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handmeyourheart · 2 years

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Headcanons

A couple of general angsty headcanons!

Characters: MK, Mei, Red Son, Tang, Pigsy, Sandy, Sun Wukong and Macaque!

Because I’m quintessentially evil and I wonder what kind of small behaviours they’d all have.

Warnings: Very Spoilerish!! I don’t recommend reading if you haven’t watched season 3, it may contain slight spoilers. Actually scratch that it definitely contains spoilers DONT read if you don’t want them.

Notes: Some may be a little ooc, but I try to stay true to them as a whole! It’s angsty headcanons, so they’re a little exaggerated on the scale I would actually use them for, but I tried to keep it pretty tame. Not all of these are headcanons that I will use when writing in future posts btw, some for sure maybe but others are definitely just angst for the sake of being angst.

Also gentle reminder my requests are open! Feel free to leave an ask!! It would be greatly appreciated. See my pinned post for more details!!

MK / Qi Xiaotan!

* I feel that as expressive as Mk usually is, the pressure he inwardly, albeit unconsciously places on himself is insurmountable, and after a certain point on their journey he starts bottling up a couple more of his conventionally minor concerns. He doesn’t want to feel too bothersome, more-so than what he’s already convinced himself he is to others.

* Sleep deprived. MK feels like the one who would constantly push himself, despite the better judgement and protest of his body and it’s need for rest he’d continue training long into the night, like he has to be good enough because he’s Monkey Kings successor. From what used to be an early to bed, late to rising— to a late to bed, late to rising. He likely wouldn’t get much sleep, his sleeping in often disturbed by others or his work.

* Seeks approval. Perhaps on a lesser scale to someone like RedSon, I feel like MK generally wishes that others would look up to him as a hero, and really spares no effort in that regard. That same inner need for approval is what causes him to exert himself more than he should for others, it’s something already seen when he lost a ton of hair making clones in order to satisfy his friends needs, if to a lesser extent.

* Abandonment issues. We know that MK has to bite his tongue when complaining about his mentors absence despite the critical time for key growth, but I think the truth lies behind a bit more than that. We know he’s in this orphan limbo where Pigsy and Wukong take it upon themselves to act like his dads because he’s seen to live at the noodle shop and that’s soft and sweet, but knowing he was either abandoned or his parents died must still be a big issue for him as he likely believes the former. He’s largely a super social kid, and his friends mean a lot to him, so having them leave (like Mei), to go off on their own must be excruciating behind his supportive and encouraging nature. He wants them happy more than anything, even if that means they have to leave for a while.

* I feel like to combat these frequent inner anxieties, MK developed a nervous habit of picking at his fingers until the skin around his nails get peeled off. By no means does it hurt him, I just think he would fidget with his hands when put on the spot.

Mei / Long XiaoJiao!

* If we are going to talk about Mei angst, I think above all we should talk about the Samaudi fire rings event. Practically most of her angstier headcanons could stem from it, so I think it’s the most crucial to mention. Firstly it’s massively traumatic, and is likely to leave large impressions on her, physically and mentally as from what we’ve seen, it hurts to wield all that power. It would have definitely altered her emotional wellbeing as well, the idea of accidentally hurting your friends when you can’t control shit must be so depriving, especially for someone like Mei who is so used to constantly being around her friends to a certain degree. She loves the gang, dearly, being unable to reach out to them like before must make her incredibly fearful of what she could do, even unintentionally to them. She’s always been strong, but this is way more than she can handle. She’s not really someone that ever seems vulnerable, but the damage it might cause her physical body and mental fortitude can’t really be overlooked.

* Truly empathetic. Mei is someone who stands up for others despite the risk involved, no matter if they’re a villain or a hero, she’s really outspoken. And while that doesn’t sound particularly angsty I feel like she weighs others concerns in a higher priority of her own too frequently, enough to maybe doubt when it’s okay for her to also require comfort or counsel. Especially as she has to go through more traumatic things, it gets more necessary to have someone to talk to, but she doesn’t want to burden anyone with that kind of responsibility.

* I feel like Mei would have a lot of scars, not any major or life threatening ones, but quite a large amount of just smaller or medium-sized scars. She wouldn’t exactly be insecure about them but they are a bit of reminder to her of what she could’ve done right or done better.

* Former-ish approval issues. I think all of the traffic-light trio deal with this in varying degrees of severity and in various ways depending on who they’re seeking approval from. Similarly to Red Son, her need to be accepted is family oriented: Even though at large she’s already proven herself worthy through using the sword, I feel like there lies a certain degree of doubt deep down if she truly is. Has she really been using it for good? Does she deserve to wield it if she uses it pretty recklessly despite her good intent? I think she would wonder if she’s been selfish with the way the sword is used, as it is an item to protect her family and those she holds dear. She would also likely worry that others would judge her for the way she’d used it, especially if it were her ancestors. Kind of like, ‘She can wield that super special heirloom not even we could and this is what she used it for? Unbelievable.’ type of beat. That’s among one of her greatest insecurities her family could pick apart.

Red Son / Hong Hai’er!

* Need for approval. Out of everyone, I feel like we’re all aware of how desperate Red Son is for gratification, it’s frequently seen from the pilot to season 2. A lot of that may be a bit of a trauma response from not having his dad present for the majority of his really impactful, crucial development years, so he desperately seeks his dads approval from the moment he returns. I think it’s less about ego, (though he has a lot of it), and more about an inner need for affection. From what we know or infer from the show, his parents do love him, actually to a large degree— but they don’t explicitly show it to Red Son in a way that he hopes for. Words of affirmation are strongly important to Red Son because he never received any congratulations for his efforts and achievements and he goes out of his way to spend quality time with his dad even if it means running a small spicy noodle place with him for a bit despite it not being the most enjoyable for his dad. He just really wants to know that he’s loved now because they weren’t always super present before.

* Self-esteem issues. An issue largely rooted in that same need for approval would be proficient self esteem issues, if he’s not properly fulfilling his tasks and assignments to the highest degree— he’s not doing it properly. If he’s not receiving instant gratification for his actions and praise for those said achievements, it’s not enough. This implication that if he’s not constantly succeeding has left lasting impressions on his esteem, he cannot stand the feeling of failure despite how constant it seems to occur. Each minor infraction is another late night as he stays up to correct his mistakes or work on his next great invention because if this one too doesn’t work, when is he going to believe he’s doing well? Are all of his inventions bad? It’s not their fault— he calibrated them all correctly, does the fault lie in him, the creator?

* Maybe a bit too much of a perfectionist. Though mentioned briefly before, Red Son would be a perfectionist by habit, if his inventions aren’t working it’s his own fault, the missions he fails are his own fault, so he works to no end to assure that success rates are any higher than possible— sparing no expense. This behaviour often leaves him sacrificing his own rest time, but unlike MK he was an early to bed, early to rising, and now a late to bed early to rising, cutting largely into his schedule because he expectantly wakes at the same time. When he sleeps however is often changed because of his late night escapades for materials and time he dedicates toward studying and researching new and innovative ways to improve. Often times this means he can go days without proper sleep, though he consistently hides that fact and avoids questions despite concerns being brought up to him about it.

* Very little emotional control. Though calm on the surface, he has only a little filtering or processing of heavy or extensive emotions. It can often be difficult to regulate and he can generally be rather sensitive and temperamental, which helps recognise his sleep deprivation. I also feel like he struggles with complex emotions from a lack of proper social interaction.

Tang / Tang Shifu!

* Low self-esteem issues. Though something that seems like a pretty common theme between all of them, it is a genuine issue because there isn’t much communication between characters to help resolve each others issues. Despite his philosophical and somewhat outspoken demeanour, we can see that Tang struggles with the idea that he doesn’t have value in comparison to others on the team, often mulled over in favour of someone who can do something practical with their skills or powers: of which, Tang didn’t have for the majority of the earlier seasons and up to 3. It’s hard to feel important among the special and unique, where you don’t stand out and are considered lacking in association with those who just seem to be on a foreign, distant level to you which you can’t even hope to achieve even a sliver of what they can. That’s how Tang feels on the regular, and on the off chance he does try to prove himself— it leads to dangerous and precarious situations he might even need to be rescued from. His only importance was that of knowing the history of the Monkey King with his detailed books, and it became obsolete when MK became more accustomed to his powers and Wukong was present to just inform them of the experience with genuine recollection.

* Again, I feel like Tang is just someone who’s constantly talked over among even his friends, but feels as though he can’t even make a complaint toward them due to his low self esteem— as though, because he’s useless he shouldn’t have an opinion and shouldn’t express often as if he should know his place and that because he’s valueless it isn’t his place to say anything or have any input. Though that’s just his own belief on the matter, it’s something he would just hold in, an unspoken inner worry even if the others express their concerns.

* He might be a bit of a sloth. Not in the way he is exactly lazy, I just feel like Tang is a character who doesn’t have the same motivation to get out of bed everyday like most others seen in the show. It’s more that it’s difficult to encourage him to do anything because he’s too consumed in the idea that everyone might hate or leave him because he doesn’t have the most practical utility and he might mess it all up for everyone. He would just be lethargic, like his body is coated in cement from the build up of negative insecurity, heavy and difficult to resist against no matter what he does, like swimming through quicksand. It’s a tedious concept to explain, but if you know the feeling, then you should be able to relate and understand this concept.

* It might just be my own personal HC, but I think Tang is the kind of a character who seems to have grown up a little too fast in his developmental years, resulting in a rather childish personality to emerge in response. A lot of Tangs past is quite the mystery, and we aren’t lead to believe anything other than him being the reincarnation of a certain monk as he starts discovering some of his own powers. He seems like his social needs were a bit neglected, so his only friends are limited to the group: him and his habit of taking free food largely revolving around the idea that it’s the only way to maintain his friendship with Pigsy outside the idea that they’ve known each other for a long time. Tang doesn’t want to be just another face in the crowd especially towards his friends. He just seems like the type to use his imagination to make friends, trying to be super social to make up for some attention he lacked from parents— if he actually has any.

Pigsy / Zhu Dachu!

* Scarred hands. As a chef, Pigsy’s hands are his pride and joy and his bare, most essential tool in the art of culinary. As much as he is a true professional, accidents occur frequently when you’ve got kids interrupting your time in the kitchen with their shenanigans every so often, it’s nearly unavoidable to have a couple slip-ups. Plus years of the art must have a lot of learning through experience, it’s inevitable to have them pretty roughed up no matter how light of an activity cooking is. Only those who’ve beaten dough into shape like a sergeant in the military for twenty years can dare to explicitly say otherwise. But it’s his passion, can’t get enough of it. The scars vary in size and shape, some are more faded and some more recent. His hands are weathered with experience but I don’t believe that’s necessarily a bad thing.

* Extended headcanon of above if you’re like me and enjoy the idea of causing characters you love grief and heartbreak— What if eventually he loses the ability to use his hands in order to cook? The heartbreak of losing what you’re most passionate about in the world ever? I think he would be utterly distraught, especially with how sentimental it has been for him and it being his entire career— he would be devastated to never use his hands to make something again. It’d be like tearing away his greatest talent, a husk of who he formerly was. But I don’t think it would really stop him, instead he’d live his passion through others— encouraging MK or Mei to try out his recipes, regardless of how inedible it might turn out, the point is that his passion for cooking wouldn’t rest even if you took away his ability to.

* He’s definitely a bit jealous of the new father figure MK has adopted, very easily and without much convincing mind you. He’s maybe a little bit worried MK doesn’t really consider him on the same level as Wukong even though he’d been the one to practically raise him thus far. It’s only a natural reaction, but I’m sure he’d involve a certain level of guilt knowing that it isn’t his choice on who MK wants to see as a father figure and he shouldn’t pressure him about it. He just feels that his position of his acting dad might be threatened by Wukong despite repeated reassurances. He’s aware that having such a disciple and master relationship is like a dream to MK but there’s an underlying fear that he can’t be considered on the same tier as the kids idol he’s had since childhood and that it might develop beyond that as they grow closer, casting Pigsy into the shadows. He just can’t convey that jealousy to MK because he’s uncertain it’ll make him seem immature and uncool.

Sandy / Sha Dali!

I apologise if Sandy’s one is super short I’m still unsure of how to go about writing him for the most part so I’m working my way towards it. I’m aware it isn’t super angsty but how could you ever make the big guy sad.

* Okay so my favourite headcanon for Sandy is that Mo, his cat, is actually an emotional support cat!! When he decided he wasn’t going to be super angry about things anymore and wanted to end his old ways of constantly fighting, I like to imagine that he went through several methods in order to find something that could soothe him. Getting Mo was among one of his last attempts and honestly he fell for the little guy instantly and now he’s coping with his emotions in a much healthier way. Sure, he might still have some difficulty with a fluctuating temper, but overtime he’s come to terms with the fact that it’s okay to be angry, and he’s working around making a positive environment that can let him feel things and still be alright and remain rational. He knows that his feelings are natural and he’s on his way to becoming fully in tune with them how he wants to be on his own terms. I think at some point he would’ve actually dyed Mo’s fur (though I don’t doubt it isn’t natural with lego physics) and styled him to match his owner so they could stay more connected and would be able to recognise him if he was ever lost. He’s really turned over a new leaf and Mo has very much become part of Sandy’s little family.

Sun Wukong / Monkey king!

* Alright, I think it’s time we got around to unpacking a couple of things from this jar of monkeys. Wukong has a massive guilty conscience over some of the shitty things he’s done. I don’t necessarily think he’s a bad person, truly I love the character but let’s genuinely consider some things for this particular section under a neutral perspective. We all know of his massive ego, and I think because of it specifically is why this is a guilty conscience issue and not a ‘I feel like I messed up, I really regret it and I should go apologise for it,’ issue. Wukong does not act mature despite his many years of living, (as much as I write that he does xx), he has largely made many mistakes and many of which he has come to overlook and regret as bad, yet he’s not taken any action to fix things. He is aware that he hadn’t been a good mentor to MK, though he is now actively taking the steps to amend his faults, he doesn’t want to acknowledge that his absence left lasting impressions, MK explicitly reminds him by asking why he isn’t trusted. He doesn’t really want to acknowledge his own faults as a mentor. This can again be seen via the fact he’s aware that he hadn’t been a good friend to Macaque either, yet instead doesn’t even reach out to him in an attempt to to make things right between them. Instead, he selfishly just considers him an enemy, knowing that he’d hurt Macaque by abandoning and casting aside their friendship the way he did.

* Unspoken trust issues. Sun Wukong likely has his own reasons behind why he kept things to himself despite knowing how it effected members of the group— mainly being that he genuinely believed he could take it all on by himself and he would figure out what to do later as it happens, as unorganised and improbable the likelihood had been— he was willingly sacrificial. And as much as one would consider MK and Macaque to be the ones with trust issues, Wukong was often tricked and lead around by the nose frequently in his mythology, and knowing that his story is technically canonic in the lego monkie kid lore means that he had to experience those things often.

* Underlying need to be considered high and mighty. Much like the kids, deep down Wukong just wants the same gratification as they do— with them as his opportunity to change for the better, he seeks out that approval for good, seemingly wanting to shed at least some of his negatively viewed trickster titles in order to pursue a better path with their help. I feel like he needs to be reminded and assured that he’s doing a good job and that it takes time for people to change their minds. He doesn’t want to be viewed negatively, just viewed as an equal to others on the most part, and not just some immortal demon monkey.

Macaque / Liu’er Mihou!

* Has frequent night terrors. If you’ve seen another post of mine then you’ll know I personally Hc Macaque to have frequent haunting dreams that plague him throughout the night, greatly inhibiting his sleep schedule and causing some great signs of sleep deprivation on the days this occurs. A lot of it is just memories of what Lady Bone Demon has done to him, or what she could do to him if he isn’t careful and others are just traumatic scenes that have greatly impacted him at some point. He often winds up lethargic and fatigued on the days where the severity of the dreams are worse he winds up having lost more rest than he gained, ridding him of any chance of wreaking havoc for the time being. The worst extent of these terrors may cause him sleep paralysis, which combined with vivid and realistic images can make it very difficult to maintain a healthy sleeping pattern.

* In the last couple episodes of season 3, we see Macaque gets his body partially hijacked by some of LBD’s magic, (arm, eye, a bit of his leg on the right side if I can recall), which I firmly believe cannot be good for him in any way, shape or form. This likely has left weird scarring in its place, maybe some discolouration of his fur or skin, whatever it may be. And if you’re like me, I would consider those scars massive sensitive bundles of nerves and tender flesh that cannot be healed by the average means, meaning that he is stuck with large vulnerable spots where damage is twice as excruciating if he is hurt in those areas. And that eye? How it had a big ‘ol cross? He would likely have some visionary defects, such as no longer being able to see through it to some extent. This would probably cause him a couple of issues with depth perception and learning to adapt to it.

* Trust issues. Alright it’s a bit generic and to be expected of Macaque, but to be cliche doesn’t necessarily mean to be bad, as long as it works and I’m having fun. Macaque does not open up to people very often anymore after his friendship with Wukong ended on a particularly sour note. From what we know, it was none to Macaques own fault— but the damage has been done and for the most part it’s irreparable. It cannot be undone. He’s unwilling to listen to reason and won’t lower his guard to anyone. Abrasive and coarse, he isn’t easy to get close to, not that he ever was to begin with, but lowering his guard is what left him vulnerable to getting hurt to begin with, he isn’t willing to expose himself like that again. Once was enough. He would consider himself nothing short of a fool if he were to let it happen again. Trust is a very fragile concept to him because Macaques’ need to feel secure, to protect himself, is so deeply rooted inside that it can make it hard to accept genuine kindness— most often immediately assuming it’s false or a blatant lie. It clouds his beliefs and immediately places grey tinted glasses over his eyes, he immediately assumes the worst of people because from his experiences, they usually are.

* Like Mei, I think Macaque would also have a lot of scars— he’s lived a long time, I wouldn’t be surprised by the amount of trouble he’s wound up in over its course. He does shifty work too, it’s nigh impossible that he wouldn’t have a couple injuries here and there, because let’s not forget that he’s not a good person and he would likely do some really shady things for some cash. He would have all sorts of scars, from large to small, thin to faded— they’re everywhere, he’s littered in them.

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mxtxfanatic · 2 years

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Random Thought #18: the way “punishment” and “scolding” is used in the text was a little confusing for me because they seemed to cover a very wide range of actions. Lan Wangji putting the silencing spell on Jin Ling was considered punishment by Jiang Cheng, and all it did was seal his lips for like 30 minutes so that he would reflect on why his words were out of line. The Lan punishments range from copying lines to copying lines while doing handstands to being beaten (not gonna count the whippings, here). In Lotus Pier, Wei Wuxian being whipped and locked into the ancestral hall all day and night was called “punishment” even though it is clearly abuse. There’s no differentiation with what these are called to give us any level of severity before we see the punishment take place, which I think, in hindsight, is important to show who in the story is truthful about their experiences vs. downplaying or exaggerating to whatever ends.

This is the same with scoldings, though I feel like the more abusive characters are said to scold a lot, to different ends. Mostly, I’ll talk about the different scoldings that Lan Qiren seems to give Lan Wangji and how despite the fact that no level of severity is given, I’m not sure if we’re supposed to read them all the same. The first chronological one is after Madam Lan dies and lwj refuses to not go to her home, and Lan Qiren repeatedly scolds him, though it is not clarified whether or not the concept of death was ever truly explained to the 6-year-old at this time. This made me feel like this was very cruel, but given the fact that lqr later treats lwj as his perfect child that can do no wrong, can I believe that he would honestly yell at a baby over the death of his mother? The next moment is after lwj is recovering from his whippings and is constantly being scolded by lqr. This one I feel justified in saying it is more serious because 1) lwj is now an adult who has been through war, 2) he has just injured senior disciples of his clan who all watched him grow up and thought favorably of him, ruining his goodwill to his closest kin, and 3) he has shown no signs of repentance. However, as mentioned in a previous post of mine, lqr seems to drop this immediately when lwj brands himself and stops fighting lwj on adopting a-yuan into the clan. And finally, lqr seems to regularly scold Lan Xichen and lwj post-canon for their behavior during public appearances, but going back to the first point of lqr with a young lwj, do I believe that lqr would regularly and harshly scold his beloved nephew after said nephew experienced something so traumatic that it’s forced him into seclusion?

And then there are other mentions of “scoldings.” Madam Yu “scolds” Wei Wuxian and the other Jiang disciples, but we know this is verbal abuse. Wwx himself “scolds” the juniors, but these are gentle and meant to show both concern and point out a teaching lesson for the kids. Jiang Cheng “scolds” wwx as a way to insult him and put him in his place, but Jiang Yanli “scolds” as a way to end conflict and mostly to patch up the two martial brothers’ relationship. I thought this was maybe an exr translation thing about using limited vocabulary until wwx brings up that it is a very vague word in the Intrusion extra. There, Young Master Qin uses the word to describe what he did to the former servant of his household before he is forced to admit the specifics, which was that the “scolding” was a beating that likely broke the other man’s leg.

Anyways, this was just a random musing brought to you by my fascination with the ways in which language that feels specific can sometimes not say anything you were expecting. Context and connotation matter just as much as the literal definitions of words (and also, this is very necessary with English’s somewhat limited vocabulary).

#mdzs #human reads mdzs #been thinking about this for a minute #but forgot to post while i was reading the extras #random reading thoughts

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ponderlyunbiasednews · 3 months

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Is it okay to lie to kids?

Fact Box

Merriam-Webster defines a lie as “to make an untrue statement with intent to deceive,” and “to create a false or misleading impression.”

According to Cambridge Dictionary, a ‘white lie’ is “a lie that is told in order to be polite or to stop someone from being upset by the truth.”

The 2018 Exeter Santa Survey found that 72% of parents are “quite happy telling their children about Santa and playing along with the myth.”

According to a 2022 survey, American adults tell an average of four lies per day.

Maha (No)

Despite telling their children that lying is unacceptable, parents themselves have been known to tell lies. And that’s not okay--even if it’s just a ‘harmless’ white lie.

According to the principles of the Respectful Parenting movement, there’s no need to lie to children. Children need to know the truth about the world around them as long as it doesn’t traumatize them. Therefore, made-up stories involving Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy shouldn’t be part of their upbringing. As harmless as these lies may seem, four out of five experts believe children may be devastated upon learning about their parents’ deceit.

In fact, any act to withhold the truth--even if it’s to protect children themselves--decreases the level of trust in the home. It makes children feel disconnected from their parents, preventing them from functioning as a team. Further, the damage seeps into their future friendships and relationships, inflicting lifelong harm.

Parenting by lying also sends the message that lying is an acceptable habit, making children embrace it rather than honesty. And this has been proven by a 2017 study. According to researchers, young adults exposed to parents who lied admitted to frequently lying to their parents themselves. The same study also revealed higher levels of psychological maladjustment when children of lying parents reach adulthood. Researchers detected depression, emotional difficulties, aggression, and antisocial personality problems in study subjects. These issues were most substantial when parents were the targets of dishonesty.

So, with so much at risk in the present and future, parents must always be honest with their children.

Andrew (Yes)

While lying is generally viewed as bad in our society, there are times when obscuring the truth is necessary, and many of these involve children. Our adult brains are more fully developed than our children's, and we can process complex and nuanced information that could prove too difficult for them. When topics such as death, war, or violence come up, we rightly withhold information that is not age appropriate. For instance, we may explain that war is a disagreement--without mentioning genocide. By stating these lies, we help protect our children from pain and potential damage to their development that could come from exposing them to extreme violence or sexually inappropriate material. Simply put, children are not fully developed cognitively, and it is suitable for us to lie to them at times in order to protect them.

Further, sometimes lying to children is the sensible thing to do. Maybe the grocery store aisle isn't the best place for a full and frank discussion of whatever random question a young child has asked--as children are known to blurt out whatever questions come to mind. If a child spots someone passed out by the convenience store, fully explaining the ins and outs of addiction probably isn't appropriate. Simply lying and saying they're sleeping may be a more reasonable response. In these cases, little white lies allow us to keep moving through our days.

Finally, sometimes lying to children is just plain fun and allows us (and our children) to enjoy the innocence of childhood, such as when we tell them about Santa, the Easter Bunny, or the Tooth Fairy. Surely no one would call these lies harmful or damaging.

Find insightful parenting articles for guidance and advice. Explore expert tips and resources to support your parenting journey.

#parenting articles #short articles #opinion articles #most unbiased news source

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abracafockyou · 3 years

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I haven’t spoken about Eden’s parents here at all. But here’s a little info about Eden’s father:

His name is Nikolai, he’s an old warrior and extremely boisterous. He’s covered in scars and blind in one eye that’s now entirely white.

Growing up, he told Edenoff that all those men that he kept catching his father with in private were his uncles, the same went for the men and women he saw his mother with. They were also his aunts and uncles.

Eden was 12 years old when he learned the truth from his friend Sven. None of those relatives were related to them.

#Character . Eden Shakovda #headcanon . Eden #eden still calls them his aunts and uncles tho #despite knowing the truth and feeling traumatized for a little while there as a kid #way to go sven way to be a friend #I guess I should tag this as #suggestive cw #???

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kitsunefyuu · 2 years

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I'm tired so I'm sleep deprived enough to tell you all some headcanons I have of AFO family man.

All for One seriously has no idea how the fuck this happened as it was sure it was supposed to be for an evil plan. But now he's super invested in Inko and if anything happens to her he's going to nuke the city. He has likely said this in an "I love you so much if anything happened to you I would nuke the city." She thought it was sweet and adorable how much he cares. To which he felt like dying because this cute woman keeps thinking he's cute, but he isn't. He's terrible- then casually melts.

He would spoil her with anything she could want. But he could not buy her love and she set some strict boundaries. Got to make sure he can't use that against her after all, and they are supposed to be equal.

Despite what people think, Inko is the more dominant of the two in their relationship. She kinda needed to, when she learned he gets VERY touchy and clingy. So she learned to put her foot down when needed, but always makes sure to reward him when he behaves!

They planned really hard for their first kid like what area to live in, the school and the clothing. As they wanted him to have the best life, but they didn't expect how much they would fall in love with Izuku. Parenthood also gave AFO even more purpose to succeed in what he does to provide.

Despite not liking All Might, he appreciates him as a role model for his kids over endeavors. He had seen how badly that guy fucked up Touya and made him reevaluate how to be a dad. Tho, of course, the whole little brother-making generation of heroes to fight him also had inspiration. He's really hoping his kid wanting to be a hero won't bite him in the ass.

Regardless of if Izuku had a quirk or not- AFO had asked the doctor to say he was quirkless in the rudest way possible. With the hope it would mute his son desire to be a hero- He ended up feeling guilty when he saw his kid trying to blow FIRE from his mouth like him. And because he hates that feeling, he said that he didn't need a quirk and that he was special as he believed in him. Then suddenly the kid clung to the heroism dream harder despite being jaded- (AFO: My pep talk worked too well.)

According to the timeline, the incident happened when Izuku was nine. So while he was working 'overseas' he used to visit a lot and spend a lot of time with Izuku. He's the one that introduced him to UA festival watching and taught him how to organize quirks. After Izuku turned nine, though, Hisashi had to constantly make excuses until Izuku no longer wanted to talk to him anymore. Since it just makes him sad that his father seems to never come home. And can't admit it because he's a supervillain whose face got smashed in.

All for One is heartbroken that his son doesn't want to talk to him but keeps trying. Only having to stop when he was in UA boarding school and you know- Tartarus.

Inko and AFO, though, are only strained from the 'long distance' but they are still quite fawn of each other. Inko has suspected that her husband is All for One, but unless he tells her the truth, she won't press on about it. As long as it doesn't affect her family or he keeps their son safe when she will turn a blind eye. When she learns he is traumatizing their son to make him cooperate, she will want to murder him.

All for One is a million shades of annoyed when realizes the 'successor' to OFA is his son. Though he would be quite proud since his son is an amazing hero. It just, unfortunately, puts him in direct conflict with himself. An unpleasant fact that is aware means history will repeat and why he tries hard to hide his identity. As long as he can, then he has a chance that maybe after everything can wiggle back into father-hood. Because he misses being able to hug him.

But if fails that he is willing to do a reluctant Vault 2.0 because he does not want to kill or hurt his son in anyway. So if he can't steal OFA, then at least he can contain him… But he just wants his son to understand his views and work with him, not against him.

Tomura is not a son in his eyes, but more of a student. Sure, he took him in, but that's what Kurogiri is for. No, it's not favoritism if he isn't interested in forcing Izuku to be next to him. What are you talking about? So what if he focused his attention on Izuku? He doesn't get the issue, that's his blood son.

#All for One #bnha dad for one #dad for one mha #dad for one #(sleepy now I pass out.)#[ Tomura is his son. But also not and thus Izuku the favorite. Poor Tomura. ]#yoly’s talks

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the-ghost-king · 3 years

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About the cupid scene, Nico was forced to come out, but its also made very clear that Cupid is the bad guy. So is Aphrodite to an extent. They have a twisted and fundamental misunderstanding of love and how it works for mortals. I get that people could be mad about how Nico was forced to come out and putting him through more emotional trauma, but I also think its very realistic in showing how callous and cruel the gods understanding of love is.

I am reminded of the quote by Madeline Miller, "There is no law that gods must be fair..."

I also understand why the scene might be traumatic for other young LGBTQ+ readers, I've seen a lot of people talk about the fear of being outed in regards to them reading that scene as a kid. I completely respect their feelings on that, and I understand that as well. However, as someone who had been forcibly outed once before reading that scene, that scene really helped heal me. I don't think the Cupid scene is inherently homophobic, and I'm often bothered by the lack of nuance regarding around how it's handled.

I recognize it's a very emotional scene, and that people may have a hard time fully separating their emotions from that scene, but at the same time if there's a group of people saying "hey I understand why you disliked this scene but it was really helpful to me as a child because of the different experiences I had" maybe slow the breaks and hear what others also in the community have to say before determining if the scene is homophobic. You don't have to like the scene, and yeah maybe the scene did hurt you but that doesn't make it homophobic.

I want to specify on my word choice there a little closer, because of course outing someone is an act of homophobia, and the scene is homophobic in that sense. However often times the conversation about homophobia in this scene goes to "Rick was homophobic for writing this" where personally I would say this scene toes the line at being too far without ever crossing it. Some people may think this depiction crosses the line into "Rick was homophobic for writing this" which is fine, but just because something depicted homophobia and hurt you doesn't mean it was homophobic. Something doesn't have to out rightly be stated to be bad, in order to be read as bad*, and the Cupid scene does a wonderful job of depicting this.

I talk here about how Nico is shown what love is, and how love is treated by Nico, and how it affects his character. I think it's important to note that Nico's entire storyline can essentially be encompassed in an Orpheus-like or Odyssey-like tale. Nico's undergone this huge emotional and physical labor all in the name of having some form of unconditional love. I think that post is a really important read in the context of this one because I very carefully outline how love shapes Nico and how Nico shape and chooses his own definition of love, but I want to specifically dig into the Cupid scene on this post.

The big criticism often seen is "it's homophobic" which I covered above, and I want to clarify I'm not upset with or mad at or trying to tell anyone they can't dislike it or even say you can't say it's homophobic (my words on my one post are a bit off I'll admit) but the problem I have is when people believe they hold a moral high ground for thinking it's homophobic, or they remove all nuance from the discussion with "it's homophobic". Which is frustrating and annoying because it's a very complex scene, and it really changes Nico's arc and personality and it does help characterize him.

The big reason it shapes him so much is because of the other largest reason the scene is criticized, Cupid's behavior. What often fails to be recognized in those scenes is that Cupid is intentionally painted as the villain, this is very important to the scene.

In the context of this scene Nico makes an unspoken choice, a choice of "what is love to me?". I talk about how Nico claims his narrative in BoTL when he overcomes Minos, and he partially peaks that arc by convincing Gods to join the final battle of TLO. Following that arc however, Nico falls into his second arc, his crush on Percy was important in PJO, but not as important as it is in HoO.

By HoO Nico's entire character revolves around Percy, how to help Percy, how to aid Percy, etc. All of this has to do with Nico's crush on Percy, but also as an act of repayment because Nico hurt Percy- Nico lied to him about knowing him at New Rome in SoN, and he goes to Tartarus shortly after... This mirrors what Percy did after Hades tricked Nico... Percy choked Nico because he was upset with him, so Nico tried to win back Percy's affection by bathing him in the river.

The Cupid Scene is the resolution of Nico's arc, he is essentially given a choice- Cupid or Jason?

For this reason, we do see Nico recognize love for what it has been vs how it could be.

Cupid is there to represent what love is, to Nico love is brutal, and painful, and a lot of hard work... Nico has made himself utilitarian in love simply because it is the only way he can find any affection. Love to Nico is about flaying yourself for the benefit of others, to trample any and all parts of yourself simply to appease those you care for, because you want them to love you so much as you love them. The parallels I could draw between Nico and Orpheus, or Nico and Odysseus... I'd be here a long while...

In that scene Jason represents the alternative form of love which Nico chooses after his interaction with Cupid.

Jason says during the scene that he "preferred Piper's idea of love" which has to do with kindness and caring, etc, and then Jason becomes the embodiment of that idea during the scene- which showcases the alternative of what love can be, thus making Jason a personification of love in the context of that scene.

Jason looks to Nico, he doesn't ask for more, he simply looks to Nico with understanding and acknowledges him for who he is, and he does the exact opposite of what Nico expects:

Jason loves Nico where he is, without conditions, without forcing Nico to become something more. Jason didn’t force Nico to say more than what was necessary for him to understand, Jason looked at Nico and he called Nico brave.

Cupid is a more volatile form of love than Aphrodite, Cupid shoots arrows that makes people animals, that can make a god grow insane, but Aphrodite's form of love is about acceptance and humanity (think to how she picked Ares over Hephaestus even if it was perhaps "wrong")- both are about truth but one is about force and the other about acceptance.

When Nico walks out of there, he makes his choice- he is forced to come out yes, Cupid is wrong for doing this, but Jason again stays a figure of love in Nico's life. Jason basically says, "Good job, I know that was hard, thank you for sharing and let me know if you need anything, people will care about you and understand you," again and again and again to Nico, he doesn't tell Nico he has to come out, and he agrees to keep it between them for now. Jason is love as acceptance, Jason is the first person who unconditionally loves Nico, and that's the choice.

Will Nico accept unconditional love? If the answer is no, then Cupid wins and Nico is denying himself. If the answer is yes, then Jason and Nico win, and Nico no longer needs to make himself utilitarian in love in order to be loved.

The choice is made with Reyna and Hedge, most specifically Reyna.

When he accidentally comes out to them, and they accept him without making a big deal of it, without show, just that acknowledgement and "thank you for sharing" and Nico accepts their words and friendship still- Nico made his choice then to accept the love he was being freely given.

“He carried so much sadness and loneliness, so much heartache. Yet he put his mission first. He persevered. Reyna respected that. She understood that. She'd never been a touchy-feely person, but she had the strangest desire to drape her cloak over Nico's shoulders and tuck him in. She mentally chided herself. He was a comrade, not her little brother. He wouldn't appreciate the gesture.”

This is where we see the slow and steady, and healthy, end to Nico's arc in regards to love really grow into itself, and he begins to heal. He no longer sees such an intense need to make himself utilitarian for love, and he begins to heal from his internalized homophobia too.

(Internalized homophobia discussions with Nico also bother me too often times, people too often assume you can't date while struggling with internalized homophobia or at least very heavy handedly imply that which is just not true... You may have some issues in your relationship, but you can work through the internalized homophobia while building a new relationship and be just fine. Also to assume someone has an unhealthy relationship because of internalized homophobia is weird and lowkey reinforces the idea that "broken" people don't need love, but also does a huge disservice to so many LGBTQ+ people who are happily married/themselves but still struggle with these feelings, and to see a healthy relationship depiction despite someone in that relationship struggling with internalized homophobia is fine and good actually. As long as the individual can recognize what they're dealing with, and work through it in a healthy and constructive manner, then there's nothing wrong there...)

When I started this post to be honest I thought I would have a lot more to say, it's a scene that touched and changed me so deeply as a person, and beyond that in a more objective experience it completely changes Nico's character, by turning his arc around and beginning his healing process. To be honest, there probably is more to be said on it, I just haven't found the words yet... I know parts of this post are clunky and in a year I'm going to read this and see all the places it could be better but for now I'm content with it.

Whether or not someone considers the scene homophobic is a subjective experience, but I think this is a very well written scene purely for the characterization and symbolism, intentional or otherwise. I don't really care that much to debate if it's truly a homophobic scene or not, I can see both why people say it is and why people say it isn't and that can be culminated into "people have different needs" and "minorities aren't a monolith". Personally my much larger complaint is the complete lack of nuance and insight scenes like this are handled with, not the matter of personal opinion an individual reaches on the scene.

*the post uses the word "adult audience" and yes, fair point, children should not be able to decipher symbolism to the extent adults can. But older children and young teens, which the RRverse series are sold for, is when critical thinking skills and media analysis do begin to become parts of classroom curriculum. The scene does an excellent job of not outright stating Cupid is evil, but of depicting that in a very clear cut way.

#nevermind i lied here you go #nico di angelo #meta #long post #anon #ask #internalized homophobia #fandom homophobia

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testingcheats0n · 3 years

Text

Massive Dream SMP Fic Rec!!

Hey- Hi, I just feel like there are a ton of fanfiction that's really underrated in this fandom- so I'm going to dump it on your dash!!! Most of it is going to be Tommy-centric or SBI-centric, but they are very good!

Source: Me

Finished Fanfics:

Multi-chaptered Fanfics:

that's, like, a hundred miles by No_one_you_know

Dream would kill him. Dream was going to kill him- he was going to- no, he wouldn’t. Dream was his friend- friends don’t hit each other- Dream was supposed to take care of him- Dream /was/ taking care of him.

It hurt to breathe. It hurt to think. He couldn’t clear his thoughts as he stumbled to the family computer, pulling up a tab on google and frantically typing the name into the search bar.

The words Technoblade Watson stared back at him, the little black bar at the end of the letters blinking slowly, mocking him.

Why, of all people, did it have to be Technoblade?

in short: the one where dream sucks as a parental figure, tommy runs away, and visits his least favorite family member technoblade

Hard-hitting, but has a happy ending, though I recommend reading the prequel (in the same series) first, otherwise, it's lowkey depressing.

MORE RECOMMENDATIONS BELOW THE CUT!!

you’ll rise above (crowned by an overture bold and beyond) by azvremoon

Tommy is not sixteen. He has faced too many open wounds, dripping ichor onto blood-stained warzones, to be just a child. He is Blood and War and needless Death, an all-in-one special of everything that can ruin reality.

(Tommy is the blood god. No one should know, but this server can't stop pushing him over the edge.)

+2 more Works that were Inspired by this one

Tommy is a BAMF and Dream, Technblade, and Phil get fucked it is what it is.

Responsible Forever by SilverWing15

“You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed.” /////

“So,” Techoblade says, slow and deliberate, his face shows clearly just how unbelievable he finds all of this, “you saw a boy last night, in the middle of the night, living with raccoons and eating our garbage?”

“I know how insane it sounds,” Phil says, “but I know what I saw. We need to help him, who knows how long he’s been out here?”

“Okay,” Wilbur interrupts, “let’s say that raccoon-boy is real. What is it you want us to do? We can’t go searching the woods for specific bunch of raccoons, I don’t know if you’ve noticed Phil but there are a lot of them out there.”

“Going out and hunting him isn’t going to get us anywhere,” Techno says, “we have to let the raccoon-boy come to us. He’s already come once, you know how tenacious raccoons are. If they came to the garbage pit once, they’ll come again. We just have to set a trap.”

“Those raccoons aren’t gonna know what fucking hit them,” Wilbur mutters.

Or: RaccoonInnit taken well beyond its logical conclusion

Tommyinnit is a Raccoon boi that lives with other Raccoons

Protecting the Traumatised Youth by spookyserpent

Sam blinks. “What?”

Even behind the mask, Sam has the distinct impression that Dream is grinning at him. “A week and he was begging for my attention, even after I stole and burnt his armour, even after the beatings. He couldn’t stand me leaving him because I was the only one to show up, to pay him attention. It was hilarious.”

Sam is going to be sick.

Or, Sam decides to ask Dream about his intentions and ends up becoming a big brother to Tommy and Tubbo. All the while, Dream and George fight, Niki and Jack plan child murder and Ranboo is slowly getting adopted into the SBI.

Awesamdad written back when it was possible... ahhh

Chaos In a Bottle by Lovetribable

After a realization, Tommy leaves the pillar, but instead of going to Techno. He just disappears, leaving everyone to think he's gone.

It takes a war to bring him back.

+2 Sequels and an Alternative Ending

Dadinnit!! + A Sympathetic Dream

Absolutely Anything For Them by Numanum

“There’s a lot you don’t understand, Tubbo,” Dream sighs, meeting his eyes cooly. Tubbo, back against a tree, shudders at his tone, at the look on his face.

The sword at his neck skims across his skin as Dream shifts his grip on it, and he flinches back into the rough bark behind him. Dream smiles at his reaction, seeming pleased- like the cat that’s been toying with a mouse that always tries to run no matter how many times it’s caught. And, despite this being his first encounter alone with the man, he thinks that the comparison is fairly accurate; Tubbo has never felt smaller than he does now. There’s supposed to be a buddy system to prevent things like this- he shouldn’t be alone here, stuck in this situation.

Or: Tubbo becomes a traitor to save everyone and has to struggle with his choices

Traitor Tubbo, but it has the happiest ending possible since it follows the rest of the story.

Where Did You Come From, Kit? by KadeAK (zacixn)

Hybrids are an ancient species of humans crossed with animals, blessed with the favour of nature. They used to live in peace on the SMP’s land, but ever since the dawn of humanity’s modern culture, they have become ostracised and hunted by their once-brethren. Now, the once-thriving subspecies of hybrids have been reduced to ashes, the majority of their peoples struggling to survive in a city capital that can't stand their presence.

To the members of L’Manburg, General Wilbur Soot is just another mildly prejudiced human being, stuck with a hybrid fox kit for an adopted child. However, that assumption could not be farther from the truth. As it turns out, there's a reason why he is the man he is today.

This fic is entirely pre-L’Manburg.

Part of a series, very good.

Take It Easy by sweet_magnolias

Five times Techno scared Michael, one time Michael scared him, and the resolution of those fears.

AKA - Techno learns how to be an uncle.

Technoblade's POV, so expect some Tubbo bashing on the margins of all that Michael fluff.

I suppose it’s never my time to die, is it? by Birb_Whale

The first time it happens, he barely remembers. The second time is when he realized. The third... Twice is a coincidence, three times is a pattern

“It’s not your time to die yet, Tommy”

Messed up, but not unrealistic. Purely for the Hurt/Comfort lovers.

This Wasn't Planned, But It'll Work Out by Anonymous

Dream isn't sure what to think when he finds a kid on his doorstep, but he can't just leave him there, now can he?

(He doesn't know what he's getting into, or what he's gotten the kid into, either)

Long, and angsty, with a bittersweet ending Imo.

let's play a game by Aria_Cinabun

Tommy was once a slave. That's gone now - shoved in his past with the memories of blood and gore and death. He wants to forget who he was; what he has to do to survive. Of course, the Elementalists will always come back to haunt him. They aren't the ones who killed his mother, but they're close enough. And now he and his brother have been dragged into the mess, as Elementalists with their own, separate covens, to find the Pit - the place where he'd lived and killed and hurt for the first twelve years of his life. His coven can't know. Can't know who he really is, what he can really do. Can't know anything about his past. He doesn't want a coven full of Elementalists who don't trust him; one of whom he's pretty sure despises him. He doesn't want that life. He wants the life of a pickpocket, on the streets, because nobody questions street kids, and nobody comes asking about his past and pushes him to tell his secrets that he holds closest inside. Tubbo tries to tell him to trust people. But trust is how you die.

Good fantasy AU, has SBI, and is thus fluffy.

Turn of the Tide by SilverWing15

Tommy’s fins twitch at the mention of Dream’s ancestors. Dream talks about them a lot, how they made their fortune hunting down mer pods, how they were cruel and greedy. Nothing like Dream is. They’ve both overcome their roots he says.

Tommy is nothing like the wild mer out in the ocean, who spend their lives scraping by just to survive, who kicked him out of the pod when he was a baby because he was too small. He’s also better than the pit mer, who can’t overcome their wild instincts and know nothing but fighting.

He’s different from them, he’s better than them. He’s Dream’s. //// OR: Change is like the tide, when it comes, you can only sink or swim. You would think that a mer would be better at keeping afloat.

Mermaid AU Pooog. Part of a series.

One-Shots:

Snapped by AmberRunnel

“You don’t know what I went through in that prison cell.”

Jack burst out laughing, blinded with rage and the overwhelming urge to hurt Tommy, to give him everything he deserved. “Oh, is the poor child traumatized? You want pity now?” He twisted his blade, and Tommy’s axe was sent clattering to the ground.

“If the prison was so awful, why don’t I send you back there?”

-|-

Jack doesn't handle Tommy's revival well. There's a simple solution, though. Kill Tommy, and Dream revives him right back into that cell. Problem solved, kid dealt with.

It takes a few confrontations for Jack to realize he's an asshole.

It's fucked up, but god does it hurt in a good way.

the sky is coming down blue by salinesolution

An imagining of New Milo's perspective throughout the Skyblock Randomizer adventure. What did he think of the world he found himself in, and how did Wilbur's feelings and actions change things for him? Here's my way of answering those questions.

He made the fish think, funniest shit I've seen.

You told me to be a hero (so let me die like one) by spiromachia

"You told me to die like a hero," the blond interrupted, spinning on his heel to face the others, holding his arms wide open, "So why not fulfil the ending that was always meant to be."

Across the battle field, through the chaos and destruction, a tree burned.

Even the sound of explosions and cries and bloodshed felt distant enough for the world to become silent for a few moments, each individual slowly coming to the same conclusion, each of their bodies tensing.

Tommy's face broke out into a grin as he lowered his head, glowering at the people around him, and Philza's face flashed with recognition.

"Kill me."

Or... In the middle of Doomsday, Tommy decides to ask Technoblade to be the Lycomedes to his Theseus.

Heavy and dark, but at least Dream gets it.

tomorrow night by meridies

Tommy is desperately searching for his missing brother. Techno is the reluctant psychic who unfortunately got dragged along.

or, two people, more alike than different, learn what it is to have a family at their side.

It's cute what can I say :]

maple syrup by itisjosh

"We could run," Tubbo stares at the sun. "We've got everything we've ever wanted right here. We could run."

"Yeah," Tommy agrees, feeling his head swim. "We could."

(or, tommy and tubbo run away together)

Children get away from toxic adults :)

Why’d it have to be so sunny? (The sun shouldn’t shine without you.) by AToZRainToBe

‘A realisation hits Phil in the face like a truck. “Wi- Ghostbur,” Phil says, turning to his grey-scale, translucent, actually-dead son. “You definitely told Tubbo that Tommy’s alive, right?”’

To get away from Dream, Tommy agrees to fake his death, going with the cover story that he jumped from the pillar in Logstedshire. Unfortunately, someone forgot to tell Tubbo.

Misunderstandings are one of my favorite tropes.

sugar and ice by princedemeter for Aenqa

“He is my son,” Philza says. “Mortal or not, I would see him grow strong.”

Technoblade looks down on earth, at the tiny, angry bundle of cloth and pinking, wrinkled skin. This mortal child, he thinks, lungs filled with breath from the king of gods himself, will not grow strong.

It's mostly centered around Technoblade and Wilbur with Phil being a shitty dad. Pog Gods AU.

a matter of time by meridies

Tommy is twelve years old when his wings first appear, and he is twelve years old when Phil tells him, "All it takes is time and patience, Tommy, and soon you'll be flying even better than me."

or, Tommy grows up feeling like a failure, and it takes him a while to figure out where he's happiest.

Tommy is just finding his place in the world. Powers AU.

That Time a Baby Decided to Raise a Baby by Scitrust

Tubbo wasn't good at making excuses, so when Schlatt asked him why he was leaving in the night, he made something up on the spot. That had been months ago.

At least he sort of had an alibi for that, now.

Or, in which Tubbo finds a baby in the woods on his way to see Tommy, and promptly adopts it.

Part of a collection!! Read it all.

spider lily by blue000jay

Wilbur has a body.

The freckle on the base of his left pinky finger (shared with Techno). The scar on his chin from when he was twelve and over ambitious, diving into too-shallow water. The scar on his throat from the final control room, and the puckered skin on his shoulder from the poisoned arrow that killed him next. Various other nicks and things that litter his skin from years of rebellion and living wild, a kid thrown into a vicious world with too little self-preservation.

(Resurrection AU, for when/if Wilbur comes back.)

The author knows how it's like to live with chronic pain, and it shows :(

Hands tied loose by rabiddog

"Let's run away, Tubbo." Tommy breathed; a wide grin split across his face as his hope grew. "Let's get out of here – far away. We can go anywhere, can't we? Let's just go, you and me right here, right now."

Tommy needs to leave. He has to get out of L'Manburg, he has to leave the Dream SMP for his own sanity, and he wants Tubbo to come with him.

But Tubbo has a family now, a better life - something that he can't give up... not even for his best friend.

Unhappy ending :(

The serpent underneath by rabiddog

Tommy and Techno sit at the memory-filled bench and talk. Technoblade reminisces, he talks, he admits his pent-up feelings, he cries. And Tommy? Tommy listens. (That's all he can do.)

“I’m sorry for everything, you know? For all of it. I’m so sorry about... about the first war, about the withers and the fighting, about...” Technoblade's fingers began to curl around Tommy’s blonde locks. “About Wilbur and everything after. I'm so, so sorry.”

:((((((((

Damning choices by rabiddog

Ranboo would have never expected to find himself in a horrifying situation such as that one - quite literally sandwiched between a rock and a hard place, with three lives dangling over his head and the answer on the tip of his tongue.

Tubbo, Michael, Tommy.

It's his choice. He chooses who lives, and who dies. His new family, or his first friend. But Ranboo... Ranboo already knows.

"Ranboo," He hissed out, voice cracking and somewhat staticky, "It's not your fault. It's not. You had no other choice; I know that, okay? I- I know that- I know- I know..."

:(((((((((((((((((((((((((((

Jealousy is a disease by rabiddog

Tommyinnit isn't new to the idea of jealousy. He understands it completely. He understands the way it runs rampage through his body each time he catches even a glimpse of Tubbo and Ranboo's new relationship, he understands that the emotion makes his heart clench uncomfortably from time to time. He sees it, feels it, and yet he doesn't care.

He doesn't care at all.

"You took Tubbo away from me. You took him away. You took my best friend, and now he's- now he's not my best friend anymore, and I-!"

Word of Honour by rabiddog

Tommy could only stand and stare as Technoblade agreed to hand him over to Dream - as his brother traded him off like he was nothing. Like Tommy wasn't important.

Technoblade was a man of honour. He was a man of pride and sticking to his word. He knew that he owed Dream a favour, and no matter what that favour might be, he'd be compliant with it. Nothing would change his mind. (Not even Tommy.)

Almost canon. F.

Sweet Repentance by rabiddog

Perhaps Tommy should have told Phil about his arguably life-threatening injury the minute his father had opened the door. But of course, Tommy being Tommy, did not.

Dying seemed like a nice enough option as long as he was with his family.

Tommy just wanted acceptance, forgiveness, and peace. He wanted to close his eyes for the last time and finally be able to let go.

Tommy dies painfully.

A White Tulip by astervoid

He picked the white tulip from the bottom of the stem, standing up carefully as he held it pinched between his fingers. It would die now, inevitably, but Tommy relented and held the flower to his chest. What a silly, stupid thing to ground him. He almost hated that it made his breaths come easier and his steps feel lighter. Almost.

Tommy & Ranbooo chill on the bench.

lying to the authorities (again) by touchgrass

"Please tell me that my right-hand-man, my soon-to-be vice president, one of the people I trust the most on this godforsaken server, did not lie straight to my face and tell me he was twenty-fucking-years-old.”

Tommy opened his mouth to protest, but then closes it shut at the furious look on Wilbur's face. Oops.

It is the day of the elections and Wilbur Soot could not have chosen a worser time to realize that half his staff is underage.

The ONLY fic with this premise I've seen on Ao3.

Dear Theseus by rabiddog

Tommy had thought that they'd won - thought that they'd finally beaten Dream, and that everything would be okay. As it turns out, however, apparently Dream had called in that favour from Technoblade after all.

“Please,” Tommy whispered after a beat, quivering hands edged upwards to hesitantly press against the tip of the sword striking through his chest. Why, why, why? Why him? Why now?

Tommy almost wins.

A Shifting World by AplusIsRoman

How was Wilbur supposed to know it would end like this?

The smoke hung in the air and soot clung to his skin. His brother - adopted, but older by two minutes - stood back-to-back with him. The chilling cries of people and the calls of the withers rang through the air above the chasm that was once his home.

This wasn’t supposed to happen.

How could he have known this would happen?

Sequel to A Child's World

Age-swap AU. Has a prequel.

heart of the sea by RyDyKG

Here is the secret that he barely thinks about, a secret that he shoves deep and far down in himself:

Wilbur Soot is a siren, and he’s not exactly proud of that fact.

Wilbur-centric. Urban Fantasy AU.

He knows, ok? by Ralli

By some means, Techno has given his raccoon younger brother some cotton candy. It doesn’t end as well as either of them would like.

Very, very cute :)

that's it, it's split (it won't recover) by Jk_Kat

Tommy has always been the fighter.

He has never been the fought for, and he knows it, with every whisper Tubbo directs at Ranboo, with every glance thrown his way- Tommy knows, the way he wishes he didn't, that they think he's dead.

If they're so convinced he's still dead, maybe the one good thing left he can do for them is die.

---

Or, Tommy gets addicted to being dead and thinks that nobody cares about him. The people who very much do try to pull him back from the brink before Dream can't resurrect him anymore.

Messed up, but with a happy ending.

Hugs 'n PTSD by rabiddog

Ranboo knew from the start that the recovery process would be hard - that moving on from quite literally being beat to death would be something hugely difficult to step away from, and that's if Tommy could even manage it at all.

He knew that it would be stressful and arduous, demanding and tough... he just hadn't expected to be holding Tommy through a PTSD-induced panic attack only days after his release from Pandora's Vault.

Ranboo isn't typically an overbearingly protective person. But for Tommy? He just might be.

I love this author if you can't tell.

Big Men don't cry by Shiny22Snivy

The room is small and warm, almost stifling compared to the cool openness of the ravine. It’s cosy and candlelit, and a chest sits open in the corner, full of what looks to be burnt rags of a former smart suit. And sitting in rumpled blankets on a bed, cradling a mug of something steaming, sits Tubbo.

At first, Tommy forgets all about Niki’s vague warning. He’s just so happy to see his best friend again, alive and well and all in one piece. Tubbo’s okay. Tubbo’s okay, and in front of him, and suddenly everything bad in the world is gone, if only for just a moment.

“Tommy?”

And then Tubbo turns to look at him.

Clingyduo fluff.

sins of the father (i broke all my bones that day i found you) by ryter

The thing that hurt Wilbur most was when he saw Fundy tear down the walls of L'Manburg. After all, those walls had gone up to protect his son. But in this world, Fundy trusts his father just a little bit more, and it ruins him.

Or: there's only one way Wilbur never becomes the villain. It's unclear whether this was the better path.

SOME VIOLENCE WARNINGS/BLOOD MENTION. CHARACTER DEATH. SO MUCH ANGST.

Sad, but cathartic.

REVIVED TOMMY HEADCANNONS AHAHAHAHA by racooninnit

i’m dropping ALL the fucking revived tommy headcannons on you guys today get ready for some ANGST

this is different from what i usually post but it was fun

i don’t think there’s a lot i need to put warnings for, obviously there are mentions of the way tommy died and the aftermath of that (i.e. injuries and trauma), but if there’s anything that needs a warning please tell me!

What it says on the tin- not really a fic.

Unfinished Stories:

Ongoing (Less than a month since the last update):

Over the River Styx by CorpseArt

I feel like we should name him.

There’s a scuffle at the back of his mind as he rolls up, curling tight with a shiver despite the heat of the flames licking up his back.

I mean, he’s like – us, but like a worse version clearly because oh man, this is just weirdness. There’s a flare of a tangle of emotions, complicated and fearful, resentful and livid with anger. I can’t believe this is what I’ve been reduced to, stuck in the mind of this- this child.

He’s like your age, Tommy. Are you calling yourself a child?

I mean, I am one so fucking duh. Child murderer.

Or: trauma bonding in the most unconventional of senses.

Just- Read it. Show the writer your support, it's unique, it's amazing and there needs to be more of it.

If history is dead and gone by iregretallmydecisions

“Don’t come any fucking closer,” Tommy shouted, startling Phil into stepping back. Tommy was still looking around wildly, like a trapped animal “Don’t fucking do it.” ---- In which Tommy finds himself faced with his splintered family, while it was still mostly whole. The past is not an easy place to be when the future was not kind. His family is forced to deal with the fall out.

It's better than Rewind, but you didn't hear that from me.

Wilbur Soot's Redemption (OR Ghostbur's Retry) by luckykitty0523

Wilbur had many regrets in his life, being lost in his madness and the urge for revenge drowned leaving a shell of who he once was. It was only in his dying moments that he regained himself but it was already too late for him leaving him drowning in wishes and regrets. However waking up in another different universe where wilbur was never born and family soulmates exist, so when wilbur said he wanted to fix the mistakes he never expected this turn of events.

In one world wilbur dies and he would return as a ghost missing his memory and trying to fix what he did in life but in this one wilbur dies and wakes up in another world where soulmates exist and the wilbur of that world was never born so wilbur/ghostbur takes his place and tries to make up his mistakes to the other version of his friends.

Wilbur adopts SBI + Fundy + Dream.

A Talk Long Overdue by penink

Tommy has his first therapy session with Puffy.

Tommy gets therapy.

Into the Night by Interjection

“Don’t touch me,” Tommy hisses, leaning against the railing. “I will - I will-”

They’re a hundred stories up. Wind lashes against Phil’s face. Next to him, Sam makes choked noise.

“But why?”

Tommy looks up to meet Phil’s eyes, terror struck so deep in those pale blue irises Phil thinks they must hold all the world’s fears within them.

“You’ll die,” he whispers. “And then I’ll die. But I’ll come back.”

“And I don’t want to come back.”

Others have the freedom to live. Tommy doesn’t even have the freedom to die.

But maybe they can teach him that living doesn’t have to be so bad.

---

(Superpowers AU where whenever someone touches Tommy, they both die. But Tommy will always come back to life eventually. He just wants it to end - but instead, he’s on the run, terrified of how his power will be exploited if he’s caught.

A few people reluctantly team up to save him.)

Funky SBI dynamics + a Sam that cares. Also a lot of angst.

#dream smp #dream smp fic rec #fic rec #sbi #wilbur soot #tommyinnit

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indecisive-behaviors · 3 years

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Originally I was just going to add this as a reblog to my previous post about the parking lot scene in KK2 but it’s almost 2k words so now it’s getting it’s own post. Be forewarned- this is fucking long.

TW for discussion of PTSD, child abuse, neglect, injury, and death, in relation to topics surrounding the show, under the cut-

Obviously, Cobra Kai is a show based around the premise of “what happened to that Lawrence kid after he got kicked in the face?”, which is honestly a pretty cool idea for a show. Johnny’s story is never explained past sitting on the sidewalk with his head in his hands at the tournament, and there are no real context clue’s to figure out what may or may not have happened.

In the show we get to learn early on that Johnny’s life spiraled after the tournament, going from bad to worse to “holy shit how are you still alive”-dropping out/never going to college, working jobs he seems to hate, becoming an alcoholic, presumably many dead end relationships, and not being there for his kid. And yeah, obviously, this would be a hard pill to swallow for anyone watching the show if Johnny had just lost the tournament. If we never got the scene in KK2, he would have just been some kid who lost a tournament- we see at the end of the first movie that(through tears holy shit Billy) that Johnny is the one who gives the trophy to Daniel with his famous line, “You’re alright, LaRusso.” There’s a level of grudging respect in that moment that isn’t lost on anyone who sees that movie- that Johnny, who throughout the movie only sees Daniel as some whimpy kid, gets proven wrong and respects that. If we didn’t have that scene, there’s reason to believe Johnny would have apologized, tried to make amends, Something, even if it was just being less of a dick at school.

But then, we get the parking lot. We get a far off shot, intended to distance you from the scene, framed over Daniel’s shoulder. This makes sense, Daniel is the main character, the protagonist, the underdog hero- why wouldn’t it be framed in his perspective? But the scene is about Johnny. We get the shouting match, the back and forth- “No, you’re the loser man.”- and again it’s fairly obvious how Johnny sees this situation. This is a man who we assume(and is later confirmed) to be a surrogate father figure, who set his friend up for failure, and then basically forced him to do the same by targeting an injured opponent, and forcing him to fight without honor. This same man presumably follows a teenager out to the parking lot, to harass him, to tell him he’s off the team, to tell him he’s a loser, that he’s nothing.

But at that point, Johnny knows the truth, even if subconsciously. At the end of the day Johnny knows that Daniel LaRusso was a worthy opponent, and that regardless of the cheating and manipulation, Daniel could have won anyway, and did win, despite of it.

And then Kreese grabs him, too fast to react to, Johnny too surprised even knowing that Kreese is the bad guy here, not believing that he would ever willingly hurt him- and Johnny isn’t strong enough to fight him off, none of the boys are, so Johnny is forced to suffocate for almost a full 30 seconds(which I double checked for the record- also as a reference, 30 seconds is about the average time it takes for a person voluntarily holding their breath to pass out- this does not account for the oxygen lost during a struggle, and the lack of preparation from both surprise and panic. The only silver lining here is the fact that Kreese was most likely compressing his windpipe, not his jugular, which would have made him pass out in about 5-10 seconds, and would have caused permanent brain damage or death in about 15).

Now, PTSD is a complex thing. I’m not a psychiatrist, and what small amount of information we have is all we have to work off of, but I feel fairly comfortable in saying Johnny mostly likely developed it after the incident. This not an uncommon take in the fandom as far as I’m aware either. But, if we assume this, we also have to assume that after the fact nothing would have been done about this. Not just in the sense that we still don’t really know everything that happened right after the tournament, but that in the early 80s, PTSD wasn’t really a thing yet.

Sure it was absolutely a condition that existed, but Post Traumatic Stress Disorder wasn’t even added to the DSM-III until 1980- and for a long time afterward, was only seen as a condition that affected primarily war vets. Even after an event as traumatic as having a man you considered a father trying to kill you, in public, without remorse, would not have been seen as something to warrant the diagnoses, let alone treatment.

Johnny Lawrence was 17 when Kreese tried to kill him, and this boy would have been offered no resources beyond filing charges with the police. And as we see in KK3, either this didn’t happen either, or someone(presumably Silver) got the charges dropped. So on top of almost being murdered, Johnny had to live with the fact that the man who did that to him was still out there, and to top it off, still ran a dojo at least for a few months after the event. The only relief he could have gotten is after Kreese faked his death.

And sure, Mr Miyagi may have gotten Kreese to let go eventually, but as several people have pointed out in comments and tags, left him and the other boys alone with Kreese still standing there in the parking lot and just... drove off. Kreese has already been established to be a psycho with no problem hurting children, a little bit of glass might not have prevented him from trying again.

So why did I talk about all of that? Because it all contributes to why Daniel LaRusso works as a credible antagonist in season 1 of Cobra Kai.

Think about this- Johnny blames losing everything on Daniel in season 1, but we specifically get a shot in KK1 and later KK2(”You’re alright, LaRusso” and “I did my best” come to mind) where he seems to be at least mostly accepting of the fact that he lost(with what was actually an illegal kick but that’s a rant for another time). So why does he blame him for everything 30 years later?

Because 30 years later, Johnny is forced to go outside, go to work, and pretend like he doesn’t see what feels like every street corner(including right outside his apartment mind you), a literal billboard sized reminder of what happened to him.

The rest of this is mostly speculation but it makes sense in my head so bear with me.

When we get introduced to Robby, it’s made pretty clear that Johnny has not been in his life for a bit. In season 2 we get Johnny’s heart to heart with Miguel, where he divulges that he missed the birth, because he spiraled after his mom’s death. This however doesn’t suggest that he stayed gone, especially knowing that it wasn’t long enough for Robby to not consider seeking out his dad. Because tacked up to the fridge, is a picture of Robby in his soccer uniform as a kid. It’s an early detail you can see in previous episodes, and says a lot about how Robby grew up. To be fair, this could have been given to him by Shannon, and not taken himself, but it’s the sport Robby’s playing that makes me question this. KK1 dedicates an entire scene to Johnny being on the soccer team in high school. Soccer, while maybe not as important to him as karate, is still part of his character. Robby does not know karate in season 1, Johnny obviously didn’t share it with him, but that doesn’t mean Johnny didn’t share anything with him.

So Johnny’s back in his kids life, maybe doing better for himself, maybe cutting back on the drinking. LaRusso Auto is already established to exist at this point but it’s in Encino, a place Johnny has no reason to go to, and probably doesn’t want to. He’s trying again and things are okay. But Robby knows enough about Daniel to know that going to him will piss off his dad. So Johnny had to have talked about him at some point. The billboards here are what’s important- they’re in the first episode, the first scene montage, Johnny draws a dick on one of them as some petty revenge.

The first billboard goes up in the late 2000s to mid 2010s. Johnny sees it, maybe he has Robby with him at the time, maybe he goes home and says something there, but he says something in a way that sticks with even a child as being important. More billboards go up. Dealerships starting popping up more and more. Daniel’s face, and by extension, the memories, the flashbacks, become inescapable. Johnny, for a third time, spirals again. Before he even knows what’s happening, he’s lost his relationship with his son. And it’s all Daniel’s fault. Of course Daniel doesn’t do it deliberately, but the constant reminders are enough to send him back into a tailspin and Johnny blames him for it.

Because it’s Daniel who is a constant reminder of his failures- it’s Daniel who caused him to lose the tournament and almost get killed, Daniel who put up the billboards that trigger his flashbacks, it’s always Daniel Daniel Daniel.

And then Johnny gets it in his head that he wants to be better. He opens a dojo, teaches Miguel and the other kids, wants to try again- and he almost succeeds.

Johnny up to this point has not deliberately antagonized Daniel in any way. Sure he named the dojo Cobra Kai, but Cobra Kai is all he knows. Besides Johnny doesn’t blame karate for his failures, his best memories are Cobra Kai and he’s trying to be better than Kreese. So what’s the harm in this really? His building is in Reseda, there’s no reason for Daniel to ever be there, he doesn’t do it out of spite, it’s because he lives there and rent is cheap. He doesn’t know about KK3, doesn’t know about Daniel’s own trauma. This isn’t an attack. Johnny sincerely just doesn’t know.

Enter Daniel, stage left. Daniel makes no attempt to talk to him- he simply makes demands and accusations, before he starts making active attempts to put him out of business.

Sure, we as the audience know Daniel has good reasons to not want Cobra Kai back. But Johnny doesn’t. All Johnny knows is that the kid he picked on in high school- who won, who got everything Johnny wanted, who grew up to be successful, has a wonderful wife, two kids who love him, a thriving business- is doing everything he can to make his life hell 30 years after the fact.

And this could only have happened because in 1986 John G. Avildsen decided to add in a scene meant for the original movie into the sequel, for absolutely no fucking reason.

#meta analysis #ranting about cobra kai cuz I can #johnny lawrence #daniel larusso #cobra kai #karate kid #I will never get over the fact that that was an actual scene that they filmed #and then got no resolution #FOR 30 YEARS #I apologize to everyone for this post #obviously I have a lot of feelings about this

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awarmbowlofhomemadesoup · 3 years

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More Roleswap AU Part 2: Defense Attorney Miles’ Frustrating Friendship with Prosecutor Phoenix

Continuing from how Prosecutor Phoenix’s dysfunctional way of caring with people that mattered to him affects them, the one with Miles took a post of its own.

So from what I’ve said from my other post, “Phoenix has a big heart but it's twisted from growing up from Manfred's emotional abuse of control and shame. So if Phoenix's heart is a house, the door is open but they're only allowed on the porch, looking in but blocked by Phoenix himself from ever getting inside. ”

So how does this affects Miles Edgeworth?

When child Phoenix Wright suddenly moved out without warning, young Miles and Gregory treated it as a case that needed to be investigated. They found out that Phoenix’s parent died. That Manfred von Karma, whom Gregory had called out his evidence tampering, adopted him (Gregory didn’t like this at all). That Manfred moved back to Germany with Phoenix (Gregory didn’t like this at all even more). Gregory could only hope and assure Miles that since Manfred has a daughter, Manfred had taken in Phoenix sincerely. Miles was not convinced.

Miles tried writing letters to the address that Gregory had gotten. There was no response but they knew the letters were being received. Gregory tried to write a letter to Manfred but was replied with a formal but kind of deranged “fuck around and find out and it’s none of your beeswax and you will one day get retribution for marring my perfect record” letter. Gregory kept that letter to himself in order not to worry Mile who was looking forward to them meeting again as there is a possibility that Phoenix would become a lawyer too.

If Defense Attorney Wright had ADHD with no friendship degradation mechanics, I headcanon that Miles has autism with attachment to his childhood friendship with Phoenix.

He had tried online means of communicating years later. Phoenix doesn’t bother with facebook. Miles sent an email and got a superficial response. When he replied to that to build into it, it was ignored.

It doesn’t help at all when they met again as prosecutor and defense attorney with Gregory having been murdered and having to defend the daughter of a family friend that he had only heard of.

Prosecutor Phoenix felt anything but peace when Miles broke his perfect record. Of course, it would be the smart kid who had defended him who would defeat him. His once perfect record was the only thing that Manfred von Karma couldn’t touch of him, now Miles took that away in his idealistic righteousness of saving people who don’t deserve (funnily enough, Phoenix included himself in that). It didn’t help that Miles’ righteousness rubbed him the wrong way with how Miles had looked at him with anger and sadness and disappointment because who was he to feel? They were in a courtroom. (See Closed Off Phoenix mode)

When Will Powers got arrested, Phoenix knew that Miles is a big fan of Steel Samurai. He was going to rip Miles a new one in court with this case by getting a guilty verdict on his favorite actor. Much to Miles and Maya’s surprise, he changed his mind, not knowing it’s because Gumshoe told what happened with Dee Vasquez. (In this universe, Gumshoe had told Phoenix because despite their dysfunctional “friendship”, Prosecutor Phoenix is more approachable than Prosecutor Edgeworth)

Prosecutor Phoenix is just as surprised as them with his actions and hated himself for it. He wasn’t supposed to feel. Unlike Prosecutor Edgeworth who told Defense Attorney Wright that he doesn’t want to see him again, Prosecutor Phoenix did what von Karma would do to him: give him nothing. Defense Attorney Edeworth caught Phoenix’s eye and all Phoenix did was raised a brow and turn his back on him, little did Phoenix know, that had hurt Miles.

All Miles had wanted since Phoenix went away was to get his friend back. Maybe he had idealized the way childhood Phoenix had connected with him since it never happened again with other people his age growing up. Maybe that childhood Phoenix was gone. Logically, the best course of action was to move on, but it kinda hurt whenever he sees him.

The dynamic changed when Miles successfully defended Phoenix from murder of both cases. Phoenix was now more willing to talk to him but kept it professional. Miles who had always been socially awkward doesn’t know how to bridge the gap as much as he wanted to and as much as Maya tried to encourage him. Miles had tried to talk to Phoenix about what he had gone through because of Manfred but Phoenix would often try to keep it light. Phoenix does the 3 D’s: dodge, distract, dismiss. Any pushing further would upset the delicate balance that Miles was not confident to test.

After the Skye case, Phoenix felt he had no leg to stand on anymore. He had thought von Karma may have taught him, but all the cases he had won was through his own effort. Now, that was no longer true. Who was he anymore without the things that he used to believe in? It started to get worse when the pain and anger and grief and the nightmares that demanded to be felt came crashing down. Who was he without the constant battle with Manfred in and outside of his head? How could he?! Why had Phoenix never saw it before? He had failed people for becoming who he was. Do they even deserve...?

Phoenix was no stranger to blowing off shame and judgment. Also he worked best under high stress. So he went into Younger Beanix mode and created another identity to buy his tickets out of the country. Then when he met Miles again, intentionally made a dick move to anger him for a long time so that when Miles would hear that Phoenix left to take a sabbatical, he wouldn’t give a shit. Not to mention, Phoenix thought he didn’t deserve Miles care and he didn’t want to burden Miles with the need to save him again and again. He also blocked Franziska’s number and gave Gumshoe the wrong details of when he would leave and where just to cover his tracks.

Miles eventually figured out when he disappeared that Phoenix had hurt him to prevent him from intervening. He was mad Phoenix at once he realized that and mad at himself for not realizing it sooner. And upset that he wasn’t enough.

The emotional betrayal traumatized Miles when he already struggle with connecting with other people, especially when it’s Phoenix that he wanted to re-connect with the most.

Miles Edgeworth had already closed his heart on Phoenix since then. He would’ve refused any communication with Phoenix if it wasn’t for the Engarde case. They had reached a degree of closure after but Phoenix wasn’t done with his sabbatical.

As far as Phoenix was concerned, he wasn’t equal yet to Miles in terms of searching for the truth in the courtroom. With the best intentions, he was chasing after Miles professionally in quality. But within their friendship, some damage has been done. Phoenix still has the struggle to allow Miles and himself to be vulnerable without the need to dismiss, distract and dodge. In fact, he owed Kay, Gumshoe, Sebastian and Franziska of it too. And while Miles has partially opened his door to Phoenix again, he has to learn and trust Miles again beyond their professional partnership.

What About Trucy Gramarye?

Fortunately, Prosecutor Phoenix was in a better place by the time Trucy came around. When he was back in Japanifornia after Zak left Trucy, Phoenix sees a kid greeting him with a showman’s bravado in the face of abandonment and in the mercy strange adults. He cannot not adopt her and get her away from the mess.

#ace attorney #wrightworth #narumitsu #roleswap au #phoenix wright #miles edgeworth #trucy wright #naruhodo ryuichi #mitsurugi reiji

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kinncman · 4 years

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A LIST OF PLOTLESS TOWN RP-FRIENDLY CHARACTER IDEAS & CONNECTIONS INSPIRED BY MOVIES! (PART 1)

click here for part two.

i collected a couple of plot ideas from some of the movies i thought had interesting stories or characters that i hope can help you with your applications / character connections. please note that a lot of these are, by no means, the actual plots of the films and are only inspired by them. i’ve taken the liberty of making a couple of edits for them to be ‘plotless town rp-friendly’. also, i would’ve separated them by category (platonic, romantic, familial, etc.) but tbh a lot of these can be taken in any way so feel free to put your own spin on them, too, or even make combinations!

trigger warnings: nothing too specific, but there are light mentions of death, road accident, infidelity, illness, injury, drug addiction.

now, without further ado:

BAY OF ANGELS // muse a met muse b on a vacation several years ago, brought together because they were both from the same home country and realized that they were traveling to run away from something. muse a came to learn that this wasn’t muse b’s first rodeo, and where this was the first time that muse a had tried to run away from their problems, muse b had been running for most of their life. muse b initially wished to emulate the same free-spirited, high-risk-high-reward principles that muse a lived by. however, muse b started to display totally erratic behavior that prompted muse a to question whether they were making the right choices. eventually, they went home. jump to present day where they meet again in their home country— muse b has toned down somewhat due to a traumatic event (a hard lesson to learn for them) meanwhile, muse a’s life remains the same cycle of events they can’t seem to break free from.

CLEO FROM 5 TO 7 // muse a suspects they are sick but refuses to go to the doctor to have it checked. most of their days are plagued with this feeling of doom enshrouding them, causing them to have a general distaste for life. they meet muse b who has profoundly positive disposition towards life. their company helps muse a to come to terms with the fact that perhaps their illness is something they should deal with. with muse b’s help, muse a starts to find meaning in death.

HAPPY OLD YEAR // muse a left town / the country for college, leaving behind all their friends and family, cutting all ties in a heartbeat, only to come back several years later a completely changed person who subscribes to the idea of minimalism and wants to get rid of all the clutter in their life, material or otherwise. this brings them to reconnect with muse b (and a variety of other muses if the mun wishes) when they find their old belongings and return them in order to be ‘minimalist’ and get rid of all the garbage in their home, which means getting rid of memories, too. however, muse b, who has now moved on from muse a and is with someone else, isn’t too pleased with having muse a back in their life. muse a is desperate to find the closure that muse b isn’t giving them, primarily because muse b knows that muse a is after starting over on a clean slate only to clear their conscience and not to make amends.

YI-YI: A ONE AND A TWO // muse a and muse b were each other’s first and greatest loves but are currently married to other people. when they are reunited through a chance encounter, they decide that it’s better to have each other in their lives as friends than not at all. they realize they still do have feelings for each other but because of their spouses, know that they can never be anything else other than friends. thus begins a journey of trying to bring their old selves back into the light as new people.

MIKEY AND NICKY // muse a and muse b are best friends since childhood. muse a is neurotic, childish, and wildly impulsive, and often has to depend on muse b to get them out of trouble only to show very little gratitude for it, much to muse b’s chagrin. in fact, muse b often finds themself thrown under the bus in muse a’s favor, though it’s not entirely muse a’s fault: muse b is an enabler. however, muse b can’t quite seem to quit muse a (either because they love the feeling of being needed and there’s no one who needs them more than muse a or maybe they’ve been in love with muse a since childhood— or both) until a certain event causes muse b to question whether they are healthy for each other at all.

IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE // muse a and muse b are neighbors, both living with their significant others. both muse a and muse b often see each other in the hallways or share an elevator up to their apartment when they come home from work. maybe they even carpool sometimes. however, they spare very little in the way of words until one day, muse a breaks down while drunk and admits that they think their partner is cheating on them. in an attempt to comfort them, muse b reveals that they think the same thing of their own partner. desperate for answers, they conduct an investigation until they realize that their partners are cheating on them with each other. muse a and muse b become each other’s support system, as they try to coach each other through an impending breakup all the while realizing that they might be developing feelings for each other and must now choose between indulging their feelings or deny themselves the hypocrisy.

TAKE THIS WALTZ // muse a meets muse b on a trip out of town and they instantly connect. they share the same flight back home and even a cab ride from the airport. however, they soon realize that muse b is muse a’s new neighbor, which makes things plenty awkward considering how a) they’ve been borderline flirty the whole time and b) muse a is married to someone who they now consider to be far less interesting in comparison to muse b. regardless, once they’ve recognized a mutual attraction with each other, muse a demands for muse b to keep their distance, only to keep running into each other everywhere, much to muse a’s chagrin.

LAST LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE // muse a is witness to a terrible road accident involving a pedestrian. muse a takes the pedestrian and their sibling, muse b to the hospital where muse b’s sibling is declared dead on arrival. despite being total strangers, muse a stays with muse b through the entire process. eventually, muse a takes muse b home but muse a refuses to let muse b leave, claiming they don’t want to be left alone in the house that they previously shared with their now deceased sibling. having money troubles of their own and on the brink of an eviction, muse a ends up staying with muse b not just for the night but for the week until they get comfortable enough with each other that muse b invites muse a to officially live with them to help with their financial problems, but mostly because they don’t know how to handle their grief alone.

THE FALL // muse a is in an outpatient physical rehabilitation facility after suffering from a near-fatal injury when they meet muse b. the pair are polar opposites in terms of their attitudes towards recovery: where muse a is more hopeful, muse b only throws pity parties for themself considering that this injury might prevent them from fully getting back to doing what they love. despite this, the two form an unlikely bond where muse b is completely enthralled with muse a, who tells them stories about their travels and their career and all the amazing things they’ve done, without realizing until they’re in too deep that they are all fabricated versions of the truth and muse b falls for every single one of them. what started as little white lies becomes a source of anxiety for muse a when the lies just get bigger and bigger.

COLUMBUS // muse a is a young, aspiring [insert career here] but to pursue this passion, they must leave their hometown, which they have constantly been refusing to do despite the numerous opportunities having been presented to them on account of the fear that no one else is going to take care of their mother (who, in the movie, is a recovering drug addict but it can be for any reason or relative in this case). muse b’s father is a well-known [insert career that muse a wants here] and is in town to hold a lecture/exhibit/performance/etc etc depending on the career, but then he suffers from a stroke. muse b, despite being estranged from their father for having been scrutinized by the man for most of their life, is forced to come to town and take care of him being their closest living relative. they meet muse a by chance, only to learn shortly after that they are a huge fan of muse b’s parent’s work. having spent their whole life in this town, muse a becomes muse b’s tour guide of sorts, while inadvertently helping each other come to terms with their relationship with their parents and how they can be kinder to themselves.

SECRET SUNSHINE // after their spouse’s passing, muse a moves from the big city to their spouse’s much, much smaller hometown so they can raise their child there. they meet all of the important figures of their spouse’s childhood including muse b, a local shopkeeper and an old friend of their spouse’s, who, despite muse a’s reluctance, helps them adjust to small town life. the pair eventually closer to each other and muse a to their spouse as they find out more about who they were before they met.

THIS IS WHERE I LEAVE YOU // (originally lgbtqia+ and written about older characters with grown children, but make of this plot what u will, tbh) muse a and muse b are best friends. both married, both with grown kids. muse a’s spouse died a long time ago so they’ve had plenty of time to help muse b take care of their spouse in the couple of months leading to that spouse’s death. in the process, the pair have grown intimate (with muse b’s spouse’s knowledge— in fact, they encouraged muse a to ‘take care’ of muse b in the event of their passing and wouldn’t trust anyone else to do so) but haven’t told their families yet in fear of what they might think of them given their age and how they’re basically uncles/aunts to each other’s children.

#rpc #rph #rp help #writing help #plot ideas #inspo #*

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postmodernmulticoloredcloak · 3 years

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So I watched 10.09 recently, and it has that part where Dean tells a story about him basically being almost roofied as a teen, but somehow it ends up framed as the funny joke and yet another proof that John "did what he could", and I kind of hate this? And it's the same episode in which MoC!Dean killed guys that kidnapped and tried to rape Claire, and you'd think writers would've addressed the parallels and acknowledge that Dean could've been triggered by this situation. 1/2

2/2 But in the end, it's never addressed, and the whole situation is framed as the proof that Dean is evil now. And I'm not even sure what I am trying to say, but with that being the show's approach back in s10, I'm not surprised about the finale anymore. Guess we should've known?

That’s an excellent angle to look at the issue because the Mark of Cain arc is a clear example of how people with different experiences will see the same thing in wildly different ways. There’s this phase of season 10 where everyone is like “oh no Dean is Getting Worse” and when you look at what Dean is doing... you actually go “...good for him”.

Let’s give Caesar what belongs to Caesar. It’s not “the writers” in this case, it’s Dabb. Plenty of other writers don’t fall into this John apologism thing. Just look at how the episode before Lebanon, written by Buckner and Ross Leming, says that sometimes John would temporarily kick Dean out because he was “pissed at him” despite Dean always taking his side to mantain the peace. It almost seems like a statement to sprinkle some salt given what Dabb does in Lebanon, you know? Maybe not, but there is a tension between “John was shitty” writers and “John did his best” writers.

In hindsight, we gave Dabb too much of the benefit of the doubt. We were like, weeell, that’s supposed to be way the characters perceive the truth, which is distorted by the trauma... But now it’s obvious that he truly believed in the John-did-his-best version. He brought him back and got Mary back with him. No matter what happened to the finale, the network didn’t print those pictures of John and Mary to hang on Sam’s wall. He never took Dean’s abuse seriously and it shows.

The “anedocte” of Dean getting drugged and “saved” by John from being raped is obviously there to parallel him with Claire. Which works! It’s so weird because it’s like. You are soooo close to getting the point. Younger Dean was assaulted just like this teenage girl is assaulted and Dean saves her... but apparently John yelling at those people is a good way of dealing with the issue, while murdering child traffickers is an overraction thus bad.

That’s the problem, isn’t it? That Dean’s murder spree is framed as an overreaction. Sam is like “tell me you had to do this! tell me it was you or them!” - the answer to which (by the narrative) is obviously no, it wasn’t self defense, he just killed them because he could. He just murdered those men for no reason except he felt like being murdery. And the audience is supposed to be like “oh no! Dean is murdery for no reason except for murderiness! That’s bad!”.

But it’s a power fantasy, isn’t it? Going on a murder spree on rapists and traffickers. I bet any people who’s been violated like that has fantasized of doing the exact thing Dean does here. Killing them all.

Dean had the physical strength and skill to kill them all, why shouldn’t he kill them? (I mean, in real life I’m against private justice because I’m a fan of the state of law, but the Supernatural universe obviously works on different principles than the state of law. Again, it’s a fictional narrative that plays out as a fantasy for the audience, so.)

So what was Dabb’s intention? I’m afraid it’s the worst one. “John Winchester’s not going to win any Number One Dad awards, you know? But, you know, damn if he wasn’t there when we needed him”. What the fuck, Dabb? It’s been established since season 1 that John WASN’T there when they needed him. Which... I’m afraid... leads us to the Cas-Claire plot in the episode. Cas has fucked off with Jimmy’s body leaving Claire on her own. Parallels how John wasn’t going to win wny Number One Dad awards. But! Cas is there when Claire Really Needs Him i.e. when she’s about to be raped by older men. Parallels how John was there when Dean Really Needed Him i.e. when he was about to be raped by older men.

I think the point is to say, Cas kinda sucked because he took Claire’s dad away but hey! He’s actually a good figure for Claire because he gets there in time to prevent her from being raped. Just like (ew) John kinda sucked as a father because hunting and stuff, but hey! He’s actually a good figure for Dean because he got there in time to prevent him from being raped.

It’s pretty yucky. Literally NOBODY wanted a parallel between Cas and John. But he made one. And he made one to absolve Cas from the guilt he carried for what he did to Claire (Claire’s mother is a mother so who fucking cares about her. She’s basically a Blurry Wife(TM), she’s only a tool for Claire’s arc, Cas apparently only cares about the harm he did the child, not the wife, for some reason.) and to absolve Cas from his guilt it absolves John too. Don’t worry, being a parent is hard. You often screw up. But you can *looks at smudged writing on hand* prevent the kid from being raped by predatory adults and everything’s fine now.

It’s not really important if the child suffered hunger or whatever, the only important thing is that they don’t get raped, because that’s bad, everything else is just a little detail.

All Dabb got with that scene was to paint Sam as extremely unsympathetic because he’s no longer a child, he’s a full adult now and still thinks of that episode at the CBGB as a funny story. That’s not a good look. It almost makes you think that the writer himself saw it as a funny story. Lol teenage boy biting more than he can chew. But then why the Claire parallel? The Claire scene onviously is not supposed to be anything but horrific. I'll give Dabb the benefit of the doubt on this specific thing.

It’s weird, yes, because Dabb wrote Dark Side of the Moon where he establishes that John was a bad husband/father even before tragedy hit the family. But apparently that’s the “not going to win any Number One Dad awards” part, I suppose? I guess he intended to write John as this flawed, ~complex~ figure who was imperfect but still brave and whatever blah blah did his best blah blah. I’m all for flawed complicated characters but a horrible father is a horrible father. A rose by any other name... parental abuse is still parental abuse even if the poor guy was complicated and traumatized and did what he thought he had to do to prepare his sons for a violent world.

Also, the story frames Dean’s escapade as a teenager being stupid. “You know what he got for that? Me whining about how much he embarrassed me. Me telling him that I hated him. But then he stopped and turned around looked at me and said, Son, you don’t like me? That’s fine. It’s not my job to be liked.” “It’s my job to raise you right.” This seems straight from a novel about teenagers doing something stupid that they’re too young to realize that their parents are right to be against them doing. But this isn’t just... a parent walking into a bar to stop their child to drink alcohol. Dean literally describes feeling sick from something that was inside the alcohol.

Sure, it makes sense that he’d lash out to John because of the shame and shock. But the scene is... off. Are we supposed to see this as a typical teenage mistake? Are we supposed to read it as something as horrific as what happened to Claire, literally sold into rape? Or, worse, are we supposed to see what happened to Claire as a teenage mistake, ah silly teenager, blindly trusting shady people, no wonder you end up in a situation where you’d get raped if a father figure didn’t sweep in and save you. I hope that wasn’t the intent.

To get back to Dean’s Mark-of-Cain violence, the writers clearly didn’t intend it to come from the Darkness up to a certain point. It was supposed to an arc about your own inner darkness (consider the Charlie episode, a couple episodes later). Then they came up with the idea of The(TM) Darkness, the suppressed cosmic feminine. While it caused a bit of dissonance in the subtext, it doesn’t really change Dean’s narrative, because his inner darkness is the trauma, and his trauma is inherebtly tied to the “feminine” i.e. the parts of him that don’t fit seamlessly into the scheme of toxic masculinity values. That the violence that comes from the Mark of Cain comes from Dean himself and that’s it, or is connected to the Darkness, it doesn’t change what it means for Dean. Dean and Amara have parallel histories, the feminine principle locked away, the trauma the anger stems from.

In 10x09 we’re still in the Before The (TM) Darkness era, before the suppressed cosmic feminine. The Mark of Cain arc is still about... well, Cain. But the shift is the signal that someone looked at Dean’s arc and said... you know what? “Lucifer gave me this curse so now I’m demonic and murdery” is meh. “Toxic masculinity suppresses the feminine and it creates trauma which rage and violence comes from” is more interesting. I don’t know whose idea it was, but it was a good idea, and surely the idea came from seeing how Dean’s MoC narrative was unfolding.

Dean’s MoC narrative was unfolding in a certain way, in fact, because of a pretty simple reason. There’s a fundamental tension in Dean’s MoC arc. We want him to go murdery, but it’s also our main character, so we don’t want him to do really horrible things because he still needs to be relatable. The audience cannot hate him, so he must NOT do something entirely unforgivable. He still needs to be somewhat relatable, even when demonic or demonic-adjacent.

So he goes on a murder spree... but it’s rapists and child traffickers. He’s demon, but he kills a misogynistic dude that wanted his wife dead for cheating on him. He’s a demon, but beats up dudes that harass women. He does a slaughter, but they’re nazi. He’s off the deep end, but works a case of kidnapped and abused young women...

Speaking of which. 10x23, written by Jeremy Carver. Dean works a case where a girl was killed while dressed scantily and Dean makes some slut-shaming remarks, and we’re supposed to think “whoa Dean, that’s bad”. But later he confronts the girl’s father and what does he say?

I’m just doing my job, Mr. McKinley.

By suggesting my daughter was a slut?

I’ll admit that thought crossed my mind. Then I came here, and I smelled the deceit and the beatings and the shame that pervade this home.

You shut your face right now.

And you know what? I don’t blame Rose anymore. No wonder she put on that skank outfit and went out there looking for validation, right into the arms of the monster that killed her.

Back then the episode was super controversial and everyone hated the case because of the apparent slut-shaming but I loved it! Because it’s not about the girl. It’s about Dean. Dean doesn’t think that a girl gets killed because she dresses in a miniskirt so it’s her fault. Dean is projecting on himself and he’s not actually victim blaming the girl, he’s victim blaming himself. And when he absolves the girl by putting the blame on the father... well, subtextually he’s absolving himself by putting the blame on his father. On the deceit and the beatings and the shame that pervaded his own home. He’s textually not ready to absolve himself, of course, he summons Death to ask him to kill him later, but subtextually he’s on the right path.

Rose McKinley basically did the same mistake Dean did at the CBGB when he trusted some older people who offered him drinks and the same mistake Claire did when she trusted a man who sold her for money because he offered him a place and stability. She trusted the wrong people (in this case, vampires, which adds the whole subtext of vampires and sexuality) who took advantage of her. Except Rose had no one to save her. (Her friend, Crystal, gets rescued by Dean, even if he causes the other hunter Rudy to die in the process.)

Carver’s writing is pretty brutal. The girl made that mistake because was abused at home, so she was desperate for validation and that desperation drove her into the wrong hands. (Rose even has a brother who blames himself for bringing her sister to her future murderers, destructive sibling relationship check.) It doesn’t actually even matter if Dean guessed right about Rose’s family situation, because what matters is what it tells us about Dean. He basically relates to a dead abused girl. Actually all through the season Dean is paralleled to “skanks” “sluts” and sex workers. Obviously this happens kinda all through the show, the whole “the business is based on absent fathers” thing happened much earlier in the story, so it’s not new. But s10 draws a picture of female suffering - abuse, manipulation and death. Season 10 was difficult to go through. In hindsight, it was probably on purpose because it was supposed to be darkest hour of the feminine. Summed with some good old fashioned misogyny, but hey.

The Carver era was wonky but Carver wanted to free the feminine. (I believe that Mary’s comeback, while written by Dabb because of the showrunner shift, was planned before the showrunner shift.) We thought the Dabb era wanted the same, with Mary choosing life and Amara being independent and so on, but it evidently wasn’t the case. Not a single woman arrives at end of the story. It’s hardly ~Bucklemming or ~the network or ~covid because it starts before the very end.

I’m not saying that dead sluts are more feminist than living women, but if the women die or disappear anyway (and they did) I’d rather have an exploration of trauma than nothing. And I definitely prefer a dead slut narrative that calls out parental abuse than a narrative where women live but abuse gets the you-did-your-best treatment.

Whoops! I digressed! But feel free to ask for any clarification or send me any observation or thought.

#anon #my spn thoughts #season 10 #spn 10x09 #spn 10x23 #dean and john #parental abuse #john winchester's a+ parenting #mark of cain #demon dean #spn #i love talking about season 10 uh

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beybladefanboy · 3 years

Text

Battle Bladers Episodes Rated Based on How Scary They Are

This is half a shitpost and half me giving legit opinions on what I still believe is Beyblade’s most memorable arc. Honestly, just take it with a grain of salt. 1 is not scary at all and 10 is trauma central- I mean scary.

Episode 40: Go Battle Bladers! 3/10

Pretty light episode overall. The heroes spend most of it winning and having fun. It feels like any typical episode before it besides the ending which hints things will get darker in the next episode.

Episode 41: The Serpent’s Terror 9/10

I mean, it’s right there in the title. The feeling of unease and dread this episode provokes is honestly amazing. You can feel that something is off and that uneasiness grows steadily until you’re suddenly hit with the real terror of the situation all at once. Also, this episode ends with Ryuga murdering someone in three seconds flat. This episode is the moment the characters, and the audience, realize that this is not a game.

Episode 42: The Dragon’s Punishment 8/10

Seeing Ryuga essentially murder his former allies, showing not even they will be spared, is pretty terrifying. While it’s not as scary as the battle with Hyoma, Yu’s battle with Reiji is also scary because the audience knows what Reiji is capable of and Yu does not. I’m only rating this one lower than the last one because the tension of that battle is temporarily killed by them cutting away to the others.

Episode 43: The Deck is Stacked 6/10

The main character is lit on fire then frozen to death in rapid succession by a guy who we the audience know will be defeated and killed because of anime rules but is still trying to cling to a hopeless life out of pure desperation. And this is considered “light” by this arc’s standards. (It’s also underrated. It’s also just ridiculously underrated.)

Episode 44: Entrusted Emotions 10000/10

Basically the source of my former snake phobia and many of my traumatic memories from this show. I can’t watch it today without shivering or whimpering at least a little.

Also, obligatory: KENTA SHOULD’VE BEATEN REIJI.

Episode 45: Eagle Counterattacks 8/10

We the audience know Tsubasa won’t win here and when he’s defeated, he will end up like Hikaru. Even as a kid I understood that. So even when the battle was going well for Tsubasa, I found myself waiting in dread for the moment where it all went wrong and that came in the form of Tsubasa getting the life sucked out of him. This episode also gets scarier/sadder after you’ve seen Masters.

Episode 46: Libra Disappears 5/10

Yu getting kidnapped is pretty scary in how realistic it is. The rest though… it’s not as scary as past episodes. Reiji is still pretty creepy but it’s hard to feel much worry for Gingka when he has protagonist disease and the episode is constantly cutting away to Kenta and Hyoma. Pegasus isn’t even physically being broken like the others were. Lame.

Episode 47: Bonds of Steel 4/10

I’m not the only one who thinks they made Reiji too pathetic here, am I? Gingka didn’t even seem to truly struggle with this battle despite it being his last match before RYUGA and again, IT’S STILL BEING CUT OFF BY A SUBPLOT. Ryo vs Doji is admittedly an interesting battle but it’s not scary. The only thing I’d call truly scary in this episode is Reiji turning to stone.

Episode 48: The Truth About Light and Darkness 2/10

This is my least favourite episode in the show. It’s nothing but exposition (some of which is important but it’s still overkill) and the writers patting themselves on the back for an awful abuse-glorifying twist. The only reason it gets any scary points at all is for that scene at the end where Ryuga murders Doji because admittedly, it’s supposed to be scary: it’s Ryuga showing just how little he cares about his supposed allies and how out of control he is. It would be scary if it wasn’t the one thing I cheered Fusion!Ryuga on for.

Episode 49: Fierce Battle! Lion vs Dragon 8/10

Kyoya vs Ryuga is thrilling, even though the audience knows who will win. However, what the audience might not expect is Ryuga being attacked and controlled by his own bey and Kyoya getting the life stabbed out of him. That’s the stuff of nightmares right there.

Episode 50: The Furious Final Battle! 9/10

Ryuga spends parts of this episode still mutated by the dark power and spends most of the battle with Gingka kicking his ass. Then the end of the episode happens and he gets even more mutilated by the dark power. That’s what they end the episode on… I have some mad respect for the people who watched this show as it aired on live TV. Also, Gingka nearly falls off that tower multiple times in both these last episodes. As someone with a fear of heights, that terrifies me.

Episode 51: Blader’s Spirit 8/10

Ryuga spends most of this episode looking like a kind of over the top but still pretty creepy looking monster, constantly being attacked by his own Beyblade, and trying in vain to fight back as he’s yowling in pain… I’m a Ryuga fan if you can’t tell. These episodes hurt. Also, Gingka and Ryuga almost fall to their deaths. Again, fear of heights. I’ll give this one a lower score since it does appropriately end on a lighter note.

#beyblade #beyblade metal saga #beyblade metal fight #metal fusion #beyblade metal fusion #i've been talking about fusion a lot lately...#don't be fooled fury is still my favourite #I'd love an excuse to talk about it some more #ryuga #ryuga kishatu #reiji mizuchi #aka: the two that made battle bladers so scary #honourable mentions to doji and I guess ryutaro #episode 44 is so underrated #i get why #it's sandwiched right in between two Reiji battles #but honestly as an episode I think it's better than both of those #no I'm not taking that back #fight me

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hiddendreamer67 · 3 years

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Giant Mers are Good Mers

That's right, it's MerMay baby! Introducing my new bois. Caspian is a giant siren with influences of Mediterranean monk seals and leopard seals. Beckett is a lil' human who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. This piece is a completed oneshot, but I've got a couple ideas for more oneshots with this pairing, including a few ideas for alternate universes (especially after seeing all the fun @ibis-gt seems to be having with AUs of their bois).

Word count: 6,001

Initial prompt idea: human was taken by a giant siren but then let go (on a whim / siren got bored) but human doesn’t know why they were spared so they come back to thank the siren. The siren doesn’t even remember doing that because it was such an insignificant event to them, but now it’s interesting because humans never came on their own.

-----------------------------------------------------------------

Beckett had always been a simple fellow. He grew up in WhiteBridge, on a small town farm with his three older sisters picking on him ceaselessly. While he loved WhiteBridge and its quaint charms, Beck found his true passion in books, and studied at Oxford for several years before scouring the globe for his passion. In his quest for knowledge, Beckett chose to join a month-long excursion out at sea, and found himself regretting that decision a few weeks later.

“Steady on there.” One of the sailors, Michelle, handed him a pair of earplugs. “You’ll need these where we’re going.”

Beckett eyed the little pieces of foam dubiously. “And just where might that be?”

“Siren territory.”

Beck hardly believed in such fairy tales, but to calm the sailor’s superstitions he inserted the plugs as instructed. Siren tales aside, Beckett found himself growing as twitchy as the sailors. The coastline hadn’t been visible for ages due to a large amount of fog accumulation. The stormy skies were foreboding as well, indicating that proper precautions would need to be taken. This far north, the weather reports often indicated rocky waves far beyond what should be normal.

Would Beckett sink, out here in the middle of nowhere? Was that to be his fate? The young man began to fret, hastening to make himself useful as the first rolls of thunder sounded off and the waves grew steadily higher.

And then, he heard it. Beckett paused, arms slack on the rope as he attempted to hear that haunting melody. Was the weather playing tricks on him, or was someone calling out to him.

“BECK! EARS!”

Beckett blinked, stunned to find himself standing on the slippery railing. When did he get up here? Beck hastened to climb down, noticing the rest of the crew had their hands firmly clasped over their ears, even with the ear plugs inserted.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough. Even with the double protection, the voice grew in volume, its booming voice penetrating into their heads. Every single person on board fell victim to its call, the ship’s captain turning the wheel to head towards the beckoning beast. Beckett climbed back up to the railing, plunging overboard into the crashing waves.

With a sputter, Beckett fought to keep his breath, legs kicking desperately against the current. Even in his desperate survival state, the voice called to him, and instinctively Beckett swam in the right direction to answer its call.

Every time the voice paused to take a breath, Beck would regain control for only a moment, his heart pounding as his fate flashed before his eyes with nothing to be done about it. Between one blink and the next, the sky grew darker, a looming shape breaching in the distance. Another blink, and Beckett’s face lost all complexion staring up at his demise.

A great sea serpent, half man half beast, towered with its human half over the pitiful human. With a single shift of its body, the beast created waves that threatened to pull Beck under. Those sharp features and piercing blue eyes were unforgettable, and subconsciously Beck realized this was the last face he would ever see.

Another blink. This time, when the serpent let out a hum, Beckett remained conscious but still out of his own control. His body was lax but his mind manic. The siren reached for him, slimy claws surrounding his form and making Beck shudder as he was raised 50 feet in the air in seconds. Beckett whimpered, coughing out sea water as his gaze was drawn down to the siren’s lips. The creature grinned and revealed its razor-sharp fangs. Taking a deep breath in, the siren revealed the cavernous depths beyond as it prepared to inhale its next meal.

Beckett pleaded nonsense pitifully, tears pouring down his cheeks as the haunting nothingness washed over his mind yet again. Would he even wake once more? Was the beast merciful enough to let Beckett go in his sleep?

When Beckett woke up, he thought he was dead.

He squinted, the sun too bright for his eyes. The sun? What happened to the storm? Stranger yet, the water that had soaked him to the bone was no more. Beck was dry, wrapped in blankets in a stranger’s bed.

“You’re awake.”

Beckett turned his head, his sore muscles protesting the movement. Beside him sat an older looking fellow, hair greying with age. “Who’re you?”

“The name’s Seymour.” Seymour introduced himself. “And who’re you?”

“Beck.” Beckett’s voice felt like he hadn’t spoken in days. “Am I dead?”

“No, but you tried awful hard.” Seymour assured him. “Found you passed out on the shore two days ago. Guessin’ you were part of some shipwreck? Though there wasn’t much wreckage to be found. Awfully impressive for you to have swam that far.”

Is that what happened? Beck frowned, trying to parse out the details. His body ached something terrible. He did remember swimming for a great distance. Had the siren all been a strange vision of his adrenaline-infused thoughts?

“...huh.” Beck settled back into the pillows, looking up at the ceiling. “I… didn’t know I could do that.”

“Well that, or an angel saved you.” Seymour chuckled. “You’re one lucky soul.”

Beck squinted in thought. If that’s what angels looked like, he could understand why all biblical depictions had humans cowering in fear.

(...was it an angel?)

Beckett spent some of the most confusing weeks of his life recovering from the shipwreck. Even as his physical form healed, Beck couldn’t seem to wrap his mind around the events that transpired that night. He couldn’t get the notion out of his head that the giant sea serpent was real. It had all felt so lifelike, the claws and the fish breath and the dark melodious tones that haunted his dreams…

Seymour was kind enough to open his home to Beck, offering the traumatized lad a position maintaining his lighthouse while Beckett still fought to gather his wits. “Yer’ not the first.” Seymour assured him with a chuckle. “It’s no water off my back if you want to keep me company while you figure things out.”

You’re not the first. Beckett had cleared his throat, wanting to address that thought. “The other people who wash up on shore… did they ever… see anything?”

Seymour raised a patient eyebrow. “What do you mean, seen? Figure you lot have all seen a lot, what with the wreckage.”

“No, I mean, out at sea.” Beck felt foolish, twiddling his thumbs a bit. “Like a… like a merman.”

To his credit, Seymour did nothing more than a slow blink. “A merman.” He repeated.

“But, not a regular merman.” Beck winced at his own words. Just what was a regular merman? “A big one, like a hundred feet long, and pale white skin, and white locks of hair, and piercing blue eyes-”

“Kid.” Seymour cut him off. “I’ll tell it to ya straight. No, I ain’t ever heard nothing like that.”

Today, Beckett found himself on the cliffside, safely back from the edge as he watched the distant waves. His knees were tucked up to his chest, chin atop them as Beck sat lost in thought. Somewhere out there, Beckett’s giant captor- and later savior- was out there.

Why did the beast let him go? Even further than that, the siren had gone out of its way to give Beck a chance at life. There’s no way Beckett could have made it all the way to the shore on his own, disoriented as he had been.

Despite his better judgement, Beckett had to know the truth. With this foolish notion in mind, Beck set out a few months later, having rented a boat from one of the local fishermen. It took a lot of practice for Beckett to learn how to guide such a vessel, as every crest of a wave made the poor lad jump.

Seymour must think he was mad. Often the kind old man reminded Beckett that he didn’t have to conquer his fear of the waves directly, but Beck had just shook his head. Seymour couldn’t understand the debt Beck felt to the creature that had saved his life, and his curiosity kept him captive. Beckett wouldn’t be free until he had answers.

Of course, once he was out on the waters, Beck realized how foolish of a plan this truly was- he knew nothing about aquatic navigation. Every part of the ocean looked the same to him. Even worse, his memories of the last sea journey were extremely muddled. How on earth was he going to find the same location?

And even as Beck drifted in waters that may or may not be similar, the human realized he had no surefire way of gaining the siren’s attention. He settled for calling out often, hoping his carrying voice would be enough. Did the beast understand english? It was deceptively human-looking.

Beckett’s throat grew parched, and Beck sat down a moment to take careful sips of water from his dwindling bottle. The sky was growing darker, and a familiar fog had begun to roll in. An eerie chill began to creep up the back of Beckett’s neck. Suddenly, this plan wasn’t feeling so wise.

That’s when he heard it. The familiar song of his dreams was echoing across the water. Beck had forgotten the feeling, his limbs stiffening against his will like a marionette pulled taunt.

Blink. A gigantic fish tail, just the tip cresting the waves. Blink. Beckett found himself in the waves, gasping as he kicked frantically to keep his head above water. Blink. All too soon, Beck found himself clasped between those claws, water dripping from his locks as he stared at those terrifying chompers.

Oh god. This was a terrible idea. What should he do? What was there to do? All the blood left Beckett’s face, watching the siren lick its lips. It raised Beck higher, dangling the human by the back of his shirt above a now gaping maw. Beckett let out an unholy screech, realizing he had made a terrible mistake.

Beckett squeezed his eyes shut, forcing the words out of his lungs before he never got the chance again. “WHY DID YOU SPARE ME?!”

To Beck’s great relief, he didn’t find himself lowered onto the beast’s tongue. Instead, after the longest pause of Beckett’s life, he opened his eyes to see the siren’s mouth had gone slack.

“What?”

Beck’s eyebrows shot up into his scalp, shocked to hear the siren actually speak. Guess that meant it understood english, too. Beckett cautiously raised his gaze, meeting the siren’s eyes instead of its teeth. The creature looked confused, to say the least.

“You-” Beck cleared his throat, knowing he had to keep the siren’s attention lest he become a meal. “You spared me.” The siren’s brow furrowed further. Beckett frowned. “You… you saved my life? I mean, first you threatened it, but… 3 months ago? You- our ship, and the song, and… I woke up on the shore…”

Unfortunately, despite being the most momentous occasion of Beckett’s life, the giant sea serpent didn’t seem to have given the night a second thought. Beck couldn’t stop the sinking feel in his chest, knowing this whole journey was pointless after all.

The siren slowly shook his head. “That sounds unlike me.”

“It’s true!” Beckett insisted, especially because his life seemed to be on the line. “I was baffled too, but for some reason you spared me, and-and I don’t know why either! It’s been driving me insane. Why else would I sail all the way out here trying to find you?”

“You came looking for me?” This, at least, caused the siren to raise an interested eyebrow. “That would be a first.”

Beck nodded quickly. “Yes! I’ve been shouting for you all day. And before that I’ve been training for weeks, saving up for a downpayment to borrow Ben’s boat, which I’ll probably be losing now that I have no idea where that ended up…” Beckett grimaced, once again meeting the siren’s gaze. “Sorry, I’ve been told I have a tendency to sidetrack conversations in uncomfortable situations. Boat’s not important. Please don’t eat me.”

To both of their surprise, the siren let out an amused snort, the hot fishy air rustling Beck’s hair.

“I apologize for that.” The creature had the decency to look sheepish, even as its words curdled Beckett’s blood. “It’s nothing personal.”

“Wait, what?!” Beckett immediately began screeching, attempting to squirm out of the claws still holding him captive.

“Stop!” The siren hissed, his grip tightening painfully around Beck’s ribs. “You will fall with that behavior.”

Beck winced, continuing to struggle against the crushing appendages. “That was kind of the idea. I choose waves over teeth.”

“Waves over…?” The siren shook his head. “No, you misunderstand. I will not eat you.”

Beck found that hard to believe. He squinted, judging the gigantic face before him even as the pressure stayed tight around his chest. “So, you were going to?”

“Yes.”

“But now you’re not.”

“Yes.”

“...why?”

“Because you’re quite interesting, little human.” The siren admitted. “Your question confuses me. Do you want to be eaten?”

Beck chose wisely to avoid that question. “My name’s Beckett.” He said instead. “Beck, for short. Not little human, or anything.”

The siren blinked. It must be strange putting a name to your not-food. “My name is Caspian.”

Caspian. For some reason, Beck hadn’t actually pictured the siren having a name. Or talking. Or generally possessing much humanity at all… the self-reflection made him feel a bit guilty.

“It’s nice to meet you, Caspian.” Beck greeted. He glanced around, realizing the sun had finished setting. “Can we circle back to the boat issue? I mean, I’m glad this hasn’t ended fatally, but it is getting late.”

“Hold on.” Caspian frowned. “You spent all that effort to reach me, only to leave? Little Beck, your story has holes.”

“No, no no no.” Beck quickly shut that down, hastily trying to avoid any possibility of a vengeful siren. “No that’s not it at all. It’s just, your time must be very valuable, and I don’t want to intrude. And also, contrary to popular belief, I'm not a great swimmer. Hence the boat.”

“Hmm.” Caspian seemed to consider this for several moments. The giant seemed to reach a conclusion, but Beck was uncertain what it was as he was raised up above Caspian’s head. “Climb on.”

“Climb on?” Beck repeated, confused.

“And hold on tight.” Caspian advised, opening his palm and tilting it so that Beck slid off with a yelp. “I was under the impression you need air to survive?”

“YES! Yes, that is- yes, I need that.” Beckett confirmed, quickly grabbing onto Caspian’s hair as best he could. Not the easiest task in the world with how everything, including himself, was soaked. Nevertheless, Beck was wise enough to prepare himself for whatever a massive sea serpent might have planned.

Without further warning, Caspian lowered himself into the water, only keeping the top of his head above the waves for Beck’s benefit. Beck hastily lowered himself onto his stomach, not wanting to slide off Caspian’s head as the mer began to swim through the ocean faster than a speedboat.

“Where are you going!” Beck shouted above the wind whipping at his face. He squinted, trying to see where the siren was headed but having no luck. Were they swimming to the boat? Had Beck really gotten so far away from it?

Unfortunately, the siren himself offered no answers. The night sky and fog did not help Beck’s visibility. In these conditions, he was practically blind.

After several minutes of this less-than-ideal water travel, Caspian came to an abrupt stop. Beck frowned, finding himself staring at a rocky cliffside shore. Was Caspian trying to return him to the lighthouse again? But none of this looked familiar…

Caspian raised his head above the waves, sending Beck scrambling to keep his hold. It didn’t matter, as those familiar claws came up and plucked the human from Caspian’s hair.

“Hold your breath.” Caspian advised. This was Beck’s only warning as he was cupped between Caspian’s hands, the mer diving beneath the surface.

Thankfully, Beckett was intelligent enough to take the warning to heart. He held his breath, eyes squeezed tightly shut to avoid getting saltwater in them. The pressure became quite intense as Caspian dove several dozen meters down with ease. It made Beck feel like his head would pop at any moment. Was Caspian trying to drown him? But why go through all the effort of telling Beck to hold his breath, if only to drag it out?

Just as Beck could take it no longer and felt on the verge of passing out, Caspian breached the surface. Immediately Beck began to suck in large gulps of air, snorting to get the water that got stuck unpleasantly up his nose.

Despite being above the surface, Beck couldn’t see anything. He tried not to panic, heart racing thanks to all the uncertainties of the situation. “Where- where are we?”

“Home.”

Caspian’s answer only brought on further questions. Home? What kind of home did a gigantic merman have, anyway? Slowly his human eyes began to adjust to the darkness, noticing that bioluminescent moss seemed to give the space just enough light to see the outlines of shapes. It appeared they were in some sort of underground cavern, the water lapping against a craggy water-worn shore.

“Ah, yes. Of Course. Home.” Beck tried not to think about the several deadly reasons a wild animal might welcome him into its living space. But thankfully, Caspian wasn’t just an animal. He could talk, he seemed half human- that had to amount to something, right?

Of course, Caspian had still planned to eat him. So. There’s that.

“You’re still not gonna eat me, right?” Beck asked, not about to leave something so important to chance.

“Right.” Caspian sighed, as if the question were a mild annoyance and not tied to Beckett’s entire livelihood. “But you have disturbed my hunting time. I’m hungry.”

“Not sure that’s entirely my fault…” Beckett murmured to himself.

Caspian lowered his cupped palms to the rocky shore, setting Beck down away from the water’s edge. “Stay here.”

“Wha-? Stay here?” Beck became alarmed, taking a few nervous steps to catch his footing on the slippery slope. “Where are you going?”

“Do not worry.” Caspian assured Beck, easing himself back into the water. “I’ll bring you back something to eat as well.” With that, Caspian dove back into the water, leaving Beck alone in this dark murky cave.

Beckett blinked, shocked to find himself alone in this enclosure. “I don’t think he knows what humans eat.” Beck grimaced, not eager to see just what Caspian would be bringing back for him. Would it be wriggling? Slimy? Would it be human? The thought made Beck want to throw up.

Beckett shivered, feeling chilly now that the adrenaline was beginning to wear off. He found himself in an unknown underwater cave off the coastline somewhere, still soaked to the bone in his wet rags. The icy temperature in here was freezing, and the water wasn’t any warmer. Was Beck going to die of frostbite here? How long was Caspian planning on keeping him prisoner?

Beckett walked up and down the shore, looking for any driftwood or materials to make a fire. He had no luck, of course, but even if he had Beck didn’t know the first thing about starting a fire. So with nothing to warm himself, what should Beck do? Beckett knew from all the books he’d read on environmental conditions that staying in his wet clothing was one of the worst strategies for survival, but standing around naked in the freezing cave didn’t sound any more appealing. Not to mention, Beck had no way of drying his clothes even if they left his person. He would just have to put the soaking wet rags back on eventually.

Making a foolish decision, Beck kept his clothes on in the hopes that his own body temperature would help dry them eventually. Coming from the man who went out to sea to search for his would-be murderer all day, perhaps Beck shouldn’t be treating himself as a good source for advice.

“What was I thinking?” Beck murmured, pacing back and forth to try and keep the blood flowing to his extremities. His fingertips were growing numb, and Beck shoved them in his armpits to try and keep them warm.

Should he try and escape? Beckett guessed there must be some underwater entrance to this cavern, but there was no way of knowing how deep he would have to dive to reach it, how long the tunnel itself was, nor how high he’d have to swim to reach the surface on the other side. Beckett wasn’t known to be a particularly decent swimmer. Even just the idea of getting in the water right now made Beck shudder, not eager to get soaking wet once more.

Beckett let out a yawn, the excitement of the day catching up to him. He was cold, and tired. Nothing sounded better than stripping off these clothes and lying down in a warm, dry bed back at Seymour’s.

Oh gosh, Seymour. What was the old man gonna think when Beck didn’t return home like he claimed? He knew Seymour had little faith in Beck’s sailing abilities, but Beckett had foolishly promised to be careful. Would Seymour mourn him? Worse yet, would Seymour try to send out a rescue? What if Caspian found him and wasn’t so merciful?

Beckett was dead on his feet by the time the water began to shift. Beck slapped himself out of his stupor, standing to attention in his semi-dry clothes as the giant merman emerged.

Caspian pulled himself partially up onto the shore, holding out one hand to Beck. As expected, none of this looked edible in its current form. There was a live octopus, still wriggling around, a half dozen oysters, a few slimy eels, and a few other squirming entities Beckett wasn’t certain how to classify.

“Oh, thanks.” Beck tried to keep the disgust off his facial features. Even with not eating all day, Beck didn’t have much of an appetite. But would Caspian be mad if Beck didn’t eat it? It’s not like Beckett asked for it in the first place...

“I was uncertain what you would like.” Caspian admitted, a soft frown gracing his features as he nudged the human with his fingertips, encouraging Beck to eat. “Will this be good for you? Do not be shy, I ate my fill already.”

Beck cleared his throat. “Well, uh, some of this is what humans can eat, but we don’t eat it… raw. Or alive, usually.”

“Hmm.” Caspian considered this for a moment, taking one of the eels between his claws. Caspian raised the creature to his lips. In one swift motion, Caspian used his fangs to tear off the eel’s head, sending a small spurt of blood spattering down.

Beck cried out, quickly covering his head with his arms to try and avoid getting caught in the rain. “COOKED! IT NEEDS TO BE COOKED!” Beck hastily corrected, turning a bit green as Caspian tried to once again offer him the bloody corpse. “It needs to be prepared right, too, I don’t think I’m supposed to eat a lot of stuff found in live fish, they usually gut ‘em and stuff, and I’ve never been one for sushi in the first place.”

Caspian licked his lips, clearing away the blood stains as he tilted his head like a pup. “What do you mean, ‘cooked’?”

Beck slowly uncovered his head, thankful Caspian seemed to have backed off for a moment. “Right, cooked.” Beck nodded to himself. “Guess you wouldn’t know what that is, living in the ocean and all. Um, do you know what fire is?” It was Caspian’s turn to nod. “Wait, you do? How?”

“Fire chokes out life.” Caspian explained. “It creates the smoke and the ash that destroys the shores.”

“Well… yeah, I guess it does do that, sometimes.” Beckett admitted. “But we use it in smaller, healthy doses. You use it to cook your food, usually heating it up and changing it to be healthy.”

Caspian seemed more confused the further this conversation went on.

“Unfortunately, there’s no fuel here anyways.” Beck gestured to their surroundings. “And I don’t know how to make a fire anyways, so-”

“No fire.” Caspian said sternly. He sounded more like a stern parent, banning experimentation with firecrackers in the house.

“No fire.” Beck confirmed. He glanced at the ceiling. “Probably wouldn’t have been the best idea anyways, all enclosed like this. But anyways, no. I can’t accept your fish. Thank you, it was very kind of you, I’ll be forever grateful, but if I eat that I will be sick.”

“...hmm.” Caspian looked- disappointed? Frustrated? It was hard to tell the mer’s emotions, but Caspian at the very least seemed to understand Beck’s meaning, as he pulled his handful of fish back to himself. With a thoughtful expression, giving Beck one last option to protest, Caspian tilted the whole mixture into his mouth, chewing it into a paste and swallowing with ease.

Gross. Beck kept this thought to himself, grateful he was not on the other side of Caspian’s abs himself as the pleased merman gave his stomach a few pats.

“Then what will you eat?” Caspain asked, laying down to be more at eye level with the little man.

“Well, uh, I suppose I can always eat after I get home.” Beckett chose his words carefully, still uncertain what Caspian’s intentions were. “My friend would usually make meals with me. Stew, most of the time.”

Caspian’s eyebrows furrowed. “I can make stew with you.”

“No, you can’t.” Beck corrected. Gently. “No fire, remember? Fire’s needed for stew, too. And we don’t have any of the other ingredients. Vegetables, seasonings, broth, cooked meat… stuff like that. And any we got in here would be soaked with sea water, and that’s not great for humans either.”

The giant siren seemed displeased with this answer, obviously intent on keeping the human alive. This, at least, was one positive note in a storm of negativity for the evening.

With a displeased hum, Caspian reached out his hand towards Beckett. Instinctively Beck flinched away, worried the siren had gotten bored and wanted to do away with him, but all that happened was a giant digit began carefully stroking the top of Beck’s head and down the length of his back.

“Uh...what are you doing?” Beck asked, still stiff as a board.

Caspian didn’t seem inclined to answer. Instead he tilted his head, curious blue eyes intently studying Beckett. “Can you sing?”

Beckett blinked. “Can I what?”

“Can you sing?” Caspian repeated, and after Beck gave a nod: “sing for me.”

“Oh, well, I can sing, but not very well, mind you.” Beck admitted, looking a bit sheepish. The stage had always been his sister’s forte. “Certainly not to your caliber. I don’t think you want to hear me sing at all, actually.”

“Yes I do.” Caspian insisted gently. “Sing.”

Beck let out a deep breath, mentally preparing himself for such a task. What song does one even use to serenade a siren? After careful consideration, Beckett selected an old nursery rhyme from his childhood, both for its brief length and easy melody.

“Twinkle, twinkle, little star-” Beckett began, his voice shaking. He cleared his throat, trying to project a bit more even as Caspian leaned in to hear. “How I wonder what you are. Like a diamond in the sky, up above the world so high…”

Beckett had shut his eyes, trying to forget about any pressures to perform. A nice benefit to this impromptu concert is that Caspian had paused his petting to allow Beck to focus. “Twinkle twinkle, little star… how… er, ...up… ah…y’know what? I’ve forgotten the last line, actually.”

Beck grimaced, opening his eyes. Caspian was as difficult to read as ever, the siren’s face passive as Beckett awaited any sort of review.

“That was it?” Caspian clarified.

“Yeah, not a very long song.” Beckett agreed. “Meant for children, y’know? Just to… well I don’t know the point of it, actually, I guess it’s just something to sing.”

“Ah.” Caspian drummed his fingers along the rocks. “It was…”

Beckett waited not so patiently. “Well?” He spoke up. “I told you I’m a lousy singer.”

Considering the siren made no effort to disagree, Caspian held the same opinion, yet he wore a pained expression. Perhaps Caspian had held out hope for Beck after all? But then again, even if he were a renowned opera singer, how could a human voice ever possibly appeal to a siren?

“I thought everyone could sing.” Caspian admitted quietly.

For some reason, this bashful admission is what finally set Beck roaring with laughter. Beck clutched at his sides, doubled over with mirth as a concerned siren watched. Caspian let out a noise of concern, reaching out his hand to prod Beck in the side.

“No- I’m good!” Beck hastily assured him, pushing away the finger as if he had any chance of telling the siren what to do. “It’s just- ah, fuck. What a day, you know?” And with that, tears began to pour down Beckett’s cheeks, the poor exhausted boy helpless to stop them as he alternated between laughing and sobbing.

Now Caspian let out a whine, the trill noise echoing across the cavern walls as Caspian scooped the human up into his hands. Beck gasped, momentarily without air as he was forced against Caspian’s chest. “Shh, shhh.” Caspian hushed him, patting his back like he was a child.

Well, what did it matter? Beck felt like a child. He was tired, and hungry, and cold, and he just wanted to go home. Unable to work on any of those things, Beckett tried instead to take the comfort that was given to him, so overwhelmed by the day that this might as well happen.

Beck hiccupped, his tears still coming but too exhausted to keep wailing. Beckett leaned into Caspian’s chest, the smooth seal texture feeling surprisingly warm and dry for a creature that spent most of its life in the ocean. If he focused, Beck could hear a rhythmic thumping. It was Caspian’s heart, just on the other side of this ribcage.

“I wanna go home.” Beck murmured, more to himself than the siren who wouldn’t listen. “I just wanna go home.”

A rumbling sensation filled Beck’s ears, which he slowly recognized as Caspian’s singing. Beck closed his eyes, allowing himself to succumb to the call.

…

“...Beck?”

---

“-OI! Wake UP!”

Beck coughed, startled awake as he found himself once again doused in sea water. He blinked, disoriented to feel the surface beneath him was rocking like a boat. Before Beck could ponder that out, a bright light shined directly in his eyes, making him squint.

“Blimey, you look half dead.” Seymour whistled, taking stock of Beck’s appearance.

“I...what?” Beck frowned, looking around. They were on a boat. What happened? Last thing he remembered, Caspian had been coddling him like a wounded babe. “Where’s Caspian?”

“Who?” Seymour didn’t have a clue.

“Caspian! I- the giant siren!” Beck looked around, trying to spot anything in the darkness of night.

“Boy, I think you swallowed too much seawater.” Seymour shook his head, easing Beck back down. “Take it easy, you’re lucky to be alive.” Seymour pulled out an emergency orange blanket, wrapping it firmly around Beck’s shoulders. It was only then that Beck came to the startling conclusion he was naked, stripped of his wet clothes entirely. At least he could see them lying on the deck as well.

“The voice.” Beck insisted, staying down only because his head felt dizzy. “You must have heard him singing? He was singing. What’d I miss this time?”

Seymour had no answers, as far as giant sirens went. Instead, he explained his side of things. “When you didn’t come back yesterday, I came out to look for ya.” Seymour explained. “You must have a guardian angel after all. Caught you in my sights only by change with the spotlight, adrift in the waves. No idea how the hell you’ve got a speck of life in you, jumping in without a liferaft or lifejacket or nothin’. Holy hell son, ya got a death wish, there’s easier ways of going out.”

“I- what?” Beck frowned. “No, that… that’s not what happened.”

“Hypothermia can cause hallucinations.” Seymour swore under his breath. “Shit, you’re in a worse state than I thought. Never should have let you come out here alone in the first place, nevermind with Ben’s boat. He’s gonna kill ya, y’know, if you do manage to survive the night.”

“Didn’t mean to lose the boat.” Beckett rubbed at his eyes. “Got left behind on the way to the caverns.”

“To the caverns, he says.” Seymour rolled his eyes, handing Beck a warm thermos. “Drink. Sit. And don’t fall asleep.” With these last instructions, Seymour moved over to the captain’s chair, starting the motor and steering the boat back towards shore.

Beck stared at the waves passing by, sipping gently at the contents of the thermos. Tasted like hot lemon tea. Beck would have preferred hot chocolate, if shipwreck survivors were allowed to have preferences.

Was it a shipwreck? Did he jump in? No… no it was Caspian, wasn’t it? Dumb seal’s fault for it all. That, Beck was certain. Too bad he couldn’t charge the siren for Ben’s boat.

Before, Beck had barely escaped with his life, lost and confused about his potential giant savior. Now, he knew so much more than he had before. Caspian was real. Caspian’s name was Caspian. Caspian had intended to eat him, didn’t, and then let him go. Caspian had forgotten him.

Would Caspian forget him again? Why did that notion make Beck feel so uneasy?

It wasn’t like Beck owed Caspian anything, truly. The guy had saved his life twice now, but only after endangering it in the first place. But why did Caspian let him go this time? It seemed as if Caspian was intent on keeping him around like some sort of amusing lil’ pet. What had changed?

Beck’s mind was too tired to process through such things. He sipped more of the tea, growing drowsy.

“No sleeping!” Seymour yelled.

“Yes sir!” Beck jolted upright, regretting it when his head pounded. The sound of the waves had changed. Beck could hear them crashing against the shore, indicating they were almost to the dock.

Seymour expertly steered the ship into the harbor, a feat which took a good deal of skill in the middle of the night. Once securely fastened, Seymour offered Beck a hand, hauling the boy to his feet and keeping Beck steady all the way up to the lighthouse.

“Alright, in you get.” Seymour instructed, easing Beck into bed. He piled more blankets onto Beckett, disappearing briefly to grab a warm compress which he placed on Beckett’s forehead.

“I really did see him.” Beckett murmured, closing his eyes as the warmth lulled him into a deep slumber.

Seymour let out a low sigh. “I’m sure you did.” Seymour murmured, patting Beck’s arm.

#g/t #giant/tiny #giant mermaid #giant mers #giant siren #OCs #Caspian #Beckett #giant!siren!caspian #human!beckett

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justinewt · 2 years

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Everything Happens At Nightfall - TWD Rewrite Chapter Eleven

[TWD REWRITE-MASTERLIST]

Previous chapter / Next Chapter

Summary: The whisperers’ threat was huge. They wanted to convey a message of fear by putting the survirvors’ friends and family on pikes, out in the open for the crows to come and eat. Self-served buffet. Anna had lost a friend in the process but she had her father to take care of her and she even had someone to take care of, a new face in Alexandria. But she was going to have to face her own demons, maybe not so alone then she thought...

Words: 5k

Warnings: spoilers TWD season 10 (episode 4 specifically and spoilers regarding an event in season 9 episode 15), mention of deaths, traumas, some joy despite all, physical traumas from an accident (c.f last chapter white-out), lots of blood, violence, cursing, brief mention of some of Anna’s traumas (non explicit mention of what could look like ptsd from SA - not graphic, detailed or whatever, shouldn’t be triggering)

5 months later (or so)

The whisperers. They killed some of them. Enid. Henry, the Kingdom’s leaders kid. She hadn’t seen either of them in a while but it felt weird thinking they were dead. Anna never really cared about this new threat before because she was all safe and protected in Alexandria and she had not left its compound for months. To be honest, the blizzard incident had left her mind and body rather traumatized even though she never said it and she wasn’t ready to go out again just now. She needed some time but she didn’t know whether or not she would be granted it. In this world, the future was more unpredictable then ever and no god, no one, could protect one from what could happen, no matter how hard they tried. This was everyone’s number one fear, having no control on what was yet to happen. But for now, she wasn’t affected by their actions and she tried to live without worrying, for once. In truth, she was just burying them deep to forget about them but they would come to her suddenly and with no warning but she knew that. It wasn't such a big deal because, even Michonne tried to help her live what could be labelled as a normal life, including her at dinner time with Judith and Rick Jr. They were really sweet and their laughters brought a little joy in this apocalyptic shithole of a world. The adults that used to hate her because of who she was, were now sharing bits of their everyday life with her and she appreciated being included very very much, and she was really thankful. The last family meals she had shared were so long ago that they were only vague memories now. A memory that she would cherish the most was the time when she was having dinner with Michonne, Judith, the little Rick and Daryl was at the house and joined them. The laughters, the smiles and the light and cheerful atmosphere would forever be on her mind.

After doing some camp chores, Anna breathed out and sat on the steps of Michonne's house, where she still resided as well, in a room between her two children's. She held her left wrist in her hand, her fingers were shaking. She clenched her fist to stop it as long as she could. Since the blizzard, Anna had experienced tremors in her limbs, mostly her hands, when she released tension after an effort or when she was inactive for too long. What she went through had caused nerve damage to her body and it had sometimes random impulsive reaction. It was a bit like the russian roulette and she was still trying to figure out how to deal with it. Sometimes, when she would get hurt, the pain response would be worse or lesser than what it should have been, like, if she bit her lip, it would feel more painful than it is because the nerves couldn't process what happened correctly, ever since she got stuck in the storm. But the good thing was that it didn't weaken her so much. From where the young woman was, she could observe Aaron teaching some survirvors, late teenagers and adult alike, to fight. Anna never went there because she didn't need a lesson. She had had to learn what he taught them first hand. She had lived long enough to learn how to overpower, hurt or kill someone, on her own. As she stared at her clenched fist, she looked up and saw Lydia, passing nearby those who were training. Three of them had turned to her and were talking to her. Anna frowned as she stood up and walked quickly towards them. Her sprain had healed since she got it when she fell, and she wasn't limping at all anymore. Lydia was about to leave but saw Anna and simply moved out of her way.

“Since you listen to Aaron’s combat lessons so carefully, show me what you learned, come on.” She opened her arms in a defying way, staring at the stupid teenagers, young adults or whatever the shit they were.

“Anna…” Lydia mumbled behind her, her head tucked into her shoulders, eyes on the ground. Aaron silently watched from where he was. The most unfortunate part of the story was that he hadn't told them anything but, Lydia was in the same situation as Anna when Negan was still the big bad guy in the center of everyone's attention and, if she hadn't been strong, she would never have been able to ignore those kinds of people and what they might say. The problem was that Lydia had just arrived here, she had no one. She walked closer to the three of them, casually clasping her hands in front of her with a defiant look on her face. Anna showed that she took them for idiots, with her little mocking smile.

“So, which one goes first ? Come on, don’t be shy.” A blond boy came up to her with a frown.

“Who the fuck do you think you are ? You think you’re better than us ?”

“Oh, no. No, no, no.” She shook her head, biting her inner cheek. “I don’t think, I am sure of it, dickhead.”

He rushed at her and Anna immediately succeeded in blocking his movements, putting his arms behind his back and pinning him to the ground with her knee on his lower back. She let go of his arms when she saw one of his friends approach and Anna just had to grab his arms, turning him aside forcibly and kicking behind his knee to make him fall to the ground. Anna looked at the woman behind them, she glanced at the two boys on the ground who were slowly getting up as Anna advanced towards her, she who was also one of those who attacked Lydia a moment before. The woman took a few steps towards her and raised her arms to attack. Anna grabbed her wrists and pulled her towards her, crossing her arms on her chest, pinned against hers. She brought up her calves at the back of her knees and as she was about to let her fall on the grass, she heard someone move behind her and it didn’t take her long to understand that the boys or at least one of them was on their feet. She let go off the woman and kicked behind her, sending the boy back to the ground.

“I restrained myself from actually giving you the beating of your life and I can assure you, you don't want me to. Because you’d all be dead.” She threatened before walking back to Lydia. She put a comforting hand on the girl’s shoulder, about to leave with her but the voice of one of the boys reached her ears while she had her back to them.

“You think you're better than everyone else, Ma'am Savior, but you're like your father and he's just a fucking scum bag and a loser who deserves to be where he is.” She instantly turned around and when she walked back to them, funnily enough, everyone was quiet.

“Which one of you said that ?” No one answered. “You’re either deaf or completely dumb. I’ll ask this one more time. Which one of you said that ?” She knew which one had spoken but she wanted to confront them before going physical. Anna turned to the blond guy and smacked him in the jaw with her fist. He grunted as he fell down, holding his face with his hands. Aaron shouted to Anna. He ordered the two friends of the boy to take him to the infirmary before approaching Negan’s daughter.

“What’s gotten into you, Anna ?” He asked, grabbing her arm with his good hand but she pulled away from him.

“Next time this happens, don’t stand there saying nothing. These jerks would have gotten half of their face burned if they were at the Sanctuary and dared to talk this way.” She spat out, putting her hand on Lydia’s back and walking away with her to take her somewhere quieter.

“Why did you do this? You got yourself into trouble because of me.”

“I've always had trouble. This was nothing.” Anna replied, slightly smiling at Lydia to reassure her. She went to sit on the grass among white sheets that were hung on wires to air dry. Anna stood nearby, watching her. “When I arrived, I had Alexandria late leader, Rick Grimes to help me fit in and to avoid this kind of situation and yet, you see that there are stil people that hate me. But I got myself another strong ally. My fist. I'm telling you, I've got a hell of a punch.” Anna paused, laughing softly, as she looked at the teenager, she saw her smiling with an amused look as well. “I've been through a lot and I can't stand this kind of people anymore. I no longer tolerate them. And you, Lydia, you arrive in an even more delicate period than me when I was in your place, you don't have a Rick. I remember when I saw you for the first time, several months ago. I didn't know your name or your story, but I know now and you're not a bad person. You'll find your place, eventually, even if it means I have to send people to the infirmary.”

“Why did you say they would have gotten their faces burned ?” She inquired.

“Where I used to live, uh, the Sanctuary, for such a behavior they would have been severily punished. Especially if they were going after me.”

“Why ?”

“Being the leader's daughter was quite a protection back then.” She answered, turning around. She was about to walk away when she heard her father’s voice. He had been allowed to walk in the camp during the day to do chores and stuff but had to go back to his cell every night and was followed around by someone.

“You looking for a job, kid ?” He asked Lydia with a smirk as he pushed a wheelbarrow in which he carried laundry.

“Just trying to clear my head.” She shurgged, speaking in a low voice.

“Hey, dad.” Anna spoke over the teenager softly. He looked up at her upon hearing her voice. She knew he knew she was already there when he arrived but he pretended not to be aware of it until now because she figured he had probably accidently eavesdropped them and didn't want to come in at the wrong moment and have them think he listened on purpose. He sighed silently, letting go of the wheelbarrow’s handles and walking over to Lydia, keeping his smile up on his face.

“It’s your third visit in a week. You keep it up, you're gonna find some socks with your name on ‘em.” He joked, trying to lighten the girl’s mood.

“Gage and his friends started again today.”

“Again ? Jesus. All right, kid, look obviously you're having a day, but, you know, what happened to rolling with it ?”

“I’m not just gonna smile and take it.” She retorted, glancing up at him.

“Didn’t say that. And, I certainly advise you now not to go for it, fists up, like Anna.”

“Why does she, then ?” Negan giggled slightly at the question and breathed out.

“You don't put out a fucking forest fire just by blowing on it, do you?” Anna let out a laugh because of the metaphor. “And, I also didn’t say run and hide. I mean, shit.”

“You said to kill ‘em with kindness. Well, it was Anna who nearly killed one of them, and without much said kindness.”

“I know…” He smiled, thinking of his daughter rearranging this little prick's face but resumed a more serious face quickly. “And, well, I did say that. But look, they trying to get a reaction outta you. They wanna see you upset. Don’t give that to ‘em. Screw ‘em.”

“Let’s go.” Daryl bursted through the hunged sheets and stood in front of Lydia, looking down at her. He didn’t hate Anna anymore and viewed her as a member of the community, at least she liked to believe so, but now he had someone else to despise and the current situation with Lydia looked a little bit too similar to her own, when Rick had just brought her here for the first time.

“I’m good.”

“Now.” He looked at Anna. “And you, go see Gabriel.”

“Come on, Daryl. Cut her some slack, she’s just trying to fit in.” Anna sighed, letting her hands fall to her side in exasperation.

“It's not by hanging out with you that she's gonna get there. And Anna, I told you to go see Gabriel. It's an order.” She rolled her eyes and frowned while Daryl walked away with Lydia. She felt her father stood up and look at her and foresaw what he was about to say.

“Whether I go right now or not, I will have problems.” Anna's relaxed left hand began to shake until she closed it and held her fist in her right hand. Her father gently stroke her shoulder before getting back to doing his laundry chore and she eventually walked away, ready to get scolded at by the priest.

He did lecture her pretty bad, asking her not to play vigilantes. She was pissed but at least he didn’t punish her for the incident and simply send her on her way with a warning. She was supposed to go see this boy whose name was apparently Gage and apologize but she was obviously not going to do that. Gabriel knew she wasn’t a serious threat and that she just wanted to teach a lesson to some idiots but he told her that if it happened again and someone got sent to the infirmary, she would spend her evenings and nights in the cell with her father instead of in a comfortable bed in Michonne’s house, and she would see her edged knife taken from her. That same evening, Anna went out for a walk to take her mind off things since she couldn't sleep. His hands weren't shaking, thankfully. As she walked, she saw figures moving silently in the dark, near the laundry hanging in the camp. She squinted and ducked to move unseen, grabbing a piece of wood from the floor. Something was wrong. She could feel it. Firmly holding her weapon of fortune until she heard someone hush and whisper for a few seconds and the voices got louder. She frowned and heard the muffled sounds of blows and suddenly, Lydia’s voice rose. She rushed through the sheets and got there within the instant. Gage and another brunette boy were pinning her down. Her body froze. She was paralyzed an instant but when she was punched in the somach by the blond woman, she grunted, falling to her knees, letting go of the stick. She coughed and felt the girl grabbed her hair and pull her away, kicking in her ribs. She widened her mouth and clenched her teeth so hard she though she was going to break them. She had to get up. She wasn’t going to let that bitch beat her up like a dog.

She was hearing Lydia struggling against the two boys and crying and Anna straightened up. She grabbed the woman, who thought she had the upper hand, by surprise and caught her fist in her hand. She kicked her in the abdomen, sending her to the ground while she took the stick. The woman went back at her but she had a weapon and she hit her side. The stick wasn’t so strong so it broke in two but she got hurt anyways. Anna grabbed the handle of her knife and someone jumped at her, pinning her down, pressing his knees against her throat. She coughed, having trouble to breathe. Her arms were stuck beneath her body but she tried harder and slipped her knife out of its sheath at her belt and waved her arm up in the air. The man yelled and fell to the side. She got on her knees, urging for air, breathing loudly and harshly, her hand on her neck. She looked around. Lydia was crying, curled up at her father’s feet. He glanced at his daughter with concern in his eyes as he crouched down, putting a comforting hand on Lydia’s back. Anna sat on the grass, still catching her breath.

“We were just trying to scare her.” Gage explained, staring at the tall man.

“Yo, Negan !” Another survivor of Alexandria, holding a pointy spear in his hand, arrived suddenly. “The hell is going on back here ?”

“Holy shit, Margo.” The brunette young man that was with them rushed to their friend’s side. “Margo !” She was her back against the wall, head bent on the side, blood all over. She was dead. The bitch got what she deserved. Anna got on her feet as her father stood up, staring at the woman’s corpse. He cursed soflty, sighing. Anna understood that he had caused her death, but it wasn’t on purpose given his tone.

In no time, people had gathered around them, mumbling in concert. Negan and Anna had been pushed aside and Daryl was the one crouched near Lydia. The poor girl was still shocked by what happened earlier, curled up on the grass.

“You, freak.” Gage spat out at Lydia's face. His friend took him by the shoulder and spoke up.

“It was Negan. Negan killed her ! And his fucking kid almost slit my throat !”

“Oh, get over it princess, I just cut your arm! You tried to choke me with your knee !” Anna yelled back, giving him a death stare. Her father held her by the arm to keep her from going at them and kept her by his side. Lydia was crying out that it wasn’t Negan’s fault and to leave him and Anna alone but no one listened obviously. The both of them were their scapegoats as of right now. They were the parias so they got blamed for the incident, when it should have been the other way around. The two boys assaulted Lydia and the woman tried to go after Anna when she came. They were at fault here, but nobody seemed to care.

“Now, get them out of here !” Daryl urged. A couple of survivors, including the one holding the spear, led them to the basement with the cell and locked the both of them up. As they walked away, Anna could still hear Lydia crying out that they did nothing wrong and Daryl tried his best to calm her down. Negan sat down on the bed and Anna joined him, wrapping her arms around her legs, her head resting on the cold wall.

“Oh, fuck this…” Anna breathed out, closing her eyes, swallowing harshly.

“Are you okay ?”

“I guess. I’m gonna have a nasty bruise on my neck but, you know… at least one of them’s dead, so…” Keeping her head on the wall, she rolled it to the side and looked at her father and shrugged. “I froze.” He stayed silent as she slipped in his arms, curled up on the bed. He listened, not knowing what she was talking about just yet. “I heard noises and I went to check and I saw them, attacking Lydia and– and I froze. I couldn’t move but this Margo, she took advantage of it because I was weak, at her mercy. I fought her back, then her dickhead of a friend, not Gage, the other one, he tried to crush my neck with his fucking knee.”

“I know.” He said softly, staring ahead of him as she talked. “When I arrived, I saw you choking for air. But you made it, apple pie.”

“I thought I was strong.”

“It’s not only about being strong, Anna. You’re so much more. You’re like your mom and I, you’re fierce, and you’re not easily fooled. When people do wrong by you or someone you’re close to, you feel the need to teach them a lesson but, you’ve been through a lot too. You have your share of traumas.”

“You’re back.” She breathed out. He looked down at her, frowning slightly, curious. “A few years ago, you would have told that we can't be weak, at any cost or we die. The Negan from the Savior would have said something like that, I think. But now, when I hear you, I hear my dad. And I’ve been waiting so much…” He stroke her hair, sighing.

“Let’s go to sleep. Take the bed.” She straightened up as he left the mattress and sat down on the floor. She knew that if she tried to tell him to sleep on the bed in her place, he would ask her to stop and go to sleep so she just looked at him and lied down.

“I love you, dad.”

“Love you too, baby.” And on those words, she rolled on her side, facing the wall and closed her eyes. When she was just falling asleep, she heard the door open and what sounded like Daryl’s voice talking to her father. She was just drowsing and too deep into it to move around and listen or say something so she just let herself slumbered after this eventful evening. She was exhausted.

Opening her eyes slowly, Anna stretched out her arms and yawned. She straightened up and as she turned her head, rubbing her eyes, she stopped moving and stared at the empty cell. Her dad wasn’t there. She slipped her legs over the edge of the bed and stood up, frowning. She was looking around her, lost, not understanding why he wasn't there, where he had gone. She noticed the cell’s door wasn’t locked and she went to open it and rushed outside the basement, running to the street. She didn’t understand what was going on. Turning on her left, she saw Gabriel walking toward the house, his hands on his hips, lost in his thoughts, concerned.

“Gabriel !” Anna sprinted to him and he stopped suddenly when he saw her appear in front of him. He frowned, staring at her and instantly, seeing her outside, he glanced at the basement and understood the reason for the panick in her eyes. “He’s gone. Someone let him out.”

“Stay here.” He said as he walked at a quick pace to the cell and she watched him from the street, sighing. She felt a void in her stomach draining her energy and she sat down on the front steps of a house and stayed there for dozens of minutes, staring into space. She felt abandoned. She did not understand how and why his father would have left her side overnight. She felt like she needed to be angry because she was just so sad but something told her that he didn’t do it for no reason. Someone let him out, as she said. Someone let him out for a reason that served them and he had to go. He would never have left his daughter behind after just starting to renforce their bond. The morning past and she walked across Alexandria. Daryl was near the gate, on his motorbyke and looked at her walking over to him. Siddicq turned his head as well as he rode his horse, wondering why she was coming to them.

“You’re going to Hilltop ?”

“Yeah, why ?”

“I, uh… I want to go there. My father’s missing and I just want to go somewhere else…”

“All right. Let’s go.” He stared at her and motioned her to get on the bike and she did so, wrapping her arms around him to stay in place. The ride was made in silence, punctuated by the deafening hum of the motorbike. After a while, they arrived at Hilltop. They got let in and Daryl parked the bike in the entrance of the camp, letting Anna get down. A woman greeted Daryl from afar, smiling at him. Anna glanced at Daryl without question as he walked towards Ezekiel. The young blond woman heard them say that they had looked for Negan but found nothing for now. She looked away and sighed. Anna circled the camp, looking for Alden. He would be surprised, for sure. He certainly didn't expect to see her again after half a year. He was working at the Hilltop small forge and didn't notice her right away as she stood there, a few feet in front of him, focused on what he was doing. When he looked up, he stared at her for a few seconds, not really realizing it was her, until she turned her head to him and their eyes met.

“Anna ?” She walked over to him and they hugged as a greeting. It was one of the warmest greetings Anna ever had. She took a couple steps back and they faced each other. “How are you ? I haven’t seen you in months. What are you doing here ?”

“Do you remember what we promised each other ?” She asked, softly. Anna paused as he thought about it and nodded.

“Something’s wrong ?”

“My dad went missing last night. Someone let him out and they found no trace of him. But, that’s only one of the reasons why I came here to see you. I heard about Enid, and all those people the whisperers killed and, uh… I’m really sorry I didn’t come earlier.”

“It’s all right.” He cut her off, looking at her. “You’re here now.”

“Yeah, but… she was my friend, too. You two were kind of my only friends, and now that my father is god knows where doing god knows what, I was kinda lost. I didn’t really know what to do but I just needed a friend’s support.” He listened to her without saying much before running his hand through his hair. He gave her a friendly, compassionate look, which she returned.

“I get the feeling. I think the main thing that drove us apart was how much you’re attached to him, which I never really understood because I just viewed him as a brute, to be honest. No offense. But, I get it now and if you need me, I’ll be there for you, no problem.” She smiled, greatful as he continued. “I’ve got some work to finish so if you want to lend me a hand, I won’t say no.”

“Of course, boss.” She said, playfully, trying to cheer the both of them up. Anna couldn’t really help at the forge as she had no skills in the field but she was useful in helping them prune the trunk of a tree that had fallen on one of their walls. The sleeves of her leather jacket tied around her waist, she cut the branches of the tree with a saw. From time to time, she exchanged a look with Alden, who was nearby, busy at the forge with an older man whose name Anna did not know yet. He seemed to be like a kind of mentor for the young man. At the end of the day, Alden showed Anna his trailer. For the short time she was going to stay here, he would take care of where she slept. He vouched for her, within the Hilltop. Some people still had preconceptions about the young woman and Maggie wouldn't be particularly happy to see her wandering around quietly here.

“You can sleep on the bed, I’ll take the couch.” She nodded while he searched for stuff in the room, probably food, opening and closing cupboards. This was probably his rations that he stored in there, which sounded obvious now that she thought about it. He took a couple glasses and a bottle of alcohol and put them all on a table. She looked through the window. Night had fallen outside. The sky would have been completely pitch black if it was not for the stars’ lights. He poured them the drinks and Anna grabbed her glass and took a sip, seated on the bed. She saw his eyes look down at the small scars on her arm. They were healed and looked like thin white curled lines and since her skin tone was light as well it faded into it expect if you purposely stared at it. They were deep but not so big. He took a sip of his drink. “It’s crazy.”

“Yeah, it sure as hell is.” She nodded, drinking. “I feel like it’s so useles that I can survive this, I mean, I can’t help ‘cause we don’t have the equipment to do whatever needs to be done.”

“You’ve always been above everyone else. High and mighty Anna.” He joked.

“The mighty feels rather useless to be honest. I still feel bad about it…”

“About what ?” He inquired.

“I still feel like I could have done something different, like, I could have done something to help Carl. I could have saved him.” She heard him breathe out, heavily.

“We all feel bad about something, eventually.” They both nodded at his remark and kept talking about everything and anything for hours. After a while, they had gotten drunk enough to dance together around the room, laughing. A drop of her drink had landed on the floor and at some point, she stepped on it and slipped over the couch, grabbing Alden’s arm for some support but dragging him in her fall instead. Their faces got dangerously close and they stared into each other’s eyes in silence, without moving, as if they were paralyzed, feeling each other’s breath licking their skins. Holding onto the couch so as not to crush her as he was on top of her, he never took his eyes off her and slowly brought his face closer, brushing the tip of her nose before pressing his lips against hers. The sweet taste of his lips was mixed with the bitterness of the alcohol he drank. She had never lived something like this, not even close. She didn’t know how she was feeling about it right now because she was too immersed in the moment to think about anything else than him, his lips, his kiss and his touch.

[To be continued…]

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Published (02/20/2022) by Andrea

Taglist: @cathrin2405 @kika64

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