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hope-grace-serenity · 3 years

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In Defense of the Deputy: Morals and Ethics in Far Cry 5

The narratives of recent Far Cry installments have been framed in a way that make the player question whether or not they’re truly playing as the “good guy.” In Far Cry 3, Jason slowly embraces the violent lifestyle on Rook Island, gradually finding the killing to be a fun power trip instead of the horrifying reality that it is. In Far Cry 4, Ajay topples a ruthless dictator, only to replace him with a revolutionary that is either a religious extremist or a person who has children kidnapped in order to make them into soldiers/slaves. In Far Cry 5, the Deputy goes up against a professed prophet in an attempt to subdue him and his cult, only to find in the end that the prophet was right about the end of the world. It is logical to think that if the Deputy would have just left the cult well enough alone, then that would have been the right choice, as it would have avoided the war between Eden’s Gate and the rest of Hope County, as possibly the Collapse itself. However, there is a different way to view it.

The purpose of this post is to convey that Joseph being accurate regarding the Collapse does not necessarily mean that avoiding confrontation with Eden’s Gate or joining them would have been the “right” thing to do. In fact, it will suggest the opposite: that the Deputy has a moral and ethical obligation to fight *against* Eden’s Gate and that the actions of the cult are firmly wrong despite the Collapse happening. While we as players can certainly feel empathy for the Seeds, their actions within the game make them the clear villains in this scenario, in my opinion. The Deputy deserves no blame for attempting to subdue the cult, and I will explain why by focusing on both in-universe rationale and looking at the narrative from a broader perspective.

The Warrant

First, we need to examine the idea of morality and ethics. Morality refers to a person’s principles of right and wrong--this is something that can be influenced by a person’s culture, religion, family, experiences, etc. Ethics refers to rules of conduct given by some kind of external source. In Far Cry 5, the protagonist is a law enforcement official with an ethical obligation to uphold the law and confront those who break it. Furthermore, from the perspective of a 21st century American--which we can assume the Deputy is, based on the setting of the game--Eden’s Gate commits several acts that cause harm and remove the personal agency of others, which provides the Deputy with a moral motivation for stopping them, as opposed to solely an ethical one.

An arrest warrant is made for Joseph Seed due to suspicion of kidnapping with an intent to harm. The Deputy choosing not to go through with the arrest would be bad from both a moral and ethical perspective. “Kidnapping with an intent to harm” is a serious charge, and can be a matter of life or death for the victim. Imagine if you were the parent or sibling of the kidnapping victim, and you found out that the law enforcement officials chose not to go through with the arrest of the suspect because they were afraid of rocking the boat. If that information was made public, the law enforcement officials would be rightly criticized for not doing their jobs, and for prioritizing their own desire for convenience over bringing justice to the victim. By arresting Joseph Seed, the Deputy made the moral and ethical decision.

As we see from the main game, the “suspicions” listed in the arrest warrant are later proven to be correct. Alex is killed, and his body is mutilated and put on public display as a warning. Hannah is tortured physically and psychologically, and is also killed due to her forced participation in Jacob’s trials. Joseph and several members of Eden’s Gate knew that they kidnapped the film crew. They knew in advance that Law Enforcement was coming. So, how do they decide to handle this? In a way befitting for characters who are meant to be viewed as villains.

Before the Reaping

Before we get into what the Deputy actually sees in-game, one thing needs to be made clear: Eden’s Gate always had an underlying darkness surrounding them. Regardless of what they looked like on the surface, they were never some peaceful hippie commune that was minding its own business before the Deputy came along. They’ve been committing crimes and getting away with them for years. They didn’t suddenly snap once the Deputy arrived--the Deputy’s arrival simply peeled back and revealed what was already there.

We know from the “Grieving Note” that Angels have been with Eden’s Gate for several years, longer than the current Faith has been with the group. Angels are humans who are exposed to an extreme amount of the Bliss drug, which causes them to lose their capacity for human thought and essentially act as a literal mindless follower. Their loss of identity and individuality is furthered by Eden’s Gate shaving the heads of the Angels and surgically removing their ability to speak. They act as slave labor--described as "beasts of burden"--and are fed dog food and garbage. The idea of becoming an angel is used as a threat to fellow cultists in the “Cult Note” in the King’s Hot Springs Hotel. The fact that Eden's Gate creates and condones the existence of these Angels is truly disturbing from a moral perspective, due to the inherent exploitation and dehumanization. When Angels die, their bodies are tossed in a pit of “boiling muck” in Horned Serpent Cave to disintegrate.

Angels aren’t the only ones thrown in the pit to disintegrate: Joseph threw the body of Lana, a previous Faith, in there as well, despite being told by him that she was “special.” There is a reason the writers chose to highlight that the bodies were disposed of in here, as opposed to the cult simply burying them. Bodies are disintegrated if you want to hide evidence, and by tossing the bodies in a location with properties dangerous enough to require a bio-hazard sign, any crimes are easily covered up. We don’t find the bodies of Selena or the other previous Faiths who were "used up and thrown away" by Joseph, but considering there are hints that point to foul play (disintegration of Lana’s body, Megan leaving out of fear of what Joseph could do after seeing that there was a new Faith, the way the position itself is dehumanized, the fact that Joseph has a designated corpse disposal spot in the first place, etc.) and absolutely zero evidence towards any kind of alternate fate for the previous Faiths, it’s easy to put two and two together and conclude that the previous Faiths met a grisly fate that was covered up as well.

Eden’s Gate was also involved in animal abuse through the creation of Judges, which were unleashed after the reaping. These animals were kidnapped and forcibly exposed to an obscene amount of the Bliss drug, which purposely causes them to act like rabid killers in the service of Eden’s Gate. According to NPCs, they were trained to hunt humans.

Let’s also not forget that Joseph personally gorged a guy’s eyes out for being a traitor. If the developers didn’t want us to view Joseph as someone who was capable of doing that, then they would have removed it from the introductory video, but they didn’t. Also, the fact that Eden’s Gate has been planning for the Reaping for a while now shows that this group had the intent to launch a large-scale attack from before the Deputy even arrived at the compound.

And last but certainly not least, YEARS before the events of FC5, Jacob sent the Cook to kidnap Jess’s family. The Cook starved the family for days before torturing the parents and children by playing sick mind games and feeding the parents' flesh to their children. After all their toes were cut off, the parents were set on fire in front of their kids. The fact that this happened years ago, and this Cook is still with the group, is quite telling and reveals a lot about the morality and priorities of Eden’s Gate. If they wanted to get rid of him, they would have.

So as we can see, Eden’s Gate has no moral high ground to stand on at the start of the game. Not only is Joseph guilty of the crime he is accused of, but he and his organization are guilty of so much more, and have been for years. These actions committed by Eden’s Gate violate numerous laws and are morally wrong, as they bring severe harm to others and/or forcibly remove another’s personal agency for the convenience of the cult. The Deputy uncovers all of this throughout the course of the game.

During the Reaping

Knowledge of Eden’s Gate’s past crimes would be reason enough to take down this cult, but the Deputy also sees the current horrors firsthand. During the Reaping, cultists kidnap, torture, mutilate, and murder numerous unwilling participants. They steal supplies and were willing to kidnap a beloved pet dog in order to perform experiments on him and turn the poor dog into a savage killer, after killing his owners. Defaced corpses are decorated and strung up as warnings. Some citizens of Hope County are fed to Judges, while others are turned into Angels or are forced to leap off a giant statue. If someone doesn’t convert to the religion of Eden’s Gate, then they are either tortured or drugged until they give in, or murdered.

The Deputy has zero incentive to walk away from this conflict. Why would they? As a deputy of Hope County, they have a moral and ethical obligation to protect the county’s citizens, and those citizens are under attack by Eden’s Gate. Eden’s Gate are the aggressors in this scenario. *They* are the ones who are kidnapping, murdering, torturing, and brainwashing the Hope County citizens. As far as the Deputy is aware at the beginning of the game, they are the only remaining police officer and only person in a position of authority to fight against the cult. It is their responsibility to fight against the people causing grievous harm to the county.

Throughout the game, the Deputy’s personal encounters with the heralds further reinforce the idea that Eden’s Gate is dangerous and beyond reason. While confessions can and should be voluntary, John does not approach it in that way. John kidnaps, terrorizes, and tortures the hardened Joey Hudson to the point of tears, and brings the Deputy to his torture dungeon where he once pried confessions under duress from prior individuals of the county. He kidnapped the Deputy in order to forcibly baptize them to the point where they might have drowned without Joseph’s interference, and captures them in order to make them confess, using the presence of Hudson as leverage (Hudson’s misery was also used as incentive on the video to draw the Deputy to the Holland region). He lures the Deputy to the church in the same way (by kidnapping their friends) and then permanently modifies their body against their will. Despite his proclaimed desire to have the Deputy atone, John also expresses desire to see the Deputy dead on occasion, such as after they destroy his sign.

While it might be easier for the player to sympathize with John due to his backstory and dynamic with Joseph, from the Deputy’s in-universe perspective, his instability represents a very real, tangible threat not only to them, but to the people of Hope County as a whole. At every turn, John has either imposed his will onto the Deputy by removing opportunities for agency and/or harming others. The Deputy owes John nothing. Any "choice" he gives of saying "Yes" is undermined by the massive amount of strings attached. It is difficult to envision a reason why the Deputy would decide to give into John’s philosophy, aside from faking it in order to protect their allies. This is a failing on John's part, not the Deputy.

Like John, Faith also expresses a desire for the Deputy to give in to Eden's Gate. But unlike John, she initially appears to the Deputy in a more pacifistic, less confrontational way. Despite this, the Deputy is still able to see her darker side due to her views on the Angels and fate of the unfortunate souls who walk the path whipping themselves and take a literal leap off of the statue of Joseph. Furthermore, she overrides the Deputy’s agency through the use of Bliss, which drastically warps one’s perception of reality. The Bliss that she now controls makes the horrific creation of Angels possible, and this Bliss is also used during baptisms, which muddles the issue of personal agency and consent to John’s process in addition to her own conversion process. The dangers of the Bliss and how it affects one’s thought process become highlighted in the Henbane region, and letters, voicemails, and NPC chatter show that Faith is not one to be trifled with. This comes to a head when Faith brainwashes the Sheriff and manipulates the Marshall into killing Virgil before killing himself. While it’s easy to have sympathy for Faith and her experiences, from the Deputy’s perspective, Faith is still a potential danger, which is why they step back when she leaned toward them during her death scene.

Jacob too removes the Deputy’s personal agency by literally brainwashing them and turning them into a tool that he can command, which eventually results in the Deputy being forced to kill a friend. He forced captives into competing against each other in life or death trials. He keeps the Deputy in a cage with a dead body and feeds them “mystery meat” after seven days of starving them while telling them a story about how he cannibalized his friend. The Judges are his brainchild that he sends to attack and kill others. Like John, Jacob also kidnapped and tortured a fellow police officer, to the point where they act like a slave to Jacob’s whims. Jacob has not done anything other than convincing the Deputy that he is a threat.

It is not the Deputy's job to fix the Seeds' personal issues--it's their job to protect Hope County. Throughout their journey, the Deputy sees various atrocities being committed, both to strangers and to themselves and the people they care about. There is zero reason for the Deputy to genuinely give in to the Seeds and join Eden's Gate, considering the horrible way they were treated and how they saw others being treated.

Joseph and the Voice

The Deputy’s presence did not *force* Eden’s Gate to start the Reaping. *Joseph* was the one to initiate it as a reaction to the Deputy’s presence, and all of Eden’s Gate followed him lockstep. When given the opportunity to finally confront and arrest the man responsible or walk away, it almost feels laughable that it’s even a choice at this point.

As leader of Eden’s Gate, Joseph oversees all parts of the Project. The buck stops with him. If he had any issues with Faith’s Angels, or Jacob’s trials, or John’s torture, he could have and would have said something--such as when he intervenes during the baptism--but he doesn’t. Because it furthers the goal of the Project, he doesn’t see any issue with these actions and feels they are justified.

Joseph’s vision of the Collapse coming true doesn’t mean that his actions throughout the game have greater inherent morality than the Deputy. It just means that he’s right about the Collapse. Regarding the Reaping, I do not believe that Joseph was motivated by a sense of cruelty, but that doesn’t change how many of the actions he participated in and oversaw *were* cruel. In real life, we see various examples of some people (not just in religious institutions, but in positions of authority in general) who commit harmful acts for the sake of a perceived “greater good.” And many of those people genuinely believe in what they are doing, believe they are in the right. But that doesn’t mean they actually are.

Which brings us to the elephant in the room: the Voice. If the Voice of God supports Joseph, then surely the deputy is automatically the “bad guy” for opposing him, right?

Wrong.

First, we have to be willing to admit that we know next to nothing about the Voice. The only things we know about it is what is conveyed to us by Joseph. We do not know the exact wording of what the Voice says, the level of detail it gives him regarding expectations (if any), or even what it is. Is it the voice of God? Satan? A real angel? Some kind of eldritch entity from another dimension? How accurate is Joseph's reiteration or interpretation? Sometimes it seems to directly tell Joseph things (hence the title, “the Voice”), other times it shows him visions. Clearly, there is some kind of supernatural component, as it allows Joseph to see the future, but since we don’t know much about it specifically, we can’t automatically assume or attribute inherent benevolence or morality to it.

Second, it’s entirely possible for a genuine prophet of God (assuming the Voice does indeed belong to a benevolent creator), or those who have/had God’s favor, to engage in morally questionable behavior, both in the eyes of God and/or in the eyes of 21st century readers. While the Project at Eden’s Gate is its own distinct religion, it takes most of its cues from Christianity, both in terms of practices and beliefs. In the Bible, King David had a man murdered so he could sleep with that man’s wife. Jonah wanted the entire population of a city to be killed off instead of having them repent. Jacob (the Biblical figure) deceives his father into giving him a birthright that belonged to his brother, and shows blatant favoritism to one son which ends up causing a lot of internal strife within the family. It’s fully within the realm of possibility that Joseph’s actions are not meant to be endorsed, either by the Voice itself or by the narrative in a broader sense.

In New Dawn, Joseph alludes to his own personal failings by saying, “My soul has become a cancer. I am a monster. I only spread suffering and death in the name of God.” The death of his son and the destruction of New Eden act as a moment of awakening for Joseph, as he finally realizes the harsh reality of his actions and how they affect others. He then expresses a desire for death and says, “There is only the justice of God’s hand.” The implication of “justice” being done indicates that the Voice (“God”) would not be happy with some of the actions that Joseph did. So while Joseph’s actions in FC5 were done with the intent of serving the Voice, his execution of these ideas was something that Joseph feels God would not like, as his actions spread death and suffering.

And thirdly, we have to remember that the Deputy and the player are viewing the idea of morality from the perspective of a 21st century human. Let’s say that, hypothetically, the Voice specifically instructed and condoned the erasure of free will/murders/kidnappings/etc. for whatever reason, and by enacting them, Joseph and Eden’s Gate were “just following orders.” Does this absolve Joseph and Eden's Gate of responsibility? No. Willing participation in the crimes committed, even if it wasn’t “their idea,” can still have legal consequences and can still be viewed as “bad” from a moral perspective because of the results of those actions.

The Collapse

It has been discussed elsewhere (on this site and in outside articles/discussions about the game) that the actions of the deputy correspond with the role of the Lamb in Revelations, and by breaking the seals, the Deputy’s actions supernaturally trigger the Collapse. This interpretation is fairly popular, and is one I personally support. However, I do not feel as though this interpretation lessens the morality of the Deputy's actions. Their decision to fight the Seeds is still the right one, regardless of whether or not their actions resulted in some kind of cosmic game of dominos.

First off, when the Deputy is attempting to take down the Seeds and protect the people of Hope County, they are not doing this with the intent of playing a role in a cosmic prophecy that will result in the death of millions. They’re looking at the situation from a human perspective, and acting accordingly and sensibly. The Seeds, on the other hand, were willingly harming innocents both before and during the Reaping.

Second, if there's a need to assign blame to a human for starting the Collapse (and I personally don't think there needs to be), it would be the Seeds, not the Deputy. The Sheriff and the deputies wouldn’t have arrived with the arrest warrant if the Seeds were not kidnapping and doing other illegal actions.

And thirdly, if one does attribute blame of the Collapse to the Deputy, then one also must attribute the birth of the new world to them as well. Following along with the idea that the events of FC5 are a fulfillment of Revelations, then the Collapse is ultimately viewed as a Good Thing within in the context of the Book of Revelations, even if the player might not personally share the sentiment. The Book of Revelations describes how the new world that is supposed to emerge from the ashes of the old is meant to be much better than the one before. And if we look at the world of New Dawn--and I’m going to copy and paste something I wrote previously here---Nature is allowed to flourish, people work together and support each other in a tight community, all the social ills mentioned in the Book of Joseph (and by the characters in-game) no longer exist. The only “snakes in the garden” would be the Highwaymen, and they are abolished by the Captain, who Joseph prophesizes to be some kind of Messiah-like figure. The final scene of New Dawn is one of hope, where the characters talk about building a better future. The way Joseph and Ethan’s storyline ends also connects to the whole idea of breaking away from the past and moving forward. If one believes that the Deputy is responsible for the Collapse, then this new world shown in New Dawn and the context of Revelations complicates the idea of viewing the Deputy's actions as being inherently bad.

Some might also argue that the Deputy has responsibility for not taking Joseph's warnings more seriously. Why though? Why should the Deputy attribute more credibility to Joseph's claims than, say, those of Marshall Applewhite or David Koresh? As players who know the ending, it’s easy for us to say that the Deputy should have listened to Joseph's warning about the Collapse, but there’s no in-universe rationale for the Deputy to do so. Issues of belief aside, Eden’s Gate’s actions alone are enough to paint an extremely negative picture of the group and would be enough to make any regular person not want to associate with them.

Under the framework of the Revelations prophecy being the intended interpretation of the game events though, I personally don't feel that any character "deserves" blame for the Collapse happening, not even the Seeds. I blame the Seeds for what they do to people within the game and before the events of FC5. And my perception of the Deputy is based on what we see in the game as well. But again, the Revelations prophecy idea is simply one way to view the game. Regardless of whether or not this interpretation is the correct one, the deputy still has the moral high ground in their fight against the Seeds.

Conclusion

Joseph being right about the Collapse does not mean that his (and by extension, Eden’s Gate’s) actions during FC5 were justified, and the Deputy should not be blamed for fighting against them. Just as the Deputy made a choice to arrest Joseph, Joseph made the choice to react in the worst way possible with the Reaping. Eden’s Gate were the aggressors who were kidnapping, torturing, and murdering people throughout the county. The Deputy fights against Eden’s Gate as a direct result of *Eden's Gate's* actions. The Deputy deserves no blame or guilt for killing the Seeds and destroying their bases of operations, as they reacted in a logical way based on the quality of information they had at the time.

In New Dawn, the Deputy expresses an extreme amount of guilt, which transforms them into the Judge. This guilt is misplaced and should be attributed to the other resident of the bunker, which is something Joseph himself even alludes to during his final speech in New Dawn when he criticizes his own actions. If Eden’s Gate did not start attacking the people of Hope County, the bunkers would still be standing, and the Seeds and many other cultists would still be alive. But they did, so they’re not.

While I adore all four of the Seeds as characters and have varying degrees of sympathy for them, they are firmly villains within the context of the story due to their actions. The deputy is not a bad guy for trying to stop them. The fact the Seeds sided with a guy who kidnapped and starved a family, then fed the parents' flesh to their children while playing “this little piggy” with the parents’ toes, and then murdered said parents in front of their children should speak for itself.

TL;DR: The deputy’s decision to confront Joseph instead of walking away was the right one.

#far cry 5 #fc5 #joseph seed #jacob seed #faith seed #john seed #the junior deputy #long post #tw: canon typical violence #far cry 5 meta #fc5 meta #far cry #i do love all these characters #just to be perfectly clear lol #far cry meta

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lover-of-queens · 3 years

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Farah Dowling is Alive Part 3

Or, as I like to call it, I think I’m running out of funny subtitles.

If you haven’t yet, I recommend checking out Part 1 & Part 2

Under the cut, as usual!

Parts 1 and 2 of this analysis were focused on a deep dive into the first season to to look for clues and any evidence that suggests getting our lovely Eve Best back for season 2 of Fate. This part will be slightly different. While I’m honestly surprised at the seeming fandom consensus that Farah is alive, there are some counterarguments I’ve seen/heard that I’d like to address. These counterarguments may either be the ones most convincing to me that Farah isn’t coming back (and then I’ll give reasons why I think they’re wrong) or fears about Eve’s filming schedule (I’ll also try and offer some hope there).

The first counterargument is that the writers may choose to not bring Farah back in order to play into the dead mentor trope. Also known as the Mentor Occupational Hazard trope. Pretty self explanatory, but the essential idea is that at some point the protagonists of the story have to learn how to make it on their own without that guiding figure; they have to grow up. Frodo has to make it without Gandalf, etc. You only have to google examples of this trope to see how much it shows up in the media we consume. And it could easily apply to Fate. Farah provided that mentoring role in the first season but now, without her, the girls have to figure out how to hold their own against the villains infiltrating their school. The end of season 1 is, essentially, setting this trope up.

I just don’t think that Farah has to be dead for them to do it. While I don’t know where the writers are planning to take season 2, I would imagine even if we do get Farah back, she won’t play as big a role as she did in the first season. What this means is that likely the winx girls will still have to figure out a way to hold their own despite losing that mentor figure (hopefully, she’ll just be in hiding and not dead *cough cough* fate writers).

Also, the thing with setting a show at a school is that the mentor role is somewhat inherent to the structure. And as I’ve mentioned in the previous two parts (extremely unlikely redemption arc pending) I just cannot see Rosalind holding onto that “mentor role” for more than a season (or two, depending on where season 2 ends & if there’s a renewal for a third). Seems to me like they’ll have to bring that “dead mentor” back to resume her rightful place. So, I think it’ll be more likely we’ll get a subversion of the dead mentor trope.

The second argument & the argument that concerns me the most can be summed up in one character: Andreas. Now, I know what you’re thinking, what the hell does he have to do with this? It’s less to do with him and more to do with the fact that he came back from the dead (or allegedly dead, it’s complicated!). This concerns me because writers generally want the idea of death to be taken seriously on the show or whatever form of media they’re writing. Especially since Fate has taken a darker route, I’m not certain it wants viewers under the impression that anybody they kill off can just come back; it somewhat defeats the purpose.

So will Fate writers want to bring Farah back despite knowing this? Maybe.

The whole ‘Farah’s eyes glowed before she died’ plot is interesting because of precisely how vague it is, how many directions it can be taken in that could either lead to her coming back or not. It may be intentionally vague because they want us theorizing and talking about the season/show after it’s ended, it may be vague because they themselves are trying to figure out what direction to take. But let’s be clear, they are heavily pushing the theorizing angle. These are all taken from three separate posts on Fate’s IG page:

In the last one, Hannah, Precious and Sadie all agree that Farah needs to be in season 2. As Sadie says “We can’t have a season 2 without her.” Precious points out how the death scene was “too easy”. Similar sentiments are echoed on Netflix’s Afterparty for Fate when the host asks:

David Spade: “Do you think Professor Dowling . . . faked her own death and then she can come back on season two? . . . sometimes it’s such a big hit like this, then they say ‘People like that character, let’s try to find a way to come back’”.

To which Abbey says: “It’s a magical show, anything can happen!”

I mean one only needs to take a look at AO3 to see that over half of the stories on there feature Farah - but admittedly that is a more niche section of a fandom. Something broader would be looking at the IG comments where Farah’s name generally pops up in the top comments with a message hoping she’s going to be brought back. Also the Farah/Eve fandom on IG is LARGE and growing.

Additionally, I think the amount of Farah/Golden Trio bloopers we got is also a good sign (especially because Eve got single shots) that Netflix/Whoever is in charge sees her as a popular character. And I don’t think there would be a push for discussion of Farah theories just for it to end with her remaining dead. So even though Andreas has come back, I think Farah can too. The next person that dies on the show though . . . well . . . that’ll likely be more permanent.

Now that we’ve established from a story and fandom perspective why Farah is likely coming back. Let’s talk about what most people are actually worried about. Eve’s filming schedule. I’m going to preface this argument with a mention that I’m not an industry professional or anything, so these are just my best guesses based on the facts available to us.

House of the Dragon is due to start shooting in April (source). Since it’s the first season we don’t really have an idea of how long it’ll take to film, but since it is the GOT prequel, I would say its a fair assumption to base a rough production schedule around the earlier seasons of that show. The reason why I say earlier is that the later seasons did come with longer filming schedules, but GOT was the epitome of pop culture at that point. I don’t think House of the Dragon will be getting that treatment until it proves itself.

Game of Thrones took roughly six months to film a season (source). If we’re assuming that HOTD will take a similar timeline then we’re probably looking at an April to September filming schedule, possibly longer because Covid is causing production delays everywhere.

We don’t have news about when Fate is planning to start filming their second season. From Abbey’s IG, we know that the first season filmed from September to December 2019, so I think it’s also fair to assume that we’re probably looking at a similar schedule for season 2. Also, considering they got an additional two episodes then I’m guessing their filming time will increase.

Put these two schedules together and there’s not that much overlap and even should HOTD take longer, or Fate start shooting earlier, there’s still should be enough time for Eve to film both - if she’s willing! Also, realistically, I don’t see any way that Farah’s screen time doesn’t drop in season 2 (for a variety of reasons) but that drop should hopefully mean that they can get Eve.

Alright y’all, I think that’s the last part of this series, at least for now. It has been so so fun to theorize with all of you and to write almost four thousand words on this topic (that’s crazy!). I wouldn’t be doing this if it wasn’t fun for me, but at the same time, seeing everyone’s reactions to these posts really just makes my heart warm and it all worth it. So, thank you all for coming on this journey with me <3

#farah dowling #fate the winx saga #this one is shorter thankfully <3

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thed4rkhand · 3 years

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Hi! I'm excited for your posts :3 It would be really interesting to read your analysis on Jimin's chart!

So today we’re doing Jimin’s chart and my analysis of it. Let me make it clear right off the bat, that since I’m not a professional astrologer, some things may not match up, further since we’re not super sure of his birth time, it’ll definitely affect the reading. What I can be sure of is that I’ll do my best and I’m completely open to constructive criticism from you all!

Now lets get on with some basic stuff, for those who have not yet read the post with Namjoon’s moon analysis, I’ll again reiterate some principles of Vedic astrology! In the scenario that you’re still confused with all this jargon, feel free to reach out and I’ll be more than happy to help you out.

Starting out, we have to note that while western astrology is usually more advisory in nature, Vedic astrology’s main purpose is to predict. Also, we usually go a sign back from western astrology in Vedic astrology, so according to that for example, if you’re a libra rising, you become a virgo rising in Vedic astrology and so on and so forth. All planets will also shift back a sign, so a Capricorn Mercury will become a Sagittarius Mercury.

Now let’s be aware that the chart may be a bit different, but given the main d1 (Lagna) chart remains the same for about 2 hours, let’s focus on that and the moon chart (rashi chart) for this reading. We can also just look at d9 for strength but not house placements as that can be time sensitive. So, we can take a two hour margin of time discrepancy and still predict accurately.

For this reading, we have taken 13th October 1995 as the day and 10:34pm as the time of birth, with the location set to Busan.

OTHER THAN THIS, LET ME KNOW IF YOU WANT ME TO DO A BIRTH TIME RECTIFICATION FOR JIMIN LATER ON SO WE CAN GET MORE ACCURATE PREDICTIONS.

Since this is a general chart analysis, we shall be covering topics briefly and discussing the moon, ascendant and sun. For an in depth reading, do pick a smaller and focussed topic as we can honestly keep going on and on about a chart.

THIS READING WILL BE DONE IN 4 PARTS, FOLLOWING THE ASCENDANT, MOON, SUN AND MISCELLANEOUS.

On with the actual reading now-

Right off the bat, we can see Jimin is born into Gemini, with his ascendant at 16’49’, within the Nakshatra of Arda, within the fourth quadrant or pada. His lagna lord, Mercury is retrograde in the 4th house conjunct with sun, in the sign of virgo, where Mercury is naturally exalted as well as Mercury being in its Mooltrikon sign here. Secondly, the lord of Ardra, rahu, is sitting in the 5th house conduct Venus. Further the first house receives aspects from both rahu(north node) and mars. We can keep going but we’ve got a whole chart to cover here.

Now onto explaining what all this means. Being born into gemini makes the natives jovial and social by nature, all while having a very sharp mind. The phrase that comes to mind is ‘a wolf in sheep’s clothes’, not because they’re inherently bad or something, but because people don’t give them enough credit for their genius calculating mind. Throwing the Nakshatra of Ardra into this, I can definitely see the dots connecting slowly. Ardra literally means ‘the fortunate one’. An apparent destructive Nakshatra, given its ruled by the deity Rudra, it has several different aspects to it.

People born in ardra tend to have very extreme emotions and may be prone to anger issues and a habit of destructing anything they deem imperfect. People in this Nakshatra also make great actors due to their ability to mimic others well, a quality that makes them well liked and sociable, often giving them a dual persona of seriousness and goofiness. Such people are extremely affectionate and motherly, And men may display an effeminate quality to them, given that the Nakshatra is female in nature. Further, since rudra is also representative of the half man half woman god, (Ardhnarishwar), such people may have a conflict with wanting to show more and more stereotypically masculine sides to them and thus may engage in extreme dieting or bodybuilding to achieve this.

On a professional front, such people are extremely hardworking and rule abiding, sometimes to the extent of being self destructive. They have a humorous disposition and often hide behind that persona. They also keep a tight circle of friends and often check up on them. Compassionate and coolheaded, such people are often the centre of attention. The tend to multitask very often and find it hard to remain still and let go. lastly, such people and their career usually peaks after the age of 32 (aaahhh whaaat jimin).

lastly, his ascendant is in the last quadrant, which is ruled by Pisces and thus Jupiter. Being in an enemy sign here, people can have body image issues (1st house is our body and mind) and mental destress regarding their capabilities. Such people also love to engage in drinking and are very philanthropic in nature, loving to elevate the unfortunate people in society.

His lagna lord is retrogade in 4th house in virgo, conjunct sun and without aspects. The former indicates that a personal has a constant up and down tussle with their self image, and people often have demeaned them for either their looks or personality. This causes a person to be extremely insecure in themselves, and thus may require constant coddling and words of affirmations. Going four houses away, we can see that his mother is someone who truly shaped him and his persona. Their childhood upbringing plays a big role in them. Their childhood could have been tumultuous, with constant disagreements and obstacles.

They may have problems expressing their emotions or penning down their words, or they might be a very cautious person in terms of what they speak and to whom they speak. Mercury is also exalted here, giving it power, so we see that eventually the native breaks forth of this dilemma in life. They may have a career related to communication (see mercury aspecting 10th house), and they will have a successful career at that. The person may own a lot of real estate with this position. Since its mercury in virgo, such a person may be brilliant with handling technology and may even pursue IT based careers due to the ease of handling gadgets.

Given that here, sun in conjunct, right off the bat, the person must resemble their father a lot in terms of looks. They also have a regal appearance that demands attention. They may be well spoken. Their father was dominating and shaped them into who they are. Since mercury and sun aren’t friends, we can also see that such a person may have anger issues and problems controlling their tongue. This conjunction also forms the renowned Budh-Aditya Yoga, a conjunction that shows extreme smartness in a person. While this doesn’t necessarily have to be academic, such people can be very sharp and grasp things easily, they may even have knowledge on a wide variety of subjects and be extremely curious to learn more. Due to this, a person also become a great communicator, and people enjoy listening to them talk as they hold people’s attention with their unique way of speaking. They can be a great salesperson or politician with such a placement. Studies should come easy, as would reading anything from novels to detailed instructions. There may be a talent for writing stories and one may be good at interpreting symbols, font design or calligraphy.

Now going to rahu and Venus in 5th. This is a great placement honestly, given that Venus, the lord of love, beauty and creativity is sitting in the house of children, past karma, creativity and primary education, in the sign of libra. This would indicate that a native with their Nakshatra lord here would be extremely creative (rahu blows qualities out of proportion), kind of childlike innocence that would attract people who would want to literally ‘nurture’ or mother them, or inversely they could themselves be very motherly to their friends, such people also have good education till primary level (undergraduate level) and also carry a lot of good karma from their past life, which results in gains now.

Further the sign of Libra signifies that their beauty or creativity would be very magnetic, they exude charm and regalness, they tend to attract people like moths and have a very star crossed lovers kind of personality. Given Venus is the lord of 12th and 5th house itself, sitting in its mooltrikon sign of libra, it is extremely powerful here. Such a person may have alien or distinguished ideas, explore new arenas, write about devotion and deep philosophical experiences. They may also be very fond of children and children’s literature.

Given the 12th house is also the house of paranormal and extraterrestrial beings, such a person may be very in tune with their own selves and may regularly take part in activities of the occult like tarot, astrology, magick or occult like practices, or at least they have the natural capacity to do so. They may also be great psychologists with this placement and read people’s minds, with acute sixth sense and empathetic powers. Such a placement may also give clairvoyant abilities to a person. They may have troubles with their left eye, liver and digestive track also.

Rahu in libra makes someone overtly sensual and starry eyed about the world, seeing stuff through rose tinted glasses. Here in the 5th house, this may give an unrealistic image of love and grandeur, cause obsession like love, unrealistic image of self to the world. They may be also seen as a sex symbol of sorts often time, but also have a very cute site to them, as libra is a dual sign itself. Given its the ruler of 9th house here, where retrograde Saturn sits, the person may have many failures in their love life or have a very unsuccessful love life till much older, when Saturn matures at 36 years. further, aqueous gives an affinity for wanting to stand out, attracting people and being attracted to people with unconventional personalities (vmin stans) and of course, being excited about all things foreign. They may have an affinity for writing about unusual and unrelated scenarios or daydreaming about them. They might want to provide comfort to unusual people and nurture them alot, while also wanting to stand out and become unconventional themselves, they hate being blended into the crowd with this position.

As for the mars and rahu aspect to the lagna, it would largely affect the physical and mental state here. Rahu has a tendency to give long, elongated and cat like eyes to people, or very exaggerated features in general, as rahu represents the extremes. These people have unusual but magnetic (rahu is temptation) looks, which only get better and better with age (rahu is the oldest after Saturn). Mars over here gives a ruddy complexion and untidy and unruly hair. It gives a stout athletic body, which is made extremely lean due to his gemini rising. These people have exaggerated Adam’s apple and extremely masculine features (look at his face, at points he looks like he’s a statue with those sharp chiseled features). Mars may give a very sexual look to a person too, making them look more hot than cute usually. The extremely emotive eyes of his are all thanks to ardra Nakshatra, which usually promises that (the eye smile?).

Such people may have very violent thoughts, due to mars. They might also be extremely passionate and would do anything to reach their goal. Rahu here brings a tendency to fall for addictions, such as alcohol and drugs.

So this is part 1 of jimin’s chart, I’ll analyze his sun, moon, miscelnous (house placements, atmakarka, amatyakarka, darakarka, divisional charts and a lot more in that)

Do let me know if you enjoyed reading this and if you have any feedbacks.

#bts tarot #bts astrology #bts jimin #jimin #parkjimin #bts jin #seokjin #jin #rm #kim namjoon #namjoon #bts suga #suga #yoongi #hoseok #jhope #v #taehyung #kim taehyung #jeon jungkook #astrology

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godboundrpgfans · 3 years

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Guts in Godbound

Guts, the Black Swordsman.

One of the most badass characters in fiction.

Not just for his sheer, unadulterated power and being everything a 90s Anti-Hero is expected to be, but also for being everything that a 90s Anti-Hero isn’t expected to be.

Guts is a much more complex character than first glances would have you believe, and I don’t think I could do his character justice by talking about it here.

Thankfully, that’s not why I’m here.

I’m here because I was bored and got the bright idea to use the Godbound Character Creation System to create Guts.

Why? Cause why the fuck not?

Now before we start, I’m going to be doing two version of this character creation.

The first will follow the standard character creation for a Godbound. You roll up/pick attributes, pick three Words, etc. For this, I will be creating Guts when he was still in the Band of the Hawk, right before he left. Since you could kind of consider that his “peak” before the Eclipse.

The second version will be the same, except I won’t be using the 6 Point limit that the game gives you at the start. Instead, I will just give Guts any and all Gifts/Artifacts and otherwise that I believe he should have at this point in the Berserk Manga.

With that out of the way, let’s begin!

Standard Creation:

Attribute Scores:

8, 16, 13, 10, 12, 18

I’ll wait until after I choose Words since those will have an affect on the Scores.

Facts:

Grew up in a Mercenary Band

The Raiding Captain for the Band of the Hawks

Has formed a deep friendship with all of the major members

Since this is Guts before the Eclipse, I feel these would be the best Facts to use as his Origin, Past Profession, and Relationship.

Armor: Medium (AC 5; -4 Save Penalty)

Weapon: Greatsword (1d10; Heavy)

Goals: Find his own Dream so he can stand next to Griffith.

I’ll put the penalty towards Evasion (Guts was never known to be very dodgy).

Divine Powers/Words:

Sword (He’s been using a Greatsword since he was about 5 years old. It’d make sense he’s really fucking good with them)

Endurance (Guts is fucking durable. Seriously, even before he became the Black Swordsman he was surviving shit that would kill normal people. See his fight with Zodd or Wyald for examples)

Luck (I was going to put Might here, but as strong as Guts is, during his time as Raider Captain in the Band of the Hawk, he didn’t do anything that really showed off physical strength. Most of the crazy shit he did (such as break through a cast iron door) was with his Sword. So, instead I’m choosing Luck as, let’s face it, Guts has been exceedingly lucky during most of his fights. While it hasn’t exactly made his life sunshine and rainbows, it’s allowed him to survive fight after fight when paired with his unending willpower)

Now to set up the Attribute Scores:

Str: 18 (+3): Check: 3

Dex: 13 (+1): Check: 8

Con: 18 (+3): Check 3

Int: 8 (-1): Check: 13

Wis: 12 (+0): Check: 9

Char: 10 (+0): Check: 11

And here’s our final scores. I set Strength and Constitution the highest for obvious reason (go watch any montage of Guts and you’ll understand). Dexterity is the way it is cause, while Guts is fast, he’s not exactly someone I could see dodging all over the place like a ninja. He’s a much bigger and easier to hit target than someone like, say, Griffith. Wisdom and Charisma are the way they are cause Guts is perceptive, just not too perceptive. On top of that, while he himself is very gruff and not much of a smooth talker, he does seem to attract the opposite sex to him a lot….even the same sex to an extent. And Intelligence is the lowest stat cause….well obvious reasons. Guts is not book smart in the slightest. He knows a lot about surviving on his own or in the wilderness, but he won’t be solving any advanced math problems.

Gifts:

Defy the Iron (While not necessarily negating the damage, Guts is able to ignore most attacks and keep moving even when they should be fatal)

Nine Lives (The dude seems to always luck out on events that would kill him. Look at his fight against Gambino or Bazuso)

Unerring Blade (Do I even need to explain why he gets this one?)

Cutting the Crimson Road (I was actually having trouble deciding between this or Shattering Hand. In the end I chose this one, since one of his most defining moments is when he fought 100 soldiers and won).

Body of Iron Will (Just to give him an AC of 3 and represent how his body is tough as shit).

With that, here’s what the final Character Sheet Looks like for Guts:

Name: Guts

Facts:

Grew up in a Mercenary Band

The Raiding Captain for the Band of the Hawks

Has formed a deep friendship with all of the major members

Attributes:

Str: 18 (+3): Check: 3

Dex: 13 (+1): Check: 8

Con: 18 (+3): Check 3

Int: 8 (-1): Check: 13

Wis: 12 (+0): Check: 9

Char: 10 (+0): Check: 11

Words:

Sword

Endurance

Luck

Gifts:

Defy the Iron

Nine Lives

Unerring Blade

Cutting the Crimson Road

Body of Iron Will

Weapons: Greatsword (1d10; Heavy; Atk Bonus: +1; Attribute Bonus: Str)

Armor: Medium (AC 5; -4 Penalty to a Save)

AC: 3

HP: 11

Saves:

Hardiness (Con): 12

Evasion (Dex): 18 (Base 14)

Spirit: (Wis): 15

And here we are, Guts before he became the Black Swordsman as a Godbound. Now then, on to what I would give him if I had full freedom and didn’t have to worry about point limits.

Free Version:

I’m keeping the same Attribute Scores, but the Facts will be different:

Facts:

Grew up in a Mercenary Band

The Raiding Captain for the Band of the Hawks

Has formed a deep friendship with all of the major members

Is marked by the Brand of Sacrifice

Has given up his Revenge against Griffith to protect/help Casca, the woman he loves

Has killed over 1,000 Demons

Wields the Dragonslayer

Wears the Berserker Armor

Is haunted by his Beast of Darkness

His companions keep him grounded

He lost his arm and eye, now he has a mechanical arm.

These are all of the obvious Facts that would be included after the current part of the manga.

Following that, I would add in these Words:

Might (By this point, and with the help of his mechanical arm, he has shown that his physical strength is just as strong as an Apostle’s)

Peak Human (Guts has gone well beyond the realm of a normal mortal by this point. He has proven that, despite not having any real, inherent magical powers, he is able to go toe-to-toe with Apostles, Sea Gods, Demons, Constructs, and just about any supernatural creature that steps in his path. By now, I’d say he’s right on the cusp of being Superhuman)

Vengeance (Though he has given up on getting revenge against Griffith, it is still a defining characteristic for him, and something he draws strength from)

Gifts:

Fear No Steel (At this point, normal weapons are like tickles to Guts.)

Fist of Black Iron (He literally has a fist of black iron)

Loosening God’s Teeth (He can cut an Apostle in half with one swing of his sword)

Contempt of Distance (Guts seems to be able to move to wherever the hell he wants when he needs to kill something)

Thirsting Razor (There are normally too many enemies in front of Guts for him to even worry about hitting Mobs)

All Natural (Guts’ abilities don’t really appear very magical, and that’s because most of them aren’t. Alot of them are from either pure sweat and hard work, determination, or his own equipment)

Mortal’s Luck (The dude never stays down)

Trained Aim (He always seems to hit whatever he aims at…it’s just that most things he aims at has enough armor or scaled hide to resist it)

Human Grit (And how. The dude is able to heal from fatal wounds faster than any other human in his world)

Indomitable Will (Do I really have to explain this one?)

Street Sweeper (Have you seen the size of his sword?)

Bloody Vengeance (Guts loves to use all or nothing attacks that immensely damage both him and his enemy)

Shattering Hand (Dragonslayer. That is all)

Artifacts:

Dragonslayer:

A great sword that is like a hunk of raw iron. This blade has bathed in the blood of so many demons that it now rest on both the Mortal and Astral planes, turning it into a magical weapon that can harm both spiritual and physical creatures. Due to its massive size, it can also be used to block projectiles and smash through any type of armor.

Effort: 5

Hunk of Raw Iron (Greater Gift): As an Action, the wielder may Commit Effort from the artifact to launch an attack at every enemy within sight, doing a maximum of 1 damage even on a miss. Mobs are automatically hit for 1d10+15 rolled straight.

Too Thick, Too Rough (Lesser Gift): As an Action, Commit Effort from the artifact to immediately break any armor, weapon, or piece of equipment in range of the sword. Any magical substance is not destroyed, but damaged to the point where it is almost useless.

The Berserker Armor:

An ancient, magical armor from the time of the first Emperor, the Berserker Armor is a black and spiked. It completely encases the wearer when it is equipped. It is considered heavy armor and can defend against most attacks, including magical ones. However, the armor’s true ability comes from its power to lock off the wielder’s nervous system, pushing their body to heights that a normal human could never reach. There is a downside to this, as the armor will remove the wielder’s sense of self and cause them to view everything as an enemy. On top of this, the armor does not heal the wearer, instead holding their body together and preventing them from dying to any injury. Once all living creatures have been defeated, all of the wearer’s damage will return full force and can kill them instantly if it is more than their HP can handle.

Effort 10

Unstoppable Rampage (Greater Gift): Commit Effort from the Artifact to immediately gain three bonus Attacks that can be used on this round only.

Jump Good (Lesser Gift): Commit Effort from the Artifact to instantly leap to any spot within double your movement speed. This does not count as an Action.

Beast of Darkness (Greater Gift): This Gift can activate whenever you kill an enemy as long as you wear the armor. At the end of a round, if you’ve killed an enemy, roll a Spirit Save. If you fail, this Gift activates. Commit Effort from the Artifact to remove all limits on your body and lose yourself to your inner beast. You lose the ability to make rational decision on the battlefield, and see even your friends as enemies. In return, all of your attacks now deal 1d12+10 Straight Damage, you gain two bonus Actions, you become immune to all mental, emotional, or psychological damage, your attacks shatter any substance even if it is magical in nature, and your attack bonus is now +10. Whenever you take damage, record it somewhere else. Once the battle is over, you must make a Spirit Save to regain control of yourself. If you fail, you must keep fighting everything around you, even if they are your allies, making a Spirit Save each round to regain yourself. If you pass, make a Hardiness Save. If you pass that Save, you only take half of the damage you took during battle rounded up. If you fail, you take the full damage straight.

So now, our final Guts sheet, looks like this:

Name: Guts

Facts:

Grew up in a Mercenary Band

The Raiding Captain for the Band of the Hawks

Has formed a deep friendship with all of the major members

Is marked by the Brand of Sacrifice

Has given up his Revenge for Casca the woman he loves

Has killed over 1,000 Demons

Wields the Dragonslayer

Wears the Berserker Armor

Is haunted by his Beast of Darkness

His companions keep him grounded

He lost his arm and eye, now he has a mechanical arm.

Attributes:

Str: 19 (+4): Check: 2

Dex: 18 (+3): Check: 3

Con: 18 (+3): Check 3

Int: 13 (+1): Check: 8

Wis: 13 (+1): Check: 8

Char: 13 (+1): Check: 8

Words:

Sword

Endurance

Luck

Peak Human

Might

Vengeance

Gifts:

Defy the Iron

Nine Lives

Unerring Blade

Cutting the Crimson Road

Body of Iron Will

Fear No Steel

Fist of Black Iron

Loosening God’s Teeth

Contempt of Distance

Thirsting Razor

All Natural

Mortal’s Luck

Trained Aim

Human Grit

Indomitable Will

Street Sweeper

Bloody Vengeance

Shattering Hand

Weapons: Dragonslayer (1d10; Heavy; Atk Bonus: +1; Attribute Bonus: Str)

Armor: Berserker Armor (AC 3; -4 Penalty to 2 Saves)

AC: 3

HP: 11

Saves:

Hardiness (Con): 15 (Base 11)

Evasion (Dex): 16 (Base 12)

Spirit: (Wis): 14

Artifacts:

Dragonslayer:

Effort: 5

The Berserker Armor:

An ancient, magical armor from the time of the first Emperor, the Berserker Armor is a black, spiked armor that completely encases the wearer. It is considered heavy armor and can defend against most attacks, including magical ones. However, the armor’s true ability comes from its power to lock off the wielder’s nervous system, pushing their body to heights that a normal human could never reach. There is a downside to this, as the armor will remove the wielder’s sense of self and cause them to view everything as an enemy. On top of this, the armor does not heal the wearer, instead holding their body together and preventing them from dying to any injury. Once all living creatures have been defeated, all of the wearer’s damage will return full force and can kill them instantly if it is more than their HP can handle.

Effort 10

Unstoppable Rampage (Greater Gift): Commit Effort from the Artifact to immediately gain three bonus Attacks that can be used on this round only.

Jump Good (Lesser Gift): Commit Effort from the Artifact to instantly leap to any spot within double your movement speed. This does not count as an Action.

And there we go. I would’ve added another Gift to the Dragonslayer, but I couldn’t think of what to put there.

So, there you go. How I would stat Guts as a Godbound.

Feedback would be appreciated, and if you think there are things I could’ve added or done better, please let me know.

#submission

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fizzingwizard · 3 years

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Episode 30, the alleged halfway mark, at last!

I’m fresh out of jokes so let’s hop right into the review!

Pictured above: Characters who supposedly exist in this series

More under the cut as usual

So last week I listed the things episode 30 needed to do to make me not hate it. They were: 1) Sora had to stay with Taichi and be part of the action, 2) the other characters had to feature here and there to progress their storylines even if the main focus remained on Taichi, and 3) WarGreymon’s appearance needed to be dramatic.

Well... guess who didn’t get Bingo this episode -_____-’

I am... seriously... mind-boggled. This is bizarre. Yes, we all understand that evolutions just aren’t the big deal they were in 99 Adventure, BUT this episode DOES try to convince us that WarGreymon IS a big deal. It just fails at it spectacularly, in my opinion at least. As for the rest: Sora stays with Taichi, but he tells her to take the helpless Digimon to safety and then we don’t see her do anything but stand around waiting for Taichi. Most of the other characters don’t even get a cameo, let alone story progression. Taichi reflects on them briefly at one point but it’s unbelievably stupid. Only Koushirou has anything to do and he is STILL JUST STARING AT HIS COMPUTER.

My expectations for episode 30 weren’t super high, given the current storyline, but I’m honestly slackjawed by how BORING this episode was. They really seem to have decided to rest the entirety of the show on Taichi, and much though I love him, I just don’t think he CAN carry it by himself. Not only has he long been unbelievable as a grade school kid even for shonen anime standards, he doesn’t crack jokes, he doesn’t show personality... all he does is fight. Like, the show isn’t ALWAYS like this - I’ve legit enjoyed it a various times, and I know why - it was always when the team was together and we learned things about them and the fighting was balanced out. So I never know from one week to the next how I’m gonna feel about the new episode. But I do think this is the episode I hate the most to date. :/

We had a promising start with Garudamon still actively fighting several Megadramon at once, simultaneously barbecuing Sora.

Fortunately it’s magic so she’s not dead, nor has she fallen to death.

Taichi and MetalGreymon continue fighting the Allomon on the ground.

The mysterious Lopmon looks on with a judgmental glare, wondering why he isn’t currently being carried like a baby. Walking is hard, he wants to be carried. Taichi do your job

Taichi: cmon lopmon you have to learn to do things on your own

Lopmon: no I want to play video games

Taichi: well then I refuse to buy you any more games. if you want them you’ll have to get a job and earn the money

Lopmon: daaaad! youre ruining my life! uggh!

Koushirou keeps an eye on the misbehaving satellites.

Taichi and Sora debate what to do. It’s difficult to protect the forest Digimon while fighting at the same time, so Taichi tells Sora to bring them to safety while he fends off their enemies on his own. WHAT THE HELL IS THIS PLAN. Since it’s a shonen anime, I normally wouldn’t whine about this but... it was just last episode that we were shown Taich cannot cope with the combined attack of that many enemies at once on his own. He needed Sora’s help. Why he now thinks he can do it is a mystery.

Taichi can maybe handle the Allomon and Megadramon on his own, but last episode Tankmon also appeared, and this time, lo and behold, in comes Parrotmon. Sorry Taichi but you brought this on yourself.

Meanwhile Koushirou communicates with “someone from the Internet” and learns that the satellites are all rerouting to converge on the same location:

The freaking International Space Station!

Which will then surely explode! And cause lots of trouble both in space and on earth!

^Pictured: Koushirou’s “oh shit” face

^Pictured:MetalGreymon’s “oh shit” face

MetalGreymon proved to be weak to the lightning Parrotmon emits. If there’s a reason, they don’t explain, but I like the idea that he’s particularly weak to it because he’s a cyborg and the electricity disrupts his... circuits :P Then Parrotmon gets hit with a beam of dark energy and evolves!

Into Klosmon? Krosmon? IDK, IDC.

^Pictured: Taichi’s “oh shit” face

They get their butts handed to them. Taichi and Agumon fall unconscious. Rather than take the chance to deliver the finishing blow, Klosmon or whatever politely waits for them to wake up.

Taichi’s consciousness is swept into a white empty world...

where he finds the Crest of Courage looking weirdly sentient... or maybe that’s just me...

MetalGreymon just looks possessed

Taichi: Are you alive?

Agumon: Yeah... you okay?

Taichi: Yeah... uhh... well... sort of...

Not being dead = I’m still ok

So here’s where the episode really loses me... After visiting the blank world, Taichi is suddenly able to recall what happened after Devimon ate him.

This makes little sense since he seemed pretty KO’d at the time, but okay, find, he woke up long enough to see WarGreymon and now he’s remembering it, sure why not. But I hate that they did this whole “ohh he doesn’t remember!” thing and then solved it like this. Presto! Now he remembers! It’s maaaagic!

And as ADORABLE as the two of them holding hands like this and resolving to keep fighting is... I just can’t be impressed by a battle with Parrotmon. Or Klosmon or whatever it is now. There’s a reason most shows save dramatic moments and big epiphanies for battles that actually progress the storyline. It makes a much bigger impact. This just feels like someone saying “Woohoo it’s Tuesday!” and then you ask “what’s special about it, is it your birthday or something?” and they say “Nope I just felt like being excited that it’s Tuesday!”

I mean points for optimism and all but it doesn’t make a very good story.

Taichi helps Agumon walk x’D They are planning to keep fighting even like this.

And I get that the “never give up!” attitude is essential to the shonen anime protagonist, but when you literally can’t walk by yourself anymore, it’s important to take care of your health is ALSO an important message this show might consider teaching kids once in a while -.-”

In spite of his unsteady legs, Agumon’s still able to evolve again and powers up to fight Klosmon.

It uh... doesn’t go well.

The one cool thing here is the way Taichi sets about attempting to make MetalGreymon evolve. Although we already knew the children play an important role in evolving their partners, Taichi seems to really understand it now, and focuses deeply. It’s a much more active role than we’ve seen before - it seems like more than the usual “encouraging thoughts and emotional ties” spurring the evolution.

At least he’s still super cute.

So we have already seen the Crests many times, I knew that... but my theory was that, in order to reach the final evolutionary stage, they would need the help of the physical Crests. So that’s what I thought Mimi was doing with those crystals.

But Taichi is indeed about to call WarGreymon. So... I have no idea what use Mimi’s gonna find for those crystals x’D I suppose she’ll make herself and Palmon matching necklaces. Or sell them on the black market.

From her super safe hiding spot, Sora watches in awe, wishing she too were a real character on this show and not just an inconvenience as far as most of the writing staff are concerned

I love WarGreymon’s shield.

BAM. He appears. It’s dramatic. But only just.

WarGreymon defeats Klosmon and explodes the forest... Uhhh, weren’t we supposed to be protecting it?

Taichi and WarGreymon then join Sora and the forest Digimon and uh... that’s the episode.

Oh yeah, we get one more hint that Lopmon is more than just some random idiot. Lol. This episode hinted at Lopmon, reminded us that Hikari’s been abducted, and told us that the International Space Station might explode, and then addressed none of those.

The message on the bottom says that the next episode will be on January 10, meaning there will be no episode next week as per usual due to New Year’s holidays.

Next week’s episode:

Turns out Lopmon is one of the holy Digimon or something. Honestly not a surprise, I mean, it’s Lopmon. Should have occurred to me earlier.

Also we got what I think is our first named mention of Millenniumon and it looks like Hikari might find out somethig about him. So that’s cool. The rest of the episode seems to stick with Taichi and Sora’s group... The only thing I can say hopefully is that, since WarGreymon’s appeared, MetalGarurumon ought to be not too far off. So that should mean we at least get a Yamato-centric episode in the not too distant future.

Okay, a couple weeks ago I said I had some stuff to say but would wait till episode 30 to do it... so stop here if you don’t want to read me ranting :P It mostly amounts to what I complained about in the beginning: This season is just so hyper-focused on the fights and seems to treat the team aspect as an afterthought. Which makes no sense to me. Honestly, I don’t mind the excessive fighting - that’s common in shonen anime and grown up me can’t expect to be interested in the same stuff that interests 8 year old boys.

I don’t even mind the idea of Taichi’s role as main character getting an upgrade - like, in 99, he was the main character, but it was felt a lot less. Better balanced with the others’ roles, I mean. I think it’s totally okay to make Taichi a more central character and the plot focus in the new season - it wouldn’t be my choice, of course, but that doesn’t mean it’s inherently bad. But the way they’re going about it just doesn’t make sense to me. Even Taichi isn’t interesting half the time. He just fights.

Like I said before, this isn’t the way the show always is. There have been some highlights. I truly loved a few episodes, and the show does seem to have fallen into a pattern of being good for a while and then degrading into something like today’s episode. I don’t know why: budget? pandemic? or is this really, legitimately, what the show producers want to show kids? I guess, in the end, this show really may be about selling toys and selling toys only. (But, if that’s the case, I’m even more surprised that they don’t make a bigger deal about all the evolutions...)

A lot of things I liked the most happened in the very beginning - the first three episodes in particular. The characters interacted with each other. Their feelings and actions influenced each other. Fighting happened, a lot, but it wasn’t the only thing happening. I was pretty excited then. I didn’t expect to love this show like I love 99 - that’s just not possible, I’m too old and 99 is too special to me for me to trust my judgment - I was just happy to see the Adventure kids back and entertaining a new generation.

But since then it’s been a roller coaster with few highs and a lot of lows. Although it’s hard to imagine how the pandemic would have changed the storyline, episode 4 was where they paused the show for Japan’s lockdown-but-not-really, and once they picked back up the tone just seemed kind of different from the first three episodes. Not right away - I think the intro episodes for the rest of the team were pretty reminiscent of “Digimon Adventure” - but that makes sense, they had 4 ready to go and probably had made headway on the next few episodes before they closed down the studio. Anyway, that’s just a guess, since it seems like everything’s been affected by the pandemic, but with a few exceptions we have all been back to work more or less normally since June...

The thing is, there are lots of fighting shonen anime - tons of protagonists who never give up and never fall in spite of how hurt they get, and who get unlimited “evolutions” in return for their tenacity. That’s all fine. It’s the genre. But the thing is...! The thing is, those other shows, they all tend to have humor, to care at least marginally about character relationships, and understand that that’s how you build up a main character: just winning fights alone doesn’t cut it. So I just don’t know what to make of this new Adventure show. It’s FINE when the team is together. We get cool character moments and insights and even some joking around. But they KEEP SEPARATING THEM. This time they didn’t even have more than a single episode together before they were all split up again! I wonder if it’s because they’re having trouble getting all the voice actors in due to pandemic-related issues and budget issues etc. If so, HUGE bummer. Of all the years for Digimon Adventure to get a reboot... why did it have to be this miserable excuse for a year...

Le sigh.

But there’s nothing we can do about it. I’m just going to like what I like and hope for the best in the future. I really would love for the new Adventure to be popular with kids and keep that cast going. I don’t expect it to compete with the lids of Kinmetsu no Yaiba or anything. I just hope that, when we hit the final episode, we look back and say that the season was overall worth the reboot. I hate the thought of looking back and saying “well, that sure was dull.” It’s just an insult. 99 Adventure wasn’t the most unique storyline in the world, but it had a lot of uniqueness IN it, and what made it special was its treatment of the team and the child-partner relationships. The reboot doesn’t need to be exactly the same, but it shouldn’t be forgettable.

That’s why us being at the 30 episode mark concerns me. At this point we know how the show is paced and what’s it like. We can’t really argue that we just don’t know enough to make a judgmenet yet. It’s hard to believe things will suddenly change. If they do, assuming the change is for the better, I’ll be thrilled, but I’ll also feel sad that we missed out on so many chances for cool things to happen in the first half.

#digimon adventure 2020 #digimon adventure:#digimon adventure reboot #digi spoilers #digimon #fizz watches digimon 2020

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holdthosebees · 4 years

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TMA As Classical Tragedy

Building off of this post because it’s rattling around my head--the idea of tragedy-as-wrong-narrative isn’t just a question of what environment a character would thrive in, it’s specifically playing off of the idea of a hamartia, a fatal flaw/error that puts the protagonist on the wrong path and sets them up for destruction. Nowadays, the hamartia is often treated as something inherently wrong with the protagonist, an intrinsic negative personality trait that leads them to make the wrong decisions; however, in its original context, it may also refer to a simple mistake, made in ignorance, that traps the protagonist on the road to failure through no fault of their own. In the story of Oedipus, for example, the hero has no way of knowing that his future wife is actually his mother; the choice to marry her is a reasonable one based on the information he has at the time, even though it dooms him. Tragedy-as-wrong-narrative, therefor, is the idea that a character makes the right choices in the wrong context; their hamartia, be that a trait or a decision, is itself a morally neutral thing that wouldn’t cause them harm if circumstances were different. If Oedipus had been in a different story, one with fewer prophecies and less incest, the choice to marry the queen would have been a positive one, and he would have been elevated to kingship and lived happily ever after. In Jon’s case, boiling his tragedy down to a single hamartia is a little bit difficult. He makes a series of choices that, while they were made somewhat inevitable due to the fact that he was specifically picked by Elias because his trauma would lead him to make those choices, take him down the path to ruin. These choices are impacted by a number of personality traits: the drive to know, the inability to open up to others, and impulsivity, to name a few. Fundamentally, though, I think the narrative points to Jon’s hamartia being the prioritization of knowledge over his own wellbeing: the willingness, or eagerness, to throw himself further into a situation that is dangerous to him, in order to make sense of it.

The Inciting Incident, which locks Jon on the path to destruction and leads to the destruction of the world, is Jon reading Jonah’s letter. This is slightly at odds with the classical model of tragedy: the tragic end is meant to come as a direct result of the hero’s own choices, so having him be mind controlled into doing something he explicitly doesn’t want to do kind of undermines that. However, it still fits if we interpret this moment as the cumulation of a series of choices, some big and some small, that strengthen Jon’s connection to the Beholding. Agreeing to take the job in the first place is one; so are his decisions to shake Jude Perry’s hand, to throw himself into investigating the statements he receives while living with Georgie in season 3, to use compulsions, to hide his feeding from the others in season 4. By continuing to engage with this pattern, Jon strengthens it, until he can no longer break out of it.

In episode 92, Elias essentially states as much:

You never wanted [to serve the Beholding], no. But I’m afraid you absolutely did choose it. In a hundred ways, at a hundred thresholds, you pressed on. You sought knowledge relentlessly, and you always chose to see. Our world is made of choices, John, and very rarely do we truly know what any of them mean, but we make them nonetheless.

This line is controversial in the fandom for a number of reasons, which I don’t particularly want to touch on here. Elias, it should be noted, isn’t the most reliable of narrators, and he’s working on passing blame off onto Jon during this conversation. However, for the sake of this essay, we will take this statement as a given value of true: Jon’s choices repeatedly, albeit unknowingly, strengthened his connection to the Beholding and lead to his status as an avatar of the Eye. Like Oedipus, this hamartia is morally neutral; many of those choices could, in another story, be the correct one. In a world without Jonah Magnus’ scheming, or where the powers themselves were less completely evil, the decision to investigate further in order to better fight evil could pay off. Hell, it might even be the thing that saves the day. If the price Jon payed were lower--if his willingness to sacrifice for knowledge wasn’t tested by situations that demanded higher and higher sacrifices--then his lack of self regard would have less of an impact. In another story, stopping the Unknowing might have been the climax, and Jon’s sacrifices might have been worth it.

So, in reading TMA through the wrong-narrative model of tragedy, my instinct is to look for the story where the cerebral, inquisitive-above-all-else protagonist prevails. The first one that comes to mind is Sherlock Holmes. Sherlock in the original stories is reclusive, self-destructive (all that heroin...), prickly, and bad at making interpersonal connections. He, like Jon, prioritizes discovery over basically everything else; like Jon, he has people that he cares for, but struggles to let them into his life.

However, unlike TMA’s mystery-horror, the format of a classic mystery incentivizes curiosity: uncovering the conspiracy is how you win, not how you die. In a mystery, Jon’s tenacity at uncovering the truth would be rewarded, and his self destruction and prickliness would be points of growth instead of the things that drag him down. In a mystery, Martin and the rest of the archives crew would serve the role of Watsonian foils, putting pressure on Jon to develop his strengths (loyalty, intelligence, capacity for care) while contributing to the discovery process. Jon would learn his lessons in the nick of time, instead of too late, and that would save the day instead of ending it.

Jonah Magnus would still be a bastard, though. That probably wouldn’t change.

#tma #the magnus archives #meta #one day i'll do a full rundown of tma as tragedy #including hubris #the more i type the more certain i am that the idea of the morally neutral hamartia is central to understanding tma #and the fact that the concept has been assigned moral implications #is the source of a fair amount of fandom confusion #but that's another essay #jo(h)n sims #all takes are subjective disclaimer #pretentious lit nerd brain strikes again

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brief-candle · 4 years

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αℓεα ιαcтα εsт - various kny x reader [2]

part 2! and i have 2 lots of maths homework due tomorrow that i haven’t even started!! priorities!

link to part 1 if you haven’t read it!

debating making a masterlist... it’d probably come in handy

also as always, criticism is always appreciated! have a wonderful day <3

⊱ ────── {.⋅ ♫ ⋅.} ───── ⊰

The chickens were restless that day, it seemed. Whenever attempts to herd them together were made, they only scattered more. Not even extra feed brought them together for long, and it was beginning to get frustrating. The farmer couldn't recall a time when they'd been this unruly. Constant squawking combined with panicked glances this way and that were beginning to take its toll upon her weary brain.

She rubbed her temple with a sigh; a headache would be forming soon, and she had a gut feeling that it would throb like none other before it. And it was safe to say that she wasn't too excited about that, especially since her gut usually spoke the truth.

Perhaps, she tried to convince herself, they were merely on edge about a fox attack. There'd been quite a few of those lately. Unfortunately there was little that she could do, as she never took a sword outside of the house. If the police happened to pass by while she had it then there'd be a lot of trouble that she'd rather not have to deal with. It didn't help much that the presence of the blade intimidated the animals into a similar state that the poultry was currently in.

Besides, foxes usually came at night anyways. Meaning it wasn't even her problem. It was someone else not doing their job, and she'd have to exchange a few words with him over this. Clearly he was too focussed on other predators that typically avoided animals.

Blades clashed, the sharp clanging of metal against metal echoing out in the dimly lit room.

The sight was startling, unexpected, so much so that the woman flinched from it. But when she blinked, she was back outside, surrounded by noisy animals who wouldn't give her ears a moment's rest.

One vacant look across the horizon brought her fully back to her surroundings, and in good time too: the sun was beginning to set. With that in mind, she groaned. Hopefully the animals wouldn't be as resistant to the idea of going back inside as they'd been to going outside. She really didn't want to have to invest in a herding dog just for the odd time that they were unwilling to listen to her. Even if the thought of a little puppy helping her out was one of the cutest things that she could imagine.

A smile spread across her face as she started her task, clicking her tongue to try and lure the chickens on the path back to the coop. To her utter joy, they listened! Clucking between them in a way that sounded vaguely chipper now, they scurried after her on their tiny little legs. It was quite a funny sight to see, and she almost wished that she could just sit and watch them scuttle around all day. But she didn't have all day, and the cattle needed bringing in as well.

There really was so much to do, but so little t

There were footsteps, many of them; sprinting, hurrying, with another set chasing them. Everything was blurry with incredible speed, hard to see in the dark.

Then she was back again, back to the fields of green that stretched far and wide, reaching up to try and reach the deep blue above. To clouds that dragged on at such a lazy speed, pale in colour with little rain to spare. Not that such a thing was surprising, as it was the middle of the summer.

But the season didn't matter. Not when she'd blacked out twice in the space of half an hour, when animals needed to get inside and she needed to lock herself inside as well. Her precious poultry was defenceless when not in their coop, and the cattle grew angry with her if they had to sleep outside. They were temperamental as is without having an actual reason to be irritated.

With that in mind, she hurried the chickens back to the coop, which at that point wasn't very far. Where they'd been nervous outside, they soon settled very well inside, meaning she could leave almost immediately to tend to the cattle. After the cattle, she'd have to tend to the guests too, which meant having to cook, strike up polite conversation, not give away that there was a demon in the basement... the usual.

The cattle were just as easily led back to the barn as the chickens had been, and just as easily settled too. This improved her mood, which had been dampened at the thought of having to tend to the guests. She didn't dislike them- not by any means, as they seemed friendly enough- but it was always a bit stressful when you were hiding something. Especially something that damning, and even moreso when the guests were those who hunted demons for a living. Who most probably despised all demons with all of their heart and soul. It was hard to blame them for that, as they'd probably lost family to demons, but her situation wasn't exactly easy to explain.

Neither was the situation that she'd walked into.

"Hey, Munjirou, move out of the way- I wanna fight 'em!" The excited growl came from the little study she'd put together, the door of which had been left open. And from the size of the room and the slight echo to the voice, she had a vague idea where her guests were, and what was happening.

Her feet dragged as she forced herself down the small hallway to the study, with the plethora of books that she'd brought back from her few ventures to the nearby town, splashes of colour found from the few valuables she hadn't resisted buying. Not that she regretted it, mind, but they certainly took a bit out of her pocket.

But that wasn't important. Not when one bookshelf in particular had been shifted, revealing the gloomy staircase hiding behind it. Indeed, they'd been snooping where they shouldn't have been, and from the sounds of their quick steps, they weren't too pleased from what they'd found. They were nearly at the entrance if she was correct. It was rather difficult to predict exactly where when the slightest noise never seemed to stop bouncing off the walls of that place.

She was correct, as but a few moments later, the familiar group from the day before sprinted away from the stairwell, staring back at it with apprehension. Zenitsu looked close to passing out, with his wheezing, intense sweating and paling skin. Inosuke, being Inosuke, didn't look particularly bothered at all. If it wasn't for the deep movement of his shoulders and chest, it was hard to tell that he'd ran up a pretty big number of stairs away from something. In fact, he looked more like he wanted to run towards it rather than away, but was being held back by Tanjirou. The latter had a hand on the hilt of his sword, eyes never taken off the dark doorway.

Wait, wasn't there only three of them before? So where had the girl come from?

The farmer was about to debate where this child- a demon nonetheless- had appeared from, before a familiar figure finally emerged. His eyes were wide as usual, matching his grin perfectly. He didn't look surprised in the slightest when he saw the owner of the house in the room, but him glancing over at her prompted everyone else to.

Zenitsu wailed as he flew over to her like a bullet, clinging onto her sleeve when he reached her, babbling about the scary demon with wild hand gestures. His voice was shriller than usual, panicked and rushed, but it became even more incoherent at the slightest move from Sanemi. In fact, when Sanemi took exactly one step onto the carpet, he screeched, knees failing him. At this point, if the demon even breathed in his general direction then he'd probably faint. Not that it'd be an inherently bad thing, considering his running nose was inches away from her sleeve.

When she saw that, she whipped her arm from him with a speed that she swore she hadn't possessed in her entire life. He began to wail and cry further.

Cry more, Zenitsu. These clothes are worth more than your tears.

"So," she started, choosing to ignore the howls of misery and fear coming from beside her, instead looking at everyone else in the room. The tension was palpable, weighing down on her shoulders, "anyone want to explain to me what this is all about?"

There was no need to try and be intimidating for this woman, as the stare she gave them seemed to do it all for her. Lacking in any form of warmth or sympathy for anyone there, it flitted from person to person.

"Anyone?" She prodded further, continuing her glancing around. Whereas she'd purposefully tried to unsettle the three demon slayers the night before to try and get them to listen to her, there was nothing but cold disappointment to be found in her face, in the way she stood there with arms crossed over her chest. Then her foot began to tap upon the carpet, a dull thud forming the countdown before she really lost her temper.

Just as she flung her arms in the air, about to deal out some scathing words to not only the snoopers but Sanemi also, the latter spoke up. The grin that was spread across his face had disappeared as he bowed his head, voice low and apologetic:

"Forgive me; I overreacted when they came down to the basement."

At this, Tanjirou froze in shock. Such politeness was extremely rare for Sanemi, after all, especially with how heated he'd been at the sight of them all sneaking around in places they shouldn't be. However the farmer simply hummed, fiery anger dampened for the time being.

"It's alright, Sanemi," the usual calm mirth leaked into her voice then, eyes softening a tad, "lift your head."

He did so immediately. If he wasn't so casual about it all, as if it were normal, then perhaps it would've been a little funny to Zenitsu. But that wasn't the case, and the glare he received for showing the slightest hint of amusement was enough to wipe it from him completely.

"And why were you in the basement?" This tender tone seeped from her words instantly, the lenience from her eyes doing the same, when she turned upon her guests. Any trace of a smile tugging at her lips only seemed to turn them downwards now. Right now, it was clear that she would have nothing but the truth from them, and was intent on not having to wait for it.

At such an attitude towards them, they flinched away a bit. The way her demeanour changed instantly was definitely unnerving, even if they'd seen a hint of it the night before. As Zenitsu turned to whisper something to Tanjirou, she cleared her throat disapprovingly. And like a kicked puppy, he whined and relented.

It wasn't even a moment later that Tanjirou lowered himself to his knees, bowing his head to the floor and beginning to shout: "We're very sorry! We believed there was a demon in the house and took it upon ourselves to investigate!"

Zenitsu, ever the bootlicker, followed his lead immediately, though with more honeyed words: "We thought that they were out to hurt you! Please forgive us!"

"There's..." she was caught-off guard by the instant honesty, having not expected this. Not to mention that having to speak between screamed apologies was quite difficult. Sanemi opened his mouth, eager to berate them for not letting her speak, but a look of disapproval from her put him off the idea. Not without sulking, though.

"There's no need to shout! Please stop shouting!" She replied, attempting to shout over them.

"We're sorry!" They responded, still shouting. In her mind there was little more to respond with than a sigh and a weary shake of the head.

Inosuke didn't move, only staring at the scene in confusion. He didn't understand why they were apologising, nor why the woman was so angry. Since he didn't understand it, he didn't copy it, nor did he say a word. Instead he only shifted in slight discomfort a couple of paces away from the scene, choosing to focus instead on the feeling of soft carpet between his toes and how he was growing to dislike it by the second. The more he thought, the more he preferred to feel the safe and familiar dirt upon his soles, longed for a floor that didn't sink beneath his weight in the slightest and didn't feel like it'd be ruined should he leap from it with all his strength as he often does.

The more uncomfortable he felt, the closer his hands itched to his blades. To the rough handles, worn down through blistering already calloused hands, that let him wield such destructive tools. Those swords which sliced through the flesh of demons like melted butter and left agony in their wake, with ridges that didn't allow the comfort of a smooth slice. This was what he found comfort in, as it was what was familiar. Simple. It didn't need thought, nor social customs to follow. Social customs that he did not understand, that no one would explain to him. That he didn't want explaining to him. All he wanted was the simplicity of battle; of killing or being killed, with the only words to be said being spoken through extreme violence.

His hands closed around the hilts, and he sprung from the carpet.

It was rare for someone to speak the language that could only be said through violence, even amongst those who practised it on a daily basis. Demon slayers often sneered at it, turning their nose up upon the way he communicated. For to them, it was the language of demons. Humans do not attack without reason. They do not fight when words could be used instead- such a thing is irrational, it is what they do not understand. And they refuse to understand it.

The two blades closed in upon the demon at incredible speeds, adrenaline spurring his arms to move quicker than the untrained eye could track. However the eye of his foe was not only highly trained but also not human, and so he tracked and blocked with such ease that he could've done it when asleep. Not only that, but even against the strength of both of Inosuke's arms, his singular sword did not even budge. There was not a tremble in his wrists, nor in the whole of his body. Not in the smile which had been brought back to his face, nor the spark of energy that had been reignited by the sudden- and unsuccessful- attack.

"How moronic are you?"

The impact was more akin to being hit by a train than a kick, sending him flying through the door panels and tumbling across the carpet. It burned, stung, with roll that Inosuke couldn't recover from. It was only upon hitting the opposite door that he stopped and was able to catch the breath that had been knocked out of his lungs. The breath came sparingly, in wheezes rather than the full breaths he craved. His breathing technique, which he had mastered a couple of years ago, suddenly was forgotten. Energy left by the spades, limbs aching when he would've leapt onto them in less than a moment's notice before; his grip, weak and temperamental, could barely grasp his swords. Yet he still rose to his feet, pride slightly wounded yet not enough to back down yet.

Sanemi's eyes didn't narrow in the slightest, but that didn't make the atmosphere around him any less intense. It screamed for Inosuke to attack, begged him to give it a shot. Invited him to lunge once more and see where he would end up, to see how many bones would still be intact by the end of it. After all, what had just happened was just a small taster of what he would be facing were he to try and set his blades upon him a second time.

Sanemi didn't give second chances.

The eye contact, which had been maintained so viciously from both sides, had been broken with a thunderous crack.

"Sanemi...!" It was the woman who had been behind him, palm still in the air above his now-lowered head and visibly seething. The aforementioned palm was shaking, though one glance at her expression told that it was not out of fear. She glowered upon the tuft of white hair, being unable to see his face, and the look in her eyes was dark enough to kill. Not to mention how her upper lip was drawn back in an infuriated snarl, "how dare you?!"

For the first time since Sanemi had known her, she was truly angry with him.

"Who do you think you are?!" She continued, not giving him a chance to pipe up and apologise, and dismissing him when he tried, "there was no need for any of that- absolutely none! Why the hell did you kick him? He's but a boy, Sanemi!"

"I'm not a boy!" Inosuke contributed, quite miffed with being labelled as something as weak as a boy. Even if he was a bit younger than them, he wasn't a child anymore. Either way, it went ignored.

"He's a demon slayer. He should be able to handle more than a tap." He bit back at her, though held back the hostility that he would have unleashed upon another if they spoke to him that way.

"That wasn't a damned tap and you know it!" With each word she jabbed a finger harder and harder into his chest, though it hurt her finger more than him if anything, for he didn't even flinch.

He leaned down towards her then, eyes slightly narrowed now in irritation. In response, she didn't lean back an inch, standing her ground until their noses were almost touching. "Oh? Do you want me to hit him a bit harder then to prove it?"

"Do that and I'm kicking you out."

That shut him up all too quickly. However, the woman still wasn't done. Crossing her arms, she tacked on: "Now, apologise."

This baffled him, outraged him. Why should he apologise to someone when they were the ones that were so weak yet had attacked him anyway? Absolutely not- he wasn't having it.

Just before she could make him, there was a shrill croaking to be heard from outside. One which they all knew well, and none were too pleased to hear. Zenitsu even whimpered from the shock of hearing it again, silently begging it not to start speaking.

But, alas, nothing goes Zenitsu's way.

The first thing the cawing halted to speak was the name of the farmer. The said person's eyes widened in surprise at that, before narrowing again.

"We'll talk about this later," she muttered to Sanemi before striding over to the door panels opposite the ones which were now destroyed, sliding one open with more force than entirely necessary and glaring into the sky. As they'd thought, there was a black bird circling openly in the air above the small indoor garden area. It made no move to swoop down, not even if it did happen to see her staring up at it.

"A demon has been located near Tokyo! You must go there and eliminate it immediately."

Just as quickly as it had arrived, it left without another croaked word. And without a word from her, either, she shut the door with a little less force than that which she had opened it with. Instead, she only let out a small sigh before turning to face them all.

"Was that a-?" Tanjirou began, but was cut off by another, louder sigh.

"Yep, it's a Kasugai crow. Only pops in when it's delivering a message and then has the gall to steal some of my wheat as it goes!" By her evident exasperation in her voice, it was very clear that she wasn't too fond of her feathered friend.

"Wait!" It all seemed to click for Zenitsu then, "wait, wait, wait, wait, wait! Does that mean-" and that was all he said before he froze, pointing at the woman who hadn't moved from her place by the window.

In return, she only lifted an eyebrow, "does that mean what, exactly?"

Sanemi, who hadn't said a word since, piped up then: "yeah, go on. Tell us- don't be shy." That said, he didn't put the slightest effort into actually trying to sound friendly, he didn't even try to filter the intimidating edge from each word, nor hide it from his eyes.

"No, it's nothing," was all that Zenitsu decided to say as he shivered uncomfortable. The rattling of his bones as he did so was almost audible, him moving to stand a couple of steps behind Tanjirou as he did so. He really did not want that gaze on him for longer than absolutely necessary.

The intimidating male pretended not to notice the scathing glare he got for that.

"To answer your question," she decided to explain, just in case it wasn't very clear to them, "I'm a demon slayer, just not that active. They usually only send me out about three times a year."

"Even once is too many," Sanemi grumbled to himself, though she heard it loud and clear.

It was as if his role was to irritate her more and more that day, she thought as she turned on him with a face so surly that she looked just about ready to bite his head off. "And what is that supposed to mean, huh?"

"Watch it," he warned in regards to her attitude. He'd usually be much more respectful when speaking to her, for all that she has done and continues to do for him, but she was very much trying his temper at this moment in in time.

"Watch what, Sanemi?" Her pitch rose with the question, stepping closer to him as her own temper flared. He did little more than stare her down with vexed eyes, saying nothing more lest he be unable to stop himself from lashing out. She waited for a moment, goading him with hand gestured before giving up, snapping a "forget it" before backing away. Later she'd probably apologise for being so aggressive with him over it all and not letting it go, but she needed to cool down before then.

That was if she was let go in order to cool down, though.

"You don't know the Corps like I do," Sanemi all but growled as he snatched her arm, grip tight to stop her from leaving. It was painful, yes, but that wasn't her focus at the moment: it was what he just said.

"Well no shit, Sanemi. I'm not, and never was, a Hashira." It was common sense if you asked her, for she wasn't as close to the leader of the organisation as he was. Not physically, and certainly not mentally. If you were summoned to the Ubuyashiki residence then you had either done something exceptionally well, or exceptionally wrong. There was no in between.

"Maybe hear me out before you start butting in."

She scoffed in response, wrenching her arm from his grip. Not her brightest moment, seeing as it caused her more pain than the grip itself, but what's done is done. Her anger, although now beginning to simmer, was still very much present, but now curiosity had arisen as well. Sanemi must have said what he said for a reason, after all, and his lack of elaboration must be due to the guests still in the room.

The guests!

"I'm very sorry for all of this!" Was her first priority to them, followed by a "please forgive me." This was all said whilst bowing very deeply, so deeply that her spine was crying out for merciful reprieve that she wouldn't grant until she was forgiven. Which was fortunately very quickly, mainly by Tanjirou.

When she thanked him, she realised that she'd essentially forgotten about the girl beside him. It was undeniable that she was a demon, but it was just as undeniable that she was somehow different from the demons that she'd previously encountered. There was no hostility to be found in those eyes, only gentle oceans of the softest pink she'd seen. It was truly sad to behold her, for she was definitely still a child. To acknowledge that was also to acknowledge that she must have lost so much at such a young age, that she must have had so many years of innocence snatched from her.

She had thought life had been cruel to her, but just one look at the girl seemed to bring her whole world into perspective. Life could be so much more horrible than it had been to her.

Though her head was in the clouds, she still spotted the small gash that she must've gained from a tussle with Sanemi, as it was only just beginning to heal. She would've let this fuel her anger with him more had she not felt so sorry for her already. And so she approached her, albeit with slight hesitance. Tanjirou tensed noticeably, but she paid him no mind. This girl was clearly important to him, and she'd probably react even worse had she been in his shoes.

She stooped down a little to reach the girl's height, looking into those large, kind eyes with a smile upon her face. "Let's go, I'll help you patch up that wound a bit."

What she didn't expect was such a wide smile to be returned by the small brunette, and especially not the large hug engulfing her that came with it. It was a nice hug, one that she hadn't experienced in a long time. There was no tension after the initial shock of it all, even with those talons of hers, and she was quite surprised with herself in how quickly she reciprocated the gesture. Yes, it was a long time since she'd held someone like this, or been held like this. A long time since she'd let someone so close, especially without the aggression which she usually returned with.

Perhaps the most surprising of all were the tears that had began running down her face.

It took her aback at how liberating it felt to cry for once, to be able to release all of the negativity in such an ugly and unattractive form. To feel the anger, the sadness, the pressures and worries that had continued to pile upon her relentlessly just begin to roll away down her cheeks and onto the carpet. She was thankful to the girl for this, the girl whose name she didn't know, who hadn't said a word to her (though she was unable to due to the gag) but had allowed her tired heart some reprieve.

The world didn't deserve someone like her.

———–

"I'm fine." This was the fifth time she'd had to reassure Sanemi in the past ten minutes. She was flattered and quite happy that he seemed to care so much, but it was beginning to get on her nerves.

His eyes softened, a sight that very few ever bore witness to. One that very few would ever see. "Well, you know you can tell me anything, right?"

"Yes, Sanemi," a breathless laugh followed, for they'd been through this multiple times in the same timeframe as well, "I know."

Sanemi only shrugged, "just letting you know."

There was silence for a bit. The comfortable kind, the one that one could fall asleep very easily in with no worries in the world. A silence that only had room for chirping crickets and hooting owls, accompanied by the odd rustle of plants in a sudden gust of wind.

Tokyo was quite a bit away. Several days of solid walking, in fact. Without a horse to take with her, it would take her at least a week to complete her mission and get back, and that was if she immediately completed her mission with no troubles and started walking back again with no breaks whatsoever.

"Sanemi?" Her voice was but a whisper on the wind, fragile and unsure. But his ears missed nothing, catching onto the faintest traces of every word she said with the utmost importance.

He hummed in acknowledgement. Words didn't come when they weren't necessary and when Sanemi wasn't particularly in the mood. It was somewhat challenging to get used to at first, but she wasn't overly bothered by it.

"Thank you."

Those eyes of his widened once more, somehow wider than usual as he glanced over to her. However her gaze wasn't upon him, nor his wine-coloured irises that held a tint of astonishment in them. They were upon the night sky, staring upwards towards the countless stars that littered the faraway abyss, a hint of a smile upon her face. He didn't spare a glance upon the sky, too focused on her face than on any bright balls of fire millions of lightyears away.

It took a while, but the words finally came to him, and they were sent out the minute that they arrived: "For what?"

That question was what it took for her to make eye contact with him, turning her head towards him at a slight angle. Her smile broadened, her usual expression of amusement lingering on her face and draining into her voice, "what do you mean 'for what?'? I'd probably be dead ten times over if it wasn't for you."

"I wouldn't go that far."

Then she cackled, loud and unashamed in the night air. To him, it was loud and bright enough to fill the universe, yet it didn't stop the cicadas chirping, nor the beating of wings in the sky of migrating birds. "Hey, there's no need to be humble! It's so unlike you!"

Now that was a backhanded compliment that he wasn't expecting, but it was easy to tell that she didn't mean it in a cruel way. It was quite flattering to him that she was able to laugh and joke around so much with him, considering that interacting with him was akin to walking on eggshells for others.

He found himself smiling as well, a sight that even she pointed out didn't show up that often, cracking yet another of her jokes which she found so funny.

Just when silence had crept in again, he decided that now was a better time than ever to ruin the mood that she'd so joyously created.

"I don't want you to go tomorrow, you know?"

"I do." Was her simple response. She didn't need words for him to know that she'd be going anyway, though it didn't make it any less frustrating for him.

"I'll go with y-"

"You most certainly will not!" The strictness in her voice was all for show, but she meant what she said: "The animals need feeding and the crops need tending to. Who else will do that if you come with me, Sanemi?"

"I can't go out in the day anyway."

"That doesn't matter!" Once again, her hands began to move in elaborate gestures to further emphasise what she said, "the animals will make do with only being tended to at night for a bit and the crops can also be done at night, too."

He responded with disapproving silence, so she reluctantly decided to use her trump card.

"I can't trust anyone else but you, Sanemi."

Wait what?

"You heard me." She was smug saying that, all too aware of his shock from such a declaration, "and to sweeten the deal even more, I'll make some ohagi for you when I get back!"

His unimpressed expression at that last piece said it all about her ohagi-making skills. That being that they were... nonexistent, to say the least.

At the sight of that, she crossed her arms and tutted, "you really do drive a hard bargain, don't you?" No response but that of a raised eyebrow, "fine! I'll rush through work when I get back so I can spend even more time with you. How about that?"

That was tempting, he had to admit. Too tempting for him to even attempt denying. So, with a sigh, he relented.

"Don't worry, I'll be back as soon as possible!" A grin had spread upon her face, and he found it almost worth it to let her go on her mission just from the sight of it.

A hand cupped the side of her face furthest away from him, coaxing it onto his shoulder and for her to lean against him. She did so with no struggle, that huge grin morphing into a calm and content smile.

Seeing as he couldn't see her face at that angle, he redirected his gaze towards the sky. It was perfect timing for him, as a star shot through the darkness of the night sky, a bright streak following it before disappearing without a trace. As tradition would have it, he made a wish. It was a selfish wish, one which he could not bring himself to share to anyone.

He wished that she could stay by his side forever, that a moment such as this could extend to last a lifetime.

#yandere x reader #yandere kny #yandere kny x reader #yandere kimetsu no yaiba #yandere #x reader #kimetsu no yaiba #kimetsu no yaiba x reader #kny #kny x reader

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bottleofhomebrew · 4 years

Text

Dragon Blood Thralls

Creature Introduction

Dragons and dragon heritage are already explored though the sorcerer Draconic Bloodline subclass, but what would happen if you mixed that with some necromancy? This thought, inspired by running a campaign involving a dragon and dark magic, is what led me to create the Dragon Blood Thralls.

I thought that such a creature would make for a more flavourful undead minion than the standard skeletons, ghouls, and zombies. It threw up interesting challenges about how I would differentiate the creature from other kinds of undead outside of the dragon theme, and making the creature somewhat intelligent was what I settled on. I think the end result makes for a great creature to throw into any D&D setting involving an evil necromancer BBEG, or an organisation that’s in service to a dragon.

This is a bit of a long one, since I added lots of options for customisation, so get ready for a fair bit of lore and statistics below:

Statistics

Red Dragon Blood Thrall

Medium Undead, Neutral Evil

Armour Class – 13 (Natural Armour)

Hit Points – 45 (6d8 + 18)

Speed – 30ft

Str – 16 (+3) Dex – 11 (+0) Con – 16 (+3) Wis – 12 (+1) Int – 8 (-1) Cha – 11 (+0)

Saving Throws – Dex +2, Wis +3, Int + 1

Skills – Intimidation + 2, Perception +3

Damage Resistances - Fire

Damage Immunities – Poison

Condition Immunities – Charmed, Poisoned

Senses – Darkvision 60ft, passive perception 13

Languages – The languages it knew in life, Draconic

Challenge Rating – 2 (450XP)

Abilities

Innate Spellcasting – The Thrall’s spellcasting ability modifier is Constitution (spell save DC 13). It can cast the following spells, requiring no material components:

At will – Fire Bolt

1/day – Burning Hands

Undead Fortitude - If damage reduces the Thrall to 0 hit points, it must make a Constitution saving throw with a DC of 5 + the damage taken, unless the damage is radiant or from a critical hit. On a success, the zombie drops to 1 hit point instead.

Actions

Claw – Melee weapon. Attack: +5 to hit, reach 5ft, one creature. Hit: 8 (1d8+3) slashing damage, plus an additional 7 (2d6) fire damage.

Dragon Types

The statistics above are for a Red Dragon Blood Thrall, but, depending on your setting or plot, this may not be appropriate. Below are changes you can make to represent different kinds of dragon. For all types of Thralls, the colour of their scales match whichever dragon they are associated with, and you are free to change the behaviour or appearance of the Thralls further if you want to make the connection to a specific type of dragon stronger.

Brass and Gold Dragon Thralls – Only cosmetic changes are needed.

Black and Copper– Replace the fire damage resistance with acid damage resistance, and the fire damage from the claw attack with acid damage. For its Innate Spellcasting feature, replace Fire Bolt with Acid Splash, and Burning Hands with Chromatic Orb (acid damage only).

Blue and Bronze - Replace the fire damage resistance with lightning damage resistance, and the fire damage from the claw attack with lightning damage. For its Innate Spellcasting feature, replace Fire Bolt with Shocking Grasp, and Burning Hands with Witch Bolt.

Green – Remove the fire damage resistance, and replace the fire damage from the claw attack with poison damage. For its Innate Spellcasting feature, replace Fire Bolt with Infestation, and Burning Hands with Ray of Sickness.

Silver and White - Replace the fire damage resistance with cold damage resistance, and the fire damage from the claw attack with cold damage. For its Innate Spellcasting feature, replace Fire Bolt with Frostbite, and Burning Hands with Ice Knife.

Variant – Racial Abilities and Spellcasting

Because the reanimation of Thralls is more complete than that of many other undead, a Thrall may retain some of the abilities it had in life. Consider what race a Thrall was before it died. To add a bit of flavour, you could add some of that race’s abilities to the Thrall. For example, a Thrall who was a Wood Elf may have a walking speed of 35ft and have the Fey Ancestry feature, a former Gnome may retain Gnome Cunning, and a Dragonborn may still have access to their Dragon’s breath. This can extend to monstrous races too, such as a Kobold Thrall having Pack Tactics and Sunlight Sensitivity, and even non-humanoid entities such as beasts having extra attack options due to having a poisonous stinger.

Whatever creature you decide to turn into a Thrall, consider one or two of its features that are key to its identity, and if these increase the armour class, damage or resilience of the Thrall, also consider increasing its Challenge Rating.

Lore

Smarter Servants

The appeal of a zombie is that it’s unwaveringly loyal - no matter what you want it to do, the zombie will obey your command. But this comes with a few trade-offs – individual zombies are weak against any trained group of adventurers, and even large hoards are unable to act with any sort of complex tactics when not being directly commanded. Necromancers seeking a more intelligent, resilient and deadly set of servants may look elsewhere – they may make a flesh golem, study Conjuration magic to summon powerful creatures, or attempt to subjugate a group of sentient creatures. These methods are unreliable at best, so some necromancers collaborated with chromatic dragons and clerics of Tiamat to create a new kind of undead creature that could combine the cunning and the elemental power of dragons with the unthinking obedience of a zombie. The result were the Dragon Blood Thralls.

Trial and Error

The first successful Thralls came off the back of dozens of failed and dangerous experiments. The first difficulty was in regenerating the brain of a dead humanoid– certain necromantic and healing rituals were able to partially restore a creature’s mind, but this would often result in a creature having some measure of its free will and memory restored too. In this case, it wasn’t uncommon for an unsuccessful Thrall to attack the spellcasters involved in the ritual, as their regenerated mind would be aware enough to recognise what had happened to it, and it are horrified at the prospect. These failed Thralls were killed shortly after their revival, though rumours circulate that some of the earliest Thralls managed to escape and are trying to spread the word on what their creators are doing.

Necromancers who were also potent enchanters theorised that a creature’s personality might be fundamentally altered if they were repeatedly charmed while their brains were reforming. After a few attempts, the experiments proved successful, with the Thrall becoming steadfast in its devotion to its creators. Not even other kinds of charm magic were able to make a Thrall do something against its master’s wishes.

Draconic Infusion

While this new Thrall was more intelligent than most undead, it still lacked inherent combat capabilities. A couple necromancers working on the Thralls had the idea to infuse dragon’s blood into the corpses, in hopes that this would alter the Thrall’s body. This idea caught the attention of followers of Tiamat, and by extension chromatic dragons, and as such necromancers were able to acquire ample dragon’s blood to use. A few necromancers were killed when the first few vials violently reacted in a fiery explosion, but eventually an exact amount that would create profound changes without adverse effects was found.

Scaled Horrors

The bodies of the Thralls change dramatically. The skin on various parts of the Thralls are replaced with dragon-like scales, mostly around the torso and arms. Their hands are curled into claws with hard talons, their eyes become yellowed, and their teeth sharpen to a point. From a distance, people may think that a Thrall is a Draconic Sorcerer, but up close their lifeless expression and rotting flesh reveal their true nature.

In combat, Thralls are much more intelligent than zombies. They can strategise and pick out weaker targets, hide and retreat when outmatched, and set up ambushes. This is enhanced by minor magical abilities granted to them by their draconic blood. When outside of combat, Thralls act similar to any other creature charmed into performing a quest – single-minded, but still with some self-preservation and a degree of flexibility not seen in many other kinds of undead. They can exercise some creativity when given a task, and can even socialise to other creatures, but Thralls are aggressive by nature, and thus are quick to anger. This is especially true if the Thrall perceives other creatures as hindering or obstructing its task in some way, in which case a Thrall will attempt to intimidate or kill whatever is ‘distracting’ it.

#dnd #d&d #d&d homebrew #d&d 5e #d&d 5th edition #dungeons and dragons #rpg #ttrpg #pen and paper rpg

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vasiliassuns · 4 years

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thistle gimme the tea on ruby

♥ oh gods, you really just love getting me on the analysis trains, hm ?

♥ ( note ; do not read this post if you absolutely love ruby with all of your heart and believe she is 100% innocent , to each their own , these are just my own personal opinions and im not trying to offend anybody )

♥ warning ! this post is very long, and essentially turned into a character analysis of specific moments and nearly an entire volume largely based off of how i see the show. it is multiple paragraphs long, standing at exactly 3444 words exactly. there will be a tl;dr at the end for anybody who doesnt want to read the full post, or has trouble focusing ! thank you for understanding.

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

♥ where do i start ? personally, ruby’s character really got it’s worst in volume 7. i really enjoyed her character pre - fall of beacon, and a decent amount in volumes 4 - 6 as well. there is a moment in volume 4 that make me let out a long sigh, as well as a singular moment in volume 5 that greatly confuses me on her character, so i will touch up on that as well.

♥ volume 7 is what kills my love for her character, in all honest, as well as some moments in volume 6 that i feel could have been written better. i’ll go in chronological order for this, starting with my “:///” towards a part in volume 4, then confusion of a scene in volume 5, then the slight issues that developed with her in volume 6, then moving on to volume 7 and how im no longer really enjoying her character

♥ so, in volume 4, its very common knowledge that tyrian was sent to attack and retrieve ruby to bring back to salem, due to her having silver eyes and the damage she cause salems fall maiden. when qrow shows up to save ruby at the perfect last second, he adamantly tells her and the rest of team rnjr to stay out of the fight. at first, ren and nora dont listen, but then do, which is fair. but ruby continued to push her helping qrow. as we all know now, qrow was telling her to stay back due to his semblance. while, yes, ruby did help qrow against tyrian with a couple of the blows, the fight would have gone much different should she have not interfered (personally, i feel like qrow would have had a shot at beating tyrian, especially because their auras were both flickering and they seemed very evenly matched). but due to her constant interference, she nearly got knocked out by a large wooden beam, had qrow not sliced it in half. she wound up (even if it was accidentally) distracting qrow, giving tyrian the opportunity to nearly poison him. i dont hate her for wanting to help in this scene, because its her uncle who she cares about, but i feel like she also should have trusted qrow and stayed out of the fight. the line “this is my fight too” also gets me. maam, this isnt your fight, the fight is about you, but doesnt need to physically involve you.

♥ with volume 5. its a very well known scene, at least in my opinion. when weiss got impaled by none other than cinder fucking fall. within the few episode long battle for haven, we did see ruby’s eyes activate once when jaune and cinder were running / flying at each other to fight. i do understand why her eyes activated there, because jaune is her first friend from beacon that wasn’t her sister, arguably one of her closest. what i dont understand is why ruby’s eyes didnt activate when she saw that cinder had impaled weiss with the spear, weiss sitting in the same position ruby last saw pyrrha in, weiss an inch from death. it just doesnt add up to me how her teammate and partner, somebody who’s saved her multiple times and shes saved multiple times. it may be that she was too stressed in the moment for them to properly activate, which we’ve seen ( in volume 7 ), but i still feel like something should have happened with her eyes.

♥ continuing on with volume 6, i really didnt have many issues with her character here either, but a few of her lines / moments kinda made me go “:/ bruh why tho” closer to the end of this volume. it’s really only two quotes of her’s that get me, which is “Just because you don't have an idea, doesn't mean we're out of options! Oz hasn't been here to tell us what to do, but we still managed to get this far anyway. We've been in bad situations before, and we don't need an adult to come save us or tell us what to do. We just did it our way! And I say we do it our way. And if you think you can keep up with us "kids"... we'd be happy to have you.” from the episode ‘lost’. i partially understand what she’s saying here, but at the same time, she says this to qrow, who saved her life on multiple occasions, and who wanted to get to atlas without breaking any laws. the way she said it (nothing against lindsay, she is an amazing and very talented voice actress, and she delivers nearly all of rubys lines perfectly, but imagine as if this was a real person we knew), kind of seemed decently rude to me. i understand that she knows they need to get to atlas, because james can help them (ill bring this back up later, trust me), and shes clearly not afraid to break the law that involves james’ military to get to him.

♥ the second thing in volume 6 about ruby that semi-upsets me / makes me go “:/” is in the episode seeing red, when she was talking to cordovin, she said “ We're going to Atlas. Bigger people than you have tried to stop us and failed, but we're supposed to be on the same side! We're supposed to use our power to protect people, but you just use yours to look down on everyone! We didn't want to steal from you. We did it because you gave us no other choice! Now I'm giving you one last chance to stand down and hear us out.” this semi-upsets me mostly because of the line “bigger people than you have tried to stop us and failed”, as well as “we did it because you gave us no other choice.”. the “bigger people than you” gets me because while, yes, in the grand scheme of things within the war against salem, cordovin is a small footnote within it, the only other people who physically tried to stop team rwby was roman (who sadly was eaten by grimm due to his negative emotions with flocks of grimm around, not because of ruby), cinder’s miniature faction (who only partially failed. as much as i hate cinders character, she didnt fully fail in stopping rwby, she just was forced to step back for a while...multiple times.), and tyrian with rnjr. roman didnt inherently fail, he just chose to walk away from the fights hed been having with team rwby in order to devise a new plan to beat them the next time. cinder’s faction only partially failed because ruby managed to get on top of beacon tower in volume 3 with weiss’ help, watching pyrrha pass away thus activating her silver eyes for the first time. the only reason tyrian failed to stop rnjr was because qrow was there to help, and ruby managed to get an opening to slice his tail in half (which. ew that shot looked disgusting). yes, bigger people have tried to stop her and her friends, but they didnt inherently fail, at least not yet. with the line “we did it because you gave no other choice!” mostly just confuses me. while yes, technically cordovin didnt really give any options for the group, it didnt automatically mean that they had to instantly resort to stealing from the military.

♥ now ! onto volume 7, where my salt really starts. because i have a growing icky feeling about her character in volume 7, im going to split this next bit up into three parts. the first part being the first 4 episodes, the second being episodes 5-9 and the third and final being episodes 10-13. buckle up!

♥ episode 1, i really have nothing against ruby. she has the same attitude she did in volume 6 and before, which is a mixture of pure but also wanting to stop salem.

♥ its episode 2 that starts to get me. as i mentioned earlier, ruby knows they have to get to atlas because they know james can help them, and that the lamp is safer if its locked away in the vault, but then she suddenly doesnt trust james. i dont know if this is because the ace-operatives arresting them, but in that situation, james also couldnt have known who the unlicensed huntsmen were. as seen by his and winter’s reactions to the soliders bringing rwby+jnr+oscar & qrow in, they instantly tell them to let the 9 go, because james and winter personally know them and know they would never attack people. so, i dont really know why ruby would stop trusting the idea that james could help them because of that. it may also be the fact that ruby doesnt like the idea that james was planning on telling the people of atlas and mantle about salem (which, honestly? to me? this decision seems fully rash and makes a lot of sense.), but even then, if the students at the vytal festival knew about salem, or the world did, it may have proven to be more beneficial to them, because the more people that knew she existed, the more people who can fight her or the more people that can support those who are fighting her on the front lines, so ruby no longer trusting him over that doesnt make sense to me either. ruby’s sudden distrust of james upsets me quite a bit, because she and the team shed been traveling with had learned ozpin was hiding things from them (my feelings on this is a whole different post, but not necessarily a negative one), and was very upset about that. really, her openly lying to james about not knowing why ozpin had disappeared / locked himself away in oscars mind, as well as the amount of questions jinn has left, really ticks me off. they spent the entirety of volume 6 trying to get to atlas and to james because they needed his help, and once they finally got there, in front of the man himself, she lied. she became the exact same thing that she and her group had openly not liked what so ever, which was a blatant liar. id understand if ruby said that jinn had one more question left, to see how james would react, and tell him of salem’s immortality at a slightly later date, when they got into the rhythm of being around each other and working as a team against salem, but just blatantly lying, without consulting her team prior, to the man who could in all honesty make or break how they fought this war, was plain wrong.

♥ in episode 3, ruby was mostly back to who she had been prior to this entire mess. she explains why theyre hiding stuff from james, albeit in the vaguest way possible (weiss and blake explain the thinking behind it more than she does, honestly). we also see the beginning of a conversation between ruby and oscar about them lying to james. though, with the lying situation and who she was turning into, this is really all for this episode.

♥ in episode 4, the largest scene we see with ruby openly talking about her distrust for james is her conversation with qrow. she says “I'm trying to do what I think is best, but I really can't tell if what's best is what's right. Or if I'm no different from Oz.“, which at this point, shes nothing like ozpin. shes worse. ozpin was hiding the truth about salem due to the trauma connected to her and the fact of her immortality that the ozma line of reincarnations had, which isnt entirely a bad thing. should he have tried to find a way to tell them she was immortal without disclosing his own personal traumas? absolutely, i dont disagree that he hadnt made brash decisions, that should have been made differently, but the sad truth is, is that ozpin chose to hide what he hid, but that one mistake (albeit, a large one) doesnt entirely make him a terrible person. ruby, however? her choice on telling james wasnt brash, it was blatantly impetuous. she barely thought and decided to lie on the spot, unless shed purposefully been internally planning for a long while to lie to him, and had a lie stored up to use should he have asked. that isnt okay, what so ever. the conversation ruby had with qrow eventually delvs into talking about summer, which isnt really important.

♥ when thinking about episodes 5 through 8, nothing particularly stands out to me as ruby blatantly lying. those episodes are mostly team rwby and jnr doing huntsman work, yang making a terrible decision and making blake talk for her, and r/enora turning into something i honestly really hate. episode 9 however, gets me thinking.

♥ in episode 9, the finally tell james that salem cant be killed, but ruby doesnt tell james, oscar does. a quick side note, i really like the fact that crwby had oscar tell james and not ruby, because oscar is the current (and hopefully final) reincarnation of ozma, and its a secret his past lives kept for a millennia. but! back to ruby. within this episode, before she decides they can finally tell james about salem (which, as you can tell, i believe they should have done instantly), ruby is preaching to james about how they can figure it out and that how they should all work together. this pisses me off because shes standing there, hiding one of the largest, if not the largest secret in the show, to a man who has done everything for her and her team. james trusted rwby, especially ruby, with everything he knew, gave them new weapons, clothes, a place to stay, food, etc. all for free because he trusted they wouldnt hide anything from them. another thing that gets me about ruby saying it was finally time to tell james, was that it seemed solely up to her to tell him or to chose when to tell him. it was up to the technically youngest in the group to chose when to tell james about salems immortality (i say technically, because oscar is the current reincarnation of a millennia old line, and i personally have seen him be wiser than ruby in this, weather hes more mature than her or not. physically, yes, oscar is the youngest. mentally? i really dont think hes the youngest in that regard). it doesnt make sense to me as to why everybody was trusting ruby with when to tell james. why wouldnt qrow tell him? qrows known james for years, weather they were close friends (that hug and sincerity tells me that they arent the bickering work partners v3 shaped them up to be) or not. qrow knows he can trust james because simply of how long theyve known each other. weiss knows she can trust james, hes been seen multiple times in the show defending her against jacques, even offering her a place at atlas academy (that bit to me seemed like james offering weiss a way to get away from jacques, because she would need to live at atlas to properly be a student, not the manor), he even said “shes the only one making any sense around here” after weiss got rightfully upset at the woman talking beacon down in volume 4. oscar knows he can trust james, simply because of his connection to ozpin. seeing as ozpin can access oscars memories, and its cannon that their memories merge, its safe to say that oscar was able to see who james used to be pre-fall of beacon, and to see the kind of man he was, as well as making his own judgement based on their first introduction together. so, why would these three, and the rest of the team traveling with ruby not tell james the truth? hell, qrow is a mother fucking spy. im pretty sure he would be able to tear james apart and figure out his intentions pretty easily. why couldnt qrow have just had a one on one conversation with james to make his own final call, as the fully fledged adult of the group? it doesnt make sense to me why they would trust ruby with this extremely important decision what so ever.

♥ episode 10, there really isnt anything i have against ruby. shes fighting to protect mantle and is doing her current job, which is one of the few details i can appreciate, but thats about it.

♥ episode 11 and 12 specifically piss me off, and not just about ruby, about nearly everybody involved. i understand rubys standing in this, saying that they need to stand their ground and fight salem head on, unlike they had in the past, i honestly probably would have said the same thing if i were her too. james had emotionally shut down at this point, i think that this is very clearly evident, especially seeing as the white sparkles in his eyes have dissipated, something we commonly see in the eyes of rwby characters to represent their humanity or emotional status. james is emotionally shut down, the ace-operatives have their own opinions on this situation which is entirely okay and valid, and they happen to be siding with james. blake is trying to take the calmer approach, most likely having noticed that if they lashed out like yang began to, it would go very bad very quick. weiss was in a state of semi-shock, her mind most likely naturally connecting their current situation with trauma and abuse she endured as a child (most prominently ; isolation). but how ruby handled going against james and the fight against the ace-operatives / specifically harriet, was down right wrong. she should not have jumped past james with her semblance to reveal james’ plan, which automatically escalated the situation from bad to even fucking worse. she yet again made a decision for herself and a group of people that can cost them their lives if things dont go their way (which, knowing how this show can be written sometimes? it will always go their way in the end), without thinking. i really dont feel i have to explain how spontaneous her choice on this is, especially because i know multiple people have covered it in better written posts. it essentially boils down to rubys blatantly reckless actions and absolutely moronic choices to do what they did. do not get me started on her line of “then you trained us” or the fact that all the ace-operatives walked into that fight with less aura than team rwby, which already gave them an unfair advantage. i really do not have the patience to fully type out and explain why i hate these two episodes with my entire being, but it mostly boils down to: nobody in this situation is right. not ream rwby, not james, not the ace-ops, very clearly not salem and her lackeys, not qrow choosing to fight 1v1v1, or cinder for a multitude of reasons. the only characters in these episodes i dont have a burning hatred for, be it temporarily or a fire i have a feeling will be burning for a while, is team jnr and oscar. they were trying their best in regards of what was best for everybody, oscar wanting to help james to the best of his ability.

♥ tl;dr : basically? ruby rose in volumes 1 - 6 was actually a really enjoyable character and only had a few moments of “okay but why?” but everybody also has those moments. ruby rose in volume 7 turned into a hypocritical, blatantly rude and whiny little girl who i honestly cant really see as a good character at the moment at all, because of how she acted the entire volume.

#thistle.exe ; analysis #rwby analysis #rwby v4 #rwby v5 #rwby v6 #rwby v7 #technically rwde #im not going to tag any character names #id rather not put an entire analysis in those tags because thats not fair to the people looking for content of a character they really like #this took me literal hours to write #it was worth it

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heechulhamster · 5 years

Text

The Truth You Can’t Hide - Junmyeon

KIM JUNMYEON (SUHO) x Fem Reader

Chapter 1 [The Truth You Can’t Hide MASTERLIST]

1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 ongoing

You did it so well for six years. You’ve hid your son from the biggest threat of his life. But one mishap led to the biggest secret in your life being face to face with the man you’ve kept him away from all these years - his father.

Mafia!AU, Angst.

You swear it was only five seconds that you shifted your attention from him. You only took your eyes off of him to get money inside your purse while on the checkout counter. The seemingly permanent contact from your hands only parted for a moment to do a seemingly simple task. But now you've surely gotten a headache from turning your head left and right in search for him. Already dizzy walking around the crowded mall in search for Jaejin, your six year old son.

In a mix of adrenaline, worry, and sheer panic, you hastily walked around the perimeter of the store you just ran out of. He's still a small boy, with his height only reaching your hips. He couldn't have reached far given that short amount of time, right? But again, you remember the stamina of an exhilarated toddler who just ate sweets. Jaejin could've stormed off like a blizzard outside of the store in a wink.

A phone on your hand, with him as the lockscreen, you politely asked around seemingly observant people if they've seen him anywhere - all to no avail. You've already approached security and mall personnel to help you search for your son. They told you to wait in the office but how could you just sit there and wait? When the only treasure of your life is wandering God-knows-where?

Where would Jaejin run off to? You try to think positive, discarding the thought that he's already caught by a person or a group who's inherently up to no good. He's just an excited child wanting to run somewhere, maybe somewhere he can play? Bullseye.

Rushing to the toy store, you search for your son. His red pullover and black beanie printed on your mind looking for a similar fit. It was beneath a small crowd dressed formally where you found a small figure wearing a similar description, it's Jaejin for sure - you convinced yourself. Taking a few steps closer, you saw a man sitting close to your son. A wave of nervousness overtook your body, they weren't trying to kidnap your son aren't they?

But stepping closer, the man clad in a khaki coat was no stranger to your eyes.

In fact, he's extremely familiar.

Familiar to a point where he's the spitting image of your son.

"Mama!" You see Jaejin turned to you with a smile on his face which makes his chubby cheeks pop out like an easter bunny. Another pair of eyes were set on you too, one you haven't met in a couple of years - seven years to be exact.

You took in what's happening in front of you. Jaejin is smiling at you as if he received the toy robot he insistently asked you for the past few weeks. And a man that looks almost the same as your son was sitting in front of him, maybe in an attempt to talk to him closer. You're pretty sure you're pale white in shock. It somehow feels like all of Earth and skies conspired for you to face your worst nightmare today.

"She's your mom?" The man in the coat turned back to Jaejin. To which he happily nodded his head to.

"Long time no see." The man exclaimed with your name, turning to you as he stood to meet your gaze.

"Junmyeon..." Your words came out as a plea, an apology, or a cry for help. It was breathy and shaky as if his name was all you mustered to say.

And you thought that your child being kidnapped for ransom was the worst thing that could happen. Here he was, standing and smiling in front of the man you kept him away for a long time.

You're now staring coldly at the man you hid from seven years ago. In front of you was Junmyeon, holding your son - his son.

Junmyeon was only looking for a gift for one of his bodyguard’s daughter. As feared as he is in the industry that he was born and rose into, he had a tender space in his heart for children. So when he heard that one of his dear colleagues’ daughter is turning 7, he wanted to give a special gift.

He was peacefully scanning along the tons of children’s toys, wondering if he’ll ever be able to have his own. Considering his current situation, one that probably won’t change anytime soon, or ever - settling down and building a family was a risk that will paint him red right on the forehead.

Another thing is that he hasn’t found the woman to settle down with. Or maybe he did, but she just didn’t stick around long enough to make his visions into fruition.

He was accompanied by three of his bodyguards, a common protocol and one that he’s already accustomed to at this point. His close friend, Minseok, also tagged along. It was all peaceful wandering until he felt a foreign object bump onto his leg. He looked down, apparently the object wasn’t an object but a child.

Junmyeon crouched down to meet his eye level. Seeing the child’s shocked face, he patted his hands over the latter’s head.

“Are you okay?” He asked the child in front of him. He slowly took in his features and it was oddly familiar. The child looked a little bit like him when he was younger.

The child nodded, “I’m sorry.” The small one bowed in front of him,almost in a ninety degree angle, which made him smile. Okay, maybe a little bit like him was an understatement. The child looked a lot like him, maybe even a splitting image of him when he was younger.

“What’s your name? Are you alone? Where’s your parents?” Junmyeon smiled carefree on the child. Showing his tender side that has been deeply buried.

“I’m Jaejin. My mom is-..” He saw the child look around with worry and panic in his eyes.

“Oh no, you didn’t run away from her don’t you?” Junmyeon already took a liking to Jaejin.

His close friend, Minseok, also knelt down beside him. “We have a bad boy over here, don’t we? Making his mom worried and all?” He exclaimed once more, shuffling the young boy’s hair a little.

“I just want to look for toys…” Jaejin responded with a pout painted on his face, as if he’s already guilty.

“Don’t worry boy, we’ll go and find your mom. What does she look like?” Junmyeon asked once more. “Or you do you want to go and look for your toy first before looking for her?” He knew that it was probably a bad idea, he could be charged for kidnapping or even worse if he bribes the child this way. But seeing a smaller him, a young Junmyeon, made his heart leap in joy.

Jaejin nodded excitedly, “Transformers!” He exclaimed before running off in the toy store, Junmyeon aptly running after the boy.

It didn’t take long for Jaejin to find a robot of his choice, going for the striking Bumblebee. He thought twice about letting a stranger buy things for him, thinking about the warnings and rules his mom set him. How she sternly told him to stay away from unknown people, marking them as danger. But what does a 6 year old boy’s conscience have against a two foot Bumblebee toy?

Junmyeon even felt too comfortable to Jaejin too, even offering him to buy more toys for him.. Almost anything he wanted. Even insisting Jaejin to call him Uncle Jun. Maybe it was due to the strange sense of familiarity he felt - how he sees his young innocent self void of all the corruptions this world, his world, he had to deal with. And somehow, seeing his younger self gave him hope - that maybe he could go back to being that innocent boy ready to do good.

“Mama!” He was caught off guard and brought back to his senses when Jaejin suddenly shouted at a distance. But Junmyeon was more caught off guard when his eyes trailed the boy’s sight.

It’s been seven years since he last saw you. Since you decided to break off things, stating the things he lacked and his apparent inadequacy and absence as a boyfriend - things that he was guilty of and he was ready to fix, yet you refused to give him an opportunity to do so.

And in that moment, he already knew why Jaejin looked too much like him.

Because Junmyeon was already certain that Jaejin was his own blood - his son.

Your eyes wandered off from Junmyeon’s, finding another distinct pair that belonged to one person only. Minseok, another person that you haven’t seen for a while - his mouth agape at the sight unfolding before him. Of course, it doesn’t take a genius to comprehend the situation. The last time you saw Junmyeon was seven years ago, when you two broke up - and now seven years forward, there’s a six year old little boy, a spitting image of him that is, that just called you his mom.

You tried to shake off the situation and approached Jaejin. “Jin, what have I told you about staying by my side and not talking to strangers?” You lightly tugged at your son’s arms, his face slowly looking downwards in guilt and embarrassment.

“Oh come on, I’m not that much of a stranger , Y/N.” Junmyeon suddenly spoke, still standing and towering the both of you crouched down. You didn’t want to look at him yet your body betrayed your mind, his sharp gaze meeting yours. An exact opposite of the soft tone he used just right now when he spoke.

“You know him, Mama?” Jaejin’s eyes suddenly sparkled with that of his youthful innocence, one that you want him to keep for most of his life. One that’s threatened now in the presence of the ghost of your past, just standing beside you.

You stuttered before being able to answer anything to your son. “Uhm, yes. Uncle Jun is an old friend of Mama. You were lucky that it was him who found you. What if it was one of those bad guys? Do you want Mama to be sad if she loses you? Do you want to be taken away from me?” It was a lie, because Junmyeon was one of the bad guys, the worst kind even. And the latter part of your statement was already an insinuation to the current situation you’re in.

“But of course, Uncle Jun wouldn’t let that happen, right Jaejin?” Junmyeon was now already sitting beside you, his hand softly patting Jin’s hair. “Do you want some Ice cream? It’s Uncle Jun’s treat!” He smiled beside you, the way that makes his cheeks pop out and his eyes just vanish - the same way Jaejin smiles.

“Of course samchon!” Jaejin answered enthusiastically, mirroring the smile of the man in front of him. “Mama, please?” He turned to you, wearing that pout that he uses to get things into his favor. Jaejin is a smart kid, very much like his father - very much like Junmyeon.

You were left stunned by the similarities of the two now that you finally see them together. It was more than just the physical aspect but the way they speak, the way they think, the way the both of them get you to do things that you wouldn’t consider at first.

“Your Mama would absolutely say yes, right? Besides, we have a lot to catch up to.” You looked beside you, with that cunning smile from Junmyeon and his eyes full of intense emotions that you’re not quite sure of.

And that was how you found yourself sitting in a diner decorated with child-friendly colors, with your ex that is also the father of your child. And his swarm of guards seated not far away. Well, Junmyeon is the son of one of the most prolific businessmen in the whole country. It was reasonable for him to have a colony of protectors shielding him from any harm, well - it was reasonable enough for you, back when you were blindsided from the truth.

“So, is this your favorite flavor?” Junmyeon asked the child beside you, who answered an eager series of nods. “This is absolutely my favorite too.” He answered with a smile.

He wasn’t lying, Pistachio flavored ice cream used to be a staple on movie night dates you shared before. You weren’t even shocked when Jaejin gravitated to the said flavor, too.

It felt extremely odd how just an hour ago, you were sincerely hoping with all your guts to not see this spectacle of a sight in front of you. Yet right now, seeing your ex and your son felt just right. As if you didn’t spend most of your time for the past years hiding all traces of you and Jaejin from this man. They looked so similar that no one would think that they only met an hour ago. One would immediately speculate that Junmyeon was there, ever since Jaejin was growing inside your stomach, up until his birth and when he took his first steps and mouthed his first words - all the things you prevented from happening.

It has only been a month since you came back to Korea. You thought that the waters you’ve tread with Junmyeon was now tranquil enough to come back home. Living overseas for seven years, transferring from LA to Japan and back, far away from all your friends and family and all marks of the past. Starting off a new career, busying yourself with juggling a nine to five job and also being a full time mom. You thought that you could finally come back to your roots, a vague home that grew distant and alien to you. But the sight unfolding before you told you otherwise.

“Mama, can I go play at the slides? Please?” Jaejin tugged a bit on your sleeves and wore that glassy pleading eyes that never failed to make you abide by his ways.

“But Mama hasn’t finished her food yet. Wait for me so I can come with you, okay?” You shone a bright smile you always give him.

“Mama, I’m a big boy already. I can go play on my own. You can stay here and talk with Uncle Junmyeon.” Jaejin flashed a mischievous smile and you were quick to think that your son is wiser than his years. Your eyes found Junmyeon’s, how his wore a cold, dark gaze towards you.

“Fine. But take care, okay. Always remember what Mama tells you.” You spoke as you caressed Jaejin’s soft cheeks with your left hand.

“Don’t talk to strangers and don’t make girls I play with cry.” He rose his right hand in a pledging manner, wearing a bright smile of victory. You nodded and Jaejin, with his audible giggles, ran to the brightly colored play place of the diner also filled with buzzing energetic children of same age as him. The said area was bursting in laughter and sugar fueled youthfulness, a great contrast to the thick dead air that enveloped your table. In the blur of your peripheral vision, you saw Junmyeon nod to one of his men - probably signaling him to keep watch of Jaejin. An order that was aptly followed by one of his guards sitting on a table opposite yours.

The clink and clatter, the dizzying rotation of the stuffed bear that hangs in the ceiling, the relentless crying of the baby that refused to be shushed no matter what plea of her embarrassed mother; you tried to focus on all of this things. Your senses floated beyond the imaginary confined space that closed off you and Junmyeon from the rest of the diner. Your hand, armed with your fork, mindlessly toyed with the barely scathed serving of blandly seasoned corn and carrots on your plate. You did everything just to avoid looking into his eyes.

There was a handful of acceptable reasons why you don’t want to converse with Junmyeon. First, you don’t have a prepared script on what to say to him when you see him again. As you never expected nor desired that to happen. Second, you were unsure of what you’re feeling. You were absolute that you’d loathe the day that you cross paths with him again, but you’d be dumb to deny that seeing him and Jaejin together didn’t make you wish that he was beside the both of you all along.

“So when did you plan to tell me?” It was uncommon for you to be nervous, moreover be tense. Yet it was also highly rare for Junmyeon to sound cold, or at least you never remembered him to be. You shut your eyes forcibly, in hopes to muster an answer. “Or did you ever even plan to tell me?”

“Tell you what?” You finally summoned enough courage to look at him dead straight in the eye. You are well aware that playing dumb wasn’t the best card to pull but your deck was thin.

“That you were pregnant? Or that I fathered a child that I never would’ve knew existed if I he hadn’t bumped to me in a mall?” His face was expressionless, unforgivingly void of any emotion. Not that any trace of sadness or anger would help your current situation but it was surely something that would give you a foundation to stand on and a trajectory to take.

“You’re not his father.” You looked away, not even you believed what you just muttered under your breath.

Junmyeon gave a bitter laugh full of disbelief, “Then who? Tell me. Because as far as I know I don’t have a twin that could make someone look that much like me.” You felt his hand grip your wrist, an action that earned him a gasp from you. The sudden contact sent a shiver down your spine, whether from the harshness of his grasp or the familiar web of fingerprints that laid down your skin once more.

You didn’t even bother to reply and just snatched your hand back. You had to admit that you’ve never been a good liar, specially not to those people who knew you best - not to Junmyeon. You looked behind you, catching a glimpse of Jaejin laughing carelessly as he’s chasing other children that cackled in the same level of amusement.

“What? How many guys have you fucked that you don’t even remember who the father of your child is?” His tone got unexpectedly higher, you shot him a stern look and looked around you right afterwards. His words wasn’t exactly fitting in the lively diner, his scandalous choice of words would surely ruin a happy family fun Saturday dinner.

“Fine, you’re his father. What now?”

“You tell me. What now?”” He retorted right back.

“I just can’t tell him that the guy he randomly ran into is his father!” Your tone raised but still maintaining a relatively shushed volume, afraid of scandalizing the peaceful diner.

“Imagine how easier it could’ve been if you told me seven years ago.” A hint of sad defeat was evident in his voice, and how that glint of emotion made you feel bad was surreal. Of course, he’s sad - probably even angry. You remember all the times he imagined the day he’ll become a father, and boy was he really excited to be one. Junmyeon made all these plans and dreams with you only for you to break it down to ashes.

“That’s not something we can still change, right?” You sighed. “Look, just forget this ever happened. I.. we’ll just go back to LA, far away from you so you’ll never have to see us again. Just forget this day.”

“Do you really think I’d let that happen? Did you lose your logic all these years, Y/N? I just found out that I have a son that’s already running around and talking and you think I’ll just let him go again?”

You slowly landed your fork on the table, depleted of any response nor resolve to the situation. It was a checkmated chess match, and you have no choice but to leave the decision to Junmyeon. “What do you want, Junmyeon?”

“I want to be a father to my son.”

Junmyeon insisted to drop the both of you back to your current apartment. Not that you could refuse to anything that he says. In all honesty, you never feared Junmyeon before. He was this sweet, almost-too-perfect man that always gets you what you want, when you want. But now armed with the knowledge of what he does for a living, there’s an imminent fear in your veins. You barely have an idea on what extents he’s willing to do just to have and get his son.

You were mum in the backseat, beside you was Jaejin and his father. They already had this undeniable dynamic with each other. Jaejin is a friendly and approachable child, but this connection with him and Junmyeon almost made you jealous. You wonder if their cheekbones hasn’t tired out from all that smiling and laughing on each other’s jokes about certain cartoon characters that you only know so shallowly of.

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” Junmyeon all too seriously asks your son, who in turn looks at you with a smile.

“I want to be a lawyer. Mama said she wanted to be one but she had to do other things. I want to continue her dreams. Right mama?” Jaejin gleamed his small, baby teeth to you. One that you answered with a warm, close lipped smile.

“I’m sure you’ll be a great one, Jaejin.” Junmyeon noted as he looked at you with his brown soulful eyes, and you already knew what he meant.

You remembered how you broke up years ago, saying how you wanted to pursue further studies in Law abroad, in a institution of a greater name and reputation. It was among many things that you reasoned out to make him let you go. It was a messy parting, for sure.

Junmyeon expected that when he sees you again, you’ll be an honorable lawyer, finally accompanied with that well-earned “Atty.” prior to your name. The breakup made him too much of a mess but he understood the weight and importance of your dreams over his personal interests to stay with you. Because if he could’ve had it his way, you’d just stay with him, settle down, and let him do all the work. He’ll be able to support you financially, after all. But that’s not the case right now. You returned after almost a decade, not with an honorable title but with a child; his child.

“Always be a good boy, okay? Don’t give your mama a hard time.” Junmyeon patted Jaejin’s head as he towered over him by the doorframe.

“Ofcourse, samchon! I’m always a good boy!”

“Yeah, remember my promise if you’re a good boy? I’ll give you all the toys you want, as long as you’re good, okay?” And they sealed their deal with a high five.

Junmyeon looked back at you, uncertainty was painted in his eyes. “Y/N.” He exhaled, to which you only nodded softly as understanding. You knew that saying goodbye was pointless. You knew he’d be back, maybe even sooner than you’d expect him to be. He already agreed in taking the revelation slowly to Jaejin. And you agreed on letting him build and start off a relationship with the child, a sequential step to getting to know each other better.

It was a part of your night regimen to lie beside Jaejin after he drinks his milk. Usually in days that he’s off to school and you’re at work, this is the time where he tells you all about his day. But right now you just layed in silence, embracing your son in your arms. Memorizing how he breathes, how his soft bubbly cheeks feel on your hand, how his voice sounds when he calls you Mama. Because despite the agreement you’ve come into with Junmyeon, you can’t help but fear these possibilities. Partly, you could blame yourself that you’re overthinking right now. You gave Junmyeon every right to hate you, you hid his child - and what if he plays the exact same cards and hide Jaejin from you? But overthinking would resolve nothing. You just hope and pray that Junmyeon is still the same person you knew from before, compassionate and thoughtful.

“I like Uncle Junmyeon, Mama. He’s very nice to me.” You simply hummed in recognition. “He reminds me of Uncle Jinki. Can I see Uncle Junmyeon again, Mama?”

“I’m sure you will.” You kissed his forehead. “It’s getting late now, you should sleep Jaejin.”

“Okay, Mama. I’ll pray now.” You nodded, and Jaejin started his nightly prayer. At the very end was always his special wishes, this was the time when he usually drops hints on wanting a new toy, or anything that he wants. “I pray that I get to see Uncle Junmyeon again, and that my Papa from far away is happy and healthy. Amen.”

The last part broke your heart, he always prays for his father. One that you told him had to be away for the good of both of you. But how will you tell him that the Uncle that he just met earlier was his actual father that he prays to see at night?

You rushed against the swarm of people to book a taxi. It was already rush hour and your cousin just texted you that he couldn’t fetch Jaejin from the daycare that you’ve left him in. You just freshly started a new job at the busy business district of Seoul, and you badly needed to stay and be at top performance at your new job if you wanted to keep it. You relied on your younger, single, cousin to keep an eye on Jaejin after his hours at the daycare center ends. But all be damned to hell that she decided to get a date on the busiest day of the week, where you just couldn’t rush to pick Jaejin up.

You don’t know why there’s a hint of nervousness in your veins and you just can’t stay put in your cab seat. Probably because it was already 5:45 in the afternoon and the day care is only supposed to be open until 4:30. They probably wouldn’t let Jaejin wander off the streets but there’s still this random unsettledness in your blood.

Office heels and preparatory school pebbles don’t mix, that was one thing you found out today. Yet you still nearly ran to catch the doors of the facility, before all lights close down.

“Excuse me? Is Jaejin still there?” You politely asked the female guard that was just closing the doors of the pastel colored center.

“Oh, Jaejin? He was picked up by someone earlier. He was this handsome, neat looking guy that looked a lot like Jaejin. He told me that you knew that he’d pick him up? And I thought he was Jaejin’s father so I let him pick him up.”

Your jaw almost dropped at her words, Junmyeon picked up Jaejin today. You were sure that he didn’t know where Jaejin studied, or where you left him during the day. You doubt if he even knows that Jaejin doesn’t accompany you to work. But now thinking about it, Junmyeon is probably capable of anything and everything.

“Is everything okay, Maam?” The lady asked, a hint of concern evident in her voice. She should be, because if any child gets kidnapped, she’ll surely lose her job.

“Yeah, yeah.” Was all you answered as you shaked down your initial shock. Almost stumbling with your nude stilettos, you jogged down to the streets and waited for a cab again. Maybe Junmyeon just dropped Jaejin at your apartment? You know it was wishful thinking, but it was the only string that kept you from breaking down now.

The ride back to your apartment was a blur, you scaled the stairs two steps at a time despite the pain on the balls of your feet. With jittery hands, you placed the keycard on the door scanner. The quietness on the other side of the walls was already a giveaway, Jaejin wasn’t here. Yet you still searched for every part of your two room apartment. But what frightened you even more was when you reached Jaejin’s room, all his toys were gone. Not even the new Bumblebee robot that Junmyeon just granted him last week. His favorite bunny stuff toy that he had since he could barely open his eyes wasn’t in his bed, too.

It took time for your senses to register that his closet was open, and all layers were void of his clothes, too. Surely, whoever took Jaejin’s stuff has no plans of letting him set foot again here. Because if not for your familiarity to your own apartment, and the fluorescent star stickers in the ceiling, none would remind you that this was his room.

“Jaejin..” Was all you were able to mutter before the first drop of tears escaped your eyes.

#junmyeon #exo imagine #junmyeon imagine #mafia!junmyeon #exo fanfiction #exo scenario #suho imagine #suho mafia #suho fanfic #exo mafia #exo fanfic #exo angst #mafia exo #suho #suho exo #kim junmyeon

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paradise-of-guilty-pleasures · 4 years

Text

Shattered Reflections {4}

[Helsa RP- Fanfic]

Fandom: Frozen

Genre: Post-Frozen/ Canon Divergence

- Hurt/Comfort, Drama, Romance

Pairing(s): Hans/Elsa, Kristoff/Anna

Synopsis:

Prince Hans is a mirror at heart, but wishes to shatter his reflections and correct his past mistakes. He returns to Arendelle, willingly surrendering himself to Queen Elsa’s judgement. Uncovering truths, unforeseen circumstances and a bit of je ne sais quoi, bring the Ice Queen and the Mirror Prince together in a way neither of them would have imagined.

A/N:

(( This is a collaborative RP Fic written by lovely fellow Helsa shipper FOW and myself. We RP for fun and just wanted wanted to share this story with fellow shippers, especially all my lovely shipper buddies over in the Helsa Discord Server. Long live the Province of Helsa! Thank you, Beta Reader Friends, your help is much appreciated. Hope you enjoy~ ))

Previous Chapter: Chapter 3. Bear Your Burdens

Chapter 4. Siren's Song

It was a new day and Elsa was back to daily queenly duties. The sister session with Anna had calmed her nerves a bit, yet he was still on her mind. It was hard to focus on her paperwork. She had received no update on his condition yet, she assumed that meant he had remained stable, at least she hoped. She sighed, she knew she wouldn't get much work done with this eating away at her mind.

She got up from behind her desk, and began to pace, like she usually did when she pondered. Elsa sighed deeply and walked out of her study. She knew she shouldn't be doing this, but there was no stopping now, she was past the point of no return. When she arrived at the hall at the opposite end of the castle, she saw the guards stationed at the door, her heart skipped a beat, but she pressed forward. She walked up to the door and stopped.

The guards glanced at each-other and shrugged. They knocked to herald Elsa's arrival, and opened the door for her. It was unlocked, but it seemed they didn't see that as a concern.

Hans was, surprisingly, sitting up. He had straightened up a bit on her arrival, but opted out of a shirt. His torso was mostly covered in bandages, it seemed to do well enough, but it also showed that he was no idle prince. His arms and torso had plenty of muscle. He was growing a bit of stubble as well- no-one had given him anything he could have shaved with.

Usually he would have greeted her, but at the moment he seemed uncertain how he felt. He didn't seem as positive toward her, but didn't seem to dislike her, either. It was not his forced neutrality, just a general uncertainty.

"No letters today, I'm afraid. I've been a bit preoccupied." He remarked. He still clearly wasn't up to full form (else he probably would have put on a shirt), but he seemed to be conscious and aware enough. He seemed different without the layers of shirt and coat, a bit more of a rugged Navy man than the prince who stood tall. And, beneath the bandages, he was still wearing treasoner's striped hide.

Seeing him shirtless had caught her off guard, even if he was mostly covered in bandages, she tried to avert her gaze, but eyes kept darting back to examine him.

Letters? She had completely forgotten about those.

She let out a hum. "Oh, I didn't come for a letter..." she paused, maybe she was starting to regret coming to visit him.

Hans looked away as well. "Come to ask questions?" He proposed, less than content with the idea. "Or just to make sure I don't lie about being fine again? I'm afraid I have no intention to change that, but the doctor is checking on me regularly, so I can't be hiding anything." Perhaps his annoyance wasn't with her, but was more of a self-loathing. He certainly seemed to have enough of it.

Why was she there? She really had no business being there, but to pry. She felt genuine concern about him, after witnessing his afflictions, yet he wasn't aware of her presence during his surgery due to being unconscious. He would surely view her concern for him as pity.

"I'm sorry," she apologized impulsively. " I shouldn't have come."

She had come to check on his well-being, and he seemed to be better than the day before, even if he was in bad spirits, but she couldn't blame him for that. Her mission had been completed, she could move on with her day, it was best for her just to turn around and walk away.

"No-" Hans impulsively reached out a bit, then realized the gesture was strange. That, or he just felt his back twinge and bandages catch and had to stop. He pulled back as quickly as he started. "My apologies, I'm a bit surly this morning, I'm afraid. It's not in my nature, usually. Please, do ask your questions. I'll enjoy the friendly company." Even if he didn't seem happy, it was more pleasant to see the Queen than to be lost in his thoughts. He briefly looked up at the ceiling, as if looking for something, but he didn't look for longer than a glance. There was nothing there but the decorated and relatively flat bedroom ceiling one might expect of a palace.

Elsa hesitantly stood in place for a moment. She followed his gaze up to the ceiling.

"Are you sure? I would not like intrude if you would just wish to rest and recover," she said as she already started to bridge the gap between her and bedside. She paused and asked a question that would have been strange not given the circumstances. "...Would you like some ice?"

Hans thought about it a moment. "...Sure. Some ice would numb the pain." He would never show his pain, but at least he admitted he had it. "Hot packs and cold packs, one or the other always, it seems. Please, do stay. I enjoy your company, even if I don't always show it." It was almost intimidating, when she was close to him. He knew she wouldn't hurt him intentionally, but it didn't stop him from holding his breath when her hands were close to him, or when her gaze met his and asked questions she never said.

The heat emanating from him was no longer searing like it had been last night, yet it was still fairly warm, she wondered if he still had a mild fever or if he was inherently that warm. She was cautious as she focused her powers to create a light layer of frost over the bandages on his back.

"Better?" she asked as she finished, bringing her hands down to her sides.

Hans couldn't help but tense when she touched his bandages. Not in fear, per se, but perhaps in anticipation. He could almost feel the way the frost crept in shards and fractals over the bandaging.

"Yes, thank you." He nodded, not sure how he felt when she pulled her hands back. He was struck -not for the first time- by her beauty and grace, and the kindness in her words and deeds, tone and poise. "I hope I didn't ramble too deliriously yesterday. I didn't realize I was in such a poor state until I was too tired to do anything about it." And he definitely didn't remember it. He vaguely recalled writing his note and feeling unfocused, then definitely not being able to properly focus on the people in front of him, and laying down. He wouldn't never lay down in front of company unless they were going to, as well. He must have been doing poorly.

Elsa gave as soft smile at his thanks. She shook her head at his comment about deliriously rambling. And then she stood there awkwardly, not knowing how to continue.

Elsa was not a conversationalist, that was definitely Anna's prowess not hers.

Hans waited a long moment, and seemed as engaged in the silence as he was in conversation. Waiting for her to speak, pondering over the time it took, and the expressions she gave. Hans was an analyst, someone who watched others and gauged them. He had to be, if he was to mirror them.

"Would it be easier if I put on a personality? Told another story? I believe it was the sirens, last time, right? I liked that story. Before Arendelle, I tried to believe we had made it up. Now I know that we didn't." He considered telling her she had a few similarities to them, but he couldn't imagine she would take that well, no matter how he meant it.

" I believe," she muttered under her breath as she remembered the words she had written on the note she had planned to give him. "The sirens yes," she said drifting out of her daze. "I enjoyed reading your tale ...and the song, even though I'm not familiar with the tune, so I couldn't quite place the notes." she stated. "My heart is pierced by cupid," she said mindlessly remembering the lyrics.

Hans smiled a bit, almost sheepishly. "I... played the harp, in the Isles. All my brothers learned an instrument, mine was the harp. I could play a bit, if we had one. My voice isn't as nice as a siren's, but I know the words." He seemed embarrassed of the feminine instrument, but he was proud of the skill it took to learn it.

"The harp is a beautiful instrument,"she smiled. " We might be in luck, 'cause I'm pretty sure there's a small harp in the music room, though it's probably best not to strain you playing the harp now, but I do wish to hear you play it someday," she said delightedly. "I think your voice would be fair enough, if you don't mind indulging me, could you please share the tune? I would love to learn it." She was so eager to hear the song, that it didn't cross her mind that it was strange or awkward to ask him to sing to her.

Hans seemed uncertain. He was going to ask that he play it instead, but he remembered the way his back twinged when he reached out to her before. "That may be for the best." He admitted, reluctantly. He felt it supremely awkward to sing for anyone else, but she asked, so he would acquiesce. Besides, he recalled singing back to the sirens, even though there were others around. Why did it bother him now then?

"It's not an uncommon song to hear on land, in the right places." He assured, And at least this song was mostly voice, and didn't need music to be beautiful. So he started at the beginning of the song.

Upon one summer's morning

I carefully did stray

Down by the Walls of Wapping

Where I met a sailor gay

Conversing with a young lass

Who seem'd to be in pain

Saying, William, when you go

I fear you'll ne'er return again

My heart is pierced by Cupid

I disdain all glittering gold

There is nothing can console me

But my jolly sailor bold

There were more verses, and he seemed to know them all. None of them were like the one he retorted with, however. That had been Hans' own creation, it seemed. The song was soft; unsettling, but affectionate. The song of someone who wouldn't be seeing their love again, whether they knew it or not.

Elsa picked up the melody right away and began softly humming it herself, to try to memorize the tune.

Hans had a lovelier voice than he was willing to admit, Elsa found his voice quite soothing, even with the slightly somber words.

"That was quite beautiful, Thank you for your indulgence," as she continued to hum.

Hans shrugged. "As her Majesty commands." He assured sweetly. She had asked, so he provided. He wouldn't have been truly bidden to her crown, as a prince- but as he had said, he was a prince 'in name only'. Perhaps, as her prisoner, he truly was. Both in practice and in theory.

It remained silent between the two, except for Elsa's hum. Elsa didn't mind silence, it was quite comforting to her, but thought maybe it had been dwelling on too long. Her hum stopped as she tried to rekindle a conversation. " Would you like to share another story? I would be happy to listen, though I might have asked too much of you with my last request and you would rather rest," she offered. Elsa seemed to forget she had other duties to attend to, though she could get to them later. In a strange way she was quite enjoying his company, and did not want to dismiss herself, as if he had been just another one of her obligations.

He thought a bit about it. "What sort of story would you like? I have stories of fighting pirates on the open sea, stories of the mischief I used to get up to as a boy, it just depends on the sort of story you would like to hear. I certainly enjoy talking when I'm away from the Isles, as long as the room doesn't echo." What a strange stipulation.

Both options he offered were quite interesting. She really was curious to know more about his childhood, yet she knew talk of the Isles seemed to inflict pain, and she really didn't want to cause him any more discomfort right now. So decided to opt out for the pirates, since she also knew how much he loved talking about the sea. "A story about pirates sounds compelling. Did you really cross them yourself?"

Hans smiled a bit. "That was my job, protecting the merchant vessels through the area on my ship. I was acting admiral and captain of the Conch Cat. It's a term for a cat with extra toes, they're supposed to be lucky, and as the thirteenth, I needed all the luck I could get. We had a cat on board, 'Big Red'. We called him 'His Highness' because he had the same fur color as me, and we'd direct people to the cat any time they asked for the prince." Hans grinned a little at the thought. He tried to lean back, then stopped and sat forward again. He didn't express pain, but it was pretty clear he had felt it.

"So, one day, we were stuck in a fog. You can't move in a fog, generally, because if it's too thick, you can't see where you're going and might run aground, or worse. So we had the sails away, anchor down, and were just waiting for it to clear. That day, we had a young man named Fletcher up in the Crow's nest. Fletcher's a good lad, and the best set of eyes you could have aboard a ship. Next thing I knew, he was at my elbow saying 'Pirates off the port bow'. I wasn't about to doubt him and his eyes, he had never led me astray before, but I had always fancied playing games with pirates." Hans grinned a little bit.

"I have respect for pirates, truthfully. They treat their crews well, generally, they would sometimes have female captains or pirates among them, they never cared about one's color or creed, only what one could earn. They even had healthcare and took care of their own. I can respect that. So anyway, I told my crew to get their weapons and hide. We were midway through a long journey, we had some empty containers in cargo. So men took their weapons and fled in all corners, looking for places to hide. Even the cat seemed to hide under a bed in wait."

"But of course, as the Captain, I needed to have a primary role in defeating the pirates and bringing them in, and I had every intention to. So I went to the stairwell down into the hold, where most of my crew was hiding away, and I climbed it. Hands on one wall, feet on another, I climbed up above the door, like I've done to escape my brothers before. I even put myself in a nonchalant sitting position with my sword in-lap, and just waited there. Now in truth, that's rather difficult to do for a long period of time, but it was worth it. I held until the pirate captain passed right under me with his crew before. 'Hello, Gentlemen', I said, then dropped down like a cat from a shelf. My crew popped out from hidden compartments and beer barrels and under tables and stairs, and they were quite held fast. There were a few scuffles in getting everyone tied and handled into the brig, but the only one who did any real damage was a female pirate cursing our crew, her crew, and every Navy man under the sun. I admired her spirit, the boatswain not so much, when she near cut a chunk out of his arm, but we stopped her. Made for a nice story back at port."

Hans grinned at the whole story, thinking back fondly to the Navy. The same Navy that nearly killed him. It was strange how he could smile about it.

His grin was contagious. Elsa couldn't stop herself from smiling along as he told the story. It was way more than just his grin though, it was how he told the story with so much passion it was hard not to smile. Reading his letters were nothing compared to hearing them straight from the source. The way he told the story was so lively and immersive Elsa almost felt she was there herself.

She picked up part about his brothers that seemed out of place in the talk about pirates. In fact it almost felt like he had more admiration for the Pirates than his Brothers.

It saddened her that he would no longer be able to do something he spoke of with such fondness.

" His Highness, huh? I don't think I've ever seen a cat with red fur, that would definitely be a sight to see."

"He was a bit, beautiful longhair. The problem with that was, he also liked me, and would lay on my shoulder all the time, so I constantly looked like I was losing my hair from all the fur he left on my uniform." Hans laughed, gesturing around his neck, though the gesture was a little stiff as pain halted him again.

"He'd purr in my ear all the time, a most calming creature. Cats are lucky on boats, and necessary to keep mice out of the stores, and he was a big fluffy sweetheart. Probably still on the boat, he's old but he's not that old." Hans liked cats. It didn't come up often, but he did. Cats and horses.

"Speaking of animals, how is my horse? Sitron has always been good, I was happy to hear you would be kind to him."

The question caught her off guard. She hasn't thought much about his Horse since his arrival. She had sent the horse to royal stables where he would be treated well like she promised, at least she hoped that was the case, she really had to check in on the Sitron now that he mentioned it.

"Sitron, is in the royal stables, he should be properly provided for," Elsa said. "You really care for your horse don't you? It was a bit strange that you brought him along with you."

Hans nodded. "He's been mine since I was a young man. Horses and swords, the Isles are pretty traditional. The only thing I could talk to without feeling like I would be teased or chastised later for what I said- as long as I rode far enough from home, first. I never wanted to be near home anyway, so it worked out nicely for me. I brought him for companionship on the boat."

The Isles seemed like a very traditional nation. There was nothing wrong with traditions, yet the way Hans spoke about his own homeland sounded less like a case of excessive discipline, and more like vigorous cruelty. Elsa didn't know how to respond.

Perhaps Hans caught the look on her face.

"It's not the way it sounds. The crown is kind. My father, and the eldest brother are good men. Great men, in fact. If they adhered to the grim law as well as they say they do, four of us would have been hanged. Two as common thieves in Corona, one is in trouble with the church and is a thief, and me. A treasoner. None of us have been. Brothers are just personally violent toward each-other naturally, I'm led to believe. Though as princes with perhaps too much leeway, it got out of hand on a regular basis." To say the least.

"I do like some of my brothers. It's the seven or so in the middle I can't stand." Slightly over half, as if that helped.

"I can't imagine having so many siblings. I only had one and-" Elsa trialed off for a second. "...that was hard enough."

Hans tilted his head curiously. "Was?" It was strange, Elsa spoke in the past-tense.

"Good god, did something happen to her?" He sounded genuinely concerned for a moment. Ironic, for someone who tried to kill them both.

"Wait, what? No, Anna is fine!" she burst in fluster. Her tone softened. "...I was just think of our childhood, and how I couldn't be with her...even if I wanted to..."

Hans nodded thoughtfully. "Every family has its idiosyncrasies, I suppose. But your relationship with your sister is beautiful and warm. I have that with a few brothers, it can be... lifesaving." He seemed lost in his own thoughts as well.

"Will you continue to visit? Or am I just lucky because I don't have paper to write?" He smiled a little toward her, something of respect in his look. He must have respected her, he continued to tell the truth, or at least to claim to. He wasn't keeping his false neutrality, but he didn't seem to be putting on an act in particular. If he was, he didn't seem to notice.

"Kicking me out already?" she tried to tease. "Hmm... I have to admit listening to your stories was more enjoyable than reading them, makes me reconsider giving you pen and paper... Regardless, I would probably come visit to provide more Ice if you still desire it." She returned a soft smile.

He smiled a little. "I can't, I'm in your home." He pointed out, jokingly. "Surprised the guards stand on the outside. Maybe they realized I never try the doors, though they don't seem to be locked." Hans knew he could open the doors. Then what? Run? He had no desire to, and wasn't certain he could get far even if he weren't injured.

"I'm happy to tell stories any time you ask. Or just talk about whatever. I came here to give truths, not more lies. Whatever you should ask. And, I wouldn't say no to more ice." There was a bit of a smile there that suggested he might have asked even if he didn't need the ice. It would easily have been an excuse for her to visit, though in this case, he actually did need it. "Someday I'll play the harp for you, if you like." He had not forgotten that idea. 'Someday'. A someday he almost seemed to be looking forward to.

Elsa glanced towards the door, when Hans mentioned it, he was always very observant.

His stories she would be eagerly awaiting to hear. Truths on the other hand she was still unsure of, especially ones that had been brought up in the Throne Room, they had been weighing on her mind & would require more deliberation (but she could dwell upon those later).

Elsa had really enjoyed keeping him company. She realized that this was the first time since he returned to Arendelle that she really felt at ease in his presence.

Hans really shouldn't have pledged he'd do whatever she'd ask, cause she could be likely to take him up on his offer, and to his dismay, she might make him sing for her again or worse.

The Ice had truly been more of an excuse to return, but was glad it was purposeful as well.

" I would really like to hear you play, someday," she smiled. There was a brief pause of silence. " I really should take my leave, I do have paperwork still waiting for my attention, and it's very possible that Anna as well."

Hans nodded, hesitantly. "Does she... know that I'm here?" He sounded like he almost didn't want to know the answer. "At least in the dungeons I was fairly certain she wouldn't visit. I'd sooner go through this again than hear what she thinks of me now." He gestured to the wounds on his back. "Though it is a very slim margin." He would sooner endure pain that could kill him than endure one upset woman telling him how horrible he was- but most particularly, the one he had been engaged to.

The question made her tense up. Elsa pursed her lips, something about Hans inquiring about Anna made her uncomfortable. She dismissed it as her over-protectiveness, that was strongest when it involved him.

Anna might not have known that he was here in this room, but she was well aware of his presence. Elsa had informed her sister right away about the Prince's new residence in the dungeon, she did not want to keep that a secret from her. Of course, Anna had been upset with the news, and had wished to visit him just to assault his face with her fist yet again, but Elsa had forbade and fortunately Anna had complied with her wishes.

" She... she is well aware of your return to Arendelle," she answered softly.

Elsa had feared the two crossing paths again, for she knew her sister would give him more than just a piece of her mind. There was a reason Elsa was wary of mentioning Hans as the reason behind her distressed state last night.

She was afraid of telling Anna about her visits with Hans and what she might think them, that's exactly why she hasn't been open to sharing details with her.

There was a higher chance of them having a confrontation now, with Hans now residing within the castle walls, and that scared Elsa. Especially since Elsa was well aware of her sister's curious nature, the risk of her stumbling upon this room was high.

Hans nodded thoughtfully.

"It's okay, I can withstand what's deserved. I did attempt treason, after all. Whatever my reasons, treasons are treasons." He laughed a little, dryly, at his wordplay. "Perhaps she'll take pity if I'm still dressed in bandages." That was a joke, though it was almost certainly true.

Anna was bound to find out sooner or later, but Elsa didn't think she wasn't ready to tell her just yet, mostly because she didn't know how. The clash between Anna and Hans was inevitable, it might be better to let it run its course sooner rather than later. Elsa just felt she ill-prepared to deal encounter and its aftermath.

Elsa let out a slight huff and flashed a grim smile.

" I should go now, " she said softly as shifted awkwardly in place.

Hans closed his eyes briefly, and nodded.

"Until next time, your Majesty. I shall look forward to your next visit." His tone was positive, but it seemed that Hans was still thinking of something grimmer. As she began to leave, he moved to lay down again on his bed. The doctor would be along shortly to change his bandages, anyway.

"Until Next Time," she said heading towards the door. As her hand reached the doorknob she peers back to look at him. She can sense a shift in his mood. "... I can ask the guards to bring you some books, if you like, to occupy your mind." She offers.

He thought about it a bit.

"Your favorites, perhaps? I'm curious what you would choose." He suggested fondly, without telling her his. Of course, as an adventurer, his preference was for adventure novels. But he wanted to know her better. He told her, much, it was her turn to share her interests.

" All right, I'll see what I can find," she said turning the door knob. "I'll keep them a surprise until they arrive." Elsa flashed a playful smile.

Hans nodded, amused by her attempts at suspense, and settled himself on his arms like a great cat again.

Elsa exited the room, gently closing the door behind her. The guards acknowledged her as was customary, but didn't say a word. They were the same two guards as before (they still had not had their rotation), They had known how much time Elsa had spent in there with the Prince. The realization made her cheeks lightly flush in fluster, but it just a twinge of short lived embarrassment. She'd done what she set out to do, which was check-in on Hans, yes, she might have lost track of time, but that was okay for she had enjoyed his company, for once.

She continued on her way back to her study, reminding herself to stop by the library on her way to pick up some books, as promised. Unconsciously, Elsa began humming the tune the Prince had reluctantly sang to her.

#Helsa #IceBurns #Hans x Elsa #Frozen #Frozen FanFiction #Shattered Reflections

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rivaltierno · 4 years

Photo

I’ve been meaning to update Mmeeie’s profile + reference art for a bit now, and after a good two weeks of work on it, I’ve finally done that.

The updates to her design is mainly just the different color palette, though her profile is changed a bit more. Most notably, I significantly fleshed out her backstory and added sections talking about the most important relationships she has. I also tweaked a couple other things like her personality and explained some of her powers more in-depth.

The profile itself is written under the cut, but before that a few notes to help clear up some things that may be confusing while reading it:

- I don’t know the names of the DC Earths, so I just tried to vaguely describe each universe she went to in her backstory. If it’s not clear, the universes she went in order are: the Hanna-Barbera Superfriends cartoon, the 2003 animated Teen Titans series, the Teen Titans Go! cartoon, and the Static Shock cartoon.

- Since Teen Titans Go! has no consistent timeline (or continuity in general really), the timeline part of her backstory is based on Static Shock (or how I’m interpreting its timeline at least). She first goes to the Static Shock universe in mid-Season 3 (between “Showtime” and “Romeo in the Mix” specifically), and then the second time is in early Season 4 during the episode “She-Back!”.

- I’m operating under the idea that these universes have parallel timelines of sorts, which is why the modern-day Teen Titans Go! universe exists at the same time as the early 2000s Static Shock universe and Mmeeie can so easily jump between them. (Since the Teen Titans Go! vs. Teen Titans crossover movie those had universes interacting with no timeline trouble I’m going to say that's kinda canon anyway.)

Name: Mmeeie (pronounced as the letters M-E)

Other Aliases: Emmy Maxwell (only used while in human disguise)

Species: Fifth-Dimensional Imp

Age: 15

Gender: Mmeeie doesn’t know nor does she care to find out. Will dismiss people if asked what her gender is.

Pronouns: She/Her; no pronouns (when back home in Zrfff)

Sexual Orientation: Attracted exclusively to girls

Birthday: December 1st (Sagittarius)

Home Location: Zrfff, Fifth Dimension

Alignment: Neutral, leaning towards Chaotic

Height: 2′9″ (normal), 4′9″ (human disguise)

Weight: Weightless

Physical Description: Short and fat. Dark green eyes and matching hair, her hair pulled into low-hanging pigtails, the ends perpetually curled upward. Grayish-blue skin color.

When in her human disguise, still short and fat. Blue eyes and black hair, her hair worn down and the ends still pointed upwards, but split into two sections on each side. Pinkish-white skin color

Clothing Description: A green full body suit with a high popped collar and gold-colored insignia with the letters ‘M’ and ‘E’ inside a pointed-down triangle on the chest. Gold-colored gloves reaching just above the elbow, gold-colored boots reaching just below the knee and curving down in a ‘V’ shape at the top, a gold-colored belt wore at the waist and curving down in a ‘V’ shape, and a gold-colored headband. A light orange flight disc with boot-shaped latches on top.

When in her human disguise*, an orange t-shirt with a "Burger Fool" logo on it and a light blue-and-gray stripped long sleeve undershirt. A calf-length dark blue denim skirt. Tan boots with pale yellow fluff at the top. A light blue headband with orange butterflies on it, and five jelly bracelets (two orange, two tan, and one black) on each arm. A light orange walker. *Note that the clothing for her human disguise changes based on the universe she's in to try and blend in better. The clothing seen/described here is specifically for when she's in the "Static Shock" universe, since that's really the only time she uses this disguise at the moment. The walker stays the same, however.

Powers/Abilities:

Reality Warping: Like all Imps, Mmeeie has the ability to change reality to her own desires. She mainly uses this power to transform objects/create new objects, though she will sometimes use it to change the physical environment around her into something else.

However, her ability to create new environments is noticeably weaker than her ability to change objects. This is partially due to her inexperience in using her powers (as she simply creates new objects more often in her daily life than changing the physical landscape of things), and partially because wide-scale changes such as environmental ones requires a lot more focus from her, which she doesn’t like to give most of the time.

She also has difficulties disappearing objects once she’s created them, again due to still learning to fully use her powers. This is why she prefers to summon up objects that can easily be gotten rid of (money, food, etc.). To give the illusion that she can just as easily disappear them, however, she hides them away in a pocket dimension she has access to, since that’s where she keeps all of her things when she’s traveling around anyway.

Likewise, her objection creation is limited to only items without a consciousness, so if she wanted/had to create something that was alive, she couldn't summon up an animal, but could a plant. This is because only adult Imps are able to properly create consciousness for their items, which is also why Mmeeie isn't able to bring inanimate objects to life with her environment-warping abilities.

Mild Omniscience: Also like other Imps, Mmeeie is omniscient, though it’s mild. Her omnisciency level requires her to be both physically in a particular universe and near the people she wants to learn about to fully gain knowledge about them. For example, she could learn everything there is to know about a person, including everything they’ve ever done and why, within a minute or two just by looking at them, but she has to be in close proximity to them for it to work, and she can only do it to one person at a time.

This is only the case for learning about people, though; to fully learn about a universe’s history and past major events, she simply just has to be in the universe proper, not near where the actual events took place. However, she tends to focus on just events that particularly interest her or she’s asked about directly, as learning about events/history takes a lot more focus than learning about people, and like with her reality warping, she doesn’t like to give it most of the time.

Further, she can learn about current/active events without being in a universe physically. She has the ability to open “universe windows” to other universes and peak in on them. She can’t interact with the universe’s inhabitants through that window, and can only watch one event in that universe at a time, but she can see everything that’s going on without anyone else being aware of it. She can also open multiple windows at a time if she wants to, but the images get blurrier/less detailed if more than one is being used.

These limitations to her omnisciency are mainly due to her age - only adult Imps have the ability to gain full knowledge of a universe’s history and inhabitants instantaneously - though some of them, such as only being able to have one clear window at a time, is due to her still learning to fully use her powers.

Teleportation: Teleportation is Mmeeie’s method of traveling between universes/dimensions, though it can also be used on a smaller scale to get from place-to-place as well. Similarly, it is also her preferred method of movement when she cannot use her flight disc.

She is also able to take objects/others along with her when she’s teleporting, but only if she’s directly holding onto them. She can’t teleport objects/others by themselves, either, again due to her inexperience with her powers.

Weapons: Mmeeie can conjure up weapons, though she she very rarely uses them as she’s not a physical fighter. Since these weapons are mainly just for fun/show, they are cartoony looking, being black, magenta, cyan, and yellow in color. Her favorite is the giant mallet, though she has a saw blade and a laser gun as well.

Personality: Mmeeie’s main goal is to enjoy herself and live life exactly as she wants it to go. Due to being an Imp and having the powers that comes with it, she views herself as inherently better than most others. She puts her own thoughts and desires before everyone else, only taking others seriously and considering their feelings if she’s fond of them. For everyone else, she enjoys bothering and inconveniencing them just to bother and inconvenience them, ignoring all of the consequences and criticisms that doing so brings.

Despite her self-focused thought process, however, Mmeeie does legitimately enjoy having close relationships and hanging out with others, and was genuinely distraught to find out that her ego and constant ribbing of people weren’t endearing traits to those in other universes like they were on Zrfff. For those she’s fond of, or at least wants to gain some kind of acquaintanceship with, she does attempt to curve her personality to be more likable, but that generally results in her just being overbearing and inserting herself where she wasn't asked to be.

Like other Imps, Mmeeie does enjoy playing games and making deals. She takes deals very seriously, making sure the rules are followed as closely and getting very upset if someone breaks them. She’s also very particular about who can play her games - she makes sure civilians and other people who didn’t agree to play never get involved, feeling like it would be too dangerous for them to do so. Even with that concern, though, her games rarely get violent or even that physical, as she doesn’t find it fun to put people in serious danger and would much rather play a game that involves outwitting or annoying someone. If her games/actions do get physical, it is a cartoony style of violence, one that doesn't leave lasting damage to her or the person attacked (ex. being bonked over the head with an oversized hammer), and likewise serves more as a distraction than an actual attempt at fighting.

Likes:

- Seagulls

- Loud Music

- Layered Clothing

- Puppets

Dislikes:

- People named Richard (She just hates the name that much)

- Being compared to/called a “Mite”

- Authority figures

- Pizza

Fears:

- Animals with long necks [Giraffes, Geese, etc.]

- Very large animals [Giraffes, Elephants, etc.]

- Being mind controlled

Family: Ooccaaer (Father), Ttooniee (Father), Glldngllb (Grandmother)

Love Interest: Jayna (Teen Titans Go!)

Notable Relationships [more in-depth]:

Zrfff

Family: Mmeeie gets along very well with her family. They’ve always been very supportive of her, including when she decided to become the first one of the family to become an ‘adventurer’, and she’ll always defend their decisions when people in other universes question how they raised her.

However, there was a divide in how she was raised in a major way: her father Ttooniee and her grammy taught her to be very proud of her power and to ignore anyone trying to stop her living the way she wants to, while her father Ooccaaer taught her that, even though she is indeed more powerful than those in other universes, there does need to some level of order in the world and that never thinking about others will only lead to trouble.

This never caused any fights amongst her family, but it did cause confusion for Mmeeie when she was first out on her own and couldn’t rely on her family to make important decisions for her. She tries her best to blend the two viewpoints together, but that usually results in her coming off as a hypocrite to those around her.

Mr. Mxyzptlk: Like most Imps, Mmeeie idolizes Mr. Mxyzptlk. She grew up hearing stories of his amazing adventures and exploits, and since she dreamed of leaving Zrfff and exploring the multiverse some day, she wanted to be just like him. When an opportunity to study under him came she took it, taking everything he said to heart, even if it wasn’t very much.

Mr. Mxyzpltk, however, doesn’t think much about Mmeeie. He views her more as a means to the end than a true student, and only ever interacts with her when it is convenient for or required of him.

Teen Titans Go!

Robin: At first, Mmeeie and Robin were just each others’ rivals, trying to one-up each other in an on-going competition to see whose the best. They clashed heavily due to how similar their personalities are, with them both demanding everything be their way or the highway and both being willing to mess with other people to get that to happen. However, they quickly realized that because they're so similar, they could confide in each other in a way that they couldn’t with others/without a feeling of being judged, and began to do that as well.

They’re still not really friends, as Mmeeie is willing to pull out more dangerous game just for him and Robin enjoys it when she gets herself caught up in them, but at the end of the day they can still laugh it off and do appreciate the relationship they have.

Starfire: Starfire was Mmeeie’s first full-blown crush. The two of them got along really well at first, bonding over the fact that both of them were still learning the ropes about certain parts of Earth culture and that they both enjoyed making fun of Robin. However, Mmeeie eventually realized there was a major problem preventing a relationship between the two of them: Starfire wasn’t attracted to her in the slightest, and didn’t even seem to realize Mmeeie was flirting with her. Not wanting to lose her friendship with her, Mmeeie simply pretended the crush never happened (not that Starfire would have minded if she knew). Starfire is still her favorite person on that particular Titans team, though Starfire doesn’t view her as anything more than a causal friend.

Jayna: Mmeeie and Jayna hit it off right from the start: Mmeeie admired Jayna’s dedication to her family, as it reminded her of her own family life, and Jayna not only was glad there was someone capable of being assertive when she wasn’t in the mood, she actually appreciated Mmeeie’s direct and constant affections for her, as (naturally) she did enjoy being treated a separate person from her brother despite their closeness.

As they grew closer, Jayna became one of the few people Mmeeie trusted to be actually caring when she suggests Mmeeie try and improve herself, and not just be critiquing her “for no good reason”. Mmeeie does try to tone down how overbearing she is with Jayna to a more causal level to keep her more comfortable, and even starts to truly consider how Jayna feels when doing things around her (and not just in a “oh pretty girl” way). Jayna, likewise, indeed does actually care about Mmeeie, and does really think Mmeeie does mean well and just needs to learn how to control herself better.

Within a year of meeting one another they decided to try starting a romantic relationship together, and while they haven’t been on any major dates, they (especially Mmeeie) do actively refer to each other as “girlfriend” to other people.

Zan: Mmeeie didn’t think too much about Zan at first, viewing him just as “Jayna’s brother”. She ribbed him just like she did everyone else, and was pretty pleased that he seemed fine with it. However, as she spent more time around him, she realized that the only reason he didn’t complain like most others did was because he was used to being the butt of the joke. Since they had somewhat bonded by then (and also because she wanted to cover up the sudden guilt she was feeling for the first time), she decided to throw herself into defending him and truly trying to become his friend.

Zan, for his part, was overwhelmed by the sudden change in Mmeeie’s treatment of him but did appreicate it - especially since it meant she was treating him like his own person instead of just “Jayna’s brother”. He was receptive to it, and they ended up forming a relationship around trying to improve one another; Mmeeie trying to get him to become more assertive and Zan trying to get her to consider people’s feelings more often and not just when they directly impact her. (Neither of them have been partially effective so far.)

Static Shock

Static: Mmeeie decided that Static would become her rival without her even asking him about it first. In her mind, all she had to do to get him to agree was show off her amazing powers and constantly praise him, which she proudly did. Despite from the slight ego boost her praise gave him, Static was annoyed by her badgering and spent most of the time trying to ignore her, having to angrily trick her into leaving by the end of it. Mmeeie was in complete denial of this rejection, however, assuming it was all acting on the part of their “rivalry”.

When they met for a second time, Mmeeie’s view of Static was slightly more nuanced - but only because she was mad at him for how he was treating Shebang, as that shattered her view that he was a flawless hero. She actually felt a bit betrayed because of it, which Static was able to use to his advantage once he was able to properly confront her again, since she was too emotionally distraught to be as tricky as she usually was.

After Static realized all this was Mmeeie’s strange way of saying she liked spending time with him, he was slightly hesitant to send her back. He did think there might be potential for her to be a halfway decent person - that and having someone with reality-bending powers on his side would be very useful. He did end up still convincing her to leave, of course (as he didn’t want her to stick around that much), but made sure she knew she was welcome back at some point in the future. Mmeeie gladly accepted his offer to return.

Gear: Mmeeie and Gear hated each other at first, with most of the tension coming from Mmeeie’s side. Between her irrational hatred of people named Richard and her belief that Gear was inferior to Static, she took every chance she got to insult and belittle him. Much to her anger, however, Gear retaliated against this and treated her the same way.

Their relationship didn’t improve until outside forces intervened, convincing Mmeeie to consider Gear as a person (and not just a name to hate) and to start treating him with some basic decency. However, even with this change in Mmeeie’s behavior, the two of them still regularly bickered with and insulted one another; they just learned to tone it down when they had to work with one another. Their relationship just changed from pure hatred to reluctant and undesired acquaintanceship. Mmeeie prefers it that way, though, because it gives her an “acceptable” way to act out her instigative nature. (Gear, for his part, doesn’t like to think about their relationship at all, ever.)

Shebang: Mmeeie was attracted to Shebang the moment she met her, both literally and because she felt a connection to her due to their shared desire to make friends. She was incredibly perturbed by the fact that Static and Gear found her annoying, when clearly she was just trying to be nice and offer her friendship to them, which she didn’t even need to do because she was obviously better than the both of them anyway. Because of this self-projection, Mmeeie decided that she was going to be Shebang’s friend, following her around out-of-uniform and purposefully annoying anyone that was even slightly rude to her.

On the one hand, Shebang herself was annoyed at Mmeeie’s actions, finding her to be overbearing and trying too hard to be her friend. But on the other hand, she did appreicate that she seemed to be the only one who wasn't actively avoiding her and was at least attempting to understand her point of view. That, and because Mmeeie’s plan actually somewhat worked and got Static and Gear to quit complaining about her so much. Because of this, Shebang did, albeit hesitantly, vouch for Mmeeie in the end, and was the first one in that particular universe to try and talk her into being more considerate and to think through her actions. (Mmeeie was more receptive to Shebang’s requests because she was already fond of her, but it was still an uphill battle.) She still doesn’t consider Mmeeie that close of a friend, though.

Backstory:

There was nothing about Mmeeie’s childhood that inclined her towards becoming an adventuring Imp more than others her age; no one in her family had ever left Zrfff before - which they were perfectly content with - and she knew very little about the universes existing outside of the Fifth Dimension. In fact, due to one of her fathers, Ooccaaer, working as a court clerk for the Imp court system, she had knowledge about some the more illegal and morally questionable activities adventuring Imps got into that the general public didn’t know, so she even knew that not everything was what it seemed when it came to traveling to other universes.

However, none of that ended up mattering, as Mmeeie fell in love with the idea of becoming an adventuring Imp the moment she heard Mr. Mxyzlptk’s stories for the first time. She adored the theatrics of them, the cunning and wit he had, and most of all, the idea of having a personal rival to compete with, especially if it was someone as famous as he said Superman was. This desire for adventure grew each time Mr. Mxyzlptk returned to Zrfff, and she decided that she was going to leave to explore the Multiverse the first chance she got.

And, at the tender age of 13, she got it.

During one of Mr. Mxyzlptk’s trips back to Earth, he decided to start an “internship program” to help give back to the community that loved him so much; he would select a lucky few young Imps to teach the ways of multiversal travel and relations, so he could make sure the next generation got to experience the joys of adventuring. In truth, it was just a stunt to further deepen the general public’s adoration of him, as he knew perfectly well that the only reason the court never punished him too severely was because they feared a full-on riot. But it was still a successful stunt.

Mmeeie was one of the many young Imps who auditioned to be part of his program. Her plan to win Mr. Mxyzlptk over was to focus on explaining how much he inspired her and how much she would “appreciate the opportunity” to work with him and be the first in her family to travel outside of Zrfff (she made sure to later thank her family for that line in particular). She didn’t think that would be particularly impressed by her powers, anyway, since literally every Imp could do the same things, and she wanted to make herself stand out as much as possible. That and a little praise never hurt, either.

Much to her joy, her plan worked, and Mmeeie was chosen to “study” under Mr. Mxyzlptk. He told her it was because he was impressed with how close she was to her family - closeness is a key component in having a good rivalry with others, he explained - and how supportive they were of her. Unbeknownst to her, however, the real reason she was chosen was because her father was a court clerk, and Mr. Mxyzlptk wanted to leverage that to get some influence into the court system, even if he had to start at the lowest level. If Mmeeie’s explanation of her father was correct, then he certainly wouldn’t risk ruining his child’s happiness by not listening to him, right?

The training Mr. Mxyzlptk gave his chosen students was just a crash course into the powers they had but didn’t really use on Zrfff, such as how to tap into their omnisciency powers and how to tune their teleportation to the proper frequencies so they could get into any universe they want. That was it. No etiquette on how to act in other universes, no suggestions on what to do when they get there, not even a list of the universes that existed. Just “these are your powers so go use them however you want”. Mr. Mxyzlptk promised it was more fun that way, and reminded his students that they were the powerful ones, so it should be those in other universes listening to them and not the other way around anyway.

Mmeeie was a little disappointed with the training she received, as she was hoping to get more information from Mr. Mxyzlptk on how to get a proper rival, but she tried not to dwell on it too much. Especially since her family actually seemed pretty pleased with what she had learned; her father Ttooniee and her grammy were both glad that his lessons focused on maintaining personal pride even in under pressure from other universes, and her father Ooccaaer was relieved to learn that he was sending her off on her own instead of roping her into one of his schemes. With her family believing that she was indeed properly prepared to go adventuring, and with them reminding her multiple times that she could return home whenever she wanted to, Mmeeie went off to explore the universes outside of Zrfff.

Her initial plan was just to follow in Mr. Mxyzlptk’s footsteps until she figured out what to do. The first universe she decided to visit was one that he often told stories about, one in which the Superfriends was the premier hero team. Adopting, with some slight alterations, the uniform the Wonder Twins wore (her favorite amongst the team members she saw there) so she would be taken more seriously, Mmeeie stormed into the universe demanding that Robin be her rival. Since she didn’t know what made a proper rival, she decided that someone she wanted to personally fight would do, and besides, Robin was as well-known as Superman, right?

This plan did not go well for her. Due to the Superfriends already knowing how to deal with Imps because of their past interactions with Mr. Mxyzlptk - and the fact most of them were grown adults and Mmeeie was barely a teenager, which they made sure to reminder her of - they quite easily outsmarted her and convinced her to leave. Humiliated, Mmeeie vowed to avoid all superhero teams with adult members when searching for her next universe.

Staying with the idea that becoming rivals with a Robin was the best way to go, Mmeeie looked around until she found a universe where not only was Robin not working with his Batman at all, but he and his team of fellow teenage heroes seemed to be the only team around, so she wouldn’t have to worry about any kind of adults ruining her plan. So she stormed into that universe, again demanding that Robin be her rival.

This plan also did not go well for her. Much to her shock, The Teen Titans of that universe informed her that they had dealt with an Imp before as well, though that shock quickly turned into anger when she learned it was a Mite they interacted with. Offended at the comparison, she spent more time screaming at Robin than trying to convince him to be her rival, and the Titans were able to use that frustration against her to get her to leave on her own.

Fortunately for Mmeeie, however, the third time was a charm. It didn’t take long for her to find the next universe to go to; she just hoped over to one that was like the previous one she tried but with everyone being very small in stature. When she declared that the Robin of that universe was going to be her rival, that Robin jumped on the opportunity, even reassuring her that he was totally just as famous as Superman. Not only that, that Robin was even more punchable than the previous two, so Mmeeie felt that this universe was were she needed to be.

She spent the next year there, becoming very fond of it in the process. Mmeeie’s rivalry with Robin remained steady, with her often tagging along on the Titans’ adventures just to bother him, his teammates encouraging it most of the time. Through these adventures she developed a mild friendship with the rest of the Titans, most notably Starfire, who she got a major crush on (though it was unrequited and didn’t last long).

In that time, Mmeeie also met the Wonder Twins of that universe. She was immediately smitten by Jayna, and Jayna actually liked her back. (Mmeeie was more indifferent to Zan, though.) She began to spend her time split between the Titans and hanging out with Jayna (and Zan), with the latter being a good influence on her; because she was spending more time with the Wonder Twins as opposed to the more selfish and impulsive Titans (or anyone from back home on Zrfff), Mmeeie began to realize new things about herself, like how she still felt proud of herself even when she did consider Jayna’s feelings along with her own, and how she was starting to feel guilt for how mean she was being to Zan without him ever doing anything to her. These self-realizations didn’t impact her relationship with anyone outside of Jayna and Zan - in fact, it only made her act angrier towards Robin, because she had to get her inconsiderate feelings out somehow (and their whole rivalry was built on that fact anyway) - but it was something Mmeeie kept in the back of her mind the more she stayed in that universe.

Then one day Mr. Mxyzlptk arrived to “check up” on her. In truth, he didn’t actually care how she was doing, but had to keep up the image of mentoring her and the other young Imps. He stayed long enough to take brief, mental notes on what she had been doing to report back to her parents, and then offered a couple of general pieces of advice before leaving, pointing out that staying in just one universe doesn’t really count as ‘traveling’, and reminding her that Imps don’t let those from other universes tell them what to do. Oh, and to call her parents more often.

Though he barely told her anything, Mmeeie took everything she did get to heart and decided to get moving again. However, remembering the embarrassment she felt traveling to different universes beforehand, and not wanting to completely lose the relationships she had already built in this universe, she decided to take a different approach. She would pick a universe she knew ahead of time that she would want to stay in, and divide her time between it and her current universe, making sure to go between them enough to still qualify as ‘traveling’. She didn’t have other ideas on how to judge this universe choice besides her previous plan of finding a rival, however, so that had to be modified as well.

Trying to keep in mind the whole “considering others’ feelings” thing while not going against her Imp heritage, Mmeeie decided to find a universe with two rivals for her - one that she could compete with in an angry, serious manner like she and Robin did, and one that could compete with in a more causal, relaxed one. This meant more ‘research’ into the universes themselves had to be done before she left, but that’s what universe windows were for.

Her plan to only focus on universes with teenage heroes being the premier heroes didn’t change, but her desire to have a famous rival did; She promised Robin he would be her only rival using that codename, so she strayed away from universes that had other Titans teams and instead focused on ones with heroes she hadn’t necessarily heard of before.

During this research she found a universe with a high percentage of superpowered youths, yet Static was the only teenage hero she could find at that moment. Since he just so happened to be working with the Justice League at during that time, she was going to just skip over his universe, until she saw him go against the League’s commands in order to save his friend. That got her full attention. In fact, it got her full adoration.

It didn’t take long for Mmeeie to decide that Static would be a perfect person to have a causal rivalry with, and fortunately for her, it wasn’t much longer before she found someone to have a more serious rivalry with, either. Watching Static’s adventures a bit more, she learned that the friend he had to save also had powers himself, and his name just happened to be Richard. It was like she was destined to be in that universe.

Wanting to avoid the mistakes she made in previous universes, instead of storming into this universe demanding Static be her rival, she stormed in and started praising him hoping that it would get him to listen to her. Static still ended up ignoring her, however, since she happened to arrive while he was in the middle of a battle. Upset that he wasn’t paying listening to her, she tried multiple things to get his attention, up to and including kidnapping Gear, which gave her a chance to go ahead and start up her rivalry with Gear. In her opinion, it was very successful; The two of them spent the time waiting for Static to arrive either yelling at one another or trying to beat each other at trivia games, which is exactly what she wanted.

Once Static finally found where she was, Mmeeie tried again to praise her way into getting him to listen to her, but that kept getting interrupted by her needing to snap at Gear everything time he said anything. She was able to get one thing through during their muddled conversation though: she would leave if Static played along. So, wanting to get rid of her, he made a deal with her that he would become her rival if she left for a while to give him time to “think about how to do it properly”. Mmeeie whole-heartedly agreed, leaving thinking that she successfully got herself two more rivals.

She spent “for a while” back with the Wonder Twins and the Titans, continuing to develop the relationships she had in their universe, most notably starting a romantic relationship with Jayna. (She also started calling her parents more regularly during this time.)

When it was time for Mmeeie to return to Static’s universe, she did not get the greeting she was expecting. In fact, she was barely noticed at all, as Static and Gear were busy dealing with the return of a different person she didn’t know, Shebang. Watching over the situation for a little bit, she decided that Shebang was actually the one in the right, and became greatly upset over how Static was treating her. She flipped her script, starting to praise and focus all of her attention on Shebang instead, and berating Static when he questioned the change in attitude.

This just created a new host of problems between her and Static - not to mention that she wasn’t having a great start with Shebang either considering how overbearing she was being - and unlike before when Mmeeie was confident enough to ignore these issues, she was now too frustrated to do so. So when that visit ended like the last one did in an angry debate, she ended up admitting more than she intended to about why she wanted to connect with a rival so badly. This admission did get the situation to calm down a bit, though it left Mmeeie embarrassed.

It also put Static in a predicament. On the one hand, he could tell that she honestly did want to be his and Shebang’s friends, and thought that she could be a decent ally in battle if she just focused her powers. But on the other hand, he could also tell that it would be a long while before she got the point of dealing with others in a more appropriate way - espeically if her treatment of Gear was any indication - and he didn’t want to spend all his time teaching her how to be a better person.

So Static made another, more legitimate, deal with her. Mmeeie would be allowed to come back and hang out with him and everyone else, but only when they specifically asked for her. (Since she could set up “notifications” of sorts on her universe windows that alerted her whenever something she was looking for happened, it wouldn’t be an issue for her to find out when that was.) That way, they could still maintain a relationship, but without being overwhelmed by her. Of course, Mmeeie agreed to that.

She now spends her time between staying with the Wonder Twins and Titans in their universe and working on her relationships with Static and his friends in their universe. She does tend to stay in the former universe more often, since that’s not only where her girlfriend lives, but where she doesn’t have to focus so much on self-reflection and can just enjoy herself more freely, but she still appreciates the time she gets to spend in the latter when Static calls upon her (especially since these requests slowly start to increase in frequency the more she gets to know everyone there).

Other Important Notes:

- Mmeeie can levitate and fly. However, while she can levitate without issue, her flight is very slow and unbalanced, usually leading to her hurting herself, or at the least getting incredibly frustrated. She uses a flight disc to help her get around, with latches to place her feet inside so she can’t get knocked off of it. When in her human disguise, the flight disc becomes a walker.

- Mmeeie's parents and grandmother are apart of the younger generation of Imps who embraced the use of vowels in naming, hence Mmeeie's and her fathers’ names mainly consisting of vowels, but her grandmother’s not having any at all.

- The act of spelling/saying her name backwards will not banish Mmeeie back to Zrfff.

Trivia:

- Mmeeie speaks in an unnaturally high, chipmunk-like voice. When in her human disguise, her voice is more natural-sounding, but is still high-pitched.

- Mmeeie is squeamish around blood and other serious (i.e. non-cartoony) injuries.

- Mmeeie picked up juggling as a nervous habit and is actually quite good at it.

- Mmeeie gets inebriated when drinking apple juice, but not drinks with actual alcohol in them.

#mmeeie #DC oc #mod's art #i'm actually super proud of the art for the ref though idk what about it i like so much

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emptysurface · 6 years

Text

Unpublished WIP List Game

Tagged by @athanatosora

....I feel like I have to begin by saying I have SO MANY UNPUBLISHED WIPS YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND!!!! *flails* Ahem. So. I’ll.... uh, give you a sample? Also, Time-Travel is my drug. I love it.

1. Speechless - Naruto. I wanted to write a story where Naruto is mute, because there’s just something inherently tragic about a Naruto that can’t speak. Also a time-travel, because I’m a complete and utter sucker for those. I can’t even remember when I started this one, but I’m still very fond of it. Don’t think I’ve written anything on it in over a year... (Naruto’s given the name ‘Kotoba’ in this one.)

Sample:

When Naruto noticed the shadow falling over him and heard the clap, he thought it was one of the older kids, come back to make fun of him again and quickly used an arm to wipe away his tears.

He looked up, glare already firmly in place, but had to blink at the sight that met him.

A man -at least he thought it was a man- was crouched before him. He was wearing a plain wooden mask over his face -with the Konoha leaf carved on the forehead- had hair that looked a mix between orange and brown and wore shinobi garb.

The man tilted his head curiously, staring at Naruto, who just sat there, staring back at the odd shinobi.

Eventually, the man raised a hand and traced a path down the smooth cheek of his mask with a finger and then pointed at Naruto's face.

Naruto frowned.

"What?" He asked defensively, biting his lower lip uncertainly.

Kotoba on his part wasn't entirely sure why he had approached his younger self. But seeing the small child sitting all alone in the deserted playground, he had been unable to just walk by and pretend like he had seen nothing. He certainly didn't know how the rest of the population did it.

Kotoba repeated the motion again, wanting to know why the little boy was crying. He could guess, of course, but he wasn't supposed to know already, and Naruto could benefit from an adult he could talk to outside of the very busy Hokage.

His mask hid a self-deprecating smile, because Kotoba couldn't exactly talk, now, could he? Well, beggars can't be picky, or however the hell it was the saying went.

"Are you- Are you asking why I'm crying?" Naruto's small voice cut through his thoughts, making him nod, pleased to have made himself understood.

Naruto couldn't help but stare back, wondering if this was really happening or if he had fallen asleep. "The other kids call me names, and I fell and scraped my knee," he eventually muttered.

Once this guy realised just who Naruto was, he would walk away too.

To his shock, a hand landed on his head, ruffling his hair almost affectionately. At least, Naruto thought it was because it didn't hurt and he had seen parents and older siblings do that to other kids plenty of times. His wide-eyed stare must have given away something of what he was feeling, because the man -Naruto decided he would think of him as such until proven otherwise- gently wiped his tears away and sat down in front of him.

Kotoba wondered how he could possibly communicate with a kid as young as his counterpart was right now.

He knew what he had told the Hokage, but adults were generally easier.

Choosing an approach that should work, Kotoba began to reach towards his weapons pouch, paused, thought better of it and then used his finger to trace patterns in the dirt instead of the kunai he'd first planned to use.

Naruto watched curiously, scooting around until he was sitting next to the man to see what he was doing, scraped knee already forgotten.

"Oh! I recognize that one!" He exclaimed, pointing at one of the marks. He immediately blushed, clamped his mouth shut and stared up at the stranger with wide eyes, wondering if he'd be sent away for being annoying now. Instead, he received an encouraging nod. "It says 'ko'," Naruto told the stranger, somewhat pleased with himself despite the uncertainty.

2. The Great Escape - Harry Potter/Naruto crossover I started... a while back. Harry gets reborn into the Naruto world, as a girl, only to discover that being the Master of Death before dying left her with some unfortunate side-effects. Harry really, really hates her life sometimes.

Sample:

Her lungs screamed for oxygen, even as she began to feel the acute blood loss. Her throat was slick with blood so hot it seemed to burn her skin.The world swam before her eyes, going grey around the edges, and she blinked repeatedly in an attempt to clear her sight.

Nendo Hari, in a previous life known as Harry Potter, shuddered violently, her eyes grew glassy and her heart -in response to the steadily diminishing blood supply- stuttered to a stop.

No one had expected her to wake up again.

So of course, that was what she did.

3. Crepuscular - Harry Potter. Time-travel, fem!Harry. Was blatantly inspired by Tsume Yuki, just saying... :P Harry ends up tossed back in time, and in true Harry Potter fashion decided to do something about all these Death Eaters running around, but it gets lonely. So in a tentatively strategic ploy, she reaches out to someone who will be vital to future events. Kreacher. (It has some unexpected consequences, shocking absolutely no one.)

Sample:

Leading Kreacher to the wizards' tent she'd put up in the other end of the clearing was the easiest thing Harry had done since arriving here.

Just having something, someone familiar near was... she could allow herself this small comfort, right?

And it wasn't just for her own sake; having a house-elf's help would be priceless further on.

Harry knew it better than most. Dobby would always have a special place in her heart.

He was on her list, too.

On the list of people to save.

4. Taking Flight - Harry Potter/KHR crossover. Wing!fic, because I thought that sounded interesting... ended up on a week-long research spree where I read far too much about various kinds of birds, but it was interesting? :P Also with fem!Harry. Harry/Fon pairing? Hm.

Sample:

Surviving the war hadn't been very high on the list of what Harry had thought was possible.

It had been a realisation that had slowly but steadily grown more firm in her head over the span of years.

Ever since she'd met Ron on the train that first time, his wings small and a downy brown-yellow, hair flaming red and freckles standing out sharply on his face.

Her own wings had been equally small, of course, and just as downy and useless. In the way.

Ron had made her feel better about it, though.

“Nearly all my siblings have wings, see,” he'd told her cheerfully. “Mum and dad don't have them, and not Charlie and the twins, but everyone else.”

It had seemed fantastical to her, who had only known the Dursleys and the people of Little Whinging, who hadn't cared much for Harry's fledgling wings.

Her classmates had complained about them blocking the view, taking up too much space and she had always been shunted off to the back of the classroom where she 'hadn't been in the way'.

Not that her academic life would have been all that different if they hadn't, but... it was the principle of the matter.

Then she'd learned -also courteous of Ron- that Magicals were slightly more inclined to be born with wings. No one knew quite why, but there were theories about it having to do with the magic.

Purebloods in particular could be pretty snobbish about it, Ron had told her, looking sheepish about the whole thing, what with being a Pureblood himself.

Of course, then Draco Malfoy had strutted into their compartment like he owned it and reinforced the sentiment quite firmly.

Hermione had come later, after the troll.

And they'd stuck by her through the years, through ups and downs and always there when it really mattered.

She'd grown into her adolescent feathers in the summer before her fourth year, and the moment Draco had caught sight of her wings, he'd called her a cow. Due to the dark brown and white splotches her feathers had made up, making her wings indeed look similar to the hide of a bovine.

Hadn't made it sting any less when all the other Houses had taken up the nick-name for her once the Triwizard disaster had struck.

Nice times.

It hadn't really helped that Ron had grown into his own feathers, with... slightly different -but at the same time not- results than Harry.

And then, of course, Malfoy had thrown it in his face at the worst opportunity.

“You're a goose, Weasley!” The Slytherin boy had cackled loudly outside the Potions' classroom, and it had been all Harry and Hermione had been able to do to keep him from pummelling Draco's face in.

Not to mention that Harry had been tempted to do so herself on behalf of her friend.

I had been so satisfying when Ron had grown more into himself a year later, snapping his wings open in anger and telling Draco in no uncertain terms that he was a gander, thank you very much; he was male.

And people always got shocked when Ron spread his wings and they realised just how big they actually were.

“Geese are strong long-distance flyers, Ron. They've even been revered in History as envoys of various Gods,” Hermione had told him, smiling encouragingly at a Ron with increasingly red ears.

Harry had been forced to hide a smile with her hand.

5. Bullet to the Heart - KHR. Soulmate AU, Reborn/Tsuna that I started way back, when I first got sucked into the KHR fandom. I still like the idea, though I haven’t written anything on this in basically forever... ^^’

Sample:

The first time Reborn heard about soulmates, he was seven years old and one of his classmates had started humming in the middle of class, as if humming along to a tune only he could hear. Everyone had expected the teacher to scold him, but the boy had received a wide, knowing smile instead and been asked if he'd heard a song. What had followed had been a lesson on soulmates and all the different kinds of 'connections' you could have with your own.

The boy had said he'd heard singing, a local children's tune in a girlish voice.

Reborn hadn't been convinced; he had never heard or seen anything like that, and it sounded more than a little shifty, having someone else inside your head.

When Tsuna was five, he and the other children in his kindergarten group were sat down to draw, and instead of drawing dogs or cats, or trees and flower, or even colourful blobs that were supposed to be people, Tsuna drew a shaky, but recognizable gun.

AND I THINK I’LL STOP HERE BEFORE THIS POST GROWS EVEN MORE RIDICULOUSLY LONG!!! :’D

Tagging @worldtravellingfly @shadowblayze and @epikalstorms because I know all three of you write, ladies! Come join me in the corner of SHAME (I have so many WIPs... omg, they’re too many)

#Empty's writing #EmptySurface #WIPs #this is ridiculous #THERE ARE SO MANY #I don't even know if I'll ever get around to posting some of these #And I definitely have the most in the Naruto fandom -_-'

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