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whataboutmyfries · 2 years

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Kiss me Bite me

Hello folks! prompt number 6 from this prompt list! i'm ngl, I wanted this one to be sweet and soft, but then my characters stared doing angsty shit. All tws are in the tags so please be careful, and watch out for yourself! and Enjoy!

Unbetaed, we die like men.

6. kisses that start out gentle but grows more passionate

Where was he? Where was he?

Remus paced the length of the candlelit shelter restlessly, checking and double checking the reinforced perimeter of their little camp. Leo, Logan and Finn had long since gone to bed, Remus and Dumo having volunteered to take the first watch.

Remus stroked the barrel of his shotgun, his fingers toying with the little charm that Sirius had given him way back when this hellish thing had first started.

He’d never in a million years wagered he’d be one of the few survivors of something as destructive as a killer virus driving people to become…..those things.

He still remembered the time he and Sirius had watched The Train to Busan, the two of them bickering over the best strategy to survive an apocalypse. Remus snorted at the memory, though his heart clenched, remembering days long since gone and easier times.

And now here they were. Remus could’ve scoffed at the irony if he wasn't so damn worried.

He flashed his light twice, catching Dumo’s attention.

Any sign of him? He signed across the distance, temporarily tucking his gun under an arm.

Not yet. Sorry. Dumo signed.

Remus sighed, giving Dumo a small smile and a wave in thanks. ASL and Morse had quickly become a necessity when they’d started figuring out how the zombies worked, using mostly sight to find their victims, but switching easily to sound during the nighttime.

Remus had figured that one out the hard way.

He still remembered the time Sirius and he had gone scouting for food; Sirius standing watch while Remus snuck into the store,just having evaded a Pack. It had never even occurred to them that the zombies might have the facilities to recognise their prey through sound when they’d lost a light source, much like the dusty, cramped shop. Luckily enough, Remus had escaped with just a scar. He still shuddered to think of how close the thing had come to sinking its teeth into the flesh of his arms before Sirius had blown its head clean off.

Goddammit Sirius, where are you?

The steady crunch of gravel had Remus whipping his head around to find the source of the noise, his heart fluttering with hope even as he shouldered his gun.

Come back to me, sweetheart. Come back to me.

Remus fought back tears as Sirius’s muddy bicycle came closer through the darkness, the man in question shooting a grin at his boyfriend as he pedalled his way to camp. Remus gave himself all of ten seconds to feel the crushing relief, the tears slipping free silently before he brushed them away.

It never got easier, the waiting.

Remus sniffed sharply, once, twice, before he flashed his light in Dumo’s direction.

Dumo gave him a thumbs up, jogging off to set up their surveillance and traps before they settled down for the night. Remus silently thanked Dumo, making a mental note to surprise him with a free night for Celeste and him. Remus didn’t mind pulling extra shifts to help ‌a friend.

“Hey there moonpie.”

Remus bit back a sob, putting his gun down before turning to face his husband.

Immediately, the breath was punched out of his lungs as he saw Sirius; bloodied and limping, holding a hand to his abdomen.

No.

Remus’s brain went haywire, taking stock of whatever injuries he could see. Sirius had a couple of bruises on his face, though those were normal and not exactly cause of concern. The right side of his shirt was soaked through and stuck to his body, though it was impossible to tell how big the stain of blood was through the black material. He was dragging his left leg as he walked, though it would be impossible to tell how bad his injuries were with the thick pants and combat boots.

“Fuck.”

Sirius laughed, finally reaching Remus, leaning forward to rest his head against Remus’s shoulder.

“Didn’t know that I’d make it back t’night moons.”

He was slurring his words. Shit.

Remus shoved away the panic, calming his breathing and steadying his hands as he slipped into the all-too-familiar state of mind; Clinical, precise, sharp.

“Pads? Think you can walk? We need to get you patched up.”

“Hmmmm?”

Sirius was too far gone to be coherent. Remus swallowed, stubbornly pushing his worry away as he scooped his husband into his arms, walking him to the medic tent, taking care to jostle him as little as possible.

Please. Please let him be okay.

Sirius came back to consciousness as Remus was cutting off his shirt, the wind cool on his bare chest. A gust of wind told him Remus had already divested him of his pants and boots, leaving him in his underwear.

Remus snipped at the fabric, sucking in a breath as he beheld Sirius’s bare torso.

It looked worse than it was. It looked worse than it actually was.

Remus sent up a prayer to whatever powers may be as he quickly cleaned up the gash, using butterfly stitches to close the worst of it before covering up the wound, all as Sirius watched.

“Hey moons”

“Pads, I am never letting you leave camp by yourself again.”

Sirius frowned. Then sighed. “Yeah. It was stupid, I’m sorry.”

Remus finally let the magnitude of his panic hit him, the adrenaline coursing through his veins at top speed, making his hands shaky and his breathing erratic.

“We have rules. Those rules exist for a fucking reason Sirius, this isn’t a goddam joke!”

Sirius flinched away from Remus’s anger, bringing his hands up in surrender.

“Moony I—”

Remus shoved a shaking finger in his face. “Don’t you fucking dare ‘moony’ me right now. Don't even try it.”

Sirius winced at the barely restrained anger in Remus’s tone as he watched him shove his hands roughly through his hair.

“I’m sorry I—”

“Sorry? You’re Sorry?! Do you have any idea what we were going through? Dumo was beside himself. Logan barely ate, and let's not even talk about James.”

Remus clenched his jaw, his eyes burning golden in the light.

“You traipsed out of here like you were going on a fucking holiday. Like those things out there wouldn’t kill you the second they caught wind of you. Oh wait, thank the fucking lord you have your bloody bicycle to get away from them! Good job Pads! Foolproof plan you got there! No chance of you ending up dead!”

Sirius flinched.

“And then you have the audacity to come back to camp bleeding and ‘hey moony’ me like nothing happened. Do you even realise what I must’ve been thinking? Do you have even the faintest clue what you looked like? I almost fucking lost you Sirius! So no, don’t tell me you’re fucking sorry.”

Sirius swallowed around the lump in his throat, pushing himself into sitting, grimacing at the pain that shot down his leg and torso.

“C’mere.”

Remus sucked in an unsteady breath, stepping closer to Sirius’s bed. Sirius leaned forward, tugging his husband closer, wrapping him up in a tight hug.

Remus’s breath caught, and he choked on a sob, his arms coming up to clutch at Sirius for dear life, his fingers digging into Sirius’s bare back.

“Don’t you ever do that again” Remus choked out between sobs, pulling Sirius impossibly closer to him, needing to feel every inch of his bloodied and battered husband.

Sirius winced a little at the feeling of Remus’s arms against the scratches on his back, but he couldn’t help but pull him closer, burying his face in the crook of his neck.

Remus melted into the embrace, heaving sobs wracking his frame as he cried, Sirius whispering sweet nothings into his hair, his neck, his ear.

“I love you, mon loup, I’ve got you.”

Sirius held him until his tears had softened to a trickle, until his cries had reduced to an occasional sniffle against Sirus’s shoulder, until Remus had gathered the pieces of his sanity into some semblance of rationality. He pulled back, amber eyes finding quicksilver.

“Don’t ever do that again.”

“I won’t”

“Promise?”

Sirius smiled, tucking a wayward curl behind Remus’s ear. “I promise.”

Remus closed his eyes for a second, letting the words wash over him, basking in the presence of his husband; here, safe, alive. He leaned into the warmth of Sirius’s hand at his neck, leaning to rest their foreheads together.

“I love you.”

“I love you too. So very much.”

“C’mere”

Sirius leaned forward to close the distance between their lips, feeling the gentle brush of Remus’s mouth send fireworks down his spine, warmth suffusing every part of his body. He sighed into the kiss, achingly tender and honey-sweet, as he slipped his hands under Remus’s sweater.

Remus moaned at the feel of icy fingers against his spine, and the sound snapped something in Sirius, who took the opportunity to deepen the kiss; slipping his tongue into Remus’s mouth, swallowing his gasp of surprise as he ran his hands up Remus’s body.

Remus responded with equal enthusiasm, tugging gently at Sirius's hair as he climbed into his lap, carefully straddling those strong thighs. They were gasping into each other's mouths, hands fervently exploring the expanse of warm skin, their lips meeting in a fiery kiss, desperation thrumming through every movement. Remus was the first to pull away, leaning back on his heels, ever careful to keep his weight off of Sirius’s injuries.

Sirius groaned at the loss of contact, even as Remus huffed a laugh, a thumb still stroking Sirius’s cheekbone as he pressed a kiss to his forehead.

“I know love, I know. But we’ve got to get you cleaned up and out of those filthy clothes.”

Sirius let out a gasp of mock horror, “Remus John Lupin, are you implying that I smell?”

Remus rolled his eyes, the effect of the motion completely ruined by the fond smile tugging at his lips. “Like a wet dog.”

Sirius pouted, and Remus giggled, leaning forward to drop a chaste kiss on his lips.

“Come on, shower, hot chocolate and bed?”

Sirius frowned, considering the offer. “Only if you join me, only with marshmallows, and only if you let me borrow your hoodie.”

Remus laughed, “Deal. But the water’s probably going to hurt like a bitch and you can’t be pissy when I’m cleaning up the rest of your wounds after."

Sirius winced, then grinned. “Deal. Now what was that about a shower, loverboy?”

If you can spot the little very very baby ACOMAF reference in here I'm looking slyly at you across our dashboards :) also, the rest of the works for this prompt list can be found here!

#whataboutmywriting #tw:blood #tw:injury #tw: mentions of guns #tw: hypothetical mention of death #wolfstar #remus lupin #sirius black #sirius x remus #remus x sirius #marauders era fanfiction #marauders #au #oknutzy #but not so much just a lil mention #heheh :)#angst

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clevercorvidae · 4 years

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BNHA Common Misconceptions

I’ve been seeing wayyy too much bs on my dash lately. So I thought I’d share some of my thoughts on some Controversy™

***Spoilers For The Manga***

1. “What the HPSC did to Hawks wasn’t bad”

A government organization putting a young child through rigorous training so that he can be used as a tool is bad. I don’t know why I have to spell that out

Hawks had to abandon his real name at a very young age. That’s damaging for a kid’s sense of identity. His identity as a person no longer has any separation from his work as a hero. Being a hero is all he is now. I wouldn’t be surprised if (provided Hawks’s wings are gone for good) he has an identity crisis after this arc because he can’t be “Hawks” anymore.

Hawks is based on Lionel Messi, a soccer player recruited at a young age in return for paying for his medical procedures. I’ve seen people say that Hawks chose to be a hero. One, he was a child, young children shouldn’t be making decisions like that. Two, we know based on context clues that Keigo was more than likely living in poverty, possibly with alcoholic parents, and we literally are told that the HPSC payed for his family’s living expenses. Do you really think Keigo had much of a choice here?

I’ve seen people say “it’s just like what UA is doing”. First of all, UA is called out for being irresponsible and endangering their students IN UNIVERSE. Second, Keigo was a young child, the UA kids are 15+. There’s a huge difference.

2. “Mitsuki isn’t abusive”

Honestly when it comes to her smacking Katsuki, I could excuse it as a joke done in poor taste and not hold it over her as a character.

Hitting him WASNT just discipline tho. You should never, ever, under any circumstances hit your kid. Fuck that noise.

What I really have an issue with is what she SAYS to Katsuki. Her guilt tripping him isn’t a throwaway line either. He repeats the sentiment that he is responsible for Kamino during Deku v Kacchan 2. It’s one of the main reasons he fights Deku.

Horikoshi says that Katsuki has a good relationship with his mother. In that case, he did a horrible job at presenting that. What is written in the canon is what should be used as the basis for how we interpret her character.

3. “Shigaraki chose to kill his family/was born evil”

No...just...no. He was FIVE for crying out loud.

He wanted to be a hero, and took extra care to play with kids that had no friends. He definitely wasn’t born evil lmao.

His quirk manifested while he was having an emotional crisis. Decay is controlled by emotion so of course it went haywire.

He didn’t even know it was him doing it at first.

“But Shigaraki said he WANTED it to happen” Shigaraki is an unreliable narrator. What we actually SEE tells a very different story. He reaches out to Hana and his Mother for help. His grandparents are just caught in the shockwave. The ONLY person he killed on purpose was his father.

Now when it comes to his father, he had just beat him and locked him outside. He’s FIVE, and he has no healthy outlet for his anger and frustration. Hell, we see that in his “itchiness”, he only feels like this in the house, because his father makes him suppress his love for heroes and his dream to become one. He takes joy in killing his father because it’s the only release he’s ever experienced.

The fact that you guys forget that this is an abused child with no real control over his quirk that just got beaten and locked outside... Nope, no reading comprehension here.

4. “The League of Villains are justified/are a revolutionary group”

...Shigaraki has stated over and over again that he just wants to destroy everything. He doesn’t care about reform or improving anything. That one panel in Ch. 222, where he says he wants to destroy everything I think sums it up perfectly.

He wants to destroy EVERYTHING good or bad or neither or both. There’s a newborn baby, a field of flowers , Nine, various heroes, the UA kids, etc all varying in innocence.

The rest of the league have very different goals and reasons why they continue to support Shigaraki. Twice wants to protect the only people that accepted him. Spinner just wants to have purpose for his life. Toga wants to live the way she wishes with no consequences. Compress is also here.

The only “revolutionary” is Dabi. But his views are not universal throughout the league.

Even if they were trying to improve things. They have killed countless innocent people, they’ve tried to kill the UA kids too. That’s not ok. And it’s not erased by the fact that they’ve done good. (I do appreciate them for killing the MHA version of the KKK, truly epic of you)

5. “Hawks is abusive”

It’s not abuse to manipulate someone for info when you’re a double agent. It’s kinda shitty, and you could argue that it was unnecessary for Hawks to do so in context. But it’s not abuse.

Y’all need to stop using the word abuse/abusive tendencies to describe all immoral actions

I’ve also seen people say that Hawks has abusive tendencies (as in he’s abusive in all his relationships with other characters) and...do I really need to explain why that makes no sense at all?

6. “Twice deserved to die/it was necessary to kill him”

Feel like I need to remind people that we’ve only ever actually seen Twice kill one guy and that was one of the KKK guys.

Twice isn’t evil, even Hawks admits that he is a genuinely good person. Good people don’t deserve to die.

It wasn’t necessary, and here’s why: Hawks could’ve just knocked him out or even just severely injured him. (Or the HPSC could’ve just grown a brain cell and sent more people to back him up, making it easier to hold back his quirk and arrest him)

Hawks shouldn’t have killed Twice, he only killed him because he’s been raised as a child soldier and I wouldn’t be surprised if what he told Twice about taking out villains was a direct quote from the HPSC

Also, Hawks would’ve killed Twice with or without Dabi’s intervention

Something I do have to say though is that Hawks was right not to just let Twice go. It’s tragic because Twice WAS leaving to help his friends, but the other side of that tragedy it that his friends are terrorists. If he was allowed to leave a shit ton of people would have died (again that doesn’t mean he deserved to die either, don’t get it twisted)

The WHOLE POINT of Hawks v Twice is to make you question who the bad guy is. Both characters are morally gray and the only reason they even have to fight is because of the outside forces controlling their fates. It’s supposed to be tragic it’s supposed to be unclear who is in the right, so stop arguing about it.

7. “Bakugou is abusive/irredeemable” (I know it’s been talked to death but I still see it everywhere)

People are, in fact, allowed to grow past the person they were in middle school.

Most people get hung up on the “throw yourself off a building” line. Which is fair, but again, he was in middle school.

People also say “he hasn’t apologized yet”. Yeah? And? The story isn’t over yet. Horikoshi has already acknowledged that too. I don’t know what you want? People who like him know that his arc isn’t over yet.

I’ve seen a lot of people denying his character development. In the beginning of the series he was a bully and let his ego control him. I don’t think he’s bullied...anyone since Deku v Kacchan 2. He insults people but they obviously don’t take it seriously.

He’s also gone from preferring to fail a final exam to avoid working with Deku, to following him into battle against Shigaraki.

Also, when he actually likes and respects someone he doesn’t mistreat them. This is the same thing with Hawks where y’all NEED to stop misusing the word abuse. He was an abusive friend to Deku when they were kids, that’s it.

8. “Rei was abusive too!”

I’m BEGGING YOU to learn what the term “abuse” means istg

She had a psychotic break. She genuinely thought it was her abusive husband coming through the door, and she acted out of fear.

“Well that’s not an excuse” yes it fucking is. Not to mention that as soon as she realized what happened, she sobs hysterically because she hurt Shouto and tries to use her quirk to help him.

I genuinely don’t understand why people think this

9. “Dabi actually does care about the league”

Listen, I know it sounds harsh, but y’all need to get your heads out of your piles of headcanons.

We know next to nothing about how Dabi feels about just about anything. But we do see that he’s aloof and distant with the league, he doesn’t put in more than he needs to. The rest of the league think of each other as family. Dabi straight up says he doesn’t give a shit about them.

“What if he was just putting up a front for Hawks” Why? Why would he do that? When asked who he was he answered him. He tells him how he feels about hero society and Stain. Not to mention that he was getting ready to kill him. If he was hiding his true feelings about the league I doubt he would’ve so easily said that he didn’t care about them but rather how useful they were.

At this point it’s just wishful thinking. Based on everything we’ve seen in the series so far and everything we know about Dabi, I think it’s safe to say that he doesn’t care about them all that much. If he secretly does care about them, I’d say it’s likely that he doesn’t even know he does.

Idk why all of a sudden villain stans and hero stans are feuding over things that shouldn’t even be up for debate in the first place. Sorry if this came off as super aggressive, I’m just sick of seeing this stuff all over the place. If anyone has anything to add go ahead

#bnha #bnha spoilers #discourse #bakugou katsuki #Hawks #keigo takami #dabi #league of villains #mitsuki bakugou #shigaraki tomura

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razorblade180 · 3 years

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Emercury Day 8: Free Day

Midnight, the witching hour. If there’s ever a time to steal something then it’s midnight. However, Emerald didn’t take part in thievery tonight. As fun as it would’ve been to rob Vale blind, she stood on a rooftop angrily sitting on a picnic mat waiting for Mercury. It was complete garbage! This whole thing was his idea and yet she had currently wasted 20 minutes alone up here and hours making sure she looked presentable for reasons she couldn’t explain herself. Sure he asked her to have a late dinner by moonlight, but it’s not like it was specifically a date! They just work late and we’re tired of warehouses. Yeah, that’s it.

Five more minutes passed and the anger inside her burned hotter, but it was still no match for the chill air. A breeze sent goosebumps up her arms and made her shiver.

“When I see him, I’m gonna-” before her thought finished, Emerald felt a jacket drape over her and saw family gray gloves on her shoulders. The agitated girl spung up and turned around. “You! You got a lotta nerve being- what the heck happened to you?”

Emerald gazed upon her partner covered in a little smoke and bruises. The young mercenary took liberty of sitting down on the blanket and opening the basket.

“Aye, you got my favorite kind bread! You do pay attention.”

“Don’t ignore me. What the hell happened? You look like back alley trash.” She sat down and rubbed her thumb across a bruise on his cheek. All immediate anger was put on the back burner.

“Partnered up with Junior and his boys for an operation. We discussed the cut, got what we wanted, then....renegotiated the cut.” He said, wincing from his injuries. “He tried shorting me.”

“You went thieving without me!?”

“Yeah, it was a risky theft and I if went south I could’ve easily been caught.”

“So why not bring your partner for backup!?” Emerald yelled, gaining her anger again. “We could’ve shelved this idea until later!”

“But I wanted the date tonight, and you would’ve been pissed to have been thrown in jail and hungry.”

“........So this is a date?” Not the most important thing to be answered right now, but she couldn’t help herself.

Mercury turned to her like she was a stranger. “What- Duh! I just don’t ask people for moonlit dinners. You look good by the way. Brush your hair out more?” He tried reaching for it but got his hand smacked. “Ow! I’m injured already!”

“You wouldn’t be if you had me there. What was so important that you’d want to help Junior tonight of all nights?”

Mercury smiled. He reached in his pocket and watched Emerald’s eyes go wide and face turn red when she the black box in his hand. “You okay?”

“There better not be a ring in that box.” She said, heart racing. Mercury opened the box and displayed, of course, an emerald ring. The girl’s brain went static. That couldn’t be a wedding ring. That would be insane! There’s a trick happening. Maybe he’s lied the whole time and he actually had a semblance to copy other semblances? That had to be it! Mercury was creating an illusion!

“I....that’s....You can’t just....we’re skipping steps here! Don’t mess with me Mercury. Explain this!” She said sniffling, her emotions going haywire.

Mercury continued to smile and took her hand to put the ring on, but not her left ring finger. He decided on the right. “Relax, I’m not proposing, but this is technically an engagement ring. I only got this one because it’s an emerald. However, consider this a promising ring, gift, or anything but me trying to be your husband out of the blue. I...just wanted you to have this.” His face turned red. Mercury went back to eating the food she made and watching the city lights. “Don’t think about it too much.

Too little too late. Emerald had gone through a rollercoaster of thoughts in minutes. She looks at the gem. It fit perfectly. “How did you know my ring size?”

“Lucky guess.” He lied. Mercury payed attention to Emerald all the time and had something like this in mind for awhile, but no way in hell was he letting her know that. “So, you gonna eat too?”

Emerald could only squint at him. Clearly he wanted to change subjects. Just this once, Emerald decided to let him keep his cool. Well, not entirely. The girl gave him a quick peck on the cheek before quickly turning around with her food, blushing hard. “I...guess this worth the wait. Still! Next time just take me with you. Surprise or not, I’d rather participate in the fun. Clearly I can teach you a thing or two. We’ll cut twenty minutes to ten!”

Mercury looked at the girl. Even though he couldn’t see her face he could tell she was thinking of future schemes and heists, smirking at the idea of robbing together. Oh boy, he had his work cut out for him. Mercury couldn’t help but laugh a little. “Heh, deal.” Their dates just got a lot more interesting.

#rwby #mercury black #emercury week #emercury #emerald sustrai #buzzer beater moment. i used the whole grace period 💀

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wxsuthorn · 3 years

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a sort of organised analysis of The Gifted characters

pt. 1: Pang

(this analysis includes episodes 1-13 of season one and 1-7 of season two, so it probably isn’t completely accurate, but i tried my best. also please excuse grammar or spelling errors that i might’ve made cuz i write these late at night when my creativity sparks lmao)

Characteristics and qualities in the beginning of season 1

Even in the very first episode, Pang already showed some idealistic qualities. He always thought that the school system wasn’t fair, and he always tried doing the right thing (or what he thought was the right thing). His idealism wasn’t as extreme in the very beginning of the show, since he wasn’t as confident in his abilities. He probably didn’t have much interest in changing the school system when he (and the people around him) saw him as a dumb kid from classroom 8. Getting into the Gifted Program was what affected his idealism to the point where it became a fault.

Before he discovered his potential, he was most likely very confused about his “academic rank”. He was in classroom 8, yet he was in the Gifted Program... but he hadn’t found his potential yet. I can imagine him questioning his worth and how significant he really was; he was also one of the first kids in the gifted class to outwardly express how they felt about the unfair treatment of the ordinary students compared to the gifted students. This was probably because he got to experience both ends of the unequal treatment, unlike the rest of his gifted classmates.

In terms of intelligence, Pang is street smart. In episode one he thought of a distraction to not get caught stealing the test. He also used the egg drop parachute to save his phone. He is innovative and can create ideas and identify problems. In episode one (again), he noticed that Wave was sweating and seemed weak. He also noticed Ohm’s bloody nose and Mon moving a locker full of weights. He was aware of shit... but he’s not very aware of other people’s feelings... at least not fully.

Pang’s friendship with Nac hits different after the pangwave fight but anyways... Pang knew that he didn’t use the cheat sheet, and he couldn’t tell Nac anything about the Gifted Program, so he probably didn’t fully understand why Nac was so upset when he technically did nothing wrong. Nac even said he wasn’t upset that Pang was in the Gifted Program. I think that’s why Pang never talked it out with him and just kinda exploded at him. Even though he may see himself as empathetic, it’s really just him being idealistic. He mistakes his ideals about equality for empathy, when, in fact, those are two separate things. When it comes to individual people, I don’t think he’s very good at understanding them thoroughly enough. Nac’s reasons for being upset with Pang are realistic and valid. He’s in class 1, Pang’s in class 8, yet Pang was the one who got into the Gifted Program. Nac gave Pang a cheat sheet, and even though Pang denies using it, he couldn’t really believe that he got in with the grades he has. And on top of that, Pang doesn’t even tell him what happens in the class. Nac feels used and excluded, but Pang wasn’t paying attention to that. He ended up blaming the unfair system, which was just a factor of the conflict, but never took a moment to look at what he himself could’ve done to help the conflict, or even what he might’ve done wrong. but issokay cuz pang is a smol bean and i love him

Characteristics and qualities in the middle - the end of season 1

Lets talk about Pang discovering his potential in episode 6. He first noticed it when he told Nac to bang his head on a metal bar. This wasn’t the first time he used his potential on Nac, though. In the first episode he used it on him and said something like “don’t talk to me ever again”, and so Nac didn’t communicate with again him until episode 6. This was when Pang used his potential on him saying “why can’t we just talk it out?” and Nac was finally able to communicate his frustration. Nac was blaming Pang for shit he didn’t do and it was unreasonable, according to Pang, but Nac didn’t know the full story. If you look at the way Nac sees things: Pang is in the Gifted Program, Pang used me to get into the program (because there’s no way he just got in without using my cheat sheet), I got punished when Wave provoked me and Pang tried playing hero, as if he was some perfect angel. Pang has new friends, he has no use for me anymore, I don’t need him either, I find new friends, Pang suddenly joins in, everything goes haywire, my anger and frustration towards him explodes, and he just ignores what I’m feeling and tells me that I’m wrong and that I’m an asshole. Like I did something wrong, and he’s perfectly innocent. Lmao Nac is salty af. And he has a good reason to be. Pang doesn’t understand Nac’s thinking, and on top of that, he makes almost no effort to understand. His beliefs blind him into thinking he’s done no wrong.

Now lets talk about his actual potential, and how it affects him. His ego and self esteem rises, but Pang doesn’t notice it. It’s explained in the end of season 1 that the reason Pang lost is because he wanted to do everything on his own because he thought that only he was able to defeat the director. His ideals and his ego are very closely connected. Pang teams up with Wave because he thinks that Wave will be the most useful to stop Director Supot. Now, I don’t think Pang doesn’t care about his friends, but his actions are neglectful. When Pang teams up with Wave, he tells none of his other friends about what he’s doing. He doesn’t tell Namtaan or Ohm, literally his two closest friends, and convinces himself that he’s doing it to protect them. News flash, he isn’t. He’s trying to be a hero. His ego rapidly increasing might be because of how he was constantly ridiculed when he was in classroom 8, and suddenly he gets this power that makes him “superior” to ordinary people. Another possibility is that his ego was already big, but we he only showed it/applied it when he was trying to take down Director Supot.

Now lets talk about the season 1 finale: Pang becomes aware of his ego through the director foiling his plan and humiliating him. This is a big part of his development as a character. Ofc in season 2 he still has a problem with neglecting and doing things solo, but he become a little more aware, and for 2 whole year’s he’s able to somewhat-effectively lead the gifted gang in their fight against the anti-gifted.

Characteristics and qualities in season two (up until episode 7)

Lets discuss: Ms Darin. aka ms loser. Remember in the beginning of episode 7 where he trusted her cuz of what she said and he noticed her actions (oop remember this trait from before? he’s aware of shit!), but it turned out it was all lies. He eventually got back on track after Third showed him the truth, and was smart enough not to trust Ms. Darin after that. I wanna guess that the reason he started trusting Ms. Darin so easily (other than what she said and did) is because he was in distress from failing Korn and Time. He needed some support, and he wouldn’t let his friends support him because “im a hero blah blah blah i dont wanna worry my friends they dont need to help me with my burdens cuz i can do it on my own :D” season 1 Pang type shit. Ms. Darin was an adult who seemed trustworthy enough, plus Director Supot was gone, and he was the main antagonist in season 1, so isn’t everything only gonna get better now that he’s gone? Plus when Grace said that he sounds like the adults lksdjlkjslfjjsdf THAT HIT ME.

Now I wanna talk about him with Chanon. I’m praying that Chanon is pure and not corrupted because if he is he might’ve used Pang and might do so in the future too... but let’s not focus on that. Pang finally has a mentor-figure in his life that he looks up. Someone to balance out his ego and show him that he can’t do everything on his own. yeah that’s all i have to say about that.

Punn. “You’re done, Pang.” Yeah lets talk about that because holy mcnuggets. Punn knows Pang well enough to know how intensely idealistic and passionate he is. Once the director is gone, Punn is like, bitch u got nothing else to obsess over MOVE ON. He’s basically saying Pang’s existence was so heavily tied with fixing the school system that when eveything’s fixed, he’ll be “done.” It’s similar to Five from the Umbrella Academy, where his whole life was set on fixing the apocalypse that he felt that life had no meaning without an apocalypse to prevent.

Now let’s talk about PangWave... I truly believe that Pang sees Wave as his equal, as his friend, and as a person whom he cares for deeply. His ego and idealism, topped with all the stress he’s going through (by himself), are dangerous towards his relationships. Wave feels used by Pang, and explains how Pang only comes to him when he needs his help, and avoids him when he disagrees with what Pang thinks. Pang is so fixated on his ideals and beliefs that he will do anything to make sure they become a reality. He’s obsessed, and it’s sooooo bad for his relationships with others. It shows that even on Namtaan’s bday, he can only think about “doing the right thing”, because that’s his number 1 priority. PANG JUST GIVE URSELF A BREAK PLEASE TAKE A METAL HEALTH DAY JUST SLKJFLSDKJJD MEDITATE OR SMTH.

I could type for several hours longer but I think this is enough word vomit for this post.

Summary

- VERY IDEALISTIC !!!! TO A FAULT

- He has somewhat of an inflated ego, but uses his ideals and beliefs to cover it up and convince himself that he is a “good person”

- He overworks his brain by never thinking of himself or other people’s emotions and focuses on his idealistic goals and his idealistic goals ONLY.

- He’s very aware of the things’s around him, and is street smart, but he’s not as aware when it comes to other people’s feelings and thoughts.

- He cares for his friends, but his extreme idealism ends up hurting them, and in turn hurting himself and further encouraging him to self-isolate.

- Independent, but this is mostly due to him thinking that he can handle problems on his own and he doesn’t want to get others involved.

- He is becoming more aware of his wrong actions, hence him apologising to Wave about going after Korn without him, but not enough to actually prevent these wrong actions.

- didn’t talk about this much but GUILT!!! I can tell that he feels immense guilt (especially in the latest episodes) whenever one of his friends get hurt and he’s very involved in what got them hurt. However, when it comes to hurting people emotionally, his guilt is tricky to read. At least for me it is lmao. Cuz he doesn’t always fully understand his friends’ feelings because he can’t always admit that he’s done something wrong, but with the recent pangwave fight he definitely felt some type of guilt there. Or maybe it was frustration? idk skjdflajsdfl someone else step in on this one pls

- He needs rest and a mental break. And some therapy maybe? Like please can one caring adult help this poor child.

- His character is actually pretty consistent wow the writing in this show is great.

- a cute boi who needs a hug. Preferably from Wave and/or Ohm.

#the gifted graduation #tgg #tgg spoilers #the gifted #the gifted series #nanon korapat #pangwave #the gifted pang #character analysis #pang character analysis #the gifted character analysis

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armageddon-generation · 5 years

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Batwoman Could’ve Been the PERFECT Batfamily Show

After Gotham ended so recently, Batwoman should've positioned itself as the Ying to that show's Yang by focusing on Batman's allies instead of his enemies.

The 'Bruce disappears hook is a brilliant way to do this

Kate is our audience entry point into this world

ORACLE + GORDON

Barbra Gordon has already been paralysed via The Killing Joke, and hasn't yet become Oracle - she's still recovering

Comissioner Gordon took an early retirement after his daughter was paralysed, which is why Kate's Dad's private security force the Crows runs the streets

Batwoman and the series' events inspire him to return and reclaim Gotham for the Law by the end of season 1

TIM DRAKE + WE ARE ROBIN

Robin disappeared with Batman, so we can introduce the We Are Robin gang. At the beginning of the season they're just criminals, but after Kate defeats their ringleader she shows them a better outlet for their rage, and inspires them. Duke Thomas (future Signal) is among them

Once the we Are Robins are established Tim Drake returns to Gotham. Kate is surprised - few people outside of Gotham know there have been multiple Robins. This way we can explain the different versions to people not in the know

Just like after Bruce was sent back in time in the comics, Tim has gone travelling the world as Red Robin, searching for him. Tim heard about the Robins causing civil unrest and is concerned about them marring Robin's good name.

Tim and Kate clash over the Robins' chaotic, violent modus oprendi - Tim enforces a philosophy of Robin as the light to Batman's dark - promoting positivity, not violence. A loose adaptation of the Robin War storyline follows where Duke Thomas emerges as the Robins' leader and rallies them to be more controlled and less violent

Tim leaves after this mini-arc, satisfied Gotham is in good hands. He also teaches Kate more about the detective side of Batman - he isn't just a blunt instrument. Tim will be our primary link to the 'Bruce's location' mystery throughout the series

NIGHTWING

Dick arrives in Gotham on a case from Bludhaven. Kate thinks he's abandoned Gotham - he should've taken up the mantle while Bruce was gone.

Explore Dick's troubled history with Bruce (not to F**k Batman levels), how Babs being Batgirl caused him to quit, and the one-two punch of Jason Todd's death and Barbra's paralysis only validated his getting out while he could

Tender scenes between Dick and Babs alluding to thier teenage crushes on each other.

As a cop, Dick hates the Crows being on Gotham's streets and more actively conflicts with Kate's father, driving up the tension between them and Batwoman

RED HOOD

This arc would be like a finale-style thing

Jason Todd returns and starts assassinating criminals with the ambition of 'controlling' crime. Kate is a soldier, more brutal than Bruce, so she has greater sympathy for Jay's methods

Jay is after the Joker. Like in The Dark Knight Returns, the Joker has 'retired' to Arkham since Batman left - he got bored pretty quickly. This arc introduces him properly after a few teases earlier in the series.

Jay learns of Barbra's paralysis (which happened after he died) - even then Bruce wouldn't kill him. A scene where Jason visits Babs (little brother/big sister dynamic).

Both Dick and Tim return for this arc, losing their shit over the Joker. Kate's reaction to the Joker is much like Terry McGuiness's in Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker. She doesn't get why everyone is so scared of this stupid clown.

Tim is the one who figures out how Jason was resurrected; just like in the Red robin comic he's been travelling through the world of assassins and knows about the Lazarus Pit.

I think doing the Red Hood arc without Bruce - the main target of Jason's anger - is super interesting. Most people share his anger at Bruce for disappearing.

It also lets us dig deep into the inter-Robin dynamics - Jason hates Dick because he always had to live up to him (do that thing in the comics where Jay had to dye his red hair black to 'look like Robin')

Jay hates Tim for replacing him, for being proof Bruce didn't learn his lesson, for Bruce treating Tim better, the way he should've treated Jason

Kate is instrumental to this arc because, being outside all the drama, she has objectivity. She forces Dick and Tim to get their heads out of their asses and talk to Jason, forces them to confront the problem.

Instead of taking the Joker to Bruce as he does in the Under the Red Hood movie, Jason takes Joker to Babs, who has suffered the most because of him. Confronted with the man who 'ruined' her life, Babs proves bigger and stronger than him. She refuses to kill him. Unlike Jason, she's moving on and growing past her trauma, not looking for revenge.

Joker (being the Joker) turns the tables on Jay and has him at his mercy. Kate swoops in and, like Terry in Return of the Joker, messes with the Joker's head by refusing to take him seriously. The Joker is distracted, screaming about Kate not being Batman, and Babs gets to knock him the fuck out.

Jason escapes, but not before dropping a clue connecting Bruce's disappearance to the League of Assassins

I know the showrunners admitted they have no clue where Bruce is yet, so in my version he's off on some quest with Ras Al Guhl. In the time since he's been gone he's married Talia and had a kid. no-one in Gotham knows this yet.

VILLAINS

We can explore how Batman’s absence has had a strange effect on Gotham's villains - many have gone into states of hibernation similar to the Joker.

Two Face gets his dark Knight Returns plotline where the attempt to repair his face,

Mr Freeze has a similar ‘cure’ story a la Batman Beyond

Clayface (as in the Rebirth run of Detective Comics) is trying to go straight - using his shape-shifting gift to make a name for himself in the movie business. He thinks he's finally been accepted, but people are just sucking up to him because of his talent - the reality of their disgust threatens to push him back over the edge

Without Batman there to fight her, Poison Ivy has pretty much taken over Gotham's main park space, but a kind of stalemate has been reached - she won't attack the city as long as the city doesn't move against her plants.

Kate's central dilemma is navigating these unusual waters - she toys with the idea of putting Ivy behind bars and we get an episode of her exploring the micro-climate of the transformed Park. Kate's disturbance makes Ivy threaten the city, and she has to stretch her underused negotiation muscles to talk her down.

I like the idea of Ivy as an ambivalent character, not good or evil. She'll do whatever she wants. Also she and Kate would have killer sexual chemistry.

Harley. Exploring Harley in such a strongly feminist show would be fascinating. Joker has closed off, given himself up. Harley is forced to fend without him, and finds an antihero niche with the Gotham City Sirens (hi, Ivy!)

With Bruce's disappearance, Wayne enterprises is designing revolutionary new weapons for the Crows. It's revealed that they’re using the Riddler to design these. After Batman disappeared it was presumed Nygma went through therapy and was moved away from Gotham - in fact he's here.

This plot point is inspired by the New 52's Zero Year arc. Kate discovers the foul play when the Crow's systems go haywire because of a virus Nygma planted, sending Gotham into a blackout and giving the Riddler control of its municipal systems

Kate finds Nygma and exposes Wayne Enterprises' corruption, but in the process Riddler escapes.

Similar to Ivy, Kate's appearance excites the Riddler and he reactivates his Saw-like trap rooms across the city. Kate has a different, much blunter way of solving puzzles that frustrates him, used to Bruce's genius-level intellect.

This raises the question - is Batwoman a liability to the city?

BATGIRL(S)/BIRDS OF PREY

With Riddler's re-emergence triggers the appearance of Spoiler. In the comics Stephanie Brown is Cluemaster's daughter, but no-one really gives a shit about him. The benefit of a decade-plus old Batman means his rogues gallery can easily have kids - Stephanie had her name changed in witness protection.

Steph helps Kate beat the Riddler in collaboration with Bab's hacking skills. Kate sees potential in Spoiler and sends her to Babs to be trained.

As Batwoman's appearance reawakens super-crime in Gotham, the Crows get desperate. They hire world- renowned assassin David Cain to start taking out targets

Intro Cassandra Cain.

Cass + Steph + Babs are this series' version of the Birds of Prey

Babs teaches Cass sign-language to communicate. Steal her friendship with Clayface from the Rebirth Detective Comics - Clayface leaves the movie business again because it was unhealthy, and is trying to do good

Everyone is very protective of Cass and determined she won't fight

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megan-is-mia · 4 years

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Cupid’s Chokehold Chapter 1 (Poly! Fugonara w/ Waitress Reader)

(yet another repost)

The first thought that came to (Y/n) as she began to wake up was that she hated vodquila. The unholy mix of vodka and tequila her auntie Arabella was so fond of didn’t just screw over its drinker, it fucked-up everyone in the vicinity. The second thought came over her was that she didn’t feel hungover despite having a pounding headache. No, wait... a headache wasn’t usually accompanied by the feeling like you’d been cracked over the head with a baseball bat right?

(Y/n) opened her eyes and began scanning her surroundings for clues. She tried to sit up but found that the vertigo she felt at the movement wasn’t worth the trouble so she let her head fall back with a soft thud and groan.

The next action (Y/n) attempted was trying to lift her hand to her face. This endeavor was only half successful, her hand came up— and so did her other hand since they were tied together with a rope. She repeated this action with one of her legs and found that it too was bound to its twin with rope.

A feeling of panic had begun to bubble up in her stomach and it only grew as she realized some of the dizziness she felt was linked to the fact she was in a moving car. A distressed whine petered out of her mouth catching the attention of the men in the front seat.

“Sounds like she’s awake! I was worried that I’d hit her too hard with Aerosmith” Narancia said cheeped reaching blindly into the back seat to pat the girl’s arm. He didn’t want to think about what would have happened if (Y/n) hadn’t regained consciousness.

“Good, we’re almost back to the base” Fugo replied his focus was mostly on the road as he drove but his eyes darted for a moment to look at the girl. He’d also been worried about what they’d have to do if they’d accidentally killed (Y/n).

(Y/n) tried to squirm away from Narancia’s searching hand but he grabbed her elbow tightly. Gradually his hand loosened to creep up her forearm to her wrist before wrapping his fingers around hers, gently squeezing like a hesitant child seeing reassurance from their parent. The bubbling panic in her stomach morphed into fear that weighted heavily in her gut.

Why was this happening? Why had they knocked her out, tied her up, and thrown her into the back of a car? Why were her two best friends doing this to her? These and more frantic questions bounced around her head in a desperate medley to the pulsing pain at the base of her skull.

So (Y/n) tried to be rational, she tried to think back and find a root to the problem before her. Through the pained fog in her head, the answer eventually came to her. Well more like it came in fractured pieces. The first incident was the day she’d properly met Fugo and Narancia.

Before that first fateful day, they’d been nothing more than run of the mill customers at (Y/n)’s place of employment: St. Viento. She’d see them from a distance sitting at a large round table along with a few oddly-dressed other men, but since they weren’t in her section for serving, (Y/n) couldn’t do much more than wonder about their strange fashion sense (especially the red, hole-ridden suit Fugo was so fond of).

Then came that day in April when her co-worker Russian Blue had called in sick and her boss, Ms. Lila Renne, ordered (Y/n) to cover the waiter’s section as well as her own during the afternoon rush. Everything was going smoothly until she’d heard screaming from the circular table. Fugo was screaming in fury at Narancia’s idiotic answers to his questions and Narancia was screaming in pain at being stabbed in the face with a fork by Fugo.

Without considering the consequences, (Y/n) had smashed a plate over Fugo’s head and knocked the male clean out. She’d then taken Narancia to the employee’s bathroom so she could clean and bandage the gash on his cheek from the fork. After returning the black-haired boy to his table and fetching an ice pack for Fugo she tried to go back to normality.

The next day when Ms. Renne called (Y/n) into her office, the girl thought she was going to be fired. Afterall St Viento couldn’t continue the employment of a waitress who shattered a dish over a customer’s head right? Wrong! Apparently, the action had instead endeared her to Fugo who apologized for making a scene at the table. She’d become fast friends with the blonde and black-haired male soon after that and life was good.

The second fateful day was two months ago back in February. The boys had confessed that they both had romantic feelings for her. The aftermath had been awkward for all parties involved, especially (Y/n) who’d called in sick to work for almost a week to avoid the two males. Yet when she finally returned to work and had to serve them again... it was like nothing had happened. Fugo and Narancia acted just as cheerful as before their haywire love confession to her.

The fact they’d acted so nonchalant had lured (Y/n) into believing that all was fine. Maybe that was her biggest mistake... a squeeze to her hand temporarily broke the girl from her trip down memory lane. Narancia had twisted his seat so his knees were on the seat and he could look over the seatback down at (Y/n).

The look in his eye reminded (Y/n) of the more perverted customers that sometimes visited St. Viento. Men (and women) who’s gaze made her skin crawl and made her feel unclean. Some of the more bold perverts had tried copping a feel of her and had to be escorted out of the establishment. When (Y/n) thought about it, she’d actually not had any of those customers in almost a year. Any of regulars that had previously displayed such behaviors had either suddenly disappeared or now kept their hands to themselves with a fearful look in their eyes.

She’d never wondered if the reason for this change might be linked to her boys. At least she’d never wondered until now... and the thought scared her. (Y/n) had known that Fugo and Narancia were no strangers to violence since the day she’d met them. She knew that the blonde had a temper even though he made an effort not to get physical at the cafe, he still yelled sometimes. Even though she’d never seen him use it on anyone, (Y/n) knew Narancia flashed a knife at people who annoyed him.

She knew these things and she should have known better but she’d still accepted that ring! (Y/n)’s long-distance boyfriend had decided to surprise her by dropping in the restaurant that morning and proposing to her. She hadn’t noticed the angry expressions on Fugo and Narancia’s faces at the time, too wrapped up in her own joy to take note of them leaving without saying goodbye. But she sure noticed when they were the last time she saw right before being knocked out.

At some point near the end of her musings, the car had stopped and both boys had gotten out. The door nearest her legs opened and Fugo had begun pulling her out. With some minor fumbling, he managed to lift her into a modified princess carry with her bound arms around his neck. His arms wrapped underneath her bound knees and around her back as he began to walk.

“Aww, why do you get to carry her?” Narancia whined hot on Fugo’s heels. (Y/n) had opted to turn her face so it was pressed against the blonde’s chest and it was easier to disassociate from her current situation.

“Because I had to drive us here. You could’ve sat in the back with her but you wanted to ride shot-gun so there” Fugo said rolling his eyes and adjusting his grip on (Y/n) so she had to rest her head more on his shoulder than on his chest. He couldn’t resist the urge to press a kiss to the top of her head. The scent of jasmine wafted up from the girl’s locks when his nose brushed her scalp after placing a kiss at her widow’s peak.

Narancia folded his arms but couldn’t think of a good comeback so he just cursed under his breath as they walked into the base. Since it so late everyone else was already asleep so they’d at least have a few hours to bullshit together an excuse for why they’d brought home a random girl or find a good hiding spot to keep (Y/n) until they could explain her presence to the rest of the group. Narancia was not looking forward to the earful Bruno would give them if he found out what exactly happened.

Fugo’s mind was split, on the one hand, he was happy that he had his favorite two idiots in the world by his side. On the other, he was still angry about the fact (Y/n) had a boyfriend— had had a boyfriend. He reminded himself of that thought since it would be the truth soon enough. Narancia and him could go get rid of the low-life once (Y/n) had gotten accustomed to the new situation.

Despite not having something covering her mouth (Y/n) did not try to scream and instead squeezed her eyes tightly shut. Who would hear her except Fugo and Narancia? She began to quiver like a leaf in Fugo’s arms which only made the male hold her tighter as they went up a flight of stairs. The sound of a door opening and then closing barely registered in her mind as she was dropped on a bed. (Y/n) let out a groan of pain and her eyes flew open as the sore spot on the back of her skull made an impact with the mattress. The bed dipped with the weight of one of the boys sitting down.

“I’m gonna go see if I can find an ice-pack or something for her head. Don’t do anything stupid while I’m gone” Fugo said still standing and turned to walk out of the room opening then closing the door with another soft thud. (Y/n)’s eyes shut once more in resignation with the knowledge that she was alone with Narancia. Don’t get her wrong, she loved the boy (as a friend) with all her heart but he wasn’t good at boundaries in part to how he was raised.

“Hey (Y/n), I’m gonna cut the ropes so hold still okay?” Narancia said pulling his knife from his pocket and grabbing hold of (Y/n)’s legs to hoist them up so he could cut the rope more easily. With the rope cut, the girl’s legs fell wide open. Before she had a chance to close her legs, Narancia had scooted forwards so when she tried to squeeze her thighs together, she squeezed his sides instead. The boy couldn’t resist letting out a chuckle at the girl’s reflex as he then took hold of her wrists and cut the rope wrapped around them as well.

Looking down at (Y/n), Narancia’s face cracked into a huge grin as he threaded his fingers between hers as he pinned her arms above her head. Taking advantage of the fact her eyes were still shut, he leaned in and kissed her.

(Y/n) let out a cry of protest against Narancia’s mouth and wiggled her legs about. Even worse, the boy pressed his tongue against her lips and tried to slip it inside her mouth. After a long moment, Narancia pulled away with a small frown.

“What do you think you’re doing?!” (Y/n) hissed trying to knee Narancia in the gut without much success. The boy retaliated by shifting his weight onto (Y/n) to keep her still.

“I’m kissing you duh. I would have asked permission but I was pretty sure you’d say no so...” Narancia said dropping his head on (Y/n)’s chest and inhaling deeply. “I guess I gotta what I want like a real man,” he said half to himself and half to the girl as he lifted his head to kiss her again. This time when she refused to open her mouth he bit her lip until she relented and allowed him to slip his tongue into her mouth. (Y/n) found it harder and harder to breathe the longer the kiss went on. She tried to pull her head away but it was no use as black spots began to form on the edge of her vision. Before everything went black there was a loud slamming sound as the bedroom door was thrown open and Fugo crossed the room to yank Narancia back by his hair.

“What part of don’t do anything stupid while I’m gone did you not understand!?” Fugo growled as he dropped the bag of frozen peas he’d found in the freezer on the nightstand.

“I wasn’t doing anything!” Narancia protested rubbing his head where the hair had been pulled. This freed one of (Y/n)’s hands which she used to prop herself up before grabbing the frozen peas to press them against the back of her head.

“She’s had a concussion! We’re lucky she hasn’t shown signs of brain-damage! If she passes out again it could be deadly!” Fugo snapped dropping onto the bed, the force of his motion almost knocking (Y/n)’s head off her hand and the peas.

Narancia opened his mouth to sass but before the bickering could continue there was a distant voice from down the hall. The sound made both boys go dead-silent as they began hurriedly shifting on the bed to wedge (Y/n) between them.

“Yo, it’s 2:00 in the fucking morning. Shut the fuck up and have your lovers spat in the morning when people aren’t trying to sleep” Mista said sticking his head into Fugo’s room. He’d been sleeping peacefully until the sound of a door almost being knocked off its hinges and the subsequent yelling had woken him up.

“We have to listen to you and Giorno getting up in each other’s guts until the sun rises almost every other night. You don’t get to bitch about noise” Narancia fired back sticking his tongue out. (Y/n) was barely breathing with one of Fugo’s arms wrapped around her waist. After standing in the doorway for a few moments more, Mista began wandering back to his room.

“Phew too close, waaaay to close,” Fugo said letting out a long sigh he’d been holding in. The next thing he did was angle (Y/n)’s head up so he could kiss her. When he’d been opening the door originally, he’d been easing it open slowly and quietly. However, the sight of Narancia and (Y/n) kissing seemingly behind his back made him angry.

He pressed the emotion he felt into the kiss jabbing his tongue against the girl’s lips. She allowed him in without much fuss, not wanting a second bitemark to match the first. Fortunately, Fugo had a little more control than Narancia and allowed (Y/n) to breath as he explored her mouth. When he finally pulled away he was panting a little as he held the girl’s waist tighter than before. Narancia’s hands had slid up to wrap around (Y/n)’s hips as he nuzzled his face against her neck.

“He has a point about it being really late though. We should have our lovers spat in the morning after some sleep” Narancia said with a yawn as he began pulling the covers out from under himself. Fugo did the same thing and soon they were both under the covers with (Y/n) still securely between them so she couldn’t run.

Both males drifted off to sleep fairly quickly but (Y/n) remained awake until the sun rose crying quietly. They’d gone love-sick for her and there was nothing she could do about it...

#yandere panacotta fugo #yandere narancia ghirga #yandere poly fugonara #panacotta fugo #narancia ghirga #poly fugonara #reader insert #yandere jjba #yandere jjba part 5 #yandere jojo's bizarre adventure #yandere jojo

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littlemisssquiggles · 4 years

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RWBY Musings #77: The Puppet Who Wanted to be a Real Girl. Is Penny Polendina really back?

jade-rosepine asked “ While I didn't mind penny and all, I can't help asking; what was the point of bringing her back? I mean yeah wasn't beyond the realm of possibility. Only thing I could think of was to make ruby be forced to make a difficult choice - kill a friend to keep her from being used by the villians (she is still a robot and could, theoretically, be hacked by a way more advanced virus. Basically the cyber-version of brainwashing or possession!) OR let her live and be a slave to the baddies?”

Squiggles Answers:

@jade-rosepine Whelp I was going to save this bit for my musing on the first episode of RWBY V7, but since you brought it up, I might as well voice my thoughts here. I’m going to be honest with you, fam. This squiggle meister has mixed feelings about Penny’s return.

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Heart of Machine

In the past, I was a big fan of the idea of Penny being rebuilt and returning for the Atlas Arc. However back then, I liked it under the pretence that she wouldn’t exactly be the same Penny Polendina that we all met back in V1. I figured she’d be an entirely different character and the justification for her being this way was so that the plot could’ve allowed for Ruby Rose to finally have some semblance of closure since it’s been shown throughout previous seasons how much Penny’s death has affected her emotionally.

As a matter of fact, as evidenced by her ‘Indomitable’ moment in V6, Penny’s death (along with Pyrhha’s and the events of the Fall of Beacon) are still a visible mental block to Ruby being able to fully utilize her Silver Eyes. Since Ruby was shown to still have much growing with mastering her unique power, I was hoping that part of her arc for this season would be coming to terms over her loss over Penny as I was certain being within her old friend’s home kingdom was bound to bring back memories of their time together.

Now I’m not so sure whether or not closure with Penny will still be in the cards for Ruby. It’s not he fact that Penny returned that troubles me. It’s the fact that she returned and is presumably supposed to still be her old self but fixed now. I’m sorry but I’m just not actively buying that at all. I mean, like you, I get that this feat wasn’t entirely impossible to do given that Penny was a robot and technology can be easily repaired; especially in a kingdom as technologically advanced as Atlas and especially by the hands of Pietro Polendina---the man who was literally described as the Greatest Mind in the kingdom. So yeah, Penny returning--- totally could have seen that coming. But that don’t mean I’m not heavily suspicious about it knowing these writers. I still feel like there’s something’s awfully fishy about this whole plot twist.

This brings me to my hunch about Penny 2.0. I don’t believe that that’s Penny. I mean, she is her. She looks like her (albeit with a more updated design that is reminding me a lot of Bach Do’s design of her from her RWBY 3.0 art series). Talks like her and of course, acts like her. But I feel like this version of Penny is merely a shadow of the soul she once was. I still feel like the old Penny that Ruby befriended perished at the Fall of Beacon and what we’re seeing now before us is just a copy mimicking the behaviour of its original predecessor.

When Penny 2.0 first appeared, after getting over my initial shock and excitement of seeing the character again, I couldn’t help but shake this icky feeling in my gut that something was off about the new Penny. I know the series is trying to get me to think that Penny is back here but…I don’t know. I’m not entirely buying it. I feel like something is awry about this and not even her bright and shining smile in the opening is enough to quell my lingering suspicion. I can’t help but feel like something is going to happen to Penny…again.

Perhaps your theory will be correct here Jade. Perhaps it will be a case where Arthur Watts creates and implants his strongest computer virus yet into Atlas’ system which not only corrupts all the Atlesian Battle Droids in Atlas but all technology within the whole kingdom; Mantle included. This is inclusive of Penny 2.0 and possibly even Pietro Polendina’s mechanical wheelchair which goes haywire and knocks the poor old soul man off of his seat leading to Maria Calavera having to defend him and help him to safety.

Perhaps it will come down to Ruby having to fight an infected Virus Penny 2.0. However I don’t think Ruby will be forced to kill Penny. I think a moment like this will boil down to what’s stronger---hardware and programming or the soul.

It was stated back in V2 that Penny is the first (and possibly only one) of her kind. The first artificial lifeform to produce an aura. As we know, aura is described as the manifestation of one’s soul. Penny is supposed to be a soul within the body of a machine. While her body may be synthetic, at her core, she is supposedly human or the closest thing to it.

And since the V7 opening hinted at love being a major theme for this volume, it makes me wonder if we’re going to get a potential moment where a mind-controlled Virus Penny tries to harm Ruby but in the end, it’s the strength of the profound friendship shared between both girls that ultimately allows for Penny to combat the virus corrupting her machine software with the love she feels in her soul for her dear friend. Y’know love conquers all.

I wouldn’t even be too surprised if it’s a case where Penny ends up sacrificing herself to put a stop to Watts’ tyranny. Like Penny uses her core to cause a chain reaction that obliterates Watts’ powerful virus.

Dr. Polendina mentioned in the first episode that the only reason he was able to fix Penny in the first place is because Atlas was able to salvage her core from Amity Arena. Penny’s core is obviously an important part to her. I’m assuming it’s the part of her that contains the soul that’s keeps her alive. So no matter how many times Penny’s body is destroyed, so long as her core is still intact, she can be brought back. Why mention that little detail at all if it wasn’t going to be relevant later, ey?

What if … Penny’s core does eventually get destroyed. If that gets obliterated, then Penny---or at least the version of her that Ruby knew and loved--- will be gone for good this time.

I feel like the V7 finale could set up for a Terminator II type of conclusion where the machine our protagonist has grown to know and love over the course of their story is forced to sacrifice itself for the greater good of saving our hero from a dark fate. I feel like should your headcanon be made reality in the canon, we’re likely to see Penny sacrifice herself on the grounds that this time, there’s no coming back.

I can imagine Penny’s core being used as the key to stopping Watts reign over Atlas and this time, Ruby is allowed to do what she couldn’t do back in Vale. Not only would she get to save Penny but she would also get to officially say goodbye to her friend and tell her how much she loved her before tearfully watching her give herself up for the purpose she was built to do---save the world.

That’s how I’m more seeing things going down for Ruby and this newly rebuilt of Penny for their shared storylines this season. As per usual, these are only my headcanons here and I can very well be very much wrong in my prediction. But nevertheless, for now, I’m leaving this thought and theory on the table.

Then again, I’ve also gotten ahead of myself here.

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More Machine Than Man

Now that I’ve discussed how I figured Ruby and Penny’s story may conclude for V7, allow to me to voice my views on the build up to it.

As I’ve said, I feel very off about Penny being back. While I’m relishing in seeing her again, I also can’t feel a sense of this is too good to be true; y’know what I mean?

I feel like this is all a set-up. Like right now, both the audience and our main gaggle of heroes are left to believe that Penny had returned and she’s all good as new---almost like she never died at all, right?

But I feel like there’s a catch to that. I feel like at some point, in a later chapter of V7, Ruby is going to have her chance to spend some quality time catching up with Penny. At first, things seem pretty normal between them. They’re both laughing. Swapping stories…having a grand ole time with their heart to heart girl talk…only for Ruby to notice something quite off about Penny.

Like I have this scene imagined in my head. A scenario in which Ruby is supposed to head back down to Mantle to hang out with Penny P who’s finally have some free time to catch up with her old friend and desires to take Ruby on an official fun tour of Mantle---the nicer parts that is.

As a matter of fact, let’s say Penny invites the whole squad---JNPR_RWBY down for a night of fun and dancing down in Mantle with her and father. Pietro did mention in the first episode that he’s been working on shows that dance. Given his enthusiasm, dancing must’ve been one of Pietro’s favourite pastimes prior to losing function in his legs. So maybe, at some point, since the kids have all been working hard with their huntsmen duties and training, Pietro decides to treat them all to a nice of entertainment.

Imagine if …Pietro and Penny take the group to an old fashioned Mantlese Carnival which is basically RWBY’s version of Mardi Gras with a big parade of bands with nonstop musical entertainment.

I was kind of hoping that our heroes would have reunited with Team FNKI while they’re in Atlas. But it doesn’t seem like they’ll be present at all for this season. Unless, it’s a case where our heroes run into them while out with the Polendinas.

Resuming my Mantlese Carnival idea, let’s say after the group finished watching the parade, the Polendinas lead them to an old-fashioned snazzy little joint whose taste in jazz music is as sweet as its food.

I couldn’t help but be reminded of jazz music and the blues by Pietro Polendina’s design and the way he talked. His sense of fashion is giving me mega New Orleans type of vibes. Like he walked straight out of the set for the Princess and the Frog.

Anyways, like I said, our heroes are treated to a night of music and dancing by the Polendinas but while out and about in Mantle, they also happen to run into none other than Neon Katt and Flynt Cole.

Like imagine the group enjoying a nice performance by a local jazz band in Mantle only to find out that one of the musicians is Flynt.

Neon is also there to either show Flynt support (as my headcanon is that the two are dating) or perhaps she’s part of the performance with him as a singer as she and Flynt deliver a sort of Jazz/Blues rendition of Neon’s classic theme. Why not, ey?

After briefly exchanging pleasantries and catching up with their ole pals from Vale, Flynt and Neon invite everyone to an underground Mantlese rave. So unfortunately for Pietro and Maria (who was his date/company for the night), the younglings end up ditching the old folk for a night of partying. Not that they minded. Even Penny was allowed to join the group at the rave.

So as promised since V2, Neon and Flynt take JNR_RWBY plus Oscar and Penny out partying. As a side note, I’m not sure if Oscar would even be allowed to set foot inside a club given his age as a minor. Like I can just imagine Oscar, innocent as ever like the country munchkin that he is, walking up to the club bouncer only to be immediately barred from entering for being both underage and looking the part. Like would you believe Oscar is actually his age given his short stature and baby face?

As a matter of fact, the only way I can see Oscar being allowed inside of a rave is if a) he faked his age by having one of Flynt and Neon’s friends hack into Atlas’ s system and alter his birth date by two years (since I’m imagining Atlas using electronic ID scans that instantly verifies a person’s personal records by just scanning them on the spot) or b) Flynt and Neon pulls some strings to have Oscar allowed in as they’re known regulars of the club. Why not?

So the group are out having a grand ole time, and while enjoying themselves Ruby and Penny sort of skedaddle for a bit up to a private place where they can just talk to one another. Since y’know…it’s been so long since they shared a chat since one of them was presumed to be dead and all. Anyways, it’s during their talk that Ruby noticed something peculiar about Penny’s behaviour.

She keeps recalling memories of times she and Ruby shared in excruciating detail. But that’s not the part that threw Ruby off. No matter how many times the Silver Eyed huntress attempted to deviate the conversation and get Penny to talk her more about how she’s been doing since what happened at the Vytal Festival, Penny kept reverting back to recanting the same stories.

The hunch I had in mind here is: What if…Penny 2.0 is actually a copy of original Penny. Rather than being a soul mimicking human nature from within a mechanical body, it’s more a machine operating purely from memories that were transferred to it from its old former self.

When we first met Penny, while the implications of her being an humanoid were clear as day from the instant she first bumped into RWBY (I mean I certainly called that she was a robot from day one), you could also still tell that there was something remotely human in nature about Penny. I got that sense the first time Penny revealed to Ruby that she wasn't a real girl. You heard the strong tinge of genuine sadness in her voice as she said it which was what made her friendship with Ruby all the more pure. Their bond was wholesome and important to each other inspire of only knowing one another for a short space of time.

And when Penny died in V3, you didn't feel as if it was a machine being destroyed. You actively felt like a character---a real person died. We, as the audience, got to feel the same sense of sadness that Ruby Rose felt watching her dear friend die before her very eyes after failing to save her in time.

Ruby failed to protect Penny (and eventually Pyrhha too) which was what made her answer to Maria’s question in V6 all the more meaningful.

She wishes to master control of her Silver Eyes, not just for the sake of being able to vanquish the Grimm but for the sake of protecting the people who matter most to her---her friends and family. The people who love her as much as she loves them.

This also kind of presents another reason why I’m conflicted on Penny’s return. Penny being back all fixed and good as new as if the Fall of Beacon didn’t happen kind of puts a bit of a damper on Ruby’s trauma as a result of what happened. It’s one of those things that made me question why show Ruby suffering from flashbacks of her friends’ deaths just to have said friend return good as new.

As we saw during her ‘Indomitable’ moment in V6, thinking about Penny and her death caused Ruby to lose focus. Yes Ruby managed to summon her light to petrify the Leviathan. But not before using Jinn to buy her some time so she can concentrate and let’s also not forget that Ruby’s power didn’t work.

While she succeeded in petrifying the Leviathan, she failed to kill it. This to me was a clear indicator that Ruby hasn’t full mastered her unique power and still has much to grow. A detail that I was relieved the CRWBY kept since I never felt like Ruby’s indomitable moment was rightfully earned so it almost felt like a waste of a good moment, in my opinion

I’m probably in the minority here when I say this but I actually disliked Ruby’s Indomitable scene from V6. As I said, it wasn’t properly earned and that took me out of the whole moment.

Instead of watching Ruby go through an arc of learning to fully master control of her newfound abilities, struggling at first but also learning more about herself and her heritage in the process building up to this grandiose moment where she finally perfects her power.

Instead we spent two whole seasons with our little red rose being written to be rather neglectful of her eyes, never once further questioning its mysterious origins; not even when in the face of the very person who told the last person who first told Ruby about her eyes.

Ruby learnt about the Silver Eyes from Qrow during the finale of V3. Qrow, on the other hand, said he learnt about the Silver Eyed Warriors from Ozpin. Ruby had her chance to ask Oz for more on the Silver Eyes at any point during V5 or even V6. Instead the Writers have her question everything but her Silver Eyes…despite showing her using it again later in the season during the Battle of Haven.

It is such a darn shame that Maria Calavera was only brought in for V6. I honestly feel like her character and role as Silver Eyed mentor to Ruby should’ve been better utilized as early as V4.

Instead I was left feeling that Maria’s presence in Ruby’s development was made irrelevant especially by the end of V6 when Ruby had her big brain idea to use her Silver Eyes on the Leviathan…despite having zero prior training. I don’t think that’s how progress is supposed to work?

And let’s not forget the fact that Ruby has only known Maria for only four days since the entirety of V6 (and the start of V7) only took place over the course of four days in RWBY’s timeline.

So yeah, Ruby’s Mastery of her Silver Eyes has much more groundwork to do and I have a feeling the Writers brought Penny back to aid with that

Did they necessarily have to though? No not really. As a matter of fact, Penny 2.0 unfortunately falls into the ball park of how the Writers brought back Neopolitan in V6 for me. While it’s nice to see Penny again, I didn’t honestly need her back especially since her death was framed in such a symbolic way to the plot in terms of how it affected Ruby’s character these past few seasons. Now I’m left questioning what the whole point of all of that was.

Listen, I’m not trying to imply that bringing Penny back was a terrible idea on the Writers’ part. I’m more saying, I don’t 100% buy into it. Not exactly.

I honestly feel there is going to be a catch with this. The Writers can’t have Penny’s death still affecting Ruby only to just magically have that trauma and mental block magically disappear now that she’s back in the picture. They’re not gonna do that, right?

They’re not gonna undo that big detail established in previous seasons, right? I mean…it’s not like they’ve done things like this before, right?

Nuh uh. Not buying it. Hence my theory on Ruby having a moment with Penny 2.0 only to realize that she’s not exactly all good as new as she was proclaimed to be.

Either that or it’s a case where even though Penny is back, Ruby herself can’t seem to look past the past.

She can’t seem to shake the haunting fact that she once saw her friend die before her very eyes because she failed to help her. Like I’d figure that that memory would still remain as a nightmarish lingering thought in Ruby’s psyche. Right?

Like imagine this scene. A scenario where Ruby and Penny are out exploring Mantle together, catching up only for Penny to be called back to the line of duty when another alert of Grimm attacking the city blares it ugly head. As Penny flies off to do her thing, Ruby follows her below on foot determined to help her out. When Ruby finds Penny, she arrives just in time to see her down a couple of Saybers from attacking a couple of fleeing civilians.

Ruby calls out to Penny. Penny, in turn, spins around to wave to Ruby. But while Penny is distracted greeting her friend, she is neglectful of one stray Sayber that suddenly comes in from behind and slashes Penny straight through the chest.

Ruby looks on in complete horror as Penny 2.0 is once again cut down in front of her; the nightmares of her decapitation at the Vytal Festival resurfacing. And for a moment, Ruby freezes on the spot. She doesn’t even react as the same Sayber charges at her.

But before the Sayber could get to Ruby, it’s killed before it could lay a bloody talon on her. As Ruby looks up slowly from her daze at her saviour , she sees that it was Penny. In spite of her damage, Penny was still functioning enough to protect Ruby.

Let’s say, for the sake of the scene, the rest of the heroes---JNR_WBY plus Oscar were down in Mantle too and overheard all the commotion from the emergency alarms; all seven huntsmen and huntresses arriving at the scene to aid with the rescue.

Let’s say the others had seen what happened to Penny and immediately came to her side to quickly gather up her severed parts to take her immediately to Dr. Polendina so he could repair his daughter.

As the others handled Penny, let’s say…Oscar approaches Ruby as he noticed the disturbed expression on her face. Oscar urges Ruby on the matter of them taking Penny to her father as quickly as possible. At first, Ruby reacts like she didn’t hear Oscar; apparently too lost in her own wild thoughts. It wasn’t until Oscar gently touched Ruby’s shoulder did she finally stir out of her stupor. Long story short, the heroes manage to get Penny 2.0 to Pietro in time.

After studying her injuries, Pietro reports to everyone that Penny was going to be fine. She may be off duty for a couple of days given that he’ll need time to repair her.

But beyond that, Pietro assured the group that Penny was going to make a speedy recovery; much to the relief of the heroes. But in spite of hearing the good news, this doesn’t serve to uplift Ruby’s mood and her bothered expression of deep concern is still apparent on her face. Even as JNPR_RWBY depart from the Polendina residence to return up to Atlas.

As the group look to head back home, Oscar is the one to take notice of Ruby’s awkward silence.

I say Oscar of all people rather than her teammates or Yang since it’s been highlighted before that when Ruby is feeling pressured or looks distressed in some shape or form, Oscar is quick to pick up on that.

He’s also been shown to act out on trying to help Ruby in this type of emotional scenario. This is why should we ever get a moment like this in the canon, I can picture it being another prime chance for the Writers to show Oscar being an emotional crutch for Ruby.

If a scene like this ever comes to pass in the series, the way I see it going down is Oscar confronting Ruby again about Penny and the two sharing another heart to heart moment where he gets her to open up about her true feelings. I’ve been itching for another V5 Dojo-esque scene between the Rosebuds.

I’d love to see another example of Oscar helping Ruby through another emotional rut; particularly if it involves Penny.

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So to conclude…

I guess the main point I’m really trying to get at here with this musing post is that I don’t believe Ruby’s arc revolving around her grievances about Penny’s death is over. Even with her being back in her life.

It can’t be. Just because Penny was repaired and has returned doesn’t instantly erase the fact that she did die nor does it erase Ruby’s memory and clear trauma over it. At least, I hope that’s not how the Writers are going to portray it. Ruby’s thing is that she sees Penny as a real girl. She sees her as a person. But Penny isn’t entirely a real person.

She possesses a soul of her own, yes (and I’m curious to learn the origins of said soul) but she’s also a machine. Her body is fake but at her core, she is a living being. Sort of---really need an origin episode on how Penny was created and where Atlas and Ironwood got the soul that’s a part of her.

Did it come from the Relic of Creation? Was Penny an unexpected by-product of the Relic’s power; brought to life by an experiment tested by Ironwood using the Relic of Creation?

Is the Relic of Creation the RWBY equivalent of the Blue Fairy from Pinocchio? Is the being of the Relic of Creation inspired by the Blue Fairy from Pinocchio?

Who knows? These are all questions I’m looking forward to this season answering for me.

But in the meantime, in regards to Ruby’s bond with Penny, We got to see Ruby grow to care for Penny as a person and what’s interesting to note is that Ruby has always valued Penny as more human than machine.

Keeping that in mind, picture if part of Ruby’s story with Penny for V7 is her leaning to accept that Penny isn’t a real person. This is why I like my theorized scene of having Ruby witness Penny 2.0 being cut down again; highlighting she’s still not over what happened at Beacon. Imagine if that creates an issue for Ruby where she actively feels uncomfortable at the thought of losing Penny time and time again since she can’t handle watching her friend getting destroyed in spite of the fact that she’s a machine that’s built to protect humanity.

I know this concept probably sounds rather farfetched based on how I’m describing it. However, that’s how I’m choosing to look at it; for now. Perhaps the story for this season might change my mind on that. We’ll see.

Anyways, that’s all I have to say on this subject matter for today. For the most part, I hope I managed to answer your question, Jade. As usual, please let me know if I did. I’m always open to hearing other FNDM fam members thoughts on my thoughts on my thoughts.

Similar to you, this squiggle meister is also left pondering why the Writers’ brought back Penny. It’s actually kind of sad that I have to question it. If I wasn’t so skeptical over the CRWBY Writers’ writing decisions given their recent track record then I wouldn’t be questioning this decision so much.

Right now my theories are my best bet at understanding why this decision was made for the plot but that don’t mean that that will be the case in the canon. I’m praying there is a good narrative reason for Penny’s return and that it wasn’t done as a gimmick to hype up the fans for the new season---y’know bringing back another fan favourite character just because they thought it would be quote, unquote, ‘cool to do’.

I didn’t like that that was the rationale for Neo’s return, as mentioned in the V6 DVD Commentary, and I’d be equally peeved if that was the rationale for Penny’s. Then again, maybe I’m getting too ahead of myself here. We’re only one episode into V7 so let’s not jump the gun. Let’s just be patient and wait and see what the rest of the season brings, ya?

Until then, hope you at least enjoyed my new musing post.

More Squiggles’ RWBY Content

~LittleMissSquiggles (2019)

#rwby #penny polendina #ruby rose #oscar pine #rwby theories #rwby volume 7 theories #rwby volume 7 spoilers #rwby volume 7 #rwby musings

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keeyasnowtail · 5 years

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Finally, a few days later, we could meet Esiryn. And she had some explaining to do. But instead of the most unbelievable cover-up story I kinda expected, she only told us to meet with a contact in front of the priory. That's all? I am getting quite annoyed of this whole spy stuff. I didn't come to the priory to play a Whisper's agent. Fine, I'll play along this one last time.

So, here we were. Funnily though, nobody greeted me telling me to pack my stuff and maybe try my luck in one of the other orders. Almost expected to be fired by now. Oh well, it was time to look for that contact we're supposed to find at the entrance.

And the only “description” I got was: look for someone looking very busy around the entrance. Right, as if the main entrance of the priory isn't all that busy by itself. So I changed the plan to instead look for someone not belonging here. Ignoring all those going in and out and looking totally unsuspicious… now there was that one suspicious character stacking boxes. Not even close to where someone from the priory would fetch them. Even I would make a better spy.

At least we found the contact. I guess she was a bit annoyed that I let her carry all those boxes back and forth, but it was just too funny to watch for a while. She carefully not tried to move one of them and indeed this one was supposed to be delivered to me.

Hm, she didn't move away once I got near the crate. So it was probably safe to open without it exploding. What was in there surprised even me though. It was the Staff of Matthias.

I almost couldn't believe my luck, getting it back this easily looked wrong. And yeah, as if I knew the outcome already I found myself entangled in scorpion wire as soon as I removed the staff from the crate and Taijju grabbing it from my paws right before he shadow stepped away and went out of sight. So there was indeed someone left who didn't steal the staff yet. Well, except for me I guess.

Left on the floor after we got out of this annoying trap was a note from Taijju. Which read along the lines: “Sorry again for stealing the staff, but I need it to trade it for the life of my brother with some insane inquest scientist. Take care, Taijju”. Could've just asked I guess.

Right. We were in front of the priory, I was awaited inside, the staff was gone again and I was supposed to deliver the payment for helping to retrieve the staff in the now empty crate.

On the plus side Taijju left us a hint where he went, Metrica. I grabbed a new warding scroll with a ready teleportation spell on it from… let's just call it priory special occasions emergency supply. And off we were to Metrica Province.

We kinda ended up right in the middle of the province. Though there was only one big inquest lab there anyway. Could've picked a closer spot! So we actually had to walk quite a distance towards north to reach the facility. Heavily guarded with only one entrance. Which was of course covered by golems and probably guns pointing at it. In short: they knew how to build a defensible structure and didn't exactly get visitors very often.

We could've tried front door! I mean, they did know were are coming anyway. But… fine, stealthy approach. With a few invisibility tricks we got closer until we could see Taijju and another asura right above the wall of the front gate.

It almost looked like they saw us, even though we should've been well out of sight behind cover. But it didn't matter now. We could see how that other asura used the staff to cast a spell and then threw Taijju off the structure. He landed in front of the gate and it didn't look like you could survive this fall.

Cover or not, it was time to do something so we rushed for the front gate. Surprisingly no big laser burned us to crisp, no drop golem fell on our heads and no minefield blew us up by the time we reached the gate and Taijju.

But, of course this was a trap and this other asura suddenly stood behind us, blocking our escape route. Not that she was up for a fight here it seemed. It looked more like she just played with us and vanished the moment things started to get serious.

The others trashed the golems and dealt with the inquest in the meantime, so we could check on Taijju. He was dead. And the staff was with the inquest now.

We found another note. This was starting to feel like someone was toying with us. Well, it was most likely another trap, but we were pointed to an inquest “research” lab called the “Funhouse”. Asura do have a weird sense of humor if you ask me. Oh well, we didn't waste any time, I couldn't wait to get to the “fun”. Let's travel in style there… with portals!

Wait, where were we? This looks quite nice, but it was nowhere near the funhouse. I never imagined you would go that far off track if you just approximated some numbers when weaving a long range portal. I guess… we… best walked.

This looked better. Impenetrable rock formation: check. Fortified front door: check. Haywire golems: check. This should be the place. The Funhouse.

Since everyone and their golem knew we were coming… foot key it was. The door was surprisingly fragile. Would've expected that we needed a flame ram, but we just threw our heaviest… armor… charr against it and it gave way.

Two or three hallways, rooms, experiment labs later we caught her in a room with only one exit that we controlled. I somehow expected this to be a trap, but she seemed to be caught rather unprepared. Or she was just totally overestimating herself like every good villain we met on the way. So before she could really finish her speech I threw a temporal shield at her giving Taijju's brother the chance to escape her grasp which, of course, caused quite the fight.

While we trashed the whole place fighting with her she was caught off guard, probably when that huge golem exploded, but next thing she realized she had a knife at her throat. Now I would have tried to tell her to hand over the staff, but… let's just say she kinda burst into flames. I don't quite remember if that was before or after they chopped her up. It mattered not, she was dead.

But so was Taijju. Which we had to tell his brother. Unless… since he was killed by the staff… we decided this would be the last use for this cursed artifact ever. Bringing him back to life with it and Mauldered's help.

After that is was time to leave before someone from the inquest crew of this facility would notice… but nobody really came to check. A few explosions didn't seem to raise much suspicion here.

But anyway, I grabbed the staff and we hurried for the back door. Ah yes, the staff. Finally I had it back and this time it'll be out of reach before anyone else even got the slightest chance of stealing it. I put it back into the warded scroll and it vanished within it the moment the scroll was sealed.

I found it pretty funny to watch their faces when the thing just poofed. But at least we didn't have to worry about being ambushed on the way back now. I still intended to destroy it, but for now it was back at a safely warded place only a few at the priory even knew about.

Only one more thing to do. We needed to finally leave this place and get some rest. And what better place was there than the one this whole adventure started at? Here we were, at that simple tavern a lost human once arrived at telling us a story about a White Mantle artifact he stole. I still need to tell him that the maguuma lilies he was looking for were growing right in my garden around the corner.

But really, I've had enough of bloodstone.

#guild wars 2 #gw2 screenshots #gw2rp #keeya snowtail #the staff of matthias

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flyswhumpcenter · 6 years

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Bad Things Happen Bingo! The event where you send me requests according to this marvelous card!

What are requests?, Fly asks outloud in her tiny student flat as she writes yet another self-indulgent DBH oneshot for her bingo just because she’s had a spark of fucking energy and inspiration pulse down her spine.

But like don’t you fucking dare tell me “Anger Born of Worry” didn’t fit Hank to a T. Because he totally does lmao. Anyway, this was a nice prompt! I took it easy yet made it somewhat tense and suspenseful for all readers alike, so I hope you’ll enjoy it! I originally wanted to make this a sickfic, but I got another prompt for DBH which will allow me to do so haha

Illogical Reactions, Logical Reasons

Summary: Connor wonders why Hank always gets this angry when he takes risks to accomplish their mission. Meanwhile, a grumpy police lieutenant isn't very happy about his partner seems to distrust him. A mission gone slightly awry is going to patch things up, causing them to tell the other.

Fandom: Detroit: Become Human

Wordcount: 3.1K words

Event organized by @badthingshappenbingo

AO3 version available here.

Humans were irrational beings. It came with being made out of skin, bones and uncontrolled thoughts. Their blood was red and their behaviour was impossible to truly predict, even if one was to open them apart and search through their fleshy components to analyse them. They had done that to themselves anyway in the past: that was why human anatomy was so known these days.

Humans also knew a lot about androids. It was only normal: they had made them, after all. They’d be the most well-placed to know what was inside an android and everything about an android. Even then, just like only a handful of humans knew a lot about the human anatomy, only a few humans knew much about androids: that was something common between the two demographics.

Deviancy had shifted that tide. Ever since androids had started deviating from their program, developing what seemed to be emotions but were first thought to be merely glitches and hiccups in their programming, simply faulty encoding going haywire, the two demographics had started to be more and more alike. That had been worrisome only a couple months ago: now, it seemed like everyone was okay with it.

Or were they? Violence was still there, resulting from bigotry and misunderstandings alike on both sides (mostly on the humans: after all, they were the demographic who didn’t have to deviate to answer back to violence or insults). Yet, society was moving forward, moving along. It was what change and progress were about, and as they had said before: you couldn’t stop progress.

Despite his base coding all being about stopping deviants, no matter who they were and what they thought, Connor had also been programmed to expect the unexpected and unexpectable. It made sense, in a way: deviants didn’t behave coherently around ninety percent of the time. Working with humans was another thing difficult to predict, after all.

He had been assigned to a decorated, yet grumpy and easily angered lieutenant, Lt. Hank Anderson. Their partnership had started on rocky shores: he hated androids, insulted his partner of “plastic prick” and other assorted insults, screamed at his captain not to be involved in an android case. Luckily, they had gotten over it: from forced-by-the-circumstances partners, they had become fire-forged friends… Maybe more than that, even.

However, there was one thing Connor had yet to decipher about the lieutenant: why did Hank always seem to phrase things in a way going against the meaning of his thoughts? It was like he was physically unable to phrase things the way he thought they were unless some drastic situation triggers them to exit his mouth without thinking, without even blinking. For someone so outspoken, barking at other people insults if he felt like insulting them while disregarding every single protocol ever established by human society, he sure was dishonest at times, if other officers were to be believed. Break room conversations around a coffee cup or five seemed to be the one place were honesty shone through.

“You asshole, why don’t you ever do as you’re told?!”

“Stop scaring me like that, goddammit!”

“You could’ve got yourself killed, fucking…”

Why is he always so angry when I do what I feel is right?

That question remaining without its answers, he straightened his tie and resumed preparing for going to work.

A new day, a new fucking case about deviants. It was a routine at that point. It always went the same way: get a call, get a case sent in, see it was about yet another android being a human, finding said android, making sure it wasn’t killing shit around, either arrest it or bring it to New Jericho. Incredibly easy at times, ungodly frustrating at others.

That time… was one of those times. Of course it had to be.

Hank had known from the moment he woke up in the morning, from the moment he heard Sumo whimper and the moment he had seen Connor fail his infamously angering coin trick thing that it was going to be a shitty day. Jeffrey yelling about a new and urgent deviancy case as if he was a CyberLife promoter screaming about the latest android model, Reed just being even more of an insufferable asshole as he usually was, everything was bad and it sucked.

Connor didn’t look like he really wanted to be there either. He looked a little too blue to his tastes, eyes even goofier than usual, hair looking a bit dishevelled. If anything and if he didn’t know better, Hank would have said the boy looked tired and had woken up on the wrong foot. Did androids even wake up? Connor had never explained that.

The mission was about a rogue deviant killing people here and there. The guy had somehow managed to get a hold of an entire building, an old and soon-to-be-destroyed tower which used to host a successful company, by squeezing in there, hacking some shit around and either disarming, disabling or killing security. Androids in the corridors had also been shoved aside, while one deviant and working there had warned the DPD before pretending to shut down.

The main objective was to apprehend the douchebag while making sure nobody else would get injured. Easier said than done, as usual: there were cameras now working for him, a feeling of dread all over his spine and other nasties. There was an oppressing atmosphere all around them.

As they made their way down the dark, grey and cold corridors together, gun in his hands, Connor walking right behind him, the shivers he didn’t want to feel kept trying to creep on his back. The silence around the building was eerie, even for a place that had been evacuated because the police came in to take care of it. This wasn’t good at all.

There was, however, a weird and foreign-sounding ventilation sound near him, akin to breathing. Looking at the vents around them, there seemed to be nothing wrong with them. But, just in case…

“Connor,” Hank spoke up as he glanced at his partner. “Is there anything toxic in the air? That vent system sure makes a lot of fuckin’ noise.”

The android’s LED flashed yellow as he looked around.

“78% nitrogen, 21% dioxygen and 1% miscellaneous gaz, the usual composition of air on Earth. Nothing life-threatening, Lieutenant.”

“Uh… So, ya have any idea what’s making that much noise?” A thought crossed his mind, a thought he felt like he had to get out there. “It better not be you, by the way.”

“I can’t tell for sure,” Connor replied as his eyes looked away and his LED still showed yellow. “Maybe we’ll see other clues later.”

“Yeah… Sure.”

In disbelief and slight distrust, Hank continued to make his way down there, the ventilation sound not stopping. They were following blue trails of red and blue blood alike, mixing in that disgusting purple colour, driving them to the highest floors of the building one staircase at a time. The more they advanced, the louder the sound was. Something was up and that was pissing him off to even think about it.

Quick, keep your calm, Hank. Focus on the mission and don’t, fuck, up.

The sound did come from the vents, he was sure of it. It was always far louder near them. At times, he could swear he had seen someone or at least something in the pipes. It didn’t seem like it was any rat or other shitty rodent fucking with them. And, well, there was no one but-

“Hank, look out!”

Connor’s panicked voice broke him from his pensive trance. As he took cover, looking behind him, he saw a third party smash his way out of the ventilation system, out of the vent and appearing before them. A gunshot made it unnecessary to see the weapon in his goddamn robotic fingers: they were in immediate danger of death. Fuck. He needed to do something to assure their survival.

Getting out his own gun at a speed he didn’t think he was still able to pull off with his age, he shot a bullet in the guy’s legs with no remorse. A few gunshot sounds followed, from both him and that fucker, deafening everything else before a body fell into its own pool of blue blood. Mission success, he guessed.

As he got up, Hank looked down on the android he had just killed off.

“I didn’t wanna shoot him to death, but I guess he left us no choice. That’s what you risk for being a stupid asshole.”

He then gave Connor a glance, the other android getting up on his own feet, a hand supporting his abdomen.

“Let’s continue, m’kay? We need to see if someone else’s hidden in there.”

But then some concern crept up on his back and into his words.

‘Wait, you’re alright, Connor? Ya look shaken to me. I can go alone if ya need some rest.”

The kid shook off his head and gave him a small smile, yet his hand never moved and his LED still flashed that sickly yellow, rising some familiar red flags.

“No, I’m all fine. Let’s keep going.”

With doubts still lingering in his mind, Hank nodded and turned his back to get to more floors and find more people. The heavy-handed ventilation sound was nowhere to be found again, making him think it was nice when it fucking stopped, until it came back. Looking around, fixating the vents again, the voice who spoke up next wasn’t his.

“Lieutenant, is there something wrong?” Connor asked.

Turning his head to his partner revealed the later to look curious and almost worried, but also… kind of lost? Perhaps the kid was getting tired. After all, they had been there for a while, they deserved to sit at a table and dick around in the staff rooms at the station.

“Ya hear that noise?”

“What noise?”

“You’re shittin’ me, right? That heavy breathing sound from earlier! It’s back!”

Yet, Connor looked genuinely confused.

“I’m sorry, but I really don’t see what sound you’re referring to, Lieutenant. Perhaps it’s the ventilation system going haywire?”

Hank knew he was frowning in distrust. They hadn’t come across anyone for the past dozen minutes, the sound was getting louder at every step they took, and yet… Even now, as they were static and looking around, it was getting louder. It was previously a rogue android’s breathing creeping up on them to shoot them in the head. It wasn’t his, otherwise he’d feel breathless (and he, miraculously, didn’t smoke, so his lungs weren’t as bad as his rotting livers). There was probably on one around. Using some detective skills, he came up with a logical conclusion he fucking hated instantly.

“Connor, that’s yours. Stop tryin’ to bullshit me.”

The kid looked at first like a brat getting busted for eating sugar when he wasn’t authorized to (wait, that reminded him of something from lightyears ago…), breathing hitching and betraying the fact it was indeed his and not any ventilation system going haywire. Called it.

“I… suppose so…” Connor replied, available hand near his chin. “Sorry for the inconve-”

However, his eyes rolled inside his robotic skull before he could finish his sentence and collapsed forward, barely caught into the older guy’s arms. Once again, speed he didn’t know he had and a boiling rage inside his mouth, just about to exit his mouth in a floor of swears and insults able to corrupt the first pure child walking past him.

However, and as much as he wished it was, it was no time to swear his head off. Slowly getting to his knees, he put the android’s head on his lap as he tried to see what was wrong. Someone collapsing like that out of the blue (no pun intended) didn’t make a shred of sense: there had to be an ulterior reason. And he was going to find that fucking reason before it was too late.

His eyes fluttered to some splatters of blue on the ground near them. They looked really out of place on the grey linoleum floor: it had to be blood. Checking if his theory was true, Hank gently pulled away the jacket from where Connor was previously putting a hand on. Without a shred of surprise, yet feeling burning disappointment from this not-discovery, he found out that there was cobalt dampening the white fabric of his shirt and starting to taint the jacket with it. That fucker had been bleeding for who how long and he hadn’t said a thing.

Hank didn’t need to see more. He got up and put Connor’s arm around his shoulders, with the firm intention of not letting him die, then making sure to kill him for his recklessness once he’d be out of danger, because that was what people who cared did, right?

When Connor rebooted, or woke up in human words (it was more technical than that, but…), he was met with static all over his sensors and an uncomfortable thumping of his systems against his forehead. Everything was white, pristine white, nothing like the last thing he thought he had seen. Position: lying down, unknown bed, unknown room, unknown location. Disinfectant smell in the air detected. Artificial lights coming from the ceiling. It seemed to be a facility of some sorts.

“You’re back, huh,” a familiar, reassuring voice came to his hearing sensors freshly turned on.

The older man got up from what seemed to be a chair or a stool and looked over the android, eyes looking right into the other pair struggling to remain open.

“You’re such a goddamn fucking moron, y’know that?!” he rose his voice, frowning.

“Please excuse me, but… why the insults? Is there anything I did wrong?”

“Ya ever heard about trusting your partner?”

Connor gave his partner a confused look, matching the mismatch between the words and what he knew.

“What do you mean? I fully trust you, Hank.”

“Oh, you do?” The lieutenant scoffed with sarcasm tinting his face. “I wouldn’t have thought with the shit you can pull off.”

“I’m afraid I don’t understand. We accomplished the mission, right?”

“Yeah, we did, but that wasn’t what I was talkin’ about!”

“Then, what? You look angry with me, Hank…”

Was it all a giant misunderstanding? It really sounded like they weren’t talking about the same topic. It was confusing, a feeling of being lost in translation made stronger by the shaky state his processors were still in after passing out like that.

“Of course I’m fucking angry!! That hasn’t occurred to you to tell me you were injured?!”

Hank’s raging, strong and rough voice was fearsome to face. As if trying to lay an emphasis on his words, he got up from his chair with vigour. It had been a long time since he had last heard it directed at him like that.

“Well, huh…” There was hesitation and doubt plaguing his voice box. “We had to focus on the mission, right? I’m sorry if this has slowed you down.”

There was very clearly something else to Hank’s sudden rage than just slowing him down because of a wound, but… did he really want to know?

The human crossed his arms, clenching his teeth as the android tried sitting up, only for a sore feeling in his right to resonate.

“Listen, forget about that mission before everything bullcrap these CyberLife jerks must have injected in your programming. I’m talkin’ to ya about yourself, Connor. Why didn’t you tell me you were injured, above a fucking mission? Why did you think that’d slow me down?”

Connor looked away, LED flickering in pensiveness and a struggle to find an adequate reply to the situation. Time to toss the lying program away, then.

“I didn’t want to worry you, Hank. We were already in a tense situation, and I figured telling you about my damage would concern you and slow us down.”

“Well you fucked up, because guess who got worried to death when you collapsed right in front of his eyes.”

This last bit made something tick inside of him.

“You’re angry because… you’re worried?”

This was such an irrational path to take to express concern…

“Bingo! You scared me shitless when your eyes went all blank like that, y’know that?! What would ya feel like if I hid from you that I had gotten shot?!”

“Well, I’d be… upset that you didn’t want to tell me. I’d think you had an issue with telling me, and I’d take issue with that.”

“See? That’s what I’m feeling right now, and what anyone who cares would feel like. Don’t fuckin’ hide something like that, bullet wounds are serious, even for ya!”

“I see…”

Hank sat down again, arms still crossed, and let out a long sigh.

“I know you want to be like our indestructible man, but that’s bullshit and you know it. For the number of times I’ve seen you take a bullet in the past months, none targeted your vitals like that. For a second I thought you could die from it!”

“I’ll be fine, I promise.”

“I know you’re gonna be up and runnin’ again sooner than I’ll ever think is possible. You always are anyway. I’m tired of you hidin’ shit like that from us, from me, that’s it. I hope you get that drilled through your fuckin’ skull once and for all.”

Despite the irrationality of this anger, Connor could somewhat get behind it. As he did so, embracing Hank’s feelings as much as he could and take in account the concern humans and deviants alike could feel, he took a breath.

“I understand where you’re coming from. I’d get worried when you’d try to make it so you weren’t doing well. I promise I’ll tell you whenever I get injured.”

“Not just injured, son. Just tell me every time you’re under the weather or unable to do something. We’re partners, no? Then let’s act and trust each other like partners do, okay? You don’t have to do all that on your own.”

Connor felt a smile show up on his mouth as a hand tapped on his shoulder.

“Let’s act as such, then.”

“That’s what I wanted to hear. Now, thanks to your shenanigans, I’m free of doing paperwork, so I’ll have to thank you for being fuckin’ stupid just that once.”

And they laughed at it.

“I’m also glad this allowed that.”

As a deviant, he could only embrace the irrationality of the human being and of the human soul, feelings and words alike. He was one of them: a being full of questionable decisions and doings, a mind with its own intricate logic sometimes defying reason itself. He had still a lot to learn about emotions, but he’d have to take that one step at a time.

That, and stop thinking of himself as this soulless, merciless and cold one-man army he had been programmed to be.

#bad things happen bingo #dbh #hank anderson #connor (dbh)#injury #brotp: hang on son #bthb 1

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ghost-ofstarman · 6 years

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yay I’m having yet another “it’s taking all my energy to not do anything stupid” night, have this ventsona I never post for obvious reasons with sad song lyrics that apply to my current situation

I’m just going to dump all my stupid fucking feelings under the cut, I’ve been acting really poorly lately and I owe an explanation at this point. If you get nervous from bad stuff easily or descriptions/mentions/thoughts of suicide trigger bad thoughts in you, don’t read--

Things...really have not gotten better since I was in the hospital last. I had to lie through my teeth and say I wasn’t going to try to attempt suicide again and ever since I got out, it’s all I can ever think about. Everyone keeps saying things are gonna get better but what happens to someone who can’t get better? Every day is a new low. Every. Single. Day. I don’t eat, I either don’t sleep or do nothing but sleep for days on end, I can’t work on anything, two of my senses are permanently fucked up and going haywire 24/7 so I can’t even think straight. I cannot function like a regular goddamn human being. Every literal second of my consciousness is nothing short of painful and infuriating and I just....I can’t. I can’t do this anymore. I can’t even begin to describe how dreadful being alive is with words, no-one’s going to understand anyway and I can guarantee none of you have any idea what I’m going through to begin with so it’s best left vague.

Every day for the past seven years all I could think about was just how an early death was inevitable for me and no-one knows how to help me. I don’t even know how to help myself, I don’t even WANT to die. I want to fucking be normal and I have so many little things I want to live for, I love my cactus garden, I love when it’s late at night and I’m really sad but I can hear the sound of my cat’s little paws getting closer in the hallway, I love booting up Pikmin 3 just so I can read all the bantering they do to feel like I’m part of a group, I love listening to shit indie bands while drinking tea and browsing reddit, I love the rare times when someone lets me ramble about my hyperfixations and I love buying sugar cubes so I can give them to ant colonies in the summertime but none of it seems to outweigh just being fucking miserable all the time.

The only thing that’s kept me around is not wanting to make anyone sad and waste my parents’ time and money they spent raising me. If there was some button I could press to erase my entire existence from history so I was never born, I’d do it in a heartbeat.

Fuck, for the past god knows how long I’ve been constantly pushing the nicest people away from me. For once in my life, people give a shit about me. People care enough to talk to me. People want to show me stuff they made and want to compliment my works and I just...I can’t. It feels wrong. It feels bad to draw people in knowing there’s no way I’m not going to kill myself soon and I’d rather just suffer alone than make anyone sad. I fucking broke up with someone who wanted to spend the rest of their life with me just because I know I’m gonna be dead soon and the sudden change of plans is going to severely impact their life. It’s just easier to cut everyone out and have them be indifferent if something bad happens to me than making everyone else sad I’m gone even if I’m just...really lonely. I’m so lonely. It’s so hard seeing everyone else have friends and share experiences and invite me into stuff like that without knowing how much of a lost cause I am. I stopped talking to some really amazing people because of this shit. I swear I want to talk to them every day but just can’t anymore because of the overbearing thought that they’re going to be really upset once I kill myself and I could’ve prevented it.

I never asked to be like this. I have hopes and dreams like everyone else, I want more than anything else in the world to be able to do things like a normal person but this body is nothing short of a prison and I’m suffering every day I’m in it. I’m likely not going to do anything after this, I’m going to spend the rest of my night like I always do and I’m going to wake up and forget I ever wrote this but in case anything does finally happen to me I just needed to get this out. I both hope no-one read this and hope someone did just to get an idea of why I’m such a shitty person to everyone else.

I don’t suggest talking me out of it, if years and years worth of doctors and psychologists and everyone in between have given up on me and proven to be no help then nothing else will be. I’ve tried absolutely everything. There’s no fixing someone like me. At this point it’s the only answer to the fact I’m going to live a lifetime suffering endlessly and never being able to function correctly otherwise.

#// vent #// suicide mention #// blood #// death

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strangerererthings · 6 years

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peaches v

Summary: What if Bob had an adopted daughter? What happens now?

Pairing: Billy Hargrove x Reader

Disclaimer: DON’T OWN THIS ADDICTING ASS SHOW.

Author’s Note: Jinkies, this one’s a bit longer.

Word Count: 2,237

part one/part two/part three/part four/part six/part seven/part eight/part nine/part ten/part eleven/epilogue

The next day at work, you thought you were going to explode with nervous energy. You couldn’t stop fidgeting or looking out the window for just a glimpse of Billy’s infamous blue Camaro. Even Connie was beginning to notice, teasing you every time she caught you looking. Truth be told, you had been like this all damn day. You could hardly focus on anything. That morning, you had practically busted down the front door while waiting for Hopper to be ready to drive you to school. You had caught little glimpses of Billy in the hall, and he had started making a habit of throwing a little wink in your direction.

But now it was two minutes until close, and there was no sign of him.

You were starting to get worried. Was he coming? Did something happen to him? You paused, biting your lip as you held a record in your hand that had been heading for the shelf in front of you. Did he stand you up?

Connie had stopped teasing you about an hour ago, seeing how anxious you had started to get. Instead, she was sending pitying looks your way, even if she didn’t mean to. You swallowed as you put that last record on the shelf before the two of you started to lock up the store. It was strange, locking up in complete silence. Everything sounded amplified: your footsteps, the creak of the stairs, the hum of the radiator.

You took one last look at the clock before you left, Connie right behind you. 10:02 PM. Billy was no where to be seen.

“Sweetheart, do you need a ride?” Connie asked slowly as she placed a hand on your shoulder.

You shook your head as you wrapped your coat tighter around you. “No, that’s alright. I’m sure he’s just running a bit late.” She looked at you for a long moment and you waved her off. “Go on, go. You need sleep.” You watched Connie get into her car with a smile on your face, waving goodbye as she pulled out of the parking lot.

And then you were alone.

You could see the clock inside the store from where you stood. 10:05 PM. I’ll just wait a few more minutes, you thought to yourself. The temperature had dropped yet again that night, sticking at right around 31 degrees. God, it was fucking cold.

The streetlight in front of you flickered back and forth every few minutes or so. Green. Yellow. Red. Green. Yellow. Red. Over and over and over. It helped as the time passed, and you began to count how many seconds it took for each light to change. Two minutes for green to change to yellow, yellow took thirty seconds to change to red, and red took two minutes to change to green.

You were getting even colder. The wind had started to pick up, and judging by the clouds in the sky, it was going to snow either tonight or within the next few days. You had started to feel the chill in your toes, despite your warm wool socks tucked snugly inside your boots. You looked back to check how much time had passed.

10:28 PM.

“Fuck,” you muttered to yourself as you looked around you. You had told Hopper you were going to hang out with friends that night, so he didn’t need to worry about picking you up. You had no way to call him and ask him to come get you, so the only thing you could do was walk.

As you took off down the street, your heart began to feel heavier and heavier in your chest. For some reason, you had thought that maybe he was sincere. Maybe he could actually like you for you and you wouldn’t just be another girl to conquer.

By the time you reached the dirt road that Hopper’s cabin was on, you had tears running down your cheeks, which were freezing from the cold. You wiped them desperately as you got closer to the cabin, knowing that El and Hopper would have a fit if they knew you were upset. “Fuck,” you whispered again, sniffling. You knew your cheeks would be red, but with any luck, the two would be asleep and wouldn’t see you. You had no idea what time it was, no idea how much time had passed.

You came around the bend in the road, and you could’ve cheered. All the lights were off. You crept slowly up the front steps, wincing as they creaked. You took out the key that Hopper had made for you, slipping it into the lock and twisting. It opened easily and you stepped inside before shutting the door and locking it tight. All the lights were still off, and you crept down the hall by using your hand on the wall as a guide until your eyes adapted to the darkness around you.

From the doorway to your bedroom, you could see the clock above the oven, illuminated only by the moonlight. It was 11:42 PM. You had been walking for over an hour. As you crawled into your bed, kicking off your shoes, you felt a wave of tears overcome you. You shoved your face into your pillow, doing your best to not wake anyone with your cries.

You woke before anyone else that morning, putting on a little more foundation than normal in order to hide the puffiness around your eyes. You got to school a little bit early that day, Hopper needing to go to the station earlier than usual. You hid out in the library in your usual spot, in the bay window in the back. You just couldn’t bring yourself to focus on Pride and Prejudice, which was strange considering it was one of your favorite books.

The gym class that Steve and Billy were in came outside that day, bounding onto the courts. You lost your focus again, eyes shifting down to watch all the boys running around like they were in the Olympics. Billy looked up towards the window when he came out, his eyes locking on yours, and you immediately turned away. You felt like you had been punched in the gut. It was stupid. Ridiculous, even. You didn’t even really know him. You just felt so rejected, so burned. That was usually normal for you--you were never anyone’s first choice. He had probably found some other girl that was willing to crawl into the back of his car for a tryst.

Down below, Steve was getting pissed at Billy’s lack of attention. “Hey, Hargrove. Get your head out of your ass,” he snapped as he threw the ball to him. They were on separate teams, as usual, but winning didn’t really feel like winning if the other team’s best player was completely out of it.

“Shut it, Harrington.” Billy felt his blood boil as he tried to turn back to the game. But he couldn’t stop trying to get the attention of the girl in the window up above. He ran to the coach, complaining of having to take a piss, before running inside. He ran through the halls, doing his best to get there without getting stopped by a teacher.

When he finally got there, he almost threw open the library doors as hard as he could before walking swiftly to where he knew you were. “Y/N.” He was panting, trying to catch his breath as you looked up in surprise.

“What do you want?”

He was taken aback by your tone of voice, though he couldn’t deny that he somewhat deserved it. He hadn’t wanted to miss your date, but it couldn’t be avoided. If only he could somehow explain it to you. Or even get you to let him try to explain it.

Billy took a step towards you, and you shook your head, closing your book. “Don’t come any closer to me.”

“Y/N, please let me explain.” His heart was racing and fuck, he hated it. He hated that he actually might feel something for you. Something real.

You scoffed as you shook your head. “Explain what? That you stood me up? That this is all some little game to you?” Your cheeks were reddening with anger and frustration, embarrassment. “Because, trust me, I already know how much of an idiot I am, okay?”

Billy could feel his heart sinking lower and lower into his chest as he shook his head rapidly, trying to find the words to get you to understand without telling you what really happened.

You stood up, crossing your arms over your chest. “You know, you really got me. For a moment there, I thought you might actually be interested in me. That you might actually think of me as a person.”

“Y/N,” he started to say, and you shook your head, cutting him off.

“I had to walk home last night and it was below freezing, Billy. It took me over an hour to get home.” You watched as his face went pale, waiting for him to try to say something. “Yeah. That’s what I thought.” You grabbed your things, throwing your backpack over your shoulder before storming out. You left Billy standing there, unable to say anything.

That night at the record shop, Connie let you go home early due to the snow that was starting to fall outside. Hopper dropped by to pick you up after a quick call using the store phone. You were quiet the whole ride home, and you immediately went to your room, skipping dinner on account of an ‘upset stomach.’ Hopper seemed suspicious, but let it slide.

School was canceled the next day on account of snow, and it wasn’t letting up. The amount of snow and ice on the ground was just increasing as time went on.

“Wish I could get a day off work on account of this blizzard,” Hopper teased as you and El sat on the couch the morning of the second day. He was pulling on his jacket as El chowed down on some Eggos. Some random cartoon was on the screen, your books strewn out in front of you on the coffee table. You had offered to help tutor El, to get her really caught up before Hopper tried to register her at the middle school.

However, that plan had gone a little bit haywire a little after ten in the morning. There was a knock on the door and when you had opened it, five kids had barged in and set up camp. Joyce had followed after Will, Mike, Dustin, Lucas, and Max, giving apologies. “I don’t like the thought of the kids being alone on a snow day. They get restless,” she had explained, which you had shrugged off, insisting it was alright.

Besides, you don’t think you had seen El as happy as you did when she was around Mike. You were growing rather fond of her, as well as Max. They both seemed especially attached to you, which might’ve been because you were the only girl besides Nancy, and she spent a majority of her time with Jonathan. Plus, Steve was now a huge fan of yours, and whatever Steve liked, so did the boys.

“Max,” you said said quietly when she had come into the kitchen while you were there. She had looked at you with a bright smile, shining eyes. “Why is your brother such an asshole?”

Max frowned, looking down at the ground. “I don’t know. We were okay in California, before we moved here. Then one day, he just... changed. A few months later we moved here.”

“So he didn’t always used to be like this.”

She looked up at you, choosing her words carefully. More carefully than any middle schooler probably should’ve. “I think he’s a good person deep inside. And when I say deep, I mean Grand Canyon deep. I just wish he’d be like that again.”

You had said nothing, choosing instead to pull her to your chest. Even though she was taller than you, you still felt a bit maternal as you hugged her. She had gripped onto you, burying her face into your shoulder.

That night, you sat reading in your bed like every other night. Hopper had added a few more things to the room, though you were sure Joyce had picked them out. You now had a lamp, extra blankets, warm socks, a mirror, and a new chair for your desk. “Just so your comfortable until we find out what to do,” Hopper had said.

You were startled by the sound of something hitting your window. Frowning, you slowly slid out of bed as you felt your heart start to beat faster. Your room was in the back of the house, and the hill had been carved out in the back for the basement, meaning you were effectively two stories high. You looked out the window, shocked to see Billy standing down below in the snow. “Billy, what the hell are you doing here?!” You shout-whispered as you opened up the window. A breeze came at you, bringing a few snowflakes with it.

“Can I come up?”

#steve harrington #billy hargrove #billy hargrove x reader #billy x reader #stranger things #stranger things 2 #stranger things fanfiction #fanfiction #reader insert

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jaroslavlewis · 7 years

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Blood Bond (For Detective Conan Week 2017)

Detective Conan Week 2017, Day 1 [August 21]-Scarlet, Favorite BROTP

Title: Blood Bond

Author: Jaroslav Lewis

Fandom: Detective Conan

Pairing: Heiji and Shinichi (HeiShin)

Summary: Sometimes, a punch in the face is all that takes to show someone you care.

Disclaimer: I don’t own Detective Conan or any of Gosho Aoyama’s characters. I simply kidnap them when I’m bored and make them binge watch K-dramas with me. Don’t worry I make popcorn for them too.

They say first impressions last, but for Kudo Shinichi this was not the case for when he met Hattori Heiji. The first time he met him, he was sure as hell that he wanted to punch the detective of the west in the face, that is, if he weren’t in his Conan state. The guy seemed like the type who would clash with him a lot. He was aggressive, impulsive and not to mention, so full of himself. Something about him irked Shinichi. His presence felt intimidating in a lot of ways, mostly because he was kind of annoying but also because he seemed pretty interesting as well.

As time passed Shinichi and Heiji shared a bond more than just rivalry. It was an odd kind of relationship the two of them never expected to transpire. After their first encounter, Shinichi couldn’t get Heiji out of his hair. Somehow he wished he would just stay out of his way, not knowing that he’d needing him a lot more often than he should. Soon, he figured that he actually liked having the guy around.

Shinichi always had Ran and Sonoko other than that he also had Nakamichi and his other peers. He had Teitan’s Soccer Team but Hattori Heiji…

Hattori Heiji was special. The thought made him cringe but it was true. Heiji was the missing puzzle piece in his life, the only one who fully understood his passion for mysteries and detective work. It was weird and cheesy in a way, but Heiji had filled the void in Shinichi’s deduction geek heart.

Throughout the years, he realized the guy was not an annoying rival he’d want off of his tail. The guy was the brother he never had and he couldn’t be more grateful that he came into his life. The feeling of annoyance and intimidation had become lost in all the bond and friendship.

Shinichi never again thought of punching Heiji in the face.

That was until it happened…

It had to be done, but of course, Shinichi still hated that he had to do it. The detective of the west stared at him with a half-startled, half-angry expression as he remained, sitting on the floor where he stumbled after he had taken the detective of the east’s strong blow. He never expected Shinichi to have such a force. Of course he knew, the guy was strong but Shinichi had always been a lot “softer” than he was. Contrary to Heiji’s aggressiveness, Shinichi had always took a calmer approach to things, but when desperate times call for desperate measures, he sure can very well make some adjustments.

Sapphire eyes pierced through emerald orbs as Shinichi mustered all the courage to look at his friend. His cheek was bruised and scarlet liquid dripped from his cut lip, both injuries came from Shinichi’s fist. Like Heiji, he was also in a state of shock. He never once thought he’d ever take his friend down. With skills in Kendo, Heiji had always been strong, maybe a lot stronger than he was. Shinichi couldn’t understand how he did it. Everything happened so fast. There was a lot of panicking and a lot of thinking. He had to act fast and adrenaline kicked it.

Silence filled the room as the Osaka prefecture police officers left the two of them to talk. Shinichi heaved an exhausted sigh as he tried to keep his breathing steady and his shaking hands still. His heart was pumping hard in his chest due to the adrenaline and possibly because of fear.

He didn’t want to admit to himself but he was afraid of what happened, of the Hattori Heiji that he saw earlier. It was a sight he never once thought he’d ever see in his life. It was a sight tattooed in his mind that he wished he could undo.

It was bad idea but for the sake of investigation, the officers had to bring Heiji in to see the suspect. It has been a month since Heiji temporarily left his detective job for personal reasons, roughly two months since the assault and the car accident that caused Kazuha’s miscarriage. It took some time but they were able to piece the case together. And so there Heiji sat in the interrogation room, in front of the suspect. Shinichi stood by Heiji’s side just in case things went haywire. Osaka prefecture police force also stood outside the interrogation room for security.

The suspect easily admitted to the crime and was charged for illegal gun possession and attempted murder. The guy showed no regret on what he did. He had the audacity to look into the eyes of the young man he assaulted and he even laughed manically as if to provoke him.

“Why? Why her?” Heiji asked. His tone rose as he clenched his fist and tried to hold back from doing anything violent to the man he so much despised.

“I wanted to make you feel what I felt!” The man retorted as he stood from his seat and slammed his fist on the table. Shinichi immediately shifted his position so he was in between as the mediator. “I wanted to make you suffer and make you wish you were dead.”

Shinichi held his arm by Heiji’s shoulder to remind him to control himself. Heiji’s fist closed tighter and tighter as he struggled to keep his composure. The suspect’s words rang in his ears loudly. Events from the incident flooded his head. The image of Kazuha crying because of the miscarriage flashed in his mind in an instant.

And that was when he lost it. Heiji stood from his seat and shoved Shinichi’s hand out of the way. He pushed the table aside violently so that he could easily cross the little space between him and the suspect. He roughly pulled him by the collar and pushed him to the wall. The suspect gave him a sinister grin and showed no fear. The man was sick and loved seeing the look on Heiji’s face and so he decided to provoke him even more.

“You should actually thank me, you know. I went easy on her. She’s still alive isn’t she? But poor innocent baby’s all gone now even before she had the chance to come into this world and it’s all your fault you couldn’t protect her.” The suspect chuckled evilly. Heiji’s grip on the man’s collar loosened only so that he shifted his hand from the man’s shirt collar to the man’s neck in attempt to suffocate him.

“Oi! Hattori!” Shinichi shouted as he tried to get Heiji to let go of the man but Heiji shrugged his hold off easily.

‘It’s your fault you couldn’t protect her.’ His words rang in his ears and Heiji lost it entirely. His grip on the guy’s neck tightened as anger and hurt flooded his heart.

He had been keeping it together, for the past few weeks, pretending that he was fine and immediately getting by. Kazuha has had it worse and he needed to be strong for her. He swallowed all hurt, all anger and frustrations and tried to get it through his days. On nights he stayed awake blaming himself for everything.

He lived through his days despite the fact that he was slowly dying with every moment he saw Kazuha hurt because of their loss. He was hurt and mourning, but he bottled it up inside him, because he had no right to be hurt. Kazuha has had it worse.

But he has had it. He snapped. Like a ticking time bomb, he exploded.

His eyes were cold with anger as he looked into the suspect’s eyes who showed so much satisfaction in what he was seeing. He wanted revenge. He wanted to see Heiji fall hard enough to turn him into a heartless monster and he seemed to have succeeded. He wasn’t done with him though.

“You detectives don’t know about what it feels like to die. And you all wonder what it feels like to want to kill someone. Looks like now, I gave you an idea of what it’s like. Go ahead. Do it.” The guy managed to say despite how hard Heiji was choking him. All reason and self-control he has had over the years in his detective job was all thrown into the edge at an instant. Heiji tightened his grip even more, almost breaking the guy’s neck. He could’ve killed him until…

A strong force grabbed Heiji by the back collar of his blazer. In a blink of an eye he was dragged away from the suspect and spun around, only to be punched right in the face by the detective of the east himself.

“Stop it, Hattori!” Shinichi shouted as he stumbled on the floor. The suspect had also fallen on the floor due to lack of oxygen. Police officers had unlocked the door to the interrogation room to prevent anymore ruckus from happening. They took the suspect out, away from Heiji and with that, Heiji and Shinichi were left alone in the interrogation room have a serious talk.

The silence seemed to go on forever. Heiji looked right back at the detective of the east who had a serious but soft expression on his face. Shinichi shook his head in disappointment as he sighed, but approached him and held out his hand to help him stand up.

“Just let me be, Kudo.” Heiji muttered as he swatted Shinichi’s hand away, the same hand that had punched him right in the face. Shinichi was taken aback, but somehow anticipated such reaction.

“If you’re mad because-“

“Just leave me alone.” He demanded coldly as he cut Shinichi off.

“Hattori…”

“Just fuck off, Kudo!” He shouted harshly, taking out all of his anger on his friend. “Stop acting like you know everything because you don’t understand!”

Shinichi was tongue-tied with Heiji’s retort. He found it unfair that Heiji had decided to take his anger on him, but he was mature enough to understand. Furthermore, he is Heiji’s friend and he decided that he was more than willing to take all his anger and pain, if it means it would make Heiji feel better, if it means that it would make Heiji’s emotional baggage lighter. If they had been younger, he would’ve retorted and shouted back at him. But years have already passed. He and Heiji were no longer seventeen years old. A lot has already happened through their years of friendship and he wasn’t gonna let it end badly.

“You’re right. I don’t have any idea what you’re feeling right now.” He admitted. Heiji was startled by his friend’s composure. Sure, Kudo had always been calmer than he was but after the outburst earlier he expected another punch from him. “But here’s what I know… Elle’s gone and killing the suspect wouldn’t bring her back. It wouldn’t make Kazuha feel better. It wouldn’t make you feel better either.”

Shinichi’s words struck him and brought reason back. He was usually stubborn with arguments. Back when they were seventeen, he wouldn’t let anyone win against him, especially if it was Kudo who had won over him. They were friends, but there was always a little competition between them. It always hurt his pride when Kudo was right. But it was different now. The detective of the east was talking more and more sense to him. And so, he remained seated on the floor with his back pressed against the wall and listened as his friend stood in front of him.

“Maybe I don’t understand anything, but I wouldn’t let you do anything stupid, Hattori…” He said sternly before he turned his heel to leave him. Heiji watched as Shinichi approached the door. The detective of the east, paused on his tracks. “When you’re ready, go to the police department’s clinic to get your wounds treated.”

Heiji sat in the interrogation room for a few minutes in silence, thinking, before he decided to come out to get his bruise and wound treated, he was surprised however when Shinichi’s wife came in with a first aid kit, as if on cue.

“N-neechan…” Heiji mumbled, startled by her presence. Mouri Ran gave her old friend a warm smile as she settled the first aid kit on the table and sat on a chair in front of him.

“I hope you don’t mind, Hattori-kun. Shinichi sent me, but if you prefer the nurses in the clinic, it’s okay.” She said thoughtfully.

“N-no. It’s okay. Besides, going down there would be more of a hassle.” He said as he sat beside her so she could treat his injuries.

Ran brought out some cotton balls and swabs, gauzes, tweezers, betadine and disinfectant. Heiji watched as she set up. Ran shifted her position so she was facing him. She put disinfectant on a cotton ball which she held using tweezers. She moved her hand and reached out to lightly dab the cotton on Heiji’s wound by the corner of his lips. Heiji flinched at the cold, stinging sensation the disinfectant had on his cut skin.

“Sorry. It’s gonna hurt a little. But hold still okay?” She said in a calm tone. Heiji figured, Ran always had that such a motherly feel with the people around her and it wasn’t just with kids or kids who aren’t actually kids like, Conan for the matter. Ran was very genuinely caring with everyone, even with people her age and even with people older than her. And he knew exactly why Shinichi sent her.

“I’m sorry Shinichi punched you.” She said sincerely as she pulled her hand away to replace the cotton with a new clean one. She put poured an amount of betadine on it and then reached out to dab the cotton on Heiji’s wound again.

“It’s okay.” Heiji said with an understanding expression on his face. “He had to do what he had to do.”

Ran simply replied with a nod, understanding what he meant.

“He could’ve gone easy on you though…” She joked as she inspected the scarlet patch on the corner of lips and the purple patch right next to it.

“I was surprised. I didn’t know he could throw quite a punch.” He chuckled softly, lightening the mood between them. Ran giggled before he took the betadine-drenched cotton away from Heiji’s face only to reach out to grab an adhesive bandage to place it gently on Heiji’s wound.

“I hope you’re not mad at him. He only means well, Hattori-kun…” Ran explained calmly. Heiji nodded in response.

“I have no hard feelings, don’t worry.” He told her. He then paused and stared into space as they both went silent for a while. Ran started arranging the first aid kit as she thought of something to say.

“Do you think, Kudo’s mad at me?” He asked, a bit hesitantly as if he felt embarrassed for asking the question. His tone was soft and calm with a hint of worry. Ran turned her attention to the detective of the west and gave him an assuring smile.

“He’s not mad at you. He’s just worried about you.” She said sincerely. Heiji couldn’t help but smile at the thought.

“He doesn’t say it all the time, but he’s thankful for all the times you looked after him and he wants to look after you too.” She added as she zipped the first aid kit up and stood up. Heiji was silent as he watched her stand. He processed her words in his head and he smiled to himself. He figured it felt nice to have someone care for him. It had been so long since someone had tried to look after him.

“Well, you’re all good, but remember to put an icepack on that bruise okay? I’ll just leave you for a while.” She said, making him snap out of his thoughts before she left and closed the door behind her.

Shinichi stood by the door outside the interrogation room, staring at the dried blood on his knuckles. Heiji’s blood had left a scarlet stain on his pale skin that was quite hard to rub off. It was like the memory of him strangling the suspect. It was hard for Shinichi to just forget. The look on Heiji’s eyes was threatening to look at. It was as if he had been possessed. Shinichi shuddered at the thought. He never once thought he’d see Heiji in such state.

It didn’t take long for Shinichi to snap out from his thoughts as soon as Ran came out of the interrogation room. He gave her a worried smile and she gave him a pat on the back and told him to come inside to talk to Heiji. Shinichi nodded and did he was told.

“Hey.” He greeted awkwardly as he placed his hands in his pockets and closed the door with his leg. Heiji remained seated and darted his green eyes towards him.

“Hey.” He greeted back, acknowledging Shinichi’s presence.

“The suspect is now under the custody of the police. They took him to the clinic to check his vital signs. He was fine. Everything’s taken care of. There will be arrangements regarding the hearing. Ran will represent you and Kazuha in court as your lawyer. We’ll inform you about the further details as soon as everything’s fixed.” Shinichi informed him before he casually took a seat next to Heiji who nodded at his news.

“So… How are you?” Shinichi asked. Heiji gaped at him as if he knew the meaning behind the question.

“I’m not forcing you to talk. Just a short, honest answer would do.” Shinichi said calmly as a detective. He had been very skillful at reading people and at knowing how to handle them. But at that moment he knew he wasn’t just a detective. He was also Heiji’s friend and he had to know what was going on. He wasn’t gonna play the detective game to figure him out. Heiji could be a little difficult at times. He always put on a strong façade. His push-forward attitude had always been admirable but sometimes, it got in the way of showing people the truth about himself and about what he was truly feeling.

Heiji was always protective of other people even if there was no one else to protect him. He would always put on a strong façade for others because his mindset is always on their well-being. He hated being weak but more than that, he hated showing it to others, even to people who are important to him. Most especially to people who are important to him.

But Shinichi figured, the tough-act was not healthy for Heiji anymore. Heiji was always saving others but sometimes, he needed some saving too.

“He wanted to make me wish that I was dead. Well, congratulations to him. He has done a good job at it.” Heiji spoke honestly as he looked into his friends sapphire eyes. His expression was hurt and exhausted almost like he was done and had already accepted defeat. It was unlikely of him, definitely a different side of him, but it was very much human.

“I’m tired, Kudo.” He sighed, admitting the whole truth. There was a hint of desperation in his voice. His shoulders slumped as he waited for the axe to fall but instead he felt a hand on his shoulder. He looked at Shinichi who had scooted closer to him.

“It’s not your fault, Hattori.” He said. Heiji shook his head in refusal.

“It’s not your fault.” Shinichi repeated sternly. He was willing to say it over and over again for him until he believed it and he said it not because he wanted to make him feel better but because it was the truth. But he knew Heiji refused to believe so and had been beating himself up for what happened.

“Thank you.” He said gratefully. He knew it would take some time for him to fully heal, but it was all the words he needed to hear. For the past months since the incident, he had been waiting for someone to say it to him. And there Shinichi was giving him such assurance.

His eyes darted to the scarlet patch on Shinichi’s fist.

The color scarlet had always been associated with love. Heiji always begged to disagree. After several crime scenes that had transpired in his years as a detective, scarlet had become a color he could easily associate with blood, murder and all violent things in the cruel world. Scarlet for him was a vile color. It should in no way be associated with something as beautiful as love. But when he saw the scarlet on Kudo’s fist, he figured it was the game changer for him.

A.N. This fanfic was something I had in mind after I wrote the KazuHei one shot “Clouds and Sun Ray” as my opening entry for the 30 Kisses challenge. I wanted to include this in the story but the one shot itself was already too long. So, I made a separate story for it and decided to post it for Day 1 of Detective Conan Week under the option, favorite brotp. Also notice that my favorite character also did a cameo here. Hahaha! So yeah, I sort of hit two birds with one stone.

Anyway, for those who couldn’t understand what happened, Kazuha and Heiji lost their baby due to a miscarriage that happened because of a car accident that was caused by the guy Heiji strangled in this story. If you guys want to have better context on what happened feel free to read “Clouds and Sunray” here.

I’m sorry if this was a little late (at least here in the Philippines ‘coz it’s almost 1 am here). I’m not sure if I did a good job in this. I wrote this the whole day and I did have a difficult time writing the dialogue. Huhu I’m sorry if it had some grammatical or typographical errors. I wasn’t able to proofread it anymore coz I was rushing. TT_TT

I hope I gave justice to HeiShin. It’s my first time writing about them. I wanted to come up with a scenario wherein Shinichi would be the one rushing to Heiji’s aid. I noticed that he owes Heiji bigtime with all the things Heiji has done for him. *coughs* Desperate Revival *coughs *Head to Head Match with the Black Organization *coughs *Murderer, Kudo Shinichi *coughs* Kyoto Arc and the list goes on.

Happy Detective Conan Week 2017 everyone! <3

Love,

~ J

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why-this-kolaveri-machi · 7 years

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The Night Of

i heard of this show a few months ago, but it’s only now, after a vigorously stoked interest in riz ahmed and his work, that i’ve plucked up the courage to see it. i saw the eight episodes over three days, and all of my fears were proved right: this thing haunted me--right through work, studying, and a meeting where i was supposed to present a research proposal for approval. at several points i couldn’t figure out if the knots in my stomach was because i was nervous about my paper, or because of this fucking show--and considering how very often i turned the events of that first episode in my head thinking could this be? could this be? i’m pretty sure it was the latter.

now that i’ve finished watching it and gotten used to its cadences, i feel that, sure, it had its faults, but it was so so so good at gripping your attention and refusing to let go. despite the languid pacing--and, at times, weird editing that gave us scenes so short that they were impressions more than scenes--it just tensed you up like nothing else. it didn’t do this one hundred percent of the time--maybe if it had figured out a way to do this while still preserving the rich fullness of the characterisation of the protagonists, this could’ve been terrific instead of merely great.

a few spoilery impressions under the cut:

first things first: riz ahmed was mesmerising as nasir khan. i couldn’t tear my eyes away for a moment when he was on screen; he sold nasir’s initial terror and despair and then his transformation--both physical and otherwise--so well, in a masterfully restrained performance. his eyes and his body language conveyed volumes.

(that scene where he’s being interrogated by helen weiss on the stand and he’s high as fuck? holy crap.)

you know, at the beginning, you’re pretty much on nasir’s side. it’s hard not to be: innocent kid who just wanted to party caught up in something horrific because he was unlucky enough to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. but then as the series goes on, the more revelations unfold, and the more you see nasir adapting to his new life in rikers’, the more unsure you become. there were a couple of times i was convinced that he was the killer: a notable instant is when he’s recounting how he pushed steven diaz down the stairs at school. monotonous. says it was like “pushing open a door”. when he puts another guy in the icu in jail.

i mean--it’s a very, very hard line to walk: this sense that he’s a relative innocent who, by circumstance and prejudice, is sucked into a system that files his corners into edges and takes away any softness he may have had for survival, and maintain this sense of ambiguity, that he may actually be a frighteningly effective liar who can, or at least learns to, manipulate people around him pretty easily. ahmed was so good at walking this line. he was pretty much doing cartwheels on that line. my heart ached for nasir from beginning to end but i was so fucking terrified of the guy at the same time.

to illustrate this with an example--there was a scene not long after chandra takes over his defence from her boss. she tells him that she believes him, even after his story about steven diaz; that she cares about his truth. freddy tells him later that only a “new lawyer” would believe that. then naz goes back to his room and phones her on his cell, high as all fuck, and thanks her, connects with her, wishes her a good night. i couldn’t tell if this was an attempt to manipulate her just because he could, or if he wanted to connect to a person who sympathised with him and seemed to genuinely believe him even as he became a cynical person in a cynical world. i couldn’t tell. the dissonance is disquieting, and even now won’t leave me.

(and it didn’t help that some of his later scenes with chandra were intercut with flashbacks to his scenes with andrea. and the fact that he did lie by omission to both stone and chandra, and ended up exploiting chandra’s belief in him.)

and when everything is done, and he comes out--everything’s changed. his old life is gone. his family’s finances and reputation are irreparably damaged. he has changed, both physically and mentally. you almost wonder if he’s better off at rikers’.

john turturro as john stone was amazing as well--certainly the show seemed to love him, with long, long sequences devoted entirely to his eczema and his care of a cat that he’s deathly allergic to. he’s a great lawyer who hates to go to trial; his loneliness is both his disease and his treatment.

i’m sure there’s a metaphor there, somewhere.

... FINE. i found it interesting that his condition receded just about the time chandra took over the case and he was to be second chair and went haywire when he was forced to take the lead once again. he’s ok as long as he’s got a buffer, thick rubber gloves between him and the case. but once that goes away, his repulsion towards his full potential, all the things this guy with a gigantic soft corner could be, manifests. ... as eczema.

listen, i’m trying, ok? i have no fucking idea why we spent so much time with his feet when we could’ve had more of andrea. or detective box or helen weiss, who were all amazing. (box’s expression when naz asks him if the penile swab would hurt is kind of seared into my brain.)

and chandra, OMG. let’s talk about chandra. i couldn’t get a very good read on her, and i was shocked and dismayed that she would kiss naz. that she would lose her mind like that, and then put naz on the stand, and then smuggle drugs to him... her naivete, her sympathy for him and her fierce will to prove herself to an indifferent boss who would use her as a prop only goes so far. ultimately she was under-served by a show that didn’t fill out her character or sketched her motivations in blink-and-you’ll-miss-it splotches of faint colour, and left her without even the sliver of hope that it gave the other characters.

*takes chandra under wing to protect her*

oh, and one more thing:

the cat was obviously a metaphor for stone’s relationship with naz

i loved the cat. she was probably my favourite character.

#the night of #riz ahmed #hbo the night of

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projectomerta · 3 years

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DBH Bodyguard - Chapter 2: Off to a Good Start

Fandom: Detroit: Become Human

Words: 1778

For the second time that day, Layla found herself leaving the car with Connor, only this time he was the one leading the way.

On the way there, he had found out about the building Diego had mentioned, saying ‘CyberLife has buildings all over the country to facilitate the distribution of androids, as well as their maintenance.’

The plan they’d agreed to, was to gain access into one of the upper floors and eventually to the roof.

Following Connor’s lead, Layla found herself looking around the building. It looked just like any other corporate building - it had just enough decoration to give it an air of professionalism, without oversaturating it to the point of alienating the clients, she liked it.

The line was empty so Connor walked right up the receptionists’ desk.

“Can I help you?” Asked one of the ST300s at the desk.

“Yes. I’d like to get myself checked for damage.”

The two androids locked eyes with each other. For a split second, Layla thought they looked romantic, until their eyes and LEDs started flickering, the latter with a yellow color to it.

“Very well. Go through the checkpoint to your right and the elevators will be past it.”

The two made their way past the checkpoint and up into the maintenance floor.

“Now what?” Layla asked.

“We go up to the roof. The most logical place for a sniper to shoot from is a high point, so we should investigate it.”

“Not bad. Lead the way.”

It didn’t take long for Connor to lead Layla to the stairs. They climbed up thirty five stories until they reached the roof, and by the end Layla was starting to get tired and lost sight of Connor, who went ahead.

“Wait a bit, I’m ti-”

Thud. A metal door closed and she stopped hearing Connor’s footsteps.

“Plastic little shit…” She whispered to herself.

She opened the metal door herself and instantly felt the wind on her face, making her ponytail flutter. Connor was across from her, on the other end of the square roof. The android looked back.

“Miss, come over here, please.”

Layla clicked her tongue in annoyance, but approached him nonetheless.

“What is it?” She asked.

“That building there,” Connor pointed, “That’s Andrew’s apartment, if I’m not mistaken. Can you confirm?”

Layla squinted to make sure she was seeing right, the building Connor was pointing at was quite far, afterall. As soon as she confirmed that it was her heart sank. Not only could she see Andrew’s house, she could also see its windows. Or rather, the window. The window from which she watched him die, but also the window from where she saw him leave the house ahead of her many times before he died. A deep breath let itself out without her intending to show emotion, but she gave Connor an answer in a tone as normal as she could muster.

“Yep. That’s it. I guess we found the crime scene.”

She noticed Connor’s LED flicker before he began to look around.

“Yes, it’s safe to assume so. I’m looking for evidence that might lead us to the culprit of Andrew’s murder. If you see anything out of the ordinary, please say so.”

“Ok, I’ll take a look on the other side.”

She looked around for anything that could be a clue but there was nothing. The roof was completely clean as if no one had ever set foot in that place.

A few minutes went by until they searched every inch of that roof and Connor was just standing, looking around the place.

“Hey, there’s nothing here, maybe we got the wrong place,” Layla said, approaching him.

Connor took a few seconds to say anything.

“It just doesn’t make sense…” He started. “From here it’s clear that there couldn’t be many more spots to assassinate Andrew from. However, there aren’t any traces of human activity up here, it’s odd. It’s almost like there no one has ever been here.”

Layla stared at Connor for a moment, processing what he had just said. She felt her anger rising as the shadow of Andrew’s killer just barely escaped from her. Back to square one I guess…

“Miss?”

Layla was startled by Connor’s interjection. She lifted her face and looked at Connor, seeing the android’s slightly intrigued expression watching her. Maybe she imagined it, but at that moment he seemed weirdly more human than before.

“Oh, sorry. I was just thinking…” Layla paused. “Do you know where the fuck else Andrew could’ve been shot from?”

Connor blinked twice before responding. “Well, there are at least three other buildings that meet the required height for such a feat. Do you want to search them as well, miss?”

Layla nodded and Connor explained how the next building was merely two blocks away, so they could easily walk there and, as such, the duo began making their way out of the building.

As she was opening the metal door once more, she started hearing some voices and looked straight at Connor. He reciprocated the look with a nod, his LED flashing blue. The android walked in front of the blonde and opened the door for her with his empty hand on his glock.

The door creaked open, shutting up the voices coming upstairs. Connor looked back at Layla, nodding at her to follow him, and she did, with her own glock in hand. Why is he so ready for a shootout, how does he kn-

Suddenly all of her questions were answered. The voices resumed their talking and she knew why Connor was acting like that. The voices were speaking Korean.

Layla felt a chill go down her spine. She steeled her nerves and cleared her mind. Her anger only served to calm her down then. This was a feeling she was more than familiar with. At this point it was more of an accessory than a feeling - she wore it on her sleeve and could pull it out at any time.

They started climbing down the stairs, slowly, with Connor taking the lead. The voices quieted down once more. Connor suddenly went down an entire flight of stairs, quickly turning around and pointing the gun down. Nothing. They kept going.

Layla knew something was wrong. They should’ve seen them by now. They’re hiding in one of the exits, she just knew it. Nevertheless, they kept going.

After a few flights of stairs, the blonde was starting to think they had just ran, but that wasn’t in character. They might have just gone around us and back upstairs. She looked upwards. Again, nothing. She was starting to struggle to keep a clear mind, but her heart was doing a good job at compensating. It was going haywire, like it was going to pop out of her chest.

C-CLANK! Two metal doors slammed open almost simultaneously, scaring Layla, and making Connor’s LED flash yellow. One of the sounds came from up top, while the other one came from below. They know who we are. We’re trapped.

“Connor, take the bottom, I’ll take the top.”

Connor rushed down without a second thought. Without looking back. Wow… How nice…

Layla took her own words to heart and started climbing up the stairs as fast as she could. Those fuckers have the height advantage, I need to surprise them or else I’m dead.

Going up one flight of stairs was more than enough to spot two of the Jins. Two shots one kill. The first one hit a bigger guy dead center in the middle of the forehead. Though the second shot hit the wall. AS soon as she took her chance she ran back down, to where Connor was.

She heard two gunshots go off from beneath her, but kept going. One flight, two flights of stairs. Layla turned around in motion and took a pot shot at her assailant, which missed but made him step back. The korean man shot back at her, but she was gone by the time he did.

On her way to Connor, Layla saw four corpses. Moreover, all of them had bullet holes in their heads or heart. Freaky… Even as a mobster she had never seen such precision. He’s like a metronome - constant and precise.

Layla finally caught up. He was fine. The android was looming over a corpse, reloading his gun.

“Connor!” She called out, “Is this all of them?”

“There’s one more left outside, Miss. I’ll take care of this, just stay put.”

His tone ticked her off. “Connor... I’ve been in this for-”

Layla fell forward, letting out a guttural scream in pain. A bullet hit her in the stomach and her body fell flat on the ground as a bullet flew past her head. Connor saw the shooter coming from upstairs, and shot him as soon as they locked eyes, once again hitting his target right on the head.

He took a look at Layla’s body and dragged it out of the line of fire, putting her in a safer position. He stared at her for a second as he executed the health protocol of the Evans family: inform Sharon, let her do the rest. The android’s LED light flickered for a second as he contacted Sharon, letting her know by message where they were out and the severity of the situation.

Barely conscious, Layla groaned in pain. Her vision was foggy, but it was enough to see Connor get up and make his way outside. Or try. Before he got out, a bullet grazed his shoulder, making him bleed some sort of blue liquid.

The outside shooter approached the building, taking a few wild shots inside. All of them just barely missed Connor.

Connor went outside and Layla lost sight of him. A few seconds went by and nothing. Not a gunshot, not a scream, not a sound. She started dragging herself towards the exit, her gut bursting in pain at every slight movement. As she got closer, she started hearing Connor’s voice. Is that anger?!

She somehow got to the opened door and looked outside. Connor was pointing his gun at someone and Layla noticed something peculiar - the man was white. Wait! What?! What the fuck is going on here?

He was wearing a red cap, a dark green sweater and ripped jeans, but the man was most definitely familiar. From the face to the voice. Same height, though there was no LED on his temple.

The man standing in front of Connor was Connor.

Layla couldn’t do anything but let out what felt and sounded like a dying breath, passing out and leaving Connor to deal with himself.

#DBH #Detroit Become Human #oc #original character #fanfic #fanfiction #Connor

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