#<-my tag for things i've posted about this story | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

sideprince · 2 days

Text

I've seen the same post a hundred times now. Sometimes it's a few days old, sometimes it's from years ago, but it's always the same. Some anti posts about how they don't understand how anyone can like Snape because he was so awful, and then there's a long reply that goes something like, "imagine this happens to you, and then this, and then this" to describe Snape's experience. Sometimes there's some James Potter hate thrown in.

Look. You can go through describing a character's entire experience but you don't really need to. Here's the thing that antis don't understand:

For all her faults (and they're big, bigoted ones) Rowling understood a really integral part of the human experience and conveyed it through Snape. Everyone needs love and to feel accepted. It's that simple. Snape became a Death Eater to seek acceptance (Rowling has confirmed this, though I can't remember the source - whoever wants to add it please do), because it was the only way he could find any.

Snape's understanding of morality, like everyone's, is subjective. Some readers understand this and some don't. When faced against a morality that says there is good and bad in the world, everyone makes choices based on their personal experience. Context is everything. Someone who experiences pain and suffering will not see the person inflicting it on them as moral. That's it. 'How can this person be good when they caused me so much suffering?' = human psychology. Most of the people who think 'I'm a bad person and deserve this' have been gaslit and abused into thinking so, because it's not a natural reaction - it's one that has to often be socialized into someone at a young age, exactly because it's not natural. Everyone is the hero of their own story; no one sees themselves as a villain, because they see the valid aspects of their own perspective.

You can write essays on how vulnerable people needing acceptance is what cults and fascists exploit to recruit vulnerable people, or on how the standard anti's un-nuanced reading of Snape both ignores canon and displays a disturbing lack of empathy or compassion, but at its core it just boils down to context. From Snape's perspective he experienced cruelty, therefore the people inflicting it must be cruel. Again, it's that simple. He was a person, like any other, except he was fictional so he wasn't even real. On the flip side is James Potter, who, for all his faults, didn't get to live long enough to get a chance to change and grow unlike Snape, and I think the Snapedom also needs to acknowledge that.

They're fictional characters representing things an author wants to say, not sports teams, not martyrs, and not all good or all bad emblems that define your identity depending on how you feel about them. It's depressing how much time is wasted arguing with bullies and trolls whether from the Marauders fandom or just random antis. I literally can't find more than three blogs to follow without this argument coming across my feed daily. I know the Snapedom is Not OK™ and that's kind why we're all here, and I know that my take is super unpopular but like Snape, I don't care what others think: this fandom has been having the exact same argument for years and nothing has changed. There's fanart and meta and fic and so much content out there appreciating this character, you're not going to change an anti's mind who's deliberately trolling in the tags, so why are you trying? What are you getting out of it? What does it give you? It's exhausting just scrolling past it.

#The thing about morality is that it's subjective #the religious leader who's a beacon of moral purity to their congregation #is a source of selfishness and pain to someone they abuse in secret #is that abuse victim immoral for rejecting the values the religious leader represents?#the congregation might think so because their definition of morality relies on the religious leader being a moral guide #the victim might not think so though because how can something be righteous if it causes suffering #look this is just an example of how perspectives can vary and I know there are more possible takes on that example #my point is that the idea that there's no clear 'good' and 'evil' there's only power/what you do with it is actually how psychology works #'good' to one person can be pain to another #'scourgify' is an innocuous household spell that cleans stains until it's used to waterboard someone #context matters more than labels like 'light' and 'dark' magic

44 notes · View notes

greendragon19 · 2 days

Text

Ok but TK and Marjan, both trying to figure out if Buck and Eddie are dating after following them on Instagram because they both seem to exclusively only post stuff of each other and Chris.

Like TK would see it first but it doesn't take long before Marjan is right there with him and they both become lowkey obsessed trying to figure it out.

And then season 7 happens

TK - who the fucks Marisole?

Marjan - no clue why?

TK - she just tagged Diaz in her story, I guess they're moving in together

Marjan pulling up Instagram - when, I've literally never seen him post anything about her before

TK - I know, it's weird right.

Marjan - really weird

TK - Marj have you seen?

Marjan - seen what?

TK - Buckley took a guy to his sisters wedding, I knew he was flirting with me

Majan - as in some guy that's not Diaz?

TK - yeah he's called Tommy

Marjan having already pulled up Tommy's profile - wow…

TK - he's hot right

Majan - yeah but that's not what I meant have you been on his profile

TK - no I just saw the pictures from the wedding why?

Marjan - he also a firefighter, he's ex army and he seems to be into basketball, cars and Muay thai

TK - So Buckley is dating a clone of Diaz

Marjan - certainly looks that way

Like an hour later

TK - do you think we should tell him?

Majan - Buckley? You know I was thinking the same thing. Like we should just drop him a quick dm or something

TK - I don't know it feels like the kind of thing you should call someone about

Majan - Wait, you got his number when he was flirting with you during the wildfires?

TK - unfortunately not

Marjan - damn, you think you could convince Carlos to find his number in the police database?

TK - If I explain it's for the grater good maybe

Paul who has been listening to these two idiots speculate for the past few years - No no no, you absolutely can not do that!

TK - but it's for love

Paul - you're going to what call this guy up and and be like hey you remember when we met briefly in Texas during the wildfires well me and my friend have been insta stalking you and think your in love with you best friend

Marjan - well it sounds crazy when you say it like that

Paul - you would be lucky if they don't file restraining orders against you for stalking. Look, you don't think I clocked them both during the whole five minutes I spent with the two of them, of course I did but you can't just tell people how they feel either they will figure it out on their own or they won't. But whichever it is you have to stay out of it.

TK & Marjan pouting - fine

TK once Paul is out of earshot - what if we dm Diaz?

#911 abc #911 lone star #911 show #evan buckley #eddie diaz #tk strand #marjan marwani #paul strickland #buddie

33 notes · View notes

unloneliest · 1 month

Note

IIIIIIIIIII want to know about the complex machinations of the soul (and the web of reasons underpinning your story and symbolism choices)

WAH thank you i have like such a complex web of thoughts spinning in my head this week. i'm gonna put it under the cut but i've been thinking a lot about places imbued with enough magic that i'm considering them somewhat of characters? particularly the Forest vs castles in general, but as applied in specific to the castle that my oc silas had been the prince of specifically.

(silas is a part of the adult generation of my story? the story covers quite a span of time. the adult gen is introduced as 18-21 year olds & the story later follows their teen children as time passes; it doesn't stay in detail for the entire span of their lives. there's dull moments that aren't worth focusing a book on & the juxtaposition of generations is much more interesting to me. it'll be released nonlinearly)

point a is the Forest.

so like. the original inhabitants of this world are, to the humans and comparable hominids, giants, though they did not of course call themselves this. they were twice the size of humans and had unlimited magical power until the gods who made them got pissed they were using their unlimited magical power and took them out, creating humans and others in the process, & leaving a handful of diminished giants behind - they would now age to death/had limits to their magic/could not still have children.

and the Forest was beyond massive to them. the Forest in the valley is large enough that humans can live in the canopy, build homes on branches. giant magical forest. you get the deal.

but part of the deal of the Forest is that like - rather than fading out, most of the remaining giants consciously chose what to do when they were nearing their end, and used their still considerable magic to become a part of the trees. it was irreversible, and an end to their previous existence, but a way of preserving themselves as a collective and they're still able to communicate and have an impact with some highly magical humans. this is a very alive awake forest, and it's an alive awake forest that once experienced the world & time very similarly to the way that humans do.

my character rohsi escapes a shitty situation and finds out she does have magic powers and like. when gaining access to them also discovers that she's Chosen by the forest? for her this is a hereditary type of magical connection, and not one that the forest always activates - not everyone in rohsi's family has been forest chosen but it's easier for the forest to have a chosen person with certain attributes and those attributes are present in rohsi's family (but not only her family).

rohsi's mother, szadeh, was supposed to be chosen by the forest but a diety laid claim first; it left the forest with nobody to work with it and had ultimately catastrophic consequences for szadeh.

rohsi having uniquely strong magic/being connected to the forest has been true for probably close to a decade, but i haven't previously had the details of magical functioning to the level that i now do? ANYWAYS. even though "rohsi has weird magic and a forest connection" has been true i haven't previously gotten in to the like, ways the forest exists and is independently.

so what i've been thinking about is like - different people's magic works in different ways - some people are seers, some have a great talent for a particular craft, some have magic that most easily takes form as light, some are healers, some have natural resonance with different pieces of nature. and different deities have different domains of power. different natural features all have ambient magic of their own, too. but entities like the forest exist somewhere between all of these things, especially when they're enough of entities to have opinions about what's happening around them and can attempt to influence what's happening.

what's the nature of a forest, this Forest, and its magic?

communication/connection. i'm thinking about pando, i'm thinking about mycelial networks, i'm thinking about thee decay exists as an extant form of life post. and i'm thinking about how a community of people with shared interests and goals chose to become a forest together, and how that'd impact not just them but the plants they were in community with.

a lot of the abuse that rohsi experienced growing up was her being isolated from others; how is community and communication a strength? how does the functioning of the central group of characters resemble & deviate from the strengths of the Forest? how does rohsi's inclination to work well with the Forest impact the way that she does magic even when she is not working with the Forest specifically? etc etc.

also in this vein: how many people live in the forest now, and under what circumstances? is the forest as an entity representative of the coalition of allied resistances working against the monarchy on purpose? how does the relationship to the land that people who inhabit the forest - none of whom are supporters of the monarchy - differ from the relationship or lack of relationship people in other locations have and how is that reflected in/an extension of their politics? how did i not notice that i was doing this on purpose to this degree????

point b is the castle, possibly called north hold.

it's actually kind of just slightly north of the west edge of the valley but like. further north than that is mostly forest, so it doesn't get counted as a Further North that you could be in.

i have several inroads to thinking about this castle in conjunction with the Forest? i've been thinking a lot about the relationships that wakeful locations have to people in general, and the ways that members of the monarchy are alienated from meaningful relationship with the land despite ostensibly being rulers of it.

silas, of the adult generation, is the inheriting prince of the northern throne. there are three castles, three rulers, in the valley, but they function as one state overall. there have never been borders or edges or separate citizenships between the three seats of power - they're just the three corners of a single region, each "needing" their own local castle/monarch. i'm still working out the details on the structure of the government. a lot of it was invented when i was 13. by a dream.

but. the thing is. silas, as prince. he does think he's doing what's best for the people. he tries very hard to. it's not something he would turn his back on on a whim; he takes the duty very seriously. he is a prince but also a born leader. he's possessive and protective over the people who are his, both the unknown people he leads and the friends he loves. he's the younger of two sons. he's the only son remaining. he's haunted by the question of whether his brother would be handling things better than him.

there is no easily backed heir if something should happen to silas, if something first happened to his mother the queen & whoever it is she's married to [i have yet to fully develop. silas' parents/family dynamic but he's inheriting from his mother. no only men can rule in my universe. anyone can do anything forever, including gender transition. babes there's magic]. his heir until he weds and produces one is his cousin, but there's no guarantee there wouldn't be conflict over that, because there's others with similar levels of a blood claim on the throne.

things have been peaceful. silas was the spare and his mother can't have more children. there was no reason to expect it might be a problem, that there's only him.

it is a problem, that it's only him.

i can't get into the entire details of the circumstances because that'd just add. the entire plot of the actual first book. to this ramble. but silas' family is killed and his own life is in jeopardy. and he leaves. he runs off into the desert. and i've been rotating what it would take to make him do that, because he wouldn't do it just to save his own hide. it would take something very significant to convince him that it wasn't right/possible for him to stay and fight for the people by fighting for the throne.

part of the tragedy of silas is that it might have been possible for him to survive and win had he been able to connect with allies that truly supported him in the moments between when he finds out his family is dead & when he flees with jay. (jay is my best boy. who i talk the most about of my ocs. a guard/soldier/?? on the specifics who deserts and turns his back on his entire life when he's sent after silas to kill him because he knows that it's the wrong thing to do and would rather devote himself to silas' cause. listen to me. their relationship is everything to meeeeee but i'm getting off topic)

silas, when he returns to the castle/finds out his family is dead? he goes first to his mentor, norna. who is evil. i realized i love a fucked up mentor/mentee relationship after rewatching phantom of the opera at new years. i'm making her a sexy about it. it's better when villains are hot. she's in magic academia. she's butch. and she started going grey when she was like. twenty. and she knew his brother and he's been trusting her and the things she tells him are memories and she's a huge part of why he compares himself so much with his (much older) brother who died. and she's fully been manipulating him the entire time.

norna is sooo slay to me. i know she's done a lot of things wrong but she's hot about it.

ANYWAYS this is all just like, context around the idea that the castle, silas' castle home, it's a character too. oh i have to make a detour.

the biggest cities in this story, they're all built. well. let me take another step to the side.

in the valley, humans do not call themselves the people. they call themselves the people of the roads. because the giants used their magic to create roads that will never, not ever, need infrastructure upkeep, and that connect the most important central locations in the valley. if enough soil forms on top of one of the roads it might become buried and plants may grow in the soil above it, but literally nothing can damage them. the whole damn valley isn't full of roads, but the giant's roads between castles have seriously impacted the pattern of human dwellings & communities within the valley.

the connected locations each have their own "ruins"; highly magical structures abandoned by the giants, either when they went into the trees or before that during the great unmaking by the gods. so whatever castle it is silas grew up in, it either is a repurposed dwelling of the giants, or it incorporates one of those in the structures that have been built up around what the giants left behind.

the magic left behind by the giants behaves differently from a forest that was once people; it's aliveness is different but it was still created to be an active sort of thing. there was intention put into it.

what is the essence of a castle? a castle is meant to enclose, protect, enforce. a castle has strict delineations between what is inside and what isn't. a castle is stone and is of the earth. when danger threatens, the people in the communities around a castle come in to the castle for safety and protection until it's safe to return to their places outside of its walls. it serves and protects the people; or, it is at least supposed to do this.

if the castle's magic was created by the giants, it would not have stayed awake in their absence. and in the absence of all the giants, the humans and other hominids left the valley completely; it spent several centuries uninhabited. great magical catastrophe that altered plate tectonics and all that.

so the people who became the monarchs of the north when humans returned to the valley, well. originally they were the ones taking care of this abandoned castle/city, and making it a place people could live again. they're the ones who rediscovered the magical functioning of the castle, who established a connection and reciprocal relationship with the castle's magic. they woke it back up. they kept the connection alive and passing through the generations just like the crown did.

the valley wasn't originally intended to be a monarchy.

but like. what's the essence of a castle! what's the nature of its magic, the way the Forest's is communication? to protect and enclose. without active magical connection to people inhabiting it, it has no way of knowing there's anyone to protect. and that connection is something that has to go both ways.

norna is able to convince silas - if not completely, thoroughly enough that he starts closing himself off - that he's at fault for his family's deaths, and that his closest allies have been given cause to believe this too. his doubt and his withdrawal, his closing of himself off, that means - without realizing it - he's separating himself from the castle's magic. he mentally undefines himself as prince - not wholly, but enough. and the castle's magic going to sleep affirms that partial belief until it's whole. and that's why he turns his back on the throne. he believes it to have turned its back on him first.

but it didn't. it just didn't realize there was anything left to protect.

and when i think about the castle, about it alive, i think about it having a heart, some underground and physical representation of it having an essence. and i know that's influenced by a Number of things - the song of the lioness quartet's dominion jewel/book four climactic fight, the phantom of the opera final caverny bit, the so you want to be a wizard book with worlds each having something like a heart, probably barbie and the magic of pegasus' whole thing about keystones but i cannot remember enough about that to be sure - i just remember that there was something about the keystone of arches. definitely some fics i've read set in magical universes.

a castle with a heart, a stone radiating light, a light that goes dark when it sleeps; some kind of visual representation of the moment silas loses that connection.

something crucial, here: there's a post about what the individual unit of a bee is. i can't remember who it's by or find the damn thing but it was talking about how like, we're a part of our ecosystems? how if you're trying to define the singular unit of bee, that unit is hive. and how we're not separate from what's around us. and with my story like. that's how it is with magic. it's a deeply magical world, and though everyone's internal wellspring of magic is of variable size and not everyone has enough internal magics to use their personal magic to influence the world around them, anyone can use the magic that exists in the world around them to do magic, especially in collective group magics.

a barn raising is a type of magic. and the way that barn is rasied will include magical steps to minimize the risk of a fire. and the reason that it works is because it's a collective magic, dependent on ritual.

run of the mill academic magic users (read: anyone with any kind of training)? they may think of themselves as solo magical practitioners, but they're adherents of a school of thought. the group they are doing magic with is themself and the person who taught them how to do magic, or the many people; if they're using a spell or anything of that ilk, it's them and the person who created the spell.

high level academic magic users have learned about how all magic is collective and learned to do magic where they're in relationship with something in the world that has ambient magic: a fire, a flower.

without connection to the castle, and when explicitly disowned by a major teacher of his? silas' magic starts acting up, starts not working.

all of this has been like. developing in every direction at once for me, recently. it's not just one thing at a time. thinking about the castle having a heart means thinking about why it does, and how that exists as a coutnerpoint to the Forest, and that means thinking about rohsi's magic, and how rohsi skips straight to high level academic magic user methods because she grew up magicless and was already used to only doing collective magic & applies that principle to individual magic easily.

thinking about the conditions under which silas runs away with jay and how terrifying the disconnection from the castle must have been for both of them means thinking about what might wake that castle back up.

and nait is jay's son (& the son of two other adult gen characters who are jay's best friends/marital partners, riamin & ymalis; marriage conventions aren't 1:1 with our world). and jay never got to have a family with silas. silas never got to know nait. but they're still so fucking similar, in so many ways. of course it's nait who wakes the sleeping castle.

and that's knowledge he shares, because it's something he learned how to do from rohsi, rohsi with communicative connecting magic, rohsi with ties to the Forest. it's not something he ever has to carry alone.

jay more than anyone is the one who lost silas. he spends the rest of his life grieving. ym was the next closest to silas, and rohsi and nait are both so like silas it hurts. they're raising their son and then suddenly the kids he brought home with him, too, and there's echoes of silas everywhere even in their kids growing up in his absence.

and then nait's waking the castle.

and he's just a fucking kid!!! and jay and ym and riamin are so worried the pull of what's happening in the world is going to eat their son alive, because it killed silas. it killed silas but nait can't be killed and somehow that means it might be worse for him, though at first it seemed a blessing.

but anyways. thinking about whether the heart of the castle is conflated with sovereignty, that's currently on my plate. i need to stretch this web and explore the other key castles, too.

and i need to think about point c: the river, and how all of this applies to her.

because good lord, i think i finally have the right angle to approach the river with.

anyways. this is. a lot of words. it stretches in every direction at once and i tried not getting too far off topic with background information but like. i feel so fucking dialled in to enjoyable to write & include but also spot on symbolic representations of the underlying values of varying political groups in the story & the themes of the narrative in general????????? which i did NOT feel before yesterday when i started having most of the culminating brain waves on this stuff. holy Shit.

also um. thank you for asking me about this. ilu <3

#lamentablequeen #den replies #ostrela posting #<-my tag for things i've posted about this story #this is. 3.2k words. oops

22 notes · View notes

gazkamurocho · 1 month

Text

Working hard on that 80s Goromi doujinshi 👀

Also a test for the screentone background xD

#a little teaser heeheh #it's flowing so nicely and the story is soooo fun ;;#btw I'm using a free cam mod on Yakuza 0 to take screenshots of the background and then I edit them on CSP #the things that we do to make a good comic <3 #gaz talks #<<< I think I'm gonna start posting more random stuff here on Tumblr and use that tag #I'm only posting updates about my art on Twitter but I want you guys on Tumblr to know what I've been doing too!

117 notes · View notes

pasta-pardner · 10 months

Text

spotify | john marston's revenge quest, set to music from 1960s spaghetti westerns.

Fun detail: the opening cutscene for Red Dead Revolver (2004) features an instrumental version of "His Name Is King". The lyrical version is oddly fitting for John, given that it's a song about seeking vengeance for a dead brother.

#red dead #rdr2 #john marston #arthur morgan #pardner playlists #pardner posts #tagging arthur in this bc even tho its a john-centric playlist.. its about the way john grieves arthur #y'all know me !!! im always a sucker for a revenge story!!!#so i cant help but dwell on johns attitude of ~i will throw away my chance at a future because i'm stuck in the past grieving you~#like thats a banger. thats a good revenge story. the ultimate act of devotion is also an ultimate act of betrayal.#this is admittedly a kind of pulpy playlist and im embracing that. im a fan of 'horse opera' westerns and im attaching that to epilogue joh #anyways. all the songs on this playlist were released btwn 1966 - 1971 so its definitely a vintage vibe.#i tried to match that vintage energy with the graphic design. the cover art is screenshots of rdr2 that i've /heavily/ edited in photoshop #i wanted the images to look like those oil and/or acrylic paintings done for old movie posters #it took a lot of filter adjustments and paint-overs to get to this stage. i spent a lot of time on it. (please clap)#i initially wanted john to be wearing arthur's hat for this but . hdkhjdf ran into some difficulties sourcing usable screenshots.#i refuse to accept unmodded epilogue john as canon. i dont know what you think that thing is but that is not my son etc etc.#its jmrp or bust for me #most of the jmrp screengrabs i could turn into a workable composition featured the john hat so i just went with that. unfortunate but mehh #sidenote. plz click for quality bc a lot of the paint texturing in these covers gets lost in the compression #alight yall. have fun with the playlist !! lmk if u end up giving it a listen.#rdr2 spoilers #🤠#art

456 notes · View notes

frodo-of-the-nine-fingers · 8 months

Text

i think the actual disconnect between nie mingjue and jin guangyao is that nie mingjue is dying and knows he's dying and has to stick so so so closely to his morals and virtues or else it'll have been for nothing and then he'll have to come to terms with the fact that maybe he didn't actually have to die after all vs jin guangyao who wants to live, he wants to live and be safe and have all the things he was told he could never have-was told he was never good enough to have-and will do almost anything to make it so. and these are two like irreconcilable point of views right (and both Correct and Wrong at the same time) and so they can't understand each other because they aren't even having the same argument and neither of them can see that

#nie mingjue #jin guangyao #nieyao #it's good!!!#i think nmj never expected to survive the war against the wen too maybe so after he's both floundering and STILL dying #characters that didn't HAVE to die like that but did anyways because societal/family/narrative pressure etc >>>>>>>#⚰️#I've been told it's real sweet to grow old #i think there's also this disconnect between the two of them in the story as a whole re that steinberg quote i posted earlier about kleos #nostos (glory seeking vs home coming)#where jgy is the kleos or glory seeker and nmj SHOULD be the nostos (@#(and he IS to an extent) but also he ISNT because again he is dying-he knows hes dying you cant extract that from his character #and so there SHOULD be this conflict here from that but there just isnt because nmj isnt filling that role properly and i think that's part #of why jgy cant understand him #jgy is the kleos but nmj isnt a glory seeker (not outside of like the war and he's not doing that for glory etc) but he's also not nostos #he's theseus in the king must die #(sorry for referencing a bunch of shit in th tags pls pls pls ignore my rambling to myself about characters that are barely ever on page/#screen and so we can never actually fully contextualize them because we dont actually know them but oh boy oh boy can we try)#so like what does a guy who will (allegedly) give up anyone and anything domestic to gain/retain status do against a guy who otherwise #would be the opposite and unwilling/unable to sacrifice anyone for these things do when said guy does neither 🤷‍♀️#mine

195 notes · View notes

cerise-on-top · 2 months

Text

Hank with an Eldritch Horror Reader

Here's another thing I wrote two years back! It was an interesting concept which I really liked, so I actually really enjoyed writing this request!

Hank J Wimbleton was a grunt of many things, but not one to be scared unless he had a good reason to be. There were many things in this world he did not understand, you were one of them. Upon meeting you, his first instinct would have been to either fight or run away - who could blame him, it was all he knew. No matter how many times you reassured him that the very last thing you wanted to do was to harm him, he’d draw his weapon, uncertain of whether or not he should believe your words.

Once you show no resistance towards him whatsoever and simply restrain him using your powers or other methods, that’s when, thrashing around as much as he could, he would start listening. You may or may not have seen a grunt up close, but this was your chance to finally examine one. As you scrutinise him from every possible angle Hank realises that you were simply curious about his being and finally lowers weapon.

Your voice would likely hurt his head and freeze the blood in his veins, so you might have to resort to telepathy or speak through a marionette, if you can find one. Though, once Hank’s interest in you has been piqued, he’d be more than happy to find you one. A lot of people in Nevada seem to be redundant in the first place. Regarding telepathy: You will be able to have a two-way conversation with Hank like that, but, for the most part, he doesn’t think in words. Still, he can do so, if needed.

If you’re on the rather small side, he will make an effort to pick you up, or hold you, and bring you back to base. Depending on whether you can float or not, this might be rather difficult, but he’ll try. If you’re large, however, then he will simply “tell” you to follow him. As an eldritch being you could likely either change your form or scare away anyone in your path in the first place, so he doesn’t particularly worry about anyone being stupid enough to attack you.

Spend time with him, he’ll get used to you more and more and, eventually, grow a bond with you. Proud, he’ll show you to Doc so he can figure out what you are, but do not be fooled. Hank wants to know what you are to some degree too. Once comfortable with you and certain you won’t harm him, he’ll start observing you, touching you to some degree. See how you react, how you feel, how you are.

Despite your conversations being, for the most part, one-sided, Hank will ask you directly what you are and if you’re some form of eldritch deity. Since you’re an amicable creature he can’t exactly wrap his head around, it’s worth a try.

Although he would like to do so to some degree, he won’t take you with him on missions. It’s his way of saying “I care a great deal about you, I don’t want you to die or worse even if you are capable of defending yourself.” If you really insist on aiding him, he will let you, begrudgingly. But beware that he will have your back. In fact, having you around will give him a greater reason to fight and improve his overall performance. Though, it will also be a major stress factor to him if something were to happen to you, so choose wisely.

#madness combat #madness combat x reader #hank j wimbleton #hank j wimbleton x reader #I've been into eldritch horrors and stuff ever since I was a teenager #although I don't condone his beliefs in the slightest I really like Lovecraft's writing style #at one point it influenced how I wrote as well since he was rather descriptive in a pleasant to read way #I have an anthology at home that I might wanna reread again at some point #celephais was always my favorite story and I think it may be one of my favorite stories of all time #I know it interests no one but my favorite book is No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai #and yes I did get into classic literature because of a certain anime I don't wanna tag in this post #but another book I really enjoyed reading was Clockwork Orange I read it with someone I used to be close to and it was a really good read #it gave me nightmares but I really enjoyed it! gave me something to talk about with my father as well #Hier kommt Alex by Die Toten Hosen is also a really good song! as is 1000 Gründe by the same band!#those songs are based on Clockwork Orange actually!#I never watched the movie and I don't think I ever will because eye gore disturbs me but the book was good! I read it bc of tboi!#I have quite a few classic at home! but I think I wanna finish reading Paradise Lost! That's also a really interesting story so far!#reading and writing are some of my favorite hobbies!#I'd also love to finishe the price of salt at some point as well! Because I have to all things considered!#I just wish I could juggle all of my hobbies a bit better! I wish I had a bit more time for everything! but oh well it be like that!

63 notes · View notes

girlyliondragon · 1 year

Text

Now kiss (haha Jk... Unless??? (Toby PLEASE make it "Unless"))

Ello Deltarune fandom. Guess what ship has gotten my brainrot now 2 1/2 years later. :P Because ofc I go from one f/f ship to another and cling onto it. But fr tho I love these sapphics sm. I love them so muuuuuch I'm so glad they are semi-canon just 2 chapters in.

Been wanting to draw something with them since February, but because of art block back then I decided to just let my pen go on its own since I had art block and ended up with a rough of this and hallelujah lol ^^

Seriously Toby please. Take your time ofc no rush. But please I NEED to see them together again.

Also I love Noelle's glow-y nose hc so that's mine now too thanks fandom.

Art: Mine

Do not steal/crop/edit/etc. Do not tag as kin/me ty! Suselle haters DNI :U

#Deltarune #Deltarune Fanart #Noelle deltarune #Susie deltarune #utdr #Suselle #This is my first time drawing them ever #I'm very happy with how I draw Susie but Noelle is a different story. My perfectionism is getting me #Been wanting to draw something with them since February #decided to just let my pen go on its own since I had art block and ended up with a rough of this ^^#It's all about the yearning <3 #her tail's wagging :3 #Em Doodles #I don't think(?) I'll be posting anything outside of art in the fandom tags #because I've had enough extremely bad experiences with fandoms so just art stuff now. Not taking anymore chances!#ya know. unless Tumblr's weird tag system screws me over :U #Btw The kin/me thing is more of a ''if it's not made for you don't tag it like it is plz ty'' to reiterate #More for personal art than anything. If I make stuff for people that do it? Then yeah go nuts xP #Me: Makes a freckle brush just for coloring Susie and can finally really use it.#Textures and lighting: Imma make it impossible to see #couldn't use my paper layer textures thanks to that rip I might do them manually next time #there's a reason I put the ''Suselle haters DNI'' thing from what I saw someone try to do a super wrong rant in the fcking tag but #IMMA KEEP THAT RAMBLING OUT OF THE TAGS TOO because like I said I'm not throwing that sort of aggression anywhere outside my own blog now

196 notes · View notes

chiropteracupola · 8 months

Text

sing me silence, my soldier / sing us gently into death...

#em draws stuff #em is posting about sharpe #sharpe #daniel hagman #rifleman harris #once again I've drawn something where the pose is borrowed off archaeological excavation photos - this one is the lovers of modena #to make a long story short I got real sad and wanted to draw them a bit more of a goodbye. a quiet moment and a gift to see them off.#see the previous post in my sharpe-watching tag for a longer thought-scramble to go with this thing #reached the end of the drawing process and had to ask 'why does this feel familiar' before remembering the emotional experience I had #some years ago while reading 'the apparitionists' and also the formative time that was ken burns' the civil war... anyway. that aside.#this was going to be printed out for dorm decor but I think I could not look at this every day it would be far too much #I could have had my pick of appropriate folk songs for the caption lyrics but no this is a modified version of something from seawife #o'er the hills and o'er the main through flanders portugal and spain. y'know. y'know.

69 notes · View notes

commsroom · 8 months

Note

Hello !! Do you have thoughts on Rhea :]

yes, i do!! with the caveat that we have such limited information on lovelace's crew, what we do have is almost entirely filtered through her perspective, and we kinda... know rhea the least. as much as i find eris a fascinating character too, i wish we'd heard more of rhea.

which is kind of the first thing: rhea is the only AI character in wolf 359 who doesn't have a voice. (we don't hear hyperion's voice, which is supposedly not integrated yet, but he's not even really treated like a character in the scene he's in. and that's a whole other thing.) for hera in particular, she feels a physical disconnect from the others, but the fact that wolf 359 is audio only makes her an equal presence from the perspective of the audience. (which carries over to the live show, where the other characters may not be able to see her, but the audience can, etc.) rhea's situation is kind of the opposite, where her words can be seen by the others, but the audience can only hear or infer her words via what the others read out loud or respond to.

rhea clearly cares about her fellow crewmates, and seems to get along with lambert in particular. lovelace's log: "and communications officer lambert is... communications officer lambert. so an enormous stick in the mud. [...] i heard that, rhea. you are expressly forbidden from telling him i said that." - a sentiment it's easy to imagine early minkowski expressing about eiffel and hera, for the opposite reason. in a more direct parallel, rhea reassures lambert that he "does a great job"; in bach to the future, hera tells eiffel he's "actually very good at his job." the difference in context highlights their priorities; eiffel and hera are having a heart to heart about worthiness, while rhea really is talking about lambert's job - work is important to him, and most people around him don't respect or appreciate his work. what we can infer about rhea is that she's... well, the kind of person who would be lambert's friend. straightforward, rule-following, and professional.

(even something like "see, rhea? i told you someone read [my reports to command]" indicates that they talk to each other a fair amount, but also serves as a mirror to eiffel's belief no one listens to his logs.)

maybe the most interesting thing to me about rhea is her defense of eris: "it's just the way they programmed her, back off." ... again, the complete opposite of how hera might respond. eiffel tries to "defend" her in a similar way in ep 7 - "you can't really hold that against her; it's just her programming" - and she finds it incredibly insulting. with all of that taken together, with how lovelace, lambert, and rhea are in many ways intentional opposites to minkowski, eiffel, and hera, it really makes me wonder how rhea identifies or perceives herself.

i think hera is functionally human, both in her singular, consistent image of herself, and in her role in the narrative. eris appears human to lovelace, but is clear that it's how she sees "a version of herself." whether that refers to that iteration of eris having multiple versions of herself, or if it refers to all of the iterations of her who exist: either way it's a reflection of the way eris exists, and her acceptance of that. by extension, the fact that we don't encounter rhea in any way other than beeping sounds and implied words on station monitors... kind of says something narratively, i think. going back to her lack of voice, even that level of distance and abstraction takes her further away from 'human' perceptions by the audience, while she's obviously still a full person with her own priorities, perspectives, and opinions. i think it's very interesting to consider she might prefer her state of (lack of physical) existence in a way hera clearly does not.

#wolf 359 #w359 #asks #sorry this took a bit to reply to!! i know it's not just about rhea but it's hard to discuss her without talking about. other things #and i've been trying not to tag most of my asks #but i like talking about AI characters and don't know when i'll get a chance to talk about rhea again so. i wanna file it #i think it's worth considering the difference between personhood and humanity even if they commonly overlap #and i feel very strongly that it's wrong to call hera 'non-human' with the context of her character within the story #but that's very much not the case for most other AI characters and i think it's interesting she might even be an outlier within wolf 359 #i have more to say about that later but. for another post.#also to be clear. rhea's lack of voice is because she's an earlier model in universe. but it didn't have to be written that way.#the fact she was written that way says something interesting.#if you wanted to extend it to the same disability metaphors that apply to hera you could probably talk about non-verbal communication #but again. there's not much to go off of. it's mostly possibilities.

46 notes · View notes

skrunksthatwunk · 11 months

Text

frostbitten

(alt versions under the cut)

different color scheme:

full pages of both:

anyway haha. who's feeling normal about this scene. me probably

#baby's first digital comic and it fucking. good god my spine hurts so bad #not even remotely my first comic but I'm outta practice and also. stupid #anyway thinking about this scene thinking about kiryu's deep frostbitten black fingertips all bloody and horrible #YAKUZA 5 REALLY PUT ME THROUGH IT WITH THIS ENDING OKAY #and I'm kinda shocked I've never seen fanart of it before because it's one of my favorite main story scenes #trying new things. ow. but it's neat anyway ig #alright tag time you know the drill #rgg #ryu ga gotoku #yakuza #kiryu kazuma #sawamura haruka #ykz #like a dragon #yakuza 5 #yakuza 5 spoilers #haruka sawamura #kazuma kiryu #didn't turn out how i originally planned so i might go back and do a more faithful standalone piece. but im going to bed now :p #ALSO DON'T MENTION THE FUCKING. LAMP POST DISTANCE FROM KIRYU OKAY. I KNOW #I ONLY NOTICED IT WHILE MAKING THE POST AND THIS SHIT TOOK ME LIKE TEN HOURS IM NOT FIXING IT NOW. SOBBING WAILING #graurfghhgh y5 saying dream this dream that just to kill me by bringing it back at the end. hell #but like with a different use of the word's meaning. i literally eat that shit up HOOUUGGHHH #me: yeah i made the panels all stiff and boxy and boring because he's stiff from freezing to death and it's an impersonal unengaging style #(<- ignoring the other reason: something more dynamic would've probably been harder to map dialogue to and it was already a dense spread)#anyway. got a dip pen yesterday and wayy too many nibs so im thinking about doing a happier kiryu + haruka piece with that. go crazy #real ones can see how this developed from the gifset of this scene to the wtf his hands are ourple post. it's been fermenting #happy with the reblogs so far bc it's all like HEY HEY HEY. OUCH. OWIEEEE and this is good (ik bc i also say owwie ouch when smth is sad)#skrunkart

70 notes · View notes

flamestar126 · 2 months

Text

Give me a "M"!

(click for better quality)

Bonus + related art + rambling under the cut

Originally I just wanted draw Dexter in a cheerleader outfit (an excuse to put him a skirt for pure funsies) and so I did! Which is art is below that i drew like a long time ago now.

It was just Dexter at first but I am a dexdark shipper so I had to have him react somehow. Then I remembered there was a comic about an athletic Mandark so I added him in his outfit from the comic.

Then my mind like it always does, wandered and created a short story to make sense of why they would be in this position in the first place.

~~~

After years and years of competing with Dexter relentlessly, Mandark had gotten into a rut during his high school years. He's absolutely frustrated that he's STILL second best to him.

(The time the art is placed is late hs years)

So what does a teen genius do? He explores outside of the science community and what do you know. . . he's actually not half bad at sports. He quickly abandons science for it. Mandark is thriving. Why didn't he try this sooner? And Dexter? He's so confused. Never thought his greatest rival would ditch him science for a mere physical activity. Determined to find the bottom of this he goes directly to the source of his confusion and asks. It goes as well as you think. Not at all. Plan B. Find a way to get close enough without raising too much suspicion. How? Cheerleading.

It honestly wasn't that hard to join. He's cute and flexible enough due to the battle he's faced through out the years. Plus a recommendation from his dear sister, Deedee, quickly received him a spot.

(HAVE YOU SEEN HIM DO FLIPS IN THE START OF EGO TRIP?? BOY IS READY)

The idea seemed brilliant at the time. That is until he found out he had to wear a skirt of all things. Deedee secretly tricked as a little bit of revenge. It wasn't too bad in the end. He rocks skirt ngl. With the excuse of having come to rehearsals and games that involved Mandark, things have become much easier to keep a closer look on him.

His sudden presence certainly didn't go noticed. Mandark's eye often drifted to the redhead that cheered him on during events. And oh, what an ego boost. His former rival cheering on? Yelling out his number whenever he had the ball? Wishing for him to succeed? Even if it was for only the cheerleaders' expectation to do so. How addicting.

He cornered Dexter right after. "That 'M' for me, McPherson?" Mandark teased. Knowing the "M" was their school's name. "How kind of you." "In your dreams, Astronomanov." It continued on like for a while.

They lap it like fucking cream. They've missed this. The feeling buried was bubbling up to the surface once again. Stealing quick glances, the playful jabs, grins matching the other's.

Who made the first move? It wasn't clear. It seemed so natural to be in the other's presence. Both just eased into they didn't even noticed.

Meanwhile, the science department was taking heavy losses. They lost their best two students. Ended up begging the two come back.

Eventually Dexter and Mandark did return but as partners this time.

. . . Douglas? He was thrown out of the loop about the entire thing. He missed out a lot when watching from afar. No one told him they were switching sides! What the heck guys. :/

He wouldn't survived the switch anyway. He's athletic pathetic. Stay on your game boy, Douglas. It's better this way.

~~~

Details I didn't include

Mandark was indeed incredibly suspicious of Dexter's switch

He was a total tsundere about Dexter's outfit (he did like it)

They had a talk about why they made a switched. talk about it and sealed it with a kiss (maybe :3)

Mandark said science for geeks but he's a geek through and through. he couldn't resist science for too long

Sports department was crying after

They do the same thing in college but in different uniforms (already drawn but not sharing that here :>)

I'm definitely forgetting more details but i am drawing blanks here

~~~

Bonus!

"You know there are male cheerleaders, right?"

"I like the breeze it gives." Half truth. Was told they ran out of male uniforms. <- Lie by Deedee

"Hm. If you say so." Gay panic

Inspired by a scene of Daffy Duck from Looney Tunes (2011)

Thank you for reading!

#dexter's laboratory #dexter's lab #dexdark #dexter #mandark #flame draws #they were gonna be in a gym that i had trouble with the background and i like outside scenery more #this is more like a short verison of this whole thing? im sure i could've stretch out this more but god im not a writer #i was hesitant about sharing this. i kept going back n forth for so long but i saw something today and now im posting out of spite lol #this is the first i rambled my story out of tags! look at me. i ran out of words in here #im just proud of this whole thing. technically my full fledged au ig? and damn if im not gonna share it #sorry if my little story doesnt make sense tho. i've been trying to put it into two for 2 hours now and trying to iron it out. it's rushed

18 notes · View notes

death-rebirth-senshi · 1 month

Text

Now that I've finished dungeon meshi I have to say, while I understand the disappointment with fandom's constant obsession with shipping two dudes in fandom typical ways and ignoring the women/men that don't fit a certain mold and basically ignoring the entire rest of the story...

People acting so indignant that people would do gay or even straight shipping, because this manga is such a super women-led yuri show that's all about the power of Marcille's all-consuming love for Falin, are absolutely fucking bonkers and have lost the plot.

That is not to say that these shippers are not insane or can't be annoying in the typical ways that they are, or that Marcille/Falin aren't the most shippable pairing and just about the closest you're gonna get to something romantic in Dungeon Meshi (it's a platonic ass story and I love that), or that it wouldn't be nice for the fandom around something to stay mostly devoted to the closest to a canon pairing most shippable F/F ship. It would. But like. I don't know I'm kind of upset by that attitude now

And my intention is not to be super negative about Marcille/Falin fans, because they are certainly not all like this, it's just. WHOO! That is just so not remotely what Dungeon Meshi is about to a degree I still wasn't prepared for despite being aptly warned.

#dungeon meshi tag #like this isn't a case where you'd have to shove every female character out the way to do your gay shipping exactly.#Again. I would not call these men very shippable with each other. And I would never tell anyone not to bitch and be snobby.#Bitch and be snobby always!#I'm just saying this attitude more than anything else is what gave me a different impression of what the show would be like #and the refusal to engage with a work for what it is is one of the annoying things about fandom shipping culture #like I wasn't expecting the relationship between Marcille and Falin to be SO understated. I wasn't expecting the bathroom hands #to basically be *it* with Marcille and Falin's interactions. Like there's just so little between them. Falin is barely in it.#And being super indignant that people would dare to ship Marcille with what the story clearly acts like is basically boy Falin #a character she actually spends the entire manga with and has a developed relationship with and that she clearly loves #(I think in general there are a few too many posts to my liking that toe a line towards 'gay shipping icky' for my tastes. But I get it)#I don't think I've been this gaybaited by something on tumblr for close to a decade which is also part of what's grinding my gears

8 notes · View notes

ebbpettier · 1 year

Note

The neverland kisnapping AU?

anon this beast is EXTREMELY SELF-INDULGENT and i made it purely and 100% because peter pan has been a fixation of mine since i was a little sprog (specifically the 2003 version with jason isaacs as hook)

TL;DR baz and his siblings are awayed in the night by a sinister faerie creature known as peter pan, who baz finds out has been doing away with the lost boys when they get too old to play his games anymore.

(extra dangerousTM because baz discovers that not only can he be injured like a normal person here, but if you die in never-never-land you DO die in real life)

also finds out that captain hook used to be pan's right-hand playmate as a child and has been rescuing pan's castoffs to try to fight back, the guy takes baz under his wing and teaches him to swordfight. that coat is the one hook was wearing when pan maimed him, and he gave it to baz because it was the only thing he had on hand that would fit a teenager.

"Didst thou ever want to be a pirate, me hearty?"

bonus content when baz gets back to watford simon has a minor crisis about him looking all scarred up and adventurous and rugged

#heavily inspired by things ive heard abt Lost Boy n The Child Thief because my friend really loves em but god help me i cannot find a copy!#baz pitch #the pen is mightier #i have a lot of drawings i never posted just bc they either #1. didnt feel polished enough to justify sharing #2. were of OCs and i've got a little bit of Hangups and IssuesTM about showing those off to the internet #but this peter pan au is very near and dear to my heart because fuck i love PP2003 but also because #i love the intersection of carry on's idiom-based-magic and neverland's imagination-based-magic #EVERYTHING IS STORIES AND SONGS AND WORDS GIVEN POWER.#enjoy my mile long tags i could literally talk about this for hours but i'm big shy

72 notes · View notes

transboykirito · 1 year

Text

some short rambling kirisuna with trans girl kirito my beloved

Asuna tossed and turned, unable to fall asleep. They’d been laying in bed for hours now, and she was pretty sure that neither she nor Kazuto had slept for so much as five minutes. She couldn’t be sure what was keeping him up, but she knew what was keeping her awake, and it made her want to cry conflicted tears.

She was a lesbian.

It was a recent realisation, but it was one that hit her like a bolt of lightning.

She’d considered it for months now, going back and forth with her friends and with her own reflection in the mirror. She’d done her research, she’d read every article she could find. Everything brought her to the same conclusion.

She loved Kazuto, she really did. If there was such a thing as soulmates, he was hers. It was like their minds and bodies were designed just to fit together, to be each other’s perfect matching halves.

But she couldn’t deny that the idea of calling somebody her husband felt… wrong. It felt like something she was supposed to do, something that was the simple, natural progression of things. She’d married a nice man, settled down and now she was his wife. That was what was expected of her.

They’d been married for six months now, and she’d be lying if she didn’t say that, on one or two occasions, she’d re-imagined their wedding day, where she might find a bride waiting for her at the alter instead of a groom.

The guilt ate her alive. She loved her husband, her soul loved his soul, but she knew deep down there would always be something deeply unsatisfactory about her life unless she was honest with him, like there was a piece of herself that she'd never have a chance to truly discover or grow. She would spend years wondering what could have been, who she could have been if she'd given herself the chance.

Kazuto had been open about his own feelings towards Eugeo and a handful of boys and men he’d known throughout his life. Hell, it was one of those conversations that had prompted Asuna to follow up on the silent, conflicting feelings she’d felt for years. She knew he would forgive her if she asked to break things off. He would understand.

…Right?

She’d been trying to have the conversation for days now. She’d found her conclusion within herself, all she had to do was voice it. She knew she couldn’t keep trying to hide this away.

She’d reached her breaking point the night before, when she’d fallen asleep to a blissful dream of their wedding day. Except… the one dancing with her wasn’t Kazuto, but a strangely familiar, faceless woman. She’d held Asuna so securely as they danced that Asuna felt like she’d known her for her entire life, and she’d woken up in tears.

She wanted to find that woman, find that moment.

Kazuto deserved that moment of his own, too.

“Asuna…” Kazuto’s voice whispered in the dark, “Are you still awake?”

“Yes,” she rolled over to look at him, her eyes widening when she saw his face. Was he… crying?

“I’m fine,” he said quickly, already sensing her concerns growing, “I… I need to talk to you about something. I think you might already know.”

She panicked. She had noticed something was off about him for a few weeks, but she’d been so preoccupied with her own thoughts that she told herself she was imagining things. God, how much had she missed?

“Are you okay? What’s wrong?” Asuna reached out her hand to hold his own under the blanket, tracing her thumb in circles over the back of his hand. She wasn’t sure if she was trying to soothe him or herself.

Kazuto took a deep breath, “Listen. I’ve been thinking about a lot.”

So have I, Asuna thought to herself, a little sarcastically.

“I didn’t realise how hard this would be to say,” Kazuto said, a laugh almost dancing on the edge of his voice, “You… you know how I’ve been playing GGO a lot more, lately?”

Asuna could recall the hours he’d lost to that game in just the past month - really, it had to be unhealthy. But Kazuto had seemed happy each time he woke from his dive, and Asuna couldn’t complain about that. If anything, she was just happy he was finally enjoying games other than ALO.

“Of course I noticed, did something happen in the game? Is Shino-non okay?”

Then Asuna’s thoughts turned sour. She didn’t play GGO nearly as often as Kazuto or Shino did, guns just weren’t really her style, so she didn’t truthfully pay much attention to what happened in the game. Kazuto knew that, Shino knew that. Had they been using GGO as a place to secretly meet up and…

She must have been easy to read - honestly, between herself and Kazuto, they could read each other as easily as a book, it came with the territory of being so familiar to one another - because Kazuto immediately screwed his face up.

“It’s not what you’re thinking, I promise, it has nothing to do with Shino,” he assured her, noticeably avoiding looking her in the eye.

Whatever it was, it was serious. She’d never seen him this frustrated just trying to talk to her. Yes, there were moments when they’d had petty arguments or been frustrated with one another, but he looked completely angry with himself as he seemingly battled with his tongue to form the words.

“There’s something I need to say, too…” Asuna’s voice was small, nervous. If Kazuto had something serious to say, they might as well both get things off their chests at once.

Kazuto gave her a look, somewhere between terrified and sympathetic, and smiled a forced smile.

“We’ll say it on three, okay?”

Asuna swallowed. Kazuto took a shaking breath.

“One…”

“Two…”

“Three…”

“I’m a lesbian.”

“I think I’m a woman.”

Then there was silence.

They both tried to process what they’d just heard, and for a moment Asuna wondered if she’d simply made up what Kazuto had just said. This had to be a dream, right?

Then there was laughter.

“Really?” Kazuto asked, because Kazuto was truly the one person in the world who would be able to make Asuna laugh when she felt like sobbing.

She nodded a little, “I’ve been trying to tell you for a few weeks, I just didn’t want to lose you.”

“Oh, same here,” Kazuto breathed a sigh of relief, “Do you still want to be together? I mean, I know this probably takes some time to get used to, and I don’t really know where I want to go from here or what I want to do now, and I haven’t picked out a new name really, but-”

“I want to be with you forever.” Asuna interrupted, “That’s why I was so afraid to tell you. I knew I had to tell you eventually, but I couldn’t bare the thought of having to lose the person I love so much. I guess I should have known that wouldn’t happen.”

“Guess you’re still stuck with me after all,” Kazuto joked, then she smiled and pulled Asuna into a tight hug, kissing the top of her head. Asuna gently kissed her shoulder over the fabric of the t-shirt she’d worn to bed, humming to herself contentedly.

So, Kazuto really was her soulmate after all. They’d be each other’s happily ever after, their dream for the rest of their lives, it would just take a little work to get there - and how exciting it was that she got to be by her side for all of it, right from the very beginning.

“What should I call you now?” Asuna asked.

Kazuto rolled over to lay on her back, and Asuna rolled on top of her. They’d slept like this so many times, it really was a wonder they still insisted on having a king-sized bed. Asuna’s half was usually wasted space.

“Kazuto, I think. For now, anyway. I wanted to find something else, but…”

“But?”

“I’m so used to the way you say my name, it feels weird when I try to find anything else. I liked Kazuko, or maybe Kazuha, but I think I’m overthinking it.”

“Kazuko,” Asuna repeated the name a few times, smiling, “I like it, it’s pretty! I think you should be allowed to overthink this, it’s a big decision.”

She blushed, “It sounds pretty when you say it.”

“Kazuko?” Asuna looked up at her, blushing just as much as she was, “I like saying it too, Kazuko. I’ll keep saying it while you get used to it, if you want me to?”

“Of course,” Kazuko grinned, “Just… not in front of the others just yet. I haven’t had the guts to tell anybody else yet.”

“Of course, I won’t say anything until you want me to, Kazuko,” Asuna felt a pair of arms wrapped securely around her middle and she relaxed, breathing in deeply. She felt so, so safe with her.

“Can I ask… when did you realise? That you were a lesbian, I mean,” Kazuko asked, deftly tracing patterns on Asuna’s side with her fingertip.

“I’ve been thinking about it for a while,” Asuna admitted shyly, “I think I finally made my mind up about it around three weeks ago now. How about you, if you don’t mind my asking?”

Kazuko laughed again, “Around three weeks ago, when I had this dream about us getting married, but… we were both brides. I can’t believe I was so stupid, I should have just told you right away, we could have both avoided feeling so crappy the last few weeks.”

“I’ve been dreaming about the same thing,” Asuna said, then she yawned, “I love you, Kazuko. I’m glad we can tell each other anything.”

She swore she actually felt her heart skip a beat, and she giggled to herself. She had the cutest wife in the world.

A wife.

She had a wife.

Sure, things were going to take time to get used to, but she had the most incredible woman in the world by her side. They’d make it through anything together.

“We can talk about this more in the morning,” Kazuko mumbled, kissing Asuna again as she started to fall asleep, “Thank you for trusting me to tell me anything.”

So, just like they had so many nights before, and just like they were going to continue to do for the rest of their lives, Asuna and Kazuko fell asleep in each other’s arms, and Asuna remembered for the millionth time that the woman she was lying with truly was her soulmate, in every sense of the word.

And when she finally fell asleep that night, she found herself reliving the same dream she’d had a precious few times now - a dream she was certain would one day come true. An eternally familiar woman, her beloved Kazuko, holding her so securely as they danced, like she’d known her their entire lives.

Someday, she knew they would.

#mine*#kirisuna #trans!kirito #i've been thinking a lot about those stories where couples get straight married then one comes out as trans and the other comes out as gay #like... if that isn't proof soulmates exist idk what else could convince me you know?#its 1am and i just kinda rambled into a google doc for *checks document hisrory* 31 minutes #because i just have this need to write things idk #queer kirisuna really does have my heart i love them #queer kirisuna #< giving them a tag i post about it a lot #mine*fics #mine*tumblroneshots

34 notes · View notes