#and thus they’re so weird that it circles back around to being normal!

[unsleepingtales]

We’re back! It’s folk fair time!

Get got!!

Oh sick you get a salad with the lobster bisque?

I fully forgot Fabian was proficient in glassblowing

Ooooooof

They’re all so good at this game. And so deeply in it.

Awwww riz has a board in Adaine’s tower now

Oh please tell me he’s using a wild magic table to decide what happens from Fig’s bardic

WHAT

This is horrifying

We’ve talked so much about the quangle I forgot that they’ve barely acknowledged it in the show

That was shrimp vibes for sure

Murph’s incredulous ‘oh good’

Siobhan <3

Dome!!

The cubby’s house is so fun

Brennan letting his folk fair roots shine

Yeah I was thinking about that and I didn’t have the chance to make a coherent post but. Why is my clerical gnomance performing at the folk festival.

That drum circle thing is exactly some folk fair shit. Idk how many other folk fair kids follow me or watch d20 but I need to make sure everyone who was not a folk fair kid knows how Eerily Accurate this is.

Definitely swingers.

This reminds me soooo much of the arts festival I go to every summer lmao

Cassandra was married??

Hello??

Whoooo did Cassandra marry??

Cassandra being married to or engaged to Sol or Helio would be wildddd. And would kind of say something about why Kristen is so connected to them.

Like. Kristen was the chosen of Helio. If Helio and Cassandra were married, and Kristen left Helio, then Kristen going and becoming the prophet of Cassandra would be a weird roundabout return? Or deeper betrayal if they weren’t happy?

Dust mites suck

One thing about Brennan is he loves a magical axiom.

Ok so living gods can’t talk about dead gods to mortals

That’s fucked up!

Hee hee hee!

Kristen wants to get coffee with her parents?

Buckyyyyy

Kristen is just having visions now I guess

Shatter stars??? Are those the same things???

That was uncalled for

Yeah no I get that it was a bit but that really is crossing a boundary. Lines are weird and wobbly around the family situation and the band but that just felt weird.

Holy shit?? That’s sick??

Oooh look at the fairy lights

That’s a folk festival baby!

Kristen’s original tie dye look would actually probably be very fitting

OOP

What are you ON about

Zac is bordering on real world annoyed

You’re literally not

I hate it I hate it SO MUCH

WHY ARE THEY PLAYING THE FOLK FESTIVAL

STOP IT PLEASEEEEEE

You’re not the cops!!

WHAT

YOU CAN’T DISINTEGRATE A STUDENT????

Fabian whyyy

Why does he get lair actions??? This is gorgug’s house!!

You have no fucking jurisdiction here man

Fucking creepy as shit

Horrifying!!!!!!!!

This is how the audience finds out Lou has had sex before. Ok.

Gorgug puts his goggles on. I do not see it.

WHAT???

We been knew this babes

Somehow I think grix did not want this.

One thing about Fig Faeth is she’s going to imply the admin are pedos.

Kristennnn

It’ll just stab him normally

I keep thinking it and then getting too distracted to write it but Lou’s hair looks great

Thus, it has been goaded!

Fifty seven damage on one turn <3

Rude

Oooooooooh that’s a fucking sick spell

The washing machine adds three to wisdom saves?

Leans back against what??

Bahahahaaaaaa

ICE FEAST

I love the duo shots happening. Siobhan and Zac. Ally and Murph.

Fight me in the sky!

That’s soooo dark

Ok good I was trying to figure out how Ruben wasn’t gonna clock Fig-as-Wanda clearly fighting alongside the bad kids

A PODCAST <3

Ok! What?

Sickkkkkk

Unreal

Lmaooooo

Awwww their crew is so sweet <3

Horrifying!!!

Yeah Murph was right, that energy was Not gonna make the save

Are you kidding me

The lawnmower animation has me deaddddd

Pleasure and lawn maintenance 😭

What does that MEAN

So funny for all of this to happen less than five minutes after Brennan said they were doing really well in this fight

The shift from fun magic shit to ‘I Shoot Him With My Gun’ is always so funny

Fury of the ball!!!

Nice!!!!!

You can’t call it that man.

Rick. Why is there a vulture again.

Gilearean rolls over here

The complicated women podcast (the cw 😭)

Fucked up!!!

Dominate monster???

Wait did Adaine already use her bardic?

Augh

Eyyyy

FUCKS SAKE

I’m best medium rare 🥲

Oh my goddddd

They all want them to do this

Famously

Why are you doing this

We just gotta hit this guy once

WHAT THE FUCK BRENNAN

You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me

I’m gonna lose it

#what the FUCK #fantasy high junior year #verbal component #reactions

[myundeadgayson]

Last Life Assassin AU: Friendly Connections

In my last posts on this AU, I covered the Organizations and Non-Organizations of the AU. I’ve also fully written out Lizzie’s story thus far if you’d like to read that, but now I’d like to talk about some important connections in the AU.

By the way, this post is likely going to be hella long. I’ll be cutting it, but just know all the connections are going to be under the cuts. (And before you ask, I did absolutely take some inspiration from EmpireSMP as well for some of these ideas<3)

We’ll be covering: Etho and Bdubs, Lizzie and Jimmy, Lizzie and Joel, Jimmy and Joel, and Grian and Scar.

So if you’re interested, please continue reading!

As a quick recap, our assassin crews include The Southlands, The Fairy Alliance, The B.E.S.T. Organization, and Girlboss and Gatekeep. Our civilians are Scar and Joel, who run the shop, Magical Mountain. It’s literally just a normal magic shop.

Etho and Bdubs:

And they were roommates! (oh my god, they were roommates…)

Jokes aside, Etho and Bdubs are roommates. They share a little apartment together. (They may or may not have met through a Craigslist Ad a few years back.)

There’s a running joke in the group about them being married. Sometimes it doesn’t feel like much of a joke though considering they’re practically attached at the hip. Everywhere Etho goes, Bdubs is often right there as well and vice versa.

They also have the whole “bickers like an old married couple” thing going on. (Tango and Skizz make jokes sometimes that they might end up actually getting married one day and it’s only a matter of time.)

Bdubs isn’t aware that Etho might have a background in being an assassin pre-BEST, but he’s the one that typically points out that Etho’s a natural at the job.

Etho does have a surprising amount of comfort in handling knives, as well as throwing them. Bdubs has watched Etho clean them among other weapons with strange amounts of care. It’s almost as if Etho sort of goes into a daze and lets some sort of instinct take over. It’s a bit weird, but Bdubs ignores the nagging thoughts in the back of his mind and guides Etho to bed.

Yes, they have considered getting married for tax benefits. They’ve both made the pitch and it becomes more tempting every time one of them brings it up.

Jimmy and Lizzie:

Siblings! Siblings! Siblings!

They’re actually siblings, by the way. Jimmy is Lizzie’s younger brother.

Lizzie’s pretty protective over him. Even if they’re adults, she still often checks in on him to make sure he’s doing okay.

Every now and then, they’ll meet up for brunch. Jimmy comes over a lot to see her too. Lizzie’s noticed he’s been a lot busier lately though, but seeing as Jimmy always skirts around the subject when she brings it up, she lets it slide... for now.

Neither of them are aware that the other is an assassin. They’d prefer to keep it that way. (It doesn’t mean Lizzie doesn’t notice the dark circles under Jimmy’s eyes, or Jimmy’s oblivious to the way Lizzie looks frazzled some mornings when he comes by and she’s yet to have slept.)

Sometimes when Lizzie hasn’t gotten any sleep and Jimmy comes by, Lizzie will accidentally fall asleep. She’ll pass out on the couch while Jimmy rummages through her kitchen. He’ll end up walking in and realizing he’s been talking to himself for like five minutes. Every time, Jimmy just ends up smiling and covering her up with a blanket.

Even as an adult, Jimmy’s the annoying little brother. He has a bad habit of coming over unannounced and scaring Lizzie as a result. He also does tend to steal food from her cabinets, despite having his own perfectly good apartment and food to eat there.

Lizzie has a sneaking suspicion Jimmy comes by so often to her and Joel because he’s actually kind of lonely. He lives alone and even though Lizzie is like… somewhat sure he has friends, he still hates being alone.

She does love the fact that Jimmy’s basically best friends with Joel though. (Other times, she hates it because it’s another excuse for Jimmy to break into her house.)

Lizzie and Joel:

So, there’s a wizard and an assassin and they get married, right?

How do you explain to your spouse that you’re secretly running an organization that totally doesn’t kill people? Short answer: You don’t!

Joel doesn’t have a clue that his wife has killed people on the downlow.

To be fair, she did stop killing people before they got married... She just got back into the hobby recently because ya know... It’s kind of hard to stop a habit, especially one that you became so familiar with.

Since bringing back the Fairy Alliance, she has done significantly less killing! So far, they has been absolutely no murder by Lizzie’s hand:)

All of this probably sounds really bad, but Joel is perfectly content with not knowing what Lizzie’s done. (I feel like I can’t express that enough. Joel loves his wife so much, but he really just rather not know if she’s involved illegal activities. Dude, he’s just a random guy that works at a magic shop.)

He has noticed Lizzie’s been acting kind of strange lately, but decided that he’d let her come to him about it when she’s ready. As things have gotten weirder though, he realized maybe it’s better to ignore it.

Honestly, Joel just thinks Lizzie’s joined a really, really weird DND group. He assumes they’re just really intense about it, and that’s why he hears them use code names from time to time.

The Fairy Alliance will occasionally come to meet up at Lizzie’s home late at night (they don’t exactly have a secret meeting place yet), and Joel will accidentally wander past to get a glass of water and they all just freeze and stare at him. Joel’s learned to just wave them off and go back to bed. He assumes that’s another weird DND thing they do — 3am meetups to talk about their campaign. He usually just calls them nerds and prepares for another day of wizard dress up.

Lizzie loves her dumbass oblivious husband and his dedication to just ignore things. It makes her life a thousand times easier because she doesn’t know how she’d even begin explaining what she’s been doing.

Joel has noticed Lizzie’s been making a lot of money without him knowing how... He’s decided to ignore that as well. (Whatever it is, it pays for their lovely new penthouse suite, so he doesn’t mind!)

(...Joel might be Lizzie’s trophy husband, but we’re not gonna talk about it.)

Jimmy and Joel:

They’re best friends, your honor.

Before Lizzie and Joel got together, Jimmy actually did know Joel. They were good friends, but not super close.

Now they’re legit besties.

Jimmy comes to visit Joel at work sometimes. Mornings get spent with Lizzie, but lunches are usually for Joel. Occasionally they’ll meet up at a cafe to eat, but sometimes Jimmy will bring food to Joel at work and have lunch with him there.

Jimmy will usually sit on the stool at the end of the counter. He’ll talk to Joel while they eat, and Joel will lounge behind the register. Sometimes, Jimmy will loiter around, watching Joel for a few hours, before wandering off to do… Whatever Jimmy does.

Joel doesn’t actually know what Jimmy does when Jimmy’s not with him or Lizzie?

Like everything, Joel prefers not to ask questions. From the few times that he’s tried to ask and Jimmy’s poor attempts of stumbling through an answer, he’s decided it’s probably not worth it anyway.

Joel has occasionally noticed weird things about Jimmy. For example, on one of the morning where Joel went over to Jimmy’s unannounced instead, he noticed Jimmy wrapping his shoulder in bandages He’d never realized Jimmy had scars before either???

He did try to ask about them, but Jimmy was quick to brush him off. He’s decided it’s better to ignore those too.

Joel’s noticed Lizzie has some scars too? She’s mentioned that they’re just from accidents she had back in college.

When he asked Lizzie if she knew about Jimmy getting hurt, she told her that she couldn’t remember, but it’s also Jimmy and she doubts he’d tell her if he did. Jimmy often avoids telling her things like that because he hates worrying her.

Grian and Scar:

It was completely by accident. Recently, Grian wandered into a magic shop. It was purely by mistake, but somehow it feels like that one mistake’s changed his entire life.

He blames it on Scar, the silly man that insists on dressing up as a wizard daily for his business and pedals “magical crystals” to surprisingly gullible amounts of people (and not even children).

Sometimes, Grian can’t tell if Scar actually believes in the crystals or if it’s all just a scam. Whichever it is, he has to admit that Scar does make quite the sell for them. (It’s probably for the best that Scar chose to be a magic man over an actual businessman. Grian would be afraid to see what Scar would do with some actual political power.)

Though Grian claims that he doesn’t care for the place, he’s fallen into a habit of visiting weekly, if not more sometimes. He says it isn’t to see Scar, but it absolutely is.

Scar’s more than pleased about it. He lets Grian hang out as much as he wants. Now, Grian’s even gotten to the point that Scar lets him sit behind the counter or join him upstairs if Grian stays past closing time.

Occasionally, there’s days where Grian comes in looking exhausted. Whenever that happens, Scar usually ushers Grian upstairs and lets him sleep on the futon up there. It’d be a lie if Grian said he didn’t appreciate it. The area’s become a nice place where Grian feels like he can truly relax for once. It’s a good escape. As far as he knows, none of the Southlands even know about the shop, so it truly is Grian’s escape for a while from everything in his life.

Scar always gets so happy seeing Grian able to actually relax around him. Whenever they first met, Grian always seemed so tense and guarded. It’s been wonderful seeing Grian’s walls slowly come down. He thinks maybe they’ve become really good friends.

Joel often teases them about being a bit more than friends, but it usually gets ignored.

Honestly, Grian couldn’t even figure out why Joel was working there at first because he never seemed to be doing anything if Scar was around. Grian realized after a few times of coming in during times where only Joel was at the shop that Joel actually loves his job and works pretty hard. He just tends to goof off more if Scar’s nearby.

Grian’s kind of glad Scar’s got someone like Joel around to help and be a friend. (Doesn’t mean Grian doesn’t wish Joel would stop trying to annoy him.)

Fun Fact: Grian is not aware that Jimmy knows about the Magical Mountain shop, nor that Jimmy and Joel are friend. Enjoy that knowledge as you will<3

And that’s all we have for now!

I was actually going to cover some of Scott and Jimmy… But I think I’ll actually wait on that for now:) Hopefully all this will make up for it in the meantime!

Be sure to let me know who/what you’d like to learn more about next! Asks are always open, so feel free to ask about whatever you’d like!

#Last Life SMP #Last Life SMP AU #Last Life Assassins AU #lizzie ldshadowlady #joel smallishbeans #grian #goodtimeswithscar #jimmy solidarity #ethoslab #bdoubleo100 #i’m not saying Ethubs isn’t happening here… i’m just gonna leave it open-ended:) #the same goes for Scar and Grian #everything can be seen as /p #but also… i’m not stopping you from seeing it as whatever you’d like #Jimmy and Lizzie are Seablings #as they should #trafficblr #i think i might be posting too much #but brain go BRRRRRR #LLshipping #just in case even tho the ethubs and scarian are /p here!!

[pi-cat000]

MSA time travel idea (part 40)

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, Vivi POV, 8, 9, 10, Lewis POV, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, Lance POV 18, 19, Lewis POV 2, 21 , 22, Vivi POV 2, 24, 25  Lewis POV 3,  Mystery POV , Vivi POV 3, 29, Lewis POV 4, 31, ViVi POV 4 , 33, 34, Lewis POV 5, Mystery POV 2, Lewis POV 6, Vivi POV 5, Lewis POV 7

Part 41: here

. 

VIVI POV

It is weird visiting the Pepper’s Diner without Lewis. Vivi has never been the friend with the car so Lewis or Arthur had always picked her up whenever she visited, meaning she’s never been here without at least one of them present.

Now, Vivi stands in the empty car park, trying not to look at the spot on which Arthur had been shot and Lewis had almost bled out. The memories of trying to frantically to help them both while knowing she would only have time to save one come unbidden, crowding at the forefront of her mind. She swallows, trying to shake the image and focus on locating Arthur’s van instead. Even as she scans the empty lot, her thoughts turn away from the task and back to that night.

Lewis had told her to help Arthur. Those had been his last words to her.

Vivi had already been in the process of helping Arthur so it was logical for her to continue.

Arthur was the less injured of the two, so had a better chance of survival.

Arthur was the rational choice.

If her dad hadn’t arrived when he did, then Lewis might have died, blood slowly spreading across the concrete, staining it red. If Mystery hadn’t done whatever weird supernatural thing he’d done to slow their blood loss...she doesn't want to think about it. 

/The rain has washed away any remaining scent. We will have to do a visual search./

Vivi blinks and there is no blood, no Arthur, no Lewis. There is only the silent structure of Pepper Paradiso, windows dark and lifeless. She rubs her hands together to rid them of the sudden chill creeping through her limbs, before folding then under Lewis’s borrowed jacked and hugging her chest.

“Ye…” She takes a shaky breath, “Yeah. I figured. The van can’t have been parked too far away though. It would have been pretty hard to walk around all these rocks and cactus in the pitch black even with a lightning storm overhead.”

/ A reasonable assumption. / Mystery is eyeing with something akin to worry, head tilted to one side.

She ignores him, walking past to scan for any sign of the van. Unlike that night, the sky is clear with a half-moon just peeking above the horizon, casting a faint grey light over the flat landscape. A gentle breeze tugs gently at her hair. The body snatcher wouldn’t have come from the westward side of the diner because she’d been looking out that way at the time, talking on the phone with her dad. Surely, she would have noticed its approach between all the lightning strikes.

“You head that way…maybe thirty feet or so. We’re going to search in a grid around the diner,” She points out to the main road adjacent to the diner, tracing it in the air with a finger to what she thinks is thirty feet, “We’ll work our way out from the road, moving in opposite directions away from the diner. Let me know when you find it.”

Mystery nods a confirmation but doesn’t move off immediately, opting to instead watch her with increasing concern. Vivi deliberately turns away from him, moving out from the building and off the concrete, picking her way across the uneven landscape, pulling out her phone for additional light.  Eventually, she hears the click of Mystery’s claws as he begins his search, jumping from rock to rock and disappearing amongst the low desert shrubs. Vivi lets her shoulders slump, all the stress and activity of the past few days finally catching up to her, weighing on her.  She shakes herself and pulls the jacket tight. With her phone’s dim flashlight barely providing enough light to see her own feet, it’s hard to avoid tripping over rocks and dips in the ground. It may look flat, but the desert is full of indents and holes. On the bright side, the rough terrain meant the van was probably closer to the road because there was no way anyone could drive very far across this. 

If the van is even out here at all. 

Doubt curls in her gut. 

What if she’d wrong about this too?

Across the darkened landscape the moon finally makes it fully over the horizon line. A new chill descends as the last of the day’s heat evaporates into the night. Vivi persists, continuing until the diner has faded into an outline. Nothing jumps out at her as being strange. It’s just empty in all directions.

/I have found it./

When Mystery finally calls an end to the search Vivi’s eyes are hurting with the strain of squinting.

“Where?”

Mystery’s telepathic projections don’t have a huge range so he must be nearby. She turns, twisting around to scan the darkness. A flash of white fur catches the moonlight. Mystery nimbly leaps over an outcropping of cactus in her direction, pausing to motion with a paw back the way he’d come.

/This way./

They make their way slowly back in the direction of the highway before turning to walk parallel to the road. A car flashes by, momentarily blinding her and she stops to blink away the bright splotches which briefly overtake her vision. The walk feels doubly long with how tied she’s becoming. 

Finally, Mystery turns back into the desert, following a sloping incline downward into a ditch where she spots a familiar orange rectangle. No wonder no one had found the van yet. Unless you were searching specifically for it, it would be almost impossible to see from either the diner or the highway.

Vivi exhales a long, hard breath of pure relief, hurrying to overtake Mystery.

Slowly, she circles the van, stretching up to shine her phone-light through the front window and into the shadowed interior. The seats of the van appear normal. There is an empty fast food bag and it looks like someone has tipped the glove compartment onto the ground. She peers further in, noting that their camping gear is no longer in neat piles but messy and scattered about. Nothing stands out as human-body shaped. She steps away.

“No dead bodies,” She tells Mystery, watching him finish his own circuit of the van, sniffing, eyes narrow.

/I smell blood. Quite a bit of it. The stench of that abomination is also strong./

“You can smell the body snatcher? Wouldn’t it just smell like Arthur?” Vivi questions even as she begins trying all the van’s doors in the hope that one is unlocked.

/These creatures are unnatural and they always leave behind aberrations. I suppose ‘smell’ is the wrong word. It would be more akin to recognising energy residue. Most spiritual energy does not originate from the physical plane. Thus, it always leaves behind some sort of stain./

Vivi rubs her forehead. She has questions. Of course, she has questions. Anytime Mystery says anything related to the supernatural she is left with only questions. Vivi files the information away for future contemplation, distracted when the van’s back doors open unexpectedly.

Both her and Mystery pause and glance at each other. 

Cautiously, she pulls it fully open and peers in. The first thing she notes is Arthur’s keyring, sitting discarded atop a mess of upturned boxes and camping gear. It looks like it had been tossed aside without thought or care. Arthur always took good care of the van’s keys, carrying them on him at all times, so it immediately strikes her as odd. But then, it isn’t only Arthur that they're dealing with.

“Weird,” She mutters, reaching to pick them up.

/Do not touch that./

She freezes, hand hovering. Mystery leaps up into the van, knocking over an open container of cooking utensils which rattle out onto the rocks, clanking off the hard surface. He sniffs the keys, huffing with disgust.

/It is covered in blood. It has a similar scent to that car. Also, I fear I smell Lance’s blood here as well…/ Mystery flicks the keys with his nose so they clatter to the ground at her feet, turning to clamber around the van, snuffling as he goes.

“Lance’s blood…” Vivi repeats, stomach sinking. There’s a lot of dirt -which probably isn’t dirt- covering the pocket knife Arthur has attached to his keys. Blood.

/Hmmm…this does not appear promising./ Mystery pops out of the van again, holding a piece of cloth in his teeth. He jumps free and drops the fabric onto the ground next to the keyring. She bends to pick it up, pinching a corner so she can lift it without touching anything. It’s one of Arthur’s shirts, apricot in colour, and splattered with darkened brown stains. More blood. She thinks she recognises the shirt as the one he had been wearing at the motel.  

/Whoever this second individual is, their smell is all over the van./

Vivi frowns, clenching her fist. “Do you think they’re dead?”

/Most likely./

“…Shit…”

She tosses the shirt back into the van, bending to pick up the keyring, carefully detaching the keys before throwing the pocketknife after the shirt. She slams the doors, breathing heavily, hands resting on the metal. She rides out a sudden wave of nausea threatening her merger lunch. So there had been a third person involved. Probably, this person was someone Arthur knew. Arthur had most likely been an unwilling accessory to the murder of someone he knew. That's not counting being forced to attack his uncle. Poor Arthur. She can’t even imagine what it must have been like. If only she’d got to him faster. If only she’d gone out to help him after Arthur’s fight with Lewis back at the motel. If she’d been with him that morning then she could have stopped him from running off to check his uncle all alone. Instead,  she’d decided to stay and console Lewis first. The wrong decision. She’d failed them both.

/Arthur would not have been able to stop this violence. These parasitic creatures are masters of all forms of manipulation./

“I’m not…I wouldn’t blame Arthur. Never,” She hisses.  Herself on the other hand….

/Neither is it your fault./ Mystery continues as if reading her mind /You could not have known. I should have been the one to act. I suspected foul play long before it was confirmed./

“You’re the family pet. I’m his best friend. I should have done something sooner.” Her voice sounds uncharacteristically hash even to her own ears. She ignores how Mystery grimaces.

“Whatever. Doesn’t matter now. I need to get rid of this evidence or Arthur’s going to get caught up in whatever ongoing investigation spawns when the police realise that whoever owned that other car is missing.” She still doesn’t know who this person is, and she doesn’t particularly care. Arthur would care probably. She didn’t.  Whether they were an employee of Kingsman Mechanics, a friend of Lance’s, some Tempo resident, it didn’t matter. All that mattered now was keeping Arthur as safe as possible with what little ability she had and if that meant destroying evidence then so be it.

She takes a breath, energised now she’s sure of her next move.

“We can’t leave the van here. Luckily, no one’s found it yet but we can’t count on that to continue.” As she speaks, she walks back around to the front seat, key in hand. Mystery follows. “There’s a ton of evidence here. Blood splatters, hair fibres, fingerprints. That’s not including Arthur’s pocketknife as a possible murder weapon.”

/You plan to hide the van./

“No. Not good enough. I don’t want this to come back and bite us later.”

She’s done making bad choices. Vivi starts up the engine and the van jerks rattling like it needs some proper maintenance. Arthur would have never let it get into such a state. She ignores the pang of guilt, driving recklessly over the rocks, dirt and sand and back onto the road. For what she has planned, the van wouldn’t need to be in any sort of drivable condition for much longer

“We’ll burn it,” She elaborates once they are back on the highway.  “That way, even if it is found, no one will be able to tie it to any missing person case resulting from that thing controlling Arthur. In theory anyway...”

She knows a place that is secluded enough that she would probably be able to get away with setting the van on fire and not draw a ton of attention. A place where she could leave it and not have it immediately discovered. Somewhere that wasn’t so far away meaning it would be possible for her to walk back to the diner with Mystery after she was done.

“Can you cast an illusion big enough to hide the flames?” She is sure she’s acting overly paranoid now but better safe than sorry. Though secluded, the area she’s thinking of is still in view of the road.

/I will have to transform to expand my illusion's range./

“Right.” Vivi glances at Mystery who’s taken his usual position beside her in the front. The concern is still creasing his expression and she quickly refocuses on the road. The last time she had seen Mystery’s kitsune form had been that night. Not a pleasant memory. The sight of Mystery looming over Lewis, all teeth and raw natural fury, glowing bright against an almost black backdrop, had been a constant in the recent spate of nightmares which had spawned from the event. Not that she had slept enough to have many nightmares.

The rest of the trip is silent and, in-between bouts of nervous energy, Vivi can almost pretend she is back with Arthur and Lewis, checking out some new local ghost sighting, laughing and joking. It is a short-lived reprieve as she is quickly turning into the small clearing, sandwiched between rock formations and overlooking a three-meter drop into a small ravine. Supposedly, the area was haunted by some disgruntled cattle rustler, run afoul of the law, chased into the ravine during ye-oldie times.  She feels silly thinking back on how serious she’d taken that investigation. 

“Was any of this stuff anywhere near real?” She asks, driving the van as close the edge as possible.

/ I believe most occurrences of the supernatural, as humans understand it, are merely echoes of past interference./  Mystery scans the cliffs, /If there was any otherworldly influence here, it has long faded./

“I guess that makes sense.” She mutters, distracted as she eyes the vegetation around her. It is sparse, so she doesn’t think it’ll be much of a fire hazard.

“You’ll be able to stop this from spreading and starting any other fires, right?”

Mystery hums to himself and begins to glow. Particles of light cling to his coat like dust motes, fading into the air around him. Unlike that night, the transformation is smooth, air shimmering and flowing over his physical form like water as he expanded to take up more space. Five tails fan out, splitting away from each other, opening like the petals of a flower before swaying languidly from side to side in an almost hypnotic pattern. 

/In this form I can stifle the flames if they become too much or contain the fire within a barrier./

Her breath catches and she nods stiffly, barely hearing him, too focused on how Mystery’s eyes flash bright red when he speaks. Bright, brilliant, red. Her hesitation is spotted and Mystery lowers head and tails, making himself smaller.

/I frighten you?/

Maybe it’s the lack of life-threatening conditions but Mystery's presence is not as dominating as it had been that night. There is less force behind his voice. Less raw anger. Even his tails seam to sag like they are taking on too much weight.

/I am sorr…/

“Save it…” She interrupts what was sure to be another in a long line of empty apologies, “Just… stand a bit over there, okay.”

Mystery seems to deflate further, wilting like a dying plant wanting for rain. The anxiety in her chest loosens ever so slightly.

With only the slightest hint of further hesitation, she begins riffling through the van's camping gear, pulling out a small jerrycan of fuel and dumping it out over the vehicle's interior. Next, she’s digging around for the fire starters and any spare lighter fluid to increase flammability. Out comes the blue zippo lighter with cool snowflake patterning.  She holds it indecisively, flipping it open. The small flame dances, bright in the night-time. Funnily, this will be the first time she uses this lighter. First and last.

This was it. Goodbye van. The van that had been a feature of her friendship with Arthur and Lewis for almost as long as she’d known them.

"Sorry Arthur.”  Another apology for the collection.  

She throws the lighter through the van’s open back doors. The fuel catches and flames spring up, spreading quickly. Soon, long tongues of fire are licking at the windows. A series of small cracks appear in the glass, spiderwebbing out. The heat is intense and she backs away so as not to accidentally burn herself. Sounds of snapping and popping echo in the ravine, the noise trapped by the rocks and cliffs.  Vivi watches the interior of the van blacken, metal reddening and warping. Dark smoke twists upward and disappears into the night.

.

Note: An update in honour of the new MSA: Future :) Enjoy!

Part 41: here

#MSA #mystery skulls animated #fanfiction #time travel #hellbent au #Vivi Yukino #Mystery the dog #sort of compliant with future i guess #in that i guessed a few things right #msa au #Vivi angst #vivi and mystery #sad and angry vivi #rip arthur's van

[anonthenullifier]

Tommy’s First Girlfriend

Thanks for the ask, I hope you enjoy it!  -

It is not in Tommy’s nature to be nervous. Fifteen years of data so far has confirmed this. The last time there was any speck of a wavering self confidence was right before his first review with Sam after a mission, even then it was only a speck amongst the sea of almost endless assuredness that Vision admires (and may even envy) so much in his son. But here Tommy stands, refusing to make eye contact or keep his fingers still while asking a simple question, “Is it okay if I have a, uh,” Vision catalogs the way Tommy runs a hand through his hair, failing to find any similar instances of it being a nervous tic, “friend over to watch a movie, or something.” The last two words are muttered quickly and quietly.

The request is a common one, the Maximoff house slowly becoming a haven of sleepovers and study sessions, primarily for the Young Avengers crew, much to Vision’s delight. “Of course. When-”

“Tonight.”

Wanda glances at Vision, wordlessly seeking if he’s picking up on the general weirdness of Tommy’s on edge and too abrupt, even for a speedster, responses. A small nod provides confirmation and Wanda does what he cannot, easing seamlessly into a natural candor that masks her interrogation. “That’s fine. Is it the whole group or just Nate?”

The grout between the tiles of the backsplash becomes fascinating to their son, his feet developing a gentle forwards and backwards rock. Vision turns to inspect the area above the stove, just to be sure there is not a spectral demon coming through (an event that, sadly, happened a few months prior). There is nothing but the powder blue and white checkered pattern. Eventually, with an uneasy sigh, Tommy answers, “Her name’s Lisa.”

Vision sorts through all the files of people their boys have talked about and doesn’t find a match, even amongst the files from their old schools. This is not an issue, however, because they trust their sons in choosing friends. Before Vision can state this, Wanda mines for just a touch more background, a cheery smile on her face as she asks, “Who’s Lisa?”

Tommy’s rocking increases to a rate above a normal human’s, a sure sign he is contemplating whether he remains in the kitchen with them or abandons the entire endeavor by turning into a streak of green. “I met her during Avengers Give Back,” an annual community service event Pepper started five years prior, “we cleaned up the juvie cafeteria together.”

The attendee list for that site streams through Vision’s mind, stopping at the name Lisa Molinari, female, age fifteen, Springfield, New Jersey. Vision shrugs off the slight annoyance at the knowledge of Tommy hiding a friend from them, something that is within their son’s right but Vision thought they had a more open communication relationship with their children than that, and begins planning. “Does she have any food allergies?”

“Fine, geez,” Tommy’s confession bursts out, “she’s kinda my girlfriend, I think, I don’t know, we’re feeling it out, but I just need you all to be cool and just stay out of it.” A half second of silence is enough for him to actually process the question that was asked, as opposed to the one he thought was, his eyes wide, darting everywhere but Vision and Wanda. “I uh..” If not for Vision’s optimized visual processing, he never would have seen Tommy yank his phone out nor registered the furious tapping of his fingers before being informed, “I’ll let you know when she texts back.” With that Tommy extricates himself by disappearing in a blur.

—

If Tommy was nervous before, now he is veering into full blown anxiety, circling the room at a pace that threatens the integrity of their couch and has led to Wanda securing the bowl of popcorn in a cloud of red so they don’t have to clean up the room again.  “Thomas…” for the majority of parenthood, Vision has found himself at a loss for how to fully advise their children, having never experienced a true childhood himself, but in this instance, he finally feels useful, remembering the way he would hover endlessly in thought at how to approach Wanda or analyze whether her laughter and gentle touches to his arm meant something more than just a close friendship. A second, “Thomas,” slows their son down. It doesn’t stop him completely, but he is now moving at a conversational pace. “Entering into a relationship can be exhilarating and terrifying. It is-”

“I’m not afraid of her, dad.”

“I should hope not.”

Tommy’s annoyance manifests in a moody sigh and an eye roll, an attitude not conducive to romance and one Vision hopes to quell. “You simply need to be yourself and enjoy your evening.” A flippant shrug is all he gets and Vision does his best to temper his own annoyance at how hard Tommy can make it to have a meaningful conversation, something Wanda assures him is fairly common for teenage humans. “You should also be sure to be respectful and remember that consent goes two ways. Neither pressure her or be pressured yourself into an action you are not ready for. There is ample time for physical developments in a relationship and thus there is no need to rush anything.”

“Oh my God.”

Wanda smirks, her hand finding Vision’s and providing him a commiserate squeeze, “Your father’s right. Relationships have to be built on trust and respect.” If he and Wanda were of the same mind, this is where the conversation would stop, however, his wife far prefers to throw a little chaos into any situation. “Plus, we’re going to be in the kitchen all night and don’t want to overhear anything, got it?”

Tommy’s flustered, “Mom,” ends abruptly at the descending two note chime of the door bell. They allow their son to answer the door, his “Hey,” deeper than usual and attempts to be suave, or so Vision assumes based on the clearly fake air of nonchalance Tommy tries to exude by shoving his hands into the pockets of his tracksuit. “Come on in.”

His date’s voice is the only thing that comes through the door,  “My foster dad wanted to make sure your parents are here.”

The exasperated tone of the statement melds perfectly with the jerky wave of Tommy’s hand, directing Vision and Wanda towards the door. Once Tommy and his date move out of the way, Wanda sends a friendly wave to the man in the silver minivan. He acknowledges them with a single honk and then drives off.

“Thanks,” with the van gone Lisa relaxes just enough to smile politely at them while still making it known how ridiculous she thinks the request was, “He’s a bit protective.”

“Understandably so.” Vision cannot fault the man. Much to Billy’s chagrin, Vision always makes sure the Altman’s are around whenever their son goes to socialize, and the Altman’s, in return, always text to be sure Teddy can come over. Realizing they are all standing in an awkward circle, Vision allows his manners to soothe the air. “Welcome, I am-“

Tommy verbally elbows his way in, eager to move them along, “My dad and this is my mom and this” he waves a hand at his date, who grins nervously during the rushed intros, “is Lisa.”

“Nice to meet you.”

“Mom, dad, you had something to do, right?”

Wanda nods, hands coming to wrap around Vision’s bicep to tug him towards the kitchen, “Let us know if you need anything.”

—

They remain, mostly, hidden for the duration of the night, tucked behind the wall separating the kitchen from the living room, conversing almost exclusively through Wanda’s telepathic link. At semi-random intervals either Vision or Wanda will cross the hardwood floors to get a cup of water or a snack, each time tracking the movements of the teens on the couch. Slowly Tommy inches closer to his date, their voices hushed but giddy, and on Vision’s trip back with another glass of water, his lips journey up into an easy arc at the way Lisa has slouched over, her ponytail laying across Tommy’s arm. When he sets the glass down for Wanda, taking her hand into his own so he can toy with the band of her wedding ring, Vision whispers his assessment. “They have reached the cuddling phase.”

This causes his wife’s nose to scrunch up, an adorably joyful sight, her eyes flashing red just to confirm his own conclusion, “They’re happy.”

“That’s all that matters.” Vision leans in, placing a kiss to his wife’s forehead, fond memories surfacing of their own movie night where they transitioned from friends to something more. “Would you care to join me on the deck for some stargazing?”

Instead of agreeing, she studies his face, an air of suspicion hovering between them, “You want to abandon our post?”

“I want to give them some time.”

The curl of her lips suggests she remembers their own pleas to their teammates, of just wanting time and space to exist as a couple instead of being subjected to prying eyes and whispers, “All right, Maximoff.”

Wanda accepts his arm and follows him out the back door and onto the swinging bench.

Time loses meaning under the stars with Wanda snugly wedged under his right arm. Which is why he’s surprised to hear the door open, gentle, unhurried footfalls bringing Tommy to the swing. Wanda brings her knees up, hugging them to her chest to give Tommy space to plop down, the action sending the swing into a wobble.

“How was your date?”

Unlike his usual sardonic avoidance, Tommy smiles, eyes upturned towards the sky, “It was fun.”

Vision cannot control how the world treats his children, no matter how valiantly he tries, and so he relishes moments like now, content in knowing Tommy is happy. “Wonderful.”

#Tommy shepherd #Tommy maximoff #wandavision #scarlet vision #wanda maximoff #vision #ask anon #mine #the maximoffs

[cartoonfangirl1218]

True Colors

Looking at my old messages from FF.net, I found this old descendants story so I decided why not, I'll post it. Heavily inspired by @screaminginternallyalleternity's Jane characterization and JanexCarlosxJay ship. Mainly cuz I had been messaging her. Anywho, hope y'all enjoy.

"So what do you say?" Jordan asked taking a huff of silph.

"It's funny." Jane smiled dreamily, her mind already wandering off as the effects of the silph relaxed her. Though she was sharing her room right kow, she felt at peace and alone, and safe.

"No no" Jordan said waving her hand as if to clear the fumes "I'm serious, we should go to the homecoming dance as ourselves. Our natural forms."

Jane was tempted to roll her eyes at Jordan's ridiculous idea. Go to the dance in their real forms. Ones that were technically "banned" because of how obvious they were magical. Ones that she hid all these years.

She wanted to roll her eyes but Jordan was being oddly insistant about it.

"Why?" Jane asked, evading having to answer or even think about her playing a role in this scheme. She couldn't. She never showed her form to anyone. Her blue freckles were disguised with concealer, her wings and tattos carefully hidden through clothes in which she had never taken them off ever.

"Just for fun. To show those stupid mortals what they are missing? How dare they make us hide what we really are and suppress ourselves." Jordan snorted, clearly gearing up for her usual rant against mortals and the magic ban. "So worried about what we could do to them. How we are technically better than them, hotter than them"

"That's just the silph talking" Jane said softly but already she could feel her panic coming. Barely but it was there. The silph was suppressing it making a odd conflicted emotion.

She felt like she was about to drown, her head trying to reach the surface for a breath of frenetic air and energy but also underwater where it was calm and still.

"No, I thought of doing it before...Non-silph talking. Zoning out during class and stuff."

"Really?" Jane said, trying to keep the conversation heading back to her.

"Yeah. Like one time when I was 13, I had really considered it. Sorta stupid and immature. I wanted to show up Audrey. You know, because of how she is always bragging how she is the prettiest and the fairest. Also I used to have a crush on Ben."

"You had a crush on Ben" Jane murmured.

She never would have guessed, Jordan didn't seem the type. She always figured she would be with a more confident, brash person. And a Fae at that too considering how she always complained of mortals.

"Ben's...Ben. He's so generous and caring. Unselfishness, such a turn on." Jordan sighed wistfully.

"If it's just for the dates, you shouldn't do it." Jane advised.

"But it's not just the guys. It's showing off to the girls too. It's an ego boost. Aren't you tired of being ignored, and considered to be plain when you just KNOW that you could top those mortal girls any day of the week." Jordan protested. 

Jane blanched. No! That sounded horrible. It was enough people thought of her as a freak and avoided her now. Not that she wanted to hang out with others and their shallowness. She didn't want people to look at her like she was some sort of object. Her form wasn't even that pretty. "But but it looks weird, it's not pretty." She said.

"Please." Jordan scoffed. But seeing Jane's uncertainty she changed to a softer tone.

"Even if you don't think so. The mortals will. I mean I have bright pink skin for goodness sake" she pulled at her pink streaks "That doesn't look good but the people think it's hot as hell. It's because we are Fae. It's a novelty, we are exotic and exotic is erotic. It reminds them of who we actually are. Magical, mysterious, thus incredibly unattainable and sexy." Jane looked down nervously, taking long calming breaths. "I'm not doing it." 

To Jane, this step of showing off was too overwhelming and intimate. Her wings, her tattoos were personal. Whenever she did unfurl her wings alone she felt exposed but free because she was alone. To do that with people staring at her would be unthinkable and clustraphobic. These over-entitled royals would see her as exotic alright. A exotic toy or object to be touched and viewed over. Just more bullying over why Jane wouldn't serve them or help them.

Jordan frowned, "I was hoping but I figured you wouldn't. Oh well better yet to make a solo entrence. With your lithe curves you might have taken even more attention than me. After all people wouldn't expect you to do it." Jane sighed. No they wouldn't and she was perfectly fine with playing up to THAT expectation.

Two weeks later was the homecoming dance and Jane waited nervously outside the courtyard doors for her dates, Jay and Carlos. It was the second dance they were coming all together and she felt as fluttery as she did the first time.

They made her feel normal in a way. They all had issues but they understood each other. She felt safe, and even if people stared at the threesome she didn't care. The people that mattered to her were with her. As she waited patiently for the two to show up, she looked around at the expanse of darkness. 

How things had changed. She wouldn't have gone to one of these events last year. Too boring. But now with the incursion of VKs there were quiet a few changes even some repeals of the magic ban even though she had disapproved Mal's actions in ignoring the ban and giving magic and an even worse rep.

From the corner of her eye, she saw one of the ornately shaped hedges rustling and went over to it.

She saw Jordan applying the finishing touches of black lipstick as she stared into a compact mirror.

"Hey,” Jane waved.

"Oh hi,” Jordan said distractedly.

"Are you still doing your big entrance?" Jane asked shyly. Even though Jordan seemed fine showing off her form, it still felt like an intimate act to Jane so she felt that it and to be whispered with the respected amount of privacy. 

"Yeah," Jordan clipped her compact shut, and transformed.

Jane tried not to be so obvious in her astonishment but her mouth dropped open anyway. She could see what Jordan meant by the pink skin looking odd but at the same time, it was incredibly alluring.

Her hair had lost its' pink streaks and was out of the usual ponytail in long pure black waves. The hair itself looked like it was constantly moving in slow-motion as if she was underwater. Her eye were still light blue but now circled with azure. Same blue eyeshadow with three distinctive spots over her left eye. Her black lips provided a contrast to the skin.

The rest of her body had changed as well. A more pronounced curvy figure to say the least. The light green sleeveless tube top was cut off at the midriff and Jane secretly wondered how the hell it was holding up Jordan's pronounced bust considering that it looked like it was one jump away from popping out completely.

Magic she supposed.

Meanwhile her matching skirt laid loosely over her now obvious hips, and where her legs were, now was a smokey wave as if she had just emerged from a lamp. Jordan had also highlighted her look with shiny jewels that Agrabah was famous for. A diamond/emerald necklace. An amber jewel coming from her belly ring. Tiny ruby, amethyst and Amber jewels decorating the dress itself in patterns. Plus the golden cuff links genies were known by.

It was an awe-ing sight altogether and she couldn't or wanted to look away from how Jordan moved and glistened.

"So that dress..interesting," Jane said.

Jordan tugged on her pointed ear with it's single gold hoop, "I'm the embodiment of wish fulfillment. You learn to deal with the no clothes thing."

Jane merely nodded than comment, "It's cool that you're doing this. I just wouldn't...it's scary."

"I know, I'm scared too." Jordan said which took Jane aback. She had showed no fear throughout this whole thing.

"You think I don't know what might happen. Being objectified, moreso than usual. More demands for wishes. The usual entitled mortal comments. People that forgot how magical I am will remember, and want favors. Trust me. I'm sticking by Aziz or Ben the entire night. No casual one night stands today." "You don't have to do it." Jane assured her.

"I'm going to." Jordan said firmly "Even though I hate how people see me. I hate hiding who I am even more. Hiding magic is painful, and using silph is okay but still that is a small consolation. There has to be more." 

Jane thought of Starlight Valley with her father. How wonderful it was. "Good luck then" Jane murmered as Jordan started toward the door. Then paused to pull up Jordan's tube top up a little more so the bust was safely cradled in them. Even though it still looked a bit unlikely to stay that way.

"Thanks. Have fun tonight." Jordan said and went inside.

Jane resumed her position outside but couldn't ignore the pounding wave of thoughts she felt from inside. As well as the actual noise of whistles and catcalls.

Jane sighed and summoned some courage and wiped off the concealer from her cheeks as Carlos and Jay ambled toward her. The move revealed her light blue freckles that danced across here face.

"Hi Jane" Carlos smiled with a hint of nervous excitement. His bright white teeth made an unconscious smile dance across her lips. "Pretty" Jay, ever the blunt one, poked at her cheek, to which Jane playfully swatted his hand away.

"Have you always had them?" Carlos asked as he took her hand. "Yeah" Jane bit her lip, smiling.

"They're pretty" Carlos complimented "They match your eyes." 

Jane nodded her head bs shrilly and grabbed Jay's hand to head inside.

#jordan #jane #fairygodmother #disney descendants #carlos de’vil #jay #son of jafar #true colors #my fanfic #my fanfiction #d1 #poly #jaynlos

[peterstanslizzie]

Reacting To: Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts (Season 3 Episode 2)

Episode Title: Code Word Milkshake

Spoiler Warning: Kindly proceed if you’ve already seen the episode or are able to handle spoilers 

1. OMG! A K-pop song? That’s so cool! It sounds like BTS lol. And the song is pretty catchy too 🎵; “Dive into my ocean of love”. It’s such a bop! We see the mutes (even the Mod Frogs) fangirling HARD. But what animals are these guys supposed to be? Are they dolphins? But why do they have horns? And apparently abs as well: 

2. Aww but the leader of the group, Hyun Soo (as revealed in the subtitles) soon gets paralyzed by a dart and is kidnapped after signing fan autographs. And of course, it’s the doing of Dr. Emilia as she’s seen testing a serum sample on Hyun Soo. Again, I’m impressed with her ability to be so stealthy. However, she’s finding it difficult in getting the right formula for the genetic serum since none of the samples she’s used so far has worked on the kidnapped mutes. BTW, Jamack talking to Hyun Soo is hilarious. 

3. In Timbercat Village, Kipo is planning with HMUFA a mission to find Emilia, rescue their friends and retrieve Song’s research journal. Oh, did Asher get a haircut? If so, they look really nice.

4. Our boy, Benson wants Troy to come along because he feels safer when he’s around. How precious! I’m  happy he gets to go on a mission with Kipo for the first time too. It’s nice to mix groups up sometimes. And it looks like it’s just gonna be a human/hybrid-only mission because the mutes won’t be able to handle Emilia’s sonic emitter. Dave is upset that he won’t be able to tag along with them. I think it’s a good thing to sit this one out because he does have a tendency to die during their missions lol.

5. They manage to hitch a ride on a couple of dragonfly mutes due to Kipo coming up with the codeword, “Milkshake” to keep situations calm.  Random but okay. As they’re flying over the sea, they spot a ship, which definitely belongs to Emilia since we hear Zane asking Greta to turn on the sonic emitter as some mysterious sea creature was circling around them. Because the dragonflies are not immune to the sound, this causes them all to fall into the water

6. The group tries to climb over the ship to get a peek of the situation aboard and they can see the burrow humans enjoying their time there, splish-splashing in a giant pool paired with a crazy slide and everything. 

7. Dave lets Lio and Roberto know that he wants to have a boys night out (BNO) with them. But it’s clear that he’s doing this because he still feels salty about not being included in the stealth mission. Roberto looks like he doesn’t want to go out but Lio is down to hangout with Dave-o lol. 

8. Back on the Dr. Emilia’s ship, Kipo and gang try to find her lab but they almost got spotted by a blonde human girl, who apparently is able to hear Hyun Soo  sing through the cafeteria vents and thus, wants him to sing for her. Kipo and Troy actually recognize her from their old burrow. She’s actually Hoag’s daugther, Doag! I can’t believe he named his daughter that lol. Anyways, they were all actually friendly with one another, so we shall see if she’s willing to help them or not. Doag really likes dancing and we see her dancing around to Hyun Soo’s singing. She then does a split and spots them. Well, she doesn’t look alarmed actually. 

9. Meanwhile, Dave and Lio are playing cards but afterward, they went to check out the so-called “community bonding” session between Timbercats and the Umlaut snakes. At first, it seems like they are having a huge argument but they’re actually just writing a song and having a couple of debates. It’s song-break time. This time, the song is called ‘Friendship Alliance’. How fitting. After the performance, Lio says he wants to go to bed but Dave isn’t done yet and wants him to check out his secret stash of explosion berry cola.

10. Doag explains to the group that Dr. Emilia has been treating them nicely so far but they want her to know the truth about Emilia who has been trying to kill Kipo since she was a baby. Plus, according to Troy (and Benson from earlier on), she didn’t eat his Benson’s pancakes. Troy is way more upset about the part about the pancakes, which of course he has to be since it’s his boo’s pancakes. But my goodness, Doag’s voice is like nails on the chalkboard. Don’t you agree? 

11. I think it’s hard for them to convince her that Dr. Emilia is a bad person, especially since they don’t have any real evidence to show. Emilia is like a savior to these humans. Fortunately, Doag wants to help them rescue Boom-Boom, Jamack, Camille and Hyun Soo regardless. 

12. She takes them to Dr. Emilia’s lab, which isn’t very hidden like they said lol. The door’s locked but Troy, the skilled magician was able to pick the lock no problem. Benson is impressed and he actually addressed him as his boyfriend! Cute!

13. They enter the lab and we see all the kidnapped mutes trapped in their individual mute-proof cells. Aww the way Jamack called Kipo, Burrow Girl was so sweet. He has come a really long way with her since Season 1 huh? I don’t know what’s up with Boom-Boom but she(?) doesn’t look too good, almost unhinged. So, Hyun Soo is known as a Dolphicon! I guess that’s short for Dolphin and Unicorn. That’s explains the horn. I actually like the name “Wall Siren” for him as well. Despite only speaking in Korean, Hyun Soo does seem to understand English when Doag asks him “who are you?”. I feel like the introduction of Hyun Soo is like paying homage to Kipo’s animation studio, Studio Mir, which is in fact South Korean. 

14. Kipo proceeds to then break them out of their cells. Doag declares she’s going to help them escape. I actually hope there’s a chance that she would be part of Kipo’s group officially. She seems cool, mostly lol. Wolf also finds Song’s research journal but before they could make their escape, the traumatized Boom-Boom looks at the needles Dr. Emilia has been using on her, freaks out and drops her nectar bombs on them, which causes the whole lab to explode.  Boom-Boom needs therapy for sure. Ughh…Wolf also accidentally drops the journal and leaves it behind the lab. That book is probably destroyed. 

15. Back at Timbercat village, I assume Lio had already drank the cola before he is super hyped. Yumyan also joins in on their shenanigans and he gives them the idea to steal Molly’s axe and put it in an axe bush (is that what Yumyan said?). Also, is this supposed to be a pun or something?

16. Doag puts Hyun Soo in their getaway boat but it’s weird since he’s a dolphin and can just swim in the water instead lol. They’re supposed to leave now but Kipo wants to face Emilia now. I say she’s making a bad decision here. Dr. Emilia then arrive with Greta and Zane but Wolf takes out the latter two easily. The rest of the humans come out to the deck to see what the ruckus is all about and Emilia tries to play coy and innocent with them. 

17. Hoag notices that his daughter isn’t around. Our heroes try to explain to the humans that Dr. Emilia is the bad guy; They told about how Song is the Mega Monkey and how she got her to attack and destroy their home back in Season 1. And they explain that she mind-controlled Song to kill her own daughter. 

Even grandma can deliver a beatdown on someone lol

18.The humans are reluctant to believe them because it does sound very farfetched. But c’mon…they should know by know that Las Vistas is a messed up place; Anything can happen. Also, don’t they remember the Mega Monkey saving them from getting gilded in Season 2. Suddenly, Hoag makes an attempt to paralyze Kipo with one of the darts but she quickly reacts and knocks him out. The humans see this and they get mad at her. Eventually, Kipo and the others make their escape. Finally. 

19. Back to Lio and Dave. We find out towards the end that Molly actually killed Dave 5 times for the stunt he pulled on her lol. Anyways, the both of them are glad to have this bonding session with one another since Kipo isn’t around. 

20. Our heroes reach land but Doag wants to go back because she knows her dad is worried sick about her. And so, Hyun Soo and I guess the rest of his groupmates are bringing her back there. Aww, she should’ve stayed but I understand why she wants to go back to the ship. But to be honest, somebody should’ve thought to give her a communicator or a walkie-talkie or something because at least they can know what Dr. Emilia’s next move is. Perhaps they don’t really have to think too much into it since the journals has been decimated and all…or is it?

21. Wolf, I hope you’re happy you dropped the journal lol. Dr. Emilia figures out that Kipo is X. Wait, I’m trying to remember if there any mention of X in the previous episodes. Anyways, I wonder what she’s going to do with the fur Kipo left during their last confrontation. I guess since Kipo is a human who also has the DNA of apex predators, Emilia is going to play with her recombinant DNA and figure out a way to reverse the effects of the mute DNA so that only the normal DNA will be present? I dunno….

22. Last note/tiny bit of criticism: Is it just me or do you guys sometimes think that some of the character designs look a little wonky in this episode? Sometimes, I felt like Kipo, Benson and even Troy look a little off in some frames. Anyways, that’s the end of my review of episode 2. Stay tuned tomorrow for my review of episode 3. Thanks for reading everybody!

#kipo #dreamworks kipo #netflix kipo #dreamworks animation #kipo and the age of wonderbeasts #troy x benson #troyson #dave #wolf #mandu #benson #lio #song #mega monkey #mega jaguar #kpop #studio mir #BTS #lgbt representation #lgbt animation #lgbt cartoons #lgbtq #gay couples #gay characters #code word #milkshake #episode review #episode recap

[sweetest-honeybee]

To Hell and Back

Chapter 25

Summary: Hels goes to find Evil X after Xisuma recruits Keralis and Impulse.

Characters: Hels, Doc, Xisuma, Keralis, Impulse (Evil X mentions)

TW: A bit of worrying but otherwise nothing much

Okay turns out, chapter 24 and 25 are uploaded in the right order but they’re written weird to me lol, this one probably should’ve been first

————————

When Keralis and Impulse arrived, it wasn’t any surprise how they reacted to the scene in front of them. Seeing Wels unconscious against the glass in the middle of the room with an arrow sticking out of his side, sweaty and pale, was horrifying. Though, the open iron door with blood dripping down it and Doc wrapping Beef’s head in several bandages disturbed them even more so.

“What….happened….” Impulse asked, looking towards Xisuma. His friend sighed.

The admin didn’t really know how to lay it down without sounding like the weirdest possible thing to ever happen. To say that Wels was taken over by a dark force of some kind that spoke to him in his head and then bashed Beef’s skull repeatedly against the iron door wasn’t exactly an easy idea to process.

“Well,” X started. “Something went wrong when Hels was created.” He eyed Hels who mostly went back to his normal self, sending Xisuma a bored expression. “For some reason, Wels has been becoming….evil, I guess. He tried to kill Tango over a trade earlier.”

“He what?!” Both new additions yelled in unison.

“So, we brought him here,” he continued. “Locked him in a cage and kept Hels here in case anything happened to him too.”

“Not that they cared if anything was wrong with me, they just wanted to help Wels,” Hels added from the other side of the room with a mocking happy tone. No surprise that he was back.

Xisuma shot him a glare but turned his attention back to the boys. “While he was in his weird evil state, he started….struggling. He was fighting against these voices in his head, saying they were loud. Beef went in the cage to help him and….” He gestured to the scene behind him. “Bashed his head in over and over.”

Both Impulse and Keralis were in shock at the explanation. That wasn’t at all what they were expecting to hear, to be honest. If you asked them, they probably would’ve said that they thought it was Hels who they needed the backup for. Probably would’ve been rude to assume, but not improbable, given the situation.

“Wow, I guess I’m no longer the evil one here.” They turned to Hels with a grimace. “What’re you gonna do about it then? Not that it matters to you but I’m not exactly a fan of being soft.”

“Who said we were obligated to help you,” Doc said, finishing up dressing Wels’s wound as well. “Even if helping you meant that Wels would be okay, nothing says we can’t kick you back to Hels.”

“Doc!” Xisuma shouted. “He’s done nothing wrong here, he’s just being himself which, if you think about it, is the best thing we’ve got to rely on right now.”

“Well would ya’ look at that, I’m important.”

Doc grumbled under his breath. Something mentioning Evil Xisuma but the admin had no care to mention it. He turned back to Impulse and Keralis.

“Right then, we’re gonna take him to somewhere more secure, my base, maybe? We can put him underground in some kind of cell until we can figure this out so he’s not hurting anyone else.” Noticeably, Xisuma fidgeted near the end of his sentence uncomfortably. Unsurprisingly to them, he was probably stressed out at what was going on and with what he witnessed firsthand.

“Alright, we can do that. Is Hels staying in a cell, too?” asked Keralis. The knight scoffed. “I’m not staying in a cell. I have self control.”

Xisuma rolled his eyes. “No, he’s not a threat. But we need him around once in a while at least.” He gestured for Hels to get off the table. “You can go stay with Evil X for now while we get Wels there. Keralis, mind getting Beef to the clinic?”

“Can do, Shashwamy!”

While he did that, Doc slung Wels over his shoulders like a sack of potatoes, the knight weighing nearly nothing to him. The creeper had a feeling this would probably be happening often over the next couple days if the possession continued. Impulse and Xisuma stood on the side with their hands on their hilts of their swords in case Wels woke up again, though Impulse didn’t like the idea of hurting his friend when he wasn’t the one in control of his own body.

Hels on the other hand stuttered at how casually Xisuma said he should be the one to go see Ex. He didn’t really want to see Ex, not after what’d happened earlier on. Supposedly, the counterpart had feelings for him and that would not do since he was a cold hearted malicious knight with no intent with romance.

Obviously.

“Why do I have to see him?! After what he said?!”

To Xisuma, he only sounded whiny. Though, after what he said to Evil X earlier, a bit of guilt trickled into his stomach. He completely forgot that Ex had even ‘confessed’ after Wels’s outburst and the dark knight bringing it back up only made his stomach churn.

“Well, at least you two will have a lovely discussion,” the admin spat, following Doc outside while Keralis lifted off with Beef. He wasn’t interested in hearing the knight complain. If he wanted to go somewhere else instead, then Xisuma knew he’d just visit another Hermit. Stress, probably, but given what happened to Tango, he wondered if Tango went over there as well.

Hels growled at him while he flew off. “Damn admins thinking they can just tell everyone what to do,” he muttered.

Now, he could just not go to Ex’s place, just avoid the topic altogether and move on. He knew Ex wouldn’t have any problem with that since the counterpart just followed him around more or less like a lost puppy when he wasn’t showing Hels around the server. Hels really should’ve seen it coming before, Ex was infatuated with him from the moment he even knew the knight existed. How hypocritical though, since Hels did the same thing for a couple years when Evil X was still evil. But it wasn’t romantic, at least he thought. He admired how Ex used his powers and how much he was loved by The Lord of Darkness. The Lord praised him for his efforts but that went downhill pretty quickly at some point within the last few years.

The Lord was the one who really decided who those in Hels did and didn’t like. Thus why nobody liked Ex there, not even Hels himself for a period of time. Strangely, he began to grow interested in Evil X again. The man was still a mischief marker for sure, Hels could tell, but he was….kind to Hels. And it could be that the knight was forcefully getting nicer by the day because of whatever was happening to his counterpart, but he did enjoy it. So much so that he found himself flushing at the thought.

Ex gave him gifts of many kinds, usually flowers, but sometimes it was a cool new piece of armor or a cape. Sometimes he gifted Hels some of the leftover magic he had when the knight realized that he no longer had the abilities he was given by The Lord when he was the Champion. And sometimes, he’d just give him random items like a fully enchanted sword or a bow, usually engraved with his name on it.

Hels dragged a hand over his face, his cheeks feeling the heat of his thoughts. Okay, romance was a possibility but rest assured, he wasn’t going to be acting on it. He was really gonna have to talk to this guy, huh? Even if it meant that Ex would be painfully rejected- since Hels was very sure he didn’t feel any romantic attraction to him- he might as well rip the bandaid off and get it over with.

Out of habit, he tried summoning a portal to get to the other’s base but nothing more than a few red sparks left his fingertips. He scowled, of course he’d have to fly. Ex wasn’t that far away, but Hels wasn’t the best at flying much like Wels. He was bound to crash into something. Groaning, he slipped on his elytra, grimacing at the new black feathers growing on them. As much as he hated to admit it, he wanted to be back to normal as well. Yes, he wasn’t a fan of the whole nice thing, but he was growing tired of it. Quite literally as the switch of mind was taking its toll on his body.

He rocketed off into the sky, to go to Evil X’s base. You could see his tower from Beef base so wasted night time making a beeline for it. He flew in circles above it, now noticing how much it kind of looked like Xisuma’s bee farm, just with a random block palette in every section, slime blocks replacing where the honey would be. A little sidetracked, he wondered if the man even liked honey. He had a flower farm but he didn’t seem to show any taste for it.

Hels shook his head, landing and walking around inside. Where stalls of bees would be, there was just nothing. The only thing really in there was a walkway down the center of the build and on the sides, a spiraling staircase into a deep pit of darkness. Lord only knew how many mobs were down there and before he knew he was, he worried for Ex’s safety. The man didn’t respawn like Xisuma did, having hundreds of mobs would only risk him dying. Really, Ex might’ve been smarter than that, but he had his moments.

The knight’s stomach twisted at the thought. Without Ex, it was a little awkward to be the only Evil Hermit on the server and with what Wels thought of him, it made him a little uneasy to some extent. He actually grew to like Beef and it was a shame that he lived so close to Wels, not that he could control that. Hels wasn’t afraid of a Wels, per se, but he had to give him credit where credit was due: Wels was an amazing fighter. The thought of the blue jeweled hilt of Wels’s sword just barely sticking out of his stomach crossed his mind with that and he made an audible noise to it, gripping the glass railing beside him.

Especially since what was happening to Wels. The amount of obsidian he needed was all too familiar to Hels. Whatever was in the other knight was definitely something from Hels, he was quite sure. They weren’t switching. Something, somewhere deep in Hels was trying to use the lighter knight to do their bidding and it wasn’t Helsknight himself. Whatever was affecting Wels was using the essence of Hels’s very personality.

Which, he could guess, was flattering.

After a few minutes of searching, flying up and around the base again and flying back inside, he discovered that Ex wasn’t here. He grumbled to himself. The sun was beginning to hide behind the hills and he didn’t feel like flying all over the entire server just to look for Ex. Muttering curses under his breath, he pulled out his communicator, a gift from the admin early on so they could keep an eye on him and vice versa.

<Helsknight> Evil X, where are you?

He tapped his foot impatiently while he waited against the railing. He rolled his eyes, typing again.

<Helsknight> Hello?

<Helsknight> Anyone seen him?

<Tango> Not at his base? That’s where he told me he would be

<Xisuma> Not at my base

<Helsknight> Dude check your communicator

<Xisuma> Oh jeez I think I upset him

Hels furrowed his brows. Then, he thought back to how Ex went to go talk to Xisuma after his little random confession. A bit of anger bubbled in his stomach at whatever the admin could’ve said to make his counterpart run off and hide like that. He glared at the screen as he typed.

<Helsknight> What did you do.

<Tango> Same here, he was scared or something after I saw you leave X

<Xisuma> Oh no

<Xisuma> Hels are you by an end portal? There’s one in evil Xs base underground

<Helsknight> I’ll find it

<Helsknight> Whatever you did, I will kill you for it

<Xisuma> Just go find him.

With a huff, Hels turned off his communicator, not bothering to read any other messages afterwards. He looked down over the railing, swaying a bit from the sheer amount of height. He’s handled darkness and raids and hundreds of mobs before but he’s come out with more injuries than he could count. Just because he could fight them off didn’t mean it was ever a pleasant experience.

Sucking in a breath, he made his way over to the stairs, drawing his sword and shield.

Well, here goes nothing.

#my fic #to hell and back #helsknight #xisuma #long post

[incarnateirony]

We’re gonna try this again. “Canon” is accepted additions and editions within a body of work (literary canon, western canon, british canon, romantic canon, eg, books in review for genre study; alternately, supernatural canon like episodes are canon, novels and fanfic aren’t.) Yeah? Yeah.

Text is a lot of things. Some people pretend it’s just spoken dialogue or kissing (not sure why the last counts when other visual language doesn’t, according to fandom) -- and frankly I’m working on that Media Studies A Level course to show how to read media text to understand visual language. Text will always be interpretable. 

Subtext is the underlying principle or morals binding the text and adding cohesion based on a series of social codes we understand. And no, for the love of god, I’m not talking about queer coding. Or at least not entirely. I’m talking about cultural and social codes. Did you know it’s actually a social code that letters have meanings and sounds, and that those meanings and sounds build into words? And atop that, a social code that words have meanings, and a social code that when these meanings are combined into sentences or paragraphs, they have collective meanings?  Or that in a serialized production (and recognizing what that means is a code) that episodes are connected in a continuous story that makes previous episodes relevant to understand the next?

Yeah, it’s cool stuff, codes. It’s how our universe operates. That’s why it’s called, for example, codes of conduct. Codes! And codes are not irrelevant to a work, or irrelevant in the discussion of canon, unless you also want to pretend you can stare at a book and ignore what letters mean and the meanings they make and then tell people what you think the book says.

Operative codes are how anything, anywhere -- text, TV, life, society, language -- literally anything works. So I’m getting that out of the way before someone decides to try to announce that codes are just subtext and are thus not relevant to talking about canon because like, no, the opposite. Canon can not exist without codes.

Subtext is not the same as interpretation. Subtext is also, very honestly, not all equally valid, in this “all interpretations are equal.” You can and will fail a paper report if you come up with dumbass subtext proposal that doesn’t hold water. Subtext is also not an inferior part of the body of text or canon, but instead, a binding element that makes any form of storytelling work. It’s not a secret handshake. It’s not whatever you want to make it, but rather, whatever stands in the body of text to address how that text functions within its designated codes. It’s not something you really have to chase.

Despite the general absurdity of pretending only spoken dialogue is text in AV Medium or SPN fandom discussion, I’m going to play within this fandom’s sandbox on that weird talking point within this post, and show that even still, the fandom’s use of text and subtext to dismiss or argue content falls flat.

Let’s talk about Colette subtext. After all, Cas was Colette, right? The problem being with this subtext is, while actually valid and able to structurally hold water, it was immersed. This is, at best, the earliest manifestations of something called Subtext By Question. Alone, this subtext does not mean much, and is distant to the eye of a reader. You have to think about it, and the text has to later turn up something that connects these elements. For example, in this instance, the resulting text manifests in following episodes with who Dean almost kills (although that, itself, is a code of understanding, in that the expectation is to subvert the dark destiny projected for him, so he didn’t ACTUALLY have to kill everyone.) If you look backwards for answers, in Subtext By Question, you can find the reverse-people that were killed and allot them relevance in association. But at this point, you’re really having to scrap around, a season back or a season forward, to find a few key elements. The subtext here is valid, but barely able to be argued as structural. It isn’t central, it isn’t focus. It’s passive. The active element here is Dean needing to subvert this dark destiny in mirror of Cain for important people in his life. The less important element is honestly if you’re going to argue circles about what the Colette placement means (and, if not everybody is following social codes, you’ll never reach an understanding!)

(I’ll also add a brief aside that the subtext here tells a lot of things! It’s subtext is first that Cain did the same things he’s listing to Dean, and that subtext straps back to previous text. One can call the who-is-who ‘subtext’, if one doesn’t apply social codes to what the text is saying: Three people dead, now do it backwards. If you don’t know how to count to three or count to three backwards, then yes, we can call the who’s-who subtext. Unfortunately, ARRIVING to this line of text in retrospect requires chasing a long subtextual line a season back.)

On the other hand, Dean lies. A lot. It’s like, what he do. When Dean says, “I like to think it’s because of my perky nipples,” if one were to demand the text stand alone, one might actually try to argue that Dean honestly believed it was because of his perky nipples. The subtext, on the other hand, is a form of Privileged Subtext. It’s something we, the consumers, inherently understand that no, Dean does not genuinely believe it is because of his perky nipples. But if we’re only holding flat text as canon, and most explicitly only dialogue as text, then clearly the only authentic way to read this without subtext, which this fandom dismisses as canon, is that Dean thought it was because of his perky nipples, and by this fandom’s standard of how to read and receive bodies of text, that was the canon to draw from the scenario. It’s independent. It doesn’t even need to tie anything. Because this is an element that subconsciously remains in the character, perpetually, that we are privileged to knowing. But applying the logic to this is itself a social code (unless you really want to think -- you know what -- okay.)

Now let’s talk about how text is reliant on its canonicity with genuine subtext (not random interpretation), how they connect, and then one becomes the other.

In 11.4, Sam and Dean ride in a car and Sam textually presents, in full dialogue since people don’t seem to grok visual language as part of textual canon (and why I’ll be releasing the course soon, but this should help frame the TEXTUAL end of things for people) -- the idea of a hunter, or someone in the life. This is full dialogue text. Dean dismantles it due to their history, while Castiel calls in, about a case in their area and life at the moment. The text is that Sam is thinking about this and that Dean doesn’t think it’s possible. The text is also that they do have a very closely tied person in their life. The subtext doesn’t even really need to be phrased, simply a notice, within basic social codes and understanding, that these things connect to each other.

In 11.19 The Hunter Husbands arise, and Dean takes his turn asking about finding someone in the life. Here’s the fun thing. The hunter’s text is, and I quote, “Like an old married couple.” There is no physical affirmation, no “I love you” or, more in this fandom’s situation “I love you like specifically in the romantic and gay way” that everyone seems to want. The text “Like an old married couple” is actually interpretable, as any and all text is. On the blatant reading, it’s that they’re romantically involved. On the surface level, they’re only ~like~ an old married couple, which anyone and anyone could assume was a turn of phrase or generalized comparison (and have used this argument on other statements for other pairings in the show; hell, after all to stay in-subject with this post, what if Castiel was just LIKE a wife to Dean with his Colette placement, because gUyS cAn hAvE StRoNG fRiEndShiPs tOo)

So what makes it obvious? What makes it DUHHH? It’s the subtext. And social codes. Why these same social codes fly out the window when the fandom is talking about Destiel is a whole other damn mystery, but they do. The actual willingness and ability to nail down and commit to “like an old married couple” without spinning around in circles about how people might interpret that line, or even willingness TO spin in those circles, is based on the surrounding subtext -- partially drawn from 11.4, partially drawn from Sam meeting Eileen recently and partially from Dean and Cas -- partially from the way they actually physically engage LIKE one of these pairings -- just from a whole plethora of elements that we understand, based on a basic code of understanding: The text is the text and the “Like” isn’t a turn of phrase or relevant even if someone wanted to be a crackpot and argue it. And what other subtext does that make? They Gay. Or you can take social codes of understanding, and stop calling it subtext, and recognize that if two men are married they are queer, instead of abandoning this social code of understanding to explain around it. Without compulsion to argue with antis that don’t exist for that pairing, tada! Everybody’s acting just fine and normal within basic human social codes to understand the text as framed by the substantiative subtext.

Season 15 these elements return, with Dean remarking about Eileen being someone in the life. This is flat, dialogue, central text. The social code in play, being aware that serialized TV connects a story, reminds us that this has been discussed before, in fact with the same elements surrounding them as during 11.4 and 11.19. Eileen has become the person to fill Sam’s previous wondering. Dean’s wondering of the past and current “in a bad place” becomes Subtext By Question, flowing from the previous and current textual elements, to leave a blank space. 

However, that blank space is filled one episode later -- as, in the alternate universe, after the Marriage By Mark, and Cas went Crazy, in full dialogue text, that he had a death wish ever since -- first, that they lost everyone they care about, and then he buried Cas at sea; and, in the same breath, Eileen was the same to Sam. Now, hopefully I don’t have to explain how, if you continue to endorse level and equal social codes (without applying the Super Hard Nightmare Difficulty Goalposts, and changing your codes in application even within a single scene), this pans out in the text. The ironic subtext here is that Eileen is Sam’s Cas. Not the other way around even. It’s the secondary presented element over the primary focus. That’s how it be. But the text is, at this point, that they are literally the partner of each person in regards to an ongoing textual and subtextual story since season 11. 

In result, season 10′s Colette drop kind of feels like swished-out toothpaste, doesn’t it (even if it was written by the same author.) Actually funny enough, to get back down to subtext as deep as Colette was originally buried, one could actually reasonably and structurally argue that, both scenarios being bound by the Mark actually elevates Colette to the front again, as in, Dean’s Colette took the Mark for him, just as he almost killed his Colette and his Abel when he had the Mark, and Dean’s Colette’s price was the same. That is to say: this old, buried subtext still remains an old, buried subtext, but attaches to the surface level text that is itself... text.  That subtext is relevant again, it didn’t just drop off after a few dart notes on a board. But again this also relies on basic social codes regarding serialized television.

But that’s a whole other aside. The reality here is that these elements are all text. The previous subtext of Castiel being on the phone in 11.4 has become fully dialogue *and* visual narrative text by this point in the story. It isn’t a sidelined or buried element. It’s both central text, what few parts might be called subtext based on AV text confusion are still central text, they are literally the focal point of the story -- the meaning and importance of those characters is there in the present, at the core of the lens, not something you’re burying through rubble and playing connect-the-dots on. Any callbacks are to solid, loud, front line elements of the past that are being repeatedly hammered in at the same textual wavelength. It’s just there. 

Heck if you REALLY want to long haul the subtext we can do a full break-out on Sam’s face of it, with Rowena more than once mirroring Cain dialogue to Sam as his mentor, who he killed, as Cain wanted to kill Abaddon, his mistress. And that if Eileen is tangibly Sam’s Cas, then in frame she is his Colette, as Cas is Dean’s Colette. These are the other forms of subtext you’re given to debate in a paper, for example, even if they are not the immediate binding subtext and social codes attaching sentences to each other to form complex ideas in the body of text.

Another fun one I’ve seen is the implication that it’s unfair that Sam and Eileen are banging after a few episodes. But guys-- that’s not in the text. In fact, the only text we have is smarmy tongue in cheek from Dean about a tie (that would be coded text based on social functions) that Sam denied (making the subtext that Dean was wrong about his assumption, and the dialogue is unreliable.) Yes, they have a kiss, that’s fine. But that statement? That they’re banging? That is at best an interpretation, and people would actually struggle to find any substantiative subtext that illustrates this even within operative and level social codes sustained from the previous episodical run. You can’t just flip flop your codes around and say you’re reading it right. That’s how you fail a paper.

So what does this say, then, about people that are objectively refusing the other surrounding text and subtextual elements as textually romantic within the canon? If you can jump there with one, without a basis, why are we bashing down the other one? Ah-hah! You say, but they kissed! Actually, people were submitting this complaint before that, around the time of Interrupting Angel which mirrored Interrupting Moose -- what a wild subtextual connection of old textual elements! (And one the author popped up out of the blue to like my screaming tweet about on twitter, I loves him.) 

But back to the question, where does this take us? If people can manufacture interpretations without even subtext much less text to verify and even complain about the sexual engagements of characters on one side, and when quite literally textually speaking, aside from a kiss -- a performative element, which I remind you, is unspoken, and we’ve been banished by Weird Fandom Laws from using anything other than dialogue as “text” despite AV media study codes -- Why are we here, what’s wrong, why the fuck are people arguing about the text still, or calling it subtext, please, fucking enlighten me on any answer that doesn’t involve “Unlevelly applied social codes.”

Because if we want to incorporate that kiss, a non-dialogue element, as text, we’re about to dive helluva far into what constitutes text in AV medium. And this is going to make the opposing argument even worse. 

But that, my friends, waits for the full AV lesson when I get to it.

And just because I have to apparently put this disclaimer on every post I make: this in no way indicates you are wrong for wanting more text, or preferred deliveries of text, or even specific non-dialogue enacted events to feel complete on the delivery of the text. It’s silly to think “you’re telling people not to want more text!” when like, we’re still all watching the show and stories unfold, right? So we’re all here waiting for more text. Whether the text you get is the text you want is completely up to you and what you hope to see out of a still developing story and it’s your right to want whatever you want. But that in no way removes all of the above objective sentiments regarding... well, text.

#supernatural #spn #text #subtext #canon #destiel #saileen #meta #my meta #lit crit #av crit #av study

[drshojo]

The World, My Childhood And My Hero Academia: Vigilantes

Hello friends!  

Its Dr. Shojo coming at you with a post that will be divided into three parts!

Part One: The world as we know it! 

The world has changed a lot since we last connected. For starters, TOILET BOUND HANAKO KUN HAS NOT ONLY A PHYSICAL RELEASE BUT A GORGEOUS ANIME! And not only that, but MY NEXT LIFE AS A VILLAINESS: ALL ROUTES LEAD TO DOOM! IS GETTING AN ANIME AS WELL! The last time I wrote about Katerina there wasn’t even an official English translation of that long-ass light-novel-title. And now?

A WHOLE ANIME. A BISEXUAL HAREM AWAITS! I am JAZZED!

Do you think it’s my fault? No matter, I’ll take all the credit. All the manga I talk about are getting anime adaptations. I’LL DO MY DUTY AND TALK ABOUT SOME MORE!

But first. Let us address the Covid-19 shaped elephant in the room

I deeply regret that it took a whole-ass pandemic to get me back to writing. In my defense, I bought an iPad and started drawing like 900 kokichi oumas. I was really busy with that. And then I started reading fanfiction. Then that got me thinking about how fanfiction such an interesting look into how people interpret fandom, use it for wish fulfillment and escapism, and good god is everyone OK cause that bulimia fan fic was super detailed....and I am officially on a tangent. Off track. Ahem.

We are all staying inside a whole lot more which means y’all probably need some reading material and Dr. Shojo has your back! Go read “Horimiya”! It’s amazing! Ahhhh, my work here is done! I'm serious, if you’re here for a Shojo rec, that’s it! There's also like 8 million more Otome Isekais to check out now. It’s like they’re multiplying like rabbits..............

As a Doctor, I must advise you to stay inside and read some manga and practice social distancing. Embrace your inner hikikomori. 

Allright? All good? Okay now one final disclaimer:

This post is going to be talking about something a little different than usual and I want to start by giving you some context about who Dr. Shojo is in real life. 

Part Two: Dr. Shojo Exposed 

You see, when I was little I was obsessed with Japanese media. This doesn't surprise you at all I can tell. Probably because I walk around calling myself Dr. Shojo and shout about manga that you should read.

Anyways, the reason why I was obsessed wasn’t because of the big eyes or the spikey hair or the interesting new culture. It was because it tended to have more character development and overarching plotlines than the media I was used to in Canada. Dexter’s Lab, Magic School Bus, pretty much everything I saw on TV was episodic in nature, so imagine how much my mind was blown when I saw Naruto and Card Captor Sakura, heck, even Pokémon had the Indigo Plateau! Here were kids that were learning more and more each day and got to see enemies become friends and vice versa. They lived and grew older just like me. Except they were cooler than me. And had more interesting lives than me. I gotta tell you, I was so sad when I was 12 and Kero didn’t tell me I had latent magical powers. But there was magic in my life and it was the magic of a complex narrative story. And not only that, it had a sense of movement and had cool costumes. I was hooked immediately.

Also, fun fact, at that age I happened to be a complete and utter tomboy! I loved pretending to fight my friends in the playground and was really worried that puberty would ruin my life because being a girl sounded so CUMBERSOME.

Which leads me up to my confession. Before I became Dr. Shojo, I was in fact......Dr. Shonen.

Bleach? Naruto? One Piece? I've read every single chapter there is.  

Hundreds of hours of watching fight sequences. Another fun fact, I only got into shojo because my aunt bought me volume 7 and 8 of Fruits Basket thinking “all mangas like the same right? Kids love comics?” It’s a tribute to how episodic western media was back then that she thought buying volume SEVEN and EIGHT was a REASONABLE PLACE TO START READING.

Now you might also say, Hey! Dr Shojo! Cardcaptors was a shojo! And you are right! but back then the anime was marketed to boys over here in the west and they actualy like, edited out episodes that they thought wouldn't interest boys?! Second fun fact, Once when I was in Grade 3 I was told I was not allowed to join a club under the stairs cause I was a girl and it was BOYS ONLY. The point of the club? To talk about how great Cardcaptors was! I Kid you not!

So anyways, your pall Dr. Shojo loves Shonen manga to this day!

The only reason I made this Dr. Shojo blog specifically about shojo is because, being a tomboy with no female friends, reading shojo manga was the first time I really thought about what it meant to be a girl and fall in love. And y i k e s. Shojo manga, like most media, fails miserably most of the time in displaying real world relationships. Or at least, it  doesn't prepare you for how disappointing everything can be. When I had my first kiss, I was thinking about how it didn’t feel at all like how I felt reading Zen and Shirayukis kiss in Akagame No Shirayuki Hime. Those were formative years, and shojo was one of the only places I saw romance being talked about for younger audiences. I liked reading romances where no one had any sexual experiences and were figuring out what love meant to them. But let’s shelve this topic for now.

The point is that gender roles are dumb and if you have an open mind there's a world of stories out there for you. Take this time inside to read something you wouldn’t normally. Critically think about the ways that the worlds you see in stories and how you experience the world differ. What are the messages a story is trying to tell you? And why do you like the stories you do? Reflect on how the stories you tell yourself color your view of the world. Even mindless entertainment leaves an impression on us. Anyways.

Whilst you're doing that, I'm going to absolutely lose my hecking mind over the Shonen Jump series MY HERO ACADEMIA: Vigilantes!

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD!

Part Three: I downloaded the one month free trial of the Shonen Jump app and made you read all that, so I can tell you that today Dr. Shojo is going to rant about a spin-off of a shonen manga

THAT’S RIGHT, OF COURSE I READ HERO ACA AND YES I DID PICK UP THE SPIN OFF SERIES. SHONEN JUMP LETS YOU READ ALL THE NEW CHAPTERS FOR FREE ON THEIR APP. KIDS, IF YOU LIKE SHONEN AND YOU’RE PIRATING ON A SCANLATION SITE STILL GET OUT BECAUSE YOU DON’T NEED TO SEE THOSE WEIRD PLASTIC SURGERY AND DENTISTRY ADDS ANY MORE.

SHONEN IS HERE AND ITS LEGAL AND ITS FREE FOR YOU. GET OFF MANGA FOX OR MANGA ROCK OR WHATEVER THE KIDS ARE USING THESE DAYS.

OK, so by this point in the article you have learned two very important things about me: 1) I love Shonen manga and 2) I read a lot of fanfiction.

Specifically, I read an absolutely biblical amount of My Hero Academia fan fiction and let me tell you, A solid chunk of it is vigilante/ Deadpool / criminal with a heart of gold themed.

So when I saw Hero Aca had a spin off, and it was about vigilantes, I was NOT SURPRISED IN THE SLIGHTEST. Ao3 sure is powerful.

Now, if you will permit me a tangent in a post full of tangents—HOLY CRAP, THERE ARE TOO MANY VIGILANTE AUS. I CAN'T KEEP TRACK OF EM. IT’S THE ISEKAI PROBLEM ALL OVER AGAIN. I GET AN EMAIL A FIC HAS UPDATED AND I’M LIKE IS THIS THE FIC WHERE DEKU HAS AN ABUSIVE MOM OR THE ONE WHERE HE HAS SPLIT PERSONALITY DISORDER OR THE ONE WHERE HE’S VIGILANTES WITH HITOSHI. OH WAIT, nvm, it’s the one where deku has a healing quirk.

OH WAIT WHICH OF THE 6 DEKU WITH HEALING QUIRK VIGILATE AU FICS IS THIS ONE?! ARGH WHY DIDN’T I WRITE A DESCRIPTION IN THE BOOKMARK FOR THIS!

My gripes aside, there's a reason why there's such an abundance of vigilante story telling—

Deadpool made like an absolute buttload of money and people love sass and memes.

People have a desire for a story in which they see themselves. Or, how they think of themselves.They like a story about someone who maybe came from nothing. Someone who has less money, maybe someone who is unlucky and had some bad breaks. Someone who never learned they had magic, never got their Hogwarts letter, never saw Kero, someone who never got that God-level quirk from All Might. And if your on Ao3 They want someone who also has seen a lot of memes and kind of wants taco bell and is also questioning their sexuality a bit?

Enter our new hero VIGILANTE DEKU.  

But the cannon can't do this, cause hey, Deku is the chosen one. Albeit, chosen by All Might, He’s got his own thing to do. But how can we still cash in on a vigilante story?

And thus enter our New-New hero KOICHI HAIMAWARI—code name Nice Guy and then later The Crawler. True to his relatable roots. He’s just a dude in an hoodie who can go about as fast as a bike.

First off, I love Koichi. He wants to be a hero and fight crime, but most of the time he has to run away because at the end of the day he's just a dude.

He’s cute but not wildly good-looking, A bit of a nerd but not like an extreme okaku. He’s got a part time job and hates violence.

And this is where Koichi really shines—in every day stuff. He helps out wherever he can. Often, that just means listening to people complain and maybe helping his friends out with whatever they’re going through. He’s the kind of guy who smiles, not because he's especially brave, but because he just takes things one at a time and doesn't sweat the past. I think it’s really telling that he missed getting into hero high-school because he skipped the entrance exam to help someone. He’s the kind of person who lets us experience the superpower of human decency and empathy. And you know what? That’s something the world need desperately.  

This theme of human decency is really the driving force of Vigilantes—it’s a manga about how the laws are there for a reason but sometimes they unfairly impact the poor and vulnerable. It's about how a lot of criminals are just people who fell into bad social circles or on bad times. People have the capacity for cruelty and violence but that’s never all they are.  

Now, speaking of crime, the entirety of Hero Aca falls into some murky water when it comes to its evil doers. Much of the fandom has a huuuuuge problem with how much the franchise is willing to sweep under the rug in the name of redeeming their baddies. RE: people getting mad about forgiving Endeavor’s child abuse, or Bakugo’s suicide baiting. Or Mineta’s blatant sexual harassment.

But this theme is in Vigilantes even more than it ever was in the main series. To start off with, there’s this guy who tries to rape Pop Step early on, and the later he later winds up befriending everybody. It becomes a running gag that each new villain winds up befriending the other villain guys and then they all open a cat café together.

Using jobs as a way to lift people out of lives of crime is great and all but in the story there is no nuance or consequences for past wrong and well.....it feels very weird.  It's like Vigilantes plays at having an opinion about moral ambiguity and the complexity of human existence and then just.......lets everyone get along because who has time to get into all that. Make of that what you will but it sits weird for me personally.

Anyway, let's move on and talk about POP STEP our main girl!

I love pop stars and I love vigilantes and a guerrilla performer is defiantly a character I could get behind. And I think they do a good job with Pop. She is actually kind of shy, but has this secret edgy persona she puts on when she performs. She is every girl on tumbler in the early 2000s. I also looooove that they make her not that great a singer. SHE’S GOT PASSION AND CHARISMA and maybe not born talent but like why should that stop you! Talent can be earned through practice and this is a great lesson to show people.

Unfortunately, Pop is also a great example of everything wrong with romance in Shonen.

It’s established early on that Pop loves Koichi because she is the girl he rescued all those years ago and yada yada yikes we’ve heard this one before. Many times before.

Sure, it's fine that they’ve met before, but gosh am I sick of damsels in distress. It's like she can't love him just because she respects what a great guy he is in her life and in the community at large, no no, she just needs to be rescued on top of that. And LOLOLOL isn't it funny he never noticed she was a girl because she was a child with short hair?! Once he realizes she has boobs now they will for sure fall in love! That’s how love works!

She's just with him all the time—nothing romantic ever happens she just gets a little tsundere.

I am never ever going to believe Koichi likes Pop because he spends like sooooo much time with her and they never have like, a moment. The first time he considers her is when Makoto is like, ‘hey I would love to get together with you, but have you thought about if you are crushing on Pop’. (Also this entire plot point is suspect—she's arbitrarily falling for Koichi cause he.......is the protagonist?)  

Say what you will about shojo, they give you the emotional conversations, the moments where you think.....ahhh I can see why she is falling for him. They give you context! Shonen likes to just say HERE’S A GIRL YOUR AGE. YOU CAN DATE LATER WHEN THE ADVENTURE IS DONE.

Just when they might get together, Pop suddenly turns evilllllll. The evilllll beeeees made her eeeevilllll (and more sexy).

*Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiighhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh*

Because why on earth would they get together if Koichi didn’t get to rescue Pop one more time?

I’m tired. These troupes are tired. I’m sure you are too. HOWEVER! If your still with me, Let’s move into why I'm really writing this post. Let’s get to the part that got me screaming to my friends, who by the way, don’t even care bout Hero Aca….but listened anyways. May you all find nakama like these my friends.

Anyways,

HOLY FUCK ERASERHEAD’S ENTIRE BACK STORY IS IN THIS AROUND CHAPTER 60 AND IT IS WONDERFUL AND ABSOLUTLY HEARTBREAKING AND IS ONE OF THE BEST CHARACTER BACKSTORIES I HAVE EVER SEEN AND IS THE REASON WHY THIS SERIES IS A MUST-READ FOR MAIN SERIES FANS.

AND BY ALMIGHT.  

WHY. IS. IT HERE.  

I present to you my late night text messages to my friends

ALSO, AIZAWAS TEACHER IS PRINCE?!?!?!

AHEM, so as you can see, I kinda lost my shit.

And now, I would like to formally defend my claim that DESPITE HOW AMAZING IT WAS, ERASERHEAD’S BACKSTORY HAD NO BUISSNESS BEING IN THE VIGILANTES SPIN-OFF MANGA.

Eraserhead, aka Aizawa Shouta, is a side character who is working with the police on some crime stuff. He is not a main cast member in this spin off. He’s a guest character that fans of the main series will be like OH COOL. GRUMPY CAT MAN LIKES CATS ON HIS OFF HOURS TOO. LOVE THAT FOR HIM.

So, my imagine my absolute surprise when Aizawa runs into Koichi and the following happens:

It starts to rain, so, like in any good manga, this means some great FORCED BONDING TIME

Except no. It doesn't because rather than start talking, Aizawa JUST STARTS REMEMBERING—ABSOLUTLY SILENTLY TO HIS OWN PRIVETE SELF—HIS ENTIRE TRAGIC BACKSTORY.

AND THIS GOES ON FOR CHAPTERS.

THIS GOES ON LONGER THEN ARC ONE IT FEELS LIKE.

I LOVE IT, BUT KOICHI IS ABOUT TO JOIN ATSUSHI NAKAJIMA IN THE DUBIOUS CATEGORY OF “PROTAGONISTS THE SERIES FORGOT ABOUT IN LIEU OF COOLER SIDE CHARACTERS”.

AND LO IT HAS NO BEARING ON THE REST OF THE PLOT, CHARACTERS, OR STORY

What the ever-loving-just WHY?

WHY?

WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY?

SURE, IT’S A COOL TIE-IN.

YES, OF COURSE I LOVED IT. I SHIP ERASER MIC, I DREW THIS FOR HECK’S SAKE:

AND YET I AM ANGRY.

I AM ANGRY BECAUSE MY FRIDAY WAS RUINED BECAUSE VIGILATES SUCKER PUNCHED ME WITH AN AMAZING STORY THAT REALLY WASN’T PLOT RELEVANT AND PROBABLY SHOULDN’T HAVE BEEN THERE.  

IS THIS WHY THEY TOOK LIKE NEXT-TO-NO CARE WITH POPS ARC?!?

I mean its ongoing, so it’s too early to say but—

In conclusion—

Excuse me one more,

AIZAWA WAS TAUGHT BY PRINCE!?!??!?!?!?!? PURPLE RAIN PRINCE!?!??!?!?!? WHAT!??!?!?!

It’s so ABSURD that I HAD TO WRITE SOMETHING ABOUT IT. I HAD TO WRITE PARAGRAPHS TO JUSTIFY YELLING ABOUT THIS ONE THING. WHAT THE ABSOLUTE—

Ahem,

Anyways, I hope you liked this weird rant/personal-story/random-diatribe in three parts.

If you’re reading this, thank you, stay safe, and I’ll be back with more shojo manga next time.  

Ciao!

Dr. Shojo

(aka Dr. Shonen)

#my hero academia vigilantes #koichi haimawari #pop step #my hero academia #erasermic #Cardcaptors #Shojo manga #Shonen Manga #Dr Shojo #read Horimiya

[wardencommanderrodimiss]

NOTES: Witches, Chapter 29

Haven’t done one of these in a while! I mean I haven’t posted a chapter in a while, either, but it’s been even longer since I’ve written up some notes on it.

Obviously, spoilers for Chapter 29. 

So! First things first, I did tell you that Trucy is cursed. Go check Ch 7 of Seelie. Or take this excerpt:

“What are you giving her?” Phoenix asks quietly. “Let her go without the Sight.” His job is to find the truth – he knows that now – but should an eight-year-old be burdened with it? She has had all of her family disappear away from her – she shouldn’t have to See, and thus worry about, Phoenix and the curse of death branded around him like a noose. Sometimes he wishes he didn’t know about it. “I was going to let her,” Maya says. When her voice drops low in a whisper it sounds more like the hiss of a snake. Dahlia’s was the same. “She has the burden of truth already. I’m gifting her luck. She’ll need it.” He focuses on the two of them again in time to see the lights that circle Trucy’s head like a crown, down past her marked eyes and settling around her neck, more purple than green now. Maya doesn’t lift her claws from Trucy’s hair but smooths down a few flyaway strands. “If she spends long enough around here,” she says, “Sis’ blessing might start to attach to her. Follow her outside.” “Keep her alive,” Phoenix murmurs. Maya casts a sad look at him – at least he thinks it’s sad. It’s harder to understand the look in her eyes when he’s properly Seeing her, that red without pupils, the four of them that don’t ever blink. “It’s barely a proper curse on her,” she says. “Not like the one on you– she knew how to cast one.”

Second, I know people have had questions about the exact mechanics of curses before - one specific example, if Magnifi cursed Jove, then is it Magnifi who killed him? What’s Ga’ran’s responsibility? How’s she involved?

This is not an answer to the question of the mechanics of curses, exactly. It’s inevitably squidgey. Some of the bits and bobs of this series have just been me explaining weird little game things with fae - why’s it snowing in LA? Because it was originally Japan, or because the Winter Court did that shit. Why, holy fuck why, do our protagonists just stumble across so many murders when they go places? The first game wasn’t actually bad about that, they got Will Powers’ case in a normal way, and then the second game has Big Top (where okay, the murder is a few days after they’re there) and Farewell, and the third has Stolen - this leaving out the ones that Morgan orchestrated, or Mia’s death, where of course they’re there. Phoenix and Maya can’t go fucking anywhere in the games. Apollo and Trucy sure as shit can’t either.

Curses began as my explanation for that, and as they’ve evolved, there’s still not quite a way to disentangle it from it being weird, frequent coincidence. Jove just happens to go to the palace the night that Ga’ran sets her plans in motion. Courte just happens to find out about the bribery and confront Means the night before Phoenix and Klavier are going to be at the academy. So on, and on. These people are lawyers but there’s still no fucking reason that they should keep stumbling directly into cases instead of having clients come to them. What the fuck, guys.

But it’s only natural that just as much as you as readers have questions to how curses work, the characters would also be trying to figure it out. And Phoenix has a lot of time to try and figure this out, and what to do about it.

Which goes to the third point. I’ve had the dialogue between Apollo and Phoenix scripted since March of last year. It’s a very important conversation, and a very heavy one, and I wanted to make sure I got it right and handled as tactfully as I can. 

Phoenix’s issue with his curse is something that’s been in the series since, again Ch 7 of Seelie. Excerpt if you didn’t reread the whole chapter when I sent you there when I linked it before.

Witches’ powers fade but blessings and curses both linger, and there is a yoke around Phoenix’s neck made of two dead fae women and their battle. And he might have survived it, but when Gumshoe asks how Phoenix is always stumbling into and getting caught up in murder cases, and Phoenix says it’s coincidence – he’s lying. He knows he’s lying, but he doesn’t know if he is cursed to follow death or death follows him. Does it matter? People still die, and Phoenix is there. Phoenix is the common denominator. (Phoenix spent a year sure that he was the final push leading to the death of one of the only few people he’s allowed himself to love.)

Like, Phoenix is canonically depressed going into Rise from the Ashes, and that’s before Edgeworth’s supposed death. Add in Fae AU Phoenix’s curse, and how he’s been grappling with that in a different, painful way since Mia’s death, he just - does not have a coping mechanism to deal with that. Maya’s gone, and she’s fae and he doesn’t know if she’s ever coming back, or if he’s supposed to want her to come back; Edgeworth disappears with a note saying that he’s chosen death; Phoenix’s last two closest friends are a teenage girl who’s gone off to finish high school in Europe, and Larry. They are not good emotional support, but they’re still two people Phoenix cares enough about to be afraid that something will happen to them - to want to protect them from him and this curse. And it seemed unfortunately, painfully likely to me that someone in such a desperate state of mind would consider the worst (only?) possible way to escape a curse of death. 

I’m not sure all of that needs to be spelled out (though it’s been a long long time since the beginning of Seelie) but I wanted to outline my thoughts and how I followed it through. I hope it doesn’t seem like I was throwing in this mention of Phoenix’s past suicidal ideation just for… some cheap attempt at depth or dramatics. That’s mostly been my concern with this chapter. And I don’t know if this moment actually stuck out at you as actually seeming any different than the other times I’ve explored and deepened and filled in more of characters’ emotional history and traumas as affected by the addition of fae, like everything with Klavier. But this moment with Phoenix did feel different to me personally than other moments as I was writing it, so I just wanted to address it.

Again, please do let me know if you’ve got concerns about this or anything else, going forward.

That’s it for now. See you next chapter, which I hope will be a shorter time than the gap between Chapters 28 and 29.

#fae au extras

[slasherscream]

What about You can taste what your soulmate eats AU with Jennifer check with a fem!reader? I love your blog btw! X

[ soulmate prompts. ] oh this would be a bad time-

You lived much of your life peacefully and without withstanding or battling obvious signs of your soulmate and their tastes and cravings. 

Whoever they were they had unobtrusive tastes. You’d heard and even witnessed a few horror stories yourself. Soulmates where one is a vegan and the other isn’t. Someone likes spicy food and the other can’t handle black pepper          you were glad all your shared experiences thus far had been mild. 

Just little moments scattered throughout your day and your life that reminded you that somewhere out in the world you had a soulmate. Someone meant for you. 

So at times when you’d be sitting alone and then taste a salad and then thirty minutes after that taste some fries and a cherry coke (like they were trying to be good and then gave up very quickly); or it being late at night and then tasting well-buttered popcorn; or the sweet taste of different flavored lollipops throughout the day? You loved those little moments. 

This all changed one day all too suddenly. One night minding your own business and the next? Violently throwing up. 

That taste       the phantom taste and texture in your mouth was horrible. So repulsive you threw up continually the entire time your soulmate consumed it with gusto because it just didn’t stop coming. By the end of the ordeal you were whining and gasping pitifully. 

You’ve had busted lips before you know what blood tasted like but this was horrible. Blood and ….and meat like you’d never tasted it before but completely raw. After brushing your teeth aggressively about a hundred times you went to bed that night miserable. The taste didn’t falter for an instant until your soulmate apparently brushed their own teeth for bed late into the night. The taste of mint sat heavy on your tongue after the metallic bite of blood. 

You got out of bed the next morning wary. Your soulmate had a cup of orange juice but nothing else. You nervously tried to enjoy some eggs and bacon but found yourself not in the mood for meat at the moment, even well cooked. 

For a few weeks everything was fine although you noticed a distinct lack of taste and sensation being broadcasted from your soulmate since that…incident. 

On one hand you were profoundly relived and on the other you were incredibly worried. The only thing reassuring you that they were still alive was the occasional flicker of sweetness from the lollipops they apparently still enjoyed while they gave up on food totally. You were worried to say the least.

Half tempted to eat more just to remind them ‘hey! you need food, asshole! and also i care about you even though i’ve never met you’ but you resisted the urge and went about your normal way.

They’d had moments before where they wouldn’t eat much and then they’d suddenly go back to their regular habits. You assumed this was one of those times. One day you would like to express all the concern they’d made you feel during those times to their face and also give them a hug after you were done chewing them out.

You regretted all the worry you felt when you’re at school and suddenly you taste it again. You throw up in the middle of class. You get to go home early but it’s not that great of a consolation prize. 

This happens quite a few more times and it effectively makes you lose your appetite. Days without them eating anything substantial and then….. then blood and raw meat and-

And you’re starting to feel weird. Weird about the whole damn thing. What are they eating? What’s changed about them? You just know instinctively that something has gone totally and horribly wrong. 

It’s not a close friend or family member that notices there’s something wrong with you. It’s actually just a girl you eat lunch with every day, Needy Lesnicki. A vague friendly face you wave to in a crowd but have never met with outside of school even though you’ve always liked her and she’s always liked you        that’s highschool for you. 

“Are you okay?” she asks putting a hand over yours as you stare down at your lunch but don’t move to eat it. You’re tearing up before you know what’s going on and quicker than that you’re crying into her shoulder and jabbering on about the unsettling change of palate your soulmate is putting you both through. 

At some point in the conversation she goes tense where she was holding you so gently and comfortingly. She doesn’t move until she’s properly soothed you but when you do finally pull away from one another she’s looking unusually pale. She rushes off with some vague excuse and you assume you freaked her out. 

The next day your skin feels like it’s on fire. You’re feeling watched…hunted, even.

Needy runs up to you with ginger candies explaining they’re good for queasiness even though she looks fidgety the whole time she offers them. You’re grateful for any bit of relief though- constantly trying to chase away phantom taste and knowing that if your soulmate is consistent you have another bit of suffering coming your way any day now. 

You pop a few candies into your mouth at once, the strong taste a minute relief from your unpleasant and all too recent memories. You hear a gasp from behind you and see Needy staring over your shoulder.

Behind you is the queen of the school and Needy’s best friend, Jennifer Check, and she looks like she’s seen a ghost. A second later she shoulder checks you and snatches up a protesting Needy, dragging her down the hall and away from you.

So that was weird. 

Weirder? A week comes and goes and the rancid taste of blood hasn’t come yet. No tastes at all, actually. Which is great! Except now you’re super worried again and rush to Needy’s house in a panic late at night because she’s the only one you’ve told about the whole situation.

When you get there her Mom let’s you upstairs and you find Needy on her bed petting the hair of a Jennifer that looks even more miserable than you feel. You don’t know her like you know Needy but you sit right beside Needy on the bed and temporarily forget how worried you are about your soulmate, replaced with worry for the queen bee of the school.

When you ask what’s wrong you get a biting reply of “must be my period” which is directly at odds with how she reaches for your hand gently (yet impatiently) and places it on her exposed midriff. Her skin feels clammy and cold. You mimic Needy and rub her in soothing circles like she so obviously (and strangely) wants you to.

You forgot what you came to tell Needy or what you were so worried about. 

You remember when you wake up the next morning squished against Jennifer on Needy’s full size bed. You register this and then register Needy and Jennifer having an argument like you’ve never seen before.

“She’s miserable, Jen!” and “Oh she’s miserable? Bite me, Lesnicki. I’m fucking miserable. Fucking starving to death just because they’ve got a light stomach.” followed by Needy full on screaming. 

It’s at this point you interrupt by sitting up. Jennifer’s arms fall from around you like she hadn’t wanted to get caught holding you in the first place. Needy standing in front of her bed, puffed up with anger like you couldn’t imagine she was capable of but also looking sorry they woke you with their little…..spat. 

“Sleeping beauty has finally awoken.” Jennifer gets up from the bed, shoving past Needy and throwing you one glance over the shoulder you can’t pick apart before she slams the bedroom door on her way out. She leaves silence in her wake. She looked even worse than she did last night. 

“Are you guys okay?” is what you want to ask before Needy interrupts you, “I have to tell you something that’s super shitty since it seems Jennifer won’t.”

So she tells you.

And if you thought you were horrified at just the taste of what your soulmate has been eating you’re fucking shell shocked by the knowledge of what it’s actually been all along. Ignorance is bliss. You’ve been hoping they were on some weird diet kick. Not demonic, man eating succubus shit. 

Jennifer falls off the face of the earth and not even Needy can find her for close to three days. Knowing what she is you can’t be too worried about her…she’s the most dangerous thing lurking around the streets..and yet you are worried about her. Demon or not she’s still your soulmate.

It’s not a relief when she gives into her instinct and kills again but knowing she’s okay- knowing she has to do this to survive?- it makes the blood less bitter. 

She appears outside you bedroom window an hour after the taste has faded. She’s covered from head to toe in gore and looks… absolutely beautiful. Breathtaking and predatory as she knocks on the window with such a confidence you have to laugh. 

You are understandably hesitant to open the window to the girl covered in blood who you know is capable of killing you very violently. She pulls back her hand and you jump from your bed because you realize she fully intends to break the window if you don’t just let her in the easy way. 

“Hey there soulmate. Got a toothbrush I can borrow?” She smirks, teeth sparkling white beneath all the blood and looking deceptively human. 

She uses your bathroom and doesn’t come out until she’s completely clean while also complaining about the scented soaps that you had available for her use. You’re going to have to acknowledge every elephant in the room. 

“You weren’t always like this."

"Yeah no shit.” Jennifer collapses onto your bed, eyes closed, as if she doesn’t have a care in the world but she’s acutely aware of you, whether you know that or not. 

“What happened?" 

"Does it matter? I am what I am.” She says it like it’s a challenge. Like she wants something from you but hell if you know what. “You gonna stand all the way over there all night? I’m not leaving so you might as well get comfortable." 

You take the hint and come to sit beside her on the bed. You want to touch her again but you’re pretty sure the other night was a fluke of how bad she was feeling. This time she seems to be radiating heat like a small camp fire. You wonder how it would feel to hold her at night when it’s cold outside. Who needs a romantic fireplace when she’s probably got the fires of hell burning inside her or something. You groan and collapse right next to her.

"I’m sorry.” She says after a long time. Then the room drifts back into silence. She knows you heard her and even if you didn’t she’s not one to apologize at all - let alone twice. 

“For what?” You ask even though you’re pretty sure you already know why.

“For …. I’m sorry you get the shittiest part of this deal.”

“Soulmate deal or demon deal?" 

"I tried to …. not eat. But it was literally like starving myself to death. Figured an alive soulmate is worth more than a dead one.” She says the last part quietly as if she’s trying to convince herself the statement is true. You always knew that objectively Jennifer was a person despite being popular and pretty and perfect. All human beings have insecurities and every other normal thing that makes people, people. It’s another thing to see her insecure. Or as close to it as she’ll let herself get.

Boldly you reach across the space and take her hand, “An alive soulmate is worth more than a dead one. I wouldn’t want you to starve for me        even though this is seriously fucked." 

"Good. I wasn’t planning on trying again.” She turns on her side so she’s facing you and you mimic her instantaneously, without a second thought. You’re still holding hands. Despite her harsh words her eyes are soft and tell a different story.

“We’ll figure something out.” Now you sound like the one trying to convince yourself.

A pause and then you’re flipped onto your back, Jennifer hovering over you, still damp hair tickling across your collarbone as she leans in close, “Yeah. We will.” and then her lips are on yours in the most heart-stopping kiss you’ve ever had. It’s also distracting. 

You don’t notice the sharp drag of her nails against your back in the middle of it. The cuts heal almost instantly. She smiles into the kiss and tells herself things will be better this way.

#jennifer check x reader #jennifer check imagine #slasher x reader #horror insert #monster gf x reader #these type of soulmates i always wonder how they actually find each other adjkl #like yeah i tasted that pepperoni and sardine pizza you had yesterday you bastard #but how does that help me find you adjkl #demon powers and needy meddling for the win #anon...your mind #do you get the lowkey poly vibes from this because i just cannot separate��them #i have to learn to make these shorter adjkl #im sorry jen is a 1 pos and her solution to you being disgusted at being turned into a proxy hannibal lecter #is to scrtach you and turn you into a semi-demon so you'll like the taste #she's a motherfucker and we stan

[buoyantsaturn]

Out of Order (1/1)

summary: It was tradition on the first day of fall for all the year-round campers to sneak into the Aphrodite cabin after lights out for a few rounds of truth or dare.

word count: 2491

read on ao3

It was tradition on the first day of fall for all the year-round campers to sneak into the Aphrodite cabin after lights out for a few rounds of truth or dare. Seeing as Nico had agreed to stay at camp rather than wonder the globe for the foreseeable future and was now officially a year-round camper, he was dragged from his cabin in the middle of the night by a grinning blond who, for once, wasn’t wearing his trademark green scrubs. 

Normally, Nico would be ecstatic to find Will whisking him away in the middle of the night, but when they wound up outside the Aphrodite cabin, Nico started feeling anxious. 

“C’mon, it’ll be fun, I promise,” Will told him with a tug on his hand. “Don’t you trust me?”

“Of course I do,” Nico grumbled indignantly, and trudged into the cabin behind Will.

It was immediately overwhelming. Nico was used to his own very empty cabin and the moderately filled infirmary - but this? The cabin was practically overflowing with campers, laying on bunk beds and sitting on the floor and standing near the walls. Nico didn’t understand how much noise there could be in a single building. How could any of them hold a conversation in a place like this? He squeezed Will’s hand, about to pull him close and whisper-shout that he was just going to go back to bed and forget that he’d seen any of this, when the rest of the cabin seemed to notice Will’s presence.

“Will!” one of the Aphrodite girls - Nico never learned their names because they hardly ever went to the arena - exclaimed, and grabbed Will’s free hand to pull him further into the cabin, thus dragging Nico further inside as well. “We were waiting for you! What took you so long?”

“I had to get Nico,” he said, and pulled Nico closer to bring him to the girl’s attention. 

“Oh,” she said, and Nico saw her gaze flicker down to their joined hands. Her eyes widened before she looked back up at Will. “Oh!”

Will didn’t seem to notice. “But we’re here now. What’s first on the agenda?” 

“Veteran’s choice.”

Nico didn’t understand what she meant by that, but by the surprised look on Will’s face, Nico figured that it was something of a big deal to him. 

“No way. Me?” Will asked. He started looking around the room frantically, spouting off names of campers that Nico recognized from the summer or from years past, though none of the names were of people present. “But… Not even Annabeth is here?”

“Nope, she’s seasonal now, remember?” the girl replied. 

“Seasonal?” Nico cut in, cocking his head in confusion.

Will squeezed his hand, all of his attention straying to Nico and making his heart flutter at the feeling of those incredibly blue eyes on him. “She’s in school now. This is the first time since she was...what, seven? That she hasn’t been a year-round camper.” He looked back to the Aphrodite girl. “Have I really been here the longest out of anyone?”

She nodded. “That’s right! So you pick the games tonight!”

Will grinned. He raised one hand into the air and called out, “Everybody, circle up for truth or dare!”

A cheer went up as campers formed a circle on the floor of the cabin. Some had climbed down from bunks to get a spot in the ring, while others had scrambled up from the floor so that they wouldn’t get caught playing. Will pulled Nico into the circle, tugging him down to sit beside him in the ring. He kicked his legs out in front of him and crossed his ankles, and let go of Nico’s hand for the first time since they arrived to lean back on his hands. 

“Alright, alright, settle in, y’all. We’re in for a long night,” Will said as the chatter of the room quieted down around them. “You all know the rules of this one. No ask-backs. You can’t pick the same answer three times in a row. Refuse to do the truth, you do the dare, and vice versa. Any questions?”

“Kinda,” Nico muttered without the intention of being heard. 

Will shot him a grin and patted his leg. “You’ll catch on quick, Sunshine.”

He turned back to the rest of the group, scanned the faces of those sitting with them in the circle with the same expression that Nico had seen him examining injuries with, like he was deciding what part of the patient was the weakest, the most vulnerable, the part that needed immediate attention. 

“Cecil.”

A groan came from across the circle. “Come on, man! Why do you always pick me?”

Will shot him a grin. “Truth or dare, coward.”

Cecil let out a heavy sigh. “Truth.”

“Do you still have a crush on that Demeter girl?”

Cecil flopped onto his back with an even louder groan, covering his face with his hands. 

The game still didn’t make much sense to Nico as time wore on, but he tried his best to roll with the punches. Someone asked him about the skull ring he always wore, and someone else asked about the coolest place he’d ever visited. Then, when he wasn’t allowed to say truth for the third time in a row, he was dared to steal something from another cabin - so he’d shadowtraveled away to the Apollo cabin and came back wearing one of Will’s flannel shirts. 

He didn’t understand the weird looks everybody kept giving him after that, nor did he understand why Will suddenly made a new rule that he could veto any questions asked that were too personal. Nico just didn’t want to accidentally steal from someone he didn’t know, and it was starting to get kind of cold in the cabin - why shouldn’t he borrow one of Will’s shirts?

It was Lou Ellen’s turn next. “Will, do you have a crush on anyone in this room?”

Nico thought he could hear Will’s breath hitch next to him, even with the chorus of ooos that rose throughout the room. When he looked up at Will’s face, he was just as calm and collected as always. 

“You didn’t ask for truth or dare,” he said instead of answering.

“You took dare the last two rounds,” she countered. “There’s no getting out of this one, Sunny Boy, and vetoing will just give us the answer anyway.”

Will rolled his eyes. “You should be a lawyer, Lou. Yes, I have a crush on someone in this room. You already knew that, of course, but thanks for making it public knowledge.”

“What are friends for?” she replied, smiling brightly. 

“Whatever. Anyway, now that it’s back to me, I’m calling this the last round of this game. If anybody’s dying to embarrass somebody in this game, this is your last chance. Chiara, truth or dare?”

The last round went surprisingly quickly, though Nico suspected it was because people were getting eager to end things. He was getting pretty tired himself, and wouldn’t have minded heading to bed over an hour ago. However, when Will announced the end of one game, he started another. Around them, people jumped in and out of the circle. Some were grabbing snacks or running to the bathroom between games, others were jumping in for a new game they preferred while others ran away from a new game they despised. Someone insisted that everyone sticking around for the next game swapped seats so that they weren’t next to the same people for another whole game. Nico ended up between Kayla and Julia, and directly across the circle from Will. 

Once everyone was settled again, Will said, “New game: paranoia. Whisper a question into the ear of the person next to you. They have to answer out loud with the name of a person in this room. Then, I’ll flip a drachma - heads, you say the question out loud, tails, you don’t. Anybody wanna start us off?”

Valentina’s hand shot into the air. “Ooh, I do!” She turned to the boy sitting next to her and whispered something into his ear.

“Oh, easy,” he said. “It’s Nico.”

Nico’s head snapped toward Will, just in time to watch him flip the coin. “Tails. Let’s move on.”

Nico pulled his knees up to his chest and tried to hide behind his own legs. 

A few rounds later, Kayla was whispering into Nico’s ear, “Who is the funniest person in the room?”

Nico took a second to scan the circle, though he hadn’t spent enough time with anyone to know whether or not they were funny. “Um. Will?”

Across the circle, Will seemed to perk up at the mention of his name. He flipped the coin and smiled when he said, “Heads!”

“I asked him who he thought was the funniest person here,” Kayla explained. 

“Dude!” Cecil exclaimed, leaning forward so that Nico could see him around Julia. “No way is Will funnier than I am!”

“Whatever, Cecil,” Will told him, still smiling brightly. “Just let him think my bad jokes are funny. Anyway, it’s your turn, Nico.”

“Oh, um.” Nico thought for a second before he turned to whisper in Julia’s ear. 

The game continued on. Lou Ellen and Cecil both admitted that Will was their best friend, which led to a short argument over who Will’s best friend had to be. By the time Will’s turn came around and he said Nico’s name in answer to whatever question had been whispered into his ear, Cecil exclaimed, “You better not mean that Nico’s your best friend over me!”

“Guess you’ll just have to wait and see,” Will replied, grinning, and flipped the coin in his hand. “It’s heads.”

Damien said, “I asked him who has the best hair.”

Nico barely noticed the light shade of pink growing on Will’s cheeks as he said, “Okay! Everybody find a new seat for round two.”

Nico stayed seated while the rest of the room moved around him, and suddenly Will was sitting beside him once again. 

“Hey,” Will told him, bumping his shoulder against Nico’s. “Having fun yet?”

“It’s...certainly interesting,” Nico replied. 

“Yeah, they’re all kind of a lot,” Will laughed. “You’ll get used to everybody by Christmas, trust me.”

“Will, it’s your turn,” Austin reminded him from across the circle. 

“Yeah, yeah,” Will said, waving a hand at his brother. Will leaned closer to Nico, his breath fanning against Nico’s cheek as he whispered, “Who would brag about being able to take down a monster, but would run back crying if they actually saw a monster in the woods?”

Nico had to really focus on Will’s words rather than the feeling of Will so close to him. “It’s Cecil, no question.”

Will snorted rather unattractively and dropped his forehead onto Nico’s shoulder.

“What did you say? What was the question?” Cecil demanded. 

Will, still laughing and with his head still resting on Nico’s shoulder, flipped the drachma; it was tails. “Don’t worry about it, Cecil. It’s better this way, trust me.” Will lifted his head and bumped his shoulder into Nico’s once more as he said, “You’re up.”

Nico was growing to hate the part of this game where he had to think up questions, so he just copied Will’s instead. Lou Ellen answered without hesitation: “Cecil.”

Will flipped the coin. “Tails.”

“Oh, come on!”

Nico grew more and more tired as the second round of the game went on - nobody mentioned either him or Will for most of the round, and Nico was practically lulled to sleep by Will’s frequent call of heads or tails. He didn’t realize that he was resting against Will’s side until Will pulled away slightly in order for someone to whisper in his ear. Either way, Nico didn’t move, and instead let his eyes slip shut. 

“I’m not answering that,” Will said, his laughter tinged with discomfort. 

“C’mon, he’s asleep! He’ll never have to know!” somebody else called from across the room. 

“Oh my gods, you guys set this up, didn’t you? This was all just a big ploy to get me to admit my feelings for Nico! You’re all the worst friends ever.”

Nico’s eyes snapped open. There was no way he heard that right. There was no way that Will actually liked him back...right?

He lifted his head from Will’s shoulder, and Will turned toward him with a look of dread on his face. “Oh, Styx,” Will whispered, and suddenly jumped to his feet. He announced, “Game over,” and ran out the door, slamming it behind himself.

The cabin was silent for a single minute before campers started shoving at each other and blaming everyone else for ruining the night. Nico found himself stuck to the floor by the look of betrayal on Will’s face as he ran from the cabin. Should he go after Will? Would Will even want to see him after that? There was only one way for him to find out.

Nico stretched the nearest shadows toward him until the space around him was dark enough for him to slip into the shadows and disappear, thinking only of reappearing wherever Will had gone to. 

He wound up on the Aphrodite cabin’s porch. 

“Will?” Nico said quietly, and in the darkness he saw Will rubbing furiously at his face.

“Hey, Sunshine,” Will croaked.

Nico sat down beside him on the steps, and Will looked away. “Hey,” Nico said, reaching out for Will’s cheek and turning his head back toward him - Will’s eyes dropped to his lap. “Why did you leave?”

Will laughed bitterly. “Because that was embarrassing.”

“This whole night as been embarrassing for me,” Nico told him, and brushed a tear away with his thumb. “You didn’t see me running out of there.”

Will groaned and dropped his forehead onto Nico’s shoulder. “I’m so sorry. This wasn’t how I planned on you finding out.”

Nico pushed him back and held Will’s face with both hands, forcing eye contact between them. “You wanted me to find out?”

“Um...yeah? I mean, eventually,” Will told him. “I like you, but I just wasn’t going to tell you until I figured out whether or not you like me too.”

Nico let go of Will in order to flail his hands around for emphasis. “You were going to tell me? I was prepared to take this to my grave!”

“You like me?” Will asked. “Why wouldn’t you tell me?”

“Because it’s embarrassing!”

“Would you just kiss already?” 

Both heads snapped toward the cabin behind them, where the doors and windows had opened to reveal the entire population of year-round campers watching their flustered exchange. 

“Oh my gods,” Will cried, burying his face in his hands, though Nico could still see the bright red tips of his ears. 

Nico pulled one of Will’s hands away and told him, “Hold on tight,” before he tugged Will with him into a shadow, and the two disappeared. 

thanks for reading!!!

buy me a coffee | more will solace week stuff

#solangelo #will solace #mine #my writing #wsw #will solace week #nico di angelo

[artificialqueens]

Girls Interrupted, Chapter 1: The Institution: 1, Katya: 0 (Vatya) 1/2 - Maeve

AN: Hi, everyone! I suppose this is my debut as a fan fiction author, and I’m super nervous. I never thought that I would be a writer, myself, but when I suggested a Vatya fic outline, some of you lovely people encouraged me to give it a try. ConCrit is always welcome! I tried my hardest, and I hope you enjoy! EEK!

August air is like a woman in heat: wet, warm, and not in the mood to do favors.

The short walk from her baby blue Beetle to the cafeteria doors left Katya sweating like a hooker in church. “Part-time-clown working a corner in the Red Light District” was a solid look, but Katya was beginning to doubt that it was the right choice for the first day of the new school year. The fabric of her long-sleeved dress clung to her skin uncomfortably.

If the funfetti doesn’t cover my sweat stains, I’m suing, Katya thought.

She tried to smooth down the sheer fabric out of habit. Katya took a deep breath before throwing open the glass door and bracing herself for a head-on collision with nostalgia. White floors, harsh light, kitchen clatter—too much for a Wednesday.

It’s an A/B day. First period: English, room 316. She repeats the mantra again and again in her head. If she loses the thought, she’ll never be able to find her way back.

Pussy, she chastised.

Katya’s bright red combat boots plunk across the linoleum and up three flights of rubber stairs. She might apologize for shattering the silence if anyone else were around, but the English corridor remains silent.

She, In her loud dress and noisy shoes, looked very out of place.

Mother, I’ve breached a sterile environment.

The white walls and white floors seemed to stretch for miles in either direction. Katya had forgotten how sad the white looked without students against it.

Mrs. McPhee’s door, like all the other doors, was an unremarkable brown. Katya stared into it and tried to reconcile the empty canvas with the image of the imp of an english teacher described by the upperclassmen . No dice. Perhaps her friends were exaggerating their hatred for the woman behind the unassuming door. It would be nice to think the best of  people, but she knew she lived in a time when that didn’t happen often. People suck; get with the program.

An eternity later the bell rang and Katya got to her feet before the horde could pull a mufasa on her. The unremarkable door swung open, revealing a short woman with a tight face and copper hair.

This could be trouble, an alarm flashed in her mind.

However, her body did not have time to trigger a fight or flight response. The older woman flashed Katya a bright smile, taking in her first student of the year. Mrs. McPhee enthusiastically extended her hand for Katya to shake.

“Hi there! I’m Mrs. McPhee! It’s so nice to meet you!” She all but chirped.

Katya snapped out of her thoughts and accepted the gesture. “I’m Katya. It’s nice to meet you too,” the teen delivered the customary response before Mrs. McPhee ushered her inside.

“Feel free to sit anywhere! I need to run to the copy room and grab a few things for class today. There’s an ice breaker activity on the tables that you can get started on,” she said before ducking out into the hall.

Someone’s had their morning coffee, Katya quipped, the corners of her mouth turning up in a small smile.

Familiar faces began to fill the chairs at the tables, but Katya had yet to find one she’d spoken more than a sentence to. The presence of her long time crush, Trixie Mattel, in the seat across from her did nothing to quell her growing anxiety, either.

A frantic Mrs. McHale returned with arms full of papers shortly after the end of the passing period. Katya could hear the eyes rolling at the sight of her. Cue the secondhand embarrassment.

Copies of the syllabus made their way around the room. Katya tried desperately not to wince as her English teacher introduced the “phone spa” where phones would live during class.

It wasn’t hard for Katya to become lost in her own thoughts once again.

Is there going to be a project on the summer reading? Is my copy of All the Light We Cannot See—which I’ve annotated the crap out of—going to be of any use to me at all?

The blonde was fucked if they were going to have to do an in-depth analysis of the text. The only thing she could remember about it was that the girl, Marie-Or-Something, was blind. And that only stuck with her because of the cackling fit she had on the floor when her mom asked her why she chose the book. And, of course, it was stupid. It was too hilarious that a book with a title about not being able to see the light had a protagonist who was blind, and thus, literally could not see the light.

The thought brought a smile to Katya’s face even now. It was unlikely that Anthony Doerr intended to make an ironic joke about a blind girl, but Katya liked to believe that humor wasn’t dead. Was it terrible? Yes. But come on, she literally couldn’t see the light. Because she was blind. Katya snorted at the mental picture that formed and immediately covered her mouth. Scanning the room, Katya determined that she hadn’t drawn any attention to herself. That was, until she caught Trixie Mattel’s unimpressed gaze.

Go figure, Katya scowled, I bet she thinks I’m keeping squirrels in the space between my ears. The teen could feel her cheeks flush beet red in embarrassment. She darted her eyes down to the syllabus, suddenly finding classroom procedures intriguing.

Fuck! Shit. She thinks I’m a freak, and she’s going to tell all her friends. Everyone will stare. You’re an embarrassment, a fool a—

Lady luck chose the opportune time to smile down on Katya, for it was an A/B day, and that meant classes were much shorter. The shrill bell sounded over the loudspeaker and silenced her pleas to be wished out of existence.

Katya’s second period was library aide. It was the perfect opportunity for her to get ahead on homework when she wasn’t needed. However, she knew full well that she’d spend the hour and a half people watching and reading obscure works.

The library was empty this morning and she cou;d take a moment to compose herself. Mrs. Slay, the librarian, gave her a brief runthrough of her duties and explained library procedures. Afterwards, she released Katya to her own devices.

Katya had never actually spent much time in the school’s library. The harsh, fluorescent lighting did nothing to make the room look cozier. Dozens of tall wooden shelves framed large areas along with some extra shorter shelves of books.

Katya trailed her fingers along dusty spines, hoping that a title would catch her eye.

Her third period class, theater, was on the first floor. A lot of people found it weird that a self-identifying technician was still involved in normal theater classes. Katya began her career on the stage, though. Her stage fright and lack of singing and dancing abilities were not about to stop her from growing as a performer. She promised herself that she’d audition for the play this year.

Ginger was waiting for Katya in their usual seats when she entered the black box. The blonde smiled at her best friend, taking a moment to look over the other faces in the space before joining her long-time companion.

Unfortunately, another year had not flushed out the riff-raff. Katya scowled, new year, same bullshit. The blonde shared a knowing glance with Ginger.

Rolaskatox—the inseparable trio of  Roxy, Alaska, and Detox—remained front and center. Sharon and Jinkx camped out in the back, and Tammy sat awkwardly on her own with Raja and Manila nearby. Pearl and Trixie gossiped to their left.

After Ms. P, the theater teacher for juniors and seniors, passed out the syllabus, they gathered in a circle. Playing stale warm-up games never failed to put the majority of the class in a pissy mood. It was no secret that half of the room hated the other half of the room; times when they were all forced to work together were toxic.

The second activity Ms. P had put on the agenda for that morning was not any better: duet scenes. The oblivious woman thought it would be a fantastic idea to assign partners at random for the scenes. Katya’s heart jumped in her throat when their teacher called Alaska Honard’s name along with hers.

Alaska had long, silky golden hair, soft pink lips, and big doe eyes. She was easily the tallest girl in their grade (and quite possibly in their school). She had legs for days, and they looked stunning under that short green cheer skirt in Katya’s opinion. And most of the student body’s opinion. Alaska might have been the nicest girl on the cheer squad, but Katya was sure that this encounter could still be fatal.

Katya hesitantly approached Alaska, who had yet to stop chatting with Roxy and Detox, and cleared her throat.

“Um, Alaska, I have our scene…If you want to go work on it…” Katya trailed off, digging the toe of her boot into the black floor.

Three pairs of eyes turned to look at her. She could feel the eye roll and once over from tweedle dee and tweedle dum. Instead, she focused on the tight smile the blonde in the middle gave her. Alaska nodded and followed her out of the black box.

The two girls made their way to the anti-lobby in without a word. Neither of them knew how to break the silence between them.

It was Katya who bit the bullet “Look, Alaska, I know you’re not thrilled about being my partner. But I care about the work I do in this class, and I know you do too. So can we just—”

“I’m sorry about them,” Alaska cuts her off. The confusion and shock is visible on Katya’s face, and Alaska feels the need to further elaborate. “Rotox…they’re rotted cunts sometimes. I think you’re a great actress, and I’m actually pretty glad to be working with you,” Alaska confessed . She ducked her head, and a long, golden lock fell into her eyes. Katya had to clutch the fabric at her thighs in order to resist the urge to brush it behind the taller girl’s ear.

“Okay then,” Katya breathed a sigh of relief, “Let’s get this show on the road.”

Katya could not believe the success she’d had on her scene with Alaska in theater. Maybe cheerleaders—well, certain cheerleaders—weren’t so bad after all. Katya was feeling optimistic as she made her way back up to the third floor for biology.

Are all biology classrooms supposed to reek of formaldehyde? Katya wrinkled her nose in disgust. There were tables made up of four desks clustered in front of the whiteboard at the front of the room. The back half of the room contained lab tables and equipment. Katya figured they would not be spending the majority of their time in there. Again, not wanting to draw attention to herself, she slipped into an empty desk near the back of the room. Their teacher, Mrs. Yates, shuffled around marking students present—to save time, Katya supposed. She finished moments before the tardy bell rang, and the students quieted as she took her place at the front of the room.

Mrs. Yates opened her mouth when the door slammed open. The culprit was captain of the cheer team, Violet Chachki, or what Katya swears, must be the devil in high heels. Satan made eye contact with a startled Mrs. Yates and lazily flashed her a small slip of paper. Hot pink: Coach Calhoun’s signature color.

“You must be Violet Chachki!” The friendly woman greeted. “Why don’t you take a seat next to Katya in the back?”

The gentle instruction wasn’t an option for Violet. The only empty seats left were at Katya’s table. Katya felt as though Mrs. Yates had just declared it open season on quirky blondes with questionable fashion sense. Dread pooled in her stomach; she was too young to die.

Similarly, Violet visibly recoiled at the idea of sitting next to some theater clown. Violet’s withering gaze focused on Katya, but she was certain it wasn’t her that the fuming brunette was plotting to crucify. Katya pitied whichever of her bimbo cheerleader friends forgot to save her a seat.

Violet chose the desk across from Katya. The blonde didn’t resist the opportunity to take a magnifying glass to the untouchable girl, herself.

Violet chachki was stunning. If looks could kill, the school would be a cemetery by now. She was a dark horse, a vixen, a black widow, the kind of beautiful that hurts you if you get too close. A girl like that did not belong here. Katya watched in awe as Violet’s manicured hand brushed long onyx strands back into place.

Unfortunately, Katya was no Double O Seven, and it didn’t take Violet long to pick up on the attention she was getting. The same painted fingers removed themselves from dark, silky waves and ventured closer to Katya’s face. They snapped suddenly, and Katya almost fell out of her blue plastic chair.

She only had a second to recover when Violet spat venom at her. “Hey, Bozo the Cunt, has the lack of oxygen in your tiny car affected your ability  to function, or are you just simple?”

“Bozo the Cunt”? That’s new. Mother, I’ve made a name for myself. Katya brought her eyes up to look at Violet. Her failure to provide a timely response did her no favors and the she-demon’s ruby red lips curled into a snarl. If Katya could feel her legs, she would be running to the nearest place of worship.

“Quit staring at me, freak,” Violet hissed. Katya met violet’s piercing eyes with her own sheepish blue ones.

“I-I uhm…Sorry. You look nice today?” Katya offered with shrugged shoulders. She wouldn’t buy her excuse either.

The brunette rolled her brown eyes, fishing her sparkly red phone from her bag and leaving Katya to pick at her hands.

Mrs. Yates saved Katya’s cuticles when she passed out materials for the students to make makeshift nameplates for their desks. Katya was a sucker for crafts. She wasted no time in writing her name in thick, red letters. A large, yellow sickle and hammer ran through the center of the page and black Russian characters accented her work of art. Katya was proud of herself. Capping the black marker, she took a risk and peeked at Violet’s handiwork.

Violet chose a clean and classical look for her own sign. V I O L E T was spelled out in deep purple, looping script.

Katya sighed. It was going to be a long year if the ice queen froze her out completely. At least Katya enjoyed biology.

After everyone was finished with their nametags, Mrs. Yonkin passed out an ice breaker activity designed to help the students get to know everyone at their table. Unfortunately, it was an activity where you had to interview a partner, and Katya’s partner was clearly unwilling.

“I don’t see why we have to talk,” Violet complained. “Trade papers with me so we can fill out our own answers. I’m tired of working with people that are not myself.”

Katya couldn’t help but feel a bit insulted. It wasn’t like she had herpes or something. They didn’t even have to share their entire life stories with each other; a favorite color is as generic as it gets. If the bitch wanted to be difficult, Katya sure as hell wasn’t going to make it easy for her.

“Look, Princess, I don’t know anything about science other than it’s really good for you,“ Katya bit back, “But I haven’t done enough crack to melt my brain. Do you honestly think people would believe that you could produce chicken scratch like this?” The blonde gestured pointedly to the top of her own page where she had scrawled out her name. Violet pinched the bridge of her nose.

“Oh and I’m also not bad at science. It was a joke, A bad one,” Katya tried to assure the frustrated girl in front of her. Her words of comfort did little to change her new partner’s mood, though. She tried again, “What’s your favorite color?”

#rpdr fanfiction #katya zamolodchikova #violet chachki #trixie mattel #alaska thunderfuck #vatya #high school au #lesbian au #slow burn #fluff #angst #enemies to friends #enemies to lovers #drama #maeve #girls interrupted #concrit welcome #tw anxiety and depression

[nitr0glycer1ne]

Ducktober/Duckvember Day 16 - Best friend

Heeeeyy look who's FINALLY updating!! I thought this chapter would be much shorter, but I got really carried away by Lena and Violet, it almost wrote itself. I hope you enjoy the result :)

-

“We’ll clean our guest room tomorrow, but in the meanwhile, you can sleep with Violet.”

Colin finishes with a smile, and Lena nods. Her fingers are tightly gripping the armrest of the comfortable couch she’s sitting on, next to Violet; she’s not nervous, not really, but she needs something to physically anchor her in reality. Because none of this feels real: being back from the shadow realm, Webby being safe and sound and still her best friend, and her getting to live in a real house, with real living, breathing beings, after being offered so by a new friend.

The word still feels somewhat alien to her. It used to be something she’d hear only from her aun- from Magica, and it wasn’t ever spoken without disgust and contempt wrapped all around it. And although Lena has grown accustomed to hear it being used as its intended meaning, as a term of endearment from Webby, it’s still a bit weird to think that yeah, she is someone’s friend, she has friends- oh, using its plural is even more bizarre, and Lena hopes it’s something she never grows tired of.

“Would you like to come and see your new sleeping quarters, Lena?” the small bird sitting next to her offers.

The question sounds very detached, but Lena now knows it isn’t, she knows it’s just the way Violet speaks, emotions sometimes having trouble to show beneath the polite and wordy sentences the young erudite strings.

“Yeah, sure.” the duckling agrees, getting up and stretching her arms, a bit stiff after the long discussion she’s just had with the Sabrewings.

---------

Lena had been worried at first, when she had understood she wouldn’t be allowed to stay in the McDuck mansion. Webby had done her best to ask, plea, beg her grandmother and Scrooge for her best friend to stay with them, especially since she had nowhere to go save for a small, humid basement by the beach, but the adults had remained firm. Webby hadn’t needed to give Lena and Violet a full report of Bentina and Scrooge’s reasonings; the two girls had managed to hear it all, thanks to the makeshift stethoscopes Violet had crafted, sticking the devices on the office’s door and listening to the whole argument.

Lena can’t blame them, especially after what Magica did to Scrooge and his family. She had expected the outcome – but what she hadn’t expected had been the softness the old billionaire had explained his reasonings to Webby, and how he had carefully added that maybe, after Lena had grown used to a life amongst the living and without Magica’s influence, he would be happy to take her in.

Still, Lena had been left homeless after that discussion, and although it had worried her, she had done her best not to show any of that concern to her best friend. And that’s when Violet had intervened, before Lena could even attempt to lie to Webby:

“Perhaps I could call my parents. We have a spare room, and I am most certain they wouldn’t mind welcoming you at all, Lena.”

The usually snarky duckling had been left silent, for once- just like Webby. And before Lena could brush off Violet’s offer, her stupid pride getting in the way of a comfortable bed in a comfortable house owned by normal people, Webby had jumped at the small bird, giving her the warmest and most joyous hug she could- which, by Webby standards, meant that the two of them had ended in a happy pile on the floor, soon joined by Lena.

Surprisingly enough, Violet’s dads had agreed easily. One of them, Colin, is a preschool teacher, and he loves children; and although Lena is no toddler, she’s glad it made him open to the idea of fostering a duckling made out of someone’s – someone who very recently wreaked havoc on Duckburg – shadow. Her surprise must have shown on her disbelieving face, because Webby had been quick to elbow her:

“Not everyone’s like Magica, Lena.” the girl had smiled. “People are usually nice and happy to help.” “Yeah, I guess.”

Her reply had been as noncommittal as possible, but there’s truth to Webby’s words – it’s just that it’s still hard to imagine a world without Magica, even though there’s nothing Lena wants more.

“Are you alright, Lena?”

A pair of dark, inquisitive eyes had intently been watching her. It had startled Lena a bit, but she had remembered it had nothing to do with suspicion or malice; it had just been Violet’s weird, yet somewhat charming, analytical approach transpiring in her soft, piercing gaze.

“Yeah, it’s nothing. It’s just… weird to think I’m gonna have a room all to myself, in a real house and not in some abandoned, underground hideout.” “It’s going to be awesome!” Webby had chimed in, jumping on her spot. “We’ll help you carry all of your stuff, and then we can go shopping and you can get even more stuff to decorate, and-” “Woah, easy there, Pink.” Lena had fondly stopped her friend, still a bit dizzy at the perspective of living an almost normal life. “I don’t think Mr and Mr Sabrewing are going to be very happy if I just barge in and go all Extreme Makeover on their house.”

Violet had giggled, a charming sound startling both her friends and making them smile.

“I don’t think they would mind that much, actually. Papa is rather fond of that show, and he loves nothing more than spending an afternoon choosing a new plant, or a new shelf, or some new décor.” “Sweet, I guess I’ll go all out then!” Lena had entertained the thought. “Like, paint the walls some sick dark purple, with some crimson splatters here and there.” “Oh! Oh! And a black floor to make drawing summoning circles easier!” Webby had added. “Mmh, perhaps even an altar of sorts.” Violet had continued. “Surrounded by enough shelves to store old ritual scrolls, and mystical books of all kinds.”

And thus, the night had ended, with the three girls grabbing sheets of paper, colored pencils and glitter pens to draw their ideal room and jot down ideas.

 ------------

Now that Lena stands in Violet’s room, that conversation feels so distant. There’s a world between being told that you’re going to be fostered by a family, and actually setting a mattress on the ground, with soft pillows and freshly washed bedsheets. Lena’s been promised a lot by Magica, and almost all of those promises have been nothing but empty words used to ensure her absolute obedience. Which is why it’s eerie to have someone be true to their words, for once.

“Are you alright?”

It’s when Violet speaks to her with the tiniest hint of worry in her voice that Lena realizes she’s been staring at her pajamas for a few minutes. They’re nothing fancy, just sweatpants and a tee-shirt Largo’s leant her, since she’s too big to fit in Violet’s clothes, but they faintly smell of cinnamon, and the scent is reassuring for some reason. Like she’s holding on to something that isn’t hers, something that belongs to someone else who’s been happy to give it to her.

“I’m fine.” Lena finally answers, realizing that she is telling the truth. She’s a bit lost, but she is fine. “I’m just gonna get changed.” “Sure.” Violet nods gently and offers her a kind smile. The small bird is sitting on her bed, wearing her own turquoise pajamas, her wild hair down to her lower back. “I’ve set a toothbrush for you in the pink glass near the sink. You can use whichever toothpaste you like; mine is strawberry flavored, and my fathers’ is mint.” “Thanks, Vi.” Lena nods, and gets out of the room.

The whole process of reaching the bathroom, putting her pajamas on, brushing her teeth and coming back to Violet’s room is almost surreal. Lena still has trouble believing all of it is real; it feels like a dream, and it almost hurts with how simple and good the mundaneness of it all feels. There are tears pricking at the corner of her eyes when she slips under the warm blanket Violet’s given her; she blinks them away, hoping her new friend hasn’t seen them.

If she has seen them, Violet doesn’t say a word about it. She does ask something, though:

“Would you like to sleep with one of my stuffed animals?” the purple bird offers, gesturing towards the end of her bed, where a few plushies are neatly lined up. There’s a shark, a teddy bear, a duck and a rabbit; they all look equally soft, taken care of and warm, comforting to the touch. Lena is tempted to accept, but she feels it would be too childish.

“Nah, it’s okay, but thanks.” “As you wish. Good night, Lena.” “’night, Vi.”

Violet claps her hands, and the ceiling light turns off. Lena whistles, amused by the fancy system. But the sudden darkness cuts her amusement short, and she feels her throat get tight and painful. Her breathing quickens, and Lena shuts her eyes quickly, trying to ignore the obscurity surrounding her.

It doesn’t work.

Even though her eyes are closed, Lena can still feel the darkness around her, she can feel its heavy weight on her body, pushing the blanket on her, pushing and pushing until her chest is tight and breathing is almost impossible. Her thoughts are racing, panic and fear and determination a toxic cocktail drowning her brain; sweat rolls down her forehead, cold beads dripping on her beak; her mouth is drier than a desert; and suddenly there’s a hand on her shoulder-

Lena screams, something feral and heartbreaking, and her upper body stands straight, leaving the sheets beneath her damp with cold sweat. The ringing in her ears barely calms down enough for Violet’s voice to reach her:

“I’m sorry, Lena, I didn’t mean to startle you...”

There’s a hint of panic and regret in her friend’s tone, but Lena’s brain is too saturated by terror to pick up on it. The door opens, and the sudden light filling the room abruptly brings Lena back to reality. Violet’s parents are standing in front of her, slowly making her way near her mattress. She tries to pace her breathing, hating the tears she can feel rolling down her cheeks, when a gentle, warm hand finds her trembling shoulder:

“Are you okay, kid?” “It’s my fault, Dad.” Violet apologizes, taking Lena’s hand in hers and not letting go, her grip gentle but firm. “I heard her breathing quite loudly, so I got worried, and I wanted to check on her, but… I…”

Largo embraces them both, making sure to leave some room for Lena to reject his hug if she’s overwhelmed by his presence. She doesn’t; Lena’s never been much of a hugger (Webby is an exception), but in that instant, the embrace feels like a lifeline, and she throws herself into it, openly sobbing now. Violet makes sure to wrap an arm around Lena as well, her small hand rubbing soothing circles in her back. Colin slips outside of the room, leaving his husband handle the situation.

Time stands still, in the best way possible. Warmth slowly fills Lena’s freezing body. Her sweat dries, and so do her tears. Her breathing steadies, her heart stops pounding. The fog heaving over her mind lifts, leaving her thoughts clear.

Lena takes a deep breath and scoots back, away from Largo and Violet. Her friend slides next to her, keeping a respectful distance but making sure to let Lena know she’s here- she’ll always be here.

“Do you feel better, Lena?” Largo asks as his partner steps inside the room, two steaming mugs in his hands and a small box tucked between his arm and his hip. “Yeah, I just… I dunno.” she shrugs, stifling a yawn. The panic attack has drained her, and she doesn’t even have an explanation to what just happened. “I have no idea what just… ugh.” Lena sighs, angry at herself for losing control like that. “It might have been because of the dark.” Violet suggests as Colin hands her and Lena a mug of hot cocoa. “Perhaps it triggered some strong, deep fear inside of your psyche. I’m sorry, I should have thought about it.” “Hey, don’t beat yourself up, Vi.” Lena objects, hating to see her friend’s remorseful expression as the small bird’s grip on her mug tightens. “It’s not like you could have guessed I would lose it just because you turned the lights off!” “But-” “Lena’s right, little bird.” Colin softly cuts his daughter, petting her unruly hair. “Your father and I tend to forget that because you’re a genius, but you’re only eleven.” “Yeah, Vi. You’ve done so much for me already, so don’t feel guilty about it, okay? It’s nothing. I’ve survived worse stuff, trust me.” “Okay…”

Violet drinks some of her cocoa, not entirely convinced. Lena does as well, the rich, creamy beverage feeling like ambrosia as it slides down her parched throat. It’s almost like liquid comfort, especially with the small marshmallows floating in the foaming cocoa.

“I also brought this.” Colin adds, a triumphant smirk on his beak as he holds a small box up. “Violet’s old nightlight. No more darkness that way.” “Thanks.” Lena smiles, her beak sporting a chocolaty mustache. “No problem, kid.”

A comfortable silence falls on the room, Colin setting the small lamp up while the girls finish their cocoa under Largo’s tender gaze. The two older birds then bid the girls good night, closing the door behind them. Lena fills the beginnings of a panicked storm filling her lungs, but relief washes over her when she notices the nightlight shines faintly near the door, providing just enough light so the room isn’t filled by the cold, aggressive obscurity.

Lena is about to bid Violet good night, when she notices the girl is slightly hunched over in her bed. Frowning, she gets up and slips under Violet’s covers, startling her friend.

“It’s just me! Do you mind if I spend the night here? The mattress’ comfortable, but…”

Lena doesn’t finish her sentence, and she doesn’t need to. Violet removes the stuffed lion lying between them, tucking it under her other arm, and scoots towards the wall so Lena can be comfortable as well.

“Hey, Vi, why are you looking so sad?”

The light provided by the small lamp is faint, but just enough to allow Lena to see the way Violet’s beak is twisted in a small frown, her brows slightly frowned and her eyes looking down.

“It’s not because of my little episode earlier, is it? Come on! That was nothing important, no need to-” “I disagree.” Violet’s soft voice cuts her. Lena’s surprised, but she lets her friend talk. “It is important. You must have been through so much, between how Magica behaved towards you and being trapped in the shadow realm… you shouldn’t have to endure any of those hardships anymore.” “Yeah, I could have done without all that and what happened just before, but…”

Lena hesitates, careful in her choice of words. The raw vulnerability Violet is displaying in front of her is preventing her from being her usual almost blunt self.

“Things happened, and there’s nothing we can do about them.” Lena finally sighs, her arms wrapping around Violet in what she hopes is a reassuring, comforting hug. “And things will keep on happening, because I can’t just forget the stuff Magica’s done to me – believe me, I wish I could. But Vi… what you’re doing, all of this, helping Webby summon me even though I could have been dangerous, helping me save her and not being mad at me for putting her in danger, accepting to be my friend after all the nasty stuff I said about you, taking me in with your family… all of that is gonna help me move on from my past. You have no idea what all of this means to me. Vi, no one forced you to do all of that, and you still did it, and then some more!”

It’s taken Lena all her leftover strength, and all her breath. She hates opening up about her feelings, about how hurt she’s been, about how hurt she still is sometimes. But Lena knows it’s what Violet needs to her, and with everything the girl has done for her, it’s the least she can do. Her pride taking a small hit is nothing compared to the sheer kindness Violet has offered her before she was even back from the shadow realm, and Lena hopes she managed to convey just how grateful she is for Violet to have helped her get a second chance at life, at friendship, at happiness.

Violet’s eyes meet hers, the two purple pools shining with tears as the small bird hugs Lena closer.

“Hey, I’m still short on air, don’t squeeze it all out of me!” Lena teases, the banter helping her go back to her usual self, to put the intense fright behind her and bask in the present, in the way she’s spending her night in her new home, with her new best friend. “I don’t think I’m strong enough to do that.” Violet smiles. “Hmm, yeah, I think we should work on that.” Lena nods. “Too much time at the library, not enough punching stuff. Webby’s good at finding stuff that needs to be punched, so I’m sure you’ll get some exercise real soon…”

Lena takes a deep breath before adding:

“…lil’ sis.”

It’s nothing; two words, spoken hurriedly, almost silent in the middle of the night, and Lena is as surprised as she’s delighted with how good and natural the words feel on her tongue. Violet gasps when she picks up on them, making Lena blush.

“I look forwards to this, sister.”

No fanfare, no “aww this is so sweet Lena I’m touched!”, no tears. Simply a small smile and a reply that comes as naturally as Lena’s nickname, and it’s so perfectly Violet that it immensely satisfies Lena.

They fall asleep shortly after, exhausted by their day, happy to be in each other’s arms, happy to have found each other. --------------------------------------------------------------- I'm really happy to have finally written something about Lena and Violet! I'm a bit disappointed we didn't see Lena moving in with the Sabrewings, but I hope we can see them in S3 :) I wanted to write something different for Lena. She's brave and fierce, and I felt like it could be interesting to show a more vulnerable side of herself - same goes for Violet. I hope neither were OOC. I also like that it was an opportunity to reuse Largo and Colin, my headcanon dads for Violet from chapter 1! :)

Panic attacks are the worst.

#ducktales #ducktober #violet sabrewing #lena de spell #team magic #Webby Vanderquack #my writing #my fics #fanfiction #hurt comfort #friendship #violet and lena

[cosmiciaria]

Radiata Stories review! (spoiler free - long post!)

I am SPEECHLESS. I can't believe I spent so many years without knowing about this game. My friend thoroughly recommended it to me but with my ps4 and many other pc games, I just wasn't in the mood for a ps2 oldie. But here I am, and I want to spread the word: play Radiata Stories.

In the world of Radiata, the land is divided into regions that belong to different races: elves, dwarves, orcs, humans (and ronsos – no, sorry, wrong game – but you can't fool me there's a lion guy who looks like Kimahri from FFX). These species have been at odds since time immemorial, and thus the dragons – Earth, Water, Fire, Wind, Silver and Gold – have guarded their beings from above.

We follow Jack Russell, a 16-year-old who dreams of becoming a knight. We accompany him to the entrance exams, only to see him fail miserably against a girl, Ridley Silverlake. Despite his clumsiness and obvious embarrassment for having been defeated, he's allowed to join the Radiata Knights, alongside Ridley, only because he's the son of an important late knight. They form a new brigade called Rose Cochon, under Captain Ganz Rothschild's leadership.

This trio will be sent into action in no time. Their dynamics are fun and there's a bit of rivalry between the two new knights, but they get things done. Ganz is proud to finally be able to be captain of his own brigade, and regards his two pupils with care and wisdom. This seems to be the flow the story is going to follow.

An important quest arrives: Rose Cochon brigade must reach the Elf Region and ask the Light Elves leader for a favor. However, things get tough in their journey there: a blood orc attacks the Dark Elves village, and the brigade plunges in to fight and defend.

In the battle, Ridley gets mortally wounded. Jack gets all frantic and desperate, and the brigade asks for the Elves' help. Lord Nogueira, the Dark Elf leader, decides to do the unthinkable for non-humans: the only way to save Ridley is to perform the transpiritation ritual, a spell only available for elves that allows them to take the soul of a dying fellow and use it to heal another one who might still live.

The ritual is successful, and Ridley's soul is fused with that of a small elf who'd died in the battle. Everything seems to settle down for a bit, with Jack and Ganz returning to Radiata City filled with good hopes for Ridley.

The next day, you're fired from the Knights.

This is where the game opens up for you!

From now on, it's just you, Jack, in the middle of a big city, paving his way to the top of the Vancoor Theater guild, the guild of warriors. Since the only thing you can do is fight, better to put it to good use and earn some money in the process!

The game offers a variety of things to do. You can start recruiting people as party members. You know, like, in Dragon Age, you can recruit characters into your team? Or, in any other rpg, that you have a team of five or six characters, maybe some more? Yes? Ok, here in RS you can recruit (listen to me) over 170 characters. Yep, you read right. Mind you, you can't recruit them (catch 'em all) in your first playthrough, but just so you know, yes, this game is that big.

Some people will ask you for a favor before they're added to the 'friend list', but others will join your right off the bat. Once you have a respectable team of four party members that you choose, you can begin doing solo missions, which are the guild's assignments to you and will redound in money and goodies. You get to know the other guild's members, you get to fight alongside them, you get to know and care for the civilians in the city. With a night-day system, if this game is anything, is alive.

NPC's have their own schedule: following the clock in the top left corner, they do and say different stuff depending of the moment of the day you approach them. They're walking around the city, performing random things, making them seem alive. Some events are only available at night, some others only during day. Some people will be nice, others not so much. Some parts of the city will shine, others will look depressing and dirty. Birds chirp, trees are swept by the wind's fine breeze, mosquitoes swarm around – this game breathes life into its pixels in every corner.

Now that we're on the aesthetic aspect, I must admit, this game looks gorgeous. With a very prominent anime artstyle, still it aged pretty well for today's standards: sometimes the lighting was too real, the sunlight pouring from the mountain's side, the character's long shadow stretching onto the road. The animations are good as well, as are the physics: I am beyond amazed by how well clothes and hairs move as flawlessly as if they were real. Each of the recruitable characters have a different victory pose and they have different lines for everything. Some particle effects are really nice, since I didn't think there existed the technology for it back then. The main city is huge, and when I say huge, I mean, every door you see, you can enter, and inside you'll find at least a two-floor building with objects to interact with and people to talk to. And don't even get me started on how BIG the Vareth Institute is in itself – and all that stuff is optional! The world is also vast and filled with brimming elements, although don't be fooled by the illusion of 3D: this game is, mostly, a 2D experience when you want to go from point A to point B.

You'll spend a good chunk of your game doing tasks for the guild. In the meantime, Ganz is somewhere playing the bandit and Ridley is hearing voices in her head. In this 'middle' part of the game, the story seemed to drag on forever for a bit: I wanted to go on with the main plot, and, while you can actually do that (just hit the sleep option over and over until a cutscene appears), the game tends to make you go through long and tedious solo missions to get that Grind™ you need. Dungeons are not long or too big in reality, but the number of encounters (which are forced on you since you can't avoid enemies by circling around most of the times for the 2D aspect) turns what should've been a walk in the park into a dragging hell. This portion of the game, I'm not going to lie, seemed a bit too long for me. And since the gameplay mostly consists in pressing the circle button and hearing Jack yell "Ha! Haiiyaah! Ha! Haiiyaah!" for ten hours straight, yeah, it can get boring.

But I guess the game was trying to make you feel at ease, comfortable around these walls. You're training your fave party members, you go with them everywhere to play the warrior and earn some money, you get occasional messages from Ridley telling you everything's fine – until the plot makes a halt and suddenly you must choose.

I'll keep this spoiler free, but this game is almost fifteen years old, so these are no news: there will come a point where the plot branches into two possible paths, the Human side, and the Non-Human side. I can't tell you which one is right, for there seems to be pros and cons in both, so I'll let your heart decide. For what we care now, I chose the Non-Human side, completely convinced with my decision, only to see myself doubt in many instances.

At this point, your plot shakes. Your comfort zone breaks. Suddenly, things are changing: your team is not there anymore, Ridley acts weird, where the hell is Ganz, what's going on with the dragons? Who am I supposed to trust in this world full of people who just want to exterminate each other?

I won't spoil it. I'll just say, that whatever you choose, please stand firm by your decision. You'll need that conviction, because the game is going to make your ground tremble a few times. And with those endings that await you – man, I don't know if I want to finish either path.

So, to avoid spoilers, I'll talk about the characters a bit!

Jack is your main protagonist, as you could've guessed. He's your average shonen main guy, at least in the beginning hours. He's clumsy, he wants to be a hero, and he even mocks shonen protagonists by saying that he'll awaken to a dormant power and save the world with his friends. But life hits him hard, accuses him of things he hasn't done, and so Jack evolves across the story. His character development is subtle, but it's there: he starts off as a brat who wants to fight, ends on a mature note, with some quite insightful thoughts and reactions I haven't expected from him. Normally, the shonen guy remains a shonen guy; this doesn't happen here. Jack ends up being an adorkable character, worthy of respect, sympathy, and a force to be reckoned with.

Ridley remains a calm force during the game. She's collected, she's well-educated, and she knows her way around. At the beginning, she can't stand Jack much, but as days go by, she starts to consider him as an equal and true friend. In the Non-Human path, her romantic feelings towards him are crystal clear: there's a small spark between them, that flickers every now and then when the plot allows them a moment's respite. Only them and a handful of other characters know the truth behind the transpiritation event, and as such there's a profoundly deep connection that keeps them together, although they're separated most of the story.

Ganz is ma fave boi and he must be protected at all costs. A young and promising man, Ganz was created to be likeable. You can't help but sympathize with his funny appearance: chubby, huge armor, huge sword, and funny moustache. But he's also a man of wisdom, with a golden heart. He's righteous and wants to do good. And he deserves all the love in the world.

Other notable characters are Genius, a scientist who's obsessed with the transpiritation thing that went down, and may know more about the plot than it seems at first glance; Natalie, a guarding woman who works as Ridley's not-so-secret bodyguard; Larks¸ the leader of the Knights and whose motivations remain a mystery to me even to this day – I can't read into this character at all!; Lord Zane, the leader of the Light Elves, who laughs maniacally when no one is watching and I can't bring myself to like him; Gawain, Ganz's father, who disappeared 16 years ago since his best friend died; and Cross, Ridley's fiancé, who just wants to be the best hunter and paves his way to the top of the knight ranks by any means necessary. I hate this guy so much, his only trait is 'I am a bad person' and that's it, he's so cartoonishly evil it makes me want to punch the screen. Probably you see more of him in the Human path, but unless he has a very tragic backstory to redeem him, he's not likeable at all. I mean, you can say that he has ambition and he gets s*it done, but still, damn him, and his voice actor, UGH.

Despite some minor thingies, the relationship between the characters is gold. Jack and Ridley are cute and make me wanna draw the meme of NOW KISS every two seconds. Jack and Ganz are companion goals. Ganz and his father – I loved that they kept their interactions personal and off screen. Idk why, but this story is about Jack, and yes, I care for Ganz as well, but his trouble with his father was his own, not Jack's, so I guess this is a director's decision which I'm 100% behind.

The plot can get predictable at times, but there's also a healthy amount of plot twists that made my jaw drop in a few occasions. I mean, I guessed who the bad guy was since the beginning, but let's face it, it's pretty obvious and the game doesn't hide it. There are other things that made the plot unfold worth my time, like trying to recruit that awesome character, or like what is the deal with Jack's late father, or what the hell is going on with Ganz, and what will happen to the city now that I'm on the Non-Human side? And the game answers them all (I read that the manga answers even more questions, so treat yourself).

All in all, RS is a vast jrpg experience, with high replay value and tons of things to explore. The world seems small, but it isn't. There's always a reward for those who wander off. For a ps2 title, this game is giant. And in the good sense. I thought I had seen the pinnacle of the ps2 era with Final Fantasy XII, but I'm highly considering changing my view on that one.

The endings are bittersweet in both paths. There's not a complete happy ending, I warn you. Things get darker towards the end, and the story knows how to subvert expectations in the good way. Remember Jack saying he wanted to be the hero like in a shonen anime? Well, not happening in this game guys. At the end of the day, this isn't a shonen story: this is a Radiata Story (roll credits), and like in every country's history, sometimes blood must be shed for events to take place and situations to unfold.

I am beyond pleased with this game. I'm considering playing through the Human side now – but first I need to recover myself from this Non-Human ending. I'm not ready to face more tragedy yet.

Go play it. Just do it. You won't regret it.

And pray that Tri-Ace develops ONE DAY a decent sequel.

#radiata stories #tri ace #jack russell #ganz rothschild #ridley silverlake #square enix #videogame #videogame review #review #ps2 #valkyrie profile

[thisiswhatwereupagainst]

Silhouette Chord of the New Warriors is a Marvel character that I’ve had an interest in for some time, and I finally got around to reading her stuff. And....well, I have an issue with it. I don’t mean to be persnickety and always find problems with how Marvel handled this or that, I don’t want to be THAT kind of fan (fandom complaining about everything exhausts me tbh), but like...I can’t help NOTICING, you know? The problem with how Silhouette is written isn’t really anything that’s done WITH her, it’s more what’s NOT done with her.

Silhouette is nearly always a background character. She never gets an arc or a story focused just on her. She’s usually just Dwayne Taylor/Night Thrasher’s girlfriend. She’s why Dwayne has her evil twin brother Aaron Chord/Midnight’s Fire as his nemesis, because said brother blames Dwayne for her paralysis, yet Aaron never has any interest in interacting with Silhouette herself, only Dwayne, despite this supposedly all being over her. It’s pretty obvious that she’s just a prop by the writers to facilitate their feud, but has no actual importance in her own right. She might as well be an object or pet that the other broke or stole. And like...this is a comic book, when someone has an evil twin brother, traditionally the brother is THEIR nemesis? Normally I like avoiding cliches, but making her brother only care about Dwayne doesn’t seem like a subversion in this case so much as just sexism by shoving him in what I’m pretty sure would be Sil’s role if she were male. Hell, Aaron even calls Dwayne his “mirror brother”, something you would call, you know, your TWIN! Like they’re playing it as if DWAYNE is Aaron’s twin and Sil is just...some girl. And this continues when Sil breaks up with Dwayne and hooks up instead with Donyell, aka Bandit, his half-brother. She continues to just be nothing more than the lead guy’s girlfriend, with nothing in her life besides that, and when Donyell takes on the role of Night Thrasher and gains Midnight’s Fire as a foe, he and Aaron end up as enemies and Silhouette just...doesn’t matter. Even though this is HER brother and he has NO past with Donyell like he did with Dwayne. And when Sil finds her dad, he has more of a relationship with, you guessed it, Dwayne! And when it gets found out that her evil brother has a daughter, and that daughter has to be rescued from him? Well, Dwayne isn’t in that issue...and neither is Silhouette! Nova and Iron Man save her instead! Sil might not know she exists! The biggest slap is the Folding Circle story, though. See, Silhouette and her brother were born with their powers, they don’t know why, they probably assumed they were mutants. In actuality, their father and several other men stumbled upon a secret temple of Cambodia while serving in the Vietnam War. The woman leading the temple, Tai, explained that this temple was built upon a well of mystical energy, and the people here had practiced years of selective breeding to produce children that could harness its magical energies. The last step would be to wed women of this temple with men from the West, and for those children to be raised in the West, so they would be children of both East and West, and thus conquer the world. All but one of them, Dwayne Taylor’s father, agreed to do so and married one of these women. Sil’s father, Andrew Chord, brought his Cambodian bride, Miyami, back to the states. Miyami was in fact Tai’s own daughter, and she knew her mother wanted to use the children of the pact in her own evil schemes. So she faked her death and that of the children, then abandoned the twins in Chinatown where they would grow up with no connection to her that Tai could use to find them. Their father believed them all dead all this time. Except of course Tai eventually realizes they’re alive, she tracks down all the now-adult children of the Pact and tries to fulfill it anyway for her own ends, and meanwhile said adult children have gathered into a group of their own, the Folding Circle, who want this power for themselves instead, and act as both foes to the New Warriors as well as allies to them against Tai. So...this is Silhouette’s origin, this is her lost past she never knew and why she has her powers, it involves her discovering who her father is and what happened to her mother,  this features one of her family as the main villain and another as an enemy-turned-ally for this, and yet...it’s really about Night Thrasher again. And like, there is reason for that--his father is the one who broke the pact and refused to take a Cambodian bride because he was already married, and Dwayne thus should have been a child of the pact like Silhouette and her brother, but was not, which was why Tai forced Sil’s dad to kill Dwayne’s dad and mom, and then went on to become a mentor to Dwayne, the child whose parents he murdered. So this is important for him and his story too. But like...it should also have just as much, if not more, focus on Sil. It’s HER past too, it’s all orchestrated by HER evil grandmother, it involves the sins of HER father, it brings in HER villainous brother, it explains why she has HER powers, why SHE has no parents, and SHE is a child of the pact, unlike Dwayne. But she’s treated as a mere extra in this story almost to the degree that the other New Warriors are. She’s not even inducted into the Folding Circle like the other pact children, her brother is, while Tai just kills her (she survives) because I guess having her brother means she can lose the spare? She gets some focus in that we find out about her mom and what happened to her and of course with Chord being her dad all along, but like...she’s not the focus or the star, Dwayne is by far. Tai and Midnight’s Fire and Left Hand (leader of the Folding Circle) are all focused on Dwayne. Sil is just, yet again, Dwayne’s girlfriend, no matter how much claim she has to greater plot relevance, and she gets very little development in this despite the revelations about her family. So like...she’s been around since 1991, she was a member of this team like anyone else, but she just never seems to get any real development. Maybe I’m not reading closely enough or just don’t understand/perceive it, that’s totally possible, but it seems like she’s a background character whose roles mainly come from which guy she’s with. And like...I feel like so much more could be done with her, given her fascinating family background, discovering her heritage, being brought up on the streets from a young age, her relationship with her brother and her recently discovered niece Julia, not to mention her status as a mixed-race WOC who is very visibly physically disabled as well as perceived as a mutant in most instances. Silhouette has a lot going on, someone just needs to use it, and it’s kinda bogus to me that she’s been neglected this way since she’s NOT actually a background character, she’s a full cast member who is just treated like a background character. It’s...weird and unfortunate, especially considering that she is the only WOC on the team and the only disabled member as well. I’m not prepared to say that’s WHY she’s neglected, just it makes it extra unfortunate and frustrating, especially since she’s SO COOL! I mean come on, SHE FIGHTS CRIME ON CRUTCHES! And when she gets a personality, I really love it, like she seems very hopepunk to me? There’s this one issue of Spider-Man where she says “ I know I can't stop all evil, but I can stop some. You only do what you can---but you HAVE to do that." and told a bad guy "It doesn't take strength to hurt people like you. It takes strength NOT to." which I just LOVE so much. And she’s really developed to personal growth, like she broke up with Dwayne because he was obsessed with grimdark vengeance and being Night Thrasher to the point she felt neither of them was growing...and she also once manipulated and lied to him pretty shittily to facilitate said personal growth. So she’s GOT a personality, and it’s interesting, when it’s paid attention to. Also, for what it’s worth, her disability is never handled badly from what I can tell (note, I am able-bodied so I may not be a good judge of this)---she’s never treated as pitiful OR as inspiring, there’s no “oh poor crippled thing” or “omg she’s so positive she overcomes her disability!”, nor is it forgotten about or ignored, she just uses crutches and that’s that. It’s never EXPLORED deeply in any way, but it’s not mishandled either that I can tell (again, from my privileged POV) And I think some writers are starting to remember she exists and see her potential; towards the end of the “Ironheart” series in 2019, she teams up with Shuri, Riri, and Okoye against her brother, who wants to recruit Riri and make her his heir! It’s awesome!

#silhouette #silhouette chord #New Warriors #marvel #marvel comics