#man. there should be more characters like klaus. | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

eternal-armin · 1 year

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'CAUSE HE THINKS he's made of candy.

i think this is the longest thing i've ever written here, around 6.7k words and i had to revise it a lot because it took up too much space ;;; the title is a reference to candy by robbie williams because that song slaps hard

pairing : five hargreeves x male/transmasc reader. [he/him pronouns]

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where : after surviving the apocalypse together and saving the world, things finally return to normal, in good ways and in bad ways.

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warnings : mentions of trauma, some light mentions of gore, reader has a congenital insensitivity to pain and find getting injured amusing, so... a lot of that kind of trouble. i totally wanna do another part or so because klaus and diego being father figures gives me life

you walked through the half-dark house, making your way to five's room like you had many times, skateboard in one hand and phone in the other. making sure you hadn't waken anybody up, you opened the door, greeted by the expected sight of a dark bedroom and the sound of gentle snoring. "five, wake up~," you whispered, half singing, shaking his arm, steadily waking him up. he looked annoyed, his brow already furrowed and a frown already tugging at his lips, but he wasn't angry. he was rather used to it by now, in all honesty. "your favorite person ever in the entire world is here!" you hummed. five could basically smell the grin you wore.

"and i wish he would go away," he grumbled in response, trying to turn back over and go back to sleep, only for you to flick on the light and blind him. "jesus christ, a fucking―a warning next time, please?"

"shove your warnings up your ass, five, you can miss out on your middle schooler sleep schedule for a night."

"many nights, actually," he hissed distastefully, giving a mourning glance to the cozy pillow before he sat up, now disappointingly awake. "what do you want this time?" the grogginess was now leaving his voice, but not really his eyes. five almost looked nice when sleepy, even if he looked pissed as hell at being woken up. at least your face was a little more pleasant to look at now that you were back to your teenage self.

"let's go shopping."

five looked at you like you were utterly insane, then slowly looked over at his clock. he cocked his head at you. "it's almost midnight."

"mm, did i stutter?"

"i wish you did. i'm not going shopping with you at midnight. no place is even open." five tried to put his foot down. he was a steel wall to anyone else. but to you―perhaps for you, he was simply a clay plot, one easy to crack the more water you filled it with. it was nice to spend time with you without the entire world desolate and destroyed around you, at least.

"who said the place had to be open?" you shot back with a cheeky grin. five wished that he could be surprised with your blatant delinquency. at some points it had done you both well and your affinity for breaking rules, laws, and regulations gave you a peculiar resourcefulness, but now that you were both safe and home, well... you'd become a mischievous troublemaker. just how you used to be.

"... how the hell did we ever become friends." his voice was utterly flat and his expression exhausted and peeved and yet he still stood up, shrugging the blankets off of himself, heading to his closet because he would be damned if you were going to get hurt and he wouldn't be there to laugh at you.

well, you didn't really get hurt, did you?

"i dunno, but i'm sure you regret your decision." five didn't respond to that. "i will satiate your worries, though, old man, it's an abandoned mall this time."

"wow. character development. didn't expect that from you." with the newfound information he searched for something decent to wear. something that allowed him to move and remain covered by shadows should any unsavory things come to pass.

"hey, hey, i went from crying when i stepped on an ant to killing people, and even if that's negative character development, it's still character development, okay? stop underselling me." you leaned against the wall next to his door, skateboard lounging beside you, picking at your nails. he finally took a full glance at you now that sleep was totally gone from his mind and his body, narrowing his eyes. you were wearing jean shorts, an old nirvana t-shirt, and a hawaiian button-down completely unbuttoned. at least you were wearing knee-pads this time around, but that was all the praise he could give you. five still found himself stunned that you so brazenly didn't care about how visible your scars were; scars from broken bones, scrapes, cuts, gashes, burns, stabs, bullets, shrapnel. you paraded them about like they were boy scout badges which was almost hilarious because you never learned anything from the incidents which now lined your body. even though five would never do it himself, and in fact found it incredibly weird, he kind of respected it. admired it, even. but just that one thing, nothing else. never.

"what, see something you like, old man?" you mused, going from fidgeting with your fingers to looking him in the eye, your own glinting with a bit of cheekiness. not the worst thing to be woken up to in the middle of the night.

five scoffed. "never in my life." you rolled your eyes at that sarcastic response and your grin did not fade. "you're―you're seriously wearing that?"

"hey, i dress my age, mr. retired-man-with-dementia-who-only-remembers-how-to-play-bingo, alright? leave me be." neither of you were bothered by bickering whilst five changed from pajamas to day clothes. he wasn't getting totally naked, so neither of you really gave a shit.

"'dress your age'..." he muttered. "you dress like a blind tween."

"thanks, hot stuff."

"that wasn't a compliment."

"i literally could not care less," you shot back, then winked at him, adding, "lovingly."

five faked a chuckle in some sort of hum sound, shooting you a falsified grin before returning to what he was doing. "i don't want your love. i'm good."

you frowned a bit yourself, which was totally and utterly unnerving and made five, somehow, regret what he said a little bit. "ouch, dude, tell me how you really feel."

"you couldn't comprehend even the most elementary of my emotions, so i'll spare you the headache." he glanced at you a few times, more so at that lingering twinge of unhappiness that so brazenly took over your expression. those words were typically the closest you would ever get to verbal reassurance or comfort from five, not just because he was completely incapable of voicing his own emotions properly, but because physicality did more for you than talking ever did; so, with a comfortable, neutral flannel now hiding his previously exposed torso, he placed a hand on your shoulder. he was always gentle with you, which completely didn't make sense because if anyone in the world needed to be treated gently it would certainly not be you.

a little smile found its way back on your lips. now reassured that not everything was wrong with the world, five pulled on a dark sweater and paperboy cap. you looked him over. "you really look like a retiree now," you mused, but it wasn't an insult. he looked nice like this, out of that hellish uniform, and never could you imagine him in anything else. "do you wanna hit the golf course too, gramps? i'm sure they got some mocktails for you since you wanna keep the drinking to a minimum tonight."

"shut it before i make you." he spoke through gritted teeth, jabbing a finger at you, only succeeding in making you grin.

"is that a threat or a promise?" you clicked your tongue, picking up your skateboard and heading for the door before he could say anything else. "the old tree is, like, a twenty-five-minute walk."

"i'll just blink us, i'm not spending another thirty minutes with you on a skateboard on rough sidewalks, i don't even wanna think about what would happen this time."

"it was so cool, though! i never thought a compound fracture could look like that!"

"[y/n], you only think it's cool because you couldn't feel the pain."

"uh, yeah," you said back, raising a brow at him while he shut off the light to his room and closed the door behind you two. "but it was still cool." you had your bubbly little grin again and five rolled his eyes. despite all that trouble, all that excessive worry he would never admit to feeling, five still looked back somewhat fondly on those times. back when you were ten, still learning how to skateboard, and your parents didn't even give you a helmet or joint pads, when you broke your ankle and didn't even know something had happened until five pointed it out.

after taking one hell of a tumble, hearing the board crack a bit beneath you, you let out a breathless huff, allowing yourself a moment to absorb the sudden shift in, well, everything. five perked up at the sound, surprised you weren't crying or something after falling like that. you stood up and brushed yourself off like nothing was wrong, peering strangely down at the board, which had no damage. you pushed it back and forth once or twice with one foot and it seemed undamaged. that was weird. you'd heard it break, right? five came up to your side, glancing you over once or twice, before his eyes settled down at your feet. "you've got a little something on, uh―" five cut himself off, eyes wide, and you knew that shit was bad when he looked at you like that. he looked about as shocked as one could be, and that unnerved you to no end.

"what? what, did i..." you looked down at your shirt to make sure you hadn't torn it up or anything or were totally exposed, somehow completely not noticing the broken ankle on which you were unsteadily standing, chalking it up to you still half-standing on your skateboard. "what, i don't see what's wrong this picture. stop being cryptic with me, man, you know i'm dumb as shit."

"well―i mean, you aren't wrong about that 'dumb as shit' thing, but i think you just fully busted your ankle." his curtness was plain and simple, and you had already known back then that it would be a constant in his attitude. you looked down, then back up, your eyes wide and mouth twisted as you poorly suppressed a grin and a very annoying giggle. "don't look at me like that! how―how are you not feeling it? that would hurt like hell!" he kept gesturing down at your ankle, at the protrusion of bone and reddening, swelling skin.

"i dunno, i just can't feel it," you mumbled. he pursed his lips, simultaneously in disbelief at what you were saying and knowing that you were too shit at lying to pull this kind of thing off. all of a sudden, his mind was screeching like a fork in a garbage disposal. not being able to feel pain was kind of a bad thing.

he had actually been right, to no one's surprise, when you were diagnosed with congenital analgesia. that incident had marked the day where five silently vowed to be there to protect you, because you were alone except for him. and, to a certain extent, he was alone except for you.

"god really was fucked up when he made you, wasn't he," he muttered.

you both headed downstairs and the clock, by now, was probably around twelve. klaus waited at the bottom of the staircase with the cheekiest of smirks on his face, hands clasped together and his cheek leaning against them. you let out an exhausted groan, thinking you'd missed this tonight.

"something tells me he's super weird-dad tonight."

"why are you surprised, he's klaus, and he's basically your dad."

klaus let out some weird giggle. "i mean, i prefer the thought of being the really cool uncle who teaches you how to smuggle alcohol and how to juke rehab therapists, but i don't mind being a dad." he stepped in front of you two, hands now extended, and that dopey uber-proud dad smile back. "oh, just look at you two!"

"i thought you were sober," five said flatly.

"come on, you two are perfect together! your over-the-top chaos," he gestured to you, "and your sterile literalism!" and he gestured to five. "i'm just waiting for you two to make it official, i mean, two guys don't just survive fifty years in the apocalypse together only from a platonic bond." you and five shared a wide-eyed glance. "don't worry, if my cupid abilities don't get you two together, hormones will. i can't imagine going through puberty twice, let alone the sexual tension between two guys who can't admit their love for one another―"

you put your face in your hands, utterly embarrassed, whilst five was utterly unsurprised. a similar conversation had gone down before, and he just hated reliving it. "okay! that's enough. okay, okay, uh, we're gonna go! if you contact me within the next seven days, i will call child protection services and the police." of course, the threat was empty, but hyperbole was the best way to get your point across. klaus raised his hands in surrender and stepped out of your way. he did enjoy the picture of you two, though; the two extremes on opposite sides of the social attitudes spectrum, one extroverted to the point of it being a flaw and the other antisocial to hell; the opposite sides of the fashion spectrum, one being well-put together mature vintage, and the other being power-clashing at its finest. the multicolored shoelaces were also an appreciated detail.

"i love you too, my little schneke."

"... stop calling me a snail, i'm―i'm not slow."

"maybe not physically," five said quietly to you, and in response you jabbed him in the side with a quiet 'fuck you.' on that cheerful note, you two went about your way. the front door clicked closed behind you, and in a flash of blue-tinted light, you were gone, and the house was mostly silent. klaus was soon joined by allison, quietly making her way downstairs, the only remaining light sleeper of the family.

"you really are just laying on that matchmaker thing, aren't you." she sounded drowsy and awake at the same time. klaus greeted her with a simple smile and a single nod.

"i mean, aren't they just the perfect couple?"

"they certainly were standing next to each other," allison mumbled.

seeing five frustrated was worrying. staring down at his clenched fists, blue light barely rippling out like ice spreading over a metal surface. and so when you passed him, even when he did not notice you, you touched his shoulder, finding yourself in another time. "h-hey, uh, five―" you managed, feeling nauseated as yet again he travelled to some time else.

"get off of me, [y/n], you shouldn't be here!" he looked at you with anger, more like fury, but it was a weird cocktail because it was mixed with a very weird concern. suddenly the world around you two zipped away and was replaced with one of fire, ruined buildings, complete and utter desolation of what was once a world, once compiled with many lives and now every single one was snuffed out because a different roaring fire took everything with it. both of you stood in shock for a few seconds but your cool nature was the first to crack.

"five?! five, where are we?" your voice cracked and your chest tightened, whipping your head around because you thought if you turned fast enough you would be back home.

"like hell if i know, [y/n]! why didn't you let go of me?!"

"i wouldn't have been home anyway, five! i would be just as stranded, i―we―someone needs to be alive, right? someone?" both of you seemed to have the same idea click into your minds, stumbling into weak runs to find the umbrella academy. the building had once stood grand and tall and foreboding and now it was down to the foundations. your friends, his siblings, were gone. he fell to his knees and you turned around, horrified at the world but at least free from the stinging pain of heat and dust whipping into your skin. you felt as cold as ice in a world of fire and heat because, buried amongst the broken homes, were the only family you both had. just older, and... dead. in very painful, excruciating ways.

for all those years, you thought it had been you that stranded you in the apocalypse together; you had distracted him, you had ruined it all, and you never forgave yourself. you hid it well. but five never came out with the same thought process because he didn't believe it in the slightest. he'd already been struggling to transport himself to the time he wanted. maybe you'd exasperated things just a little, but it wasn't entirely your fault. never.

you both allowed yourselves time for the mental breakdown you so dearly deserved, but the time was coming to man up and start trying to find ways to survive. joined at the hip didn't really cover how close you were over those decades, how you couldn't sleep unless you were besides each other, how you protected five because you wouldn't feel the pain and how he always patched you up while cursing you out and still kissing the wound better because it always properly calmed you down, at least more than any words could. you took the brunt of the pain, weaponizing your congenital analgesia and using it as a defensive plan. it worked. even when the handler came around, especially when the handler came around, no defense quite matched yours.

"i should've left you back near the academy building," five muttered, wrapping makeshift bandages around your... well, your practically crushed arm. his voice was gruff now, and not just from the unpleasant living situation, but you were both nearing your thirtieth birthdays. you'd both filled out. you kept gazing at him whenever he patched you up, and even though his words were sour, his touch was sweet.

"what're you looking at, dipshit."

"nothing much."

"fuck you."

"you first."

five grinned a bit. some things never changed.

"wow. this place really didn't age well." the old liberty tree spanned out in front of you with basically no windows left intact, and beyond them a black void without any electricity in the circuits. the outdoor walls were crawling with ivy, the grounds fuzzy from overgrown plants on unkempt laws, and the concrete of the structure looked about ready to crumble. you'd come here a few times in your pre-apocalyptic childhood. it had been coming down for a long time after a few bigger malls came into the picture, carrying more stores, more variety, more fast food restaurants in the food court. now its charms drew only you in as 'how sick would it be to die crushed under the ceiling of an abandoned mall?'

"it's super cool, right?" you giggled, giddy as all hell. your attitude toward liminal spaces had stayed remarkably the same over the years. always, when passing by some tired old house, you nagged five to just take a peek.

"i don't think so, no."

"well, you're friends with me, so i don't think you really have good taste, so i'm gonna ignore that comment and think you said yes." try as he might, and he desperately did, five couldn't bring himself to hate that glint in your eyes when you looked at him. pure, raw curiosity with an undertone of excitement and glee that you were exploring some boring, abandoned place with him of all people. you set down your board and took your place standing on top of it and before five could scold you for skating on very uneven ground, you took off, ducking and pulling a small ollie to get through the shattered pane of the glass main door. five sighed through his nose and followed you in, eventually greeted by the sound of your bluetooth speaker blasting something he couldn't make out by its echo.

"how could you possibly find this fun?" he almost had to shout to be heard. you were approaching again after going around the empty lobby for a few turns, just going faster and faster, losing more caution every time.

"because it's mindless and mostly not illegal!" you responded brightly. suddenly you got the fantastic idea to jump off your board and let it go flying and you followed the instinct, landing wrong on your foot and immediately heading straight for the ground. you would've landed hard, getting at least a deep bruise, if five hadn't caught you by your waist before you could break yet another bone, scoffing at your terrible decisions.

"there are millions of words in the english but none of them could ever describe just how incredible it is that you aren't dead yet," he said curtly, helping you stand back up. you were giggling.

the music was still playing and so you wrapped your arms around his neck, starting to sway and hum along to the eerily-echoing tune. he looked at you with confused horror, eyes narrowed slightly, not moving with you.

"don't give me that, shortstack!"

"i'm taller than you."

"i'm going to ignore that!" you chirped. "we're alive and out of hell, and we have been for, like, weeks now, it wouldn't kill you to dance a little bit!" your hair, bouncy from its messiness, danced almost more than you did as you moved it back and forth, singing whole-heartedly along to saint motel, keeping it a bit dialed back so that five wouldn't have his ears fully blown out by the volume. "who do you think'll see your shitty dance moves other than me? and we both know that i would be a total hypocrite if i insulted you for them."

"i don't dance."

"yeah, and i don't care. your hip won't give out if you use it for fun, fivey."

"don't... don't say that, actually." the cracks were staring to show, just as they always did with his clay pot attitude. you sputtered at the accidental innuendo.

"aw, c'mon, please? just this once?" it was no wonder that klaus was dead-set on his precious, unofficially-adopted son being in love with five, and also no wonder that diego was dead-set on keeping that same unofficially-adopted son as far away from five as possible. your puppy dog eyes were totally nauseating and deeply troubling and so he gave in, solely for the sake of his own sanity. he shut his eyes for a second, mumbling something along the lines of 'i should've killed you decades ago.' but he hugged your waist a little more purposefully and begrudgingly swayed a bit to the tune. the look of utter happiness on your face was, admittedly, kind of worth the wake-up call and following exhaustion.

"i cannot believe that you guilt-tripped me into dancing."

the happy music saw you getting a bit more creative, making up the moves as you went, whatever felt right. five let go of a little control to do the same, and found himself mildly enjoying it. would he do it again? not on his own accord. would you probably make him do it again? without a doubt. it was, however, nice to watch you enjoy yourself. he kind of wanted to dip you, but he didn't.

"you're a natural, though." clasping his hands and intertwining your fingers, you leaned back, and he found himself doing the same, both of you held upright by your grasps on the others' hands, and you started to move in a circle. for the sake of both your safety, five went about it too. walking turned into sideways jogging and you started giggling. the world around you both blurred. for five, it was just you now, just you, like it had always been. it had been a while since you'd held hands for so long but eventually it ended, much to five's dismay, and you went stumbling backward a few steps, falling hard on your ass whilst he quickly remained his balance. you were breathless for a moment after falling so suddenly, but eventually you just started laughing. five wiped his hands on his shirt, peering at you strangely.

"you didn't hear anything crack or whatever? nothing feels weird?" he spoke with no emotion in his voice and yet the words and underlying tone were careful and concerned. nobody else could hear it, but after so long, you could read his every move.

"no, nothing." you shook your head a bit, finding yourself dizzy. "nice to see you're still concerned."

he offered his hand out to you and you took it, and in a strong move, he pulled you up. "i wouldn't call it concern."

"well, then, what would you call it?"

good question.

you were sniffling and crying while trying not to sound it at all. of course, it wasn't from the pain, but from the total stress. sometimes it all just collapsed on you again and you were a hyperventilating, shaking kid again, too scared to turn off the light because the shadows freaked you out. five sat down beside you, leaning against the least-crumbling wall of the small shack you'd both been calling home.

"you're not really a crier," he began. "did something happen?"

"i-i almost got crushed and i saw my life fucking―flash before my eyes and i hated all of it. every single second. i wish i'd killed my parents, i wish i'd killed that landlord, i wish i'd killed my uncle―"

"wish all you want but that's not gonna happen, [y/n]." his voice softened. five was essentially the same as he had been when he was thirteen, just sprouted into someone who would've been one hell of a college freshman. "i wish i killed a lot of people too, but we're here, and we're here together, and―for what it's worth―i'm glad that you're alive." he settled a bit closer to you, wrapping an arm around your shoulder, pulling you, still sniveling, against him. "hating your childhood is pretty common where i'm from," he joked, successfully getting a wheezy chuckle from you, "and it's still possible to lead a decently okay life. i'm trapped in a terrible apocalypse, and it's not just external, but... it's a little better because i have someone else who's more insane to remind me that i'm right."

you chuckled yet again, snuggling against him. his warmth was better than the world's. "i think i only moved because i heard you call."

"seriously?"

"i-i mean, yeah." it was kind of hard to forget the feeling of stumbling away from a ton of hard reinforced concrete that would've left you as a reddish smear on an orange world. five's curt and somewhat annoyed call was the only thing that grounded you, and you both knew just how quick that faded.

"you really would be dead without me." his voice was quiet and deeply peeved but he didn't shy away from you, his hand remaining idly just against your hair.

"no shit, dumbass―trust me, i am well aware." you snorted to yourself and five sprouted a small amused smile on his own. eventually your smile dimmed a bit, and were reminded of the world in which you lived in, and the world from which you had come from. "why did you stick around?" your disheartened soul was reflected in those words, lined with a pure confusion. five furrowed his brow. apparently it was completely out of the realm of possibility to you for him to just care.

"... there was a lot of―"

"answer the question. please. j-just this once." five quieted a bit when he heard that. usually he was quite skilled at deflecting questions but you melted his resolve so easily. you asking a genuine question in a hauntingly low voice left five silent with no idea how to respond, even after all these years of dealing with your rollercoaster mannerisms.

"wrong place at the wrong time, i suppose." right place at the right time was better to describe it, maybe. "after you broke your ankle when we were ten, i guess i took it upon myself to make sure you didn't do any dumb shit that would end up in a gnarly death. whether you can feel it or not." so he'd appointed himself to be your protector?

"why? it wouldn't do you any good. well... it hasn't done you any good."

"do you really think i only do things if they'll give me an advantage?" five paused, not looking down to see the squinted eyes you stared at him with. "don't answer that question, actually. don't answer. it hasn't done me any good but i don't regret anything i did. not terribly, anyway."

your grin would make the cheshire cat blush.

five immediately regretted saying that. "don't let that go to your head, [y/n]."

"already there, bud."

his brow furrowed again, the corners of his lips twitching down in another frown. "alright. maybe it's partially concern. but fracturing your pelvis would be a very stupid way to die, and not worth laughing at, so i didn't want to miss out on a show." maybe there was some form of truth in that desire for a fun death, but you had that desire too, so small potatoes. it was silence between you two for a few seconds as you patted concrete dust off of your clothes and the backs of your thighs. "let me help," he said, and it was a demand and not an ill-cadenced suggestion. he stepped behind you and swiped away the strips you couldn't reach with a heavy hand. while he did so he carefully looked you over, even going to far as lifting your arms to check for any injuries. you were quite used to it by now.

"thanks," you mumbled. "still waiting for that broken leg."

"well, your plan wouldn't work anyway, because i can see your legs."

"yeah... i like my legs. i don't want one to go janky from a broken bone."

"it would be unfortunate."

"mmhm, so you agree."

five narrowed his eyes slightly, not getting what you meant for a second or two, before scoffing. "i don't think that your legs are nice."

"really?" you turned to look at him, and the teasing grin on your face was reassuring in how amused it was. you were just playing with him, but that was always the way you got him to inadvertently expel whatever he was thinking. you tilted your head, crossing your arms.

"don't give me that, [y/n], or i'll blink away and leave you here."

"there's ceiling access."

he pursed his lips. "alright, then leaving you alone here is completely out of the question, but i will find some way to make this miserable for you."

"what, why? why d'you wanna misery me?"

"you're dreadfully annoying, for one. i hate how you're always smiling, it gives you really bad wrinkles. you have the heart of a child because you're so immature and i don't know why the universe thought it would be funny to shove us two together, because god knows it would never happen normally, but here we are, much to my chagrin." five paused. you were accustomed to his rants by now. "your weird uncle-dad keeps trying to rush something which shouldn't be rushed, and i don't even know what level of weird that is but i hate being a part of it."

"rush something which shouldn't be rushed―what does that mean?" it was like you had selective hearing for the smallest freudian slips known to man. "what, do you need sixty more years to admit you've had some sort of big emotion or something?" it was mostly a jab, something meant to be funny, which was met with a stolid seriousness. you let out a near-silent 'oh' as the moment continued.

"yeah. turns out the crazy alcoholic was onto something, for the first time in his life." you snorted at the quip, nodding in agreement. both of you knew, dearly knew, that words wouldn't be the vessel of the confession, but both of you knew, dearly knew, that it was coming pretty fast. you'd just never think it would come this fast. klaus was really good at sniffing out a love arc, apparently. five felt like steel when he took your hands back into his, not because his biting sharp edges hurt you, no, and they never would, but he'd never done something in a manner such as this. with a few unspoken words the entire atmosphere of your relationship had been turned upside down and that was the scary part; he had no clue where to go from here.

"the worst part will be telling klaus he was right," you joked, swinging your arms in and out on socially-awkward instinct.

"you're telling me. he's gonna tout it around for the rest of time."

"we'll never live it down."

"i doubt you'll need to worry about that, i'll be surprised if you make it to your 16th birthday."

"you give me three years? seriously? you really think that my 58-year-old-13-year-old self can only survive three more years?"

"absolutely correct." you found yourself laughing and he found himself grinning, just slightly. the sound was pleasant, admittedly. he was more open with that now. well, barely, but it still counted. the silence that did follow this time around was almost pleasant. you were too nervous to maintain eye contact very long, so you glanced away from him and your gaze lingered on the random spot which it landed. plants had somehow found their way into the internal cracks of the floor, green shards glinting out in the pale light from the grimy sunroof.

"i never thought i'd see the day where you couldn't look me in the eyes. it's weird and i don't like it. look at me." your cheeks felt warm but you did as you were told. he smiled a little bit, and it didn't even hint at a snarky grin or smug smirk. you leaned forward and rested your forehead against his.

"i'm totally not telling klaus about this."

"neither am i, are you kidding?"

"never in my life," you giggled to yourself, graduating from holding his hands to wrapping your arms back about his neck, where it felt like they belonged. suddenly it was like he was new to embraces because his arms felt stiff when he hugged back, but he hugged back, tight. never before had you encountered something so gentle and so suffocating at the same time; gentle because he might break you, suffocating because he might lose you. neither of those would happen on his watch, of course. somehow, even with your wild self, your flaws and lack of capability to abide by laws and rules, you'd managed to charm the most level-headed, logic-addicted, cynical douchebag the world had ever seen. maybe there was some truth behind that old 'opposites attract' thing.

"do you wanna stick around this dingy place for a while longer like the psychopath you are or get food before you go to sleep so you don"t whine about being hungry?"

"am i really that predi—"

"yes."

"wow, you muttered, furrowing your brow. "i really am predictable."

"yes."

with just the will to prove him wrong you stood straighter and gave him a quick, albeit strong, kiss, and then you were right back on your feet. you caught him off-guard, that's for sure, because he looked like an android in the middle of uploading information; eyes slightly wide, brows slightly raised, pure subtlety. "how about that?"

it still took him a few seconds to respond after that, trying to regain his smug and blunt composure while also trying not to dampen the mood in any way. "you're terrible at convincing. give it another shot."

#five hargreeves x reader #five hargreeves #five hargreaves fluff #five hargreaves x you #five hargreaves x reader #number five #the umbrella academy #the umbrella academy x reader #five x male reader #five x y/n #five x you #klaus hargreeves #klaus tua #tua netflix #tua x male reader #tua x y/n #tua x you #tua x reader

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fairykery · 6 months

Text

The Vampire Diaries opinions people hate me for:

Forwood is actually a good ship and I wish it didn't have to go down like that, at the expense of Caroline's character.

I ship Klaroline; but Klaus was toxic. I could only ever see this ship becoming endgame if Klaus redeemed himself first.

Caroline had chemistry with everyone except Stefan.

Bamon had potential (and it was literally in the books). If they had come up with a "I had my humanity off" plotline it would have made the ship work🤷🏻‍♀️

Bonezo is a good ship and is clearly less toxic than Bamon; but it only happened to please racist dullena fans that complained about Bamon's romantic implications(even if it happened in the books)

Caroline, Katherine, Bonnie, & Stefan are the most interesting characters of TVD

Jeremy & Anna were cute IDK🤷🏻‍♀️

Matt did not deserve the hate. His feelings were valid. All his friends were killers and he was an abandoned, heartbroken boy, whose mom was a drunk and pedophile, and his only sister & family was killed by the boyfriend of his ex-girlfriend who he loved alot, just cause he decided he was bored. He remained loyal & brave to his friends and they didn't account for their murders and killings & stopped caring for the innocent.

Alaric was not a bad father and teacher. Even if he had his slip-ups he was actually an interesting & good character.

Damon is way too defended In this fandom. People should like the character and not defend the wrongs?! Just how many women has he compelled to sleep with him and to let him drink their blood? And what about what he did to Aaron whitmore? He slaughtered entire families of Innocents even while dating Elena. So all that "sHe mAkEs hiM bEtTeR" crap, is not valid. You can like Ian's acting and the smugness of his character, & like the character for those reasons, without defending the terrible acts of the character.

Delena was a horrible ship. The only reason it's popular is due to the shallow fact that people see Ian as more handsome than Paul. The ship only has good chemistry and looks. Beyond that, there is nothing.

Stefan is still the better man. (Fried humanity/off humanity Stefan don't count just as it goes for all the other vampires) Gaslighting writing through the other characters won't change that(Nice try, Julie P)🤷🏻‍♀️

Alaric and Jo were really cute together. I don't care. They made epic twins together.

Elena is overloved; but overhated at the same time. It's annoying. Just love the kind human girl that she used to be and hate the vicious, selfish girl she became, without hating her for breathing. That simple.

Klelijah(Katherine x Elijah) is not a good ship. Katherine loved stefan. She was only using Elijah to survive, and back then she only pitied him. Elijah also only was with her because of what he did to Tatia

Katherine did deserve better though, even if she did bad things. Making her the biggest/& ultimate devil and pretending there wasn't any good in her was incredibly misogynistic. Like Damon & Klaus did worse things and they get happy lives and good character ends? Like No! Horrible! Katherine's core was a scared little girl who wanted to live a normal human life while still being powerful and beautiful. She was chased for 500 years, had to see her entire family slaughtered, lost a baby because of misogynistic expectations, found her again, just to see her last family die again. Did she do horrible things? Yes; all to survive. But she also saved Jeremy, Damon, Stefan, encouraged Elena to be honest about what she felt for Damon even when she didn't have to.

Caroline did annoying things; but overall she was an interesting character. And she was way too smart and strong as a vampire. I loved seeing it.

Bonnie deserved so much more than the show gave her. I hope she gets her own show one day. A show about witches would be pretty lit.

Rebecca could have tried harder to be kinder and less evil. I get she had centuries of habits she needed to break but still. (Elena stabbing her in the back was still shit though)

Klaus was evil to his default and was an abuser to his family. I'm glad he changed/died for hope; but still I would have been nice if there were other factors to this action.

They shouldn't have thrown away the good of Elijah Mikalson. He didn't deserve that. The way they also tried to pull a Stefan on him.

Haylijah was a cute ship🤷🏻‍♀️

Esther wasn't wrong about her children being evil as vampires. And what she wanted to do with them was have them live as humans.

What the originals did to Marcel was fucked up

What the originals did to Davina was cruel

I wish we could have seen more of the witch that played "the hollow".

Glamorizing Hope's evil side is not "a flex". Again, like the character & actor art; but not the vicious actions.

Hosie should have been canon

That random new original sister was so unnecessary.

Kolvina is the most interesting ship of the entire TVDverse I wish there was more of them

All TVD ships were good I just find: Steroline, Delena, & Klamille to be cringe. Steroline only happened to compensate Forwood/& Klaroline and justify Delena. And Delena only happened because of looks and the love story was trash. Klamille was also a compensation ship to Klaroline so yeah, cringe.

TVD writing, lore, acting, cinematography,. directing is all a 10. The only thing that is trash is the ending and all the romantic entanglement the show had.

Warning: This isn't to start an agree to disagree party. This post is just so that those that agree with me can high-five with me. If you disagree, don't even bother commenting on this post. Everything is a matter of perception & perspective. I'm just sharing mine, while venting. By jumping on this post to fight with me you are immediately self-labeling yourself as entitled. Everyone has their own opinions bestie so don't even.

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ruru0803 · 5 months

Text

Unknown Territory:Five x Fem Reader

Chapter 2: We only see each other at weddings and funerals part 2

Five is aged up here.

Characters talking...

Five

Klaus

Vanya

Allison

Diego

Luther

Ben

Pogo

Grace

You

Everyone else talking is white.

Everyone stares at Luther waiting for him to speak. He stands up ready to make his point.

"Um..I guess..."

"C'mon speak up, Luther."

Luther sends Five a glare.

"Before that, I figured we could have some sort of memorial service. You know in the courtyard at sun down."

Klaus flies over to the bar and pulls out his cigarette, smoking away from the group.

"A few words at dad's favorite spot."

"Dad had a favorite spot?"

Luther looked at her confused, how could she not know.

"You know the spot under the oak tree."

Everyone shrugged.

"We used to sit there all the time. None of you ever did that?"

Klaus flies back over, now having two drinks in his hand. He hands one to Five before drinking some of his own.

"Will there be any refreshments?"

Everyone turns towards him.

"Tea? Scones? Cucumber sandwiches are always a winner."

Luther's brows furrowed at the question.

"What? No. And put that out. Dad didn't allow smoking in here."

Five, Diego and Klaus all rolled their eyes at the statement.

"Dad didn't allow a lot of things, Luther."

Luther rolls his eyes at Five.

"Listen up. Still some important things that we need to discuss, all right?"

"Yeah? Like what?"

"Like what?"

Five and Diego were tired of him talking in circles and wanted him to get to the point.

"Like the way he died."

Diego sighs and Klaus sits down.

"Here we go..."

"I don't understand. I thought they said it was a heart attack."

Luther nods at Vanya.

"Yeah, according to the coroner."

"Wouldn't they know?"

"Theoretically."

Vanya was confused at what he was saying but Diego knew exactly what he was saying.

"Theoretically?"

Allison gives Luther a concern look.

"I'm just saying at the very least, Something happened."

"Something, like someone killed him."

"Exactly, He told me I should be careful who to trust."

Diego shakes his head and stands up.

"Luther, he was a paranoid, bitter old man who was starting to lose what was left of his marbles."

Luther shook his head in disbelief.

"No. He must have known something was going to happen."

He looks directly at Klaus with a pleading look in his eye.

"Look, I know you don't like to do it but I need you to talk to dad."

Klaus scoffs and Allison does the same. Klaus shakes his head he was way too high for this.

"I can't just call Dad in the afterlife and be like, 'Dad, could you just...stop playing tennis with Hitler for a moment and take a quick call.'"

Luther looks at him annoyed.

"Since when? That's your thing."

"I'm not in the right...frame of mind."

"You're high?"

"Yes, Yeah!"

Luther points to the ceiling.

"You were just flying."

Klaus lifts up his feet moving his toes around, Vanya moves his foot from in front of her face.

"My flight and my seance powers are two different things. I take my shoes off I fly. I get high, the ghosts go bye, bye."

Luther glares at him as he takes another drag from his cigarette.

"Well sober up. This is important."

"It's nonsense, that's what it is. There are more important things. Like the end of the world."

Luther quickly turns on Five.

"How could you say that? Our dad is dead."

Five shrugs.

"And the world is better off for it."

"I'm with Five on this one."

Luther shrugs him off.

"Then there's the issue with the missing monocle."

"Who gives a shit about a stupid monocle?"

Everyone just stares at Luther as he acts like he made a good point, he starts ranting about how it was someone who held a grudge against Reginald.

"Where are you going with this?"

"Isn't it obvious, Klaus?"

Five glares at Luther and Diego followed along finishing the rest of Five's statement.

"He thinks one of us killed Dad."

The room went silent. Five and Diego continued to glare at Luther, Allison looked offended, Klaus was in disbelief and Vanya was confused.

"You do?"

"How could you say that?"

Diego just shakes his head at him.

"Good job, Luther. Way to lead."

Diego walks away from him. Five gets up as well, flipping him off.

"Our oh so great leader everyone. Screw this."

Klaus gets upset and stands up ready to leave as well when Luther tries to make up an excuse for what Diego said.

"You're crazy, man. You're crazy."

"I'm not finished."

Allison and Vanya also stand up ready to leave the room.

"Sorry, I'm just gonna go murder Mom. Be right back."

"That's not what I was saying."

After everyone left Luther was left alone to process what just happened.

17 years ago....

A crowd of people hover outside of a bank. An alarm goes off from inside, the SWAT team pulling up at every corner of the place.

Different news channels showed up to get a peek on the action from inside the building. From a building far away Reginald watched along with his adopted child Vanya.

"This is Jim Hellerman, reporting live for Channel 2 News."

"This is Rebecca Coleman, giving you the inside scoop on a recent robbery..."

"John Hughes from Channel 8, three hours ago a group of armed men entered the Capital West bank at main and sixth."

Inside the building a man walked around yelling at his walkie talkie. One of his other partners was struggling to get people to stay behind the desk, he had to wrestle with some of them.

The man on the walkie doesn't notice the younger uniformed girl skipping up behind him until it's too late.

"Hey, get back with the others."

The girl smiles at him leaning in as if to tell him something.

"I heard a rumor."

The man squints his eyes at her.

"What? What did you say?"

He leaned in more towards the girl which made her smile grow wider.

"I heard a rumor that you shot your friend in the foot."

The man stared off into space before his eyes turned pure white. He turned his gun towards another man wearing a suit that had a similar mask as him.

His partner panicked as he watched him trying to convince him not to shoot but it was too late. The man screamed out in agony causing everyone around him to panic including the people outside of the building.

During the commotion, Luther scrambles across the roof of the building before breaking through it, he slams one of the men against the table before throwing him out of the window. The police looked confused and pointed their guns to the window.

Diego ran from wherever he was hiding before throwing two knives into the shoulder of another goon.

"Guns are for sissies, Real men throw knives."

The man that was near Allison climbs up on the desk, his gun now pointed directly towards the children and he kept backing up trying to put a lot of space between him and them.

"Stay away freaks."

Diego pouts at him playfully.

"Hey, be careful up there, buddy."

"Get back now!"

Allison grins at him.

"Wouldn't want you to get hurt."

"Or what?"

The man turns towards the sound of another voice to find Five smiling up at him cockily. He pulls the trigger shooting at the boy but he disappears. He hears a whoosh sound behind him turning to find the same boy but this time he was glaring at him.

He goes to shoot him again but this time his gun was replaced by a stapler however that didn't stop him from pressing on it multiple times in desperation. Five grins at the man, amused.

"That's one badass stapler."

Five grabbed the man's hand that was holding the stapler and used it to knock him out. He hops down joining the rest of his siblings. They all faced the door where they were told more people were. The crowd looked at them in shock, tape still around their hands and mouths.

"Do we have to do this?"

Klaus and Five pat their brother's back before Luther pushes his towards the door giving him a stern look.

"Come on, Ben. There's more guys in the vault."

Ben sighs before walking inside.

"I didn't sign up for this."

The hostages all run out of the building scared for their lives leaving the kids to watch as blood splattered onto the door and windows. Moments later their brother comes out shivering and covered in blood.

"Can we go home now?"

The kids walk outside the building, watching as the police start to put their guns away and the cameras start to focus on them. Diego, Luther, and Allison smiled proudly at the cameras while Klaus and Five do too, Ben stares at his feet shyly.

"Why can't I go play with the others?"

Vanya looks at her dad with questioning eyes. He only looks at her annoyed which causes her to look away from him.

"We've been through this before, Number 7. I'm afraid there's just nothing special about you."

Vanya looks down at her siblings sadly, watching them wave at the people in front of them. She didn't notice A woman watching her back. Reginald leaves Vanya up on the roof by herself making his way over to the others.

"Our world is changing. Has changed. There are some among us gifted with abilities far beyond the ordinary. I have adopted six such children. I give you the inaugural class of the Umbrella Academy."

The children all grin at each other and the audience. The woman moved her attention from Vanya towards the children in front of her. The people around her got rowdy, all trying to be heard.

"Mister Hargreeves! Mister Hargreeves. Channel 9 News. What happened to their parents?"

"They were suitably compensated."

"Are you concerned about the welfare of the children?"

The kids all look towards their father, wanting to hear his answer.

"Of course, as I am for the fate of the world."

The woman looks around making sure no one was following her before stepping into the water. She walks deeper and deeper before completely emerging herself into the water.

Her legs started to fuse together before turning into a beautiful coral blue. She dove deeper into the water, gliding against different types of fish until she reached a golden castle.

She swam towards her room before lying on a mattress someone brought that she took from a shipwreck.

She sighed trying to make herself comfortable and closed her eyes. She opened them again when she felt the presence of another beside her.

"How was your trip to the human world, my love?"

The woman stared into the eyes of her husband.

"It was fine. Though I saw the weirdest thing today."

The merman looked at her with interest which she chuckled about.

"Apparently the humans have gotten themselves a group of supernaturals."

"Really?"

The mermaid sighs, looking towards the ceiling.

"Unfortunately, they're under Hargreeves care."

Her husband's eyes widened at the statement she made. While the two are not anywhere near close to being friends with Hargreeves, they have worked with the man before.

"I hate to think of the paths those children would go down under his care."

She looked back at her husband with a deep frown on her face.

"There was another kid that he had left on the roof, almost like he didn't want her around the others."

She laid her hands down on her stomach and started to rub it softly.

"Promise me, that if we have a second child. We won't make one feel better than the other."

🫧🫧🫧🫧🫧🫧🫧🫧🫧🫧🫧🫧🫧🫧

You look around the room, staring blankly at the walls. You were bored out of your mind. You knew this was your punishment for trying to leave without completing your mission and you knew it could be much worse with the way they handle things here, you were surprised you got off this easy.

Though the cuffs around your hands were starting to make your wrist hurt. No one has been in since the handler earlier that day and the quiet was starting to get to you. They knew the best way to break you was to isolate you from the people you loved, it was something Five picked up on when he met you and something the Temps picked up on when they would lock you up for days to see how long you'd last. It was like a game to them however they did stop after Five threatened to kill them after finding out about it.

You sighed to yourself until you heard Five calling for you from inside your head. It scared you a bit and you were going to visit him until you heard the sound of footsteps from further down the hall. It was one of the different mermaid powers you unlocked. When you were younger, you always wondered how your mom could talk to the whales back at home, she said it was a gift that mermaids got when they were older, she explained how they communicated with sound and part of you didn't understand until one day when you were on a kill mission with Five and suddenly everything was louder than normal.

You heard the sound of footsteps getting louder and louder as the person got closer. The door to the room opened to reveal Herb with a tray of food in his hand.

"Oh, the Handler decide she's too good to see me now? I'm hurt."

You send him a playful smile to show you were kidding, you always like Herb. He was a nice guy, always kind to everyone and helpful. You did wonder how a guy like him could end up working for the Temps.

Herb smiles back at you placing the tray at your feet.

"Too bad, you get me instead."

Your smile grew until you looked at the tray below you which caused him to get worried.

"What's wrong? Do you not like it? I picked it myself."

"It's not that."

You gesture to your cuffed hands.

"I can't very much eat with my hands immobile."

Herb sighs before playing with his hands.

"I'd love to let you down but the Handler said if I did, she'd doc my pay again."

Herb then taps his chin.

"But she's sending some guards in later, like two or three of them."

He looked into your eyes and you instantly knew what he was hinting at. You wouldn't get him in trouble if there were other people down here instead. You smirk at the thought.

"Could you at least feed me then?"

Herb nodded his head with a smile reaching down to grab the food.

⌛💪🎻��️🔪👻⌛💪🎻🗣️👻🔪⌛💪

Klaus stood at the bar staring down at the framed photo and ashes of his adopted father with a pout on his face.

"Listen up old man. You know, if I was murdered, and one of my sons--"

He stops himself.

"Adopted sons-- happen to be able to commune with the dead, I might think about, I don't know, I don't know... manifesting!!"

He was laughing about it but the better part of him was annoyed with the thought of having to manifest the man that tortured him most of his life. He wasn't too keen on having him around him but if it'll get Luther off his back, why not.

Klaus starts to move his hands around upset with the fact that he couldn't conjure him. He stares down at the photo, anger and frustration growing more and more.

He sighs and tries to patiently wait for something-- anything to happen but nothing does.

He tries to clear his mind, still nothing and that made him more upset.

"You always were a stubborn bastard!"

He points an accusatory finger at the picture in front of him.

"I don't know about you, but I need a drink."

Klaus goes to grab some alcohol but ends up knocking over his father's ashes instead.

In the other rooms in the house everyone just sits in silence waiting for the funeral to start. The family never felt more like strangers than they did in that very moment.

The family now stood outside in the pouring rain holding umbrellas in their hands. Five gave Ben's statue a somber look. He had wondered if he had been there would Ben had still suffered the same fate.

Grace looked at her children with a confused smile on her face.

"Did something happen?"

They all looked at her concerned.

"Dad died. Remember?"

"Oh, yes. Of course."

Most robots wouldn't feel anything but Grace felt an odd sense of embarrassment, sadness, and a small sense of relief.

"Is mom okay?"

Allison looked at Diego.

"Yeah, yeah, she's fine."

He turned to look at Grace, his gaze softening.

"She just needs to rest. You know, recharge."

Pogo walks up finally meeting up with the others before asking Luther to proceed. Luther walks up opening the top of the container which held the ashes of his father, he pours it on the ground but not much comes out. Klaus cringes knowing he was the reason it happened.

"Probably would have been better with some wind."

"Does anyone wish to speak?"

No one steps up, they all look at the other instead. Considering no one had any good memories of him. Grace stepped up facing her children.

"He wasn't the best father.. and an even worse husband.."

Diego nodded along with his mother's words.

"But if he was guilty of anything-- it was caring for the world so much that he sacrificed his personal relationships.."

Diego frowned deeply at her statement.

"Unfortunately, he never asked us how we felt about that. But that doesn't make his death in vain. we must--"

"Stop. Stop."

Diego walks up to Grace, touching her shoulder.

"Mom, You don't have to defend him. He's gone now."

"Diego."

"He was a monster."

Klaus laughs.

"He was a bad person and a worse father. The world's better off without him."

Luther glares at him and Allison tries to get him to be quiet again.

"Diego!"

"My name is Number two."

He looks at her which makes her look away from him.

"You know why? Because our father couldn't be bothered to give us names."

He gestures to Grace.

"He had mom do it."

Grace tries to discuss the situation.

"Would anyone like something to eat?"

"No, it's okay mom."

"Oh, Okay."

Everyone looks down, contemplating Diego's words. Klaus and Vanya were in agreement, Five was indifferent, Allison was sad, and Luther felt torn.

"Look, you wanna pay your respects?"

Diego turns to look at each and every one of his siblings.

"Go ahead. But at least be honest about the kind of man he was..."

"You should stop talking now."

Diego turns to Luther annoyed.

"You know, you of all people should be on my side here, Number One."

"I'm warning you."

Klaus bites at his nails feeling stressed and Five just looks away from the scene already expecting a fight to break out before making eye contact with Klaus.

"He had to ship you a million miles away."

"Diego, stop talking."

Luther got upset. He didn't want to believe Diego's words.

"That's how much he couldn't stand the sight of you!"

Diego stabs his finger into Luther's chest which makes him retaliate by pushing it off and swinging a punch however he misses as Diego dives under his arm. He swings another but ends up missing again. Allison watches with a disappointed look in her eyes, Vanya pulls Grace back not wanting her to get hurt, Pogo tries to stop them, and Klaus puts a protective arm in front of Five which earns him a glare and a smack on his arm.

The two continue to go at it getting closer and closer to Ben's statue. Vanya begs for the boys to stop as Klaus eggs it on. Diego uses technique on Luther which throws him off guard as he felt he was stronger. Luther tries hard to use his physical strength against him but Diego kept slipping away.

"I don't have time for this."

Five shakes his head before heading inside.

Diego stand in front of Ben's statue, taunting Luther and as Luther throws a punch, Diego moves out of the way causing him to punch Ben's statue, breaking it.

The rest of the remaining siblings stare at the statue upset about what they did. Allison rolls her eyes at the two before following Five's lead and heading inside. Diego pulls out a knife throwing it towards Luther and slicing his arm much to the dismay of Vanya.

Luther walks inside the house taking this as a personal loss. Vanya walks up to Diego disappointed.

"You never know when to stop, do you?"

"You got enough material for your sequel yet?"

The two stare down each other before Vanya walks away.

"He was my father too."

Diego walks over to Grace before leading her inside with the others. Klaus watches everything with a cigarette in his mouth, stressed about the whole situation. After everyone leaves he walks up the pile of ashes on the ground.

"I bet you're loving this. Hmm? The team at its best. It's just like old times."

He takes another drag before placing his cigarette on the ashes.

"Best funeral ever."

🫧🫧🫧🫧🫧🫧🫧🫧🫧🫧🫧🫧🫧🫧

You looked up when you heard footsteps coming in your direction again. The door opened to reveal to people both in the Temps uniform without their masks. One was a woman she was a few years younger than you, she had light blue eyes and blonde hair dyed orange at the bottom to match the suit she wore, she did not look happy to be there, on the other hand the man beside her had the opposite reaction especially when seeing your face. He was the spitting image of the girl except his hair was dyed brown.

"Arin, Johnny, long time no see."

You smile at the two getting a big one in return from Johnny.

"Hey Y/n, Looks like you've gotten yourself into trouble since lunch yesterday."

You shrug as he laughed though Arin didn't find it very funny.

"How's it hanging?"

"Not great. Can you believe how boring it is?"

"Ugh, I bet. I once was on stakeout by myself, worst five hours of my life..."

You nod along knowing the feeling.

"Speaking of Five, how's he doing?"

You shrug again.

"Who knows."

"It must suck to be away from him."

You sigh, leaning your head back against the wall.

"You have no idea."

"Hey, Hey, Hey!!"

Arin claps her hands together getting both of your attention.

"Stop this."

"Stop what?"

"This."

Johnny rolls his eyes at his sister before gesturing to you.

"She's our friend. I'm just having a conversation."

"She's a prisoner. We don't Kiki with prisoners."

Your smile instantly drops.

"Really, Arin."

"Shut up. You and Five did this to yourselves. I mean really trying to leave the commission are you serious?"

You scoff sending the girl a glare.

"Arin."

"You're lucky that this is the punishment they gave you. Honestly could you and Five had been any stupider."

Johnny tries to calm her down but she just turns and jabs a finger into his chest.

"Johnny, our jobs are on the line here. We don't have time to play 'friendly', You get me?"

She leaves the room for a bit, Johnny whispers a small apology before she comes back throwing a plate to the bottom of your feet causing some of the food on it to fly off the plate. She sends a fake smile before pulling her brother out of the room with a slam of the door.

You ball hands into fist.

⌛⌛⌛⌛⌛⌛⌛⌛⌛⌛⌛⌛⌛⌛

Five sat on the stairs, leaning his head against his hand. He had been trying to get you to come but you hadn't shown up since earlier. He watched as each one of his siblings passed, each one more upset than the last. It was a pretty shitty funeral.

He sat there to himself for a few more minutes until Vanya came down throwing on her jacket and heading to the door.

"Where are you going?"

Vanya stopped with her hand grazing the door knob, she was still getting used to finally being around again. She hesitates before turning to face him with a shrug.

"I'm headed to a meeting. I'm already late so I'm hoping to catch up with them before it's too late."

Five just nods his head and the two just stare at each other in silence. Vanya figured he wouldn't say anything else turns towards the door again but Pogo came and stopped her again.

"Don't waste your time. Diego's right, I shouldn't have come."

"This is your home and always will be."

Pogo walks up to Vanya.

"Should I get you a taxi?"

"I already called one. But thanks."

Five smiles at the interaction between the two. Pogo has always been more of a father figure to them than Reginald was, Hargreeves was more of a teacher.

"I hope you know that your father loved you very much. In his own way."

"Yeah well that's kind of the problem. isn't it?"

Five chuckles in agreement, raising a hand slightly as a goodbye. Five watches Pogo walk up to the door to check on Vanya before he gets up and walks to the kitchen in search of caffeine. Unfortunately for him there was none. Klaus somehow found his way into the kitchen getting not much attention from Five. Allison later joins them.

"Where's Vanya?"

"She's gone."

Klaus holds on to a guitar, kicking his feet up.

"That's unfortunate. An entire square block. Forty-two bedrooms, 19 bathrooms, but no, not a single drop of coffee."

Five was annoyed to say the least, he hadn't heard from you since you talked earlier and now the sky was darkening. He was worried something might've happened to you and he had no way of knowing, no way to get to you. Now there wasn't any coffee to help him calm his nerves.

He couldn't talk to his siblings about it, no way would they understand. They don't even have their lives together. Not to mention the world was about to end.

"I'm taking the car."

Five moved to walk out of the kitchen. He wanted, no he needed coffee. Something to make him feel like he had some semblance of his life together.

"Where are you going?"

Five looked at Klaus like he just asked him the dumbest question in man kind.

"To get a decent cup of coffee."

Allison looked at him skeptically.

"Do you even know how to drive?"

She thought her question was valid, if the world was going to end, according to Five, there would technically be no need for them.

Five however just glared at the girl.

"I know how to do everything."

Five teleports away from them and into the car. He realizes he doesn't have the key and hops into the house for a second before jumping back, starting the car and pulling off.

He pulled into a stop in front of a place called Griddy's, somewhere he, Ben, Klaus, Allison and Vanya would sneak off to when everyone else was asleep.

He walked into the building not seeing anyone there so he approached the counter before pressing the bell. Another man walks in sitting next to him. The waitress comes from the back apologizing to the two men before taking their orders.

Five talked to the man for a bit, they talked about early memories before the waitress came back with their orders. The man offered to pay for Five much to his relief because he forgot to grab any money on his search for his caffeine. The man had given Five an address that he asked after awhile before leaving the building.

Five was now left alone again as the Waitress went back to where she came from. He was now deep in thought, worried about your safety. He knew how the Handler could be and for some reason she didn't particularly like you. Most would say that she was jealous of you; you were likeable and kind hearted, She however was not. But Five knew better, the Handler had some type of infatuation for Five and that didn't go unnoticed by him and because of that his relationship with you, platonic or not; angered her greatly.

After a while a group of agents walked into the building. Five recognized the orange, yellow and black costumes from anywhere. They found him.

"That was fast. I thought I'd have more time before they found me."

All of them instantly pulled their guns to his head but he didn't show any fear.

"On your feet, come with us. They wanna talk."

"I've got nothing to say."

"You think I wanna shoot someone today? Go home with that on my conscience?"

Five smirks while picking up the knife beside his cup. This was a new agent, Five had seen him around the commission. He was good at his job, Five was better.

"I wouldn't worry about that. You won't be going home."

Five quickly teleports behind the man, stabbing him in his neck causing him to shoot his gun in shock before falling to the ground dead.

The other agents try to look for him as the lights start to blink from getting hit with the bullet. Five watches them look around in confusion from under the table before he teleports onto another one laying down.

"Hey, assholes!"

All of them quickly turned to the voice pulling their triggers but it was too late, he had already gone. All they succeeded in doing was shooting the lights out in the signs that were around the building.

Five smirks at them from outside of the building. You would have chastised him about making this longer than it had to be, you didn't like killing people. Sure you could have had any other job in the commission but the thought of Five being out there risking his life scared you, so you stuck it out. Though you'd rather do a fast and easy kill than drag it out. Five on the other hand could care less about torturing these agents, they took you away from him. They had to pay.

🫧🫧🫧🫧🫧🫧🫧🫧🫧🫧🫧🫧🫧🫧

You tap your fingers against the medal around your hands. Your eyes shift to the door in anticipation. You start to hum the tune of come little children as soon as the door opens. Arin locks eyes with you as you continue your song, her eyes start to turn silver, you smirk as she walked closer to you while pulling out her keys.

You smile as you land on your feet, softly rubbing the bruise that formed around your wrist. You were happy that Herb and Johnny weren't the ones down here at the moment otherwise you'd feel bad.

"Thanks Arin, You're a doll."

She smiles as you softly pat her shoulders and You send her a guilty smile.

"I'm so sorry about this, buddy."

You punch the girl super hard, knocking her out as soon as her head hits the ground.

"No hard feelings..."

You smiled down at the body before slipping out of the door and heading towards the direction of the suitcases.

Though as soon as you turn the corner you bump into Johnny causing him to fall on his ass. He looks up at you in shock before sending you a big smile.

"No way, Arin changed her mind and let you out?"

You grimaced at him.

"Not exactly..."

His eyebrow raised in question. You were weary about how he'd react, the twins were super protective of each other, hurting one was like hurting the other and neither would let it go.

"What do you mean?"

You couldn't really hide the fact that you knocked his sister out because he would find her body if he walked into the room.

"I knocked her out."

"What?!"

You started stumbling trying to think of something to say so that he wouldn't be upset but there was nothing you could say.

"I'm sorry but I can't stay here any longer."

Johnny stands up from the ground dusting himself off while sending you a glare.

"I have to get to Five and help him save the world and unfortunately Arin was in the way of that. I will fight anyone I have to, If it means I can help him."

Johnny's face softened and he shakes his head with a small chuckle.

"You really care about that man, don't you?"

You nod at him.

"Fine. I'll help get you out of here."

"Really?!"

He smiles at you and you quickly pull him into a hug.

"Thank you!!"

The two of you break away from each other and make your way down the hall looking for the suitcase room in the dark corridor. Once you make your way there you find two different guards outside the room with three inside.

"Ugh. I thought they'd be patrolling around right now."

"Don't tell me you're not up for a challenge, Johnny."

Johnny sighs.

"Not tonight."

You smile at him.

"I got a plan."

Johnny walks up to the two agents that were guarding the door with a smile on his face.

"Hey, Guys."

"Hey."

"Hi, Johnny."

Johnny's smile falters.

"The Handler is asking for everyone to meet up in the training room."

The two looked at each other in confusion before turning to Johnny.

"Apparently Y/n has escaped so The Handler needs all hands on deck."

"What about the suitcases?"

Johnny looks at them sternly.

"She says this is more important."

"Right. Lets go."

"Yeah."

"Go on ahead you two, I'll let the others know."

The two nod before heading in a different direction once Johnny is sure they are completely gone, he sends you a thumbs up before walking in the room.

The other three agents turn towards him with their guns pointed but instantly point them down when they see it's just him.

"Oh, John. Sorry, We thought you might be someone else."

"Like who?"

One of the agents shrug.

"I don't know, Y/n is a sneaky little minx. We thought maybe she escaped or something."

Johnny starts to chuckle nervously.

"No way. I was in the room they're keeping her in earlier, she's bound tight. No way she's getting out of there."

"Right, obviously they wouldn't let that sneaky little siren just roam in a cell somewhere."

One of the other guards butt in.

"You guys hear something?"

Johnny and the agent look at him.

"No."

"Weird, I hear someone humming."

Johnny knew what he was talking about, You were using your song on the agent. Johnny was currently wearing his headphones, something he received after The Temps found out you had the power to control people with your voice, of course not every agent received a pair, only the ones that worked with you which is why he and the other two agents couldn't hear you at the moment.

The other agent however had his eyes change into a silver color which quickly alarmed the other two however it was two late as he quickly shot one of his teammates in the leg. The agent on the ground screamed in pain of the shot before firing one of their own.

Johnny quickly backed out of the room before you slipped in and knocked the agent whom he was talking to into the wall, knocking him out as the agent you sirened shot the other in the head.

You let out a shaky breath, watching the blood drip from the agent's head causing you to close your eyes before turning to the sirened agent.

"Alright get out of here."

The agent nodded before leaving the room and heading in the direction of the two.

You quickly grab a suitcase before turning to Johnny; who had come back into the room. You pull him into a tight hug and your eyes filled with worry.

"Be careful out there. The world is a dangerous place as you know."

"I'll miss you."

"And I will miss you."

Tears started to fill your eyes and you were starting to regret letting Johnny help you.

"It'll be okay."

You pull away from him, looking deep into his eyes as he sends you a smile.

"It'll be okay. Now go."

You nod before holding onto the suitcase and disappearing in a flash of a light.

"You've got to be kidding me."

Arin frowns looking down at the floor finding herself unable to make eye contact with the handler.

"You had one job. Not to let her escape and what did you do?"

"We let her escape."

"You let her escape."

Arin backs away as the Handler advances towards.

"Actually. It was my fault."

Arin's eyebrows pinched in confusion as she turned to find her brother at the door.

"I let her out."

Arin shakes her head at him, her eyes were telling him to shut up though he didn't listen.

"I don't know why I did it, It was just hard watching my friend being held captive."

"Johnny, stop."

"Arin, had nothing to do with it."

The handler walked up to him with a glare on her face.

"How do you explain the fact that we found her knocked out on the ground."

Johnny makes eye contact with his sister. He had hoped this would get his sister out of trouble.

"I knocked her out, she was adamant about keeping Y/n locked up so, I helped her escape."

"You weren't in the camera footage."

"I snuck in and deleted it in hopes that I wouldn't get caught."

The Handler looks him up and down. Her eyes showed suspension.

"And yet you're giving yourself up now. Why is that?"

Johnny looks down at the ground as the handler continues to stare intensely at him.

"I can't let my sister take the fall for what I did."

The handler turns her attention towards Arin motioning to Johnny.

"Is this true?"

Johnny nods at his sister wanting her to let him take the fall. Arin looks down again, her jaw tightening.

"Yes."

"Arin, leave the room."

Arin hesitates but heads towards the door when her brother smiles at her, she grabs his hand on the way out and he gives it a squeeze before she walks out the door, closing it behind her.

Tears started to stream down her face at the sound of a gun shot ringing through the halls.

Next⌛🫧

#the umbrella academy #the umbrella academy comics #vanya #five x reader #five x y/n #five x you #five hargreaves x reader #five hargreeves #klaus hargreeves #luther hargreeves #diego hargreeves #allison hargreeves #reginald hargreeves #ben hargreeves #the handler #hazel #chacha #netflix

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crystallizedday · 9 months

Text

Okie dokie!

So what initially started out as a joke character I made in relation to Pastra’s midwife voice kind of spiraled into a full blown AU, & I think these designs & concepts are too cool to keep away from the public eye.

Soooooo

Say hello to the DOAI Trickster AU!

Here’s the rundown:

Instead of using hallucinations & intimidation to claim their victims, Veldiguns instead have shapeshifted themselves to become more approachable to lure their intrigued victims to their demise.

Clyde & Winfrey are the most notorious of the Veldiguns, primarily targeting young adults using charm & flattery, often bringing their victims into the woods as to not get caught.

While one will most often pursue a target on their own, the other tends to linger nearby & keep an eye on their partner to keep them out of any potential danger.

The two deeply care about each other, their relationship being blatantly romantic, sometimes to a cheesy degree. Even so, these two should NOT be underminded strength-wise as they are just as strong & sometimes JUST as brutal as their canon counterparts. Human life means nothing to them, but they highly appreciate their customs & culture to the point where they even participate in some of those customs just for fun.

Klaus & Jack are QUITE different as they target young children, especially in any kind of birthday scenario. One common method Klaus uses to take down a target is by offering the chosen child a large “present”, luring them out of public view before allowing Jack to spring out of the box & chomp down on the victim.

Klaus treats Jack more like a tool rather than a partner, even taking apart Jack in his free time just because he finds the activity satisfying. He will rip Jack apart & fix him up again & again, mangling him & ruining his outer shell every time Klaus messes with him. Jack rarely ever objects, not wanting to anger the person that is able to feed him efficiently.

& finally…

Simon & the Flock are not necessarily two separate entities, at least not anymore. At some point, the two’s minds intertwined & consider themselves as one whole being. They prefer to be called the Reaper.

The Reaper, who cherishes human life, chooses to target much older humans who are about to die, wanting to give these people a comfortable death. The Reaper will often talk to the humans they take, wanting the people they target to accept their inevitable fate while they still can.

Of course, while they prefer to target the dying elderly, the Reaper will sometimes do the same for any human in other age ranges if that particular human does not have much time to live. Additionally, family pets are also taken by the Reaper, especially cherished pets that were loved & well taken care of. Of course, these two occurrences are extremely rare.

… & of course.

There’s Dr. Lankmann.

I don’t have much for him at the moment, but as of now, he is a monster hunter who is on a mission to eradicate EVERY SINGLE Veldigun he can, even the Reaper.

Everyone around him thinks he’s a mad man for believing these creatures even exist, but he doesn’t care. He’s GOING to hunt these FREAKS down & become the hero he so desperately desires to be.

No matter the cost.

… but I’m too lazy to design him at the moment, so uh… that’s all you get JWIWKEKEOEKW

Anyway, that’s all I got for now! Hope y’all enjoy this kooky AU of mine!

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klayleyism · 1 year

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a semi big rant about klayley

Since I'm bitter and bored i wanted to give a deep dive into klayley's relationship because no one gets them like i do

First things first, Klayley is NOT platonic and it's absolutely hilarious and obliterates Klaus's entire redemption arc to think so

We all know the main focus when it came to Klaus's character was the way fatherhood changed him/made him want to be better

The reason i said thinking klayley is platonic literally ruins his redemption arc which is basically the main plot of the show in many ways is season 2

Season 2 genuinely makes it impossible to say his relationship with Hayley was platonic,

1) Klaus was insanely adamant about Hayley not getting married, my guy literally wanted Jackson dead the second he got married to hayley lmao / tried to kill him after beating the dog shit out of him to stop him from marrying Hayley so it's safe to say the thought alone enraged him

2) his lame excuse for his jealousy was once again hope, because his ass can't admit he even cared for Hayley if his life depended on it , his excuse was " Jackson knowing about hope puts her life at risk" add to that the fact he literally murdered his biological father because he was terrified of the POSSIBILITY it MIGHT put his daughter's life in danger and mind you he actually loved his dad and was in tears when he killed him

3) he actually steps aside and lets Hayley marry Jackson, now Klaus paranoid Mikaelson who was gutted to kill someone he loves to protect hope from something that might or might not have happened actually allows the marriage to happen and let Jackson live even after securing the wolf army so Hayley won't hate him

If you say his jealousy was about hope and not mainly Hayley you're literally saying Klaus cared more about Hayley's feelings than his own daughter's life and more than having a good relationship with hope because after all his excuses he couldn't hurt Hayley and didn't want to lose her

That alone literally takes away so much from his character and it's a very dumb take

Now i personally believe he actually loved Hayley more than hope but that's a different conversation

But i still understand that he wouldn't put Hayley's feelings above his daughter's fucking life or above having a decent relationship with hope especially since he doesn't give a fuck about Jackson unlike with Elijah

And this is only one of the many proofs Klaus's jealousy was about Hayley therefore you can't pull the platonic card unless you want to butcher Klaus's character

Season one is Klayley's best season alongside season 2 tbh because if you watch it and still can't see how in love they were you should rewatch it

It also shows his jealousy was about Hayley and not the baby

You have Klaus ask Hayley about her interest in Elijah and is actually hurt by her response in 1x03

The moment he feels they're getting closer in 1x07 he bites his brother and leaves Hayley with him knowing damn well dementia would kick in and Elijah could seriously hurt/kill Hayley and that means his child that he made such a fuss about would die

Now if he didn't give a fuck about Hayley personally why the fuck would he put his child's life in danger out of jealousy

He then goes to lock her away from his family and assigns literal bodyguards to watch her likeeee that man was insane

What made me laugh was the way even after he bites his brother and puts Hayley and hope's life at risk because he's a

man child, Hayley was literally telling him she wants to believe in him and to not let HER down (5x08 flashback)

Like he throws a tantrum that could've gotten her and her baby killed and she's still telling him that despite him not giving her any reasons to believe in him she WANTS to , if not for her feelings for him why on earth would she tell a man Who almost killed her for wanting an abortion and almost killed her again out of jealousy that she's desperate to have faith in him

And now i do not in any way think choking her for wanting an abortion is okay and i do realize their relationship was initially very problematic

But the funny thing is that after he almost killed her for wanting said abortion she was fucking smiling and happy because he promised her to fix the air conditioning 💀

Like he got her giggling and kicking her feet after he almost killed her because he said he'd fix the air conditioning

Down bad is an understatement

We move to 1x11

In the middle of a literal apocalypse, everyone is losing their shit because the world's ending and Mr "i don't care about Hayley" is literally carrying food boxes with her because his ass couldn't watch her cry

What's funny is that he not only tries to comfort her but he actually gives her advice on how to make things right with Elijah

And he's the Same person who has been whining about Hayley loving Elijah and how it's about "his child"

If he really didn't care about her he will not give a shit about Hayley being sad over something dumb in the middle of an apocalypse

And if it were about hope, the most logical thing is for him to not react because at the end of the day it works in his favor if Hayley and Elijah's relationship is ruined

So why on earth would he risk not having the relationship he wants with hope to help Hayley with the Same thing he's worried about just because she's sad

1+1= his jealousy was never about hope as much as it was about Hayley because he ends up choosing Hayley over and over again

And my 2nd favorite klayley moment in season 1 which is 1x20

Klaus is unhinged, now when hope's life was in danger that episode he literally says he'll "rip it out of her himself" and he's insane enough to do it but funny enough when Genevieve tells him that means Hayley dies he backs off instantly

He's literally presented with a choice between Hayley and hope and he chooses Hayley

Which takes me to the ultimate Klayley moment in the entire show that supports the fact he actually cared more about Hayley

The finale of season 1

His daughter gets taken to be killed, and he chooses to mourn Hayley's death

Something Marcel said about Klaus is that he's the best at mourning and taking action at the same time

Yet when his daughter could be sacrificed at any moment by those witches he can't move away from Hayley's corpse

Jesus,i repeat, his child was taken to be killed and he's so insanely in pain about losing Hayley that he chooses to hold her dead body as close to him as possible instead of taking immediate action

From night to morning he didn't do shit to save hope until Elijah's annoying ass came in with his dumb monologue

Now season 2 my beloved, i already explained why season two makes it impossible and very dumb to say they were besties which is why the writers never once in the entire show ever say or even imply klayley is platonic and Why one of the show runners straight up say they have a very complicated relationship/there's attraction

And Joseph Morgan talks about Klaus having romantic tension with Hayley

Now to one of my favorite parts of season 2 is the way the writers begin ruining haylijah's relationship and it's incredibly hilarious because i don't think even they realized it as much

We know that Klaus and Hayley aren't talking after giving hope away

We also know Hayley's not adjusting to vampirism and is clearly depressed

Elijah,the man she supposedly "loves" couldn't help her , he doesn't know what to say or do and she isn't even allowing him to help her

She's lashing out at him and pushing him away

And lmao because Elijah doesn't actually have a real connection with her he BEGS Klaus to talk to her and straight up admits only Klaus can understand her

I mean if you have to beg your brother to help the girl you love because even you can see they have a better connection with her than you do that's embarrassing

And also funny enough Klaus succeeds where Elijah fails

Hayley who was throwing a tantrum anytime Elijah breathed next to her was so eager to actually let Klaus comfort her after he hasn't talked to her in months

And where Elijah was upset that Hayley isn't the perfect girl who redeemed his brother that he put on a pedestal anymore he tries too hard to "fix" her

Meanwhile Klaus was taking her to kill witches to make her feel better and was literally proud of her😭

Showing who actually loved her for who she is

And mind you Klaus wasn't liking it when Camille was having her "rebellious vampire stage" yet he was smiling when he talked about the way Hayley brutally murdered people

Because he too put cami on a pedestal in a way just like Elijah did with Hayley

They both loved the version of cami/ Hayley they had in their head

Hayley who pushed Elijah away gladly welcomed Klaus's different attempts to help her

He didn't mind taking her to kill people if it made her happy but when that failed he pushed her towards leading her pack again

And she didn't have faith in herself, she didn't think she'd be a good leader but he still believed in her and only then she too finally believed in herself

Something that Elijah tried for months to do but failed and Klaus did it in less than a day

That's proof enough she valued Klaus above Elijah and cared more about what he thinks

And god season 2 was peak klayley angst

So in 2x13 hope is almost murdered by Finn/blown up in that explosion

Hayley decides to leave then as she should

But when Klaus asks her to stay she does

Like her ass was so in love with him that she ignored the fact hope could've died as a result of all the crazy family drama because Klaus wanted her to stay

That woman was down bad for him

In 2x12 Hayley had just broken up with Elijah and is supposed to marry another man and she was crying and throwing up because Klaus is not "letting her in"

Now me personally if i supposedly broke up with the love of my life to marry this new guy i wouldn't be crying in the woods because my ex's brother who tried to kill me twice because he's insane is pushing me away but I don't know about you

They're such good "friends" right?

Hayley taking hope away was literally about Klaus pushing her away again

After she agrees to stay with him she threatens to leave if Klaus ruins it with her one more time

And when he gets too paranoid in s2 and pushes everyone including Elijah away and then takes the blame for Aiden's death only then she leaves

She literally gets fed up of forgiving him and giving him second chances and decides to abandon Elijah(again she's supposed to be "in love") and Rebekah who protected hope for months and leaves the Mikaelsons behind because she felt like she lost her connection to Klaus

Proving Klaus was more important to her than Elijah and the Mikaelsons as a whole

Also it's deliciously angsty how Klaus was so terrified of Hayley leaving him that he tried to turn her pack against her so that she has no option other than staying with him

Yet his fear of losing her is what ends up driving her away

It's also confirmed by one of the show runners that Klaus did all that drama later on to save Hayley from dahlia

Dahlia wanted Hayley dead and even when she decided to leave him after he considered her family and was ready to do anything for her he still chose to save her life and convinced dahlia to curse her instead

Now Klaus is fucked in the head if that man wanted real revenge he would've killed Jackson and her entire pack but he still spared them because not even after her betrayal could he manage to actually hurt her feelings that way

Now to say my last piece especially about the other dumb ships

And more into Miss Hayley's perspective:

Hayley's reasons for "loving" Elijah is that he was kind to her/is a good person (exact same reasons she loved Jackson)

And it's something Hayley herself admits, when Klaus asks why the sudden interest she says "he was kind to me" she says she thinks Elijah is in no way like Klaus and is "better" in 1x07

All superficial dumb reasons that show she doesn't know Elijah and only romanticized the idea of him because Klaus was both horrible and unavailable

In season 4 she talks about how she was pulled towards Elijah cause he made her safe at a Time she WAS scared of Klaus

She's literally having a dilemma in season 4 and breaks up With Elijah after entering his mind

She faces Elijah when he first turned and had absolutely no control over his blood lust

Seeing him fall off the pedestal she put him on shatters her perception of him and makes her partially aware of the delusion she was in

Yet despite everything Klaus has done which is genuinely way fucking worse given that the real Elijah never did and would never hurt her in any way

She was still risking her life for him at every possible chance knowing she has a Whole daughter

In season 5 , we know Klaus was dropping dead bodies like it's nothing, he was massacring people to the point rumours about him losing his mind started to float , you can imagine how bad it was

And Hayley was still defending him😃

He literally abandoned her and their daughter for YEARS and when hope was rightfully upset, Hayley still sided with him and her big excuse was that "but he's really sad☹️"

Lmfao she broke up with Elijah because he's not the knight in shining armor she thought he was but when Klaus was going on murder sprees she sends him letters telling him she misses him

And he never read her letters, she kept writing to him knowing damn well he's just gonna return them

She loved him that fucking much

Now I've already talked about how Hayley very obviously loved Klaus way more than she ever loved Elijah

He was a safe choice/ placeholder for Klaus

She chose Jackson over him, she straight up says she would chose Jackson over Elijah again in season 3

She valued having a decent relationship with Klaus over Elijah in season 2 by leaving his ass because she was having an imaginary divorce with Klaus

Elijah only fell for her because he saw her as his family's and most importantly Klaus's savior since she carried his child

He at first loved her out of nowhere and for no fucking reason yet without his memories of his family and despite already meeting her and having a somehow intimate moment with her he ends up killing her because he cared more about Antoinette

Proving ultimately the only reason he "loved" her is his weird obsession with his brother

And when he didn't remember his family he chose Antoinette over Hayley despite having met her before

Klamille was decent,

Klaus was genuinely irritated when she started to not act like the version of her he "loved" as a vampire and he Said shit like "this isn't you" despite enjoying that same "darkness" in Hayley

The ship lacked more development/screen time and it's obvious she was put there as just a love interest

She didn't contribute to his character at all

The only, i repeat only characters to actually change Klaus were Hayley and Hope

Klaroline, lmao , can't believe i have to talk about them but god the shippers are insufferable and delusional

Klaroline's entire "relationship" is on the same exact level as tvd klayley before all the development on the originals

He's infatuated with them both except with Hayley it was explained and made sense ,

At that point Klaus knew of Caroline and he didn't give a shit which is Why it's dumb how he didn't give a fuck about her and attempted to kill her but out of nowhere had a crush on a random 18 year old he didn't know anything personal about, and throughout their entire "thing" he still never got to actually know her which is Why he thought having a simple life wasn't "enough" for her even tho she chose the said simple life with Tyler over him

She even celebrated his death at some point lmao

Klaus was never in love With Caroline just like he wasn't immediately in love With Hayley (!on the vampire diaries)

Now with Hayley he acknowledged how attractive she is the moment he saw her on tvd 4x03

She challenges him and he admires her courage to stand up to him when he first gave her her nickname

What makes klaroline not exactly special and on the same level as tvd klayley is that A not only does Caroline makes it perfectly clear she didn't like him or the "bad boy" type anymore after what Damon does to her

I mean even with how horrible Damon was she still forgives him and they become "friends"

It's who she is, she had plenty of time and chances to seek Klaus out and she didn't even after years of Stefan's death

She has compassion for him after seeing his struggles as a parent and it makes him worthy of something a bit better just like she admits she forgave Damon because she found a common ground with him (Loving Liz)

Now tvd Klaus whose life and his loved ones lives were in danger when the cure was out

And only Hayley could get him to Katherine and the cure and he was still so weirdly gentle When "interrogating" her even she questions it and he admits it's because it's her(basically she's hot lol)

She has insanely valuable information he desperately needs as his life depends on it and he was flirting with her instead

He could of used his knowledge of her real origins as a way to get her to talk because she hasn't told him shit yet but he instead tells her that randomly and then let her go

So saying Klaus loved a crush more than the woman he came back to the city to save knowing it can cause an apocalypse and chose to mourn her death over saving his daughter's life is way too insane

In conclusion Klayley>>>

#klayley #The originals #Klaus Mikaelson #Hayley Marshall #Anti haylijah #unpopular opinion #But still true tho #Pro klayley #speaking my truth #Anti Elijah Mikaelson #Anti klaroline

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hyperactivewhore · 10 months

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how do you feel abt klaroline? i always hated them together; i love the them both but i hate them as a couple

Short answer? I hate them.

Long answer? Well, apart from the fact that they're obviously a screwed up ship made only to please fans (Candice literally confirmed it) and that made Klaus and Caroline incredibly ooc, they just don't make sense and their personalities are too different. And their fans are a big no, the most I've encountered are so toxic and the major problematic part of the fandom (not all of them, before anyone starts crying).

Klaus wasn't in love with Caroline, he just had a weird obsession with her and Caroline was attracted to him in a sexual way, but she was in love with Tyler. They were never "romantic", they had a physical relationship that revolved about Klaus wanting to fuck her.

And once he did, he never bothered to check on her or even give her his condolences after her mother's death. If Klaus loved Caroline, as their shippers assure and swear, he wouldn't have treated her like shit. I mean, even when Stefan asked him if he was still in love with her, Klaus looked close to laughing imo and that should answer everything. And yeah, he asked him if he was gonna do the right thing by her, but that doesn't mean he's in love with Caroline: caring about someone doesn't equal romantic love.

And once more, after that, Klaus forgot about her again. If they were in love, one of them would have seeked the other at least in those seven years Klaus had the hollow inside, or they would have, idk, said "I love you" when he was literally dying. But they didn't, because Klaus was still in love with Cami, the woman he said he'll carry with him forever, and Caroline still wore her wedding ring and she literally said she would love Stefan forever.

So if they were made endgame (thanks god it didn't happen), canonically Klaus would still be thinking about Cami and Caroline would still love Stefan. And don't get me with the whole "however long it takes" because Klaus is always saying things he doesn't mean to get what he wants. His family was a mess and Caroline wouldn't have been able to stand that, especially because Hayley and Rebekah didn't like her, and knowing the personalities of the other siblings they wouldn't be fans of her either.

If somehow that wasn't enough, when Hayley told him she understood what he was going through after losing Cami, Klaus snapped and literally called Camille his true connection, comparing her to Elijah. The quote is literally "you want to commiserate with me, Hayley, but our experiences of grief are not the same. Your husband is dead. It hurts, but we both know the person you share a true connection with is still breathing. So you and I are not the same."

He compared Cami, who was very dead at that moment with Elijah, the man Hayley loved romantically the most. So if that isn't enough proof Klaus loved Cami the most of all his love interests, then I don't know what it is. And he literally sacrificed himself for Cami in s2 when Mikael attacked them. He didn't know the stake wasn't gonna work and that he would come back, so yeah.

I love Klaus, I don't like Caroline but still. Their characters are good, but not meant to be in a relationship. Klaus always put his family first, a family that hated Caroline; so if he had to chose and he would have to eventually, he would, without a doubt, chose his family over her.

So anyway, yes. I love talking shit about klaroline, one of my favorite hobbies.

#klaus mikaelson #caroline forbes #anti klaroline #hayley marshall #camille o'connell #elijah mikaelson #haylijah #the originals #the vampire diaries #tvd #to #niklaus mikaelson #klamille

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actuallyastingray · 2 months

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Whelp, this didn't take long to finish. Time to round out my Supa Strikas takes with some much beloved side characters.

Nandi: Best. Sister. Ever. Rookie Season 2 needs to have her bonding with the other Strikas and embarrassing Shakes in front of them

Spenza: Elementary, my dear Shakes

Supa Fran: How every writer sees themselves while making contributions to the fandom. Come to think of it, she has pretty much every single tic most fandom writers claim so she should be totally relatable

Jean-Pierre: I know he's a giant a-hole to the team, but as someone who loves baking but is surrounded by Weight Watchers killjoys, I just have to sympathize with this man

Mrs. Altivo: Marc Zuckerburg's wine aunt

Spike Dawson: Is he a Joker or a Jigsaw parody? Also, why does Klaus not loathe this guy for hoarding strudel?

El Ariette: GIT OFF HIS LAWN

Ursula: I get the feeling she's always two seconds away from shanking someone

Ginerva: I don't care if she didn't say anything more than three consecutive words in the show. Her accent is amazing.

Skarra's Niece: I put her in the pile with Morgan Stark, in that she was present for 5 minutes of screen time, has basically no lines, and yet the fandom collectively goes gaga over her for literally no reason. Seriously, if I wanted Kids Who Say The Darndest Things, I'd go on TikTok.

Xing: See earlier take on Riano. I will not forgive Moonbug for not having her come back as a consultant for Sa Ming and giving her the character depth she deserves

Hack: See previous takes on Xing and Riano. The least they could have done was make him part of Spenza and Supa Fran's entourage in the later seasons

Attak: See previous... you know what, I'm not gonna continue like this. Just assume I hate Moonbug for conjuring up characters with great potential and then throwing them away after one episode

Kat/Foxy: The biggest mystery is how a guy like Skarra kept a lady like this in good standing long enough to call in a favor

Nanny Garcia: Can we get an episode where someone makes El Matador cry, and she shows up and beats the snot out of them with her carpet slippers? I really want authentic, angry, Abelita energy out of her.

And so ends my Supablr takes series (assuming Rookie Season or the main series doesn't continue). Fortunately, I have plenty more Supablr content waiting in the wings. Stay tuned.

#supa strikas #personal take #supablr

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simplegenius042 · 4 months

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What's at your OC's core? Quiz

Tagged by @socially-awkward-skeleton

Tagging @shallow-gravy @strangefable @strafethesesinners @direwombat @derelictheretic @voidika @onehornedbeast @josephslittledeputy @g0dspeeed @carlosoliveiraa @cassietrn @chazz-anova @ladyoriza @adelaidedrubman @deputyash @purplehairsecretlair @corvosattano @ec-10 @inafieldofdaisies @minilev @nightbloodbix @neverthesameneveranother @vampireninjabunnies-blog @wrathfulrook @thewanderer-000 @a-rose-in-a-garden-of-weeds @snake-in-the-garden @henbased and @fourlittleseedlings + anyone else who wants to join.

You can find the quiz here. Results below.

Joaquin Cobalt (The UnTitledverse)

Honestly this describes Joaquin's core character almost perfectly. Due to being classified as a Balancer, the multiverse unfortunately revolves around him, even when he'd rather it not. Though his status of "supposed to be non-existent" also means the multiverse is trying to "correct" its mistake and get rid of him. Joaquin doesn't even know he's running from his past opposition as he didn't think he had much of a past to begin with, so yeah, he is at a disadvantage. Though there's nothing here about his protection over his friend nor his lack of mercy over his enemies, which is slightly disappointing.

Silva Omar (Far Cry The Silver Chronicles)

Geez... this result actually holds a lot more merit to it than I expected. Silva is a mentor in a way, and becomes a more personal one to Azriel and Mercy. Her whole arc is about whether she'll continue her brutality and black-and-white view on the world or soften up and find the grey in the middle, understand it better. Show some mercy to those who deserve it. There's also the "reincarnation" thing... becoming smarter and quicker as each life resets. In a way that's how the Third Eye works... while Silva doesn't entirely know it, in each world she is "reborn" in, her Third Eye installs subconscious memories of her past lives to make her instincts quicker.

Haoyu Anabuki (Life, Despair & Monsters)

The problem with Haoyu is that they were solely focused on finding their long-lost half-sister they only focus on that one goal and ignore everything else. Well... at least they try to, but the guilt of not helping others when they have the power to do so pushes them to go on ahead and do just that. Haoyu has seen so much general and cosmic horror for someone who really should be in, like, university at that point.

Marissa "Ress" Bishop (A Radioactive Calamity of Love, Bombs & Gore, a Fallout fanfic series)

It's not that Ress isn't genuine in her emotions. Not at all... in fact that's mostly thanks to her half-human side. However, she has extreme difficulty with understanding emotions and extending that kind of support to others. She's also extremely powerful thanks to the magic on her non-human side. It also sucks that the first people she connected with (Amata and the Lone Wanderer) were the first people she cared for that died. She closes herself off to other companions, and becomes more distant with each new loss (her brother, mother, Charon, Raul, Christine, etc) . Eventually by the events of Fallout 4 she comes across as a bit of an asshole, and thinks every negative thing about herself is well deserved.

Crawford Klaus (The UnTitledverse and Far Cry The Silver Chronicles)

A self-absorbed and careless pharmaceutical tycoon, Crawford would sell out anyone just to save his own skin and keep the status quo of him in power at peace. Even if it means drugging a British town stuck in a 1940s mindset and might be a cult, to test out knew strains of medicine and whatnot even if those people die in the process. Alexander Khaos hates this man with a burning passion, and is regretful he didn't kill the dick when he had the chance. How pleasantly unfortunate that Mr. Klaus gets the attention of the ICA and the ire of the infamous hitmen; Agent 47 and "the Cleaner" aka Albert Paczkowski.

#the untitledverse #oc: joaquin cobalt #far cry the silver chronicles #oc: silva omar #life despair & monsters #oc: haoyu anabuki #a radioactive calamity of love bombs & gore #fallout oc #oc: marissa “ress” bishop #oc: crawford klaus #oc quiz

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andreal831 · 6 months

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Is Elijah actually a feminist? Because he said so but his actions..

Elijah Mikaelson is what we would call a "second wave feminist" or a "white feminist." While I don't necessarily subscribe to the ideas of "waves" of feminism, I think it simplifies it enough for this discourse.

Elijah is a feminist in the most basic sense of the term, in the way he believes women can be equal to men and encourages it. However, he does not actively work to dismantle the patriarchy. He is one of those cases where he likely was progressive at one point, however, society has long since progressed past him.

Dealing with the basic understanding of feminism which is basically just believing women can be equal to men, sure Elijah is a feminist. Elijah has always admired strong, independent women, even in societies where that would not be the norm.

I know some people argue that he is not because of his treatment of Katherine, but I would disagree with that. While I do not like that he was willing to sacrifice a young woman for his brother, it wasn't based on her being a woman. You can argue that he should have offered her more protection at that time because of the power dynamic between them, but again, most of the power dynamic came from Katerina being human. It would have played out similarly if the doppelgangers had been men.

I would also add that he seems to be the only one who supports Rebekah's dreams throughout the show and doesn't make sexist comments about her love life. (I'm looking at Kol and Klaus)

By the 21st Century, when the show takes place, thinking women should be able to learn to defend themselves and be equal to men is not enough. He says he is a devout feminist and then follows it up with a decidedly sexist comment. While I do understand this is the joke, it is still a thought he had and then said aloud while acknowledging it is sexist. I believe this is the only blatantly sexist comment he's made, but correct me if I'm wrong.

I wouldn't consider any of the men in this show to be true feminists for modern times. I don't think the writers even understand what that means.

This current wave of feminism focuses on intersectionality and the deconstruction of the hierarchy that has served to oppress women, the patriarchy. The quote from Enola Holmes really sums it up for me.

Elijah, and the rest of the vampires in the show, have the time, money, power, and privilege to affect real change in society, however, none of them do. Instead, they rather throw parties and blow their money, letting life around them happen. Because why change a system that is working for you?

I wouldn't expect any character in the show to understand intersectionality as the writers of the show often express classist and racist ideas/stereotypes. We see Elijah with a woman of color on a plantation that we know people are being enslaved on. Again, all of these vampires lived through times of slavery and none of them lifted a finger to try and end a system of oppression.

So it is not surprising that none of the men in the show lift a finger to help women's rights. We hear Rebekah mention it, but it is quickly followed up by a sexist comment. This is a theme throughout the show with the female characters, they are often judgemental and cruel to each other using terms that are definitely not feminist. But I digress.

Elijah seems to subscribe to the idea of feminism that if a woman can do what a man can do, she should be able to climb to the top of the patriarchy. As we now know, this is not enough. Letting women get involved in the patriarchy doesn't solve anything. It is a system that oppresses all people and needs to be dismantled rather than allowing women to join it.

We see Elijah throughout the show respect many different types of women which shows his ability to grow as a feminist. However, again, his lack of a deeper understanding of how race, class, privilege, etc. play roles in feminism continued to hinder him. We mostly see this in Elijah's more classist view of the world. Elijah is known for being condescending to others, although I do feel like it was mostly reserved for men.

I believe Elijah would be accepting of the LGBTQ+ community but that could just be head-canon.

So while Elijah doesn't do too much that is blatantly sexist, I would not classify him as a feminist by today's standards. I think he would be willing to learn if there was a character in the show that could actually educate anyone on feminism. But first, someone needs to educate the writers. (Which is a plug for my fic because, don't worry, Astra will not let that stand)

#elijah mikealson #feminism #as a devout feminist #tvdu #the originals #tvd #the mikaelsons #the vampire diaries #anon ask

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allisoooon · 2 years

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Do u think there is a problem with white favoritism in the fandom

Yes, the fandom does have a white favoritism problem. All fandoms have a white favoritism problem. The world has a white favoritism problem. It’s kind of been a thing. I mean, there’s a reason most comfort characters take the form of skinny white boys, and that’s pretty much it.

Regarding how this fandom in particular is, it's definitely not the worst fandom I've been in for this, but it still has its problems. I recently talked about how I wasn’t sure why Allison almost dying wasn’t enough of a reason for strong measures to be taken to keep people safe from Viktor. I lied. I’m pretty sure the reason it’s not enough of a reason is that Allison is a black woman. If it had been Klaus in her place, people would have seen the complexity of the situation. That's not the only reason people reacted like that--there was a lot of skepticism that Luther would indeed be that protective if it had been anyone but Allison--but I definitely think that's part of it. There's this still-pervasive idea that black women are more pain-tolerant and trauma-resistant.

There’s also this: The world was saved by four people, three of whom were people of color. The person most instrumental in saving the world was an East Asian man. The person most credited by the fandom with saving the world is a skinny white boy who was not even present at the world-saving.

And there’s a massive double standard for behavior. Lila is reviled for doing pretty much the same shit Five and Klaus do. See, when they do it, it’s either funny or heroic. When Lila does it, it’s annoying and psychopathic.

Allison was rude once in s1 and it took some people until s2 to come around to her at all.

None of this is even getting to how the fandom applies racial stereotypes to some of these characters. Ben being desexualized/feminized/infantilized is one I see all over the place.

That is not to say you are racist if your favorite character is white. My favorite character is white, one of the aforementioned skinny white boys no less, so that would be pretty hypocritical. But if you find yourself judging characters of color more than their white counterparts for comparable issues, think about it. Not in an “oh my god I am racist I should never have been born” way, but in a “we all have implicit biases and I’m going to be aware of mine” way. That’s how you think before you speak or act. It’s how you become better, and look at people (and characters) multiple times from multiple perspectives before deciding you know how you feel about them.

#tua meta #the umbrella academy #allison hargreeves #ben hargreeves #lila pitts #diego hargreeves #ask answered #luther hargreeves #klaus hargreeves #five hargreeves #viktor hargreeves #responsible white people shit

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eternal-armin · 1 year

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SO, HOW SHOULD i begin this?

this is the first time i'm going to do a multi-part fic that goes beyond like 2 or 3 parts (rip to the chandelier fic.) bear with me ;;;; but i'm obsessed with everything everywhere and i wanted to do something with the abilities evelyn and joy specifically have. and, of course, the angst that can come from it. looked over this as much as i could but im exhausted so my apologies for any errors ;;;

pairing : five hargreeves x male/transmasc reader [he/him pronouns]

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where : five is instantly intrigued by the eighth sparrow, a kid just like himself, which makes him try to seek him out specifically; nothing better than a second opinion about time from another person who knew its intricacies, right? well, he... may have gotten more than he bargained for.

─────

warnings : future mentions of trauma, fighting and injury (specific mentions of choking), existentialism, reader is just exhausted of life and shit in general, future cheesiness and such because i said so, depression, a whole lot of 'if i can bend reality to my will then how much does it really matter' kind of questioning (later on for the most part.)

the disheartening sight of seven other people—ahem, sorry, and one very confusing cube—was made endlessly puzzling by the appearance of a kid behind them. someone who looked five's age. physically, anyway. they both seemed equally entranced by the other; the kid's eyes were wide, his lips slightly parted, as if seeing someone he had been missing for decades. he furrowed his brow a bit, cocking his head, and klaus found himself peering where five glared.

"well, would you look at that? they've got a little brother, too!"

"zip it, klaus," he hissed, though with a certain degree of gentleness in his voice, even excluding the volume he had to use. looking back at the balcony, he was wearing more casual clothes with a sort of... varsity jacket of the sparrow academy's traditional colors and emblems. he was a sparrow, meaning he was born in 1989, meaning he was around thirty years old. so why did he look thirteen? it clicked then, suddenly; his power could have something to do with time. five felt instantly that he needed to speak with him. and if it needed to be done by force, then...

hands crossed neatly over his lap, barely restraining that very obvious agitation, ben chimed in with, "dad, who the hell are these assholes?"

a chorus of "shit" rang out amongst the umbrellas. five stared at him with the same amount of emotion as usual, mostly overrun by confusion, however his sentimentalities ended there. that balcony, barely a few yards from where five stood, held something—someone, rather—that could be an answer to his predicament. or at least help figure out if he could retire or not. if this world was safe enough to stay in. there was a whole host of colorful characters. if he was the sparrows' number eight, what exactly inspired reginald to adopt him as well? or was it just sort of a convenience thing?

luther stepped forward along with klaus. "is that really you?"

no amusement struck ben. if anything, he somehow managed to look more annoyed.

"and who are the weirdos on the balcony!"

"they are the sparrows. my children." reginald's controlled, vaguely irritated voice was such a contrast to diego's harsh tone.

much to five's chagrin this moment was a bit more important than staring at a boy. he turned on his heel, narrowing his eyes at the old man. "i'm sorry, what do you mean your children? that's not possible, old man."

"of course it is! i think i'd know, wouldn't i?"

well. something was very wrong, wasn't it?

the sound of footsteps and shuffling caught his attention and yet again he looked back forward; all of the sparrows once situated haphazardly on the balcony now stood across the tile threshold. the kid was shorter than he expected, in all honesty, and he seemed to be the least serious out of all his siblings—not to say that he looked like he was having fun or that he was laughing, but that he didn't want to fight. he looked like he would avoid it at every cost.

"everyone else can see ben, right?"

"cute hat, sundance."

"they call themselves the umbrella academy," reginald interrupted, "a group of scheming, perfidious malcontents who accosted me in the fall of '63 when i was away on business in dallas. be warned—they claim to be my spawn." all throughout reginald's little schpiel, five and the other kid maintained eye contact, five puzzled at his existence and him puzzled by five's puzzlement. he seemed to find it weird but, oddly enough, he didn't seem weirded out specifically. occasionally five would glance about the rest of the sparrows, gauge them if he could, and when that happened he would sometimes catch the barest glimpse of the kid looking at two of his sisters with confusion.

should i be worried? he was probably thinking to himself.

with five on his opposition? absolutely.

"claim? look, five, what the hell is going on?" allison sounded like she was moments away from boiling over.

"not sure yet, but it's concerning."

"is he telling the truth?" seeming to sense the steadily-rising tensions, the kid started, very slowly, to back away, retreating to the furthest reaches of the carpet before the battle had even begun.

"not the part about us being perfidious." vanya seemed to kind of placate that cowardice in him. maybe he even smiled at vanya.

"no! no, we're amateur-fidious, at best!"

"but we are his children, this is our house."

"yeah, we grew up here."

"yeah, yeah, we grew up here," alphonso mocked, getting a snicker from jayme, however the kid just shot them both a slightly judgmental look.

"i kind of think we would've noticed you," sloane said, to which luther stated his name and offered out his hand. sloane did not accept, really she didn't do a thing, and some whispers broke out amongst her and her little brother, whispers that five couldn't make out.

"okay. none of you belong here."

"oh! well, then. i guess we'll just pack our bags and move out."

christopher babbled and chittered, milking chuckles from his brothers and sisters. five had to say he looked way better smiling than frowning, though he figured it would probably be the same for anyone.

grace came in to the living room, heels click-click-clicking, holding a plate of cookies in her hand and apologizing that she couldn't do better. five couldn't catch the precise details. it was just kind of nice to see her again, even if she was certainly in need of a... few repairs.

"mom." diego's sentimental mumble caught some of the sparrows off-guard. the kid included.

"she's a robot, you perv."

"it's not a robot."

"don't call him that!"

"or what?" ben challenged.

"come closer and find out." bickering broke out between the two families, vanya and marcus actively trying to keep everyone's heads on straight, and five may have lost track of the conversation. until ben threw the first punch, anyway. he ducked back, watching as luther next was flung like a ragdoll across the room, landing on and breaking the poor couch. he saw the boy duck out and wanted to chase but first kept his loyalties, attacking ben and getting lost in a flurry of sharp punches and occasionally-failed dodges.

"you're alive. that's—great, or possibly horrible, i haven't decided yet."

"is that some weird kind of smack talk?"

"it's more of an existential problem, really, ben."

"awesome. well, here's your next problem." with his arms extending back and torso leaning forward, a grimy tentacle quickly burst from his chest, though not fast enough to stop five before he blinked away and onto the balcony.

"y'know, even though you're a total asshat now," five began, rudely cut off by another attack which he yet again evaded with ease. it was easier to land a punch and he watched as ben crashed into the ground. "it's nice to see you again. really." after seeing a particularly disturbing scene between diego and the cube, he stepped in to save allison from a few of the other sparrows, yet again finding himself on the second-floor balcony.

"thanks," allison managed through uneven breaths.

"no problem." both standing up, both dusting themselves off, they saw someone rounding the corner. it was him. still, that look of passive pacifism remained, now somewhat stoic in nature; he didn't want to fight, but he may need to. he was resigning himself to that fact and five could see it in his setting expression. and most importantly, there was also endless loyalty. oh, well.

five furrowed his brow, readjusting his jacket. "go help the others. i'll handle this one."

his new opponent almost seemed to space out, eyes narrowing just a bit as if being flooded by tons of new information. with grace and precision, and certainly speed, he set into a defensive stance. five blinked behind him to try for an attack and it was blocked. he continued to block, evade, block, evade, as fast as five tried to attack. the only sounds he made for a while were little grunts.

every failed punch and every successful block was adding to five's aggravation and his exasperation.

"y'know, five," he said, and hearing him speak for the first time startled five terribly, "delores wouldn't like you fighting like this! i'm not doing anything to you!" that shocked him so bad he misfired a punch but it landed for the first time because of how he went to dodge. he was weaker than five first surmised, falling onto the ground, and five continued to strike him back down until he was pinned and unable to move. he looked enraged, face twisted, eyes wide, teeth bared and gritted, glaring daggers at the kid, who looked to be in quite a bit of pain.

"how do you know my name?!" he barked. "how do you know her name?!" five got no answer and that was endlessly more irritating. the kid slammed his hand onto the ground and grabbed the first thing he could, a small piece of rubble, but five watched as, in those few fractions of seconds, that small piece of debris turned into a metal candlestick.

a metal candlestick.

the moment five saw that, he teleported, reappearing just a few feet away. he pushed off his total confusion; no time. the kid kept the candlestick in his hand when he fumbled to stand, not getting even a moment before five tackled him into a headlock. he didn't think twice about the look of pain on the kid's face because that wasn't exactly imperative and he didn't hesitate at the sounds he made.

the kid raised the candlestick again and five watched in subtle horror as it flitted between many different forms, each punctuated by a small sound and a bit of light. he only recognized a few of those hundred forms before he saw it land, like a wheel of fortune, on a knife and he plunged it down. five jerked out of the way of the blade. even though he had once been so hesitant to fight, so afraid of hurting other people, he seemed finally able to push that away and actually defend himself. he may not have been particularly strong, but he was swift and flexible while wrenching himself out of five's grip and adept at landing hits that would still make five flinch and pause. the kid blocked a punch and the moment that they came in contact with each other, the world around them... changed.

from the slightly destroyed upper floor of the academy house, it became an office building, papers flying about while people panicked about the violent fight between the aisles of cubicles. in that moment of confusion, he landed a hit on five, right in the gut. after a pained second, eyes squeezed tight, he grit his teeth and kept fighting.

the office building had become a high-rise skyscraper that they were fighting on the edge of.

another punch and they were on the deck of a cruise ship.

another block and they were in a spanning parking garage. the kid advanced and forced five to back up, closer to the edge of the space, and certainly to a painful fall. he continued to evade every attempted hit, no matter how five had calculated them, before pouncing on him and shoving him right out of the concrete monolith, plummeting down toward the ground along with him.

"how the hell are you doing this?!" five shouted, voice swallowed up by the shouting winds. he grabbed his shirt, bunching up his collar tight enough to cut off his breathing. the panic in his eyes welled up very quick.

and then they were back. instead of hitting the hard pavement ground, five lost all the air in his lungs when he thudded onto the carpeted academy floor, gasping for a second as the kid scrambled away from him, coughing and wheezing.

five hadn't even strangled him for that long, what the hell?

five forced himself to sit, to stand, shooting the glare to end all glares at the boy across from him—however he didn't attack yet. after all the disorientation he felt from those few... transitions, he wanted to keel over and vomit. he was in no condition to fight. luckily, however, neither was his opponent.

killing the kid would not get five his answers, no matter how badly he wanted to do it.

the kid was on the ground, propping himself up on one of his hands, his entire body seeming wracked by pained, nauseated tremors. he looked to be heaving, expression conflicted, exhausted beyond exhausted. he held his head the way one would when suffering from a bad headache.

his question went unanswered, which just served to annoy five further. "are you a time traveler or something? no. a multiversal traveler? do you work with the commission? that's the only possibility i can think of." knowing about delores, knowing about his name, certainly knowing his past, instantly transporting both of them to different places, it could all connect to multiversal travel.

but that spacing out part, before he could dodge like some highly trained professional, and that debris-to-candlestick-to-knife part? those still kind of puzzled him.

the kid wrinkled his nose. "that's the only possibility? you've got a narrow range." for someone who sounded so pained and exhausted, he could manage some mouthiness. somehow he sounded more genuine than sarcastic, though. strange. what about him wasn't?

five's eye twitched and his lips pressed hard into a scowl. "a narrow range? a narrow range? my 'range' isn't narrow! i've seen so many possibilities unfold! do you even know what i had to do to get here?" his words hissed with pure venom. that didn't faze his opponent, even whilst he jabbed an accusatory finger at him, as though somehow this was his fault.

"i do, actually," he managed, although still short of breath. "you got trapped in the apocalypse for a few decades, offered a deal from the commission, broke your contract with them and became a fugitive, got back to your family, and have been trying to evade apocalypses ever since. third time's the charm, right, five?" he recounted it all with the cadence and sensitivity of a history teacher summarizing an important, yet complicated, period of time.

"how could you possibly know—stop calling me that! how are you able to do any of this!"

"i'm not gonna stop calling you by your name." he laughed through his words. he laughed.

"is my exasperation funny to you?"

"i-i mean, kinda! do you know how many ways i've seen this conversation going?" five stilled like a statue. "this was the most common outcome. well, uhm, aside from you just killing me. it's just a little funny how you always react the same way." he shrugged a bit, as though this was simply some high school gossip, and not (one of) the most puzzling thing that five had ever been exposed to.

"look," five began, trying to steady himself. "if you don't tell me how you know about me—how you know about delores—this will become a timeline where i kill you. okay? capiche?"

he raised his hands in surrender. they shook. "capiche, five."

"stop. calling me that."

"to even the playing field, i'm [y/n]. there." he sat forward, resting his elbows on his knees, checking his hands. yet again he seemed to space out, just for a moment this time, before going through a grounding technique. he looked determined now, not as tired as before, though it did remain rather clearly in his eyes. [y/n] was just a kid again. he looked like a pathetic, sick kitten. "it's my power. i was born like this. you travel through space and time, i travel through reality. all of reality. alternate universes, as you know them. close by, far away, ones almost exactly the same and some with very distinctive evolutionary branches. the further away the world, the... stranger they get. i can see literally any possibility. so i—i fucking know you, five. i know you. i know your brothers and your sister and your in-laws and your niece and every other niece or nephew you could've had. there are so, so many worlds where i was an umbrella, or your friend, or stuck with you in the apocalypse, or... something like that. that's how i know you, and know delores. i was there."

sister, singular?

fuck, why was that his first take-away?

five narrowed his eyes slightly. "you can see every alternate universe," he said, slowly, as if clarifying something to [y/n] when he really needed the clarification for himself.

he nodded. "use them, too."

"use...?"

[y/n] broke into a little smile. his answer remained unknown because their restrained conversation was interrupted by one of [y/n]'s sisters. just one glance and his smile disappeared, staring at five with now-widened eyes, mouthing something along the lines of 'get the fuck out.'

five didn't need to be told twice. a flit of light and he had disappeared to who-the-hell-knows-where.

"who the hell was that creep," jayme mumbled, watching as [y/n] stumbled to his feet and dusted himself off. she grabbed him by the scruff of his jacket out of instinct to make sure he didn't fall over.

"uh... someone pretty interesting," [y/n] said, staring at where he'd once been, the flash of bright light still burned into his eyes. he wanted to find him. maybe needed to find him. probably because something in the world was very wrong, even if no other timeline had figured it out yet.

if any of the umbrellas knew where to hide out, it would probably be klaus, right? simple solution. kind of. as long as he could sneak out undetected by his siblings.

a good bit of time had passed when you finally had the chance to scope out the hotel obsidian. you had changed into something more casual and lowkey, sunglasses now balanced atop your nose and a nice light scarf about your neck. music played over your headphones and you wandered inside of the place, stricken with the sight of heavy art deco. it was rather nice, actually, when you took the time to appreciate it. then again, your mind was rather preoccupied with what was probably a very big deal. on the other side of the lobby, in the little bar and lounge area, you could spot a few of the hargreeves siblings. most notably five, now wearing a white bathrobe. soon his eyes glanced to you and you could feel his gaze sharpen. he looked back at his brothers and excused himself, stepping off the stool and teleporting to you before his feet hit the ground.

"what are you doing here," he hissed through gritted teeth.

"i mean, our conversation got cut off earlier. seemed right to continue it, y'know?"

five looked back at his brothers and then at you once more. klaus was staring after him but you didn't know if he recognized you; luther and diego were still totally enraptured in their chinese food.

the look on five's face told you a whole lot; it was critical to him to talk with you, figure things out, because he guessed—and guessed right—that you weren't just here to politely finish a conversation. something weird was going on, whether he wanted to know or not. "alright. okay. fine. just," he grasped your shoulder after a second and then you were both gone, reappearing instantaneously in a room you assumed to be five's. small cot in the corner, bunk bed opposite, and a couch.

god, you wanted to throw up. you clutched your stomach, squeezing your eyes shut for a minute.

he crossed his arms and looked at you. "so where exactly did we leave off?"

you paused to scrub your mind, trying to recall. a few blinks broke the few seconds of spacing out. usually you weren't this forgetful, but, uh, today was an interesting one. "i said i can use those universes and that confused you. and then jayme came around and i told you to leave."

"right," five muttered. "what exactly did you mean by that?"

"well, obviously i can use them for information." your voice was somewhat soft, actually, which was mighty strange to him.

"hmph. how could i forget." five's flat voice was thick with sarcasm.

you managed a smile. "but i can also use them for skills and stuff. the dodging, earlier; i can't really do that here. there's a world where i star in fighting movies and stuff, where i'm good at dodging and i'm fast and flexible, and i can... link my mind, i guess, and use those skills. and the... the candlestick. knife. thing. i can change things to whatever another me is holding. i can change my clothes. i can change reality."

"so, in essence, your mind is able to find every other instance of you across time and space and access them? and... communicate with them, i suppose, in some way or another."

you shrugged a bit. "about explains it. but the—... can i ask you something?" you suddenly sounded sheepish, hesitant, like you were constantly rethinking what you were about to say. five furrowed his brow, a little surprised to see that look on your face, and he really didn't like it.

"depends on what that something is," he responded, speaking cautiously.

you found yourself spacing out again, but this time not to access some alternate plane of existence. every other universe had its own noise, and every other universe was persistently audible; that loud buzz was starting to give you yet another headache. it was probably possible to overdose on tylenol, right? suddenly that constant look of exhaustion on your face was even more obvious to five. for a moment, he seemed almost sympathetic to that. he could certainly understand it, at the very least. "you've got about twenty-eight years of experience on me," you began, forcing your voice to be steady. "do you have any clue how to deal with the, uhm, existential part of it all?" lightheartedness seemed to be a skill of yours. five could respect it.

you doubted, sincerely doubted, that there could be anything in the world to help you from the persistent noise. or from the pain and exhaustion of swatting from world to world to world in the span of thirty seconds during a fight. it was a wonder you were still walking.

"why should i help you with that, exactly? your family tried to kill mine."

"i didn't try to kill anyone. i hid upstairs the entire time. well, uh, almost the entire time. i can be an ally to you guys. i'd... prefer to be allied with you guys." if anyone else in the world knew about the ins and outs of the umbrella academy, five had no doubt in his mind that it would be you and your presumably-torturous ability. it would probably be a smart idea on their side as well, to ally with you.

"before i agree to help you at all, how can i be sure your family isn't using you as some sort of... puppet? some sort of inside man?"

you shrugged a bit after a second. "i wouldn't be a very good choice."

"seriously? do you think i'm stupid or something?"

you crossed your arms, looking at him with narrowed eyes. "no. i know you aren't stupid. and i'm pretty sure that your first choice wouldn't be a 'weak thirteen-year-old kid with a power that cripples him with headaches and exhaustion whenever he uses it,' either. not to mention that said kid can't hear what's going on sometimes because of literally every other sound in the expansive multiverse." the words were sarcastic but the tone was very genuine, almost excruciatingly so.

"i have... so many more questions now."

you shrugged a bit. "i can answer some of them, i guess." considering that you knew almost all the ins and outs of his life, it seemed only fair to share some of yours. you were too tired to steer the conversation back to why you had came. perhaps you'd already forgotten it.

"why exactly are you thirteen? you were born in 1989, you had to be."

"... i chose to stay this age."

"how can you just choose to stay that age?" exasperation met with confusion in a very strange voice of five's. even after all he'd gone through and learned, you were just springing question marks all over the place. god damnit.

"i can manipulate almost every aspect of reality, five," you said, softly, in response. "it's not out of the realm of possibility to stay thirteen. not for me."

five nodded slightly after a second. that nod steadily turned into a shake of his head. "jesus—i should've grabbed some coffee." he pinched the bridge of his nose, shaking his head. "just give me a second."

"oh. uh, no need." glancing about the room, there was a small corner table, atop it an ice bucket and some plastic cups for water. he watched, for some reason a bit puzzled, as you placed your hands on it. spaced out. and it flitted to a fresh coffee pot and a mug. they seemed like something from a diner.

well, that would make sense, wouldn't it?

you poured him a cup and handed it, still steaming, over to him.

five scowled a bit, staring down at the filled mug, before his sharp gaze landed on you again.

"it's just coffee, five. it's not poisoned or anything. here." you plucked it back out of his grasp and took a sip, waited a few seconds, and handed it back. "see? you're fine."

after a second, he nodded. "right." he didn't find himself bothered by drinking from the same mug you had. he'd done a lot worse things, hadn't he?

"so... what were those other questions?"

after taking a few healthy swigs, he cleared his throat. "your ability—it really taxes you? even after all these years?" five would never admit it, but the coffee was pretty goddamn good. whatever diner your alternate-self worked in was worth a visit, if it existed in this world. "is that why you were shaking and panting so much earlier?"

you felt a bit embarrassed. "yeah," you mumbled. "i trained with it a lot, but, i wasn't very strong to begin with." you sat down carefully on the sofa, pulling a bottle of painkillers from your coat pocket.

"when's the last time you had a dose?" five asked, mug to his lips, shooting you a side-eye.

"... maybe three hours ago. why?"

he clicked his tongue and shook his head, plucking the bottle out of your hands. "not now, then."

"dude! what the hell! i-i need those!"

"well, i can't keep asking questions to someone sick from taking too much tylenol. and you can wait three hours."

you groaned but didn't complain, just settling back against the comfortable cushions. "fine. i'll wait." and you mumbled 'you're just like sloane' under your breath.

"good," he mumbled, sitting down beside you after tossing the pills onto his bed. "you said you could hear every sound in the multiverse. something tells me that isn't a hyperbole."

you nodded a bit and slouched down, trying to figure out a decent analogy. "when you remove a door from its threshold, you can always hear what's on the other side, unless you actively tune it out. just, for me, there were never doors. it was always like this. every single feasible universe is out there, fighting for my attention, almost every waking moment." you recounted with a deep sort of mourning. five couldn't blame you, he supposed. you had been robbed of silence, of pure solitude, of privacy. his heart almost ached for you.

had you been born with the doors off their frames? he wanted to ask, he really wanted to ask, but it was probably going to be way too... private of a thing. personal. from what he could tell.

"and i thought wrangling that crowd of toddlers was bad. i can't imagine hearing everything they do, everywhere, constantly," he mused.

you cracked a smile. it had been a while since you were able to joke around with someone, even if that someone had interrogated you like a police investigator. "oh, it's the worst," you giggled, and he laughed along. "i mean, it's bad enough knowing what your brothers do into their socks, it's even worse to walk in on them over, like, over two thousand times."

"i've known you for a very short period of time, but something tells me that's the worst thing you've ever said."

for someone in a very persistent and terrible bout of pain, your laugh, and your smile, were incredibly bright. five couldn't really say that he was expecting this when first appearing in the umbre—ahem. in the sparrow academy building, but he wasn't exactly complaining. this could be nice. he really hoped it would be, anyway.

silence fell on you two for a while. the overbearing static was starting to edge back in now that you had nothing more to say. the pain was ebbing.

"... something's wrong." you sounded deadly serious, it was horrifying.

"s—sorry?" five felt like he had whiplash after such an extreme diversion from the topic.

you seemed to be fighting that urge to space out a whole lot more. this was important, you needed to stay on track, and yet your stress was doing exactly the opposite of tunnel vision. shit.

five noticed; and he kind of needed you to talk, as fast as possible, so reached out and pinched your neck, successfully getting you to tense and wake up, in some sense of the words. offense was replaced with gratitude in your eyes. "i don't know exactly what. no other universe has figured it out. but you aren't supposed to be here, this isn't your timeline, that's—a very big problem. it could potentially 'rip a hole in space and time.'" five muttered along with you, cussing and hanging his head.

"why didn't you say this first?" he hissed.

"i'm sorry!" you sounded very genuine and he felt rather bad. "i-i—the interrogation and then the pain and then the... getting along with you, i forgot." it was another world, some utterance of 'not normal yet' that brought the thought back to you.

your voice was cracking. you felt far worse than five could ever make you feel.

"... it's fine. it's fine."

"it very much isn't. you know that."

five knew it all too well. he groaned, pinched the bridge of his nose, and downed the rest of his coffee. "fantastic."

"i mean, it may be a problem we can solve." you shot him a smile, a tired and weak little thing, but it did comfort him a bit.

"the universe will really mind if seven dumbasses stick around?" his humor had soured, but it was still there. you felt very guilty, unable to look him in his eyes, shoulders slouched as if defeated in some great thing.

"she's a stickler for rules."

"hmph." he scowled a full-face scowl. "no retirement yet, i guess."

out of all the things you could ever have seen, heard, felt, and known, one thing seemed... important. emotionally, anyway. "if it's, uhm, any consolation... retirement did look good on you, by the way."

he couldn't help but smile a bit. somewhere out there was a world where you and five were friends well into his retirement, be that at his confusing age or his chronological age from 1989, where he was happily retired with no time-threatening anomalous issues to draw him out. even if he was bound to die in this timeline, there was some comfort in knowing many other timelines saw him content. "i'll take your word for it."

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hoperays-song · 7 months

Note

While Sing 3 is still developing can you think of the 5 things you want to see in that movie and the 5 thing you don’t wanted?

Thank you so much for the ask and I'm sorry for the delay in answering. I hope you enjoy and this properly answers your question! - <3 Gooseless

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Ok so, I'm personally a bit of a skeptic on if Sing 3 will come out soon (or ever at this point) due to the strikes likely halting all work on it. And obviously, if they worked through the strikes, I will not be supporting the movie in the slightest due to my pure hatred of crossing picket lines for no good reason and AI being used as studios want it to be. However, I do have serval things I do want to see if/when it comes out and a ton of stuff I don't.

Things I want to see (Please Illumination, Please):

Rynny being confirmed. That should surprise none of you. This blog was started as, and still primarily is, as Rynny ship blog. I love those two so much together and I feel like it would complete Johnny's queer allegory storyline very well (ie. familial acceptance, wider community acceptance, personal acceptance by allowing yourself to be yourself). My mutual have been spammed with numerous songs that I have choreographed duets to for these two already and I would just absolutely love to see it.

Noodlemoon being confirmed. I am very vocally a Noodlemoon truther and I adore those two together. Buster's chaos to Eddie's chill would work so well and it makes the most sense for me when it comes to potential partners for either of them.

More scenes of the troupe being a family. They act like a family already and I love the snippets we see, but I would love to see more of their group dynamic. Like Mrs. Crawly is essentially Johnny's grandma at this point, Rosita being the troupe mom, Gunter being a chaotic uncle.

The gang being a family. These boys are my absolute favourite characters. They're adorable together already but I really want Johnny to call Stan and Barry his uncles. Or have Marcus refer to Nooshy as Johnny's sister (feel like that one could be slipped in easily). Marcus is an amazingly good dad to Johnny after the whole disownment thing was patched up and it's clear that whatever mandated therapy they went to is working wonders so I want more scenes of them together (and hopefully Johnny doing more questionable things, like please, let the boy pick a lock).

Gunter getting a conflict. Now, I'm not saying drag Gunter through personal hell. He has done that enough in shorts. But he hasn't faced a personal conflict in any movie yet and is the only troupe member to not do so. I think it's about time we get more of an insight into his character and I think this would be an amazing opportunity.

Things I Don't Want To See (Please No Illumination, Please No):

I swear, do not kill off Nana, Hobbs, Clay, or Mrs. Crawly. They're the oldest cast members, I know. You want more character development, I know. If you kill any of them off however, I will personally lead the revolt. They are all immortal now.

Bring back Mike. I hate him. Just straight up. He bullies a kid!!! That goes for Klaus too and Jimmy. They are irredeemable villians. You bring them back, I protest in front of your studio offices. They all deliberately hurt people, two of which used abuse of power as well. Just NO.

Create a love triangle? Jail. I hate love triangles. Partially due to it typically actually being a lover corner (two people interested in one person instead of the actual intricacies of a triangle), mainly because it's stupid. It's overplayed, in nearly every film saga it seems, and are always pretty pointless. I just do not like them in the slightest and will cry if I have to sit through one.

Do not put Buster in jail. I know we joke about the amount of felonies that man has committed but at this point, if he goes to jail, the legal system in their universe will be busy for the next century. Also, none of the teens need extra trauma. Just leave them be.

If y'all destroy one of the best queer allegories I have ever seen by giving Johnny a canon female romantic partner, I will start a fucking revolution. I literally study cultures and films and character coding, ok? Like that's my whole field of study. Johnny's story being a queer allegory is so important to me. Not only is it incredably realistic in my opinion (I cry at the disownment scene because something very similar was said to me when I came out), but almost every other queer personI talk to how has watched these movies picked up on the allegory and loves it as well. It's very well written and not subtle in a good way. It's great for starting conversations about LGBTQIA+ characters in media. ...Also, he's apparently based on Elton John according to my friend that has the character book, and I'm pretty sure Elton John would be pissed if you fucked that up.

Though, I feel like I should make a disclaimer here. My first few fandoms that I was raised in have taught me how to be an expert at ignoring canon (special shout out to Supernatural in particular). Just because it happens in a movie, doesn't mean I'm going to put that in my works. I'm a fanfic writer after all. I write what I want to happen, not necessarily what does happen according to canon.

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chibivesicle · 1 year

Text

The woes of running a secret organization; Steven’s burden and complex partnership with K.K.

It is time for some manga meta for Kekkai Sensen! Yes, we will be delving into manga only content through Back 2 Back and the Calamity Auction arc. Anyone who has been reading my meta since Golden Kamuy means I have a love of certain types of characters and Steven and K.K. really fall into that type.

I’m really interested to delve into Steven first and then K. K. (in a later post) but she’ll be in this one for sure because K. K. is intimately tied to Steven all the time in the manga (and I don’t mean in a sexual sort of way).

My previous Steven meta was only based on the anime for the most part and up through episode 7 of season 2. Which really is more stuff from what should have happened before events of season 1. Yet, I digress. I’ve already put out there that Steven has an immense sadness about him in part with how he’s alone and has been making life choices to keep himself alone.

One should always be concerned if this is how you encounter him in the dead of night.

Steven is the ice cold pragmatist to Klaus’ fire filled idealism. Certainly, one always needs to look for that single flicker of light but Klaus can state this openly since someone else is in the dark corners trying to make sure it happens. That being Steven.

Kekkai Sensen characterization and moral conflict scenes

Early on when Steven and K. K. take on the first named Blood Breed in the 23rd Street Station, K. K. gives him absolute shit for being with such a black hearted man. This implies that K. K. is knowledgeable or bold enough to verbally acknowledge that Steven doesn’t always do things above the board. Which likely means that Klaus has to know this as well on some level. Klaus isn’t naive, he’s more compassionate than most but will still crush you if you are inhumane.

Early on, Steven is set up as the deadpan snarker, with a quick quip or sarcastic comment. He loves his coffee and can get seriously hangry (where is my subway sandwich?) and does a lot of boring paperwork that no one else does.

We learn that in ‘Day In Day Out’ about his swanky condo, sophisticated, educated circle of human friends. Who aren’t really good friends.

It says a lot that he’s got Mrs. Veded as his Beyondian housekeeper with whom he is relaxed and chill with. He even appreciates her roast beef enough to smile softly commenting on it.

We also get to see how his relaxed clothing is a white dress shirt, dark pants and slippers. Not only is he in his own home, but Steven is always on guard when out and about. It took me a few reads of this to notice that the manga showing his slippers indicates that he is safe with her. He’s not wearing his special Esmeralda Blood Freeze shoes.

I am always a sucker for domestic scenes and love the one with him chopping and cooking with Mrs. Veded for his party. The first person to arrive is Ellen with her new boyfriend/male fling/something.

Steven is blushing hardcore as he smiles at first. I think it is pretty clear that they were involved romantically at some point in time previously. This is backed up by the next page. They hug while the other guy is just standing there and Ellen even tells Veded that her tentacles look great which is like your hair looks great. I think. She then finally introduces her date.

That is totally a sort of, yeah here was my past fling current date vibe there. The other guests then start to arrive. Everyone seems to know that Steven is overworked and they joke about helping him to party more.

What is most telling though is when he approaches Veded. We can see that his shoes are his work shoes. If he felt okay with the guests, than he’d perhaps wear non-vampire hunting shoes, but he’s got them on.

He thanks Veded for her help and makes it very very clear that she’s done for the night. Only after she leaves does he get a severe expression and tells himself to get things started.

There are almost two pages of all the guests at the dinner party talking to each other in groups while Steven is - completely absent. We only see him when he volunteers to get beer for a few people who are out from the kitchen. When his back is turned to them, they all draw their bioweapons on him and it becomes awkward as they request that he come with them or else. They lay down their job to capture him as a key member of Libra and he at first tries to jest with them.

His snark is on full force when he thanks them for not killing him violently and destroying his place. But even more so that if they wasted that precious Veded roast beef. If Steven cares about you - he really takes anything related to you seriously. Was that roast beef made with care and attention? Yes, thus, the roast beef is to be protected!

The entire group is frozen by his Needles of Absolute Zero attack and then he proceeds to tell them how they blew it. The manga takes it even further with more examples of his observations of various people. His comment about Ellen’s perfume continues the idea that they had been involved when he tells her, that she was previously worried about it being too strong. You’d have to be up close and personal for someone to worry enough about if your perfume is too strong for them.

They of course think that Steven has Libra do his dirty work but that is not the case, he reveals to them that he’s got his own squad to deal with threats like this - ones that can impact key members of Libra, like himself and eliminate them before they get to the rest of the team. Their job is to maintain balance and Steven will maintain that balance.

Steven is also bold enough to reveal that Klaus wouldn’t condone what is about to happen to them with his personal crew but that being interrogated is not going to be good.

He leaves his subordinate to clean things up while he goes out for fresh air with a look of utter defeat and sadness. The man can’t even have a dinner party without people wanting to kidnap/torture/kill him. Fun times. The fact that he goes out alone and then thinks back to the friends he froze and sent off for intel purposes. That has got to suck on so many levels, but what would you do? Let them kill you? Use you to hurt your friends and colleagues and disrupt that balance?

His entire lambasting of himself for having too much fun and being normal is sad and pathetic in the worst way possible. He can’t have any happiness or friends with his job.

Which is why when Veded stops by to check in on him with the party already being over it is so heart warming. He gets to thank her properly. Technically, his party was a complete failure but she was great. He also is polite and friendly with her kids. How many times do humans in Kekkai Sensen act totally normal with Beyondians besides Leo that we see?

This entire interaction between Steven and Veded’s family and the cat shows that he’s someone who cares about all of the residents of HL and wants to protect all of them. He also gives thanks and means it, not some sort of lip service. Other than Leo, the only other character who has totally normal actions with Beyondians on a regular basis is Klaus, but Klaus is the ultimate example of this. This is also before Zed joined their team so the current Libra line up lacked a full non-human.

Another aspect of Steven that is established very early on in volume 1 is how he will act when someone acts against Libra. In this case, it is when Leo was kidnapped.

He is organizing the entire team to rescue Leo to make it clear that whatever you do, Libra will comeback with way more force to make you suffer. And the rest of the team doesn’t have an issue with this policy, they all follow it and operate with full force to stop the other party. AKA, You hurt someone on my team, I will make you suffer tenfold more.

We also get another example of Steven using any means necessary to acquire information in volume 6 about criminal activity in the city. Including seducing a police officer and stealing a USB drive from her. He clearly left her hot and bothered and is strolling along alone before spotting Klaus. Whatever they were up to, he took of his jacket and tie and unbuttoned his dress shirt and things were getting heated. Until he isn’t and he quickly makes himself presentable for the general public (which in his case is tie and jacket).

He’s cold as he shows him the drive. Klaus didn’t even ask him to tell him about it, and Steven isn’t cocky either.

However, this is really it for the first ten volumes. We know he has his personal squad for dirty but necessary deeds, has definitely used his sex appeal to his advantage and is very protective of those he cares about.

The story continues on with Kekkai Sensen Back 2 Back for another ten volumes.

Kekkai Sensen Back 2 Back increases the stakes for Steven’s actions

We get the return of Steven’s personal clean up squad, who also get some more fleshed out information than just being giant thugs.

The background is made clear, for two weeks, Klaus is traveling around the world for Libra business with Gilbert and K. K. That’s right, Steven’s most frequent partner is out of the country.

We learn that Zapp and Zed are in the hospital after being seriously injured by a foe they barely escaped. This indirectly tells us that someone is out there targeting Libra while Klaus, K.K. and Gilbert are away. This means that Steven is in charge.

Patrick really hammers this home for the reading making it obvious that this was not normal and we get this guy named Garrett introduced. He decides to purchase something crazy dangerous and Patrick is concerned about giving him something so powerful.

But in the end, he heads out (notice the number of deadbolts on that door!).

Of course this random guy named Garrett is immediately drawn in such a way that we are suspicious of him. He looks like he’s just walking calmly away but then we see his face shaded in darkness. He’s got an agenda for sure.

Obvious suspicious character warning 101 right here. He proceeds to go into a diner. A lithe individual with a baseball cap and glasses sits down next to him and does something super fast to connect to the man’s phone. The mysterious team gain critical information and decide it is time to contact “Frost”. I’m sorry Steven, but pick a better code name 9_9 .

They speak simply in fear of someone else overhearing them and we can only think who will be woken up. As in these individuals aren’t free to do their own things and have a specific job.

Garrett drives to an abandoned alleyway and arrives at his meeting place. Only to find Steven alone. He at first seems concerned and when he realizes it is Steven his eyes fly open in shock.

We see a very closed off and cold Steven. He’s still slouching but subdued and not looking up either. He is incredibly calm as he addresses Garrett making it clear that the jig is up and Garrett should give up.

Of course, those who he was working with appear. It is the woman from before directly addressing him for figuring out that they’d infiltrated Libra. Thus, Steven is also using himself as bait to draw out the nefarious party. However, he makes it clear that Steven’s behavior is one where he lacks trust in them.

I would think that it is less about Steven not trusting them, but more that it is his job to protect them from having to deal with this. Or that he feels that it is his job to protect the rest of the team from this dirty work. Additionally, Steven wants to punish those who hurt his teammates. Way back in chapter 4, Steven made it clear if someone fucks with Libra they will respond in kind. Of course he hasn’t changed how he feels about these sorts of things since he first appeared in volume 1. She seriously injured Zed and Zapp and Steven is not going to let her forget about that.

His squad is able to pin down the tricky tentacle monster and he asks if they are going to kill her or not. Yet, it seems that she might be in trouble having tussled with them even if they try to get information out of her. Steven maintains a straight face at Garrett looks concerned.

The expression from Steven where he looks dumbfounded that Garrett is assuming that he’s a cold-blooded man seeing all beings as disposable which is harsh. However, he does add that what will happen to her isn’t going to be pleasant. Intelligence seems sexy when you think of James Bond movies and Spy x Family, but so much of it represents an incredibly dark side of human nature. Think more along the lines of Tinker Tailor Solider Spy. Focusing on the lack of humanity demonstrated by the agents and the KGB and what snippets we get today from US intelligence etc etc etc.

What is most interesting is that Steven takes the time to explain why he’s doing what he’s doing. Which honestly, I don’t think Garrett needs or deserves this since the context would imply that Garrett was a voluntary defector trying to take down Libra. The fact that he was eavesdropping on Leo’s conversation with Patrick and Neyka implies that Garrett was confirming that she hurt them and likely helped her to cross paths with them.

Steven is completely business about this. He is managing a crisis, where he has a rat who has compromised the nature of Libra. Yes, he’s going to find out what Garrett knows methodically.

In the face of such a terrifying thought, Garrett of course asks if this is the real Steven and throws out the obvious comparison to Klaus, upright to a fault. This was the absolutely worst thing that he could say to Steven. His eyes narrow and his expression becomes so awful that Garrett is shocked.

The bottom panel shows a man who is beyond upset. He’s sad, disappointed, angry, resigned, foul, and worn out. Steven doesn’t want to do this. It isn’t like he gets up in the morning wondering if he’ll get to interrogate a traitor, who already injured several of his colleagues and was going to injure more.

The action then shifts to the morning as they had limited time to act at night to capture Garrett and get to work. Steven is outside talking with his assistant as they discuss Garrett’s words about what Klaus would think about the situation. The assistant notes that even though Klaus would ultimately reach the same conclusion, he would have tried to take on the pain of someone like Garrett until his actions resulted in the inevitable self-destruction by his actions, likely at the hands of Libra.

The nameless aid is trying his best to make Steven feel better. He believes that one who is the direct aide to a leader is to keep that leader on their path by dealing with things that would distract them and prevent them from being overburdened with more responsibilities. And here, I 100% think that Steven’s aide believes this and is how he does his job as the coordinator for Steven’s squad.

Steven ask him to confirm the statement and he makes it clear that it is the truth. However, the blank expression on Steven’s face tells us that he doesn’t have that sort of faith in his actions. First, hesitant to speak and then only to say “That would be nice, but” and he never completes the statement.

The rest of the team wants him to return since they are having a post-mission office party. I mean, gotta keep up team morale for preventing more damage to Libra. In the end, Steven approves a drink for the strange baby genius and we never get to learn what Steven is thinking but it is clear that he does feel guilty and doesn’t want this to be a part of his job.

This entire chapter shows that Steven is willing to do that it takes to protect the balance, in the city, within Libra and his friends and colleagues.

But this chapter is a teaser preview for the next time that Steven wonders what is right and necessary in a crisis. Again, when he is in charge since Klaus was arrested and he ordered Steven to take the rest of the team and escape.

The evil human eating pot broke open releasing a monstrous creature that Leo rescued and took to the hospital. Using the All Seeing Eyes of the Gods, he determines that the horrible creature is what remains of some of the victims of the pot and the auction house wants it returned to them to put back in the pot.

What is also important to note is that most of the team are present, K. K., Zapp, Zed, Leo and Steven. Leo reveals to the group that the ‘thing’ is human and Steven hunches over it asking if it is alive.

The group needs to determine what to do next. He then looks to the medical professionals for an opinion, where they aren’t sure what to do other than note, it is seriously messed up. Steven knows that it will likely draw trouble to them or cause more so he keeps his back to them when he tells them to leave. The flushed expression on his face and inability to see his eyes tells us that he’s thinking of how to put it out of its misery.

He’s officially the one in charge and he’s thinking about what is the least risky thing to do. Leo argues back that the children that were fed to it are still alive and this wasn’t their choice. But the one who agrees with Steven is Zapp who manifests his blade and tells Leo to think rationally. The easiest way is to prevent it from returning to the jar and completing the curse.

Zapp is thinking that these already non-humans have to be sacrificed to prevent the worse option from happening.

However, Zed then jumps in to fight Zapp, agreeing with Leo that it isn’t their place to kill it. What is really great about the entire scene is that no morality is black or white and the Libra team are all using slightly different ways to look at the exact same situation. As Zed and Zapp come to blows, Luciana stops them and makes it clear that no one is fighting or killing anything in the hospital.

Steven then asks if they can remove it from the hospital to destroy it elsewhere. The facial expression that he has is just so - ugh - why are you trying to hold this entire burden yourself Steven?

Yes, you are going to use the letter of the law to defeat the spirit of the law. He looks absolutely terrible trying to think about what to do to protect everyone else. Unlike the previous chapter with his interrogation squad and their hyper rational mindset that a second in command must do what ever it takes to support their leader, K. K. finally speaks having sat quietly in the background. She does not mince her words, instead she acts like the brakes on his runaway train of thought. Asking if he’s sure about it and using his full name for emphasis. And then asking the question again implying he’d drop to the level he’s thinking about going.

And as she asks him, she furthermore tells him that she thought he was on the same page as Klaus and his beliefs. This causes him to snap back into the situation. We can see that his eyes are back to being both focused and more open in shock at her direct words to him. K. K. isn’t screaming at him or being passionate, she delivered her words calmly and directly. And it works. The grim unfocused expression then becomes aware and we can see his facial expression has shifted to tense and upset. He was literally trying to disassociate himself from the situation until K. K. drags him back from the abyss.

Now, that pause is good as it stops Steven from snowballing himself to his own personal mental hell and more guilt. It is also bad as it has given the brutal Tycoon brothers time to arrive to steal it back. As their vampire gate manifests above him we see the look of absolute fear on Steven’s face as he’s seriously fucked.

With the situation spiraling out of control, it speaks to the level of trust between Steven and K. K. The two of them immediately spring into action to give the rest of the team time to escape. Steven’s kick is blocked and he gets tossed over K. K. who dodges him and manages to get close range shots at them.

K. K. may have questioned Steven’s potential action but she’s still going to defend her partner. With Steven down for a short time, K. K. orders Leo, Zapp and Zed to leave. Zapp tries to get in on the action -

Only for Steven to tell him to retreat. K. K. and Steven are better equipped to fight them and they need someone to protect Leo and the escaped merged human monster from the pot. The way that K. K. and Steven naturally stand up and next to each other shows that they know what the need to do. Additionally, neither of them actually exchanged words. Both of them gave orders to the rest of the group and not to each other. This is different than our earlier K. K. and Steven scenes where Steven tries to keep them focused and K. K. complains about being teamed up with him. They’ve fully accepted and understand how they work as a team.

To convince Zapp to retreat, Steven still has to tell Zapp that he needs to do so and that he trusts him enough to figure out how to make things work. Steven is an excellent manager of people and it shows when Zapp stands down.

Of course the situation becomes dire as Steven and K. K. get seriously wounded trying to take on the brothers. Only Leo is able to step in to mess with their vision thus allowing for both groups to retreat.

Is the fact that Steven got seriously wounded sort of karmic for thinking about destroying it? Likely not, as K. K. also suffered the same fate.

When Leo is on the run with the child monster of the pot, it is Steven who sneaks out of the hospital with K. K. of course. I find it adorable that he apologizes to her as though his actions are inconveniencing her and she only smiles in reply knowing that he would not be able to sit back and recover while Leo was in danger.

K. K. knows him too well and she only can tease him that he’d have to become involved. The humor then shifts when Steven gets to some sort of stash he has in a parking garage. K. K. then gets to bitch at him for having a hidden change of clothing (since it is clearly a personal stash for him). But the second panel is adorable. We see his hand already wearing his blue shirt hold out a spare pair of pants. And he apologizes asking if they would be okay. Both Steven and K. K. are blushing as she accepts it. You can see the blush under Steven’s right eye and K. K. under her left. But that’s not all, being the gentleman that he is, he continues to change in the garage with his back to her as she puts on the pants in the car.

He unlocks his phone and gets on the Libra network while tightening his tie. All Libra members are to find and protect Leo. Right after sending it, he gets a backlog of Klaus’ texts to him after he broke out of jail. That look of absolute shock as Steven has returned to his full strict mom mode.

That look of annoyance as he can’t get a hold of Klaus! As the Calamity Auction arc comes to an end, the group are able to reconnect with Klaus and Leo at the shifting dimensional auction house. As the hardworking teammates return to his aid, Klaus gives them a simple “Thank you.”

He’s looking a little rough around the edges but had committed to protecting Leo and the inhuman-human pot victim. The expression on Steven’s face as Klaus continues to say that he’s been waiting for them. Interestingly, this time, when we only see Steven’s mouth and nose, we don’t need to worry about if his eyes look unfocused and burdened. The serious expression, softens to a grin and we know that Steven is glad to have Klaus back.

They are best when they are all functioning as a team. I look at it this way, Libra is the extra-governmental organization that maintains the balance of the worlds. And within Libra itself each team member maintains balance within the organization to give the world balance. The entire team rushed there to help Klaus so he didn’t hold the burden alone with Leo. They are stronger as a team than as individuals.

Another great scene is in the chaotic final a battle, K. K. and Steven work together to hamper part of Curious’ personal team. K. K. spots the monitoring spy eye. She shoots it out preventing a remote response.

And right after K. K. does her job, Steven steps in to finish it off after K. K.’s electrified bullets do their action. Again, no verbal communication between these two. They really work well together.

Seriously, the level of understanding between them is great.

What I really liked about the whole season of Back 2 Back was how it took a lot of the moral grey area questions and pulled them front and center. It continues to force the cast to ask themselves hard questions to which there are no correct answers to. Instead, those questions are answered on each person’s individual morality and limits. What actions can these people take and still sleep well at night. What is something they cannot do.

Steven is a complex character - and therefore, likely why many readers really like him. He isn’t someone who does questionable things because they are the most logical or rational way to act in the situation. He’s doing them out of his role in Libra, to protect others and to maintain the balance in the big picture. He tries to carry the burden of his actions and finds himself not convinced by the words of his own personal problem solving squad. Which tells us that he likely wants to be able to be more like Klaus or Leo than like them.

Steven understands worry - I think back to the first volume where Steven sees how worried Klaus is - trying to look calm when Leo was kidnapped and then reminding himself that Klaus is tying himself in knots. It is clear that any member of the cast can slide down that slippery slope of ‘but it was required for the cause.’ I feel like there is more to the interaction in the hospital as Zapp does not hesitate to second what Steven is thinking. Zapp doesn’t want to do something terrible but he also thinks of the bigger picture. Zed falls on the other side making them a two versus two. Until K. K. steps in and calls Steven out. It goes to show how much Steven respects K. K. and likely does not see her as someone to give orders to like Zapp, Leo or Zed and instead sees her as a peer.

Steven was clearly betrayed in the past - What I really want are Steven and K. K.’s backstories. I think that it would really inform us of how they came to be and why both of them are so strong and stubborn at times. I can’t help but think that Steven’s scar came from a situation where his trust was betrayed or someone in charge seriously fucked up. He will not let that shit happen again, not with his team the only people he cares about besides his housekeeper. And the general public at large.

K. K. is Steven’s other half - The two of them are an amazing pair. They don’t need to speak and when they do, they are either apologizing or annoying the other one. Yet, they totally respect each other. Steve keeps K. K. serious and focused at times while she prevents him from digging himself into a deeper moral black hole.

Steven is overly involved in making sure that things work and it clearly is something that he feels like he has to do or need to do. When there might be other options.

Daniel Law leaves us off with his own personal motto, “It is my general rule to not trust anyone.”

Sooooo really, Steven has more faith in people than our police detective.

In the future, Steven, please get a therapist. Take some time off for a spa day, shopping for new [same] yellow ties, trying to get his messy hair styled, reading multiple print newspapers and drink high quality small batch roasted coffee. Or buy more artwork for your swanky condo and most importantly, please sleep.

#kekkai sensen #kekkai sensen meta #kekkai sensen manga #steven a starphase #k.k.#kekkai sensen back 2 back #calamity auction #Yasuhiro Nightow #kkss

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