#//At least he didn't die alone in his canon verse :(

[neoyi]

I haven't read every single ARG, but enough that Resh'an and the Shopkeeper are on reasonably familiar terms. I'm not sure if it's like boss/employee or casual buddies (I didn't read that far, someone can lore dump me on that), but a comic idea formed anyway.

Some little notes under the "Read More."

I considered keeping Resh'an in his default canon clothing and just make it look like he slept in his clothes (which I think is a reasonable assumption to make), but decided to put in the effort and draw some PJs on him. It was hard since I still needed him to look like Resh'an, hence the turban-ish night cap and I guess for some reason he wears his mask to bed. There is zero reason why he'd cover his own face in the privacy of his home, but work with me here.

This room is not the Great Archives seen in Sea of Stars, just some random ass place he lives in. I imagine a guy who can travel multiple verses has several private homes he owns for both ease and pragmatism. ...This is probably one of his nicer estates; my brain is either picturing creepy old castle in the middle of England that is the stuff of rumors or pleasantly nice cottage cabin in the woods all Ghibli style. Maybe simultaneously both at the same time, he would totally have a magic house.

Despite his rather lonely existence, I don't think Resh'an is the kind of person who is Not Good With People. I feel he chooses to be alone because it's just the ideal for an immortal. It's less likely to get people personally involved and at risk (and thus, ripe for Aephorul to take advantage of.) I think he's a pretty personable guy who gets along fairly well, but he consciously maintains a distance for both the safety of any third party and to avoid getting too close because, let's face it, a guy who can live presumably for eternity is just gonna be sad watching another mortal he was close to die.

That being said, I could see him being a bit more involved with people who are directly exposed to time/space travel since they'd have a better understanding of his situation and have that convenience to better compromise and meet his endless life's needs. Which the Shopkeeper very much can do.

My current thought is that the Shopkeeper is much more outgoing and willing to get shit done. She absolutely does not sit still when there's work to be done. I can see her as very Leslie Knope in the sense that she can pack in, like, 50 different tasks in a day. Her relationship with Resh'an boils down to being an unofficial secretary and that friend who pulls a chair and sits on it backwards and delivers the harsh truth in a friendly way (she likely has a million opinions on Resh'an's awful codependency with Aephorul.)

In turn, Resh'an probably is grateful he has her (and likely other Blue Robe members) he can at least engage in healthy conversations with and not have to explain the pains of immortality over and over again. Even if they may not all get it (though the Artificer totally would since he, too, is immortal), they understand just because working with time and space is second nature to them and those skills often go hand-in-hand with an ageless being.

I think Resh'an keeps a relatively casual friendship kinda relationship with her; like if the Shopkeeper was feeling emotional, he'd awkwardly try to calm her down by using a broom to pat her on the back. They know each other well enough, but they don't hang out, like, every single day - they're not besties. Again, he doesn't deny friendship, he's just been alone for a very loooooooong time. And given the circumstances of who he's routinely fighting, it's justified he'd exercise some caution with others he regularly chats with. Also, he's rusty from being distant with people, so he's not always sure what to do with people he's known for long-term post-immortal existence.

I think they both understand and respect their individual anonymity. Both have secrets they'd rather keep to themselves and neither are particularly nosy about picking at it.

So, what I'm saying is, a lot of their conversation together would rarely ever be personal, but instead either work talk or other stuff they're interested in and have commonality with (I can see them talking philosophically to each other or nerding over Animal Crossing or whatever.) Anything personal they say on a regular boils down to "I know what coffee he likes" or "Her favorite food is this and this."

They absolutely would sing drunkenly to ABBA and watch garbage B-movies in their free time while they coo over how fucking hot Jeff Goldblum was in "Earth Girls Are Easy."

Resh'an isn't the "hisssss sunlight bad" kinda nerd, it's just when you hole yourself up in your room for centuries at a time with the curtains closed, the sun blaring down on you is going to be a hell of a surprise.

[cosmiclion]

Think I finlly have an idea of what I want to do with Alois in my Familiar AU, might make more changes but this is more a brainstorm so bear with me 🙏 (Discussions of some canon-typical dark stuff under the cut plus it got a bit long lmao).

What if, instead of directly being taken from the village by the head of the Trancy estate, he was kidnapped by the same people who kidnapped the twins, at around the same time (meaning he was 6 years old), who then sold him to that pervert. Before being sold he met the twins and formed a brief friendship with them while they tried to comfort each other.

His parents were still alive, and little Luka (I think it's not clear what their age difference was but I don't think more than three years) grew up hearing about his big bro. When both parents died he was left alone to suffer the mistreatment of the villagers.

The contract with Hannah goes the same as in canon, but when she's about to take his soul he begs her to find his brother and protect him, as a last wish. She promises she'll do it and feels bound to that promise.

Since Alois was way younger when he got him, instead of outright abusing him the man grooms him from the beginning and the boy grows up thinking such behavior is normal and not knowing any better. He also inherits the estate.

Somehow Hannah finally finds him. She passes as a maid and infiltrates the estate and, after earning the man's trust, one night she simply makes him die in his sleep. She then reveals herself as a demon to Alois and tells him she's been sent by his brother, but Alois hates her for killing who he thinks is the only person who has ever loved him. However he can't get rid of her no matter what he does.

Eventually she earns his trust too (mainly because she just won't go away) and, with time and patience, helps him understand that what that man did to him was not, in fact, love and was plain wrong. She also helps him understand and process his trauma and try to heal (she's not really introverted and subservient in this AU, and acts more as a firm but patient mother).

By the time he's 13 he's better adjusted, although still having issues (mainly with attachment) and still having a similar personality to in canon (with some parts of it very mellowed out). Hannah has officially become his demonic foster parent, thus mirroring Sebas and Ciel. She decides he could try going to Weston.

OCiel studies at Weston in this verse too. When he starts studying he and Alois meet again. They remember each other but Ciel doesn't tell him he's not really Ciel, just that his brother died, and none tells the other what they really went through.

Alois has tried to make friends since he started at Weston, but he can be too overbearing and exhausting to be around, sometimes just unnerving, and has a bad habit of not respecting people's boundaries. The other boys (at least most of them) are polite and civil with him and will work with him if school activities require it, but they try not to interact with him too much.

While Ciel and Alos's personalities couldn't be any more different, the former still offers his friendship to the latter (in his own way), gets the other boys to really know Alois, and even helps Alois work on himself more and learn to get close to people without scaring them away (he might have shouted at him a couple of times when he got too clingy but that's part of the learning process ✌️).

Alois didn't remember his real name and Ciel only remembered him saying he was called Jim when they first met. Either way Alois has fully embraced his new name and decided to create his own legacy.

His biggest fear is being abandoned. His second biggest fear is people finding out about his past and being disgusted by him.

I haven't decided yet if Hannah reveals to Alois that she took Luka's soul or if she tells him he simply died. I need to think how it'd go either way.

Also still haven't fully decided what to do with Claude and the triplets or if to include them at all. Maybe I'll include them but I'll make them Just Be There for no reason bc it'd be funny.

[bosstoaster]

OKAY I talk too much for the post comment character limit so bringing it back to your inbox: GOSH see so since you mentioned this, it is something SO INTERESTING TO ME that I think about every time I am thinking of this fic (so hearing you say that is lighting up every neuron in my brain atm. I could literally discuss this fic for years, I have so many questions and SO MUCH INTEREST) but re: the Ryou genuinely not caring thing. Is his not caring about it a lack of self-worth or at least what he thinks of as a lack of entitlement? Is he able to comfort/distance himself from it a bit bc tho he remembers it at his own experience, he knows rationally that it wasn't he - Ryou - who had made that choice because he literally didn't exist yet? It was Shiro, and he just got implanted with the experiences of another man? Or does it actually make it even harder on him, because he doesn't feel entitled to struggle with these awful memories because they aren't really "his"? Or is it a combination of both? One of the things that I find so fascinating about any Shiro and Kuro story that is and could have been is this struggle. Part of me feels like it would be so easy for them to hate each other, with so much Shiro self-loathing to go around, but equally easy to sympathize with each other because of how empathetic and generally nice guy he and they are. My Shiro stan heart forever ruminating on this. You have another fic that sticks with me a lot, where the Ryou verse boys meet the canon boys post S6, and they get so angry at everyone for letting Kuro die to save Shiro like he didn't matter, and I can't remember the exact quote, but someone questioning whether Kuro still is alive in Shiro or if Shiro just has his memories, and Shiro (exhausted and untethered and raw and recently back from an eternity alone, practical to a fault canon!Shiro) being like "Is there a difference?" and no one could say anything.

Ahem, sorry for rambling, your Shiro fic is forever among some of my favorite stuff in the fandom, I could fawn over it and discuss it for days.

Okay, so first of all: thank you SO MUCH for a chance to talk about my favorite thing to explain, which is Ryou Shirogane, my boy, my scrungly creature, my actual son.

Okay, so, Ryou's lack of caring on the subject of what Shiro did in the arena. Under the cut b/c this is long

So, Ryou remembers all of it perfectly. Better than perfectly, even. The memories were implanted into his brain through the nervous system connection in his arm. They're permanently etched.

But Ryou has a few advantages here. First and foremost is that Ryou did a lot of work in his own head to separate him from Shiro. A big part of that was the acceptance that the Black Lion was never going to accept him. He was never and would never be the team's leader - or, at that point, he didn't even think he could be a paladin.

That was a blow, because being Black Paladin was what Shiro used to separate himself from what he'd done in the arena. He's a good guy, he fights the very obviously evil bad guys who do evil bad guy things, the lion of being Responsible and Leaderly thinks he's worthy.

Ryou is not.

So at that point, Ryou said 'fuck it, if I'm not the leader, if I'm not a paladin, why hold myself to these ridiculous standards of perfection that Shiro expects of himself?' And he cut it out. He essentially literally took a hack job to his own personality. Fuck it. If he can't be a leader, he won't act leaderly. He won't care about the big picture, only about his people. The universe is full of terrible shit and pain and disappointments, but he has a family and he's going to protect them.

THAT is the start of the Yellow Paladin personality, actually: These are my people they are mine and no one can hurt them, because that's all I have in the universe. No role, no greater purpose, because I wholeheartedly reject the thing I was literally made to do.

From there, Ryou and Shiro did not expect to like each other. And honestly, my goal wasn't even to make them! Just to get Shiro comfortable enough with Ryou's existence to keep them from being at each other's throats. Because it IS easy for Shiro to hate Ryou. He's a physical manifestation of how he was abused by the Galra, and he represents everything Shiro tries to hide about himself: the damage, the parts that aren't nice, aren't leaderly, aren't buttoned up and perfect.

Except Ryou refused to feel the same way. He looked at Shiro and went 'literally no one understands you like I do, and I don't give a shit about your posturing. You're suffering. I remember how you're suffering. You need help. I am going to help you.'

And thus, Shiro became one of Ryou's People. It's only later that Shiro met him at that same place.

But that's why Ryou doesn't care. Because it's sad that the kid died, but it's not actually Shiro's fault. He knows how Shiro feels, he knows why Shiro feels that way, but he can also see him from the outside. And Ryou doesn't care because Shiro is more important. That kid would have died no matter what. Shiro was being abused and starved. He survived. Nothing else matters to Ryou. Shiro could slaughter whoever he wanted if it meant he came home.

Ryou loves Shiro.

Ryou protects Shiro.

That's all that matters to him, at the end of the day.

[defendrelor]

HOW DOES YOUR STORY END?

frightened, alone.

you are not ready to go. you plead, and cry, but the reaper will not hear you.

tagged by: @korolnichevoya

tagging: @braveandunbreakable

[burningarchitecture]

Oh no by MARINA but I explain how each lyric differently fits the three characters I associate with this song

(red stands for Light Yagami, green stands for Spamton G. Spamton, blue stands for (our)Ciel Phantomhive, purple for additional notes)

[also this mentions some major spoilers for Kuroshitsuji (manga specifically!) and death note. You have been warned]

Don't do love, don't do friends

-constantly putting on a somewhat fake personality, not being able to relate to any of his peers, having no close personal relationships even in the start of the story except for his family/his dad, being extremely focused on being the best student and then becoming god of the new world instead of any kind of personal relationship.

-when after he finally becomes successful all the other Addisons abandon him so this is most likely what he tells himself

-deliberately pushing away Soma, Agni, Lizzy and everyone else really. He is SO DETERMINED to be alone.

I'm only after success

-becoming the god of the new world

-BECOMING A [Big Shot]

-Becoming the queen's watchdog and the earl to basically have the future his brother wanted

Don't need a relationship

-neglecting Misa, being annoyed with her

-(we don't really have any canon information)

-being annoyed with Lizzy and underestimating her

I'll never soften my grip

(self-explanatory)

Don't want cash, don't want card

Want it fast, want it hard

Don't need money, don't need fame

I just want to make a change

I just wanna change

I just wanna change

I just wanna change

I just wanna change

I just wanna change

-Light during the Yotsuba arc in a scenario where he knows he was kira maybe

-"I WON'T HAVE TO BE [JUST A PUPPET] ANYMORE!!!"

-change from being "the spare" and play the role his brother was supposed to play

I know exactly what I want and who I want to be

I know exactly why I walk and talk like a machine

-refering to his facade of being perfect, hiding his real self, you know the drill

-puppets are kinda like machines, right?

-could be referring to Britain's etiquette that basically doesn't allow you to be direct because you have to mechanically say a bunch of things out of politeness, or the instances where (our)Ciel manipulates people and lies, which is pretty often

I'm now becoming my own self-fulfilled prophecy

-more like self-fulfilled contract ...

Oh, oh no, oh no, oh no, oh

One track mind, one track heart

If I fail, I'll fall apart

-Yeah, and literally die

-true but at least he wouldn't literally die

-Yeah, and literally die ( if he gives up)

Maybe it is all a test

'Cause I feel like I'm the worst

So I always act like I'm the best

-even got suspected for being too perfect

-knowingly acts like an asshole basically

-no because he does SOMETIMES feels like he's the worst, we see that during his mental breakdown in the Green Witch arc. But also obviously acts egotistically most of the time

If you are not very careful

Your possessions will possess you

TV taught me how to feel

Now real life has no appeal

It has no appeal

It has no appeal

It has no appeal

It has no appeal

It has no appeal

-that scene where L first confronted Kira on TV and how Light then got obsessed with their game that eventually ruined his life

-"WE DON'T NEED [[Mike]]!!! ...Mike... KRIS!!! DON'T BELIEVE [[Anything You See On TV]]..."

-(Sadly TVs didn't exist in the 1800s...)

I know exactly what I want and who I want to be

I know exactly why I walk and talk like a machine

I'm now becoming my own self-fulfilled prophecy

Oh, oh no, oh no, oh no, oh

(I already commented on this verse)

I'm gonna live, I'm gonna fly,

I'm gonna fail, I'm gonna die,

I'm gonna live, I'm gonna fly

I'm gonna fail, gonna die, die, die, die

-refering to how he reached his peak when he beat L but then had to fall. Also um this works so well for a certain fic named Icarus read it maybe

-his Spamton Neo form literally had wings and he talked about getting into [HEAVEN] but when we freed him it turned out he as a darkner didn't have the ability to live freely and he died. So basically his attempts to achieve a higher power/be free were going to "burn" him from the beginning. What a perfect icarus figure, what else do you want...

-his story technically isn't finished yet but this is likely how it will end