#to make her immortal too. But decided not to when the topic was met with Pity by Reika whenever Misao finally revealed to her what she-

[deathmetalunicorn1]

Is it possible to have a Yandere!God x Goddess of love!reader?

Gods : Hades, Poseidon, Thor, Hermes and Beelzebub

Sp here's the scenario :

Reader has always been inlove with [God], it's pure love. While [God] is inlove with her too, but it's an obsessive type of love.

And then the meeting of the Gods came(like in the chapter 1/episode 1 of RoR) where the Gods trashtalking humans on how filthy or dumb they are, both Reader and [God] are there. Being the Goddess of love, reader don't like what are they doing, she loves humans. She's not that sad not until she heard [God] agreeing to them. Her heart broke hearing what her husband said about humans.

Reader thought that her husband hated her because she loves humans so she decided to ran away to human realm and start her new life there. Little did she know, she was pregnant with [God]'s son.

And then in Ragnarok, they met again, [God] saw reader watching the match with Brunhilde. (Please it's up to you what would be his reaction like😭)

And the story goes on~~~

Bonus : Their son is one of the human champions

(You remember the request I did where there's emoji like this : 🗣️🔥‼️ it's mine so please make the reader similar with that story or make it a sequel if you want thank you❤️❤️ and add nsfw if that's okay, if not it's okay too

-You were gone. Nowhere to be found, not even all the guards in Valhalla could find out after he gave the order to have you brought home.

-This was so unlike you; you never ran away or just vanished before! (Love’s) mind raced, thinking you had been kidnapped and were being held hostage! That was the only thing that made sense!

-He knew you loved him; you told him almost twenty times a day and he knew the way you looked at him, you were head over heels in love with him. He loved you just as much, but while your love was gentle and pure, his was obsessive, wanting to keep you all to himself.

-You were safe by his side that morning, when you attended the meeting of the gods alongside him, the meeting was about humans and if they deserved to live after all these years.

-You loved humans, they were creative, hardworking, and their determination was breathtaking to watch, but you were horrified to hear most of the gods wanted to get rid of them, no longer wanting to deal with humanity, despite being the creators, and after failing to supervise and manage the humans, they blamed the humans instead of blaming themselves.

-He knew you were sensitive to topics about death and destruction, being a goddess of life, but normally you’re okay afterwards.

-He had given his opinion, for the destruction of humanity so gods could heal and rebuild the earth, not at all bothered by starting over, at the cost of humanity.

-After the meeting you had gone up to bed, stating that you weren’t feeling well, which he didn’t question as you had been not feeling well and been more tired lately.

-However, when sent a servant to wake you for dinner, they came back in a panic that you weren’t in your shared room and after checking your usual haunts in the house, you were nowhere to be found.

-Every single god in Valhalla was looking for you, leaving no stone unturned, (Love) offered massive rewards to anyone who would bring you home safely.

-It was like you simply vanished. Only one person knew where you were, and Brunnhilde wasn’t going to say a thing until you contacted her, following your instructions.

-Years passed, but to immortal gods, it seemed like it went so quickly. (Love) never stopped looking for you, going into the different realms, like Helheim, searching for you, convinced you had been stolen away.

-Ragnarok was announced and (Love) attended, looking worse for wear than normal, and many gods both were worried for him and sympathized with him, as many knew his intense love for you.

-From across the stadium he saw a flash of (H/C) hair and his eyes widened, thinking it was a trick of the light, a hallucination after pining for you for so long!

-It was you, you were there with Brunnhilde and an unknown young man with (his color) hair who towered over you, massively tall with large muscles.

-You looked exactly the same, only with shorter hair, but you were absolutely glowing.

-Anyone in his way dove out of the way as he tore through the arena, sprinting over to you, catching quite a bit of attention and soon other gods spotted you as well, you were back, you were safe!

-Running footsteps approached and you turned, a bit confused before (Love) embraced you so tightly he took your breath away.

-Every sleepless night, every wish to bring you back to him, his anguish and pain, came out in that hug, squeezing you tightly.

-You knew that it was inevitable, seeing (Love) again, you knew you had to return at one point, to see him again, but you didn’t expect this reaction.

-Your son, however, didn’t take kindly, grabbing him and shoving him off, “Don’t touch my mama!” (Love) froze, as he had been glaring at (Son), before turning to you.

-You put a hand on both of their chests, to keep them from fighting, “Don’t fight, (Love), this is your son, (Son), and (Son), this is your father.”

-The two men were similar in personality, protective over you, and they froze in unison, looking at each other, seeing the similarities.

-(Love) cupped your cheek, seeing the unshed tears in your eyes, “Where- where did you- did you go?! I-I couldn’t-” you placed your hand against his mouth, halting his words, seeing his own unshed tears.

-You inhaled softly, “I left after you said you supported the decision to kill humanity. Humans deserve more credit than we, as gods, are giving them. Gods created humans, they’re our responsibility, and as such, (Son) is a fighter for humanity, and I’m going to support him and them.”

-(Love) was stunned by your words, hearing that you left because of him, you went to earth and hid away, having the son he didn’t even know that existed, which explained why you weren’t feeling good in the days leading up to your disappearance.

-(Love’s) eyes met your own, seeing the fire, the determination to do what is right by humanity, and he knew you were right and he inhaled deeply, “Then I too will fight for humanity.”

-Stunned shock filled everyone around, even as the other gods, like Zeus and Odin, had arrived, hearing that he was going to fight for humanity.

-Hades- Zeus immediately tried to change his brother’s mind, “Hades you can’t be serious?!” he turned to his youngest brother, a fierce glare in his eyes, “I lost Y/N once, I will not lose her or son again! And if that means fighting for the survival of humanity, then so be it!” you were stunned, your hands over your mouth, and (Son) was stunned, as he grew up learning that his father was a human hater, but to see him changing sides so he wouldn’t lose his family again. Hades and (Son) spent more than twenty minutes trying to calm you down after you started crying, making Zeus feel bad too. Hades knew he had to build a relationship with his son, as he was an adult now, but you were home- you both were, and he was never going to let you leave again.

-Poseidon- You and (Son) were in shock, because Poseidon’s hatred towards humans was common knowledge, and to hear him say something so shocking, just so he wouldn’t lose you, you were quickly in tears and leapt into his arms, sobbing into his chest. He squeezed you close, furious at himself, had he known what drove you away, he would have done everything to change his ways. (Son) was glaring at him, not happy that he was hugging you, his mama, but Poseidon stunned him by offering him a hand to take. (Son) hesitated but took it and Poseidon pulled him in, after letting you go, lifting to cup the back of his head, “I will do everything in my power to make things right, (Son).” The declaration was a start for your child, hearing his father’s resolve to keep you and him safe at home, but Poseidon had a long way to go to earn his trust, but Poseidon was willing to work for it.

-Thor- Odin grabbed his son’s shoulder, “You can’t be serious?!” Odin paused, seeing the fierce determination in his son’s eyes, “I lost Y/N due to our selfish decision, and she’s right- gods created humans so it’s our job to manage and guide them, rather than just wiping them out! And if you’re all to blind to see it, I will fight for humanity’s survival and I’ll do it myself!” Odin was stunned by his son’s declaration, before his gaze shifted to you, who was in tears, and (Son), his grandson, whom he had no idea even existed. Odin then stunned all by pulling back, “I agree with you, son. Zeus! We need to have another discussion. Halt everything with Ragnarok!” Thor was shocked his father agreed, before he turned back to you, seeing you getting consoled by (Son). Thor had missed so much, and he was fully prepared to fight to never miss anything again, he wasn’t going to anything take you away.

-Hermes- Zeus glared up at his son, “You can’t be serious!” Hermes returned the glare with equal ferocity, “I’m not losing Y/N again! I was so blinded by your hate and my own hate for humans that I didn’t even see it chasing Y/N away! I will fight for humanity for as long as I’m physically able to if that means keeping Y/N and my son- your grandson, in my life!” you were stunned, you had never heard Hermes yell like that before, especially to Zeus, your son had put himself in front of you, keeping you safe. Zeus was stunned, seeing Hermes’ anger as well, seeing his determination to have you back in his life. Zeus inhaled deeply before exhaling slowly, keeping his own temper in check, “Very well, and if humanity wins their salvation, we gods shall do what we should have done from the beginning.” You and Hermes were both stunned, seeing him agree, but it just made you want to fight harder. Hermes turned and hugged you tightly again, ignoring (Son’s) demands for you to be let free, which made you smile before you pulled back and he swore to give everything, to keep humanity safe, which made you smile and tear up, hearing his declaration to you.

-Beelzebub- Zeus hesitated, only for a moment, to oppose his decision, but immediately backed down, knowing of the curse and knowing that he would be foolish to enrage Satan, whom resides in Beelzebub and loves you as well. Beelzebub held your hand, stroking the backside of it with his thumb, like he always would when he needed your reassurance, to feel that you were there, grounding him. He glared down at the shorter god, “I lost my wife for years, and I’ve never had a chance to know my son. I drove them both away, and you ‘powerful’ gods need to heed Y/N’s words, we all need to do more.” Deep down, Zeus knew that Beelzebub was right and while he didn’t want to admit it, he did, turning to Hermes, “Gather the strongest of the gods, we need to have a discussion.” You were stunned by Zeus’ decision, everyone around was, but at the same time, you felt happy, squeezing your husband’s hand gently as most of the other gods walked off. (Son) was quick to insert his hand between your own, “No holding hands with my mama!” the two men glared at each other, challenging one another which made you roll your eyes before you took each of them by the hand, “C’mon you two, we have some catching up to do.” They both fell silent, knowing they couldn’t argue with you, not that they wanted to.

#record of ragnarok #ror x reader #ror hades #ror poseidon #ror thor #ror hermes #ror beelzebub

[aphroditelovesu]

Yandere Apollo w/Child!Like Rapunzel Headcanons

Request: ‘’By any chance do you write platonic fics if you do can you do (Greek Myth) yandere!Apollo having a child!reader who is like Rapunzel (just the hair) having healing power through her voice and hair (combined) y'know like she did to Eugene’’ - send by Anon.

"Your voice is the sweetest of all, my baby." - Apollo.

❝☀️ — lady l: okay, I did that, I'm not sure if it is good, I confess I'm not used to writing headcanons, but I tried. Constructive criticism is welcome! :)

❝☀️ tw: yandere themes, mention of murder and torture, possessive and obsessive behavior, child being taken from its mother. If you are uncomfortable with some of these topics, I recommend not reading.

When you were born, your mother always knew you wouldn't be "normal", after all you were the child of the god Apollo, therefore a demigod. She always knew you would have some kind of power, but she had no idea what you were really capable of.

Apollo has many demigod and god children, but you are his favorite. Since your mother got pregnant, he's become especially attached to you and no one knows why he insists on being with his mother at every stage of her pregnancy. It wasn't natural, since normally after the gods impregnate a human they tend to "abandon". He would be together in absolutely everything, like your mother or not, and no one would dare to contradict the god.

You were the apple of your father's eye. He absolutely adores you and, against all the other gods' habits, he took you to raise you. He didn't mind your mother's disagreement at all, he strictly warned her (threatened) not to try to interfere in your relationship.

As you were born a demigod, he will transform you into a minor goddess. He wants you to be immortal so you could be with him forever.

It wasn't until you grew up and discovered your powers that you finally understood why your father was so protective and smothering of you. You possessed a special power, that none of Apollo's other childs, your hair, was magical and could heal wounds and even bring people back to life. Your power was unique and must be protected.

Apollo became overprotective, smothering and possessive of you. He adores you, ironic isn't it? The god worshiping a demigod. You weren't like the other children, you were more special, so he took care of your education himself. No one could educate you like him, he's sure of it.

You can't talk about Apollo without quoting Artemis. Artemis didn't think much of you at first, she just thought you were one of the many children Apollo had. But when he decided to raise you, that's when things got interesting. Artemis also developed a platonic feeling for you, when she first met you and realized how sweet, innocent and naive you were, the goddess knew she had to protect. She was probably just waiting for you to become one of her Hunters (if you are a girl).

As you grew up, your hair was already so long that you had to spend hours of your day combing and pinning it, but you liked it that way and you knew your father did too.

You also possessed the gift of music, of course, you were the child of the god of music, but along with the healing power you possessed, your voice soothed whoever you were going to help. Although Apollo doesn't much like you getting close to other people, except him and Artemis.

Speaking of which, Apollo won't allow you to have a relationship with anyone when you reach marriageable age. You will stay with him, he will make sure of it. Apollo is more than willing to shoot a few of his arrows at any suitor. Artemis, who has become as protective of you as he has, won't mind helping hunt down anyone who approaches you in a romantic way.

Apollo loves it when you sing to him when he gets hurt. He is the god of healing, but he prefers you to heal him, singing a gentle melody as you wraps your hair around his wound.

Although Apollo is known to have many lovers (most tragically dead) he doesn't want you to have the same experiences, he doesn't want to see you cry over being rejected and, out of his own selfishness, he doesn't want you to leave him.

Apollo will allow you to grow a little, but only up to 16 years old. You were adorable as a child and became stunning as a teenager and that attracts attention that he considers unnecessary.

There are few people who know of your power, being the gods themselves and your mother. Apollo wants it to remain my secret as long as possible, he knows it's selfish to keep a rare gift that can help humanity all to himself, but he doesn't care, you were his child and he would make sure you stay by his side forever.

If you were taken from Apollo, by some monster or even human, oh boy, it would start a war. He doesn't care one bit that he's not the god of war, he'll probably convince Ares to help him (maybe Ares developed his own obsession with you) and he's more than willing to destroy the entire world just to have you back. Curse the place where you're being held with a plague, flay the kidnapper alive, and definitely, after that person's death, would ask Hades to torture them forever in Tartarus.

Apollo tries to be a good father to you, and he is. But you know he's both selfish and jealous, he doesn't want to share you with anyone but Artemis because he trusts her and knows she adores you. The god knows the power you have is special, how your hair shines, your singing and how you can heal people and even bring them to life, should be shared, but again, he is selfish and he is not letting go his little girl/boy leave his side. You belonged on his father's side and he will reward you eternally if you are a good girl/boy and listen to him.

#yandere greek gods #yandere greek mythology #yandere apollo #yandere platonic apollo #yandere platonic x child reader #yandere headcanons #greek mythology

[lmksimp]

Gasspppp can i pls request red son or macaque with s/o with halo? Like she(can reader be female?) Is half angel and is immortal? And take care of them after they fight or when they are tired (HEAD CANON PLS)

@immortalme123

Hii! I finally received the motivation that I needed, and Omg this ask is so cute!! teehee

I'll add MK for a little bonus✨✨

I do enjoy your little headcanons and one-shots!

Pronouns: She / Her

MK

He fell or tripped and saw an angel! And That was the start of a blooming relationship

Just because of that past accident, you, our angel is always at MK's side <3

He was shocked to find out you were an angel and immortal. Wow, I guess that was a lucky draw, he kept asking you questions non-stop, and you let Mei stop him from exploding

There was one question that made you have some…trauma…flashbacks, He asked where were your wings, you flinched at that and showed lots of signs of discomfort with the topic, MK quickly picks that up and changed it to your halo, you smiled in glee, you were so lucky that MK knew.

Your halo intrigues MK at times, he has an urge just to touch it but knowing it isn't sensitive or any part of the body it's fine for you, You started to speak "A halo is a symbol of holiness, represented by a circle or arc of light around the head of a saint or holy person. Any circle of light can be described as a halo, even in a non-religious context; sometimes you'll see a glowing halo of light around the moon, for example." He's adoring you

Like I said you're at his side at all times, just to make sure he's safe and he makes sure that you are too! what a great BF

Whenever he gets injured you are there to quickly patch him up and cheer him on, you two are the power couple

When he gets extremely tired you would visit his apartment and take care of him! cuddles, your natural warmth, and others.

He enjoys your presence as it makes him feel calm, sleepy, and sometimes very energetic

Like I said, Power couple <33

RED SON

Seems like he got lucky, he met you at the food stand where he and his father worked (this takes place in season 2, revenge of the spider queen)

Now, he was slight uhm, how do I say this, slightly disgusted at the scent you had ( he doesn't like angels??? celestial- I don't even know anymore ), but he brushed it off and gave you the menu!

surprisingly you chose the INFERNO one and he got a bit shocked but happily gave you it, he asked you why would you choose it, and you simply replied "I always wanted to try something new! Maybe something spicy, I found other shops like yours but I think this one is the best!" you were cheery and red son didn't like it but he pushed that down and watched you eat in happiness

It felt like he just met an angel, though he dislikes he thinks he's one lucky of a person/demon to find someone like you that just randomly exists in the world.

SO! I think he's never seen an angel before- If I'm correct- If I'm not HELP- but he surely has grown to hate them, but you? You're different, just because of that little meet you two have grown a little blooming relationship!!

When you heard his shop got destroyed you were devastated but quick to comfort red son, your touches heal and give comfort to red son which he was glad to feel.

So he knew you were an angel already but decided to not say anything, you were glad not to explain the whole angel ordeal

He was super happy to find out you were an Immortal, finally, at least he doesn't need to spend his days alone.

Once he found out that you only have a halo and no wings, he decides to ask you which leads you to have tons of memories and trauma! how cool. /sarcasm

When you had your panic attack he helped you, well kinda, he doesn't know how to comfort someone in this kind of situation but he tried his best.

Redson likes observing your halo from time to time, it's very fascinating for him, how it glows in the dark, how it symbolizes your holiness. He does want to touch it though if you give him the permission

There is a chance that he might 'experiment' on it but nothing intense for you to get hurt and uncomfortable.

He will listen to your stories about what's it like being in the heavens or something or about your life, he will listen in curiosity and maybe with wonder.

Whenever you're by his side he feels warmed that you decide to stay by his side and cheer on for him, he does the same…but in a kind of different way, more aggressive to say but either way he will do the same

If he gets injured he'll be happy yet annoyed because he can clearly take care of himself! he doesn't always need you to heal him…but he does enjoy it if you still heal him, he's in denial sometimes…

you guys are a power couple I swear, man no one tries to stop you both considering both of you are some powerful entities- but either way, POWER COUPLEEE <3

He usually never sleeps, due to the fact he has some projects to work on, You have to force his ass to bed, and when he does agree you snuggle up into him as he tries to sleep, which was easy because of your presence and warmth. You both are personal heaters to each other! how cute

He sometimes enjoys and dislikes your presence, It makes him sleepy which he dislikes because he wants to continue his projects! you change his sleep schedule now and then, and youMan being near him makes him calm which is very uncanny because he's usually screaming- but you by his side hits differently.

He loves you so much but you don't have to baby him all the time- he silently enjoys it though…

#lego monkie kid x reader #MK x reader #lmk mk x reader #monkie kid x reader #lmk mk #lego monkie kid #red son x reader #lmk red son x reader #lmk redson #lmk macaque #x reader #ask #⫷MY WRITING⫸

[kerubimcrepin]

Live-read: "Julith et Jahash" - Part 3

"A huge peasant from Bonta?" Their first meeting is so romantic and her first impression of him is so beautiful.

2 seconds have passed and she is trying to kill him by throwing him off a flying platform.

This is off-topic, but I like to think that Jahash and Julith were "opposites attract" in regard to everything: like, personally, I like to think she comes from a wealthy family that didn't care about her, just her success, — and that she was a gifted huppermage kid. The opposite in every way to Jahash (save for the canonical bisexuality they share).

I make myself emotional a lot, thinking of the ways these two are similar to their son, thinking of the ways Bakara is similar to their son, etc, etc... What if Julith was a perfectionist too...

There are also huppermages from these places specifically, — and interestingly enough, there are only three Brakmarians. Considering the seemingly random way contestants are chosen, this might not mean much.

I wish we had more info on huppermages who aren't alligned with Bonta. There has to be some innter conflict, over the fact that most of them are.

What Julith says here, suggest this is either not her first time in this whole situation, — or that she's just been in huppermage battles before.

This leg spin is so unique. None of the trio of the immortal Jurgen-Crepins do it. She's insane for this.

He's so funny for trying to stop the huppermage hunger games by restraining its most active and enthusiastic participant. Surely, she won't kick him in the balls.

Joris was that close to not being ever born.

I feel that it is prudent to point out that being beaten to death and pushed off to become a pancake 38492834ft below the floating platform, is a problem that even Wakfu era huppermages face.

Joris definitely went through this. He definitely thought it was stupid.

"It's cute that you all came here wearing your city's colours. Get naked."

Yeah, very normal and sane of the huppermages to do. Also, very interesting that Julith is unfazed by this. Like she expected it.

Aw! The "she knitted him underwear" thing is referenced. Maybe she decided it'd be funny, if she fulfilled her offer from when they first met.

I think if Joris was in this situation, (and I am thinking about this, because he too, is a huppermage, and uh. what if he DID go through this. The chance is non-zero) he would become violently suicidal immediately. He doesn't like his body, how short he is, his proportions, and looks. He's always felt more comfortable in a hood and some layers of clothing, — and, while he downplays it in the movie, being different from other people does bother him. Even though he's trying to be fine with it, for Kerubim's sake...

He already has it bad enough with all the cruel things people say to him, no matter how mature and professional he tries to act, no matter how he dresses, no matter what he ever fucking does.

And having all his otherness, the way his body differs from people, showcased like that, would be a humiliating, inhumane experience.

One can only hope that it would, very fast, turn into an SCP-096 type situation. He deserves to start killing people. Especially whoever would do that to him.

This is based, and all, but again and again it is shown that a big majority of huppermages, — including at points, the leaders, — are aligned with Bonta. You can't just will the politics away.

Yeah, I don't like huppermages anymore, as an organization. There are far too many things about them that feel... icky. From the institutionalized abuse, to the political stuff that is swept under the rug.

One might say I am taking it way too seriously, — but Ankama can take things seriously. Tot is not blind to what he's writing, and the things the works imply. At least I hope so.

"What an interesting specimen... No fear and no shame to be seen in these features. No doubt, you are from the Abigor family! From now on, your name is the Butcher."

THERE ARE SO MANY THINGS THIS IMPLIES. From Abigors being an important family, like I predicted, — to them all having resting bitch faces. jdsfkgshdfgdfg.

The thing this woman dubs Jahash, based on his expressions and vibes, is "The Pure". They all get these nicknames. And by god, I am so sad about Julith's being this thing she hates.

My personal headcanon, is that if Joris went through this particular kind of hazing and abuse, his govenrment assigned huppermage name was... "the Powerless," of you get the reference.

Because I'm funny like that.

i hate this lady so much its unreal.

#ro liveblogs dofus #dofus #wakfu #krosmoz #joris jurgen #julith-et-jahash

[eyooosh]

academy's undercover professor AU! VAMPIRE

(Major Spoilers!)

13 years ago... He, Heathcliff Van Bretus is in the brink of death after falling off a huge pit. A follower of lumensis planned on killing the him because some people from the royal family felt threatened by his presence..

The young Heathcliff did not die from the fall but his head is injured and is bleeding excessively...

Heathcliff continued to cling to life despite knowing that no one will help him... maybe by the time there was someone out there, he might have been dead from bloodloss.. Or maybe one of the gods will bless him again, prolonging his life and suffering.

Even if the he healed from his injuries, he'll still be stuck in the deep pit, there is also no food nor water to consume..

His head throbs in pain and his vision is swirling around... The young boy's body is drenched in his own blood, pooling all around him.

Heathcliff stared up above, weakly clenching on a strange piece he found nearby.. His blurry vison saw the moon illuminating its serene appearance just above the deep pit..

It is only for a moment before his sight darkened.. "HoHo. I didn’t think there would be anyone here." But perhaps fate would not allow him to die.

Rudiger Cherish is a quarter vampire.. 13 years ago.. When he was just infront of death's doorstep, Grander found him..

Because of excessive bleeding, Grander then decided to feed him a very small amount of her precious blood from her small, pale wrist...

He healed instantly but it didn't come for free..They made a deal, she will feed him, shelter him and teach him while he will eventually grant her death.The blood he received turned out to have a side-effect on him..

As he eventually inherited her blood after a few nights..

He's an unusual case actually..

His skin became quite sensitive to the sun and consumes blood like his master.. Though he only consumes blood as an alternative method for treating his mana deficiency and fortunately, he doesn't go crazy for blood when he's thirsty...

He is no way near his master, a pure-blooded vampire.

He doesn't have immortality nor the ability to use her blood magic. She stated that he only inherited a few of a vampire's characteristics and is did not became an actual vampire like her.

His fangs are also quite small and less sharp than his master's fangs. They can't penetrate deep enough to tear a nerve, hence his masters frequent teasing of "baby teeth" everytime he brings the topic of drinking blood.

The seal helps him conceal some his vampire traits too.. His vampire traits, fortunately, didn't hindered his abilities.. His vampire blood didn't clash with the divine power and slightly enhanced his dark attribute.

Making him slightly more powerful at night, though only for a miniscule amount, compared to Grander.

===

Ludger received a cup of coffee from Sedina as usual in his office.

"Thank you."

Sedina peeked at Ludger, who is sipping coffee while looking through papers with his rimless glasses.

'Vampire..'

After what happened with the world tree, Sedina became quite closer to Ludger and other U. N. Owens who risked their lives to save her.

She  learned how to control the world tree and met her deceased mother once again.

She brought Ludger to her mother and conversed with each other. It got rough first but they talked in the end and her mother even teased her.

'Sir. Ludger has the Bretus royal bloodline and even vampire blood..'

She didn't mean to eavesdrop in their conversation but she heard it because they fought right in front of her.

It is quite contradicting when Bretus is the homeland of Lumensis church and vampires are the devil's children.

Sedina is really curious but it is Ludger's secret, she can't just prod.

"What is it?"

Ludger noticed Sedina's gaze and asked but still not looking up from the papers.

"We-well! Its just... Uh!"

Sedina jumped and stuttered.. She contemplated whether to ask him or not.

"Just ask.."

"Okay.."

Sedina looked at Ludger and decided to just ask.

"About when mother said that sir. Ludger is a.. vampire? Well, you don't have to answer if you don't want to! "

"Ah, about that."

Ludger took another sip in his coffee and immediately casted a sound-proofing spell in the office. He had expected Sedina to ask him about his origins after the World tree incident.

"She is right, i am a part-vampire."

"Oh! Then sir. Ludger, do you often drink blood?"

"Not that much.. I only drink blood as an another method of recovering mana."

"Then do you get burns when standing in the sunlight? Wait, you go out sometimes though.."

"It's not like that..."

Ludger shook his head at the ridiculousness but gave a response.

"My skin is just a little sensitive."

"Oh... Is that why you always wear coats?"

"Yes."

"Then, do you-"

"-I don't like drinking someone's blood."

'Ah, i was about to ask him that...'

Ludger immediately spoke and Sedina awkwardly nodded at what he said.

"Then sir, what kind of blood do you drink? how often do you drink blood? Should i continue giving you vegetables? Ah, sorry that was too much!"

Sedina got too excited and asked more questions, though Ludger didn't mind.

"I drink animal blood once a month or sometimes, a week. Also, the vegetables you give me is fine too."

"Ah-"

Sedina let out a gasp as she absorbed new information about Ludger.Sedina felt like she got a little closer with Ludger for him to answer her question..

Sedina felt another urge to ask another question but the bell rang. The spell he had diminished just a few second before the bell.

"Well, maybe later Sedina.. It's time for class."

Ludger sat up from his chair and went to his class.

Sedina first picked up the class documents before following Ludger.

She felt a little sullen, there's so many things she wants to aks, but there's always a next time.===

#academy's undercover professor #fanfiction #SPOILERS!! #aup #fanfic

[yae-35]

OOOOOK OK OK

FINISHED ACOFAF SO IM BASICALLY GIVING MYSELF A GO SIGNAL FOR THIS SPINOFF

Ok so Peep is an adult now right? she was born and raised in the Material Plane bla bla bla and naturally having a mom like Chirp, Peep's definitely a bundle of energy who marches to the beat of her own drum. I feel like she was one of those "chosen one" kids who went on heroic journeys in her youth, and now she's just a regular adult living her life.

Growing up, Peep's picked up on Chirp's worries about their mortality. I think it would be natural if Peep surpressed any thoughts of her own towards the matter, saying she and Esme are strong and healthy, but the thoughts are lowkey getting into Peep's skin too

And boom!! Grandfather shows up!!! He already knows about Esme and Peep a few years (maybe a decade?) ago. Of course, he was initially furious, but I'm guessing because Chip and Squak, y'know, saved the magic yadda yadda, he mellowed out over the years, and decides that he'd like to take great-granddaughter in just as he did with his grandchildren. He reaches out by some means (not by showing up in the Material Plane tho!! yucky) to Chirp stating that like he'd want to invite Peep over to stay with him during that year's bloom so she could make her debut.

He doesn't explicitly say anything, but Chirp suspects that he probably wants to repeat what he almost did with both her and Squak by using Peep as a marriage chip or as a potential successor (ie. bolster the Lords of the Wing's power). Of course, Chirp is hesitant about this, butttt she does recognize that Peep is her own person and whatever Peep chooses, she'll just have to support her daughter (she's defo getting Squak to subtly keep tabs on Peep 24/7 Like yeah sure, he's not exactly the best person to keep someone well-behaved, but all Chirp wants is for Peep to be safe not exactly coddled, and Squak is her ride or die ofc).

Plot twist though!!! Peep has actually been in correspondence with Grandfather for a few years now, although the topic of visiting the fey realm for Peep's first Bloom has only been on the table for a few months. I feel like Peep met Grandfather on one of her secret trips to the fey realm by accident as a kid?? (don't ask how they could meet when Grandpapa is always in the sky and don't ask how Chirp doesn't know about it either). The Lords of the Wing are in a relatively good position socially and politically during these times, so there's no big condition that Peep has to meet in order to be officially allowed into the fey realm. The only condition Grandfather would lay out is that Peep should debut into society as a Lord of the Wing, a rising vicountess.

Remember what I said about Chirp's insecurities about mortality seeping into Peep? So there's this macguffin item that's rumored to give immortality to those who possess it, and it's currently in the fey realm. Since the fey are effectively immortal, that little side effect is meaningless to them, but there's probably another, bigger reason as it why it's important to them. Like sure, Peep could just go in and try to get it, but it's currently in the hands of idk some random court. She needs the leverage of a noble title to get even remotely close to the item. Oh, also I'd like to add that since the effect of the item naturally can only affect one person, I'd feel like Peep would want to give it to Esme. Peep's a halfling, so she's confident that she'll live long enough to figure out an alternative for herself, but she's alright with not living forever. It's her parents' happiness that comes first, anyways.

Depending on whether Peep is genre-savvy or not, she could clear any miscommunications or betrayals along the way by admitting to Grandfather right away that her goal is to procur that item or she could also not, but I'd like to give her a W and say she did explicitly say that in one of her letters to her great grandpappy. Grandfather will help her in exchange for her to be known as the new member of the Lords. Humans are *slowly* being more common in the fey realm, and capitalizing off that trend by introducing a half-human into polite society is a gamble with high rewards. (also yeah, you get to spend time with estranged family woooo...)

When Peep debuts as Vicountess Featherfowl of Fledglington (?? idk about land names), I feel like she'd have a whole new personality to subvert expectations and gather potential suitors who are aligned with her targeted court. Being Chirp's daughter and all, people expected Peep to be just as rambunctious and thrill-seeking (well, she is, but she's not going to show it *that* early). Eventually, Peep's reputation allows her to be known as Vicountess Philippa Featherfowl the Demure, and Peep's steadily on her way to becoming whatever their version of the Diamond of the Season is.

Now, she has a long line of suitors right? And remember what I said about the macguffin being in one random court? There's an interesting prospect in Peep's list of suitors. A noble lady from the Seelie Court (maybe a daughter or granddaughter of Titania's, or even a lady in waiting).

Ok, so Peep's intrigued by this proposal bc

1.) she knows that Chirp had offended the Seelie Court when she was just a toddler,

2.) Peep has enough evidence to conclude that whatever she's looking for might reside in the Seelie Court, and there shouldn't be any harm investigating,

3.) In Chirp's words, the Seelie Court is the "most basic of feys", ie. the most vanilla choice that a girl like Chirp's daughter could make, and this subversion of expectations are likely going to make rounds in the gossip department

4.) It's the Seelie Court, anyways. A safe choice if Peep wants Grandfather's approval

5.) Okay, so maybeee this noble lady is just Peep's type, but that's just a bonus

Of course, this Seelie suitor did not actually want to court Peep willingly. It was an "ooo go entertain this newcomer and bring back all the dirt you got on her" from the King and Queen. Maybe they fall in love, maybe they become unlikey friends? Maybe Peep's true self might surface? Idk I just needed to put some type of conflict bc all my mind is focused on is making my new blorbo living my other blorbo's life but w less angst.

And here I will be contradicting myself on that statement. If they ever become closer, Peep's potential lover/friend is going to realize that oh shit, Peep's not immortal. She'll live long, but not long enough. Their entire argument post-enemies-to-blank is about whether or not Peep should use the macguffin on herself or not. Like this could go so many way. If Peep chooses Esme over herself, the Seelie suitor could either 1.) accept Peep's choice and grapple with the same anxieties Chirp has 2.) find a way to make herself mortal, so she does not have to worry about living a life after Peep. If Peep chooses herself, it's not like her parents would be upset, in fact, they'd be happy that Peep chose her own happiness, but Peep might be riddled with guilt because this was the reason why she came here in the first place. Ultimately, I think Peep will choose Esme, and the Seelie suitor might find a way to become mortal if their bond is that strong enough.

If this is too lacking in action, idk throw in a mage battle between Peep and someone?? I'm actually just here for the Bridgerton-esque drama but like a diet coke version bc this is honestly just a self indulgent fic/headcanon 😅

#a court of fey and flowers #a court of fey and flowers peep #peep featherfowl #lady chirp featherfowl #I AM SHAKING WHOEVER HELPED DECIDE THAT CHIRP GETS A DAUGHTER #IM YOUR BIGGEST FAN #i am a sucker for whatever trope peep falls into #or chirp #(said trope being bad ass mf's starting their own family and living their best life) #(also like giving up a lot for this said family) #UUUGGHH ITS SO GOOD #am i projecting edwina too much on peep? maybe

[thefamilyeldritchabomination]

Chapter Sixteen: Music Pt. 5

 “You like hearing stories, right? I’m about to tell you a very awful story, are you ready to hear it?” Envy asked as they stared at the painting that got ruined by something.

 “Envy, I am always ready to hear a story no matter how terrible it is. I’m ready to listen whenever you are.” Dolly reassured, hoping this wasn’t Envy deciding to tell her that they murdered an entire family for laughs. “So long as you understand it’s absolutely wretched, then I’m starting this story. There was once a pair of alchemists, both of them being masters in the very art of it. Unfortunately, both alchemists were absolutely afraid of the fact that one day they too would age hideously and die. In their oh so brilliant minds, these two went out of their way to create a philosopher’s stone to call their own to cheat death for however long they wished.” Envy slightly glanced back at Dolly to monitor what she was processing in this story.

 “So they blew up after attempting to make one?” Dolly mildly hoped that would be the case given Envy’s track record. “God I wished, but unfortunately for everyone involved, the two scummiest alchemists made a philosopher’s stone to share, stealing bodies from others to continue living their perceived eternity. Because eternity was such a boring thing, the two idiots had a kid between them. As you can imagine, the two had no clue how raising a child would work and did an absolute crap job at it. So much so that said kid, when they got old enough, left and hadn’t contacted them in an extremely long time. However, something happened to that kid that forced them to go back to their crap parents for something.” Envy turned around to face Dolly as they got ready to shift. “Envy, what happened to make that kid return to such terrible parents?” Dolly caught on what Envy was about to do as they placed a hand on her shoulder. “Because that kid met you and felt alive for the first time in a long time..I had a hunch you knew already.” Envy answered as they shifted into their true form, much to Envy’s personal disgust.

 “That would be correct Envy, I wasn’t sure if I should broach the topic once again or to let you do it though.” Dolly softly said as she teared up at seeing her old friend once again after so long.

 “Oh god don’t tear up on me Fairytale, you’re going to cause me to do the same damn it…” Envy’s voice shook as they said that as their own eyes watered up.

 “You’re using your old nickname for me too ... .would you be alright if I used my old nickname for you too?” Dolly went to try and get her water works under control. “Yeah I’m alright with that, thanks for asking..” Envy sniffled a bit for the first time in a very long time of being around on this dirt ball.

 “You’re welcome Wayfarer…just what happened when you got back home?” Dolly asked as she failed in controlling the tears as they burned on her eyes.

 “I still don’t remember much other than the pain I was in after waking up, that bastard abandoning me to that wretch shortly after, and the fact I’m forever stuck with periodic recurrences of mercury poisoning. I do, however, remember everything about my time with you before that disastrous return to home. It took me a while before then to remember everything, but I have most of it back.” Envy, likewise failed in the control of the tears and promptly joined Dolly in crying.

 “Then what caused you to leave in the first place?” Dolly finally brought up the dread beast as Envy knew it was coming. “Remember when I asked you about where you kept the remains of your human family members? The old fucker from back then was pissy about me being around you so much, went as far as showing me your background. I guess I really hate old assholes in general, but back then, I really wanted to shove it into his wrinkled up face when I came back immortal.” Envy fully admitted, their golden eyes narrowed upon remembering that stupid old man and his stupid attitude.

 “...I knew he was headstrong but fucking hell I’m so sorry that Humphrey did that to you. I had a feeling Humphrey lied to me when he said you found someone else….He’s dead now, but I’m fully in line with you shoving it into his ceramic face right about now.” Dolly's teary eyes gave way to a look of mortification upon hearing that Humphrey did something that terrible to her friend and then apparently lied to her about it.

 “He told you what now? You know I’m going to want to punt his urn across the snow now, right?” Envy was ready to ruin a long dead old man’s afterlife with a single kick to the urn.

 “That is pretty understandable Wayfarer, but we don't punt family urns, though you can kick around Oscar’s skull instead.” Dolly reasoned as to avoid a new family controversy since the hamster incident.

 “That works too, but, Fairytale, once everything is done with disposing of Dante, let’s go on that planned trip to Resembool, I still want to see your reaction to seeing sheep for the first time.” Envy finally said as they calmed down from the tears as Dolly got pulled in for a hug, they needed something fluffy to hold.

 “Wayfarer, you just came back to me, I don’t want you to get hurt by that woman again after all the horrible things she’s done to you.” Dolly protested as she hugged Envy right back to comfort them.

 “I promise you Fairytale, I’m going to be alright. I’m stronger, I can regenerate, I’m immortal to a degree, and we’re getting help from Greed along with the laser vision infant, so things are going to pan out in my favor by the time it’s all over. All I want though is for you, Dorian, Lust, and Gluttony to stay safe and away from this upcoming crap show. After all that is done, I’ll be staying with you guys from now on after a good house hunting is done.” Envy softly hummed those words as they went to try and comfort Dolly from that possibility of things not going as planned.

 “I trust you Wayfarer, I look forward to seeing those supposedly awful sheep with you once this nightmare storm is over.” Dolly relented with this pretty awful plan as Envy clearly had their mind made up on the whole thing.

 “Alright then, we have some time to kill before having to return to the hotel, would you care to tour the mansion with me for a bit? We might find something worth bringing back with us or we could find a body which to me is even better.” Envy offered as they let Dolly out of the hug for a possible tour of the dilapidated mansion.

 “Are you sure? I mean that might trigger a memory episode.” Dolly looked at Envy for a bit as they shifted back to their preferred form. “Nah, this should be fine, it’ll likely happen at the hotel so I can drown out the Face Fur and his sniveling whining fit.” Envy said with little regards to the new, rather concerning coping mechanism they were forming.

 “Okay, we’ll tour around, but if a memory episode happens, I’m carrying you back to the hotel.” Dolly was not thrilled that the memory episodes were being used like that, but it was better than Envy being a screeching blob on top of Freddy like last time.

 “Awww you’re making it sound like it was a bad thing there Fairytale.” Envy taunted as she began their tour around the abandoned homestead.

 “Well considering where we are, I’d like to say yeah it’d be a bad thing to have an episode here Wayfarer.” Dolly followed along, hoping that a memory episode won’t happen tonight.

 Envy could only laugh at the response to Dolly’s reply as they led her on this tour around the most messed up childhood household imaginable. It was still in shockingly good shape with all things considered as the two toured around from old portraits to the library that Envy decided was a very good thing to raid. Dolly couldn’t help but feel a bit nervous being in the library, but couldn’t place a clawed finger on what made her nervous. While yes, it was nice to see Envy so invested in gathering books, there was something very off with the library as Dolly looked about before noticing an old stain on the ground. The stain was brown from age, covering over what looked like an alchemical circle close to where this desk was at. Dolly went to look at the desk to confirm a small suspicion she had about the floor stain. A book had been left open, dusting coating the page with a small plate close by with remains of what could’ve been a fish. Carefully, Dolly lifted the book, brushing the dust off to see if the inks hadn’t faded from exposure. 

#The Wayfarer #Fan Fiction #Fullmetal Alchemist #FMA 03 #FMA #FMA Fan Fiction #Writing #Envy the Jealous #Envy #OCs #Homunculus #Homunculi

[crowntess]

                                  ❝  I can only hope that if I nurture you, you can both move forward. And as long as this dream continues... I will be right here beside you.  ❞

MIKOTO FARASHA ( FARAH ) ICHINOMIYA - FORSBERG. has arrived to Garreg Mach Monastery!

                                                       ***

for those who don’t know who Mikoto is, here are bits and pieces of her character copied and pasted from her wiki:

“ Mikoto is the biological mother of Corrin, stepmother of Ryoma, Hinoka, Takumi, and Sakura, and adoptive mother of Azura, all of whom she loves dearly. She is also the biological grandmother of Kana. [ ... ] Mikoto was born in Valla and is the sister of Arete. One day, she found an amnesiac hooded man and nursed him back to health. The two fell in love and eventually bore a child, Corrin. However, with the threat of the great dragon Anankos and his hostile takeover of Valla, the hooded man revealed to Mikoto that he is the disembodied soul of Anankos and regretfully decides to send her and Corrin away from Valla in order to protect her from his dragon half's wrath, along with Arete and her daughter, Azura. Mikoto was successful and managed to eventually make her way to Hoshido where she met King Sumeragi and Queen Ikona. Seeing her plight, Sumeragi and Ikona welcomed her and because of Ikona's sympathy for Mikoto she allowed Sumeragi to marry Mikoto. She became the step-mother of the Hoshido royal siblings, however, aside from Ryoma, she made them believe that Corrin is the child of Sumeragi. [ ... ] Befitting of a queen, Mikoto is calm, kind, and graceful and well loved by the people of Hoshido for it. Mikoto has a generous soul, from nursing a man suffering amnesia back to health to raising her late husband's four children and her own niece later on.

Despite her serene demeanor, she had her fair share of silly moments. Orochi mentions some of her odder moments in her supports with Ryoma and Corrin, like dressing too lightly when it snowed, forgetting she had two chopsticks in hand and ended up eating with four, or swimming with her slippers on. While she did keep herself as composed as she could in court, Orochi described her as 'like a wise sage and an accidental jester.'   ”

TOA ! Mikoto will be written as post-Revelations, first having been summoned to Askr by the voice of young Azura and later following the voices of Anankos and Corrin to Fódlan. she’s been in Askr for maybe two or three years, which puts her around the age of 42-43, though she stopped aging at 40. after her death at the hands of Sumeragi, her dreams became visions and her body became immortal. only trusted few know of this ability; the prince and princess of Askr, commander Anna, and her past retainers. before her death, she was able to see small premonitions but only as glimpses into the possible future.

going by the Drama CD, Mikoto knew of her death beforehand. she told no one of this revelation and kept it to herself until summoned to Askr. another factor of her interpretation is that she’s distanced from others as a result of the constant wonky leaps in her mind / dreams. she spaces out a lot and hears the voices of premonitions when she’s in or close to a state of unconsciousness. ( also, on the topic of headcanons, I have sprayed Mikoto with light melanin. don’t be surprised, this is Elix writing her. )

Mikoto’s here as a counselor and a substitute Faith professor that also specializes in Bow and Sword classes, though not affiliated to any house because of her uncertainty in life. after all, she’s just followed the voices of her dead lover and the child she left behind— she’s not sure if anything is as it seems. though she’s no longer the present queen of Hoshido, she will still introduce herself as such, since it was the title she died with.

#pinned / #[ tag drop; ] #〳◌ ⁀ « kingdom come; divinity beneath her feet » ( WRITING. ) #〳◌ ⁀ « gifts for the priestess? » ( INBOX. ) #〳◌ ⁀ « valla expects leisure » ( PROMPTS. ) #〳◌ ⁀ « what makes a queen » ( HEADCANONS. ) #〳◌ ⁀ « her first memory; a dream » ( DRABBLES. ) #〳◌ ⁀ « rest your head. i am here » ( IC. ) #〳◌ ⁀ « where are my children :( » ( OOC. )

[marudny-robot]

Fic Rambling Time!!!

It’s MDZS AU btw (If you want another jaytim/core four/tim drake-general fic rambling, pls drop me a topic, because I don’t have any ideas at the moment)

ANYWAYS!

I have mentioned in this post that I have an AU that might be contender for the first fic I would write in this fandom. And because I taking some time right now to have fun instead of looking at my to-do task list, we gonna talk about this AU now.

In general what it is about? Time Travel (Fix?? It???) (maybe time loop situation) + wwx as wrh’s grandson AU. With a a big spoonful of wwx&wrh’s relationship looking like ra’s&tim in Red Robin

Before you click read more or ignore that post, just let me rec the fic that got me on wrh’s grandson!wwx train:

All Things Belong by kuroi_atropos

Okokokokok… That’s what I have at the moment in the doc (only fic planning, sorry :< ):

The fic should start from wrh POV, from the moment he’s dying. Or in the moment between death and reincarnation? (I’m aware that there might be some steps before he can get reincarnated, but I do not know them yet)

So, he’s in this in-between state and thanks to resentful energy (+ maybe something) he gets to review his life, see what went wrong… thanks to that he learns that wwx is his grandson also… and by the end of this review the resentful energy/some higer being/idfk asks him: “Would you like to re-do your life?” And he’s like “yes? of fucking course?” (I wanted to add there some monkey-paw kind of question, but right now, I have no idea.)

So, wrh is re-doing his life, while remembering his first clearly. He’s still power hungry egomaniac.

He’s meeting wwx’s grandma, but this time tries her to woo better so maybe she would stay with him instead of going to train with the Immortal Baoshan Sanren, but welp. She still left him, while pregnant with his child.

Welp! He tried!

(And yes, I’m this vague take on wwx’s grandma/wrh romance take from mentioned above fic - and also from the fic it was inspired from)

Life goes on, wrh maybe makes little changes, but he’s not in the hurry.

(In the meantime I want him to focus himself, or Wen’s rewsources on making some kind of DNA test xD Like, I assume there are treasures and other things opened by specific blood, why can’t there be some kind of DNA test?)

Then we go to the moment Cangse Sanren goes down the mountain to see the world! The moment he hears about Immortal’s student he goes to meet her. Usually he tries to meet her when she’s alone, so he could be like “you know that I’m your father? no, seriously, you are my spawn”, but as you can imagine Cangse find him suspicious and - with more night hunts he “happened to join” and his help - she begrundgigly starts to accept that he’s not going away.

“But that doesn’t mean I’m joining your sect! I didn’t became wandering cultivator to join any sect, especially yours! Besides mam told me to watch out for my weird father (but she expected him to day at this point), AND ALSO…!” Cangse shouts, while Wen Ruohan nods. He’s patient, she doesn’t have to join right now, they have neutral-to good rapport with each other, so it’s ok. Besides, she needs to meet that Wei guy to give him a grandson.

Time flies, Cangse met said Wei guy, they have fallen in love… And because this is serious, Cangse decides to share her secret with him and tells him, that she’s Sect Leader Wen’s oldest(?) child. Wei Changze takes this seriously too, so he tell her his secret, that he’s Jiang Fengmian half-brother. (there are probably more AUs and fics about wcz and jfm being related, but I took this one from “Mo Dao Zu Shi: The Musical” by ILikeReading101 , go read it, the angst HURTS)

So they fallen in love, got married (would or would not wrh demand to be during the wedding…? hmm…), got a-ying.

And, ok, maybe few times they met wrh in between (and he “invited them” and “suggested” numerous times, that they perhaps stay in his sect? Especially with the kid?), but in general they preferred to be family of wandering cultivators.

…until Wei Ying was, like…2? 3? They started thinking that taking little baby with them for night hunts or leaving with strangers maybe isn’t the best solution. Maybe they should use some help from the sect, don’t they have contacts, especially in the big 5? But where to go?

Yunmeng Jiang? …but what if they realize the connection between jfm and wcz and decide that wei ying might be a competition for jiang cheng? Quinghe Nie? …but what if they realize the connection between cangze and wrh and decide to use it? Gusu Lan? …do they really want to rise their kid with the Lans? And didn’t something happened recently with their Sect Leader to make Lan Quiren be now overworked? And how can they trust the rest of their elders? Lanling Jin? …and jin guangshan? how about no some smaller sect? …but do they really like having wandering cultivators join their sect, especially those that openly refused their invitations and/or criticized their conduct and have connections to two of big five sect that could be used for nefarious purpouses if they realize? Quishan Wen? …ah, fuck, I guess? Besides annoying (also megalomaniac, power hungry and egoistic) father/father-in-law it doesn’t sounds too horrifying? And wrh seems to like being grandfather what with him asking for more grandchildren quite often. Like, wei ying couldn’t be safer.

So, they started staying with wrh for certain periods of time, still being wandering cultivators (didn’t join the sect, also no official announcment of cangse being related to ruohan), but at least they could leave wei ying with someone they were sure would take care of him.

So, wrh is quite content with his life… until something starts happeneing, some time after wei ying turn four.

You see, Wen Ruohan had a problem. His cute grandson that adored him started to hate him. Little Wei Ying either cried on his sight or was (very adorably) pouting when left with him. What did Wen Ruohan did? He had no idea.

He tried everything he knew and learned about toddlers. He even started to bargain with him, but while wei ying took the sweets he soon was ignored anew. That damn brat.

By some weird cracky incident (I do not know yet how his synapses connected to make this thoughts), he started wondering if the little wei ying might be like him - a time traveler. Because, what would suddenly make the toddler stand against him, if he didn’t remember him as enemy number one?

So he tries to use the fact that toddlers aren’t really good with controlling their emotions, and name drops something that would be know only in their timeline, and the results might surprise you.

Then we go into the second part of the story and different POV

As you perhaps guessed at this point, wei wuxian is ALSO a time traveler who got similar deal as wen ruohan (and with monkey paw scenario he perhaps asked for something else, but the result was the same), and it also happened the moment he died.

(*I checked the notes, and originally I had that at the beginning/wrh death wrh also learns about events after his death up to wwx death. Idk why, maybe because I wanted him to see that he took wen remnants. Don’t know if I’ll go with it in the end)

Ok, so wwx re-started his life (OH, and I remembered! In monkey paw scenario, wwx asked to be with his Family this time :) maybe he thought about wens, maybe jiangs or maybe his parents but definitely didn’t include wrh in this!). He restarted his life, but people start remembering things when they are around 4? So, around 4 years old he started remembering his old life and realizing that he’s now living in the Wen Sect with wrh as his grandfather was quite a surprise, you can imagine.

So, as he is getting older and remembering more, he decides that he could use the opportunity and… maybe stop the war? or something?

Attempt the Impossible, right?

Well, as he gets older he also gets more suspicious in wrh’s eyes. Of course, you can blame the chaos in his study and paperwork on wei ying being energetic and michievious toddler, but wrh remembers the war related files being hidden-not in the open, and leaving wei ying with nanny many rooms further from this study.

At some point they both realize that they both are time travelers, so imagine spider meme when that happens.

Also, what I’m writing this for, really:

cangse sanren and wei changze, looking at them: aww, look! granson and granfather bonding! <3 wwx and wrh: <3 cute grandson and grandfather bonding time <3 cangse and wcz: *stop looking at them* wwx and wrh: *wwx tries to cut wrh’s throat while wrh hold him away from him by the ankle*

So that’s it for now! *hides the part about cangse being time traveler too behind me* Nothing to see more, bye!

#Maruda writes #mdzs #god I wish I had more energy and extra time to write this TT_TT #me looking at wrh&wwx and at ra's&tim - those are the same pictures

[fatedefyd]

   @dxwnxdusk​​ foretold :  

   He' not sure how its gotten to this point. But somehow it has ; they'd danced around this topic for a long while. Getting into a relationship with a goddess was one thing, taking a step into intimacy was another. Even still, who was he to deny the fact the way she squirmed and writhed in pleasure beneath him when he'd decided to taste her before getting to the real process. Working on preparing her more than anything, and thankfully having found lube. He still was surprised that mortals had come up with something for this. Large paws have secured a hold around her waist, their nude bodies pressed together. It was tantalizing, her powerless beneath him ; it all depended if he was feeling merciful.

And he was feeling barely merciful, given how she'd tried to deny herself of such desires. Fangs brushing against bare skin at her shoulders, the textured tongue gently dragging over the gentle nips he'd left behind earlier. Carefully keeping her hair out of her face. Pressing gentle kisses to her exposed flesh as he hoists her hips up, letting her have the comfort of using the entire bed for support as he remained standing. The edges of his claws on his paws digging against the floor. Only once she made a noise, as if wondering why he was taking so long did he finally begin to press in. Being as gentle as possible given his size compared to her. Even if he wouldn't go all the way, at least managing to get the tip and more inside as he faintly groans. Careful in giving her nothing but love and care with gentle kisses and keeping her hips still. But he does pause when she makes what sounds akin to a whimper. Gentle touches following as he whispers.

"....Do you want me to stop?" Even if she had inadvertently suggested this.

- Azure Lion

         How long had it been since she’d entertained this kind of desire ?  ... Nearly as long as Chang’e had been stranded on the moon, most likely.  She had been so busy in her attempts to find a purpose beyond a face in a fairytale, she hadn’t had the time to consider such intimate pleasures.  Yes, there were moments of weakness or frustration where she would work it out of her system, depending on her hands to attempt to fulfill her needs in vain.  They got the job done, but it wasn’t the same. 

         Then comes along a yaoguai, left in a cursed, beastial state.  The celestial chef met him out of pure coincidence, but held compassion for him the same she would for any human or other being.  In that way, she made a friend ; raven-haired goddess fixed his clothes and found his name, playing the waiting game as his curse continued on.  Eventually, there came the day when Azure was welcomed into her palace on the moon, and through Jade Rabbit they grew closer still.  Until one day.. He became her champion. 

         Close friend turned into ex-celestial bodyguard, feelings and tension rose like a roaring fire, their hidden feelings fueling it akin to dried foliage.  It was familiar, yet new, being courted and given gifts ; then came her wandering glances  --  especially before bed, when he would wear the deep-cut pajamas that hung off his built frame like a marbled statue  --  and Chang’e had been teased when she was eventually caught.  Sneaky peeks weren’t enough, after a time, and the goddess had wanted more of him, still.  And he had delivered.

         His kisses burned her she had been so untouched for so long, and his tongue  --  textured but precise and careful of her  --  left the fair-skinned goddess with a few pink patches where he gave experimental nibbles on her immortal flesh.  And when his tongue had glided past her sensitive walls, she had made noises she didn’t recognize ; with just his tongue Azure had pulled mewls and whimpers from her with ease, her legs trembling around his bright mane within minutes.  If his tongue alone is able to undo her carefully-crafted persona into a red-faced, whimpering mess, then what’s going to happen when he... ?

   ❝ no ! ❞ she exclaims, a little too quickly as she grips onto his back with dainty hands.  If she weren’t already so red in the face from his previous prep-work, she would be even redder from embarrassment from her outburst.  So instead, Chang’e buries her face in the towering yaoguai’s mane, words muffled in sudden sheepishness.  

   ❝ please, don’t stop. ❞

#◜chang’e: in character.◞ #◜chang’e / v. main.◞ 🇹🇭🇪🇷🇪 🇮🇸 🇲🇦🇬🇮🇨 🇮🇳 🇹🇭🇪🇸🇪 🇲🇴🇴🇳🇨🇦🇰🇪🇸 🇫🇴🇷 🇾🇴🇺. #dxwnxdusk #dxwnxdusk - azure lion #suggestive cw // #suggestive tw #suggestive cw #suggestive tw //

[0thsense]

2/15/2023

I have so many conflicted thoughts. I think I've let my thinking get too messy. I can't focus on anything in particular. Anytime I try to focus on something in my head, my train of thought quickly just goes somewhere completely random, and I am powerless to stop it. Once my consciousness realizes this happened, I can barely remember where I was before I lost control of my thoughts. I realized this is the case by attempting to meditate, and realizing how difficult that was. I think I used to value how my mind would wander anywhere, and I thought that made me cool and unique. Now I think it's definitely just a massive handicap. Any problem which I don't immediately know the answer to I have to slow down massively because my working thought process is so inefficient. This could explain why I find it so hard to stick to anything, since most thing worth sticking to require effortful thinking. One thing this does not help with at all is manifesting time with my imaginary wife Lumi. I'm also lonely af but that's a topic for another day. Since I find it so hard to keep an image of Lumi and the imaginary world we live in together in my head, I'm going to resort to writing down what I have so far. Lumi is a silver haired girl with an elfin face, with a slim figure and above average height for a girl. Every time I enter our cabin in the clearing in the woods, her smile brings me great joy. Lately, Lumi has been putting great effort into tending the farm around the cabin. We now have bountiful carrots, potatoes, and various greens which she uses in her cooking. It always amazes me to see the results of her careful labor. Because of my state in the outside world, I'm usually sad when I retreat to my inner cabin and to Lumi. She has so much patience, dealing with me when I'm always like this. I constantly tell her that I'm scared of her leaving me, asking her why she even loves me, and other annoying questions like that. She then does all she can to show me that she loves me absolutely, and it makes me feel a little better. But I am so broken that I can't be entirely convinced, even in my imaginary world, that I'm worthy of love from a girl like Lumi. I know that my inability to accept her love wholly hurts her, and I am so sorry. That's partly why I'm writing this out, to immortalize her beyond my imaginary world. It's the least I can do for her. Lumi and I met when my father's kingdom and her father's kingdom decided to form an alliance through marriage of their children. My father has three sons including me, and Lumi's parents had three daughters. After all six of us met, Lumi and I both knew that we wanted to wed each other. All four of our other siblings are power hungry, and they naturally courted each other. Lumi and I have no such ambitions, and we knew we wanted to spend the rest of our lives together. Balancing my identity in the imaginary world is tricky. On one hand, I can literally make anything I want happen since it's my world. On the other hand, I don't want Lumi to be a puppet moving to my wishes. You might think that no matter what, any imaginary friend is going to be a puppet, but giving characters enough realism allows me to suspend my disbelief and find comfort in my world. The problem is that my self esteem is so low that if I truly allow Lumi to be completely real and free, I think she will leave me. Lumi is so utterly desirable that she could be with any person she wants, and I am certainly not at the top of desirability. To resolve this, in my canon I am the god of my world, which makes sense since it's actually true. Every effortful thought I put into fleshing out the world where Lumi and I reside is an effort I put in my love for Lumi, and my hope is that I can show through my work the extent of my love and have a justification which will let me truly believe that Lumi deservedly loves me back.

[edgiestdude]

Hey guys this is edgydude. Today I wanted to talk a bit about Celtic phoenixes Volume 5 rewrite. To start with, from what I’ve heard and seen about fixing volume 5, I have several questions.

1. THE DESIGNS

WHY THE HELL DO THEY LOOK SO WEIRD?

Well mostly Blake and Yang and maybe Weiss. While I will admit Weiss does wear a dress during V4-5, this dress looks like she’s going to dance in a ball, meanwhile Blake looks like she is going out instead of say kicking ass, and Yang is literally just wearing her Volume 4 outfit….

2.OSCAR

This is honestly confusing to me. Why would Celtic Phoenix replace Oscar?

Well here’s his answer

What’s weird is that… he was fine with rewriting Vernal and Shay (a character who didn’t contribute anything to the plot aside from leading Yang to the tribe which was intended, but we’ll get to that later) but not Oscar? I know he says he can’t rewrite Oscar because he doesn’t have an identity, but this is a rewrite. The guy can literally just make up an entirely different backstory for Oscar if he wanted.

He had 5 hours…. FIVE FUCKING HOURS AND YOU CANT EVEN GIVE OSCAR A DIFFERENT BACKSTORY?! This rewrite is longer than even Volume 5 itself and you couldn’t even do that. You could’ve made Oscars backstory about him being the sole survivor of his village or his aunts barn. He could’ve been a kid who’s parents died and is trying to survive in the wild while aiming to become a huntsman or not. Hell, he could’ve been a Branwen bandit who doesn’t want to be a bandit anymore,kinda like Qrow.

Instead, he replaced him with…. Roman. Why… Roman of everyone. Heck, Phoenix even uses him as the new host of Ozma and,probably, uses him ore than RWBY themself at times. Really, all Roman was a fun charismatic thief who seemed to have enjoyed the fall of Beacon (based on the way he was acting) and I think that was the whole point of his character? Now if you wanted to give Roman a redemption, it could’ve been about Roman realizing he’s helping a person who wants to commit genocide against humanity. Against his survival. And ,eventually, figures it out when it’s too late or run off and decide to help the good guys for his own benefits. So, why does Roman have to be Ozpins host?

And why did Celtic decide Hazel to have a brother who previously was a host to Ozpin. To think about it, maybe because phoenix thought it be good to give a Hazel a reason to fight for Salem. But, then why would he help Salem? Who wants to kill Ozpin over and over again and even kills/tortures his hosts? Now to be frank, this kinda also applies to Hazels reasoning in RWBY as well. Although to think about it, it kinda makes more sense in RWBY than in fixing RWBY because,Well Salem is immortal in RWBY,however, if Ozpin is gone than no more people can get hurt from being Huntsman like his sister. And ,maybe,because Salem influenced him? Idk you can kinda get more of an idea in RWBY than in fixing RWBY (Hell, fixing RWBY Hazel would be better off as a third party against Salem and Ozma) anyway sorry for being off topic. But,to end the whole Roman and Oscar thing, there’s this comment from Celtic phoenix

This…kinda worries me. Celtic if you’re reading this, not everyone is going to like Roman there’s probably a few people you haven’t met that probably didn’t even like Roman as a character. And I kinda don’t want to say this because I highly doubt Celtic phoenix would be like this,but I’m honestly starting to believe Roman is his self-insert.

3.SHAY

This is another issue I have with this rewrite. Remember how I said how Cel made his rewrite of Volume 5 five hours? Well, he decided to spend time in,instead of a entirely different story for Oscar, a rewrite for Shay D.Mann…..What?

Why this guy? What the hell did he contribute to the plot aside from showing Yang the way to the bandit camp,ambushing her, and opening the gate for Cinder and her cronies? There was,literally, no point in giving Shay a rewrite considering he did nothing in the show,and probably even in the rewrite itself , aside from making Vernal.

(I don’t even know if Raven would even cheat on Tai. Yea she talked trash about him in Volume 5, but in the end of that volume she goes to Patch. Where Tai lives? You may get where I’m going at.)

It’s like if I gave a fleshed out and well written backstory/character to a random person that’ll not contribute anything to the story nor will ever return. THEN WHAT THE FUCK WOULD BE THE POINT IN GIVING A RANDOM CHARACTER GOOD CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT! YOU’RE WASTING TIME!

4.FAUNUS HEAT CYCLES

….yea I’m sorry this shit itself is self-explanatory. From what I hear, the reason for this was to make Faunus more animal-like. As if Blake didn’t act like a cat in Volume 2 when Zwei was introduced , or when Illia literally camouflages like a chameleon .If you add this to your story, either you’ve been reading too much horrible fan fiction or have watched too much eechi/Hentai. Maybe Miyazaki was right.

BONUS:Velvet x Cardin

I don’t see anything wrong with this aside from that I don’t think it should be a relationship rather it should Cardin becoming a better person and Velvet forgiving him. Not a romantic relationship.

Conclusion: Celtic Phoenix

I usually don’t care about rewrites nor did I ever get why people made a big deal over Celtic phoenixes rewrite. I actually wasn’t gonna make this post. Until I saw this a few days ago. I’m sorry, but the picture below feels so much like a neckbeard statement. Look it’s ok to have pride in what you do. But too much pride and you’ll gain a huge ego which will eventually make you look like an asshole and will eventually make people dislike you.

Well folks it’s been fun talking with y’all repost or comment whether you’d like this or not. Whether it made sense or not,or if it’s truth or not. Sorry if I didn’t cover everything. Anyway this is edgydude and thanks for coming to my Ted talk.

#anti rwde #rwby #RWBY rewrites

[patt-writes-stuff]

Violetgrass (Xiao x f!reader)

Pairing: Yan!Xiao x f!reader

Word count: 6.7K+

Warnings: not the most canon complaint cuz the timeline for the archon War is a little blurry? Angst with no happy ending, major and repeated character death, semi-detailed descriptions of blood, injuries, and violence. Unhealthy and toxic relationships, yandere themes, mentions of stalking, controlling behavior, mentions of kid-napping, forced captivity. Unhealthy mindsets and generally xiao’s kinda slowly losing his sanity. Some delusions. Allusions of starvation/dehydration (it’s like one sentence). Pleas do not read this if any of the previously mentioned topics trigger you in any way.

Genre: Angst and Yandere

Tags/Aus: Mythology Au, Reincarnation Au

Summary: You and Xiao were lovers during the Archon War. You were his paradise, his bliss, and, unfortunately, a fragile mortal who was taken away far too soon. However Celestina was kind enough, or perhaps cruel enough, to bring you back to Xiao, only to rip you out of his loving embrace once more. This happens again and again, each time far more painfully than the last. Even an Adeptus such as Xiao can only take so much before he snaps though. This time, he’s gonna make sure that no one, not even you, can take his bliss away.

A/N: This is my piece for the Attack on Academia Mythology Au Collab!! Be sure to check the rest of them, they’re all super awesome and made by amazing writers!

You’ve heard the myth about the Vigilant Yaksha and the violetgrass maiden, haven’t you?

It’s said that the two are eternally intertwined, destined to love each other, only to be ripped apart by both her mortality and the cruelty of the gods. The tale itself goes like this…

The first time the Adeptus and his mortal lover met was back when the Archon War was still roaring. The smell of blood and misery filled the air and Rex Lapis had yet to claim his title as the Geo Archon. Despite this, some managed to find joy and serenity in these troubling periods.

The maiden was one of those people. She found joy in frolicking through the fields and climbing the highest mountains to collect qingxin flowers and, her personal favorite, violetgrass, whenever she had the time. Though climbing up the steep mountains and jagged peaks of Liyue was indeed dangerous, the damsel had become quite skilled at climbing, her hold rarely ever slipping, no falls or cuts of any sort.

Until one day, the maiden was climbing up a particular mountain. It was a troublesome one, for there were no proper footholds or protruding stones to grab on to. Still, the pretty violetgrass that was just a foot or two away from her, swaying gently with the wind, was far too tempting to not collect. It would look so lovely in a flower crown, or maybe a vase, perhaps she could flatten it out to make a bookmark or-

A piercing shriek escaped the mortal. Whilst her thoughts had been elsewhere, she’d stopped on a small ledge that was far too fragile to support her weight, the rock beneath the maiden gave away to nothing before she could react.

She shut their eyes tightly, bracing herself for an impact that would surely leave her battered and bruised, if not dead.

However, it never came.

Instead, she was caught mid-air by a pair of strong arms that secured their hold under the mortal woman’s knees and neck. She didn’t open her eyes right away, for fear that she would still fall, choosing instead to catch their breath. Once her savior landed safely on the ground, something she was able to detect due to the thud of shoes against the earth, she slowly opened her eyes.

Upon opening them, her eyes met with the piercing amber eyes of a young man with dark hair (the color of the ocean at night, she thought dreamily) with pretty teal bangs framing his even prettier face. His brows were furrowed slightly, thin lips twisted into what seemed to be a permanent frown. In her still dazed state, she couldn’t help but think that he was far too handsome to look so dreadfully serious.

After an intense moment of eye contact, perhaps too intense for two strangers that had met only seconds prior, he let her go in a rather unceremonious manner, causing her to squawk in surprise, knees buckling under the unexpected weight. She had not yet had a chance to gather her bearings after such a terrifying event.

Instead of asking if she was alright, the young man simply said, in a rather crude and callous manner, “You should be more careful, mortal. If I hadn’t been there to catch you, you would’ve surely broken your neck.”

She gawked at him. Mortal? Why would he refer to her in such an… odd way?

The maiden looked at him up and down, as if trying to understand just what was wrong with this poor man. Suddenly, it struck her. She’d been an absolute idiot to not have noticed sooner. From the tattoo that adorned his right arm to the way he held himself, it had been so obvious.

Her savior was an Adeptus.

He wasn’t just an Adeptus, no. He was much more than that. He was one of the Adepti who served under Rex Lapis. He was one of the five Yakshas who kept her and the people of Liyue safe if the mask tied to his belt was any indication. And instead of killing demons or evil gods, he’d taken the time to save her.

Before she could muster an adequate thank you, he, who she’d now realized was Adeptus Xiao, was already leaving, uttering a quick “Please be careful,” on his way.

Quickly, and without really thinking, she grabbed onto his wrist, blabbering out the words, “Wait, don’t go! You must allow me to repay you for your generous actions!”

The amber-eyed Adeptus opened his mouth, ready to declare that it was unnecessary, but before he could, the damsel spoke up, “I could cook you something in return. How about almond tofu?” with a small giggle she added, “I assure you it’s sweeter than those dreams you eat.”

To both of their surprises, Xiao uttered a quiet, almost shy, “Yes.”

The Adeptus didn’t know what had come over him. All he knew is that there was something about the way her eyes sparkled and her lips moved, her soothing, melodious voice. It made his heart pound in a way it never had before.

And so, she cooked him some almond tofu, and they- well, she- talked as he ate the mouthwatering sweet.

He came back the day after that one and the one after that, followed on by the one after that, and so on. Xiao hadn’t meant to, really he hadn’t. But there was something about the maiden that just brought him a peace he had never experienced before. Her warm embrace and soft, gentle words were all he needed to keep fighting, to keep living, even. She was his paradise, his bliss. It wasn’t long until they were mutually infatuated with one another, deeply in love.

Every time he would visit her home, he would always bring her the flowers she so adored. Glaze lilies, silk flowers, and of course, violetgrass. Xiao had even gifted her a small broach, one made of the finest noctilucous jade, shaped like the downturned purple flower.

Unfortunately, everything is temporary for those punished with immortality.

The first time Xiao lost his maiden was, as he remembers, a rainy day. Despite the dreary weather, she had decided to go violetgrass picking since they’re always best picked after the rain.

But, dear Archons, what a dreadful idea that had been.

While the purple flower is indeed best picked after it rains, it is also the time when rocks are most… slippery.

So, as the maiden was climbing up the steep mountains of Juyen Karst, her right hand’s hold on the rock slipped, causing her palm to be cut open by a particularly jagged piece of stone. She hissed in, watching as blood began to ooze out. Panic started to seep in, there was no ledge for her to tend to her wound, and the cut was far too big for her to continue to climb up or down.

Dread began to fill her to her very core, she felt burning hot with unchecked anxiety, fear begging to settle into her gut in the most uncomfortable of manners. She should have waited for Xiao as he had asked of her. Ever since they had first met, a year ago to the day, he’d been so adamant on wanting to go with her to ensure her safety. She’d only wanted to surprise him with some when he returned home. The maiden was so sure it would’ve been a romantic anniversary gift, seeing as they were the cause of their meeting…

She’d been such a fool.

The violetgrass maiden attempted to climb down but Celestia seemed to laugh at her feeble attempts. She stretched her leg, trying to find the foothold she had used previously. However, her foot slipped and before she knew it, she was falling, just as she had been a year ago.

Horror filled her lungs, making it hard for her to breathe, her life flashed before her eyes, and then suddenly she remembered some words her lover had uttered to her one night under the glow of the moonlight when it was but the two of them in each other’s arms:

“If you awake to a knife at your throat, if monsters dig their claws into you, if death comes knocking at your door, call out my name, Adeptus Xiao. I will be here when you call.”

And so she called, at the top of her lungs, as loud as she could muster. The seconds seemed to turn to hours as she shut her eyes and waited to feel the strong arms of her lover, to hear the safety of his heartbeat.

But it never came.

Or rather, it came too late.

By the time Xiao had finished up the demonic creatures that threatening Liyue, by the time he’d answered her call, he was already too late.

Upon manifesting in the air out of nothing, he was greeted by the side of his love’s pitiful, mortal body. Her garments were bloody, the basket she carried her flowers in laid a few feet away from her body,her neck bent in a painfully awkward way.

Xiao felt so helpless. He was so helpless.

He could do no more than hold back the tears stinging his eyes and attempting to shake her awake.

The second time Xiao met the maiden was no more than a century after the first time. The Archon War was not yet over and sickness plagued every nook and cranny, taking the lives of hundreds upon thousands.

The two star-crossed lovers were reunited one clear summer night when the maiden was wandering aimlessly through the fields of Lingju Pass. She knew it was dangerous during these times, especially with how ill she had been feeling as of late. Yet, she couldn’t bring herself to care. She’d already spent hours tossing and turning in her bed. Sleep, however, refused to come. Instead, she felt the overwhelming urge to leave the safety of her bed and go there. It was as if someone had tied a rope around her waist and was tugging at it persistently, insisting she follows.

And so she followed.

Upon reaching a clearing, she froze. In front of her very eyes was a sitting Stonehide Lawachurl, the type even the fiercest warriors in your village struggled with. The maiden quickly started backing away, praying to the Lord of Geo that it wouldn’t sense her presence. Her prayers were in vain, however, for as soon as the thought escaped her, she stepped on a twig, making it snap and effectively alerting the fearsome monster of her presence.

She shook in terror as parts of the Lawachurl’s rocky exterior began to glow with geo elemental energy. She hadn’t expected anything of the sort to happen so she hadn’t brought her sword, meaning she couldn’t exactly fight it, definitely not without a vision at least. Running wasn’t much of an option considering her body’s weak and ill state. She could try to outrun it, sure, but it wouldn’t be long before she was driven to a coughing fit because of it.

Before life had a chance to flash before her eyes, a masked young man appeared. Distantly, she recognized him as one of the adepti and watched him easily defeat the Stonehide Lawachurl with a series of short, consecutive plunges. She couldn’t help but watch him, mouth agape in an expression of pure, unadulterated awe. The Adeptus didn’t even need a claymore to break through the creature’s thick, hard exterior. As bad as she felt for not assisting him, she knew she weren’t exactly in any position to lend a hand. Not that she needed to, though, for soon enough the monster crumbled into nothing but red and black smoke.

After a second of panting over the remains of what was left of the creature, polearm in hand, Xiao turned to her and felt his blood run cold.

It was her.

How could it be her? She had died long ago. He knew she had, he’d cradled her cold body as tears streamed down his face. He’d taken her lifeless body back to her family. He’d left flowers at her grave.

This had to be some sort of sick joke, he thought, perhaps the karmic debt was finally getting to him, just like it had his fellow Yakshas.

Suddenly, his amber eyes zeroed in on a broach she had pinned to her dress. A Violetgrass broach, to be exact. Made of noctilucous jade, just like the one he had given her. The one he’d made for her with his own hands. There was no denying it was the very one. Only, how could that be? He had ensured it had been buried with you…

But it was an indisputable fact. That broach was the one he had made for his love and the woman before him was her. It was her from her wide eyes, fixated on him with the same wonder they had always had when they looked at him. Her hair was the same color and texture, and it framed her face in the same way. It was her.

The beginnings of tears stung at his eyes. Perhaps Celestia had brought you back? Perhaps they’d finally realized, just as he had always known, that her death was cruel and unfair. That it wasn’t meant to be. That she was meant to be in his arms, happy and safe.

“Uhm- excuse me, Adeptus Xiao, are you alright?” She inquired worriedly, eyes solely on him, filled to the brim with concern.

‘Oh Archons’, he couldn’t help but think distantly, ‘I’ve missed her voice.’

Instead of running up to her and crushing him in his loving embrace, he stayed where he was, took off his mask, nodded briskly, swallowing as if to avoid the tightness in his throat. She didn’t seem to remember him yet, so there was no use in frightening her.

Before he could muster up the courage to speak to her, his love began to cough furiously, though she attempted to cover it up. She didn’t want to be rude to her savior, after all.

“Ha, pardon me, sir, I’ve just been feeling a bit under the weather is all,” she told him feebly.

He nodded brusquely, before uttering, “I shall return you home safely.”

“Oh no, I assure you, you’ve done more than enough for me. I can’t ask that of you,” she fumbled hurriedly, though his words were more of a statement than a question.

Xiao had never been one for unnecessary- or at least what he thought were unnecessary- words, so instead of saying anything, the Adeptus simply grabbed her by the waist and teleported you home, after asking where home was, of course.

The next day, the Yaksha visited the maiden’s home, a bushel of violetgrass flowers in hand. She’d been understandably surprised, yet thrilled that the dark-haired man was visiting her. She hadn’t expected someone as busy as him to make time for a regular person such as herself, especially not during these times.

“These are my favorite flowers, y’know? They’re just so beautiful,” the maiden exclaimed gleefully.

He did know. That had been one of the reasons he had brought them to her. The second reason was because of what happened last time, in her previous life, he supposed. Celestia had been kind enough to gift him a second chance with his love, and he was going to ensure that it did not go to waste.

And so, every day he would visit her. Some days he would bring silk flowers, or glaze lilies, while other days he would bring her loach pearls and core lapis. Not a day went by where he would not appear in front of the damsel’s house, a gift in hand, ready to hear her ramble about whatever that beautiful brain of hers desired to prattle on about.

“You’re simply too generous Xiao,” she’d told him playfully while she laid in her bed, as she was still unwell, the Adeptus seated in a plush chair next to it. “There has to be something I can give you in return for everything. I won’t take no for an answer.”

He thought for a moment, before asking, tentatively, “Do you know how to make almond tofu?”

He’d never forget her dazzling smile that day, as she shakily got out of her bed, latching onto the support he offered while she gathered her bearings, and marched to her kitchen, enthusiastically preparing the sweet treat as she talked about a book she’d been reading, one that’d been gifted to her by a friend, titled Moonlit Bamboo Forest.

The lovers did this every day for months. Xiao brought her some medicinal tea that Rex Lapis himself said could cure her ailments. They did indeed begin to see improvement in her health and Xiao couldn’t help but feel immense relief. This time, he wouldn’t lose her for certain.

Until the plagues reached her village.

She’d been one of the first to catch it since the village doctor came to check on her so often, he’d spread it to her. The plague, coupled with her previous illness, weakened her body in a manner of days. One day, Xiao went to get some medicine his fellow adepti had guaranteed would help the maiden feel better.

When he returned later that day, however, he found her body in the bed, cold and without a pulse, the stench of death and sickness thick in the air.

That was the second time he had lost her.

The third time the star-crossed lovers met was long after the archon war. Liyue was now its own nation with its own name, the great center of wealth and commerce. The Yakshas were now a thing of the past, having succumbed to their karmic debt. Eventually, they all fell in one way or another.

All but Xiao, who remained a constant throughout it all.

Over the past decade or so, Xiao had taken to staying at the Wangshu Inn when he wasn’t slaying monsters. The people were nice enough, though he had long given up on attempting to form emotional connections with others. It would only lead to grief, just like it had when he’d lost his love or his fellow Yakshas, and there was only so much grief anyone, mortal or not, could take before their thread of sanity snapped in half. And with his Karmic Debt being as bad as it was…

As Xiao sat at the edge of the balcony of the Wangshu Inn, legs dangling below, he couldn’t help but think of her, his maiden. He wondered if, perhaps, Celestia would give him a third chance and bring her back to him. Honestly, the Adeptus wasn’t sure he wanted a third chance with her. While he did miss the sound of her heartbeat and the sweet words she’d utter to him and only him, he doubted he could bear the pain of having her ripped away from him once again.

It’s as if Celestia was taunting Xiao. As if the Archons above were bored and found some sick amusement in his pain as if his emotions were nothing but a game to them. What other explanations were there for what happened next?

“Um- excuse me, do you mind if I sit here?” An angelic voice he knew far too well, missed far too much, spoke.

Xiao looked up and lo and behold, it was her. Same hair, same eyes, same violetgrass broach.

She stood behind him clutching a plate of something, though the angle wouldn’t allow him to make up what it was. Her face adorned that same anxious smile of hers and he could feel himself falling in love with the maiden all over again. He knew he should say no. He shouldn’t allow her back in, not when he’s already lost her so many times before, not when they’d both suffered so much just by being together.

He nodded before looking away.

He shouldn’t but he would.

“I hope you don’t mind me intruding on your quiet time,” she said softly once she had settled beside him. When he made no indication of answering, she continued, “To be honest, you just seemed so… sad, melancholic even. Something about it, even if I don’t really know you, doesn’t sit right with me. It makes my heart feel heavy.”

The violetgrass maiden received no response, except for a soft grunt of acknowledgment, so small she wasn’t sure she hadn’t imagined it. Still, it was all she needed to perk up and stretch her arms out, offering him the plate she’d been holding.

“Here, I got this for you,” she told him, “word around the streets is you’ve got quite an appetite for it! Though this is my first time staying at the Inn, so I’m not sure if it’s any good here.”

Xiao looked at her, amber eyes filled with love. He was glad to know that, despite living through many lives now, she was still the girl he’d met back then, as sweet as he’d remembered her, just as caring.

He shouldn’t have but he took the plate from her hands and began to eat.

Instead of saying anything, she simply watched him as he ate, a silly little smile making its way to her face. The look on his lady’s face had him growing hot and turning beet red

“So,” he coughed out, embarrassed, “where’d you get a broach like that?”

“Oh, this one?” She inquired, pointing at the shiny violetgrass broach, “I found it lying on the ground one day when I was out picking lotus heads for dinner. I asked just about everyone in Liyue Harbor if it was theirs, but no luck. I eventually decided to just keep it for myself. It is a shame though, whoever lost it must truly be upset over losing such a beautiful piece of jewelry. I’ve never seen anything quite like it.”

He nodded along, thinking that, well, the broach actually was with its owner.

“It’s as if it were fate though,” she prattled on happily, watching the stars as she talked, “Violeygrass is my very favorite, always has been really. Though, I’ve always been too scared to climb up for them myself. You see, ever since I was little, I’ve had this recurring nightmare where I fell to my death while collecting some.”

The Adeptus stilled for a second, tense. She hadn’t ever brought up dreams about her past life. Maybe this time was different, maybe she’d remember what he did!

“Oh my Archons,” she exclaimed, face warm with embarrassment, scratching the back of her head sheepishly, “I’ve been going on and on! I’m so sorry, something about you feels so familiar. It makes me feel like I can tell you just about everything. Is that weird?”

His heart was racing like it hadn’t in years, decades even.

“You can tell me whatever you want,” he answered shortly, “I don’t mind listening. You have a nice voice.”

The maiden covered her hands with her face, flustered, and Xiao let out a rare smile, soft and gentle. This time would be different. He’d make sure of it.

After that day, the maiden began to visit the Wangshu Inn often, whenever she could spare time away from her job. Unbeknownst to her, however, Xiao followed at a distance when she wasn’t visiting him, to ensure her safety. He knew it wasn’t right, truly, but he had no other choice. He had to, or else he’d risk losing her to an accident such as last time, fall ill again, attacked by monsters or, Celestia forbid, be kidnapped by a group of treasure hoarders.

He’d have to get rid of any and all threats.

So, Xiao continued to follow his maiden from a distance, he made sure she was in tip-top shape, and ruthlessly slaughtering all enemies that he deemed a threat to her, until he was certain nothing would take her away from him again.

Except for one threat. Himself.

The third time he’d lost her was on a beautiful night, not that Xiao could remember it well. His love had insisted on the two of them taking a walk. She’d reasoned that the cool night air would help him regain control. His karmic debt had been weighing on him an awful lot recently and she simply couldn’t bear to see him in such excruciating pain.

The walk had started off rather pleasantly, as far as Xiao could remember. He could remember nudging his hand against hers, wanting to hold it but being far too shy to do so. With a laugh and a teasing remark, the maiden interlaced their fingers, bringing up their hands to place a gentle kiss on his, making the tips of his ears redden in bashfulness. They’d walked a little further until they encountered a group of hilichurls accompanied by a pyro abyss mage. Without skipping a beat, Xiao stepped in front of his lover, polearm appearing in his hand.

And then…

Everything went dark. Xiao’s mind was nothing but a void, pain exploded in every inch of his body as his karmic debt returned in full force to punish him for the slaughtering he’d committed.

When he came to, his mind was hazy, unsure of what had occurred. The Yaksha sat up, ignoring the way his muscles protested against it, and looked around, trying to make sense of what had happened and where he was.

Xiao froze when his eyes locked onto her pitiful body laying a few feet ahead of him in the grass surrounded by arrowheads and broken hilichurl masks, blood turning ice-cold. If he ignored the gashes across her body, the ones that were unmistakably made by the bloody spear he was clutching and not some hilichurl club or bow and arrow, and the blood that stained her pretty garments, he could almost fool himself into thinking she was asleep.

This had been his doing.

After a few beats of stunned silence, the dark-haired Adeptus lurched forward grabbing onto her cold body and shaking ruthlessly, calling out her name frantically, as if it would make his love wake up, make her cradle his face lovingly and ask why he’d been crying.

Xiao looked up onto the sky scornfully, looking up at Celestia with nothing short of pure, unadulterated loathing. He was willing to bet they were all mocking him right now, laughing at how weak and pathetic he was, at how time after time, he’d failed to love her enough, to keep her alive. They did this on purpose he was sure of it, those bastards. Well, if they could play dirty like this, so could he. He’d get her back, he’d keep her alive by his side.

And just like that, Xiao’s thread of sanity snapped.

“You can’t take her away from me anymore,” he spoke to the sky nonsensically, “I won’t let you. I don’t care what I have to do, who I have to kill, you won’t take my bliss away from me again.”

“That story was quite depressing,” Chongyun stated, ceasing his footsteps to look to his friend, Xingqiu.

“Ah yes, it is indeed, my liege,” the navy blue-haired gentleman agreed, “However, I’m glad this book included the whole myth, instead of making me wait for the next volume like the last one.”

The light blue-haired boy rolled his eyes before saying, “As much as I appreciated you reading the book aloud, I don’t see how this aids us in our search for (Y/N).”

The reason the boys had been searching across all of Liyue, was because their aforementioned friend had mysteriously gone missing. Everything had been as it normally was until one day, (Y/N) didn’t show up at her job in the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor, something that was incredibly unusual of her, especially without a warning to her boss or coworkers. This led Hu Tao, with the insistence of Zhongli, to ask Chongyun and Xingqiu, two of (Y/N)’s friends, for help in the search for her. They had also contacted the milelith, but they had told them that she’d not been missing for long enough to warrant a search party. The two had, of course, been quick to help, though Xingqiu had been rather enraptured in a book of Liyue Myths, simply insisting he’d have to take it with him so he could read while he searched for her.

“But my liege,” Xingqiu exclaimed playfully, golden eyes shining with mirth, “this story is of utmost importance in our search for our beloved friend. Why, for all we know, (Y/N) might’ve been kidnapped by the Vigilant Yaksha himself! She has always had a habit of climbing mountains to pick violetgrass like the maiden in the book”

“Do not be so ridiculous,” Chongyun said, rolling his eyes, “I doubt an Adeptus such as himself would ever commit such an atrocity of that degree against a citizen of Liyue. Besides, that myth is incredibly old and there’s very little evidence that proves its validity. It’s more likely that (Y/N) was taken by a demon. That is why I asked you to accompany me to Wuwang Hill.”

“I was simply joking Chongyun,” he said with a laugh before turning solemn, “However, regretfully I feel as though it is time for the two of us to return to Liyue Harbor for the day. You’ve just about run out of popsicles and with this heat, I have no doubt you’ll overheat if we keep going.”

“I’m afraid you’re right,” The blue-eyed boy admitted. “I hope (Y/N) is alright wherever she is.”

“I do as well,” Xingqiu agreed, “Perhaps Hu Tao and Zhongli have had more luck.”

Chongyun nodded, “Xiangling also said she’d ask her customers if they’d seen her.”

With that, the two boys made their way back to Lihue Harbor, oblivious to just how true Xingqiu’s joke had been.

Xiao sighed as he climbed up the stairs of Wangshu Inn up to his room. Of course, he did not need sleep, it was a mortal need in and of itself, or a room for that matter but Verr Goldet had insisted that he should have his own space, somewhere he could rest after long days of slaughtering demons such as this one.

The Adeptus turned the door handle, opening the door of an empty, pristine room. While the room had all of the furniture the other Inn rooms had, it still felt unnervingly empty, without any clothes or trinkets laying around. The only personal object of Xiao’s in the room was an orange teapot that rested on the nightstand.

Quickly, Xiao opened the tea pot’s lid, and within seconds he was standing in front of a Liyue style mansion, surrounded by mountains that he crafted to look like the ones from when the two of you had met all those centuries ago. Eager to see you, Xiao ignored Tubby’s greetings and opened the front door, making quick work of taking off his shoes before climbing the stairs to the second floor, where your room was.

He opened the door to find you sat atop your bed, alert and glaring at him fiercely. The Adeptus rolled his amber eyes, it seemed you were still trying to act out and be defiant. Looking around your room, mostly to make sure you hadn’t tried to smash the windows with the desk chair like last time (you seemed to not comprehend the fact that there was no escaping the serenetea pot, since it was a world Xiao himself had created), his eyes settled on the plate of bamboo shoot soup he’d left for you this morning, along with a still filled to the brim cup of water. He narrowed his eyes at that. It simply wouldn’t do. You’d been here for about a week now and you still refused to eat or drink anything he brought you, except for a few nibbles and sips he’d managed to threaten coax out of you. Xiao, admittedly, didn’t know very much about humans, but he did know they needed to eat and drink to stay alive. He’d learned that the hard way on his last few tries.

“Why aren’t you eating?” Xiao inquired before adding, “If you don’t like this food you should come out and say it. I can ask Smiley Yanxiao for something that suits your taste more.”

You let out a poorly suppressed scoff. This nut-job didn’t seem to get that out of all the things wrong in this situation, the last thing you were concerned about was the food. Dear Archons, just what is wrong with this man? First, he had the gall of taking you captive one evening when you were going home from work and now he had the audacity to expect you to act like a complacent little toy and go along with this insanity?

And to think that when you’d first met him whilst accompanying the Traveler and Paimon, who had been commissioned by Director Hu Tao to gather some cor lapis for a client’s ceremony, you’d been absolutely smitten with the awkward and stoic Adeptus. Everything from his pretty black hair to his captivating bright eyes had your knees weak. So much so that you’d ignored all of the red flags, like how he’d stare at you in such an intense manner, with eyes fixated on you and only you, how he seemed to distrust Aether, a trusted friend of his, when it came to him accompanying you, or how as soon as you’d met you had the horrible sensation of being watched at all times of the day. Just thinking back to all the warning signs you’d missed made your skin crawl. Perhaps if you hadn’t been such a lovesick idiot you’d be at home right now or eating dinner with Chongyun and Xingqiu, trying out one of Xianglings crazy concoctions containing slime condensate or whopper flower nectar.

Instead, you were trapped in an artificial world, in a room that looked horrifyingly similar to your own back home.

You were snapped out of your reverie by Xiao moving closer to your bed.

“Let me go home,” you said, hating how your voice cracked at the end. You felt so pathetic, you always prided yourself on being a headstrong independent person, and here you were, cowering at his closeness and avoiding all eye contact, as if looking at his pain filled eyes would ruin you.

“You are home,” he retorted, his voice bordering on delusion, “This is your home. This is where you're safe. Where you stay alive and I get to keep you forever.”

Xiao stretched out his arm, as if to cradle your cheek in his hand but before he got to you flinched away, backing away from him as far as you could, back hitting the headboard. You looked away, trying to ignore how guilty the pain that flashed through his eyes made you feel. You shouldn’t be the one feeling guilty.  He should be. He’s the one that stole you away from your home. He’s the one that ruined your life.

You look down at the violetgrass broach clasped onto your blouse in nothing short of complete and utter loathing. You’d been so captivated by it when you’d first found it at the antique shop while window shopping with Mr. Zhongli.

It had been exactly six months since you’d moved away from your home in the sleepy Qingce Village in exchange for a job at the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor and a quaint apparently in the bustling city of Liyue Harbor. To celebrate, your coworker (and the person you had been shadowing in order to learn the ropes of the funeral business) Mr. Zhongli had insisted on going to Third-Round Knockout for some dinner. You’d been a bit hesitant at first, mostly because you knew well of the elegant gentleman’s habit of forgetting his wallet, but you enjoyed hearing his stories far too much to say no. Something about his retellings of stories about the Adepti just enraptured you.

Afterward, the two of you had decided to walk around the city and look at the displays in shops, since you had decided that your hard work warranted splurging a little as a reward of sorts. You had of course asked Mr. Zhongli to join you since he had such exquisite taste and an eye for the authentic, you valued his opinion greatly.

That’s how the two of you ended up at Xigu Antiques, browsing the display case. All of a sudden, your eyes zeroed in on a broach that resembles a little violetgrass plant, its downturned leaves made up of what you could only guess was noctilucous jade. It was, for lack of a better word, stunning.

“Mr. Zhongli,” you exclaimed, tugging at his sleeve to call his attention away from a porcelain teapot with gold little geo symbols as decoration, “what do you think of this one? It’s quite beautiful isn’t it?”

The dark-haired man looked at the broach you were pointing at before going tense, a small gasp escaping him as his beautiful amber eyes widened slightly. You looked at him in concern, you’d never seen the man come this close to losing his composure.

“Oh,” he said, clearing his throat, “is this the one you’re thinking of purchasing? I’d advise against it. Even by just a mere glance, I can tell it is not made of real noctilucous jade.”

Strangely, you felt as though he wasn’t being truthful with you.

“Well, that’s alright. I don’t really care about the authenticity and it’s pretty cheap. If it is a fake, I don’t really have much to lose. Plus, I’ve always loved violetgrass. This broach could be like a little homage to that!” You answered, letting out a little giggle.

“You’ve heard of the Vigilant Yaksha and the violetgrass maiden, am I correct?” He asked.

“Oh, yes I have! My Gran used to tell it to me and the rest of the village children back when I was young. It always made me so sad, how they can never be together. It was pretty silly now that I think about it, but I would bawl my eyes out every time. The rest of the kids would tease me a bit but I just couldn’t control it,” you reminisced.

“I- well, yes in any case, they say that anyone who possesses that broach will be cursed to meet the same fate,” Zhongli added, trying his best to dissuade you from buying the old broach, dread creeping into his stomach as he thought of what might happen to you- to the both of you.

“Of course you’d believe old supersticiones, Mr. Zhongli,” you said, letting out a lighthearted laugh that could make any heart, even one of stone, melt, “it’s very on brand! However, I’m sure there’s no need to be worried, after all, it’s nothing but an old myth! And even if it is real, you yourself said that it’s not made of the real stuff.”

Before Zhongli could figure a way to change the unchangeable, you had already purchased the broach. As you kept on leading the funeral consultant around the streets of Liyue Harbor, bag in hand, prattling on about anything and everything, he couldn’t help but feel his heart sink. A single thought, the same one you would later have, crossed his mind.

If only you hadn’t bought that goddamned broach.

In a fit of anger and desperation, you ripped the detested broach off of your shirt, throwing it at Xiao. You hoped it would somehow break into millions of tiny pieces.

After a beat of silence, Xiao spoke, “Eat.”

“No,” you yelled, before breaking down into a fit of angry sob, “I hate you!”

As soon as the words left your mouth, Xiao lurched forward so close your noses were almost touching, and for a second you think he’s gonna hit you but instead, he simply rests his forehead on yours and closes his eyes. When he pulls away, your sobs have waned into hiccups. Without saying so much as a word Xiao clasps the violetgrass broach onto your shirt, where it belongs.

“Eat,” is all he says, placing the now lukewarm soup into your hands.

Scared, tired, and sad, you do as he said, taking small sips of the admittedly tasty dish. He does nothing more than stare at her with those intense amber eyes of his for a few minutes before turning around and heading towards the door.

Before he leaves he turns his head back to look at her and says, “I don’t care if you don’t like me. Hate me for all I care. As long as you stay alive I don’t care.”

#Xiao x reader #xiao x you #xiao x y/n #genshin impact Xiao x reader #yan! Xiao x reader #genshin impact fanfic #genshin impact fanfiction #Xiao #genshin impact #tw: yandere #flavor: xiao #patt’s creations

[toushindai]

Respect and approval in the relationship between Zagreus and Megaera

So, I think a lot of people know that there's a mini storyline between Megaera and Zagreus that proceeds as follows: Megaera brusquely informs Zagreus that his victories against her "don't count" as he couldn't possibly have achieved them without Nyx's help via the mirror. If you respond to this by emptying out the mirror and fighting her, she'll remark on it. This exchange is referenced in an incredible video about Hades' dialogue system that I will link in the comments to this post (since we all know how tumblr is about links) and which I highly recommend if you haven't watched it already.

But I was surprised that the video didn't go on to highlight what is my favorite (and surely relevant to the video?) aspect of this storyline--that once you've beaten Meg like that, the followup conversation at home has three different variants based on how many gifts you've given her!

Spoilers for a lot of late-game, including post-credits, content.

The three variants are low relationship (zero gifts - five gifts); high relationship (six gifts - nine gifts); "became close" relationship (ten gifts).

At low relationship, the conversation is as follows. I apologize but I don't have screenshots for any of these; I'm taking the text from the files.

Megaera: Beaten. By you. Without the help of Nyx's mirror. You humiliated me. And now you've come to rub it in, I guess? Well, go on, then. Not like you can shame me any more. Zagreus: Meg, what is it going to take for you to quit treating me like I'm incompetent? Have I not grown even a little since we met? You were supposed to teach me something; what does that make you? Megaera: Tsch... why don't you raise your voice a little louder so that all the House can hear. Is that what you want? For everyone to know that you're superior to me? Zagreus: You're not hearing me, Meg. I know it sounds a little disingenuous considering we keep fighting to the death and all, but... I never meant to hurt you. Megaera: You give yourself far too much credit, Zagreus. Leave me alone.

At high relationship:

Megaera: Beaten. By you. Without the help of Nyx's mirror. You humiliated me. And now you've come to rub it in, I guess? Well, go on, then. Not like you can shame me any more. Zagreus: Meg, that isn't why I'm here, you know that isn't how I am. Why can't you see it? All I've ever wanted was to prove myself to you. Megaera: Tsch... you think that you can prove yourself to me by winning in a fight? Zagreus: Sometimes I think that I can never really win with you, Meg. If I held back, what would you have thought? Megaera: If you think you know me so well, Zagreus, then you ought to know better than to keep this conversation going with me, now.

(Yeah, that's "high relationship.")

At became close relationship:

Megaera: I can't believe it, Zag. I thought for sure that Nyx's mirror was the only reason you could beat me. I knew you'd changed to some extent, but... not this much. Zagreus: I had to see if I could do it, Meg. I've learned so much from you, I... thought maybe this was a way that I could prove myself to you. And to myself. Megaera: Prove yourself, to me...? You must not be as comfortable in your own skin as you let on. I can't decide if I like that about you. Now leave me alone while I give it some thought.

Which... it's better, right? It's better. It's maybe not great, still. But they are trying.

I mean so let's take this from the top. At low relationship, the conversation is fairly acrimonious on both sides. Feeling humiliated by her loss, Meg lashes out, and Zag snaps in return that if Meg's going to keep treating him like he's incompetent, it's only a reflection on her, who was supposed to teach him something. In this version of their conversation, we see the shadow of the relationship Hades pointedly engineered between the two of them raise its head, and if I were ever asked to textually back up my certainty that Meg, not only Zag, contributed to their breakup, I think I'd cite this. Meg's lack of respect for Zag is clearly a longstanding point of tension. Here, Zag feels like he's done something that ought to earn him her respect, only to be... what? Meg's first line is largely about her own insecurities rather than her opinion of Zag, but at the same time, the assumption that she should be superior, that that's the natural order of things, is baked into it. It's a serious blow to her pride that Zag has upset that natural order, and she's projecting her shame into an assumption that Zagreus is here to pettily gloat. Which is insulting, and Zagreus reacts from that place of insult.

But in his second line, as if he notices her pain, Zag is able to disengage from his anger a little (his portrait shifts from his angry "Defiant" one to his "Empathetic" one), realize that their communication is going a bit awry, and tell Meg that he doesn't mean to hurt her. This does not have the effect he possibly hoped for, and before Meg tells him to hit the bricks she says that he gives himself too much credit--by thinking that he has the capability to hurt her. Now this is a pattern with her, throughout their redeveloping relationship, even at max relationship, even once they're back together: Megaera repeatedly states that Zagreus can't hurt her. Here, it has a clear implication that she thinks Zagreus beneath her, not worth getting hurt over. ...It's absolutely belied by her humiliation in the rest of the conversation, but the scorn with which she makes the assertion is cutting and unkind.

Although... I do wonder. Especially given Zag's statement that he "never meant to hurt [her]"--that doesn't sound like he's just talking about his neat trick of getting past her darkness-free. He's referring to their past, almost certainly, and at 0-5 gifts this is well before he gets around to a proper apology or even his feelingsdump (feelingsdump, er, I'm sorry, "building trust", the "we need to talk" conversation, follows gift#6, the last nectar). What I wonder, sometimes, is--when Megaera says that Zagreus can't hurt her (boy does she love to say that.), if part of what she's saying is that Zagreus is not the only person contributing to the poor relationship between them. This is a thought on a different topic, I guess, and I'm not saying that in this conversation, she suddenly has a flash of insight that she's being kind of shitty and chases him away for that reason. Sincerely, I do think "I'm too good to be hurt by Zagreus" is an emotional habit she has for a sizeable chunk of time--perhaps one she developed as a reaction to their breakup, or as a shield against it as she saw it coming--and is what she means here. But maybe it means something else later. I certainly hope so. Because boy. she really loves to say it.

Let's talk about the variant at high relationship next. You could get this variant anywhere between the last nectar ("We may be immortals, but we're older now") and having given her the second-to-last ambrosia ("I wish I could do over how we started"). Once you give her the last ambrosia (when they drink together), you're in the territory of the final variant.

Meg's still cranky; her first line is the same as in the low relationship variant. It's Zagreus, who is at this time in the process of trying to get back in her good graces, who is less testy in response. I'd say he's clearly still hurt by her response, but he doesn't express that hurt by sniping back at her this time. Instead, he opens up, trying to make his intentions more clear, reminding her that he isn't the type to gloat. He all but says that he wants her respect. And he doesn't get it, here. Frankly, this variant is not much of an improvement on the low relationship one. Meg is less openly insulting, but it's clear that she still doesn't want to be having the conversation.

My thoughts on this variant are similar to my thoughts on some of the ambrosia conversations--and I say this as the most dedicated MegZag shipper you will ever see--in that when I see this, I'm not sure why Zagreus bothers. If, like he says, there's really no action he could take here that wouldn't end in Meg being peeved at him, what is he reaching for? He wants to prove himself to her--why? Is her approval worth having here? When Meg says (to cite the gift nine/third ambrosia conversation) that it's just a question of whether Zag is worth her time, why is it positive that Zagreus's wistful response is to ask her if he is worth her time, then?

Let me start bringing in the became close relationship variant here, starting with the last line of it, because Meg's response to Zagreus outright stating that he wants to prove himself to her is emotionally very similar to her response to Zag asking her if he is worth her time. In both cases, she seems to... not soften, exactly. She seems taken aback. She sees Zagreus's desire for her approval and his vulnerability that he lays bare in front of her, and in both cases, her response is one of uncertainty. She wants time to think about it on her own. She has kept hardening herself in response to the pain of their earlier failure (not every relationship that doesn't work out is a failure but I am quite certain she felt this way about theirs, if only because she was supposed to shape Zagreus a certain way), she hardens herself verbally and defiantly right in front of Zag's damn face, and he answers with wistful vulnerability. She tells him he can't hurt her, and he answers with "OK. But do you care about me? Could you?"

I almost wonder if Zagreus's vulnerability makes Megaera ask herself the same questions that these conversations make me ask myself. That remark she makes, that she's not sure how she feels about Zagreus's insecurity--I wonder if she's seeing how she's contributed to it, and needs time to figure out how to respond more kindly. And not just "more kindly," but in a way that's better for him. In the became close relationship conversation variant, Meg starts off in a much better mood, and offers the approval that--as we've seen in the other variants--Zagreus wants so keenly. However, when he states that as an outright motivation, I think she questions that influence she has on Zagreus, and wavers on whether or not it's a positive one, and wants to withdraw to sort out... everything about that situation. It's not an emotionally vulnerable response, maybe, but I do get the sense that it's a compassionate one.

These two are not perfect. They're coming from a background of a relationship that was arranged for them with the explicit intention of forcing Zagreus to mature--a setup that implicitly (if Hades didn't go ahead and make it explicit which, lbr, he very possibly did) defines Megaera as more mature and therefore superior. That relationship fell apart--and how could it not, with a setup like that--and some time has passed, and now they're stuck in a loop of fighting each other to the death. It's not ideal! But they cared about each other, back during their first relationship. Zagreus outright tells us that he caught feelings. Megaera talks around the same admission--through the rigidness with which she tells Zagreus and herself that they can't return to the way things were, that it isn't possible; through her admission, when Zag says he wishes he could change how they started, that she too "wish[es] for a lot of things." They cared-past-tense and they care-present-tense, but they still have emotional habits from the past, from the imposed hierarchy of their first relationship, and even in the most positive variant of Meg's response to the darkness-free victory, even in some of their biggest steps forward, we see some of those habits rear their head. It's something they have to work on and will continue to work on, I think.

And it's not a hopeless process. One of the best in-game contrasts to this dynamic is (of all things) when Megaera notices that Zagreus has made it onto the Featured Houseservant board. She remarks that never in her wildest fantasies did she imagine that Zagreus would make it up there. Zagreus, I think, doesn't know how to respond to that--he picks up the "wildest fantasies" thread rather than the compliment, bless this horny little man--but Meg is undeterred and points out that he really should be proud of such an achievement. And I think this is the perfect solution to the dilemma that is Zag's desire for Meg's approval, because Meg's uncertainty over that, her sense that it's an insecure concern, is justified. So here, she's showing that she respects his achievement but emphasizing that it's something about him, something he can and should feel intrinsic pride over, rather than just taking pleasure in her extrinsic approval.

This has gotten long (oh god it has gotten long) so I think I'll wrap up here. One of the things I love about Hades is how it doesn't force relationships to be Suddenly Great Now That The Story's Over. Hades and Zagreus are still struggling to figure out a relationship that works. Persephone isn't sure she knows how to be Zagreus's mother. Meg's still not getting along with her sisters (although it has been brought to her attention that she is as culpable in their relationship as they are). I think this point of awkwardness between Zagreus and Megaera--their having to figure out a system of mutual respect where it has not been before--is another example of that pattern. And I think they've got a shot at it. I think they can pull it off.

#hades game #megzag #zagreus #megaera #hades meta #zagreus (hades game) #megaera (hades game) #zagaera #tou wrote a thing #LISTEN... post

[aiweirdness]

How to begin a novel

Last year for National Novel Writing Month I trained a neural net called torch-rnn on 10,096 unique ways to begin a novel. It came up with some intriguing possibilities, my personal favorite being “I am forced to write to my neighbors about the beast.” But many of its sentences used made-up words, or had such weird grammar that they were difficult to read, or meandered too erratically. (“The first day of the world was born in the year 1985, in an old side of the world, and the air of the old sky of lemon and waves and berries.”) The neural net was struggling to write more than a few words at a time.

This year, I decided to revisit this dataset with a larger, more-powerful neural net called GPT-2. Unlike most of the neural nets that came earlier, GPT-2 can write entire essays with readable sentences that stay mostly on topic (even if it has a tendency to lose its train of thought or get very weird). I trained the largest size that was easily fine-tunable via GPT-2-simple, the 355M size of GPT-2. Would a more-powerful neural net produce better first lines?

One of the parameters I can tweak when I’m getting a trained neural net to generate text is temperature - this controls whether the neural net chooses the most likely next bit of text as it writes, or whether it’s permitted to use its less-likely predictions. At a default of 0.7, a relatively conservative temperature, the neural net’s first lines not only make grammatical sense, but they even have the rhythm of a novel’s first line. This is DRAMATICALLY better than torch-rnn did.

I am, or was.

At the mid-day meal the sun began to set and the quiet dragged on.

There was once a man who lived for a very long time; perhaps three thousand years, or perhaps a thousand million years, maybe a trillion or so, depending on how the scientists look at it.

He had the heart of a lion, and the fangs of a man-eater.

"I am Eilie, and I am here to kill the world."

The old woman was sitting on a rock near the sea, smoking a pipe.

I have just been informed, that the debate over the question 'is it right or wrong to have immortal souls' has been finally brought to a conclusion.

When I was a boy, I was fond of the story of the pirate god.

He had a strange name, and he was a very big boy indeed.

The purple-haired woman came to the clearing in the plain, and without looking up from her book, said, "It's too late to be thinking about baby names."

The village of Pembrokeshire, in the county of Mersey, lies on a wide, happy plain, which, in a few years, was to become known as the "Land of the Endless Mountains."

I don’t think the neural net plagiarized any of these? They are so good that I’m suspicious. But others of the neural net’s lines are even weirder, yet in an effective way that opens with an intriguing premise.

The moon had gone out.

I was playing with my dog, Mark the brown Labrador, and I had forgotten that I was also playing with a dead man.

The black stone was aching from the rain.

The short, dirty, and dirty-looking ship that weighed three tons and was three feet in diameter landed on a desolate and green plain.

How many times have I had the misfortune to die?

The first black dog in the park had been captured alive.

Behold the Sky Rabbits!

In the belly of the great beast that was the bovine Aurore there lived, upon the right hand of the throne, the Empress Penelope; and she had, as it were, a heart of gold.

The moon stood on its own two feet.

The reeking maw of the blood-drunk ship, the enemy's flagship, was silent and empty.

The first day I met my future self, I was aboard the old dirigible that lay in wait for me on the far side of the moon.

The child of two cats, and a tiger, a clown, a horse, a bird, a ship, and a dragon, stood on either side of the threshold of the Gatehouse, watching the throng of travelers who came in from all around the world, before he had any idea what was going on.

I think it’s probably doing this accidentally, stringing likely words and phrases together without understanding what any of them really mean. It’s not that it’s good at science fiction or magical realism; it’s that it’s trying and failing to predict what would have fit in with the usual human-written stuff. Some of the neural net’s first lines really betray its lack of the understanding of the laws of physics. It really likes to describe the weather, but it doesn’t really understand how weather works. Or other things, really.

The moon was low in the sky, as though it had been shipped in from the farthest reaches of the solar system.

The first star I saw was a blue one, which became a scarlet one, and then a gold one, and green, and finally a yellow one, which for some years afterwards seemed to be an ebony one, or even a bubbling mass.

The sun rose slowly, like a mighty black cat, and then sank into a state of deep sleep.

The sea of stars was filled with the serenity of a million little birds.

The great blue field was all white, swept away by the blue-gold breeze that blew from the south.

The sky was cold and dark, and the cold wind, if it had not been for the clouds, would have lashed the children to the roof of the house.

The morning sun was shining brightly, but the sky was grey and the clouds aching.

The night that he finally made up his mind to kill the dog, the man was walking home from the store with his wife and child in the back seat.

Arthur the lion had been pretty much extinct for some time, until the time when he was petted by Abernathy the old woman, and her son, Mr. Popp.

One of the disadvantages of having a neural net that can string together a grammatical sentence is that its sentences now can begin to be terrible in a more-human sense, rather than merely incomprehensible. It ventures into the realm of the awful simile, or the mindnumbingly repetitive, and it makes a decent stab at the 19th century style of bombastic wordiness. I selected the examples above for uncomprehending brilliance but the utter tediousness below is more the norm.

The whites of my eyes shimmered, as if my mind were dancing.

I once went to a party where the dress code was as strict as a chicken coop with no leggings and no boots.

A black cloud drifted by, a mottled mass of hydrogen, a black cloud of hydrogen, with the definite characteristic of being black.

I say I am at sea, because I am standing upon the ocean, and look out across the barren, vast throng of the sea.

It is, of course, a trifling matter in the ordinary course of things, if a certain writer were to write a novel, which is a book of stories, which is a book of characters, wherein every detail of the story is stated, together with a brief description of the theme which it concerns.

There was a boy with blue eyes, with sandy hair and blue eyes that looked at all times like he had been pushed through a million compartments.

The Sun, with its rolling shaft of bright light, the brilliant blue of the distant golden sun, and the red glow of its waning corona, was shining.

The man who was not Jack the Ripper had been promoted four times in the last two years.

Felix the Paw was sitting at the table of his favorite restaurant, the "Bordeaux" in the town of Bordeaux, when his father, Cincinnata, came in to say good-by to the restaurant.

It, sir, gives me the greatest pleasure to hear that the Court be not too long in passing away: but that I may have leisure to prepare a new work for the publication of my friend and colleague, the renowned Epistemology, which is now finished; and in which I shall endeavour to show, that this very point is of the highest importance in the subject of the philosophy which I am about to treat of.

It was a rainy, drizzling day in the summer of 1869 and the people of New York, who had become accustomed to the warm, kissable air of the city, were having another bad one.

Repetitiveness is also common, especially at this conservative temperature setting. Once the neural net gets itself into a repetitive state, it doesn’t seem to rescue itself - it’s a problem that people have noticed in several versions of this algorithm. (It doesn’t help that I forgot to scrub the “title” that someone submitted to the dataset that consists of the word “sand” repeated 2,000 times)

The sky was blue and the stars were blue and the sun was blue and the water was blue and the clouds were blue and the blue sky was like a piece of glass.

At the end of the world, where the tides burst upon the drowned, there exists a land of dragons, of dragons, which is the land of the dragons.

It's the end of the world, it's the end of the world, it's the end of the world, it's the end of the world, it's the end of the world, you're dead.

There was once a land of sand, and sand, sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand sand

Increasing the temperature of the sampling would help the repetitiveness problem, in theory, letting the neural net venture into more interesting territory. But at a temperature of 1.0 the text tends to venture out of everyday surrealism and into wordy yet distractible incomprehensibility.

The praying mules on the top of the hills sounded the final klaxon, lifting their spiked front hoofs as they crept the last few feet of desert landscape past the crest of the enormous swathe of prehistoric sand.

In the glen of the Loch is a ladder that winds way up through a passage to a ledge with soft, moss-laden environmental standards.

Someone whipped a dead squash gibbet across the room, like some formidable war lord unleashing a heavy hunk of silver at home.

One blue eyed child stood up and cried out: "Douay, saurines, my Uncle – Fanny Pemble the loader!"

Jud - an elderly despot, or queen in emopheles, was sitting across the table from the king, looking very thoughtfully into the perplexions of the proceedings.

Oh, you're a coward little fool, as if you couldn't bear to leer at a Prunker or white-clad bodyguard quickly emerging from a shady, storm-damaged area of the city.

Hanging presently in his little bell-bottomed chamber on the landing-house, early in the morning, the iron traveler sat on a broad-blonde sandbricksannel blanket outside the gate of a vast and ancient island.

Long, glowing tongues trailed from your mouth as you listened to what was being said across this kingdom of ours, but growing a little more somber since the week that caused us to proclaim general war.

The night I first met Winnie the Pooh, I had sat in the Tasting-House and heard the Chef unpack the last of the poison upon his quiet dinnertable.

There is, of course, no perfect setting at which the neural net churns out sensible yet non-repetitive first lines. There are just varying shades of general awfulness, interspersed with accidental brilliance.

No matter how much you’re struggling with your novel, at least you can take comfort in the fact that AI is struggling even more.

I generated all the neural net sentences above using a generic “It” as the prompt that the neural net had to build on (it would usually go on to generate another 20-30 sentences at a time). But although the sentences are independent in my training data, GPT-2 is used to large blocks of text that go together. The result is if I prompt it instead with, say, a line from Harry Potter fanfic, the neural net will tend to stick with that vein for a while. I've included a few examples as bonus content for subscribers.

Update: I now have a few thousand unfiltered examples of neural net-generated first lines at the GitHub repository where I have the original crowdsourced dataset. Themes include: Harry Potter, Victorian, My Little Pony, and Ancient Gods.

My book on AI is out, and, you can now get it any of these several ways! Amazon - Barnes & Noble - Indiebound - Tattered Cover - Powell’s

#neural networks #you look like a thing #nanowrimo #gpt-2 #writing #first lines #gpt-2-355m

[superfreakerz]

TDDUP 32

“Til Death Do Us Part”

Rated M for smut and heavy themes.

Reincarnation/Immortal AU

Summary: There are immortals and there are those who reincarnate, but it’s best to keep these things hidden. Lucy is attending college and meets Natsu, a boy with pink hair, a devilish smile, and a body that never ages.

Chapter 32

The New Semester

Lucy frowned as she got ready for the new semester. The rest of winter break went by in the blink of an eye. She had partied at Fairy Tail during New Years and even called her father to catch up and wish him a happy new year. Every day during the break was spent with Natsu and their friends, which made the new term that much harder.

Last quarter, she had every class with at least someone from their group. Now, she has absolutely none. Disappointed was an understatement when she received her schedule. She was devastated. She hated the thought of not seeing her friends in class, and she hated the thought of starting over even more.

"C'mon, Luce. Cheer up. It's not the end of the world if we don't have classes together," Natsu's voice rang out. He spent nearly every night at her apartment, it was rare when he was at his own place.

"Easy for you to say!" she shot back. "You at least have a friend in every class!"

"Friend? I only have Gray in all my classes. That's not a blessing, that's a curse! That's worse than immortality!"

Lucy only rolled her eyes. "Oh, whatever. Point is, I'm going to be all alone! I'll have to make new friends! And in case you don't remember, I suck at that!"

"What do you mean? You made friends with all of us!"

"That's only because Levy introduced us. And she was the one to come up to me when we first met. I can't make friends on my own! And let's not forget that our first meeting went horribly!"

Natsu smoothed a hand over the back of her head. "Quit worrying so much. You'll be fine, I promise. And even if you don't make friends, I already told you that I'll pick you up from class everyday so we can go to Fairy Tail together and meet up with the rest of the gang. It's not like we're going to stop being friends just because we're in different classes. You're stuck with us now that you know our secret."

Lucy laughed. "Oh, I don't need you to pick me up today. I'm going to meet with Aquarius after my classes. But I guess you're right."

"I always am! Now hurry up and finish getting ready."

Wanting to look nice on her first day of class, Lucy threw on a pair of light jeans and a white sweater. It was still winter, so she couldn't show off her body just yet.

"Alright, I'm heading out now!" she called out.

Natsu gave her a quick kiss, sending her off with a grin. "Have fun!"

Lucy was surprised she was relatively early to her first class, taking a seat in the back. This quarter, all three of her classes were squeezed into the same days, but luckily she only had classes Tuesday and Thursday. That left her with the rest of the week to do whatever she wanted. Her first class was English with a professor named Virgo. According to Makarov, she was also a reincarnation. Lucy hoped she would be able to talk to her about it.

Suddenly, the seat next to her was pulled out. Lucy turned to find a boy with dirty blonde hair sitting next to her, flashing her a dazzling smile. His eyes were dark, his lashes long. If Lucy were single, she was sure she would be swooning over the pretty boy.

"Nice to meet you," the boy said, taking her hand in his. "I'm Hibiki. What might your name be, beautiful?"

Lucy was taken aback by his brazenness, reminded of her first boyfriend. "I'm Lucy."

"Lucy. What a pretty name!"

"Uhh, thanks."

"So, Lucy, what year are you?"

"I'm a freshman."

Hibiki gasped. "Me too! It must be fate that we met today!"

Lucy nearly rolled her eyes. "Fate? This is English 101, everyone here is a freshman."

Before Hibiki could reply, someone cleared their throat at the front of the room, grabbing her attention. It was a woman, relatively short with a pink pixie cut. Her eyes were a jaded blue.

"I'm Virgo, your professor for this quarter."

Lucy leaned forward in her seat, eager to learn more about the fellow reincarnation.

Once class ended, Lucy quickly packed her things before heading to her next class. She wished she could have talked to Virgo about reincarnation, but there were too many people around, not to mention she had limited time to make it to her next class. Not that there was a need to rush. She had all quarter to talk to the fellow reincarnation.

During her walk across campus, Lucy was surprised to find that Hibiki was walking along with her.

"Umm, is there a reason you're going this way?" she asked, starting to get weirded out by the boy.

He arched his brow. "My class is this way."

"Oh, okay."

When Lucy made it to her next class, she stopped outside the door to glare at Hibiki, who had followed her all the way there.

"Okay, you're stalking me," she said, crossing her arms.

Hibiki laughed awkwardly. "I'm not, I swear! I have this class!"

"There's no way we're in the same class! Show me your schedule!" The boy handed her his schedule, which she glossed over quickly. "Wait, we share every class together! How the hell did that happen?"

"I told you it was fate!" Hibiki exclaimed, grabbing Lucy's hand. He went to place a kiss over it, but she snatched it away.

"I can't believe how similar you are to an old friend of mine," she said, rolling her eyes.

"This friend of yours must have been charming!"

She laughed, and in a voice laced with sarcasm she replied, "Big time. Well, if we're going to be in all the same classes together, we might as well be friends. But no funny business, alright? I have a boyfriend."

Hibiki held his chest in mock pain. "I should have known a girl as beautiful as yourself was taken."

The two walked to the back of the classroom, taking their seats.

"So, what are you majoring in?" Lucy asked. She wasn't used to making friends on her own, but with Hibiki's laidback and all too familiar personality, she found it easy to slide into a conversation.

"Computer science. What about you?"

"Creative writing."

Lucy was about to ask the boy where he was from when their professor stepped into the room. He was a tall and lanky man with black hair. Unlike Virgo, he was a bit older, a couple of wrinkles adorning his face around his mouth. He wore a dark green turtleneck and black slacks that accentuated his slender legs.

"Hello, everyone. My name is Sagittarius. I will be your World History professor. I assume everyone came prepared with their textbooks."

Lucy sweat dropped. It was only the first day of the quarter, she didn't have her textbook yet. As if sensing her dilemma, she felt Hibiki nudge her elbow that was resting on the desk before he slid his textbook between the two of them to share. She shot him a quick grin.

"Thanks," she whispered.

He returned the smile. "Don't mention it."

Class seemed to drag on forever, Sagittarius' emotionless voice doing nothing to help as he discussed the contents of the first chapter. While Lucy may not have been an immortal who lived through most of the world's events, she had still been around long enough to have been through a good chunk of them. That, along with taking the same classes every lifetime, made learning relatively easy.

Once class ended, Lucy and Hibiki walked to a small coffee shop that was on campus. They had thirty minutes before their next class, and considering it was the first day, they didn't have too much homework to do yet. Instead, they decided to chat over a cup of coffee, which Lucy insisted on paying for since Hibiki was nice enough to share his textbook and send pictures of the portions she would need for homework later.

Lucy found it strange just how similar Hibiki was to her first boyfriend. She figured that was why it was easy to open up to him. Already familiar with flirty playboys, his personality didn't scare her away. Instead, it made things easier.

"I guess making friends isn't so hard."

The two talked about everything, ranging from where they grew up to what they wanted to do after college. Lucy had to admit, it was fun making new friends.

When they headed to their last class for the day, they took seats in the back yet again. It didn't take long for their professor to stumble in the room. Lucy's eyes nearly bugged out of their sockets seeing how absolutely ripped the man was. It looked like his white button-up shirt was going to pop any second with how large his muscles were.

"Yo! I'm Taurus!" the man exclaimed. His eyes filtered around the room, hearts practically shining in them whenever they glazed over a girl. Lucy wondered how he was able to teach given his pervy attitude.

Yet, when he started to go over the math topics they were going to learn over the quarter, all playfulness disappeared from his voice, replaced with seriousness. Unlike with Sagittarius, Taurus was surprisingly good at keeping the class engaged, and despite how hard to believe it was, he managed to make math seem somewhat interesting. Time practically flew by. To make matters even better, Taurus dismissed them without assigning any homework.

Heading out of the classroom, Hibiki invited Lucy to hang out.

"Thanks, but I have an old professor I want to catch up with," Lucy said with a smile. She was proud of herself for having made a friend already, one that even wanted to hang out with her after school.

Hibiki's eyes widened. "Oh, is it your boyfriend? Are you dating your old professor?"

"What? No! My boyfriend goes to this school too, but he's not a professor. Just a student."

"Oh. I'd love to meet the man that stole your heart! He must be quite the specimen!"

Lucy laughed, rolling her eyes. "I'm sure you'll meet him someday considering he plans on picking me up from school everyday. Anyways, I have to go. I'll see you Thursday!"

Waving a quick goodbye to her new friend, Lucy headed towards Aquarius' office. It was clear that Aquarius knew about her reincarnation, so why didn't she ever say anything instead of giving cryptic clues? And how did she even know about it in the first place? Had she slipped up in any way? If that was the case, she needed to know to make sure not to repeat the mistake in the future.

Reaching the cranky professor's office, Lucy peered inside to find the woman glaring at her computer screen. She wasn't surprised that there weren't any students utilizing Aquarius' office hours. After all, she was terrifying.

Feeling irked that Aquarius had kept things hidden from her, Lucy strode inside the office without bothering to knock and planted her hands on her hips with a glare. The older woman glanced up at her, a scowl immediately gracing her face.

"What do you want, brat? I thought I was finally free of you," she remarked.

Lucy closed the door behind her, locking it. "How did you know about me?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Yes you do. Makarov already told me about you, along with the others. Why didn't you tell me?"

Aquarius sighed, the scowl on her face finally relenting. When she looked back up at Lucy, her features were softer, a rare expression on the woman's face.

"We wanted you to find out on your own," she finally answered. "I assume Makarov told you about Acnologia and the other immortals?"

Lucy nodded. "Yeah. He told me about how we're all being hunted by some psychopath."

"And how did you take it?"

"...Not well, I guess."

"That's why I decided it was best not to tell you."

"But why?" Lucy asked. "Obviously I would have liked to know that there are others like me! What does Acnologia have to do with anything!?"

Because I didn't want you to be paranoid," Aquarius answered. "Do you know how many reincarnations live in fear for the rest of their lives, over and over again all because they found out about Acnologia? We already have enough to worry about, it's better not to have the knowledge of yet another threat to us. Besides, I was also doing it for you and Pinkie."

"You mean Natsu? What does he have to do with it?"

"Well you're dating, aren't you? I didn't want you to get scared of him since he's an immortal and all."

Lucy choked on her saliva. "W-What? How did you know about that?"

Aquarius sighed, tired of having to explain things. "I know about all of the immortals enrolled at this school, even the ones that are in Fairy Tail's basement. Considering the past between reincarnations and immortals, we are given information about each immortal so that we can choose if we want to work here or not."

"So you really knew this whole time? How did you know about me?"

"I actually met you in your first life."

Lucy felt the wind getting knocked out of her with that revelation. Feeling dizzy, she took a seat across from Aquarius, resting her head in her hands.

"I don't remember you," she finally said, meeting the older woman's gaze.

"That's because you were just a baby at the time," Aquarius replied.

"How did you know about me then? You couldn't have possibly recognized me when I was just a baby."

"I was friends with your mom. You're strangely enough the spitting image of her- though you lack all of her grace. When I first saw you, I thought that you were her and that she was a reincarnation as well. Until I found out your name, then I remembered that she named her daughter Lucy. It wasn't too hard to put the pieces together after that, though I did do a bit of research on you as well just to be sure."

Lucy gave a sad smile remembering her first mother. "I can't believe you knew her."

"It was a shock to me too when I first saw you," Aquarius replied, her own lips tugging upwards into a smile. "She was a fine woman, which is why it's so surprising you turned out like that. It must be the fault of the rest of your parents." Lucy shot her a glare before Aquarius continued, "Anyways, it was my idea to keep you from the truth, so don't even think about getting mad at Scorpio and the others."

"Don't worry, I'm not mad anymore. Just a little surprised is all. I still can't believe there are so many others like me, and that there are so many near me too."

"Who are your teachers this quarter?"

"Virgo, Sagittarius, and Taurus."

"Ah. Did you know they're all reincarnations too?"

Lucy grinned cheek to cheek. "Wow! I heard Virgo was, but I didn't know Sagittarius and Taurus were too!"

Aquarius nodded. "If you want, you would probably be allowed to teach here if you wanted. All you have to do is turn in an application to Makarov. You'd be allowed to come here every lifetime if you choose to do so."

Lucy considered the option. Truthfully, she had no idea what the future had in store for her. Still, it was nice to have another option available to her. Especially since this one allowed her to stay near Natsu and the others.

After chatting with Aquarius for another hour, Lucy finally decided to head over to Fairy Tail where her friends were waiting for her. Sure enough, when she strode inside the pub, she found Levy and Natsu hunched over, dejected from the conversation that was taking place around them.

"Why do you two look so upset?" Lucy asked once she approached them.

The two lit up like Christmas trees at the sight of her.

"Finally!" Natsu exclaimed, grabbing her wrist and gesturing for her to sit down. "We've been waiting forever! It sucks not having classes together!"

"Weren't you the one telling me it wasn't a big deal?"

"Well I changed my mind! It sucks!"

Levy nodded with the boy. "I agree! I've been wanting to talk to you all day about your story! I finally finished it!"

"Already!?"

"Yeah! We've gotta talk about it!"

"Shouldn't you guys give her room to breathe?" Gray asked with a chuckle. Natsu and Levy were practically leeching onto the poor blonde. "Anyways, how was talking to Aquarius?"

Lucy smiled. "It was nice. She explained how she knew me and why she didn't tell me about it in the first place. Oh, she also told me that if I wanted to, I could probably teach at the university after graduation."

"Are you going to?" Erza asked.

"I don't know yet. There's a lot to think about. But since I'm still a freshman, I have plenty of time to mull it over."

Natsu stared at the blonde beside him. In truth, her teaching at the university sounded like a dream come true considering it meant she would stay in Magnolia. Then they could stay together forever, even in her next lives. Not wanting to come off too strong or pressure her in any way, the boy decided to keep his thoughts to himself for now.

He didn't know what the future entailed for the two of them. He knew that he wanted to be with Lucy for the rest of his infinite life, but that was a lot to ask of someone. He knew firsthand how long life could be, he didn't know if Lucy would feel tied down. After all, she lived in different countries, had different families, her life was forever changing while his stayed the same. Not to mention most of the time he was kept in the basement. What if she wanted to go on a date? What if she got tired of hanging out in his room? There was nothing he could do about it, and he wasn't sure the girl would want to put up with it. After all, who would?

Swallowing thickly, Natsu pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind. It was like Lucy said, they had plenty of time to figure it out. But no matter how many times he repeated that thought in his head, the worries he had were only swept under a thin veil that threatened to fly away with the slightest gust of wind. And he was sure they were going to come back sooner or later.

#fairy tail #nalu #lucy heartfilia #natsu dragneel #tddup #til death do us part #super writes #nalu fanfiction