#sky's backstory is gonna be so angsty

[sonnburn]

For the sake of argument, let’s say that the novel perspective of the Prapaisky first meeting —where Prapai is clearly joking with Sky about trading sex for safe passage— is what was intended for the characters in episode 8, it just didn’t translate well from the book to the show. With that context, Prapai and Sky’s first meeting comes down to a massive case of miscommunication.

If Sky knew Prapai— knew that his arrogant, cocky attitude was just him joking around and trying to get a reaction out of him, he would have known he could refuse him freely. He could have pushed back without consequence, he was safe to do so. But in that moment, Sky was trapped in a dangerous situation— one in-part related to his asshole ex, where he feared everyone else present there were also assholes, and he’s being propositioned into having sex to be allowed to leave. Prapai is a stranger, Sky has no idea what this guy’s personality is like, no idea he was joking, he just assumed from the request and dire circumstances that he was being serious. Probably because that kinda thing was something his ex would do, and Sky had no reason to assume Prapai was any different. Sky thought he had no choice but to agree to it, so he did.

Prapai is the same as Sky in that he doesn’t know Sky. He doesn’t even know why he’s at the race since Sky is stubbornly staying quiet. He knows nothing about his history, his trauma, or his experience with people coercing these kinds of things out of him. Prapai thinks Sky is in on the joke, he thinks he is flirting back, playing into the fake threat as a form of roleplay. So Prapai reads his signals as mutual interest and goes along with it because he is attracted to Sky and he’s the kind of guy who sleeps around anyway. So if Sky is agreeing to it, then he must be okay with it, so why not take him home and have a little fun if that’s what they both want?

This set-up hurts because they are both reading the situation completely wrong! Since they’re strangers meeting for the first time, they both make all the worst assumptions about each other. Prapai is genuinely intrigued by Sky, he even asks for his name and number after-the-fact because he wants to see him again. When Sky leaves without a word, he just assumes he’s playing hard to get and doesn’t realize anything is wrong. But because Sky wasn’t in on the joke, he doesn’t recognize the sincerity in Prapai’s attempts at getting his contact info and he leaves feeling resentful and used— cementing his first impression of Prapai as a manipulative asshole who threatened him into having sex. When Prapai was actually just flirting with him and still fully believes the sex was consensual.

AND NOW Sky thinks that all Prapai wants from him is sex because he doesn’t realize that Prapai’s been genuinely interested in him from the start, and Prapai assumes that Sky must already know he’s seriously interested in him BECAUSE he had sex with him! Prapai has no idea why Sky would doubt his interest in him, he thinks he’s made it obvious, meanwhile Sky has EVERY reason to doubt Prapai’s interest in him because of his own sex-related trauma that Prapai unknowingly triggered.

God, these two are making my head spin! They’re gonna feel so bad when/if they figure it all out.

#love in the air #love in the air the series #prapaisky #paisky #lita #lita sky #lita prapai #love in the air sky #love in the air prapai #these poor dudes #they're not just on different pages they are reading completely different books #the frustration of miscommunication #sky's backstory is gonna be so angsty #i'm here for it #inject it into my veins #Payurain was the fluff now I'm here to suffer #it's hurt/comfort hours baby! #lita spoilers #i guess???

[ineadhyn]

Writer interview

@vixstarria tagged me and I finally get to do it! Thank you <3

I am tagging @sky-kiss @scuttlingcrab and @thedomesticanthropologist

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

13 and some are multi-chapter. All are BG3 except for a german Inkheart one

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

85.408 -that is a surprising amount of words for being active less than a year

3. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

His consort, his god - I finally wrote smut for a popular ship XD (bloodweave)

At her mercy - kinky sapphic Karlach x Durge smut

Natures most beloved treasure - Halsin x trans masc Tav smut

Direct from Hell Logistics - ongoing Raphael x Haarlep comedy/angst/smut/plot - this one has it all

A song of snow and embers and Copper Hearts share this place. one is a F/F/F/F foursome and the other my Astarion x male Tav longfic

4. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I appreciate every single comment and try to show that. There's nothing better than the e-mail that says "comment on your work" and it can make my whole day. Sometimes I don't know what to respond if it's just a word or a keybord smash, but rest assured I see you and I love every one of those, too.

5. What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Angsty ending hmmmm. Because some of my stuff is not completed yet I am not gonna spoil anything but Dust and ash about Astarion's backstory was naturally quite angsty

6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

Not. gonna. spoil XD

7. Do you write crossovers?

Not yet. Maybe I could count Copper hearts because I took Francys from my original work and planted him into Bg3

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

No, not yet.

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

I do. I am exploring all kinds atm with preferably queer pairings wlw or mlm or nb. I can also write mlw from the men's perspective but not the other way round :D

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not as far as I know.

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Boy I wish.

12. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No and I am not sure if I could commit to a project like that.

13. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

Hmmmmm ... Raphlep probably

14. What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

My german Inkheart fic with a genderbent lesbian Basta. Damn I was invested in creating this character, but gave up after a while because it was a lot of work and it being german and a niche topic in a small fandom was not very rewarding tbh. I know I should not care and maybe I'll come back to it when the Inkheart obsession comes over me again.

15. What are your writing strengths?

I am good at setting the scene. Atmosphere and small mundane details that make the setting feel alive. I have always liked that in reading as in writing, because it makes you feel like you are actually there when you can hear and smell and taste the scene.

Also I am okay at developing coherent plot, but that's mainly practice from writing a lot of og work before I started with fics.

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

I still struggle with english grammar and punctuation at times so I always have a beta reader. And I am lucky to have great ones.

17. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I am not a fan. It confuses me. Singular phrases and such yes, but not entire dialogue. Especially if it's german in an english fic I get super confused.

18. What was the first fandom you wrote for?

*digs through her files* So, my first works were basically fic for my best friend's story. (I was in my early teens.) But since she was the author the lines between canon and fic are blurry and the "fandom" consisted of three people of which one was the author XD

So if we don't count that the first one would be Hunger Games - It was one chapter and I never published it

19. What’s a fandom/ship you haven’t written for yet but want to?

We'll see what posesses me next I guess, though I think Bg3 will stay with me for a considerable amount of time. And ship wise ... I feel Durgetash creeping up on me.

20. What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

Definitely Direct from Hell Logistics. I am having so much fun with it. It constantly makes me laugh and sheme and I also feel all the angst. Also it is ongoing and I get to explore the story alongside the readers (though I have a rough plot structure to keep me on track).

#bg3 #raphael fic #astarion fic #ao3 writer #bg3 fanfiction #my writing

[bess3714]

Finally watched Black Adam and here are some of my thoughts on it. Keep in mind that I don't know anything about any of these characters from the comics, so all my opinions are based on the movie alone. Also, spoilers for the movie ahead! (But I'm guessing everyone has seen it by now)

1. Al Rothstein/Atom Smasher and Maxine Hunkel/Cyclone didn't need to be there.

Neither Maxine nor Al contributed to the plot. The shots of Cyclone using her powers were so so so pretty and fun, while Atom Smasher's powers were the old classic 'get big, smash things'. I liked them, they just didn't really serve a purpose. It's fine for a character to not contribute much to the plot, but they at least need some development. Maxine riding a bike and wearing a quirky outfit in her first scene just doesn't cut it. (No hate for that outfit though, it was pretty cute.) Al was mostly there for comic relief, and while it was funny to see him knock Hawkman out of the sky, it really wasn't necessary. The one good scene with them was when Maxine is fixing up Karim and Al is super impressed. It was a nice interaction between them, and I could see some potential there for further character development, but we just didn't get it. I assume they'll be showing up in a future movie sometime, (at least I hope so!) but they didn't need to be in this one.

2. Carter Hall aka Hawkman aka Angry Justice Man

WHY was he so mad about Adam?? I seriously thought the movie was going to drop some angsty backstory between the two of them, but nope, Carter was just really mad at Adam for no good reason. Seriously, this is his job. Does he get this mad about other supervillains he has no personal connection to?

3. Adrianna's speech about the Justice Society was FIRE

She chewed Hawkman and Dr. Fate out for not showing up to help when her country was invaded and people were suffering, but conveniently showing up to save them when Black Adam woke up (aka only when there was suddenly a threat to the USA, and the rest of the world). It was a pretty solid speech

4. The "Kill off the old guy, because we need a little tragedy and killing off the young guy is too much tragedy" trope

Kent Nelson/Dr. Fate was pretty cool. He gave off big "I'm Tired and Would Like a Nap But The World Won't Leave Me Alone" vibes. I think he and Carter paired nicely together, what with Carter's intense "I have zero chill" about literally everything. Unfortunately, poor Dr. Fate fell into one of my pet peeve tropes of "kill the old guy cause it's not as sad!" I don't know what the name of this trope actually is, but once I started seeing it, it really started to bug me. Like, I love a good old fashioned one-character-sacrifices-themself-for-everyone, because you can really get a lot of angst and emotion out of it and I love watching characters go through The Sufferings, but when it's the oldest member of the group its like, oh well, knew it would be him, he was gonna die soon anyway, moving on.

5. Carter's whole "killing people is bad" spiel was correct in that something bad actually happened!

Yeah, when you live in a universe with magic, sometimes people just don't stay dead. Instead, they come back as the Big Bad to kill your group's Old Guy! In all seriousness, I don't think this movie did that bad of a job handling the old "to kill or not to kill" question. I wouldn't say they did a great job, but it could have been worse. The movie wanted you to root for Adam, but there were definite consequences to him killing people, like not having anyone to question when they were looking for Amon, or creating the Big Bad. (Remember kids, consequences of your actions, whether good or bad, is where a story comes from!) I would have liked to see a little bit of "killing invaders isn't murder, it's war, so the rules are different," to go along with the "killing people is bad" and the "killing people is fine" philosophies because that would have made for an interesting story, but this movie just did not have the depth for that.

6. Hey look, it's Amanda Waller! (shoots on sight)

How can Viola Davis make me feel such seething, unfathomable rage towards a character when she only appears on-screen for like, five minutes? I assume it's talent. Sobs because I wish I was as cool as her. Amanda Waller is my favorite character to despise. Also, why is Mr. Justice-and-Due-Process-and-Killing-is-Bad working with Ms. I-Put-Bombs-in-People's-Heads-to-Make-Them-Work-for-Me? It seems like there's a bit of a disconnect there.

7. Hey look, it's Dwayne Johnson playing Dwayne Johnson! (cries)

Okay, so Johnson did a decent job being not-himself. Adam was a serious character, and it was nice to see Johnson play him that way, a big difference from the more comedic roles he always seems to be in. My biggest issue was his voiceover when he was explaining the whole thing about Hurut actually being the champion, cause that was all the Rock. For a character angry and grieving enough to slaughter the king and a bunch of bystanders, Johnson didn't sound particularly angry or grieving. I wanted some emotion in that speech. Then afterwards he turned himself over to Carter? There was not enough emotion in that speech for him to do that, no sir.

8. In conclusion, this movie was pretty decent. I definitely wasn't blown away by it or anything, but it was enjoyable enough to watch and maybe even rewatch

#al rothstein #maxine hunkel #black adam #teth adam #kent nelson #doctor fate #carter hall #hawkman #black adam 2022 #due to inflation my opinion is worth ten cents

[lilalbatross]

5, 10, 15, 16, 19, 27, 29, 30 for the ao3 ask meme <33

oh boy okay here we go

5. What work of yours got more feedback than you expected?

definitely Anything for you, my Shoresy fic. teeny tiny fandom for a weird niche canadian hockey comedy, but the response i got was really lovely and it's somehow in my top 5 for kudos, comments, and bookmarks. that was the first thing i posted after a couple brutal months for mental health and writers block, so those comments and stuff are really special to me

and then a special mention to chapters 6 and 7 of Austin Alone because people came fucking flying out of the woodwork to scream at us within the first couple hours of posting lmao i don't think i'll ever see anything like that ever again

10. What work was the quickest to write?

oh hands down it's What the fuck is with the spatula?, which i wrote in a single 4ish-hour sitting and a lot of that time was spent rewatching the Are You The One? ep they're watching so i could get the sequence of events right lmao. look, i just have a lot of feelings about drunk idiots brute forcing their way through complex probability with a spatula, and i needed to project that onto my otp

15. What WIP are you taking into next year with you?

dragging the carcasses of so many half-written fics, but trying to actively work on Acesodyne, which is a billy x owen post-1x07 multichap canon divergence about injury and music and grief and healing and i’m trying not to let it spiral out of control and it may not ever get posted even if i do finish it but hey we’ll give it a shot.

also determined to actually finish Downpour, which literally started as just “i bet if they stood in the rain Billy’s hair would get in his face and it would be cute and Owen would kiss him about it” and somehow turned into a bit of a trauma and body worship thing??? idk don’t ask me i don’t have any answers but i do have a 2.5k partial draft that i should put some hours into

16. What’s your most common “Additional Tags” tag?

lol it's "Established Relationship" from all my billy x owen oneshots where they're together at the start and i'm not giving you all the fucking backstory for how that happened, just jump in and we're off.

(...but also you and i know that the "how that happened" is usually Austin Alone if people know what details to look for lmao)

19. What’s one pairing you want to explore next year?

i don’t see myself drifting away from billy x owen any time soon, so definitely gonna keep thinking about those bastards more than literally anybody else in this fandom (except you lol). i also want to do more Shoresy/Goody. i wrote the one oneshot, but i have a multichap outline that needs some massaging and i think could be interesting. and i get to slam more canadiana into fic, which i really can’t do when all my other shit takes place in texas lmao

and then i’m sure i’ll get surprised by a pairing and end up spitting out something isn’t even on my radar yet. who knows, maybe i’ll finally find a Ted Lasso pairing that i want to write about. Colin and...[insert name here idk we’ll see but if i write about anyone it’ll probably be Colin]

27. What do you listen to while writing?

*gestures vaguely at my entire spotify wrapped* no but seriously. depends on the fic but i’ll generally have a playlist, album, or even song that i loop for each fic. sitting there long after midnight had a very angsty playlist. touch the sky and bite the asphalt was Maneskin’s album Teatro d’ira hence the fic title. i’m pretty sure with a gift for burning was Let Me Drown by Orville Peck. Acesodyne’s playlist is heavier on acoustic guitar/pop-punk because it’s a lot of songs that i know how to play on guitar so i can connect a physicality to what i’m trying to write

29. Favorite line/passage you wrote this year?

gonna resist every bone in my body that wants to be self-deprecating and couch this with all the weaknesses i see etc etc. big fan of this paragraph from with a gift for burning:

So many voices he wants to hear tonight. Numbers he knows by heart, burned into his muscle memory and connected to nothing. Harkes’ line had stayed in service the longest. Nobody canceled his contract, and it rang to voicemail for months before the unpaid bills piled up and his line was cut off. Billy called, again and again on bad nights, until his mouth shaped the words in time with Harkes’ rhythm. “Yo, it’s Jake. Leave a message if you want, but you should have just texted.” The last time he called, a confused teenage girl picked up and Billy threw his phone against the wall.

I was a little drunk when i wrote it, and then when i reread it i immediately had a moment of “oh :(” and then i knew i was onto some shit and it helped me break the direction the rest of the fic was gonna go lol

30. Biggest surprise while writing this year?

I did not expect my stuff to steer so hard into angst quite as much as it does???

but also in some ways biggest surprise was just that i...can... (don’t look at me)

send me ao3 wrapped questions if you want

#asks #long post #hello pal do you want an essay i have written you an essay

[charkyzombicorn]

Okay but what if luffy got his devil fruit a bit younger? Like he was 4ish when shanks brought it. Garp gets pissy earlier and decides to tie some balloons to his grandson and let the sky handle him while he makes arrangements with dadan.

But then it's a particularly bad day for luffy, and a strong wind carried him away from his island, he ends up falling right into one of the newer slave trader's ships and well fuck. He tried to fight them off but one of them has a collar with sea stone that the big boss person gives to every ship, even the smaller ones. So now luffy's fucked.

Since he's got a devil fruit, he's taken to the big boss child slave distributor asshole (put that on a business card) and then eventually gets taken to judge, because of course that dickhead would buy superpowered children. Judge gets him purely because rubber boy can take a hell of a walloping and also is stronger than the average four year old.

The vinsmoke brats and Sanji end up being pitted against Luffy and luffy does not win, but he doesnt die either so that's a plus. Sanji hates beating up a four year old, his brothers seem to love being able to punch something as much as they want without them being taken away or dying.

Luffy ends up learning how to fight by force, and eventually he's dubbed Sanji's fighting partner since they're both the weakest, which sucks because if sanji loses he gets locked up and if luffy loses then judge gives the other three brothers sharp objects and free time with luffy

Eventually luffy befriends sanji because of course he does, and loving food as much as he does he becomes the taste tester for sanji's cooking endeavors, and sometimes luffy manages to limp away to talk to sanji when he's in his cell.

When they escape, they escape together, and sanji becomes a bus boy and luffy just carries shit because he cant really do anything else but he could deadlift a ship at 10 so hey

When the attack happens, sanji's trying to save luffy, but zeff has to save him. Sanji sits on that rock almost certain that luffy's dead.

Luffy didn't die tho, because no, and he got saved, idk how, this is a writing prompt u figure it out, and they end up growing up apart for a bit after that. Luffy doesn't find his island again, but he does a bit of bounty hunting to get by and ends up making a name for himself because apparently his 'training' with the vinsmokes was a little more brutal than he thought.

Sanji works hard, he feels he owes a debt to both zeff and luffy, both of which helped him in some of his worse moments, and ends up a bit more edgy than in canon because he thinks his only friend is dead (push him to the edge🎶)

But then luffy gets blamed for something that was only really half his fault and half the random bandit he was fighting's fault, and he ends up with a bounty. It isn't a big one, just about 10000 berri, he kinda destroyed a bit more marine property than is recommended. But then sanji sees the bounty in the paper and he doesnt know if he should be glad his friend is alive or angry that luffy let him think he was dead.

But then luffy comes to the baratie when hes about 15-16, and then he sees sanji again and now he's super fuckin happy because how would luffy know sanji was alive?? They both came to the conclusion of mutual misunderstanding and lack of information after a bit of angst, because its sanji and luffy. But they get over it because they were both on the bottom end of the vinsmoke hellhole and does it really matter when they're reunited?

Zeff let's luffy steal sanji because it's been over a decade but luffy still wants to be the motherfuckin king, okay? And sanji's gonna be the cook for the pirate king and find the all blue because

Sanji becomes luffy's first mate and then start a sailing. Luffy attracts friends like a magnet, they get usopp next, and luffy kills kuro because luffy isn't as not-killerish as he is in canon because tragic backstory and if you leave a kid alone to be a bounty hunter long enough with only their own brain to make the morals, what do you expect will happen? Usopp joins because 'UwU piwate' is his opinion on the matter

They get nami, and sanji's a bit more chill than in canon because growing up with a guy that was also nice along with his sister and mother had a bit of an impact. He's still a bit if a french goth and treats nami better than other people but he isn't being a douche about a lady fighting or making faces quite as stupid.

Zoro joins but Does Not like sanji, which is mutual but luffy likes him so sanji must deal. They make their way toward the grand line, going back to the baratie, or what's left of it.

Sanji gets another thick layer of angst learning that while he was gone, don krieg destroyed the ship trying to steal it, and then they go to find don krieg, postponing grand line for a hot second because luffy wont leave until he gets to personally kick the ass of whoever made his cook so extra angsty, and sanji seconds that.

They find don krieg in Cocoyashi island, after crashing there with his broke ass ship. They fight him, the ruckus brings out arlong before Nami can attempt to lie to save them.

Sanji gets off one angst and gets it replaced with another when he can barely do shit because he was cooking all this time and is no longer as strong as luffy, who was only really working on fighting. Luffy almost dies because he has to fight both those shitheads back to back, but he wins.

Sanji starts getting more aggressive with zoro, and zoro only stays because he saw the fight and respects his captain, but that's a bit of a loose thing, ready to snap with a wrong move. Or maybe zoro leaves because he needed that fight with mihawk to realise this was serious and he was a pirate now, to each their own.

They stay in the east blue a little longer because luffy nearly died and they dont have a doctor, but he's fine. Sanji gets more guilt tho because that's how he is, and starts treating luffy nicer, which leads to luffy instigating a fight between the two of them because luffy wont swallow that shit. It helps things because violence is sometimes the answer

They head to the grand line, up reverse mountain, meet the whale, the whole shebang. Sanji might catch feels by this point because honestly who wouldn't?

Nami gets sick, and luffy doesn't know how to deal with that because back when he was being carted around with a sea stone collar and 30 other starving children, they just shot the ones that got sick. Ptsd time and guess who gets to help because zoro isn't first mate/here? Sanji! Which definitely puts things into perspective because for as long as he'd known him, luffy's tried his hardest to make sanji smile, and keep him company, even though after being bought luffy's only purpose was to be a stepping stone in sanji's development. So sanji finally being smacked across the face with the brunt of bottled up traumatized child luffy, he needs a fuckin smoke.

They find drum island and then same shit as canon, except it hits a bit harder with luffy carrying a dying nami and a heavily injured sanji up sheer rock because that's the only person that luffy had when shit got rough that he's holding between his teeth.

When sanji wakes up he probably notices how injured luffy is and can estimate the ringer he's been through because Sanji had to personally find out how luffy's healing factor worked because he was a good fraction of the reason luffy needed to heal so much.

They acquire a chopper :3

This is getting long and it's pretty much the end of my idea, sorry for the long informal post.

#one piece #lusan #i will take my leave

[volgdemagischewinx]

I wasn't gonna talk Fate but I saw your recent tags and- yes.

Riven was literally THE angsty character in OG winx. His character was MADE to even out how wholesome and goody everyone else was. He was a deliberate use of the "angry jerk angsty friend" trope. Some of the Winx had sad or even tragic backstories, but it is Riven who was the broody one.

So, being a trusting, faith having IDIOT I AM, I expected Fate, a "gritty remake for older audiences" to suck him dry for all the angst he has.

Not only have they bastardized his and Darcy's relationship (I'll get back to that) they also ruined his character. He was portrayed as a stupid, vapid poser, a cheery weasel, literally the only 2 times he was legit angry was when he finally fought with Sky, and when Musa read his emotions (OH I JUST GOT THOUGHTS ABOUT THAT TOO*). Other times he's chill, always cracking jokes, concerning himself with weed and memes. That is not Riven. Riven, og Riven, is angry, which is important because that's the starting point from which his character evolves (ignoring the latter seasons beating it to death).

Now, the relationship part. It's all summed up in "because you're a guy and I'm hot". OG Riven did NOT get with Darcy because she was hot. He got with her because she had manipulated him into thinking she's the only one who cares about him. She manipulated him into thinking BLOOM TRIED TO KILL HIM, AND THAT EVERYONE WAS OKAY WITH THAT. HE THOUGHT SHE SAVED HIS LIFE WHEN IT WAS HIS FRIENDS TRYING TO END IT. Then, in certain dubs, she further spells him, so he doesn't have a slimmest chance of thinking his way out of her clutches. In the dub in which he remarks on her looks, is when he's spelled into loving her. He calls her beautiful AFTER he lost all agency. That is not to say he'd otherwise think she's ugly, that's to say his beauty was never something that draw him to her. Every female character in the show is beautiful. He was never the type for skirt chasing. No matter the dub, his motivations had nothing to do with sex and Darcy was never "leading him by his dick". She led him by isolating him from his friends, ostracizing him from a support system he didn't know he had and making him think she's his only friend and that no one else cared. (Which is one of the tactics used by literal cults, so there's that. Even if he wasn't spelled, Riven, an emotionally unstable teen, was being manipulated by a person who's genetically gifted for messing with people's minds). Saying he betrayed his friends for a piece of ass is both a disservice to his character, and to Darcy. I don't think OG Darcy is above using her looks to get what she wants, but mind games are her primary thing. And it is what she enjoys. Reducing her to "p*ssy gets shit done" is offending to girlbosses everywhere, if I may be a bit cheeky here.

*And, sorry for the length, but I only realized while writing this how messed up it is for Fate to have Musa be invasive to Riven's emotions and borderline thoughts when those the exact things he had to endure with Darcy, which was a literal abusive relationship no matter how you spin it. (Even the specialists saw it, with Brandon in one of the dubs warning Riven that she wasn't his friend). And Musa, in OG never got a shortcut into understanding Riven. She BELIEVED there was good in him and she worked towards him letting her see it.

So Fate, instead of exploring the abusive relationship at hand, decided to give traits of Riven's abuser to the girl he's supposed to end up with in endgame. I also find it GROSS that they made light of S/A by having Riven pressure Sam, when they could have had a serious storyline about it with Riven and Darcy. As you and other anon said, it's just sad. She'd either completely remove his consent by spelling him, or use more mundane manipulation and pressure to push him into things he wasn't ready for. Because boys need to wait until they're ready, too, and they CAN be not ready even if there's a willing girl near them. It could have been a mature and serious and grim storyline that treats the painful subject with respect, but what did we get instead? Predator Riven.

Crikey.

Nothing to add here anon. You're right they did our boy dirty

#tho i am gonna be That Person and say I would have been extremely critical of them following the route of those dubs in any adaptation #an american company throwing something in in a dub does not make it part of the source material #and fate already americanized everything too much #somewhat related: this is also why it's dumb when people complain about fate!bloom not knowing she's adopted #fate has no rights but that's accurate to the source material #sorry i do have to occassionally be a salty european about this #winx club #fate the winx saga #netwinx critical #winx riven #ask wave #anon

[danteinthedevildom]

Thinks about your theory on the Lucifer Falling UR+ animation

Cries a little bit but in a good way

Ngl I LOVE that animation. There’s a lot that happens in such a short time, but it gives so much more backstory to both Lucifer and Satan. 

Like esp. just the way Lucifer himself is as he’s falling. 

Firstly that he’s in full demon form already. I’m so fuckin curious if he transformed as he Fell, or if he transformed in the Celestial Realm. Bc that provides two different lines of thought:

- If he transformed as he Fell, his (ex-)brothers saw him plummet looking beaten and bedraggled, but still angelic. They never saw the change, never saw what he became. The image of Lucifer they still have (or had, depending on if Lucifer has been seen by the Celestial Realm since the Fall) is that of a broken angel. So how much would it shock them (or have shocked, depending) to see him after? A proud, elegant demon, prim and poised, standing at Diavolo’s side? 

- If he transformed in the Celestial Realm itself, when? Was it a slow transformation? Did it happen in inches, pieces of his grace chipping away with each attack, a slow, agonising decay for his (ex-)brothers to watch, until before them stood a demon howling with fury? Or was it sudden? A blink, a heartbeat, a breath - and where once stood the brightest star, then stood a seething void? 

But also his wings. One set’s gone, and the others are damaged. We know he ripped them out, so when did he do that? Was that his first act of fury? Did his (ex-)brothers watch him tear them out with horror freezing their limbs, white feathers cascading around them? Or did he do it as his final act of rebellion, twisting and turning to grab great handfulls as he Fell through the sky, before the fight left him and the realisation set in? 

And the realisation did set in. The way he’s positioned, limp and listless - it’s so easy to imagine, from the animation, that Lucifer suddenly realised everything they’d been through and everything they’d lost once his rage had passed. That fury, that anger, the fire that had burnt hot and kept him going, slowing subsiding - and with it, every ounce of strength he’d been left with, now smoldering cinders and bare fumes. A slow, dawning realisation, staring out at nothing; lost in his thoughts, neither caring where he’s been nor where he’s going. 

Of course, we also see Satan’s creation. It’s as Lucifer’s Falling that Satan becomes aware. Which makes sense, admittedly; he’s a split after trauma, and after the heat of Lucifer’s anger has started to fade. You could almost imagine that as Lucifer goes numb, Satan gains thought; a slow, fluid transition, with a middling point where both are jointly aware and feeling. This, to me, would be the moment we see the tear - and why we see it from Satan’s point of view.

It’s beautiful food for thought if nothing else, and deliciously angsty. You can imply a lot of... whatever you want, really, just from the implications. So ofc I’m gonna go with the angstiest interpretation possible to share with y’all >:3c

#obey me #obey me lucifer #obey me satan

[secret-engima]

Here's something that might come outta left field, what fics do you recommend in the FFXV fandom?

Oooooo okay hmmm. Lemme see what I have. I warn you now that most of these are either short, time-travel, or Prompto angst, but I’ll try to add a little summary to each so you can pick what interests you:

https://archiveofourown.org/works/27588704 “Toward Daylight We Run” by SparkleMoose (here on Tumblr as @sparklecryptid) is a time-travel fixit involving Titus, who wakes up post being killed by Nyx with a case of confusion, anger, and le self-doubt, and a Glaive OC who died during the betrayal and who is very understandably angry at them. It’s gonna be a former-enemies-to-lovers thing eventually I think, and tho there’s only two chaps so far I recommend it (I recommend several of Moose’s actually, just watch the tags if you’re not into M-rated or have trigger warnings to look out for) This one does have trigger warning tags for suicidal thoughts and PTSD, so watch out for that.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/27912505/chapters/68351254 “From Neath Dark Waters”, another one by SparkleMoose! This one is an FFXIV Warrior of Light reborn as a street rat in Insomnia and adopted by Clarus, again, just getting started, but very feelsy and I love it. Moose also has cool Galahdian worldbuilding stuff which is always fun.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/23888788 “the Wound (A Place Where Light Enters)” Third one by SparkleMoose, featuring time-traveling Noctis and also a sort of time-traveling Warrior of Light named Azura who looks around, spots Noctis fighting someone and goes “welp time to go break someone’s face on behalf of a friend I guess” which is a great first impulse for a White Mage imho. These two are gonna be a ship and I love it. 

(honestly just go poke through SparkleMoose’s stuff on Ao3 and here on Tumblr, there’s quite a few FFXV fics and there’s bound to be at least a few you like. :D Just remember to read the tags first)

https://archiveofourown.org/works/26644129 “The Great Livestream Debacle” by Choke-a-bro. This is just humor/crack oneshot but it makes me laugh on days that need a pick me up. Basically, Noctis runs a tiny twitch channel playing really old RPGs without telling Ignis or Regis and ONE DAY a stray new viewer happens to realize, “huh, this guy looks like the prince” and it spiral wonderfully from there.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/27468421 “A Present for a Father” by illusorygardens. This is actually a little gift oneshot thing inspired by one of my AUs here on Tumblr (Clouds and Moonlit Skies) where a bunch of FFVII characters are reborn as various OCs and canon characters in FFXV. Zack is Noctis, Cloud is Prompto, Aerith is Luna, Titus is Sephiroth, and Rufus and Yuffie are reborn as Imperial Royal Twins with the world’s most terrible dad aka Emperor Aldercapt. So naturally Noctis has to prank the Emperor of Niflheim on their behalf.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/26667253/chapters/65038747 “Light in the Night Sky” by mokulule. If you’ve read my Deleantur and liked it, then absolutely 1000% give this a try. It’s inspired by Deleantur verse in the sense of “Noctis goes back to the time of Somnus and Ardyn” but it’s cheerfully wandering off in a very different direction and there is WORLDBUILDING and BACKSTORY and Ardyn and Aera being ADORABLE. Seriously it’s great. Again, it’s only got a few chaps on it, but I love it already and highly recommend.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/27611195/chapters/67550303 “Holding Secrets Like a Crystal” by LadyHallen. An AU where Monica Elshett is a telepath and proceeds to unknowingly wreck canon in all the best ways. It’s a 5 chap short story and I love it.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/18114572/chapters/42823973 “First Lightning, Then Thunder” by Nervous Otaku. This is a RAVUS time-travel fixit, 87 chaps long (tho the chaps are short) and fully completed. Basically Ravus dies, the Astrals think “Free Real Estate” and proceed to dump him into the past in the body of a Coeurl. It’s angst and shenanigans and Ravus stubbornly refusing to admit that he is growing attached to these tiny child versions of people all while going through hell and high water to protect them from destiny. It’s a happy ending too!

https://archiveofourown.org/works/21681499/chapters/51709084 “Victorious” by Kyirah. This one hasn’t updated in a while? But it’s got 14 stellar chapters of Noctis being gently plopped back into his child self with only vague memories of the future while the Lucii and the Astrals set about fixiting the world on his behalf. It also features adorable, slightly daemon-but-don’t-worry-he’s-fine Prompto and Dadcor. Also ghost Ardyn.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/18116312/chapters/42828299 “cyan boys” by dreamtowns. 6 chap, slightly cracky time-travel, only instead of straight time-travel, Noctis and Prompto wake up in a parallel dimension where some stuff is ... different. Such as them being kids while Gladio and Ignis of that world are already adults. It’s just a nice, quirky, kinda angsty-in-places read and I really enjoyed it (despite the undertones of slash that crop up in some places but hey maybe that’s your cup of tea) but as always read the tags and decide for thineself.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/15073931/chapters/34948019 “Nocturne” by nirejseki. The Taur AU that inspired Nox Taur, 11/10 do recommend (even though there are slash and femslash ships in there later on but HEY just because I skipped over those parts doesn’t mean this fic isn’t great). Features baby Noctis being adorable, some cool world-building, Regis being a Good Dad, DadCor, and just- a great fixit all around with some amazing AU take on the Astrals and the prophecy and all that stuff.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/11648547/chapters/26204799 “Introductions” by doodly_squat. This is ... essentially a canon compliant look at Prompto first introducing himself to and getting to be friends with Noctis. Picks up that moment in the Brotherhood episode where he says hi on the first day of high school. It’s short, but it’s finished and it’s great, there’s some Prompto angst, and it has a sequel with even more Prompto angst! That is also finished!

https://archiveofourown.org/works/10869282/chapters/24144864 “Running Behind” by Asidian. An MT!Prompto AU where Prompto is raised as an MT (which are cyborgs here rather than canon’s ... whole thing) and then runs away when he learns he’s going to be decommissioned. He’s found a year-ish later by the other Chocobros on their roadtrip and they, unaware he’s a runaway MT, take him along because he clearly needs help. There’s feels and bonding and brotherly feels and also angst and drama because MT!Prompto is terrified of many things. There’s also descriptions of the aftermath of torture, which I didn’t find too bad but as always check the tags and the rating against your own comfort level. It has a happy ending tho.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/11725950/chapters/26417871 “Poor Wayfaring Stranger” by lithos_saeculum. The last fic I’m gonna rec for now and just- I CANNOT rec this one enough. I love it so much. 59 chap, ongoing MT!Prompto AU where Cor finds this teenage MT unit and takes him home. There’s DadCor and Prompto learning how to People and the Chocobros getting attached and major angst at various stages because of how Prompto is treated (he has MT modifications and some people looking at you Clarus need to take a chill pill about it). It’s told entirely from Prompto’s POV which is FASCINATING and the author does a stellar job of picking out stuff that Prompto just- wouldn’t know about or understand because he’s been raised in a lab all his life.

#SE asks #anon asks #ffxv #ffxv fics #fic recs #fic rec #always read the tags people #what is fine for me might not for you #but i do rec these

[wanderingchocolateeclair]

When it rains - an Edgejeanist backstory

Ao3 link

As I have mentioned before I wanted to do a drawing for this eventually but it would take a lot of effort and I don’t have that in me right now so I’m gonna share it with you in the form of a rather long jumble of words instead :D it might be too long to read on tumblr because it kept on crashing the app when I worked on it so please feel free to read it over on ao3!

I wasn’t really happy with the drawing I did for the injury prompt so I’m posting this to make up for it lmao

If you have not read my Edgeshot backstory (well the summary that I did), I do recommend it because it may give some context as to what they’re talking about!

This was originally meant to be happy but it turned out kinda angsty (unsurprisingly)...but then I managed to make it not as angsty?? Anyway ->

Warning: a few times they talk about death, mentions of injury, self-doubt and generally quite sad stuff.

Also, it turned out incredibly long so imma stuff it all under the cut for those of you who don’t wanna read it :)

Hakamata Tsunagu wasn’t one to usually complain when sent on a mission, however on this particular stormy evening he really didn’t fancy the idea of being caught up in a case that wasn’t in his own area, simply because he was “passing by” trying to go home. But, he understood that this guy was quite the hassle and it would probably be best to sort it out as soon as possible. When he arrived to the area he could see that there were already many other heroes on the scene, including one of the higher ranking heroes - Edgeshot. They had met before and had worked together on various cases due to the two of them being known for rather rapidly climbing up the ranks, not to mention that their ranks were neighbouring and often would over take one another. So they knew each other, to some extent. He walked over to where the ninja hero was standing to ask him about the details of the villain they were going against.

“Fire-type quirk, troublesome. Had many sidekicks aiding him in an armed robbery. We’ve managed to apprehend most of the smaller accomplices, however this guy’s a pain, so I was told to wait for you to arrive in order to end this quickly.” The fiber hero hadn’t even said a word and had already gotten his answer.

“I see. I guess we should probably get to it then, as he seems to have his eye on escape.” Jeanist swiftly responded as he went on to restrict the villain’s clothes to prevent him from moving any further. Luckily, the area had been cleared out and the other villains had been carted away by the other heroes that were in the scene, so the only ones left in the area were the two of them, and this maniac.

The air around the two pros started to heat up and before they could act, flames burst from the open air around them causing them both to flinch and Jeanist to lose his focus. The villain started to sprint away from the scene but Edgeshot was one step ahead of him. The hero had rushed over and the two had started to engage in a fight, and the villain had no problem with using his quirk to aid in this. Jeanist tried to drag the villain back to the open space using the denim threads of his own clothing and had managed to grab hold of him, however, the two were unaware of what the man was carrying. He was taken back when a cold, sharp object came flying towards him, cutting through the high collar of his hero costume and through the skin of his ear and cheek - causing him to curse quite audibly.

“Watch it!” The silver haired hero hissed as he took another swing at the walking flamethrower, now also knife-thrower apparently, in front of him.

“My apologies,” mumbled the lanky blond as he regained his posture once more and continued to restrain the armed robber.

The other hero hesitated for a moment. “Ah- wait no, sorry, I meant uh- I meant the other guy, not you sorry.. you just got a knife thrown at you why would I yell at you?” They hadn’t properly spoken before so Shinya really didn’t want to give him the wrong impression of himself, especially since it was someone he kind of admired and...uh well...yeah. The two shared a rather awkward apologetic glance as they tried to come up with something to say but were rather rudely interrupted when-

“Oh for THE LOVE OF-” the villain angrily snapped around, “YOU TWO ARE REALLY DOIN’ MY HEAD IN! WOULD’YA GIVE IT A REST? OR AT LEAST JUST. SHUT. UP.” The heroes barely had time to react when the villain set his whole body and the air around it on fire. The flames engulfed the two who were previously fighting each other and briskly travelled along the threads that were restricting the man from escaping, and towards a startled Jeanist. The fire had reached the fiber heroes arm at this point and was obviously going to spread further if it weren’t for him removing that part of his sleeve, only shortly after the ninja hero had speedily shot forwards and cut through the fiber that connected Jeanist and the villain, his own arm very much ablaze. However, he didn’t look too concerned for his own injury as he eyed the taller man’s scorched arm.

The two heroes were now starting to get rather tired. Not because they were weak, or this guy strong, but just because they wanted to go home. They’d really had enough at this point and really wanted to just end this before the weather got any worse, but this stupid lunatic just wouldn’t give in! Maybe it was the fact that they had never really fought alongside each other before, so were holding back the more powerful, more dangerous side of their quirks - in case a mistake would be made that could injure the other. That was probably why it took so long.

After many more painfully long minutes, they had managed to wear down the robber enough to get close enough to knock him out. Tying him up, the two heroes handed the unconscious villain over to the police that had just arrived to help clear up the scene of any passer-by’s. At this point, it was the late evening and already rather dark and gloomy, the sky let out a large growl as if to warn that it would only get worse...and well, it’s point was proven as it started to rain.

The blond hero sighed and glanced up at the sky in dismay, realising that all that paperwork wasn’t going to get done by itself, and grumbling at the fact that he still had to get back home - which was going to be a real pain in this weather. He wasn’t a huge fan of the rain, especially with that denim hero costume of his, but he decided to ignore all of that and started making his way towards the train station, hoping to get home before the weather becomes too bad. Edgeshot noticed the other hero’s intent to go home and looked back up at the sky. No chance. That weather was way worse than Jeanist thought it was and he knew that by the time the other man reached the train station, there would be an unbelievable length of time before he would be able to get to where he wanted to go - not to mention how busy it would be. Taking a moment to think things through, he decided to chase after the lanky hero and called out to him, suggesting a better idea.

“I wouldn’t take the train right now if I were you,” Shinya advised the tall figure in front of him.

Tsunagu was confused, he wanted to get home and that was currently his only means of transport. “Why? What’s wrong? Please tell me there’s not another villain to deal with...” he murmured. Oh he really hoped that wasn’t the case, because there’s no way he could fight in this storm - especially with all these new burns, they may have been small but wow they hurt like hell! He looked down at the shorter man in front of him, weary of the answer he may receive but felt an odd sense of relief when he saw him let out a light chuckle. Or was it cough? Maybe a sigh? How would he know - that man was as mysterious as they get!

“Ah no, that’s not it.” Shinya couldn’t help but feel amused by Tsunagu’s response. The rain was soaking into his costume and was making it a little harder to breathe through his mask, so he tried his best not to laugh. “It’s just that this storm isn’t going to be easing anytime soon, and I feel that it’s only going to get worse - there’s no chance that transport will be easy, especially not for a hero in such a state as yourself.”

“Oh...I hadn’t thought of that,” Tsunagu replied, “do you...have any suggestions as to what I should do instead?” He understood what the other was saying, he had quite a few burns and a large gash across the side of his face - there’s no way that people wouldn’t notice that - but he really did want to get out of this miserable rain. So where could he possibly go, if not straight home?

“Yes, actually, that’s what I was wanting to talk to you about.” Shinya shifted his weight from one foot to the other, unsure as to how he should phrase his next question. “Um...well...my...my house- I mean, do you want to stay at my place? Until the storm blows over-” he stopped himself mid-sentence. That did not come out the way he heard it in his head, and why did he panic?

“Pardon?”

“Sorry, I-” Oh. Right. He probably didn’t understand that rushed mumble of his. Thank god, Shinya could have another go at mending his failed attempt at a suggestion. “Ah...my house isn’t far from here, it doesn’t take that long to walk there. And, well, I just wanted to suggest that you come with me. Those injuries could do with tending to, and with this storm getting worse, I just thought that it might be of help to you to stay at mine until the storm passes. Only if you’d be willing of course- It’s simply a suggestion I thought might be easier than you staying in this rain.”

“Oh. I see. That’s...thoughtful...I- are you sure?” Tsunagu was taken aback, but was definitely not opposed to the idea of getting out of the rain.

“Yes, of course. If you are okay with accompanying me?”

“Really?”

“Yes!”

“...thank you”

Shinya glanced up at the taller figure in front of him and smiled. Not that you could really tell.

They both decided it would be best to stay somewhere warm, get patched up, and wait for the weather to relax. So, off they went, away from the scene that had just been up in flames - now basically back to normal - and toward wherever this mysterious little ninja’s home was.

————————————————————

After a while of walking through heavy rain, dodging leaves as they zoomed past on the wind of the winding path, and silently accompanying each other with minimal words between them, they finally reached Shinya’s house. Not in the middle of nowhere, but also not near any busy city noise. It was peaceful, well, as peaceful as it could be in a raging storm.

Shinya fumbled at the door handle with numb fingers, as he attempted to unlock it as quickly as possible. The door opened with a small click and was gently pushed open. He gestured for the taller man to enter and closed the door after them, relieving them from the cold wind. As soon as they were both inside, they shared a long sigh of relief - ahhh....warmth...

“Sorry, it isn’t much,” Shinya said as he set down his bags and rain soaked hero gear, “I’m the only one that lives here, so I never really thought about how small it was. But now that someone else is here with me...”

“Haha it’s fine! Lovely, even, I think it’s quite sweet.” Tsunagu chuckled, placing his heavy and rather soggy denim coat gently to the side. He’d always liked the more traditional style houses, they had this comforting feeling to them that he couldn’t quite describe. “How long have you had this place?”

Shinya smiled and led Tsunagu towards the living room, they could do with a sit down after all that walking. “It was my Gran’s, well, she wasn’t really my Gran but that’s what we called her. She took us in and looked after us - my sister and I - and after she died we kept this place. Eventually, my sister moved out to be nearer the main city, but I thought it best to stay. I’m comfortable here, you know what I mean?”

“Of course,” Tsunagu nodded, “I think it’s wonderful.”

“Thanks...”

Shinya looked up, watching as droplets of water dripped from the other’s droopy fringe, his own hair now clinging to the side of his face. They both still had their faces masked and breathing through damp fabric probably wouldn’t be very good for their health. As Shinya noticed this, he let out a startled noise that took Tsunagu by surprise.

“AH!”

“What? What happened? Is something wrong?”

“No, I just realised, we’re still stuck in our costumes. They’re soaked! It’s probably best if we get cleaned up before anything else...” Shinya exclaimed.

“Oh, right.” Tsunagu replied quietly. He’d actually forgotten about the rain, which was weird because normally he’d be grumbling about it louder than the storm itself!

“There’s a spare bathroom downstairs, just to the left of the kitchen. It’s quite small but works just as well.” Shinya handed Tsunagu a towel and some spare clothes, looking a little hesitant as he did so. “I had some spare clothes lying around, though I’m sorry they probably won’t fit you very well...you’re very tall compared to me...” Shinya muttered sheepishly.

Tsunagu chuckled at the shorter man’s rather obvious remark and folded the fabric that was now in his own hands. “That’s very kind of you, thank you. It’s okay, I’m sure I’ll be able to adjust it to fit well enough.”

“Oh, of course, that’s- you can do that can’t you...I kinda forgot about that.” Shinya felt even more embarrassed from that, but managed to brush it off as he looked back up at the rather amused figure in front of him. “Well anyway, I’ll be cleaning myself up upstairs and preparing the things we need to tidy up those troublesome injuries of yours-”

“And yours I hope.” Tsunagu briefly interrupted.

“O-of course,” Shinya stuttered a reply. He’d actually somehow forgotten about his own injuries, too caught up in the company of another for once. “Well, if you should need anything, please just call me, I’ll be down as soon as I’m finished- oh and don’t feel the need to rush, take as long as you need.”

“Thank you.”

Tsunagu watched as the other left the room before making his way towards the bathroom. It was quite a small room. He made sure the door was securely locked before peeling away his sodden hero costume, piece by piece.

Looking at his reflection in the mirror, he noticed how deep of a cut it was that ran across his left cheek and over his ear. The rain had washed away most of the blood but it was still quite the nasty injury. He grimaced. ‘That’s gonna leave a bit of a scar...’ he thought to himself. Oh well, just another one to add to his growing collection of them. Although, he suddenly realised something. He’d have to show his face. And what about Shinya? Didn’t he always cover his face as well? Would they really be able to trust each other enough to show their faces to one another - even though they barely knew each other?

He felt himself freeze as he thought about it. They were both known for masking their faces, but the idea of showing his face had always made him feel uneasy. Little did he know that about five minutes prior, Shinya had the same nerve-wracking revelation and was feeling just as conflicted as he was. ‘Stop it, dammit,’ Tsunagu frowned, ‘he’s been so kind and nice to you, I doubt there’s anything to worry about...’

He shook his head and brushed these worries aside before stepping into the running shower. Oh wow, that felt nice. The water flowed over his shuddering body and embraced him in a warm blanket of comfort. Though, it did sting a bit when it seeped into the crevices of the gash on his face, and over the burns on his arms. However, he didn’t mind. He was used to these kinds of small pains and, though he’d be ashamed to admit it, he found it oddly comforting.

At the same time, Shinya was preparing a first aid kit, disinfectant and some warm damp cloths (he, luckily, knew what he was doing. Even if I don’t lol). He’d already managed to clean himself up and had changed into some older, plain clothes - so fast, but as expected from someone as stealthy as himself! Humming quietly to himself, he listened as the sky let out another loud grumble. “Why are you so angry today!?” He chuckled at the noise the raging storm made as he tidied up, “you’re doing this on purpose aren’t you! You always seem to pick ever so specific times to conjur up a storm...is it because I seemed lonely? You want me to make a friend or something?”

The sky growled again and Shinya took that as his response. He’d always found himself talking to the nature around him when he was alone, it had just become a habit of his - he found comfort and company from doing so...and it always seemed to have a way of replying. He was a bit anxious at the thought of showing his face to another, but had managed to push away his concerns as best he can. ‘What else is there to be worried about, Shinya?’ He thought to himself. ‘He’s already in your house. So in terms of his knowledge about you now, you’d basically already be screwed! He knows where you live, so I don’t think that showing your face would be that bad. Plus he’s a hero, isn’t he? Not to mention he’s trusting you with his own identity too...it’ll be fine...’

He sighed and clutched his stinging, scorched arm. Glancing at the rain that danced its way down the cold glass of his bedroom window, he headed back downstairs to give company to his guest who was just as battered and tired as he was.

Shinya set the items he had prepared, down on the small coffee table and walked to the kitchen to grab some hot water. As he stood there, he heard the bathroom door click and turned to see it open ever so slightly. “You’re done? I’ve prepared some stuff to bandage up our injuries and disinfect that nasty cut of yours,” he called out.

“Ah, yes. Thank you,” Tsunagu replied from behind the door.

“...uhm...would you like me to go and wait-”

“Oh! No, there’s no need, sorry...” Tsunagu blurted out as fast as he could. “It’s just...well...I...” he trailed off. ‘It’s never been easy, will he understand that?’

“Don’t worry, I understand. But I guess that with it being just the two of us here... can we say that we may fully trust one another?”

Tsunagu let out a small sigh of relief, before nudging the door open further and emerging from behind it. Making eye contact with the smaller figure in front of him, he smiled gently as he allowed the other to view his face. Shinya doing the same in return. “I guess so.”

Shinya locked eyes with the man that stood in front of him. Wow. He...did not look anything like how he expected...not that he really knew what he expected. Damp, blond hair was messily ruffled across the top of the taller man’s head. He’d managed to make the spare clothes fit well enough to make it look as if they could possibly be his own, though they were still awfully short. They suited him well, actually, and Shinya felt himself stare a little at this gangly noodle in front of him. Why did he look good in those clothes? Hell, they’re old and rather tatty and are way too small for him, and yet he still manages to look like a freaking model in them! And to top it off, they were just some clothes that Shinya owned, that happened to be the longest things he could find! He was unsure of why, but the sight in front of him definitely made him feel rather “odd” (in his own words) - though he didn’t really know what that was.

There were so many things about him in that moment that seemed so out of character for “best jeanist” but what really caught his eye were his scars. Ignoring the large cut on his cheek, Shinya traced his eyes over the bottom half of Tsunagu’s face in a shared silence. Large scars ran from just above his chin, and down to his neck. Some ran over his lips, which had formerly been pressed together to form a small smile, but were now separated slightly in a shocked manner. Noticing where he was staring, Shinya felt his face heat up as he quickly averted his eyes and looked down at the kettle that he was clutching (he went to go boil some water, but had gotten distracted before he could actually put the kettle on). ‘What on earth are you doing, Shinya!? I mean he’s really pretty, sure, but you can’t just stare omg-’ he lectured himself as his face progressively got more unnaturally warm, ‘those scars though....whatever caused those couldn’t of been a small accident...’

Concurrently, Tsunagu was completely stunned. ‘Pretty...’ was the only thought that circulated around his mind for many long seconds. Not only was this man incredibly considerate and mysterious, he was also very pretty and wow did that make Tsunagu’s face redden like an overheated saucepan. He took in his sharp features with observant eyes. Shinya’s hair was no longer fashioned into spiky points, but was now pulled up into a high ponytail. He still had that long fringe covering his right eye, but instead of seeming blocky, it was now loose and soft - and oh wow was Tsunagu really resisting the urge to pat it - though it still looked to be quite sharp, as if you could cut your fingers on the edge of each strand. Tearing his focus away from the shorter man’s hair, he found himself softly staring at Shinya’s face. Though his first thought may have been about how pretty he was, he couldn’t help but notice the other’s scars. Yes, he had quite a few. They were mostly quite small and would go unnoticed by some, but there was one that stood out. A long scar, in the shape of a large gash just like the majority of his own, ran down from just under the corner of the uncovered side of Shinya’s mouth, and down to the middle of his neck. ‘What an idiot.’ Tsunagu thought to himself. ‘You were so busy worrying about showing your own face to even think that he’d be worried about the same thing...it’s...oddly comforting to see another that hides them...even though its not something I should probably be comforted about, since it means that there’s most possibly a painful story behind them...just like my own.’

After a couple of minutes of a shared, awkward silence, Shinya started the conversation back up again with a few stuttering words exchanged between them and nervous laughter. “Ah...um...I guess we should probably...you know...”

“Aha yeah, sorry...” Tsunagu rubbed the back of his neck, “the...uh...you...you forgot the hot water...”

“Oh! Yeah...sorry about that! Um, please, go and sit down. I’ll be there in a moment.”

Tsunagu made his way to the living room and sat down, his mind still curious about all these new discoveries. The pain in his cheek had started to sting even more than before and he was really wishing that he didn’t have to deal with that right now. Letting out a shaky sigh, he reached up to grab it in a hope to ease the pain slightly, but his burnt arm got caught on the edge of the sofa, causing him to let out a distressed grunt.

“Are you okay?” Shinya asked from just beside where the taller man was seated. Tsunagu was quite startled by the other, who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere.

“Ah, it’s just this stupid cut. It’ll probably be better once it’s been treated,” Tsunagu brushed it off, still rather confused by the speed of which the other man seemed to appear without being noticed.

“I see. Well, everything has been prepared so we should probably take care of that first.” Shinya smiled and took a seat next to the other man, gently picking up a cotton swab and dipping it in disinfectant. “The cut just has to be disinfected before anything else though, who knows what else that bastard had been doing-”

“Haha! You’re approaching this just like a proper doctor! So serious and everything,” Tsunagu laughed.

This made Shinya chuckle in response. “Well, I do like to think that I know a bit about what I’m doing!”

They laughed together for a couple of minutes and the tension between the two of them started to dissipate. Tsunagu eyed the cotton swab in Shinya’s hand and realised, how on earth was he gonna do that himself? Well, I think we all know that the answer is he wasn’t. Even he came to that conclusion, as he exchanged funny words with the man in front of him. Shinya knew this, and decided that it was time to tend to the lanky blond’s wounds.

“Do you trust me?” Shinya slyly asked.

“Huh?”

“Do you trust me?”

Tsunagu was hesitant to answer, not because he didn’t trust him, but because he had a feeling as to what was going to happen. “...yes...”

Without missing a beat, Shinya leaned forward and pressed the cold, disinfectant-soaked cotton pad against Jeanists cheek. This caused Tsunagu to scrunch up his face and let out a tiny screech from the shock - it stung like hell - and he was not prepared. “Wrong answer!” Shinya chuckled. He was a little unsure whether he was actually going to do that or not, but knew that it would only hurt more if the other man had to slowly and hesitantly do it himself...plus he actually knew what he was doing.

“Argh! You- you’re evil you know that?” Tsunagu yelped and sat upright, trying to get used to the sting of the disinfectant that was seeping into his cut.

“I try my best,” Shinya hummed as he held the taller mans face, tilting it slightly upwards to better see the injury in the light. Whilst doing so, he noticed how many scars were littered across his face, and felt a little sad at the sight of them. ‘There’s so many...I didn’t really notice before, but now, seeing them up close...these all feel like painful memories. And no matter how much I understand his reasons for hiding them, I cannot help but wonder what on earth happened to him...’

Tsunagu held his breath, wincing every once in a while as the smaller man dabbed the gash on his cheek. He was so close! Not only that, but he was holding his face and wow, did he look like an angel as the light illuminated him from above. He felt the tops of his ears redden as he let out a small breath. As Shinya held his face close to his own, Tsunagu noticed things that he hadn’t spotted before, and made him even more curious than before. Like the front tooth that was slightly chipped, that he could see when the other’s mouth twitched open everytime he dabbed at his cheek. Or, the two rather odd but beautiful tattoos that were wrapped around his two wrists. ‘So much to take in, I didn’t really notice it before, but all these things are so unique and different. His face looks so soft....and pretty....But I truly do wonder what could’ve happened to cause that.’

“Your scar-” Tsunagu mumbled before quickly cutting himself off. ‘Tsunagu, you idiot! You weren’t supposed to just blurt that out...I guess there’s no other option than to just ask now you stupid- stupid, ugh!’

“Hm?” Shinya locked eyes with the other in a distracted confusion, before getting embarrassed and quickly looking back down.

Tsunagu stuttered as he tried to find the right words to say. “O-oh, well...I, uh...Sorry, I was just curious about your scar. It’s just- I, well...wondered-”

“How I got it?” Shinya interrupted quietly, almost in a rather hushed tone.

“Ah. Yes. Sorry, I don’t mean to be nosy, it was simply a curious thought.”

“No, it’s alright, it’s okay. It seems both our curiosities lay in the same area of thought.” Shinya smiled softly, lowering the cotton swab and throwing it in the bin. As he went to pick up the thread (you know, the one they use to stitch up these wounds) Tsunagu placed his hand on his arm and stopped him from doing anything else. Shinya handed the thread to Jeanist and watched as the blond man slowly and carefully stitched up his now clean wound in one gentle swoop of his hand - though it did look quite painful by the look on his face. “Woah!” Shinya exclaimed in awe. He often forgot about the beautifully handy and elegant things that the other man could do with his quirk. This caused Tsunagu’s ears to redden even further.

Shinya let out a deep sigh and sat back slightly to take a rest for a moment. “Ah, where do I start? You said you were curious about my scar, but I’m sorry to tell you that this isn’t any light-hearted story...” he started, scratching the back of his neck and wincing as the burnt skin on his arm brushed against the fabric of the sofa.

“Sorry, you don’t have to...”

“No, it’s alright! To be honest, I think it would actually do some good to tell someone for a change...because, for once I feel that I can trust someone, and that’s a weird thing...” he muttered the last part under his breath so that the kind man next to him wouldn’t hear it. Tsunagu simply smiled in response, looking down as he acknowledged the smaller man’s courage to reveal a very clearly painful memory.

“Uhm, well, are you...are you aware of the small band of mountainside villages down south?” Shinya asked, “if I’m correct in thinking that you are a couple of years older than me...”

“Pffft- did you just call me old?” Tsunagu snorted.

“No! Of course not!” Shinya quickly defended himself. “It’s just that, you are around my age, so I was just wondering whether you’d know of it or not.” He smiled sheepishly as he watched the other’s amused face turn into one that was more focused.

The older man hummed quietly. “Yes, I think I know which villages you are talking about. My mother used to take us there every year when my father was off of work, to go and watch the yearly festivals. Oh, and to visit the market! They had some amazing tomatoes!” Shinya laughed at this little comment. They truly were some good tomatoes, though he preferred the strawberries that they’d grow there. “But...we...we stopped visiting when...” Tsunagu trailed off with a frown and looked back up at Shinya, noticing the distant smile that was faintly spread across his face.

“Then, you know what happened...you know what happened all those years ago?” Shinya questioned quietly as he reached for the bandages that were tangled in the basket. But, doing so only made his arm quiver in pain even more.

“Ah, please, let me do that,” Tsunagu insisted, reaching out for the bandages and using his quirk to gently and swiftly untangle them. He gave Shinya a reassuring look and gently took his arm, starting to wrap it very carefully. “Yes. I was around...13? Yeah, I think I was about 13 when it happened. It was all over the news, I don’t think I could ever forget it. It...was so awful, just hearing what happened...” he had a rough idea as to what Shinya was going to tell him, and it made his heart sink at the thought of it.

The sky let out another huge growl, and a streak of lightning flashed past the window, causing Tsunagu to flinch. Shinya didn’t move a muscle, but simply carried on with what he was doing.

“Hm.” Shinya felt his face warm up slightly as the taller man held his arm softly. ‘So gentle’ he made himself blush even more, but shook these thoughts away before continuing with what he was saying. “I guess it’s kind of obvious then, what I’m about to say I mean.”

“I...I don’t want to immediately assume what happened, but if what I think is true...”

“Yeah.” Shinya sighed. “It was my home. I’d lived there all my life until that day...they...they took everything from me...”

Tsunagu stopped wrapping the other’s arm and looked up, their faces merely inches away, taking in the broken sadness in his eyes and allowing it to drown his heart even further into the pit that it had sunk into.

“Everyone I knew, my friends, my family, everyone, they all died in front of me. There was nothing I could do to stop it... I was the only one that survived...just me...a small, defenceless, 10 year old child. I grew up as part of a family that was renowned for protecting their people, yet I couldn’t even protect my own innocence...my...my own mother...” Shinya’s voice started to get weaker and smaller as all of the memories started flooding back.

Tsunagu could do nothing but listen in shock. This was a lot to take in, and Shinya was trusting him enough to tell him something this personal. It pained him, watching the small ninja’s face contort into a broken frown. “...I’m sorry...”

His voice made Shinya snap back to reality and look him in the eye, confused. “What for? There isn’t anything for you to be sorry for...”

“No, I mean, making you have to think back on a memory that painful...it must’ve been horrible.” Tsunagu finished wrapping the other’s arm and let go of it slowly, hands still slightly lingering over the injured area.

Shinya sighed. He couldn’t disagree with that, it truly was the most painful memory he could imagine. Tucking his silver hair behind his ear, he reached up and touched the scar on his chin. “This was from that day. The people who ambushed us tried to attack me. They had stolen my own grandfather’s sword and managed to just catch my face as my mother whisked me away. It hurt, but I didn’t really notice it until later on...which...well...it’s not like they survived either...”

“Oh dear.” Tsunagu muttered, his face and arm still stinging. The wind picked up and rattled against the window, startling him again.

“I guess you’re wondering what these are as well,” Shinya gestured towards the intricate patterns that were inked into his wrists. “My family was part of that village for many generations. Over these generations, the Kamihara name became rather well known as a family of protectors and guardians. When my family died, I felt like I had lost all my connections to being a ‘Kamihara’ and so I decided to get these tattoos.”

He lifted his left arm, “this represents my father’s side of the family, the Kamihara name.” Then proceeding to point at the other arm, he explained the rest. “This represents my mother’s side of the family, always one with nature. I find that it’s a comforting way to keep them with me at all times, even if they’re not really there. It means that I can keep them safe, and in return they keep me safe too.”

“Wow...I think they’re beautiful!” Tsunagu breathed. They really were. The patterns were so small and intricate yet they held so much meaning and story...just like Shinya himself. “That’s- quite the tragic past...”

“Hm. Well, that’s what happened really...not all of it, but I think it’s best if that is shared some other day.” Shinya plucked the bandages out of the lanky blond’s hands and gestured towards his arms, waiting patiently as the other hesitatantly held out his own scorched arm. He looked back up at Tsunagu’s face and, out of some sort of instinct, reached up and gently touched the long scars on his face, deep in thought. After a very brief moment of...whatever that awkwardness was, Shinya snapped his head down to look back at his hands and Tsunagu averted his eyes in a nervous manner, both turning much redder than they had been before. “A-ah, I’m sorry!” Shinya immediately blurted out.

“No, it’s- it’s okay...” Tsunagu managed to stutter out. Blimey, that was awkward, why did his face feel so hot?

Once they had both managed to laugh it off, Shinya decided to return the same curious question that had been on both of their minds. “So...your scars...how did you get yours?”

Tsunagu froze. He knew it would come up in the conversation at some point, but he still had that reaction whenever someone asked. Shinya noticed this, and panicked a little, “Sorry! You don’t have to-”

“No no, it’s only fitting for you to ask the same question...and I think it’s best you know, since you shared your own story with me.” The anxious Jeanist interrupted. “But, I must ask you not to think ill of me after hearing this, nor should you feel the need to keep me here...I’m...it’s just...I-”

“It’s alright,” Shinya reassured him, “I’m not gonna kick you out of my house, just because of your past...you...didn’t judge mine.”

“Heh,” Tsunagu smiled and watched as the small ninja bandaged up his arm delicately. “Well, it’s not a happy story either, I’m afraid!”

“Guess that makes the both of us!” Shinya let out a light chuckle.

“Yeah...” He paused. These memories still scared him. “When...when my quirk activated, I didn’t know how to control it, like most children. The only thing is, both my sister and I had our quirks activate at the same time, being twins and all this was expected. This, however, just made things worse. I was...I was wearing a scarf at the time, and, well basically...to put it simply, I strangled myself.” He looked up, realising how stupid that sounded.

“Oh! That’s awful, though I’m sure it was probably much more traumatic at the time,” Shinya smiled sympathetically. “I can’t really say the same for my own rather embarrassing quirk discovery....”

“Well that sounds like a story I’d love to hear!”

“Oh, I’m sure!” Shinya laughed and cut the bandage carefully, tying the ends around the other’s slender arm and making sure that everything was secured nicely. “So, was it that which caused those scars on your face? That sounds horrible.”

“Ah,” Tsunagu shifted his eyes in thought, “not exactly...you see, there was an accident later on in my childhood...and...well, it did a lot of damage...” he trailed off, “not only to myself...”

A loud clap of thunder startled them both, and Shinya darted his eyes up to see Tsunagu looking down at him with a solemn face. ‘Whatever happened, that doesn’t sound good...in any context...’ he thought, choosing not to interrupt the taller man.

“It was a villain attack that burst out in the middle of the street. My family just happened to be passing by, but there was this loud scream and I turned around just in time to see that this villain had taken a young girl, about my age at the time, and was planning on taking the rest of her friends too.” Tsunagu paused again, he wasn’t sure how to word this, he never knew how to say it. But this time, it seemed a lot easier. “Before I knew it, and well this is quite typical isn’t it, I found myself in the middle of it all, unable to breathe or move. There was...blood everywhere...pieces of fabric were piercing my body, strangling me, completely littering the area. I- I remember, just, hearing my sister screaming...the pain I felt...she had to go through it all...but I couldn’t do anything, the heroes couldn’t get near me.”

Shinya sat there, stunned from this information, unable to form words. It sounded like such an awful situation to be in, even from his own point of view. He watched as the blond man shifted in his seat and turned to lean back more comfortably with a sigh, unsure of what he should say. However, he thought that it would be best to allow Tsunagu to continue.

Tsunagu felt his chest tighten at the memory of what happened, but still carrying on. It felt nice to talk to someone about it for once. “I had managed to very seriously injure my neck and face, unable to breathe, especially from the panic that I felt. I thought that was the worst part...it really wasn’t.” Tsunagu looked up cautiously at Shinya, wanting to say something but too scared to go further. Shinya saw this and placed a small hand on his shoulder, trying to think of words to say.

“I’m sorry, I can’t say much in terms of comfort. But, whatever it is, please know that I’ll listen no matter what.” He gave a small smile. Despite the fact that they hadn’t really talked before this, he already felt that he could trust him, and wanted the other to feel the same way. He’d made many mistakes in the past, and had done things that had weighed down on him all the way through his life, so knowing that Tsunagu probably had the same thoughts towards whatever it was that happened to him.

Tsunagu felt relieved. No one had ever said those words to him before, and for once he felt that he wasn’t alone. And he’d be lying if he said that he didn’t feel like crying. He nodded slowly and took a deep breath before carrying on, “...well...I- I looked up to see the villain in front of me...he wasn’t breathing, he’d been caught up in the strands that I’d sent flying and...I...he...he didn’t survive...I killed him. Just a small, scared 12 year old child, yet I’d managed to kill a man in a moment of pure terror. I- I think it was how angry I felt that someone was being that bad, I don’t know...but whatever it was, I couldn’t stop it, and the fear from that day has haunted me ever since.”

Shinya was shocked, he had a feeling that something like that must’ve happened, but it was still not something he’d been expecting or hoping to hear. Though, he’d experienced the same kind of shock himself, so he knew that it wasn’t something to be taken lightly. “I...poor child...that’s not something that someone should go through...I know from experience as well...”

“Wh- really?”

“Yeah. Those villains that ambushed my village. In a moment of blind rage I had managed to rid of them entirely, completely unaware of what I did. So, I guess, we aren’t too different, huh?”

“Wow...yeah...look at us, just a couple of very traumatised, depressed and barely capable adults, trying to make a living out of helping others...heh.” Tsunagu remarked, making Shinya chuckle in agreement, his mind easing more and more. “Y’know, I got bullied a lot, trying to become a hero. My quirk was ‘not suitable’ for it and I was ‘weak’. The more they said it the more I believed them, and well, knowing what I had done and knowing that I’d not been able to save that man who was simply going down the wrong path...I really did feel weak. Ever since, I’ve just buried myself in my work, trying to give myself a reason to feel ‘strong’, taking on as many cases as I can even if I know that I can’t do them alone...and well these moments have caused me to make some...stupid...decisions in the past, and, well they’ve all left their mark on me quite prominently.”

Shinya’s eyes softened as he heard the other man spill all of these worries that he’d been hiding for so long. “Oh...poor Hakamata-senpai...” he said with a slightly saddened look.

“Ah, it’s alright. To be honest, I don’t think I’d be where I am now without their bitter words and mean, pain-inflicting prompts. Also, please, ‘Tsunagu’ is just fine!” He normally didn’t mind the formalities, but for some reason when the small ninja sitting beside him used them, it made him feel odd.

“Oh, okay.” Shinya’s face heated up slightly at the thought of using the other’s first name to address him, he wasn’t used to that. “So, I guess we both have kinda...depressing backstories...to our scars and ourselves in general.” (You may not be able to see it but eclair is currently smiling very gleefully)

“Yeah,” Tsunagu glanced at the rain dancing down the window, “I guess so.”

————————————————————

After a long time of exchanging funny stories (well, they aren’t funny at all really, they’re either sad memories or quite self-deprecating...but I guess that’s their way of bonding...to simply share their most traumatic experiences and become friends....huh) the tension between the two of them had almost completely lifted. They sat there chatting away, all bandaged up and tired as hell, simply making the most of each other’s company.

“Oh come on, how is that not funny-” Tsunagu exclaimed, gesturing towards Shinya as he laughed. The pain in his cheek had faded, almost completely, as he slowly became more comfortable.

“Because! You try tripping over, knocking yourself out for 2 hours on the edge of a stone fountain and chipping your tooth. It isn’t a fun experience!” Shinya said enthusiastically, very defensive about the little chip in his front tooth - in response to the taller man’s question.

“Of course, sorry! Poor little Kamihara-san~” Tsunagu replied with a smile.

“Please, just call me Shinya!”

“Shinya, huh?” Tsunagu felt a little bit shy at the thought of using his first name, but it would probably be easier. “You know, now that I think about it, being in the middle of this storm isn’t so bad.”

Shinya smiled. He’d always loved this type of weather, and seeing the lanky man in front of him start to agree, he felt like he’d somehow accomplished something.

They were startled from their little conversation by a loud beeping noise coming from Shinya’s phone. When he checked it, he let out a shocked gasp and this caused Tsunagu to be slightly worried. Was it something important?

“What? What is it?”

“I can’t believe it...it’s already 1:45...we’ve talked for so long!”

Tsunagu widened his eyes in disbelief as he checked his own phone. Yep. That was the time. They’d gotten so carried away by their conversation that they’d become completely unaware of the time. They shared a very shocked look before snickering at their own carelessness. “Hah! To think that there was a time I’d never imagined this would happen.”

Shinya quickly got up from his seat, and started to make his way to the kitchen. “Sorry, I realise that it’s probably way too late for this, but I realise I never offered you food!” He called out.

“It’s okay! I forgot about it myself! But to be honest, what food could we possibly have at 1:46am?” Tsunagu inquired, slowly becoming more aware of the hunger that crept through his stomach.

“Hm...” Shinya thought before looking back up at the confused man with excited eyes, “pizza?”

“Pizza?!”

“Uh-huh!”

“Who on earth sells pizza at this time?!”

Shinya chortled at the other’s comedic remark. “Oh, you seem to be forgetting all that I told you about my very first internship...” he said slyly.

“Of course...that’s actually a brilliant idea!” Tsunagu laughed. Well...who doesn’t love getting 50% off of pizzas, even at 1:47 in the morning!

So, they ordered pizza. Just...two pro heroes, chilling out at 2:00am, eating pizza instead of sleeping off their injuries. How fun!

After even more time, the two of them decided it was best to actually get some sleep, and Tsunagu watched as the silver haired man quietly said goodnight and crept up the stairs, before setting his head down on the arm of the sofa - his legs dangling over the edge.

He listened as the wind and rain battered against the window. Normally, he’d be fed up by these noises, however that night, he found himself listening to it peacefully, and he had a thought:

‘maybe the rain isn’t so bad after all...’

#bnha #best jeanist #edgeshot #hakamada tsunagu #kamihara shinya #edgejeanist #angst #injury #bnha spring break #eclair rambles a bit :) #eclair wrote something?! #I love them #and I have thought about this a lot #because it makes me happy #but I don’t know how to write so here ya go #my first actual fic type writing that I’ve done instead of just a ramble post are you proud of me lmaoo #dunno how may of you will actually read this but whoever does #I appreciate it 😌 #this took me SO LONG omg #im aware I posted that drawing #but I prefer this so uh......I’m hoping that this can make up for the drawing cuz I don’t like that drawing I did #also those of you who haven’t seen me ramble about my Edgeshot backstory #that gives quite a bit of context to this aha #so I recommend reading that if you want #:)

[curetapwater]

My turn to subject you to The Mortifying Ordeal Of Being Known:

In both art and writing, you seem to have taken inspiration from Monster High, Bratz, Equestria Girls, Barbie and probably some other stuff in that realm that I can't recall because I wasn't in that sphere growing up, plus the more obvious Magical Girl inspiration. In fact, I feel like every character in Power of Rock is a bit of a homage to each one of these, both separately and in general. I don't know enough about any of it to pinpoint with precision, though.

but I'll take a wild guess and say your favourite EqG movie is Rainbow Rocks, followed by the Legend of Everfree.

You're spot on, especially about Rainbow Rocks! In fact, Power of Rock arose from an mlp fanfic I'd been kicking around since I was 11 years old! Now, as I talk about this, please bear in mind I've been developing this story since middle school so things get kinda wacky.. Star started out as Twilight and Sky started out as Rainbow Dash. The rest of the characters have nothing to do with mlp, unless you count Crescent being partially inspired by a friend I had in middle school with whom we bonded over our shared mlp hyperfixation. I see how one could interpret her as Pinkie Pie though.

Rainbow Rocks in particular was a gigantic inspiration! I fixated really really hard on it when it came out, partially because I had a major crush on all of the Dazzlings plus human!Rainbow Dash and partially because that's when I was getting really into rock music. I'd listen to music and always imagine my in-name-only fanfic versions of The Rainbooms playing the songs and casting spells with their instruments. I was so enchanted by the concept and at that point had realized that the thing I'd created was so far removed from mlp that I scrapped the mlp angle entirely and zeroed in on the rock band element.

Star originally arose as me realizing that Twilight had an incredibly privileged upbringing and thinking that it'd be funny if she acted like a spoiled brat that was full of herself. By the time she became Star, I'd fleshed her out way more and softened her up to be less arrogant and more confident in an endearing way. Aesthetically, she takes the most from the influences you brought up, especially Bratz and Barbie!

Sky is a subject I'm gonna have to tiptoe around because the only thing that ever stayed consistent about her is also a spoiler. But although the logic behind how Rainbow Dash became Sky seems pretty straightforward, I promise you the story is wild and insane and omg I'm honestly shocked that I was able to make Sky into a good character 'cause... omg I don't even know where to start haha. To give a taste of what she was like when her name was Rainbow Dash, I'll say she got infused with demon blood as a child and it ~haunted~ her afterwards and she was ~sooo angsty~ about it. And then I removed all demon stuff from the story along with pony stuff and decided to tone things down by making her a vampire instead (because vampires are cool, something Monster High convinced me of!). But with the demon stuff also left her ~tragic backstory~ that I'd based her entire character around and after losing that I realized I was left with nothing that made her interesting. Then I listened to Escape From the City from SA2 and thought, "hey, Sonic is a cool and endearing character, what if I inserted a little of his rebellious spirit into Sky?" And then her current backstory sprouted from that point and shaped her further into a far more distinct character that I love writing for. She's naturally the most Monster High inspired character in terms of aesthetics but I also drew from punk and pastel goth fashion for her.

The rest of the main characters are heavily retooled transplants from a scrapped WIP of mine, complete with visual redesigns inspired by all the influences you listed!

I tend to consume a lot of children's media like the ones you brought up, plus kidcoms like Hannah Montana and iCarly, and I wouldn't be surprised if that influenced my writing style, especially dialogue.

The stories I could TELL about how Power of Rock came to be, my goodness! And the art... oh god the art........ I drew some bomb outfits from when they were still the Humane Six but my anatomy was AWFUL so I'm unsure if they'll ever see the light of day.

You're right about Rainbow Rocks being my fave EG movie, in fact it may be one of my favorite mlp things period because of what it's led to in my life! Shine Like Rainbows is enough to move me to tears. My second fave is actually the first one, for nostalgia reasons. Legend of Everfree I only watched once but I should give it another look!

#oh the infodumping i could do #oh the stories left to tell #my middle school and high school sketchbooks are just stuffed with art documenting power of rock's creation #a real passion project of mine

[getallemeralds]

explorers of arvus: the heart of arvus / 3.3.21

short session today! nyx was getting his hair done for like 5 hours and its now 9 pm and i am very tired and want to sleep but i will power through it for taure's sake

oh yeah btw this is the session where taure is gonna not. taure is gonna go on vacation and pet puppies and i am going to lie facedown in a ditch

LAST TIME WITH THE WYLD KNIGHT-- wait no. yes, michael did in fact mix up the names of the 2 groups LAST TIME WITH THE HOPE'S GUARD we are on a rock! in the sky! i dont remember who went up and who didnt. oh i dont think any of us went up i think we just threw kaepora in there

oh the elf is a liar there is TOTALLY enough room for all of us to vibe up there.

i have straight up not been posting any of my notes to tumblr. i should do that after this. hrm [ AND THEN I DIDNT ]

OH HEY last session was 2.2 and today is 3.3 thats really cool. i swear im awake and paying attention

ELF REMINDS TAURE OF HOUSE ROTHAAL which is the house of friendly elves we helped in artevon! her name iiiiis Velna i think! time for wine mom taure. hey why does f.lux disable when i open discord. weait no it doesnt im just mildly insane tonight

silje has learned cloning

@ future leos I AM SO FUCKING SORRY this is a horrible disaster ball of leo+ica+k and we are Not Awake and i am. struggling.

oh hey a feedback failed in blaseball. poor NaN. URGH OKAY LEOS FOCUS FOCUS FOCUS these are going to be the worst notes ever

[charlie voice] pog-gers! velna's been staying in the heart of arvus studying history stuff! shes been trying to restore & translate things OH TIME FOR THORNE TO SHINE silje has entered silly mode. this cat loves books HEY WHY DOES VELNA HAVE TORTURE INSTRUMENTS? I SPACED OUT FOR A HOT SEC theres like. a cage with blood in it. blood cage

oh my god im struggling so much. are we dying yet okay no we're not dying yet, but the water dripping from the tree roots is Super poisoned

charlie found a hidden chamber w a teleportation spell circle in it! hooray i am accomplishing things

detect poison can apparently detect how good wine is (it cant) we're drinking incredible wine out of the fantasy equivalent of shitty dollar store mugs

OH HER NAME IS VALNA. Valna Rothaal! shes been on arvus for 16 years. waow

if charlie isnt doing anything in a scene shes gonna just be default dancing. im sorry. i just have the :cope: emoji on loop in a tiny corner of my brain

[ this is what :cope: is ]

PEPPER IS HERE pepper is gone. goodbye pepper

thorne is rolling to infodump THORNE HAS FINALLY ROLLED A NAT1 ON THE INFODUMP THORNE IS TALKING ABOUT BLASEBALL? thorne is really excited to talk about blaseball, the hit sport from the feywild

...VALNA'S BEEN RAISING UNDEAD? huh. she says halvkar lost control of the undSH'ES LEARNING FROM HALVBKAR? HALVKAR IS HER TEACHEWR? SCREAMINGG charlie: i cant fuckin believe this shit, my dudes.

NOOOO SILJE IS GONNA CRYYYYYYYYYY HE THOUGHT HE WAS GONNA HAVE A GOOD DAY

taure: [gets angsty] charlie: MMMM,,,, "charlie pulls out one of the bottles of alcohol shes been carryin around for like, 3 years real-time, pops it open, and hands it to silje"

charlie, genuinely concerned: good luck with your studies, uh... try not to get yourself killed. itd suck if you died. LMAO THORNE WARNED HER THAT CHARLIE'S A PYROMANIAC charlie has self-restraint! ..........sometimes!

solar: thorne is not responsible for the fact that i am stupid.

LMAO sieron walks through the portal but with his cloak of billowing active. gg sieron

kali: that was fast-- taure & thorne: [attempting to explain] charlie: HHEEEUUUURUUGGHGHGHHhh

i swear my charlie voice is getting more and more nasal.

charlie: hey, real quick taure, when did you become racist again? (taure is pissy at elves bc tragic family backstory. elf beef. eeef)

charlie: that was a whole situation up there-- i am not dabbing on purpose--

oh she mentioned that fjolnir isnt from the outer plane. that might be important.

Back To Camp!

we have chosen to [SPARE] Valna Rothaal. this action will have consequences charlie now knows the teleportation signature to the heart of arvus! so like, if we're ever able to teleport fast travel stuff, we can just go there i think! neat.

taure turns around and... suddenly gets dizzy. and starts stumbling around. anD PASSES OUT? OH COOL SO. TAURE SEES A PITCH BLACK SKY W A SINGLE YELLOW EYE LOOKING AT HER AND PASSES OUT. AND THATS THE END OF THE SESSION. GREAT GREAT GREAT

leos: did the other party kill her? michael: They Tried. - michael: its a shame, i was looking forward to you fighting your first legendary monster leos: MMRRGHGHHHH;;; [fear.jpg]

yeah michael expected us to try and murder valna but instead we were just disappointed in her life choices. neat.

TAURE CANONICALLY HAS SLEEPY BITCH DISEASE or rather the sudden twist at the end was something planned for a while now and penn told michael to just have it kick in whenever. neAT.

#leo chirps #ttrpg #explorers of arvus #:cope: #i was listening to a scu!slimecicle fanmix while posting this and the gigapuddi song came on and i was ready to throw hands #oh man i have motw later today. this is finew

[kyu-bri]

Magia Rapport pt 2

@magiarapport​

August 24th prompt: What was your favorite event, and why? Is it because of gameplay or the story?

It’s hard to choose so I’m gonna just, gush a bit.

As you can probably tell I’m very biased toward the OG girls, I started Magia Record primarily because PMMM had become my new obsession and I wanted some sort of constant flow of content out of decade old anime lmao.

But another thing I think I hooked onto was Inu Curry’s writing. They really know Madoka Magica and aren’t afraid to really play with them- something the writers for a spin-off gacha game (as with most spin-off stories honestly) can be scared to do. Inu Curry made references, revealed secrets and built upon the story we already know- which lets be honest is what we always truly want from a spin-off series. Magia Record proper does this well by putting more magical girls into the world and letting us see things work out better for them than for the original cast, but what I really appreciated with this story was getting to see that old original cast get to get in on that, and these events managed to do that without watering them down any.

Under the cut is me going on for 3000 words about why I love these three events I’m so sorry. TL;DR at the very end-

I’ll go in release order,

A La Carte Valentine was one of the first if not THE first event I got in on. I was eager to bc 1 Gay Magical Girl Shit Guaranteed. And ofc 2 OG Cast participation.

I want to preface by saying I actually loved all the girls’ stories in this. I was very much still in a state of getting used to Iroha’s gang let alone trying to care about the secondary girls. I knew Tsukasa had this angsty Twins Separated At Birth Deal and liked seeing her home life (also I immediantly stanned Take. Regular well-meaning dude who has no idea whats going on just trying his best and hating his boss). I knew nothing about Ami except Cowgirl Meguca and getting the bulk of her personality in one short even I think really kept me from being absolutely sick of her, she’s just a cute silly teenage girl who could be in literally anything and I was able to just endearingly giggle at that. Hinano managed to do the heterosexual unrequited crush cliché without me groaning or missing any of her regular personality. Also was there a Ren part? I don’t remember because everything Ren does feels like a Soft Yuri Valentines Special. Also I love Momoko. Ok moving on to what I Really wanna talk about.

Madoka is genuinely my Least Cared About of the Holy Sextet. I don’t think she’s bad or even boring- Madoka has a depth to her character, like, really deep- but that’s not something ever really touched upon by the fandom. Even when people like her and make her the Heroine she’s Supposed to be, it’s usually in the context of “Girl who feels nothing but kindness and happy thoughts would cut off her right hand to feed to a hungry dog. Isn’t she so Good????”. And honestly, while I understand the point it was going to make, I wasn’t crazy about her sacrifice in the end of the series. (Team Homura “Rebellion Is Good Actually” ftw) All because I think that I’m an Adult Woman watching this like “You are 14yrs old and need to be home playing Sims and not sacrificing yourself for the greater good you stupid silly little baby girl”

So my point is here near all fan content I encounter tends to emphasize whats sort of my least favorite facet of Madoka. I don’t think she made the ‘wrong’ decision in the context she and the story were given, but it’s still a sad thing to show a depressed(!!!) insecure girl resolving to give away her very existence so that every other girl on earth has a chance to just Dream. Oh and they still usually die young. But that’s ok because then she takes them and lets them sleep peacefully forever in her Heaven Basement (Yes I am bitter stan Homura I would yank this savior complex infant girl out the sky too)

MY POINT BEING (The servers closing let me BLEED OUT ALL MY FEELINGS) This event did not do that!!! It made Madoka…….. EVERYTHING SHE SHOULD BE??? ALWAYS??? Showed her HOW WE SHOULD BE ABLE TO VIEW HER??? (Read: Happy and Alive and Confident at no foreboding or sacrifice of anyone else!!!!)

She is Sassy and Surrounded By Friends and Really Funny??? And we get this Ridiculous Oh My God On Crack metaphor about her being this all-powerful apocalypse bringing being which is representing her love for the universe through her Witch form of Wanting Everyone To Be Happy And Safe With Her??? And she still risks herself to save everyone as is her Thing to do but we get to have her do it without erasing her existence as a human being at the end and if that is not some GOOD SHIT????

Ok next:

NGL Sayaka’s (fav character, inarguable best girl, can u not tell) parts in MagiReco til like the last arc have always left me a bit disappointed. She was the only late comer of the OG girls from what I understand and it kind of gives her the air of what a lot of the second(/thirdary?) girls suffer from. You can tell the writers can’t even figure out a trope to apply her to to make her easy and two dimensional to write about so they just don’t know what to do. They definitely try to make up for it (especially in the anime which Praise Be but that’s probably Inu Currys doing) but she’s still lacking like, any of the depth of her personality. Which, I guess I could anticipate. Because most of the fandom tends to as well. (again)

Gonna stop complaining and get on with- That didn’t feel as much the case in her Valentine event. Sure it was still the same formula of “The Issue Is Kyosuke” but that didn’t play out as grueling as her personal story did with “Nine Episodes Of “The Issue Is Kyosuke””

There was one big glaring heart-aching detail of “Mami isn’t really there because SHES IN A FUCKING CULT RIGHT NOW” which kind of jarred the event out of the ho-hum silly valentines sidestory these events usually keep up.

Sayaka has this crisis about Doing Anything Meaningful With Kyosuke which we all know what That’s calling back to, but in this environment we get to have Kyoko come right up and be in a position with her to earnestly and affectionately Push Her To Do It. The lonely little tsundere bitch girl pushes her Not Friend to Give The Bastard The Gotdamn Chocolate Already and for a moment you can only think about What If’s and If Only’s. Sayaka’s is still the weakest of the threes stories in this event but it worked harder to show us different sides of the characters then 6 chapters of Another Story managed to do.

And then there’s fucking Homura.

I will be, eternally grateful for Kuro. As a character that becomes metaphorical for the 2D ways we initially viewed the feathers and just NPCs in games in general, and also like, giving Homura a friend she actually cares about that isn’t the tangled dark web of Bullshit she’s gotten tied up with Madoka in. Please ask me about all my AU’s where Kuro is Homuras first girlfriend.

Seeing Moemura in Magia Record has always been a bit surreal, we never really understand just what stage of Trauma this Homura is in because Multiverses Are Hell, but this event gives us a good chunk of a Homura who still has hope and faith both in the world and Madoka. Theres this wonder to her that while still bogged down by terrible experiences still has the energy to be Trying. And she sees a girl who used to be like her- which when you think about it is probably what Madoka saw in her- and she wants to help. Because Madoka helped her. And Madoka is the best thing in the universe and maybe Homura can be just a little bit closer to that.

Kuro is too far gone though, as is the reality frequently in this series, things don’t work out just because of circumstance. Kuro was a bullied, insecure little girl who realistically shouldn’t have had to become a rampaging monster because of it. We’re reminded of this being the reality of the Madoka universe. Homura, is reminded of this reality. Homura loses this one chance to bring hope into the world like Madoka brought hope into hers.

And then her story ties into the ending of Madoka’s. Madoka saves her life yet again, even as Homura continues to feel miserable and empty. But at least Madoka is with her. The girls then share a quiet, intimate Valentines together. And you sort of understand how Homura fell so far into the darkness that the only thing she was able to still care about and fight for was Madoka’s safety.

That shit slaps. It slaps you right in the heart and causes fucking bruising but then u want it to do it again because you’re masochistic and Meguca Is Suffering.

Anyway I hope Kuroe slaps our hearts more in season2

MOVING ON!!!!

~Nagisa’s Wish~

Ok, I don’t remember what got me so simp over Nagisa, I think it was the heart-aching irony that Mami adopts the witch that fucking ate her. But that is my baby now and I’d die for her. Fandom Charlotte whose pink and silly and loves her mom and is Mami’s cancer-riddled girlfriend is cool and all but she isn’t a tiny Halloweeny baby whose fucking bitter angry and manically obsessed with cheese due to PTSD.

I had saw a summary of Nagisa’s Wish reposted just to quickly explain Nagisa’s backstory, and as such immediately had to search out if that crazy ride was true- so I actually watched this whole event probably before I downloaded the game. It was surreal on its own but replaying it when it came to NA didn’t lessen it any- I got to process more of what I was witnessing and as result stanned Yu pretty hard.

I guess to explain my Emotions here, saving Yu for later- calls for me to just, describe who Nagisa is as a human being and my headcanons surrounding it all with what this event gave us. Whether you consider it canon or not it’s one version of events that we were given and that I am all for accepting.

Nagisa’s Mom was a celebrity, she could have been an actress though I also like the idea of her being an Idol. She met Nagisa’s Dad oh-so romantically and got knocked up- they very well could have been married but it doesn’t seem clear enough. He seems to have left too suddenly for legal matters like that. Nagisa is approximately 11, and while she seems to remember her Father, she doesn’t in the sense of having had a relationship with him or any feelings. Her Mother has to “explain” why he left, so Nagisa was probably still young even if not a baby. What I’m getting at here is the timeline for when Nagisa’s Mom Got Like That. Nagisa can remember her from before she was, and then says that she got sick after her Dad left. So what I’m wondering is did Daddy Momoe ruin this young rich girls life, give her syphilis and then leave her with a baby she was unfit to care for in poverty? I know half of this is running on anime logic but Holy Shit all the possible ways reasons and ideas for why things could’ve gotten This Bad.

Is it ridiculously dark and edgy that the original story we were given was “Girl wishes her dying mother could have her favorite cake but then realizes OOPSIE-DAISY I could have wished for her to Not Die instead!!!!” got turned into “11yr old hates her abusive mother so much she wants to make her suffer in the most symbolic way she can and then goes mental when she isn’t able to do it”??? Yes. But if I had the mental capacity to I have to admit I was in a position to be just as bitter at that age too. I can’t call it unrealistic. I may infact be projecting hard with how much I support and enjoy this backstory.

Anyway Nagisa was in such a state of trauma and distress at a horrifically young age when she died that it broke her mental faculties so severely that even when she came back as a literal Angel of God she had blocked it out so deeply and thoroughly she seemingly regressed to an even younger capacity and hyperfixated on the trait that she has before used to try to bond with her Mother who she had died hating.

And that also slaps u right in the heart.

A N D T H E N !

~Beachside Bonds~

Just the simple structure of this story was so enjoyable and nicely done. We finally get to see the OG girls in a context we wouldn’t be able to in literally any other scenario. They’re going on a summer vacation together and Homura is sentimentally journaling every single second of it. Is this mayhaps because she’s never gotten to be this happy and blissful with these girls she loves so much??? Of course this is are you not paying attention what the fuck. Homura is so optimistic and healed and hopeful she’s acting like what she might actually be doing as a normal teenage girl. (A heartrending contrast to the end of her Valentines Special)

We get nothing short of pure fluffy Slice Of Life shenanigans on the beach which even includes a bunch of the Kamihama girls that the OG crew knows! And they talk about it! And introduce eachother! And their friends commentate on it! Ren gets to see Kyoko Not Being A Bitch and then Sayaka teases her about having made friends and oh my god my heart is turning into cottoncandy as we speak Mom holy FUCK

Sayaka’s existence fucking matters in this story! It’s her families Hotel they’re staying at and she has relationships and memories with the creepy twins that live there and she talks like a fucking person??? And gives opinions??? That aren’t just copypasted “Justice is Good and Bad things are BAD!!!!”

Mami is fresh out of her fucking Cult Drama and she’s still trying to be cool Senpai but then she DECKS Homura in the face and gets scared by the ghost stories and then turns into pudding and waxes nostalgia at Kyoko out of nowhere IT’S ALMOST LIKE SHE’S A FIFTEEN YEAR OLD GIRL????????

G H O S T S ? ? ? ?

Y U ! ? ! ? ! ? !

(IS G A Y ! ! ! !)

This whole fucking backstory and truly horrifying Romeo and Juliet on Acid love and death story between Yu and her girlfriend and like if I wasn’t fascinated enough by Yu just being the creepy organ harvester before but apparently thats what she became after she literally made some sort of wish that erased all of her memories besides the nickname her sweetheart used for her and coincidentally also added to her the task of killing all Bad People?????

Yu made a wish to be able to get rid of All Bad People preserving the innocent version of herself who grew up with this girl and it was right after a failed double suicide attempt on fucking Doomed Lovers Cliff fucking Lifetime Will You Ever.

It then pairs with Homura whose PTSD gets to shine through a bit in being unable to believe any bad sort of Madoka which how could you try to force her to at this point while Also pairing Homura with Ren in the “Gay Love Saved Our Lives: Traumatized vers & Vanilla vers”

I don’t remember if there was a symbolic finale and tbh I have forgotten a lot of the details with Yu and her girlfriend Whatsherface because that shit was just so shocking and bizarre to read and much too painful to reread in a timely fashion just.

That shit hurted but it was full of so much love and hope both doomed and stolen but still was wrapped up in the comforting concept that This Is The Universe Where Homura Gets To Be Okay This Time.

She’s still scarred beyond comprehension and this ghost drama accentuated it all but at the end of the day this is still the Safe Universe where all of them are alive and the Holy Quintet are friends and they’re all going to be okay (Godoka & Aniplex willing) and so many of us love Madoka Magica because it shows girls fighting through the same pain we’ve been through and keeping their hope alive and here we get to see them actually find peace in a clunkily written fanservicey spin-off mobile gacha game and hey, that made me happy while I got to experience it. Thanks for the ideas and memories and tragic backstories and funny thirdary characters MagiReco I’m gonna take em all and Run.

Akjsladbfalkjfsbslk If you read this all without getting a migraine or blocking me ily thanks for listening!!!!!!

TL;DR

Me likey A La Carte Valentine bc it’s silly and gay and I simp Kuro

Me likey Nagisa’s Wish bc sawft baby is good and so are Tragic Edgy Backstories

Me likey Beachside Bonds bc Gay Ghosts and Our Girls Finally Get To Be Happy Peaceful(ish) Teenage Girls and that’s all I want for them ;w;

Reeses In Pieces ya’ll

1Ten 2More 3Words 4To 5Hit 6(3000 7Words 8Woo 9Boy 10Howdy

#magia rapport #magia record #pmmm

[bomberqueen17]

brotherhoodoftheslice replied to your post “next installment: Innermost Depths”

He can probably see outside of the infrared spectrum! Do Witchers navigate by electrosensitivity like migratory birds?? Perhaps they definitely all have PTSD, and find frightening coping mechanisms and/or symptoms so regular as to be brushed off as normal, all of which Ciri and Jaskier would find HORRIFYING. (Screams in the night? Geralt just rolls over.)

oh my god he probably CAN.

oh my god.

I was kind of already thinking on this wavelength a little because I’ve spent the last couple of years (yes really) slowly reading Martha Wells’ The Books Of The Raksura series out loud to my little niece, repeatedly (and I had to censor a lot more of it on the first readthrough when she was three than I do now that she’s six, because it is Very Much not a book for kids except whomst among us would not love such a book) and there are no human characters in that whole series, and the main character is a shapeshifter, who has one form that’s sort of humanoid (”a soft-skinned groundling,” as he thinks of himself) and the other form that’s kind of a flying dragon thing with scales and claws and such. And so this POV character has an incredibly acute sense of smell that he uses constantly to interact with his surroundings, much sharper distance vision than most of the other “groundling” species he interacts with (although his vision is pretty biased toward moving things and he can’t find nearby stationary objects for shit), and he’s got sensory spines on the back of his neck in the winged form that he somehow can still access in his groundling form, so he always knows if there’s air moving behind him, and an innate awareness of the planet’s magnetic field and the position of the sun in the sky so he always knows which way he’s oriented and what time it is. Anyway-- it’s all so normalized in the narrative that you don’t think about it much, but the author’s Patreon has a snippet that’s from another groundling character he was living with in semi-hiding, not letting on that he had another form, and like the first line is that she absolutely knows he’s something else because of all these weird little uncanny things about him. He thinks he fits in and she’s immediately like no doubt this guy’s some kind of monster buuuuut he’s nice and he does the dishes so I’m just gonna chill.

(If you’re not familiar with the series I recommend it wholeheartedly because the protagonist is a traumatized lost orphan who’s spent his whole life thinking he’s a freak and now that he’s actually found other people like him he has no idea how to fit in, it is so fucking juicy, there are five books of this and he grows throughout but there’s a fantastic whole bit in the third book where he thinks everyone has betrayed him and it’s so angsty, yes this is the author of Murderbot by the way and she has a Type and it is also my Type so thanks)

(ah another wonderful ongoing bit of POV fuckery in it is that you get his POV pretty close mostly and he’s like I’m an unlovable monster no one has ever loved me and then you get backstory and it’s all these people who are like oh no doubt that kid was weird but we liked him, we don’t know why he freaked out and ran off when we were politely like “hey guy you have some sort of deal going on?”-- like, over and over, so that’s fantastically juicy and also applicable here, I think, to our Witcher, who yes gets rocks thrown at him but probably by now is so oversensitive about it that people blink twice at him because the wind was in their eyes and he’s like they hate me, because of what I am, and I must leave instantly forever-- and like, in both cases, totally justified by past traumas, but not super helpful in the moment.)

But anyway. Yes, Witchers are subtly inhuman and that’s gotta freak people out, and I think there’s a lot of juicy material just in him firstly learning as a young Witcher not to show that he can do these inhuman things because it freaks people out, and then learning in the present day that they don’t really freak Jaskier out and he can maybe sort of sometimes be himself. 

I can’t really envision what you mean about the PTSD coping mechanisms though-- I figure the hypervigilance is a given but it also probably takes literal years for him to really sleep deeply in Jaskier’s presence. (I’d say he never did with Yen but it’s hard to say, the djinn thing might affect his judgement considerably.)

#brotherhoodoftheslice #books of the raksura #the witcher #inhuman characters #traumatized orphans #unreliable narrators #MY JAM

[dulharpa]

this is for hayley! @whistlingwillows a dear friend <3333

it’s meant to be a birthday present haha. i just want to shower you in love;;; so thought maybe i could go through as many of your fics and comment on them :^)))

(TO EVERYONE ELSE: please go to @whistlingwillows blog and read her fics!!! they are SO FCKIN GOOD AND AMAZING AND UGH HER MIND (it’s a lot of mcu and her bucky and steve fics are a*. i DEFINITELY RECOMMEND))

i wish you a VERY happy birthday and i hope we stay friends for many more years <3333333333 

i’m going through your masterlist heehee ;)))

ah first off, nice theme! i never could rlly see it before because i’m always on mobile heehee. also sorry for not reviewing them before??? i don’t usually read fics on tumblr as you’ve probably guessed;;

anyways, IM GON REVIEW THE SHIT OUT OF THESE >:DDDD

far from home -  bucky x stark sister!reader

firstly, i like how youre introducing the reader from buckys pov, like you can sort of already gather what shes like from them

‘Bucky can hear Tony’s soft inhale, feel the intensity of the man’s glare directed at Steve. He shouldn’t be eavesdropping, but a twitch of muscle would be enough to alert both men that he’s here. With the amount of tension crackling in the air, a brush against the wall would be equivalent to a thousand cymbals crashing in cacophony.’

IM CRYING ALREADY. the imagery in here is GLORIOUS. your tone here is so fitting! oo and the alliteration here is perfecto

ooooooo!! the backstory coming in  👀👀

‘despite what some people think that Steve and Captain America are two different personas, there will always be parts of Steve in the Avenger, and parts of the Avenger in Steve. They both want to believe in something good. They are, after all, one in the same.// Just as how Bucky and the Winter Soldier are the same man despite everything. HYDRA simply amplified the hate, fertilized the seeds of rage, curated the quiet thunder within his soul, within James Buchanan Barnes so that the Winter Soldier could thrive.’

yIKES! lol this is very character study like! nICE. it hurts tho, my poor children, i love you both 

oo ‘starlight eyes’ that is a very nice way of describing them

‘“Then what was London?” The protesters. “São Paulo?” The earthquake. “Vancouver?” Freezing cold water.//“Look, I care if Stark’s gonna run us over trying to find her. I care enough because she’s part of our team. Come off it, Steve. I know she can take care of herself. I’m gonna take a nap. Dr. Cho said no partying post-Singapore and what do you know, we throw the biggest party ever.’

ooo singapore uwu and london? (coincidence? haha jkjk) and the hints abt reader and buckys background are so good?? but so annoying??? like i just wanna KNOW yknow?? 

‘The water runs copper and the sting bites at his palm as he tries not to think. Tries to focus on the numbing cold that runs over his skin.’ 

your imagery is so vivid?? im actually in awe??? i am so regretful i havent kept reading your fics. like i know they are amazing, i just keep putting them off??? idk man. hopefully this makes up for it (gd tho, im still not done with commenting on one fic. this is what im doing with my motivation teehee ;)

‘ He feels weak. Tired. He wants to go back to bed but he also wants to stay out in the sun for a few hours more. The sun kisses his skin through the windows and he squints against the blue sky, wondering ‘

mood during this quarantine lol

‘“Oh, right.” Your voice is flat, uninterested, cold, as you stare at him. “You killed my parents.”Shit.‘

 OUCH LMAO THATS C O L D, O GOT +100 PHYSIC DAMAGE FROM JUST READING THAT

ooo robin as a nickname noice. very much gives me batman vibes lol

oh! and the way of doing the ‘flashback’ is neat! very original. it both tells us what happened AND buckys reaction to it again. he can re-analyse himself and reader. very cool

‘If you walk away now, don’t bother coming back!” Silence. Bucky can hear his own strained breathing, your soft sigh as you soaked in his ultimatum.���

👀👀 yikes that ultimatum. :// not good bucky. tbf theyre both trying to hurt each other but Yikes

eyy!!! readers pov!! finally! and the switch after we find out the outsiders pov? brilliant

oh no :(( more angst

‘When’s the last time you saw your therapist?”“Don’t have one. I’m perfectly capable of taking care of myself.”’ they BOTH need therapists;;;;

very good fic!!! :DD they rlly do hate each other! i definitely like how you went back and forth with the timeline! it gave me a v strong idea on what yn was like even before we rlly got introduced. i am now very curious on where reader is? i love your characterisations! 

i will read the 10k+ fics but heck the last one took me ages lolol (i will comment in the future tho!! i promise <3 ) (that took me over an hour jjhghgdjh)

slipping away- amnesiac modern bucky x reader

omg,,, AMNESIA! >:DDDDDD

‘ Put your fucking seatbelt on’

oh no, istg theyre going to have a car crash arent they (’ doesn’t put the seatbelt on to spite you.’ NO PLEASE PUT IT ON U DUMBASS)

ok,,,,, at LEAST he put it on before he got hit, thank heck. but still. youre so cruel to your poor characters lmaoo

oh gosh

‘You fall apart slowly, like pieces of you peeling away until you’re nothing more than your broken heart. The sobs that wrack your body are relentless and you shove your forearm into your mouth to muffle your cries. You want to bite into your skin. You want to distract yourself from the agony tearing you to shreds. You want to feel anything but the pain.///Tears sweep into your hair, cloud your vision and your whole face floods with heat as you try to breathe through the pain. You’re cleaved into pieces on that bed, eyes squeezed shut as the tears keep flowing, and your throat burns’

this hurts damn, it is so vivid?? i can really feel it 

i am so glad you got into writing yk?? so glad

NO PLS, TELL HIM. TELL HIM :((( ‘shes nice once you get to know her?? shes known nat for years now!! years!!

oh god ‘he looks younger without the burden of your time together’ this is so angsty omg

‘Well, he was stumbling through his apology and I just let him finish.” Your body fills with warmth as you remember his embarrassed smile, the way he shoved his baseball cap farther down his head, chin tucked to his chest, trying to hide that face. “When he was done, I opened my mouth to say something polite but what came out was ‘You look like someone I’d very much like to kiss’.”

this is so soft i stg im crying in the club

OH SHITTTTTTTTTTT , you left it off like that!!! thats so cruel!!!! i can’t!!! how dare you!!!! :””””””((( im typing this with tears in my eyes ill have u know!!

anyway!!! very good fic!! you could honestly make that into a longfic very easily lol. i felt too many emotions :(( 

i was just about to say where is the fluff!! where is it!! when i saw the next one and yay :))) pls i cant have more angsty stuff rn

.

cookies and rings and things bucky and reader

‘how much do you love me?’ ‘count the snowflakes, multiply by a million’

did you have to start the fic off with such a SOFT line? its so soft! so TENDER 

‘He wonders what kinda insane person wears socks without any clothes on, but then decides that it’s the kind of person who’s fallen in love with him.’  jesus, the soft moments filled with love are the greatest <3

you can write fluff so well, whyd you have to pain me with all that angst ;””””) (1/10 hurt, 9/10 comfort is the way to go lolol) (jkjk ill read the angsty ones too when i have the spoons) (gonna reread that hydra steve one and ik thatll fuck me UP)

‘ Then, he can feel the cold metal of the ring she slid onto her own finger less than twenty-four hours ago and realizes that he had thought a lot of things shouldn’t be possible, and yet they still are. ‘

you literally brought me to tears reading this softness, you have truly found my weakness

‘ She’s so damn gorgeous with flour on her face and eye bags beneath her eyes that he’s sure she will inevitably make his heart burst ‘

he already likes her so much! i can’t believe this is affecting me so much :’)

‘Bucky is quite sure Sam is in love with his girlfriend in the fact that he’s in love with the fact that his girlfriend is possibly in love with Bucky’

this is so soft??? sam loves reader bc reader loves bucky sm. pls my hear <3333

you do fluff SO WELL DAMN 

‘F.R.I.D.A.Y.’s voice echoes in his small little perch and he still thinks it’s weird without having the side effect of Stark in his suit chasing after him to hear the A.I. but he shoves that uncomfortable feeling of the dead man out of his head. That is too much regret to unpack right now on a mission. ‘

yike bringing back that reminder oof

but thats so soft??? (i am def overusing soft but,,,,, i love it and the vibe) she sent him cookies! god i can feel the love  

‘She expresses her feelings through cooking, which Bucky has learnt the hard way. One time, they got into an argument over something stupid—he can’t even remember what started it—and came to the kitchen at 2AM to see her sitting at the kitchen island crying her eyes out and surrounded by baskets of muffins.’

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3 my hEART

you show how much they love each other in so many ways??? i am dying

“Alright, I like it.” Rolling his eyes, he pecks her forehead and she smiles victoriously. It’s so adorable that Bucky, with less than three hours of sleep, adds, “God, I want to marry you.//”“What?”//Oh.Shit.

oh my god! i am literally tearing up!!! AGAIN!!!!!!!!

oh shit o am literally crying

your fluff got me crying harder than your angst i hope youre happy

I really hope you enjoy reading this?? i keep forgetting to like text you but i wanted to do something for your birthday. especially in quarantine when everythings gone crazy. one year i swear ill do something REALLY good for you. not making promises bc i hate if i dont. but ill like, learn how to podfic because you D E S E R V E  I T 

ive spent like three hours doing this lolol 

thank you so much for everything hayley!

#i love you sm hayley!!!! thank you for EVERYTHING #AND THIS IS A FIC REC PLS CHECK HAYLEYS STUFF OUT

[fae-fucker]

Zenith: Chapter 45-48

Chapter 45

Nor is floating in a super sci-fi space carriage over the last remaining “wealthy” city on Xen Ptera, which is apparently so garbage only a few people have roofs over their heads. She thinks about how much she loves her people and how she’s doing this for them, except she purposefully floats just out of reach of their poor-people hands and throws food and “med kits” at them so they’ll follow. 

Darai is very confused by this, because Shinsay desperately need Nor to seem complex and intelligent. She compares her people to an [incidental space animal] she got from her father as a child.

“I fed it,” she explained. “Give a pet food, Darai, and it will do anything to stay by your side. Starve it or beat it, and it will begin to fear your very existence, only coming out of hiding in the moments when you have something to give and it to take.” 

“I’m afraid I don’t understand.”

[...]

“The people of Xen Ptera are my responsibility now. But more than that, they are my soldiers, and I wish for them to follow me always. No matter how dark the path I choose to walk upon.”

Yes, this makes so much sense. First you let your people starve and get radiation poisoning, but then you throw scraps at their feet and obviously peasants are food-motivated like kittens and will absolutely do as you say. 

Except this doesn’t make any fucking sense for many, many reasons. 

1) Darai complains about the fact that these rations are used for scientists and soldiers. Which he’s right about. If Nor has an army and scientists, those people tend to be far more useful in, say, a war, than a bunch of mutated and starving peasants. 

2) I dunno if Shinsay have read any history ever, but when large masses of people get hungry, they don’t just sit there, they turn on the few people in power who still have food and resources. These peasants would turn on Nor the moment someone else provided better food. I’m just saying that Nor’s neck accessory wouldn’t be a spiked collar but a guillotine.

3) Don’t you have that Zenith stuff? The stuff that can make people into brainwashed robots with a single drop? Release that shit into the atmosphere and save your food and “med kits” for the few actually crucial people who need it.

3.5) If you’re only going to use it on enemies to convert them, why bother with your people in the first place? Despite what Nor is claiming, her “love” for her people is token at best and her priority lies in revenge, not recovery.

4) Also it’s so transparent that they only wrote this to make Nor look smart, because they purposefully made Darai into an idiot who doesn’t understand basic concepts when he previously was written as an older, intelligent advisor.

Nor arrives at the old palace ruins and it’s all very sad and angsty, complete with special Backstory Flowers that used to Bloom but Don’t Anymore because the Environment got Too Tragic, and flashbacks to that time her hand and also her dad were crushed under rubble. We find out that the crowd gathered here are just “thousands” of people, and Nor refers to them as her “army.” Okay. 

Nor gets stage fright when the crowd is silent and doesn’t instantly love her because she has the confidence of a highschooler asking someone out to prom, and decides to snap her golden hand off to prove to her people that she’s “their equal,” which works for some reason even though the narration acknowledges it as a lie. 

Obviously starving people seeing this LITERALLY GOLDEN woman who just shat out a bunch of free food from her floating carriage will definitely 100% swallow her little speech about how they have to take revenge. Even the mothers holding up their starving infants! We all know people who are starving want revenge before a sandwich. The blood of my enemies? I call it vengeance ketchup.

She shows Zenith to the crowd which they totally understand what it is right away from afar and how it works and what it has to do with literally anything.

“Remember, Xen Pterrans, and never forget, that even the stars can bleed!”

The royal entourage pack up and Nor says she wants a crown forged for herself because “every queen needs one” and: 

“I want to wear it while we feast on the galaxy’s bones.”

Cool. 

Chapter 46

We’re in Lira’s POV while she’s doing what she does best: moping off on her own. I guess she’s not very special in that regard. She’s thinking about how she loves to fly because the sky has no limits and the ground is confusing. Aight.

The gang seems to have gotten off without any punishment for crashing into a village and are now staying at the very center of power of Adhira, this mountain palace called Rhymore. It’s very pretty and yadda yadda, I skipped 90% of the description because literally whomst careth. 

One important detail to keep in mind is that we find out varillium, the glass-like substance that the Marauder is made of is, like M. Night Shyamalan’s movie starring Bruce Willis, unbreakable. You know, which is why they need those metal shields around the damn thing. Thanks guys, this makes total sense.

Lira looks into an “eyeglass” and sees literally all of Adhira like a tiny map. Either Shinsay are confused about what a telescope does, or they’re flat-earthers. And yeah, she literally sees cities, waterfalls, rainforests, deserts ... This is after we’ve established she’s in a mountainous area.

All the descriptions read like screensavers and are just as relevant to the story so I’ll just skip them. 

Lira is ambushed by her twin brother Lon, who is the owner of that sarcastic soul we’ve heard so much about. 

He was at least a head taller than her now, his pale blue arms rippling with muscle, spreading up into a thick neck and strong shoulders.

This description bothers me and I don’t know why. 

The conversation quickly turns all mopey and Lon says Lira has abandoned her people and himself, to which she replies she was only protecting him from WHAT SHE’S BECOME (wake me up inside). We then get a random infodump about how the Adhiran queen is super great and loving and a perfect leader. Not perfect enough to abdicate the throne but I don’t think Shinsay thought that far. Monarchy good if monarchs good, obviously.

Lon is all “ur still my sister until the mountain falls uwu” and Lira is like “omg stop guilt-tripping meee” and we’re informed there’s gonna be a “peace festival” soon that celebrates the end of the war against Xen Ptera. How convenient that their ship would randomly malfunction right before this event. :)

Lira says she wants to tell him only the good stuff of what’s happened while she was away and says that she’s been using Moon Chew, which is Bad for Reasons, and she knows Lon uses it too but keeps it a secret from the queen aka their aunt. Lon asks about what “led” Lira to using it and I’m just baffled by the fact that we still don’t know what the fuck Moon Chew is or what it does, and why, if it’s something so terrible that one must be “led” to using it, they’re talking about it like it’s some unhealthy fast food their aunt frowns upon and not, say, a drug? 

Anyway, Lira tells him of their adventures and it sounds way more interesting than anything we’ve read so far. Then we get this:

Lon always knew that Lira harbored a darkness in her soul. A little tug, a tiny whisper at the back of her mind, that led her to go above and beyond the pranks that Lon had always pulled while they were growing up here. 

She’d fallen, not for a lover, but for the skies. For adventure. 

She’d found a ship full of girls with their own affinity for darkness to mirror her own.

So I recently found out that there’s supposedly an “asexual” alien in the crew of the Marauder, and that member is apparently Lira. I think this idea is reinforced by the “fallen but not for a lover” line.

Framing her wanting to explore the world on her own and go her own way, comparing it to falling in love but not with another person but with a concept, as a darkness in her soul? 

Not a good look.

Anyway, Lon decides after all this time that apparently Lira was always meant to fly and tells her that her aunt wants to see her.

This is plot?

Chapter 47

We’re in Valen’s POV. He wakes up and is in pain but not enough to avoid noticing that he’s in a fluffy bed and outside there is [insert generic description of pretty place here] and it’s so pretty he could never paint it, because he’s a painter and he can’t relate anything in his life to anything but painting.

The Adhiran queen is there and she’s very pretty. She asks him about the last thing he remembers, which is Nor, and it sends him into a ... flashback? Basically he starts freaking out that this isn’t real and they sedate him again and the last thing he sees is

[...] Androma Racella leaning forward from the shadows across the room, half of her face aglow as sunlight spilled across her skin like paint.

You know, because he’s a painter!

Chapter 48

We’re back with Lira, who starts the second chapter like she started the previous one, complaining about how being planetside is the worst. Yep, we get it. It’s the worst. Cuz she’s a pilot. 

Painters be painting. Pilots be piloting. If your characters don’t constantly refer back to their one defining characteristic, how will be able to tell them apart? 

Anywho, Lira finally gets to the queen.

Alara was beautiful in every sense of the word, inside and out. She had a lithe frame, perfectly proportioned, and no scales on her skin.

PERFECTLY PROPORTIONED

What in the everloving fuck does that even mean? :’) Probably just means she’s skinny.

And of course she has no scales, only evil people and/or “morally grey” people can have imperfections. How do we know someone is good unless they have flawless skin?

Lira had always admired Alara’s beauty, but it paled in comparison to the woman’s intelligence.

Shinsay, slapping us all with a big purple dildo: THIS IS FEMINISM. 

“She’s absolutely good and perfect and INTELLIGENT because women don’t have to be pretty to be smart and we totes value things other than beauty, but let us constantly describe how absolutely fucking DICK-OUT-HOT this Generic Good Queen is, in case you ever doubted it.”

👌👌👌👌👌👌👌👌

And, yeah, Nor is also described as hot, but like, evil hot. Sexualized and sexual and dangerous and GASP OMG SHE HAS A GOLD HAND. GGQ straight up glows, that’s how good she is.

Generic Good Queen addresses Lira as “Lirana” which, yeah, ok, and we get this:

“I’ve just had a rather unfortunate conversation with Valen Cortas, the poor, tortured soul, so spare me whatever dramatic greeting you must have prepared.”

You know what? Maybe Generic Good Queen ain’t so bad after all. 

YOU TELL HER, GGQ. 

#eff reads: zenith

[probably-voldemort]

I saw that Darling updated before I went into work and I saved the chapter for after work, so on my drive home I was thinking “I can’t wait for the new chapter” and somehow I got to the though of “you know what would have been angsty? If Seph has thought that the word Dad meant radio or sky or something and not a person because babies are fools who don’t know what words mean and whenever Clarke or Murphy say ‘it’s your dad’ they’re looking at the radio/sky...” (1/2)

(2/2) Also your new chapter was *chef kiss* The drama of it all The suspense I legitimately never considered Murphy/Clarke even really as close friends until your fic and now I’m almost rooting for them? What delightful witchcraft you have performed with your writing.

Ahhh thank you!!!!

That would be super angsty and like lets be real for a second she honestly probably does at this point think that “dad” refers to the radio or the sky or something.  She’s three, and the only people she’s ever met are Clarke and Murphy and Madi.  For all she knows, there aren’t any other people.  She honestly probably does think that “dad” is just another word for “radio”, and telling a radio everything about your day is just what you do.

Not gonna get into that in the fic though cause there’s already enough angst but yeah I’ve thought about that too.

(also don’t worry Seph will know that her dad is a person and not a radio by the time he gets down)

Thank you again!!!!  TBH it’s always bugged me that it’s like none of the delinquents had met each other before they got to the ground (aside from like Jasper and Monty and then Clarke and Wells).  Like in the flashback where Pike’s trying to give them one last Earth Skills class it’s obvious they all knew each other and considering Clarke was the only one who was supposed to have been in solitary, they all should’ve known each other at least from the Skybox.  But nobody knows anybody in the pilot.  And like I mean I get how that works with TV (built in way for everybody to introduce themselves and all) but like I’m from a small town.  I was in the same class with everyone my age since kindergarten and I knew basically everyone in the grades above and below.  And my town was probably around the size of the Ark population wise.  People should know people.

Anyway, that was a rant you didn’t ask for but my point is I like to assume in fics that everybody at least knew of each other on the Ark and that way there’s a lot more backstory you can work with.  And I just like Clarke and Murphy’s dynamic so I decided they were gonna be buds on the Ark.

Glad you enjoyed the chapter!!  Next one’s coming on Wednesday!!

#darling hold me in your arms