#[[ it wasn't planned at all x'D ]]

[countlessrealities]

@moonglittering​​ sent: The joint tucked between Virote's teeth was being held so tightly that he almost bit right through it. Thankfully, Summer and Morty were being distracted by the preparation of the kingdom's party for the New Year ( and, Ratana asking them about what ribbons to string all over the place with an almost-too-serious-for-the-conversation-but-she-takes-her-job-seriously kind of energy. ) Virote and Rick weren't in the garden, this time. Instead, they were situated on the balcony of his bedroom. ❝… So, about the other night. When I did that thing. That was really. Like. Weird, wasn't it? You're not mad at me are—well, I'd know if you were angry. But, you're not weirded out, right?❞

Rick had come to like the Moon Kingdom, even if he would have never admitted it out aloud. The place held at the same time tranquility and bursting life, two things that rarely coexist in the scientist’s personal experience. The multiverse was a chaotic place that often cannibalised itself and that tended to destroy every semblance of order the parts of it managed to achieve. Very crumbles of structure survived and one seemed to exist on the Earthen satellite of that dimension. At least for now. He had no doubt that, given enough time, even they place would be washed away from the tides of entropy.

That day, however, both the palace and the city had gotten too busy and frenetic for his liking. He usually didn’t mind a lively crowd, on the contrary, there were times when he loved getting lost into it and forget everything else for a bit. However, this wasn’t some huge party. There wasn’t a crazed mass dancing, nor the dazing best of too loud music. There was no alcohol flooding, nor drugs ready to numb your mind. The adrenaline that filled the air was all born from hurry and worry and the movements were all for the sake of fussing over preparations Rick couldn’t have cared less about.

Later that night he would have gotten the kind of lively he liked, once all the traditional bullshit would have been out of the way. He was sure that he would have a blast, getting wasted, dancing, maybe singing a little if someone would manage to entice him on a stage. He was looking forward to having a good time with Summer and spiking Morty’s drinks a little more than they already were. He wouldn’t have been satisfied until all three of them would be left leaning onto each other to be able to stand.

And maybe, if the mood had been right and the crowd willing, he would have fooled around with a couple of locals. Or a dozen. The people of that kingdom were all very attractive and it was New Year’s Eve. What better way to celebrate than booze, sex, drugs and good music?

For the moment, however, those were all thoughts and hopes and he had been contented to retreat on the balcony of Virote’s bedroom, where he could be alone and enjoy the landscape together with one of the ruler’s bottle of insanely fancy wine. Or, at least, that had been the plan until the young man himself had decided to join him.

Under other circumstances, the fact wouldn’t have been so bad, no matter how strongly the scientist would have claimed the opposite for the sake of being a jerk. Virote could be the definition of chill, especially when drugs were involved, so he was good to hang out with. Not that day though. And Rick had grasped it from the way the other’s perfect teeth kept gnawing at the joint.

The silence had stretched for a few minutes, tense and nagging, and the genius had quickly found himself wishing that his companion would just open his mouth and spit whatever was bothering him. Not because he cared they much about the other’s turmoil, but because said inner troubles were ruining his vibe.

Yet, when Virote finally did, for a few long moments Rick found himself genuinely puzzled by the words that were spoken.

“Tha-That thing?” He found himself repeating, brows knitting together in confusion. “What th...”

And then it hit him, memories of mistletoe and cold air from a few days before filling his mind. Oh, that thing. Of course the royal idiot would be tormenting himself over something as simple as a couple of brief makeout sessions. Despite his cheerful, easy act, Rick could tell that he had a stick of the seize of a thousand-year-old tree up his ass when it came to some things.

From his part, the scientist definitely did not, so, after having eyed Virote for a few more seconds, taking in the depths of his distress, he let his head fall backwards and burst out into laughter.

“W-Why the fuck would I be weirded out?” He asked once most of his hilarity had subsided. “D-Do you know how many sentient beings I-I fucked in the last forty years? Y-Yeah, me neither. T-Too fuckin’ many to count. An-And it would depend on how you consider threesome, foursome an-and orgies. A-Are we counting them as one or-or are we counting all the people in them?”

He snorted, bringing the bottle to his lips and taking a quick sip. “I-I dated a hivemind an-and they had assimilate a whole civilisation. An-And I fucked a literal planet. N-Not as in ‘all the people on the planet’. I-I mean the fuckin’ planet itself.”

Nevermind the mess that had followed with the kids they supposedly had together, but that had turned out to be some Zeus-like douche’s kids instead.

“I’ve even made some freak ass sex tape while drunk an-and I’m sure that some of them are still out there. S-So there’s people getting off to a late thirty or-or forty something me getting railed by something tha-that isn’t even remotely human. S-So, no, I’m not fuckin’ weirded out by a goddamn kiss.”

He paused for a moment and used his free hand to punch Virote’s shoulder. “I-I know that your tight ass is a prude, but...F-Fuckin’ chill. I-It’s almost impossible to weird me out.”

What was left of the content of the bottle went down his throat as easily as air and he set it down on the ornate railing of the balcony.

“L-Look. I-It won’t be weird unless you make it weird. S-So, smoke your weed instead of eating it, t-take a fuckin’ breather an-and don’t think about it,” he finished with a shrug, making to turn around. “A-As for me, I-I’m getting a fuckin’ refill an-and I’ll see you at the party tonight with the kids.”

And with that, he walked inside, aiming to find a servant who could take him to the wine cellar. A chuckle rumbled under his breath as he made to step out of the room.

“W-Weirded out. D-Damn, that was fuckin’ hilarious.”

[diminuel]

As Croc and Dragon get older — Dragon just finds he admires his Wani more and more. He feels like in all that time he’s certainly mellowed out (more of an internal change. He eventually and slowly learns to relax again. That he has unlearned a LOT of negative reactive behaviors and can trust his emotions and reactions to line up more with his own standards) but ~*Wani*~?

Questionable morals aside — his Wani has done ~*so*~ much all on his own, whilst also keeping a handle on their children. Cross Guild takes his breath away. Dragon is truly appreciative of all his generals and commanders and all the talent that keep the RA afloat. But Wani is different, a loner, so everything he does is that much more impressive to Dragon. And now he’s putting bounties on the heads of marines? And going after the one piece??? Oh be still heart be still!!!

I love your "questionable morals aside" comment X'D Crocodile is clearly the one of the two who's a "ends justify the means" kind of person who thinks that if you want to achieve things it's inevitable that people who don't deserve it will be harmed. It's just how it is. And you can't expect too much from a pirate anyway, so keep your moralizing to yourself, Dragon.

Dragon on the other hand has a moral code that is a bit harder to really understand, because he hates war, we've heard that, but he understands that it's necessary. But that doesn't mean he wants innocent people to be harmed, that's the last thing he wants. However. *holds up finger* However. His exception are the Celestial Dragons. And he knows that not only Celestial Dragons will be harmed by his desire to destroy them. There's an entire infrastructure built around this institution, there are people who don't deserve it that the Celestial Dragons will take their ire out on. And he has to accept that, he will accept that. There are sacrifices he's willing to make.

Sure, not on the scale Crocodile is (see Alabasta, though - as I argued - that wasn't all him, but he chose going along with this plan to protect his own interests.)

That said, I support Crocodile fanboy Dragon~ Dragon definitely would like Cross Guild's bounty system. Maybe he's a bit sore about Crocodile also placing a bounty on Garp's head but well... such is life.

But yes, Crocodile is impressive. He always gets back up (though it might have taken him a while to get over his bitterness and the change in plans due to the kids.) And maybe Dragon would have struggled a lot more to just stubbornly move forward with his plan to change the world, even if it took his entire life, if he didn't have Crocodile to back him up. And I'm not just talking moral support, but also very practical help. The Freedom Fighters had no money, but then the RA could actually become an army with real firepower? Hm hm hm, I wonder where that money and those weapons might have come from. And of course I also think that Crocodile might be the one to swoop in and do some dirty work that needs to be done. Revolution isn't moving swiftly enough by just motivating the people? Here's the king's head on a platter. What? He's a pirate. The WG will have to clean up after him but they will, because he's giving them a generous cut of the riches he procured for them. Dragon and his army can then figure out the rest. *lol*

Sorry, I rambled.

[amethystina]

I am intrigued by all the wips honestly. Anything you give us will be amazing, I have no doubt.

I will ask about Thou Shalt Not Covet tho because it is completed.

And I LOVE the How To Build a Family for Dummies title lmao. If you feel that it fits the story, you don't have to change it imo 😆

Also, I have to ask about your health. I hope you're doing well these days and that you're getting better. If not, don't push yourself too hard. Take care of yourself either way 💜

No pressure x'D

Jokes aside: thank you 💜 I'm very flattered that a lot of you have such faith in me and my writing.

Thou Shalt Not Covet was something I wrote in a feverish haze about a week ago because I was high-key panicking over not having been able to draw or write in what felt like forever and my brain just latched on to that story. Which wasn't at all what I had planned but, apparently, what I needed at the time, so I try not to hold it against myself.

It's basically a fic about Ga On being a raging ball of jealousy for 10k straight.

... or gay, I guess?

So the title is a bit misleading since there is actually A LOT of coveting going on. Coveting of Yo Han, to be more specific.

Ga On you little sinner you.

And it's 10k before editing, I should say. Because since I wrote it with a fever, I'll probably have to add a bit as I edit. Understandably, I tend to miss a lot of details when I'm too feverish. The fic is set just before Kim Choong Sik's first trial, so around episode 10. Which means I'm going to have to add a couple of warnings because Yo Han does not play fair. Whenever I write Yo Han as he was during the drama I'm reminded of how far he's come in Who Holds the Devil because dear LORD is he a manipulative asshole in this one x'D

So yeah. Jealous!Ga On and a Yo Han who doesn't pull his punches. A recipe for disaster, in other words. But they work it out eventually.

Here's a snippet from the beginning of the story (though unedited so there might be changes before it's posted)

---

Ga On had never understood how utterly devastating jealousy could be until he felt it — truly felt it — for the first time.

If asked, he would have said he wasn't a jealous person. He may have felt a burst of it once or twice as he and Soo Hyun had grown up — whenever another boy had shown an interest in her — but it had faded just as quickly as it had flared up. Perhaps because, deep down, Ga On had known that Soo Hyun only had eyes for him.

There was no need for him to feel jealous since the odds of him losing Soo Hyun to another were slim.

And, in hindsight, that must have lulled Ga On into a false sense of security, giving him the impression that he wasn't the jealous type. That he was calm and rational enough not to get upset, and knew how to handle the surge of emotions that might occur. Not realizing that what he'd felt at the time wasn't jealousy — or at least not the true depth of what he was actually capable of feeling.

Ga On had underestimated his own possessiveness.

And it wasn't until he met Kang Yo Han that Ga On knew true jealousy.

His first clue that he'd misjudged himself should have been his inexplicable desire to remain within Yo Han's orbit despite having numerous reasons to stay away. All Ga On wanted was to keep pushing closer, to keep proving himself, to keep asking for that intoxicating attention that crackled like electricity down his spine. He may not want to name what he was experiencing — instinctively shying away from a revelation he knew would change his life beyond what he was ready to deal with, finding comfort in denial — but he still craved the rush it gave him. He couldn't help wanting more.

His second clue should have been his own reaction as he'd watched Jung Sun Ah fuss with Yo Han's tie during their photo shoot.

The anger Ga On had felt in that moment — curling black and vicious inside his chest — had been an overreaction of the kind that should have given him pause. But, somehow, it hadn't. Somehow, Ga On hadn't even registered it as something out of the ordinary. Some part of him had even felt justified in his anger.

As if he had a right to feel that possessive over his chief.

But the rational part of Ga On knew that he didn't. He may be sleeping in Yo Han's house and helping him with his mission to upend the world as they knew it, but they were still nothing more than coworkers.

Yo Han had never promised him anything.

---

Expect jealousy, anger, and a bit of angst. Because Ga On has abandonment issues and it actually hits pretty hard when he starts suspecting that he's not so special to Yo Han after all...

As for How to Build a Family For Dummies, the title doesn't fit the vibe AT ALL which is why I'm calling it a working title for now. It just sounds way too cute and cheerful for the actual theme and content of the story x'D But more about that in another reply since I got a specific ask about it!

Aaaaand when it comes to my health, things are really bad, unfortunately. The kind of bad I haven't had since January, with daily exhaustion fevers and lack of focus. And it's probably not going to get better anytime soon since the main cause is related to something outside of my control that will most likely take months to fix. So it's really just a matter of me trying to hold on as long as I can and, if I'm lucky, I won't break completely before I reach the other side. I guess we'll see?

Anyhow! Thank you so much for the concern and the lovely ask. You take care of yourself too 💜

WIP Tag Game

[space-blue]

Hi, I love a lot of your meta and analyses. Especially for Arcane. One thing that's bothering me is what exactly was Silco's reputation among the Lanes in act 1? It's odd how Vander seems to say he's worse than enforcers, and Benzo even calls him an animal and immediately tries to charge at Silco after Grayson's death. But we know that Silco only became this ruthless AFTER his attempted murder by Vander. So during the old times when Vander and Benzo knew him, Silco was apparently a "weak man" who wasn't nearly as violent as Vander. So what gives?

Sure, the "animal" line could just be because of the brutal way he killed Grayson and the enforcers, but idk, the way he immediately charges Silco no questions asked seems to indicate something deeper. It's funny too, because Silco murdered only the enforcers that were arresting Vander, and didn't even want to kill Vander until he rejected Silco's plan and refused to join him. So if Benzo just stayed calm and kept his hands to himself Silco would've probably kidnapped them both. Hell, without Benzo's murder hanging over Vander's head, maybe he could've even be persuaded to rejoin Silco for another try at revolution? But the story needs him to refuse, so ofc Benzo had to die.

I'm just wondering why exactly, if Silco was known as the less violent one before Vander tried to kill him, then why do Benzo and Vander in act 1 treat him like he's been a devil the whole time. Did they maybe catch wind of his unpleasant activities while he was underground and building his revolution plans?

Hi Anon! What a great ask! And thank you, you make me blush. It's nice that my horrendous Arcane brain rot actually serves some purpose somehow x'D

This is a very good question and a difficult one—because of the writers. I'm not sure if they really know or care to make sense of Silco and Vander's past. The timeline is shaky and vague. I think they were happy to leave things quite mysterious. Some of us desperately try to unravel it, but the bulk of viewers took it all at face value and concluded that Silco is a horrible man who did horrible things.

This is not me bashing other fans, all theories are valid, but I must admit sometimes I wonder if the Arcane writers managed to convey their point across. Because I've seen quite a few people theorise that Silco did something truly horrible and 'deserved' to be killed by Vander, despite the lack of evidence or accusation, or the show going to great length to harp about Vander's potential for change, of his "monster within" who caves in skulls with his fists.

(Not to mention the casual fans who thought the sun shone out of Vander's ass because they couldn't see past Vi's pov and didn't do dozens of obsessive rewatches like yours truly).

My point is that their relationship is pretty complicated and there are plenty of dissenting theories. And I think a lot of people go one way or the other precisely around those moments you mention. I'm going to give you my theory, but it's very fanon. I'm genuinely a lot less certain about this than some of my other meta. It's just what gels for me considering how I interpret the rest of the show.

I'm going to put this under a cut, because there's a lot!

What exactly was Silco's reputation among the Lanes in act 1?

I don't think Silco was weak. That's him reframing his trauma. Not just weak physically (like obviously he could never fight Vander off fairly), but for having trusted him. Weak for not seeing the betrayal coming, and not coming on top of that conflict. He calls his old self weak because he must believe in his own progress, his own resurrection into a being who can enact his plans at last. 

I think Silco was a beacon of hope and zealotry. I think he was a propaganda machine. Young Silco united a lot of Zaun under the banner of his dream. He probably worked hard, and led the movement. From the way their dialogue goes, the accusation of betrayal, saying "I trusted you", and the manner of Silco's attitude around Vander, I'm of the (generally not that popular) sentiment that Silco was the leader of the early rebellion, and that Vander was his follower. Most likely his right hand man.

In fic I've theorised that Vander, who tells Vi he used to always be so angry and violent, didn't have a channel for said violence until Silco gave him structure and a purpose. Directed that violence at Piltover, at creating (read, carving out) the Lanes.

Which, FYI, are NEVER clarified. We don't know if it's a business model or a territory or both. Writers truly don't care to explain it.

Anyway, Silco speaks of "our dream" and then uses "brother" with a LOT of irony laced in, in reply to Vander's own use of the term. They used to be brothers in arms and Vander believed in that dream. We also know that Vander used to fight for the cause and claims he's "not that man anymore".

He basically was fighting for team Silco—team Zaun—right until the day of the betrayal.

Then we're told by Vander that Silco had his respect, the Lanes' respect, "but that... was never enough for you". We're also told by Sevika that Vander created the Lanes.

This suggests to me that Silco and Vander created the Lanes together. 

I assume that over time Vander started seeing Silco's plans as too greedy, while leading the Lanes seemed ideal. 'Good enough', if you will. Vander is small minded where Silco is aiming for the sun. One wants too little and the other too much. Silco says they 'shared a vision, dreams of freedom, not just for the Lanes but for the whole of the Underground, united as One'. They used to dream of Zaun together... And then Vander realised Silco would tear the Lanes apart if it would serve his purpose (to attack Piltover). 

I think he didn't believe it'd work (and given what we see of Piltover vs. Zaun before shimmer, it might not have), and realised he wanted to rule the Lanes. Vander would now see Silco's dreams as too dangerous.

I know some people in the Zaundads community who theorised that Vander was influenced in turning on Silco by Benzo or others. It's not my prefered theory.

I think Vander wanted the Lanes for himself, and knew that Silco was too zealous to ever stop. We don't know why he got so (intimately) violent. Why they were in the Pilt. We see Vander first very cold, slowly drowning Silco, then very hot and brutal, once he's been hurt. I think he was very different indeed from the genial Vander we know in arc 1. Young Vander is the guy who carved the Lanes with his fists. The guy who built the reputation old Vander still coasts on. A guy known by foreigners! In short, it doesn't really help to look at him through the old Vander lens. He did what he did..

And THEN, he hid the (most likely black and contaminated) wound from Silco's knife. While Silco wears his scar unashamed for what must be a decade or two, Vander has his arm constantly covered. This speaks of shame to me. We know he had regrets too :

Truly a young, impulsive, violent man, who rushed into a bad decision and has regretted it since. I can picture a young Vander missing his best friend, his guiding light, and yet finally becoming the leader he wanted to be. Curtailing Silco's uprising entirely and settling, at least until his own revolt. 

We know there was only one time where the rebellion went ahead, and that was well after Silco left. Vander, to the assembled Lanes people, says "we crossed that bridge once before". It's the era where he still had Silco's respect, but was immediately followed by his pact with Grayson. Which Silco knew of.

Sorry... I'm rambling to try and get all the details in... Almost there.

Finally we come to Vander holding his (shamefully hidden) wound and saying "there's worse things than enforcers out there, we both know that."

And I'm not sure WHAT HE MEANS!! Like, this is not proof he knows Silco is alive. My personal feeling is that Vander believes there's a chance Silco might be alive, but he's not actively taking precautions like that's a possibility. Silco's attack wouldn't have come out of left field and taken them so completely by surprise otherwise.

There are plenty of things worse than enforcers. Including himself!! He could mean competing chembarons. He could mean someone wanting his seat. He could mean anything, it's infuriating. 

Anyway, I think Vander came back from the Pilt with a bad stab wound and a story. I think he told everyone that Silco attacked him and died. That he turned traitor. Or any other bullshit story. But I believe he did what any new illegitimate ruler does, and shat all over Silco's reputation. Or else cried some crocodile tears over him and called him dead. But Silco never stepped back into the open, so Vander making him persona non grata is more likely. 

Whatever the case, Vander had completely taken over the Lanes by the time Silco was in good enough health to show up.

Did they run into each other? Did Vander scare him off again? I'm not sure, but I don't think so. Vander looks way too shocked when he realises who's showing up at the murder party. This isn't the expression of someone who is used to thwarting schemes. This isn't the Batman's face when the Joker appears with mischief around a street corner.

Meanwhile, why would Benzo react so negatively to Silco? The well respected man who was betrayed (a fact Vander owns up to and APOLOGISES for), who was half drowned and mutilated by Vander's hand... Yet Benzo immediately calls him an animal (which, you're right, could be in reaction to stepping into a mass killing—which, fair), and tells him to "crawl back into whatever hole he came out of."

I feel like this is the reaction of someone who thinks "wow, it's the cunt who harmed my bestie 20 years ago and (insert Vander's lies about him). Who knew he was still alive?"

Meanwhile, Vander looks like it's judgement day. I think he has excellent reasons to be afraid. He stole the Lanes, destroyed Silco's dreams, ruined his rep, drove him out of the Underground... and somehow Silco stayed under the radar all this time? And now he's got killer monsters? Of course he'd be scared. Vander knows how intense Silco used to be, and knows how guilty he himself is. I think he believes all bets are off. Precisely because Silco never had a reputation as a weak man. 

I mean, consider! If Vander was mega violent under Silco's guidance... If they built the Lanes together... If Silco was the leader who helped Vander redirect his rage... Then Silco clearly didn't mind being extremely violent. He didn't mind unleashing "the Hound" on the people who stood in the way of Zaun. 

((I think Silco's "weak" narrative is a self soothing framing device. That he's recontextualising himself, making a philosophy of life. After all, he tries to use these same terms to speak to Jinx about her own trauma, while failing to grasp that while he was at his weakest, Powder was at her strongest. His personal motto of letting the weak die doesn't work for Jinx.))

It's very revealing that Vander says "Benzo stay back!" and Silco says "you never did know when to walk away." Like if he'd stayed back and then walked away, he'd have been fine. I fully agree that this tells us that Vander thinks Silco is only after him. That he wouldn't kill Benzo needlessly. Needless deaths were probably never Silco's style, as someone wanting to 'unite' the Underground. And after all, he's not even here to kill Vander, but to recruit him.

So, yeah... In conclusion (at last lol) 

Silco was never weak, simply too big a dreamer, someone who wouldn't surrender his lofty ideals for the reality of being one of the most powerful men in the Undercity. Ultimately he got in young Vander's way. Vander impulsively sacrificed Silco for his own desire to rule the Lanes. Then he turned around, shameful and regretful, and lied to everyone about it as he usurped Silco's place and became the Lanes' sole leader. 

(I personally theorised in several fics that the last Drop was actually Silco's, and that Vander took over it after the betrayal, partially explaining why Silco never leaves the place after his own takeover. Complicated feelings + it was his and fuck Vander lol)

I don't believe Benzo or Vander have any clue about Silco's plans, and simply react based on what they know and imagine (Benzo based on whatever Vander told him, and Vander based on how fucked he has to be and how insanely dedicated Silco must still be). I believe Vander has a lot of double agents in his midst (Sevika, Syd), and people who've been keeping tabs on him for years. 

Counter-argument : Marcus says he spoke to one of Vander's "old friends" and that he "wasn't always so peaceful". You could think this may have tipped Vander off... But how many people did he leave behind or crush when creating the Lanes? How many people hate him for leading the failed uprising? I think it's still plausible that Vander doesn't suspect Silco's involvement. 

Vander just lacks cunning. Another final argument for him being totally clueless is that he had a direct line to Grayson, and a quick, 'Hey, okay I'll tell you who stole your stuff' pointing fingers towards Silco would have entirely solved the situation for him.

Yet he never is shown to consider it. 

PHEW. I think that covers it?? I think I covered every point? At least that's how I interpret this situation, even though it relies heavily on my own fanon readings of the timeline and a lot of other details. 

If anyone disagrees with this, or wants to double down, as always go crazy. I love me a meta pile on. 

[yanderecandystore]

Hello! If it's not too much of a hassle.

May I please request, Alexandra?

Scenario: Reader (AMAB) is poor and forced to marry Alexandra. But unfortunately for Alexandra, Darling is more interested in their daughter than in her (not incest btw!!) As the years go by.

Lmao I can see it happening X'D

TW/Tags: Somewhat fluff, somewhat goofy, somewhat weird? // mentions of past bullying // silly goofs sort of headcanon // questionable marriage/relationship with Alexandra // People ignoring the victim's side of the story // Reader has a lot of conflicted feelings about his situation // low-key happy ending unlocked?

🍭꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍮꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍰꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍮꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖🍭

Oh no, please don't spoil this child, her mother is already very spoiled, sir. [Yandere!Bully!OC x Male!Reader - Headcanons]:

→ Alexandra Coldwell:

I don't think much would happen to be honest, although it is interesting that you got in this situation in the first place. Being forced to marry your rich bully sounds like an absolute nightmare, and it could be considering it's Alexandra we're talking about!

Ah, but who isn't to say that this was all a carefully laid out plan to get you to be with her anyway? I mean it doesn't sound so ridiculous if you think about it.

I don't think she would've been able to orchestrate EVERYTHING, but imagine this- You two met in high school and she hasn't stop being a menace to you even during college, but since your family was always in a tight situation financially she knew how to play her cards right to convince your parents that she was your "high school sweetheart", and that she was the perfect choice for you!

She is a beautiful model after all, she comes from old money- And she has that added benefit of having been in your life for a while now (for the better or for worse… mostly worse). How could your parents NOT fall for her charm??

Which by the way, they never understand why you never showed her to them before, it doesn't matter if you told them the truth before or not, right now they were absolutely sold on her as the perfect candidate for you.

There was an awkward dating phase at first, she would treat you a lot better than she did in her high school years but you still couldn't help but see her as a bit of a menace to your otherwise calm life.

It took you a while to notice why she would treat you the way she did, how she didn't actually mean it… Of course you weren't one to easily forgive and forget, but you did give her a chance to improve herself, despite the odds being against you, you stood your ground and never gave her the chance to put you down again.

The dating part felt a little rushed in your opinion, but nothing could be done about it considering your marriage was planned a lot earlier than you ever could have expected- And I'm not talking about your parents who really needed you to get that financial security, I'm talking about Alexandra.

Your new wife was still creepy… Not scary and overly domineering as you expected her to be in private but still somewhat creepy.

And somehow you grew to accept that! It seemed to get better with each passing year, or maybe you just didn't really care about her obsessive weirdness towards you… Sometimes, it was a bit endearing!

Or maybe you're crazy too, who knows!

Ah, but your daughter, a sweet little girl that thanks to some miracle was not as bratty as her mother! A bit of a daddy's girl, and just a tiny hint of a troublemaker- But that's basically any child.

I would beg you to not spoil her too much as You Know Who is her mother, but I assume you would still do it anyway, wouldn't you?

Your relationship with Alexandra was always a bit odd, and hard to explain. You weren't unhappy, not at all! You had a really good life now, and it wasn't just because of the money.

You've built a really nice family with Alex, even if it's just you three… But sometimes you're not sure if you really love Alexandra all that much…

Well, you grew to like her! But sometimes you feel like you shouldn't so easily forget her past interactions with you, and even though it might seem perfect to be next to someone like her (rich and beautiful), you're very much aware of the ways she could easily ruin someone's life if they got too close to you. The person who slept next to you every night was also the one who would lock you in empty school lockers, and is the same person who would also use her money to ruin someone else's life for even looking at you wrong…

And it's also the same person who smiles everyday as if everyday was sunny to her, who is a good mother overall and great wife despite her unhealthy tendencies, who is always apologizing late at night about her past mistakes even if you didn't bring it up yourself.

You clearly loved your daughter a lot, and after having the displeasure of meeting your mother-in-law you REALLY didn't want your daughter to end up like them (I named her Yasmin but it can be whatever you want-).

It's not just that you really love your daughter with all your heart- She is the reason you feel glad that this marriage happened in the first place- But you're also worried that if you are not around, Yasmin will turn into her mother or worse yet, her grandma, ugh.

You were thankful that she didn't come to visit you three much, if at all. You didn't know why exactly, but something told you Evelyn wouldn't be a good influence on your daughter. She never treated you badly, but you sure knew she didn't treat Alexandra well.

Spoiling wasn't the same as parenting. Nor was whatever that witch did.

In Alexandra's point of view, she recognizes that you seem very distant to her in general, but from her perspective you seem to be slowly getting more comfortable around her- Even if you don't notice!

It can be a bit frustrating that you never give her the same amount of attention you give Yasmin, but she doesn't mind all that much… It's really cute to see how much you care about your family, it's all that she could ever dream off!

Nice try in trying to make her mad, yeah, she gets a little petty sometimes but she isn't the same person anymore, whatever you did during all these years somehow motivated her to become a better person for the sake of you and for the sake of your daughter.

Alex isn't completely unaware of your disinterest, the fact that even after all this time you still feel conflict hurts her but it makes a lot of sense.

But since you're married to her, she would still like to think she has a chance to win your heart, if you would like that or not is up to you or course.

🍭꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍮꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍰꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖♡🍮꒰⑅ᵕ༚ᵕ꒱˖🍭

[nanamisflowerfield]

Hey, everyone! I'm so sorry for being away for so long! The last time I was online, was around my birthday and I was super sure that I replied to many of you, but apparently I haven't. I'm so sorry! Really!😭 I was super busy with university and life and so much happened. I'm sorry that I couldn't be online and also finish anything! I promise you all that I try to do something now, that I have a bit more time. But unfortunately, I didn't pass the worst test ever and have to repeat it around my birthday this year and have to learn for it more that I usually do, so I can't really promise to do everything I have planned this year, like finish all requests and WIPs Dx

While I was gone for quite some time, I still was a bit motivated to write (sorry if it wasn't any request or so, but it sometimes take much time to finish them). And then I thought about the words of my dear friend Hana. I should just write them and not prepare anything like the pictures etc and just write it down. And that's what I did! But it's from a fandom that I haven't posted here yet. Maybe like 10 years ago. It's DC Comics and it's kind of a Oneshot/series. Maybe some might be interested? I would post them here as well, then! I will of course take ideas and will try to write more for the series, bc it really was fun to write these 3 chapters! And because I needed to get out of my writing block and need motivation as well x'D I might do a poll, if people are interested in reading a bit Marvel/DC here on this blog...? I kind of missed writing for these fandoms...

I didn't even had time to wish you all a great christmas nor a happy new year! I know I'm late but I hope that you all have a lovely year 2024!!💕

Thank you all for everything and perhaps even reading this!

I wish you all a great day!!💕

[phantomime-para]

Do you developers know why the owner of Eva decided to back out of the project?

Mmm, it was very strange 'cause it was very suddenn (she had liked Eva in the work of CS one day buut the next just decided to take her out to put her in her universee). I would probably have to say the main reason would be for creative differences between us devs and Eva's ownerr (As we devs had planned for her to be in the game like the rest of the OCs made for the projectt, but the owner of her had only said like once or twice that she had only wanted for Eva to just be something for the askss)

So A. Obviously we devs would forget that sentiment when you only say it once or twicee

Aand B. Why waste our time doing all that hard work and helping you with her lore when you're not wanting to put it to meaning and fruitionn, you knoww? Not to mention changing things when they were fine as they were priorr. She just continued to make things complex for uss, not once but twicee, the other was a different occasionn (her redesignn, though the owner went back to the old one when my bestie's fanart of it releasedd). We'd rather people not waste our time putting work into these things when they don't wish to put it to fruitionn

Bonus points 'cause we feel like these choices of the owner's decision on her being taken out were influencedd, and noticing a pattern that came with otherss, we figured it was best to just pull her from everything after the announcement was madee. We do not want anyone near our work who makes their decisions based upon someone who is not welcomee

Ahh yess, Eva was originally made to be for CS, I don't know why the owner tries to say that "she wasn't from CS" when that was what she was made to be forr, it was literally announced on our blog in an earlier post when she was first shown offf. So why should the owner be mad when they ask about the work she was previously made to be forr? X'D

Buut oh welll, we have Oraney now and we devs love her despite what happened to the formerr, jsjss

[hastalavistabyebye]

Last line challenge

You know the rules.

I was tagged by @adhd-coyote @rooksunday @ninjababypowpow @mamuzzy-creates-stuff and @nooneherebutusghosts tagged everybody.

What Oops’ika had heard was too funny for Visor to not jump on it. So of course he sent a comm to the rest of B Squad right away. It sounded like Yoda was singing too, Oops had said. And wasn't the idea amazing ?

Mick, Marker and Visor didn't wait for their respective shifts to end. Why would they ? Multitasking was their thing. They planned pranks while deep undercover countless of times, so this ? Like a piece of cake. It wasn't even a prank. It was art. They were giving life to Oops incredible vision.

The three of them had the same idea, always in tune with each other, especially when it was for mayhem. Visor was even on Yoda duty, it was perfect. Mick, like the genius with a respectable face that he was, got resources and instrument recordings from Master Nu in no time. And Marker could pop stories like Fox had drinked caf. All in all it was the matter of a few hours max. And their creation was over, flooding the Vode Holonet server, any name of its creators carefully left hidden, as always. 

Master Yoda singing about seagulls was stuck in the head of the entire Temple coming the next day. 

It was definitely one of B Squad’s best performances. Flawless, hilarious and spreading better than the Senate’s fake news. 

You know me by now, this is the first version of the first draft yada yada yada. I'm also very sad to say it won't see the light of day before very long because it takes place in my Jedi!Fox au, after the main fic. Main fic that has as of now 730 words written. It's barely even the beginning of it. So yeah, not soon x'D

NPT : first of all, uno reverse on the people at the top of this post, and now : @stardustloki @icnamiro @thivell @sithfox @workingchemistry @kartaylirnaak @hopefullyakotelife @threadboundgold if y'all have things to share I would love to see it !!

[jazlynriddle]

Welcome to your life - Pt 2:

Acting On Your Best Behaviour Ch 28:

Summary:

They'd seen it in their fellow orphans often enough to recognise the pattern and were now forced to admit, despite their hopes to the contrary, that Isidora had likely suffered similar side effects.

No… they'd always known she had. The Keeper had just wanted the power that Ranrok had, enough to convince themselves that they would be able to handle it better than that naive woman.

With the start of the Keeper’s sixth-year in Hogwarts, comes a whole slew of headache-inducing challenges from the most unexpected of places. Between insignificant pests throwing wrenches into their plans and tedious teenage drama, that the Keeper is entirely unprepared for, they wonder if they'll make it to their NEWTs without losing their sanity.

Or worse, Ominis or Sebastian.

Warnings: Sebastian x MC x Ominis! Drug Addiction! Spoilers! Slow-burn corruption! Dark content! Fucked up 1800s orphanages! MC has no love for Anne or Solomon! Dubious happy ending (it's happy for MC, Seb and Ominis at least).

You can also read on AO3! (chapter specific warnings below)

Notes:

Warnings: None! Just a nice dinner amongst friends, absolutely nothing of note and no foreshadowing occurs at all! Trust me. I'm not being suspicious at all.

So, um, I said that this last chapter wouldn't be very long, and it looks like I lied. Not intentionally, they just ended up talking a lot longer than I expected, these kids were having a lot of fun I suppose xP

With this instalment ended, do keep an eye out for the first chapter of the next part of this series! That first chapter of part 3 is actually pretty damn short, so I'll just apologise for that in advance again x'D

And a rather minor sidenote, but here's a cool thing I discovered while researching for this chapter! Natty is actually from Matabeleland specifically, because that region of Zimbabwe was actually conquered in the 1890s, by the British! It wasn't randomly chosen just for diversity =D

And people say the developers of Hogwarts Legacy were being lazy with the reasoning for the diversity of their cast. Some peeps need to do some research before judging, the devs were anything but lazy. They were rushed as hell but they sure weren't lazy.

I also encountered someone online who thinks the voice acting in HL is the worst in any AAA game ever, and I am so confused, I thought the voice acting in HL was filled with some of the most natural English voicing I've heard in ages. It's not just me right? x')

“I can't believe I agreed to this.” Ominis sighed, smoothing his hair down anxiously as the three lovers strolled along the relatively empty path towards Hogsmeade. “And you're certain that we don't have to wear anything special? I've never been to a party without a dress code.”

The Keeper smiled fondly. “I'm sure, relax Ominis, it's just a casual gathering for the seven of us. The only difference between this and a regular dinner at the Three Broomsticks, is that Sirona reserved the highest floor for us.”

“I didn't know the Three Broomsticks took reservations.” Sebastian mused thoughtfully, looking a lot more relaxed than their blind lover.

“It doesn't.” The Keeper shrugged. “But Sirona owes me a favour or two, and the second floor mezzanine isn't big enough to house more people than our party's size anyway, so it's no great loss to her.”

“Probably a respite if anything, not having to worry about cleaning the farthest floor while she's swamped downstairs anyway.” Ominis commented, worrying his lower lip for a moment. “Are you sure we don't have to bring somethin-”

“Ominis.” The Keeper placed a hand on his shoulder with a soft chuckle. “This is just a relaxed dinner with some of my friends, you don't need to win their approval. They’re just being inclusive since I'm dating you and Sebastian.”

“I- well, I do understand that..." Ominis sighed again. “I suppose I'm simply worried, after all, we were so cold towards them before. I let our quarrel with Natty, and jealousy over Poppy, affect the way I treated all of them and I feel that such behaviour now reflects poorly on you, what with them knowing about us. Especially since it was your friends who considerately extended an invitation to us, I don't wish to embarrass you any further.”

The Keeper shook their head. “Ominis, my own actions reflect on me, just as your actions reflect upon yourself. That doesn't change even if others know that we're in a relationship, and if it does, well, then I couldn't give a rat’s arse about those people. Besides, if my friends thought poorly of you or Sebastian, they wouldn't have suggested or agreed to the two of you joining us.”

Ominis gave a weak smile. “Even if you say that... if you care about them enough to be friends with them, then... then I should like their approval, but I don't- I don't have many friends. Amicable acquaintances and classmates yes, but true friends? I don't really know how to... It's just the two of you and Anne.”

“Honestly, I've found that there isn't much to that process. If there's some goal or morals that you have in common, or if there's something you need from each other, you either gain respect for each other and hit it off, or you stay acquaintances.” The Keeper shrugged. “Even I would say that I only considered Poppy and Natty as friends before. Though, after the whole Macnair and Selwyn thing, I have come to consider all four of them as friends.”

The Keeper continued with a soft tone. “I will always invite you to share with me how you feel about my friends, but you don't need to become friends with them right away, or ever, at least not for me. For my part, it'd just be nice to spend a fun evening with everyone, see how things go. It'd be great if all the people I'm fond of are on good terms but I'm not going to be upset with you if it doesn't pan out that way. If, however you just want more friends for yourself, then you have an advantage here, everyone here is trying to be friendly, and that's not something most people start with.”

Sebastian snorted, folding his hands behind his head as they made their way over the bridge into Hogsmeade. “That's true, usually there's stuff to worry about, like what they want from you, but this isn't like some nobleman's ball, you know everyone's just here to have fun. So, you don't have to worry about appearances, just relax and do or say whatever feels comfortable.”

“Speaking from experience?” Ominis smiled fondly.

Sebastian grinned and gave a one-sided shrug. “I don't really care what others think about me, since I don't see the need for more friends unless I need them for something. And mind you, I don't mean that in an exploitive way. But that's just me, if you want to have more friends, there's no reason you can't. You're much more pleasant to hang out with than the two of us combined.”

“I'll agree there.” The Keeper huffed lightly. “Honestly, I'm not sure why they sought to be my friends in the first place. It's not like I'm especially nice towards them.”

Ominis chuckled, his heart warmed by both their reassurances. “I can tell you why, it's because you're not especially nice to anyone, you treat everyone equally. Without prejudice and bias against their appearance, status, or family. With respect, at least until you rescind it for their actions or attitude.”

“Is that so? I don't think I respect very many people.” The Keeper raised an eyebrow sceptically.

“Can't possibly be worse than Sebastian.” Ominis shrugged.

“I'd protest, but he's not wrong.” Sebastian grinned, tipping his head noncommittally.

“That's just because you're more interested in books than people.” The Keeper teased, bumping shoulders with Sebastian.

“Not my fault that most people aren't as interesting as a good book.” Sebastian shrugged as the three of them arrived at the small door leading to the Three Broomsticks’ second floor, just off to the side of the building.

“Ready, Ominis?” The Keeper asked as they placed a hand on the door, watching him take a breath before nodding.

With that, they pushed the door open, allowing their eyes to adjust to the lighting difference for a moment. Inside were Poppy and Natty, already sitting side by side at the two round tables that had been placed together in the center of the mezzanine.

“Hey! There you are!” Poppy exclaimed as soon as they stepped through the door, while Natty waved with a smile.

“Hey.” The Keeper smiled in return, taking a few steps further into the room before pausing to look back towards the door.

“Oh, Ominis and Sebastian, you came!” Poppy beamed brightly when Ominis stepped in next, tugging nervously at his collar.

He cleared his throat, smiling shyly and following them with a simple. “Hello.”

The Keeper found his demeanour so adorably sweet and charming, that they were struck with a sudden wave of concern. After all, it would be problematic if he approached anyone that he wanted to befriend like this, they might fall in love with him instead.

The calm and confident way he'd first approached and introduced himself to them had been so different. Then again, the Keeper had been a fresh student, and he'd been in a senior position, giving him more power during that conversation. They supposed he was likely putting on more of a demure aura now to contrast his previous haughty behaviour, that or he was genuinely just feeling shy.

Whichever it was, it was unbearably cute, and the Keeper fought the itch to pounce on him.

“There wasn't any reason to reject the invitation, so we figured, why not.” Sebastian on the other hand, walked in like this was something he did every other day, scratching idly at the back of his head and glancing about. “Garreth and Amit not here yet?”

“Garreth's downstairs, he volunteered to get the dishes we ordered from Sirona.” Poppy explained, gesturing towards the open seats in invitation.

“And Amit is making sure that he doesn't put anything weird in them.” Natty added as the three took their seats, the Keeper sitting between their boyfriends, with Ominis seated beside Poppy.

“Well, I never, how could you even think I would do something so dastardly?” The ever so dramatic voice of Garreth announced his arrival, balancing two trays of plates and butterbeer, hovering in the air over his wand just ahead of him.

“Easily.” Amit replied instead, appearing from behind him with another two trays.

“Ugh, why do I like you guys again?” Garreth sighed with a flamboyant swish of his wand, lowering the trays to the table, as Natty stood to help unload them.

“Because we appreciate your skill and tolerate your insanity.” The Keeper drawled, accepting a mug with a grateful nod, and taking a cautious sip of their butterbeer. One could never be too careful with Garreth around.

“And you owe your grades to Amit too.” Natty added, settling back into her seat while Poppy happily tucked into her meal beside her.

“Ugh, such disrespect, I shan't stand for it!” Garreth declared, brushing his fingers through his hair with exaggerated offence, before folding his arms and pointedly dropping into the open seat beside Sebastian.

Amit shrugged as he himself settled into the last chair, between Garreth and Natty. “Well, to your credit, you were surprisingly easy to teach, you're a fast learner.”

“Ugh, don't say that. I've heard that line a million times from my aunt.” Garreth recoiled with an exhausted expression, raising a finger and imitating Professor Weasley's authoritative tone. “You're a bright boy, it'd be a waste if you don't put it to good use after school.”

“After school... feels like the last six years have gone by in a flash.” Poppy sighed wistfully. “Hard to believe that we'll be starting our last year in Hogwarts in less than three months, I guess we should really be thinking about our future now.”

“And I've heard that one another million more, my aunt’s been badgering me about my career plans and what steps I'm taking to work towards them next year.” Garreth grumbled, picking up a fork from the tray and taking an aggravated bite of chicken from his plate.

“Not a bad suggestion honestly.” Natty flashed him a dry smile as she carefully cut the meat on her plate into neat bitesize pieces. “It’s good to plan for your future before it arrives.”

“The way I see it, if you spend too much time planning and worrying about your future, you'll never get to enjoy your present.” Garreth shot back, speaking between bites of his potatoes. “I'd much rather enjoy what I have, than worry about what might happen to it.”

Natty blinked in surprise. “That's surprisingly deep Garreth.”

The Keeper, who had been silently eating like everyone else, gazed at their boyfriends for a moment and swallowed their mouthful before speaking. “I feel like both of you have a point, but I find it easier to enjoy what I have, and not worry, when I know I've taken steps to protect my happiness.”

Across from them, Poppy giggled when she noticed both Ominis and Sebastian smile slightly at the Keeper’s words. Exactly as she'd expected, the three were so cute together! And somehow, it hurt less that she wasn't the one to make the Keeper happy, when she could see how happy they already were.

“That's true, Miss Peck invited me to speak with her yesterday and offered me a part time job at her store.” Poppy nodded with a serene smile. “She's expanding her catalogue in November and offered to pay me and teach me more about how to care for beasts, in exchange for helping her on the weekends. It does feel reassuring, knowing that I have a path I can take to pursue my interest in care of magical creatures.”

“Nice to see that someone else noticed your deft hand with beasts.” The Keeper nodded approvingly.

“Indeed, congratulations Poppy! That sounds perfect for you.” Natty smiled softly, before adding with some concern. “Though I hope you don't overwork yourself, studying for your NEWTs while having a part time job.”

“I promise I won't, I'll take breaks if I need to.” Poppy reassured with a grateful smile.

Garreth hummed thoughtfully. “Interests huh... I actually got a job offer from the owner of Honeydukes yesterday. His nephew is in Gryffindor too and I let him tes- I mean, try my Whizzbrew last month, apparently, he gave Mr. Honeydukes a glowing recommendation.”

The Keeper flashed a wry smile. “Well, that's reassuring.”

“Hey! Don't say that like you were expecting to be trying poison tonight!” Garreth glared at them.

“After what you did to my hair in third year, I wouldn't put it past you.” Sebastian shrugged.

“I only agreed to come after they assured me that we wouldn't be trying it first.” Ominis also shrugged a moment later.

“Ugh, Slytherins.” Garreth grumbled. “Well, jokes on you suckers, Mr. Honeydukes thinks it was good enough that he's offered me a position as a confectionery researcher.”

“Wow, never thought I'd ever hear of a job that actually suits you.” Amit murmured in disbelief.

“Are you going to accept?” Poppy asked, her eyes wide with excitement.

The Keeper smirked. “Did you tell him that you made it from his stolen Billywi-”

“Honestly, I'm not sure!” Garreth exclaimed, cutting the Keeper off with a glare. “I mean, seventh year is supposed to be busy as all hell, and I’d rather like to enjoy my last year of freed- ahem, school.”

“Really?” Natty raised an eyebrow. “You're going to pass up the chance to appease your aunt and actually be paid to blow cauldrons up?”

“...” Garreth was silent for a moment, before smiling brightly. “So, Natty, with me getting a job at Honeydukes, what steps are you taking for your future?”

The girl snorted, taking a sip of her butterbeer first. “I was thinking of becoming an Auror, so I spoke with Professor Sharp on Friday, after dinner and he agreed to give me some guidance next year so I can be more prepared for Auror training. Oddly enough, he told me not to get my hopes up, but I'm not giving up that easily.”

The Keeper took a measured bite of their mashed potatoes, that might be inconvenient for them, considering their own plans, but they were no stranger to keeping secrets. If they were careful enough, she'd never know of their activities and depending on how they played, Natty acquiring a position amongst the Aurors might even prove useful.

“Oh, that is a fine idea, perhaps I should speak with Professor Shah about a similar mentorship.” Amit's eyes were bright at the prospect.

“It does help to have a mentor, Nurse Blainey has been instructing me in Healing and it's really reassuring having more personalised guidance than a class lesson.” Ominis contributed tentatively.

“Does it? Then I must speak with Professor Shah as soon as possible!” Amit nodded firmly and Ominis smiled, relieved that his comment had been well received.

“Don't worry, Amit, you won't have any competition. At all.” The Keeper flashed a wry grin.

As they spoke to Amit, Poppy turned to Ominis with a wry smile. “I can only imagine how reassuring it must be to be learning healing, considering who you're dating.”

“Indeed, and trust me, the other one is another stress and a half too.” Ominis replied dryly, rubbing his temples in exasperation. “I'm going to have grey hair before I reach my forties.”

Poppy patted him on the shoulder with a knowing smile. “I'd offer sympathy, but I have a feeling you're quite content with that.”

Ominis snorted, letting out a sigh with a helpless smile. “I suppose I must be, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and I seem to be beholden to these two.”

Garreth raised an eyebrow as he overhead the statement. “But, Ominis, you're blind- ack!”

A fist came down, landing squarely on the top of Garreth's head.

“Oops.” Sebastian blinked, withdrawing his hand as Garreth held his head. “Sorry, reflex.”

Amit shook his head and waved a hand. “No no, he absolutely deserved it. Please, feel free to hit him again whenever he acts up.”

“I would have hit harder.” Natty added casually, popping a piece of carrot into her mouth.

“Ugh, and what are you planning to be, Sebastian? A commissionaire or a doorman?” Garreth glared at him accusatorily.

Sebastian rolled his eyes, pausing for a moment, before shrugging. “Not sure actually, I just picked the NEWTs I was interested in.”

“That's surprising, I thought you'd be planning to become a professional duellist.” Poppy commented.

“Well, I did lose to a muggleborn with no magical education on their first day of school.” Sebastian grinned sardonically.

“Oh, come on, Sebastian, you can't compare yourself to them, that one's barely human.” Amit exclaimed. “You even had seventh years beat when you were still in fourth year.”

The Keeper snorted at Amit’s descriptor for them. “He's got a point, you're probably the best duellist in school besides myself and the teachers.”

“I'll take that as a compliment. Honestly, I did consider it when I was younger. Though, I don't feel like I'd be interested in duelling as a sport at this point.” Sebastian shook his head, and the Keeper easily understood.

After a taste of true life and death combat, the civilised rules and regulations for magical duels were just restrictive, dull, and boring.

“Really? I thought for a while that you were considering becoming a dark wizard, what with all your time spent sneaking into the Restricted Section.” Natty shook her head with a dry smile.

From her tone, Natty's words were clearly in jest, but Sebastian stiffened regardless, at the suggestion that he'd sought to become like Rookwood, like the man who’d cursed his twin.

“Excuse me. I was doing research to find a cure for my sister. I'll thank you not to make untoward assumptions.” Sebastian glared, his tone harsh and cold.

Natty blinked in surprise, taken aback by his reaction and at a loss for how to respond.

The Keeper placed a hand on his shoulder to calm him, their voice soft. “Peace, love, Natty was only joking, correct?”

“Yes, I apologise, Sebastian. I meant no offence.” Natty quickly followed up, looking rather guilty for accidentally upsetting him.

“It's quite alright, you couldn't have known that we would find such a jest in poor taste.” Ominis reassured her, though his expression made it clear that he wasn't too pleased with her choice of humour either.

“Your sister, Anne, she dropped out of school in fourth year, didn't she?” Poppy asked tentatively, trying to give Natty a moment to recover. “I'd always wondered, there were many rumours about possible reasons, but..."

Poppy trailed off, knowing that saying them would likely make things worse, after all, those rumours had ranged from Anne getting pregnant to an untimely death.

“She's..." Sebastian sighed, placing a hand over the Keeper’s, and gripping it tightly. “Anne was cursed with debilitating pain by Rookwood and it's killing her slowly. The doctors don't have a cure for it, so I've been searching for a way to break the curse ever since.”

Natty flinched, understanding that she'd done the equivalent of saying he aspired to become the man who'd hurt his sister. That'd be about as rude as someone saying they thought she'd make a good Ashwinder or Poacher.

“I- I am so sorry-” Natty began.

“No, it's... It's fine, you didn't know.” Sebastian shook his head, running a hand through his hair. “I never told anyone or corrected the rumours. So, it's only natural.”

“Thank you, that is kind of you to say. Even so, it was a joke I made without much forethought, and I’m deeply sorry for that.” Natty lowered her head. “I’ll try not to make that mistake again.”

Sebastian sighed, great, his outburst had just ruined the atmosphere.

“Perhaps..." Poppy began hesitantly, pushing some beans around on her plate. “Perhaps you might consider becoming a Curse Breaker? I mean, you are trying to break a curse after all.”

“Oh, for Gringotts, yes? That sounds most suitable.” Amit nodded excitedly.

“Curse Breaker?” Sebastian asked, unfamiliar with the job title, aside from that which the name made obvious.

"Oh, my aunt used to be one." Garreth quipped absently and, seeing Amit's incredulous stare, he shrugged in response. "She doesn't like to talk about it though. Bit too obscure a job, I wager, gets people's tongues wagging."

“I see, I suppose I can understand the sentiment. It's a small but elite division of wizards and witches under the employ of the goblins of Gringotts Wizarding Bank. They specialise in exploring ruins, excavating, and reclaiming lost artifacts for the bank. As such, their job entails breaking curses to both access these hidden sites and restore the items’ usability.” Amit gave Sebastian a smile. “If you were to join their ranks, you would likely gain access to their wealth of knowledge.”

Sebastian's eyes widened, he'd spent so long hating goblins, thinking that they had been the ones who'd taken his sister from him. He'd never even considered seeking the answers that he needed from them.

“That sounds like an incredibly dangerous job.” Ominis frowned.

Amit scratched the back of his head. “Ah, well, there is a fair amount of risk involved, it's one of the reasons that Curse Breaker isn't a very desirable or reputed line of work, since they need to be capable duellists and be skilled in arcane magic, but if I recall correctly, the goblins do offer a rather high salary as compensation..."

Natty gave a huff of amazement. "Hard to imagine our head of house doing such an outlandish job."

"And she survived to become the strictest Professor in Hogwarts history." The Keeper snorted, patting Ominis on the shoulder reassuringly. “They likely receive training in handling dangerous artifacts as well, procedures, regulations, safety measures and such. I doubt they enjoy replacing their staff.”

Ominis frowned and protested no further, but from his expression, both the Keeper and Sebastian knew that they'd be discussing this further in private, and it was probably going to be a tough conversation.

“Well, I'll certainly consider it, thank you both for letting me know about this.” Sebastian smiled, nodding towards Amit and Poppy, relieved that the heavy atmosphere had lifted somewhat.

“Of course, I am always happy to share my knowledge of goblins, they really are an incredible race.” Amit paused. “Well, the nicer ones, that is.”

“That goes without saying.” The Keeper flashed a wry smile, thinking of Rookwood and Ranrok. “Mad men have neither kings nor gods. They exist in every corner of society and, driven by pain, they harm indiscriminately. Both others and their own.”

The statement hung in the air for a moment as the group digested its meaning, before Poppy gave a quiet laugh, drawing attention to her.

“Same goes the other way too.” Poppy smiled, and Ominis was surprised by the weight in her tone, one that he quickly recognised as the way he too would speak about his parents. “There can also be kind people that appear in any place, driven by love to protect.”

“Indeed..." Ominis nodded, he was getting an inkling of the Keeper's reasons for giving Poppy such high regard. His thoughts returned to the Keeper's actions, that could be read as cruel like his parents’, yet were taken to defend their home. “There are as many different reasons for actions as there are people. Some motivations may be similar, but no two are identical.”

“Wish they'd teach that in school.” Sebastian grumbled, now rather ashamed of his vehement hatred against the entire race of goblins on the account of one movement alone, and he popped his spoon into his mouth with a sigh.

“Would be a little difficult, I'd imagine, to teach such a concept in a classroom.” Amit hummed thoughtfully.

“You think so? I feel like it's doable.” The Keeper swirled their spoon in some gravy, thinking of Lodgok and Fig. “There are examples of flawed stereotypes, even in a classroom. Point the small ones out and kids will learn, then they will carry those lessons into adulthood.”

Garreth pulled his fork out of his mouth and jabbed it in the Keeper's direction. “Speaking of lessons learnt, you're learning pretty well too, trying to change the subject so we’ll forget that you haven't shared your plans yet.”

The Keeper's spoon stilled.

“I have no idea what you speak of.” They scooped a spoonful of mashed potatoes into their mouth indifferently, looking away pointedly, while Ominis chuckled behind his hand and Sebastian almost choked on his butterbeer.

“Sure, you don't, now out with it.” Garreth grinned.

Poppy giggled. “I must admit, I am fairly curious myself.”

“Surely you must have some idea of what you would like to do. You're taking seven NEWTs, are you not?” Natty asked, looking surprised at their reticence.

The Keeper sighed, they'd hoped to avoid speaking of their plans, considering how much of it was unsafe for casual conversation. It likely wouldn't go over well if they mentioned how much human organs sold for on the Wizarding black market, according to Tynx. Though they supposed they could make vague mention of some of their more scrupulous means of acquiring coin.

“Not particularly, I have been considering simply working freelance as an independent contractor.” The Keeper shrugged, before smirking. “I'm not fond of following orders.”

Ominis and Sebastian promptly snorted at the same time, while Garreth spluttered indignantly. “Excuse me!? Whatever happened to ‘taking steps’!?”

The Keeper shrugged nonchalantly. “I never said I was referring to steps taken for employment.”

Ominis looked slightly concerned, likely over the possibility of a negative response to their indifferent tone, but to his surprise, Garreth simply guffawed, grinning wryly, and shaking his head. “Fair enough, I doubt the Hogwarts Salamander would have much issue finding work anyway, what with your broad skill set.”

“Salamander?” Amit blinked in confusion.

“I suppose you wouldn't know.” Natty hummed, noting Poppy's curious expression as well. “Our friend here is rather reputed for filling requests.”

Natty turned to the Keeper, shaking her head. “Honestly, I don't understand where you get the time and energy, the sheer amount of things I've heard can't be possible with your workload.”

They waved a hand dismissively. “Grades dropped a fair bit this year, though I guess we can blame those bullies for most of that.”

“Oh, right!” Garreth's eyes lit up and he glanced over the table, finding that most of the plates were empty as well as the mugs. “Let's not forget, the star of our night!”

“I'm not sure that's how the saying goes..." Amit raised an eyebrow as Garreth pulled out his bottle of Fizzing Whizzbrew. “I think it's supposed to be the star of the show-”

“Now, let's properly celebrate trouncing those two tossers!” Garreth raised his bottle eagerly and popped the cork off the top, a sizzling sound emerging from the bottle.

“Oh, that smells rather sweet.” Ominis commented as Garreth swished his wand and vanished the remaining contents of the party's mugs.

“Are you kiddi- really, Garreth?” Sebastian complained as the remaining half of his butterbeer vanished.

“Trust me, my sceptically-challenged friend, you'll never desire any other beverage ever again! It'll even make up for your lost hair.” Garreth winked as he poured the contents of his bottle into the seven mugs on the table.

“Really, Garreth?” Sebastian asked again, his expression as deadpan as his voice.

“Don't drink yet.” Ominis reached across the Keeper to cover Sebastian's mug.

“Really, Ominis!? You too!?” Sebastian exclaimed, slumping onto the table with a pout. “I already told you I'd wait.”

“Oh, come on, Ominis, I even said that Mr. Honeydukes gave me a job for this drink, clearly I didn't poison his nephew!” Garreth rolled his eyes.

“And I'm to simply believe that story in the first place.” Ominis smiled wryly.

“Ugh, Slytherins. How did he even get sorted into your house?” Garreth grumbled to himself.

“Sebastian's cunning, when he wants to be.” The Keeper chuckled, patting their lover on his head consolingly.

“Can somebody please just drink it so we can move away from this topic?” Sebastian groaned against the table.

“Hehe, I trust you, Garreth.” Poppy picked up her mug with a smile and Natty's eyes went wide with alarm.

“Wait, Pop-” Natty tried, but she'd already taken a sip.

“Oh, it's actually quite pleasant, tingly and sweet.” Poppy commented with a surprised expression, before shivering a moment later and giggling as she began levitating several centimetres off her chair.

“See? Told you, it works perfectly fine and tastes great!” Garreth beamed proudly. “Thank you, Poppy! Why, you truly are the bravest individual at this table, you would have made a fine Gryffindor!”

Natty sighed, shooting a light glare at him. “If anything, it's her considerate nature that you just took advantage of.”

“Oh, no need to fuss, Natty.” Poppy blushed as a burp escaped her, right as her sip's effects wore off and dropped her back in her chair. “Garreth wouldn't hurt us.”

“...yes, I'm sure he wouldn't.” Natty's glare was a bit harder now and Garreth swallowed.

“O- of course I wouldn't!” Garreth cleared his throat and made a grand sweeping motion. “Now, as you can all see, the drink is not poisonous!”

The Keeper snorted and took a sip, cautiously followed by the rest of the group. It was certainly sweet, but not overly so, with a flavour strongly reminiscent of Fizzing Whizzbees, as to be expected. As well as a fascinating sizzle that popped in the back of the throat rather than on the tongue as the candy did.

“...this is... actually pretty good.” Sebastian finally muttered, after floating over his chair for a few moments.

“I have to admit, I wouldn't mind buying some to lift my spirits from time to time.” Amit commented as he cheerfully bobbed from side to side in the air.

“Heh, good one.” Sebastian grinned.

“It's... not bad, nice work, Garreth.” Ominis smiled in amusement, trying not to grip the table too obviously as he hovered in the air.

As their sip had already worn off, the Keeper casually placed a hand on his hip, pulling Ominis over their lap through the air and wrapping their arms around his waist, feigning a small display of affection to offer him stability. They most certainly weren't taking advantage of the opportunity to mark their territory in front of the others, on the off chance that his demure aura was giving anyone ideas.

As he watched Ominis’ cheeks flush, Garreth hummed absently. “Huh, I've been wondering for a while actually, don't pureblood houses usually have marriage contracts for their kids like those bullies? How come you guys are together?”

Immediately after his words came out, Garreth saw Ominis stiffen, before both Sebastian and the Keeper's eyes pinned him with a sharpness that made him flinch.

Garreth waved his hands hurriedly. “Ah! I- it's alright if you don't answer that, I know that kind of thing is pretty private, I was just wondering is all-”

The air was tense for a moment, before Ominis sighed and squeezed the Keeper's stiff shoulder lightly. “It's fine, I was looking for a good opportunity to request that our relationship be kept between the seven of us anyway.”

The levitation from his drink began to wear off, and Ominis jostled slightly as he dropped into the Keeper's lap, placing an arm around their shoulder for stability. Somehow, still managing to look poised, perched on the Keeper's lap as he was, Ominis cleared his throat before continuing.

“Unlike my older siblings, my... defect gave our parents the impression that I wasn't worth bartering off to another family for politics.” Ominis waved a hand airily, though he couldn’t quite keep the bitterness from his tone. “Didn't even protest when I left the family home in second year.”

“It's fine, innit?” Sebastian smiled, covertly placing a hand on Ominis’ knee, squeezing lightly under the table. “My house isn't all posh, but it's pretty comfortable I'd wager.”

Ominis huffed lightly. “Indeed, certainly warmer than that stuffy old place. Thanks to their disregard, I suppose I am somewhat free, though I'd still rather not draw undue attention.”

“I'm sure everyone doesn't mind keeping us a secret, since his parents might disapprove of a muggleborn like myself.” The Keeper gave their friends seated around the table a sharp glance. “Right guys?”

“Of course!” Poppy immediately exclaimed, her eyes both sad and resolute, simmering with empathy. “It doesn't matter what your parents think, Ominis, you're wonderful enough to have two people who love you and I'd never do anything to jeopardise your relationship.”

Ominis blinked in surprise, at first startled by how vehement she was, but soon found his heart warming as the rest of the group chimed in one after the other.

“You needn't ask.” Natty nodded sagely. “I think the pureblood politics of you Brits are hogwash anyway.”

“Seconded, my family's blood is so-called ‘pure’, but we couldn't give a damn about all that rubbish.” Garreth grinned, giving a thumbs up.

“I see no reason to avail myself to such people in the first place. I've never been particularly fond of the way most of the pureblood nobility regard goblins as beneath them.” Amit shrugged.

Ominis swallowed, he hadn't expected such acceptance from a group that weren't even his fri-

“After all, we're friends!” Garreth chortled, wrapping an arm around Sebastian's and Amit's shoulders each, making them yelp in surprise.

“When did I make that arrangement-” Sebastian grumbled as he tried to escape.

Amit laughed dryly. “Ah, just give his enthusiasm a minute to wear off and he'll release us.”

Ominis chuckled quietly, as the sound of Sebastian tussling with Garreth reached his ears, along with the occasional yelp as Amit was dragged along and he felt the Keeper shift under his thighs, their breath warming his collar.

“There, love, wasn't that easy?” The Keeper whispered into Ominis’ ear, making him shiver. “Told you.”

He gave a wry huff of amusement, lacing their fingers under the table. “I suppose you were right again.”

“Better get used to it.” The Keeper purred, pleased to have yet another claw anchored in him.

“...I think I'd like that..." Ominis murmured in return, smiling softly.

All the while, Poppy fought the urge to squeal from across the table, at the hungry gleam in the Keeper's eyes, like a beast in a mating dance. An expression she'd never seen on their face before. Just as she’d thought, they were so cute together!

Notes:

Apparently, according to blabbermouth Professor Kogawa, Professor Weasley was a Curse Breaker, and she doesn't like it being brought up because she's focused on her teaching job. Thanks for yapping about it Kogawa.

In the random NPC dialogues, you can find some talking about Anne and those only ever say “Anne left”, no one in school besides Ominis seems to know what exactly happened to her and Sebastian also never spoke about Anne until inside the Restricted Section with MC, and even then, he spoke of it vaguely and in passing, playing down the amount of effort he'd gone through to save her.

As such, I believe that Sebastian finds it difficult to talk about Anne's situation to others, understandably so, since he was so firmly believing that “Anne can be cured”. I imagine that, for him, saying out loud, that he was struggling to find a cure for her and that no one else thought it was possible would hurt himself, would make it feel real and unchangeable, speaking it would crush him under the weight of his task.

The task that no one believed he could accomplish, the task that he was undertaking completely alone. Well, he's not alone anymore, so I think he'd be more able to talk about it without losing his ability to communicate with actual proper clear words.

Feel free to look at my first reply to a comment (on the AO3 comments) for a deeper dive into Sebastian's, Ominis' and Anne's psyche, it's the super super long comment, can't miss it! (I'd move it to these notes, but then the notes would be longer than the chapter x'D)

Also, here's a funny, now that Poppy's totally shipping, remember that moment in Seb's jelly outburst smut, where Sebastian was “imagining how Poppy might react to seeing her crush like this”? Yeaaaah, Sebastian, she'd probably get a nosebleed or something-

“Mad men have neither race nor religion.” Was a statement made, if I recall correctly, by a French man, whose brother died in a terrorist bombing, and he made this statement to protest against racism towards Islam as a whole. I remember reading it in an article and loving it so much, such a beautiful statement that sums up the ridiculousness of hating an entire demographic of people because of a few bad seeds.

That's like saying all men are bad because some are rapists or that drag queens or transfem are dangerous because some genuine sickos with malicious intent used makeup and dresses to hide among women. Absolutely ridiculous. Every organisation and country and religion will have bad people in there by virtue of it having people, and the loudest and most visible ones are usually the mad ones.

I believe that we shouldn't make sweeping statements about any group and some bad seeds are not an excuse to suppress a minority group. Just make new laws and increase security for everyone, both transfem and women, problem solved! More types of toilets or just change them all to the handicap toilets style.

Safe spaces for women and safe spaces for transfem, and in fact, safe spaces for boys and transmasc as well, because even straight cisgender men with soft features suffer sexual assaults too. Such progress in security and overall safety will only benefit all people, regardless of gender or sex, on a whole in the end.

(Also, I tweaked the quote slightly for an older vibe in the chapter, and I went searching but couldn't find that article again so if anyone finds it, please link it to me, thanks xD)

[ravensroleplays]

Okay, you know what? Gonna share the AU idea I've been toying around with for a while, because why not?

Also, I'm just going to state upfront that I haven't figured out all the details just yet--this is very much a work in progress at this point. I just kind of want to share what I have right now.

I'm also going to admit that this idea was based in part off the family from the Fox cartoon Krapopolis X'D Haven't watched the show myself (and I have no plans of doing so, for several reasons), but after seeing the promo on my aunt's TV last year, I actually got curious enough to look up the show's Wikipedia page, and I can appreciate the blended family dynamic of the main characters. Also, I stated some time back that I do actually like the idea of Hat Kid and Mustache Girl being sisters, whether it's through adoption or they're biological sisters--and I just couldn't leave Bow Kid out of it, because she's babey :3

Now then, all that out of the way, here's what I've been thinking (and yeah, I'm going to put all of this under a cut, bc it's LONG):

First big difference: Charles (the name of the Prince in my AU(s), for those who didn't know that) and Vanessa did actually get married in this one, rather than just being engaged, like in my main AU, Specters and Space Aliens, and Hat Kid is their biological daughter.

However, Vanessa being Vanessa, she of course got jealous of her own daughter taking attention away from her husband, and Charles, fearing that Vanessa might hurt their daughter, arranged with Tim, the CEO of Time and Space, to take little Hatty with him to the Timekeeper's planet, at least until some time had passed, and he was able to cool Vanessa's temper. Alas, that wouldn't come to pass, as afterwards, Charles got the idea to buy his wife some flowers and...well, you know the rest.

However, unknown to Charles, it wasn't the first time one of them had done something like this...a couple of years before, Vanessa secretly had a one night stand with a man from what was then Mustache Town. After discovering she was going to have a baby, Vanessa used magic to hide her pregnancy until the time came, and gave birth to the child who would come to be known as Mustache Girl in secret, and arranged to have her sent to Mustache Town in order to be raised by her father.

So now you have a Hat Kid who actually did grow up on the Timekeeper's planet, being raised by Tim as a sort of granddaughter to him. At some point, Bow Kid (who no, isn't Moonjumper's creation/daughter here, though I'll get to old MJ in a bit), an orphaned Timekeeper child, ends up meeting Hatty, and Hatty asks Tim if Bow can live with them, with the two girls adopting each other as sisters.

From there on, the events of the main game play out like in canon, albeit with Bow tagging along with Hatty through Mafia Town, Dead Bird Studios...and eventually Subcon Forest. Like in the SaSA! AU, MJ corrupted Charles into Snatcher...however, since here it's only been about six years as opposed to hundreds, if not thousands, he's not quite gone yet. So not only does Snatcher NOT take the girls' souls, but he recognizes his daughter's soul and HOLY COW HIS DAUGHTER IS BACK.

So to make a long story short, after the events of the game, and after struggling with his own doubts and giving up taking souls and murdering people (though he DOES have a MUCH easier time of it here than in my main AU), Snatcher decides he wants to try and be a father again and, after Tim reveals the truth of Hatty's parentage to her, he allows her to return to Subcon Forest to be with her dad, albeit under the condition that he be allowed to stop by now and then to make sure things are going well. So Hatty goes to live in Subcon, bringing Bow with her, since she's grown attached to her adopted sister, and Snatcher not only has his old daughter back, but he also has a new daughter as well.

But it isn't ALL Roman candles--sometime after her defeat, Mustache Girl ended up going into self-imposed exile from the former Mafia Town, and, after doing some research, learned that she, like Hatty, was actually royalty--the elder daughter of Queen Vanessa. So she also treks into Subcon to meet up with mommy dearest...suffice it to say, it doesn't go quite as warmly as Hatty and Snatcher's reunion, but at some point she puts it out that she is, in fact, Vanessa's daughter and, though it takes some doing, Van's eventually like 'Oh HECK, this is the kid I gave up.'

So yeah, the AU is basically Hatty being caught in the middle as her former soul-stealer dad tries to be a better person and a good dad to her and her adopted sister, while her crazy ice witch mom and half-sister who once tried to kill her scheme to try and get back the prince and kingdom, respectively XD

I call it: 'Dysfunctional Blended Family AU'

Thoughts?

[windydrawallday]

[ STRANGELOVE ] 08 "Nothing" + Bonus

"There's a thousand reasons why I shouldn't spend my time with you For every reason not to be here I can think of two To keep me hanging on, feeling nothing's wrong."

[ FINISHED 12-11-2022 ] [ 00-01 “Teach” ] ♠ [ 02 “Unpredictable” ] ♠ [ 03 “Control” ] ♠ [ 04 “Reward” ] ♠ [ I “Important” ] ♠ [ 05-06 “Strings”/“Catch” ] ♠ [ 07 “Enough” ] ♠ [ II “Try (Again)” ] ♠ 08 “Nothing” + Bonus

And BONUS: "HOOKED", a short silly comic I did before even planning the challenge and decided to stick here because its comical note makes the whole thing feel complete x). I'll put it under the cut and throw some more words to give a close to this.

And with that is THE END of Strangelove! I hope you all enjoyed the ride because from my side I found such great moments, I struggled a lot too but only with the stuff that wasn't part of it in the first place x'D but that's how I roll pfff.

THANK YOU SO MUCH! To everyone that stuck around and supported me during all of this: it really took me great courage to ride this wave on my own but I don't regret a single thing of it. To be honest, I think I will try to print some of these artworks because seeing all back... I feel so whole and proud! I DID IT, YAY!

... And now, to sleep a whole day... or week... how about the rest of the month? Bahaha.

～ Windy Drawallday.

[wishingstarinajar]

When will we have an official story for underewind and huntertale

I'm so curious I almost have an anxiety attack

It depends on time and energy x'D

@stankychee, the creator of Huntertales, is exceptionally busy but she was once upon a time trying to find a way to tell the Huntertales story. It wasn't going to be a multi-chapter fic though, so I suggest not to expect such for Huntertales. I'm unsure where she currently stands with inspiration or energy toward Huntertales, I of course can't speak for her, but I'd say to lower any expectations.

As for myself with UndeRewind, I was planning on drawing sort of a prequel comic but I am terrible at drawing comics. For instance, all past comic projects I've had were abandoned after a while, and these were either full-blown "webcomic" ideas or shorter comics between 10 to 30 pages. Heck, I'm currently sitting on a Rewind-themed comic project that's around 22 pages long and I don't know if it will ever see the light of day! :/ ....I envy people who can draw comics x'D

Writing a fic would be "easier" and sure, there are a few short stories out there that are UndeRewind/Huntertales-related, buuuut I've been having trouble writing/finishing fics since the last year so I can't even hype up that up.

The will to tell the story (properly!) is there but the energy isn't. So yes, it all depends and no promises will be made.

[miyakuli]

Citizen Sleeper

Wake Up

Citizen Sleeper is a mix of visual novel and role-playing game set in a purely SF world; you play the role of a sleeper, a kind of humanoid robot with a human conscience, who finds themself stranded on a space station called Erlin's Eye. Your first goal will obviously be to survive, but over time and encounters, you may find a real reason to live and, who knows, even a future.

❤ An immersive and detailed SF universe, in terms of its lore, visual and sound atmosphere, as well as the themes addressed, rather typical of this genre (transhumanism, capitalism…) but always intelligently presented. ❤ Speaking of design, the game is fairly minimalist, but it's enough to immerse us in this cyberpunk world, not only in terms of the station and its varied locations, but also thanks to Guillaume Singelin's splendid illustrations, which give us striking characters with their own identity. ❤ In keeping with this idea of immersion, the soundtrack discreetly but effectively accompanies this universe, with its futuristic, melancholy music and ambient sound effects of the space station life. ❤ The rpg aspect is characterized by dice rolls after sleep cycles that allow you to unlock new areas and perform specific tasks. And unlike a certain Disco Elysium (which still sticks in my craw x'D), RNG is very well balanced, as the success of your throw will depend on your physical condition and energy. And even if your dice are low, you'll always have something to do with them (small numbers can be used for hacking actions, for example). The station may not be very big, but it's vast enough in terms of activities, offering several hours of play to discover all its nooks and crannies.

+/- The story is very well written, the narration is neat and coherent, and I really enjoyed the intimate exchanges between the characters....on the other hand, I sincerely regret that there's still no translation planned. I'm used to playing games in the language of Shakespeare, but let's face it, this game won't be accessible to everyone, as it requires a very good command of English (many highly technical SF terms). +/- While the gameplay becomes very addictive over time (I couldn't stop restarting cycles!!), it also becomes rather repetitive, especially towards the end; if you stay on the station until the end to unlock all the storylines, you're going to spend a lot of cycles just doing activities here and there while you wait for the next quests to unlock (because sometimes you have to wait several cycles to move on to the next stage).

✖ The idea of choosing a class at the start of the game is only of interest at first, because after a while you end up unlocking all the abilities and your specialization no longer matters. Also, the classes are quite unbalanced (the operator is clearly the one to take to advance quickly and efficiently). ✖ Mouse handling, especially when walking around the station, is not at all great. So I switched to the controller, which has smoother movements, but which wasn't always easy to select zones and dialogues (plus you can only use the directional pad). ✖ Basic options are lacking for a game with so much dialogue and several endings; autosave is imposed, so you can't save at a specific point in the game if you want to come back later to unlock other things, and there's no skip for text already read or even a visual indication (like colored text, for example).

Citizen Sleeper is a very pleasant discovery, with a well-developed SF universe into which I immersed myself, although not without difficulty due to a high level of English. If a French-language version were to come out, I'd be delighted to relive this story and its encounters, and perhaps appreciate its subtleties even more :)

➡ My personal VN ranking (in french) ➡ My Steam page

[amethystina]

If you had to put Yohan and Gaon in a parallel universe, what would it be? Bcs I've been thinking about how would they be in a zombie apocalypse scenario (it's definitely very angst)

I can think of several and my brain tends to let the ideas percolate at the back of my mind whether I want them to or not x'D So, at random, it'll present me with fully formed stories complete with a complex plot and everything that's been slowly pieced together while I wasn't looking.

Admittedly, I haven't thought of a Zombie AU, though, probably because I don't like the doom and gloom of it (she says while having written a 100k Zombie AU for another fandom where one of the main characters is a literal zombie x'D ).

ANYWAY. Here are some ideas that have been living in my brain rent-free for a while:

Soulmate AU:

While everybody believes in soulmates, not everyone is lucky enough to dream of their fated other half. Yo Han does, however. They start during his teenage years, as is customary, and he can't say he's surprised when it's Isaac's familiar face he sees. He's quite relieved, in all honesty, since he'd much rather have a platonic soulmate than a romantic one. It's less messy that way.

Fate proves him wrong the day Isaac dies in that godforsaken fire and Yo Han devotes the rest of his life to avenging his soulmate's death. That seems to be the only way to fill the void inside of him.

But then, just as Yo Han is getting ready to set his ten-year plan in motion, everything gets thrown on its head.

He meets Kim Ga On.

Suddenly, Yo Han isn't sure who he's seeing in his dreams. Is it Isaac or this young, idealistic judge — who Yo Han soon realises has been sent to spy on him? And, even if it is Kim Ga On he's dreaming about, does that truly change anything? Everything has already been set in motion and, soulmate or not, Yo Han wants revenge for what happened to his brother.

And what's to say that Kim Ga On — so brilliant and righteous — would even want Yo Han as his soulmate? His despise for Yo Han is evident so, clearly, fate must have made a mistake this time.

Someone that pure could never love a monster like him.

(Ga On dreams, too, and they're always the same. He never sees his soulmate's face, only roaring flames and a crumbling building. Ga On assumes that means his soulmate is dead. Why else would he find himself trapped inside that burning inferno every time he dreams? Surely he would have seen something else by then if the person was still alive?

Not once does it cross his mind that, maybe, his soulmate just needs to find a reason to start living again...)

___

Black Knight AU:

Joining a group of rebel refugees wasn't so much a choice for Ga On as a necessity. He hates to see the suffering around him, people dying from lack of oxygen and food, their numbers dwindling by the day.

Ga On wants a better future for all of them and he'll fight tooth and nail to get it — even if that means tearing down the old world order and demanding a new one.

Fortunately for the rebels, they have someone on the inside helping them. Ga On has never met this person — known only as the Benefactor — but it's clear that he must be from the core district. Only someone at the very top would have the kind of power and influence that the Benefactor does, providing the rebels with information and supplies through the network of deliverymen and military personnel at his disposal. Ga On doesn't know why someone at the core district would want to bring down the very system that keeps him rich, but Ga On will take whatever help he can get.

And then — as if Ga On doesn't already have enough to deal with — things get complicated the day the rebels intercept what they think is a supply delivery but turns out to be a travel convoy. And the man at its centre is clearly from the core district judging by his pristine suit and flawless appearance. Usually, that would make him a valuable hostage, but there's something different about this man.

Not only does he not seem the least bit afraid to find himself in the midst of a group of armed refugee rebels, but he also fixates on Ga On in a way that's downright unsettling. Ga On doesn't understand why.

Nor does he understand why he keeps feeling an inexplicable and wholly inappropriate pull towards the man. Ga On knows absolutely nothing about him aside from the fact that he's clearly very rich, unnervingly intelligent and, as it soon turns out, incredibly dangerous. How can Ga On be attracted to someone so ruthless and selfish?

The only core district dweller Ga On feels even the slightest bit of respect for is the Benefactor and this Kang Yo Han is the polar opposite. Ga On shouldn't feel drawn to him.

And yet, against better knowledge, he does.

And it feels more like a question of when he'll succumb, rather than if.

(This story has everything! Rebels! Eating of the rich! Delicious identity porn! Explosions! Elijah calling Ga On literal trash that Yo Han dragged in from the gutter!

... it would probably also be pretty long so let's hope I don't succumb to the urge to write it)

___

Historical Vampire AU:

After Ga On's parents die, he fully expects to end up on the streets and starve to death. Fortunately for him, a local scholar takes him on as an apprentice instead, teaching him how to read and write.

He feels incredibly indebted to Scholar Min and so, many years later, when Ga On is asked to accept a position as assistant to a rich but mysterious lord just outside the city, he of course does so. The position is a mere cover, however. In actuality, Ga On will be spying on Kang Yo Han in hopes of finding out if he's secretly supporting the uprising that's brewing in their region.

More than once, Scholar Min tells Ga On that he must be careful — that the mission is incredibly dangerous. But it's not until he actually arrives at Lord Kang's estate that Ga On understands why Scholar Min kept repeating all those dire warnings.

Not only is Kang Yo Han aloof and deeply unsettling — his gaze filled with something that could only be described as hunger whenever he looks at Ga On — but he doesn't seem to eat, rarely sleeps, and never ventures outside during the day. Only once darkness falls does he leave the estate and, sometimes, he doesn't return until just before dawn.

Before long, Ga On begins to wonder if Kang Yo Han isn't just involved in the uprising, but might also be the cause for the dead bodies that have been found strewn around the city the past couple of months.

And, somehow, Ga On has to find proof to support his theory — preferably without becoming a target himself.

(A.k.a. if you thought Ga On's neck kink in Who Holds the Devil was bad? Think again, bitches)

___

Aside from these, there are also the two parallel universe stories I have already started: Gravitational Pull which is basically meant to be a series of one-shots that divert from the original canon by changing one small detail in each installment. And then The Devil's Due which is a Different First Meeting AU where they meet when Ga On is still a teenager and that throws everything out of order (because Yo Han accidentally kickstarts Ga On's gay awakening a lot sooner than usual and, after that, all bets are off)

So yeah. I could probably think of several more but let's stop here for now xD

(And don't ask me why I chose to write these ideas as if they're fanfic summaries because they definitely aren't fanfics yet)

[ashes-to-asher]

Storytime, I guess? X'D

So, I'm a DM for a homebrew campaign (Othiat) with 3 players (@everdreamart, @traumallamarama, and @blazingjuniper). We live very far away from each other (the closest player to me is over 400 miles away), so we play via Discord. Whenever a map is needed, I've always turned to Owlbear Rodeo.

Last session, I ran the biggest encounter I have ever run.

The party had to stopped to spend the night at an inn in a small town they'd passed through before. They noticed that something was off; flies were buzzing around even though it was winter, there was a general smell of decay in the air, the townsfolk mentioned that the well had turned foul, etc., etc. The players knew something was up, but I don't think they realized just how bad it was gonna get.

Long story short, that little town was about to be at the center of a demonic invasion.

The PCs were woken in the middle of the night to screams and a poisonous green fog flooding the streets (and their room). They rushed outside, not having had time to put their armor on (so AC was low af). They almost immediately got attacked by a Bulezau, barely dodging out of the way in time.

That's when the map came out.

It's an absolutely monstrous thing: probably 50x100 grids, with each grid representing 15x15 feet. The entire town was on this thing, and the party had free reign to hide, fight, or just run and leave it all behind. Problem is, that green fog made it so they can't see jack.

Owlbear Rodeo had a huge update relatively recently, and now there's a bunch of new extensions and features. One of those extensions is called Smoke and Spectre (by Battle-System and Armindo Flores). I've always been a fan of using fog to hide things on maps, but Smoke and Spectre took things a step further. Each PC had their own independent radius of visibility, and I set it so that everyone could only see out to a radius of 30 feet. I also gave them a few visible points on the map, representing locations they knew of, but the vast majority of the map was empty nothingness to them.

I had been worried that the lack of visibility would turn out to be too frustrating for the players to enjoy the encounter, but it actually worked out well. Everyone was forced to slow down and plan out their moves carefully; the town as swarming with demons, and getting too close to one would prompt an attack. Everyone was going one grid at a time, anxious and terrified (in a good way!) of things lurking just out of sight. Movement also became an issue in general, since one of the PCs (a tabaxi monk) is a lot faster than the others, and another PC (a fairy druid) could fly over certain obstacles.

The party actually got split up in the chaos, leading to them desperately trying to coordinate when they couldn't see each other or even their own surroundings.

They eventually individually made their ways (makin' their way) to the town center, where the invasion had begun. There, they encountered a Wastrilith in the well, which was way too high level for them to actually take down. Knowing that there were still survivors in hiding, though, the level 6 party was determined to end the threat.

See, this wasn't necessarily meant to be a combat encounter; it was meant to be a survival encounter. The demonic invasion has ties to the larger plot, and is supposed to serve as set-up/lead-in to certain things the players are still only vaguely aware of (things I will not be spoiling via tumblr). I expected the players to engage in combat here and there, and they did had combat with some of the lower CR demons around the town, but the overall point was to set up plot and give the players a unique encounter.

They almost had a TPK with the Wastrilith? ^^;

The thing downed two of them, but the druid had just enough spell slots to keep the others from dying. The party was doing decent damage, but there was no way they could survive more than two or three rounds of this thing's damage output. Finally, low on HP and spell slots, the satyr bard pulled a clutch Dissonant Whispers. Wastriliths have great Strength and Constitution, but their Wisdom isn't all that impressive.; it failed the saving throw and was forced to flee, giving the party a chance to escape its radius.

A whole lot more happened (little Opportune Moment has a rough night ahead of him, courtesy of a Tlacatecolo), and the encounter isn't technically over (next session, the party is going after the Sibriex that started it all), but holy crap was it a good session! X'D

My laptop almost caught fire trying to process the map and all the tokens on it, but this was a planed event I'd been excitedly dreading for so long, and it worked!

The limited visibility is what really sold it. Fog effects only go so far, and this encounter would not have worked if the players had been able to see their surroundings. The fear and anxiety about the creatures lurking in the dark heightened the experience for all of us, myself included; I got to play around with the visibility of the demons, figuring out how much they could see and hear.

Next session will be a bit more straightforward, but you can bet I'm gonna use Smoke and Spectre again; in fact, I already have a few ideas... >:3

[95jezzica]

Kakashi Shipping Musings

Tbh I'm pretty neutral/more of a multi-shipper about Kakashi's ships nowadays, but I do think it's interesting to see how many of the ships have the potential to provide different things for Kakashi.

"Jezz, what the hell are you talking about this time?"

Bear with me here, but well, Kakashi has more ships than I can count at this point, SO! Just to mention some examples:

First up we have Gai, who is Kakashi's constant. Kakashi's other side of the coin who never gave up on him. They've known each other since childhood, with all that entails, and I'd argue that Gai is likely the person who (in canon) knows Kakashi the best out of everyone - including past Obito and Rin. Gai has seen and BEEN with Kakashi at his absolute worst, but also seen and been there as Kakashi slowly worked through it all and came out alive on the other side. Gai might call Kakashi his rival, but it's obvious they're best friends, and they completely trusts each other to 120%.

Secondly we have Iruka, who I'd argue is perfect as Kakashi's grounding. The one who takes Kakashi down a peg or two when needed. Iruka has both called Kakashi out on his bullshit in the past and continues to do so as well, but it's still obvious they respect each other a great deal. Naruto is obviously something that connects them, but from the little I've watched the Boruto series it's obvious Kakashi and Iruka are also portrayed them as friends on their own.

(Which is honestly a great foundation of any relationship - start as friends before you see if you also want something else out of it. After all, why choose between getting a friend or a partner when you can get both in the same person?).

My last example is Kurenai. There's something bittersweet there, but I do think she and Kakashi could make a great couple. Something sweet, and in a sense a... calm lull of love? Especially compared to the other ones he's shipped with. Anyway, Kurenai lost her partner and father of their child when Asuma died, and Kakashi lost one of his good friends. But they made it through. They still live. Kurenai also has a bunch of moments where she shows pretty good insight into Kakashi's thoughts, and there's a lot of understanding between the two of them. I guess my bottom-line is that I see some great potential in a relationship between Kakashi and Kurenai. Additional bonus is that the thought of Kakashi accidentally becoming the bonus dad/older uncle-figure to Mirai is kind of funny, because he probably thought he was done with raising children in any capacity after the mess that was Team 7 (which honestly wasn't his fault). Like sure, Kakashi will do it and he loves the child (Mirai), but he sure as heck didn't plan for this. x'D

.

There's obviously a lot of ships out there for Kakashi (such as with Yamato, Rin and Obito just to mention another 3), but my point is that different ships with Kakashi provides very different vibes of what they'd do and provide for Kakashi. None of them are wrong or better than the other(s), but I find them interesting to keep in mind.

Though Idk. Maybe my 4am musings won't make sense to anyone else. x)