#and also the thought that he murdered a man and then immediately holed himself up into the house right next to the dead man's restaurant

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 407: Wait Why Are You Running Away

Previously on BnHA: Kacchan figured out how to control his quirk upgrade and was totally chill and normal about it. Definitely not terrifying at all. He actually spent the entire chapter smiling and laughing like the wholesome little boy he is. I don’t know why Kid For One is so freaked out about it. He even politely introduced himself using his childhood nickname. Clearly he just wants to be friends with you, KFO!

Today on BnHA: Horikoshi is all “sorry to keep you waiting, here’s the AFO and Yoichi flashback you ordered at long last” and proceeds to serve a nightmarish stew of HUMAN MISERY and RATS and STABBING and CARNAGE and SO MUCH MURDER and THE SINGLE MOST FUCKED-UP CASE OF CODEPENDENCY ANYONE HAS EVER WRITTEN. I was not even remotely prepared for any of this, and if anyone else claims that they were, I will call you a liar to your face. If this chapter had a mouth it would scream. Or just sob, ceaselessly and uncontrollably. I’m really glad Horikoshi is on break next week because that man needs to take a fucking nap. My god.

okay WOW

anyone else read the first two words and just immediately say to themselves, “oh okay, so it’s gonna be one of those chapters”? I mean, I guess we were due for a darker chapter after last week’s Kacchan Comedy Tour. but idk, I just wasn’t expecting “homeless sick prostitute with a drinking problem” levels of dark

AND SHE’S PREGNANT?!

what exactly is this manga rated again? doesn’t this backstory seem just a little bit raw for the impressionable kiddos??

has anyone actually checked in on Horikoshi recently? you know, just to make sure he is okay??

what a fun and wholesome manga this is

the lil baby arm covered in blood with the AFO hole on the palm. lying next to the dead mom hand. what an image to sear into our minds. I guess it’s been a while since he killed any dogs. gotta keep us on our toes somehow

also wasn’t expecting AFO and Yoichi to be twins! that puts an interesting spin on their relationship, because it’s usually a closer bond than even regular siblings. especially with all of that delightful shared trauma from a young age!!

yes, exactly

ohhhh this chapter is gonna hurt me, isn’t it. okay. ooooooookay. let’s do this

OH I’M SORRY, THERE’S MORE?!

Horikoshi my dude. you do realize that their mom dying in childbirth and the two of them just barely surviving and growing up as street orphans would have already been MORE than tragic enough, backstory-wise. you did not have to turn this into a freaking horror show with RATS TRYING TO EAT THEIR NEWBORN SELVES jesus christ

and THAT’S where you chose to put a one year timeskip?!

what the fuck am I reading here, you guys. no please tell me, I am actually desperate to understand

so the narrator is saying that some of the quirks manifested later in life, in “pubescent and pre-pubescent stages”, which is interesting because it’s the first time I can recall hearing about someone actually manifesting a quirk that late. maybe Deku’s old OFA cover story was more plausible than I realized

anyway so eventually it occurred to everyone that they should maybe freaking study this shit, idk. and eventually the researchers concluded that the superpowers came from a new gene that apparently isn’t human. and upon hearing that, society apparently lost its freaking mind. which is fascinating to me because it implies that the turning point wasn’t actually the superpowers themselves, but the realization of what it meant

like, so they were apparently fine with it when they thought it was a “mysterious disease”, but somehow it hit different when they learned it wasn’t actually a sickness at all, but instead the Next Step in Evolution. and it became an “us vs them” thing, as opposed to a “we have to cure these poor people” thing. damn

anyway so now Japan is a dystopia and we’re cutting to a big crowd of merc-looking dudes who are getting ready to attack some “meta freaks”, how lovely

but who is this figure in the shadows

I ask politely, as if it wasn’t already beyond obvious that this is AFO about to wreck some people’s shit

ohhhhh my god lmao

hopefully Katsuki and Deku can take the present day AFO out before he winds up looking like this. because this little fella is clearly demonic and idk if anyone can stop him

you all don’t understand. you need to run the fuck away right now

oh shit it’s already too late for them

it’s too late for any of us. it’s over. it’s all fucking over

((((；゜Д゜)))

AFO I am putting the manga down. I am backing away slowly with my hands in the air. I mean you no harm. please for the love of god have mercy

holy

“you see, we told you he wasn’t human” okay Scientific Research Group, you know what?? you win this round I guess

“HE WAS LITERALLY EVIL FROM BIRTH” HORIKOSHI SERIOUSLY ARE YOU OKAY??

HE WAS BORN AN ARROGANT BABY is literally the most terrifying sentence I have ever read

what the entire fuck

it’s a gorgeous sunny mid-November afternoon outside my window. but no matter how hard it tries, the light cannot reach this place

what kind of moron would throw a can of soda at him. officially the stupidest person we have ever seen in this manga

OH MY GOD OF COURSE IT’S HIM LMAO

(ETA: how come baby Yoichi has clothes that fit him perfectly but baby AFO is just stomping around wearing a tablecloth.)

BABY YOICHI. OH MY GOD. HOW THE HELL DID YOU GROW UP TO BE SANE AND KIND AND GOOD. THAT’S MY QUESTION THAT I NEED ANSWERED RIGHT NOW. YOU ARE LITERALLY A MIRACLE. YOU ARE AN IMPOSSIBILITY, DO YOU KNOW THAT

small and weak, but also so, so cute. all of the cuteness genes went straight to him. no wonder AFO was jealous

(ETA: just want to press pause for a second to speculate about what type of twins AFO and Yoichi are, since it has some relevance to the story, and especially to the OFA/AFO quirk lore. so! at first glance the two of them would appear to be fraternal twins, just based on the fact that they have very different appearances, and also the fact that Yoichi doesn’t have the AFO quirk – no holes in his hands, etc. identical twins are born from the same fertilized egg, so in theory they would both have the same sequence of DNA, which means Yoichi would have had the same quirk as AFO. but that doesn’t appear to be the case. so all of that points to them being fraternal, not identical.

on the other hand, there is one piece of evidence in this chapter that does support them being identical twins, and that’s the fact that per the narration, AFO absorbed most of the nutrients from their mother. a few minutes of google fu informed me that this condition is relatively rare, and only happens in cases where two twins share a placenta, which typically is only the case for identical twins. HOWEVER, for what it’s worth, there have also been rare instances where two fraternal twin placentas fuse together and become a single placenta. AND this apparently also increases the chances of one of the twins gaining more of the nutrients and causing the other twin to have a lower birth weight.

so based on the evidence here, my conclusion is that the two of them are most likely fraternal twins with a case of placental fusion. besides, you can’t tell me that stealing his baby brother’s placenta while the two of them are literally still in the womb doesn’t sound like exactly the type of BS that fetus!AFO would pull, lol.)

HEY!?!

okay?!?!?! well to be fair he did throw that soda at him

oh my god this is so fucked up. in like the best and worst way possible

I genuinely couldn’t ask for a better AFO backstory. it’s so incredibly twisted, and you actually do feel sorry for him. or at least I do. but it’s also beyond clear that this kid was FUCKED UP BEYOND ALL REASON right from the get go. zero goodness in him. literally doesn’t see other people as people. sees them as possessions only. things to rule over. not other thinking, feeling human beings. and that includes his own little brother

but. even if it’s not actually what I would call love, there’s still... attachment, there. it’s the closest he can get to actually caring about someone. guh. just, somehow they have both managed to humanize him, and at the same time made him less human than ever. this manga, man. this fucking manga, though

lmao and here we go. Captain Hero

you know, all those times that I made fun of AFO for not knowing how to read, I never suspected that the twist in his backstory would be that he LITERALLY DIDN’T KNOW HOW TO READ dfksjdlfkjslkdf

but seriously though. because Yoichi appears to be self-taught, and I can’t see AFO having the patience for that, and CLEARLY no one else was around to teach him, sooooo...

oh my goodness it’s actually getting wholesome up in here

what a good fucking boy. poor AFO. fuck me, I can’t help it. it’s not your fault you’re the world’s greatest monster you poor bastard

now we’re cutting to THREE YEARS LATER. okay

is he going to declare war on the glowing baby

typical teenager concerned about nothing but likes and view counts. AFO you would be so much happier if you stopped worrying about all of that and just focused on your own growth

oh, lol. well that was quick

(ETA: r.i.p. Damien.)

“this guy had more instagram followers than me. so I killed him” honey. sweetie pie. you need therapy

omfg

all this time I was wondering who AFO’s middle school lit teacher was who had failed so spectacularly at teaching him reading comprehension. and it was YOICHI ALL ALONG. omg

“and, presumably, that’s how it always was and always will be.” dude. can you imagine listening to AFO’s oral book report on A Tale of Two Cities. “ahem. it was the Best of Times. the end” buddy noooooooo

it was at that moment when Yoichi knew, etc. etc.

oh my GOD I scrolled down to the next panel right after this one and I just IMMEDIATELY DIED LAUGHING

“WAS IT SOMETHING I SAID” ffffffffffffffff I fucking can’t omfg

NOW THIS HUSSY IS STEALING HIS BROTHER AWAY FROM HIM NOOOOOOO

HE’S HIS!!! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!!! THAT’S NOT ALLOWED!!!

oh my god the hands. so wait, is this just the standard symbolic BnHA handholding, or are there More Levels To This. when exactly did Yoichi pass OFA on to Kudou. like is that why the sudden close-up and all that? omg

WHAT!!!!

OH THAT’S THE END, HUH? THAT’S THE END RIGHT THERE, AND THAT’S JUST HOW IT IS. I SEE. OKAY THEN. EXCUSE ME WHILE I PUT MY LAPTOP DOWN AND GO INTO THE NEXT ROOM AND SCREAM INTO A PILLOW

oh my god. and break next week too. this is what you guys have been dealing with this entire time huh. I understand your feelings now. godfuckingdammit lmao

#bnha 407 #all for one #shigaraki yoichi #ofa the first #bnha #boku no hero academia #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #bnha manga spoilers #makeste reads bnha

[deathsgl4mor]

REQUEST: "Can you deliver sum Thomas headcanons? like, some SFW but then sum NSFW at the end, ty hun 😚— Also, can I be 💄 anon? If you do stuff like that ofc."

A/N: yes, of course! also, i love the emoji anons, so you'll be 💄 anon now. anyways, thanks for the first ask! i didn't think i'd get one with how little my account is and the such few posts, lmao.

CW: +18 under cut, Hoyt, murder//gore//violence, breeding kink, sexual themes, fluff

SUMMARY: Headcanons for Thomas Hewitt: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre; The Beginning, 2003

{short-ish}

GENERAL HEADCANONS

tommy loves whenever you give him baths, washing his hair and all that. i guess that's just him missing physical affection

is damn sure that you don't get between him and the victims or around the victims in general. he couldn't bear the thought of you getting hurt in the slightest and he'd never forgive himself

he makes sure that you and his mother, miss mae as you call her, get along well. which you do. she's happy she found at least someone for her boy

often times he stays in the basement late but is quick to pay more attention to you than anyone else, immediately going to you if you want him by your side in any way. and I mean ANY way.

NSFW HEADCANONS

is a switch. he doesn't mind whenever you're below him, taking all the pleasure he delivers or if you're riding him as he can't help but be so noisy at the sight and feeling of you being so... generous, let's just say

always has a hand on your hip or breast, if you have them. no matter the position, he'll be grabbing at one of the two. male? he'll just hold onto you by the bicep/man titty ♡

loves the mating press position or cowgirl. still, doesn't matter the gender as the both of them are gender neutral... well... most sex positions are but those are just preferred.

if you're a woman, he's gonna be a little more aggressive with you but that's just cause he needs to finish up and get away from you quicker since if he takes his time, he'll get lost in it and will probably end up fucking you till you faint, or your hole is too filled to fit any more; that doesn't stop him good enough though.

every time he notices his seed leaking out of whatever hole of yours he had just stuffed, he'll finger it back in. even if you're infertile, it just does something to him.

if you're needy while he's in the middle of something, do whatever you need. just don't disrupt his work or do anything when there's company.

THANKS FOR THE ASK, 💄‼️‼️

#texas chainsaw massacre #thomas hewitt #x reader #slashers #slash fanfiction #hefty boy #slasher fucker #much love #💄 #anonymous #send asks #first ask #thanks anon! #thomas hewitt fic

[dancing-with-the-madmen]

The Massive Aggression of Calico Jack, redux

Several kind souls have complained brought it to my attention that my failure to use cut tags is, in fact, not optimal. I don't have any good reason that I don't use cuts - mostly I'm just throwing these thoughts out here so they don't endlessly rattle around my brain. Frankly, I'm endlessly astonished anyone but me can be arsed to bother wading through them at all. So, after a truly epic tantrum thoughtful consideration, I've decided to edit my longer posts to add cuts. If you've already read them, (may endless blessings rain down upon you) there's no new content (vile lies and calumny. I'm going to take this opportunity to fix errors and add a line here or there, but nothing major). Just making it more scroll-friendly. You'll know it when you see the word "redux" in the title. So without further ado...

I’ve been trying for a while to put my finger on exactly what it is about Our Flag Means Death's Calico Jack that makes me want to crawl out of my skin and smother him to death with my own abandoned ecdysis.

I mean, I normally love me a spurned admirer/cock-blocking ex. Romantic comedies have their beats, and there’s obviously no serious danger the love interest will end up with anyone other than their intended, so I may as well sit back and enjoy the machinations. After all, the course of true love never did run smooth, and these bitches are here to rough some shit up for sure. I also love Will Arnett. Hands down favorite recurring character on 30 Rock. The second best Batman after TAS (fight me). I can even cheerfully bear his Reese’s commercials if I must bear commercials at all.

Real-life Calico Jack? One of my v. favorite pirates. He wore floral-printed cotton from India as a fuck you to the British tax man. He had an affair with Anne Bonny and offered to purchase her divorce when her husband found out. The two ran away together into piracy when Bonny’s husband refused to quit her and had her whipped for her infidelity. Mary Read was part of Jack and Anne’s crew, and possibly their lover. We love a hopeless romantic, possibly polyamorous king. 

So what is it about OFMD Calico Jack that makes him so acutely punchable?

I’ve rewatched the episode several times (oh my v. dears, I really hope this write-up is worth it. I am SO BRAVE to subject myself to this), and I think I’ve finally got it. It’s not just that he’s a loud, vulgar, hectoring, drunken jackass of a bird-murderer. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I have as little patience for his brand of mindless destruction and violence-for-violence-sake as Stede does, but that’s not all.  It’s that he’s also a master of passive aggression.

Jack does the little whisper-y “Sorry! Sorry!” when Stede wants to know what’s with all the cannon fire, but immediately starts grinning like an unrepentant varlet as soon as he drops his hands.

And then accepts Stede’s introductory handshake with clear derision.

When Stede says he wasn’t expecting guests and there’s only two settings at brekkie, Jack doesn’t wait for Stede to sort things out, and he’s already lowering himself into Stede’s chair by the time Stede invites him to take his spot. He then purposefully keeps steering the conversation to topics that exclude Stede from participating, and cuts Stede short when he tries to reign the conversation back.

He insinuates Stede is less of a pirate for being “store bought”

He refuses to get Stede’s name right, even when corrected. Twice.

And is just SO insincere when calling him back.

And, just, the whole pissing contest scene.

But so what? We’ve had other passive aggressive assholes on the show; Badminton with his cracks about Stede’s tiny dick ship, the French captain’s slurs, Gabriel simpering about Jeff the Accountant’s dining manners. I’m not shedding any tears for their respective fates, but none of them made me want to crawl through the screen and sew all their face holes shut. Because Jack isn’t just passive-aggressive (and aggressive-aggressive), he might just be the most savvy reader-of-rooms we see on the show, and purposefully and systematically leverages his passive aggression to manipulate the actions of those around him for the purpose of making Ed and Stede betray their better selves and make them do the work of driving a wedge between themselves.   That was a lot in one sentence.  Let me break it down.

Jack uses passive aggression to achieve one of four goals: to nettle, to undermine, (seemingly paradoxically) to reinforce connections, or to coerce. And, if he can manage to achieve different goals for more than one target with the same attack? So much the better. And he’s frankly just astonishingly good at doing so. Like, I’d admire him for it if it didn’t also make me want to make him swallow all of his own teeth.

The basic gameplan goes thusly (this is not a strictly chronological list, a lot of these tactics take place concurrently and recurrently): Stede is the primary target, so Jack nettles him with passive aggressive comments, which puts him on the back foot and undermines his self-confidence. He reinforces his relationship with Ed in ways that excludes Stede and undermines Stede’s relationship with Ed and Ed’s relationship with Stede. Jack uses coercive tactics with Ed and the crew, which undermines Stede’s relationships with them, isolating and othering Stede, which further tanks his mood, which leads him to self-isolate. When Stede eventually lashes out at Ed for falling for Jack’s bullshit, Ed has no idea what’s got Stede so out-of-sorts; Jack has so carefully lead Ed to making the choices that have alienated Stede that they seem like they were Ed’s ideas in the first place. And if Ed has made the choices to do these things, then they are clearly just a reflection of who he is, which, if Stede is lashing out against them, then Stede is rejecting him. Wedge set and match.

So let’s look at the specifics.

Jack’s interactions with Ed are like a masterclass in neurolinguistic programming for evil. First, he plys Ed with booze from the very start. Just look at the bottle in this shot from right after they blow up the dresser drawer.

That bottle or rum is over half gone, and the sky in the background is the peachy-pink of sunrise. This isn’t the bottle Jack had with him in his dinghy; that one he drained and then threw in the air and tried to shoot before coming aboard the Revenge. Which means that they’ve consumed over half the bottle between just the two of them in a very short amount of time.   Alcohol, of course, is a social lubricant - the physical warmth it produces mimicking the “warm, fuzzy” feeling of true comradery, and, more importantly, decoupling the decision-making process from inhibition (that is to say, Ed isn’t necessarily doing anything he absolutely wouldn’t otherwise do, but he might otherwise think twice).

But it’s more insidious than just having a few drinks with an old friend. Jack specifically gamifies the consumption of alcohol to reinforce the coupling of the feeling of inebriation with the comradery engendered by teamwork and excitement of success in order to encourage Ed to drink more than he necessarily otherwise would. Ed confirms to Stede during his apology that the idea to use the drawers of the armoire for target practice came from Jack, and we saw that a bullseye meant that Jack had to take a drink, but Ed didn’t. Presumably, there would have been some consequence for a “miss”, and it seems likely that it would be Ed has to take a drink and not Jack. In this way, Jack is able to exert a measure of control over how much Ed is drinking (by missing on purpose) while making it look like the responsibility lies with Ed and his skill as a thrower. This pattern of sneakily controlling Ed’s actions while making it seem like Ed is the one who made or is responsible for the decision will pop up again and again during their interactions.

After the apologies for waking Stede, Jack steps into the space where Ed is gesticulating to make himself readily available to be touched, reenforcing the bond between them, but letting Ed be the one to instigate the touching.

At brekkie, he pours rum into Ed’s teacup without asking or being asked while Ed’s attention is diverted by getting food.

Jack’s collaring of the conversation does not just function as a means of making Stede feel excluded, he’s also refreshing and reinforcing the bonds he and Ed forged under adversity. Talking over Stede also demonstrates that what he has to say is more important than anything Stede might contribute.

Note that just before Jack cut him off, Stede had referred to Ed as Blackbeard (“Blackbeard and I met on a ship”). This may be innocently explained away; if you meet a person from a facet of a close friend’s life with which you do not intersect, you might refer to said friend by their given name instead of a nickname that the other person might not know, for the sake of common frame of reference. But this is the opposite of that - referring to a friend by a nickname instead of the given name that you both presumably know. That suggests to me that the seed of the Ed/Blackbeard dichotomy has already been planted in Stede’s mind by the morning’s shenanigans. And when Jack invites Stede back into participating in the conversation by talking about something he knows Stede would find upsetting (the wanton cruelty of Ed purposefully trapping people to be burned alive, couched in what sounds like sincere admiration for his friend’s piratical prowess), Jack has picked up on that distinction and is leaning into it HARD. He WANTS Stede to see Ed as a collection of behaviors he finds palatable, and Blackbeard as a collection of behaviors he finds repulsive, and then coerce Ed into performing those “Blackbeard behaviors” in order to coerce Stede to drive the wedge by rejecting him. Fucking diabolical.

When Jack is calling Stede a “big girl,” or “store-bought,” or purposefully getting his name wrong, he’s not just throwing barbs that play on Stede’s insecurities (and with such harrowing precision, too; calling on the effeminacy for which he was tormented as a child, his body image issues that we’ve also seen him struggle with under the tender mercies of Badminton - both brain-ghost and original flavor - and the authenticity of his claim to piracy, which we’ve seen him confess that he fears he’s ill-qualified to claim to Jim, Oluande, and Ed. I mean,triple bullseye for this fucking guy). He’s also using these public declarations to undermine Stede’s authority in front of his crew, and establish himself as the real authority on things like piracy and masculinity. He further reinforces this idea by withholding the story of how he saved Ed’s life under the guise of false modesty; people never want something more than when they’re told they can’t have it. And what they’re being told they can’t have is the story of how Jack was so amazing that he even managed to save the life of the coolest, most legendary pirate they know. This withholding primes the crew to think even more highly of Jack and hang on his every word.

This puts Jack into a position where he can pressure the crew into things that sound fun at first blush (like diving off the yardarm or having a snowball fight, but with coconuts), but end up hurting more than anything. Of course, within this dynamic, no one wants to admit they aren’t having a good time, or don’t want to do it; to do so would be tantamount to admitting you are less of a man or not a real pirate. So when Stede refuses to participate, or admits his discomfort or disgust with the proceedings, he’s doing Jack’s work for him, and further alienating himself, and solidifying the roles Jack had put into place where Jack is the fun, cool guy, and Stede is the killjoy that no one should listen to.

Stede unwittingly plays right into Jack’s design when he tries to stand up for himself and wrest back a modicum of respect before things get too far out of hand. He’s well-versed in the world of passive aggression, and sees what Jack is doing. He also knows that you can’t call it out because passive aggression comes with a built in cover of plausible deniability gaslighting. So instead, he tries to push back with a little passive aggression of his own, suggesting that a real pirate has a ship and a crew. Sadly, Stede is not nearly so adroit at wielding passive aggression as Jack is. Jack uses the story (and we know that Izzy sent him, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the whole mutiny thing is just a story; I could even easily read that slight hesitation after Stede asks his question as Jack deciding on what would be the most effective cover story, instead of hesitancy to admit to something shameful) of his crew’s mutiny to casually re-sow the idea of mutiny on the Revenge. It’s played for comedy when the crew starts talking about how they almost mutinied on Stede and probably will again, but you can’t tell me this hasn’t been a major concern for Stede ever since the first episode. So Jack’s not only got the crew trying to buoy his spirits by assuring him that his crew mutinying on his doesn’t mean he’s a bad person; it’s just something that happens! He’s also got them low-key committing to a future mutiny WITHIN EARSHOT OF STEDE.

Additionally, while Stede is well-steeped in the ways of passive aggression, his crew and Ed are not. They are not particularly sophisticated at identifying passive aggression on its own merits as opposed to the reaction it provokes, which can make it look like they don’t care when it’s being leveraged against Stede, undermining his ability to trust they will look out for him. Stede stoically putting up with Jack’s jibes makes them even more difficult to identify as hurtful. Jack’s (fake) emotional reaction to Stede’s sally might make him look momentarily weak, but allows Ed and the crew to unequivocally identify who is in the wrong and react accordingly. By positioning himself as a victim, he villainizes Stede, further undermining Stede’s authority, and placing him in a position where he owes Jack recompense. Thus, Jack is able to manipulate Stede into the trap of Dead Man’s Cove and make it look like it was Stede’s own idea. I mean, the Xanatos Speed Chess of it all.

What’s heartbreaking to me is how Jack’s wedge-driving and othering of Stede is working so well that at this point we start to hear it from other sources. As they approach the island and Stede suggests going for a swim or taking a nature walk, Ed is the one who tells him, “I think with this crowd, I think they want something a little more…” Not Jack would want something more exciting, this crowd. Jack’s exclusionary rhetoric out of Ed’s mouth.

Which is exactly the time Jack decides to up the ante.

I want to take a minute to look at the immediate lead up to yardies, because I think it’s an excellent illustration of how Jack looks like a lumbering boor, but his actions are actually so carefully considered and nuanced. He runs up from behind Stede and Ed and throws his arms around them shouting “Yardies!” literally insinuating himself between them, which interrupts anything that was going on between them, puts them off balance, and focuses the attention on him. Then, when he says “Who’s up for yardies?” he makes eye-contact with Ed - the implicit social expectation being “You, Ed, are up for yardies.” When he turns to Stede, it is to literally laugh in his face. I mean, the absolute cheek.

Until this point, the crew of the Revenge have been passive participants in Jack’s hooliganry. They watched him perform whippies, and got whipped at without encouraging him to do so. They listened to his and Ed’s stories. But now Jack is cashing in on his established expertise of what real pirates do to coerce the crew into taking part in a dangerous stunt. It’s more of the “Blackbeard behavior” dichotomy he started sowing in Stede’s mind at brekkie, but now he’s extending it beyond Ed to the whole crew. He wants Stede to feel like he’s all alone in a sea of idiocy, but he wants him to come to the conclusion on his own by making it seem like Ed and the crew are doing things of which he would disapprove of their own accord.

Once we get to the island, we see the activities take a turn from the careless Jackass-ery of whippies and yardies to the abject cruelty of turtle vs. crab. There’s no saying that Jack organized the fight, but we do see the crew handing him various trinkets to be used in gambling on a winner, which certainly suggests he was the central figure in how the game was established. We also see that, though he has been presenting himself as a drunkard, there’s no bottle in his hand or around him in the sand. There is, however, one in Ed’s hand, who is directly to his side. I can easily see him handing it off so he could handle the gambling stakes, the real intention being to keep Ed readily supplied with booze.

And then we have the pissing contest. Jack’s got Stede literally and metaphorically isolated, and now it’s time to really drive it all home. Every moment of their interaction is designed to drive Stede to distraction; the amount of derision he lays on the phrase “Your good, close buddy,” the insinuation that he and Ed are just alike, and then being as rude and crass as possible. And because he’s read the room - the intimate breakfast for two, Ed’s little touches and the way Stede smiles at them, the way they keep going off together for little chats - of course Jack’s just got to twist the knife and allude to his and Ed’s former sexual history. So now that he’s got Stede primed, it’s time to name the fear: “Maybe you don’t know him at all.”

At this point, Stede is left to wonder: does he? Blackbeard’s reputation preceded him, after all. And he’s been acting so differently since the appearance of one of his oldest friends. It’s not the violence qua violence, per se; Stede is by turns delighted and impressed by the violence he’s seen Ed and his crew employ in the heat of battle in the pursuit of piracy. It’s the cruel and senseless violence that Stede objects to, and that’s exactly the brand that Jack has been peddling, and which Ed has gone along with so enthusiastically. And it’s not JUST the violence; Ed apologizes for Jack when he recognizes Jack has crossed a line in a typically agro way (destroying Stede’s belongings, and insulting Stede to his face), but it never occurs to Stede that his insistence on persevering with quietly aggrieved dignity in the face of Jack’s slights would make it nigh impossible for Ed to identify that Jack has crossed all sorts of other lines, and Stede is hurting because of it. For Stede, it must be frustrating and mystifying why Ed keeps letting his friend get away with his passive aggressive bullshit. Doesn’t he care? 

Is it any wonder that one more failure to notice how Jack has riled him, and one more act of coconut-flavored Jackass-ary is enough to break the dam, and for Stede to spill all that built-up hurt on Ed?  Is it any wonder that Ed is bewildered at where all this is coming from? I’ve talked before about Ed’s tendency to fawn on people, and how, as an emotional chameleon, he would have difficulty identifying when the motivation for his actions is self-directed or externally dictated. Jack has further confounded this distinction by manipulating scenarios to make it seem like participation in all the Jackass-ary he has instigated was voluntary instead of coerced. When Stede says “I don’t like who you are around  this guy” what he means is “I don’t like how this guy is able to manipulate you into acting on your very worst impulses”, but what Ed hears is “I don’t like you”. For who is he, if not the collection of behaviors he chooses to exhibit? And were those choices not entirely his to make? With the rift clearly established, if in its infancy, of course Jack is going to do everything he can to foster its growth. So again, he interrupts Stede, again implicitly signaling that Ed should pay attention to what he says and not Stede. By lobbing the coconut at Ed at that moment, he forestalls any possible clearing of the air between Ed and Stede, and causes Ed to literally turn his back on Stede, in the way Ed feels Stede has emotionally turned his back on him just moments earlier. Jack reinforces this idea of turning his back on Stede again moments later when he says “Don’t go!” and immediately turns Ed around by the shoulders.

I know that I’ve been laying it on a bit thick and prolly sound like the written embodiment of the red string conspiracy meme, but I’m about to get a whole lot worse, and I’m going to ask you to stick with me, oh my v. dears. I think Jack killed Karl on purpose.

I know, I know. It was an accident! He was flailing drunkenly! But was he?

Have we seen him take so much as a single drink since the cannon fire at the beginning of the episode? Even though he’d been drinking earlier, did he not have devastating precision and accuracy when he first demonstrated Whippies - shattering every glass, snapping the cards from the Swede’s fingers, and ball-tapping Ed without permanently maiming him or even splitting the leather of his pants? In fact, while nearly every other crew member on the deck has a bottle in hand, just like on the beach, Jack does not.

Jack knows he has to get Ed off the ship before the British show up, but he can’t just say “Let’s ditch these losers” and expect Ed to agree, especially since he’s spent most of the day roping the crew into his schemes. The most effective way to get Ed to follow is if Jack is rejected for just being himself and doing what he does, just like Ed feels he was earlier by Stede. I think the original plan was to goad Olu into seriously hurting the Swede, the fallout of which would be recriminations that Jack made them do it, and Jack getting aggrieved that he was just trying to show this ungrateful lot how to have a good time, skulking off and leading Ed to follow him and reassure him that he’s really a good guy - how could he have known it would turn out like that? But when Buttons calls a halt to the proceedings and it looks like everyone is going to pack it in, Jack has to think fast. If HE maims a crew mate, that would be a bridge too far, painting him as the bad guy. But Karl? He’s just a bird. And if Jack can get a little revenge on the weird bird guy who made him change his plan, so much the better. AND, as people with far fewer auditory processing issues than I have pointed out, Jack mutters that he expected there to be more feathers. Could the evidence be any more damning?

Of course the whole ship turns on him, and then here’s Stede to order him off, explicitly rejecting him the way he metaphorically rejected Ed. But when even that isn’t enough to get Ed to follow him, Jack pulls out one last, desperate manipulation - the debt of life.

Jack’s tragic flaw is that he can’t turn it off. Once he and Ed are alone, he turns his passive aggressive assault on Ed, pressuring him into drinking the morning away by sarcastically saying he didn’t know he had an audience with the pope when Ed expresses disinterest, and, ultimately, giving up the game when he mentions with casual derision how he’d heard of Ed shaking up with Stede, and then deriding Ed for his failure to spot Jack’s machinations.

Too bad Jack didn’t know that the punishment for passive-aggressive fuckery on this show is death…

#ofmd #our flag means death #ofmd meta #calico jack

[klevxander]

Watching Nimona for the 2nd time after reading tons of posts and the comic. A thread:

[SPOILERS AHEAD SO GO WATCH THE MOVIE ALREADY]

* Knowing how things play out in the end really captures just how ridiculous the title sequence mythologizes these kids and what fear really does to people

* originally when the squire comes up to Ballister I thought that he wanted a selfie with him and was nervous about it. The facial expressions show that he's confused about handing the "sword" off to him and Ballister's face in response just ahfhsjbd. Also I noticed immediately that Ballister could just /feel/ something was off.

* "Ballister, today the kingdom will see you for who you really are" was SUCH A DAMN TWOFACED COMMENT FROM THE DIRECTOR YOU EVIL EVIL SHITFUCK

* Nimona's face as they discover someone that has been shunned just as they were just MMMMMPH *chef's kiss*

* Nimona's expressions are wonderful and when they ask about Ballister keeping the arm just makes me giggle in the weirdest way. I need screenshots at some point because emotes at some point are going to become a must

* THE DRAMA AND ENERGY NIMONA BRINGS

* "This guy looks extremely punchable" "You're right. He is actually extremely punchable."

* I kinda love the transition from the comic to the movie from Blackheart to Boldheart. A villain on purpose to a villain by someone else's doing. The similarities and parallels and themes!!!!

* We just threw the murderer in jail. "Wanna get some lunch?" "Yeah! I love lunch!"

* Nimona the rat sneaking into the cell as the Director leaves Ballister

* "Wait. How did you get out?" "I know the code."

* Nimona's intro to the escape music. I love this beatboxing gremlin. And then just breaks stuff while following after Ballister who is trying to sneak out carefully. "He is a murderer!... of fun"

* "Something something something... we win!"

* The way Nimona lands in the hero pose and stands triumphantly while Ballister slides in on his face, defeated by the overwhelming everything that just happened

* "Metal"

* Nimona absolutely loves fucking with Ballister. Just messing with his head because he's just so gullible. Making the lair more evil lair-y with lights on strings and making tacos. THE HANDS AS NIMONA SAYS MEATBALL!!!

* Comic Ballister is definitely more clearly defined as a scientist, and the only reference we get to movie Ballister being scientific is just that he MAKES HIS OWN ARM. It's a little more understandable to see where he's coming from. He's a man of science. Science has reason and explanation and definition and Nimona... Does not. Not to say that any of his actions are necessarily forgivable, as he definitely hurts Nimona by being this way. Nimona gives him one question out of his million, and thankfully, he chooses the correct one. "Why are you helping me?"

* "You need the squire? Then let's go kill- Get him"

* The way Nimona Super Mario hops bouncing off the couch AND KEEPS TELEPORTING FOR COMEDIC EFFECT

* "rhinoperos"

* "Would you please unclench your mustache?"

* Nimona constantly questions all of Ballister's actions and tries to have him question things for himself. Question everything. Including the system.

* Something therapeutic for Ballister in the way Nimona portrays him.

* "He hates freestyle jazz"

* pizza rat pizza rat pizza rat

* The random commercial transition with Dragon Krisps

* "Easier to be a girl? You're hilarious" Nimona is all about expressing who they are and questioning the status quo. Questioning what everyone else wants you to be. What is normal? Fuck being normal. I'm Nimona.

* The wishing well story in the movie vs the witch in the hole in the comic.

* Ballister and his constant puppy dog eyes

* The squire has such Kuzco energy. "Ohhh nooo. Let me go ahead and pass this problem on to someone else."

* Nimona's slander on pineapple pizza. How dare

* Comparisons to other memes and media are EVERYWHERE. "There's an arrow in your (butt) leg!" Also, the arrow in the leg from comic to movie makes such a defined difference. "I'm not a people." That's right sweetheart. You're a Nimona. I also love this scene because of the character growth from Ballister and the recognition of said growth from Nimona. He's got these assumptions and expectations that are constantly breaking around Nimona and they just watch him make mistakes and learn and grow. And BECAUSE Nimona can SEE this growth and change, they decide to share something a little more personal about themselves.

* "Who'd protect Todd?" Bro. I know.

* The squire dabbing in Ballister's armor. Secondhand embarrassment at an all-time high.

* "ARM-CHOPPING IS NOT A LOVE LANGUAGE" and then because of his training and his love BALLISTER PROCEEDS TO DEFEND THE GUY WHO CHOPPED OFF HIS ARM

* The parallels, the comparisons, the brainwashing, the questioning of everything!!!!

* Ambrosius watching as the future he could have had being wiped away quite literally depicted by a billboard being painted over, as he sits in the car with the person who's fears caused the incident in the first place. AND THEN THE FREAKOUT ABOUT EVERYTHING that only happens in his mind as he just simply responds with, "I'm fine, Director."

* Another person already said this, but the "devil and angel" over Ballister and Ambrosius comparison is just wonderful. "Says the miscreant, whispering in his ear." Bitch who the fuck are you!? Look in a goddamn mirror and reflect for fucking 2 seconds!!!

* They give Ambrosius a chance to do the right thing and trust the man he supposedly loves. Instead, he asks the wrong question, escalates the situation, and ends up with his hair looking like a paintbrush, getting booped on the nose by a gorilla. Also DINGING THAT KNIGHT IN THE DINGDONG WITH ARMADILLO NIMONA THEN USING THE KNIGHT'S SHIELD THAT IS STILL ATTACHED TO THE POOR GUY!?!? "Sorry not sorry" "Of horse I do" The pure elatement and joy Nimona expresses while fighting the Institution. *chef's kisses everywhere*

* The confusion over what kind of otter Nimona takes form as a callback

* This movie subverts expectations CONSTANTLY jumping rope with drama and comedy.

* THE SEVERE TRAUMA THAT NIMONA HAS over saving the little girl's life and having her in turn raise a sword at Nimona. The parallel to Gloreth just broke them.

* "I don't know what's scarier. The fact that everyone in this kingdom wants to run a sword through my heart... or they sometimes, I just wanna let 'em."

* The way Nimona lights up when Ballister says that they are together. "You changed the way you see me."

* The director bases all of her fears on a myth and old papers and nightmares. Projecting her fears in a way that only hurts the people around her.

* The DRAMA that Nimona exudes after being STABBED in the form of Ambrosius. It's also not exactly explained in the movie, but in the comic, the reason Nimona apparently heals so fast is because every time they change forms, the old body (cells) dies and the new one takes its place. Which is why Nimona just questioned what the fuck Ballister was doing when bandaging their leg and being all worried about the arrow.

* "You didn't tell me you could breathe fire." "Ohhh" "Metal" love how he just accepts Nimona at this point. The board game, Nimona shape-shifting into the Director to spook Ballister and so many other bits from the comic, either being pulled directly or inspiring new ones. It's all just so good.

* "Nachos! And hold the olives. He's allergic"

There is so much to this movie. I love the stories it speaks for and that so many people connect to it. So many other conclusions to be drawn and analysis to be made. Definitely one of my new favorites.

#nimona #nimona comic #nimona movie #ballister boldheart #ambrosius goldenloin

[quietwingsinthesky]

it’s fine though im gonna just write all my thoughts. here. as they happen. in real time. enjoy o7

- makes out with a woman. immediately stops and starts talking about the master getting inside his body. he’s so fucking funny.

- all this fucking exposition alsjfksjkafjkgjd

- succ the planet

- ABANDONED MY CAT OUT IN THE COLD ALONE!!!!!!!!!! HE JUST WANTS YOUR HELP TO FIND AN…. atomic clock. GRACE!!!!!!!!!!!

- GOD I THOUGHT THE MASTER SAID “before he finds a cock”

- LITERALLY CAT BEHAVIOR. LET HIM INNNNNN.

- grace <3 grace! grace :3 graceeee!!!!! grace :D grace :(

- i dont have to say anything here

- WAIT NO HE DOESNT EVEN RECOGNIZE HIM. DOCTOR YOU ARE SO STUPID. NEVER KNOWS HIS BOYFRIEND.

- “she kiss as good as me?” “as well as you.” i love that the master is a pedantix grammar asshole

- ACID GOOP SPIT????????????????? FROM HIS MOUTH?????????????? hey modern doctor who writers you know what you should bring back-

- “WAIT! STOP. HE’S UHM. HE’S. He’s british?” THIS MOVIE IS SO FUCKING FUNNY ALSJFKSKFHFK

- cop takes the jelly baby. doctor makes kissy noises at him. cop goes :/. doctor threatens to shoot himself. okay <3

- doctor who needs more motorcycle chase scenes

- can i say. btw. i love the master having his own companion kind of here. (also. the “you kill me.” exchange. alsjfjflsjd autistic murder creature.)

- doctor found his atomic cock. i mean clock.

- the half-human thing is so stupid. gog bless.

- he keeps goopin people up

- things the master does in this movie: have sex with the tardis’s keyhole. penetrate a man’s throat. fantasize about getting inside the doctor’s body. says every sentence as seductively as possible. gets his young male sidekick to pull a large phallic object out of a hole. gives people money shots with his goop.

- i love grace. gotta appreciate a girl who’s ready to do insane shit after some guy spits on her.

- mrs tardis…. you’re back. (i did pause the movie to make sure. he says “there she is” <3 his wife) also he just leaves the key??? on the top?????? god no wonder the master can just break in whenever he wants. he absolutely knows where the doctor keeps that key.

- THE GUY ON THE MOTORCYCLE JUST- THIS MOVIE IS SO FUCKING FUNNY

- she’s dying :((((

- OH HE GOTS HER. HE GOTS HER!!!!!!!!!!!! POSSESSED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHACKED THE DOCTOR OVER THE HEAD WITH A HAMMER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

- OH MY GOD.

- OH MY GOD????????????? HE ALWAYS DRESSES FOR THE OCCASION?????????????????

- the cunt……. the cunt………!!!!

- PUTTING A CROWN OF THORNS ON MR CHRIST FIGURE?????????????????????????????????????? (<- he’s. like. not. but also they did reference it earlier so.)

- i love his stupid robes so much. i want them. whats with that collar. why is gallifreyan fashion so stupid. its fantastic. (mentally putting Even in the stupid gallifreyan collar robes)

- he’s so full of stupid <3 he wasted his fucking lives <3

- NO! LEEEEEEE!!!!!!

- hey why would a piece of gallifreyan technology. im assuming. only work for people who are. not from gallifrey. why would you need a human eye for this. why am i acting like this movie should make sense.

- fellas is it gay to wanna merge mind and body with your oldest enemy and friend.

- he is aLiiiiveeehhhhh :D

- being fed (<- big fan of companions having to figure out the bullshit that is tardis piloting on their own)

- why is the master making whale sounds. why’s he do that. why is he always some sort of creachur. goes rarghhhhh!!!!!

- RETURN OF THE CANONICAL TIME LORD 30 FT VERTICAL LEAP ABILITY

- give me your hand………………………………

- bro they melted him In The Eye

- is he actually jesus though. like is that. im not crazy right. i think they made the doctor into a jesus. they got him. just like superman. no one escapes the jesus.

- “what a sentimental old thing this tardis is” 🥹🥹🥹 yeah. yeah, she is.

- SHE’S DIGESTING HIM????? DIGESTING THE MASTER????????? MASTER GOT VORED BY THE TARDIS NOT CLICKBAIT??????? GONE WRONG GONE SEXUAL??????????????????

- this movie is so fucking funny i know i keep saying that but it really is. sometimes unintentionally but also when it means to as well. silly movie <3

- “come with me 🥺” “you come with me 🤨”

- im not invested in whatever romance they probably want me to be invested in here but i AM invested in the wild brief companionship with a man that ended in a case of mild death that she voluntarily chose to let go of. which is different. and more important.

- i cant believe the master just got fucking vored and thats how he dies. i mean obviously not forever but-

- i had fun :)

#dw lb #dw the tv movie

[ladyvlolypop]

Post-Merge Kai falling in love Hc's pt.2

Post-Merge Kai Parker falling in love with human reader(not part of the MF Gang)

I hope I didn't keep you waiting for too long guys, I kind of fell into a Draco Malfoy rabbit hole and now with the release of HOTD I was suddenly pulled into the GOT fandom??(I didn't watch either of these shows)

Since I have holidays now and I'm feeling inspired, I thought it be a great idea to finally finish this. I hope you enjoy

More Kai Parker Headcanons

(not my gif)

You'd prolly meet in the Mystic Grill

I can imagine him eyeing you from across the place and kind of already preparing himself to walk up to you

After a few minutes he'd walk over to you and just start chatting with you

With all his charm and wit he'd kind of pull you into staying and make you more interested

It surprised him that you didn't immediately walk away

You were surprised when approached by such a handsome man but also, kind of worried. Because Mystic Falls is no safe city with all the unsolved murders and the chilling rumors of creatures so horrifying that were a danger even in broad daylight. But soon after you talked with him a while you noticed that he wasn't any danger. Kai, that's his name. He talked non-stop but not without making you talk at least half as much. He was funny, charming and he seemed to be kind. Your soft look on your face didn't go unnoticed by Kai,. It was a look that intrigued him as much as he intrigued you. He loved to make you laugh and he loved listening to your voice. A much better voice than that of Damon or Bonnie. The conversation between you went so smooth that you were talking at least 1-2 hours without any awkward silences. Neither of you even dared to look at their phone in fear of killing the vibe. But once you caught a small look at your watch you gasped slightly and Kai immediately stopped talking mid sentence and looked at you worried. "What? What is it?" He followed your eyes curiously and looked at your watch. He reacted with much less shock. After all, he has no where to go. "Ah, nothing really it's just that I need to head home" you said a little quiet and looked outside and saw how dark it has gotten "I'm really sorry but I need to go now" You said and started packing your stuff. He watched you quietly, not sure what to do now.

Kai was a bit disappointed but immediately started panicking when he saw how quick you were on leaving

He went after you and decided to walk you home

He even got your number when dropping you off

He didn't leave that bad of an impression, so when he asked to meet up again after a few days you were excited to meet him again

With time you'd both meet up more and more and you'd form quite a good bond

He'd call you often when something reminded him of you or text you about literally anything that happened in his day

Of course he wanted to hear about your day too, but he had lots of stuff to talk about

You'd hang out whenever you both had time and honestly, it formed into a more friendship type of thing

He didn't mind because he was thrilled to have someone to talk to

He lowkey did want something more though

He unobtrusively checked whether you were a supernatural being or not and when he figured out you weren't he started wondering wether he was bringing you in danger

Especially when you told him that you didn't talk to the Salvatore Brothers and the people they were friends with

At least it eased his mind that they wouldn't try to talk you out of being friends with him

He did start worrying a lot though again and would get you to let him sleepovers since "His dad was strict and he never had one as a child so he wants to catch up to that"

He doesn't talk about his past a lot

But he did mention something about an abusive household and fake friends that are trying to ruin his life

Anyways, he started sleeping over often and you'd often wake up to him making breakfast

You'd spent all day and when he felt like you were working too much he'd start play fights and taking the things you need and hold them above his head so you wouldn't get them

(He secretly really liked having you touch him and be close to him like that, even if it was only platonic)

He craved that touch, that attention

Your touch

Your attention

He started craving things like that

And he'd kind of always hang out with you

And even if you were busy, he'd lurk around, making sure you're safe

Soon he started feeling weird when seeing you

And let's not forget the raging jealousy that had developed when he saw you flirting with another man

You noticed his eyes and it started worrying you

Have you angered him?

He also started spoiling you with gifts

Things you've told him you wanted

and he started paying for food or drinks

All in hopes of you suddenly falling into his arms like in all the books and movies he's read and seen

He did notice his feelings for you and was contemplaited whether he should confess his feelings

But he was deathly afraid of ruining the friendship

He even asked Elena

And Elena told him the obvious(even when she hated his guts) to confess

After a few weeks of him hanging out with you less and worrying you sick

He went to your place at almost 1 in the morning and confessed right at your doorstep

A decision that could only be made hot headed and past 11 pm

When you didn't immediately answer to his confession(you were half awake) his body was flooded by a wave of anger and panic

You were woken up by your door ringing aggressively and you groaned frustrated. You sighed loudly and slowly got up. you yelled "I'm coming already!! Stop assaulting my doorbell!" and the ringing stopped almost immediately, making you wonder if the neighbors kid were playing a trick on you. You rubbed your eyes and opened the door and sighed a little when you saw Kai standing there. He was standing a little more slouched than usual and he seemed tired as well, but not the normal tired, the exhausted and ill tired. "You-" You wanted to say something but he gripped your arms and said "ListenIhadtotellyouthissincethebeginningbutIdidn'tandwhatIreallywantedtosayisthatI'mdeeplyinlovewithyou".

... "I'm deeply in love with you" ... did he really say that?

"What?" you said. Kai looked at you scared. Did she catch what I said? I can't say it again. He let go of you and swallowed thickly. Did I do the right thing? Oh god she must hate me now. Your tired and confused look started looking like a look of disgust and deep hatred to him. He took a few steps back, suddenly feeling like 7 y/o Malachai again, watching his father look at him like the monster he is. He engraved your face in his brain, so that he could at least remember his first crush when he started over somewhere else.

Suddenly you were wide awake, you noticed him straighten up and his panicked face. He looked so pale it almost made you think he might be sick. But you caught on to his posture. He's about to run away. He wants to run away! He took his first step into the other direction wanting to go into a full sprint but you reached out for his arm and pulling him back hard. Kissing him softly and surprising him greatly.

Hope you guys like it I'll make another part with witch reader that's part w the mystic falls gang

taglist:

@huskyhunny

#kai parker headcanon #kai parker x reader #kai parker #tvdu #tvd x reader #tvd fic #requests open #request #tvd headcanons #kai parker hc #kinda angsty? #friends to lovers #strangers to friends

[dragynkeep]

I’m sorry, I don’t understand the point of Ren’s father running to fight the Nuckelavee when he had Ren in his arms, while they were both disoriented/hurt. Honor be damned! Is your elementary school aged son supposed to take care of himself in the woods with the bandits and other towns presumably also being harrassed by the Grimm? This man was supposed to be a lower case “h” hunter, which implies outdoors experience and knowledge of evading Grimm for at least a while - would it not have made sense for him to, oh I don’t know, take care of his elementary school son in the murder woods? Ren finding Nora and somehow surviving for another decade is just never explained because the writers just wanted some drama without thinking through the complications of making Ren’s dad such an idiot that he damaged his son’s chances for survival just to fight a Grimm that the town is completely ill equipped for, THAT WASN’T EVEN ATTACKING HIM SPECIFICALLY. It was on the other side of the town but he just had to go back to fight it because ???

Plus like, imagine an AU with Li, his son and adoptive daughter processing their grief and possibly even becoming a badass Grimm killing family. Does it not warm your heart at least a little bit?

it was definitely more "rule of cool / drama" than it was anything truly based in realistic thought because even with li as injured as he was: the choice to run & hide with his toddler son was the better option than getting immediately nerfed & then still not being able to protect his son. it was noble, but idiotic.

the au of li & his children is just so 🥺 especially since it would help plug up the holes of just how two toddler aged children ended up surviving post the nuckalavee's attack for over a decade without changing too much. ren & nora can still go to beacon, li doesn't have to follow them through there & we would get another parental figure for the show. win win win.

i'm stealing this au now / hj

#rwby #rwde #li ren #lie ren #nora valkyrie #ais.txt #answered #q #au: li survives

[endlesslystarlitskies]

Lost and Found- Part 7

A/N: Here is the next chapter! I’m not getting a lot of engagement on these posts, but I am still loving writing the story so I’m going to keep posting. This is a shorter chapter, but I might post another one again later. Who knows! I think this story is going to end up being 13 chapters long, so there’s that. Please let me know what you think!

Genre: Horror, action, adventure, Romance, Slow-Burn,  

Pairing: Leon Kennedy x Named Reader (Named but not Described)

Summary: Ella was one of the missing hikers who was kidnapped by the villagers. She narrowly escaped being sacrificed, but her friends weren’t so lucky. Managing to survive out in the woods with her previous skills and knowledge, she runs into Leon, and that meeting begins the longest, most dangerous adventure of her life as she tries to help him save the girl she saw being taken into the church. What will happen along the way? Only one way to find out.  

Warnings: Canon typical violence and gore, Death, Murder, Monsters, Suicidal ideations mentioned, Ella has little regard for her own life and is dealing with the loss of someone closest to her while also fighting to survive with waning self-preservation instincts. Please be cautious if that triggers you.

Word Count: 4,838

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6

Story Masterlist

xXx

Leon had told Ashely to get into the locker when the two women with chainsaws made themselves known, wanting her safe and out of the way so he and Ella could handle them quickly.

However, Ella’s absence was quickly noted, and Leon could only assume she got held up with some villagers, which meant he had to take them on himself. It wasn’t a real problem, as he could handle them and the few villagers coming through the hole they had created, but he couldn’t help but be concerned that Ella wasn’t right behind them. He couldn’t worry about it now, having to dodge the chainsaw coming towards his head and take care of the issue right in front of him. xXx

Ashley left the locker when the coast was clear, and Leon picked up the lever they had needed to get through the gate. He took a moment to listen for the sound of gunshots or the footsteps of Ella returning, but it was quiet, a bad feeling settling in his gut. “Did you see where Ella went?” He asked Ashley, who had noticed Ella’s absence and wore a look of concern. “No, I thought she was right behind us.” Leon had thought that too. 

He grit his teeth as the bad feeling grew, and they left the wooden building before taking the hill back up to where they had last been when she was with them, but there was no sign of her. 

“Leon, look!” Ashley called, standing by the corner of one of the shacks, and Leon moved over quickly, the sight confirming his fears. All of her gear was thrown half haphazardly in the corner, discarded. “Where is she?” Ashley asked in panicked worry, not understanding how she could just disappear like this. Leon recalled the moment he had thought he’d seen the glint of a gold necklace, and he became frustrated with himself that he didn’t realize what it had meant before. The man had taken her once more, and Leon had a feeling he knew where. xXx Ella slowly felt her senses come back to her as she blinked her eyes open, it taking a moment for her to register that she was being carried by someone, a shoulder pressing into her stomach uncomfortably. Her mind was fuzzy, and Ella had to squeeze her eyes shut to clear the remaining disorientation, before she tried to look up and take in her surroundings. Robes. She was surrounded by people in robes. This scene was starting to look eerily familiar. Panic and fear filled her being like ice water, and she immediately began struggling in the grip of the large man holding her. The shock of her sudden movement and the elbow to the chest forced the villager to release her, Ella falling to the ground and immediately scrambling to her feet, moving away from the man in robes to create distance. She reached for her gun, but her heart dropped when she realized it wasn’t there. None of her weapons, or even her pouch, was on her person anymore. Of course they had taken them. She cursed, realizing she had only one choice. Fight. She had to once again put her self-defense skills to good use- only this time, she had to win if she wanted to live, as she knew they wouldn’t make the same mistake they did last time in not keeping an eye on her. She immediately raised her leg to kick the man running towards her in the kneecap, hearing the sickening crunch as the bone broke under the force, and she kneed him right in the face when he went down, taking care of him for the moment. She had no time to breathe as she spun, ducking under the arms that tried to grab her, before she swept the feet of the female cultist out from under her. She wanted to stomp on her elbow and break her arm, but she had to immediately defend against another man who came at her with a knife, barely moving out of the way in time as he tried to stab her in the shoulder. 

She needed that knife, and she knew it. It would be much better than nothing, and she could use the skills Leon taught her to get herself out of this situation. 

However, before she could think up a quick plan of action, the cultists who had been surrounding her suddenly parted, and the leader in the decorated robe and the golden necklace calmly walked up to her. 

Ella raised her arms, getting in a defensive stance as she readied to take him on, having to push away the fear that tried to grip her heart at the sight of him. She had told him he couldn’t take her by surprise anymore, and she was proven wrong. Even with all the weapons and Leon right there, he had grabbed her the moment the opportunity presented itself, and there was nothing Ella could do about it. 

Despite that, Ella refused to let him win without a fight, and when he was within range, she threw a punch, which the man easily dodged, but she wasn’t done. She spun, trying to catch him in the face with her elbow, but he had moved faster than she had been ready for, his hand darting out as he sliced her in the stomach with a knife. Ella hissed as she stumbled back, looking to the tear in her shirt. It wasn’t deep whatsoever, being just a shallow cut, but it burned, as if the knife had been glowing red hot when it cut her. Ella immediately felt her body become weak, the trembling no longer being from the fear as she fell to her knees. “What did you-” She tried to breathe, but the pain was intense, and she couldn’t get the words out as her vision blurred. The realization was slow to come to her fogging mind. Poison. There had been poison on his blade.

“It is such a shame. This fighting spirit of yours is what piqued my interest. . .” She heard him sigh. “You would have been the perfect servant and solution to our problem.” Disappointment was heavy in his tone.

It wasn’t long before a ringing sounded in her ears, drowning out anything else for a moment, though it lessened just a bit. She wasn’t passing out, but everything around her became muted and unfocused, Ella being unable to defend herself as one of the robed men picked her up once again. “Do not worry child, the poison is slow acting. It won’t kill you before we get the chance to perform the ritual.” The ritual. The altar. The very place she had escaped once, but would be unable to escape again, the poison flowing through her blood incapacitating her and leaving her helpless.

xXx

The rain was coming down hard, putting some of the candles around them out as Ella was laid down on the stone altar. Her hands were now tied behind her back and a dirty cloth was placed between her teeth to muffle her whimpers, the symbol once again painted in blood on her face, just like Alice. “It was so nice of you to clear off the altar for me. It made this go so much more smoothly.” Ella wanted to feel anger at his words. She wanted to feel rage and spiteful defiance, but all she could feel was utter terror. All she could think about was the stupid fight she and Leon had. ‘If you wanted to die, then you wouldn’t have fought to survive in those woods for four days straight. You wouldn’t be here right now.’ He was right. She didn’t want to die. She wanted to live. She wanted to make sure Ashley got home safe. She wanted to tell Alice’s parents what happened to her, so they didn’t have to live the rest of their lives wondering why their baby girl never came home. She wanted to make sure that whatever was going on in this village was stopped, so no one was ever hurt by them again. She wanted to apologize to Leon, and tell him he was right. To get the chance to thank him for saving her life before she got herself killed in her moments of sorrow and grief. She had refused to apologize even though she knew she had been in the wrong. She had been so worried about coming to terms with the fact that she wanted to live because of what it meant, wanting to give herself time that she should have known she wouldn’t have. Now she was forced to accept that she wanted to live, moments before she was about to die. She couldn’t save herself this time, and Leon wouldn’t be there to save her either. 

She had told him not to come for her if something happened. She had harshly insulted him and then practically ignored him in the last couple of hours. He had a very important job to do. One he couldn’t get distracted from because she stupidly got herself taken, again. She wouldn’t come for her if she was him. And that was assuming he even knew what happened to her.

“I want you to know that I fought hard to keep you around. I saw your potential for greatness.” THe man brushed his dirtied, disgusting knuckles against her cheek, and Ella had enough strength in her to jerk her head, shoving his hand off, his touch making nausea swirl in her stomach. In the next moment, a large hand suddenly pressed down hard on her head, Ella gritting her teeth against the cloth at the pressure on her skull. “But Lord Saddler has determined you to be too much of a risk and nuisance, and I must follow my master's orders.” 

Ella couldn’t help but feel indignation at his words, as she didn’t see Leon lying on this table about to be sacrificed. What did she do to be so damn special?  She knew it didn’t really matter. It was her who was lying on the stone, and Ella could see the shadow of the executioner's arm raise above his head, the shape of the ax sending a sharp pang through her heart as she squeezed her eyes shut. She didn’t want to watch as it came down to end her life. The chants of the cultists surrounding them echoed in her still ringing ears, the man in the gold necklace’s voice joining them, louder than the rest. Ella was sure it would be the last thing she would hear before her death, and that she would still hear it echo forever wherever she ended up after, the words being harshly ingrained into her mind. She waited for the pain of the ax lodging into her neck to come, but in the next moment, just as the executioner started to bring it down, gunshots cut off the chanting of the villagers, the executioner stumbling back and dropping the weapon as the pressure on her head was removed. Ella’s eyes shot open as fast as they could to see Leon vault over the back of the circular fence, his gun raised as he opened fire on the men surrounding her. Relief and shock filled Ella’s body as Leon made quick work of the cult members, though she didn’t miss the shadow of the leader slink into the background before disappearing completely. She honestly didn’t care at that moment, too relieved to worry about him as the last of the cultists fell to the ground, dead. Leon ran over to her, removing the cloth from her mouth as his eyes quickly scanned for any wounds.

“You okay? Talk to me.” There was a slight panic in Leon’s voice she had never heard before, or maybe that was a poison induced hallucination. She didn’t know, and at that moment, it didn’t matter.

“‘M fine.” She murmured as Leon cut her hands free, Ella bringing them in front of her to help push her up off the stone. “I thought you wouldn’t come.” She told him honestly, and if it weren’t for the poison in her system, she could cry and hug him.

“Yeah, well you called it from the beginning. I don’t leave people behind.” Leon told her firmly, now standing in front of her and using her wet flannel shirt to wipe the marking off of her face. His touch was gentle, his hand having come up to take her chin between his fingers and tilt her head back just a bit so he could use the rain to his advantage. 

Ella appreciated the gesture immensely, as Leon didn’t have to take the time to remove the symbol, but he did. Maybe he couldn’t stand to see it there as much as Ella couldn’t stand to know it was there. Whatever his reasoning, she was relieved he was doing it.

Once the blood was gone, Leon looked into her eyes, not missing how unfocused and clouded over they were. He brought his now free hand up, pressing it against her cheek and feeling how unnaturally warm her skin was, indicating she had a fever. 

“What did they do to you?” He asked her, the Merchant’s tip coming to his mind. He hadn’t seen a wound on her, but it was possible he had missed it, having done a quick glance over her in his worry.

“P-Poison.” She murmured, a shaky hand moving to push her flannel to the side, exposing the tear in her shirt Leon couldn’t see before. 

“Shit.” He cursed under his breath, reaching into his pouch and pulling out a container of crushed red and yellow leaves.

Ella had never seen a yellow herb before, wondering where he had gotten that. She couldn’t find the strength to ask, however. Especially when he pressed on her shoulder to have her lie back on the stone again, panic flowing through her. In a surprisingly quick movement, she grabbed his shirt, gripping it as tightly as she could as she leaned forward into his chest and away from the stone.

“What are you doing?” She breathed weakly, not wanting to lie back on the altar and not understanding why he was trying to make her with the poison clouding her common sense. 

“Hey, it’s okay.” Leon soothed in a surprisingly gentle voice, his breath tickling her ear. “I just need to see the cut and treat it, alright?” His hands moved to her shoulders, resting on them as he waited for her to let him go. She knew if Leon wanted, he could easily overpower her and force her back onto the stone, but she knew he would never do that, even if she was being a bit unreasonable at the moment.   

Despite knowing that, Ella still hesitated, her head resting against his chest as she thought over what he wanted from her. She just couldn’t shake the anxiety at the thought of lying back down after everything that had occurred on this altar. She was about to ask if he could just move her to the ground, not understanding why she had to be on this stone any longer, but his soft voice cut through the fear in her mind. 

“You’ve gotta trust me, Ella.” Ella felt his hand gently cover the one holding onto his shirt, the warmth of his touch helping to calm her panic slightly. Ella wondered then if she trusted him, and surprisingly, the answer to that was pretty easy to accept considering everything they had been through. Leon had never given her a reason not to trust him, and he had proven multiple times that he would do whatever it took to keep them safe. He had even put his mission on hold to come save her, and if that didn’t prove that she could trust him, Ella didn’t know what did. 

Taking a deep, shaky breath, she nodded, finally releasing his shirt and allowing him to push her back onto the altar despite her anxiety flaring up once more.

Leon moved quickly as he lifted her shirt, revealing the angry red and pus filled shallow cut on the left side of her abdomen. Shaking the crushed leaves into his palm, he pressed them into the wound, Ella whimpering through her teeth at the burning sensation that immediately followed. She knew that meant it was working, but that didn’t change the fact that it hurt.

Leon then wrapped the cut in a bandage, keeping the leaves there and letting the cloth hold them in place so they could continue to take care of the poison in her system. Once he was done, he lowered her shirt and helped her sit back up. He knew she couldn’t stand, let alone walk, so without a word he grabbed the outsides of her thighs, turning and pulling her to where her legs were hanging over the side of the altar. 

Ella hadn’t been expecting it, a light gasp escaping her lips at the sudden movement. He had done it with such ease, his fingers pressing into her thighs sending the strangest feeling along her skin and up her spine, distracting her from the pain at her stomach for a moment. She promptly ignored it, which was easy to do with how out of it she was, and she watched as Leon removed the shotgun from its place on his back, setting it out of the way before he turned to face away from her. Understanding what he was going to do, Ella had to push the embarrassment that immediately filled her away, knowing she couldn’t walk on her own even if she hated acknowledging the fact. 

She tried as hard as she could to assist Leon in pulling her onto his back, Ella wrapping her arms around his neck as his hands found her thighs once more, Leon securing her in place and making sure she wouldn’t fall. “Try to hold on, okay?” He instructed, and Ella nodded, tightening her grip as much as possible as Leon grabbed his shotgun and kept it in hand as they left the ritual area. He tried to move quickly, but he also wanted to be careful of alerting any possible enemies that could have appeared along their path. Ella was quiet, but her expression had relaxed as the burning pain slowly subsided bit by bit, her mind a little less foggy.

“Where’s Ashley?” She asked, hoping Leon hadn’t left her vulnerable to come and save her. She felt bad enough as it was. She knew her hope was in vain, as clearly the young girl wasn’t here with them. Not being beside Leon left her vulnerable, and Ella knew she’d be beating herself up over this for a while. 

“She’s safe, don’t worry.” He promised, but Ella wouldn’t be able to not worry until she could see Ashley herself. If something happened to Ashley because Leon had to come save her, Ella would never forgive herself. “Where did you get that yellow herb?” She hummed another question tiredly, though it wasn’t really what she wanted to say and she knew she was stalling on her apology. “The Merchant gave it to me. He said the Priest liked to use poison.” He explained, his voice low and quiet. Ella took that in, assuming the Priest was the title of the man with the necklace, before scoffing lightly. “He’s so strange.” She murmured, referring to the Merchant, and Leon gave a small breathy chuckle, to her pleasant surprise. “I’d have to agree.” It was quiet once more after that as Ella contemplated what she was going to say next. Maybe it wasn’t the time or place, but she didn’t know when her next chance would be, and she had to say what was on her mind. “I’m sorry.” She finally started. “I’m sorry for snapping at you, and I’m sorry for making you come all this way to get me.” She had told him she wouldn’t get in his way, and here she was. “Ella-” Leon tried, but she didn’t let him finish. “You were right, and I was so caught up in grief and self-loathing that I didn’t want to hear it.” Her voice was a little stronger now as the herb worked its magic, and Ella was prepared to lay it out all on the table. “I. . .I feel responsible for Alice and my friends.” She admitted softly. “And I don’t. . .I don’t know why I got to survive and they didn’t.” She had been questioning it over and over in her head when she couldn’t keep the thoughts away, and she could never come up with an answer. Only more reasons as to why it was her fault. 

“I know.” Leon responded gently, having guessed she was experiencing survivor’s guilt. He understood it more than she knew, and he knew that telling her it wasn’t her fault wouldn’t help her. It was something she would have to come to terms with on her own. “I-I know I’m just dealing with survivor's guilt, but knowing that doesn’t make it go away.” A lump formed in her throat, and Ella had to swallow it and push her emotions down. “Even so, I shouldn’t have taken that out on you when all you’ve been trying to do is help, and I’m sorry.” Leon didn’t protest this time, and she took that as his way of accepting her apology. “And I’m sorry you put your mission on hold because I got captured again. I’ve been trying really hard to not get in your way and make myself as useful as possible.” “You don’t have to do th-” “Yes, I do. Ashley needs as much attention as possible. She’s a kid who should be having the time of her life in college right now, her biggest stressor being how she’s going to turn in a 25-page essay on time. Not dealing with this shitty situation and fighting for her life.” She told him firmly, lifting her head up and looking at him. “Besides, I’m also doing it for myself. I have to do for Ashley what I couldn’t do for Alice, Leon. I just have to.” The resolve was back in her tone despite her still weakened voice. She needed him to understand how important this was for her. Not only that, but Leon was included in her personal mission. She didn’t say it, but it was implied behind her words. She couldn’t let another person she cared about down. She refused. 

“Alright, I hear you. But you have to be more careful. You can’t help Ashley if you get yourself killed.” He relented, accepting her apology, but making sure she knew he was serious.

“Hey, no argument there. I’ve learned my lesson, and I promise to do my best.” She assured. She couldn’t promise that she wouldn’t throw herself in harm's way to save either him or Ashley, but she would do her best to be as careful as possible and not get herself killed.

With most of what she needed to say off of her chest, she let out a breath, leaning her head on his shoulder and taking a moment to let the burning subside some more. “You’re not useless by the way.” She hadn’t expected him to say anything more, looking back at him. “You’ve already saved my life a couple of times. I don’t know if I would have gotten this far without you.” The poison must still be affecting Ella more than she previously thought, because she found it hard to believe he had just said that, giving him a suspicious look. “Yes you would have.” She pointed out, and he paused. “Yeah, you’re right.” She was about to roll her eyes, but he continued on. “But it’s definitely been easier thanks to you.” Her halfhearted annoyance faded, and she smiled softly, his words helping make her feel a little less guilty for the trouble she’d put him through. Letting out a sigh, she once again rested her head on his shoulder, exhaustion hitting her as her body recovered from the poison. The warmth emitting from Leon was comforting, and it made it hard for her to stay awake, though she tried her best. At least her mind had quieted now that she said what she needed to say- well, mostly.

“Thanks for not listening to me by the way.” She hummed as she closed her eyes. “You don’t have to thank me. I rarely do that anyway.” If she wasn’t so grateful he had saved her life, she would have smacked him upside the head. xXx

“Ella!” Ashley called in relief as Leon carried Ella into the shelter where the Merchant was still sitting, having watched over Ashley this entire time. It hadn’t been only Ella who had noticed that the villagers kept away from the Merchant’s area.

“She’s asleep. The poison hit her hard.” Leon explained as he laid her down gently against a cloth sack, before lifting her shirt and beginning to remove the leaves and change the bandage. The cut was no longer red and full of pus, looking relatively normal, and Leon let out a small breath of relief. He had guessed the Priest wouldn’t use a strong poison considering he had wanted to do the ritual, but Leon had still been worried he was wrong. “But she’s okay?” Ashley had to ask, having already grown attached to the woman. Not only was she fighting to protect her, but she provided comfort and reassurance where Leon struggled to. “Yeah, she’s okay.” Leon assured her as he applied the antiseptic spray and wrapped the new bandage more securely. “Wonderful! Then I can look forward to you three getting out of my area pretty soon, eh?” The Merchant grinned, and Ashley rolled her eyes. “Don’t listen to him. He wouldn’t stop talking while you were gone. I think he needed the company.” The Merchant laughed at that, but didn’t deny it. Leon stocked up on the ammo he had used up, before looking at Ashley. “I’m going to go search the villages for anything we might have missed. Stay here.” He ordered her gently. “Right.” Ashley nodded, watching as Leon left before she turned to Ella, moving over and taking a seat next to her. She took in the peaceful expression on her face, letting her tense body relax as the worry and anxiety she had been feeling faded away completely. 

xXx

Ella stirred awake maybe a half hour later, looking to her side and seeing Ashley sitting beside her as she realized she had fallen asleep. 

That had been the last thing she had wanted, as she had already taken up enough time as it was. “How long was I out?” She questioned, sitting up and grimacing slightly at the pain in her stomach. It was nothing compared to what she had felt before, however, and it passed quickly. “About thirty minutes.” It was Leon who answered, Ella not originally seeing him sitting on the wooden table in the back, and she cringed. “Sorry.” She felt bad she had held them up even more, and she wished they had woken her. “Hey don’t be, you needed the rest, and besides, I don’t think the world ending could have woken you up.” Ashley giggled, and Ella felt a bit sheepish, quickly thinking up a way to divert the attention from herself. “Hey, at least I wasn’t out for three hours, right?” She knew Leon would know what she meant, the blonde shooting her a look while Ashley was confused. “Yeah, well get going. If you’re not buying, you need to get out of my area.” Ella looked to the Merchant, her brows raising. He hadn’t actually sounded upset. In fact, he seemed amused if anything, and Ella grinned at him, not buying the act he was trying to sell. “You know you love us.” She teased, and he scoffed. “You mean I love your money.” He corrected with a laugh, and Ella shook her head, not expecting anything less from the man. “Sure.” She chuckled, before getting up. “Thank you by the way.” She told him, not forgetting how he had sold Leon the yellow herb. He didn’t respond out loud, just giving her a wink, and she smiled. “Alright enough sitting around, let’s get moving yeah?” She focused back on the task at hand. Leon watched her closely, making sure she was really okay, before he grabbed her gear, bringing it over to her. “Yeah, let’s get out of here.” She gave him an appreciative smile. It was time to get Ashley home and finish this.

xXx

“My lord, I beg you to please reconsider! He abandoned his mission to come for her! This means he cares for her! She can still be of great use to us if you would allow me to continue pursuing my goal!” The Priest bowed respectfully in front of Lord Saddler as he pleaded his case, desperate for the chance to impress him. It was quiet a few moments before the hooded man spoke. “Very well. But if she falls to our forces, then let this foolish goal go.” The Priest was grateful for the permission of his Lord, and he wouldn’t fail him. He’d prove to him that his creation would be useful to their goal.

#Leon Kennedy x reader #Leon Kennedy x OC #Leon Kennedy #Leon Kennedy Fanfiction #Leon S. Kennedy #Resident Evil #Resident Evil 4 #Resident Evil 4 Remake #Lost and Found

[starry-blue-echoes]

au "Koichi the younger brother of Hol Horse" + au "Kochi dies but is reborn as act 3 with a hole in his chest in the alley of ghosts"

Hol Horse decides there's no more danger and is like "what if I leave my brother in this town with my new friends and go off to work?" and leaves (maybe this goes into one of your au "Hol Horse in part 5 works for Passion")

And of course. Kira Yoshikage himself in Morio. The man who later kills Koichi, but gets payback.

Imagine the horror everyone will feel not only from Koichi's death, but also from realizing what Hol's reaction to his brother's death will be when he finds out about it. No one called him about Koichi's death; everyone felt bad.

And then Koichi is reborn in Haunted Alley, and that makes everyone panic even more.

Y E S

Y E S

OH ABSOLUTELY THIS IS AN AMAZING IDEA

Just. Hol Horse had heard about RHCP and the Stand Arrows and came running. He helps guide Koichi and the other kids, Josuke and Okuyasu get to meet Koichi's funky morally grey brother, and it all goes great! He stuck around for a few more days after RHCP's defeat, but he felt confident that it was safe once again in Morioh now and things would be calm. The two bros promised to call every few days, and went about things as they usually did

And things are fine for weeks after that (RHCP was beaten sometime in mid/late May and Centipede Shoes happens somewhere after June 24th and before July 1st). Sure there's the occasional Stand User that pops up and stirs up trouble, but nothing the kids or Jotaro can't handle

And then one day there's a phone call. Or to be more specific, he doesn't get a phone call. Hol Horse waits for hours, but..... Koichi never calls him

At first he brushes it off. Maybe Koichi was busy or got roped up in more Stand shenanigans. He'd probably call tomorrow to make up for it.

But then he doesn't. Okay, a little weird, Hol Horse would think, but maybe it just slipped his mind.

The third day he gets anxious enough to be the one to initiate the call.

Hundreds of scenarios were running through his head. Maybe Koichi was hurt, maybe he got kidnapped, maybe he went missing, maybe he was-

Dead.

The word echoes in his head as his aunt is sobbing on the phone, her words barely coherent but enough that Hol Horse can understand the meaning.

His baby brother is dead. Murdered days ago, with the killer nowhere to be found

He'd heard about the killer. About the ghost girl Koichi had met, about how they were probably responsible for all the missing cases, the anxiousness and questioning he'd had, wondering if Morioh was even as safe as he thought-

Well...... the answer was obvious now.

He drops everything to go back to Morioh. Screw whatever mission he was on, screw whatever target he had, he needs to get back right now because he's already too late, the least he can do is be there for the funeral and to protect the rest of the kids.

Hol Horse would immediately bar the kids and any other underage Stand Users from getting involved after this, a rule he only enforces more after he learns about Shigechi. Because that's what they were. Kids. Three 15 year olds who'd barely started high school, now two 15 year olds who are now going to be burdened with the weight of a dead best friend and a 12 year old for the rest of their lives

But then it turns out Koichi isn't as dead and gone as they thought. He was still dead, very much so....... but he was here.

And Hol Horse would be torn. On one hand he wanted, he needed, to hunt down the piece of shit who'd killed his baby brother. He needed to find Kira and make him pay for the pain he'd caused, and he was going to be sure his death was a slow, agonizing one.

But on the other....... that isn't what Koichi needs right now. Koichi needs stability and security and someone to be there for him. The kids all have their lives and can't dedicate every moment to be with him but...... but Hol Horse can. And he does. Every step of the way, every new ability, every nightmare, every flashback, Hol Horse is going to be there with soft words and gentle hands to comfort and hold him

And if we throw in the Hol Horse In Italy Looking For Polnareff, this could add an interesting spin to that. For one, if he went undercover before Part 4, Sorbet and Gelato wouldn't be dead yet so his bond with La Squadra as a whole would probably be different. Still a bit distant because of Hol Horse's intentions, but that's cleared up much faster and easier when a few years down the line La Squadra decide to turn against Passione

But when this happens......... ho boy

If we make this at the point where relations are a tad strained with everyone but Pesci, this is probably going to just add more to that tension. At first it would be fine, Hol Horse requesting a couple weeks off because of some personal issue arising, maybe even coming back early because "it figured itself out faster than I thought" and things going fine...... but then a few weeks later he suddenly gives Risotto a notice that he's going to be gone for a bit and then just. Fucking off to who knows where for several months straight but still sending them money to help pay bills every few weeks(he probably got some kind of job in Morioh, maybe thanks to the SWF which essentially boils down to "compensation for tracking down and securing dangerous Stand Users")

And what if when he goes back....... he ends up bringing Koichi with him. Yes Italy isn't the safest and given Hol Horse's position he's probably in even more danger but..... while Kira's gone, that isn't going to just magically erase all the anxieties Koichi's been having. Maybe Italy can be a bit of a change of scenery, just to help him cope and process in a place that isn't full of memories, at least for a couple years. He still keeps in very close contact with his friends of course, something made easier by the fact he doesn't need to sleep and thus can bypass the issue of inopportune timezones, and it's a simple few days of flying to visit, so he's able to keep those bonds without too much issue

and when Pesci accidentally stumbles upon something he shouldn't...... what if instead of Hol Horse's plans to find the Boss, it's instead Koichi. Maybe he mistakes him as an enemy and attacks, nearly getting a bullet in his skull from a partially conscious INCREDIBLY protective Hol Horse who really shouldn't be moving right now. I do think Pesci would agree to keep this secret, and now at least Koichi has another person to talk to :D

hmmmmmmm....... maybe to tie this in to the rest of the Act 4 AU when Giorno's existence comes to attention, Koichi ends up taking the job to show that he's grown and more capable now. Not in secret of course, he tells Hol that he wants to do it and they have a LONG talk and set up all sorts of contingencies in case anything goes wrong

And massive shocker here, Things Go Wrong

#fjvnjdf if you can't tell this made my brain go BIG brrrrr #echoes act 4 #koichi horse #dadtaro #jjba #jojo’s bizarre adventure #diamond is unbreakable #diamond is unbreakable spoilers #jjba part 4 #golden wind #vento aureo #jjba part 5 #jjba hol horse #hol horse #jjba koichi #koichi hirose #jjba kira #kira yoshikage #jjba pesci #pesci #la squadra #red hot chili pepper #jjba josuke #josuke higashikata #jjba okuyasu #okuyasu nijimura #sb answers #megakimathi

[deludedfantasy]

Trimax Vol 4 Ch 5-7

My thoughts for the last half of this volume! I read part of this at like 1 am because I just couldn’t stop so if some of this is incoherent...that’s why.

Ch5

Wolfwood announcing the remaining Gung Ho Guns as if this is common information and something anyone should know if they weren’t part of the group…where’s that post about him being a bad liar. 

The problem with having a character that fights using music or a musical instrument is there’s no cool way to do it. I’m sorry, Midvalley is just over here playing careless whisper and the windows explode. It’s a look, but is it cool? Questionable.

Wait, I take it back? What the hell did he just do to Wolfwood??? Did he just make his brain bleed? Knock him out? Liquify his organs? What???

Oh no, Milly :(

Is she just scared or is someone using their powers to hold her back?

Vash said, “Fuck off with your coins. I’m not playing your games.”

Hoppred, I think you’re projecting a bit, because that is not the face of a man who is enjoying this fight, at all. 

The problem with having watched Tristamp first is I can’t remember who knows what at this point in the manga, and I forgot Meryl doesn’t know about Knives or that he’s Vash’s brother. Also, goddamn, Vash, you really need to tell your friends things because it is not fair for them to follow you blindly into your quest without even knowing who you’re going after. And then have the villains reveal your backstory to them! It’s a bad look, dude.

Ch6

Oooh, more Vash backstory, maybe? Always up for more Vash backstory. 

The fights with the Gung Ho Guns are getting more and more personal. First Leonof, and now Hoppred, who’s talking about revenge and July. This is going to be deliciously painful, I can tell.

Hoppred is crying from all of his eye holes??? Oh my god.

Oh, it takes much longer for Meryl (and the reader, to a certain extent) to learn Vash is an independent Plant here than in Tristamp. And it’s worse here in a way because Meryl finds out from an enemy, not from Vash directly. Not only is she in an already upsetting situation, but now someone is giving her information that explains so much about Vash and she can’t even say they’re lying to hurt her because it makes too much sense. 

It’s also interesting that, unlike in Tristamp, after the Big Fall, Vash stayed with Knives for years before striking out on his own and deciding to help humans. He must feel so complicit in humanity’s suffering because of that. 

Ah yeah, Meryl looks really scared and fucked up by this revelation.

Milly hears “black-suited moron” and immediately comes running. She’s like, “There’s only one person who that could be!”

Really not liking what Wolfwood’s saying here. It sounds like he’s about to go on a rampage. 

Uh-oh, is that Knives coming to join the party?

Ch7

Vash starting to remember July is so, so painful.

These panels where everything looks like eyes: the moon in the sky, the explosion of power in July, with Vash’s eye focused in the middle. It works really well as a transition for him remembering.

Seeing Vash calling himself a murderer, feeling like there’s no atonement or way for him to move forward, it feels so wrong. It hurts so badly whenever he starts to doubt his own beliefs and ideals. They make up so much of his life that it really underscores how much he hates himself and what he did. 

Flippant comments about knowing the angel of death and how they’re coming for him—this man has a death wish unlike any other I’ve seen in fiction. 

But I do love when Vash lets the rage take over. Because despite his pacifism, he’s actually full of it! I’d actually argue his anger is what’s behind those ideals. His anger at Knives, at what he’s done, at the world, at himself, it feeds his want to do better. It makes it all the more poignant that he refuses to kill when he very much so wants to. 

He’s willing to tear Hoppred apart if he gets in his way. Anything that keeps him from getting his revenge on Knives, not only for the Big Fall and Rem, but for July and every terrible deed he’s done, there is enough anger in him that he would kill for that. 

Whether Wolfwood was trying to provoke Milly so he could knock her out or he’s actually serious about leaving Meryl behind, that’s a dick move. And I know he knows it, which makes it worse. The chorus of random bystanders is right, “Booooooo.”

They’re purposefully being drawn into some kind of trap and a new, not-before-seen Gung Ho Gun is on the scene. I’m scared. 

Oh, cliffhanger ending, wonderful. Even though I’ve already read this, I might start the next volume this weekend and read ahead a little because I cannot be left in suspense after all of this.

#trigun #trigunbookclub

[lemonxdaisybby]

Unsure if it has ever been requested but could I request jealous/possessive headcanons for Sawashiro? If I could be greedy and ask for some NSFW of those I would be forever grateful 🥰 I absolutely adore how you write him!

Thank you so much! I stg I am obsessed with this man, so I’m glad to be getting asks for him 💕

Sawashiro is not insecure in himself by any means, but he is fairly protective of you, and because you’re the only good thing in his life, sometimes he can be a tiny bit possessive of you too. He knows he isn’t the easiest person to be with, and that he does act cold at times, and for that reason, there is always a small fear deep inside him, that maybe one day you’ll up and leave him, just like everyone else has. Of course, he would never admit this. Just like he would never admit to being jealous. He’s a prideful and stubborn man, and would likely feel a little embarrassed, or even ashamed, when feeling jealous.

If an unknown male ever approached you, you just know Jo’s attention would immediately be locked on to the two of you. He would try to remain subtle, but his eyes are practically burning holes into the side of your head. If you turn to look at him, he’d just raise a questioning eyebrow, as if he hasn’t been staring at you and the mystery guy for the past five minutes. Afterwards, he would casually ask you who the person was, more so out of curiosity, but also because he’s trying to figure out if he needs to be wary of the other person.

If Jo noticed someone flirting with you, he’d be a lot less subtle, and wouldn’t try as hard at remaining casual. His gaze would turn dark and deadly, and he’d be staring over at the two of you broodingly, wondering if he needs to step in, or if you’re going to send this guy packing yourself. He does trust you of course, but he’s been betrayed quite a few times at this point. There’s always going to be a tiny doubt digging at the back of his mind.

He likely wouldn’t approach you and the other person, unless they started to get touchy with you. That would definitely ignite some sparks in him, and he’d immediately be walking over, tall and intimidating, and wearing a deadly glare. His arm would be around your waist immediately, and though he isn’t one for PDA, he might even give you a quick peck on the cheek, his eyes almost never leaving the other guy. He’d almost stare at them challengingly, as if daring them to continue with their flirtatious antics. Of course, the other guy would pretty much scarper off immediately. Who would be dumb enough to start an argument with Sawashiro, when he’s looking absolutely murderous?

If Jo thought you were flirting back with the other person, or indulging in their flirtations, he may be a bit colder and quieter towards you, not entirely sure how to react. He doesn’t want to admit that he’s jealous, but he’d secretly be so annoyed, and maybe even a little hurt. He isn’t a big fan of mind games, so purposely flirting with others is not a good move.

In terms of possessive sex, it could go both ways to be honest. If he thought you were egging the other person on and purposely trying to make him jealous, he would be pretty annoyed, and this would definitely show during sex too. He would be brutal, which is saying something, as he would usually be pretty rough anyways.

Jo would degrade you so much, calling you a whore, telling you how pathetic you are chasing other men. He would make you apologise and beg for him, only giving you what you want once he’s satisfied you won’t be playing any more tricks like that again.

Honestly, he would just fuck you until you’re numb. He’d have you a quivering, weak mess once he’s done with you. He’d hold you down by your throat as he slams in to you, his other hand gripping on to your hip so tightly that he would definitely leave marks. He also wouldn’t finish inside of you, and would opt to cover your face and tits with his cum instead, wanting to further degrade you as a form of punishment.

On the other hand, if the other person was flirting with you and you didn’t encourage them, or you shut them down, Jo would almost be less rougher in bed than usual. He’d still be intense, and wouldn’t exactly be gentle, but he’d be a tiny bit more loving with you. The thought of you leaving him definitely scares him, though he won’t admit it. He’d maybe kiss you a bit more during sex, his grip would be less harsh, and instead of having his hand wrapped around your throat, he’d instead leave a trail of bites and kisses on your neck, his hands pinning your wrists above your head instead. He’d even mumble a rather gruff and quiet ‘I love you’ after sex, once the two of you are settling down, which he tells you very rarely. Poor man is just lowkey worried of you betraying him and going off with someone else, and wants you to know that he does appreciate and care for you, even if he isn’t always the best at showing it.

#ryu ga gotoku #yakuza like a dragon #yakuza 7 headcanons #yakuza like a dragon headcanons #yakuza headcanons #jo sawashiro x reader #sawashiro jo #jo sawashiro

[armsofhadar]

List of current blorbos otp: Thiefweave (Gale/Val) ficlets

Sylvam (Syl) - he/him || half wood elf ranger || whatever counts as mid forties for half elves || charlatan || likes animals more than people || severely bullied and abused when he was a child and now Traumatized™ || was exiled from baldur's gate for killing a man who injured his dog || lived alone in the woods for twenty years || i can tolerate oppression but i draw the line at animal abuse || zero people skills || no patience for small talk and diplomacy || accidentally stupidly in love with astarion || bonds with halsin over animals and nature, then agrees to be his boyfriend || syl 🤝astarion: learning to trust people again || syl 🤝astarion 🤝 halsin: cuddle pile

Valefor (Val)- they/them || Mephistopheles tiefling arcane trickster || mid thirties || urchin || soft spoken and shy || illiterate so gale reads all the books to them || grew up hungry on the streets and is obsessed with hoarding food || chaotic stupid good boy (gender neutral) || will impulsively sell their left foot for snacks if someone doesn't hold them back || needs to do the right thing (conditionally) or they'll explode || incredibly autistic || soon to be Mx. Dekarios

Sanguine (San) - he/they || half drow || whatever counts as thirty for half drow || eldritch knight whose life is 90% trying to fight intrusive murder thoughts - the other 10% is 'eh what could go wrong?' (turns out, a lot.) || chaotic stupid. i cannot stress how much of an impulsive fuck this asshole is. what do you mean actions have consequences??? || tries to do the good thing and it always blows up in their face || fully embraces tadpole bc eh what could go wrong || is in a very complicated love (sex) triangle with lae'zel and astarion || journey to heal from the dark urge || horny™

Redorick (Red) - he/him || Zariel tiefling || late forties || tired gay trans dad who's had enough || breaks his oath of vengeance bc surely if he deserves mercy then others might too? || he is trying guys he's so confused about it all || raised a child all by himself and he misses her every day || good guy but he's been through so much so he's kinda bitter || oh my god i made corvo attano || fell stupidly hard for gale but I can also see him bonding with halsin over being Old Queers || immediately adopts Wyll upon meeting him || renewed his oath when he heard what gortash did to karlach and what cazador did to astarion || literally secretly cries every night before he falls asleep || Depressed™

Siderius (Sid) - he/him || dark urge || late twenties || tempest sorc || looks the most intimidating but is actually a literal cinnamon roll || has murder on the mind 99% of the time and he's so embarrassed about it || wyll romance??? maybe??? || instant besties with gale but purely platonic (hopefully - watch me use Val's face and then fall in that rizzard hole again)

Zacharius (Zac) - he/him || bard || half high elf || dark urge || age ??? || will 100% charm his way through everything || all i know about him so far is that he's gonna be a dick and write songs about it || starts out evil and then stays evil || journey to please murder papa || i feel like he will be really into lae'zel at first but then meet minthara

#Syl #Val #San #Red #Sid #Zac #pinned

[write-and-buried]

I'm thrilled that you're enjoying all of us spiraling down the tlou rabbit hole but also-- may we hear your thots ? 👀👀

FUCK YES

So, spoiler free. After i finished the episode i went grocery shopping and accidentally bought fifty bucks worth of comfort cheese.

TLOU SPOILERS (EPISODE ONE & GAME) BELOW THE CUT

OK, In no particular order;

The way they introduced the concept of a fungal pandemic was amazing, the absolute dread that opener inspired was absolutely amazing, and I really commend them for adding that little bit of world building.

Speaking of dread - the way we just follow Sarah about her day, the little hints of the world rapidly going to hell around them with her being an innocent child who is none the wiser, was amazing. The old lady twitching out of focus in the background was hella effective.

Oh god. Joel & Sarah. Their relationship is perfect. The way they caught this sliver of one day of their lives and you already know so much about them, that Sarah has definitely been raised in a loving environment, feels comfortable and safe with her dad, and that they are extremely close. It's magnificent.

Im gonna jump around a little here, but the bookend deaths in this episode were EXTREMELY effective. Joel killing his neighbour with a wrench out of necessity, the way Sarah reacts (reasonably and terrified) and almost looks at her dad differently. Ellie, who watches Joel brutally murder someone with his bare hands, which it could be argued he didnt have to do (this guy could have been bribed) and she looks like she trusts him more.

TESS!! Oh god. TBH I never really paid her much attention on my playthroughs, but MAN they did us a favour by fleshing her out - the softness and intimacy she displays with Joel, the sarcasm.

THAT scene; I knew it was coming. I knew I would cry. I didnt know id cry so hard id have to pause the show, get up and have a cigarette to calm down.

ELLIE;

Bella Ramsey is perfect in this role. They have such a command of the character, the sarcasm, you already get the feeling that she knows she is alone in the world, and is trying to hide it as best she can. But Ellie is just a kid.

The scene of her immediately getting yeeted into a wall was absurdly funny and shouldnt have made me laugh.

She places her trust in strength, and that's going to come back in Winter.

JOEL;

Oh god Joel.

Lets talk about two BIG changes they have made, right off the bat. He is more sympathetic, and more unhinged.

The drugs, was a surprising choice, but one that makes complete sense. He is truly a wounded animal, medicating and lashing out at any given opportunity.

I love that they have him as Tess's attack dog - because thats exactly what he is. A German Shepherd with PTSD.

His blunt, dont give a fuck attitude is absolutely spot on, and the way he carries himself, single minded and focused is so spot on.

THEY HAD NO RIGHT FOR OUR FIRST SHOT TO BE OF A SHIRTLESS SNUGGLER - THAT WAS RUDE AS FUCK

LETS GET THIS OUT OF THE WAY - ALWAYS KEEP HIM WET. THE SLICK BACK HAIR, THE WHORE STANCE, THE ABSOLUTE FERAL LOOK OF RAGE ON HIS FACE, I AM DESPERATE TO FUCK THIS MAN.

POSTCARDS;

RATION CARDS AND PUBLIC EXECUTIONS THAT'S WHERE MY BABIES LIVED I LOVE THEM SO MUCH

In short, I loved it. I thought it was a wonderful first episode, with enough nods to the game for people who have played it, without leaving those who havent completely in the dark.

#tlou spoilers #joel miller #i have feelings and thoughts

[dancing-with-the-madmen]

The Massive Aggression of Calico Jack, redux

Several kind souls have complained brought it to my attention that my failure to use cut tags is, in fact, not optimal. I don't have any good reason that I don't use cuts - mostly I'm just throwing these thoughts out here so they don't endlessly rattle around my brain. Frankly, I'm endlessly astonished anyone but me can be arsed to bother wading through them at all. So, after a truly epic tantrum thoughtful consideration, I've decided to edit my longer posts to add cuts. If you've already read them, (may endless blessings rain down upon you) there's no new content (vile lies and calumny. I'm going to take this opportunity to fix errors and add a line here or there, but nothing major). Just making it more scroll-friendly. You'll know it when you see the word "redux" in the title. So without further ado...

I’ve been trying for a while to put my finger on exactly what it is about Our Flag Means Death's Calico Jack that makes me want to crawl out of my skin and smother him to death with my own abandoned ecdysis.

I mean, I normally love me a spurned admirer/cock-blocking ex. Romantic comedies have their beats, and there’s obviously no serious danger the love interest will end up with anyone other than their intended, so I may as well sit back and enjoy the machinations. After all, the course of true love never did run smooth, and these bitches are here to rough some shit up for sure. I also love Will Arnett. Hands down favorite recurring character on 30 Rock. The second best Batman after TAS (fight me). I can even cheerfully bear his Reese’s commercials if I must bear commercials at all.

Real-life Calico Jack? One of my v. favorite pirates. He wore floral-printed cotton from India as a fuck you to the British tax man. He had an affair with Anne Bonny and offered to purchase her divorce when her husband found out. The two ran away together into piracy when Bonny’s husband refused to quit her and had her whipped for her infidelity. Mary Read was part of Jack and Anne’s crew, and possibly their lover. We love a hopeless romantic, possibly polyamorous king. 

So what is it about OFMD Calico Jack that makes him so acutely punchable?

I’ve rewatched the episode several times (oh my v. dears, I really hope this write-up is worth it. I am SO BRAVE to subject myself to this), and I think I’ve finally got it. It’s not just that he’s a loud, vulgar, hectoring, drunken jackass of a bird-murderer. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I have as little patience for his brand of mindless destruction and violence-for-violence-sake as Stede does, but that’s not all.  It’s that he’s also a master of passive aggression.

Jack does the little whisper-y “Sorry! Sorry!” when Stede wants to know what’s with all the cannon fire, but immediately starts grinning like an unrepentant varlet as soon as he drops his hands.

And then accepts Stede’s introductory handshake with clear derision.

When Stede says he wasn’t expecting guests and there’s only two settings at brekkie, Jack doesn’t wait for Stede to sort things out, and he’s already lowering himself into Stede’s chair by the time Stede invites him to take his spot. He then purposefully keeps steering the conversation to topics that exclude Stede from participating, and cuts Stede short when he tries to reign the conversation back.

He insinuates Stede is less of a pirate for being “store bought”

He refuses to get Stede’s name right, even when corrected. Twice.

And is just SO insincere when calling him back.

And, just, the whole pissing contest scene.

But so what? We’ve had other passive aggressive assholes on the show; Badminton with his cracks about Stede’s tiny dick ship, the French captain’s slurs, Gabriel simpering about Jeff the Accountant’s dining manners. I’m not shedding any tears for their respective fates, but none of them made me want to crawl through the screen and sew all their face holes shut. Because Jack isn’t just passive-aggressive (and aggressive-aggressive), he might just be the most savvy reader-of-rooms we see on the show, and purposefully and systematically leverages his passive aggression to manipulate the actions of those around him for the purpose of making Ed and Stede betray their better selves and make them do the work of driving a wedge between themselves.   That was a lot in one sentence.  Let me break it down.

Jack uses passive aggression to achieve one of four goals: to nettle, to undermine, (seemingly paradoxically) to reinforce connections, or to coerce. And, if he can manage to achieve different goals for more than one target with the same attack? So much the better. And he’s frankly just astonishingly good at doing so. Like, I’d admire him for it if it didn’t also make me want to make him swallow all of his own teeth.

The basic gameplan goes thusly (this is not a strictly chronological list, a lot of these tactics take place concurrently and recurrently): Stede is the primary target, so Jack nettles him with passive aggressive comments, which puts him on the back foot and undermines his self-confidence. He reinforces his relationship with Ed in ways that excludes Stede and undermines Stede’s relationship with Ed and Ed’s relationship with Stede. Jack uses coercive tactics with Ed and the crew, which undermines Stede’s relationships with them, isolating and othering Stede, which further tanks his mood, which leads him to self-isolate. When Stede eventually lashes out at Ed for falling for Jack’s bullshit, Ed has no idea what’s got Stede so out-of-sorts; Jack has so carefully lead Ed to making the choices that have alienated Stede that they seem like they were Ed’s ideas in the first place. And if Ed has made the choices to do these things, then they are clearly just a reflection of who he is, which, if Stede is lashing out against them, then Stede is rejecting him. Wedge set and match.

So let’s look at the specifics.

Jack’s interactions with Ed are like a masterclass in neurolinguistic programming for evil. First, he plys Ed with booze from the very start. Just look at the bottle in this shot from right after they blow up the dresser drawer.

That bottle or rum is over half gone, and the sky in the background is the peachy-pink of sunrise. This isn’t the bottle Jack had with him in his dinghy; that one he drained and then threw in the air and tried to shoot before coming aboard the Revenge. Which means that they’ve consumed over half the bottle between just the two of them in a very short amount of time.   Alcohol, of course, is a social lubricant - the physical warmth it produces mimicking the “warm, fuzzy” feeling of true comradery, and, more importantly, decoupling the decision-making process from inhibition (that is to say, Ed isn’t necessarily doing anything he absolutely wouldn’t otherwise do, but he might otherwise think twice).

But it’s more insidious than just having a few drinks with an old friend. Jack specifically gamifies the consumption of alcohol to reinforce the coupling of the feeling of inebriation with the comradery engendered by teamwork and excitement of success in order to encourage Ed to drink more than he necessarily otherwise would. Ed confirms to Stede during his apology that the idea to use the drawers of the armoire for target practice came from Jack, and we saw that a bullseye meant that Jack had to take a drink, but Ed didn’t. Presumably, there would have been some consequence for a “miss”, and it seems likely that it would be Ed has to take a drink and not Jack. In this way, Jack is able to exert a measure of control over how much Ed is drinking (by missing on purpose) while making it look like the responsibility lies with Ed and his skill as a thrower. This pattern of sneakily controlling Ed’s actions while making it seem like Ed is the one who made or is responsible for the decision will pop up again and again during their interactions.

After the apologies for waking Stede, Jack steps into the space where Ed is gesticulating to make himself readily available to be touched, reenforcing the bond between them, but letting Ed be the one to instigate the touching.

At brekkie, he pours rum into Ed’s teacup without asking or being asked while Ed’s attention is diverted by getting food.

Jack’s collaring of the conversation does not just function as a means of making Stede feel excluded, he’s also refreshing and reinforcing the bonds he and Ed forged under adversity. Talking over Stede also demonstrates that what he has to say is more important than anything Stede might contribute.

Note that just before Jack cut him off, Stede had referred to Ed as Blackbeard (“Blackbeard and I met on a ship”). This may be innocently explained away; if you meet a person from a facet of a close friend’s life with which you do not intersect, you might refer to said friend by their given name instead of a nickname that the other person might not know, for the sake of common frame of reference. But this is the opposite of that - referring to a friend by a nickname instead of the given name that you both presumably know. That suggests to me that the seed of the Ed/Blackbeard dichotomy has already been planted in Stede’s mind by the morning’s shenanigans. And when Jack invites Stede back into participating in the conversation by talking about something he knows Stede would find upsetting (the wanton cruelty of Ed purposefully trapping people to be burned alive, couched in what sounds like sincere admiration for his friend’s piratical prowess), Jack has picked up on that distinction and is leaning into it HARD. He WANTS Stede to see Ed as a collection of behaviors he finds palatable, and Blackbeard as a collection of behaviors he finds repulsive, and then coerce Ed into performing those “Blackbeard behaviors” in order to coerce Stede to drive the wedge by rejecting him. Fucking diabolical.

When Jack is calling Stede a “big girl,” or “store-bought,” or purposefully getting his name wrong, he’s not just throwing barbs that play on Stede’s insecurities (and with such harrowing precision, too; calling on the effeminacy for which he was tormented as a child, his body image issues that we’ve also seen him struggle with under the tender mercies of Badminton - both brain-ghost and original flavor - and the authenticity of his claim to piracy, which we’ve seen him confess that he fears he’s ill-qualified to claim to Jim, Oluande, and Ed. I mean,triple bullseye for this fucking guy). He’s also using these public declarations to undermine Stede’s authority in front of his crew, and establish himself as the real authority on things like piracy and masculinity. He further reinforces this idea by withholding the story of how he saved Ed’s life under the guise of false modesty; people never want something more than when they’re told they can’t have it. And what they’re being told they can’t have is the story of how Jack was so amazing that he even managed to save the life of the coolest, most legendary pirate they know. This withholding primes the crew to think even more highly of Jack and hang on his every word.

This puts Jack into a position where he can pressure the crew into things that sound fun at first blush (like diving off the yardarm or having a snowball fight, but with coconuts), but end up hurting more than anything. Of course, within this dynamic, no one wants to admit they aren’t having a good time, or don’t want to do it; to do so would be tantamount to admitting you are less of a man or not a real pirate. So when Stede refuses to participate, or admits his discomfort or disgust with the proceedings, he’s doing Jack’s work for him, and further alienating himself, and solidifying the roles Jack had put into place where Jack is the fun, cool guy, and Stede is the killjoy that no one should listen to.

Stede unwittingly plays right into Jack’s design when he tries to stand up for himself and wrest back a modicum of respect before things get too far out of hand. He’s well-versed in the world of passive aggression, and sees what Jack is doing. He also knows that you can’t call it out because passive aggression comes with a built in cover of plausible deniability gaslighting. So instead, he tries to push back with a little passive aggression of his own, suggesting that a real pirate has a ship and a crew. Sadly, Stede is not nearly so adroit at wielding passive aggression as Jack is. Jack uses the story (and we know that Izzy sent him, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the whole mutiny thing is just a story; I could even easily read that slight hesitation after Stede asks his question as Jack deciding on what would be the most effective cover story, instead of hesitancy to admit to something shameful) of his crew’s mutiny to casually re-sow the idea of mutiny on the Revenge. It’s played for comedy when the crew starts talking about how they almost mutinied on Stede and probably will again, but you can’t tell me this hasn’t been a major concern for Stede ever since the first episode. So Jack’s not only got the crew trying to buoy his spirits by assuring him that his crew mutinying on his doesn’t mean he’s a bad person; it’s just something that happens! He’s also got them low-key committing to a future mutiny WITHIN EARSHOT OF STEDE.

Additionally, while Stede is well-steeped in the ways of passive aggression, his crew and Ed are not. They are not particularly sophisticated at identifying passive aggression on its own merits as opposed to the reaction it provokes, which can make it look like they don’t care when it’s being leveraged against Stede, undermining his ability to trust they will look out for him. Stede stoically putting up with Jack’s jibes makes them even more difficult to identify as hurtful. Jack’s (fake) emotional reaction to Stede’s sally might make him look momentarily weak, but allows Ed and the crew to unequivocally identify who is in the wrong and react accordingly. By positioning himself as a victim, he villainizes Stede, further undermining Stede’s authority, and placing him in a position where he owes Jack recompense. Thus, Jack is able to manipulate Stede into the trap of Dead Man’s Cove and make it look like it was Stede’s own idea. I mean, the Xanatos Speed Chess of it all.

What’s heartbreaking to me is how Jack’s wedge-driving and othering of Stede is working so well that at this point we start to hear it from other sources. As they approach the island and Stede suggests going for a swim or taking a nature walk, Ed is the one who tells him, “I think with this crowd, I think they want something a little more…” Not Jack would want something more exciting, this crowd. Jack’s exclusionary rhetoric out of Ed’s mouth.

Which is exactly the time Jack decides to up the ante.

I want to take a minute to look at the immediate lead up to yardies, because I think it’s an excellent illustration of how Jack looks like a lumbering boor, but his actions are actually so carefully considered and nuanced. He runs up from behind Stede and Ed and throws his arms around them shouting “Yardies!” literally insinuating himself between them, which interrupts anything that was going on between them, puts them off balance, and focuses the attention on him. Then, when he says “Who’s up for yardies?” he makes eye-contact with Ed - the implicit social expectation being “You, Ed, are up for yardies.” When he turns to Stede, it is to literally laugh in his face. I mean, the absolute cheek.

Until this point, the crew of the Revenge have been passive participants in Jack’s hooliganry. They watched him perform whippies, and got whipped at without encouraging him to do so. They listened to his and Ed’s stories. But now Jack is cashing in on his established expertise of what real pirates do to coerce the crew into taking part in a dangerous stunt. It’s more of the “Blackbeard behavior” dichotomy he started sowing in Stede’s mind at brekkie, but now he’s extending it beyond Ed to the whole crew. He wants Stede to feel like he’s all alone in a sea of idiocy, but he wants him to come to the conclusion on his own by making it seem like Ed and the crew are doing things of which he would disapprove of their own accord.

Once we get to the island, we see the activities take a turn from the careless Jackass-ery of whippies and yardies to the abject cruelty of turtle vs. crab. There’s no saying that Jack organized the fight, but we do see the crew handing him various trinkets to be used in gambling on a winner, which certainly suggests he was the central figure in how the game was established. We also see that, though he has been presenting himself as a drunkard, there’s no bottle in his hand or around him in the sand. There is, however, one in Ed’s hand, who is directly to his side. I can easily see him handing it off so he could handle the gambling stakes, the real intention being to keep Ed readily supplied with booze.

And then we have the pissing contest. Jack’s got Stede literally and metaphorically isolated, and now it’s time to really drive it all home. Every moment of their interaction is designed to drive Stede to distraction; the amount of derision he lays on the phrase “Your good, close buddy,” the insinuation that he and Ed are just alike, and then being as rude and crass as possible. And because he’s read the room - the intimate breakfast for two, Ed’s little touches and the way Stede smiles at them, the way they keep going off together for little chats - of course Jack’s just got to twist the knife and allude to his and Ed’s former sexual history. So now that he’s got Stede primed, it’s time to name the fear: “Maybe you don’t know him at all.”

At this point, Stede is left to wonder: does he? Blackbeard’s reputation preceded him, after all. And he’s been acting so differently since the appearance of one of his oldest friends. It’s not the violence qua violence, per se; Stede is by turns delighted and impressed by the violence he’s seen Ed and his crew employ in the heat of battle in the pursuit of piracy. It’s the cruel and senseless violence that Stede objects to, and that’s exactly the brand that Jack has been peddling, and which Ed has gone along with so enthusiastically. And it’s not JUST the violence; Ed apologizes for Jack when he recognizes Jack has crossed a line in a typically agro way (destroying Stede’s belongings, and insulting Stede to his face), but it never occurs to Stede that his insistence on persevering with quietly aggrieved dignity in the face of Jack’s slights would make it nigh impossible for Ed to identify that Jack has crossed all sorts of other lines, and Stede is hurting because of it. For Stede, it must be frustrating and mystifying why Ed keeps letting his friend get away with his passive aggressive bullshit. Doesn’t he care? 

Is it any wonder that one more failure to notice how Jack has riled him, and one more act of coconut-flavored Jackass-ary is enough to break the dam, and for Stede to spill all that built-up hurt on Ed?  Is it any wonder that Ed is bewildered at where all this is coming from? I’ve talked before about Ed’s tendency to fawn on people, and how, as an emotional chameleon, he would have difficulty identifying when the motivation for his actions is self-directed or externally dictated. Jack has further confounded this distinction by manipulating scenarios to make it seem like participation in all the Jackass-ary he has instigated was voluntary instead of coerced. When Stede says “I don’t like who you are around  this guy” what he means is “I don’t like how this guy is able to manipulate you into acting on your very worst impulses”, but what Ed hears is “I don’t like you”. For who is he, if not the collection of behaviors he chooses to exhibit? And were those choices not entirely his to make? With the rift clearly established, if in its infancy, of course Jack is going to do everything he can to foster its growth. So again, he interrupts Stede, again implicitly signaling that Ed should pay attention to what he says and not Stede. By lobbing the coconut at Ed at that moment, he forestalls any possible clearing of the air between Ed and Stede, and causes Ed to literally turn his back on Stede, in the way Ed feels Stede has emotionally turned his back on him just moments earlier. Jack reinforces this idea of turning his back on Stede again moments later when he says “Don’t go!” and immediately turns Ed around by the shoulders.

I know that I’ve been laying it on a bit thick and prolly sound like the written embodiment of the red string conspiracy meme, but I’m about to get a whole lot worse, and I’m going to ask you to stick with me, oh my v. dears. I think Jack killed Karl on purpose.

I know, I know. It was an accident! He was flailing drunkenly! But was he?

Have we seen him take so much as a single drink since the cannon fire at the beginning of the episode? Even though he’d been drinking earlier, did he not have devastating precision and accuracy when he first demonstrated Whippies - shattering every glass, snapping the cards from the Swede’s fingers, and ball-tapping Ed without permanently maiming him or even splitting the leather of his pants? In fact, while nearly every other crew member on the deck has a bottle in hand, just like on the beach, Jack does not.

Jack knows he has to get Ed off the ship before the British show up, but he can’t just say “Let’s ditch these losers” and expect Ed to agree, especially since he’s spent most of the day roping the crew into his schemes. The most effective way to get Ed to follow is if Jack is rejected for just being himself and doing what he does, just like Ed feels he was earlier by Stede. I think the original plan was to goad Olu into seriously hurting the Swede, the fallout of which would be recriminations that Jack made them do it, and Jack getting aggrieved that he was just trying to show this ungrateful lot how to have a good time, skulking off and leading Ed to follow him and reassure him that he’s really a good guy - how could he have known it would turn out like that? But when Buttons calls a halt to the proceedings and it looks like everyone is going to pack it in, Jack has to think fast. If HE maims a crew mate, that would be a bridge too far, painting him as the bad guy. But Karl? He’s just a bird. And if Jack can get a little revenge on the weird bird guy who made him change his plan, so much the better. AND, as people with far fewer auditory processing issues than I have pointed out, Jack mutters that he expected there to be more feathers. Could the evidence be any more damning?

Of course the whole ship turns on him, and then here’s Stede to order him off, explicitly rejecting him the way he metaphorically rejected Ed. But when even that isn’t enough to get Ed to follow him, Jack pulls out one last, desperate manipulation - the debt of life.

Jack’s tragic flaw is that he can’t turn it off. Once he and Ed are alone, he turns his passive aggressive assault on Ed, pressuring him into drinking the morning away by sarcastically saying he didn’t know he had an audience with the pope when Ed expresses disinterest, and, ultimately, giving up the game when he mentions with casual derision how he’d heard of Ed shaking up with Stede, and then deriding Ed for his failure to spot Jack’s machinations.

Too bad Jack didn’t know that the punishment for passive-aggressive fuckery on this show is death…

#ofmd #our flag means death #ofmd meta #calico jack

[wolfsbanee69]

Duskwood theory: MWF

!!!!!!!!!SPOILERS AHEAD !!!!!!!!!

This is gonna be a long boy, so strap in for a wild ass ride, induced by lack of sleep and brain jitters that want answers! This may not be in a correct time-line because some details are pretty fuzzy early on, so sorry in advance for that! 

I’ll put it under the cut, because it really did end up as a very long boy.

To be honest, I’ve been sitting on this one for quite a while; I think the idea came around the end of episode 7 or 8 (the episode where Richy dies anyway).

And in my opinion; Richy is the one behind everything. 

Now, put your pitchforks down, I have evidence, or, at least, stuff that will probably make you rethink Richy a little bit.

To start this off, I think I’ll raise the first questions that have plagued my mind since my first playthrough (and believe me, I have a pretty big number of replays under my belt): Why did Richy not add us until the Legends of Duskwood chat and what did he tell Jessy about us that one time? It must’ve been very important if he felt the need to tell her in person even though we find out later on they don’t necessarily have any problems with texting each other even if they work at the same place.

So, what’s going on? 

During the chat with Jake, he asks us the same question: What did we think he told Jessy? Now, unfortunately we can’t say we know even in the present, but in my opinion it is quite weird nothing else followed that. 

On the Richy not adding us part, I think he was mostly trying to gauge the group’s reaction to us, which also seems pretty weird because in comparison with the others, the only people that didn’t add us almost as soon as we came in were Lilly and Dan if I remember correctly; Lilly obviously didn’t want anything to do with it and Dan, well, as he himself said “guys like him always get in the line of fire”

Until now, there isn’t much evidence against him, just stuff that feels odd. 

I’m pretty sure he doesn’t get involved in more investigating stuff until the Legends of Duskwood chat, so we’ll move to that. At this point we know that the kidnapper is hiding behind the legend of the man without a face.

We find out that there is a book in the library that contains information about the mwf and Jessy suggests she goes to pick it up herself. Richy, immediately starts putting holes in her plan by saying stuff like “It’s already closed when you leave” and when she suggests that she goes during the lunch break he just responds with “That’s gonna cut it too close”. Weren’t they the ones complaining that Roger’s Garage doesn’t have customers? Who cares if Jessy is late 5-10 minutes? Not the customers that’s for sure. 

Unless Richy doesn’t want us to have that book. 

Pretty sure that when Jessy goes to pick it up the person who grabbed it has it for a long time as it’s past the returning time which means in the least that he didn’t get the book just because he heard that we want it. 

Then comes the forest search. We all know everyone had high hopes for it, but it ends up being canceled because of the threatening letters sent to Cleo’s mom. In response to us saying “Hannah is definitely in the forest” he responds with “It would have been like searching for the famous needle in the haystack anyway”

Sounds pretty weird when everyone was super excited and hopeful. He also continues with:

“And to risk our own lives” I thought we were talking about a kidnapping, not a murder???

This might be him trying to comfort the others that were excited about the search, but the line “And to risk our own lives...It’s not worth it” makes me kind of doubtful he was trying to comfort anyone. 

Then we have Dan’s accident. 

I’m pretty sure I don’t have a screenshot of the text message, but we know that when Jessy left Roger’s Garage to get ready for her date with Dan, Richy isn’t there. I am almost certain that at one point it was mentioned that his apartment was above the garage, but I’m not too sure. Anyway, if he isn’t in the garage, where could he be? 

Since Jessy leaves from work we can safely assume that it’s around the end of their shifts (since they seem to be the only employees and just like with the library apparently Jessy cannot leave during set hour unless she asks for Richy’s permission), but if that was the case(and we didn’t see any messages letting Richy know that she’s leaving early), wouldn’t resident gentleman Richy wait for the lady?

He must be somewhere with some business to take care of, right?

We know from reading along Jessy’s and Richy’s conversation that Jessy apparently hasn’t had a day off in a long time

This in itself isn’t evidence to go off from. But just keep this piece of information in mind. 

Further on we get the chance to question Dan about what happened. One of the questions is “Is it possible, that you have any enemies?” 

Richy’s reaction seems uncalled for? No one else reacted in any shape or form at the question which probably means that it wasn’t a tease at Dan’s rough exterior. And this reaction paired with the fact that Richy wasn’t at the garage when Jessy left, it doesn’t really paint a pretty picture for him...

Ultimately, Dan asks Richy to take a look at his car and check for any signs of tampering. 

After Jessy is attacked we can talk with her about what happened. Between the questions we have available one was “Did he say anything to you?”

Jessy responds with:

Hmm, strong you say?

Richy must be pretty strong if he works with cars...but, at the same time, we know from his profile that Dan likes to work out, so this piece of information is up to you how you want to interpret it.

Richy goes into the forest to the dare house; great job buddy that’s worked out for everyone!

During that time, the garage was left unsupervised, just like Richy said “Usually I would have been at the junkyard all day. That means someone was watching me when I went into the forest” and with Jessy gone, there was really no one as an alibi for anything before he texted us that he was in the forest. He could have been practicing off his sick skills in drawing ravens with fake blood for all we know! 

This one is more of a hit or miss, but at the end of the day it’s just a theory- a GAME THEORY-

Then after Richy is marked, we have this conversation with him:

I didn’t think to screenshot the rest of the conversation because while it seemed as if it was supposed to be important, I didn’t feel the need to have it as a photo. Basically Richy tells us that Phil used to give Hannah free drinks, as if we are supposed to now write Phil down as a suspect. While I do admit his character is flirty and kind of shady, I don’t think he had anything to do with the kidnapping. 

The last line also seems very weird to me, like you’re fine with me getting all sorts of information about Hannah, but the moment it comes from you, you are suddenly not entirely sure it’s good?? You do you man I guess. 

In a nutshell, I think this conversation is meant to confuse both us as the players, but also MC. We suddenly have Phil to worry about and that “someone else”. 

Then we find out that apparently Cleo and Thomas are trying to break in Aurora’s basement? Whoever the fuck told them it was a good idea?

We make Thomas go and talk to Phil before the police is involved and we get an explanation as a reward. Not very fair if you ask me, but whatever, we get an explanation either way. 

We get added into a group chat with Cleo, Thomas and guess who? Richy. When we demand an explanation about what was going on we have this sequence:

Seeing as everyone is so eager to throw the burden to us of investigating Hannah’s kidnapping with no worries about who else finds out, it seems weird that this is the one instance they decided to keep us out of the loop. There weren’t any other instances of Jessy finding out something out from us, so this worry seems very...questionable, in the least. 

We know about the body since episode 1 if I’m not mistaken and this conversation takes place around episode 2-3, which is enough time for them to be plotting something behind our backs. Let’s say Richy was genuinely worried about Jessy finding out, since she is Phil’s sister and we are very close to her; why would that matter? In the worst case she gets upset and tells them to knock it off. 

Sometime around Lilly’s video, I am almost 100% sure that it was shortly before, we have this:

If it was me in Jessy’s place, I would be pretty pissed if someone talked about my attack without me. But, I don’t know. Here, it seems Richy is pressuring us to let the others know as soon as possible. Why? To send a message? To induce real fear for their lives? 

After Lilly’s video, we find the book of legends in Hannah’s cloud.

We know Jessy is a hardcore fan of legends and myths, why would she get “over-excited” over something she already knows about? It would mostly be satisfaction of being right, or something like that. Anyway, Richy doesn’t want to postpone it that badly. To me, that sounds like an admission of wanting to postpone it, but ok.

We find out the body’s idenity, Amy. Richy doesn’t participate in the conversation because he “can’t add anything” to it. Weird, but ok, I thought Duskwood was a small town where everyone knows everyone, maybe not. 

He seems almost eager to get out of the conversation by throwing the attention on the lack of Jessy and Lilly. 

As we get our hands on the call log, we find out that Roger’s Garage is on that list, surprise, surprise. Apparently Hannah’s oil pan was damaged. But Jessy didn’t know anything about that. When we ask Richy why, here is his response:

Jessy  had  the  day  off. Ladies and gentleman; what the fuck. 

Time passes differently in game as in real life (obviously) so in the game’s time line, only a few days have passed. Around three if I’m not mistaken? Remember what he told Jessy? “No worries, you didn’t have a day off in a long time” Only a few days have passed, or, anyway, a short amount of time for the phrase “a long time” to not be needed.

Further on, when we discus this with Jake, we have this option: 

Since the story will progress mostly the same, no matter what answer you choose from, the fact that the devs felt the need to include this option seems a very...interesting dialogue choice. 

Phil gets arrested. Wooo

This prompts Jessy into getting even more invested in the investigation and so she goes to take a look at Hannah’s sat nav that Richy was so sure it didn’t exist. 

Broski, you literally work with cars and her car was in your workshop, what the fuck.

We have this conversation in the groupchat:

Suddenly, our beloved mechanic wants to back off the investigation. Only like 6 episodes late. 

The group is going to the cabin in the woods. Sounds nice; a cabin around 40 minutes by car, no biggie. A cabin found by Richy. We text Richy and this is what he says:

“The only way is up for us” Uhm, sir, you have a kidnapper after you despite the police why are you so chill?

Then we finally have an answer. Apparently Dan’s car has no sign of tampering. Which is such a red flag to me, the vibes are so off, Dan seemed so convinced about his brakes not working. Also, remember that Richy wasn’t in the junkyard when Jessy left, so, during our Date with Jessy, he could’ve been anywhere. 

The only thing I hate so so so so much is the fact that the car was sent to Richy. I would’ve loved to see what Tool Tastic would’ve had to say, before Richy put his grimy mechanic hands all over it. If he was the one to cut Dan’s brakes (he surely would have the knowledge to do something like that), he probably has already fixed it so taking it to TT is kind of a waste Despite that, I hope TT checks it over either way.

We get to ask him if he thinks Phil was framed

Suddenly! Oh no! A scream from the forest! How convienent!

Now this. This is the scene that absolutely made me question Richy’s innocence. The scene that started all of this for me: Richy’s death call. 

As soon as he’s outside, on the call with us, the screams stop. Weird, right? Anyway, no more screams. He sees someone and runs off. He’s a runner he’s a track star.

The thing is. He sees someone then runs off and then gets attacked. That means someone must’ve been chasing him, but things start to get weird. We see at the beginning of the call that the forest is full of dead leaves on the ground, meaning you hear leaves crunching under your shoe when you step on them, right? You can only hear one pair of footsteps, Richy’s. What is he running from then? Someone levitating?

Then he stops. We hear him very clearly stop and pant, but otherwise is quiet. Now, I’m guessing that for you to bleed out of your mouth you have to be shot or stabbed. We don’t hear a gunshot so that is out of the question. The other option is getting stabbed. Now, unless mwf is a throwing knives champion, I don’t see how he would be able to hit Richy without getting closer. 

Notice how there are no footsteps again? It’s only Richy. 

Let’s say he truly was stabbed. Somehow, someway our mechanic has a wound that we cannot see and that causes him to bleed. From his mouth. 

You can’t see the blood very well in this picture, but the blood is coming out of his mouth. 

ALSO MWF DOESN’T SHOW HIS UGLY ASS MASK!!!!!!!!!!!!! This was a very big thing with him, us seeing him seeing this is his handiwork. Now where is he?? He’s okay with attacking Jessy and then staring at us ominously, but when he kills Richy he’s like “Nah man, u got this”????

Richy’s dead, we tell the guys and Thomas goes into the forest to search for him (if you choose that option) and he calls us from the forest, showing us this: 

(yes this photo is taken from google, let me be, I only have so much space on my phone)

Notice how the blood is on the edge of his cap? Yeah, I studied physics and from what I know, gravity doesn’t work like that. Unless he dropped the cap in a pile of blood and it remained there long enough for the blood to stain it so thoroughly and also dry, I don’t see how the cap would’ve ended up like this. 

Besides the fact that what we see in the call is so little blood, not nearly enough to stain the hat like that, we don’t see the blood on the grass or anything like that. If Richy was stabbed, wouldn’t he bleed? At least enough to stain the ground? Unless the hat is in another location, I don’t see how we could explain the lack of blood on the ground. 

And the raven feathers around the hat don’t have a SPECK of blood. Kind of a weird detail. 

And last but not least! We have this messages with mwf through Hannah’s phone:

“I set a trap for you” 

I as in me, myself. I have. The person texting us has. 

This could be interpreted in two ways. Richy, may I remind you, he is the one who organized the whole cabin in the forest, has gone before hand and placed the gun there so they can start pointing fingers at each other, OR, Michael (Jackson-) put a bug on Jessy’s/Thomas’ car and followed them to the cabin. 

To me, this points towards Richy especially with the line “And you didn’t even realize” backing it up. Again, this could be discussed as if it was Michael talking, taunting us, but I’m still leaning more towards Richy.

And that’s it! If you have gotten here, thank you! Your dedication is admirable, I spent so long writing this and trying to put it as best as I could in a time-line correct order, so I hope it’s if not exact at least close enough to the events in the game :D

#duskwood #duskwood theories #duskwood thoughts #mwf

[semi-imaginary-place]

naruto blogging part 4: i can't believe im starting to like itachi, he's so pathetic. sasuke has 1 braincell and its just constantly screaming murder, he's so stupid.

576 itachi is the worst at communicating. he just says stuff and never elaborates or explains, no wonder sasuke is like this. here's sasuke trying to make sense of things and get some closure and itachi's like im not explaining nothing.

579 their susanoo each have the half ribcage with the two together forming a whole. i also noticed it earlier that the hood part of the 3rd susanoo layer has another set of eye holes making 4 pair of eyes total in a complete eternal mangekyo sharingan susanoo.

591 he is no longer asking for forgiveness and actually telling the truth. good scene.

Literally brought neji back for 1 chapter to kill him off and then forgets about team gai immediately after.

he's talking like his dog threw up on the carpet again.

Naruto has become a kaiju series again.

I can't believe every problem in the shinobi world could have been fixed if hashirama and madara had kissed.

i found it, the worst haircut in the manga.

literally changing his mind every 3 days he really does not think, all emotions zero thoughts.

Tsunade gets bisected and left there for an hour but neji dies instantly from a stab. smh

654-655 hell yeah power of friendship

is hashirama just cancer??? immortal cells, reproduces like crazy, endless regeneration, weird shape. made the tree made the white zetsus made half a tobi body made narutos arm. and the titty face

wait a moment didn't madara and kabutoo say earlier that his edo tensei had revived madara at full strength. so he just gave up resurrective immortality and indestructibility for uh nothing maybe a slight powerup? idk man the obito fight could have been a good final battle. madara feels like clean up

im still not over madara chatting with hashirama while he's got hashirama's face on his tit

madara put obito's right eye in the left socket. what. actually im probably the fool fro trying to make sense of thing naruto never made sense to begin with. wait not obito's eye. madara implanted his eyes in nagato. tobi was the one who collected nagato's corpse. wait then why did madara only get one eye back. oh obito was using the other eye. things make sense for once

if octopus got extracted how;s B not dead

661 the blatant excuse to give sasuke a new powerup. freeing hashirama is so much more useful given he's built up as the most powerful person ever.

ch 661 Speaking of madara the foiling is obvious. the dude who gave up on reality and tried to do everything himself. someone pointed out something interesting, given sasuke's resemblance to izuna, madara stabbing him through the heart gives an extra layer of depth. Madara repeats hashirama's line from when hashirama stabbed madara in the heart in the og vote battle, and so in killing sasuke he is metaphorically killing both his brother and child (in the sense that sasuke's an uchiha boy)

663 this is like the worst medical practice i have seen yet. have you heard of compressions??? a defibrillator???

an interesting ending would have been to remove chakra from the world. but learning to live in a world of chakra is equally interesting

#naruto