#◐ ≫ ❛ even corpses are complicated ❜ 「 character study 」.

[dragons-clause]

The Dragon's Clause

Sabo x Fem Reader CW: Forced marriage, intrigue, character death, fantasy violence, blood, magic, language, smut, 18+ mdni

Summary: The Nusjuro empire is one of Five Empires in the world, each over seeing the safety and welfare of the Kingdoms that share a continent with them. You're the niece of the King of Lulusia, a small, but rich kingdom whose northern border faces the Wilds, a large swath of land overrun by beasts and monsters.

Unforeseen political issues complicate your life, and you find yourself facing unexpected clauses, causes, and claws!

Chapter 1: A Review

The Empire of Nusjuro was one of five empires across all the realms that had been founded around the same time some eight hundred years prior. Each of the empires had within them several kingdoms. The Empires themselves offered protection to those kingdoms willing, and able, to pay them tribute.

A sign of deference and reverence.

Kingdoms unable or unwilling to pay the tribute often found themselves razed to the ground and struck from the records of history. The empire itself rarely even had to raise a hand, simply allowing other surrounding kingdoms to wipe the offending kingdom from the maps and records through their own greed.

Such actions struck you as foolish, when the lands beyond the borders of any given empire were rife with monsters. It seemed wiser to have more people focused on dealing with the abominations, than wasting resources and lives over foolish things like borders.

The foul beasts were born up from some source none could be sure of. It was agreed that the creatures were hardly natural in their creation, but despite the ferocity and danger of them, their existence was lucrative. Beasts from the wild were soaked in magic, so all parts of them held value, from their hides to the bones. There was a cost in pushing them back, but it was often off-set by the beasts’ own corpses.

Your own country of Lulusia was lucky enough to border lands with particularly useful beasts at its border. Coming out ahead with monsters was a mix of how difficult it was to deal with the beast, and how effective its remains could be processed. Lulusia made decent coin from its monster expeditions, though the neighboring kingdom of Goa struggled to break even on the costs of its own expeditions.

What Lulusia lacked, however, Goa had in spades, and so the two kingdoms had known prosperous trade and peace for some time. Lulusia’s king, your uncle, was good friends with Goa’s king, as the two had attended the academy in the kingdom of Germa back in their youth.

Germa was the academic center for the Nusjuro empire, and almost all nobility, and most assuredly all royalty, attended a year or more at the academy there. Less time was needed for those who had taken up academic studies prior to attendance, and more time was needed for those seeking to specialize in some variety of magic or academia.

Magic in this world was easily categorized into three sections: Basic magic, or cantrips as they were more commonly called, advanced magic, also known as restricted magic, and specialized magic. Cantrips were little more than ways to make one’s life easier, requiring almost no magic to conjure, and very little knowledge to command. Cantrips were useful for things like lighting stoves and campfires, donning and doffing armor used by knights, mending clothes, and helping road-weary travelers stay clean when there was neither an inn nor bath within easy reach.

Advanced magic required more magic, and with few exceptions, formal instruction of some variety. Advanced magic applications covered the gamut from teleportation magics, to destructive rains of fire, to defensive capabilities. Often one either dedicated their time to learning magic or the sword, though there were plenty of people well-practiced in both. Knights capable of wielding advanced magic were either Guardians, or Elemental Swords, depending on their specialization.

Guardians protected themselves and their charges with defensive spells, and Elemental Swords, or simply Swords, were often adept at a single element of magic, and incorporated it into their fighting style.

Your father had been a Sword, and a grandmaster at that. He had three elemental magics he was adept with, and had utilized that flexibility to be the best border knight that Lulusia had known for some generations. His capacity in that regard, and his decision to step down, had kept the small kingdom at peace despite concerns about a war of succession between him and his brother.

“Stay focused lil’ scale, you have a lot to cover during your travels.” You murmur to yourself, turning the page in the book you were currently working through.

Beyond advanced magic was specialized magic. It was difficult to learn specialized magic in a formal setting, and most people who had some sort of specialized magic had either discovered it by happy accident, or been naturally gifted toward it. Specialized magic ran the breadth and width of imagination, allowing the user to transform their own body, or effect the world around them. Some people could seemingly produce materials out of thin air, creating everything from strings to great forests, with minimal magic use and efficiencies far beyond what any known restricted spell could manage.

In some cases the only difference between were-beasts and specialists was the simple fact that specialists had more control over their transformations.

One of the most famous specialists was the Royal Mage of the Dawn Kingdom, who taught at Germa’s academy when his kingdom’s princes had attended. He was known only as The Phoenix, and you weren’t even sure what he looked like, his fiery, feathered form being the most well-known appearance of his.

The Dawn Kingdom had the largest northern border, and as such its military might was impressive compared to its size. Though the current stability within the kingdom was thanks to the adoption of a second prince, who specialized in fire magic to such a degree that people called him the Flame Emperor. A risky moniker, given how touchy the empire is regarding such things, but apparently it fit well enough that there hasn’t been any backlash regarding it.

It was possible, though not plausible, that there wasn’t anything the empire could do about it. Once a name like that caught on, it wouldn’t matter if the Dawn Kingdom attempted to quell it. Things like that had a life of their own.

You shake your head, you’re getting off task again.

The Dawn Kingdom’s problems weren’t yours. Your problem was specific, though maybe “problem” wasn’t so much the word as “predicament” was.

Things between Lulusia and Goa had been slowly deteriorating, and it had been decided between the Kings that a renewal of bonds between their nations was in order. King Seki’s daughter was ill, and he had refused to risk her health, either by land or by teleportation, which itself was a draining process. Seki’s only other child was his eldest son, the crown prince and heir apparent to Lulusia.

That left you.

As the daughter of the king’s brother, you were, by rights, a royal. As such you were afforded certain privileges, such as an education in magic and etiquette, and other more functional academic pursuits. In exchange for those privileges, however, many of your options were decided for you. As the only child of your father, you were forbidden from becoming a border knight, this would have been regardless of your gender, since noble bloodlines fell under the Covenant of the Celestial Dragons, or more commonly referred to as the Divine Clause.

It was a holy document, said to be thousands of years old, that named the bloodlines of the five elders, the twenty saints, and hundred valors. The founding bloodlines for the Empire, the Empire's prominent families, and the hundred kingdoms.

It was more like the sixty-seven kingdoms currently. The number had been in flux for as long as you were alive, and far before you, you were sure. Despite the stability the Empire seemed to promise, there was little more certain in the world than war between kingdoms.

The Divine Clause was one of several such concepts handed down from the Empires and their collective grip on the world. Your father hadn’t been a fan of the system as it was, and you had inherited at least a little of his disdain. You kept it tucked down, as much as you did many parts of yourself.

You’d kept your grades, grace, and martial skills hidden from your uncle, and cousins. You didn’t play the fool, but you’d been prudent to keep yourself below the bar of your kin. Royalty though you were, you weren’t foolish enough to think it would protect you. Your uncle might not have been cruel, but he would’ve burned you at the stake to protect his wealth and his children, of that you had little doubt.

Komane and Maneko had been friendly toward you when you were all children, but once Komane’s illness kept her inside more, and Maneko left for the academy, there had been a sort of neutral business affect to your interactions.

You weren’t surprised things had turned out this way, in all honesty.

With a sigh you return to your studies. You needed to review the interactions of Lulusia and Goa before your arrival. Information was going to be your only weapon until you were able to amass support directly for yourself, and you’d have to do that carefully. Like with your cousins, it wouldn’t be wise to outshine Goa’s crown prince before establishing yourself.

The major kingdoms of concern were your own Lulusia, which required little extra reading, you knew the ins and outs of your own home better than the king. Then Goa, which was your destination, and finally the Dawn Kingdom, which was entwined with Goa.

Lulusia and Dawn had almost no direct interaction with one another, but Goa and Dawn had established robust and lucrative trade routes, met regularly to make sure things were favorable for both kingdoms, and had several things in common.

One of the most notorious things they had in common were that neither kingdom’s crown prince was the biological heir of the current king. In the case of the Dawn Kingdom it had been an event of grandeur and celebration.

In Goa it had been awkward at best. Rumor had been that the King and Queen had intended to cow their son into compliance by adopting an heir apparent. Despite their actions and threats, the biological son hadn’t buckled to whatever demands they required, and they had no choice but to crown the adopted son.

Thus did Goa end up with a Grand Duke.

News regarding him was split down class lines so deeply it was hard to say which was truth. The commoners seemed to exalt and love the Grand Duke. Tasked with keeping the northern border safe, it was rumored that he did so almost single-handedly. The only person with a stronger flame than his was the crowned prince of the Dawn Kingdom.

Nobles, however, painted a far different tale. The Grand Duke was a monster with a soul of ice. Stone hard skin, and a grip of poison. A twisted and scarred man who hungered for the throne, and brought an unnatural chill into every event he attended.

Rumors of his desire for power ran the gamut of hysterical to blood-chillingly believable.

Both sets of rumors pushed the limits of possibility, since no one could guard miles upon miles of border by themselves, and if he was truly so cruel, he would’ve been imprisoned by the Empire on the request of his own kin. So while rumors were all you had, you couldn’t depend on them.

The Duke, however, wasn’t your concern. The crown prince was, and there wasn’t much to be said about him, good or ill. Your Uncle knew only good things concerning him, as his friend, the King of Goa, was not like to speak ill of his heir no matter what.

It was likely that your Uncle was aware of some flaw or failing within Goa’s crown prince and had no intention of handing over his daughter - regardless of the political power that could be gained from it. Otherwise he would’ve sent you with her, as her lady-in-waiting, and had you assure her health and well-being until she was married to the prince.

But, you knew you were effectively a sacrifice from the beginning, and truths among Kingdoms was finicky at best. You’d have to verify things before you could earnestly believe anything, but leaning back and observing were things you were well-practiced in.

#The Dragon's Clause #sabo the revolutionary #revolutionary sabo #sabo one piece #sabo #x reader #reader insert #Fantasy AU #Royal AU #mdni

[twistedappletree]

TYPE: One-shot

JURISDICTION: It’s fluffy with a dash of angst, your honor

PAIRING: 💛 Jin Ling / Lan Sizhui 🩵

SIDE CHARACTERS: (background) Lan Jingyi, (background) Fairy

ELEMENTS: Gusu/Lanling settings, canon universe, Lan Sizhui POV, friends to lovers, teens to adults timeline, Lan Sizhui being adorably patient with Jin Ling~

✨

Sometimes, people break and they just need to be held. So, Lan Sizhui holds him and thinks about how beautiful hands are.

As Jin Ling’s breathing steadies under the gentle touch of his hands, he’s so thankful he has them.

🪭

In which Lan Sizhui navigates his feelings for Jin Ling from the day they meet, through friendship into adulthood and learns that some hearts just need love and patience to heal.

{AO3}

Lan Sizhui thinks hands are beautiful.

Maybe it’s the aesthetic of them—their idle poses, so effortlessly poetic, the stories told by callouses, scars, or lack of each. Maybe it’s what they’re capable of—creating, working, holding, nurturing, speaking without words.

Or maybe it’s who they belong to. Maybe it’s the way their hands brushed when they first met, briefly, but long enough to electrify Lan Sizhui’s senses. Enough for him to spin around with stars in his eyes and question what they might become.

Ever since, he daydreams a lot.

He’s careful not to let it disrupt his studies but it’s difficult at times. Difficult when he’s a stride away from him, looking determined and prideful and frustrated and bored in the span of seconds, a constant storm of emotions shamelessly on display. It’s the air of someone who boasts confidence, who always gets his way, who feels openly, fervently, vocally until his throat is raw, until someone listens.

It’s alarming and endearing. It’s an eruption Lan Sizhui wants to explore and understand, even if it burns him because it doesn’t make sense.

Nothing about the feelings Jin Ling gives him makes sense, and so he often looks at his hands for an answer. This complicates everything.

•

They’re on a night-hunt in Gusu.

Lan Sizhui stays by Lan Jingyi’s side while Jin Ling trails behind them with Fairy. He refuses to walk with them, no matter how many times Lan Sizhui invites him to. They haven’t known each other long but Jin Ling has made his prideful demeanor obvious. Perhaps he feels he’s too good for them, or maybe he just doesn’t like them.

But Lan Sizhui stops himself from speculating because Jin Ling is here with them of his own free will, choosing to night hunt with them instead of on his own. He can feel Jin Ling staring at him as they walk—not at Lan Jingyi, only him. He’s burning a hole in his back with those fiery amber eyes. Lan Sizhui is patient and mature for his age but he’s still young. He wants to turn around and ask him what he wants but he bites his tongue because part of him is afraid of the answer and another part of him is afraid of the way his words will catch in his throat when he looks at him.

It’s embarrassing. It’s confusing. It’s exhilarating.

He hopes their hands touch again.

•

After agreeing to separate and cover more ground, Lan Sizhui hears a scream in the distance and recognizes it immediately.

He runs faster than he’s ever ran in his life, runs to the same person who turns his nose up at him and tries so hard to pretend he doesn’t exist. Why? He thinks, Why am I running?

Because he’s human above all else. It doesn’t matter if Jin Ling doesn’t like him. That doesn’t mean he wants him to get hurt.

Lan Sizhui arrives just in time to defend Jin Ling from an unusually aggressive corpse. He notices Jin Ling’s sword is on the ground, too far for him to reach. Jin Ling is also on the ground with a deep gash in his forearm staining his golden robes crimson with fresh blood.

Something in Lan Sizhui ignites like a wildfire and he subdues the corpse more viciously than intended, severing its head and kicking its decapitated body with so much force, it crashes into a tree and crumples limply to the ground.

His breathing is heavy when he drops to Jin Ling’s side. He tries to touch his arm and examine the wound but Jin Ling flails and spits venom with his words. “I’m fine,” he snaps, “Don’t touch me!”

Jin Ling’s eyes are red and glassy. His lips are trembling, his body shaking. It’s obvious he’s hurting and the venom in his words doesn’t match the pleading in his gaze. Lan Sizhui ignores his protest and carefully helps him to his feet.

He’s clinging to him. He’s crying. He’s blushing. He’s beautiful.

Lan Sizhui retrieves Jin Ling’s sword and sheathes it for him, then helps him find his balance as they step onto Lan Sizhui’s sword and take flight back to the Cloud Recesses.

Jin Ling lets Lan Sizhui hold his hand to elevate his wound and sparks shoot through Lan Sizhui’s veins. Everything feels warm. He feels so warm against him.

•

Jin Ling walks with them now.

Lan Sizhui notices he prefers to walk alongside him instead of Lan Jingyi. They’ve known each other for months now but Jin Ling and Lan Jingyi still butt heads and bicker, even if it’s rarely serious. They won’t admit they’re friends and it makes Lan Sizhui smile.

Lan Jingyi is called away by one of their seniors, leaving Lan Sizhui and Jin Ling alone together. They walk wordlessly through the Cloud Recesses in the chill of Gusu’s wintry air. The Lans are always dressed for it but Jin Ling isn’t a Lan. He shivers and hugs himself and shuffles closer to Lan Sizhui.

Their shoulders brush together and Lan Sizhui looks down at him. Jin Ling is trying desperately to appear fine, to appear nonchalant and entirely uninterested in any comfort Lan Sizhui might have to offer. His nose and cheeks are dusted pink from the cold, his brows are sharp and pointed as he glares into the distance, focusing on anything other than Lan Sizhui to distract himself.

Lan Sizhui removes his outer robe and wraps it around Jin Ling, who freezes as though he’s been trapped in ice. Their eyes finally meet and Lan Sizhui expects Jin Ling to yell, to curse, to rip the robe off and shove it back into his arms.

But he doesn’t. Instead, he looks away again and tightens the robe around himself. He’s smiling.

Lan Sizhui’s heart melts.

•

There’s some days when Jin Ling wants to be left alone and Lan Sizhui respects that.

Today is one of those days but something’s different. He’s fidgeting, he’s cursing over his open book, he’s shredding his fingers through his hair in frustration. Lan Sizhui knows that Jin Ling often gets discouraged if he doesn’t understand the material they’re learning. His offers of help aren’t always well received since the line between help and insult is razor thin with Jin Ling.

His eyes keep wandering from his own work to Jin Ling until his heart drops. He looks closer. Jin Ling is crying and it’s not normal. It’s more than just frustration, more than incomprehension. Something is hurting him. Something is broken.

Finally, Jin Ling cracks and pushes himself to his feet. Their senior screams at him as he runs out of the room. Every disciple turns to look at him, including Lan Jingyi who turns to Lan Sizhui with a question on his face.

Lan Sizhui doesn’t think as he stands and runs after Jin Ling. Their senior is screaming at both of them now but he doesn’t care.

He runs faster than he’s ever ran in his life, faster than he did on their night-hunt. He runs to the same person who used to turn his nose up at him and tried so hard to pretend he didn’t exist, the same person who now looks him in the eyes, stands by his side and treats him like he’s the only one in the world.

Because they’re friends above all else. It doesn’t matter if that’s all they’ll ever be. That doesn’t mean he’ll abandon him to his thoughts.

•

Lan Sizhui finds Jin Ling with Hanguang-Jun’s rabbits. They’re hopping around him, pawing at him curiously as he hugs his knees and cries.

He’s careful as he approaches him, still unsure of what exactly is upsetting him but it becomes clear soon enough.

Lan Sizhui sits on his knees in front of him, far enough to give him space and close enough that he doesn’t feel alone. “A-Ling?”

That’s all it takes for Jin Ling to rush forward into Lan Sizhui’s arms. By the way he shivers and sniffs and sobs in his embrace, Lan Sizhui knows he’s stressed. He’s tired. He’s breaking and that’s okay. Sometimes, things are too much and there’s no clear explanation.

Sometimes, people break and they just need to be held. So, Lan Sizhui holds him and thinks about how beautiful hands are.

As Jin Ling’s breathing steadies under the gentle touch of his hands, he’s so thankful he has them.

•

It’s an odd feeling being older.

Everyone has specific duties now, duties that fill up their time in ways they never had to worry about as juniors. Lan Sizhui is the only exception after stepping aside to let Lan Jingyi lead the Lan sect. Lan Sizhui knows he’s the projected choice with the highest cultivation and the right temperament to lead—he simply doesn’t want to.

There’s too much to see, too many places to travel, too many souls to meet, things to learn, experiences to be had. He’s always wanted to know more than what’s directly in front of him.

So he travels. He sees the world. He collects things along the way to bring back to his friends, his family, to him. He thinks about him everyday, hears him in the songs around the world, sees him in the beautiful art of distant places. Even when they’re apart, they’re always together. They’ve known each other for years now. What they’ve become is no longer a question.

Lan Sizhui smiles as he boards a boat to go home.

•

Jin Ling is waiting for him at the docks of Lanling, as expected.

Lan Sizhui can see his long, burnt umber hair playing with the wind like vibrant smoke burning gold in the sunlight. His hair crown dripping with delicate chains reflects and glimmers like a beacon guiding Lan Sizhui towards him, beckoning him to hurry.

They’re closer now and Lan Sizhui hops onto the bow of his boat, earning worried and dismayed glances from both Jin Ling and the other passengers.

Jin Ling’s eyes are smoldering like sunsets with a turbulent mix of disapproval for Lan Sizhui’s antics and anticipation for the moment his boat docks. It fills Lan Sizhui with amusement and joy because sometimes it’s fun to tease him.

But the boat is simply too slow.

Instead of waiting for it to arrive, he uses a boost of spiritual energy to leap from the bow onto the docks. The other passengers yell and Jin Ling shouts out, “Lan Yuan,” in a scolding tone that incites a playful laugh from Lan Sizhui.

They’re still miles apart as they stare at each other—or what seems like miles because it’s never close enough. Jin Ling’s fury melts into something longing, wanting, overwhelming.

He runs. Lan Sizhui runs.

They run faster than they’ve ever ran in their lives. They run while looking each other in the eyes, eager to stand by each other’s side, to feel like they’re the only ones in the world.

Because they’re in love above all else. It doesn’t matter what anyone thinks of them now. They’re never going to hide.

And when Jin Ling crashes into Lan Sizhui’s arms, he thinks hands are beautiful. The way Jin Ling’s hands wrap around his waist? Beautiful. The way Lan Sizhui’s hands caress Jin Ling’s blushing face? Beautiful. The way his thumb brushes over Jin Ling’s lips before they kiss? Beautiful.

It’s better than a daydream.

Lan Sizhui thinks life is beautiful.

{ 🖤 }

#mdzs #the untamed #mo dao zu shi #mdzs fanfiction #mdzs fanfic #apple fics 🍎 #my fics #one shot #ficlet #zhuiling #lan sizhui #lan yuan #jin ling #jin rulan #lingzhui #the grandmaster of demonic cultivation #fanfiction #ao3 #uh oh it’s the LSZ POV ahahaha I ALREADY WROTE IT #this one’s a little different #it goes through the timeline kind of like a slideshow into their adulthood #so you don’t need to read the jin ling pov fic first jsyk #and YES KOI KOI THEY KISS IN THIS ONE DONT ASK #i know you’re going to #lmFAO #lan jingyi #mdzs fairy #both LJY and fairy are legit background btw #LJY appears more than fairy tho she’s got like 1 cameo lmao #sorry fairy you’ll have plenty of air time in letters never sent i swear 😭

[pommunist]

I do wonder a little if the very different reactions to Pomme and Dapper's beds being included in the stream might in part be like... a difference in people used to seeing a new admin play an egg? The situations are very different and that should be acknowledged and looked at and even if as is likely the case QStudios owns all rights to the NPCs created for QSMP it would feel extremely icky to me to give Pomme especially a new admin. But at the same time... I do wonder if people more used to say, Chayanne, who has had 2 different main admins and been played by 4 or 5 different admins regularly enough the different forms have nicknames are more... accepting of the idea? Because the idea of an egg belonging only to the one actor is less comprehensible to them, as it's not what they're used to? Ramón's situation might be closer, but again 2 admins at least. Im almost certain I've seen Tallulah played by someone else when her admin was sick, and I've no doubt some of the other eggs have occassionally been played by others due to admin illness even if not long term.

(This is not to say it's main the issue (even without eggs being acted Sunny's admin should have known what was happening just for bigger issues with the stream alone - admin health and treatment is far more important than what they provide) I'm just. Trying to think of reasons why reactions I saw were as polarised as they were, with half my dash treating it like parading a corpse in the street and the other half like this was entirely expected and normal.)

Oh that’s a good question anon !!

First, the ownership of the characters is a tricky point that I don’t have an answer to as intellectual property laws are extremely complicated and not something I know much about tbh.

And on the topic of admin change, I think public reception depends a lot of the cause of said change : For example, when Ramon switched admins, huevitos were perfectly fine with it as it was assumed that the OG had taken a break for studying purposes so it was not a problem (turns out they were fired 🥲). It’s the same whenever an admin steps up to punctually or long term play another character because their admin is too busy with irl stuff, other work within Qstudios, is sick…. (like what I assume happened for Chayanne)

Pomme’s situation is different because of Lumi’s circumstances and the fact that she asked for her character to end with her leaving. Plus the fact that CCs have said before that they didnt want her to be replaced, even before that whole situation, I remember at least Antoine saying he would rather have Pomme dead than be played by someone else. I’d say the french speaking side got quite attached to her as, with all the sidelining we went through, both her character and admin were our only beacon of representation within Qstudios/QSMP 🥹

Also something that makes me kinda ehhhh about saying that there are people who are completely fine with admins changes because their fav character went through at least one is remembering the whole Pepito/otipep mess that had people go mad because Pepito had an admin change for a few days and they didn’t like the "new personnality" or whatever ? (Couldn’t tell the details of it as my spanish suck and Roier often streams in the middle of the night for me, but I remember the twitter shit storm)

Finally about the eggs being like kidnapped and in a coma (I think ? didn’t watch the stream) I guess it’s an okay way to put them on hold while sorting things out + an opportunity to explain in lore if you have to kill some because no more admins ? Or at least it would have been okay if all the eggs admins still working would have been made aware that their characters was being put on hold 😀

[riewritten]

hi love ur writing sm

can we get part 2 of erwin x marley reader ?

i got this req more than a month ago, and as much as i hate to admit it, i think this will get more than a part 2. oh my god. oh my GOD. i have nothing but my impulses to blame.

THE WORST KIND OF NOTHING

CHAPTERS: 2/10 (TENTATIVE) | READ CHAPTER 1 HERE

PAIRING: ERWIN SMITH & FEM!READER & ZEKE YEAGER

leaving the pairing ambiguous for now bc i honestly don't know what will happen

WORDS: 1.5k | AO3 | FANFICTION

TAGS: Manga S4 spoilers, Canon AU – The Attack on Liberio Failed, Violence, Psychological Warfare, Manipulation, Character Study, Enemies to ? heh... let us see

It’s as if you are born once again in a pristine body devoid of any memories.

Except that it wasn’t in any way pristine, nor were you a newly-born infant.

You are lying on a ruined land, rough ground forming blisters on your bare back. When you sat up, what daunted was a doomsday: a village piled with carcasses, full of dead bodies. You are the only one alive—no, you are the only one unbruised out of all that had died. You don’t remember anything.

It’s as if you are born once again in a pristine body devoid of any memories.

Except that it wasn’t in any way pristine, nor were you a newly-born infant.

You are nothing. In a vast space with nothing but carcasses, the only thing you have is a body, not even clothes that the corpses wear.

It is until a blonde man with a beard and glasses spoke from behind, “Aren’t you cold?” He knelt and wrapped you up with a thick white cloth. “That’ll do for now, would you mind? I can’t afford my soldiers blushing amidst this tragic scene.” It sounded like a joke — at least you had the baseline comprehension to understand so. “Yelena, it’s all clear!”

“Who are you?”

He put his hand on his chin as if to think about it, so lack of seriousness and urgency as if no one’s dead at all. His face soon changed when he laid his eyes on you again, “Shall we have a deal first?”

“Who are you?”

“Look at your surroundings. Do you have any idea what just happened?”

Roaming your eyes all over, your question really did change. You gulped as fear reckoned inside, “What happened?”

“You killed them. All of them.” And unlike his jokey tone, he scooted his face nearer to whisper with dead eyes, “And I could do the same to you right now with one wrong move.” If his goal was to intimidate, it sure did work; your primal urge to survive kicked in, proving a semblance of humanity in your empty vessel. “I won’t make things complicated. All I want is for you to accept my deal.”

You stared at him, blank and confused, and thus his face turned casual again.

“Don’t get too scared, though! I’ll give you the benefit of a decent life despite all the lives that you took from my men!”

That was the last ping for you to understand the gist of your disposition. He really wasn’t lying because lots of corpses are wearing the same uniform as him. Fear reeked further inside with nothing in mind but the primal desire to survive.

“What’s the deal all about?”

The question was followed by a painful injection shot on your nape. Zeke got a bit surprised but it was followed by a chuckle, “Don’t just strike from behind, Yelena.”

“You can save the talk for later, Zeke. We should neutralize her first. Who knows what she can do?”

You resisted out of impulse, but the said Yelena grabbed your head and shoved it at Zeke’s chest. You can almost feel your neck tear apart with the reeking pang of fluid. You can hear it gushing. You can feel how huge the needle is. You groaned and wiggled away, but Zeke caught you in his arms with soothing hums. It won’t take long, it won’t take long. There, there, young lady. You can do it.

When the fluid emptied, Yelena harshly dropped you and then tied your arms behind your back. The cloth fell off; she heeded it no mind. Zeke let out a light tsk, “Have some pity on her. Can’t you feel how cold the breeze is?” But then he got distracted by the blister on your stomach. “Oh, poor you. We have to treat this later on.”

“Quite unique that your eyes are not lurking around her boobs."

Zeke shook his head in dismay then nonchallantly wrapped you up with the cloth again, “That’s very untimely, Yelena.”

“Continue your talk. We’ll be waiting at the base."

You felt utterly dizzy. Your vision is wobbly and Zeke is multiplying kaleidoscopically. He knew it well hence he held onto your shoulders for support. “So speaking of the deal…”

“Deal…” you blankly muttered with the last bits of consciousness.

“There, there,” Zeke’s palm caught your cheek that was about to fall on the ground. “Be a good soldier by my side and you shall live that undeservingly decent life. That’s a bit generous offer, don’t you think?”

“H-huh…”

“Think about it, I couldn’t be so generous anymore if you were to turn me down. The least that I could do by then is make you choose how you want to die.” He tapped your cheek. “Hear me? Oh, don’t tell me you’re about to faint. You hadn’t even told me your name yet!”

“H…hah…”

When your consciousness fluttered away for good, you felt him catch you. The kaleidoscope roamed all over your vision until it was no more. His soothing voice slowly transitioned into tip taps of the water, and the reeking smell of corpses changed into a rusty chamber. When you opened your eyes again, what daunted is still a blonde, but it’s not Zeke anymore. 

“That’s quite rude, spacing out in the middle of a life-changing contract.” Erwin deadpanned.

“What?” roaming around the surroundings answered the prompt. You’re in a torture chamber and the Commander is forming up a shenanigan. “The deal, yeah, we’re talking about a deal.”

“A loyal wildcard that wouldn’t break for me in exchange for a decent life amidst the crimes you had done with my men — was my offer too much to handle for your consciousness to slip away? I thought it was a generous one.”

Oh, nothing had changed. From the first memory you ever had of this world up to your tied-up figure now, you still have nothing. Nothing but generous offers of blondes who would kill you in a snap for noncompliance. 

“What do you know about me? Let’s start from that before running through the deal.”

“You’re speaking as if I could offer you another choice.”

“I can’t deal with someone who doesn’t know the hell he is trying to pry in.”

The Commander nodded at the given point, impressed. Without further ado, he shoved the medical equipment away and pulled your chair so you’d hear properly the things he was about to say. “The mysterious massacre at the Marleyan port involving soldiers and citizens alike. I heard that caused an impediment with the Anti-Marleyan Volunteers and yet…” he tipped his head to the side, looking a bit too curious about the answer. You’re uncertain if he’s just messing around or he really doesn’t know. “It was reported that the instigator was safe kept by Zeke and masked as a newly recruited underling. Oh, if only there weren’t any witnesses.”

The Commander stood up and walked behind your back and — much to your uncomfortability — glazed his fingers on your nape. He lightly pressed on a spot in the middle; the jitters ran through your nerves, roaring your heartbeat louder. “And as we speak, serum fluid is running through your nerves. How cruel of him to put you on a leash without your consent.”

Your breathing went labored, hands went colder — this man really knows what he’s talking about; he very much knows the hell he is trying to pry in. Maybe—just maybe—he even knows more than you.

His hands slid towards your shoulder next. He leaned his head, mouth nearer to your ear so you’d hear the first package of his deal, “Since it’ll be your first job under my command, I won’t impose much burden on your hands. All you have to do is prove that you really can be an unbreakable weapon for the Scouts.”

Despite the utter feeling of powerlessness, of lack of control, of lack of everything since the day you got “born,” you kept yourself intact. “How would I do that?” The question was muttered with no hint of bother, just as you vehemently attempted so.

“You just have to wait until he screams. If you turned into a titan, then my soldiers would release you of your despair. If not, then you don’t have to prove anything else — our deal officially starts by then.”

You just have to wait until he screams. If you turned into a titan, then my soldiers would release you of your despair.

If you’d be honest, your powerlessness includes ignorance. Not even you know the answer to that question — that’s what tied you to the sweet ruthless Zeke after all. 

However, despite the looming answers, you had quite a twisted wish.

You wish his scream would really turn you into a mindless monster, which Erwin’s crew could dispose of so quickly. The most pleasant deal you’ve gotten so far was his, after all. The pleasant deal of releasing you of your short-lived despair — of the lives you took, of the leash tied at you, of the shackles wrapping your hands behind your back.

The best deal you’ve got was with the Commander of this hell of an island.

With that in mind, you looked him in the eye and nodded, “Not like I have something else to lose.”

The Commander, now satisfied with the ordeal, offered you a cordial smile. “Worry not, I swear to treat you better than they did.”

🏷 @frenchdyer @watyousayin | SUBSCRIBE HERE

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WELP… that took quite a dark turn. for context of this AU, i’m exploring a rather dead theory about how ymir just altered the canon timeline so eren would have no choice but to do the rumbling! i don’t believe in that theory myself but for the sake of this fanfic, this will revolve in a setting where:

mikasa ANSWERED eren properly (you're not just a family something something) and so they ran away together. BUT DON'T worry, eren will still run behind the curtains. his characterization just wouldn't sit still, i know) and;

both armin and erwin lived

but why these two variables? why did ymir not alter the timeline in favor of the rumbling? that’s where you enter the picture. good luck!

ALSO, sharing this colossal titan!erwin smith. whew.

#erwin x reader #erwin x y/n #erwin x you #erwin imagines #erwin headcanons #commander erwin #erwin smith imagine #erwin smith x reader #erwin smith x you #erwin smith x y/n #erwin smith #erwin smith fanfiction #erwin smith imagines #erwin smith headcanons #aot erwin #shingeki no kyojin #aot fanfiction #aot x reader #erwin x reader canon au #rie answers

[mdhwrites]

You know they are often described as the same character, but why was Amity more interesting than Hunter if they both follow the same pattern (which is just the redemption arc)

I was seeing endless possibilities for Amity's character to go anywhere after S1 there was just too much on the plate that was catching your eye but not all of it, so to keep your interest going.

Hunter just feels too set in stone for some reason. Nothing outside the golden guard or Caleb would have had the same charm.

If Amity was set to become a teacher you would wonder why and how. If Hunter was doing the same you may be like "ok, cool"...

I think that did happen in the final episode too, many questioned why Amity chose to be.. some abomination engineer?

Not many batted an eye on why Hunter chose palismen carving, it just happened and they accepted it.

This ask is rather "why did this thing work for that one but not for this one as well?"

So this has to come down with something that TOH did eventually stop understanding but was strong in the first season: The difference between internal and external motivation.

Now, of course, Amity's motivations will become entirely external and this will be what effectively murders her character but to begin with, she is extremely internally motivated. It takes until Understanding Willow to hear about her parents whatsoever. Hell, before then, we get the twins being sent to meet up with Amity with a packed lunch made by their mom that she forgot, implying a potentially good, normal home life early on. Her external influences in general seem to be fairly low except for setting what the end goal is: Head of the EC.

But that's just an extension of the internal motivation of "Be the best." Be the best student. Be the best witch. Be the best Blight. Be the best EVERYTHING. She early on seems to have a genuine problem of obsessing over every failure and as a 'gifted' student back in high school, I relate with that EXTREMELY HARD. She is ready to attack herself for every failure, see every setback as the worst thing to happen to her and be ruthless with those who get in the way of her goals. This extreme mindset is unhealthy but it lets you know her priorities so even a more balanced Amity is still going to care about studying, about the future and get upset at herself when she can't solve something. She just, you know, won't murder someone over it.

These internal influences tell us a lot about her. We get a very vivid base for a character to work from because we understand what underpins her own desires. This makes it so that even if you swap the setting, you know how Amity will behave dependent on these core principles. If she's suddenly Spider-woman, she's going to work herself to death and be traumatized the first time she fails and loses someone. Not someone close to her: ANYONE. Make her a big sister in Rapture and you can bet your ass that she drains a hundred times the splicer corpses than an average little sister does in a day and she will NEVER stop tracking her prey if the order is given to kill. The context of where she is or what she's doing is reinforced by those internal desires that are mutable across different elements.

This also makes expanding and complicating those internal desires interesting! After all, getting an explanation for why she considers perfection so important can genuinely highlight where she might have mistepped so as to become so extreme. For an example from my own work: Azu is inspired by Amity but is genuine nobility. Her words carry consequences and one slip of the tongue can unmake a person or trap her with favors she didn't mean to imply. She lives in such constant fear of this though, influenced by the disinheriting of her sister and brother as well as just a well meaning but too strict mother as a well as a king who will likely kill her if she exhibits too much personal pride, that if she has no need to talk to you... she doesn't. She is silent to most and careful with the words she says otherwise. Always on edge because she hasn't had anyone teach her that you can relax, not that she ever entirely would because her base character cares about success too much, and so those external elements become exciting because they feed into the internal and help deepen and expand on the character as a whole.

This is also why the scapegoating form of redemption in TOH is so... boring. And usually extremely flawed, even when at its best. By saying everything a character has done or believed was because of someone else, you lose those base character traits and TOH never replaces them. If we believe Odalia is the ONLY reason she cares about success, and only really see her striving for perfection again with being Luz's girlfriend, but otherwise discarding her future, studying, etc. like that, her strive for being the best is no longer really a part of her. She cares about Luz's perfect girlfriend because of the external influence of fear that Luz might leave her otherwise but what internal mechanism in her makes her fear that so much? Why is she willing to abandon so much for one person? Why is it that Amity's entire life besides Luz is so easily abandoned by her?

This is what makes her transform into a generic love interest. Even Eclipse Lake, which is a natural progression for her, in the long run feels like a trope. After all, it's common for someone who has a crush to have an episode where a misunderstanding causes them to break down and question if the one they love even likes them, let alone reciprocates their feelings. The only difference is that Amity and Luz are already together. After this, she'll never show that same fervor again and not care about being the best at anything for herself but only ever for someone else. She does NOTHING without it being to impress her father, basic survival, or because Luz approves of it and that's when a character stops feeling like they have an internal life and their own person hood and starts just becoming a doll on the screen that you can feel the writer manipulating.

This is the position Hunter STARTS in. Frankly, it's also the position Willow starts in to some extent. Both of them will change how they act and behave for the sake of an episode with minor characteristics that make recognizably them, kind of, but otherwise they don't seem to have internal cares. The closest Hunter ever comes to having something is that he actually is a people pleaser, unlike Luz. Except... Also not because he constantly breaks Belos' laws, his orders, etc. like that. A real people pleaser would kill Flapjack and turn him in. We never actually get a reason as to why Hunter keeps Flapjack besides the fact that he's actually Caleb and if your reasoning is purely because they're not actually their own character, that is a fucking problem.

But seriously: How do we ever know how Hunter will react to something? Everything Hunter does is influenced externally. Looking into wild magic? Only because it will make a cure for my uncle. Have my own palisman? Well, if I kill it, Luz will be pissed at me and I guess I care about that for some reason. Go recruit for the EC? Only because that's how Darius says I'll get my cape back. Free the people I just recruited? Only because it made Willow sad. Break free of the EC and my uncle? Only because otherwise I would straight up die, not because my own personal beliefs clash with my uncle's.

It's why I don't find Hunter compelling, even trying to strip him down to brass tacks or use the most interesting sides of him because I'm not sure there any sides of him. This also infects most of the cast as they become just generally good people because their actions are so... basic. There's no flavor to them because very few of these characters have a core as the series goes on. A way to summarize them and pitch them to others besides "Good person who does X magic." The most personality they have is their toolkit and while Batman's utility belt is neat, it's BATMAN and his personality and how he personally tackles issues, personal and otherwise, that bring us to the story.

And TOH over and over again seems to think losing your personality is the only way to have character growth as it repeats the loop over and over again. First Amity, then Hunter, and then the Collector even, shown off by his immediate recoiling into not knowing what FUCKING DEATH IS just so he can be a little guy.

A basic, good person with no personal desires, cares, motivations, ethos, etc. except to do whatever will make Luz everyone happy. Real deep and compelling characters in the end that way, aren't they?

=========

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead, If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

And finally a Twitter you can follow too!

#the owl house criticism #toh critical #amity #hunter #Character Writing

[thebeeshaveknees]

@aenbyveryverygayperson Konton I blame you for getting me into Dr Stone

SO I JUST BINGED ALL OF IT SO NOW I'M GONNA MAKE A WEIRD AU/CHARACTER STUDY THING

Okay so basically Evil Senku au-- but it's more complicated than that I swear

Senku is a bit more empathetic than canon. A bit less clinical.

He still puts Taiju in the miracle cave, still wakes him up, still wakes Tsukasa up, basically everything is the same except their conversation at the beach

Tsukasa asks Senku how he plans to revive everyone, what will happen then. Senku says the world will rebuild. Tsukasa mentions that all human possessions have rotted or rusted away. That countries would flounder and blame eachother, that people would try owning and taking and leaving nothing left so they can rent what they have out to those people already giving their skills and their lives to them, that even if they were lucky enough that a war wouldn't break out, progression would become competition, and freedom will be bought and sold once again.

And Senku knows. Senku isn't an idiot, he knows that what happened was terrifying, that rebuilding would be terrifying, he knew that fear made anger and anger made war. He understood that. He knew that. But he also knew that history repeated itself, that humans would rebuild, with or without him, that whoever they revived would have children and those children would have children and they would make war eventually. Senku didn't want war, but progress was more than that, and here was a pivotal point.

Tsukasa mentioned reviving children, mostly. Children and teenagers. Teaching them contrary to the world that died 3700 years ago. Tsukasa wanted there to be no technology, for the modern world to be forgotten.

Senku wanted to use the modern world, take the pieces he needed, leave the rest behind. He told Tsukasa this, told him that humans needed soap, and medicine, and food preserves and travel and indoor heating and agriculture. That if he could teach all the progress that was good, then it would let people grow and learn and make a new world that could sustain itself without them and without war. Tsukasa said any progress was dangerous. Senku said trying to stop progress was stupid, that directing it was the only way for it to last. Tsukasa agrees

They revive Yuzuriha and then go to a mountain to get a better vantage point because 3700 years can change geography in ways Senku can't predict. They see the fires, they find Ishigami village, Senku discovers Ruri and starts working on antibiotics. Tsukasa meets Chrome and understands Senku's point about progress. It's very slow going getting the village to like them, but Tsukasa keeps dissapearing every few days and coming back with more people between 15 and 25 willing to help. Eventually the village outside Ishigami is bigger than Ishigami itself, and Tsukasa does most of the leading, which suits Senku just fine, so long as Senku still gets help for what he needs.

Senku becomes something like a doctor, even when he's still building with Kaseki and Chrome, he focuses a lot on just keeping people safe, fed, and happy and teaching them how to do it themselves (mostly Chrome)

He doesn't like the idea of statue smashing, he convinces Tsukasa that statue smashing looks too gruesome, that he'll accidentally end up ruling by fear if he keeps it up, tells him it's better to give them graves like corpses.

Chrome is very curious about weapons from all that time ago, Senku describes the nuclear bomb and Chrome is no longer curious. He explains that since before he was born different countries had dozens, that everyone knew that if they started a third world war it would end the world they knew. Chrome is now cautious about learning about the old world.

#dr stone #I know it barely counts as evil but to me it's evil #All those people deserved to live without having their life weighed by highschoolers and judged unfit to even plead their own case

[terramythos]

TAYLOR READS 2023: A STUDY IN SCARLET BY SIR ARTHUR CONAN DOYLE

Title: A Study in Scarlet (1887)

Author: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Genre/Tags: Fiction, Mystery, Murder Mystery, Western, First-Person, Third-Person

Rating: 6/10

Date Began: 01/28/2023

Date Finished: 03/04/2023

Returning from war in the Middle East, Dr. Watson finds himself in search of a roommate in London. He makes the acquaintance of a man named Sherlock Holmes, an eccentric private detective with a bold new approach to investigating crime. The duo soon find themselves at the center of a bizarre murder; a corpse with no visible wounds in an abandoned house, and the word “RACHE” written on the wall in someone else’s blood. Through his keen deductive reasoning, Holmes begins to unravel the mystery surrounding the murder— but not before a second body is found, and the culprit’s complicated past takes center stage.

There is no satisfaction in vengeance unless the offender has time to realize who it is that strikes him, and why retribution has come upon him.

For live reading notes, check the reblogs (warning for spoilers of... a book published in 1887).

Content warnings and review (spoiler-free and spoiler versions) under the cut.

Content Warnings: Depicted — Self-harm, drug use, death, murder, animal death, stalking/harassment, terrorism, misogyny, racism, forced marriage, terminal illness. Mentioned — Warfare, traumatic injury, colonialism, sexual harassment, sexual slavery/kidnapping, suicide.

**SPOILER FREE REVIEW**

Some disclaimers before I jump into the review. This is the first Sherlock Holmes story I’ve read, and my exposure to it in pop culture boils down to (1) about a season of Elementary and (2) the Guy Ritchie movies, of all things. Thankfully I avoided the terrible BBC show during its peak hype, so it didn’t sour me on the whole concept. While I know some of the unavoidable tropes, the stories themselves are mostly unknown to me. Second, A Study in Scarlet is actually the first Sherlock Holmes story ever published. This was a coincidence; I have a couple books I picked up at a second-hand store and grabbed this one at random. Part of me wishes I’d started with a later book, but oh well.

The first half of A Study in Scarlet, which is the bulk of the murder mystery, is an entertaining read. I genuinely enjoyed thinking over the evidence and trying to piece together the mystery, a central appeal to Sherlock Holmes. There’s a revenge narrative toward the end, and while it’s no Count of Monte Cristo, I did enjoy the themes and observations about human nature this introduced to the story. Doyle’s prose is serviceable, and there’s several lines and descriptions that really stuck out to me. A Study in Scarlet is an early work, so I’m interested to see how he develops as a writer in the later stories.

Characterization is hit or miss. Holmes is solid. Much of A Study in Scarlet is told from Watson’s perspective, and he meets Holmes for the first time in this story. As a result, both characters feel multidimensional; we get Watson’s honest impressions of Holmes (good and bad), and as a result learn about Watson’s own personality and opinions. The culprit, when revealed, is well-developed for Spoiler Reasons. Beyond that, I found the rest of the cast forgettable. Not every character needs to be deep and nuanced, but some really needed more development, or even a noteworthy trait. I didn’t get that from most.

There are some small details that made me laugh, like Holmes saying he wants his name to be famous. Mission accomplished, buddy. He creates what’s basically luminol in his introductory scene, in a book published decades before it was invented. As someone who mostly reads speculative fiction, I see this kind of thing in scifi, but to see it in a murder mystery is a fun surprise.

Obviously being written in 1887, there’s some aspects of the story that didn’t age well.  Mostly this shows in racism, colonialism, and related terminology. This isn’t a huge surprise coming from a British author in the late 19th century. For what it’s worth, there’s one footnote in this entire story, which Doyle uses to make a snarky comment about sexism. So I guess he gets a brownie point there?

Overall, the book is okay, but not amazing. I have some major criticisms of the story, but they mostly fall into the spoiler section of the review.

**SPOILER REVIEW**

So, the mystery. I was under the impression, before reading this, that Sherlock Holmes stories are fair mysteries, aka it’s possible for the reader to figure everything out on their own based on the clues provided in the story. Unfortunately A Study in Scarlet is only partially fair; you can glean the means of the crime, but not the perpetrator or their motive. During the grand reveal at the end of the story, we learn Holmes had access to information that the reader did not, and that’s how he figured out who committed the two murders. This honestly soured the whole thing for me. It might seem like a small thing, but the problem-solving aspect is what I was looking forward to most with these stories, so knowing I never had a chance makes it feel a little pointless.

My second major issue with A Study in Scarlet is its structure. The story is split into two parts. The first half is pretty much what one would expect— Holmes and Watson meet in London for the first time, we learn a little about their characters, a mysterious murder happens, and we follow the cast around as more clues present themselves. This was by far the strongest part of the story for me. So it was a little jarring when Holmes apprehends the murderer at the end of Part One, with an entire half of the novel to go.

The story then jumps back in time by around thirty years, in the United States, following a new set of characters. From here the story switches from a murder mystery to what I can only describe as a thriller Western. I guess Doyle really wanted to write a Western? Or maybe dunk on Mormonism for a while (fair enough)? To be clear, I love narrative shifts, genre muddling, and time jumps, the more experimental the better, but they have to be done well. This one is not; it feels out of place with Part One, and what it accomplishes narratively could have been done better in other ways.

It’s pretty clear from the start that Part Two exists to establish back-story for Jefferson Hope (the culprit) and why he killed Drebber and Stangerson. But Doyle spends way too long on two characters— Hope’s love interest Lucy and her adoptive father Ferrier— who only exist to get killed off. Despite them being the “focus” for several chapters, their development and personality are lacking, mostly told to the reader instead of demonstrated. “Show, don’t tell” is obviously not a hard rule, but it was much needed in this case. It takes a long time for Hope to enter this part of the story, which is a problem if he’s the protagonist. I admit it’s pretty wild to have actual real Mormons be the antagonists of a freaking Sherlock Holmes story, but other than the novelty and historical context, I didn’t find them to be compelling villains.

Maybe this leap into the past would work better if integrated into the main mystery story, or if it was pared down substantially, or even if the whole thing was told from Hope’s perspective. When Hope describes how he committed the murders toward the end, we do get his perspective… and it’s great! It made me wish all of Part Two had been told in this matter; it’s way more fascinating than what we got.

In all, A Study in Scarlet wasn’t bad, just mediocre. Had it not been attached to the most iconic character in Western canon, I doubt it would still be published and read today. But I’m sure future entries refine and improve upon the formula; I can cut a lot of slack considering this was Doyle’s first attempt at a Holmes story, and they’ve withstood the test of time for a reason. I plan to read a few later stories in the series to see how they compare to this first entry.

#taylor reads #book review #6/10 #behold. i have read a book

[bronzewool]

Final Fantasy VII: Traces of Two Pasts by Kazushige Nojima is a novel exploring the backstories of Aerith and Tifa, two party members you acquire early on in the game.

Traces of Tifa starts with a young Tifa in the small village of Neibelheim, playing with the other boys her age (minus Cloud) and reconciling over the knowledge their childhood is coming to an end as each boy is already making plans to leave and follow their future career paths. The boys try to cheer her up by promising to write to her, but it soon becomes clear to her that everyone has already decided she will marry one of these boys without bothering to ask her opinion. After Cloud and the other boys leave for Midgar, she becomes lonely and has no direction in life until a wandering material artist, Rashard Zangan, shows up, scouting for students to join his dojo, and finding the perfect pupil in Tifa. Throwing herself into her training, she proves to be skilled in the art form and even starts teaching a morning class for the other villagers. Fast forward to the Neibelheim Incident, where Tifa lost her father and is mortally wounded by Sephiroth, she wakes up in a Midgar hospital that managed to save her life, but she no longer has a home or any means of paying her medical bills. The doctor's son, Rakesh, also a student of Zangan, sets her up with a room in one of the slum container rows, and a job working at a steamed bun cart. Although Tifa is grateful for the help, she is still in the process of mourning the loss of her home while recovering from a near-fatal stab wound and yet still expected to work off her heavy debts. During her time living in the slums, we see how she met Barret, and the rest of Avalanche and would eventually become the bartender of Seventh Heaven.

The segment has a well-paced coming-of-age story of Tifa having no control over her life, and becoming the confident kickboxer and math-savvy bartender we meet at the beginning of the game. The story is slow in several areas, the major one being the attention to detail it goes into regarding her workout routine (to the point it starts feeling like an actual textbook) and her work rota at the food cart and preparing the bao buns (which starts feeling like an actual cookbook). Other than that it has a satisfying twist near the end with how Tifa manages to get out of debt and find a supportive community that becomes her newfound family.

The only minor complaint I have with this story is how little Zangan is in it, considering he is meant to be Tifa’s sensei, but he is only shown teaching her through textbooks that he leaves for her to study before disappearing for months at a time and returning to test her progress and handing her the next volume before disappearing again. This works in the context of the games as characters can level up by reading textbooks, but from a story standpoint, it's rather disappointing how little these two interact.

Traces of Aerith covers the timeline after Aerith and her mother escape Shina and hide in Sector 8 Slums, right before she dies and Aerith is adopted by Elmyra. The game briefly covers how Aerith and Elymra first met, but the book goes into greater detail about how they became a family and that it wasn't as smooth a transition as was implied. Elmyra's husband was a soldier who had been deployed during the Wutai War and was finally coming back home. Elymra would stand at the train station waiting for him with each passing day and on one such day, she finds Aerith weeping over the corpse of her mother and takes the girl in before Shinra finds her. Aerith is in the middle of mourning her mother and Elymra is overloaded with the responsibility of being a single parent while trying to maintain peace within her husband's business. Aerith's presence complicates things for Elmyra and they come up with a fake identity for Aerith which quickly backfires the more people learn of her existence.

The book tries to address minor details in the framing device of a polygon game and has various degrees of success while doing it. For example, Aerith's home is strangely bigger than the rest of the slums, with a two-story house and a garden filled to the brim with flowers. In the game, this area is heavily detailed because it's a set-piece that represents Aerith and the party spends quite a bit of time here. In the context of reality, this area makes no sense when just outside the gate the rest of Sector 8 is a shanty town. The book works around this by giving Elmyra a backstory where her father-in-law owned a construction company and stayed in the slums to oversee that company, as opposed to other businesses that would start a shop in the Slums and immediately abandon it once they earned enough to move onto the upper plate. Her father-in-law employed all those redundant employees and gained a lot of respect from the community for providing employment, hence why they live more lavishly in comparison.

My only complaint about Aerith’s segment in particular is how it glosses over major details in her childhood that fans were probably picking up the book to read about. We know the Turks have been spying on Aerith since she was a child, but they barely have a presence in this segment beyond one vital scene that needs to exist because it happened in the game and the climax where we can assume they saved Aerith’s life. Instead, we spend a lot of time setting up Aerith having a fake identity, and her panicking and using another girl’s name, and this somehow causes everyone to panic because two girls can’t have the same name I guess? (it's as stupid as it sounds and I don’t know why the book dives into this when we know Aerith uses her real name in the present timeline).

Is this book well written? Yes. Did it need to exist? No. There is nothing new we learn in this book that changes your worldview of the game or about Aerith and Tifa as characters. Hardcore fans will enjoy it but casual fans are not going to get anything out of it.

#charl's book journey #I wasn't gonna mention this part because it sounds nitpicky #but the lack of agency is a problem #not so much with Tifa because that's the point of her story arc #but with Aerith she's a little girl who is the pov of a war over the ownership of a family business #and because she's a child Aerith can only act as a spectator watching the adults argue #this might not be a problem here #but if this was a kid's book #the publisher would send it back #because you can't have a kids story where kid has no agency #even when hanging around other children Aerith doesn't move the plot #and that's a problem #she only has agency near the end and it backfires on her #as if trying to make the point #your mum hiding things from you and controlling what you do or where you go #was for your own good #so don't do that again ok sweetie? #fandom: ff7

[lumilasi]

Probably one of the most important side characters in NPC/Araknos family doctor, and a central character in the spin-off story in the same universe, The Mage and the Mobster.

Name: Angus Belmont

Age: 37

Blood Sage Warlock with dragonic heritage

Occupation: Doctor/ A "Shadowless"

Family: little sister Franziska, foster kid Clover formerly known as Oliver Blanc

Friends: Jurou Araknos/Blackthorne (Angus is his family doctor). Amalia Marek, a fellow Shadowless. Chester Knight/Azul Samaros, a former classmate/rival (this is a complicated friendship, where Azul is actually quite important for his personal story arc/in a way his closest friend, but they still kinda butt heads), DIojas Vermonte. The Vasile family.

Rival: Chester Knight Alias Azul Samaros

(Ex) Love interest: Vincent/Vince/Vee DeVos (A plague demon)

Current love interest (post main story): Lucas Arkwright (human)

Abilities:

As a blood mage, Angus has the ability to manipulate other people's mind and bodies either by touching them, or sometimes just looking at them in the eyes if the person is vulnerable enough or consents to it. He can also use his own blood to form weapons such as blades, whips and even shields. He can ALSO use other people's blood for the same purpose.

Angus has one special ability that is thought to be lost form of blood sage magic; a very special rune called Mind Prism that was thought lost to ages, given it was considered too dangerous to be used ever since its creation, and became forbidden knowledge. This symbol allows him to trap people inside their own minds, into a nightmare that they cannot wake up from, until the chosen amount of time runs out. Another insidious part of this spell is, that the affected person cannot die until they wake up, even if their body withers away. Their soul will remain trapped within their corpse until the time is up. The spell can also be used to trap a large number of people at once.

Angus does also know the equally near forgotten way to reverse the spell. He in fact, mainly uses the reversal spell if he runs into rare cases of someone having fooled around with this forbidden magic, not knowing what they were doing. He has only used the trapping spell itself twice in his life.

His dragonic heritage means that the shapeshift ability his kind have is a bit more advanced, where he can shapeshift much more than average blood mage, but only in one specific way; he can turn his bodyparts into dragon-like things, such as summoning wings, morphing his hands into claws, tough dragon like scaly skin, etc. He has a special form as well, that his friends have dubbed "Angel" because he looks like some horrifying demonic angel figure in it with wings and a halo.

He has some knowledge of nature magic as well, a necessity to learn after taking Clover in. It is also useful for his job as a doctor as he knows healing spells and potions that can be useful for more difficult cases

He is capable of undoing lot of dark magic curses and seals, thanks to having studied them and how they work a lot. This has also proven useful in both of his jobs, such as healing a patient suffering from a curse, or countering one thrown at him by his target as a Shadowless.

Personality:

Angus seems like calm and collected man, who comes off a bit cold and overtly logical scientist type. While he's quite closed off and doesn't have time for small talk usually, he is ultimately a caring person who takes his job seriously, both as a doctor and a foster parent. He has a rather dry and sometimes dark sense of humor, and is known to be intimidating to many patients, but also really good at his job. You generally do not dare to be a difficult, nasty asshole with Dr. Belmont. In truth he is hyper-aware of how people view him due to his past, and actually is far more patient than people truly realize.

Because of his background, Angus does have a darker, more vindictive side that he struggles to keep in check, and it tends to come out a lot more in his other job, where he can be borderline sadistic. Angus can also be extremely petty and overtly harsh in situations involving even slight harm or discomfort when it comes to his sister or adoptive kid.

Post main story, his negative traits do mellow out, and due to his somewhat healed self-esteem, Angus stops worrying over what people think too much, allowing himself to be much blunter and threatening if he wants to be. He is also bit more open about how he feels about things than what he used to be.

Weaknesses:

Angus' mental state isn't the best due to his low self-esteem, and he often feels like he's on the edge of snapping and doing something bad if pushed hard enough. He is in a way aware and afraid of his own darker side, and the nasty traits his toxic friendship with Vee created.

He tends to view himself as a bit of a monster, which is why he doesn't like letting people too close to him. He doesn't like showing his weakness, be it physical or emotional, which tends to lead a lot of exhaustion, both physical and mental. He gets better at this post main-story, but tends to still be difficult to socialize with.

BG STORY

The Belmont family was a well-known old mage family line known from being "chimeraic" I.E having all sorts of heritage among it, resulting in a lot of unexpected and peculiar magic abilities with the members. They lived in Switzerland, when the siblings were born. The family had not wanted to move to live in the "realm of the beasts" as they called the Mirror Realm, thinking they belonged among humans instead, although did look down on non-magic wielders.

Much to their dismay, neither child possessed the kind of magic they'd hoped: Franziska had awakened her cat sith ancestry, limiting her transformation ability to just one type and thus making her seem weak and useless in her parents' eyes. Angus in turn was born with something utterly bizarre, something they feared and couldn't understand as they had no saved record of such magic in their bloodline.

Their childhood was rather difficult as a result: Franziska was treated as useless, and Angus was seen as a freak of nature by his parents. Both hid their "abnormal" features even at home (out and about was understandable, because humans would've become suspicious and confused), as neither parent wanted to see their so-called "failure." Angus still studied his bizarre magic secretly, and managed to find out what it was exactly, learning to control it better slowly.

Then, when the two were teenagers, an incident happened in their house where an argument broke between Franziska and their father, with his mother trying to step in to stop it worried people outside would notice, which resulted in his father accidentally killing her with his fire magic. He blamed Franziska for her death in his rage, attempting to kill her too now.

Angus stepped in at that point upon seeing what was happening, and used the Mind Prism rune spell he'd recently learned, without really understanding what it did. This essentially caused him to accidentally kill his father by trapping his mind into a dangerous nightmare state, which gave him a heart-attack as he was already agitated.

The now-orphaned siblings ended up running away from home after this incident and setting the house ablaze, finding their way to the Mirror Realm where they were taken in by the Witch Covenant, a sub-section of the grand Arcane Council handling the matters of magic wielders of the world.

The life with the covenant was better, but people were still afraid of Angus' power due to its rarity. It also attracted something to him, a young Plague Demon called Vincent (or Vee) who revealed to him his magic originated from his created, the Herald of Pestilence. The two became friends, but unknowingly to Angus, Vee was becoming a toxic influence to him, making him cause chaos and havoc in the university they both went in. The two became quite notorious, until another student started to openly oppose them, a young Dark arts Warlock called Chester Knight. The trio kept clashing for the next two years, up until Vee's actions resulted in genuine near deaths to some students, which, alongside Franziska's concerns, made Angus realize what he was turning into. After Vincent was expelled and ran before he could be brought before the Overshadower Council (Group that handled matters of dark beings) Angus stopped his destructive behavior.

He was put on probation instead of being expelled, partially because he hadn't been directly involved in the incident and had actually tried to stop Vincent, partially because his rival's father, Lionel, spoke for him for some reason, and took him under his wing, mentoring him through rest of his studies. This did make things tense given the man was his rival's father, but after the first few months the pair just started ignoring each other essentially.

Sometime after he got his license and began to practice as proper doctor, Angus came across a young child patient who was clearly stuck in an abusive situation. being reminded of their own home life, Angus ends up observing his parents, eventually letting the Witch Covenant know about the horrible experiments the pair was doing to the boy. He also ended up essentially stealing the boy from his "parents," sensing he didn't have time to wait for a response from the Covenant.

In the end, the Covenant manages to jail the boy's "mother," whereas his sperm donor ends up trying to come and forcibly take the boy back, ending up dead just like Angus' father, though this time the action was more deliberate. After all this, The Covenant decides to let little Konjou stay with him, as the boy himself wanted to and his volatile powers would've destabilized and caused harm if he was forcibly removed from the space he'd now deemed safe. It was initially supposed to be just temporary until Konjou - now going by Clover - stabilized enough, but the boy ended up staying with them for good.

While he had managed to hide the death of his father, and the manner of death for Clover's biological father, someone eventually found out. He was approached by a young fae woman working for a man called Kenzo Yoma, who was the leader of a secretive but important organization in their new home realm, a group called The Shadowless.

He was essentially given a choice - an indirect threat posed as a job offer - of joining the ranks to work on keeping the Mirror realm hidden from humans, or people potentially learning of his usage of a forbidden ancient rune. Angus decided to accept the offer, as long as he was allowed to still work as a doctor.

The Shadowless extra info:

Their current head is Kenzo Yoma/Faydream, a Dream eater: he doesn't go to the field (anymore) but rather handles the communication and assigns the missions to whichever Shadowless he thinks is most suitable.

The uniforms for Shadowless are typically the similar, with just some minor adjustments for personal accommodation, such as him having his shoulder-bits open for his dragonic spines.

The uniforms are usually either black with red accents, or red with black accents.

The color typically indicates if the Shadowless is primarily an Investigator (Black), or a Hunter (Red). (The Investigators are also the ones with hoods, so Angus's primary job is intelligence gathering/tracking people down even if he can fight well.)

The masks all have the same Shadowless symbol.

They are generally seen as a fearsome group by the citizens, but also understood as important for everyone's safety.

They actually rarely execute their target, normally the person is either arrested, have their magic revoked/privilege to visit human realm revoked for a period of time, or in some rare cases just get off with a warning.

They ONLY handle things relating to human realm and keeping balance, not any everyday crimes within Mirror World.

Fun Facts:

The only people who know he is a Shadowless (technically illegally, this is typically forbidden knowledge outside The Shadowless themselves) outside his comrades are Jurou, Clover, his crazy ex-friend/fuckbuddy Vincent, Azul Samaros/Chester Knight and Angus' sister Franziska.

He does mention this to Lucas as well later, though Lucas has no clue what all that means, being an outsider.

His magic power originates from The Herald of Pestilence, one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse. This is why his magic type is considered Warlock magic specifically in this story, as not only is it useful for combat, but technically it originated by making a deal with a powerful entity. Angus did not do it directly himself, but it still counts.

Angus does kind of hate his second job because it caters to his darker tendencies that he tends to try and desperately keep in check for his day-to-day life. It is too tempting to allow himself to go beyond certain lines as Shadowless, because he'd get away with it....

Angus is aromantic bi, which is why he never really considered his relationship with V romantic, and nowadays just sees it as a toxic thing he's kind of ashamed of, especially given the things V coaxed him to do.

In turn, while he also doesn't harbor romantic attraction towards Lucas, he does grow very fond of him in other ways, and given Lucas is the only one he eventually let's physically close, it's pretty clear to everyone what kind of role the himbo human plays in his life.

His style is best described as "Casual with lot of black."

Angus does have a more demonic looking Blood sage form that is much more influenced by his dragonic heritage, but this one tends to only appear if he loses grip on himself and starts acting unhinged. (Post main story he learns to control it better, this is the "Angel" referred to before)

While people don't know that Angus can perform the forbidden spell, there are rumors that his Alter Ego Scarlet Drake can use it, which further makes him one of the most feared Shadowless despite not even being a Hunter.

While they were bitter rivals, later on Azul becomes that one person Angus tends to actually be more open and vulnerable around, because unlike everyone else, he feels like Azul always means what he says, and isn't saying certain things just to make him feel better. He does also get along with Azul's boyfriend quite well.

#lumi’s art scribbles #lumi's chaotic creations #oc profile #artist on tumblr #digital art #Angus Belmont #Night City Parlor #Modern AU

[llycaons]

Ep3: man but jzx is such a dick

you know I love a good jc character study and I know there's a lot of complicated stuff going on there but in ep2 it's so just relentlessly cut and dry that lwj is nice and jc is mean. and it's never more straightforward than in that episode. just wanted to get that out of the way

SUIBIAN!!! HELLO BEAUTIFUL!!!

wwx hardly ever uses metal hairpieces oohh

subtitles are very wordy and go quick. I'm used to watching movies and shows with subs, but I'm having trouble adjusting to this and I have to rewind a bunch so I don't miss performances and action

wwx antagonizing jzx is so funny 'lan clan is really simple, do you think you'll survive up there? you're so used to be fucking gaudy and pretentious about everything'

here's my boy with his stupid fucking hairstyle and his asshole tendencies. 15 yr old lwj was such a pedantic downer

aww

SO interesting that jc says this despite it being demonstrably untrue. people give him shit for everything under the sun, including for things that jc does too but doesn't get in trouble for, because of his unstable role in the family and his parentage. hell, jc should know that wwx gets shit just for existing because myu is always on his case, but I think he truly believes this on some level. wwx does tend to start shit, but other people are just as ready to start shit as him and he's always willing to act for the sake of the jiangs or to stand up for others

ICONIC LINE. line that made me go 'oohh he's bisexual! and his family is cool with it!

SO true you legend. you king. you visionary. you cultural sensation. think about his impact

fucking love this face. one of his best faces in all of canon

it's subtle, but knowing how much lwj has changed makes it easier to notice stuff like this. lwj postres clearly did not give one iota of a shit about what jc was saying to him. but this lwj is quicker to respond, more defensive, more sensitive. he cares more about what ppl say

LAN QIREN!!!!! also lzx, who embodies the word 'gracious' better than any fictional character I've ever seen

wwx was treated so unfairly throughout this but he is literally just lying now

I really loved this part 😊 wwx recognizing a compassionate side of lwj even as lwj tries to keep it hidden, and responding eagerly to it

fuck I love the nightless city set. it's so much

yoooo wen qing!! very neat to see that wrh IS the cc now. I forgot this scene and was under the impression that it was a role created post-ss by and for jgs

he is so fucking dramatic standing in his one shaft of sunlight

the untamed: jumps through verbal hoops to keep from saying dead people ever come back to life

mdzs: these are three-day old corpses and wwx just woke them up to do some manual labor for him 👍

joking aside, I truly loved novel wwx's relationship with the dead. they were like his buddies. he kissed a corpse's hand once before they went back to rest. in the show there's a lot more fluff around it

things my mother also said about me.

it is so kind of lxc to imply he has any friends at all

reason no.2 wwx and lwj are soulmates: they're instantly and mutually attracted to each other by sole virtue of meeting their martial match. for lwj it's so significant that his brother immediately caught on and he felt he had to leave the conversation immediately

oh what a fucking liar all you want to do is party

okay I understand why he has secret info on the yin iron (descendent of the other xue guy) but why does he need permission to kill the changs? maybe wrh doesn't want to make a scene

personal highlights: ep3

'a mianmian or a yuandao' line

'barriers are made to be broken'

the adorable and mischievous smile of wwx's

lwj just fucking leaving the middle of a convo with his brother (first of many <3)

#I don't want to go to sleep so I came back for more #lot of setup in this one #cql re-rewatch

[jobrker]

Wip Ask Game!

Rules: post the names of all the files in your WIP folder regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them and then post a little snippet of it or tell them something about it! And then tag as many people as you have wips.

tagged by: @trekkiehood and so, so, so many people that i lost track of because i haven't been active on my personal in literal ages

Marguerite and Percy family fluff: (Scarlet Pimpernel) What it says on the label. Just a fluffy moment with mischievous children and even more mischievous parents.

Elements: (Working title) A little study of Sweeney Todd characters and then interacting with the elements. Anthony's relationship with water, Johanna finding freedom in the wind, Mrs. Lovett and fire for........ reasons, Lucy's relationship with the earth and her desire to move out of the city.

Emilia: (Corpse Bride) Victoria always liked the name Emilia, however she isn't certain how much she wants to use it for her own daughter after knowing an Emily. A little study about Victoria and mixed feelings about Emily because I think it's a little more complicated than fanon lets on.

Talking Turned to Screams: (Alice in Wonderland -- 2010 based) Alice winds up in a madhouse after the events of the 2010 movie.

Set Fire to the Sky: Biodad Irondad au set in the Victorian era with elements from the Lion King. It sounds unhinged and it is. Uploaded on ao3 and ffn. Not sure if it's getting completed ever.

Single Parent AU AU: (Newsies) Jack doesn't get custody of his daughter after Katherine's death. A look into the rare occasion the Pulitzers actually allow him to see her.

Turpin Kidnaps Johanna: (Sweeney Todd) Turpin doesn't die. He abducts Johanna and she writes in the diary he allows her to have, as she tries to find a way out.

Victor x Victoria Forbidden Love AU: (Corpse Bride) Before Victor is married to Emily and Victoria is married to Lord Barkis, they fall in love. A series of moments of them secretly pining for each other while in loveless marriages.

Johanna Workhouse AU: (Sweeney Todd) Johanna is able to escape from Turpin and winds up in a workhouse while waiting for Anthony to return to london.

Sweeney Todd as Death AU: Benjamin/Sweeney personified as death.

Benjamin Escapes from Prison Earlier AU: What it says in the title. How canon plays out if Benjamin got there a little sooner. If Lucy and Johanna were in the same place as when he left them.

tagging: anyone who sees this!

#this blog is brand new but if people did happen to ask me about my wips i would not be upset #some of these are so freaking old #(*most of them are so freaking old) #dash game #shut up fleur

[ao3feed-crimeboys]

i'm his father and you're his brother (we are not family)

by Anonymous

Wilbur?” The boy asks softly, eyes stuck on Wilbur's corpse before flicking up to Phil's. “You killed him!” He accuses, voice already wet and cracking, and Phil lowers his sword, sighing.

Phil runs a hand through his hair tiredly, wincing at the red stain on his hands, because how can he explain to a teenager the weight of hearing your own child, your flesh and blood, ask to die as if it is the only thing keeping them alive? How can he explain that all a parent wants is to give their child whatever they ask for? How can he explain that Phil could barely even recognize his son in the man that pleaded for death? He can’t, and so instead all he says, tired and just a bit broken, is, “I’m Wilbur’s father.”

The boy clenches his fists and flashes his braces. “And I’m Wilbur’s brother.” He snarls, and Phil has just a second to process the absurdity of that statement, before the kid takes a step forward, brings back his fist, and punches Phil straight on the nose. --- Phil and Tommy have never even met each other and have nothing in common, aside from their blonde hair and blue eyes and pale skin, and the fact that a dead man calls them both family.

It's complicated.

Words: 9965, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: Dream SMP, Minecraft (Video Game)

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings

Categories: Gen

Characters: Phil Watson | Philza, Technoblade (Video Blogging RPF), TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Ghostbur (Dream SMP), Wilbur Soot

Relationships: TommyInnit & Phil Watson (Video Blogging RPF), Technoblade & Phil Watson | Philza, Wilbur Soot & Phil Watson | Philza, Wilbur Soot & TommyInnit, Technoblade & TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), Wilbur Soot & Technoblade & TommyInnit & Phil Watson

Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Relationship Study, Character Study, Unreliable Narrator, in that phil doesn't know everything, Situational Irony, Can't believe I used that tag, Author Is Not a Phil Watson Apologist (Video Blogging RPF), however, everything is from his pov and i don't try to make him a douchebag, Implied/Referenced Exile Arc (Dream SMP), Post-TommyInnit's Exile Arc on the Dream SMP (Video Blogging RPF), L'Manberg | L'Manburg on Dream Team SMP (Video Blogging RPF), Destruction of L'Manberg | L'Manburg on Dream Team SMP (Video Blogging RPF), Doomsday War on Dream Team SMP (Video Blogging RPF), Technoblade & TommyInnit Friendship (Video Blogging RPF), Phil Watson is Wilbur Soot's Parent, Phil Watson is Not Tommyinnit's Parent (Video Blogging RPF), except, it's complicated - Freeform, Parent Technoblade (Video Blogging RPF), it's hinted at, But still complicated, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Bittersweet Ending, Wilbur Soot's Letters, Wilbur Soot and TommyInnit are Siblings

#ao3feed #wilbur soot #tommyinnit #crimeboys #crime boys #crimebois #crime bois #mcyt #This is an automated process #If you see any fic that breaks boundaries #or the fic is yours and you don't want it shared send an ask #it will be looked at and removed if need be

[cesiopagnotto]

Devil's law

Similarly when a holy knight dies in battle his companions will take down the holy knight's badge and bring it back to the temple where it will be stored in a place called the "temple" to commemorate the sacrifice of the knight who died in battle Dardanelles' eyes flashed and he quickly rolled up the dead knight's sleeve The clothes had been frozen hard and it was hard to roll them up Dyes and Pigments but when the sleeves were rolled up to the elbows Dardanelles sighed "It seems that I was right Look at this scar It was ironed with divine oil" This is a kind of baptism of holy knights in the temple Every holy knight has a scar on his arm from this oil Du Wei leaned over and saw a hot mark on the corpse's arm which was unique as if it were a beating flame Dardanelles explained as he gestured "When a young holy knight is baptized he will have a big pot of boiling oil beside him and then the Pope of the Temple will personally preside over the ceremony holding a special iron sword with a seal inlaid on its head" The sword and seal together represent the holy knight's mission to defend the authority of the gods in the power of the gods in the world and they are a special group These people have been doing penance since childhood Powerful devout and China Chemicals It has to be said that most of the holy knights are of noble character And most importantly No one dares to murder a holy knight! Even holy knights who break the law or who betray their faith can only be judged and punished by the temple itself Not to mention a sinner Even a normal holy knight if he kills one then it is tantamount to challenging the authority of the Temple of Light! Challenging the authority of the gods' agents on earth! 101dunet Collection Is against the entire Temple of Light! Enemy of the Temple of Light Even the emperor Or the magic guild dare not do so! Anyone who dares to make an enemy of the Holy Knight or even kill the Holy Knight It's all those notoriously powerful evil guys For example decades ago a powerful and evil magician killed tens of thousands of civilians in order to study necromancy and even turned a small town into a ghost town overnight which angered the temple and sent the temple knights Killed the sorcerer at great cost There are many things like this in history all of which are done by holy knights But that's it! Other than that the Holy Knight will never do anything else boring! Will not run to the frozen forest to hunt Warcraft! Holy knights are not mercenaries! In this place there is a holy knight so there is only one explanation the holy knight came here It's a mission! They've come to hunt down some evil strong man! Defend the honor of the temple with their swords! "I'm afraid our journey will not be peaceful" Du Wei and Dardanelles met at a glance and their eyes were complicated Food and Feed Additives After a little rest the two men reburied the dead holy knight and moved on However a day later They found the grave again! There are three graves this time! All three tombs are buried with dead holy knights! And this time one of the shaved and his hair was carefully arranged So he lay quietly in the snow pit his hands clasped in his chest and in his hands a beautiful sword with silver light lay quietly on his chest This man's appearance is very handsome although the whole body has been frozen black and blue but Du Wei can still think of how elegant he was when he was alive globalchemmall.com

[rosethornewrites]

Friday-Thursday T & G reading

The usual

Finished

Teen:

Autumn Morning, Summer Night, by Admiranda, Rynne (6th in a series)

Many of Lan Wangji's hunts are not very complicated, but Wei Wuxian finds they can still be enjoyable.

在病房之後 | in the wake of the wards, by amatchforyourmadness (2 chapters)

Here’s how this story goes: in the year Xuanzheng 25 the four great clans siege the Burial Mounds, intent to rid the world of the last of the Wen and their leader, the Yiling Patriarch.

In another world, the ground ends up even more soaked with blood, the Wens are all slaughtered but for one, and Wei Wuxian dies, torn apart by the fierce corpses he once controlled.

But this is not how this story goes.

(Wei Wuxian ends the First Siege in a much different way. The Cultivation World is left to try and understand it).

A Curse Upon Your House (Nearly Worn Wings Take Flight), by Preludian_Staves

In response to Yu-furen's actions from one of her many night hunts, a curse falls upon her and the Jiang Sect. Wei Wuxian is also expelled from the Jiang Sect.

[Diverges from Canon around the Cloud Recesses Study arc]

General:

Lightning, by snowberryrose

In which Jiang Cheng is but the mortal manifestation of the God of Thunder

Or: an examination of fate and immortals

Drag Me Into Your Coffin (I Will Drag Your Sins Into the Light), by the5leggedCricket

During the events in the GuanYin Temple, Jin GuangYao tries to drag Lan XiChen into death with him. When Lan XiChen next opens his eyes, he is faced with a—very alive—Jin GuangYao in Koi Tower, and a Jin ZiXun who is trying to force alcohol down his throat. Lan XiChen has a choice: smile and comply or take a stand once and for all—while still smiling, naturally.

AKA: Lan XiChen goes Off™

Sunday Mornings, by NightCrow712

If you asked Wei Ying what his favorite day of the week is, the answer wouldn be Sunday. Why? Because he gets to spend that whole day with his amazing husband and adorable son.

---

There is no plot, this is basically just fluff.

Here Lies Wen Ruohan's Plans to Take Over the World, by insertmdzspseud (hati_skoll)

Wen Ruohan adopts Wei Ying. This, of course, changes everything.

Back At It Again, by arachnim

Wei Wuxian accidentally caused a temporary fold in the space-time continuum and him, Jiang Cheng and Lan Zhan got dragged to the past and dropped into heir teenage bodies.

Jiang Cheng is not amused. Although, he can't say for sure that he is unhappy...

Unfinished

Teen:

Alternate Headcanons, by nirejseki

Random assortment of MDZS ficlets in response to a request for prompts for alternate headcanons for characters

Talking is Better than Silence, by blackcatkuroi, KuroiWrites (blackcatkuroi)

"This path harms the body. Harms the nature of one's heart even more." Lan WangJi spoke those words upon first seeing Wei Wuxian alive after the Burial Mounds, unknowing of the truth.

Wei Wuxian, though, didn't need to be told, and he accepted that he'd lost whatever he might have once had with Lan WangJi. Several nights later, in a moment of drunken weakness under the melancholic light of a full moon, he tells Lan WangJi the Truth. He'd never needed Lan WangJi to spell out his fate for him - he'd known since he walked out of the Burial Mounds alive.

But one small bit of honesty can go a long way, and Talking is far better than Silence.

Grand Master of Rogue Cultivation, by waterphoenix21

A Wei Wuxian raises A-Yuan fic!

After Jin Zixuan and Jiang Yanli die a mysterious death, Wen Qing and the rest of the Wen Clan are found guilty and Wei Wuxian speaks in their defense. This naturally leads to a rift between him and Jiang Cheng.

Then one night, the last surviving member of the Wen Clan is found asleep on top of Jiang Yanli's grave. Nobody knows how or why. But feeling as if he no longer belongs to any clan, Wei Wuxian decides to raise little Wen Yuan on his own, as he sets on a path to becoming a rogue cultivator, following in his mother's footsteps and seeking to find the mystical mountain of the legendary immortal, Baoshan Sanren.

With You, For All Our Lives, by Starlight143

In an attempt to secure a good future for her daughter Cangse Sanren betrothes Wei Ying to Lan Zhan. When they die this one action changes everything.

Truths Laid Bare For All, by Preludian_Staves

The betrothal letter comes in the Springtime with a Lan escort, changing how events happen in Wei Wuxian's life.

AKA Wangxian meets early before the Cloud Recesses lectures and slowly starts moderately sooner, some things change and others stay moderately the same. Plus WWX flourishing under the tutelage of the Lans when there isn't prickly Heir or his equally prickly mother lurking around that needs near constant appeasement and a truth serum is involved somewhere in the course of things.

Lost & Found, by weakforwx

So Wei Wuxian made up his mind. He would be bringing this child back with him to the Cloud Recesses. Lan Zhan brought home his own Wen Yuan, so it’s only fair that Wei Wuxian gets to save one too.

General:

when the stars don't line (i'll be forever by your side), by estel_willow, mandsangelfox

“My golden core was never returned to me,” he says slowly, quietly, still desperate for this truth to be a lie. He is still desperate for it to be the fantasy he spent so long believing it was, the concoction of Wei Wuxian's silver-tongued lies, the impossible truth of a core regrown by an immortal hand rather than a core replaced by surgery. “It’s impossible. But you can have one transplanted. It is a risky procedure, and has only been done once. In order for it to be successful, someone has to be willing to surrender their own.

"He was willing."

Jiang Cheng continues to deal with knowing his golden core is not his own and with bringing his stubborn family home. A canon-divergent story exploring the Yunmeng Bros relationship before it was irrevocably destroyed, and before Wei Wuxian was lost to him for good.

Tending the Garden, by AllieChick

“Uncle will be unhappy when he visits,” Wangji eventually stated.

Lan Xichen lifted his cup to his lips. It seemed his uncle was always unhappy these days.

“Wei Ying and I have adopted a child,” Wangji said, a small smile gracing his face.

As Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian seemingly adopt every stray child they can find, their lives grow and change. All around them, those that help tend to their growing family change too.

#the untamed #mo dao zu shi #mdzs #cql #chen qing ling #untamed fanfiction

[strosmkai-rum]

writing resources masterlist.

i have to admit. my first reason for doing this was to spite my brain because it wouldn’t write. so, instead, i made this. 

so here. 160+ links. gathered from a million questionable google searches, and some more crawling through mobile chrome tabs for 11 hours. anyways, enjoy!

where to write!

some popular platforms:

google docs is my choice for writing. it’s free, auto saves, you can access your stuff on mobile, pc, tablet, etc., and great for multi person collabs + link sharing. but, you need internet to use it, and for big documents (upwards of 55k words) it takes a while to load on pc, and editing on mobile is damn near impossible. 

scrivener is great too, and has the binder, which is great for organizing stuff. however, the mac version is way, way ahead of the pc in terms of updated versions. i mean, the pc version is still useable. and, it’s pretty expensive at $45 usd. 

microsoft word is really popular, and used pretty much everywhere. there’s templates and you can save documents in different formats, and compatible with other microsoft office programs too. it’s also a bit complicated at the start, but tbh most software is gonna be like that. sort of in the same boat as scrivener, as in, it costs money. usually a subscription, but if you decide to buy it flat out, it’s even more pricy, but def worth it imo. 

other writing platforms:

zenwriter 3 for windows and mac - $17.50 usd

focuswriter - free

libreoffice - free

credit to @scribeofred for help with this. she has an amazing writing blog that’s super helpful, so definitely check it out! and she’s a professional editor, so it’s coming from someone who knows what they’re doing. 

writing by hand is great too. some people can focus better that way, or, if you have a drawing tablet, you can write get the feeling of writing, and have it digitally too. 

of course, you could just type into your notes app, or ao3, or a tumblr draft post, but let’s not-

focusing!

spotify, youtube premium, and tidal are all great for listening to music. all of them, except for the free version of spotify, have a subscription. 

but maybe music isn’t your thing! here’s some more stuff: 

rainforme is a rain/thunder player with adjustable volume

coffitivity for café ambience

ambient mixer has a ton of different ambience, and even lets you create your own.

noisli has playlists for different situations and has a built in timer and editor.

asoftmurmur lets you make your own mixes with their own, generally nature-focused sounds. 

tabletopaudio with a focus on fantasy/noir ambience

mynoise has a lot of variety in sounds, including a...black hole

forest is an app/extension that grows a forest, for however long you manage to stay off of blacklisted sites, and dies when you revisit them. good for studying or a distraction-free writing experience (if you’ve got the restraint for it), but if you need resources on hand to write, this might not be good for you. 

moodboards!

wanna make a moodboard? lit! here’s some ways to get your images. 

unsplash (my journalism teacher, out of all the people recommended it to us. regardless, it’s a great way to source copyright free and not-stolen images.)

canva is much the same with no copyright issues, and actually lets you design the board on the site. 

adobe spark is also good and free.

now. pinterest. don’t get me wrong, it’s great for finding images. but it’s full of stolen images and all. so, maybe don’t source your stuff from there. 

character development!

behind the name name generator for different ethnicities, includes other character info like physical stats, language, age, blood type, cause of death, etc.

16personalities personality test

character flaws

how to create a character profile + worksheet below

big-ass character sheet (that’s the name) for making a wildly detailed overview of your character.

the most epic character chart ever (again, the name), a 12 page chart for your character.

character archetypes

character questionnaire

a super in-depth questionnaire for all stages of your character’s life

character development

creating a look for your character!

so maybe you’re not great at drawing. that’s okay! 

first off, there’s a ton of amazing, talented artists here, that you can commission to get a picture of your character done. i’d definitely point you towards them first, because you help support them, and you also get some gorgeous art too!

but if you don’t have the funds for that right now, here’s some generators, to have one regardless.

picrew’s really popular, so here’s some generators i found, with social media linked for credit:

sky: children of light character maker (i didn’t see any social media, just a link to the game’s terms of service) aka the one i use in my tumblr prof pic

among us character creator (@NetherHeartz on twitter)

icon maker (@lullindo on twitter/instagram)

another icon maker (tumblr)

character maker (tumblr, twitter, instagram)

girl maker (tumblr)

fantasy girl maker (twitter)

aesthetic girl maker (@rileydixondesign on instagram)

boy maker (@hellomadjackass on twitter/instagram)

another boy maker (tumblr, @GigiliJiggly on twitter, @gigili_jiggly on instagram)

western boys (@mosssygator on twitter)

and toyhou.se is great for storing your character.

prompt generators!

a list of different generators depending on what you need

pretty much the same as above

pretty much the same as above again

same again-

127 prompts if you’re writing about yourself

science fiction plot generator

random generators

map making!

cartographer’s guild is a website dedicated to map making, so a TON of resources on geography and landscape and whatnot.

inkarnate is for making your own fantasy maps, they have a free and a pro version but the free one is def enough to get going!

worldanvil is awesome for worldbuilding in general. 

nat geo has an awesome interactive world map, with options to see a ton more info like population density, animal populations, language diversity, and just a lot of stuff in general for irl maps. 

mapchart is great for irl custom maps. 

this one is also good, a bit laggy and auto-generates a map, but def useable. here’s a how-to for it. 

geoguesser lets you pick somewhere on the world map, and it’ll show you that location on google maps. 

and of course, there’s the classic ‘spill uncooked rice/macaroni on paper, trace the outline, and go from there’ technique. 

medication/wounds!

drug index to find specific medication and side effects

medicine name generator to make your own!

how drugs are named!

writing realistic injuries

writing realistic injuries 2

wound term definitions

wound documentation

interactive 3d human body with viewable layers

broken bones

bruise colors

entrance + exit wounds

gunshot injuries

stab wounds 

blood clotting and bleeding disorders

blood clotting and bleeding disorders 2 electric boogaloo

general info on bleeding to death

deathreference aka the encyclopedia of death and dying, alphabetized

how to write gore and examples

crime writing!

poisons

the human body after death

body changes after death

corpse decomposition

killing someone (not as easy as it seems)

three essays on political corruption

criminal law

usa state laws

an fairly simple overview of uk law

legal system in the uk

more guides to uk law

used + abused drugs

a-z list of illicit substances

paper on drug use, trade, and prices

64-page long paper on economic and social consequences of drug abuse + trafficking

70 page crime scene checklist

illustrated guide on kitchen knives

history of combat knives

firearms

more on types of guns

college of policing published research

forensic document examination + downloadable as pdfs (check the sidebars for many more topics)

more in-depth guide of forensic document examination and forgeries

more forensic science topics

crime scene investigation/forensics articles

serial murder

havocscope for black market/underground stuff, and more pages on corruption and organized crime

general overview of political corruption

homicide investigation procedures

psychology of famous criminals

faqs about human trafficking

fingerprints and black powder

pathology guides

understanding injuries

analyzing bodies

crime scene response and procedures 

the fbi can actually help you write your story as well, here.

more resources!

if you’re esl or struggle with grammar, this might help. 

fight scene advice (i see a lot of writers struggle with this, including me, but this helped a ton.)

more help on fight scenes

info on first drafts

editing vs. revising

10 things that might be stopping you from writing

language vs. dialect

a bunch of generators for cities and names

mithrilandmages name generators and lists (fantasy + modern generators)

over 100+ generators for a ton of fandoms 

medieval bestiary

greek mythology bestiary

norse gods and creatures

more norse mythology

scandinavian folklore

more scandinavian folklore

mythical creatures masterlist (not as in-depth as the bestiaries, but if you need ideas/a general overview, this is really good)

different types of povs

more pov stuff

more povs with definitions and lots of examples

how to choose your pov

gestures + body language masterlist

facial expressions masterlist

voice library with sounds according to different emotions (warning: they automatically play when you hover your mouse over them so lower your damn volume when you do, because some of them are really. uh. moany.)

printable storyboards

online storyboard making

writing, roleplaying + worldbuilding (advice on pretty much anything you could name)

some cool french phrases

essaytyper

harvard’s essay writing resources

tips on writing grief

a ton of different essays on writing topics

638 character traits

color shades + names 1, 2, 3, 4

alphabetical list of colors

date calculator

every literary device

animal tracking

compound bows, draw length + weight

famous last words

bite force of different animals

tips on writing accents

unique fracture patterns in glass/glassy polymers

a-z of careers

types of swords

general advice!

jot down ideas when you get them! 

don’t force yourself to write, or else you’ll burn out. and that’s never good. 

have snacks and drinks handy if you’re going to be writing for an extended amount of time. even if you’re not, your brain needs fuel to run.

so, drinks like tea and water. snacks that aren’t oily/greasy or crumbly (i mean, do you really want that on your paper or keyboard?), 

and on that note, for god’s sake use the bathroom frequently. 

if you have difficulty concentrating, get something like a fidget cube or something to help. or take a nap.

if you don’t think your writing is good at first, just keep. writing. it’s a skill, and the more you write, the better you’ll get.

beta readers and outside opinions are very helpful. and please, never antagonize them first. 

first drafts are messy! and done > perfect the first time around.

probably more stuff but it’s been 11+ hours and i want to play skyrim already so take it.  

#writing #resources #my brain did this instead of write #what do i tag here #crime #forensic science #writeblr

[ouyangzizhensdad]

Perhaps you'd like a an ask that's not discourse related? If so, then I wanted to ask you if you know what jin zixuan thought of jin guangyao?

Hi anon,

I appreciate your non-discourse-related ask 😉. Your question made me realise that the novel seems to explicitly avoid giving us any real sense of what Jin Zixuan thought of Jin Guangyao, or how he reacted to the ways other people treated JGY. It seems that JZX remained unaware at the time that Meng Yao came on his birthday--and literally got kicked out. At Phoenix Mountain, JZX stops being mentioned after JGY appears and while his mother mistreats him--he’s only brought back into the narration at the very end to scream at JYL. JZX is also absent the night that WWX goes to Jinlintai to confront the Jins about Qiongqi path and in the direct aftermath. But let’s dig for crumbs and make sense of gaps, and let’s see what we can infer from them.

We know that, originally, Jin Zixuan was the epitome of the proud Jin: “The ways of the Jin Sect were proud, and Jin Zixuan inherited every single drop of this. With his high standards, he had been unsatisfied with this engagement since a long time ago.“ We could wonder if the circumstances of JGY’s birth would have been something JZX would have judged him for. We know that he took offense to WWX’s persona, although it is not spelled out exactly what offended him specifically: “Because of this engagement, Jin Zixuan had no positive impressions of the YunmengJiang Sect, and had frowned upon Wei Wuxian’s behavior since some time ago.“ However, it’s unclear whether the circumstances of WWX’s birth influenced how he perceived his behaviour. All we know for sure is that two other Jin family members--his father and Jin Zixun--never forgot about it and brought it up. We also know that in the past, JZX felt comfortable ignoring people’s good will towards him if he felt he was motivated in his view of them, as he did with JYL in the past:

Jin-furen had brought him to Lotus Pier a couple of times. Neither Wei Wuxian nor Jiang Cheng liked to play with him; only Jiang Yanli wanted to feed him the food that she made. Jin Zixuan, however, didn’t really like to pay her any attention.

At the same time, we do know that JZX had a sense of righteousness, what with him standing up against Wen Chao at Dusk-Creek Mountain. Likewise, we see with the soup incident that at least when it comes to a low-level cultivator who is a servant, a good deed done towards him without trying to gain his gratitude is enough to earn his respect, and for JZX to take action to raise the standing of that person:

Cleverly, the woman never acknowledged anything, but instead denied it ambiguously, her cheeks flushed, making it sound as though she was the one who did it, but didn’t want Jin Zixuan to know how much trouble she went through. And thus, Jin Zixuan didn’t force her to admit it any longer. However, in action, he had began to respect the cultivator. He began to pay attention to her, even raising her from a servant to a guest cultivator.

JZX even tells JYL: “Don’t think that just because you come from a powerful sect that you can steal and trample other people’s feelings. Some people, even if they come from poor backgrounds, their character are much better than the former’s. Please watch your conduct.” This underlines that, regardless of his upbringing, and perhaps even views that he might have held at some point in his life, at this point JZX seemed to want to judge others based on their character rather than their background. Of course, we can wonder if that reserve of good will would have extended to his half-brother, especially one that could try to take his place as the heir. However, considering the circumstances, from JGY’s birth to JGS’s decision to give him a name that did not align him with the same generation as JZX, we can wonder if anyone ever perceived then JGY as someone who could potentially become the next sect leader, as seen in this exchange between WWX and JC:

Jiang Cheng smirked, “Don’t carry your sword, then. It doesn’t matter. But don’t provoke Jin Zixuan from now on. He’s Jin Guangshan’s only son, after all. The future leader of the LanlingJin Sect will be him. If you beat him up, what should I, the sect leader, do? Beat him up with you? Or punish you?”

Wei Wuxian, “Isn’t Jin Guangyao here now? Jin Guangyao seems so much better than him.”

Jiang Cheng finished wiping his sword. After he scrutinized it for a while, he finally put Sandu back into its sheath, “So what, if he’s better? No matter how much better he is, no matter how clever, he could only be a servant who greets the guests. That’s all there is to his life. He can’t compare with Jin Zixuan.”

At Phoenix Mountain, while we do not see JZX say anything out of line to JGY, he is present while his mother and Jin Zixun disrespect him: and we get no reaction written for him while that takes place--he’s mostly licking his wounded pride. We also know that this disrespect by his family towards JGY was the norm, so we have to assume that JZX would have been a witness to it in other situations. In the context of that specific scene, it’s difficult to to infer something concrete from that silence: is it agreement? complicity? a certain indifference to JGY’s situation? an unwillingness of rock the boat or to seem to publicly challenge his mother? or simply him just being too self-absorbed by his romantic woes?

The next scene that would have made for an interesting case study is the night WWX comes to confront the Jins about the camp at Qiongqi Path. However, JZX is absent that night. Conveniently, or as a means to maintain a sense of ambiguity between him and WWX, we thereby do not know how JZX feels about what happened. He is also absent during the aftermath:  “At midnight, in the Golden Pavilion on JinlinTai sat over fifty sect leaders from sects of all sizes. Jin Guangshan sat in the foremost seat. Jin Zixuan was away [...].” (interesting that CQL added JZX to that scene). Which means he is not there to react to the mistreatment of JGY by others or to react to the way JGY is clearly lying for the purposes of manipulating the general opinion on WWX and save the Jin’s reputation.

We also do not get to witness the conversation that leads JZX to come to Qiongqi Path to try to stop Jin Zixun. All we get is a sentence of dialogue from JZX explaining that he thought JGY looked strange which prompted JZX tp questioned him questions (we of course know that JGY was purposefully acting that way to get JZX to go to Qionqqi Path, so it’s hard to take that as a sign of clear familiarity between them that would have allowed JZX to read hidden emotions from him). Did JZX ask out of specific concern for or suspicions of JGY? We don’t know! It is interesting to note though that, in this scene, Jin Zixun refers to JGY as “A-Yao”, which the narration contextualises by telling us that Jin Zixun started calling him in a more intimate manner despite the original contemps he had held for him. However, when JZX mentions JGY to Jin Zixun, he calls him “Jin Guangyao” (for reference, Jin Zixun calls JZX “Zixuan”).

All in all, we get very little from looking at JZX. However, there is something to be said in the absence of any specific grievances expressed by JGY towards him in terms of framing how JZX may have acted towards him when they were both at Jinlintai. Indeed, when Jin Ling asks JGY why he arranged for his father to go to Qiongqi path, meeting his death, JGY mentions the unfairness of the situation of both sons, but never brings up anything JZX did specifically to him. And we know that JGY has a great memory which allows him to hold grudges.

Suddenly, Jin Ling screamed, “Why?!” He stood up from beside Jiang Cheng. Eyes red, he rushed toward Jin Guangyao as he shouted, “Why did you have to do this?!”

Nie Huaisang hurried to pull back Jin Ling, who seemed as though he wanted to fight with Jin Guangyao. Jin Guangyao returned the question, “Why?” He turned to Jin Ling, “A-Ling, then could you tell me why? Why is it that even if I face everyone with a smile, I might not even receive the lowest form of respect, while even though your father was extremely arrogant, people flocked to him? Could you tell me why we were born from the same person but your father could relax at home with the love of his life playing with his child, while I never even dared be alone for long with my wife, shivering out of fright at first glance of my son? And I was ordered to do such a thing by my father as if it was natural—to kill an extremely dangerous figure who could flip out and conjure up a bloody massacre with his corpses anytime!

“Why is it that even though we were born on the same day, Jin Guangshan could host a grand banquet for one son, and watch with his own eyes how his subordinate kicked his other son down Jinlintai, from the first stair to the last!”

He finally revealed the hatred hidden deep within him. It wasn’t directed at neither Jin Zixuan nor Wei Wuxian, but rather his own father.

As a result, we might infer that, at the very least, JZX never directly acted towards JGY in a way that reflected how JGS or Jin Zixun (at some point) treated him. At the same time, it’s difficult to suggest that he stood up for him when other people disrespected him, and we know that JZX’s mother disrespected JGY in lieu of directing her anger toward the real culprit, her awful husband. Little seems to suggest that they grew intimate after JGY came to Jinlintai. It’s really hard to divine, as a result, what JZX might have thought of JGY.

The most interesting thing to take away from this is that it seems absolutely deliberate on MXTX’s part to show us as little as possible in terms of interactions between JZX and JGY. We can speculate as to why that is: to separate JZX from the machinations of this sect? to avoid giving us more ammunition to guess that JGY was behind JZX’s death? to ensure that WWX remains ambiguous towards JZX? or just as a means to avoid having to figure out how to work this dynamic into already complicated scenes and character relationships? etc.

#mdzs meta #mdzs #jzx #jin zixuan #jgy #jin guangyao