#I too would punt a child to get her | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

brighterdaysarebeforeus · 11 months

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Soooooooo...basically a rewrite of Hobie's entire part in the movie? Except more awkward teenager and much, much more rambling. This does feel a bit all over the place so...enjoy, if you wanna.

Meeting Gwen for the first time wasn’t anything particularly memorable or anything like that, Hobie didn’t think. It was a simple thing, really; LYLA had found an anomaly, Miguel had reluctantly put Hobie on the case, Hobie had gone out of his way to ramble on about how he wasn’t a cog in Miguel’s system (man looked like he wanted to punt Hobie out of the office, and that just added more pleasure to his insubordination), and then Jess had sort of insisted that Gwen tag along to learn how to inter-dimensional travel and also how to deal with the anomalies as they occurred. Her exact words, if he remembered right, were “she needs to learn how to deal with these things in a team setting, and also maybe get some more friends her own age” or something similar that Gwen had immediately protested against.

He’d protested as well, as if it would change anything, as if these two would take him any serious. Hobie told them that he didn’t believe in teams, or in teamwork, and Jess put her hand on his shoulder, looked him in the eye, and told him very sternly to get over himself. Miguel was in the back, rubbing his hand over his face with one hand and waving the other at them in a motion that screamed ‘just go’. The mission itself was fine, easy job for a sole Spider let alone two Spider-People, but Gwen had been pricklier than he’d been expecting. He thought she was spunky, but particularly withdrawn for a Spider, and she’d snapped at him several times before the mission had ended. Afterwards, they’d gone their separate ways and he didn’t think too much about her, focusing on being the one and only Spider-Man (Spider-Punk, the newspaper headlines screamed, and he’d hated the name with a passion when he was younger, but found the title had grown on him over the years) in Camden.

Then they got paired together again. And again. And again. There’d been a genuine moment of concern that Miguel and Jess were punishing him for something, because they kept sticking him together with this small wisp of a child who looked like she wanted to bite his head off any time he asked her anything remotely personal, whether it be about her family or even her favorite kind of music. Hobie couldn’t even begin to figure her out, but decided that if he kept pushing, especially if they kept getting put on missions together, she’d have to crack eventually, right?

(It was worse when he realized she was actually older than him, even if it was only by three months. She held it over him for days, blocking his every question and prompt with “I don’t have to tell you anything, I’m older than you are.” Like a kid. Like a little kid, and how in the hell was she older than he was? It was unjust, it was.)

The sad part was, Hobie wasn’t even sure when things changed, with Gwen. Rather, he wasn’t quite sure why they had changed, though far be it from him to criticize someone’s changing of their mind. They’d gone on a mission, catching an inter-dimensional Doc Ock in some bizarre backwards universe made up of graffiti art that had her particularly subdued and snappish with him; she’d just given a thirty second rant that had cut Hobie deeper than he’d wanted to admit and they were swinging around searching for the Doc in a strained silence that had lasted until they’d found the fucker; at some point in the fight, the Doc had her pinned and Hobie’d yelled for her to cover her ears, and used his guitar to blast the scientist off of her at the last second, using his regular webs to yank her from where she’d been embedded in the ground; they’d, somehow, ended up victorious back at HQ and handed the Doc to Margo to send back to the proper dimension, went to Miguel and Jess to report their success. Hobie set his watch to his home dimension, the portal had opened up, and then —

“Hey, can I…” He’d half-turned to Gwen, eyes wide on his mask to showcase his paying attention as Gwen held her left arm tightly in her right hand, pointedly not looking at him and using the longer left side of her hair to cover her face. She’d taken off her mask, though Hobie had never really felt comfortable enough in the Spider Society to do so very often, and he could see the uncertainty in her face as she finally spit out, “can I…crash with you? For a bit?”

“Like, in my dimension?” Hobie’d asked, and she rolled her eyes so hard that her head followed the motion automatically. Something warm and pleased grew in his chest as she pushed past him roughly, muttering something sarcastic under her breath, and he didn’t even notice Jess watching them from behind as he nudged her shoulder playfully while they walked through the portal together.

Gwen started hanging around more after that, even when they had to keep moving from abandoned house to abandoned house in order to keep a roof over their head for the night. She didn’t stay over every night, but it was often enough to leave some of her shit laying around for him to trip over. He discovered she like playing drums and incorporated her into his band, more or less the only permanent member aside from him despite the inter-dimensional shenanigans. ‘Gwen’ became ‘Gwennifer’ (she threw her drumstick at him) which then became ‘Guinevere’ (he’d barely dodged the swing she leveled at him for that) became ‘Gwendolyn’ (she’d webbed his mouth shut) became ‘Gwendy’ (she rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, but he’d caught the pleased look on her face for that one). Over time, she started opening up about her dad, her indefinitely on-hold Spider-Woman work in her home ‘verse, her Peter…

Miles.

The name lit up something at the back of his head, the first time she’d mentioned it, and Hobie couldn’t for the life of him figure out what it was. It wasn’t until she mentioned something about a particle collider that it came rushing to Hobie; he was Miguel’s “original anomaly”, the one who had apparently weakened the multiverse apart enough for the Spider Society to be kept busy damn near constantly. Hobie could respect a Spider who could throw the multiverse into chaos like that, even if was accidental and wasn’t even his fault to begin with. He tried prompting her, through trial and error, into talking about Miles damn near constantly; it worked better than he’d hoped, and for a hot minute all she would talk about was Miles. What he looked like, what he’d say, the way he’d stuck his hand to her hair when he’d first gotten his powers and she’d had to cut it off on the sides (“and you kept the hairstyle?” “Fuck off, Hobart — ” “Ew, no thanks mate, ‘o the fuck is Hobart — ”). She talked about him so much that Hobie felt like he knew the damn kid all on his own without ever having met him.

And then Gwen got herself assigned to a mission in his universe. Not only that, but she was allowing herself to miss her friend enough to stop off to visit when she went, though she had a brief moment of panic before she’d left and she’d called him for ‘moral support’ or whatever it was she’d hissed at him when she called. Hobie felt proud of her for that, even though he couldn’t find his chucks the day she left and he nearly brained himself tripping over her damn jumper when he headed to the bathroom.

It was her first mission on her own, officially, and Hobie was pulling out damn near every trick in the book to keep him from worrying. He was sitting at her drum set where they had it set up in a practice warehouse, listlessly banging on the cymbals when his watch went off a second time. Heart jumping up into his throat, Hobie answered the call and whipped his way into Mumbatten, which was exactly where Gwen was not supposed to be at this current moment. He’d barely even taken the time to suit up, nearly forgot to grab his damn guitar, and didn’t even pause to take in the situation before strumming the thing and bursting through what looked like a barrier. He’d heard Gwen and Pavitr shout, but he’d landed with his back to them and then he’d gotten rushed by Pav the second he caught his breath.

Then he’d turned fully, pushed Pav off of him, and nearly swallowed his tongue when he caught a good, solid look of him, dressed in his black suit with pops of red; it had to be Miles, the Spider-Man-Who-Wasn’t-Supposed-To-Exist-In-Earth-1610-Specifically, which for some reason both was a surprise and yet was completely expected.

“This the kid from 1610?” He asked first, like he wasn’t fully aware of who Miles was to begin with. Gwen’s head rolled, a sure sign she was rolling her eyes, and he’d glanced her way briefly before looking back at Miles, who was complaining to Gwen. He’d gotten close enough when Pav thanked him for destroying the barrier in time to hear him (“I weakened it!”) and shot a quick demonstration of “use your whole palm, mate, not just your fingertips”, complete with hand visuals. Miles looked, low-key through his mask, like he wanted to strangle him. Gwen looked away, but Hobie could tell her shoulders were shaking from held-back laughter.

He wanted to crawl into a small hole for a minute. For a hot second, Hobie debated the pros and cons of potentially just jumping back through the portal and going home, there were three Spiders to deal with the Dalmatian over there, he wasn’t really needed for this, was he? He was distracted for all of two seconds before remembering there was supposed to be a fight going on, and he was supposed to be helping, and that Miles was standing in front of him.

So, naturally, once he was back online and fully focused, he opened his mouth and immediately put his foot in it.

“What’s up with his suit, is he bleeding from the armpits?”

“Wha-Who even is this guy?” Gwen introduced them quickly, Hobie talking even faster as they prepared to fight the Dalmatian-looking dude in front of them, and though Miles looked slightly lost (“I thought you hated labels?”), Hobie had hope that they’d be able to get along swell.

Then he stuck his foot in it again.

“Gwendy, you left your jumper ‘round my place.”

“What’s a jumper?”

“It’s a sweater!”

“How many sweaters do you own?”

And, because he couldn’t keep his damn mouth shut to save his own damn life even as Gwen clearly tried to salvage that mess, Hobie continued.

“And your toothbrush.” He kind of wanted to die. What was the deal with this spotty dude? Hobie wondered if the dude would shoot him into another dimension if he asked him nicely enough. He hated asking nice though, and it was pretty obvious this guy happened to be the villain of the week (as it were), so his best bet was staying here. Shame, that. He was really fucking things up right about now, and he just knew Gwen was gonna give him shit for it later too.

Things happened��weirdly fast after that. They fought the Dalmatian, they lost the Dalmatian, Mumbatten’s AlcheMax began crumbling and they had to save the people. Normal Spider stuff, and Hobie was glad for the distraction — well, not glad glad, he didn’t want Mumbatten to fall apart and Pav was far too little a Spider to be dealing with this kind of cosmic mess — just because Miles took off with Pavitr and left him and Gwen to hold the building up. Even better, Gwen was all the way over there, so she couldn’t even give him shit for how he’d been acting the fool in front of Miles.

God, he just hoped it wasn’t noticeable. To Miles, at least.

Then after the building collapsing was the bridge falling apart, and Miles diving to save the Inspector. Hobie had skid to a stop next to Gwen, the both of them staring down as Pav tried to save the bus and his girl, and Miles tried to save the Inspector. Gwen’s eyes were wide, taking up the entirety of her face as she held onto the railing in a death grip with one hand, the other still outstretched; she’d grabbed Miles then, right before Hobie had gotten there, and for a moment he wasn’t sure why she’d done it.

“He’ll be aces, yea?” Hobie said to her quietly, eyes still on the bridge.

“It’s a canon event. He’s interfering with it.” Gwen said somberly, and Hobie scoffed with a roll of his eyes — she sounded just like Miguel, there, for a hot moment, and he wondered if he should begin extracting them both before the man’s ideals managed to get in any deeper — but Gwen didn’t seem to notice him. When the bridge finished collapsing, she didn’t hesitate to jump over the rail, yelling for Miles as she did so. Hobie followed after her, beelining his way to Pav first to help him with the bus. Once it was on solid ground, relatively speaking, the passengers disembarking and Pavitr trying to smooth things over with his girl, Hobie turned on time to see Gwen lift a giant piece of rubble to reveal —

Miles. Holding a small child, with the Inspector right behind him. Both were fine, probably filled with adrenaline but relatively unharmed, and Pav’s girl was rushing past them all to embrace her father. Hobie followed her, not to the Inspector, but to Miles; Miles, who had been facing Gwen, who hadn’t heard him approach and therefore wasn’t anticipating it when Hobie grabbed his shoulders from behind and shook him eagerly.

“Miles, my guy!” He said cheerfully, and even the city cheered for them (and wasn’t that just novel, that’s never happened to Hobie before), and then —

There was a hole, big and black and looking similar to the spots on the Spot, sucking in pieces of Mumbatten. There was Jess, and her team of Spiders trying to keep it contained (points to Spider Society!) and her just blatantly blowing off Miles in a way that made Hobie’s hackles rise and ordering them all back to HQ to talk to Miguel (negative points for their diligent leaders!). Panic spiked at that, briefly, for Hobie; he leaned on Miles and tried to get him out of it, get them both out of it, but Miles shrugged him off in order to practically run into the belly of the beast with his fist in the air like he’d won something. Hobie dropped his face into his palm, but followed along anyway. Just to see what was going to happen.

Miles looked slightly awed when he took off his mask, which was kind of an ego boost, if Hobie was being honest; his whispered comment was met with one of his own comebacks (“how are you even cooler under the mask?” “I was this cool the whole time.”) that made Gwen press her lips together as she repressed her snort of laughter. Hobie glowered at her slightly, and she rolled her eyes in the opposite direction. Even Jess looked somewhat amused, and Hobie grunted softly at both of them.

He tried, honest to god, he tried so hard to keep Miles from meeting Miguel. Once he’d realized that Gwen had met with Miles and yet told him nothing about the Spider Society, told him nothing about how he fit into all of this as the supposed “original anomaly” (he had ThoughtsTM about Miguel’s thought process, is all, ThoughtsTM that he didn’t necessarily have time to delve into at this specific moment) — he couldn’t let him walk in blind. Miles didn’t deserve the way Miguel was gonna treat him on a normal day, short-tempered and blunt as the man was, let alone a day where a mission was fucked up bad enough that the BBG got away and another dimension was in peril of nonexistence. There was just no time to prepare him, not right at this moment, and he’d completely messed up his entrance to begin with so it wasn’t even like Miles would wanna even listen to anything Hobie had to say, let alone believe it, so…Hobie stalled.

Easily reaching out and grabbing anything potentially useful, Hobie distracted Miles as best he could. Bet this don’t even do anything. Why’d you wanna join up anyway? (The scoff Miles gave him when Hobie told him to make his own watch was not cute, Hobie did not find it endearing at all, and he was shit at lying to himself) What’s your set up — loving parents? (He was thankful Gwen was walking ahead of them for that one and not paying them any attention; the way he’d leaned on that unused portal more or less broadcasted his interest, especially combined with the way he’d fallen through it. He was also infinitely grateful Miles was too preoccupied to notice that blatant display). Hell, he even planted himself in front of the damn kid, sitting in the chair and stretching his legs out onto the table top so that Miles wouldn’t advance anymore, and felt his heart flutter in his chest when Miles simply pushed past him without even stopping.

Then it stopped when Miguel showed up, acting more Miguel-ish than usual. Miles greeted him brightly, holding up the empanada he’d gotten from the cafeteria, but Miguel was having none of it at the moment. Hobie glared at him out of the corner of his eye when he threw the empanada, then dipped out of sight in order to steal more tech that he needed; he lost track of what was happening all the way up to the loud crashing noise, and he’d popped his head back over to see Miguel yelling at both Gwen and Miles. Sniffing irritably, Hobie opened his mouth and was cut off immediately by Peter Parker from Earth 616 making his appearance. Miles was happy to see him, Hobie could hear it in his voice, and against his better judgement he went back to what he was doing.

When Miguel trapped Miles, way before literally trapping him in a cage, Hobie made his way to Miles’ side while keeping a small distance from him. He kept his eyes on him, watching how he ranted against Miguel’s idea of ‘keeping to the canon’, how he fought against the idea of letting one person die just to save others, how he argued that as Spider-Man they should be able to do both. Watched how he turned to his original allies, Peter 616 and Gwen and even Peni, and how they all couldn’t look him in the eye for longer than a few seconds. Encouraged him when it seemed like he needed it (“Here we go.” “Hobie, you’re not helping.” “Good.”). Miles realized it was a trap a second too late, and once Miguel had him caged, chaos began to descend upon them all. His friends were yelling at Miguel, who was yelling back, and Miles was panicking. He couldn’t break himself out, and Hobie’d had enough.

“Oi, Peter Pan.” Hobie hissed at him, and Miles stared at him with wide eyes. He didn’t touch the digital net, all too aware of the fact that it would draw attention from the others, but he spread his hands out just in front of it. Hobie repeated his advice from earlier, complete with visual demonstration, without speaking out loud. “Use your palms.” Miles seemed to take a breath at that, his shoulders lowering from around his ears as he pressed his hands fully against the barrier, palms and all. Since Hobie was the only one paying attention, he knew to brace himself when electricity started crackling up and down Miles’ arms; when the barrier exploded, he was the only one who wasn’t knocked over aside from Miles, who seemed to freeze for a sec when he realized he was free. He chuckled, smiling proudly when Miles’ wide brown eyes met his again, without the barrier this time.

Then Miles turned heel and booked it down the corridor, where the door was wide open and awaiting his exit. Hobie sort of regretted that breaking the door so it would stay open meant that the other Spiders also had easy access to go after Miles, but they were still trying to pick themselves up off the floor and that gave Miles a solid four second head start. It was the best Hobie could do for him, given the situation, along with one last thing.

Miguel yelled for everyone to go after Miles, and they complied. Hobie activated his watch, creating a portal to his home ‘verse. Sneering at all the Spiders rushing past him, Hobie shouted “for the record, I quit!” and threw his watch off once he was safely in the portal.

He crash landed towards the edge of the bed in the room, close enough to where he was aiming originally. Sighing heavily, Hobie sprawled out on the bed and listened to the drones flying overhead, watched as their lights illuminated the room he was staying in currently. Gwen’s jumper was still on the floor where she’d left it, her shoes dropped carelessly two feet beside it. (Seriously, her shoes were right there, did she really have to take his?) With a soft sigh and a quiet groan, he pulled himself back up, stretched, and started pulling shit out of his pockets. He’d actually grabbed a lot more things than he’d needed, courtesy of trying to hold the door for Miles, and he tossed aside the things he didn’t need in order to get started. Several other watches dropped out of his pocket as well, the ones he’d made before staying on him for safekeeping — one for him, one for Pav, one for Gwen.

Just because Miles didn’t want to make his own watch didn’t mean Hobie couldn’t make one for him.

#punkflower #spider punk #spider gwen #miles morales #hinted punkflower #like just a taste of it #spiderman atsv #more hobie pov of his part in the movie than anything else #starts before the movie events

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rollinouttahere-writes · 9 months

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I wanted to write out the character dynamics between Lucky and the Straw Hats because I have fallen deep into the Little Lucky AU. At first it was just gonna be a series of one shots with little to no plot for funsies but now I’ve gone and fleshed it out into its own fully developed AU and I feel compelled to share my thoughts on it.

Since I have this happening right after Arlong Park, I realized that at most, they’ve known her for like a week and some change with Sanji only knowing her for a couple of days. I think that this would make adjusting to her becoming a child much easier because ultimately, none of them really knew her. Hell, with her amnesia Lucky barely knew herself.

It would take about a week for everyone to accept that this is how it is now. The devil fruit user tried to warn them that the effects were permanent (meaning that she’s not going to suddenly switch back, not that she’s permanently 4 she is still going to age normally), but they thought this person was bluffing in order to get mercy or something. As time passes and Lucky is showing no signs of turning back, everyone begins to feel some regret about punting the user into the sea, but now it’s too late.

In Lucky Break, she doesn’t come clean about the truth of where she came from until after Enel is defeated in Skypeia, but in this AU she would tell them the truth during the Alabasta arc. After Drum Island when Nami is recovered because she felt bad for keeping it a secret when Nami was sick.

Luffy’s relationship with Lucky has by far been my favorite to develop, I find it super interesting. Despite not knowing the adult Lucky for very long, Luffy’s emotional intelligence being sky high helped him to understand her better than she probably even understood herself. There was something off about her, and he knew it within their first conversation. The way she had a tendency to shrink in on herself and physically close herself off, and the fact that her smile never once reaches her eyes told him a lot. He doesn’t know where she came from or what it’s like, but he can’t imagine it’s all that great if this is how she acts. He still wants to go there, but now it’s because he needs to throw hands with whoever made her that way. After she’s turned into a child, he immediately notices that she now has that spark that was missing from her eyes before, and he’s bound and determined to fan that spark into a flame so that he doesn’t see that same look when she becomes an adult again.

Having a small child on board does ever so slightly mature him. At first he’s like “Oh there’s a little kid here now? Fun!” but then it evolves into “Hang on I’m responsible for her”. He realizes that this little kid is going to depend on him for everything. Sure, he has his other crewmates to help, but as captain he feels the weight on his shoulder more.

After the Enel situation happens he becomes more noticeably mature and goes out of his way to hover around her more and make her happy. He’s more prone to involving himself in the actual childcare aspects of her life instead of just being ‘the fun best friend’ to her. He sits in on her appointments with Chopper and helps as much as Chopper will allow, both because he wants to help and also as a way for him to see what she had to go through in the moment that he wasn’t there to protect her. He also tries to give advice, mostly about following her dreams and understanding how valuable the freedom to do so is. He’s still her best friend at the end of the day, but there is an air of seriousness to it now.

Lucky idolizes Luffy intensely, he is her Shanks pretty much. Between him being her best friend and saving her, she wants to be just like him when she grows up. He’s the best person ever in her book and she will fight anyone who tries to trash talk him (much to the horror of everyone else who is rushing to stop her).

Zoro naively thought he would be escaping Lucky fussing over him now that she’s a little kid, but he was very wrong. She’s still trailing behind and yelling at him to sit down so she can “make it better”, but now she’s just got a box of colorful kid band-aids instead of actual bandages. Zoro is covered in a rainbow of band-aids at any given moment and he can’t even take them off because she’ll put more on there while scolding him.

There’s a post where I talk about their interactions a little bit here. With the part about sword fighting, he is very serious about it, but if you look closely you can see small smiles here and there as she makes more progress. He is very proud. He wishes Kuina could have met her, he thinks she would have liked Lucky. Tries to shield her from the idea that she will only be able to go so far because of being a woman, he doesn’t want that stupid mentality weighing her down.

If someone asks him what his relationship to her is, he would state that he’s her teacher. If you asked Lucky, she would say he’s her big brother. Zoro feels like he’s going into cardiac arrest but keeps a straight face and says “that’s fine too”. Lucky looks up to him too, but she also lowkey likes to bully him in true sibling fashion. Like telling him to put his boobs away, running off with his sake, pulling pranks on him when he’s trying to nap, that kind of stuff.

Right after Arlong Park, Nami was feeling very attached to Lucky (tbh she’s the first to start showing yandere tendencies in Lucky Break), so she was honestly a little disappointed at first when they realized Lucky wasn’t turning back into an adult. She would never admit this out loud, but she did feel that way. She snaps out of it pretty quick though and declares herself ‘big sister Nami’. She gets very into it, and likes being the big sister for a change.

As far as she’s concerned, she’s the only responsible adult on board (until Robin comes in). As such, she’s constantly trying to keep Lucky attached to her hip because she’s worried that the others are going to hurt her by doing something stupid. This doesn’t work all that well because there are other people on the ship that are more fun and goofy than she is, so Nami spends most of her day running after Lucky. Lucky is the only person that she doesn’t have a tab for. She’s a little kid, and as adults, it’s everyone’s job on board to take care of her and that includes buying her stuff like clothes/toys/etc. Nami does teach her the value of money and how to be responsible with it for when she’s old enough to have some money of her own, but Lucky isn’t indebted to her or anything.

Lucky finds it a little odd at first when some woman she barely knows insists that she’s her big sister, but she goes with it. Nami can be a little bit of a stick in the mud, but Lucky knows that she can go to her when she needs help. Since they sleep in the same room (sometimes at least, there are lots of sleepovers in the guys’ room), Nami is usually the person she goes to when she has a nightmare.

Usopp is great with kids, and that includes Lucky. He found adult Lucky a little intimidating (for reasons we will get to soon enough), so he honestly gets along with child Lucky more. He loves having a gullible little kid around that he can tell his tall tales to, given that she’s too young to be able to immediately call bullshit. However, he doesn’t anticipate how many questions she’s going to ask about the story. He wasn’t ready for the constant flow of why’s, how come’s, and what’s that’s that get thrown his way. On the bright side, his improvisational skills skyrocket from this.

His job in regards to Lucky is to grab her in a dangerous situation and run away as fast as he can, a role he chose for himself. He does fall victim to being roasted by a tot over this because she will call him a big baby for screaming and crying (lessens post Enel). As a sniper, he is supposed to be further from the battle than others, so he typically is the best choice for her to be with. Like Zoro, he wants to teach her how to use his own weapon of choice and even makes her a tiny slingshot. This backfires because now she’s terrorizing him and Zoro with it (and also takes cracks at marines sometimes).

Usopp is her friend. He doesn’t have the title of best friend or big brother which hurts a bit, but he learns to cope. Lucky does spend a lot of time with him since she thinks he’s funny and fun to play with. He only helped her prank Zoro once because she immediately played innocent and threw him under the bus. That being said, only she can bully him, Franky better sleep with one eye open for beating him up!

Sanji is her dad now, and no one can rob him of that, he will kill for this title. He held off for a week tops after she was turned to make sure that she wasn’t just going to go back to normal, but after that he took a page out of Zeff’s book and adopted her. He wants to go back to the Baratie long enough to let Zeff know he’s a grandpa, but for now will have to wait. He’s always trying to get her to call him “papa” to varying levels of success. She doesn’t cooperate at first because she really doesn’t know him, but she’ll warm up eventually and start calling him that. Though she does sometimes switch back to using Sanji just to mess with him.

Lucky is his entire world basically. You thought he was obsessed with women? That pales in comparison to his devotion to his little princess! His wallet has more pictures of her in it than it has actual money. What money isn’t spent on getting food gets spent on her. If she looks at something for too long, she’s getting it. Nami gets on him frequently about spoiling her too much, even though he says there’s no such thing. Ironically, he has better luck with women now because he’s more toned down around them and it’s just cute to see a doting dad, but he is completely oblivious to it. He genuinely believes that the women are only approaching him because they think Lucky is cute and doesn’t even pick up on them flirting with him because he’s too busy showing off the pictures in his wallet. Nami thinks this is hysterical and won’t point it out.

He wants to cook with her so much, he’s always trying to involve her in the kitchen (with age appropriate things of course). There are limits to what she can safely do, but he’s happy just to have her in the kitchen as a taste tester if that’s all she can do. She doesn’t need to become a chef or anything, but he wants her to know the basics at the very least. If she wants to have a tea party, he’ll get her to help make the little treats to go with it and show her how to perfectly steep the tea. No imaginary tea parties on his watch. The one thing he’s strict on is her eating habits, she needs to stay healthy and that’s not up for debate. If she just genuinely doesn’t like something, that’s understandable, but she can’t just feed Luffy under the table to get dessert faster.

Lucky’s actual father was very emotionally and physically distant, so it takes very little time for her to latch onto Sanji as her new dad. When she does, she basically becomes a daddy’s girl overnight. Sanji gets pulled into playtime whenever he isn’t in the kitchen, whether it be including him in the tea parties, “styling” his hair with dozens of colorful barrettes, or simply making him get in on the games she was playing with the others. With how god awful his childhood was, it’s honestly a little healing for him. He’s happy that he can give someone else the childhood he didn’t get to have.

Chopper doesn’t get to be the baby of the crew anymore. Lucky would probably be the first to be able to really get close to him on Drum Island, because even Chopper isn’t going to be scared of a four year old. Wary, but not scared. However, after seeing that she isn’t afraid of him and is genuinely trying to befriend him, he comes around. It’s shocking to him to learn that she’s part of a pirate crew, but also inspiring. If someone so young can do it, he can too! They’re fast friends and become thick as thieves.

Lucky thinks all of his doctor stuff is super interesting and likes to watch when he’s making medicine. She asks lots of questions and also gives out compliments easily. Chopper even shows her how to do some very basic first aid since that’s a good thing to know in emergencies. He also goes over what plants are poisonous and to not eat anything she doesn’t know for a fact is safe. Besides the medical stuff, Lucky enjoys hanging out with him lots because she thinks he’s around her age (and does not believe him when he insists that he’s 15).

Lucky keeps referring to him as her little brother and it’s driving him insane. No amount of “I told you I’m 15!” will stop her. She thinks he’s lying because they’re both the same height give or take so obviously that means they must be the same age. He can’t even grow into a bigger form because she’ll just say that it doesn’t count since it’s not permanent. Like Luffy, being responsible for the safety of a child does make Chopper slightly more mature. Don’t get me wrong, he will still run away if Lucky is already safe, but if she isn’t then he will square up. Maybe if she sees him protect her, she’ll start calling him big brother! She doesn’t.

Robin feels so conflicted when they first meet. It’s one thing to be taking on grown adults that knew what they were getting into by taking on Baroque Works, it’s another to see a small child being dragged into by association. She intentionally leaves Lucky out of reports to Crocodile. She keeps hoping that Lucky will be dropped off somewhere else and be off the radar, and feels sicker and sicker as they keep getting closer to Alabasta. She’s just a little kid and doesn’t deserve to be dragged into something like this.

After joining the Straw Hats, she finds herself drawn to Lucky, and even uses her name. She does some mental gymnastics to justify this by telling herself that technically it’s a nickname so she’s in the clear. She’s totally not getting attached, she tells herself as she tucks Lucky into bed and reads her a bedtime story. It doesn’t help that Lucky follows her around like a duckling because she finds her very mysterious and cool. Having Lucky think that her devil fruit and all her knowledge is awesome really warms her heart.

It takes a while for her to be called it (post Enies Lobby), but she becomes the mom of the group. Unlike with Sanji, Lucky came to call her this entirely on her own. Robin needs a minute after she gets called that for the first time. That being said, she fills the role well. She’s got that calm and caring vibe to her, while also being a total mama bear. If anyone looks at Lucky the wrong way, she’s eliminating the threat on the spot. Her baby is not about to be punished for existing with what the government deems to be “bad people”. She’s harsh towards anyone she sees as a threat, but especially with marines/government agents.

Franky is definitely surprised to see a little kid with the Straw Hats, but it also earns some respect from him. He appreciates seeing pirates that don’t just abandon their children, thank you very much. Franky has an energy to him that kids love, and Lucky isn’t immune to it. Granted, at first she just wants to fight him and he can expect to be pelted with pebbles from her slingshot until she’s forgiven him for the Usopp incident. He doesn’t take this personally. In fact, he encourages it. Hell yeah kid! You stick up for your friends! Show me who’s boss! His attitude makes it very hard for her to stay mad for long, especially with Usopp telling her that it’s okay they already made up.

His goofball personality and eccentric behavior make him a lot of fun to be around. On top of that, Lucky likes to sometimes watch him work. He’s very quick to engage her in it, too. He’ll explain what he’s doing and why in great detail, and is happy to answer any questions she has. He’ll even let her hold a flashlight for him even though he has his own built in. Very supportive if she wants to learn more from him, but won’t push it either.

After Lucky comes around on him, she calls him uncle Franky. He’s just got those fun uncle vibes to her. He truly loves the title and is proud of it. He gets a bit cocky and asks if he’s her favorite uncle only to get humbled by her saying no with zero hesitation. Sorry, Franky, you’re no competition for uncle Ace. Despite the devastating blow to his ego, he is a very fun uncle and is insanely protective.

#lucky break #little lucky au #monkey d luffy #luffy #roronoa zoro #nami #cat burglar nami #one piece nami #usopp #sanji #black leg sanji #tony tony chopper #nico robin #franky the cyborg #cyborg franky

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faerunsbest · 7 days

Text

So I did a little fic of Rolan venturing with the party to rescue Cal and Lia from moonrise.

I want to do the moster wife thing,

What you think for the opening?

Choices choices

Rolan lifted his face from the mud, unsurprised by the golden veil that passed its warmth over him. A wide beam of sunlight was dashed over him and there was tav.

Again.

Saving his ass…

Again and again and again.

This time however before he could yell They were on him, arms tight around him.

“ I know why you're upset, I'm sorry. I miss my family too. Let me help you get yours back.”

Rolan struggled against their hold on him, he huffed and felt his eyes burt, so he lashed out with violent words.

But tav didn't let go. They just held on and it reminded him so much of Cal when they didn't want to See the fighting anymore. It wasn't fair…why can they do this to him?!

When he calmed enough, cleared his throat and wiped his face. Tav looked at him patiently.

“What now?!”

Lae’zel looked over to him.

“Lead the way, we have been promised to assist in gathering your …”

She seemed to search for the words, only for karlach to throw an arm over her shoulder and give a big wide grin.

“Family, you're lookin for family. That's the word soldier.”

Laezel looked back Rolan with a firm nod,arms crossed over her chest.

“We shall assist you in collecting your family.”

Astarion stood nearby, twirling a dagger in one hand as he eyes rolan with interest.

“And what do we get for going out of our wat for helping him?”

Rolans shoulders stiffened, tav snorted and shoved Him by his shoulders.

“What do I get for helping you?”

“A fabulous archer.”

“I have lae'zel.”

“Someone to guard your back”

“I have laezel.”

“Someome pretty to look at in this mess.”

“I have lae'zel.”

Astarion gasped loudly as Laezel and karlach both laughed.

“so, Astarion if I only help people who can help me- you're shit outta luck ain't ya?”

The small crowd walked along, tav pulling a small health potion out from their pack to hand over to Rolan. Gale laughed from beside him.

“You're still a beautiful man, I assure you but it's not a fair comparison is it?”

What a strange bundle of bodies it was that Rolan found himself walking with to moonrise. They chatted and teased each other, laughed and even mid battle took jabs. Eventually they entered the place with a bizarre boldness, right through the front door. Rolan found that tav seemed to carry a sharp intense leer, letting people stumble over themselves to get them in.

So in they went. Stepping through puddles of blood, punting bones and things out of the way. Soon enough Rolan found himself with the others looking for a way down to the dungeons and somewhere in route they found themself in a lab. A lab with a woman who kept leering so luridly at astarion.

Rolan found himself watching as the vampire seemed to worry, leaning towards tav. The vampire needing to be defended…and he was. Rolan watched as tav laughed in the face of a great opportunity to keep that bratty vampire safe.

Soon the descended long stairs, Rolan looking over from the corner of his eye to see Astarion looking so terribly lost. Rolan couldn't help but ask out loud.

“Tav, why do you do this?”

“Do what?”

“All of it? It would have been wiser to abandon the grove, what did you gain? Nothing really… Mol told everyone that you slew harpies to save one child. I keep hearing about all the things you do, so why do you do it?”

They listened to tav hmm and think quietly a moment as they trotted down the stairs.

“Because I suppose…I'm selfish.”

Rolan jerked his head to the side to look at tav, lae'zel with that shameless smirk. Did she understand what tav meant? Astarion clearly didn't, his eyes darted all over before landing back on tav. Rolan asked again

“Maybe I don't understand the word as you do. Enlighten me if you please.”

Tav chuckled, the sound becoming ominous as it trickled down the stairs.

“ I begged for help, I prayed. I thought I would die, every day. No one answered, we were all begging for help looking to God's, looking to soldiers and armies and anyone else for help. I alway wished, anyone would help but no one ever did. You know what? I'm someone and I can help. So maybe, maybe if I help enough people they'll all realize they're someone too. And someone can help.”

What a strange and naive way of thinking he looked back to tav who caught his gaze.

“I do this because no one helped me, and I don't want anyone to feel like I did. I want to be the person I needed.”

Rolan found a lopsided smile on his face.

“You sound like my mother.”

“I bet shes lovely.”

“Indeed she was.”

Downstairs in the dungeons, Rolan looked around while tav talked circles around the guards. He glanced to the side and saw them, Cal and Lia pressed to bars of their cell. They stared at him in shock while he waited behind Tav and beside Astarion. He followed along deciding to trust them as they walked past the cell full of tieflings with a wink and headed straight for the gnomes.

Too long later Rolan was sitting in the damn boat with all others, Cal and Lia Leaned on his shoulders exhausted. He looked and found tav smiling at him, he couldn't help but smile back, a small lopsided exhausted smile.

“What are you staring at? Must you continue to meddle?”

He chuckled as he said it,

“I simply must!”

Gale looked out over the water, up ahead. Rolan and the others catching sight of a fork in the path. Gale frowned at it

"i do wonders if those old stories are true.”

“of what tales do you speak wizard?”

Laezel asked as she peered out.

“Tara told me that deep down, between hell and the dark there's a place a were midgods are banished.”

“midgod?”

“the ones that were born but were never human.”

“Why would they be banished?”

“I don't recall, but apparently that's where the temples are.”

Rolan felt Cal shift against him, absent mindedly reaching up to rub the side of Cal's head, letting him fall asleep again. As he did he spoke softly, not wanting to wake his siblings.

“It's the gods that stole immortality, drank it from blades of grass and split their tongues.”

Gale pointed at rolan with a bright smile.

“yes! That's what Tara said, she said there was some kind of battle and the servants stole some drink. They wound up punished by being locked away, something like that.”

“they were bound not banished.”

Laezel blinked, looking down to her boots then across the water.

“bound to what?”

A wave of water crashed against the side of the boat making it rock, Rolan felt the hair on the back of his neck stand up. For a moment he locked eyes with Tav, Gale and laezel both looking down at the water.

Laezel was wearing heavy armor, karlach with her mechanical heart encased in heat, Astarion being a vampire was not able to swim. Gale was exhausted and out of spells, the others left only civilians.

Again the boat rocked. Tav and the others tensed. What a terrible place to be caught in, Rolans mind raced as a million scenarios played out. This time spiraling ribbons of waves shattered the waters smooth surface before something heavy slammed up against the boat.

The refugees gasped and yelled, clinging to each other as they pulled each other to boats center. Laezel whipped her blade across the edge of the boat when a webbed hand made its way over.

Cal and Lia looked around in horror as they seemed to be surrounded. Rolan grabbed his siblings by the collar and threw them forward, into the others. He let off a string of spells as he leapt out over the edge of the boat. He stood on the surface of the water, all those ribbons of ripples whipping around to him.

He ran off toward the nearest shore, throwing another spell over his shoulder.

“DOLOR!”

Thunderwave slammed across the water, a small tidal slamming against the boat sending it and all I souls careening down their path.

“ROLAN!!!!”

Cal shrieked, him and Lia almost jumping over to go with him. Karlach pulled them back, Gale watching as a single exhausted wizard quickly depleted energy he shouldn't have. He watched Rolan run across the water, stumbling when he hit the shore and ran for the other path. A myriad of Fishman burst from surface to rush after him, though before was out of sight rolan bellowed.

“I'LL MEET YOU AT THE GATE!”

Lae'zel looked on as he disappeared onto the dark, part of her wanted to consider him a loss. But she was getting used to being proven wrong.

Gale raised his staff, it's light casting sanctuary over the boat for the rest of the trip back the inn.

#bg3 #baldurs gate 3 #rolan #bg3 rolan #holy rolan empire #tiefling #romance #art #artbyale #tav #fic #fanfiction #fanfic #writing #au #monsterwife #monster #wife #monster wife

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im-totally-not-an-alien-2 · 2 years

Text

A cult managed to access and subsequently mess around with Gothams Lazarus pit and summoned Desiree. The genie promptly broke out of whatever summoning circle she was in and started causing chaos by granting wishes.

Of course she was attracted to the Wayne manor, thinking about the tragedy that had happened to her in life. She was in luck, too! Bruce Wayne was upset. Appearently a few of his children couldn't make up to Thanksgiving dinner, one was avoiding him outright, and he made a mistake.

He told the butler, "I just wish all of my kids were here for Thanksgiving." She liked that wish and would gladly grant it.

"So you have wished it, so shall it be!"

Both the men spun around, but it was too late. Purple smoke filled the room and clouded oround them. The smoke cleared almost as quickly as it came, leaving them coughing and looking around for the mysterious woman who had seemingly vanished.

----

Danny jumped out of the chair he had suddenly found himself in. Huh. He didn't recognize this room, but it was decorated with stuff he liked and even stuff he knew was his. It was almost like he had decorated the room himself, but that wasn't possible. He was in Mr. Lancers math class taking a test just a minute ago! Where was he now?

Deciding to peek out his door, he was met with his clone Ellie and another girl who introduced herself as Helana Wayne. They were just just ask confused as he was, but at least Helena knew where they were.

The Wayne manor, her fathers home. Danny wasn't pleased to know he was in a billionaires mansion but decided to keep his opinion to himself until he could get himself and Ellie out of here. They didn't have to walk long until they got to a staircase where multiple boys were bickering and-was that a katana?

Appearently there was another teen named Terry here with someone named Matt and three boys seemed to be interrogating him. The guy looked ready to throw them down the stairs. Another guy, Aion was there too but he decided to casually walk down the stares while everyone was distracted.

Danny intervened and politely asked to be returned to school. He was kind of in the middle of a test and his parents were going to kill him if he flunked. This seemed to ease the tension in the room at the very least as thier storry seemed to match up with this Terry guys explanation.

Damian, a rude little gremlin who Danny wanted to punt into the sun within the first five minutes of meeting -something Terry whole heartedly agreed with- snidely said he would lead them to the door and Danny wanted to drag his heels out of spite.

This was how they learned the manor grounds were floating in a bubble in space. Damian growled something about how he was going to make someone pay but Danny was too busy freaking out about **space** to care

----

It eventually came out that Henena was the child of Batman and Catwoman, Danny was adopted and Dani was his clone, so after a DNA test they discovered Helena was thier full sister and the oldest of the pack.

Terry was shocked to find out he and Matt were also Bruce's bio son but was kinda wigging out about it because the implications.

Everyone here was in some form or another, a child of Bruce Wayne, many of whom were from different realities or timeliness. The real problem was that ALL of Bruce Waynes children were here. Or at least one version of them.

Oh.

And it was October 4th. They were stuck here together until Thanksgiving was over. Yay.

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redbullgivesyouwingedkuriboh · 4 months

Text

Since y’all liked me getting beaten down by GX characters so much, here’s:

Yu-Gi-Oh ARC-V Characters ranked by how easily I could take them in a fight

same rules apply: fisticuffs only and my personal feelings about the characters do not matter

also since ARC-V is WEIRD AF when it comes to characters this will be characters that are exclusive to ARC-V. so no repeat of Asuka. We already know I bite harder than she does.

without further ado, here we go:

Reira Akaba. No shit. is literally a baby. if I was a baby kicking kind of person I could punt her into the sun. However as I do not kick babies I am more inclined to wrap her in a lil blanket and put her in the corner.

Yuya Sakaki. Bitch. One good step on his toes and he’s going “reaction shot?!” I pull on his stupid fuckin goggles and snap them back onto his face. he’s down. count to ten.

Yuzu Hiragi. Canonically the bracelet girls really suck at holding their own at any given moment. Yuzu is the weakest physically because she has never seen war or hardship to the level of the other three. I could take her in four seconds. pigtail tug time.

Yuri. The second weakest physically of the Yu boys. has been coddled by Leo for years. probably sparred with Sho at the academy to make himself feel better about having 0% body weight from muscles. eat shit you purple motherfucker.

Dennis McField. not only would I beat him, I would enjoy doing it. I’d love to curbstomp that motherfucker off a boat, except he already did that to himself. physically he is a fuckin twig and I am five feet seven inches of pure unadulterated god complex. he’ll wish I turned his ass into a card.

Reiji Akaba. the scarf works to his detriment. I do two laps around him holding the end of that thing and suddenly his face is turning blue and he’s calling for papa. unfortunately for him I have zero mercy.

Rin. again, the bracelet girls are notoriously bad at being strong independent women. we literally don’t see Rin for most of the series because she got herself kidnapped off the cuff. that being said she could probably hold her own against me, but I think she’s too sweet for that.

Z-ARC. We’ve established I bite. even outside of human form, if you look at him, he’s got a fuck ton of exposed veins, both as regular Z-ARC and Yuya Z-ARC. chompy chompy motherfucker you’ll pass out from the blood loss before I can kick your ass properly.

Yugo. Canonically relies on his motorcycle for fuckin everything. lost to Yuri because he rolled a nat one on his constitution saving throw. even though he’s probably physically in shape from motorcycle stuff I could flick him in the forehead and he’d be whining like a baby. If I got the first shot in, I’d have a 99% chance of winning. If he got to me first it would go to about 60%. again, I bite.

Leo Akaba. Here’s where we get into characters that have a greater than 50% chance of beating me. Leo is canonically ripped and also has zero emotions. I would only win if I got close enough for a nut kick, but there’s only one person who wants to be that close to Leo Akaba and it sure as hell ain’t me.

Sora Shuin’in. Holy fuck who let their feral cat off its leash. Sora is literally insane and I am requesting backup. He’d shove that lollipop so far up my ass that I’d be able to tell whether it was lime or green apple. I live in fear of Sora suddenly materializing in my room

Ruri Kurosaki. Remember how I bite? She bites harder. She puts up with No Shit and also has No Fucks To Give.

Serena. No further explanation needed. I fear that explaining it further would cause Feral Child #2 to burst into my brain and start kicking.

Yusho Sakaki. Sweet mother of blue eyes white dragon. remember how I said my personal feelings don’t matter? now they do. smash. next question. wait what were we talking about?

Shun Kurosaki. kinda lost the plot on Yusho but we’re back on track now. Shun canonically took out armed guards by Batmanning his ass up a wall. There’s posters up for him that say “lost dog” and the caption is just “if you find him please keep him”.

Yuto. Everything that Shun is + Ruri taught him how to effectively bite.

Noburu Gongenzaka. he is actually ripped and wears cement shoes for funzies. he could probably just stomp once and my shaky joints would give out on their own. bye.

Yoko Sakaki. canonically beat the stuffing out of people in her past life and I would let her. angry mom energy means I barely make it out alive. smash. wait— shit—

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inconspicouslurker · 8 months

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Odalia isn't a 2 dimensional evil villain

Hot take: Odalia isn't as awful as the fandom makes her. Hopefully I won't get too much hate because I'm sensitive.

Don't get me wrong, she terrible but she she not heartless or evil for the sake of evil. She not two dimensional as the fanbase makes her. She not punting a puppy into the boiling sea and watching it suffer while cackling maniacally. She not out to torture her own family for funsies. She in fact, love her family...she was just terrible toxic and blinded by her need of control. She does make her family miserable but she does it so they can achieve a goal she had set thinking its whats is best.

Look as Odalia traits. In my last post, (cue a copy and paste) She very intuitive which is why she a great oracle. She acts like a know it all because of it, but within reason, she is usually right about things. Because of this, she thinks her opinion is the only right opinion and there's very little variety from that. If something goes wrong she thinks its because no one listened to her.

She also a very driven, goal oriented. Boy, does she have goals! She is very much a "ends justify the means"

Another trait, and her oracle skill encourages this, is she plans ahead. In fact, that's all she does. She is constantly looking ahead, to ensure her family and business is ahead of the game. She rarely in the now.

She shown to be very involve in her family. She notice Amity forgot her lunch and sent the twins to give it to her, she in the Parent Creature Association. The Blight children biggest grips is Odalia being too involved and being controlling because of it.

Let's get into her headspace. Odalia is use to being right about things so when she planned things for her children, it was for their best interest (she believes). Despite them protesting and not desiring whatever it is. She so busy looking to their future she not looking at their needs and desire now. They are kids, they don't know better...but Odaila does. She older, wiser, experienced and rarely wrong. They will thank her when they are older when they are successful adults. They may be miserable now, but who isn't happy once they become successful? Which they will be later, as long as they listen to her. The end justify the means.

She may even grew up in a very similar way. She turn out alright, even better! Look at her now! she living the life, successful, beautiful, she has it all. She can do the same for her own children but even better.

She still a terrible and toxic mother. Im sure she give many back hand handed compliments. for example: "Emira, you are so beautiful, its a shame your pimples distracts the eyes that they become the main focus." She also critique her children for a way for them to improve themselves but she is overly critical when she do so. Her 'helpful' advice just comes out as criticism. Which leads to her children identity issues and strive for perfection, even if it means hiding themselves in concealment stones. As Odaila places emphasis are making good appearances to make good impressions and keeping the Blights in a positive image of status. She did want what's she thought best for the family. Again, she rarely wrong. how can she possibly be wrong about this? Nearly everything she done it was for the family. Which in turn. she benefits greatly from as it also boost her image and status more. It's a win-win for her.

I'm not saying she did it for them as for an example, a parent painfully endured a children concert of whatever the child obsessed with at the current moment to make them happy. No. she the catalyst of having her children endure what she thinks is best for them. Like how a parent force their children to learn an instrument and practice, practice, practice! But its not an instrument she making them endure but things she believe would benefit them later. Amity will thank her later in life when she get to keep all schools of magic when she joins the emperor coven.

All this makes Odalia look good and furthering her family higher in status. Status is Odalia personal desire. She money hungry but I think that's because it easier to raise status when your filthy rich and its a way how inconveniences can be pay away.

Isn't it so wonderful Odalia can reach her dream while bettering her children's lives?

Then theres a Day of Unity. I have no reasonable explanation why Belos would include her. The only thing I can think up was, She very intuitive and with the large shipment she knew something was up. Somehow Belos knew and they had a meeting.

If anyone has headcanon on how or why Belos included Odalia, I would love to hear it.

I have to have another watch, but I found it odd that the whole Isle had to be at the head for the Day of Unity and not celebrating in the streets at their homes. I think the spell to work effectively, needed witches to close distance to the conduit. Which, Belos needed the abomtrons to entrap them.

So Belos manipulated Odalia. He good at telling people what they want to hear. I'm pretty sure he told Odalia point blank, a lot of witches will die during the Day of Unity but only the worthy and the faithful to the Titan will survive. It's the Titan will. You don't want to go against his will do you?" Essentially trapping her to keep the secret. It worked. She was terrified She has to stay silent, if she spoke of it, she unworth and unfaithful which would mark her for death. But Belos still can't chance her if she risk being brave by telling people that would start an uprising. So he promise her all something she always desired if she stay quiet. Higher status. What higher than being royalty of the new world of the faithful and worthy?

Belos also plan may extended that knows Luz affections for Amity. Luz being a weird wild card to that might ruin his plan, so he may implied to Odalia he wanted her to home imprisonment Amity so Luz would go to her and away from the skull. It's a bit of a stretch but it can sort of work. It explains the gaslight Odalia did in that episode. I'm sure she regularly gaslights but that seemed a bit excessive to me.

So Odalia kept silent, fulfilling the Titan will. She'll sacrifice the whole damn isle to ensure her family safety. The end justify the means. Plus she'll get a nice crown, what a nice bonus for keeping a secret.

It's ironic that Odalia the oracle could be so blinded to everything she held dear. Including her own actions and the immediate effects. But the end justify the means, the means of her perception on how things should be and the way to achieve them. She never once foreseen or thought the means would go against her and veer into a different end. Why would they? Her end is the correct one...it's what's best. She's always right? right?

She doesn't realize her opinion isn't always the right and/or only opinion. It cost her everything. She still doesn't believe she wrong and her family turning their backs on her, after EVERYTHING she done for them. It was a slap in the face. What a bunch of ingrates! They should apologize to her. In her mind, Alador betrayed her destroying their life work and leaving their partnership. The kids shunning her. Odalia believes she did nothing wrong, all the hardship she force them to endure would have payed off if they just waited a little longer! Then her family realize it was all worth it and thank her for her wise foresight.

After her separation of the family, she will judge her family from a distance. Scoff when they seem to struggle. They should have listen to her. But over the years, she see that they are happy...thriving. Maybe not thriving in fortune sense, but just in life. After some time...a lot longer than is should have, and replaying her memories as she reflects about her currently life, i'm sure are a lot of screaming, scoulding, yelling matches after the Day of Unity and they took separate ways, in retrospect can see some of family points about her and her...mistakes. She start to feel a pang of remorse. She won't apologise...not until years has passed. Not like 2-3 years, im talking...10-15 years she try to make contact and apologise.

I think, surprisingly she'll miss and feel bad about Alador the most. He pledge and gave his life and everything to her. He was so damn loyal to her to a fault that her misuse of her family made him snap that unwavering loyalty and that oh so important word of a Blight he gave her for 30 years. While everyone was hurt and sad and a slew of negative emotion about the situation, the children was fueled more by anger. Alador gave her his own choice angry and hurt words, but he just looked so heartbroken in the end.

I realize people may wonder at this point... after the Day of Unity...how can she think she not wrong? She was a victim of the spell too...surly she must know she was wrong! Remember earlier I mention "If something goes wrong she thinks its because no one listened to her." Guess what? Alador and Amity didn't listen to her and they ran off. It doomed her and partner. She also may consider she doomed herself by going against the Titan wishes by admitting what she knew to them before the family battle.

So that's my take on Odalia. I think she more dimensional then the fan makes her. I know its so easy for people to just make her a flat evil villain. She is a manipulative, terrible abuser. I don't think she realizing she abusing. She knows she being underhanded but I think she thinks the word "abuse" is too far and exaggerating. As I mention, she may grew up similar so this is just "normal parenting" from her own childhood observation.

I also have no doubt in my mind she intentionally cruel and cutthroat to people not her family or a threat to business as a prevention. She'll act in more subtle ways within the the law so there's no repercussion. But She has discreetly work outside of it and leaves no proof. It be poor form and bad image if she did.

But as for family, she doesn't have ill intentions. Just terribly and horribly misguided under her own accord. She not intending to make her family miserable, for the pleasure of it. She just ends up making them miserable by a means to achieve a goal she believe is best for the family. Not saying she gets a pass for her abuse. Just she has more depth then the fanbase paint her as evil incarnate.

If you use my headcanon for fic or art, I'll appreciate a shout out. I'm hoping to incorporate my headcanon into my own fic. Particularly the Belos bit, and Odalia feeling betrayed by her family while feeling she didn't do much wrong to warrant it.

#toh odalia #odalia blight #the owl house odalia #toh headcanon #owl house #toh #emira blight #alador blight #amity blight #edric blight #alador

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upper-sixth-fanclub · 7 days

Note

hc - 🧡😨💉

Hello! Thank you for the ask. Appreciate you.

Thematic Headcanons

hc + 🧡 for a friendship-themed headcanon

Both the siblings tend to view friendship as a tangible good or as possessing that person and their advantages, like a political bond more than emotional. Daki is the easiest to make friends with in the classic platonic manner. Not just because she's socialized, but also because there's still little vestiges of her human personality at the heart of her motives: she's got a receptive personality. Gyutaro, meanwhile, has that Patrick Bateman brain, so his friends are limited to the people he torments before killing. I like to think that in the final scenes of the burning district between he and Tanjiro were a form of 'frolicking with my friend in a field' moment for Gyutaro, except he's literally just punting a child.

hc + 😨 for a fear-themed headcanon

Daki has a compulsive and totally-unanticipated fear of fire. Her rooms are usually lit dimly with minimal sources, and too many candles put her in an irritable mood. She HATES fighting Flame Breathing style variants, but it's always hard for her to put her finger on why. Fighting Nezuko was a nightmare situation for her.

Gyutaro, being who he is, refuses to admit he's scared of anything. If you pressed him, it would probably be a fear for Daki's safety. In reality it's more selfish; he's terrified of becoming another worthless coward sad-sack outcast. It just so happens that being Daki's protector is also his entire lifestyle choice.

hc + 💉 for a medical-themed headcanon

Becoming a demon didn't cure Gyutaro of all his ails, but it did help with some of them. Chronic body pains, for example: his hemomancy and healing abilities work amazingly together, and I like to think it's because they're just CONSTANTLY working overtime to offset his deficiencies.

I also like to think that, since Daki was burned alive, her nervous system was FUCKED up, and he basically gave her his life and body which includes working nerve endings. (So he doesn't feel a lot of pain when being fought. Likewise, he doesn't get a lot of tangible pleasure from mere touches either.) This is a cursed blessing, because Daki loves her lush life as an oiran, but is extremely sensitive to and averse to pain.

#gyutaro #daki #gyutaro headcanons #daki headcanons

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skepticreadstoa · 3 months

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The Hidden Oracle: Chapter 2

“Blood,” I muttered. “That’s not possible.” Not entirely sure what you were expecting, Apollo. Raspberry jam?

Perhaps Cade and Mikey were not human either. Perhaps they were cleverly disguised monsters or spirits. At least that would explain why they had beaten me so easily. You trying to retain what's left of your Olympian dignity? I think you may have another thing coming, mate.

Warning: A feral street child has entered the battle.

Cade seriously went from "Beat it, you brat!” to "Stop! Let’s talk about this!” in a heartbeat, and honestly, I would have too. Any child who can punt an apple from the second storey of a fire escape right into my face, they win. They can take whatever I have. I'm not messing with that kid.

Her eyes glinted darkly like a crow’s. (I can make that comparison because I invented crows.) Ok.

She walked a full circle around me, scrutinizing my appearance as if I were a prize cow. (I can also make that comparison, because I used to collect prize cows.) Ok.

Part of me wanted to find a fresh towel, clean her face, and give her money for a hot meal. Part of me wanted to fend her off with a chair in case she decided to bite me. Average godly reaction to meeting an urchin who saved your life from thugs.

"I once knew a Roman goddess, Cloacina, who presided over the city’s sewer system. Perhaps you’re related…?” Meg pouted. I got the impression I might have said something wrong, though I couldn’t imagine what. Right, that's a real mystery.

“I’m Meg McCaffrey!” Meg blew me a raspberry. “And I claim your service!” Overhead, thunder rumbled in the grey sky. The sound echoed through the city canyons like divine laughter. Whatever was left of my pride turned to ice water and trickled into my socks. “I walked right into that, didn’t I?” “Yep!” Meg bounced up and down in her red sneakers. “We’re going to have fun!” With great difficulty, I resisted the urge to weep. Imagine getting enslaved by a twelve year old dressed like a traffic light. I would have fallen to my knees on the spot.

Apollo/Lester's mental state by the end of this chapter:

“As you wish,” I said. “Let’s find Percy Jackson.” And end chapter with most famous character name drop.

#trials of apollo #lester papadopoulos #meg mccaffrey #cade toa #mikey toa #toa #toa fandom #the hidden oracle #skeptic reads #liveblogging

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doomed-era · 7 months

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psssst. you dont have to answer this however! hcs…… shaking a jar like a victorian news child. spare hcs….. . either of the champions or just general Things. you could even make it about among us if you wanted. botw among us

BOTW AMONG US...that would be funny. link would make a terrible imposter bc half the ppl there would immediately assume it was him (he's too stoic for his own good) he immediately gets punted out of the spaceship whenever he's even remotely near a dead body. otherwise he's just screwing around. often is the first to die as well since he wanders off by himself. i don't feel sorry for him he's got better things to do. like dissociate

revali...50/50 shot he'll be discovered. he's very good at making an alibi, almost TOO good, but in most rounds he'll be very consistent about saying where he was and what he was doing, what he saw other people doing, etc, with great accuracy, and when he does lie he tries to make it plausible--and he's good at it. shockingly good for someone who prides themselves on their honesty. he laughs whenever anyone else gets ejected and mipha accuses him of taking the game too seriously.

daruk got imposter for several rounds and literally no one suspected him. he grumbled about tech issues and kept asking about how to use the controls for various minigames so he got written off as not dangerous </3 however people eventually caught on that he can't lie for the life of him and once his alibi was gone his tells became very obvious (he often grunts or grins when he's guilty)

zelda is awful at being the imposter specifically--not only does she have obvious tells but she cannot make a proper alibi DESPITE being able to accurately detail what she's doing even more minutely than revali. she also just stammers a lot and might just admit she's the imposter to finish the game because she knows she's bad at it. when she's a regular crewmate she is often the last to die, since she tends to stick around someone (usually mipha). if she does get ejected it's due to the wild accusations that she tends to make

speaking of mipha. she is a beast at this game. not only is she good at lying, she's only gotten to be the imposter a few times, AND everyone is put off-guard by her usually sweet nature. whenever she's the imposter she wins. she killed zelda in cold blood when she was following her around during one game and zelda was VERY upset. revali was the only one who suspected her at all and of course no one believed him smh. after she won her first game as the imposter she gave everyone a little smile and said she regretted nothing

urbosa was a good impostor for a few rounds until people started noticing that she had a very specific kill order preference for some reason, and rarely kills link or zelda until there's no one left (link being the obvious tell here, since he tends to get killed first). when she won she laughed all evil-like and she looked really nervous when mipha said revali was taking the game too seriously. she does have some issues with the controls and has trouble with a few of the minigames but doesn't complain about them she just gets mad and curses her hypothetical gaming device(tm)

#that was weirdly fun...#gives you a good idea of my hcs for their social dynamic as well hehe!!#botw #asks #golden blood on his hands #might as well tag it as that since that is what i use those hcs for sighs #there's some 'hidden' hcs in there like revali being the most honest of the group #and zelda and mipha being besties #revali and mipha are the champions ive thought about most since i've written them more than the others #(as in i havent written urbosa or daruk at all. and its SAD)

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crowtrobotx · 4 months

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Writing request: MurderFam adopts Cat!MurderFam.

Your wish is my command! For those unaware, the cats are the kitty versions of Kris, Karl and Lottie that Bri so lovingly wrote for her amazing Warrior Cats fic (which you should read here) What the Cat Dragged In Warnings: None, beyond cursing and some lewd humor. Word count: 2273

“Honey, sit still please.” “I have enough layers on! Mommmm! Let me go!”

Kris tried not to react as Lottie flopped back dramatically onto the kitchen tile, limbs spread starfish-like to emphasize the absolute agony her mother was forcing her to endure by not letting her run outside naked in the dead of winter. Surely child services would arrive at any moment to behold the horror of a child being dressed for the cold and whisk her away to a family that cared. With a sigh, Kris crossed her arms and stood over Lottie, now fully feigning death by sticking her tongue out and pinching her eyes shut. Her fluffy pink earmuffs looked like a second set of buns perched on the sides of her head. “You just need shoes. That’s it - only shoes,” Kris said calmly, gesturing to the snow boots sitting by the door. “Do you think you can survive that? You wouldn’t want wet socks.” “I don’t want to wear those boots. They’re too hot!” “Mmm. And what other boots could I get for you- oh! That’s right! You melted the soles off your second pair when you and Papa insisted on playing lightsabers by the bonfire in autumn. Speaking of which, where is your father? We need to get going - the school bake sale starts in half an hour.”

Lottie sat up, her grumpy expression diminished slightly at the prospect of changing the subject away from her attire. “He’s outside. Said he was going to the shed because he thought he saw an animal go in last night.” “When did he tell you this?” “Right after breakfast… a while ago, I guess. Maybe he got lost? Should we make a search party? Can I fly a helicopter!?” Kris’s brows furrowed. The shed sat at the very edge of their property, right where the woods began - she could see it from the kitchen window, for heaven’s sake. He had been gone a long time for someone investigating such a relatively small structure, though. Either Karl had met his doom at the paws of a rabid skunk, no doubt engaging in combat to assert dominance over who smelled the worst, or it was the cats.

Two of them, usually - a male and a female. They didn’t typically stay around long, only ever dropping by to make camp for a few days in whatever space they could find amidst Karl’s comically large collection of “vintage” lawn mowers and tools he insisted would be fixed up and resold one day. They’d started showing up a few years prior, not long after Kris and Karl had moved in. At first the cats kept a healthy distance, little more than quick blurs darting out from under the porch. Kris treated them more or less like cows on the highway, something to point out and briefly observe before going back to the monotony of the day. And then, Karl started making even more frequent convenience store stops. He always showed up with a bag of Kris’s favorite sour candies in an attempt to distract her from the copious amount of tuna cans he was stockpiling. He even tried to hide where he was putting them, as if the smell of fish didn’t make it incredibly obvious. Before she knew it, the fluffy tomcat had fallen on top of her head from the support beams the next time she’d entered the garage to speak to her husband, the smaller brown she-cat observing boredly from on high as her mate was nearly punted across the room. “It’s gotta be those furballs again,” she said to no one in particular. She ran a quick hand through her frizzy curls, standing on end seemingly out of frustration with her offspring. “Lottie, please put on your boots and then follow me outside. If I see you come out barefoot, I’m picking the movie tonight.” “Uuuuuughhh… Fiiineee….” The screen door slammed with a bang as Kris marched with purpose across the backyard, beelining for the rickety old shed. What remained of yesterday’s snow mix with mud from the yard squelched unpleasantly underfoot. She wasn’t angry about the cats so much as she was about being late - it gave her tremendous anxiety. Not to mention fucking Debbie would undoubtedly have set up shop right by the exit, where Kris wanted to be; the thought of the woman’s smug face sneering at her while she hawked her flavorless macarons was enough to drive her to madness. No, she would not lose her prime bake sale real estate this year. Not again. She heard it before she saw it, the shed’s perpetually shattered side window allowing the sound to be audible when she was within ten paces. Karl’s voice - so he hadn’t fallen victim to skunk murder. Shame.

Kris didn’t bother knocking - she pushed the creaky wooden door open and entered the damp, warm space with an expression that she hoped conveyed the sort of disappointed maternal look that bent the normally bombastic man to her will. As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, a figure sitting on a stack of overturned milk crates in the corner began to take form - as did a pair of glowing, irritated eyes.

And there he was, Mr. Tough guy himself, cradling the scraggly grey tomcat like a baby and cooing at it in an uncharacteristically high pitched tone. Kris sighed. It might have been cute if they didn’t have somewhere to be - and if Karl wasn’t deliberately pretending she wasn’t there. The cat was looking at her with an expression that she could only describe as insulted, as if he could not believe her audacity in interrupting his belly rub session. “Having fun?” Kris’s lips twitched. “We were.” Karl was very fond of the male, to put it lightly - though he’d die before he said as much. Kris wasn’t a cat person, but she had exchanged enough glances with the small, brown female to recognize the same exhausted eyes that stared back at her every morning in the bathroom mirror. A kindred spirit, it would seem. The poor thing had lost her tail, and all that remained was a little nub that fluffed up angrily when she was agitated. Which seemed to be often around her ever-meowing mate.

Speaking of which- A quick glance around the space didn’t immediately reveal the little she-cat, to Kris’s surprise chagrin. Unless she’d wedged herself in a corner or under a tarp, she was nowhere to be seen. “Where’s his girlfriend?” Kris asked, trying to sound uninterested. Karl shrugged, the momentary pause in his petting earning him a swift paw to the jaw. He chuckled and resumed his all important task, shifting a bit anxiously in place. “Dunno. Haven’t seen her - she’s probably out getting drunk with her little cat friends and talking shit about this poor baby.” The tomcat purred loudly, swishing his feather duster tail across Karl’s leg. Kris rolled her eyes. She was busy thinking up a witty retort when Lottie’s wheezy self jostled around her from behind, having just sprinted over from the house upon the realization that her parents were spending time together without her, yet another unacceptable grievance. Almost as bad as being forced to wear shoes. “What’re you two doing? What’s that? Is that the cat we saw last summer?” “You’ve got major FOMO, y’know that?” Kris flicked one of her buns affectionately. “Papa was just saying goodbye to his buddy, wasn’t he?” Karl opened his mouth to protest - Kris swore for a brief, insane moment that the cat mirrored his expression - when Lottie tugged on her mother’s jacket sleeve. “Hey, where’s the other one?” God, she’d hoped Lottie wouldn’t ask. For all anyone knew, she was simply hiding or out hunting - but the fact that it was winter, and knowing how many coyotes and foxes they’d already seen this season… she didn’t want to think about it. Kris swallowed her mounting sadness. They’re strays, she told herself. It was bound to happen sooner rather than later. Besides, she wasn’t even a cat person - what was she getting so worked up about?As if on command, an irritated meow came from the small storage loft above. The little brown she-cat darted her green eyes curiously between Kris and Lottie before glaring at the tom. Kris snapped her gaze up and failed to contain the relief in her voice as she exclaimed, “Hey, you!” Karl, infuriatingly, noticed. He flashed her one of his Cheshire cat grins, and Kris was ready to launch the nearest rusty tool at his head when the she-cat voiced her indignation once more.

The male meowed in response and flopped awkwardly out of Karl’s lap before bounding on top of the nearby crates and barely making the leap up into the loft. His back paw slipped awkwardly, but he managed it all the same before shaking his fur like a wet dog and trying to look menacing and huge again. He briefly butted heads with his mate before they both turned away from the three humans below, as if deep in hurried conversation. Kris didn’t want to waste any more time on this than they already had - mostly she didn’t need Karl needling her about actually liking a cat. She gestured toward her waiting car in the driveway, loaded to the hilt with brownies that actually tasted good, thank you very much, Debbie. “There, you’ve had your visit. Now can we get going?” “Yeah, yeah.” Karl rose with great effort, the groan he emitted as he simply stood up more akin to someone being stabbed to death rather than simply stretching their back. “Hey, wait!” Lottie suddenly pointed upward toward the ats and bounced eagerly on her toes, craning her short neck to try to see something. The female hopped down first, gracefully, and made her way to Kris’s legs. She wound her sleek little form around them a few times, and Kris couldn’t resist bending and giving her a quick ear scritch before Lottie nearly shrieked with delight. With a heavy thump, the tomcat landed on the crates again, this time carrying a furious fuzzball in his jaws. The little grey kitten hissed furiously, its short limbs flailing with irritation at having been removed from their warm nest. The proud father strutted over to Karl to present the little spitting terror while the mother appeared unbothered, ignoring her offspring’s protests and blinking slowly up at Kris to gauge her reaction. She wasn’t sure if cats understood thumbs up, but that was all she could think to give the expectant creature. “Well, look at that!” Karl clapped his hands together delightedly. “You old bastard, you got some swimmers that still work?” “Aww, I said the same thing to you after we got married,” Kris kissed her husband’s cheek, reveling in his sour expression.

“IT’S A KITTEN!!!!!” Karl barely caught Lottie before she lunged forward, pure mania in her eyes. “Lottie, shhh,” Kris suppressed the urge to laugh lest it startle the cats. “Yes, it’s a kitten. A very cute one. Try to stay calm, we don’t want to scare them away.” Her daughter was practically vibrating with excitement. The tomcat plopped the little grey kitten, his clone in almost every way, on the dirt floor where it proceeded to fluff up to twice its size and stand stock still. Its eyes were like saucers as it observed Lottie, unsure of whether to run or launch itself at her face. Ever the extrovert, Lottie dropped to her hands and knees and introduced herself, loudly, to the kitten. She crouched until her chin was practically on the ground and made herself as small and unthreatening as possible. The kitten slowly deflated, shuffling forward and flashing tiny teeth nervously before batting Lottie’s nose to garner a response. Lottie only laughed and extended a chubby little hand for it to sniff. A few cautious sniffs later and the little beast was hesitantly allowing itself to be petted clumsily on the head, even letting a few purrs escape here and there. “Well… I’m glad this had a happy ending,” Kris muttered. The she-cat at her feet went to go inspect her kitten while the male watched happily from his lounge atop an old dusty stool. “We should really, really leave, though. How will Lottie’s junior robotics club survive if I don’t fundraise half the budget with my astonishing selection of baked goods? Come on, old man.” “Sheesh, alright. Does your girl bother you this much?” The tomcat yowled pathetically at Karl in response. “Yeah, I know, buddy… I know. It’s torture.” Kris and the she-cat glanced at one another, a sort of shared understanding that transcended species passing between them. Both of the boys were going to husband jail tonight. “Can we keep them!?” Lottie begged as the kitten scaled her face onto her head as if conquering a mountain. “Yes,” Karl announced, drowning out Kris’s softer “no.” She wanted to protest, but frankly the urge had fled. It wasn’t worth it. Not while Debbie was out there making gains already. “Fine,” Kris conceded at last. She turned to leave, waving a dismissive hand over her shoulder as she made her way back toward the house. “Fine, but you two are keeping them fed and changing their litterboxes. And buying them toys, and taking them to the vet…. And we need to talk about neutering the fella.”

“NO!” Karl stomped a foot angrily. “Don’t disrespect my boy like that! Don’t even joke about it!”

Kris had half a mind to comment that she was referring to him, but decided she’d had enough tantrum delays for one afternoon.

#asks #writing requests #grisailledreams #chrysalis (fan fic) au

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harryleatherfit · 10 months

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Upper East Side || A.U || Frankie Morales

Chapter 13: After Party

F!Reader x Frankie Morales

Word Count: 4.3K

Warnings: abusive parents, childhood memory flashback, ptsd, abuse (summary at the end if you’d like to skip) drink roofi,

Authors Note: been so long since i’ve updated UES, but one shot life has taken me away. planning the rest of the fic is making me so sad and writing this chapter was really hard, i fucking HATE NINA. there’s not too much of frankie in this one, but i promise he’s very much in the next. just you wait .

i love you all. anyone who reads my stuff, who has supported me through this process. you mean the absolute world to me💝

Chapter Playlist

Euphor- Lowswimmer & Novo Amor

A House in Nebraska- Ethel Cain

🪩Main Master List🪩 Series Master List🪩

Sundays with your family was never something you vouched for as a kid. You woke up, you did what you were told, you obeyed, you surveyed your parents emotions. Hyper aware of your actions. You cleaned, you cooked, you were a caretaker to yourself.

After so many years with the relationship of your parents berating itself, your relationship with your mom, everything falling apart. You never really knew what set her off, hell you never knew what would set your dads anger off, but there was something with your mom that would make her see red and you would never understand.

A distinct Sunday, you walked downstairs to greet your parents, and she was staring out the window, blank faced. You sat next to her, no words said, just hoping for her peace today.

“Pretty morning, mama.”

She nodded her head, “Yeah I already went for my run, the weather is perfect. You should go on yours now.”

She always did this, she always made you go on fucking runs, to appease that ‘her child isn’t gaining weight’.

This morning, you were tired, you just started your period and you were bleeding heavily. The last thing you wanted to do was go on a run, you didn’t want to have to say hi to people every time you passed them. You didn’t want to fidget with your headphones not falling out. You hated running, she always forced you to work out on your own terms.

“Mama? I’m on my period and I feel nauseous…”

“You know that’s not an excuse, you know the rules.”

“I know you’ve said that but please today I’m in so much pain, I’ll take on extra chores for today, I’ll dust all the rooms-”

“No, and because of that you’ve yourself another hour of running… do you want to defy my rules? Fucking try me you fucking little shit.” She seethes, she urns back looking out the window, simmering down.

You look away from her, shoving your head down into your arms, you didn’t like crying infront of her.

“And try running to your father, he only agrees with me. Look, we love you honey, we want the best for you, but we need you to be healthy and thin, like the good girl you were raised to be.” She gets up, “Speaking of which, let's get on the scale before you leave.”

“What?”

She grabs your hand, pulling you to her bathroom.

“Mama no… mama please no…” You cry, “You know that I don’t like this… please mama don’t make me..”

“It’s the rule to stay under 150 Lbs! You know that! Fuck..” She huffs, “We’ve been so relaxed with you lately, you need to have healthier habits. You can’t keep eating the way you are.”

She punts the door open, you're sobbing at this point, begging your mom to not make you on the scale.

“No! Fucking get on!”

“Please mama, please I’ll do better. I’ll be better for you, I promise, for you and dad. I won’t be bad anymore..” You plead, slobber slipping all over your face.

She plants your feet on the scale and you immediately shut your eyes, never wanting to see the number below you. Seconds pass.

“Well you got a fucking one way ticket to missing homecoming next weekend.” She tuts.

“What, no please mom!” You look at her.

“NO ARGUING! You wont fit in your dress anyways and it’s your fucking fault. We paid all this money for this beautiful gown and now YOU HAVE GAINED WEIGHT! So during your night, you’ll be coming with me to the gym and no fucking complaining… I hear a sound, your phone is mine for a week.” That shuts you up.

All you can do is stare at her, the pain leaking from your mouth. You’re frozen in time, and you can only focus on the tears not slipping from your eyes. All the pain and hatred boiling in your heart, the monster of fear is right in front of you and you can’t move. You heave, gasping for air. All you want is to hold your mom, you want someone to fucking hold you, but there is no one.

“Fucking get a move on, or I’ll give you something real to cry about.” She spits. And you do.

—-

Your scream, your blood, your body shaking out on stage. You prepared for your last performance with Frankie, you were ready to give the performance everything you had in your body. And everything went as fast as you expected, but as you were walking off stage you could’ve sworn you saw your mom in the audience, so many faces to look at, but you could see yourself in the crowd.

You stayed stagnant in the wings of the stage, your body following into full blown shock. You couldn’t get a full view of the person you saw but somehow you knew she was in the same room as you. That pit feeling you got as a kid about you mom, her moods. You knew she was there.

People were talking to you, tech crew telling you what to do and where to go, but you couldn’t think. Everything was muffled, nothing made sense. You couldn’t scratch out of your skin faster, you couldn’t run away, you couldn't go home. You couldn’t leave, you just had to stay.

Immediately you snap out of it and rub your hand over your heart to calm yourself down, you have to finish the night out.

“Are you okay?” A stage manager comes up to you, “Do you want me to get a director?”

Fuck the last thing you want is for Frankie to see you like this, or any of your teachers. Nothing could help you get out of this.

“No,” You choke, “I’m fine.”

Your reassurances, sets the stage manager back in place, calling the shows last cue, and bows are finally in check.

Mattias runs off stage, and he finds your hand, bracing yourself to see the audience again. You hear the room erupt into cheers and the standing ovation begins. He pulls you onto the stage, your eyes fade, the fuzziness creeping over your body. It’s your turn to walk up to the apron and bow, feet following another no daring to look anywhere but your feet. You were happy how loud the audience was, but you needed to leave, you needed air. Applauding the tech crew and the audience you run off stage quickly. You needed time to collect yourself before you ever thought about going outside to greet anyone.

You smeared the blood off of you, you slipped out of your costume, put everything back to where it was, shaking as you moved. You couldn’t rid this fumble in your body. You prayed Frankie wouldn’t walk in, you didn’t know how he would react to your unresponsiveness.

“Bitch! Get out here! We gotta go sign some playbills and then we're off to the club!” Mattias shouts into your room.

The tears come to a halt and you wipe away your face before he has you in view. You can do this.

“I just finished cleaning and hanging my shit, come with me and we can find Laylah… go to the club!” He holds your hands, wriggling his body.

Honestly all you want is to hurl into a bag, but that would do too.

“Ok let me grab my bag, I’m right behind you!” You cave. All you had to do was forget about your mom.

You clear your nose, and shut off the lights to your area. You’ll always remember this oasis you had, the memories with Laylah, Frankie, your first show here dear to your heart.

Mattias opens the door to the outside, and not just from last night… there are more people. Cameras flashing, screaming from all sides of the street. There are paparazzi, cars scrolling by screaming you and Mattias’s name. As you walk by with him, singing playbills and posing for cameras, seeing all these beautiful faces, you think about Frankie. You’re one step closer to being with him after the party.

Moving down the line, the men with the camera’s move with you. It felt good, you felt excited and the dip in your heart is gone.

“Excuse me ma’am, ma’am! You can’t be here!”

Before you turn, you hear a backstage official yell to somebody, the conversation going on behind you.

“Who do you think you are, screaming up on that stage?”

And there you are, in front of what could’ve been hundreds of people, seeing you go eye to eye with your mom. Mattias pauses behind you. You knew it was her, that exact hair color.

“You call that a performance?” She screams at the crowd, pointing at you, pulling you apart, “Here’s my fucking daughter all the way in New York City.” She screams.

You hadn’t seen her in years, by choice, but she was here? What on god's earth would persuade her to see your performance. She looked much older, being alone hasn’t taught her anything. Her hair looked dirty, she looked disheveled, and she looked lifeless.

“Ma’am I need you to please step aside..”

“Look at you baby, look at you whoring yourself out for all these broadway roles.” She laughs, “Didn’t think the person I raised would go this far into Hollyweird, you’re sellin yourself to the devil you hear me? Skanking yourself out just to make some money? I mean fuck..”

Some Broadway official grabs one of your moms arms, yanking it back, she has this beady look in her eye, you know she hasn’t had her fill with you yet. She wanted this to be public so she can let the public see the real you.

“Mom please don’t do this here, please I’ve worked so hard for this.” You plead, you can’t freeze, you can’t shake, you just deal. You go back to your roots. “Mom, why are you here?”

“Want the world to know how fucking selfish and useless you are? Wanted to see how ‘good’ of a life you think you got up here. Well here’s a fucking wake up call sweet cheeks,” She steps up closer to you, “ You ain’t able to make it in the world without me, I came here today to take you back home. Where you were raised right, where you belong.” She grabs you, and Mattias holds you back, his hold on you stronger than anything on the stage.

“Babe? Who the fuck is this?” He asks.

“No one lets fucking go.” You snicker, you have never been more infuriated in your life.

He follows you back inside the theater, you can still hear your mom yelling like the psychotic bitch she is, and behind closed doors, you can’t stop the shaking. You don’t care if Mattias saw you like this, you needed Laylah.

“Get Laylah, find Laylah please Mattias.”

“Ok baby, I’ll go find her.”

When he left you and you were finally alone, you gasped for air. That really was her. Your mind wasn’t playing tricks on you. Your hands couldn’t control themselves, you couldn’t remember anything except your name, all you needed to do was throw everything up.

“Oh I got her, I got her.”

“Babe, are you okay? What’s wrong?”

You look at Laylah with your eyes spilling liquid, “She was here, she was fucking here Laylah, the whole crowd saw, Papparazzi saw, fans saw. I can’t… move. I don’t know what to do.” They slipped down to the floor with you, they put their arms around you and Mattias followed, all holding each other in a ball.

“I don’t know why she came, I don’t know why she’s here, I don’t know how she found out I was even in this.” You ramble.

“Ok calm. Do you feel safe right now?” They ask.

“Yes, you’re both here, that's all that matters. I just can’t process everything right now. I don’t think I can move from here.”

“Ok we can wait here then, we won’t leave until you want to.” Mattias soothes.

You could stay in the corner with those two for an eternity. You wanted Frankie too, but you didn't need to burden him with your life, you didn’t need to have him worry about you in any capacity, when you were already putting both of your careers in jeopardy. They both held you so close, and this was a moment in your life you would pocket. Two people you hold dearly in your heart, that you would never let go.

You felt your phone buzz, you had to check it to see if it was Frankie, but it wasn’t, it was an instagram notification from Frankie. Your heart dropped. Mattias’s phone buzzed too.

You open the app at the same time, a post of you two bowing together on the stage.

Captioned: “The Macbeths”

The past couple months working with these two have been an experience of a lifetime for my career. I couldn’t imagine anyone else in these roles. The stars of the new generation.

“Didn’t know he liked me that much.” Mattias giggles. Laylah looks at you and they look happy, they weren’t that shocked when you told them about you two, seeing the instagram post proves how much he cares about you. How his page is now two posts of you.

Your heart dropped but you're happy too, this is what a teacher would post, he’s proud of the work he’s done.

New Message:

Frankie: Comin to the afterparty at the club? Leaving with the guys, I have another surprise tonight for you baby girl.

Fuck, the afterparty.

“Do you guys want to go to the afterparty?” You chip up.

“No, not without you and I’m not leaving you.” Laylah.

“No it’s okay, I think I can go. I’m okay. These few minutes I needed but I’m good now.” You weren’t lying, you didn’t exactly want to stay here forever and be the buzzkill of the night. You all had worked on this play for months, and if you missed this you would hate yourself more.

You would get to see Frankie, and just by his presence that would calm you down and make you forget the whole night.

“Let's go, I wanna go. Do I look okay for a club?” You ask.

“You always look okay baby, I’ll get a cab.” Mattias gets up, holding his hands out for you and Laylah.

You collect your bag and jacket, fixing your hair. Trying to prepare for the rest of the night. You and Laylah follow Mattias to the other end of the theater, where fans won’t be, getting inside a cab and decompressing.

“Rumpus room please, on East Houston and Elridge.” Laylah tells the cab driver.

You text back Frankie,

You: Laylah, Mattias and I are on our way, be there in 10.

Frankie: The guys and I already ordered some drinks, want anything?

You: I’m okay, keep your hands to yourself tonight pretty boy

Frankie: Make me

You: I promise I will. That picture you posted, it’s beautiful by the way.

Frankie: I know, someone in it that is.

You: Hey what about Mattias?

Frankie: He can be too, but my girl owns the world.

You: What’s your special surprise tonight?

Frankie: I wanted to take you somewhere again, not my house tonight

Where else could he take you? You were getting worried he was spending too much money on you, but that was a battle for another night.

Laylahs playing hype music, and you feel the warmth in your blood again, nothing to worry about.

“How many people do you think will be there?” You ask.

“I mean the whole school kinda show’s up to things like this, so there could be hundreds.” Mattias answers.

Maybe you could slip away with Frankie unnoticed.

You guys arrived outside the club, and people were cheering for you both, never receiving this special treatment, but you did check behind your back to make sure your mom wasn’t there, just a precaution. And once you walk in there was this whole atrium, almost a room so big that you could fit people in it for a concert. Bodies everywhere left and right. Some people you recognized, but most you’ve never talked to. Mattias and Laylah were by your sides, Bryce weaving through people to find Laylah. As you walked in, more eyes feel your way and hands started clapping, a DJ found a spotlight on you both, finally going over a god mic,

“There's the winners of the night, let's have a round of applause for the Macbeths!” Whistles and yelps were spread everywhere, Mattias hugged you and a wave of happiness spread through you. You did this, you had the power of an artist right now. Life was so good.

You guys walked up stairs to get to the bar, able to see the whole dance floor, and that’s when you see Frankie with the directors in the opposite corner. He met eyes with you and you smirk, at least he’s here. He changed from his regular outfit, all the guys in the corner are wearing suits, you were practically drooling over what you could see from Frankie.

“Gin and Tonic please, babe you want anything?” Mattias asks.

Fuck it.

“I’ll do the same as him.” You repeat.

Laylah and Bryce order, sitting on the bar barstools chatting. You felt earthy right now, light and accomplished. Even though you barely knew anyone in here, you could still be yourself. You took sips of your drink, muscles relaxing.

“Is he here?” Laylah whispers, asking about Frankie.

“Yes, he is, but I can’t be near him, people would think it’s weird and he doesn’t know.” You point at Mattias. “But I’m seeing him after.” You shrug.

“He makes you happy. If you’re happy I’m happy.” They kiss your head, “Does he know about stuff with your mom?”

“I’ve told him a few things, but no need to rush into all that with him.”

“Take it lightly tonight, okay? Don’t rush into anything, your moms psychotic.” They shiver.

“Trust me I know, I grew up with the woman.” You blink.

Was it bad that you missed her, even though she treated you like shit?

Mattias and Bryce were on their phones whispering, you didn’t know what about, but they looked worried. Boys being boys.

“No phones, let’s all go dance.”

You drag all of them off their seats and set your drinks on the bar, slipping into the crowd of people, maybe Frankie will see you. See your body dancing, craving his hands all over you.

So many people were still congratulating you, wanting to dance with you, your smile so wide. It made you think about the spring, and the musical. You realize after this it doesn’t even matter if you get a named character. You at least want to be a part of the production.

So many people were focused on showing off what roles they had, but you were at least happy that you could be a part of any production. You wanted to end your senior year with a good note, not a stressed one.

You feel hands on you, and it’s Hannah and Rose.

“YOU DID AMAZING, YOU BOTH DID.” They scream over the music. You jump up and down with them, catching up with them since you all have been so busy. It was nice to see their faces, more people than you knew at this crazy party.

“You and Mattias are being posted everywhere, those interviews are already out! And Mr. Morales posting you guys, that’s really big for you both.” Rose jumps, giddily.

“What does this all mean?” You ask.

“You guys will get fucking scouted, you’re going to go into Hollywood duh!” Hannah giggles, they both already seem drunk, this news making your body lurch with euphoria.

“I’m gonna go sip on my drink, anyone wanna come with?” You ask.

Nobody moves, so you leave the group alone, only 10 steps to the bar. You find your drink and sit on the stool. A moment to yourself and a lot to process. You thought out of your head for a second. This could have really started your career. People, we're going to start recognizing you, people are gonna start emailing you. This was it. Eventually after downing the rest of your drink, you got up to go back again, but this didn’t feel good.

You felt like you couldn’t walk, the music suddenly got louder and your head was pounding. How much had you actually drank? You were trying to scout out anyone you knew, trying to find Laylah shimmering hair, or maybe Frankie with his friends. But nothing. You felt helpless, you were lost and you didn’t know what to do. You looked for bathroom signs, and immediately stumbled over there. You walked down the cold hallway, not able to process.

What the fuck was going on?

You opened the door to what you thought was the bathroom, which it did say bathroom but it was pitch black, and the words on the door were blurry.

Flash.

Immediately hands were all over, the room spinning faster than you could comprehend. You’re pulled into the rooms and you hear giggles rapture from every corner of the room, you hear the door lock from the inside, and you’re in no control of what happens now. You can’t leave, you can’t fight. You’re physically unable to move, your breathing quickens and sweat falls down your forehead. The lights turn on, your eyes fight to adjust to the new night.

“Didn’t even bother to cover your own drink you dumb bitch.”

Nina.

“Yeah it’s fucking me you dumb whore.” Laughs again, you freeze, with what you’re able to do you back against the steel wall.

There's about 6 girls surrounding you, one with a flash on you, one you're sure is recording. Incolitarlty, you can feel tears streaming down your face.

“Fucking cunt stole my role, payback you little fucking trailer trash slut.” She slaps you, but at least you couldn’t feel it. You tried to hit her back, but she caught you fist, your reaction time was too slow.

“Drugs gonna make you sleepy honey, no need to fight me back. I already got you ass.” She smirks. All her friends howl in laughter.

“Nina… what did.. I ever do to you? …I’ve never… hurt you..” You stammer, trying to slur formal words together. You were fading fast.

She grabs your mouth in her hands, “You. Took. My. Spotlight. And you’re gonna pay for it. You didn’t think I was gonna let you slide with this, you thought I was gonna back off? Well fuckin welcome to New York babe, nobody backs of here.”

Nina backs off from you and in the corner of your eye, a girl standing on a toilet lid is holding a big bucket, eventually dumping a bucket of red liquid all over you. It woke you up, but the room was still hazy. You tried to wipe it from your eyes, but you got it all over the wall, it seeping down your body to the floor.

“Fucking screaming banshee… THAT WAS MY ROLE.” She gets up all in your face, still frozen from fear.

“Nina, do you think it’ll work, do you think it’ll wake her up?” The red substance was so cold, you didn’t know what it was, but you prayed it wasn’t real blood. It didn’t have an odor, but your veins were shrieking from the temperature.

“Brie, bitch it has to, the cunt has to stay awake, if she doesn’t we're all dead.” You hear her respond.

Before you really start to slip, all the girls are murmuring with Nina, this was their plan. To drug you and try to make you stay awake, to use you. To lock you in here and hurt you. But if it didn’t work? Then what? Leave you to die? Leave you to rot in this red scum?

Nina comes back up to you again, the impact of her hand, her nails dragging on your face brutally keeping you standing against the wall.

“Where's your little friend, where’d they all go huh? Not here to protect their little puppy.” She cackles. “You follow all of them around when they don’t need you, a worthless piece of shit.” She grabs your hair, putting her mouth close to your ear.

“Gonna go run to mommy and daddy, gonna go cry about it? Gonna cry like a little girl and run away?”

You fall with nothing less to lose. Nina couldn’t hold you up anymore. Another girl holds a phone in your face and it’s a video, a street view video of you frozen outside the theater, your mom yelling at you. Calling you names, hurling herself at you. Her voice made the wind in your body howl, you couldn’t take it anymore. You started to scream.

Not words, but you screamed for the world to know your pain. You never meant to hurt anyone in your life. You never meant to be mean to Nina, your mom, the world. You never wanted anything.

“That’s right you ugly whore, don’t have a mommy to run to I see. Mommy doesn’t love her fat daughter.” She wiggles the phone from her friend's hand, shoving it in your face, “Deux moi’s having a fun time with this one.” You hear the door open, all of their feet shuffle out, the light switch turning off.

“Have a good night, don’t let drugs bite.” The door shuts.

You were trying so hard not to fall asleep, but it’s what you need to do. You can’t refrain anymore.

You whimper, “Frankie….”

Black.

taglist: @pastelnap @beefrobeefcal

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Summary: Reader gets a bad childhood flashback with her mom, then reader finishes the last of lady mac for the last show, thinking she sees her mom in the crowd. After the show ends, Mattias drags her outside to say hi to people, paps are there and so many more people than the previous night before. Then reader sees her mom, and she freezes, feeling like a kid again, her mom goes crazy. Reader and Mattias eventually go back into the theatre finding Laylah, they check on reader, she feels okay to go to the after party. Frankie posts a picture of Mattias and reader, talking about how proud he is of both of them. Then he texts reader about another suprise for her. She feels good for the rest of the night. Showing up to the after party club. Dancing with Laylah, Bryce, Mattias, Rose and Hannah. Reader goes back to bar to drink the rest of her drink, feeling woozy she goes to the bathroom to be bombarded with Nina and her minions.

Ending was hard to write, but necessary, creating Nina has gone against every molecule of my body.

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whenthechickencry · 9 months

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Umineko Ch1. Replay 4

The fact she calls out to her mom when she is the one person who isn't gonna figure out a calm way to deal with this hurts, ouch. Even amongst all the hatred she has for her mom she still trusts her.

This line always stuck with me because of how insane it reads on the outside. She's 9! A whole 9! She's an infant what do you mean old! I guess it shows her toxic environment meant she was never allowed to act like a child and is bitter about it.

Hurts to read this. Clearly, they want to stop Rosa's abuse but don't know how. It's easy to judge them as cowards but realistically what can they do? Yell at Rosa who will then take it out on Maria more?

Honestly living on that island seems like abuser heaven so at least Jessica's parents aren't the worst, comparatively speaking. She has very limited contact with the outside world and every exit is very tightly controlled.

Setting up the "who gave Maria the umbrella" mystery I see Kanon!

It's really hard to not read Maria as autistic me, with her taking orders very literally, her word repetition, and her hyper fixation on magic stuff. Just makes the way Rosa blames her for getting bullied and not having friends even more horrific.

Kumasawa laughing at the prank she helped pull, lol

idk battler It could be the worst day of my life but if I'm getting a 5-star meal I'm mowing that down happily

It's a bit sad how clearly Battler holds Kyrie in high regard and obviously does kind of consider her family even if he denies it considering that Kyrie fucking hates him

I am using the Umineko Project version of Umineko, and you know, the console sprites for Umineko are a lot more varied than the 07th mod would led you to believe (not that I am criticizing them, I am sure there were technical reasons as to why they had to be removed) there are some with Eva holding her unfolded fan that I didn't screen earlier too)

Nanjo going along with the script and getting jumped on by everyone lol

Wow, way to talk about your child Rosa

Oh here is the portrait I was talking about earlier, also everyone's tune immediately flip flops about the letter when they realized its beneficial to getting money lmfao

It's kinda cute how much Jessica tries to prove she really is the one who hates her parents the most when she probably has the best relationship with her parents out of the cousins

Yeah yaeh you are so mature and understanding than your cousins George, not like you are the one most willing to cut off your parents when their money or status obsession gets in the way of your goals or anything

Doesn't work as well for a game where the opponent isn't really trying to win and doesn't always do the most logical moves, does it?

Kyrie's correct though, if they had simply asked her on her terms who Beatrice is from the start (Something along the lines of who was Beatrice possessing) she probably would have answered!

Well, it's more like she realized you were the best one to get the information she wanted, but you do love her too much to consider that.

He's so fucking scared of Kyrie and he should be, to be honest! Though it's partly your fault she's like this.

This is also probably R07's way of telling you to look at the heart and not just the murder mystery!

Obviously, Natsuhi doesn't believe this because she knows Kinzo is dead, though I wonder if she thinks this was s will he left to the servants or something?

i wanna punt this man

I think Natsuhi and Jessica is probably the only parent/child relationship in the game that probably would heal itself with time... they both understand what is going wrong but aren't sure how to fix it, and I think with Jessica going out of her parent's house soon she probably would have been able to understand her mother more and makeup once they saw each other again... it makes me a bit sad to think about how the tragedy made it impossible for that to happen.

I'm already crying fuck. They are both extending their hand to the other. They are making steps towards repairing their relationship! And it's all getting destroyed!

I wonder how many times conversations like this happened in reality. Genji trying to convince Yasu to allow themselves to live their life normally but Yasu thinking that they aren't worthy of that, and feeling deeply guilty when they did interact with others...

I wonder if George has ever really tried to engage with Shannon's own interests, knowledge, and likes, instead of just assuming because she is a servant that everything he tells her is new and exciting to her

#umineko #umiepisode1

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ac-liveblogs · 7 months

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I'd say the quest is a mixed bag, Furina's really angsty and has a personality but, like, this is the nation of justice and the plot has nothing to do with law, the courts, police, or ethics. Instead the prophecy is here as a b/w alien invasion to flatten every interesting concept. Plus there are horrible scenes like the one where they harp on abt hunting metaphors for NO reason. And we're meant to buy that magic box trip crossing 1000s of m? Also Tarts was robbed. Furina is so angsty though.

I actually think this quest sucked. There was stuff here that could've worked and was theoretically interesting. They just couldn't hack it.

The themes in Fontaine really bug me. Furina's like, an okay character. The ideas surrounding her kind of work - just, not here. She's totally discordant with the world-building present in Fontaine and only ends up nominally related to the concept of "justice" as a result. Fontaine's themes of opera/performance/duality/masks/etc and it's themes of 'justice' aren't explored well either apart or together, and they're totally unaligned with the actual finale of the Quest....

Giant Alien Whale Force Of Nature Got Let Out Of It's Cage And Almost Doomed A Country/World/Galaxy, Hot Girl Appears From Nowhere To Oneshot It, Monologue And Leave.

Skirk's appearance and subsequent explanation of everything that just happened did unbelievable damage to the stakes in Fontaine. Like, I can't take anything that happened even remotely seriously because of her inclusion.

Childe's connection to the Leviathan he awakened looks like a bad joke when it's explained away as a "pet" his master could take care of no sweat, and he doesn't even get to defeat it anyway despite that being the goal that was established for him. He didn't even get to talk.

Neuvillette is a baffling character anyway, both in role and execution, but it also didn't do him any favours to have both his attempts at fighting the narwhal interrupted by someone else. He just looked like a confused chump.

All of Furina's suffering to save Fontaine starts seeming overdramatic when someone else was always gonna take care of the whale anyway. I understand that Skirk would have arrived too late to save Fontaine, but the fact that she defeated it so effortlessly really made it seem like everyone else was overreacting. And yeah, I get Childe fought it for a month or something. It was off-screen. It doesn't count.

And as a player, the absolute last thing I want is to get punted out of a boss fight so an NPC can cutscene oneshot it. Like. Holy shit.

Everything that happened once Skirk showed up was surely very important and interesting for the lore nerds, but it just punched a hole in the narrative tension in the quest. No-one came away from that looking good.

Tbh, I might be missing something, but I'm actually quite confused about why Furina had to pretend to be an Archon to 'fool Celestia'. My understanding is that Celestia made a prophecy that Fontaine was going to sink beneath the water (because of the whale) and the people of Fontaine were going to be dissolved (because they're Oceanids), so... why did Focalors need a fake Archon to fool Celestia and therefore avert the prophecy? Especially if Celestia is asleep (per Nahida's conversation with Dottore)?

Like, if anyone can explain that to me, I'd appreciate it, because right now it seems like the concept for Furina was made up before anyone figured out how to integrate it into the lore.

I didn't mind some of the character concepts in Fontaine - they're less mundane than usual - but I don't think anyone was written in a remotely interesting way.

Lyney comes closest to engaging with Fontaine's dual themes of 'performance/masks' and 'justice' and the weird interplay between them here, but HYV was never interested in taking his character far enough to really get to anything meaty with him. The guy's a 'future harbinger' that shuffles between various different masks depending on who he's engaging with that should want Furina's Gnosis, but he never ends up doing much more than busywork for Arlecchino. And Arlecchino did so little it was barely worthwhile including her at all.

Wrio and Neuvillette actively corroded the world-building Fontaine tried to establish around them, Neuvillette is a baffling character anyway, Navia bored me to tears, Lynette & Freminet weren't used in interesting ways, Clorinde may as well have not been here... Charlotte, despite being The Press, got a free pass on the condemnation the General Public got for jumping to conclusions and falling into narratives (alleged)...

Meropide was 80% tedious filler, the trials were horribly written and you could tell the writers got bored of scripting them after the first one, NPCs once again got shilled over playables... what annoys me about this region is that there's a lot of stuff here that could've worked but didn't, bc HYV was either unwilling or unable to commit to any of it. It's also just... not great for building tension for characters to continuously run up to you going 'A BAD DRAMATIC THING HAPPENED. OFF-SCREEN. IT HAPPENED THOUGH. WE'RE ALL SAD.' Like, okay. I'll take your word for it, I guess.

HYV also just... doesn't seem to understand how set-up and payoff work. Which is really frustrating. The fucking duels (alleged) haunt me. The Gnosis! Childe's Vision!

Furina's VA is really good and she absolutely knocked it out of the park but this quest still sucked and HYV still needs to reduce all of their dialogue by 30-40% because holy shit

#replies #ac plays genshin impact

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