#he deserves to be a little unhinged and i will defend him with my life | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

mrhowells · 1 year

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Smallville 4x16

*this episode put me through it, also the character building for Lois is perfection (also, if you see any typos just close your eyes, it was late and I was emotional)*

Clark looks so suspicious😭😭 Jonathan too, the way he's eyeing that food lmaooooo

Please😭

"I'm willing to sleep in the barn." "No that's okay, Lois can sleep in the barn." LOL Clark

sass levels through the roof today for him

Look at how proud Lois is listing all of Lucy's achievements😭 She's the best wtf I love her

"Wow, that's impressive. What happened to Lois?"

He has the time of his life dragging her PLS

"You're gonna find that Clark's charm is an acquired taste, much like his sense of fashion." he had that coming

Lois said TRY ME BISH

pls even Lucy is noticing the tension😭

she wasn't playing with that shoulder punch💀

Yeah, Jason is not letting those stones go💀

I really feel for Lana, I feel like she just lives in constant fear bc there's always some weird shit happening around her

Lucy flirting with Clark, just pls no💀

"Lois I don't want you to get the wrong idea, but ever since Lucy came to town you've been grumpier than normal."

I love this whole conversation between them🥹

Also Clark making it so obvious he's an only child from a loving family, bless him

"You might be a little rough around the edges but as far as sisters go, Lucy could do a lot worse." EXACTLY

anyone who has Lois in their life won the lottery, not even an exaggeration she's the absolute best🤷🏻‍♀️

"I guess there was just a part of me that was always jealous she got out and I didn't."

LOIS BBY LET ME HUG YOU LET ME LOVE YOU

the way she's like 'oh fuck I was vulnerable, gotta blast🏃🏻‍♀️🏃🏻‍♀️', same Lois, same

Clark looks so worried too😭

this is so wholesome🥹

I think those electric shocks left him with some permanent damage because Jason seems obsessed now👀

Okay let me rephrase, he doesn't just seem obsessed, he's completely unhinged. They fried his brain🤡

Clark is in disappointed dad mode again, he's so natural at it too😭

"You're not mom alright, so stop trying to be." That hurt me personally, goddamn

LMAOOOOO

also, is this the first episode where we see Lex and Lois in the same frame?👀

Lucy you snake

LOIS DON'T YOU EVER SAY OR THINK THAT

To everyone who contributed to her feeling this way, I just want to have a talk

This is breaking my heart, the world doesn't deserve her😭😭

Their dad really failed at parenting HARD

no because this hurts fr, I want to hug her so bad

she deserves to know that she's wanted and loved, SOMEBODY TELL HER

I can't get over the fact that she thinks that her life is less important than that of her sister

Clark defending Lois is something that can be so personal😭 (She deserves a good support system and friends who have her back idc)

I'm getting very emotional about this excuse me

You know I love a character when I need everyone else to love them too. Like I need every other character on this show to appreciate how amazing Lois is.

"I'm a product of my father's breeding. He needed an heir. But your parents chose you out of love."

No because that's so important and I think it explains why both Lex and Lois are so (for the lack of a better word) fascinated with the Kents.

(ok I paused the episode and wrote like 4 paragraphs of character analysis prompted by that quote but idk what to do with them and if they make any sense, maybe I'll make a separate post🤡)

I need you guys to understand how much it means to me that he really cares about Lois😭

Not even in any sort of romantic context, just that someone genuinely cares if she's okay or not because she's obviously never really had someone take care of her😭😭😭

I mean listen, good for Lionel that he's not an absolute monster anymore but he really needs to stay out of Lex's business💀💀

WAIT A MINUTE HOLD ON.

HOLD ONNNNNN

Did Lana vandalize her own apartment? Or did she just hide the stone and whoever searched for it didn't find it? In any case she's learning how to play the game, good for her😌😌

Okay, first of all: More reasons to love Lois, she's self-aware and she can admit when she's wrong about something. Seriously I love her.

Second: Again, they way she's ready to be kicked out of the farm for something that wasn't even her fault??? MR. SAM LANE, SAMMY, GENERAL LANE, I'D LIKE TO HAVE SOME WORDS WITH YOU. Seriously though, this speaks volumes about how she grew up and it breaks my heart.

Third: The way she tries to be so casual and 'Lois' when she says it, I have very similar defense mechanisms and again, it hurts my heart.

"Yeah... actually I came here to tell you we have food in the oven if you're hungry."

Lois learning what unconditional love looks like through the Kent family is the only thing that matters to me, actually

"You know, all these years I thought I had my sister pegged but... in reality? She's a complete stranger to me." "Even if that were true, I think that if she called you tomorrow you'd be there in a second to help her."

I CAN'T DO THIS RIGHT NOW, HE DOES KNOW HER😭

SHE KNOWS HIM TOO😭😭

"I guess that explains why we're friends." "Oh, we're friends now?" "Well, I mean, I won't tell anyone if you don't."

Yes you are and I'm so glad bc you're the most amazing people to ever exist😭

Clark deserves someone like Lois in his life and Lois deserves someone like Clark in her life, yes I'm on the verge of tears AND WHAT ABOUT IT

CHEMISTRYYYYY

shoulder punch my beloved🥹

CHEMISTRYYYYYY

do you think these people knew they just created perfection?😭

🎶now it all begins🎶

written in the stars and all that, I love my OTP

More importantly though, I love Lois Lane she's everything and she deserves all the love in the world.

#ellie's smallville thoughts #smallville #4x16 #lois lane #clark kent #clois #lex luthor #lana lang #lucy lane

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tamakey · 2 years

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shout out to fairy danyin who became a stealth mvp character for me. definitely thought she was going to be a one note mean girl to the female lead but I thought what they did with her was really interesting!! She still has a spoiled and bitchy personality but she’s a pretty good person! She’s like a wet cat, mean to everyone else but incredibly loyal to people she cares about, I love her

times fairy danyin was a real one:

-she defended orchid once she saved her life at the immortal examination and told her she deserved first place

-switched places with changheng so he could rescue orchid bc she didn’t think she was a spy

-tried to defend and lessen the one girl’s punishment for stealing the firefly stone after she saw it getting out of hand

-jail breaked changheng out of prison

-followed him to the mortal realm to look out for him

-tried to get changheng to finish his mortal trials so his soul wouldn’t disappear (by almost holding a knife to the neck of his new wife so he’d be forced to kill another bride which is one of my favorite scenes of her, that is an UNHINGED thing for her to do but I love it and think it’s so funny)

-told everyone about orchid being the goddess of xishan to save changheng’s life even though she knew it meant changheng was going to marry orchid and not her

-took care of jeili after her father….became imprisoned or died maybe?? it was unclear

I’m really happy they have her becoming the god of war after changheng and becoming best buddies with him, love that ending for her (although I am a LITTLE BITTER they didn’t explore her being half-moon tribe more?!! that could have been really fun and interesting!!)

I just need more love for fairy danyin she’s my little fairy meow meow

#love between fairy and devil #lbfad #fairy danyin #i googled fairy danyin love between fairy and devil and ONE (1) picture result of her came up #SHES UNDERAPPRECIATED

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bookshelfdreams · 2 years

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HELLO YES I WANT TO HEAR ABOUT SPERM WHALES

DO YOU NOW

ok this is of course about the pirate show

first of all, let me redirect you to this tag where you will find the rest of my unhinged ramblings about this insignificant almost-certainly unintentional random little detail; of course I'm gonna ramble some more.

The paperweight Stede uses to knock out Nigel Badminton resembles a sperm whale.

An animal that mainly eats squid, including giant squid; the real-life Kraken.

I am absolutely in love with it, it's got incredibly dense symbology, so many different angles one could take on interpreting this.

One could focus on the monster-killer aspect: Stede kills Nigel with it, who is the one who's truly monstrous. And yes, whether or not stede actually murdered him is debatable on a technical level, but he IS the one directly responsible for his death. Which doesn't mean he should feel bad about it. He shouldn't, the story absolves him. Not because he wasn't actually responsible, but because Nigel had it coming, good riddance. The sperm whale kills the only monster on the ship, and later, Stede finds the perfect paperweight to replace it: the petrified orange, the symbol for family, and home, and love. The thing he finds right as he invites Ed to take a place at his side and Ed accepts. The whale is no longer necessary; there are no more monsters on this ship.

Or. How about this: both Ed's and Stede's most violent moments are tied to creatures from the deep.

Ed diassociates the part of him that was capable to strangle his father to death. He tells the story about the Kraken, about a mythological beast emerging from the ocean to wreak senseless havoc, to kill an innocent man while he watches, frozen in fear (but doesn't fail to mention that his father deserved it). An animal that can only survive in crushing depths, in darkness, that never comes to the surface, or if it does, kills without mercy or meaning. A terrifying alien, unlike anything us surface-dwellers know or understand.

An animal that, in reality, is intelligent and fascinating. Not evil, because evil does not exist in nature. A survivor, each adult the only one of thousands to grow that big.

And Stede. Stede gets the sperm whale. No less terrifying, but understandable. Air-breathing and warm-blooded, like us, but, so very unlike us, made for depths. Diving deeper than any other mammal, the biggest predator on earth. Deadly, but not to us or other mammals, and gentle. Kind and living in a network of strong social bonds. Hunted nearly to extinction, because colonizers have never seen a miracle of nature and not exploited it to near-destruction.

Not monstrous like the Kraken. Not inspiring fear and awe. Not even the protection of unreality; just a big, dumb animal that can be killed for the fluids in its body, the giant carcass left for the scavengers.

A hunted giant, striking back.

A great, horrible power emerging from the waters, and retreating back in the safety of its own legend.

Both Ed's and Stede's most violent moments are tied to creatures from the deep, but neither is a monster, and neither is evil. Both are just living things, trying to survive in an increasingly hostile world.

But there's this too: you cannot make a life in the depths, if you are human. Violence is necessary sometimes, and cycles of violence do not start with the oppressed and marginalized defending themselves; but dwelling on it cannot make a life grow. To find contentment and healing, you will have to release the creatures to the abyss where they belong.

You have to plant oranges.

#THANK YOU GOOD NIGHT #and like yes. yes I know this is unintentional. the kraken isn't but the sperm whale is. but it just. fits too perfectly #too good to be accidental too random to be intentional #the script that made the rounds a few weeks back just mentions a brass paperweight (of course I checked) that's proof it's not that deep!#except it's clearly an early draft that has 2 or 3 additional characters so maybe it was a sperm whale on purpose! I don't know!#anyway point is: nobody tell me i sound like an unhinged conspiracy theorist I'm well aware #the fucking sperm whale #our flag means death #thoughts #moth-ra #message

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twelvemonkeyswere · 1 year

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I posted 8,802 times in 2022

That's 1,806 more posts than 2021!

210 posts created (2%)

8,592 posts reblogged (98%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@slippinkimmy

@kiwiwunderbar

@crabhaven

@do-you-have-a-flag

@actual-ironman-tonystark

(thank you guys, loved the content)

I tagged 5,268 of my posts in 2022

Only 40% of my posts had no tags

#tv - 665 posts

#art - 634 posts

#fanart - 330 posts

#films - 271 posts

#ofmd - 193 posts

#bcs - 173 posts

#comics - 148 posts

#animals - 142 posts

#words - 139 posts

#cats - 105 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#wtf bro ive been screaming for weeks they never say i love you but theyre constantly saying i love you and this mofo just doesn't get it 🤣

My Top Posts in 2022:

Details so many details I loved:

Guillermo's family calling him Memo

Guillermo's cousin complaining about the garbage in the background as they walked around

Abuelita's rainbow colored shawl

The little spanglish moments like "el panera" and "los goosebumps"

Relatedly, there was so much Spanish this episode! Guillermo saying "pa' que graben el cumpleaños de la abuela" (with shortened "pa") was such a nice acting choice. I loved all the dialogue in Spanish

Guillermo hiding his crucifix back into his shirt as soon as Nadja shows up

Nadja loving Mamma Mia because it reminds her of Greece, and reminiscing about her family and connecting with other girls

Nadja loving Guillermo's family because they're warm and welcoming

Nadja bathing in blood at the beginning with her doll

Nadja facing a wholeass family of vampire killers and running across the wall

Marwa having fun and being included 😭😭😭😭😭 she deserves the world!!!!

the Guide petting the doll's hair as they chat about the movie

Nandor saying "the baby Colin Robinson" and referencing his past as a soldier

Laszlo calling Colin "my boy"

Seanie talking about his grandpa and about the things he's seen die, as well as bonding with baby Colin

Laszlo and Nandor talking about their feelings, or at least working through their feelings through the bonding magic of blood sucking HAHAHA

Guillermo defending Nadja with his whole body

Guillermo's eyes turning red and watery when he reveals that he's gay, only for his family to be like "is that it? we've always known we don't care". his mom's soft "una madre siempre sabe" and then opening her arms to hug him was awww

Nadja being all "who isn't gay anyways" and Guillermo having to be like "lots of people" only for her to dismiss it as an absurd notion HAHAHA

What a fantastic episode I'm just still riding this high

679 notes - Posted August 17, 2022

"You Defile Beautiful Things"

Making me like a white rich deadbeat dad takes a lot, so I want to talk about my mans Stede Bonnet and his character development because from the very beginning of Our Flag Means Death it took hold of me and it hasn’t let go. Like most of the fictional white men I have grown to love in my 30 years on this earth, Stede Bonnet makes extremely questionable decisions, is deeply flawed, and has a heart so full of love it spills out everywhere. His story is one of the most compelling in the show for me.

See the full post

1,019 notes - Posted April 24, 2022

(I had to manually cut this one off because tumblr still added like a good 70% of the original post in this report)

Guillermo means so much to me. he's so well written, he has this compelling arc about self-confidence and standing up for yourself, and I seldom see latino characters in this type of sitcoms that get to be this funny and this badass and this unhinged at the same time. he is also gay. he has made many questionable life choices but you root for the guy. he is like 1.65 m but he will fuck you up if he must. he is plus-sized and there's never a single joke about him needing to lose weight or anything like that, and he's catholic and he talks Spanish when he's excited or very angry and he just wants to become a vampire but can't and is by blood supernaturally and ironically good at vampire killing. the show insists he's the most competent character on screen and it always tells you he's the hot one in the room. I just love Guillermo so much.

1,455 notes - Posted July 27, 2022

feral for stories that use the "comedy is a tool to discuss the most human, most serious of experiences" approach to great effect

1,825 notes - Posted April 20, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

I wanted to watch Prey in Comanche but the original film was recorded in English, so I thought maybe the original acting would probably sound better. I wondered if there were reviews and opinions about how it's best to watch it on the first go and I did a quick search and found this:

On top of cultural reasons, the Comanche version should also be watched because it is the way the film's creators intended it to be seen. In an interview with Digital Spy, Prey producer Jhane Myers says "Originally, when the film was written, the first script I had, across the top it said 'All dialogue in Comanche', and I was like, 'Oh my God, yes'." While this language would've probably made Prey much better than its predecessors, this idea was sadly scrapped when Disney bought out Fox. However, the Comanche dub allows Prey to be closer to its original version, meaning that the dub is the best way to watch it.

DISNEY discarded the idea of filming in Comanche from the get-go. It was always meant to be in Comanche as the first language. Fuck them.

7,074 notes - Posted August 6, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review #i tagged a lot of things holy shit #2022 #lots of love for guillermo and lots of love for ofmd this year #I am sure other posts of mine got more notes than this says but they were posts I wrote years ago not this year #so they're not being counted

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pagerunner-j · 1 year

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No one ever plays along if I post ask memes and that just gets depressing, so…fuck it, I’m pretending somebody cares and living in my own delusion for a few minutes.

CRITICAL ROLE ASK MEME ANSWERS THAT NOBODY ASKED FOR (except for me, and I’m in charge here)

1. Character you don’t particularly like, but will defend vehemently when people dislike them for the wrong reasons.

Orym. I have…issues…with Liam’s inability to let go of his dead character’s girlfriend, because not even counting Vax, we’re on character #3 who has something to do with or a deep interest in Keyleth. Wee little bit suspect, my dude. But if you ignore the matter of backstory, Orym’s just a little guy who likes pie, loves his friends, and is trying his best to do the right thing, and he’s an absolute kick-ass fighter. I’m enjoying him in combat more than anyone else on the field right now. Most importantly for this question, he is not boring just because he’s good or because he isn’t wearing all of his trauma (okay, a little bit of his trauma, but not ALL) on his sleeve. I really gotta wonder sometimes about all y’all folks who can’t get invested in anybody who actually has their head screwed on straight.

…welp, apparently I’m in a mood. Okay then. Onward:

2. Favorite unhinged shopkeeper.

There are so many candidates. It’s still hard to beat Victor, though, and Matt embodying him on screen that one Halloween only solidified it. LEARN FROM MY MISTAKES!!

3. Minor character people in the fandom are obsessed with that makes you go “them? why?”

Kynan. Let’s review: hero-worshipping nerd boy with stars in his eyes but no sense gets his ego bruised by being (sensibly) rejected for the adventuring life, and takes it so poorly that he runs off, attaches himself to an ascendant supervillain instead, and is there at her side when she murders one of our heroes. Then half the fandom (and, to my dismay, Matt even made comment about liking the idea) decides that he deserves not only a redemption arc (okay), but also to be handed Cassandra as a romantic partner and, I don't know, fucking consolation prize (NOT OKAY). Again, let's review: she's the traumatized sister of the guy he helped murder, who was abused and tortured in large part by the lady he decided to work for.

ARE. YOU. FUCKING. KIDDING. ME.

(remainder of this rant redacted because my first outburst was not kind.)

4. Minor character you are (correctly) obsessed with.

I thought about this for a while, drew a weird blank, and then my brain provided me with the Shadow Baker just because the name is so fucking funny. I would go to the Shadow Baker any chance I got. I want delicious shadow pastries. Shadow breads. Shadow cookies. Fruity, chocolatey, shadowy tarts. Shadow everything. Dusted with powdered shadow sugar.

And now that I said all that, I hope there’s also a Shadow Dentist.

5. Meta you would write if you did not fear people would be SUPER weird about it. This is also an invitation to write that meta and block the haters.

I…think I might’ve already done that. *looks upward a couple paragraphs*

6. NPC you would most like to see as the subject of a Tales of Exandria series.

I’d say Cassandra, except what I actually want is novels, and I want to write them.

7. Alternate outcome in a main campaign that you don’t necessarily wish happened, but that you wish you could see played out in an alternate universe before returning to ours.

The Sunken Tomb going differently,* i.e. with Percy ending up with the Raven Queen’s armor. I also would have color-shifted it. Somewhere in my head there’s an image I can’t shake of the gun-wielding White Raven, blood artistically spattered across his otherwise pristine feathers, because that dude still and always deserves to be as anime as goddamn possible.

*P.S. Since I keep tripping into rant mode anyway, here’s another: I hate dungeon design so damn much, and I have infinite sympathy for anyone who doesn’t think to check for traps on every possible object. A: No real thing is ever actually built like this. It’s just in games because GAME LOGIC. B: I’ve done enough time as a rogue to be bored to tears and dissuaded from ever playing the class again because I'm so sick of having nothing to do but check for traps every five steps. I have a hard time blaming Percy and/or Taliesin for any of what went down. Also, anyone who tries to add that Vex was being greedy is going to get an intimate introduction to my fist.

8. You may personally require that Liam O'Brien plays a non-core four (ie, not a Rogue, Wizard, Cleric, or Fighter) character for at least 10 episodes - he cannot in any way be one of those classes, even as a multiclass. If you like Orym, assume this has no impact on him. What class or multiclass do you have him play?

I want him to take a page from Imogen's book and go wild magic sorcerer. I want it to be as chaotic as possible and to fuck with him seven ways from Sunday. I want uncontrollable Polymorph. I want him to be beset with sudden hordes of flumphs. I want him to hit himself with a fireball like Caleb gone wrong(er). I want him to become a potted plant. I want Liam the prankster to prank the hell out of himself simply by existing.

9. Location in Exandria you’d like to see in a possibly canonical one-shot/EXU but with non-main campaign characters (as in Song of the Lorelei/The Darrington Brigade)

Mostly I’d be interested in places we haven’t been before. There’s a lot of Issylra that we still know nothing about…

10. Favorite and least favorite Matt Mercer Original Subclass. (edit mine because like I said, I'm in charge here. And also I read it wrong the first time. Oops.)

Blood Hunter kind of occupies both slots. For reasons.

11. A common stance within the fandom you would most like to eliminate on the specific grounds of hypocrisy/self-contradiction.

Skipping this one because stuff like this melts my brain. Except maybe for my rant above, I guess.

12. Best ship of the literal seafaring vessel or skyship variety.

The Joyful Damnation. …wait, wrong D&D show. (but please watch Oxventure it’s great okay moving on)

I think I’m cheating and just saying every skyship BECAUSE SKYSHIPS. Insert picture here of Scanlan and Percy romantically pining over the idea of having a skyship of their very own.

(I mean romantic in a general, conceptual sense. Not in a shippy way. Except that it’s actually about ships. Scanlan/Percy/Skyship platonic OT3.)

13. Favorite D&D PC (guests & EXU included but must be a PC) of ?

Brain still melted, sorry. THIS IS A LOT OF CLASSES TO COVER OKAY and so let’s just go to:

14. Describe the art you would most like to create or commission if talent/money were no object.

See above re: the White Raven. Also, someday I am going to put my meager artistic talents to the test and attempt to draw a single tarot card: Caduceus as the King of Cups. My friends, there is life beyond the Major Arcana. Please try to remember that the entire fucking rest of the deck exists and it’s symbolically interesting too so crack open an analysis book sometime and learn something please and thank you and I’m stopping there before I go any further into a run-on tarot rant that, again, nobody asked for.

I’m not sure what happened to my commas tonight. Sorry. It’s been a day.

15. Favorite one-on-one conversation (can be between two PCs, or a PC and NPC).

I can’t even begin to narrow this one down. Percy and Vex in the Feywild. Caduceus reading Trent for absolute filth (respectfully). Imogen and Laudna just…always. Jester and Beau talking tarot. Tary and Pike and the flashcard scene. (Oh, god, the flashcard scene.) Grog and Craven Edge. Fjord awkwardly but sincerely wooing Jester. Percy and Vax in the bathtub, mostly for what happens after (sorry, Liam). Keyleth and Percy talking legacy. Jester and the Hag and Laura Bailey winning D&D. Jester sending messages to…anybody. I’m forgetting, like, thirty-seven things. You can probably tell who most of my favorite characters are, though… *awkward cough*

16. Favorite group (all/most of the party) conversation.

Two-parter: the blazing row when Scanlan left, and later in that episode when the rest of the group met Tary. Absolute whirlwind of emotion and a masterclass in character from all concerned. Plus well-deserved Nerf-dart chaos and Laura ineffectually hurling wads of Kleenex. Can’t top it.

17. You know that post that’s like “I wish you could filter in ao3 on ‘attitude towards a canon event’?” In the world of imagination, you can! What’s the event or attitude?

Mostly I avoid this problem by avoiding whole damn characters, I’m not gonna lie.

18. Share one unpopular opinion but it must specifically only pertain to Sam’s ads.

They didn’t deserve to get crucified for the Wendy’s one-shot. (It was a sponsor, he DMed, it counts.) It’s not actually much worse than any other sponsored event or ad partner, and just because people decided to get all high and mighty about worker rights for this one company doesn’t mean that there isn’t just as much bullshit of a different flavor happening at other companies that they’ve happily partnered with and which none of you objected to at the same scale, or, for that matter, at all.

*side-eyes the fuck out of, oh, I dunno, let’s start with Blizzard*

19. You can swap one subclass (not class) for any one main campaign main cast PC. Which character, and what’s their new subclass?

*blanks out completely while staring in the vague direction of the PHB* I’m…claiming amnesty on this one. Sorry. T i r e d .

20. What non-D&D TTRPG would you most like to see Critical Role run a one shot in?

Blades in the Dark. Please, please, Blades in the Dark. We got close when Aabria started seeding in bits of it for EXU. I want more. It’s such a good system.

21. You can eliminate one ship that did not become a canon, reciprocated relationship from the fandom’s consciousness. It is entirely gone - no fics, no posts, no doctored out of context gifsets inexplicably claiming that Travis ships it, no anon hate, no drama. Your blocked tags list becomes several entries shorter. A weight is lifted from your shoulders, and you take the deepest breath you’ve taken in a long time. Anyway, now that you’re feeling relaxed and inspired, what do you think Bertrand Bell’s fighter subclass was?

Caleb/Mo……oh. Um. Bertrand. Right. I wish I knew, but as I have already proven, D&D minutiae makes my head hurt and I am tired and sad today and very smol so let’s go on with —

22. Assume that every single non-multiclassed wizard PC OR significant wizard NPC (includes EXU Calamity) are in a battle royale, and all are level 16. Who would you bet on as the winner?

Rincewind because he’d run away to safety before anyone could hit him.

…I don’t care if he’s not a CR character, I said what I said.

23. You can guarantee that Vax lives at the end of Campaign 1. However, you must trade his permadeath for the permadeath of a different PC who was dead for more than a minute. Your options are Percy dying permanently in 1x68; Scanlan dying permanently in 1x83; or Laudna dying permanently in 3x34. Do you choose to do so, why, and whose death do you trade?

Vax stays dead. Listen: Vax had a STORY. He had stakes, he had joy, he had sorrow, he got conflict and resolution and dramatic payoff to some of his deepest personal storylines, he got a bittersweet romance, he got his heroic sacrifice, he got the gentlest possible ending anyone could possibly have asked for under the circumstances, and all of it makes for an arc that has completed and is done. Everyone else would just have been interrupted before their story got where it needed to go (like, even though you didn’t mention him, Molly). Scanlan dying there would have served no narrative purpose at all and would have paid off nothing, and it would have deprived us of SO much good stuff in the fallout. Percy actually did get to a point where if he’d stayed dead, I would have been sad as hell but would have understood it, because the way that story built up, it made sense and it wasn’t cheap. It’s still much better that he came back and got to complete the character development journey he was on (somewhat despite himself), though. And Laudna just absolutely does not fucking deserve dying, not now and not for a long time yet. She’s just barely getting the chance to live for herself at all. Let her stay.

And for the love of fuck, let Vax go.

24. You can guarantee that one Evergreen Question you write is pulled on 4-Sided Dive AND that the four cast members you most want to answer it are on that month. What’s the question, and which cast members answer it?

What’s your favorite type of evergreen tree and why is it the Douglas fir?

….actually, that’s just me answering the question. Because #CascadiaNow.

(We have a flag.)

(The tree is on it.)

(*waves flag*)

25. What class do you most want to see Matt play if he is in a future EXU campaign as a new (not Dariax) PC?

I want to see Matt play a class invented by somebody else at the table. I’m thinking Sam and Liam should collaborate on this. (Liam because he can probably crunch the mechanics best of anybody, Sam to bring the chaos.)

26. You must swap one nat 1 die roll with one nat 20 die roll. They must both be from the main campaigns, but can be cross-campaign. Which are they, and why?

I’m having a hard time thinking of any I’d want to change. Sometimes the failures are too interesting to mess with. (Grog falling over dead in the snow, I’m looking at you.)

27. Pick one character, ship, or party; and one song you associate most with them, and explain why. This song cannot be on an existing playlist from the main cast. It also cannot be We Have it All by the Pim Stones nor Dust Bowl Dance by Mumford & Sons; I love those AMVs but please think for yourself.

- the whole party

- any party

- “We Like to Party”

(I am bad at character playlists, okay? ONTO THE VENGABUS WE GO)

28. Think back to all weird or bad opinions (pertaining to Critical Role) you’ve seen but which were not elaborated upon. You get to make one, and only one, person have to provide an honest response about what the fuck they were thinking. Which opinion do you receive the honest explanation for?

I have done my best to strategically delete these from my memory and am not going to attempt file recovery.

29. You can give any PC a Staff of Birdcalls. Who do you give it to?

Jester. This isn’t even a question. Just give her one now, please.

30. What is your favorite theory or headcanon that has absolutely no bearing on the plot and isn’t important at all, but which is completely compliant with canon?

The entire notion of getting that invested in headcanon mostly just wears me out, and I’m saying this as a fic writer, which I acknowledge makes very little sense. Yet here we are.

31. A really weird fey entity grants you the following boon: you can magically make it so that whenever people try to draw Imogen with glasses, the glasses magically disappear. All you need to do is hit the DC. The DC begins at 15, it is a simple d20 die roll with no modifiers/additions, and you can reduce it by one for every month you live with canon, pre-episode 2x26 Mollymauk Tealeaf. You do have your own room, but the walls are thin. After 15 months you automatically succeed and Molly disappears as though he had never existed. How many months do you live with Molly?

I’m in it for the long haul. I will learn to make my peace with chaos. I will make friends. I will maybe even join in the party. I will enjoy getting more of Molly’s presence and I will do my best not to go crazy in same.

Because fuck those glasses.

(I love glasses; I wear them myself; I give them to characters at the slightest provocation; but canonically she doesn’t wear them, so please just stop.)

32. If the CR main cast were to play the original 7 tombtakers per The Nine Eyes of Lucien (Brevyn, Cree, Jurrell, Lucien, Otis, Tyffial, and Zoren) in a one shot, who should play whom? Assume Matt DMs, but you do not need to have Taliesin play Lucien.

Hate to admit it, but I’m not invested enough in any of those characters to care.

33. You may ask any member of the cast one, and only one lore clarification question. What do you ask?

Mostly I don’t want to nitpick or pry, and honestly, most LORE(tm) as nerddom treats it both irritates and frustrates me. I don’t want to reduce all of narrative to filling out subheadings on a wiki page and then insisting that anything that doesn’t match up bREaKs CaNoN and is BaD. What I want is folklore, not Lore(tm), and there’s a very real difference.

On that note, I want Taliesin to tell me absolutely everything about Melanie de Rolo, and every other specter haunting that place from before his character’s time. Ghost stories for days. Bring it.

34. You meet an old woman in the grocery store and help her with her bags. In return, she tells you she can guarantee that Campaign 3 will be fantastic, and that there will be a Campaign 4 set in Issylra that is also fantastic. However, she warns you, the price is that Marisha and Laura’s characters will never be in a romance together, nor will Taliesin and Liam’s, though there will be significant queer romances aplenty, both F/F and M/M, in said campaigns. Do you take her up on her offer?

In a heartbeat.

ROMANTIC SHIPS ARE NOT THE ONLY THING THAT MATTERS FOR THE LOVE OF GOD

and pleading for personal vaidation via smushing your faves together because it HAS to be CANON or else it is a BETRAYAL and PROBABLY HOMOPHOBIC because YOU ARE BAD IF YOU DON’T GIVE ME WHAT I WANT is unhinged

neither of these pairs have to fuck ever

we’ll live

…sorry I think I started yelling somewhere in there

I’ll stop

35. You can set the time and place of the next EXU series, but it cannot be within 100 years of the Calamity nor Divergence. When and where do you set it?

Naples, 1973

36. Every cast member must create a main campaign character loosely based off a character they played in a one-shot not set in Exandria, a la Chetney from Chutney (as a result, Travis is excused from this exercise). Who should they choose? (Please note that Bar Room Blitz is set in Exandria. You cannot pick Jayne and you’re boring for thinking it.)

MANCUBUS!!!

Because MANCUBUS!!!

37. You have to take a 16 hour road trip with one NPC from each campaign (all at once, ie, three other people). The NPCs cannot shorten the road trip in any way and the road trip must be via driving but you can do it in two 8 hour days and share a motel room if you’d like. Who do you pick?

Tyriok; he’s the map guy and will get us where we’re going. Eshteross to bring delicious cookies. And Iva Deshin to read us passages from her favorite smut books from Chastity’s Nook and keep us all entertained (and Tyriok absolutely scandalized, the poor dear).

38. Assuming that your rent and basic living expenses are paid regardless, nothing cataclysmic happens while you’re there, and your race and class are perceived as completely average and nothing to comment on, which city in Exandria would you most like to live in for a year? You must spend the vast majority of your time there.

Whitestone. I want to get in on their technological boom. The intersection of magic and the mundane, and how those things inspire, leapfrog, and challenge each other, is my absolute jam.

39. Favorite parental figure NPC?

Veth had the best arc here by a mile. It’s hard not to like Marion, though.

39. What named but as of yet unseen character do you most want to see onscreen?

Imogen’s mom.

I want this story, like, yesterday.

#critical role #ask memes #in which page gets both opinionated and ridiculous #occasionally at the same time

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plaid-shirtsandvibranium-arms · 3 years

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Nemesis: Retribution (3)

Summary: 10 years after the Avengers had left you for dead during a mission gone wrong, you unexpectedly re-enter their lives. Wholly unrecognizable from the person they used to know and now with a new team behind you, they ask for your help to stop a chain of syndicates who were manufacturing and peddling the super soldier serum. You were determined to say no until the chance at the vengeance you had been chasing for years was added to the offer.

Fandoms: Avengers, Marvel, MCU, The Punisher, Daredevil

Pairings: Female Reader x (Frank Castle, Billy Russo, Matt Murdock, Steve Rogers, Bucky Barnes, Pietro Maximoff)

Warnings: EVENTUAL SMUT. SHAMELESS SEXUAL BEHAVIOURS. (18+ ONLY), polyamorous relationships, reverse harem, blatant disregard for canon timelines and events, lots of angst, Punisher canon level of violence and gore, strong language, mentions of trauma, character death, fluff if you squint

A/N: We’re playing fast and loose with canon here people. Also thank you for the interactions. I love reading what you think and it helps me write the next chapters better. Also, I enjoy having someone to freak out with. Highlight of my life I swear to god. Enjoy!

No permission is granted to repost, steal, or translate my work. Not even a credit makes it okay. Tumblr is the only place I post my writing. If you see it anywhere else please report it.

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1:3 Hard Candy

Natasha stormed off the jet and into the conference room where she knew the rest of the team were waiting for them, fury radiating from her small frame. Catching sight of her target only made her grow angrier. She immediately ran up to Steve and growled up in his face causing him to immediately take a step back. Sam and Bucky were immediately alarmed, standing up to intervene and the latter's black vibranium arm whirring in preparation but Steve held up a hand to stop them.

"What the hell, Rogers? You send me on a mission with zero intel and this is what I find? Did you know?"

Steve's eyes narrowed down at her, the thick beard and longer hair adding even more to his already commanding presence. He knew exactly what Natasha was talking about and he did expect her to react this way.

"I wasn't sure, Nat. And I didn't want to get anyone's hopes up if I was wrong."

"And if you were right?" she scoffed.

Steve swallowed hard before he answered, the blue in his eyes calming considerably. "I thought the three of you deserved to be the first to know."

"What the hell is going on?" Bucky asked, arms crossed on his chest and brows deeply furrowed. They didn't even know about any mission.

Natasha chuckled humorlessly and backed off from Steve. She ran a hand through her hair, the red bleeding into the old blonde color, and gestured toward the door at the approaching people.

"Well you weren't wrong, Steve."

Shock.

That was the overall theme of the day it seemed. None of them could hardly believe that you were actually standing at the doorway. It's been ten long years and you were like the ghost haunting their dreams during that time, a pure and kind soul taken far too soon. Hell, they told stories about your selfless sacrifice to the new recruits. You had unknowingly become a legend.

A legend turned ghost story.

Now you looked more like a nightmare; dried blood caked your clothes and skin, a cold smirk lifting the corner of your lips, and a dangerous unhinged glint in your eyes.

"Well, I'll be damned," Sam breathed. "Y/N?"

"Hey, Sam," you said, the almost flirtatious lilt in your voice sending a shiver down their spines. "I go by Nemesis now."

"Nemesis?" Bucky snapped out of his daze, brows raised high and his jaw clenched, features seen clearer now with his shorter hair. "The notorious mercenary Nemesis?"

"I prefer private contractor."

While they had been honoring your memory, you had been building a ruthless reputation of your own that was widely considered on par in violence with The Punisher but with the added disturbing fact that you could be hired. Of course, no one but a select few knew who you actually were.

Until today.

Nemesis. The Greek goddess of divine retribution and revenge. A name that suited the dark avenging persona you had adapted and the only purpose you now lived for. In a twisted kind of way, you were doing the same work they were only with far less finesse and none of the righteous for the good of mankind purpose they usually had.

You shrugged, sitting yourself casually down on the nearest chair on the other end of the long table from where they stood. You have had a long night, your feet were tired and they were still looking at you with absolute confusion and disbelief. This looked like it would take a while.

You rolled your eyes as you unbuckled your stained bulletproof vest, throwing it haphazardly on the table. You hazarded a glance at each one of them as you made yourself comfortable, noting the changes in them too. The years had given way to a solemn maturity to each one, it seems things had changed for them too.

"Now that I'm here, you have 12 minutes."

"12 minutes? Until what?" Steve stammered.

He couldn't keep his eyes off you, couldn't for the life of him reconcile the person he was seeing in front of him with the person he knew. From your expressions to your movements and even to the tone of your voice, you were just so different and yet it just seemed to make you a more magnetic presence. Fresh guilt washed over him, knowing that he had failed you as your Captain. They should have kept looking for you.

"You'll see. 11 minutes now. Either ask your questions or tell me what you want."

"We all thought you were dead," Steve muttered, taken back by your hostility.

"Well that obviously didn't stick. How did you find me, Cap?"

It was Steve who found you. At first he couldn't believe it was really you, but the split second glimpse he got of your eyes from the body cam on one of the field agents weeks ago drove him to obsessively dig further. It was a shot in the dark when he sent Natasha and the twins on the mission tonight.

"By chance," he admitted. "We've been chasing a group of people suspected to be manufacturing and selling the super soldier serum. Our agents have had a few close encounters with you. I think we're going after the same people."

"So you're asking for intel?" you snorted, absentmindedly picking at the bloodstains on your sleeves.

"No," he said cautiously, wary at how relaxed yet tightly coiled you looked. "I'm offering you your spot back with the team."

You almost choked on the laugh that just escaped your lips. You couldn't help the short bark of laughter at the ridiculous proposition. Looking at their faces though it seemed that the offer was serious, although the reluctant look in their eyes at your transformation showed their inner conflict. You straightened your features and shook your head, the amused smile still on your lips.

"Look, I'm not exactly on brand for you guys anymore." You leaned forward with your arms on the table and landed your eyes squarely on Bucky's, the venom unmistakable. "Besides, I seem to recall I was deemed not cut out for this team."

Bucky felt like his soul left him at your words. There was a Molotov cocktail of emotions raging inside him; surprise, shame, relief, anger, guilt, and longing. It was killing him knowing that he had a hand in how drastically you had changed. He was deathly afraid of finding out your full story. He wanted to talk to you, wanted to beg for your forgiveness and make things right. How many chances would anyone get to redeem oneself with a ghost? He couldn't find the words though, his throat going dry and his tongue heavy in his mouth.

"Y/N, you know that's not the truth," Steve tried to insist.

"I'm not Y/N anymore and I already have a team." You waved a hand dismissively. "Also your 12 minutes are up."

All at once the power cut out in the Compound, drenching the room into darkness punctuated by the flashing emergency lights. You felt yourself get lifted off your seat and the next moment you were standing behind a formation of Avengers in the arms of the resident speedster, your arms on his chest to steady yourself from the daze of the sudden movement. His muscles were tense beneath your hands but his expression was gentle as he looked down at you.

He had wanted to rush over to you the moment you revealed your face. He wanted to hold you, jump for joy, speed around the entire city with you in his embrace. How you were alive didn't matter to him.

Only that you were.

It was only at Wanda's warning for him to stay back that he did. She showed him that you weren't the same person anymore and that they weren't sure whether you would still be friend or foe. To Pietro though, you weren't different.

You were just angry.

To him you were still his little star despite the others thinking you were closer to a supernova now. His little star was just hurting and he decided that he would do everything in his power to help you heal. He held your head tighter to his chest, intending to protect you from the anticipated danger and ready to get you to safety at a moment's notice.

"What the damn hell is going on?" Sam yelled, readying his guns.

A figure silently jumped through the window and rolled on the floor to stop right in front of the group, jolting the Avengers to defend. He stood to full height and took a fighting stance; clad in head to toe red, billy clubs at the ready, and horns glinting in the sparse light atop his head.

The Devil of Hell's Kitchen.

"Let Nemesis go," he growled.

Natasha stepped forward, snapping her own batons in place. The crackling of the electricity from it sent lights to dance on the menacing expression on her face. The rest of the team watched closely the other entry points, expecting more to come in and if the first was any indication then they were in for a real fight.

Footsteps could be heard coming down the hallway, loud and not at all trying to be concealed. Walking straight through the front door, were two towering men in heavy military gear each holding an assault rifle aimed at the group. The sneer on one lent a dangerous taunting aura to his surprisingly handsome features as if to say just fucking try me. While the other had a burning steely focus that instinctively made anyone back off, the emblem on his black vest told them exactly who he was.

The Punisher.

The Avengers snapped to attention, each one drawing their weapons and aiming back. The air was crackling with animosity and fingers that itched to pull their respective triggers. Everyone held their breath, waiting for the first to break the standoff in the enclosed space. Willing for someone to break it.

You laughed.

The disorientation at your reaction was palpable across the room. You patted Pietro's chest, grinning up at him in reassurance that everything was fine. He released you from his hold reluctantly and let you step out of the protective cluster they had inadvertently formed around you. The three newcomers visibly relaxed the slightest bit at the sight of you.

"Weapons down," you said calmly, eyeing each one in the room. No one budged. "All of you. Now."

Steve being the first one to lower his shield was the catalyst in diffusing what could have been the fight of the century. As outnumbered as the newcomers were, they lacked nothing in skill and precise brutality. Frank followed in lowering his weapon and soon everyone did the same. There was still tension but at least it was now reduced to intense glaring.

You tutted and shook your head as you strutted your way to your three rescuers. "What I needed was a ride home, Frankie. Not a goddamn full extraction op."

"Sorry, sweetheart," he said, not sounding at all apologetic and knowing you weren't really angry if the tired amusement on your face was anything to go by.

He smiled at you, that small open quirk at the corner of his mouth that was always accompanied by a roll of his tongue. He reached for you when you got close enough, drawing you close with a burly arm around the back of your shoulders. He kissed you on the forehead, a lingering gesture that clearly showed an intimacy between the two of you. The soft look on his face was reserved only for you and when he raised his face to the Avengers it was back to the cold threatening glare.

"Can you blame us though?" His voice came out gravelly, a favorite sound of yours. "The last time you were with these guys you were captured and tortured."

Tortured.

The word hung heavy in the air and though your back was turned, you could imagine the look on the faces of your former team. They didn't know about that yet. How could they when they had believed all this time that you died in the explosion?

"You forgot to mention blown up," Matt added, grabbing your hand and pressing it to his lips.

He removed his helmet, floppy brown hair instantly softening his persona. He peppered kisses on your palm and the inside of your wrist as he breathed in your scent to calm his own anxiety. He almost lost it when Billy had called saying that you had been taken. He was usually the last one to jump to immediate violence in your group, but the thought of you gone filled him with irrational fear. The possibility that history could repeat itself was unacceptable to him.

"I should have come with you."

"I could handle it and Billy was with me."

"Lot of good that did," he scoffed, switching to lightly biting your wrist. This wasn't unusual. Being blind, he relied on a more intense physical reassurance that everything was still as it should be.

"They weren't gonna hurt me, Matty," you argued, but it was more to help settle his nerves.

"All right, leave the foreplay for later," the last of the trio said, pulling you by your other hand closer to him.

He held you tightly by the waist and pressed you close, molding your body to his in a practiced motion. The smile on his face was scandalous and the mischief in his eyes was one that spelled trouble. The cheeky bastard winked at you before dipping his head to lay open mouthed kisses on your neck up to your ear right along your old scars. Shivers went down your spine and you couldn't help the low hum as your body reacted instinctively to him, stepping closer still until you could feel the heat of his body through his gear.

You knew exactly what he was doing. He was always the quickest to show affection in front of company, but this was a particularly golden opportunity for him to stake his claim in front of people he believed did not value you enough. Billy wouldn't be Billy if he didn't take it.

"Hey, pretty girl."

Across the room, the Avengers watched on with blatant curiosity at the apparent intimately familiar exchanges. It wasn't as much the fact that three men were bathing you with affection, but more that this cemented how far removed you were from their memory of you. They knew you as a starry-eyed recruit who stuttered at light teasing and preening at the slightest validation.

"Y/N," Steve called for you, forcing you to step away from Billy for the moment. You turned around to face them but Billy didn't let you go far, slinging his arm over your chest and this time contorting his body to yours.

"I told you, Steve. I'm not Y/N anymore," you said, a fleeting sadness flashed in your eyes before it was replaced with a firm pride. "And this is my team."

"We're taking our girl home," Frank declared, the threat underneath didn't need to be verbalized. If they took you again, it wouldn't end well for anyone.

"Wait!" Steve said urgently, halting your exit. "We'll hire you."

It was a last ditch effort. He was grasping at straws to keep you from disappearing from their lives again. He knew that if you walked out that door now there was no chance of ever getting you back. He just could not let that happen. This would only be temporary at best, but at least it would buy him time to convince you of a more permanent arrangement.

"Not interested."

"Nem." Matt as usual cautioned you from being too hasty. "Is this about the syndicates?"

You sighed. Matt was like a dog with a bone now. There was no choice but to let him chew on it. This was particularly important to him because the syndicates had been running amok in Hell's Kitchen and he was starting to find it difficult to keep his backyard clean.

"Yeah, apparently the stuff we found in the shipment yard was for making super soldier serums. The Avengers have been following the trail too."

"Why not just join forces then? We can get this done and over with a lot faster with their help," he reasoned.

"We're doing fine on our own, Matty."

"Matt has a point, sweetheart," Frank cut in. "We've been chasing this for years. I know a part of you is just itching to end all of this."

"It might help us find him faster. Do you really want to spend another ten years pulling at threads?" Matt added.

You closed your eyes, hands clenching at your sides to control your anger. It grated at you when they ganged up on you like this, but your anger was more because they were right and you knew it. You hated it, but they were right.

It was Billy who intervened, pulling you again to hug you from behind. His hold was firmer than before, aimed more to calm your shaking body. His voice came out calm, but resolute. His first priority was always making sure you were okay and you obviously weren't okay with this.

"You heard the lady. It's a no."

Frank and Matt sighed and shook their heads, but backed off. They weren't about to push you about this no matter how much they knew this would help you. They'll try again to convince you later, but they weren't optimistic. It was fortunate for them that there was more than just one stubborn person in the room.

"Please," Steve interrupted. You had almost forgotten that there were other people in the room. Almost. "We need your help. They have someone who keeps getting in our way and every time we get close he either fights us long enough for the trail to grow cold or leads us on wild goose chases. We can't let that serum be available to whoever can pay for it."

He didn't know what it was that he said that made all of your heads snap in his direction. Your eyes in particular were suddenly wild with barely restrained fury. He would take it. At least he had your attention.

"We can't let that happen, Nemesis," he finished, making sure to use your preferred name. Anything to possibly get himself into your good graces.

"Do you have a name?" you ground out.

"What?"

"A name, Steve. Do you know who this guy is?"

"By the way he fights he seems to be a merc too. Looks like military background though from where I'm not sure," he said slowly, carefully choosing his words in the hopes of you changing your mind. "He goes by Salvacion."

"We're in."

Earth's Mightiest was stunned at the sudden reversal of your decision. As firm as you had rejected the offer, you were jumping at it now with the addition of your own team.

"Let's get one thing straight though, Cap," you began, the rage still burning in your eyes like wildfire. "My team and I will work with you. It's all of us or none of us. We'll help you lock up the syndicates and destroy the serum. We'll play nice, but Salvacion is mine."

Steve took a deep breath, relieved that you had agreed but also deeply concerned at your visceral reaction to a name. He had to ask.

"Why?"

"Because that's the motherfucker who killed my sister."

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A/N: I feel like you guys have more questions now. Come freak out with me through the comments and reblogs! I write faster when people freak out with me. It’s the truth. Now that you’ve seen our girl with ALL our strapping men, what do you think? Who are you most curious about now?

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metalheadmickey · 3 years

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There are few fictional relationships that make me feel more unhinged than Mickey & Terry. And I’m sure it’s been dissected to death, but I think about their confrontation at the beginning of 10x11 a lot and it makes me feel extremely. So here I am to talk about why. CW: abuse and homophobia below the cut (I mean, it’s Terry).

I don’t think I need to give a history lesson here, but the abuse and violence Mickey endured by Terry’s hand unfortunately shaped a lot of Mickey’s life. Mickey didn’t take forever to be comfortable and open with Ian because he wanted to, he didn’t marry a woman because he wanted to, he didn’t live a lie for so long because he wanted to. This all happened because he actually, literally feared for his life. Additionally, there was the complicated fact of him starving and striving for his abuser’s approval. He wanted more than just bodily safety; he wanted to be in good standing with Terry. This is despite enduring what he described as torture. Terry “tortured [him] every day for years,” and yet he still desired a relationship with him. This happens sometimes in abusive relationships, it’s definitely not unusual that he felt that way. But it’s still hard to watch, knowing about their background and knowing that Mickey was aware of what Terry was capable of.

Mickey knowing what Terry was capable of is precisely why their interaction at the beginning of 10x11 made me go “yooooo” out loud at my TV at the end of the scene. I had to pause it, my eyes were bugging out of my head, I had to let it sink in, etc. etc. It really struck me hard. Mickey heard Terry shouting slurs at him from outside on the damn sidewalk where anyone could hear, and he put on an unamused look and stepped outside and walked right up to him. Terry pulled out a gun, and Mickey did not even flinch and instead pulled out one of his own. He listened to his father berate and then threaten him, and instead of backing down he proceeded to do the opposite of what he had done his whole life and deliberately said shit that would piss Terry off. And on top of it, he then went back into the house and started planning his big gay wedding with specific details designed to make Terry mad. He wanted to rub his happiness, his gay love, in that prick’s face. And he begins this endeavor with that line “I definitely love one.”

There’s an important detail in that exchange (“You must really love cock.” “I definitely love one.”) that is what ultimately elevates this scene from merely insanity-inducing to "Jessie will never be normal about this ever in their entire life," and that’s Mickey’s wording. It’s such a good comeback and it hits so hard, but it’s important that it also hits Terry hard. And it does, because he used language that Terry understood. I think if he had phrased it differently by saying something like “I just love Ian” or “I’m just in love” or something similar, it wouldn’t have landed the same with Terry. Terry had taken Mickey’s gayness and reduced it to something so base and vulgar because he hates gay people and doesn’t care to know shit about the gay experience. And instead of throwing his gay love in Terry’s face by using language that’s less horrendously offensive, Mickey fucking embraces it. Mickey takes Terry’s words and twists them to suit himself and throws them back at him. Mickey’s gay and he loves cock, and he definitely loves his partner’s cock. You know, his partner? Who he’s in love with? And gonna marry? Because the gay experience isn’t just about sex? Mickey’s not getting married because he wants to get fucked, he’s getting married because he’s in love. Terry doesn’t give a shit about all that and Mickey knows this, so his comeback utilizes language that Terry can wrap his head around, but he still manages to convey the fact that he’s in fucking love with one person. It’s affirmation and ownership and it is so badass. Terry was actively trying to be cruel and Mickey threw back at him in one of the most elegant comebacks I have ever seen. And yeah, we know Mickey is capable of being vulgar as hell, so it’s not like saying something like this is particularly out of character for him anyway. It just worked so damn well in accomplishing the goal of getting Terry to shut the fuck up while conveying to Terry and the audience that he’s in love and willing to engage in risky behavior to defend it.

I mean, he was doing all this with a gun in his face. Terry wanted him to feel fear, he wanted him to feel threatened because he genuinely thought that Mickey deserved to experience violence, and he wanted him to feel ashamed. But Mickey decided years ago that he was done feeling fucking ashamed, and he was so accustomed to Terry’s violent behavior. So whether he stood up to him with a gun in his face because he was desensitized to Terry’s violence or because he just decided to be brave and ignore whatever fear he may have been feeling in that moment, either reason speaks volumes. If he did it because he was desensitized to Terry’s violence then that really speaks to the tragedy of his upbringing. If he did it because he just decided to be brave in that moment then that speaks to just how much he was willing to risk for his principles. Either way, he could’ve ended up dead. We know this because Terry does end up trying to shoot him in the end. And yes, Mickey had his gun aimed at Terry, but I don’t know if I think he’d actually shoot him and I think his actions towards Terry in season 11 may speak to that. But Terry would shoot. And he does shoot later on. Again, he knew what Terry is capable of. And he stood up to him anyway and it was amazing to watch. Mickey used to be so afraid of Terry that he feared for his life while vying for approval. He used to live in a way that was the very antithesis of what he actually wanted for himself, just for his piece of shit father. And in this scene he shows us just how far removed he is from that fearful kid now, openly in love with his partner and standing up to his father in a way that will expressly make him angry about his gayness specifically, the thing that he was so tortured over in his youth. Tortured because he was hiding out of fear and the internal conflict that he experienced because of that, and then physically and emotionally tortured by his father once he’s found out. That abuse may have shaped his past, but he was ready to move the fuck on and not let it define his future. So this scene is just unreal. A neat little package of character and relationship/dynamic development in a little 70-second scene that packs an enormous punch.

#just feeling unhinged about mickey milkovich again nothing new here #alright i made the post where's howl and kee #howl this is probably a lot more rambly than you were expecting but i had to get it out there #mickey #mickey & terry #gallavich adjacent #shameless #shameless meta #gallavich

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amerrierworld · 3 years

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Hands Off

for the request: The world lacks Lou Miller x reader fics!! Can you do one where Lou gets mad and defensive over reader

Summary: Lou’s friendly biker gang always welcomed you with open arms, except one.

Characters: Lou Miller x fem!reader

Word Count: 1,551

Warnings: fluff but defensive & angsty >:( Lou, harassment, swearing and a lil bit of physical violence (all within good reason I promise)

For the longest time, you thought Lou only really hung out with Debbie, some of the Ocean’s crew, and colleagues from her club. But a couple months into dating she casually slipped in how she hadn’t seen much of her biker gang lately.

“What?” you shrieked from the couch, dropping your book in your lap. She jumped and looked at you from the kitchen, nearly spilling her beer.

“You’re in a biker gang?”

“Well, yeah,” she said, rather matter-of-fact like, “I’ve got a bike. It’s only a matter of time until you’re in a group for bikers.”

“Really? What do you guys do, rob stores and terrify regular home-owners?”

“Yes to the second, no to the first,” she laughed, coming over to sit with you. You threw your legs over hers on the couch, still rather flabbergasted at this revelation.

“So you haven’t seen them in a while, you said? Why not invite them around?”

“You don’t know them, baby. They’re a bit intimidating.”

“Uh, yeah, not yet. Come on! I wanna know your friends, please?” you grinned, wiggling your toes. She caught one of your big toes between her fingers and held you still.

“Fine then, but you’ll have to get some proper biking attire.”

So now, after multiple trips and a few drink nights at Lou’s club, you were heartily welcomed into the biker gang even though you didn’t have a bike yourself, and mostly just tagged around with your girlfriend. And even then you didn’t come on all their trips, finding the cramps of sitting on the back of the bike for too long unbearable sometimes.

Mary was an older, chubby-faced biker, with the face of the neighbourhood grandma who bakes, yet covered from the neck down entirely in tattoos. Paul was her husband, with an afro as white as winter snow, and chains hanging from every pocket and belt loop.

The two of them chatted, joked and laughed with you when in slower traffic or making a much-needed burrito pit stop whenever you went out. The rest of the group was around Lou’s age or younger, and though you felt welcomed by them, you kept to the three of them mostly. It felt nice and familial to hang around, and Lou seemed the most comfortable around Mary and Paul as well.

Then there was one member of the club who would come and go, and you didn’t often see him around, but when you did you weren’t the most chuffed at the sight of him. Tommy was a middle-aged balding man who didn’t seem to really like anyone in the group, but was still there for reasons unknown.

Your distaste was clear to Lou, and you managed to successfully avoid him.. most of the time. On one trip you had taken a well-deserved break near Central Park, lounging in the cozy late-evening weather, with Lou donning her iconic all-black leather outfit and heeled boots that made you swoon.

You were wearing a pink leather jacket yourself. Lou had chortled with glee at the sight of you trying it on, so contrasted to her black leathers and jewel-toned fabrics. Perhaps the rosy coloured leather wasn’t something you would’ve bought for yourself, but every time you wore it, Lou would grin to the point where her eyes would shine nonstop. So you wore it almost every time you went out on her bike together. It was a little bit Pink Ladies-esque, but you quite liked the way it looked.

But Tommy had been looking at you quite.. harshly, somehow. But you could tell he wasn’t checking you out, rather just judging you and your look. He seemed set on being around Lou, who couldn’t be bothered to give him the time of day, only having eyes for you and talking to you as you relaxed by the park.

“Lou,” you began, watching him scamper off to the other side of the group. One of the nice things about being in a biker gang is no one seems to want to bother any of you, letting you hang around in peace.

“Hm?” one of her hands was running through your hair.

“Does Tommy like you?”

She slowly blinked at you in baffled amusement, “like me?”

“Yeah.. I mean either he likes you and is sizing me up cause I’m your girlfriend, or he just despises me as a person.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. Don’t give him the time of day, love.”

“Why is he in the gang anyways?”

Lou shrugged, “him and Paul go way back. I don’t mind much, he’s usually not around anyways.”

You pursed your lips in worry, so Lou grasped you close in a tight embrace,

“Don’t worry about him, baby. He isn’t bothering you, is he?”

“No, just his annoying face.”

Lou looked over and saw that indeed, Tommy was giving you a repeated once-over, lingering on the small studs of the pink leather jacket, and her expression immediately soured.

“If he comes close again, I’m gonna clock him,” she growled.

“Hey now, don’t say that,” you giggled.

“Hmph.”

The rest of the time spent at the park seemed to be going fine, if it weren’t for the constant tugging at the back of your mind from Tommy’s incessant stares. The silent harassment from his eyes were making you uneasy, and Lou noticed.

“I am definitely going to clock him,” she said to you again.

“Don’t,” you whined, but not very convincingly.

Later on, Mary started a warm conversation with you, helping your nerves a bit.

“You’ll have to tell me where you got your jacket,” she said, “I have never for the life of me found a jacket with a colour like that. Only browns and blacks, and it’s so boring.”

You laughed, enjoying the way Lou absentmindedly rubbed your waist with her thumb.

“We’ll go shopping then,” you said, barely noticing Tommy walking in and joining in on the conversation, “I’m sure we can help you find something, Mary.”

“I don’t think pink is quite your colour, Mary,” Tommy piped up, eyeing you again, openly now that all focus was on you. You blushed, not from shy happiness like when Lou looked at you, but rather from sickening dread.

“Where’d you get this anyway, a cheap community theatre production of Grease?” Tommy grinned, tugging at the buckle of one of your shoulders. Your eyes flashed, and you slapped his hand away, every hair on your body standing up at his toothy smile, the ugly flash of a worn golden tooth growling back at you.

The tough crunch of Lou’s well-jewelled hand landing on Tommy’s cheek caught you by surprise.

He stumbled back into his parked bike, knocking it over as he landed on the ground, letting out a filthy curse as his nose began dripping blood.

“You broke my nose,” he cried out, “you bitch!”

“Wish I had done more than that,” Lou snarled, her hand still clenched in a fist. Mary and Paul had rushed forward to hold her back, but she didn’t seem too interested in punching him again.

She reached out for your hand and looked you up and down, as if he had given you a kick to the stomach rather than just bully and tug at your shoulder.

“Are you alright?” she asked, while your jaw was still a little unhinged.

“Y-yes, I’m fine,” you replied, a bit lost for words, “but what about you?”

She shrugged, but you noticed her tightly clenched fist and the redness of her skin. As you inspected her hand, Tommy had got up, managing to stop the bleed and gave a rude gesture towards Lou who simply glared back.

“Fuck you,” he said, hoisting his bike back up straight. No one else bothered to check on him or lend a helping hand as he clumsily sped off down the street, leaving the rest of your small group to hang around on the street. Paul sighed in disappointment, but didn’t seem bothered by him leaving. Hopefully for good, you thought.

Mary was the first to break the silence, clapping Lou on the shoulder and congratulating her on a job well done.

“I never liked him anyways,” Lou muttered, as you lifted her hand and kissed her reddening knuckles.

“I think we should get some take-away burritos, don’t you, Mary?” Paul suggested, locking down his bike.

“Oh, yes, come on all of you, on the house,” Mary grinned, taking his hand and heading down the street to the nearest burrito place, the rest following.

“Burritos?” you waggled your eyebrows at Lou, and slowly the anger dissipated from her eyes, because you shoved your hands in the pockets of your pink leather jacket, and with your combat boots and jewelled belt, she thought you had never looked more like a biker, while somehow being the cutest thing she’d ever seen.

“Alright,” she hooked here arm through yours, “but maybe don’t get the spicy one again? You didn’t seem to enjoy it much last time.”

You shoved her playfully, “yeah well, you said that I could take it, and I trusted you completely, which I never will again.”

“You wound me,” she gasped in mocked pain. You lifted her hand again and pressed it against your mouth,

“Only when you sucker punch creeps to defend my honour.”

A/N: Defensive girlfriend Lou Miller to the rescue? yes please!

#lou miller #lou x reader #lou #lou miller x reader #lou miller x you #cate blanchett #cate blanchett x reader #ocean's eight #oceans 8 #oceans8 #ocean's 8 #merry writes #oceans 8 fanfic #wlw #bikers

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morgana-ren · 3 years

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if you'd be so inclined my dear, what are your thoughts on how Tomura's character has developed over the series' timeline? -☼

So, I think Horikoshi did an excellent job at character development- especially considering that he's a villain (not the focal point of the series) and he really didn't have to do that. He easily could have kept Tomura an impudent little man-child, but he didn't, and I truly appreciate that.

So, in season one, we get his debut as USJ, and it became quickly apparent that he was... disorganized. Intelligent and dangerous, clearly, but not quite there yet. He essentially threw money at a pack of sell-sword villains, had a basic plan for how he wanted things to go, and relied on his Nomu to do the majority of his work for him. He didn't even consider variables and other things he couldn't have foreseen- he took Master at his word and just went for it.

He makes a multitude of mistakes during this attack, and it's part of why he fails so hard. Underestimates the kids simply because they're young, not factoring in that these are to be the nations top heroes. Even young, each one is sporting a power that puts them at the top of the class and above the rest of the nation. He basically goes "Fuck it, just scatter them and have these no-name villains kill them. No way that could go wrong." not considering that these children have been learning from the best of the best and are clearly already intelligent of their own accord.

He doesn't take into account that these heroes actually care for these kids and that feeling responsible for them works in their favor as opposed to being a detriment. They fight harder and take more abuse to keep them protected (Aizawa getting absolutely demolished but still persisting to defend the children even as he bleeds to death with a broken body.)

The intel wasn't wrong, per se, but he took it at face value, not even bothering to consider that All Might would push far past his limit to keep these kids safe. For someone as obsessed with felling All Might, he certainly didn't really know a thing about him. His genuine goodness and character would not allow him to fail when their lives were on the line. And then there's the matter of Midoriya, and while Tomura had no way of knowing that he's inherited All Might's power, he should have been able to account for wild cards like that from valiant children dedicated to heroism.

More under the cut because I’m just rambling.

I think this defeat humbles him. For most of his life, things have gone his way because of who is backing him and because he is extremely dangerous with a powerful quirk- this teaches him that raw strength and basic strategy won't be enough.

He watches Stain take the country by storm, and he can't understand it. Doesn't get what the big deal is- he believes he and Stain are mostly cut from the same cloth because of their penchant for violence and murdering heroes, totally blind to the convictions behind Stain's actions. He's incapable of thinking outside of his own view points, and it cripples him. These are his first few steps outside of his own comfort zone and where he begins to grow.

He's forced to consider not what he wants, but why. He resists this every step of the way, but ultimately realizes that paying off little bastard villains to work in his name isn't enough. He needs players under his command that will fight for more than money- and sell swords are loyal to nothing but that. He needs to find a conviction (even as he ends up stealing the mask of one and using it as a facade at first) that others can relate to and be passionate about.

So he does.

He steals Stain's ideology for his own and uses it to recruit some of his top members- even if he is a right little bastard about it at first. While he throws a tizzy fit because they aren't "perfect" (his standards are very high despite the fact that he's arguably not a very effective leader) but eventually ends up utilizing them regardless.

It's around here that he starts sharpening his instincts and learns what it is to be a true leader. He learns he cannot casually throw around his pawns because ultimately, he cannot win this war by himself. 'The enemy of my enemy is my friend' and while he isn't as enchanted with Stain's entire gimmick as his comrades are, he still wields it effectively.

He's still learning, however, as we learn when he takes Bakugo. Had he gone to the effort to get to know a single thing about him, he would have learned very quickly that trying to recruit him would come up completely pointless. He just saw untamed anger and unrestrained violence bordering on unhinged and thought "Ah yes, he's powerful and very much like me- he'll do nicely" and put together a whole plan to kidnap him. I think the vanguard's success in capturing him shows Tomura just how useful it is to have clever little birds under your command, and that sticks with him.

Losing his Master, like AFO says, forces him to become his own man. He loses the cushy abode he'd had for most of his life, loses many of the benefits afforded to him by being AFO's protege. He and his ragtag team of villains live in squalor, almost entirely destitute, and are forced to survive- but they stay loyal, and that means something to him. I think it’s around here where he actually begins to care about them.

We see how he reacts to Magne’s death. I don’t think for one second he aided in destroying Overhaul simply because he was a threat. If that was the case, he would have stopped once he was arrested. He risks everything to get vengeance. Cuts his limbs off and renders him completely helpless as payment for what he did to Compress and to avenge Magne’s wrongful death.

Over the course of everything, he’s become more patient, more cunning, more dangerous. He’s learning quickly from his mistakes, how to command his ranks in a respectful, effective way, and how to keep them safe. He learns their strengths and weaknesses, and while he’s still a bit thorny, it’s very apparent he does care for them. He’s on his own now, and knows he needs greater power, greater numbers to achieve his goals. He is ruthlessly ambitious, willing to endure ungodly amounts of pain to meet his ends.

So now we have this season (which I haven’t actually watched, as I’m just waiting for disappointment because I fucking know Bones won’t do him justice) and he’s seeking out both Gigantomachia, a former ally, and the PLF. Both things that could be of great value to him. His leadership skills and ability to command will be put to the test, but so will his endurance, his willpower, and everything else. This is the beginning of him as a truly devastating threat.

He’s growing into the villain I think he deserves to be. He’s facing down the very bones that comprise him and learning why he is the way he is. What his convictions really are and how far he’s willing to go to achieve his goals. HIs past, his life as he knows it, what needs to be done to put a pretty little ribbon on everything. He is, in a way, shedding like a snake- ridding himself of weaknesses, growing into his strengths, and evolving into a more capable predator.

If you ask me, realistically, I think Shigaraki would actually win. When it’s all said and done, I think his arc is far more compelling than any of the heroes or their children. I think he has more drive, more wit, more raw power and more reasons to keep fighting. A lot of the kids, while cute and the main characters, are quite hollow. But over the course of all these seasons, we get to watch Tomura’s metamorphosis and his evolution into a purer, undiluted evil. He transforms into something truly sinister- a literal manifestation of all of the flaws and pitfalls of society and hero culture as it exists. He is undeniable proof of the toxicity and that the way things are cannot be allowed to stand, and the fact that so many people resonate with him and follow him loyally should be the ultimate clue-in.

I think if the heroes weren’t blinded, they would look at Shigaraki and his league and consider it. Wonder if, just for a moment, there was something there that they should pay attention to. A cry that they should hear rather than be willing deaf to. But they don’t.

Gran Torino is a prime example of this. So are all the other so called ‘heroes’. Calling him evil. Underestimating him. Considering him someone who just woke up one day and decided ‘I don’t like this so I’m going to kill a lot of people’. You’d think that they’d recognize that a drive like his does not come from nothing. If they sat down, shut the fuck up and listened for ten seconds, maybe they wouldn’t be dying by the dozens.

I’m not saying that they should allow him to continue to trample the world and kill at will. But what I am saying is that part of how they’re fighting him and how they’re viewing this in terms of black and white and good versus evil is exactly the fucking problem, and it’s that kind of bullshit that birthed the villain we know as Tomura Shigaraki to begin with.

#Shigaraki #Tomura Shigaraki #just my thoughts on it #Thank you for the question anon!#Morgana and friends

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wistfulrat · 3 years

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this week’s fics! feat. bakeries, bookshops, bisexual awakenings of the angsty and fluffy sort, wolfstar goddads being tender as hell, desi harry reconnecting with his culture, domestic drarry, a lap dance set to akon’s smack that, and more!

But That’s History by @ebbet - 54k - T Harry Potter starts his first year as Muggle Studies Professor only to find that Draco Malfoy has been hired to teach History of Magic.

listen to me. this is one of the funniest drarry fics i've ever read. i was cackling in my bed at 2am because harry’s internal monologues throughout this fic are unhinged. insanely quotable. “what was he, a lothario” and “you were crushing me with your muscular thighs!” are lines that live rent free in my empty head. harry has never played anything cool a day in his life. there’s a faculty meeting where the teachers are planning the yule ball and debating the merits of a DJ when harry decides he must defend his muggle-music-loving honor by dancing seductively to akon’s smack that while a blushing draco loses his mind. i fucking screamed. and the best part is that in between the comedic scenes threading the overall story, you have extremely tender moments of like, padma patil helping harry become a more rooted desi by sharing their cultural traditions, harry proudly donning his sherwani. draco wrestling with his past, going to harry’s lgbtq+ club for students, being sheepish with ron and hermione. ugh, comedic writers with emotional depth are clever and talented as hell!!

Realities, Unfurling by @ebbet - 45k - M Draco Malfoy is released from Azkaban into a changed world.

incredible collage-fic told from multiple povs. 8yrs post-war and everything’s changed. the current state of the magical world unfolds via slice-of-life snapshots from a truly stunning cast. non-binary harry whom is running a non-prof org dedicated to building tolerance and establishing equality for marginalized identities. post-prison-release draco whose life will be changed by the internet. neville’s tender relationship with blaise. andromeda’s fiercely protective mothering. remus and sirius being alive and very hot and just, the tender goddads harry deserved. cho chang being brilliant. baker pansy’s softened edges. found families abound. harry being flustered by their crush on draco and making personalized playlists on an iPod nano.

that all might sound narratively cluttered but the author more than pulls this off. glorious, start to finish.

Knead by @jovialobservationanchor (an @hd-erised fic) - 83k - E This is not a story about Harry renovating Grimmauld Place. This is a story about coffee shops and brewpubs, about Ginny and Luna on a farm with creatures, about magical Oregon, coastal road trips, flying, friendship, and Draco Malfoy's lean arms.

cinematic. a love letter to oregon’s expansive landscapes and lively cities. it’s harry finding home in unexpected places and people. in the vast silence of rolling fields, endless coasts, and starry night skies big enough to feel like you’re adrift in space. and it’s also the lingering, intimate quiet of early mornings in a bakery, sitting on a park bench overlooking the city as you eat ice cream next to your crush. it’s harry watching ginny and luna dance and work around each other like bees. it’s the slow unfolding of harry and draco’s relationship as they fill each other’s quiet. finishing this fic is like waking from a good dream. transporting, immersive, lovely.

Harry Potter and the Bisexual Awakening by @writcraft - 20k - E Harry is perfectly content being single, heterosexual and living in Godric's Hollow with his very clingy rescue dog, Snitch. When Draco Malfoy turns up on Harry's doorstep demanding that Harry teach him how to drive, things quickly become a lot more complicated.

first of all, i feel very seen by draco being a gay-who-can’t-drive. it’s called representation. but mostly i love the ease of harry and draco’s banter, a flustered harry discovering his sexuality, and the way this fic addresses biphobia. also very emo over this exchange: “I think I might be scared of you, but probably not for the reasons you think.” “Yes.” Draco stares at Harry. “I think I might be scared of you too.”

Forged through flowing water by @tedahfromtayla (an @hd-erised fic) - 40k - E When Hermione sets up a diplomatic mission to begin repairing the damage British colonisation did to Indian magical communities Harry isn’t going to pass on the opportunity to visit and help his family’s home country. Maybe he should have asked a few more questions about the personnel she had recruited for it before signing on because Malfoy surely has an ulterior motive to be there.

so much to love about this fic. the beautiful settings, from kolkata to mumbai, to the holi festival and colorful lively streets, to remote cave settlements and old intricate temples. it’s harry in the homeland, reconnecting to his family’s heritage and confronting the weight of imperialism in his history. it’s nipping the white savior complex in the bud. this part: That is what England left behind. That is what it still stands for, despite whatever mask of respectability and honour it presents. . .You don't get to step aside and let someone else deal with the mess. You have to listen and learn and then act, Malfoy, you need to learn how to fix your own mess. This is why we're here. my indigenous ass cheered. HP certainly sells the british fantasy but HP fanfic?? fuck jkr, fuck the crown. i love that this fic doesn’t romanticize england’s history. i love that we get to see the vast resilience and beauty of post-colonial india.

Purity Control by yrfrndfrnkly - 28k - T In which Harry tries to ignore his trauma with fantasy Quidditch but Malfoy's Thereness™ is distracting and all his classmates want to talk about are unicorns, virginity, and Muggle music.

tender 8th year fics where they go from bristly as fuck to understanding and soft 100% guaranteed to make me emo as hell. all the teens have traumas and no one wants to talk about it but eventually Things are Talked About. it’s good of the adults to finally notice. everyone just wants someone to hold their hand. and this part: “You’re the only person around here who’s a bigger mess than I am.” “I thought maybe we could be a mess together,” pls don’t look at me as i weep over their gentle empathy.

Advent, a comic by dustmouth - WIP - T It's Harry and Draco's first Christmas together and Draco is determined to live his full yuletide fantasy, come hell or high water.

dustmouth, patron saint of whimsical drarry. whose illustrations singlehandedly reinvented wizarding fashion. whose cheeky and tender comics are like a soothing balm to the utter depravity of this carnal world. harry and draco being domestic, draco’s xmas spirit brand being “traditional unhinged”!! extremely my shit. we’ll absolutely be reading this all december.

Little Spaces by @dracoladon and @lazywonderlvnd - WIP - E Draco's back from France and working on the spell damage ward at St Mungo's with Hermione, who invites him over for dinner. Without telling Harry. This is a roleplay, which means Harry is written by one author (lazywonderland) and Draco by another (dracoladon).

the switch in distinct character voices works so well for this fic!! tonally i feel like i'm watching an episode of the office. i personally love harry and draco being Pissed Off at how much they want to bone each other. the battle of the tapenade was the most riveting dinner scene i've read in a minute. clever, hilarious, emotionally tense. can’t wait until that inevitable moment post hate-sex when they’re gonna be like “oh noooo it’s a Heart Boner as well!! >:((” hell ya we’re subscribing for chapter updates.

Dragons Don’t Know Paradise by @teacup-tai - WIP - E In 2004, when Remus spends two scary weeks in the ITU due to complications of pneumonia and his HIV condition, Sirius walks around the house like a ghost and Harry finds comfort and strength in Draco through a chat in an online LGBT forum. Harry falls for him, but Draco has a lot of secrets and, before long, will need to come clean—even if he believes that no one is able to understand a dragon.

non-magical bookshop AU. remus and sirius’ relationship is a marvel. the ease of their affection with harry makes me so emo. draco’s friends being insistently present even as he tries to isolate himself. this is a story about acceptance, found families, and falling in love at a distance. the intimacy, the longing, the tenderness. what a fic!! i keep coming back to this part:...he looks at ease, inside his body, a body he needed to fight for. He’d made peace with his struggles and his scars. And Draco realises he wants that. He wants to be at ease inside his body, the body that now carries a virus. He wants to be at peace with his own existence. you hurt for draco so deeply but you get moments like these where he affords himself a kindness that feels foreign and it’s just!! the boys navigating grief and learning to be vulnerable. so good.

#drarry fic rec #drarry #we live and die for desi harry aka hari poddar bc fuq jkr #a lot of soft drarrys this week but in my defense ive been reading hella angst and my depression was not finding that cute #weekly drarrys

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marvelslut16 · 3 years

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Inseparable

Pairing: Reggie Mantle x reader

Synopsis: Reader and Reggie have been best friends since they were toddlers, nothing tearing them apart until Veronica their Junior year. This follows the rise and downfall of their friendship. Can they mend their friendship and be back to what they once were, will they be too hurt to fix their broken hearts, or will they finally admit their feelings for one another?

Word count: 2.6K+ (my hand slipped)

Warnings: Mr. Honey; he’s the worst villain to ever enter Riverdale, you can’t change my mind. Mentions of child abuse, nothing graphic past the mention of a black eye. Some angst. Spoilers for s4e4 technically, I still can’t believe what Mr. Honey did.

A/N: I have like 11 requests I still have to get to, yikes. I swear I’ll do them soon, but inspiration hit and I ended up writing this. there isn’t enough Reggie love on Tumblr, plus I have a tiny crush on Charles Melton, so writing this was a win win. let me know what you think, and if I should write more for Riverdale. Veggie is better than Varchie (don’t come for me), but I still think Reggie deserves better than Ronnie.

Growing up in a small town like Riverdale there weren’t too many kids to become friends with, but when you met Reggie Mantle on your first day of preschool you knew he would be your best friend for life. Archie was showing off on the playground by walking up the slide when the teacher wasn’t looking. The problem then being that Archie's foot slipped right as you were walking passed the bottom of the slide, and he slid down and ended up knocking you on the ground. You started to cry because he scraped your arm bad enough that it started to bleed. Reggie, whom you shared a table with in class, watched from the sidelines as your teacher helped you up and took you to the nurse, he got his revenge during arts and crafts later that day- ‘accidentally’ spilling red paint all over the front of Archie’s khaki pants. When Reggie made it to the table you quietly thanked him and shared your paint with him since the teacher said he couldn’t have new paint as a lesson to be more careful next time.

As the years went on, yours and Reggie’s friendship only grew until you were inseparable; you two went on family vacations together, you went to every single one of his junior bulldog football games from the ages of eight to twelve, he went to your ballet recitals when you took classes in grade school even bringing you roses. Reggie was your rock at your grandmother’s funeral, you helped him pass his geometry class Sophomore year so he could stay on the football team, and you were the only person that he opened up to about his father’s abuse- having witnessed it with your own eyes a handful of times.

Your mom was convinced you and Reggie would fall in love and get married one day, and your father was convinced your friendship would crumble and ultimately go down in a blazing fire. Going into your senior year you hate to admit that your father was right, his words bouncing around in your skull every time your brain shut off for longer than two seconds. Veronica Lodge moved to town Sophomore year, enticing every boy within a fifty mile radius with her upper East side charm. Reggie didn’t fall for Veronica right away, he fell for her junior year when he was helping her with La Bonne Nuit. And as cliche as it is, that’s when you realized you were in love with him, you had been for a while. The small nagging voice in the back of your head told you that it had been since that day in preschool.

But you would grin and bear the pain, the soul crushing pain, if it meant that Reggie would still be in your life. And you did, for a while at least; until Reggie stopped calling and texting you back, until he stopped begging you to come to his games, until he stopped sneaking into your room every friday night after a game to go over the play footage where you would help him come up with new plays and tweaks to the old ones, until he started ignoring you in the halls in favor of making out with Veronica. You never hated the girl, she had been nothing but nice to you anytime you would interact, but God, you just wished she would disappear and give you your Reggie back.

You resented Veronica, leading your interactions with the girl to be more tense and your answers clipped, and that was what led to the blazing fire your father talked about. Reggie offered you a ride home one day after school, and of course you jumped at the opportunity to spend time with him again. Instead of going to pops and talking like you thought you would, the two of you got into your biggest, and last, fight ever.

It started with Reggie asking why you hated Veronica, where you defended yourself and swore that you didn’t. But he wouldn’t believe a word that came out of your mouth, continuing to press you as you two kept driving. The closer you got to the edge of town the worse the fighting got, your voice raising along with his. You accuse him of abandoning his friends, abandoning you, to be with Veronica all the time. He gets mad that you don’t understand why he’s with her all the time, claiming that you couldn’t understand not when you’ve never had a boyfriend. Something that he’s the reason for, since he scared all of the guys even remotely interested in you away with just one piercing glare or one lowly growled threat.

The comment picking on your relationship status, or lack thereof, is the straw that broke the camel's back. You let loose just as you pass the sign thanking you for visiting Riverdale, the town with pep. Pep your ass, the small town is full of death and endless heartache wherever you look. You rip into Reggie, letting the hurt take over as you scream and scream at him-calling him a terrible friend. He finally screams back, claiming that you’re worse because you hate his girlfriend. He has to pull his precious car over, the car you helped him pick out when he turned sixteen, because he started swerving when you two got into a screaming match.

The interaction ends with you getting out of the car on the side of the road leading into Greendale, slamming the car door behind you, knowing that he’ll get mad with how aggressive you’re being with his baby, his Bella. He does a sharp U-turn driving beside you, trying to coax you into getting back in the car with him. But you can’t do that, you can’t face him right now. So as you watch the taillights of the gun metal grey Chevelle disappear around the curve in the road you finally let the tears fall down your face, they stream harder and faster the closer you get to reentering the town with pep.

Reggie had dropped your backpack off at your house when he got back into town, so it was sitting there waiting for you in your living room alongside your worried mother. You cried into her arms that night for hours, until you were all cried out, not caring that you look like a big baby. You had just lost Reggie, you had just lost your everything. You hadn’t talked to him since that day in the middle of your junior year, even after him and Veronica broke up and she went back to Archie like always. The days of your senior year seemed to fly by, October coming in what felt like mere days as opposed to months, and your last Halloween in Riverdale is today.

You and Reggie would always wear matching costumes to trick or treat, and school just for fun as you got older, this always prompted your classmates to wonder if you two were finally dating. But that wouldn’t be happening this year, for the first time ever. You had even dressed up and sat on his porch in costume when you were six, handing out candy to the other kids so you could talk to Reggie, who was in costume too, through the window because he was sick with a 102.2 degree fever. You were dressed as Kim and Ron that year, his mom had even crocheted him a little Rufus to stick in his pocket. You couldn’t wait to get out of this town, away from Reggie, away from the places where you would see ghosts of your younger selves everywhere you went.

Kevin calls you freaking out after he and Reggie got caught tp’ing Mr. Honey’s office. Kevin caved after Mr. Honey threatened to make sure he wouldn’t get into NYU if he didn’t. Kevin felt guilty for his actions, and even though you hadn’t talked to Reggie in close to a year you were worried about him. Worried what his dad might do to him when he hears he got in trouble at school again, and worried what the unhinged Mr. Honey might do to him himself.

You don’t hear anything from Reggie the next day, not that you really expect to. You more-so hope he’ll call you, but you know what they say about hope- it breeds eternal misery. The day goes by at a snail's pace as you stare at your phone throughout the entirety of said day. You finally curl in on yourself and go to sleep after midnight, however sleep doesn’t stay for long. You’re awoken around two in the morning from your phone’s incessant ringing, in your dazed stupor you don’t realize it’s Reggie’s special ringtone- the bulldog cheer from Kim Possible.

“Hello?” you ask hoarsely, making sure to stay quiet so your parents won’t hear.

“(Y/N/N), can you talk?” your startled to hear Reggie’s voice on the other line. It sounds scratchy, like he was recently in a screaming match with someone. You open your eyes for the first time, finally accepting that you won’t be able to just roll over and slip back into your dreams. You glance at the alarm clock on your bedside table and your eyes widen at the time.

“It’s like two in the morning Reg,” you sigh, hoping he’ll wait till morning.

“Can I come over?” Reggie’s pleading now.

“Later, we can go to Pop’s for lunch or something,” you yawn loudly into the phone in protest.

“I’m already here,” before you can respond the line goes dead.

You can hear quiet, almost not there, footsteps outside your window as Reggie expertly navigates his way through the flowers and bushes outside your window. He taps on the window three times in quick succession, your old signal for when he would sneak over letting you know it was him at your window. You reluctantly get out of your warm cozy bed, stumbling to the window to open it for your former best friend.

Your plans for just slipping back into bed anf hopefully nodding off while he talks go out the window as you come face to face with Reggie’s swollen face. He has a split lip and a black eye, you’re sure he has belt marks on his back too. You don't care that Reggie is climbing through the window a little too loudly, your sole focus now on fixing him up. Once he’s in the room you sneak to the kitchen and quietly grab an ice pack, stopping in the bathroom to grab rubbing alcohol, cotton balls, and ibuprofen.

You hand him the pain reliever and your bottle of water, it’s not the first time you’ve shared, as soon as you shut your bedroom door behind you. He swallows the pills down with ease, and you both settle on your bed, a sad depressing routine. You don’t say anything as you clean his split lip, he winces slightly when the alcohol drenched cotton ball makes contact with his open wound.

“Mr. Honey caught Kevin and I last night,” Reggie admits quietly.

“I heard, Kevin told me,” you murmur unsure of where this conversation is headed, so you continue to dab at his lip.

“Mr Honey, he said that no one takes me seriously, no one since you. He said that he heard around school that I made my ‘persona’ bigger, became more of a prankster, after I lost you. He-he knew about my dad, (Y/N),” Reggie’s voice cracks, you can’t imagine what he must be feeling right now. “Said people at school are laughing at me, worst of all, you’re laughing at me.”

“Oh sweetie, no!” you're quick to jump in and defend. “I would never laugh at you, you know that. Never. No one else is either, he was just saying that to get a rise out of you.” Your arm moves without your permission, you push a strand of black hair out of his eyes before caressing his cheek softly.

“He tp’d my car, that I get. That was actually funny,” Reggie hisses, you aren’t sure if it’s because you’re lightly pressing the ice pack to his shiner or because of what he’s about to say next. “But he broke Bella’s windshield, shattered her passenger side window, and busted her left headlight.”

“I’ll kill him!” you jump up from your spot on your bed, no longer caring if you wake your parents. Reggie holds the ice pack to his eye with his right hand, cautiously reaching for your hands with his left. You calm down when his fingers intertwine with yours, sinking back down next to him.

“I avoided going home all day, but when I did and my dad saw the car,” Reggie takes in a shaky breath, and you rub the back of his hand with your thumb. “He did, well he did this.” He uses your joined hands to gesture towards his face.

You don’t say anything, instead just pulling him in for a hug. Reggie tenses at first before melting into your warm embrace. You pull him down onto the bed with you so you're laying side by side, he rests his head on your chest as you tuck the two of you in.

“I know we haven’t talked in a while,” you let out dissatisfied hum as you card your fingers soothingly through his hair. “But you're the only person I wanted to see, the only person I ever want to see. It’s been torture without you (Y/N).”

“It doesn’t seem like it,” you say under your breath, but he hears you clearly with his ear pressed to your chest.

“I was an idiot, I let my ego keep me from you,” he moves his head to look up at you, his brown eyes shine with sincerity.

“Don’t do this right now Reggie,: your eyes fill with tears, “Don’t do or say anything you don’t mean just to make me feel better.”

Reggie moves his right arm from around your waist to brush away a stray tear that slipped out of your eye. He moves his thumb down your cheek to your lips, tracing them with the pad of his thumb. Reggie lightly tugs down on your lower lip causing you to uncage it from your teeth, when did you even bite it in the first place?

“I love you (Y/N), I always have,” he looks away from your mouth so he can stare into your eyes. “And I think you have too.”

“I have, I love you so much Reggie,” he pulls your face down to meet him. The kiss is searing, and a little wet due to the tears leaking out of both of your eyes, but it’s perfect. You pull back when you get the slightly tangy taste of blood on your tongue. You immediately fuss over Reggie’s lip, said lip splitting again during the makeout. Reggie pulls you back down onto the bed and into his arms after you’ve dabbed at his lip with the cotton ball again.

“How can I make it up to you?” his eyes shine with unshed tears as he stares lovingly at your face, almost like he’s mesmerized by you. “Not just tonight, but leaving you for Ronnie so I could try to get over you, and for every other night you’ve taken care of me.”

“Just never leave me again,” you whimper, which is cut off when he kisses you again.

“Never,” Reggie’s never been more serious about anything in his life.

You cuddle up to Reggie’s chest, his warmth and scent quickly lulling you into a deep comforting sleep. You don’t care that he should sneak out the window and go home, or that your mom will find you two cuddled up in your twisted sheets when she comes to check on you at ten. All you care about is Reggie being safe, in your arms, and finally having him back in your life-but with one vast improvement to your relationship.

Permenent tags: @crimson-knuckled-queen @rexorangecouny @mrs-malfoy-always

#reggie mantle x reader #reggie mantle #riverdale #riverdale imagine #reggie mantle imagine #reggie mantle one shot #reggie mantle x y/n #reggie mantle x you #riverdale fanfiction #reggie mantle fanfiction #reggie mantle deserves better #holden honey was an ass #if i ever see him again it'll be too soon

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4ragon · 3 years

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would love some thoughts/headcanons/etc on godot!! i really like him as a character in aa3 but never truly felt like reading fanfic with him or whatever until i read miraculous disappearance and the way you wrote him in that fic makes me go insane (in a good way, if it wasn't clear!)... i find myself going back to it just to reread the chapters he's in sometimes sgfdhjsn

Okay, so here’s the thing: I don’t think I even realized how much I liked him until I started writing that fic. This happens sometimes, I don’t think I cared that much about Simon Blackquill until I put him in Singderella and then I was like “Wait I love this guy.” Same with Godot, it didn’t occur to me just how much I like him until I decided to write something about him.

So Godot is one of the weirdest, most buckwild characters. He’s a nonsense man! He’s so weird! He drinks an exorbitant amount of coffee and then just strings words together like some sort of philosopher and half the time it doesn’t even make sense, but who the hell cares?? He sure doesn’t!! He’s Godot!!

God. He’s just. Weird? Bizarre? He has the energy of a guy who has nothing left to live for so his one goal in life is to be as much of a nuisance as possible and squeeze every bit of enjoyment out of that ride as he can, and that’s amazing.

He’s a very deeply flawed individual. I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that Godot is a selfish, pretentious, spiteful asshole, because he is all of those things, but he’s also charismatic and just. Funny? I find him so funny.

I will note: There is a reason that a lot of people dislike him, and it’s a fair reason! He is sexist. In his defense, the worst offender was a weird translation thing, the thing about Franziska being a wild mare, and talking down to her like “princess the boys are talking”. Like, I guess it wasn’t as bad in the original Japanese, and also, Miles I think refers to her as a wild mare in Justice for All at one point too, which was ALSO deeply weird, so I don’t want to completely blame Godot for the line. But it’s in the text, and if you choose to read it that way, I can’t blame you.

On the flip side, though, he is kind of sexist even without that line. Not in a “women are below me” sort of way, but in a machismo, toxic idea of like “The women in my life need to be protected, and I need to prove my own masculinity by being the one to do it.” I ain’t going to defend that, it’s a genuinely bad take, but it comes from his own insecurities and at least it’s an interesting flaw? Also like he still has to rely on Misty and Iris in his final little stunt so. I dunno. Equality or whatever. Yay.

He’s not a great dude, all things considered. His selfishness is what puts Maya in danger and gets Misty killed. He hates Phoenix, not because of anything Phoenix did, but because he sees a lot of himself in Phoenix and Godot hates himself so much that he shoves all of that hate and blame onto Phoenix to cope.

Actually, I think that self loathing is what I find the most interesting about Godot. He blames himself so much for everything that happened. After all, he drank the poison, and in his mind, that is what got Mia killed. His weakness, his absence, is what allowed Mia to die. And it’s, again, a deeply flawed way of viewing things, it’s a part of his machismo schtick, and all that toxic masculinity nonsense, but I still find it interesting.

Also, I feel like he really struggled with not getting closure to any of what happened? One moment, he’s on top of the world. He started dating Mia, he was one of Grossberg’s best defense attorneys, he’s going to try to put Dahlia in prison, and the next, he’s waking up in the hospital years later, Mia is dead, and every person responsible is already gone. He never got time to grieve, and he never got to see any of it play out, to find any relief in seeing people put to justice. Can you imagine how horrible that would feel, to know that the person you loved was dead and everyone else got to already ‘fix it and move on?’ Especially since Godot still blames himself, like, if he had somewhere to channel all that rage, I think it would be different, but by the time he wakes up, all that’s left is Phoenix, a bystander who couldn’t have done anything anyway, and Godot himself.

I don’t know. He still deserves scorn, what he did was still awful from day one, but it’s all so interesting anyway! He’s not a good guy, but he’s not a bad one either! He’s just a tragically flawed individual who wasn’t able to reflect on those flaws until it was far too late.

Oh also, just for some random headcanons:

I think he suffers some chronic pain after the poisoning

He tries to act like a smooth ladies man, but a week after he started dating Mia he was already imagining them having kids and growing old together

He’s a very hard person to annoy, unless specifically you’re playing the Go, Diego Go theme song

Edit: Forgot this one but Bisexual King

And this one isn’t a headcanon but I counted how many coffees he drank in Trials and Tribulations. I can’t find it right now, but I do remember that in that final trial it was way more than 17

(Also, I do love how deeply unhinged he is by the final trial. Like once you have the hindsight of what actually happened, you can really tell how much what happened fucked him up emotionally. I think at some point he would’ve confessed even if you hadn’t beaten him, although who knows.)

#godot #ace attorney godot #ace attorney #spoilers #j #meta

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chaseatinydream · 3 years

Text

pirate king (59) || atz

You stand at the bow of the ship silently, lost in thought as the sea eddies and swirls beneath you.

Your fingers run over the stump that had once used to be your hand, tracing nonsensical patterns and words absentmindedly over the bandage done there. There’s nothing you can do. Nothing to be done.

That’s just the way it is.

Losing your hand was, surprisingly, the least of your concerns over the last few days. There were no fits of rage induced fury as San had used to describe to you, no depressed episodes of tears and screaming, just a silent, persisting emptiness that scares you more than anything else.

Is this what it feels like? Knowing that your days are numbered? Knowing that you’re going to die?

You’re so absorbed in the simple task of winding and rewinding your bandages around your fingers that you don’t hear the creak of the boards, the clicking of boots until he’s standing by your side.

“Hey.” When there’s no response, he tries again. “Chin Hae. Chin Hae?”

“Oh! Yeosang-oppa.” You greet, but there’s an unfocused light to your eyes, you’re still out of it. His heart clenches, but he doesn’t know what to say – because no words are enough. He’s afraid for you, uncertainty dances on the brink of their future, the tip of his tongue. “Have the rest of the crew been informed of what happened?”

Yeosang nods slowly, leaning on the railing next to you. The ship rocks steadily on the waves, tranquil and painfully peaceful, as if the sea beneath you isn’t strewn with corpses, as if the water hasn’t run red with blood. It’s beguiling, really, how the sea swallows all, indiscriminate, and all that’s left is sea, sea and sea, and nothing more.

“What about Captain?” You ask hollowly, but the words feel heavy on your lips.

“He’s in the sickbay, getting tended to by San.” Fear seizes your chest for a second – what if he tells? – but emptiness relinquishes its hold on you. Your master, by far, is too kind, too pure. He wouldn’t want to burden your captain any more than he already is now, what with Yunho’s antidote and finding Captain Kang. San is like a puppet, manipulating him playing with marionette strings dangling from that fragile little heart of his.

He’ll listen.

Yeosang’s throat tightens. “Hey, Chin Hae, are you really alrig-”

Before he can finish his question, there’s a furious thudding of boots up the forecastle decks stairs, rushed and frantic, and you turn around to frown at the noise when you catch sight of him.

Well, you barely do, because he’s already standing before you before you can blink, and one hand shoots out to grab yours. You don’t even have time to process what’s he’s doing, a near bewildered “Wooyoung…?” slipping from your lips when he tugs what’s left of your hand more closely to his face.

His expression as he studies your bandaged hand is stony, frightening intensity burning like white flames behind his eyes. Even Yeosang seems to pick up on it, because he approaches Wooyoung cautiously, as if nearing a wild animal, and calls his name softly.

“Wooyoung-ah?”

Wooyoung’s jaw clenches, a muscle in his cheek twitches, but his expression doesn’t change. Then suddenly, he whirls around and storms back towards the forecastle stairs, pure wrath practically rolling off his skin.

Yeosang panics a little, runs forward to intercept Wooyoung with a hand on his arm. “Wooyoung-ah-”

To your shock, the gunner rips his arm ferociously from his friend’s grip, nearly baring his teeth at the navigator. “Don’t. Touch. Me.”

Then he continues down the stairs, footsteps resounding across the main deck, and he vanishes into the infirmary for a second. Confusion floods you, but then there’s a silent pause, a breath of silence, and then your captain goes tumbling out of the door of the infirmary, crashing to the ground, hard.

“Wha-”

“Wooyoung, stop!” Your master’s voice rings out, cracking with desperation, and then you’re running across the forecastle deck, fingers of one hand gripping the railing tight as you stare in horror at the scene beneath you.

Wooyoung is beating his captain up.

“So she’s lost a hand? You fucking let her lose a hand?” Wooyoung screams in his captain’s face, knuckles white wrapped around his captain’s lapels. The look on his face is wild, unhinged and it scares you, god it terrifies you. He pulls his captain up and slams him back down on the deck, fists pummeling at every inch of his captain that he can reach with violent, furious blows. “You let this happen! You promised me you’d die before you let anything happen to her, you fucking liar!”

Wooyoung is swearing.

Your captain doesn’t do anything to defend himself. He simply lies there, taking blow after blow, and San is sobbing at the side, screaming for him to do something, for Wooyoung to just stop, but neither pay any attention to him. Mingi peers out of the cabin, clearly disturbed by the commotion and his mouth falls open at the sight before him.

“Captain!”

He and Jongho dash forward to yank the two apart, even from here, you can see blood is dripping from your captain’s nose. Even for all of the younger battlemaster’s monstrous strength, it still takes both the combined efforts of him and Seonghwa to tear Wooyoung away from your captain, and even then he’s still screaming terrible, terrible things you’d never have dreamed Wooyoung would say.

Your captain doesn’t respond, not even when the crew stares on quietly, just as stunned as you are. Mingi shakes his captain’s shoulder desperately, searching his eyes. “Captain? Captain?”

“Let him at me.”Hongjoong says lowly, and your heart drops. “I deserve it.”

Mingi stares at his captain in wide eyed shock, as if he’d just told him to turn the Treasure in to the Royal Navy, instead tells San to lock Wooyoung up in the infirmary until he calms down. He’s dragged away, kicking and screaming, into the sickbay before the door slams shut and a disconcerting silence takes over the deck.

“Back to work! Or do the lot of you have time to dawdle around and stare?” Mingi snaps sharply at the crew and they immediately turn back to their duties, hushed murmurs silently passing from lip to ear. Mingi turns back to his captain, gaze softening with concern, before he spots you on the forecastle deck.

You already know what he wants you to do.

Stepping down the stairs, you approach the two of them, tug quietly on your captain’s hand. To your surprise, he doesn’t resist in the least, letting you drag him to the captain’s cabin. Mingi gives you a concerned look, but you nod at him to reassure him before shutting the door.

Your captain simply stands there, blank, until you force him to sit on Yeosang’s bed, the straw matress creaking slightly under his weight. Still, he doesn’t move and you search the room for a wet rag you can use, knowing that Yeosang keeps an emergency healer’s kit here, and tell your captain to lean forward with his fingers pinched at his nose bridge.

You don’t talk, merely instruct. Instructions are learnt, instructions are either right or wrong, instructions have no in-between. Instructions don’t have emotions.

You like instructions. Emotions, right now? Not so much.

Hongjoong doesn’t say a word as you unfold a cloth you’d found on the table, a thick silence hanging between the two of you. You feel his eyes burning into you when you attempt to uncork the flask with one hand. After five minutes of painful struggling and near unbearable quiet, your captain finally speaks up.

“Give it here.”

His voice is quiet, controlled, and you hand it over, chewing on the inside of your cheek. He opens it and takes the cloth from you, drizzling water over it and lifting it to his nose. It comes away bloody, a sight you’re all too familiar with for different reasons.

“You can go now.” Your captain mutters, his gaze doesn’t even meet yours and you want to throw up your hands (well, hand now) and scream. What did you do wrong this time? Is the hiding of the true reason for the loss of your hand isn’t enough to retain normalcy on this ship?

You just… you just want everything to go back to normal. When it was all of you sailing together on the Treasure, laughing and getting into mischief and overlooking the sea with smiles on your faces, not this noxious, stale bilge water kind of… mess.

Gods, you don’t even know what to do anymore, and it’s driving you insane.

“Look, Hongjoong!” You grab him by the lapels of his collar and yank him down to meet your eyes. He startles a little, but his eyes immediately dart away, refusing to meet your gaze. “What the hell were you doing when Wooyoung did that to you, huh? You just let yourself get beaten up by him and for what? What part of you deserved that? Tell me!”

Hongjoong’s eyes flicker, but still doesn’t lift his head. He doesn’t say a word.

You don’t budge an inch either, unwilling to relinquish him until he gives you a proper answer, but finally, a broken, little chuckle escapes him, and you stare at him like he’s grown a third head. What is even remotely funny about this situation?

You get your answer.

“You finally called me Hongjoong.” He says weakly and you grab at your hair in a mixture of disbelief and rage. Laugh or cry? Crying seems like the favourable option at the moment.

“Hongjoong!” You snap, furious, and your captain only sinks back onto the bed, a defeated smile on his face. He looks at you, but it’s as if he isn’t really seeing, and through all your fury, your heart still breaks for him.

“I failed.” He says simply, like that explains anything. You frown, gesture at him to elaborate, and he shakes his head, dragging rough fingers through his hair. “I promised you – promised Wooyoung – that I’d keep you safe with my own life and here I am, perfectly fine and you...“

Promised Wooyoung? What was that about?

“You lost a hand and I was there and I let it happen.” He continues, burying his head in his hands. “You were trying to help me and–” A groan escapes him and it sounds like a sob and a cry and everything in between. “Wooyoung was right, I’m such a… such a useless captain.”

You don’t know what to tell him. Because he had made a promise to you, but it was something that was out of his control. No man can play god. He couldn’t have possibly known this was going to happen to you.

And you’re sick of him blaming himself for it.

“You always ask the crew to tell you their problems so that you can share their burden, but you don’t practice what you preach, captain.”

Hongjoong’s eyes widen, but you continue fiercely before he can say another word. “You told me to come to me with my problems and I did–” You ignore the guilt blooming in the pit of your stomach, “but you, captain, you have problems too and you don’t share them with the crew. You try to carry the burden all by yourself but you can’t do it, and you just don’t want to admit it, captain.”

Your captain stares at you for a long moment, mouth opening and closing in shock without making a sound. “I… I don’t-”

“You can’t keep the entire crew safe by yourself, captain. You’re not strong enough to do it alone. No man in the world is.” You poke him in the chest with your good hand and your captain stares down at it. “That’s why we’re here, to do it with you. The crew is a family, and it isn’t just about you taking care of us because you’re the captain. It’s all of us,” You gesture at the door of his cabin, where the rest of the crew are working right outside, “taking care of each other, watching out for each other’s backs. Losing this hand? I chose it, because I’d rather lose a limb than lose you, our captain.”

The next few seconds stretch into a minute. Hongjoong doesn’t move, fixated on your hand. Then he inhales once, breathes out, meets your eyes. “Oh.” There’s something sparkling in his eyes, they look like tears. “Oh.” He repeats again, and the tears spill over, effectively sending you into a near panic. Was that the wrong thing to say?

“It’s not just me. I’m not alone.” Hongjoong manages to say through sniffles, there’s a tone of wonderment in his voice, like he’s just discovered the truth and what’s left of your heart tosses itself out of the porthole and into the sea. “I have… I have all of you.”

“Yes.” You say as firmly as possible, because you need him to know this.

“And you…” The tears are flowing freely now. “You wanted to save me. It’s okay... if it’s not me… saving you. I was worth it.”

“Yes.”

Then he’s throwing his arms around you, and you nearly stumble back a step. Something dampens your sleeve, but you don’t care, pulling him closer protectively. He seems lighter now, more free. “Thank you, Chin Hae.”

No, thank you for everything you’ve done, you think as he sobs tears of relief into your shoulder. Now it’s my turn to take care of you.

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