tunnel | Comfort + Bedside Vigil

------

The team room is quiet as it is filled with thick and tense atmosphere. It feels like the air itself is choking the oxygen out of his airway.

Mark sits on a metal foldable chair now, having washed his hands from the sickening blood and changing his clothes. He is now thankfully feeling much calmer after his mental breakdown. Still, he is chock full of extreme anxiety that feels like it’s drowning him.

His chin is supported by his connected fists as his elbows are sharply pushing against his thighs. His mind is racing, taking inventory of each millisecond that leads to Nick having his belly stuffed with countless gauze and cruelly burned to staunch his internal bleeding.

Mark is tormented with the image of Nick’s eyes slowly closing and his skin getting clammy. He also vaguely remembers the out-of-body sensation of himself eventually getting dragged out of the now operating room while his eyes froze at Nick’s close-to-lifeless body.

His heart is still clenching painfully, fear drenching every atom in his body.

Even without looking, he can feel Anna and Don feeling empathic and drowning in guilt and self-hatred for being the biggest reason Nick is like this—not just today, but for all the time they looked at him with distrust almost like they were blaming Nick for his own tragic life.

For choosing to avoid endless pain by creating Helga’s most powerful tool and defense to date, and even then, still hurt in mind and body by those inhumane people anyway just because they felt like it.

Mark feels so fucking furious.

He raises his head to look at the bald and short-brown-haired veterans, venom and hatred filling his eyes.

Anna and Don just look down in shame.

“Marcus, don’t,” Lena says immediately before he does anything.

Everyone else tensely stays silent, almost in respect and in united unsaid prayer, as they wait for Doctor Lowe along with and the nurses to come out with whatever news it will end up being.

It’s been two hours.

“You guys know that we’re gonna have to give that to FBI, right?” Luke breaks the silence, “Or testify for that, since we didn’t record the evidence.”

Mark now throws his angry look at him this time.

“That’s technically CP since he was 17 at the time.”

“Yes, Luke, we’re aware,” Horace says impatiently, so uncharacteristic of his usual mild disposition.

“Fuck no,” Mark retorts sharply.

Luke sighs tiredly.

“That’s not our jurisdiction, Mark. That’s for DOJ to decide.”

“I don’t fucking care.”

Mark gives the sharpest look he can conjure up, while Luke just looks back at him tiredly.

“Mark, listen, our job is to neutralize. Once it’s done, justice needs to be served, and that’s not our specialty or skillset.”

“And making him suicidal again is?”

“We can, I don’t know, get him counseling,” Lena chips in unsurely.

“You think the fucking garbage they gave us, after Jackson and Addrianne and the rest of our fucking team died, is gonna be enough to undo years of abuse? Get fucking real, Lena.”

“You’re saying it like he’s going to be alive to feel the effect,” Anderson quips in absently.

Mark can’t hold himself back from stalking firmly towards the Mediterranean junior agent and swinging his fist when he gets close enough.

Thankfully, Luke and Horace are there to pull him back.

Anderson steps back anyway to avoid the blond almost half a foot taller than him.

“I’m not being morbid. I’m being realistic, and—”

“Anderson, shut the fuck up,” almost everyone says in unison.

Mark is breathing hard with face red in anger. Once in a while, he struggles against his commanding officer’s and senior agent’s hold to try to get to Anderson again.

“Marcus, sit the fuck down. And you, asshole, shut your mouth or I’ll beat you myself.”

At Luke’s words, both Anderson and Mark eventually settle down, even if Mark rudely shakes Horace’s and Luke’s arms off his shoulders before sitting back down on his previous seat.

“Look, I’m more worried about why we couldn’t exit the video before,” Angie offers as a distraction, now back to her usual impersonal attitude.

Maybe, or maybe she is still feeling shaken and is trying to get her mind somewhere else. Or, she is being genuinely concerned about their security issue.

“Whatever FBI or DOJ or Homeland Security or what-have-you would want with that video later, our concern right now is that the encrypted structure wasn’t letting us out once we got in. I’m worried about the implication,” she explains further.

It's true.

After Nick helped them break into the encrypted structure that he created himself around two years ago, he did warn that he made some precautions and security measures (as requested via torture by the Helga circles holding him captive before) to make sure that even if their security is breached, they would be able to know by whom it was done and how, and even where it was done.

If he wasn’t sent into panic attack and hysterics, he might have been able to thread his own cyber minefield and get out safely and successfully while getting the data and information that they need like usual.

But since Anna and Don forced all of them to watch Nick’s child molestation footage, their only capable cyber-system penetrator is out of commission now, and there is no way to know what damage is done to their own security in this headquarter.

Fuck. Fucking fuck fuck.

It’s all a fucking mess now.

“Well, we can’t move,” Mary says, “since Nick is going to be in recovery.” She then adds in small, hopeless voice, “Hopefully.”

“Maybe we can ask some Tactical Intelligence agents to take a look.”

Anna rolls her eyes at George, seemingly feeling safe from everyone’s ire after Anderson’s insensitive comment.

She says sarcastically, “Look at what? The pieces of laptop that’s scattered around outside?”

“True, and thanks to whom is that?” Lena retorts sharply.

It seems that this whole thing has brought out the worst and most abrasive sides of all of them.

Anna curls into herself again.

“There is gotta be something we can do to check, or at least prepare,” Luke says as he runs his fingers through his afro frustratedly.

“How? No one in the entire D.E.A.N has ever been able to bypass their security before. Literally Nick is the only one who can, and that’s because he created it. How can we prepare when we don’t even know where to look?” Mark replies frustratedly too. “They didn’t even think to tell us their informant is a victim, and the intel is distress signals. Can we even rely on them to not mess up again?”

“So what, we just… I don’t know, do nothing, then?”

He buries his face in his palms, feeling frustrated and terrified. Nick is really paramount in all of this, and he might not even—

No, he can’t think like that.

He’ll make it. Nick will survive.

He has to.

“We still have to try. Maybe we can still send them the broken laptop. Or ask them to detect some outward or inward signals coming from Helga to us.”

Everyone tiredly agrees with George with their own defeated looks eventually.

***

“Tactical Intelligence sent a word in after scanning our network. We're gonna move. Him too.”

Mark doesn't react to Horace's words, his focus still locked onto Nick's unconscious face while he sits on the chair beside the bed Nick is laying on.

He looks pale, and there is still breathing mask attached to his face. Although, he looks... peaceful, almost.

“Doctor Lowe is gonna go with me, you, and Angie. Along with the other nurses. I told them to make sure you're going with him.”

Horace doesn't say anything anymore after informing Mark, now that he realizes Mark isn't going to respond. He chooses to unsurely step into the recovery room and stand on Nick's other side, across from Mark.

“What's the prognosis?” he finally asks to his commanding officer.

“His liver is injured, and he's lost a lot of blood. There is muscular damage around the puncture wound.”

Mark squeezes his eyes as a jolt of fear washes over him.

“But Doctor Lowe is good. He's gonna recover. It'll take a long time, but he'll be okay in the end.”

Mark chuckles bitterly.

“Will he?”

Physically, maybe. Although even that is still 50-50. But mentally? Who can even make sure of that?

Horace stays standing with his hands in his pockets, his eyes scanning Nick's frail body.

“Hope is the only thing we have now.”

Bullshit. They could have done a lot more, Mark thinks. They could have prevented all of this from happening because they had a lot more than hope three hours before. But they were all fucking greedy.

Now they don't even fucking have hope.

“I'm... sorry.”

Mark looks up to the older man.

“For what?”

Horace doesn't look back at Mark, almost like he is ashamed.

“I should have had a lot more trust in him.”

Mark looks down at Nick's face again.

“You should be saying it to him, not me.”

Horace sighs deeply.

“I know.”

Mark doesn't respond anymore, letting Horace talk if he has more to say.

“I'm the leader. I should have been reining in my agents more, instead of feeding into their distrust.”

Horace's arm stutteringly reaches out to the top of Nick's blanket, throwing a look at Mark as if he's asking Mark's permission. Mark leans back from the bed while taking his crossed arms off Nick's side from the blanket, then Horace pulls back the thin fabric covering Nick's naked torso.

Mark sees slight wince on the Latino's face at the bony body with thick gauze on top of where the jagged line of the sutures should be. Even after Nick has started eating regularly, his ribs are still jutting out slightly from his chest and his stomach is flat, if not slightly concave.

Not to mention, there are all fading scars beside still starkly clear ones all over that weakened body that they all seem to forget are there, on Nick’s skin. Everything being somewhat optimistic and amicable lately has lulled them into a false sense of peace, especially when it comes to Nick and his physical and mental wellbeing.

Horace gently pulls the blanket up again to cover Nick almost up to his chin reverently.

“This wasn’t supposed to happen,” Mark starts, not realizing that he is already saying words from his lips, so he continues anyway. “It was going so well. It’s not supposed to go like this. What happened?”

His commanding officer doesn’t respond. He only looks down even more, almost in shame.

“He's only 21,” Mark says again. “He doesn't deserve all of this. He is too young.”

“You know… most of my family died trying to cross over to America, all the way from Honduras,” Mark hears Horace says unsurely, “My mother survived, against all odds. Then she gave birth to me.”

Mark feels slight irritation at his story like it’s supposed to be a competition.

“Your point being?” he asks, almost with a sharp voice.

“If it's any consolation, the world isn't personally against him. So maybe the world isn't so cruel that it won't give him a better life eventually,” Horace explains calmly as to not feed into Mark's prickly and anxious state of mind, “It gave my mother and me one.”

Maybe it makes sense. Maybe not. Mark doesn't know what to think.

“He has you, Marcus. If you want a sign that his life isn't so hopeless.”

Mark closes his eyes. Him being in Nick's life doesn't seem like a blessing, especially at the time Mark almost killed him.

“I'm...” Horace falters, his eyes moving to the side in deep thought, “...I'm not going to judge you for caring about him this much.”

Horace visibly contemplates again.

“He deserves to have someone caring about him beyond as a rescued informant. And you care about him as a person.”

“I feel guilty.”

Horace cocks his head to the side with a slight smile.

“I know it started out that way. But you went above and beyond to try to make him happy. He deserves that, at least.”

“I didn't... I didn't exactly do it...” now Mark falters as he closes his eyes to think of the right thing to say.

“Didn't do it right?” Horace offers.

With Mark's silence as his response, Horace decides to continue, “Not one of us did it right, Marcus. But you're the closest one. Every recovery step he made with us was because you started it, you ever realize that?”

Mark sighs again with closed eyes.

“Well, I still fucked up.”

“Because you hurt him due to Tactical Intelligence's oversight or because he misinterpreted your genuine kindness, neither of which is solely your fault?”

Mark furrows his eyebrows before whipping his head to face his senior agent.

“Anna told me few weeks ago,” Horace begins as he sincerely looks at Mark, “because I thought it was strange that you wanted Luke and me to watch over you again in his bedroom. You are the one who trusts him the most, so I thought something must have happened.”

Mark lets a silence pass before talking.

“Anna told me I fucked up.”

Horace gives a small chuckle.

“She tends to think everyone fucks up, even herself.” Horace continues to look at Nick's gaunt and pale face. “She still hates herself for not warning Jackson about the bear trap in time, just like how we all hate ourselves for over relying on our explosive scanner and missing the one that killed Addrianne.”

He doesn't know how Horace feels, but Mark feels that grief and horror again while reliving being the last person to watch Jackson alive without being able to do anything, and hearing the ghastly explosion that destroyed Addrianne's body.

“And over relying on Tactical Intelligence's scant information without checking our found informant's identity ourselves,” Horace adds.

Of course, they all eventually circle back to that. The latest reminder of how badly they've been doing their job.

“But, whatever misguided view Nick had on your kindness, I know for fact that's not on you, Mark,” Horace unexpectedly continues again. “Those bastards warped his mind so bad that he thought every good thing he gets from someone else must come at a humiliating price. You did exactly everything that teaches him the opposite of that.”

Horace then turns to face him again, his face forlorn and apologetic.

“I'm sorry I didn't do enough to make sure we didn't undermine that. I really am.”

Mark inhales deeply and exhales just as intensely, then he stands up.

“Well, whatever we're gonna do to help him recover, we still have to get him to safety first.”

Horace looks at him with a serious face, then gives a small but firm nod.

“We will.”

***

Everyone is moving about quickly in a flurry of activities. Some are taking the weapons and their ammo along with other tools that they will need, while others are putting them on their offensive jeeps and one mission van, deciding to leave behind their normal transport SUV considering it's the least fitted one for battle. They also organize the items to make sure they all fit into their vehicles and are easy to take when needed.

The ones left not doing either are collecting all important physical documents and copying all digital data from their map table and stationary computer before wiping the devices clean to prevent non-authorized party from figuring out their safety and attack plans. They also shudder slightly before sweeping the broken pieces of Nick’s laptop into a sturdy canvas bag. Tactical Intelligence has suggested bringing in the smashed pieces anyway to be examined closely later, once they’re at the safe headquarter with the other chosen teams.

Mark decides to help Luke with the loading of the weapons and defense gears, while Angie and Horace are helping Doctor Lowe and his nurses to transport unconscious and sedated Nick to their vehicle.

Luke pauses and looks at his watch then at his active-duty laptop monitor.

“We need to move quicker. There is movement towards this direction, around 20 miles away.”

They've already been moving at unprecedented speed while maintaining safety and carefulness, but they crank it up even more at Luke's words.

Mary puts crying Nightingale into the collapsible pet carrier as she grabs the feline’s canned foods and the bag of kibbles that are still left. She decides to make do without the litter, saying that it's Nevada and Nightingale can defecate on whatever sandy ground she wants. They all try their best to endure the feline's loud meowing as if she's sensing the mounting danger they're facing.

Still, Lena decides to slightly shush and pet the tiny kitten with one index finger through the pet carrier covering to calm her down.

Anna and Anderson eventually do another quick sweep of the entire headquarter to check what else they need to do, putting booby trap explosives on their SUV and all around the building before gearing up and jumping into their jeeps.

Whatever happens to this headquarter, it might as well never exist at all.

They put forward maximum speed to their vehicles with Angie, Anderson, and Anna driving each of them separately, all of them thankfully fitted with bullet-proof surface.

In the van, Horace is sitting next to Angie with his rifle ready to fire, as Mark is in the back. All the while, Doctor Lowe and the nurses are trying to hold Nick's body to stabilize him as best as they can with the jostling around the car due to the speed. It’s a very precarious time for a patient right after such an intense surgery.

The other two vehicles are caging the van to protect the vulnerable charges inside, especially Nick.

Mark looks to his right at the small monitor mounted on the back of the divider to the driver’s side. The screen displays the live feed of the road behind the van, footage shot by the small camera fitted to the back door of the van. With the van’s windows and surface completely concealed for safety, the camera is the only way the people inside—especially the driver—can watch what’s happening behind the vehicle. There, Mark sees the jeep driven by Anderson trailing behind.

Then Mark looks back at Nick again.

“Is this okay for him?”

Doctor Lowe looks up from Nick’s prone body to Mark.

“Better this than killed by those bastards if we didn’t move.”

Mark gives a small sigh, probably too small to be heard by the surgeon considering his protective helmet. He knows it’s true, but it doesn’t mean he likes it, especially as he sees Nick’s body shaking visibly from side to side despite the medical personnel’s firm holds and the belt restraint around the bed.

He looks at the monitor again to try to gauge where they are. The appearance of the surrounding area around the jeep behind them doesn’t give away too much, but it seems that they aren’t that far yet from their (now old and abandoned) headquarter.

They’ve never gone this far from their headquarter, aside from the times they were executing raids and in previous collisions—which were done by going to the Helga circles’ locations, not by leaving the headquarter to escape them.

Hopefully those sons of bitches won’t catch them enroute now to their safe house. There is no way his team can hold them off properly, especially with one recently post-op patient and four non-combatant medical personnel, regardless of D.E.A.N standard training for all agents—including the ones in Medical Department.

“How much longer until we arrive?”

Mark then rests his machine gun against his left shoulder so that his hands are free to grab the heavy duty highly secure laptop they have, his eyes sharply locking onto the screen showing their location and the general map of their surroundings.

“32.7 miles more.”

Doctor Lowe tsks quietly with a severe look on his face while he is staring at Nick’s body, particularly where he just operated on the boy.

“I hope there’s some fucking suitable operating room this time.”

Mark furrows his eyebrows behind the visor of his helmet.

“We’re gonna have to redo some of his stitches. There’s no way the sutures won’t be disturbed if we jostle him around like this for over 30 miles.”

Mark blanches.

“I’ll do my best stabilizing him now, don’t worry,” the surgeon immediately tells him, sensing his shifting posture into becoming tense and alert, “and I’m good. I know his stiches are gonna hold up much better than normal because I did them.”

Without looking, Mark can hear Doctor Lowe’s smirk behind his own visor.

“If there is re-stitching needed, it would be minimal.”

Mark decides to take his word for it. He seems confident enough about it.

It apparently takes at least 90 minutes to arrive at the location of the other back-up teams, and by the time they arrive, they are greeted by the sight of a dozen or so agents with machine guns slung on their shoulders in the courtyard.

Anderson steers the car slightly sideway to let the van first in front of the new headquarter front side, backing up so that the doors immediately open to the doorway of the building. Then he and Anna drive their own respective vehicles in front of the van to cage it again as protective shield.

Horace comes out of the van with Angie who now has her own weapons in her hands. Mark is following behind as he helps the surgeon and his nurses to get Nick out.

“Agent Himura,” their commanding officer greets the other team’s leader with grave voice, head nodding slightly.

“Agent Fernandez,” the Japanese commanding officer responds with his own acknowledging head nod.

Another agent walks up, a wiry build man with sandy hair and black eyes, to where the two commanding officers stand.

“Our deputy, Agent Van Hoven,” the Japanese man says to Horace.

“Good to see you, Sir,” the younger man tells Horace simply.

“You too,” Horace replies, “and this is ours. Agent Basset.”

He then points at Anna who has just gotten out of the vehicle and walks to where the three agents are.

“Welcome to 1034,” the other commanding officer says again, “Although I’m sure we all hope to meet at a better occasion.”

Horace and Anna nod again before looking around the building to see quite many other agents milling around.

“We’ve called on 1023 and 1082,” Agent Himura explains at Horace’s and Anna’s questioning looks. “Stealth just gave intel that the circle you got the informant from has joined force with several other circles. We figure we need more manpower than just 3 Offensive teams.”

Horace nods in understanding.

“We’re also thinking of requesting some other from Central Hub, but they might not arrive in time,” Agent Van Hoven adds.

Horace’s and the newly joining Anderson’s face harden at the comment, slight worry passing through them.

“I’m assuming that’s the load?” the deputy of team 1034 says again with a head gesture to the van.

Just as they all turn to see the van, the bed where Nikolai is laying on is getting taken out quickly but carefully, followed by few agents from other teams helping Mark and Doctor Lowe to safely transfer the bed to the ground.

“Yes,” Horace replies with a short mournful look.

The other agents also have thinly veiled pitying and shocked expressions on their faces when the bed rolls by them, seeing the many tubes and medical tools attached to the obviously very young person, on top of the extremely skinny body.

“He is 21?”

“Yeah,” Anna answers this time with a slightly guilty look that Mark can see from afar.

“He doesn’t look so,” Agent Van Hoven says with furrowed eyes. “We were expecting someone who looks a little older.”

“He just turned twenty-one just a little over three months ago, and he was in Helga for over three years,” Luke now responds, as he just walks towards them.

There is a moment when several of the surrounding agents drop their masks of professionalism and neutrality. Agent Van Hoven also has a sad look while facing the thin, unconscious face of Nick, scars visible where his skin is not covered by the blanket.

“We have an actual operating room here, right?” Doctor Lowe now asks almost impatiently.

Another agent with more muscular stature and darker skin approaches him and chimes in, “Yes, that’s why we chose 1034 as a rendezvous point. You can use it immediately.”

Doctor Lowe looks at him, soundlessly asking for an introduction.

“I’m Agent Harry Leonard, 1082’s deputy commanding officer.”

“And the computer?” now Lena asks, slinging a canvas bag filled with pieces of Nick’s laptop on one shoulder while their other hand is holding a pistol.

Horace’s other subordinates and other teams’ agents don’t waste time acclimating themselves with each other in the background, immediately exchanging intel and plans and converging in almost like over 40 of them have always been one team. The short debriefing and introduction on the forefront then end with the 1082’s deputy nodding towards the building while he says,

“Come on in, I’ll take you to Tactical Intelligence guys.”

***

(I) (II) (III) (IV) (V) (VI) (VII) (VIII) (IX) (X) (XI) (XII) (XIII) (XIV) (XV) (XVI) (XVII) (XVIII) (XIX) (XX) (XXI) (XXII) (XXIII) (XXIV) (XXV) (XXVI) (XXVII) (XXVIII) (XXIX) (XXX) (XXXI - END)

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toguros-orange-juice · 2 years

Text

I'm not sure if people have already written this, and I don't really even attend either fandom, but a my hero academia x Yu Yu Hakusho crossover just has the opportunity to be so funny and ridiculous if it's Team Urameshi accidentally ending up in the MHA verse.

Like I've seen so many MHA crossovers with other fandoms and they have the trope of the other fandom's characters attending UA and joining class 1A on their adventure and those kinds of fics offer so much potential.

But let's be real, can you see our hooligans at UA high school just playing along and being normal students?

Kuwabara: He is really the only one one I can see there attending voluntarily. He's kind, has a strong sense of justice and desires formal education, also the potential character dynamics between him and class one sound delightful

But like youd have to make a pretty good argument why he would attend class in the first place compared to his goals of being with Yukina and attending a good college, I don't think his preferred college would accept crosss-dimensional transcripts from a hero school.

On a counter point it's be hilarious if he plans on going to UA but a villain attacks before that happens, he fights and shenanigans ensue(tm). Somehow he ends up on as an A rank villain in 2 days. Yusuke would be insufferable and would not let that one go.

Kurama: he is a mixed bag, like if he thought going to UA would be beneficial, yeah maybe, but he's not going to sit around and play along, like he could attend, but they need someone to be the braincell and there's a limit on what he could accomplish under so many eyes.

Kurama could be a terrifying villain and you could never change my mind.

Yusuke: lol

I was trying to think of something funny to put here but the idea of Yusuke voluntarily going to school, voluntarily training to be hero who has to deal with bureaucracy, and all the regulations is enough of a joke on it's own. There's nothing I can add.

Maybe he's working at the local ramen shop temporarily and ends up in all the hero and villain shit anyway and is pissed off about it. He is an agent of chaos and I love him for it.

Hiei: my dude Speedruns A rank villain status.

Seriously tho, I could not see him going to school, could you imagine mean little man being able to be around 20 teenagers without wanting to commit a crime. If he went looking for info, it'd be in the criminal world.

(crack but guys if he was in UA, looking at how Aizawa looks using his quirk, his gravity defiant hair, his red eyes, his somewhat misanthrope personality, they both having abilities triggered by their eyes, you cannot tell me that there wouldn't be a crack theory that Hiei is Aizawa's secret love child )

#shuichi minamino #yu yu hakusho #kazuma kuwabara #hiei yu yu hakusho #yyh yusuke #my hero academia #back on my bullshit #its 3am

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lazaruspiss · 6 months

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Justice League x RW/BY: Super Heroes and Huntsmen (Part Two)

dear god it opens with a quirky exposition dump/summary of the first part. ueghhh. its a little shorter at least. man i hate the sunken cost fallacy.

"classic superhero stuff right?" i think its better to just do the trope than it is to acknowledge the trope and then do it anyways without any twist or subversion. like, just going "its pretty funny how [x] always happens" and then doing [x] isnt like. anything. tropes are fine and you dont need to make any self aware jokes to try and get permission to do a trope. 2 full minutes of ruby summary. sigh.

they cant go a single scene without teenager level jokes, so since they dont have any teens theyre having black canary deliver those sweet sweet lines i guess. oh killer croc looks like shit huh. they really cant do anything but anime teens huh.

rw/by can do decent fight scenes, that was always where most of the appeal came from.

is batman dead. cmon itd be funny. let rw/by movie kill off batman itd be funny. then smth smth rw/by girls fight over nothing. this time the ptsd flashbacks are animated!

[left for a bit, came back with cookie dough and a cup of margarita mix]

barry going thru it or smth. why does black canary just have all the worst traits of team rw/by. whys the old man weiss calls for advice got color changing eyes and 3 personalities. cross dimension video call. why does diana have the worst makeup ive seen. oh i forgot that every weapon in rw/by is a weapon + a gun.

oh bruce is meow meow huh. pathetic dying man. the costumes are cool but why couldnt blake keep her ears smh. "a massive grimm attack!" before they even see the state of the alert. "grows tentacles to silence her" huh?? why tentacles??? oh for choking ok. also is canary usually airheaded comic relief orrr.....

man blake just looks like a huntress knockoff. and theyre really laying the flash angst on thick. flash villains are fun dont be mean guys. oh god weve hit the bruce/weiss junk. hopefully it stays footnote-y like the stuff in the first part.

fight scenes are cool if you like fight scenes. im not that big on them so. kinda bored. oh weiss ur the only bitch i missed from ur series. i dont think we really saw this group finish their fight but theyre done and joining a different one. its just fight scene after fight scene. on and theres the other group whose fight we dont get to see the end of. exposition of all of rw/by's big bads that could be involved. oh we're back to still image flashbacks.

the action scenes are. normal. the story is boring. team rw/by just gets more annoying the more i watch this. pep talk time for reasons. oh they even call it an awkward pep talk! i guess barry really is the main character of part 2. and he has trauma :). man he sounds like me talking about my dad.

id think the JL would have uh. more advanced training sims. than cardboard cutouts. more pep talk stuff. onto bruce n weiss again. daddy issues bonding time. heart attack? cy casually having mari electrocute him. killg%re reaches out to JL for something. barry continues to have ptsd.

movie i would like to sleep thru. 16 minutes left. then i am freed.

man this sure would be impactful if i cared about ruby. now back to fight scene. barry panic attack. fight scene. they went back to team rw/by's normal outfits and abilities for reasons. every once in a while i remember how rw/by didnt really cast voice actors and just used the employees and personalities that they had at rooster teeth.

the final fight strategy is all over the place. no explanation for where the dust is coming from. arent they still supposed to be on earth? oh cool they do the thing where they turn the villains against each other by having one monologue about how they used the other. problem solved?

#the rw/by stuff

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vintamcu · 2 years

Note

Andrew's Spider-Man and supervillain reader?

Your Favorite Villain│Andrew Garfield!Spiderman x Villain!Reader

Warnings: Brief descriptions of violence; some suggestive content; set in tasm!

Word Count: 1k

Summary: You have no desire to be a hero, so you’re not above causing some havoc to catch the attention of the Amazing Spiderman.

Author's Note: No spoilers for Spiderman: NWH! Thank you anon for putting in a request, I hope I did you justice. I did try to keep this gender-neutral, but I may have subconsciously written this regarding a feminine reader, so sorry about that. I wanted to do a sort of enemies to lovers trope and was inspired by Spiderman and Black Cat’s dynamic. Also to clear any confusion about (Y/n)’s power, they essentially have the ability to teleport themselves or whatever inanimate object they desire.

If you want more of this dynamic duo, click here!

Feet dangling over the edge of a building, you hum a small tune as you wait for a certain someone to appear. Pulling the box closer to your figure, you examine the priceless items kept inside. Taking out a necklace, you’re quick to clutch it to your person when you hear the sound of Spiderman land behind you.

“You left a mess back at the museum. That’s not like you.”

“Museum?” Standing up, you play dumb before holding the necklace up in front of him. “Oh! Museum! I was wondering how I got all these nice things.”

While you couldn’t see the man behind the mask, you were sure he was rolling his eyes at your antics. Setting the expensive jewelry back in the box, you sigh. “I’m just joking. You can take a joke, can’t you? Or does Spiderman not have a sense of humor?”

Going to pick up the box, you stumble in surprise as you feel his webs tie your wrists together. Hands bound by his webs, you stare at him with a sly smirk. “Do you love binding your enemies, or am I just lucky?”

Peter doesn’t answer, merely shaking his head. The hero walks up towards you, moving the box of stolen artifacts away from you before grabbing your bound wrists. “Come on. We’re going to the station.”

“Do we have to?” You lift your arms, hooking them around the hero's neck to bring him close to you. “You know how this’ll go down anyways. We’ll fight, I’ll give you most of the artifacts back as a sign of a truce before sneaking off. Why not save our energy and do something more productive?”

Glancing down at where his lips would be, you wait in silence, giving him time to think before sighing. Spiderman had too strong of morals. Yet, something happened. Something different than usual. You felt his arms wrap around your waist as he released the sound of a strained sigh. “I don’t get you. One moment you’re stealing from museums, banks, taking anything you want, and then the next, you’re saving citizens by my side. Why do you do it?”

“Why does it matter?” Bringing your face closer to his, you bite your lip. “Hero, villain…Labels are just so restricting. I do things because I want to.”

His grip on you tightens, making you sigh longingly. The two of you enjoy the moment, well aware that neither of you would settle this with ease. Not tonight, anyway. His morals were too strong, and yours too fluid. Still, for these brief seconds, he could ignore what you stole and you his unwavering ability to always be a hero. And so, you kiss him softly through his mask, leaning into his embrace ever so slightly.

“Sorry, Spidey.”

Your apology was quick as you brought your knee up to his stomach before flashing away, appearing at the next building, webs no longer restraining you. You wave teasingly, a smile on your face as you hold the box of artifacts. Peering inside, you huff in annoyance as you realize Spiderman had taken the necklace, the one thing you desired the most from your stolen goods. As if on cue, the hero calls your attention, waving the piece of jewelry from his spot.

“Looking for something?”

“You’re insufferable, you know that?”

You hear him laugh while swinging towards you, clearly amused by your remark. The box of items disappears from your hold, warping to a location he wouldn’t be able to find without you. He comments on how that’s cheating, making you laugh as you warp, appearing behind him. Attempting to swing at his head with your leg, he catches your foot mere centimeters away. Grunting, he keeps a firm grip while turning around to face you. He swings your foot away, causing you to stumble. The hero catches you with ease, your back against his chest.

“This is certainly an interesting position,” you comment under your breath, aware he can hear you and probably your racing heart.

“Do you always deflect with humor?”

“Just around you.” Again you disappear, now standing at the ledge of the roof. You hold the necklace he had and place it around your neck. “You’re fun to tease and you can’t say you don’t enjoy it.”

He doesn’t respond, making you laugh in response. Silence had never been so loud. Toying with the necklace around your neck, you tilt your head. “I’ll make you a deal, Spidey. I keep the necklace, and you get the rest of the artifacts. Sound fair?”

“I need all of the items. I’m not bargaining with a thief.”

Placing a hand over your chest, you feign being hurt by his comment. “Just a thief? And to think we shared a kiss.”

The two of you stand at opposite ends of the building, neither of you making a move. If you wanted to, you could disappear with the stolen artifacts. In fact, you probably could have taken them without him being aware in the first place. Peter could never understand why you did what you did. You were an enigma, and he was curious to know who was under the mask.

“Clock’s ticking, Spidey. What’s it going to be?”

“You can keep the necklace.”

“That’s a good boy.” You say with a smile on your lips. The box reappears, this time by Peter’s feet. “Pleasure doing business—”

Your sentence is cut short, Spiderman launching a web and pulling you towards him. You let him do so and don’t struggle as he slowly removes the necklace, his fingers brushing at the edge of your mask. Waiting with bated breath, waiting for him to remove it, you watch as he only takes the necklace.

“You could have taken it off.” You whisper, eyeing him suspiciously. “Don’t you want to see who the criminal behind the mask is?”

“I’d rather you willingly do it yourself.” Peter answers before stepping away from you.

“Will I ever get to see the Spider behind the mask? I mean, if I take mine off, it’s only fair.”

“Maybe, but I don’t reward criminals.”

“Not even the ones you like?”

“Try to go straight, alright? You have a gift, one that could be used to help people.”

You had no plans to change your ways. Yet the tone in his voice, his belief that you could do better…shook something in you. Lightly pushing him away, you begin to back towards the ledge again. Blowing him a kiss, you watch as the world shifts, your vision distorting as you start to warp yourself to another location.

“I’ll think about it.”

#the amazing spider man #spiderman #andrew garfield #peter parker x reader #spiderman x you #spiderman x reader #andrew garfield x reader #andrew garfield fanfiction #peter parker fanfiction #peter parker fic #spiderman x y/n #peter parker x y/n

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onestopheroxvillain · 3 years

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Hero x Villain

You guys. You guys I am so obsessed with the fandom around hero x villain. You know, the writing community here on tumblr- like, we have everything except the base text of canon that fandoms usually build off of (and here I would argue that those base texts are TMT and the other older blogs that have been posting for several years).

The thing is, it’s not like we have any kind of shipping wars, or even people TO ship- other than the hero and the villain, but since they don’t belong to a parent work, there is no base canon for people to get mad about.

As for the hero and the villain, they often fall into archetypes that we later flip on their heads. In classic hero x villain, the kind that got me into reading and writing, the hero is alone. They work themselves too hard (how often do you read about the hero who’s collapsing in on themselves but still going to fight because they’re stubborn?), and it usually isn’t until the Villain forces them to stop that they do.

I don’t know about you, but I project pretty heavily onto the hero- I mean, everyone wants someone to take care of them, but no one wants to feel selfish about asking, right? We’re the hero, and we want someone who isn’t going to lie and who isn’t going to believe any lies to help us. Someone who the hero actively fights against because they can’t let themselves be helped.

Then we have the villain! The villain who, in most circumstances, yields to the morally-gray-dark-haired-powerful-slightly-creepy-obsessive love interest of those YA novels I’d bet most of us read- The Darkling? Rhysand? Patch? Morpheus? Draco? Edward? Except that with us, we can take any attributes we found attractive or cool about those villains and let the heroes actually react to them. This time, we’re self aware about the obsession, the possessiveness. The hero is rightfully creeped out when the villain says they watch them sleep. It’s refreshing.

That pairing- usually the shy hero/creepy villain- is one of many. I mean, I read a lot of what you all write, and people love to mix up the archetype. There are snippets about a possessive villain where the hero likes it, or one that’s grown increasingly more popular, where the hero is the true moral bad guy. This either results in them brutally hurting Villain (popular whump) or in the villain taking in someone that Hero already abused (sidekick, generally).

Also! the idea of the “agency” where the hero and villain are forced to fight each other is something I have ONLY encountered here. Marissa Meyer’s “renegade” series is similar, but it’s just like the justice league or the avengers- the heroes group together to fight the villains for moral reasons and little else, while in “agency” snippets the hero and villain often don’t want to fight each other and are being forced to for reasons often not delved into. In those, the villain’s aren’t actually the villains, it’s the agency. More often than not, the hero and villain end up teaming up to take down the corrupt government. “hero” and “villain” are job titles, not names. This very niche... au? trope? is so fascinating because I now see things that just assume Hero and Villain are not fighting, are not enemies, and are in fact on the same side. it’s not a bad thing, it’s just fascinating to watch.

Again, I reblog a lot of stuff. I see a lot of stuff. “Villain comforts Hero” is fairly popular now, as is the classic “I think I’m going to keep you” bit, which I call classic not because it’s popular in regular media, but because it’s popular here.

I just have a Lot of thoughts and I needed to say some of them so. yeah.

what do you writers think? are you consciously aware of this? I mean I assume you are but who knows. Are you also unable to think about anything else?

#hero x villain #villain x hero #not writing #part two? eventually #Imma also reblog this later so if u see it twice don't hate me

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sukumen · 3 years

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CONGRATS ON 2.5k!!!!!! so so deserved!! also i don’t think i ever told u this but you were my first ever mutual on here and i just 💞💕💞💕 if it’s still open can i request bakugou + exes to lovers?

HOORAY FOR 2.5K --- AU/TROPE FICLETS: bakugou x exes to lovers.

notes: things we already knew about me: i overwrite. WOW! this got so long, but i had so much freaking fun with it, i can’t even tell you. it’s my first time writing bakugou and i hope i did him justice, especially with this trope that i love. thank you so so much for the support and love victoria - it’s an honor to have been your first mutual!!!! i hope you enjoy this~

summary: it was an odd match from the start, you and katsuki --- at least that’s what you tell him when you walk away after a year and a half. as you leave, you remind yourself of the probability your quirk had read the night of your first date - 73% chance of breaking up. not certain, sure, but high enough to help you through missing him: this was always going to happen. you tell yourself the same thing a year later when he becomes your protection detail at a support item expo that’s received a major threat: being in the same industry, you were always going to cross paths.

but, over the course of your week together, you start to realize that not everything has a rational explanation, a logical way in or out. not Katsuki, and certainly not the way he makes you feel.

quirk details: reader has a quirk that grants insight into the probability of an outcome occurring. ultimately, she can analyze a situation and determine within seconds how likely a specific outcome is if she was to move forward with all variables unchanged. she uses it primarily to design her support items, but can also use it in personal situations too. notably, she used it to work out how likely it was that she and bakugou were going to break up in a misguided attempt to deal with her feelings.

key limitations: scenarios have to be simple for her quirk to work - she can only determine if something will or won’t happen, not what will happen. the information she has will impact the accuracy of her prediction; this means that using it for personal situations - which often rely on the complicated emotions of other people - can be tricky. but, being emotional too, she doesn’t always remember that….

Snippet (2.7k, slight nsfw at the end):

Your flight ends too quickly for your liking, the walk to the arrivals gate even more so. Katsuki is waiting for you under a Starbucks sign as planned with arms folded over his chest while a second hero - a newcomer to the rankings - makes small talk beside him.

As you move in their direction, time follows in slow motion, each step rigid as you’re reminded of the day you’d walked the other way and out of his life. You’d been strong willed then and hadn’t turned once to see the look in his eyes as you went. But now, you can’t look anywhere but him, not even when the other hero notices you and waves for your attention.

He hasn’t changed much in the year apart. There’s a littering of scars that you’d noticed on the news and are seeing for the first time in person; but otherwise, Katsuki is the same man you’d always known, imposing but in a way that’s nearly comforting after his years in the public eye.

He seems to be watching you right back, but where your gaze is full of scrutiny, his is practically empty. Looking right through you as you draw near, which doesn’t change even when you still in front of them.

“Hi,” you squeak out, giving an awkward half-bow that you hope neither of them read too much into. The person beside Katsuki - hero name Phantom - introduces themselves right back, their bow deeper before they return to their rambling. They’re too caught up to note the way you and Katsuki don’t share names with each other and, with the moment lost, have gone to avoiding each other’s eyes altogether.

The tension lasts until the other support item maker - a man you recognize from the flight - emerges from baggage claim. The sight of him shifts the tides and you all start to gather your things for the hotel. Katsuki still hasn’t said a word to you, though if the others have noticed, it doesn’t show. You, of course, have and even as you trail behind him and Phantom to make small talk with the other designer, your eyes linger over his broad back.

Somehow, you’d expected more...anger when he saw you next.

Of course, this calm is pleasant, especially when you’re in public. But, there’s something about it that’s disappointing as well. Leaves you with an emptiness in your gut that you push past with animated conversation with your new companion.

[ … ]

“Who was she?” Your eyes screw shut before the words even make it out. How embarrassing --- all that talk to yourself about letting it go and you fold not even three steps into your shared suite. It’s none of your business who she is -- it’s none of your business what he does. But, your heart twists every time you think about the two of them in the back of the welcoming party. You’ve never seen him like that - at least not from an outsider’s lens - leaning into another person so closely and the curiosity comes tumbling out of you before you can stop it.

Katsuki is silent for a long while; long enough that you almost think he hadn’t heard you. But, the stiffness in his shoulders tells you aren’t so lucky and after a moment of you watching him untie his shoes, he finally turns to look at you. The glance is brief, but poignant, before his focus returns to himself --- this time, his tie. “I don’t think you’re in any place to be asking me that,” he grunts, tugging at the fabric until it loosens.

Embarrassment sears your throat, a sting you feel behind the eyes as you turn them towards the floor. It’s bad enough that you’d given into the urge to ask, but Katsuki being so straightforward is mortifying. He’s right, of course, but what makes it worse is that he’s not even trying to belittle you with that answer. He means it as simply and plainly as he’s said it: you’re in no position to ask him to tell you something like that.

Self-indulgence from you is rare and you find it’s for this very reason. When you step out of the safety of your logic, your equations, your reasoning, you always manage to trip yourself up. Even now, you want to push, misplaced jealousy gnashing its teeth at the back of your mind. But, his response has sobered you and you lock it and your curiosity up tight with a stiff apology and a goodnight.

Katsuki doesn’t look up again until your door closes behind you.

[ … ]

When the chaos has gone, and dust settled, a gang of thirty-something villains is in handcuffs and you’re banged up; ankle throbbing, but very much alive. You haven’t seen Katsuki since he’d stashed you away with the others with a promise to come back, but you’ve heard enough steady explosions to think he must be okay.

Still, you want proof. When the panic room door opens with a creak, his face isn’t the first you see, but it’s all you’re thinking about. Him, and getting back to him. You want to say it’s the last of your adrenaline, but even you know better. Know adrenaline from longing well, even with your limited experience and you let yourself admit something you’ve hidden for twelve months.

You miss him.

And even with the lengthy process that usually follows a villain attack, this will likely be the last full day you’ll have with him for the rest of your life.

The realization makes the panic room shrink to a quarter of the size, pain punching air out of your lungs so fast your vision swims. You need to go, you tell yourself, Katsuki’s promise lost in the static of your upset -- you can’t be here right now.

Your ankle smarts when you start putting real pressure on it, but the pain isn’t enough to stop you from pushing to the front of the line to leave. With each step past someone else, you hear sneers and you think you apologize, but when you’re so cotton-mouthed, you can’t really be sure.

Either way, it doesn’t slow you. The madness makes it easy to peel away from the crowd and though it takes you some time, you don’t stop until you’ve made it outside where you can breathe. For everything that’s happened in the last forty-five minutes, the island’s relatively unaffected, air as cool and breezy as every other night that week. The only real sign of the attack where you are are sirens and voices rising from the other side of the expo center - where you imagine Katsuki to be.

The thought - that he’s so close - should be comforting, but your despair does good work to keep it bittersweet; to remind you that it won’t be for much longer. It has to be selfish to be so upset when this had all been your choice to begin with; but for the first time since the breakup, you don’t try to explain away what you’re feeling. To dissect and rationalize so you can avoid it altogether.

For the first time since the breakup, you let it all in.

[ … ]

It takes Katsuki fifteen minutes to find you. Each one finds him more agitated than the last as he works himself up, searching every space by the now empty panic room to figure out where you’d gone.

At first, he’d assumed the best - that you’d been ushered with the rest of the group to the lobby waiting with police and paramedics. But, a quick skim of the crowd came up empty for your familiar face and panic set in not long after.

An admittedly tense conversation with the officer that had unsealed the room revealed that one civilian - a woman with a noticeable limp - had broken away from the group just as the doors opened. It’d done well to calm him, knowing someone had seen you after the fighting was over, but he’s hardly settled, if the way he stomps through the floor is anything to go by. “She never fucking listens,” he growls to no one in particular, eyes narrowed in razor sharp focus.

He’s worked up, above all, by his worry. But he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t vaguely wounded by the fact you hadn’t let him come back like promised. It draws him back, despite his best efforts, to the day you left --- the day you told him in no uncertain terms that you’d always expected one of you to leave, what with that know-it-all quirk of yours.

He’d felt then as he does now: utterly untrusted. Like he’s behind without even knowing there’s a race --- like he’s lost without any hope to catch up. He doesn’t like it, feeling that way again, and it gets him so unnerved that he starts to revert to old habits. Shoulders bowed, hands stuffed into his pockets, and, notably, taking a foot to every door that could stand between him and wherever the hell you’ve disappeared to.

When he finds you, finally, behind the fourth, it’s with a kick so firm it turns your sob into a strangled squeak.

[ ... ]

“I thought I told you to stay put---” There’s venom in Katsuki’s voice, but a sort you know well. Worried more than enraged, even if his expressive face doesn’t show it. You move to answer, but he steps in before you can, eyes locked eerily on your face. “...Why the hell are you crying?” You reach up for your wet cheeks, cursing internally; you’d hoped to be well through this before you faced him again so the question catches you off guard. Long enough that Katsuki can close the distance and kneel at your feet, pulling your fingers away from your face so he can inspect it. “You gonna say something or what? Did someone hurt you?”

You can tell he’s biting his tongue, tempering his rage until he’s sure there’s something to rage about. But even that muted anger can be dangerous and you’re quick to shake your head, hands coming up again to wipe your face. “No! No, it’s...just my ankle. From before, when we were running.”

Relief spreads in Katsuki’s face hearing that, like he’s grateful that that’s all it is. But, his frown stays put, deepening some when he reaches down for your ankle and watches your expression sour from the touch. “Hm. Doesn’t seem broken or anything.” He turns thoughtfully towards the building behind him, stilling at the sounds rising from the busy lobby. You try to glean purpose from his face, but have to wait until he speaks up again to work out what he’s doing. “‘S gonna take ages for them to see you right now. I can wrap your ankle up at the hotel and take you in for a check up before tomorrow’s flight.”

You nod wordlessly, grateful for the chance to avoid anyone else for the night.

[ … ]

The quiet in your suite as Katsuki carries you in is a blessing.

You hadn’t realized how badly overwhelmed you were until you’d been alone on the balcony, so even just a few minutes going through the expo center was too much. Katsuki had picked up on it and hesitated very little in hoisting you up so you could move quickly through the crowd and rubble.

You’d insisted he didn’t need to do it at all, let alone again in the hotel; but just one glance at you down the slope of his nose had silenced you.

The first thing he does when the door shuts behind you is set you down on the couch, warning you to stay still with a look alone. When you’re settled, he disappears into his room before emerging with an impressively stocked first aid kit. And for the second time that night, he’s on his knees for you, taking your swollen ankle in hand to inspect it more closely.

With so much happening earlier, his touch on the balcony was easy to drown out. Now, there’s nowhere to focus but him and the press from his palm as it cups your bare skin. He runs a thumb over scratches you hadn’t noticed, the way he traces the lines almost pensive, before his attention turns to the kit beside him.

You, all the while, are stock still, frozen from the heat of his touch. It’s nothing compared to his mouth or the weight of his full body, but after so many months apart, it bowls you over all the same.

You don’t notice you’re crying again until he says something.

“You’re not crying over the ankle,” he says simply, though his touch softens just in case as he brings it into his lap with some bandage wrap.

You don’t know what it is, but something in the way he asks compels your honesty and you nod, feeling pathetic as you sniffle and look down at your hands.

“You gonna tell me what’s really going on then?”

You swallow thickly, words already threatening to bubble up like they had the night of the welcoming party. “I...I don’t think I can.” Or should, rather - you don’t need to use your quirk to know that nothing good could come out of this.

But, Katsuki is firm, shaking his head as he starts to wind the first layer of bandage carefully around your ankle. “Well, I’m sayin’ you can. So, don’t go crying by yourself for some dumb reason like that. If you don’t want to, you don’t want to. But if you do, you can.”

He says it like it’s simple. Like it’s a given. And beside your better judgment, you lean into that open assuredness. You’d always loved it about him, after all --- the way he so firmly believes that nothing could stop him - or anyone - if he didn’t let it. For some people, it was self-importance, but nights holding him after good and bad days had taught you otherwise -- it was bravery.

Bakugou Katsuki was the bravest man you’d ever known. A blaze that shone so bright on its own that you felt out of place beside him -- like you couldn’t give him what he needed -- and decided for you both that that meant you didn’t have a chance.

But, in the quiet of your suite, with Katsuki sitting comfortably at your feet, you decide that maybe he’s rubbed off on you some. That maybe, in your time alone, you’ve become a lot braver than you realized.

So, you suck in a deep breath, look him square in the eye, and tell him the truth.

“I miss you, Katsuki.”

[ … ]

He holds your hands to the mattress so tight they hurt, but the ache is welcome. You know him well, even now, and can read between the lines of your intertwined fingers.

He’d missed you too.

All these days of looking through you, past you had been intentional to protect himself, but here, now, he’s completely laid bare. Mouth kiss swollen and eyes lined with tears he’ll wave off later, Katsuki is spilling out every ounce of love he’d held back the day you told him you’d always planned to leave.

You meet him halfway with an arch off the bed to chase his kisses and tell him that you love him --- and you’re sorry --- between each one.

The weight of his body is as precious as you remember and the heat of your tangled limbs lulls you into a daze that pulls your eyes shut.

Katsuki doesn’t notice at first as he’s dragging his mouth over your bare neck, but when he does, he’s quickly displeased. “Look at me,” he hisses, fingers tightening between yours. Your eyes open heavily and it takes you a moment to find his gaze in the darkness. But, once you’re back, he presses his forehead to yours and slowly, carefully presses forward until his cock’s stretched you to the hilt.

The fill feels like coming home.

#bakugou x reader #bakugo x reader #bakugou katsuki x reader #bakugo katsuki x reader #bnha x reader #mha x reader #my hero academia x reader #boku no hero academia x reader #bnha fanfic #hooray for 2.5k tag.#saintdabi

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