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#maybe i will be more active this year considering my big D seems to be less awful than a few months ago... well I hope it keeps getting-
tinukis · 2 months
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(OKAY. I KINDA GOT CARRIED AWAY (i got REALLY carried away.) AND NOW I WILL PROVIDE VERY FEW INFO ON SABOSAN HISTORY AS EARLY AS 2014.)
sabosan existing on here since at least 2017 is crazy
(it's ask blogs and im lazy to know the lore but all ik is that sabo and sanji have kids while sanji is in extreme denial abt being gay)
i wanna know how far back sabosan goes... like at leasT 2015 or 2016??? (anime timeline) and maybe 2014 (manga timeline) idk im just guessing bc i dont know what year sabo returned so
OK BUT THE SLIM CHANCE THAT SABOSAN BECAME A THING LIKE ALMOST A DECADE AGO DRIVES ME INSANE I NEED TO INVESTIGATE WAIT
on pixiv in the sabosan tag (サボサン) the oldest works on there is from 2015. (i mean when u look up サボサン you get this cactus mascot which is p hilarious)
i theorize that sabosan became recognized because of zou/wci. bc thats when we learn about sanji's history. i notice that it seem to be more recognized by a few fans as early as 2016 (when wci started)
so those big brained individuals were onto something then. they saw two blonde characters that shared similar histories and went. "wait a minute. i can cook something with this"
and you know what sanji's good at? taking any ingredients and making something amazing out of it. thats what early sabosan fans did
there are Very Little content of them/i cant read japanese and i just mostly find the cactus mascot, but they were there. at Least as early as sabo's return. and at that time, fans did not receive sanji's past. they just took these guys like barbie dolls and made them kiss... anyway i need them to meet and i want to see the longtime fans react as theyve waited nearly a decade for that very moment
(kinda doubtful but let me dream!!!)
OKAY ANOTHER UPDATE (YES IM TYPING EVERYTHING IN ONE POST) i learned how to search dates on the bird app once more and. im seeing posts from jpn about sabosan !!!
one of my favorite ones:
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the people understanding since 2016... that sanji goes well with ASL brothers :'D
ok found another tweet (and the users are still active !!) and translation seems butchered so im not gonna share but from what i could understand, this other user also likes sanji with ASL... this is amazing. LIKE im aware of the impact acesan had, especially bc of the anime including ace in alabasta (i understand deeply. i mean have you SEEN the way ace acted around sanji⁉️⁉️ lighting his cigarette... smirking at him when sanji turns his back... i know what you are. they Definitely spent an entire night (or more) alone together <3) but for sabo to be included to since this long ago, esp considering the two never met?!?? and the one connection is being royal blood...
again i cannot include everything, esp long posts bc the translation gets butchered but aaahh just ppl talk about the pairing, any potentials about it makes me happy... and gives me hope for the agenda to spread wider lol. what looks like that has been said is that a couple of people really like pairing sanji with multiple characters, esp ASL... and i understand so well. theres just something about sanji being so shippable
there are also fans speaking to other sanji ships fans, and they ask/say "i want to see your sabosan !!" it's great...
ahahhaa AHAHAHA FOUND ANOTHER POST I CAN SHARE:
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sabo POP figure from 2016 (aaah i want it so bad...)
and the suit he wears in this figure, it does look like sanji's fit now that the user mentioned it 👀👀
okay i dug a little more and found another sabosan fan! at first i was unsure as they could be talking about another user or a cactus or something. but as it turns out, they are indeed a sabosan fan! they've said things like "i wish sabosan was more popular"/"i wish for sabosan" and this is dated back in 2016! plus one of my favorite posts (translated into deepL as i had a feeling that twt had butchered the translation and...)
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they get it. they got it. as i mentioned earlier, the fans definitely knew what was up when wci happened. THEY WERE COOKING BACK IN 2016!!! which... i believe i should now start digging as early as i can. maybe for zou or dressrosa years!! bc certainly, this pairing was actually talked about during 2016-2017. it was wonderful to see!
oh my goodness... i decided to look from start of 2015 to the end, and so far in late 2015, the same user from the above translation, has been talking about them still! they mentioned sabosan fanworks, and how they read a heartbreaking fic⁉️⁉️ i cant tell you how happy i was to read that. sabosan being a thing and having angst works, even if i can't read them. (never mess with one piece fans, especially if they are fujoshi !! they'll find their ways. im honestly fascinated. i love fandom history if you couldnt tell by this post!)
plus, some fans calling themselves delusional for thinking of this pairing... if only i could be there with you, longtime fan.
and i'll be real here, i dont know of the popularities back then but the comparison of sanji and sabo being nobles are great :] (maybe bc i've just seen ppl being mean to sabo recently 😔)
okay im sure this post is getting wayyy too long so i'll try to wrap up my investigations. bc there are many posts to look through but sabosan being talked about as early as 2015 (as i write this) is just... very joyous news to me ;w;
im sure i will be missing lots of good posts (despite the horrible machine translations) but i am shaking hands with 2015-2017 fans in solidarity... at most 9 years later
!!! GREAT NEWS. 2014 posting!!
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original tweet and deepL translation... dated mid december 2014. nearly a whole decade ago. i swear sabosan will go viral, way more than when zou/wci was in progress. im sure of it
i really cant put into words how im feeling or what im really thinking. just know im happy to find fans from 2014 !!
OH MY GOD.
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⁉️⁉️⁉️ AUGUST 2014 BTW. and im assuming its supposed to be "sabo started with" or something but... the content. sabosan content. 2014. it's out there. SHAKES YOU. THE CRUMBS (also this user is a sabosan fan and i think acesan fan too as i did see mentjons of them... so this just...)
THEYVE BEEN HERE FOR A LONG TIME AAAAAHHHH 😭😭😭😭😭
NOW IM CURIOUS WITH HOW MANY POSTS IVE BEEN MISSING⁉️⁉️ yall the agenda must spread farther
ASL/sanji mentioned! august 2014
omg again from the same user
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shaking your hand in spirit (april 2014!!!)
there have been fans of this pairing as early as april 2014!!!! and have been manifesting for their popularity for awhile 😭😭😭 (plus this user is still active! im not sure if theyre still into one piece but... i hope for the longtime/past fans to see it all soon)
i think my investigation into sabosan history ends here after a long post and hours of searching... unless i somehow find something earlier than april 2014, the earliest moment that sabosan was first talked about was in the year 2014. Q2 2014. back when dressrosa was still ongoing. do you know how insane that is? before wci.
i think we can come to a conclusion that sabosan was a concept as early as 2014 was all becaude of acesan. thats the pattern i noticed. ace/acesan was often mentioned. and i believe it's bc not only are ace and sabo brothers, but bc sabo aimed to eat the mera mera no mi. and if sanji were to meet sabo, sanji would be reminded of his late lover, ace. and the angst potential is so real... sanji looking at sabo... just as a replacement for ace? ouch
i know the fans were having a field day when they learned about sanji's blood family :']
side note: there are likely things lost due to users deactivating or whatnot... and i doubt i'd be able to search via wayback machine. and as much as i dont like pinterest for reposting art, there are pieces of the two ive never seen before
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araccoonnamedgloom · 6 months
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The Second Bedroom in Aziraphale's Bookshop - S2 headcanon and analysis
//attention spoilers! (skip to the third paragraph if you only want to hear about my headcanon of how the second bedroom was originally for Crowley)
From the moment when Gabriel arrives at Aziraphale's doorstep, it does not take long until he is moved into his own room in the Bookshop. Now, we do not know a lot of how the bookshop is structured internally from either season. We know it has at least two stories. We can assume that the downstairs floor is at least for the most part used for books and a desk, taking in the space of the actual, if inactive, bookshop. We know from what we can see of the size of the building that the upstairs can fit at least two rooms. It seems unlikely considering the build of the house for Aziraphale to have miracle-d a room for Gabriel, especially as both him and Crowley were very hesitant to perform any kind of miracle. And drastically changing the layout of an old house for sure would make more of a notification in Heaven than magically ironing one of his many dress shirts. So we can assume: Aziraphale had a second bedroom the entire time.
Now what was the second bedroom used for? It cannot have been a study, we have seen Aziraphale work in bigger spaces than the second bedroom and there's a big desk downstairs. Now I don't know or much care about what the room was used for before Crowley and him got increasingly closer during S1. Maybe it was always a guestroom.
I like to imagine that the second bedroom was meant for Crowley during at least the time between S1 and S2. Over the years they spent many a late evenings and overall time in the bookshop. As Aziraphale said "we both get many a use out of it [the bookshop]". Now, I don't think that Crowley actively lived with Aziraphale. Neither do I think that it was his idea or even that he had much say on the matter. Much rather, being lovestruck but bad at expressing his emotions due to hundreds of years of religous trauma about not being allowed to love or even have a friendship with Crowley, Aziraphale decided to show his care by prepping the room for his best friend.
I like to imagine that he secretly and very happily and tenderly rearranged and redesigned the room in a way that he thought would suit Crowley. It thus looked exactly like how Aziraphale sees Crowley, plus one or two items from the angle's personal collection because it would look cute there. (and maybe because he wanted Crowley to have some pieces of him). Now the room is not exactly how Crowley would have furnished it himself, but he will never say that nor change anything about it. Of course Crowley's pride, suppressed fear of hell, and suppressed feelings for Angle, prevent him to accept the room.
But over time, Aziraphale notices how some of the pieces are moved as if somebody had used them and slowly, some of Crowley's personal items appear.
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capricxs · 10 months
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well well well, i’m tossing myself into the ring once again to find some folks to write with! i’m looking for more writing partners for discord only, who love to hc/plot, and get the uptmost brainrot for our plot and muses.
below i’ll list some plots i really want and you can read more info about 1x1 rules here. i play any gender, open to any ship dynamic.
give this a like or message me directly if you’d like to plot!
plots i’d love
****(tom/shiv/greg-esque mlm wlw plot) muse a and muse b have been married for years. part of the business elite, they barely have enough time for one another, and when they do, it’s less than savory. that’s why muse c and d have been keeping the spouses the proper company they deserve (or do they. survey’s still out) basically, i want my wlw and mlm dynamics but maybe it’s just one big polycule idk sounds messy sounds fun. [zero preference for muse]
****(spyxfamly-inspired plot) muse a, a spy and and muse b, an assassin, adopt a daughter and have to pretend to be married and be a family for the advancement of a mission, but neither of them know who the other truly is. [zero preference in character]
(modern royalty plot) muse a never planned to be a royal, they had an older brother that secured the position of heir, but after the death of their brother & their parents, muse a has been jumped to front of the line. while beloved by the public for their big heart and philanthropic activities, muse a knows nothing about diplomacy and ruling an entire country. enter muse b into the scene, who is muse a’s body guard, diplomacy coach, or utp, who know has to follow muse a on this journey. [i am interested in muse a with a masc character]
(con artist throuple) muse a and muse b have been working together for as long as they can remember, conning their way through every major city and just barely managing to get away with it each time. enter muse c, the hot bombshell they meet in las vegas, and turns out they have the same mark that they do. as time goes on, they find that muse c might be making them a mark, too. [open to playing any character, with a preference to muse c with a fem character, also open to turn this into a 1x1x1]
(sci-fi crime) the life is ideal when you’re at the top. muse a is a crime boss who seems to run most of the show in futuristic las vegas. but there’s a new cat in town, someone who is meant to work a lot with the boss, and they meet one another for the first time, then being introduced to their spouse. things seem off at first, but after a few drinks, they explain their spouse, muse b, is an android, acquired so they wouldn’t be forced to marry someone else. while there’s tension between muse a and this new face in town, they can’t help but be intrigued by muse b roped into it, and how disinterested they are in everything. [interested in muse b with a fem character]
(sci fi alien) muse a, one of the few aliens on earth, crash landed and is now using their abilities to fight crime. while they’ve been on the planet for some time, they’ve gotten themselves a close friend, muse b, who they visit regularly. while they’re not involved in crime fighting in the same way, they frequently bond together over their shared views of the city, and their different backgrounds of different planets, including helping muse a understand strange humans and this strange planet they inhabit. [interested in muse a with a masc character
(vigilante crime) muse a, rich vigilante has hired muse b as their eyes, ears, and engineer, in their vigilante work. the only problem is, muse b has to pose as muse a’s personal assistant publicly. considering they’re far smarter than muse a, but just so happen to not have a penny to their name, they have to grumble and sulk behind them to every gala in between their stints fighting crime. [open to playing either character]
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yellowocaballero · 11 months
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Are there any fic ideas that you'd want to see but don't want to write?
Oh boy! Of course!
To be honest, the Green Lantern story is one of the big ones lmfao. It would be a massive undertaking for an audience of maybe five people. A niche audience normally doesn't stop me, but for such a long story, there's other uses of my time. There is also the fact that it just feels made for television. Same with my Legion of Superheroes Zoobomafoo thing - it just doesn't feel right in a text format. It's webcomic coded. I wish I could draw sometimes!
Then there's the story ideas for my AUs and other fandoms I've moved on from. There's still a few ideas for the No Chip AU in my back pocket (Cody redemption feat. Boba Fett following him around Tatooine yelling at him; Fox as the vigilante sidekick to his insane PA) and my normal Roleswap (Luke & Leia embark on a Great Father Mystery Hunt and bother Fox in the woods). There's also the continuation stories/sequels I've started but haven't finished and don't know if they will get finished (Roleswap Obi-Wan meets his birth family; my Buffy fic Angel and Cordelia through the years). There's other unfinished stories there (the Frenchie story which is literally only missing the final scene, the Heroes For Hire meeting story which is literally only missing the final scene) which I'm pretty sure I'll finish when I feel like it. I don't consider those WIPs so much as 'when I care again I'll go finish them'.
Then there's the stories that I just couldn't make into a decent story (the Naruto fix-it; the roleswap(ish?) story with adult bounty hunters Boba and Omega teaching runaway clones Luke and Leia the power of family and incredible violence). Not every idea is good outside of concept lol.
TL;DR: If I have a fic idea but haven't written it, it's because of one or more reasons: a) the idea itself is too big, b) the idea just doesn't seem right for fic, c) I've moved on from the fandom and don't want to work on it at this moment anymore, d) it just wouldn't make a good story.
If you notice, these are all active choices on my part. I only mention this because a lot of my friends can't relate, so I don't know how common it is even though I assumed it was common, and it's kind of hard to describe: there's no barrier between me having an idea and writing it. Does that make sense? If I have an idea and it'll make a good story and I want to write it I'll write it, at least until I realize that it wouldn't make a good story and I scrap it. If I think about something for too long I write it [this is why I am easily egged on][this is also why I write things I swore never to write very frequently].
Writing is like. It's easy. You just write stuff. You just think something and then you write it. It's uncomplicated.
If it's bad. Writing is easy if what you're writing is bad. It's easy to write 100k if the 100k is bad. There's a ton of shortcuts you can take, which are really useful for beginning writers and was really useful for me a few years ago. I can describe those if you'd like. It's much, much, much harder to write something good. It's hardest when you need something to be good. Writing a good 100k is really hard. I am constantly telling people not to jump into the novels kjlsdf.
Double TL;DR that has nothing to do with the topic: You can write whatever you want if you're okay with it being bad. Making bad art rocks and is a lot of fun and completely necessary towards my emotional well-being. I highly recommend it.
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ask-the-toybox · 1 year
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CURRENT UPDATES ON ASK-THE-TOYBOX + WHAT TO KNOW [ 2023 ]
▶ Ask-The-Toybox is something I'd like to pick back up in my in-between owed / serious art time! This being said, activity may be inconsistent, but I would like to maintain a "at least one to five posts a week" basis that will fluctuate with life + schedule.
More information + what to expect here from now on will under a read more, whether you read it or not, thank you so much for sticking around and taking part in our funny little Toy Box! ( You don't have to read any of it to ask questions and hang out here!!! Just might be illuminating for people who'd like to know and does clarify some question things! )
↪ Image responses will be messy sketches with varying color, asks that require multiple panels may take a while to be answered - you can send new asks about the same thing if you wish, just understand I may be putting it off due to a multi-panel idea! ( a big one on standby that I'm excited for is "What are your thoughts on the other pm64 bosses?" I have a big multi-panel idea for that one currently! )
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↪ The current characters up for questions are: General Guy, Anti Guy, Gourmet Guy, Big Lantern Ghost and I'm currently considering introducing two of my ocs to the cast! [ you may also ask questions pertaining to specific shy guys found in the toy box! Pyro Guys, Groove Guys, Medi Guys, ect ! ] ↝ If you word a question without mentioning someone by name but are speaking to one person ( ie. what's your favorite color? ) I'm going to work under assumption that you're asking General Guy! ↝ If you use words like "you guys" / "you all" ect. I will assume all character opinions, please note I prefer specific questions or questions that ask 1-2 characters at a time! The broader the scope the longer it'll take me to draw an answer! o(* ̄▽ ̄*)ブ [ this doesn't apply to types of shy guys like Pyro Guys and such, just to the major characters like General Guy and co. ! ]
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↪ Magic Anons are totally up in the air for me right now, might take them up - might not! Please don't be upset if you send a M!A and it never gets to be casted! I'm just trying to get my footing again, I always love seeing fun and creative M!As, but they are not my priority currently!!! Thank you all regardless! :3 !!!
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▶ I cannot stress this enough... Have Fun!!! Ask whatever you want, even if it may seem silly or brings into question something General Guy, in canon, maybe wouldn't have been there for! ↝ In my version of the series ( in a perfect world where General Guy was used more ) I have a lot of ideas on how he thinks about certain big events that happened ! ! ! My scope is mainly around the RPG games: Super Mario RPG, The Mario & Luigi series, and the Paper Mario series! It's all one big world with strange occurrences to me, I merged them all in my take on the lore!
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As of right now, I'm finally getting to answer old asks, so my bad if you get a stray ping a year after you've sent something, heh! Don't let this discourage you, ask more questions if you wish! :D I may take a while to get to all of these, but I'm so glad you all sent asks and I get to answer them - thank you all for your interest in our Toy Box and my take on all of it, I cannot say that enough! 💞
The treasures in this box are for you all ! ! ! I wouldn't be writing this if not for your interest and fun questions!
💗 Thank you ! ! ! 💗
Feel free to ask any questions about what's going on + what to expect you didn't think I covered here! It's always appreciated!
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Top 5 headcanons, either that you’ve personally thought of or saw someone else mention (hope you feel better soon 💛)! Doesn’t specifically need to be DR, whatever is easiest to come up with haha.
Ooh, this is a good one! I think I will do DR head canons, since it'll just be easier for me to keep straight, ha.
Also, thanks! I'm feeling much better now than I did yesterday. Yesterday sucked, oof. I'm pretty sure it's either a mild version of the flu, or a strong cold. The flu is usually mild with me, since I have a good immune system and I get vaccinated every year, so either is possible. At least I've not had any nausea so far. I hate throwing up, oof. But thanks for the concern! :-D
Ask me my “TOP 5/TOP 10” anything!
Okay. So, most of my top head canons are ones that are used in TPWP/TPWM, or any of my other DR fanfics, so they will likely seem familiar to those familiar with my work, ha. Most are ones I came up with myself, but some are inspired by things I've seen around. ^-^ Some of these are two-parted, with one head canon connecting to a second/third, but they need to exist together... if that makes sense. Also, these aren't in order for which I like best, and are instead in order of being least to most my own idea. So... 5 is most based off other head canons, while 1 is completely my own thing, make sense? I was originally gonna order from least to most favorite, but that doesn't really fit here, ha.
5. Taka has severe anxiety. Like... this is kind of not a head canon at this point, considering the things Taka would say in canon, but it was never said outright in canon, plus other things could have caused Taka to say the things he did. But considering that I have fairly bad anxiety, I like to head canon Taka as having anxiety too. In conjunction with this one, there is also the head canon that Mondo has self-esteem issues and actively hates himself. Again, it is supported in canon, but since it's never outright said, it's still a head canon. I also take both to more of an extreme, ha. I just think it's an interesting dynamic to have Taka with anxiety and Mondo with self-esteem issues. I've definitely seen this done in other fics, so it's not really my own idea at all.
4. Taka's mother is dead/Taka was (or is) very close to his mother. I saw the "Taka's mother is dead" one in a fanfic somewhere, and it stuck with me. I think I came up with the whole Taka is close to his mother thing, though I doubt I'm the only one to think that. I wrote it in TPWP to have Taka be more of a parallel to Mondo (both of them lost someone close to them that they loved dearly and irrationally blamed themselves for), but I do like the idea of it. Concurrently, I also head canon that Takaaki loves Taka dearly, but is just really bad at showing it. This is similar to something I read in a fic once (I think it was in One Personal Favour by ChasML, which actually inspired a lot of TPWP early on), in that Takaaki is a bit dismissive of Taka and distant, but I wasn't a big fan of how they made Takaaki not actually love Taka in the end. So, I came up with the head canon that Takaaki was indeed distant and sometimes dismissive of Taka, but it wasn't malicious or anything. He was just grieving his late wife and didn't know how to connect with his living son anymore. However! I did write one fic where Taka's mom is alive (I don't think it'll ever get published since it's in WIP hell, sadly), though, and I had a wonderful time writing their relationship.
3. Daiya met Taka when he was younger, maybe even saved his life, and neither knew about it. This one was a head canon that I was very hesitant on at first, since it seems too serendipitous and coincidental for my liking, but the more I thought of it, the more I liked it. I even wrote about it in The Problem with Families. I just really like the idea that Taka did meet Daiya at some point, since Daiya is so important to Mondo. I think I did see this one somewhere in a fic? With Daiya rescuing Taka from a bully or something when he was young, but I don't know if that came before or after I came up with this head canon. I don't remember which fic that was, though, sorry.
2. Taka says "it's a Kiyotaka Ishimaru guarantee!" (Or, I suppose "Ishimaru Kiyotaka guarantee," considering he's Japanese). I honestly have no idea where I got this idea, but it started in one of the middle chapters of TPWP and I was super enamored to it and I added it to earlier chapters. It just seems like a Taka thing to say, you know? Super dorky, but also kind of endearing. I think I started it as a sort of parallel to Mondo's "promise between men" thing, but honestly, who knows. Either way, it definitely has been cemented in my brain and is just something Taka says, ha
1. Daiya has a mentor that helped him when he was younger. This one is also concurrent with the head canon that Daiya and Mondo's father was abusive and their mother was a negligent alcoholic, as well as the head canon that Daiya is several years older than Mondo. I came up with this idea when writing TPWM, and y'all will have seen it in the latest chapter with Daisuke. I really like the idea, though. Mondo canonically stated that he only had Daiya as family growing up (and I saw someone say that Mondo's reference to his mom in a FTE was something added in the English dub, which makes sense since I never understood how that fit with him stating he only had Daiya), so it makes sense that their parents were terrible and not really in the picture. Mondo's anger and his anxiety talking to people (women in canon, but it can be thought that it wasn't just exclusive to women) are signs of abuse and negligence, too, so that whole idea isn't completely far fetched. Having Daiya raise Mondo pretty much on his own from the time Mondo was a baby is also not completely far fetched, since I have sadly heard real stories of older siblings almost exclusively raising their younger sibling. However, I like the idea that Daiya wasn't completely alone, and that he had some semblance of a mentor/positive father figure in his life that helped teach him the rules he taught to Mondo. I've not really seen this as a head canon before (the abusive father one, yes, but not the alcoholic mother one either), which is why I'm putting it at number 1. It has nothing really to do with canon, either, just is something I think makes sense and would be nice.
Alright, done! Phew, that was a lot. However, I do have one bonus thing for y'all that I thought of when I was writing the one about Taka's mother. This one isn't really a head canon, but like I said, I was reminded of it and wanted to share. Anyway, in the same fic where I had Taka's mother live, I also had Daiya live, since I like Taka and Mondo being parallels to each other. However, I don't think that Mondo would have become the person he is in DR if he didn't have some tragedy befall Daiya, so in this AU, Daiya was hit by the truck like in canon, but here he survived. However, he fell into a coma for a few months, which made Mondo super guilty and worried, leading to him having a similar reaction to the whole thing.
Daiya did eventually wake up, but he was paralyzed from the waist down and has some trouble using his hands, meaning he cannot ride a motorcycle anymore, plus he needs someone around to help him do certain tasks. Obviously, both Daiya and Mondo prefer that Daiya is alive, but it does lead to some tension between the two, especially with Mondo's insistence that the whole thing was his fault. Daiya does not see it like that at all, he knows that it was completely his decision (and one he'd do again, gladly giving every and anything to save his little brother), and he gets frustrated with Mondo sometimes because of his guilt. But ultimately, they are still very close and love one another dearly. Also, Daiya teases the hell out of Mondo for being head over heels in love with Taka while not realizing it, but that's just a given. ;-) And he's so, so proud of Mondo for having gotten into Hope's Peak, and had to pretty much force him to leave Daiya to the care of some members of the gang and head off alone to school. ^-^
Thanks for the ask!! :-D
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nunutual · 3 years
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Tagged by @shuminghao for the 9 selfies of 2020 ♡ ty sm boo, ily and hope 2021 is ur year love ♡
2020 was odd, but did allow me to grow as an individual, inwards and outwards, idk what will happen this year I am nervous and optimistic about my life ♡
Going to tag: @sarahatthecrisco @soocculents @lovseong @kpopsocks @kpophours @daybreakx @kri-ara @scoupslipgloss @sf9 @sf9fantasy @unclejuho @yeo1 @kibumkim @cyndaquizzical @wonheons @littlelolittleill @gorditx @xlilybebe @praydastle @loveisfx @kihyunsgf @yixiangs @shownusmilf @ungudlyhr @bpro @crescentcopse @wonhos-champurrado @monpabebe @schrodingersvibecheck @cocogoat @moonbaesic @ataraxia @uwunnie @umiwomitai @brittlebonesguy @queen-of-himbos @guydots @baektoyoo @javajaeyoon
- ajsnsjs I know I tagged a lot of ppl but I wanted to tag even more but I just cannot find/remember my mutuals urls ihms😭😭😭💀 anyways I’m a bit late posting but hope everyone has a decent 2021 ♡ !!!!!!!!
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txbbo · 3 years
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I've been debating making this because this is definitely not what my blog is known for and I was worried that people wouldn't want to see it, but with the amount of shit im seeing on twitter it's compelled me to make this because I'm so frustrated.
I feel like I could make 100 posts about 'Cancel Culture' and it wouldn't be enough, so I'm just going to focus on what caused me to write this tonight - the Tommy situation. *Warning for a VERY long post below*
To be clear, Tommy has been in 'hot water' on twitter for the past couple weeks, roughly starting with the KSI collaboration where he made a joke about dream stans.
Last week, when the SBI 'exposing account' got made and twitter hyped it up, someone made a Tommy account and made a thread of things he needed to be '''educated''' on: https://twitter.com/idktommyinnit/status/1379158964148002821?s=20
I'll let you read it for yourself (and come to your own conclusion) but to me.... half of this stuff does not require a twitter thread? Breaking it down accusation by accusation:
1) 'The Mexican accent' - the clips show he is clearly only doing it when copying big Q (who famously exaggerates his own accent) and there is zero malicious intent (Big Q is also IN the 3 clips mentioned in the thread, and obviously didn't tell Tommy it was offensive). There's debates in the comments from people who think it is offensive and people who don't, so I'm not trying to pick a side. To avoid accidentally offending anyone, maybe it is best for him to stop, but the way twitter acts as if he was purposefully doing this to offend people is just not true.
2- 'Making a slave joke' - Even saying that feels wrong, because it suggests Tommy is doing something awful. Instead, they are referring to the 'bit' that Tommy, Techno, Tubbo and Ant were involved in, when Tommy and Techno took Tubbo and Ant as their slave. People are taking this vod and using it to accuse Tommy of being insensitive to Black people, but I think people are just assuming the worst. Slavery existed long before the transatlantic slave trade and still exists today. This is a role-play server - Tommy 'forced' Ant to work for him and used the word slave, which to me is exactly what was happening? People 'murder' others on the SMP, people 'kidnap' on the SMP, people are 'terrorists' on the SMP, and all happen without issue. To add, Ant is a WHITE man. Tommy taking a WHITE man as a slave is not something uber problematic.
3- 'His reply to Techno's 'murder is bad' tweet'. - I get people saying that Techno's initial tweet was insensitive, but saying Tommy's agreement to this from almost over a year ago is something notable and worth addressing is just super nitpicky and is clearly only in there to pad out the thread. It also makes me wonder what other CC's interacted with it and if THEY should be cancelled too (according to twitter).
4 - 'The saying slurs' tweet / jokes about 'whats the worst word you know' - This one I can kinda see how people might not like it. However, it's clearly a 'poke' at his friends, making them seem like bad people. To me, its in the same vein as 'Tubbo is a Tory' or when Tubbo shoots back that 'Tommy is a Nigel Farage fan'. They're obviously not, but its making fun of your friends by saying they are, and mockingly making them out out to be bad people.
5- 'Covid jokes' - People are taking jokes he made about him 'having covid' and saying he shouldn't joke about this, even going as far to linking it to asian hate crimes. I don't even know how to explain that that this is just? not a 'cancellable offence'? I'm sorry but if I hear anyone in my family coughing I make a little joke that 'they better not have covid' and I know other people do. I have someone in my family who is extremely vulnerable to Covid and if they caught it, would quite literally die, but I can understand that jokes like these are harmless. The whole internet had a running joke that we were in a 'panoramic' or 'Panera' or 'insert any word that sounds like pandemic.
This thread got a lot of attention and anything he tweeted afterwards was spammed with the link and there were so many people upset that he hadn't addressed it. I saw so many people say how 'upset' and 'disappointed' they were in him.
Going on to today, this happened: https://twitter.com/khasiid/status/1380611890104139776?s=20
I get it, it looks bad. But for context (which the tweet doesn't give), the reply was only up for less than a minute. It was obvious to me, even BEFORE Tommy addressed it in his stream (clip here: https://twitter.com/cowrpse/status/1380640046202593283?s=20 ) that it was a mistake. In the clip, he clearly acknowledges his mistake and seems embarrassed. To me, this situation should just be laid to rest because a mistake does not need this much attention, but twitter disagrees.
In case it wasn't obvious by now, the tide is turning against Tommy and people are less willing to ignore genuine mistakes and assume the worst.
Today, during his birthday stream people were clearly already waiting for him to mess up. Around half way through, he started saying 'finna' out of context and Tubbo joined in. This led to tons of tweets telling him he was misusing AAVE, and while there were plenty of people willing to be patient and educate, there were also people seeing this as an example of him being a 'bad person' and someone who should be 'without a platform'. I think people forget that not everyone has the same internet upbringing as they do. In general, I think its noted that the misuse of AAVE is something that has just recently been brought to attention. I learned about it through tiktok and stan twitter, and I don't think it's unimaginable that a British 17 year old boy (who is not active on either) has never heard of 'African American Vernacular English'.
Just for a fuller picture, today has also brought about another 'criticism' that I just had to address.
1) 'Tommy made a KKK joke' - Like the 'slavery' point, saying this is extremely misleading. It makes people think the worst. Here's the clip: https://twitter.com/ghostburz/status/1380673589612011522?s=20
Here, Tommy and Tubbo are both joking about Tubbo's 'bit' of naming his alt streams 'aaaaaaaaaa', 'bbbbbbb', 'cccccc', etc and how it would've been bad if it was 'kkkkkkkk' (for obvious reasons). That is literally it. It is a less than 20 second clip. Acknowledging that people woulda thought about the 'KKK' is not him 'not understanding Black issues', its a throwaway joke about the obvious.
Lastly, someone on twitter has made a tommyinnit (address asap) doc - https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tZEZtBzikS-EYYkssfFtwVOoFqOwCK0zhStLe6H1wCc/edit
I've basically already covered everything in this document, but I wanted to mention how extremely 'guilt trippy' the whole thing is. I struggled to come up with the perfect word for the situation, and I am open to hearing other peoples opinion, but as I have mentioned none of these things Tommy has been accused of were done with malicious intent, and some I believe don't even need addressed at all.
'slavery is a source of astronomical trauma for black people, and isn’t something to be taken lightly if you’re to look into the horrors of the slave trade."
and "Oftentimes they are the last words we hear before we die and it really is not Tommy’s place to joke about words that affect us so negatively."
Are extremely emotional words for a 17-year-old boy to hear on his birthday, for stuff that I believe has been taken out of context and blown out of proportion.
I really feel bad for him, because such a large proportion of twitter (which ofc is the loudest side of the fanbase) is angry at him and is demanding (as the document says) ''either a stream or twitter thread/twitlonger to addressing this' and 'a long and serious apology instead of a short statement pre-stream'.
We all know how twitter works, and unless his apology is perfect (which to me means apologising for stuff that he should't have to, as explained in the thread), twitter will continue with this weird hyper focus on everything he does, and it's not going to end well.
Twitter's mentality of 'putting everything this person has done that could ever be considered problematic' into one neat little thread is so unhelpful and counter intuitive. I got overwhelmed reading some of the stuff people were saying about him, I can't imagine how he feels.
I feel like I have more to say but at risk of writing an essay longer than my actual work I have to do, I'm going to end here.
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utilitycaster · 3 years
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Wizard Breakdown Tracker, Episode 138
I think it is easy to forget that literally every episode that aired in the year of Our Common Era, 2021, has taken place over the span of *Spurt voice* eleven days. Well. It has. And, indeed, the last seven episodes have covered roughly two days.
The reason this is only about wizard NPCs is because they serve as a sort of audience surrogate in that they are nerds who don't go outside, vs. D&D PCs who see more shit in two to eleven days than most people would see in a lifetime; case in point, Essek's current state of shock. This is also making it very hard to check in with the other wizards. But also this is not about accuracy, even though I am usually right about everything. This is about...honestly I'm not sure, other than wizards.
What I'm trying to say is:
Caleb Widogast is a PC, not an NPC, and is not included in these strange statistics*.
Currently sidelined: Pumat Sol, Oremid Hass, Ludinus Da'leth, Astrid Beck, E_dwulf Grieve
Obligatory self-indulgent Vess Derogna song parody: Tomb....takers, killed you in your room, they’ll end the world soon but hey/you cult wizard, lost in a blizzard, whatever you’ve done, well, murdered, you’ll stay
Trent Ikithon: I am 100% serious that while I have made Narrative Sense In Actual Play Media in the rock on which I will cast my Temple of the Gods, if the final boss is Trent riding on Uk'otoa...I won't be mad. Like does it seem tonally off? Yes; Critical Role is not humorless high fantasy by any means** but they are not actively trying to seem like something that should be airbrushed on a van, usually. But will it be pretty awesome? Yeah.
Trent on the other hand is pretty fucking mad, presumably, because Caleb continues to leave him on read and also picked up a little something called Mind Blank, which is actually useful and not in fact No Thoughts Head Empty. With that said I don't think it's increased; I think we're just at a steady simmer.
Conclusion: 7/10.
Essek Thelyss: Okay I am a dabbler in both cosmic horror and mathematics; I enjoy many elements of both but am an expert in neither. But if I may drop the jokes for a second, how incredible is it that in this alien setting of a city that is an unwitting and unwilling amalgam of consciousnesses, with all the trappings of classic cosmic horror, two people decided to take a scientific risk with things seen as forbidden or foreign by their respective cultures...and won.
I don't know what will befall Essek and he's clearly still having a pretty rough time of it, even though unlike Caduceus I don't think he was brought to the brink of profanity again, yet; but no matter what happens at least he'll have the nat 20 of instant long rest. No matter what happens...he was right about dunamancy. Fucking ironic how much potential the dynasty is wasting, really.
With that said he does have a red eye now even though all he (and, to be fair, Fjord, Veth, and Caduceus as well) did was fight off an eldritch abomination without rolling what must have been like a 20 Wisdom save DC. Like, he (and Fjord, Veth, and Caduceus) do not deserve this. You think this man has a positive wisdom score? In this economy? (actually, he might, I say, looking at Caleb 'Wisdom Ostensibly 16' Widogast).
Conclusion: keeping him at 8/10. It's funny because he is fully on an emotional roller coaster but it's averaging out to about an 8/10 each time; it's just that he's constantly beset by horrors beyond imagination and really terrible rolls but also incredible validation of his beliefs that had so long been ignored. The man's mental state is basically a sine wave, which interestingly enough is itself influencing his mental state.***
Yussa Errenis: The Prodigal Most Interesting Man in Exandria returneth! Wensforth, play Freedom! 836 PD. You know, he should probably feel a little bit of shame, because he should know better, but also he probably does not. Anyway please enjoy the lines I had for Yussa while he was trapped in Cognouza that I did not ultimately use:
aha no don’t get your consciousness sucked into an ancient city you’re so sexy
Here am I floating in an ancient and terrible world-devouring city/far out in the planes/Threshold crests are blue and there’s nothing I can do
Making bad choices and joining the voices it’s...YUSSA ERRENIS
Conclusion: I'm going to say 6/10 but rapidly decreasing. Also Wensforth has had several days to clean the tower...maybe he just won't tell Yussa? He probably will though.
Allura Vyesoren: she's going to facepalm so long that Kima starts timing it, isn't she. She's going to get a series of messages like "hey so the Mighty Nein seem to be doing well! they freed me from the city which sucked me in like some spicy ramen when I did an astral projection...also something happened in my tower?" She's going to just stare out the window for a long moment. She is going to ask herself, much as I have many a time, what the fuck is in the water in Wildemount.
Conclusion: 3/10. Hey, at least she got some news on the Mighty Nein and the city!
Known Gem Wizard Hotsauce Lutefisk: consider: after over 35 years, give or take, in your own perception of time, trapped in a gem, you finally come across some people. Consider that one of them apparently can't resist a big shiny wizard trap. Now consider that this guy went into your +1 Demiplane of Wizard Murdering AND got his mind fully schlorped by Aeorians and yet you are still, inconceivably, stuck in this fucking gem. This is where he draws the line? At a teensy little bodily possession? What the fuck dude.
Conclusion: I'm pretty sure he's already a few large handfuls of iron filings short of a component pouch (which is to say, full up on the batshit) already but this cannot be helping.
*this will be the first but probably not the last cosmic horror and/or math joke because I actually forgot to make cat jokes last night, so thoroughly did the Nein demolish Cree. Speaking of Cree's fate...call that a Furrier Transform.
**high fantasy is a complicated distinction and the wikipedia page includes Discworld which does not seem right to me; it also includes the Belgariad, a series for which I have great fondness having inhaled the first three books while sick in bed as a fourteen year old and having reread several times, but which is explicitly written by a guy who was like what if I made something as formulaic as possible but also literally everyone is either super sarcastic or a huge moron but anyway imo High Fantasy is actually frequently fucking hilarious and a sign of the skill of the creator(s) is whether it's hilarious by accident or on purpose.
***something something Heisenberg uncertainty principle. I had a joke here but it got very convoluted and that is actually not a pun although if you understand why it could be a pun, good work.
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xkaileo · 3 years
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For the one shot request:
Sasuke coming back from his first redemption journey a couple of years after the war. He meets naruto at ichiraku, then Sakura happens to walk by. Naruto insists she join and she’s so happy sasuke is back, but keeps the interaction “friendly” not “young girl talking to her crush”. Quickly after she gets a scroll from a bird and has to go. Naruto then explains that Sakura is in really high demand and basically brags about all of her accomplishments and everything she does for the village as a medic but also as a jounin. Sasuke is proud and happy for her but it’s not until later when he sees her sparring someone really good (Tsunade, Kakashi, Yamato, anyone from Anbu) that he is s t u n n e d. Like jaw to the floor. He can’t resist watching and maybe activates his sharingan by accident. It is not until like 10 minutes have gone by that he notices her ANBU tattoo for the first time.
So of course canon-divergent. I know it’s super clunky the way I laid it out (can you tell I’m no author?) lol anyways I thought it would be really nice to get a look inside Sasuke’s head the first time he’s gotten the metaphorical wind knocked out of him by Sakura haha.
Ask and you shall receive, nonny! This one was fun to write, having Sasuke sort of be stunned by her and feel just the need to do something about it; it was fun to put him in a position where he had to push a little to get something out of Sakura. Enjoy!
She's A Hot Commodity
It was amazing how much the Hidden Leaf Village could change over two years. More than Sasuke had expected, honestly; he'd thought the village was done with its constant renovations after multiple attempts for it to be destroyed. Well, they'd nearly come close one time, though he'd stepped in to assist. Meteors falling off the moon… who would have thought?
His first stop was Ichiraku, as he'd made one promise: he was going to treat Naruto to a bowl of ramen when he got back. His blonde friend was already there, waving wildly as he approached.
"Sasuke! You're back!" Naruto gave him a hug in greeting, to which Sasuke begrudgingly allowed. He wasn't one for physical affection, but one hug from his best friend wouldn't be the end of the world. Plus, he'd never hear the end of it if he didn't. Naruto would spend their entire lunch pouting and whining about it if he was turned down.
As they were seated, both boys heard a familiar voice behind them, and it was… None other than Sakura. Sasuke couldn't help but stare, just for a moment. It'd been a long time. She'd grown out her hair and seemed to be wearing it up in a ponytail. When had it got so long? Now that he thought about it… It'd been a little longer when he left, but now it had to be almost to her waist. He hadn't seen it that long since they were kids. He… liked it, if he was honest.
"Sakura." He nodded in greeting, the corner of his lips twitching into a smile. He was glad to see her. Maybe now he'd be able to take things… a little further, to put it simply. He'd left her with nothing more than a promise, and this was the start of it. He was here. He'd returned. Whether he would stay for an extended period was another question, but he did plan to offer for her to accompany him this time. He just had… a few errands to take care of before he left again.
"Sasuke! It's been so long!" Sakura came up between them and threw her arms over his and Naruto's shoulders, giggling as she was hanging out between them. "Would you look at that? My two favourite dorks are having lunch together. You know, Sasuke, if he's got you here against your will, all you have to do is ask." Well… Ramen usually would have been against his will, but this time, it wasn't. He was surprised when she leaned closer to his ear, her voice no more than a whisper.
"There's a new place that opened that serves rice balls if you need an escape." She clapped him on the back before turning to Naruto, who'd caught her attention.
"Sakura, join us!" He encouraged, and her expression went thoughtful for a moment before she agreed. Naruto shifted down one seat, allowing Sakura to sit between them. Sasuke didn't want to admit he was glad Naruto had shifted down; he wanted to sit next to Sakura, but he wasn't sure if she would have done that of her own accord. He couldn't blame her; it'd been a long time since they'd spoken, and there was… a lot they needed to talk about. She seemed… different. Not unfriendly, but there was something different about the way she was talking to him. No more blushing or bashful looks in his direction. He'd expected that much from her, but… was it possible something had happened?
Maybe… maybe she'd moved on. He didn't want to think that, but it seemed to be a possibility. Nevertheless, if that were Sakura's decision, that would have to be how things were. Friends were better than absolutely nothing.
Just as she was about to order, the sound of a messenger hawk could be heard, interrupting their conversation. Naruto and Sakura had been chatting animatedly, Naruto having made some dumb comment that Sakura was reaming him for while Sasuke chuckled at their antics. At least some things never change. He's still opening his mouth when he should be shutting it, and she's putting him in his place… as usual.
"Oh… I'm sorry, guys." Sakura's expression turned to a frown. "This is for me, and it's urgent. I have to get going. Sorry again. Let's pick another day to get ramen together as a team, though, okay? And… it's good to see you back, Sasuke." She gave him a smile that lit up her whole face, and it made his heart skip a beat. She was different, sure, but it was… nice. It made him feel a bit giddy.
"Yeah… Shoulda seen that one coming," Naruto admitted.
"Does that happen a lot?" Sasuke was genuinely curious. He knew Sakura was a hard worker, but she always knew how to make time for her friends. It seemed out of the ordinary for her to disappear so suddenly. If it was the hospital, wasn't Tsunade there to help out?
"Yeah, it kinda does. Sakura's kind of a big deal around the village now. It makes me a little jealous." Naruto, jealous? Sasuke wondered just how important she was, but as always, Naruto had the explanation. "She's done so much stuff! She opened a clinic for all the kids in the village that lost parents during the war, and she's been working with Ino and some professionals to get them the help they need. Just so they don't feel alone, ya know? You and I both know no one deserves to feel like that." After all, they were the very same kinds of kids that that clinic was helping. Sasuke was shocked and also touched. Had Sakura done all that in two years?
"Oh yeah! And she works super hard at the hospital. She's one of the only medical ninja in the village who's allowed to take missions alone, and that's a huge deal! She's been going to all kinds of places on missions, mostly deliveries or to provide medical help, but I swear she's always gone on a mission! She keeps asking me to water her plants like… every week." Naruto didn't mind her asking that, though. He liked taking care of them. Gardening was oddly calming.
"Wow," Sasuke remarked. It was not what he would have expected out of Sakura… not precisely, that is. He knew she was brilliant, but looking back to how they were as kids… no, when they'd first been put on a team, he never would have expected that much out of her. "Has she been doing anything else?"
"Oh yeah! She mentioned somethin' about taking on a team of genin, too. I think she'd make a great teacher, don'tcha think?" Naruto elbowed Sasuke gently, earning a grunt out of him and a nod in response. Sakura would make a stellar teacher. If she took on a trio of genin as their Jounin sensei, then they would undoubtedly be a force to be reckoned with.
He was… proud of her, honestly. To think she’d come so far from her capabilities when they were kids… she was so incredibly talented, it even made him a little jealous. He’d been a prodigy, but to see her hard work coming to fruition was exceptional. She was amazing. More impressive than he was expecting.
------------------------------------
It’d been days since he’d last seen Sakura, and after only briefly meeting her, he decided the best way to pass the time until she returned was training. He liked training; it kept him in shape, allowed him to practice living life with just one arm, and helped him clear his mind when it got too tumultuous to handle. Making his way to the training grounds, he was stopped by a flicker of familiar chakra that crossed the vision of his left eye.
Sakura? She was… Training? He shouldn’t have been surprised, but he was. That, and he found himself deeply intrigued. Like a curious cat, he made his way to the edge of the trees, remaining at a safe distance where he could watch. It looked like she was training with Kakashi, whom he would have considered a force to be reckoned with. He was a former ANBU, after all.
Wait… no. It wasn’t just Kakashi there. Yamato was there, too, and… wait, was Sakura taking them both on at the same time? His curiosity was piqued enough that he activated his Sharingan, using it to track her movements; in high-speed fights like these, it was a necessity. He would've never been able to keep up with Sakura's motions otherwise.
He watched her, amazed beyond belief. Every movement she made was fluid, each motion flowing into the next like an unbreakable chain. There was no hesitation or consideration; she moved without thinking, her body reacting with an impeccable natural flow. He’d never seen such fluid movements before, not even back during the war. What had she done since he’d been gone? He knew she was a Jounin now, but this… no, she had to be more than that. She was well above the level of a Jounin. It was almost an insult to put her that low.
He stared for longer than he’d expected, watching as she evaded both Yamato and Kakashi’s tactics, dancing around them like they were nothing. He watched as her long, pink hair flowed with every movement, even the occasional piece sticking to the sweat that formed on her brow. Even as she turned, he could see the concentration in her gaze, focusing on every motion. There was strength and power in the way she moved. There was one thing that bothered him, though, one thing he couldn't shake.
When had Sakura become so beautiful? He remembered her being cute when they were kids, though he hadn't been in the right state of mind to say anything about it. He'd also noticed she was prettier as they got older, but he'd never been able to take the time to appreciate it. Now, staring at her, he realized how attractive she was. He was taken aback by what he was seeing. It made his cheeks flush, made his heart race, and also made his heart wrench. Maybe… maybe he'd have to say something to her: something direct, this time.
It wasn’t until Sakura stopped, calling a halt to her training with Yamato and Kakashi to take a breather, that he noticed something else. He knew that symbol. Other Jounin he knew and had met bore it too. This wasn’t friendly training between three Jounin. It was so much more than that. But it made Sasuke wonder…
When did Sakura decide to join the ANBU? That was undoubtedly one of the last things he'd expected of her. As he stared at her training, he hadn't realized her gaze had turned in his direction; once he did, he ducked behind one of the trees, heart beating rapidly. Had she seen him? Had she caught him staring so openly at her? He hoped not. The last thing he wanted was to seem weird or creepy. One thing he did know was that Sakura's temper was terrifying, and he would have preferred not to be on her bad side.
"You're not doing a very good job of hiding, Sasuke." He looked up to see her above him on one of the branches, a smile teasing her lips. He startled at the sound of her voice, grumbling under his breath and turning away as the faintest shade of pink dusted his cheeks. Damn. She really was good. She'd caught even him off-guard.
"I wasn't hiding," he lied. Oh, he knew he was hiding, all right. He simply refused to admit it. "I thought this training ground was empty. I was mistaken." He heard her feet land in front of him, which urged him to keep his face hidden from her; he didn't want her to see just how much his cheeks had coloured at her appearance. It was all he could do not to look back and stare, admiring every inch of her toned figure.
"You're also not very good at lying," she teased further, taking a step toward him. "What's got you all flustered?" Damn. She hadn't missed it.
"It's hot outside." Technically not a lie; it was a scorching summer day, and he was wearing a heavy cloak. "I'm just flushed from the heat." Definitely a lie. His cloak was designed to keep heat in and keep cooler air closer to his body, like a cat's fur coat. It kept him comfortably thermoregulated.
"Liar," she accused.
"Tch." He wasn't going to dignify that with a response. She giggled in response to his gruff comment, leaving him to straighten as if he were on his way. She… was in his way, though, which meant he had to brush past her to leave. As his eye opened, he realized she was closer than before. He could smell her from where he stood. Her skin glistened with the faintest layer of sweat from her training, hair sticking to her cheeks and forehead. It didn't bother him; he was used to much worse sights.
Nevertheless, her skin was glowing from the exercise, and the way her green eyes sparkled made her look prettier. So pretty, he could feel his heart racing. He couldn't bring himself to move. If he so much as touched her, he knew what he'd end up doing.
"Sasuke, are you… okay?" Her head tilted to the side, and he felt his heart skip a beat. Stop it, he tried to scold her mentally, knowing it wouldn't work.
"I'm fine. Don't worry about it." Liar. With one sharp breath, he took a step forward, his hand reaching to brush her out of the way gently. She stepped in front of him, stopping him and grasping at his wrist. He remembered that grasp; it was the same way he'd done it to her years ago, a firm but gentle grip. She released it after he stopped moving. Their gazes drew together instinctively; no words needed to be spoken between them. Sasuke felt a growing sense of worry after what he'd realized. Sakura was ANBU. That meant she put her life on the line every day, every mission, everything. It meant that at any moment when she wasn't on a mission, the Hokage could call her for one, and it could be the last time anyone would see her.
He couldn't wait. The moment Sakura released his wrist from her grasp, he reached up, tangling his fingers in her hair as need took precedence over logic. His lips crashed against hers fiercely, years of restrained emotions flaring in his chest as he kissed her. She seemed surprised for a split second but was quick to reciprocate; he felt her hands lock around his neck, leading him to skim a hand down her back, pulling her body tighter against his. At some point, he turned, pressing her back against the tree as they continued their motions, eventually breaking apart to breathe, staring at one another with wordless affirmations.
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loquaciousquark · 3 years
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Talks Machina Highlights - Critical Role C2E116-119 (Dec. 15, 2020)
Hi! I missed the first three minutes or so and opened the stream to Brian giving an absolutely incoherent ...ad? for some jewel game? Six thousand jewels just for logging in? Some app in the app store and he’s literally been talking about this now for six minutes and I don’t know what he’s talking about. He finally wraps up, Laura brings the show to a close, and we’re all a little worse than we were before.
Ashley tries to get us back on track and Henry bays over her. Brian tries to ask the first question and breaks off into feigned sobs halfway through. This is chaos incarnate.
Tonight’s guests: Laura Bailey & Ashley Johnson.
How’s Yasha feeling right now about Molly? She and Jester both are desperately curious about whether there’s a spark of Molly left in Lucien that can be brought back. It’s not the same as when Yasha was controlled by Obann; this seems more like just the way this is now. They’d settle for even finding the good in him, like they did with Essek. Brian jokes that they can monitor his mental state if Matt’s Irish accent starts to slip a little bit.
Jester is a little wary about scrying on Lucien now since he’s able to see her back.  She’s interested to try again now that Fjord’s given her the necklace.
Ashley has to run and grab a replacement set of headphones from Brian after hers get “crunchy.” It’s pretty cute seeing them run around and smooch on another screen. Brian teases that he doesn’t have any more questions for Jester since Caduceus has been doing all the healing lately. Laura tells us indignantly that she had Heal prepared for Caduceus in that last big fight, but Fjord got to Cad first. Brian explains how this is the same as all the good jokes he always lines up for Talks but never tells. Ashley’s crunchiness continues and we go briefly to a technical difficulties screen while Brian hops up to fix it.
Dani pips in to get this show back on track. Save us, Dani!
Ashley hadn’t thought about the aspect of Lucien controlling his friends’ minds, but finds it really creepy. It’s a cool game dynamic, and it’s a little different because they’re there willingly, but it’s really weird.
Jester thinks that “the tarot cards know all. She wants to buy into it real hard.” If it doesn’t make sense now, it will later. Laura has an Idiot’s Guide to Tarot Reading.
They’re super interested in why Aeor is like it is. Were they more advanced than us? Did they evolve along a different line? Ashley loves sci-fi and is all about this, especially since she wasn’t there for Happy Fun Ball time & hasn’t been able to get caught up on some of the things she missed in between, so she’s using this as an erstwhile replacement. She can already tell there are some things from this campaign that will bother her the way the unopened box did from C1. She and Laura both seethe at the camera about having to leave the spider behind.
Cosplay of the Week! Harland3r on instagram with a gorgeous winged Pike with a shield & mace. It’s an incredible photo and the wings look great.
Travis distracts Laura by dancing like a Trex offscreen. That seems right for this episode.
Jester’s encouragement of Yasha pursuing Beau was important in a lot of ways, not least because Ashley considered herself as uninterested in D&D romance as Travis & was a little unsure of activating a romance among her friends. However, it felt really natural within the game and it was really helpful to have Jester’s in-game encouragement. Yasha’s grown a lot and is in a much more positive place and is ready to find out what’s possible. Laura: “Jester from the get-go has seen Yasha as this wonderful soul from the beginning, and has seen how sad Yasha’s been through everything, and to see the difference that she exhibits when talking about Beau is drastic and wonderful. Jester’s joy in life is helping others find joy.”
Ashley points out it’s also so fun to “yes-and” with Laura because you’re like a little kid being dragged along by the hand - you don’t know where it’s going, but you know it’s going to be fun along the way.
Ashley does have a sense of “thank goodness Marisha isn’t jumping right into this” so she can coax herself into it, but when she tried to figure out the poem she had a lot of drafts that didn’t survive. She intentionally crafted the letter to give Beau an out if she didn’t feel the same way. There’s a lot going on with Lucien right now and there’s constantly a running thought in the back of her head about “maybe Beau is not into this.” Even the last couple episodes with Jester & Fjord have had Ashley finally understand shipping.
Brian brings us to the moment “almost as romantic as the pre-season finale of the Bachelorette.” Jester was “goo” afterwards. Early on in the campaign, Jester was very forward with her flirtations with Fjord & he shut her down. And then he kissed her underwater and immediately went and slept with Avantika, and Jester automatically shut herself down, because she thought she was misunderstanding & would only be hurt by those emotions. She deliberately focused on just being there with her friends, making everyone healthy and happy. These last few episodes where Fjord was flirting back felt like “my teenage heart again, my first kiss, the boy I like actually likes me back!” and she was able to open back up.
Yasha definitely has some instrument plans for those bones. She doesn’t know if she’s going to add to her harp or create a new one.
Ashley and Laura cheer about Travis stepping out his comfort zone. Laura thinks it was really good that he was doing it with her, his real-life wife, to see if he likes that sort of stuff in his D&D campaign. “It was just so sweet. It was just so sweet.” Brian says he’s actually a really romantic dude & Dani is so glad he asked before the kiss. Brian: “It’s going to be so sad when he breaks your heart and goes back to the corpse of Avantika.” Laura: “It’s fine, Jester will be long dead by then anyway.”
Jester does believe the four-year time trade was worth it, but that the city leaves “a mark on your brain,” especially as in-depth as she saw it. “Jester’s always been reticent to talk about her age because she’s aware she’s perceived in a juvenile way by a lot of people, and she’s insecure about that. She grew up by herself without a lot of social interactions and is experienced in a lot of ways now and naive in others; she’s very aware of human emotion around her, but chooses to see it in a certain way.” Losing the time makes her wonder if she needs to grow up & become an adult about certain things now. Laura: “I think actually she’s closer to Fjord’s age now. Actually, I’m not sure about his age. I don’t know how old he is - I’ve never even asked Travis!” Brian: “I think he’s definitely fifteen.” Laura: “Travis, how old is Fjord?” Travis, off-screen: “Sixty-five,” but he’s had the Mask of Many Faces up this whole time. Later, he adds that he’s in his early 30s.
Ashley has really enjoyed digging into Yasha’s more humorous side lately. It’s how she gets comfortable as a player, making it fun and light in a way that this year needs. “It’s also really funny to think that Yasha doesn’t know how Message works.”
Brian congratulates Laura & Ashley both on their game awards nominations. Brian vamps trying to get himself in as the presenter, but incidentally refers to Laura as his sister in the conversation and it’s super cute. “I would like to be the one to give the award to either my fiancee, or my sister!”
Fanart of the Week: @ethanmaldridge with an illustrated page from the Katzenprinz book. It’s just beautiful.
Jester’s polymorph gambit was terrifying, but the stakes got even higher when everyone else got stunned. She does lament choosing a bunny at the start. “Frickin’ Fjord’s armor!”
Yasha loves being polymorphed lately. She thinks it’s kinda funny, especially given her rigid upbringing with such defined roles.
Laura feels like Jester and Vex are weirdly two halves of herself. Brian: “You see the very bargainy, I’m gonna use my wit & smarts to negotiate situations. But at the same time, you’re very open to what people are thinking & feeling and navigating that. What you end up putting out (though it comes across as innocent and naive) is something pure because she truly believes it.” Laura thinks Yasha and Pike are the same way for Ashley, though Ashley feels a little closer to Yasha right now. Sometimes you just feel really exposed. Laura compares how much idealism she put into Jester to her character from Fruits Basket.
Since Yasha didn’t belong to either side in the war, she’s not hugely concerned by the fallout; she more wants to make sure her found family are okay and safe. Jester is the same way, Laura tells us. Jester doesn’t have any greater vision of the Empire & Dynasty interacting; she cares about the people, and it hasn’t been until the vision with the city that she kind of woke up and realized they have to really stop this now. It feels bigger than the Dynasty/Empire. Ashley: “It seems more of a thing for Beau and Caleb to care about.”
Really, up to now Jester was mostly concerned about getting Molly back, but now the stakes seem much higher. “We have to do this. We have to complete this, to beat them, to keep them from doing this.” Yasha is just going with the flow for now. There’s a lot coming at them and they are ready to find out what’s next.
And that’s that for tonight! Brian thanks the crew especially for working incredibly hard on switching everything to home-based streaming. He then gets stuck halfway spinning around in his chair and the last thing we hear is him idly wondering “What’s Fjord taste like?” which seems pretty on brand for tonight’s show. Is it Thursday yet?
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shtern-and-art · 3 years
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I have more questions because it's no longer 4am lmao.
Does Skeppy fear any animals? I just wanna know if there's any sweet moments of Skeppy clinging to Bad whilst he tries to calm him down.
I'm guessing Bad still hates things like littering and woodcutters but would he ever act particularly strongly about it or would he have more control?
I like how Rat seems to tolerate Skeppy because Bad likes him but would she ever get jealous if Skeppy started pettting another dog?
I have a horrifying image of Bad just spider climbing up a tree to fetch Skeppy. I don't know why but I feel like dude wouldn't even need branches lmao.
What other supernatural creatures/people do they come across? Were there any that were especially dangerous and did they befriend any?
Is Bad much physically stronger than Skeppy? I keep thinking of Skeppy being a little shaz and Bad just one-arm picking him up and slinging him over his shoulder XD.
Does Bad ever get nightmares of the day he became the forest spirit?
How far would Skeppy take stealing? Would he steal something he knows the owner has genuine attachment to? Would he do everything in his power to steal something for Bad even if it means getting hurt?
Who's more likely to protect the other?
Skeppy just minding his business looking at one of Bad's textbooks, turns his head and Bad's just having a tea party with a freaking bear. Surprised the man hasn't had a heart attack yet XD.
What's your favourite thing to imagine them doing?
Is Bsd an adrenaline junky? Or is he scared of more dangerous things like bungee jumping and mountain climbing.
What would their reactions be to rollercoasters?
Do they have a favourite date-night activity?
Everytime I think of this au it brightens my mood!! Thank you for making something so heartwarming!! <3
Glad to see you again :D And yaay, questions!
My pen pressure broke again, I can't finish any sketches for this ask rn, but here's a couple of old messy designs.
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1) Comforting and nightmares
Skeppy has a normal, I’d even say adequate level of fear towards wild animals, whilst Bad has it in negative numbers. And, yes, this fun juxtaposition leads to a lot of unfortunate moments of Skeppy nearly dying from heart attack when some of Bad’s animal friends show up unexpectedly, or Bad goes all out for his tea-parties with wild bears or smth.
So, yes, sometimes the comforting hugs are necessary! And no, none of them ever play up the dramaticness of the situation just to drag out the nice comforting moment They do n o t. That’d be very silly and unnecessary, and will deserve a lot of teasing. So, it’s all serious. Not only for the first couple minutes. Yes.
But If you’re looking for comfort-after-actual-hurt – Bad does have to hold and comfort Skeppy, when the stress of trying to not fuck up the good stuff around him gets too strong. And after the nightmares where they are hated and chased by people. Those dreams do not come often, but when they do, Bad is there to hold Skeppy, whisper in his hair that he is alright, that they’re both alright, and that they can handle everything that’s going on right now.
And Bad himself, well. After leaving the town, his nightmares about the night of the ritual stopped almost completely. They come rarely, only when the anxiety gets really bad. Before, in the forest, Bad had them pretty often. It’s one of the reasons he mostly slept not as himself, but in the minds of the animals.
2) Littering
Bad will not maim someone for not getting a candy wrapper in a trashcan, especially if there are people around. But if someone leaves a big mess in the nature, or even (*gasp*) does it regularly, Bad can and will try and teach them a lesson. As in: pull a cautionary (and probably slightly terrifying) prank on the misbehaving person.
It doesn’t always work out as Bad intended, and may even scare some people off anything relating to nature for good, but, according to Bad, it’s still “a fun and useful little hobby to have :3”.
3) Rat
Rat takes a looong time to warm up to any other animals that infringe on her territory. And Skeppy might be a little shit (and his own rights for Bad are debatable) but he is Rat’s territory still (by approximation from Bad). So, she can gatekeep Skeppy a little bit. Not as much as she does Bad, but the man gotta know his place – Rat comes before other dogs for him too.
4) Tree climbing and strength
Oh, Bad can an will climb down a tree like a full-on creepy creature he is: head down, using only his claws, with Skeppy tucked under one arm. Maybe not even upside down, if Skeppy is lucky, and wasn’t too annoying about wanting to stay up on the tree for the night :D
5) Meeting other spn creatures
Oh, that’s a big question (: Yes, they do meet other cryptids, befriend some, and get in trouble with some, and deal with a handful of new and old spn troubles :D
I always thought that Bad and Skeppy’s life after the main story can make a series of short stories (or one big episodic one) dealing with exactly that: the guys traveling around, meeting other cryptids, learning more about themselves and the world, trying to build a life between human and supernatural crisis going on. Just like In The Dark it can based on the mix between the real life and the minecraft-verse events.
I wanted to focus more on finishing the main story first, though, so these stories are not as sought through, I didn’t even write down any of them yet :D
But if you have more concrete questions, ideas, or suggestions (about a specific person, or a specific thing happening) – write me, I’ll think about it, and how it can work with the theme and worldbuilding I have in mind.
6) Stealing + Protectiveness
Skeppy can sometimes forget about, ahem, moral principles, or human decency… emphasis oh “human”. He’s nature and different worldview it gives, it seeps through in his life and actions even more with age. Especially after he’s been away from actual people for a long while. So, I guess, he might at times steal something that is very important to someone, or do something that could be considered weird or rude in general.
And if Bad really needs something, or is in danger – all rules are down. If there is no one to reality check Skeppy, he might proceed to walk on heads, and commit risky and reckless crimes just to help or save Bad.
They both are quite bad with that, the protecting each other thing. Bad, tho, can be more fiscally violent in his protectiveness.
7) Adrenaline and rollercoasters
Well, it’s not that Bad likes adrenaline specifically, he’s just very curious, likes to try new things, and is almost unkillable. So he can just- just go for everything that’s interesting for him with reckless abandon, and if it goes wrong – welp. Bones can heal limbs can regrow, and the cool abandoned caves will not explore themselves. He’ll have to learn to ease up with lack of selfcare though. Because Bad can’t always leave Skeppy to fend for himself, while he heals, and Skeppy does NOT like seeing Bad getting hurt so much, and not caring about himself at all.
This probably comes back to Bad dealing with his spn nature and learning to make peace between it and himself. And to his anxiety, and unhealthy coping mechanisms.
And hey, it’s the same for Skeppy and his lack of adequate moral compass at times :D
There will be a lot of tension and growing they’d have to do in regards to all this.
Also Skeppy is the one who’s really into chasing the thrills :D Man spent nearly half a year annoying probably-murderous-forest-spirit just for little not-boring fun, jeez :DD
Rollercoasters are a no go, tho. They go up in the air, real high, and, once again, Skeppy and highs do not mix, they do not mingle, they will not have tea parties (with or without bears). Unless, of course, Skeppy really needs to prove something. Then he’ll go on a ride, and die an honorable death, and will never admit he screamed all the way through it.
8) Dates
(*insert an innuendo from Skeppy here*) But, ahm, actually I’d say they love going on picnics: getting food, and hanging around in the nature for a while.
And I honestly donno what I like to think about the most… I just really enjoy the vibe and the atmosphere of the whole story, and how Bad and Skeppy interact in general.
It all is a real delight to write about :D
---
In The Dark - masterpost
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unforth · 3 years
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Why does everyone always recommend Twist and Shout for destiel? Like what happened in fandom at that time to make it so popular that it's now a staple? I haven't read it. I refuse. I know there is major character death and people complain it is OOC so I'm just wondering why do people love it so much? I have read so many long fics written by immensely talented writers in this fandom that end hopefully and tackle difficult subject matter while maintaining character voices that it seems a shame that T&S is always recommended
So, I also haven’t read it - I don’t do MCD, no matter how highly recommended a fic comes. However, here’s what I’d say in answer to this question.
Twist and Shout came out, it was during a period when the fandom was huge, and exploding. Season 8 was something of a Destiel renaissance (it’s when I started shipping it, for example) and it’s not a coincidence that a lot of the best known fic came out in 2012 and 2013 (for reference, T&S started posting on October 15th, 2012, according to AO3). I wasn’t active on AO3 Destiel fandom at that time (I started reading fic on FF.net in early 2013) nor was I active on Tumblr or in fandom circles where shipping was a big Thing, so I don’t know what the general fandom reaction to it was at the time, but presumably it met with a fair degree of popularity. People liked it. People recced it. I have no idea if it had the MCD tag at that time, but presumably it did. People read it knowing that. And presumably, some people didn’t like it, and some people didn’t rec it, but like any other fic it went through a process of developing popularity.
Why did it get to be first?
In my honest opinion?
Utterly random chance. If you look at ANY developing fandom, some of the trends are in fact totally random, at least to begin with. Once the avalanche starts, though, it’s self-perpetuating.
Think about it. You’re in a brand new fandom. You don’t know anyone. You haven’t read anything. You’re desperate to read something. What do you do? You go to AO3, find the ship you want to read, and you sort by most hits, or most kudos, or most comments, and decide - I’m gonna start by reading these. You see the first fic...okay, MCD, a little off putting...but it’s got SO MANY HITS and SO MANY KUDOS...just take the chance!
So, you (my hypothetical fan) read this fic. One of two things happen - you either love it or you hate it. If you hate it, you may not even finish it, but regardless, you’ve added to the stats - your views count, and maybe you liked the early chapters and kudosed, or maybe you remember everything you’ve heard about authors liking comments on early chapters of fully posted works, and you commented. So those stats have gone up, even if someone HATED it. And on the second, you love it - and you come out gushing! You kudos! If you’re super enthusiastic maybe you log out and give it a second guest kudos! And, as you start getting into the fandom and meeting people, you want to spread this love - you tell your friends - hey, I just read this great fic, and yeah, it’s MCD, but just give it a chance!
And so it begins again - if you tell four people, and they read it, and two hate it, and two love it, and those two tell four people, and two hate it, and two love it, and it just cascades.
Why is Twist and Shout the most popular fic in this fandom? Because Twist and Shout is the most popular fic in this fandom. Yes, it’s a tautology, but it’s entirely self-perpetuating. People read it because it’s listed first. People read it because they like it, and re-read it and re-read, and re-read it, to get that high. People hate read it. People read it just to find out what the big deal is. In a fandom with coming up on 100,000 posted stories, Twist and Shout has almost twice as many kudos as the fic in second (by the, in my personal opinion, far more deserving Annie D, though it’s also not their best work in my opinion, and the reasons it’s up there are likely the same), and almost four times as many hits. By any measure on AO3 surveys, it’s number one when people sort, and lots of people will read it simply out of curiosity.
That kind of popularity is self-perpetuating. And of course lots of people love T&S - it has 1.2 million hits, and almost 35000 kudos. Even if we go extremely conservative and say, 35,000 people have read T&S, that’s simply a shit ton of people, and if even only 10% loved it, that’d still be 3500 people gushing about that single fic. I’ve been writing for 5 years and I don’t have a single fic with even 3500 kudos, and I’m considered a relatively successful writer in this huge fandom.
But here’s, to me, the most important thing - I truly believe any fic can be a Twist and Shout. It’s a confluence of events that makes a fic such a juggernaut, and the vast majority are simply luck. Random drift means one fic is gonna end up on the top of the heap - and once a fic is there, reading tendencies, confirmation bias, and exposure guarantee it’ll STAY on the top of the heap.
I started the Destiel Favs Survey because I felt that the “top 20″ fics by hits in the Destiel fandom didn’t reflect the fics people actually like. I got curious, so I made a list.
In February 21st, 2017, the top 20 fics on AO3 by kudos were:
Twist and Shout by gabriel and standbyme (which, at the time, had 25,507 kudos)
Dean Doesn’t Listen to Eurythmics by Annie D
An Exercise in ‘Worthless’ by beastofthesky
Revealed by Valinde
Angel’s Wild by LimonadeGaby and riseofthefallenone
Into Your Hideaway by thepinupchemist
How (Thanks to Gabriel) Dean and Castiel (Accidentally) Raised Each Other (and Sam) by Vera_DragonMuse
A Room of One’s Own by NorthernSparrow
Out of the Deep by riseofthefallenone
Grey by Valinde
Convenient Husbands by Annie D
Forget-Me-Not-Blues by noangelsinthegarrison
When Charlie Met Cas by riseofthefallenone
Real Slick Dean by trilliath
In This Secluded Spot I Respond as I Wouldn’t Dare Elsewhere by RhymePhile
The Breath of All Things by KistmetJeska
Unfamiliar by riseofthefallenone
Shut Up (Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is) by kototyph
A Hole in the World by AnnelieseMichel
A Beginner’s Guide to Communing with the Dead by suspiciousflashlight
Today, 1/9/21, four years later, the top 20 fics by Kudos are:
Twist and Shout by gabriel and standbyme (no change in rank, now has 34,907 kudos)
Dean Doesn’t Listen to Eurythmics by Annie D (no change in rank)
Revealed by Valinde (+1 in rank)
An Exercise in ‘Worthless’ by beastofthesky (-1 in rank)
A Room of One’s Own by NorthernSparrow (+3 in rank)
How (Thanks to Gabriel) Dean and Castiel (Accidentally) Raised Each Other (and Sam) by Vera_DragonMuse (+1 in rank)
A Turn of the Earth by microcomets/mishcollin (not on the old list by kudos, but it was on the list by 2018 when I did another check in)
Angel’s Wild by LimonadeGaby and riseofthefallenone (-3 in rank)
Into Your Hideaway by thepinupchemist (-3 in rank)
Unknown Quantities by xylodemon (the first work to break through, and it’s in tenth)
Forget-Me-Not Blues by noangelsinthegarrison (+1 in rank)
Grey by Valinde (-2 in rank)
Convenient Husbands by Annie D (-2 in rank)
Professional Couple Only by saltyfeathers (our second new work)
Real Slick Dean by trilliath (-1 in rank)
A Beginner’s Guide to Communing with the Dead by suspiciousflashlight (+4 in rank)
When Charlie Met Cas by riseofthefallenone (-4 in rank)
Unfamiliar by riseofthefallenone (-1 in rank)
The Breath of All Things by KismetJeska (-3 in rank)
Out of the Deep by riseofthefallenone (-11 in rank)
In 4 full years, only three works managed to break into the top 20, even though - based on my original data, which you can view here - most of these works have nearly double in the number of kudos they’ve had in that amount of time. Further, the most recently written fic on EITHER of these lists is from 2015 - A Turn of the Earth and Professional Couple Only are from 2015 - and all the rest is older.
These fics aren’t the top 20 because they’re better, and if there was even an ounce of objectivity in this list, it would have actually shown any change in 4 years instead of looking virtually identical. 
Twist and Shout, and the other “most popular” and “most recommended” works in the Destiel fandom have that distinction because they’re the most read, so more people read them, so they’re the most read, so more people read them, so they’re the most read, so...ad infinitum.
And that’s not a judgement call against them! There are fics I LOVE on that top twenty list. But, dear anon, you ask me why I think Twist and Shout is the most popular?
All of this is why. Twist and Shout is the most popular because popularity in fic culture is the only perpetual motion machine in the universe. It is self-perpetuating, and as a result, Twist and Shout will always be the most popular fic in this fandom.
And that’s why I do the faves list - because the tops on AO3 tell us abso-fraggin’-lutely nothing, and I thought we needed a list that actually meant something for what fics people active in the fandom truly love - which DOES include some of those top 20 fics by AO3 data, and includes lots and lots of others that are just as or more wonderful.
*steps off soap box*
(sorry this is stupidly long, I have Opinions.)
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talesofarcadia78 · 3 years
Text
Sorceress of Arcadia || Gnome Your Enemy
Summary: Y/n Lake is Jim Lake's older sister. She discovers  that she is sorceress and her brother is the Trollhunter. She and the Trollhunters go on adventures together, they save trolls and humans. Along the way, a friend becomes more than just a friend and discovers their secrets.
Warning: None 
Word count: 5,784
Tags: @lunariasilver
Previous >> Wherefore Art Thou, Trollhunter? • Next >> Waka Chaka! 
“For centuries, the troll and human worlds stood seperate and at peace, divided by bridges that acted as doorways between our two realms. But the Gumm-Gumms wanted to devour all of mankind. They were led by Gunmar ‘the Black’. The rest of trollkind fought against him, culminating in the great Battle of Killahead Bridge, the portal to Gunmar’s Darklands. After many moons, good triumphed over evil, and our great Trollhunter, Deya ‘the Deliverer’, lock Gunmar away, exiling him to the Darklands, and sealed the Killahead Bridge with the sacred amulet. After, we tore it apart, stone by stone. We left the old world in search for peace. We stowed away on a ship called the Mayflower, just a handful of us and some gnomes we’d brought along for companionship and nourishment. Finally, we arrived in a strange and exotic realm,” Blinky explained. 
“New Jersey,”Aaarrrgghh commented.
“We kept walking. Eventually, we came across a new Heartstone, and we realised we had found a new home… under Arcadia,” Blinky finished as you heard Jim snoring.
Blinky groaned and walked over to Jim. He slammed the book in front of his face.
Jim startled up, "¡Lo siento, Señor Draal! ¡No me mates!"
You had done Spanish in middle school, so you knew what he had just said.
"I'm sorry Mr. Draal! Please don't kill me!"
You giggled at his outburst. Jim glared at you quickly before he turned his attention to Blinky.
"The training of troll history might seem like a minor duty, Master Jim, but--" Bliny started to explain but was cut off by Jim.
"Sorry, I pulled an all-nighter studying for my Spanish Comprehension exam and my brain is muy gooey. I don't know. I guess I thought if I'm facing Draal in a week, my training would be a little more… active" Jim yawned, standing up.
"Yeah, like, when is he going to learn Troll-kwondo? Or Rock-itsu?" Toby inquired.
"Well, Jim has to learn why he fights, so it's kinda important to learn this," you explained.
"Miss y/n is correct. Before one fights, Toby D., one must understand why one fights. For these precious early steps will decide whether a young Trollhunter will become a Deya ‘the Deliverer’…" Blinky explained.
"Or Unkar ‘the Unfortunate’," Aaarrrgghh added.
"Well, tomorrow, my Spanish exam is with Señor Uhl ‘the Unforgiving’. My main concern is for my immediate future," Jim informed Blinky.
"A-ha! But, to learn what will happen in the future, one must only look to the past," Blinky explained.
"Ugh!"
"I recommend A Brief Recapitulation of Troll Lore by the venerable Bedehilde. Volume one of 47," Blinky recommended.
"Wow, that's a big book," you commented as Blinky gave Jim the book.
Due to the book being so big, Jim struggled to hold it. He eventually got a good hold of the book. Jim placed his Spanish textbook on top of the other book.
"Okay, but if I don't pass the exam, I'm grounded and I can't be the Trollhunter. Sorry, Blinky, but the amulet chose me, and now I have two lives to keep up," Jim explained.
Then, Bagdwella came running in stopping in front of you, panting.
"Are you okay Bagdwella?" you asked, putting your hand on her shoulder.
She shook your hand off, not wanting your comfort.
"Oh, no. Is it the Heartstone?" Blinky panicked.
"No! No!" Bagdwella denied.
"Stalkling?" Aaarrrgghh asked.
"Is Gunmar out?" you also asked.
Jim gave you a look that said 'Who's Gunmar?". You just rolled your eyes in response. He really should've been paying attention to Blinky's lecture.
"Is Bular in Trollmarket?" Jim guessed.
"No! Gnome! Rogue gnome!" Bagdwella yelled, her voice echoing throughout the Forge.
The six of you walked to Bagdwella's shop to investigate what the matter was.
"Get your toasters here!" a random troll exclaimed.
"First, I couldn't find my monocle, then my collection of bed coils. Now something disappears every minute!" Bagdwella explained.
Suddenly, a gnome whizzes past, stealing an item and making Bagdwella fall over.
"Ah, yes. Gnome," Blinky said, lending his hand to Bagdwella, but she slaps his hand away and gets up herself.
"Oh, dirty little pests. Up to last week, the glue traps were working fine," Bagdwella said, showing you all a skeleton of a gnome.
Just before you could say something, the gnome snatches the skeleton, making everyone gasp.
"Fix it, Trollhunter!" she begged.
"Uh yeah, I'm really sorry about that. See you need a gnome-catcher, and I'm well, the Trollhunter, so--" Jim explained, but got cut off by Blinky.
"Oh no, Master Jim. The Trollhunter cannot refuse the call. And what better a call for you to train with than a pint-sized quarry?" he explained, coming up behind Jim.
"Blinky's right, Jim. This'll be a start to your Trollhunting. Plus, I think the task will be easy for you," you agreed.
You heard rapid footsteps around you, then a guitar play. You all try to look for where the sound was coming from. When you did, the gnome revealed itself. The gnome started to play his guitar once again and started to sing.
"He's trying to distract us! Hold tight to your valuables," Blinky warned.
"Well, I don't need to hold onto anything, I got nothing valuable," you chuckled.
"Yeah, right," Jim scoffed.
"Seriously, I don't have anything valuable. Unless if you consider my a hundred year old phone 'valuable'," you retorted.
"Okay, maybe you don't have anything valuable," Jim agreed.
Then the two of you see Toby going up to the gnome.
"Why? He can't be that bad," Toby chucked, clapping.
Before you knew it, the gnome had taken Toby's belt.
"Oh, no! My belt!" Toby cried. Then he sighed, "At least he didn't take my Nougat Nummy."
"Uh, Tobes, I don't think you should--" you warned Toby, as he took out his favourite chocolate out of his pocket, only to be taken by the gnome.
Toby gasped, "We need to catch that gnome."
All of you tried to catch the gnome, but he was way to fast for you. One time, Jim had caught him, but somehow, it escaped from his grasp. Jim then realised that his amulet got thieved.
"Oh no!" Blinky cried.
Jim and you chased after the gnome until it went behind a wardrobe. Aaarrrgghh pushes the wardrobe aside to reveal a small hole, which the gnome was probably hiding in.
"Hole," Aaarrrgghh stated.
"Yes, it appears the plot quite literally deepens," Blinky said, looking into the hole.
Jim slides his hands through the hole opening, hoping that his amulet would come back to him.
"Come back, come back. Shouldn't the amulet be coming back to me right now?" Jim questioned.
"Dolefully, that rule only applies if you've rejected it. When thieved, it's another story. If you had read A Brief Recapitulation you would have known that," Blinky explained.
"Technically, Jim didn't even have time to read the book, since you know, we're right now doing some Trollhunting business," you pointed out.
Jim gave you a quick smile, before Bagdwella spoke up.
"Some Trollhunter you are. Jim ‘the Baby Handed’.”
You glared at Bagdwella, as she snatched a bag of food from Toby.
I'd like to see how good you are at being the Trollhunter.
You turned your gaze over to Jim and Blinky.
"Master Jim, press on. This is not the moniker you want," Blinky said.
"What else can I do? I can't fit in that hole," Jim shrugged.
"Hmm, currently," Blinky thought.
"Bad idea," Aaarrrgghh warned.
"What's a bad idea?" you asked, but no one answered the question.
"No Trollhunter has ever lost his amulet. We'll need time to procure the Furgolator," Blinky argued.
"Uh, the Furgolator?" Jim doubted.
"Uh, don't you worry about anything, Master Jim. tend to your studies. We'll watch over the hole. Tomorrow, you'll return refreshed to deal with this, uh... little problem," Blinky said, and the three of us headed to the surface.
Toby and Jim headed to Arcadia Oaks High, while you headed the opposite direction to Arcadia Oaks Academy.
Once you had gotten your books, Izzy and Rachael both ran up to you.
"Y/n! Guess what just happened!" Rachael exclaimed.
"Uhh, you won the state lottery?" you replied.
"Nope, way better," Rachael denied.
"What can be better then winning the state lottery?" you asked, getting a bit curious.
"I got into the state math comp!" Racheal squealed.
"Wow! That's great, Rachael. So, when are you going?" you asked.
"Tomorrow, that's why I was texting you the other day, I wanted to hang out with my two besties before I headed off to the competition," Rachael replied.
"Oh, sorry about that, I was... busy," you said.
"Well, are you free after school?" Izzy asked.
You thought about it, you didn't need to go to Trollmarket or have any other plans.
"Yeah, I'm free," you nodded.
"Great! We'll meet at Sam's at 4, then we'll go from there," Rachael said.
You nodded. Suddenly the bell rang, making you jump a little.
"See you guys at lunch," you called, as you ran to your first class.
As you took a seat, you noticed that everyone was focused on the board. You glanced at the board to see everyone's name with a bunch of classes next to them. You searched for your name and saw your classes. You had chemistry, biology, calculus, literature, geography and history as your subjects for the next semester. Then, you noticed a certain name that you had not been expecting to have the same classes as you, well except biology. Tyler. You heard someone sit down beside you.
"Hey, y/n," it spoke.
You turned to see none other than, Tyler.
"Hi, Tyler," you smiled.
"I guess we have almost the same classes. What a coincidence, right?" Tyler chuckled.
"Ha, yeah," you commented.
"Hey, wanna sit next to each other in classes, you know since you'll be the only person I know," Tyler requested.
You hesitated. You didn't know Tyler that well, and seeing his anger the other day in the cafeteria, you weren't so sure.
Then you were saved by the bell.
"I'll see you in class Tyler, and I'll think about it," you said, rushing out of class.
You headed towards the lower office, since you needed your new timetable. As you were walking to the lower office you bumped into a certain emo-boy.
"Sorry," the two of you apologised.
You looked up at the person, to see Douxie.
"Oh, hey, Douxie!" you smiled.
"Hey, y/n! Going to get your new timetable?" Douxie asked.
"Yep," you responded.
The two of you got your new timetable. The two of you looked at each other's timetable, wondering if you had any classes with each other.
"Hey, we have mostly the same class, except instead of geography, I have economics," Douxie pointed out.
"Cool!" you said.
"Wanna head to class together?" he asked
You nodded and the two of you headed to class.
When you entered the classroom, you noticed two seats at the back of classroom weren't occupied so you nudged Douxie. Once you had gotten his attention, you pointed to the seat and headed there.
Once the two of you had taken a seat, you saw Tyler walking in. You groaned.
"You okay, love?" Douxie asked.
"Tyler wants me to it next to him in every class. It's a coincidence that he has all the same classes as me," you explained.
"Ahh. Understood. You can sit with me in every class then, well, except for geography of course. You'll have to deal with him then, but other than that, you can always sit with me," Douxie offered.
"Thank you," you grinned.
Soon after, Tyler started looking around the room. When his eyes fell on you, you were in a deep conversation with Douxie.
"Wait, so your actual name is Hisirdoux?" you asked.
"Yeah, I have no idea why, but it's my name!" Douxie nodded.
"It sounds very 12th century," you commented.
"I know right!" Douxie exclaimed.
From the corner of your eyes, you could see Tyler fuming at Douxie.
Huh? Why does he look mad at Douxie?
You thought he was going to come up to Douxie and start arguing with him, but instead he took a seat at the front of the class, right in front of the teacher's desk.
After a few minutes, your class started.
You had a hard time figuring out what the teacher was saying, since she had a very quite voice, luckily, she was only a substitute. The actual teacher was just away on leave because he was sick.  
After an hour, the bell rang to indicate next class, which was calculus, great. You sucked at calculus and science. You and Douxie headed together to calculus, avoiding Tyler.
The next two lessons kinda sucked, they all just introduced your new teacher's and what you're going to be learning for the next semester. Luckily for history, you had an assignment not an exam.
Soon, the bell rang for lunch.
While, you and Douxie were walking to the cafeteria, you were suddenly surrounded by all of Douxie's friends. Well, band mates.
"Hey, Douxie! How'd all your new classes go so far?" Henry asked.
"They went good. I found a friend that's doing the same classes as me," Douxie replied, gesturing towards you.
"Hey," you shyly waved.
"Wait, you're the girl that Douxie brought back stage at our last concert, right? Y/n, was it?" Jason recognised.
"Yep, that's me," you confirmed.
"Well, we're going over to the band room to practice, wanna come?" Jason asked both of you.
"Sure, why not. I'll just grab some food," Douxie replied. "Y/n, I'll grab you some food as well, you head over to the band room with the other's."
"Oh, no. I don't want to disturb you guys with your practice, I'll find my other friends," you denied.
"You're not going to disturb us, in fact, you can give us some feedback!" Jack said.
"But, I promised my friends that I'll sit with them today," you mentioned.
"What about, you and Douxie find your friends, and bring them to the band room? We really need someone else's point of view of our music," Jason suggested.
You thought about it for a moment.
Izzy wanted to meet the Ash Dispersal Pattern for a while now, and Rachael, well, she can make some new friends, since she doesn't really hang out with anyone else other than you and Izzy.
"Okay," you agreed.
"Great!" Jason exclaimed, walking away with the rest of the band.
You and Douxie saw your two best friends in the line to get food.
"Yo y/n! Where were you?" Izzy asked as she saw you going up to them.
"Just talking with Douxie's band. Want to go meet them? They're in the band room. They said that you guys can come," you offered.
"Oh, you had me at 'Douxie's band'," Izzy grinned.
"Just let us grab some food first, "Douxie said, walking into line, pulling you along.
After grabbing some food, you all walked over to the band room, getting welcomed by a lot of laughter.
"What's so funny?" Douxie asked, grabbing a seat for you and your friends before grabbing one for himself.
"Nothing, it's an inside joke. You won't understand," Henry said.
"Okay..." Douxie nodded, getting a bit suspicious, sitting down. "Anyways, meet Rachael and Izzy."
Rachael shyly waved, while on the other hand, Izzy waved very energetically. You instantly saw Jason blush when Rachael waved at him while she also blushed.
Who knew, Rachael had charm. She's usually not the type to get involved with the boys and crushes that much.
"Looks like we have a fan," Jack pointed out, looking at Izzy energetically waving at them.
"I'm your biggest fan! I go to every single one of your concerts!" Izzy beamed. "Well, I couldn't make it to your concert last week. But other than that, I've been to every single one!"
You, Rachael and the entire band laughed at her enthusiasm.
After getting introduced to one another and getting autograph from every single ban member, they started to practice.
"Wow, Jason is good," Rachael commented.
"Of course you'd say that. You have a crush on him," you teased.
"I do not!" she retorted.
"Sure," you and Izzy smirked.
After about 10 minutes, you heard the door open. You glanced towards the door to see Tyler.
"Hey guys!" Tyler waved.
"Hey, Tyler! Wanna practice?" Jack said.
"Jack, I don't see any of our guitarists away right now. There's no point," Douxie claimed.
"Well, Douxie, I see you're getting a bit tired of playing. Tyler can fill you in while you rest," Jack said.
"I'm not tired," Douxie stated.
"Uh, Doux, not to be rude, but you're kinda missing some chords and not keeping up with the beat," Henry commented.
"What?! I'm not missing any chords! You guys are just going faster than you're meant to!" Douxie exclaimed.
"And you're getting a bit short tempered," Henry added under his breath, but you all heard it.
"I am not getting short tempered!" Douxie fumed.
"Yeah, dude, take a pill and chill. Y/n, can you take Douxie for some fresh air?"Jason requested, snatching the guitar off of Douxie and handing it to Tyler.
"Sure," you nodded, lightly pushing Douxie out the room.
As you closed the door, Douxie started walking down the hallway. You ran up to him and made him slow down.
"Douxie, are you okay?" you asked.
"I'm fine. Those guys over there are just going faster," Douxie grumbled.
"They're not, Doux. You just need to take a break," you advised.
"I don't need to take a break, they need to take a break," Douxie scoffed.
"Doux, this is not you. This is not the person I have met and befriended with," you said.
"Well, this is me! Get used to it!" Douxie yelled, stopping in his tracks.
Your eyes widened at the tone of his voice, making you step back away from him.
Douxie's eyes widened at what he just said to you.
"I-I'm sorry y/n, I didn't mean that at all. I've just been so stressed out lately. I just exploded," he apologised.
You smiled at him, putting your hand on his shoulder, "It's okay. Everyone has those days. You know you can talk to me about it you know?"
"Thank you, y/n. It means a lot," Douxie smiled.
"We should probably head back," you reminded.
"Yeah," he agreed.
The two of you headed back into the band room, getting greeted to everyone just chilling.
"Hey, y/n, Douxie," everyone said.
You noticed that Tyler had left.
"Is Douxie...?" Jack questioned.
You nodded and took a seat next to Izzy.
"What happened to band practice?" Douxie asked.
"Stopped a few minutes ago. We were discussing on hanging out this afternoon," Izzy informed. "Y/n's already coming, what about you Hisirdoux?"
"I'm free. And how do you know my actual name?" he inquired.
"Your mates here told us," Izzy explained.
"We're meeting at Sam's at 4," Henry told Douxie.
Soon after, the bell rang for class.
After three hours, you headed to your bike and peddled home.
You finished up some chores and waved goodbye to your brother and headed off to Sam's.
Once you met with the others, you all headed over to Lucia to watch Danger House 2: More House, More Danger. You were going to sit with Izzy and Rachael but there were seat numbers, so you didn't have much of a choice. You ended up sitting at the end of the row next to Douxie. The two of you shared popcorn while watching the movie. At times, you didn't want to see a scene, so you hid your face in Douxie's shoulder. While you weren't looking, the others snuck some photos of you two, especially when you hid you face in his shoulder.
After the movie, all of you headed across town to The Bluff to watch the sunset. Everyone hated the bike ride up the steep hill, but surprisingly, you didn't. It was kinda easy for you.
Must be the advantage of running from danger.
In the end, the ride up the hill was worth it, since you all got to see a beautiful sunset afterwards. As everyone was enjoying the sunset, taking pictures and goofing around, you saw Douxie leaning against a rock, staring at his phone. You strolled over to him and leaned against the rock with him.
"You know, you can't enjoy the sunset without, y'know, looking at it," you told him.
"Huh? Oh yeah, I know. I'm just looking at something," he mumbled, not taking his eyes of his phone.
You peeked over his shoulder to see what exactly he was looking at.
He was looking at his email, more specifically, emails about bills. The numbers weren't huge, but if you're Douxie that worked 2 jobs and hardly got tipped, that would be a lot.
"You worried about the bills?" you whispered, making sure no one heard.
He nodded. "I don't know how I'm going to pay all this. Thankfully, I requested the companies to give me more time to pay them. I got a few extra months, but I don't think that'll be enough."
You nodded, trying to think a way you could help your blue-tipped friend.
"Do you have any extra rooms in your apartment?" you asked.
"No, but I do have a lot of space in the bedroom. I’ve got two double beds that have been lying around," he explained.
"What if you get a roomie? Like they would give you rent every week, while you provide them shelter, food, etc.," you suggested.
"That's a great idea!" he beamed. "Thanks! I'll start to work on your plan tomorrow!"
"I'll come to help," you offered.
"Oh no. I don't want you putting time aside for me," he denied.
"I'm not, I have a lot of free time. And even if I did, it would be worth it. Helping a friend is always worth my time," you said.
"Okay. I'll text you my address and tell you what time you can come over. Probably on the weekend, but I'll just text you," he explained.
You nodded.
"Now, let's enjoy the view."
After the sun had set, you all rode over to Stuart's Taco Truck. Jason, Jack, and Rachael all went to get the burritos, while Douxie, Izzy and you chatted, waiting for your friends.
"So, y/n, have you been thinking about what you'll be doing after graduation?" Izzy asked.
"Uh, I don’t know. Maybe go to college, like every person does?" you guessed.
"Wow, I'm just gonna get a job and do that, it's just easier," Izzy said.
"Yeah. You never wanted to go to college," you agreed.
"What are you going to do, Douxie?" Izzy asked, turning her focus onto him.
"Well, I'll probably pursue my dreams of being a guitarist while having a job," Douxie replied.
"That's cool," Izzy commented.
Soon after, your burritos arrived and all of you dug in.
Once you had finished your burrito, you checked your watch to see it was starting to get late.
"Okay guys, I'm going to head back, it's getting late. I'll see you all tomorrow," you declared.
"Wait, y/n, I'll come with!" Douxie added.
You waited for Douxie to throw his rubbish in the trash and peddled your way home with him.
Before the two of you went your separate ways, Douxie thanked you for your suggestion.
"Thanks for your suggestion before, y/n."
"It's no problem."
"Well, I'll see you soon, love," he grinned, giving you a flirtatious wink along with a two-finger salute.
You blushed and returned the two-finger salute, riding your separate ways.
Once you got home, you saw Jim was finishing up washing the dishes.
"Hey, Jimbo!" you sang.
"Hey, y/n!" Jim called. "How was your hang out?"
"Good, but I'm beat. I'm heading to bed. ‘Night," you yawned and trudged to your room.
"‘Night," Jim called.
The next day after school, you, Jim and Toby headed down to Trollmarket. You were glad to take a break from everyone. Today was just not your day. Everyone from the hangout had uploaded to social media of the photos of you hiding your face in Douxie's shoulder and the both of you sharing popcorn. The post made you attract the crowd at lunch. People bombarded you with questions related to Douxie. Most of them consisted of 'Are you two together?', 'Are you a couple?' and 'How long has it been?' Luckily, Douxie came in time and saved you from the crowd, again.
You approached Blinky, Aaarrrgghh and something covered with a piece of cloth.
"Remember when I told you all Trollhunters must start small?" Blinky asks, revealing the Furgolator.
"Full disclosure, I'm a little worried how I let you talk me into this," Jim doubted.
"A 'little worried'? I'm full on concerned!" you gulped.
Blinky turns on the Furgolator, making the doors open up.
"Still bad idea," Aaarrrgghh warned.
Jim steps inside and the doors start to close, "Wait a minute. So, how does me going into this thing help me get a gnome out of a hole?"
"If a gnome won't come out, the Trollhunter must go in," Blinky informed.
"Wait, what?" Jim questioned.
"I think Blinky plans to make you small enough to fit inside that hole," you hypothesised.
"Yeah, right," Jim scoffed.
"Exactly! We often use the Furgolator to compress minerals. And now for the anthracite!" Blinky agreed.
"See?" you teased.
Jim rolled his eyes playfully, but you saw the fear in his eyes.
"But you've done this a few times on flesh and bone, right? Right?" Jim yelped.
Blinky placed the rock inside a compartment, "Not exactly." Then the machine started up, "But I'm not concerned."
"Well, that's because you are not the one trapped in this thing," Jim complained.
"Nothing to worry about, Master Jim. We work best under pressure," Blinky shouts.
"I can't see anything!" Jim coughs. "Why is there so much smoke?"
The machine started to make weird sounds. You and Toby ran to the Furgolator, trying to get it open.
"Come on, you guys gotta get him out of there!" Toby cried.
Blinky rushed over to help us, "Don't just stand there, Aaarrrgghh!"
Aaarrrgghh comes over and pulls the doors open.
"Looks like it didn't work. Hope you have a plan B," Jim began, but then realised he had shrunk.
"On the contrary," Blinky said.
"You sure we need a plan B? I think plan A worked fine," you chuckled.
"He's like an action figure!" Toby gushed.
"The Furgolator functioned perfectly!" Blinky laughed.
He picked up tiny Jim, holding him in his palm. Jim looks at his tiny figure. You quickly took out your phone and took a photo of your little brother. Jim groaned, not liking you taking photos of himself.
You all made your way to the hole that the gnome had escaped into. Blinky placed Jim just outside of the hole.
"Real subtle. ‘We've got to start small. Deal with the little problem.’ This is a huge problem! I can't be shrunk! I have exams to take! I have sinks to reach!" Jim raged.
"You have a gnome to catch. Now, onward, Master Jim, and fetch your destiny!' Blinky reminded.
Toby grabs a pencil and hands it Jim to use as a sword, "Your sword, my liege."
Jim pokes the pencil on Toby's palm, earning a yelp from him. He attempts to walk into the hole, but he falls down, earning a giggle from you. But he eventually got into the hole.
"Oh, and one last thing to know when dealing with a gnome, Master Jim, and this is of dire importance: Do not touch its hat!" Blinky forewarned.
"Of course. It's right there in A Brief Recapitulation," Jim taunted.
"You remember!"
"Of course not! Nothing in this world makes sense!" Jim yelled.
You backed away from the hole to see Vendel walk pass.
"Miss y/n, you should go and continue your training with Vendel. We will handle things here," Blinky advised.
"Are you sure?" you asked.
"Completely."
You nodded and jogged over to Vendel.
"Hello, Master Vendel. Do you have time to teach me how to make objects move?" you inquired.
"Hello, Miss Lake. I am not known to any troll as 'Master', but it sounds good coming from you. And yes, I can instruct you how to make objects move," Vendel said.
The two of you walked over to the Heartstone and began your lesson.
Soon after, you could move objects easily, with just a quick gesture of your hand or finger.
"Thank you, Master Vendel!" you beamed.
"Your welcome. Next time you come, with some spare time, I will teach you something new," Vendel replied.
You nodded and jogged back over to the hole to see Toby backing away from the hole.
"Why hasn't he come out?" Toby asked, his voice full of worry.
"What happened?" you asked.
Aaarrrgghh explained to you what happened to your brother.
You all waited for Jim to come out safe and sound. You then saw the gnome walking out with Jim following behind him, wearing the gnome's hat.
'You summoned the armour and caught the gnome! Well played, Master Jim!" Blinky beamed.
You all clapped at his heroism.
"Thank you, thank you. I don't want to forget the little people," Jim smiled.
"Expedient and-" Blinky started.
"And good humoured," you finished.
"Oh my hero!" Bagdwella praised.
Toby captures the gnome into a bag and sets aside.
"And what about this shrinking stuff? When does it wear off?" Jim asked.
"Don't worry. Sleep it off. By morning, you'll be as good as new. And how you have earned it! Jim "the Gnome Slayer!" Blinky reassured.
"He was so young. There was so much music left in him," Toby commented, playing the little guitar.
You ignored him.
"All that is left is for you to take care of it," Blinky instructed.
"Wait, what? Take care of it?" Jim puzzled.
"Rule number two," Aaarrrgghh reminded.
"‘Always finish the fight’," Blinky quoted.
"And by finish... " you began.
"Deaden. End. Le coup de grâce," Blinky finished.
Aaarrrgghh moved his thumb across his throat, indicating to kill the poor gnome.
You and Jim shared worried glances. Neither of you were killers, but you had to follow the rules. But, it was up to Jim, since he was the Trollhunter.
You headed home, while Jim stayed at Toby's house.
As you opened the door, you saw your mom unpacking food.
"Hey, Mom. What are you doing?" you asked.
"Just unpacking the food I got. As you already know, I'm not a good cook, so I thought some takeaway would be good," she explained.
Soon, the two of you sat down and dug into your food.
"Y/n, where's Jim?" your mom asked.
"He's staying at Toby's place," you answered.
"Well, since he's not here, want to have some girl time?" she asked.
"I'd love to," you replied.
Once you two had finished dinner, the two of you sat down and binged watch watched Mistrial & Error together.
After a dozen or so episodes, the two of you started to play truth or dare.
"Okay, y/n… Truth or dare?" Mom asked.
"Truth," you answered.
"Hmm... so, that friend of yours, Douxie. Is he just a friend or...?" Mom questioned.
"Douxie?! He's... uh... um..." you stammered.
"And my question is answered," Mom cheered.
"What?! He's not. Uhh..." you cried.
From that, you and your Mom started to talk about your love life, more specifically, Douxie.
"I saw on one of your friends posts that you were hiding behind him during your little movie night," she said.
"It was a scary movie! Some scenes were just absolutely terrifying, so of course I’d hide behind him. That's normal," you defended.
"You could've just shut your eyes," she suggested.
"Um... well... uh..." you stuttered.
"I guess my suspicions are true," she smirked.
"Mom!" you cried.
"Okay, okay. We'll have this conversation another day. I'm tired, so I'm heading to bed, kiddo," she said, getting up from the couch.
"Me too. I need to go to school," you agreed, following suit.
Next morning, you woke up to the sound of clattering downstairs. You got up and got dressed into a t-shirt, pair of jeans and sneakers and rushed downstairs to see what the commotion was about. You found the source of the commotion, your mom.
"What are you doing?" you asked.
"Nothing for you to worry about, kiddo," she said.
You shrugged and realised that there was nothing for you to eat for breakfast.
"Sorry, y/n. No breakfast. Maybe grab something in town," she suggested.
"Will do. I'll head out, love you!" you called and rushed out your door, hastily grabbing your bag on your way out.
You made your way to Toby's house, checking on Jim. You knocked on the Domzalski's door. It opened to reveal Toby.
"Hey, Tobes!" you grinned.
"Hey, y/n! Checking in on Jim?" he guessed.
You nodded and you followed him to his room. On the way, Toby's Nana forced you to eat a blueberry muffin.
As soon as you entered his room, you noticed Jim's absence. But then you realised he was in a doll house.
Toby opened the doll house to reveal a startled Jim.
"What's wrong, Tiny Jim? Did you not sleep well in Nana's dollhouse?" Toby asked.
"Why am I still small, guys?" Jim whined.
"Maybe the stuff works different on trolls than it does on humans?" you theorised.
"Oh, my gosh. The gnome! You did it? I told you I was supposed to-- Oh no! School!" Jim panicked.
"We have to call you in sick. Tell them you ate too much chocolate. That always works," Toby ordered, shoving his phone into Jim's little face.
"No, Señor Uhl can sniff out a lie a mile away," Jim refused. He thought for a second when his eyes lit up. "That's it! Toby, I need you to do me a huge favour. Well, maybe a small one. But huge."
You gave him confused look.
"Look, I have a plan, just trust me on this," Jim explained. "Plus, you should be heading to school right now."
"Fine, but I want you to be normal size by the end of the day. I can't take you home like this," you said, gesturing to his size.
"Okay. Now, go!" Jim said.
You rode off to school, hoping your brother would return to his normal size.
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Note
Hey ive been swamped with ACT studying latley, i was wondering if you can do head canons on what Benimaru would be like as a dad (x mother wife) where the two of you have kids? Since he is a proto nationalist I totally see him wanting a big traditional family. How would he react to pregnancy news? What would he be like when his s/o is in labor, or his reaction to babys first steps or first word. So much fluff!!
If, while reading this, you get the feeling that it was wirtten by some caveman who doesn't know shiet about children or words, know that this caveman tried her best to make it as cute and fun as possible, and that really is the pinnacle of her abilities. Okay?
+ As always, sorry for delay, I know how nerve wracking can exams be (just finished my midterms) and I hope you will achieve the highest possible results. Unfortunately you asked an author who is what she is ... Please take these 1 500 words as compensation.
Enjoy!
News
Benimaru took the news of your first pregnancy in silence. In a silence so deaf and long that every passing second tightened the hoop around your heart tighter and tighter.
It took you three days to get ready to say it to his face, and yet the stress was still eating you from the inside. His lack of response as you fumbled the ends of your T-shirt in your hands did not make it easier nor better.
You looked up sharply, preferring to face his anger rather than spending another second in uncertainty, and you found that Benimaru was looking over your shoulder, present body, but definitely not mind.
After a few calls and waving in front of his face, Benimaru seemed to wake up and shifted his lost gaze to you.
"We will have a kid?"
"Yes, we will." You repeated, stressing each word, trying to get through to him this time. You expected many things, but not so much confusion.
"A kid." He repeated, and his crimson eyes lit up the glow. "A kid!"
Benimaru cuped your checks and kissed every inch of your face. Lips, checks, temples, forehead, nose, eyelids.
"A kid."
The next person to hear the happy news was Konro, and then the whole city somehow. The residents' mouths did not close for the next 9 months.
Each time he took it better and better. Each time he almost went out of his skin showering you with kisses or dancing around the room with you in his arms. Only this first stage of the shock was shortened.
Pregnancy
Benimaru didn't know at first what a pregnant woman could and couldn't do, so it was best if you didn't do anything. After long interpretations from the midwife, the range of your allowable activities extended beyond sitting and breathing, but there was no question of any use of force.
After a while, you even stopped trying to lift anything above the bowl of rice. Every time Benimaru saw that you were carrying a package, you happened to get the slightest rebuke. It was worse for all Hikeshi within 100 meters for not-helping. After that, you didn't want to trouble the innocent firefighters anymore.
As you can't even look at sake, your evening drinking has turned into making up names over tea. (Not that Shinmon suddenly stopped drinking. He doesn't want to drink in front of you when you couldn't, and after every news of the next baby, the alcohol flows in streams, so he can't complain about abstinence.) He loves holding you in his arms, with one hand for growing belly. Once he felt a kick, he literally melted.
With time, as the family began to grow, it was his duty to make sure that the older children did not tire you and find them to do something.
Childbirth
The first time he had no idea what to do. He literally turned to Konro saying:
"Konro, [Y / N], labor, what do I do ?!" Sould he wreck some buildings?
Konro, as a loving friend aware that there was no time to explain it to him with words, kicked his composite ass to the hospital.
While the whole city was celebrating the birth of another Shinmon, Benimaru was sitting next to you, holding a small bundle in his stiff hands.
"You can hug them, you know?"
"They are too tiny!" he muttered, afraid to raise his voice so as not to wake the sleeping figure.
“They are stronger than you think, Love. They're Shinmon after all, ”you recalled with a chuckle.
Since then, every time the inhabitants of the viewer of Benimaru running to the hospital (have you ever seen Benimaru running? Me neither.), they immediately reach for alcohol.
Begginings
Benimaru has experience and no major problems in taking care of children, especially since they are his. In his time off work, you can see him sitting in front of the Guardhouse, giving his toothless child to chew on his forearms, and sometimes making a tour around the city together, to the joy of all the residents. Other times, he will sit in front of the little one trying to teach him the first words.
*
"C’mon kid, da-d." Benimaru tried to keep the child's attention who was much more interested in chewing a wooden puppet.
"Daaa ~"
"Close enough, da-d." Some time ago he made a bet with [Y/N] that their first word would be dad, and the rules did not exclude support. "Da-d."
"Maaa ~"
"No, DA-D." He sighed softly and looked up sharply for the approaching steps.
Konro stepped into the yard, gloomy, looking around until he found the Captain.
“Oi Waka, have you seen Hika and Hina? I can’t find them anywhere. "
The red-eyed man shrugged, pointing to the street.
"Maybe they are terrorizing the candy seller again."
Konro sighed heavily and disappeared behind the building, leaving them alone again, and Benimaru returned his attention to the child, already scrambling onto his lap.
"Wanna sleep?" He helped them climb a little higher and leaned in as they held out a small hand at him. He was expecting an awkward slap on the nose, but instead got a tug on his hair almost to the floor. "Ack! What the… "
"Waka ~"
"What?" He froze as he tried to untangle the strands from his impossibly grasping fingers.
“Waka ~” The child repeated, tugging again, and giggled smugly.
Waka? Does it count as a dad? Did he win?
The next achievement was to make sure they didn't repeat all those curses after him, or at least so [Y/N] wouldn't hear.
Beni with big family
You probably expected that just as with twins, the whole Guardhouse will look after them ? Hah, ya wrong.
ENTIRE CITIES WATCH OVER THE MINI MIXES OF BENI-CHAN WITH [Y/N] -CHAN. They are so spoiled that sometimes it feels like only you and Benimaru have any rules. On the other hand, there are no problems with finding your children, just call them by name and half the street will indicate their whereabouts.
• Maybe you can't see it, but Benimaru doesn't know what to do with himself out of happiness. Even when he comes home in the evenings after a really long day, the sight of all those faces looking at him as the center of the world makes him smile. At such moments, he will always find some strength to play.
• The fun begins when they are old enough to help him with his work, not putting the Infernals to rest or blowing up houses, but just making a errands around the city where he can show them what Hikeshi's job is and teach them about his core beliefs.
He doesn't always succeed, but he knows he can rely on you and your ability to use words if he does.
• Benimaru has no problem with cases when one of his children doesn't want to follow in his footsteps, he knows that he has raised them well and that when he is gone, they will take care of his city regardless of his position or profession.
• BUT NOTHING RELATED TO THE EMPIRE!
You had to use force to stop him from throwing your daughter's boyfriend out the door when he heard he was with the empire.
Play time
Benimaru's favorite form of spending time together is, of course, teaching his children everything he can. Regardless of their gender, they all have inherited above-average amounts of fire power and a love to destruction.
After several dozen problems with stopping his own children from killing their siblings, Benimaru created a game called: "dad agains everyone"
It’s fun to watch Benimaru surroded by figures half his height, who try to collapse him to the ground.
Rest of the family
Grandpa Konro
This man survived small Benimaru and the Twins. There is nothing this man haven’t seen. Which makes him the best grandfather in the empire. At this stage, Koro already has a separate locker for everything from his numerous grandchildren.
He is also your kids safe place when the parent's fury rages outside.
Aunt Hika and Hina
There were times when you had to entrust your older children to the care of twins (if your children were several years old, Hika and Hina were also older, don’t get me wrong). The girls made sure that the younger members of the family learned everything they needed to know about Asakusa, the inhabitants and their usual behavior.
In fact, at some point they were considered to be part of their siblings, and so were treated like ones (read: regular bloodshed).
Nevertheless, every time one of the stepsiblings messed up with someone they shouldn't (manga readers know perfectly well that kids have it after their dad), the two fire foxes turned into two bloodthirsty beasts, ready to chase away any problematic individual.
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The most baffling part of WKM is that everyone trusts and adores Damien, despite him being the only one in politics and actively in office. Mark made the mayor character the most trusted and loved. How????
(uh oh, you unlocked my 'Love Damien' mode)
You came to the right person! This is a great question and I will gladly go on a rant to try and help shed a little light on this!
In short, it's exactly because of how you phrased your question. There's a politician. He's seen as nice and trusted and loved. It seems like something that shouldn't be, and you assume the worst of him because it has to be an act for whatever reason; and that is because of the general view of politicians at the moment. I'm not touching IRL topics with a ten foot pole, but I will say that at present, there is a sorta wariness/a 'they don't care about us' vibe toward politicians in certain countries (including my own). That's something that then seeps into media.
Think about it. If there's a politician in a show of any sort (especially one holding office), they're usually up to no good behind the scenes or are unreliable - just like how a librarian might be cranky, for instance - in a sort of caricature. Off the top of my head I can remember seeing... A mayor that wanted to evict an entire community to build a business something-or-other to make lots of money, a mayor who branded a local team of agents as non-trustworthy when they went against his pretty crummy views (which could be the same show tbh), an absolutely useless buffoon of a mayor who needed the help of children to constantly save his city from supervillains, and a politician (maybe a mayor?) who constantly clashed with the chief of police in a city. This isn't even considering the times a politician character (whether or not they hold office) is involved with criminals, bribery, is being blackmailed, or even has a criminal record of some sort.
Damien is an exception to this trope. It may or may not be completely intentional, but it's genius on Mark's part. You walk in, see this well-dressed man with a rather cheesy Mayor badge pinned on... And people would immediately get suspicious... Something which Mark called people out on at a panel! Don't forget, every character was framed in a way to give reason for them maybe being the killer. I watched WKM (and got vaguely into the fandom) a week after it finished, so I missed the speculation in between each episode. From what I've seen, it appeared that a lot of people were wary of Damien, though I'm not too sure if it's because they were like "IT'S JUST DARK IN DISGUISE DON'T BE FOOLED" or if it was because of his job and mannerisms. Either way, it turns out his worries were genuine, and he was innocent of any crime that night, which completely subverts the expectation of a politician in a show. He's a rare breed - someone that has good intentions and a good heart, who wasn't 'tainted' by politics in some way.... But ends up getting corrupted anyway through matters far beyond his control.
Not only that, there's two important points that I think people forget and I'll go into better detail of under the read-more because this is getting pretty long.
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1. The character that is the viewer has known Damien since university. That means they've been friends minimum... Let's say five years, but probably closer to ten. You're going to be more at ease and more 'yourself' around people you are very fond of, and Damien's face lit up the moment he noticed the viewer arrived. Since the viewer would be going into this cold the first time it's viewed, they wouldn't feel that bond and might think Damien's friendliness is an act. 2. While he is the Mayor, he's not The Mayor at that moment. He's merely a Mayor by title alone. For the events of Who Killed Markiplier?, he's just Damien. It would be different if we had walked into his office, but we arrived at a party with people Damien was comfortable with. He had no need to impress anyone because they were friends. Remember, the reason the badge exists is to tell the viewer what Damien does. Otherwise he could be any sort of businessman or guy in a fancy suit, and the explain everything video states that everyone thought Mark got the suit for a wedding when he shared a photo.
(Both points are showcased nicely in the very first scene we meet Damien if you compare the way he talks to the Detective - someone he barely knew - to the viewer - who has been a friend since university. When talking to Abe, Damien stands poker straight (almost rigid) and rests his hands on his cane. One hand moves to emphasise something, but the rest of his body remains still. There's a polite, yet formal, air to him. Here, he is The Mayor. I'd bet they were having casual conversation on how they met Mark or some other generic topic to break the ice. Then the pair notice you and that conversation is instantly DROPPED. Damien immediately lifts his cane as his entire body turns to the viewer. That smile isn't one that's given out of politeness. He's now Damien. There's no need to put on an act when it's a familiar friend. He still stands straight, but his body language and facial expressions are far looser and more casual. Gestures are with both hands now. His expressions are more playful, including widening his eyes to emphasise his tease about the viewer's skill of poker. This continues until he walks off-screen where, I presume, he was going to say hello to William.)
We don't know the extent of how much anyone trusts anyone else, but one of the big exceptions is the Colonel. I know I've written a headcanon on a roleplay blog about this, but he didn't know you, so he was polite, but distant and aloof. He had no reason to even care about you. We saw a good example of William acting like this the morning after. HOWEVER, after spotting the viewer talking to Damien outside at the end of the first episode, he notices a connection. The moment he knows you are Damien's friend he opens up with no hesitation in the second episode and is rather friendly toward you from then on. He trusts you because he trusts Damien, which to me suggests that our Mayor keeps good company and has a good judge of character. Plus, no one really has a reason to think ill of Damien. He and William have an argument focused on William's reaction to Mark's death (and don't forget that Damien wanted to apologise but William kept running away), while Celine shuts him down for Damien trying to get her to reconsider her idea; but neither are motives for them to be suspicious of Damien. Chef and George are indifferent, while the Butler is probably indifferent but feels comfortable enough to make a drug joke with Damien in earshot (and Tyler's IC stream as Butler had it that he thought well of Damien, but this might not be considered canon). On the other hand, you could say that the Detective is wary of Damien, but he was suspicious of everyone between all the work he did and the warning he got from Mark, so it's not completely reliable.
Speaking of, I haven't forgotten about the Detective's study and how there's a record sheet for Damien with something scribbled out. Unfortunately, I don't think it's something we'll ever get clarification on. I double-checked the explanation stream and there wasn't any mention of what was on it... But I feel like I heard Mark say something like 'forget about what is there, focus on why it's there', or how it got there in the first place? Maybe it was for another project, but the idea is more that the Detective's work was built up over time, and not in the span of that weekend; rather than focusing on every little piece of writing that can be seen. Perhaps there is something shady in Damien's life... But since it wasn't relevant to the 'story' we were being shown, it was omitted. This could very well be where people take the idea of a corrupt politician and run with it (and I have seen some excellent roleplayers over the years work with that!), or they could be like me and say that the crimes were things he was framed for. Or maybe, as I'm writing this, it could be like how Abe had documents for things that didn't happen in WMLW, and that the crimes he scribbled out were ones that Dark would do later... But that's going into theorist territory and that's not at all relevant to what I'm talking about.
Anyway, I've rambled on waaay too much as it is. He's trusted and loved as a character because he's so human. Mark pointed out in the explanation stream that Damien was the only one to question what was going on. He was upset, mourning, and had no idea what to do. It's a vulnerability that you don't see from people often, especially if they are supposed to be leaders.
If there's anything people wanna add or point out, jump in and do so! :D
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