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linkspooky · 1 year

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MY HERO ACADEMIA, CHAPTER 375 THOUGHTS

Right before Toga disappears we see Uraraka express regret that they still haven’t talked about love. This also parallels Shoto’s attempts to get Toya to stay with him rather than go after Endeavor. However, I think it’s important to remember that neither of them were actually trying to talk that much with Toga and Toya before that point. This is just as much a regret that they didn’t get the opportunity to talk, as it is a taunt to keep both Toga and Toya fighting with them so they can stay and be defeated. Which shows why the kids failed to keep them there, and also the butterfly effect that created this situation. More under the cut.

1. The Butterfly Effect

It’s significant that the flames from Toya and Shoto’s fight, as well as Endeavor’s is what’s referred to as changing the weather so significantly that it’s brought about a sudden rain event. Afo goes on to add that it’s the emotions of Spinner that the heroes underestimated that allowed the villains to change the tide and create the right circumstances for the sad man’s parade.

Endeavor, Enji, and Toya’s flames have always been a metaphor for their feelings, Toya is implied to have kept himself alive through a pure blazing grudge, Enji’s habit of overheating is a metaphor for his destructive and violent nature, Shoto has difficulty controlling his flame side because he has trouble reintegrating his father’s childhood abuse into who he is currently and trying to grow up as his own person.

Toy’s blue flames are powered by his emotions, the quirk evolution that turned his flames blue happened when he started crying, the flame that burned him alive and started an entire forest fire happened again when he was crying.

So flames = emotions, the emotions of everyone involved in this fight is so significant it’s literally changing the weather, and to top them all off, Spinner’s feelings have changed everything.

The current situation like a butterfly flapping its wings, is created by the feelings of one individual, and Hero Society as a whole has the habit of trampling on individuals in order to uphold the greater good of society. It is essentially the logic that Hawks used to justify the killing of Twice, he as an individual couldn’t be allowed to live because of the threat his quirk presented to all of society.

All of this a long prelude to, before the fights itself not only have the villains made multiple attempts to have those feelings understood, and the kids have expressed interest in trying to understand what those feelings are.

However, it’s incredibly important that at the same time, those same kids have then repeatedly tried to squash any attempt to sympathize with the villains they have inside of themselves, by remdining themselves of the destruction the villains have. Deku and Uraraka both mention seeing Toga and Shigaraki’s crying face, Shoto mentions he literally knows nothing about Toya even his favorite food.

Then they immediately go back to squashing those thoughts. It’s important to realize the kids are actively trying not to sympathize with the villains, because it’s easier to just see them as villains and clears doubt from their head. This idea of crying is brought up by Toya too “whether you’re crying or smiling doesn’t matter”, the deeper meaning of that statement is that the people they are fighting against just don’t really care about what face that they are showing the world. Remember, Hawks actively dehumanized Toya’s mourning of Twice his friend, by insisting he couldn’t care because he was smiling even though Dabi literally cannot biologcally cry due to his burn wounds. The outside world just doesn’t care what kind of emotions they’re having, so might as well be strong and show a smile.

All of this to say, the villains right now are the individuals the butterfly effect is referring too, they have continually been pushed down and insisted their personal grievances of society doesn’t matter because they are threats to the whole of society. But the butterfly effect statement reflects what Toya says to Hawks. A single person with a single conviction has the power to save the world. The collective isn’t all that exists, individuals are still important.

All of this to say, the feelings of all the individual villains matter. All of the attempts to shut them up for the sake of the collective good have only backfired. We see this pattern repeated, Shoto, Uraraka, and Deku express an interest in what the villains feel only to just resort to physical violence.

However, they never even act on their expressed interest to talk. Shoto asks Toya why he didn’t come home, and then proceeds to beat the crap out of him. Uraraka tells Toga she’s been thinking about her, and then proceeds to beat the crap out of her. Deku asks if Shigaraki is still there in the body possessed by AFO, but then doesn’t do anything else but beat the crap out of him.

It’s not even that the villains didn’t reciprocate, Toya said very clearly that he still wanted to come bac home after being burned alive and only gave up when he thought his family had moved on without him, Toga was still trying to ask Deku to understand her and even says aloud that heroes are the only ones they count as real people and villains aren’t even considered human. Shigaraki breaks free from AFO’s control a couple of time and shows clear distress.

Which is why I want to clarify, the villains themselves are giving clear hints that they don’t actually want to destroy, Toga hints she wants acceptance more than revenge against Hawks and the heroes, Toya makes it clear that there’s still a part of him that wants to go home (he literally tried to) Shigaraki still exists within AFO-Garaki. It’s the kids themselves that didn’t try to show them there was still a chance for things to go different, the plan wasn’t to talk to them ever the plan was to beat them up.Which is where we get to this chapter.

This isn’t an attempt to get them to talk, this is an attempt to get them to stay and fight. In fact during the Uraraka fight itself Urarka didn’t try to talk to Toga at all, the plan wasn’t try to de-escalate or try to understand Toga the plan was to sick a bunch of heroes on her at once and then... beat the crap out of her.

It’s even confirmed in the chapter itself, Toga’s incredibly impulsive and emotoinal, she’s not really a long term strategy or big picture girl. Yet, she survives in the fight despite being vastly outnumbered because she had to. It was the heroes attempts to just beat Toga down that forced her evolution and made her into a more cunning villain. A different strategy would have probably thrown her off of her game, but Uraraka had all the time in the world and didn’t even try it.

Which is why the one hope the heroes might have right now is Uraraka getting thrown into the combat scenario with Toya, Enji, AFO, HAwks and now Toga. As none of those heroes except for Uraraka have ever expressed any interest in talking in the past.

However, part of me wonders if Uraraka herself is going to have to actually question and challenge the adults present in order to actually get the character development where she acts on her feelings and desire to talk. (The feelings you’ve locked up inside...) those feelings are the only chance to turn the tides. THe feelings of one crying girl (Himiko Toga) have created this disaster, and the comfort given to one crying girl can be what stops it...

However, I want to keep in mind that there is a reason all the kids have been suppressing their desire to talk with the villains, and that is their hero worship of the previous generation. Hawks makes it clear what he wants to do to Toga now that Twice is back (Kill her). The kids so far haven’t questioned the wisdom of the adults so far and that is what directly has led to repeating their mistakes. After all, Toya is here because SHoto agreed that despite Enji being the one who abused Toya, it was totally okay for him to have to skip any kind of confrontation with Toya and just leave all the responsibility up to Shoto.

Toya bee lined to Enji, because Enji abandoned him for like the six millionth time. Toga herself, wants to target Hawks, because Hawks expresss no remorse over Jin’s death at all and given the chance would kill him again. Toga wants to fight Hawks, because she’s said several times Jin was someone important to her and his death is something she is still reeling from and mourning, and not even a single kid hero seems to question the fact that Jin was murdered in cold blood and Hawks the murderer went free. Toga pretty much told Uraraka to her face that Jin was someone incredibly important to her, and then later on that heroes just don’t see villains as people and Uraraka herself saw the broadcast that Hawks murdered Jin when his back was turned. Nobody else has acknowledged that Jin doesn’t deserve to die (not Uraraka and not Tokoyami) and therefore Toga’s grief for him is completely invalidated.

Like, yes I think Toga killing Hawks and continuing the cycle of revenge would only make things worse. However, in the eyes of the heroes and even the kids (Uraraka and Tokoyami) Hawks did not do anything wrong in killing Jin. There’s no way the cycle of abuse can be stopped, if the cause of that abuse isn’t even addressed in the first place.

Which is why the kids have to disavow the elders. They are the reason so far the kids haven’t been able to act on their desire to talk. Every time the kids have expressed a desire to talk, they completely squash it, and despite thinking they might be able to talk these people down they go along with the plans of the adult heroes that are essentially “Beat ‘em up.” Shoto decides to go along with Enji’s plan to just leave Toya entirely to Shoto, and abandon him yet again. Deku wants to save Shigaraki, and yet he builds a floating coffin and death trap in the sky with all the adults and just pummels him. Uraraka wants to talk to Himiko and yet the plan for fighting her is essentially just to have several heroes against one girl until she’s too exhausted to either run away or fight back.

The kids have expressed an interest so far, but they haven’t changed. This chapter is about the power of the individual, the only way the world is going to change is if the kids stop going along with everything the adults tell them and learn to think for themselves.

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ramshacklefey · 1 year

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As sympathetic as many of the characters in the League of Villains are, I'm frustrated by the number of people who seem to view them as a righteous group of plucky underdogs. This isn't about people who just think a character is hot and make horny art of them. It's about sincerely trying to argue that we should be rooting for them because they have some genuinely good points about flaws in their society.

Thing is, these characters do reveal serious flaws in their society. Shigaraki was able to be adopted and manipulated by AFO because everyone assumed that a lost child was someone else's problem. Touya was abused and pushed to a mental breaking point as a child because of Enji's relentless pursuit for a power that would make himself feel better. Toga was ostracized and treated as a freak because her quirk is deeply alarming to people. Jin fell into homelessness and despair because his boss fired him for something that was an accident. Spinner grew up smothered by anti-heteromorph prejudice. We don't get a lot of details about Magne's backstory, but knowing she was trans, we can guess at a lot. The members of the League are all deeply damaged, traumatized people who have, in various ways, been let down by society.

It's easy to sympathize with them because we can all see how, in that position, what they decide to do might seem like it made sense. It's easy to sympathize with them because the problems they face (neglect, abuse, and bigotry) are all things that affect our own society. There's a sense of justice in wanting to tear down a system that's caused you to suffer that much.

But however much we can sympathize with their pain, we shouldn't forget the choices they've made or the actions they've taken. And we shouldn't ignore the fact that their choices and actions are moving them further from the things they really want.

Shigaraki isn't trying to reform society. He doesn't want to tear the current system down so that he can build something better. He wants to tear things down for the sheer sake of destroying them and taking out his rage and pain on everyone else.

Jin's death hits hard because the reason he ends up dying is that he won't give up on his friends. Hawks sees Jin's loyalty and kindness to his friends and realizes that he has a good heart deep down. But Jin's final act is to brutally murder a hero for trying to apprehend Toga and Compress. Their lives weren't in danger.

Touya wants revenge on his father. Understandable, but one of the first things we learn about him is that he's responsible for several random murders. We see him kill a band of petty thieves simply because he decides they aren't powerful enough to be useful to the League. Those murders have nothing to do with his relationship with his father (well. Everything he does has to do with his relationship to his father, but you take my point). And his desire is specifically for vengeance. It isn't enough for him that Enji's crimes and cruelty be exposed. He's not just trying to say, "This man is not the person you think he is, and you shouldn't hold him up as an ideal figure." He wants Enji to suffer. He wants to inflict as much pain as he can.

Toga just murders people because she likes them. Her idea of loving someone is to literally consume them.

And their end goal isn't a better world. It's chaos and anarchy. They want to destabilize society and then provide the arms and ideology that would turn it into a libertarian dystopia. Thing is, that wouldn't actually get them what they want or need.

Take Spinner for instance. We know that in the chaotic times just after quirks appeared, heteromorphs faced intense and dangerous discrimination and hate everywhere. While it's true that heteromorphs still face discrimination and even violence, especially in rural areas, we've also seen that knocking out the social order only makes that worse (think of the woman who Deku saves. She couldn't get into any shelters because she's a heteromorph, even though she was in the middle of the city).

Touya is certainly getting his vengeance on his father, but it isn't getting him what he actually wanted which is acknowledgement from Enji that he is good enough. Having Shoto fight him instead of Enji is one of the worst outcomes he could have gotten, because it is still a refusal to acknowledge him in Touya's eyes (Strictly speaking, it was actually an acknowledgement of the fact that he is probably stronger than Enji, but Touya clearly doesn't see it that way).

Toga, I think, really wants acceptance for who she really is. Her quirk frightens people, and it seems inherently villainous. But the actions she's taking only make her more terrifying to others, and I think she's also mistaken to think that her violent and murderous actions are an expression of her "true self."

And Shigaraki... well he's probably the most difficult case. All he wanted at the beginning of the story was destruction. But it's hard to get a read on him in any accurate way because of the extent to which he's been molded and manipulated by AFO into his current state. I think we can get more insight into him by looking at what desires and motivations AFO played on. As a small child, Shigaraki was angry (and rightly so) about the way his family treated him, and then at the way the rest of the world ignored him. AFO fanned his anger and resentment and actively twisted his experiences until now he can't escape the idea that there's nothing good in the world at all. But we also know that he's wrong about that. The only hope for him at this point is that Deku can show him that he's wrong.

The hurt and anger that the members of the League live with are real and valid. They've each experienced things that would turn most people bitter and angry. Those things make them deeply human and sympathetic. But it's possible to sympathize or even empathize with someone's pain without giving them a free pass to become violent murderers and terrorists.

One of the most important themes in the story is that people aren't defined by the things that happened to them in the past, but by the choices they've made in response. The League serves as a vital foil to the main characters because they've made opposite choices at nearly every turn. Trying to wave those choices away and make these characters out to be basically good people whose actions are justified by their situations (as opposed to being explained by their situations) destroys that theme.

#ramshackle thoughts #mha #bnha #my hero academia #league of villains #spinner #shigaraki #dabi #touya #twice #jin bubaigawara #toga #toga himiko #mha analysis

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briefmusicbouquet · 2 years

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brb thinking about (and lowkey sobbing over) how hawks was THE ideal candidate for the hpsc to pick up and train

like they lucked the hell out by getting the perfect combo of quirk, age, and trauma that worked out perfectly for them

like his quirk: its versatile, and with training, (training they that could provide), it would be very powerful, its fits every category they want to check off

and since he was meant to be nagant's replacement, the whole feathers sharpening to knives (which honestly i doubt he was aware of that part of his quirk at like five years old, so that aspect probably got figured out later and made him ever more perfect for their program??? i know the pres brought out the good alcohol to toast herself that night)

the whole being able to listen, perfect for spy work

but also on the daylight/well known hero aspect of it??

he's got a noticeable, flashy, brandable quirk

he can solve a lot of cases quickly and efficiently

like its not just good for hero work as a whole, but also the "additional" work they trained him into

age: the obvious benefit, hes young and impressionable

hes between five-seven, where hes had his quirk long enough to be familiar with what it could do, but its still new enough that the idea of being able to use it everyday, to be a hero, is still the ideal career, like a kid who says they're gonna be a vet because they want to hang out with cute animals all day (and they haven't realized it means seeing the animals you love in pain)

plus he hasnt had his quirk for too long, so any bad or "not efficient" habits can be broken up easier than if he'd had them for five years

hes the perfect age where his quirk is fresh and malleable and able to be molded into whatever they need but not too young where he physically cannot control it

and now (the longest part, sorry yall, a lot of this is me speculating and rambling)

the trauma

look man this guys childhood primed him to fit exactly into what the hpsc wanted, because everything he lacked from his parents the hspc could provide, and he also internalized a ton of shit that affected his perception of himself that lined up perfectly with the hero that the hpsc wanted to mold him into

cause like look

takami keigo, a little kid, completely isolated from the world, with his only social interaction between him and his parents

and his parents either a) neglect him (mom) or b) physically and verbally abuse him (dad)

his only social interactions at a pretty important period for social development and developing a sense of self tells him that he's either: not worth attention or that his existence is a burden to people around him and he's not useful enough to outweigh that burden (that last one comes more into play later)

my overall summary of five year old keigo's view of himself is along the lines of: just existing causes pain to people around me (his dad yelling about how keigo being so recognizable is why he's stuck here) and at best i can hope for no effect on others (when they ignore him)

he literally can't comprehend making the people around him happy because it's never happened before

WHICH IS WHY "the hero show" on tv APPEALS SO MUCH TO HIM beyond like being entertaining and being an escape from his life and the general costumes and action being appealing to children

because heroics is a job where at it's most ideal, positive form, revolves entirely around helping people and saving them

so heroes have a positive affect on the world and people around them, and keigo wants that, he wants to have a positive effect on the people around him

but at the same time he knows the hero show doesn't actually exist so the idea of him being able to have a positive effect on the world isn't possible either, but hey, it's nice to dream

but then endeavor is actually real

and like beyond his dad who treated him badly getting arrested, and endeavor actually existing and being there in person, omg his favorite show is real (which anyone would get excited about)

it's also proof that being a hero is real

and by extension, it's possible for keigo to become a hero

which means that it's actually possible for keigo to have a positive impact on the world and people around him

which is why finding out that heroes exist has such an impact on him

and now, going back to the whole "he's not useful enough to outweigh the burden of dealing with him" mindset

his dad, the sole provider for the family, is gone

his mom cant provide for them or even just herself

and she's relying on him, the literal five-to-seven year old to make sure they don't die

and keigo knows that his existence is already a burden on his parents, but also now that he knows a positive effect is actually possible, that also means there's like hope that if he does provide for him and his mom well enough, then he would have a positive effect on her

so he's trying his best, he's trying his bets to emulate the heroes he looks up to, but it's still not enough for her

and then the line "why do you even have those wings?"

which further emphasizes the idea that that his quirk is the only relevant part of him

because it was his quirk that made him recognizable and connected him to his father

and now he's relying on using said quirk to get enough food and supplies so he and his mom don't die

leading to the idea that his quirk is the only useful/positive thing about him, if he uses it right

and it's only with his quirk that he'll ever be able to have a positive effect on things

but still, how he is right now, even though he's trying, he's still not good with his quirk to outweigh his inherent 'badness" and have a positive effect

and then crash happens

and the hpsc notice,,,this kid

this traumatized kid that's been neglected (emotionally and physically) his whole life, who has a desire to be useful/have some sort of positive effect on the world (like his hero, endeavor), and only views his worth in the context of his quirk, with a single mother who can't provide for him or herself

keigo (and subsequently hawks being a hero later) was the hpsc president's winning lottery number

there's no reason for him or his mom to say no to the deal

the hpsc can provide everything he lacks (physically and emotionally- although i doubt any emotional stuff went beyond the minimum making sure he's a passably adjusted and socialized member of society), which then makes him financially and emotionally attached to them

AND the idea that he doesn't have worth without his quirk? its fucking perfect, as both a motivator to train his quirk, not object to tough or unethical training, the better he gets at using his quirk the more useful his is, and it's also another way that he's attached to them and less likely to ever go rogue

because he doesn't value himself, he doesn't view himself as a person with intrinsic worth because his worth is based around his quirk and it's usefulness, so when he's treated badly, he won't care because why would he care about himself beyond how this would affect his quirk and performance

and granted that approach only worked for so long with nagant, but the thing that prevents him from becoming another nagant is:

keigo's need to have a positive effect on people

and combined with his age, that thought can very easily get molded into a "for the greater good" mindset

because sure, he might have to do something unpleasant, but if he can justify it, if he knows that the end result has a net positive effect (or at least what he's been taught is a net positive effect), then why wouldn't he do the unsavory thing? why shouldn't he corrupt himself for the greater good?

it'll help, it'll save more lives, it'll have a positive effect

his morals and feelings towards his actions don't matter, because hawks on his own does not matter

what matters is the effect he has on the world around him, and how he can use himself and his quirk to get the best effect

#bnha #my hero academia #character analysis #i guess?#takami keigo #hawks #listen man i have Thoughts about the workaholic bird man and i will scream them into the void if i have to #boku no hero academia #mha #txt post #dammit now i wanna write like an actual essay on this

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and-stir-the-stars · 2 months

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avian au?

Could you explain

gladly!

So, it's basically just an au where I give everyone wings! Bc wings are pretty and i enjoy them, so clearly my Characters need them.

So far the au is giving fnaf characters a combination of bird and insect wings, though I'd like to incorporate mammals and aquatic wings. In the future I'd also like to do an avian au that's JUST bird wings.

Here's everyone's wings so far! :D

(Tw for bug pictures)

Elizabeth.

Liz has blue-winged grasshopper wings. These grasshoppers evolved to have wings that resemble butterflies, and I thought Liz having wings that look like one thing but are another fit well with Liz being so associated to "pretending", as Circus Baby put it.

People often are very interested in Liz's wings when they think she has butterfly wings, only to lose interest in her when they realize she actually has grasshopper wings. Liz tries to convince everyone, including herself, that her wings are those of a butterfly. She likes the attention and adoration it earns her, and wonders why she had to be born with gross, boring grasshopper wings.

William likes to call Liz "Hopper", though, as much as a nod to his own love of rabbits as much as an acknowledgment of Liz's grasshopper wings. As much as she wishes she had actual butterfly wings, she likes being called Hopper by her dad, likes that her father is happy with her wings.

These contrasting ideas lead Liz to have very complicated feelings about her wings.

Mike.

Mike has the wings of a moth. His wings are a brownish red, just like Foxy's fur, and just like his mother's hair. I'm not sure what type of moth is drawn above, but Mike's wings look something like this.

His wings have eye-like patterns on them-- though I haven't decided whether the eyes look like bird eyes (as moths often evolve to have as patterns on their wings, for their own protection) or will look more like human eyes. My friend Honey suggested that the eyes on Mike's wings could be the same silvery pale blue as William's eyes.

Mike's wings are quite large on his frame. When he was younger, Mike was a big kid for his age (his wings even more so), but once Mike reached ~14, he stopped growing, and all his peers started being taller than him. Mike being big for his age is part of the reason why he took the brunt of William's abuse-- William figured Mike "should be able to take it." Mike used to use his larger size to hurt other kids and make him feel powerful in the face of the abuse he faced at home. But by the time Mike is 14, the only thing "big" about him anymore is his wings-- moth wings that are very delicate and easy to break compared to other wing types. He tries extending his wings to make himself feel powerful, but the only people intimated by his wings are young kids like Evan, who is unsettled by the unnerving eye patterns on Mike's wings.

Mike being a moth also makes his canonical association with fire pretty funny-- moths are attracted to light, after all!

And Mike definitely has fuzzy antennae on his head that he tries hiding in his hair.

Charlie.

Charlie has the wings of a pigeon! Dead pigeons are supposed to symbolize betrayal, so obviously Charlie needs to have pigeon wings, right? And the black and white of this pigeons' wings fit the Puppet's theme nicely.

Evan.

Evan is going to have wings and a tail with a pattern similar to a red-tailed hawk. My bird avians will have tails in addition to wings, because tails are very important to birds' flight abilities.

Evan's feathers have a brown and white barred pattern, but his feathers gleam gold in certain lighting.

Also important to note that although he has the pattern of a hawk, his wings aren't SHAPED like a hawk's wings. Evan's wings will be shaped more like a sparrow or a blue jay's.

Hawks' wings are long and thin, designed for diving and gliding. A sparrow's wings are shorter and rounder, and like a sparrow's wings, Evan's wings are designed not for hunting prey but for avoiding predators.

When birds moult, their feathers fall off and regrow quill-first. These growing feather shafts often look like needles-- or needle sharp teeth. Evan is scared of his moults. He has big wings that he usually wraps around himself for comfort. But whenever he's moulting, this instinct of wrapping his wings around himself turns against him: he wraps his wings around himself only to find needle-sharp teeth surrounding him on all sides. Evan hates moults, especially because neither of his siblings go through feather-moults like he does, so they're not always the nicest to him during moults because they don't know what it's like.

William.

I'm not entirely sure what Will's wings will look like yet. I know he'll have bird wings and a tail (as much as I would love to give him wings that match Mike's), and I know his wings are so big that his children will easily imagine William wrapping them safely within his feathers (though William so rarely does, the children can't help but hope).

I would like to incorporate a magpie pattern into his wings, because those birds are associated with death. I'm just not sure what the colors would be just yet.

I might keep the magpie pattern and have yellow in place of the white, and dark purple in place of the blue? I'm just wary to do that because it would feel weird to have his wings so closely match Fazbear Entertainment's colors. I'll have to think it through more.

But unlike Evan's wings, William's wings will indeed be long and thin like a hawk's (even if magpies don't quite have that wing shape).

Francine.

I haven't decided yet what wings Mrs Afton will have, except that I think she'll have insect wings of some sort. I was thinking about giving her the wings of some species that is known for taking long migrations since it would fit her theme of wanting to run away. I really do love the idea of Fran having luna moth wings, though as far as I know, luna moths don't migrate. I'll have to think about it more.

Doin the taggy tags :D @cloudwhisper23

#avian au #tw bugs #evan afton #michael afton #tw child abuse #elizabeth afton #william afton #francine afton #fnaf #fnaf au #evan afton support center

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oligoweee · 7 months

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Smile Hell Info Dump

I'm going to basically info dump about my old Smiler story called "Smile Hell." I never even got close to finishing the story, I only got roughly 20k words in and that didn't even get into it all however I had lost motivation.

In this universe, the Ministry of Joy (it's not actually called that) basically has locations all across the globe that aim for bringing joy to everyone but have many faults and there was even a reversal serum in the works. The Smiler roller coaster does exist at Alton Towers and there are many rumors surrounding it, some of which are in fact secretly true. I think it is an interesting take on the MOJ and I'd love to go back to it someday but for now I will give a fairly in-depth summary and talk about what was written, general lore/ideas, and what I had planned, including the ending.

Trigger warnings for: suicide, mental illness, kidnapping, murder, medical themes, abuse, and gore.

(Not going into detail for these because this is just a summary-type thing but they are referenced so I am putting warnings as a precaution.)

This is gonna be a VERY long (roughly 4.5k words long) post so have fun reading if you decide to, you're in for a long ride :)

[Also here was the cover for it!]

So, the important characters are:

Levee Bailey

Lance Hawks

Archie Bailey

Isa [No Last Name]

Doctor Thomas Lukes

Braylen [No Last Name]

This story takes place in 2021 in Maine USA and specifically a real life county by the name of Oxford.

Many people over the span of a year were going missing and no one was able to find them or they would be found but they behaved drastically different than before.

In Oxford County, two families lived there known as the Bailey family and the Hawks family. Lance Hawks was a theme park enthusiast and would travel all over the world or just go to theme parks nearby in the US, one of these trips was Alton Towers and he offered to bring along his neighbor and closest friend, Levee Bailey alongside her two teenage brothers, Archie and Koda. This trip was only left to references in the story. They went on the Smiler of course and things were fine up until they flew back to the US.

Before that, Koda had been struggling with mental illness and it kept declining but then the trip (and specifically the Smiler) had boosted his mood for a few weeks afterward until it started to decline again. In May, he committed suicide however his sister had been there and for months afterward, she thought it was her fault and that she was a murderer despite everything telling her otherwise. His death was all over the news and attracted a bunch of public attention and many articles online.

So now we get to where the main story begins, September of 2021.

Levee is still dealing with her grief and she often finds herself standing in Koda's room just grieving. She has flashbacks of the day he died quite often. Since the loss of Koda, Levee tried making attempts to get closer with her remaining brother, Archie, but experiences a lot of pain when looking at him because of his similar resemblance to Koda.

Since her brother's death, Levee constantly feels like she's being watched. Like hundreds of eyes are on her at all times. She's constantly paranoid outside her home and is always telling herself that everything is in her head. What she doesn't know is that she is in fact being somewhat watched in one way or another. This feeling is both real and in her head at the same time.

One morning she wakes up and realizes that her best friend (and neighbor), Lance, is not in his garden and she finds that really odd because he's always gardening in the mornings unless he's traveling. Levee tries thinking logically but deep down she feels that something bad has happened. And she is absolutely correct. We soon learn that Lance was in fact abducted and a missing person report was filed however with how many people have gone missing from Oxford County with little to no updates, there's not a whole lot of hope about Lance. (Sorry, pal.)

One of the people missing from Oxford County is a woman by the name of Aria Davis, her case was by far one of the most popular because she is one of the longest lost people, having been missing for nearly a year. Levee came across an article about her disappearance and was quite panicked and that is when she stopped thinking logically about Lance not being outside. So, she did the smart thing and went to his house and spoke to his mother who told Levee the news.

She was obviously upset to the point she didn't tell Archie so he decided to go over there himself and then he got back, wondering why Levee didn't tell him. When he questioned her about it the two started to get into an argument so he left the room clearly pissed.

Now there's a bit of filler but since it's September, Archie is going back to school. Well on his first day of school that boy got kidnapped and Levee did not know until she herself got kidnapped. Fun times with the Bailey family, am I right?

So, on this day, Levee goes to her job which is at the end of her street and it's roughly a ten minute walk (or in her case, a five minute run.) She feels like she is being watched the entire time but gets to her workplace and the day goes on until she has to go back home.

Levee dashes back home as the sun is setting and while thinking Archie is home from school, she knocks on the door as he usually unlocks it for her but this does not happen so she tries calling him and he doesn't answer, she assumes that he's still mad at her from the previous day so she grabs her house key but quickly realizes that it is not inside of her satchel bag (which previously belonged to Koda, fun bit of lore) so she gets a bit panicked as that feeling of being watched is not going away any time soon.

So, she runs over to the Hawks' house and rings the doorbell because she thought someone would be home but nobody answers and this causes her even more distress as she is alone outside in the dark. Levee then proceeds to out of reflex try and call Lance who obviously does not answer and then after this she calls her mother who tells her to go back to her workplace and wait there because her mom would be out of work shortly.

And this is where Levee's fate is set.

She makes a run for it back to her workplace but since it is very dark out, she doesn't quite know where she's going and the streetlights are dimmed. Then she notices a truck going down the street and she could have sworn it was following her. This completely screws up her course and she ends up going the wrong direction and running face first into a telephone pole which breaks her nose.

Levee is pretty much stunned for a moment and sitting on the ground to try and recover and she comes to the realization she ran in the wrong direction so she pulls out her phone and tries to go onto Google Maps but has no mobile data or anything.

She sits there trying to regain her energy and strength to get up off the sidewalk and she eventually does when she hears heavy footsteps coming from behind her. So, once again she starts running and then it turns out she's being shot at by whoever was chasing her.

Levee can only dodge the darts for so long before one lands in her neck and stuns her, within a few moments exhaustion overcomes her and she passes out with one last thought in her head, "I'm gonna die, aren't I?"

---

Levee wakes up on a bed inside of a hospital-like room and it brings back memories of being with Koda when he died. She can't quite recall how she got in this place but is aware of an odd sensation on her arm, specifically the crook of her elbow which has gauze taped to it (implying that she had been poked with a needle of some sort.) For some reason, there is a very small feeling of joy that she can't quite focus on but it keeps her calmed for the most part.

She realizes there is a somewhat dull pain all throughout her head and neck but again, she can't recall what had happened. Despite her recognizing the room she's in as some kind of hospital one, she knows for certain she is not in a real hospital.

There is a description of the room which I will share a little of; the upper halves of the walls are a sandy-gray color whereas the lower halves are made of black and bright-yellow stripes and at the very bottom there is short white trimming lining the walls. The floor is made of light-gray tiles.

There's a table in this room and on top of it is a key card lanyard so once she gets herself off of the bed, she stumbles over to there and takes it. There is a name written on it alongside numbers and she doesn't quite understand what they mean. Next to the lanyard there is a note which tells her how to use it and that only her key card and her roommate's key card will work on the singular room door however the cards work on all other doors within the "Sanctuary." It also explains that she is a "employee," for this place and that she's currently on the third floor and needs to make her way up the fourth floor in order to change into uniform.

Levee looks over at the other side of the room and notices her roommate who is fast asleep, the table on their side contains the same items as Levee's.

Using the key card, she leaves the room and makes her way through a hallway with many different doors that need to be unlocked some of which are other rooms.

She makes her way to the fourth floor, changes uniform, notices there are spots of yellow in her irises (which are normally brown), then proceeds to leave the employee only floors (third and fourth) and skedaddles to the second floor which has a locked staircase as nearly all the doors in this building require a key card.

I will not be going into much detail about the second floor however, it is a living area for patients and has some bookcases that have books and brochures.

The low, somewhat raspy voice of someone catches her attention as they ask her who she is, she introduces herself and they introduce themselves. This is where Braylen is introduced, he is a patient in the Sanctuary and is implied to be a trans guy (this is canon it's just never outright said within the story.) There is no yellow present in his eyes which shows that he hasn't had any treatment yet. Levee states her confusion which causes her to giggle and it makes Braylen uneasy but he tells her the information that he knows about the place.

Braylen states that the place was in fact a real hospital back in the 2000s owned by a man called Doctor Thomas Lukes however the doctor calls it a "Sanctuary."

Levee thanks him for the information and then proceeds to continue her exploration throughout the Sanctuary. She finds the cafeteria on the first floor and there are a couple people sitting at tables some of which are employees. Then a voice calls out to her.

It's Lance, who is sitting at a table in the back of the cafeteria. The two are both in shock at seeing each other and Lance had scratches on his face which would have concerned Levee if it wasn't for her emotions being messed up. She greets him in a cheery manner and sits down by him.

They have a discussion and Lance, being the theme park enthusiast that he is, compares the place to the Alton Towers Smiler roller coaster lore. He actually goes on to explain the similarities and brings up the fact that there had been previous rumors of the Smiler being based off of real events or that the backstory was real.

Levee is completely weirded out and quite frankly thinks he's being stupid, she tells him he's not making much sense and then comes to the conclusion that he was trying to make light of the dark situation. They continue speaking some more and eventually Levee tells Lance to stop talking about the Smiler.

Levee then remembers her brother, Archie, and begins to worry about him to which Lance slowly states to her that he thinks Archie is in the Sanctuary too.

Levee does not take this too kindly but her rage is dulled however she still shouts at Lance asking what he means to which he then stupidly asks why she's panicking and she states that she's not but doesn't know what she's feeling.

Lance asks her a question.

"Does it feel like your emotions are just barely there and for some reason you're happy?”

Levee says yes with no hesitation as that is exactly how she was feeling. Lance is feeling this way too.

They continue talking and then Levee brings Lance up to the second floor to speak to Braylen who is sitting on a sofa reading a book that had no title and instead had a smiley face in the form of "=)" on the cover. Braylen then reveals that the book is fifteen pages long (albeit not numbered) and every single page consists of that same smiley face from top to bottom. It's not very important but goes to show this place is odd.

All three are weirded out but put the book aside. Lance and Levee ask Braylen if he has seen or knows anything about Archie. He states that Archie's appearance sounds familiar and that he saw employees (or at least, ones that looked very different and had metal armor) drag him to padded cells on the first floor.

Braylen also states it was nighttime and he wasn't supposed to be out of his room but decided to snoop around anyway and witnessed the scene.

They thank Braylen for his help and proceed to go back to the first floor and find the cells he was talking about. There are twenty in total and the two find Archie inside the fifteenth one that they investigate.

When Levee sees her brother inside the cell, she is quick to unlock it and go inside. Archie is sitting on the floor with red pinprick marks and bruising on his neck and alongside this his hands are wrapped in bandages that have light spots of blood that had seeped through.

The two siblings hug and Levee apologizes for Archie getting into this situation. Much like Levee and Lance, Archie can't remember how he was kidnapped. They exit the cell and speak with each other to which Archie explains a story very similar to the one Braylen shared.

Archie had woken up in his room and instantly panicked, leaving it and stumbling into two people who are later revealed to be apart of a subgroup in the Sanctuary called "The Ones Beyond the Walls." He explains that they saw him and grabbed onto him to which he tried to fight back and in the process destroyed his knuckles on the metal vests they were wearing before he was sedated and brought to a cell.

Levee takes note of his hands and suggests that they change the bandages. Lance knows where there's an infirmary and brings them to it and there is a somewhat gruesome description of Archie's knuckles. Lance cleans the wounds and wraps them in fresh bandages.

They all leave the infirmary and make their way to the cafeteria and discuss the situation for the umpteenth time. In the middle of their discussion, a young woman walks up and stands behind Archie. She introduces herself as Isa. Levee and Archie take note of one of her most unsettling features which is the fact that she has scars starting from the corners of her mouth going along the sides of her face.

(Lance had already met Isa so it wasn't as shocking to him.)

Isa states that she overheard the group of three's conversation and that she had information she could give that might help answer some questions.

...

But unfortunately, this is where I stopped writing.

Don't worry though! Like I said, I am going to talk about general lore and what I had planned including the ending.

---

So, Doctor Lukes' Sanctuary is the name of the hospital our main characters are held captive in. Despite what Levee kept thinking (it not being a real hospital) she is pretty much wrong because it was and technically still is a "real" hospital however it is not at all a professional one. Originally opening in 1999, this psychiatric hospital was operated by Professor Jasper Edmunds and Doctor Thomas Lukes, their hospital was open until 2011 where it closed permanently with no explanation.

Throughout the 2000s, this hospital was controversial and facing lawsuits in regards to abuse of its patients in there for treatment of their mental illnesses. However, they were dropped. This mostly took place in 2005. Professor Edmunds left shortly after this which meant Doctor Lukes was on his own with maintaining most things. In 2009, the hospital would once again face legality issues in regards to two murders that had happened. And finally, in 2011, the hospital was closed and nobody ever heard from Doctor Lukes again.

This is the more detailed form of the information Isa was going to tell the three if I had written past her introduction, I promise it wasn't gonna be a big info dump within the story lol, it was gonna be more spread out. Also, the Sanctuary info is similar to what Braylen had said. Isa was also going to go into a quick explanation on joy serum and laughing gas used in that place which answers the question on why everyone tends to be calm and strangely happy. (Obviously.)

Throughout the story, Levee and Lance try to uncover the secrets of the Sanctuary and they attempt to make an escape plan while pretty much being under the influence of drugs (joy serum) and doing their "job," of treating the patients. They discover that there had been a reversal serum in the works that would, well, reverse the effects of joy serum however there were many major issues with it. It's used within this story and the effects are shown; primarily aggression.

Who was the original one behind the reversal serum? Professor Edmunds, and then Doctor Lukes proceeded to try and complete it but was facing difficulties. And why was there a reversal serum? Because of withdrawal from not having injections of joy serum for a long period of time, it'd only get worse and worse so this was put in place to completely flush out the joy serum in a way. (Side note: Drug withdrawal is a major issue with the joy serum in this universe and it's especially shown with Isa who is constantly relying on even the smallest dose.) However, as said before, the reversal serum had serious issues with it.

So, what was Doctor Lukes' motive in taking a bunch of hostages ("patients/employees")?

Well, it changes in the timeline.

After the hospital had been shut down and with all of the legality issues, the place pretty much became abandoned and not only that but he lost a majority of his research and everything. He's stubborn and did not try and reach out to another facility or anything like that (they're extremely secretive too) so he took his remaining notes and studies, tried making a new joy serum, kidnapped some people that would later be known as "The Ones Beyond the Walls," and tested on them. Continuously tested on them. And then finally, later on, he wanted to try and reverse things and then give the joy serum again and reverse and... yeah.

Where was he working?

Underground beneath the original hospital. And this is where the main story takes place too. I find the Five Nights at Freddy's song "Below the Surface" quite fitting for this and the original Smiler lore in general (I remember seeing a Smile Always edit with it too so that's where I got that from!) And if you're wondering, "How did no one know he was there?" Well, the general public didn't know. With a lot of abandoned properties, there are still people that own the property and that's the case with Doctor Lukes' Sanctuary. The state people knew allat but not the public, you know? As I said before, these places are secretive.

---

The Ones Beyond the Walls are as the name states: special guard-like previous test subjects that lurk in a part of the Sanctuary that is inaccessible to the normal patients and employees but is very much behind the walls of the normal place. They do what Doctor Lukes tells them to and they lurk about at night. They make sure things are in place and such. They are very calm people that take action when needed.

---

Isa is a major part of the lore. It's revealed that she was the longest serving Sanctuary employee starting from being a patient and it's also revealed that she was Aria Davis from the news article Levee had read early on in the story. Aria was not in a good place and Doctor Lukes had reached out to her and offered her money (one of the only times he was somewhat-legally doing this shit) if she'd participate in his experiments/clinical trials and after a while she then got sick of it to which he then forcibly kidnapped her.

As a patient, Aria had gotten her face cut into a smile by an old employee who she later murdered as revenge and stole their identity (hence the name, Isa.) Due to the murder, she was put through a lot of "treatment," until she was left as who she is; an unhinged, overjoyed, snarky woman who seemed as though she was going to help but was instead absolutely hellbent on dragging everyone down with her as she interfered with Levee's and Lance's escape plan. And, she kept the identity of the murdered employee, Isa.

---

There was certainly gonna be filler but also it was gonna show patients and employees getting treatment with joy serum and then the reversal serum being used. Because of the aggression the reversal serum was causing (albeit temporary) the group decided it was best to give it to people and keep them in the "special" cells that had been mentioned earlier.

Eventually, Isa gets the reversal serum injected into her and since she has been under the influence of joy serum for a long time, it doesn't go too well and she is furious and tries to kill Lance who had injected it. She fails and once she somewhat calms down, she struggles to cope with the feeling of not being in a constant state of joy. She experiences withdrawal extremely quickly and this is one of the faults of the reversal serum however it shouldn't have lasted too long.

Isa still tries to interfere with the plan and eventually she kills Doctor Lukes which wasn't apart of the other two's plan but aids in the escape and when she realizes this, she isn't happy. She isn't happy that the newest group won't go through the Hell she went through and thus she attempts to murder the main group but instead gets it turned around on her and Lance kills her which leaves him guilt stricken but Levee tries to reassure him that it was for the best.

‐--

Finally, we get to the ending. The ending is a decent one and although a majority of the facility inhabitants are killed along the way (by Isa and eventually she herself was killed too), nine out of thirty people (patients and employees) escape and this doesn't include TOBW. Levee, Lance, Braylen, and Archie make it out safely albeit very much changed and still having the after effects of the reversal serum. I did in fact write out the epilogue before most of the other things because that is a habit of mine with writing.

So, the epilogue goes something like this...

Two months pass since the events of Smile Hell and our three main characters are trying to return to their normal lives. Braylen, who was cut off by his family before the events, moves in with Lance's family since he has nowhere else to go. Levee's paranoia is very slowly starting to go away and she starts leaving her house more often. It is stated that after escaping, the group had told all they could to the police and it opened a full blown investigation on the grounds of the Sanctuary and they ended up finding bodies buried far behind the hospital.

And yes, the main group gets well needed therapy after all this Hell they've been through lol

Levee, Lance, and Braylen are all out shopping in the town square before they visit Koda's grave which is their plan for the day. Levee sits down on a bench and waits for the men who are inside a store and there is another bench across from her. Someone sits down on it and they're wearing a mask and sunglasses (which she finds odd as it's not very sunny) but she tries not to think much of it before going onto her phone to pass the time.

The stranger across from her giggles which catches her attention and so she glances up and notices their sunglasses are off. Her heart just about skips a beat when she realizes that they have one yellow eye that was fading and one normal eye (implication that this is someone from the Sanctuary.) This obviously makes her highly uneasy and she prays to whoever is listening that her friends would hurry up so they could leave.

Eventually they appear and they don't pay much attention to the person across from her, they all leave but Levee looks behind her to see that the mysterious stranger now had their mask down and was smiling, but not in the unsettling, forced Smiler sense; it was a sincere smile that pretty much said "Thank you." Not only that, but they had very faded scars present on their face. Levee does not recognize them at all before she realized the possibility of them being one of the Ones Beyond the Walls. She gives them a quick thumbs up and a nod before walking off with Lance and Braylen, off to visit Koda's grave at the cemetery.

And that's all, that is the end of it all.

---

Thank you so much if you read this whole thing! I very much appreciate it, I've been working on this lore for roughly two years but never really shared it with people until now.

If I ever do go back to this project and decide to continue the story I think there would be changes but for now this is the "settled in stone," lore of Smile Hell. I don't really know what my inspirations were for this exactly but obviously the general Smiler lore and what the community has come up with. Also I love stories that involve secret organizations and medical stuff like that. There are certainly things that I find unfitting but for my sake and everyone else's sake, I'm not going to critique my own lore for now.

Once again, thank you very much if you read this entire post, I hope it was interesting!!

—

and here's a meme before I go which sums up all of this /j

#the smiler #smiler #ministry of joy #the ministry of joy #alton towers #olive's ocs #olive's stories #smile hell #info dump #writing #but it's more just a summary #and a super fucking long post sob

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pearl484-blog · 1 year

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Things you Can do with Senti-monsters

I am not a fan of the senti-monster theory because I feel as though it detracts from the realistic depictions of abuse done to Adrien from Gabriel. It’s rare to have such realistic depictions of abuse in media, especially done to one’s own biological child and not step-child, adopted child, or child who is under your care but not legally yours.

That being said, it is very popular in fanfiction and might be the case in Miraculous Ladybug. Unfortunately, most of the stories I see are the traditional “angst over not being a real person” stuff I’ve seen a thousand times in Star Trek and other materials incolving artifical life forms or a new version of Hawk Moth/Gabriel uses an akuma to brainwash someone fic. That’s not to say that there aren’t dang good ones out there, Buggachat’s Drowning in Plain Sight or Wackus_Bonkus’s One Does Not Love Breathing are both amazing, but I’d like to introduce some variety. Here are some ideas you can use with senti-monsters in your fanfics.

1. Adrien (or another senti-kid) was once alive and was recreated as a senti-monster using the creator’s memories after their death/dissapearance/etc. Here’s something interesting. How different are the people you know from the people you know them to be? Everyone has a warped view of everyone around them no matter how well they know them because they’re fundamentally different people. You never know exactly what is going on in someone’s head, and you’ll frequently forget or mess up small details about someone if you try to describe them with as many details as you can.

I’ll be using Adrien in this example since he’s in the story more, and I feel as though I have a better grasp on his character than other senti-kid canidates. So imagine Adrien is a kid, and he tragically dies. Gabriel and Emilie can’t take the grief and make a replacement kid rebuilt to every single one of their memories of the kid. Using as many videos and photographs and momentos as they can.

But, Adrien’s their kid. They’re most likely going to see their kid through rose colored glasses. Especially if they’re greiving. This kid is going to be different than the original, fit more to Emilie and Gabriel’s perception of Adrien, than the reality. After he’s replaced, he’s going to be different, act different, feel different. He won’t know the original Adrien’s secrets, and the people who knew the original Adrien might realize that he’s different, which could lead to them treating Senti!Adrien differently or they may not notice at all, which would really hurt the main Adrien if he isn’t dead.

If Senti!Adrien realizes that he’s not the real one, he’s going to get curious about the original one. It doesn’t have to be in a “I’m not the real one” way. It could be in a “who was my father?” way or a way to find some way to find an identity different from the original.

1a. If the original Adrien is alive, it’d be good to see how they diverged, the original Adrien from the senti-monster born of perception. How did Human!Adrien’s disappearance affect him? How does he treat his senti-monster? Does he accept him? Is he curious about the senti-monster? How does he feel about his senti-monster? Does he regret the life he didn’t live or feel a need to protect the younger more idealistic creation? Is he angry about the warped vision his parents had of him or does he empathize with their grief? Does he transfer his feelings about his parents’ actions onto Senti-Adrien?

1b. If the original Adrien is dead or otherwise does not appear in the story, how does Senti-Adrien realize that he’s just a collection of memories? Does he find a hidden secret of Adrien’s that he doesn’t know? Does someone he’s close to reveal it to him? Is it a slow reveal or a sudden revelation? Is he intially scared of the revelation and turn away or is he drawn in by the allure of figuring out the original Adrien? Does he grieve the original Adrien, a boy he never knew? If so, how does he honor his memory? ==========================================

2. Senti-monsters feel empty and unmotivated without their amok

This is more of an introspective angst piece, but you could make it so that senti-monsters basically have their “hearts” be their amoks. They may actively crave their hearts and feel different than other people without it. They have no strong emotional connection to anything and will follow the traditional “rules” they feel they should until instructed to by their amok.

They may feel weak or no emotions, but may think this is normal and how most people are. They don’t get why people are so passionate and showy about their weird emotions, so they decide it must all be an act to communicate how much time and effort you are putting into/have put into a task and how much certain things inconvienance you.

So, that leaves their amok, which lets them care. You could do the emotionally manipulative amok, where they love following orders from their amok -no matter how much it goes against their “normal” personality and may contridict their previous goals- because it’s something that they actually feel a legitimate passion and desire for, no matter how much they may “logically” recognize that their actions are stupid and against their own self-interest. Or you could do the physically controlling amok, where they are obedient and mostly apathetic, and only feel when they have their amok back.

With these types of senti-monsters, you can make it so that their relationship to their amok is complicated, because people’s relationships with their feelings are complicated. After all, it’d probably be scary to go from feeling almost nothing to suddenly feeling the most intense heartbreak you’ve ever felt over minor inconvienaces, and in that state even joy, pure simple joy can be terrifying.

They might even reject their amoks, which might confuse the humans they interact with, because why wouldn’t you want to feel? Why wouldn’t you want your heart? Why wouldn’t you want to control your own actions?

Even more complicated, they might draw the ire of other senti-monsters who want their amoks and are possibly keeping their own. These senti-monsters may not sympathize with the senti-monsters rejecting their amoks, because the rejections set a bad precedent. What if a human sees that and thinks that they shouldn’t give a senti-monster back their amok? They may see the rejection as a sign of weakness, immorality, or as a disgusting act.

It’s a complicated mess, and therefore one that’d be interesting to explore.

=========================================

3. Adrien’s upset when he finds out he’s a senti-monster for unexpected reasons

Typically, the story goes that Adrien is angsts about whether or not he’s a real person when he finds out that he’s a senti-monster. But honestly? Considering his reaction to Sentibug, I don’t think that’s what he’d be upset about. So here are some alternatives:

3a. Adrien is upset because he may have been repeatedly unknowingly violated for years This is the most obvious option, but a good one. If you found out there was a handy dandy device that your parent had that made you obey your every order, you’d be rightly suspicious that they may have used it. Especially if that person is the control freak Gabriel Agreste. But you can go deeper than just having Adrien question which decisions of his his decisions were his father’s.

3b. Have Adrien question whether or not he has ongoing commands, and try to decide whether or not he wants them rescinded, and how he would do that. You could just have a straight “don’t obey your father anymore”, command, but even that can have consequences as anyone rebelling can tell you. because sometimes, your abuser has a point. So, you can get creative and explore that possible consequences of it, and possible self-destruction as a result.

3c. How much of Adrien’s personality is actually his or just the result of an order? It’s sort of like the conundrum of the brainwashed for the greater good or those brainwashed into loving their brainwashing. How much can they change without being someone entirely different? How much do they want to change?

=========================================

4. Have Marinette give Adrien a command for his own good

This is a prompt that should be done with caution as it could easily devolve into a salt fic, but you could easily create an entire fic where Marinette tries to help Adrien by essentially speedrunning him to whatever point she thinks he needs to go “for his own good” of course. She is a well-intentioned control freak who would naturally want to heklp her friend stop hurting, even when he needs to process what’s going on.

Examples of this could be her making him forget a traumatic incident, or making him get over his angst over the trashfire that is his life, like by telling him to forget Gabriel is Hawk Moth if it isn’t publically exposed, or trying to comfort him about a death by telling him to “forget about the bad things they did and remember the good”, or telling him not to worry about Chat Noir and Ladybug after his father’s defeat. Then explore the consequences of that, as Adrien follows that command to his own detriment and Marinette’s peers discover what she has done.

=========================================

5. Senti-monsters are magical creatures

Alright, so let’s say that someone is a senti-monster. This is usually played as human but with an off switch, but why not switch it up a bit? Why not play it up as a magical monster shaped like a human? What does this mean in practice? Why the senti-monster would have different traits than a human, of course!

For example, let’s say that senti-monsters are more physically durable than their human counterparts and immune to mind-control spells (because only the amok can control them), but you’d need a counterbalance. For example, you could make it so senti-monsters get increasingly anxious when more and more people get brainwashed/have their emotions manipulated, making brainwashing/mob akumas even more dangerous than usual because you’ve got to keep the body count low. Or you could have them react more strongly to magic in the air, getting more unreliable the more magic there is around them, making longer fights more hazardous. My favorite counter-balance with magic is madness, or perhaps you could call it fairy-tale logic. They concieve of the world in an entirely different way than most of the world and don’t seem to understand that what they are afraid of and what a human is afraid of are two very different things.

IE. If Chat Noir is a “dark type” senti-monster, he might be extra observant of rituals about the dead, refusing to walk over graves (which considering the catacombs may be a problem), getting easily distracted by funerals, or pick fights with people who want to bring back the dead, but might make mistakes about human physiology that get him into trouble, like underestimating damage and recovery time or overestimating the average human’s capabilities.

Just remember that as a general rule, for every strength, it’s a good idea to counterbalance it with a flaw, other wise you run the risk of unbalancing the character towards with too perfect (ie, no flaws to latch onto and relate to) or too flawed (nothing likable). If you go this route, it’s a good idea to decide the traits beforehand and write them down where it’s easy to quickly reference for consistency. It’s also good to look up traits of magical creatures to use as a template and/or make a list of beliefs (and why they exist) in a madness balanced monster. ===========================================

6. Senti-monsters are magical robots with a sliding scale of sentience/sapience

This may sound a bit counter-intuitive, given my opening rant, but please understand, I was trained in both psychology and computer science (it was a requirement for my psych degree, go figure). I also have a personal bias as this is what I’m doing with my senti-monsters in my fanfic Replay.

So, as a brief starter, sentience is the ability to be self-aware, understand your surroundings and situation, and have an opinion about it. If I go into Skyrim though, and talk to an NPC, they will soon prove to me that they are not sentient. They are designed to only do a specific task at a specific prompt. So if I go and push them into a wall, and then try to sell them something, despite the fact that their entire torsos are stuck inside that wall, they will not notice and buy all my junk. They also will not notice any abnormalities in their shop and investigate unless programmed to, no matter how odd it is, so I can happily place a bucket in front of them, fill it with dragon scales and dragon bones, and throw it at their apprentice, and they will neither react or investigate,

A squirrel though would most certainly notice being squished into a wall and let me know their opinion swiftly, and it would react immediately to me putting a bucket in front of them and scamper away before I could even begin to do anything else. It is sentient, even though I doubt a squirrel is comptemplating the meaning of life as it scampers up a tree, minding it’s own squirrely business.

Sapience is an even higher standard. It is the abilitiy to think and have wisdom. Unfortunately for our squirrel friend, squirrels have not yet demonstrated the ability to gain wisdom, and only humans fit into this category in the real world. We can solve puzzles, think abstractly, and communicate ideas that other creatures can’t like: “Tomorrow, I wanna go out to eat” or “When I was younger, I liked that, but I’ve outfrown it now.” (The ability to talk about times other than now is something that is either very rare or unheard of in any animals besides humans).

So how would this relate to senti-monsters? Well, robots are a pretty good analogy to the sliding scale of sentience. We have everything from your standard automated machine that does literally one job over and over again like in an automated factory which has no sentience to a character like Data, from Star Trek: the Next Generation, who despite his struggles was an incredibly relatable humanoid and we even have robots that are almost indistishable from humans unless they are damaged in some way.

Let’s have senti-monsters have the same range, with their sentience level ranging from “does a task on command or when certain predetermined conditions” to “can pass as completely human” similar to robots. Although unlike robots, there’d be a few differences. As a creature made of emotions, it would likely have an easier time determining the spirit of the instructions given to it instead of the typical stupidity a normal robot would, but it’d likely be tricky to get the exact amount of precision of a robot could, and may have unintended side effects from an unfocused mind or be influenced by the hidden desires of the wielder/creator.

So in that way, you can explore the similiarities and differences between senti-monsters and robots and then use that to explore when a senti-monster is sentient/sapient enough to deserve the rights of an animal/person. ============================================

#miraculous ladybug #miraculous lb #adrien agreste #sentimonster #writing prompt #writing ideas

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liza-webber · 2 years

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ICARUS

Chapter Thirteen - The Way I Loved You - part one

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A/N: hey guyysss I'm back with a huge chapter, hope you enjoy it!

TW: abusive relationships, violence

Chapter Index

..................

As I walked through the base I felt my heart beating faster, I didn’t know if Maverick’s idea had worked, but I needed to find him. I turned left, about to enter the cafeteria, and what I saw made me hold my breath and stop walking, abruptly.

Laying against the white walls, in front of the gray doors that led to the cafeteria, was a man. His dark hair was longer than the last time I saw him, his medals shined in his uniform and his blue eyes got a darker tone when they found me.

“You’re… alive”, he said looking down at me, his eyelashes seemed bigger somehow.

“What are you-”.

“Doing here?” he snorted, “Got transferred from Florida. What about you, Hawks?” he pointed to the scars on my right arm, “Those are new. I always warned you about that devilish cat of yours”.

I stayed in silence just facing him, I could feel my eyes watering, and the rage accumulating inside my heart.

“Oh, c’mon, don’t give me those eyes, babe”, he opened a grin with his perfect white teeth.

“Leave her alone, Jaws”, a deep voice came behind me, a voice that I wasn’t quite expecting.

“Seresin, now that’s a… surprise” Jaws said ignoring me completely changing his attention to Hangman who was behind me. “What are you doing here, pal? Already coming to save little Hawks, again?”.

I tried to leave, but Jaws put his arm above my shoulders bringing me closer, squeezing me against him. I could smell the cigarettes on his shirt. My whole body got tense and alert, my eyes found Hangman’s green worried gaze. He was frowning, clearly annoyed by Jaws, I didn’t say a word, my brain was processing what was happening.

“Stop being an ass, Jaws. Let’s go, Captain”.

“Oh my god, Captain?”,

Jaws let go of me, almost throwing me against Hangman, like I was some kind of infection that he was afraid of. My head collided against Jake’s chest, and I heard him chuckling.

As I turned to face Jason, well, Jaws, I can’t remember the last time I called him by his name. I felt Hangman’s hand on my lower back, trying to guide us to the cafeteria. But my shitty ex stayed in front of us, blocking the passage. His expression was a mix of confusion and despise, he snorted putting his hands on his hips.

“I just find out that you’re alive, and you are captain now? What the fuck?!”.

“Oh fuck off, Jason, I don’t have time for your bullshit right now”.

Jaws presence was suffocating to me, it was hard for me to stand in the same room as him. He opened a sarcastic grin and clenched his fists closer to his sides, I felt Hangman’s hand on my back got heavier, I looked at him from the corner of my eyes, his jaw was stiff and he inhaled sharp breaths.

Hangman wasn’t a talking guy. Unlike Rooster it was difficult to know what he was really thinking, and what were his true intentions, he only talked when it was convenient for him. It was very difficult to read him.

He wore a mask almost all the time.

“C’mon, Hawks”.

Jake bumped against Jaws’s shoulder, and we left him alone in the corridor. We sat at the first table we found in the cafeteria, Hangman was still by my side, his hand still on my lower back, almost holding me by the hip, I looked down at it and then again at his eyes.

“Jake?”.

He realized it.

“Oh, right…”, he crossed his arms still looking at me with an annoying expression, is he mad at me?

“What’s wrong dude? Stop looking at me like that”.

“What’s wrong with me? What’s wrong with you!”.

“What?!”.

“You should have punched that fucker for what he did to you!”.

I took a sharp breath, my mouth parted open. Looking into Jake’s eyes I can’t describe what I am feeling. Closing my eyes I shook my head, I can feel my heart beating hard against my chest.

He knows.

“Jake, you said you met my friends. What else are you hiding from me?”.

He avoided my gaze, looked to the side, and let out a small sigh.

“Hangman”.

“I don’t wanna talk about this. Okay?”.

“That’s far from okay”.

Hangman stayed in silence, staring at his hands on the table. I was confused, I didn’t know what to do. Jake was indeed a weird man, pretending to be this cocky human being, that could only exist in pages of a book.

We are all shaped by memories. Good or bad, happy or sad, they are all important for who we are today. Every decision we make is a consequence of our past, and I can’t imagine what led Jake to create this character of himself that he plays every day of his life.

Sure, he is not pretending all the time, he for sure has a huge ego, I have no doubt that he grew up to be a winner and that had influenced his personality, but he isn’t just that.

“Hey”, I said, putting a hand on his right shoulder, “I’m not mad at you, I… I just want to know”.

“I know you’re not mad, but I am”.

“And I want to know why, because I have no fucking clue”.

“You really don’t remember me?”, he sounded frustrated, and I felt bad for it.

I shook my head, denying it.

..............

Four Years Ago

“Thomas, are you really leaving me alone at your party?”, Hangman said to his best friend staying at the front door while Thomas checked his phone with a worried expression.

“I’m sorry dude, Marceline called me, she said it’s an emergency with our dad”. Thomas shook his head making his black curls wave with the wind coming from outside, it was a cold night, a rare one.

“Shit, is he okay?”.

“I don’t know, I have to hurry. Though I need to ask you one last thing”.

Hangman frowned.

“It’s just, you know Jaws?”, Hangman nodded, “Okay, he is dating one of my best friends-”.

“Hawks?”, Jake rolled his eyes, Thomas always talked a lot about this incredible best friend of his, sometimes Jake felt like he lived in her shadow.

“I don’t trust Jaws… Since they started dating… she started to drink too much at parties, I don’t like him” Thomas whispered, “Actually I can’t stand him, sometimes I think about crashing our jet with him in it”.

“Hey, don’t you ever say that again”, Hangman said with a concerned tone.

“Oh, are you worried about me?”, Thomas smirked.

“I didn’t say that”.

“Anyway, just… keep an eye on her for me, please. Love you, man”.

Thomas closed the door on Hangman’s face, he blinked twice processing the pieces of information he just received. He turned around to look at his friend's house full of aviators dancing to the loud music, drinking, and trying to talk in the middle of the crowd.

Hangman agreed with Thomas, Jaws graduated with both of them in the academy, and he was an asshole. Well… Jake knew he was also an asshole sometimes, but Jaws? He was on another level, he really meant every mean word he said. Jake on the other hand only half mean it, which wasn’t much better, but still.

Jake walked through the people trying to find you, he looked on the first floor, in the living room, in the bathrooms, when he walked into the kitchen he spotted Jaws laying against the kitchen counter with a huge bottle of beer on his hand, but he seemed to have drunk way more than two bottles.

Hangman despised that, how could Jaws have a partner and not care about it? You were nowhere near him.

He got to the second floor, and again the bedrooms were empty, but something caught his gaze.

An open window that led to the roof was open, Jake approached it and put his head outside.

A girl was sitting on the roof looking at the dark sky, a small cup of beer next to her.

“Hawks?”, Hangman asked.

You looked at him with shock in your shining eyes and then closed them again with relief.

"Shit, you scared the hell out of me, man".

Your voice sounded lazy and tired, and Hangman noticed the recent tears on your cheeks.

“Are you okay, miss?’.

“Physically or emotionally?”, You snorted, “The answer is no for both, thank you very much".

Jake passed through the window and sat next to you, the roof was large and dark, and he wondered how long you've been here in the cold.

“Okay… hm… let me take this”, Hangman picked up your cup, putting it on his right side far away from you. “Maybe it's time to go home don't you think, lady?”.

You laughed softly staring at the sky.

“Maybe it’s time for you to go back inside”.

“Maybe, but Thomas would be very mad and we both don’t want that”.

“You know Thomas?”.

“Yup, and he told me to keep an eye on you”, he showed you the cup again, “How many of this you drank?”.

“Don”t remember”.

“Of course, you don”t”, Hangman rolled his eyes frustrated, he went to a party to have fun, not to be a babysitter.

“Do you think I'll die if I jump?”.

Jake held his breath, did he hear right?

He looked at you a bit scared, questioning his sanity. Why would you ask that? Could it be possible? No of course not.

“I asked you a question, pretty boy”.

Fuck.

He stared at you and noticed something worrying. Your bottom lip was cut, and there was a bruise above your right cheek, it looked very bad.

“Hawks, why are you up here?”.

You avoided his gaze staring at the huge tree that Thomas had in his garden, that he cared so much. Jake couldn’t tell how drunk you were, but he was sure you were far from sober.

“I like the stars”.

“Okay, and how did you get those?”, he pointed at your bottom lip, you touched with your fingers and noticed fresh blood on them.

You stayed in silence, staring at it.

Hangman had a feeling, a bad one and he prayed to be wrong.

He put your hair behind your ear, and you looked at him again.

“Let's fix that, shall we?”.

It was a strange thing to do, sit on Thomas’s bed and help a girl he barely know. He found Thomas’s first aid kit under his bed, where Jake also found empty bottles of coke and dirty socks.

You didn’t look at his eyes while he helped to clean the blood of your lips and applied some ointment on your bruise. He noticed how your eyebrows twitched every time you two made eye contact and he chuckled.

“Are you going to tell me who did this to you, or you gonna keep the mystery?”.

“I’m full of mysteries”.

“I’m not kidding, Hawks. Thomas will kill me if you don’t say it”.

“Why do you care? I don’t even know you”.

“Well if you were my friend I would be fucking pissed, and I’m sure Thomas will be if you don’t tell him, or me”.

Jake ended his work, putting the kit under Thomas’s bed, again.

“You’re Thomas’s friend?”, you asked clearly confused. “I didn’t know he had other friends”.

“Why? Are you jealous?”, Hangman teased with a smirk.

“No… I’m not that kind of friend”.

“You’re very drunk aren’t you?”.

“I’m not drunk, you’re drunk!”.

Hangman wondered how you could be a fun and a sad drunk at the same time.

He got up and hoped you would follow him, but instead when he opened the door, you just crossed your arms, anxious. You looked at the window again, and Hangman closed the door, he took some steps and kneeled in front of you.

“Hey. I know you’re scared, but I’ll be with you, okay?”.

“I was thinking about escaping through the window. Would that be a bad idea?”, he let out a soft laugh.

“Escaping from who?”.

“Jaws”, your voice sounded like a whisper, Hangman just heard it because he was very close to you. He frowned, feeling the anger running through his body.

“He did this to you?”.

You stayed in silence, and the lack of response started to kill him from inside. He couldn’t believe his thoughts.

“That fucking bastard”.

He stood up, and before he could open the door, you held him by his shirt, and he turned to you with fury inside his eyes.

“That asshole-”.

“No”, you cut him with a weak voice, Hangman opened his mouth ready to argue with you, but when your head collided against his chest and you started to cry, the only thing he could do was hug you, and caress your hair.

He guided you to the bed and you both sat again, you stopped crying but your breath was unstabilized. Hangman had no idea how he got in that situation, but god, he felt so bad for you, he felt powerless, there was nothing he could do for you unless…

The bedroom door opened with a strong push, just to reveal the man that Jake was ready to push from a bridge, Jason Cugller, callsign ‘Jaws’. He was wearing a letter jacket with a white t-shirt, he had a shiny earring in one of his ears and a cigarette in his left hand.

“Seresin”, he said with despise.

“If you take another step inside this room, I’m gonna punch you so hard you gonna wish for death”, Jake said trying to stay under control.

Jaws looked at you with annoyed eyes, pointing at you with his cigarette.

“What did you say to him?”.

Jake held you against his side tighter, his green eyes burning with anger, and you looked up, cheeks flustered.

“It will be fine”, he whispered with a soft voice.

When he looked at Jaws again, the man had his fist clenched, he was visibly drunk and too angry. A level of anger that shouldn’t be aloud when someone was in that state, with no self-control.

“Oh my god, look at you, should I call you what? Super Hangman?”.

“All I want is that you leave her alone”.

“She’s my girlfriend, you idiot”.

And then a sound that Jake wasn’t expecting, you started to laugh at his said, it was a soft and sweet laugh, but your words were the extreme opposite.

“Fuck you, Jason. I’m not your girlfriend, I’m not your ‘babe’, I’m not even your friend anymore, I just want you to stay out of my way”.

“You’re not-”.

“Oh shut uuuup” you cut him, and Hangman just watched as Jaws started to back in his tracks, “You talk too much, jeez! So annoying, you stupid narcissist”.

The man rolled his eyes inhaling deeply and then slammed the door.

You rested your head against Jake’s shoulder as he rubbed your lower back.

“Let’s get you home, miss”.

“You don’t know where I live”.

“Well, I hope you can help me with that subject”, he opens a soft smile.

“Your smile is too beautiful, you know that?”.

“Oh, I know”, he chuckled and helped you stand up.

Hangman tried to call Thomas and Marceline, but none of them were picking up. So he got inside of his old red mustang, sat you on the passenger seat, and put the seatbelt on you. It took some time but eventually, you started to answer his questions a bit sober, and he found your beach house, that he knew that Marceline and you shared.

He found the light switch, and both the living room and kitchen came to life.

“Marcy! I'm hoooome! Where's my goodnight kiss??”, you shouted while Hangman guided you through your house, he chuckled at your silly drunk personality.

“She's not here, lady. Thomas and Marceline are with their father”.

“What? Nooo, that's not fair, I want to see mister Salazar too!”.

“Well, now what you need is a warm bed and water”.

“Nah, no water, just warm bed”.

“Alright, alright”.

Hangman helped you, got to your room on the second floor, noticing an orange cat sleeping on top of your wardrobe.

You laid on your bed hugging a huge pillow you had, and Hangman smiled at the cute scene, though what he had experienced tonight was far from cute. He was scared for you. What if he leaves and Jaws tries to do something with you?

You closed your eyes on your bed, Hangman let a loud breath escape his nose and closed the door. He went downstairs and waited for Marceline outside of your house.

................

I stayed in silence while Jake told me his story, he didn’t look in my eyes while telling what happened, he looked embarrassed and angry at the same time.

“I asked Thomas to not mention me, so he didn’t”, he shrugged, looking away.

“Hangman…”, I touched his shoulder, but he suddenly stood up.

“I’m sorry, Captain”.

He walked away, he ran away, he left me alone.

.........

Next Chapter

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A/N: Thanks for all the loveeeeee, see you soon

.......

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#top gun #rooster x reader #top gun maverick #bradley bradshaw #miles teller #top gun: maverick #bradley rooster bradshaw #rooster bradshaw #rooster fanfic #rooster top gun #jake seresin #hangster #jake hangman seresin #hangman

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yassifiedoompaloompa · 1 year

Text

How to fix warriors

So I have this au in my mind that fixes the whole series and starts from book one. First it starts off the same, and then Smudge shows up and Rusty basically tells the reader that he used to have feelings for Smudge, but Smudge is into she-cats, not toms. Then Graypaw shows up, and when he comes into the light, Rusty describes him as being unbearably attractive. (Also when he meets Onewhisker he will think he's attractive, but will remind himself that he's from a different Clan.) Spottedleaf will be his childhood crush but later in the series, when he admits his feelings in a dream, she'll just laugh. Then she'll apologize for laughing and say that she only views him as a friend. They will be really close friends throughout the series and it will be really cute and I like them as friends. In my au, Spottedleaf kinda acts like an older sister. Anyways Graystripe and Fireheart will have a looot of gay moments throughout the Prophecies Begin. Him and Sandstorm still become mates. I didn't like how canon Fireheart literally has no flaws, so in my au his flaw is that he doesn't know how to have fun. Graystripe helps him to realize this. But also, he gives so much to everyone else and nothing for himself. And Graystripe helps him to realize that he deserves love too. He also realizes that he loves Graystripe and he always has. He tells him and then him, Graystripe, and Sandstorm, are in a poly relationship! I think that idea is so cute.

Dustpelt wouldn't be creepily waiting for the day Fernpaw becomes a warrior. They would show affection for each other after she becomes Ferncloud. The clans have more differences. Shadowclan lives in caves, Skyclan lives on a plateau, Thunderclan and Windclan stay the same, and Riverclan lives in a valley with a river flowing through it with an island on the river because the river is really wide and their camp is on the island. They also have different customs. I think Snowkit would survive the hawk, but we wouldn't know until Power of Three. He would survive by flinging himself out of it's talons. He would join The Tribe of Rushing Water. He would have a novella called Snowkit's journey. When Thunderclan visits The Tribe in Power of Three, Firestar will say he recognizes (insert tribe name (I dont know what it should be yet) .) He will figure out that its Snowkit and it will be a whole thing. Silverstream will be implied to be a trans tom. Like Graystripe saying "Why couldn't I have died instead of him?" and Fireheart wondering what he means, or Stormfur saying "I wish we could have known our Father- I mean Mother," (Silverstream came out to him in a dream. He also came out to Feathertail in a dream) Everyone in Starclan knows. Millie was already pregnant when her and Graystripe escaped. Graystripe isn't the Father, it was some other cat. During the journey, Millie admits her feelings for him. He tells her he likes toms and he already has a mate. Millie will always be jealous. Millie is horrible. Millie was horrible to Briarlight when she became crippled. She wasnt happy she was alive she, she just talking about how she'll never fight, or hunt, or have kits She was constantly fretting over Briarlight to the point where it was bad for Briarlights mental health. She wished she wasnt crippled because then Millie wouldn't worry about her so much. Millie was even neglecting her other children to take care of Briarlight! But in my au, there is an apology scene that is real and emotional. Ravenpaw and Barley will actually be canon. Same with Tallstar and Jake. Dovewings eyes are light green. I have my reasons for thinking this. And Scourges collar is purple. Midnight uses they/them pronouns. Ivypool x Blossomfall will be canon. Stormfur doesnt like his sister Feathertails relationship with Crowfeather because they're from different Clans, but he doesnt like his sister Squirrelflights relationship with Brambleclaw because Brambleclaw is def abusive to her and probably doesnt even accept her as a trans she-cat.

In my au, Yellowfang doesnt completly change in the second series. When Leafpool goes to the Moon Pool after the fight with Cinderpelt, she calls for Spottedleaf, but Yellowfang comes instead. She asks where Spottedleaf is and Yellowfang replies "She was gonna say something mouse-brained, so I came instead," In Starclan, Bluestar has to choose between Oakheart and Yellowfang. She chooses Yellowfang. Eventually, Squirrelflight and Brambleclaw break up. Probably soon after she has Alderheart and his siblings. Swiftpaw loved Brightheart, but she didnt love him the same because she is a lesbian and Cloudtail is a he/him lesbian. Mousefur is Aromantic. Lionblaze is autistic, Jayfeather has OCD, and Hollyleaf has ADHD. Leafpool always had a crush on Sorreltail. Then she fell for Cody. Cody obviously liked her back. The last thing she did before leaving was lick her ear, brush against her lovingly and say "I love you Leafpool. I wish we could be together but I don't belong here," Then she walked away. Sorreltail, who was watching, came out of the bushes to comfort Leafpool. Leafpools feelings for Cody had faded after being rescued from the twolegs and she started to love Sorreltail again. She confessed her feelings, but Sorreltail is straight and had a crush on Brackenfur. Meanwhile, Leopardstar is with Sasha, apologizing because she couldn't get the Clans to stay in the forest. She says she wishes things could be different and that she loves her. Sasha says she loves her too. Leopardstar promises to take care of Mothwing and Hawkfrost. Mothwing, listening, basically realized "guess im not the only lesbian" Leopardstar and Sasha decide to spend one more night in the forest together. Meanwhile, Leafpool and Sorreltail decide to spend one more night in the forest together. Meanwhile, Leopardstar falls asleep leaning on Sashas shoulder, while Sasha looks up at the moon. Meanwhile, Sorreltail falls asleep leaning on Leafpool's shoulder, while Leafpool looks up at the moon. The camera pans up to the moon.

THE END

(Theres still so much ill make a part 2)

#warrior cats #warriors rewrite #au fanfiction #gay cats #dont know what im doing

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deripmaver · 9 months

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I agree with a lot of criticisms behind the Apostle Casca theory, but I don't think they're inherently tied to the concept itself. We've seen with Ganishka that an apostle doesn't HAVE to serve the Godhand and can even stand against them, and we've seen with Gutsca themselves that the sacrifices don't have to perish for it to work. I also think you're missing an excellent candidate for Casca's potential sacrifice: Griffith himself. He fits the category for the whole "loved one who's the source of all your suffering and the object of your hate, anger, grieving love, etc" thing that comes with most of the sacrifices. The plan could be to sacrifice MB Boy to free Griffith, but it backfires and Griffith gets branded alone or with him. That'd be a very fitting punishment for him and could cause a lot of issues for him down the line that could lead to his downfall. Casca having her own brand could also impact the sacrifice and/or her transformation into an Apostle.

I also think viewing the idea as something "evil" that only evil people would do kind of misses the tragedy behind the sacrifices. It's not just a regular "deal with the devil" situation, it's people being put through the most horrific circumstances by the designs of fate for the express purpose of breaking them mentally and emotionally, leaving them in a state of despair and desperation so great that they'd do anything to escape it, or to never feel pain so great again, only for the Godhand to turn them into cruel, vicious demons. We've seen a fourteen year old girl sacrifice her abusive parents and it turned her into a murderous monster with twisted emotions (Rosine.) Griffith had to literally lose everything and THEN be emotionally manipulated to finally do it. It's coercive by nature, a fixed game made by the Godhand through Causality. The apostles are just as much victims of the Godhand as the sacrifices.

It'd be excellent payoff for all the shit Casca's been through since Golden Age. She's lost her comrades, her bodily autonomy, her sanity, her freedom, even her child, to the man who she devoted her life to, who once saved her and gave her a home and a family in the Hawks, who made her the proud warrior she once was. And now she's trapped in a kingdom made in his image, populated by people who all worship him, completely unaware of the demon he truly is, surrounded by the same apostles who killed her friends and destroyed her sanity, soon to realize that her own child has become a vessel to that same man. That's not even getting into her repressed memories, including what Guts did to her in Fangs of Ego. If the Behelit is hers, the story has everything it needs to drive her to make a sacrifice.

Casca sacrificing Griffith would be the perfect way to turn that around. It'd be horribly tragic for her to reach that despair and become a monster, but it'd also be amazingly powerful to see her subject her abuser to the same brand he gave her, to gain the power she needs to finally fight back, the catharsis of unleashing her rage against him, the apostles he commands, and the kingdom he worked so hard to achieve. After about 300 chapters of suffering and strife, I truly believe, if done right, it could be the perfect climax for Casca's arc.

Sorry for the accidental essay lol Im just very passionate about the theory

You're fine anon LOL berserk provokes REALLY STRONG FEELINGS in pretty much everyone who reads it, myself included.

Idk if you've just seen the shorter ask answer or the whole longass essay post but just a couple things here, first off the scenario you laid out in this ask is actually one of the circumstances I'd be totally ok with the theory coming true!!!

My issues with the theory really do stem from how it, currently, would force Casca to work for and be subservient to Griffith, and how she'd be working alongside the monsters who killed her friends etc, but I mentioned a couple scenarios in the longer post where she could become an apostle and not have that happen (god hand schism, some weird effect of the brand, etc). This one that you've given me here is another example that I'd be very happy with, and ultimately what I want for her is exactly the same thing you want for her, that she's the one who brings about Griffith's downfall and forces his dream to slip through his fingers after unleashing the full force of her rage on him. I REALLY want to see that happen, oh my GOD.

I suppose, to me, I don't want to speculate too far outside the bounds of what's been seen in canon, which is why my post sticks to the "rules" we've seen so far, but that doesn't mean things couldn't change in a way that makes the theory palatable to me.

This next section I'm gonna get kind of pissy and anon I PROMISE it's not at you in particular LOL I'm fine with getting anons like this to discuss my meta and stuff, and I really like your idea for how the apostle Casca theory could happen in a way that doesn't make me want to tear my hair out, it's around some general stuff in the past few days.

I need to be clear that I don't think you have to be "evil" to be an apostle, and I don't think the people who sacrifice to become apostles are evil. Genuinely, I don't think either of my posts on the topic made that claim at all at any point, and in my longer post I made a point of mentioning Rosine sacrificing her abusive parents AND how Griffith had to be at complete rock bottom to sacrifice the BotH.

I think, and again I'm not mad at you about this I promise, there was a post going around saying "it's 2023 and people still think good people can't become apostles only evil people can," which I'm PRETTY SURE was a subtweet because of that first ask I answered about the apostle Casca theory. I think people have used that to determine what my posts said, which is kind of frustrating because this is not an argument I made at any point. There's like an offhand line in the ask that says "people forget Casca is a good person" before the anon, again, drives in how their issue is with Casca working for Griffith. So, I agree with you that you don't need to be evil to be an apostle, which is something that I've said multiple times at this point, and I never claimed all apostles are evil in the first place 😭

Ok so anyone reading this, don't send me asks about how not all apostles are evil, this conversation is closed, we have established that I agree with u and I NEVER said they were and I have reaffirmed my position on that multiple times!!!!!!!

But yes hahahaha I now have written you a whole essay in response to your ask, I like this kind of discussion so I hope this doesn't put you off, and I think your feelings on the apostle Casca theory are completely legitimate!! Ultimately what happens in canon happens and we'll have to live with it regardless so ya know, we'll see!

#asks

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sleepyowlwrites · 2 years

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💥💡🤝

💥 - What is the main conflict of the wip?

I assume you're mostly interested in city story so I'll answer for that.

the external main conflict is that Rune's ex-sort-of-adoptive-family - the two sons, specifically - are after her to bring her back into the fold as a trophy, kinda (they're terrible people) and Jet decides to help her out even before he knows what all went down that made her decide to leave them and Jet and Rune have to do a lot of scheming and fighting to stop Max (evil son #1) from continuing to run his fighting ring, drug dealing and chronic manipulation and abuse of literally anybody in his life.

the internal main conflict is Jet deciding what kind of person he is, what he stands for, who he wants to trust, who he wants to protect, where he draws the lines of his boundaries, what he won't do even for someone he loves, and allowing himself to experience emotions and have good things without self-destructing.

isn't it so nice that he gets to do both at the same time, mm.

💡 - What inspired the wip? When/how did you first get the idea?

I follow several drama blog (asian dramas) and a few were showing clips of a thai drama called Not Me and it had some interesting scenes in it with good (or bad) hurt/comfort (which I LOVE), so I watched a couple clips since it's all on yt, and I was really interested in the character of Black - and we don't get to explore him enough, it's very sad - and so I was writing a little bit of fanfic to console myself and explore that character, but I very quickly realized that I'd accidentally just invented a character with some similar traits but totally different goals, so then I borrowed the most basic template of the series: angry guy with an estranged twin brother, some friends he sort of doesn't really trust half the time, the setting is a CITY, there is fighting - and then I dumped the entire plot, all the character motivations and most of their backstories, eschewed extra characters, invented my own antagonist, invented Rune, invented a new plotline, and here we are! (oh wow that was a single sentence)

like, if you knew the series, you could see how dirt in the doing was absolutely inspired by it, but even though you can match up aspects, none of them are the same anymore. like, there are 7 main characters, but their outlines are all different now, and they're all connected in different ways.

this happens to me a lot. I start writing some introspective character exploration fic and then I get a lot of ideas and poof! it's loosely inspired and 98% just my own thing now. which is cool. but also not because I do not need any more ideas, brain.

🤝 - How do the characters meet? (antagonist included!)

it's from Jet's pov so I'll just say how he meets each of them.

Copper - is his twin brother. their parents did a parent trap separate and each take a twin thing, but less extreme, but then later extreme because they did their level best to keep them apart from each other for purely selfish and self-absorbed reasons.

Rune - he met when she started participating in Moss' "collect things in semi-legal ways and distribute them to people who need them" venture. then she randomly met him on the street one night and they bonded over being lonely. (I think you read that part)

Moss - he met after he dropped out of school. he needed a job after getting fired for starting a fight with a coworker (who was an asshole but still, great adulting there Jet) and Moss has this nose for "wayward youths in need of productive things to do with their hands" so he kinda just picked Jet up off the street and was like "you work here now" and Jet works at his garage now. Moss is the mentor Jet will never admit he needs.

Yarrow - Jet met him at the garage when he came over to see Moss one day. Yarrow is a part-time art student and works at a coffee shop. his energy levels are absolutely too much for Jet but he has a way of worming his way into people's hearts, Jet included.

Hawk - he started working in Moss' garage doing the accounting (after Moss did his "this is a wayward youth" thing) and later also working on the bikes. Jet didn't like him at first because Jet doesn't like anybody at first but Hawk just was like "oh I can be your antagonist, sure" and then Moss was like "I will not tolerate murder so get along or else" and then they eventually bonded over both having trauma and now they sort of respect each other but pretend they don't.

Shadow - Jet met him at the garage, technically, but he really met him when he found him sleeping on the street. Jet doesn't really know what to do with Shadow. he tries to look out for him but Shadow isn't good at letting people do that, so it's tricky. they'll bond over trauma eventually. it happens every time. it's a theme, you could say. yay.

thank for ask, Klaus, looking forward to reading your comments on dirt in the doing.

#sleepy answers #writing asks #wip: city story

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ao3feed-hawks · 1 year

Text

Happy (Late) Birthday, Dabi

Happy (Late) Birthday, Dabi by skeletonsinmycloset

“It's been 12 years since I died. Eight longer than the doctors thought I would survive,” Dabi whispers to his constellation. He doesn't even realize he spoke out loud until the man next to him squawks.

Words: 1768, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English

Fandoms: 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia (Anime & Manga)

Rating: Teen And Up Audiences

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: Gen, M/M

Characters: Dabi | Todoroki Touya, Takami Keigo | Hawks

Relationships: Dabi | Todoroki Touya/Takami Keigo | Hawks

Additional Tags: HINTED dabihawks, Angst, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Character Death, well Touya died, Dabi rose from his ashes, Todoroki Family Feels, most of the league is mentioned but no one appears (except Dabi), Todoroki family mentioned but again no one but Dabi is in it, Dabi smokes because of course he does, honestly romanticized smoking, Don't smoke kids, unless you also plan on dying by burning yourself and your father alive, Hawks makes bird sounds, because he's cute, Dabi agrees with me, Short One Shot, Honestly I just love the idea of Hawks slowly uncovering more of Dabi's identity, or in this case Dabi just casually mentioning he died, Stars, Constellations, Idk why I just really love the idea of Touya/Dabi being obsessed with the stars, boi is jealous he's the only Todoroki that has to share one tho, Capricornus could be considered a character in this story, Happy (late) Birthday Dabi

Read Here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/44742283

#AO3 Feed #FanFiction #AO3 Hotwings #♥#Dabihawks #Hotwings #⚣#R:T #A:Skeletonsi #Abuse #Angst

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godspeedwarrior · 1 year

Text

This story comes from a game of Vampires of the Masquerade.

I'm a fresh new storyteller for VtM. Have a few DnD campaigns under belt, figure what's the difference running my own game of VtM? Already played one campaign. Rules are pretty easy to grasp as a D10 system.

Have a new group of players who are all DnD vets looking for some spice to their roleplay lives. Sit down with each player individually to sort out details and a quick session zero. Intermix players in each storyline to establish familiarity for when main story starts.

Enter the Gangrel. Her name is Merik. Wants to be an Egyptian native from the 60-70's era. Likes fish out of water idea where she wakes up in modern day. Likes druid, so picked Clan primarily due to animalistic play style.

Wants an animal companion. Has enough dots in Animalism to at least summon a desired beast. Ask her what she wants, what's the story there? Receive a solid tale about finding a snowy owls nest in her travels. Little guy is sole survivor of an attack by a hawk or something. Decides in moment of humanity to raise him.

Has highest Humanity in group, seems fair.

Figured after building a relationship with the little guy I could fridge the bastard for some sweet character development. Love abusing major attachments in World of Darkness.

Dream of, "You come back to your haven to find your bird sliced to ribbions on the floor. There's a note written in his blood that you're next!" Can't have shit in Detroit. Roll your humanity.

Run simple interaction, don't put too much thought into his character, be a little shit for five minutes because bird logic. Doesn't give a fuck about rules or society. She instantly falls in love with him. Names him Hi-Jinx due to shenanigans.

Begin to establish time-skip. Decide good antagonist would be Followers of Set since we're in the dunes outside Cairo. Come up with motives later.

Merik's clan is ambushed before dawn. She takes a few shots in the back, falls into the sands and is swept away. Wasn't ashed, sleeps in torpor (aka Vampire coma).

Awakens in tomb. Modern day. Blood everywhere. Realizes she's holding an arm that was clearly being used to beat some poor excavator.

Jinx pops out of hiding.

Explains she's been sleeping for many moons and that he got lucky when the humans digging in this location. Hints that he may be why she was awoken. She doesn't catch on.

Brushing off the frenzied slaughter, Merik casually chucks the arm randomly.

Fuck it. Roll situation to see what becomes of random arm. RNGesus has deemed this session zero shall be a thing of legend and curses my entire roll.

Talking not a die above 3.

Situation immediately goes to shit. Equipment begins to explode or catch fire due to overload. Police sirens can be heard swarming in from the distance because one survivor managed to phone the police. The tomb begins to collapse due to the shock from the explosions. The sands begin to reclaim the tomb.

Needless the say, Merik immediately fucks off in a hurry.

About this time my other players began to ask questions. If Jinx was born in the early 70's was it really possible for him to be alive in the modern day?

Suddenly realize I have no idea how long birds actually live for. Tell everyone to take a smoke break so I can google some things.

Begin to sweat when Snowy Owls generally live 10 years.

Quietly panic when I find that vampire blood burns out of a creatures within a month, meaning no extension of life or loyalty.

Hold my breathe as I realize I'm in too deep with this character to retcon anything.

New plan: Roll with whatever comes to mind.

Come back to group and tell them not to worry about anything until their characters are able to ask these questions themselves. Buy at least 3 sessions by playing to the Party's attention deficit.

Begin session 1.

Party is Motley Crew. Starts trouble everywhere they go. Breaks shit without hesitation. Go full Scorched Earth at first sign of trouble.

Being independent they have no idea what a "masquerade" is since I forgot to make it an important part of their backstories. Ends up fighting other clans that are simply trying to keep the peace.

Enter the Bird Boi.

In a moment of genius, decide Jinx is a super natural being. Solves the age problem and gives the party someone who will give them a fighting chance to learn how to be creatures of the night socially.

He begins to display powers that grant quick fixes to the crew's more minor screw ups. Watched enough Fullmetal Alchemist to bullshit most fixes via transmutation.

Isn't an entirely reliable solution to most problems.

Is still dumbass bird weilding god-like powers. Isn't exactly reliable in general and only ever acts when situation is dire.

Fixes only lasts long enough to ensure masquerade is held.

Keeps Jinx from being fix-all.

Somehow promotes more critical thinking. Party starts to consider beforehand if Jinx has the ability to fix their given situation, or even the willingness to. Being dumbass bird, he'll sometimes accidentally monkey paw a request due to misunderstanding the context and finding what he's willing to bargain with can be more work for the players than just fixing the problem themselves.

Sessions start go by so well that I forget to mention if he's even there.

Party takes note of my fuck up.

Next session begins with Crew meeting at Tzimisce's Haven for the evening. Conversation works towards questioning Merik about Jinx's whereabouts lately.

Player fimbles roleplay ball and states she has no idea. Hasn't seen him.

Literally drops it on everyone, myself included, that she's not his keeper. Didn't sign up for this shit. Considers him more of a childhood friend since she took care of him as a hatchling. Realize I could have dropped him at any point and it wouldn't have bothered her.

Get dumbass idea.

A grimy naked homeless man suddenly slinks into meeting room. Starts talking to everyone like an old friend, makes himself obnoxiously comfortable despite sending everyone into immediate high alert.

Tzimisce of the group begins to have a fucking aneurysm. Demands to know how some rando just made his way to his guarded Haven without triggering the pamphlet full of safeguards and heavy security.

Ask him if he says any of it in character.

He pauses for a moment, confirms he does.

Decide to bullshit power the situation.

Guy explains he just walked through.

Tzimis doesn't buy it. Lists off death traps, guards and other shit. Pulls out pamphlet with building design, reference notes, and illustrations. Thrusting it in my face that it's vampire proof.

Guy sticks to story, unphased

Tizmis pulls gun on him.

Surprised he didn't start with that.

Guy proves claim by phases his hand through the table. (No he's not a Phantom. You're welcome for getting that stuck in your head.)

Whole group is taken a back.

Guy wonders why everyone is so hostile towards him. Begins to try and peck at his chest to itch it. Fails to do so. Curses his lack of neck.

Party takes a smoke break so they can continue to deal with my bullshit.

Party concludes that Bird is now Boy.

To quote, "One Bird Boi bath later," Jinx explains how he came to be this way, all the while fighting off every attempt to make him wear pants. (He's usually a naked bird, felt like being an asshole)

While flying around one night he noticed a suspicious group of people with Snake tattoos hiding out around Merik's place. When he got closer he could hear that they were planning, to bag Merik. Protective instincts take hold, he swoops in and starters pecking at eyes and clawing the assailants. Going as far to actually pull one of their eye's out.

After the scuffle, Jinx remarks that he began to feel strange. Finds somewhere safe to lay low and recover for a while. After some strange dreams he woke up in a human body with no idea how to change back. Only managed to find Crew due to a new found sense of direction.

They manage to get him to compromise on wearing kilts. Seemed fitting.

Following week, am listening to YouTube, just letting random go, hear about Owl of Athena. Start to wonder if there's more Mushu/Mulan set ups in history I can abuse for story.

Only find Johan of Arc. It's suggested to be same owl as Athena. Roman Catholic, go figure.

Get invested in the idea of Jinx being this mascot for godly avatars.

Begin search in Egyptian gods to match Merik's theme.

Find Horace. Find that despite Horace being most commonly depicted as a Hawk- commoner shrines could depict him as just about any bird. He and Set are enemies.

Start to shit pants at the perfection.

Horace is missing an eye with his power in it and needs to collect shards to reclaim his power.

Can't fucking believe the coincidence that Jinx just ripped some Set follower's eye out and suddenly gained more power.

Start moving Followers of Set in full force. Every little underhanded thing that happens now leads back to the Followers. Start encountering raid boss-like "Amped Vamps" to match up with the Crew's perpetual murder practices that have reached such a level- nearly each of them is built to face down tanks in one way or another. Jinx starts developing new powers after each encounter. Begin to see the gears in motion as party starts to connect the dots.

Decide it's time to establish solid plot. Invade the Ventrue's Haven, catching most of the Motley Crew with their pants down as Brujah duo is not present. (The heavy hitters of the group)

Follower's of Set demand Merik be turned over to them in exchange for their unlives.

Ventrue displays he's read the easy-read notes for "Art of the Deal."

Is built socially to argue with God on account of being business man and rest of party barely speaks above "Unga-bunga, Yabba dabba DESTROY."

His dice explode on 10's (counting the roll as a success and getting to roll that die again at chance for another success).

Burns all the luck of the Irish, and maybe some Scottish.

Dice don't quit exploding like a Mexican fireworks truck on the 4th of July.

Eventually have to ask him to stop rolling.

Ventrue basically has free reign to talk shit without consequence for remainder of encounter.

Demands to know what's going on. Followers have direct orders from Set to collect Merik. Didn't say why. Didn't really care, they are commanded to do.

Admit Motley Crew's two Brujah have been the real problem up to this point. Sick of getting their teeth kicked in, things have come to diplomacy.

Ventrue tells them to pay in gold or piss off. He's got shit to do, the only time he makes for an ass kicking is when he makes a whole evening out of it.

Followers agree to price, but refuse to pay in advance.

Ventrue orders ghoul servant to piss on their shoes to make a point.

Follower takes ghoul's head over the insult.

Ventrue reveals he's been stalling for time. Lying to their faces that he's got a personal silent alarm for calling the Brujah and that they're bound to arrive any second. Out of respect for offering a business deal, permits them enough time to leave if they truly intend to pay for his services. However, wants to be clear that he's only doing this because he's not feeling very... murderous tonight. No, no, his special toolset has been very neglected lately, and he knows for a fact that the Tzimisce has been in need of a new plaything recently since he got bored with the last one and made it into a table.

Feeling good impressions have been made, Follower's politely leave.

They happen to catch sight of one of the Brujah walking up as they drove away just for a laugh.

The moment Merik and Jinx show up the Ventrue loses all composure. Starts waving his Desert Eagle around like a scene out of Boondock Saints. Demands to know what's going on between Merik and the "snake fuckers." Is done with band of discount Sytherin cosplayers taking the piss out of his evenings. Orders personally tailored suit made entirely out of snake skin. Designs perversed take on "Don't Tread On Me" icon depicting Follower's snake emblem getting curb stomped for the back of jacket.

"Stomp It Out" logo is born.

Merik genuinely has no idea what's going on. Honestly thinks the Followers of Set just hate Gangrels. Jinx hesitantly begins to explain.

Since they've been collecting his power back through encounters with Amped Vamps, Jinx has also been regaining some memories.

Begin to explain Hawkman levels of bullshit reincarnation. This not being the first time he's been her companion, or the first time she's been a vampire.

Due to reasons still outside his memory, Set has constantly tried to kill Merik before she can reach a godlike state. Keeping the two separated from their eternity together. Could lose Merik anytime as she is and he'll have to sacrifice what power he has just to bring her back. Is vicious cycle. No one questions if this is toxic as fuck or super romantic.

From here, the game started to die out due to work schedules conflicts and out-of-game drama. Merik's player just stopped coming to game although because one of the Brujah's started overseeing every little thing she did, being the most high chaos player and the highest priority target. Tried to sort things out so plot could continue as planned, but they fought out-of-game and from there it was completely out of my hands.

Was able to note a few instances that gave signs she was a jackle thanks to Protean; making her the female representation of Anubis. But we'll never know what this crazy storyline would have come to since Merik was out and it didn't make sense to carry on the plot without her.

That's the story of how not knowing enough about owls started a major plot point in my game.

#vtm #vtm rp #homebrew

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stupid-sloot-headcanons · 2 years

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My hero academia if it was good, you mean the one punch man manga?

Ok first of all, BNHA WISHES it was OPM in terms of quality lol

Like yes, they both include a deconstruction of superheroes (I know, I know, it's an overused term 🥺) but in the manga, Garou's the only major villain with that similar message of "we live in a society" so he gets so much more screentime compared to the wonky balancing act that is the League. Like I like series with a cast of thousands, but it has the major problem of only some characters getting actual development and screentime while the others are background-tier. But fuck it, Monoma got to be relevant again so I can't bitch too hard

OPM is iirc a seinen manga while BNHA is a shonen, meaning Murata and ONE have a lot more leeway to go as dark or gory as they wanna be. I'm honestly surprised with how much Hori convinced his editor was OK to put in Jump, and I think he mentioned his original idea was more dark than what BNHA wound up being. You also get to see pelvic veins in OPM, meaning it's got one point extra by default and it's not as awkward when some women characters are sexualized. Like I love Midnight! I like how she has like...a character and personality in Vigilantes and shit! But her bdsm aesthetic is a little off when she's a high school teacher yk? Like that sexy dominatrix monster bitch from OPM exists, but she's specifically in a setting with mostly adult characters being turned into love slaves.

And I'm not saying OPM is perfect (that would be Mob Psycho 100, but I digress). Puri Puri Prisoner is only tolerable to me in fanon, sort of like Magne lol. The pacing has been slow as fuck between Murata's countless redraws, and the changes from the webcomic counterparts makes the same characters VERY different between manga and webcomic. That isn't always bad, sometimes it's better in my opinion and sometimes I don't like it as much.

I also think Saitama's a great example of a static character. He's already hit his peak so things just tend to happen around him and he's nonplussed by a lot of it. And he's a weirdly accurate depiction of a depressed person imo. Deku's alright and I like the little guy, but he also has an abundant supply of superpowers stowed in his asshole that he just fuckin...got. And they aren't interesting either. He can punch good AND kick good now, he can float, he can use a black whip thing. Remember? He got them from those vestiges we barely saw and only got the slightest bit of backstory and personality for?

I also prefer OPM's writing because BNHA tends to do more "tell/don't show" than I can stand. That's one of my least favorite things about shonen as a whole though, so it isn't exclusive to BNHA.

I do appreciate Hori's writing for Endeavor, though. I'll give the guy shit but writing an abusive father realizing what he's done, accepting that his family has no obligation to forgive them, and wanting to change with that intrinsic goal of being better? That's very uncommon and I have to give props. For all the BNHA stans screeching about everyone condoning Endeavor's actions and him not regretting it or being selfish, the motherfucker has outright said many times "I don't expect you to forgive me, and you don't have to." And I like Hori giving each family member a different reaction to it, Dabi included. Abuse victims are not a hivemind, and all their reactions are valid and semi realistic to me.

Also the man's given us plenty of muscle mommies in this series. So his writing can't be a 0/10. Mirko, that super American beefsteak bitch, that sexy rehash of Hawks's character arc who got shafted immediately after her introductory arc...

Okay, so they're not the best written characters, but still 💪muscle mommy.

#sloot's essays #sloot bitches about things #.bnha #anyway if you want the bnha setting with a tighter story/smaller cast/no padding read vigilantes #Midnight does stuff in it! and like...is a character! an interesting one too!

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featherburnt · 2 years

Photo

➟ TIL THE HURT IS GONE: BLOODFEATHER

Title: Introductions Part #: 0 Pairing: Hawks x m!OC Word Count: N/A Tags: None, but I feel it necessary to outline my intentions for this fic as well as the themes that will be present and give a special shoutout.

Story Summary: For three years, the hero Hellhound has been hunting, infiltrating groups of villains and probing for information in his search for one named Sonata, the former hero Prisma. A U.A. graduate, he should know better. He should be protecting civilians, hunting down villains when ordered, but his heart lingers on the pains of old memories, the hot desire for retribution burning in his chest. On one fateful night, when the enemy is locked in his sights, a man with vermillion wings snuffs the flames seated in his palms, using his words to burrow under his skin like a fowl little bug. What will he do then? Will he continue his hunt, or will boiling blood finally cool?

Bloodfeather Chapter Masterlist

Hello, and welcome! I wanted to give this story the proper introduction it deserves instead of just an ordinary, boring character file without any context because I know that doesn’t do it any justice, nor does it necessarily appeal to anyone’s interest whatsoever. Neither will an introduction, but hey, at least there’ll be an understanding of what’s to come and of the nature of the story itself. So, without further ado…

As corny as this sounds, the entirety of this story is an experiment meant to test and push the boundaries of my own writing. I’ll be playing around with and exploring a number of ideas in terms of both technique and actual content. The reason for that is over time, I’ve grown insecure, disappointed, and dissatisfied with my writing, and my stints in roleplay have only caused it to suffer. It’s a lot harder to structure a story as it should be because I’m so used to writing one character at a time and waiting for another person to reply so I can continue. That constant game of reply, wait, reply, wait, ideas don’t match up and thread suffers, reply, wait, over and over again gave me nothing to really strive for. Like being comfortable in a dead-end job. Granted, I do believe roleplay has its purpose and, every now and again, I still enjoy it, but that’s beside the point. This story is meant to help me get a grip on story-telling as a whole, to get used to telling a story from different perspectives, to continue a scene, to try new ways of transitioning and implementing different stylistic choices as well as expand on my vocabulary, description, action scenes, and more. I don’t want to keep getting stuck in the same loop because, if I do, I’ll never be able to write the books I want to write or get published. And that simply will not stand.

I have dreams and I aim to make them come true one day, like everyone else, and sitting here, letting my ability to write crumble away, will not get me anywhere close to realizing that dream.

Now, onto the meaty bits.

For all intents and purposes, I love Hawks, just as I love my original characters, but the story isn’t technically about him. While it does include him to a substantial degree, even to the point of a slow-burn potential love interest, a friend, accomplice and partner, it’s not really about him. For about half the story, it’s about Saryn, who is a hero unto himself despite some of the mistakes he’s made. It’s about Saryn overcoming his guilt and sadness, as well as his anger; Truly, it’s about a grieving young man who simply just can’t let go of the things that’ve hurt him so, even the things he’s forced himself to forget. It’s about a man who needs, desperately, a lifeline he can follow back to shore when he’s lost at sea. It’s about a man who needs a friend, someone who won’t use and abuse him. It’s about a man who, against all odds, comes to trust the people around him, to open up and accept the help or affections offered to him, and through that, he becomes softer. Gentler. Less hideously agonized or enraged by the world. It’s about that man learning to accept his own faults, to accept that things change, to accept that he can’t change the past, to accept that killing himself over it won’t fix anything or absolve anyone or himself of sin. Saryn is a deeply broken and misunderstood individual, always coming off as bristly and hardheaded. He doesn’t trust anyone, nor does he have any hopes that he will ever be able to live up to his own expectations for what constitutes as a hero, and he struggles with even wanting to be one at all. And while his story is long and, insofar, scene-by-scene, and while it may include a number of difficult subjects, this story is by and large about him meeting new people, rekindling old friendships, and regaining his place in hero society as well as proving he was always a hero, and maybe he needed a little help to become one for himself.

That being said, Hawks will not fall by the wayside here. In fact, he plays a dominant role throughout the entirety of the story and just because the first half isn’t necessarily about him, I’m not going to forget about his story. He exists sort of side-by-side with Saryn, though his primary focus in the beginning will be Saryn himself. I plan to slowly reveal bits and pieces about him, or hint at them at the very least, but because I do plan to work in the PLF and War arcs, I don’t want to reveal too much too soon. As Hawks and Saryn deepen their relationship, more details will come forth but they will be sparing, as my interpretation of Hawks is certainly outwardly playful, confident, and the like, but not necessarily forthcoming about personal details. In effect, he’ll be tight-lipped when it comes to himself, and he may even make mistakes, stupid and easily avoidable ones, but my biggest goal is actually to humanize him. Bring him a bit closer to earth. Not that I don’t think he’s a down-to-earth type, but it’s my way of honoring his character in the manga. As cocky and playful as he sometimes is, he knows when he needs to be serious and he knows how much he can get away with before he arouses suspicion or gets someone angry with him. I know he has a big heart and is working toward his own goal, changing ‘hero society’ and the attitudes toward it in Japan, and, trust, this too shall be included. I know how important it is to him as a character, as it is one of his biggest motivations throughout the manga and anime.

Overall, the tone of the story is going to be incredibly serious and while it may sometimes have the feel (hopefully) of an episode of an anime, it’s going to lack a lot of the humor. There will be some humorous scenes, some levity, but that’s not the genre and will never be a dominating aspect of this story. The goal is to address guilt, survivor’s guilt, various mental health issues, darker content in the vein of torture, canon-typical violence, drug use and trafficking, manipulation, abuse, memory alteration, murder, assault, sexual assault, revenge, character growth, overcoming fear and properly battling one’s demons, and many more. As I’m a fan of darker content and the complications of life, the goal with using these themes is to more or less marry reality to the world of MHA and deepen my understanding of these themes as well as the world itself. Moreover, a number of these themes I have very unfortunate personal experience with, so, in a way, this story will serve as a means of dealing with them. As an example, I didn’t lose my mother, but I did lose my sister last year, and I’ve never really had parents. I’ve lost a number of friends and gone through a disturbing amount of bullshit of my own, and while I may project just a bit onto Saryn, everything has been twisted and exaggerated to such a degree of hyperbole, it’s unrecognizable from my own life struggles. With that, I ask you to please understand the twists and turns this story will take and to respect that it’s going to be tough to get through, should you decide to read it through.

Additionally, if anything jumps out at you, confuses or frustrates you, or you read something you really like throughout the story, I encourage you to leave a comment and let me know. I’d love to hear your thoughts or suggestions, or even just plain commentary! Please, tell me your thoughts! Tell me everything. Tell me what you like, what you hate, what you want to see more of, less of, tell me which characters you’re rooting for, tell me if you think Saryn’s a whiny baby (because he is). Tell me if you think Nogitsune or Tarot is a bastard. Tell me everything! I want to know, genuinely, from the bottom of my heart, what you think. Any and all feedback is welcome, so long as it’s respectfully given. It’s feedback that will help me push the story forward, fix certain things, find motivation to continue writing, and so on. While I may be writing this story largely for myself, I chose to share it here for a reason. So! If you see something that jumps out at you, give me a holler! It would be much appreciated.

Lastly, I wanted to issue one of many more thank yous to the artist I commissioned for the artwork I use in some of my headers. @galair does fantastic work always and I aim to continue supporting them in their craft for as long as they continue to create art; They are truly wonderful to work with and they always bring to life exactly what I imagine, and I'm incredibly grateful I came upon their artwork when I did. If ever you, the readers, are looking for someone to commission, please consider them!

In closing, I appreciate you for having stuck around to read this and the story that follows. I hope I’m able to accomplish the goals I’ve laid out and that you enjoy the story as it unfolds, even the painful parts. It would bring me nothing but joy to know that it brings comfort, excitement, intrigue, or whatever else to anyone who reads it. It’s not perfect and likely never will be, but I hope to bring to the table a story many others can enjoy and characters some might feel a sense of kinship with, characters you might feel for.

Thank you for reading!

DISCLAIMER: I claim no ownership of any established characters in My Hero Academia. I claim no ownership over My Hero Academia. My Hero Academia is rightfully owned by Horikoshi. I do, however, claim ownership over my own original characters used in this story, including Saryn, Tarot, Nogitsune, Crovita, Black Knight, Faith, Zenko, Hatsukawa Teiko, Violet A'larosa, Lightbringer, Prisma, Kioku Nusumi, Saboteur, Ripper, Jawbone, Garrett Nolan, Bianca Everette, Yami-itsu no Mae, La Pocalypse, and some as yet unnamed characters. Any differences from canon are purely based on personal headcanon and interpretation and, again, I claim no ownership whatsoever over My Hero Academia or its established canon and characters.

#bloodfeather #this isn't required to read in order to enjoy the story #but i figured i'd still post it here as it is an official announcement of my intentions with this fic

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