#and like come one if you read his backstory and still believe this is the truth then you closed your eyes to what his entire arc is about
Text
One Moment Per Episode With Dick Grayson
Season One, Episode Two: "Hawk and Dove"
Summary:
Even though Dick denies that he needs your help, you can't let other innocent people - like Hank, Dawn, and Rachel - get caught in the crossfire of his stubbornness and annoyance toward you.
So when you have a vision of Dick fleeing back to some of the only friends he knows, you don't hesitate to chase him. And yes - you make sure to bring coffee this time.
Dick Grayson x Fem!Powered!Reader. Childhood Friends/Exes to Lovers. Emotional Angst and Bantering/Humor. Set during Season 1, Episode 2.
Word Count: 6,000
DC Titans Masterlist | AO3 Link | Series Masterlist
Detailed warnings and author's notes below the cut.
Warnings: the reader uses she/her pronouns - I still want to warn that some people might accuse this character of being an OC/might consider this an OC, but the reader received a great reception in the last chapter, so you guys might like her uniqueness if you read this; as usual with my stories, the majority of pronouns used in the fic are you/yours; and other than clothing style and a scar that informs her backstory, the reader's looks are not described and are left vague (as far as race, body type, hair colour, etc. - those things are not described); the reader character does have powers - the reader character is psychic and can see glimpses of the future in dream-like visions; the reader actually has a vision in this one (and there is more descriptions of her visions in general) (looking back, I wish I would have opened the first chapter on a vision of the apocalypse but oh well); the reader and Dick are 'exes' - their relationship was never official (they never explicitly called each other boyfriend/girlfriend), but they used to have sex often (and they both have feelings for each other that they never openly spoke about), and they are childhood friends, so there is a lot of emotional history there; this fic uses Y/N; this whole chapter (and this whole series, really) involves intense criticism of Dick's character - the Titans version specifically - so if you don't like that and if you don't like the Titans characterization of him, then turn back now; mentions of canon-typical violence; non-graphic descriptions of Dick having an infected wound as a child (speaking to his characterization); mentions of non-canon character deaths - happening in non-canon branching paths in the reader's visions (things that don't come true, but have the opportunity to come true if she doesn't interfere); mentions of gun violence; lots of stereotypical monogamous jealousy going on here - some canon, and some not (not the kind of thing my poly ass typically writes, but it does well with Dick's toxic personality, so I like it) - Hank being jealous of Dick and Dawn's reunion, and Dick trying to evoke jealousy from the reader over his past relationship with Dawn (though I have made it clear in the text that Dick doesn't have feelings for Dawn anymore); Dick accidentally pointing a gun at the reader (because of mistaken identity); this time there is equal pining and horniness between Dick and the reader (mostly because I am a simp for Dick in that navy button down shirt, unf); mentions of Dick's past trauma (the death of his parents) and his PTSD reactions because of it; mentions of Dick and the reader having sex in the past and their sexual desire toward each other and some mild sexual themes, but there is no explicit smut in this chapter (there might be some in future chapters); the reader gets injured in a fight with The Family; mentions of Dawn's canon injuries and subsequent coma; I believe that's it for this part.
A/N: I actually wanna say that this chapter was complete and ready to be edited in my drafts, and because of the comments and feedback I got on the last chapter, I actually went in and made some additions to this chapter. People really seemed to like the banter between Dick and the reader character, and there wasn't much of it in this part, so I made sure to add more of it - because if you guys tell me that you like a certain aspect of a fic, I will play up that aspect in future chapters or in future fics. That is why commenting matters. Writers listen to your detailed feedback and put it into future stories - we aren't just looking for comments to stroke our egos. So if you guys like this chapter and the banter in it, know that you helped shape it from what it originally was!
...
Dick had basically told you to fuck off - he didn’t want to be involved, but he already was.
The events were already set into motion around him, and there was nothing he could do to stop it now. So - rather than turn around and go all the way back home, you had simply gotten a hotel room in Detroit, waiting for him to ask for your help, or waiting for some signal that he would truly need you.
You fell into an easy sleep, and soon - that signal came to you.
…
A rooftop. Two old friends. Tense smiles under a beautifully bright day that didn’t suit them.
“She killed someone?” Dawn nods toward Rachel, who is sitting beside the large dove house that Hank built, looking at the gentle animals in quiet fascination. She feels peaceful in their presence. “She’s just a kid.”
That’s what he wants. He wants everyone to underestimate her.
“Whoever they are, they’ve got people in the department.” Dick replies.
He’s talking about the people who kidnapped her right out from under his nose - the ones who nearly succeeded in making her a ritual sacrifice. Just one of many forces that were coming after her. One of many forces that seek to harm her.
“We needed somewhere safe to regroup.” He adds on. “And think about what I’m gonna do.”
Somewhere safe?
“What about Bruce?” Dawn poses.
Of course Dick wouldn’t go fleeing back to him. Daddy issues. He thinks of Dawn and Hank as his true family. The Titans have always been his true family. Since losing the Circus, it’s the only family that he’s known.
Oh. Somewhere safe. Of course.
Dick visibly shudders at the thought of going back to Bruce. “He’s no good with kids.”
That's an understatement.
“A cop, huh?” Dawn gives him a small grin. “That’s one I never would’ve figured.”
Well, he seeks out order. But he's a stubborn, bull-headed person who demands to be the leader at all times. He’s terrible at following rules that he hasn't made - terrible at falling under someone else's authority. He thinks that being a police officer is bringing forth real justice.
It was never meant to last.
Dick knew this. He doesn’t like admitting his own faults. So, he rushes to change the subject.
“How are you?” He asks Dawn, clearly curious.
It’s almost as though he wants her to say that her life has been notably worse without the Titans. Just like his has been.
It's been too long since he's spoken to her. He loves running without looking back. It’s something that he’s very good at.
“We’re great.” Dawn answers, flashing him a smile. She's insistent on this ‘we' - reminding Dick that she's not alone. She's not a single person anymore. “Hank’s feeling the life a little. Age waits for no man, and all that.”
Of course. This should have been obvious to him, but he’s a little too absorbed in his own problems to consider it.
“How bad?” Dick asks the obvious question.
“Two fractures, three concussions in the last year, and a herniated disc.” Dawn replies honestly.
Dick has been through worse. He acts like it’s nothing, but it’s not. He’s the type of man to attempt to put a band-aid on a bullet wound. While traveling with the Circus, he stepped on a nail once, and tried to hide it from his parents - pulled it out himself and only told them when the wound began to fester and get infected.
Fiercely independent and stubborn, even back then.
“Jesus, Dawn.”
Yet, he acts as though this is surprising. He acts as though this isn’t the norm when you exchange your bodily safety for the safety of others.
“We’re still good out there, Dick.” She presses, sounding as though she is trying to convince herself. They need the team. That’s what’s missing. The downfall of her confidence. “Really good. But one slip-up-”
“You should quit.” Dick declares this firmly, confidently. He always believes his own authority as fact. “You both should.”
Deep down, he knows that both Dawn and Hank will never quit. Like himself, they do not take well to ‘retirement’. They will die doing this job or they will find quieter ways to keep doing good - but they will never rest. Rest feels too selfish.
“That’s the plan.” Dawn replies. It feels like a lie coming out of her mouth, and she smiles around the discomfort of it. “As soon as we take out these gun suppliers he’s obsessed with. One more chance to do some good and then he promised he’s out.”
Suddenly, there was a flash of something else.
Guns. Piles and piles of guns. Dawn being shot in the head from behind. Bright red blood soaking into white hair. A sneak attack while they have their guard down. Hank, overwhelmed by grief, unable to consider his own life as enemies surround him.
He is forcefully pulled off her limp body.
His screams bounce off the concrete walls as he is chained up and tortured.
Things never go according to plan, do they?
Dick gives her a sharp look as he considers the possibilities. Almost as if, due to his paranoia, he too can see the future.
He wants to offer his help, or tell them simply not to go, but Dawn steals the words off his tongue.
“You could help us out.” She remarks brightly.
Yes, he could. He should.
Another flash of similar events.
This ends just as bloody. Similar howls of pain echo through the warehouse. Hank is limping as Dawn supports him, but all three of them are alive. They all make it back to the apartment alive.
Dick is working on his personal definition of justice. It’s not exactly clean. (But it works.)
But still, he hesitates.
“I’m out of the life, Dawn.”
Liar.
Suddenly, Hank appears. He is surprisingly quiet for someone so large.
“The hell are you doin’ here, Dick?” He barks out the name like poison - in a harsh, jutting way that many others have done before him.
Everyone becomes tense. It’s an unwelcome reunion.
“Hank.” Dawn speaks his name curtly - a reminder. Mind your temper.
“I had a situation.” Dick tries to explain himself, being far too vague.
But again, how does one cleanly summarize encountering a young girl with powers like Rachel’s and being so unsure how to handle it? And of course, Dick hates to admit being unsure of himself. He hates to admit needing help. He prefers to phrase things delicately - as though this were a choice, a fun day trip, rather than the desperate fleeing that it truly is.
“Nice little reunion you got goin’ here.” Hank says sarcastically.
“You know it’s not like that.” Dick replies.
He is right, but poor at defending himself against Hank’s flare of jealousy. He is so walled off that he doesn’t dare to admit he doesn’t have eyes for Dawn anymore, even in the slightest. That relationship was nice, but those feelings died out long ago. He simply can’t see her in a romantic light anymore because his heart belongs to someone he believes could never want him in return.
Follies for another time.
“Sure looks like it to me.” Hank grunts in return.
“Hank.” Dawn says his name sharper this time, capturing his attention as he stares at Dick with fire burning in his eyes.
She nods toward Rachel, who is staring at all of them with confusion.
It’s her. She’s the reason why we’re all here. She’s the reason we’re all going to be alive years from now.
“What the fuck?” Hank is confused. Reasonable.
“Can we just go back inside, please?”
Good idea.
…
You woke up in a cold sweat, fumbling around numbly to turn on the lamp of the hotel room that you were staying in. Having your mind widen across the astral plane could be absolutely exhausting.
Of course Dick had gone back to them.
Looks like you were headed to DC.
…
“Dawn, you can’t hit this job. Look at the number of security contractors here-”
“Come on, don’t change the subject.”
Dawn was cut off from speaking any further by a loud thud coming from the front door. Something almost akin to a knock. Hank (who had gone out to pick up some beer) had a key, so - that definitely wasn’t him. Rachel was in the guest room watching Game of Thrones -
Dick and Dawn exchanged a look, both thinking the same thing.
There was someone at the door. Someone unannounced.
And whoever was at the door might be someone looking for Rachel - someone seeking to harm her. In the kind of silent communication that had only been developed over years of working together as a team, Dick gave Dawn a nod and she calmly raised from her chair to go and check on Rachel. And then he grabbed his service pistol, flicking the safety off and cocking it - he swiftly walked to the front door, and while pointing the gun at whoever was outside.
It was a clear warning, and also ready to fire if the person tried barging in. Dick opened the door slowly, and peered into the hallway, his heart beating rapidly in his chest as he waited to see who it was.
You.
It was you.
He let out a sharp breath of relief when the information fully penetrated his brain - the fact that it was you standing there, and not someone intending to do him or Rachel harm. Not an enemy.
You were standing there as innocently as ever, wearing a red dress with a beautiful paisley pattern on it - still sporting those same brown leather boots and that same cozy jacket. Again, you looked so damn beautiful, and it shouldn’t have been comforting, and Dick shouldn’t have been filled with want. You were holding a paper tray full of coffee cups - which you had pressed against your breast for balance, and in the other hand, you had a large brown bag that seemed to be full of pastries from the smell.
“Fuck.” He swore sharply, his arm still holding the gun up stiffly - his body still filled with the conflicting fight or flight response pumping through him, unanswered.
You let out a bright laugh at this, seemingly amused by Dick’s tense aura.
“Your greetings get more pleasant everytime I see you, Dick.” You said, nodding toward the gun that was still extended in your direction.
He let out another tense breath, and forcefully unlocked his forearm then, in order to put the gun down. He put the safety back on and tucked it into the back of his waistband as he opened the door fully to let you inside.
“You really are such a warm and welcoming person.” You added on, sarcasm ripe in your voice.
“You’re an asshole.” Dick replied, still feeling the ache of a fight or flight response tearing through him as he tried to calm down.
He knew that you hadn’t meant to scare him - or maybe you had, seeing as you hadn’t apologized, and seemed to find the whole thing entirely amusing. But at least you weren’t someone that he actually needed to shoot. So that was a plus.
“I am not.” You replied snarkily, stepping past Dick and making your way into the apartment. “I’m nice. You told me that next time I should bring coffee, and I did. That’s the farthest thing from being an asshole.”
“Dick, what’s going on?” Dawn called out, stepping out from the guest room with Rachel hot on her heels.
Realization spread across her features when she saw you placing your goodies on the counter as Dick closed and locked the front door.
“Y/N,” Dawn smiled, walking over to give you a hug after you had set everything down.
You embraced her tightly for a moment before she pulled away with a smile. Dick rolled his eyes at this - still annoyed at your presence. He would never admit it, but he was upset that Dawn was much happier to see you than she had been when he had arrived.
“Another friend?” Rachel asked, hovering at the edge of the kitchen, slightly hesitant of you.
“A good friend.” Dawn confirmed, shining her smile toward Rachel. “Rachel, this is Y/N. Y/N, this is-”
“Rachel. Hi.” You cut off Dawn as she made the introduction, giving a gentle wave toward Rachel while she nodded shyly at you.
“A friend who’s not supposed to be here.” Dick added on gruffly.
“Grumpy grumps don’t get danishes.” You said, holding up the large brown paper bag.
Dick sighed and rolled his eyes, wanting to protest about you distracting from the larger point with pastries - but technically, he had asked you to bring them.
“We’ve got… a medium vanilla latte for Dawn,” You pulled the cup out of the tray, now doling out the coffee orders. It was something that you knew partially from memory, and partially from the omnipotence that came with your powers.
She took it with a quiet ‘thank you’.
“A small black coffee with extra sugar for Rachel.” You offered her the paper cup, and she loosened up on her hesitance toward you, eagerly leaning in to grab it. She smiled at the fact that you knew her preference and didn’t question her for drinking coffee at such a young age.
“Thanks.” She said brightly.
“A large black coffee for grumpy pants.” You said, holding out a cup towards Dick.
When he reached for it, you teasingly swiped it back before you actually gave it to him, and he heaved out another sigh.
“Are you gonna tell me what you’re doing here?” He asked sharply as he popped open the lid on the cup and took a sip.
You decided to ignore him.
“And an Americano for Hank.” You went on speaking about the coffee, rather than answering Dick’s question. “What kind of sociopath drinks watered down espresso anyway?”
“He-” Dawn spoke up, about to tell you that Hank was at the store, not even there to enjoy it while it was still hot. But then, there was the sound of lock and key in the door and it came bursting open.
“Dawn, I got your stupid fru-fru coconut ice cream. I had to go to three different stores for it, and-”
When Hank saw everyone gathered in the kitchen, including the surprising addition of you, he glared as he kicked the door shut behind him.
“Well, isn’t this a real goddamn-”
“A real goddamn summer camp.” You cut him off, literally stealing the words out of his mouth.
“God, I fucking hate it when you do that.” Hank sighed, a visible stiffness running through him - similar to the way Dick looked when you said ominous things. He was creeped out and defensive at the same time.
“Would a pecan cinnamon roll make you feel better?” You posed, pulling a smaller bag out of the bag of pastries and offering it to him.
“You know, you always were my favorite.” He replied, quickly changing his tune as he came to grab the treat from you, a snarky smile spreading across his lips.
Dick reached for the brown bag sitting on the counter to get one of those danishes you had mentioned. You saw this out of the corner of your eye, and you snatched it away from him. You had meant what you said. He tensed up visibly but didn’t argue.
Dawn giggled, pointedly looking between the two of you before she reached into the bag herself - of course, only for you to slide it closer to her.
Dick sighed harshly and tried to move on from the subject. “Now, are you gonna tell me what you’re doing here?”
…
It wasn’t long before Dick sequestered you away, demanding answers. He dragged you into Dawn and Hank’s bathroom, actually. This left Dawn to awkwardly fill the space with Rachel, who was wondering who you were, and was asking more questions as she sensed the tension between you and Dick. Meanwhile, Hank scarfed down his pecan bun without a single care about the circumstances of your visit now that he was fed.
You sat on the edge of the bathtub with your arms crossed, looking at Dick with firm calculation, just like you always did, waiting for him to speak. He shoved his hands in his pockets - something that made his whole stance tense and broad and horribly appealing. It was something that reminded you that he had stayed perfectly fit since you had last seen him - and he had nothing but fine, firm muscles under that shirt.
You forced yourself to focus as he stiffened his jaw and stared right back at you.
“Well?” He scoffed.
“‘Well’ what, Grayson?” You nagged back, knowing fully well what he meant.
He sharply rolled his eyes. That seemed to be a reaction that you invoked from him quite frequently.
“Why the hell did you follow me?” He sighed, his breath too tired to be as fully demanding as he intended.
You wondered when the last time he had slept was. He was someone who wore insomnia strangely well, especially considering that Bruce had driven him to be sleepless since his teen years. It was something that he was accustomed to by now, so he never got the ‘bags under eyes’, ‘half dead’ thing that most other people did when they didn’t sleep. He simply looked like himself.
You hated how much internal destruction and self abuse suited him.
“Who says I followed you?” You replied, your natural instinct toward snark acting up again. “Maybe I just felt like dropping by. Dawn and Hank are my friends, too.”
You almost added on ‘apparently they like me more than they like you, anyway’ - but you didn’t feel the need to kick him so badly when he was already down.
Dick let out a quiet growl, reaching up to firmly pinch the bridge of his nose with his finger and a thumb.
Already, you were wearing his patience thin.
You knew that you couldn’t tell him the truth.
One thing you knew for certain - Dick Grayson was a control freak. It was something that had been carved into him by trauma and fully solidified by years of training with Bruce.
That night, so long ago - having his parents slip out from his grasp when he had been so young, while performing a routine that they were known for courageously doing without a safety net. A routine that they were so certain of and knew so well, having never factored in the act of murderous sabotage that ultimately killed them - it made Dick want to obsessively control every single aspect of his life and everyone else’s around him.
Not only did he want to help those around him avoid danger, but he wanted the people around him to behave exactly how he imagined that they should at all times.
He was constantly on the lookout for frayed ropes - for the unexpected variables that might be the downfall of someone that he loved. He felt that his parents’ death had been his fault, that he hadn’t been diligent enough that night, so he needed to be hypervigilant in every other aspect of his life to keep more people from dying.
It was part of the reason that you bothered him so much. You were always unexpected - always a wild variable that he had to chase down. Whether it was your actions, your words, or your reactions to the things that he did and said - he felt like he could never predictably nail you down, and he absolutely fucking hated it. (It was probably also one of the reasons that he got such a fantastic release from fucking you - but that was a box of emotional issues he was not yet willing to open.)
But - being the control freak that he was - he liked to try and control the outcome of your visions.
Yes, you did see the future in your visions. And yes, the version of that future that you saw could sometimes be changed. It was part of the reason that you tried to interfere to stop bad things. You had seen many things before that had never come true - both good things and terrible things.
But you had warned Dick time and time again that the future is not random. You never saw simple flashes of random possible outcomes and one of those realities might come true. No - you saw people’s intentions. You saw the results of the choices that people make.
If someone intended to commit a murder - you would see death. If they changed their mind - you would see life. If someone interfered to stop that murder - the future could change in a lot of strange ways because of it.
Life is a winding path with a lot of branches to it, and when someone makes a choice, some of those branches die off.
Dick Grayson’s controlling, all mighty, ‘need to interfere’ mindset certainly had a way of changing the future. He constantly felt the need to use the information from your visions to force people into making the ‘right’ choice. But sometimes, on the path we choose to avoid our fate, we run headfirst into it.
You were never going to tell him - but Dick and his controlling nature had gotten people killed before.
You had discovered over time that it was better to simply not tell him things - to hold back information until it was the right time for him to hear it.
“Do you actually enjoy being irritating?” Dick rasped harshly at you. “Or is it just something that you’re good at?”
You shrugged. “Probably both.”
He let out another stiff breath.
“Look, I’m here for Rachel.” You said, trying to correct course. “She’s mourning, she’s confused, her powers are out of control. She needs someone to help guide her. Someone who might be able to show her how to keep her powers under control.”
“O-kay.” Dick said, clearly dubious, not fully convinced. He looked at you with his brows firmly knit, and you felt the need to further convince him.
“Look, I’m not stalking you if you think that’s what it is.” You added on. “I had a vision, I saw you and Dawn on the roof-”
“Okay, okay, I get it now.” Dick smirked sarcastically, crossing his arms firmly over his chest, making his biceps bulge inside of his button down shirt in a way that was far too appealing.
Focus - you reminded yourself. Focus.
“What?” You replied, genuinely confused.
“You don’t like me spending time with Dawn.” He declared, continuing to smirk at you as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.
More than anything, this left you utterly fucking confused.
“What?” You chuckled, repeating the word like a gaping parrot - a nervous, awkward edge in your voice.
You liked Dawn. She was one of your best friends.
And you didn’t give a rat’s ass if Dick and Dawn spent time together. Especially because you knew that Dick coming here was him fleeing to a friend while in crisis, not him looking for a hookup. Especially not while Dawn and Hank were together. Dawn was nothing if not intensely loyal.
And nothing would have happened while Hank was in the apartment. You had never seen Dick and Hank fight - but Hank was just a bit bigger, and because of his upbringing, he had absolutely no qualms about fighting dirty, even when he was fighting a friend. So you knew who you would bet on in that fight.
So - what the hell was Dick talking about?
Even with your strange sense of omnipotence, you couldn’t tell at the time - Dick was baiting you. Hard. He wanted you to flip out, to get jealous.
It was the emotionally stunted thing to do, but he wanted to see some sense that you cared.
At least Hank going full cave-man mode upon seeing Dick meant that he thought what he had with Dawn was precious and worth protecting. It meant that he saw Dick as a threat.
When you continued to stare at Dick with nothing but confusion, gaping like a fish, he flailed, realizing what a terrible move this was. And for some stupid reason, instead of dropping the subject altogether, he dug himself deeper into the hole.
“You know, the thing with me and Dawn is all in the past.” He said, mentally squirming, waiting to see how you would react. “There’s really nothing going on between us.”
“Yeah.” You smoothed your lips into a firm line, completely uncaring about this line of conversation. “Good for you.”
Perhaps mistaking the annoyance in these words as the jealousy that he was so urgently seeking, his tone completely changed then. Like a child throwing a tantrum, he had gotten the negative energy that he wanted from the interaction - so he kept on digging in.
“Okay, you know what?” He snapped. “If you’re not gonna tell me why you’re really here, then I’m just gonna have to assume that you’re bullshitting.”
“Oh, I’m bullshitting?” You replied, resisting the urge to break into a grin.
He had seen solid proof of your powers on many occasions. He had seen you do things that couldn’t be proven by science. So why was he only accusing you of ‘bullshitting’ right now?
“Yes.” He replied stoically. “You didn’t see anything - you don’t actually know anything. You don’t know shit. You’re probably just guessing, and making shit up as you go along and hoping people will believe you.”
“Okay.” You shrugged.
You were unphased by this declaration. You knew by now to trust your visions - even if Dick was revoking that trust. You knew that you had solid information, and if you didn’t follow it, the lives of the people that you loved were at risk.
You guessed that this was just Dick throwing a tantrum because you wouldn’t share that information with him.
Dick ground his teeth. Unconsciously, he was still intensely frustrated that he hadn’t gotten more of a reaction out of you. Whether it was the information that he was looking for - or some greater sense of anger or urgency that he felt when you were around. But he needed something. He needed to know that you still felt something because of him.
You were always so damn calm. Far too calm for his liking.
“You’re just guessing.” He pressed on. “It’s not that hard to know I would come here. You just fucking followed me because-”
“So you’re saying that all the military tactics Bruce taught you never paid off, and you’re intensely predictable when fleeing under pressure?” You chuckled, pointing out the flaws in his own logic.
Dick flinched.
He hated how uncomfortable your words made him. Squirming in that discomfort - he went low.
“And you’re admitting that you’re just a bullshit carnival psychic like your mother was?”
It was a tender wound.
The moment that your face fell - shifting from mild amusement at your own joke to intense pain and hurt - Dick’s insides recoiled with regret.
“Y/N-” He sighed.
“Nope.” You cut him off sharply, shoving past him.
He let you, finally allowing you to escape the tense air of the bathroom so you could go out and properly catch up with Dawn while drinking your coffee.
…
No matter how angry you were with him, you couldn’t let him die.
Even as you laughed and chatted with Dawn, and got to know Rachel a bit, you couldn’t get the flashes of horrifying possible futures out of your mind.
…
Where is Dick Grayson? Where is Dick Grayson? Where is he?
A crazed family singing showtunes. A skipping rope being used as a whip - knives plunging through flesh. Torture. Pain. Screams.
You saw Dick fleeing with Rachel in the night, believing that he had made the right decision to protect her. Believing that he was keeping you, and Dawn and Hank safe. You heard a sharp screech of tires as he was cut off on a dark backroad by an old-fashioned station wagon with wooden paneling. A car crash. Dick flew through the front windshield - and as he bled to death, his last moments were spent hearing Rachel’s cries for help as she was dragged from the car.
Bad decision.
Dick spoke about ‘some job’ that Hank and Dawn were planning and instantly, there were flashes through your mind of Dawn shot in the head, laying on the floor in a pool of her own blood - Hank’s screams of anguish as he was chained and tortured.
They need his help.
Why were you there?
To stop those bad decisions. Hopefully.
You couldn’t explain it all to Dick - you couldn’t play it all out for him so simply. He was a control freak. If you told him all the details, then he would insist on making a choice. He would insist on running the play. And he might make one of those stupid choices. You had to avoid making the same mistake that your mother had. Don’t give those stubborn, powerful men too much information and trust them to use it wisely - because they most likely won’t.
“You should go with them.” You told Dick, your voice curt - the first time that you had acknowledged him in hours.
He seemed shocked by you even looking in his direction, let alone speaking to him after the comment he had made.
“Look, Y/N-”
“I’ll stay with Rachel.” You added on.
When Rachel eagerly agreed to this, it seemed to seal the deal for him.
He acted as though it was his plan all along.
Whatever made him feel better about it.
…
You and Rachel ended up on the rooftop. She gravitated toward the doves - she found them calming, as she told you.
“How do you know Dick?” She asked you, clearly unable to keep down that curiosity that was naturally biting at her.
With the cool night air whipping at your cheeks, you found it easy to be vulnerable with her.
“We grew up together.” You told her.
“You were a part of the Circus?” She asked, giving a small amused grin at the thought.
“Yes.” You confirmed, mirroring her smile. Sometimes the nostalgia was painful, but unlike Dick, you didn’t try to forget it. “My mother was a fortune teller - a psychic. She was considered one of the best. People would come from miles around, or even follow the Circus from place to place just to have their palm read by her.”
Rachel laughed at this, clearly amused.
“So what - she had a big crystal ball, and she would read the lines on your hand to tell you how long you’re gonna live?”
You shrugged.
“Something like that.” You confirmed.
There was a beat of silence. Knowing what Rachel was going through, you felt the need to confess something to her.
“My mother - she died when I was about your age.” You told her, knowing that it was likely something she needed to hear.
It can always be comforting to know that you’re not alone.
Rachel looked at you with large, piercing eyes - heavy grief still dancing there. It was still so fresh. Your heart ached for her.
“What happened?” She asked.
With her powers, you were surprised that she didn’t already know.
But you thought it apt to explain it to her.
“My mother didn’t just do card tricks and read palms.” You said. “She was special. Special like us, special.”
A distinct look of dawning came across Rachel’s features.
“She had powers.” She said softly.
You nodded.
“So, wait - are these kinds of powers… genetic?” She asked eagerly, seeming to perk with interest at this.
Suddenly, a million long-dead questions about a father she had never known overtook her like a tidal wave.
Obviously, her mother had been perfectly normal. Had she gotten her powers from her father? If she found him, would he be able to tell her who she truly was?
“I suppose so.” You answered meekly, hating that you didn’t know for certain. “I hate that I can’t say for sure.”
Rachel’s face fell at this.
Then, something occurred to her.
“How did your mom’s powers kill her?” She asked.
“It - it wasn’t really her powers that killed her.” You began to explain. “It was more… the way she used them.”
Rachel looked at you expectantly, and you continued.
“Before she died… she saw what happened to Dick’s parents in a vision. How they died.” You explained. “She tried to stop it, and the people who were intent on killing them weren’t too happy about it. So they killed her too.”
It was a fate that you were constantly trying to avoid - stumbling into death while trying to save those that you loved. It was one of the reasons that you put up with so much attitude from Dick Grayson. You would much rather have him alive and giving you lip than have him dead because of some mistake that you made.
Rachel looked pensive for a moment - watching the birds as they rested in their large cage.
“Is that why you’re helping us now?” She asked quietly. “You’re trying to keep us from getting killed?”
“I’m doing my best.” You remarked, anxious hope ripe in your voice.
…
Clustering voices. A tense argument.
It was broken up by -
“Hello there.”
The faux sweetness of a dangerous stranger.
Fear shook you. The sound gave you a sense of deja vu. You recognized them from a far off vision.
Before you could warn the others, it broke into a brutal fight.
You used all the training you had, but you were distracted by Dick being thrown off the roof. Something hit you in the head, hard - you heard Dawn cry out for help, and you saw a cluster of blonde hair and limbs as she went flying.
Rachel screamed and reached out for you and you desperately reached back - you were dizzy and blinking heavily and didn’t even remember being knocked down.
“Dawn! Dawn!”
You heard Dick shouting urgently and then you realized in horror that she might be dead.
Dawn.
You were sluggish and felt wetness on the side of your face that must have been blood, but you forcibly peeled yourself off the ground, stumbling toward the sound of Dick’s voice - toward the fire escape. You tripped down a few of the stairs, your blurred eyes only focused on the shape of them - him crouching over her body, blonde hair splayed across the pavement, limp legs.
She’s not dead.
She can’t be.
When you made it to her, you fell to your knees beside her. With the last of her energy, she locked eyes with you.
Fear. Anxiety. Terror. Trust.
She knew that you would help her.
Her eyes drifted closed, and Dick panicked.
“Dawn, Dawn!”
“Be quiet.” You barked at him.
You needed to concentrate.
“You’re telling me to shut up?” He griped back, his fear and panic foaming up through his lips as intense anger directed towards you. “Shouldn’t you have seen this coming? What happened to-?”
“I don’t appreciate the attitude.” You ground out, looking up at him to find nothing but pure fear staring back at you. “Now - Shut. Up.”
You placed your hand gently onto Dawn’s forehead - you concentrated hard, focusing your powers on her. You couldn’t do anything about her physical injuries, but you could preserve the parts of her that mattered the most. You could keep her spirit alive. You could lock her memories away in a safe place so that she would be whole when her body healed.
“What kind of voodoo bullshit is she doing?” Hank huffed out, having just made it down the fire escape himself.
“Be quiet and let her work.” Dick told him, waving a dismissive hand in Hank’s direction.
For once in their lives, both of the men sat in silence, actually deferring to you and following your lead.
They trusted you to do something good for her, rather than doing more harm.
...
A/N: If you want to be tagged in future parts of this, you can sign up for my DC Titans taglist - just let me know that you want to be a part of that taglist by commenting below, and keep in mind that I have taglist rules. Also, I only have a general taglist for DC Titans fics, not a specific taglist for this series because this series updates sporadically and not on a schedule.
Please do not ask me when this fic will be updated - this fic does not have a schedule.
While this is technically part of a 'series', each chapter is meant to be enjoyed on its own. The overarching plot of the series is still that of the original Titans show, and I won't be making any major changes to the canon of the show - I just intend to showcase smaller emotional moments between the reader character and the canon characters. This is something I want to work on casually in the background between working on other things. This fic is not my main focus, and I will not be rushing to update it or complete it.
To me, this fic is a nice slow casual walk through the woods to enjoy the scenery, rather than a marathon with a clearly outlined route and a specific finish line as other series have been for me in the past.
Comments and reblogs are encouraged, and I am thankful for them - but please keep those comments focused on the actual content of the series - it's plot, the characters, their dynamics, even predictions for the plot of future chapters are okay, as long as you are not asking when the fic will be updated. Please do not spam me asking me to update this or asking me when I will update this - because I am not in a rush to do so. I have a lot of ideas for this series that I am excited about, but I want to work on it slowly and casually because I don't want to lose my enthusiasm for it and I know that rushing will take that enthusiasm away.
If you enjoyed this - great, thank you, I am so glad that you do. But if you expect this to be updated weekly like a factory pumping out stuff on a clearly outlined schedule - then you are in the wrong place. If you are expecting constant updates of this fic and you will be disappointed if it doesn't get updated regularly - you should just block me now and pretend you didn't read it.
But if you are a patient person - feel free to read and enjoy my other Titans works while I am working on updates for this (and working on other exciting things). I particularly recommend reading Your First Kiss With Dick Grayson to scratch that emotionally constipated Dick Grayson itch if this fic left you feening. Also, feel free to send me a message telling me what you thought of this fic or other fics in general.
Also - if you can't get Dick Grayson off your mind - my requests are open. And I would really love some requests for shorter fics with Dick, like headcanons or reactions. Otherwise, comments are appreciated and I really hope that you have a great day!
#sundrop writes#dc titans#titans fanfiction#dc titans fanfiction#dick grayson#dick grayson x reader#dick grayson x y/n#dick grayson x female!reader#dick grayson x you#bat boys x reader#dick grayson imagine
46 notes
·
View notes
Text
love and war | wrecker x fem twi’lek!reader
— chapter one
| next (WIP)
masterlist
cross posted on ao3
gif credit: @dreamswithghosts
summary: The love you shared was one of wide smiles and flushed cheeks. The love that made your heart grow twofold to the point it ached. The love that made one believe in soulmates. But with this love came war. War to survive in such a harsh world. War to ensure that the light of love would not be snuffed out by the growing darkness throughout the galaxy. War to simply…find peace.
a/n: !! chapter warnings !! brief mention of Twi'lek enslavement and scars from slave whips - really nothing major / Summaries are so hard I'm so sorry. Straight up pulled that outta my butt while I listened to Flawed Mangoes. But anyway, I just love love and I love Wrecker so much so here we are! Also, I took some creative libarties and made our Twi'lek reader's lekkus to be considerable longer than presented in the shows/movies because I said so. If that nasty ass Bib Fortuna can have them so can my girl!! Also also, apparently the head-tails that Twi'leks have are kinda like living parts or something. Like I read that they can pick things up and move to communicate like sign language. So that's pretty cool. As well as a backstory behind Wrecker's blind eye and scars, plus a little headcanon about slight hearing loss on his part.
“Oh, I’m so excited to see what Phee has brought back!” Lyana said with bright eyes as the three of you made your way to the top of the island. You eyed her father with a small smile before responding. “As am I.” A thoughtful hum passed by your lips as you pulled one of your lekkus over your shoulder, messing with the flower vines you decorated your head-tails with. “I wonder if she picked up any new seeds for me? The gardens could use some new friends.”
You were as close of a friend to Phee as she let you be after she freed you from slavers whilst on a mission to “liberate” an ancient Ryloth artifact the slavers wished to part with. As the three of you reached the summit and watched the ship come into view, you noted the four individuals that stood in front of her.
One being a young girl with short, blonde hair. Despite the fact they ranged from shape and size, they all sported the same colored armor. “After all, I am a liberator–” Shep was quick to announce their presence by finishing her sentence. “Liberator of ancient wonders.” Clone Force 99’s attention turned towards the new voice and that was when Wrecker saw you.
A Twi’lek dressed in a long, airy dress that blew in the light ocean breeze, paired with a slightly dirty apron that held gardening tools looked at his brother from underneath her large floppy hat that was decorated with flowers along the top. Even though you wore a hat, he could still take in your lekkus that dropped down your back and swayed with each breath you took.
As you got closer, he saw that your head-tails were wrapped in small lines that sprouted a few tiny flowers along the larger parts of the vines. You were the most beautiful creature he had ever laid his eyes on. His eyes never left your figure as you bounced over to Phee with a wide smile. “PHEEEEEEEE!” The woman in question opened her arms with a small smile as she braced for impact.
Everything about you drew Wrecker’s attention and he felt his heart speed up as passed him to get to her. Your scent was one of dirt and flora. It was intoxicating. “Easy now.” Phee started with a laugh. “Those tools you got might poke my kidney out if you hug me any tighter.” And your laugh. Wrecker had to force his legs to stay under him as the sound flowed through his ears like the sweetest melody. He was so enamored with you that he didn’t see the way Hunter eyed him. The speed of his heart was like a hammer inside Hunter’s ears from how fast his heart was beating.
“About time you showed your face around here.” Shep said with a laugh after you pulled away, allowing both him and Lyana to embrace him. “What’d you bring this time?” As Phee knelt down to show Layana, you took the time to look at those she brought along. From a closer distance it was clear that they were clones, but they weren’t like the ones you remembered from the war.
They had similar faces, but they had slightly different aspects about each and every one of them. The one next to the little girl sported a skull tattoo that took half his face along with a notable, red bandanna that held his long hair back a tad. The next one seemed to hide behind his data pad, but you could still see that his goggled-eyes were stuck on Phee as she spoke about the artifact. You couldn’t help the small smile that tugged on your lips.
Then your attention moved to the last clone and he was…breathtaking. He was as large as a house with broad shoulders and strong arms, but his eyes held almost a shyness from under your gaze. His brown and white eye shifted side to side every few seconds as you kept your full attention on him.
You were so focused on memorizing the trail of scars along his eye that you didn’t realize Phee had been speaking to you until she waved her hand in front of her face. “Seems Flower here likes what she sees, huh?” Heat burned your cheeks as you snapped your eyes away from the man with an open mouth. You were about to rebuttal the woman, but she simply turned on her heel and began introducing everyone.
“This is Shep Hazard, Mayor of Pabu, his daughter, Lyana…” She then said your name whilst pointing towards you. “Shep, Lyana, Flower, meet Omega, Hunter, Wrecker and Tech.” Wrecker…that was his name. You thought the name was quite fitting for a man of his size. Even his hand seemed to engulf Shep’s as he gave him a firm handshake with joy.
You shadowed Lyana as she walked closer to Omega while she spoke. “Phee’s never brought any friends here before.” “Never?” You noted the accent the young girl had as she spoke. “Not even Cid?” Phee moved closer to you and hung her elbow on your shoulder while she answered the girl. “Nope.”
“So why bring us?” Hunter’s deep voice was a stark difference from Omega. “Makes you wonder, doesn’t it?” You smiled brightly before you poked her in the side. “She must really like you guys.” Phee stepped away from you with a playful hiss whilst waving her hand at you. “All right, Flower. That’s enough out of you. You want to see what I got you don’t ya?” Wrecker watched as your eyes lit up while you clasped your hands together under your chin.
“A gift? For me?” With quick, small shuffles you closed the gap between you and the woman with a wide smile as she pulled a small pouch from her bag. “Managed to snag you some Bluebell Squish seeds.” You squeal in excitement as you quickly open the pouch to see inside. “The gardens will love them! They have been longing for some new friends.”
“Scientifically speaking, flora of any kind cannot “long” for friends. They do not have the emotional intelligence for such things. In fact, they have no intelligence whatsoever.” You turned to see the voice belong to the one named Tech. His finger was up in the air as he spoke the words as if they were law.
Wrecker nudged his brother in the side to get him to apologize, but your sweet laugh filled the air once more. “Well you may be right, but they still do have emotional intelligence…just not in the same way we do.” You leaned closer to Tech with a smile. “Plants may lack a central nervous system, but they are still able to process information from the world around them and respond to them. And that, to me, is all I need to know to determine that they do, in fact, have feelings.” You stepped back with a joyful sigh before finishing.
“We are all children of the Force, and our energies recognize one another no matter what form we may take and respond to one another.” The Batch watched with wide eyes as Tech lifted his finger once more but was unable to formulate a reply. He simply cleared his throat and moved his hand to adjust his glasses. “I suppose it would be a waste of my time to discuss this further, seeing that you believe in such things, whilst I am a man of fact and logic.” Despite the fact that Tech’s words could be viewed in a negative light, you still smiled at him.
You both were right in your own ways and you had no right to diminish his outlook just because you believed another. And you sensed that he felt the same…but said it in a more clean-cut way.
“Then it’s settled. You’ll join us for dinner.” And with that the group began their way into lower Pabu. Omega and Lyana ran ahead whilst Shep spoke with Hunter and Tech following not far behind.
You had gradually made your way to the back of the group as many members of the community stopped to speak to you. From a quick “hello” to a brief conversation about a plant they had purchased from you. You bid farewell to a fellow Twi’lek when Wrecker spoke to you. “Do you know everyone here?” Oh how his voice made your stomach flip from the rasp it held.
A smile graced your lips as you fell in step with the man whilst responding. “We all know one another. We are all family to one another.” The two of you fell silent for a beat before both speaking at the same time. “So your group–” “So, how do you know Phee?” Both of you looked at one another before falling into a fit of giggles and laughs. While yours was light, his was hearty. You had to take hold of the tips of your head-tails due to the fact they seemed to keep reaching out for him.
Wrecker cleared his throat. “L-Ladies first.” His stutter brought heat to your cheeks once more as you moved your eyes back ahead of you. “I was just curious about you and your group. From what I know about the war, the clones were soldiers. So, your group having a child intrigued me.” You gazed towards the blonde girl as she jumped around with Lyana. “Is she the daughter of one of you?”
You turned your attention back to the large man and saw him shaking his head. “No, she’s our big sister.” You knew of the clones' accelerated growth so you put the pieces together that she must have been different. Wrecker tilted his head slightly. “Though…she is more like a daughter to Hunter.” A small laugh passed his lips. “It’s a lil’ odd.”
You softly shook your head. “Relationships between one another are complex things. As long as she is loved and cared for.” Wrecker looked down at you with sudden serious eyes. “We would lay down our lives for her.” You gave a stern nod. “Good. She deserves nothing less.”
The man was about to open his mouth once more, but Shep suddenly spoke your name. “This is her home and shop.” You looked towards him to see that the group was now in front of your home. “She nurtures the most beautiful plants in the entire galaxy. None are able to do what she does.”
Wrecker watched as you walked over to him while waving your hands in bashfulness. “Oh Shep, you act as though it was magic.” With a polite smile you slipped past Hunter and moved towards your door. “But, since I am here I suppose it’s time to say goodbye for now.” “Wait, you’re not coming to dinner with us?” Wrecker’s question shot through the air even before you had finished your sentence, earning everyone’s eyes on him.
Hunter could hear the way both hearts were beating so fast he feared he would get a headache. You dropped your gaze with a small laugh while taking a lekku in your hands. “I’m sure you all must have matters to discuss and I do not wish to intrude.” Shep shook his head with a gentle laugh before getting your attention. “You would never intrude. We all assumed you would be joining us; you missed Phee the most and I’m sure you’d love to catch up as well as get to know our guests more.” That’s when heat exploded along your cheeks once more.
You didn’t have to see Shep’s face to know he was smiling about a certain member of their team you quickly grew enamored with. With a small laugh you began walking backwards. “Well, in that case–” A gasp shot from your mouth as your hip hit one of the many plant pots you had scattered around your front porch.
Wrecker felt his hands twitch to reach out and steady you as he watched you regain your balance with an awkward cough. “Um…yeah, I’m–I’ll go freshen up then.” You were quick to shut your front door before letting a heavy sigh out from the embarrassment that spread throughout your body. Unaware of the eyes that lingered on your front door for longer than needed before eventually joining his brothers.
-
It was near sunset when Wrecker saw you again and when he did, the man launched to his feet as he took you in. The chair he sat on almost tumbled over from his speed in which he stood. There you were, the woman that already seemed to take over his mind, glowing underneath the light of Pabu’s setting sun.
Eyes staring straight at him. You were dressed in a loose fitting dress that draped over your body with your head-tails resting down your chest after you tied them together in the front with a ribbon. The tips of your tails barely sweeping across your belly button with the light breeze.
Because of the lack of vines he was able to see the designs that spread across for lekkus; the faintest of swirls intertwined with your skin in a shade barely lighter than your skin color. His sudden movement didn’t go unnoticed and they all looked to where he was staring…only to see you.
Omega’s eyes widened as she was quick to speak. “YOU LOOK SO PRETTY!” Her excited voice snapped you from his gaze and you quickly looked down to where she was. A smile graced your lips once more as you moved closer. “Thank you very much, Omega.” Your eyes moved to look at everyone at the table. “I apologize for being so late. I still had some chores to finish up and then it took me some time to find a dress that didn’t have that many dirt stains on it.”
Everyone chuckled at your joke. “Uh, I th-I think you look amazingly…uh beautiful.” Wrecker’s words tumbled out faster than his brain could process which caused him to stumble over the words. And once more…your cheeks grew hot. Omega grabbed your hand and led you to a, conveniently, vacant seat right next to Wrecker.
The dinner went well and as everyone began to scatter to their own devices, Wrecker made his way to where you stood. You had seen Omega and Lyana off towards the boat before settling in against the railing of the balcony just moments ago.
Because the dress you wore had an open back, the men were able to see what was marked there as you got comfortable. Jagged burns littered your colored skin and they knew immediately where they came from. A slaver’s whip. The long weapon coursing with electricity was something none could forget after being struck by one.
Although you just met Wrecker that day, you could tell that he was being unusually quiet as he approached and you knew why. “It’s okay. You can ask about them.” You grew to accept the scars that marked your body and felt no reason to cover it up. “You were a slave?” Wrecker couldn’t help but wince at the phrasing he used to ask the question, but you didn’t seem to be angry.
Your eyes still watched the boat with Omega and Lyana on it leave the dock as you let out a simple ‘mhmm’. You lekkus twirling the flowers that grew on the balcony as you did. “It’s quite common for the women of my species to be taken so it was really only a matter of time.” Wrecker’s heart grew heavy from your words. “Phee was actually the one who saved me.” You looked past Wrecker to where Phee was talking with Tech and a small smile formed. “She saved me in every possible way.”
“I’ll have to thank her then.” Your eyes moved to his brown and white one with slight confusion. “If she didn’t save you I may have never met you.” Heat exploded across your cheeks and you dropped your head with a small laugh. Your heart was pounding just as hard as his. “You sure do know how to make a lady blush.” The once heavy atmosphere grew light as Wrecker threw his head back in laughter.
Your giggles were not far behind. “What about your scars?” You asked once your laughter died down. Wrecker turned his large body towards you so you could get a better view at the side of his face that was littered with a web of scars around his ear and head. Being so close, you were even able to see that small parts of the ear were missing.
“It was during one of my early demolition exercises on Kamino. Normally, the bombs they had me working with were duds but one must’ve slipped through the cracks and next thing I know I was in the medical wing with only one good eye and ear.” So he was blind in that eye and the reason he speaks so loud is because he most likely lost hearing on that ear.
Another hum passed your lips as you slowly raised your hand to the side of his face. “May I?” Wrecker nodded and your fingers moved across his skin he gasped. The reaction caused you to jump back. “I’m so sorry!” Your eyes were wide with worry as you intertwined your claps hands with your lekku tips.
The man frantically shook his head. “M’bad.” You watched red flush his cheeks as his eyes shifted around. “It’s just…no one’s touched them before. People find them too scary to look at.” That’s when his eyes dropped to the floor and you watched as his whole self seemed to deflate. “People find me scary to look at.” Anger bubbled within you at confession.
How could anyone think this man was scary? You could tell he was nothing more than a gentle giant. “Well, I don’t find you scary.” With a small step forward you brushed your fingers against his larger ones. “In fact…” Your voice dropped to almost a whisper as if the wind would carry the sound throughout all of Pabu. “I think you are quite handsome.”
His wide eyes snapped towards you and you had to hold back the giggles that threatened to escape. A few seconds passed before a smile split across his face. “Seems like I’m not the only one that can make someone blush.” Your heart grew full as you smiled up towards him. Unfortunately, the moment was lost when the ground started to shake. Wrecker grabbed hold of you with ease as you lost your footing and with wide eyes you looked up at him. Something was coming.
#the bad batch wrecker#the bad batch wrecker x reader#the bad batch wrecker imagine#tbb wrecker#tbb wrecker x reader#tbb wrecker imagine#wrecker#wrecker x reader#wrecker imagine#star wars#star wars x reader#star wars imagine#the bad batch#the bad batch x reader#the bad batch imagine#tbb#tbb x reader#tbb imagine
26 notes
·
View notes
Text
"Ciel is a whiny brat. He would be nothing without Sebastian-"
SHUT UP! SHUT UP!
#Seb is the match that lit up Ciel's fire but without something to catch on he would have never got that far#He negotiated the best contract he could have gotten he built a business from the ground up by himself and is the smarts of their operations#and like come one if you read his backstory and still believe this is the truth then you closed your eyes to what his entire arc is about#sebaciel
78 notes
·
View notes
Text
I always liked the riddle scene in the Hobbit, but I never knew what it really meant until I read the original just now. The main idea is lost in adaptations because you need to get into their heads. I knew it was a high-stakes version of a kids' game and a mythology/fairytale reference, but it still seemed pretty random and hard to believe, since these two are the last characters you'd put in a battle of wits.
But the scene is actually about how people's environments shape the way they think. Bilbo and Gollum are both so flustered that they can only think of what are, to them, very easy riddles. They keep feeling ashamed that they can't think of something harder, and confident that the other guy will get this immediately. But the other guy is stumped, because his mind works differently, because he lives in the opposite environment.
Solving the riddles isn't actually about being smart, but being empathetic in Bilbo's case and nostalgic in Gollum's. Bilbo is only able to comprehend Gollum's nasty way of thinking because they are in his lair, amongst the dark and fish. Bilbo is repulsed and even unable to guess Gollum's final riddle, only winning by luck (he stutters "I need more time" so badly it sounds like the correct answer, "time").
Gollum is only able to imagine Bilbo's pleasant answers by thinking back to his past, when he was a normal guy who lived with his grandmother near flowers, eggs, and cats. In this book, he isn't confirmed to be a former hobbit, but the parallel becomes more tragic with this retroactive backstory. Gollum indirectly tells Bilbo that time is the only thing that separates them, and Bilbo does not understand this. If Bilbo had the "more time" he requests, hundreds of years here in the dark, he would become like Gollum, wisdom at a terrible price.
The main theme of The Silmarillion is how immortality affects people. Elves are fated to live forever in the undying lands of Valinor. Humans instead have the "Gift of Ilúvatar," the great mystery of an unknown afterlife. Elves are counterintuitively jealous of this gift, since death allows humans to escape the music of Arda, the fate which defines all creation.
Bilbo and Gollum, who were so different in life that they could barely follow each other's thoughts, also end up with the opposite deaths. The elves take Bilbo to Valinor, while Gollum goes to the mysterious afterlife of the other unchosen mortals. (At least two elves, Lúthien and Arwen, chose this fate for themselves out of love for a guy. But generally this is the unchosen/fate defying route for souls to go.)
So during their first meeting, Gollum is the one who understands the destructive power of time. But in the long term, Bilbo will come to understand time as an endless font of wisdom and peace, since nothing can be destroyed in Valinor. We don't know how or even if the mortal afterlife experiences time; if Gollum's pessimistic definition would hold true, or if that, too, would eventually change.
531 notes
·
View notes
Text
TF141 + König help you move
Here’s some backstory (bc this is incredibly self-indulgent send help): you take everything upon yourself, plan everything down to the last detail so you just wind up overwhelming yourself and then you’re just running on fumes the entire time, you are not at peace until you’ve moved into the new place, you are a ball of stress aaaand go:
Simon ‘Ghost’ Riley:
He’s very much the type to watch you go, he knows you’re overloading yourself and he wants to step in but he also knows you need to learn how to ask for help
That’s not to say he’s completely hands off, he’s listening to every word when you review your checklist, he’s helping you pack- everything from assembling the boxes to sealing them when they’re full
He’s taken it upon himself to make sure you eat a proper meal
“What’s this?” You ask as you mute your phone while on hold with the utilities company for your new place,
“It’s breakfast. Eat.”
“I already-”
“Iced coffee isn’t food, love.”
Bet
So he’ll take to cooking or grabbing your favorite take out
If you’re worried you forget something, he’ll go down the list with you, going so far as to grab your notebook and review it with you
He encourages you to sort through your belongings and figure out what you want to keep and what you want to give away
His rule: if I haven’t seen you use it, wear it, read it, or touch it in the last six months, it’s going in the giveaway box (save for stuff with sentimental value)
Surprisingly enough, it helps reduce how much you have to pack and you couldn’t be more thankful
All in all, 10/10
John ‘Soap’ MacTavish:
He’s so much fun to be around
He knows you’re taking on too much and he’ll tell you as much
“I’m fine, Johnny, I just like these things done a certain way. And when the order gets messed up, I have a panic attack.”
“Well, then explain how you’d like it done, and I’ll see to it that it stays that way, sound good?”
He’s so understanding god bless
He does everything possible to make the process stress free, from putting on music while you’re packing and cleaning, to being in charge of snacks
He helps divide the labor very seamlessly, he does all the physical stuff (packing, cleaning, moving furniture, etc) and he leaves the logistics to you, (utilities, new apt, address change, etc)
If at any point you feel like it’s still too much, he’ll jump in without hesitation
Just tell him where you’re struggling and what your next task is and he’ll gladly take over
You point, he’ll shoot (or pack, in this case)
John Price:
Like??
Good luck trying to take control of the whole thing
He’s way ahead of you and doesn’t let you do a single thing on your own, that’s not true, he’ll let you do things on your own but not all of it, you get the idea
Man’s a Captain for god’s sake, he definitely has a system to make the process easier
He makes sure you start the process sooner rather than later to avoid scrambling last minute
Before even buying boxes, he’ll sit down with you to come up with a checklist for things to do and what order to pack your place in
He’s very encouraging throughout the whole process
“Phew, almost an hour later and I was successfully able to transfer my car insurance.” You sighed slumping against the table, practically throwing your phone to the other side of the room
“You’re doin’ great, love, keep it up.” He comes up behind you to rub your shoulders and rub your back encouragingly
He’s with you every step of the way
Kyle ‘Gaz’ Gerrick:
I love him but I can see it as being kind of chaotic lmao but still fun!
You better believe he’s got Animal Crossing music on loop
He claims it’ll help you get into the cleaning/packing frame of mind and son of a bitch he’s right
He sets a hard limit of one to two things a day, so if you finished packing up your living room sooner than you expected and now you want to move on to your bedroom, too damn bad
He’ll physically stop you lol
“You already did enough, babe, it’s time to rest.”
“I feel fine, Ky, I can keep going.”
“Trust me darlin’, take it easy, you’re doing great.”
Definitely the type to give you a treat to help keep you motivated, or even start your day with a treat
You’re dreading calling the new internet company to set up your new wifi? Well guess what? He’s treating you to coffee and a cinnamon roll from your favorite cafe to help motivate you
You’re dead tired after packing up all your belongings in your room, dinner is your pick babe, whatever you want, yes, Taco Bell is perfectly ok
König:
Very good at following directions and equally good at being perceptive and knowing when to step in without being asked
He knows you have a habit of taking on more than you can handle but he also knows your tells just as well
Increased irritability, you’re more tired than usual, you’re not eating as much, drinking more coffee than you normally do, jittery leg, trouble sleeping, he knows you babe, he sees you
So he does everything he can to prevent you from getting to that point
If you’re complaining about packing all your books, don’t worry about it, he’s on it
You’re stressed about cleaning as you pack, no need, he’s already coming behind you with Clorox wipes, a broom, and a swiffer mop
He encourages you to offload some of your tasks to him, insisting that he knows how you want it done and can do it accordingly
“Schatz, you have so much on your plate already, let me handle renting the truck and getting the supplies, we’ll go over what you want to do first, and I’ll help you do it, ok?”
At the end of the night when your limbs ache from exhaustion, he gently taking your hands in his and massaging the tension away, placing little kisses as he goes
#simon riley x reader#simon ghost riley x reader#ghost x reader#john soap mactavish x reader#soap mactavish x reader#john mactavish x reader#soap x reader#john price x reader#captain john price x reader#kyle gaz garrick x reader#gaz x reader#kyle garrick x reader#konig x reader#könig x reader#cod x reader#mw2 x reader#cod mw2#cod mwii
1K notes
·
View notes
Text
I like to think that romance with Idia widely differs depending on the time you’ve been in a romantic relationship.
1. “Just started dating” stage.
If you're reading Idia fanfiction, there is an 80% chance this is the stage your relationship is on.
Idia is… treating you like a very precious stranger. He's on his toes and seeks your approval in whatever he's doing. He is going to great lengths to understand the theory of dating and your hobbies - so you can maybe share even more interests - but won’t really act on anything.
He’s constantly surprised by every romantic move you make and you have numerous occasions to adore his cherry blush and various puckles of hair igniting with pink and red. He stutters a lot and can’t focus on anything in your presence.
Idia will outright reject any suggestions for bolder moves. He’s unprepared, and although guilt is eating him from the inside, he is not up to anything you two weren’t doing as friends. Well, maybe handholding, kissing, and cuddling get a (hard) pass, but you are the only one initiating these things.
He will try his best to reciprocate effort, though.
2. “Have been dating for a while” stage.
It’s an interphase between two very different stages, so he’s a funny mix: a very shy outsider and a cocky genius at the same time.
Gaming sessions will be the centre of your couple's time. Idia regularly invites you to his dorm, sometimes even on spontaneous sessions when a new event comes up or he has found a new game that looks very cool. You share snacks, drinks, and clothes (read: you have unwritten permission to claim his blouses).
This boy would be dead without you and Ortho, and with that knowledge, you make it your mission to (somehow) tidy up his room, buy some cosmetics, healthier food, etc. If you are up to organizing a “self-care evening”, he will be hesitant at first but will be looking forward to it after a while, with some older anime. (I like to think it would be a magical girl series like Sailor Moon, Tokyo Mew Mew or Chobits, or some shoujo).
In exchange, he might construct some little gadgets (maybe anime-themed?) for you, helps you get the merch you want, and supports you in your games.
At this point, he doesn’t weigh his words much. He’s still easy to fluster, but he comes with comebacks right away. The most flirty he gets on the phone when it’s late at night and you are using a chat to talk, especially when you are not in the same room.
3. Long-term relationship stage.
He knows you are doomed to him and shamelessly takes advantage of that.
He has no claims against calling you in the middle of the night to watch him sharing his screen when he pulls for a character he wants to get in the gacha system. He believes your presence brings him luck, so he must have you when he does crucial things!
Idia disses your taste in fictional men. Sometimes, he reads the dialogues out loud from the otome games you play. He may alter them, which can make you either huff or laugh. If you read or write fanfiction, he might read them too, giving you an out loud commentary on some fragments and asking you if you are that desperate for dates so you are sending fanfiction to inspire him. If you say yes, he will hum and return to whatever he was doing before, but he might plan something out that you will preferably be able to do in his room.
Chatroom with him and Ortho is quite calm, almost polite, but your private chatroom with Idia is the most chaotic one you’ve ever been. You learned to not leave your phone openly if you don’t want to explain some inside joke with a layered backstory. An app you use to chat with Idia is the one your screen time is counted on most, and writing with Idia is your guilty pleasure.
If you are interested in IT, he might program you an app or something to help you with it! He will give you the best feedback ever, and although it may be harsh, the last thing he wants is to discourage you from learning further.
On one anniversary of your dating, he will gift you this kind of couple bracelet which lights up if the other person touches it. He created them himself. When he receives signals throughout the day, he thinks of them as a promise from you, that no distance can sever your bond.
If you bring up some serious talk, you will be bullied with memes. It’s Idia’s coping mechanism. He will plan his future with you, don’t worry, but wait for him to muster up the courage to get on one knee and ask the question.
#In conclusion at some point the stuttering will end#and he will smoothly pull an uno-reverse and 4+ cards on you.#This analysis sounded better in my head hhhhhhhh#idia#idia shroud#idia x reader#idia shroud x reader#twst#twisted wonderland#twst x reader#twisted wonderland x reader#twst idia#twst idia x reader
1K notes
·
View notes
Text
Hello everyone! Thank you so much for following me, its my first time sharing about my twst ocs so I’ll give it a shot ✊
Warning: Hallucinations 🙇♀️
Alison Wondre
School: Royal Sword Academy
Favourite food: Cookies
Pastime: Reading children’s books, Daydreaming
Family: Mother, Father, Older sister
Role: Head of Alice/Wonderland dorm
Alison is a second year student at RSA and dorm head. Unlike Riddle who upholds rules, Alison is the polar opposite of him in every way.
Alison adopts a carefree and playful attitude, he enjoys teasing uptight people until they blow (like Riddle).
He tends to mention strange things like how he saw some singing flowers the other day or his craving to take a bite out of a bread-and-butter-fly. From the way he dresses to his wild, childish imagination its no surprise that many students believe he’s gone mad. But it is agreeably fitting for someone who is head of the Alice/Wonderland dorm.
Backstory:
Alison has an older sister whom he adores greatly and spends most of his time with. When he was a young boy, he didn’t listen to his sister’s heeding to not stray off from the path and ended up falling into a deep hole in a forest. He slowly started hallucinating monsters and cried himself to sleep, wishing he had listened to his sister. Thankfully, the authorities found him a few days later and he was sent to a hospital.
However, it was clear that Alison became an entirely different person after the incident. He began telling his sister stories about funny creatures he had met during his “adventure” which was rather worrying to her. While Alison was in the hospital for a few months,he picked up several children’s picture books which he still brings around with him in school till this day. As he grew older his imagination became wilder as he forgets the fine line between reality and his “wonderland”. He takes afternoon naps to “meet his friends”. Its a given rule to never wake him up.
Of course despite his eccentric character, Alison is still a caring and reliable leader when he needs to be(just that he conveys it in his own ways). He will not hesitate to listen to a fellow dorm mate’s worries and give vague advice, hoping they can figure out the riddle. He encourages them to “stay curiouser and curiouser” as life becomes a little more colourful that way when you experience new things. When it comes to thinking out of the box, no one can beat Alison to it.
Relationships
Riddle
Alison finds joy in teasing serious individuals, namely Riddle, until they throw a tantrum. He doesn’t mind getting the magic collar so as long as he can poke fun at the red haired queen. In serious situation, Alison would cooperate with Riddle and provide creative solutions.
If both of them share a similarity, it would be the fear of being held back and stuck in a dark place alone. Like Riddle who grew up having to follow his mother’s rules and forbidden to see his friends, Alison can somewhat share the same pain as he is still afraid of not waking up and/or seeing his sister again because of his ignorance in the past.
Chenya
Alison is generally carefree around others, but when it comes to this cunning cheshire cat he will not waste a single second to curse him. Many students find it strange how two eccentrics from the same dorm can never get along. Alison finds Chenya a nuisance who disrupts his afternoon naps, often pestering him. In addition, Chenya always gives Alison close-to-useless advice even when the latter didn’t ask for any. Guess its like a taste of his own medicine 😂
While the two do not get along, they are always seen together in school bickering nonsense. Sometimes Chenya would purposely wake Alison up from his nap to share about the strawberry tart he stole from his two childhood friends, the sleepy blonde would just doze off back to dreamland while nodding his head.
End
Well, I think that is all I can share about Alison! I hope you will like him too, thank you to those who have loved him since the beginning!! Talking about my children is fun ☺️
Until next time!
3K notes
·
View notes
Text
Kaz and Wylan’s potential to become each other
Wow, you guys were a lot more excited about this than I was expecting! I made a post briefly mentioning this idea and it got way more attention that I was expecting, so as promised here is my explanation and I’ve tagged people who asked for it at the end :)
*WARNING: CONSTANT SPOILERS AHEAD*
Ok so the driving forcing of this comparison is rooted in the similarities of their characters and their backstories. Both of them lost a close family member, were abused by men with power over them, and experienced a form of ‘rebirth’ by nearly drowning in the Ketterdam canals. They also both experience disability; Kaz using a cane for a broken leg that didn’t heal correctly, and Wylan having severe dyslexia that prevented him from learning to read. A key difference that separates them, and arguably is a representation of the difference in the way their experiences have shaped their personalities as well, is that Kaz’s disability is a direct result of his chasing after vengeance, whereas Wylan’s disability was used as an excuse for his father to abuse him for what we as the reader see to be a minimum of eight years. (I’m assuming this because he is 16 in the book and was 8 when his mother ‘died’, which is the point that he describes he father to have “given up on him”)
I’m gonna quickly hop to parallels between Kaz and Pekka Rollins, bare with me I promise it’s relevant, which are quickly established as a key part of the novels. When Inej compares them, Kaz’s reply is “I don’t sell girls, I don’t con helpless kids out of their money” to which she gently responds “look at the floor of the Crow Club, Kaz”. Aside from this being the heartbreaking line that it is, it also does a very good job of highlighting their similarities and a similarity that they share with Jan Van Eck. When they meet the merch at the end of the first book they meet on an island called Vellgeluk, which is described as being popular with smugglers and slavers like those who kidnapped Inej. The other Crows are surprised Van Eck knows about Vellgeluk, but Kaz simply says “maybe he isn’t the upstanding merch he appears to be”. Great subtle foreshadowing for his double cross, and great establishment of the link between these three characters. In fact, Van Eck and Kaz echo each other more than you might think. Just as Kaz states “Greed bows to me, it is my servant and my lever”, Van Eck says “Yes, Chaos will come. And I will be it’s master”. In their first meeting, Van Eck accuses Kaz of murder and gambling with people’s lives, and in return Kaz points out that 1 in 5 of Van Eck’s ships will never return because they will sink or “fall prey to pirates”, so they are both doing the same thing, and that they both have the same motivations for this bloodshed: “profit”.
Now consider how often Wylan echoes Kaz, and therefore whether he echoes his father as well. They both have exceptional memories, Kaz’s being photographic/eidetic and Wylan being able to put words to music in his head to remember pages worth of infomation - this is even emphasised by Kaz being able to count cards when he gambles, saying “he could keep track of the game for up to three decks” and Jesper asking Wylan if he’d be able to apply “that trick to counting cards” to which he replies “probably. But I won’t”. They also both have impressive intellects, which could have placed them far higher up in the world than they’ve found themselves if it weren’t for cruel circumstances - Van Eck even comments on this, saying it angers him that Kaz has so much potential but does nothing with it. Then there’s their tendency to avoid being vulnerable. I think we too often overlook the fact that no-one knows Jan Van Eck hired two men to kill his son, not even Jesper, and that not even Inej knows what happened to Kaz on the Reaper’s Barge. Jesper believes that Wylan left his house as a result of his father’s abuse but that it was still his choice, and Inej has no information beyond “Pekka Rollins killed my brother” and the explanation of the con when Kaz faces off with Rollins in Crooked Kingdom. I genuinely believe that the biggest thing separating them is where they place blame for their situations. Kaz blames Pekka Rollins. Wylan actually blames himself.
Arguably, although he catalysed the events, if Rollins hadn’t conned Kaz and Jordie they still would have suffered in an almost identical way: they would both contract the Queen’s Lady Plague, they wouldn’t have enough money for both medicine and boarding, and Jordie would die. In that scenario Kaz would have still been left penniless and alone with nowhere to go, but he wouldn’t have had anyone to blame. In fact, he may have died as well because it’s really his drive for vengeance that makes him strive for survival. When he’s on the Reaper’s Barge he wonders if it’s worth trying to survive because there’s nothing waiting for him in the city, but then he realises that the chance of revenge is waiting for him, and that thought drives him to stay alive every day that follows. Without Rollins, Kaz probably would have blamed himself for Jordie’s death, and I’m backing that up with the singular moment when he’s first attacked by parem-high tide makers and has a brief “boy’s fear” that they are ghosts. He thinks, for a split second, that a ghost has come to kill him and what does he say? He says “Jordie had come for vengeance at last”. This is chapter three. We have no idea who Jordie is. With the limited information we had at the time and what we’d just seen happen to Big Bolliger, I assumed it was someone in Kaz’s gang that he had backstabbed and who has died because of what he did. But no. This single line leads me to wholeheartedly believe that Kaz blames Rollins, who realistically was only a small part of his suffering, quite so vividly to emotionally avoid blaming himself.
Wylan blames himself until around chapters 14 to 16 of Crooked Kingdom. His experiences with mental, emotional, and physical abuse have actively convinced him that his so-called ‘inadequacies’ caused a change in his father’s behaviour. But Wylan not being able to read didn’t magically turn Van Eck from a lucky family man into someone willing to try “specialists, tonics, beatings, [and] hypnotism” against his child. The fact is that Van Eck, like many abusers, is masterfully manipulative in everything he does. Wylan describes seeing his parents’ marriage as a happy one, but he also says “the argued all the time, sometimes about me. But I remember them laughing a lot too”. He’s quick to defend their relationship as if it isn’t supposed to be marred by argument and he lays blame on himself by suggesting that he was the root of their unhappiness. He also says that around Alys, Jan Van Eck becomes who he once was around Marya; a kinder, gentler man. I don’t think we’re meant to assume that he’s acting any differently with Alys in private right now, but I do think we’re meant to assume that he would have done down the line if he hadn’t been arrested (and presumably she filed for divorce). In chapter 14 of Crooked Kingdom, Wylan learns that his mother is still alive but that his father had her committed and declared insane so he could use it as grounds for divorce and marry Alys instead. And you know what happens? Wylan blames himself. He says, verbatim, to Jesper: “You don’t understand. It’s my fault”. He explains that Van Eck did this so he could have a “real heir”; because Marya produced a “faulty” child he needed a new woman to give him the child he wanted. That’s a messed up thing to think on so many levels, but Wylan doesn’t blame Van Eck because he is still being conditioned by his abuse. He and Kaz experienced different kinds of abuse, and Kaz wasn’t conditioned to blame anyone but his abuser, so that’s what he does. When Wylan does begin to blame Van Eck, he is immediately taken in by this same idea of revenge. Kaz says “you were angry. I needed you righteous” when explaining why he sent Wylan to St Hilde blind in chapter 16. Wylan was angry with his father before, but he wasn’t actively seeking vengeance. Now that he has a cause, someone other than himself to fight for? He tells Kaz “well, now you have me”.
Both of them have this potential to be fuelled by revenge or self-hatred, and although they go about it in different ways and lean towards different sides of the scale they are both balancing between those two extremes for the entire duology. Their past experiences have, and their future experiences could, tip them further either way but right now they are almost playing with the line.
Thank you so much if you’ve bothered to read this far, sorry for the long post but you did ask for an essay, so there you go. Tagging the people who asked - @kazooyay @mikasimaginairyworld @sunseeking-cyptid @moonlit-aura @alexplutoplanet @gandalfsmallnaturals @livsarthaven @goodomenstrack23 @origami-butterfly @flower-biatch @bookworm010307 @thesunniest @wherela @space-ace-thoughts @sixofbabycrows @antisocial-burrito
Sorry if I missed anyone!!!
#grishaverse#leigh bardugo#six of crows#crooked kingdom#kaz brekker#wylan van eck#kanej#wesper#kanej supremacy#wesper my beloved#inej ghafa#jesper fahey#nina zenik#matthias helvar#jan van eck#marya van eck#marya hendriks#wylan hendricks#jesper and wylan#six of crows wylan#kazzle dazzle#kaz rietveld#jordie rietveld#kaz and jordie#pekka rollins
938 notes
·
View notes
Text
You're just so cute!
Part 2
Strawhats x Affectionate! Reader
Can be read romantically or platonically(except for Chopper! He is platonic.)
Enies Lobby mentions for Robin, but nothing spoiler worthy.
Characters: Chopper, Robin, Franky, and Brook
CHOPPER
We already know how he is with compliments😭
Will insult anyone who does
He just gets sooo embarrased.
But that doesn't mean anything to you.
So he has to get his A game on.
"You have Luffy's smartness!" "You are even more unfunny than Brooks jokes" "How are you more of a crybaby than Franky?"
"You smell worse than Zoro." "You're eyes are creepier than Robins!" "Why does Nami has less anger issues than you?!"
Ends up insulting the whole crew just to get you to knock it off.
But these attacks don't work so he stops them(Nami, Franky, and Usopp get mad at him for dragging them.)
He will never get used to them fully. But you can praise him without him immediately insulting you.
Once in a blue moon he might just accept it.
But that is rare.
Feels happy when you notice things others do not.
He likes praises from you as much as from Robin.
ROBIN
She is an enigma.
You cannot tell how she takes it.
She always gives the same response: a gentle smile and a thank you.
That is the extent you witness
But her head is always going haywire
Before Enies lobby she feels like you wouldn't be saying this if you knew her backstory.
She doesn't blame you, just can't believe it is actually genuine out of insecurity.
After enies lobby, at first she might think you don't again mean it because it might be out of sympathy.
But she realizes quickly that it is truthful.
She genuinely appreciates every compliment you give her after that realization.
Like Nami, she loves when you praise her character because being known as a demon child and evil since the age of 8 does wonders on ones self esteem.
She will still think she is somewhat undeserving, but her confidence and self esteem build up over time.
She will reciprocate any praise back.
When she doesn't actively try to compliment you, the praise is beautiful.
But when she is actively trying, they come off as kind of creepy.
Think Ishigami noticing Chika's Shampoo.
She will act exactly like Ishigami if you say that it is creepy(but say she wants to die in her head.)
Do not blame her she is trying!
FRANKY
Lets be real. He is the complimentor of the strawhats.
You can't compete where you can't compare.
When you start your complimenting campaign, he takes it as a competition.
If you praise someone, he comesback with two. If you point something out no one else noticed in your crewmate, he actually noticed first because he raised them, taught them to read, and gave birth to them.
You two always get into compliment battles. You say he is cool, well you are not just cool but awesome. If you think he is the best shipwright, well now you are the most SUPER best (crew job) in the world!
You just yell at each other, but instead of insults, it is just nice things. Nami has to threaten you two to shut up.
Yall get stares if you do this in public
You get annoyed with his antics, so you curate a plan to get him to stop.
We all know he can be a bit of a crier(he just has a lot of feelings.)
So you keep track of why he cries everytime, trying to find a pattern.
You find his weakspot.
"Franky, you are honestly such a good peeaon. I wish you were my older brother. You'd be the best brother in the world."
Cue water works.
He cannot respond to you other than a thank you and a weak compliment back.
But it is clear to anyone that you won.
This doesn't stop any compliment battles though.
BROOK
Other than Luffy, he is the only one that doesn't reject the praise at first for some reason.
From the jump is chill about it and appreciates it.
This makes it easier for you.
But you have to put up with so many jokes.
I'm sorry I cannot do skeleton jokes, so I got these off of google
"Wow you are always so calm Brook!" "That's because nothing gets under my skin! YOHOHOHOHOOOOO!!!"
"You can play any type of music! Wow!" "But not church music." "Why not?" "Because I have not Organs! Yohoho!"
😐
Listen, i never said you won't have ANY difficulties.
He isn't as insecure as others but it still makes his self esteem better.
The praise makes him more confident in himself.
After being alone for so long, he deserves all the praise
He shows off his musical skills to you a lot kore than anyone else since who doesn't want to hear thet are the Shit.
#one piece fluff#one piece x reader#tony tony chopper#nico robin x reader#robin x reader#franky x reader#brook x reader#brook one piece
154 notes
·
View notes
Note
Are there any sonic au’s you would recommend? I am trying to find more to get into so would love to know if you have any favourites out there :D
Hello! Oh there are so many! :D I definitely have some favorites and some which aren't favs but are pretty great.
Putting these under the cut because there are so many! And there's definitely more cool AUs that I haven't seen or haven't saved.
Anyways, please enjoy my personal selection:
Seven Years Too Soon by NightFuchia. Basically what if a much younger Sonic accidentally set Shadow free from Prison Island. It has awesome characterization and happens to be one of my favorite stories. The rest of Team Sonic is also present
Brotherhood's Twist by @/drawloverlala even though I don't think it counts entirely as Au but it still sort of does. Unbreakable Bond ageswitch due to Zeti's meddling.
Passion's @sonic-tangled-au . I love it! So very much. The lore and backstories are so good.
Noonui's World Restored in Imbalanced Chaos au. Extremely engaging and good. Has a bunch of world building and fun concepts and lore.
Sonic's Super Totally Awesome Mixtape, though it seems to be discontinued, I'm not sure. It's pretty good so far! Takes place in the movie verse.
@brainworms-all-night-long is working on a Dreamtale Au which I'm hyped for. The tag in use is 'dreamtale and sonic tomfoolery'.
@/the-starlight-project comic is pretty good too. Mystery! And emotions. So many emotions ough.
And there's @the-emerald-isle-au by @0vergrowngraveyard . Very intriguing. 👀
Please do check out the Pandora Au by @/starrjoy. It's great!
The Fair Folk by Irritable_Fabulamancer, this fic is one of my favorites! Team Sonic as Fae my beloved! I love fae AUs.
On that note, if you're alright wanting to read a Fae!AU which is pretty much a sonadow fic, there is also I don't believe in fairy tales [but I believe in you and me]. Fantasy and Fae! Satbk inspired, another one that had me hooked.
My Arms Are Blue by thekyuubivixen and its unofficial, fan-continuation (My Arms Are Blue! Final Four Edition) by PlaystationPassenger. The story doesn't completely count as an AU but I'm recommending them anyway cuz they're really really good and has that watching your own show from different dimension trope. It's also hilarious and fun.
Burning Arrow, Wildfire Heart by Taranea is SatSR novelisation AU with Sonic's other friends present too, it's pretty fun. Not very accurate regarding the desert but it's a good read and I come back to reread it often. Must read in my opinion. Just don't dare use it as guide for desert travel or you'll be shriveled up in the sand somewhere
This fic. Read it, I will not elaborate this one. Just trust me :]
And don't miss out on @shadofiredragon's Legends Never Die fic. It's a future fic! And an awesome one. I won't spoil much but it is so good. She also has lots of fun AUs in the works.
Down the Foxhole series by MoonlitNightin. Sonic Prime AU series which is great! Tails' pov. The Shatterverses have their own Sonics. Engaging and great.
Feel free to check out @/Son1c's 10verse and other AUs. Those are some pretty great ones. Love the different lore and variants given to the Shatterverses in 10verse.
Spirit of the Wind by TrenchCoatGecko. Satbk inspired fantasy au. Sonamy, has focus on magic and lore and other characters as well.
If you'd like some Forces angst with Unbreakable Bond focus, please do read Illusionary are your arms around me by @nixoon-again. The feels will kill you /pos
Chaos Barren by but_why_not. I forgot to add this earlier (this is an edited addition). Takes place in the Blue Devils AU, great story!
Baby Tails shenanigans by @myymi . Tails got turned into itty bitty infant kit. (And also check @0vergrowngraveyard 'baby tails' tag for more little gremlin scenarios)
Myla is also working on @tails-and-the-ink-machine au
Feral au by Oneshot_bravo. Little short stories or drabbles taking place in Unleashed but the werehog is feral yet keeps his memories. Very lighthearted and fun and cute
Three or more foxes form a skulk by @/chiropter36 . Post Prime au fic, loved it! Go read.
Also, @donelywell 'roadtrip! sonic au' and 'Casino Nights Au'
Haven't yet started reading The Fox's Burrow by @/space-gutz but I'm planning to. Recommending it either way cuz I feel like it's gonna be good. Unbreakable Bond but ageswaped au.
@/sonicchaoscontrol comic. Another in-progress au which is also quite intriguing. Sonic jumps through a portal and exits in future where the planet is a mess. The mystery of what and how it all happened and what's going on slowly unfolds.
The Buzzsaw Dillemma by redpenship. I haven't personally read it myself but I've heard many good things about it, especially it's world building.
Incomplete and won't be updated anymore but if you haven't read them yet, DO NOT miss out on Ghosts of the Future and The Murder of Me fancomics by Evan Stanley (spiritsonic) and Gigi Deutrix (gigi-D) respectively. They're a must read. Both are available on DeviantArt.
The Heart of a Monster comic, @/the-heart-of-a-monster. It's in progress and updates regularly. Unleashed retelling, really really good with some extra lore and everyone involved.
Sometimes the Picket Fence isn’t Perfect and Sharp Edges (Sonic Prime AU) series by @/skimmingthesurfaces. I'm holding off the first one to read later, like that one book you've been saving so I'm not sure if it completely counts as an AU, still putting it in recs, and the second one is intriguing so far. I have heard a lot of good thing about the Picket Fence series.
Dark Boom by Smash50. The entirety of Team Dark in the Sonic Boom universe. Alongside it, there's also Boomtober by the same author.
It Always Snows by the 24th by Selendred had me hooked even though it's a oneshot. Great au and would love to see it explored more.
No One said I Wish by SylWritesStuff. One of my fav stories from the Sonic Platonic Fairytale Week event. It's really funny.
Sonic Phantom Forces (SPF) au comic. Sonic Forces au, blue boy gets taken away but not in the way you think, pretty cool story so far. It's in-progress and available on both Tumblr and DeviantArt. @/spfau
If Black Doom tried to be a better father by Tirainy. Don't take this one seriously. It's pure comedy and I love every second of it. Shadow is having a time for sure XD.
Silent Talkers by @brainworms-all-night-long. Takes place in the Prime Bros verse, feels intensified, all the good ones. A must read, trust me.
And speaking of the Prime Bros AU (in which all Shatterverse foxes also got adopted by Sonic and are now brothers), feel free to scroll through the 'prime bros' tag here. So many awesome posts for this particular au by everyone!
There's so many more, cool ones, epic ones. I haven't saved all and I'm probably forgetting some great ones too so I'm leaving this open for others to add. If y'all have more cool AUs, plz add to these (I wanna check em out too)
....
And now a few from the Fanfiction.net site because it doesn't have much audience compared to AO3 and there are some actual gems hidden there;
Premonition by thekiyuubivixen (not entirely an au but it feels like one due to the unique ability Sonic gains)
The Sonic Project by SconnieSA. Rated M but it's a pretty awesome AU and the rating is due to more serious themes and uncensored language in some parts. Highly recommending this one
Survivor's Resolve by DC111. Not entirely an AU but I must rec this fic it's so good and doea havs some AU vibes.
Sonic the Hedgehog: Attorney of Law by thedraconicwerewolf. Ace Attorney type AU with Sonic and Tails as main characters. Not too adventurous but very very fun and interesting and still managed to keep Sonic in character. Though it has a sequel started, I only rec the main story, not the sequal as it seems to be abandoned and isn't needed to be read like them cliffhanger stories.
beLIEve by Meow21. I have only read snippets from this, waiting for this story to continue but it seems to be discontinued. Felt like an epic story too and deserves to be recommended.
Sonic and the Golden Journey. Sonic gets thrown in another storybook, this time it's a children's classic fairytale. Short but very comedic and fun. Go read it.
Tales of a Samurai. I am begging you to read this one, please it's so good. Also by Taranea.
Wonderful and it's sequal Sanctuary by Inflamore for some Unbreakable Bond angst. (Kindly ignore the obliviousness of earlier ff.net for not knowing the meaning of certain symbols, there's nothing of the sort in story, trust me.)
Regrets by MazzyBooks. A high school au of sorts. Sonic centric with some heavy angst. I'm not kidding about the angst part, trust me. It had me hooked from the first chapter though and I believe it deserves a rec.
You need the cracks (to let the light shine through) by king.needlemouse. Istg this is the most underrated thing I've ever come across, it's one of my absolute favorite fics which I can never forget. Do read it.
Within this Nightmare by sonicfan1990. Sonic get transported to an alternate universe which has gone post apocalyptic and his counterpart in that universe has been dead. Pretty great story, lots of angst and everything.
And that's all I could remember and have saved for now. I'm leaving this open to more AU recs (yes even self plugs are welcome) so if you know any I missed, plz feel free to add. I hope you enjoy all these great AUs!
Thanks for the ask!
#remove the slash from some tags to open the aus. i left them there purposefully cuz I don't know if those artist would mind being tagged#fic recs#fic rec#fic reccomendations#sonic the hedgehog#sonic#sth#sonic au#comic recommendations#sonic fanfiction#sonic fancomic#sonic prime#satsr#sonic and the secret rings#satbk#sonic and the black knight#shadow the hedgehog#shth 2005#anon ask#ask answered#miles tails prower#amy rose#knuckles the echidna#rouge the bat#silver the hedgehog#team chaotix
143 notes
·
View notes
Text
BLUEBELLS, YOURS TRULY.
[SYNOPSIS] ˚⁀➷｡ albeit rarely, rindou overthinks, and frequently, ran doesn’t think too much.
[NOTES] ˚⁀➷｡ this is like the “backstory” for the ring. MAYBE i’ll turn it into a multiple part. i also put it in the timeline where everyone is happy because i really love everyone being friends. wrote it because rays’s version destroyed me !!!!!!!!!!!
he spins the ring on his finger. he slides it off. he looks at it. he lets it hang from his neck, on the chain. he sighs.
“now what the hell is up with you?” barging in, ran asks. “who shat in your cereal every morning for the past two weeks?” he says, opening the kitchen cupboard to take — funny enough — some cereal out.
“i’m not in the mood, ran.” his younger brother spits back, head falling against the wooden table.
“hey now, there’s something really wrong with you if you’re acting like .. this.” pointing at him, he sits down, fat bowl of cereal clashing against the dark block, spilling some milk onto it. “now, spill.” with mouth full, he tries to choke out the words, spoon in his brothers face the moment he gulps down the first mouthful.
“you’re gross sometimes.” rindou just sighs, looking away.
“what’s with the ring?” ignoring the insult, the lanky haitani just continues his questioning. “by the way, the blue doesn’t look that bad on you.”
“it’s mine, and i got a matching one for y/n.” the other explains, “thanks, by the way. it was her idea to dye it like this.”
“you wanna propose to her?” his older brother asks, chewing loudly. “y’know we’re still just teenagers?”
“no shit, big head.” rolling his eyes, rindou feels the exasperation dig its roots deeper into his brain. “i’m not proposing. yet. but i don’t know if i should give it to her.” he finally says, letting ran in on his worries.
“and why not? what’s that? cartier, right?”
“no brand can escape your gaze, you’re really unbelievable.”
“thanks, bro, love you too.” as he swallows his last spoonful, ran winks.
“not in a good way.” the younger sibling announces, earning a displeased look from his brother.
“now you’re the annoying one. fuck’s going with you two?” ran finally snaps, trying not look worried. after all, he loves his brother, but they don’t do that kind of talking.
“she’s leaving next week” rindou finally manages to choke out.
“what? what do you mean?” his brother asks, taken aback by the sudden information.
“her student visa’s expired. she’s gotta go back home until gets it renewed.”
it pains him to even think about it. he hasn’t eaten in almost fourteen days, ever since he found out. but what pains him even more is how excited you are about going back home. about going away from him.
he thinks it’s selfish, because he knows how much you’ve missed your parents and how much you’ve waited for a holiday that’s long enough to return.
“if the flights take four days in total and i want to stay for two weeks, then i’d rather not go anymore.” you always said. “i want to spend as much time as possible, without having to rush anything, y’know?
but maybe sometimes love is all about being selfish, loving someone with your whole heart. maybe he wants to never let you leave without him. maybe he can’t let you leave without him because he can’t stand not being an 8 minute subway ride away from you.
“don’t tell me you got some of those control issues, the pretty tiktok girls say they’re not cute at all…” ran comments, dodging an uppercut by a mere second.
“can you take me seriously for once? i think she wants to break up with me, she called me over today saying we have to talk.” rin frowns, blond-blue bangs covering his tired eyes. “i shouldn’t have believed that tiktok reading that said good news are coming my way.”
“you’re so fucking dumb, lord have mercy.”
“excuse me, ran?”
“you’re excused. let’s get this straight: does it really matter to you wether she’s oceans away or in meguro? what do you think she’s gonna do, break up with you only to return in three months and see you everywhere? do you really think y/n’s that kind of girlfriend? throw away three years BECAUSE OF A VISA?! fuck outta here with that insecure crap, rin. i raised you better than that.”
on the inside, ran smiles. oh, how he loves knocking sense into his younger brother. truly the best activity.
“now go and talk to her.”
rindou hesitates.
“i won’t say it nicely the second time around.” the older one threatens, and rindou jolts up from his chair and bolts through the door, house slippers still on, door wide open. before ran can say anything else, rindou’s voice echoes from the staircase into the kitchen:
“i’ll buy a new pair when i get back, don’t start bitching, please! i’ve got a girl i have to convince not to break up with me!”
his older brother laughs as he pulls out his phone.
sister in law
(16:22) he’s on his way.
then, a ping fills the empty space.
sister in law
(16:23) already talked to mikey. everything’s going great.
(16:23) love you, big head
(16:23)🫰
maybe ran’s not gonna tell you the reason rindou is running like a maniac through minato ward right now.
ugh, is his head really that big?
tagging: @h4nman BECAUSE YOU MADE ME CRY😡😡😡 ; @sirachano0dles <3 i might start a taglist if i make this into a multiple part fic?!?
#tokyo revengers#tokyo revengers x reader#tokyo revengers imagines#tokyo revengers headcanons#tokyo revengers scenarios#tokyo revengers x you#tokyo revengers manga#haitani ran x reader#haitani rindou x reader#rindo haitani scenarios#rindo haitani x reader#rindou haitani x reader#rindo haitani x you#rindo haitani imagines#rindo haitani headcanons#haitani rindo#rindo haitani fluff#haitani rindo fluff#haitani rindou headcanons#haitani rindou
219 notes
·
View notes
Text
Don't mind me, everyone, just gonna slip on my Tedependent conspiracy hat for a bit...
Okay, for real though, can we talk about how Trent's backstory in 3x06 completely re-contextualizes his dinner with Ted in 1x03? Based on my own interpretation, the implied timeline is that Trent was married to a woman, attempted to come out to her and was dismissed (perhaps in large part because they were married: what do you mean you're gay? You can't be. You love me, etc.), either having his daughter forced Trent to become more honest about what he and his family needed, or they had her in an attempt to "fix" the marriage, she gets caught in the crossfire of all this, Trent comes out again, this time his wife believes him, they divorce, are still good friends, and their daughter is happier than ever because she has two loving parents who are now living their best lives.
Given her age - 3 at the start of the series, about 6 now - that means there's a decent possibility that Trent was still married at the beginning of the show.
And that his dinner with Ted is one of the things that pushed him to try coming out again.
As his core Ted is someone who is authentic and that authenticity is what catches Trent's interest. He's dismissive of it at first, literally thinking it's a "fucking joke," only to later end up with the revelation, "You really mean that, don't you?" - that Ted honestly enjoyed spending time with him. AKA, Ted says and does what he means, even when it seems completely unbelievable. How freeing must that be to see? I'm just imagining this interview-turned-dinner through the eyes of a man who is still unhappily married, mostly closeted, and struggling to help his daughter through the stress of that dynamic. Then he meets this sunshine of a coach who is so authentically himself that it initially comes across as an act, an exaggeration, a joke. But Ted never wavers, simply refuses to be anything other than himself. Soon he's doing even more than that, breaking down gender norms by characterizing the masculine, aggressive Roy Kent as the "little girl" from A Wrinkle in Time, burdened with the responsibility of leadership. He turns what should have been the end of a horrific day of shadowing into a dinner date and Trent finds himself answering the hard-hitting questions instead of his interviewee. Ted brushes off his accusation of greed with, "Wait, I'm supposed to be getting paid?" but Trent is completely caught off guard by Ted's "What do you love?"
The textual answer is "writing" and the fun fandom answer is "you," but if this is a Trent who still hasn't fully come out yet that's! A hell! Of a question!!! A closeted, queer individual's mind is going to jump to their biggest secret and, when offered an out, they're going grasp at it, so Trent eagerly agrees with Ted's guess of "writing" the same way Colin eagerly pulls the 'This is a gay bar? Haha, my mistake' card and makes a run for the door. Reading this interaction as Trent not just being gay, but potentially being closeted and unhappily married makes it less about the journalism (this strange coach likes me and thinks I can be a good person despite my invasive career choice) and more about his sexuality. Oh, no big deal, just having an intimate dinner with another good-looking man who's questioning me on love of all things and slowly inspiring me to be the best version of myself, which would require coming out to my wife again. This is a totally normal and not at all life-changing night! I definitely don't need to run away now!!
Via this reading Trent's article feels so loaded. Ted is "out there in the community" either "bravely or stupidly facing the music." That sounds a hell of a lot like a parallel to literally coming out and facing the music of a community's potential rejection, with Ted's American background/inexperience/unique personality acting as a stand-in for sexuality; the reasons he's labeled a "wanker" before anyone actually gets to know him - as the pub trio does while those very words are narrated by Higgins.
And then we have this:
"If the Lasso way is wrong, it's hard to imagine being right.... and though I believe that Ted Lasso will fail here... I can't help but root for him."
There are other elements at play here, like the football's celebration of ego and the threat of the club being relegated, but underneath it really sounds like a still-cynical Trent wanting to see the kind of changed world that those like Ted could bring about, but not really believing that it's possible. Given his history, is he really just talking about football when it comes to "the Lasso way"? I doubt it. Trent is potentially feeling trapped at this point in time, pessimistic to the point where yes, he still thinks that Ted will fail at football and creating a more inclusive, accepting community... but even still, Trent can't help but root for him. Of course he can't. He wants what Ted is offering. He needs it.
But then, of course, Ted succeeds! Not just in doing well by the club, but by the community as a whole. He maintains that inspiration and hope until, potentially, Trent felt like he could do something about his own situation. He found the nerve and strength to try again. So he comes out to his wife, they divorce, their daughter is happy, he goes on a date with a mustached man at the local pub, ditches him to try and 'interview' Ted, blows up his career because he realizes that his job is undermining the very thing he's been rooting for and he can't not give Ted a heads up, begins shadowing Ted as he looks for something "deeper," and then comes out to Colin, gazing wistfully across the water as he imagines being able to kiss a man after a win...
I'm not saying Ted Lasso is going to go there - and I'm DEFINITELY not saying there should be ANY accusations of queer baiting if/when they don't, because we've absolutely built the majority of this ship in fandom spaces - but I AM saying that if Trent's potential intersection of his history with Ted's influence and Ted's desire to shake things up while imagining bisexual triangles actually led to something... it would be a damn well done setup!
764 notes
·
View notes
Text
Rewriting Fate - Chapter 1
prologue > chapter 1 (you're here!) > chapter 2 (in progress...)
word-count! 1.1k
warnings! none unless u count heart-wrenching angst as one
tag-list! @shizunxie , @sam-screams , @swivy123 , @thenyxsky
“... Who’s there?”
His raspy voice echoes around the room and you wince, head against the wall barely hidden underneath the window.
(You wonder how long he had been weeping before you found him.)
Only just a few seconds ago did you duck down after you made direct eye contact with the one… character? Person? Person, you dedicated hours to.
Leveling him up, ascending him, pulling for his damned weapon (even after losing it to Itto’s claymore), maxing out said weapon… You practically gave him the luxury Genshin treatment. Your face falls knowing how much real-world money you had to spend for this man.
Heartbeats thud deafeningly in your ears as you hear a shuffling of fabric and then an abrupt thud. Shoulders jerking, your poor heart leaps to your throat at the sound.
Hearing nothing but stillness and the sound of your unsteady breaths for the next few moments, you begin to grow worried. What if he fell over? Hurt himself? You remembered that since he's only just been 'let free to roam' by his creator — that was but a small while past his initial creation.
At this thought, you find yourself making your way into the darkened hallway.
Sure enough, he still lay there, albeit in a more crumpled manner than you last saw him in. Dark hair splayed out around his head, his veil discarded beside him. Alarmed, you rush towards him, kneeling at his side as you hover over his form.
A hand grasps blindly at your clothes, almost going limp as the prototype lifts his head. You freeze.
"...Why are you here?" He finally speaks, voice almost a whisper. You lean in a bit closer to hear what he's saying.
You let the silence linger for yet a second before responding, just as faint as he did. "Well, I heard someone crying and I..."
Your voice trails off. What did you even think to achieve, in following his cries, walking into this domain?
"I wanted to help...?" It comes out more like a question rather than an answer because, to be frank, even you didn't know why.
You hope that he doesn't ask you to elaborate because you don't believe you could give him a proper answer.
His eyes meet yours again, miserable and muddled. A look, much too innocent for who he will become... and what he would begin to execute thereafter.
Unsettled by your thoughts, you fidget under his gaze.
"Why do you wish to help... me? I don't even know who you are."
Your heart sinks at his question. What were you meant to say?
‘Oh, it's nothing! It’s only because I know your entire backstory, and character and have read through your wiki an unhealthy amount of times.’
You'd rather eat your foot.
Reluctant to scare the traumatised doll once more, you attempt to smile at him and gently took the hand that is so tightly gripped at your sleeve.
"You don't have to know someone to want to help them." You hum, making yourself comfortable in front of him. "Plus... Who says we can't get to know each other now?"
Looking down at him with kind eyes (you hope it comes off that way), you tilt your head. "What's your name?"
(Kunikuzushi? Scaramouche? Wanderer?) He pauses, his eyes wavering and breaking away from yours.
"I do not have one." His voice breaks, along with your heart.
You have to restrain yourself from spilling what his mother had wanted for him, that she never left him with the intent of abandoning him, never wished upon him the life he was destined to experience.
(Fate can be cruel but Gods can be even crueler, you felt.)
"That's okay. I don't need to know names to get to know you." You hum, gently squeezing his hand. "Is it alright if I ask you what happened?"
The forlorn expression quickly morphs into a face of heartache. The hand that barely clutched back in your hand tightened ever so desperately around your own, and you narrowly hold back a wince at the suddenness.
"My creator... My mother left me without saying a word." He croaked. "She didn't stop to look back at me once."
You sadly watch as he fruitlessly attempts to hold down his tears. Tears that had led a god to deem him too vulnerable, too fragile to uphold such a title as 'The Raiden Shogun's Puppet.'
You reach over, putting your unoccupied hand on his shoulder. Feeling it shudder and quiver with every concealed cry, you see his watering eyes flick over to you.
"It's okay to cry once in a while." You say. "It's only human."
He furrows his brows.
"But," He spoke in hushed tones. "I am not human and... I do not own a heart like you."
(Oh, you knew. But at this moment-- you think he feels more human than anybody else.)
"Well I think... you seem to be very human. Maybe even more human than me."
(The dam floods and shatters, taking him along with it but he holds onto you for dear life and... and you let him. Your warmth is a sharp contrast against his cool hands and face-- though it is ever so comforting as you wrap your arms so tenderly around him.)
(He feels safe.)
You decide to give him a name. In your head, of course, you didn't wish to give him a name that he did not choose.
You call him Kuni. For now.
Speaking of which, he had stopped sniffling quite some time ago and was now sitting up-- studying you with blatant curiosity. You sweatdrop under his fixed gaze but you're glad he looks much calmer than when you first found him.
"You never told me your name." He suddenly speaks, making you jolt a bit.
"Ah... Did I not?"
You tell him your name, with slight hesitation.
You know you probably shouldn't interfere with his past, despite how badly you long to push him on a path to a better... happier, content life. You also know that it most definitely would change, a lot. Of things in the future.
You didn't want to risk that.
He echoed your name, looking more content as time passed.
"Now, we know each other!" You beam, pleased now that Kuni was feeling better.
He timidly smiles back at you. (It's one so small and gentle, so out of character for his present self as ‘Scaramouche’, 'The Balladeer, the 6th of the Fatui Harbingers' and 'The Wanderer' -- you could die happy knowing that you made him smile.)
"Yes, we do."
#genshin x reader#genshin x you#genshin x gn reader#genshin isekai#scaramouche x reader#kunizukushi#kunikuzushi x reader#the wanderer#scara x reader#scaramouche#genshin wanderer#genshin impact#genshin impact x reader#my writing#rewriting fate
962 notes
·
View notes
Text
Somebody’s Watching Me: Tea For Two Deleted Scene
Pairing: Simon “Ghost” Riley x Reader (she/her, “Sarge”, British, backstory)
Category: coworkers to friends to lovers with grumpy x sunshine dynamic/idiots in love
Summary: Your lieutenant joins you for a cup of tea.
Warnings: tension, banter, flirting, mention of dead hamster, mask is off, domestic Ghost (he sits and has tea), Ghost doing normal things (he sits and has tea), British terminology/slang
Word count: 1.6k
A/N: HAPPY ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF THE FIRST CHAPTER OF SOMEBODY’S WATCHING ME!! 🥳🥳 I cannot believe I started it so long ago, it’s crazy. This is for everyone who has read, enjoyed and supported me along the way. This takes places directly after the first chapter.
Consider buying me a coffee :)
The door of your flat creaked open, accompanied by the awful sound of your keys falling out of the lock and crashing to the floor uncermoniously. You winced at the sound but said nothing, sticking your foot out to prevent the door from slamming closed again right onto your face. You didn’t need a broken nose right now. The hinges were loose but you couldn't be bothered to tell your landlord, or fix it yourself, since you weren't even living there most of the time.
You stepped into your flat quickly, ushering your lieutenant in behind you. "Welcome to my humble abode."
Ghost went to close the door behind him but stopped when it just swung shut by its own accord.
"Very humble." You re-iterated. It wasn't the Ritz, that was for sure.
He made no comment on the state of the door, despite clearly having some thoughts if the slight frown on his face was any indication.
"You live alone?" He asked, taking a nice long look around at your flat. You wondered if he was judging the trinkets scattered all over the place and the lack of real decor.
You nodded, shrugging your coat off of your shoulders and hanging it over the back of a chair. "Yeah. Used to have a hamster but he died a few months back."
You missed Señor Duncan.
He blinked at you slowly and said nothing so you rushed off into the kitchen with your bags clasped tightly in your hands to make the tea and avoid further awkward conversation. You tried desperately to come up with a new topic to talk about when you got back to him.
But he had other ideas. As you turned to get the milk out of the fridge, Ghost was stood in your doorway watching you.
"You can sit down, lieutenant." You assured him, not needing him hovering as you made the two cups of tea. “I’ll be back in a minute.”
He took a moment to answer. "Here to make sure you make my tea right."
You scoffed. "I know how you take it, sir."
The double meaning of that statement hung in the air between you for a few seconds.
"I've seen you make tea about a million times on base so..." The clarification probably didn't help you. In fact, it made the previous sentence even more glaring.
"Okay." He nodded. "I trust you."
The way he said it wasn't convincing.
The kettle clicked behind you but you ignored it.
"Got any biscuits?"
You shook your head. "Nothing you’ll like, no."
"Hmm."
"Sorry." Your jaw clenched tight.
"Don't be sorry."
You broke off the staring contest that was happening between you, knowing he'd probably win in the end anyway, and turned around to actually make the two of you a drink.
The thought that this may have been a bad idea plagued you as you watched the teabags drown in the boiling water. You were just trying to be friendly. Maybe friendly with your lieutenant wasn't good. Although, he agreed to come. So some of this was on him.
Ghost was silent behind you but you assumed he was still there. You could feel his gaze burning into the back of your head, the hairs on your neck and arms standing up on end. When you were done, you turned to find him stood a lot closer to you than he had been just a minute or so prior.
His hand was stretched out ready to take the mug from you. "Thank you, sergeant."
"You're welcome, lieutenant." You croaked back at him, unprepared for how close he was. You could smell him, the distance was that small. You begrudgingly admitted to yourself internally that he smelt nice. Of course he did. You avoided looking at how his hands enveloped the cup you'd handed to him. "Umm, living room?"
“Not going to put your things away?” He lazily gestured at the bags sitting on the kitchen counter.
“Oh… it can wait a while.”
He nodded and followed you as you swerved around him, mouthing oh my god to yourself as you walked away. In the lounge, you settled on the sofa and were not surprised in the slightest when he chose to sit in the other chair, his large frame consuming the cushions almost completely. He looked comical.
There was a brief moment of tense silence between you and just as you opened your mouth to say something, say anything, he cut in.
"Want a chocolate digestive?"
Your teeth clicked shut. "Uh, sure!"
Sipping on your tea to hide your face behind the mug at the way-too-upbeat tone of your response, you burnt your tongue on the scalding liquid. Luckily, your lieutenant was too distracted by pulling the pack of biscuits out of the carrier bag at his feet that he didn't take any notice of you.
When he held out the packet to you, you tentatively took one and started nibbling on the edge. You were really unsure of what to do with yourself. Think. Just think of something to say.
"So, what does Lieutenant Simon Riley do for fun when he's on leave?"
Idiot.
"Not this." He grumbled.
"Not what?" Of course he didn't do this, this was the first time this had happened.
"Socialising."
Oh.
"Then why did you agree to come here?" You asked, frowning. Seemed a bit silly to you honestly.
Ghost said nothing, just stared back at you.
So you filled the silence by rambling. "You didn't have to. Just because I asked you to. Don't feel forced or anything. I mean, like, you never listen to me in the field. So why is it different out here? Don't think you have to be polite. I'm a grown woman, I can take no for an answer."
"Christ, you talk a lot."
You frowned. "Sorry."
"Between you and Johnny I don't know how I don't get more headaches."
"Charming." You snapped back despite the pull of a smile tugging at the corners of your mouth.
He continued on. "Without the two of you I'd get some silence once in a while."
"How boring."
"How peaceful."
"Overrated.” You waved your hand in a dismissive motion. “I think a couple of hyper sergeants are a lot more fun."
"If you'd like." He took a mouthful of his tea and you wondered if he was hiding anything behind the cup. A smile, a smirk, just something. Probably not.
You decided to pry. "You never answered my question."
He sighed. "What question?"
"What do you do when you're on leave?"
"What do you imagine I do when I'm on leave, hm?" He evaded the question by shooting back one of his own. Tricky bastard.
You shrugged. "Mope at home all day probably."
"Mope." He repeated back to you.
"You seem like a moper."
He didn't reply.
"I think it's a fair assessment."
"Based on what?"
You barked out a short laugh. "Based on everything!"
"For all you know I could be the life of the party when on leave." He drained the rest of the tea from his mug in a few steady gulps, adam's apple bobbing in his throat. Your mouth hung open for a second as you watched.
"You just admitted you don't like to socialise. Or like how loud me and Soap can be. I seriously doubt you're the life of any party." You deadpanned, noticing how your cup was still mostly full.
"Should I take offence to that, sergeant?" He asked, resting his own cup between his knees.
Your eyes flickered down towards it. "Didn't say it was a bad thing necessarily."
"But it can be?"
"If you're boring in general, I guess."
"I see."
Your back straightened in defence. "I'm not calling you boring, sir! In fact, I think you're rather interesting. I was just saying it can be bad if you are always boring. Which you are not."
"This might be my cue to leave, you don't seem so sure." His head tilted to the side. "Very enthusiastic to prove you don't think I'm boring. Too enthusiastic."
"That's just my general demeanour."
He nodded. "I'm aware."
"Now I feel like I should be insulted."
"And why's that?"
"You seem disgusted."
He repeated your words back to you. "That's just my general demeanour."
So you did the same. "I'm aware."
"Hm, clever." He grunted, glancing down at the empty mug. "I should probably go."
"If you want." You watched him shift in his seat.
His eyes shot back up to meet yours. "Kicking me out, sergeant?"
"No. Just not going to insist that you stay if you want to leave."
He nodded and looked around the room. "You should get another hamster."
What an odd thing to say.
"Why?" You questioned, putting your cup down on the coffee table and gesturing for him to do the same.
"You're a social creature. Could probably use the company."
"A social creature. Gee, thanks." You rolled your eyes at him. "I have friends, y'know?"
"Seen 'em since you've been home?"
"Haven't had the opportunity yet." You mumbled, avoiding his eyes.
"Mhm." He hummed, not needing to say anything to get his point across.
You didn't even bother responding, what good would it do? You just watched him rise from the seat and pick up his plastic bag of stuff, following him when he started towards the front door.
Neither of you exchanched pleasantries as you opened the door and held it open with your foot, you didn't need to pretend that this was anything less than awkward and slightly odd altogether. There was no oh this was nice we should it again sometime. The exchange was very short.
"Do you want me to drive you home?"
"No, I don't live too far."
"Okay."
Silence.
Tense silence.
"Goodbye, lieutenant."
"Goodbye, sergeant."
And then he was gone.
A/N: thanks for reading!!
#simon riley#simon riley x reader#simon riley x you#simon ghost riley#simon ghost riley x reader#simon ghost riley x you#ghost riley#ghost riley x reader#ghost riley x you#ghost#ghost x reader#ghost x you#simon ghost riley fanfiction#simon riley fanfiction#ghost riley fanfiction#ghost fanfiction#call of duty modern warfare#call of duty modern warfare 2#call of duty#call of duty modern warfare 3#modern warfare 3#modern warfare#cod modern warfare#modern warfare 2#ej’s fics#ej’s writing#deakyjoe’s fics#deakyjoe’s writing#sarge and simon#simon and sarge
139 notes
·
View notes
Note
I'm excited to read it too! I'm glad you find it interesting! Don't worry about your post because long! Your thoughts are so interesting!
I agree that Astarion would have to come to terms with Reader/Tav's boundaries too since it works both ways! I definitely feel that Astarion would be too lost in drinking from the blood of a sentient creature to notice the signs.
He would feel ashamed when he's aware of their fear yet they still chose to offer despite that might made him feel like he manipulated them like Cazador did to him 😭
What his excuses are if they try to offer in the early days makes sense! He would be too ashamed & terrified to have such a vulnerable conversation with them yet 😞
He would feel safe enough to bring up their fear after he confessed about everything. He would make it clear to them he doesn't want them to suffer by making them do something they don't want to like he did especially after how much they have helped him & how important they are to him 😭
He would respect their decision if they said it's too much for them. He would support everyone's personal choices & autonomies even though the concept is still new to him 😤
He would need an explanation if they insist on feeding him regardless of their fear. They would explain that not only do they trust him, they love him more than they fear it 🥹
He would only accept if they establish some ground rules 👍 like he did when it comes to physical intimacy & sex which is healthy for both of them!
I know it's unrelated but thank you for adding this because you described me pretty well 🤣 I would definitely react to even the smallest of cuts so Astarion quickly but gently sucking it & giving a small kiss on it would be a fantastic distraction 😳
You're welcome! Thank YOU for entertaining me & sharing your thoughts! I'm glad you enjoy putting Astarion and Tav/Reader in all these different scenarios too 🤍
Here's my idea that I would love to hear your opinion! Just to let you know this is quite self-indulgent XD How would Astarion react to GN! Reader/Tav actually had suspicions that he's using them but still chose to believe that he's not. So when he confessed he manipulated them, they're even not angry at him.
They're sad for how much & how long he has suffered to be the way he is now, but they're also genuinely hurt that he did take advantage of their trust in him. They don't blame him but they admit it still hurts and wants some time alone to process it.
After leaving them be, they would go to him when they're ready to talk to him. They would tell him how grateful they are that he chose to come clean with them despite knowing how it would be easier for him to keep quiet for it, and thanked him for trusting them enough to be honest with them.
What do you think of it? I'm curious :3
Hi Anon! Sorry for the super late response, I let this one stew for a little while in my brain and the other night I had this dialogue idea and couldn’t resist writing a little scene about it tonight! I hope you enjoy ❤️
I envisioned this scene happens half way through his confession, and then imagined the rest of the conversation about intimacy and boundaries would happen afterwards! It’s about 1100 words, and canonical Astarion backstory warnings apply — trauma, dark thoughts, etc.
.·:¨༺ ༻¨:·..·:¨༺ ༻¨:·..·:¨༺ ༻¨:·..·:¨༺ ༻¨:·..·:¨༺ ༻¨
“I just — I feel awful." Astarion’s throat worked silently, his eyes glancing down to his boots. "Look, I had a plan. A nice, simple plan — seduce you, sleep with you, manipulate your feelings so you’d never turn on me. It was easy — instinctive. Habits from two hundred years of charming people kicked in." He finally looked up at your face, studying intensely for your reaction.
“I—oh,” You pulled your hand away from him as uncertainty flooded your features. He saw your eyes dart back and forth, but they weren’t studying him. No, you were lost in thought. “Oh.”
Astarion licked his lips, his hands ringing together in front of him nervously. “You have every right to be angry.”
“I’m not angry. I thought we… I don’t know what I thought.”
The rest of what he had planned to say vanished out of his mind. Instead it started to betray him, a cruel voice whispering about how he knew you would react like this. Did he really think it would go well?
His pink mouth hung open as he scrambled for what to say, trying to think of how to make this better. But he’d done enough already, hadn’t he?
You crossed your arms over your body, your cheeks flushing deeply. “I feel a bit like a fool. None of it was real, the whole time?”
“Not the whole time,” He confessed as soft, vulnerable moments with you flashed in his mind. The very moments that made him start to drop the act. “It hasn’t been as of late, but before… in the beginning, up until recently, yes.”
His red eyes followed your throat as it bobbed up and down before flicking back up to your face. Your eyebrows were furrowed, your mouth a sad pout.
“Tell me what you’re thinking.” Astarion whispered, not daring to move forward.
“I’m thinking… I need a moment.” You admitted, already looking behind you and away from him.
His heart sank, but he nodded. “I— okay. Of course.”
And then you were off, your head down as you stalked away from the edge of the beach and back to the warm glow of camp.
He stood there stunned for a moment, before turning around to stare at the dark, choppy waters in front of him. Hundreds of scenarios began to dance in his mind — what if you went back to the camp to tell the others? Would he be met by pointed blades and blazing spells? He imagined being kicked out, staked, cursed, roasted alive with fireballs. Hand delivered to Cazador as extra punishment for his sins. Anything his twisted broken mind could come up with played like a messed up vision.
Astarion didn’t even try to stop the repetitive dark thoughts. It was what he deserved.
Eventually, the vampire slinked back into the camp some time later — once the sky was inky black and the moon was the only light to illuminate the way back to his tent.
“Hi.”
The sound caused his ears and shoulders to perk up instantly. You were sat in the grass and dirt outside of his tent, your arms wrapped around your knees and pulled to your chest.
“Hi.” Gods, he sounded breathless. But he couldn’t see any weapons or angry barbarians or wizards nearby. That was a good sign, right?
“I wasn’t sure when you’d come back.”
He cocked a brow, “I figured you wouldn’t want to see me again.”
A sigh escaped your lips, “Astarion, don’t be dramatic. I asked for time to think — not for you to leave.”
He blinked at your sharp tone, but nodded his head in slight defeat. “You’re right. And you waited for me because—?”
You brushed off your clothes as you stood up to his height, “I would like to finish that conversation, if you’re ready.”
Well, there was no denying the inevitable.
He nodded his head solemnly, stepping forward to open the flap of his tent and inviting you in with a wave of his hand.
The privacy his tent offered was slight, but this late in the night he knew most of his companions would be fast asleep. Quickly lighting a lantern, he joined you on the fabric floor.
His half-dead heart was thundering, the thrumming sound echoing in his pointed ears that he almost missed your quiet voice.
“I understand.”
“What?” His brows furrowed, looking at you with confusion.
“The stories you’ve told me… your scars… I understand why you did it, why you felt the need to do it.” You explained, your voice and eyes tender as you looked at him in the low light. “But you manipulated me, Astarion. You took advantage of me, toyed with me and my emotions to get what you needed. That hurts.”
Astarion’s stomach twisted into a hard knot, “I know.”
“But you also didn’t need to tell me any of this. You could have kept pretending, kept up the charade until we faced Cazador… But you didn’t. Why?”
Now it felt like his stomach was crawling up his torso and into his throat. Gods, what was this feeling? Why did you do this to him. “That’s what I was trying to tell you before. I failed with my plan. It felt apart the moment I realized… that I had fallen for you.” He admitted, but his fluttering heart made more words stumble out of his mouth. “And I know you probably don’t believe me, why would you after everything I just told you. Trust me, nobody feels more stupid about it than I do.”
You cut off his rambling, “I don’t think it’s stupid. I think that’s probably the most honest you’ve been with me since I’ve met you,” You said earnestly. “It would have been a lot easier for you to keep on pretending, wouldn’t it? Pretend I’m just another mark, another means to an end to get through the day.”
“I don’t want easy… I don’t want to just get through the day. Not anymore.” Astarion whispered across the small tent, staring intently at you.
You cocked your head slightly in question, “And what do you want?”
“I want this, I want us — to be real. You deserve something real.”
“So do you, Astarion. You deserve something real.”
Your name escaped his lips as a choked sob as overwhelming wave of emotion settled over him. “I don’t even know what real looks like. How do I give that to you if I—?”
“Do you trust me?”
The vampire nodded through his tears, “Yes.”
“I trust you,” You said softly.
“After everything I’ve done?” He croaked, waving his hands dramatically, “You’d trust a monster—“
You grabbed onto his extended fingers gently, squeezing them. “Yes, even then.”
He looked down at your hands touching, before intertwining his pale fingers with yours carefully. “Maybe you are a fool.”
You let out a breathless laugh, the sound waking up something in him he’d long thought dead. “Maybe, I am. But you fell for me, so what does that make you?”
Astarion’s mouth twitched up until it matched your smile, “The luckiest vampire alive.”
#commander-rahrah answers#bg3 astarion#astarion ancunin#astarion fanfic#bg3 fanfic#Astarion X reader#astarion x gn reader#astarion x tav#astarion x gn!tav
125 notes
·
View notes
Text
I haven't watched that much of One Piece yet, so feel free to disagree with me on this analysis, but there's one thing about people's general interpretation of Sanji as a character that drives me a little nuts. And I'm saying this because even though I'm not very far along, I got spoiled for his backstory (because I refused to stop reading fanfiction even though when I first started I was like, on episode 3).
So before you continue, there are spoilers for Sanji's past.
I think people tend to ignore that the differences between Sanji's demeanor towards men vs towards women likely partially stem from severe trauma. I don't believe his actions are entirely intrinsic, its not like he was born acting like this - nor is it an unchanging immutable fact of his character, despite what a lot of people seem to believe.
And for some context on what prompted this - I'm a sanzo/zosan shipper, so I tend to crawl through the depths of the internet looking for fun little videos and fanarts, and one consistent protest I see with this ship is "Sanji DESPISES men and WORSHIPS women, there's literally no way he could EVER be attracted to men or want to date a man he HATES them."
Which bothers me outside of any arguments about Sanji's sexuality or even about any ships - which I will get to in a second - because that interpretation of Sanji assumes his actions are just there for no reason. Sanji hates men, therefore he hates all men with no exceptions, and he will always hate men. Sanji loves all women, therefore he will always worship every single woman he meets. I dunno, I think it's just a very surface level understanding of who he is, and relies on setting a rule for no reason and just sticking to it, as if it's just a mere quirk of his character with no backing to it.
Sanji's first interaction with any people, was in the form of his biological family, as is the case with most of us. Specifically, his father and brothers, who abused him and didn't even treat him like a person, and his mother and sister, who were the only people that treated him with kindness and saw his humanity. Tbh, he reminds me of the way women who have experienced trauma from men act - a general dislike/disdain and distrust for them (for good reason). And I don't doubt Sanji's overall elevation of women was only hammered home by the fact that his first ever father figure - arguably the first man who's treated him with kindness - teaching him the lesson to always respect women. His very illogical need to never fight women probably partially comes from the events in his life, and because it's not just a two dimensional arbitrary rule established for his character - there can be exceptions and growth.
We already know this, because despite Sanji's general disdain of men as a whole, he is capable of caring/loving men that he personally knows. He loves Zeff, and he loves his nakama - some of whom are MEN. Like, it's right there??? In the same way a woman who has experienced violence at the hands of a man probably still has family and friends or even a significant other that they love and care about that are men.
Like if you're using his demeanor towards the different genders as an "aha got you" argument for why Sanji couldn't possibly be queer, its not as strong of an argument as you think it is.
And if we're operating under the assumption that Sanji partially acts like this because of trauma, it brings up quite a few interesting arguments about his sexuality and potential romantic partners.
Which segways into sanzo/zosan, since admittedly I got into this entire debacle because I was looking into fanart (non-shippers feel free to click away now if you wish, I get that not everyone likes the ship, which is valid).
I don't think Sanji's actions means he couldn't be bisexual. Cause I'm bisexual, and you know what would make me very very keen to ignore all my attraction to one specific gender? If I had multiple instances of that gender hurt me severely. In fact I'm not so certain I don't experience that, because while I haven't had anything super bad happen to me, I hear about things in the news, about friends and family who have been harmed, interacted with men who have talked down to me, and I definitely went through a phase in my younger years where i just refused to consider men as a possibility for a romantic partner, because I was just so so angry. And I'm not saying Sanji doesn't like women in truth, because he absolutely does. He's both attracted to them and likes them. But that doesn't eliminate the possibility that he might also be attracted to men, or other non-binary genders. In fact the more he doth protest, and puts on a show when he sees a pretty woman, the more I'm sure he's in denial. Internalized homophobia can also be a bitch. Contrary to making me think Sanji is absolutely straight, the way he acts in the show actually puts me the opposite way.
I've heard Sanji also has an interesting relationship with gender and may be genderqueer but I don't know as many details about that yet, so I'll skip it for now. But regardless, I look at Sanji and go "I don't think this is a traditionally cishet character."
Of course, this is by far not the only interpretation you can have of Sanji. It could be that he's traumatized and also heterosexual. That's absolutely fine. But my overall point here is that I don't think what we see in canon negates the possibility that Sanji can be queer.
As to why I like Zosan in relation to this:
1. First, a relatively minor thing, I enjoy the sheer amount of bickering/fighting. People hold that up as a reason to not like the ship and I'm like, my dude that's one of the only reasons why I'm here. My love language is annoying the people you love and occasionally having homoerotic battles. duh.
2. Zoro is one of the aforementioned men that Sanji cares about, one of the exceptions to his "men are horrible" thing. Like they argue and fight a lot, sure, but you're not convincing me that they don't love each other. In whatever capacity - platonic or romantic - is up to your interpretation. Sanji loves all of his nakama, that's not really something I see as up for debate.
3. I honestly believe that until Sanji gets a less extreme viewpoint of the different genders - he won't be able to be in a healthy romantic relationship with a woman. For one thing, I know Sanji has self worth issues for days. For another thing, his hero worship for women as a whole - his refusal to fight women, even when they're actively trying to harm him - I don't see that translating well to a relationship. Moreover, I can see it being exhausting for the woman he ends up with, to always be treated like she's made of glass or agreed with, regardless of what she says.
Essentially, he wouldn't really treat that relationship as a partnership between equals, and I think when that happens, you run the risk of the individuals hurting each other, even on accident. Of course, we can also see this as a facet of his character with exceptions and possibility for personal growth. Maybe if he gets with a girl he'll grow and learn and still end up in a good relationship. You could also just interpret his demeanor as over the top flirting that he'll reign back in for an actual serious relationship. Sky's the limit when it comes to fandom interpretations.
But because of this, regardless, I just don't see any potential between the female characters I've met and Sanji. What I do see potential in, is Zoro. Here is actually a character Sanji not only trusts to watch his back, is on equal footing with, but is also unafraid to speak his mind and fight with. He doesn't walk on eggshells or worship the ground Zoro walks on, he has no qualms about defending himself if Zoro crosses a line. That is what a relationship can be built on.
4. Zoro has a contrasting way of interacting with women that I find super interesting. He comes off as the kind of character that doesn't actually care about the gender of the person he's fighting or interacting with - he cares about their ability. Which kinda explains his reactions when he hears Kuina's thoughts about being a girl - and I think Tashigi as well if I'm remembering correctly. There could be a clash of beliefs there that might be quite interesting. I know Zoro and Sanji do fight about how they talk to women, but I meant like something not just played off for laughs. Maybe there is something like that later in the show, who knows, I'm still early on.
5. Again the entire reason why I like enemies to lovers is the need for personal growth. I heard someone say that Zoro would be fine with being in love with a boy if it wasn't Sanji, and Sanji would be fine with being in love with Zoro if he wasn't a boy, and man do I think that's accurate. And here's the crux of the matter - in order for them to get together, they need to get over their hang-ups. Sanji needs to unpack the ten million tons of trauma he keeps repressed under his curly noggin, and Zoro needs to figure out why Sanji rubs him the wrong way. That shit is INTERESTING. People forget that the reason why this trope is so popular is BECAUSE it's a fixer upper - there's work to do. Nothing is perfect. It may even be a little toxic. That's the appeal.
Anyways this is getting TOO LONG. Thanks for reading!
#sanji blackleg; trauma; and his relationship to men and women: an essay#one piece#sanji blackleg#analysis#roronoa zoro#sanzo#zosan#sanji x zoro#zoro x sanji#bisexual sanji blackleg#potentially genderqueer sanji blackleg#zoro and sanji's differing interactions with women are just quite interesting#i headcanon zoro as gay cause that man has never shown interest in a woman from what I've seen so far
211 notes
·
View notes
Last Seen Blogs
