#//Whether bc she hinted at it; or bc her person’s possessiveness got set off and it Hit the other in seeing them

[dutybcrne]

Guizhong absolutely LOVES possessiveness in a person, friend or romantic-wise. She loves gently poking and setting it off, especially because then she’s secured the person’s focus on herself. She is careful not to go overboard, but guaranteed, near every display of possessiveness over her will have her beaming

[seijorhi]

asks :)

once again, i’m terrible at answering things :)

First off, your newest Kuroo story WRECKED ME. OMMMMMG LIKE IT'S SOOO FUCKING GOOD. You are one of the most incredible writers ever, like professional style writing. These should be books and you should get paid for it, honestly. Your skill is totally unmatched, my friend. I just adore everything you write. I had two questions thou about the story, just because I am totally obsessed by it- so has Kuroo been obsessed with her since he saw her, I'm like curious how his obsession started 

like is it because she's young and he's interested? Cuz I totally got the vibes at the party that he was showing her off like she was his girlfriend and he seems like he has been wanting her for awhile. I was just curious about how it started cuz god I'm a simp for yandere kuroo- boss man Kuroo would make me weakkkkk. My second question is so is he like obsessively in love with her or is it like just a this hot piece of ass is mine to fuck kinda thing? Like does he want a relationship?

anyways, I love you and I love your writing. Everything you write is legit perfection! Thank you for all your beautiful stories you share with us! - Kai

first of all, whomst gave you the right to be so damn sweet???!?! dsgsjkl thank you, bby!

so, like with all my fics i kind of have a ‘read into it how you want’ thing going for it. whether or not kuroo actually has ‘romantic’ (i use that word loosely) feelings for the reader or whether he just enjoys fucking her because he’s in a position of power and she’s easily manipulated is left a little up to your interpretation and how you’d prefer to imagine it. however, having said that there are little hints throughout the fic that imply that there’s a little more depth to kuroo’s feelings. you’re not wrong with the whole ‘showing her off’ vibe at the party, and there’s mentions of confessions that kuroo gives while he’s fucking the reader - also the title of the fic, invidia, means envy in latin. so take that how you will 🤷‍♀️

and as far as how it all began, i like to think that it was kind of a slow build. again it’s implied that kuroo has met the reader (however briefly) a few times before - at games as nekoma’s manager, when she initially was introduced as his girlfriend and she has stayed over at their place in the past. it wasn’t so much a singular moment, but kuroo’s definitely been paying more attention to her than she realises. 

WHAT WHAT WHAT???? RHI UHMMM WAS KUROO IN LOVE WITH THE READER???? 👀👀👀👀 HOLY SHIT. I'm honestly mind blown rn like I have a lot of questions like did Shin know? Was he also into it? Omg the idea of Father and Son sharing reader...

(also I def did not hope that Bokuto was also there cuz that would have be fun....oppsss)🙊

hehehe

no, shin didn’t know but oh can you imagine the betrayal if he did? if he willingly set up the reader to be fucked by his dad 👀god damn

adsfgdhjfkfl there was a moment i genuinely considered having something more happen at the christmas party where bo would stumble across and one thing would lead to another.... but i decided not to go that route. this one needed to be solo kuroo haha

Rhi, what can I say, amazing as always!

ahhh thank you sm, bby!

Hi i absolutely love the kuroo fic at first no one would actually notice he was into and then story actually rises nicely however i would like to ask like what happens later im sorry im a little burnt out from my mountains of assignments that i cant think of a possible aftermath since the story had an open ending but yeah what happens later after the whole scene does y/n stay there for the 7 days and get r*ped again or she goes home early and like what happens to kuroo and shinsuke im sorry for annoying you with questions its fully up to you whether u would like to answer or not :-)

aw, thank you! I hope your assignments and stuff are all done? And pls bby, you’re not annoying me at all 💕💕💕

Honestly again, it’s kind of left up to what you like to think would happen, but personally I think that the reader stays, because there’s no easy way to get out of that situation without raising suspicion - which means that she then has to spend the next week trying unwittingly playing cat and mouse with Kuroo who’s gonna use every damn opportunity he has to push your boundaries 👀

Duuuuude invidia fucked me up! Like fuck, lol! The build up was so spectacular! It makes me wonder two things: how did kuroo’s obsession start, and what would shin have done if he caught them (and why do I feel like he’d join in... I guess it runs in the family lol).

I loved it sooooo much and im also so creeped out lol. Can’t trust other people’s dads. Everything about it was perfect!

glad you liked it, bby!!

shin’s a good boy and he genuinely loves the reader, but i think if he did stumble across the two of them he’d just shut down and walk away. it’d be the biggest betrayal in his eyes - it wouldn’t matter if you were drunk or he was, who came onto who - the two most important people in his life going behind his back would just break him :( and i think he probably wouldn’t give either of them a chance to explain

but if we’re talking degenerate shin... 👀👉👈

imagine if invidia! reader gets pregnant and Shin thinks it’s his, but its actually his dad’s 🤭

oooh kuroo would be such a smug little shit - he’d get extra touchy feely with the reader, drop ‘casual’ hints, basically doing everything outside of straight up admitting it to him, just to see how far he can push until shin starts to doubt whether he’s actually the father - when it’s just the two of you though... i think he’d be a little softer - but equally as possessive - you’re his, and so’s the kid growing inside of you

Kuroo: son do you know what a cuck is? Shinnosuke: no? Kuroo: wOULD YOU LIKE TO FIND OUT - @south-korea-cakes

dagshjskl i snorted when i read this but you’re not wrong lmao

hi rhi! i have a question about Lion’s Den! did oikawa purposely set the reader up to witness his true nature? or was it chance that she saw him kill?

no - i think he’d rather have kept you in the dark a little longer and tried to let things develop ‘organically’ but he’s not upset that you did find out the truth - gives him an excuse to move things along and take what he wants 👀

hey rhi:) soo my boyfriend of two years just broke up with me and so far a major comfort has just been rereading your stories. something about feeling desired, ya know? anyway, thanks for making me feel a little better <3 - @theofficialhufflepuff

aw i’m sorry to hear that :( i’m glad my fics can help make you feel a lil better - sending love bby! 💕

omg i adore everything in the soulmate series hello !! would any of the soulmate pairings ever end up feeling lowkey competitive w/ the other?? like all of them seem to mutually respect the other but would there ever come a point where smth pushes them into trying to outdo ur other soulmate when it comes to ur affection?

also have i mentioned how much i love ur writing bc i love ur writing

hmmm, not so much with oikawa & iwa or ushijima and tendou because i think they have pretty rock solid relationships with each other prior to the reader coming along - if they did it would only be minor stuff

the twins on the other hand - good fucking luck with them because they’ll turn everything into a competition. the moment one twin thinks you’re favouring the other too much expect to get dragged across the room and forced to spend ‘quality time’ with the other. it’s all very petty and exhausting and there is no possible chance for you to win. but thank you sweetheart!!

tonight im thinking about The Final Girl! boys forcing you to share a bed with them for the first time. With Kuroo’s face buried in the crook of your neck, one big hand palming your breast for good measure, Bo holding onto your waist, and Kaashi’s legs tangled with yours. its suffocating, really😪😓

asdgdhjdkdl suffocating? yes. now where do i sign up?? 🥺

you are so talented in writing it's crazy!! just the way you articulate things is ugh *chef's kiss*. i hope you are doing well and not receiving hate 🥺 ily pls

ahhh thank you so much, messages like these always make me so happy! ily bby! 💕

more karasuno first years soon? 👀

who’s to say?? i don’t have any full fics planned but maybe some concepts and thirsts??

if you make a yandere msby fic i’ll literally lose it i love your writing

👀i am considering it

[typewriterghcst]

Title: A Very Small Wish Fandom: The Cat Returns Characters: Baron, Muta, Toto, Haru, plus some OCs Rating: PGish maybe??  Words: 2797 Summary: A pleading request from a parent whose daughter has been cursed by a resentful witch is nothing truly out of the ordinary for the Cat Bureau— in fact, it might be so common so as to be routine— so why does something feel inherently off about this particular one?  Notes: Second chapter of six of a Secret Santa gift for @deedee-sunflowers. I had the realization that it actually takes a Bit for the witch part of this to show up, and I apologize for that orz That said, I'm so glad you liked it! Especially that they're all in character and that Vanya is interesting, aha. I worry a lot that he might be too grating, bc I definitely get a lot of enjoyment out of writing those kinds of characters, but I don't want them to also be irritating to sit through rip Anywho, a chapter in which Haru has a chat with a beloved monster i’m sorry that was a very vague shrek reference

                                      Ch. 2: Virtuous Siree

She might be hesitant to admit it, but Haru is almost disappointed to meet the cursed daughter, having halfway convinced herself in her unshakable unnerved skepticism that the Vanya creature had crafted her existence wholesale from lies and nothingness. Yet here she is, standing before them with her hands (hands? it’s hard to tell) folded in a mannerly fashion in front of her. Her long, golden veil is in much better shape than her father’s handkerchief, though the odd snag and rip is perhaps inevitable when one is in possession of what appears to be a pair of curly horns.

She is otherwise far from inconspicuous, as well; the gauzy shroud masking her person still reveals the aforementioned horns, and a pointed snout, and little hands adorned with inch-long claws. A long, hairless tail snakes out from behind her, curling at her feet like a sleeping dog.

Perhaps the most pressing thing, however, is that the same uneasy chill runs through Haru within this strange, half-concealed child’s presence as it does when her father is around. For the first time, she wonders if it’s not, in fact, her blunted human instincts furiously trying to warn her of Vanya’s true nature and simply a facet of his kind’s existence.

Vanya wanders into her line of sight again, standing beside his daughter with a laughably manic, skittish energy and reaching for her clawed hand. Haru notes the two are very nearly the same height. Yet, to hers (and probably the Bureau’s surprise, as well), he appears to have little trouble lifting her off the ground and holding her out to them, as if he’d worried they wouldn’t understand just how truly monstrous she’d become should he not bring her closer to their eyelines.

“This is my daughter, Virtuous Siree.” He seems to take a certain, special glee in saying so. “She is exquisitely cute! Like a baby. I’ve had her for years now.”

Virtuous Siree, though her face is obscured by the veil, seems unbothered by this treatment, inclining her head politely to their guests.

“Pleased to meet you.” Her voice echoes much like a lonely call in an empty stairwell, resulting in the definitively disorienting effect of two separate people speaking in unison.

“...And you, as well.” Baron is the first to recover from the oddness of the situation, removing his hat and bowing, and the rest of them follow suit shortly after (sans Muta, anyway, who gives a more characteristically terse greeting).

“Thank you, by the way,” Virtuous Siree then continues, as casually blithe as her father. “For taking the case. We are beyond aromatized to have obtained your assistance!”

Behind her, Vanya utters a noise somewhere between a squeal and a sob, and then hugs her close to him. “Cute! She’s too cute! Virtuous Siree, did you have a good day today?”

“Yes, Papa, I worked in the garden. The cherries are ripening on the vine! And I started a new painting when I was done.”

“Your funny prickly face horns are sticking me through my fur!” Yet, he appears to make no motions to pull away. (Haru sneaks an amused look at Muta; sure enough, the mystified frown on his own face makes it clear he’s as lost about how to feel about this interaction as she’d expected him to be.)

“How far of a journey is the Sown Forest from here, Vanya?”

The fox glances at Toto only from the very corners of his eyes at first, but the expression lacks even the most minuscule hint of suspicion. He pulls his face away from Virtuous Siree’s veiled one, placing her back on the ground with a happy coo.

“I can’t tell you how far, but it will take….” Here he counts futilely on his tiny paws again. “...eighteen-twenty minutes!”

“...You mean, eighteen to twenty minutes?”

Vanya hesitates, and here, now, it becomes obvious he’s beginning to pick up on Toto’s skepticism. When he answers this time, he’s back to his by now expected plaintive offense.

“Time works differently in Oostal! I’m only a little creature from Oostal, and I don’t know your Earthical time measurements!” He cries.

“Papa’s trying his best,” Virtuous Siree interjects with the modest passion one might expect from a shy girl her age, patting her father on the paw.

“To focus on the pretty Vanya Creature’s tenuous grasp of a time he’s never used before when his cute daughter is at risk of being cursed forever!”

“Yeah, birdbrain, that’s real heartless of ya,” Muta can’t help but add (a marked testament to how much he enjoys antagonizing the crow, if even his antipathy for the Vanya creature doesn’t see him pass up the opportunity.)

“But if time works differently, how are we meant to keep track of how long we have?” Toto asks, side-eyeing Muta with no small degree of smug amusement. (For his part, Muta seems uncertain whether to take this abrupt subject change as a surrender or a snub.)

“Use a pocket watch,” is Vanya’s dismissive reply.

Baron finds himself rather suddenly the object of vested interest for three pairs of eyes; Muta, Haru, and Toto all three almost instantly turn to him. He looks from each one to the other in moderate bemusement for mere seconds before his shoulders relax in a subtle show of resignation.

“Yes, I have one with me.”

“Wouldn’t have been you if you didn’t,” Toto teases with a smile.

“Of course,” Baron deigns to play along with a faintly put-upon tone.

“Where’s that witchy paper you said you got, anyway?” Muta asks Vanya. “The one that says it’s okay for you to get help from strangers. Don’t think I forgot about it,” he ends with crabbily.

“I left it on the table!” Vanya replies with a matching huff, less than humored by Muta’s skepticism.

Here Virtuous Siree jumps to contribute, expression molded into a contrite, abashed frown, “Oh, no— Papa, those papers got blown away earlier today! I-I opened the door to go out into the garden, and a bigly strong gust blew in!”

“Seriously—?”

“They blew up into the surrounding trees,” Virtuous Siree continues, more chastened than before in the face of Muta’s apparent exasperation, a reaction which seems to give the cat some considerable pause. “I couldn’t reach them.”

Vanya pats her head.

“It’s no significant loss that they did! We can search for them when I go to pick up the leg up in our sleeves.”

The perplexed silence which settles after Vanya’s words lingers heavily, but at least only briefly.

“Oh,” Toto first responds with a dawning amusement and the slightest of laughs. “You have something in mind to help make these tasks less of a struggle.”

Vanya nods enthusiastically, giving no indication of having discerned their earlier confusion, nor why Toto then felt the need to clarify. His tail, also, curls into an excitable question mark shape before relaxing again.

“It will take just a moment— I hid it in the root cellar with the other cates.”

“And the root cellar is—?”

“At the edge of the property, by the fence.”

“Very well. It shouldn’t take us long, I think, but we ought to depart right away. Please lead the way, Mr. Vanya.”

“I’ll stay here,” Haru speaks up. “I’d feel a little bad leaving Virtuous Siree all alone again, even if it is just a few minutes— I don’t mind keeping her company. I mean—” Here she turns to the girl herself with a sheepish expression, hands folded bashfully behind her back. “ —if she doesn’t mind my company, of course.”

“I don’t mind!” Virtuous Siree responds with a resolute shake of her head.

“Good, goods!” Vanya agrees in delight. There’s yet another almost cat-like expression of affection from him, rubbing his cheek against Siree’s as he swings their joined hands. “Play nice, Cute Siree. We’ll be back before you know it!”

                                                          &&&

The little house in which Vanya and Virtuous Siree have made their home is in all honesty not all that strange to Haru. At least, in the sense that it has walls and doors and windows, and furniture with purposes that are easy enough to grasp upon laying eyes on them. Yet two things still stand out to her as unusual. 

The first is that the walls, if not the house entirely, give the rather distinct impression that the entire thing had been carved from an enormous gourd or another hardy vegetable of sorts. When Haru furtively lays a hand on one of the few unoccupied walls, she finds she can’t discern the material by sight or touch.

The outside of the house hadn’t struck her as so outlandish. It certainly hadn’t appeared to be a massive vegetable.

The second, as previously alluded to, is that almost every available surface is buried beneath an arbitrary variety of countless objects— threadbare coats, rusted silverware, broken trinkets.

Distantly, Haru recalls Vanya’s pithy words regarding his shattered teacup— waste not. Seems he kept that particular aphorism close to his heart.

Vanya’s daughter has claimed a spot at the round table in the middle of the room, perched precariously on a wobbly stool with a set of messy watercolor paints and a well-worn brush.

Her face is still hidden, but Haru can still tell her companion (Virtuous Siree, as her father has stubbornly referred to her, and it’s still a terribly odd name to Haru) is shyly stealing glances at her, one after the other, before quickly looking away again, back to her painting.

“Can I draw something, too?” Haru eventually asks to divert the tension.

Virtuous Siree jumps on the distraction. “Oh, yes! You can! Papa always keeps plenty of paper and paints around for me!”

The girl jumps off her stool and scurries to a cabinet across the room, behind a pile of ostensible scarves and socks (the cabinet itself also piled high with an unimaginably diverse array of items— hairbrushes, hats, and tattered books, just to name a few.) In a snap, Virtuous Siree has an identical spot to her own set up at the table beside her for Haru.

“Here you are! Would you like a flat or a round brush..?”

Haru, having never been much a painter, finds herself somewhat stumped at the question, glancing back and forth between the two brushes for a half-minute before sheepishly speaking up. “Actually, this is silly, but do you have anything more fit for an amateur? I don’t do much drawing, and I’d hate to waste some of your good materials.”

Virtuous Siree laughs, a short, girlish noise that quite comically clashes with her unnatural-sounding voice, and waves her hand. “Don’t be silly, I have plenty of materials. You can’t waste them if you used them to do something fun.”

“O-Oh… Well, I hadn’t thought of it like that.”

“If you want to start slow, though, hmm…” Virtuous Siree scampers across the room again, stooping to look in her cabinet; Haru hears her shuffle various objects around as she searches for something specific. “Oh! I have some wax crayons. They’re a little used, though.”

“Oh, that’s okay. They’ll be perfect.”

It’s when Haru is settled again, this time staring down at a sheaf of brown, grainy papers— thick, heavy, with a distinct weave to the tiny fibers that must make up the sheets— that she finds herself beset by another stumbling block. She hasn’t drawn anything since she was a child, and those childish scribbles had consisted mostly of attempts at whatever animals had caught her eye.

Absently, she wonders if her skills have managed to budge past their old level. Probably not. But, there’s no time like the present to find out, she supposes. She’ll try drawing Baron.

“What does the name Virtuous Siree mean?”

Virtuous Siree gives a pensive noise. “You don’t have to call me Virtuous Siree. Just Siree is fine. Only Papa calls me Virtuous Siree-- he added the first part a little while ago.”

“Okay, Siree, then. If you like, you can call me just Haru.”

“I’ll do that!” Then, remembering what Haru’s original question was, she adds diffidently, “‘Siree’ is just a filler word in Oostal’s language, but it has a-- umm, an implication of emphasis. It’s what you use to boost the feelings in what you’re trying to get across when you can’t remember a word.”

Haru pauses in her attempt to color in one of Baron’s eyes. “Does that mean your name with the addition of ‘Virtuous’ is kind of like saying ‘really virtuous?’”

“It is!” Siree admits with an almost embarrassed laugh. “Papa’s very silly sometimes.”

To herself, Haru thinks that sounds like yet another vast understatement.

“...Have you ever dealt with witch’s magic before?” Virtuous Siree asks.

“Not…. witch’s magic, no. At least, I don’t think so. But I was transformed into a cat once,” Haru says, carefully drawing a spiral on her paper with a yellow crayon (her interpretation of the sun. It won’t do to put crayon scribble Baron into a rainy, sad environment, after all).

“What’s a cat?” Siree asks.

“Oh— um. It’s an… an animal from my world. They look a little like your father, but a little bigger. Oh! Actually, Muta and Baron-- well, Muta is a cat, but Baron just looks like one.” Then, abruptly remembering Siree has been cursed and must therefore look quite similar to her father under normal circumstances, Haru hastily adds, “I-I guess they’d look like you, too, wouldn’t they?”

Siree nods slightly, even though she hasn’t looked away from her own painting. When she speaks, her voice is soft, shy again.

“They're cute. I wish I could be cute, too, like Papa. Or, um, like I was.”

Somewhere, that gentle, beseeching string of words tugs at an old fear, one that had been allayed rather completely with the return to her normal form but not altogether forgotten— that of losing her familiar reflection. What was on the inside ultimately wouldn’t have changed, and there had always been little flaws in her human appearance she could have spent hours complaining about, but… in the end, her face, her humanness, had been held more dear by her than she could ever have realized without being transformed against her will.

“Don’t worry,” Haru finds herself saying. “Baron and the Bureau managed to rescue me from becoming a cat. They’ll do the same for you, no problem. You just wait. You’ll be your old self in no time.”

Siree’s brushstrokes slow and then stop altogether. She moves so that Haru knows she must be studying her thoughtfully, and the very knowledge of Siree’s no doubt unblinking, pensive gaze trained intently on her is enough to give her goosebumps again.

“...You’re very kind,” the girl eventually remarks. Then, finally looking away (Haru’s pretty sure, at least), she adds, “I like that. I hope you make it out safe.”

“I have the Bureau,” Haru says surely. “I’ll be fine.”

“Well, I hope they stay safe, too,” Siree adds.

As if wise to the fact they’d been the subject of the past few moments of conversation, the Bureau (accompanied, of course, by Vanya) arrive just seconds after with the familiar sound of the beginnings of an altercation between Muta and Toto. Vanya again wastes little time in hugging Siree.

“You’re back,” Haru says in the meantime. “Are we good to go now, then?”

“Yeah,” Muta breaks off his disagreement with Toto to answer with a shrug. “Whatever the pipsqueak picked up, it didn’t take long.”

“It’s a surprise!” Vanya protests, turning a haughty gaze upon Muta. Then, thoughtfully, he amends, “...A good surprise.”

Haru, thinking of Vanya’s original haste in returning to his daughter, and seeing perhaps the same veiled concern in Baron’s and Toto’s faces, nudges the avian Creation beside her, and… well, bless him, Toto takes very little time to speak up for them all.

“Will Virtuous Siree be alright here all by herself?”

Vanya rocks back and forth a few times, dragging poor Siree with him (though she seems unbothered, at least). “Yes, yes, Virtuous Siree is safe here. There are neighbors! ...In fact, if she feels scared, she should go next door to Mr. Gleb.” This spoken directly to Siree, despite the odd choice in phrasing.

“I will, Papa,” Siree answers without hesitation.

It’s here that Vanya lets her go with one last delighted chirrup, bounding over to the door and the Bureau and darting outside. Before following suit (...somewhat), Haru turns back to the girl and flashes her a reassuring smile.

“Bye, Siree! Stay safe, and don’t worry— we’ll get you all fixed up.”

“I know you will!”

As far as Haru can tell, Siree continues waving until they can’t see each other, and something about the dedication instills a certain amount of similar sentiments in Haru.

[shipaholic]

Omens Universe, Chapter 1 Part 1

And here’s 600 years later. Gem powers activate!

Link to next part at the end.

---

(Prologue)

Chapter 1

3404 BC

Aziraphale pushed a hanging tree branch out of his face with a stick. All around, the sun baked the leaves to a gentle crisp. While angels didn’t sweat, his curls were perhaps a little frizzier than usual. He had been out here all day, wandering around the wooded savanna and poking the trees on the chance something would fall out of them. This was as much work as he felt equipped to do.

It wasn’t fair, sending him in unarmed. The main problem was that as far as Heaven knew, he was still in possession of a flaming sword. His stick was a poor knock-off; the best you could say was that it was at least flammable.

The branch swung back into his face. The angel frowned at it until it sidled out of the way, looking sheepish.

A voice from above said, “Is that a permitted use of a miracle, angel? Tree-shaming?”

Aziraphale jumped back and squinted into the canopy. “Reveal yourself, demon,” he said, without enthusiasm.

A pair of golden eyes blinked back at him, followed by a flicker of forked tongue.

“Oh, it’s you.” Aziraphale relaxed. “I see you’re a snake again.”

Crawly yawned, which in his current form was very impressive. “Why veer from a classic, I say.”

“It’s got you plenty of attention, I’ll say that much.”

“Oh yes, the apple thing. Still can’t believe Satan got all the glory.”

“Imagine, the Prince of Lies taking credit for someone else’s work.”

“Point taken.” Crawly slithered to the end of his branch. His long neck [1] glowed and then extended several feet to be closer to Aziraphale. The angel tried not to look perturbed. All angels and demons could shape-shift, but he found it unsettling.

“Is that your form… permanently, or are you still human-shaped most of the time?” he asked.

Crawly uncoiled from his branch and dropped to the forest floor like a silk rope unwinding. The serpent glowed, a ribbon of white among the leaves, and shifted back into a man.

Aziraphale had forgotten Crawly was an inch taller than him. His clothes had changed again since Eden - an ankle-length linen tunic with a waist tie, and a headdress covering his long hair. He must have been discorporated at least once more since they’d last met.

“Still not convinced, to be honest,” the demon said. He held out his bare arms and frowned at them. “Might just go snake full-time. It’s switching between them that’s the bugger. Always worried I’ll forget how to shape-shift back.”

Aziraphale raised an eyebrow. “Can that happen?”

Crawly looked pleased, for some reason. “Ah - no. But I have an irrational fear that it will. I call it a ‘pho-bia’. I invented it,” he said, proudly.

Aziraphale didn’t see the point, and said so.

“No, no, it’s brilliant. Filling the world with useless things for humans to get upset about. It’s very demonic. I might get a second commendation out of it.”

Aziraphale didn’t even have one commendation. He said, a little stiffly, “But you’ve given yourself a… foe-beer. That can’t be very enjoyable.”

“It’s awful,” Crawly said, smugly. “That’s how I know I’ve done well.”

Aziraphale decided it wasn’t worth his while to argue. “Well. Congratulations.” He began to sidle away. He could probably find more trees to poke.

Crawly did not take the hint. He began to stroll side by side with Aziraphale. “I take it we’re both here on the same mission?”

Aziraphale eyed him. “I don’t know. You seemed to be taking a nap up a tree.”

“Surveillance,” the demon said, breezily. “I saw you coming a mile off. That’s a very nice stick. I hope Heaven gave you their best stick to replace the flaming sword you gave away. Got to admit, I wouldn’t want to swing a fiery blade around a forest. Might set the whole thing alight. Bit of a double-edged…” Crawly snapped his fingers, irritated. “Er. Thing.”

Aziraphale had forgotten how chatty the demon was.

“So,” Crawly said. He managed to imbue the syllable with a lot of meaning. “What have your people told you about -?” He did something significant with his eyebrows.

Aziraphale sighed. “Look, even if we were here for the same reason, which I cannot confirm, there is absolutely no chance I would share confidential intelligence with a demon.”

“Mmm. Fair enough.” Crawly walked by Aziraphale’s side in silence for approximately three steps. “I heard that one of your lot shagged a human and now a bunch of us are down here looking for its unholy offspring.”

So much for avoiding that PR nightmare. “Holy offspring, I think you’ll find.”

Crawly gave a triumphant, “Hah!”

“I’d ask for your discretion, but…”

The demon grinned. Aziraphale didn’t dignify his sentence by finishing it.

“Mind you, it’s not exactly fair to the poor bugger,” said Crawly. “The forces of Heaven and Hell descending on it - ascending, in my side’s case. Must have no idea what’s going on. It’s probably spent its whole life thinking it’s just a big human with a few extra pairs of eyes or something. Any idea what your people have in store for it?”

Aziraphale shook his head. “I imagine the first order of business is to confirm that the creature even exists. I’m not personally aware who… er, sired it. Apparently the culprit has gone to ground [2]. I haven’t been upstairs for a few centuries or I might know who it is.”

“They’re calling it a ‘Nephilim’,” Crawly said. “Means ‘giant’.”

Aziraphale glanced from side to side. The trees were thinning out. “I rather hope I don’t find it,” he confessed.

Crawly waved a hand. “You’ll be fine. You’ve got a stick.”

Aziraphale looked at his stick. It wasn’t even pointy.

He moved fractionally closer to Crawly.

“Ah. Perhaps, if we’re combining our efforts, it would be good of you to manifest your weapon?”

“Mmmm.” Crawly suddenly was interested in looking at a distant point off in the trees.

Aziraphale waited. The demon continued to act as if he hadn’t heard. “I said -”

“Yes, yes,” Crawly snapped. “I’d love to.”

Another pause.

“...Are you going to?”

“Don’t have one,” the demon said, all in a rush. “Stop asking.”

Aziraphale stared in a manner he would have had to admit was rude. The only angels made without weapons were at the very bottommost rung in Heaven. Celestial typists and coffee-fetchers, essentially. [3] Even the ones who were mass-produced in the last throes of the War got something you could lob, slice or stab with.

“My dear fellow - I beg your pardon -”

The demon moved like a whip. His nose almost touched Aziraphale’s; his breath was hot and hissing on the angel’s face. Behind him, his wings unfurled with a fwump and filled Aziraphale’s peripheral vision. The angel felt like a mouse getting its last glimpse before the snake’s jaws snapped tight.

“Do not. Beg. My pardon. Under any circumstances.”

Crawly’s golden eyes, at this distance, blurred into a single sun. Aziraphale, who had fared well in the African sunshine all day, felt a prickle of sweat.

“Quite so,” he stammered. “I meant no offence. Please forgive me.”

A pin could have dropped in the stillness [4]. Crawly slowly backed up so he could glare at the angel from a less intimidating distance.

“You don’t need my forgiveness. Go back upstairs, there’s a limitless supply of the stuff.”

He strode away, wings whipping like a cloak.

Then he took in the same thing as Aziraphale, and stopped dead.

The woods had entirely thinned out. They were in a clearing of tree stumps that had been sliced through so cleanly you could measure them with a slide-rule. Their tops looked lightly cooked, as if they had not just been severed but cauterised.

A young human stood in the middle of the felled trees. She held an enormous blade over her head. It was the kind of weapon that excitable types gave names to like Kingslayer, or Bane of the Damned. To say it was enormous was incorrect; if it was possible to take the concept of enormous and square it, that would be closer. It glowed like an electric coil and hummed an ethereal whine. It shone with the bright, clean light of Heaven.

The teenage girl holding it was the same size as the blade. She had frozen midway through swinging it at another tree. Her eyes were huge as she stared at Crawly and his open wings.

In the middle of her forehead was a glimmering gemstone. Aziraphale recognised it. He knew the angel it belonged to.

He swallowed. They’d found the Nephilim.

“Be not afraid,” he began.

The human screamed and ran towards them.

Crawly decided his wings had got him into this mess and they could damn well get him out. He took to the air so fast he left a demon-shaped afterimage. Aziraphale threw up his clenched right fist. The ring on his smallest finger glowed, and a shield extended from it.

The human barrelled into the shield face-first. She bounced off it and came back with her fist swinging. Her knuckles cracked against the shield with a noise like a wooden xylophone being struck. She seemed uninterested in using her blade, which came as a huge relief to the angel.

The Nephilim turned red in the face as she swung at Aziraphale over and over. The angel awkwardly parried, unsure whether it was a good idea to fight back. So far, this was the level of combat he felt comfortable with.

Crawly flapped cautiously back in range. He hovered behind the human’s head.

“I don’t know why, but I thought you’d be good at fighting,” he said.

Aziraphale was panting slightly. He gave himself a stern reminder that he didn’t need to breathe.

“I mean, they made you a guard. Gave you a flaming sword, for Hell’s sake.” The demon drifted sideways to keep pace as the fight inched to the right.

Aziraphale didn’t know how to explain that his job in Eden was to guard two humans with the trusting nature of toddlers. In fact, there would exist no words to put his role into context until the job of ‘mall cop’ got invented.

“Any chance you could lend a hand?” he asked, testily.

“With what?”

The angel lobbed his stick at him. He heard cursing and gathered it had smacked Crawly in the face, but he seemed to have managed to grab it all the same.

The Nephilim was tiring; her punches came in slower. Aziraphale saw an opportunity for diplomacy. “My dear. Would it not be easier to sit down and discuss this?”

“You are with this devil!” the girl panted. Her dialect was from one of the local villages. Aziraphale wracked his brains trying to recall the grammar. “You’ve come to take me to Hell!”

“Don’t look at me. I didn’t tell her,” Crawly muttered.

She did seem rather well up on what their plans were, Aziraphale had to admit. Or at least Crawly’s plans. Obviously Heaven’s intentions were benign, whatever they turned out to be.

“I assure you, I have no ties to Hell.” The girl aimed another punch at him; Aziraphale raised his shield to block it, but they were both just going through the motions by this point. Perhaps he should cut to the chase. “Actually, I’m an emissary of Heaven. That’s where I’m trying to take you.” He said it in the tones of one offering a trip to a magic chocolate factory.

The Nephilim lowered her fist, but tightened her grip on the scythe-axe. “You want to... take me to Heaven?” Terror dawned on her face. “You’re going to kill me?”

“Er…” said the angel. Heaven had been very vague on the subject.

The Nephilim stepped back. Aziraphale’s heart lifted, until she hefted the battleaxe and he realised she was just taking a run-up. She yelled, a throbbing desperate cry, and rushed him.

Aziraphale had time to wonder if discorporation was going to hurt.

The blade clanged down on his shield and Aziraphale splintered like a pane of glass.

---

[1] Basically all of him.

[2] Which really means something for an angel.

[3] Celestial coffee is served at 10,000 degrees and must be extracted from a neutron star, so in fairness, this is quite an important job.

[4] Displacing any angels hypothetically dancing on it.

---

(Chapter 1, Part 2)

[marimopeace]

After watching episode 10 of the reboot what's your interpretation of Shigure's character? What do you think his goals and intentions could be?

hi and thanks for the ask anon! 

because of the way i am (an extreme overthinker) i’ll be unnecessarily extra with this response since i don’t know anything about your relationship with the series. i really don’t want to spoil anything in the case that you’re new to it entirely / watched the 2006 version but didn’t read the manga, but i still want to give my honest thoughts. i’ll put all things spoiler-y under a line break! i’ll also put tl;drs under each response in case my ranting is nothing like what you wanted to hear lol

// a visual break for your eyes //

so the good things is that whether someone’s fresh to the series or not, episode 10 of the reboot is definitely a plot twist even for viewers of the original furuba. i used to watch that show all the time as a kid and i remember the valentine’s day episode being something completely different–it was treated more as a side story featuring other members of the sohma family and was a way to expand more on tohru’s giving personality + throw in a lot of laughs, while in the 2019 version, it was a continuation of the ongoing plot that revealed more about kyo’s self-perception (especially in comparison to yuki), shigure’s darker motivations on integrating tohru into the sohma clan’s life, and still included some of the funny antics of the family (although much less gag-heavy than the 2006 version which was so nice).

i had actually never read the manga until right before the reboot aired since my younger self was always fine with just going off the old anime (read: i was lazy) so had a younger me seen shigure’s scene in this episode i would have genuinely been shocked because it would have been the first indication of him ever having malicious intentions whatsoever.

in the earlier episodes of the 2019 reboot it is shown that the usually fun and mischievous shigure can be serious and be the authoritative adult in the room (compared to his old anime version which was nothing but a jokester with a soft heart), but in episode 10 shigure was shown to be manipulative and cruel. the second mainly because of that scene where he prodded kyo in what could have been seen as a tough-love-trying-to-be-a-mentor-and-show-you-something-about-yourself-you-didn’t-know, but came off as a somewhat sadistic move to make kyo squirm and be uncomfortable for no reason.

shigure’s scene with hatori (LOVED THIS MOMENT) hints a bit at what his long term goal is. hatori helps the viewer get that both akito and shigure are scheming to take advantage of tohru’s relationships with the family (presumably kyo and yuki specifically since she’s closest to both of them and kyo was referenced a few seconds earlier by shigure in this same scene). shigure fills in more gaps by referencing something that happened when he, hatori, and aya (*SPOILER IF YOU’RE NEW* aka ayame who was revealed in the og anime) were all younger.

we the audience can tell by the wistful nature of shigure’s monologue (which i absolutely adored and made multiple posts out aha) that something about that vision stirred up feelings of affection inside him–feelings that his older self realized were a form of love. this love turned into an obsession (lol), and shigure seems dead set on satisfying this addictive yearning by obtaining said love.

the scene with akito at the end, and shigure’s internal thoughts that followed indicate that this eternal love lies with akito. going solely off the earlier dialogue, one might assume that either he’s going to do everything in his power to physically have akito in his grasp (aka have them be in his possession so he never has to fear anyone taking them away from him), or he will try to manipulate akito into reciprocating his feelings–or maybe even both!

tl;dr (spoiler-free) shigure, based off some mysterious premonition he had when he was younger, is utterly obsessed with the sohma clan head and will do everything he can to make them “his” (perhaps not exactly monopolizing them but definitely at least having akito acknowledge and return his feelings). he’s observed how tohru’s good nature has been affecting the two young sohmas under his roof and plans to use their relationship to his advantage in the politics of this mysterious af family, hopefully outwitting the family head as well. hatori is not a fan of this plan at all and shigure agrees that it’s terrible but he’s like well “i’m a trash person anyways!” so he doesn’t mind. the only indication that he does feel like his plans are morally wrong are when tohru offers him chocolate as well and he realizes that her charitable nature is endless and that she truly is just a good kid.

// cue my unnecessary response under the fold WITH SPOILERS based on the manga so bewarned)

*** i have no idea of whether or not you’ll be able to read under the fold anon so i’ll put the end of this (v long) answer here: hope you got something out of my interpretation and enjoy the rest of furuba! always feel free to reach out about whatever ***

so for whatever reason, be it a warped personality or pure infatuation, young shigure actually responded positively to the dream he and the other sohmas had when they became tied to akito through their zodiac spirits’ default loyalty. he actually aims to preserve that feeling of absolute belonging with akito, claiming them as his most beloved.

i found this tragically beautiful tbh bc shigure was the sole sohma to transform something that caused the rest of the family pain into something that brought him fulfillment. loving something is a very powerful thing and he made it so that he would always be by akito’s side in terms of his loyalties. (which is incredibly kind considering her own tragic circumstances–she has done terrible things but was raised under abuse herself and was isolated from the rest of reality.) i found it sad because he was in unrequited love for years but was stubborn to his ultimate end goal resulting in a back-and-forth relationship of manipulation/ monopolization/sex revenge with akito when someone else would have just given up on the possibility of the relationship working out. i almost used the term “sane person” but while shigure may have an insidious nature, his love for akito isn’t insane, yes it’s toxic but he actually did fall in love with her, it wasn’t unfound and coming from nowhere.

he’s seen how tohru has managed to get kyo and yuki to look at the bigger picture in terms of their relationships with people in general as well as how they see themselves as pets of the sohma name. he himself enjoys her balm-like effect on people (being part of a hellish household probably makes a sweet girl who does everything to care for others whether that be through chores, food, or cheering up seem like an absolute saint), but he–and akito–know that having a card around to mess with the workings of the sohma clan is all too important to have. especially since shigure’s main intent is to overthrow everything the family is about, not to be a part of the “good morals brigade”, but to get a hold of the person he wants to have so dearly.

he knows that akito is aware of his attraction, that doesn’t mean she understands the sincere love behind it. she sees it as an effect of their zodiac relationship/part of her delusion that the sohmas are all pawns to fend off her loneliness and prove she hasn’t been abandoned. if akito weren’t the emperor and was just akito the person, then shigure might have a chance of slipping in and making his dream a reality.

tl;dr (based on spoilers) shigure has had a bad case of puppy love for years and wants to milk tohru’s budding relationship with the sohmas to help his plans of destroying what the family is all about (blood feuds and lots and lots of drama), perhaps even ending the curse (i say perhaps bc i can’t think off the top of my head whether or not in the manga shigure did try to plan to break the curse on the whole family–i’m leaning no but my head is fuzzy on this rn). all this so that he can not only hold akito in his arms, but her love in his hands, so she’s truly “his” to have.

happy furuba watching anon!

[themikewheelers]

Hey! Im pretty new to the fandom (since like summer) and i was wondering if there were any crazy fan theories before s2 came out? Like the speculation over s3 has really got me thinking how much people predicted before the show came out last time? I’ve really enjoyed reading your posts so thanks ♥️

Okay so crazy fan theories idk if u mean crazy like, funny, or crazy like INTENSE so I’ll just answer for both lmao. There were a LOT of funny theories before the show came out. I mentioned one of them the other night, which was the El/Mike MORPH theory, but if u didn’t see that post, basically when the first s2 teaser came out there was a shot from the scene of El and Hopper’s fight where El is crying. It was the first look we got of El in s2 so that was the first time we were seeing her curly hair and all that, and also in the shot (which didn’t make the final cut of the show) she was covering her face, so at first we weren’t 100% sure if it was her. Millie and Noah ended up confirming that it was, but a LOT of ppl were still convinced it was Mike, which led to a bunch of ridiculous theories that in s2 El was going to morph into Mike, that they were actually the same person, there would be a body swapping plotline, etc. like there were a lot of variations of it but it can all be p well grouped under the same theory. The main other FUNNY theory coming to mind is my personal favorite, PregNancy. A completely baseless-yet-popular theory that was exactly how it sounds, Pregnant Nancy. It rlly only started bc in the trailer they included the shot of Nancy crying in the Holland’s bathroom, so a lot of people ran with this whole idea that she’s crying cause she just took a pregnancy test and there were a lot of spiraled out theories like whether it was Steve or Jonathan’s baby and all that. Those are the two main comedic theories from s2 that I remember and ppl who were here for them can all remember hauntingly and joke about

As for ACTUAL theories, jeez there were a LOT. There were some rlly good ones too. I remember a rlly popular one was that after someone leaked some set pictures of Millie filming the scene where El gets off the bus in Chicago, a lot of ppl started theorizing that Eleven was hiding out there with some friends Hopper had there or smth (Now we know that “the city” Hop used to live in was New York, but we didn’t know that pre-s2 so ppl figured it might be Chicago and he had an old apartment there or smth). There were also a LOT of theories centered around the tunnels, bc that was some of the only plot hints we had going in to the season. People caught on pretty quickly after the trailer came out that the drawings in the Byers house were a map of the tunnels, and stuff spiraled from there. I remember one theory I personally believed was that the tunnels were what Will used in the Upside Down to get around and hide from the Demogorgon. Another big theory was that the red cloud that the Mind Flayer appeared in in Will’s visions was going to be an actual physical storm coming to Hawkins, which came p much from the few shots of it in trailers alongside the fact that the show originally released some fake episode titles when they announced s2, and one of them was “The Storm”. The old title for “The Lost Sister” was actually “The Lost Brother” and a LOT of theories came from that, ranging from pretty accurate like it being another experiment, to completely off base, like one I remember was it being about a 4th Wheeler sibling (Mike’s twin) who died (p much just came from the fact that Mike has a bunk bed). OH and if you remember the DnD scene at the end of season 1, aka everything with the proud princess, the lost knight, and the weird flowers in the cave? Everyone was CONVINCED those were supposed to be clues for season 2. Literally 99% of s2 theories mentioned those 3 things, and in the end they were complete red herrings. A lot of theories also came from Dragon’s Lair, as the Duffers hinted a lot that there would be symbolism in the game. Now we know that “symbolism” was rlly nothing more than foreshadowing that Lucas would end up with Max and not Dustin (”Princess Daphne is still mine!”) but for a long time we thought it was PLOT foreshadowing. And lemme tell you anon, I personally did SO MUCH research on that game and watched the gameplay so many times making theories. The plot of the game is about a knight rescuing a missing princess from a dragon, and a lot of ppl (me included) thought that was going to foreshadowing for Mike saving El from whatever was the reason she was still missing. For a LONG time ppl thought El was going to be in the Upside Down for a full year. If you read any pre-s2 fics, there’s a good chance that’s going to be referenced, bc for so long we didn’t have ANY clue where she could be so we just assumed she was stuck in the Upside Down as a default. It wasn’t until a year after the show came out that it was confirmed she’d been out of the Upside Down since the beginning. So yeah for a long time there were a LOT of theories about the kids doing a rescue mission to the Upside Down. Another theory that came from Dragon’s Lair was that Dustin was going to die, bc his character dies in Dragon’s Lair and people thought that would be similar foreshadowing to how in s1 Will’s DnD character was taken by the Demogorgon, then that’s what happened in real life. Speaking of character deaths, a LOT of people thought Steve or Hopper were gonna die. There wasn’t rlly explanation behind it, but everyone kinda agreed, their character arcs as of the end of s1 were set up well if the show wanted to kill one of them off. Another big plot theory that I remember was that the Upside Down would be spreading to the real world, bc the tag line for season 2 was “The World Is Turning Upside Down” and people connected it back to Mr Clarke’s line about how the gate could swallow everyone up whole. That theory KINDA became true and the gate was spreading in s2, but it wasn’t the plot of the season or anything, and it wasn’t near as serious in reality as people theorized it to be. There were a also LOT of theories about Will too, and a lot of them were some variation of Will having powers. Oh and since one of the episode titles is “The Spy” there were a lot of theories about who the spy was, the most common ones I remember were Max, Billy, Bob, and Hopper. The first 3 bc they were the newbies (no pun intended on Bob’s end) and Hopper bc we kinda knew he had some connection going on with the lab, but didn’t know the nature or what was going on or anything. OHMYGOD and how could I forget the Thessalhydra. The FREAKING Thessalhydra. Another DnD related theory that I spent HOURS of my life dedicated to researching only for it to amount to NOTHING. The Thessalhydra is another DnD monster, and it was also mentioned in the campaign at the end of season 1, and everyone was convinced that would be the new monster from s2. There weren’t a lot of theories about the Mind Flayer going into season 2 just because we didn’t know enough to even have theories, but almost every theory that did exist assumed that the shadow monster was the Thessalhydra coming to Hawkins following the Demogorgons defeat. Another one I remember is since we got shots of Joyce, Hop, and Bob wearing scrubs in the trailer, people thought they were going undercover in a hospital to either 1) kidnap Will out of it or 2) steal medical files.

As for theories that were accurate, there was a surprising lot. Honestly in reality a LOT of stuff that happened in season 2 was stuff ppl either theorized about, but their theories went WAY more in depth & went beyond what actually happened, or it was smth ppl figured was too obvious to be true. So honestly in the end we definitely OVER-theorized a lot for s2. El and Hop was one of them. Hopper hiding El in a secret cabin in the woods was one of those things that everybody in the fandom thought about, but most of us thought it was too predictable to be true (especially because one of those original episode titles was literally “The Secret Cabin”). Everyone pretty much assumed that Dustin’s pollywog was really the slug Will threw up, and there were even a lot of theories about it being a baby Demogorgon (though I don’t think ANYONE anticipated the demodogs). Or like I mentioned before, a lot of theories about El going to Chicago, but none of them were even CLOSE to what really happened. Kali’s original name in the show was Roman, and they kept her SUPER secretive. When the final trailer of the show came out, they included a shot of the gang wearing masks, and I remember someone was able to figure out that one of them was Roman/Kali, and that’s rlly all we knew about her going in. I actually remember someone sent me an ask back then thinking that the girl next to her might be El in a mask too, and I specifically remember looking at that picture thinking “Nah that’s not her” bc I mean, no one expected anything like episode 7. They had announced there was going to be an independent episode, and I remember our theories ranged everywhere from a musical episode to flashbacks of the year between 1 and 2 to a whole episode dedicated to Terry and MKUltra. But at no point did anyone come even close to figuring out the truth. There’s a lot of smaller details ppl anticipated too, like the Stancy breakup or Bob’s death, and even a good chunk of the plot honestly, even if no one rlly theorized the exacts, the whole kinda premise and concepts we had brought up a lot before and we had loosely figured it out. But there was also so much stuff no one ever thought of before, like the Demodogs or everything with ep7 or the lab shutting down or Will getting possessed.

All in all honestly we did a pretty good job. Everything we COULD figure out based on the information we had we did for the most part, to the point where honestly this time around the show is being WAY more secretive in s3 because they don’t want us to figure stuff out again. Like I said before, honestly we over-theorized, we took all the information we did and definitely overthought everything a LOT and ended up going a lot more intense with it than what ultimately happened in the show lmao