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usernamesuggestionsarefunny · 3 years

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I am just going to straight up say it...

Warning, long rant ahead.

The whining about “people” shipping Bucky and Yelena instead of Bucky and Sarah started the minute one, a single soul, literally ONE person posted that they would like to see Bucky and Yelena together (Not even romantically, but as friends).

ONE.

“Too many people shipping it” my ass. It is like everyone was salty already, waiting for the first ever person to ship it in order to complain about it. I know, I was there when the first few posts were tagged with the ship.

I don´t know about other sites, but at least on tumblr? No one who ships Bucky and Yelena has said anything outrageous against Bucky and Sarah, but we still get called racist, acephobic and what-not in the comments for shipping something different just because Yelena is asexual in the comics. As if that matters in the MCU, as if the movieverse even pretended to respect the comics, as if canon sexual orientation had ever mattered when it comes to people´s shipping preferences, as if people were somehow forbidden or banned from having her as their asexual icon or writing her as aromantic and asexual in fanfictions just because a few other fans do, in fact, ship her.

There are more than 200 works on ao3 filtered as Bucky x Sarah.

Bucky and Yelena? They have 17. I swear, by the way some Sarah x Bucky shippers talk about Bucky and Yelena you would think their shippers have become a plague, or that we are everywhere, when in fact: Bucklena is not even a thing in fandom and will never canon, as opposed to Bucky x Sarah, which pretty much is. Bucky x Yelena is a literal crackship, it is not a threat to either Sarah x Bucky shippers or Yelena´s canon sexual orientation in the comics.

“They haven´t even met, how can those stupid people ship them? They obviously just picked the first white woman to come to the MCU!!!” I have read, or: “You shouldn´t ship it because whites have everything!!”

“There are very few aro/ace characters, you literal MONSTER!!!” Says the one who gives the Yelena/reader whateverthehell kink smut fics a free pass.

“Let us have this!” A few others cry.

Have what? The shippers you are talking about can´t hand you over anything because the characters are not theirs any more than they are yours. You do, indeed, “have” them already. Enjoy.

Most fans don´t work at Marvel, so it is not their job to ship (Or even avoid shipping) whatever you personally enjoy or makes you feel comfortable. It is not even their job to have diverse ships and/or characters. That should, in theory, be Disney´s job.

Also, stop pretending the only reason a small minority of the fandom ships Bucky x Yelena is because of her race. I am sure that might sadly be the case for some people, but it is clear as day most Bucky x Yelena shippers are just salty they never got Buckynat, which I think is a good enough reason to ship Bucky and Yelena, as good as any other. I read someone say this is “disrespectful” to Nat, or that we are trying to replace her, which is dumb, so freaking dumb. I mean, don´t lie, how many people started shipping Sambucky, or Winter13, or SamxSharon only after Steve left?

Is that “diisrrespectfuulll :´(” to poor baby Steve as well? Or is the whole being “disrespectful” thing just an excuse?

Like, you don´t need to make up excuses or rant about how “problematic” that ridiculously small non-canon pairing you dislike is. "I like x character single", “I don´t like this ship” or "I prefer this other one" are literally the only reasons you need not to ship something.

I never shipped Buckynat though. Some others simply fell in love with Yelena´s character as soon as we finished watching Black Widow and immediately thought of Bucky cause we like him as well or think it would be hilarious to watch them work together considering their different personalities (Some people pair their favorite characters by default regardless of their canon sexualities or lack of screentime together, SHOCKING!!), and it doesn´t take a genius to figure out Bucky and Yelena have similar backstories (Brainwashed into being assasins, abused, lost people who were incredibly important to them in endagme, blah, blah, yada, yada).

Is this “having stuff in common” reason for shipping superficial and basic? Sure, like 99% of crackships. Sue me, guilty as charged.

Not enough for you to ship it or even “get” it? Hey, that is totally valid!

Do I believe the people who say they don´t understand how anyone could ship it unless they are racist or hate asexual people? Hell no! The moment two characters share similar backstories in ANY fandom, a few people are inevitably going to notice, and some are going to start shipping regardless of whether the characters have ever met or are going to meet.

Admit it, it is not “puzzling”, it is not new or strange that people are shipping it. This fandom is not lacking in crackships. Loki and Bucky have been shipped. Steve and Loki have been shipped. Nat and Sharon, who don´t share screentime, have been shipped. Caphill and Falconhill: shipped with little to no screentime. Sam was shipped with Riley after only one mention. Peter and Shuri have been shipped without sharing any screentime, just like Bucky and Yelena, precisely because of stuff they have in common, and as I said, the haters began hating Bucky x Yelena almost the moment the pairing was born: I am pretty sure it is because they saw the similarities between the characters before or at the same time the shippers did and it made them feel threatened, so forgive me if I don´t believe the people who say it is the most random pairing ever.

Don´t get me wrong, Bucky and Sarah are definitely a thing. They were flirting, they had cute moments together, it is super obvious Bucky was trying to impress her, etc. I agree that the people who say they have no chemistry or that Bucky was remembering Steve´s mother or trying to make Sam jealous by flirting with his sister are all full of shit. He became 40s! Bucky whenever he was around Sarah, it is obvious he has a huge crush on her and viceversa.

I respect Bucky and Sarah as the canon ship, or most likely to become canon. I hope Marvel makes Yelena's asexuality explicit as well in the MCU, that they don´t pair her up with anyone, but fandom shipping and fanfiction are quite another thing. This is a hobbie, no one in the fandom owes anyone anything, no one has to ship or avoid shipping anything.

#anti buckysarah #anti bucky x sarah #not really #bucky x yelena #yelena x bucky #yelena belova #Bucky Barnes #anti culture #antis #mcu #mcu ships #not tagging bucky x sarah because I don't want to disturb your tag with stuff that isn't about them #long #mcu fandom #bucklena

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honkster · 3 years

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Why the Dream SMP’s way of storytelling is IMPOSSIBLE to recreate in any other medium.

This has been in the back of my mind for the longest time. I think I finally got it.

People have talked about this before, and they’ve put forward some good points, and good for them – most of them are correct. It’s the way the ccs interact with each other, it’s how plot is mixed in with banter, that’s all good! I wanna put more out there.

So you know how you open a book to read, you start a new show, you sit down to watch a movie – that’s all produced by some sort of company, someone who made it specifically for you to enjoy. You expect a certain dramatic flair to it, certain cinematic choices, certain ways of writing, certain camera angles, certain reactions to things. That’s just ingrained expectations of things now.

The DSMP? Doesn’t have that.

The low expectations work very much in its favor. It’s a Minecraft role-playing server with a bunch of famous youtubers/streamers, who are all good friends and have great dynamics with each other. So when you expect “just another Minecraft video” but in stream form, or you watch the videos because there are certain people in them, you don’t expect to be dropped into extreme lore and sensitive topics, realistic situations proposed in game form, a combination of serious stuff and just fun times with friends goofing around – and you’re pleasantly surprised.

We, the fandom, are used to it a bit more now. How excellently they manage to make a serious story in such a “ridiculous” medium, how much it affects us all and gets our creative juices flowing. But even the ccs can’t predict some of the things that happen. And that’s fun.

The whole election ending the way it has? That was on us. And it made some of the most angsty content there has been in the DSMP. People still theorize about the arc and make connections to now – that’s pog!

Fundy being adopted by Eret – that sparked the whole “Fundy just wants a dad – let’s get him some love” thing that made FundyWasTaken and other Fundy+someone ships happen. I see a different person paired with Fundy every week, and somehow, I agree with all of them. I really got into Fundy because of that stream where Eret “slept through the adoption” and Fundy confronted his real dad and spent time with his granddad. That little stream gave us more insight into Fundy’s whole character (Nevermind Fundy showing off his acting skills – you go you funky little fox), but also justifies some of his actions now. DryWaters? Wanting to kill Technoblade? Fucked up reasons, but we still love him.

Phil being broken out of house arrest ahead of time – still made a great stream and Phil agreeing with Techno’s want for revenge – that made us all very happy. The SBI!!! The AE! And that’s also a thing!

That even if we do know or have predicted what’s going to happen, begged it out of the ccs basically, it is still incredibly fun to watch. Where some books/shows/movies fall short and reveal too much and end up being “too predictable”, they’re not fun anymore. I read this somewhere before, that sometimes holding back EVERYTHING from the reader, and relying on shock value to make a good story is just bad. Whereas if you progress the story naturally and let the reader make some predictions of their own and then they end up being right – that’s a lot of serotonin right there. It’s the re-readability that makes it slightly better the second time.

The DSMP takes this concept and fucking yeets with it. Letting fans engage in the story, letting them theorize and then be right, even acknowledging the fanart that was made, just engaging with the community that their roleplay created – that makes it so much more fun. I bet that even if the whole script was revealed to the fandom we would still watch every plot stream. Even if we knew vaguely what happens in the stream, we would tune in and enjoy every second of it. Because the ccs are just that good, we love them that much, we love this plot that much.

Oh and the unpredictability helps too. Tommy in exile was the vague concept of a lot of the streams – it’s taken that and ran with it in a lot of different directions. All quite enjoyable.

Having said all of that… The fact that this type of telling a story is impossible to recreate in any other medium is… kinda saddening? It is incredibly unique, and I’d say has things that not a lot of the people that produce mainstream media would even consider. “Just friends hanging out” – how would that make the script progress? “Engagement with the fandom, even considering their wishes for the characters” – but we’re telling a story here!

The only thing I can think of that would come close to the vibe, would be just a bunch of writer friends coming together, thinking up a universe and general plot, and then each deciding to write a few of their own characters in that universe. When one author focuses on their main characters, the side ones can feel left in the dust, or not fleshed out. The DSMP is just “every character can write their own story”, which takes a lot of the strain from the “main writers”. But the general thing of “just friends hanging out” would be taken away from it. We’re being serious here, why would we change the tone so quick?

With all of that in mind… I kinda wanna make some predictions? And I don’t know if they’re correct, but it’s fun to theorize. See?

1. L’manburg will die.

And not just because Techno has 54 withers. The country is cursed – it definitely is. There is little sentimental value that can be felt for a few flimsy stilts built on top of a crater. It might go out in a blaze of glory, with the withers (Is history repeating itself an interesting enough plot point to recycle a whole arc?), but it might just be forgotten. Yeah there have been some angsty headcanons about how “no one cares about L’manburg anymore, save for two people” and it just gets abandoned, but how about it just becoming irrelevant?

This all comes back to Dream, it always does! His want, need for the server to be “one happy family again”, it just means one thing. He wants the server to return to the peaceful anarchy that it was before L’manburg. No rulers, no factions, no nothing.

That’s never going to happen.

Try as he might, Dream cannot affect that change that L’manburg did to the server. The introduction of a faction, one that can exist without the interference of a higher power – why do you think so many factions have sprouted up since? And it’s not even serious factions a lot of the time, it’s just a few friends deciding to build their bases on a plot of land that they claim is a nation now. L’manburg has changed the mindset of these people, now an alliance with somebody is a political move. An alliance doesn’t exist if it doesn’t have a faction, and that faction can remain neutral for only so long.

Basically, L’manburg introduced the factions mod into the server.

And the fact that every faction now has enough relevance to hold weight in a war also means that every nation on the server is doomed to follow the downfall of L’manburg. Eventually, they will get into a fight they can’t win, go up against the wrong people, anger someone they shouldn’t have. All factions will either be destroyed, or lose relevance, until their creators, residents and such just… move on.

(And really you can go into meta and talk about real governments and compare them, but it’s far more simple than that. The server isn’t built for peace, it isn’t meant to be a relaxing place where you can just vibe, it may have been made for a few friends to play Minecraft together, but it has turned into An Author’s Curse. The curse that follows any kind of story being told – the fact that peace is boring. People watched the first streams of the DSMP because they liked the ccs, and that’s valid. But how many more people tuned in to watch the war streams because there was PLOT and there was CHAOS and there WASN’T CALM PEACE ANYMORE – that’s the curse of every writer. That you can write about someone just living their life drama-free, you can make interesting peace with characters or circumstances, but it’s always leading to one inevitable conclusion – war, drama, because people read that. And at this point, it’s just a predictable outcome. No matter how much you say that you are retired, that you’re done with violence (Technoblade), something will happen that will prove to you that you believed in people too much. No matter how “neutral” you may be in the matter, no matter how much you claim that you have no allegiance (Philza), you will be forced to pick one, because out of all the bad things, you pick the least worst one, the most appealing to you, the one that can benefit your want of revenge.

And I can go on, but this is far too deep for one simple reason – The Author’s Curse is so prevalent here because THERE ARE ABSOLUTELY NO STAKES. It’s a video game – you die? You respawn. Something gets destroyed? You can just rebuild. Sure, you’ll want to kill the person who did wrong to you, but whatever they did wrong can just be replaced, remade, recreated. So why not have wars? Why not cause massive amounts of destruction “for the plot”?

It’s literally a playground. How all authors have their little playground with their characters that they meticulously plan out, the DSMP is that playground for all of these people.

And it’s fun! Sure! I like it! I’m just really skeptical whenever someone in character says that they “just want peace”, “are retired”, “swear off violence”, “are building just a little city for themselves”. Because you can do that, nothing wrong. But eventually, no matter how much you distance yourself from all of the chaos happening, all of the wars, you will return.

Because it is just much more fun.

It’s the curse. A cursed cycle.

And everyone is in it.)

2. The prison.

I don’t have anything on the prison because I don’t have anything on the book. Yeah I’ve done a whole post where I overanalyze what it could be, but it doesn’t make it any clearer. Whatever it is, it’s made out to be a huge plot point, something that can only be revealed when the prison is finished.

Cursed. The prison’s reason for being constructed is the book, but the book is only relevant when the prison is finished. We can only wait, and theorize, as we do.

(My only theory is that the book is information about another op on the server. Or at least something related to op or creative mode. Dream only fears one thing on this server, and that’s Technoblade, so if his one fear is the most skilled player on the server, what else could give him existential fear?)

3. The SBI.

Again, I don’t have anything! Yeah the reunion seems to be going smoothly, one member at a time, but there is already conflict in their beliefs among each other. And all that’s happened is a vague “maybe one day we’ll strike”.

Is history repeating itself an interesting enough plot point to recycle a whole arc?

Is L’manburg’s destruction AGAIN really necessary to hammer home the idea that no one likes that place anymore?

I don’t know. Whatever happens, no one’s in the right. No one’s in the wrong either. They’re all not good people and that’s that on that.

4. The Clingy Duo.

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.

That’s all.

(Okay seriously? All of these arcs are connected. You know what happens when everything seems to be connected to one another?

A giant, dramatic final showdown between the two opposing sides.

Cause it’s just Chaos vs L’manburg. Those are the sides. People that want L’manburg to exist and people that want it gone. There are no other sides, there isn’t someone who’s like “Well maybe it can exist if we do this and this” cause no one wants to put in anymore effort into this cursed country. The only people were the clingy duo and now they’re separated and everyone is just leaving and Tommy is on the Chaos side like at this point he doesn’t care about L’manburg he just cares about Tubbo but he has to convince Tubbo to leave L’manburg but will Tubbo be convinced but will Tommy even consider leaving L’manburg and breaking free from its curse AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.

Goddamit.)

5. The Egg?

Dunno shit about it. Like the prison – it seems important, but we’re just not being given enough information. Is it a coincidence that the moment Dream commissioned the prison the Egg popped up? Or are the two directly related?

I don’t know. But as long as someone is finding ways to fight the Egg, that’s fantastic. Bad juju indeed.

6. Oh the Butcher Army want to kill Dream!

Hah.

Okay I’ve seen people make the case that the Army is just a bunch of people with trauma repeating the cycle of ab*se that they went through and yes.

Just yes.

And the fact that no one is actually looking at it that way and no one is there to like.. help them or even help them understand that what they are doing is just irrational, even though their reason for doing it and the result they hope to achieve is YES and the only thing that a lot of the people of the server who want peace should try to go for as well, they cannot stand up to Dream on their own. They just can’t, they will get punted into exile. They need allies, and they need powerful ones, people that have also been wronged by Dream and want him gone.

But the cycle continues, and no one knows where it ends.

(Okay but from a writing perspective? Getting rid of Dream is the end goal. It is the be all end all of all conflict, well… most of it, at least most that’s related to the supposed “good side”, or “the side that’s been most victimized”. But from the same perspective, that side is just… no longer. It has proven that is just as bad, if not worse than the final boss. I have to agree that Techno has to pay for his crimes, even though I like him a lot, but Techno did in fact cause insane damage. Yeah L’manburg rebuilt, yeah Wilbur probably caused more – still he isn’t completely free.

But that’s a discussion on morality more than laws.

L’manburg is doomed to die. Dream is doomed to be fought, and probably won against (simply because he has won far too many times already, you know how everyone seems to hate OP characters…). But the Butcher Army is doomed to fail against Dream. So how does that work?

Welp.

Is history repeating itself and interesting enough plot point to recycle a whole arc?

The answer is no.

I’ve repeated that question three times now, and the answer to it is no. No it is not. L’manburg can be destroyed again, and it can be rebuilt again, but the sentimentality that people feel for it will not remain. The cycle of history ends somewhere, and it’s not too far a fetch that it ends here.

So what happens when Technoblade, Philza and Tommy roll up to L’manburg with withers and a destruction wish, only to be met with a bunch of traumatized children with axes and a death wish?

Well, I’ll spare the details, but from a purely writing standpoint…

The two sides team up.

Think about it – The Butcher Army doesn’t care about Technoblade anymore. They’ve seen that Dream is the one pulling the strings, they know that even if they do care about trying to eliminate Technoblade again, they have to get rid of his strongest ally – Dream. But through their anger, they’ve lost their fear. You should fear Dream, he’s a fuckin op. Techno is correct in not wanting to go against him.

But after Tommy? After seeing the Butcher Army at their lowest, screeching about Dream being the villain?

Will Techno finally go past his thinking of “government is evil, always government is source of problem” and realize that Dream has the most evil government in mind for his rule?

I’m still kinda sad that Techno isn’t making the conclusions he should about Dream. But he’s starting to – and really, the SBI-Butcher Army team up is the most logical thing that could happen.

Watch me be completely wrong or miss something and I’ve got ALL of it wrong. I would love that.)

(Also it’s very funny to me that Dream is literally simping for Techno while he’s just here like “Listen bud I would stab you on sight if you didn’t have creative mode”. Dream KNOWS that Techno can and will kill him given the opportunity. Techno knows that that opportunity may never arise.

It’s a weird type of stalemate, to be sure. But goddamn is it interesting.)

Anyway... if you read through all of this... I could bake you a cookie? Thank you! I like to ramble.

#dream smp #gooood its just a block game #ITS JUST A BLOCK GAME #...dammit #anyway #debate me #on everything please

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justonecitizenoftheearth · 3 years

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My issues with Darklina

Spoilers for the TV-show Shadow and Bone!

Also Trigger Warning for abusive behaviour, talk about trauma and cults!

I just finished watching the show “Shadow and Bone” on Netflix and scrolled through the tag on AO3... and I have to say I´m mildly horrified by the fandom´s obsession with Darklina or the ship Alina/Aleksander aka the Darkling.

I agree that they have good chemistry and they are played fantastically in the show. But the Darkling´s actions are just UNFORGIVABLE and here I want to explain why.

Before I start, I´ve got to say that most things I have to say about this are biased. I´ve been in a cult. I´ve been in a position where someone told me “You´re special, you´re one of us, I love you, come and join me” and boy, I payed the price for believing it. It didn´t go well, what a surprise. So I watched Shadow and Bone and I have to say, leaving Aleksander and never believing him again was the smartest thing Alina could do. Sometimes the only way out of such a situation is to turn around and run, no matter if you leave friends or a life behind that you would have wanted to keep.

The first thing that bugged me was that Aleksander manipulates Alina to like him. Yes, she´s calling the shots on their first kiss and he asks for consent in their making out session and he never holds it against her if she withdraws. But he tells her about his feelings of loneliness for a reason. He´s had centuries to figure out how the human brain works and their encounters are mostly calculated by him. So even if some of what he´s telling is true, he tells it to make her fall for him and that´s not right. That´s manipulative.

Secondly, isolating Alina is a huge red flag. Not letting her send letters to Mal, telling her time and time again that he´s the only one who understands her, the only one who is in her position, the only one she can trust. That´s unhealthy and it shows that he doesn´t see her as an equal. Aleksander makes decisions for her and that´s not supposed to happen.

One thing that´s not just about their relationship, but about the little palace in general: I read posts about people saying that Alina was finally accepting herself, that she was in a safe place, that she finally became confident and found her own worth. But the little palace is not a good place to be for Alina. Her closest friend lied to her. She was beaten with a stick during training. She´s bullied and she has a lot of responsibility put on her shoulders while she´s simultaneously being told that she´s not strong enough. When she leaves and meets Mal again, Alina doesn´t lose any of the good things she has learned. She´s still confident in her powers. She doesn´t let the crows take her prisoner. She defeats the man that harasses her with ease. All of that without being held captive in a palace, being shown off and being lied to.

And now the thing that broke the ship for me: Him gaining control over her powers: He´s letting someone plant the antlers of the stag INTO HER BODY. WITHOUT HER COSENT. He´s taking CONTROL OVER HER POWERS! WITHOUT HER CONSENT! That´s just a dealbreaker for me. I don´t care if he developed feelings for her. I don´t care if he turned away because he feels bad about it. If he´s willing to do that to her, to take control over her body and mind, to use her for his goals and to force her to do something she doesn´t want to if she doesn´t obey him ... that´s not love. Even if he genuinely likes her, romantic feelings are NO EXCUSE FOR ABUSE!

That´s my take on that ship. I want to add that I don´t judge anyone for what they´re shipping, that´s up to you, but for me, that ship sank when he literally put a leash on her.

To end this post on a more positive note, I love everything else in that show! The storylines intertwining, the diverse cast, Jesper being bi/pan without it defining his character, the interactions of the crows in general, the goat. Extra kudos for Mal and Alina being ambiguous in their relationship, someone can be the most important person in your life without it being romantic.

#shadow and bone #alina starkov #aleksander kirigan #alina x darkling #anti darklina #tw abuse #tw trauma #tw cult

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fyeahnix · 3 years

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Pathfinder's Quest — Bangalore/Wraith, Voidstrike Shipping Speculation? (7/7)

I'm going to talk about my thoughts on the Apex Legends lore book in a series of smaller posts. I have a LOT of fractured thoughts on this book and it would be unnecessarily long if I were to list them out in the same post. If you want to skip to some other post because the content in this one doesn't sound interesting, please do so! I will be numbering the posts and tagging them with "nix talks apex book lore" if you'd like to follow these specific posts and "apex book spoilers" if you'd like to avoid them.

This special post will strictly be about Voidstrike speculation. Keep in mind that this is speculation with a theory based on available lore. You don't have to take this seriously, but if you ship Voidstrike in any capacity, you might want to read this. Caution that this post will be very long and will contain quite a few images from the book as well as Broken Ghost and other supporting material. Let's go!

Book Content + Supporting Material

All right. I've been waiting an entire month to write up this post. You all know by now that Voidstrike is my OTP for Apex Legends. The unfortunate problem with this ship, like some other ships in Apex, is that they have the bare minimum of interaction with each other. Even in this book that proves to be true, except for one interesting little exchange through Pathfinder...

Do you see this comment? I asked Tom Casiello, Senior Writer of Apex Legends and Target of Internet Scorn (just poking fun at his twitter bio here), about it on Twitter and this is what he said:

Yes, that's right, y'all. These two have beef. I can imagine Wraith is little pissed about the whole "headcase" thing from Season 5's Broken Ghost quest:

I mean, can you blame Wraith? Anita’s kind of an asshole in canon, if we’re being honest, so Wraith wanting to get back at her in some way makes sense. She went the fuck off on Mirage when he made a similar comment about her in the Season 6 comic posted on Twitter. What's even weirder is Anita's response when Pathfinder tells her what Wraith said:

Now. I know what you’re thinking. “Nix, it’s not that deep, Anita’s just being a sarcastic dick.” And you would likely be correct, and I would not disagree with you. On the next page, however, this exchange happens:

First of all, why would Anita ask "why would Wraith tell me anything?" Has she tried talking to Wraith before and Wraith may have been closed off and/or hesitant? Or maybe she doesn't fully trust Anita because Anita has such strong feelings about the IMC? Is she... hurt by Wraith not telling her things? Did Wraith try to open up once before, get shot down by Anita's reaction to the IMC, and Anita's been a little salty about it since, henceforth, the shitty "headcase" comment? Maybe Wraith is being a little shit and getting back at her in a weird way. This comment initially sounded vaguely flirty but what do I know except the writers haven't been known to just write things for literally no reason...

Lots to think about here, but I'm hoping we'll get a follow-up to this in-game at some point.

And second of all, why would Pathfinder ask if they're best friends? I know he has an interesting view of who he considers friends...generally people who have talked to him for more than a minute:

But a “best friend”? What would give him that assumption about these two? Is it because they have some things in common? Or has he seen them interacting more than we (the players and lorehounds) know of? Is it because of their one exchange in Broken Ghost? I don’t think so at all. Granted, right on the next page Anita calls Wraith a lab rat (pretty shitty!), but as we learn later on, she is really sensitive and defensive about people who speak badly about the IMC (more on this in my post about Bangalore). I'm thinking Path mentioning Wraith being IMC pissed her off because Wraith, overall, blames them for what happened to her.

In any case, it's an interesting question to ask, and I do have to wonder if Wraith and Anita have been seen talking to one another for more than a minute lol. But Anita's answer is intriguing. She doesn't flat out say no. We know Anita to be very direct—sarcastic, sure—but generally you'd expect a straight fucking answer from her. Here, she doesn't even give one. She beats around the bush for an answer. What I think is happening here is about the same as her talking about Octane and Mirage. Remember that loading screen from Season 3? No? Well, let me refresh your memory...

Send in the Clowns (Season 3 Loading Screen)

Numbnuts! That’s what Mama used to call guys like that. You know the type. Big jokes, big trucks, big wallets...they need all that big to cover up what’s small. I got four brothers. Real gentlemen, raised with respect. They don’t have to woo-hoo their way through a battlefield like it’s a joke and they’re the punchline. Sorry, Laughtrack. The only punchline is you’re going home in a box.

Maybe Silva isn’t so bad. He’d take a bullet for anyone… mostly ‘cause he’s already fifty paces ahead, charging in with no game plan and even less strategy. Witt’s had my back more than once. And whatever, he’s gotten a chuckle out of me. Occasionally. Maybe they’re good. For morale, I mean. I mean… I just need them to stay out of my way.

She's just... like that. Anita is the type of person who won't openly admit that she actually likes or respects anyone. She's guarded, and she's probably been this way since her brother Jackson died. And that's where Loba comes in.

See, I think Loba has been making Anita rethink some things about opening up. Anita initially pegged Loba wrong, and in her chapter, Pathfinder basically figures out that she initially hated Loba because Loba reminds her of her older brother's shitty girlfriend:

I think Loba's purpose in her and Anita's budding friendship is to eventually lead Anita to opening up to others, especially Wraith, since Path mentioned they have a lot in common, which is something I've been saying for fucking months. Now, Wraith and Anita haven't really had any interaction that we know of outside of Broken Ghost and the book, but there have been some....very minor hints/foreshadowing. I'm going to preface this by saying you may think I'm being a little...out there with these points, but trust me, we'll touch on why these matter later. For now:

Back in Season 1, both Bangalore and Wraith were the first two Legends to get Legendary skins in the Legendary Hunt themed event. First occurence is an incident.

In the Season 3 opening trailer, Caustic throws a gas canister inside a room and you can vaguely see Bangalore and Wraith in the room on the same team:

In the Legend select screen, these two were right next to each other up until they were separated in Season 6. They were together. Five. Straight. Seasons. Was there another, more subtle reason they were separated? Common sense would say no, it's because we're getting more Legends and the UI needs to change to accommodate. Shipping and speculation sense would say maybe it's metaphorical and foreshadowing a story element. Maybe something happened between them that we aren't aware of yet and they've separated.

At the end of Season 6 for the Fight or Fright Halloween event, we got a bundle of skins called the Wicked Wraith bundle. Guess who's in it? Bangalore and Wraith plus some gun skins. But only these two Legends.. Hm.. Two's a coincidence.

In Season 7, we got the Black Friday event where we got both Airship Assassin and Outland Warrior back in the shop, two beloved Wraith and Bangalore skins respectively. Three's a pattern, and with this lovely banner:

In Season 8, for the Two-Year Anniversary Event, both Bangalore and Wraith received stat trackers of their concept art... We typically only get two Legends' trackers per each event with a prize track, and we got these two for this event? I predicted back in October 2020 that they would get stat trackers in the same event, but I didn't expect this event out of everything.

If one's an incident, two's a coincidence, and three's a pattern, then what's four very similar occurrences?

If you've read up to this point, you're either deprived for Voidstrike content like I am, or wondering just how much further I'm willing to dig for hints to support this ship. Trust me, I have a little more.

I am predicting that Anita and Wraith will start having some interaction starting Season 9 or 10. Why? Well, back at the start of Season 7, there was a Reddit AMA with the senior team members of Respawn. It was mostly to address the battlepass issue, but Manny Hagopian, the Lead Writer for Apex Legends, was also there answering questions, so I took a shot and asked him one:

You can totally chalk this up to typical “I can’t say anything right now” PR talk, sure, but I think he's hinting that this was in the plans. Tom has also said something:

Now, granted, this is Tom and mostly everyone takes whatever he says with a grain of salt, myself included, but it's worth keeping an eye on since what Manny says kind of lines up. We were supposed to get a follow-up to Broken Ghost, but that story, whatever it was, ended up being... let's say, "altered"? Tom has a thread on what actually happened on Twitter (that I did link here, but removed for fear of this post not appearing in the tags), but the follow-up was essentially "axed" and bits and pieces of it had to be kicked down the road in various different formats in the lore. What does this have to do with Season 9 and my theory?

Well, there's supposed to be some crazy stuff happening in Season 9 and I think we're going to start to see some elements pop up from what was supposed to happen in Broken Ghost. Why? Well another thing Tom said from that same Twitter thread:

I think whatever Tom was working on was related to IMC, Bangalore, and Wraith. And the reason I believe this is because of a now-deleted video from Chris Edgerly’s twitch stream from back around May 27th, 2020 or so where Tom was a guest. I unfortunately didn’t think to archive the page or video so I don’t have it, but I can say with confidence that I asked a question about Anita and Wraith having some future interaction about the IMC stuff, and the answer he gave was...suspiciously vague. He said something along the lines of:

"I just started writing something dealing with that and you should get to see it before the end of the year [2020]. And that’s all I’ll say on that :]"

I know that’s...well it doesn't say MUCH, but it is making me think that it's the same content he may have been working on. I have a feeling it may be in comic form, but who knows how the format may change. Season 9 is supposed to be fairly game-changing for Apex overall, according to the devs.

The last bit I wanted to mention was character development. I said earlier how I think Loba is helping Anita open up a bit more overall, and eventually that will turn towards others as well as Wraith. Anita, compared to other Legends, has seen character development through voice lines. And Wraith is kind of doing the same. Like sure Loba talks to Anita, but she hasn't really...progressed as a character much. She's remained fairly flat so far. We're actively seeing Anita's walls break down as she becomes more vulnerable as a person. And no one else is really doing this much except for, arguably, Wraith.

Wraith has had some very introspective voice lines to herself while on Olympus, basically wondering if the Rift explosion was a result of her experiments, wondering what type of person she was to have partnered with Singh. Wattson even mentions she looks more lost than usual, and Wraith responds that she needs to handle this on her own for now. We know from the end of Season 6's comics that she's learned she was apparently a shitty person in her past life with anger issues and a severe lack of empathy. She wonders about this and is actively working towards... not being like that lol. She's also fairly sarcastic as we've seen with her voice lines with Rampart, but she's developing as a character, albeit slowly and more subtly than Anita.

So now that that's all out of the way. Where do we go from here? Well, this brings me to a theory I've manifested due to the points in the post so far.

The Theory

What if Anita and Wraith were on pretty okay terms with each other previously and we just haven't heard about it yet? What if they’ve known each other for a while?

Anita has been in the Outlands with a small group of IMC soldiers, her brother Jackson and General Lewis included, for about 18 years. She's been in the Apex Games for about 3 years and the Hestia incident happened about 3 years ago:

That lines up. Since the start of the Apex Legends lore takes place in 2733 (as of Season 8 we are now in the year 2734 in lore), that would mean she had to have joined around 2730. What about Wraith?

Well... I think Anita and Wraith joined the Apex Games around the same time. In the book Wraith mentions that she took a few years to hone her skills before she ended up in a qualifying match:

She arrived at our Kings Canyon in 2727. If she took a few years, she had to have joined around 2730-2731. What if they met and actually were amicable? Closed-off on both ends, but mutually respectful towards each other as coworkers? And maybe this is what causes Pathfinder to assume they're "best friends" in the book.

...That is until the Repulsor incident happened and the IMC labs under Kings Canyon were eventually unearthed. Wraith learned her real name and what the IMC (ARES more specifically) did to her and so did the rest of the Legends she was somewhat close to—Mirage, Pathfinder, and...Anita.

What if Anita took the IMC disrespect personally, thought Wraith was placing blame on the IMC instead of taking responsibility for her own actions like Anita mentions in the book, and Anita blew up about it? Wraith would probably feel extremely hurt by this and withdraw from opening up even more. At this point, Anita would hold a bit of a grudge about the IMC bad-mouthing.

They continue to work as coworkers and on a team when necessary, but the mutual respect has been...lost. Wraith finds friendship elsewhere in Wattson. Fast forward to the events of Broken Ghost. Anita is stressed, annoyed, dealing with too much shit at leading the operation, and hurls an insult at Wraith, the infamous "headcase" comment. It's extremely shitty and uncalled for and while Wraith doesn't explode at her in the moment because of dire circumstances, she absolutely doesn't forget it. It hurts her deeply.

What if after the events of Broken Ghost, their connection is severed. There's some bad blood between them. Wraith's friendship grows with Wattson while Anita's friendship grows with Loba. That separation in the Legend Select screen starting from Season 6 onwards seems a lot more metaphorical...

So fast forward once again to Wraith's comment directed at Anita in the book. It was an opening Pathfinder inadvertently provided and it was an opportunity to take a jab at Anita. But instead of being overtly shitty, she makes a relatively teasing comment. Maybe an olive branch to squash what they have and move on? Anita's response is to thank Wraith when she sees her again. Sarcasm? Maybe. But what if she's being genuine? What if the comment was a joke reflective of the type of humor they shared when they were on better terms with each other?

Anita has been opening up more to Loba, and though shes's still sensitive about the IMC, what if she's more willing to...apologize for the initial shitty comment?

The Theory Continued

Anita has recently, in canon, mentioned Jackson to Loba. Jackson is a VERY sensitive topic for her, and so far, the only two people we know of who have heard her discuss Jackson are Loba and Pathfinder. An interesting thing about Jackson that can be tied back to Wraith is this:

Anita clearly does not accept the ARES Division as part of the IMC, but more than that...Jackson found out the ugly truth about the IMC overall and believed it. Wraith was part of ARES Division and it's why Anita doesn't consider her IMC. Here's where the connection can work:

Continuing the same theory, what if Wraith reminds Anita of Jackson in the worst way possible because of what he told her about the IMC and ARES? Wraith revealing her name and what happened to her conjured up old, painful memories and caused Anita to lash out and close herself off again. Now that Loba is bringing out discussions of Jackson in canon, what if this leads to Anita and Wraith coming back together and rekindling their friendship? There's a lovely quote from Jackson's letter in the book that I feel could foreshadow that happening, too:

"...But in all seriousness, I'm so proud of you. And always remember, what's broken can be fixed. What's shredded can be mended. And what's torn apart can always be put back together again. Love always, Jackson." (82)

What if eventually—slowly, but surely—rekindling this lost friendship leads to Anita opening up to Wraith again? What if it leads to Anita being open and vulnerable enough to learn more about the IMC and ARES Division with/through Wraith via the labs under Kings Canyon? That place is a goldmine of classified information and she very well can see and hear firsthand all the terrible shit they've done. It would be extremely hard to do this, of course. And that's where Manny's comment from the Reddit AMA comes into effect: "...There's much more for both characters to learn and when they do, it's very possible to experience a moment between them, but patience is important."

This is, of course, all just a theory based on what we know about the lore. Is it ridiculous? Possibly! But I also don't think it's entirely farfetched either.

In Conclusion...

I imagine once we get to Season 9—potentially 10 at the latest for quarantine padding and last-minute changes—maybe we'll start seeing them begin to acknowledge each other in some way, and I'm thinking mostly negatively at first. And I don't think it'll be a lot either. Maybe a snarky location voice line or two. Maybe a little mention in a comic or Twitter lore bit. But only a little.

I definitely do think we can expect to see them getting to the point of interacting in the future, but it'll be a slow ride and slow burn. And hey even if we don't... I'll have this post to keep me warm for the rest of my days playing Apex.

Anyway, that's all I have for you! Thanks for reading if you made it this far, I do appreciate it. I love this pairing a lot, and this was really fun to write! Remember, it's just speculation based on....stuff, haha. You don't have to take it or like it at all, but what else am I to do when I'm starved for interaction of my ship? :]

#Apex Legends #Bangalore #Wraith #Voidstrike #Bangawraith #Apex book spoilers #nix talks apex book lore

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the-silvr-speedster · 4 years

Text

About Starfish and Squares

Fandom: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D Pairings: Daisy Johnson / Daniel Sousa

Basically just Daisy trying to figure out what to do about her feelings for Daniel and Daniel being... well, Daniel. All with a little teasing and heart eyes. Set after the end of S7 in a timeline that was changed a lot (just my pure speculation).

Hi guys! Uh, it's been a few years since I've actually published something (and didn't finish, oops). This is my first fic connected to a TV show, but since it is my favourite one and is already ending and they gave us Daniel freakin' Sousa as a new love interest for our girl Daisy I just couldn't sit on the sidelines but jump on the ship and now I am basically just a Dousy trash. Plus I got ideas and couldn't wait until the season ends hence this little fic I put down over the weekend. The timeline is pretty messed-up at this point and I have no idea what are they going to do about it so, this is just my pure speculation about what it would look like in the future after all those changes. Basically, I just wanted to write one small fluff and flirty scene but somehow this fic came alive and decided otherwise. But enough of my rambling, I hope you enjoy reading this. Beware of mistakes, nobody else edited it but myself and I may be a little rusty in writing in English.

And just a little disclaimer: I don't own any characters, they are a property of Marvel and Marvel Television.

He could hear the sound of Daisy's fast typing before he walked into Zephyr’s dining area. She didn't see him enter the room, though. Sitting sideways at the table, she kept her eyes trained on the laptop screen, completely focused on her work. Daniel stopped in the doorway, leaned against the wall, and quietly watched over her like she could disappear into thin air at any moment.

He caught himself doing it ever since Nathaniel killed her mom and he found Daisy on the ground next to her body with tears welled up in her eyes. She let them fall the second he softly spoke her name. She buried her face in the crook of his neck and he stroked her hair and held her close as long as she needed it. God knows that if it was up to him, he would hold her like that forever. She clung to him for dear life.

“You are hurt,” he worriedly looked over the bump on her forehead, brushing her hair from her face.

She didn't respond. She moved her hands to his chest and kept looking at them, lost in thoughts. A look of fear and confusion crossed her face and she finally met his eyes.

“How am I still here?”

That sentence stayed on his mind for over a week now, like a constant reminder of how much Chronicoms screwed up the timeline - with the help of Malicks, mainly Nathaniel. Just a brief thought of him brought that rage against the man full force. He shouldn't dwell on that anymore, it was in the past after all, but still, he couldn't forget. The barn. What he did to Daisy. To her mom. Daniel shook his head. Nathaniel is long gone now; Daisy took care of that. In the end, it didn't matter that he had those powers longer than she did. She crushed him, just like she told him she will back in that godforsaken barn. Daniel was so proud of her.

They won. They destroyed Sybil permanently with the help of Fitz and returned to the future. Not like it was a return for him but he didn't mind being here... with her. It was so strange to him. Yes, he had fallen in love before but somehow this was different. Unexpected. It hit him like a bullet in the back, totally unprepared and he was too far gone before he even realized it. ‘Huh, no pun intended,’ he thought. Million times better than those two bullets in the back he was originally supposed to get. And yet, at the same time, it scared him. The thought of him making it to the future without her. He was scared that the messed-up timeline will catch up with them and take her away from him. Not that she would be his, she is her own person but... He closed his eyes and shook his head again. He is in head over heels.

Something has changed between them. Well, more precisely, something about Daisy has changed ever since she was stuck in the time loop. Whatever that was, whatever happened that she didn't tell him about, it gave him a sliver of hope that maybe, just maybe she's falling for him too. A hope that this time it won't end up like with Peggy. However, another part of him kept screaming not to give his hopes up. After all, she is a superhero with impressive powers from the future and he - he is a square, she said it herself. But he finds it that he doesn't care. He just wants to be there for her in whatever way she lets him. People like her should have someone to pick them back up after they hit the figurative walls. In Daisy’s case even the literal ones.

“Enjoying the view?” Daisy calls with a smirk. She could feel Daniel's presence for some time now but wanted to finish her work. Setting up new identities and lives in this new timeline is a pain in the ass. She officially doesn't exist, Daniel is supposed to be dead, Coulson is actually still alive so she has to set something up for LMD version of him and Deke - well he was always out of time.

She turns to look at Daniel at the lack of his response. He is looking in her general direction but his eyes are unfocused. She keeps looking at him, almost getting lost in her own thoughts that she promised herself she'll sort through. Mainly those particular memories from the time loops.

“Earth to Sousa,” she calls again, tilting her head to the side. She can't help but smile as she sees his eyes focusing on hers.

“Hi! Sorry, got lost for a while,” he sheepishly smiles and pushes off of the wall.

“Anything interesting on your mind you'd like to share?” Daisy can't help herself but tease him with a glint in her eyes.

Daniel's breath catches for a moment, fearing she could read his mind somehow. But she can't, can she? She's just teasing him. She likes to do that. He throws up his arms and looks around. “Everything is on my mind.”

“Yeah. It's a lot to process, I guess. But you are a champ at that by now,” Daisy tells him, watching him with a soft smile as he walks over to the fridge.

“Don't know about that,” he throws over his shoulder as he takes out some eggs and veggies. “Hungry?” He looks at her questioningly as he sets the ingredients on the counter.

Daisy's stomach rumbles as an answer. She laughs. “Like a wolf.”

“I'll make us some omelet,” he proposes as he prepares to start cooking.

“OK. Thanks,” Daisy softly says and tries to concentrate on her work again. She fails at that miserably, her eyes wandering towards Daniel all the time. ‘How is he even real?’ She keeps asking herself ever since she first met him in his office in 1955. She has to smile at how crazy that sounds in her head. They basically know each other for seventy-five years. She doesn’t question everything he does for her anymore. She got the answer on that in the time loop. However, that doesn’t mean he stopped surprising her. It’s nice to have someone who takes care of her for once. Someone who is listening to her and is just…there for her. She doesn’t need to be his rock like she always used to think she needs to be for everyone else on the team.

Daisy looks at him again. His back is turned towards her as he is chopping the veggies. ‘What a sight to behold.’ She grins widely at that and bites her lip. Nope, she can’t get distracted. She still has work to do. She fixes her eyes on the screen of her laptop again. The more she’s trying not to think about him, the more she does. She thinks about their little conversation. About that kiss… ‘Nope. Definitely not going there. Not now.’

“Daisy?” The sound of her name tears her out of her thoughts. She likes how it sounds when he says it.

“Huh?” She looks at him and hopes her face doesn’t give away what she was thinking about. He is leaning against the counter fully turned towards her with an amused expression.

“I asked if you know where Coulson and Deke are,” he tells her. Of course, he doesn’t ask what was on her mind when she wasn’t answering before. He’s nice like that.

“Uh, I think Deke went to set some things up for himself with the new ID I made for him and he said something about staying over at Fitz-Simmons’s this night,” she shrugged. “And Coulson is charging back in the LMD lab,” she pointed with her hand towards it.

“So, it’s just the two of us then,” he stated the obvious, his deep brown eyes locking with hers.

“Uh-huh,” she hums, breath catching in her throat. She should have some funny retort to that, shouldn’t she? “Any ideas?” She teases with a smile and slaps herself mentally. ‘Why am I like this?’

He doesn’t break eye contact and Daisy can see the change in his eyes. He gives her a small amused smile like he can see right through her. She can feel the air becoming heavier.

She cleared her throat. “I mean, I got us new Netflix subscription, so… if you want, we can watch-“ She was interrupted by a beep of a pop-up window on her laptop. “Oh, come on!” She exclaimed frustrated.

“Something’s wrong?” Daniel asked concerned.

“Nothing I can’t fix,” she told him as she started to work on fixing the problem. “But it will take time,” she sighed and ran her hand through her hair.

“OK, I’ll leave you to it. I’ll finish dinner.” She gave him a grateful smile and he returned to preparing the meal.

Daisy told herself that this is why she can’t deal with her feelings right now. Why she can’t think about how nice that kiss was. She has work to do and she needs to finish it first then deal with whatever is going on with the two of them. The sooner she does that, the sooner they all can start living a new life somewhere that is not on the Zephyr. A quick thought goes through her head; she always finds an excuse so she doesn’t have to deal with her feelings. She always tells herself “later”. Maybe it’s easier to do that than admit to herself that she is scared. Maybe a part of her is grateful the time loop did reset and Daniel doesn’t remember what happened. Because the last thing she wants is for him to get hurt…or worse. That is what happens to people she cares about, who care about her. She still remembers that time when she was in the dark place after everything went down with Hive and Lincoln, after she chose to leave the team and become a vigilante. The pain, the guilt she felt. May has told her back then that she doesn’t get to choose who cares about her. And finally, she accepted it; she returned back to the team. And then Coulson died. And Fitz. They went to space to search for the other version of Fitz. Davis was killed. Then May almost died in her arms in that temple and next thing she knows they are on the Zephyr in 1931. When she thinks about it, she’s been bottling everything up. She labeled every feeling, every memory with the “later” tag.

She can feel tears forming in her eyes so she blinks a few times to get rid of them. How did her mind go down that dark rabbit hole with just a single thought? She doesn’t know. What she does know is, that she will have to deal with all of it one day and she can’t ignore the small part of her which hopes that Daniel will be there to pick her back up after that dam of bottled feelings and pain breaks down. One day, but not now.

*******************************************************************************************

Daniel woke up in his bunk. The light was still on and the book he was reading laid open on his chest. He looked at his wristwatch. 3:35 A.M. He ran his hand down his face with a sigh. He doesn’t even know when he fell asleep.

After he and Daisy ate the dinner, he retreated to his bunk to continue his research on everything he missed in seventy-five years. Daisy showed him some web pages on the tablet that could come in handy, like this Wikipedia thing. She said though, to take everything written there with a bit of skepticism since apparently the page is sometimes not the most reliable source of information. Coulson gave him some history books he picked up for the team in a bookstore in a nearby city since those they had from before were useless in the new timeline. Nobody seemed to be interested in reading them but him. After they found out that the real Coulson is alive as well as May’s ex-husband Andrew which is not an ex in this timeline and they have a daughter, and that the public doesn’t know anything about the existence of Inhumans, Daisy kind of didn’t want to know more about what changed. Mainly after Fitz mentioned something about Grant Ward being alive too.

Daniel sat up on his bed with a grunt and put the history book aside. His mouth was dry. He decided to go get some water. He quietly opened the door on his bunk and walked towards the dining area. As he walked past Daisy’s bunk, he saw that the doors are open and her bed is empty. He closed his eyes with a sigh. Leave it to her to rest and she won’t.

When he entered the dining area, he was greeted with a sight of Daisy sleeping with her head placed on her arms next to the laptop on the table. She looked peaceful but uncomfortable. He shook his head with a smile and walked towards the counter to pour himself a glass of water. After he drank it, he moved next to Daisy and lightly put his hand on her back.

“Daisy?” He whispered so he wouldn’t startle her. She didn’t move.

“Okay,” he murmured to himself. ‘Let’s try something else.’ He carefully moved her body in a proper sitting position while simultaneously going to one knee. Putting his one arm around her back and the other under her knees, he pulled her close and her head rolled onto his shoulder. A soft sigh escaped her lips but she didn’t wake up. He stood up with her in his arms and slightly adjusted her weight, although it was so much easier and painless than the first time he carried her. He can’t be more amazed by the new prosthetic. Daisy’s arms went around his neck and she hid her face in his shoulder with another (content?) sigh. He smiled and before he thought better of it, he kissed the top of her head.

When he got to her bunk, he carefully put her down on the bed and unlocked her arms from around his neck. She grunted unhappily at the loss of contact. Smiling, he moved towards her feet and started undoing her shoes. When he was finished, he pulled the blanket from under her and covered her with it. Satisfied with the result of Daisy sleeping comfortably in her own bed, he looked at her one more time, leaned over, and softly brushed some hair from her face.

“Good night, Daisy.” He whispered as he straightened up. When he turned to leave the room, her hand caught his wrist.

“Daniel?” Daisy murmured half asleep. “Stay.”

His heart leaped into his throat. He stepped closer to her bed, her hand still holding his wrist. Her eyes were opened, looking at him pleadingly in the low light coming from the corridor. She slowly moved further on her bed to make a space for him. He was, however, waging an internal war. After all, this is something that would be considered highly inappropriate in his times. Probably even now, in the 21st century.

“I shouldn’t,” he told her quietly.

“Please,” she whispered her eyes closing again.

He sighed heavily and mentally cursed himself. He would do anything she asked of him, wouldn’t he? How could he say no when all he wants is to hold her close? He wants to stay but he shouldn’t. Yet he already knows he’ll do as she wants.

“OK,” he murmured resignedly.

Daisy smiled, satisfied, and let go of his wrist. He closed the door and sat down on her bed. He took off his shoes before he crawled under the blanket with her. She immediately moved closer to him and put her head on top of his chest, resting her hand over his heart. His instant shock melted away quite quickly and he wrapped his arm around her waist pulling her even closer. She hummed contently. Daniel turned his head towards hers and planted one more kiss on top of her head, smiling. Any doubts he had before disappeared in the warmth of her body pressed into his side and the feeling of her heartbeat resonating with his own.

*******************************************************************************************

No nightmares this night. That was the first thing that went through Daisy’s head after she woke up. She sighed and pressed her head into the pillow happily. Only then she realized that it’s not her pillow she is pressing her face into but another human being’s chest. That was the moment she became acutely aware of a warm arm around her waist holding her close and the fact that her legs were tangled with the legs of that person. She was basically sprawled across half of him like a freakin’ starfish. She went rigid for a moment before she finally dared to open her eyes. She was in her bunk. How did she get here?

If she was being honest with herself, she didn’t really need to look up to figure out who she made a pillow from. She already knew, but still, she looked up to be met with a peaceful face of sleeping Daniel Sousa. Was his face really buried in her hair before she looked up or it just looked like it was? She felt her cheeks burn. Her heart hammered in her chest at high speed. ‘Please, don’t quake,’ she begged herself. God, she was so grateful that he was still asleep and didn’t see her blushing. Speaking of… Daniel sighed and his arm tightened around her waist. ‘Shit!’ Daisy moved her head down, the last thing she wanted was for him to wake up to her staring at him while profusely blushing. She could feel how his own heart was slowly picking up pace. She smiled. Somehow it made it less awkward that her own heart was racing like crazy. Now that she comes to think of it, this is an extremely comfortable position and she really likes her new pillow.

“Hmm, good morning,” Daniel murmured hoarsely.

“More like lunch, really,” she babbled, looking at the clock on her bedside table. “But good morning to you too,” she quickly added hiding her smile in his chest. “How did you know I was awake?”

“Apart from that heartbeat of yours? Hmm, let me think,” he chuckled. She liked how it resonated in his chest.

“Sorry,” she said as she slowly looked up at him, locking her eyes with his. “A little side effect of my powers. Be glad I didn’t quake you out of the bed,” she smirked.

He raised his eyebrows, an amused smile playing on his lips. She tried not to look at them for too long. “That happened before?”

“Nope. But once I quaked myself out of the bed,” she laughed and he joined in. It lighted up his eyes even more. She had to look down on his chest to gather her thoughts. It wasn’t helping very much. “Anyway,” she cleared her throat, “care to elaborate how am I actually here? Last I remember I was resting my eyes on the table in the dining area.”

“Well, it wasn’t much of resting your eyes as it was more of an uncomfortable sleeping,” he chuckled. “Tried to wake you up but you wouldn’t even budge. So, I carried you here,” he explained.

Daisy met his eyes again amused, trying not to imagine him carrying her in his arms. “You carried me here? Just like you carried me out of that barn?”

“Uh-huh,” he hummed looking down at her.

“You seem to like carrying me around a lot, agent Sousa,” she teased him while pushing up on one elbow so she could look at him better. He gave her a small smile and…did he just look at her lips? She gulped.

“You seem to like being unconscious a lot, agent Johnson,” he replied jokingly.

Daisy smiled widely. “Well then, in that case, you have to carry me while I’m still awake next time.”

“Maybe I will,” he teased her back with a glint in his eyes.

'Looks like someone is in a playful mood this morning,’ she thought to herself. “I’ll keep that in mind,” she hummed. The way he was looking at her, the way his arm was burning her waist through her t-shirt and the way her own hand just casually laid on his chest suddenly became unbearable and at the same time she wanted more. More of him. Her eyes flicked to his lips, then to his eyes and then anywhere else but him. One side of her just wanted to lean in and kiss him like she did in the time loop, another side was basically screaming at her to abort the mission. She inhaled deeply to calm herself down and pushed away from him completely, now lying next to him on her back.

“So,” she started again looking at the ceiling twisting her hands together nervously, “did I, uh, say something after you brought me here?”

“Uh-huh,” he said as he propped himself on one elbow, now looking down at her with that little smile of his clearly enjoying himself by teasing her. Oh, how the tables have turned.

“Did I…beg you to stay?” She asked him, eyeing him cautiously.

He just smiled even more.

“I did, didn’t I? Oh God,” she mumbled, covering her face with her hands as she heard him chuckle next to her. “Sorry. The last thing I wanted was to put you in an uncomfortable situation. I just…,” she looked at him, her hands now playing with the hem of her t-shirt. She took a deep breath. “When I am extremely tired, I kind of loose the filter and say whatever is on my mind. Like a drunk person.” She smiled innocently at him.

“So, you are extremely honest then?” He asked her with a smirk, some kind of plan already forming in his eyes.

Daisy laughed. “Don’t you dare to use it against me,” she warned him jokingly. “Anyway, did I say…anything else?” She knows that there is so much she could’ve possibly said to him, things that she can’t reveal while she is in a half-asleep state when she definitely won’t take a moment to explain herself.

“You called me by my first name,” he shrugged, still smiling.

“Hmm, did I?” She grinned. She was calling him Daniel in her head since…well, since the kiss probably. “It would be a shame to go back to calling you Sousa now, wouldn’t it?”

“It definitely would,” he agreed.

“So, Daniel it is, then,” she smiled softly at him. “But I mean it, I’m sorry for putting you in that position. I know that you’re-“

“A square?” he cut her off with a raised eyebrow.

“That’s not exactly what I was gonna say but since you’ve mentioned it - I kinda like squares,” she gave him a teasing smile and he had to look away for a moment before finding her eyes again. “I mean, I basically made a pillow out of you and wrapped you in a starfish hug - unconsciously - but still. Without an explanation or…something.” She looked at her hands sheepishly. “I just can understand that it could be too much for you and-” She kept rambling before he cut her off again.

“I kinda like starfish,” he told her with a shrug.

She looked up at him. His face was soft and honest and she thought she’s going to drown in his warm eyes.

“And I didn’t mind being your pillow at all,” he added.

Just one swift move of her hand to grab his shirt and pull him to her. That is the only thing that she needs to do to kiss him. Right there and then. Daisy already knows he would be more than a willing participant. She knows that is would be probably even better that their first kiss - which he doesn’t remember. That is probably what is keeping her from actually going for it. Maybe she should just tell him. Or kiss him first and tell him later? ‘No,’ she tells herself. ‘This is not the right time or place for that conversation.’ And yet she can’t help herself. She can’t break the eye contact, she can’t move. She’s frozen in place and maybe even space and time, because what are those? They are inconsequential at this moment. She is lost in that chocolate heart eyes of his. They are reflecting exactly the same emotion, exactly the same desire as hers. He wants to kiss her too, she realizes, but he won’t unless she gives him a go…or kisses him first. And just like that, she can see in all play out in her head. Maybe she should go for it even without that conversation. She should just go for the kiss and not label it with the “later” tag like everything else. Maybe, she will…

“Well, I guess that every starfish needs its own square to make a pillow from,” she said in a low voice, her hand rising up to softly cup his face.

“Hmm, it would seem so,” he hummed in agreement and started to move closer, her touch giving him the courage to do what he wanted for so long.

Or not…

They were suddenly interrupted by a loud crash and sound of something breaking. They both jumped up into a sitting position with a panic written all over their faces.

Deke’s voice echoed from somewhere in the corridor. “Uh, guys?! We don’t really need the main control panel on the bridge anymore, right? Because it kinda, uhm, broke.”

Daisy let out a frustrated sigh and facepalmed. Leave it to Deke to be the buzzkill. She looked over at Daniel. The initial annoyed look on their faces slowly transformed into a huge grin before they both burst out laughing. She hid her face in his shoulder and he put his arm around her waist, enjoying one last moment alone before they go off to deal with the new disaster. Daisy at least knows now that they really need to have that conversation soon. Because whatever this is, she wants it no matter what.

“Guys?!”

Ok, so this was supposed to be a one-shot but if anyone is interested I might write down at least one more chapter about "that conversation" and kiss. I didn't want to include it here since there are already so many fanfics about how Daisy breaks the news about their kiss to Daniel.

I hoped you enjoyed it and I guess we'll see each other in the Dousy trash can.

UPDATE: There is a sequel to this fic, called HOME. Just FYI, if you were interested in reading more Dousy content. Link is here.

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laceymorganwrites · 4 years

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Fluff Alphabet: Kidd

A=Affection

Kidd´s affectionate in his own way, he´ll boast About his Partner in public and have an arm around you, but in private he can be more intimate with you, resulting in him giving you all the affection, this depends on his mood though.

B=Breath

Stand up for him. Sure, you can wear nice Things and fight good, but the second you defend him and are Ready to fight for his sake, that´s really what takes his breath away, it´s just so unusual for him and he cherishes that the most.

C=Cuddle

When you´re in private he absolutely loves to cuddle! In a constant cuddle mood. If he had a bad day, he´ll just wrap his arms around you from behind and groan as he Rests his head on the space between your shoulder and neck. He´ll pout and try to get you away from whatever you were doing to drag you to bed so that he can have his arms around you and rest his head on your chest, this is is favorite cuddle Position and he just feels so safe and warm like this, it relaxes him immensely. And when he´s happy he wants to cuddle you too, also loves it when you initiate cuddles.

D=Dream

This may Sound out of character but he wants to settle down with his S/O sometime. After all the crazy chaos and danger he´s been through, he wants to Focus on his S/O when it´s all over. Before that he wants to go on adventures with his Partner though and appear in the newspaper with them, reading About the pirate couple that they are would make him really happy.

E=Effort

It really depends. Kidd´s been in a lot of relationships and they all were short Lasting. Sometimes Kidd goes over the top with the effort and the relationship still Ends and sometimes he doesn´t give any effort whatsoever. With a Special S/O though it´ll go a bit like this: medium effort in Dating, even less effort at the start of the relationship, then the longer they´re together the effort will rise as he doesn´t want to lose his Partner, so they´ll have to be Patient.

F=Fear

Depening on the Level of scared, Kidd will either tease them or protect them. If it´s something silly like Spiders or something, he´ll tease them mercilessly, if it´s something like heights, he will guide his S/O through it and protects them and if it´s a phobia he also tries his best to be supportive and help.

G=Gifts

Kidd doesn´t give Gifts on Purpose and he would never buy one, he just thinks those couples who constantly buy each other stuff are stupid and don´t love each other. So he doesn´t want you to buy him stuff as an empty gesture, if you buy him scrap metal or some strings for his guitar however he wouldn´t be mad since it Shows that you care and listen, he likes thoughtful Gifts. Kidd´s more on the gift giving side though, he spends unhealthy amounts awake and tinkering, writing and drawing some stuff. Most of it is because you´re his muse and he Gifts you those Things (he also writes Songs for you).

H=Hugs

Literally hugs you all the time, doesn´t care if you´re in public or not, you´re his and he Shows it. Blushes so hard when you come up and hug him though. In private the hugs are of Course a bit more intimate and Long Lasting.

I=Intimacy

Kidd certainly is more intimate with his longterm Partner than with anyone else, but that doesn´t mean he was from the beginning. It took a Long time for him to open up and let another Person in, so the thought of intimacy wasn´t there in the beginnin of the relationship, only after a bond of trust was built. Kidd likes to be intimate with you, it makes him feel Special and he likes showing you how much he loves you. But he´s not good at words, or romance, but he really tries his best in his own way.

J=Jealous

Kidd is in a constant state of jealousy as he is insecure and hates himself and is used to betrayal. He´s asking himself every day why his Partner is still with him when they could do so much better. He´s good at hiding his jealousy, but when something happens that causes his jealousy to get more intense, like someone openly flirting with you or touching you, he gets overprotective and mad. He will beat up the Person and pull you close to him. Needs a lot of reassurance.

K=Kiss

Kidd´s a good kisser, though he might not seem like it. Sure they are Rough, but not to an uncomfortable Level. He likes to kiss you on your temple. When you make out he starts with teasing kisses, barely touching your lips. Kidd likes it when you take initiative and kiss back eagerly, especially when you make out he likes it when you guide him to kiss you the way you like it. Is a sucker for kisses on the cheek, will blush every time you do it. Also likes to kiss you on your shoulders and likes to receive Hand kisses.

L=Love

He will say it only after an agonizingly Long time since he is scared of rejection and doesn´t want you to leave him. Kidd falls in love at first sight, but he knows it´s stupid to say those words early on, that´s why he waits and because he wants to be sure he means them, that the Feeling stays. Kidd doesn´t say it too often since he wants the words to be Special, only really says them before leaving for a big journey, after and before a big fight with enemies. So he definitely prefers to Show it, though he´s not the best at it.

M=Marriage

Hell no. Kidd thinks marriages are stupid, most married People get divorced anyway and it´s just a lot of wasted Money and time. If you want to stay together then just do it, don´t make a big fuss About it, those are his thoughts. He also doesn´t like the Exploitation aspect of marriage, if the love in a relationship is lost you are still forced to be with your Partner, the marriages Kidd knows that lasted were all unhappy.

N=Night out

He likes to take you out on concerts, his ship or a bar where he´s well known, anywhere he can Show off and impress you. Kidd loves taking you out on Dates because you Always make such an effort for him and he for you, he likes Dressing up nice for you and spending time with you more intimately than just the normal time you spend together. He likes it even more when you ask him out, those Dates mostly resolve in Eating somewhere and then going to your favorite place to watch the stars, which to Kidd is peaceful and Relaxing. He loves hugging you from behind and having you in his arms whenever you do. You don´t have much time for Dates but whenever you do you make sure to go out.

O=Out of the ordinary

Well in his past relationships he did everything for his Partners even if it made him uncomfortable, but with you he feels comfortable sharing his Limits and the Things he doesn´t want to do. He wouldn´t Change his appearance or the way he talks for his S/O, if he would he´d be Living a lie, and if his S/O want someone that´s not like him, they should just leave.

P=Playful

He´s not really playful, but he does fuck with his S/O in the way that he sometimes misplaces their Things and Acts as if he doesn´t know what´s going on when they desperately try to find it. Kidd doesn´t know why, but he just thinks it´s cute to see you rummaging through your place, groaning and frustrated. In the end you Always have to ask him to help you find the object and that´s when he smugly ´finds´ it.

Q=Questions

Kidd likes to have meaningful and serious conversations, especially About the world Government, of Course he wants to hear your view on it too. But he also asks you About your opinion in the simplest Things on a daily Basis, such as if his Shirt or nail polish Looks good, if you think he should get this lipstick he saw, etc. He just values your voice so much and it´s Always better to have more than just one opinion to make decisions rationally. On the other Hand Kidd doesn´t really like sharing his opinion in those trivial matters since he thinks it´s unnecessary. If you ask him however he will tell you. If it´s About Things with more weight to him, he will not hesitate to speak up About it.

R=Random

It´s Eustass Kidd. Of Course it´s spontaneous, everything the man does, he wings, it´s the same with your relationship. Be it Dates or whatever, he doesn´t bother with plans, he knows what he likes and what you like so that´s what he goes off on. If it´s About activities Kidd can Change his mind quick since he can´t just do one Thing for a really Long time, he has to have some diversity in his activities, he has to Keep himself busy. You have to adapt to those changes, but that´s quite easy once you get the hang of it. Kidd doesn´t have a Problem with you planning Things though because you have his mood swings and such in mind and Always come up with something good. He actually really likes the Things you plan and Always gets excited because he likes surprises with you.

S=Sleep

You have to be someone really Special to get Kidd to Sleep in a bed with you, or to Sleep at all. Kidd doesn´t Sleep until he absolutely has to, never goes to Sleep voluntarily, just passes out. The only times he actually goes to Sleep are when he´s being depressed or drank too much. Usually he will fall asleep on his working table, working on some scrap metal. You put a blanket around him. Bed sharing only happens after sex with him, and only with you, because only with you he´s comfortable with letting his guard down and actually sleeping. There´s something comforting in the way you´ll be there when you wake up. Kidd has a very light Sleep and is easly woken up, otherwise he´ll lay on his side and be dead quiet. You Always aks yourself how he manages not to move in his Sleep.

T=Trust

Trust is a very delicate matter with him. Kidd has never trusted anyone, despite Killer. Killer is the only Person he fully Trusts. Kidd is weary of everyone, he Always thinks the worst of People and that they will eventually backstab and betray him, it´s what his experience has shown him. The world he lives in is too cruel to trust, everyone is selfish, that´s what he´s learned from a Young age. So naturally it takes him a Long ass time to even come close to trusting you. There will Always be that Little part inside of him that tells him he shouldn´t trust you, he will never trust you as much as he Trusts Killer, but he Trusts you more than others, way more.

U=Unique

I mean he is a very unique personality already but besides the overprotection and possesiveness as well as his way of affection what I think takes the cake for what makes him unique as a S/O is that he is his S/O´s biggest fan. No matter what you do, it can be as simple as cooking something, he will be there to cheer you on, telling you you´re doing amazing and are the best. Turns all your Hobbies into Competitions somehow, Kidd supports them all wholeheartedly but he´s just going off About how you´re kicking everyone else´s ass in your Hobbies. Kidd is very interested in you, your Hobbies, interests, likes and dislikes. He will share your excitement and voice it louder than you, it´s his way of showing he cares and it´s really sweet. He´s too attentive to put it in a nutshell.

V=Vulnerable

Kidd is never fully vulnerable with his S/O, he doesn´t know how to be. The only Person who sees him in this state is Killer. However when he has a bad breakdown or something else happened that made him snap and be vulnerable, he will come to you for comfort, it´s only the way to the breakdown you don´t see. Kidd hates crying so he tries to reppress it, which Ends up in him forgetting to breathe and having a Panic attack. When he has a depressive Episode he will hurl up in bed all day/week, however Long it takes and won´t talk to anyone, he won´t let anyone close. But whenever you come by he tugs at your clothes and so you join him and cuddle up to him. It helps him a lot knowing you´re there for him, physical contact from you also calms him down a lot.

W=Wildcard

Takes a lot of Pictures and collects them in photo Albums. He has one with Killer, one with you and one with his Crew. He´s currently working on one with couple Pictures and one with Group Pictures. He also has one from his band and wants to get one with his Idols and Friends (if he finds some). Whenever he´s Feeling down or is having a bad day he likes to look at them to remember good times, it Always makes him smile. He will call Killer and you to look at the Pictures with him and you three end up reminisceing and sharing stories.

X=X-Ray

If you happen to get injured on his watch hell is About to break loose and god help the poor bastard who dared lay a Hand on his S/O. Needless to say if you got injured by another Person they´re dead now. If he wasn´t there though and only finds you injured or if you injured yourself at home he will rush you to the nearest Hospital or doctor (even if it´s something minor).

Y=Yuck

Well, everything About this man is a giant pet peeve and red flag, so pick your Poison. Be it his mood swings that tick you off or the way he´s so handsy with you, his stubborness… there are more than enough Things to get annoyed by. For Kidd however he doesn´t like it when your Makeup is cakey (if you do Makeup anyway), it´s stupid but it just gets on his nerves, and he can get really annoyed if you have a certain Phrase or word you tend to overuse and say a lot.

Z=Zeal

Kidd isn´t overly passionate but he certainly is in some ways, for example he is passionate About your Hobbies and the way you look. He likes it when his S/O is passionate too, especially About the same Things he is.

#one piece #one piece imagine #one piece headcanons #one piece hcs #one piece kid #one piece kidd #kid x reader #kidd x reader #eustass kid #eustass kidd #op #op imagine #op headcanons #op hcs #op kid #op kidd

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usernamesuggestionsarefunny · 3 years

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I have lost count of how many times I have read the same old suuuuper “smart takes” from people defending Steve´s endgame by saying that thinking it was shitty for Steve to leave his traumatized best friend alone in an unfamiliar century FOREVER (Because newsflash: he didn´t actually KNOW he would live to be old enough to meet him again and even then it would be way less time together) is “infantilizing” Bucky. Wow, you got us, how can we argue with that *eye rolls*

Like why? Because we awknowledge that Steve was an important part of Bucky´s life and that it would be even harder than it already is to move on without him? Which is literally canon btw, tfatws showed him struggle through Steve´s absence.

It is because we put ourselves in his shoes and imagine what it would be like to be ditched by your “best friend” forever? Is it because we awknowledge that even without NEEDING your best friend, that endgame scenareo would be horrible?

Like, I don´t know you, but I don´t need my best friends to be literal toddlers to care for their wellbeing and value their friendship, especially not if they have gone through something horrible, I would want to be there for them. That doesn´t mean I baby them, that doesn´t mean I think they would be incapable of moving on if for some reason I couldn´t be there (Far from it, I actually admire most of my friends), it just means I remain friends with them, like, how is that freaking unreasonable to expect from a friend even as an adult? Friendships grow apart, sure, but there is absolutely NO real life equivalent to what Steve did to Bucky. He didn´t just move to another continent (Meaning they could have still kept touch through zoom, mail, phonecalls, etc), he pretty much moved to another whole ass reality. FRIENDS DON´T DO THAT.

“Infantilizing” stfu. If this were a romantic couple we were talking about no one would be questioning fans getting upset on behalf of the character left behind for a friend from the past, for example, but because Steve and Bucky were “just” friends, Steve left for a romantic interest, and society doesn´t think friendship or platonic bonds are as “important” as romance, then you would be crazy to even question it unless you think of Bucky as a child.

What a stupid way of thinking obviously meant to mock fans just because you don´t ship Stucky (Or a few shippers can be obnoxious), which, by the way, I don´t either.

Bucky is a grown ass adult, he will move on, and I still hate Steve´s ending in part because I think their friendship mattered, just like all the friendships Steve made in the 21st century mattered, and his development mattered even without taking Bucky into account.

Bucky would still be justified in feeling abandoned by Steve btw. I sure as hell would if any of my friends moved away and never talked to me again.

If you can only love your close friends or want to spend time with them when you think of them as children or they need you for something then you suck as a friend. You were never their friend in the first place, you just pitied them, which ironically IS infantilizing, or means you were a good samaritan helping just because, which is noble, but it is NOT being a friend and it is NOT how Steve and Bucky´s bond was presented to us in the previous movies.

#anti endgame #stucky #not really #I don´t even ship them actually #I just think friendship is important #and haven´t forgotten about how important they were to each other in the first three cap movies #it is not my fault only people who ship stucky seem to get this #and the rest of the fandom is so caught up in ship wars that they use the most stupid arguments to dig at people who do ship them #and defend the ooc crap that was endgame steve for the same reason #brotp #Platonic love #platonic shipping #platonic ship

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laceymorganwrites · 4 years

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Where do we go when we go?

Word Count: 3,356

Pairing: Law x reader

Song: Where do we go when we go? - Neck Deep

Warnings: cursing, suicidal themes

A/N: so i went a bit overboard with this… but I think I got a better understanding for Law´s character after writing this, after all those songfics for me are just a way to improve my writing and the understanding of certain characters.

GIF NOT MINE

Pain, pain go away,

Law was always in pain. Whether it was physically or mentally, a part of him always ached. Ached with anger, with misery, damage, ached with the desperate want of release. There was no denying he deserved it, he knew himself too well, maybe he was a bit of a masochist in the sense that he enjoyed it in some twisted way. It was the universe telling him how much of an asshole he was, how many bad things he did, how many innocent people he harmed. And the bad thing was that he wouldn´t stop. He´d rather suck up all the pain and not change his ways. He had to do this alone, as he did with the rest of his life. Solitude was the only way for Law. Come back another day,

But he didn´t want to feel like shit today. Fuck, not today. Not if there were any consequences for his behavior for once, not when there was actually something on the line. That being the first impression he would give to you. And he didn´t want to fuck that up like everything else in his life. Normally he´d say screw it, what did he think what some random stranger thought of him? They´d never understand him anyway, so fuck them. But Robin told him he´d never experience happiness if he just kept pushing people away. How could he say they´d never understand if he didn´t let them? And maybe she was right, which Law didn´t like to admit. If she was right, it wouldn´t be good for his ego. If she was right, everything in his life up until now would´ve been a lie. I just wanna get one up on life before it kills me.

He lived his life out of spite. Quite literally. Spite was the fuel that kept him going. Just the pure knowledge that people out there were outraged by him merely existing, it was just too pleasurable for the sadistic bastard. If others didn´t want him to live and do the things he did, that just spurred him on even more. His whole life was one big risk, one big fuck you to the world. And so far it´s paid him off with solitude. Which was good for him, it meant no people bugging him. Nobody could tell him what to do, he was free. And if the price of freedom was loneliness, he´d endure it. Because loneliness was all he´s ever known, he couldn´t know any better. And who the fuck would care if some pirate scum like him croaked because of his own stupidity, nobody would mourn him. I guess we'll never know, If when we´re gone there's a place to go.

Law thought about death too often, no doubt about it. He had everything planned out in his life, his goals, the solitude, that he´d never make any alliances and that he would never open himself up to another person and fall in love. Well, despite the fact that he somehow managed to break every single one of his stupid rules spoke volumes about the doctor. Maybe that was the reason why he suddenly was scared of dying and what would happen after his death. Before he just winged everything, taking all the risks he could. Yes, he might´ve had some plans, he always did and still does, but that doesn´t mean they are safe. In fact before his alliance with the Strawhats all of them were doomed. All of his plans were risky and ended up with him dying. But none of that mattered to him, why should it? It was his own fate, it didn´t affect anyone and nobody else had a say in his life, it was his decision. Or if we don't see anything at all,

Ever since he joined up with Strawhat, he couldn´t say that he saw his path as clearly anymore. Actually he didn´t see a fucking thing anymore. All the plans he made, all that he stood for, everything that happened in his life up until now, all of it was in vain. Just because of some fucking people who called themselves his friends. He didn´t need friends. And they were lying anyway, nobody could befriend him, Law was too much of an asshole on purpose for that. He was meant to be a loner, not a friend. He wasn´t meant to be protected by people, he wasn´t meant to be cared about. He didn´t want to be protected and cared for. He just wanted to be alone. Needless to say he didn´t believe any of the Strawhats when they proclaimed him their friend. Is that what we´re supposed to call faith?

But after he adjusted to the new circumstance, Law did manage to relax and open up a little. It was the survival of the fittest in the New World, one could only get by by adapting to one´s environment. And that´s just what he did. He had friends now, huh? He got especially close to Robin and Zoro, he felt as if he could be himself around them without being judged. They shared a lot of things, had a lot of things in common. They laughed about the same things and always knew what the other felt and needed in that moment. Law didn´t know what to think of that, it was weird. Why would anyone go out of their way to make friends that are that close to each other? To him getting close to someone meant betraying them and using the information they gave him against them. But with the Strawhats he felt like he could trust them oddly enough. He never trusted anyone in his life, not even himself. Hell, himself in the very least. But who knew, maybe his life wouldn´t be so miserable now that he found friends. Well if that is that, and it all just fades to black,

And then there was you. Law didn´t see you as a friend and he didn´t want you to see him as such. He didn´t want to be your friend. He wanted to be someone special to you, he wanted you to see him the way he saw you, as an angel. He didn´t want you to smile at him as you smiled at all the others, he wanted you to smile at him sweetly, a special smile reserved for him. Every time he saw you, his heart jumped. And every time he almost had a heart attack because that´s what he thought this strange feeling was. But after an analysis of all the other symptoms and a thorough talk with Robin, he finally acknowledged that he was in love. Another thing he swore he´d never be. Love was weakness, it was useless and only hurt. Maybe that´s why he was drawn to you. He wanted you to be his savior, bring out the best in him and then prove him right in betraying him. He wanted to make you love him as he loved you only to prove to himself that it wasn´t possible, nobody would ever love him, it only would be a lie. Love was just a camouflage for betrayal and sadism. That thought made him smirk. And we don't see anything at all, We don't see anything, What are you waiting for?

Maybe love wasn´t so bad after all. Maybe it was just faking to be misunderstood like he was. Maybe love too was pretending to have changed into something better when in reality it was laughing at everyone who believed in the petty lie. Nothing could change Law. Or that´s what he told himself. He knew better of course, but he didn´t want to admit it. Why would he? So everyone knew he was wrong? Hell no. Nevertheless he couldn´t get you out of his head, you disturbed his mind in the most inconvenient moments and he really couldn´t use this right now. Pain, pain go away, Come back another day, I just wanna get one up on life before it kills me. And I can't put my faith in a fallacy, I just wanna get one up on life before it kills me. The world is a funny place,

Law was never a person to crack jokes or laugh at them, jokes were a waste of time, something only desperate people tended to. He amused himself at his and others misery, their pain and agony, his own. He never was a person to be deemed funny, well, he did share the same dark humor with Robin, but overall he wasn´t really a funny person. That´s why you irritated him to no end, you who laughed at the things he said in an uncharacteristic try of humor. You giggled at his bitter comments and then gave him a shy smile, looking at him with all the hope in the world. Every time you smiled, or showed any other sign of affection, Law felt his heart sink into his chest and subconsciously smiled back, or he tried. The closest he ever got to a real smile was his usual sadistic smirk. It kicks you when you're down

And yet he couldn´t talk to you. Why was that? Why was it that whenever there was an opportunity he not only wasted it, but he screwed it up over and over again, making a complete fool out of him. Robin actually got so sick and tired of it that she almost called him out in front of the whole crew. But in a moment of better judgment she sought Law out in private to scold him. She was the one who set this whole date thing up today. Well, she forced Law to have night watch with you, snickering wickedly to herself. She clearly was more sadistic than the doctor could ever hope to be. And knocks you out when you get up again.

So there he was, in the cold of a winter island, standing guard and watching over the ship with you. You were very suspect of this whole ordeal, you just hoped Robin didn´t tell Law about that moment you accidentally let it slip how attractive and funny you thought he was. To tell the truth, you also became quite intrigued with the doctor ever since he joined up with you for the alliance. How could you not? Everyone was curious, it was only natural. And what would one do if someone like Law, a wandering book with seven seals, came along if not try to break every single one of them. But you quickly learned that you shouldn´t ever try to break them. Getting inside his head and trying to get personal information out of him was near impossible. Instead of telling you small, funny anecdotes, people that inspired him in his life, his goals and dreams, he only listed off all the gruesome things he´s done, all of his innocent victims, he went into extreme detail how much pain he has caused. I don't think it's worth suffering through.

Needless to see the rest of the night was quiet and uncomfortable. It left you wishing you never asked Law about himself, it made you wish you never even talked to him or did so much as glance at him. You hated being gloomy over silly things like that, he´d be gone if the whole plan was a success, or if it wasn´t. Maybe it wasn´t necessarily heartache you felt, maybe it was just the sheer disappointment of you trying to be nice to him and actually make an effort in trying to converse with him, yet it was all for naught. And quite honestly you were pissed at that. At least you told yourself it was disappointment instead of heartache, but you´d never admit to having such a stupid thing as a heartache, because that would mean you´d also admit to liking Law. But on the other hand, There's a world full of possibilities

Yes, it was childish. But so was Law´s behavior. As soon as you asked one little question about him, something trivial and unimportant, he closed up again and pushed you away. It was what he always did, something he couldn´t let go no matter how hard he tried. He felt so sorry after the things he said to you, the way he scared you off and yet he never actually apologized to you, he was just too embarrassed. And honestly Law wasn´t one to be good at formulating words. Sure, it was his charm, the way he could go from smug to dork in a matter of seconds, it was a personality trait that really warmed your heart and never failed to make you smile. And a million other people just like you

Then again Law wasn´t the only attractive man on the planet. There were others who exposed the same charming traits of him, but none of the bad ones. But did you really want to meet them? Did that really make them better than him? To you the bad things belonged to Law as much as his good ones. The only thing that really bugged you about him was how much he let himself be guided by his bad side, how much he defined himself over it as if he didn´t have a good one too. Who've all been through what you've been through,

All you wanted to do was to tell him he wasn´t alone. You wanted to figure out what made him the way he was, but he wouldn´t let you, you understood him too well. Everybody had secrets too dark to share, it was normal. So why did you want to rip off the band aid brutally and make Law´s wound bleed again? Maybe you were sadistic just like him. They were singing… Pain, pain go away, Come back another day, I just wanna get one up on life before it kills me. And I can't put my faith in a fallacy, I just wanna get one up on life before it kills me. I saw it all flash and pass by

There went his chance with you, Law thought. He wasn´t surprised at all at how much he fucked up again, it was the only thing he was half decent at. Yet it didn´t fill him with satisfaction like it usually would, instead the void inside of him only grew. When he told Robin about his struggles, she frowned at first before she started giggling. You also ranted about Law to her. Robin gave you the tip to be patient, Law would come around, he didn´t mean what he said and he didn´t know how to voice his affection towards others, let alone figure out he actually held those affections. With bright lights

You thanked her before leaving her with a smile. Patience, huh? You weren´t really a patient person, but you got it, you didn´t want to jump onto Law, getting all personal. It was stupid, the more you thought about it. You would´ve reacted the same way if someone asked you about your deepest, darkest secrets for the first time you talked. Well, maybe not exactly the same way, you´d turn to other measures than tell that person in detail how many people you killed and that their screams haunted you every night and you still didn´t regret it. Perhaps he was a lost cause, but perhaps he was also just a broken man, maybe he was both. Maybe the sadistic asshole stuff was only a facade of it all. But then again, probably not. And right before my eyes was the Exit sign.

Law has been lost so many times in his life, not even metaphorically speaking, he was just shit at orientation and never really knew where he was. So he was more than glad to be on a crew that had a great navigator, it just gave him a sense of security he needed in his life. He never had any sort of security or reassurance, his life was always hanging on a thread, not because of his sickness, well, not entirely because of it anyway. It was more like he kept fucking things up, real bad too. Law has always lived his life with death hanging at his back, death was always present in his life, whether he was awake or not. Sometimes it felt like the sweetest release on earth, sometimes it annoyed him to no end. I saw it all flash and pass by

Today was one of those days. He finally had some sort of false sense of security and happiness, he met people that genuinely cared about him, made friends, fell in love, yet he still felt death´s cold glare at his back, as if it was saying: “You´re next”. But he didn´t want to be. Not this time. For the first time in his life he actually took some care of himself, he watched out for any risks that could harm him or his friends. And asked why I wasted precious time,

It all made sense to him now, the way he lived his life before didn´t count as living, it was mere survival with a pinch or making others suffer and betrayal both of his side and behalf. Now it was different, he could open up to Robin and Zoro, they shared everything with each other, it felt secure. And without them he would´ve never reflected upon his actions and the words he said, the way he said them, the way he meant them and the way you understood them. And most importantly they gave him the guts to actually apologize to you, explain himself, at least a little. But that was a start, it was something. It just passed me by. It just passed me by.

In turn you did something he wasn´t used to, you forgave him. But you also apologized for asking such a personal and intimate question. “It´s fine, I guess that´s how you show that you care… if you do that is” he stumbled over his words again. But how could he not with you being so close to him? He could feel the way you breathed, your nervous ticks, the shy way you looked at him and the slight frown, the hurt in your eyes. “Of course I care… how could I not?” you whispered to prevent your voice from shaking from all the nervousness you experienced right now. We are just passing by. (Just passing by.) Just passing by. Oh, we are just passing by. (Just passing by.) Just passing by.

“Trust me, there are more reasons to not care about me than there are reasons to actually like me” Law bitterly commented and you pouted, making him smirk. It made him want to hug you and hold you close. But the way he knew himself, he´d tease you about it until you grew sick and tired of him and left. “Those are your reasons though, not mine. And frankly speaking, I don´t care about your reasons. I trust my heart and what it tells me” you crossed your arms, you looked like a mother scolding her child. Law´s smirk grew wider with every second he looked at you. “You know hearts can´t speak, right?” he remarked teasingly and watched your face go from disbelief, to disappointment, to the corners of your lips twitching to you bursting out into full on laughter.

And damn, if Law could make you laugh like that, he was doing something right in his pitiful life. A certain pride filled him when he saw you fighting for air and when you looked at him again, you started laughing again. “You´re an idiot” you giggled, finally breathing normally again. “I know” Law smirked awkwardly. Pain, pain go away, Come back another day, I just wanna get one up on life before it kills me. I can't put my faith in a fallacy, I don't wanna wait for that goodbye to see what could've been. And I just wanna get one up on life before it kills me.

#one piece #one piece imagine #one piece oneshot #one piece law #one piece songfic #law x reader #trafalgar law #trafalgar d water law #op #op imagine #op oneshot #op songfic #op law #songfic #songfic sunday

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writingformadderton · 5 years

Text

Thank you for all your loving💜

Ship: Madderton

Word Count: 2743

Summary: Richard is shooting in Los Angeles while Taron is back home in London. When Rich realizes that Taron got sick he tries to prepone his shooting break, that T doesn´t know about, to take care of him himself.

Additional tags: fluff, soft, sickness, homesickness, kissing

The sun shines brightly this morning and through the windows of the bedroom. Richard yawns and rubs his eyes, grabbing his phone. As like every other morning, the first thing he sees is a message from his lovely boyfriend Taron. He never forgets to write him, especially in these last 3 months. Rich has been staying in LA to film a movie. Taron was able to find work in London and could stay in their shared home. Rich checks the time, 7am. The time difference between London and LA is 8 hours, so it’s 3pm in London currently.

Time for a videocall? - Richard

Sure! - Taron

Richard makes himself comfortable in his pillows and dials Taron’s number. Not a second later, he sees his beautiful boy smiling bright into the camera. “Hey. How are you?” Richard asks softly and starts to feel homesickness creep into him. These 3 months feel like eternity and he misses his boyfriend deeply.

“I’m good.” Taron’s says with a smile, but his eyes soften once he sees his boyfriend’s face. “Please don’t look at me with those sad eyes when I can’t cuddle you.” Taron knows exactly how much Rich misses him, just like he’s missing Rich.

Richard just smiles weakly and watches him. Taron is wearing a hoodie and lying in bed. His hair is a bit of a mess and he has dark shadows under his eyes. Usually he up running around or doing something, he could never just stand still. “You look tired T. Are you sure you’re alright?” Rich asks concerned.

Taron nods and tries to put on a brave face and look absolutely fine. If Richard was sitting next to him, he wouldn’t believe any of it. Taron had a heating pad under his hoodie lying on his belly. He started feeling sick 2 hours ago and the feeling only got worse. He was confined to his bed as sickness took over him.

Richard decides to change the topic, knowing Taron wouldn’t admit to anything. They talk about the scenes they recently shot and people they met. Rich carefully avoids the topic of him coming home. He knew for sure that if it was brought up, he would ruin the surprise. The whole crew decided to go on a 2 week break in a little over a week from now. He couldn’t wait to be with his boyfriend again.

Taron feels his body protest against the heating pad on his stomach and the pain radiate throughout his body. He takes a deep breath and focuses on the blanket on top of him.

Richard notices this small action and frowns. “Hey, what’s wrong lovely?” he inquires worried and sits up. He watches how his boyfriend’s skin had gotten paler in a short time span. “You look like you’re gonna throw up.”

Taron shakes his head and forces a smile. “I’m alright.” he barely speaks out before coughing roughly, nearly retching, and holds his hands to his stomach. “Hey Rich. I’m gonna call you back. The doorbell just rang.” he tries to lie to his boyfriend and make it sound believable.

“No, it didn’t! Our doorbell is fucking loud, I would’ve heard it.” Richard responds annoyed and rolls his eyes. Taron was not a good liar and it slightly irritated Richard when he tried. Why wouldn’t he just admit he wasn’t feeling good?

“Oh god.” Taron mumbles and jumps out of bed and runs right to the bathroom. His phone falls to the floor but he doesn’t have time to pick it up as his upset stomach urges him to other things.

“Taron?!” Richard raises his voice a little in concern and gets up. Looking at the time, he only had 10 minutes before he needed to meet with the director. He gets dressed and goes into the bathroom to finish getting ready. He looks at his phone screen, still dark. 5 minutes pass, Richard is on set and getting worried, pacing in his trailer.

Meanwhile, Taron stumbled into their bathroom back home and fell to his knees. He started to vomit and let out a groan. His eyes were brimmed with tears from vomiting and trying to breath. He flushed the toilet and leaned up against the cold wall. “Shit.” he groaned and forced himself up, going back to his bedroom. He picked his phone up from the floor and lays back down in bed. Now there’s no way he’d be able to fool his boyfriend. Taron switches to a normal call and holds the phone to his ear, barely able to let out a whisper. His boyfriend is rambling with worry in his voice, it makes Taron smile. “Rich, calm down.” he interrupts him. “I’m a bit sick I think, that’s all. Don’t worry too much okay?”

Richard tries to sort his thoughts. “Listen, I have a shoot in 3 minutes and I don’t think I’ll be able to talk to you again. Please try to sleep a bit and stay in bed. Don’t forget to drink water. I love you, T.” Richard speaks, concern still laced in his voice. He hears Taron chuckle and could almost see him shaking his head.

“I love you too Rich.”

"Annnd cut!” Richard lets out a sigh as the director ends the scene. They finally got it done. Richard messed up his lines a few times or got confused in his stage directions. His brain was preoccupied with Taron’s condition and the director noticed his distracted state. He comes up to Rich and pats him on the back. “What’s on your mind, Madden? You don’t seem to be here.”

“Yeah, I’m sorry. I’m gonna do my best.” he simply says and tries not to think of his sick boyfriend being back at home. But it doesn’t work and he messes up the next scene.

It is 12 am when he finally has a break, 8am London time. He rushes back to his trailer and calls Taron. It takes a while until Taron takes the call. “I’m sorry, did I wake you up?” Richard asks looking at his boyfriend with soft eyes.

“Not really.” T says and breathes heavily. The sunlight shines brightly and over Taron’s eyes slightly. He gets up and closes the curtains.

“How are you feeling, my love?” Richard leans against the counter of his mini kitchen.

Taron rubs his forehead, trying to force the headache away. “Shitty, to be honest.” he responds chuckling and grabs the tea on the bedside table. “But I stopped throwing up 2 hours ago, which is good.” he takes a sip and burns his tongue, mumbling curse words and nearly dropping the cup. “How’s the shoot?”

“I don’t really wanna talk about it.” Richard says quietly and looks down at the floor. If there was one thing he hated most, it was scenes that did not go as planned. And today he had 3 of them, which really annoyed him.

Taron frowns and lies down again. There was literally nothing that could distract his boyfriend when he was filming a scene. “What’s wrong, Rich?” he asks softly.

The gentleness in his voice makes Richard’s heart beat faster. “Nothing.” he simply answers, knowing it wouldn’t convince him.

Taron chuckles and shakes his head. “Liar.” he teases Rich and smiles to himself. Silence echoed through the other end of the line. What was going through the Scottish man’s head?

“I just miss you T.” he finally admits. It wasn’t a complete lie. But he also was worried about him. Taron is somebody that needs comfort when he´s sick and gets really needy. Rich feels bad for not being there.

“Aww I miss you too Rich.” Taron covers himself with his blanket to remedy his shivering body. “When are you coming back?”

“I don’t know yet.” Richard speaks and bites his lip. He desperately tries to hide a laugh. The Scottish man couldn’t wait to see Taron’s face when he stands in front of their door.

“Hmm, okay.” Taron presses his lips together tightly and tries to hide the disappointment in his features. He sneezes loudly and reaches for the box of tissues on the bedside table to clear his blocked nose.

“I have to go back. I’m sorry T. See you later.” Richard says and regrets it soon after. See you later?

“Bye Rich.” Taron says and hangs up, unaware of his boyfriend’s small gestures. He looks up at the ceiling and sighs and puts his phone down. He cuddles into his blanket more, body still in a cold sweat. “Where’s my boyfriend when I need him?” He asks into the silence and hugs the heating pad closer to his body.

Richard made up his mind and decided to fully go through with his decision. He walked to the director’s trailer and apologized for his lack of emotions during their shoot. He then builds up the courage to ask about an idea he had in his head.

The next day, he finds himself comfortable in first class on a plane heading back home. He was lucky enough to get a ticket for the first flight at his earliest convenience. In London, it would be 3am when he’ll arrive back home. Richard puts his AirPods in and presses play. “Thank You For All of Your Loving” starts playing and the voice of Taron in his ears calms him down.

“What a difference it made

My life has started again.

And if you go away

It just won’t be the same.”

Richard smiles to himself hearing those lines. Taron sang it in his ear 3 months ago when they were in the airport. He remembers the bright smile on his boyfriend’s face that slowly faded away up until he went through the security gates. He remembers how he felt seeing Taron standing right before him for the last time in a while.

It’s raining heavily when he steps out of the airplane and into the ice cold atmosphere. “Home sweet home.” he mumbles to himself and takes his suitcase and carry on. He’s soaked in a matter of seconds and the cold winds do him no good. Richard heads into the airport hall and calls a cab to bring him home. After a short ride, he makes it home and pays the cab driver. Grabbing his bags, he looks at his front door and sighs, walking right up to it. He doesn’t know where he packed his keys so he rings the doorbell.

Three rings later, he hears the familiar footsteps of his boyfriend coming towards the door. Taron opens the door, a foul mood on his features. “I’m sorry sir, but you do know it’s 3am and some people -“ he starts to explain and looks up mid sentence. His eyes widen and his jaw drops. “What the fuck Richard?” Taron pulls him into a tight hug and smiles brightly. Neither of them can believe they are in front of each other at this moment. Taron pulls away and lets Rich inside. “Why didn’t you tell me you were-“

Richard interrupts him by planting a kiss on his lips. Rich pulls him closer by grabbing his neck, getting his boyfriend wet, and starts playing with his hair. “It was meant to be a surprise.” Rich says in between kisses and looks into the blueish green eyes of his boyfriend, which are full of joy. “I told you I was gonna see you later.” He smiles.

“You little liar!” Taron says laughing and pulls Rich into another hug. “I’ll run you a bath, you’re gonna catch a cold.” he whispers happily.

“I don’t care.” Richard says and holds him tighter.

To hear his heavy Scottish accent right in his ear after all this time made him weak. “But I do.” T retorts and kisses him one last time. He takes his suitcase and carries it upstairs while Richard takes off his shoes by the door.

A few minutes later, Richard is in the bathroom and Taron is downstairs in the kitchen. He makes some tea for the both of them and sings quietly. He carries the tea upstairs and put them on the bedside table.

Richard steps out of the bathroom and smiles at his boyfriend adoringly. He walks over to Taron and gives him a kiss. “God, I’ve missed you.” he says as his heart beats fast.

T looks into the amazingly deep blue eyes of his love. “I’ve missed you too. But if you don’t stop kissing me you’ll be sick soon.” he speaks sadly, staring at Richard’s full lips.

“Do you really think I care about the risk of getting sick after 3 months without you?” Richard laughs and grabs the hand of his pretty boy. He gently rubs over his knuckles. Taron smiles and notices that his sick body isn’t pleased with his actions. His hands begin to shake and his skin gets paler. Richard notices and pulls Taron into a safe hug. “Let’s get you some rest, shall we?”

Taron nods thankfully and follows him. They lie down on the bed, Taron’s head resting on Richard’s chest. He closes his eyes and feels his body start to relax. “Please don’t leave me alone for 3 months ever again.” T whispers and cuddles into his boyfriend.

Rich chuckles and gently runs his fingers through T’s hair. “I won’t. Only with breaks.” Rich adds, knowing that a promise like that was impossible with his job. Taron chuckled, knowing it as well. They fall asleep holding each other closely. Taron felt warm and safe for the first time in a while.

T wakes up alone the next morning. The empty side next to him is made, the cups from earlier are gone and the curtains are closed. He sits up and looks around, but he doesn’t see Richard’s suitcase anywhere. Was it all just a dream his mind created out of loneliness? “You idiot, you really thought he’d pack up and come home just because you were sick.” T mumbles to himself and gets out of bed.

He walks downstairs and sees himself in the mirror by the front door. His hair is a mess, his eyes screamed for sleep and his nose was a light shade of red from all the tissues he used. He rubs his hurting neck and wanders into the kitchen.

There he was right in front of him. It wasn’t a dream at all. Taron smiles to himself watching Richard make tea for him and a cup of coffee for himself. He has his AirPods in and doesn’t hear him come in. Taron takes one out and puts it into his own ear. “Thank You For All Your Loving” is playing and Taron laughs surprised. He starts to sing along to the lyrics.

“It was I on my own, with no need to belong. And I wanted to....cry.” He sings and replaces the word die. “That’s when you came along.”

Richard laughs and shakes his head. “Morning, my love.” He greets the Welsh boy, turning around and opening his arms. Taron immediately leans in for a hug and relaxes himself against Rich.

He grabs Richard’s phone and goes into the music app. The Rocketman soundtracks appears instantly. “You really missed me huh?” Taron teases cheekily grinning.

“Of course! Now get back in bed. You’re still sick.” Richard says looking at his boyfriend. Taron pouts and hugs him tighter, shaking his head. “I’m serious, I’m right behind you. Go on.” He gives T a kiss on the forehead and lets him go.

“Thank you for bein’ here!” Taron sings sarcastically and walks back upstairs. He lies back in bed and stares at the ceiling. He hates himself for being sick now that Richard’s back. But also, maybe Rich wouldn’t be here if he wasn’t. Richard comes in a few minutes later with their cups and a plate. Taron looks at him curiously and his heart warms when he sees that Rich bought his favorite cookies. “You’re the best.” T cheers and pulls Rich into a kiss as soon as he put the plate and cups down.

“I knew you would love it.” he says warmly and looks into the Welsh’s eyes. “Now stop kissing me. I can’t be sick for the month that I’m back home.”

Taron’s eyes lit up as soon as he heard the words. “A whole month! Lucky me.” He cheekily grins and can’t help but kiss his boyfriend again.

@taruhnegerton @mochidoubleb @dreamingwolfthings @cheshirechan @applesfallingfromblondehair

#Richard Madden #richard madden fic #richard madden fanfiction #richard madden fluff #taron x richard #taron egerton #taron egerton fanfiction #taron egerton fic #taron egerton fluff #madderton #madderton fanfiction #madderton fluff #madderton fic #fluff #soft #kissing #sickness #caring

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maydaymadier · 4 years

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Fannar Playlist Breakdown

idk, I’m procrastinating so I’m gonna explain all the songs on the Fannar playlist

Immigrant Song, Led Zeppelin basically my inspirations are showing here, Fannar’s original concept was ‘Well the MCU writers can do whatever the fuck they want with Loki so so can I’ so I pulled this one from the Thor: Ragnarok soundtrack, on a lesser note “We come from the land of the ice and snow/From the midnight sun, where the hot springs flow/The hammer of the gods/W'ell drive our ships to new lands/To fight the horde, and sing and cry/Valhalla, I am coming!” and he’s literally from a place called The Frozen North

Bohemian Rhapsody, Queen The only family member whose opinion matters to Fannar anymore is his mom. There’s also just the general level of dramatic thinking that happens when grievously injured and believing you’re about to die. “Mama, ooh,/Didn't mean to make you cry,/If I'm not back again this time tomorrow,” is probably about what he was thinking when he was

Bleeding Out, Imagine Dragons bleeding out at the bottom of an abyss, back mangled and painfully aware that he was about to die, a Fannar backstory jam, this one lines up with when Fannar made his warlock pact with Auril

Monster, Lady Gaga He just vibes with this one, I think Fannar would fucking love this song

Judas, Lady Gaga Once again, I just think he vibes with this one, he just vibes with it

Fox on the Run, Sweet OH MAN, this works on multiple counts. Fannar starts off the campaign as a ‘fox on the run’ bc he’s like, a trickster running away, avoiding home, ALSO “I - don't wanna know your name/'Cause you don't look the same/The way you did before/Okay - you think you got a pretty face/But the rest of you is out of place/You looked alright before” works super well bc Fannar literally grew up with a different face, and he lost it bc of backstory so this would be a random person from The Frozen North talking about him.

Surrender, Cheap Trick I don’t know, I think I just got Fannar vibes from it? A family with a really weird, vaguely dysfunctional dynamic? The parents have weird pasts and that’s reflected in the kids? Yeah, that checks out.

Dead and Gone, The Black Keys Early in his pact Fannar, still presumed dead by anyone who’d previously known him, and at his patron’s beck and call “So long/Why you waiting so long?/After every single word is said/I'm feeling dead and gone”

Sinister Kid, The Black Keys Fannar, especially early on, was wildly, blatantly self-destructive, not even trying to hide it. “A sinister kid is a kid who/Runs to meet his maker/A drop dead sprint from the day he's born/Straight into his maker's arms/And that's me, that's me/The boy with the broken halo/That's me, that's me/The devil won't let me be”

The Kids From Yesterday, My Chemical Romance idk, I don’t remember why I originally added this one. But it’s probably just some Fannar-reflecting-on-his-past from time to time

Sleep, My Chemical Romance Admittedly, Fannar’s done some pretty shitty things, but he’s a lot harder on himself than anyone else is, “Undeserving of your sympathy 'Cause there ain't no way that I'm sorry for what I did” so it’s easier to just own it and revel in the idea that he’s a bad person who isn’t sorry than admit to anything.

Once Upon a December, Liz Callaway (Anastasia) BACKSTORY JAM!!!!!! This is like,,,,baby Fannar, his present self is so detached from who he was as a small child that that whole part of his life doesn’t really feel real. He knows it happened, but it’s such a 180 he can’t properly wrap his head around it.

One Way Or Another, Blondie Early on in the campaign he was being tracked down by someone, who later turned out to be his Nana Frostyears (his childhood governess, i guess i’ll call her a governess), tracking him down to bring him home to save the kingdom

Unknown Brother, The Black Keys This is more from his brother Orvar’s perspective, Orvar trying to wrap his head around what happened to his baby brother Fannar as an outsider looking in. “Though I never met you/And we spoke not a word/I'll never forget you/Through stories that I have heard/For you unknown brother/My baby's mother's pained/Because your soul is in heaven/But your memory remains”

Death By Glamour, Toby Fox The ranger (Isorropia) and the druid/DM1 (Thrain) were talking about Fannar amongst themselves and decided that it fit him and I was inclined to agree.

Don’t Stop Me Now, Queen Fannar, a few years post-backstory, come into himself, still an impulsive bastard but he’s having fun now.

Dinner & Diatribes, Hozier Look, I’m sorry but a lot of songs are gonna be on here bc they’re horny and this is one of them. This could be Fannar’s pov, it could be an attractive stranger interested in Fannar’s pov, it could go either way. “Honey, this club here is stuck up/Dinner and diatribes/I knew it from the first look of/The look of mischief in your eyes”

Movement, Hozier yet another Horny Song, but this time a little more, awed by the other person bc when Fannar decides he wants to sleep with someone he goes big or goes home and sets his sights on impressive people......like a dragon “I still watch you when you're groovin'/As if through water from the bottom of a pool/You're movin' without movin'/And when you move, I'm moved”

Blame It On The Girls, MIKA OH BOY this pretty aptly sums up Fannar’s attitude and attitudes abt various family members, this song is just, a perfect summary of Fannar, though I guess it’s more someone describing him as opposed to Fannar saying it himself “Blame it on the girls who know what to do/Blame it on the boys who keep hitting on you/Blame it on your mother for the things she said/Blame it on your father but you know he's dead”

Burning Pile, Mother Mother sometimes Fannar’s bullshit, baggage, and mistakes catch up with him and the easiest thing to do is to torch it. why would he ever actually deal with it fully? “All my troubles on a burning pile/All lit up and I start to smile/If I, catch fire then I change my aim/Throw my troubles at the world again”

cherubim, serpentwithfeet ANOTHER horny song but this is specifically abt someone! There’s a character that I have Fannar paired off with in my canon-compliant writing, Renault, the War King of Ragnas. Who, well, Fannar started off as a consort but then it turned out that he really liked him, and he felt the same way and it’s probably the best romantic relationship of Fannar’s life so he feels a certain level of devotion to Renault. “Boy, every time I worship you/My mouth is filled with honey/Boy, as I build your throne/I feel myself growing”

Savior, St. Vincent [lord farquaad pointing meme] horny, Fannar is more than willing to fill sexual roles for people, fulfill what other people think of him because that’s easier than having his own concrete identity, though he knows it has its limits “You dress me up in a nurse's outfit/It rides and sticks to my thighs and my hips...... Honey, I can't be your savior/Love you to the grave and farther/Honey, I am not your martyr”

Moment’s Silence (Common Tongue), Hozier [lord farquaad pointing meme but deep fried] HORNY Look, Fannar knows what he’s about, and also maybe sometimes he can be horny in an emotional way that makes him a little bit sappy abt the present events “Be thankful some know it lovingly/There the reason comes in the common tongue of your loving me”

Low Lays the Devil, The Veils okay, I originally put this on here bc I think it was a recommended song on a different playlist and i wanted to save it and so i saved it to Fannar’s playlist bc it fit that one best. Overall, just a general allusion to Fannar’s fiendish heritage as a tiefling I suppose and also how he generally likes to hype people up to by proxy hype himself up “High as the heavenly sea/Low lays the devil in me...Come lay your head on my lap/And let your hair fall back/You've got to live with yourself”

Save A Horse (Ride a Cowboy), Big & Rich Okay, I added this jokingly bc I managed to convince myself that Fannar would fucking love this song, absolutely jam out to it while he’s fucking wasted. Also, maybe his type is ‘Cowboy’ and that’s hella valid of him.

Horns, Bryce Fox He’s a tiefling! A tiefling with very prominent horns! He’s gotta learn to take pride in that shit and learn how to think of them as attractive

It’s Hard to Be Humble, Mac Davis Look, Fannar knows how to hype himself up and strut and preen like the peacock he is, being humble is not a part of his persona

Little Lion Man, Mumford & Sons hahahahaha, scratch through Fannar’s exterior deep enough and you’ll easily find someone who was put through a fucking meat grinder and had his identity crumbled into a million jagged bits. He maybe could have been a great wizard, and insightful advisor to his brother when he became king, but instead he was broken and choked on the poison poured into his mind “Tremble for yourself, my man,/You know that you have seen this all before/Tremble little lion man,/You'll never settle any of your scores/Your grace is wasted in your face,/Your boldness stands alone among the wreck/Now learn from your mother or else spend your days biting your own neck”

You’re My Best Friend, Queen I needed a song for Fannar and Isorropia. Isorropia is his best friend (and tbh he considers her to be like a sister, though he doesn’t really expect her to feel the same way) and he feels very strongly about her. He would kill a man for Rope.

Everybody Wants To Rule the World, Tears For Fears A pretty central even in Fannar’s backstory was his trying to take the throne of his home kingdom and he generally cares about being in control of himself and his situation, having no control over what’s happening to him is not a good time

I Don’t Know What We’re Talking About, Ninja Sex Party Okay, there’s a running thing where whenever we’re in a bathhouse or something I’ll just shout out “Fannar disassociates in the bath” which started off as a joke but then I realized Fannar doesn’t like being alone with his thoughts or his body. He didn’t grow up with this tiefling body and as much as he can claim to be comfortable with himself, he can’t always manage to put his money where his mouth is. There was one notable time where Fannar was completely checked out in the baths in this inn in Vulcanica and the party managed to chase a guy down into an alley and fight him, all while Fannar stayed sat in the bath. (See also, this is why Fannar is such a promiscuous character, he’s trying to assert confidence in his body by being overtly sexual)

Catch Me Now I’m Falling, The Kinks Ya boi fell. He notably fell into a massive fucking abyss and it would have killed him had he not made his pact with Auril

Emperor’s New Clothes, Panic! at the Disco Big Fannar vibes, he’s big and dramatic and as someone who grew up among nobility and hated it he knows how to clock fake people who clothe themselves in pretension and importance. Also lowkey speaks to his ambitions to become an archfey himself someday “Sycophants on velvet sofas/Lavish mansions, vintage wine/I am so much more than royal/Snatch your chain and mace your eyes/If it feels good, tastes good/It must be mine/Heroes always get remembered/But you know legends never die”

Don’t Threaten Me With A Good Time, Panic! at the Disco What can I say besides Fannar is a party animal

Somebody To Love, Queen HE’S JUST A BIG DUMB GAY WHO MASKS HIS EMOTIONS BUT DEEP DOWN WOULD REALLY LIKE TO JUST GENUINELY BE LOVED, HE’S GOT PLATONIC LOVE IN THE FORM OF HIS INTER-PARTY FRIENDSHIPS BUT HEY HE’D LIKE SOME ROMANCE TOO PLEASE AND THANKS (SHOUTOUT TO RENAULT)

Viva La Vida, Coldplay More backstory allusion stuff, he was a big dumbass who wanted to rule but his reputation crumbled around him and all of those ambitions became untenable.

#my post #tal plays dnd #fannar #readmore #long post

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freewilllife · 6 years

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If you dont mind me asking but why do you ship soowon x Lily? Like no offense but I dont see it so it would be really helpful for someone to explain.

No offense taken!^^ What kind of “potential couples” somebody ships is really a matter of taste.

So…I try not to squeal too much…

Why I like that “potential couple”. Let s see.

First we go back to the start, when these two met under a sweet umbrella in the rain…What a romantic scene…Just that it was not really the case…

1.An agenda of their own that more or less correlates with the one of the other

Lily was occupied to rescue her tribe and didn t even think of any romance at all.

Soo Won was also here in order to “quell the countries chaos”. (Jokes aside. He wished to acquire the information about the negative circumstances of the Water Tribe and to gain allies of course.)

Both persons have an agenda of their own. I think that this is important in romance that the other party is never just a part of the other, but that both exist as separate people.

And the juicy part is that their aims are pretty similar. It is just the extent of their goals that differ. Lily is more determined to help her tribe, while Soo Won is determined to help the whole of Kouka.

2. Similar but different

I think I do not need to point out their disparities. I think they are “eye-catching”.

Let s see what do they have in common?

First neither Soo Won, nor Lily had to be thrown out of their comfortable lives, they went out on their own.

I think people might say that Soo Won needed to care for the country, so that is why he did it. But I think you don t have to wish to improve an inquitous state, if you just wish for revenge.

They both are determined people that wish to acquire their aim no matter what.

Their aims I explained in the point above.

3. The relationship is a gain for the other party

While Yona is a factor for Lily to develop, Soo Won s influence and his advice is also a major support for Lily who is still pretty unsure concerning her abilities and her influence on people. (Though it got considerably better lately)

I mean the chapter where those two meet is literally

“Meeting which creates people”

The mangaka spells it out directly to the reader.

Soo Won doesn t tell any lies here, that he thinks that her influence is good for the people.

Since I point towards Hak s estimation:

That guy doesn t flatter her for no meaning, he sees that she has some kind of potential and encourages her.

So what has Soo Won to gain from that relationship? I just illustrate it with pictures..I think it is more apparent this way…

So guys who is starting to speak about himself more lately and to whom? Hein?

So our tight-lipped king finally talks a little more about himself…

I have the impression as if he is finally starting to open up at least a little bit towards her.

Also he behaves more like a guy his age towards her sometimes, usually he is a person that pretends to play silly, but has to be pretty grown-up….

4. Now here they come the silly reasons: It s because they deny it so fiercely!

5. Hilarious!

Their interaction is just so “facepalm” hilarious sometimes…I love funny couples!^^

I hope I could answer your question anon!^^

#akatsuki no yona #soo won x lily #soo won #lily

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kittyinhighheels · 6 years

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Kitty reads: Glass Sword Review

If there’s one thing Mare Barrow knows, it’s that she’s different. Mare Barrow’s blood is red—the color of common folk—but her Silver ability, the power to control lightning, has turned her into a weapon that the royal court tries to control. The crown calls her an impossibility, a fake, but as she makes her escape from Maven, the prince—the friend—who betrayed her, Mare uncovers something startling: she is not the only one of her kind. Pursued by Maven, now a vindictive king, Mare sets out to find and recruit other Red-and-Silver fighters to join in the struggle against her oppressors. But Mare finds herself on a deadly path, at risk of becoming exactly the kind of monster she is trying to defeat. Will she shatter under the weight of the lives that are the cost of rebellion? Or have treachery and betrayal hardened her forever?

Because I need to get this out of my system, let´s start my reviews with the most recent book I´ve read. I´ve read some reviews myself and let it settle before I wanted to give my opinion and here we are. A bit unorganized but oh well, we´ll get to it some day. Not spoiler free btw.

Glass Sword is the second book in the Red Queen series by Victoria Aveyard. It was a no brainer for me to read it after I fell in love with Red Queen earlier this year. I couldn´t wait to see what would happen to Cal as a Silver prince in the midst of Reds but most importantly I couldn´t wait to meet more newbloods like Mare.

To give a hint about the quality of Glass Sword, let me just say this: It took me three months to finish this book.

Throughout the 436 pages we follow Mare as her and her group of friends search for the other newbloods, Reds born with Silver power, in a race against time as the evil king Maven and his even worse mother plan to kill each and every one of them. And that´s literally the only thing we do in this book. We get maybe three fights but they are only three or four pages long each and usually so chaotic and quickly resolved that they were almost unnecessary. The rest of the time Mare, Cal, Kilorn, Shade and Farley traveled from one city to another to find the newbloods.

Now like I said, I couldn´t wait for them to appear and I give VAveyard kudos for coming up with all these powers without making them boring. I was prepared that we´d get a bunch of new characters and luckily we didn´t see every single recruitment. But those we did see felt so unnecessary because by the end, almost all of those whose recruitment we got to see not only got maybe one sentence during the end fight (if they got one at all), they also died off-screen. We didn´t get more than a “they weren´t on any of the ships that made it back.” George R R Martin at least got us attached to his characters so we would weep while reading every sentence of them dying. VAveyard completely wasted our time and the opportunity to perfectly gut punch her readers.

Speaking of wasted deaths, let´s talk about the two most important ones in Glass Sword: Shade and Queen Elara.

Starting with Shade, all I can say is that I didn´t see it coming but it also didn´t surprise me. Throughout the entire book I had the feeling that VAveyard had no idea what to do with him. He was important enough as Mare´s link to her old self but too much of an ex machina to give him more screen time. Having him in dangerous situations would have killed suspense; he could have easily escaped. So he was sidelined. And that´s exactly why his death didn´t really faze me. We barely saw him anyways, what did it matter if he was now permanently gone? The only reason I ended up caring was because I loved Farley and it broke her. By the way, her being pregnant from Shade really wasn´t a surprise. I called it the first time they said she had vomited.

Off to Queen Elara: What the fuck was that? What the fuck was VAveyard thinking? How can you set up such a smart, calculated and dangerous villain, someone so vicious that Mare´s biggest fear is being caught by her again, and then not even show her death? I read the last pages of the fight ten times because I couldn´t believe VAveyard would be this stupid. It makes me so mad. How amazing would it have been to see Mare grabbing the queen and then sending the lightning through her body, looking her in the eyes while she´s basically being fried to death. That would have made the next chapter so much more meaningful. Instead, we got nothing. Again, a completely wasted opportunity.

You can´t say much about the plot because, as mentioned before, there barely was any. We saw recruitments and those three chaotic action scenes but around 80% of the book was Mare moping around. Which brings us to her and the other characters.

I liked Mare in Red Queen. An interesting thief who used her street smarts to somehow survive among her enemies. I could emphasize with her feeling of being alone, of not fitting into her family compared to her talented sister and then finding out that she somehow has those amazing powers without having silver blood. Her naivety did annoy me but it was okay because her ideals were understandable and actually noble. She grew up in a poverty stricken town where being older usually meant dying in an endless war. She had already lost at least one of her brothers and was about to lose her best friend. And suddenly she had to live with those causing her loved ones so much pain and suffering. She wanted change and she would fight for it if necessary. In Glass Sword, you barely see any of that. She acts as if she is such a martyr, as if she was the only one who gave up a lot for this fight, the only one knowing loss. She even thought her missing a guy she barely knew for more than a few months was somehow comparable to Cal missing his brother and best friend. And we´re supposed to feel sorry for her when Cal actually points out how ridiculous that is. Mare only feels sorry for herself in the entire book. She pushes everyone back, pretty much insults her best friend as useless because he doesn´t have powers, and is then confused why he wouldn´t talk to her. Her entire thought process is about how oh so dangerous and important she is and how much she suffers and how lonely she feels while lying to everyone and disregarding their feelings. I saw her “sacrificing” herself when I was halfway through. So cliché.

I think I liked Cal the most in this book and I wish we could have gotten a look inside his head instead of Mare´s. His conflict of being a Silver prince being amidst Reds who hate him and everyone he knows and knowing that it´s justified is so interesting. I live for arcs like his. Seeing his internal fight between what he was taught and what he is going through would have made such a great storyline. I would have paid everything to read a novella just about his character growth.

I can´t decide between Kilorn going on my nerves and liking him. He reminds a lot of Sokka from The Last Airbender because everyone underestimates him because he doesn´t have powers but he´s actually really smart and useful in battle (suck it, Mare). I could have lived without the cliché of him obviously being in love with Mare though.

I liked most of the side characters but I´m also not surprised that I barely remember anyone´s names besides Cameron, Jon and Nanny. I hope we get to see more of them in King´s Cage but I don´t want to see Nanny dying T.T

What I missed the most in Glass Sword besides the plot and a likable protagonist was the villains. Maven was merely a mention here and there until the end and even then he isn´t really worth mentioning. Elara died so easily AND SO USELESSLY and god do I miss Evangeline.

I already bought King´s Cage and War Storm so I´m not going to drop the series but Glass Sword was disappointing. I expected more of Victoria Aveyard.

#personal.txt #glass sword #victoria aveyard #review #kitty review #that was long oops #i have a lot of feelings and thoughts about this

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fly-pow-bye · 6 years

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DuckTales 2017 - “Sky Pirates...in the Sky!”

Story by: Francisco Angones, Madison Bateman, Colleen Evanson, Christian Magalhaes, Bob Snow

Written by: Madison Bateman

Directed by: Matthew Humphreys

Storyboard by: Vaughn Tada, Brandon Warren, Jason Zurek

That’s redundant!

Last week on DuckTales 2017: a vision where a major character gets vaporized, and someone got their mind taken over in a horrifying way and is now asking where the knives are! And now, we continue from that with a “someone not fitting in with his usual group joining a bunch of bad influences” plot. Or, to put it more bluntly and more Disney...

🎵La la la laaa, la la, tweet deedle dee, tweet deedle dee, tweet deedle dee, la la la la!🎶

Our story begins with the Sun Chaser coming back from another adventure, the bountiful treasures of Duckachuquack. Dewey, the fun-loving-one in any plot that doesn't involve his search for his mother, and the focus of this one, is trying to tell his story about his new "trademark hat" to no avail.

We see pretty much everyone's personalities on display here: Louie's counting up the money, Webby is being educational, Huey is complaining about how Launchpad uses an ant farm instead of a radar, Launchpad is being Launchpad, and Donald is too busy working on the houseboat to be in this episode. He even tries to get the attention of Scrooge McDuck, currently talking about expenditures, but he eventually gets told to sit quietly. This all gets interupted by a grappling hook from a giant flying pirate airship called the Iron Vulture.

Sky Pirates: 🎵LYo, ho, yo! Yo, ho, yo!🎶

Not only is this ship piloted by sky pirates, they’re musical sky pirates, and they're glad to let you know about that with an elaborate musical number. If you recongize that name, there's a good reason for that, as the song leads to naming their leader...

Captain Don Karnage! Is it the Don Karnage from Disney Afternoon classic TaleSpin? Well, I would say no, not just because TaleSpin took place long before DuckTales did, but because he's a very different character. While Jim Cummings was able to reprise his role for Darkwing Duck, he did not get the role of Don Karnage. Instead, it's Jaime Camil, best known for his role as Miguel's Dad from Coco.

More than likely, they felt the original was too much like a foreign stereotype, even if nobody could decide which nationality they were stereotyping. Also, he doesn't have a tail! Maybe they wanted to save the budget for the musical segments, which will be very apparent in this episode.

This is not to say that Don Karnage is on the same level as another "discounted" villain from that "discounted" show. While he never says any of his classic lines, he sure has a habit of saying his name over and over again, just like the original. He will certainly have a personality as we will see later, though if you can't wait that long, he says it right in the song.

Don Karnage 🎵With dagger, swagger, derring-do, handsome and fearsome and suaaaaave!🎶

They steal all of the loot in that musical number, and everyone's jaw is dropped by this. The one exception being our lovable doofus of a pilot, who is applauding. Launchpad enjoyed it, it even gets stuck in his head in a running gag. I would say this is a pale attempt to get people to like the musical number, but I don't necessarily disagree with the notion.

They yell at him, even though they were just as mesmerized by this to not fight back in any way. Then again, maybe they're more angry at him for leaving his pilot's seat...

...causing the plane to crash in the jungle, its vines getting caught up in the propellers, and the engine getting busted. While everyone is distracted, Dewey runs off. It's a little believable that Scrooge wouldn't have noticed if one of the kids ran off.

Huey gets the job to fix the plane, and accidently gets blue oil spilled on him. He even had the instinct to take off his hat so he can be confused with Dewey by Scrooge. Donald missed the trip; he would have broken this plot with his ability to tell the nephews apart. He never thinks about where Huey went to, but never mind about that!

Dewey is still on that quest for attention, and considers getting captured by the pirates. Thankfully for that plan, one of the Sky Pirates was practicing for the musical segment, not realizing that musical segment ended a few minutes ago. He grabs onto that plane leading to the pirates and sneaks behind a few boxes, as the pirates are celebrating their treasure.

We get to see Don Karnage's personality in full view this time: he's a perfectionist, and his review of that performance doesn't exactly match Launchpad's. He criticizes all of his crewmembers for being off-sync.

One poor sod comments that they got all of the treasure, so it shouldn't matter that the musical part was a little imperfect. Karnage does not exactly agree with that, so he decides to give him some pointers...

...by throwing him off of the Iron Vulture to what would have been his certain death! This episode may be all fun, but it's not playing around! Of course, we get a shot showing that he parachuted to safety in the forest, even though he didn't have a backpack with one in the shot where he's falling. I mean, I would be shocked if there wasn't a scene like this. There is a minor point to why this is there.

Eventually, Dewey gets caught, and Don Karnage has to leave to think about a good demise for this stowaway. Dewey tries to convince the pirates not to kill him because he just wanted his hat back, and the pirates stop in their tracks. The sky pirates are intrigued by the hat because of the way it ties onto one's head, preventing it from getting lost in the wind.

More importantly, they ask Dewey where he got it. For the first time, he finally gets to tell his story of the hat to people willing to give him that attention.

While that's happening, we see that Louie is paying close attention to a diamond. He proceeds to talk to himself. Webby tells Louie that it's the Sapphire of Souls, a gemstone that reveals someone's inner personality. Louie gets an idea that if he pretends to have saved the diamond from the pirates, Scrooge will let him keep it.

It must be a mandate that there must be a B plot in a DuckTales 2017 episode, and to call it a B plot is really pushing it. Not so much the "B" part, I could see some potential with the plot, but the "plot" part. Louie's adventure with the diamond really only shows up twice, and by the time it comes up again at the tail end of the episode, I completely forgot about it.

Going back to the plot they actually cared about, he gets a whole audience of sky pirates to listen to the story of how he got a magical alpaca to make him that hat. It is suggested that he embellished the story by saying that he was the chosen one, which fits his personality, but the pirates applaud at this.

The pirates lament that they can't be the "chosen one", because they're just stuck in the chorus, and the Captain doesn't think they're great.

Dewey: Well, what if he wasn't (the Captain)?

The pirates look at each other...

...and team up to get rid of Captain Don Karnage by making him "walk the plank" off of the airship, just like how he did to that one guy from earlier. Thankfully, he also has the ability to suddenly have a parachute as he falls off, and he also lands in the forest.

He ends up near the Sun Chaser is, and seeing a plane gives him the idea to use it to get back to his Iron Vulture. He does realize that the people he stole from wouldn't help someone who stole all of their loot, so he has to use all the skills in his musical repertoire to become someone else.

Unfortunately, because disguise material is pretty rare in the jungle, he had to make do with parts of his parachute and a bug for a mustache. Not helping matters is that, despite his status among the sky pirates, he's a pretty amateur actor. I could see the irony here.

He introduces himself as Tom Karnage, no relation, a plant scientist who had his research stolen by Don Karnage. Scrooge and the nephews huddle up, and it's clear that they didn't buy it. However, the plot doesn't continue unless they say yes, so they say yes.

After we see the end of a dance number, and Dewey giving the Sky Pirates the praise that Don Karnage wouldn't give them, he decides he wants to leave. One of the sky pirates offers him an alternative: the old Captain's dead lost in the jungle, long live the new captain. At first, he's confused, but he decides to join them anyway. You know, for attention.

Dewey becomes the new Captain. This episode has a variation on the cliche: instead of being badly influenced by the evil sky pirates, he's going to be the influence. His status is made even clearer when Dewey uses the pitch pipe to start another musical number, revealing himself to the Sun Chaser.

In fact, it's the same musical number from before, but this time the pirates all introduce themselves one by one. They even make fun of how this musical number is taking way too long, and I'm actually going to agree with that. It almost loses its charm, but it thankfully ends before that happens. Since the Iron Vulture is so big, they manage to capture the entire Sun Chaser, and grab what's left in it.

That is, they capture Scrooge and company, essentially guaranteeing that they would give Dewey some of that much needed attention. Unforunately for him, they didn't even know he was gone; Scrooge was still thinking Huey was Dewey the whole time due to that blue oil. Dewey gets upset that nobody even knew that he was gone, but not before he orders his crew to give back all of the treasure they just stole from Scrooge. After all...

...a good pirate never takes another person’s property! These pirates don’t seem to agree with that, though, and start to realize that their new leader reminds them too much of their old disenfranchised one...but with less money for them.

So Dewey's short career as a Sky Pirate Captain comes to an end, and both Dewey and the people he captured are put on the plank. On the plus side, Dewey is finally getting his attention...with a bunch of angry looks. Eventually, a special guest shows himself, still in his plant scientist get-up.

The sky pirates, in contrast to Scrooge and the nephews sans Launchpad, do buy said plant scientist get-up. It's a nice callback to when Launchpad confused him for one, and that won't be the only callback of that kind. He reveals himself as Don Karnage, and his Sky Pirates reunite under him. While the pirates are actually going to do something under the command of the new old Captain, Dewey tries to apologize to Scrooge, but...

...Scrooge starts to apologize to Dewey for not paying attention to him, since if he did, this all wouldn't have happened? I would think it would be just Dewey apologizing; Scrooge didn't really do anything wrong. Even Huey protests this, but Scrooge elbows him to keep him quiet. The plot doesn't continue unless they make up, I guess. Eventually, Don Karnage tries to use his sword, but he accidently frees Scrooge and the kids.

This all leads to a sword fight. When I saw this in one of the trailers, I thought this was a fantasy sequence inspired by reading about his historical figure, but no, this is an actual fight scene with Don Karnage and Dewey. There's some clever moments in here, including a plan involving all of the kids, and is the highlight of the episode.

How do they get out of this situation? You'll just have to watch the episode to find out, but I will say it does make the musical segments worth it. There's even a neat callback to "the Launchpad leaving the steering wheel gag" from earlier. It makes me wonder what this plot would be like if it was Launchpad who became the captain. I don't know how, but it would be funny.

Of course, they all live, they have two different arcs to resolve. It all ends with Dewey getting what he wanted in the first place, and Louie's plot finally gets its punchline. It's more of an extended joke than a B plot.

How does it stack up?

Unlike the last episode, there wasn't as much promise with this plot. It doesn't continue either of the arcs, there's no major plot changes, there's not even a cliffhanger unless you count the "curse you, Dewey" part. It's just a pure fun episode.

I debated whether this should be a high Neutral or a low Happy; I enjoyed it a little more than the last episode, but not that much more. The swordfight is good, I didn't think this Don Karnage was that bad, but other than that, there's not much that puts it with the best this show can offer.

Next, at least one secret of the Manor will be revealed, as even the title can’t decide if it is plural.

← The Other Bin of Scrooge McDuck! 🦆 The Secret(s) of Castle McDuck →

#fpb dt 2017 #ducktales 2017 #ducktales #disney #fpb reviews

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snarktheater · 6 years

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Shadowhunters — Episode 2x16

Last time, Sebastian…I mean Jonathan Morgenstern…revealed his true identity and killed the real Sebastian Verlac. So I guess that means the plot will finally progress past that, right?

Right?

Yeah, spoiler: no it doesn't.

In other despair-inducing news, Simon's still getting an ungoldy amount of screen time in various plot cul-de-sacs for some reason. You'd think someone would realize that he has no bearing on the plot and either write him out in adaptation or actually incorporate it in the plot better, but, nope!

Luckily, I can sum up his subplot much quicker this time around. Maia wants to cheer Simon up, because he's moping over the Clary situation and killing someone. Which, the latter at least is a decent enough source of angst, so of course they'll barely talk about it and spend the rest of the episode avoiding the issue entirely. Which annoys the hell out of me, because there are really interesting points to make, regarding both the ethicals and the emotional aspects of killing in self-defense (which Simon did). Instead the show…seems in a rush to move on from it.

Anyway. Maia offers happy hour to lift Simon's mood, but, well, getting drunk got him in this situation in the first place, so that's a no. Hey, some good decision making, finally!

Instead, Simon mentions he's visiting his family for Yom Kippur, and his grandmother's even coming from out of town. Maia expresses concern that he hangs out with mundanes in his current state, where he could be a danger, so she basically invites herself, even though Simon points out that's not really something you do for Yom Kippur. (Side-note: I'm not very familiar with Jewish holidays, so I'll just take everything here at face value. If you want to raise issues, I'll remind you all that I have comments on this blog)

So we cut to dinner, where Maia introduces herself as Simon's girlfriend, and charms everyone with her \~hidden depths\~. By which I mean she's studying marine biology in college, and really, it says a lot about the show that Maia's been around for most of the season and it's the first time we're learning anything about her beyond "she's a bartender and she's seen some shit".

But then, drama! Simon's mom apparently has a tradition of telling everyone in the family what sins you're atoning for this Yom Kippur, and that might mean Simon will have to confess to being a vampire, and, you know, killing a dude. Oh no, whatever shall he—

Yeah, Maia makes something up to save face. He's fine. Ironically enough, Maia ends up talking about how she's estranged from her family and wants to reconnect with them. Even though 1) Simon's family are total strangers to her, 2) she's not even Jewish and doesn't observe this specific family tradition and 3) doesn't owe Simon shit.

So Simon's safe, dinner was perfect, and Simon apologizes for never finding out more about Maia. Which…I guess apologizing is the best he can do at this point. Maia's fine with it, and gives him a kiss on the cheek before leaving.

Must be true love. You know, until the show feels compelled to make Simon and Isabelle hook up. I don't really expect them to change the book's endgame ships.

So that was a completely pointless interlude. Let's check in on the actual plot, where Jonathan has taken Valentine to his cottage by Lake Lyn, in Idris. He does a whole lot of monologuing at Valentine throughout this episode, and…I'll be honest, I kept zoning out during it. I know, it's not really good criticism to boast about your inability to keep up with the thing you're criticizing, but it was all generic rehashing of what we already know about these characters.

"You made me what I am, Father. Everything you did to me created this. And now it's my turn to replay the favor."

I mean, this is ominous enough, but like…we know that Valentine made him who he is. And it doesn't really tell us much about his motivation going forward, because "repay the favor" could be misconstrued in any number of ways.

Well, I'm lying a little bit. We don't know everything that Valentine did to him. Remember how Jonathan's true form is burned to a crisp? I took that to mean he had been permanently like that after the Fairchild house burned down. You know, when he was a baby and Valentine faked his death. But that's not actually the case! Turns out, in this continuity, Valentine was so afraid of his own son's murderous tendencies, he ended up sending him to Edom. You know, literal hell.

This, however, backfired, because while Jonathan was tortured (including having his skin burned off as he is now), he was also taught to use his demon powers. Which, as I hinted at in the previous episode's review, he can only use while in his true form.

"I may be grotesque in my own skin, but with it I have power that you could only dream of."

He still stays as Sebastian most of the time, because…

"I think it rather suits me."

Translation: it's easier on the budget. Which, fair enough. I prefer looking at Will Tudor's face anyway.

All this comes up because Valentine also has no idea what his son wants, or even how he escaped. For the latter, turns out he and Azazel made a deal to basically free each other. But their motives are separate; so Jonathan's not after the Mortal Instruments. What does he want, you ask?

"You'll find out soon enough."

Allow me to yawn.

Well, we do find out his immediate plan eventually. By "repaying the favor", turns out Jonathan means sending Valentine to Edom like he did to him before. Which leads to a race against time, since our protagonists kind of want Valentine back.

Speaking of which, the protagonists! I haven't talked about them yet. Well, Jace is a one-track mind who's really sad that Clary keeps avoiding him, because it's not like she has the right to mourn her relationship with Simon or anything. Clary, thankfully, will have none of it.

"Jace, Valentine's missing, okay? We have more important things to deal with right now."

Speaking of important things, Alec's apparently taking the blame for Valentine going missing. On both ends: the Downworlder cabinet is currently meeting at the Seelie Court, without him, which isn't a good sign; and the Clave is sending a representative, possibly to replace him as head of the Institute.

But no, it's actually Robert, and he saved Alec's job. Yay, I guess? I'm never sure what the expect me to think about that. I mean, the Clave is corrupt and/or inefficient, it's definitely bigoted and a little fascist, so…why should I be happy whether the protagonists are in good standing with them?

Somewhere, in another universe, the Shadowhunter books are about overthrowing the Clave and making a new Shadowhunter organization composed of Nephilim and Downworlders working side by side and making decisions together. Sadly, we are not in that universe, so we're meant to be relieved that Alec still leads the Institute. And we're also supposed to care about his issues with his dad cheating on his mom. Which, I guess I feel sympathy for him, but also, Robert's making it really hard to root for him.

"I never meant to hurt you. But I fell in love. You of all people should know what that's like." "Magnus isn't an affair!"

Yeah. As they say, bitch please. The issue with cheating is that you committed to be faithful to someone else, not that you're in love. I can't believe I still have to say that.

Alec, being the bigger person to his own father, decides to stop arguing about this and focus on the search for Valentine. Which leads us to…well, that.

Turns out, Jace requested to be assigned with Clary, right after she expressed the need for some space, because disrespecting someone's wishes is sexy, you guys. So sexy. Oh, wait, no, I meant it's terrible and you shouldn't do that.

Anyway. The Clave believes Valentine's still in New York, but Jace doesn't think so. In fact, he's guessed Valentine's exact location, because…Mary Sue Guessing Powers, I guess? I mean, he does know Valentine, obviously. The issue is more…Valentine didn't pick the cottage, Jonathan did, and Jace doesn't know him at all. Lucky coincidence?

Whatever. Problem is, Jace didn't get permission from the Clave to Portal into Idris to search the place, because the Clave is useless. Since a warlock can't Portal into Idris's wards without permission, this is a problem…for about five seconds. Time for more of Clary's convenient new runes! Even better: this time around, the rune just happens to be in the shape of Lake Lyn on the map. I don't know how that matters, but the show decided to do it, so it must clearly be relevant and totally not something utterly random.

So Clary opens a Portal on the fly, gets it right immediately, and they take it to Lake Lyn. Clary does make an excuse that they have to take it right now because she has no idea if she can open another one, but that sounds pretty convenient.

You know the next scene from the books: Clary ends up in the water and loses her stele, and Jace has to rescue her. Also, Jace himself left his stele in New York, since they kind of improvised this. What's different from the books, is that Jace has no idea of Lake Lyn's hallucinogenic properties, so when Clary starts tripping and goes off on her own, he has no idea what's going on and he loses her pretty fast.

Luckily, the Portal…broke into shards after they took it? Don't question it, it's just a way for Alec and Isabelle to find out where Jace and Clary are after Alec senses through the parabatai bond that something happened to Jace. Robert sees it too, and he knows about Lake Lyn's effects, down to and including that Clary will lose her mind completely if she's not cured soon with an iratze rune. You know, the healing ones. I can't remember if the show ever actually established that; it feels like at some point they just started throwing the term around and expecting the audience to know what it means.

Anyway, this does create some tension, so while it's a little contrived, I mostly approve of this change. See, now Robert has to get a Portal authorized for Isabelle to go after Clary and Jace and heal them (well, heal Clary, but they don't know for sure who's affected) before it's too late. And since Jace and Clary don't have a stele, they can't just do it on their own. By the way, Alec's stuck at the Institute because, you know, leadership stuff.

The fact that Robert's the one who has the information…sure, why not, he's older and important and stuff. It also gives me a nice opportunity to remind people that I did end up writing that fanfiction of him and Michael Wayland getting it on while high off the Lake Lyn's waters, based on Tales from Shadowhunter Academy. I'm not linking it in this post, because come on, this is a classy blog. But it exists. And is probably not that hard to find. ~~Or you can always just drop by my ask box, if you're really interested.~~

But back to the plot. Clary sees Ithuriel, who looks much younger now that he's recovered from being Valentine's prisoner. He tells her that Jonathan's still alive, and gives her some cryptic advice before leaving, so you know he's not a hallucination. Unfortunately, Clary assumes he's talking about Jace, so that's lost on her. For now.

Isabelle arrives to Lake Lyn, and finds Jace first. He didn't drink any of the lake's waters, so he's fine, but as I mentioned, he lost Clary, and she's not. They find her quickly enough, but she's delirious to the point where she doesn't recognize them and starts fighting them. And she can take them two on one, because…hallucinations make you stronger? Yeah, I doubt it.

Clary breaks Isabelle's stele in the struggle, so she can't be healed. Oh no, whatever shall they do? Oh yeah, Jace still has his angel power to activate runes without a stele, so she's fine. Crisis averted.

They set out for Valentine's cottage, where Jonathan's in the process of opening a portal to Edom to send Valentine there. During the ritual, however, Valentine manages to grab the Soul-Sword. While Clary permanently disabled its Downworlder-killing abilities, it still forces Shadowhunters to speak the truth, and he tells Jonathan that he realizes he was wrong to send him to hell, and he's the ultimate warrior that Valentine was looking to create after all.

"You have always been my greatest creation, son. Always!"

This sways Jonathan, who changes his mind, and they leave the cottage together right on time for Clary, Jace and Isabelle to find the cottage empty, but with traces of their recent presence.

"We're too late."

No shit.

So they head back, taking Valentine's journals with them.

But our heroes' troubles are not over! As I mentioned, Jonathan has the Soul-Sword, which no one was aware of until now. Well, no one except Robert, and that's how he saved Alec's position as head of the New York Institute, which he reveals to Alec because…long story short, Max found his blackmail messages to Imogen, and Robert blew up at him over it, which Isabelle found out and told Alec about. This is just setup for the next episode, which is why I saved it for the end of the review. Specifically:

"Are you gonna tell Magnus?"

Gee, it's Shadowhunters. Honesty and open communication happen approximately once every blue moon. I wonder.

Meanwhile, while studying the journals, Jace finds out that Valentine was recording his experiments with him and Jonathan. And for some reason, even though he was studying them, Clary's the one who points out that these experiments all happen long after Jonathan supposedly die as a baby.

"He was talking about my brother. He's still alive."

Well, good. Now are we moving past the impostor Sebastian plot line? Find out next time, because right now, Valentine and Sebastian just have a lovely, evil family dinner.

#Day of Atonement #Peter Binswanger #Paul Wesley #shadowhunters #Todd Slavkin #Darren Swimmer #mcg #series #TV series #review #reviews #series review #series reviews #the shadowhunter chronicles #cassandra clare #st: shadowhunters s2

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