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risingoftime · 1 year

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𝕭𝖊𝖆𝖚𝖙𝖞 & 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝕭𝖗𝖆𝖎𝖓 | 𝖗𝖎𝖗𝖎 𝖔 𝖋𝖊𝖒!𝖗𝖊𝖆𝖉𝖊𝖗

part i | part ii

thank ya'll for the requests! I know I’m a slow writer, but I really do enjoy your feedback & currently working on another request so keep an eye out.

synopsis: Riri decides to surprise you at your place after exams and exposes that she has studied you more than you initially thought.

word count: 3.7k

warnings: smut, light dom sub, scissoring, brat!reader, fingering, daddy issues, closeted!reader, praise kink, confessed feelings, light fluff, tribbing, obsessive!Riri, blackmail.

18+ | minors do not interact

➴ feel free to send me more thots

Your palms were sweating when you handed in the exam papers to Professor Winston. Riri was done within the first hour of the exam. Typically you followed suit shortly after but not this time. Instead, you spent all the allotted time-fighting flashbacks from the night before at the library with Riri. “I hope you remember all that I taught you.” Her taunting was still fresh in your mind. You couldn’t help but wonder if this was her master plan. An embodiment of the saying, keep your friends close and your enemies closer. You felt foolish for allowing yourself to become vulnerable under her gaze, but you did not regret a thing. Although it did take you extravagantly longer than you had expected, you still felt semi-confident that you would still pull through with top scores. Using Riri’s techniques for analyzing equations, it’s possible. However, professor Winston threw in a surprise bonus question that kept me in a loop. The bonus question wrote:

“Given the possibility of building structures for coastal protection against erosion and sea level rise, which dexterous compound is essential for its utilization?”

It was odd, considering that it was rare for him to discuss underwater robotics in his lectures. Your mind wracked over the questions as you walked through the paths on campus toward the parking lot. You set the alarm for later this evening to ensure that you didn’t miss the postings of our grades. Professor Winston often was able to submit grades within the same day. We were a freakishly small class, and it was an advanced course that not many dared to take. Most took it because it would look good on their transcripts. You scanned the busy grounds of MIT, and Riri was nowhere to be seen. That girl was always on the go. Besides, you had more pressing tasks to complete now that the semester was complete, for example, packing for Chicago. You rarely talked to your family during the school year, and you knew that if you stayed during another school break, you wouldn’t hear the end of it.

MIT was lively today, with students pushing their hefty suitcases and boxes from the dormitory. You were so glad your Dad got you your loft as an MIT acceptance gift, one of the perks of being the daughter of a wealthy politician. At MIT, you’re free to be yourself and cultivate a person who isn’t constantly scrutinized—having your own space away from curious eyes and individuals trying to use anything against my Father in re-elections. You doubt people from back home would even recognize the person you are now. It’s partially the reason why you haven’t visited home yet. Your Dad is a businessman first and a Father second. Once you do return, you will have to hide away the part of you that flourished at MIT. It was a deal you were willing to make, but now it’s your turn to hold up your end of the bargain. To portray yourself as the perfect eldest daughter at the top of her class at MIT. If only you weren’t in the same class as Riri. Academically, you’ve always been beneath her, never indeed in the same league.

You walked into your apartment and were greeted by the cool air conditioning. You took time to get settled in and stripped out of your clothes to change into something more comfortable. As soon as you got into bed, the phone rang. You looked to see who it was, but the number was unknown. Your Father often called with no caller ID due to his job, so you answered it without a second thought.

“Hey!”

“Hey, open the door for me.” Again, it was a female voice that you recognized.

“Who is this?”

“Who do you think it is? Dummy,” she laughed.

You sprouted out of your bed and walked to the door. You looked through the peephole and saw Riri standing in the same grey tracksuit she had worn to the exams in the morning. Out of all the ways to get your attention, she decided this was best?

“What the fuck, Riri? How the hell did you get here?”

“I’m a master engineer specializing in robotic sciences, and you don’t think I can’t bypass a basic apartment security system?” Her tone was dry and sarcastic. Riri had a way of coming off as a know-it-all, and it got on your last nerves, especially when she was right.

“Okay, but that doesn't explain how you found out where my apartment is.”

“Hacking into the MIT student record system is easier than you think, and you’re more interesting than I initially thought,” she shrugged. However, the knowing smile on Riri’s face never dissipated.

“Why do I feel like you’re hiding something?” You didn’t make any moves to unlock your door. Instead, you enjoyed making her wait on you in the hallway.

“Well, if you just let me in, I will tell you what I found. Or, I could tell your Dad about our escapades at the library last night.” Riri’s expression was smug. You wouldn't be surprised if she heard you struggle to unlock the door. You pushed it open to invite her inside and made sure that she saw you flip her off as you did so. You led her to the living room and didn’t bother to spare her another glance.

You instructed her to sit down and shut up. You no longer had the patience to sweeten my tone. All your nerves dissipated once she brought up snitching to my Father. Of course, out of all people, it would be her who would be able to find out your secret. You've done your best to keep a low profile until yesterday; you thought you did. You would have never believed that Riri Williams had always had her eye on you. We were approaching our last year after this summer break, and it’s just now that she’s decided to show her interest.

“If you dare tell my Dad a single word about last night, I swear I will make it my vendetta to ruin you,” you sneered. You couldn’t afford your Father to know anything about your antics at MIT. All he needed to know is that you have one of the highest GPAs in your class, with solid recommendations from your professors to prove it. Your Dad only cared to hear that I was living up to his reputation and status. Truthfully, you didn’t know when you would have this freedom again and wanted to salvage every second of it.

Riri raised her eyebrows at me and said, “Is that a threat or a promise?” silently challenging me to see how far you’ll go to prove my point. “Both,” I replied. She whipped out her phone, playfully toying around with it in a suggestive manner.

“Let’s play a little game.”

“Riri, I’m not playing with you.”

“How do you think he would react to hearing that daddy’s little girl likes to be bent over by girls?” She kept her phone in her hands, and you couldn’t fight the impulse to knock it out of her hand. Riri hasn’t met a person like you, cause that’s exactly what you did. You watched the phone fly out of her hand and slide across the hardwood floor toward your bedroom. The shattering noise of the telephone elicited silence between the both of you. For a split second, you felt guilty, but at least now she couldn’t blackmail you.

“Oh, you’re gonna pay for that” Riri got up from the couch to walk towards your bedroom to analyze the damage to her phone. You followed her to see if it worked and were shocked to see the shattered front screen. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t expecting it to break,” Riri looked up at you with narrowed eyes, and you braced yourself for what came next.

“You know, you still haven’t returned the favour from yesterday. And now that it seems that I have to get a new phone….” Riri trailed off, too busy hooking her fingers in the band of your shorts to tug you closer. “Oh, I see. So this is what you’ve come all this way for,” you swatted her hands away but didn’t take a step back. Her face was dangerously close to yours, and you could feel her minty breath fan your face. Your heartbeat picked up as the flashbacks from last night clouded your mind. The familiar butterflies returned to remind you of your lust for Riri. You became acutely aware of how close the bed was to both of you, and all that it took was a push from Riri for you to fall on top of the sheets.

“Well, you did say, and I quote, ‘we’re not done yet,’ and I’m just a woman of my word. I would hope you are too” Her hands returned to my waist, and this time you let her. Riri whispered in your ear, “you remember everything that I taught you last night?” her lips grazed against my earlobe and traced down my jaw. Your voice was barely conceivable as you whispered, “Yes.” Riri had a way of making you speechless just by the grace of her touch. She made you forget your words and worries. Subconsciously you moved your head to the side, urging her to go down further, but she paused.

“lay down on the bed for me,” her command was cold but soft. You pulled your head back to make eye contact with her. Riri’s stare was unwavering. She raised her eyebrows, prompting you to listen to her demand, “I’m waiting.” You descended slowly to the clean white sheets and went to the middle of the bed to lay on your side. You were unsure where this was going but still excited to see what she would ask of you next. There was a thrill that came from relinquishing control to Riri. The tension between you is undeniable. Riri broke eye contact briefly to rake over your body, taking in your curves and supple soft skin. She couldn’t decide where she wanted to touch first. To have the girl she’s fantasized about genuinely alone and to herself sent Riri over the edge.

“Are you going to do something or just keep staring?” you rolled your eyes feigning attitude although you were a ball of nerves. Riri took off her sweatshirt, revealing her toned upper body and Nike sports bra. You never knew that Riri was this athletic as she wore loose-fitting clothes to lectures. Last night at the library was just the beginning, now that you had the privacy to do everything that crossed your mind. Riri thought about all the positions she wanted to put you in and the noises she’ll cause you to make.

Riri strolled to your dresser and leaned against it so that she was parallel to you. “I want you to strip, slowly,” Riri said. Your eyes widened from shock. You’ve never stripped for another person before. In many instances, you’ve been the dominant one, but with Riri, that wasn’t the case. “What? I can’t do that” you crossed your arms across your chest to attempt to create a barrier from Riri’s sensual gaze. “Sure you can, or do you need me to help you?” her smile widened with her question. “No- no need, I’m capable of undressing myself” at that moment, you were thankful that you kept your black lace bra on underneath your oversized t-shirt. Otherwise, you already would’ve been left bare.

Unclasping the front of your bra came quickly; luckily, this was the one time you didn’t struggle with it. Your hands shielded your breast from view. The cool air left goosebumps along your skin. “Don’t cover yourself. You’re beautiful,” Riri whispered. You hesitantly dropped your hands for her. Riri’s mouth practically watered at sight. Riri felt the familiar pool of wetness in between her thighs. Watching you half-naked and vulnerable turned her on in ways she couldn’t explain. She badly ached to have you underneath her. Once your shorts are off, exposing the matching pair of panties. Riri could no longer keep her hands to herself. She separated your legs to lay between them, using one hand to massage your nipple and her mouth sucking on the other. The sensation of her tongue raised the hairs on the back of your neck. A barely audible moan escaped your lips as Riri’s fingers traced the outline of your folds. Riri took her time stroking you, running her index and middle finger to gather your slickness to massage your clit. You rolled your hips to urge her to rub against you harder, yet her touch remained gentle. The fabric of your underwear dampened as she continued.

“Fuck” Riri lifted her head from your breasts and lazily dragged her tongue to your neck. Savouring the flavour of your skin as she dipped her two fingers inside you. “Your pussy takes me in so well” Riri was amazed at how wet you could get for her. Her fingers slid in deeper easily, opening your legs wider for Riri to get better access. Riri whispered sweet praises against your lips as her fingers pushed deeper inside you. Internally, Riri felt like it was a sin not to worship your body over and over again. Pressure built within you to the point you were unsure how much longer you could hold out until you spilled over in her palms. “How do you like that?” She muttered in the crane of your collarbone before leaving a mark on your neck with her mouth. Riri’s teeth focused on a particular spot on your nape. Your moans blurred into each other as she increased her pace and began pumping her fingers inside of you with force.

“Oh, I fucking love it. Please keep going.” Your walls clenched around her fingers. Riri let out a low groan from the feeling of your pussy wrapped around her. “That’s it, baby.” She curled her hand slightly, sunk her digits inside, and settled them there. Riri writhed them with every roll and thrust until she found your G spot. You thought to yourself, she’s the best you’ve ever had. But when you opened your eyes to look at Riri, you realized that you might have said it aloud. “Has anyone fucked you like this before?” Riri playfully nipped at your ear before she kissed you in a way you hadn’t experienced before. Riri moved with a need and hunger that none of your past partners possessed. “Only you, Riri,” you moaned against her lips.

Riri watched your face contort and twist in euphoria. No longer able to silence your moans, you began to call out her name. You arched your back to rub your breasts against her chest, and the sensation caused Riri’s nipples to harden. Riri wanted to taste your pussy on her tongue but held off on her desires until she fulfilled yours. She remained relentless while fingering you, ignoring the dull ache from her wrist. Riri was enamoured with you. Your legs began to shake uncontrollably as you felt yourself reach your peak. “I’m cumming” you sobbed into Riri’s shoulder as your cunt dripped off her fingers. It truly felt like, at that moment, the Earth stopped on its axis while you drowned out the room with your noises.

Riri pulled out her fingers, leaving a wet trail on the sheets. She licked up the remnants of your cum off of her, “you taste amazing,” she sighed. You hummed in satisfaction, still fresh with bliss from your orgasm. Riri snaked her arms around you to encase you against her body. She flipped the both of you so that she now laid on her back with you on top of her. Riri’s heartbeat was loud and fast. She tried to slow it down, but the excitement of having you naked flushed against her didn’t help. You glanced up at Riri through your eyelashes and felt a surge of confidence to take the lead. If Riri could tell you what to do, why couldn’t you do the same?

You toyed with the band of her tights, sliding your fingertips along the hems and watching as Riri’s chest rose and fell with each breath she took. “Take these off.” you playfully pulled at the pants making Riri smile at your urgency.

“Since when do you call the shots?” Riri was taken aback by your command. She had always been the giver, the more dominant one of all her partners. She mainly gained pleasure from pleasing others, but that didn’t mean Riri didn’t want you to do the same to her. You ignored her question with your own statement, “We both know you’re good at following instructions.” She laughed at that. Riri enjoyed that you could still banter with her in your most intimate moments. She pushed her hips upwards to pull down her pants and kicked them off the bed. “This too.” you tapped her chest, indicating for Riri to remove her sports bra. Again, you pushed off her to provide space to take it off and couldn’t help but admire her body in all its glory. Once fully exposed, you laid on top of her again, adjusting your limbs so that your center was perfectly aligned. You moaned, “You're already so wet” Riri could cum from the view of you riding her pussy alone. Glancing down where your pussy kisses hers, your wet folds gliding against the other. The movements between you made the most obscene noises.

The sensation of you getting pleasure from Riri pushed her to ecstasy. Her moans filled the room as you grinded against each other tirelessly, trying to increase tension on your clits. “You hear that, baby? Listen to how wet you make me. This pussy is mine.”

Mine. Something about Riri calling you hers made your heart flutter. She gripped your ass as she rolled her hips to keep the rhythm with your body. Thrusting her pussy into you over and over… until the need for release became unbearable. Then, with one last brush over her sensitive bud, Riri’s cum pooled onto the white cashmere sheets. Your name rolled off her lips like she had been on the verge of tears for the first time. In many ways, you are the first to see her in her most precious moments. You cuddled together in the bed with your hands intertwined.

Riri turned onto her side to look at you, “do you know that I couldn’t stop thinking about you last night? I kept daydreaming about you in that skirt, how you struggled to silence your moans. I could barely think straight. I wanted to call you, but I forgot to get your number, so I-“

“So you hacked into MIT's student records? You’re crazy!” You couldn’t help but laugh at it all. It was possible that you could’ve been out of your mind as well because the thought of her rummaging through MIT systems, risking her scholarship to find you, made you even more attracted to her. “You can call me crazy, but I’ll do it all over again to find you.” Her hands caressed your thighs in an attempt to soothe your shaky legs. Your alarm went off, making the both of you jump a bit. The phone blared from the living room. “Our exam results!” You got up so quickly that you almost kicked Riri in the process.

Rushing back into bed, you unlocked your phone to review your results to see that you passed your exam with a 95. Thank God! it wasn’t as bad as you initially thought. Riri gauged your reaction and shyly asked, “So, what did you get?” You felt apprehensive about sharing your grade.

“You tell me yours, and then I’ll tell you mine,” you stated.

Riri rolled her eyes and laughed, “You broke my phone! I can’t see my grades until later.”

“Here, use mine.” You logged out of your student account and handed it over to Riri. You watched her closely as she did so, darting your eyes from her face to the screen. “I got a 95,” she admitted.

“Wait… we got the same grade? How is that possible? Did you complete the bonus question?” the questions came out of you a mile a minute. A big part of you was in disbelief that you shared the same grade with Riri. Finally.

“You got a 95? That’s amazing! I should tutor you more often.” Riri jokingly nudged you with her elbow, with a cocky smile on her face.

“And, to answer your last question, I didn’t bother answering the bonus question,” she shrugged.

“Why?” you asked.

“I’ve learned that just because you know the correct answer to a question doesn’t mean you have to respond,” she said. You felt like you were missing out on crucial information that would’ve helped you understand what she was talking about. However, Riri cut you off before you could even speak. “Look, trust me. I know from experience. Somethings are better left unsaid.” She wasn’t in the mood to discuss Professor Winston's planted question in the exam. Riri was well aware of her mistake of giving too much information about her underwater inventions. The memory of Namor still plagued her dreams. “A scientist should never reveal their secrets” she whispered. Then, looking down at you, Riri promised she would keep yours too.

#riri fic #black panther #wakanda forever #mcu shuri #wakanda forever spoilers #mcu risingoftime #shuri #shuri fic #riri williams smut #riri smut #riri x fem reader #riri x reader #marvel #scissoring smut #wlw smut #ironheart x reader #ironheart #riri x black!reader

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youfreakinturltle · 1 year

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Protect You Pt. 3

(A/N): Okay friends! This is potentially the final part to this series! If y’all would like a part 4 please let me know! I was sorta maybe possibly thinking of a slightly smutty part 4 buuuut idk yet, y’all let me know! There is a slight Skyrim reference so iykyk lol!

Pairing: Colby Brock x ghost!fem!reader

Warnings: you know how it be, some language, mentions of death, mentions of reincarnation, food mentioned, superstition, like one sentence that mentions prostitution (reader’s mother on Nassau), I think that’s it, if I missed anything let me know!

It had now been 2 years since you attached yourself to Colby and started going on adventures with him and his friends. Everywhere he went, you were right beside him, keeping him safe from entities and people alike. While they were still scared during some of these adventures, they were far more comfortable knowing you were there. Especially Colby, who you had grown quite close with during your time together. He had taken to spending every evening once he retired to his room communicating with you. At first it was through writing on the mirror until he decided that wasn’t enough and wanted to actually talk to you.

About a year ago you two had begun talking via the Estes Method with him sitting on his bed, leaving room for you to sit next to him, with headphones and a blindfold on. You told him many tales about your life, all the way from growing up on Nassau with your mother to your final hunt, The Urca de Lima. You once even told him about a flashback you’d had to your childhood one day that made you finally realize who exactly your father was - none other than Captain Hornigold himself. He could faintly make out the sound of you crying telling him this, making his heart break realizing just how upset you were. That was the only time where you two had been able to touch by Colby reaching out to you. He was so hurt from hearing you so sad, he unthinkingly reached his hand out to place it on top of yours. By some miracle, he did indeed touch your hand. It was a quick, fleeting feeling, but it meant the world to the both of you. You, who hadn’t felt a person’s touch in centuries, and he, who was beginning to feel his heart ache from being so close to you, but never being able to see or touch you. That was about six months ago now.

Since that day you slowly began to realize that you were no longer simply here to protect him, which was still highly important to you, but you were beginning to feel things you hadn’t since you died. The last time you felt this way was for none other than John Silver, the man who stole Captain Flint’s Urca de Lima map and somehow became one of The Walrus’ most valued crew members. You were beginning to fall in love with Colby. While it filled you with joy to spend every day with him, keeping him safe, it also broke your heart to know you could never truly be with him. And sitting in the back of your mind was knowing that he could never possibly feel that way about a ghost.

One day the two of you were sitting in the living room with Sam, Jake, and Corey, watching a show you learned was called “Family Guy”. Next to you, Colby kept an earbud in that was connected to the spirit box in his pocket so you could talk to him any time you wanted. All you had to do was give him a tap on the arm and he would reach into his pocket and turn it on. After about the fifth time of this, the others began to notice.

“What are you doing man, getting the scores for the game or something?” asked Corey.

Colby laughed and tried to wave him off, but it seemed the guys were on a roll.

“Or are you maybe talking to (Y/N) again?” asked Jake with a cheeky grin.

“And what if I were? That a problem?” Colby asked with a laugh.

“Nah, no problem, just starting to think you might have a crush.” The guys began laughing while Colby glanced in your direction.

“Ha ha, very funny guys, stop before you make her uncomfortable.”

You were beginning to squirm, hoping Colby wouldn’t take them too seriously. You weren’t sure if you could handle that quite yet, truth be told, you were just coming to terms with having these feelings at all. Let alone be able to convey that to him yet. Before your thoughts could travel any further you hear Corey say, “Why would that make (Y/N) uncomfortable? I mean unless she has a crush on you too.”

Jake and Corey laugh with each other while Sam scolds them about being inappropriate. Colby begins shifting in his seat like he’s uncomfortable as well. You give him a minute to say something, anything, every second your anxiety growing.

When you start to think he won’t say anything at all, he turns to you and did quite possibly the worst thing he could’ve done, “(Y/N)… do you…?”

Your eyes all but bulge out of your head before you shoot up off the couch and run to Colby’s room, slamming the door shut behind you, praying he would leave you be. You look around the room for a moment and your eyes land on the shelf he had put up for you, filled with things he had gotten for you on his adventures, claiming, “it just doesn’t seem right that this is our room now and it’s only filled with my stuff. You deserve things too.” Thinking back on your times together, you begin to cry, not realizing it until you felt the tears streaming down your face. Behind you, the door opens and closes quietly and without turning around you know exactly who it is.

“I’m so sorry, (Y/N). I didn’t mean to upset you in any way. I’ve got the spirit box on still if you want to talk to me. If you don’t I completely understand. Would you like to be left alone for a while or is it okay if I stay?”

You took a moment to collect yourself and told him he can stay, to come sit with you. Settling in next to each other on the bed, you realized it’d never been this awkward between the two of you. You’d always had this comfortable air together. You just wanted this uneasy feeling to go away. Before you could speak up though, Colby says, “I’m not sure how you feel about this, but I can’t keep it in any longer. (Y/N), I like you. More than I probably should, but I don’t care about what they say or think, I only care about what you think. I know it would never really work between us, but I can’t deny how I feel. I’m falling in love with you, (Y/N). If that makes you uncomfortable please tell me. I just- I couldn’t-“

Whatever he was trying to say was cut off by a little sob. You whipped your head around to look at him and realized he was crying. You reached your hand up to wipe his tears away, momentarily forgetting that you can’t, so instead you opt for cradling his face gently in your hands. He seemed to be able to feel, or at least tell, that you were touching him. Smiling at you, he opened his mouth to speak again before you cut him off.

“I love you too. It scares me, but I do. I don’t know what to do or say, but all I know is that I love you and I would spend the rest of eternity fighting to protect you.”

He is staring at you wide eyed now, his eyes filled with happiness, relief, and an overwhelming amount of love. You almost pull away from the unfamiliarity of it, but decide against it. Leaning forward you rest your forehead against his and close your eyes, reveling in the knowledge that he does share your feelings, it isn’t completely one sided this time. Riding your high of happiness and relief, you hesitantly ask him, “Can I try something…?”

“Of course.”

You slowly lean forward until you gently feel your lips ghosting over his. For a moment, you feel a wave of warmth flow over you before you realize, you can feel him. You can actually feel him! He seems to realize this quickly and taking advantage of the fleeting moment of your corporeality, he kisses you back. You cling to one another as long as you’re able before you feel yourself beginning to fade again.

The airy laugh he lets out matches your own. You’re both so happy you don’t know what to do with yourselves past whispering words of love and affection to one another until Colby eventually falls asleep. Following your nightly routine, you lie down next to him and close your eyes. Even though you can’t actually sleep, it’s nice to feel that little bit of normalcy.

Something about this night is different though. Because one moment you’re laying next to Colby with your hand resting atop his, and the next you’re standing in a dark void. You begin to panic, thinking you’re finally moving on.

“No, no, nonono. This can’t be happening. Not now! Please not now!!”

“Do not worry, my child. I would never do such a thing to you.”

Turning around, you quickly take up a defensive position. You see a woman standing in front of you. She’s tall, beautiful, and dressed in a flowing white dress with her burgundy tresses flowing gracefully past her shoulders.

“Who are you?” You ask, your voice echoing out into the void.

“My name is Mara, goddess of love and compassion. I watched over you through your tragic life. I’m so sorry that all happened to you, my love.”

“So I had an actual goddess watching over me and I still died like that? Regardless of that, it’s been over 300 years now, why are you just now showing up? Do you have any idea how alone I felt all that time?!”

“I know, my child, I know. Again, I’m so sorry. But given my position, there was nothing I could do regarding your death for that is not my domain. But I was able to negotiate with the goddess of death into allowing you reincarnation. You were meant to reincarnate and find John again in your next life if you had passed on as intended. Though it seems I failed to take into account how hard headed you are!” She finished with a twinkling, airy laugh.

“If you’re here to offer me reincarnation now, I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to decline. I like things how they are now. I’m finally happy. I don’t want to leave Colby. He needs me, he needs my protection.”

Mara smiles at you in understanding and continues, “I know, darling. I’m here with a new offer. Become my champion, and you may return to Colby. Not as a spirit, but as a person. Does that sound alright?”

“…and what would becoming your champion entail?”

“Simply doing as you are now. Rid the world of any demons or evil entities you come across. Spread love and compassion to all that you meet. Do this, and you may spend your life with your love.”

You don’t hesitate for a moment before agreeing to her terms. You had already come to terms with the fact that you would do anything for him, to be with him. And like she said, it was already what you were doing. So long as Colby was safe and uninvolved in any divine deal you made, you’d do anything.

Mara smiled at you and pulled you in for a hug. “Should you ever need me, all you need to is ask. I look forward to watching your happiness. I love you dearly, my child.”

You open your eyes to see light shining through the windows and look down at yourself. Not only realizing that you were actually asleep, but you have a body! A tangible, corporeal body! You roll over to see Colby sleeping soundly next to you and reach a hand up to graze his cheek. You’re over the moon feeling his warmth seep into your fingertips. He begins to stir and you contemplate pulling your hand away to allow him more sleep, but decide against it, too excited to see how he would react.

His beautiful blue eyes begin to flutter open and land on you immediately. He lets out a yelp and jumps up into a seated position. Giggling, you look up at his bewildered face as he whispers, “…(Y/N)? How is this possible? Is this real? Am I still dreaming??”

Sitting up, you take his hand in yours and say, “I’m real, Colby. I’m really here. It’s me, (Y/N). It’s a long story, but I swear to you, it’s all true. I’m really here and I’m not disappearing again. I promise.”

As you speak, he seems to believe you and tears begin streaming down his face. Before you can say any more he pulls you into his arms, clinging tightly to you. You wrap your arms around him, taking in the new, yet distantly familiar feeling. You spend the entirety of the day locked away in his room, watching movies and holding onto each other like you would disappear at any moment. He ordered lots of food the moment you two had collected yourself as you both realized you hadn’t eaten in a very long time. To say the least, it was the best day you’d had in centuries.

When you felt yourself starting to get tired, you clung to Colby even tighter, your anxiety seeping back into your mind. Slightly fearful that today hadn’t been real. You feel Colby pull you closer as he reminds you that everything would be okay with a slow, sweet kiss. Smiling, you snuggle in closer to him, feeling if you were any closer you’d be one.

Next thing you know, you’re waking up to your second day back in the physical world. Realizing the day before hadn’t been a dream, you’re over the moon knowing you get to spend the rest of your new life with Colby as his significant other, rather than just his spiritual protector.

#colby brock imagine #colby Brock x reader #sam and colby #colby brock x y/n #Colby Brock x ghost!reader #fan fiction #Colby Brock #pirate!reader #ghost!reader #protect you series

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tooloudamind · 8 months

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I know that the fateful Final Fifteen of Good Omens S2 has been analysed to death and that there have been countless metas about the same (of which I may have missed some, so please direct me to any that may help answer my questions), but I'm still wondering what else Aziraphale could possibly have done at the end of S2 other than accept the Metatron's offer. I do interpret GO2's ending as being somewhere between “Aziraphale regressed completely to his S1 mentality” and “Aziraphale pushed Crowley away on purpose as part of his game of 4D chess”.

As we saw, the Metatron enters the bookshop apparently just in the nick of time, when Michael is making (empty? did Aziraphale have any way of knowing that, until the Metatron butted in?) threats of erasing Aziraphale's name from the Book of Life. I find this transition extremely jarring, as most of you probably did— what important part of the conversation did we miss, after Gabriel and Beelzebub and the other demons left, for us to jump directly to Michael re-asserting her earlier resolution of Extreme Sanctions? When did Crowley become sprawled over, almost immobile in Aziraphale’s armchair? Were Aziraphale or Crowley going to do anything about the threat that was currently being made to Aziraphale's life? These are all things that make my plot brain itch. But if there’s any purpose for this abrupt turn of events, it’s to emphasise this— Aziraphale's existence as he knows it is coming to an end (the “precious, peaceful, fragile existence” he had carved out with Crowley— which Crowley himself had called fragile for a reason), and there’s nothing he or Crowley can do about it. He is at a crossroads, and it is at this point that the Metatron approaches with a coffee— and makes it clear to Aziraphale as to exactly which options are available to him.

Even so, Aziraphale's first reaction upon hearing that he was to be appointed as Supreme Archangel was to say, right to the Metatron's face, that he didn't want to go back to Heaven (which btw, S1 Aziraphale could never. I'm so proud of my bby for coming this far) He really only seems to become amenable to the offer when the Metatron brings up the possibility of re-instating Crowley— and even then, we don't get to see Aziraphale's reaction in the moment, only the excitement that he later projects towards Crowley. When Aziraphale all giddily tells Crowley that he, Aziraphale, might have misjudged the Metatron— it probably is less because he’s getting something like a gold star from Heaven and more because Crowley’s getting the gold star, so to speak. I’ve been seeing about how Neil wrote in the flashback that GO2 started with, after he wrote the ending and realised there needed to be a reason to care— and the revelation that Aziraphale really did know the angel that Crowley once was, does put everything about the ending into more context (so that’s just brilliant). We know that Aziraphale has seen Crowley at his most carefree, and that Aziraphale was also always the one who was more cautious about Heaven. Many have theorised that in Aziraphale’s eyes, Heaven’s greatest failing was that it sentenced Crowley, of all angels, to Fall— Crowley, the once-angel whose inherent goodness wasn’t extinguished even when his essential nature as a demon forbade it (or at least, according to the propaganda that Aziraphale has been fed for all his existence)— and I do think it might have been the first in a long, long row of dominoes that were set to fall.

When the Metatron made his (clearly insincere) offer to undo Crowley’s Fall, Aziraphale might have clung onto it as a glimmer of hope that Heaven was indeed capable of righting its wrongs. Why would Aziraphale have reason to suspect that Crowley would react as badly as he did? From his point of view, and even from that of the audience, Crowley had always seemed at odds with his apparent demonhood and the fact that he even had to Fall. From Aziraphale’s point of view, Crowley won’t have to pretend to be a “bad demon” anymore— he can just do good (and be with Aziraphale), openly, without fearing for the consequences. Yet, even when the Metatron sends Aziraphale off after their little chinwag, he still doesn’t match the enthusiasm with which he confronts Crowley. Had he psyched himself up for the sole purpose of appealing to Crowley? (… ouch.) And Aziraphale has had a listening problem all season, often distracted from whatever Crowley’s trying to say, but here it comes into play worse than ever. Crowley reiterates that they’re “on their own side” to Aziraphale in the most explicit way he has since the bandstand in S1, but this seems to fly over Aziraphale’s head almost entirely, with Aziraphale then proceeding to make exactly the same offer to Crowley except in terms of the Metatron’s newly proposed status quo. It’s as if Aziraphale didn’t want to consider any other possibility where Crowley and he could continue being together— or couldn’t.

I think that Aziraphale really wanted to make the best of a bad situation, and for Crowley to come with him, emotional baggage be damned. (Otherwise, he wouldn’t have tried so hard to stop Crowley leaving.)

And a bad situation it is— let’s lay out all the cards on the table, shall we? Aziraphale and Crowley were left alone by their respective ex-employers only because they’d scared both sides enough with their body swap shenanigans. The implied precondition, of course, is that they wouldn’t further meddle in the business of Heaven and Hell— confirmed when Gabriel and Beelzebub are explicitly given this ultimatum, and they decide to fuck off together and find their freedom in Alpha Centauri. Meanwhile, Aziraphale and Crowley have already exhausted their first, and only, strike— and Michael seems to have found another threat that seems dangerously effective. (Really, though, for all Aziraphale thinks Crowley could even bear to return to Heaven as an angel— does Crowley think Aziraphale will ever be content leaving the Earth and its denizens to the tender mercies of Heaven and Hell? Have those two ever been able to go without sticking their noses where they’re not supposed to, for all Crowley pretends not to care? Heaven and Hell already had more reason to chase down Aziraphale and Crowley than they ever had for Gabriel and Beelzebub.) They were at the end of their road, and Crowley knew it as well as Aziraphale did— except Aziraphale was in denial the entire season and Crowley revived his fantasy of them running away together that he only ever brings up when they’re literally in an end-of-the-world situation. Did the Metatron threaten Crowley? He might have— but the question is, does he even need to do that?

The Metatron isn’t negotiating. Michael may not have the authority to edit the Book of Life, but if that authority does rest with anyone, it’s with the Metatron. This isn’t a choice that Aziraphale can merely walk away from, and he knows it. Who would choose death over coffee, if given the choice— if that can even be called a choice? “So predictable”, as the Metatron says.

Still, after Crowley kisses Aziraphale back to his senses, Aziraphale is on the verge of throwing all caution to the wind anyway. The Metatron divulges to him for what exactly it is that Heaven is taking Aziraphale back into its clutches, and Aziraphale exchanges a single, vulnerable look with Crowley which could say a million different things— You were right—I wish you were with me—or is it just a goodbye? And then he gets in the elevator anyway, and flashes the creepiest smile we’ve ever gotten from Aziraphale during the entirety of the show. To me, this is the demented expression of a not-man who is realising he has absolutely nothing to lose.

Personally, I think that Heaven won’t know what hit them.

#good omens #good omens 2 #good omens meta #aziraphale #ineffable husbands #ineffable divorce #good omens 2 spoilers #hoping for BAMF!aziraphale in good omens 3

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miss0atae · 3 months

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Random thoughts about Dead Friend Forever episode 9:

Damn! I was waiting for today to get this new episode and I wasn't disappointed. It was such a ride again.

▪️ First of all, we need to talk about Tan... or should I say New?! Of course, it wasn't exactly a surprise because many people already guessed he was Non's brother, but we just didn't know who he was until now. I guess he looked pretty bland in the first episodes and then when we got to the flashback we didn't see him yet because he wasn't among the group when they bullied Non. Who would have thought, he would lied about his age to get in school, lied to his parents about being in England and basically being the mastermind behind the revenge against the group? I thought Phee would be the mastermind because he wanted to avenge the man he loved, but he was merely a follower. Tan/New is the one who wants revenge and he won't stop until he gets to know the truth. He doesn't mind pretending to be someone else and drugging all of them just to have answers. He is kind of unhinged and it's pretty understandably because he lost everything. I felt so bad for him because he feels guilty about not being a good brother enough to Non, but also not being a good enough son when he decided to lie to his parents to continue his quest in learning the truth. He doesn't know how to cope with the loss and the grieve he feels too (he lost his all family, how can you deal with that?!). It was heartbroken to see him slowly falling into madness because of all those emotions.

▪️ This episode not only centered around Tan/New and his family but also around Phee and his complicated relationship with Jin and Non. We saw that Phee avoided Non after he caught him with cop Keng. It took him a while to cool down before deciding to find Non and discovering his disappearance. That's how he met Tan/New who knew Non and Phee had a thing. They decided to team up to find the truth after reading the script he wrote for the short movie and how different it was from the final production. In this episode, Phee looked more like a follower into Tan/New's quest. He wants to know the truth but he is also torn between this revenge and his growing feelings for Jin. Indeed, he became close to him because he noticed how Jin reacted every time they mentioned Non but it is shown he started to feel something too. Even Tan noticed it and Phee had to brush it off by saying he still loves and misses Non. It must have been hard for him. I don't think caring for Jin meant he didn't care for Non. However, it is sure Tan/New would have not like it. So Phee rejected Jin by saying they were just friends, hurting his feeling. Too bad for Jin, he also learnt at that time about the fake news (because it is fake) about Non and Keng.

▪️ I know Jin did some really bad things to Non. He never really helped him when he was bully by the others and he filmed him (even if he didn't posted online, it was still a bad move). I almost forgot but he also lied about Non, not being with them (stupid move again). The story is not trying to paint him as a saint but at the same time, you can see it is also trying to make us like him. At least, it is working with me. I still feel really bad for Non. Poor Non never deserve anything that happened to him. However, I still want Jin to be able to redeem himself in any way. He had an instant attraction to Phee the first time he saw him (which I understand because Ta Nannakun is very handsome). He felt hard for him. Phee took him to the same lake he went with Non and that's where he told Jin he only bring people he likes over there . Even if at that time they were still "friends" I think it made Jin feel like he had a chance to become boyfriends. It led to their NC scene which was fierce. They were also a little kinky (Jin, I didn't know you weren't only vanilla). Good for them! After that, Phee became distant to Jin and to avoid being hurt they stopped being close until the present time where they went to Por's house.

▪️ In the present time, Phee almost told the truth to Jin. They still have lingering feelings for each other. It seems like it is eating away Phee's mind and Jin still don't understand why they can't be more. I almost choked when he thought Phee had something with Tan. Yeah they are working together to know what your group of a****** friends did to Non, but their relationship is strictly professional, don't worry Jin. That's where Jin started to hallucinate again, still feeling deeply guilty about Non. Phee didn't get to tell him the truth. I can't wait to know how he will react and what impact it is going to have for their relationship. I believe they are supposed to be end-game, but the series surprised me a lot so the dice are not cast, yet.

▪️ Back into the present time where Top drug-induced was beating Tee up until White (long time no see precious baby!) knocked him out. At the same time, Tan is fighting against Fluke who was also drugged. Basically everyone is drugged because it was Tan's plan all along so they would reveal the truth. I laughed when Phee asked Tan/New "This is not deadly, isn't it?" and it answered "This won't kill them". Guess what Por, you're just collateral damage. Opps! Well, he won't be missed. Tan/New probably didn't anticipating his little experience with hallucinating herbs would end up this way. It shows you must really think of everything before taking things into your own hands. The plan is not going into the right direction. It worked too well. They were really scared and thought they were cursed. So, is the killer real or is it just hallucination? If it's the case... does it mean the driver is not really dead? If he is dead, does it mean Tan/New created this trap and killed him? I'm not sure Tan/New thought about really killing anyone... Otherwise how could he get his answer?

The noose is tightening as we approach the end of the series. The next episode won't come out fast enough. I already can't wait to know the rest of the story.

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sanjithesimp · 1 year

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♡ secrets ft. itadori yuuji ♡

a/n: idk where this idea came from but i might do a second part hehe.

w.c: 889 words

warnings*: nsfw (minors DNI).(all characters are aged up). cheating. unprotected sex. masturbation. fingering. alcohol mention.*

summary: you were taking a hot shower after a long day of exorcizing curses, you felt your muscles relax and you let your mind drift. some flashbacks came to your mind, from a few months ago. when megumi was on a mission, when it all started…

playlist suggested to listen while you read this

you were taking a hot shower after a long day of exorcizing curses, you felt your muscles relax and you let your mind drift. some flashbacks came to your mind, from a few months ago. when megumi was on a mission, when it all started…

yuuji and you were a few of the students that stayed behind. you both were alone and you were missing megumi more than ever. you knew it shouldn’t have happened but it did.

it was a cold night, after a mission you decided to go and get a few drinks, and even though you could handle alcohol, this time it was a bit more than the usual. yuuji was drunk too so you decided to go back together to your rooms.

if only you hadn’t had the last couple of shots…you walked and tripped until you finally were back at the school. you prayed that sensei yaga or someone saw you both in that state.

“stay” you whispered, as yuuji was helping you inside your room.

“it’s late, you should get some sleep” he said, as tucked you in your bed but you tugged his arm.

“please..stay” you insisted, even though you would probably regret it later.

you knew yuuji had a thing for you since the day they went to harajuku’s station to pick you up. you would never admit it out loud but you also liked him since you saw him that day. but once you really got to know megumi, you fell in love with him and after a few months you started dating. your feelings for yuuji faded away.

but right now, in the state you were, those feelings came back. and you couldn’t hide them anymore.

as yuuji laid beside you, you turned to face him and without hesitation you started kissing him. his arms wrapped around you to pull you closer, he dreamed about this so many times but it was so wrong, in so many ways. you were his best friend’s girlfriend, and you were making out in megumi’s room, but he couldn’t deny how much he wanted this to happen.

you started taking off each others clothes, until there was no fabric in between you. he admired your body for a moment, taking it all in and memorizing every inch of your skin, taking in your warmth.

“what are you waiting for?” you asked him as his eyes were wide open, you giggled as he kept on looking at you. you were still very drunk and needy, so you couldn’t wait any longer.

and within seconds, yuuji had changed positions by him being on top of you. “are you sure you want to do this?” he asked you as you both knew what it implied, but at this point you didn’t care. you just needed him to fuck you and make you forget all about megumi being far away.

his kisses were soft, as his hands roamed through your body, taking a handful of your ass while the other one pinched your nipple. cute moans and whimpers escaped your mouth, making yuuji impossibly harder than he already was, you could feel his cock pressing against your cunt.

“aren’t you going to stick it in?” yuuji smirked at how bold you were, never hiding how horny you were. he wanted to fuck you, but not just yet, he wanted to enjoy it as much as he could.

“not just yet…you aren’t ready for it” then you took a peak at his cock, it was indeed bigger than you expected, making you audibly gasp just by the thought of being filled with it.

his fingers slipped inside of you, you were already wet, he groaned at how tight your walls were around his thick fingers. he pumped them in and out of you, the squelching sounds as well as your moans were music to yuuji’s ears.

your slick was running down your thighs all the way to the messy sheets, you were almost too close to your orgasm and he hadn’t even slipped his cock inside you. it was heaven, it was even better that what you had imagined.

“yu- fuck me..right now” you whispered in his ear, your nails clawing at his back. once he heard those words there was no turning back, it was as if something had switched inside him.

“spit on it” he said, and you did so. he then pumped his cock a few times before slipping it inside you, until every inch of him filled you up completely. his tip pressing your g-spot every time he thrusted in and out of you…

he made you cum so many times that you had lost count, and your legs gave out. all those times you sneaked into his room after classes, all those nights you fucked on the beach and swore this would be your little secret.

you heard some steps approaching to the shower, you had caught yuuji a few times watching you as you took a shower so you started to touch yourself.

“are you going to just stand there and do nothing, or come fuck me right now…” you say as you continued rubbing your sensitive clit, your back arching as you slipped your fingers deeper inside you. you moaned softly.

“babe, i’m back” you jumped, hearing megumi’s voice.

likes, comments and reblogs are appreciated

#i enjoyed writing this a LOT #@tumblr and whoever ruined my post #im not going to be defeated #reposting my little fic hehe #hope yall enjoy it #megumi smut #fushiguro smut #megumi x reader #megumi x y/n #yuuji itadori x you #yuuji smut #yuuji itadori x reader #jjk smut #jujutsu kaisen x reader

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sea-creature-things · 3 months

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Grimwalker things

Chapter 3: Eyes

This chapter deals with grimwalker's magenta-red eyes and it is angsty. Writing angst was very fun, I'm hoping it turned out well.

This one took a surprisingly long time to make... I struggled a little with letting everyone shine and not getting trapped in the Noceda-siblings-pitfall. This one also has a lot of flashbacks so i hope the timeline is still clear.

Next chapter will be wholesome again!

Read here below the cut or on AO3 with this link:

Gus was lying on his couch-bed in the basement, with Hunter next to him on his mattress. It was long past bedtime, but neither of them were even close to sleeping. For Hunter this was just another Tuesday, but Gus should’ve been off to dreamland by now.

He just had too many things floating around in his brain.

It had been a little over a month now. Gus thought they had acclimated quite well to the Human realm. He was proud of his new understanding and expertise.

Luz had taken them to so many exciting places! The movies, the supermarket, human picnics, an ice cream shop. That last one was a little weird for them. Ice was supposed to scream, but here it was just lying there.

Gus knew their food was different, he just never imagined how different. The flavours were so rich and there was a LOT of sugar. In everything actually, not just the ice cream. Even though the witches couldn’t digest certain things, Gus loved human food.

He especially fawned over the fastfood restaurants. It was absolute insanity to him. Restaurants in the Boiling Ilse were supposed to be fancy, they were an experience.

Gus and his dad would always go for special occasions. Those places attracted illusionists, who made the room just a little more special. Making glasses sparkle, making flowers float around or giving the room a golden glow.

He missed that so much, but he was sure they would do it again soon. They'd celebrate saving The Ilses by going to the fanciest restaurant they could find!

Not this otherworldly 'McDonald' thing. Although, he would love to show his dad some day. It was honestly amazing how the place handled food. And it was very fast indeed!

The group also returned to the mall a couple times. Gus had taken it upon himself to show his buddy around. Hunter had missed their first opportunity, and while Gus totally understood, he was still bummed.

So, he’d looked around with a guide-perspective in mind. After he got over his initial excitement of course. The mall was so unbelievable big, it felt like the shops were endless. It was a little overwhelming. The Demon realm markets had nothing on the mall. Luz was so amazing for doing all of that for him, for all of them.

Camila was just as adamant as her daughter about keeping them all happy. She took such good care of them.

Gus had never missed a mother in his life. It was always him and his dad against the world and he loved that. But Camila had become a second or third parent to all of them so quickly. It was… it was impressive honestly.

The more he missed his dad, the more he sought comfort by Camila. And she gave it to him so readily. She fed his love for human things, encouraged him about the portal and kept his hopes up.

She was a lot like Hunter in that way. They let him be scared and sad, before comforting him.

Just a few hours ago Camila offered to have a movie night! They had done that before and everyone was excited. This time though, she suggested they watch Jurassic Park, because Gus and Hunter had loved that fossil book so much.

The boys were absolutely enthralled. They loved the technology, the characters and of course all the dinosaurs. Amity and Willow didn’t care for it, but were amused all the same.

Vee proudly explained all the special effects, but still got a little quiet when the T-rex tried to break the car. Willow helped by bumping their shoulders and asking how she thought that part worked.

Gus loved hearing about the human’s version of illusion magic.

Luz had seen the movies many times before. She called it a classic, but kept interrupting with spoilers. It got to the point where Gus and Hunter would shush her whenever she opened her mouth.

When there was a tense scene with the kids and two velociraptors, Luz wanted to assure them the characters would be fine. She only got the first few syllables of her sentence out.

“Don’t worry-“

Hunter, who had been sitting next to the spoiler grinch the entire time, wrapped his arm around her shoulder and clasped his hand over her mouth. He pushed her against him to prevent her from escaping.

“Luz shut up!”

He had been too immersed in the movie to really think about his actions. If his mind wasn’t so full of dinos, he would’ve been worried about Camila sitting right there. Or Luz herself being uncomfortable. But he never had to worry either way.

Luz burst out in a muffled, uncontrollable laugh.

“I swear to Titan…” Hunter growled with as much amusement as actual annoyance. He shook her back and forth. She laughed even harder and slapped her knee.

Hunter finally let her go and she melted into the couch in a fit of giggles. Some poorly constructed sentence about their obsession with the movie somehow escaped her lips.

He hadn’t noticed it before, but everyone around him was cracking up too. Gus grabbed him from the couch so they wouldn’t miss the end of the chase scene.

Luz clearly wasn’t wrong. They had been fanboying through the entire movie and it didn’t stop after the credits rolled.

They’d kept their excitement up all the way through their bed-time routine. And had still not calmed down when they got downstairs. They recreated scenes from the movie with dramatic vigour, which wasn’t hard for an illusion witch.

Gus even made some really convincing velociraptors with his magic. Who chased the duo around while they pretended to be Ian Malcolm and Alan Grant.

They were making quite the ruckus and eventually got told off. Amity yelled from the top of the stairs to be quiet, causing Luz and Willow to shuffle her off to bed. And after laughing about that too, the boys finally settled down.

She was right of course. It was late and the girls were trying to sleep. Gus tried to do the same, not wanting to mess up his sleep schedule. But he ended up just lying there, thinking.

Hunter said it would be “one of those nights” and grabbed a book instead. Even with the fairy lights, the room was rather dark. Perfect for sleeping, just not for reading. Gus wasn’t going to question it though. That was a conversation for another day.

Or was now the perfect time?

It was late at night. They were cozy and warm. Hunter had finally gotten comfortable enough to relax with him. Gus had even seen him go to sleep earlier than him a couple times.

But not tonight. It was “one of those nights” after all. So yeah, it was a bad idea.

They had ‘deep talks’ before, but this was a difficult one to have, even on a good day. He wouldn’t want Hunter to lose his comfort, to disturb his brand new peace.

But he still couldn’t sleep! He had to talk about something.

“The human realm is pretty cool huh?”

“Absolutely.” Hunter smiled. He put the book aside to give his buddy his full undivided attention. Gus loved when he did that.

“I mean, that movie!” Gus magicked a T-rex with hearts and sparkles above his head. “So cool!”

“I know right!” Hunter was ready to go an another fanboy rant. “The part where the T-rex defeats a velociraptor?! and then the roar— and then the banner falls down!”

“Peak cinema!” Gus quoted Luz and they both laughed.

Their human friend hadn’t been talking about tonight’s movie. But she used the phrase a lot, so now Gus did as well.

"Yeah, I kinda like this place.” Hunter smiled down at his hands. But then seemed a little frazzled and quickly continued talking. “N-Not that I don’t like our own realm, or-"

"No I get it.” He interrupted him and Hunter relaxed again. Gus moved to lay on his side, looking down at his bro.

“I was worried that I wouldn't be able to enjoy the human world, with the way we got here,” Gus said. He couldn’t help the pain that seeped into his voice with that last part. Hunter’s expression softened even further, Gus didn’t think that was even possible. “but I have. I really, really have."

"Me too." Hunter bumped his fist into the witch’s shoulder, making him sway back and forth with a giggle. “And we’ll find a way back eventually.”

“Of course!” Gus wasn’t worried about that. Those feelings came and went like waves, but right now his hopes were high. “We’re gonna get that portal working.”

He felt their conversation coming to an end. He was definitely not done talking.

“You know what else is peak cinema?”

“What?”

“The actual cinema!” Gus bounced up, sitting on his knees and pumping his fists excitedly. “You remember when we went there? That movie was so funny! And that big box of popcorn was really delicious, you’re just hit with that smell when you walk in!”

“Shhhh,” his friend tried to calm him. “Amity might yell at you again.”

“She yelled at us, Hunter.” Gus made a pointed hand movement between the two of them. “She yelled at us.”

“Alright, alright.” Hunter snorted. “But you should still settle down.”

“Fffffine…” Gus laid back down on his side, hoping Hunter had not caught onto him yet. “Oh! Do you remember that picnic we had?”

“Um yes?” Hunter looked at him a little confused.

“We went to that field with the hill and we were able to use our magic because there weren’t any humans around.”

“Yeah, I remember,” Hunter deadpanned. “That was last week.”

“And then there’s the time we-“

“Gus.”

“The time we went rafting. And we-“

“Gus.”

“… Yeah?”

“Go to sleep!” Hunter snorted as he pushed his full palm into the witch’s face. Gus made an offended noise when he was pushed onto his back.

“You’re one to talk.” He crossed his arms with a huff.

“That’s…” Hunter pointed a finger in the air, but lost his gusto pretty fast. “That’s fair. How about we both try to sleep? See who gets there first.”

“You’re on!” Gus was determined to beat him. But fair was fair, he had to actually try to sleep.

Hunter couldn’t help the smirk that formed on his face. Did he really think he could win from an insomniac?

Well, he should at least try.

Soon enough, he was the one just lying there, thinking. He could hear steady breathing next to him. The younger boy had lost as predicted.

Gus had a point though, Luz had led them through all sorts of crazy activities. Hunter’s memories of the ‘rafting’ thing were both fond and extremely unpleasant.

He felt powerful while steering the boat. It was like steering an airship, one of the very few things he missed from home.

Gus, Amity and Vee were very frightened. It was stupid, but he liked being the protective one for once. He was usually the one that needed comforting, so it was a nice change of pace.

Willow was looking fierce as always, but Hunter could tell she was secretly afraid too. Or at the very least worried. Him and Luz were the only ones actually enjoying the River Rapids.

It helped that he knew it was safe. As rough as the river looked, the real speed wasn’t anything special. They had all experienced much worse back home. On top of that, Luz had assured them that Human water wasn’t boiling.

It was fully confirmed after Amity fell in the river…

They all freaked out, her girlfriend most of all. She almost dove in after her. Luckily, Amity knew how to swim. Hunter and Willow steered the boat towards a sand bar, so they could reunite with their fallen comrade.

“Omigosh Amity!” Luz ran towards her, hugging the drenched witch. “Are you okay?!”

“Yes, don’t worry Batata.” Amity smiled. “I’m fine! The water here is harmless right?”

“Yes of course!” Luz answered like it was the most obvious thing ever. She never learned what it took to make a lake or river back home safe to swim in. “I know my super awesome girlfriend is not going down by the likes of the River Rapids.”

The couple twirled each other around, laughing like the idiots-in-love that they were. Gus, Vee and Willow cooed at their overly-sweet display and voiced their own happiness over the fact that Amity was fine.

“The Blight survives another day.” Hunter congratulated her, after hoisting the boat out of the water enough for it to stay put.

“Ha-ha,” Amity punched him lightly in the stomach, “I can see you trying to come up with some dumb joke already.”

“I’m just saying…” Hunter smirked. “You can never call me a wet cat ever again!”

He gestured to her state of being. Not a single person could deny she looked like a soaking cat. If Ghost fell in the river instead, the differences would be impossible to find.

Judging by the snickers and giggles that erupted, he was right. Gus made a set of neon blue cat-ears appear on Amity’s head. Which made Willow and Vee burst out in a roaring cackle.

“Awwww~” Luz covered her mouth, trying to hide that her adoration was turning into a laugh.

Amity turned beet red. That face was a common occurrence, but it was still amazing. Ever. Single. Time. The abomination witch swatted the illusion away and turned to Hunter with a fury he hadn’t seen in a while.

She had chased him around with a purple ball of fire, while he ran with rowdy laughter.

Now that Hunter thought back, those memories were mostly fond. He felt so happy and free. He was surrounded by an incredible amount of warmth.

He almost felt like a normal kid.

But the feeling never lasted. Normal was just not in the cards for him. Everything reminded him of that.

The few books on Grimwalkers he was able to find were burned into his memory. The pages haunted him, but realisations of what they meant still snuck up. And when it inevitably did, anxiety and panic would seep into his skin.

It had been the usual reason for his insomnia the first few weeks in this house. Amongst other things. But he went from sleeping due to complete exhaustion, to sleeping because he wanted to. Well, sometimes.

Nowadays, it was mostly the nightmares that send him back into the hopeless feelings he’s grown so accustomed to.

It always started the same.

Golden masks on a dark forest floor, bleeding into the grass. Bones scattered everywhere. Fog blocking his view.

Then cracks would form, first in the masks, then in the ground itself. Hands would rise from them, decaying hands, clawing at his feet, gripping his legs.

Then he fell.

A large fissure widened right underneath him. The hands dragged him further down. Dirt and blood spilled into his mouth, filled his eyes, clogged his ears. The earth gave way and he fell. He fell right back into his hands.

Hunter woke up in a cold sweat.

He shot upright, his eyes wouldn’t open, his mouth felt dry from the mud, he still couldn’t hear anything! He desperately clawed around him, trying to find an escape. His breathing hitched, was there still earth in his throat?

He tried to cough it out, but there was no resistance. His lungs heaved and his head spun. He kept grabbing and scratching and clawing. But all he felt were soft blankets and a cold wooden floor.

His right hand slammed against something hard. His wrist send a shot of pain through his arm.

Wait.

His eyes were open. He could see fairy lights and a couch. Soft blankets and a wooden floor…

Right.

He was in the basement. No forest, no masks, no blood. No Belos. There was nothing in his throat, or his eyes, or his ears.

He was safe.

That was the couch he just hit. His head spun quickly to the witch sleeping on it. Gus was facing him. He had his duvet all the way past his head, only his face was peaking out. His eyes were closed and his breathing was slow and steady.

He was still sleeping.

Hunter thanked the Titan. Disturbing Gus right now would absolutely break him. His own breath finally found some regularity. He tried his best to focus on the four fingers technique.

With every breath, Hunter felt his stress ebb away. His head still hurt though. He decided splashing some water on his face might help.

He soundlessly ascended the stairs, he was an expert at that by now.

He wondered what time it was as he walked to the bathroom, avoiding all the creaky floorboards. He went straight for the sink and didn’t bother to turn on the light.

The cold water felt like nirvana on his skin. It slowly cooled down his skin and his headache faded away. He washed his face and hands, and his neck for good measure. He breathed steadily between every splash of icy heaven.

Eventually he felt grounded again and took his towel from the rack. They had to extend the rack to hold six towels instead of two. Hunter often felt bad that Camila had to buy so much extra inventory.

Nevertheless, he was very happy with the soft fabrics on his face. He would be forever grateful for Camila Noceda. She was so compassionate.

He dried his face and hung it back on the rack. As he moved back towards the sink, his gaze caught on his own reflection in the mirror.

His magenta eyes stared back at him.

He stopped dead in his tracks. The blend of magenta and red was glinting in the mirror. Even in the dark the colours were clear to see.

Red eyes.

It was the very mark of a Grimwalker. Their most recognisable part. He was once again reminded what exactly he was.

It had only recently turned into such an issue for him. Magenta irises just weren’t weird in the demon realm.

Sure, the masked helped, but most people didn’t know anything about Grimwalkers. Besides, other people had weird colours too. Like very bright green or yellow.

Here in the Human realm though, it was the strangest thing.

Hunter got asked ‘how he had red eyes’ by humans on the street quite often. Just earlier today he had one of those encounters.

———

The Hexsquad, as they liked to call themselves, was hard at work in their clubhouse. The bright summer sun was shining through the windows of their newly renovated place.

They had fixed the giant holes in the walls and the floor, they had hung colourful wallpaper, Camila had given them an extra rug and Luz had found an old bean bag in the attic. They had even found a tiny ‘cooler’ at a yard sale.

They tried to decorate the place as much as possible with plants and string lights. The witches had made drawings of their families and Luz had put up a poster of the portal door, as much as she remembered.

Hunter was still fixing the old chair that had been there forever. He was almost done with the stitching, but that would have to wait a little longer.

They were trying to build a portal and it was proving very difficult.

They were scattered on the floor with notepads and books. Vee had tried to organise the pens, erasers and pencils in the middle. Put the pile dispersed every few minutes.

They were all trying to brainstorm human-versions of the ingredients they needed, yelling suggestions across the room every now and then.

Hunter was also trying to remember the portal he had seen in the castle. It was different from the one Luz had made, bringing them straight to the Human realm instead of the in-between she had described.

He was sporting a similar look to Gus and Amity. Hands in hair, staring at the pages. Hunter sighed frustrated, his own pages were still so empty.

That’s of no use to her.

Willow let out a despairing groan and snapped her notebook closed. She sat up straight to stretch.

“Let’s take a break.” She said, more like a demand than a offer.

“Yes please…” Gus flopped on his stomach with similar noises of pain.

Amity and Vee joined in with their own agreement. Hunter tried to ignore them and focus on his 1/4-filled page. From the absence of a certain human’s voice, he guessed Luz was doing the same.

But you can’t just ignore a conversation that’s happening right next to you. Amity suggested to go into town and Vee seemed excited about a particular place.

So, to the objection of Luz and Hunter, the witches and demon stood up and evacuated.

“Wait guys, I have to-“ Luz tried, but her girlfriend interrupted.

“Nope.” Amity said sternly. She grabbed her arm and tugged until she stood up.“You have to take a break.”

Gus was already out the door.

“But if we just-“ Hunter started.

“No.” Willow took the notebook he was scribbling in away.

“Leaving now would only-“

“No.” Vee came to join the plant witch for a duo to behold. Hunter looked up at the girls with slight fear, hidden by stubbornness.

“But-“

“NO!” Both of them yelled and Flapjack chirped incessantly. Alright, the message was clear.

“Sorry guys, but you’ll have to sit this one out.” Amity said to the palismen.

They were cuddled up in a dog bed that Camila had given them. The magical creatures all said things along the lines of ‘fine by me’ or ‘have fun’. It was safe to say they weren’t heartbroken about being left alone.

Hunter stood up under the pointed gaze of the girls. But he made no motions towards the door, looking at his pen apprehensively.

Vee grabbed the back of his shirt and basically dragged him out of the door. Hunter let out a yelp while stumbling backwards, looking at Willow who just followed with a smirk on her face.

“Okay Vee, where did you wanna go?” Luz asked after stretching in the sun. Seemed like Amity already convinced her.

“There’s this boba place that I’ve really wanted to try.” Vee shifted to her human disguise. “I don’t know where it is exactly, but I know what it’s called.”

Apparently that was good enough for Luz’s phone, because shortly after pressing a few buttons she was leading them through town. Vee and Amity on either side of her.

Even though they no longer looked like twins, the basilisk and the human still resembled sisters. Acted like it too.

The boba shop was small, but it had a few tables and sofas. The place was decorated with a pastel colour pallete, the counter had photo’s of their products on display and the wall behind it had their menu on chalkboards.

They found a table in the corner with 6 seats and started deciding on their order. Luz and Hunter were tasked with memorising everything.

“Oh no…” Luz gasped after patting every pocket that her pants had. “I forgot my wallet!”

The table was filled with a moment of shock. Before they could despair over walking all that way for nothing, Vee fished a couple of banknotes from her pocket.

Luz’s sigh of relief as her sibling deposited two 20-dollar bills in her hands, was quickly replaced by confusion.

“Wait. How?”

“Camila gave it to me for this exact situation.” She said with a cat-like grin. Luz pouted at her.

Vee playfully hit the back of her head, messing up her hair. Luz retaliated by ruffling hers. Before they could turn it into a fight, Gus told her to order already.

“Right, we’ll be back in a minute.” Luz chirped and tugged Hunter along.

The cashier who greeted them looked to be around their age. He had a mint green apron on over a white T-shirt. Blue hair peaked out of a hat with he shop’s logo on it.

“Welcome to Boba Pop, may I take your order?” The guy practically did a double take to look at Hunter. “Wow, dude. I love your contacts! Where did you get ‘em?”

“My what?” He asked confused. He was not prepared for this question, he didn’t even know what it meant.

“Your eyes,” The cashier pointed at his face. “That red colour is awesome.”

Hunter was a little overwhelmed. This guy had never experienced social anxiety and it showed. At least now he knew what they were talking about.

“Oh this is my-“

“Favourite colour!” Luz jumped in. “It’s his favourite colour.”

She smiled weirdly at the guy and Hunter looked at her confused too. Then the realisation that he couldn’t say ’natural colour’ to a human hit him like a lightning spell.

“Oh! Yeah, I really like… con-tats.” He laughed awkwardly. The energetic cashier seemed oblivious to their weird behaviour.

“Cool! Where did you get them?”

The duo looked at each other with the same stumped expression.

“They were a gift!” Luz managed to improvise. She looked smug at her own answer. “For his birthday.”

Hunter looked away with a wobbly smile when he thought ‘yeah my very first birthday’. He quickly repressed it.

“Um yes,” He said, “and we don’t know where they got them. The friend I mean, who got them for my birthday.”

Hunter trailed off and looked to Luz for guidance. She was just smiling at the employee so he did the same.

“Aww, thats too bad.” The blue-haired boy looked genuinely dejected. Then he straightened his back and looked at them a little shocked. “Oh! I’m so sorry. May I take your order?”

“Oh no, don’t worry.” Hunter tried to assure him, waving his hands frantically. Luz offered both guys some mercy by starting with her own order.

Luz tried her best to ordered everything, but couldn’t remember some of the details. She blanked completely on Willow’s order and looked at the grimwalker next to her for help.

“Jasmine green milk tea with half ice.” Hunter said with absolute certainty. Luz smirked at him. “What?”

“Nothing~”

“Is that all?” The cashier asked, putting it into the machine. Hunter still wondered how those things worked exactly.

Luz confirmed and payed for their order. They only had to wait a little bit for the employees to make everything. When it was done, they said goodbye to the blue-haired guy and walked back to the others.

Vee was probably the happiest to get her drink, but the others were excited too. They opted to take the drinks to go instead of sitting at the table. It seemed like a waste of a six-person table to Hunter, but the rest wanted to walk around in the sun.

And so they walked around town with their cold drinks, enjoying the nice summer weather.

They walked past clothing shops, cafes, restaurants. Making plans to remember certain places for future visits. Eventually their drinks ran out and they crossed the road for a trashcan.

From there they saw a ‘cute little park’ as Amity called it, obviously they had to go there.

They walked towards the charming elm trees, but when they rounded the corner of the fence they stopped dead in their tracks.

There, on a pedestal stood two large stone statues, wearing clothes straight out of a history page.

Witch-hunter history.

Luz stopped so abruptly that Gus bumped into her. Amity was holding her hand and felt a tug when her girlfriend halted. Willow, who had been walking next to Gus, recoiled from their crash.

The three witches immediately voiced their curiosity and concern.

Hunter recognised him too. Vee only noticed because he fell silent. Just a second ago they were talking about tea, now he stared up at this thing with an unreadable expression.

She followed his gaze. The bone-chilling realisation almost made her shapeshifting unstable.

“That’s… Belos.” Luz managed to get out after her friend’s concerned murmurs.

The witches surrounding her all looked at her bewildered, then snapped their attention to the statue.

The pedestal read: Gravesfield folklore, The brothers Wittebane.

Hunter felt like his body was about to crumble. That was indisputably the face of the man he had called uncle his entire life. And that was his brother. That was Caleb.

That was his blueprint.

A disgusting feeling rose in his throat. He felt like the world was spinning around him. Light-headed and reeling, his mind was blaring alarm bells. He couldn’t hear what Luz was saying to their friends, the sounds around him were distant and distorted.

He couldn’t stop looking at him.

His lungs were threatening to give out. Irregular short breaths entered his body, while breathing out felt impossible. He was in the verge of hyperventilating.

Vee felt a little woozy and off-balance. The hold on her shapeshifting was weakening. She felt her hands turn back into claws and saw some green spots forming on her arms. A nauseating feeling tumbled in her stomach.

They had statues. Belos and his brother had statues here. Two witch-hunters had statues here.

A sharp sound to her left broke her out of her daze. Hunter was looking even more wobbly than she felt. She could see the panic in his eyes. She tracked his gaze once more and it finally clicked.

On instinct she grabbed his hand, her claws dug into his skin. He barely felt it. Hunter slowly turned to her, still feeling spaced out. Vee gently tugged on his arm and walked backwards.

He let her lead him over grass, feeling too overwhelmed and scared to pretend he was okay. She tugged her brother along, until they were out of earshot, making sure he was with his back towards the statue.

She took his other hand and squeezed them both, this time being mindful of her sharp claws. The pressure helped him focus a little, but breathing was only getting more difficult.

“Breathe Hunter.” Vee spoke clearly. He squeezed her hands back, desperately trying to ground himself.

And like a broken spell or an unlocked chain, his lungs finally worked again. His irregular gasping for air turned into irregular deep breaths.

“Just breathe.”

The basilisk carefully looked back at the group. The other witches were still inspecting the sculpture and listening to Luz talk about Philip.

It looked like they had successfully slipped away.

“Just breathe.” She said again, calm and pointed.

She coached him through his rising stress, and slowly his hyperventilating stopped. He followed her calming breaths, eventually he moved onto his familiar four-fingers technique.

Vee’s hand now floating in the air in case he needed it. In time, Hunter calmed down. He looked at her with nothing but gratitude. She had helped to prevent a full-on panic attack.

“You okay?” She asked attentively.

“Yes.” Hunter blew out a hefty breath one more time. “Thank you.”

“We’ve gotten pretty good at this, huh?” Vee let out a loaded sigh and a shaky chuckle. Hunter nodded with a tired smile. She swung the hand that still held onto his back and forth.

“And to think I wanted to murder you just a month ago!" She laughed a little odd but with obvious relief. Hunter couldn’t help the elated laugh that escaped out his mouth.

The strange feeling of humour after an almost-mental breakdown, made his sound a little weird too. She was right, their relationship was insane. The basilisk that was scared out of her mind when they first met, had called him ‘brother’ only a few days ago.

He was aware that they had a unique kind of bond with their shared experiences in the castle. But he’d never expect to be regarded as family. He wasn’t sure if he deserved it, but it made him feel so happy.

And treating Vee like a little sister made her really happy, even though he couldn’t yet get himself to call her that. She said she enjoyed hugs and hair-ruffles. Apparently teasing, bickering and joking around was also part of it.

He was still new to it all, but it just felt so right.

Luz had been calling him ‘bro’ and ‘hermano’ for a while now. Maybe he was more used to it than he-

“Whatcha doing over here?” Willow suddenly appeared to the right one him.

Saying it startled him was an understatement. Hunter yelped a loud “WAAA-“ before he doubled over and went back to his calming breaths.

Willow, having missed his panic, was looking jolly and unbothered. She cocked an eyebrow at him with an amused smile. But when she saw that Vee didn’t share her sentiment, she got worried.

“Sweet mother of Titan.” The blonde boy heaved out.

“Are you okay?” Willow asked. Looking from Hunter to Vee and back.

“We’re fine.” Vee assures her. Being infinitely more skilled in lying, she quickly fabricated a half-truth. She glared at the statue. "That... thing just makes me really uncomfortable."

“Mmmh, I get it.” Willow nodded with a soft look. Thinking about their past always made her angry. She looked back with a scowl. “I just wanna spray paint all over it.”

"That sounds like a wonderful idea!" Vee smiled creepily. Focusing on Hunter’s feelings had helped her to calm down as well, but now her mood was really improving.

“Guys,” Hunter piped up when he felt grounded once more. “Vandalism is wrong.”

He was met with two deadpan faces. The tips of his ears tinted pink when he looked at Willow. He quickly turned his eyes away.

“But I wouldn’t stop you.” He mumbled.

“Alright!” Vee jumped away, ready to throw rocks at Belos’s image. This was going to be very therapeutic for her.

Willow and Hunter watched her leave. The green-haired girl met up with Luz, said something and started doing exactly as she set out to do. Gus and Amity didn’t take long to join in.

The duo standing in the distance looked at each other, and started giggling.

“Do you wanna join them?” The plant witch asked, really wanting to do so herself.

“Maybe another time…” Hunter looked away. He felt like his legs would refuse to walk back to that thing.

Willow understood, and as much as she felt the vandalism-urge burning in her soul, she wouldn’t leave Hunter behind. She couldn’t even imagine how devastating it must have been to find a statue dedicated to you abuser. Her heart bled for him.

The blonde witch would always be ready to distract her when she needed it. She had no trouble returning the favour.

“Hey, look at this.” She crouched down next to a flower bed on the edge of the park, gently bending a purplish-blue flower towards him. “This is called the balloon flower.”

Hunter was immediately intrigued. He crouched down next to her and inspected the plant. It was a cluster of flowers on one stem, they were star-shaped and had a peculiar looking pistil.

“See how the petals are fused?” Willow ever so carefully glided her thumb over the blue petals, they were indeed stuck to each other. “We don’t have any flowers like this in the Boiling Ilse.”

“Why not?” Hunter was fully captivated.

“I dunno.” Willow shrugged. “Different evolution I guess.”

“Oh.” Hunter laughed. He had expected some profound answer, but that made sense. He touched one of the other flowers to feel the strange petals for himself. “Did you learn about these in that book?”

“Yes! The one from the library.” She was delighted that he remembered she loved that book so much. “Balloon flowers are actually very popular.”

She was also glad he accepted her attempt at distracting him with plant facts. So Willow happily listed all the different names for the different shades of blue present in this species.

They talked about the book for a bit. He was excited to learn that the human realm had flesh-eating plants too. But then Willow had to break the news to him that they were really tiny. After that, the group called them to leave. Their vandalism-therapy was done.

Hunter found himself walking at the back of the group again, this time with Gus. They had to pass that damned statue again to go home. His effort to resist wasn’t strong enough, he looked up at Caleb’s face one last time.

He felt like a freshly scabbed-over wound was splitting back open. He wouldn’t go into a panic again, but he felt sick to the stomach. And maybe a little dizzy too.

“Hey,” Gus looked at him curiously. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah!” He lied.

“Did the statue make you uncomfortable too?”

“Yeah…”

Hunter knew this was bound to happen. Gus was incredibly observant and smart. More so than anyone, he was the real mom of the group. He cared so much and they had build an amazing friendship, which was exactly why this was so uncomfortable.

Gus, on the other hand, didn’t feel very smart right now. What kind of question was that? Of course he was uncomfortable!

He just wanted to talk about it.

But Hunter clearly didn’t, so he wouldn’t press the issue. He could take a wild guess either way. He knew that Hunter wasn't even looking at Belos's statue. He was looking at his brother.

Caleb Wittebane.

———

Hunter had been staring at his reflection for what felt like an eternity. A wounded sigh eventually escaped his mouth. His shoulders slumped, breaking him out of his frozen state.

His hands moved involuntarily to his face. He rubbed the inside of his eyes. Then he squeezed them shut and opened them wide. He intently studied the colours and the fibres.

He always thought that the way the fibres of an iris weaved was so pretty. Not when he looked at his own, but someone else’s, like Willow. Like an intricate web of beautiful pigment.

He didn’t hate the colour of his eyes, he hated what it represented.

He dragged his hands down to his mouth. His chapped lips had always been a constant and Amity had desperately tried to get him to use lip balm. She was right, she was always right, that’s why she was so annoying. He just forgot.

With one finger he lifted the side of his upper lip, uncovering his fangs. He was still more inclined to call them sharp teeth. That’s what they were after all.

He used to hate those, but his friends all loved them so much. Now he wasn’t sure how to feel. Just neutral maybe?

He then moved his hands up into his hair and hung them on his neck. His hair had grown, falling just past his ears. It looked different, but he could still style it the same way.

It didn’t have to stand out, right? Nobody noticed? He couldn’t bring himself to cut it here.

He had to cut his hair religiously back in the coven. It always had to look perfect. Everything always had to be perfect. The human realm was supposed to be his peaceful escape.

No.

No, stop.

What was he even thinking? They had crashed into this realm in an apocalypse. The end of the world! This was refuge, not an escape. He had to remember the difference.

That still didn’t mean he had to cut his hair.

He moved one hand to his scar, softly pulling the skin up and down. Tracking the edge, like he’d done a million times. It was the only thing entirely his own.

His eyes, his teeth, the rapid growth of his hair. That was all Grimwalker. The colour of that hair, his bone structure, his nose, his eyebrows. That was all Caleb.

“What a shame. Out of all the Grimwalkers, you looked the most like him."

Why couldn't he reject that sentence? Even just as a bold-faced lie. He wanted to utterly deny that is was true, but when he looked at that statue...

It looked so painfully similar.

His scar was the only thing that didn’t belong to either of them. But even that little beacon of uniquely him, didn’t bring any comfort. How could it? It was a deep pink slash across his cheek. His very first scar.

He barely remembered how he got it. Well, it was Belos of course. He just didn’t recall any of the details.

It was the first of many. Every single one of them seemed so clearly malicious in retrospect. How had he ever been so naive?

It is the curse! He didn’t mean to! As if that monster could ever really love him. A lie, that’s all it was.

His arms dropped to his sides. The hundredth sigh of the night escaped his lips. He hated this so much. But he couldn’t move away from that damned mirror. Like plant magic was rooting him to this one spot in the bathroom.

When he looked in that mirror, he didn’t see anything he liked. He didn’t see himself.

He wanted to punch that mirror and-

The sounds of very familiar slithering passed in the hallway, violently ripping his attention away from the mirror. He heard the slithering in the kitchen and then a crunching noise.

Vee.

More like his guardian angel. The kitchen was very appealing, stronger even than the mirror’s pull.

That was good right? He had to escape this depressing pit he created. Joining Vee would do definitely force him away from his own mind. Or maybe misery just loved company.

He deliberately kept his head down, looking at the mirror would root him back in place. He hoped he left the sink neat enough.

Hunter entered the kitchen and saw his basilisk sister elbow-deep into a cereal box. She was looking off in the distance while munching, until she noticed him. She froze and they looked at each other for a solid 10 seconds.

“Hey.” Vee said blankly, breaking the awkward silence.

“Hey.” He returned in the same passive way.

She continued to crunch on her midnight snack and tilted the box towards him. He shuffled over and leaned on the counter, grabbing a fistful of the cereal.

Usually he’d be a bit upset about eating from the box, but he was just so tired that he didn’t care anymore. He felt a little empty right now.

“Insomnia?” Vee asked, blinking slowly and sideways.

“Nightmare.” Hunter answered between crunching. “You?”

“The other one.”

“That sucks.”

“Sure does,” She snickered. “Nightmares aren’t much better. Are you okay?”

“Yeah I’m fine.” Now that he actually had company for his misery, he didn’t want to get into it.

Vee knew he was lying, naturally, but she was leaving it be. She didn’t really have the energy for a heart-to-heart right now either. They just kept eating their cereal in comfortable silence.

Then Luz walked in.

Both basilisk and grimwalker froze again in the middle of their munching. Their human sibling stood just past the doorway and looked at them surprised.

“Hey.” They said at the same time, in the exact same way as before.

“Hey,” Luz laughed and bounced over to grab her own helping of cereal. She hopped onto the counter and ruffled both of their hair. Calling them both ‘hermanitos’.

Vee glowed at the nickname, and Hunter smiled. A small, growing feeling of light was forming somewhere, almost within reach.

“Di’ya have a nightma’?” Vee asked through a mouth full. Hunter didn’t even have enough energy to lecture her about proper eating etiquette. Eating from a box kind of defeats the purpose anyways.

“No, I couldn’t sleep.” The human answered. “I feel like I went in and out of sleep at least 6 times already.”

“Insomnia.” Hunter hummed knowingly.

“Yeah…” Luz sighed. She was well aware of her insomnia-household. This wasn’t the first time that the three of them had gathered in the kitchen, at the most ungodly hours of the night. “So I came down here for some water, but this is way better.”

She threw a piece of cereal in the air and caught it with her mouth. Hunter moved wordlessly to the cupboard and filled three glasses with water. The girls both looked at him with shit-eating grins. Hunter rolled his eyes, he could never just do something nice without them turning it into a big deal.

“Awww you big softy.” They cooed. Hunter looked at them annoyed, then snatched the cereal box from Vee’s hands.

“Just for that, I’m eating the last of this.”

“NO!” The sisters gasped and leapt to save their snack, but he was too fast and too tall.

Hunter tipped the thing over and the last of the cereal, which was only 5 pieces at most, was gone.

“How could you!” Luz called out with a dramatic look of betrayal. Hunter and Vee both shushed her, trying to hold in their laughter.

“How could you?” Luz whispered this time, giggling along with them.

“Ya know… we have another box.” The sly basilisk suggested, showing off the inside of the pantry.

“Vee, we can’t eat two boxes of cereal in the middle of the night!” Hunter whisper-yelled, slapping their greedy hands away and closing the cabinet door. “What about the others? What about breakfast?”

“Yeah Vee, think about breakfast!” Luz teased like she hadn’t just been reaching for that box as well. Vee stuck her tongue out.

“What time is it anyway?” She asked and Luz pulled her phone from her back pocket.

The blue screen lit up the room, but she completely forgot to check the time when she noticed a sudden shine.

“Wow….” Luz marvelled at the teens standing in front of her. “Cat eyes.”

The teens in question, being completely lost, looked at her confused.

“I didn’t know you guys have that!” She was awestruck.

“Have what?” Vee felt stumped and wanted an explanation quickly.

“You know when cats are at a certain angle to a light and their eyes glow?” Luz was met with a couple of dumbfounded faces. “Because of their night vision? You guys have reflective eyes… like cats?”

“Reflective eyes?!” Hunter reacted suddenly. The realisation had snuck up on him, as if thinking about it earlier had doomed it to come true again.

“What? Nooooo hahahahaha-“ He laughed nervously, backing up until the edge of the kitchen island dug into his back. His voice trailed off and he took a deep breath. “No.”

“Hunter?” Luz’s voice was uneasy and she reached out a hand to him, but it faltered. Vee looked wary and uncertain.

His heart sank. It had barely gotten the chance to climb out and it sank all the way back down.

“No…” His voice broke.

He hugged himself tight. His arms were tired, his legs were tired, his everything was tired. He slid down against the island.

“Hunter?” Vee asked with the tinniest voice. She eyed Luz and they shared a look of extreme worry.

“Noooooo…” Hunter buried his face in his hands and groaned. “Whyyyyy?!”

Did the Titan hate him? Was he cursed? This night just kept getting worse! And just when he thought he escaped those feelings, those thoughts. Leave them in the dark bathroom and never look back. He really was naive.

Luz and Vee shared a final look and joined him on the floor. They sat down on either side of him, leaning against him as a silent show of comfort.

Hunter felt tears stream over his face and by the way his shoulders shook, his sisters could tell. Luz put a hand on his back and the older boy let out a shaky breath. He let go of his legs and slowly sat back up, dropping his arms on the ground.

Nobody said anything.

Vee wrapped her tail around his ankles and let head head fall on his shoulder. Her cheek smushed and her fuzzy hair tickled his neck. Luz hugged him tight, resting her head against his arm.

Hunter just let the tears fall.

He felt a confusing mix of distress, comfort, exhaustion, gratitude, fear and love. He really hated today, it was such a long, draining day.

But he felt so happy to have these two consider him family. They let him bawl his eyes out without question, sharing this moment of pain just to make it easier for him.

Eventually they would let each other go. Vee would spend the night watching YouTube videos. Luz would read Azura books until sunrise. And Hunter would rest his tired eyes, for once sleeping dreamless and peaceful.

But for now, they would stay like this. Together.

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justareallyverychillperson · 11 months

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Rocket Raccoon-Autism and Immaturity

One way that autism can present in a person, is behaviour and speech patterns commonly associated with those younger than the autistic individual themselves. Here are a few examples of this appearing in GotG, related to Rocket.

SPOILERS FOR VOLUME THREE!!!

Vol.3 (Counter-Earth flashbacks)

Rocket as 89P13 plays with his friends much like a child would all the way until he becomes an adolescent. This is partially justified by their collective enhancements and their ignorance of social norms pertaining to the outside world. Regardless, the way he does not influence any of the admittedly adorable aspects of their childish games points to a mindset that rather chooses to embrace it fully.

He has learned to speak and enough equations to fly a spaceship, but forgets a phrase that has two many consonants (the enzyme thing that gets suppressed to make "angry turtles") Here the maturity of his vocabulary varies greatly. He also says thems and cants instead of them and cant. Of course he is still just a child but is nonetheless a gifted one with the theoretical potential of sounding much older than he indeed does in the scene.

vol.1

While we do not know how old Rocket is supposed to be, his criminal record implies he's very much an adult. And yet, here are some things he says before his arrest.

(to Groot) Learn genders man!

(gets bitten by Gamora) Biting? That's not fair [we later learn of his alleged history of this]

I live for the simple things. Like how much this is gonna hurt--- yeah, writhe, little man!

The schadenfreude mixed with slur "humie" which no one else says but him, makes him seem like the youth he was when he ran. Naturally, since no one was around to tell him to grow up in one way or another. Likely, his brain misremembered the word human and no one ever bothered to correct him, as it was after he escaped the High Evolutionary.

Vocabulistics is a rare example of advanced language similar to technobabble- half the words stored in his cybernetics are engineering related.

In the prison he is unarmed and does not hesitate to seek out security in his new humie pal, pawing at him several times to beg him away from the danger. His hunched-over stance adds to the meek display.

Another bonus is when he misses Gamora's sarcasm, before barking at Quill and whining about the plan going awry. Every parent has seen their child pull at their face like he does.

On Knowhere, his main objection to the way the rest of the team treats him is when Gamora, a woman, calls him a rodent. That's the last straw for the poor guy...not a pest, not a thing, just a smaller animal ^^

He mocks the Collector's mannerisms and goes straight to raising his voice when their dawdling customer stalls further by asking about type of currency. Yes, he is scared. Also, he is having a bit of a tantrum as opposed to speaking up about his anxiety. Not just trust issues...

"you got issues Quill"- sounds like someone skipped out on giving a raccoon sex education

Furthermore, his jokes about prostethics. That's it. His issues translate to innocent mischief. Why? Bc psychology.

Honorable mention goes to a touch-starved fella letting a complete stranger pet him due to Tree Death.

Lastly, his inability to grasp right and wrong. You apparently can't fit moral code and piloting next to each other.

Vol 2.

The winking. In the words of James Gunn "Cybernetics glitch sometimes" Tic disorder, anyone?

Again, the sarcasm. He even goes so far as to request Peter spell it out for him.

The desire to threaten with bodily wastes. Someone else's to boot.

He thinks objects getting larger as they get closer is a groundbreaking observation.

He doesn't know what suspicious behaviour looks like but is very tuned in to his general feelings towards people.

His blunt warning to Quill about his dad gets misconstrued as an insult. Not his fault his own 'dad' made him a bit cynical towards parents.

He chooses to use his captivity to laugh at the name Taserface and gets hung up on the reason Groot doesn't like hats. Confusion about other people's behaviour? Busted. (sidenote: he doesn't mind being called a rat as opposed to a rodent. Interesting standards)

His cybernetics glitch again when attempting to show scepticism towards Yondu's excuse for keeping Quill around. Can't express what you don't know.

He dubs the button not to press the Death Button. Dramatic much?

The irony of a guy who says frickin' at every opportunity teaching his plant baby brother not to swear xD

vol 3. Present day

He jumps into the arms of both Quill and Groot upon waking up. Reflex.

He listens to music even when Quill isn't there to hear it. It's only ever been a stim to him. Peter gets credit for reminding him, though.

#mcu #rocket raccoon #guardians of the galaxy #fan theory #neurospicy #autistic headcanon #vol 3 spoilers

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kisilinramblings · 2 years

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Do you think Marinette has trauma in s4/has trauma from Chat Blanc? I've seen people say that she doesn't because she doesn't have multiple breakdowns or wake up from nightmares in multiple eps or constantly think about Chat Blanc. Or that the show needs to show it more explicitly and frequently for it to count

First, thank you for your patience, Anon!

Second, I’m no psychologist nor therapist, but as far as I know, nightmares and flashbacks are only a few of the many symptoms and manifestations of Post-Traumatic Syndrome Disorder (and according to the US Department of Veteran Affairs and common reactions after trauma, they are even regrouped has one and single item).

Meaning that if you only focus on those because this is all that you know how PTSD is visually represented in fiction, then you are missing on other key symptoms that hint someone may have PTSD. I say “may” because you need to check a certain number of symptoms to have a diagnostic.

Anyway, I recommend @gentil-minou 's ml psychology analysis on Marinette during S4 (although, it was written right after Kuro Neko and is missing a few episodes, but nonetheless a very good starting point).

Some will agree Marinette has indeed PTSD, but disagree that Chat Blanc is the cause. For this, I will refer to what Jonathan Decker - licensed therapist and co-creator and co-host of the YT channel Cinema Therapy - says when he summarizes PTSD and the trauma that cause it :

“PTSD occurs when you think your world is safe and then realized that it isn’t”.

Marinette as Ladybug, as a superhero, deals with danger everytime she is facing an Akumatized. But she always finds a solution at the end. She always figures out her Lucky Charm, always find a way to grab the akumatized object, break it and free the victim from Hawkmoth. Plus, her supepower allows her to restore any damage done by the Akumatized and the consecutive battle. So, it always work out and if she ever fails, she can raises again and try something else (though she may or may not need a little pep talk). And the reason why she accepts to be a superhero in the first place is in order to help her friends and loved ones (Alya in Origins).

But despite being a superhero, Marinette also realizes she herself is not immune to akumatization. She has negative emotions too therefore it is a possibility and there were close calls too. The first instance is during Zombizou. Marinette knows her negative emotions originally attracted an Akuma. During Heroes Day, she saw an illusion showing an akumatized Ladybug fighting Chat Noir. In Chameleon, she almost got akumatized but manages to avoid it. And during the episode Ladybug, she got a really close call of being akumatized as well to the point she did not resist and could have given her Miraculous to Scarlet Moth.

But the thing is she knows and accepts her own vulnerability. She is human like everyone else around her and can fall victim of her negative emotions. During S2-S3, she has a network. She has Chat Noir. Master Fu could also help then since he can distribute the Miraculous like he did during Party Crasher when she is incapacitated. There are rules like maintaining the secret identity between Chat Noir and her, so if one is ever akumatized, the other still has a chance.

But while she knows her own vulnerability and can deal with it with rules (control) and back-up plans, there is one person she never thought would actually be akumatized. And that is Chat Noir.

Brainwashed or incapacited by akumatized villain power? Sure, happened plenty of time.

Arriving late for whatever reason? Harder, but it’s manageable.

But an akumatized Chat Noir? What it the world happened to him?!

All she hears is that their love lead to this post-apocalypse. Chat Blanc was clear that they were both in love and dated each other and that their secret was discovered by Hawkmoth and he used it against them. Chat Blanc even call her by her real name revealing her the secret identity rule fell apart and was breached.

Marinette is not only confronted to a future where her partner is indeed akumatized, she also witnesses her future self died unable to save her partner and everyone else.

Usually, when Marinette fails, she can try again and something else. But here, that failure was fatal. Game Over. The shock is even greater when she never thought Chat could be able to do such a thing. Akumatized normally spares their loved one. But in this scenario, no one was spared. Everything and everyone was destroyed.

Of course, Ladybug was greatly upset and questionned Chat Blanc about it. All he says was that it was an accident. Not only that, she even see that Chat Blanc has the potential to put an end to the world.

That is the main difference with everything else. I bolded the elements that play into triggers to Marinette during S4.

Truth, Lies, Gang of Secrets, Crocoduel, Mega Leech, Sentibubbler, Glaciator 2, Ephemeral, Kuro Neko, and of course Strike Back all have parts of the answer.

Truth : Marinette is witholding her secret identity from Luka who she is dating. And it caused him to be akumatized who is out to find her secret which would get known by now Shadow Moth. Not only Marinette breaks with Luka at the end because her secret identity is an obstacle into establishing a mutual relationship with him and it will only hurt him, she also decides she cannot allow herself to date anyone.

Lies : LB’s reaction as Chat Noir tell his plan to sacrifice himself in order to drive Lies’ attention is more panicked than usual. Like, compare it to Gamer 2.0. She doubts herself about being able to save him and protect him.

Gang of Secrets : She distances herself of not just Chat Noir, but her friends as well. The latters get akumatized because of that rejection. At the end, Marinette breaks because she cannot support all that pression all alone anymore and tells her secret to Alya.

From that point on, Marinette relies more and more on Alya over Chat who is her partner. That is a survival mechanism. And also, subconscious.

Crocoduel : I’m putting it here because it feels like Marinette has projected a lot of her Chat Blanc trauma into Luka after breaking-up with him (or at least, it is starting to be build that way). Thus why she is avoiding Luka altogether at this point because she doesn’t want to have the Talk™ even though she need to talk to him one day. To be fair, she always has that tendency to avoid hard discussion. But her thinking Luka would be akumatized because of her again feels that there is more to it than what happened during Truth. Marinette has a wild imagination, but even Alya is thinking that Marinette is exaggerating and fails to understand Marinette’s perspective there.

Mega Leech : There is a little scene in which Chat Noir is brainwashed by Malediktator without her knowing and grab her -- which she obviously didn’t find it funny -- but this episode is the start of Ladybug building a bigger team to assist her out as part of her solution to her problem. The writers even make a foreshadowing through Chat Noir when he says “Hey! Wait for me, guys! Group pose!”. Which later plays out for both Ephemeral and Kuro Neko.

Sentibubbler : The obvious one because of the Chat Blanc cameo during Marinette’s nightmare. I let you read @geekgirles ‘s excellent analysis about Marinette’s subconscious.

Glaciator 2 : I stand by this, but the gossip news about Ladybug and Chat Noir dating triggered Ladybug. Thus why she becomes so upset. And since she never told Chat Noir about the Chat Blanc timeline (that he was akumatized because they were dating in said timeline), he is not understanding what she is currently living and worst, he was putting oil in the fire with his jokes there even if his intentions were just to relax the situation.

Ephemeral : I think this one goes without any further explaination, no? Whole episode is about the secret identity. Sass having to use his Second Chance power without a Holder to this very moment is a huge indicator that she was about to make an horrible mistake that would have disastrous consequences. And it reinforces Ladybug’s belief it is better off to not have any identity reveal in the first place.

Kuro Neko : Similar beginning as Ephemeral. Except this time, Chat Noir is demotivated (read depressed) due to Ladybug keeping him in the dark and putting him at a distance throughout the season. And Ladybug is not noticing how much her actions and solutions to avoid her trauma are affecting him. Ladybug also doesn’t think clearly once she sees a huge Black Cat with a bell. Not only is she convinced that is an Akumatized Chat Noir, she wrongly believes the bell is the akumatized object. Her trauma is leading her to those assumptions even when evidences are pointing out elsewhere.

Strike Back : The dialog between LB and CN who are both affected by Risk. How Ladybug has taken all those risks in order to protect him (when she took that decision by herself, without consulting with Chat first). And of course, because she never told him about the Chat Blanc timeline, he cannot understand her pov.

To me, when you pay attention (and watching the episodes in order helps too) there is a build up. Of course, this post is a quick sum up of an entire season. If you want a more profound analysis of Marinette’s actions through season 4, I invite to watch Youtuber Toon Ruins video essay on S4 Marinette.

And please note that, as season 5 is about to start, the Chat Blanc trauma is still lingering. And you cannot properly fix something unless the core gets adressed. Adrien and Marinette fixed a lot of what they thought were the problems, when they haven’t adressed the cause of said problems. So, yeah, Chat Blanc trauma arc isn’t over yet.

#miraculous ladybug #ml season 4 #marinette dupain-cheng

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hisuian-history-makers · 1 year

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Pre-Episode 4 Theory

Post Episode 4 Theory

I knew I was right to be skeptical about Uzi going full Murder Drone! But wow—there is a lot too unpack with what this one introduced.

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First off, what’s wrong with Uzi’s classmates? Why were they so afraid of her when Doll was going all prom murder? The first time I slightly get cause they were surprised by her speaking a bit suddenly. But the second time? They all saw Uzi exit the tree lining before she spoke!

Unless it’s right in front of them—they barely react/register tragedy, going as far as to play it off as a joke. I thought Lizzy was a singular case due to being best friends with Doll. She at least seemed far more nonchalant about killing off her classmates. And she isn’t even AS infected!

The promo showed who was going to be killed.

Once again, I’m reminded these are robots trying to mimic human society. Their emotional intelligence is pretty poor overall considering they barely react to deaths afterward. Following mob/herd mentality, no continuous sense of self-preservation, and having very loose morals.

The fact they found more comfort in known murderers is concerning. Makes me wonder how their parent's generation even survived.

(Also, it was Nori’s idea to create the doors and not Khan's? “Build doors against the coming sky demons!–The singularity awakens...”)

—

Two; How in the world can Uzi’s AbsoluteSolver create organic matter?! I was under the strong impression that it used nanites to affect general things. Yet this is on a completely another level.

Something which her mother seemed to be aware of. Uzi made f*cking bat-like wings and a mouthed tail out of nothing. People appear to be debating whether she was fully herself or AS crazy during that scene in the ep comments. It. It could either way to be honest. We see her puke up (streaming) oil from Daren and look at her oil-covered hand in horror. Her eyes/visor flickering between a Murder Drone X to high temperature warning to AS symbol in one eye.

And yet she goes into murder mode pretty quickly. Laughing eerily similar to V from Ep 1.

She tricked V by begging to speak to N, then during the falling talk was clearly in full control of herself. I hate the Absolute Solver program.

—

Sidenote, We see how V has indeed been hiding things. “New body, same horrors, huh, Cyn?” Who from a very brief flashback from N is the fourth yellow-eyed drone Tessa restored. We kinda knew about her from the beginning since we see “Absolute Solver attempt block by Administrator CYN.” post-reboot slap. She had the AS symbol plus the large distended mouth in the flashback. She—she had a human arm in her mouth showing it off to N (I think.)

How she maintains an Administrator position in the JCJenson corporation—shown to hate rogue/free-thinking AIs—I’ll never know...

Another, or the same arm, was shown in a chandelier a few seconds after. The flashback ends with what I believe to be a black hole in the sky. Or maybe a blotted out sun?

Red eyes were visible when N fries that monitor touching the buttons. Except for them being rounder than a drone’s so we can rule out Doll.

—

Thirdly. There was more to Nori than we could imagine given the little bug recognizing 02.

Register Torture Chamber complaint??? Either Nori used torture chambers(!) on other drones or was subjected to one. She seemed to have a descent into madness after the core explosion. If the box of “Family Memories before Nori went Kooky & Insane” was any indication. I did miss that when I first watched the episode...

Nori didn’t just see the three Murder Drones, she saw countless descended from the sky that the doors were her idea in the first place. There are so many questions we can ask about this: Did Nori and Yeva know about the Zombie Drone thing? Did they not use their abilities in public to avoid turning as Uzi does? Will Doll eventually turn—or is it only older AS “02”? How often did Worker Drones turn into Zombie Drones back on Earth that there needed to be a training tape about them? I really hate AS.

—

4th—AbsoluteSolver does indeed cause the same overheating issues in Murder Drones. It feels nice to get a confirmation for this since we could only speculate. Uzi burns in sunlight now. She can regenerate like a Disassembly Drone too. All while still having wings, a stinger/mouthed tail, and the AbsoluteSolver abilities. The purple protagonist has the programming to become a far deadlier AS/Murder Drone hybrid.

Took down V like it was barely anything. Where did her new wings and tail even go when N caught her? Do they fold into her body like the Murder Drone's own ones do?? Her tail??? I thought J’s AS heart-thing was fleshy cause it used human ribcage remnants. Clearly, we know otherwise that it becomes an extension of advanced AbsoluteSolvee users... What did Cyn/Tessa/JCJenson create? (nightmare fuel)

—

Lastly, character growth! Uzi showed her softer side and insecurities in this episode. N appears to be losing his doormat qualities defending himself. V’s still mean—but worried mean~ She is looking out for N, and very afraid for them.

Glitch and the crew really stepped up their animation ability in this episode. Characters are far more fluid. We see their expressions range, the episode was less joking to bring home how serious Cabin Fever was. At least more so compared to the other three episodes—nice.

More in the tags. >>>>>>>>>>>>> 2nd Post-Ep Four Theory

#murder drones #theory #absolute solver #episode 4 #ep 4 cabin fever #spoilers #uzi doorman #serial designation n #serial designation v #nori doorman #theories #uzi getting traumatized #absolute solver as always is terrifying #disassembly drone #worker drones #zombie drone #the drones are emotionally stunted compared to us humans #never lingering on the more negative ones #unless it's right in front of them.#are disassembly drones cured “zombie drones” or JCJenson’s measure to prevent more zombie drones?#what does Cyn have to do with it in one first place?#how many other zombie drones are/were there?#will more murder drones arrive?#is uzi losing control of herself to the AbsoluteSolver program?#Will Doll be affected like this?#were does that elevator lead to?#can we expect to see more of winged Uzi?#where did her wings and tail go???#what’re J and Tessa up to?#AS sucks...

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drifting-pieces-blog-blog · 6 months

Text

Breaking down the comics: Making the Break (Issue 11)

Moon Knight, Issue #11: To Catch a Killer

Written by Doug Moench and drawn by Bill Sienkiewicz

Another blast from the past. Another one I skipped for…poorly thought out reasons.

We open in lower manhattan!

Under a bridge, we see two men exchanging something in the rain.

One of the men is a BIG guy named Creed and the other just a little young guy. The young guy seems surprised to see Creed doing the exchange himself. Creed notes his usual girl is missing but when he finds her, she’ll be missing for GOOD.

Moon Knight watches from above. "There's a likely pair...Yes, indeed--Making a connection...Time to break it."

Moon Knight pulls out a silver crescent dart and nails the cash and coke to the wall.

Moon Knight jumps down to question the men. "Relax, small fry, I'm not interested in you--It's the BIG fish I'm after."

It would seem that cocaine was starting to pick up flow in Manhattan and Moon Knight wants to know where it's coming from.

Now, keep in mind we are back in 1981. I've brought it up before, but back in the 80s, cocaine became the problem drug and it was a huge problem in New York. So this is a modern problem of the time.

Getting the information takes a little coercion. Moon Knight fights the big guy, who apparently is in charge of the movement of cocaine in Manhattan once it gets there.

The big guy, Creed, doesn't go down easy and surprises Moon Knight by taking the hits. Creed makes a run for it and Moon Knight lets him go. He's after bigger fish, after all.

He calls in Frenchie to head home.

In the old classic style, Moon Knight enters the Grant Mansion by diving down through the pool.

The pool opens down at the bottom into a passage that leads to "Grant's sunken bath".

What's interesting is that the mansion is implied to have been built and modified by Steven Grant and there are multiple hidden entrances/escape hatches.

A hold over from Marc's days and possibly in fear of an enemy finding him there.

Exiting the pool, it leads right into the bedroom. And here we see a rare shot of Steven doing Steven things.

“Listen, Marlene, I think I’ll take a bath and change to Grant. Then I want to go over those annuity stocks before breakfast.”

“Right–Meet you in the library in twenty minutes. And one of these days real soon, it might be nice if you caught some sleep.”

She has a point. In the early comics, Moon Knight never seems to get any sleep. He fights crime all night as Moon Knight then returns at dawn to either be Steven to take care of business or Jake to head to the diner.

Now, a lot of people with DID do suffer from some form of sleeping disorder. Not all, mind you, but I’d wager a good portion do. Insomnia, night terrors, night flashbacks, or other issues. I find it interesting that they the Moon boys do seem to push themselves to breaking point. And more interesting is that Moench doesn’t ignore the fact that they don’t sleep. He writes out many many times other characters telling them to get rest. To get sleep. To stop and take a break.

So we end up with this heroic character that we know is always pushed to the edge. Always exhausted and beaten up and in pain and still pushing himself. Moon Knight is a hero that is always on breaking point.

A bit later, a frantic knock at the front door interrupts their day.

Samuels, the butler, finds a woman there.

"I'm aware that Marc Spector receives his mail here, in care of Steven Grant. Could I see Mr. Grant, please? My name is Isabelle Kristel."

Now, there's a bit of interesting things to note about that. That Marc Spector is afraid of enemies of his past finding him, but he has his mail sent to their mansion anyways. Not only that, he has it sent in care of Steven. One might argue that this is supposed to indicate that he doesn't live there and that only Steven knows where he is and can have it sent to him... But how much mail is Marc Spector getting? What sort of mail?

Samuels goes to find Steven and announce the visitor.

"There is a woman to see you, Sir, but it's about Marc Spector. I don't think she's aware that you and Mr. Spector are in fact one and the same man. She seems to be French."

Steven jumps up, asking for her name.

The second he hears her name, we note that Marc Spector has taken charge.

Marc demands that Isabelle be shown in despite protests that it would give away his secret that he and Marc are the same person.

He calls up Frenchie from the roof in a hurry.

She takes one look at "Steven" and recognizes Marc.

"Marc--! It's you! But why does he say you are....Steven Grant?"

"Because that's the name I use most often these days, Isabelle. And this is my assistant Marlene...."

Interesting further that Marc still calls Marlene his assistant. Marlene has always been in a relationship with Steven but the other two... Which is why I ALWAYS raise an eyebrow at the whole "We loved Marlene" stuff from later comics.

Marc asks how she's doing and she cries. She doesn't want to burden Marc with her troubles. Instead she asks him if he knows where to find Jean-Paul these days.

Hilarious that Marc Spector gets his mail sent there in care of Steven but Frenchie doesn't send his mail anywhere. I would kill for a proper back story for Frenchie.

AND YOU ARE IN LUCK. Because this particular issue is about Frenchie!

And Jean-Paul enters the room behind them and stands stunned.

What is so fascinating about this is that Marelen has no idea what's going on.

She wants nothing to do with Marc Spector and his past life as a killer/soldier. So of course she has never bothered to ask him OR to even speak with Frenchie about his life. Frenchie is a product of Marc Spector's life and she tolerates him because he comes with Moon Knight.

After their tearful embrace, she admits that she is only there to deliver a package.

"I had planned to leave it here with Steven Grant, to pass along to Marc, with instructions that he deliver it to you. But now... To find you both here...I... I was not prepared..."

Jean-Paul asks if she plans to return to him soon. She agrees, but first she has to finish some business.

They ask what is in the package. She cannot say, but she asks them not to open it.

"Just keep it for me. Keep it safe. If I do not return for it within ten days, we...We shall never see each other again. In that case, you may open the package and keep its contents."

She promises to tell him everything when she returns, if she returns.

"I'm ready for it now, Jean-Paul, Truly ready. I've made the break. If the fates are kind, we will meet again in ten days... And we will be together for a much longer time to come. Until then... Farewell. And please...Do not follow me."

She leaves in a hurry.

Marc moves to comfort his friend.

Marlene asks why he never spoke about her when it is so obvious that he loves her.

"Why? Because words are sometimes haunted...by zee ghosts of memory..." (That's beautiful)

Now we get a beautiful French memory of a younger Jean-Paul.

"As Marc already knows, Marlene... Isabelle and I were once lovers in France. Like all such lovers, we felt uniquely blessed. We had been granted the magic of two souls in perfect union... And the magic was like a sweet, silent music that hummed around us always. It was a magic which could never be broken, never be denied, never lost or forgotten... Until the day she left without a word. Not even a note."

"As Marc knows" implies that Marc has heard the story before. And honestly, as brothers in arms, they probably did sit around and tell one another why they were there. One gathers from all the stories of Marc's past that he didn't make friends. He had allies and ONE friend. Jean-Paul has always been a constant in Marc's life and, depending on which version of the beginning you read, Jean-Paul was the one that invited Marc to join the mercenary group in the first place. This may also mean that Jean-Paul knows more about Marc Spector than most people. Perhaps this is why Jean-Paul stuck around for so long. It makes me wonder if he knew about Steven and Jake too, back in the beginning.

Anyways...

"I learned from one of her friends that she had been frightened by our love, the change it had forced upon her soul. She felt the need to flee it--before it consumed her.

I never understood, not until much later.. Not until long after I forced myself to forget, forsaking Paris for the strange parts of the world... those places I had never seen before, where memory could not haunt me.

I met Marc in Africa where as mercenaries, we fought a revolutionary coup attempt.

And there, half a world away, I found her again- Working for the rebels, and for an agency of the French Government."

NOW THIS IS JUST SPECULATION. But a revolutionary coup in Africa with the French government involved on the side fighting rebels.

This means that she was working with France to attempt to overthrow the current governmental station and implant a new leader that France approves of (usually someone that France feels will be more willing to work with them in their favor.)

HISTORY TIME!

France had several colonies in Africa called "French West Africa, which was a federation of eight territories: Mauritania, Senegal, French Sudan (now Mali), French Guinea, Upper Volta (Now Burkina Faso), Dahomey (Now Benin), Niger, and Côte d'Ivoire.

France did not like the idea of giving up territories (look up France and Vietnam if you really want to get mad about the Vietnam war). In fact, some of the colonies didn't declare independence until 1962!!! And guess what? FRANCE STILL HAS EYES ON WEST AFRICA.

We know Jean-Paul was once a Legionnaire. A corps of the French Army that exists specifically to let foreign nationals join the French army. They also have a reputation as being the world's premier mercenary corps. Purely voluntary, it primarily works abroad and is OFTEN sent to Africa.

We know that around this time, Jean-Paul had broken away from the Legionnaires for reasons unknown and started working independently as a Mercenary and Marc was also working independently.

They later met up with Bushman's group and we all know how that went.

Back to the comic!

"We spent one more night together in talk, alone in the shadows, and she said that perhaps someday she could make the break from what she was...And she hoped that on that day we would meet again--And I glimpsed what my love could not give her--Independence, the satisfaction and pride of asserting herself, accomplishing things on her own."

She left him again with promises to be ready for their love someday.

Marlene tells him to be happy. That she seems ready and in ten days she will return to him.

"Oui, Marlene, I should be happy...But I am not."

He knows there was something in her eyes. Something that knew she could not be coming back.

Frenchie opens the box and finds $250,000. (That's $846,179 in today's change.)

Marc notes the box was purchased from "Ritter's New Orleans."

Frenchie is distraught.

"Who? Who was she running from, Marc? Who was after her? And why did they have to kill her?"

"I'm afraid it was the money, Frenchie, but I'll try to find out for sure...As soon as I change to Jake Lockley and tap some of my sources."

So we see Frenchie in pain and asking Marc for help and Marc's response is to send Jake out.

Considering how early on in the comics this is and before the system really started to come together, this is a really good display of delegating between alters. Jake is the one that helps and comforts his friends.

So now we cut to Jake at Gena's diner talking to Crawley.

"Yes, I've been apprised of the murder, Jake. Word has it that an out-of-town pro made the hit. Nasty trademark--An icepick. His name is Cajun Creed. Ostensibly, he's an extraordinary character, Jake--"

Uh oh. Creed.

Jake instantly knows and looks so sad.

"I may've had him in my grasp...And let him escape."

Apparently she failed to deliver goods already paid for.

He goes back home to tell Frenchie. Interestingly it's Jake that tells Frenchie the news, not Marc.

"[....] And the guy on the pier--the one who got away--may not have been such a small fry after all. He might have been her killer."

Jake explains that the cocaine is running from France to New Orleans to New York. Isabelle was working undercover for the French agency when she came across Cajun Creed. When she infiltrated Cajun Creed's business, she took the money and ran.

And if there is any doubt on who is talking to Frenchie, that is a VERY Jake pose and response. No one really gets people or forgives people for their traits like Jake does.

“People are People, Frenchie. We’re a strange breed. At any given moment, in any given situation. Any one of us could do something crazy–any one of us could turn sour.”

And he comforts their friend. This is not a place for Marc Spector, a man of vengeance. This is a place for Jake Lockley, a man who is kind and compassionate.

Now that Frenchie has been comforted, we see Marc slip in.

"Either way, her murder deserves to be avenged. In two weeks, Frenchie, they hold their Mardi Gras down there-A perfect cover for us. Marlene can stay here and hold down the fort. In Two weeks, you and I--You and Moon KNight--Are going to new Orleans...To settle final accounts with Cajun Creed."

And true to his word, two weeks later we see them in New Orleans. It's Fat Tuesday and the festival is underway.

We see Moon Knight using the festival as an excuse to move about the streets in full Moo Knight attire.

Frenchie is dressed as a pirate for some reason.

Well... Actually. Now that I think about it...

SMALL HISTORY INTERJECTION:

We all knew (or should know) that New Orleans has a high Creole culture, which originated from France (I'm not going to get into that bit of history unless you want me to.) BUT New Orleans also had a big Pirate influence too! Specifically French and Creole ones! It's really fascinating, but you should totally look it up if you like pirates. Jean Lafitte was the first Pirate to hail out of America.

ANYWAYS. That's why Frenchie is dressed like a pirate and no one cares.

We see Moon Knight asking if they should give up for the night since they've already tried 18 joints.

"No, Marc--This is one fishing expedition that does not end until zee big fish is caught, gutted, and fried."

"Slow down, Frenchie! You've been obsessed with this for two weeks now! It's time to get a grip on yourself before the venom in your gut explodes and poisons your heart!"

Really? This coming from Mr. Revenge? Perhaps he doesn't want to see his friend falling down the same hole he fell down. He wants to see Frenchie escape from their past and be happy.

He agrees to let Frenchie try one more club while he waits out front.

So of course Frenchie finds Creed inside showing off his strength.

He sneaks up behind him "Creed--Isabelle sends her love." and challenges him to a fight.

Moon Knight wonders what is taking so long when Frenchie comes flying out the front door into the street with Creed attempting to stab him with an ice pick.

Moon Knight disarms him but takes a hit.

"Ugn! He's just as mean and strong as I remember--which means this fight's gonna be a killer!"

Distracted by a goon, Moon Knight watches Creed get away then presses the goon for information. When he turns to gather up Frenchie, he finds him gone!

"No--The fool! Not alone--He can't face Creed alone!"

Moon Knight rushes to an old warehouse filled with crates of cocaine.

Inside, Frenchie has cornered Creed and holds a gun to him.

He yells at Creed that he is there to settle the score, but first he must know what Creed gave to Isabelle to make her change.

"What did you do to her?! I couldn't make her change, but you did! My Love couldn't change her--but your evil did! How?"

Creed tells him that Frenchie's love wasn't big enough. That "She changed because she wanted to." He taunts him until a random goon happens around the corner to see what's going on.

He shoots Frenchie just as Moon Knight arrives.

Now, we’ve seen them lose friends before. We’ve seen Jake lose friends and go quiet till Marc takes over to get revenge. We’ve seen Marc lose old allies before and go on a rampage of vengeance across countries.

But this is Frenchie. The one person in the world who knows the true him. That has followed him despite knowing the true him. The one person who can honestly say Marc Spector is my friend.

I shudder to think what would happen if Frenchie ever was killed.

Despite his troubles from before, he gives it his all to fight Creed now. He moves around like a professional and delivers blows and kicks.

His final blow is a crushing double fist to Creed's face that probably breaks his nose/cheekbones/eye sockets. This is not an easy to hit to get around.

Creed instantly gives up to avoid another hit.

He admits that Isabelle didn't love him. She stole his coke and money and shut down his whole operation.

He admits to killing her in New York after he found her trying to get in touch with the French Embassy. He tortured her for five days to try to make her talk. He killed her then after she said it was her last chance to retire with Jean-Paul.

Moon Knight goes to punch him out but is stopped by Frenchie...

Marc takes Frenchie to Paris where Isabelle is buried.

Here, Jean-Paul is able to say goodbye to the past. He lays to rest what could be, and Marc waits for him at a distance to take him home.

I’ve always loved Jean-Paul. The mysteriously loyal frenchman that seemingly lives on the roof and is always working on their chopper. He’s always there and always ready to fly them off at a moments notice. He has no social life and almost never has a day to himself.

In later comics, they interpret it to mean that Jean-Paul was in love with Marc Spector. That he followed him because of his love, but that Marc was too dense to pick up on it. Jean-Paul eventually leaves them after a tragic accident leaves him double amputated from the knees down. He falls in love with his PT person and the two run off to start their own restaurant together. Since then, we haven’t seen Jean-Paul in the comics aside from a brief appearance in Lemire’s run.

It is so bittersweet knowing how it all ends, but until then, we have the most beautiful friendship and one stable and loyal aspect to Marc Spector’s life. Something he needed. Something we, the reader needed.

We have Marlene to connect us to Steven. Genna, her boys, and Crawley to connect us to Jake. We even have Detective Flint to connect us to Moon Knight. But Frenchie must connect us to Marc Spector. To show us that there is more to this man than anger and death. Why else would Frenchie stay with him so fiercely?

And the same can be said for Jean-Paul. A man that has lived his own time as a soldier and mercenary. A man that may have his own guilt and pain. A life he left behind. Rich with no ties to anyone or any place, he chooses to spend his after war times with Marc and Moon Knight, helping to protect people and do right. I wish we could see more of this man. Maybe someday he’ll be remembered and returned to us, the friendly man in the moon cap ready to pick us up and take us away.

#Moon Knight #Moon Knight comics #Marc Spector #Jake Lockley #Steven Grant #Jean-Paul Duchamp #Frenchie #My beloved french man #I love this issue for so many reasons

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muninnhuginn · 8 months

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Post s2e9 confirmations and speculations as of this ep, starting with confirmations and moving on to thoughts/speculations.

Before I start, just going to link my speculations as of a couple of episodes ago here because they're surprisingly either still relevant or have been confirmed either way. Of these, the main pieces still outstanding are Liu Min's phone and the serial murders.

Fountain boy low-key confirmed to be Liu Min's younger brother (Liu Xiao, apparently?). He knew Tianchen would soon be given the opportunity to "hunt" and lo, there is Liu Min (who even vaguely recognised Tianchen which makes sense if he's an acquaintance of his brother's). His own surname is Liu and obviously that's a pretty common name, but the fact he had someone driving him around means he's pretty rich and, well, son of a games company CEO seems pretty rich indeed. Apply law of conservation of detail and this one is now locked in at 95%. Fountain boy = Liu Xiao = "hunter" = hat guy (the last I'm a bit less certain of, but again, conservation of detail and there aren't many episodes left).

I'd been wondering about the weird focus the neighbour got in terms of his gaming so him being someone Liu Min wanted taken care of made that entire side of things click for me. Liu Min was terminally online and so was the neighbour. Tianchen must've thought it karma that he had this opportunity.

Third story: Tianchen as red eyes, going further and further as Tianxi is forced to watch until he goes too far even for her - at which point she broke free and tried to appeal to Lu Guang (but why him?). (All that said, Tianchen claims he killed both their parents, but we didn't actually see it properly in any of the flashbacks which could just be because they're being careful with the censors but I'm still side-eyeing it until we see exactly what happened. After all, there was no knife in the picture when we left the scene.) Tianxi's story I'm presuming is simply an animated version of what Tianxi is showing Qiao Ling to tell her story.

Speaking of, Tianxi "broke free" in her school uniform and that was also how she was found. Does that place the hoodie scenes in the hospital as before she fled? Because rewatching a bit of ep 4 and it seemed that QJ was talking to Tianchen-as-Tianxi then (could be wrong, 'Tianxi' never spoke that we heard in this scene but it being actual Tianxi rather than Tianchen raises so many more questions) which would imply she was missing after the hospital and that's when they implemented the disguising plan. Thinking about the "sorry" scenes in the third story and wondering if Chen Bin was the final straw for Tianxi.

First/second story: The Romeo and Juliet backstage they're at was indeed as I saw a few people speculating a production featuring Qian Jin's wife and her co-star. Tianchen "I killed them both" @ Qian Jin: wow he just like me fr. (But nah this definitely raises more questions about the murder of his wife). (Also, just to note that I'm putting the different perspective of QJ meeting LTX and LTC down to the unreliable nature of Xiao Li relaying info initially rather than alternate timelines. Can't rule it out, of course (and the blood on Tianxi in only one of the tellings has me even more hesitant), but unreliable narrator seems an easier fit at this stage. We also know QJ doctored the case files and if LTC outright told him "I killed them both" then that sure didn't make it to the files.)

Qian Jin's motives now back up in the air. Initially it seemed as though he wanted the powers so he could bring his wife back, but with the revelation that he had reason to believe she was cheating (and pregnant with the person she was cheating on him with) the idea he would want her back seems... a lot less likely. Also, his break from morals is placed a lot earlier than it seemed from the outside. Those in the police thought he was outstanding etc etc until his wife died, but he was gone long before that. Ultimately, in both cases with alleged cheating it doesn't matter if the person themselves was cheating because they didn't deserve to be killed for it, but it is fascinating that we're presented with these two similar scenarios from two entirely different perspectives. Li Tianchen and Tianxi as victims of domestic abuse by the person who believes they're being cheated on whilst Qian Jin is the role of the husband who believes he's being cheated on. (The way the pregnancy reveal is played - QJ not seeing his wife often because he was always at work, her startling when caught on the phone - it does seem like he takes the pregnancy as confirmation that she was cheating as the pregnancy couldn't have been with him. She's already dead at that point though.)

With the current timeline we have, I don't know whether QJ engineered the initial killing of his wife (and the fact the culprit escaped legal justice actually kinda makes me think that he didn't), but I do think he used Tianchen after the fact to set up the suicide and suicide note of the killer

The serial killings. We originally believed there were eight in total, starting with Emma. However, this episode shifts the timeline somewhat. Liu Min says thank you for dealing with "that woman", but he still seems to have use of his legs so presumably "that woman" isn't Emma and this is taking place beforehand. Which would imply there are a number of extra victims the police haven't uncovered. (The alternative is that this flashback was in a timeline before the Emma stuff went so wrong and Liu Min still had use of his legs? I'm really hoping it's not this because it'd break my brain a bit) This also somewhat explains how the police were unable to tie motives together for the serial killings if it was a killing-for-hire type scenario, though I do still somewhat believe there's some underlying logic that QJ either bought into himself or was able to make Tianchen buy into in order to believe the victims weren't "innocent"

#link click #link click spoilers #shiguang daili ren spoilers #this is less down the speculation end but I loved the intertwining metaphors in the entire 'hunter' thing throughout #as well as the parallels about the cheating and the lack of total confirmation around that #because it makes you compare the two scenarios and wonder #as well as qian jin and what he saw in li tianchen because I think he saw himself honestly #he didn't know at this stage about his powers so that's not why he took to him #(also. unrelatedly. I really don't think we're done with chen bin. he's a loose end (not) walking)#oh and I don't want to edit my older spec post but I do now think tianxi is the one with the phone double crossing the other two #which should be clear enough from what we now know but the whole hospital timeline is funky so thought I'd say

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jgroffdaily · 1 year

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Excerpts from a review at them.us:

It’s the sort of premise that works well in literary form, where we have more direct access to the characters’ interiority — and indeed, Shyamalan and his collaborators have adapted this film from Paul Tremblay’s The Cabin at the End of the World, albeit with some major plot revisions. But Shyamalan draws tremendously affecting performances out of everyone involved, especially Groff and Aldridge, to the point that the novel’s close third-person narration is barely missed. In so doing, the horror director produces his finest work since The Sixth Sense and delivers one of the more moving queer-themed genre films in recent history.

At its core, and beneath its high-concept trappings, Knock is a family story: Eric is uptight, Andrew has a temper, but they love each other and would do anything to protect their “miracle,” Wen. The movie’s LGBTQ+ representation hits the exact (and often elusive) sweet spot between being casual and pronounced. The homophobia that Eric and Andrew have endured over the course of their relationship is real, shown in painful flashbacks, but there is nothing didactic about that acknowledgement. Those scenes from the past serve a purpose, for both plot and characterization, and avoid coming across like Very Special Episodes.

I never would have expected Shyamalan, who — speaking of sacrifice — often offers up his own characters on the altar of abstraction, to nail this balance. But in Knock, Shyamalan seems to have matured enough as a filmmaker to stay put, confining himself largely to a single location, keeping his lens focused on Eric and Andrew’s pained faces. He avoids big twists in favor of tight close-ups and the occasional monologue. Shyamalan wants you to believe this family’s love for each other, and thanks in large part to Groff and Aldridge, he succeeds.

This family is just like any other family, but it also isn’t. Love is love, but also — as Billy Eichner’s character memorably puts it in Bros — love is not love; queer love is different. For some reason, it seems impossible for many filmmakers to hold those two ideas together. The temptation is strong to either homogenize or tokenize — to make LGBTQ+ characters either the same as everyone else or markedly other. Shyamalan avoids that temptation here, letting the family be messy, imperfect, and all the more likable for it. That surprising human touch only accentuates the director’s long-established talents for crafting suspense and framing shots. For all his past foibles, the man knows how to construct an image.

Knock is many things: a parable about the end of the world, a study in belief, a thriller perfectly poised for our misinformation era. But in addition to those layers of meaning and metaphor, it is also a film about the beauty and fragility of building a queer family. Eric and Andrew have overcome so much to create something that’s at risk of being capriciously destroyed. The movie understands something that queer people know on a gut level: we are strong, but we are outnumbered and we are, after all, only human.

I won’t say how Knock ends, suffice it to say that a certain 1975 disco hit becomes a genuinely gutting musical cue. But I will say that it made me do two things I never expected to do while watching an M. Night Shyamalan film: cry and feel proud to be queer.

#jonathan groff #ben aldridge #m night shyamalan #knock at the cabin #review

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eyelessfaces · 2 years

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heartbreak

chapter one of πράγμα (prágma)

llewyn davis x reader

> next chapter

πράγμα (prágma): mature, realistic love. pragma is about making compromises to help the relationship work over time, and showing patience and tolerance.

summary: after a tough break up, you think you're finally able to get back on your feet after months of mopping around, but you lose balance when you cross paths with the man that broke your heart.

warnings: break up, depression, angst, sexual innuendos

tags: fem!reader, fluff from flashbacks otherwise it's purely angst for now

word count: 2.4k

hi I'm pretty nervous about posting this because this is my first multi chapters fic!! please tell me what you think about it or I'll cry omg

reblogs and feedback are appreciated!!

Winter 1966

If some people were confident about going on dates, that clearly wasn’t your case – regardless of how many times you had done it. There were always those questions of “Am I dressed well enough?”, “Should I lie about myself so he can like me?”, “Do I act like myself with the risk of scaring him off?”

And no matter how hard you tried you couldn’t help but feel anxious each time.

It wasn’t your first date with Gareth; it wasn’t even about the dates. You were friends at first, you had met through your coworker that introduced you; the purpose expected was the same, but you liked the fact that Gareth learned to get to know you before immediately wanting to fuck you after the first date. And if his eventuality was to get in your pants, he was pretty slick about it, and carefully building his way to it, so you didn’t mind. And you couldn’t say that you didn’t want to get in his pants too.

Gareth was nice, polite, and respectful. He listened to you, and you felt like he genuinely enjoyed seeing you talk about the things you cared about in life.

But Gareth’s problem was that he was a little too nice. Every other guy that you went on dates with were lowkey jerks you quickly ended up fucking with; and then it was it, you never saw them again.

But you knew damn well that if you had fucked Gareth already, you two would be dating by now. Because his personality was the missing part of those other guys you couldn’t bring yourself to fall in love with.

You are pretty sure you don’t have feelings for Gareth yet, you are waiting for something to happen, and so desperately. You are waiting for it to come, you are waiting for the sparkle to finally blow, but you can’t help but think you’re broken.

You’re broken because Gareth is so obviously in love with you, and you can feel it by the weight of his gaze when he looks at you and thinks you don’t know he’s looking.

You’re broken because despite all his nice gestures towards you, you feel embarrassed when you should just feel flattered.

You’re broken because you don’t think you will ever be able to fall in love again after what happened two years ago.

You push the heavy door of the unknown bar-restaurant Gareth suggested; Gareth suggested this place because the quiche was apparently extraordinary, and you trusted his judgment because Gareth was one man to know how to cook.

You sigh, relieving the stress bubbling inside of you as you look through the tables in search of his figure. A band is playing on the wide stage, catching the attention of the regulars who are softly marking the beat with their feet.

Your look pierces through the room and you finally catch Gareth waving in your direction.

You greet him and you easily relax; you feel safe and confident around him, and all the stress suddenly wears off.

You talk and talk and talk, the quiche is indeed delicious and so is the refined wine you picked after Gareth offered you to pay for the bill.

Everything feels great and you feel so comfortable your brain can’t stop pushing you, waiting for the right moment to ask Gareth if he wants to come to your place after you’re done.

Your look is focused on him as he watches and claps the artists as they leave the stage, and claps again for the next ones, and you can’t help the growing smirk from appearing on your face as you think about the things he’ll potentially do to you once you bring him back home.

Your chin is resting against the palm of your hand and you hide your smirk once Gareth turns back to you, but you know you failed when his eyes start glistening the way they do.

“What?” he asks with a similar smile, oblivious to why you’re making such a face.

“Nothing” you shrug before taking a sip of your wine. You put the glass down on the table and sigh as you’re about to ask him the damned question. “Listen Gareth” you continue, shifting in your seat as you look at his confused expression. “Do you-”

Then you stop and your heart skips a beat before you suddenly feel it pounding louder and faster in your ribcage, resonating inside of your brain, filling your ears.

You freeze and you’re not sure if time is real anymore; you feel like your being is stuck in time and everything around you moves the way it’s supposed to, at the speed it’s supposed to, but you’re in the middle of it, stuck.

That voice, you could recognize it in millions, and apparently just in seconds.

And it is this way for a fact. That voice was the voice you used to come back from work to, the voice you used to fall asleep to, the voice that used to dedicate songs to you.

You hadn’t heard that voice in what – months, years even? And it somewhat pierced right through you the same way it did when you last heard it.

You can hear Gareth talking; but at the same time you can’t. It’s like you’re underwater, his voice is muffled and you can’t decipher what he’s telling you. You’re not sure you want to hear him; your ears are focused on something else, something that made you lose balance and something that you’re sure will ruin your night.

You’re scared to look at the stage; as if if you look, it will become real, when you know damn well that it is and that the man on stage is the same man that broke your heart two years ago.

But when you turn to look at the man, you can’t recognize him, at least for a few seconds.

When you look at him it feels different than what you had expected; maybe because he looks different.

The face you used to know and adore is now clean shaven, making him look so much younger somehow even if you haven’t seen him in years – and he looks so much more innocent and vulnerable like that.

Something sinks in your stomach and you apologize to Gareth before leaving to go to the bathroom, cutting him off as he’s asking you what’s wrong and why you suddenly stopped talking.

You slalom through the tables and join the bathroom where you’re finally alone with your reflection in the mirror.

It had taken you so long to get over Llewyn.

Llewyn had shattered you; so badly. And if you blamed him at first it wasn’t the case anymore.

The situation was complicated and you understood now that it was probably the best solution for the both of you, as complicated as it was to admit.

You had been pulled by the classic “it’s not you it’s me” break up situation.

Llewyn thought he didn’t deserve you, because you brought the money home while he was struggling with his job, so he felt bad about it. You knew Llewyn’s occupation was particular, but you thought you would be able to handle it, because you loved him and you were willing to do anything to be by his side.

So you got a second job to pay the rent fully but the situation slowly ruined your life, mental health, and relationships.

You were coming home late, and when you did, Llewyn wasn’t here. He was at gigs that barely brought you money, and when he came back from them, you were already asleep, exhausted from your day.

When he woke up you were already gone to work, and it was it over and over again each day.

You barely even saw each other anymore, and when he did you seemed so sad, so tired and looked so unhappy he could feel his heart ache just from looking at your state. He felt so powerless about it he decided that the best solution was to ‘free’ you from this life, this burden, so you could finally be happy again. He thought the best solution was to tell you that he had fallen out of love for you and he hoped that it would allow you to stay away from him and finally live normally. At least… that’s only what he thought would happen.

You’re completely heartbroken and you have so much trouble forgetting him.

Before meeting Llewyn, you would have never thought you could love someone that hard. But here you are, crying about him at work, under the shower, in bed.

It takes you a while to chase your feelings away. You refuse to get your life back, and you work even more in order to not think about that heartbreak and over the seven word sentence resonating in your brain.

“I don’t think I love you anymore”

You come home half asleep, and even as tired as you are, you can’t sleep. When you finally can, you feel even more tired once you wake up. You don’t even have people around you anymore, having cut every connection with anyone related to Llewyn. This is a never ending cycle of loneliness, tiredness and gloominess.

This life slowly breaks you and thankfully your family notices it as you never call anymore, and they push you to finally go to the doctor, and as expected the doctor tells you you’re under a lot of pressure and you should get some rest or your health will quickly decline.

You couldn’t say you didn’t know that, but you knew you had to break the loop in order to get better even if you didn’t want to.

You give up on your second job, and you can feel you’re slowly starting to get better.

You still can’t forget Llewyn, but one day you look at yourself in the mirror and notice how pathetic you look because of one man that doesn’t give a shit about you anymore, and you finally get your shit together and decide to start seeing other men.

You’re not sure you ever got over Llewyn, the two years apart from him were just two years of trying.

You sigh and wash your face with water, trying to ground yourself.

This is gonna be fine, you will just go back to Gareth and ask him to go home with you. Easy, right? Easy.

Spring 1962

It’s a nice afternoon in Greenwich Village. The sun is coming back, the snow finally melted and the flowers are slowly beginning to bloom again.

You hum softly as a ray of sunshine nicely warms your cheeks.

You put your book down on your lap, and carefully stare at Llewyn. He looks so focused but so confused at the same time, and you giggle at the silly expression on his face. His look darts from his book to you and he raises his eyebrows.

“What’s so funny, huh?” he asks, raising his chin at you, running a hand along your leg laying over his lap.

“You don’t get anything about this book do you” you chuckle, already knowing the answer.

He pinches his lips and puts his book down on the stand beside your couch.

He sighs. “Fuck no I don’t, I wanted to be nice and take interest in Mitch‘s lectures but everything’s just so confusing” he winces placing his elbow against the armsrest of the couch, putting his head in the palm of his hand.

“That’s fine, I think you’ll still be invited at the next Gorfeins’ dinners even if you tell Mitch you don’t get anything about what he teaches” you say smiling at him.

He smiles back at you and your gaze shifts to look out the window.

Birds are chirping, the sun is shining and you can see it’s a calm breeze out there as the leaves of the trees are softly swinging.

“We should go out, the weather's so nice” you sigh softly.

“No”

Your head turns back to him and you frown.

“Why?” you question, brows knitted.

“You look so much nicer than the weather” he declares grinning, his fingers tracing over your leg.

“What does that change? I’ll still be with you” you say frowning again, and he tuts.

“You don’t get it do you?” he asks, raising his eyebrows as you stare at him confused. “If we stay here I can have you all to myself” he grins, gently squeezing your thigh.

“Oh I see” you coo, putting your book down on the floor before moving your legs away from his lap and sitting on your knees next to him.

“Yeah?” he asks looking up at you teasingly, putting a hand to your cheek, stroking there.

“Yeah” you whisper before pulling him in for a kiss, and you gasp against his mouth as he bends and lays you down on the couch.

You smile as his mouth trails down to your neck, shoulder and collarbone, and shiver as his cold, calloused hands slip under your tshirt.

“Love you” he mumbles against your skin between kisses. “So much” he says before putting all of his weight down on you, wrapping his arms around your waist. “I started and I don’t think I will ever stop” he sighs, laying the side of his face against your chest.

“You better not” you chuckle cupping his jawline and stroking his beard with your thumb.

“I won’t” he promises before closing his eyes, comfortable.

You smile and play with his hair, wrapping the curls around your fingers, delighted at the peaceful situation.

You smile as you hear soft snores escaping his mouth and it’s now your turn to close your eyes.

Today

You sigh as you brush back the hair falling over your face.

This is gonna be fine, you will just go back to Gareth and apologize before telling him you don’t feel good and need to go back home. Easy, right? Easy. He’ll understand, he’ll be nice about it, and you’ll have another nice date another day.

You had left him hanging there for almost ten minutes and it was pretty impolite from you, you needed to go back to him anyways. You yourself wouldn’t be too happy if your date suddenly left without an explanation.

You look down and smooth your shirt and look back at your reflection to give yourself an encouraging smile in the mirror before finally deciding to leave the bathroom, a semblance of confidence rushing through your veins. You leave the tiled room and turn to your feet when a voice resonates in the narrow corridor.

“So that’s really you”

You sigh softly as your eyes meet his heavy gaze, and you can feel your stomach turn.

Time moves and so do people, but somehow feelings don’t.

—

To be continued...

> next chapter

Small clarification: the story takes place in winter 1966; they started dating in 1961 and they stayed together until 1964.

reblogs and feedback are appreciated!!

feel free to ask me anything about my story, anon or not, I love talking about it and I'd be more than happy to answer your questions.

inside llewyn davis taglist: @apollo-enthusiast @scarabgrant @lockleysgrl

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thebadjoe · 1 year

Text

BAD JOE'S DRDT CH.2 CRIME SOLVING THEORY PART 3

Yo! It's me, that one DRDT theorist! And now, it's time for me to reveal even more clues I figured out about this chapter that I believe makes the most sense. So uh... sit tight, I got quite a bunch to say. Like the previous two parts of my theory (click here for part 1 and click here for part 2), this is potentially HEAVY danganronpa despair time spoilers (if I end up being right especially), especially towards the latest episode to date being episode 11, so BEWARE. And to avoid a small incident like last time I made a theory post, I feel obligated to mention that I RECOMMEND YOU TO READ BOTH PARTS OF MY THEORY BEFORE READING THIS ONE TO AVOID ANY CONFUSION, THANK YOU!

Let's do it!

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Step #1 : What Ace saw and heard, is it all true?

As you know, Ace claims he knows what David's secret is, which ends up being : "You exist to manipulate others. Everyone else exists to be taken advantage of." Of course, we later learn that it's indeed David's secret for many reasons, which gives ample credibility to Ace's testimony.

Let me give you a small recap of what happened according to Ace. Yesterday evening, he was working out in the fitness room until he heard David and Arei's voices coming from the relaxation room. which caught his attention.

He decides to approach that room stealthily, listening to the conversation. Arei knows what David's secret is because she managed to get a peek of Whit's secret he was holding without him noticing (which ended up being David's). Arei keeps arguing while David is practically left speechless, then Arei says something like : "David! Say something!"

And that's where the flashback ends. Ace claims he didn't hear anything else after that.

That last part in itself is very odd, but I'll get back to it later. Let me show you the issues that may cause troubles with my theory.

According to his flashback, you get to see him in the fitness room, but there's one specific detail that makes a hole in my theory. That's right! The missing fan to the right, indicating that this is happening on DAY 3, during the evening.

Woot! I'm glad it's breaking your theory! But why is it an issue?

Because according to my theory, Arei should be already dead on DAY 3. She was murdered on the night of DAY 2. Therefore, it's definitly a huge contradiction from the looks of it.

To make matters worse, we also have another part of the flashback proving this.

The second phrase : "Nico got super pissy and tried to turn Ace into cat food." This implies that Arei was there when she heard all the commotion about the attempted murder on Ace. (Lunchtime on DAY 3). Which once again potentially disproves my suggested time on murder and also my disguise theory.

I also double checked, it is not a reference from DAY 2, when nico snapped after so much bullying from Ace and said : "I'll kill you!". Well... it could be, but Arei was nowhere to be seen in the dining room at the time and there's nothing suggesting otherwise.

Then this is it! Your theory is now broken in thousand pieces. There's no way your theory works anymore!

...are you sure about that?

Is it actually wise to believe everything Ace said regarding this topic?

So what now? Are you suggesting that everything he said was a lie?

Never claimed he lied, well... not intentionally anyways. Let me explain. Earlier, I mentioned that there was an issue with his testimony, let me show you.

He says that right after the flashback ends with Arei saying : "David! Say something!"

Now, tell me how that would be the last thing he heard? Why would the conversation ends with this line? That makes no sense!

On top of that, if there was indeed more to the conversation which there most likely is, there's no way Ace didn't hear it. Otherwise, it would imply that Ace's hiding it.

But why would Ace hide the end of the conversation? Once again, that makes no sense. The point of his testimony is to pin David as the ultimate manipulator. So it's for the best to reveal the whole conversation then.

It's not like he lied and made up the conversation eitheir because let's remember... we have the confirmation that Whit has David's secret, which matches up with the conversation between Arei and David according to the flashback.

I don't understand!!! Why is there so many inconsistencies?!!

It is pretty peculiar, isn't it? What does this all mean? Surely, there's an explanation for all of this, right? Well... what if I were to tell you that there is a logical explanation to this?

Let me bring up two moments that are highly likely to be facts : Ace not hearing anything else from Arei and David in practically the middle of the conversation and Ace being knocked unconscious with turpentine before the night of attempted murder (DAY 2).

If you combine the two, you get a new possibility : The time Ace listened to the conversation in secret is not on DAY 3. It was actually on the evening of DAY 2. The reason why Ace didn't hear anything else in the middle of the conversation is because that's the exact time he's been knocked unconscious, which matches up the events of DAY 2 better than DAY 3.

That's logical?! No! That's preposterous!!! There's so many-

Holes in my logic such as the missing fan, what arei said regarding nico, he's not that dumb to the point where he would mistake the day he heard the conversation and so on?

There's a way to explain these issues. Ever since the attempted murder, it's probably possible that he's not in top shape mentally wise. I mean... think about it. It's been confirmed that he has a eating disorder, it's most likely confirmed that he's been knocked unconscious with the turpentine and he's been nearly killed.

He has a pretty concerning neck wound and lost a certain amount of blood. It's possible that one of these facts if not all of them may have given Ace certain side effects... such as being confused.

It's possible that he mistook the day because of that.

Alright, then explain what we saw in those flashbacks.

This is a sneaky trick played by the creator yet again. This flashback is practically Ace's POV, but if combine this and the fact that he might've not been feeling amazing mental wise (aka feeling confused), we get a new possibility : At this point in time, Ace's an unreliable narrator.

A what now?

An unreliable narrator. "The unreliable narrator is either deliberately deceptive or unintentionally misguided, forcing the reader to question their credibility as a storyteller." (Quote taken in an article from MasterClass)

In other words, while most of it may seem credible as it matches up David's secret and a few other events, since it's most likely possible that this flashback happened on the evening of DAY 2, it means that the missing fan and Arei's dialogue about Nico trying to kill Ace is an illusion created by the narrator of this flashback : Ace.

This is all just speculation! You have no proof that he's not telling the whole truth, be it intentionally or not!

No, that's wrong!

There is proof that heavily implies that Ace is not telling the whole truth, all thanks to a certain individual : David Chiem!

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Step #2 : What David told us, is it all a lie?

Before I dwelve into the mind of this pessimistic, yet very interesting character, I'd like to give a moment to show my appreciation in regards to this amazing reveal in episode 11.

It's not just this quote, of course. But like, the reveal and the whole chain of events was just quite a treat. I've watched it live on youtube, I disabled the chat beforehand for my own sanity, but according to some friendly sources, the chat was going crazy in that moment and honestly, I can't blame them.

It got so crazy, people made a lot of those small edit vids of David with some random song playing in the background and everytime I tried to looked through DRDT stuff on youtube, it felt like someone uploaded a new David edit video every hour or so.

People were going bonkers over this dude. I think it even managed to become trending on twitter at some point?

It was amazing to watch, to say the least. So for that, I'm gonna say to the creator of DRDT : Well done! That was a very well made reveal that made this episode all the more enjoyable to watch.

And now, let's go back to my theory talk!

Here's the proof I have in regards to Ace's shaky testimony.

Despite his whole lying, manipulative persona, I believe that this quote is the truth. It adds up anyways because if we think back on the trial of chapter 1, most of them were just nonstop accusing Teruko of being the culprit mostly because of the knife being in Teruko's hands.

So the way it's phrased heavily implies that Ace is not a completly reliable witness, which would fit perfectly well with my logic so far.

In any case, knowing that it's futile to keep arguing on that matter, David gives up and makes a confession.

Ha! He actually talked with her on the evening of Day 3! You just got yourself caught into another hole that shatters your theory!

Oh, quite the contrary! That line is actually very good for my theory. Pay close attention to the wording. He met with Arei last night in the relaxation room. This can be interpreted in a different way, which I'll get to in a moment.

What's also important here is that he never reveals what was the conversation between him and Arei. He simply says something among those lines : "I've forgotten! Who cares? She's dead, lol!"

Obviously, that's a lie. He's definitly hiding something, but what exactly? Let me show you some of the facts and ideas I theorized : It's highly likely that what Ace witnessed happened on the evening of DAY 2, David actually met with Arei on the evening of DAY 3, David claims he never saw Ace on that floor on the evening of DAY 3, Arei is supposed to be dead already by DAY 3.

With these elements, you get the following possibility : David met with Arei last night in the relaxation room, but it doesn't mean that he met her alive. That was the precise moment he discovered Arei's corpse. He was the first person to find the corpse of Arei and it was in the relaxation room.

Hold on, doesn't that create even more holes in your theory according to the two posts?

...You're right, it does. There's even a major one at that, which I'll explain later.

Initially, I theorized that David was the first person to find the body, which was supposed to happened at a slightly earlier time, sometime before David met Teruko, Whit and Charles in the kitchen. Reason being that Whit suggested David to spend time in the relaxation room, which he would've used that opportunity to come up an idea and use those fishes to make people think the murder happened at a different time.

That section is practically rejected now since according to the possibility that I revealed, he found her corpse after the trio meeting in the kitchen, not before.

So the weird change of mood he had when David met them in the kitchen, it wasn't because he found the body. It was actually because of the discussion Arei and David had in the evening of DAY 2, since she knows David's secret, after all.

In any case, David most likely still placed those fishes in the playground sometime after finding the corpse because of his character and also because he's the only one who could've done it. I have proof for this.

What does Nico have to do with any of this?

The fishes were dead on DAY 4. Nico fed these fishes on the evening night of DAY 3 and that was anytime before the room closes at 10:00pm.

However, since the relaxation becomes locked at 10:00pm until 8:00am and that the fishes were dead on the next day, someone entered that room after Nico did.

The only suitable suspect for this is David. It's already been proven that he visited the relaxation room at the evening/night of DAY 3 and Nico also points out that they saw David use the elevator.

The fishes couldn't have been placed at the morning of DAY 4 since the room in question only opens at 8:00am, but everyone alive were currently at the movie screening room at the time.

But hold on! If they visited the relaxation room before David, then they should've definitly noticed Arei's body.

Not necessarily. The corpse could've simply be hidden somewhere in that room. David was probably more perceptive when he checked out the room as compared to Nico, who was probably too preoccupied with taking care of the fishes and eating their dinner.

But that's impossible! Someone claimed that there's no place to be hidden in the relaxation room!

Sure, but remind me... who said that there was no place to hide again?

That's right! It was Eden!

Since she's the culprit in my theory, she could've easily lied about the existence of a hiding spot in the relaxation room. Eden found a spot to hide Arei's body.

Hold on a second... something's just not right at all with the timing. That seems rather impossible!

As much as I'd like to counter that argument, it's actually true. This... is the major issue I was referring to earlier. If the body was indeed hidden in that room, it practically makes my suggested time of murder impossible. Let me explain.

According to my theory, Eden tried to murder both Ace and Arei. In order to do so, to explain how there was tape around the bars of the carousel, Arei has to be murdered after Ace's attempted murder as this is the only logical conclusion.

However, that's where it becomes problematic. The time Teruko and Eden found Ace's nearly dead body in the fitness room was sometime after 10:00pm, which the relexation room should've been already locked by then.

We know the time of that discovery because before Teruko decided to grab the rest of her uniforms, monoTV made an announcement that it was 10:00pm.

My suggested time of death on Arei (late night of DAY 3) is actually impossible because there would be no way to hide the body in the relaxation room afterwards.

Well... why not just murder her that night, leave her in the playground, but come back next morning to hide her in the relaxation room?

Well, that would just be incredibly odd but more importantly, there is a piece of evidence I recently discovered that completly shatters this possibility and creates even more problems.

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Step #3 : That evidence, is it truly problematic?

A ball of clothes... that's your problematic evidence?

Yup, it is. But don't worry, it's also problematic for practically most of the theories out there and I'll give you guys a good explanation as to why this ball of clothes is a lot more important than it seems.

Honestly, I'm surprised I haven't caught on to that much earlier. It seemed so obvious, yet it only clicked to me the meaning behind this recently.

Initially, I thought that the ball of clothes was used to cover the jugs of water for the seasaw murder mechanism (explained in my first post) for a better accuracy, but I was actually wrong about that. It was used for a much better purpose. The culprit used those clothes to cover Arei's body in the relaxation room.

Another ridiculous idea! What would be the point of doing that?

Try to recall what monoTV said back in episode 2.

This is the reason why that room becomes locked at nighttime. It's to turn on an automated system that waters the plants without anyone else disrupting it.

What's also important from this scene is that this system waters them with an enriched formula. I've made some research and you know this starch that Teruko mentioned in episode 8? This could definitly be part of said formula.

How so?

I swear to you guys, if you look up various topic for starch used in plants, watering plants with starch, and so on, you'll find a lot of interesting results. Starch is actually very beneficial in plant growth.

So with that in mind, if the culprit hid the body in the relaxation room, then the corpse would've been possibly covered in starch. So they needed something to cover the body. Hence, the clothes from the dress up room could've definitly be used for that purpose.

And with that, it becomes practically guaranteed that this bundle of clothes were placed in the relaxation room before someone put them back in the dress up room.

Sadly for me, because of that, it's also guaranteed that she couldn't have been murdered on the night of DAY 2.

Then that means your theory doesn't work anymore.

Not just mine, it also messes with most of the other theories. Think about it, most of them claim eitheir one of these : Arei is murdered on the evening of DAY 3 or Arei is murdered at the morning of DAY 4, between 7:30am and 8:00am. Thanks to this ball of clothes' actual use, it just becomes impossible.

Let's go through each one of them. If she was murdered on the evening of DAY 3, the culprit would need to hide and cover the body in the relaxation room which is just physically impossible. The ball of clothes was found in the dress-up room in the morning of DAY 4. Literally no one alive had access to the relaxation room since they were all present in the movie screening room at 8:00 am.

If she was murdered on DAY 4, at 7:30 am, then you wouldn't be able to explain how there was starch on these clothes. There's no way these clothes was put in the relaxation room beforehand for no reason, it just wouldn't make sense.

So yeah... all of us were wrong about the actual time of death this whole time.

What about you? Do you have any way to explain this contradiction?

I do... but first, I need to make some important statements.

Arei was not murdered on the night of DAY 2. The culprit did not hide the corpse on the night of DAY 2. Arei was alive on DAY 2, from morning to nighttime.

What are you doing? Aren't you just tearing apart your theory?!

No, I'm not breaking it, I'm fixing it. Here we go : The culprit hid the body on the evening of DAY 2 and the body remained hidden in the relaxation room during the night of DAY 2.

What the hell are you saying?! You're just contradicting yourself!

Nope, I'm not. Let me clarify : The culprit hid the body that was still alive, but unconscious. Arei was locked away in the relaxation room during the night of DAY 2.

Wh-WHAAAATT?!! That makes absolutely no sense!

Not true. In fact, because of that reasoning, it would explain a lot of things. It would explain properly why there was an attempted murder on Ace, why Arei was killed later on, why a good amount of evidence was still laid around the playground, why we didn't get to witness a specific time of the day this chapter, etc.

If she was kept locked inside the relaxation room alive during the night of DAY 2, then when did she get murdered?

There's only one possible time that would be possible without drawing any suspicions. Arei was murdered in the morning of DAY 3, shortly after the relaxation room was unlocked (8:00 am).

That's ridiculous! There's no way you can prove that!

I can prove it... with the lack of proof!

Teruko overslept in the morning of DAY 3, so there's no way to tell what the heck happened that morning because she was asleep the whole morning. This is the lack of proof that I'm referring to.

But if you think about it, that's a very convenient way to hide the real time of murder : have a time skip of sorts while also giving a reasonable excuse as to why we skipped that time. This is yet again another sneaky trick that the creator pulled right under our nose.

I was somewhat close with my theory the previous two posts, but thanks to these discoveries, I feel very confident in my revised theory. I believe I know what actually happened and you'll see that it makes more sense than what I previously had.

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Step #4 : The murder, what actually happened?

Let's start with the motive, why not? On my first post, I proposed the idea that the reason why Eden wanted to commit murder is to get rid of the bullying. That motive gets sort of shut down because of episode 10, during Eden's flashback. We learn that they're friends and that Arei is willing to do anything to help her out.

Then, I proposed the idea that it still had something to do with the bullying, somewhat, but it's mostly because she's seriously intent on winning this killing game which can be fairly explained by how much efforts she put in to make herself look the least suspicious.

It's kind of a fair reason, except that if we think about it, anyone who wanted to get away with murder would've put a lot of efforts into it. Not seen through a lot of chapters, but it can happen. Therefore, it's probably not enough of a reason why she decided to kill people. I have a new interesting idea for Eden's motive, but I need to clear something up real quick.

Remember in my first post, when I said that the secret motives had nothing to do with the murder mystery? That it was all a distraction to keep us away from the truth? I was wrong. The motive for murder definitly has something to do with the secret motives. The culprit was afraid of their secret being exposed.

Huh? That seems wrong. Eden's secret was revealed during the trial, so that kind of motive to kill seem pretty pointless for Eden as the culprit.

Well, that's because you're not seeing it from the right perspective. This is not the secret that I'm referring to.

What do you mean?! This is clearly Eden's secret! It fits her perfectly! You can't really say that one of these other shown secrets is hers.

It's true that the secret "Ever since you kissed her, you were afraid your sexuality would ruin your friendships." fits Eden the best and I also believe that this her actual shown secret. So the other secrets aren't really hers eitheir (sort of). But you know... why are so keen on believing that they only have one "bad" secret?

Humans generally have a bunch of secrets that they're hiding, be it good or bad. We also have to keep in mind that in the early days of chapter 2, not a lot of people knew what their own secrets were. So if you combine these ideas together, you get the following possibility :

Eden had a secret much worse than the one shown this chapter. The reason why that secret was not chosen however is because it was practically identical to someone else's secret and the host/mastermind probably wanted to keep the secrets diverse. So they chose the person who would have the worst consequences if their secret was revealed while the other person would have a different secret shown instead. Eden's worst secret is the same as David's secret.

It'd make sense because if we think about it, everything she did from the murder schemes to her grand plan of using the letter found in a trash can to make herself the most innocent individual in that trial among a few other small things, Eden's quite the manipulative gal, isn't she? To add up to it, since it's insanely likely the Arei's body was hidden in the relaxation room, it means that Eden is a very good liar as well since neitheir Teruko nor Whit found it suspicious back in episode 7.

So what if that was her worst secret? It's not the secret that was shown for her in the trial, so she had no reason to kill whatsoever.

No, that's wrong. Put yourself in the shoes of the culprit. MonoTV tells everyone that their secret will be revealed in four days. At that moment, Eden most likely thought that her secret would be something like what David had : Lying and very manipulative. Considering the very kind persona that she's trying to portray, it would definitly take a turn for the worse if that was her actual shown secret and that it gets revealed to everyone.

David was in the same boat, after all. He did everything he could to make sure his secret would never get exposed or else, he would suffer a great amount of consequences... just like so!

Guess what David tried to do to make sure his secret wouldn't get revealed? He actively tried to make a murder happen by suggesting everyone to share their secrets. He knew that was the safest bet to get a terrible deadly outcome happening and it almost worked.

Then back to Eden. What would be the next best thing (if not the best) to get her secret hidden from the public? Commit murder, of course!

Also, to add irony and despair into this theory, if monoTV didn't screw it up and mixed up the secrets, Eden would've never really bother to commit murder since she would be able to learn that her shown secret is not the worst one. It's truly shocking, isn't it?

Alright, fine. You explained a possible motive for Eden. But you have yet to explain literally everything about how the crime was carried out!

Ah, right! The howdunnit! I've got quite some explaining to do, don't I? Let's start from the beginning. Starting with the topic that hasn't really changed in any of my theories since most of it is pretty much factual : the attempted murder on Ace.

When I made my first theory, I initially linked them both together has targets chosen because they were bullies, which would've matched my first motive idea, but that's not the case. Nonetheless, I was able to link both crimes as something done by the same culprit for a few reasons (mentioned in the first post).

We also know that Ace's been knocked unconscious by the turpentine and then the culprit set up this weird murder mechanism in the fitness room which caused neck wounds from the wires.

But then, Nico came into that room because of the bloodlust they had. They were planning on killing Ace as well, so they were looking for him, then found him in the fitness room, but they did something in that room that saved Ace's life, unintentionally or not.

Then the culprit moves on and proceeds to kill Arei the same night... but we already know by now that this is not the case. We know that her unconscious body was kept hidden and locked in the relaxation room, but why?

Well, if you combine these previous facts, you get this very interesting possibility : Eden's original murder scheme is that she wanted to murder Ace and no one else. The reason Arei was kept alive, but unconscious and locked inside the relaxation room is that she would've been an easy prime suspect for that murder with no way of getting out during the night. Someone would've seen her through the elevator next morning.

Why would she choose these two for that scheme?

It's actually pretty simple. Ace is currently the easiest target for a murder considering how weak he appears to be compared to anyone else. As for Arei, she became friends with Eden, so it can be very easy for the Eden to lure her into a trap.

If the plan would work perfectly, wouldn't Arei tell everyone that Eden knocked her out?

Not if she snuck up on her. All Eden needs to do is to lure Arei with the letter by sending her to the playground, then she can sneak up on her. I've already proven on the first part that Eden is capable of being sneaky.

Then wouldn't she mention the letter and accuse Eden afterwards?

Yes, but remember what we went through in episode 10. Eden convinced everyone that this is not her doing. She would've done the same story if the plan succeeded, so that's not really an issue here.

Well, I suppose it doesn't matter since the murder attempt failed. There's no way you can explain how and why Arei was murdered instead.

Heh. Sure I can.

Obviously, we know for a fact that the murder attempt failed because of Nico, but that messed up a lot more things that just the murder itself. Arei playing the role of the main suspect becomes null and void and the odds of pulling off another murder the same night or the next day becomes very low. This is not looking for Eden because if she can't commit a murder before the deadline, her "secret" would be revealed.

Here's the possibility that I'm proposing! Because of that murder attempt failure, it would become a lot harder to pull off another murder like that on top of Arei becoming distrusting of Eden once she gets out of that room and people might find out that Eden is not as kind as she seems. To make sure that nothing bad happens for her while also accomplishing her goal, she has no choice but to kill Arei.

There's just no way! She can't possibly commit murder the morning of DAY 3 without anyone finding out.

No, that's not true. As long as she pulls out her plan very fast and efficiently, she might be able to come back to the main floor without anyone suspecting anything. Eitheir way, we have absolutely no knowledge as to what everyone's actions were from 8:00 am to 12:00 pm on DAY 3.

Eden sets up her new murder mechanism in the playground during the night of DAY 2 after the failed murder chain of events. Then on DAY 3 at 8:00 am, as soon as the relaxation room becomes unlocked, Eden makes sure that Arei is still unconscious, drags her into the playground to kill her. Then, she drags the body back into the relaxation room, hiding her back in the same spot. She leaves any remaining evidence laying around the playground and throws whatever she could easily and quickly grab into the trash can because she didn't want to risk having someone running into her this early in the morning.

I found a contradiction! If she actually wanted to make sure that her secret would be safe, wouldn't she also try to make the body very easy to find instead?

Not quite. Let's not forget that Eden's also trying to get away with murder. And for that to happen, she needed to establish an alibi.

Actually, hold on just a second. Let's rewind a bit. Murdering Arei was kind of an improvised plan, right? So how would she be able to take the roll of tape as Ace wakes up to reveal that he's not actually dead. There's no way someone would be quick enough to think of an elaborate plan in the span of a second and take the roll of tape.

That's... actually a very good point. Sadly for you, I already have the answer for this : Eden knew that Ace wasn't dead from the moment she entered the fitness room with Teruko, found Ace's body and Nico just standing there. She knew because the BDA didn't ring.

Now you're just contradicting yourself! Even if Ace was actually dead, the BDA would've never happened. Eden would've been the culprit in that scenario after all.

No, that's wrong! If Ace was actually dead, the BDA would've happened because of a specific rule.

Rule number 10. "The Body Discovery Announcement will play when three or more people who did not witness the murder discover the body."

That was the main reason why she created such an elaborate murder mechanism in the fitness room (I still don't know how that murder mechanism in that room works yet sadly, but I'm working hard on figuring this one out). That way, she could've killed Ace without witnessing the murder itself, which would've made her look even less suspicious if she would discover that body with 2 other people if Ace turned out dead.

But in reality, the murder scheme failed and because there was three of them in here, she could easily deduce that her plan did not work. As for Teruko, there was no way she could suspect anything since it was actually a lot more natural to think that there would be no BDA. She believed that it was Nico who did it, after all.

So Eden had about a minute or two to think of a backup plan and realised that she really needed that roll of tape.

Couldn't she have predicted that Nico would've tried to murder Ace? Wasn't it risky to choose Ace as the victim?

Eden couldn't have predicted this outcome. She was not present in the dining room during lunchtime of DAY 2. She couldn't have known that Nico turned murderer mode for like a second.

What about the panicky comment Eden made before they entered the playground and triggered the BDA? If we follow your logic, Eden should've known that someone else discovered the body first since it was no longer hidden in the relaxation room.

That's a very good point. In my previous posts, I theorized that she let the body in the playground this whole time, but she was still afraid that maybe no one actually found the body since then. So if the BDA didn't play when Teruko, herself and Whit entered the playground, her whole plan would've been ruined.

This time around, it's different. We know that David found the body in the relaxation room sometime in the evening of DAY 3 and Eden quickly realised it as well by not finding the hidden body on DAY 4.

So right now, it seems like an odd, but problematic contradiction, but by thinking outside the box, there's a solution to this. We just have to consider that she was actually panicking, but find another viable reason why that was the case. There is actually one picture, one quote that answers it all.

It may seem like an unfortunate and very inappropriate joke at the time, but that line right here is exactly what gave Eden a moment of panic. Let me explain.

Aside from the obvious fact that they found Arei's body on the swingset hanging on a rope, Eden could easily interpret it as a telltale sign that the person who discovered the body first was Whit.

If we go back to my first post, the way I explained the murder mechanism, by the time the culprit releases the carousel, the jugs of water would drop which would then kill Arei, but it would also break the rope in two because of the impact and because of how the rope was arranged.

Because Eden was in a hurry to hide back the body, she only had enough time to bring one half of the rope to hide it alongside the body. Maybe she quickly placed it around her neck to make it look like she was hanged or strangled.

As ironic as it may seem, because of that silly comment Whit made, Eden immediatly assumed that Whit was the person who discovered the body first which would've been very bad for her if that was the case since they would be missing another person to trigger the BDA. That's why she panicked.

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And with that, I believe I've properly explained my whole revised theory, which makes a lot more sense now, don't you think?

This crime solving theory makes full use of all the rooms on that floor, which I feel like it's meant to be solved that way. It also makes use of a lot of hints and clues we've been given in both chapters.

That was a lot to write, so it's possible I may have missed a small detail or two, so if there's something that needs to be pointed out, just let me know and I'll probably edit my post.

Also, if you guys would like, I could make another post that would give a big recap of everything that happened according to my theory posts, which should make it easier to read and understand. It'd be kind of like a closing argument, but without the artistic talent. Just words, words and words.

Anyways, thank you so much everyone who read all my theories from beginning to the end, whether you believe in my culprit theory or not. I truly appreciate you all for taking the time to enjoy the wild ride. I had fun working on that.

But no worries, I'm not quite done with making DRDT posts yet. There's still a couple theories I'd like to tackle. Mostly possible character backgrounds and actual idendity like I mentioned in a previous post.

Alright, take care everyone!

#drdt #drdt solve #drdt theory #danganronpa despair time #drdt spoilers

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