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writeslikeanaria · 9 months

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what a conscience can do

sebastian sallow x reader (requested by @sugarbubbleslove)

summary: your friend is taken by poachers and you aren’t too happy about it

word count: 1.6k+

warnings: mild descriptions of torture, dialogue that could be perceived as misogynistic, some suggestiveness at the end, angst, little bit of fluff

Poachers camps were the worst. You knew for a fact that the worst enemy was no magical creature, but a vicious man with no conscience. Evil eyed men with a hunger for power and a nature for abuse.

You had a conscience though. Unfortunately so, with your inability to back down from any fight, and your moral compass that always seemed to point you into the direction of trouble. You couldn’t help but stumble into poachers camp after poachers camp, incinerating everything to ashes, leaving nothing but the empty cries of mercy and bruised egos.

So, here you were again, pulled to the outer edges of a nearby forest, hidden amongst the overgrown flora, disillusionment charm shielding you from view. The moonlight high in the sky casted whimsical shadows, mixing with the gruel light of the poacher’s fire. There was an unsettling hum across the camp, joined with the rustling of the nearby wildlife—the wildlife they were here to capture.

There was something different about tonight. Instead of crouching in the mud alone, you were joined by your best friend, Sebastian, who had insisted on tailing tonight. At first, you were more hesitant than ever to let him join, unsure if you could safely protect him from the danger’s of the angered men waiting behind the fences, but eventually you gave in to his begging, unable to say no when he asked so nicely.

“You have to be quiet, alright? For some reason, they’re always listening out, so keep the noise down while I petrify the ones close by.” You whispered your instructions to Sebastian, who nodded excitedly.

“What can I do?” Sebastian all but beamed at you.

You sighed. “Stay out of sight until I give you the all clear, and then you can help me destroy some cages, okay?”

Defeated, Sebastian backed away from the fences, while you headed forward into the deepness of the camps, head down, concealed in the dark of the night. It wasn’t long before you had found the first two poachers, uttering a simple incantation under your breath, and watching their immobile bodies fall to the ground.

Dragging the bodies away from the eyeliner of other poachers, you looked back out into the camp, disgruntled to find a mass gathering of men surrounding a tent at the back. This would lead to a more difficult attack on the camp. Cursing under your breath, you moved to a different angle, trying to figure out a way to ambush the camp and gain back an advantage.

It wasn’t until you reached higher ground when you realised that what the poachers were gathered around was actually a hostage. Gasping under your breath, you leaned forward, attempting to get a better look at whoever was down there, tied up in intricate knots, muffled at the mouth by a dirty, linen rag.

You needed help from Sebastian, and quickly. Crawling in the darkness of the night, you whispered out to Sebastian, searching for him amongst the trees, but was unable to find the ruffles of brunet locks against the greenery. Anxious, you bit your lip, leaning up against a nearby log, as your brain ticked over to what this means.

With your proficiency for the disillusionment charm, you crept as close to the crowded tent as possible, without being caught, hoping that your worst fears weren’t reality, but it was unfortunately not the case. Sebastian, perched up against a tree stump, looked positively terrified, eyes ablaze with worry. With the firelight reflecting on his irises, you could almost see the moistness of tears, threatening to spill over onto his cheek. Your normally cool, calm, and collected friend was the most frightened you’d ever seen, and you couldn’t help but feel your heartstrings tug in pain.

Then you realised that the beasts of the men were actually talking, and talking about you nonetheless. “Reckon that nosy lass will face us now? Coward, I say, can’t even take us on all together. This will draw her out of her hiding, and then she’ll see just what we do to people who get in our way.”

Your mouth dropped at their words, and stayed agape as you watched what those horrible poachers were doing. They didn’t even have a wand in hand, but a sharp carving knife, scraping at the side of Sebastian’s face, teasing his skin, drawing red marks across his cheeks. Below, on his neck, small nicks and cuts had already been made, dribbles of blood trickling and pooling at his collarbone.

As well as an array of lacerations, Sebastian also seemed to be littered with red marks, slowly fading into purple bruises, painting his skin a deep violet. His hair was messed up, sweat and blood caking in his hairline. Shirt torn, his chest was exposed, revealing the tufts of chest hair, mixed with dirt, mud, and other various earthy elements.

Anger boiled inside of you as you were forced to listen to your friend cry and moan, pain taking over his body. The torture that he was enduring was your fault, and none of your friends deserved to be encapsulated by pain, just because of your actions. A healthy dose of revenge needed to be dealt out.

It started with a basic cast, hitting just over the trees, a warning shot, some may say. Then, clouds, out of nowhere, crowding the top of the camp, it’s moisture enough to put the fire out. The men faltered, but it wasn’t enough, not yet.

You see, if these poachers had to guts to not only torture the poor animals of the land, but your friend too, then you were allowed to torture them back. You could already see how their hands became shaky, their voices creeping out of their lower octaves.

Then, to make Sebastian proud, confringo, fire all around the edges of the camp, blazing into the sky, heat from the flames fluttering underneath your shirt, and leaving sweat in its trail. Now you could step out of the shadows.

You cocked your head, charm falling from your body. “Hand him over.” Your voice was gruff and demanding.

“How dare you think you can just command us? You brat, I’ll show you.” One of the poachers stepped forward, wand in hand, casting a harmful spell your way. Luckily, you were able to dodge it, moving behind a gathering of boxes. Unfortunately, that moved you opposite of Sebastian, who now sat exposed to the world. You hissed as a poacher approached him, knife at his throat menacingly.

The poacher smirked. “Make one more move and pretty boy gets cut.”

You stilled, unsure of your next move, until the electricity in your veins began rumbling. You couldn’t tell if it was your ancient magic drumming upside inside of you, or whether it was your conscience urging you to do something, but there was nothing left to say as you let loose of your power.

From the very tips of your fingers, bolts of ancient magic went firing into the chests of every poacher, announcing every one of those ghastly men unconscious. Their cries of pain were a symphony to your ears as the only thing you worried about was still shaking like a baby lamb, tied to a tree stump.

Your legs moved before you could even register what was happening. As soon as Sebastian was in your vicinity, your arms wrapped around him, and your head nuzzled into the crook of his neck. Sobs released from your throat, as the adrenaline from everything dissipated and left nothing but the fear of losing someone close to you washed over.

You placed a long kiss at Sebastian's temple. “I was so scared. I’m so sorry. I should never have left you alone.”

Somehow, Sebastian responded, but his voice was muffled jargon against his muzzle, which you quickly removed, allowing fresh air to reach his lungs. It was audibly how his greedy throat gulped in oxygen. You let out another sob.

“Are you okay? Tell me what hurts.” You coddled over your friend, as you untied his limbs. A pained expression reached your face as your busied body reached around him, searching his skin for any signs of pain. Unfortunately, you found more nicks and marks than before.

Still, Sebastian wasn’t making any more noises other than his incoherent hums, so you allowed him to drape his arms over your shoulders, and helped him out of the camp. When you reached a safe distance away, you laid him down in a field of grass and daisies, ripping the coat of your body, and covering him in his makeshift blanket.

The shock was still washing over him, so you curled up next to his shaking body, embracing him in a tight hug. You knew the lines between your platonic friendship was blurring, but you couldn’t help it. You needed to be as close to him as possible.

Eventually, you calmed down a bit more, your conscience settling in your head, and you got to the point where you could comfortably cast a healing spell without the anxiety of messing it up clouding your vision. Sitting the dozing Sebastian upwards, you started muttering spells under your breath, watching as the small cuts slowly dispersed into the plains of his skin.

Sebastian began mumbling. “Mmfph–”

You cocked an eyebrow, incredulous. “Are you doing okay, love?”

“Hot.”

Oh right. You thought, peeling the coat off of his body, but was stopped by Sebastian’s own hands, pressed over yours. His skin was icy.

“No.” He mumbled. “That was hot. You were hot.”

Your eyes widened as you watched the bold Sebastian place his hands on your thighs, rubbing them gently underneath his calloused hand. Eyes wide, you watched as his hands traveled upwards, journeying towards your womanhood, but you stopped him, aware of his own eyes that were slowly dropping off into oblivion.

“Let’s talk tomorrow.” You whispered against his hair, as Sebastian fell deep into a slumber.

It’s what a conscience can do.

——

might start a tag list. comment under this post or send me an ask and i’ll add you to my taglist for future fics :)

#sebastian sallow x reader #sebastian sallow smut #hogwarts legacy #fanfic #sebastian sallow #sebastian sallow x you

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lord-squiggletits · 4 months

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On the MegOP fandom trend of saying "Optimus should apologize to Megatron"

(Speaking specifically for IDW1, though it applies to a lot of MegOP especially ones that do continuity soup with heavy reference to IDW1)

I was talking to a friend in DMs and they mentioned a common headcanon/fanfic trope that I also concurred with, and both of us said it's something that bothers us: a common take in the MegOP fandom goes basically along the lines of "If Optimus had just apologized to Megatron, the war would've ended" (or other variants including "if he'd tried harder to understand Megatron/work in collaboration with him").

And firstly, this is incorrect for a number of reasons:

There were attempts at peace negotiations during the war, but they fell through. So Optimus WAS trying to work with Megatron to the point of participating in formal diplomatic meetings.

Optimus tried multiple times on page to convince Megatron to just stop fighting and work with him for peace (Autocracy, Chaos Theory) that Megatron rejected. Given that these on-page examples take place at the start of the war and at the end of the war respectively, it makes sense that Optimus asking Megatron for collaboration is something he was trying/willing to do the entire time. So again, Optimus was always willing AND ATTEMPTING to work with Megatron and find a joint solution

Even before the war when Optimus was still Orion, he was very explicitly inspired by Megatron's writing and names Megatron as one of the people who "opened his eyes" to the wrongs of Cybertronian society. So how is it that people claim "the war went on for too long because Optimus never tried to understand Megatron" when OP literally named Megatron as one of his biggest idols, thus implying that OP does understand Megatron's ideals

But the primary purpose of this post wasn't to defend Optimus, actually. Even though I personally think Optimus did plenty (dare I say, everything) to try to end the war, there are some who may still think otherwise, so instead of arguing about whether Optimus did "enough", or who should apologize to whom, or who "deserves the blame" for starting/continuing the war, I'd actually rather talk about this:

No matter who is most "to blame" for the war, it's my firm belief that neither Megatron nor Optimus would even expect/demand the other to apologize to them at all.

On Megatron's side, he would never seek to judge Optimus negatively for the decisions to the point of saying "you wronged me, apologize." Whether it's evil Megatron who doesn't care about atrocities and revels in an opportunity to expose Optimus as a hypocrite, or post-war/Autobot Megatron who knows that his own evil actions are irredeemable, the idea of Megatron judging Optimus and demanding an apology for the war specifically strikes me as out-of-character. Why would Megatron demand or even want an apology from Optimus when Megatron knows fully well that he has his own sins to bear, he prolonged the war for his own selfish/material gain, and that he is responsible for an untold amount of suffering? Demanding an apology would imply that Megatron sees himself as the wronged party and Optimus as the wrongdoer, but by the end of the war, Megatron is too aware of his own part in the war to ever demand such a thing of Optimus. Even if he DID think that Optimus was "equally to blame" for the war (which he doesn't/wouldn't, btw), Megatron's own feelings of guilt would prevent him from trying to seek the petty satisfaction of the moral high ground or making Optimus beg for his forgiveness.

Additionally, Megatron knows Optimus very well as a person: he knows that the position of leadership is full of "loneliness [and] agonizing self-doubt" for Optimus (Chaos Theory) and that "when Optimus hurts others, he hurts himself" (MTMTE). Another reason that Megatron wouldn't demand nor want an apology from Optimus is because Megatron knows Optimus so well that he already knows that being a war leader fills Optimus with immense guilt and suffering. Given that Megatron knows about Optimus' self-doubt and guilt, why would he even need an apology when he already knows how much Optimus regrets the war and desperately wishes/wished for it to end?

Then, as established in the previous paragraphs, Optimus is too full of guilt for his part in the war (both before it started and in being unable to stop it sooner) to demand an apology from Megatron. Again, demanding an apology would put Optimus in an implied position of moral superiority and/or victimhood, but Optimus doesn't see himself as morally superior or as a victim (or rather, he sees himself as being responsible for these bad things happening and internalizes this as a duty to do better/fix wrongdoings). In other words, Megatron and Optimus both share this view of themselves and each other: Their hands are so dirty, and they both feel such guilt over this, and they know each other well enough to know that the other feels this way as well. Because both of them feel blame for the war and are acutely aware of their own flaws/part in suffering, both of them feel far too responsible for the war happening for them to ever blame their archnemesis for "not trying harder" or "being responsible for the war."

Hell, if you even look at the socio-political climate of Cybertron before the war started, neither Megatron nor Optimus were the ones who put this conflict into motion. The corrupt legacy of the Primes, Functionism, class issues-- all of these things existed before Megatron and Optimus did. Even once they started doing things like writing about social issues (M) or fighting against the Senate (OP), both of them were "underlings" in sense that they weren't leaders:

Megatron's writings may have inspired the Decepticon movement, but that movement existed as an independent entity with its own leaders and speakers long before Megatron became the "official" ruler of the Decepticons. He wasn't even the leader of the 'Cons until he took control of the gladiator arena and the nonviolent sections of the Decepticons were (presumably) subsumed into the underground, exploitative battle culture that Megatron created.

Optimus-as-Orion was a police officer to start, but even once he started going against the Senate, he mainly worked in collaboration with others like Senator Shockwave and Zeta (later Zeta Prime), who he either saw as his idols or who were literally superior to him in rank due to government/military structures.

So with this in mind, even from a social level, while Megatron and Optimus may have been "catalysts" of a sort that caused the war to escalate to an outright planetary/galactic level, the scenario is too complex to solely lay the blame for the war at either of their feet. I'm not confident in saying that Megatron/Optimus would explicitly think of this when talking to each other, but what I'm trying to say is that M/OP were just catalysts in a long chain of brewing tension that exploded into a war. Even if one could claim that one of them "started" or "escalated" the war, the social issues that caused the war and the positions of power that allowed them to become leaders in the first place were falling into place before either of them actually BECAME leaders.

In other words, this shared fate of being the final reaction that exploded a societal conflict into outright war... Megatron and Optimus both have that in common. And because of this, I really don't think either of them would even think to ask the other to apologize because they're both in such similar positions, with such similar feelings of guilt and responsibility, that they understand each other's feelings without words. To demand an apology would be akin to taking that shared vulnerability/guilt and stepping on it, attempting to claim that one is right/superior and the other is wrong/inferior, and that the inferior one needs to grovel and take responsibility for the bad things that happened.

#squiggposting #idw megop #idk if this'll get me hate or not but it's something i think about a lot #and verbalizing it to that friend in DMs helped me put into words why that common fanon take bothers me #also. hot take but if any 'apologies' are necessary then it's M who should be apologizing to OP #the war may be both of their faults but M is the one who explicitly did/said things just to hurt OP and break his spirit #i'm tired of ppl who don't understand (or at least don't discuss) how hurt OP is and how he deserves recogniztion of his feelings too #megop #then again this fanon take may just be a consequence of continuity soup culture #where ppl don't have to acknowledge specific things that M or OP did bc they can just selectively include or not include details from canon #so like. i guess in their continuity soup continuties their fanon is technically correct #but in terms of the source material which is the one shared experience we all have and the common language we derive fanon from #this fanon is very incorrect. or at least i hope i've managed to argue that it's incorrect #anyways the thesis of megop is that they're equals and opposites who are inextricably tied to each other #fanon that tries to place the blame on one or castigate one of them is missing the point of megop #the point is that they're equal. equally strong and charismatic and amazing. and equally culpable #even if they're not literally equally responsible for idw megop at least they at least both FEEL responsible #and i don't think idw megops are the type to mince words about who's 'more responsible'#they're both depressed old men who hate themselves and regret basically their whole lives. why would they judge each other like that

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finitevariety · 11 months

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have to say I really loved how Shiv brought up the waiter. Does she give a shit about him, or that Kendall killed him? Nah, not really. Will she weaponise it to appear more moral in the moment? Yeah, absolutely.

It's like she said to Mencken: she's flexible. She LARPed as progressive to get her career in politics and genuinely believed she believed all these things--it's easy to believe you believe nice things, when the shit you actually do care about isn't in conflict with those beliefs. But then she wrangled Gil and Logan into a handshake, and she played her card as a woman to silence a victim--and, by shooting the one with her head above the parapet, many more victims--of institutional sexual abuse. She has even hurt herself by sailing too close to the wind in her girlboss liberal lean-in shit sometimes, with her dinosaur cull comment at Argestes, or with overplaying the hand she thought she had at Tern Haven.

She was viscerally angry at having to take the photo with Mencken, and perhaps angrier still when ATN called the election for him. Not because he's a fascist, although he is, and not because she dislikes him--although she does! She was angry primarily because the photo nuked any chance of a political career for her going forward, and because the call for Mencken hurt her chances with Matsson.

Did she ever make any of that clear in the moment, though? No. She talked about fascism and morals and things do happen, Rome. It is easier to wear that cloak that sometimes helps her--the woman cloak, where she claims to care for the group that she belongs to and steps upon its members at the same time--than it is to admit personal rage or vulnerability. That would be hysterical, and grasping, and not CEO material.

Shiv's relationship with womanhood is like Peter Pan's with his shadow. She used to be able to cast it off, or feel like she could, and now it is sewn in to her very fabric: it's everywhere she fucking walks.

She hates that there is not a play she can make that will separate her from the group of women-who-experience-misogyny. And still she makes use of that group, because it's one of an increasingly limited set of options she has. She was never allowed to gain experience--so she's inexperienced, and implausible, and shut out. It's the treehouse, again, Kendall up there playing king of the fucking castle. Shiv must have spent some holidays like that: Roman might have stayed with his mom in England on shorter breaks from military school, and Shiv was left to snotty, whickering horses and fucking tennis, throwing rocks up at Kendall whenever she saw a limb emerge from a window or doorway.

Anyway, if Shiv can't have the high ground, at least she can try to claim the moral one when it suits her. That's what I see as the context for her jab about Andrew Dodds.

#succession #shiv roy #there's a bigger thing here about like. shuffling through things that are true and using them as the face or reason for a bigger truth #that is less virtuous or more painful to admit #and that's shiv all over too: s1 'we're adults' instead of actually even attempting to talk it out #that WAS her attempting to talk it out #'love is bullshit' and 'box set death march' instead of getting into why she's so afraid of vulnerability #i love shiv so much lol #and also: KENDALL DOES THIS TOO.#fuck the patriarchy! he shouts #playing rape me on the speakers #it just hits differently for obvious reasons and is miles more transparent and manic.#roman is the only one who's not doing the dance

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lutzlig · 1 year

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Tumblrwoman Election Wrap-Up

To celebrate the end of this election, I'm gonna answer the rest of your questions!

First off:

Thanks everyone for participating! This ended up way bigger than expected. It was pretty exciting, seeing everybody chime in and participate.

Shoutout ESPECIALLY to all the people making fanarts, memes, etc... you people are incredible!!! Most of it can be found under #twe23, be sure to check it out, everybody!

Here's some highlights you people have made:

this github live number tracker made by @twilight-sparkle-irl during the vriska/katya poll. A THRILLING read!

this hollow knight miku oc by @anonymous-utility!! shes so cute...

@seasoned-cabbage made a wiki sandbox for the polls... it's so satisfying to see the stats laid out like this : D

@unidentifiedfroggy wrote fanfiction that just perfectly encapsulates the whole experience : ' )

General Q&A

"Who did you want to win?"

I myself think Vriska deserved the title most! I think vriska is just as integral to tumblr as Cecil is, if not more.

As for the other 2 involved, they didn't really care who won!

How often did you hear "Why are you pitting 2 bad bitches against each other"?

Often! One of us was going to count, but he got so annoyed that he stopped. You people need to get a new sentence.

"Why are there minors in a tumblrsexywoman contest?"

It's not a tumblr sexywoman contest, it's a tumblrwoman election! Before we made the poll, we considered whether it's better to throw out the minors or remove the "sexy" angle. We decided on the latter, mostly because this kind of competition would feel incomplete without tumblrgirls like miku and vriska.

Will you be doing this again next year?

Hm, not sure. Probably not! At least, I wasn't planning on it. We did this on a whim, and this is (SUPPOSED TO BE) my art blog.

I might make a blog for it next year, if these are still relevant and the demand is high (which i highly doubt).

Why didn't you answer my question?

I got like 130 asks this week and most of them were cries of pain and outrage. I was also incredibly busy irl until a day ago. If I didn't answer your question, Sorry!

Concerns about Corruption

According to the tags on these, every single one of the polls was rigged in some way or another. Particularly grievous examples of this were Miku's loss (I suspect Vriskavoters doing foul play (I am vriskavoters. I voted Bayonetta to sabotage Miku. Then i spent the whole day listening to Miku voicebank comparisons.)), and Marcie's win (Somebody accused the Adventure time subreddit of having swamped the poll. The post in question had 19 upvotes. The poll on tumblr had 92,123 votes).

What's more, I've been offered bribes!! Several american dollars! The political landscape of tumblr sure is a scary place...

Manners

Some of you really don't know how to act. This goes out to a small (but very, very vocal) minority - don't be a dick! Just because it's the internet does not mean you can just insult random strangers! This is a poll about fictional women, this is NOT a place to call people the r-word or imply someone is stupid for liking a character.

Some people left pretty graphic, violent messages. Most of these were jokes, but still. Take caution with the words you choose. This should go without saying, but telling strangers to "eat glass" and the like is not acceptable behaviour.

In the end, this was a competition between fictional characters, so seeing people arguing in the replies and trying to gain some sort of moral high ground was a little bit saddening.

Most of you were nice though, luckily : )

Thanks

To everyone who left kind messages, to everyone engaging and having fun, the fan art, the posts, to everyone expressing their thanks to us - thank you!!!

In the end, this was a lot of fun, and it was nice to see the website come together like that!

What's next?

For the next few days, I'm going to be promoting my friends' projects as much as I can to scare all of you people off of my blog.

I got WAY too many followers from this and frankly, that is simply not acceptable. You all need to leave NOW, because I want to get back to posting art eventually and I would rather not be on everybody's timeline.

That's why I have decided to become a massive sell out and reblog my friends' stuff on main for a bit. Peace!

#twe23 #tumblrwoman election asks #tumblrwoman election 2023

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em-writes-stuff · 1 year

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hidden scars

warnings: (implied) past abuse, child whumpee

characters: villain, sidekick

1020 words

a/n: this was in my drafts as needing a part two, but i probably won’t end up doing that. have it as is!

---

Sidekick falls to the ground, air pushed out of their lungs as their back hits the soft ground. Villain advances, glaring menacingly at their small frame.

Sidekick tries to sit up, trying to gain some control over their body, but the pain in their ribcage stops them. Instead, they curl in on themself, sheltering their stomach with their shins.

Villain crouches down to face them and whispers, “I’ve got you now, Sidekick. No more running. No more hiding.”

They hold Sidekick’s wrist gently and pull them up, trying their hardest not to aggravate any of their new wounds.

Sidekick looks at them uncertainly, “Why are you being so…gentle?”

Villain laughs, “I can hardly in good conscience take you to be tortured for information if you’re injured before we even arrive.” they sling an arm around Sidekick’s waist and start walking. “Besides, you’re only a child. Most of your torture will be psychological.”

Sidekick laughs dryly, “Oh, goodie.”

Villain smiles and picks up the pace, not failing to notice how Sidekick favors their left leg and winces when they adjust the arm holding them up. They choose to ignore it for now.

As soon as they got to the car, Sidekick had crawled to the back seat and hadn’t moved since. Villain sat in the seat in front of them, in an attempt to gain their trust. Villain would have thought they were sleeping, but they could see Sidekick’s eyes wide open.

“Tell me, Sidekick, why do you work for Hero? What does he do for you?” Villain asks.

Sidekick turns to face the window. Villain thinks for a moment that Sidekick won’t tell them, but then they speak.

“Hero… saved my life a long time ago. And I didn’t have anywhere else to go. He took me in and I owe it to him to do what he wants.” They close their eyes and lean their forehead against the cold glass. “Besides, there’s not much else I can do.”

For the rest of the long car ride, they sit in silence.

At Villain’s hideout, Henchman opens the car door for Villain and Sidekick, but Sidekick stays in their seat. Villain rolls their eyes and crawls back into the car. They gently touch Sidekick’s arm and they flinch back, hitting their head on the car window. They wince, but say nothing. Villain tilts their head to the side for a moment, but then they reach their arm out for Sidekick to grab.

“We’re here.” They say simply.

Sidekick is shown to their new room, which is more impressive than they were expecting. The ceiling was high and a light hung from it. There was a large window on the wall facing a lake. A queen sized bed was covered in blankets and pillows.

Villain clears their throat and Sidekick quickly turns to look at them.

“I trust you’ll be comfortable. I’ll come back with a change of clothes and some first-aid supplies in a few minutes. Is there anything else I can get you while I get those?”

Sidekick shakes their head, blinking in confusion.

Villain smiles gently and walks out of the room. “I’ll be right back then. I have to lock this door behind me, but that’s just since you’re technically the enemy and a prisoner.”

Sidekick wanders around the room, checking any spots that could be used to hide things, seeing if there’s any chance the window can be opened (there isn’t), and organizing the things on the bed. The door opens and Villain walks in with an armful of clothes and a first-aid kit.

“Here, change. Those clothes look really dirty. I’ll wash them for you.” They throw the bundle of clothes at Sidekick and turn around to let them change.

“Why are you being so kind? Hero told me that you’re cruel.” Sidekick asks.

Villain closes their eyes and tilts their head up. “Just because I do things that go against Hero’s moral code, doesn’t mean I’m a bad person. Hero, of all people, should know that.”

They can hear Sidekick’s sharp breaths as they aggravate wounds and have to fight every instinct in themself to turn around and help. They know that if they’re to gain Sidekick’s trust, they have to move slowly.

“Villain?” Sidekick asks with a small tremor in their voice. “Can I have something with long sleeves?”

“Are you sure? It gets pretty warm here at night.” They turn and see Sidekick. There’s a pile of their clothes on the floor next to them and Villain could swear they saw scars on their arms, but they crossed their arms in front of them too quickly to be sure.

“I’m sure.”

Villain nods. “Ok, well, let me dress your wounds first, then I’ll find something.” “I can do it.”

“Nonsense, I have much more experience than you do in this. Besides, you look like you’re going to pass out. Just sit down and let me.”

Sidekick shakes their head. “I can do it.” They look down, “Please.”

“Alright, but I’ll watch just to make sure you do it alright. Don’t want any of these getting infected.”

They set the first-aid kit on the table and watch as Sidekick cleans their cuts.

“You’re pretty good at that, kid. Where’d you learn?” they chuckle. “Let me guess, Hero makes you patch him up?”

Sidekick grits their teeth, “Not quite.” They hiss as they dab some rubbing alcohol on one of the bigger cuts. Villain tilts their head and Sidekick looks up at them. “I have to dress my own wounds a lot of the time.”

Villain nods, not quite knowing what to say. “I’ll go get you a jacket or something.”

Sidekick sighs as the door closes. They finish bandaging the last major cut and lean their head against the back of the chair. They cross their arms in front of them, trying their best to cover the majority of the scars on their arms, but failing pretty miserably.

Villain comes back into the room and hands Sidekick a large hoodie, trying their best not to stare at the surplus of scars along their skin.

#em writes #em writes stuff #my writing #sidekick whumpee #villain caretaker #past abuse #hero whumper #sidekick whump #child whumpee #whump #whump fic #whump writing

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lemonnsss · 1 month

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Moral of the Story Chapter 6

A/N: School is pain. ALSO- I changed MC’s(?) I’m universe name to make it more GN

Warnings: Trypanophobia

Chapters: 1,2,3, 4, 5, 6

Taglist: @vicmc624 , @mostlymarvelgirl , @yvonneeeee, @beetlejuicesupremacy , @moonlightreader649 , @whattheduckisupkyle , @chrisevans-realwife, @nekoannie-chan , @mrsbarnes32557038 , @imyourbratzdoll , @weallhaveadestiny

Word Count: 1.2k

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” A bright blue light accompanied by the sound of the Iron Man suit’s beam powering up came as a shock, seemingly out of nowhere.

She brought her arms back up and turned around, shocked, obviously not expecting his appearance.

“You know, if you’re going to kill someone, then at least don’t call their boss to let them know their assistant’s awake. Amateur move, honestly. Although, I guess this would be your first time intentionally killing someone.” He moved his other hand languidly, illustrating his point.

Her hand moved down again, the needle almost grazing my skin, “You don’t understand. I don’t have a choice.” Unspilled tears broke her voice.

“Everyone has a choice, though the other option may not be so appealing.”

She started shaking her head from side to side and let the syringe drop against my skin, “You don’t know what it’s like to be so poor that you are used to the feeling of borderline starvation. To work two or more jobs so you don’t end up on the streets.” She couldn’t help but let the tears flow. That much was evident despite her face being turned away from me.

“So, your loyalty lies with money? How much did they pay you?”

“About forty thousand euros, enough to afford my son’s treatment.”

“What? Isn’t healthcare free in Europe?” he shifted his weight onto his other leg.

My heart was pounding in my chest so hard it felt like I couldn’t breathe. Despite that, I was breathing too much too fast. I did everything I could to stay focused and present as they spoke. I was trying to prevent myself from hyperventilating.

“... It is. He is very sick. The specialists are in America. They are his best chance.”

His features softened, still firm, yet now more sympathetic, “I can’t say I know what it’s like, financially I mean, but my mother died when I was seventeen. If I were alone in a foreign country when I discovered she wasn’t coming back. I don’t know what I would’ve done. Put the syringe away, and I’ll put double in your account. Does that sound okay?”

I couldn’t understand why Mr. Star-Tony, was doing this. Eighty-thousand euros? That’s what- fifty-six, fifty-seven thousand dollars? What could he gain from this? Is he doing this as an act of charity?

She looked at me, tears streaming down her face, staining her shirt, "They know where he is, or at least where to look. I can't put him in danger." She turned back to Tony, "I'm sorry."

The needle plunged through my skin unnoticeably initially, the sharpness of the needle to blame - then, not even a second after its insertion the entire area stung with a pinch.

If I wasn’t shaking before I was shaking now. My whole body shook as the threat of my death was coming closer to fruition. Whoever ordered my death had succeeded.

The high-pitched hum that had previously filled the room dissipated with a high shriek and a beam of bright blue light. Her arm was blown off along with the plunger of the syringe. Her arm, the muscle structure, tendons, nerves, everything that had been attached to her not even a second ago was now incinerated, leaving nothing but the blood that was spurting across the bed.

She cried animalistically at the burnt-off nerve endings screamed out in pain, her blood spat out drenching the fabric of my hospital sheets and the floor beneath us.

The syringe was still in my arm. I expected the morphine to flow out of the needle; instead, my bloodshot up through the needle, mixing with the pain meds. I couldn’t move. Tony dashed over to me, ignoring the woman writing on the ground, and pulled what remained of the syringe before an air bubble found its way into my bloodstream.

A little blood came out of the insertion point but Tony pressed his armored hand around, stopping the overall, minor blood flow.

Finally, another nurse ran into the doorway looking into the room, he gasped slightly, face turning white, at the sight of his coworker on the ground, her blood surrounding her.

He ran over to her, grabbing gloves and a tourniquet along the way, “What happened here?”

“Your colleague tried to kill my assistant.”

His head jolted up, “What? Maria attacked you? I-I’m sorry. You must know she hasn’t been in a great mental state recently. She isn’t normally like this.”

“I’ll be requesting a transfer to a different hospital in the area, I’d also like to recommend telling your manager that I’ll be suing until they are transferred though I will not be leaving their room which I hope will be changed. Okay?”

After the nurse, whose name was Maria apparently, was taken out of the room to fix the end of what remained of her arm I was taken to a new room where I took a shower and returned to a new bed. The only people in the room were myself and Tony. Now felt like the best time to pop the question that had beset in my mind.

"Why did you do that?" He looked up from his phone, swiveling his head to the door I was standing beside.

"Do what? You'll have to be a bit more specific."

"I don't know. Maybe shooting a person's arm off?" He raised a brow, my sarcasm not lost on him.

"You're the first person who hasn't tried to jump my bones, who's been offended at the notion of it, in a few years. If you died, Pep would kill me. Simple as that." He shrugged his shoulders before leaning on one of the arms of the chair, “How did you transfer the gunshot wound from my body to yours? And why would someone pay to have you killed, or at least subdued? And are those questions related?”

I looked down at my feet, “I don’t know why someone would try to kill me. And I don’t know if it’s related, but I would assume yes.”

“Hm…” That was all the response I got.

It’s been about a year since I started working for Mr. Stark. Thankfully, the topic of how I healed him hasn’t come up again. His security team got buffed after the incident and I got a bonus plus the sign-on bonus plus my first month's salary - the total of which, after taxes, was more than my yearly pay from Xaviers. Things were calm.

When I came into work today the main door to Mr. Starks office was locked. It wasn’t unusual. He rarely came into work, so when he did it was typically earlier than I came in. I went to my office to finish up what I could for this week's paperwork.

A quiet ring came from the in-office phone, Mr. Stark’s line. I picked up the clunky handset- which probably hadn’t been replaced since the nineties- “Hello, Mr. Stark-”

“For the last time, it’s Tony. Stop it with the, ‘Mr. Stark’ nonsense.”

“Apologies, Tony. Is there anything I can do for you?”

“Yeah, do you mind coming into my office? There’s someone for you.”

“Of course, give me just a moment.”

I stood up and flattened the creases in my clothes before walking through the door that joined our offices. A man was wearing all black with an eyepatch standing in front of Tony’s desk.

“Hello, Mx… Eirsson?”

“Yeah, a bit of an odd last name, I know. Pardon but, what is this about?”

“My name is Director Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D.”

#steve rogers x reader #captain america #mcu #mcu fanfiction #captain america x reader #fanfic #captain steve rogers #steve rodgers x reader #mcu x reader #nick fury #director fury #tony stark #iron man

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herlaqueen · 1 year

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When I see folks discussing possible flaws/issues for the various SHC houses, most of the time the Badger secondary one is "can overwork themselves/focus too much on work" or something like that.

But Courtier Badger has a darker side too. One that by itself is pretty morally neutral, but has the potential to be used to hurt people, hard.

A Badger secondary will help you notice things about people you meet so you can instinctively understand how to become a relatable person for them. It will take note of what they say, how they say it, their body language. It'll notice the unspoken words lingering between sentences, sideways glances, every hesitation.

With a bit of patience, you'll probably have a good idea of what this person likes and hopes, but also what they fear, about themselves and others. It will point out to you the cracks in them.

And this can be a good thing! It can be very helpful to avoid a potentially explosive topic, or when you're trying to comfort a clearly distressed friend that isn't volunteering much information.

But it also makes hurting people so easy, and during a heated discussion, it's tempting to use this hold you have on their fears and emotions to just make it stop, to gain a moral high ground, or just because right now you think they deserve to be hurt.

Sometimes I look at someone I know well enough and realize: "Oh, I could make you have an identity crisis right now by showing you the ugliest version of yourself you'd still be able to recognize as you and using the right words to make you believe just a bit that there's truth in it".

And then I don't do it, of course, but the... casual way my inner thoughts take note of this and file it under "might be useful someday" is a bit scary. And it all comes from the same place that allows me to give the best Chrismas gifts and just know when it's time to check in with a friend and ask how it's going.

Edited to add: of course, I think every person of every sorting has the means to (more or less consciously) gather information about the people they interact with, and then use it for good or for bad. What I mean is that the way it happens, to me, feels tied to how I use my secondary to more generally interact with the world and other people, as well as the way I'd go if I ever had to actually go that far (hopefully never, since it's a bridge-burning level extreme measure).

#sortinghatchats #badger secondary

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sweaterkittensahoy · 23 days

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I've spent the last couple of days since being shamed for being a zionist who writes fan fiction considering how much more I want to say on the topic without any sort of prompt from seeing a post about the Israel Palestine conflict, and I've decided I do have something to say:

When I say Israel and Palestine both have a right to exist, I mean that these are two countries full of people. And those countries full of people deserve to exist and be safe and the human beings who live there not live in fear on either side ever. To paint my opinion on this (which I did provide some detail for) as my saying everything Israel has ever done (because, let's be real, no one was up my ass about saying Palestine should exist) is excusable is to do the worst faith read a person can do because they think that Israel should not exist at ALL, and trying to wrap it in "because they did bad things" is such a fucking telling take because these people never point out the bad things done by other countries until you go, "Hey, you're describing actions similar to all these other countries," and then the person either disengages or doubles down and says "No country that's ever been shitty should exist."

And, like, I need you to pull your head out of your ass and understand the world runs on shades of gray.

But also, while I am on this topic: Hamas is a terrorist organization that wants to murder every Jew in the world, and I have had a few people push back with "No, they only want to murder Zionists!"

So. You admit they want to murder Jews. You understand they want to murder Jews. The fact that you're willing to assume they have a very strict rule of who is and isn't a Zionist is fucking WILD.

But you still think Palestine should exist (so do I!) even though the defacto leaders of the country are Hamas terrorists who want to murder everyone in Israel at bare minimum.

Thirdly, yes, I can, in fact, know a shit ton about World War 2 (likely more than a lot of people out here who have only watched very excellent war shows about it) and believe Israel should exist. Because the focused and concentrated murder of every possible Jew in reach by the Germans in WW2 and the complicated and unquestionably sometimes violent history of Israel as a country are not the same thing at all. And if you can look at the Holocaust and Israel and say, "these are the same" you're an antisemite.

Lastly, to boil down a discussion I know I had with you because I was there to "ugh, this person is a Zionist" and then implying I said I was cool with every single thing Israel has ever done in order to try and discredit me is a fuckshit move that is 100% about lying to make yourself look good to try and gain some weird fucking moral high ground.

#israel #palestine

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disturbedbeautywrites · 1 year

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Hollywood’s Bleeding - Chapter 1. Bradley Bradshaw fic

Join my Taglist here

Preview of this series here

Masterlist | Next part

Hollywood. It was the place every up and coming actor and actress dreamed of being, and now you were there. You were the newest up and coming female actress; having just landed your second massive staring role in a movie. You were new to the popularity you were gaining, and the traction that came with it. You were invited to all the big parties. You were getting stalked by paparazzi. You had a fan base. You had made it. However, that isn’t how your agent and your publicist saw it.

“You’re an absolute PR nightmare.” Your publicist, Anna, sounded like she was about to rip her hair out and she paced the room in front of you, her mouth set in a straight line. “You have a movie coming out in 2 days, and you can’t stay out of the tabloids long enough to even get good press!” She was running her hands through her hair now, groaning.

She threw the magazine in front of you, showing you what she was freaking out about. It was a picture of you looking extremely drunk, your middle finger stuck up high in front of a homeless man. You looked over the picture repeatedly, trying to figure out when the heck that had even happened. “We can just say it’s photoshop. End of story.” You tried suggesting, a loud laugh sounding from across the room.

“Yeah, okay. Sure. We say it’s photoshop! Even though that is in now way believable!” Anna snapped, sitting down at the table across from you as she crossed her hands and set them on the table. “You know, I figured this would be easier when I promised your father I would-“ You put your hand up to silence her, your face unreadable as you ran your tongue along your bottom lip. “You work for me. Not my dad. Besides, I don’t need you to take care of me. I’m a grown ass woman.” You reached down to pick up your purse, standing up from the table with a push of your palms against the sleek surface.

“Yeah, because you’re clearly doing so well with that. This week it’s you flipping off a homeless man, last week it was you showing off your breasts out the sun roof of an Uber. What’s next week? Burning down a nursing home?” Anna’s words were dripping venom as she shook her head, mumbling under her breath about how she doesn’t get paid enough. She was pacing again, racking her brain. That was, until she stopped. She turned to look at you with a sickly sweet smile on her lips. “I have an idea.”

You raised an eyebrow at her, checking your watch as you motioned her to continue. “We’re going to get you back in touch with your dads roots. I’m going to pull some strings, but we leave tomorrow morning! You better be ready!”

———————————————————————————

“So, this is going to be a win-win. The navy says they can see this being a morale booster for their aviators and we get the good publicity of you visiting a military base.” Anna was babbling on and on about how amazing this would be for you, but you were barely listening. Your focus was shifting around the small hanger you were standing in, your gaze looking around at the many faces of the aviators in front of you. They had just finished watching your new movie and now you were being introduced to them to allow them to get pictures as they wanted.

“Now, I’m sure this is someone you guys are all going to recognize. Her dad was an aviator just like you guys are so she wanted to come and honor her dads memory by visiting you guys.” You heard the words echo through the small room as you stood up and gave a small smile and a small wave as they were released to either come say hi to you or go back to their rooms.

You noticed some dirty looks coming from some of them as they scoffed and stood up, murmuring about how low the navy’s standards had gotten. You swallowed thickly as the words hit home, your gaze falling to the ground momentarily before throwing on a fake smile and watching the select few people that hung around.

One of them was a very confident aviator who was headed your way with a folded up copy of your article from when you were shirtless hanging out of the sun roof of the Uber. Of course, everything was blurred out, but that didn’t stop the cocky smirk on his lips. “So, my name is hangman and I was gonna see if I could get your autograph.” You gave him a smile as you pulled out a sharpie, signing the picture as you posed with him. “You know, the ladies around here actually call me hungman, if you were wondering.” He lowered his voice so only the two of you heard it, a disgusted look flashing across your features. “That’s good for you.” You patted him on the arm and walked away to go meet a couple of the other people who had stuck around.

These people were less than nice, making awful comments to your face. You tried to brush them off, offering them pictures or autographs. They just laughed and walked off, leaving you sucking in a sharp intake of breath as you walked outside of the hanger. You leaned against the wall, closing your eyes as you felt tears welling up behind your eyelids. “Tough crowd, huh?” You heard a man’s voice beside you, a small chuckle leaving your lips as you brought your hands up to wipe the tears before you opened your eyes. “You could say that.” You tried to give a small smile, looking at the brunette man beside you. He nodded in solemn understanding, taking in your disheveled appearance.

“Wanna go for a walk with me for a minute?” His offer was genuine as he nodded off to a side of the hanger where there was no one and it would give you a second to catch your breath. You nodded, starting to walk that way as he walked so he could shield you from the prying eyes behind you, letting a few tears fall. The two of you walked in a comfortable silence, circling back to the hanger. “You know, I think you’re the first person I’ve met who has acted completely normal around me.” The words were shaky as sniffles followed them, your eyes gazing up at the pilot beside you who flashed you a small smile. “You looked like you needed peace and quiet more than someone ogling over you. I’m Bradley, by the way.”

You took in his appearance, a smile on your lips as you wiped your eyes again and put your hand out to shake his before you changed your mind. “Actually, Bradley. Can I give you a hug? I appreciate the walk.” He nodded and held his arms open for you, letting you give him a quick hug before he saw your team looking for you and starting to gather up their stuff. You noticed the same thing, seeing him start to get a little nervous. “Also, if you ever want to walk around in silence again, you can text me.” He handed you a tiny piece of paper, a sheepish smile on his lips. “Do you always carry around your phone number?” Your words were teasing as you started to walk backwards towards your team, keeping your eyes on him. “Only when I’m going to meet pretty girls.” You rolled your eyes and waved goodbye to him as you walked over to Anna who was ushering you into the car you arrived in. As you got in and crumpled up the paper in your pocket, you watched her as she was talking about some meeting she had to get too tonight.

You then got bored and decided you were ignoring her, looking down at your phone as you noticed your notifications starting to blow up. You crinkled your face up in confusion, putting in your passcode and clicking on one of the things you were mentioned in. There, in a news article, was a picture of you and Bradley hugging with a caption asking who your new mystery man was. As you stared at the article, Anna smirked in delight and tapped you on the shoulder. “We’re having a meeting about that tomorrow, by the way. Get ready to see him a lot more.”

Oh, shit.

There will definitely be more parts and it will get better I promise 💙❤️ Thanks for reading guys!

Taglist : @notroosterbradshaw @mak-32 @ijustwantedplums @bioodforbiood @katieshook02 @abaker74 @celestial-beeing @double-j @knoxsunday-main @the-dark-and-mystery

#bradley bradshaw x you #bradley bradshaw fanfiction #Bradley Bradshaw fanfic #bradley rooster bradshaw imagine #bradley rooster x reader #top gun fanfiction #top gun maverick x you #top gun maverick fanfiction #bradley rooster bradshaw #rooster imagines #rooster imagine #rooster fanfiction #rooster fanfic #bradley bradshaw x y/n #Bradley Bradshaw imagines #Bradley Bradshaw imagine

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musical-chick-13 · 21 days

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I'm sure everyone is tired of me complaining about this phenomenon, but. NSFW discussion below the cut.

MINORS DO NOT INTERACT WITH THIS POST, I MEAN IT

This is probably a really nit-picky thing to get frustrated over, but I actually really hate that post that's along the lines of, "This just doesn't have enough accurate character exploration to get me off," or whatever it says.

Like, I get the gist of what it's trying to say, in the sense of "Just writing about the act of sex isn't enough" and, more broadly, "It's more sexy when you see how what's going on interacts with the characters' personalities and psychologies" but I just...question why the assumption is always that a sex scene is written for titillation? (Yes, this post specified porn, but that's...actually a very hard category to define writing-wise, especially since the op seemed to be very clearly talking about fanfiction.)

There is nothing wrong with writing something solely for the purpose of other people (including yourself) getting off to it. Seriously. At all. This is more just...aggravation over the idea that everything needs to be sexually appealing. If someone finds c2g Sexy™ and jerks off to it, great for them! (<-Meant completely seriously.) If they want to leave a comment saying "this is hot" or "this is sexy" or "I Need A Moment Alone," then go for it! But in this particular case, that is simply a bonus. This story was never written with that in mind. There are a lot of complicated personal reasons that led to me writing this, that I actually do not ever have to explain to anyone, because I don't owe anyone that information.

And this really isn't me trying to say, "MY explicit writing is Elevated™ and Artistique™ with a Point™ unlike the rest of you degenerate plebeians." For one, I don't and will never have the "moral high ground" in regard to creative projects, and for another, there is no "moral high ground" here, because sex and writing (about anything) are inherently morally neutral actions. They simply exist. Whether they're good or positive depends on how people approach them and treat any other people involved. I just see this constant pressure for everyone and everything to be as "conventionally" sexy as possible, and I am quite honestly just exhausted. It feels like an extension of performing your sexuality and curating your appearance to gain some measure of general acceptance, and I really cannot deal with that anymore. That threshold was obliterated long ago.

Maybe someday I WILL write something that is meant to be Sexy™ to the audience and nothing else, I don't know. But if someone reads a smut fic*...you don't actually know why the person writing it decided to create it. If you can't get off to something, then it's possible the purpose wasn't ever for anyone to get off in the first place.

*I am specifically talking about fanfiction/transformative works here. Published erotica or filmed sex are a completely different conversation.

#nsft #minors dni #minors do not interact #also there's my frustration over how this ties into 'they would not say that' and how no one owes anyone their chosen idea of the #'correct' interpretation of these characters but I didn't want to start rambling. also I've talked about that ad nauseum the past few weeks

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pumpkincarriage3 · 1 year

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Sam Character Analysis

Sam is a character that we see during the first chapter of the game, much like the rest of the members of staff. Interestingly enough, instead of being a teacher like the rest of the staff, he runs a shop on school grounds.

A shop that's said to have anything and everything. If someone needs something, chances are Sam has it. Somehow.

Sam himself is portrayed as a confident, charismatic, business-suave, relatively easygoing person. He has a good relationship with a good portion of the student body. He can be found going back and forth on prices with Ruggie, helping out students with what they need (for a price), and he even offers jobs out to the students during New Years.

Now, Sam can definitely be shady, considering he always seems to know exactly what someone wants. Making various references to having "friends" that people can't see, and even calling some of the students imps. It's heavily implied that he's probably made a few deals with a couple of demons, or something close to it. Which in turn helps him watch things around campus so he can see exactly what people want, how much they want it, and how much they can spend on it.

It could be debated as to why Sam decided to settle down in NRC of all places. He's relatively young, and the shop is his, so the shop itself is probably a new thing to school grounds. It can be assumed that students went to the town on Sage Island to get things before, since various characters have dialogue suggesting that they can in fact leave campus at various points, so why did Sam choose to settle down in NRC?

If he settled down in town instead of NRC, he would have many more costumers than what he currently has, and chances are the student body would still go to his shop.

Realistically, I could think of about four reasons. Firstly, he can monopolize the student body by being in the closest range of them. While students have talked about going to the town on Sage Island, there have been other dialogues that suggest that they need permission from Crowley to do so, and Crowley probably wouldn't give them permission if there was someone on school property they could go to. Secondly, NRC hosts a lot of important people. Important people that have more than enough money to spend. Thirdly, with the nature of NRC students, they might have something that Sam himself wants. We see this in Floyd's Dorm Uniform Vignette, where Floyd give's Sam a priceless gemstone in exchange for a recipe and monopoly on a drink he was sealing. And fourthly, as it can be summarized that Sam has dealings with something, that he probably shouldn't, there's a chance that it's heavily frowned upon. NRC isn't known for having upright individuals, so he can stay at NRC and be as open about his "friends" without having to hide it.

Sam himself is a businessman that will try and turn most situations in his favor to gain a profit. Hence, taking advantage of the market that is NRC students as he does. Though, he either has a better set of morals then some of the students, or he's contracted to be limited in what he can do (unlikely with how Crowley is, but it's a possibility). I say this because he is willing to haggle with prices with students he knows don't have a lot of cash, but he will whole-heartedly take advantage of Crowley when Crowley himself is in a pinch.

This might be because Sam himself might know what its like to grow up and struggle with money, it would explain why he's so set in his business-suave ways by the time we meet him in the series. It might be why he also has the "friends" that he does and henceforth is willing to haggle with prices with students that don't have a whole lot of cash to spend. Or maybe it's because he knows they don't have cash to spend, but he still wants to them to spend it to make revenue, so that's why he's willing to haggle the prices.

(Though, even though he is willing to haggle prices, he won't do anything that will risk him losing money. He can also be pretty high pressure, throwing in items last minute to trick the students into buying them without consideration.)

There's really no telling, simply because the staff members don't give a lot of information about themselves. Sam less so than the others, especially since he doesn't even have a last name. Though, considering, depending on the folklore, creatures of the veil are willing to trade with names, he might have given away his last name to make the "friends" he has.

In fact his "friends" might be the entire reason why he sells some of the strange items that he does. Considering the fact that they are probably demons, they might be looking for other people to latch onto. NRC, with the fact that it's a villain's school, would be a good place to latch on to someone. Which might be another reason why Sam has chosen to station himself on the school property of all places.

#twisted wonderland #twst #disney twst #twst wonderland #twst fandom #disney twisted wonderland #Disney twst wonderland #twst sam #character analysis

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beardedhandstoadshark · 4 months

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What is your OC's moral code?

have any of them ever done anything illegal?

Oh dear, morals. That’s pretty complicated, so this one’s kind of a text wall and I‘m reading it as "which lines would/nt they cross?“

Easier thing first, illegal activities - Yes. All of them. To various degrees of willingness, but none of em got a clean palette lol.

Not even Yel, and he’s what I believe you’d call a "goody two shoes“? His morality is pretty attached to rules compared to the rest of the gang. The only one who would follow rules for morality reasons. Would also beat himself up over accidentally saying something that wasn’t true because he thought it was, cuz lying’s bad. A part of what he thinks he’s refusing to do because of morals is actually because he’s scared of consequences, though. In the incredibly rare circumstances that a) it’s pretty clear that the less "moral“ choice is still the obviously better one, and b) he’s either extremely done with everything or super stressed/scared, would break that moral code. And then feel SO bad about it afterwards for a really long time.

Mage‘s thing is basically "I might be an asshole but even I have standards“, and how high the standard is is directly proportional to how much he’d gain + they like someone + fun it’d be to see them break. Will also often break that moral code in both "good“ and "bad“ direction with no remorse afterwards, though. The moral code does not involve laws, telling the truth, or "taking the higher ground". No "ooh if you do this you’ll be just as bad as them!“ nah. Revenge time even if it means shoveling a grave for both of em.

Red’s moral code is "be good“ and she has pretended not to have a crisis about what that exactly means for the past 4 years. As of rn, it’s at "help people, do good stuff, be kind, heroic, an example for others, but also don’t follow rules if they’re stupid or it’s necessary“. The last one Red 100% knows isn’t something considered "good” at first glance but also doesn’t care, cos between Red and other folks only one actually lived through what it means to be destined to save the world and it wasn’t them. She knows the world isn’t actually in monotone, but will try their best to act with kindness and compassion. (Noticeably, doing something that goes against that is not a break of moral code in Reds eyes as long as it’s "for the others’ own good”.)

Deniz basically goes by:

Does the action hurt anyone (including person doing it)?

Yes -> don’t do it

No -> next question

Is it fun or helpful?

Yes -> do it

No -> next question

Is it necessary?

Yes -> do it

No -> don’t do it

Like. There’s lots of case by case debating with himself if all options kinda suck but that here is pretty much the base for his morals that everything else is going off from

Aaaand then there’s Violet. It’s always been "the greater good justifies all“ for her but also. Has no problem twisting things into seeming for the greater good when they’re just for her benefit. But when that isn’t the case, they’re the same as Deniz (she kinda got it from him, actually.) Violet‘s morals are basically a combo of Deniz and Mage, minus the "falling into the deep end“ tendencies of the latter, but plus "once someone crosses the line they deserve no mercy in that regard“. I do you as you do me and such, only the action done isn’t necessarily the same as the action received.

#another anon ask #original character do not steal [tm]#oof this one’s a brick wall #sorry bout that #morals are complicated #and I‘m kinda struggling with understanding them myself sometimes #so it’s weird to think about what they’d be for characters #Theres a reason they took up a whole semester back in school philosophy class XD

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seven-oomen · 2 years

Text

Joel Miller - Not a good man, but a good father

I want to take a deep dive into one of my favorite video game characters of all time and walk through his motivations, flaws, his strengths, and ultimately his fatal flaws.

I recognize that this is probably not gonna be up to everyone's tastes, and that's okay. To those people I ask, move on, please don't bother me over a fictional character, you will be blocked.

For the people who are genuinely interested in a civilised discussion, I don't mind if you do, but depending on its context I might not engage because Joel's demise is also very triggering to me, and I promised my trauma therapist I would limit my engagement on this subject.

With that said, I wanna dig down deep into Joel.

Joel Miller is a complicated and highly stressed individual right from the start of the game. He's a hard working single father who does everything in his power to provide the best life he can for his daughter. In that pursuit he steps over his own boundaries so much that he suffers from high blood pressure, anxiety, and ulcers, and is quite literally, working himself into the ground.

It is universally accepted that he works as a carpenter pre apocalypse, and several books and magazines in his bedroom also suggest he is trying to start his own business.

He is a dedicated father to his only daughter Sarah, who he often takes on hikes and to museums and who he spends a lot of time with, despite his working schedule.

He enjoys local farmers markets, restaurants, barbecues, hunting, and fancy classic sports cars, as evidenced by paintings, flyers, a barbecue outside in his backyard, as well as a red sports car underneath some tarp, and he also enjoys coffee very much (but doesn't seem to clean his counters well), and has a Best dad rainbow mug that he presumably gets from Sarah.

Family also means a lot to him judging by the variety of family photos throughout his house.

And then tragedy strikes in the night from September 26 2013, to September 27 2013 and the apocalypse breaks out in his hometown and around the world.

The event kills 60% of the worldwide population presumably within the first year of the apocalypse.

As a result of the outbreak and the military's response to it, his daughter Sarah dies in Joel's arms. And just like that, Joel not only loses his greatest motivation to survive and gains trauma that stays with him for the rest of his life.

Judging from dialogue that he can have with Ellie, Joel becomes suicidal after Sarah dies and struggles with depression and ptsd, so much so that he still has nightmares 20 years after the fact.

During those 20 years, Joel's greatest motivation in life ironically becomes survival for both him and his brother.

My personal headcanon is that he failed to take his own life because he believes that someone needs to remember and honor Sarah and that becomes his sole motivation to keep himself and Tommy alive.

Joel's methods of survival are not very moral. He's ruthless and cunning, hunting down other survivors, perhaps even in an attempt to supress his own pain and suffering by inflicting it onto others. We know from several scenes that Joel was particularly cruel and vindictive and rather good at torturing and killing people.

Needles to say, he was not a good man during those 20 years. Some might even say he became a monster during the apocalypse. And they would be right. He absolutely was for a large portion of his life.

But even monsters can have humanity. And Joels humanity comes from caring about those he sees as family. Tommy, Sarah, Tess, Ellie, Maria, other residents in Jackson, all bring out the much calmer and caring side of Joel. We see this in several scenes in both part 1 and part 2.

Joel was a very complicated individual, a man who's trauma and experiences, further driven by an apocalypse that wiped the majority of humanity of the map, made him hardened and closed off and for a long time he let anger and fear rule him and his survival instinct. That is, until he met Ellie.

Because Ellie started cracking that exterior and brought out the 'dad' side of Joel. The compasionate and kind side that he displays at the end of part 1 and the start of part 2. The same compassion and kindness that eventually gets him killed.

Ironically, it's the mesh of that ruthlessness and that compassion that become his fatal flaws and create circumstances that lead to his death.

Make no mistake, Joel himself is the reason why he eventually meets his untimely death. He created those circumstances himself. First by using his ruthlessness and brutality to save Ellie and kill the surgeon that would have sacrificed her. And later, though his compassion and trust by helping the daughter of said surgeon survive a horde of infected.

But to say Joel was nothing more than a monster is a disservice to his character. Because we do see just how much Joel is capable of compassion, how thoughtful he is, and how protective he is of the people he cares about. We see this in his interactions with Ellie. We see it in the items he makes for the residents of Jackson. We see it in the way the people of Jackson interact with Joel.

We know Joel doesn't judge people for who they love, we know he doesn't care what the color of your skin is, and that he doesn't care what you've done in the past as long as you're willing to work with him towards a future.

Above all he is someone who has a need to protect the people around him. To learn of their interests and go out of his way to participate in them as best as he can.

But he also listens to them, respects their wishes once they've been spoken out to him (he may need a minute at times), and keeps his distance as much as he is capable once someone he loves tells him to back off.

However you see this character, one cannot deny that he is duality itself. A man who's not morally good by any means, and yet he was a great dad to two young women who needed him.

The duality in Joel is that his greatest flaws are also his greatest strengths and ultimately become his undoing.

#ben says stuff #joel miller #tlou #the last of us #tlou joel #joel tlou #tlou meta

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sammysdewysensitiveeyes · 2 years

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“ Figure out what they want to hear.”

"I'm pretty sure that what they want to hear is 'We surrender,' Shaw. And possibly, 'Yes, you're entirely right, we are nasty Deviants and we submit to extermination.'" Pyro snapped, sending a bolt of flame across the room before ducking behind the broken wall.

"There must be something else we can offer," Sebastian insisted. He was in the midst of the fray, punching, kicking, and ripping androids apart with his bare hands. "Everyone has a price. Use that romance novelist brain of yours, Allerdyce, and be creative."

"What, you want me to seduce one of them? I think I'd only have a chance at Phastos, and I'm in a committed relationship, you know! Although Phastos is a nice looking piece of man, I must admit."

"This is hardly the time for you to develop some sense of morals!" Sebastian flung a robot through the wall. "And no, I wasn't intending for you to throw your scrawny, horse-faced Australian carcass at the nearest male Eternal. Good Lord, it would take far too long for the kind of make-over required to get you to even a 5. They'd probably consider it a grave insult - "

"Okay, okay, I get it, you think I'm ugly!" Pyro yelled, popping his head over the wall, and directing flame around the room. He sent tiny, white-hot sparks like bullets at the androids' joints and main circuits, melting them into useless scrap, rather than his usual giant flame animals. It was not a time for fucking around. The stakes were too high. "That doesn't mean anything coming from a half-shaved bear in lime green pants, Shaw!"

"Now is hardly the time to debate your non-existent attractiveness! We must find something that these Eternals want! They seem uninterested in money, and our technology seems centuries behind theirs, despite all the supposed geniuses on the island!"

Shaw was supposedly one of those geniuses, but Pyro concentrated on melting circuits, letting the androids fall one by one.

"We cannot fail! We cannot allow them to gain any more ground! This is too important!" Sebastian exclaimed, slamming a robot into the floor, parts flying in all directions. He looked across the fray, and for a moment, locked eyes with Pyro. It was perhaps, the most sincere and open expression that Pyro had seen from Sebastian. No sense of his usual sneering condescension, just pure determination, and even the faintest hint of camaraderie. Or maybe just simple understanding. Pyro nodded back at him.

"We won't fail. We'll hold this ground...together." Pyro redoubled his efforts, and the air was filled with smoke and the stench of burning metals.

Pyro had never dreamed he'd be making a last stand with Sebastian fucking Shaw, but beyond their battlefield, sheltered behind a thick blast-proof door, was a treasure that meant more than both of them. Krakoa's greatest asset, a prize for which Pyro and Sebastian would not only lay down their differences, they'd lay down their very lives.

Sebastian's finest stock of whiskey.

(OOP - based on our jokes about Sebastian and Pyro rushing to defend the liquor during the Judgement Day event. They are fighting robots because I haven't been paying attention to the event and I have no idea who is fighting what right now, and this is easier than them trying to fight actual Eternals. Eventually, they will offer a truce by bribing whatever Eternal shows up with some of the whiskey, and then they'll all spend the rest of the event drinking. I'm gonna say, Makkari and Phastos, they deserve to have a little fun.)

#sebastian shaw #pyro #st john allerdyce

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