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#and refusing to even acknowledge the one (1) thing he needs to do to safe his own life because it means recognizing his own emotions

armageddidnt · 8 months

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Welcome to My Collection of Random Thoughts during my nth* rewatch of Good Omens Season 2

*only amazon prime knows the exact number at this point but I’m fairly certain it’s in the double digits

Episode 1: Gabriel’s fly lurking in the box when Aziraphale first takes it inside 👀

Crowley’s promise of “two minutes” basically means that he’s been homeless and living in his car for the past 4 years strictly so that he can be within 2 driving minutes of Aziraphale at all times in case his angel needs him I’m not crying you are

So here I think the key word is “fragile,” Crowley knows they are ostensibly safe from their respective sides but that could change at any moment so he’s basically spent the last 4 years in anxiety-ridden terror hovering as close to Aziraphale as he can to try and protect him from heaven, hell, and anyone else that would want to bring him harm after all that business they pulled in season 1 with stopping Armageddon

Episode 2: I just happened to pause the episode while Aziraphale is lying to the angels about his miracle and LOL Michael really outdid himself here (Sheen, not the Archangel)

Gabriel trying to swat flies and almost smashing the repository of every single one of his memories

I’m cAckling

So if Good Omens exists in Good Omens, does that mean Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett exist in Good Omens?? Do you think they based their Aziraphale and Crowley characters on Aziraphale and Crowley??

Episode 3: So I’m trying to find any hints or foreshadowing of the Gabriel Beelzebub thing bc tbh I did kind of feel like it came out of nowhere which is really the only issue I have with them. I found this one scene where Beelzebub almost ?? seems to be concerned about Gabriel ?? But it’s blink and you miss it and there could be lots of other reasons why Beelzebub doesn’t want to fail in locating Gabriel (pressure from/leverage over heaven, etc) so idk

More Foreshadowing Fly content 🪰

Episode 4: So here we’ve seen that Shax can just appear inside the Bentley bc she did it earlier to talk to Crowley. Shax only pretended to be a hitchhiker so she could be invited in because Azirpahale was driving so technically she needed permission to cross the threshold of an angel 👀

This scene will never not destroy me the 1941 flashback is the absolute sOFTEST thing ever to happen on this show

We really need more context here I need to see the Crowley-Furfur Monkey Rides

Episode 5: ahahaha thank you google translate for absolutely destroying my sanity this evening

POP goes the Ziraphale

Okay I know you can’t hear it in the gif but just before Nina takes Maggie’s hand, there’s a very quiet miracle noise, like Azirpahale literally MADE Nina dance with Maggie, he said I’m writing a Mina Jane-Austen-Ball-AU and my otp will KISS godDAMMIT

Azirpahale seems lowkey kind of manic this whole scene tho, he’s controlling literally everyone to force Nina and Maggie together and whenever Crowley says anything that pokes holes in Aziraphale’s Magical Jane Austen Ball Fairytale, Aziraphale just straight up denies it. He wants Nina and Maggie to dance and he wants him and Crowley to dance and he refuses to acknowledge anything beyond that.

Is this just Shax insulting Crowley for how much of a nuisance he’s been or a reference to his former status as an angel ???

They’re both completely dismissive of each other when they’re trying to say something important and that’s the main issue they’ve been having this entire season tbh

Episode 6: I think it’s funny that Crowley describes the angels as bees here because in the book, Neil/Terry describe humans the same way. Guess we have more in common than we thought huh?

So the metatron was the one who originally decided Gabriel would be memory wiped and not sent to hell, and he was also the one that decided not to sound an alarm about Gabriel for some reason and said ‘just go find him yourself’ instead. The metatron has definitely got his own agenda and you can bet he doesn’t want Aziraphale up there in heaven because he’s a “leader” and he’s “honest” like that’s exactly what Gabriel was and look where it got him 👀

There’s just something I can’t quite put my finger on about the metatron bringing Aziraphale a coffee from “give me coffee or give me death” and then asking Aziraphale if he’s going to take the coffee he’s giving him…

I have not seen a single person talk about this since s2 came out but Nina literally calls Maggie “angel” because that’s the term of endearment they hear Crowley using for Aziraphale !!!! I’m still going fERAL over this and I can’t believe no one else is eitHER

Something about this part of The Final Fifteen compared to this scene from the first episode is so representative of the entire season. Azirpahale keeps saying “my way or get out” and Crowley finally hits a wall and can follow Aziraphale no further. So he does just that. He goes.

I’m sure a lot of us by now have seen this post that brings up how Aziraphale literally pushes the remains of Crowley into his mouth and swallows and it’s the only thing I see when I watch this now

We still don’t know for certain if Crowley queued up this song to play on their way to the Ritz or if the Bentley started playing it all on its own and it’s driving me insane

Basically how I am doing after my Truly-Alarming-Number-th watch of this traumatizing episode/season. WELP hope you enjoyed this garbage dump of my thoughts and feelings time to go cry for a bit again BYE

#good omens #good omens 2 #good omens season 2 #my season 2 rewatch aka: I Went Insane #i am unwell #I haven't slept properly in 44 days and counting #ineffable husbands #aziraphale #crowley #angel #demon #armageddidnt-blog #armageddidnt-gifset #armageddidnt-screaming #armageddidnt-pain #good omens 2x06

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canonmisogynyvictimstournament · 6 months

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PROPAGANDA

BUMBLE (WARRIOR CATS) (CW: Domestic Abuse)

1.) Back with another Warriors submission, I bet you’ll be getting a lot from other people too LMAO. Bumble is a kittypet (housecat) who befriends the male protagonist Gray Wing’s girlfriend, Turtle Tail, and lets her stay in her house. This gets Gray Wing all pissy because he’s controlling of Turtle Tail and shares most of the wild/clan cat’s proclivity for looking down upon kittypets. Turtle Tail gets pregnant by another kittypet, Tom, who tries to control her by hiding the fact that humans take away kittens after they’re born. Eventually Bumble comes clean about it so Turtle Tail returns to the forest. Some time later, Bumble is found in the forest seeking refuge because Tom has been physically abusing her, scratching her where the humans can’t see. So, she’s CANONICALLY ACKNOWLEDGED as a domestic abuse victim (unlike Squirrelflight who meets all the textbook signs but the narrative and authors deny it). How do you think our good guy protagonists, i.e. Gray Wing “The Wise” and Turtle Tail, respond to an abuse victim seeking refuge? They tell Bumble to go home, thinking to themselves that she’s fat and soft and therefore would be useless in their group. Bumble stands up for herself and asks to speak with the leaders of the group. One of them asks if Bumble could just get along with Tom better (bro???) and when Bumble says it’s not within her control, the leader suggests being nicer to the humans instead. Another rival leader butts in and verbally abuses Bumble again by ripping into how fat and lazy and useless she would be. Despite Turtle Tail having been friends with Bumble and Bumble had helped her through her own hard times, to Gray Wing’s approval Turtle Tail chooses not to intervene as Bumble is forcibly escorted back to her abuser. But that’s not all. Later Bumble is found in the forest maimed and dying, and it seems likely that Gray Wing’s brother Clear Sky, a male with a long history of violence, is the culprit. Rather than mourn the dying innocent cat, Gray Wing’s primary concern is how other cats might be mean to Clear Sky if they think he’s a murderer, and reassures himself that refusing to help Bumble in her time of need was still the right decision.

2.) I have no idea how she managed to be written so horrifically from an abuse victim and woman (/she-cat I guess) standpoint but here we are. Okay so my memory is a bit fuzzy but basically Bumble was a character in Dawn of the Clans and a close friend to Turtle Tail, a major character, as well as a character who lived close to Tom, an abusive dickhead of a cat. Bumble was largely depicted as just a really sweet cat. Turtle Tail was very briefly the mate of Turtle Tail, but once she got pregnant, he became super violent towards both her and our gal Bumble. Tom actively hid the fact that, once her kits were old enough, Turtle Tail’s kits would probably be taken from her, and made Bumble keep quiet about this too, but Bumble eventually told Turtle Tail the truth, Turtle Tail left and Tom became extremely violent towards Bumble because of this, and was extremely abusive towards her. Eventually, Bumble ran away from him to where Turtle Tail and co were and begged to stay, since the wilderness as a whole was genuinely more safe than being around Tom was. Naturally, this meant kitty xenophobia from cats who had only arrived in that area recently, because everybody was insistent than, since she was a kittypet/house cat, things wouldn’t work out, and even her friend Turtle Tail denied her on this, insisted she was too soft to live in the wild and only sent her towards a cat Bumble wanted to convince because she was absolutely certain she’d be denied. Also our good old protagonist Gray Wing got to spend this scene being all upset about this soft cat wanting to join them to escape an abuser and was all bitter about the fact that Turtle Tail lived with her for a short period of time, and he also got to have a sweet romantic moment with Turtle Tail after denying an abuse victim an escape from her abuser. Also as much as I like Tall Shadow usually she sucked ass in the following scene because she was essentially telling Bumble to go find a way to make peace with Tom as if she was not the one being abused (Bumble pointed out that Tom was the one who would need to make peace for it to happen, not her) and that she should just make life better by going back to being a housecat and being spoiled despite the fact that she was actively at risk with her owners because of Tom. Then she leaves after being threatened by several cats there and is called soft on the way out. The next time she appears she is literally dying, and her death is just a plot device to create a stupid little mystery which is solved in a very stupid way. Also her abuser does continue to be a shithead and for some reason is fully permitted to kidnap his own children but he also gets a heroic death and the only reason I will not rant more about him is because this is too long already. Long story short Bumble deserves the world and everybody who decided not to let her escape her abuser just because they thought she was soft sucks

3.) Is nice to the group of starving, feral wild cats that left the mountains so their friends and family could have more food to eat and befriends one of them to the point of opening her home to her after she leaves the group because the guy she likes is too dumb to notice she likes him and keeps falling for his brother’s love interests.

Unfortunately, because Bumble is a house cat who lives in a house with people and not a Wild and Free cat, this is a grave and horrible crime (luring a wild cat into the safety and comforts of domesticity) and is villainized for the rest of the arc, including for things wildly out of her control

I.E.

Her owners taking in an aggressive male cat that bullies and abuses the two female cats already living there

When Bumble’s friend leaves and goes back to the wild cats, Bumble leaves her home (as the abuse as has gotten worse) to see if she could either get help or have her friend return so the abuse isn’t as bad again)

Bumble eventually dies in the wild because the feral cats all hate her for ‘stealing’ their friend and tricking her into becoming a kittypet for awhile and refuse to help Bumble adjust to wild life or even teaching her how to hunt.

They are littl e to no hard feelings at her death beyond ‘good riddance’ but the aggressive tomcat that chased her out of her home is later regarded with good feelings and regret at such a ‘good, heroic cat’ passing when he dies despite him literally never doing a good or kind thing in his life and actually causing trouble for the wild cats right before dying

ALEX DEWITT (DC COMICS)

1.) The term “fridging” is literally based on Alex and what happened to her. She was killed off violently by a bad guy trying to get at her boyfriend only a couple issues after she was introduced (making it obvious they only brought her in to kill her off for shock value). Her death did very little to the narrative other than hurt her boyfriend Kyle and was done in an exceedingly horrifying and violent way. (Bad guy came to the door with flowers and threatening note, broke in and attacked her, choking her to death, before [off panel] chopping her body up and sticking it in the refrigerator as a “surprise” for her boyfriend. This obviously is really fucked up and she deserves better and should win this actually (a vote for Alex is a vote for all fridging victims [in spirit])

2.) It doesn’t get much worse than being the character whose death originated the “fridging” trope. In Green Lantern Vol. 3 #54, Kyle Rayner comes home to find that Alexandra, his girlfriend, has been killed by the villain Major Force and stuffed into the refrigerator.

Alexandra DeWitt is the character whose misogynistic treatment coined the term where a character, usually female, is killed off purely to make the main character, usually male, feel bad. Even if there are other characters who have been subjected to similar levels of misogyny, Alexandra DeWitt’s treatment has been essentially immortalized.

3.) I know she’s not going to win but shout out to my home girl, literally the trope namer for women shoved in fridges. All anyone ever knows about her is that she was Kyle’s girlfriend and got murdered for his character development, even though she had plenty of potential to be her own character.

#polls #round 5 #week 9 #new #cw domestic abuse #this was supposed to post at 12 EST but tumblr ate it from my queue for some insane reason #warcat poll

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actual-changeling · 4 months

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On unhealthy relationship dynamics

A little while ago, I stumbled across a post discussing Aziraphale's character on a meta level, and without knowing the content, I was completely unprepared when one single sentence pushed me from 'uncomfortable but doable' into 'triggered and panicking'. The post itself was triggering from start to finish, but that phrase stood out to me.

Why am I telling you this?

After calming down and thinking about it for a few hours, I realised what exactly my brain had reacted to—victim blaming rhetoric repackaged to fit Aziraphale and Crowley's situation. Victim blaming is, to provide a short summary, the act of putting blame for mistreatment on the victim instead of the perpetrator. It's a concept often used in r/pe discussions, but it can be applied to any abusive or non-abusive situation as long as a power imbalance is created, meaning you have at least one person harming another in whatever shape or form.

If you broaden the definition, you can apply it to more situations, including—and this is where we reach the actual topic—their relationship and the Final Fifteen (F15).

That is exactly what some people have been doing—putting all the blame on Crowley and absolving Aziraphale of any and all responsibility as if it were his fault that Aziraphale broke his heart

Before anyone runs to the comments, let me clarify what I assume will be the FAQ.

no, I do not think Aziraphale is abusive

I do not think that their relationship is abusive either

no, I do not hate Aziraphale

yes, I know what I am talking about

everything I will talk about is largely based on what we as the audience actually see and know, combined with interpretations of the intentional subtext Neil wrote into the show.

I have been actively in this fandom since the second season was released, and I have seen a lot of (hopefully accidental) ableist & generally insensitive takes. These are the ones I see the most and what I personally consider to be important topics of discussion, but the same logic I will be applying to these can be applied to many, many more situations.

Since my meta posts get very long very quickly, I will be posting them in parts and always linking back to the others, plus this one as the masterpost.

Part 1—Nice Is A Four Letter Word

The basic pattern is this:

Aziraphale refers to Crowley with a 'nice' term -> Crowley gets upset and tells him to stop -> Aziraphale hears him but continues anyway.

There are reasons behind Crowley's rejection, and I will go into detail, but I want to make one thing very clear: It does not matter why Crowley asked him to stop. He set a boundary, and Aziraphale repeatedly and intentionally overstepped it; this causes understandable anger and frustration.

Crowley does not owe Aziraphale an explanation, just like you would not owe someone an explanation when you don't want to be called x-term. Mutual respect requires the acceptance of personal boundaries like that, and by breaking them over and over again, Aziraphale tells Crowley that his own wants are more important than Crowley's needs.

In the 1827 Edinburgh flashback, we see the consequences of Crowley doing good/being called good (which are usually connected, meaning if they notice someone is calling Crowley good, he most likely did something to cause that) firsthand, and so does Aziraphale. He gets dragged down to hell and tortured for up to thirty years.

Even before that, Crowley expresses numerous times how hell punishes good deeds, and they are 'always listening' in on him. You would assume that Aziraphale would stop to keep him safe—and yet he doesn't because he cannot accept the reality of Crowley's situation and refuses to listen to him.

On top of that, Aziraphale only ever "praises" Crowley when he does something he personally sees as praiseworthy, aka something good/kind/nice/angelic/etc. but never when it is something that CROWLEY would like to be praised for, or at the very least acknowledged. We see it in season 2 over and over and over again: Aziraphale cares for no one's thoughts or plans except his own and has no interest in even hearing Crowley out.

Aziraphale calling him nice is not a sweet little gesture, it is an intentional overstepping of a boundary Crowley has been trying to enforce for centuries, and it reinforces the dichotomy of good angels/bad demons, with angelic existence being the ultimate goal. At the very least, it's disrespectful towards Crowley, and at worst, it is actively keeping Crowley in a trauma response, tugging on his leash whenever he tries to explain reality to Aziraphale.

To have a healthy relationship, Aziraphale needs to stop.

part 2 - part 3

#alex talks good omens #good omens meta #crowley meta #aziraphale meta #go meta #good omens #crowley #aziraphale #good omens season 2 #go2 #aziracrow #crowley x aziraphale #ineffable husbands #ineffable wives #ineffable spouses #ineffable divorce #the final fifteen

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visenyaism · 11 months

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Top 5 asoiaf historical characters or top 5 povs to read from ?

my favorite chapter of all time still goes to the tyrion boat school chapter in adwd but in terms of favorite POVs to read?

6. joncon- giving myself a bonus one to talk about how reading his chapters made me feel like i was dissolving like a powerpoint transition. there’s just so much grief and love and bitterness and doom packed into there it is unreal.

5. sam- gender. he is just so special i’ve never read a fantasy protag quite like samwell tarly and his quest to realize his compassion, empathy, and courage are his greatest strengths despite being discouraged by hypermasculine violent feudal society. he is the real protagonist of asoiaf to me.

4. jonsnow- i liked his pov’s in all the books, but ADWD where he is just trying as hard as possible not to be the protagonist after going though like 4 different genres (can u BELIEVE he started off as a boarding school protagonist) even though he literally has super strengthis so beloved to me. His ongoing crisis where he has to realize that despite everything everyone tries to impose on him he has only ever been just himself is so so real (just as real as him being king beyond the wall. btw) though getting immediately killed for it has to be a downer. MY son was turncloak of the month at castle black👍

3. Jaime- he’s funny. he’s cringe. he stares a lot for someone who can’t fight. he’s delusional. he can’t fit a whole knight in his head. he hasn’t emotionally matured past the age of seventeen. everything he says is insane and also heartbreaking. i love jaime POVs so much y’all don’t get it.

2. Cersei- reading cersei i for the first time last year rewired my brain and i was loud about it. Unlike cersei i was not raised by a fascist nightmare but as a nonbinary girltwin i can say that getting raised alongside a direct example of what your life would’ve been like without misogyny can be very hard, especially when you hit puberty and the “your brother is a person and you are the girl one” starts to get even louder. I was fucking alarmed how personally compelling her weird gender thoughts were given EVERYTHING else the Lannister twins have going on that is NOT personally relevant to me. Don’t know how george rr martin old cishet man that he is knew about any of that.

She’s completely delusional, and at times her mental gymnastics are so so fucking funny, but the like roiling layer of unspeakable (literally unspeakable she refuses to speak or acknowledge it) pain and fear underneath is what got me really. Watching her scheme out of arrogance and mortal terror really just to gain respect and bodily autonomy (though in the Tywin way where freedom from abuse and the “right” to abuse others are the same thing) and then just losing everything incredibly fucking hard was really compelling. i hope you win.

1. Melisandre- wait i said another chapter was my favorite of all time in this post? no i didn’t not when melisandre i is in the room. i have talked about this one extensively and probably will do so again. Finding out that r’hllor is literally her enslaved and her entire black and white apocalyptic worldview is her attempt to feel safe within that truth because she is still just a scared little girl at heart who needs what she’s saying to be true because if it’s not none of her suffering was worth it was the revelation of all time. That and the revelation that she actually does have a human attachment to Davos to the point that she’s watching over his son to spare him the grief. We WILL get melisandre ii in this lifetime and it will break my heart all over again because she is going to outlive stannis and have to survive the worldview shattering.

#i am a PROUD cognitive dissonance unreliable narrator enjoyer. and AFFC’s strongest soldier #asoiaf #valyrianscrolls #listen i love all the regulars. there’s just so many heavy hitters in affc and adwd #WAIT THEON. NOOOOOOO

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yanderes-galore · 1 year

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(Prompt: 38 "My life has been so barren without you...." & 52 "My world's covered in darkness without you!" & "I'd burn this world and everything in it for you.") For yandere Reaper (Overwatch) and his innocent darling after he kidnapped her, please? Sorry, I know you got a lot of requests already, but these sentences really fitted this pairing. Thank you for considering writing it in case you do accept it. I appreciate it a lot!

It's fine! I don't mind a lot of requests. Prompt list used was mine. Short continuation of this concept.

Yandere! Reaper Prompts 38, 52, 1

"My life has been so barren without you...."

"My world's covered in darkness without you!"

"I'd burn this world and everything in it for you."

Pairing: Romantic

Possible Trigger Warnings: Gender-Neutral Darling, Kidnapping, Murder, Blood, Manipulation, Stalking, Forced relationship.

Reaper was the man that broke your innocence. He had not done anything to you physically. Intimacy-wise, at least...

He had instead shown your horrors. He had shown you the murder of your family before your very eyes. You still remember the way blood caked on your skin.

He was death itself. A being with no regrets when it came to killing. He held no remorse, he didn't think about his actions, if he did you wouldn't be here. You wouldn't be stuck in a dark room with the murderer of your family.

Intentionally or not, Reaper had killed most of your innocence. You thought the world was cruel after meeting death himself. Now you were alone...

Left to grieve while he watched.

"There's no need to cry...."

"You killed my family... why else do you think I cry?"

"Death claims us all at some point."

You don't look at him, refusing the acknowledge the ghastly mask he wore. Your captor was obviously not the comforting type. His presence only makes you cry harder.

"... I took you here for a reason."

"To finish what you started?"

"No..."

He readjusts you to face him, deadly hands holding your smaller ones.

"My life has been so barren without you...."

He doesn't let you go, sitting beside you.

"I am simply meant to kill. That is my job as death incarnate. I even find it fun...

His tone chills you the the bone. When his cold touch transitions to your cheeks, you try to pull away. He only digs his fingers into your cheeks tighter.

"Then I saw you. Your life so calm compared to mine.... So I watched you. From the shadows I kept you safe from the world's dangers. Until I couldn't stand it anymore. I had to have you."

"You're saying you killed my family... because I'm special?"

"Save your outrage..." Reaper barks at you, roughly pulling you into his chest. "...My world's covered in darkness without you."

You were his light. You were someone he could fight for. Although, to keep that light in his life, he had to cover yours in darkness.

Despite your protests for Reaper to let you go, he didn't yield. He rests his head on yours and enjoys the warmth you give off. Even if you cried, he didn't care.

Murder wasn't all that impactful to him.

"I'd burn this world and everything in it for you."

He would kiss you if he could. He yearned to give into his desires and break the rest of your innocent mind. To harvest everything from his darling, his lamb.

Although while your fear is cute... he wishes it would stop. He's given himself all to you and you only cry. He'd kill whoever and whatever if you asked for it. Even if you didn't ask for it, too.

Life required sacrifices. You could not have one thing without giving up another. Reaper obtained his happiness through you...

Although it sacrificed yours.

"You will grow used to it," Reaper says, his tone like a growling beast. "I only wish to keep you safe. I'd never kill you. I only want to hold you. To love you, an emotion I thought I lost long ago."

You say nothing, silently laying on his chest. After a few days, not just your innocence will break. Your sanity will too.

You aren't worried about you...

You're worried for those that will die because of you.

"You're mine to keep, lamb."

#yandere overwatch #yandere reaper #yandere gabriel reyes

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runningfrom2am · 3 months

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what happened to lucy gray baird?

1. well, in her defence, she had considered lucy gray a friend too. it’s just that she loves knowing all the cards and she couldn’t trust anyone except her coryo.

2. lucy gray being afraid of coryo being nearby because the capitol duo are never not around each other and therefore, alongside not having what it takes to take r’s life, shying away from the cabin but r being the actual physical threat to her all along because had it been her who went after lucy gray, she couldn’t have escaped and coryo is long gone at that time.

3. “She tried to kill me, too.” no, i’m pretty sure she is the reason why you’re alive and well right now but whatever it takes to gain trust i guess.

4. i’m so glad that both sejanus and lucy gray acknowledge everything that could’ve been an indicator of how much she was “not like them” after things happen because it creates a contrast with r convincing herself that she is in the right before anything happens.

5. the president and the head gamemaker <333 (i have accepted them as my favourite problematic couple, what about it?)

6. sejanus imagining r and coryo as the presidential couple when they were kids is everything.

7. after seeing her with arachne, persephone, livia, ash and lucy gray; it’s safe to say, even after all, sejanus was never actually on the receiving end of her anger. she did love him enough for him to survive.

8. i love how her emotions went from shock to disgust and then confusion to contentment because how else does a human react to this? the boy who was one of her closest friend, once, the boy whose life she’s saved, standing in front of her only because she has lost the war.

9. her character doesn’t seem to have changed much over the passing time if she refuses even the idea of dying a boring and unimportant death. even in death she has to have the biggest effect on the world as she knows it, whether it be mourning for days or a big celebration.

hiii omg we have so much to discuss here we go :)

1. she considered lucy gray a friend until the moment she realized that lucy gray could be a potential threat to her. she wasn’t a tribute anymore- she was a victor, and now there was no cage separating her from him. not even the “cage” (if we can refer to it that way) of him being a peacekeeper and not being able to be seen with her publicly.

but THEN when they are set to be married a year later, she’s like *sigh* “i wonder if lucy gray would have been my maid of honour. that could have been cute” like it wasn’t HER FAULT THAT LICY GRAY WAS “DEAD”. did she kill her? no, but she did manipulate coryo into doing it and i consider that very much the same thing.

2. the faith she still had in coryo for some reason to be like “oh god, he wouldn’t leave her out here alone. i have to get out of here.” like girl he just tried to kill you OF COURSE HE’S LEAVING HER OUT THERE ALONE. but i think by that point they were both very much equal threats to her- so she was not about to run the risk of either of them seeing her (even if she didn’t know he was gone)

3. yeah like sir-

(to be fair it is an extremely fine line that she walked between “trying to kill him” and “letting him go” considering she got to the point of lifting the weapon at him, so it doesn’t surprise me that within such a short period of time he’s still seeing it the way that he does.) also 100% he needed lucy gray to know she was safe with him and by convincing her that he was in the same boat was the most obvious way.

4. oh absolutely. and i think it’s almost funny how sejanus was best friends with them for so long and then it took one day for him to go from “haha my friends are so crazy. unchecked anger issues- am i right?” to “oh, shit, like they’re violently insane and i should have always known this.” the rose coloured glasses had to come off SO fast.

5. 🫡🫡 (i love them so much)

6. AND HE WOULDDDD 🥺

like no doubt he knew about their feelings for each other well before either of them did. and i know damn well even if most of their classmates didn’t like him he was privy to one or two conversations about them when they weren’t there. like clemmie would TOTALLY corner him and be like “what do you know?” omg especially after livia’s birthday and hold on i’m actually gonna work on a part two rn-

7. he had ALMOST been on the receiving end of her anger. and also, like he says, “i’ve seen her get violent before, but nothing like that” even though she wasn’t violent toward him necessarily, i think it was the things she was saying that really freaked him out. she was angrier than he had ever seen her, and i think it was the calmness and severity of her statement that nothing was going to keep her from the life she wanted that did his opinions in.

8. yes and i know eventually she landed on being happy. bc really, that is what she wanted. “i won’t bury another friend” is HEAVY here, because while she never buried him, after going out of her way to save him from his execution and then letting him go in the HEIGHT of her mental breakdown, she never really knew if he survived. she risked so much for his survival, that i think it would be extremely fulfilling to know that she succeeded despite everything.

9. yesss and really how could she change? any kind of moral compass she had was left in twelve and she was rewarded significantly for what she did literally as soon as they got back. every single one of her problems were instantly solved; she had coryo, her father was out of her life, and she was immediately put on track for her dream career. and like she said, she got everything she ever wanted. even after her “death” it was attention that she craved and therefore she would have it- she doesn’t care if people are celebrating her death. it’s a testament to her success.

#i have the answers #ltpf <3 #that-veela-girl

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dayurno · 4 months

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do you have any thoughts about the way thea was handled? ever since nora has been more active on twt (and mentioned the hate thea gets) people have been sort of insistent about Always Having Liked Her Actually and it irks me a lot, because imo people SHOULD be upset at the fact that kevin (who has been abused all his life and has trauma regarding the nest) has a gf who's from that same environment but 1. doesn't seem all that concerned about getting better / helping kevin get better 2. shouts at him in the only scene they're in together 3. isn't even described as a particularly good presence in the extra content explaining their past 4. this is just a horrible cherry on top but she's 5 years older and they met when he was 14 :/// like if anything i think this has a lot to do with nora not having been kind to kevin (which she also recently admitted to) like damn can he get one thing in life that's just good for him. one safe haven. jesus

short answer: i think thea as a character has been done the worst by nora sakavic, and the lack of care she was shown is in line with how all for the game treats its other characters of color.

long answer: most of my thoughts about how thea was handled are less about thea the character itself and more about her throwaway appearance and the overall lack of interest the author had when writing her. thea's a widely hated character for many reasons, not all of them valid, and a big one is that she was shoved into the narrative at one of the very last few chapters and paired up with one of the most important characters with very little thought or effort. we don't get even a hint of her existance before her appearance, and her one scene does not gather her sympathy because what we know of her is that she's an unrepentant raven (arguably the series' most evident villains) and what we see of her is a moment of great anger, that, even if ignorant, mimics the hostility most of the other ravens had towards kevin/the foxes during the trilogy

this is all to say: i don't like the way thea was written, and i think, especially, that it was a bad optic to write a black woman whose only scene is her being hostile towards her love interest. i need you to know that i'm not saying thea was not right to be angry, or that thea should've flown in and nursed kevin's mental health as soon as she could — both because it's out of character and because it's ridiculous —, but i am saying that she was not afforded almost anything as a character, in both terms of humanity and screentime. this is nothing new with how aftg treats its characters of color, and it is very telling that the characters who get the most flack (namely nicky and thea and riko) are the core of the non-white cast. thea and riko are not afforded complexity; nicky is a constantly flamboyant brown man whose only purpose is to wrangle his cousins and deliver friendship-related one liners to neil. this is why nora sakavic's refusal to comment on them grates on me, and why the new wave of adoration for the series with no nuance suffocates all of the real criticism done by fans of color in the last ten years.

and here's a personal answer: thea's future breaks my heart just as much as kevin's does, because she is also a victim of cultist mentality, and she never breaks out of it. i have no doubts in my heart that the nest was cruel to her, and her unflinching loyalty to the ravens until the end saddens me because it is a terrible existence when all is said and done. thea will not play exy forever, and by the time she has to retire, she will be just as miserable as kevin was. i don't know if she'll ever acknowledge how awful the ravens were either to her or to kevin — i don't know if she'll *want* to, because it is hard to do all that work, and it will leave her deeply scarred to realize most of it was not necessary to her sucess —, but i hope she does, and i hope that on that day, she will be able to decide for herself where to go from there.

#re: kevthea i dont think their relationship would be terrible but it would not stand for long #and i think kevin is as much of a comfortable choice for her as she is for him #but that is about as personal of an opinion as when i think kevallison wouldn't work well together #what i wish for thea is a better writer and a better fandom and a better series #but as i cannot change this i will tell u that thinking about how badly she was handled upsets me #and i hope (pray) that she finds a better man than kevin. who is probably not so obsessed with exy. and who could help her deal with #what kevin could not help her with #welcome to the world of the living theodora muldani!#asks #thea #kevin #kevthea

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twilightangel83 · 7 months

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On Time Travel and Birthdays

October 2 Prompt: Family, Friends, Loved Ones (Flufftober)

Rank 1 in the Whump Scale (check series description for scale)

In hindsight, Twilight was surprised it took so long for it to come up. Birthdays could be funny things, but they were important. But, somehow, they never came up during the whole first month that Twilight spent traveling with this new group of heroes. And when it finally did come up it seemed to catch everyone off guard.

It all started shortly after they were lucky enough to find an inn along the road they were traveling on and decided to stop for the evening despite there being some daylight left. They were all relieved to get off the road for a short time and that relief only increased when a strong storm blew in later that evening.

Things seemed to be going well, they were safe and dry and had actual beds to sleep in for the night, but then Time got to talking with the inkeeper and managed to figure out exactly how long they had been traveling together. This didn’t seem like a big deal at first, mostly just useful information to have, but not long after Twilight noticed that Wind was quieter than normal. More subdued. Something had clearly upset him. And Twilight wanted to know what it was. So he quietly pulled the young sailor aside to ask him.

Thankfully, Wind had yet to develop the need to refuse to talk about what was bothering him that many of the others seemed to have. So it didn’t take long for Twilight to find out what had their youngest so down.

“It’s nothing important,” Wind tried to reassure the older hero. “I just realized that if Time’s count of how long we’ve been at this is right then tomorrow is my birthday. And I’ve just…I’ve never been away from home on my birthday before. That’s all.”

“Tomorrow is your birthday?!” Whoops. Clearly they hadn’t been quite far enough away from everyone to keep from being overheard. And now Legend had announced it to the entire group. Wind’s ears were turning a distinctly red color, but there was no stopping it now as the rest of their group immediately turned to look at them.

“Why didn’t you say anything, Sailor?!” Warriors asked, scandalized.

“I lost track of time!” Wind threw his hands up in the air. “I didn’t realize we were this close! We’ve been a little busy, you know!”

“That is true,” Time acknowledged, cutting in. “But we know now. So is there anything you want us to do to celebrate tomorrow, Sailor?” Wind faltered in surprise at the question before shaking his head.

“I…um…Grandma always made her soup for dinner. And we’d have a cake. But she’s not here to make those so…I don’t know.”

“I’m sure we can figure something out,” Time reassured him, catching Wild’s gaze for a moment before looking back at their youngest.

“Hold up.” Legend cut in, sharply. “Let’s clear something up before we fully dive into planning for Wind’s birthday. When is everyone else’s birthday? I don’t want to get caught off guard like this again. Mine is thirty days after the spring equinox.” There was a brief lull in conversation at the suggestion, but soon enough the group was rattling off birthdays. A couple of them had to take time to count the days, since they’d long ago figured out that their calendars weren’t quite the same, but counting from something like an equinox or solstice worked well enough and it didn’t take long for everyone to share their birthdays.

Well. Almost everyone. One by one, the rest of The Chain began to turn to look at Wild and the attention had the young man’s ears turning red.

“Amnesia, remember?” Wild pointed out with a shrug. “I have no idea when I was born.”

“Then when do you celebrate?” Wind asked, tilting his head.

“I don’t.” It was a blunt, unbothered reply, but it caused a small ripple of unease to travel through the rest of the group.

“Well that’s no good.” Hyrule noted with a frown. “You’ve got to have a birthday. You can just pick one you know. That’s what I did. How about when you woke up in the shrine? That’s kind of like a new birth right?”

“I don’t know when that was either.” Wild shifted uncomfortably. “I wasn’t really keeping track of days back then, you know? I was kind of busy figuring out…things.”

“Do you know what time of year it was at least?” Twilight asked after a beat of silence and Wild frowned.

“I…I’m pretty sure it was in the fall.” Wild told them after a moment, brow furrowed. “I remember thinking about how pretty the leaves were, with all their colors.”

“Then you can just pick a day in the Fall!” Wind grinned. “Whatever day you like best!” Wild visibly faltered again, eyes a bit wider than normal.

“I…um…Can I think on it?” He sounded rather overwhelmed and Twilight couldn’t help but cut in.

Finish reading Here

#october prompts #october 2 #flufftober #flufftober 2023 #linked universe #lu twilight #lu wind #lu wild #lu time #lu warriors #lu hyrule #lu legend #lu chain #lu gang

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sweatertheman · 1 year

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Ralsei doesn't fucking get it.

A post compiled from a Discord conversation. Please enjoy.

...While I agree that Ralsei doesn't see himself as undeserving of love, he doesn't really get how love works, or how to show love without being overbearing and sometimes coming across as insincere. He acts nice on principle when he wants to be someone's friend, and when he doesn't, he's still polite, but he's less friendly.

For example, he can often be rude to Lancer in Chapter 1, rolling his eyes and being annoyed with him due to his lack of understanding of the battle system. Lancer shows no interest in being friends at first, so Ralsei disregards him, assuming he's up to no good and rejecting his advances.

Lancer: "How much (money) do I get?"

Ralsei: "You lost, Lancer. You don't get any."

Lancer: "Can I have some of yours?"

Ralsei: "No!"

Or, in a different scene...

Lancer: "Ralsei, Ralsei, Ralsei... the thrashing is what makes our relationship special!"

Ralsei: "What relationship?!"

But, he puts up with Lancer's antics a lot more when Susie is his friend, because he needs Susie to be on his side, and wants to be her friend. He switches to putting up with Lancer for the sake of being friends with Susie, and struggles to come up with a real justification for Lancer to stop fighting, other than giving compliments and offering services. He acts very unnaturally about it, like it's something he has to think about. Though, whether he's doing it on purpose or he just doesn't know HOW to be natural about these things is up for debate.

One thing that's clear is that Ralsei lacks empathy. He is often blunt and inconsiderate. He fails to consider what other people want for themselves. He claims he believes Kris' choices matter, but often restricts their choices, or offers up a choice just for its own sake to make them feel like they're doing something.

He marches toward his goals unquestioningly, with little care of what happens on his path. He doesn't see people as people, he doesn't feel bad for them or understand their troubles. He doesn't wish them harm, but doesn't feel bad when someone ends up hurt. In his mind, fighting isn't bad because it causes harm to people, it's bad because it's potentially dangerous. But when Kris tells him to do it, he simply does as told and doesn't think about it. While he preaches the value of non-violence, he never refuses to fight when told to. He acknowledges it as morally wrong but doesn't show any regret or discomfort.

Where Lancer doesn't want Susie and his dad to fight and imprisons Susie to keep them safe from each other, Ralsei blindly marches towards King. In his mind, they won't have to fight King because fighting is wrong and unnecessary. He can just convince him to stop. And if he's told to fight King, so be it! He doesn't see King as a person with real motivations. He assumes that King is unhappy because he doesn't like Lightners, when the inverse is true.

King doesn't like Lightners because he was abandoned and feels betrayed. He was already cold-hearted and angry, but The Knight arriving was just the small push he needed to become a full-on villain. Ralsei doesn't see that, and he almost dies for it. Even after that, he doesn't see how he was at fault. He just assumes that sometimes fighting is required when someone can't be reasoned with. It never occurs to him that his unempathetic approach to SPARING King was the problem. He just tries being nice at him, because that's what he was told is right. He doesn't think, and he doesn't want to think. He doesn't question his beliefs and looks for reasons not to. After Spamton NEO, he assumes that Spamton was just a corrupted program, and says that since he turned into their ally, they should just stop thinking about it.

But he hesitates.

The little moment where he pauses is important. He's starting to think about it, but he shuts it out. He expects Susie to do the same thing, and Kris too. If Kris shouts out loud, he tells them not to think about it. If Kris stays silent, he tells Susie that Kris doesn't want to think about it, and so she shouldn't either.

And again on the boat ride, he expresses a bit of confusion. He starts thinking about how being friends is more than being nice. He starts to wonder what it actually means to be "Ralsei."

...only to then shut it out.

He's starting to understand how to have empathy, how to be genuine, but he's resisting. He's so focused on fulfilling his purpose as a part of the prophecy that he won't let anything else interfere. It seems like he might end up becoming more conflicted as the story goes on.

And, here's another thought. What if, in a future chapter, you end up fighting Ralsei not because he was evil or you were evil or he was possessed or some bullshit, but because that conflict bubbled over, and he feels like we, Kris, and Susie, are in HIS way? Like we're deviating from the path and he needs to fight us to get us back onto it. That by not acting the way he was told things would be, we and they will cause ruin. He believes that their journey is to progress exactly as foretold by the prophecy, and so far things haven't gone exactly how he expected them to. If Kris and Susie refused to do something he believed was absolutely required, it could end up like the Toriel fight. He isn't trying to kill you, he's trying to make you see what he sees. And you would have to show him that he's wrong. Get him to question the things he believes, show him that people have their own lives and ways of thinking that he can't control, tell him he's allowed to act naturally, say and do what he really thinks, all the while he keeps resisting and insisting that the way he acts is the way things are supposed to be. That would be a cool fight, and lead to some character development!

Aanyway sorry this is all so disorganized and lacking in elaboration. This post is cobbled together from discord messages in a more frantic conversation. I hope my thoughts are coherent though!

#deltarune #deltarune meta #ralsei #ralsei deltarune #deltarune analysis

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pits-of-kaos · 1 year

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My poor little meow meow Prowl is loosing—

Like man, how does that sad little meow meow not evoke pity? Even in the slightest?

He was beaten to a pump by Optimus, refused to be killed in the name of mercy, mind controlled and almost killed his comrade which would probably make him feel really guilty, betrayed by who he thought were friends, had needles stuck in the back of his head by CHROMEDOME just to get rid of his memories unconsensually, probably has quite a bit of trauma from sending people out to die but do you think he had ever wanted too? Probably not, but it was his job and if he was going to do it, he was going to do it with the least amount of casualties. And people forgave Megatron of all Cybertronians, who killed almost an entire race and species with his bare hands and many more, but didn’t forgive Prowl just because he didn’t change his thoughts and opinions.

Welp, that was a bit of a long rant— but yeah, this is just my opinion, Megatron is still great and I love him, but I will always vote Prowl :D

One word: Packaging.

Or more specifically, the way he packages his pain.

(I’m not sure if you’re looking for an actual answer, but I’m gonna give one since I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. Keep in mind that a lot of this is speculation.)

Quantifiably, Prowl did far less horrible things than Megatron, but Megatron has (1) a secure place in the franchise, (2) a redemption arc, and (3) looks*.

*so most fans say, anyway. My opinion on this fluctuates.

Also, Megatron’s reaction to his struggles is very different from Prowl’s.

When he’s in pain emotionally, Megatron directs it toward himself for the most part. Same with Starscream, Chromdome, and several others who have been through hell in the war.

But Prowl? Prowl refuses to acknowledge his wounds and takes it out on those around him and the world at large. His need for control is rooted in deep insecurity and a feeling of not being safe anywhere or with anyone. Even Tarantulas of all people picked up on Prowl’s desperate need to convince himself he was in control even when he really wasn’t. That tips me off to the depth of Prowl’s pain and self-deception, which he’s almost entirely numb to.

Most people will have more pity for someone like Megatron, Chromedome, or even Starscream who struggle in an obvious or self-pitying way versus someone like Prowl whose pain drives him to antagonize others and act like he can’t ever be wrong. It’s easier for most fans in the TF fandom to look at Prowl and blame him for his problems because of his outward pomposity. And in some cases, it’s true.

At the end of the day, a contrite or self-pitying sufferer gets more pity than a pompous one. Chromedome is the former and Prowl is most certainly the latter.

—

This was going to be longer because I have a lot more to say about this topic, but I cut it short because I believe I answered your question adequately. The rest will have to go in another post on main. That is, if I decide to share it at all. I still hold my breath every time I bring up IDW Prowl.

#the poll master answers #idw prowl

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iviarellereads · 5 months

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System Collapse, Chapter 6

(Curious what I'm doing here? Read this post! For the link index and a primer on The Murderbot Diaries, read this one!)

In which 57 sources of anxiety sounds low, actually.

The team is not happy. Iris records another briefing, even though it's early for a check-in, and Murderbot hopes that this and the other pathfinder return soon with some insight from the rest of the team, but only counts on it as a way to let them know what happened if the B-Es attack them. Threat assessment puts the chance of a B-E attack low, but mostly because these three and MB aren't much of a threat to at-least-5 and another SecUnit.

And oh, that SecUnit is causing some discussions among the team. MB has to explain that it can't just go around freeing every SecUnit willy nilly, and besides that, a freed SecUnit doesn't instantly become trustworthy. A freed unit might need to be killed anyway, if it goes rogue and attacks the humans. Tarik seems to understand. Ratthi definitely doesn't, but acknowledges that MB is the expert on the matter, and he doesn't want to press it into something it doesn't think is safe. MB appreciates that about Ratthi.

After all that, MB and AC2 arrange a secure connection for Iris and Trinh, the primary "operator" for AC2. Trinh is a little unnerved at a second group of strangers making contact so soon after B-E. MB figures it'd be pretty freaked out at that, too. Iris explains the situation, and Trinh observes that she's saying the same thing B-E did: that she's here to help. MB groans mentally that the colonists have no reason to trust them.(1)

Tarik, Ratthi, and Art-drone strategize on the shuttle, and a lot of time is spent on the potential arguments to be made, and what the colonists might and are likely to know from their sporadic contact and, potentially, spying via AC2's connection to AC1.

On the plus side, AC2 gave MB the location of the B-E shuttle, and the best route to it without alerting them. So, it takes the opportunity to go scout it out. MB grumbles about the lack of cameras in the last section of the path AC2 directs it to, as well as none outside. Preparedness is everything, dangit!(2) Meanwhile, Art-drone has taken a defensive position just inside the hangar.

MB takes some comfort that the colonists might not trust them, but AC2 trusts it. Mostly, computer systems trust easily if you keep things simple and don't try to provoke their boundaries. AC2 wants to protect its humans, and MB has so far showed no sign of wanting to harm them.

So, it provides the team with the video feed where the B-Es are still talking to most of the humans. There's no audio, but Art-drone is interpreting from mouth and facial movements, and they probably understand more than the B-Es do since Thiago's translation module is "clearly better". AC2 vouching for MB won't win over any humans, though. Sometimes not even solid evidence can convince them.

AC2 asks MB why the B-E SecUnit refused a connection request. MB thinks that's a good thing, since normal SecUnits can't hack, only CombatUnits.(3) MB is pretty sure this one's a normal SecUnit, since its armour is very similar to Three's. So, it has to explain to AC2 that it's under the control of a governor module. It doesn't have an answer for AC2's subsequent why (is this allowed)?

By now, MB has made it to the other hangar, where the B-Es landed. It wonders how the B-Es knew to look here particularly. Earlier, Iris asked Art-drone if the B-Es could have followed them in, but Art-drone came to the conclusion that they arrived at least a day earlier, from some gap in Art-prime's pathfinder scanning. Art-drone is miffed enough that it expects Art-prime will be furious.

Still, back in the present, MB realizes it's drifted off again, and Ratthi brings it back to task by noticing a second door. AC2 sends MB a rough map of the installation, and MB shares it with the humans. With nothing better to do, MB decides to stand there and hang out on purpose.

The wind outside gets stronger, screaming through the hangar's crevices. Art-drone says pathfinders confirm the weather is getting worse and it may lose contact with them. AC2 confirms, that matches its weather station data.

MB pulls up some Sanctuary Moon, not wanting to distract Art-drone with something new. After a couple of minutes, AC2 asks what MB is doing. MB explains watching media, and AC2 offers its entertainment partition, and MB has hit a goldmine, though some of the titles don't match words in its language modules. When Art-drone notices, it says these are pre-CR media.

The scene flips(4) over to the now-unredacted incident again, and MB says it's fairly sure the corpse never chewed on its leg, but it's even more sure it saw that happen to a human at some point on a survey mission. It told Art that it (MB) had fucked everything up and that Art and its humans shouldn't want it to do security for them anymore. Art asks why, and MB says something is broken inside it.

Art points out that its wormhole drive is broken. MB says that's fixable, and knows it was a mistake to say so since it really doesn't know all of what happened to Art from Art's point of view, but continues that its flaw is in its organic neural tissue. Art points out that this is how the humans diagnosed it so quickly, and asks if they're disposable when it happens to them. MB grumbles that that's what corporations say. Art says it's not a corpo.

MB tells Art to stop, that this isn't it talking, just its… Art finishes the thought MB trails out of: its certification in trauma protocol, which is obviously useless in this situation. MB says it's for humans, and Art points out that this affects MB's human bits. MB says it's not talking to Art anymore.(5)

The first thought MB has is that it should trade all its media for all AC2's. The second is that its humans aren't going to be staying much longer, whether they go with Art or B-E. At least the situation sucking so bad is a great distraction for how much MB feels it sucks, it thinks, just before realizing it missed something in its distraction.

Trinh invites the team to spend the night in the installation, since the weather is worsening. Iris asks MB if they should, and despite the threat of the B-Es, MB agrees. Art-drone thanks it, and MB knows it's not the only one that was imagining the other SecUnit sneaking up on the shuttle.

Trinh sends them directions, which they don't need with AC2's map, but that put them at the opposite end from the accommodations the B-Es were given. It's a nice gesture, even if it's only a twenty minute walk apart.(6) MB sneaks back through the back corridors to meet up with the others. MB does its best to act like the others, even to folding its hood and helmet back. It's not sure what AC2 has told the colonists about it, and it doesn't want to ask, in case it hadn't told them about MB and this causes it to. MB knows it can't stay a secret, but it wants less interaction with them if possible.

Flash to a clip of it telling Mensah it doesn't know what's wrong with itself, and Mensah saying she thinks it knows, and just doesn't want to talk about it yet.(7)

In the present and in the team feed, to prevent eavesdropping by B-E, Iris says so far, Trinh has rejected B-E's requests to speak to the whole colony. They're only allowing them the smaller group. Ratthi worries what kind of employment pitch they might make, and Tarik says they'll be real good at dressing it up, and this group might be more vulnerable to their manipulation.

Iris says the group seems pretty independent, she thinks the chance of them falling for it is low, but it might not even be in their best interest to leave with the others. If they can forge the charter right, they'd have the right to choose to stay or go as they please. Ratthi adds that it would be even easier if the University comes to study the contamination, offering a means of transport out later as needed. Tarik is about as optimistic about this as MB, which is to say, not very.

MB notices that they all look really tired, and kicks itself as it asks Art-drone how long it's been since they slept. It replies that they were supposed to take naps on the flight in, but nobody could rest. MB feels like it fucked up again, but Art-drone offers that they both fucked this one up.

AC2 notifies them that there's a human approaching, as they near their assigned quarters. Ratthi asks in the team feed if this is a sign of trust, on the system's part. Iris asks Art-drone if that's possible, and it reminds her that they've discussed anthropomorphizing machine intelligence before. Ratthi asks what Art-drone considers human characteristics in this way, and Tarik begs them not to start. There's some lighthearted teasing of Tarik by Art, and Iris laughingly says she's sorry she asked.

The human doesn't have a feed ID, but AC2 supplies a name of Lucia and he/him pronouns when MB asks, since it knows the humans will want to know. Iris thanks him for inviting them in, and he nervously says she's welcome and walks them to the rooms, showing them the facilities. Iris tries to initiate three different conversations, to no avail. The team all worries B-E poisoned the well already.

Iris goes to lay on one of the beds in the other room, while Ratthi and Tarik stay in the first room to talk about what's going on between them. MB is stuck in the doorway between the rooms, monitoring everything in case of attacks. It recalls overhearing a heated discussion on Art after the incident, and learning that it was Ratthi and Tarik having a "sexual discussion". Apparently, this felt like the right time to talk again. MB backburners their audio except for a keyword filter in case they yell for help, plays a nice nothing loop of sound, and stares at the wall.(8)

The humans do, eventually, manage to get some sleep. Art-drone gets MB to watch an episode of World Hoppers. MB thinks about how it has fifty seven unique causes of concern or anxiety, and it can do nothing about any of them. That goes up to fifty eight when Trinh calls to ask for an in-person meeting with them and B-E.

=====

(1) Trust the process. (2) There are reasonable limits, it's true. Being prepared beyond a certain point is just feeding your own paranoia. Just look at all the right-wing "preppers" who keep expecting the apocalypse. But, a certain amount of preparation and expecting the worst can keep you safe in an emergency. Never installing cameras in a whole section of your installation or at the exits is absolutely an error in judgement on some level. (3) I'm sure it means hack something this complex, but… Murderbot, you hack literally all the time. Are you secretly a CombatUnit? (4) It's not lost on me that, now that we know what the redacted incident was, it feels like more pre-CR talk means more flashback and MB being more distracted in the present. (5) If that lasted 5 minutes I'll do something improbable. (6) I dunno, see, this is one of those things where MB is programmed to go past what I think are reasonably pessimistic expectations of danger. It's understandable, this is what it was literally built for, but situationally speaking, I think it's a bit excessive. Nobody wants to make a bad impression on the colonists, if nothing else. (7) Why this conversation? Why now? Why here, right after being worried about the colonists figuring out what it is? (8) Personally, I want all the juicy details, but I can't blame MB for its lack of interest.

#the murderbot diaries #murderbot diaries #system collapse #murderbot #secunit #iris (murderbot)#tarik (murderbot)#ratthi #art (murderbot)#trinh (murderbot)#adacol2

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canonmisogynyvictimstournament · 5 months

Text

FINALS

PROPAGANDA

BUMBLE (WARRIOR CATS) (CW: Domestic Abuse)

I.E.

Her owners taking in an aggressive male cat that bullies and abuses the two female cats already living there

CORDELIA CHASE (BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER/ANGEL THE SERIES) (CW: Pregnancy)

1.) (downs an entire bottle of vodka and slams it back on the table) SO. CORDY. Cordy started off as a supporting character in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. At the start she was your typical high school mean girl character, but as the show went on we got to see more depth to her character: her insecurities, her courage, her capacity for incredible acts of kindness. Then after the third season she moved into the show’s spin off, Angel, where from the beginning she was basically the show’s secondary protagonist. Her and Angel were the two mainstays of the show’s main cast, she gets the most episodes centered on her out of all the characters aside from Angel (and yes, I’ve checked), and we really got to see her grow from a very shallow and self-centered and kind of mean person to a true hero who was prepared to give up any chance at a normal life to fight the good fight while still never losing the basic core of her character. There were some… questionable moments like the episode where she gets mystically pregnant with demon babies and things got a bit iffy like halfway through season 3 where the writers seemed to run out of ideas for what to do with her outside of sticking her in this romance drama/love triangle situation with the main character but overall, pretty good stuff right? THEN SEASON 4 HAPPENED. In season 4 she gets stripped of literally all agency and spends pretty much the entire season possessed by an evil higher power, and while possessed she sleeps with Angel’s teenage son (who BY THE WAY she had helped raise as a baby before he got speed-grown-up into a teenager it was a whole thing don’t worry about it) and gets pregnant with like. the physical manifestation of the higher power that’s possessing her. it’s about as bad and stupid as it sounds and also is like the third time cordy’s got mystically pregnant in this show and like the fourth mystical pregnancy storyline overall (you will be hearing more on that note in other submissions I’m so sorry). after giving birth she goes into a coma, in which she remains for the rest of season 4 and the first half of season 5. SPEAKING OF WHICH DON’T THINK SEASON 5 IS GETTING OFF SCOT FREE HERE. yeah so in season 5 the show just FULLY starts trying to erase cordy’s existence. she gets mentioned ONCE in the first episode and then never again until halfway through the season where she wakes up, helps out Angel for a bit and encourages him in his fight against evil, and then goes quietly into that good night and dies so it can be all sad and tragic. I’d call it the worst fridging of all time but even THAT feels generous because the whole point of fridging is killing off a female character so a man can be sad, and after Cordy dies basically no one’s even sad about it because the show immediately goes back to pretending she never existed. she is not mentioned ONCE in the two episodes after she dies. in the whole stretch of time between her death and the end of the season she gets mentioned exactly four times. again, I counted. anyway the fun twist to all of this is that all of this happened because the actress who played cordy got pregnant before season 4 and joss whedon was so pissed off about this affecting his plans for the show that he decided to completely fuck over her character and then fire her and write her out of the show. so cordy’s a victim of both writing AND real life misogyny!! good times!!

2.) OH SO MANY THINGS they menaced by giving her terrible hair cuts, making her seem like she’d get together with the guy she loves (and who loves her back) but instead she was killed and when she was brought back, she got possessed by an evil entity who used her body to give birth to itself. afterwards she was in a long coma and died. her character was so throughoutly assassinated

3.) She got demonically pregnant TWICE - there was this real sense of a womb/ability to get pregnant as like, a place for evil to get in. She got positioned as femme fatale and evil mother. The actress basically got fired for being pregnant, and when she agreed to come back for a single final episode she specifically said they could do anything but kill off the character. Guess what happened

#polls #round 7 #week 12 #new #cw domestic abuse #cw pregnancy

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theswifterhood · 1 year

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Stranger Things 5 Theory/Prediction: The Importance of Max’s Letters.

So, i’ve been thinking a lot about season 5 over the last couple months, and how i think a lot of things left unexplored in s4 will come into play in the final season. Originally, when i made my ST4 bingo card before volume 2 dropped, i thought Max would end up in a coma (bingo!) and that her letters would be read aloud at the end of the season, much like Hopper’s at the end of ST3. Obviously that was wrong, but i still can’t help but feel like the Duffers would not have Max write letters that are clearly holding weight within her relationships and her life, and have it go nowhere. So, i’ve come to the conclusion that Max’s letters will play one of 2 purposes next season. I’ll be using clips from Avengers: Endgame, so if you haven’t seen that and want to avoid spoilers, here’s your warning. If you want to come back after watching, i’ll see you then. Here we go!

Theory 1:

I for one think that Max’s letter will be the post time jump motivation for the other’s returning to Hawkins. I think after they fail in the beginning of ST5, they’ll decide it’s hopeless and will let Vecna do his thing. More likely, they’ll think Vecna might be too weak to do anything and ignore Will’s tingle. Imagine Lucas or El, years later finding Max’s letter and deciding that they can’t just leave her there. Max loves them. She deserves to be fought for. Hawkins might not, but her and the rest of the world do. Think of the scene in Avengers: Endgame. Tony refuses to make the time machine until seeing a picture of Peter and realizing he’s worth saving. He’s worth the risk. (“I accept the risk” - Max, ST2)

Link to Endgame scene:

youtube

Alternatively, i think El could just not be strong enough, and she’ll have to go train w/ Owens. This leaves the characters going their separate ways until El is strong enough. I think El brings her letter from Max with her to Nina 2.0, and is motivated to carry on every day because of it. At some point she’ll be strong enough and ready to fight. Imagine some dialogue from El (or maybe even Lucas) when Max is revived to some degree, and El parallels Mike in ST2 (I called you everyday…), telling Max that she never read her letter, because she knew she wasn’t gone. This would be so sweet #elmaxrights. Max’s letters can’t be for nothing. Now i bring you to the less fluffy alternative.

Theory 2:

Since i believe the letters must have value, but i know the Duffers don’t believe in fan service and the executives at Netflix cried over the ending pitch, i feel the need to acknowledge the very real possibility that Max may die in the end. I’ve said before that Max is the only character (in addition to Hopper) that i believe is safe from death. This is mainly because she’s died before and it would be repetitive. But, seeing as she’s the only character who has written a letter (that we know of. Looking at you Mike.) and in that letter she addresses her death, i think it’s possible her letter will be read aloud by Sadie over the final moments of the show. This would be similar to the end of ST3, but more-so like the end of Avengers: Endgame. In the end, Tony dies saving Peter and the other half of the universe, but not without the last word. He has preemptively left a goodbye message in the event of his death. It is played over shots of various characters happy after the war, and people celebrating victory. His letter also addresses “not being alone”, something that Max’s Dear Billy letter also does. I will also say that in a true parallel, El would be the one to die saving Max (Would parallel the end of ST1, and Tony’s sacrifice.) However, I don’t think El would write a letter. I could be wrong though. The only other character i can see this going down with would be Mike. He is a writer after all. He could (in the context of flickergate, and him going in the UD to save Will) write a letter admitting how he feels and addressing that if he dies he had the time of his life fighting dragons with you (😉) (you being Will + the party?). This wouldn’t be revealed til the end of the season, giving the Duffers, Netflix, and the homophobic GA/Milevens an out to a byler kiss or full on acknowledgement of it the rest of the season. This is my least favorite outcome. I hope you guys find this as interesting (and tragic, a word used to describe the end) as i do. Here’s to more theories over the next 2ish years! Happy New Year!

Link to the end of Endgame:

youtube

#stranger things predictions #stranger things 5 #stranger things theory #stranger things 5 theory #stranger things #max mayfield #elmax #lumax #el hopper #lucas sinclair #will byers #mike wheeler #byler #the duffers told me #the duffer brothers #shawn levy #elumax #Youtube #avengers endgame

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musicfeedsmysoul12 · 8 months

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Pulling on the Strings of Destiny: Act 2 Chapter 13

Summary: Four days pass for Japan, and everyone is on edge. They wonder, and wait. What will happen next for them? Will Midoriya keep rising? What sort of things would she face. They all turned towards the screens, wondering. None more so then the future class 1-A, more so as they get a glimpse into their first sports festival, first internship and their final exams. Watch as Midoriya’s future continues to unfold, as she learns more about her family, society and herself.

Warnings: References to underage pregnancy and the assualt of a minor. References to child harm. Toga Himiko to, she is her own warning.

ON AO3

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The amusement at the crushes shown to Izumi caused Hisashi to chuckle as he watched the screen. Ah, his daughter was quite the catch. Sure, he found the attention on his daughter a bit annoying, but it meant that people liked her. And when he got her back under his wing, perhaps she could convince others to follow.

If anything, Tomura was the one upset his sister was being looked at like that. He did not enjoy the idea of anyone touching her! That was his sister! They would have to go through him first to date her! More so with Tomoe. His niece needed a good other parent.

Izumi was oblivious to that, though. Or the bets being made on her future partner by a lot of the country and even the world. No, she was busy ignoring that, along with the snickering of her mentor and foster parents.

Jerks.

However, the screen started up soon, and her mind became caught on the future.

All Might hands Tomoe off to Midoriya, who takes her with a groan. “God, that was embarrassing,” Midoriya complains.

“A little bit, but it’s good you’re healing young Midoriya.” All Might tells her. “Thinking anyone is attractive yourself?”

“Not really?” Midoriya admits. “I dunno. I mean, I thought Mirukio was attractive, and Hawks is too, though I honestly try not to dwell on that stuff. More so since Hawks is gay, it feels weird to think he’s cute when I’m a girl then.”

“Eh, not like it matters,” Hawks mused. “I don’t mind.” It mattered if she tried to get him to change his mind. It had happened before, both with his transgender identity and sexuality, that people wanted to change his mind. The trans thing happened with a dick of a handler who was an extreme holdout who got fired after he’d threatened to ‘teach Hawks a lesson,’ and it freaked out some people on how he said it.

(Hawks decided he didn’t want to know when he’d asked his new agent. The woman, Ito, had gotten a dark look in her eyes and said it wasn’t an issue anymore.)

The sexuality thing was from the crazier fangirls. Girls who refused to see there wasn’t a chance or who deluded themselves into thinking he was lying to wait for them. The latter was rare; he’d only met two, but the first kind was widespread. He’d met just as insane men who were fans of him or even Miruko, but those ones weren’t in denial of his sexuality.

Midoriya acknowledging her attraction didn’t match his orientation was nice. Maybe more people would do that and move on, other than either claiming they could change it or whining that he was gay. Sure, You could be disappointed, but making a scene annoyed him.

“Well, I’m happy you feel you’re in a safe environment to explore those things.” All Might smiles, and Midoriya blinks.

Oh. It’s not just because he’s arrested. It’s also because I’m out of mom’s house, isn’t it? Midoriya swallowed. Her plans for me… being attractive then meant I’d be a commodity for people to buy. Now it’s just teenager stuff… Midoriya shakes her head as she walks down the hall with All Might. Not something I want to dwell on for a while. I’ll do it tonight when I don’t have a tournament to face.

It wasn’t. Izumi was safe to contemplate people being attracted to her or to feel her own attraction. But she wasn’t fond of it due to leaving her mother’s house.

Why did it have to be like that?

The screen morphs to show Tokoyami and Yaoyorozu facing each other in the arena.

"Offense and defence in one! The dark samurai and his darker shadow! From the hero course, Tokoyami Fumikage, along with his conjoined twin Dark Shadow, will fight the great creator! She was admitted because of recommendations, and I think we can all see why. Also, from Class 1-A, Yaoyorozu Momo!" Mic announces. The crowd all erupts in shock.

“His Quirk is his twin?” a woman asks in shock when the screen switches to them.

“Wow,” her friend says. “I’ve heard of that stuff. Probably Tokoyami’s Quirk is his appearance, and his twin’s Quirk is… well, what the twin looks like. It’s rare.”

“It’s impressive!”

“It’s weird. Does it even count as like a Quirk?”

“Of course, it does!” people all over the crowd chat about the different Quirk. The screen passes to 1-A’s seating area, where Midoriya enters with Tomoe, who holds her tightly.

“Sorry guys, she doesn’t want to let go. Teachers say it’s fine, given she’s not in the fight exactly.” Midoriya apologizes as she moves to sit with Uraraka and Iida.

“Hey, Tomoe’s our mascot now.” Kaminari declares. “Our good luck charm.”

“Oui, little Tomoe is very lucky,” Aoyama chirps. He winks at Tomoe, who giggles. Bakugou scowls at the two, though he doesn’t say anything. Ojiro, near Aoyama, makes a face but shakes his head.

“Lucky Tomoe!” Cheered Mina, ignoring Ojiro.

“She will be our lucky charm!” Hagakure said eagerly. “She’s cheering us all on!”

“Her mother most of all,” Aoyama laughed, smiling at the screen. Being forced to spy or not, it was nice to see him able to interact with others to make friends.

“We’re all just accepting she’s part of the class,” Sero laughed.

“Of course she is!” Mina said dramatically. The class laughed, even Ojiro.

“So, Midoriya. You’re good at analysis,” the tailed teen says, drawing attention away from Tomoe. "How do you think this one will end? Any clue?" Midoriya glances to the field and hums.

"Timing is going to be the key thing here," Midoriya replies. Tomoe looks to the field.

“Shadow?” the toddler asks. Midoriya pets Tomoe’s head.

“Yeah, honey, Tokoyami and Dark Shadow,” Midoriya tells her. “And Yaoyorozu.”

“Yao-momo?” Tomoe asks. Midoriya blinks as Kaminari snickers. Ashido, who walks in, also laughs.

“Yaomomo!” The class cheered. Momo flushed as they all laughed.

“Hope you like the new nickname. Doubt you’ll lose it,” chuckled Jirou as she watched the sillier members repeat it.

“It’s nice to have friends,” Momo admitted with a smile. It was. She always felt set apart from her other friends for her money. Or she would feel weird in the competition that many rich children had. She wanted friends, not rivals. She was happy to have them finally.

“That’s a good one,” Ashido says as she sits down. Ojiro clears his throat.

"What do you mean by timing?” Ojiro asks.

“Well, Yaoyorozu is more long-term strategy than short-term,” Midoriya explains. “Tokoyami and Dark Shadow, though… they’re brilliant and used to sudden environmental changes. It’s going to come down to if they can rush her or she can make the match last long enough to think.”

“So a matter of luck then,” Fumikage mused as he looked at Yaomomo, who nodded her head.

“Indeed. We will see who makes the first strike!” She beamed at Fumikage, the teen nodding back. They would.

The screen shows the arena again.

Present Mic's description of Tokoyami was accurate. With Dark Shadow, he's skilled at both attacking and defending. Dark Shadow can appear instantaneously, so there's little doubt they'll start the match with a preemptive strike. If I can make a simple shield, I can block them. But I'll have to be fast about it, or else this fight will be over in a matter of seconds. Just like that. Then, if I have enough time to make... Yaoyorozu thinks.

“And she lost,” Shouta said to Hizashi, who sighed.

“Probably yes. We’ll have to work on her reactions.” He agreed.

“It is possible she could still pull off a win,” Toshinori suggested as he played with Tomoe, having rejoined the adults. The two men gave him looks. “Unlikely but possible. She is quite intelligent.”

“A chance is a chance,” Shouta allowed. “But the fact she’s thinking all of this right now isn’t a great sign.”

“We never know,” Toshinori stressed.

"Second match! Begin!" Mic announces, causing Yaoyorozu to gasp. Panic is evident on her face as Tokoyami and Dark Shadow move.

"Go, Dark Shadow!" Tokoyami orders.

Dark Shadow burst from Tokoyami's chest, cackling out loud as she did, "I've got her!"

Quickly! A shield! Yaoyorozu thinks as Dark Shadow moves towards her. A shield begins to materialize on her arm, and Dark Shadow slams into it, shoving her back.

"Now it's my turn to attack!" Yaoyorozu says as a staff begins to form in her left hand. Dark Shadow, however, moves back to attack her, causing Yaoyorozu to lift her shield.

“Ah… Yaomomo?” Mina turned with a wince to look at the taller girl, who looked lost as she stared at the screen. “Umm… there aren’t turns.”

“I… yes, yes, you’re right.” The girl swallowed noisily. “I… forgive me, I need a moment.” She walked off soon after, leaving behind a group of wincing classmates.

“Chess player syndrome,” Iida said. He coughed at the confused looks. “Apologies. My brother calls it that. It’s when someone like Yaoyorozu tries to apply the strategy they know to real life without thinking further. Like a chess player, going by the rules.”

“… you are not nearly as straight-laced as I thought,” Kaminari said in awe. Jirou rolled her eyes as Iida shrugged.

“I was raised by pro-hero parents. I like rules and structure. I detest when things go out of plan and get frustrated when I don’t have things happen just how I like them. Admittedly, I’m big on etiquette and the such, though I believe that may fade given how I’m already, as you’d say, ‘loosening up,’” Iida shrugged. “My brother recently told me that he taught me cheap shots, as some would call them, because he’d been trained to do so. I don’t think it’s inconceivable I can adapt.”

“You’re not wrong,” Jirou said as she looked where Yaoyorozu went. “Should we go after her?”

“Eh… I don’t think so. She’s probably embarrassed,” Mina said honestly. “I mean, a recommendation student losing because she didn’t think things through?” The girl shrugged. “Even if it’s just our first year, people are assholes.”

I can't focus on my quirk! Yaoyorozuthinks as Dark Shadow keeps attacking her, driving her backward. Her shield breaks, but she quickly creates a new one before Dark Shadow strikes her again before stopping. Why has she quit? This is my chance! Yaoyorozu thinks as a staff begins to form in her left hand.

"Yaoyorozu! You're out! This match goes to Tokoyami and Dark Shadow!" Midnight announces. Yaoyorozu looks around before glancing down at her feet. The teen gasps in shock upon seeing her right foot over the boundary line.

Momo flinched, gripping the sink in front of her. She’d escaped to the bathroom while the screen played, giving her a moment of peace.

She was so stupid. How could she … do that? She didn’t think things through and made such a rookie mistake! She could hear all their voices, all the kids at her old school.

Suck up.

She bought her way in.

Lazy bitch.

She probably will end up on her back, won’t she?

The thought of their words about her made Momo yank herself away from the sink to the toilet.

She was sick at the thought.

"Wow! Another fast victory!” Mic cries over the sound system. “Dark Shadow and Tokoyami are unstoppable, it seems!” Tokoyami bows to Yaoyorozu, Dark Shadow mimicking him before the two walk out of the arena.

"I lost... I didn't even... do anything," Yaoyorozu says sadly.

The screen shows class 1-A. Tomoe is cheering while Midoriya nods.

“Tokoyami and Dark Shadow had a strategy worked out early, it seems. He obviously caught on to her ‘chess master’ mind and knew not to give her time to create like a bomb or anything.” Midoriya says. “She needs to work on her short-term strategy and maybe on her Quirk. She made that second shield super fast; I think it was instinct. If she could hone her creations to be instinctive…”

“That’s an excellent point,” Shouta said. “Paintball gun that keeps shooting her at random times?” He asked Hizashi.

“Yes, and she has to discard her shield each time.” His husband agreed.

“Followed by adding another gun,” Toshinori said as he pulled out a small notebook to write down the ideas. “So she has to make two at once.”

“Or armour.” Shouta nodded. “Plus exercises to help her refocus and keep calm.”

“She can handle calm. I think she ends up overthinking more,” Hizashi said. It was very possible. The girl was intelligent, but she didn’t think things through perfectly. Or when she did, she stuck to one single possibility and couldn’t account for deviations.

She very much possessed a chess mind, as Tensei would say.

“We are so lucky she doesn’t want to be a villain.” Uraraka remarks. Midoriya turns to agree before Kaminari speaks up.

“Midoriya or Yaoyorozu?”

“Both.” Uraraka, Iida, Ashido and Aoyama chime in, making Midoriya go red. The rest of the class laughs, though Bakugou scowls.

The screen moves from the laughing faces to show Todoroki walking through a hallway.

“If Tokoyami beat Yaoyorozu so easily, would he beat Midoriya?” Todoroki wonders before turning a corner and seeing Endeavor leaning against a wall. "What do you want?" Todoroki asks a sneer on his face.

No one in Japan was happy to see the man. Endeavour had already decided to stay in his office for the day, ignoring his buzzing phone or the fact his sidekicks refused to look him in the eyes. Burnin’ had even closed her eyes to report to him. Pathetic. None of them understood what he did.

He deserved to be the number one. Now more than ever, given All Might had lied his entire career. He would be number one; he knew it. And his training would pass muster. It was harsh, perhaps, but how else to keep his masterpiece alive? He had to focus on Shouto over the others; the boy would be the next number one.

A line of unbroken heroes descended from the Todoroki family.

Midoriya would be at the top for a while, but Endeavour doubted she would stay there. No, when Shouto managed to overcome her, she would step down from heroics, he bet. Take the time to parent her children properly she would have. Endeavour checked his phone. His contact hadn’t answered about the fostering situation yet, but their plans would work out.

They always did.

"You're acting disgracefully, Shouto. If you simply used the power in your left side, you would've had an overwhelming victory in both first rounds. It's time to stop this childish rebellion of yours. You have a duty to surpass that imbecile, All Might. Do you understand what I'm saying? You're different from your brothers. You're my greatest masterpiece," Endeavor states as Todoroki walks by the hero.

"Is that all you have to say to me, you bastard? I'll win this match and advance using only Mom's quirk. I won't give you the pleasure of seeing me use yours," Todoroki replies, continuing his walk.

"Even if that works for you in this tournament, you'll soon find the limits of that power," Endeavor growls after him.

“… I have to say it, but the jerkass has a point,” remarked a civilian to another.

“Seriously?” Her friend asked. Kaze, a fellow worker in their office, turned to them.

“You’re not wrong. Todoroki refusing to use half his Quirk can have dire biological consequences, or in the future, he could lose a fight badly.” The rabbit-like man nodded.

“Exactly,” the first woman said. “Rebellion is all well and good, but he should stick to like dying his hair pink and dressing like a punk over anything else. So Endevaour has a point. He’s also still a bitch.” The group snickered.

The screen shows 1-A again, though Tokoyami and Yaoyorozu were with them this time.

“Shadow!” Tomoe makes grabby hands at Tokoyami. The teen chuckles as Dark Shadow emerges to coo.

“Hey Tomoe! Did ya see us?” the shadow asks.

“Yes!”

“Good job, Tokoyami, Dark Shadow,” Midoriya says to the two. Yaoyorozu looks small as she sits, hunched over.

“Yeah, man and uh… gal, that was fast!” Kaminari says loudly. Yaoyorozu shrinks more.

“Given you were going up to what amounts to a demigod, I guess you needed to be quick!” Uraraka jokes, her eyes flickering to Yaoyorozu. Midoriya and Uraraka trade a look when Yaoyorozu looks startled.

Izumi nodded. Of course, she’d notice and try to cheer up Yaomomo. Honestly, it did just amount to luck in the end, with Tokoyami taking advantage to startle her enough to get her out of bounds fast.

Ochako felt the same, glancing at the door where the taller teenager was. They’d just been told online lessons would start soon and needed to prepare. While they used a classroom the day before, they’d be in the dorms for the classes, laptops and headphones provided.

“Ah, then we have triumphed over a demigod like a monster of old,” Tokoyami voices dramatically.

“Usually, the demigod wins, but yeah,” Midoriya chuckles.

“I don’t know if demigod fits…” Yaoyorozu voices softly.

“Are you kidding?” Uraraka asks her. “Man, the only reason Tokoyami got you was because he and Dark Shadow knew better than to give you time to think!”

“Without a doubt,” Fumikage pitched his voice to be heard in the bathroom, hopefully. He didn’t want Yaoyorozu to feel bad or to hate herself. Though perhaps it would take longer than this. Who knew?

“Indeed,” Tokoyami voices. “We knew your light would strangle our dark if we dared let you have time.” The short teen dramatically bows to Yaoyorozu. “You will one day be a terrifying warrior for the light.”

“Just got to keep your mind sharp and train your creations to be instinctive. You were fast with the second shield- you didn’t need to wait and think of how it was made.” Midoriya tells Yaoyorozu. “Maybe you can train with Dark Shadow more or try to use a batting range to train your body to make shields on instinct. Along with weapons.”

“That sounds lovely,” Momo said as she washed her mouth with water, having made a glass. She wiped her mouth with a towel she also produced.

She could already tell her phone would soon be flooded with messages from the nastier girls. Perhaps even Intelli was getting her comments in.

The thought made Momo want to puke more.

But she knew now where her weakness was. She could adjust it. She could.

Hopefully…

“I… thank you.” Yaoyorozu smiles gently at the three. They grin at her as Iida speaks up,

“If you need any other help, I would like to work with you. I have… been reminded I tend to accept that people wish to be fair or are telling the truth, which can lead to destruction..” He frowns to himself.

“Is this why Hatsume isn’t going to be part of the tournament?” Midoriya asks.

“Yes,” Iida says. No one asks more as Mic’s voice rings around them.

"Enough standing around. Now, welcome to the ring, our next players!”

The screen shows Sero and Todoroki standing in the arena, facing each other.

"He's got skills! But at the expense of some really creepy-looking elbows. From the hero course, it's Sero Hanta!" Present Mic yells. "Versus, an early frontrunner in the competition who's way too strong for his own good. Someone who rightfully got into the hero course based on recommendations! It's Todoroki Shouto!"

The screen shows class-1A again. Midoriya’s attention was taken to the field, a frown on her face. Bakugou leans forward in his seat; eyes narrowed at the opponents.

“I’m going to die,” Hanta said. “Endeavour pissed him off, and I’m going to face the consequences.”

“R-I-P.” Kaminari spelt out. Hanta snorted as Todoroki just glared at the screen. He’d been furious since the scene he had with his dad, and no one had wanted to say anything.

"And now, for the third match of the finals," Mic says over the mic as the view returns to the field.

"Ready?" Mic asks.

"Well, I don't really feel like I can win this fight," Sero starts saying, stretching as he does so lazily.

"Begin!" Mic yells out.

"But, man. I don't feel like losing, either!" Sero finishes his words, acting quickly. Tape shoots out from his arms, wrapping around Todoroki. Sero twists, aiming to throw the other teen out of the boundaries.

“Holy shit!” A civilian laughed. “Go Sero!”

“Kick the kid’s ass!”

"That attack could throw his opponents out of bounds!" Mic yells out amidst cries of shock. “A brilliant surprise opening from the underdog! Way to start off strong, Sero!"

Todoroki is still swirling around, his hair covering his face, but then he briefly glances up, a dark shadow seemingly covering his face. “My apologies,” he speaks before placing his right foot on the ground. Ice speeds out from the point of contact, rushing out in a burst. Sero cries out as it reaches him.

The screen shows All Might and Recovery Girl in the stadium’s nurse's office. The room rumbles, causing Recovery girl to pause, looking up with a squint.

"Is that... an earthquake?" Recovery Girl asks.

"What the heck is going on? Was that?" All Might wonders.

“Overkill,” Shouta said. “Bet you anything.”

“No bet, babe.”

The screen shows the announcers' box. Present Mic and Aizawa stare at the field in shock right before the screen switches to 1-A’s box. A colossal glacier is before them, nearly hitting them as they stare at it. Tomoe whimpers, curling into her mother, tears in her eyes.

“Cold!” she whines.

Shouto winced a little. He didn’t mean to hurt Tomoe. He’d just been mad and… reacted…

The dual-haired teen stood up and stalked out, eyes widening. He’d been mad and reacted. He hadn’t MEANT to hurt or startle anyone, but he had.

It… it was an accident. Yes, it was. But he needed to be in control. He needed to prove he wasn’t his father.

Dabi scoffed at the screen. Stupid little brat, just like Endeavour, wasn’t he?

The screen shows the heroes Death Arms and Kamui Woods patrolling outside the stadium. At shouts, the two look up to see a glacier of ice coming out of the top of the stadium.

"Holy crap," Death Arms says in awe.

The screen shows the arena. Todoroki lets out a breath, his breath misting in front of him. The view switches to Endeavour, who watches the fight with a sneer. He snorts and looks away as the screen returns to the arena, where Todoroki breaks off the tape around him. The frozen pieces fall to the ground in a thump as Todoroki takes another breath.

"Um... don't you think you went overboard?" Sero asks off-screen. Todoroki looks up as the camera turns to Sero. The other teen shivers from where he sits, completely frozen in place.

“Intense!” Inasa shouted. The tall teenager had been struggling with the reveals of Endeavour. He hadn’t met the younger Todoroki and thought the kid was like his father. Knowing the truth made it hard, but seeing this?

It made his blood start pumping! It was so intense! Hot blooded! He couldn’t wait to meet him!!

"Tell the truth, Sero. Can you move at all?" Midnight asks as she shivers on the stage.

"Are you kidding? Obviously not. My body is freezing!" Sero replies.

"Sero has been immobilized! Todoroki advances to the second round!" Midnight announces.

The screen shows the stands, the crowd staring in shock at what happened. People trade looks before a female pro hero calls out.

"Um. Well, nice try!"

"Nice try!" Another voice calls.

"Nice try!" More people join the chant.

"Nice try!" The entire crowd calls.

"Nice try!"

“Oh, because that’s not embarrassing.”

“Damn, I feel for that kid.”

The screen shows the arena again with Todoroki walking up to Sero. The red and white teen places a hand on the glacier holding the tape user. Steam begins to rise from the ice.

"Sorry. It was a bit much. I was angry, is all," Todoroki says softly.

The screen moves to Midoriya, who looks at the field with a frown, her shoulders slumping as she holds Tomoe tightly.

"As the crowd shouted, trying to make Sero feel better, Todoroki took a moment to melt his opponent from the ice prison he'd created. For some reason, in that moment, he looked very sad to me," Midoriya's voice narrates.

Midoriya Inko sits on the couch in her apartment with her head in her hands.

“I was wrong,” the woman says, shoulders shaking. “I was wrong.” She looks up with tear-filled eyes and sobs loudly. “I was wrong. God, what have I done to Izumi? To… to Tomoe!” the woman cries as her TV blares.

“Are you…” Izumi sighed deeply. She put down the trash she’d been carrying to prop her hands on her hips. The sheer amount of whiplash she kept getting was baffling.

Her mother ran off; then it was revealed she’d attempted to force Izumi to give up Tomoe. Okay fine. But now this? Just…

“What do you WANT?!” Izumi screamed at the screen. “What do you WANT, MOM? Do you want me back? Do you feel sorry for me? Are you finally realizing things?”

She couldn’t keep going around and around. She just couldn’t.

Her father repeated her emotions. He had loved Inko even if Izumi was more important to him. Killing her brought him only a slim amount of pleasure in destroying the person harming his family. Seeing her repent…

No, it didn’t matter. She still did it. He had to hold onto that. She deserved punishment for her sins. And the only worthwhile punishment was death.

The conflicting emotions continued with Mitsuki. She knew Inko. She knew the woman was stubborn and refused to see things that didn’t match her views.

But she still had hope. Hope the woman will one day realize she was wrong. People could change, and it would be an uphill battle, but they could. She could hope Inko would change. Maybe… maybe the future would show it. Perhaps they would see it. Maybe Inko would come back…

She wouldn’t allow Inko around Izumi. She’d put herself between them until Inko and Izumi were ready to meet. She…

She hoped.

"Welcome back to the finals, everyone! Sorry for that long wait! The huge amount of ice from the second match has finally been cleared, though, so it's time to welcome new competitors! We have the dazzling Frenchman- wait, is he?”

“His mother is French.”

“Ah, thank you. Yes. We have the dazzling Frenchman Aoyama Yuuga, the sparkling man of 1-A, facing off against the one and only terrifying frog herself, Asui Tsuyu, also of 1-A!” Mic calls out as the screen switches to the two competitors walking out onto the field to face off. When they reach their position, Aoyama strikes a pose. He places a hand behind his neck and cocks his hip with a smirk.

“My navel laser will lead me to greatness, mon ami. Perhaps you should give up already?” He asks.

“Ribbit, I don’t think so.” Asui croaks out. The two face each other as Midnight cracks her whip.

“Please limit any large attacks,” the woman calls out. Both teens nod in an answer as Mic begins his countdown.

“And BEGIN!” He shouts. Aoyama instantly shoots a laser out of his belt while Asui jumps, managing to get over said laser. She lands on the stage and shoots out her tongue to try and grab Aoyama. The teen dodges, shooting his laser at his opponent.

The screen shifts to 1-A, where Midoriya observes the field with a frown.

“Sooo, who are you rooting for, Midoriya?” Uraraka asks.

“It’s hard to say,” Midoriya admits. “Aoyama and his laser are a bit of a glass cannon, while Tsu is calm and durable. However, Aoyama can shoot his laser faster than Tsu can shoot her tongue out. Though she did one tell me…”

The screen returns to the field where Asui opens her mouth and coughs hard, her stomach coming out through her mouth. Loud cries of disgust echo around the area, Aoyama pausing in his attempt to use his laser to gag. It gave Asui the time needed to use her stomach to regurgitate acid, spitting it at Aoyama’s belt. It lands on the belt and begins melting it. He shrieks as Asui swallows her stomach and uses her tongue to grab the blonde, throwing him out.

“… Tsu, that was amazing but disgusting,” Ochako told the frog girl, who shrugged.

“It worked, didn’t it?” Tsu asked. “Surprised the acid worked so well.”

“Stomach acid is some of the most destructive acid,” Yaomomo said thoughtfully.

“Ick,” Aoyama made a face. “I do not want to fight you again.”

“Well, you probably will!” Midnight declared as she walked into the common room. “Morning, kids! I’ll be your first chaperone, babysitter, whatever you want to call me! School starts after this episode!”

“Midnight-Sensei,” Iida began politely, “how will we be able to focus with the screens?”

“Think of it as a test for the future as heroes when you need to pay attention to multiple things,” Midnight said. “During important parts, we don’t mind, but sometimes you can just ignore what’s happening, or so we hope!”

Ochako thought it was a wasted hope, but she’d find out. Maybe they could ignore it if needed.

The screen goes back to Midoriya.

“That she can throw her stomach up to wash it. Excellent way of disturbing people. Didn’t know she could use the acid in it like that.” The green-haired girl wrinkles her nose, a hand firmly covering Tomoe’s eyes as the baby babbles. “Though honestly, that is impressive. I wonderwhatelseshecandowiththat.�� Midoriya begins mumbling. Bakugou scowls at the back of her head.

“Shut the fuck up, Deku!” he snaps loudly. “No one wants to hear your nonsense!”

“Not true!” Uraraka says back. “Though I can’t understand it, what were you talking about Midoriya?”

“Fucking- would they stop!” Katsuki glared at the screen. Deku was annoying! Why would they want to hear her? Sure, she was right about some stuff, but the muttering drove him crazy. Ugh. Whatever, he’d stop complaining. Just wait until she drove them all up the wall with her stalker tendencies.

He ignored the voice in his head, repeating that she wasn’t a stalker. He was waiting for the proof he had changed to occur. It shouldn’t take too much longer. He just needed to be patient. After all, they saw Auntie change, and he’d been right! She was a good mom! She just needed time! He was a kid; he just needed time to!

Katsuki felt so assured by this proof that he’d already brushed past most of his doubts. Auntie had proven herself. A piece of his world was right, so everything else was right.

Katsuki fell upon the idea that he’d been right after days of being told he was wrong. A backslide in his halting steps forward to understand he was wrong. Time would only know if he could change or not.

Meanwhile, Shouto walked back into the common room after he’d used ice to create a sculpture. He ignored his future classmates and Midnight, who seemed willing to let him be. They’d already arranged to talk about Endeavour with Nezu in a few days.

Not that anything would change. No, his father was too powerful. At most, a slap on the wrist, Shouto knew. The fact that UA made moves against Bakugou in the future and that his unpleasant habits were being exposed now pleased him.

They couldn’t stop his father, but they would stop the next version of the man.

“Ah, honestly, I was wondering what else she can do with her stomach. She mentioned a mucus that stings people too, so is she also somewhat a poison dart frog style with her own stomach acid this way?” Midoriya wonders out loud.

“Frog?” Tomoe asks. “Like me?”

“Ah yes, we’re talking about Tsu baby.” Midoriya kisses Tomoe’s head.

“Wait, Bakubro!” Kirishima turns to Bakugou. “You need to get down to the waiting room!” Bakugou scoffs but stands up.

“You better watch me, especially you half and half!” Bakugou turns to Todoroki, who just arrived, looking more annoyed. “I’ll prove you chose the wrong person to challenge!” Bakugou growls darkly before he stomps out of the stands.

“He did!” Katsuki shouted angrily. He’d show them all! He was the best! He wouldn’t fail!

Meanwhile, Monoma Neito felt very afraid. He walked into his classroom very pale, ignoring the looks of his classmates.

He was going to die.

“Monoma is going to die,” Uraraka says flatly.

“Bakubro won’t be too bad!” Kirishima disagrees.

“No, he will,” Ashido says. “He was willing to go after him during the calvary battle, and he’s angry that Monoma dared fight him.” She scowls. “Can’t believe I worked with him.”

“He’s a good guy!” Kirishima says. “Or, well, he can be! I can tell!”

“Yeah!” Eijiro insisted. Ashido shook her head as Uraraka and Iida unsubtle stepped away from him. It hurt. It did. But he… he couldn’t just abandon Bakugou! He was a good guy! Eijiro knew it! He saved him after all, and they saw how he’d jumped in to save All Might! It only made sense!

His thoughts were mimicked by a lot of the public, who agreed. There had to be some sort of good in him. There had to be an outside reason for his actions; after all, bullies often were abused at home. Or did the school let him down?

It was more comforting to think that everyone around him was the issue than the idea that a child could be so wrong.

“What do you think, Midoriya?” Tokoyami asks, his voice a bit loud. Kirishima winces, hearing him speak. Midoriya bites her lip.

“I don’t want to talk about it,” she says after a second. “But I will say the idea he’s never had anyone to show him the ‘right way’ is wrong. He’s just never faced consequences for his actions.” Kirishima frowns, shaking his head.

“He was willing to jump in to save All Might! He trusted all of you to be able to fight off the villains! He willingly went to help Aizawa-sensei!” Kirishima says firmly.

I wonder how much of that was due to him wanting to get even about someone who got the drop on him, though, given he went right for Kurogiri, Midoriya thinks. She doesn’t say it out loud, though, instead focusing on Tomoe, who tugs on her shirt.

Eijiro hadn’t thought about that. It had to be wrong, though. After all, who'd be that stupid to attack someone way more skilled just because they beat you once? Only idiots would do that.

“Potty,” the girl says. Midoriya stands with the girl and nods to her classmates as she walks out of the seating area. The screen moves from her to one of the waiting rooms where Monoma is sitting. He has his eyes closed and is breathing as deep as possible. His hand goes to his pocket and pats it before he lets out his breath.

“Alright, I can do this.” He mutters. He walks to the door and opens it. Leaving the room, he begins his walk towards the arena. Midoriya and Tomoe appear, walking back from the bathroom as he does.

“Oh!” Midoriya pauses upon seeing him.

“Huh?” Tomoe blinks, staring at the blonde boy, who stares at them in shock.

“Ah! Sorry- I was taking Tomoe to the bathroom when she wanted her rabbit, and this is the way to the stairwell to the locker rooms where I tucked her toys earlier!” Midoriya laughs. “Good luck, your Quirk is really cool.”

“You truly think so?” Monoma asks her.

“Well, yeah,” Midoriya says. “I think it’s a super cool Quirk- I like Quirks in general, so a Copy Quirk? Really cool.” Midoriya smiles at him, and Monoma blinks. He glances at Tomoe and then at Midoriya herself.

“Don’t say something stupid,” Neito muttered to himself. He had a case of foot-in-mouth syndrome, as his mom called it. Just saying stupid stuff without thinking. He tried to tone it down, but sometimes it slipped.

“You are not as full of yourself as I thought 1-A would be,” he says, sniffing slightly. Midoriya blinks and then shrugs.

“Most of us aren’t. But ego isn’t a bad thing; it’s only when it becomes too crazy that it’s bad, right?” Midoriya shrugs. “When you think of everyone as lesser or hurt people… that’s when it’s bad.” Midoriya’s shoulders slump slightly before she places a smile back on her face. “Good luck!” she repeats. Monoma watches her go, a somewhat stunned look on his face before he returns to walking out to the field. The screen morphs to the announcer’s booth, where Mic is frowning.

“I’m not too certain about this,” he tells Aizawa. “Bakugou was stopped from fighting him in the calvary battle, and he’s got to be mad.”

“Bakugou’s smart enough to know he can’t do anything on live television,” Aizawa replies. “His parents certainly never had any clue about any of his behaviours before we told them about it and before the battle trials. He knows when not to act up when he can face consequences.”

That… was something very unsettling to Eijiro. But he couldn’t let himself believe it. People were so mean for no reason! Like… Bakugou was just misled. He acted better in front of his parents cause everyone did! Eijiro acted excellently in front of his dads, after all! And you always put your best face forward in public!

Meanwhile, Katsuki scowled darkly at the screen, very bitter. Hobo-sensei could fuck off. He was acting polite. You did that in public.

He ignored the voice, pointing out he’d always avoided putting Deku in her place around his parents or when they weren’t in areas he could, like school. It was being polite.

“True,” Mic nods before he flicks on the microphone. “Hello festival goers! We’re back with our fourth match of the tournament! In one corner, we have the explosive blonde who managed to make a smooth comeback during the cavalry battle, Bakugou Katsuki from class 1-A. In the other corner, we have the copycat, the blonde with the potential of a thousand Monoma Neito from class 1-B!” Mic cheers as the screen moves to the field where Bakugou and Monoma stand.

“I’m going to enjoy this,” Bakugou says, grinning. Monoma scoffs.

“Oh, so you’re that egotistical? Did your feelings get hurt when I called you a damsel in the second event?” Monoma taunts. Bakugou snarls once more as the countdown rings around them.

“BEGIN!” Mic cries out. Bakugou launches himself forward, and Monoma slams his hand into his pocket before yanking it up, his body turning steel.

“And it seems that Monoma got his hand on some Quirks to help him in this match!” Mic calls out. “Tetsutetsu’s Quirk is giving him a hand here!”

“So MANLY!” Tetsutetsu shouted with his fists in the air. Monoma seemed so cool! He couldn’t wait to meet him, even if Kendo wasn’t cool. He bet the others were super cool!

“Fucking weakling!” Bakugou roars as he blasts Monoma. The copy teen winces and then attempts a punch, Bakugou dodging it. “You’re pathetic, needing to rely on others to be a hero!” Bakugou growls out.

“And you’re just a lowlife who needs to get the upper hand on everyone!” Monoma shoots back as he gets out of the way of a blast from Bakugou. He switches Quirks, his hand expanding as he swats at Bakugou. A call of ‘Kendo’ rings out from Mic, pinpointing the owner of the Quirk. Monoma surprises Bakugou enough to startle him, knocking the blonde aside. It’s not enough for it to work, as Bakugou manages to use his Quirk to stop himself from being knocked out of the ring, causing explosions to push him away from the edge.

Monoma responds by shrinking his hand to shoot some explosions at Bakugou, having copied the Quirk himself. The copy Quirk user winces, shaking his arm after one large explosion that Bakugou had to dodge.

That hurts. Bakugou must have worked on strengthening his arms a lot to be able to do that. Monoma frowned. Damn it, I knew better than just to assume I could use a Quirk I copied right away, even if I hadn’t had an issue with a brief use before. I learned that years ago.

“Why do I always forget that,” Neito asked himself.

“Cause you’re a lazy copycat,” a classmate mocked. Neito snorted at them.

“Says the one with the intelligence Quirk they purposely got a license to use in everyday situations.” He mocked back. “When it only activated if you drink tea.”

Intelli Seiko flushed, glaring at the boy. It was unfair! First, that ridiculous Yaoyorozu got into UA despite her scandalous Quirk and now this brat? So unfair!

She hadn’t seen herself either, which meant the school was foolish enough to ignore her. HER! The most incredible mind since Nezu! She’d show them! She’d beat them all! Perhaps she would even meet Midoriya herself and win the girl away from them. Allying herself with the future number one was the best idea, after all.

The screen turns to the stands.

“Damn, the copy kid is neat,” a hero says to her seat neighbour. “Think I can bug my agency into accepting him as an intern?”

“Sounds cool. I like the explosion kid, though. He’s got fire.” Her neighbour says.

“Dunno, explosions like that?” a hero behind them says. “He’s a walking collateral damage sign. Rather go for the copy kid.”

“I stand by that,” the hero on the screen said. She flicked her hair over her shoulder. “I cause enough damage with Metal Fists; I don't need any more.”

A few others agreed though others thought if the kid could learn to control himself better, he'd be a good choice. He had the power. He just needed control.

Neito smiled to himself. He'd never heard that before, that someone chose him over someone else. It was always ‘we'd rather have the actual person with the Quirk than a cheap copy.’ It was nice to hear that someone chose him. It made the voice inside him that kept saying he was useless shut up a bit.

Though for the explosive teen himself…

“WHAT THE FUCK! THAT’S BULLSHIT!”

“KATSUKI KNOCK IT OFF!”

The screen returns to the battle where Monoma is steel once more as Bakugou launches a barrage of attacks. It’s a war of attrition as long as he’s focused on me like this. Monoma thinks. I have a time limit, and even steel will collapse to explosions. I should have tried to figure something out with Bondo. Gluing this guy’s hands together would work!

Bakugou is close enough to the other boy that Monoma manages to kick at Bakugou, knocking him back, but he has no time to do anything else before Bakugou recuperates quickly. The explosions are getting bigger and bigger, the ground ripping up from around Monoma.

“Done talking, huh?” Bakugou taunts. “Pathetic.” Monoma’s hands clench in response.

“… I am going to wipe that smirk off his face,” Neito decided. Intelli scoffed, but Neito ignored her. He would make that boy regret his words.

Yeah, and I’m not going to win. But I will make sure he loses that smirk. Monoma thinks as he takes another kick at Bakugou. Bakugou dodges, but as he does, Monoma switches the quirk. Instead, scales develop up his arms, and he clenches his fists. Some of the scales shoot off his arms at Bakugou, who yelps.

“It looks like Monoma has switched to Hiryu Rin’s Quirk Scale!” Mic shouts over the crowd as Monoma continues to shoot at Bakugou.

The named boy grinned. He made it into UA! That was so cool! And hey, Monoma was using his Quirk to show him off! Awesome!

The screen swaps to Midoriya, who is watching on a TV screen in the locker rooms.

“He’s giving his classmates a hand up by showing their Quirks off,” Midoriya remarks as Tomoe cuddles her bunny. “It’s impressive.” She kisses Tomoe’s head when the toddler pulls on her tank top. Midoriya pauses after she does. “Ah, I need a new overshirt.”

“There’s some in the public lockers,” a voice says. Midoriya jumps and turns to see the ponytail girl, who gives her an apologetic smile. “Sorry, I’m Kendo Itsuka.”

The screen pauses on the girl as Mic speaks up, “Kendo Itsuka! Quirk: Big Fist! She’s able to enlarge her hands while also increasing her strength. She’s a fiery redhead with a bit of a temper!” The screen continues.

“I don’t have a temper!” Itsuka said, insulted even as some classmates exchanged nods. Fit her to a tea.

“Nice to meet you,” Midoriya says, bowing her head. “You were the big hand Quirk, right?”

“Indeed,” Kendo agrees. She frowns. “Is Monoma bothering you?”

“What? No.” Midoriya shakes her head. “He’s been weird, but I think he’s hyper-aware not to say anything wrong.”

“Huh,” Kendo blinks. “He’s been snappish about 1-A for a bit, though Tetsutetsu managed to calm him down without me stepping in. I thought he was doing it secretly.”

“Well, he’s probably been snarky to others, but I think he’s unwilling to say anything to me.” Midoriya shrugs.

“At least he has some tact, then.” Kendo sighs. “Sorry, I just find him annoying.” She admits.

“That’s rude,” Izumi said. She began grabbing trash again, wanting to focus on something other than her emotions spiralling inside her. Her mom realized she was wrong. No? After she crossed the line of no return?

Or was it the line? Could Izumi accept her mother again? Could she go through with the pain of dealing with her mom? Or not?

It confused Izumi too much, so hauling trash and focusing on the screen was better. More so, given that Kendo was acting rude. Why would anyone just out and say they found someone annoying like that?

“Everyone’s a little annoying,” Midoriya says as behind them, the TV shows Monoma shooting more scales, Bakugou forced to use his Quirk to destroy them rather than dodge. “Monoma strikes me as someone who has always been compared to others. He was startled when I said his Quirk was cool.”

“It doesn’t give him a right to whine and moan about things,” Kendo sniffs. She shakes her head. “Just tell me if he’s being a pest, I’ll set him straight.” Midoriya pauses.

“Didn’t… didn’t it say she hit him?” a civilian asks a friend.

“... I think it did.” swallowed the other, the two trading looks. What the fuck? Did the girl hit someone for being annoying? What kind of person did that stuff?

“How would you set him straight?” Midoriya asks. Kendo lifts a hand and mimes a chop.

“Discipline,” she says. “It’s the only way to get boys to listen.”

“So you physically assault people because they’re annoying,” Midoriya says. Kendo blinks and shakes her head.

“It’s not-”

“It is.” Midoriya grabs an overshirt and pulls it on, juggling Tomoe. “Excuse me, but I’d rather not be near a bully.” She leaves the locker room, Kendo standing there looking puzzled.

“What?!” Itsuka shouted. “I’m no bully-”

“Yeah, you are,” one of her more common victims said. “You smack me constantly when I’m arguing with Chano, my FRIEND, and we play argue. You refuse to listen to us when we tell you you’re wrong.” Itsuka scoffed at the boy.

He had to be lying. They all were; she wasn’t a bully. It was discipline that she would smack people who were annoying others or being pests. It wasn’t bullying. They were all lying because they hated being pointed out as bad people.

She wasn’t a bully!

The screen morphs once more. Monoma is glaring; teeth bared as he shoots scales, dodging around Bakugou as the other teen blasts away. The copy teen ends up near the edge of the boundary line. He glances down and then up. Bakugou’s face is pulled into a terrifying grin, eyes on fire as Monoma’s arms slowly descale, the scales landing on the ground.

“Oh fuuuuuuck,” Neito muttered, staring at the screen.

In his home, Katsuki smiled like a shark. He was going to show them. He’d put the rat in his place and enjoy it.

“Out of time, huh, copycat?” Bakugou barks. “I’m going to enjoy this.” He grins ferally.

I want that smirk off his face, Monoma thinks angrily. His hands shake as he glares back. He glances down one more time, and then he smirks himself. I wish I could prove my superiority over this bastard, but I must consider how my abilities are lacking in some areas. However, I know just how to put him in his place. The next blast from Bakugou causes Monoma to step back right over the boundary line.

Silence hovered around Japan and those watching elsewhere.

At least until the first person snickered in each area, for Neito’s classroom, it was the teenager himself. For I-Island, it was Melissa who giggled. At the beach, Shouta snorted.

People began laughing hard. In disbelief but also amusement. Monoma had lost on his terms; he’d stepped back and let things happen. It was something that, while petty, everyone found funny.

Even Hisashi in his lair laughed as Tomura cackled, high-pitched. Both greatly appreciated the boy for his actions, putting the explosive brat in his place.

Only three people didn’t laugh. Mitsuki and Masaru had exchanged looks before looking towards their son’s chillingly silent door.

“Monoma is out of bounds!” Midnight declares. Bakugou freezes. Monoma makes sure to lock eyes, a smirk on his face before he plasters a disappointed look over it. Bakugou’s face goes still as he stares at Monoma, who bows. A roaring sound echoes around Bakugou, and it looks like Midnight is speaking.

But Bakugou only stands there, eyes widening as Monoma walks away. A look of rage passes over his face, and he steps forward with his hands crackling, but the sharp snap of Midnight’s whip breaks through the roar.

Katsuki exploded. “THAT RAT FUCKING BASTARD SON OF A BITCH! HE FUCKING STEPPED OUT ON PURPOSE! IT’S HORSESHIT! I DIDN’T WIN! HE CHEATED!” The teen let out bursts from his hands, screaming his rage at the screen. He didn’t destroy anything; it was his own home, and he wouldn’t want to break his things.

But he made plenty of noise as he screamed out his rage. It wasn’t fair. He was supposed to show the world that he was the best! He was supposed to force UA to acknowledge he had to go to their school! Yet this copycat freak decided to step out of bounds!

He was going to KILL HIM!

“You won, Bakugou,” she tells him. “Go.”

He does wordlessly, rage still apparent on his face even so. His shoulders shook as he stomped away, the screen shifting to the announcer’s booth.

“Our next opponents will be on the field in a few minutes while we fix the damage,” Mic says into his microphone before he turns it off. “So, did Monoma purposely step out?”

“I’m about forty percent sure he did,” Aizawa agrees next to him. “If so, I don’t know why.”

“To annoy Bakugou?” Mic asks. “I can understand the wish.”

“Wow,” Mika muttered as she wiped her tears away. “Even the teacher?”

The sentiment was carried by many. A few felt it unfair, given the boy was a teenager, but others only felt agreement. The kid was annoying on screen. Few would be able to put up with his attitude in truth. Screaming, yelling, and verbal abuse just wasn’t something they could deal with. He wasn’t the type of person they liked at all.

Katsuki himself just yelled even more. Who did that cockatoo bastard think he was?!

“Hizashi, you’re supposed to be a neutral teacher.” Aizawa reminds his husband.

“I am, but I can’t really like him,” Mic admits. “He’s annoying, and while the kid is at least good at English, he is offended he’s not the top scorer. Have you seen how mad he gets whenever he hears that someone is higher ranked than him?”

“You’re already giving out rankings?” Aizawa asks.

“Usually, we wait till midterms…” Shouta looked at his husband, who shrugged.

“Don’t look at me right now. I give them out if asked, but I don’t know what’s happening.”

“Only for those who ask. Bakugou demands it once a week and is furious whenever I tell him he’s still only fifth in the class. He knows someone is fluent but hates that he’s not second, at least,” Mic replies. “It’s concerning how personal he takes it. I was wondering if I should direct him to Hound Dog.”

“You think there’s something mental going on?” Aizawa asks.

“EXCUSE ME?!” Katsuki shouted. He wasn’t crazy! He was perfectly sane, thank you!

His parents looked at each other again. Their son wasn’t crazy or anything. But… they honestly were wondering this now, too. How could he do all those things and not think they were wrong? How could he act like he was without thought? Maybe some disorder?

They didn’t want to think their son was just like that. It hurt too much to think their son could be so selfish and cruel.

“I’m thinking that there’s got to be some sort of complex the kid has, and while we have him on the Red Flag, I don’t know if just giving him consequences will fix his issues. The kid is a brat who was allowed to do what he wanted, but I actually do wonder about his issue with not being the best,” Mic says.

“Could just be that he was top of the class before,” Aizawa suggests. Mic shakes his head, frowning as he stares at the field, Cementoss fixing up the arena.

“Not like this,” Mic says. “He gets offended and furious about it. Not just upset or annoyed. I had to threaten him to get him to shut up after the first test, where he cornered me after class and demanded to know who cheated to be better than him.”

“He actually thought som… no, wait. He thought Midoriya cheated to get in,” Aizawa says. “He doesn’t like it when his world is shaken, does he.”

“Doesn’t look it,” Mic says. “Kid’s going to need a reality check and a full-on hand-holding. Don’t know if UA can help with that.”

“Or if it’s something Hound Dog can help with,” Aizawa says. “He’s not a full therapist after all.”

Hound Dog shook his head. He wasn’t a therapist at all. He knew a few people he could call and ask for help, but he wasn’t sure who would be willing to work at UA. Honestly, Second Chance sounded to be the best route for the boy. He had issues upon issues from the sounds of it, and Hound Dog couldn’t handle them. The therapists at Second Chance could, though, given they specialized in dealing with borderline criminal teenagers, cases of abuse, anti-social personalities or more.

In all honesty, Hound Dog thought Second Chance rivalled UA for their programs. It was just that no one considered them viable because they were a reform school. You would be surprised by how many kids they got, though. Some were there because of discrimination, but a majority were kids who had gotten big heads or were violent. Bakugou would fit it. He had a big head due to how society treated him, with the lucky break of having been praised for a strong Quirk rather than despised for an explosive one, which led to him using his Quirk how he wanted to without care. If it was just how he was raised or a mental condition making his traits worse, they would figure it out and help.

Hound Dog just felt happy the kid could get that chance. As long as Bakugou didn’t screw up now, SC would accept him. If he did screw up in the new timeline, bad enough that they wouldn’t let him in, the hero feared what the boy would become.

The screen changes to Bakugou, the teen snarling as he stomps down the hallway.

“That bastard! He stepped out! He gave up!” Bakugou growls. “COWARD!” Bakugou roars.

“He is a fucking coward!” Katsuki screamed. The shit was not facing his due punishment. How sickening! The little shit had whatever happened to him coming!

That bastard is nothing more than another pebble in the road! Yet I couldn’t prove that I was better than him! Bakugou thinks angrily. His hands shake as he stomps down the hallway. He looks furious as he glares at nothing.

Everything is wrong. I didn’t get first place at all in the past two events! I’m the best! I’m the future number-one hero! No one can beat me! Bakugou growls as he finishes his thoughts.

“I’m going to win,” he vows darkly. “I’m going to win this tournament and remind all the extras who is better than them! And then I will find that copy-bastard and show him never to step out of bounds again purposely!”

After that, the screen went to the timer, and Neito laid his head on his desk.

“I’m going to die in the future… at least the smirk is gone,” he muttered. He ignored the voices around him of his classmates, just focusing on his thoughts. He had lost the fight but also won in his own way. He chose to step out of bounds, not face being beaten by Bakugou.

It felt good to know he had managed that. Maybe it put in a good word for him at UA now that he had been able to face the teen head-on without worry. Maybe heroes saw and thought he did good.

Maybe Midoriya saw; wow, he should not be thinking of that. Probably. Even if she was kind of cute.

(UA did take notice, with Nezu drafting an email to accept the boy into the school immediately. Without Bakugou or Mineta, 1A was lacking two students, after all.

Some heroes did take note, too, writing his name down for the future. A kid who won in his way was a good choice for internships. It showed he was willing to do what it takes to win and could think outside the box.

And as for Midoriya? She noticed, too. And was very impressed by someone pulling one over on Bakugou.)

-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-0-

Notes

Hey! Sorry for the long wait. I took a mental health hiatus over the summer after trying to do some pride stories and realized I couldn’t think. I could not write and felt majorly off. I’m better now, particularly now. School is coming back, and I quit nights, which probably helped. But I’m back, baby!

Fun facts before we start:

This originally was two chapters. I put them together due to their shortness.

And I got two comments complaining about how I wrote Kendo on the last chapter… and I deleted them both, followed by blocking one of them because they basically ranted about how I ‘needed to check my facts before putting my headcanon here’ and ‘Kendo is in the right to hit Monoma’ never mind YOU NEVER PUT YOUR HANDS ON SOMEONE LIKE THAT. Also, my fic, my rules, ya’ll don’t need to read (ALA, that one dumbass who also went: bad Inko, all I need to know is not to read this drivel, which… it’s in the tags?!)

Kendo smacking Monoma is NOT OKAY. I don’t care about the justifications. Hitting someone because they’re ‘annoying’ isn’t okay. If I have Bakugou in trouble, why wouldn’t I address Kendo? No, seriously, why? Why do we have a double standard of female-on-male violence being okay while male-on-female violence is not? Smacking someone so hard they pass out is horrible, and Kendo is a bad person for doing it, so she gets stopped early in this fic. (And Vlad SUCKS for not stopping it in canon) Seriously, I was surprised I got those comments, but none about the Hatsume stuff or Nighteye. Or Dabi.

This also led to me adjusting some stuff. Kendo will get redemption, but the comments, added to the fact that I wasn’t happy with how I was going about it, led to me having it take much longer.

-Ochako and Izumi there to save the day with their minds because Yaoyorozu needed a pick me up!

-Bakugou back sliding was due to him just not wanting to admit he’s wrong still. He can’t admit it to himself at all, and latched onto the idea of Inko proving she’s a good person as proof he was right. That he isn’t a bad person. That he still gets what he wants. Recovery is never linear, and backsliding happens.

-Can Tsu spit her stomach acid out like that? I dunno, but here she can. With her extra training with Izumi, she figured it out.

-I saw a translation of the original Japanese saying Endeavour used the word ‘brothers’ rather than siblings in his speech here. So I changed it here. Endeavour is aware women can be heroes; it’s just in his mind, the perfect legacy is male. He’s the sexist, saying, ‘Yeah, they can, but not as good as men, and they should focus on raising children.’

-Monoma’s crush on Izumi is more of a ‘she saved me, I found out she’s been through shit, she’s skilled and smart, AHHH’ sort of thing. It’s superficial, honestly. Honestly, half the crushes I have planned are partly: teenagers are weird and gain crushes at the drop of a hat sometimes, and the rest is ‘I am so damn tired of the double standard where it’s okay for the male to gain the attention of all the girls in a series, but it’s not for the female.’

-The fight with Monoma feels lacklustre because I went in with the idea of it being a black mark for Bakugou and then had to stop because, like Aizawa pointed out-, Bakugou is smart enough know to avoid being caught by people who’d care about his bullshit. Then I was like, what if I instead had the fight be still brutal but ended up nixing that to because I felt like Monoma would recognize when to bow out? He’s a little shit with low self-preservation, but in the end, he’s not dumb. Plus, being able to piss Bakugou off more? Priceless. Bakugou knows Monoma purposely stepped out of bounds, but no one else will. Bakugou did not get the fight or the revenge he wished for.

-I also used the idea that Monoma can’t use a Quirk perfectly right away, but instead of him JUST learning it here, I was like: this kid definitely used to try and copy a lot of Quirks from a young age and realized that early. He forgets a lot.

-In this AU, Kaminari is fluent in English. He’s number one in that class, followed by Yaoyorozu, Iida, and Todoroki. Bakugou is next, then Midoriya.

-While writing another fic, I realized that Bakugou calling Izuku ‘Deku’ for ‘dekunobu’ as in useless wooden doll is… malicious for a toddler. Especially how he said it, and yes- an adult wrote it, but canon, it’s freaky. It startled me to realize this, and I had to sit down and think about it. Typical toddlers don’t do that shit. Plus the drive to be number one, Bakugou’s attitude- it makes me wonder, you know. Mic also picked up on this because, again, this attitude about NEEDING to be the best is strange for the ‘bad boy’ vibes he tries for. So, Mic is wondering if something else is going on.

-You cannot convince me that Bakugou WOULDN’T think this. He is obsessed with being the best, and everything so far has shown him that he isn’t. The USJ almost did, but then the sports festival, the fact ONLY one person tolerates him, Monoma stepping out of bounds to have Bakugou feel he won in the wrong way… He’s close to the edge.

#bnha #bnha au #boku no hero academia #pulling on the strings of destiny #female izuku #fem midoriya izuku

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isfjmel-phleg · 2 months

Text

Will MacIntyre doesn't cry. Ever. And this is intended to be worrisome.

(Okay, I know he doesn't fit with the other boys I've been discussing--he's a young adult, not a teenager--but the themes are there. Bear with me.)

Even though we meet Will as an adult, there are multiple flashbacks to his childhood. He's been through a lot. Unstable home. Friendless background. A mother whom he feels he needs to protect. Frequently absent father whom he comes to believe is a supervillain (actually just a run-of-the-mill henchman) and who ends up getting sent to prison. And then taking on the burden of reinventing himself as his father's complete opposite.

Billy Mac (a childhood nickname that the adult Will is anxious to keep hushed up) is only eight. But his response to everything he goes through is eerily unchildlike.

(Triumph #3)

He is utterly unemotional, both in public and private. It's not that he isn't feeling anything; the lasting impact of his past confirms that he was hurt pretty badly by all this. Shutting off emotion has been a deliberate choice for him from a worryingly early age. He has figured out that he can't afford to be vulnerable, that there's danger within his own house, and he must do everything he can to keep himself and his mother safe.

So he doesn't cry. He doesn't show a sign of being upset about anything, ever, even when his mother is in tears as his father is escorted away to prison. The script for Triumph emphasizes how closed off he is:

"Grim. No trace of sadness. Just a heartbreaking acceptance of the way things are."

"Stoic, accepting"

"Emotionless"

"Stoic. Staring out into space."

"Glaring eyes. Not one trace of innocence."

(Triumph #1, 3)

And he grows into an adult who maintains this strategy. He presents a front of arrogant over-competence that conceals the insecurities and hurts evident in his inner monologue. Even at times when one might expect a more emotive reaction of him, Will is aloof. Reencountering his father for the first time since their parting in the courtroom? Once again, the script specifies that he is "stoic. Holding it in" and "shows no apparent emotion," despite all the resentment he's been harboring.

(Triumph #4)

And his solo ends with him in much the same position that he was in as an eight-year-old--abandoned by his father and as alone and emotionless as ever.

Breaking his back and experiencing the intense pain and paralysis that kicks in whenever his powers aren't on to avert the affects doesn't get a tear out of him.

(...or maybe once? This panel, in which the heightened gravity of an alien planet causes him to collapse in pain, is a bit ambiguous.)

(Justice League Task Force #33)

Neither does he break down about damaged relationships, or being confronted with the consequences of his actions that have left him "broken, bitter, and alone." He can't bring himself to succumb to emotion, even in private. Much easier to want to hit a reset button on the lost ten years of his life, at the expense of his soul, than to deal with everything he's not allowing himself to feel.

And in the end, he's got nothing left to feel with.

(Justice League Task Force #37)

Unlike Kon or Tim, who tend to hold back their tears but still can't avoid breaking down at particularly emotionally fraught moments, Will flatly refuses to acknowledge sorrow at all. He rejects opportunities to learn vulnerability that would allow him to get in touch with his humanity. Thus, he ultimately denies himself the full human experience, which leaves him empty inside, unable to grow or meaningfully relate to others. (Even his acts of apparent self-sacrifice are motivated by concern for his own reputation, as he admits to a teammate whose life he once saved.)

It would have been good for him to break down at least once. It would have opened up a chance to start to process everything he has bottled up. But after years of fortifying the impenetrable walls he put up to protect himself as a child, this unhealthy coping mechanism is so ingrained into him that he cannot let it go. And in the end, that's all he'll have left.

#comicsposting again #WM: broken bitter and alone #this perhaps isn't a genre that one would expect to be saying #that refusing to deal with your emotions is ultimately bad for you and eats away at your soul #but that is indeed a theme of this tragedy!#(I reread/skimmed all of Will's material for this and am having Emotions about it again so there may be more analysis forthcoming)#(thank you for your patience with me as I lose my mind about obscure characters)

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