#click the link for analysis if you want
Text
Just a bunch of Useful websites - Updated for 2023
Removed/checked all links to make sure everything is working (03/03/23). Hope they help!
Sejda - Free online PDF editor.
Supercook - Have ingredients but no idea what to make? Put them in here and it'll give you recipe ideas.
Still Tasty - Trying the above but unsure about whether that sauce in the fridge is still edible? Check here first.
Archive.ph - Paywall bypass. Like 12ft below but appears to work far better and across more sites in my testing. I'd recommend trying this one first as I had more success with it.
12ft – Hate paywalls? Try this site out.
Where Is This - Want to know where a picture was taken, this site can help.
TOS/DR - Terms of service, didn't read. Gives you a summary of terms of service plus gives each site a privacy rating.
OneLook - Reverse dictionary for when you know the description of the word but can't for the life of you remember the actual word.
My Abandonware - Brilliant site for free, legal games. Has games from 1978 up to present day across pc and console. You'll be surprised by some of the games on there, some absolute gems.
Project Gutenberg – Always ends up on these type of lists and for very good reason. All works that are copyright free in one place.
Ninite – New PC? Install all of your programs in one go with no bloat or unnecessary crap.
PatchMyPC - Alternative to ninite with over 300 app options to keep upto date. Free for home users.
Unchecky – Tired of software trying to install additional unwanted programs? This will stop it completely by unchecking the necessary boxes when you install.
Sci-Hub – Research papers galore! Check here before shelling out money. And if it’s not here, try the next link in our list.
LibGen – Lots of free PDFs relate primarily to the sciences.
Zotero – A free and easy to use program to collect, organize, cite and share research.
Car Complaints – Buying a used car? Check out what other owners of the same model have to say about it first.
CamelCamelCamel – Check the historical prices of items on Amazon and set alerts for when prices drop.
Have I Been Pawned – Still the king when it comes to checking if your online accounts have been released in a data breach. Also able to sign up for email alerts if you’ve ever a victim of a breach.
I Have No TV - A collection of documentaries for you to while away the time. Completely free.
Radio Garden – Think Google Earth but wherever you zoom, you get the radio station of that place.
Just The Recipe – Paste in the url and get just the recipe as a result. No life story or adverts.
Tineye – An Amazing reverse image search tool.
My 90s TV – Simulates 90’s TV using YouTube videos. Also has My80sTV, My70sTV, My60sTV and for the younger ones out there, My00sTV. Lose yourself in nostalgia.
Foto Forensics – Free image analysis tools.
Old Games Download – A repository of games from the 90’s and early 2000’s. Get your fix of nostalgia here.
Online OCR – Convert pictures of text into actual text and output it in the format you need.
Remove Background – An amazingly quick and accurate way to remove backgrounds from your pictures.
Twoseven – Allows you to sync videos from providers such as Netflix, Youtube, Disney+ etc and watch them with your friends. Ad free and also has the ability to do real time video and text chat.
Terms of Service, Didn’t Read – Get a quick summary of Terms of service plus a privacy rating.
Coolors – Struggling to get a good combination of colors? This site will generate color palettes for you.
This To That – Need to glue two things together? This’ll help.
Photopea – A free online alternative to Adobe Photoshop. Does everything in your browser.
BitWarden – Free open source password manager.
Just Beam It - Peer to peer file transfer. Drop the file in on one end, click create link and send to whoever. Leave your pc on that page while they download. Because of how it works there are no file limits. It's genuinely amazing. Best file transfer system I have ever used.
Atlas Obscura – Travelling to a new place? Find out the hidden treasures you should go to with Atlas Obscura.
ID Ransomware – Ever get ransomware on your computer? Use this to see if the virus infecting your pc has been cracked yet or not. Potentially saving you money. You can also sign up for email notifications if your particular problem hasn’t been cracked yet.
Way Back Machine – The Internet Archive is a non-profit library of millions of free books, movies, software, music, websites and loads more.
Rome2Rio – Directions from anywhere to anywhere by bus, train, plane, car and ferry.
Splitter – Seperate different audio tracks audio. Allowing you to split out music from the words for example.
myNoise – Gives you beautiful noises to match your mood. Increase your productivity, calm down and need help sleeping? All here for you.
DeepL – Best language translation tool on the web.
Forvo – Alternatively, if you need to hear a local speaking a word, this is the site for you.
For even more useful sites, there is an expanded list that can be found here.
76K notes
·
View notes
Text
A complete analysis of Cazador Szarr, his palace, and spawn
A week ago, I posted a Reddit thread analyzing everything to do with Cazador Szarr. I wanted to bring it here! THIS IS A VERY LONG POST, THIS IS YOUR WARNING BEFORE CLICKING. Here is the Reddit link.
--
Who is Cazador Szarr?
According to the Forgotten Realms wiki for Cazador Szarr, The Szarr family was a family of Baldur's Gate who were once wealthy merchants and farmers.
I couldn’t find any information on what year the actual Szarr family was attacked, but the information I do have is, “Long before the 15th century DR, the land that would encompass Tumbledown held a grand estate that belonged to the mercantile Szarr family. Unfortunately, every member of the Szarrs was murdered by a rival house, and their holdings were burnt to the ground.” It was unknown how Cazador survived. Maybe he organized this? After the tragic incident, Tumbledown was filled with fog. In addition, the Outer City expanded over the area, and it would become a large cemetery.
Decades prior to 1482 DR, a portion of the cliffs that surrounded the area fell away. Because of this, part of the family crypts were revealed; graverobbers seized the opportunity to plunder the tombs.
Cazador is known as Cazador Szarr 'The Avid', according to a scroll titled “Vampires before Vellioth” From this information, we can see that Cazador turned from Vampire spawn, to Vampire Lord the year 1276, and about 20 years later give or take, is when he turns Astarion into a vampire spawn. Considering the game is set in 1492, this means Cazador has been a vampire lord in Baldur Gate for about 216 years. One of Cazador's slaves, Astarion reported that he was turned into a vampire spawn almost two centuries prior to 1492 DR(1292).
Cazador is the patriarch of the Szarr family, (The head of the family) he apparently didn’t want military or political power, He likes power over people. So when he speaks, Astarion (or vampire spawn) body has to react. He apparently made vampire spawn torture themselves and each other for fun. You can interact with a bust in his palace which reads to be 'Mordic SeLanmere', the most powerful vampire king. It suggests that this might be Cazador's ancestor?
After talking/killing the Gur Gandrel, Tav can talk about the night Astarion met Cazador, and you’re able to call out that it was convenient Cazador just happened to find him. Astarion will deflect and claim he probably was found because of the smell of blood. When you do ask Astarion if you should be worried about Cazador hunting you down, he says you should always be aware, but Cazador was never one to actually leave the city ever. (get a life, Cazador.)
Astarion only assumes Gandral works for Cazador, which is false. If you give Astarion up, he'll be held at the Gur camp, where everyone will be slaughtered in Act 3 by Cazador, and Astarion will go back to the Palace as a zombie.
If you don't kill the Gur Gandrel, you actually find out that his two children were part of the 7,000 spawn trapped by Cazador. Sparing Gandrel, and the rest of the 7,000 spawn will let you briefly talk to him, and his two now vampire spawn children,
Cazador has some beef with the Gur (Obviously since he steals their children) because the werewolves that fight you are ‘Fallen Gur Hunters’. At the party, we can also see the werewolves that fight you are from the Hhune family. There’s a ‘Chatterteeth’ that fights alongside Cazador, who is, like Godey, a pair of bones. I’m not sure what Cazadors affinity is for werewolves, maybe its his twilight fantasy of Edward x Jacob?
On Astarion Ancunín
Astarion's age of death is 39, rather young for elves. His grave reads: 229 - 268 DR 498 DR. This Reddit thread gives good information.
Astarion was turned into a vampire by Cazador Szarr in the year 1292DR. Before he was a vampire, Astarion was a magistrate. A magistrate judge is a judicial officer of the district court and is appointed by majority vote of the active district judges of the court. A group of vagrants, a group called the Gur beat Astarion to deaths door when they took issue of a ruling Astarion made. It is there Cazador 'saved' him with the choice of 'life' or 'bleeding to death in the street'.
It isn’t said if Cazador made/let/stopped Astarion from continuing to be a magistrate. Since Cazador saved Astarion from the Gur, he ‘chased them off’ and turned Astarion into a vampire. I think it would be interesting if there was some sort of political move since a large opinion is that Cazador organized the attack. Perhaps there was an issue with Cazador's status?
-- My theory about Astarions family
In another comment, someone suggested Astarion might be from elsewhere instead of being born in the city. The idea he came to Baldur Gate because he wanted to pursue bigger things and become a Magistrate seems in character without having to add in his family, but you'd think he'd be concerned about his family and vise versa? Unless Astarion had bad blood with them.
At the end of the day, for his main 7 spawn, it doesn't make complete sense to have them be born and raised in Baldur Gate with a full family, since that's way too many connections. Too many distractions when they're out getting marks, and too many opportunities for Cazador to be exposed. Since there are 7,000 spawn created by Cazador, but only 7 that he 'keeps', so there has to be some sort of reason.
Were they the most beautiful? Alluring in his eyes? Or perhaps, the most charismatic, or did they have the least amount of connections that could come back to bite him? Surely, there has to have been one incident. Wouldn't that be interesting if there was at least one spawn we don't know, that used to be of the original 7, but was 'taken out' because a family kept asking too many questions?
*-- *
Cazador, on making Astarion vampire, also made him crawl out of his own grave.
“Nearly two hundred years and I never came back. Not since the night I woke up down there. I had to punch a hole in the coffin and clew my way through six feet of dirt. Then when I finally broke the surface, retching up first and congealed blood, Cazador was waiting.”
It's unclear if Cazador gave all the spawns the same treatment, but my opinion is he did this to send a direct message to Astarion. Astarions grave is in the Thorass alphabet, Showing that his last name is Ancunín. The only way to get to this grave is during a dialogue scene at the end of "The Pale Elf" quest, widely considered the 'good ending' in which the player does not let Astarion ascend. Asended Astarion will not bring you to the grave, and can not be found when in the cemetery in the city.
Astarion also mentions when talking about being turned into a vampire about how painful it was, saying, "I remember how it hurt when I turned into a vampire. My body writhed and warped while I was utterly helpless, the grip of death owned my heart as it beat its last."
In earlier patches, Astarion mentions how he begged Cazador to be turned instead. This is old though, so I wouldn’t say this is reliable.
Astarion does also say in a voiceline that:
"The mindflayers weren't my first kidnapping. A long time ago, I crossed Cazador, a powerful man in Baldur's Gate."
Astarion would bring the people for Cazador, he’d tease Astarion by asking him if he’d like to dine with him, and if Astarion said yes, he’d get a rat(girl dinner). If he said no, he’d have Astarin flayed.
There is also Astarions worst memory, when he was sealed, buried alive for a year. If you ask him about it in Act 3, he talks about how in his first decade, he found a darling boy that he couldn’t bring back to Cazador. So Astarion ran and disobeyed. Cazador caught him and sealed him up, starved him inside a dusty tomb for a year. He claims,
“A year of silence. Months of scratching my hands raw, trying to carve my way out. More months of not moving at all. Months wishing only for death.”
Astarions Brothers and Sisters, the Seven Spawn
It seems Cazador has his main seven spawn, Astarions ‘brothers and sisters’. Seems like Cazador had a real, manager-in retail type mentality and claimed they were ‘all a family’ even while he was carving scars into their flesh. To note, I’m not sure why the only scars Astarion DOES have are the ones on his back. Apparently, Astarion was ‘one of his firsts’ which signals that Astarion might be the second spawn? The rest came years later, but took a special interest in Astarion for his ‘sweet sounds’. Astartion does seem to have some sort of survivor's guilt for them. It isn't ever specified who came first, or who was the most recent.
The respective spawn names are: Leon, Aureila, Yousen, Violet, Dalyria and Pale Petras
They all have the same stats. The demographic is:
Female (3/7) - 43 %
Male (4/7) - 57 %
With 1 Tiefling(Aurelia), 1 Halfling(Yousen), 3 elves(Violet, Astarion,Dalyria), and 2 humans(Pale Petras, Leon) - This is based on observation, I could be wrong!
Their eyes will be glowing red, which means they are under the influence of Cazador. This applies to all the spawn. Once Cazador is dead, their eyes stop glowing.
When Leon and Aurelia confront you at the inn (and attack you), Aurelia claims Cazador knew where Astarion was the entire time, likely watching us from the shadows.
Cazador apparently promised the 6 vampire spawn that he’d set them free. You can learn more about Pale Petras, where he wants to bring back one more person so when he is ‘free’, he will have someone to drink dry right off the bat. Dalyria doesn’t seem to humor the idea and instead wants to leave in fear of angering Cazador by being late, BUT interestingly enough, the vampire spawn are out in the day in a tavern, which means they are hunting day AND night? Considering how Astarion talks to Pale Petras, it's clear that they don’t really get along too well.
When you meet the spawn slave, after succeeding on a perception check, you notice on all 7,000 spawns, "Beneath the first and blood, you notice that every prisoner has a rune carved into their flesh." What is interesting, is it only looks like Sebastian is the only one with these marks. I looked at all the other spawn NPCS and couldn't find anything visible. The runes marked into Sebastian also look kind of fresh, so this perhaps was a recent thing? Unless I'm reading the scars wrong, but from how Astarion talked about his scars, it doesn't sound like he was given them as soon as he was turned into a vampire spawn.
As for the appearance of the other spawn, I can chalk it up to the models not being completely finished with the runes, I suppose… Either that or Tav can see under people's clothes…. kinda weird!
More on Cazador and Baldur Gate
According to Astarion, Cazador is just another ordinary noble in Baldur City. He says that Cazador is a little reclusive perhaps, but just another ‘the great and good’ of Baldur’s Gate. He apparently has a grand palace on the hills of the Gate, where he hosts the city’s high society. This makes me wonder, since there is a ballroom in Cazador’s palace if he hosts all these large high society balls. Astarion wonders if Cazador would risk exposure by doing it at the palace, signaling that Cazador at least, does care for his image.
When your character is a Baldurian, you can ask, “That giant gothic monstrosity has been inhabited by vampires this entire time?” So at least the citizens of Baldur Gate can see how out of place it is.
The Szarr Palace has a palace south tower and ramparts. He has city guards charmed guarding the entrance. It also has a garden and beautiful architecture. The Szarr palace colors are teal and red. My analysis of the building is linked.
The dialogue from Astarions origin character playthrough when he has a nightmare about Cazador:
Spoken like a true old bitch:
���First, thou shelf not drink of the blood of thinking creatures.”
“Second, thou shalt obey me in all things.”
“Third, thou shalt not leave my side unless directed.”
“Fourth, thou shalt know that thou art mine.”
Cazador keeps all the spawn underground in cages. When meeting Sebastion in the cages, you tell Sebastion he’d been down there for “One hundred and seventy years. You were one of my first, too.” This means either the “200” years is more 175 years, or he might not have gone out to get spawn for around ~15 years. It could also mean Astarion sees the 15 years as a short period of time, which would make sense.
Astarion thinks that Cazador hired the Gur to find Astarion in Act 1, and the Gur does not know what Cazador really is. If you give Astarion up and go to Cazador in the future, he will ask you if you’re the one who “took my poor Astarion under your wing, only to abandon him so cruelly?”
What’s really interesting, if you interact with Astarion in the ritual, he’s a zombie, unlike his other spawn. Could this be because he was tortured by Cazador, flayed?
When you read Cazadors mind after killing him without Astarion, it seems Cazador has nightmares of “The boy I was, the man I became, the monster that will not end. I sleep, but cannot rest, I live, but cannot die. I am eternal, and I grieve.” I say shut the fuck up, Cazador.
Obviously, Astarion meeting Cazador in the current up to date patch(9/7/2023) , he’s very demeaning. Man rolls his r’s like he’s still in the fucking renaissance. He claims Astarion is still his even if he can resist his words. He waves around his stupid little staff, but his magic is still strong enough to grab Astarion into the ascension ritual even if you roll a nat 20 to resist.
On talking to Astarion about coming home :
Cazador seems to have mortal servants walking around the palace. The Servants aren’t charmed, but they are ‘fanatics’ as Astarion claims, “Here of their own free will, and utterly devoted to Cazador.”
He says, “Each one came to our door and begged to be given his ‘eternal gift’. They’re sure he’ll turn them if they serve him well enough” whatever the fuck that means.
What I can gather from this information is, that people do know that Cazador is a vampire lord, but obviously not everyone. It's like the well-kept secret that isn’t a secret because Astarion claims earlier that Cazador wouldn’t want to do the ritual at the Palace for fear of exposing himself. If anyone else has any clarification that Cazador is a known vampire, please, I'm all ears.
The servants seem to be obsessed with keeping the place clean, making sure it's ‘pure’. But that’s kind of hard considering there are BATS flying around everywhere in this palace. I can't tell if they are paid at all, either, they are just there freaked out trying to be the best they can so they can be the next vampire spawn. It also makes me wonder, why doesn't Cazador just turn these people into spawn? Is he afraid to scare staff away when they vanish because they begged at Cazadors door for vampirism? How on earth did they find this out? What on earth is Cazadors title to these people, is he a lord even if the public doesn't know he's a vampire lord?
All the text in Cazadors Palace Explained, and rooms explained
[ALL THE TEXT FOUND IN CAZADORS PALACE]
Chamberlain Dufey
In the Chaimberlain's private quarters, we find Chamberlain Dufey’s dead body in a casket. The Chamberlain is responsible for managing the household of nobles, so Dufey would have managed the household for Cazador. It's suggested by a private note left by Dufey’s Werewolf GF that he killed himself via poison, and so she Romeo and Juliet herself and killed herself as well.
You can find his diary on the bed on the floor, and we find out that Dufey killed himself because he found out about Cazador's ritual, because Cazador wanted Dufey to be the stand-in for the missing Asterion. He even calls Astarion a brat! Ironically enough, his poison is just enough to slow his heart and he isn’t actually dead, so his lover found him and killed herself in return. True poetry. Dufey hopes that once Cazador ascends, he can leave since Cazador won’t need his management anymore. This suggests that Dufey is a prisoner in one way or another. He is, a vampire spawn interestingly enough.
Godey
Cazador would throw the spawn into a ‘kennel’ when he was displeased with the vampire spawn. This is hidden by an illusion, that Astarion claims is one of his regular, cheap tricks.
Godey is a pair of bones that is under Cazador's control. He claims to be doing his job and to ‘keep him(astarion) in line.” He apparently tortured the spawn for days at a time, and Godey seemed to enjoy the screaming.
Spawn sleeping quarters
The vampire spawn seemed to live in a ‘dormitory style’ living, inside the dormitory wing. He has two rooms, “spawn dormitory” and “favorite spawn”
You can find Violet's diary, where she says the ‘garlic in Yousen's bed gave him a nasty rash’ which signals that vampires can’t handle garlic. It also shows that Violet is a little shit and makes life hell for the other spawn… a true sibling. Leon has a daughter named Victoria, but Cazador seems to ‘have a little plan for her.’
There is also a blood ledger from Dufey, who states the rules of what type of people Cazador wants to be picked up. Most notably, to focus on the lower class. He chastises them for picking up three people from wealthy families because their families of course are wondering where the as fuck they went. The goal is not to attract unwanted attention and to avoid aristocrats, even if they are out slumming in the lower city.
Favorite Spawn
The ‘favored spawn’ room is a lot more grand, with nice beds that don’t stack on a bunk bed. I wonder if Astarion was a bottom or top bunk?
It turns out when looking at the favorited spawn list, it mostly is Leon, with Violet taking only one year. When you read Leon's diary though, we find out he’s working so hard because he has a daughter named Victoria. Leon writes, “I've had to be his best hunter just so I could stay here with my daughter and keep her away from the other spawn. I don’t like the way Violet looks at her, not at all!”
So it seems that Cazador let the other spawn family stay with them unless Victoria is an outlier… But while they are ‘siblings’, they still do not get along. Either that or Violet is just a bitch. That being said, Leon also writes, “When I ask the master what he plans to do with Victoria, Cazador just gives me that wicked smile.” He writes that he is working together on a plan to disguise Victoria so she can escape. She’s a human girl running around, and her father even writes her a note to learn the ancient language book that is in the guest room so she can move around freely in the mansion. This means there was a KID running around the palace. A HUMAN KID.
You can also find a list that Victoria made, which seems focused on the number '17' for some reason.
What I’m gathering is, that Cazador is wicked and sick- of course, we knew that. But poor Leon, protecting his daughter? All of this is to say- Victoria is dead in the guest room. She’s covered by necrotic magic.
Astarion claims he has brought people to this guest room before.
Dalyria
In the guest room, we get to find Dalyria’s diary. It claims she was a Doctor, and Physician General to the Parliment of Baldur Gate. She claims she will always be a Doctor, despite what Cazador did to her.
She says that a “massive infusion of fresh, youthful blood may overwhelm the vampirism infection and enable my body to heal” and points out that Victoria is the pureblooded daughter of Leon. This seems to indicate that she thinks that vampirism is a blood-affected thing, and can be cured one way or another.
Leon was apparently a sorcerer before he became spawn, and warned everyone to not bite her since he booby-trapper her blood in case of an attack. So… considering she is letting out necrotic energy, I assume that Dalyria tried to bite her because she assumed Leon was lying.
When you try to Speak with Dead on her, it seems her answers don’t line up too well with the actual journal entries. She says that Dalyria lured her with the promise of food and shelter and she was bit by her, and then Dal was dragged away by Cazador, and Victoria was eventually killed by him.
A question I have is, with a daughter so young, and Leon has been on the favorite spawn list for so many years, did he have this kid when he was a vampire? She looks like she’s only 10 or younger, so he either had to have her at the Palace when she was a baby or he somehow got someone pregnant.
The Ballroom
When you enter the ballroom, the people on the floor are called guests. So I can assume there was some party, and then the werewolves were called to rip everyone up. On the body of a woman named Sanseverina, she’s carrying a note that says. *“Sansy, I've been invited to a party at the Szarr Palace tonight in their ballroom. Show the chamberlain at the door this note and he’ll let you in to join me. Wear your best dress!” - Callira (*Sansy was not indeed, wearing a dress at all.)
Callira can be found in what I assume is the cigar room dead on the floor. She holds a note from Dufay that she is requested by Cazador to play music at the party.
Using "Speak to Dead" on one of the dead party members on the floor, we find out that one of them is named "Sterlac", a Senior Clerk in the Counting House. He was invited to the party, and claims he was enjoying the party, drinking and talking. When you ask him what he was talking about, he says,
"Work… Counting House… Who controls what. Wanted names of senior staff… families… any scandals, secrets…"
He also says that at the party, the guests were politicians, minor nobles, fist officers, 'all sorts'. Cazador wanted information, he apparently asked them all a lot of questions about the power structures in the city, the weaknesses, and the type of people Cazador should look at controlling.
Cazador apparently took the most beautiful people away from the party, and they were never seen again. According to Sterlac, after Cazador left, werewolves came to the party and made the guests their little afternoon snack. From what I can gather, it does seem that Cazador has his foot in the door pretty heavily in politics, if he's using clerks for their information about staff and…. scandals.
I'm assuming this random attack of wolves is in reference to the 'grand feast' Dufay writes about in his party planner diary you'll find in Cazador's office.
What my takeaway is, that people in political power, at least of use to Cazador, know he is a vampire. But it isn't generally common knowledge, even when Tav comments on the vampire-filled manor, and Astarion jokes back that its "subtle, isn't it?"
Dufay also orders the guards on the wall to make sure they're vigilant and that the staff are silent and never speak. This shows that Cazador’s reach goes all the way to the guards. Dufay does note that “If you encounter the mater, stand still and cast down your eyes with dereference. The master likes to be respected.”
Oh. and no whistling, of course.
What is the puzzle under Cazadors Palace?
The puzzle under Cazador Palace can be entered via the cigar room. Me, and so many people have concluded this is simply an unfinished room since I tried to do just about everything to get this to work.
I back my theory up because this is the only location in Cazadors Palace that isn't marked as dangerous and allows the player to long rest and travel by waypoint etc.
Venturing further, we can find a confession from one of Cazador's captives, where they confess their transgressions. This is from someone named Dawson Kiltmaker, who claims they cheated on the city accountants' certification test. Since Dawson suspects he is going to die, he is using the journal to rid himself of sins so he can die with his soul a little lighter. He also claims that Cazador gloats, so it's confirmed that Cazador at least, fucks with the prisoners mentally. There are a lot of dead bodies so it can be assumed sometimes, Cazador just keeps people / kills them instead of turning them.
Cazadors Office Area / Family / Attic
Cazador's office is directly linked to the ballroom named the “Office Hall”
There’s a party planner on the desk that Dufay used to plan Cazador's gatherings. The ballroom functions are divided into two categories - Invited guests and involuntary guests, which are the entertainment for the latter category being considerably more sinister than the former.
So what I can assume is … There are other vampires invited or others invited of different types of morality that use or torture the second category? Thats wild. Cazedor also planned a ‘final feast’ that Dufey had to organize, which involved invited and involuntary guests…
Cazadors desk has Starbrt Shandy, a Carafe of wine, and Cagulated blood. He also seems to keep up with the news since articles are on his desk and a book about Baldur City's history. Cazador's entire office is just… blood and wine. Dude parties non fucking stop. There is also a book on the upper city and the lower city.
The Dais is the elevator down into the dungeon, Astarion had no idea it was there. He said Cazador brought his victims there, so it can be assumed that Astartion at least dragged the person to Cazador's office before they were brought to the second room down the elevator… Imagine how scary that would be.
There's a bust of Shyressa Runemaster as well, a vampire in 1360 DR. It should be noted, there's so many bottles of wine in this fucking estate. Does NOBODY drink water???
Cazador's Niece
In the attic, we actually get entries from Cazador's family from the year 1477. Amanita Szarr, Cazadors ‘niece’ claims she didn’t know that Cazador was a vampire. She claims she had no idea that her family were vampires, so it confirms that the Szarr family at least has some nonvampires and a long line of vampires.
She grew up on the country estate near Anga Vled was raised by servants, and hardly ever visited the city palace in Baldurs Gate. It noted she hated visiting, and that the Palace straddles the wall between the Upper and Lower City. In the year 1477 when she was 13, Cazador personally summoned her, and she was brought by carriage. Dufey greets her and brings her to the ballroom, and It is here that Cazador forcibly turns her into a vampire in the torture room above the ballroom. She was imprisoned in the attic by someone named Bolvart for trying to resist being a vampire, and she eventually succumbed and drank human blood. They kept her in the attic starving for an entire year and eventually sent up a bound captive, which she killed. So Amanita decided to stay up in the attic for the rest of her life calling herself Lady Incognita.
Amanita later wrote a book describing blood diseases claiming that there is something that can infect vampires with a brief illness. It's called “Red Thrombosis and Thandals Paroxsym”. Vampires should be able to recognize this before they even bite people if they are trained. Do you hear that, Astarion lovers? It's time to write Astarion is sick fanfiction. Or.. maybe, Cazador is fucking ill and everyone points and laughs.
So even those who survived the Szarr massacre still get hunted down by Cazador to become vampires it seems. Cazador leaves no stone unturned, but it makes me wonder how many other surviving members there had to have been. Obviously, Cazador has siblings if he has a niece.
Cazadors Corner
Going down into Cazador’s dungeon, there is a list with thousands of names from Baldur City, which can be assumed the sibling's victims.
There is Cazador's journal, which records the movements and actions of his spawn. He seems REALLY interested in Astarions, noting his every order, failure, and punishment.
He says, “Astarion failed to return from his hunt this night. Godey Informed. He will have the pliers ready when the boy shows himself again.”
Cazador starts to say how upset he is that Astarion is missing and that he wants to make Astarion scream. So then, Cazador starts to torture his siblings to find Astarion since he’s been missing for days. He then notes that when Astarion interacts with his siblings in Wyrms Crossing, Astarion is able to stand in the sunlight and bolds that he’s able to disobey Cazador. Dude is fucking upset writing in his diary. This obviously won't appear if you don't ever interact with Pale Petras and Dal.
In another book, Cazador writes about how he’s concerned about Lord Gortash because of his new steel watch, wondering if they’d mess with his vampire spawn and how he operates….
Cazador has a letter he writes to Mrel Alkam, who I suppose leads their own vampire circle in another region called “Athkatla” which is apparently more homogeneous than Baldurs Gate. He tells Alkam to enjoy his success while he has it because he plans to surpass him. He also says that he’s been long content with being a major city’s vampire lord. This signals that Cazador is not the only vampire lord out there, of course, but he’s feeling inferior.
Cazador essentially is writing this hatemail like, You might think you’re so cool and special with your vampires, but just you wait, I'm about to become cooler AND more popular.
(For the record, Cazador slept in a twin-sized bed, so he was getting NO bitches.)
Looking into Athkatla further, we can find that this is the "City of Coin" , a location in BG2. There is a whole vampire coven in Athkatla, which players are able to interact with in BG2.
Under Cazadors corner, you can also find a scroll written by Lady Incognita that it was Donnela Szarr, Vellioth's original Vampire master, explaining how she was the one that opened the halls that Cazador uses as his dungeon. Apparently, they were built by mining dwarves who were exiles from Bhaerynden and seemed to be more of an outpost abandoned with time. Donnela questions, what was being mined here? It's questioned by Lady Incognita that it's unusual the halls were never discovered under Baldur's Gate, and they could have been deliberately hidden.
Cazadors previous vampire master, Vellioth
Vellioth - A skull with a scroll clamped in its teeth. This is Cazador's previous master, a cruel man.
His first lesson: “Is to always dominate. Allow none to be your equal.”
“Vellioth recalls when Cazador reached out to a former friend. His punishment was to watch as Vellioth drained his friend dry.”
His second lesson: “Power comes from solitude. To share with others is to be weak, and to be weak is to fail… and die.”
"Vellioth recalls when Cazador rebelled against him. Cazador suffered eleven years of impalement… because he failed."
(For the record, this is fucking horrific. It's such a hard juxtaposition AND parallel between him and Astarion.)
His third lesson: “Act not in haste. A near immortal has time to plan, time to act when others will pay the price of action.”
“Vellioth recalls Cazador, his lesson learned, killing him in the Rite of Perfect Slaughter. How they both laughed! Vellioth recalls Cazador boiling the flesh from his skull and then, to mock him, clamping his Schooling Scroll in Vellioth's jaws.”
(I couldn't find any information about the Rite of Perfect Slaughter)
Vellioth
As for Vellioth, he is known as Vellioth the Martinet. A Martinet is a strict disciplinarian, especially in the armed forces. He ruled from 1204 - 1276(72 years). A lot shorter run than most, but overall rather average considering. Vellioth’s master was Donnela Szarr the Architect, which makes me wonder if Vellioth was actually his family. There are only two Szarr names on the list of vampire lords, including Cazador and Donnela.
Here are the recent 5 stats:
Cazador Szarr - 216 years
Vellioth - 72 years
Donnela Szarr - 66 years
Hideous Gathwycke - 119 years
Failbleur the Fleeting - 0 years
The average amount of years in Cazador's recent 5 history of Vampire Lords is about 94.6 hours, with Cazador holding the highest number. When calculating the numbers for all listed, the average is 80 years, with Cazador taking the gold medal for longest in ruling.
My general opinion on why Cazador is most obsessed with Astarion is not only looks, but because I wonder if he also sees himself in Astarion- Cazador rebelled and pulled against Vellioth, so maybe he punished Astarion as Vellioth punished him for being bad.
Astarion will note that Cazador can’t be original for once and stole his own rules from Vellioth.
I think it's really interesting to see this side of the story, because when you ascend Astarion it feels like he kind of becomes the next Cazador, and this shows that Cazador was also in the same vicious cycle of abuse. Not that anything Cazador did was ever acceptable, but it's an interesting angle.
You do have choices to break this cycle or continue it. If you convince Astarion to not go through with it, he will thank you for believing in him.
On letting Astarion Ascend, he will sadly continue the cycle of abuse it kind of feels, not letting you break up with him at the end of the game. He laughs and calls you stupid, and says,
“You’re mine, remember?”
It's a sad reminder- Cazador is a cruel, vicious, and unredeemable person, but was also once a person, likely with some sort of light in his eyes… only to be shut down by abuse from his master, which makes his character so interesting.
Astarions Victims
From the four older captives that Astarion has brought, there is Sebastian, Wensleydale, Hapdim, and Gondlemead. Only Sebastion can speak. For…. research purposes, they do not react to being attacked.
For the children, it seems Cazador specifically ordered Astarion to capture them. This can only be assumed because they are the children of the Gur. When you kill Cazador, before leaving, you'll be confronted by Ulma, a leader of the Gur tribe. They are upset that Astarion stole their children, but seeked Astarion out when they find out he fled and somehow betrayed Cazador in hopes they could recruit Astartion.
There also does seem to be a back entrance to the dungeon from the sewer. Who knows how often that was used since there is a scene with a girl who was meeting up with a ‘silver-haired’ man who told her there was going to be a party when you reach Act 3.
Why didn't Astarion bite Cazador?
I wish I had a good theory for this, but I really don't. So, the only thing I have that could be something is Astarion mentions:
"In theory, the next step is to drink their blood. Once you've done that, you're free and a true vampire."
But he follows up by saying that it doesn't happen because vampires are the true natural enemies of another vampire. I read something someone said that maybe the vampire has to be willing to let the spawn bite him, but that doesn't make sense since Cazador didn't seem all that willing to be stabbed to death. If the tadpole can protect him from Cazador's grip, it should be able to allow him to bypass that stipulation.
So, at the end of the day, I think we can assume this is some plot hole. Either that or Astarion is thinking about it the next day after he rejected ascension and realizes, 'Wait fuck!'
My questions about Cazador…
I would love to know more about his Palace and why it was built/bought in such a weird spot?
How long Cazador has been a vampire?
Do the citizens of Baldur City know Cazador is a vampire lord? Or is it, if you know you know?
How long ago was the Szarr family massacred, and how many really survived? What was his family like?
How did Cazador meet Vellioth?
What is his fucking problem with Astarion?
What is his title? Is he referred to as 'my lord'?
Is he seen as a Patron to his spawn by the public?
What was the most surprising fact you learned?
#BG3#Astarion#Cazador#Cazador Szarr#baldurs gate 3 spoilers#Baldurs Gate 3#bg3 spoilers#i made this for all my vampire lovers and fanfiction writers#<3#i hate that my friends now call me cazador girl#my bg3 posts
568 notes
·
View notes
Text
Sticker AU
Important!!!
Direct linking gets rid of the readmore cuts!
If you came here via direct link, or wish to use the direct links to another part of the story, and DO NOT want to spoil the surprise stickers, please click on my blog name to go to the actual post after using the link.
Part 8
《Prev Next》
Once Tim, Bruce, and Damian had returned from patrol Saturday night, it hadn't taken long to catch on that they'd all had an encounter with a mysterious, sticker wielding stranger.
It still sent a small wave of humor through Tim to recall how Bruce had looked, walking through the cave with a sticker proclaiming how many 'goodies' his utility belt had before he'd used an anti-adhesive spray to remove it and the rest of the 'evidence' without risking its destruction.
Damian was still quite adamant that the sticker placed on his katana sheath belonged to him, regardless of if it went with the rest of them into an evidence folder or not.
Pooling their information hadn't resulted in much of a physical description. Tim himself hadn't seen them at all while 'young with blue eyes and dark, possibly-black hair' and 'a sensed presence approximately equivalent to a 12 year old Dick or 14 year old Tim' was not exactly a unique description. Also, he did not need yet another reminder that he was shorter than any other Robin of the same age, thank you, Bruce.
Bruce *had* managed to bring back two blood samples that, while proving a match to each other, were stubbornly refusing to match with much *else*. Including normal human DNA.
The samples somehow had an incredibly mangled DNA strand. Some of it seemed to be *missing* or appeared to be merged with something that the batcomputer outright refused to identify on the first scan. Or the second. The third spit out a partial match to *Lazarus Pit water*. At which point the samples, which had degraded at an exponentially fast rate, were no longer considered by the computer to be a viable DNA sample to analyze.
They couldn't even definitively say the person in question *had* a meta gene, regardless of the odds being in favor of it, (or extremely good stealth tech no one had ever even heard of before) what with the, the, swiss cheese *nonsense* of a DNA strand the analysis had spit out! If the sample on the sticker didn't pull the same results as the ground-collected sample, Tim would have bet money on it being corrupted with something to prevent identification on purpose.
As it was, if the person those blood samples belonged to was not an incredibly sick individual, given the DNA irregularities and the sheer speed of degradation, Tim would be very surprised.
Or they possibly had ties to the League of Assassins, with the partial Lazarus Pit match, though admittedly, the light-heartedness of the stickers made that an incredibly low chance.
This discovery had not proven helpful in getting Bruce to calm down about a young, possibly ill, possibly LoA-adjacent, probably-meta child running around Gotham in the middle of the night, stealing from and pranking every vigilante they came across. The fact that Damian was almost as fixated on finding the child as Bruce came as somewhat more of a surprise, considering. All he would say on the matter was that the level of stealth displayed was quite admirable and worth investing in. Like they needed *more* assassin-trained children running around.
Ugh.
Alfred had eventually been forced to banish both of them upstairs to rest, giving Tim a look that he was choosing not to interpret at the moment. Tim was fine, it hadn't even been *that* long since he'd last slept.
Besides, disregarding the dead-end of the blood samples, there was more than enough information yet to be sorted through.
On top of trying to comb through any possible camera footage in the areas around the incidents, the hotel the sample was found at provided marginally more information. If you counted finding out that a large ghost hunting convention had been scheduled for the long weekend and most of the hotels around the area were booked with *hundreds* of non-local participants to then check up on as a positive information gain. They couldn't even say the hotel the blood samples were found at was the hotel the person in question was staying in. They only knew for certain that it was where the communicator had stopped working.
Plus, the strange way the signal had wavered before cutting out, and the way some of the cameras he had been checking showed nothing but static, pointed to a possibly quite sophisticated piece of jammer technology. Which brought back up the stealth tech option and *more* investigations into where it could have been obtained and who could be producing advanced tech like that.
At least that made the stickers make marginally more sense if they were bought at or created for the convention, though he had already tried to do an online search for the stickers and come up empty handed.
Batman and Robin would be heading out later that evening to see if they could find any new leads or possibly encounter the sticker kid again while Tim continued to track and filter information in the cave.
Stretching a bit and taking a large swig from the not-exactly-Alfred-approved cup of coffee he'd smuggled in, Tim cracked his knuckles and got back to work.
Danny was perfecting his thousand-yard stare off into the distance as his parents corralled yet another poor sap into debating ghosts with them when Jazz swung by the booth to check in. "Hey, Danny. How's it going?"
Danny slowly turned his head to look at her with an expression of immense suffering as he slid a sticker over to her.
Taking a peek at what she'd been handed, Jazz snorted a laugh. "Fair's fair, little brother. Yesterday was my day at the booth, today's yours. Chin up! At least we'll be taking it down and packing it up tonight and tomorrow we can just wander around for the last bit of the convention before we leave."
Danny sighed, "Yeah, at least there's that," he responded glumly. Hopefully, tonight's vigilante adventure would make up for this...
@mygood-bitch99 @stargazer-luna @easily-broken-by-emotion @dolfay @britcision @cyber-geist @is-this-even-relatable @alcorbearson @fisticuffsatapplebees @thegatorsgoose @my-mom-calls-me-rat @some-rotten-nest @crystalqueertea @meira-3919 @wandererofthestars @seraphinedemort @bjurnberg @blep-23 @stargirl1331 @bianca-hooks123 @addie-lover-of-stories @pickleking8 @iconicanemone @sarina-elais @mur-ururu @sailor-goddess @dragonfirefeather @nutcase8691 @ravenpainter @liandrin @jaguarthecat @russetfur1128 @purefrickingspite @oakskull @idfk-man10 @vythika96 @molasses-being-slow @satisfactionbroughtmeback @serasvictoria02 @tkiesai @breesperez139 @dhampir-princess @redhoneysugarorange @gildedphoenix @iglowinggemma28 @f4nd0m-fun @therandomartmaker @mandyne-1001
#dpxdc#theskit writes#Stickers AU#danny makes his own stickers :3#and now danny is running around gotham like a gremlin#with a pocket full of homemade stickers#whatever will he do with them? 😈
1K notes
·
View notes
Text
LOVE IS THE MOST TWISTED CURSE OF THEM ALL
PART 13 ( FINAL )
Gojo Satoru x Fem! Reader
A/N: Omg can't believe that we reached the end of this ff! I started this fic on Dec 12, 2023 and today it's ending on April 19, 2024 🥺.
Thank you everyone for Being part of this journey, thank you for reading, for your support and for your patience! I truly appreciate and you guys truly saved me! I love every single one of you 💗💗💗.
I hope you enjoy this final part as well, and stay tuned more fics are coming 🔜
I'll post an analysis of this fic to emphasize the meanings, morals and life lessons included, if you're interested of course!
Again thank you so much 🙏🏻🫶🏻
Warning: SMUTTT MDNI 🔞 NOT PROOFREAD ⚠️
If you're a Smut Asmr enthusiast you can click on this YouTube link : Gojo Kissing Asmr to add to the experience while reading.
In your house, the place that now you can confidently call a home. Crazy how when two souls bind they make any cold and abandoned place, alive and warm.
Satoru closed your bedroom door as both you got inside, his blue eyes never leaving yours, his hands circled your waist, as you walked backwards.
"You gave me a hard time y/n! I thought you hated me for real!"
With hazy eyes that seduced the shit out of him, you spoke,
"I had to give you a taste of your own medicine Satoru"
"Oh God, this attitude gets me fucking hard for you" he blurted out, growing more impatient.
You smirked as you saw how desperate he was,
"Too excited, Satoru?" you teased,
"Mhm, I know you are too!" he answered, pushing you on the big bed and hovered over you, taking you by surprise on how fast he was, "if you allow me my princess"
You nodded, your mind racing with wild thoughts that contradicted your innocent face, you can't wait to feel him inside of you, filling every inch that's screaming for him.
"It-its my first time though–"
"Don't worry princess, just trust me"
..
He leaned down pressing his lips on yours, moaning into the kiss. He stripped out of his clothes in front you, you watched him fully naked before your eyes that scanned him, your inside throbbing, growing impatient wanting him to fill the emptiness inside you. Now he helped you out of your clothes. He paused for a moment to admire your body that was under him. His blue eye glistening with love and lust. His large hands reached to touch your neck, chest, abdomen and then rested on your thighs, spreading your legs.
You closed your eyes as you felt the tickling sensation of his long fingers running on the soft skin of your inner thighs.
"Open your eyes princess, keep your eyes on me"
You nodded and did as he said feeling the heat,
"Mhm"
"Fuck... look at you princess so wet for me"
You gasped a bit when you felt his breath on your pussy. He admired you for a bit, the his tongue started working on pleasuring you down there.
You felt the need to grab into something, so your hands found their way to his hair, pulling on it.
"S-shit" you moaned,
as he continued to eat you out,
"Let it go baby", he whispered still devouring you till you cane around his tongue.
"Fuck"
"You taste so good baby, daamn" he exclaimed as he now slowly pushed himself inside you. "F-fuck baby" he groaned at your tightness.
"S-satoru"
"T-tell me when you w-want me t-to move baby" he groaned wanting to thrust into you so bad.
"You can move" you whispered
He slowly started moving, looking at you making sure you felt comfortable. You wrapped your arms around his neck, pulling him into a passionate kiss, while he pulled out and pushed back into you. You whimpered from the new sensation that made you crave him even more.
"You okay?"
"Mhm f-faster"
He smirked, finally getting the green light ti pound you, each thrust sent both of you on cloud nine.
"Satoru don't stop" you moaned rolling your eyes back.
Your words and moans only motivated him to keep going faster and harder leading him and you to your climax.
"Shit, I-I'm close S-satoru" you shut your eyes tightly.
"Fuck—together baby"
You rocked your hips up, both of your hearts pounding out of your chests till both of you released at the same time.
"Yeaah oh fuck baby"
He laid next to you on the bed for a few moments looking into each other's eyes then started giggling as he pulled you to his chest.
"you did so good princess, I love you so much"
"I love you too"
.....
"Here! lemme help you clean up!"
"Thanks" you smiled softly
"What about we watch a movie and cuddle till we fall asle–.. are you okay?" he asked as he saw you zoning out.
"I–I'm" but you couldn't finish your sentence, feeling out of breath.
"Y/n what's wrong?" asked Gojo worriedly,
"I- I can't breathe–" you stuttered,
You quickly put on your panties, and grabbed Gojo's shirt that was thrown on the bedroom floor and put it on, hurrying outside for some air. You clutched your chest, coughing violently, each cough racked your body making you stumble into the wall and random objects.
"Baby- y/n lemme take you to Shoko" he said trying to grab you, but you flinched away, you were too sensitive to any touch,
"No-no"
"Baby please wait" he pleaded, still fully naked,
You swung the house door open, rushing to the street trying to inhale fresh air as much as possible but it was too hard to do so, making effort to breathe. Barefoot, only in Gojo's shirt that became a dress on you. Desperately gasping for oxygen. Cold sweat trickled down your forehead, your vision blurred, dizziness taking over you, your world spinning trying your best to take control over your body that betrayed you.
Gojo rushed outside as well, he had to put his pants on before chasing after you. He couldn't leave the house naked.
"AAAAAAA" you screamed your lungs out, as your eyes scanned your surroundings,
"Y/N" yelled Gojo, fear taking over him, he hugged you tightly, you buried your head in the crook of his neck.
With a flick of his finger he exorcised the curses that were surrounding both of you in the area, making them disappear in a matter of seconds.
"A-re those–?" you mumbled, feeling your heart beats get steadier and your breathing back to normal.
"Yes, curses! wait– you can see them!??" he asked, his eyes widened when he realized you saw the curses.
"Wait!!! I saw them?!!" you looked at Gojo in surprise processing the fact that you can see curses now.
"Does that mean–"
"My curse broke!?"
"Your curse broke!?"
both of you exclaimed at the same time, looking at each other in surprise.
Gojo hugged you tight, spinning you around.
"Omg baby finally!!! We have to go to Jujutsu High now!" he added,
"Wait– can we go tomorrow? I don't think I'm ready to face them, besides I'm still processing it" you said looking uncomfortable.
"I know, but I'm sorry princess, we don't have a choice! it is a must that we inform them now! All of us have been waiting for this"
You nodded in defeat, after all informing them is totally the better option than seeing other curses and not knowing what to do beside screaming.
You went back to your house, took a shower and put on some proper clothes on while Satoru made a phone call to Principal Yaga.
"You ready sweetheart?" he asked.
"Yeah ready" you answered with a deep breath.
"Hey hey babe, look at me! it will be alright. I'll be by your side the whole time okay?" he said cupping your cheeks.
• At Jujutsu High •
You hesitantly sat on the chair, the higher-ups eyes fixated on your every move, making you feel extremely awkward.
"So Gojo Y/n, Satoru told us that you were able to see curses tonight and that you had trouble breathing and dizziness?" said one of the higher ups
"Mhm yes right, I couldn't breathe and I had a weird feeling as if I'm being choked or suffocated and when I went out for some air I've seen 3 curses surrounding us"
"And you're aware of what that means?"
"It means my curse broke— right?"
"Correct! how did it break though? what did you do to break it? It's been months since taking your vows why did it break tonight?" he asked
"uhm" you didn't know what to say,
You and Satoru looked at each other, and you can see the smirk on his face, then you realized that the vows were not the ones to break the curse, but true love bonding; by making love.
You can feel your cheeks warm up, a red tint colored them. Satoru lowered his head trying not to burst into uncontrollable laughter when he saw how shy you got from your realization.
You stuttered not knowing what to say, it was really inappropriate to tell them that sex with Gojo broke it. With a small chuckle Gojo looked at them and said,
"Don't worry about it, it just did, I helped her with it"
"It is official then. Y/n ! starting from today you're officially a Jujutsu Sorcerer welcome to our society"
You kinda felt proud that now you're part of something and not just a purposeless human being who doesn't even know themselves. But at the same time you felt terrified at the fact that you've got hella responsibilities on your shoulder starting from tonight.
"Thank you" you muttered, fidgeting with your fingers.
"But I must tell you, a lot of special grade curses will attempt to attack you and kill you–"
"Not only curses but also the other sorcerers" said one of the other higher ups
"other sorcerers? aren't all sorcerers serving the same purpose, killing curses?" you asked
"Well, as you can see, not all sorcerers are good, staring from your case with Mei Mei, there are many of them and more worse than her. You're considered both a balance and a threat to our world y/n" he explained
You felt extremely uneasy and uncomfortable, too much pressure, too much information to process. Feeling very overwhelmed more than ever. Your forehead dripping with cold sweat.
"I know you've already told me that the prophecy said I'll bring balance but how? what is my task exactly?" you asked, questions making your head spin.
"You're the strongest now, and to remain that way you mustn't die, it's all in your hands from now on, the Jujutsu Community depends on you for protection from the Ultimate danger"
"The ultimate danger?"
"You know our task as sorcerers to exorcise curses and protect the normals, those who can't defeat themselves"
"Yes?"
"Well the prophecy didn't only mention you, it mentioned also the danger we'll face, it is mentioned that an ancient and dark sorcerer will try to invade humanity with curse energy leading an evolution, a world full of sorcerers and curses"
"So the non sorcerers are at risk?"
"Exactly but also the sorcerers"
"Is it Sukuna that will carry this deed?"
"No! not Sukuna"
"Huh? isn't he an ancient dark–?"
"He is a special grade curse, but it's not Sukuna's plan to make the world full of sorcerers that want to exorcise him, Sukuna's goal is to be the ruler, gather followers and execute those who do not submit" explained Satoru
"Then who's this sorcerer?"
"We don't know! but all what we know that you'll be the first one to confront him" added Principal Yaga.
You gulped, being the first one; without experience on how to use your Jujutsu, and to meet one ancient strong sorcerer that has destructive plans is kinda crazy and it made your heart go crazy. What if you're not capable of defeating him? What if you disappoint the Jujutsu Community that has faith in you?
All of these questions burned your throat, but you can't ask them, you'd be seen as weak and scared and you definitely can't let them know that.
"Alright then" you simply said, then excused yourself and left the meeting room.
Gojo followed you, he can sense your discomfort.
You stood in the balcony, joined by your husband.
"It's not an easy task you've got" he started,
"Ugh thanks for reminding me again Satoru" you rolled your eyes at him.
"Come on Y/n! you'll get used to it" he whispered pulling you close to him by your waist, his big arms surrounding you in a protective way.
"I don't even know what my technique is Satoru"
"Oh but I do!"
"You do?"
"Yes, your technique was already foreseen, its a heritage from a very ancient sorcerer, the last sorcerer that had it was like 200 years ago. That sorcerer maintained balance in our world for years, emphasizing safety for both sorcerers and non-sorcerers, there's a reason you won against me during our fight, it blew my mind that you succeeded in laying a punch even though i had my infinity on. Your technique is copying others techniques just by touching them while it is activated. You can use their techniques against them"
"Wait what?? How do I know? And what if I'm fighting against curses ? how am I supposed to defeat them since not all curses have a technique, not all of them are special grade or first grade after all?"
"Good question, actually you have a strong burst of curse energy that could easily destroy curses, you just need to learn how to activate it"
"So I need a lot of practice huh? A long way to go? What if I'm not ready yet to face that sorcerer?"
"You don't need practice, you're a natural at it, you just need to try and believe in yourself, in your abilities, in your technique, that's how you're gonna summon it, you've got the spirit of the great old sorcerers in you, you're capable of everything Y/n just search inside of you... you're capable of things you don't know you're capable of"
His words were very comforting and motivating, you can feel your tense muscles relax slowly, nodding your head at his words.
"I believe in you y/n" he added, kissing your forehead.
You closed your eyes taking into the moment.
You can't deny that his words boosted your confidence and your ego, it's finally your time to shine.
"Embrace this new version of you Y/n!" he added kissing your temple.
"–I wanna meet Mei Mei" you said out of the blue.
"Huh? meet Mei Mei?"
"Yeah! I'm not allowed?" you raised your eyebrow.
"No not like that, you're allowed of course, it just was unexpected, I thought you didn't wanna see her face"
"You're right, but you said I have to embrace this new version of me so maybe it's time to speak my mind and confront others instead of hiding" you said confidently.
"Damn I love this mindset" he said with a smile.
"Oh but trust me you're next" you said teasingly.
"Wait what?" he said panicking.
"Come on Satoru, you know I'm not fully done with you"
"But I thought you forgave me" he said pouting.
"Oh I did but it's about time I forget, come on take me to Mei Mei"
You were serious though, you didn't forget what he'd done to you yet. It's true you love him with all of your heart, and he does too but you felt that ignoring him for a week wasn't a proper punishment.
......
Gojo took you to the prison where Mei Mei is staying. He unlocked the door stepping inside.
"Gojo? you came!" said Mei Mei but het smile dropped instantly right after she saw you take a step inside her cell.
Satoru stood by the door, while you moved closer towards her, you can tell by the look on her face that she felt something different coming from you, something intimidating, something strong, not the usual you.
"Y/n y–"
without saying anything you interrupted her with a slap across her face. You slapped her with all your might earning a gasp from her and from your husband, his eyes widened, he didn't see it coming.
Mei Mei looked at you in shock, and said in confusion,
"You slapped m—"
"Oh I did! I could've done more but I just chose not to"
"You—"
"Uh uh no no! I'll talk and you will listen Mei Mei, Im here to speak my mind, to say the things that I couldn't say before because I thought my words won't make any difference, and even if they don't now I really don't care because I'll speak any way"
You paused for a second, leaning towards her, your eyes piercing through her soul.
"I hope you're enjoying your time here in this cell, reflecting on what you had done and most importantly realizing that you deserve to be here. I hope you realize that all of us pay for what we do. Because sooner or later we won't escape the universe's justice. and I hope you realize that what you've done to me is terrible, I hope you feel the guilt every day and I hope it eats you up for trying to ruin what was already ruined life, for trying to kill me. You know something Mei Mei I allowed you to hurt me because I didn't know I can protect myself, I didn't know I was capable of stopping someone from harming me both physically and emotionally because I was weaker than all of you. But now I do and damn it feels great. You and Toji will both suffer. See all of what you do to others will come around to you and you can't hide from it so enjoy your stay here" You said,
and started walking towards Gojo who was leaning against the door frame proud of you happy that you finally realize your worth and potential.
You held his hand and then looked back at Mei Mei,
"Oh by the way Mei Mei, your attempts to tear us apart only drew us closer so thank you for that" you added,
then walked out hand in hand with Satoru making sure to lock the door.
"That was hot" exclaimed Gojo
"Oh you think so?"
" I know so"
He grabbed your chin making you look up at him,
"I know that you'll punish me anyway, you won't let it slip but I'm lucky that you didn't hate me I was worried really worried, you were so cold so distant as if I wasn't visible to you. So I'm going to accept any punishment from you as long as you don't hate me"
"you know I had to do it"
" I know I know I deserve to be treated like that, but I thought we had no hope I thought our marriage was over the moment I was hoping to fix things so I'm glad you gave me a chance to make it up for you to be a real husband so.you can punish me now but promise not to leave me cuz if you do then I'll drown again"
"You know something; we all make mistakes and wr are the ones who decide to fix them before it's too late or to ignore them but learn how to live with the consequence"
"You're right, I don't wanna live with the consequences, I wanna live happily with you Y/n"
You looked up at him, you can see the softness in his eyes and the way he speaks to you, you can't help but fall more and more deep for him.
"So please tell me that you won't leave me" he pleaded, a hint of worry visible in his tone.
He was feeling really overwhelmed, he knew you being the strongest now means you're at risk in every step you take, that you're targeted by many who want to haunt you down. He was worried that he might lose you, and besides he was afraid you might not be able to forget what happened in the past and end up hating him, even though you said you loved him. He was dealing with mixed feelings, trying to fix many things at the same time and trying to protect you but he knows the higher ups won't allow him to.
"Please-"
"I-" you started to speak but got interrupted by no other than Megumi,
"Oh Gojo finally!!!"
"Megumi?" you and your husband said at the same time.
"Oh Y/n sensei!"
"Is everything okay?" asked Gojo
"Nah it's far from being okay !! it's Yuji!!"
"What happened to Yuuji??" you asked worriedly as you walked towards Megumi
"Sukuna took over him, and we don't know where he is now"
"What do you mean Sukuna took over him?" questioned Gojo
"I was in my room sleeping then I heard a noise outsiders when I looked outside of the window I thought it was Yuji but when he looked back it was Sukuna, when I went down to stop him he was already gone"
"Shit shit shit" you said, "we need go and look for him...now"
"Baby—wait, you can wait in our room I'll go and look for him" said Gojo
"What do you mean Satoru! Yuuji is in danger and you expect me to hide in our room and do nothing to find him? I'm going with all of you, now!"
Megumi looked at Gojo as you started walking away,
"What's wrong? you look worried ?" said Megumi
"Yes Megumi yes, you know she's in danger and we don't know what to expect"
"You can't change fate Gojo! it's what the prophecy said, I'm sure Y/n will manage , you should be the first one to put your faith in her! besides she's got time till her curse breaks and she'll practice being a sorcerer"
"She's a sorcerer now"
"She's gonna be ok— wait what did you say?"
"Her curse broke tonight, she's announced a sorcerer by the higher ups"
"Oh"
"Mhm"
"I can understand your worry now, but she's gonna be fine! she's strong!"
"I know, come one let's go" said Gojo with a sigh...
.....
• Time skip •
A couple of hours are now separating you form the break of dawn, Gojo was trying not to leave your side the whole time you were searching for Yuuji, he was always keeping a protective eye on you, scanning your surroundings making sure no one around is trying to harm you.
All of you; students and teachers met up again in Jujutsu High, to find another plan.
You were in the school garden, sitting on the stairs waiting for the higher ups to call for an urgent meeting, your heart aching for Yuuji, he's the sweetest boy you've ever met and you were genuinely scared for him, all what you were thinking about was him, you were hoping to find him and save him from Sukuna's hands, Gojo was discussing things with Principal Yaga most likely about you and the students trying to figure out where he could possibly go.
....
"I see you're alone y/n. Stargazing as usual?" said a deep voice that made you stand up quickly from your seat.
"Ryomen Sukuna" you said and started walking towards him, "You better leave Yuuji alone" you threatened.
"Wait wait, it's true then, they weren't lying , I can feel it emitting from you" he said as he exhaled,
"What and who are you talking about? "
"Your curse energy, pretty strong, it's intoxicating"
"Yeah you were more than excited to fight me when I become a sorcerer, here I'm in front of you, I'll fight you so you better let go of Yuuji"
"Uh no, I know I said that, but I'm no longer interested in fighting you, someone else will"
But before you could ask him, you saw a group of people entering Jujutsu High, coming your way.
"Good luck beautiful, for now I'll watch through this brat's eyes" With those last words, sukuna switched back to Yuji,
"Sensei, sensei run!!!" said Yuuji
"Yuji-Kun are you okay?" you asked worriedly grabbing his forearm
"Yes I am, let's go we need to get inside and find Gojo sensei" he started pulling you away,
but you knew this time there's no running away, thia fight is yours. As much as it terrified you, you can't run away.
"Yuji calm down, go and find Satoru and the others...trust me" you reassured.
"Itadori Yuji, Sukuna's vessel, whats up with that look on your face? still grieving over Junpei?" said a long haired guy,
"Mahito" said Yuji through gritted teeth.
You looked between both of them, the sooner joined by your husband who rushed to tour side, still not aware of those who stood in front of you.
"Y/n, Yuji you're here!? are you okay? did Sukuna do something? where did you go?"
"He went to talk to these bastards" answered Yuji pointing at them,
The moment Gojo turned his head to look at them, his eyes widened, his heart dropping to his stomach, a shocked expression displayed on his face as if he saw a ghost,
"S-suguru geto?" he stuttered
"Geto?" you repeated
"Long time no see Satoru" spoke this so called Geto with a gentle voice,
You looked between both of them in confusion.
"Isn't he dead?" you asked out of the blue.
"That's not possible, I killed you" spoke Satoru, his eyes still fixated on the man in front of him.
Sooner you were joined by the other students, Nanami, Utahime and Principal Yaga.
All of them stopped in track the moment their eyes met Geto's eyes.
"Geto?" they said in union.
"I think it's an insult to call me Geto" he said, and walked forward his finger gripping a thin string, opening up those stitches on his forehead revealing his true self. "You can call me Kenjaku"
"Kenjaku?" said the others in union, eyes widening upon his reveal.
You were the only one confused,
"Who the hell is Kenjaku?"
"The ancient sorcerer, mentioned in the prophecy?" explained Nanami
"So I'm gonna fight him? fight a brain or what exactly?" you asked and pointed at him, genuinely confused.
"I see you brought all of them curses with you?" said Gojo
"You can say we work as a team Gojo Satoru, I hope you're not pressed that now you're no longer the strongest" exclaimed Mahito in an offensive tone trying to get in Gojo's nerves
"Is that guy a curse?" you asked Nanami,
"Yeah he is"
"He looks h-human"
"Deceiving right? I look human, but I'm not one, little one. Oh Nanami ready for another battle, I wasn't finished with you last time"
Nanami remained calm but you can see his veins popping out on his neck and temples. The presence of Mahito annoyed him to the core, he might be the most hatred curse out there, more than Sukuna himself. He's just an annoying bitch who likes to play games on others.
"We're here for only one reason, to kill Y/n so move and make it easier for all of us" said Kenjaku.
You can feel your heart jumping out of your throat, no one is able to save you now, you're the one to save you. The prophecy is now a reality and there's no escape from it. It's your fate, it's what you were born for, you existed this whole time just for this moment and you have no other choice but to win this fight and bring balance once again to this messed up community. But a surge of courage took over you, as if you weren't alone, feeling another kind of presence lingering around you.
"You can try and kill me..Kenjaku" you threatened and moved towards him.
And the battle started.
Gojo against Jogo, Nanami and Yuji against Mahito, Nobara and Megumi against Hanami, Inumaki, Panda and Maki against Dagon and You against Kenjaku.
Kenjaku summoned curses with a flick of his fingers, sending them swirling towards you like malevolent spirits hungry for your death. You moved with grace, your movements fluid as you deftly dodged the curses, each one hissing and snarling as it sought to tear you apart. Your moves were natural, a result of years of training in martial arts. You haven't used any curse energy yet. Not sure how to do it, how to summon your energy.
"Just search inside you" you remembered Gojo's word. .
With a deep breath, you tried to focus, looking in front of you as Kenjaku sent one of the curses running towards you, you were focusing, pressing your lips together as the curse was getting closer and closer, but you stood your ground, trying to trust yourself this time.
The moment the curse got right in front of you, inches away from your face, as if the time stopped and started moving slowly. The curse exploded. A burst of if energy left your body.
You successfully summoned that power and now you can feel it take over you, running through your veins. It felt great, you felt unstoppable, powerful and undefeated. You can now exorcise those curses.
With each burst of energy you felt yourself growing stronger, instead of feeling drained, you felt as if you were feeding of the death of those curses who's curse energies faded into the air.
.....
"Next" you said as you looked directly into Kenjaku's eyes, who was hesitant to summon another curse.
"You think you can win against me? I'm no ordinary foe. I have been living through centuries of dark knowledge"
"Then prove it, you're nothing without those curse that you summon" you challenged.
You did trigger him, you actually looked down on him, making him appear as weak. But he didn't know that it was part of your plan to offend him and make him try to fight you. He didn't know about your technique yet so he wasn't careful with his next move.
He ran towards you, trying to lay a punch on you, but it was easy for you to dodge it. In a moment of daring, you lunged forward, your hand reaching out to grasp Kenjaku's cloak. Your skin touched, and in an instant, you felt the surge of power as Kenjaku's own curses turned against him. You can feel yourself taking control, and you were able to manipulate the curses inside Kenjaku, making them respawn no matter how hard he tried to stop you.
The very creatures he had tamed now obeyed your command, their twisted forms holding him down as you stood there looking down at him.
Hanami, Jogo and Dagon were already dead but Mahito was still alive, playing dirty tricks on both Nanami and Yuuji.
But ince you overpowered Kenjaku, everyone stopped in tracks, waiting for you to finish him off and kill him.
You were about to do it, but stopped the moment you felt a presence lingering in the air. It was a warm presence, comforting one it was similar to the one you felt around Gojo, Nanami and your students.
"Maybe it's him" you whispered to yourself.
You looked up, your eyes meeting Gojo's sad eyes. By the look on his face you knew he wasn't ready to witness his bestfriend get killed again, even though it wasn't really his bestfriend but it was his body.
In that moment, you discovered something new in you. You closed your eyes hoping that what you're about to do actually works and don't make a fool of yourself instead. You started focusing, summoning spiritual forces that you didn't know existed within you.
"I know what you're trying to do, but in order to do so you need to sacrifice someone you know that right, if you're trying to kill me to bring Geto back then it's not possible, you'll destroy the body" said Kenjaku out of breath.
"They didn't lie when they said you're ancient, I can tell now.. I have to sacrifice yeah but not necessarily a physical one, I do things differently, it will be a soul, and it's yours" you said with a dirty smirk.
You shut your eyes tightly, tracing Geto's soul energy that was felt. Using a secret and unusual ritual you resurrected his lost soul.
You summoned Geto back, Kenjaku's presence was slowly fading into nothingness, Geto's soul taking over the body once again. Everyone watched his body on the ground, slowly twitching fighting to gain consciousness.
Your eyes shifted to Mahito, you started walking towards him, your eyes darkening as if you were possessed , empowered by ancient souls of old shamans. By your aura, now everyone can tell why you're the strongest.
Being arrogant his whole existence, Mahito actually thought he stood a chance against you after witnessing how you finished off one of the greatest sorcerers across the centuries. He attacked you, thinking he was fast, he out his hand on your shoulder but in a split second before he can actually think of his next move you did the same and placed your small hand on his chest;
"Idle transfiguration" those words left your mouth smoothly, and you watched how his body exploded under your soft touch.
Silence fell over the place, witnessing how you destroyed Mahito easily as if he was nothing.
"What the hell?" said a honey-like voice,
Everyone looked around and it was Geto standing, trying to understand what happened.
"Satoru?" he added softly,
"Suguru" said gojo and ran towards his bestfriend,
He hugged him tightly, unable to process that he's alive and standing right in front of him. Unable ti believe he was real. You brought geto, you brought his bestfriend back, your heart ached for the years full of pain and regret Gojo had to endure, for the nightmares that visited him every night. You smiled to yourself as you saw both of them hug each other hoping that the nightmares will finally leave him alone.
"Suguru, this is my wife, Y/n" said Gojo introducing you to his bestfriend,
But before you could react or say anything, you unexpectedly fell on your knees, the world around you spinning, you over used your curse energy for a beginner. Summoning Geto's soul back took a lot of effort but it was all worth it.
"YN!!!"
.......
You woke up in the hospital, you can feel every bone in your body hurt like a bitch. You looked around, many smiling faces were looking at you.
"SENSEI WELCOME BACK" yelled Yuuji happily.
"Shush Yuji you're so loud, she just woke up" said Megumi in an annoyed tone.
"Baby, are you feeling better?" said Gojo holding your hand, his thumb caressing your soft skin.
"Satoru! mhm I'm fine" you whispered tiredly,
Your head was pounding and you felt really sleepy.
"Ehm your family came to see you baby" he added,
"What?"
You looked at the other side and then you saw your family sitting there in the corner, hesitantly trying to start a conversation with you.
"Mom? Dad?" you said in confusion, not expecting to see then after all this time.
"Come one guys let's give them some privacy hm?" said Gojo pushing his students out.
"Satoru! can you stay please!" you spoke softly, not wanting to stay alone with them cuz you know it might be awkward and you felt too weak and needed your husband to support you.
The others left the room and now you were laying on bed, Gojo holding your hand and your family trying their best to find the right words.
"Yn, my dear we're glad you're okay" begun your mom.
"We were extremely worried about you, when we heard that you had a fight with Kenjaku we thought that you got hurt" added your dad.
"You grew stronger Y/n! we're ready proud of you" said one of your siblings.
You looked at them then at Gojo, you didn't know what to say, it was really awkward. Your family did hurt you the most, and you were expecting them to apologize not to casually show up at the hospital.
"I don't know what to say, I really don't" you spoke, trying not to cry.
"Yn!! we know we failed as parents, we didn't treat you fairly, we messed up and we didn't realize then that it affected you, you always seemed strong, silent.. you didn't show that you were hurting because of us, you seemed normal—"
"Just because I don't speak about it doesn't mean I'm not feeling it mom!"
"We're so sorry about that my sweet Yn. I wish we can make it up for you"
"How? by being present now? after abandoning and neglecting me for years? I know, you came to see me just because I became like you; a sorcerer not because I'm your daughter right?"
"No no baby no, you're our daughter, our sweet Yn! we confess our mistakes, we mistreated you, and you didn't deserve that, not even a bit. I wasn't a good mother, I should have asked you how you felt, I shouldn't take your silence as an answer"
"We failed you Yn and you have every right to cut us off your life. But just know that we love you, and we realized our mistakes really late. We thought that you were living your best life when you got married, we didn't know about the abduction we didn't know about your suffering..and it's our fault because we should've reached out" explained your father.
"We should've been there for you, but just know that sorcerer or not, we love you for who you are Yn" added your mom trying not to cry, but a tear betrayed her. They started walking towards the door,
"We'll let you rest, Gojo take good care of her" he said his voice cracking.
"Wait!" you said,
"I know you messed up, you did hurt me the most, you made me feel neglected, different, weak and pathetic. You were the reason I found comfort in isolation rather than with you. Now I don't know if you mean this apology or not but I don't wanna cut you off. Family remains family whether we love it or hate it. Maybe it's kinda late to try to fix things with me, since the damage is already here in me. But I do forgive you, you fed me and provided a shelter for me when I was a kid, and I can't forget about that" you added in a sad tone but deep inside you were happy to see them again and to hear them apologize.
"Oh baby" said your mom and hugged you, joined by your father and siblings.
Satoru watched with a smile, he felt bad for you. He was ashamed of what he did, he didn't know you felt that way, he didn't know you felt so alone. He didn't know you were neglected by your own family.
"Come on, Gojo" said your mom
"Yes son in law, join us in this family hug" added you dad pulling Gojo as well.
.....
Now you were alone with Gojo, your family is at Jujutsu High with the rest if the teachers and students preparing for a party that your husband had planned as a surprise.
*knock knock*
"Oh he's here! come in" said Satoru
The door was pushed open and it was Geto. You got into a sitting position.
"Hello" he said softly,
You smiled and nodded as he took a seat next to Gojo.
"Are you feeling better?" he asked,
"Yeah I'm fine thank you, what about you? how are you feeling?"
"Alive"
"Suguru wanted to see you and check up on you, he's a shy person tho, just like you.. I think you'll get along well" said Gojo jokingly,
"Thank you for- I don't know what to say, from bringing me to life again, even though I don't deserve it—"
"I think everyone deserves a second chance!" you reassured.
Geto smiled,
"Thank you, then I'll make sure to make the best out of this chance.. I won't fall into the trap of my old mistakes that got me killed" he giggled,
"What now you're gonna tease me for that?" said Gojo rolling his eyes,
"Nah Satoru, I know I deserved it, I was a jerk with that mindset and ideology"
"Oh I'm glad you realized that now"
You looked at both if them giggling at how they started bickering.
"Thank you Yn you're the reason I'm reunited with my best friend once again, thank you for giving us this chance to find each other again" said Geto truly grateful,
"Everyone deserves a best friend" you smiled,
"I thought you wanted to punish me, but you ended up bringing my best friend back, you always amaze me, I don't deserve you Yn, you're too kind for this world, even though a few hours ago you were completely ruthless with Mahito".
"That bitch totally deserved it" you exclaimed.
"Oh that attitude I fucking love it" said Satoru and pressed a kiss on your lips,
"Ahem, so I'll be in Jujutsu High" said Geto clearing his throat, feeling like a third wheel.
"Yeah we'll be there in an hour"
...
• Time Skip •
As you stepped into Jujutsu High, hand in hand with your husband Gojo, you blinked in surprise as you took in the sight before you; tables adorned with delicate flowers and twinkling lights. In front of you, stood your friends and family, gathered together to welcome you. But it wasn't just any celebration – it was a second wedding party.
Gojo got on one knee and looked up at you, you raised your eyebrows in confusion.
"S-satoru what are you doing?"
"Baby, we didn't get to celebrate our wedding properly. We both hated it at first, it was forced on us, we weren't happy back then, but now..now we are! With time we realized that getting married was the right thing to do, not for the prophecy no, but for ourselves, you summoned a buried part of me I didn't know it existed, a softness, a feeling I was carving for years but wasn't able to experience it, till you made it possible. I fell head over heels for you Y/n and I'll continue to love you till my last breath. Y/n will you marry me again?"
Tears welled in your eyes, it was too emotional. On one hand, you felt a surge of gratitude for the effort your family and friends had put into creating such a beautiful moment, a memory you would cherish forever. And on the other hand, your husband Gojo, you realized how much you love him, and that he's the one you'll be spending the rest if your life with, you complete each other, and you need each other.
"I do, and I'll never leave you" you said and at the same time you answered the question that he asked you yesterday but wasn't able to answer him because you got interrupted.
Everyone started clapping and cheering for you, as he spun you around and gave you as long passionate kiss, the sun glowing above you all.
You spent the rest of the day and night celebrating, chatting together, everyone got along, and you for real got along well with Suguru, you were joking together and making fun of Gojo, joined by Shojo who was the happiest, the smile never leaving her face. A smile that she missed for years. You brought their memories to life again and helped them to make new memories as well, memories they'll remember for a life time. Nanami, is now more open, no longer annoyed by Gojo but rather more grateful for the beautiful chaos around him, the chaos that used to annoy him, now all their laughter and loud voices are music to his ear, it made him feel less lonely, it made him realize that life is worth living if you're with the right ones. Your family were there as well, they were Yuji's victims, he couldn't stop talking to them on how amazing you are, and how you helped him as a teacher.
What a night, full of laughter, love and joy.
...
You looked at Gojo who was sleeping peacefully beside you, you kissed his cheek and then out on a jacket and walked outside. You wanted to watch the sunrise. You wanted to see the merging colors, the way the sun rays will take over the darkness and shine up the world announcing a new day ahead.
"Going somewhere?" asked Gojo in a sleepy voice , yawning.
"Nah just here waiting for the sunrise"
"Oh I thought you're escaping me" he said and circled his arms around you in a protective and firm way.
"Me escape you? come on don't be silly! I know you won't let me leave"
"Of course I won't! you belong here, you belong to me, to my arms, once you're locked here there's no escape"
You giggled, pressing a kiss on his neck.
"Wanna get a better view if the sunrise?" he added.
"Hm?"
Without answering you, he used his teleportation skills to get you up on that hill where he found you that night where both of you confessed and shared your first kiss.
"Damn I gotta get used to you teleporting me everywhere" you joked,
"We'll get a better view from here"
You laid your head on his chest, taking into the moment and started speaking softly,
"You know sunsets used to be my favorite, I used to prefer it over sunrise"
"Any specific reason?" he asked, wanting to know more on what's going inside that head of yours.
"I wanted my life to end, I wanted that for years, so I kinda related to the sunset. Convincing myself that endings can be beautiful too, just like the sunset, trying to romanticize death, make it less scary. At least if I didn't live beautifully then I can die beautifully. But now I can relate more to the sunrise, I no longer wanna die, not now at least, I wanna live- my life now feels like sunrise a new beg—"
"Beginning- a new beginning" said Gojo interrupting you "I understand that feeling very well"
"How?" you asked,
"You broke my curse too, you broke it by another curse, or at least what I used to believe was a curse"
"What curse?"
"Love Y/n! Love is the most twisted curse of them all...." he paused and looked at you and then added, "But even if it's a curse, I still wanna feel it, as long as it's with you. I'd let my soul burn so you can feel my warmth, you've made my life a heaven cuz you're the greatest blessing I've ever had in my life" he leaned down a kissed your forehead.
"Satoru—"
"It was meant for us, we were meant to be together. Both of us experienced different things but ended up feeling the same thing; loneliness. I was the most wanted, feared and respected even by my enemies, I was up too high but too lonely, in the contrary, you were looked down even by your own family and ended up isolating and feeling the loneliness for years. That proves that what you felt, what you had been through is not your fault, it was never your fault. We were on opposite ends of the spectrum but ended up dealing with the same. But when we found each other, everything changed, I felt alive, I felt that I have a purpose in life, a reason to wake up each morning and feel excited and thankful that I'm breathing.. You saved me Y/n! You saved me from myself, from my loneliness. You just made my black and white life, colorful, you put an end to my nightmares... I love you."
"I love you too Satoru" you said, a tear of happiness rolling down your cheek.
Both of you kissed, as the sun light glowed on the horizon, announcing a new day, a new beginning, a new intake of oxygen and a new chapter. .
Taglist <3:
@janrcrosssing @lunaoyabun
@realveryreal5875
@nikkimvriee
@butterskyy
@shervinss
@eolivy
@caycaysblogg
@myloveforharrystylesneverenough
@sanriosatoru
@oinixd
@ioriorigami
@kiki17483
@maskedpacific
@iantheandmargaux
@ssetsuka
@sm3156
@hermitkerm
@itzmartuuwu
@thoughfullovercreator
@cre8inghavoc
@olivianyx
@lavender-hvze
@etherealstarlightqueen
@isitlove-rena
@smolbeanzzz @khaleesihavilliard @tqd4455 @black-swan-blog27 @certainduckanchor @haitanibros0007 @goldenjoyboyy @lorako123 @kunikuzushisbeloved @saiyara05 @numblytemporary @soulofendlessbook @bookswillfindyouaway @sukunasleftkneecap @ryumurin @twitabread @f1uveryysblog @sleepyyammy @animechick555 @allofffmypeaches @inlovewithlondonn @tw0fvced @markleeisdabestdrug @blvckxb3vutii @bol0-de-morang0 @ghostfacefricker6969
#jujutsu kaisen#jujutsu kaisen masterlist#jujutsu kaisen headcanons#jujutsu kaisen imagines#jujutsu kaisen x reader#gojo x reader#gojo x you#gojo x y/n#gojo satoru smut#gojo smut#gojo fic#gojo satoru headcanons#gojo ff#gojo satoru x reader#gojo satoru x you#gojo satoru x y/n#gojo satoru scenario#gojo imagine#gojo satoru imagine#gojo fluff#jjk smut#jjk fluff#jjk angst#jjk men#jjk gojo smut#jjk x reader#jjk x you#gojo headcanons#gojo satoru hcs#gojo satoru
158 notes
·
View notes
Text
So Berk posted a video of some poems that never made it into Lazarus Rises and I wanted to talk about my favorite one.
It's this, it's this one.
If you're just here to read the poem, fair, it's amazing and stands on it's own, honestly click the link and read the rest of them, because they're all so good!
If you're here as a fellow-feral-unhinged-raccoon and want to read my honestly unneeded analysis, it's below the cut.
Oh my god. Are you kidding me?? This was a poem that didn't pass the cut??? And it's this good?????? (Once again I feel justified in telling literally every person who spends five minutes in conversation with me about how good of a poet Berk is)
Honestly though, this is one of my favorites of the poems in that video, because it's so short, it's so simply written, and this says so much that I feel like I could write an entire essay on each of the lines themselves and their meanings (I honestly might anyways but I'm not gonna subject you guys to those rambles)
"Life loves Death"
In the same way you can't help but love an impossible task you just want to give up but that at this point is the only company you truly remember and the only thing you know how to work towards.
"Life loves Death"
In the same way we can't help but try and find meaning in beauty in the thing that truly only takes from us, because if there isn't meaning and beauty in our pain, then why the fuck do we have it?
"Life loves Death"
As something we can't take seriously. As something we truly don't understand the risks of until it's too late. As something that for some of us, we rush forward to with joy and open arms because we think it'll feel like the warm embrace of the sun but instead all we are met with is the cold cold ocean.
"Life loves Death"
As a burden, a burden that some claim is a gift. A burden enforced upon us poor poor sinners by a god in punishment. Am I talking about Apollo or Jesus? Both, neither of them, I don't believe in either, but I mean no one believed Cassandra either.
"Life loves Death"
As a needed tool, as a part of every flower we decide to put in a vase, as every dye we put in paint, as every food we are forced to consume and as the tool that at the end of the days ends up changing us.
Also something something, gods punishing poor sinners for wanting to enjoy life something something an apple and a weaving contest being the show of ultimate pride something something I don't have religious trauma you do
Like do you get it???? Do you see how insane this is??? How much information they've packed into six lines???
And I'm not even gonna go over the way Life and Death are capitalized and personified, you all already know how I feel about how impressive it is they do that, but regardless, this poem is amazing and you can pry it out of my coffin-bloodied-cold-dead hands.
As always, the source is always more interesting than anything I have to say, so if you haven't yet, go read Lazarus Rises(amongst other things) and follow them on their Tumblr @icaruspendragon because they write so many cool things beyond just their published book.
#lazarus rises (amongst other things)#lazarus rises amongst other things#berk#berklie novak-stolz#poetry analysis#brain rot#poetry#analysis
230 notes
·
View notes
Note
I think a large problem with how we got to this stage of "man is gender neutral" discourse is that a lot of queer people refuse to engage with feminism. I've been seeing it brought up a lot recently, but it's true. Someone who doesn't see a problem with referring to a trans woman as "dude" probably also doesn't believe in patriarchy to begin with. We need to start doing feminism 101 on tumblr again.
I think this is true and I also think this issue extends to the fact that white liberal queerness is the societally accepted conception of lgbtq issues broadly - the fact that pride flags litter the windowsills of small businesses and banks, that lgbtq merchandise is its own market, that western conceptions of gayness and especially transness are the internationally imposed norm (eg, we are pathological exceptions to cishetero society and should be accepted on the grounds that we are scientifically proven to be legitimate by medical and psychiatric institutions, presented with an awkward flair of “okay so we’re not saying being transgender is a mental illness, but it is caused by a mental illness” + framing of gay people as “they’re just like straight people! they can get married and have children just like you!”). Many many queer people of colour have pointed out how much this predominate western framing of lgbtq identity as a “white person thing” (partially because white queer people are just as racist as non-queer white people, also because of aforementioned western imperialism) puts them at odds with their own communities, giving people in those communities a “rational” reason to oppose lgbtq rights on the grounds of resisting western imperialism. Israel’s pinkwashing is a particularly instructive and stark example of this, positioning lgbtq freedom as being contingent on genociding and destroying Palestine - this doesn’t mean it’s okay to be homophobic obviously, but this sort of imperial imposition of queerness as part of the package of western domination creates the conditions for “rationally opposing” lgbtq rights and equality within colonized communities and ultimately causes intersecting levels of harm for lgbtq people in those communities. You can read decolonizing trans/gender 101 by b binaohan if you want more on the subject, I’ve only read the intro so far but it was very instructive (thank you @/molsno for spreading this link around! - she also has a post with a bunch of transfeminist writings if you want more of that). There's also this video by FD Signifier about Dave Chappelle's transphobia that talks about anti-Blackness in white trans/queer spaces and the intense homophobia and transphobia Black lgbtq people face as a result of this that I found insightful if you want to listen to something instead
ANYWAY, all to say - I think the larger problem is that queerness in western contexts (which tumblr is firmly situated in) is overwhelmingly white and liberal, which means that even if these spaces were to incorporate feminist frameworks in their analysis of oppression, they would be incorporated as liberal feminist frameworks, which are fundamentally transmisogynistic and racist, and fundamentally attached to the imperial project of the west (I recently read this article called Beyond the Coloniality of Gender by Alex Adamson discussing some of the problems with western feminism. they demonstrate this through a case study on western feminist objections to genital cutting in certain African countries + analysis of decolonial trans and intersex feminisms more broadly - if you click "show document" in the upper right hand corner of the page I linked it allows you to access the full article).
I’ve always struggled to articulate the exact issue we're discussing, because at a certain point a lack of knowledge is not to be blamed -the larger issue at hand is that the western political + economic apparatus has incorporated queer assimilation into its project. This does not mean that queer people in the west are safe from homophobia or transphobia (see: current transphobic hysteria across North America and UK in particular), but it does mean that white western queer people have incredible political and rhetorical leverage to dominate these conversations using white liberal analytical frameworks, which can only lead to transmisogynist and white supremacist conclusions about the nature of oppression. I think the only way out of these path-dependent "everyone is oppressed by patriarchy" conversations is a larger decolonial political and social project - part of which necessarily incorporates feminist analysis, but feminist analyses that are decolonial, marxist, and transfeminist in nature, and the only way these frameworks can be comprehensively adopted is through a larger decolonial turn
120 notes
·
View notes
Text
In search of freedom (Ch. 2)
2. The wheel of death
Chapter 1 ; Chapter 2 ; Chapter 3
⠀⠀⠀⠀She's been searching for freedom her entire life and everytime she thought it was laying right in front of her eyes, she was mistaken. She was running around the East Blue, seeking herself and her dreams, meeting people she never forgot. No matter how much she traveled, she could only catch a glimpse of peace before realizing everything would crumble at her feet.
⠀⠀⠀⠀Maybe it was destiny that brought her on that ship with three strangers — foolishly, that's what she tried to believe when the moon shined beautifully and hope settled in her chest, squeezed by the same ribcage where feelings were blooming.
Pairing: female!reader x OPLA Zoro Roronoa. This chapter follows the events of the second episode.
Warnings for this chapter: canon typical violence, kidnapping
Word count: 3,1k
Theme song: “Haunted Isles” by Derek Fiechter (click on the link)
A/N: I almost didn't believe I wrote so much considering the process felt so slow and kind of annoying. Not the best chapter I've written so far, not something I'm necessarily proud of, but I wanted to follow OPLA's plot. I know 3k words isn't much, but I already prepared pieces of the next chapters that I'm genuinely excited to share with you. Half of this part is filled with action, meanwhile, the next chapter will be full of psychological analysis and a lot of thoughts + more interactions between the reader and Zoro.
The reader will be referred to as "Witch" from now on, because I have no intentions of using "Y/N".
I'm open for comments and opinions <3
The view made her smile as she looked at the dark blue nuance of the sea, her eyes sparkling just like the moon that was hidden by the gray clouds at that time. Her heart beat so peacefully, in sync with the waves of the water, and with every inhale she could feel that sensation taking over her senses. Everytime she got on a ship, the feeling grew stronger and stronger and she doubted there was a limit.
Freedom had no limit and she wondered if that's what it felt like.
"We're not a crew," Zoro and Nami — the woman with orange hair — said in unison.
Luffy was dead set on calling four people a crew, despite the fact that it was a decision he kind of made on his own.
Zoro's tall figure disappeared inside the cabin, where he intended to nap. She was intrigued; it was the same man who made a fool of those marines back at the tavern. The witch was confused about the soft clinck sounds coming from him, until she realized it was just his three golden earrings hitting one another at each move.
Luffy's last crewmate smiled, endeared by the unfaltering enthusiasm their supposed captain was radiating. He was like a ball of energy since they got on Nami's ship and sailed away with help from Koby.
"So, you're a witch," Luffy excitedly turned towards her.
"You could call me that, I think," she shrugged.
"Do you do magic? Like, potions in a cauldron and spells with candles—"
"I think you know too many stereotypes," she let out a long sigh.
Nami was on her knees in front of the safe box, ear glued to the locker as she rolled it between her fingers.
"So you won't chop us into pieces and boil us?" She arched her eyebrow, unintentionally feeding Luffy's crazy ideas.
"You—!"
"No, I don't."
She rubbed at the bridge of her nose with her thumb and pointer finger.
"What about you two talking after I finish unlocking this? I need silence."
The witch sat down, resting her body against a barrel as she watched Nami's careful actions. Now that she thinks about it, she never saw someone so sure of themselves while opening up this kind of locker, which meant it wasn't the first time she did it either. She presented herself as a thief.
Luffy was agitated, roaming around and stretching, a big smile on his lips. He was holding back from babbling until he forgot he had to keep his mouth shut.
"I almost can't believe I already have a crew and we got our hands on the Grand Line map."
"Luffy," the witch whispered so she wouldn't disturb Nami. "You do know none of us promised to take part in this adventure, right?"
She was trying her best to be gentle about the topic, especially since he seemed so happy he couldn't hold back at all. Luffy had no filter anymore, saying whatever came to mind, but she supposed he's always like that.
"Maybe you'll change your mind," he beamed.
"I appreciate your help a lot, kid, and I'll try my best to help you if I get the chance until we get to the next destination, but I don't know about that," she shook her head.
"You said the same thing at the tavern: that it's dangerous."
"And I still didn't change my mind. It is dangerous."
"Can you be silent?" Nami accentuated her words in annoyance.
"Sorry," the witch muttered.
The orange haired woman glued her ear to the lock again, eyes narrowed and brows pulled together in concentration. One strand of hair fell over her blue eyes but she didn't mind it while she continued opening the locker up.
A small click vibrated shyly through the air and Nami snapped up.
"It's open!" she shouted.
From inside the box, Nami took a long cylinder and opened it. The witch moved behind her and looked at the map of the Grand Line, inspecting it with the eye of someone who wasn't an expert at all. She was focusing on the navigator's explanations so intensely, she didn't notice when the other two approached. Zoro's swords brushed by her leg, moving her entire attention to him.
The sound of fireworks filled the air.
"The marines? When did they find us?" Nami furrowed her eyebrows.
"What's with the red smoke?" the witch found herself asking right after she started seeing in nuances.
"It smells weird," Luffy muttered.
She found out it was true only after she inhaled it and her vision was getting blurry. Everything happened so fast: Nami falling first, then Zoro saying something she couldn't hear. Her body got soft and in less than a few seconds, she fell unconscious after she caught a glimpse of a pirate ship.
•┈┈┈•┈┈┈•┈┈┈
The witch rubbed her wrists together, but her attempt to escape from the rope digging into her skin was futile. She was sitting in an open chest, her knees pulled close to her chest; both her legs and wrists were tied and she was growing tired of it.
They were kidnapped by some pirate clowns and thrown into what he called the Green Room. Luffy was still in the main tent, and what was happening to him was a secret between the clowns and the dozens of people who had their legs chained like animals.
The Green Room was filled with strange things and old furniture and cushions. Golden bulbs shined and reflected into some square mirrors and another large one with skulls as ornaments. There was a chair in front of a desk, where cups were placed next to some photos. A creepy white mannequin stood right next to the chest she was sitting in, wearing an elegant purple scarf. Something that imitated a chandelier was hanging in the middle of the roof, made out of big flower cups of white thin material. Zoro's swords were left against one of the cushions, where her two identical guns were.
A barely audible groan left the swordsman's lips as he struggled against the rope that glued his wrists to a big wheel.
"They're too strong even for you," Nami commented in a shallow tone.
Both of her hands clutched at the metal bars of the wide bird cage she was stuck in.
"I need to get out of here and kill some clowns," he muttered, focused on escaping. "I've got out of worse."
"With that I have to agree," the witch sighed.
"I saw a town when I got out of the tent… what was left of it after Buggy destroyed it."
"You mean, when you tried to leave us for dead?" Zoro grimaced after pulling at the ropes again.
The witch was like a bystander, her eyes running from one to the other. They were seriously insane, ready to argue in a life-or-death situation.
"You were picking up a fight you couldn't win," Nami snapped her head towards the swordsman.
"I know your type: if there's nothing to gain, you're out."
"Says the one who runs after Berries—"
"Shut it, you two," the witch intervened, letting out a groan. "We can argue and throw venom at each other after we get out of here."
"If we get out of here," Nami retorted.
"We do because I have too much of an ego to play in a circus created by a maniac," the witch mumbled.
After a few moments of silence, no sounds coming from outside the room they were left in, Nami got a lock pin out of her boot.
"Didn't they take all of them?" Zoro asked.
"They only took three," she smirked for a brief moment.
The witch leaned her torso forward and, despite the painful tug of the rope, she tried to raise them to the belt of her pants. She snuck her fingers between the two pieces of clothing and bit at her bottom lip when her skin started stinging painfully.
Finally, she got a small pocket knife out and grinned.
"I thought you were a witch," the swordsman gazed at her.
"You'll see magic once I get out of here," she joked.
A loud scream ripped through the air and it made all of them snap their heads towards the door.
Was that Luffy?
The witch's blood froze in her veins.
"You better hurry," Zoro whispered.
The witch gulped and wielded the knife between her fingers until the sharp edge grazed the rope around her wrists. She moved the knife up and down, putting as much pressure as the position allowed her. Nami, on the other hand, continued rolling the lock pick into the padlock.
Now that the woman stared intently at the mannequin while cutting the rope — even if way too slowly —, the doll had a scary smile painted in black on its porcelain face. Why was it looking back at her?
Minutes of unsuccessful cutting ropes and rolling lock picks, after another groan coming out of Zoro's mouth, he spoke:
"Someone's coming."
"Keep them talking, I need more time," Nami turned her head.
"Same here."
"I don't talk, I hit things," he grunted.
"Then change your hobby," the witch huffed.
The witch's eyes widened and she leaned back against the chest, so her arms and pocket knife would be hidden. Her heart was beating painfully fast in between her ribs and it was almost ridiculous, how she was sweating and the clothes started getting uncomfortable.
A monocycle creaked under the man who just got inside the room. He passed right by her when he came in, which sent her into an inner crisis. Wearing dark colored clothes and an unbuttoned coat without sleeves, the man hopped off and let the object fall to the floor.
She had no clue why the pirate chose to get close to the swordsman, who looked at him dead in the eye.
"Remember me?" the pirate spoke.
"No. Must be some other homicidal, unicycle-riding clown."
The witch was reminded you pay for the audacity of speaking up to your enemy when you're locked up; Zoro got instantly hit by the pirate's fist into the stomach. However, he didn't give that clown any satisfaction, his lips glued.
She eyed Nami, who was turned with her back at the lock of her cage, trying to open it without even looking at it. Damn, it wasn't good.
The witch couldn't hear whatever the fuck that clown was muttering at Zoro's ear, her fingers moving the knife faster, a tight knot settling in her throat as adrenaline pumped through her.
Nami made eye contact with the swordsman and the pirate who called himself Cabaji turned towards her.
"I've never met a clown. I thought they're supposed to be funny. Do some acrobatics on your monocycle, maybe it can help the time pass."
The witch shouldn't have opened her mouth in the first place, but if Nami was caught, it could've ended badly. Maybe it was the fault of the adrenaline, but pissing off that idiot with three strands of mint green hair made her smirk victoriously.
People who get angry when you step on their ego have always been the funniest creatures alive.
Of course, the reaction she received wasn't a good one. The pirate took two knives from his belt and stepped closer. She refused to look away and nothing could erase that grin off her face.
"Still doesn't ring a bell," Zoro caught his attention again.
Bad move. One of Cabaji's knives cut through the air and sunk into the wood the swordsman was glued to. Any other sounds have immediately been silenced.
"You followed us day and night for weeks through the Goa kingdom, never relenting, like some kind of demon."
Oh, so that's who Roronoa Zoro really was; the witch dared to allow her curiosity to act like a sponge about the new information. Interesting. The swordsman was a demon and a bounty hunter. Amazing combo.
He was probably hated by every pirate on the sea.
The woman tried her best to focus on the pocket knife between her fingers, but she couldn't help the fear crawling up into her skin. They had to get out of there alive and, preferably, with their limbs attached to their body.
After a few heavy steps, Cabaji gripped at the edge of the wooden wheel and in less than two seconds, the swordsman was rotating like a toy. The pirate walked roughly two meters away and then continued tossing knives, each time managing to avoid Zoro's flesh.
Nami and the witch looked at each other for a brief moment and then continued with their previous work.
When the rope finally got cut, she looked at the maniac pirate who didn't stop with his play yet. She held back her reactions, instead choosing to look at the swordsman who was rotating in the air and it made her pale. Time passed by too slowly and she slowly let out a long sigh when the wheel stopped from moving.
"You really don't fear death, do you?" Cabaji huffed.
He wasn't satisfied by the lack of reaction he received from Zoro who looked like he's gone through that three times a day for years. How did he manage to keep such a poker face?
"No, I just don't fear you."
Good, make him corner you.
The pirate didn't think twice before he threw a knife that aimed right above the swordsman's wrist. Their enemy wasn't careful enough, since the rope could now be easily cut.
Cabaji walked towards Zoro — another mistake. Nami already opened her cage and she was silently getting out. The witch didn't hesitate when she stopped pretending like she still had her wrists tied together. Clutching at the knife between her fingers, she raised her hand and tossed the sharp object through the air, aiming at the man's back.
"Thinking you're the only one who can play with knives, clown?" she huffed.
Cabaji turned and it was Nami's opportunity to kick his stomach with her foot, which made him fall on his back, the knife digging further into his flesh, cutting through his ribs and lung.
Finally, the witch's anxiety lowered now that one of their men was down. Now, who knows how many more they had to defeat.
"I didn't take you for a criminal."
Nami took one of the knives stuck in the wheel and cut Zoro's rope and then came to her other crewmate, helping with the rope around her ankles.
"I was desperate and he was annoying," the witch shrugged while she rubbed at her aching wrists.
When she found the freedom of moving again, she got out of the chest and took all the knives she found, including the ones from the wheel.
"What's the plan?" Zoro asked as he arranged his swords back at his hip.
"I say we beat the shit out of every clown we see," Nami grinned.
The witch smiled after she put each knife at her belt, rolling another one between her fingers. With her guns sitting at each side of her hip and the bonus of adrenaline, it felt like nothing could stop her.
•┈┈┈•┈┈┈•┈┈┈
The sharp edge of the weapon broke the glass after she threw it right in the middle of Luffy's aquarium — or whatever that thing was supposed to be.
"Luffy!" she shouted his name.
The glass wall of his cage shattered and the water splashed around, the straw hat coughing, his face pale. He was on the floor, soaked to the bone. His straw hat was so close to him,yet so far away. Luffy vomited the cylinder with the map and despite the nausea he was experiencing, he crawled to his hat.
He put himself in danger this entire time and chose not to let go of the Grand Line map, but that object held much more importance to him. The witch froze for a mere moment, confused, but when she wanted to get closer and get the map away from Buggy, a pirate with a sword came sprinting towards her.
"Witch!" she heard a gruff voice.
She dodged it before her head could get cut off and sank a knife into his stomach, only to raise the agony after she hit the man in the same spot, blood gushing out of his wound and soaking his clothes.
With a swift motion, her fingers grabbed at one of her revolvers. She fired at Buggy who was a breath away from touching the map, but didn't pay enough attention to another attack towards her.
A sword's edge shone in the corner of her eye and no matter how fast she was, she couldn't dodge that. Her eyes widened and she waited for the pain to inflict into her body. The pirate froze in place and his sword slipped between his fingers. When he fell to his knees, from behind him there was Zoro who was using a three-sword style.
Definitely a demon; but in a good way.
The witch nodded at him. She didn't train properly in the past year and she lost some speed on the way. She hasn't been in such a situation for a long time.
With other two pirates attacking them from the sides, she protected his blind spot while he killed another enemy with a mere flick of his swords. Another loud shot rang through the air and another man fell down, the center of his heart pierced.
"Buggy needs to have a weakness," the witch said.
"And what is it?"
The answer was right before their eyes: Luffy managed to get back to his feet while they were busy. He used his ability to elongate his arm and grabbed at the leg who was moving in the air, only to throw it in a chest. Nami closed it and grinned mischievously.
That was it.
The witch rolled another knife between her fingers and analyzed the detached hand that was rotating around her. At the perfect time, she threw it in the middle of its palm with enough force to send it into another chest, Nami locking it.
They focused on getting each part of Buggy's body stuck in any suitable place, be it a chest, a barrel or under a bucket. For as long as they got rid of that maniac, everything was fine.
She let out a sigh when only the clown's head remained intact, now laughing pitifully. Zoro bent down and grabbed the head, locking it into a box and putting a rock on top of it.
"Let's get the hell out of here."
A/N: Thank you so much for the comments and the support <3
Tag list: @emelia07 @dimplewonie @tfamidoingwithmylife @murnsondock @the-skys-musical-echo @conspiracy-crows @hallow33nz @ramae17 @gaslysainz @bunntsu @katt58
#naomiwrites#in search of freedom#zoro#ronoroa zoro#zoro roronoa#opla zoro#one piece zoro#one piece#opla#one piece live action#opla zoro x reader#zoro x reader#roronoa zoro x reader#zoro x you#zoro x y/n#roronoa zoro x you#roronoa zoro x y/n#one piece live action x reader#one piece x reader#one piece x you#one piece x y/n
368 notes
·
View notes
Note
i know you aren't really into marcille/laios any longer, but since you went looking online for dungeon meshi doujins, did you happen to find any other marcille/laios ones? (funnily enough at the convention i was at a couple weeks back they had like five, but they were extremely over-exaggerated and personally i prefer my fan content relatively in character...)
Ok first of all: Yeah listen laimar doesn’t have a grip on me anymore but I still quite enjoy it! Just more passively… Altho I do have an analysis that focuses a lot on the importance they hold to each other in my early stage wips drafts, and listen in canon I do think they’re queerplatonic flavored, call me an ot3 qpr truther because Laios Marcille and Falin have a something going on and it transcends being put into a box. But hey hey I reblog laimar artworks I bought that recent doujin I put laimar fics in my -checks- 106 pages long to-read list… Also I have like 5 pages of fanfic prompts for them I may or may not get to writing. Though yeah I do feel bad whenever I notice people following after liking all my laimar posts haha
Sadly to get to the meat of the topic, not really… I don’t go to cons for lack of opportunity so whatever I find is through online. The one I got is The Fourth Basement Floor, it has an english ver and seems so so very in character I can’t wait to get it! Otherwise I’ve looked on Otakurepublic & Doujinrepublic since I use their services for merch from Japan, warning if you click on the link, there are 18+ ones and covers can be pretty explicit. I don’t remember any other laimar one except the one nsfw one I think, but on the plus side there are a lot of gen no ships doujins. I’m bothered because looking back I feel like the catalogue of doujins was wider when I looked all those months ago and it feels like I’m forgetting something hmm… I wish I could help more, but yeah 😔 Pixiv has many laimar comics up (in japanese) if that sates the hunger any
As consolation since I’m already here, why not show some of my laimar things laying around gathering dust I’m fond of. Don’t look if you don’t want to be spoiled for fics I may or may not write I guess? All down below is just laimar prompts
I spoke about some various ones and esp my timeline where she gets him into Daltian Clan here. "Laios… I was wondering, because you enjoy fantasy stories right? I was wondering if you’d like to give my favorite book series a go… It has monsters!"
I love love love post-canon laimar where he gets the habit of chewing on her hair because he’s stimming and hungry. Like a goat.
Laios goes to Marcille for love advice.
"You like someone?! Do I know them?" She eagerly asked.
"Erm… Yes…?"
// Post-canon. He’s so nervous and puts his foot in his mouth n lets things slip out that he thought would give him away. (Comic)
"You like someone??! What are they like? Who are they?"
And he’s like "Well… She’s a half-elf." He’s like shit she’ll probably know right away.
And she goes still. "I’ve never met another half-elf!! We’re so rare! You’re saying you met one and didn’t tell me???!" She’s shaking him. And then she goes still again, contempt drawing on her face. "Wait… Are you asking me for advice because I’m a half-elf?"
Laios runs with it "Yes!! And because you’re so savvy with romance and what people like…? If, uh, if you were a half-elf, what would you like to get as a gift? What sort of confession would you want?"
"… You saved it there. Okay so since I’m so knowledgeable on romance, tell me what is she like?"
"-describes Marcille-"
She nods, smug yet oblivious. "Aah I can already tell we’d be great friends. Good taste."
(then Thinking bubble with him giving her flowers at a restaurant "Did you know roses are edible and used in recipes", candlelit dinner, or wait maybe the most romantic is cooking together alone at home, chocolate! It’s expensive though… Wait I’m king now!)
Lil comic, Laios wakes up snuggled against Marcille’s back then promptly falls off the bed. The noise makes Marcille wake up and she’s like omg are u ok?? Laios is so sweaty and panicked and in denial about her being special to him.
She explains, disgruntled at the memory "Izutsumi is bunking in with Chilchuck again, they’re taking the whole bedrolls." Pause. "Sorry, I should have told you, but you like sleeping with Izutsumi too so I figured…"
She looked sheepish. "Between you and Senshi, I much prefer sleeping with you. It feels sort of nostalgic, like a sleepover, no?"
He relaxes and gets in the bed again, smiling. "But… We’ve never had a sleepover?"
She chuckles "I guess not. I must be getting that impression because of Falin…"
And the air between them is warm yet bittersweet now, as she smiles like that and his eyes and smile cloud over. The earlier instinctive reluctance to touch is gone now. She snuggles into his arms and is like "Hug me?"
"Okay." And he does, wraps his arms around her and tucks his chin over her head.
Post canon, marcille takes him to a squid restaurant. Cute lighthearted hehe. He sulks "If there are any parasites in this I will ban squid from this kingdom or so help me…"
Short post canon fluff marcille pov about laios gaining weight n becoming chubby. She used to dream of chiseled abs and angular elves, laios in every way, shape and form is so far from the beauty standards she idealized so. And yet… She loves how soft sleeping against him is, how much there’s more of him for her to hug and nuzzle her face in. She loves seeing him and seeing someone strong, who isn’t malnourished or underweight, someone healthy with color in their skin. An healthy appetite. He used to look more like a rectangle, severe and strict, but now he looked rounder, and seeing him smile at her always made her feel like that roundness suited him. She smiled back, and melted thinking about how her boyfriend was the sweetest in the world.
^I still wanna do this one really bad. Sometimes a fic premise comes from nowhere and puts you in a chokehold and you must finish it to obtain catharsis
Short oneshot about laios musing about Marcille’s smile, how important it is to him in subtle ways etc: Ends with Laios being like wait there’s something off (succubus). Then he grabbed her throat. Or smth
Laios seeing her dungeon like "this is so wrong Marcille you can’t run a dungeon for shit" and also "WHAT ARE THESE HORRORS OF MONSTERS NOO THEY CAN’T BE EFFECTIVE LIKE THAT"
Dinner for two: Very warm. Marcille and Laios are meeting up and cooking a dinner just for them both, no one else is there. They’re being so domestic and it’s light. Laios pauses at some point, doing the dishes, saying… I’ve always worried, thinking doing things like these would remind me of my parents.
Laios doesn’t know what to do when he realizes he actually *likes* likes Marcille, so he avoids her. Everyone notices and is disapproving of him.
Her mana acts up and she shares her dream with someone, kinda like with Izutsumi. Listen the premise could be smutty but I think it’d be more fun if they just hanged out n were silly, like the nightmares chapter without the nightmare
Laimar pining but from the view of Chilchuck, his love hatred sensing a storm brewing. The giggling, the looks. Ugh! It reminded him of himself and his wife when they were young and newly dating.
I love Laios and Izu being worsties so. Laios sees izutsumi rubbing her scent on marcille’s clothes and gets possessive. Maybe Golden Kingdom maybe something else I have no clue but Laios being ridiculous and cheek rubbing or something <3
I might want to do an AU where Laios gets into werebeast ring fighting, before canon and the split happens after he deserts the military. So he’s alone, has nothing going for him and stumbles into that sphere and gets werebeast tattoos done. It doesn’t make him happier at all and fighting sucks actually, but it brings money and he likes being a beast and being cheered by a crowd aka illusion of being liked, and money brings food and eating is the privilege of the living etc etc. So then when he goes to check on Falin at the academy it’s a big AU where he has a whole other reputation and look to him, and when he meets izutsumi their relationship is different and aaaaaa… He’s freeer in this au, lets himself be animalistic and weird, even though ofc the arc is him letting himself be more human as well and connecting with humans, through talking and infodumping n shit. Oh I went off but the laimar is because it’s inspired by cool laimar art here (warning tho it’s an art dump with toudencest also 😔) but werewolf Laios laimar AUs… A lotta fun stuff there idk idk
#Laimar#ask#Ppl can send me laimar asks tbh idk when i’d get to them but i do still love them#Not all that much left i wanna explore analysis or post wise with them though#Laios touden#marcille donato#Fanfic wips#Dungeon meshi#Spoilers#dungeon meshi manga spoilers
73 notes
·
View notes
Text
A person asked: I’m curious about Meta works, and what does or does not constitute ephemeral, especially in the context of breaking down a work as one watches to comment on how things were done. Would such a thing be allowed? Not necessarily just like screaming over things, but like a clear longform “at this point in this episode, I liked this move from them, I didn’t like this choice and this is what I might have preferred” type of thing, if that makes sense?
“Ephemeral content” is our catch-all term for live reactions, announcement/update posts, journal entries, etc that contain limited analytical or interpretive content and are largely meant to share or capture someone's experiences, impressions, or feelings in the moment. These are all definitely part of the overall fandom experience (just look at all the posts on this blog or elsewhere on Tumblr), but AO3 focuses on hosting fannish stories, art, and analysis.
Whether "breaking down a work" would count as "meta" really depends on how someone goes about it. If it's mostly a summary of canon/real-life events or if the majority of what you added is your impression of the source material and what happened, we'd probably call that a live reaction and say it isn't allowed. There definitely needs to be a good amount of analysis or interpretation beyond just a person's feelings or impressions about the material. If you're familiar with YouTube, something like "CinemaSins" would likely be classified as ephemeral. If it's more like a video essay ("Nerdwriter1" or "every frame a painting"), it's more likely to be considered meta, and allowed.
Oh! Also, people have to be wary of quoting too much of the source material. Our TOS only allows short quotes. Even if someone had detailed analysis or such, including a huge amount of a copyrighted source (such as an episode transcript) would still break our TOS, typically some part of our copyright infringement policies.
— guest mod tealight
If you have a question you’d like answered, you can ask here.
Disclaimer: I’m speaking for myself and not behalf of AO3 or PAC. I can only answer general questions. I cannot tell you if a specific work or user is breaking the rules. If you want to file a report or otherwise need an official PAC response, you can find PAC’s contact form by clicking on the “Policy Questions & Abuse Reports” link on any AO3 page.
54 notes
·
View notes
Text
Link Click Superpower Mechanics: Do their Eyes Change Colour??
Tl;dr: no.
I had earlier thought that this scene at the end of Season 1 indicated that - yes - Lu Guang's eyes do glow blue and is visible to the people around him even if people can't see Xiaoshi's yellow eyes during his dive.
I WAS WRONG YOU PROBABLY CAN'T SEE SHIT
If the eye colours were canon, then CXS's eyes should be visibly yellow when he's diving into surveillance footage since that's his own body. This would parallel the way Li Tianchen's possession powers work with respect to his change in eye colour.
However, we know from the ending of Season 2 that doesn't happen, we don't see Xiaoshi's eyes as yellow until after the reveal. Moreover, Tianchen's eye colours change multiple times at seemingly random, including before he manifests his powers which is nonsense! (And something imma make another post about at another time.) We don't even see Xixi's eyes so who knows what's up with her.
It might have been ambiguous back in Season 1, but by the end of Season 2 it seems that LAN has definitively settled on the eye colours being a show-don't-tell storytelling technique.
As to why Lu Guang always shuffled away to use his powers?
Lighting issues with seeing the phone screen clearly
He doesn't want distractions when doing his complicated time web analysis mumbo-jumbo, man's gotta concentrate
He's shy 🥺
LAN still hadn't decided back then (which is noncanon but I feel it's worth reiterating)
#link click#link click season 2#shiguang dailiren#link click analysis#link click superpower mechanics#lu guang#i am a fool#A FOOL
56 notes
·
View notes
Text
I love you, come back | nico hischier
summary; part two of i love you, say it back which you can read here
-
Nico went back to Switzerland for the off season.
He called you the night before he left, leaving a voicemail.
hi, um I leave tomorrow for home - Switzerland I mean! I really want to see you, to talk to you at the very least so please…. I love you, come back.
You never called him back.
His time in Switzerland passed painfully slow and you were in Jersey, loving your life.
Once the season started and you knew the devils were back in town you avoided all sports you thought possible to run into Nico.
You didn’t even watch the game. You don’t watch them any longer.
You were out a bar in Hoboken and the game was on the tv’s. You’d glance every so often at the score and when a group would cheer you’d see the aftermath of a devils goal.
At the second period break the analysis came on the tv, the devils were down a few goals and you could see the toll it was taking on Nico.
You and your friend read the captions of the tv
“and Nico Hischier has had the worst start in his career this season so far!”
“That’s not fair” you mumbled.
“Rumour has it Hischier and his girlfriend split up just before the end of last season and that is what has been impacting his game”
“Well, whoever she is and wherever she is come back for the sake of the devils. I’m sure he’s sorry and he loves y’a!” They joke before continuing on with the broadcast.
You then turn to your friend with a deflated look and she says “Oh sweetheart…”
The next day you get a notification from twitter
@amandacstein: Captain, Nico Hischier is not happy with last nights second period broadcast! In interviews this morning he said “My personal life is not the business of the broadcasting team and I don’t appreciate my ex girlfriend being brought into the blame for our teams failures” and when later pressed as to why he felt the need to say these things this morning he said “Because I love her and I will always do my best to protect her from anything. She’s not to blame for our mistakes”
Your phone trembled in your hand. You re read the tweet over and over again before clicking on the links attached to the tweet, taking you to a video of these interviews.
He said it. You heard it.
You pause for a moment before you click through on your phone to purchase tickets to tonight’s game.
You had to hear it from him.
Walking around prudential was basically second nature to you at this point as you weaved your way through the crowds to your seat.
The jersey clung to your body as if you’d never taken it off, the number thirteen sat proudly on your back.
They won. They finally won.
In the stands you were cheering, screaming for them and their glory.
On the ice Nico wanted to cry, they’d finally won.
You thought you’d be able to make it down to the tunnel without being accosted but you thought wrong.
“You didn’t think you could walk in here and us not notice, right?” Darya’s voice asks through the corridor.
You pause, turning to look at her “I was hoping”
She pours at you for a moment before she takes off rushing towards you, both hugging one another “we’ve missed you so much”
“I miss you guys too” you mumbled into her shoulder.
“He’s not the same y/n”
“Dash-“
“He messed up I know but he does care about you”
You don’t reply.
“C’mon” she replies, taking your hand and leading you the way you were originally going.
Once you were downstairs the rest of the girls fawned over you for a moment until they heard the boys coming out.
Nico was last, shouting words of celebration to his team in front of him.
Your heart sped up hearing him.
When the sea of Hockey players had dispersed infront of him he was left with a crystal clear view of you.
He paused, almost tripping over whatever was in front of him.
You give him a soft smile but he’s still stood staring at you as if you’re about to disappear.
“Say it, Ni” you mumble.
He stutters before he says “I love you”
“Say it again” you whisper, both of you inching closer to one another.
“I love you” he’s stern in his words, you’re now right infront of him and he’s looking down at you before he says “Say it back”
“I love you, nico”
His shoulders drop, almost in relief and he’s let out all the tension. His stick drops to the floor I along with his gloves and his hands grab your cheeks and kisses you.
After you pull away, both breathless he smiles “You were here? All night?”
“Yeah I watched the game”
“Maybe the broadcast was right” he jokes and you shake your head “not funny”
“I’m sorry it took loosing you—“
“I don’t care, you said it back”
“I really do love you”
516 notes
·
View notes
Text
I wrote a giant Raven Cycle analysis
Hi! Over the last year or so I've been working on a sort of essay about various themes in the raven cycle series, and I finally finished it a few weeks ago.
It is titled: "Why I love The Raven Cycle - An excessive analysis of the themes of friendship, queerness and growing up".
And since tumblr loves its meta (and bc I love peer validation) I've decided to start uploading it bit by bit here, making this the masterpost (if I can figure out the logistics of the linking lmao, bear with me)
(beware of spoilers up to greywaren starting at like 3b!)
Introduction
What even is the Raven Cycle?
Trust me, the characters are queer as fuck and I can prove it
a) Blue Sargent
b) Gansey
c) Adam Parrish
d) Ronan Lynch
e) Noah
f) Henry Cheng
g) Honorary mentions
The Gangsey is a polycule
Analyzing the reoccurring themes
a) Friendship
b) Being a teen/growing up
c) (Found) Family
d) Magic (as a metaphor)
e) Further themes I appreciate
Drawing a conclusion
Click here to start with the introductory parts!
1. Introduction
So here’s the thing: I love fiction almost as much as I love my friends. There’s something deeply comforting about the escapism, even if the book actually makes me want to scream and throw it on the floor (only one book has been thrown so far, I promise!). Fiction is a healthy thing to occupy my thoughts with: headcanons! Quotes being on loop in my brain! Just fandoms!
And for me, if I am hooked on a book (series), it does not even need a good plot where a lot of things happen. In fact, I would say that my enjoyment of a book is made up of 30% plot and about 70% characters and vibes. If the characters are bland, if they do not make me feel much emotion, it likely won’t be more than 4 stars (additional info: I am way too nice rating books!). I really, really need to love the characters, to be able to relate to some aspects of them, or it just won’t become an obsession.
Since I have already started explaining that a bit, let’s look at this question: What is important to make a book special to me?
1. I need to cry reading it.
2. I have to think about it often, even weeks to months after having read it.
3. Obviously, I need to love the characters.
4. I need to be in the fandom! This can be hard with some books, but the internet is a whimsical space allowing you to find at least a small number of people who are obsessed with a work of fiction to a similar extent as you are.
Now, why am I elaborating on this so much?
It’s because The Raven Cycle did all that for me. It is my favorite comfort book series at the moment, for all those aspects mentioned, but of course I cannot just leave it at that.
No, I wrote a whole-ass analysis on headcanons and some of its themes. You’re welcome.
2. What even is The Raven Cycle?
The Raven Cycle is all I adore and live for (next to my friends).
So, naturally, it’s a book series, specifically a four book young adult contemporary fantasy series by American author Maggie Stiefvater.
The books in question are: The Raven Boys (2012), The Dream Thieves (2013), Blue Lily, Lily Blue (2014) and The Raven King (2016), and yes I will admit that the publishing dates are a bit of a red flag.
There is also the very relevant follow-up series called The Dreamer Trilogy (Call Down The Hawk, Mister Impossible, Greywaren), but it’s a lot less easy to get into that here as I do not know these entire books by heart, so I’ll stick to the original tetralogy here.
To stick to red flags, the books are set in the fictional Henrietta, a rural town in non-fictional Virginia, US, in the 2010s.
However, that doesn’t really say *that* much about the plot, so let me summarize that really quick, because I can do better than the official synopsis! (Or let’s pretend I can.)
Blue Sargent comes from a family of psychics, yet she does not have any powers of her own. Even worse, she is a bit of an amplifier for the others, meaning she is always somehow but never directly involved in the business. As if that isn’t enough for an identity crisis, every psychic she has ever met has told her that her kiss would kill her true love. Yikes.
But because she is that amplifier, she comes to a church watch on St. Mark’s Eve, where psychics see the spirits of those to die within the following year. It’s important business, but to her it’s really just staring into the dark.
Until she does actually see a spirit: That of Gansey. Of course this is not a coincidence. No, to add to this teen’s mount of problems, there are only two reasons why a non-seer would see someone’s spirit: They are their true love, or they killed them. Or, in Blue’s case, maybe both.
The aforementioned Gansey is Henrietta’s Golden Boy, the son of politicians (read: he’s fucking loaded). He does not run with the Republicans though, he runs with dead Welsh kings, meaning he has been searching for the probably dead, presumably sleeping Welsh king Glendower (*1350; †1416; yikes) for the past like seven years. Why the fuck would he do that? Well, legend says that he will grant a wish to whoever wakes him, and our favorite PTSD-ridden guy really wants that favor.
Aiding him are fellow Aglionby students Adam Parrish, Ronan Lynch and Noah Czerny, plus Henry Cheng, though only a lot later in the series, but I really did not want to leave out that menace (affectionately) here.
The paths of Blue and the boys cross because of Gansey’s search for Glendower, plus the fact that Blue works at a popular pizza place, but that’s a lot less whimsical.
And, well, there’s the implication that Gansey might also be her true love, but perhaps she just kills him because of his bad fashion sense, it would be justified.
Anyway, in true Famous Five fashion (Ronan is the dog; I won’t elaborate, the girls that get it, get it) they are of course not the only ones searching for the king, so it’s not completely a wholesome friend bonding activity all the way through.
Be prepared for: friendship and growing up, lots of treasure hunting, family mysteries, magical forests, illegal and slightly distasteful activities (our favorite of course), but most of all, heavily queer-coded (or even canonically queer) characters. Be Gay, Do Crime.
#y'all better like this it took a while#trc#the raven cycle#gansey#blue sargent#ronan lynch#adam parrish#noah czerny#henry cheng#the raven king#the raven boys#blue lily lily blue#the dream thieves#let's hope i don't forget about this after the first part#please talk to me about your thoughts
94 notes
·
View notes
Text
Devil's Backbone (Unsub!Hotch x Fem!Reader) -- epilogue
Well, we've reached the end guys. Thank you endlessly for going on this wild ride with me. I didn't really know what to expect when I started posting this fic because I wasn't sure it would be anyone's cup of tea, but as usual, you guys went insane with me for it and it never gets old. Love you guys so so much (and thanks for letting me be the evil author that tortures you with such sad stories) 💛💛
Warnings: sadness. just so, so much sadness.
“I have survived, but I have not been spared.”
--Catherynne M. Valente
“You understand the agreement you are entering by accepting this retirement package from the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit?” Strauss reads aloud for the tape.
“Yes ma’am,” you reply with a nod, signing your life and career away.
“You are not to disclose any of the details of this case with anyone. Family, friends, coworkers past, present, or future, and so on. You understand?”
It’s not like I want to tell anyone. “Yes, I understand.” You sign again.
“Please give me your credentials.” Your firearm was taken days ago. You slide your badge and keycard across the table toward Strauss. “Thank you.”
She recites her name and title, the date, this case number. You recite your name, your former title, the date.
The tape clicks. Strauss exhales. You stare blankly at the space in front of you, drained of all energy.
“I am sorry,” Strauss says. “For all of this.”
You look up at her. You nod slowly. “Thank you.”
“If there is anything you need, don’t hesitate to call.”
You nod. Slow. Everything moved so fast. Now time struggles to breathe.
“You are dismissed,” Strauss says finally. “Thank you for your time. During this interview, and at the FBI.”
You manage a smile. Both of you stood and exchanged formal handshakes, and you left.
The rest of the team is waiting for you in the bullpen by your desk. Your go-bag and cardboard box of your belongings that you packed sit on your chair.
You don’t say a single word. Rossi pulls you in for a hug first, soothing you while you openly sob into his shoulder. Everyone gathers around you in a group hug, and it isn’t long before everyone is crying, too.
No one knows what else to do. The BAU will never be the same, nor will you, or anyone here. All there is to do is hold one another and cry. You wonder if you’ll ever be able to do anything else.
They help you carry your things to your car. Derek has your go bag over his shoulder. Reid is carrying the cardboard box. Rossi is holding onto your coat until you’re ready for it. Penelope hasn’t let go of your hand. Emily is rubbing perpetual circles into your spine. JJ has her arm linked with yours, and you rest your head on her shoulder in the elevator.
“Dinner at mine tomorrow,” Rossi says in the elevator. Everyone nods their silent agreement.
Nothing in the world can fix this feeling or make any of it better, but a homemade dinner with expensive wine in Rossi’s back garden will, at the very least, take the edge off.
Derek insists on driving you to your apartment and you don’t have it in you to argue. All it took was one look from you and he knew.
After another round of hugs, you’re in the passenger seat as Derek drives your car out of the Quantico parking deck for the last time. You fall asleep on the way home.
He wakes you gently when he gets to your apartment, unbuckling you and helping you out. Up the stairs and into your apartment.
You stand like a ghost in the middle of the kitchen. The place on the counter that once held the bottle of wine you shared with Aaron now sits empty, glaring. The couch where you have tossed and turned countless nights -- and where Aaron once slept -- threatens to swallow you whole.
You didn’t realize how much of Aaron is in this apartment until he’s gone forever. He’ll never be here again, but there is no getting rid of these memories, his shadow that still dances on the far wall. A time long forgotten, a man that hasn’t existed for some months.
You turn around to see Morgan watching you, tears filling his eyes. You blink and feel the warm tears rush down your cheeks. Morgan has his arms wrapped around you in the next second, tucking you into his chest.
“I know,” he says softly, propping his chin on the top of your head. “I’m so sorry.”
Your sobs only grow louder, your grip on his shirt tighter. You’ll fall over if he doesn’t hold you up. He holds you up for as long as you need.
“I can’t stay here,” you say, the words muffled into his chest.
But he hears you. “I know.”
+++
You move out of the apartment the next week, after staying in a guest bedroom at Rossi’s. Derek lets you live in one of the properties he recently renovated, free of charge, until you can find another place of your own.
You don’t know if you’ll stay in the area, or if you’ll move farther away. The truth is, no amount of distance would suffice. No matter where you go, you’ll forever be running away from the memories of this.
So, you decide to stay close to your friends. Derek becomes Unit Chief (Rossi refused to take on that much responsibility). JJ becomes less liaison and more field agent. Emily toys with the idea of leaving, but nothing sticks. Reid is going nowhere. And as long as Derek is there, Penelope is there. You don’t know what the next years will bring, but for now, everyone is close, and dinners at Rossi’s house are frequent.
You’re in therapy twice a week and meeting with your psychiatrist once a month. You don’t know how much any of it is helping, but you’re able to eat and somewhat sleep, so things are better. Relatively.
Aaron is buried next to Haley and Jack. You visit him once. You haven’t gone back since. But you think about him every day.
Love is a funny, funny thing. For you to still love him after everything that happened, after the attempts on your life. For your heart to still hold onto the small parts, the moments before it all, when he was nothing but a crush, a casual affair, a man you stumbled into bed with while laughing, a man that if he had stuck around a little longer, you might’ve seen a future with.
Letting go of him means letting go of all of it -- good days included -- and a part of you just isn’t ready for that yet.
So, you spend your days floating. Making it through. Fighting the ghosts that crawl their way onto your back. Letting them linger and letting them go. One by one. Until the only one left is Aaron himself, hanging off of you, arms around your neck, face nuzzled into your shoulder.
You’ll always miss him, probably as much as you’ll always love him. The version before he became the person you killed. Part of you died when you fired your gun that day. A part of you that you’ll never be able to get back. But you’re not sure if you want it back. Maybe it was meant to die. The consequence of killing him meant you killed part of yourself, too.
So, you get through your days as best as you can. As a person half-alive. Forever changed, and not for the better. Always wishing for the past to return, hating the present, and dreading the future.
Because you were happy once -- with Aaron. You don’t know if you’ll ever be happy again.
You dream of him almost every night, though you don't tell your therapist the dreams are that frequent. You dream of what could've been. The life the two of you might've built. A fantasy world where you moved on from the BAU, he stayed Unit Chief, and the two of you grew closer, bought rings, settled down. A life worth living. A life better than the one you got.
He will always be gone. You will never be in his arms ever again. And these are the facts that haunt you every morning when you open your eyes.
You killed a man. Who happened to be the man you loved. Facts you can't escape. A judge ruling in favor of your self-defense doesn't quiet the thoughts, the questions of if you had behaved differently. You took a life. And it was the life you wanted most to save.
In the end, are you any better than he was?
#aaron hotchner#aaron hotchner x fem!reader#aaron hotchner x reader#aaron hotchner x you#hotch x fem!reader#hotch x reader#hotch x you#unsub!hotch x fem!reader#unsub!hotch x reader#unsub!hotch x you#aaron hotchner fanfiction#aaron hotchner fanfic#hotch fanfiction#hotch fanfic#unsub!hotch fanfiction#criminal minds#criminal minds fanfiction#criminal minds fanfic
182 notes
·
View notes
Text
🚨 Link Click spoilers (up to S2 E3) below!! 🚨
I wanted to collect in one place all the evidence we're seeing for the theory that there are two different people with red eyes, so here we go.
First up is their hair, specifically where their bangs are. One is a straight blunt cut, while the other is more of a fringe situation.
A slightly more subtle difference can also be seen in their eyes...
As this great analysis video explains (sorry non-speakers it is all in Chinese but I'll note the relevant points below), Link Click stylizes men's eyes differently from women's—where the latter tends to have more well-defined lashes compared to the former.
There's also the clothing differences, a pink hoodie versus a yellow one. This COULD just be a lighting thing, since the patterning is exactly the same on both outfits, but hard to say!
(The thing that's throwing me off is that the Red Eyes at LG's door has different bangs from one shot to the next...animation error perhaps?)
In the following screenshots from S2's OP you can see one hooded figure with short hair (and a yellow jacket) and one with long hair...wearing a different outfit! This long-haired person is wearing a hooded jacket with a shirt underneath, rather than a hoodie underneath a jacket. Deeper down the rabbit hole we go...
In any case, the conclusion that the analysis video comes to is that there are two different people with red eyes, one male one female, and they are likely siblings. But what's really fun is that this video was made before E3's release, so they didn't have this very interesting tidbit to work off of yet:
The text translates to, "do not/cannot die, good (older) brother". It's vague enough to be interpreted in a number of ways—is she referring to Lu Guang as her brother? Is she referring to a person we haven't seen yet who's at risk of death, who happens to be her brother? If we follow the theory that the two Red Eyes are actually siblings, could she be talking about her red-eyed brother? Is this a taunt, a warning, a plea for LG to survive, or a request for his help???
We know basically nothing about Lu Guang's life before he met Cheng Xiaoshi. Since the end of S1 I've been hoping and wishing for the show to dive into LG's backstory, and this could be a really really good opportunity to transition into that, if this note actually has some sort of personal significance to him 👀
#link click#link click s2#link click season 2#link click spoilers#shi guang dai li ren#shiguang daili ren#sgdlr#lu guang#red eyes#i spent so long on this post bc i just have SO MANY QUESTIONS#mystery wrapped in an enigma this show is
221 notes
·
View notes
Note
You may be interested in this article about ine if the "unpublished" letters in Dracula. It's the letter from Mina to Lucy that we don't get to see.
https://www.mpw.ac.uk/2021/03/18/the-suppressed-letter-in-dracula/
(I've not read all of it yet, but the author takes jabs at the literary critics who call Lucy frivolous and empty headed)
(Link for ease of clicking.) Okay, so this is another instance of the author raising several interesting points but then interpreting them in ways that go wildly against my view of the book and the characters.
Mina's missing letter to Lucy is indeed interesting. I love the defense of Lucy's intelligence. The idea of condolences being given in some capacity as well is quite interesting. There are certainly hints towards bisexuality/polyamory throughout the story. Lucy's search for the key vs. Jonathan's search for the key is something I've noted myself.
However...
Then the article begins to suggest that Dracula/vampires are liberating in some way. They don't come right out and say it but there are hints with the suspicion at Mina's description of her attack (I read it as her guilt complex, not her in denial about having actual complicity) or remarking that Dracula is Lucy's key and generally leads to freedom in the various escape scenes except with Jonathan (Lucy tries to take a literal key from Mina; when she leaves she is put in a position of danger. There is something to be discussed about 'freedom from the cage' with Lucy, Renfield, Bersicker leaving the home/asylum/zoo... but it's notable that they never actually become free, just puppeted by or drawn to Dracula, and they're all hurt in the process). I don't think Mina blushing in that scene where she asked if her entry was necessary to add was because she felt guilty about possibly having cheated/wanted to with Arthur - I think she didn't want to embarrass people, and also maybe was embarrassed at her own excitement/gushing. I don't believe Mina's letter about her wedding was trying to convince Lucy to follow her duty and marry a man she doesn't love, but instead meant as a comfort in advance for the loss of her mother that Mina knew would soon occur.
I don't think that Lucy doesn't love Arthur. If anything, I think her difficulty speaking about him in too great detail suggests her love for him is deeper and more genuine. The lack of detail in the proposal scene is actually a match with a pattern in books like Jane Austen, where bad proposals are delivered exactly and good ones are summarized. I think Lucy loves Arthur a lot, and her line about marrying three men is more reflective of her not wanting to disappoint them than her genuinely being romantically inclined towards them. I did a whole analysis of that entry last year, talking about how Lucy and Arthur are shown to be more in sync than she is with either other suitor.
However, his alignment with Mrs. Westenra is really interesting, and I do agree that he is the definitely the one that there would be pressure towards. Quincey is rich, Jack has had an impressive career - but Arthur is rich, titled, established in local society, and of the same/greater social class. I think, however, that the tension here revolves around Lucy and Mrs. Westenra, not Lucy and Arthur. Mrs. Westenra clearly wants them to be married, and I suspect is going to a fair bit of effort to push them together. I wonder if she is the chaperone for them, and in fact is not allowing them alone together (something Lucy mentions about Arthur's proposal, that he had tried a couple times but didn't get the chance). But Lucy's mother isn't just pushy about Arthur. She infantilizes Lucy and doesn't tell her things, and I think is a major contributor to Lucy's own difficulty about speaking up about her own feelings.
I've spoken in the past about how key the fundamental truthfulness of our authors is to this book. And that's something the article discusses as well, remarking how they all align with one another to tell a single agreed story despite different authors. However, I don't think we're intended to try and read between the lines to find places where they are lying/hiding from one another. And I also just don't think they are for the most part. It ties into the themes of the book more for them to be open where they can, and thus makes them sharing these documents more significant as well. Admittedly, the author of this article isn't suggesting that Lucy is outright lying to Mina here... more that she is forcing herself into playing a role, and Mina sees through it. But I still think that undercuts the primarily happy tone of this letter in a real way.
I do love the idea that Mina's letter does have some actual commiseration about things that are bothering Lucy. But I would read that as being much more about Mrs. Westenra and Lucy's expected role in society. Lucy wants to speak more of Arthur but she can't, because of the type of restrictions a lady has to follow. That sort of thing, more than doubting Lucy's feelings for Arthur are genuine. She's obviously stressed about marrying him, hence the sleepwalking, but again I don't doubt her feelings for him. I think it's the major shift in role and also concern for her mother, possibly mixed in with resentment of her.
Mina and duty is also an interesting topic and there is plenty to discuss there. But I don't see her as forcing herself in her various relationships. She genuinely loves Jonathan, her support for Lucy and Arthur is genuine too. She actually assigns things she does for fun to dutiful reasoning several times. I just... don't agree with the way this article interprets its topic.
Relatedly, there are several other letters alluded to that we never get to see. I recently noticed Jonathan's short letter to Mina before arriving at the castle, but there are more to come. Some of them also seem relevant to the plot, perhaps even more so than some of these letters between Lucy and Mina. But I think these are included because they establish things that become relevant, such as Mina's plan to keep a journal, Mina's knowledge of the three suitors before she meets them, Lucy's health at various points, and such details. Why things make it in or don't can still be interesting to discuss, but I just don't interpret them as ever holding some key that will unlock a secret hidden in the rest of the book. Whether that be about relationships or events.
#dracula daily#dracula daily spoilers#anonymous#replies#i didn't notice the fact that lucy's first letter to mina isn't dated though#that's interesting and i may have to adjust my wrwd doc to reflect it#certainly could imply a more regular gap between the four letters pre-whitby than two in immediate succession#then one alluded to somewhere in the middle#then one more a while after#but i'll hang on to that thought and look at the actual dates as we come up on it#after all same-day or nearly letters could certainly happen
32 notes
·
View notes
Text
d.gray-man chapter 251 preview analysis
the previews are out now on shueisha's website, I'll share a couple of notes below. if you want to see the full preview pages, click the link to go to shueisha's website. (I'm only talking about the previews, not the full chapter as it's not out)
they're at the bookstore! so happy by how quickly the plot has been progressing now. last chapter really surprised me with kanda already finding out mana's grave is empty and now allen's group is already at the bookstore!
the dialogue is of a conversation between an elderly man and a young lady about him handing over an old story to her. this girl looks a lot like lucia, the supposed bookman girl we saw way back when nea was in control of allen and was being a homewrecker.
(also p.s. you can download the brush she used for the roses here from clip studio)
I don't believe this girl is lucia. lucia is very clearly a small child, while this appears to be a grown woman, or at the very least an older teen. the segment with lucia was also clearly in the present time, as she references bookman being injured, so unless they're some serious time shenanigans going on at the campbell manor then this is not lucia. (also note that lucia is at the campbell manor with bookman, further tying this new woman to the campbells)
I suspect she's an older sister to lucia. at some point way earlier on in the story bookman mentioned how there's bookman families across the world, so I think this family of bookmen just dress this way. after all....
she looks suspiciously like past!allen, too! maybe we've finally found allen's blood relatives? I wasn't expecting that but I could totally see him being related to these girls with how similar they look to his past self.
this girl is also pretty sus on her own. as soon as she sees allen, she knows exactly who he is, remarking about his "silver hair".
her expression is then covered for the next page as she lets allen introduce himself. first he asks if this is the zoogle bookstore and when she says yes, he says he's allen walker and he's here to talk to the owner.
but she resumes a polite, happy expression afterwards, welcoming him as the "host" (nea's host).
it's a decently sized preview and we're about to go into the bookstore so I'm very excited.
if you can, you can get the physical copy of sq jump rise from amazon japan (ships internationally) or through other vendors like buyee.
#dgrayman#dgm#d gray man#dgm spoilers#dgm theories#dgrayman spoilers#double dgm theory posts today??? wowwee#I forgot previews would be posted today
30 notes
·
View notes
Last Seen Blogs
crystalbellawigs
Crystal Bella Wigs
alyxia-yap-blog
Alyxia Yap
thewitchershunters
The Witcher Hunters
b-a-s-h-f-u-l
Simran
shiero
Untitled