#— in character ( maiza ) !

[mariocki]

La tumba de los muertos vivientes (Oasis of the Zombies, 1982)

"Why are you burning the body?"

"You must burn it. Otherwise it comes back. Yes, we must burn the bodies of the damned. He had met the sentries who guard the great secret. They would have reclaimed him after his death."

[allinory-art-portfolio]

Doodling ocs when I really should sleep or prepare for classes lol

[boundlss]

frankly i love writing melvi in situations that aren't with luck because i love it when he is an asshole and unapologetic about it

[empiriical]

i know i don’t write firo yet but there’s just something about a heavily trans-coded character finding a place && a group of people that see him for who he is && what he brings to the table && even though he has reservations about belonging among them, they make him feel welcome && validated that he deserves to be there because that’s who he is, && he’s proud of that. also he’s like. mean. && I think we deserve that rep

[maizafaruno]

jeez the blorbos from my shows has invaded my subconscious and unconscious (i have dreamt about them 6 or 7 times in the last 4 months)

[gunmeister]

i actually genuinely consider baccano to be a masterclass when it comes to compelling relationship characters and i mean this in the romantic platonic and familial way. it's one of the only pieces of media where i've genuinely enjoyed the majority of the canon ships. it has realistic healthy AND unhealthy sibling dynamics (maiza & gretto and the gandor brothers are genuinely some of the best siblings i have encountered. in media). when two characters are friends (chane & jacuzzi, chris & ricardo, maiza & begg) i genuinely do believe and understand them being close to eachother and getting along.

[inputanimeoutput]

3, 9, and 15 for the b! ask game! ^^

3. Favorite character? Least favorite?

Claire is my absolute favorite. I have a thing for assassins in media in general. You give me a series where at least half the cast are assassins in some right, you know I have many favorites already. Claire is just something else though. His solipsism is just so fascinating as is his sense of morality and justice. I also appreciate his relationship with Chane, and Chane is one of my favorites as well.

Also love the throwaway line that Claudia has in the cruise ship arc that insinuates Claire (in his 80s at the very least) is on a deep sea dive to get a sword from a sunken pirate ship for his and Chane's anniversary as a gift. It's just a perfect example of how the gears in his mind work. Also, get you a man who will dive to the bottom of the ocean for a pretty sword to give to you on your anniversary, apparently!

As for least favorite, right now it's that b-tch Melvi. Hate that guy right now. I'm sure something will happen in canon, and I'll wind up loving him, but right now, I hate him. Hate that I need the next volume but am not getting it because of the stupid Fate franchise. I also hate Fermet, but I feel like that's by design.

9. Character you’d like to see more of?

As much as I'd love to see more of Claire...and I would take any Claire morsels that I could be given...I honestly want to see more of Tick. We got backstory and stuff for him, but I wanna see more of him with the Gandors.

15. Which character makes you the most emotional?

I obviously have a soft spot for Czes, but honestly, the two characters that make me the most emotional are Miria and Maiza. I absolutely adore Miria, and the novel arc where she's separated from Isaac shows just how absolutely intelligent and grounded she really is. By the same token, it shows the same for Isaac. It gets me.

Then there's Maiza, who is just a solidly good guy, and the whole connections everyone has with him and that he maintains with everyone, including the fault he blames on himself, it just is very loaded and makes me feel things.

[drfeelgreed]

alba can you give us a list of ur top ten favorite baccano character lines / pieces of dialogue ?

OKAYYY okay this is not going to be in any particular order. spoilers WILL be present in this because i'm incapable of doing things like this without also yapping for 10 hours. okay here we go!

"You ain't [seen/heard] nothin' yet!"

This is a short but sweet one. Multiple characters say this in Drug & the Dominoes because a minor throughline of that novel is the then-recent development of silent movies into features with sound. The line is a reference to the first line in the movie The Jazz Singer, which features prominently in the backstory of Kate Gandor, who loses her job as an organist for silent films shortly after the release of the movie. It doesn't really carry too much meaning to any of the characters who say it, but I love repeated bits that are snuck into stories and this one is no exception. As far as I remember, Claire, Isaac, and Miria are the ones to say this prominently, and both in the context of a show; Isaac and Miria when they're showing off their dominos to Firo, and Claire when he's putting on a show during a fight!

"You saved the butterfly. Nothing wrong with that."

Isaac Dian said this one. It happens during one of my favorite exchanges in general during Volume 10: 1934 Peter Pan in Chains! The context is that Isaac and the homunculus hivemind Sham are on a train together, and Sham is curious about Isaac, interrogating him with some philosophical questions. He poses a hypothetical to Isaac---wherein a person walking through the forest saves a butterfly from the spider's web, but in doing so causes the spider to go hungry. Isaac says this as rebuttal, then says that both the butterfly and the spider could get lucky or unlucky to get that kind of help at any time, so individual action doesn't matter. It's very insightful on paper but he kind of talks around himself explaining it to try and make it seem less insightful than it is.

"Drat. I went and left my wallet in the storehouse when we were helping them clean this afternoon." "Eek! We're penniless!" "I think it's probably still there. Could you run out real quick and get it for me?" "Okay! Hang on just a minute, Isaac!"

This one is, as you can probably guess, Isaac and Miria, from Volume 8: 1934 Alice in Jails: Prison. It's longer than the rest of these are going to be but I couldn't leave it out! In this scene, Isaac and Miria are at the Alveare when a cop who recognizes them as thieves sits down with them under the guise of taking them both in and tricking them into admitting their crimes. At some point during the conversation, Isaac sends Miria to get his wallet (which he didn't actually lose) because he KNOWS this guy is a cop and is sending her to safety. She leaves, and when she gets back, Isaac is already gone; the cop is taking him in so Victor Talbot can use him as a pawn in Alcatraz. Miria breaks down sobbing. Rough scene. I think about the wallet exchange OFTEN.

"Maiza. Thank you ... for ... not ... eating ... me ..."

This one's also from Drug & the Dominos. It just has some of my personal favorite lines, haha. This is technically said by two characters on two separate occasions, but I'm specifically talking about the epilogue where Begg says it to Maiza. Begg is one of Maiza's old friends from the 1700s---at least, they were both alchemists at the same time in the same city. Begg was a drug addict and manufacturer and was obsessed with creating the perfect, happy world for himself and others by creating a drug with a permanent high. By the 2000s, his use had put him into a near-catatonic state despite his immortality, and he was barely able to move and generally only spoke as though sleep-talking. Maiza enters his hospital room in the epilogue and considers devouring him out of mercy, but when Begg starts talking out loud to indicate he *has* found happiness in reliving his days before 1711 while he was Czes's guardian, Maiza decides not to eat him. Begg says this as he's about to leave the hospital room. Fucks me up.

"See you around, puppet. I'm going to become 'human' soon."

It's not really a secret that Melvi Dormentaire is one of my favorite characters in all of Baccano!, so a lot of my enjoyment of this line from Volume 21 comes from the intense overanalyzing of it that I've done. It's interesting, because normally when Melvi talks about his fate, he very decisively says he's going to become the next Szilard Quates. And he does say that after this line and a break in dialogue, but... It's just interesting to me, combined with some other characters' estimations of Melvi's character, to look deeper into the thought that his real desire might just be to experience feeling the way a human would, since he wouldn't have ever gotten that opportunity before ...

"I'd like to request a more logical conversation." "Denied. I'm pretty sure I couldn't beat you at logical conversation."

This one's from Volume 8 again. It's an exchange between Huey Laforet and Victor Talbot, and I mostly picked it to represent the entire conversation because it's a particularly funny exchange. Mostly, it's just Huey reminiscing about why Victor had locked him up below Alcatraz in the first place and Victor taking the most swear words possible to say the fewest logical things. These lines sum the whole dynamic up pretty well. I think they should kiss tbh but that's off topic.

"You don't have to keep your promise, either."

Ouch. This one is from Drug & The Dominos too. Two of my favorite characters who got removed entirely from the anime cut of this arc are Edith and her drug-addicted boyfriend Roy Maddock. Roy has a strange hypersensitivity to drugs, and he's tried and failed multiple times to get clean, and because of that his relationship with Edith is hanging by a thread. During the climax of the story after being separated throughout, Roy has resolved to himself to quit for real this time when he's approached by Begg, who's been secretly using Roy to test out his drugs unbeknownst to both of them. When Roy refuses to take his latest prototype, he holds Edith at gunpoint so Roy will shoot up, which has the potential to kill him because of his sensitivity.

Edith is big on promises, and had previously promised Roy that if he got off drugs, she'd stick with him. Roy declares he can't keep his promise as he takes the drug and tells Edith she doesn't have to keep hers either. Begg loosens his grip on Edith... And then Roy uses some shattered glass on the ground to slit both of his wrists to get the drug out of his system or die trying. Thankfully, he does survive and is fully clean as of early 1935.

"Wonderful. You've put on a very interesting show here."

It's a pretty innocuous line by itself but like most of these I'm generally referring to the scenes they take place as part of. This one was also Melvi, from Volume 18, and it's the start of the absolute most BM shit anyone has ever done in all of Baccano!, and I think about it every single day. Melvi, having walked into Firo's casino on one of the most batshit fights of all time, comments on it. Ladd makes a snide comment back that he should pay to watch, and Melvi goes "hm? oh, like this?" and then proceeds to rig 7 straight slot machines in the casino to hit the jackpot. It's the one time Melvi manages to look cool across the whole 1935 arc but damn does he pull it off.

"What's the difference? Even I lived in the usual way---and when I'm dying, I don't want to die... Somebody tell me... What is it? What's the difference?"

This one is Christopher Shaldred, in Volume 7. He's bleeding out on the floor when he says it, having been hit by an attack from someone he hadn't killed at the beginning of this novel. Christopher in general has a strange relationship with humanity at large, considering himself separate from it and therefore having no issue killing people, really. This line marks a change in him, where he begins to question whether he and humanity are really so far apart, and after this he actually struggles to kill people unprovoked because he's finally experienced what dying like an ordinary person feels like. It's important to me. Ok? Ok.

"My gun---is in my heart!"

A classic from Volume 2. It would be a crime not to put this on here. I'd even go as far as calling this the best one of the list! You've seen the anime so you probably remember, but this was said during the fight between Jacuzzi and Goose! Earlier in the story, Isaac and Miria had inspired Jacuzzi to take initiative by telling him a REAL cowboy keeps a gun in his heart ... And Jacuzzi points it at Goose, who mocks him for trying to stop him with literally nothing but a single small cherry bomb from Nice. It's amazing, spectacular, perfect, no notes. Jacuzzi is an icon and the moment.

I love you for asking me to do this. Never ask me to do it again.

[krenenbaker]

so, uh... I sent my friend a few photos of characters I'm drawn to

(Roger (ikevil), Trey (twst), Maiza (Baccano!), Faust (ikevamp))

and her first response was categorizing them as 4 different types of queer, including "Masc queer" (Roger) and "Sassy queer" (Faust)??

which like... I'm not going to say is wrong exactly?

[roboraindrop]

i do remember seeing you post about baccano a while back and i'd wanted to ask you about it, but i hadn't seen you mention it in a while, so i wasn't sure if you still shipped in it!! it makes me happy to know it's a comfort anime for you!

i watched it way back in 2019 and have had a crush on luck ever since then, but i only just recently made him into an official f/o ahaha 🥰💕

Oh friend, I'm so glad that you messaged me!! 😁 Baccano is probably my favorite anime of all time tbh, it's so good! (': I love soooo many of characters. Luck is such a good character and omg. That so exciting!! He loves you so much, there's absolutely no debating that!

I'm still very much shipping with Ladd, though I don't talk about my ship with him too much because of the Themes™ y'know djdjsjhs I also have familials from it- Maiza and Firo are my brothers, and Czes is like my son (':

[closedcoffins]

muse-specific content warnings

NOTE: not all of these apply to what i plan to write with these characters, but they very well might come up in general discussion. if you feel writing with or seeing content for any given muse might make you uncomfortable, this is where i am listing down their content warnings so you can blacklist specific muse tags! note that aside from violence and unreality, i will be tagging all of these separately as well.

as a general rule, most discussion of my muses will involve mafia or gang violence. if you do not like that. you probably should not be here. sorry.

every muse tag is formatted like ' muse: character name '. for simplicity's sake, characters' names will be listed in the manner in which i tag them, so characters for whom i have made up last names will only be listed with their first name in this post as i only tag those characters using their first names.

claire stanfield: graphic depictions of violence, solipsism and mild unreality.

maria barcelito: graphic depictions of violence.

graham specter: graphic depictions of violence (specifically of the broken bones and joints variety).

jacuzzi splot: detailed descriptions of panic attacks. mild violence.

nice holystone: graphic depictions of violence (of the bombing variety), self-injury and scarring, eye trauma.

huey laforet: parental abuse of the manipulative variety, arson, parental death, graphic depictions of violence, human experimentation, student-teacher relationships, eye trauma.

melvi dormentaire: parental abuse and grooming, graphic depictions of violence, identity theft, terrorism.

luchino b. campanella: descriptions of vomiting, mild violence.

luck gandor: graphic descriptions of violence, apathy due to depression.

sham: identity theft, manipulation, hivemind themes.

ronny schiatto: mild unreality.

christopher shaldred: graphic descriptions of violence, major self-hatred, mild themes of the extinction of humanity, occasional discussion of bugs.

isaac dian: N/A.

ladd russo: graphic depictions of violence, the US prison system.

maiza avaro: graphic depictions of violence, general recklessness in cars.

upham: terrorism.

chané laforet: terrorism, parental grooming and mild abuse, self mutilation by way of willingly having her vocal cords removed.

gabriel & juliano: graphic depictions of violence.

pamela: kidnapping, gun violence.

lana: kidnapping, gun violence.

sonja bake: kidnapping, gun violence, human weapons.

rachel: N/A.

molsa martillo: graphic depictions of violence.

victor talbot: graphic depictions of violence, the US government and lawmaking systems, gratuitous cursing, national corruption.

keith gandor: graphic depictions of violence.

berga gandor: graphic depictions of violence.

kate gandor: N/A.

kalia gandor: N/A.

laz smith: not necessarily gun violence but a lot of mentions of guns specifically.

mark wilmens: graphic depictions of violence, suicidal thoughts.

roy maddock: past drug addiction and frequent drug mentions, self-harm, suicide attempts, graphic depictions of violence.

edith: frequent drug mentions in relation to roy.

nicola casetti: graphic depictions of violence.

tick jefferson: GRAPHIC depictions of violence and torture.

tim: grooming in the nonsexual way, human experimentation, graphic depictions of violence.

elmer c. albatross: cult activity and related abuse, religious trauma, suicide mentions, graphic depictions of violence.

dallas genoard: graphic depictions of violence, intense descriptions of drowning, severe ptsd symptoms, mild internalized homophobia.

rail: graphic violence of the bombing variety, human experimentation.

lua klein: graphic depictions of violence, suicidal idealation.

charon walken: the US child actor industry.

claudia walken: solipsism and mild unreality, the US child actor industry.

aging: graphic depictions of violence.

sylvie lumiere: human trafficking, abuse, mild violence.

gretto avaro: parental abuse, arson, mild violence, major character death.

monica campanella: past sexual assault, graphic depictions of violence, major character death.

esperanza c. boroñal: past sexual assault in reference to monica's past.

begg garrott: heavy drug use creation & addiction.

nile: graphic depictions of violence.

hong chi-mei: graphic depictions of violence.

renee parmedes branvillier: graphic depictions of violence, human experimentation, student-teacher relationships, eye trauma.

nader schasschule: terrorism, manipulation.

gustav st. germain: N/A.

carol: N/A.

carzelio runorata: graphic depictions of violence, bears.

leeza laforet: parental abuse, human experimentation, identity theft, hivemind themes, graphic depictions of violence, eye trauma.

adele: graphic depictions of violence, human experimentation.

ricardo russo: identity theft, graphic depictions of violence, apathy due to depression.

ennis: human experimentation, mild violence.

mark twain: parental abuse, graphic depictions of violence, mild unreality, cult mentions, past suicide attempts, survivor's guilt.

roger zelazny: graphic depictions of violence.

cahir mawr dyffryn aep ceallach: war, graphic depictions of violence, attempted kidnapping, inprisonment, major character death.

cyran azerrad kapral: graphic depictions of violence.

camille renaudin: living dolls, mild unreality.

yuri briar: borderline siscon, corrupt government operations.

puss in boots: general themes of death and mortality, graphic descriptions of violence.

hatsune miku: mild unreality, AI technology.

ice pick joe: graphic depictions of violence.

yemevon: graphic depictions of violence and sickness.

[c4rdsharp]

@rhpsdys replied to your post:

pls do i want to know ur thoughts (<— was a warriors kid too)

meechi. you are so real for this. i won't go SUPER in - depth ( in terms of giving them warrior names & whatnot ), but i'd like to give my two cents on alignment / background for the characters in a hypothetical W.arriors - like world. I'll just go down & do the primary cast in the 1930s for rn :

Firo : okay, okay. hear me out : a kit of a former kittypet who was adopted into WindClan. He spent some time as a loner before then, approaching apprenticeship age by the time he was allowed in. I'm not sure why, but he has very big WindClan vibes to me. Perhaps it's the fact WindClan cats adapt a speedy, more agile approach to hunting & fighting that gives me that sense. i also think the other reason is that WindClan tends to be more neutral ; they're smaller & thinner than the other clans & tend to be the underdogs in most fights. i also think Firo having a disbelief in StarClan to clash against the heavy faith / pride WindClan has being the closest to them would be interesting. I cannot conceive of an AU where he isn't adopted into an affiliation of some sort.

Maiza : former rogue - turned loner who was also adopted into WindClan. He was part of the reason Firo even got accepted into WindClan in the first place, and had any ability to socially adapt in a society that is pretty reticent against outsiders. I like to think Maiza does have a certain level of faith into StarClan ; perhaps a closer connection to them than most warriors ought to have. While I do think he's a pretty senior warrior by the time Firo is allowed in as an apprentice, he has a considerable amount of knowledge regarding herbs & various remedies, almost as if he was a former healer of sorts. There's a lot more to him than meets the eye.

Ronny : I like to think he's similar to what Rock or Fallen Leaves is -- a ghost - like entity of a former community of cats long since passed, but who has yet to move on. Providing wisdom, insights, and mostly cryptic nonsense to whomever is listening to him. He hangs out somewhere on WindClan territory, and you can't visit him during the daytime.

Ennis : A kittypet - turned - WindClan warrior. Szilard, another kittypet she lived under, had used to spend time as a loner in the wilds. Being old, he couldn't afford to take care of himself after a certain point & allowed the Twolegs to do all the bidding for him, even going so far as to bring Ennis to their doorstep. He used her for practically everything ; their Twolegs were neglectful, allowing the both of them to have a certain freedom, but Ennis felt obligated to take care of Szilard in the duration. Szilard had his own ambitions in place with another group of elder kittypets, using their resources to pool together some sort of research that involved the woodland cats. However, after a certain incident traveling into the moors, Firo had killed Szilard & convinced the clan to allow Ennis to join. Unlike the elder cat, she already knew how to fight & hunt, being his primary caretaker, and was gifted a warrior name almost immediately.

The Gandors : listen to me, listen -- they're in ShadowClan as warriors, but they're half - ThunderClan. Their father had raised them once the three had been old enough to walk across the border from ThunderClan. The rest of the Clan had been unable to let them live down their half - blood origins, so the three of them having no one else did their hardest to prove their worth to the eyes of others. They've managed to succeed enough to be seen as loyal & worthy supporters of their Clan, but some more foolish rivals make the mistake of still underestimating them.

Claire : Rogue formerly of ShadowClan. He was adopted into the same litter as the Gandors when his parents both died during an attack. He had stayed to become an apprentice, but once the Gandors' father had died, he left the Clan for 'unknown reasons.' although he isn't hostile to any of the clans, he's still considered dangerous & that others ought to be wary. For some reason, he dropped his warrior name and insists on being called 'Vino.'

Maria : a rogue from ThunderClan who is now currently in ShadowClan. ThunderClan cats tend to have a lot of energy & hotblood, imo, but they're also pretty staunch believers in the warrior code. Maria may have a hard time settling in with her community, forcing herself to leave when the one elder she looked up to passed away. She was on her own for awhile before being brought into ShadowClan by the Gandors.

Tick : A frail - looking ShadowClan warrior, formerly a kittypet. Luck had brought him in during his apprentice years, much to everyone else's chagrin. However, despite all appearances, Tick turned out to be a valuable asset, reliable even. He doesn't seem to have an interest in StarClan as a whole, but he acknowledges the warrior code since it matters to the Gandors so much.

Eve : A pampered kittypet who lives right outside ShadowClan territory. She knows very little of the woodland cats and tends to keep to her Twoleg's nest whenever possible. However, when her brother Dallas had not returned for some time, she steeled her nerves & entered the pine forest where he was last seen going.

Dallas : He's one of those kittypets who spends most days outdoors. He causes trouble & various mischief around Twolegplace, but especially with the ShadowClan warriors. He's tried hunting on their territory a number of times, and even attempted to convince them to join, but they've chased him off every single time. He's more akin to a rogue nowadays, wandering the clan territories & getting yowled at every day by someone new.

Jacuzzi, Nice, & Co. : frankly, i don't think they should be in ANY clan. they're a group of loners who hang around Twolegplace. They're pretty friendly, but are prone to causing trouble with the clan cats by hunting in their territories from time - to - time. They've had issues with BloodClan in the past, but now experience far more reign with Scourge died and BloodClan dismantled.

Ladd : Rogue, formerly affiliated with BloodClan. Much like Maria, he ends up working alongside ShadowClan after some convincing. However, he's a hard guy to control & predict. It's probably not an arrangement that's going to last long, and he finds the idea of a warrior code irksome. ESPECIALLY since said code doesn't let him kill whoever he wants to when he wants to.

Lua : A kittypet who left home to follow Ladd on his ventures. She has no interest in clan life, and none of the ShadowClan cats really think highly of her, but she does seem to have an unusual knack for reading premonitions & omens. It causes some disdain that she may make an adequate healer for the clan, although Lua has expressed very little interest in taking that initiative. No one, except Ladd, really knows what she wants or what she's here for.

Huey : Loner brought into RiverClan. He has had two kits there with another loner who disappeared back into Twolegplace soon after. Their names are Leeza & Chané. Leeza is currently with him back in RiverClan, but Chané met the same fate as her mother, disappearing with a mysterious rogue into the same place. He's the clan's current healer -- although they are not allowed to have kits, his were born before his appointing of the position. Huey is only in this position by convenience, as the former healer died before having chosen an apprentice & he was the only one readily available in the clan to have any knowledge of herbs. Huey seems cordial enough, but I like to think he's manipulating the clan leader & the senior warriors who trust him to do his bidding ( and seeing as how he can just make up StarClan prophecies & omens to promote his own wants, the clan questions him very little overall ).

Chané : She is with Jacuzzi's group in Twolegplace, although she was formerly of RiverClan. She was brought there by 'Vino,' after a certain incident in the river. Unused to the sort of bonds Jacuzzi & his gang exhibit, as she has always been an outsider to the RiverClan cats despite her natural combat prowess, she finds herself a new home in amongst the streets near Eve's place.

Czeslaw : A loner kit who was taken in by another loner who abused his trust. He had killed the loner after some time, and ran into the clan territories, hoping to avoid any familiar faces from a past long since considered dead. He did not realize Maiza would be among the fast - running clan cats ; he was eventually taken in by the WindClan cats as an apprentice of theirs, training under Firo currently.

Isaac & Miria : Former kittypets - turned - loners who keep traveling in and out of the clan territories, befriending practically everyone they ever meet by sheer accident ( yes, even the ShadowClan cats ). There isn't much to note about them, but I like to think they are unknowingly CloudClan descendants!

Elmer : Honestly? He's probably still just a regular loner, but with a friendly connection to RiverClan in particular, being that's where Huey is staying currently.

[empiriical]

"i have no doubt," maiza says, && there's fondness in that dry tone of his. they have complimentary senses of humor, && maiza can't remember when that started, or if it had always been like that. regardless, he's lived far more of his life by ronny's side than not ; it's only reasonable to assume that at some point, their personalities simply began to entwine.

much like every other aspect of their lives.

"to your credit, i think it would be difficult for me to fall harder than i have. that's not a challenge, by the way. you have too much time on your hands as it is."

with a quiet laugh, he winds his fingers together with ronny's. "actually, i wanted to ask your advice... no, your opinion, i guess, on something. it's... related. sort of."

"None of those things are beyond my capabilities," Ronny points out helpfully, too distracted by Maiza's smile to immediately give a witty response (though it's no less dry than usual). Even when his eyes slip closed, he sees it, and not only because of his general omnipresence. It certainly isn't the first time he's seen Maiza smile, but Ronny generally feels the need to catalogue each one to think back on.

That man really did strike gold with his wish, even if he didn't quite understand that my presence would absolutely help Maiza. It's not generally like me to feel competitive, but I've given him more reasons to smile than anyone else.

"Well, no matter. I'm a little hurt by the implication that I haven't already swept you off your feet," he continues, betraying no real signs of being hurt (or, as a matter of fact, that he even believes he hasn't). "All things considered, I'd say the distinct lack of clichés until this moment has worked just fine for you."

Ronny chuckles, an amused syllable, then takes full advantage of their proximity and relative privacy to steal another short but unhurried kiss from Maiza.

He sees the two of them standing in the rain from the perspective of another point in space, without meaning to. From the outside, there are no traces of immortality or alchemy, no slight hints of a demon lurking beneath the skin of an ordinary man. Ronny usually doesn't particularly like the idea of being someone completely ordinary, resolved as he is to live strikingly, but at Maiza's side he doesn't mind the simple image of one couple of a thousand kissing in the rain, or sharing cigarettes.

"If I was going to coerce you into falling harder, I'd find much more interesting ways to do so."

To be human is to be ordinary, in some ways, but Ronny still doesn't intend to be the latter.

[empiriical]

he's been especially stressed, && for once, without any particular source. the day-to-day business of the martillo family has slowed to a nigh-undetectable crawl aside from the operation of alveare && their other, smaller businesses. with maiza's role having changed too, he's felt listless — no, almost useless. still, it hasn't stopped him from stressing over hypothetical unmet needs of the family, even when molsa, ronny, && even firo tell him to just relax.

of course, something else has been eating at him, an idea that first occurred to him five or six years ago. he's kept it to himself, not even mentioning it to ronny, because to say it out loud is to speak it into existence, where the dream would either shatter or come to fruition... && either way, he'd have to grapple with the reality of it.

what this manifests as is extra fretting, clinging to relevancy in the family so that he has an excuse to simply push off the idea for another year or ten. everyone tells him to just relax, not to worry so much, 'it's OKAY, maiza. you've put in the time. over a century. you're MARRIED now, for god's sake. take a break.'

he wishes it were that simple.

i don't think i've wanted something this badly since i was a young foolish man in pursuit of finding independence through immortality. the truth is, i'm afraid to chase something so desperately again.

but when even ronny's advice && wisdom can't ease his mind, there's one person who always knows what to say.

" every once in a while, you must do something for yourself. "

luck gandor is a brilliant orator, the kind of speaker maiza imagines his own father always wanted him to be. he's never had quite the same ability to engage in conversation in a meaningful way that luck has, but rather than feeling jealous or inadequate in comparison, maiza simply does his best to appreciate the young(er) immortal's sensibility. so when luck manages to see through him, cutting right to the heart of the manner with finesse, maiza can't help but do smile sheepishly && divulge what's been weighing on him for the better half of a decade.

"i think i'm afraid of what happens to the identity i've built around the family if i practically change careers now. you... well, you know my history." he sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose. "&& you know that the martillos gave me the first real lifeline i'd found — other than ronny — since i became immortal. this is who i am, && times are already changing so fast... i'm nervous to take that leap, i suppose."

maiza shakes his head && leans back in his chair, sipping at his nearly-empty coffee simply to stall his next words.

"but there is something i want to do. && it would be for myself. probably the most selfish, frivolous pursuit imaginable." he almost feels shy sharing the secret with luck, but he knows he won't judge him. he's never judged him on anything. "i saved a substantial amount of money in the last two hundred years or so, && i want to put it into something. i want to — produce a show, on broadway. a musical." he gives a small, self-deprecating laugh. "stupid, isn't it? but, well, you know. you know i love the theatre, it's always a welcome escape, && i... i want to just.... do something new && different. is that very foolish?"

deathless . / @futurecomposed

[nightingale-bloom]

sorry that i blew up my entire fantasy world. it's still happening and i'll probably do it again when i'm done.

note: delinia is actually dead tho. felt like chains, so i'm killing it and looting the body. it was just getting too hectic bc I was piling everything i made onto it with little consideration for what already existed. rip the pantheons ig, they're not coming back even remotely similar. list of stuff that still exists:

brielle! (she was originally delinian, ik that i never said it but she was) also ethel, carrion, rialla, marjory, flora. maybe jin with a name change and quetzal with a species adjustment due to the lack of dragonborn in this new world. if I feel like it.

the fire queen/elemental rulers characters. boy they were messy back in the day, they were begging to be fixed. so i'm doing that. in a bit. alexander, my boy. he deserved so much better.

the gods. only sorta though. the pantheon as it was is dead, though Manosena (elder war) will be inspired by my previous war god raziel and his successor ajax. they come back as these colonizer self-deifying guys called iluminar. the one art post I made a few weeks ago depicted one of them, joven. one of the mcs of the book, will learn that his people are awful oppressors. his outfit ain't final, I just dressed him however for fun since I didn't have any particular uniforms or styles for iluminar at the time.

ajax! I love him too much to get rid of him. one of my previous delinian war gods. delinia's pantheon was a revolving door where gods could retire or be essentially fired by the founders, high gods that don't have the same choice as the others. but anyway he was batshit insane. drank blood, lotta chaos. you gotta have some of those sprinkled in for funsies. surprisingly sane at the meeting table and very sweet with his husband. still eats despite not needing to, a bit of a habit due to still feeling hungry three times a day. normally wears off for gods but he hasn't let it yet.

might bring the aquatica kids back. I already tried once before, but with more species-building experience, I think I could actually do it this time. rip Luca thao though, his original iteration could be coming back and he isn't.

Roma! she's another character from mesahearth, and I absolutely have to find something to do with her. well-read, not afraid of demons. could make her a summoner of a sort?

the glimmer, though they're now the maiza. hated their original concept almost immediately after I made it, and decided to scavenge them for their parts to make the maiza, a tribal forest people currently fighting tooth and nail for their homeland. the iluminar are absolutely false gods to them. their gods give back, but the iluminar keep for themselves. still more parts on that glimmer wreck (shapeshifting, water activated markings) that I could use later in other species/races.

all those dragons I made years ago probably shouldn't go to waste, huh? yuna's probably gonna get her knucklebones used for fortune-telling, though. don't care for her much.

and everything else I've made since the death of my first world has been pretty new, as far as I can tell. I never had a werewolf in any of my past stories, right? /s