#and I'm old so underworld is basically childhood

[thelikesoffinn]

I wish some talented vampire nerd out there would be writing ff's about David from Underworld.

Yes, it's very niche. Yes, it's super specific, but god, there's ff's about reader x argus filch, and yet there's seemingly nothing for DAVID? Come on now, that's taking the piss.

#underworld awakening #underworld blood wars #underworld david #theo james #i just love theo james okay give me a break #and I'm old so underworld is basically childhood #argus filch #filch

[genericpuff]

So I have a question is hades telling Persephone his trauma with kronos trauma dumping? I see this word tossed around alot I just want to know if this was an example

It depends on which scene. If you're talking about the one early in S2 where Hades shares what happened to him with Persephone, that one's kind of a combination of lovebombing and trauma dumping + trauma bonding. And the reason I say that is because he basically takes away Persephone's moment to be vulnerable and talk about her own trauma and turns it into something about himself. Which he does a LOT in LO.

Like, this all happens after she's JUST revealed her side of the Act of Wrath and the events that led up to it (particularly involving her childhood) and Hades segues it into talking about himself.

Of course, that's after he shows her the tape of HER memories that he got without HER consent.

But of course Persephone's fine with it because she's not allowed to realize that her future husband might be a creep.

Anyways, it does seem like Hades is trying to "repay" Persephone for telling him her backstory, but that just doesn't work all that well here because it just comes across as insensitive. She's barely had any of her own time to reflect on the events that occurred VERY recently (though the timeline is unclear, know that Persephone was 19 when she moved to Olympus and the Act of Wrath had to have happened shortly before because she was clearly a young adult) and now she has to sit through listening to his baggage from 2000 years ago.

Like, this man has had two thousand years to talk to someone about this. But of course, it's the pink cinnamon roll girl that he met at a party and has known for TWO WEEKS who gets him monologuing about himself and trauma dumping.

And it's trying so hard to be painted as romantic, but really, it's just another case of Hades love-bombing Persephone.

This kind of dialogue is used in romance novels a lot but when you actually condense the timeline and understand that this 40+ year old man has only known this 19/20 year old girl for two weeks, it comes across as less romantic and more like he's just manipulating her. This is a VERY common tactic used by abusers and groomers (*note: this is a blanket statement that does not apply to all relationships) where they'll make the victim believe that they're just that special, that important to them, that they would tell them things they've "never told anyone before." Maybe this would happen in a relationship between two people that's been going on for a while, but someone you've only known for two weeks and you're still trying to get with? It's a bit more of a red flag there.

Meanwhile I'm staring at LO like, you're trying to convince me this man has never talked about his trauma ONCE? Not even with Hera, who he HASN'T EVEN TOLD PERSEPHONE HE'S BEEN IN A LONG-TERM AFFAIR WITH? Never mind the fact that he wasn't the only one who went through what he did, you're telling me he's never talked about it to anyone, in 2000 years? That's a load of baloney. The man needs a therapist, not a girlfriend.

And this isn't the only time Hades uses his trauma as a way to either trauma bond with Persephone OR to make excuses for his own actions. I can think of no better example than when Persephone finds out about his affair with Hera.

He makes the topic about Hera and her trauma. She does not know Hades is talking about this. She hasn't given him consent to tell Persephone about this. Hades is saying ALL this to get to the final point of: "I was in an affair with Hera because Hera and I were both traumatized and Zeus just couldn't understand that." (never mind the fact that Hades is also dismissing everything Zeus went through here just because Zeus doesn't have physical scars like Hera and Hades do, which is... ick.)

And then he goes off even MORE about his experience being sentenced down to the Underworld and eating the pomegranate and yadda yadda yadda the man literally will not shut up. Persephone at this point has opened up to him about her trauma once across the course of like, two episodes (and he doesn't even know about the SA yet!) and meanwhile Hades gets MULTIPLE episodes to talk about how sad and lonely he's been his whole life.

(he also thinks therapy is pointless because of course he does:)

He doesn't take any real accountability here for his actions. He doesn't take accountability for lying to Persephone about his affair with Hera. He doesn't take accountability for lying to Zeus - her husband and his BROTHER - about the affair for centuries, and he still doesn't know. And this is one of the first signs (chronologically) that Hades makes it a habit to form his relationships off trauma bonding and love-bombing.

(I'm so sad for Minthe here now in hindsight because she's literally telling Persephone that Hades is a chronic love-bomber but then she never connects that she should stop fighting with Persephone over Hades because of this. Like in any other comic, Minthe would be warning Persephone, not trying to get Persephone out of the picture so she can get Hades back.)

So yes, I would say Hades is absolutely trauma-dumping when you take into account the fact that he seems to be using it as a form of love-bombing and trauma bonding, and the fact that the comic spends way more time justifying his horrible actions through his trauma, while Persephone's trauma which is an ACTIVE PLOT POINT in her character arc and the comic, gets shoved off to the wayside so it can take a backseat to Hades' 2000 year old baggage. Screw what the women are going through, the man's talking.

That said, don't get me wrong, Persephone's still a horrible person who uses her trauma as an excuse for her actions too, but that's for another post.

In the meantime, have this great video about love bombing:

#lore olympus critical #lo critical #anti lore olympus #antiloreolympus #ask me anything #ama #anon ama #anon ask me anything

[maniacwatchestheworld]

A Basic Guide to Harvey "Two-Face" Dent for Misha stans

With love, from a Two-Face fan who hasn't watched Supernatural and doesn't really intend on watching Gotham Knights.

Now before getting into this, you need to keep in mind that Harvey Dent (at the time of his creation, Harvey Kent) was a character first introduced to comics in 1942, and even within Batman canon, he is one of the most wildly inconsistently written characters. If you pick up any two stories that feature Two-Face in them at random, you are very likely to get two entirely different characters. As such, there are dozens of entirely valid ways of interpreting and writing his character, so what I write here is either based off of general consensus or my own personal opinion on the character.

If you are already a Two-Face fan who is reading this, I'm not trying to diminish your preferred way of interpreting the character and would be perfectly happy with discussing our differences in opinion in a separate post, but here I'm just trying to make a somewhat digestible guide to his character for newbies based off of my own perception of him and what I've heard about his character from Gotham Knights and what might appeal to his fans. If you disagree, you're welcome to write a similar post about him yourself.

Overview

Harvey Dent is Gotham City's District Attorney. He's actually a legal genius and savant. (He is also just generally DAMN smart when written well!) He became District Attorney at a very young age (~26 years old, making him the youngest District Attorney that Gotham has ever had,) and is the best damn lawyer in all of Gotham! At his best, he was locking up criminals left and right no one could stop him, and this ended up ticking off Gotham's criminal underworld. As District Attorney, he would work alongside Batman and Commissioner Gordon to make his convictions stick, which is something other District Attorneys before him couldn't do. For this, the public loved him. This also makes Arkham Asylum and Blackgate Prison exceedingly dangerous places for him to be, as a good percentage of their residents are there because of him.

Harvey Dent is Bruce Wayne's best friend. Sometimes they are even childhood friends! At the latest, they became friends after Bruce had already become Batman, but usually they are long-time friends, sometimes meeting as kids, though also often meeting in college. (They both went to Gotham University.) I think there are some iterations where they're even college roommates! They tend to have been very close in college. Regardless of when they met, they found kindred spirits within one another as they each sought to bring justice to this city that they love in their own ways. Because of this kinship, the two got extremely close and were the best of friends before Harvey's incident.

Harvey Dent is an abuse survivor. When he was a kid, Harvey's father would beat him and his mother. But his father made a game of it. The details sometimes change a little, but in essence his father would flip a coin. If it landed heads, he would beat Harvey. If it landed tails, then he wouldn't have to be punished. The coin was heads on both sides.

Harvey Dent is neurodivergent. Most iterations of Two-Face have OCD and many (but not all) are plural, presumably with some form of Dissociative Identity Disorder. It is generally thought that his childhood abuse caused him to have these conditions. After leaving his father's control, Harvey was able to get a handle on his OCD tendencies and deeply suppressed his one other disassociated identity. However, if Harvey experiences high levels of stress or anger over a prolonged period of time, that could make these two conditions show themselves again. When the incident that melted half of his face off happened, these conditions came back to stay. He is indeed legally insane. But this is because of his OCD (specifically how he flips a coin to make all of his decisions), and NOT because of his plurality! Note: Plurality is more common that you probably think it is. It's estimated that 1-5% of people are plural. I've also spoken to at least 2 people who are plural or system members that dearly love Two-Face as a character. Two-Face is very unusual as a system (you are a lot more likely to find a system of 12 members than one of as few as 2), but I have no doubt that systems that work like him are out there. Because of all of this, I try my best to be sensitive and understanding towards plural people at all times while in this fandom space. I can not speak for them as I am not plural myself, but I am always trying to listen to plural voices and learn from them. I would ask that while you're in this space that you try to do the same. All of the plural people and system members that I've spoken to and know want to be thought of and addressed to as different people, and therefore I try to think of Harvey and Two-Face the same way that I would a real plural person, and see them as different characters. When I say "Harvey Dent" (full name) I'm usually talking about the general character and in-universe legal identity or the body. When I say "Two-Face" I usually mean their shared criminal identity or Harvey's "dark side" as this is the generally accepted way to refer to him by. For the sake of this post I will try to generally refer to "Harvey's dark side"/"Two-Face" (the character) as "Harvey's associate" or "the Associate" to more clearly differentiate him from Harvey. Harvey is Harvey.

Duality and the Number 2

Since Harvey and his Associate have OCD, they get compulsions and obsessions that they can't entirely control. In their case, they have a particular fixation on the concept of duality and the number 2.

They often theme their crimes around the number 2, be that having them take place on the 2nd or 22nd of the month and starting at 2:00 am, the locations having 2 in them like 2222 Doubleday Street or the Second National Bank, or conceptually relating the to number 2, like kidnapping twins, or stealing two-of-a-kind, matching artifacts. If the scheme can do two things at once, like receiving a payout AND killing Batman (killing two birds with one stone), that's even better!

They think in very dualistic ways and try to apply those themes to themselves. Harvey is good, the Associate is evil. Harvey is clean and calculated, the Associate is messy and unpredictable. Harvey is friendly and polite, the Associate is mean and rude. The Associate might also do things that he knows Harvey wouldn't for the sake of 'balance' or being Harvey's opposite. They might also try to apply this duality when it comes to their relations to other characters. Batman is good, they are evil. Batman represents order, they represent chaos. Whether these statements are actually true or not may not reflect the reality of their characters, but they want it to.

Expect lots of puns around the number 2 and for them to get agitated when other numbers that don't relate to the number 2 to get brought up.

The Coin

The origin of Two-Face's coin varies between iterations. The original story from 1942 had it as a piece of evidence. It was the good luck charm of a mob boss that Harvey was trying to put away and was a piece of evidence that placed said mob boss at the scene of a crime. This mob boss was the same one that tried to melt Harvey's face off. Harvey would keep the coin after the incident, for some reason. Later on, the coin was rewritten to previously belong to Harvey's father as I wrote about above. In this iteration of the coin's backstory, Harvey's father gave Harvey the coin and Harvey kept it as a good luck charm.

The coin is usually a silver dollar, minted in 1922 and has the heads side on both sides. However one of these heads has been defaced and is all scratched up, making the coin fair again. Clean heads is considered to be the 'heads' side and is often referred to as 'good heads.' The scratched side is considered to be the 'tails' side and is often referred to as 'bad heads.' Harvey and his Associate feel a kinship with this coin, Harvey being represented by the good heads, and the Associate being represented by the bad heads.

Often times their OCD leaves Harvey and his Associate unable to make decisions and so they have a compulsion to flip their special coin to make their decisions for them. This will sometimes be used as a tie-breaker between Harvey and his Associate- if they get good heads, they do what Harvey wants, if they get bad heads, they do what the Associate wants. Other times when it comes to more neutral decisions, good heads will represent yes and bad heads will represent no (Example: Do we talk to this person? Good heads, yes. Bad heads, that person can fuck off). However most famously, they flip the coin to choose the morality of their actions with good heads being they do the moral thing and bad heads meaning they do the immoral thing. They are known to flip their coin to decide whether or not to kill. Good heads, the person lives. Bad heads, the person dies.

Because of their compulsion to flip their coin to make decisions, they will often end up doing things that they don't actually want to because the coin told them to. This also does occasionally lead to Harvey and his Associate helping Batman out and actually doing the right thing.

About the cooler Harvey (aka "Harv", "Two-Face", "Big Bad Harv", "Harvey's Associate" or "Harvey's dark side")

In plural terms, the Associate usually starts off as a Protector- a system member that protects other members of a system from harm (external or internal), but has become a Persecutor- a system member who does harm to others, be that to the body, other system members, or people outside the system, often because they think this will somehow help the system.

It is very likely that the Associate also holds Harvey's anger and trauma, and may have experienced the brunt of the abuse they have been subjected to. Because of this, the Associate is known to lash out and hurt others.

Before Harvey becomes Two-Face, his Associate will sometimes come out to the front, but only a little. He may pop up when Harvey is under a lot of stress for a long period of time or when he gets exceedingly angry. He may also come out any time Harvey gets into any kind of physical altercation with someone.

Where Harvey usually keeps his temper under control and is not likely to fly off the handle, the Associate has MAJOR anger management issues! The Associate WILL fight you with his fists if you provoke him enough.

The Associate is NOT nice! He is mean and cruel and sadistic. He is usually more brutal and violent than Harvey. Where Harvey might want to do things nice and clean, the Associate isn't afraid of letting things get messy. When they kill, you can usually assume that the Associate was the one to pull the trigger.

The Associate HATES Harvey for suppressing him for so many years. The Associate tends to see Harvey as weak, ineffectual, and a coward, unable and unwilling to do what actually needs to get done. For this, the Associate does not like it when Harvey gets to front and will often do what he can to shove Harvey into the back. Because of this, Harvey may not be seen fronting for long periods at a time.

The Associate and Harvey are often seen to be co-conscious and may co-front.

In many iterations of these characters, Harvey has often tried to get rid of his Associate, but it never tends to stick.

The Associate often REVELS in their compulsions where Harvey is upset and disturbed by them.

While the Associate is often a viscous and cruel thug, that doesn't mean that he is entirely unsympathetic. The instances of him being genuinely sympathetic are rare, but they are out there! Therefore he should be thought of as more than just an 'evil alter ego.' Just like real life Persecutor system members, they shouldn't be considered to be purely malicious and evil, but should rather be a character who deserves understanding and help just like any other system member character would!

Harvey Dent's Love Life

Just so you know, BruHarvey/TwoBats (Bruce Wayne/Harvey Dent) is indeed the most popular ship that Harvey has. To you people who immediately started shipping the two, just know that you're not alone in feeling the gay vibes from them and that these two do indeed refuse to be straight about their relationship in a lot of the media that they share! Most Harvey fans that I know do indeed ship BruHarvey, and there is some good media out there that have a lot of BruHarvey vibes!

Harvey is often married or engaged at the start of his story. His wife is usually Gilda Gold who (when we know that she has a job) is a very skilled sculptor. She likes sculpting Harvey's face because he's beautiful, even sometimes calling him by the nickname "Apollo."

Gilda may or may not be the Holiday Killer- A serial killer who targets mobsters and kills them on holidays (Christmas, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Valentines Day, etc).

In the current mainline DC continuity, Gilda is dead. Harvey is a widower. In previous continuity they had gotten (understandably) divorced.

Other characters that Harvey has dated include Poison Ivy (who wanted to kill him) and Catwoman (who wanted to steal from him). Given that and how Gilda is sometimes the Holiday Killer, and you can comfortably say that Harvey has questionable taste in women.

Harvey falls in love HARD and FAST! As an example, in Batman: the Animated Series, he knew Ivy for a week before proposing to her. He does something similar with a different woman later in the series (a Gilda analogue, so that one partially works out).

Often Harvey wants to have kids. He seems pretty down with the idea of adopting.

Harvey Dent's relations to other characters that may appear

Dick Grayson (1st Robin): They hate each other. Early on in his career as Robin, Two-Face almost beat him to death. Dick has decidedly not forgiven him for this.

Jason Todd (2nd Robin): Not always the most friendly with each other, but have worked together in the pages of Task Force Z (which is a specialized Suicide Squad task force that consists of undead supervillains). In Task Force Z, there were kinda vibes that Harvey was the team dad who was just trying his best (but sucked at his job) while Jason was his angsty son with anger issues. Jason's biological father was killed by Two-Face (he worked for/owed money to Two-Face. He didn't pay back, so he was killed), but at this point Jason doesn't really seem to hold a grudge over it. Probably Two-Face's favorite Robin since he's the second Robin.

Tim Drake (3rd Robin): The story that introduced Tim Drake (A Lonely Place of Dying) was a Two-Face story, so in a way, you could say that Two-Face pushed Tim into taking on the role. (Otherwise I personally don't know much about their relationship.)

Commissioner Gordon: They used to be good friends back when Harvey was Gotham's District Attorney. They used to work together a lot, but now they seem to have 0 issues with the idea of killing Gordon.

Other notes:

He has almost no consistent visual design outside of 'male,' 'face is half messed up,' and 'split suits'. While he's usually supposed to have brown hair and green eyes (to make him look different from Bruce), this isn't always stuck to. Hell! There are a handful of iterations of Two-Face that are black!

Harvey Dent/Two-Face are decently influential characters within popular culture. You know the quote, "You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain." ...? That quote comes from The Dark Knight (2008 film) and is said by Harvey before he becomes Two-Face and ends up being about him. Also the quote of "He isn't the hero we deserve, but he is the hero we need" relates to Harvey as well, though it's spoken about Batman. Also apparently this is a meme that exists and was apparently popular on Reddit, and I only just now learned of it soooo... Pop culture contributions yay?

Recovery is precedented for Harvey! In his original appearance in the 1940's, Harvey actually decided to turn away from his life of crime for the sake of the woman who became his wife and got his face fixed after she proved that she still loved him in spite of his disfiguration. Apparently in the 1980's newspaper strips, Harvey went on to recover there as well! And he even kept his scars that time! (You can actually read this story on Tumblr here!) However in most iterations, when Harvey 'gets better' he usually takes the turn for the worst at some point and sadly goes back to being Two-Face again. But for the most part, Harvey wants to recover and get better, but his Associate wants them to get worse.

A long post, I know. But I hope that you find this helpful or at least mildly interesting! If you have any other questions, feel free to ask! I'd be more than happy to try and answer to the best of my ability! If you made it this far, color me impressed! And if you are indeed a Misha stan who's new to this space, I'm happy to see you here! I hope you have a good day! Love you!

#long post #harvey dent #two face #misha collins #misha #two-face #twoface #This took a hot sec to write... >.<

[idle-flower]

oz fanfic idea

okay, so, i've been mulling this fanfic idea for a while but I'm clearly never going to write it, so just throwing this out there. A silly idea for how Oz becomes Oz.

we start in a world where Oz is apparently totally different. His name is Daniel, never Dan. Huge nerd, button down shirt and pocket protector nerd. Focused on school and achievement all the time. Has basically no friends but doesn't seem to care about that. Gets roughed up a little by bullies but he's clearly so used to it that he's mastered the art of being stoic and showing no reaction so they tend to get bored quickly and move on. He tells himself that high school doesn't matter because he's smart and he's going to be a big success. He doesn't really notice the high rate of disappearances in Sunnydale, and when he does hear about it, shrugs it off as being what you'd expect from idiots dumb enough to go out at night and party. If they were good, smart people like him, nothing bad would happen to them.

He does not meet Willow. He does not become a werewolf. He does not get held back. He graduates on time and bypasses college to go straight into a high-paying Silicon Valley job. They're onto the next big thing, you know? They're all going to be millionaires. Vaguely hears about Sunnydale High exploding because someone mentions his old hometown to him, but he doesn't care enough to hear any details. He's on the verge of something big.

Unfortunately it turns out that their big thing startup literally sold their souls for success (somehow involving Wolfram&Hart?) and a demon comes by to eat/sacrifice the entire company. Faced with his own mortality, Daniel finally wishes that he hadn't dedicated his entire life to this 'success' thing. He could have had a girlfriend! He could have worn comfortable clothes or dyed his hair! He could have started that band he always dreamed of!

Of course, something goes wrong during the whole big sacrifice process and... BAM! Daniel wakes up in his childhood bed, fifteen years old, with this whole confusing nightmare swirling in his head. He can't totally remember it and he's not entirely sure it's real, but he's definitely not going to end up like THAT.

In this way he radically alters his life to become Oz. And this is why he has a deep aversion to taking work or school seriously, and why discovering the existence of vampires and the underworld "explains a lot" but he doesn't actually know anything useful because on his original timeline he didn't get involved with anything that happens in the show.

It could also make his relationship with being a werewolf extra confusing because he's now conditioned to want to relax and go with the flow and not worry too much, but going with the flow as a werewolf can get him into trouble.

(anyway, not at all suggesting this as a Canon Interpretation, just a fun fanfic idea that I kind of wanted to play with but am clearly not actually going to bother doing)

#btvs #willow/oz #open range ideas #daniel osbourne

[mermaidsirennikita]

Just finished “How to Tame A Wild Rogue” by Julie Anne Long and love, love, LOVED it!! Daphne was such a good heroine - her character arc! And Lorcan - charm itself. I found him such a sexy romantic hero: the looks (scar, earring, slightly longer hair, huge and muscular), the saving a small child, being there for Daphne while also calling her out on things (including when he’s like “oh you LIKE me, you’re down for me” - love that awareness for him)… It was also a really nice pick-me-up because, ngl, been feeling a bit like Daphne at the start of the book lately (life passing you by, etc.). So thanks for that rec! If you have any other recs with a similar vibe/relationship dynamic between the leads would love to get those.

I'm so glad you loved it! I definitely relate to Daphne as well, and it's such a fun book, you know? The hero is charming, the setting is great, I love the way everyone ends up pushed together...

For that "woman who feels like she's missing out on life and then BOOM! A random comes along to upend her world" vibe, I'd recommend:

Suddenly You by Lisa Kleypas--Heroine is old (gasp, pushing 30 lmao) and a virgin who feels like she's just sort of languishing... though she is a successful author lol... So she hires a sex worker to take her virginity. But the guy who shows up at her door is actually the super hot, charismatic publisher dude who wants her next book. She thinks he's the sex worker, and he naturally goes along with it. An affair ensues. Definitely a "shock me to life" book, and has a GHOST of anal fingering, shockingly. TW: miscarriage.

Nine Rules to Break When Romancing a Rake by Sarah MacLean--THEEE example of this vibe, of course. Heroine is in her late twenties and has accepted spinsterhood. But before she chills out forever, she asks a local rake who she's always had a thing for to help her cross off nine things she wants to do--nine rules she wants to break, gasp. It's super adventurous and hot, and has some of my favorite fat rep ever (Callie thinks her body suuuuucks; Ralston thinks Callie's tits are like, sent from the gods lmao). Very luxurious-feeling, if that makes sense?

MacLean does a good job with this trope in general--Wicked and the Wallflower (wallflower heroine/criminal underworld hero named DEVIL) also comes to mind, as does Brazen and the Beast (heroine sets out to fuck shit up before settling into running a company, unmarried, and falls for another criminal underworld man who might value her knot-tying skills quiiiite a bit). It's a bit of a different vibe, but if you haven't read Heartbreaker, you might also get a similar sense there; the heroine is a thief, but she mostly relies on the fact that nobody ever seems to notice her. Cue stern brunch daddy duke who's like "bitch I see nothing BUT you".

The Bride Goes Rogue by Joanna Shupe--A variation on this. The heroine is a proper young lady who's been engaged to the same man since childhood (thanks to their dads) and has sort of put aside running wild because she knows she's going to be that guy's wife. Then that guy is like "ummmm I have never had any intention of honoring the marriage contract" and she goes "WHAT" and decides to do life up big. Part of that involves going to a masked sex party (a real thing in Gilded Age NYC) and hooking up with this stranger... who is actually, of course, the guy who basically just dumped her.

The Sea King by C.L. Wilson--A STRETCH YES, BUT. I felt Seen lol. It's a fantasy romance, and the heroine is the middle, "proper and sweet" sister in this group of magical princesses. She's actually super powerful, but her powers are connected to emotional outbursts, so she's learned to hide them and be very subdued and even avoid attention that might cause an outburst (ie, male attention). The hero is a prince from a matriarchal society who's like, been taught the Sexual Arts and literally lives to Guard and Protect the Pussy, and he SEEEEES her. So hard. No matter how she tries to avoid him. And then a huge adventure thing happens. TW: sexual assault (not by the hero).

Mercy by Sara Cate--Contemporary. The heroine is a part owner of a BDSM club, but she does not identify as kinky, and she basically is doing it as a business thing with her friends. She's very like "I am boring, I am practical, I am not Sexy". Then she randomly takes this quiz the business set up, and it identifies her as a domme. She ends up on an app looking for male submissives just to try it out~ and matches with... her business partner and close friend's son! Who's like 12 years younger than her! And a brat! It's really hot but also surprisingly emotional. I was quite touched. Also............ pegging.

Possession by Adriana Anders. Another contemporary. In this one, the heroine is an up and coming America's sweetheart type actress who entered into a PR marriage with this sex symbol A-List actor. But he doesn't touch her; sex is off the table for them. It's total PR. And she's just kind of like "I am a non-sexual blob to him"; she's also plus size, and you get this sense that she feels very.... desexualized and and disempowered in life? Anyway, her husband fucks up and gets caught on camera fucking this woman who looks.... just like her lol.... In a very kinky way, and he's like "so sorry, I fucked up, I'm going to this place my friend owns where I get my freak on so I can just fuck the pain away" and she's like "UMMMMMM NOT WITHOUT ME" and chases him there. And a lot of emotional but also extremely affirming shit ensues.

His Study in Scandal by Megan Frampton--Heroine is 40 and recently widowed, and she goes to this sex party thing and hooks up with a 28 year old random in order to like, feel alive for the first time and take life by the balls (also him by the balls). But oops, turns out he's the guy being eyed to marry her daughter!

Other "oops I'm falling for my daughter/stepdaughter's potential husband after feeling dead inside for years" recs, as this is a specific variation of this "taking life on" vibe: Her Night with the Duke by Diana Quincy (I do find the heroine a bit more headstrong in this one, and she's in her late twenties still because her stepdaughter is a bit closer in age to her); and The Countess by Sophie Jordan (late thirties heroine, husband is still alive and he sucks!!!!).

Pippa and the Prince of Secrets by Grace Callaway--Been recommending this a lot, but I do love it. The heroine is a recent widow who was shamed by her husband for her horniness and became very shut down as a result. Now that he's dead, she ends up working with her teenage sweetheart, who's now hideously scarred and like, kind of the Pied Piper if it wasn't creepy and all his kids were child spies, lol. He ends up ..... really widening her horizons. Also her legs.

#romance novel blogging #book recs

[worldismyne]

Soul Eater Lore brainrot

No secret I'm working on another long fic, but I acciedentally glanced at a part of the wiki that's attached to Fire Force and... yeah. I don't see it working (still reading it, but it's... yeah)

So uh, below the cut is my prewriting for fixing the lore. Because I wrote my first fic in the middle of SE's manga updating, and it added some extra constrictions I had to work with.

First, some canon things to work off of

Shinigami-sama is the god of order, not the god of death. He is a underworld/death god, but his powers are all about maintaining balance in the world of the living by killing people.

Shinigami-sama describes witches as destructive (examples of magic use in canon are: creating new life (weapons), creating black blood, creating magical tools, creating familiars (medusa's snakes), creating ice, creating an entire other realm, moving from one body to the next, moving things in space and time) Conclusion, magic may be destructive to order, but it does not seem destructive by nature.

Old Ones include: Lord Death (God of Order), Asura (God of Madness/Fear?), Eibon (God of Knowledge), Great Old One of Power (black blood looking thing, coincidence?, let's call them Khonsu), Excalibur (light/holy motif, instills metatextual chaos and cringe in characters). Presented as Eldrich like beings that each have a wavelength that produces some form of madness in humans. Eibon, Khonsu, Asura, Excalibur are sealed away from humanity for one reason or another at the start of the series, Lord Death is rooted to Death City. The world seems the most stable when they're not literally running around.

There can only be one true god for any given concept (order, knowledge, etc), if a new one fully awakens, the previous one dies. Kid was created intentionally knowing this.

Greek mythology is heavily referenced, but not always accurate. Ex. Hades was the god of wealth and ruler of the under world. Lord Death is the god of order and ruler of the over world. But general themes seem to line up. (Like the fact Death is trapped in one spot, guarding god-eating entities, deals with souls, etc.) All seems based on vibes.

Not counting Fire Force canon. We're sticking with the SE manga only. (I haven't finished FF, it's been a process > - >)

Head canons from my previous work...

Pandora, mother of witches, cursed the gods with mortality after releasing Khonsu from his prison. Similar to Asura's release, there was chaos as the world tried to regain order.

Lord Death is a fragment of Hades (God of wealth and the underworld)

Humans serve Lord Death (order, reaping souls, right and wrong), witches served a god of life (chaos, creation). They've been at war forever over the Hades v Pandora fiasco. Lord Death and Eibon partnering on the magical tools was supposed to bring balance, but it just made things worse for both sides bringing us to present day SE.

Chrona was an artificial recreation of the god of life, Ragnarok was used to hide the birth of a new god from Shinigami-sama by literally overpowering Chrona's wavelength their whole childhood/teens.

Basically, one side cannot be stronger than the other. Things have been a mess because Lord Death was trying to call all the shots instead of letting things be delegated. The literal universe has been trying to get back to normal with LD trying to force it to do what he wants it to. When you're only tool is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.

New stuff I'm work shopping to expand the lore.

Alright, so the first thing I did was like, a cursory glance at Greek mythology and the Fates/Morai are the ones in charge of who lives and dies (including gods) not Hades. So, since we're big on the number 8 in Soul Eater we're going to use the 3 fates to fill in those empty god slots.

So we'll have a god of birth/magic associated with the sun. (Inspired by the spinner Clotho)

A god of life/present/destiny associated with the moon (to replace the previous one god of life the witches valued the most, inspired by the allotter Lachesis)

And a god of demise/future associated with the stars. (Inspired by the inevitable Atropos)

They can be the 3 Asura ate, because they were the only ones who could have theoretically had the power to kill him. They knew this would happen (because, y'know, fate) and were the first to fragment into demi-gods before getting killed by Asura. Easy, breezy, beautiful; cover girl. 

So, then you can have a scenario where the witches' side and LD's side have been trying to compensate for the loss of these 3 major deities by taking over their duties. Which could theoretically maintain order, but it's all kinds of dysfunctional, and significantly less magical.

Bonus points for whenever one of them awakens without the other two, shit gets really chaotic.

SE begins when the new Allotter fragment tries to awaken, and the Inevitable is still missing/dormant.

#soul eater #headcanons #also wee bit of canon analysis

[marlowe1-blog]

"The Music Teacher" (The Stories of John Cheever)

Demeter, Are you teaching piano?

I finally agree with the critics who see witchcraft in the stories of John Cheever. I am not certain that it's obvious that Ms. Deming the music teacher is Demeter who is leading the people to Hades (or the mother of Our Lady of the Underworld) but there's certainly something going on with her.

And Seton, the main character (not the same one as in The Golden Age), is in a downward spiral with his wife and whatever he could have done to make it better is well past. Shoot. I just read about this the other day, but it's the point where things become obviously FUBAR after years of losing trust and losing respect without any noticeable change ot the bottom line (currently the example is Netflix raising its prices every year and thinking that everything is fine because no one is canceling, not realizing that they are telling every single subscriber that they can't trust them NOT to keep pulling this shit. But there's also Justin Roiland abusing women, abusing co-workers and underlings while grooming teenage girls. He had many years of being able to get away with it, but then the floodgates opened.)

Seton is in a bad place. But he doesn't realize it because his entire life revolves around working and expecting to come home to a wife who has done everything like a happy 1950s housewife. Only none of them were happy (not naturally. There were a lot of tranquilizers prescribed in the 1950s). Last Shabbos, I tried talking to friends who decided to ignore me and have their own conversation about great food in New York and Italy and France yada yada. Now I was bored and feeling my poverty but then a note of urgency ended up in the conversations as they both noted that they got free food at the office because they worked until 2 in the morning and then their wives agreed that they hadn't really gone out for years because work and kids took all the time. So vacation in Italy was it.

Then I was sad for these people. And happy I ncever went into law or finance since as much as I'd like to afford their apartments and their vacations and their families, i just don't see those marriages lasting. Oh what the hell do I know. I'm single and going on dating apps and getting hung up on friends because of mutual childhood trauama.

So that's Seton's marriage. He comes home. The place is a mess. The kids are wild. The dinner is burnt. He tries to make things better but he's completely inept. He tries to order her to go to the restaurant where they used to go when they were actually in love. She brings the kids. The dinners remain burnt.

And then the story gets weird. He's told to take music lessons and his first thought is that it's an affair. Only John Cheever is not a Mad Men writer (as much as people find the similarities) and Ms. Deming (Demeter?) is an old music teacher.

She has him doing the basic scales. He goes home. He plays them. His wife doesn't like it. He goes to lessons. He goes home. He continues to practice the same scales. Everything is standard. His wife asks him to ask for another lesson. Seriously, you can't be playing scales week after week. But that's all he does.

That's the only thing that the men in the neighborhood do. He walks past houses. They are playing the same scales. His wife starts cooking well. He's working a kind of magic with the repeatitive music.

Then one day he goes and sees Ms. Deming happy. She's with bikers who seem like rough company but she's letting her mask slip. Only Seton sees her and she returns to the stern teacher. And she still won't let him change the lesson to the same scales.

And that's it. He stops playing. His wife is now better behaved. The marriage isn't exactly healthy but he doesn't have to deal with it. And then Ms. Deming is dead. She was murdered. We don't know who did it. We assume it was the bikers. It could have been any of her students or it could have been Seton. For all we know it could have been a wife sick of hearing the same tune repeatedly and sick of being hypnotized.

This is a story of mysteries. Who is the music teacher? Why does the music hypnotize the wives? Who killed the music teacher? Why does she only make her students play the same thing?

But these mysteries are at the heart of other mysteries that are more mundane, like when did love die? Why did the marriage fail? Are we just trapped in our lives? Does music save us or kill us? How do we get love back once it seems to have died? Once your marriage dies, when do you admit it?

This is a brilliant story that goes to the heart of a society that was unsustainable.

#John Cheever #T #Tim Lieder #scales #music #hypnotism #wives #dead marriage #divorce #the end #burnt meatloaf #1950s #patriarchy #Shirley Jackson #smokikng #smoking #dating #sadness #sad drunks #suburbs #bikers #murder #death #old lady #old music teacher #demeter #greek myths #witches #witch #the witch

[hannahhook7744]

Killian's mental , emotinal, and Physical health; My concerns.

Warning: talks about mental health.

So, I wanna know.. in ouat time, during the many time jumps and time gaps inbetween episodes and crises, did ANYONE ever address Killian's many obvious mental, emtional, and potenial health problems? Like, at all?

I mean, he's been a drunk for nearly 200 or 300 years. He's drunken every other day, if not EVERY SINGLE DAY since Liam or Milah died. That cannot be healthy. And who the hell treated his amputated hand? And his other injuries? He's not a doctor and I doubt many of the doctors/healers around would have helped-- If they didn't go to Neverland immediately after. I mean seriously how did he not die? Does he suffer from phantom pains? Did his crew take care of him? Not to mention any injuries he got in Neverland. But if we skip all that and think about the present.... DID THEY GET HIM HIS SHOTS?

No, I'm not kidding. If you're anti-vax, you can ignore this part. But for those of us who just get the shots because we have to or because we trust them, than did any of the ouat crew get Killian his shots? Like, assuming that Regina's curse magically made all the townspeople immune or basically immune to the sicknesses in the land without magic, it wouldn't extend to Killian. Why? Because he didn't come with the curse. So did they get him his shots or did they just leave him defenseless against all illnesses that have developed in the 200 or 300 years he's been in Neverland?

Did Killian ever go to the hospital or doctor when he wasn't hurt? Did he ever get a physical or a check up? Cause he sure as hell needs one with all the times he's been tossed around like a rag doll or knocked out. Not to mention all the drinking he's been doing! His kidneys and head have to be all messed up from that! Drinking isn't good for your brain and kidneys! He could die from what all that alcohol is doing to his lungs! Not to mention how skinny he is... do we ever even see him eat? I mean, we see the others eat at least sometimes. And how exactly did he survive in New York when he was looking for Emma?

Sure, he could stay at Neal's old place if Neal still had it. But no one's been paying the bills and most, if not all , of that food has to have gone bad by now and Killian didn't have any modern money.. he just had gold and silver.. which he couldn't really use all that much without drawing attention to himself..not to mention people would probably think it was fake... so where did Killian get food? Did he eat out of the garbage or eat only the possible canned food and stale food Neal had left behind? Keep in mind the power and water are probably out so... that definitely can't be healthy. He probably didn't even know how to use the damn oven and microwave! How did he eat? How often did he eat? Did he ever get mugged or arrested because of he wandered into a bad area of new york or mouthed off to the wrong people? Did he ever get hurt and have to deal with it all alone during the time he was looking for Emma?

Did anyone ever ask about that time? Did anyone even care? Not to mention the fact that he was probably starved and beaten often during his childhood by the people who owned him and Liam.. that , again, cannot be healthy for an adult-- let alone a small child who probably wasn't allowed to sleep often and had to do vigorous work on a ship where no one but Liam, another child, cared whether he lived or died. That, along with Killian's abandonment issues and time as a pirate, has to have screwed Killian up alot. So, I seriously want to know if anyone ever took him to a therapist or a doctor during any down time they had-- especially after the underworld fiasco. Because Killian is bound to have a lot of issues, including, but not limited to;

Abandonment issues

Issues with food

Issues involving men since he was abused by them

His daddy issues

Probable PTSD

His anger issues

And the fact he's probably emotionally stunted from all the abandonment and abuse issues.

His low self esteem.

His questionable morals (extends to Regina, Zelena, and Rumple too. They ALL need to be seeing someone for that).

And his tendency to bottle things up. And more.

#ouat killian #kilian jones #killian brennan jones #captain killian jones #captain hook #ouat hook #once upon a time #Killian whump #Killian jones #ouat captain hook #captain hook ouat #captain swan #Killian jones rant #killian jones fanfiction #ouat rants #rants #mental health #once upon a time rants #etc. #ouat #once upon a time fanfic #once upon a time fanfiction

[rodeoxqueen]

AWAS

CHAPTER ONE: BE NOT AFRAID 

“Dante and Vergil return from Hell to tie up loose ends from their year-long absence. While they seek a sense of normalcy, the fates send them anything but.”

Contents: Violence, Blood and Gore, Brotherly Banter, Explicit Language, Slight Angst 

Rodeo’s Two Pieces: 

I'm very excited to show y'all what I have been working on since hell, November of 2020. Thank you kindly for sticking around.

Back to the present, where the world turned on its axis for months without the weight of the blood of Sparda upon itself, the tides had changed.

In the midnight, had the stars laid witness to the damn near impossible. A portal had opened from the underworld, and two brothers stumbled out. Clutching their swords, Dante and Vergil reunited with the human realm.

How long had it been? Of endless violence and humorous quips thrown at the other, as the years of the gnashing of teeth smoothened the rough patches of their disjointed childhoods?

“We’re back, Verg.” Dante chuckled, arm over his brother’s shoulder.

“We are.” Vergil echoed. The obnoxious weight fell off of him and landed on the ground with a thud.

Dante had got on his knees and kissed the earth that they now stood on.

“Don’t be a fool,” Vergil said, staring at the moon. After years of wanting to become one with Hell, he tilted the false king’s crown to admire the clear sky.

Dante rolled to the ground, sighing in relief.

“We’re back.” He repeated. His brother nudged him with the Yamato.

“Get up. We must find our way back.” Eyes closed and a grin across his face, Dante let the wind pass through his bloodied and matted hair.

“Now we sound like a real team.” Vergil scoffed.

After a few moments, Dante got back up. They had arrived back from Hell to a cliffside overlooking a city that was not Redgrave.

“I assume you have unfinished business in Redgrave.” Dante nodded.

“I sure do.”

The portal became a forgotten relic, the Sparda brothers nowhere to be seen, their demonic presence known to the world.

Dante was known for many things, but mainly for how much of a constant he had remained in everyone’s lives. Never changing, staying the same as he was, an unstoppable force of sarcastic expression.

And also a huge manchild.

Vergil rubbed his temples in frustration.

“Dante. When I referred to unfinished business, I was clearly referring to your shop.”

“Yeah? And I was referring to this.” Dante bit into another slice of pizza, practically moaning.

Vergil sat ramrod straight, sitting awkwardly in a pizzeria. The two were the elephants in the room, both slathered in demonic gore and toting swords. People either gawked or left the establishment.

“You are still an idiot after all this time.”

“Yeah, and I’m also still hungry.”

“Surely your business is more important than this.”

“Meh.”

The blue devil waited for him to finish an hour later, the long-held bill lengthening after months of his absence.

Of course, he had to have indulged a few pieces of his own. It was nothing like the gaminess of demon flesh he had forced himself to sustain upon. It was almost melting in his mouth, unlike the resistance of the shank of a demon. He was never one for vegetables as a child, Dante even more so. Yet the crunch of the toppings was well-received to Vergil, deprived of basic human sustenance for a few odd decades.

However, he found it unthinkable Dante would continue to indulge himself in this for as long as he did.

The door reopened and closed once more to reveal the broad daylight of the streets. Clean, pristine, the sounds of cars and people filled in the crisp air.

Vergil’s boots walked upon a paved road for the first time in ages, man-made and unassuming concrete with stubborn weeds growing from the crevices. No mouth-having crimson blooms that grew to a man’s height. Just simple creatures that fell softly to his weight on their fragile stems.

He had never been here before, where Dante claimed to be his home.

“What’s after this for you, Vergil?” Dante asked his brother, swiping a few demons out of his way.

Vergil, also in his triggered form, huffed a dismissive sigh.

“You know, you should stay with me. Devil May Cry’s always got a spare couch to crash on.”

“Why would I do that?” He slashed a horned devil in two, spewed in putrid green blood. Dante chuckled, knowing there was hesitance in his voice.

“Because I’m offering, big brother. When’s the last time you’ve had a place to call home?”

“I believe you know the answer to that question.” Vergil slid onto his knees under a crouching demon, disemboweling it from top-down. A final gunshot rang his ears, a noise he had to get used to with Dante’s reliance on firearms.

Dull thuds and a flash of red, Dante stood above his brother, offering a now-human hand.

The horde was cleared away like dust on a counter, gone with the wind. Vergil and Dante stood in silence, two children again.

The younger pulled his brother up, insistent stubbornness in his eyes.

“I didn’t hear a no to my offer, Vergil.” Vergil sighed, releasing his hold of his brother’s hand.

“You did not hear a yes either.” Dante chuckled, following his already-leaving brother.

From the past to the present, Vergil’s answer had been neither, never spoken of what he was to do after everything. Yet here he was, now the latter of the two when it came to guidance.

There were many ways the two could have made their entrance to Devil May Cry and have it be a smooth transition back from months of Hell. Dante kicking down the door with a loud “I’m back baby!” was simply not one of them.

Vergil saw that a familiar dark-haired woman was sitting on the desk, absent-mindedly waiting for Trish to return. A girl who once blamed him for her father’s corruption, now a woman with no heed to his presence.

Lady had dropped her nail file, eyes wide at the sight of the two brothers.

“Dante,” Lady whispered as if she was greeting a ghost.

“Yep, it’s me. In the flesh.”

“Dante…”

“Did you miss me? Love what you did to the place.” Dante commented at the cleaned-up shop.

Her face of still confusion warped into anger.

“Dante!”

“Oh boy.”

The next thing he knows, Vergil watches his brother get lectured like a dog. Standing up yet with the attitude of a man in a fetal position, Dante let himself become used to the sound of their tirades once more.

“You had the audacity to give the deed to Morrison. Crazy bitches?! Really!” Dante shrugged.

“I mean if I barked up your tree all day you’d be calling me a-”

“Hey, Lady.” Trish walked into the shop, icily glancing at the two brothers.

“Look at what the hellhound dragged in.” Lady pointed to Dante and Vergil.

“Oh please, I could smell them from a mile away.”

“In case you haven’t noticed, Hell doesn’t have any spas. Shame we couldn’t freshen ourselves up before coming here.” Dante sassed. Trish gave a pointed look.

“As much as it was nice to do some hot girl things, we could put Dumb and Dumber to good work.”

“What are you talking about?”

Lady gave a toothy smile.

“How do you think we got this place managed? Money. Money that you now owe us.”

“Hey! I never said you had to do anything.”

“You’d be real upset if we didn’t do anything either, Dante.”

Finally, after sitting through an eternity of harsh words and steep bills, Dante had more than ever landed himself in shambles. Again. At least he was liberated to take a shower. After Vergil of course.

He was surprised to find that the water was still running, and even more elated that it was hot water. Man, maybe paying the bills was a good thing. It felt like ages of grime and gore had been swept off his skin, his hair finally a familiar stark white. In the steam of the bathroom, he breathed out relief.

When he stepped out, he was surprised to see Vergil laying on his bed completely asleep. Usually uptight and composed, Vergil curled in on himself wearing some of Dante’s clean sweatpants that caught dust from all the months they were gone.

With a smile on his face, Dante chose the couch for once and didn’t complain.

They all deserved rest, Dante taking his nap with a magazine on his face. Future Dante could deal with this.

He never expected there to be any neater ends than the frayed knots he left in his human affairs. Yet, he wasn’t alone this time. Neither of them was.

The next few days, Dante gave his nephew a call. Well, more like Nero called him and Dante finally picked up.

Vergil had gotten up after days of practical unconsciousness, foreign to the comfort of a bed, a place to stay, yet much obliged to remain where he laid.

He came down the stairs, rubbing his eyes still. Dante’s voice was muffled until he was in the same room, Dante speaking through the phone to his son.

“Hey, your old man’s here.” Vergil shook his head, having no interest to answer, yet Dante kept waving the phone in his face.

Taking the phone, Vergil heard his son take a breath.

“Hey, Vergil. Nice to see you back from Hell. Um, can’t imagine that was a fun time.” Nero said, unknowing of how to speak to his stranger of a father.

“Indeed.” Dante face-palmed, sitting with another one of his accursed magazines.

“Yeah, um. I have your book.”

“Hmm.” Nero sighed.

“Do you want it back? I’m coming over soon for business reasons.” A hint of desperation and embarrassment from Nero went over Vergil’s bedhead.

“That would suffice…”

“Alright-”

“Thank you, Nero.” Vergil blurted, seeing Dante mouth the words “say thank you.”

Nero stopped for a minute, a few moments of silence on Vergil’s side.

“No problem...Vergil. I got to go. Take care, alright?” Vergil hmmed as a response. The line went dead.

Dante’s grin immensely irritated Vergil, a man who was incapable of second-hand embarrassment.

“Stop that. Wipe that expression off your face. You wanted a conversation with me and Nero, there you have it.”

Dante propped his face up with his hand, a cat that ate the canary.

“Nah.”

Vergil growled in annoyance.

Unfortunately for Dante, and luckily for Vergil, bills had to be paid and jobs to be done. Morrison had arrived a few days later, pleased to see an old friend returned from the underworld. Walking in, he was barely surprised that the shop had returned to a pig-sty appearance.

“Morrison! Nice to see you again.” Dante welcomed, sitting at his desk. Vergil eyed the unfamiliar man, reading through a book.

“Got a new job for you boys. About time you got those girls off your backs about having your little vacation in Hell.” A familiar smell of cigar smoke traced the air, Dante leaning back on his chair, intrigued.

“So Morrison, what nasty demonic critters does this gig entail?” Dante asked, arms crossed.

“There’s a demon runnin’ around towns, causing a lot of trouble.” Morrison placed a photo down, blurred and poorly taken. Although, the grotesque purple skin and rippling eyes on its body didn’t leave much to admire.

“Huh,” Dante mumbled. Vergil examined the picture.

“I’ve never seen a demon like this before. Sure is ugly, though.” Dante noted, pointing at a flat and angular head, pallid yellow eyes that bulge out of its sockets on the sides, and needle-like teeth in multitudes.

“My sources say it’s been going North, the last town they passed was here. Just this morning. It’s making some distance, I’d get to it as soon as you can.” Morrison revealed a map, a red circle around a certain landmark.

“It’s scaring the shit out of people and causing some casualties to be contained.”

“Alright, we’ll take ‘em.” Dante stuck his hand out, expecting cash. Morrison tutted, patting Dante’s shoulder.

“You’ve been spoiled, Dante. Nah, you’re gonna bag this son of a bitch and then we can talk about payment.”

Dante groaned, taking the job. Morrison tipped his hat to Vergil. Vergil glared in return.

“It’s been nice catching up with you boys.” He called out, leaving the shop.

The door thudded as it shut, and the two were alone once more.

“Well, we just got our get-out-of-jail card. Come on, let’s get going.” Dante grunted.

“Must you complain about everything?” Vergil muttered.

Outside, it was late morning with a slight breeze. The familiar sounds of a motorcycle came to Vergil’s attention.

Dante had sat on Cavalier, expecting Vergil to get on.

“Must you rely on that garish thing?”

“It’s too bad you can’t fucking teleport somewhere you’ve never been. Get on the motorcycle.”

Dante patted the seat, Vergil obeying for once.

“Ready for your first job?”

“More than you are.”

They tore through the streets of Redgrave, going north.

The sun rose and started to fall, endless roads leading through towns and cities that paid them only a slight turn of their heads.

The map’s glaring red bullseye had become a dead-end of sorts, the two resorting to walking instead.

Redgrave had always felt muggy with the air of hell creatures around. Here, in this unmarked territory, it had felt clearer. But also more unsettling, the idea of a demon scuttling about more of an awful surprise.

They felt consumed by the empty streets, busted in windows, and vacated shops and residential places in their lonesome wandering.

Something before had wiped this location clean of humans, and now something else was lingering in its place.

“This area has been abandoned.” Vergil walked over giant cracks through the ground, leading to a deserted town.

“Not surprised,” Dante answered, thinking about a certain tree, “good thing we don’t have to deal with any more civilians.”

A buzz in his blood reminded Dante that something was certainly there. The alleys were a perfect spot for creatures to linger, waiting for prey.

As below, so above. A ringing through the air was quickly parried by steel. Dante’s sword stopped a shower of needles from stabbing him, a stray one cutting the side of his cheek. It jolted him as a creature bounded the rooftops of the buildings, a hulking mass of reptilian skin.

Vergil raced after the creature, having blocked all the assailant’s long-distance attacks. Claws dug through the tiles, running on all fours from rooftops to silently treading the paved roads.

It’s clearly after an objective.

Dante chased after the beast from the ground, firing shots at the agile demon. Vergil jumped buildings, gritting his teeth at the demon’s inherent ability to evade and attack back, dodging tail spikes.

The streets all lead to the town center, where a fountain long cleaved in two from giant roots, stood.

Dante and Vergil came across the demon, purple skin stretched over its pointed bones, facing a cloaked individual.

“Hey, pal-” Dante was shushed by Vergil, the two standing a distance away from the hunched-over beast, much taller than either of them when standing on its hind legs.

Neither of them had expected another person in this area, clearly an oddity in the shambles of civilization.

“Famulus. Servant of Raphael.” A rumbling growl echoed in the night in response.

“I’m obliged, filthy halfling.” It hissed, crouched over and leaning to leer to the monotonous voice.

“You will tell me where he is.”

“His brothers may have underestimated you, but my master has known of your presence. Sending his best, I, to exterminate you.”

The person said nothing, as all that was all that needed to be said.

“Looks like we found it’s been searching for,” Dante mentioned, alerting the attention of the formidable monster and unassuming humanoid.

Glazed-over eyes narrowed with bloodlust met the twins as they readied themselves for anything.

“I will bring Raphael the heads of Sparda, once I am done with you.”

The hooded stranger turned their head to the two. With their face void of any expression, the twins had no idea what to think of them.

A pulse went through the air, Dante and Vergil’s skin jolting at a sudden warm wave in the air. Milliseconds after, a rotating ring of golden energy rattled through the stones, passing through the spaces in the pavement that lead to Dante’s boots.

Vergil and Dante were thrown like ragdolls meters away by an unseen force, Dante hitting the ground twice and rolling to a stop as Vergil stuck a landing with the Yamato through the floor.

A golden sphere surrounded the bruise-colored demon and the humanoid, who cocked their head in a disinterested manner, glaring at the taller creature.

Dante touched the wall before them, warm and pulsing with life. Despite the magnitude, he noted how it didn’t seem to hurt him, only pushing back from his own applied pressure.

Vergil paid it no mind, conflict occurring right before their eyes.

Famulus lunged at the smaller person who dodged, hands grappling at a giant maw, throwing its body to the barrier.

Tail spikes unfurled and bristling, Famulus’ hackles rose.

On hind legs, the demon stood well-over the miscreant, who allowed the beast to come to them. No matter how fast Famulus struck, claws phased through the empty air where it expected pliant flesh. Even swipes of its giant tail between quick strikes and heavy blows had been easily dodged.

A rain shower of blade-like projectiles flew at them, their body dropping down to avoid several. Dozens stuck above where their head was, a near fatality.

A needle whistled as it was caught by a calloused hand, palm tightly wrapped around the quill aiming for their chest. Several had torn through their cloak, nearly pinning them to the ground. They let out a startled noise, moving themselves up.

Famulus ran at them, prepared to rip them apart while they were down. Surely a cowardly move than preferred, but a move nonetheless.

They whipped their head around, jaw gritted. The same clutched quill was thrown like a javelin straight into Famulus’ snout.

Pulsating pain and white-hot agony made the beast screech, purple flesh burnt and smoking.

They shook themselves free of any spikes, clad in ancient robes. Nothing a common human would wear now. Even a demon could tell something was off about this one creature in human skin.

This was no common miscreant come to place vengeance upon its master. Raphael had requested Famulus to obliterate this insect as if none of his lord’s underlings could defeat them.

You shall return them to their grave, Famulus. A low gravelly voice rang through the demon’s head, a present message. The snake-like eye in the middle of its forehead rolled back and returned when its master’s command became silent.

“Yes, I shall.”

The foe stiffened as if they had gotten the answer they had been looking for. Famulus knew that. And like the devil it was, it goaded their curiosity.

“You will never make it to my master’s domain. I will gnaw on your bones, putrid being.”

If only if Famulus knew that there was no goading a foe that was already plotting several paces ahead.

Lashing out, a meter-long arrow-like appendage was fired at them once more while the demon began to collect its true power from the air around it.

It missed the mark, sinking into the ground to have the intended target land upon the blunt end, balancing coyly. Several more jabbed at the barrier, sticking into the protective sphere as the cloaked being ducked and turned to avoid scythe-like claws and disemboweling long-distance attacks. Famulus struck a blow that surely meant death, supposedly cornering the prey, until they vanished in thin air. A hazy afterimage materialized and faded away, swiped into nothing.

Immediately, they appeared to the side of the demon, who just began to rear its head to perceive this teleportation.

Legs bent as they were parallel to the ground, they drop-kicked the reptilian brute, scaly skin rippling at the impact.

Famulus’s neck snapped the wrong way, letting out a moist creaking noise as the body stayed stubbornly rooted to the ground. Incapacitated, it could not stop the smaller fighter from leaping onto a begotten tail spike from the ceiling of the barrier, yanking it, and falling back down to its capitulum.

The hooked and jagged arrowhead bit through toughened flesh, securing them to the flat of its head, glowing hand pressing against the middle eye, the key to finding Raphael.

A once distinguished demon, Famulus lashed its head about like a common beast. The joints in its neck realigned, sickening crunches with each segment joined.

Pushing their energy into the convulsing eye, Famulus felt its connection to its lord become not of its own.

Paralyzed from the sensation of a pulling force, tugging away at flesh, and seeping their own life force into it, digging into its mind, Famulus’ muscles twitched and convulsed like an animal to be dissected.

Famulus snarled to itself.

The veins leading to the spike stuck in its head pulsed, conducting electricity straight to the open palm. A strained cry left their mouth as they relented their hold.

The final twist of its head thrashed them off to hit the ground.

Flashing images of a lair, of an iron throne, flashed through its mind.

Famulus had failed to hide his master’s location. And with that, its murderous intent grew.

Despite the finality of its fate, its tail swished with anger and boiling rage to either do the job or keel over in defeat.

The thief got up with little grace again.

Its many eyes had noticed the bloodstains within their cloaked form, old wounds from recent battles. There wasn’t much damage left for them to take.

No one could dodge the Mjölnir.

Dante felt the hairs on his arms stand at full attention. Brows crossed, the older Sparda swiped through bits of his hair that lilted up from their slicked-back position.

“Hey, do you feel that-”

A beam of dark lightning was emitted from Famulus’s tail, striking straight into the opponent’s chest, shards of pure energy slicing through the air with a symphony of cracks rattling the street. Several pebbles flitted off the earth, scorching hot.

The lightning was overpowering, the cries of the stricken muted, body curling to itself with arms stiffening at the chest.

Dante and Vergil both believed defeat was imminent, preparing to have to take out the demon themselves.

When the flashes of demonic power died down, Famulus had witnessed the impossible.

Even with the golden shroud having been faltered, the thunderstruck figure had not been smitten.

Famulus’s needle-tooth grin dropped at the turn of events, rearing back on all fours.

Black lightning danced off their skin, flickering yellow sparks onto the cobblestones.

“No one of that stature could be capable of such an atrocity, and still be human.” Vergil thought to himself.

Famulus was the strongest of the Pessulum litter, demons that nursed from the deadliest of storms to emerge the top of their species. The demon had killed bigger and stronger with less than it had exhibited today.

And now, this runt of a creature had stood against it with no fear, not even close to death? Taking its strongest attack with no problem?

A rush of fear chilled its electrified veins. Stories of the being, whispers amongst Raphael’s underlings, its master’s own grinding teeth at the news of his brothers and their sudden falling, proven true by the might of this mysterious being.

Famulus would live with no merit to his name, scorned by Raphael, seen as less by its inferiors.

“If that does not kill you then I will!” Famulus jumped, claws extended like scythes to slice flesh to ribbons.

Clumsily taking one step forward, tense arms fought back to form one hand pointing to the snout of the devil, the other to the skies.

The thunder was released from its subjugation, deafening annihilation.

A blinding beam of sheer gilden lightning shot right into the demon, many opaque eyes centering at the color of death. Through the other hand, thunderbolts went off like firecrackers into the atmosphere, exploding rapidly and chaotically.

“Holy shit,” Dante exclaimed, sparks dancing off the paved path and flittering in the air.

Vergil ground his heels to the ground, the frontward force of the explosion pushing against him.

The blow sank into purpled flesh, veins and nerves turned from putrid black to nearly white, keeping the demon trapped in the air, still positioned to pounce and disembowel. Famulus didn’t even make any noise, the renowned servant burned alive.

Seethingly hot, with the very air molecules shaking at the display, the twins watched skin and bone become ash and dust. Killed by one’s trump card.

Not even a fallen tail spike was left, the aftershocks settling the twice-over-cremated remains scattering to the wind.

The redirection of the lightning strike had taken a toll on the hooded figure, who straightened up shakily, face revealed for all to see.

A pair of eyes were two suns in the dead of night, a contrast to the light blue ones that perceived them.

Standing alone, centered by destroyed store windows and melted streetlights, they seemed impassive to their might. It was as if they weren’t just blasted with lightning, where their fabric was scorched the only evidence of the offense.

Dante and Vergil didn’t know what to do, not knowing if this person would attack them as well.

They stayed where they were, the moon right above their head, shining around their crown of messy hair.

“Be not afraid.”

Voice hoarse, their mouth moved differently than to the words they just called out.

Before the twins could think of anything to say, the figure beyond them collapsed.

Vergil was silent, still processing all of this. Who was this person? What were they looking for? Who was Raphael?

Dante rushed forward, heavy footsteps raising ashes from their resting place.

Vergil followed, the Yamato ready to be unleashed at any hesitation.

Dante turned them over, noting the strange force surrounding them had remained. As if someone larger was there.

A human face from under the worn, textile cloak greeted them, exhausted and at peace with unconsciousness.

Two lines dripped down their face from their nose. Bleeding crimson, a human above all. In-and-out, slow breaths moved their chest just enough to know they were alive.

“A half-demon?” Vergil questioned himself.

“If they killed the demon, do we have to split the cash with them?” Dante blurted. Vergil raised an eyebrow at the inquiry.

Before he could retort, Dante had lifted them, their stature dwarfed in strong arms.

“Let’s ask them when they wake up.”

“Dante, you are not bringing that thing back.”

“You’re right. I’m not. You are. Open a portal.” He said with a shit-eating grin.

Vergil reluctantly did so, the Yamato ripping open the fabric of space. He would regret this, he was sure of it.

#dante and vergil finally arrive #vergil x reader #dante x reader #devil may cry #vergil sparda #dante sparda #nero sparda #lady devil may cry #dmc trish #devil may cry series #series #AWAS

[kneamet]

Angel of cards (7/16)

Trigger Warning: yandere, obsession, obsessive thoughts.

Summary: Joker, Mr. J, anarchist psychopath, Tom Hiddleston. He had many nicknames. Joker was Gotham’s most dangerous and insightful man, with sharp makeup and horribly memorable scars on his face in the form of a smile. He was absolutely crazy and deadly. No one knows his real identity and everyone is afraid of his cruel jokes. But what happens when he becomes obsessed with an ordinary girl?

She belongs to him. No one can take her away from him. Even The Batman.

Chapter seven: unexpected guests

Harvey just couldn't think rationally the last day. Blake. His beloved niece, whom he had so fiercely protected and so passionately cherished. She was his favorite relative, the only person who supported him in what he was doing now.

And now, he was standing in an elevator with an equally beloved man, a beloved woman, Rachel Dawes, who was the most beautiful person in his life. The love of his life. Rachel had always been sympathetic and untruthful to him, and there was nothing he could do to repay her. Except to propose to her.

Harvey, as well as his Rachel, were now at a" party " with Bruce Wayne, with whom his beloved had known since childhood. And that's fine, even when Bruce, with his pretentiousness, infuriated him. But that was just a small thing, given that he'd called him this afternoon to let him know that he'd do everything he could to find Blake.

Dent looked at Rachel, who was biting her lip in her usual way and looking a little worried. He knew that his beloved, as well as he himself, did not particularly like all these social events, and they liked an ordinary evening with delicious wine and an old movie more.

Suddenly, the elevator stopped and opened its doors, giving Harvey and Rachel a view of the rich people standing around each other drinking champagne.

"Harvey Dent, scourge of the underworld... Rachel suddenly began, beginning to circle slightly around Dent and look at him with what Harvey, and probably Bruce, thought were beautiful eyes. "...scared to death of the powerful, " she said ironically, but she still understood that Harvey was having a hard time, which he basically appreciated. Suddenly her eyes caught on something, and she smiled and looked back at Harvey. "I'll be back soon."

"Rachel," Dent said softly as she left, and suddenly a familiar voice came from the left side.

"Would you like some courage, Mr. Dent?" said a man who looked very familiar, but Harvey had some doubts that this was the man Rachel had told him about.

"Thank you. Alfred, right?" Harvey decided to make sure as he accepted the glass.

"That's right, sir," the older man replied with a polite smile.

"Rachel talks about you all the time. You've known her all her life," Dent knew that Alfred was one of the only people who cared about Rachel. She always praised him.

"Oh, not really, sir," Alfred corrected quickly, shifting the tray to his other hand.

"Should we be wary of her crazy exes?" Harvey looked away and looked into the crowd, looking for Rachel.

"Oh, you have no idea how much," Alfred advised and disappeared into the crowd, disappearing unnoticed and smiling cunningly. Harvey looked up at him in surprise, his mouth slightly open.

But no, I need to find Rachel now.

***

The social gathering, as the rich people called it, or the simple party, as Rachel, Bruce, and Harvey would have called it, was going well. People were drinking champagne and wine, and the music played in the background in a quiet background, only adding to the charm.

Everything was fine. Bruce Wayne, surrounded by a crowd of Russian ballerinas, arrived in a private helicopter, saying that he was a little late. He even thanked Harvey for his contribution.

"Good evening, ladies and gentlemen," a loud and drawling baritone voice suddenly rang out, drawing the attention of people who turned their drunken eyes toward those who had arrived, until they noticed his makeup and heard the sound of a cracked lamp somewhere above.

Shouts were heard from the sides. The Joker grinned. That was exactly what he wanted. It was so nice to see their frightened faces. He took a step forward, stepping out of the elevator and passing on, looking for the people who were now looking at him in pitiful fright.

He felt like a God now. A God who can control people's feelings and make them do what he wants. Oh, how he wanted his angel to listen to him. His lovely, frightened little angel, probably begging hard for help right now. She was glad to be with him, though.

"Now we'll entertain you," he said again, grinning at the people around him. "I have one question:" he drawled, walking slowly towards the people and even slightly dancing and jumping up and down. His usual manner, no wonder. "Where's Harvey Dent?" he shouted loudly to the entire room, taking a glass of champagne and spilling most of it as he stared at the man. "Do you know where Harvey is? Do you know him?"" he turned to the other man, placing a glass of unpleasant alcohol, which he did not particularly like, on the snack table.

The Joker slowly surveyed the people. He saw in them the whole spectrum of negative emotions, ranging from anger to contempt with horror. How ugly they all are. And no, not physically, like the Joker, but morally.

"You know, me and his family will be fine," the Joker said to no one else, making his usual smacking lips.

"We can't be intimidated by bandits," the voice said. It seems that someone was very brave, Joker thought, and turned to the owner of the old voice.

That's right, there was an elderly man standing next to him, raising his head up and up. It seems that someone wanted to show their superiority.

"Listen..." the Joker muttered, pulling a small pull-out knife from his nearest pocket and sliding it up unnoticed, his other hand shaking as he straightened his hair. "...you look like my father, " the man said with disdain in his voice, literally running into the older man with quick movements and putting a knife to the corners of his mouth. "I hated my father," he said with hatred, only pressing harder and feeling the indignant and frightened feeling in the man.

"Okay, wait," came a sudden voice from the left side. Voice. Female. Slightly squeaky, but quite pretty. Such voices do not wish you well. They will surely only be able to do harm.

The Joker turned his head and lowered his hands to look in the direction of the voice. A woman was looking at him, hands on her hips. A pretty woman. Brown hair, softly tied up in a bun, and blue eyes. She was really beautiful.

But the Joker had always known that beautiful girls were equal to loss and suffering. So no, especially since she reminded him too much of the woman he hated so vividly and despised so fiercely. His mother.

And even more so, this woman was no more beautiful than his angel. No, his angel was perfect. She was simply incomparable and he must protect his angel. Definitely should.

"Hello, beautiful," the Joker said gently, as some might think, and very mockingly, smoothing his hair with the hand that held the knife. "You must be Harvey's chick," he said gruffly, pointing at the woman with the knife as people backed up around her. But no, although he allowed himself to communicate with other women in this way, he would not allow himself to communicate with his angel in this way.

Joker could see the contempt on the face of the Harvey woman, who was looking at him with defiance and a little fear. Really brave.

Finally, the Joker moved even closer to the woman who came up to his chin. How low. He looked down at her and lifted his hand, smacking his lips lightly. "You're so nervous. Is it because of the scars? Tell me where they're from?" he asked her, asking impossibly stupid questions. She turned away and looked away as the Joker quickly cupped her face in his hands, pointing the knife at her mouth. "Hey," he said, treating her very roughly. "Look at me," he advised, leaning closer to her father and creating a dangerous effect. "I had a wife. Beautiful as my angel, " he saw her surprised and frightened look, felt her gears turning with her brain. "She told me I was too sad..." he put the knife in his mouth."...that I need to smile more often. “She was a gambler, and she owed the sharks a lot. Hey, " seeing her not looking at him, the Joker took offense and only pressed harder on the knife. "They cut her face once," he continued, only squeezing the woman's face harder, which only made her wince. "We had no money for the operation. It was killing her, " he whispered softly. "I just wanted her to smile again. I wanted her to know that I didn't care about the scars. 'So...' He only paused, as if amplifying the effects of the silence. "...I put the blade in my mouth and did it... he explained, tucking a curl behind his ear with his free finger. On the one hand, it might seem that he was just flirting with her, but no. He is faithful, and will always be faithful only to his angel. "...by myself. And you know what? She couldn't see me," the Joker said in mock bitterness, raising his eyebrows and continuing to press with shaking hands. "She's gone. Now I see the irony. I'm always smiling now, " he drawled, when suddenly Rachel felt a kick in the balls.

Oh, he covered it with his hands, but also quickly removed them. The Joker looked at the woman and shook the knife slightly.

"You like to fight. I like it, " he remarked, and was about to move closer to her when a painfully familiar and filtered voice came from behind.

"Then you'll like it."

Batman. The Joker smiled, not even turning to look at him. It's time for a great game.

***

"What have I done," a small boyish voice whispered. The guy opened his eyes in amazement and fell to his knees in surprise, continued to look at his hands full of blood. The red blood that had oozed from his mother earlier.

He looked at his mother's corpse, still not believing what was happening. What's happening?

"You did the right thing," the voice said. Such a familiar voice in my mind. The joker. He mentally patted the main person on the shoulder and roughly kissed his forehead, which was lowered down. "You've done well, but I'll take your place now, my dear boy Tom."

#tom hiddleston #tom hiddleston gif #tom hiddleston smut #tom hiddleston x reader #tom hiddleston x you #tom hiddleston x oc #OC: Blake Dent #tom hiddleston x original female character #batman #yandere #yandere loki #yandere Tom Hiddleston #obsession #obsessive #obsessive tom hiddleston #loki x reader #yandere loki x reader #loki x you #tom hiddleston x ofc #loki #obsessive loki #kidnapping #tom hiddleston as the joker #joker x reader #joker #yandere joker #yandere tom hiddleston

[v-poreons]

kova's backstory is so sad, like I knew it was sad but reading that still :((( anyways more kova lore bc I'm invested

I can talk about the campaign he was in then! :))

I'm so mad Tumblr deleted everything I wrote hold on while I try to fix this

Basically what I said before was so fucking long I simply can't rewrite it in as comprehensive a way i did before so this is gonna be a lot shorter I'm PISSED.

I don't remember everything that happened in the campaign because it was four years ago but the party was me as Kova, Asher (Wood Elf Ranger), Lan (Changeling ((in the form of a High Elf)) Fighter), Mislia (Tiefling Sorcerer), and Savory (Tiefling Monk, we had an inside joke that Kova spells her name Savoury).

We were on a job delivering some stuff from one town to another I believe when we were attacked by some goblins who we beat the absolute shit out of. Lan was checking one of the goblins when she found a ring with an eye symbol engraved on it. She put it on and it latched itself to her finger and shot a beam of light into the woods, presumably for us to follow. We hid our wagon and set up camp in a cave for the night. I don't remember who was on watch but we were ambushed by some Dark Elves who took us to the Underdark to their queen who welcomed us and decided to throw a party in our honor.

We were all varying degrees of intoxicated but Kova, who was nursing his first cup of ale since he hates drinking since it inhibits his reasoning skills and he was a little wary of the whole thing. Lan also was suspicious so the two chatted for a bit and planned to do some investigating together later. When we had been escorted to our rooms we found out that we had been magically locked in so we found a way to bypass the spell and sneaked out with the rest of the party, but we were caught and taken into the throne room where the queen revealed she had led us here for a reason. She activated a big rune on the floor and we all blacked out. Then when we woke up our skin was translucent and you could see our skeletons under our skin because plot twist we were dead and had been sent to the underworld (the reveal slapped so hard david if ur seeing this u popped off so hard)

We ended up having to do like a gladiator type match where Kova and Lan created the legendary knife cube combo (Kova casts cloud of daggers Lan throws enemies into the cube and theyre promptly turned into bad guy soup). We won and were brought before Hades and Persephone (Kova and Savory charmed her because they're both nice :) ) and then we were thrown in prison because Hades had a stick up his ass.

We met Brutus and Milquetoast in jail and decided to do a prison break I'm not sure exactly how it went but it involved the warden and a prison riot and Lan killed the warden and was inexplicably drawn to this dark spooky hallway which supposedly held Thanatos but when she reached the end of the corridor all that was there were empty chains.

We had a sick ass chariot race with Hades and Lan flipped him the bird as we escaped down a big cavernous hole in the ground. We woke up at the bottom and learned if we wanted out we each had to go through trials to judge our characters.

I don't remember the exact order we went in but Mislia's was a fight with their ex wife and ended with them choosing Savory's life over the ex, Savory's took place in her old monastery which she had been banned from, Asher's was a puzzle that ended in a fight with his former friend and leader (who happened to be his player's other character from a different campaign remember this it's important), and Lan's (which was the last trial and also the last session since we unfortunately didn't finish the campaign) took place in her childhood hometown but everyone but her had lost their memories and she had to convince us all to come with her and get our memories back.

Kova's was a quiz show type trial during which we would gain or lose things (body parts, knowledge/memories, items, etc.) The trouble with playing a character who's smarter than you is when ur DM asks you what the components are to an X level Wizard spell (something Kova would probably know but I sure as hell didn't) you end up spinning the bad wheel (a la taz suffering game) and losing Kova's harmonica which was a gift from his dead friends dead daughter. Also it got turned to ash :)

The game show host ended up being Medusa and we killed the hell out of her and Lan and Kova struck the final blows.

I ended up asking the DM what the campaign would have gone like from the last session and he said the twist would have been that Brutus was Thanatos and I don't remember how but he could not longer continue being Thanatos so Lan, who had the ring, would be given the choice to become the new god of death or not.

From there we have two endings:

The 'canon' ending, in which Lan accepts her role and remains in the underworld while the rest of the living party members return to their lives. Kova is alone and lonely returning to his travels but has healed somewhat and learns to accept people into his heart again.

In the ending where Lan refuses, the party returns to the living world and parts ways. Lan and Kova reluctantly separate since Kova wishes to keep traveling and seeing the world but Lan is exhausted by everything that has happened in her life up until this point and just wants to settle down. The two visit from time to time but reminisce on their past and wonder how they could have remained close and developed their relationship (art in the video is drawn by Lan's player lil.bunny.prince on Instagram)

In both endings (and here's where you remember that importance regarding Asher's trial), because the story has established that it takes place in the same world as another campaign, Kova meets

Gwyn, and becomes a father figure to her and essentially adopts her. They're perfect for each other. Gwyn was cast from her clan and disowned by her family, and now she finally has a solid adult figure in her life who loves and accepts her and helps her overcome her fears of rejection and accidentally hurting the people she cares about. Kova has lost so much and with Gwyn he is able to raise her like he would have helped raise Iris and learns to overcome his survivors guilt and both of their scars and trauma heal together I love them so much.

Kova does outlive Gwyn by a couple hundred years (damn dnd lifespans) and whichever direction his life goes his endings are always bittersweet but he is able to heal despite always feeling a little sad and when he gets older he settles in a nice town and owns a library. And obviously his canon storyline isn't sad enough so I have aus for that (villain au my beloved). ❤

#cutieacefuck #Kova #so mad I had to retype this all out again it was so perfect and this is still good but I'm absolutely certain there are things I forgot #to mention the second time around but its fine IG 🙄🙄🙄 #rainy ask

[phoebehalliwell]

Hello, I just wanted to say I'm a major Charmed fan and love all four sisters! That being said, as much as I love Paige, I've still always hated that Prue had to die (even though it's been over 20 years, I'm still not over it), and I hate even more that Prue and Phoebe's relationship never had a chance to truly recover from her lie about Cole. Also , I think could see why you shipped Prue/Jack, there relationship certainly had a Moonlighting like dynamic to it, didn't it?

yeah wait we did just clear the twenty year anniversary of prue dying in may huh crazy how time works but like. like okay because ik the whole the way the story goes was ~they didn't know if they were killing off shannen or alyssa~ they left it ~open ended bc they didn't know which sister would die~ but like. they knew. oh bro they so knew. like dude. phoebe got a hot new steamy love interest filled w drama and intrigue who was like integral to the plot after basically two seasons of being love-interest-less prue got what? justin?? prue got an episode coming to terms w the fact she will die. like. they knew okay. and like. what breaks my heart is prue as a character like deserved So Much More like she deserved to break free of this narrative of matriarchal sacrifice that she had been locked into like prue practically had to sacrifice her childhood to raise us yeah yeah but like bro there are genuinely so few places where she got to like actually experience life outside of protecting her sisters and then she died protecting her sisters like aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. like aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa. like bro u knew u were going to kill her and you end her & phoebe on that. even if we're sticking with the narrative they didn't know which sister would die there was the very conscious choice to end the narrative on that. so like. 🤬

of course like. tbh. i don't think prue & phoebe's relationship needs to like fully like "recover" from cole i don't think this is nearly as big of a rift as say roger bc i think between the past three years like they've really grown as people and have a new respect for one another that really had yet to be unearthed in it pilot but it's still like. like phoebe was in the underworld trying to save cole when prue died (& piper almost died!!) and we never do see her grapple with that. like even when we're sowing seeds of doom by making cole the source and have phoebe go full dark side like even in the midst of tanking phole we never bother to get some good old fashioned anger self hatred and making the wrong choice like. like that good have been really fun.

but then!! circling over 2 prue/jack bc i do really love prue/jack i think like my favorite thing about it is like. just like how fun and stupid it is. like. like okay so for starters i will say i love the idea of jack as the one to be prue's first real love interest after andy because with andy like you really did have this whole childhood friends to lovers this deep mutual understanding and trust and love and passion like definitely set up to vibe like soulmatism and then he fuckin bites the dust. but like. it's 1999. it's shannen doherty. she can't be an shw forever like you need your female characters to have love interests that's just kind of the way the world works but how do you top andy? how do you beat like the love of her life her perfect man? do you try to go well here's her perfect-er man,, this one's even better than before!! that we did so many countless times with phoebe no because that shit's fucking stupid instead they said here's jack sheridan & he fuckin sucks. & i love it i really do for starters excellent representation for women who are into lame ass guys like i know it's easy to say like haha i'm into guys and aren't they all lame but i'm talking specifically a man being lame is what makes him unreasonably sexy it's a mental condition i know i suffer from it it's bad but it's also like. really funny. but it's also bad. but that's not the point. the point is prue/jack was always supposed to be something kind of stupid something with an imminent expiration date you know? this is not andy. i mean from the moment we met andy we're like hearing wedding bells right from the moment we meet jack we're like ew wtf lol??? like both prue And jack know goddamn well entering this relationship that this is pointless. this is only here to end. and yet!! in spite of that!!! genuine love blossoms!!!! like. whether or not prue was ever in love with jack is definitely debatable i don't think she ever was like in love with him per se mainly because she didn't like. she didn't want to be. she didn't want to do love again that wasn't the point of this relationship so she's not gonna do it. and then for jack theoretically it should be the same thing because like he does constantly play it so nonchalant like he's not head over heels fucking in love with her but he is!!!! he took this relationship that was meant to be casual and stupid and over in a month and he fuckin blew it man he fell So So In Love With Her. like. drives me crazy it does i love that dynamic. and there was something there from prue's side too like. like over and over again she's telling him like you're not the guy for me you're not the guy i'm going to end up with But right now you're the one i want. like. like she has this vision definitely this andy-like figure someone who will you know be the stable father to her kids and her steady husband for many many years to come and her brain's going yeah no way that's jack but at the same time she doesn't care??? like, she likes him right now? she wants to spend time with him right now??? like fuck that potential future mr. right because he's not the one prue wants to spend time with right now she'd rather spend the night with jack like!!!!!! there are some vastly underrated dynamics going on with pruejack that definitely make me start munching on drywall every time i talk about them but like Oh My God. them <3. lol.

#charmed #prue x phoebe #prue x jack #💌

[anxious-ace]

wait im really curious about ur phantomsmp ocs /pos, do you have a post where you explain what exactly theyre about or something?

I guess this is the post since no one has really asked about them before.

So basically they're a group of people who ran from the Silverscarian government because, before Louis Jones was elected and undid everything they did, it was run by (most of) the Hydrus family who made Magies (people who were born with powers) illegal. Basically it meant that they

Couldn't marry

Were legally prosecuted and jailed

Were discriminated against

Put in camps and experimented on (they tried to "remove the magic" and "free them of their magical ties")

And were even stripped of their citizenship and forced to run to neighboring countries

Evelyn Hydrus is the newest member of this group called the runaway reagandes who quickly became the leader after Henry (her older cousin) decided to step down as leader. She is basically an Enderian hybrid (no one knows what her other half is, she was forced to forget) who is immortal (looks 15, is actually 158) after dying in a battle and being resurrected by her mother who is the godess of death and the Empress of the void. She is also an assassin, hacker and military general, her latest target was her dad, dictator Lyco Hydrus who ran the country until well, the assassination.

Jackson Adams is a space-born/starling (which is apparently also a species of bird) who Evelyn hires as her right hand man after they find a time machine in their armory (the premise of "Tales of time"). He doesn't know that he has powers nor does anyone else besides the deities (gods and godesses who watch over everything from the pantheon in Batoise). His mom and dad were also time travelers and historians before they were killed by the Hydrus administration in 1865 (when he was 2 years old) after someone ratted them out to the government.

Ellie Hydrus is also an Enderian hybrid who is Evelyn's little sister. They got separated after Evelyn was basically exiled and she (Ellie) was trapped under the rubble of one of the camps after it was destroyed in the Silverscar-Batoisean war of 2021 (a few weeks ago). Let's just say, she didn't make it and now she haunts her abandoned childhood home (still working on that chaper btw). She won't leave until Evelyn goes back in time and saves her (or she finds a way to resurrect her after she finds her body and the resurrection book).

The deities are the ones who basically run the universe from the highest point in Batoise (the burning hillside). The Empress, Ophelia Hydrus as I stated above, is Evelyn's mother and the goddess of death, the dead, the underworld and souls. I guess Necromancy is her thing. The other deities are...

Widite - God of the four seasons

Ulmir - God of weddings and marriage

Nias - alcohol god

Umien - blacksmith God

Ases - finance god

Rota - music goddess

Oljun - God of all forms of love

Otar - medicine god

Arnas - God of night and day

Aton - law god

Edite - life god

Ermos - revenge god

Ugsus - science god

Arrena - goddess of hunting and the hunt

Brila - water goddess

Vinia - goddess of all knowledge

Zaenta - fire godess

Delrus - god of all sky weather

Minena - nature goddess

Orros - time goddess

And Mizdea - war goddess

There is a lot of information I left out, so if you have any questions I'm more than willing to answer them. Also, Phantom smp is two words but the tag is one word because I'm too lazy to go through and change it.

#my ocs #phantomsmp #phantomsmp spoilers #tales of time #tales of time spoilers

[lost-in-yujikiri]

Since Eugeo's soul or something 'survived' by being in his sword, suppose Kirito somehow saved him by making him do that, but with his own intact sword or fluctlight as an anchor? I'm not completely over them spending so little time together compared to everyone else, so my brain is haywire with strange ways to stick them together.

Hi there anon. You must have picked up some “spoilers” from somewhere yet it’s obvious you have not read the light novels, so your “spoiler” isn’t correct to what will happen at all. First of all, it still pains me to say this, but Eugeo is dead, it was very specifically said in LN that the photons (aka light particles) that made up his Fluctlight soul (and young Alice’s) have flown away to somewhere nobody knows, out of living realm. I will tell you what will actually happen under “Keep reading” cut at the bottom.

However, “them spending so little time together compared to everyone else“? I’m afraid you haven’t paid close attention to the anime? Out of all his social relationships Kirito actually spent the most time with Eugeo, which amounts to 12+ YEARS, whether they could remember their childhood time together or not.

They have been childhood friends with each other until 11 years old, it was also said in LN that Kirito has lived in Rulid ever since he was sent into Underworld as a baby. Now that’s the first 10+ years of relationship.

Then they meet again at 17 years old and traveled/lived together for 2 years until they’re 19 years old (according to tech nerd Kirito in LN it’s 2 years 2 months). That’s totally 12+ years for you!

If you feel the anime makes the time seem short to you, blame A-1 studio for cutting out an entire LN chapter during those 2 years they traveled on the road together, and Rath for blocking/deleting their childhood memories.

Regarding your incorrect “spoilers”, below the “Keep reading” cut is the spoilers of what actually will happen in the novel (LN volume 18):

Eugeo’s Fluctlight might have disappeared from the living, but he has left his “will” & his memories with Kirito, when he created Red Rose Sword from his blood, through the power of Incarnation.

Anime is very bad in explaining what Incarnation power is, it’s one of the basics of Underworld, when your imagination & immense will can override the system and help you perform strong magical feats, other examples are Kirito reviving his destroyed blue flowers, Bercouli & Eugeo levitating their sword, Kirito turning himself back to his Black Swordman self to use old Aincrad skills, and some Integrity Knights’ fights also used it in this season too.

So to actual heavy v18 spoilers: Asuna/Suguha/Sinon’s wills will appear in Kirito’s depressed mind and try to help him awaken, but due to his own trauma from Eugeo’s death and all suffering from Aincrad, Kirito will try to refuse to awaken, block everyone out and kill himself (it’s very graphic). But thanks to Eugeo’s memories being left in the Rose Sword, which somehow gained a pseudo consciousness of his own, he will help Kirito awaken and fight alongside Kirito for the last time, though unfortunately this consciousness will also burn out.

However, he will appear again in the very end scene of the arc as a transparent “spirit” in the eyes of Tiese & Ronye’s descendants. This is not explained in the LN, but you can take it as even if they can’t be together in living realm, Eugeo’s soul will always stand beside Kirito as his guardian angel in any form.

#Eugeo #Kirito #Kirigaya Kazuto #YujiKiri #KiriYuji #Sword Art Online #SAO #spoilers #sao spoilers #Alicization #sao alicization #sao alicization spoilers #War of Underworld #wou spoilers #reply #anonymous #Anonymous

[notesofarichlycolorednight]

Hi! How do you think Luke's personality would be if he survived, and how would it change during the years? I'm not talking about the campers' reactions,but how Luke would think and act.

hello hello!

oh man, that’s an interesting question and i LOVE IT

so by the wording of your question, it sounds like if the titan war still happened, but luke somehow survived after getting rid of kronos, how he might change in the yrs following

and so, hcs!! in bullet-form!! as always under a cut

so he luke miraculously survives hitting his achilles’ heel

and let’s pretend the gods are a sliver decent and actually fulfill percy’s wish/reward, which now includes luke since he’s alive, and did help save the gods in the end

so he’s not exactly punished, but he is being monitored heavily, almost like he’s on parole or smth

i know it’s hard to believe they’d completely let him off, even in this au, so i’ll throw in a magical ankle bracelet that monitors him–he can’t take it off (without the gods being alerted), or go outside of nyc’s five boroughs, which includes into any magical realms (like the underworld, since there’s an entrance in central park)

if he heads into areas that have high demigod activity/magical auras, with chb as the exception, it alerts whoever now has the task of monitoring him to keep a closer eye on him for that time he’s there

suspicious activity is flagged, and they can recall him to mt olympus and detain him at any time if they think that he’s becoming a danger to the gods again

speaking of chb, i don’t think he’d be able to stay there after the titan war, too many painful memories–too many ppl who hate him, or don’t trust him, etc.

it’s hard to say what his and annabeth’s relationship would be. as i’ve said in a previous ask, i think luke was asking if annabeth still considered him family, and she does. but i think luke would be too guilt-ridden to interact with her at first

not to mention that percy is v protective, and while they may have had a tender moment abt not letting all that happen again, i think percy would have a hard time trusting him

thalia’s now with the hunters, and has clearly shown what she thinks of luke’s betrayal, so that’s no good either

i think grover would be more open to luke, but luke would probably avoid him like he avoid annabeth bc of the guilt. and grover’s a busy satyr now, so that doesn’t help

so basically anyone he considered close to him in childhood is on shaky ground and he’s not sure what to do abt that, bc demigods are only taught abt fighting and battle, instead of that and emotional and psychological health wheeeeeee

since he can’t leave nyc, he finds like a hostel or smth to stay in while he figures shit out and tries to get back on his feet

he’s suffering p heavily from ptsd and still has terrible nightmares abt kronos and being possessed by kronos, which doesn’t help

he can’t hold a steady job bc he only knows how to fight and has no social skills whatsoever, so he becomes some low-level conman to make some income

he still hates his father, so it’s hard to acknowledge that his father’s skills are helping hi survive right now, as much as he’d like to believe that he’s surviving all on his own

at some point, he tries to con one of the demigods who’ve made it without chb (a demigod whose parent is a minor god). thankfully, they’re nice abt it and introduce him to a demigod underworld, so to speak

i wouldn’t say it’s as sinister as our criminal underworld–it’s really more of a society of demigods who were forgotten (unclaimed kids) or never made it to camp (children of minor gods), but found a way to survive with little to no training from camp, despite the monsters and technology

luke is suddently introduced to a whole new world, and that’s when his life really starts moving forward again

these demigods are angry and bitter, yeah, but they take that and turn it into motivation to live and thrive–basically living bc of spite. fuck the gods, fuck my parents, i’ll show them i don’t need them or chb

(like rick has this weird thing abt writing kids who say that, but then talk abt how much they want their godly parent’s approval. or to prove that they’re worth of their godly parent’s attention. and like i get why, but that’s not true for everyone??? having been adopted, i come from a perspective of, yeah, i am a little curious abt who my biological parents are, but i’m not dying to reunite with them or anything bc i don’t need to??? i have everything i need right here–a loving mom, and awesome friends, who i would consider family. even if i did want to know who they were, their approval of who i am now doesn’t matter to me. i don’t need to prove anything to them, nor should i need to for their attention. like that’s shitty to expect that from your child, and a horribly mindset to instill in a child)

and so i imagine it’s the same for a lot of demigods, too /tangent

anyway, so i’d like to think that this society is pretty structured–it’s a mish-mash of kids of major gods who were never claimed and of minor gods. some do resort to criminal activity, others work minimum wage jobs, and still others who are making higher than minimum wage, with some even making six figures ya know. basically they still function within the larger mortal society, but they’re also part of this hidden demigod society, you feel?

but they always take in demigods who could use some help out in the real world, regardless of who their parents are and whether or not they’ve been claimed/lived at chb

hephaestus kids have built a closed-circuit network that makes tech safer for them to use, and it also helps them communicate with each other as well as any mortal they make friends with, etc.

and their secret society is hidden within a company (kinda like how the three roman emperors hid themselves within a company, except without the evil part), and it’s v socialist–so they do what they can to help those who don’t have anything, until they can get back on their feet, and then put back into the society and help others

so luke is introduced to this hidden world within the mortal one of new york

i’d like to think he’s p instantly recognizable (to most, not all), but they don’t hold any grudges or bitterness like those at chb to bc they understand that he was fighting for them, even if he was going abt it the wrong way

some put him on a pedestal (he’s the face of our hidden society or he could take up the company or smth), but another kid of hermes comes along and shows him the ropes, not expecting anything from him

they get him therapy to work on his anger issues as well as his ptsd, and he slowly learns social skills

there are two large apt buildings that the company owns that only house demigods (but not all the demigods who are part of this society), and they find him a small one bed/one bath apartment to live in

as he gets better, he stops resorting to criminal activity and finds a steady job working at a tech company, bc he doesn’t have to interact with ppl like in retail, and when he does, its coworkers who think the same as he does

i also like to think he starts mend those relationships he lost with annabeth and grover. thalia’s a little harder to reach, but once he starts communicating with annabeth more, annabeth tells thalia abt his progress, and thalia sneaks away to visit him on occasion

it’s rough at first, as it always is, bc he did a lot of bad things and hurt a lot of ppl

but he apologizes to all of them–annabeth, grover, thalia, and even percy

they start to hang out occasionally, and luke almost become a mentor to percy again

(we’re kinda ignoring hoo rn for luke’s mental health, but percy most definitely talks to luke abt how he can see where luke was coming from during the second titan war after that whole prophecy nightmare)

eventually, they become friends, even family

he’s happy to hear that the camp is expanding, allowing minor demigods; the hermes cabin is far less crowded

but luke still holds a lot of anger and bitterness. even living within this secret society, it’s yet another symptom of the gods’ lack of caring (like the crowded hermes cabin)

even with percy’s request and the expanding camp, luke still hears of demigods joining their society, which is a little disheartening if only bc it still represents the gods’ lack of caring

with the help of therapy, tho, he’s learning to channel is anger into smth productive

instead of trying to raise evil entities, he throws himself into the business that their society is hidden in. he wants to know all the inner workings of both the demigod and mortal side bc he wants to help as many demigods he can

bc in the end, he’s still a scared, lost little nine year old boy who just wants someone to be there for other demigods since no one was there for him

oh and speaking of, he finds the courage to visit him mom again! annabeth goes with him, since he’s still working through all that shit with his therapist (and lbr, that’s smth that someone might never work through, just learn to cope with)

i wouldn’t say he visits her often, but he spends some of his income and hires a caregiver to help around the house, but also to take care of may. since the prophecy has been fulfilled, her visions aren’t as bad, and she doesn’t have so many spells, but her mind is still quite lost bc the curse is still there

eventually, luke works his way up the ranks of the company bc he sees the good that this society is doing, and wants to be a part of that. he can finally help these demigods that doesn’t involve destroying the world

he starts to visit camp a little, but usually only talks with chiron abt the changes that they could make to the camp to better help the kids there. the whole place, tho, still holds a lot of painful memories that luke would just rather forget. so he doesn’t go often

it’s a long, long process and luke stays in therapy indefinitely, but the work he’s doing with the company, and the demigods he interacts with on a daily basis help him a lot

he slowly heals, and mends fences, as well as makes new friends and bonds

he never truly lets go of his anger and bitterness, and for the most part he just kinda ignores the gods. remembering what he did during the titan war still haunts him, but he uses those memories as a reminder and promises to never do anything like that again

and this time he keeps his promise!

*sniffles* look at my bby boy growing up and healing. 

despite liking white collar!luke (which i could see this so easily sprouting from your initial question), i wanted to take this in a different route and really delve into his healing process bc it’s like a salve to my soul. it’s so easy to ignore emotional and psychological health, but for anyone it’s so, so important to address those issues and work through them ya know?

like i advocate for mental health and stability! as well as emotional healing, esp for men bc it breaks down that toxic masculinity. and toxic masculinity often does lead to expressions of anger and violence in men in our society

i could probably say more, but i’ll leave it there for now. it feels like a good stopping point. hmu if you’d like to hear more specifics abt anything within this au!! i’d be happy to write more abt this au :D

thanks for sending this in, anon!!

#oh god for shame! i do not even know your name #notesofananonymousnight #asked and answered #luke castellan #pjo hcs #pjo au

[excessbun]

I just miss making characters tbh adjjakdkaf I love diving head first into a world and crafting a new existence to see how they interact with everything </3

I really like Jingyi for her,,, I wanna make her childhood friends with someone, maybe Lisa? Or Kaeya and Diluc? Maybe all of them??? Who knows.

I think she was pretty solitary as a child and needed someone like Lisa or Kaeya to open up and they like to tease and she pretends to be so done with them all the time,,, only to turn and do the same to Diluc akfkakfs. I don't have an opinion on alcohol since I'm underage for that but I think she wouldn't enjoy it too much, but she can hold her liquor moderately well.

She very much gives off the vibes of some mysterious forest creature, but she's a little awkward cause she only ever talks to someone around her age 12 days every year and it's very professional all the while. She's also much more affectionate than most people in Liyue when she's comfortable and some people think she might be a little uhhh easy? She gets embarrassed really quickly at the mention of relationships tho since that's not something she really sees for herself. She does have heart eyes for Zhongli tho ajdjakfks Do you perhaps have any lore for your si? -tuo

YESS worldbuilding& figuring out ur place in that world is so fun it makes me go🥺<333.... happy chemicals... OMGG okay jingyi (how pretty!!). AWWW the childhood friend dynamic, i love relationships like that, where someone else drives a more quiet person out of their shell. MYSTERIOUS FOREST CREATURE!! wait omfgg tuo her energy sounds so pretty & nice. i love the idea of her not knowing zhongli is the geo archon and just trying 2 romance that old man, that dynamic has amazing vibes LMAOO. imagining jingyi getting him a bouquet of flwoers and he stands there like 🧍‍♂️“thanks”

does My? s/i have lore.. omgg i guess kinda. they r a spirit (they were murdered i think😳!!) & there’s this thing in taino mythology where like.. bats 🦇 r spirits from the underworld, and undead spirits r called “hupia” +they can take a human form, but they never have navels (cos umbilical cord stuff). so my s/i is a hupia doing like a self investigation of their own murder just to get some closure. but theyre rly batlike (since hupia r associated with bats... my s/i has rly sensitive hearing, can echolocate + see in lowlight, and they LOVE guava❤️❤️). personality wise theyre basically a classic entp.. so kinda ambiverted, and when u get close to them u realize how guarded/defensive they rly are(i mean.. they were murdered by someone they were close to👉👈 so now they r kinda weary of others), but overall theyre pretty goofy & unafraid to make a fool of themselves with stupid jokes and stupid plans that end up getting them in trouble. they r dating cae’s dendro catalyst s/i🙄🙄 but tbh instead of grounding me she just enables me . i still havent chosen a name tho.. i will look arnd but i might just go for “gi”

#PLSAKSJ #jingyi is so cute!!!!!! #i think maybe our s/i would be friends❤️ #hi lovely tuo its so fun to talk ab s/is with youu #<3 #.log #loading... tuo!