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talewrites · 19 days

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Fragile Part 6

😈😈😈

(This chapter got too long- I had to cut it short,,,, :]]] Enjoy!)

Generation: Bayverse TMNT

Tmnt x Reader Fanfic

Pronouns: Gender Neutral (except ‘dudette’, 'miss', and ‘princess’)

Warnings: injury, blood, electrocution, graphic depictions of torture, not proof read

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5

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Today you were spending time with Donnie while he worked in front of his monitors. You liked it there much better than in his lab. He had a map of the city up with little marks indicating spots where the Foot had been spotted. But that wasn’t what he was working on right now.

No, you and Donnie were doing much more important things at the moment.

Like playing the new update in Stardew Valley.

“Fishing mods are cheating.”

You gawked at him in mock offense. “But you can’t pause in a multiplayer farm, there’s no time to play the fishing mini game!!”

“That’s why it’s more of a challenge!” He stuck his tongue out while he clicked his mouse rapidly to fight off a slime in the mines.

You pouted, adjusting the laptop in your lap. “I don’t need my cozy farming sim to be challenging…”

Donnie did not miss the cute grin that graced your face after, his heart fluttering in his chest.

These past few days you found yourself smiling more and more easily. Whether it was Mikey getting covered in flour while you baked cookies together, or Raph teaching you how to purl stitch, or Leo showing you how to wield a sword. You were enjoying spending more personal time with the turtles as you got to know them better.

Your toes curled where you were perched in the chair beside Donnie, glancing up at the map again. Your eyes always drawn to the blinking red dot marking the location of the lab you escaped only weeks before. The police had raided it and found it empty, which only increased your unease as to where Dr Stockman might be hiding. It already felt like a lifetime ago, that night when the turtles first found you.

You owed them your life.

“Hey (y/n), you almost ready for afternoon training?” Leo came over, snapping you out of your thoughts. Leo leaned against the back on Donnie’s chair, earning a dismissive swat from his younger brother.

“We’ll stop after we finish up this day, Leo.” Donnie said not even taking his eyes off the screen. You giggled and got back to fishing on the beach.

You were two hours into your training session with Leo.

“Okay, good. Now when you kick, focus on your balance. Stay firmly planted and your leg should have more power.” Leo coached you.

Master Splinter was supervising while sipping his tea. It had barely been 5 days since your mutant abilities had manifested. But you were already making astounding progress in unlocking its potential. Leonardo had played a big part in the process, being the one who had helped you work through your fears of using your mutant reflexes, so the abilities came more easily to you when training. He trained with you every day, while Master Splinter provided guidance. Everyone was doing their best to support you through all the changes.

Casey suddenly jogged in through the entrance of the lair.

“Guys! Just got word, the Foot are planning to rob a warehouse full of high tech weapons tonight. We gotta go intercept it.” He said waving around his cellphone.

“What? Where? Their communication frequency has been quiet since they moved those chemicals to the old Sacks building!” Donnie spun around in his chair to face Casey, you and Leo walking into the living room with Raph and Mikey close behind.

“Queens. Our contact in the Foot Clan leaked the info to us just half an hour ago.”

“Huh, that’s strange. That’s all the way on the other side of town. Aside from Sacks Tower, they’ve only really been active around the East Village and ChinaTown this past week. Maybe they changed their frequency again to throw us off track.” Donnie was quickly typing up info on his keyboard.

“Well, regardless, we better go check it out.” Leo sighed. He wanted to keep training with you, but it would have to wait.

“Heck yeah! I’m bringin’ the steak-out snacks. Who wants Doritos?” Mikey grabbed his ratty old Jansport backpack and started shoving cans of Orange Crush into it.

“(Y/n), you stay here and keep an eye on Donnie’s computer. The Foot might try to communicate about their raid tonight. Donnie’s program will intercept it. April will be here in about an hour, so just tell her if anything suspicious comes up.” Leo asked you.

“Right!” You said standing to attention and giving a military salute with a silly little grin on your face.

It made Leo’s heart melt in his chest and his expression turned soft.

“Just, stay safe, okay?” He patted you on the head then headed for the exit.

As the rest of the boys filed out of the lair, they each stopped by you. Mikey getting a high five, you quickly cleaned Donnie’s glasses for him, and Raph, always last, ducked down for a quick hug when his brothers weren’t looking. Casey rushed ahead of them.

Master Splinter waved goodbye to his sons next to you. Once the boys had left, he informed you he was going to go meditate, and to come find him if you needed anything.

About 45 minutes later, you were casually watching YouTube videos on Donnie’s computer when a flashing red light appeared on the screen. It was indicating that Donnie’s program was intercepting a message from the Foot’s closed communication server. A message popped up on the screen, and you gasped.

“We have captured the turtles. Continue with the plan.”

Then a video feed loaded up on the main screen.

Your blood ran cold.

It looked like the feed from a security camera, depicting Leo, Mikey, and Donnie all locked in glass cages, restrained with thin tubes of red connected to their arms. They looked weak, they looked bad.

“What….? No… No, not this… please no…!”

Where was Raphael? He was nowhere to be seen. How did they get captured so fast…? They had barely been gone an hour!

Your mind was racing. You recognized those machines. Dr Stockman used them to take blood samples from Bebop and Rocksteady. If that was the case, there was no time to lose.

You made up your mind.

You snuck past the dojo and muttered a quick apology to Master Splinter. You knew Master Splinter wouldn’t let you go, so you kept quiet. Then you grabbed the handheld GPS device Donnie left on his work table. You entered the location on the map where the message was sent from.

The old Sacks Tower.

Time to move.

April arrived at the lair much later than expected. She and Casey had just finished speaking to the commissioner about police activities being leaked to the Foot. When they entered the living room, they were confused to only see Master Splinter waiting for them. The old rat was pacing and anxiously stroking his beard.

“Splinter? Where’s (y/n)?” April asked, confused.

Splinter shook his head.

“You don’t know where they are?” April became concerned, walking further into the lair.

“It appears, that our greatest fears have been realized.” His expression deeply troubled. Before April could ask, she noticed what Splinter was looking at.

Playing in a loop on Donatello’s monitor was old CCTV footage from when the turtles had been captured 10 years ago by Shredder and Mr Sacks. April breathed a sigh of relief, immediately recognizing the scene.

“Splinter, the turtles are safe. I spoke to Leo on the phone only 10 minutes ago. They’re staking out a warehouse in Queens. This is old footage.”

Splinter’s eyes widened and looked back to the screen. His expression turned contemplative.

“If that is so, then perhaps Miss (y/n) has made the same mistake.” He spoke gravely.

April had a look of shock. She quickly pulled out her phone and speed dialed Leo’s number.

Leo thankfully answered quickly. “Hey April, anything new?”

“Leo, is (y/n) with you?”

Leo paused a long moment and sent a look over to his brothers, getting their attention. “No…. Aren’t they at the lair?” All of his brother's eyes were suddenly on him. Leo turned the phone on speaker.

“No!! They’re gone. And there’s a video playing on Donnie’s computer. It’s a recording of you Mikey and Donnie locked up at Sacks’ estate from over 10 years ago… I think this is what (y/n) saw before they left.”

“They left?” Leo felt his heart drop into his stomach. “To go where, Sacks’ estate?” His brothers immediately started packing up their stakeout equipment to leave.

“No I don’t think so, the sender’s location was tracked, it’s still on the screen. It says it was sent from Sack Tower in Times Square.”

Donnie came over and joined in the call, typing furiously at the keyboard on his wrist. “Sacks Tower. That’s where they were spotted smuggling those stolen chemicals into the other day…! From my notifications, it appears that the message was sent through an older Foot Clan communication frequency approximately 43 minutes ago.”

“Donnie, how long will it take (y/n) to get to Sacks Tower.”

“From my calculations, if (y/n) left the lair heading to the Sacks building about 40 minutes ago, going by subway, they should arrive in about uhhh, approximately 8 minutes.”

“And how long will it take us to get there.” Raph asked.

“From where we are now, if we manage to hitch a ride on the next nonstop train to Times Square…… about 1 and a half hours.”

“Shit!”

Raph cursed loudly and turned away frustrated, and Mikey put his hands on his head. Donnie was typing away at the keypad on his arm, trying to find any kind of faster route and muttering about how stupid he was for not making you a shellcell.

“We don’t have a minute to waste. Let’s move out.”

That’s all they needed to hear. Everyone sprung into action and booked it for the closest subway station manhole cover.

“April, we are headed to Sacks Tower as fast as we can. And get ahold of the police commissioner again. Whoever gave us the information to come to this warehouse tonight was intentionally planted with misinformation. There was no sign of the Foot at the warehouse. …..It was most likely a diversion.”

“Right. I’ll get back to you soon.”

Leo hung up the phone and jumped off the apartment building and dove down towards the street’s manhole cover.

Leo grit his teeth.

“Hold on (y/n).”

The halls of the building were eerily empty. This place made your skin crawl. The laboratory felt all too similar to the one you had been trapped in before. But this one had clearly been abandoned for a long time. Broken glass, graffiti, turned over chairs, scattered paper. But strangely the power was still on. You didn’t dare try to use the elevator in fear of giving away your position. But you were confused as to why you had yet to see any guards. This is where the message was sent from, the turtles had to be here, right?

You climbed the steps to another floor, but paused as you creaked open the door exiting the stairwell. This floor felt like a world apart from the previous ones. It was clean.

And the lights were on.

You kept low, and hyper vigilant. Steadying your breathing like Leo had taught you, you crept into the sterile white hallway. There were glass windows along the hall looking into different labs. One held chemistry equipment, another held big bulky medical equipment that clicked and beeped. Finally, the last room at the end of the hall, a room with no windows. You had a sinking feeling in your gut, but still you crept towards the door. Slowly and quietly you pulled open the heavy door, and revealed a large lit room with a high ceiling, and there you saw it.

“Guys….!”

There along the back wall were 4 glass boxes with 3 of the turtles strung up and being drained of blood. You had found them! Seeing no one else in the room, you rushed in.

“I’m going to get you out of here, just you wait!” You went to the first machine in front of Donnie and reached out to touch the screen-

Your hand passed right through.

“What…?” You tried to touch it again but there was nothing there.

The hologram distorted, and then the turtles disappeared. You gasped.

It was a trap.

You turned around to book it towards the exit, but the door was opening again. Bebop and Rocksteady squeezed through the small door one at a time, and blocked your exit. Then over an intercom you heard the familiar laugh that sent a shiver down your spine.

Stockman chuckled darkly. “Just how I planned it! Like catching a fly with honey. So predictable!”

You backed up slowly as Bebop and Rocksteady approached you.

“Did you miss us, little kitty?” Rocksteady sneered.

The intercom buzzed as Stockman spoke again. “Bebop, Rocksteady, keep them occupied until I arrive. I will be there momentarily. And let’s not have a repeat of last time, please!” There was a clicking sound and the intercom went quiet.

Bebop chuckled. “Hell yeah! It’s been so long since we last played! Let’s make the most of it.”

“That’s right! And we gotta pay you back for all the trouble you caused us! We missed you so much after you left. You wanna go first Beebs?”

“My man!” Bebop smiled at Rocksteady and clasped his hand, they both laughed.

You tried your best to steady your breathing like Leo taught you. Your hands were trembling. But you needed a way out. Bebop and Rocksteady were not fast, if you timed it right, maybe you can get past them to the door.

Bebop approached you. You stayed still and waited. Then when he got close enough, you ran right towards him, surprising Bebop. He reached out to grab you but you slid right between his legs, then jumped up behind him and tried to run past Rocksteady before he could react. He was still too close to you and managed to grab you from behind, but you were ready for him. Just like in training, you reached up and grabbed him around his neck, and taking a deep breath, you threw all your strength forward and down and managed to flip Rocksteady onto his back- stunning him. You quickly jumped over him and ran for the door, slamming into it fast and wretched the handle to pull it open.

Locked. (Warning for graphic depictions of torture ahead.)

“No…!” You felt a bruising grip close around your arm, and you were torn away from the door. “NO!!” You cried out as you were thrown hard onto the floor between the two oversized mutants.

“See? Now that’s your problem. You gotta go makin’ our job harder than it needs to be!” Bebop complained.

Rocksteady was picking himself back up, rubbing the back of his head tenderly. “Don’t let them get to ya Beebs, we’ll sort them out quick before Stockman gets here.” Bebop then reached into his pocket and pulled out an all too familiar black taser.

Rocksteady took the taser and chuckled. “Little kitty needs a check-up!”

You tried to get up and run, but Rocksteady stomped down hard on your left arm. There was a sickening snap and you screamed, writhing in pain. You were pinned.

“Tsk, tsk. You know what happens when kitty gets naughty!” The taser was flicked on, all you could do was close your eyes before a strong surge of electricity was shot into your ribcage and throughout your body. You convulsed as the shocks seized you, your shoulder getting dislocated from the spasms, then collapsed back on the floor.

“Just like good ol’ times!” Rocksteady passed the taser to Bebop.

Rocksteady laughed and removed his foot from your arm, then Bebop tased you in the ribs again. You yelped and rolled onto your stomach, tucking your very broken arm underneath you and tried to crawl away.

“Hey, where ya goin? We’re just getting STARTED!” Rocksteady punctuated his sentence by kicking you in the stomach hard enough to throw you across the room. You hit the ground and your body rolled another few feet until you stopped on your side and curled in on yourself, the air knocked out of your lungs.

Bebop took his time strolling over to you, and grabbed you by the hair to lift you up. You coughed and gasped for air, grabbing at his hand and tried to pry his fingers off of his grip.

“Think you can just up and leave whenever you want, do ya?” He growled in your ear, then dropped you down haphazardly to the floor. You were on your knees, buckled forward and holding your left shoulder, when suddenly Bebop’s foot stomped down on your right ankle and you heard a loud crunch.

You shrieked.

Exhausted and riddled with unbearable pain, you crippled to the floor. It took everything you had just to pull breath.

“Alright, I’m back! How is our lovely patient doing?” Came the cheerful sing-song voice of Dr Stockman entering the room through the locked door, Karai tailing behind him.

“Hey boss! Uhhh, we were just warming them up for ya! See? They can’t run away no more.” Bebop nudged your side with his foot, knocking you onto your side so Stockman could see the pain riddled on your face. You were barely conscious by this point.

“Excellent! Bring them to me.” Stockman ordered.

Bebop picked you up by your good arm and carried you over to where Dr Stockman was walking to in the back of the room. Karai stepped in Bebop’s way for a moment, taking in your beaten appearance, and back-handed your face hard for good measure, leaving a shiny bruise and angry red gash across your cheek. That woke you up a bit.

Just enough to retaliate.

You took a deep breath and tore your arm out of Bebop’s grasp and punched Karai in the stomach, hard enough to throw her into a large display screen next to where Stockman was standing. Stockman squawked in surprise. She rolled onto the floor, and pushed herself up onto her side. Spitting a bit of blood onto the ground and wiping away at her lip.

You tried to stand on your good leg but you were too weak and collapsed back to the floor. Bebop and Rocksteady grabbed you by each of your arms and brought you in front of Stockman.

He was looking at you in awe, and reached out tentatively to swipe at the blood on your cheek. He rushed over to his desk, jumping a bit in excitement. He put a drop of your blood onto a slide, and observed it under his microscope.

“Ha…! HA HA…! YES!!” Stockman shouted in excitement and did a little dance. Bebop and Rocksteady exchanged a confused look and Karai stood up and walked over to Stockman, eyeing you angrily and rolling her shoulder.

“What does this mean?” She questioned him.

“It means that the mutation was a SUCCESS!!! Those stupid turtles must have triggered it somehow. And now we can finally proceed with the plan!!!” He grabbed something off his desk and skipped over to the stairs leading up to the circular titanium base in the middle of the room. “Bring them here!!” He called over, waving his hand to Bebop and Rocksteady.

They dragged you over to Stockman, and were deposited on the round podium that sat under a large glass tube. Stockman started to pull down long rubber tubes from above, and attached large thick needles to the ends. You tried once again to crawl away with your good arm, as Bebop and Rocksteady retreated.

But Stockman approached you from behind. In a quick jab, he stabbed the two needled tubes deep into your back. You grunted and groaned in pain, but could do nothing, collapsing on the podium. Beaten, bruised, and bleeding.

When Dr Stockman was finished, he descended the stairs and rushed over to his computer, giggling excitedly he typed in a command and the glass tube descended over you until it clicked into place at the sturdy titanium base. Locking you inside.

“They’ll be placed in suspended animation. Once the tank is completely filled with the preservation fluid, they’ll become nothing more than a convenient blood bag, supplying an endless supply of mutagen for our mutant army.” Stockman rubbed his hands together evilly.

“And what about the turtles?” Karai asked.

“It is already too late for them to stop us. Even if they manage to get through your guards, they will be unable to free them from this tank. Once I start the filtration process, I will delete the programmed command to empty or release the containment cylinder. They won’t be able to free them without my help!” Stockman typed away quickly at his computer.

One of the tubes connected to your back began to pull blood from your body, leading up through a small opening in the top of the cylinder then down into a canister at the base. Then from the second tube, a white milky substance full of liquid nutrients began to filter through and down into your body. It did nothing to numb the pain you felt as you laid there in a state of half consciousness.

Suddenly, the loud banging of gunshots could be heard somewhere outside the door.

“We’re not ready yet! Hold them back!” Stockman ordered Bebop and Rocksteady, who positioned themselves between Stockman and the door.

The door suddenly blew wide open, and the four turtles rushed into the room, angry and weapons at the ready.

“Where’s (y/n).”

Part 7

@itsberrydreemurstuff @thecreat0r64 @eli-chris @kurlyfrasier @autisticnutcase @drenix004 @donniesgirlie @cherryp-op @foggyturtleknightangel @blackrockshooter780 @l-n-g-t @peachesdabunny @silverwatergalaxy @willy-the-witch @caeliasaida @veri-varily @xnorthstar3x

If anyone else wants to be tagged for the next update, let me know in the comments! :]

#tmnt x reader #bayverse tmnt #tmnt bayverse #tmnt bayverse x reader #tmnt 2014 x reader #tmnt 2016 x reader #tmnt imagines #tmnt fanfic #bayverse donatello #bayverse raphael #bayverse leonardo #bayverse michelangelo

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y-rhywbeth2 · 3 months

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While it might be an interesting enough topic to explore, personally I don't think attachment issues are going to be much of a problem for Astarion, ultimately. This particular angst is sort of a non-issue to me. He's most likely going to have them, yes, but he will work through it.

Player: "I care for you a great deal. That's never changing." Astarion: "After all this, I've realised it's all right if it does change. If anything changes."

If you break up with him obviously he's upset, but as he tells you, he is living again and will continue to do so. He can and will dump you, and has multiple opportunities to do so and be perfectly fine on his own afterwards (assuming Cazador isn't still alive, which has nothing to do with his potential romantic attachments).

Nor does he appreciate the notion of relying on somebody for anything, including his lover. He appreciates the sentiment of wanting to keep him safe, but he's clearly irritated by the notion: "It would be nice not to have to rely on you as my great protector". He wants his freedom and his self-determination and he's going to have it.

Note that if you fail to convince him not to ascend and then try to stop him, which he perceives as robbing him of self-determination/freedom, he either tells you to "die screaming" and walks out or tries to kill you himself. No amount of approval will stop him: Your love is not more important to him than his freedom and ability to determine his own destiny. The only reason you can talk him out of it is by pointing out that he's being ruled by fear, that ascension will rob him of that and turn him into someone he hates. The fact that ascension is not on the table anymore might knock that drive back a bit while he takes the time to recalibrate and find his feet again, but I highly doubt it will stick: He didn't suffer 200 years of misery, come out the other end ready to fight, and then claw back his freedom, then decide it's time for him to reclaim his life only to sell it to somebody else, no matter the pedestal they might stand on.

If he does ascend and you leave him he gets over it in a few days. He might think of you from time to time between schemes and blood orgies, but he considers it beneath him to seek out your attention. If you turned illithid then the dev notes will happily point out that he didn't think of you or miss you at all. Possessive as he might be of his property, you're not actually that important to him compared to himself.

He tells you he will be fine without you, and if he loses you he demonstrates that he will be fine without you. He's a very self-interested person, and imo, at his core remains so when romanced (people can talk about how sweet he is with Durge all they like, but as a durgestarion enjoyer I find he's actually incredibly insensitive a lot of the time. It's a bonus. Get the feral ending and he flat out tells you your relationship is doomed because you'll remind him too much of the aspects of vampirism he hates the most and he's going to prioritise his wellbeing. Sure, he'll carry you in his heart forever and grieve your horrific ending, but he's clearly ok enough in life to go to the party, dressed up nicely, and share a toast with other people he cares about: He'll live). Selfishness is a flaw and a strength of his.

Astarion wants his partner: he doesn't need them. If he identitifes co-dependent behaviours in himself he will want to unlearn it. He sets boundaries and he expects them respected, and he will enforce them - as he does in-game. The lover is not that important in the grand scheme of things.

#I mean it would be interesting in an “I want them under a petri dish” way if he WAS that unhinged over them but nah we're really not special #I'm still going for immortality but that's more for eternal shenanigans that piss off the Planes themselves #And not my concern over what will become of Astarion when his SO dies - which is nothing; he'll grieve and move on with you in his heart #and sappy shit like that #I just don't want Vel to die: He's too deranged for something so panifully common #They will live forever and it will be everyone else's problem #/astarion #babbling

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rollinouttahere-writes · 10 months

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Strawhats with Rob Lucci’s younger sibling? But they aren’t aware of CP9 due to ✨reasons✨ and just think their big brother wanted to work at Water 7

Anon, I have some extremely unfortunate news for you. My dyslexia pulled a fast one on me and completely omitted the word 'strawhats' from this request, and I didn't realize it until I had already finished writing it and came back to post it. I am so sorry, feel free to send this request in again if you want to give me another shot to properly answer it. I'm gonna be reading requests 50 times over just to make sure I don't do this again. I am mortified. Hope you like this regardless, so sorry again.

Estranged

Yandere Rob Lucci x Sibling Reader

2.7k words

This was going to be a good thing for you, a healthy change of pace. An opportunity to move on from your past and no longer let it weigh you down. It was for the best, even if everything felt more than a little hollow right now.

After you finished putting away the rest of your belongings, you meander to the open window to take in your brand new surroundings. Water 7 was easily the most beautiful city you’d seen in your entire life.

A light breeze carried the scent of the ocean into your small apartment. The walkway as well as the canal beneath you was busy, full of people going about their daily lives. Everyone here seemed so gleeful and carefree, as if they didn’t have a single problem hanging over them. You wonder if you’ll be able to fall into a similar state of mind.

Probably not, but you can dream.

Your train of thought is interrupted by your cat, Roberto, leaping up onto the windowsill next to you. You lightly scritched behind his ears as he looked down at the bustling city with his typical scowling expression. He was the grumpiest cat you’d ever met, but that just made his toleration of you all the more endearing in your humble opinion.

Shutting the window, you make your way to the door, “I’m gonna head out and take a look around the neighborhood, don’t cause any trouble while I’m gone.”

Roberto barely spared you a glance before jumping down to the floor to curl up in a sunny spot to sleep. A small smile tugged at your lips. Yeah, you weren’t worried about him doing anything bad in your absence. For all his standoffishness, he was a very mild mannered cat. As long as his food and water bowl were filled (which they were), he was fine.

You’d barely made it out the door before a couple of kids went sprinting around you, narrowly avoiding a collision. One of them shouted a quick “sorry” over their shoulder but kept on running to wherever their destination was, giggling about who knows what.

They looked similar. Siblings probably. Just like that, your mood took a nosedive, much to your aggravation. How childish to be bothered by merely seeing two potential siblings. You needed to get over it already.

It’s not like you were ever going to see Lucci again. He was gone and you needed to accept that.

The relationship you had with your older brother was odd to say the least. Mostly in the sense that you didn’t really have one to go off of. The last time you’d seen him, you were three years old, so you two could only be so close.

At the time, you felt like you were thick as thieves with him. Wherever he went, you followed, and vice versa. He’d do everything with you. From tying your shoes before you figured it out, to letting you wear his top hat, to fighting anyone else at the orphanage that had the audacity to try and pick on you. Even back then, you could distinctly remember how stoic he was, but you never doubted that he cared about you. And also his pigeon, Hattori.

The only time you could recall where he was upset with you was when you’d spent the whole day pestering him to tell you about your parents. The orphanage was all you’d ever known, but surely he remembered something about them. After hours of changing the subject or blatantly ignoring you, he snapped, “It doesn’t matter! They aren’t here anymore, only I am. Just be happy with that and stop asking.”

You didn’t bring it up again. Not that you exactly had much of a chance to.

The following day was a strange one. Some men in suits showed up and took Lucci “on a walk”, not letting you come with. They never came back. When you asked the nun running the place where your brother was, she acted like she had no idea who or what you were talking about. It was as if he’d never existed.

Without your brother around to protect you, it became abundantly clear what a shithole that place was. You’d come to the sad realization that he’d been giving most of his food to you so you wouldn’t have to go hungry. There was also the issue of having to watch more and more kids disappear every couple of years and having no idea what happened to them or if you were going to be next. The general consensus between you and the remaining children was that they were being sold into slavery, but you never were able to confirm that.

As soon as you were old and strong enough to go off on your own, you did. For years you would bounce around the island doing odd jobs to stay alive all while trying to get a clue as to your brother’s whereabouts. Nothing ever came up, so when you scraped together enough money, you left for another island.

You repeated this cycle for years. Working, investigating, and then moving when the trail was cold. As disheartening as it was, you couldn’t bring yourself to give up. He wouldn’t give up if the roles had been reversed, so you wouldn’t either.

At least that’s what you told yourself at first. When you were first thinking this, you never imagined that he would still be missing over a decade later. You had never considered that you would genuinely never find so much as a hint to his whereabouts. Or his livelihood.

At this point, it was easier to assume he was dead.

“I could go for a drink,” you mumble to yourself as you take a look around and notice a bar. You’ve been so caught up in your own thoughts that at this point you don’t even know where exactly you are. How responsible.

You push open the door to the establishment and do a quick once over. It’s busy, but not crowded. You should be able to quietly enjoy a drink or two without much trouble.

The sound of wings flapping catches your attention, and the next thing you know, something lands on your shoulder and starts cooing. Slightly startled, you snap your attention to where it landed and see a white pigeon happily nestling itself into your neck.

Holding out your hand, you gently guide it onto your finger to get a better look at the bird. It’s wearing an adorable red necktie and looks positively thrilled to see you for whatever reason. Despite your previous bad mood, you can’t help but smile. You’ve always had a soft spot for birds. What a cutie.

Someone at a nearby table laughs loudly, “Look at that Lucci, even your bird is better at making friends than you are!”

Your blood runs cold.

“Lucci?” No. No it can’t be.

Slowly, you crane your neck around to look at where the voice had come from. That’s when you see it. The top hat. The dark, curly hair underneath it. Your breath catches in your throat as the man turns around. His facial expression is one of pure annoyance, until his eyes meet yours. Then he looks like he’s seen a ghost.

It’s him. He’s aged, obviously, but you would recognize those features anywhere. That’s your brother. That’s Lucci.

As if on autopilot, you mindlessly approached him, “Lucci, is that really you?” Your voice is so quiet that you’re not sure he could even hear you. He didn’t respond, so you continued, “I looked everywhere for you. Is this where you’ve been?”

Logically, you know you should be ecstatic to see him again, but as he continues to silently gawk at you something else creeps into your heart.

Rage.

“You gonna say something, or are you just gonna keep staring?” One of your hands snaps out to shove at his shoulder. Still nothing. “I’m your fucking sibling, your own flesh and blood, and this is how you treat me after all these years?! I thought you were dead!” His fists clench and unclench, and his breathing is becoming uneven, but he still won’t talk to you.

In a fit of fury, you snatch a pint of beer off the table and throw the contents of it in his face, “Fuck you, I never should have wasted my time looking for you!”

Hattori flies off you from the commotion and is circling the table. The patrons of the bar are mostly silent save for some gasps and hushed whispers, but you don’t hang around any longer. You can’t. You don’t want to let that bastard have the satisfaction of seeing the tears that are seconds away from spilling over.

How dare he? How dare he do this to you? You’ve spent all this time remembering him fondly, searching for any sign of him, and when you finally find him completely by accident, this happens. He gives you the silent treatment and acts like he doesn’t know you. You thought he was dead or a slave when in reality he was leading a normal life and getting a drink with his buddies.

Maybe he’d been glad to get rid of you.

You choke out a sob as you run, not sure where your feet are taking you but hoping to see anything that can point you to your apartment. All you want to do is to curl up in your bed with your cat and cry. Fuck it, maybe you’ll pack up your things and leave Water 7 tonight. You can’t stomach the thought of seeing him again now.

You can register the sound of someone running after you. Probably the guy whose drink you threw if you had to guess. Way to go, (y/n), making a scene and ruining your reputation within hours of moving to a new city. You don’t want to face the consequences of your actions though, and pick up the pace to try and get away from them.

This doesn’t work and they close the gap far quicker than you expected. Strong arms wrap around your torso, and they pick you up and carry you into some quiet alley. You try to kick and scream, but your kicks do absolutely nothing and a hand covers your mouth.

As soon as you’re out of sight of the general population, you’re put down and pushed into a wall. You can finally see who your assailant is, only to lock eyes with Lucci. Scoffing, you slap away his hand, “What? Now you want to talk?”

“Yes, I do,” his response surprises you. You hadn’t actually expected him to speak to you after how he was acting at the bar.

“Oh really? How come you didn’t want to talk before? Too embarrassed to speak with me in public?”

“I can’t speak with you publicly, but not for that reason.”

He didn’t elaborate further, but you decided to move on. There were a lot more things to get to. You cut to the chase, “Where have you been?”

“I can’t tell you that.”

Forget this, he’s fucking with you at this point. You try to walk away from this pointless conversation, but he’s holding onto your wrist and won’t let go.

“I’m leaving, I don’t want to talk to you,” you’re trying to wrench your arm out of his grasp but he’s much stronger than you thought. He wouldn’t budge.

“We’re not done talking,” his eye twitched in irritation at your behavior.

“We never started talking! You aren’t saying anything meaningful, I would get more out of talking to a brick wall!” You screamed at him, trying not to start crying again.

While you’re trying to get away, you feel something land on your head. This makes you stop and calm down ever so slightly. The cooing immediately gives away that it’s Hattori. You hold up your hand for him to hop on. How is it that you’re connecting with the pigeon more than your brother? You sighed, “At least someone is happy to see me.”

From your peripheral vision, you can see Lucci stiffen and avert his piercing gaze. He grumbles a bit, “I am… Happy. To see you.”

You scoffed, “Wow, that sounded so convincing.”

Lucci released your wrist, and if it weren’t for Hattori thoroughly enjoying the attention you were giving him, you would have taken the opportunity to leave. You eyed him warily as he inched closer to you, looking incredibly unsure of what he was doing. Then his arms reached forward and enclosed around you in what was hands down the most stiff and awkward hug of your life.

He let go and took a couple of steps back, refusing to make eye contact with you, “There, do you feel better now?”

Your memories took you back to the time you’d scraped your knee while playing tag with Lucci when you were children. In typical little kid fashion, you were inconsolable from the minor injury. He carried you back to the orphanage and bandaged your knee himself, but didn’t know what to do when he saw that you were still upset. In a last ditch effort to get you to calm down, he’d brought you into this uncomfortable side hug while looking everywhere except for at you. The whole display was so silly looking that you couldn’t help but giggle at him.

Despite everything that just transpired between you two, your heart felt warm. He hasn’t changed a bit after all. You chuckle, “No, that hug was terrible. Not to mention that now I smell like beer.”

“And whose fault is that?” His eyes narrowed at you accusingly.

“Yours for making me mad enough to throw it at you,” you laughed again at the dramatic eye roll he did in response.

“You’re the only person in the world who I would let get away with that, I hope you appreciate that,” he muttered.

“Yeah, sure, whatever,” you shrugged off the comment, not putting much stock into it. The previously tense atmosphere had relaxed, but there was still some awkwardness to it. It was unavoidable really, after this much time apart you two didn’t know each other. What were you supposed to talk about? The questions you asked before went unanswered so now you didn’t know what to do.

“What are you doing in Water 7?” Lucci had mercifully been the one to break the silence.

“I just moved here. Wanted a fresh start, you know? What about you? Can you at least tell me that?”

“I’m a foreman at the Galley-La Company, have been for a few years,” he states plainly.

You’re honestly surprised to have received a real answer. You decide to push your luck and ask another question, “How come you never came back?”

Lucci took his time mulling over how to respond, “I wasn’t able to. If I could have, I would, but it wasn’t an option. I can’t tell you why, but I need you to believe me. The second I’m in a position to do so, I will tell you, but for now I simply can’t.”

“What the hell are you tied up in?” Something bad is going on here, but you’ll be damned if you have any idea what.

“Don’t worry about it.”

Well, looks like he’s done answering your questions again. At least you made some progress. The awkward silence came back, and you found yourself wanting to go home. You needed time to take all of this in and decompress.

Setting Hattori onto Lucci’s shoulder, you tell him as much, “It’s been… Interesting seeing you again, but I’m tired and want to go home.” You don’t wait for him to respond before hurrying away.

“I’ll walk you back,” Lucci closes the distance quickly and the look on his face leaves no room for argument. You suppose that’s fine. Him knowing where you live will make meeting up again later easier.

You have no idea how your relationship with him is going to evolve after this. Considering how much time has passed, it’s impossible for things to go back to how they were. Maybe you’ll be able to forge a new and improved sibling bond with him, but only time will tell.

#one piece #one piece x reader #one piece x y/n #one piece x you #yandere one piece #yandere #platonic yandere #rob lucci #i am so embarrassed kill me

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eds6ngel · 8 months

Note

Spinoff request!!! Had an idea for the first time (r) goes over to steves place and Alena keeps asking if shes her mommy now and stuff

i love this!! thank you so much for requesting! i hope you enjoy the direction i took with this ♡

warnings: dad!steve. singledad!steve. 90s!au. fem!reader. swearing. kissing. allusions to sex. pet names. alena gets angry. angst. hurt. fluff. comfort. happy ending!! [2.7k].

author's note: just a quick one! i currently have five asks for this series in my inbox. i have a specific order i want to tackle them based on the ideas, so i'm sorry if you requested earlier but get a fic later!!

full 'when i kissed the teacher' masterlist.

Steve had planned this out with you for a while now. You were gonna spend the night at his for the first time. He wasn’t necessarily hoping for anything to happen, just sharing a bed with you would be perfect, but if it did, he would rock your world.

He was getting Alena ready to be dropped at Robin and Vickie’s when suddenly the phone began to ring. He plops her on the kitchen counter, grabbing the phone from its hook on the wall, and speaking into the receiver, “Hello?”

“Hey, dingus!” Of course, it was Robin. “Um, slight change of plan. Work have asked me to emergency cover for someone and Vickie has her meeting today. I know it’s short notice, but unless you want to drop off Alena with your girlfriend later, I’m afraid we can’t have her until at least 7pm.”

“Shit,” he curses quietly. What was he gonna do? The two of you had been planning this for weeks, both extremely nervous for the what the night potentially entailed. And if he had his daughter to look after, especially with his daughter’s ex-teacher coming over, it was going to make things really awkward. But, it seemed as if he had no other choice. No babysitter would take Alena overnight, and Nancy and Jonathan have a newborn to look after. He guesses Alena would just have to be there with him. “Okay, yeah… That’s fine, Robin. I’ll just look after her myself.”

He can hear her let out a sigh of relief down the phone, “Okay, thank God, because I did try and explain to them that I had to babysit my friend’s daughter and they kept going on and on about how desperate they were and how they were so short-staffed and—”

“Robs, I got her. It’s okay,” he reassures her, the girl going on another one of her familiar rambles that happened when she was nervous.

“Okay, good, great! Amazing! Yeah, I— Yeah, you got her, great! Okay… I have to go.”

Steve chuckles, “Okay Robin, see you later. Tell Vickie I said to wish her luck with her meeting.”

“I will! Okay, bye!”

Steve doesn’t even get a chance to respond as the phone is dropped at Robin’s end, shaking his head as he puts his back on the stand. God, she was such a character.

“Was that Auntie Robin?” Alena sweetly asks, holding out her arms, Steve hoisting her up onto his hip.

“It was pumpkin, I’m afraid she can’t look after you today,” he frowns.

“So, where am I going when Y/N is here?”

“Well…” he boops her nose, making her giggle, “That’s the thing. You aren’t going anywhere.”

She scrunches up her face in confusion as Steve explains further, “You are going to be staying right here.”

Her face lights up, her feet kicking against his hipbone as she beams, “I get to see Y/N?”

He plops her down on the floor, taking her coat back off and hanging it on the hook by the front door, “Uh huh. You get to see Y/N.”

And like the excitable child she is, she begins running around the house, yelling “Yay!” arms held out as if she was flying.

Steve picks her up underneath his arm, making his daughter scream in delight as he ruffles her hair. He puts her down, grabbing onto her shoulders and stating, “But, since Y/N is our guest, we have to be respectful, okay? That means calming down, no running around like you just did, and keeping the house clean. You need to be a good girl, do you understand?”

She nods, putting her hands behind her back, making herself look nice and polite, “Yes, daddy.”

“Good girl,” he smiles, “Now, why don’t you go and clean up your room before Y/N comes? Maybe she’d like to potentially see your room?”

She jumps up and down, shouting “Yes!” as Steve raises an eyebrow. She quickly cottons on, landing herself softly on her two feet and mumbling, “Okay,” before quietly trotting off down the hall.

Steve is in his room making himself look presentable, Alena sat on the floor by the coffee table drawing away when the doorbell rings, signalling your arrival.

Before Steve can get the chance to rush into the living room, the door swings open, Alena smiling in front of you, waving and yelling, “Hi!” despite being only a couple inches away.

“Hello honey, how are you?” you smile back.

“Good! Daddy’s in his room. He said he wants to make himself look perfect for you.” God, kids… They were so brutally honest.

“Oh, did he now? Well, shall I be the judge of that?” you ask her, the little girl nodding as you walk into the Harrington’s house, Alena closing the door behind you, perhaps a little too forcefully for your liking. But, you weren’t her mom, that wasn’t your decision to make.

Steve appears from his bedroom in a sage green sweater, black sweatpants to match as he runs up to you, grabbing your face and planting a kiss to your cheek, “I am so sorry. I was going to get it, but,” he signals to his daughter.

“It’s okay,” you softly reply, “A little birdie told me that you were making yourself perfect in there.”

You look down at Alena and raise your eyebrows, her giggling as Steve fumbles over his words, scratching the back of his neck, “I— Uh… I was just, you know… Getting ready and stuff…”

You wrap your arms around his neck, pulling him into a hug as you whisper back, “I think you look gorgeous.”

The two of you pull back, Steve signalling to your body with his hand, “Uh, thanks! But, you… I mean, you look stunning. Not that you don’t always look stunning, because you do, just today you look… extra stunning.”

What’s funny about Steve’s compliment was that you were as underdressed as he was. A plain black t-shirt, blue jeans, and white sneakers, all paired with some gold hoop earrings is how simple your outfit was today. But, sometimes looking lazier was ten times more attractive than looking put-together.

You giggle at his words, “Thank you.”

He points behind him, “I was gonna get started on dinner. I know you like pasta. I’m not the most brilliant cook in the world, so will pasta and normal sauce be okay? Sorry, it’s not too fancy or anything.”

“Steve, I’m happy with anything,” you reassure him, “Do you want any help at all?”

“Oh, god no. No, no, no,” the words tumble out of his mouth, “You’re the guest. Please relax, honestly.”

You chuckle, smiling at his nervousness, “Got it. Guess I’ll spend some time with this sweetpea,” you say, ruffling Alena’s hair, something you seemed to have subconsciously picked up from Steve.

“Of course!” he replies, “And sorry she’s here. Robin had to fill in for someone at work and wouldn’t be done until after you arrived, so I said it would be easier for her to just stay here with us. I probably should’ve checked with you first, but—”

You shut him up with a quick peck on the lips, Alena bouncing behind you, her enjoying any sort of romantic affection between the two of you. After all, she was the one to tell you Steve loved you in the first place. “Steve, it’s fine. We’re gonna have a great time, aren’t we peanut?”

She nods eagerly, grabbing your hand and tugging, Steve scolding her softly, “Hey, what did I say about being calm?”

“Oh Steve, please, she’s fine honestly,” you say, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. You turn to Alena, leaning down to her height and saying, “I saw you had a little creation coming along over there. You wanna show me?”

“Yes!” she shouts, sprinting over to the coffee table, Steve having to yell at her, “No running, Alena!” You follow her, turning your head to laugh at Steve, him shaking his head and playfully rolling his eyes, heading to the kitchen to begin creating his beautiful pasta dish.

“Who are you drawing now, sweetpea?”

Alena had already completed two figures, one more whilst you were there, them both easily identifiable as her and Steve. She had drawn herself to be wearing her favourite purple dress, Steve in a yellow sweater and black sweatpants.

“Um…” she says, a nervousness present in her voice, “I was thinking of drawing you. B-Because you love daddy, and you kiss daddy and now you are staying here with us. It’s like what mommies do. So… are you like, my new mommy?”

Her words hit deep within you. You and Steve had only been officially dating a mere two months, you finally telling Alena your first name just over a month ago. But, she was also seven years old, and her knowledge of the family unit was lacking, understandably. She linked up all the facts in her head and combined it with her knowledge of the role of a mother. And what’s disappointing is, you were the closest person to a mother figure she had ever gotten in her life.

You swallowed the lump in your throat, “Um… I’m not honey, no. At least not for the moment, okay? I’m more of just… your daddy’s girlfriend for the time being. Is that okay?”

She scrunches up her face, “But… Lilly at school has a mommy and a daddy and they are both boyfriend and girlfriend. Why aren’t you the same?”

You remember teaching Lilly yourself, and Alena’s statement was correct. However, Lilly’s mom was her biological mom, making her the legal guardian of her daughter. It wasn’t just a placeholder name as it would be with you, Lilly’s mom is etched into her daughter’s DNA.

“Baby… I haven’t been with your daddy long enough yet, okay? Lilly’s mom and dad have been together for years,” you explain to the girl, “Maybe when me and daddy have been together longer, then I can become your mommy.”

She huffs, taking a crayon and ruining her image, scribbling all over the face of you that she drew. She stands up, storming off to her bedroom, Steve leaning back from where the pasta was boiling in the pan and asking, “Hey, what’s going on pumpkin?”

You sigh out, Steve looking over to you and mouthing, “She okay?”

You get up yourself, walking over to Steve and asking, “Can I talk to you a second?”

“It’s just… I didn’t want to outright say ‘yes’ as I haven’t even asked you yet. I know we’ve only been together two months, but I don’t want her to start holding that title for me, and then something happens to us, which I hope to God it doesn’t, I’m suddenly not her mom anymore and it messes the whole thing up. Do you see where I’m coming from, my love?”

He takes in every word you say, listening to your entire ramble from start to finish, “Yeah, I understand, and… I agree.” He sighs, wrapping an arm around your shoulder, “How do we explain this to her in a way she understands?”

You both contemplate for a second, before an idea pops into your head, “She really enjoys nicknames, right? Like, you give her pumpkin, sweetpea, toothache, all of them.”

“Yeah…”

“Well, how about I give her a replacement nickname instead of ‘mom?’” you suggest, “Something like… ‘mubba?’ I know, it sounds kind of stupid—”

“I don’t think it sounds stupid,” Steve interrupts you, “I kind of like it.”

You sigh out in relief, “I was just thinking, I call you ‘bubba’ in an affectionate way, right? So I took the start of ‘mom’ and combined it with ‘bubba.’ I think her issue is calling me by my first name. It makes me sound just like another random person. She wants some sort of title to call me, but, I don’t think we’re on the level of using ‘mom’ yet.”

“I think that’s a great idea actually,” Steve agrees with you, “Mubba it is.”

You nod, “Okay. You wanna go talk to her or do you want me to do it?”

“How about we both do it?”

Although Alena’s door was wide open, you still decided to be polite, delicately knocking on the wooden frame, “Can I come in princess?”

She keeps her back turned, sharply letting out a “No.”

Steve decides to speak up from behind you, “Lena, we want to talk to you, okay?” However, when she doesn’t answer, Steve sternly says, “Alena.”

She huffs, spinning herself around and looking at the pair of you. You both kneel down in front of her, you taking her smaller hand in your larger one, “Look, I understand how frustrating it is I can’t be your mom yet, okay? These things take time, we can’t just decide when they happen… Like, when you told daddy you wanted to be older, but you couldn’t, right?”

She nods in understanding, still avoiding your gaze, “Well, it’s the same with me being your mom. I can’t just suddenly become your mom, I have to wait a while for that to happen, okay?”

“But,” Steve carries on your joint plan, “We do have something you can call Y/N in the meantime.”

She looks up at you when her dad mentions this, slightly squeezing your hand as you explain, “Well, since you can’t call me ‘mom’ yet, I thought we could use a different word. How about you call me ‘mubba?’”

“Mubba?” she questions.

You smile brightly at her, “Yeah. It’s sort of like a pre-mom word. You can call me ‘mubba’ for now, and then one day in the future, when I can become your mom, you can start calling me ‘mom.’ Does that sound good for you, sweetpea?”

She nods, smiling a little as she shyly says, “Mubba… I’m hungry.”

You laugh a little as Steve snorts beside you, “Makes the two of us baby.” You turn to Steve, teasing him as you joke, “Gosh, daddy chef, what’s taking so long?”

He holds his hands up in defense, stretching up from his kneeling position, kissing both you and Alena on the head, “Okay, okay. Daddy chef will continue his fabulous meal.” He begins to walk out of the room, stopping at the entryway to point at the two of you, “My girls better like it,” before exiting to head back to the kitchen.

“You wanna create a new drawing?” you ask Alena, quirking your eyebrow with a smirk on your face.

She nods eagerly, jumping off her bed and running back out to the coffee table. Thank God seven year olds were easy to cheer up.

After many hours of food and TV, you and Steve had put Alena to bed, turning in for the night yourselves. You were currently cuddled up to Steve’s side, hand laying comfortably on his chest as his arm lay above your head.

“Can’t believe how quickly you solved that issue earlier. You better be sticking around for the long run because damn… That was good parenting right there,” he compliments you, keeping his voice low, careful not to wake his daughter.

You shake your head, smiling and blushing a little, “That’s the teacher instincts coming through.”

“No, that wasn’t a teacher thing beautiful, I’m sure of it. That was full mom mode.”

Before you can think of a response, Steve cups your face in his hands, “When the day comes, and this is totally under your control, but I think you’d be an amazing mom to Alena.”

You bite your lip as you look into your boyfriend’s eyes, “I think I’d like that someday too, yeah.”

Steve grunts as he reaches behind him to turn off the glowing lamp, snuggling up to you and kissing your forehead, closing his eyes as he whispers, “Goodnight, future mom.”

“Goodnight, wonderful dad.”

i hope you enjoyed!! ♡

taglist: @livsters @bakugouswh0r3 @nix-rose @ihatepeanutss @cats00089 @suitelif3 @clincallyonline17 @crowssixof @starkeylover @eris-rose-86 @frostandflamesfanfic

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magnorious · 3 months

Text

Review: ‘We Take a Zebra to Vegas’, Percy Jackson Episode 6

***Spoilers Ahead for all books and show. TL;DR at the bottom***

After episode 5 I was starting to wonder if episode 3 was a fluke. Here we have the potential for the only non-book reference I wanted in the entire show: Would Nico cameo in the Lotus Casino?

Small, I know, but book fans were robbed of ever seeing him on screen once already when Titan’s Curse was never adapted and with his massive popularity, I was almost certain he’d be here. The closer we got to the Lotus Casino, however, the more I wanted to be wrong. Almost none of the characters look like they’re supposed to, many of them with inconsistent personalities to match. I went from hoping for a blink-and-you’ll miss it reference with a little scruffy 10-year-old that book fans would be able to tell is Nico by his appearance alone to hoping they’d not touch the matter with a 10-foot pole.

After the absurdly dramatic and angsty episode 5 that was supposed to be semi-dangerous and funny, there was a chance to have both the whimsy and wonder of the Lotus Casino, and the rather chilling escape. Before that, the conversation about conservation in the back of the zoo trafficking truck. There was a lot of opportunity for more quiet character moments as well as the adventure and absolutely no need for more nonsense filler.

Onto the episode and given that Hermes is in the thumbnail, are we all in agreement that he only exists here because he’s played by Lin Manuel Miranda? That’s the reason, right? He barely exists in the first book otherwise.

We start right off the bat with more interesting changes. Instead of IM-ing Luke in some random car wash, they do so in the zoo truck. The scene in the book was funnier, because it existed in the place that it did to be funny and the pay-to-pump water gave a clear time limit. But more importantly – they decided to scapegoat Clarisse… for reasons.

Why? Just why? In the book they spend 99% of their quest accusing the wrong person, Hades, and don’t realize they’re wrong until it’s too late. Everyone in the book was like “it’s Hades, it’s gotta be, his kids were Nazis” (a detail I still can’t believe exists, wow). Chiron said it was Hades, everyone said it was Hades, based on ancient biases that Hades spends the entire series proving wrong. He is the best godly parent by a country mile by the end of Book 5 and all of that groundwork started here, when Hades was just as much a victim of the Master Bolt nonsense as everyone else.

Clarisse is neither here nor there, because the writers didn’t have the foresight to script or film any scenes at camp of this random arrest that’s supposed to be important now. The jump cut from ‘the animals have a plan’ to them stopping traffic on the Vegas strip was funny, but it robbed the scene of the seriousness it should have had. More powers Percy doesn’t get: His ability to talk to horses and horse-adjacent animals.

Once they make it to the Lotus Casino, the script does this incredibly irritating thing where it removes the tension of the unknown from every hurdle they meet. Percy’s trapped alone against a mysterious monster in the book and has no idea how to beat it? Nope, Annabeth exposits all over it. They enter a seemingly-abandoned, mortal waterpark and only get suspicious once it’s too late? Nope, Annabeth figures out immediately that it’s a godly amusement park and they must be careful. Two twelve year olds and a satyr are immediately charmed by the glitz and glam of the lotus casino and get trapped for almost the rest of their time limit for the quest? Nope, Grover exposits all over that, too, ruining the mystery and any danger or threat.

Why?

The show also does the irritating thing where it creates problems just to solve them later and before you go “that’s the point of conflict” I mean it creates meaningless problems through meaningless contrivances, like every horror movie cliche that forces its characters to make illogical choices so they don’t just run away from the horror.

And another irritating thing! Spoiling bigger mysteries before their time: We didn’t learn about May Castellan until book 5. Why is this here? What purpose does this serve? Percy realizing he didn’t even know Luke’s last name for five whole years meant something to him. Seeing Luke’s tragic, mortal mother, after hating him for five years *means something* to Percy and to the readers. The gods damned Lotus Casino was absolutely not the place to discover any of this. Why did they do this?

Also, who tf is Augustus? He’s fine. Grover’s random side quest is fine. Every consecutive episode leaves me more and more annoyed with him, but it’s *fine*.

They do actually forget their purpose in the casino, thank the gods. Or, Grover does. Annabeth continues to give away May Castellan exposition like Halloween candy, smack-talking Hermes in a way that she’d never dare at 12 years old. Hermes is still only here because he’s played by Mr. Miranda. He’s fine, he’s just not Hermes. His “woe is me, loving mortals is so damn hard” speech exists. The sentiment is four books early, but it exists.

I understand why it’s here. They’re trying desperately to capture Percy’s internal conflict over whether or not the gods and his dad care about him, if he should let himself be disappointed presuming that they don’t. Problem is– in the book, Poseidon didn’t send a naiad to give him false promises of a clandestine meeting. In the book, the naiad told Percy there’d be a vague “gift” in Santa Monica, and Percy was never naive enough to think that gift would be his dad.

The entire season so far has tried to give nuance to both sides of the “do the gods care and should they be expected to” argument and it’s just not a very well written attempt. Why? Because it had five entire books to give both sides, and they’re shoving as much of it as they can here like they’re afraid they won’t get renewed for season 2. In doing so, they’ve made a tonal mess.

Once Hermes is gone and done randomly and spitefully sabotaging their quest, Percy, unseen, figures out that they’ve lost time and lost Grover. Also, Annabeth pick-pocketed the God of Thieves? Funny, but no. The script has its weird Mitichlorian moment sciencing lore by adding in the detail that lotus nectar or whatever is pumped in through the air, a question no one had and a plot hole that didn’t exist.

They do manage to keep the fear and unsettling realization that they’ve lost time, but their amnesia is inconsistent and confusing, considering that they overexplained how the casino works. Then they’re gone using a God of Thieves’ Car gimmick.

No Nico, thank the gods, unless he was one of the VR kids in the background. It would have been wonderful to see him in a better script.

In the book, they get instantly dazzled by the food, the video games, the nice clothes, nice suite, all things Percy could never dream about growing up poor. There is no Hermes and he only figures out something’s wrong when he meets other kids displaced from time and has to shake Annabeth and Grover from the illusion. They use their casino cash cards with infinite money to hail a cab all the way to LA and it’s funny.

They create more problems that didn’t need to exist by forcing Percy to drive a taxi and okay, that was genuinely funny. I am shocked, though, that Annabeth’s pride let him drive.

The episode comes to an end with them supposedly by the Santa Monica Pier… in a thunderstorm. In southern California. Odd choice, but okay. I'd say the storm exists because Poseidon's pissed but I really think it's there beacuse "dark and stormy night" fit their new vibe better than bright sunlight.

Maybe in live action it was tricky trying to make him both dry underwater and still plausibly underwater and not just rotoscoped in with a hazy green filter. For all their love of exposition, they never actually told non-book watchers about that, or that he can breathe underwater and control some currents. It’s also supposed to be night time, and yet he’s lit as if it’s high noon far above on the surface – they could have just written the beach scene at noon.

Then the naiad he was supposed to talk to in St Louis drops the bomb that the Summer Solstice deadline already passed, Poseidon got too impatient to wait for Percy after the casino delay, and the gods are now at war.

What the fu…..?

Percy resolves to keep going despite armageddon already happening apparently. She gives him exactly the right amount of pearls that he needs, not three, which would force him to choose, and then cut to black.

—

How is the best part of this episode Annabeth’s completely deadpan and exasperated Dude when Percy asks her not to make fun of him? That, and Percy driving the taxi.

Once again, to all the set designers and VFX artists and costumes and makeup and foley and music and score and everyone in between – you’re amazing, keep up the great work. To the actors, you were given a bad script and bad direction and you did the best you could.

Having just come off watching Game of Thrones for the first time and seeing little Arya, Bran, and Rickon Stark’s actors doing donuts around these three just goes to show that it’s not that child actors’ lack of experience that’s the problem. Heck even Baby Percy is better than these three. It’s how much or how little help they get in conveying what they’re supposed to. These kids were thrown to the wolves.

I don’t watch the teasers and I stay away from all marketing for the show. I don’t know who’s been cast to play any characters we haven’t already seen so what Hades and Poseidon look like are a complete mystery that I do hope pays off.

With two episodes to go they have the following left from the book to adapt: Crusty’s water beds, the DOA studios, the entire trip to the underworld and Cerberus and Hades that took two hefty chapters, the Ares fight, Percy’s trip to Olympus, Luke's betrayal and reveal, and the return home to find Hades had paid his debt.

Suddenly the mini series with an episode to burn in St Louis has to sprint to the finish line.

Maybe if they hadn’t spent ten minutes expositing with Hermes they could have at least crammed in Crusty and the DOA, but it looks like armageddon is already upon us so who knows? They might’ve just tossed out the rest of the book to write their own ending.

TL;DR This show is a mess and this episode actually has me nostalgic for the brevity of the horrible movie because they didn’t even try and it’s fun to make fun of. This is just disappointment stretched out across seven hours instead of speedrun in 90 minutes. The skeleton of the book (mostly) remains intact and to all those who keep saying “at least it’s not the movie,” you’re right. Enjoy.

#pjo series #percy jackon and the olympians #percy jackson #review #pjo

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see-arcane · 26 days

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So I've heard quite a bit about Richard "Em Dash" Marsh and his book The Beetle, but I've been quite curious: What elements about it are compelling? I refuse to read the book itself (made that mistake with... other gothic-based media (Damn you, Moore), so I was curious about your thoughts on it?

I think it's just the sheer amount of wasted opportunity for metaphor left laying around. Like, I know everyone likes to call it "Dracula but so much shittier," but I've always seen more resemblance to Kafka's "The Metamorphosis," and not just for the insect element.

The two characters we're introduced to as (mistaken) protagonist and antagonist are Robert Holt and the Beetle. Holt is a clerk who lost his job, applied everywhere after, followed all the rules he was taught to trust in, certain that society would naturally play as fairly with him...only to find himself homeless and starved and refused entrance even to a shelter because it was too full. He watches on in mingled surprise and envy as a fellow vagrant blithely breaks a window and waits to be arrested, thrown in jail for the sake of shelter from the rain.

Robert Holt does not throw a brick with him. Robert Holt is too shackled by his ingrained sense of If I Follow the Rules, If I am a Good Citizen, I Will be Helped.

He isn't. He walks away into the rain, still starving, still scraped off the edge of society, shooed like vermin. He reaches the Beetle's home with its window ajar. He slinks in.

And then is immediately preyed on by the Beetle, his free will suddenly ripped away, ordered to strip and walk and talk and die and live and rob and generally be violated on every mental and external level. He is literally so low as to be overpowered and stepped on by an insect.

But Holt isn't immune to his own (read: Marsh's) callousness. He refers to the Beetle, who is an Egyptian visitor here for revenge reasons, in some fairly ugly terms. How much we can shrug off as being a fear/disgust response versus being Conditioned to Other Anyone Not Anglo-Saxon Enough is up in the air in-universe.

The frustration here is that between this opening and the future cast members' rancid treatment of Holt, who tries to help and warn them, and of the Beetle, met with disdain simply for being a foreigner in England before one chitinous move can be made, there could have been SO MUCH to play with in terms of...

Human beings reduced to pests not worth dignity or care because they are Poor, they are Homeless, they are the Lowest Rung of Society, they are Foreign, they are Dirty and Different from What's White Right

The examination of in-fighting of 'verminous' people. Figurative insects living underfoot in supposedly civilized countries, now preying on and demeaning each other rather than extending the empathy they were never shown by polite*** society

Spotlighting the brutality and villainous aspects of our group of well-to-do "heroes", the main cast being mixed up in building genocidal weapons and plotting asylum stays for romantic rivals and hypocrisy and so many layers of bigotry it makes your eyes ache

A better version of the story in which the aforementioned genocidal weapon, a killer gas to be used on South America for some fucking reason, becomes the focus of the story--bonus points for the accidental 'bug spray' comparison to be made--with the potential of the Beetle and Holt switching tracks from singular vengeance and/or the desperate thwarting of this fruition; knowing that the existence of such a thing would be a prelude to 'dealing with the vermin problem' on a terrifying scale. Perhaps by making use of a new kind of 'shelter.' The insects become the heroes, the polished creme of England now turned to fertilizer.

...a better version that might have Holt ending the story with his own metamorphosis, but as a Gregor Samsa with actual strength and will of his own, and acceptance waiting for him on the other side of the change.

But no.

Richard Dickard Marsh couldn't be bothered to reach beyond squeezing out a Sydney Atherton-shaped turd onto the typewriter and calling it done.

It's so, so, SO goddamn infuriating as a storyteller to find the seeds for something that would have been amazing and groundbreaking, especially for its time period, only to see the whole thing salted and burned until all that's left is racist caricatures, a trashfire of a plot, and the most eye-watering syntax ever put to paper.

#in which I am Bitter about the Beetle #the beetle #richard marsh #I hope he's being eaten by scarabs in the afterlife

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thedreamlessnights · 1 year

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Seeing AI writing start to grow more widespread is incredibly disheartening to me. I’ve been writing for years and years, and - trust me, I know that writing is difficult. Writer’s block is such a bitch to deal with. Sometimes you get stuck on plot and can’t figure out where to go, and it just seems impossible. I understand. However, I cannot emphasize enough that a heartless, computer-generated vomit of words cannot replace real writing.

Passion goes into writing - passion that you pour into plot, into word choice, into specific characterizations. Into scenes that change as you write them because you get a new idea, or an idea bounced off a friend. Into the flow of the sentences, and the descriptions that you come up with.

Simply put, AI has never smelled petrichor after rain, has never seen the ruby-orange skies of a sunset, has never felt the breeze against bare skin. It cannot replace human experience. It cannot replace the five senses, or the unique writing style each person has, or the knowledge of how a specific character might act. Every word I’ve written has come from me, and I remember those scenes and how to draw back to them for future reference.

Not only that, but using AI robs you of skill development. I’ve never taken a writing class. Everything I’ve learned, I’ve learned through plain old experience. I’m someone who loves editing other people’s fics, who loves digging through the nitty gritty errors to find the true potential of the writing, and it’s really just been making me think…

I know some authors have stopped writing altogether because of this technology, and while I understand and respect their decisions, I refuse to let the mere existence of such a thing stop me from writing or my readers from accessing my stories. That being said, if you put my writing into AI, I will beat you to death with my bare fists.

But on a more serious note, what I’d really love to do is a post with writing tips, or some kind of writing workshop that goes into the things I’ve learned. I see so many beginner writers disheartened over their work because of simple mistakes, easily fixable mistakes that, when corrected, could really bring out the potential of their work.

Right now, I want to encourage the act of writing as much as I possibly can. So, that’s my plan. If you’ve gotten to the end of this ramble, thank you for sticking along! And, I want to emphasize: if anyone ever wants advice on writing, I am more than willing to help with anything! I’ve literally recorded videos for my friends about various grammar and punctuation, I’d love to assist!

Anyway. That’s my thought for the day. Keep an eye out for writing tips from me!

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cookierunauprompts · 3 months

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okay now you can’t just leave us on a cliffhanger like that cmon that’s just evil pls elaborate on the MC timeline where the beasts aren’t the first real cookies that is so intriguing

Okie dokie! Buckle up because this has the potential to be long af so i'm putting it under the cut.

So, first things first, the Beasts aren't the actual first Cookies. In fact, the first cookies actually look a lot more like Gingerbrave! Something that Meringue Cookie points out during a confrontation with her. The heroes were intially made to guide Cookiekind to prosperity in place of witches, considering that some couldn't control their... urges.

But then why do the beasts (genuinely) think they were the first? To put it rather simply... Whenever the previous generation of Heroes would corrupt, the witches would exterminate all of Cookie kind and start from scratch.

A rather cruel fate, no? At least, that's what Meringue Cookie believes.

But what of the previous generations? Well, I can tell you about them.

First, there was Intellect, Guidance, Compassion, Determination and Loyalty. Corrupted into Secrecy, Control, Cruelty, Recklessness and Betrayal. The first generation of Heroes, Meringue Cookie was one of them.

Next was Wisdom, Kindness, Generosity, Will and Bravery. Corrupted into Arrogance, Manipulation, Greed, Hopelessness and Cowardice. The second generation of Heroes. It was around this time that the witches split themselves into two, the witches that go to the banquet and the ones that don't.

Then came Insight, Altruism, Temperance, Connection and Rebellion. Corrupted into Blindness, Selfishness, Overindulgence, Solitude and Complicity. The Third Generation of heroes.

And then? Then was Knowledge, Happiness, Volition, Change and Solidarity. And by the time they corrupted the Witches couldn't perform another extermination due to a lack of power, and that there were too many cookies in the world. This was the fourth generation of Heroes... The Beasts.

And we all know what they corrupted into and who came after them.

Now back to Meringue Cookie. She survived the first extermination by escaping by a hair. She began anew, a false savior for those who came to seek refuge in her village that had also survived the extermination. However they never left the village, already having their prior identities scrubbed clean of useless desires and annoying little things that would question her control.

She had also been looking for a way to keep herself from crumbling, and luckily enough her solution made itself known right at her door... A Faerie Cookie. They tended to live longer than most, no? So, with a bit of experimentation, she discovered something truly wonderful. She could use the Faerie's wings to extend her lifespan and keep herself as good as new even without her Soul Jam.

And so, she began a collection. Luring in wayward faeries and striking when the time was right. Her little village managed to escape all three exterminations, but something rather curious happened after the last one. Yes, rather curious indeed.

Two Cookies, one much much stronger than the other had shown up. Calling themselves Marshmallow Fluff Cookie and Mystery Cookie. They were lost, confused to this world, and who was she to deny them sanctuary? So she let them join the village.

But Marshmallow Fluff and Mystery Cookie couldn't be controlled, and she couldn't rob them of their powers either. After all, a witches magic can never be stolen, but how could any of the witches form themselves as Cookies? But the two were young, silly and impulsive.

Marshmallow Fluff had done terrible things, things that Meringue Cookie could capitalize on. And so Meringue Cookie gained a prophet.

This is where the timeline diverges, kinda. It's either that Marshy and Mystery escape at some point before the Beasts get sealed, or they don't. And when they don't is a much more interesting timeline. It's also the timeline Ficlet 2 takes place in.

And yes, Shadow Milk does get taken into the cult. So does White Lily eventually as well. Meringue Cookie is rather pleased to get her soul jam back, not so pleased to see how it's changed into a meager thing like 'Freedom'.

'Freedom', what an annoying little thing. Always looking for another way, always looking to defy her guidance, always oh so stupid.

It doesn't matter, she'll figure out how to make it submit to her again soon.

...

Does Dark Enchantress exist in this timeline? Not exactly, considering that White Lily cookie never finds out the Truth behind the creation of cookies. I'd say that Meringue Cookie takes DE's place if I'm being honest... does that mean that the CoD are also in her cult? Hmm... probably.

Anyways, that's enough rambling from me. I'll probably add more to this eventually.

#cookie run #cookie run kingdom #cookie run au #crk #cr kingdom #not a prompt #beast yeast #oh yeah the Cult's main base is in Beast Yeast i forgor to mention that #also sorry Dark Enchantress Enjoyers. she's not here anymore :(

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siflshonen · 1 year

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Not the same anon, but if you don't mind me chiming in, I think, at least for me, the whole "it bothers me that Bakugo's only about Deku now" is not about narrative or thematic purpose, which I get, and which I like. For me it's just that I don't get why this progression can't coexist with Bakugo having meaningful interactions/moments with other people, just like Deku still does, plust the fact that it just doesn't feel reciprocated. And he's done and given up so much for Deku, yet Deku... well.

“Yet Deku… well.” To me this is kinda the point and is a big draw for me, personally, in sympathizing with Katsuki. The uneven reciprocation is a feature in this (still developing instance), not a bug.

If this status quo does not change by the end of the manga I may be more inclined to see it your way, but right now the story isn’t over and I don’t feel like that’s all there is to it for Katsuki and all we’re gonna get. It’s also not actually all we’ve gotten, either. I thought Katsuki and Todoroki’s relationship was pretty solid throughout this whole ordeal, in particular! The “udon, obviously” crack was a little moment, but meant big things! Katsuki getting dunked in the bath by the other boys was so sweet and cute! The boys making fun of Katsuki with the stupid “Change!” gag is worth something (and is fittingly backhanded - that small sense of unevenness is, again, meant to be a feature, I think since it’s so core to everything about him and relating to others.) I also think Katsuki coming to terms with how he pushed Toshinori away despite wanting to be close to him, too, is a big fuckin’ deal!! Like a massive deal!!! While the concepts of All Might and Izuku are related to Katsuki, there are differences! They are different individuals to him with which he has a distinct relationship! And what about Mirko and Katsuki bickering??? It’s small and quick, but it’s cute and there!

AND I MEAN, EVEN MONOMA FREAKING THE FUCK OUT WHEN KATSUKI FALLS IS A BIG DEAL WITH VERY LITTLE TO DO WITH IZUKU!

Do I want more Katsuki-and-others 1v1 or even just in the fringe of others? YES! We were robbed of a Monoma-v-Katsuki fight, we were denied Mirio-and-Tamaki-and-Nejire witnessing the hot mess that is Katsuki Bakugo, fronting, self-hating, lovesick osana najimi in permanent “friendship purgatory”, WE WERE DENIED SIR NIGHTEYE WITNESSING KATSUKI AND HIS BAGGAGE REGARDING ALL MIGHT AND IZUKU, we did not ever get Midnight, Mic, and Aizawa watching tsundere-after-Aizawa’s-own-heart Bakugo make friends with his classmates, particularly Kirishima and Shoto and Denki, and giving Aizawa shit about the similarity in their situation, WE DID NOT GET TOGA GETTING A GOOD WHIFF OF THE BAKUDEKU DYNAMIC, only a short moment when he’s kidnapped. I also think Katsuki and Momo should have a fun mini adventure. I also want to see Katsuki and Hawks or Katsuki and Endeavor try to navigate a conversation between just the two of them. I want to see him go head to head with Gran Torino, socially speaking. With INKO MIDORIYA.

But you know what? Including those scenes or delving into them also runs the risk of extinguishing or too-quickly accelerating, you guessed it, the drama of the Bakudeku situation even as they might create new relationships for Katsuki separate from Izuku. They’re all related, these things, and potentially always will be, but they don’t have to negate each other.

#ask #Bakugo katsuki #arguably bakudeku #bakudeku #all might #Toshinori Yagi

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tobiasdrake · 3 months

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Well, we've met the kids. Now we need to figure out where we go from here. Let's plot some mischief.

"Magic seal" here defined as "Big glob of cancerous Dweller flesh". Can we just hit it really hard with moon and sun beams? I have it on good authority that our magic is stronger than this stuff.

...so the answer is yes. Yes, we can just hit it really hard with moon lasers. Don't even need Zale's help to take out this bottom-feeding scrub of a flesh blob.

Though I'm sure the crystal helped. A little.

Gonna go out on a limb and say it concentrates my moon powers into a solid laser of Fuck That Noise?

Concentrates my moon powers into a solid laser of Fuck That Noise.

Are you kids for hire? I mean, I know you work for Aephorul but fuck that guy. I would love to help with your research. If we'd known you existed, your research could potentially have provided another option for solving the problem of Torment.

Even though we've already taken care of that issue, who knows what other secret Unsolveable Dwellers might be lurking out there. Or in other worlds. If your shit can provide new avenues for Resh'an's efforts then that could be game-changing.

Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes

What did I say? What did I fucking say back at the Dweller of Torment? It's almost like uniformity is bad and diversity is good or something.

The biggest weakness of the Solstice Warriors is that we're too insular. There are so many other things out in the world that can benefit us.

I'll be back before you know it.

Alright, team. This is just like Roro's lab.

Plan A: Burglary

Plan B: Civil Negotiation

Plan C: Hostile Negotiation

Plan D: Armed Robbery

We're coming back with that master key. The Watchmaker's level of involvement, willing or otherwise, is going to be up to her.

XD Trying to imitate our time manipulation. These kids are adorable. I want to hire them. The logistics of that would be difficult given their confinement here but I want to.

You know, given that Aephorul himself was responsible for the brickwork, I'm surprised at how much of a shitshow it is. I criticized him before for the fact that he and the Watchmaker didn't understand how each other's stuff works and just did their own thing, but I expected the brickwork to be, at least, good.

That is just a pile of magic bricks. No self-respecting architect worth his salt would leave a pile of enchanted bricks lying around like this and call the structure complete. Have some professional dignity, Fleshmancer.

...okay, she's right there. But I don't think she's noticed us ye--

Holy shit, did you make Wheels!? Is that where I know the name Watchmaker from!? Ma'am, I am a HUGE fan of your game and I--

...am....

...in the middle of robbing you. >.< Shit, Plan A is out.

So. Is that "I will not give you the key because that would be involving myself" taking no part, or "I will not stop you from taking the key because that would be involving myself" taking no part? Centrism can be ambiguous sometimes.

I would remind you that trying to withhold the key from us will involve you in conflict right here in this room, but I think we're still at Plan B so I should hang onto my threats for later.

Okay, it's the latter. No threats necessary. Plan B was a rousing success.

Thank you for the pleasant conversation and nothing else. It has been a pleasure retrieving what we needed from this room while not doing business of any kind with you.

...this might have been too fast for Cael. I hope you'll forgive me if I take a little time to completely fangirl out about your game oh my god I'm such a huge fan.

Can we play a round or two? Please please please please PLEEEEEEASE

._. Okay that's fair.

I would promise to come back later but I'm prophesized to die in like half an hour so I guess this will just have to be a bucket list item never fulfilled.

Yep. Walked in and picked it up off the floor. Piece of cake.

What you got for me? On the scale of "Good" to "Super Good", how loud is this going to make me scream?

Can I see it? I want to see it. I want to know what it does. Tell me tell me teeeell meeeeee.

I want to see it. I wanna seeeeeeee it.

Fine. We'll do this your way, and I can just be surprised. I'm prophesized to die in half an hour so anything other than that is automatically a surprise by default anyway.

#sea of stars #drake plays sea of stars

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tired-reader-writer · 11 months

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Gonna put this under a keep reading too for... reasons.

It details Ellyus (my OC) rescuing Elan 4 because I'm still salty about his fate, damn it—

Y'know how Miorine could change the colour of Suletta's piloting suit and school uniform with just a tap with her phone? From that I think it's fair to reason that the uniforms of all the students would be able to do so as well, as theoretically any of them can potentially become the Holder, right? Miorine just has to be the one to authorize the change bc she's the Bride. Which means there's some programming or somesuch built into the fabric of the uniforms, telling them which colours to display, there must be some sort of technology involved with this.

Which means that technically, theoretically, if Ellyus were to somehow hack the mechanism...

Chaos in the entire school in the form of everybody's uniforms “malfunctioning” aka displaying colours they should NOT be displaying. Neon? Yes. Technicolor tie-dyed rainbow effect? Why not!! The school faculty is rushing to fix it but alas Ellyus had somehow taken over the controls of the mechanism so it doesn't stop until he lets up. Maybe he even makes them blink like disco lights or Christmas lights.

He was picking his and Suletta's uniforms apart to study the effect and how things got there, came out the other end with the power to unleash unruly pranks on everybody— And he took that principle and applied that to make a new thing, something like an Invisibility Cloak? Fabric that imitates the surroundings to make whatever it's covering invisible (he can make so many shenanigans with this). He also makes a couple big-ass blanket/cloak type things, just basically fuck-off huge sheets of fabric, and also decides to coat every surface of his handmade hovercraft including the buttons with the fabric.

Aka: a stealth transport device has just been born (yes I know that the decision to glue fabric on every surface of the machine is... weird at least and unhinged at best but hey, this is Ellyus after all). And I am pleased to inform you that it has a snack compartment.

So we've established that Ellyus is a) good at hacking, and b) has an invisible auto-mobile, right? So on the day Elan 4 is slated to die, like he's literally in front of the incinerator, all power in the building cuts off, the Peil ppl are trying to fix it but alas Ellyus is the one with the controls.

(Maybe he even snuck his little mobile onto the huge transport carriers taking Elan back to wherever Peil is and snuck into the facility that way) Surprise! Ellyus makes his way into the incinerating room and frees a very confused Elan from his bounds, scatters some plant ash he robbed (aka nicely asked) from Miorine in Elan's place, puts Elan under the invisi-blanket (he brought an extra) and proceeds to bridal-carry him out the facility.

Elan is so confused he doesn't even know where to start, but he decides to ask wtf why are they floating what are they even sitting on, Ellyus just cheerfully replies “my invisi-mobile! isn't it cool? we're getting you out of here, I promise. okay?”

4 was already disoriented and confused, he was so sure he was gonna die but now... everything's been thrown into jeopardy and he needs something, anything to ground him, anything he can anchor himself onto, and the fact that he can't see the craft nor Ellyus when he turns everything invisible really really doesn't help with the state of his mind— he starts freaking out until Ellyus just. pulls him onto his lap as he drove the hovercraft. He may not be able to see El but he can feel him and that's... that's kinda enough. It has to be. It staved off a panic attack at the very least.

They make it onto a ship, at which point El parks the craft in a remote corner before turning everything visible again and proceeds to feed 4.

Here's some... dialogue of Ellyus I scribbled out while bored:

“Hey, hey. You alright? You're shaking. I'm sorry. Didn't have much time to explain, we had to get away, you understand. And oh, let me just—” *opens snack compartment to take out the same type of concealing clothes he's wearing* “Should've given you this sooner, you must be so cold! Don't worry, this'll keep you warm, okay? You'll be warm. And you'll never have to pilot that damn thing again. Here, here, eat some more.”

“How did you know?” “Eat some more. What'd you say?” “That I was going to die today. That I was going to die period. How did you know?” “I just did. I knew. Had a feeling.” “What?” “Look, it's. It's hard to explain. It's like watching a glass fall off a building in slow motion, yeah? It's gonna shatter. You know it's gonna shatter. Like that. Does that make sense?”

(4 is thinking to himself “that makes no sense at all” but he... can't find it in himself to mind bc El is just so damn sweet already rambling about Earth House and where he'd settle 4 and picking out a new name and all that jazz)

*on the phone* “Hello? Suletta! Aye, sorry about the silence and oh, I've kidnapped Elan. Do you mind? I promise I'll return him by sundown! Hey, hey, none of that, we're all gonna celebrate a happy birthday together because uh, the thing may have become literal— What? Oh, pay it no mind. See you this evening, sweetie!”

#g witch #gundam witch from mercury #witch from mercury #the witch from mercury #mobile suit gundam the witch from mercury #gundam witch #gundam the witch from mercury #Ellyus Mercury (OC)#Elan Ceres #Elan 4 #El4n #like the strings on a rope (darling i fray like a firework)

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deeply-unserious-fellow · 1 year

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Elena of Avalor is a really solid show. There are like, almost no flaws in the narrative that I can find, and the ones I DO find are all minor and don't really effect it in the grand scheme of things, which is really impressive!!! But if I have one major complaint, it's with how the show handles it's magic system.

Not counting any contradictions between EoA and StF, the lore isn't so much inconsistent as it is vague. There's a lot I wish they elaborated on, mostly about Elena's powers, that they just didn't. So here's a bulleted list of all the things I wish got dug into a little deeper :D

The difference between normal wizards and malvagos. All we get on that front is that malvagos use dark magic that wizards are incapable of using? And that you become one by getting a spell cast on you??? And they have animal motifs?????? Like wtf is up with that.

How much magic Elena gained from being in the amulet. She was literally marinating in magical juices for 41 years, which you'd think would have deeper effects then just seeing ghosts and being able to use a cool scepter??? But she doesn't get any powers independent of magical objects until Takaìna, which is kinda weird and leads into my next point...

How the magic Elena gained from the amulet effected the magic she gained from Takaìna!!! Obviously Takaìna is a MUCH more powerful source of magical radiation then the necklace, so falling into that gives you more magic, but did the stuff Elena got from the well just get added on to her amulet magic? Did it enhance the already present magic?

Also, how does Takaìna even work? Is it like radiation but not deadly? Does falling into a well full of crystals hurt? Because I bet that would fuckin hurt. Why does falling into a well of crystals even give you, or the stick you're holding, powers in the first place? Does it actually even GIVE humans inherent powers or does it just give them the ability to use magical items? Is Elena's DRESS the actual source of her mood magic??? I mean we never see her use the mood magic WITHOUT her color changing dress so like-

On an unrelated note, why is Zuzo the only chanul Elena sees consistently? Is it because he's her chanul? Is it because she's just coincidentally never in the same room as anybody else's? Given how chanul's powers work being pretty similar to the way spirits come to the living world on Dia De Los Muertos you'de think she'd be able to see all chanuls all the time. Also cAN ESTEBAN SEE GHOSTS TO???? LITERALLY WHY HAVEN'T I SEEN ANYBODY EXPLORE THAT POSSIBLITY THERE'S SO MUCH POTENTIAL THERE-

How the fuck does the Scepter of Light work? Elena's the only person who can use it at the beginning of the series, and up until the Scepter of Night is introduced I just kind of assume it was because the amulet gave her a Very Special type of magic. But then Shuriki uses the Scepter of Night with no issues whatsoever???? What's her source of inherent magic??????? And then ASH can KIND OF USE THE SCEPTER OF LIGHT????? IS IT BECAUSE MALVAGOS HAVE INHERENT MAGIC IN THERE SOMEWHERE?????? BUT THEN ELENA SAYS IT ONLY RESPONDS TO GOOD MAGIC WHICH IS CONFUSING BECAUSE I WAS UNDER THE IMPRESSION THAT AT LEAST ELENA'S MAGIC WAS PRETTY NEUTRAL!!! THEN ESTEBAN CAN'T USE IT UNTIL HE SWITCHES SIDES BUT WHY???? WHAT MAKES MAGIC GOOD VS EVIL!?!?!?!?!? WHAT THE FUCK!?!?!?!?!?

Okay this one's kind of just a nitpick but there are several spells that just. Do the same thing. Like the turn somebody upside-down spell is just Levaluke with extra steps 💀

Why is Esteban's hair like that after he falls in the well? We know it isn't stuck like that forever because he manages to get it under control during the coronation. Is making the users hair stick up his staff's version of the scepter glowing to signify somebody can use it? If so WE WERE ROBBED OF ELENA'S HAIR STICKING UP LIKE THAT IN THE FINALE THAT WOULD'VE BEEN SO FUCKING FUNNY-

Okay those are all the things I can think of right now. Tbh I'm kind of just posting this to open up a discussion? I wanna rally together what little is left of this fandom to try and piece together a coherent magic system!!! It's what this show deserves!!!!!!!!/pos

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analexthatexists · 25 days

Text

TAWOG OC Playlist Explaination!

Strap in, this is a long analysis.

Also, this character’s name is named O2!

Check out the original post/playlist HERE!

My Ordinary Life

The 8-Bit part of it doesn’t matter, it’s more about the song’s name. An introduction to our character with a catchy song to go with it. However, the song itself has some pretty complex meaning underneath it and is more than just a nice head bop, but most of that is swept under the rug by using the 8-Bit cover, which could convey ignorance or innocence.

Basics in Behavior

O2’s suspicions about the reality of their world begin hitting them during school. The lyrics “Is it okay to have a feeling that maybe there is more to this game” and “This is how we live our lives searching for the answers inside of every page” from the chorus are the main focus here. Are these feelings valid? Is it okay to be questioning their world like this? She doesn’t seem to be the only one questioning this either. She can’t be, right? This is around the time she gets a hold of the files containing the truth of her world from THE AWESOME STORE.

Not Enough Time

The song is very frantic and intense. The type of stuff you’d hear in a “Time is running out, you need to act NOW” type of sequence. O2’s literally running out of time as she fails to warn the people of Elmore of what’s going on, eventually getting ignored and forgotten about, which leads to…

End is Near

The song starts simple, then the drop basically ruins the peace. It’s devolved into chaotic noise and random sound effects, yet still comprehensible somehow. Pretty much what O2’s mentality’s going through. With little room to breathe and already so much on her mind, she’s sent to The Void where she proceeds to lose it. She doesn’t want to be trapped here nor does she want to die with so little idea of what she’s even living for. She’s scared. She’s alone. End is near. …But…Her fears are suddenly cut off as the song does. She isn’t alone after all. (Hmm…A TADC song could of fit this playlist…)

No More Entities

Referring to the lack of people and answers in The Void name-wise, but the melancholy yet calmer tone of the song gives way to O2 taking a step back and relaxing, taking in the situation and accepting her fate trapped in The Void. Rob has been able to calm O2 down, and maybe things won’t be so bad after all. …Oh, how wrong that turned out.

This World of Mine, World of Everything, The World Revolving

These were all paired together intentionally. Let’s start with This World of Mine. Note: Around this time, Rob has escaped The Void as he did in The Void episode. O2 chose to stay. “Can’t accept? Well, you’ll come around; When headaches start and; The strokes have you bed-bound; Your time’s slowly creeping near; Footsteps won’t even sound” O2’s threatening someone. Who? Why, the producers/writers of the show themselves! The line “Can’t accept?” Specifically is her asking “Can’t accept the end of this show?” Referring to the fate of the show getting rebooted and a movie. “Well, you’ll come around” suggesting O2 believing they’ll change their minds about rebooting the show, the reason for that being a multitude of reasons; Backlash, CN cancelling them, ETC. She threatens them rebooting the show because she believes The Void consuming it and letting them die in peace is a better end than potentially being mutilated and turned soulless in a poorly done reboot. She’s the opposite of Rob; Cancel us and let us pass on, do NOT bring us back, I don’t WANT to be rebooted. It’s a lot like everyone else’s views that are against Rob’s ideals, but WAY darker. That line also goes for Rob, who has the opposite ideas and motives than O2. He’s vengeful and wants Gumball taken down and all that jazz. She’s just not into it, and the fact he won’t accept his fate in The Void only worsens their bond, if they even had one. World of Everything is very similar when it comes to what it’s trying to convey. Most of the song is just O2 trying to make herself feel better; Using painfully sarcastic phrases to make the end of the world sound a little more tolerable. However, each time she does so progressively gets more blatantly obvious that she can’t keep this up. “It’s a new domain, where everyday is all the same” Referring to the cartoon nature of the world and how it always returns to status quo. “All pleasure or all pain, it’s really all the same” O2’s grown numb of both happiness and pain. She’s not sure if there’s even a difference anymore. ”A world of all, yet nothing’s here. Stuck in a loop, year after year. I feel the laughter looming near; Am I the jester, or the butt of the joke?” Again, referring to the repetitive nature of Elmore and the show as a whole. The world is “Amazing”, and yet there’s nothing else to it. Was she ever even important to the story, or was she just a punching bag for jokes and humor? Was she even a real character or just made to be sidelined? A side character? A nobody? “Each step I take gets taken back; I’ve seen the end, the Final Act; The stage goes black; I’ve seen the cracks” All of O2’s actions amounted to nothing. They failed. She knows how the series ends and knows they’ll basically be trapped in a limbo-like state; Both alive and dead (cancelled) at the same time. A show that isn’t progressing or being cancelled. A hiatus. And it drives her insane. The World Revolving is the culmination of her mentality crumbling, to which now the music’s more sensible and easier to listen to, yet still very much chaotic. Unlike her last breakdown (End Is Near), this one is more controlled, maybe even purposeful. You couldn’t even call it a breakdown; It was just O2 accepting the world’s devolution into nothingness.

Heal

The finale is here. The last episode has arrived, Rob’s at Elmore Junior High trying to “fix” the people there, and O2 has nothing more to do and say. There’s nothing left. Nobody to go to minus the people above; The Creators. But why would she continue pestering them? It’s clear that isn’t working. Nothing else to do but… Reconcile. “An evil power draws near; An omen of rage, spite, and fear. Reawakened, stained by death.” The Void / Finale of the series. Might have even been referring to Rob and the remote. “I wish I had some better news. I wish I’d never fallen for his ruse. But I’ve no power to rewind time; So this is how we’ll die” O2 wishes this wasn’t what had to happen, but they can’t do anything about it, so this is how they’ll go out. ”He’ll leave this world a hollow shell; He’ll burn the lines between Life and Hell; He’ll leave us empty, as he himself; He’ll drown in chaos, all we’ve ever held” There is no “he”, they refer to the creators and the inevitable movie/reboot. O2 believes this will leave them hollow and not like their original selves (Or at least take some of their essence and character away, cough, cough, Steven Universe). She’s very pessimistic about all of this, and it’s reflected in the song. ”A cataclysm is soon to fall; The gods of ancient times won’t hear our call!” And even with the pleads for the series to die or for the fans to pray that the reboot won’t be bad, it’s unknown if their prayers will be heard, to which O2 believes they won’t be. Heal is all about impending doom and the inability to do anything about it. At least, to the singer. The mask shopkeeper has “no power to rewind time”, so they accept the death that will fall before them; The Moon coming down and destroying everything. O2, similarly, is powerless in this situation. Their world is going radio silent and fate is going to be unseen. She’s tried everything she knows and can do, but it was all for nothing. …But maybe she’s wrong? Link, with the ability to reverse time, was able to stop the fate the shopkeeper sang about. In a similar fashion, while O2 couldn’t do anything, the fans and creators can still do something about the fate of the show. O2 may believe nothing they did worked, but maybe they were able to reach out to someone. Who knows? All that’s left is an unknown fate. It’s not clear what will and won’t happen. Only one thing is clear to O2… “Pain is the only thing we still can trust”

This was REALLY FUN to write. Thanks to @friendly-neighborhood-furry for inspiring half of these ideas and for their really great indepth analysis of this playlist!

I might post the actual, like, character board soon, but for now, I’m just gonna post this. I’ll link the character post when it comes!

See you soon! . . .

#tawog rob #tawog #tawog oc #the amazing world of gumball #the amazing world of gumball oc #oc #oc playlist #oc rant #spotify #spotify playlist

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