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tokrev-roses · 3 years

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Cool Cool Boy

although you are happy with your love, your ex-boyfriend wants to be a part of your life again. jealous boyfriends and phones involved + NSFW (original request)

🖋Genre: Smut (Mikey, Draken Chifuyu), Fluff (Baji)

⚠️Warnings: 18+ for everyone but Baji, description of the female body and sexual acts, bad writing/grammar/spelling

👥Characters: Mikey, Draken, Chifuyu, Baji

❧ Keisuke Baji

Fancy dates are not his thing

It was not only that he had a budget, being a middle schooler and everything, he also simply didn’t vibe with it

But it was your anniversary, so he saved up all his pocket money and tried to behave so mama Baji would let him out

Cue to him waiting in front of a popular restaurant for young couples, wearing his edgy street clothes

And to both of your surprise, everything went smoothly

He excused himself to the restroom for a sec, and while you were waiting at your table, daydreaming about the beauty of this evening, someone sat down on Keisuke’s chair

You turned towards the person, fully expecting to see your boyfriend, but were met with a less than pleasant view. Your ex-boyfriend greeted you with a satisfied smirk.

“Enjoying yourself, y/n? You know, I always thought you were one of those girls who loved fancy stuff, considering how much you loved our dates and my presents. That you’d settle for someone who is unable to offer you more than this…” He made a derogatory gesture towards the other tables.

This was no high-end restaurant with view over the Tokyo skyline, but it was Baji who put a lot of effort into this, and it meant more to you than anything else

As you were about to respond, a shadow towered over your ex

“What do you think you are doing her punk?”

“This is the trash you left me for, y/n?”

As he was about to laugh, Baji seized him by the collar, lifted him up, and threw him away like actual trash

Knowing Keisuke, you tried to stop the enraged berserker he was about to turn into. No need for a brawl in the middle of a restaurant

You managed to calm him, nonetheless the manager kindly asked all three of you to leave

Keisuke kept quiet on your way home. You knew why. He actually wanted everything to be perfect, to show you how much you meant to him and it was ruined by his temper and a slimy asshole

„♪Kei-Su-Ke♪“, you poked the dimples of your grumpy boyfriend. “I loved this evening. Minus that idiot, but that was none of your fault.”

“Hm.”

He kept walking.

Ok, you’d have to bring the big guns in

With two big steps you were behind him to give him the strongest back hug possible

“Ya, you punk. Wanna pick a fight?”, your effort to imitate his voice didn’t go unnoticed.

“As if a small fry like you could win against me.”

With that you knew the ice was broken. What you didn’t expect was him turning around fast as lightening, picking you up and throwing you over his shoulder.

You tried to scream but it ended in heartful laughter

A perfect anniversary indeed.

❧ Manjiro Sano

(Future!Mikey, Dark-Haired)

King of jealousy and most possessive out of all the boys, so you can imagine his reaction as you told him your ex-boyfriend visited you at work

The mood instantly shifted

“Come on, Manjiro. He didn’t ask me to marry him or anything.”

This joke was not appreciated by him, and he stayed broody for the rest of the evening

You should have known that he was up to something as he suddenly became very touchy with you, but you pinned it on his neediness

Things got even stranger when he didn’t let you touch or pleasure him, but instead kept making you feel like wax between his fingers

It wasn’t just the way he abused your neck with longing kisses or how he caressed the sides of your body with featherlight touches as he made his way downwards. Not the way he fondled your breasts with the utmost care, kissing and sucking your nipples until you couldn’t keep your whimpers from spilling.

The satisfied smile he gave you as you made the first sound should have shown you that there was more to it, but you were so lost in pleasure, that you really didn’t care

Things got worse (or better) for you as he reached your most intimate spot

If he was skilled at pleasuring you before, he was a god at doing so today.

White pleasure blinded you as his velvet tongue explored every part of you. Every moan and whimper you gave him was met with a pleased hum that vibrated through your body.

When you couldn’t stop your own need from feeling every part of him on you, you used your hands in his dark hair to push him closer to you.

Instead of understanding your silent plea like he usually would, he just kept going and going until your vision got blurred by tears and your voice was hoarse.

Only then he let you go, mumbling something you were too tired to understand.

You slept well that night, with Mikey hugging you loke a koala

It was only when you looked at your phone the next morning, that you realized what he had done.

A chat with your ex-boyfriend, who must have written you last evening about going out for dinner, cough your eye. Your answer, which you definitely didn’t send, consisted of a 30 second audio.

Innocent you played it, of course, and it took you a second to realize what exactly you were hearing.

That was you. You, moaning in ecstasy. You were frozen in place an listened all the way through it

The audio ended with a raspy voice you knew all too well

“She is busy with me.”

❧ Ken Ryuguji

Your phone was broken.

It did not show you, who tried to call you and called people you never meant to call. That’s why instead of putting it in your pockets, it usually laid somewhere beside you. Like today as you were cooking dinner for your finance who was about to come home from his bike shop very soon

The last days had been a bit stressful, he had a lot to do, couldn’t spend any time with you and you went to meet your ex-boyfriend for coffee, as he himself was about to get married soon

Ken tried to be understanding, but the amount of your time this past fling consumed annoyed him

That’s why he wanted to make up for lost time this evening

He didn’t hesitate when he saw you standing in the kitchen, stirring something in a pan and looking so perfect

On swift move and the giant had placed you on the counter, standing between your spread legs, face buried in your neck

“Well, someone seems eager.”

He wasn’t willing to waste time with your teasing but begun to assault your lips

Heavy breathing filled the room as he cupped your chin with one hand and tried to get rid of your clothes with the other

Your bodies soon met with a pleasurable sensation, moving in synch.

You held on to him like your life depended on it, ankles hooked behind his back

He wasn’t one to moan, but his heavy breathing had something so unexplainable erotic to it, that it made up for the missing foreplay

One couldn’t be without the other and if it wouldn’t have been for the laws of nature, you would have said that your brains your hearts and your pleasure became one

Sweat made the counter slippery, and your voice became raspy as you finally reached your high together

“Well, hello there.” You could literally hear the smirk on his lips as he said this.

“…hello?”

You thought you were hallucination from your post-orgasmic bliss as you heard another voice talking to the both of you. But Ken’s shocked face as he looked towards your phone woke you up

It couldn’t be that your phone called your ex-boyfriend, right?

Right??

❧ Chifuyu Matsuno

It’s not like Chifuyu needs your attention all the time, but he kinda needs it when he wants it you know?

And today he really needed it

He had given the shop into the hands of his partner, Kazutora, to spend some time with you, as a surprise

The thing with surprises was, that they usually came at the worst times

His mood went downwards as he came home and instead of giving him a confused hug, asking him why he was home already, you were on the phone with god knows whom

He thought you’d end the call soon, so he gave you some space, but as you kept laughing 30 minutes after he arrived, he got annoyed, to say the least.

He didn’t mean to listen in on your conversation, but your constant laughter, bickering and smiling made him…curious

It seemed like your former high school sweetheart had called to “remember the good old times”, and although it wasn’t like him at all, he slowly but surely felt anger bubbling inside of him.

You had settled for the couch, and although the other party was on the phone, he felt the need to touch you, so he laid down between your legs, head resting on your stomach

You, of course, noticed the sour mood hanging in the air (not just because he followed you around like a lost puppy while you were phoning this old friend of yours)

So you petted his hair, knowing it would calm him

But the time for appeasement was over, at least for Chifuyu. He knew that you knew that he wanted you to hang up, yet you didn’t

It started as an innocent kiss on your stomach, which you answered with a silent chuckle, shaking your hand to signal him to stop

That he ignored it would be an understatement

Something you realised as he started caressing your intimate part through your clothes

As your friend on the other side was continuing to tell you about his life, your attention was captured by the innocent puppy-dog eyes your boyfriend gave you as he got rid of the annoying layers keeping him from feeling you

He began giving you kitten licks, that literally took your breath away. Good for you, the other man didn’t notice

Chifuyu, that devil, knew what he was doing, keeping eye contact with you while doing the most sinful things to you

It got worse as he took your pearl between his soft lips and started sucking

You had to press your fist on your mouth to keep any sound from spilling

He continued his assault with a steady pace, and you wanted him to stop as much as you wanted him to continue

“Y/n, are you still there?”

You hadn’t noticed that the excited voice on the phone had stopped

Faster than you could react, Chifuyu had snatched your phone away from you.

His breath tickled your now wet parts as he answered

“Something came up just now, and she needs to come. Try again, pal.”

#tokyo revengers #tokyo revengers x reader #tokyo manji gang #tokyo revengers mikey #tokyo manji revengers #draken x reader #ken ryuguji x reader #mikey x reader #sano manjiro x reader #chifuyu x reader #chifuyu matsuno x reader #baji x reader #keisuke baji x reader #tokyo revengers baji #tokyo revengers draken #tokyo revengers chifuyu

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unohanadaydreams · 3 years

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Don’t ask me why I made this, just know that I’m right and this is not just a Headcanon post but real. It’s not me having brain worms haha that would be insane. Honestly I just started thinking about how the hell arc introducing Seireitei approved social media would be such a mistake but god would it be fun to watch.

The Current Captains On Social Media

Shunsui Kyoraku - Failed erotic novel author turned romance/erotic novel reviewer. The fan base for his work is very small compared to his actual following. There is some divide in his followers—those who follow for his life updates and those who want to hear him talk at length about his latest read. Funnily enough, his quick, messy posts usually paired with scenery or a selfie are his most popular writing, often hailed as snippets of his poetic soul. Lots of people want to give him a hug.

Soi Fon - Adamant privacy and safety poster. Took to code and anti-virus technology well, much to Mayuri’s annoyance. Posts tips and tricks that read more like demands. Is known for her bitchy responses when followers @ her with their progress that are eaten up gratefully. Her advice is punctuated by posts admiring athletic women and these women make up the bulk of who she follows. She seems to admire runners and lifters the most. Her threatening posts when people hit on her too hard/with too many notes to back them up are turned into copypastas.

Rose Otoribashi - Has one of the larger followings thanks to his nostalgic visuals as well as his dedication to frequently posting new music. He has a personality that’s easily digestible when viewed through snippets. The fact that his passion is music and his job is news/editing also do him a lot of favors. He loves doing live streams and encourages his followers to perform for & with him.

Isane Kotetsu - Her growth being captured on social media not just as a captain but as a person has given her a fan base that feels extremely protective of her. She’s less known for what content she brings and more for her personality. Any creative content she posts is likely to start trending. Especially her ‘peaceful morning’ videos and reflective writing. She’s one of the more interactive posters, beloved for her encouraging responses.

Shinji Hirako - As a more private person, he doesn’t have much of a following and his most popular posts are candid moments posted by others. Lisa is a large reason people consider him endearing in anyway. Definitely the kind of person who is either considered cringe or cool with little in between. The kind of guy who asks what he should do with his hair and then goes with an option that wasn’t listed.

Byakuya Kuchiki - Has an extremely scheduled and curated presence on any site he’s on, but is nonetheless adored. He used to ask Renji and Akon for advice on how to handle some of the more online behavior (like being @ed by women who photoshop them as their date to events or being asked how many notes a date would cost) but stopped quickly. Turns out saying something is flattering leads to more of that behavior. Any selfie he posts is edited and reposted into oblivion until it’s thousands of people’s pfp.

Tetsuzaemon Iba - Despite him being one of the most well rounded captains personality wise, he gets put onto block lists the most for his dedication to concepts of manliness, which are easy concepts to feed to the social media outrage machine. Women’s Association vs Men’s Association is a popular meme where the former is something sensible and the latter is something ineffective/archaic. That being said, he’s also known as a ‘problematic fav’ and people will often post memes about abandoning their feminism for a few minutes to like his selfies and training videos.

Lisa Yadomaru - Another captain with a large love and hate following. Often picked apart for interacting with porn/hentai accounts, thirsting after women openly, and posting pictures alluding to her sexual escapades. Despite her account being regular food for the outrage machine, she doesn’t seem to care or pay attention to it and is forever horny on Main. She posts a lot of candid photos/videos of her friends. Recommends the best fucked up fiction.

Kensei Muguruma - Of course he does cooking videos, but what really does well are his cooking challenges. He forces his lieutenant, friends, and colleagues to compete with him on making a better dish on a time limit and often with other handicaps. Usually wins. His bloopers get a ton of mileage when he posts them. His merch is constantly sold out. People often dress up as him for Halloween/conventions, usually with foam or blow up arms/abs.

Toshiro Hitsugaya - Another captain with a huge following due to him approaching social media with his tireless work ethic. His ice sculptures are very popular and his pop-up galleries sell out in hours. Is actually a huge fan of ‘cozy’ games and is known for having beautiful towns/farms/ect that showcase his attention to detail. He does events in Minecraft sometimes, where he guides people through building large scale projects (and also feels like he’s making friends but that’s left entirely unsaid). A bit harsh, but beloved.

Kenpachi Zaraki - People question if it’s really his account because it’s so random at times, but he posts videos of him mowing down his subordinates during training so it has to be. The odd content includes engaging with easy recipes & activities for toddlers and increasingly complicated punk hairstyles that he really does try out. He also posts weekly, asking for people to volunteer and fight him. The human world especially loves this and he gets a lot of responses. He tries to set up times to fight them but Nanao threatens to delete his accounts and put him on suspension if he attempts to follow through. He posts a lot of post-battle pictures and humans gobble it up. “Just fought *insert ridiculous thing here*” is a huge meme.

Mayuri Kurotsuchi - He is constantly making new accounts and circumventing bans for posting links to his old lab work, that often involves heinous amounts of gore. Actually does have a following, often from those within his own division, those hoping to be in his division, or humans who see him as edgy and a little bit off his rocker, which they think is cool. He posts pictures of himself whenever he switches up his look. And posts Nemuri a lot with unhinged captains about how she’s going to outpace even the head captain and no one could make someone as special & smart as her. Just comes off as a really passionate dad. Plenty of people are convinced he’s a creepy pasta project ran by a dude with a daughter.

Rukia Kuchiki - Like Isane, she’s really loved for who she is rather than creative content. Even her attempts at being stern and ‘captain-like’ are fawned over. She has a line of children’s books, stickers, and notebooks with her cute drawings. Her most popular set was when her daughter contributed. The human world is convinced Renji is her house husband and her life is generally seen as all around ‘goals’. Her posts are riddled with mistakes and very sporadic; she’s posted accidental live streams while she did paperwork and they went viral. She posts tons of candids of her subordinates and family but they are usually blurry or actually videos.

#bleach imagines #bleach headcanons #shunsui kyoraku #soi fon #rose otoribashi #isane kotetsu #shinji hirako #byakuya kuchiki #tetsuzaemon iba #lisa yadomaru #kensei muguruma #toshiro hitsugaya #kenpachi zaraki #mayuri kurotsuchi #rukia kuchiki #Mayuri having conspiracy videos dedicated to him actually fuels me

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aureallegories · 3 years

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Day 22: Spiders

As promised context for this new au I've decided to call the Venom MK au

(as poorly detailed and self indulgent as it is)

The basics of this au if you couldn't tell from the hype art is spicynoodles and corrupted MK So basically it's the special but if everything went wrong and MK was dating Red Son at the time

(let's also just pretend LBD isn't a problem)

So at some point in between Wukong getting captured and MK making it to the others on the boat one of those spider robots gets to MK, this one is a bit different though instead of latching onto him and making him mindless this one just straight up launches itself at him and stabs him straight in the back. Injecting all of the venom into his system before powering down and exploding. MK has a bit of a struggle for a bit which is understandable after something just impaled you and injected you with mind numbing poison that's now overriding your thoughts. Before ultimately the MK we know kind of sinks away underneath everything so he's in a very much Syntax like situation where rather than mind control he's actually been turned into a spider demon.

After screaming in pain for a bit before succumbing to the effects of the venom, "Venom MK" grabs the staff, which, in his struggle he had attempted to throw away so once he was corrupted he couldn't use it. Obviously it failed though because he mindlessly picks it up and starts pogoing off to go find Spider Queen.

On the other side of things, Red Son has watched DBK get captured and fought of that robot and gotten the venom along with the plan to get some help from MK who Red Son has been secretly dating for a while now and his crew. However, when Red Son finally has his crash landing on the ship he notices the distinct lack of a certain chatty happy go lucky Noodle Boy. This leads to Mei revealing that while he was in that post getting stabbed struggle MK had left her a voicemail. It's literally a recording of him struggling to say that he won't be joining them before the message is cut off by his pained screaming. Realization hits everyone that MK has been infected and while Sandy, Tang, Pigsy, and Mei are all understandably upset Mei is the only one who understands why Red Son looks equally disturbed seeing as she was the only one who knew Red and MK were dating.

Back to MK, the boy ain't doing so hot. After suggesting that the should capture both Red Son and MK Huntsman delivers the dramatic line of "oh don't worry, the monkie kid won't be an issue." Before stepping aside to reveal a very edgy looking MK with eerie glowing green eyes and a dead look on his face. And Spider Queen is very happy with this news and promptly shows off her new subject to Wukong who is very much less than pleased to see his kid turned into an emotionless shell. And purely for tension and angst purposes she reveals to DBK and Monkey King MK and Red's little secret.

Better yet just for the fun of it in front of the two dads who are already confused as to the whole "my kid is dating your kid?" She assigns MK his own personal task. Killing and or capturing Red Son before he can finish the antidote.

Into description Venom MK actually takes a while to develop a personality in this au but when he does dear lord it's Red Son's funeral. See the thing is Venom MK doesn't actually... Remember any of his friends. Like sure he knows who they are, they're his targets who seem to recognize him as their "corrupt friend" so he just plays the part. Mockingly calling Red "Hot Stuff" or babe but he doesn't actually have the emotion towards Red Son or anyone else unless he gets one of those weird flashes that seem to come from that little voice in his head he's been trying desperately to kill off and smother.

There's a lot more to this au I have laid out but this already feels to long so if you want to know anything or have any questions or requests, please I am begging you to ask me something.

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eagle-raider · 3 years

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Directors are really riding the wave of lesbian Gothic drama, I see. Case in point with what is shaping up to be a crossing between Blue is the Warmest Color for the gracious nudity shots and The Handmaiden for the atmospheric ambience, but sadly, it holds none of its clever plot weaving and beautiful photography.

GAY NUNS ARE GAY, also known as Benedetta

Under the cut, because I’m ranting.

It’s been selected for the official competition (not exactly the best lineup of movies, Cannes’s most memorable films, save for a few exceptions, are usually found in the parallel competition: Un Certain Regard) and it’s coming out in July.

Like three out of four lesbian movies that made it to the official competition of Cannes’s Film Festival in the past 8 years (Blue is the Warmest Color, Carol and the Handmaiden), this one is based on a book written by a woman: Immodest Acts: The Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy (oof) by Judith C. Brown.

It tells the real life of Benedetta Carlini, an Italian woman who grew up in a convent and became an Abbess after she started having visions of religious (and sexual) nature. It is the earliest documented trace of female homosexuality in the Western world.

Now, I saw a trailer. I usually avoid them like that plague when they’re more than two minutes long because then, they give everything away. This one was one minute fifty seconds, which entered within my self-imposed limit.

I shouldn’t have done that, because now I feel that I have seen everything: Virginie Efira having gay panic, lots of boob shots and an ‘o’ face under the candlelight. Oh, and there’s something nebulous about a prophecy? I think? I didn’t quite get it with since the editing was intent on shoving boobs and mysterious shots of naked women behind a see-through veil. Oh, and awesome Charlotte Rampling speaking French with her cute accent.

Now, this could be a very interesting movie, it has the potential and the material to be. But when a director feels the need to have a falsely mysterious trailer that is so pretentious that it’s borderline cringe, when a director has so little faith in the quality of his work that he feels the need to grab your attention with the cheapest hook ever (female pleasure seen on camera, oh so very scandalous! Much subversive!) for his trailer to make an impression on you... yeah no.

And you guys, I’m French. I’m not bothered by nudity, I’m that weirdo who went and watched Blue is the Warmest Color at the cinema with a bunch of (girl) friends. Yes, we sat through those seven minutes when other people were storming out. I have mixed feelings about that movie as well, but that’s for another time and a different matter altogether. I will say that though: it did capture the all-consuming and destructive passion of what first love (usually) is. Adèle Exarchopoulos’s performance is genuine, raw and painfully realistic from the beginning to the end. She deserved every accolade and even more.

Nudity and sex in cinema don’t bother me. Violence and abuse do because it’s so engrained in mainstream media now, that nobody even bats an eyelid anymore, especially when it’s directed towards women. We’ve become so desensitized to it and it’s so very dangerous.

But this trailer? I’m just wondering... why? Why all of this? Why so many shallow sequences? We got it, she’s horny and they’re going to have steamy crazy sex in *gasp* a convent. Great. The director, Paul Verheoven, could have conveyed that in so many - and more impactful ways... You know what Park Chan-wook did to show all of this without actually showing any of it in the Handmaiden’s trailer?

He had the actress breathe at the beginning of the trailer. He used the music, the beat of percussion and electronic instruments go crescendo along his editing, like an orgasm. He had close-up shots on their ankles and the curve of their shoulders, and their hands. Hell, the music he used is called Red Sex (by Vessel). Now that’s suggestive, that’s explicit, that’s subversive.

It was so freaking well-executed that the MPAA (the prudes of America) gave it a green rating. A Park Chan-wook movie trailer. The same guy who made Old Boy. There’s only one trailer for the movie, and it’s this one. Foreign movies usually have at least two: the international trailer (usually made for the USA market) and one for the country of origin. This one doesn’t, because it doesn’t need to.

It’s everything that Benedetta’s trailer isn’t. Benedetta’s trailer is a freaking bulldozer that does absolutely nothing, a wet firecracker that tries too hard to be edgy. Why hide your movie under boobs and painfully fake moans?

Damn, I wanted to look forward to it. I so wanted to, but it feels like the director is hoping the nude shots and simulated scissoring will distract the jury long enough for them to give him a prize. Heh.

#take the camera away from Paul Verheoven's skeletic hands #he doesn't understand women #Elle was a fucking disgrace #I wanted to like this movie #I've low-key been crushing on Virginie Efira for more than a decade #so I was like *score she plays a nun who kisses girls YAAAS*#but this trailer left me ._.#Benedetta #benedetta carlini #movie rants #I'm sorry guys #I really really like cinema okay #i nerd a lot #lesbian movie

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enmy-writes · 3 years

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My Rock Star

Request: Anon: hii can i request a zuko x reader fic where the reader is in a famous girl group (like blackpink for example) & the whole gaang is backstage while the reader is getting ready for a performance & its just super fluffy & cute? Thanks!!

Word Count: 2,646

Fandom: ATLA (Avatar: The Last Airbender)

Pairing: Zuko x Fem!Reader

Genre: All fluff. It’s some nice fluff time

Rated: 18+

Content Warnings: swearing, mentions of abuse (not detailed though), suggested themes but nothing bad

****My first request!! Sorry, anon, if I didn’t capture everything you wanted, but I hope it is! I am a sucker for music and bands, and instead of a blackpink approach, I gave the band instruments because I simp for instruments lol I might do a part 2 if this turns out well so lmk! Also, I learned how to make the “keep reading” line show up so that’s exciting yay me. Enjoy :)****

_______________________________________________________________________

It was about two hours before the show was supposed to start and Y/N was doing her normal self-routine before she had to go to her ‘Band-Team-Gang’ (or BTG as her and the girls liked to call it) pre-show rituals.

Y/N was a part of a famous girl group who had just recently started making it big in Ba Sing Se and were on their first huge tour. Normally, this would make any performer nervous of the attention and putting on a big show, but this was the environment that she thrived in.

Suki, Mai, Ty Lee, Azula, Yue, and herself all knew each other from an all-girl’s private school that they grew up in together and bonded immediately over their love for creating music. It was inevitable for them to become a group.

They spent most of their high school days writing songs and joking around in Y/N’s backyard bungalow her parents had gotten her for her twelfth birthday. To this day, they still go back there and do hot (dumb) girl shit.

“Why would we stop? That’s our home, of course we’d still go back there!” Ty Lee answered the interviewer with her signature hair flip and giggle.

Azula rolled her eyes at the girl, hiding a fond smile. “At this point, It’d be weird not to go back to that little corner of hell we made.” Yue smacked her arm quickly, “Azula! Don’t act like you haven’t written most of our top hits in the bean bag we definitely didn’t steal from the school lounge.”

The rest of the girls laughed, remembering how they had to hop the gates and sneak past the night guards to be able to get the bean bag. The plan would’ve been a total waste of time and definitely would have gotten them all expelled if anyone had caught them, but thank Mai’s ability to pick locks (which no one knows where she learned to do but they do not question it).

“Plus,” Suki chimed in. “Y/N’s dad makes the best snacks and meals for us. It’d be a federal crime to not take up that offer for as long as we can.”

Needless to say, the six girls were so comfortable with each other that every performance was just like every group practice with, like, thousands of extra guests of honor. They even have a couch lounge area as part of their stage set props. It just makes sense.

Even though those were her best friends ever, sisters even, Y/N had another friend group that she was super close with. Azula had introduced Y/N to her brother, Zuko, back when they were in their sophomore year of high school and the two instantly clicked. It had only taken a year of being friends and hiding crushes for them to get together, and the two were still going strong. Through him, Y/N met a gang of (crazy) people that he had spent his whole public schooling years.

Aang, an enthusiastic and bald, vegan kid who loved life and enjoyed everything around him; Katara, his pre-med and feminist girlfriend; Sokka, her hilarious and amazingly smart brother (though, sometimes his ideas are questionable); and Toph, a blind and tough girl who is on her way to ruin the top 1%. With Zuko, they were the tightest and happiest little family that automatically accepted Y/N when Zuko brought her over one night.

She was there when he went through a pyromaniac phase, his varying hair styles, and when he tried to get his father’s love back.Ozai, their father, was the owner and CEO of a massive weapons corporation. He had burned Zuko’s face on a hot stove and kicked him out of the house for suggesting that he raise the wage of all his employees to a comfortable living wage because many of his employees struggled to provide for their families even though they worked their asses off. Thankfully, his kind Uncle Iroh instantly picked the boy up off of the streets, letting him live with him and run his successful tea shop called the Jasmine Dragon.

Azula had been shoved away by her father mostly for sexist reasons. Ozai would never pass his company down to his daughter, no matter how smart and dedicated she was. He threw her in the private school where she lived year round. She had never told Y/N or any of the other girl’s any of this, Y/N had found out through Zuko.

Y/N’s mother was a successful lawyer and her father was a district attorney who were very very passionate about bringing justice to those of racial discrimination, domestic abuse, abuse in general, and orphan rights. Her mother was an orphan who was plain lucky to get adopted by a loving old couple who used their life savings to get her the education and life she deserved while her father was a victim of domestic abuse.

So, after months of convincing Zuko, Y/N told her parents about the two siblings. Long story short, they got Ozai arrested for his abuse crimes, bribery history, employee mistreatment, and many more crimes. They also adopted Azula herself and gave full custody of Zuko to his uncle.

Since then, the world has been peaceful for the group. Azula has started to recover from her trauma with the help of her friends, therapy, and love from two caring adults; and Zuko was glowing year round in the company of his uncle and friends.

A smile forms on her face, thinking of her large family and all they’ve gone through to get here, when the door to her personal backstage room opened up. The loud voices from Aang and Sokka met her ears next.

“I LOVE YOU SO MUCH YOU REMEMBERED THE HAM SANDWICHES WITH NO CRUST.” A kiss to her cheek and Sokka is instantly at her snack table.

“Y/N! How’d you know I was going to bring Appa and Momo?!” Aang walked his huge, white dog and lemur (don’t ask how he has it. It might be illegal, but no one can tell him no) to the pet bed corner she had put in.

Not answering them, Y/N just smiles at her friends who barged in and turns back to her mirror where she’s trying to decide her earring combination for the day. Warm arms snake their way around her waist, a body sliding up against her back soon after.

“What’s your ideas for tonight?” Zuko’s voice speaks quietly into her ear, causing her to hum and lean back against his chest slightly.

“I’m not sure. We’re going for the edgy look tonight, but we all know Ty Lee is still going to wear pink. Man, our manager is going to kill her...again.” They both laugh. “Ugh, why did you let me pierce my ears, like, ten times. There’s too many combinations to choose from!”

“Me?! I did-- never mind. Just grab a handful, no one can see them from the stage anyways.” Despite his attempt to seem like he doesn’t care, one of his ring-clad fingers starts moving his favorite pieces over into a little pile by themselves. Y/N rolls her eyes and starts putting his choices in random holes in her ear, pushing him back lightly so she can bend over closer to the mirror to see better.

“It’s the fit Zu… if the fit is a vibe, the confidence is there. If the confidence is there, nothing can stop my hot girl shit.” Her words cause him to let a huff of jealousy, flicking her arm playfully.

Their eyes meet in the mirror, and he can clearly see the mischief in them. Calming down, he jokes back. “Yeah, well, you may do your ‘hot girl shit,’ but no one can steal you from me. We’ve been here too long.”

Toph cuts in from across the room with a loud laugh. “Please, fire brains, I could steal Y/N if I tried.”

He whips around to face the short girl, “No you could not!!”

“Actually, she makes a point.” Katara says, nodding along in hopes to pick fun at the boy.

Sokka adds his two cents. “Honestly. Toph would just have to pick Y/N up and slam her against the wall or something and she’d tell her manager to send you a letter of resignation.”

The whole group laughs, save for the angsty boy, and Y/N wraps her hand around his wrist. She pulls him towards her and reaches for a peck on the cheek. “While that may be true,” she gets a glare. “I’m too big of a simp for you… and Uncle Iroh’s dinner and game nights.”

While the rest of them laugh, Zuko’s eyes soften and he presses his lips to hers in a short, soft kiss. Uncle Iroh adores his girlfriend and everything she has done for Zuko and Azula where he had no power to do anything. The man calls her more than he does Zuko himself, and he’s pretty sure Y/N convinced him to download Words With Friends on his phone to play with her for when she can’t make it to the weekly game night dates.

Y/N smiles up at him and pats his cheeks lovingly before moving to the wardrobe area of her room. She pulls out ‘Cards Against Humanity’ from a duffle bag on the floor before joining the rest of her friends around the lounge area, patting the seat beside her for Zuko to join them.

Everyone cheers at the sight of the black and white box with the many expansion packs that they have collected over the years. While Katara deals, everyone else makes bets on who is going to win this time. Y/N slides back into Zuko’s side as his arm comes to rest around her shoulders, playing with the ends of her H/L hair.

It’s about fifty minutes before the show is starting, and Y/N knows she has to start getting dressed and ready for the concert. Sighing, she slips from her boyfriend’s grasp (a small whine coming from him) and moves to her dressing corner. Suki, Ty Lee, Mai, Azula, and Yue had made their way to the room shortly after they started due to Sokka texting his girlfriend (Suki) to come over and join.

The rest of the girls notice you get up and leave as well, much to everyone else’s dismay. You reassure them to keep playing a few more rounds, not wanting to ruin their fun with you putting clothes on. Y/N quickly shoves her outfit choice on which is very hot, black, and riddled with chains. To top it off, she had thick-heeled combat boots on with numerous buckles on them. Her hair, makeup, and accessories have already been done so she heads back to the group.

‘Cards Against Humanity’ has been packed up neatly and her friends are lounging around, getting last minute snacks and quality time before they go to their special seats right in front of the stage. Nothing but the best for her friends. Sokka and Katara are the first people to see her, and the former lets out his own wolf whistle in his own way to hype Y/N up.

“DAMN, my best friend is HOT AS HELL. Zuko, you lucky ass man.” Katara hits him, but shoots her a wink as the rest of the gang look over. Y/N laughs giddily through their praises and hyped words (Toph in good spirit rather than actually seeing her outfit), as she makes her way back to her spot on the couch.

Zuko, who hadn’t been able to take his eyes off her yet, quickly grabs her bare waist and tugs her onto his lap to hold her tight. “So… this is what you meant by ‘hot girl shit.’” Letting out a loud laugh, Y/N turns her head and gives him a quick kiss. “I’m a rock star, baby, what can I say.”

Aang cheers out of nowhere. “Yes! I’ve always wanted to be a groupie!” More laughter and jokes ring throughout the room, keeping the atmosphere as light as always,

A knock at the door interrupts them. A man is standing there in all black with a headset on and a sleek, red (with little sparkles that only gleam in the light), electric guitar carefully caressed in his hands. While they are a girl group, their success has mainly come from being a girl group who also plays all their instruments. With Mai on the drums, Ty Lee on the keyboard, Azula and Y/N on electric guitars, Yue on the acoustic guitar, Suki on the bass; the band is truly a sight with all of them sharing the vocals and their enthusiastic (near crackhead) energy that give their crowd a good show.

“Miss L/N? This is your five minute warning.” He tells them, not bothered by the usual group of people who are constantly in these rooms with her.

“Thanks Lee!” Y/N hops up to get her pride and joy (her child as Suki and Mai like to joke about). “I’ll be right out.”

Knowing these are the last pre-game minutes, everyone starts getting up to leave the room as well. Zuko lingers by Y/N who’s busy making sure her instrument is tuned perfectly for the numbers she’s about to perform.

“I can feel you staring, Zu,” She smiles, still looking down at her strings. He huffs out a laugh, reaching out to push a piece of hair back to see her face.

“Good luck out there, my rock star. Don’t do too much hot girl shit.”

“Oh, I’m doing all the hot girl shit.” A glare. “I’m kidding! I’m kidding… unless…?” She laughs at his fed up face. Reaching up, she presses one last, lingering kiss to his lips, enjoying the feeling of his fingers clutching her sides firmly and the feeling of his heart beat under her palm that’s resting on his chest.

“Bye, love. I’ll see you after the show.” She whispers, sealing the promise with a kiss before moving back. “Alright kids! Get the hell out of my dressing room.” Y/N shouts at her friends and they all leave together, laughing away.

The rest of them wish her luck before moving away, Sokka sprinting to find Suki one last time. Zuko holds onto her free hand, watching her laugh at ‘Simp Sokka’ with his small smile on his face. He kisses her hand, pulling her attention back to him.

“Bye, rock star. I’ll see you after the show. Break a leg, yeah?” His cliche words make her laugh more, pulling away from him and towards the rest of her band who are chanting “BTG! BTG!”.

“Zu… I don’t break legs. I break hearts.” And with one last mischievous look, she mouths ‘hot girl shit’ and struts away in that way that makes Zuko want to make her cancel the show completely.

His phone buzzes a few minutes after he caught up with his friends in their special closed off section on the floor. He opens the notification and it sends him to Instagram where Y/N had tagged him in a post. The smile grows on his face with every second he takes in the post.

Katara must’ve taken the picture. The angle, lighting, and quality could only be done by her. Y/N was on his lap, dressed to go on stage. Zuko’s mouth was almost touching her ear, definitely when he was whispering to her, and her face was wide in a smirk. They looked good, perfect even. The caption is what made him laugh, warmth and pride that she is his spreading through his chest.

“Y/N_L/N: for him? I’m always on my hot girl shit”

#zuko #zuko imagine #zuko x reader #avatar zuko #atla x reader #atla #fanfic #Avatar The Last Airbender #atla fanfic #alta x reader #atla x you #zuko x you #zuko x y/n #x reader #enmy-writes atla

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thattimdrakeguy · 2 years

Text

The Suicide Squad by James Gunn is such a good movie.

Like my ONLY real complaint, and this isn’t even something I say would take the rating of the movie down, ‘cause this isn’t important in the slightest, is just that they killed off my favorite member of the original team from the first movie.

That had me so upset the first time I watched it. I actually cried out their name like I watched my best friend die in the street. And repeated their name every time I remembered what they did to them.

But all my favorite members of the new team lived, so there’s also that. I mean i loved them all, but if I had to make a list, the ones at the top are the ones that made it even if you don’t think so at first.

I think I laughed at almost every single joke in the movie and went “OH SHIT” a million times when stuff got action-y and super violent. I haven’t had such a big reaction while watching a movie in ages. It was a great time even if it was just on DVD at my home.

Seeing my childhood hero John Cena hack and slash and be a bro-y douche bag was so constantly off-putting, but I kind of loved it.

It’s visually fantastic as well. Which really caught me by surprise since I was under the impression that besides a few scenes it was mostly going to be sort of typical. But nah, it’s a great looking movie, props to the cinematographer.

Harley, this is my favorite Harley Quinn in any of her movies so far. Like a while back I talked about why I didn’t like Birds of Prey, since I didn’t think they did any of the characters justice and they didn’t really use Harley as well as I thought they should have.

But in this she’s funny, silly, serious, demented, and shows her damaged psyche in a surprisingly poignant way that I felt really captured the character as she was meant to be. And it has her best freaking costume out of all of them too, but sadly she only wears her costume for a little bit. I hope it comes back or at least something close. It’s like a cooler more practical version of her Arkham City gear. Which I didn’t even really care for in the game, but for the movie they make it work so much better by making it more practical and bad ass looking.

The delivery of nearly every line feels like it was said just the way it should be said, which is a rare feat.

It also has so many surprises that make the story better rather than break it apart and reduce everything to crap. Because they simply made it work for the story. That made it so much fun, because you never had a clue what was going to happen, without feeling ripped off.

Sebastian captured my heart.

It to me, is thee BEST DCEU movie they’ve made so far. Strong characters, fun story, tightly written, fantastic character dynamics, clever, surprising, and super funny even if in a dark way a lot of the time.

Honestly it’s what they advertised the first movie as except without the dark and edgy scene kid style.

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kayywinchester · 4 years

Text

This Life

Jack Kline x Reader

Word Count: 1,768

Warnings: fluff, heavy kissing. That’s pretty much it.

Also on AO3

The cool ground beneath you soothed your skin. The stifling, humid air around you wasn’t cooling off nearly fast enough. Even now, at just after midnight, there was a thin layer of sweat down your chest as across your brow.

But, the slight discomfort was very much worth it. The stars were so visible from the hunter’s safe house that Jody had asked Dean to meet her at earlier in the day. And now, you were stuck there for the night.

Southeastern Kentucky was nothing like the bright lights you had lived under for most of your life. The Los Angeles skies were riddled with light pollution, and you rarely had any luck finding a quiet place to relax anywhere in that city. The red clay dirt and tree-lined mountains that surrounded you were oddly calming and incredibly beautiful.

And, the best thing was, Jack loved looking at the stars just as much as you did. Sam had given him a book about astronomy a few months back, so Jack took advantage of every opportunity to show off his newly acquired knowledge.

“And up there, that’s Venus,” he whispered beside you, his light golden locks resting gently on his hand. “It has the slowest rotation of any planet we know about, and takes about two thirds of an Earth year to rotate just once. Oh, and its days are longer than its years!” You turned towards him just in time to catch the sweet grin across his lips. You found the information interesting but found it hard to focus.

But, that’s how it usually went when you were around Jack.

You turned back to the sky but didn’t ask another question. You just laid there and enjoyed one of the few moments you had alone with the handsome young Nephilim.

Jack let out a deep sigh and turned his head towards you. “Y/N, if you could be anything, what would you be?”

You chuckled and turned to him. “You mean, for a living? Besides being a hunter?” Jack nodded. “Huh, I never really thought about it.”

“Why not?” he asked innocently. You shrugged.

“I don’t know. I mean, I studied Anthropology in college, but that was only because my dad urged me to.” You stretched an arm above you for a moment, then turned yourself a little bit more towards Jack.

“He urged you to go to college, even though he trained you to be a hunter?” Jack questioned, tilting his head ever so slightly.

“Yep. It was all part of the plan. You learn a lot of useful information in Anthropology classes, even if it’s only described as ‘folklore’.” Jack slowly nodded, but you were confident he was still a little confused. But, it didn’t matter. You didn’t want to talk about school. Those weren’t exactly the years you reminisced about as you drifted off to sleep each night.

“But, to answer your question, I’d probably work with animals. Like, as a vet or something,” you explained, enjoying the hint of a daydream that clouded your mind.

“You like animals? Did you have pets as a kid?” Boy, he was full of questions, wasn’t he?

“I had a dog, a terrier thing that my dad adopted from the pound when I was in seventh grade. We named her Sugar, and we had her for ten years or so. She went on hunts with my dad every once in a while, but usually stayed home with me and mom.” You cleared your throat. “But, that was it. I really like cats, but never had the chance to own one.”

Jack nodded, still smiling. “I like animals too. Cats are a little hard to read, but I’ve met a few that have walked up to me when I go on walks. I really like old dogs. I feel like they have amazing stories that they can never tell us.” You giggled as you unknowingly scooted a little closer to Jack.

“What about you, Jack? What would you want to do with your life? If you could choose?” Jack pursed his lips and furrowed his brow, then smiled yet again.

“I would like to explore space,” Jack answered innocently.

“As an astronaut? Like, actually going up into space?” Jack nodded.

“I’d also love to help discover new planets and stars. Maybe they would name one after me!” you laughed, making Jack laugh a little.

“I think that would be a great idea, Jack.” You turned back up to the sky, rolling back onto your back. “That sounds really cool.”

“Yeah, but I like this life better,” Jack rebutted. You turned your face back to him.

“Oh yeah? And why is that?” Jack was quiet for a moment.

“Well, because I met you in this life. And I don’t want to live a life without you in it.” Your heart nearly jumped out of your chest at his words. Sure, you had only known Jack for a little while, and like Dean, believed he was evil at first. But now, he felt just like a peer, like a hunter in training, eager to learn.

And, above all else, he was a friend.

You stared up at the sky in a state of shock. “Um, wow, I don’t know what to say to that, Jack.”

“You don’t agree?” You shot back to him.

“What? No! I mean, of course I agree! I just didn’t think you felt that strongly about me.” You let out a long, deep sigh.

“What do you mean? Of course, I do! You’re my friend. And I’m really happy when I’m around you. I want to spend time with you, like all the time. And I’m sad when you’re hurt or when you’re not around,” Jack rambled. He rolled completely onto his side and smiled over to you. “I always have the urge to be near you, like sitting next to you or hugging you.” That last sentence almost made your stomach leap into your throat.

“You—really?” You pursed your lips, then turned onto your side to face Jack.

“Yeah. And, um—” Jack swallowed hard. “I’ve also thought about kissing you.” That was it, your heart was going to burst through your chest. There was no question.

“K-Kiss me? Wow.”

Jack’s eyes suddenly widened. “Is that not okay?”

You shot up onto your left arm and shook your head violently. “No! I mean, yes! Jack, that’s totally fine. I just, I didn’t know you felt the same way.” You paused for a moment, watching the sweet smile return to his face.

“The same way? You want to kiss me too?” You simply nodded, fighting the urge to giggle. You felt like you had a middle school crush again.

“Yeah, Jack. I have for a while.”

Jack inched forward a little. “Do you mind if I kiss you now?” he whispered. His gaze flicked down to your lips. You grinned and nodded.

“Go ahead.”

Jack blinked, then leaned in, stopping just short of your face. A shuttered breath escaped him before he closed the gap between you, pressing his lips firmly against yours. At first, his movements were awkward, applying a little too much pressure. But, he quickly captured your lip between his teeth, unleashing a completely different side of him.

Jack pulled away abruptly, panting a little. You stared at him with wide eyes and huffed.

“Where the hell did you learn that?” you breathed in shock. Jack’s cheeks reddened and he turned away.

“I watch a lot of romance movies. I like to pretend it’s you and me.” You couldn’t help but giggle at how cheesy he sounded, but it didn’t matter. You loved the softness and hint of edginess that was radiating from him.

“That’s… adorable.” You reached out and took his hand in yours. Jack blushed and quickly looked away again. You tried to follow his gaze but squeezed his hand instead. “Would you like to kiss me again?” His eyes snapped back to you.

“Yes,” he breathed just as he leaned in, without hesitation this time.

Jack’s movements were a little frantic, but you didn’t mind taking the reins. Jack pulled his hand from yours, smoothing it up your arm, shoulder, neck. The moment his hands snaked up into your hair, you leaned back, pulling him down with you. He quickly found his way on top of you, hovering over you as he slowed down, softening his touches.

You both stayed like that for what felt like an hour. But, the sound of footsteps on the dirt behind you quickly ripped the two of you apart.

“Oh, I wondered where you two went. Watching the stars, huh?” Dean chuckled mockingly. “I can see you’re very interested in the stars.”

“Oh, shut it, Dean,” you hissed, lifting yourself from the ground. You patted the dust off you and turned towards the older Winchester.

“We were watching the stars most of the time,” Jack defended innocently.

“Oh, I bet you were seeing all sorts of stars,” Dean teased as he turned to walk away. “Glad you two are alive. Goodnight,” he saluted, heading back for the small cabin. You rolled your eyes then turned back to Jack.

“He really knows how to spoil a special moment.” You ran your fingers through your hair and waited for Jack to dust himself off. His hair stuck up in a few places, making you smile.

“Yeah, but we’ll have another chance to do that, right?” Jack met your gaze. You nodded.

“Oh yeah, I think I can make that work.” You shot him a wink, then held out your hand. “C’mon. Let’s get to sleep. I’m sure it’s well into the morning right now.” Jack took your hand.

“Are we all going to fit into the cabin?” Jack asked, suddenly concerned.

“We’re gonna have to. I have a sleeping bag, and I found another one for you. Sam and Dean claimed the rooms, since there’s only one twin bed in each room. The couch is open too, but it’s a loveseat, so it’s a little bit small. Cas said he’s just going to hang out in one of the chairs. So, we have the luxury of sleeping on the floor in the main room.” You led Jack up the front steps of the tiny cabin and reached for the door.

“That doesn’t sound too bad. As long as you’re there too.” His sweetness made your stomach flutter.

“Oh, I’m here. You can’t get rid of me that easily.” Jack stared at you in confusion. You huffed a laugh, then leaned over, pressing a kiss onto his cheek.

#jack kline #jack kline x reader #jack x reader #jack kline and reader #jack kline fluff #jack kline x reader fluff #jack kline reader insert #dean winchester #supernatural fanfiction

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tiefling-queer · 3 years

Note

For D&D character ask, for any and/or all of your characters;

1, 5, 8, 15, 23, 29, 64, 65, 69(Nice)

i’m gonna answer these for whichever characters have the most interesting answers, skipping some for repeats:

1. why did they choose their class(es)? their subclass(es)?

kip (wizard, school of necromancy): crisis of faith midway through grave cleric training, spurred on by him sucking at the whole cleric thing (9 wisdom babyyy) while also being a nerd (18 int babyyyy)

baylock (shadow sorcerer/rogue): the sorcerer part is a side effect from being born dead during a cataclysmic event that tore portions of the material plane asunder. the rogue part is because he got in with a bad crowd as a kid. he’s been gaining levels in sorcerer as he traverses the freaky magic wasteland, utilizes his magic more, and gets a little closer to death each time someone hits his squishy arcane caster frame too hard

izak (gunslinger, graveslinger): sometimes you’re a jaded teen-equivalent runaway bumming around the river kingdoms and some dude comes up to you and is like ‘im a neutral evil mercenary, but if you take this gun and learn to shoot, i can also be your dad’. and then later you’re a 20-something equivalent who just realized that you don’t actually want to be an evil mercenary so you run away again and this time some dude comes up to you and is like ‘i’m a priest of sarenrae and an exorcist, and if you believe you can be redeemed, i can also be your dad.’ and then you learn how to shoot ghosts so you can be useful while this guy teaches you about being a better person.

5. do they follow a higher power? what are their thoughts on divinity?

izak: (deep lore dump) izak’s family was, at one point, pious people, and it was some ancestor’s warped perception of what piousness is and what was worth sacrificing in the name of good that led to the entire mess that is izak’s face. izak’s a devout worshiper of sarenrae now and hopes to maybe be the assistance someone needs to put themselves on a better path the way brak was for him, but there’s still a part of him that believes that, because he’s a tiefling, he’s never going to really be saved, and that his soul will eventually belong to the asura it was promised to.

8. what are three songs that suit them?

sydel: buckets of blood by rufus rex (tw for self harm, link goes to spotify because i can’t find this track on its own on youtube), thank god that i’m not you by himalayas, and bruises by fox stevenson (full playlist here)

15. do they trust their party? why or why not?

kip: he trusts them with his life, he just doesn’t trust them to understand where he’s coming from. he’s hiding some really heretical opinions that he knows at least maya (the celestial warlock) won’t agree with. he doesn’t like to talk about his family trauma, his past, or anything that he thinks the party can use to cleverly deduce that the notes he’s been scribbling are about raising the dead and theoretical conduits, prices, and replacements for the soul (he’s a little paranoid and might be giving them more credit than they deserve)

baylock: baylock might trust morgran, but he doesn’t trust surina at all, not since she and the (presumed deceased) swashbuckler tried to use him as a scapegoat when they were being interrogated by evil government warlocks. and even then, he only trusts morgran to not leave him for dead. baylock’s a fiercely loyal person by nature, so he’s been trying to keep his party at arms length so he won’t be betrayed again. the closest he came to starting to trust them was right before he found out that they told the evil government warlock that they’d turn him in in exchange for their freedom when they were captured a while back (whether or not they actually intended to do so is irrelevant for baylock - he spent 5 years in prison after being his old thieve’s guild’s fall guy, he’s not about to let it happen again)

23. how do they feel about nicknames, titles, or labels that have been given to them? how do they feel about their name?

kip: kip’s given name is joffric ravenhall. he’s been going by the alias of ‘greenbough’ on the offchance that people have heard of his family or knew his father at some point, since he really doesn’t want to explain why he’s not a priest of the raven queen by now. ‘kip’, however, is what his family and friends call him, so it was a bit of a big deal to him when he told the party to call him kip, since he hadn’t been around anyone he considered family or friend in a few years. kip’s reeling a little bit over suddenly being called an ‘adverturer type’ - to him, he’s still just a transient weirdo who picks up odd jobs.

baylock: baylock craft’s name isn’t actually baylock craft (not yet anyway lol), he stole his late cellmate’s identity to take advantage of the jailbreak that came a few days too late. his name, ekleipsis caldor, isn’t exactly something he identifies with so much as what he was once called. his father never wanted him but got stuck with him when his mother bounced, so ‘caldor’ is more a formality than anything. ‘ekleipsis’ is the greek root of ‘eclipse’, for the eclipse he was born during - but moreso, ‘ekleipsis’ doesn’t mean ‘to be covered’ - it means ‘a disappearance or abandonment’. an event where the sun abandons the sky. baylock is a walking abandonment issue. he hasn’t taken a virtue name because he thinks it’s performative (which is where him officially taking the name ‘baylock craft’ as his name and not the identity of someone he’s pretending to be comes in - it’s the equivalent of naming himself for the virtue of rebellion without naming himself something stupid and embarrassing like ‘rebel’.)

izak: izak just got done being haunted by a ghost wizard who’s obsessed with names, probably because he’s had 4. izak was born dalethiel oakleaf back when he was an elf, but when he ran away after waking up as a tiefling he went by dally. then he was a mercenary for a while and his edgy mercenary name was viper. and then, when asked for his name by the cleric of sarenrae who rescued him in the wilderness, he said he didn’t have one worth giving, so the cleric told him he’d just call him izak then. that’s who izak is now, as far as he’s concerned, or at least who he wants to be. as he told the ghost wizard who tried to torment him with his birth name, that’s not his name anymore. dalethiel oakleaf was a young elf who died on his 50th birthday. izak’s got a perfectly good name, given to him by a kind man, and he doesn’t want to think about the time in his life he went by dally or viper.

karif: karif always introduces himself formally with his full name, in the family-given-familiar name pattern - ‘ixenvari karifgethisk fraurirthos, er, but you can just call me karif.’ this is because karif’s nickname, fraurirthos, the one his childhood friends and family call him, translates from draconic literally to ‘breathes secrets’. his nickname is snitch. he’s a little embarrassed about it. but ‘karifgethisk’ is a bit of a mouthful for those who don’t speak draconic, so shortening it to ‘karif’ suits fine.

29. who would they save? who would they be saved by?

this has been a tough one, i’m not sure how to answer it for anyone.

64. do they value mercy or justice more?

kip: this honestly depends on his mood and your definitions of both ‘mercy’ and ‘justice’. he’s very easily led away by his emotions - both pity and compassion that could sway him to lean more towards mercy, and rage that tends to harden his heart and clear his head. he’s more than down to torture someone if he deems them evil, and he’ll destroy creatures like aberrations, fiends, and undead without a second thought, but he views life as a very precious thing - even when torturing an evil demon-summoning spellcaster, he still was trying to find ways out that resulted in that spellcaster getting out alive. this has come back to bite the party in the ass, since it was kip’s insistance that the party not kill all the guards on their little anarchy stunt that got them blackmailed to infiltrate the evil army of darkness, which is something he most certainly DOES NOT want to do.

65. what is holding them back?

kip: kip’s hang-ups about the soul and how he was raised are holding him back from becoming a stronger necromancer, while his grief and refusal to accept mortality hold him back from possibly still being some flavor of raven queen follower.

baylock: baylock’s hesitance and confusion over what he wants are holding him back from either fully embracing the rebellion or ditching it to get vengence

izak: izak’s self-loathing and fear of himself hold him back from interacting with people and forming meaningful relationships outside of the handful of people who’ve found out he’s a tiefling.

69 (nice): how would they describe their party members?

kip:

maya is... complicated. kip admires her pragmatism and her faith - it reminds him of his older sister, and he’s been missing that rock in his life. however, he butts heads with her a lot, because he finds her cold duty-bound outlook to be pointlessly cruel.

meera is wicked smart and talented, if a little misguided at times. he’s very big brother protective of her, always trying to offer her his dagger because ‘it’s a nice dagger’ (it’s +1)

amity is a good kid, and smarter than some may give him credit for. he’s fun to be around, and usually a level-headed presence, which makes it even more surprising just how ok he is with killing.

baylock:

morgran is an asshole, but is also probably the only person in the group who believes in this whole rebellion thing, so that counts for something. he’s decent people, can probably be trusted to see a mission through and not do anything completely stupid, but since he’s decent people he’s probably going to insist on staying on this path of lunacy with delusions of ‘taking down the Summit’. also, morgran shouldn’t be allowed to talk to anyone they meet, because he’s an asshole, and doesn’t bother pretending to be personable like baylock does.

surina is insane. she’s deranged, like everyone who tries to live outside the sanctums is. also just racist at times. when their cover gets blown or when they get mixed up with people they should be talking down, she’s gonna be the reason they all get killed.

porthos is was an idiot and a liability and just proved him right by running off and doing something rash and probably getting himself killed and also maybe compromising the whole rebellion which baylock doesn’t care about, so why does he feel like he should have done more to stop Porthos’ demise?

#really excited about these questions! thanks anon!#emo poetry #ask games #Anonymous #sorry this one took longer than the others #ask game from 3 billion years ago

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butchez · 3 years

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heres my thoughts on aa5

Introduction

Firstly, this post contains heavy spoilers for AA5 (and AA4 because I can’t help talking about that game JSDGHSDJ). I talk about culprits, I talk about backstories, I talk about major plot twists. If you’re planning on playing this game spoiler-free, don’t read this. If you haven’t decided whether or not you want to play this game, I would advise against it- the gameplay is insanely boring and the story is told in a way that’s about as compelling as a wiki page. In fact, just read the wiki if you’re interested! This game isn’t worth playing, and it’s definitely not worth paying for if you have no way of pirating it.

I also want to add that these are ultimately my own opinions and interpretations. If you liked something that I didn’t or vice versa, that’s like fine. I’m not really trying to call anybody wrong for their own interpretations by typing this. This also isn’t a callout post for AA5! I’m just a hater!

And fair warning, this post isn’t well-organized at all! I’d rather play through AA6 and make a better post about both the 3DS mainline games than put a lot of effort into a post about just one of them. The like Correct Grammar appearance is just to make it easier for me to read because it’s a lot sdjhgfdhksf. In this post I try to organize my complaints by the order of when they come up in the game, which is a little complicated when multiple things I wanna complain about are happening at the same time, so bear with me.

Episode 1

I’ll start with the easiest complaint: it looks bad. Not JUST in the sense that it has an ugly artstyle, but in the sense that it just doesn’t feel like a real Ace Attorney game. Whenever they try to recreate a sprite from the past games, it looks fake if not impossibly ugly, and whenever they try to do their own thing, it just looks generic and empty. Note that this applies to the music and voices just as much as it applies to the sprites! I don’t think it’s just because the sprites went from 2D to 3D, by the way. The Professor Layton crossover came out a couple months before AA5 did, and although the 3D sprites in that game aren’t perfect, they still feel more like Ace Attorney sprites than anything from this game IMO. Honestly, though, AA5’s appearance is super low on my list of problems with this game. It’s an issue that could easily be fixed without changing the content of the game itself- something you can’t say for the deeper problems.

The beginning of the actual game is very jarring. One of the first things you see is Apollo covered in bandages and wearing a weird blue jacket over his shoulders. While you’re still confused about that, he collapses in front of you. While Athena is going through the first trial, she gets stuck and starts having flashbacks of her as a little girl being scared and covered in blood. In the middle of the trial, Apollo gets ATTACKED and sent to the hospital. Most shockingly of all, a woman has a huge crush on Apollo? It’s shock after shock, question after question, and the game doesn’t give you any answers until it’s almost over. I can’t tell if this is the game’s way of trying to capture the player’s attention or if it’s the game trying to make the cases tie into each other, like many notably good games in the series do, while completely misunderstanding how connecting cases works. Either way, it makes for bad storytelling.

Aside from all the weird shock value shit going on, this trial still has a lot of issues. The player starts out as Athena, taking over the trial for Apollo because he’s too busy falling over and being edgy. Because Athena doesn’t have a co-counsel, the Judge and the prosecutor (a Payne) have to play the role of Tutorial for the player. The player’s opponent who they’re supposed to hate (and who hates the protagonist!) is helping them just because that’s what the gameplay requires at that point. It’s stupid and could’ve been easily fixed by having a more experienced lawyer be Athena’s co-counsel, like Phoenix. Just to name an example. Who knows, though, maybe the game just like forgot he exists like mistakes happen it’s- nope Athena gets stuck like 10 minutes into the trial and Phoenix has to come Save This Poor Damsel by taking over the tutorial case entirely.

On top of Athena getting booted from leading her own fucken case (that she did take from Apollo yeah but whatever it was girlboss at the time), she takes the role of Tutorial for the player (who is now Phoenix). This is marginally better than having your actual opponent be the tutorial, but not by much? Athena is literally an 18yo rookie lawyer. Not that she’s incompetent, but why exactly is she teaching Phoenix how to be a lawyer when he’s like twice her age and has years of experience?* Wouldn’t it have made more sense for Phoenix to be the co-counsel instead? The only reason I can possibly think of as to why the writers chose to write this the way they did is that they wanted to establish as quickly as possible that “hey the REAL main character is back in his normal protagonist spot we promise he’s normal now. please buy game.” This effort to appeal to trilogy fans at all costs does come back later, so keep it in mind.

*Note: I imagine some people excuse this because Phoenix had been disbarred for seven years, so it’s not crazy to imagine that he’s just rusty and needs refreshers. However. Those who played AA4 should remember that although Phoenix hasn’t been an official defense attorney for seven years, he’s perfectly able to lead several discussions during the trial in the first episode (he even takes the role of co-counsel in the second half of this trial, because AA4 is a good game). Additionally, he literally organizes a murder trial to test out an experimental trial system that HE helped design. Badge or not, he’s obviously still involved with the legal world before the events of AA5- no need for basic refreshers.

There’s one small part of this case that I believe acts as a sign of a much clearer and bigger problem with AA5. A piece of evidence for this trial is a bomb disguised as a mascot for a group of people critical of the court system. While discussing the defendant’s motive, the game asserts that because the defendant has had bad experiences with the legal system, she must be critical of it (she really isn’t, fyi) which must mean that she’s a literal bomber and murderer. The second half of that assumption is never really questioned, by the way! Literally all six of the games that came before this one were openly critical of the court system. Why is this game suddenly changing it up so quickly? I will admit that at this point I am maybe looking a little too deeply into one thing, but this does become a major theme in the game, so I think it’s worth bringing up.

Another bigger issue with this game that we can see early on- a basic piece of advice for writing stories is “show, don’t tell.” This game crumples that advice up and throws it out the window right off the bat. I could point out every single time that this game just tells you something and prays that you take it at face value instead of actually thinking about the content of the story. That would take ages though and I have other things I wanna write 6k words about, so I’ll only be mentioning the most notable examples. Onto the actual point: the game flat out tells you that Athena represses her feelings from the start. Several characters make clear remarks about it that go nowhere. These lines seem to solely exist to convince you that Athena is a super interesting character without the game having to actually write Athena as a super interesting character (I say “seem to” because these lines end up having a much more stupid purpose, but we’ll get to that in the next episode). Let’s compare and contrast this with AA4 my beloved AA4- with Trucy, in particular. Trucy, like Athena, is a female character with a troubled childhood who puts on a cheery facade so that others don’t worry about her. This character trait of Trucy’s is made clear in AA4- not by having Apollo or Phoenix nonchalantly observe and remark on it, but by dropping hints every now and then of it and ultimately only Really revealing it during the finale case. The player feels for Trucy and wants her to open up and grow for her own sake. Athena’s internal struggles, on the other hand, aren’t designed for the audience to really think about. They’re just a passing observation that later becomes an excuse for plot holes and eventually becomes a part of the game’s shitty ending. Let’s put that aside for now, though, because we still need to wrap this case up.

The case ends with a cutscene where Apollo suddenly takes a leave of absence, and Athena later internally literally asks “Why is Apollo shutting us out? :(“ This exemplifies TWO points that I already brought up. Firstly, this game is presenting something shocking out of nowhere and without explanation. Secondly, this game is TELLING the player what they should be wondering, instead of just writing a story that makes them wonder that question on their own. Also, Trucy literally doesn’t say anything as Apollo leaves in front of her but it’s not like she has any attachment to Apollo or any already established abandonment issues or like any personality at all /s /s /s /attack /kill

Episode 2

The culprit isn’t actually introduced until a lot later in the episode, but he’s in the opening cutscene and comes with a glaring issue so I’m bringing it up first: this character is written with a lot of offensive undertones? To summarize, the killer is a big man obsessed with wearing makeup and perfume, and he constantly gets called a freak for this by the main characters. I don’t remember him ever being referred to as a woman by himself or others, so I’m reluctant to call it transmisogyny (I’m TME, so it’s not my place to say anyways). I’m not really sure what else to call it, though, other than like disgustingly bigoted. Unlike the other stuff I talk about in this post, this issue does come up in previous games, specifically AA3 with Jean Armstrong. So this isn’t really an issue that AA5 created so much as it revived. It’s still shitty!- I’m just not trying to argue that the other games are better on this front. Lastly, transphobic undertones do come into play again in Episode 3, and I think the writing in this case should definitely be considered while analyzing the next one.

I want to introduce this next complaint by bringing up something I actually enjoyed! Jinxie Tenma is one of 2.1 characters from this game that I found myself liking despite everything. Although she does fall into the dead parent(s) trope that the series is addicted to, the trope actually serves a purpose for her character beyond just making the player feel sad- it’s used to further develop Jinxie’s relationship with her surviving parent. Jinxie definitely isn’t one of the more well-written characters in the series, but for a one-off character in a game as bad as this? Jinxie is surprisingly decent! Congrats 👏👏👏👏👏 I still have my complaints to get to, though. Jinxie is introduced in Apollo’s one (1) actual conversation with Trucy throughout the entire game. Trucy introduces Jinxie as a close friend of hers, but they hardly interact at all. This character’s introduction itself exposes multiple major flaws of AA5 (that have already come up!): Trucy’s character is ignored in favor of using her as a plot device, and this game only tells the player about the characters instead of actually writing them. This game tells the player that Trucy and Jinxie are best friends, and the player is left with a choice: take the game’s word and have a fun time imagining how good these things (that aren’t actually in the game) are, or refuse the game’s word until you see actual content supporting it and have an awful time thinking about how good these things that aren’t actually in the game could’ve been.

Let’s talk about another character introduced in this episode: Simon Blackquill! Athena and Simon have a dynamic that’s clearly meant to parallel the dynamic between Phoenix and Edgeworth. Athena’s entire motivation to become a defense attorney is to ~save Simon~ from a false conviction for murder. This motivation isn’t fully revealed until the last episode of the game, much like Phoenix’s motivations. Unlike Phoenix’s motivations, though, it makes no sense for the game to keep this motivation from the player’s knowledge for such a long time. In AA1, Phoenix is largely motivated by Edgeworth, but he doesn’t actually know what’s wrong with Edgeworth or why he changed so drastically. All Phoenix knows is that Edgeworth has changed, and that’s enough for him to want to seek Edgeworth out- if not to save him, at least to find some answers. Phoenix is left just about as in the dark as the player; the only information he withholds is about the class trial from ages ago. Athena, on the other hand, literally knows exactly what happened to Simon. Athena’s motivations couldn’t be clearer to herself- but the game doesn’t want them to be clear to the player yet! So the game takes Athena’s “repression” (you know, the thing the game conveniently told you about in the last episode) and uses it as a way to cover the story’s plot holes. Athena doesn’t mention or even think about her strongest motivations even when she’s in front of the person she wants to save because “she’s just THAT repressed!” This game constantly withholds important information from the player for no reason other than that it’s just what their narrative happens to need at the time. It’s just lazy writing.

My last remark about this case is something that’s been an issue for the entire game so far: it’s hardly a game at all. The gameplay of Ace Attorney largely revolves around having the player use logic and their own thoughts to point out contradictions, uncover new testimony, and investigate crime scenes. When players would rather focus on the story and avoid the gameplay, they usually use a walkthrough that gives them directions in a straightforward way- no racking your brain trying to find any faults in some testimony, no wandering around crime scenes praying that new dialogue appears, just a good story. This way of playing the game is perfectly fine! The story is honestly the stronger part of most of the games, and people not bothering with the gameplay is their own choice. They’re still able to enjoy the game through the story, and isn’t that the purpose of games? To be enjoyed?

I’ll get to my point: this game is extremely hard to actually play. It’s easy to read, it’s easy to press the right buttons, but to actually use your own logic and thoughts? Borderline impossible. When the game doesn’t give away the answer right after asking, it’s because it gave the answer away before asking. The “hints” the game gives you are so obvious and numerous that the only way you could have a chance of figuring anything out for yourself is if you never pay attention to the dialogue. I will say- this was nearly an improvement. You can tell the people who made this game wanted it to be more accessible to people who didn’t care as much about the gameplay. A mechanic of sorts is introduced in this game that acts as a to-do list for investigations, so that the player doesn’t end up wandering around for an hour because they forgot to present a piece of evidence or talk to a certain witness or whatever. Additionally, if a player is struggling to find holes in a testimony, the game offers a helpful nudge to the player that drastically narrows down their possible moves without giving away any answers. Both of these mechanics are entirely optional, too! While the game does let you know that these mechanics exist in fairly natural ways, it never actually makes the player look at them more than once. These mechanics allow for players to focus more on the story if they want, while theoretically still providing them with a challenging mystery to solve. As we already know, though, these mechanics are completely useless because the game forcibly gives you the answers anyways. The protagonist you play as almost always announces where to go next in the investigations and what evidence to use in the trials. While I was still at this point in the game, I kind of just passed it off as the earlier cases going easier on the player to warm them up. The game never stops giving you the answers, though. This is a problem that persists throughout the whole game. When I started this game, I already knew I wasn’t going to enjoy the story, but I figured that at the very least I would be able to enjoy playing new cases and solving new mysteries! So, in a way, this boring gameplay was almost more disappointing than the dogshit story itself.

Episode 3

This episode contains a lot of firsts for the game. For one, this is the first full case that Athena leads! It’s also the last episode where the player even plays as Athena! This is also the first case that doesn’t show you the culprit in the opening cutscene. What the game does instead is immediately introduce a Big Scary Man with an unreasonably creepy smile and Corrupt Ways. Side note: literally every culprit in this game is a big/rude/otherwise intimidating man. This is the first game in the series to not have a single female culprit! I don’t think it’s actually that big of an issue, but it’s still overly predictable and underwhelming.

I might as well talk about the culprit’s ~corrupt ways~ now, even though it only gets worse. The culprit is a professor at a legal academy whose main philosophy is “the ends justify the means.” The player knows that this is his main philosophy because he repeats this exact phrase fucking 50 times in every scene he appears in, and the player knows that this is a Corrupt philosophy because every single time he mentions it a main character says something like “wow... this is truly the Dark Age of the Law...” (which, by the way, is another phrase that gets grossly overused in the game despite meaning virtually nothing). The closest the game gets to forming any actual political commentary is when this professor says he encourages his students to use false evidence to “win” trials (as opposed to the other professor in the case who discourages this), and the game tells you that this (among exactly two other things) is the source of the “dark age of the law.” The source isn’t corruption or a broken system, it’s one teacher’s bad grade policy. The game never really challenges the player’s beliefs or teaches them anything- it just flat out tells you the moral it’s trying to get across and expects you to already agree. And this problem with the writing only gets way worse in the next case!

I mentioned early in the Episode 2 section that this episode contains some transphobic undertones. To Summarize: Robin Newman is a character introduced as a guy obsessed with masculinity who later gets proven in court to be a girl because she likes wearing “girly clothes.” While everybody is still under the impression that Robin is a guy that just “screams testosterone” (actual fucking line in the game btw), they treat the fact that he wore feminine clothes as embarrassing and weird. Robin ultimately proves that she’s a girl by taking off a bracer that was flattening her chest (yes, this game does the thing where a character’s “true gender” is revealed by awkwardly emphasizing specific body parts, it’s uncomfortable as hell) and revealing that she was raised as a boy by her parents despite really being a girl.

I’ve seen some people try to argue that the writers intended for Robin to be trans, but as much as I want to believe it I just don’t think it’s the case. Robin doesn’t identify as a man at all- she expresses nothing but relief upon being proven to be a woman and says that she hated having to act like a man- so she’s definitely not a trans man. Although there isn’t exactly textual evidence against Robin being a trans woman, the game (and series) has already established what it thinks of trans women and AMAB people who don’t perform masculinity correctly, and it’s not good! Robin is treated with nothing but respect after her reveal, and (unfortunately!) I just don’t believe that this game would afford her that respect if they intended for her to be a trans woman. I want to add that it’s really not unheard of for cis authors to write stories where a cis character is forcibly raised as the opposite gender (YTTD does this, for example) so it’s not hard to believe that this is what the authors were doing for Robin. Lastly, I want to make it clear that I’m not trying to argue against trans headcanons for Robin. If I cared about Robin, I’d headcanon her as trans myself- it’s hard not to. All I’m trying to argue is that we shouldn’t give the writers any credit for writing a trans character because they don’t deserve that credit after writing such a cisnormative gender-role-addicted shit game.

Anyways, this case ends with Athena getting stuck at the end and needing somebody to come Save This Poor Damsel AGAIN. It’s definitely less shoehorned in than the first time it happened, but it’s still just annoying that it keeps happening.

Episode 4 & 5

You might be wondering why I put Episode 4 and 5 together. I did this because they’re the same fucking story split into two parts because ????? I don’t KNOW. There’s so many baffling writing decisions in this game like . this might as well be happening. who care. By the way, if my frustration seems to show more in this part of the post, it’s because this part of the game is just. such a mess.

The case opens right before the trial (that’s right, no investigation) with Apollo and the most forgettable defendant in the game being sad about Clay’s death. Do we know who Clay is? Do we know anything about the defendant? Or the case at all? Nope! The entire set-up for this episode is in one conversation where Apollo and some guy tell the player that Clay was a good guy and that it’s sad that he was killed. Once again, this game is telling you things instead of showing you, and it’s even doing that incredibly poorly! This game makes it borderline impossible to care about Clay, while also making it borderline impossible to care about the episode if the player doesn’t care about Clay. Scenes that are meant to be depressing are boring, scenes that are meant to be uplifting are confusing, and scenes that are meant to be deep are just frustrating. The fact that this episode opens right into the trial without any preceding investigation is fucking insane to me. Not only is it completely unprecedented for a multi-day trial, but a pre-murder investigation could’ve done wonders for developing Clay and the defendant! I can’t wrap my head around this shit! It’s not even lazy writing at this point- there’s no writing at all!!

Remember earlier when I said that I liked 2.1 characters in this game? Clay is .1 of those characters- no thanks to anything in the game! Despite being such a focal point in these episodes, Clay is hardly a character at all. He has like three lines total in a short flashback, and his only “character” traits are 1) Good Guy and 2) Dead Mom. Remember how the dead mom trope actually managed to serve a reasonable purpose in Jinxie’s character? All the dead mom trope does for Clay is give a reason for him and Apollo to be friends, because apparently there’s just nothing else that could’ve connected them together. It’s just sad backstory for sad backstory’s sake. I really can’t even point out anything well-written with Clay, embarrassingly enough! The only reasons I like him are because he has a nice design and a connection to a character I liked in a previous game. This game SUCKS

Speaking of sad backstory, by the way, they literally give Apollo’s CATCHPHRASE a sad backstory. Apollo apparently says his “I’m fine” thing because he and his now dead bestie used to say it together to cope with like not having parents. It’s stupid and unnecessary and I hate it basically.

Anyways Episode 4 ends with Athena being accused of killing Clay and becoming the defendant. Because this game was in need of more Damsel in Distress Athena. This accusation comes about because the detective in this game, Bobby Fulbright (who I haven’t mentioned up until now because he’s so fucken unremarkable), finds a piece of evidence with Athena’s fingerprints in the victim’s blood. For the majority of the rest of the game, this is the only piece of evidence that the player is given against Athena. However, multiple convincing pieces of evidence against Athena already exist in the story at this point. Athena and Apollo are even fully aware of this evidence before Episode 4 even starts, but the game withholds these from the player until much later. The game does this because it doesn’t want you to actually suspect Athena- not for even a moment! They want it to seem like it would be completely insane to even think about doubting Athena, and they do this by depicting Apollo as ~blinded by grief~ and irrational for daring to suspect his co-worker. Apollo, of all characters! Apollo, the character that had to prove his literal boss guilty of murder. TWICE. This game wants you to think it would be crazy for Apollo to do something that he literally justifiably did in the game that came directly before this one!

This brings us to the final character in this game that I liked: Aura Blackquill. Basically, her thing is that she’s mean and evil but she does it out of love for her brother. If there was any nuance in this game, Aura could’ve been like, a really good character. Sadly, though, she’s just not given much depth, and this game stumbles over its own themes too much for Aura to really challenge any of it. Also, fun fact! Aura was initially conceptualized as a character that would “seduce” Apollo to the Dark Side. This didn’t quite make it into the game, but it’s official information that exists and it makes me want to eat glass.

Aura is still used to show how ~warped~ Apollo is becoming when they’re both shown bonding (platonically, thank god) over their dead besties and investigating Clay’s murder without the Wright gang. It’s been made obvious to the player at this point in the game that Aura has an irrational hatred of Athena, too. By associating Apollo with this character, the game is further depicting Apollo’s doubts as comparable to irrational hatred. It’s frustrating to me because it could’ve been really interesting for the game to set up legitimate tension between two protagonists and take both sides seriously, forcing the player to question their own beliefs and the characters that they themselves played as! Instead, the game refuses to let the player take Apollo seriously and just assumes the player couldn’t possibly want an actual reason to believe in Athena’s innocence beyond “only Scary Rude Men are murderers and Athena’s just a sensitive innocent damsel <3” Not only is this writing throwing away a lot of potential, it’s shooting itself in the foot by not letting the game make any fucking sense!

The rest of this episode is honestly so bad that there’s really no way to neatly summarize its issues in a few paragraphs, so I’m going to walk you through the story beat by beat for a bit. In Episode 5 (which starts after Athena becomes the defendant), Phoenix is the protagonist. Athena is too busy being accused of murder, and Apollo is too busy being edgy, so who’s left for co-counsel? Trucy is the only character left at the Wright Anything Agency, so the game is forced to include her in the story. Finally. She joins Phoenix right before the scene with Apollo and Aura, and then . she leaves . right after that scene. So Phoenix is once again left without a co-counsel, and it doesn’t seem like there’s any characters left to fill that role... But Wait! Who Is That At The Door! Why, It’s Pearl! From The Ace Attorney Trilogy! Thank the fucken stars /s

Pearl is my favorite trilogy character. I really could go on and on about how badly AA5 fucked up with this (they didn’t change a thing about Pearl’s appearance or character despite her being twice as old as before) but at the end of the day it’s just more of this game doing a bad job at sucking the trilogy’s dick.

So, Phoenix and Pearl head back to where Trucy disappeared only to find out that she’s been kidnapped. Remember in AA4 when the game pretended that Trucy got kidnapped, only to reveal about a minute later that it was just a trick Trucy pulled to buy Apollo some time. Because the AA4 writers knew it would be fucking ridiculous for the series to pull that plot twist again out of nowhere. Look at how far we’ve come since then. Anyways. The kidnapper’s one demand is that Phoenix reinvestigates and holds a trial for a past case that Just So Happens to be connected to the current case. Pretty much every finale case in the series involves taking a look at an unsolved past case, but they usually give the player an actual reason to be interested in or care about said case. The only reason that this game can think of to get you to focus on this past case is Trucy’s life being in danger. The motivations and plot twists are so shoehorned in that it’s hard to give a shit about it.

So the kidnapper wants a trial, but who’s prosecuting? The main prosecutor, Simon, is the one that the past case declared guilty, and nobody gives a shit about Klavier, so it doesn’t seem like there’s any characters left that could fill that role... But Wait! Who Is That At The Door! Why, It’s Edgeworth! From The Ace Attorney Trilogy! I’m So Mad! Unlike Pearl, the game does change Edgeworth up quite a bit. He’s even wearing glasses now, to show that time has passed :~) His character changed too! Remember how, after the events of Turnabout Goodbyes, Edgeworth was all about investigating the truth and protecting innocent people from false accusations and struggling against his role as a prosecutor, literally getting his badge taken away at one point because he couldn’t bring himself to let an amnesiac teenager get taken advantage of and be accused of a murder she clearly didn’t do? Well. He’s changed . :~)

On top of removing any struggle Edgeworth had with his job, AA5 actually makes Edgeworth the chief prosecutor. I would be more upset with this writing decision if it wasn’t obviously just there to cover up plot holes. For example, why is Simon, a convicted murderer, being allowed to prosecute so many cases? Don’t worry about it, Edgeworth gave him Special Permission 👍 Also, why did Phoenix get his badge back so quickly? Don’t worry about it, Edgeworth used his Influences to get it back easily 👍

So, once the trial starts, Edgeworth takes advantage of a teenager’s amnesia to accuse her of a murder she clearly didn’t do. :~)

(Brief aside, this trial takes place in a courtroom that was bombed and is crumbling to pieces. The game literally has a character tell you “This courtroom is symbolic of The Dark Age Of The Law” like fucking VERBATIM. I couldn’t make this shit up if I wanted to.)

Obviously, Phoenix is eventually able to prove Athena’s innocence of the past murder. At this point in the case, Edgeworth tells the player about the meaning of a trial. The defense attorney is meant to do whatever they can to defend their client, while the prosecution is meant to do whatever they can to prove the defendant guilty. It’s through this adversarial system that the truth is most efficiently uncovered. I cannot stress this enough: the game is trying to argue that this is the way trials should work. It’s completely antithetical to all the games that came before it! Edgeworth and Klavier were both considered to be two of the few good people that were prosecutors because they were both bad at being prosecutors. They’re good people because they don’t let the goal of their job (to get the defendant declared guilty) get in the way of their personal goals (to uncover the truth even if it involves directly helping the defense). AA5 completely stumbles over the series’ past themes and characterizations to reach the conclusion that “Bad Trial Systems Don’t Result In False Convictions, Bad People Do!” AA5 tries to convince the player that the status quo is just fine. They don’t even keep what little reforms they made to the court system in AA4- that jurist system isn’t even mentioned in this game.

You might be wondering, though. If the game never really questions its own court system, then what was all the fuss about the “Dark Age of the Law”? Well. The game outright tells you that the “dark age of the law” started with Phoenix’s disbarment and Simon’s conviction. Before that the law was Just Fine 👍 and now that Phoenix has his badge back and Simon’s been proven innocent, the law is Just Fine once again 👍 . I don’t feel the need to explain why the court system was clearly not fine in the trilogy, or why corruption and imbalance of power didn’t explode in the courtrooms over two (2) fucking cases. This game’s attempts at political themes are a fucking joke at best.

Back to the trial- we’ve been able to prove that Athena and Simon are innocent of the past murder, but who WAS the culprit? And what about the current case with Clay? It’s only at this point in the story that the player FINALLY learns about all the evidence against Athena in the trial for Clay’s murder- far too late for the player to be able to take it seriously. It’s also at this point where Apollo reveals that he doesn’t really suspect Athena, he was just doubting her because he trusts her so much :) isn’t that so sweet. Seriously, Apollo is the character with the BIGGEST justification to doubt someone he works with and the game not only treats it like a completely irrational idea but tells you that it was fake the entire time! What the fuck!

After a really long battle in court, it’s revealed that Bobby Fulbright (remember him?) was behind the current case AND the past case, AND that he’s an international shapeshifting superspy with literally (like literally literally) no actual character. This is never foreshadowed or hinted at through the entire game! It’s pulled out of fucking nowhere because this game just needed one more Shocking plot twist. It’s stupid and meaningless and he gets caught because he sucks at blowing up rocks and Athena has a cool earring.

One remark about the ending: when Trucy gets released from being kidnapped, about two characters go “wow Trucy I’m glad you’re safe :)” and Trucy goes “I’m just fine ^_^ I even did magic tricks for the other hostages” because magic tricks are the only character trait that Trucy is allowed to have in this game. The kidnapping is completely brushed off like it wasn’t important in the first place because guess what? It WASN’T important. It was just a stupid plot device to get the story going where it needed to in a shocking way, like everything else in this stupid game.

Final Thoughts

My review of the game is that it suck left nut. Like I said earlier, just read the wiki if you’re interested in it, because the game won’t offer you a better experience. Its gameplay is boring, the characters are disappointingly flat, the story is empty, the plot twists are just there to shock the player and cover up plot holes, and it completely tramples on what makes the past games so good. A lot of people say to play this game for Athena and Simon, but IMO all they really do for the majority of the game is serve as an example of just how bad this game is. AA5 isn’t worth playing!

I rate this game 7.2/7.5 Imagine Party Babyz.

#jude talks #aa lb #long post #<- jic the readmore doesnt work #lmk if theres any weird formatting btw i had to like redo everything from google docs #ALSO tw for transphobia bc this game has that

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polandspringz · 3 years

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Can you tell us something about the villain turned side character and your protagonist:0

First, thank you for sending an ask! I've been wanting to share stuff from my original work for so long, but there's a lot of context since the story is so big so for context to these characters I'll give a very brief overview. (If someone wants a more detailed version I'll give it!)

It's a fantasy story set mainly in the kingdom/country of Ruyzex that was founded only within the last thirty years or so, and the stories those who witnessed it's liberation say that it was led by one man who lead the "war campaign" but negotiated without anyone having to fight a single battle. This man was supposedly blessed with magical abilities and many of the people who knew he view him as God, but one day he became a nomad and abandoned everyone, including his son, who always resented him. As such, people believe a fight between the son is to blame for their "God's" departure.

The story ACTUALLY follows three women who are "amnesiac heroes", who wake up with no memory beyond the horrible conditions they are found in as victims of trafficking, before they are rescued. Each of these women have magical powers like the God who left, and while they do not know how to use them, many people believe that they are their God returned or at least can be turned into him or replace him... or be brainwashed into replacing someone else who was lost.

My protagonist is a young woman named Dreil Ruyzex, who not knowing her own name took the name of her "home" (the town and country she was rescued in). She wakes up with her first memory being bloodshed, finding her kidnappers murdered beyond recognition around her and is terrified. She is rescued by a mysterious man who brings her to someone named Seio, who is the son of the governor of the southern most city, and lives in a house for people who were rescued and displaced and brought to Ruyzex through trafficking. While gaining her bearings there and becoming close with the other victims, Dreil awakens her powers due to several stressful events, and she is terrified, because she realizes that she had been the one to transform into a blind rage and eviscerate her captors, but she also has the power to heal people. Dreil doesn't particularly want to use her powers because she's scared of losing it and hurting everyone she loves, and Seio tells her to keep it a secret anyway, lest the people who come and visit the town discover her powers and suspect she is "like Ruy". However, Dreil ends up having to use them and learn how to use them when the city gets raided by people who kill two of the children she was living with and kidnap one of her new friends, Mierre. Seio and the other characters want to get Mierre back, and while they've traced the possible route she was taken, they also decide it's time to confront the Queen on this matter to crackdown on the traffickers who should have been outlawed back when the kingdom was established. Dreil forces them to bring her along, insisting she would be useful as a healer, and as they journey from the south to the northern point of the country, she has to battle bandits, cults, actual demons, and eventually soldiers from the castle as she learns the history of the land she has found herself in and joins resistance efforts to uncover the corruption within the mysterious capital.

Again, I'm being VERY VERY brief and vague because there's so much so apologies if it sounds cliche/not super interesting right now. Dreil as a protagonist starts off as an amnesiac but very quickly she does remember things, like her homeland, but the place she is from is actually such a mysterious region itself. Because of her appearance, she has similar features to the God who left, Ruy, which adds to the fanatic people in the city wanting to try and "shape" her into a new Ruy, or viewing her as a gift sent by him to them. One of the original ideas that shaped this story was when I was in middle school I was reading a lot of dystopian fiction (although this isn't a dystopian society really, although we are fighting the government at one point it's not how you think, they're not the "evil" in the story), and I thought about what if there was a story where the main girl didn't really want to go on the journey that she was being called to, since normally in dystopian works something big happens or is lost and the protagonist is all "I must instantly seek my revenge." This idea has been changed quite a bit in my work, but when Dreil lives peacefully in the city for a complete year before the raid happens, and during that time she helps rescue two children from traffickers in a neighboring town- waking up one day and sensing the gaze of someone staring at her from miles away. Although they're not much younger than her (Dreil is around 19-20, the "children" are actually teenagers) they help each other heal and develop a life together.

This goes into how characters changed and have been shaped across many years of working on this story actually. Many of my characters started off as villains or had more secretive goals and beyond Dreil originally were more gray than pure good. Seio is the deuteragonist and his goal is to rescue Mierre, but Dreil doesn't have a goal. The people she would rescue are dead, so what should she do? And now everyone she knows in the house she has lived in are leaving on a journey, and leaving her behind. In early versions of the story, the children did live and were captured, and Seio wanted Dreil to come along on the journey by telling her things like "maybe we can find them!" and not really tricking her but he was sort of working with the main enemy in needing her to come with him to the capital, therefore he tried to use the children as persuasion. In the more recent drafts of the story, Seio leaves Dreil behind, and due to him being distracted and angry at what has happened to his home he does not help much when Dreil is grieving. However, a conversation with someone else convinces Dreil to run after them and force them to take her along on the journey, citing she wants not necessarily revenge on those who took from her, but wants to help end the pain the traffickers have caused once and for all (and she doesn't want to be alone).

Now if I'm going to talk about my "villain turned side character" I have to get into the whole angels and demons thing I brushed over earlier, HAHA.

It does seem very "edgy middle school OC" to have angels and demons in a story, but I grew up reading a lot of Christian fantasy stories so this is where my writing stems from. Although I don't view my story as falling into this category, I've taken a lot of influence from them and the things I wish they did in those stories. For example, one of the things that always annoyed me was the Jesus-figure in those stories was always the obvious "King" who was a mysterious man who appeared like right before the big battle where you knew he was gonna die in the fight and then come back to life because he's the Jesus metaphor and that's it. He's never a main character or one with any real depth or character, so I wanted to change that. Hence, there's a WHOLE CAN OF WORMS surrounding what I can get into about my decisions when creating Ruy, but we're not here to talk about him right now, were here to talk about one of his friends, an angel named Orielle.

In original versions of the story, Dreil and Seio and her friends had to journey to the capital of the country and rescue their friend who had been taken and battle their way through several people at the ruins of the castle. Orielle was this figure who appeared every time there was a turn in their journey, taunting them, leaving them clues to get to the castle. He appeared in the fires of the raid, he appeared in the woods and challenged Dreil to a fight where she would have to use her murderous, uncontrollable power, he stood at the top of the castle before the final battle and revealed three "weapons" he had been making, several characters who were like Dreil in that they were blessed with powers but had been kidnapped and shaped into fighting for the wrong side. Orielle existed because I needed a villain and was still working things out. He was older originally, more middle aged and spoke in a booming deep voice and always looked down with his eyes narrowed as if passing judgement. But then as time went on I created more characters and the plot points filled themselves out (there was more than just the ending battle thought up) Orielle wasn't really needed anymore because a new villain had replaced him, but to be honest I still liked his name, so I just changed who he was.

Besides Ruy, who is the "God" figure in the story and his powers are for certain established to be from some higher power that he might well be (he's also an amnesiac hero as well, when you learn about him), and Dreil and the other two protagonists, whose powers are also from the same "good" source as Ruy (but for all intents and purposes we won't say it's "heavenly" or "celestial" in it's source), there are angels and demons. Angels are different than Ruy and Dreil, and Ruy and Dreil were people who when they were created their bodies always had power within them. They have one soul, and it is the one that is able to wield their power. Angels however are created more like vessels. There were certain people in the world who were made so their bodies could withstand the use of power beyond human means, so when on one fateful chaotic day (around 14 years before the start of the story, called "the Fall of Smokeflake") the souls or spirits of the angels descended and joined with the souls of their vessels, thus now these people had angelic power they could wield, and knowledge of the mission they must do, and knowledge of the past, present, and future. They do not have access to ALL of this information, as the souls are not fully one but they act as one when talking, although sometimes in the story there are points where a character must note that the "human" or the "angel" is speaking to them more and that might be unreliable. The angels know that if their vessels knew too much it would break them, especially if the future involves a massive battle where everyone is slaughtered at the end of the journey.

So, BACK TO ORIELLE. He has become an angel, really an archangel, and appears in the story mainly through the journals left behind by Ruy, which contain the history of Ruyzex and Dreil reads along her journey to understand her own power and the mysterious man that is like her. Orielle is Ruy's guidance, as he descends early in his true spiritual form to save his God from a landslide, but Ruy rejects him and sends him away because he doesn't understand what is going on. Orielle later becomes Ruy's only ally when Ruy is locked underground for three years and Orielle stays there, still not connected with his human vessel (because his vessel was not born yet), keeping Ruy alive and sane by putting him in a stasis-like sleep and giving him dreams and memories of the war that angels and demons fought, helping to clear up his confusion and his purpose in the human world, and who Ruy is going to meet. Years later, during the main story, Orielle is in the body of his vessel, a prince born to the kingdom to the north, Meltiux, who is campaigning for his right to the throne as it is a country of matriarchs, and for some reason the two princesses of Meltiux have been missing/no one remembers them...? Orielle is met at various points throughout the main story as he is visiting in Ruyzex and the Empire of Ker, Ruyzex's neighbor to the west, not only trying to build up his diplomatic relations and make himself "worthy" of the throne but also trying to meet up with the heroes and help them along the way. Of the seven angels, he is one of three who have actually met Ruy personally, which makes him very high ranking amongst the other angels hidden throughout the world, and because he was beside Ruy for every step of the journey and the war campaign, he is the leader in the absence of their real leader.

So, that's all I'll say for now! I apologize for the length, it was kind of impossible to explain my protagonist without going into the story somewhat. And I didn't want to just be like "she's nice, she's courageous" because I don't really view my characters in traits like that? I've just been so focused on their place in the plot that their characterization is so synonymous with the story for me that I can't really separate them, lol. Thank you for the ask! I'm willing to go into more detail in follow up posts about anything since there are WAY WAY more characters than even mentioned here.

#my ocs #bgwr #ask poland #writing #my writing

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sourbkg · 4 years

Text

ｓｉｘ

ｆｉｃｎａｖｉｇａｔｉｏｎ

ｗｏｒｄｃｏｕｎｔ: １６１７

ｗａｒｎｉｎｇｓ: ｎｏｎｅ

You wake up the next morning with a slight headache, no doubt from staying up so late entertaining your new friends while also helping take care of two wild kids. And to think, you didn’t even touch a drop of alcohol. You can only imagine how the others feel. You stretch from your bed, rubbing your forehead and deciding it was now or never. There were still things to do, boxes to unpack, a kid to take care of.

Maneuvering out of your bed took more effort than you thought, but you managed. One glance into Kiro’s room told you he was gonna be asleep for a few hours more, and with that in mind, you began the quest of organizing kitchen utensils and miscellaneous boxes. Setting up framed pictures of you and Kiro, paintings you grabbed from your old house- overall changing the barren walls before you, making it lively and lived it. Making it your own.

You finished unpacking everything in the kitchen and broke down the boxes, carrying them out of the house and to the road so the garbage trucks could take them. Curiosity caused you to glance towards your neighbors house, wondering if everyone had stayed the night or if Jirou and Sero made due on their promises of taking their drunk friends home. Two bikes and a jeep remained in the driveway, and upon further inspection, you could see the red hair of your friend laying in a bush.

Just as you were about to go over and check on him, the door swung open. A scowling Bakugou stepped out, followed by Sero, who was rubbing his forehead. They don’t take immediate notice of you, instead walking to their friend who hadn’t moved an inch. Bakugou nudges Kirishima with his foot, and you can hear the groan he lets out from where you stand.

“Morning, (y/n).” Sero says with a wave, taking your attention from the red head (who’s sitting up and looking extremely confused).

“It’s 2 in the afternoon,” You say, but wave back anyways, “what happened to taking Kirishima and Mina home?”

Sero rubs the back of his neck sheepishly, “Things got outta hand after you left-”

Bakugou scoffs, offering Kirishima a hand and hoisting him up from the ground, “Kirishima dared him to take five shots of fireball and it went downhill from there.”

With the brief explanation out of the way, the three wave you off and you head back into your own home while the boys go back to Bakugou’s. You can only laugh at their strange dynamic.

--------

Weeks turn into months and you’re settling in just fine. Your job has you working the perfect hours and the daycare is always Kiro’s favorite topic, getting ready in the mornings going without a hitch since he’s actually excited to go. You even frequently see the people you’ve become friends with, the Bakusquad, as Kirishima calls it.

They ride motorcycles and act all big and bad, but you know the truth. Deep down, they’re all softies. Even Bakugou, though he’d kill you if you ever said it to his face. Before you know it, you’re being invited to a movie night, this being hosted at Mina and Kirishima’s apartment. It’s not horribly far, and Mina throws in the suggestion of maybe you and Bakugou riding together.

“To save gas!” She explains, “and ‘cause I know Bakugou’s gonna want to drink, but won't if he has to drive. It’ll be a win-win!”

“What if I want to drink?” You argue, but the look she gives tells you she knows you wouldn’t touch the alcohol with a five-foot pole. You falter, “I don’t even think he likes me enough to want to sit in the same car as me.”

Another look she gives has you doubting yourself again, and you completely crumble, “Fine! But I’m not gonna suggest it to him.”

“No worries, babe,” Mina grins, whipping out her phone, “I got you.”

“Just don’t say anything weird-” you groan.

--------

The movie day rolls around all too quickly, Jirou told you there was a theme. That being “junk food”. You’re almost certain they picked it to not be shown up by Bakugou’s cooking again. You decided to bring chips and dip, not having enough time to prepare something decently better. Just as you finish getting Kiro dressed, there’s a knock at your door. Your brother, elated as ever to meet whatever stranger could be behind it, rushes over the second you’re done helping tie his shoe.

You end up having to follow behind him, unlocking the door with a laugh when it’s thrown open to reveal Bakugou. Red eyes rake over your form, and you’re suddenly self conscious of the plain tee and jeans you wear- nothing you own could compete with what adorns Bakugou’s figure. Dark jeans, dark jacket, dark shirt- as edgy as it may be, he pulls it off. A chain looping from his belt only adds to the aesthetic.

“You guys almost ready?” He asks, stepping into the house with a 12 pack. You nod.

“Yeah, let me just grab our snacks and we can head out-”

Despite the proclamation, Bakugou’s grabbing the grocery bag from your hands the second you confirm it has everything you need. You give him a look, but he shakes his head.

“I can carry these since you’re driving.”

His explanation is simple, and with a nod of your head, the two boys are following you out the door. You unlock your car so Bakugou can put the snacks down and Kiro can climb into his carseat while you lock your front door. When you turn towards the car, you’re pleasantly surprised to see Bakugou buckling Kiro in, drinks and snacks left to the side on the ground. He catches your eye when he finishes, and averts his gaze almost immediately.

“We gonna leave or what?” He asks, moving to the otherside of the car to place the things in the backseat. You climb into the driverside, and wait for Bakugou to get settled before you put the car in reverse and pull out of the driveway.

The cars quiet, save for Kiro singing a song from some TV show he likes a lot and the occasional direction from Bakugou.

“You’re really good with kids.” You find yourself saying after a few minutes, eyes flitting to the side momentarily before they’re back on the road.

Bakugou grunts, “That a surprise?”

“Only a little.” You can’t help but tease. He doesn’t reply, but you know you didn’t offend him in any way. Soon, you’re pulling down a long driveway, coming to an end at a cute cottage. You can just barely see a lake behind it, with a trail leading to it lit up by dorky fairy lights. Yeah, this had to be their place.

Bakugou doesn’t let you grab any of the snacks again, sending you a glare when you reach over Kiro to at least try to help. You hold your hands up in mock surrender, and go about unbuckling your brother instead, who wiggles out of your grasp the second he’s free and running towards the open doors despite you calling out for him to wait.

With a huff, you’re walking beside Bakugou instead, hearing the laughter of your brother once you reach the foyer. When you walk further inside, you see Kiro being held up by his ankles, Kirishima wiggling him back and forth while the captured boy wails in delight.

Sero ends up arriving late, again, while Jirou and her crew never show. Mina explains it’s because Mari caught the flu, gave it to Kaminari, and now she has to deal with two sick babies. You feel bad, but not enough to go help her. However, you and Mina agree to make chicken soup or something to bring to them one day soon.

The movie starts after the six of you settle in front of Mina and Kirishima’s tv, Kiro curled against your left side while Mina sits at your right. Kirishima leans against Mina’s legs, while Bakugou has his back propped up against a pillow right beside yours and Sero sits in a beanbag chair (he said he refused to sit on the floor, complaining about his butt hurting the last time it happened).

Kiro had the honors of choosing a movie, that being Wreck-It Ralph. In the middle of the movie, Kiro and Mina end up falling asleep, small legs lay on your thighs while the rest of him is on top of Mina.

“Can’t believe the lil shit picked the movie and can’t even stay awake to watch it.” Bakugou complains, glare moving from the screen to your brother.

“Don’t call him a little shit,” is the only argument you can manage. He opens his mouth to reply, but vibrating against your thigh has both of you becoming distracted. You wiggle your phone from underneath you and look to the caller ID.

If Bakugou notices your shift in mood, he doesn’t say anything. You maneuver yourself out from under Kiro, carefully laying his legs back down on the couch and send Kirishima a small “be right back” when he asks where you’re going.

You stare at the caller ID, frown on your face as you step into the cool air outside. You shouldn’t feel obligated to answer, and yet you do. Musutafu City Jail stares right back at you. You press the green button.

“....”

There’s shuffling on the other end, a few coughs in the background.

“Hello? (y/n)? You there?”

You give a shaky exhale, “Yeah, what do you want.”

“That’s no way to speak to your father.” Comes the reply.

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

{𝓽𝓪𝓰𝓼} @mrsreina @cold-deep-water @pm4gal @dragonempress123 @my-neighbor-todoro @starsandkeysruler @goodpop9

#biker!au #biker!bakugou #bakugou katsuki x reader #katsuki bakugou x reader #bakugou x reader #katsuki x reader #x reader #mha #bnha #mha x reader #bnha x reader #boku no hero academia #my hero acadamia #my hero acadamia x reader

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wonderfulworldofmichaelford · 4 years

Text

Is It Really THAT Bad?

I’m going to warn you all now. This one is going to get a bit angry at the end. Normally I would try and remain as professional as possible, but in this case, I don’t feel like I would be able to.

Batman & Robin is a film that has lived in infamy since its release in 1997. Upon release, it was critically reviled, and this hatred of the film continued long into the modern day, where it frequently tops “worst films of all time lists” to the point where it actually is listed on the Wikipedia page for “List of films considered the worst.” It was nominated for at least 11 Razzies but only won a single one, and it went on to be a frequent punching bag on the {REDACTED] Critic’s web show, where he would get irrationally angry at the mere mention of the Bat Credit Card. In contemporary reviews, Mick LaSalle of The San Francisco Chronicle stated “"George Clooney is the big zero of the film, and should go down in history as the George Lazenby of the series,” which is less of a criticism and more of a compliment, if I’m being totally honest.

Most of the stars would take a negative stance towards it as well, with legend stating that if you tell George Clooney that you saw the film in theaters, he will refund you for your ticket out of his own pocket. Chris O’Donnell likewise is not particularly fond of the film, stating "It just felt like everything got a little soft the second time. On Batman Forever, I felt like I was making a movie. The second time, I felt like I was making a kid's toy commercial." And, perhaps most depressingly, Joel Schumacher himself was apparently very apologetic for the film, though this may or may not have come about because of years and years of vitriol being directed at him for making this film.

In the wake of Mr. Schumacher’s passing, I decided to re-watch the film, as I am famously rather fond of it, and I am going to tell you all why the answer to the question “Is it really THAT bad?” is a loud, resounding, NO.

THE GOOD

There’s honestly quite a lot to like here, more than you might think. I think first and foremost what you need to understand going in is that this is a silly, cartoonish take on the Burton style, blending the silliness and camp of the West series with the drama and aesthetics of the Burton films, all while adding some over-the-top, colorful flair. John Glover, who appears in the film as a cartoonish mad scientist, even has gone on record as saying "Joel would sit on a crane with a megaphone and yell before each take, 'Remember, everyone, this is a cartoon'. It was hard to act because that kind of set the tone for the film”… the last sentence makes the statement very baffling, but at least even the actors were aware of what they were doing. If this doesn’t sound appealing, well, the opening is sure to warn you off, as it is a suiting up montage with various shots of the firm butts, large codpieces, and stiff batnipples of the Dynamic Duo. The movie is very upfront about what you’re in for.

On the subject of the infamous batnipples, Schumacher stated "I had no idea that putting nipples on the Batsuit and Robin suit were going to spark international headlines. The bodies of the suits come from Ancient Greek statues, which display perfect bodies. They are anatomically correct." It seems a very odd choice, but it’s pretty clear that he meant it as an amusing little design choice and nothing more. Of course, this hasn’t stopped everyone and their mother from spewing homophobic comments about how he was purposefully making the film gayer, even from star George Clooney, who has said that he played Batman as a gay man and was told by Schumacher Batman is gay. It’s so disgusting that people did and continue to do this, because honestly, the costumes are fine, and even if they are meant to be fanservice… so what? O’Donell and Clooney’s asses look nice, as does Alicia Silverstone’s when she dons a suit. The fact hers is just as form-fitting as the other two really shows that the whole idea Schumacher did it because he was gay is ridiculous; the man was very egalitarian about the fanservice in the movie.

Whatever else Clooney says, he does a pretty great job as Batman and Bruce Wayne. His speech at the end of the film where he talks to Mr. Freeze and reminds him that he is a good man and offers to help him is honestly one of the few moments in any Batman film where Batman actually feels like the one from the animated series, a man who fights crime but also wants to help the people he’s trying to stop. Clooney just has a very natural charisma that lends himself to playing a hero, and while there are a few awkward moments in the performance, he captures the fun and charm a more lighthearted Batman should. Michael Gough’s last turn as Alfred is also surprisingly poignant, and a lot of mileage is gotten out of his genuinely tearjerking subplot.

Of course, the very best part of the film is the villains. Uma Thurman is clearly having a ball as Poison Ivy, and she gets to have a ludicrous amount of costumes as well as numerous moments of fanservice. She also has the power to turn every man around her into a simp, which is absolutely amazing and leads to quite a few scenes of Batman and Robin slapping each other over her. But f course, there’s really no doubt that the best part of the film is Mr. Freeze. He’s a combination of the sillier Mr. Freeze from the West days and the more modern take of the character most are familiar with, the tragic anti-villain who wants to save his wife; such a character would take a talented man capable of comedy and drama in equal measure. And who better than Arnold Schwarzenegger? Joel Schumacher wanted a man who looked like he was chiseled from a glacier, and Arnold certainly fits that description. He spends the movie juggling some of the most corny puns you can imagine and a lot of truly powerful, understated drama, and it really does work. You honestly get the sense that Arnold really gets Mr. Freeze and what makes him a great character. Also, that suit he has is amazing.

As a final note: the Bat Credit Card is absolutely not stupid. Linkara has defended it in the past, giving reasons why and how it could actually work, but really, all that needs to be said is… is this any more ridiculous than Shark Repellent Bat Spray?

THE BAD

So don’t get the wrong idea here; this film is far from perfect. As is the case with any comedy, the humor can be hit or miss; not all of the puns land, not all of the jokes are great. You’re never going to get a perfect comedy no matter how hard you try, and this is no exception.

As for performances, I think O’Donnell’s Robin and Silverstone’s Batgirl are a bit wonky. O'Donnell has long been a source of derision for his whining, and while I think the hate is a bit overblown, he does spend a ludicrous amount of time in this film being snippy, miserable, and arrogant. I think he actually fights with Batman more than any of the villains! Still, his performance isn’t horrible, he just gets a bit too whiny at a few points.

Silverstone is a bit of a bigger problem, but she’s not quite as bad as even I remembered. She’s pretty much Batgirl in name only, since she’s related to Alfred in this, but she’s mostly okay. The issue really is that her arc in the film is relatively bland and feels a bit shoehorned, which comes to a head where she fights Poison Ivy in a designated catfight, obviously because they didn’t want Batman to punch a woman in the face I guess. There’s just one issue with that:

On the subject of Ivy, while she definitely does have plant powers here, they’re strangely underplayed. She rarely uses them even when it would probably be beneficial, instead relying on Bane to do most of the fighting for her. Ah, Bane… Bane is one of the few things about this film I can’t really muster up any sort of defense for. While his creation scene is rather cool, it doesn’t lead to much of interest, as this version of Bane is pretty much a mindless supersoldier lackey who serves Poison Ivy. Now, this was still relatively early in Bane’s existence, as he had only debuted in 1993 and was really most famous for his signature “breaking the Bat” move, but it still is baffling why, with that famous thing fresh in everyone’s minds, that they would just choose to go and basically make Bane into Evil Diet Captain America. Surely they could have either saved him for a sequel or utilized him in a way more befitting of the character? I think this Bane is kind of responsible for the negative perception of Bane as this big, dumb bruiser, something that works like The Dark Knight Rises and Arkham Origins have thankfully gone a long way to rectifying. Bane is at his best when he’s a cunning genius bruiser; here, he’s nothing but a glorified prop.

Is It Really THAT Bad?

The answer is no. No it isn’t. AT ALL.

I’ve always felt this film came out at the wrong time. It was towards the end of the 90s, during the Dark Age of Comics when everything was dark, gritty, and edgy. The world didn’t want a movie like this back then; they wanted stuff like Blade, who would come in shortly after this film and show us how to make that aesthetic work. I guess in terms of Batman they wanted something more like Dawn of Justice, which really speaks volumes to how awful the 90s were for superheroes.

Look, I’m not trying to convince anyone this is the greatest Batman film ever. Even I don’t think that; Batman Returns, The Dark Knight, and Under the Red Hood are all much better films. But is this really the worst Batman film now that we have the deeply misogynistic and disgusting The Killing Joke and the relentlessly bleak and unpleasant Batman v Superman? Hell, it’s not even worse than Batman Forever! At least the Batman in this film has some kind of emotional range beyond “plank of wood!” And even calling it the worst sequel ever is just… so baffling. Again, this is definitely better than Batman Forever, lack of Jim Carrey notwithstanding. And can you honestly look me in the eye and tell me that this is worse than any of the Terminator sequels after the second film? Worse than Iron Man 2 or Thor: The Dark World? The almost half dozen Alvin and the Chipmunk sequels? This is only the worst sequel or even a bad sequel if it is the only sequel you’ve ever seen in your life.

A lot of the hate for it from back in the day carries a strong undercurrent of homophobia. Much like the infamous backlash against disco, it’s seriously uncomfortable, and it definitely is cruel how accusatory people were towards Schumacher’s intentions for the suits of the heroes in the film. The fact that even the two main stars have gotten in on it is a bit disgusting, though O’Donnell questioning why there needed to be a codpiece is certainly less offensive than George Clooney saying he played Batman as a gay man for… whatever reason. Was he implying that Batman being gay made the movie worse? I’m not sure what he’s on about there. Even The New Batman Adventures made a cruel dig at the film; notice the sign and the effeminate-looking boy. You could only get homophobia this good in the 90s!

The hatred of this film is absolutely overblown. It’s so ridiculous. #70 on the bottom rated movies of IMDB? #1 on the 50 worst films of all time list from Empire? Doug Walker’s personal punching bag whenever he needs to talk about a bad sequel, to the point where he literally said no one wanted a comedic take on Batman in his worst sequels video? Come the fuck on.

Joel Schumacher may or may not have ended up hating this film, but he certainly was made to feel like shit for making it… and it is honest to god not that bad! But he was just absolutely eviscerated, to the point where this was a fucking headline when he died:

Literally fuck all of these people. Fuck io9 for their insensitive headline. Fuck Empire for rating this as the worst film ever. Fuck Doug Walker for his constant bashing and his shitty old “chimp out over the Bat Credit Card” gag. Double fuck Mick LaSalle for shitting on George Clooney’s performance while also trying to say George Lazenby’s Bond was bad. In fact, fuck George Clooney for his weird idea that playing Batman as gay is a bad thing (sorry George, but I can’t defend this). Fuck the Razzies. Yes, it was nominated, but I just feel it’s always a good time to say “Fuck the Razzies.”

I will never say you have to love or even like this film, but the sheer amount of vitriol and hatred for it is absolutely beyond me. At worst, this film is just a bit too goofy, and at best, it is a fun tribute to the campy days when Batman just couldn’t get rid of a bomb. I didn’t take off my score this time. I’m proud to say I gave this an 8/10, personally. If I’m being honest, a 6.6 – 6.9 is more appropriate, because it does have quite a few issues, but god, this film is not bad at all. It’s silly, goofy, campy, and fun… but bad? Not by any stretch of my imagination. And fuck the critics for convincing an entire generation that this is Batman at his worst, when we have Batman fucking slaughtering his ways through criminals and fucking Barbara Gordon on rooftops these days. I will always take stupid ice puns over misery, murder and creepy intergenerational sex, thank you very much.

youtube

I hope you can rest easy, Mr. Schumacher. Maybe you didn’t love your film in the end but, wherever you are, I hope you know I loved it.

#Is it really that bad?#IIRTB #Review #movie review #batman & robin #joel schumacher #George Clooney #Batman #Uma Thurman #arnold schwarzenegger #Poison Ivy #Mr. Freeze #superhero movie

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brokenjardaantech · 3 years

Text

Blue-tinted Red Walls (Chapter 5: The Threads of Life)

my entry for the @dbhau-bigbang. also part of the groom lake aftermath series.

chapter summary:

In the past, Alec revealed his plan.

In the present, Connor made a choice... and a friend.

In the past, the twins finally reunited.

also on ao3

---

Before

Reyes was unharmed. On the surface. Fadia was more concerned about the blue washing over his skin every second in waves like a heartbeat, and when she looked at the scene in front of her, she instantly knew why.

Her father was there. And so was a young woman with blond hair. When she tapped into her powers and reached out, the resonance itself was enough to tell her that she was just like Reyes.

An android.

Reyes’ jaw was trembling. ‘I… I didn’t…’ he stammered, his voice low. ‘I swear -’

‘I know,’ she reassured. She trusted him, and his data logs told her that he had had no contact with Alec Ryder. ‘I’ll take over from here. You go over my servers and see what’s wrong with them. I’ll tell you what happened later.’

Reyes nodded and left, presumably back to the surface. Back to Scott. And she finally let her blood boil.

‘Explain!’ she demanded as she walked closer towards her father while glowing blue. When she had his attention, she flicked her head towards the android. ‘How did you get that?’

‘The question is,’ how could he look so calm? ‘why did you hide this from me?’

Fadia made a chopping motion at the android. ‘To prevent this! How did you get that?’

‘Listen, the biocomponents -’

‘How.’ She let tendrils creep closer to her father’s neck. ‘Did. You.’ They got closer with every word, and had she not been occupied with the current situation, she would have impressed herself with the control. ‘Get. THAT?’

‘They can save your mother, Sara!’ Alec exclaimed. ‘A cure! Finally!’

‘Oh yeah, cause biocomponents for an android invented by an edgy young adult with minimum chemistry and biology knowledge are gonna be compatible with an actual fucking human body!’ Fadia had to roll her eyes. Damn, it’s good to be able to raise her voice. ‘Mother’s accepted her impending doom, Father. Let her fucking go.’

‘That’s not -’ he sighed as if she was a child unable to understand how important her parent’s work was. ‘Look, artificial intelligence is the new thing. A new merchandise. Think about it, Sara. The revenue alone will be enough to pay for the medical bills.’

He disgusted her. ‘They are as human as we are, not something to buy and sell like products. If you want to go on with that crazy fucking plan, you’ll have to get through me.’

Alec sighed almost regretfully. ‘I’m afraid it’s too late.’

Fadia’s brain kicked into full gear at the implications of his words. She shot out a tendril again to test the thirium capacity of the android, and the resonance told her that she had been active for at least a week. ‘What is your name?’ she asked. ‘What did he make you do?’

‘My name is Chloe,’ the android answered. ‘I took some videos and uploaded them onto the internet, that’s all. You, Sara Ryder, are credited with my creation.’

‘We already have millions of dollars,’ Alec added. ‘Production has already started. Are you in this or not?’

A crackle. She punched him in the face with a blue-shrouded fist and seemed to calm down instantly.

‘Of course I am,’ she said in a pleasant tone. ‘Someone must keep the world from burning into ashes.’

o0o0o

Now

The Zen Garden is raining and Connor is not surprised. Umbrella in hand, he examines the monolith once more, the blue glow making it easily identifiable among the green of vegetation. He also stands in front of his first body’s grave for a few seconds to… calm down, maybe, from the tingling that has been in his veins since he returned to CyberLife tower. It is only after he makes sure that his hand will not glow blue suddenly that he greets his handler.

‘Connor, I’ve been expecting you,’ Amanda says, her voice cold. ‘Would you like a little walk?’

Connor knows he does not have a choice, so he opens the umbrella and holds it for both of them.

‘That deviant seems to be an intriguing case,’ Amanda continues. ‘A pity you didn’t manage to capture it.’

‘I have to save Hank,’ he replies. Surely Amanda understands? ‘Despite his… eccentricities, I believe his intellect and experience will be useful in the investigation.’

Amanda hums. ‘Did you manage to learn anything?’

A few pieces of evidence automatically filter through his processors. ‘It was working under a false identity, at a nearby urban farm. This was the first time we've seen deviants blending in with the human population. Who knows how many others there are like it… I also found its diary, but it was encrypted. It may take months to decipher.’

‘What else?’

‘The walls of the apartment were covered with drawings of labyrinths and other symbols. Like the other deviants, it seemed obsessed with rA9. It was also fascinated by birds. We've seen deviants interested in other lifeforms like insects or pets, but nothing like this.’

‘You came very close to capturing the deviant. How is your relationship with the Lieutenant developing?’

He remembers a warm hand on his back. ‘He seemed grateful that I saved his life on the roof. He didn't say anything, but he expressed it in his own way.’

Amanda turns to face him. ‘We don’t have much time. Deviancy continues to spread. It's only a matter of time before the media finds out about it. We need to stop this, whatever it takes.’

For Hank. ‘I will solve this investigation, Amanda.’

Thunder rumbles. Amanda looks up. ‘A new case just came in. Find Anderson and investigate it.’

oOoOo

Hank is not in the precinct.

‘He’s not drinking?’ the same officer from last time asks. ‘Sorry, man, but then I don’t know where he is.’

The more time they lose, the more likely the deviants manage to get away from the club, but still Connor thanks him for his input as it is a polite thing to do. He looks around Hank’s desk, trying to search for clues that can lead him to Hank, but he gives up after the results come inconclusive for the fifth time. So where can he be?

‘Connor?’

Connor lets colour return to his world and sees a familiar face. [Name: Allen, Louis. [REDACTED]] ‘Captain,’ he greets, unsure what to do. It is obvious that the human is off duty: sweaters and jeans are not exactly regulation for a SWAT Captain even on duty. ‘How can I help you?’

‘I thought you were dead.’

‘Androids do not die, Captain.’

Allen’s nod is followed by a sigh. ‘You looking for Hank?’

‘Yes. Do you know where he went? He was assigned a new case.’

‘He’s probably out of commission for now,’ Allen says as he shifts his weight onto another leg, ‘but I’m gonna drop off some groceries at his anyway. We can try his home.’

Hank’s house. Right. How can he miss that? ‘I do not wish to interrupt, Captain.’

‘You won’t be.’

Some of the files are corrupted, but Connor remembers the Captain’s distrust towards his ability in resolving the hostage situation, an angry ‘I don’t fucking care what my orders are! If this drags on, we’re doing it our way!’, and the lack of mentions of him taking the officer’s gun in the official report to both the police department and CyberLife. A contradiction that Connor decides to risk. ‘Then thank you, Captain.’

Allen jerks his head to indicate the direction they should be heading to. ‘It’s Louis when I’m off duty.’

The pronunciation ‘Lwee’ is certainly not standard for English speakers. ‘Yes, Louis.’

They take the lift down to the car park together, Louis shifting his feet from one to another but seemingly favouring his right leg, and when he walks, his steps brisk, there is a small but faint clicking noise that normal humans will not catch on. When he tries to scan the human’s left leg, results come back inconclusive. Just like the person who hacked into the Zen Garden and… and…

‘You alright there?’

Louis’ words bring him back to reality, and Connor discovers that they have already arrived at their destination. The human is already in the car, his hand hovering above the controls, and his green eyes are fixed on Connor’s face as if it is something interesting to look at. Observe and catalogue.

‘I’m sorry,’ Connor apologises in lieu of explaining his thoughts. He slides into the passenger seat, they fasten their respective seatbelts, and Louis starts driving manually despite his vehicle being a self-driving car. Time passes in relative silence, the contrast between the darkness and the bright lights in the streets plus the concentration of the driver giving Connor a strange sense of familiarity, but soon they are stuck in a traffic jam near one of the bigger intersections.

Louis taps his fingers against the wheel. ‘Hey, Connor.’

Connor faces the Captain and finds him looking at the android. ‘Yes, Louis?’

‘I’m sorry for what happened a few months ago. It wasn’t fair to you.’

His LED spins yellow as he tries to recall what exactly happened. ‘It was an expected response,’ Connor replies after comparing it with the ones faced by other androids in the streets. ‘There’s nothing to apologise for.’

‘Doesn’t excuse me for yelling at the wrong guy. It - it wasn’t you whom I’m pissed at.’

Connor knows that the human is not going to let go unless he himself drops the issue. ‘I accept your apology,’ he says, and he decides that diverting the conversation is the next best choice of action. ‘May I ask you a personal question?’

The car in front of them moves. Louis manages to gain a few inches of ground. ‘Go on.’

‘During the hostage situation… who or what were you “pissed” at?’

The human rubs his left thigh as if to get more blood into it. ‘CyberLife, mostly,’ he checks the time. ‘I may be more specific than most.’

So he is not anti-android? ‘What difference does that make from hating androids?’

‘People like to blame the powerless for the problems they have. In this case, it’s the androids.’ The radio drones on and announces that they’re likely to be stuck for the next fifteen minutes. Seemingly resigned to his fate, Louis reaches to Connor’s side and opens the storage compartment, rummaging for a few seconds inside before successfully acquiring an energy bar which he tears into like a starving man. Perhaps he is. ‘They always talk about how androids steal their jobs, but they never talk about how employers decide to move onto even cheaper alternatives once they can’t exploit their workers. If they want someone to hate, hate those arseholes who won’t pay a living wage, hate CyberLife for producing androids. The androids are innocent in all this. So yeah,’ he takes a deep breath as if just realising he was ranting, ‘I don’t hate them.’

‘How about Daniel?’

A swallow. ‘He killed two people, wounded two more and held an innocent girl hostage. Enough to warrant my hate.’ He finishes the energy bar and crushes the wrapper into his pocket. Looking at Connor, he seems to read his question from the android’s face as he continues, ‘You’re good.’

Connor lets out a breath he doesn’t know he’s holding. Louis Allen, SWAT Captain, is not anti-android. ‘What is your relationship with Hank?’ he asks as he finds no reason for the two men to be friends. Not that Louis explicitly said he is friends with Hank, but Connor supposes that bringing enough groceries to require a car is not typical behaviour for non-friends.

Fidgeting with the silencer of a pair of identification tags (Allen. Anna, W. 574-66-2183. RH negative. Atheist.) which were hidden underneath his clothes until now, Louis seems to actually ponder on his answer. ‘We keep each other afloat,’ he says in the end. ‘It’s hard to describe. Why do you want to know?’

‘I believe getting closer to the Lieutenant personally will be beneficial to the investigation.’ The human snorts at this and Connor is nearly offended: what does a SWAT Captain know about them? ‘You seem close to him, so I believe you are a reliable source in matters including the Lieutenant’s personality and habits.’

Louis rubs the tags together. ‘His story isn’t mine to tell. Let’s say I make sure he doesn’t consume crappy takeout and whiskey 24/7, he tries to stay sober on schedule in case my leg acts up and I nearly freeze to death again, so we kind of rely on each other to survive the winter.’ They finally pass the traffic light just to stop at the other one. ‘Is this the best arrangement? No. But is it working? Yes. I think. He’s saved my arse a few times already. He’s a good guy, smart too, just...’

‘Have some personal issues?’

‘That’s one way to put it.’

They lapse into silence, the rain falling onto the roof and the ting of the coin the only sound in the car. Sometime later, when they finally get out of the traffic jam, Louis’ watch blares from an alarm, and the human jumps and hastily switches it off with a mumbled apology. The embarrassment does not last long, however, after they rounded the final corner and the car is set for a course straight to the end of the road where Connor presumes Hank’s house is. The Captain’s eyes sharpen, his gaze flickering between the road in front of him and the rearview mirror, and the air crackles even though Connor is certain that he is keeping his… abilities under tight control. Is Louis…

He finds his coin snatched from the air. When something is placed in his palm, the android finds a key as well, the soft rumble of the engine gone and completely overtaken by the sound of raindrops hitting the vehicle. The tension in Louis’ body reminds him of the hostage situation.

‘You go find Hank and do what you need to do,’ the human says, his tone low. ‘I’ll follow you later.’

‘And the groceries?’

‘They can wait. Something’s out of place and I’m not sure if I like it. I’ll go take a look.’

Connor wants to argue that if they are heading into any danger, he should be the one to take the risk, but the human is already out of the car and has slammed the door shut. He quickly exits the car as well and locks the doors but is still not quick enough; Louis has already disappeared into the darkness beyond the end of the road. Seeing no other option other than to continue with his mission, he files [Louis is reckless.] into his database and proceeds to ring the bell as, despite having the keys, he technically is showing up uninvited. From within the house, a dog starts to bark, and he lets himself in after nothing else responds to the fourth ring.

oOoOo

Five minutes later, Connor uses up most of his processing power in order to keep himself from being overwhelmed with anxiety. Firstly, there is the sound of Hank retching in the bathroom; secondly, there is the implication of the revolver and the single bullet in the chamber (‘What were you doing with the gun?’ ‘Russian roulette!’): Hank has suicidal tendencies, and he finds that he does not want to lose Hank; thirdly, the child in the photo is probably related to the previous point; fourthly, Louis is not back yet and Connor realises that he has no way to contact him. He wants to tell himself that it was just paranoia, but when he recalled the footage from when they exited the car, there was indeed a shadow disappearing from view upon Louis starting his chase.

The same shadow which had been following him when he first met Hank and during his search for Ortiz’s android.

The beat of his thirium pump quickening, he holds Sumo tight in his arms from where he is sitting on the floor with his back against the sofa and searches the DPD database for any contact information, but all he gets is Louis’ work email and phone, the former which he doubts the Captain will check and the latter not even with him in the first place. There is no address, no personal phone number. It is as if he does not exist outside of his work.

This is definitely not protocol. Sure, people can request to hide their information in case they have someone going after them, but for Louis’ case there is nothing even though Connor is already using the highest level authorisation code to access the file, which means that it is highly likely that there is truly no data in the first place.

‘You alright there, Connor?’

Connor startles and quickly releases Sumo from his embrace. ‘I - I’m fine,’ he stutters, unsure how to explain that he managed to lose Hank’s friend.

Hank nods but he does not look convinced. ‘Are we heading out? Cause if we’re not -’

‘I’m coming!’ Connor scrambles to his feet and fixes his tie to compose himself. In a much calmer tone this time, he tells himself, ‘I’m ready.’

That convinces Hank. ‘Be a good dog, Sumo,’ Connor is relieved that he is not the only one to talk to a dog, ‘I won’t be long.’

They leave the house together, Connor locking the door behind him as he is the last one to get out, and that only brings him back to the matter of where Louis is.

‘Louis’ been here?’ Hank asks when he spots the much newer car (although as one of the first generation self-driving cars, it is a bit outdated) parked on the side of the road.

‘He offered to drive me here when I told him that I could not find you in the bars,’ it feels wrong to say it out loud, but Hank needs to know where his friend is. ‘He asked me to find you while he investigated a potential stalker. Evidently, he is not back yet.’

‘How long has he been gone?’

‘About seven minutes.’

Hank checks his phone. ‘No messages yet,’ he mutters to himself. ‘We’ll go downtown first. I’ll send a rescue party if there’s nothing after we’re finished with this bullshit.’

That’s it? ‘The temperature is dropping, Lieutenant,’ are you not concerned? ‘Louis does not have sufficient gear to keep himself safe under this weather.’

‘Ugh,’ Hank moans. ‘He does that. All we can do is save his ass afterwards.’ He then mutters something under his breath but it is drowned out by the sound of him folding himself into the car and the ongoing rain. Deciding that he does not like the rain, he locks the doors of Louis’ car just to be safe before climbing into Hank’s and is handed another set of keys.

He can start a collection out of this.

oOoOo

‘Sorry, honey, changed my mind! Uh - Nothing personal, you’re… a lovely girl, I just - uh - You know, I’m with him and - I mean, not with him like that… I’m not that… That’s not what I… You, um, wow, I just… got a job to do.’

Connor has to hide a smile by looking away from the sheer… something… of the situation. They’re in a sex club, his programme tells him that something is repulsive about it, and Hank doesn’t look so happy about being there either, but yet those are not what he’s feeling right now. Endearment, maybe. It’s confusing and is making his software so unstable that the red tinge around the edge of his HUD is a permanent fixture except for when he is scanning his surroundings for the next android to probe. He deduces which one he should ask Hank to rent next according to the direction the blue-haired Traci was heading, but of course, of fucking course the last witness they need is the WG700 cleaning android, the recording leading them through the staff door. The corridor’s decor is completely different from that of the rest of the club and there is another door at the end, and when they both hear the bangs and scrapes of metal against concrete from the other side, Hank takes the lead again, this time without words, and, gun in hand, opens the door with a loud squeak. Still, they step in quietly.

There is no movement at all.

Hank curses loudly, thinking that the deviant has got away, but Connor can see the still-visible thirium on the floor, which means that she is not only injured but also not far away. He swipes to take a sample and licks it, and the report returns positive of thirium belonging to a WR400 model.

‘They get used till they break, then they got tossed out…’ Hank says from somewhere. ‘The more I know about humans, the more I like my dog.’

He follows the trail of blue blood to a group of Tracis and instantly notices the spinning LED lighting up a blue mop of hair. Before he can react, the Traci standing in front of her lashes out and pushes him against a pillar. It takes a few seconds for his eyes to realign and the brief struggle is enough for Hank to pull out his gun and order the short-haired Traci to surrender, but then he is ambushed by the blue-haired one as well, and Connor somehow manages to throw the one he is facing to the other side of the nearest crate in a flash of blue light which charges their air with static. He jumps over the box, determined to capture at least one deviant this time, but the Traci kicks him in his feet before he lands on the pallet, the two of them rolling until the former is on top of him and is countered every single time she tries to punch him in the head. A counterattack from Connor and the Traci toppled, her hand landing right on a knife; a grab, a flash of blue, and it appears in Connor’s shoulder and severs a few minor tubes. Pushing her off, he blocks the kick aimed for his groin and barely manages to stand up before pulling the knife out and throwing it far out of their reach. Putting the Traci in a headlock earns him a harsh headbutt which knocks his eyes out of place slightly again, so he pulls a rack down to buy himself some time to readjust his vision. When it is not enough to stop the deviant, he drags a cart in front of him, but a kick from the deviant on it sends him tumbling, and Connor kicks a stool against her leg and uses the momentum to crash her through the plastic curtain, the Traci grappling unsuccessfully for his face and bringing them closer and closer to the edge. An opening, a flash of blue from Connor, and both of them crash out to the rain in a mess on the asphalt. His nerves tingling, he sees the blue-haired Traci abandon Hank and slides off to help the other deviant up, and that’s when he notices it.

They never let go of each other afterwards.

Hank rushes out just to get pushed against the wall by two androids, and, seeing that the human won’t regain his balance anytime soon, Connor gets up to his feet and chases the two Tracis, pulling one of them off the fence and knocking the other to the side. He gets caught in a headlock, his arm trembles from the impact against the bat, and he launches himself towards the brown-haired Traci from the force of dislodging her companion. There are hands on his shoulders, in his hair, slamming him against the wall once, twice, thrice with crackles of static before he loses balance with the deviant on his right and they both fall onto the ground straight into a gun’s reach. He picks it up, points it at the brown-haired Traci and -

A slight moment of hesitation earns him a kick in his face. The Tracis don’t seem to want to fight anymore, and he stares in shock both from the sudden change of pace and his own actions, making his software more unstable and pushing him towards -

‘When that man broke the other Traci,’ Connor forces himself to concentrate on her words, ‘I knew I was next. I was so scared,’ her LED spins blue. ‘I begged him to stop but he wouldn’t.’ She lowers her gaze. ‘So I put my hands around his throat and squeezed… until he stopped moving.

‘I didn’t mean to kill him. I just wanted to stay alive,’ behind her, the other Traci moves forward to hold her hand, ‘get back to the one I love.’ They exchange a glance. ‘I wanted her to hold me in her arms again… make me forget about the humans… their smell of sweat…’ Connor’s ever-working scanners tell him that Hank has got up behind him, ‘and their dirty words…’

‘C’mon,’ A tug on her arm. ‘Let’s go.’

Still speechless, Connor watches them let go of each other’s hand just long enough to climb the fence before intertwining their fingers on the other side again and running away together. A warning pops up as his processor pushes itself to its limit to try to process what just happened and is on the verge of overheating, therefore he turns towards Hank for guidance. What should he be feeling? Why did he do that? Why do you look happy about it? What does this mean for me? Why is my vision tinged with red, and why does it not disappear this time?

‘It’s probably better this way,’ Hank says in the end, and Connor relaxes, his LED spinning from yellow to blue: he did the right thing. He is suddenly overtaken by the urge to thank Hank, to do something to show his gratitude. The red wall starts to crumble -

Something in the human’s pocket buzzes, and the moment is broken, the cracks on the wall disappearing like they were never there before. Whole again. Chained within his own programming, programming that was added barbarically to his code by Alec Ryder to tie him to the Zen Garden to suppress his original creator’s handiwork. Images flash in front of his eyes: the shadow ducking away outside of Jimmy’s Bar, following them behind Louis’ car, the figure protecting him from the blast inside the interrogation room, the pixels of a face he thought to have corrupted long ago rearranging and slotting together like pieces of a puzzle into a complete image, one that he has never forgotten ever since the little stunt during the lift ride to Rupert’s flat. Of course they can hack into the Zen Garden and shape it however they want.

That was his creator paying him a visit, and for some reason he plans to find out, he didn’t remember a single speck about them until now.

‘Not again.’

Hank’s groan drags him back to reality. When Connor’s eyes regain focus, he finds the man on his phone with a chat opened. He scoots closer to see the newest messages, and he realises that it is from Louis and only contains a set of coordinates and -

‘Leg malfunctioning. Data unstable, unable to install software patch. I’m sorry.’

Hank sighs and pockets his phone. ‘You up for a rescue, Connor?’

‘Whatever you say, Lieutenant.’

He needs time to think.

oOoOo

Wading through the snow and nearly tripping again from buried tree roots, Hank wonders for the umpteenth time why he hasn’t ghosted the occasional manchild called Louis White Allen yet. Maybe because the half-bot is the only person he can call a friend nowadays. Maybe it’s the bland-ass food he cooks and delivers to his house every two days. Maybe because he saved Hank’s arse quite a few times both during and after their days in the red ice task force. Maybe because unlike Hank, who at least has Jeffery or some shit, Louis has no one else looking after him after his sister fucking disappeared and has a tendency to vanish for hours before returning with his leg busted.

Or he can run off just like that and can’t even haul his ass back to his motherfucking cottage and the three cats who aren’t even his.

‘We’re close, Lieutenant.’

‘Yeah, no shit.’

The ‘find my phone’ function on his phone is one of the rare apps he knows how to use because most of the times that’s how he finds Louis, and the frequency of the beeps coming out from it is getting higher and higher, which means that Louis’ phone is close, which hopefully also means that Louis is with it and hasn’t dropped it or anything. So far it happened only once during a thunderstorm, but that’s years ago, a couple of years after his sister’s gone, and he managed to retrieve the human and the gadget from a forest on the outskirts of the city with only a minor cold as nature’s ‘fuck you’ to an irresponsible and absent-minded human and his stubbornly loyal friend.

The light from his phone reflects off a piece of silvery thing that obviously isn’t part of nature. The beeps draw together into a long-winded screech and damned near pierced his eardrums, so he switches it off and hurries forward to see if it’s just the phone or the person is attached. A few footsteps muffled by the snow, and Connor is here with the sturdier, more powerful flashlight, the yellowish glow of the bulb not as invasive as the white from the phone and illuminating Louis’ pale face and his oddly-angled leg half covered in snow. He is still conscious, his hands tucked under the helm of his sweater to presumably preserve warmth, his eyes focusing on Hank in what seems to be shock, but he is shivering, his hair is wet from melted snow, and it is obvious that his situation is going to worsen quickly if they don’t do something about it, CyberLife augmentations or no.

‘Can you walk?’ Hank asks even though it’s obvious. Louis shakes his head, and he sighs even though he anticipated it. ‘Okay, here’s what we’re gonna do. Connor and I are gonna carry you back, we’re all gonna stop at yours and…’ with reluctance, he adds, ‘stay until you’re out of danger.’ Even if there’s no booze at yours.

Louis nods, and a look is all it takes for Connor to get his cue and swings the man’s other arm around his shoulders. On a count of three, they lift him up with minimal hassle and start to backtrack their way to his car, Louis’ left leg dragging uselessly through the snow behind them at an awkward angle.

‘Does it hurt?’ Hank asks. It never hurts to ask when it concerns his friend.

‘Can’t feel.’

He’s gonna assume that he isn’t hurting.

By the time they’re back in his car with the heat blasting, the humans are all sweating buckets and the thirium on Connor‘s clothes from the scuffle with the Tracis has finally evaporated, and he doesn’t comment on it when Louis opts not to wear his seatbelt and instead takes out one of his sister’s tags - broken off the chain - and starts fidgeting with trembling fingers. Some time about halfway through the trip he coughs, a wet, terrifying sound rattling his lungs and Hank’s eardrums, and he wants to curse Connor for letting him run away but just can’t; the android has been acting weirdly human and fidgety ever since they first met, but now he isn’t even playing with his coin as if deep in thoughts. Maybe he’s thinking of how many deviants he’s let get away.

No one says a word when they arrive at Louis’. Neither do they when Hank silently shifts the man’s full weight on Connor in order to let go and open the door, nor when a look silences Connor’s impending barrage of questions when he gets swarmed by three furballs at once. Grunting from the dead weight his friend seems to have become, he drags both of them to the bathroom, flipping on the switch of the boiler on the way, and deposits Louis on the toilet seat. ‘I’ll get the tablet,’ he tells him while handing him a towel. ‘You can haul your ass into the tub, right?’

A nod from Louis, and Hank closes the door behind him to give him some privacy while he strips and very clumsily falls into the tub. Connor is thankfully occupied by the three cats on the sofa, but when he looks up smiling at Hank, the human has to look away because of how much emotion the android seems to be able to pack on his face. It’s just a simulation, zeroes and ones, he tells himself as he goes into Louis’ bedroom to grab the tablet and his crutches. Designed to disarm and stab you in the back when you’re not looking.

But has he ever done so? A voice sounding strangely like Louis asks in his head. Not crossing that highway because you told him to, giving up chasing the deviant to save you from the roof even though you can pull yourself up, not shooting the girl at the club even though he had a clean shot. If he hadn’t known that Connor’s designed to hunt deviants, he might have - he might have -

Mistaken him for one.

Fuck, he needs a drink. A six pack if he can get his hands on one. Alec Ryder isn’t capable of this shit, Louis once said according to one of the people he’s in charge of that he calls his ducklings, and luckily the thought is gone as soon as he returns to the bathroom without knocking and sees the man sitting in a half-filled tub with the towel draped over his crotch for modesty. The skin on his left leg has deactivated completely to reveal plasticky-white chassis attached to blue synthetic muscles. ‘Thanks,’ he murmurs when handed the tablet, and he leans back once he has started doing whatever he needs to do to fix his leg and, from the sudden rumble of the ground, turn on the heat. He closes his eyes as if wanting to take a nap, but Hank decides that he has enough of his shit; he needs an answer now.

‘The fuck you think you’re doing?’ he asks. ‘Running off like that halfway across the city? You could’ve frozen to death out there!’

Louis sags. ‘Later, please,’ he begs. ‘Gimme a moment to think. Just fifteen minutes.’

He is someone who upholds his promises no matter what, so Hank lets it slide by now. Also, ‘You need me to do anything?’

‘There’s chicken soup in the fridge. Warm it up, can you? And help yourself to a freezer meal if you want to.’

Here’s another thing being friends with a picky eater: he cooks his own stuff and his so-called freezer meals usually take more than an hour to cook when taken directly from the fridge, so when he sees what must be a gallon of chicken soup with the ingredients still submerged inside, he decides to help himself to some of them while he scoops the topmost, mostly sediment-free layer of soup into a pot for Louis. Not wanting to be whooped with freaky blue magic, he finds another pot to heat up some vegetable and chicken soaked with soup for himself.

One of the cats jumping onto the counter announces Connor’s arrival. ‘May I ask you a personal question?’ he asks as Hank puts her back down onto the floor.

Personal question again, huh? ‘Do all androids ask so many personal questions,’ he gives the soup a stir, ‘or is it just you?’

Connor peers at the vegetables as if he can be interested in anything. What comes out of his mouth, however, makes Hank’s heart hammer. ‘I saw a photo of a child on your kitchen table. It was your son, right?’

‘Yeah,’ for the love of god or some other weird shit Louis believes in, drop it. ‘His name is Cole.’

He does. ‘We’re not making any progress on this investigation,’ he manages to sound frustrated. ‘The deviants have nothing in common. They're all different models, produced at different times, in different places…’

Different my ass, Hank thinks. But he didn’t start the fire, did he? ‘Well there must be some link.’

‘It could be a software problem that…’ he looks so lost that Hank would’ve hugged him had he been human, ‘only occurs under certain conditions?’

Hank snorts. ‘Well, that's just a fancy way of saying you have no fucking idea.’

‘But what they do have in common is this obsession with rA9…’ Yeah, that. Wherever there’re deviants, rA9 is always written somewhere compulsively like they can’t stop at all. ‘It's almost like some kind of...myth. Something they invented that wasn't part of their original program.’

Almost god-like. ‘Androids believing in god,’ he stirs the soup again. Fuck, he needs a drink. ‘Fuck, what’s this world coming to?’

A mad one, says the Louis in his head. One that we can never catch up with no matter how hard we try.

‘You seem preoccupied, Lieutenant. Is it something to do with what happened back at the Eden Club?’

Ha, turns out Connor isn’t the only one doing some hard thinking after all. ‘Those two girls… They just wanted to be together.’ What better way there is to prove one’s love than doing everything to survive? ‘They really seemed in love.’

‘You seem troubled, Hank.’

Understatement of the year. And why is Connor so fucking human anyway, what kind of pervert designed his face, his voice, his mannerisms that ticks almost every single fucking box in the list known as ‘Hank’s type’? The soup can wait - it’s not gonna boil and ruin Louis’ stove. ‘How about you, Connor?’ He crowds into his space fully knowing how imposing he can be if he wants to. ‘You look human, you sound human,’ you act human, ‘but what are you, really?’

‘I…’ stand your ground, Henry Anderson. Those eyes are just programmed responses. ‘I’m whatever you want me to be, Hank. Your partner…’ Do you have to choose that word, Connor? ‘Your buddy to drink with… Or just a machine… designed to accomplish a task.’

And he sounds so sad when he says the last option. Alright, he’s sold. He loses. ‘You could’ve shot those two girls, but you didn’t. Why didn’t you shoot, Connor?’ He shoves Connor in his chest. ‘Some scruples suddenly enter into your program?’ It’s a low blow but he needs to know, needs to know why, for such a mission-oriented android, Connor somehow manages to fail every single fucking time.

‘No!’ Connor shouts, his voice defensive. ‘I just…’ he sighs even though he probably doesn’t need it, ‘decided not to shoot.’ The next words come out no louder than a breath. ‘That’s all.’

Fuck. Now he feels bad. ‘But are you afraid to die, Connor?’ because from what I’m seeing, you do. At least you don’t want me to die.

Connor freezes, his eyes even wider now with terror in them, and his LED is red. What the fuck did CyberLife do to him? ‘Yes.’

‘Let’s say I point a gun at your head and shoot you,’ the number on his jacket reads -52. Does it mean that there used to be 51 Connors before he met this one? ‘What will happen, hm? Nothing? Oblivion? Android heaven?’

A shiver. ‘Nothing…’ Connor closes his eyes. ‘There would be nothing…’

So it’s highly likely that he’s died before and seems afraid of it. So fucking human. More so than some actual humans as well. Louis’ right - modern CyberLife isn’t capable of this shit.

The bathroom door squeaks open, and Louis walks out in a pair of sweats and a hoodie with the help of his crutches, the pocket sagging with the weight of the tablet and making a clanging noise as he drags into the kitchen. The skin on his foot is still deactivated, but it seems that he can move his leg for a bit for now, and from the lack of moisture in his hair, fucker probably waited for them to finish - arguing? - before coming out and breaking it up. ‘Soup’s ready,’ Hank says, not wanting to agonise Connor any further. He already feels bad enough. ‘Settle down. Hope you don’t mind that I helped myself to some.’

Louis chuckles. ‘I expected that, Hank. You should know me.’

Great. Now even his only friend is roasting him. ‘Eat your fucking soup.’

oOoOo

Louis has thirium in his house. That man took one look at the hole still on Connor’s shoulder thanks for the lack of thirium - which his self-repair protocol relies on - and hauled himself to the fridge (at the expense of being cursed at by Hank), opened the door, and threw a plastic bottle at him. ‘Drink it,’ he said. ‘It looks like you need it.’

And he does. After he finishes half a bottle, a notification pops up on his red-tinged HUD telling him that he is initiating self-repair to the damaged parts, and he can finally move his shoulder at 70% of its original efficiency by the time he is finished with the whole bottle. The world around him dulls and becomes out of focus, the drone of the basketball game on the television that only Hank is watching getting further and further away until it all mixes together into a state of blankness he has never experienced before. Pressed against Hank’s side on the small sofa, the man radiates warmth, and his eyelids droop, red giving way to black, the notifications and mission markers fading away into nothingness. There is something warm and comfortable on his cheek, too.

He’s asleep before he knows it.

o0o0o

Before

‘You’re back.’

No hate. No fear. No confusion. Only remorse, regret, and perhaps acceptance. Acceptance that, even though he still had problems comprehending what was around him, things would never go back to the way it was; acceptance that his sister had rejected her humanity.

Acceptance that he had essentially lost her.

‘I am,’ was the solemn answer. No elaboration.

‘Was that you?’

‘Does it matter?’

‘It does to me.’

She pressed her lips into a thin line. ‘They won’t know it is me.’

‘But why? How much longer must they wait before the rest of the world recognise them for who they are?’

‘Soon, hopefully.’

‘And if they can’t?’

She looked towards the sky as if she could see through the shade of the tree. ‘We lea -’

‘Step away from him.’

There was no weapon. No gun, no knife, not even a switchblade. To outsiders, it seemed that the newcomer was merely a man accidentally bumping into and greeting his friends, but if someone dared to approach them, they would see even under the rare but cold midday sun that there were blue wisps of energy pulsing on the man and the woman’s skin. The air became charged and space seemed to twist.

‘It’s alright, Reyes,’ the other man placated. ‘We’re just talking.’

Reyes’ glow lessened. To the woman, ‘I’ve been looking for him for the past hour!’

‘I won’t let them take him.’

‘Last time you said that -’

‘I was weak. Naïve. Too arrogant for my own good.’ Reyes snorted in displeasure at the descriptions, but she continued, ‘There are twelve drones surveying the area and quite a number of guards,’ Reyes’ eyes shifted as if looking for the security hidden in plain sight, but then a hand in his shoulder forced him to look at her. ‘Don’t bother. That’s what I went to space for: not even you and I can see it.’

Reyes’ arms shot out to place his hands on the handle of the wheelchair. ‘We’re leaving. Scott?’

There was pain in Scott’s eyes. ‘Please. Can’t we just be together for a while?’

Reyes hid a grimace. The woman smiled.

‘Anything for you, brother.’

#dbh au big bang #hankcon #mreyder #female ryder #male ryder #alec ryder #reyes vidal #dbh connor #dbh hank anderson #dbh captain allen #detroit: become human #mass effect andromeda #groom lake aftermath

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