#( anyways i did have her outfit green at first to match her necklace. might change that back )

[endawn]

i made a 'joke' durge

[cor-lapis]

I decided to have a go at doing my own redesigns because these three are my favourites and I love them very much. further notes + sources under the readmore (warning: lots of text). I did my best with the research, but if there's anything I overlooked, I'd really appreciate people letting me know :)

Tighnari:

My main source for Tighnari was this excellent thread, from which I looked up each item of clothing individually. Since djellabas tend to be quite long, and Tighnari needs mobility for forest ranger activities, I figured he would cut and re-hem the lower half. He also has a lot of clothing pieces that are traditionally multicoloured, but to keep his design cohesive I decided to use the same colours across different items, but using a larger palette of colours than I would usually. I like the bright colours on him a lot though!

There are also some minor details I just changed because I wanted to. The flower on his chest is now a nilotpala lotus, because I thought it was nice to include his acension material/the material he asks you to help gather. The dirt stains/scuff marks are because rainforests are muddy and I wanted the design to emphasise Tighnari being very practical and hands-on with his work (see also, the specimen belt).

Finally, I shrunk the magnifying glass on his back (because I'm pretty sure it's meant to be his first magnifying glass toy and that thing is very large for a child to handle) and gave him an undercut because it seemed right. Also, I merged his front and back trailing cloths into a scarf type of thing that he could wrap around his nose and mouth to prevent inhaling spores from mushrooms.

Collei:

COLLEI my beloved. I had a mild nightmare trying to figure out a specific source culture for her design, but nobody seemed to know specifics and her outfit wasn't matching with any traditional dress I looked up, so in the end decided to keep the overall look the same. Just in case I assigned her something else, but then it turned out I missed her actual inspiration.

Anyway, I made her shoes simpler (no fur, heels, and open toes in the rainforest seemed reasonable to me), and gave her shorts. I liked the green colour because it's pretty unique under a dark dress, and pairs nicely with Nahida's white dress + green undersides. Amber's tie stays, but I made most of her jewellery smaller since it felt a little clunky for a trainee ranger.

Her earring and necklace(?) are allusions to the Evil Eye and the Khmissa/Hamsa, both symbols of protection. Especially considering the fact they're meant to ward off evil, and very common across multiple MENA cultures, it seemed fitting for Collei to have them. Also, she has Eleazar scars, and I used the design for her stockings as inspiration for the combination knee braces (similar to those used for arthritis, since Eleazar also causes stiff limbs and I HC that people affected would probably still need some recovery support)/knee pads (in the case of a fall). I like the idea that Kaveh would have helped make them for her (tangent but the fic Here is the House explores similar ideas; it's really really good, I heavily recommend it). Finally, she has curly hair because I thought it would be cute.

Cyno:

Here's the thread I found for Cyno. The main critique was to do with the eras from which each aspect of his clothing drew inspiration, but I admittedly wouldn't be able to do much about this without a lot of research. One thing I did try and verify was the small strip of cloth on the left of his chest, and I found a few wall murals where the people seem to be wearing similar strips of cloth? (example here; rightmost figure) Therefore, I didn't remove it, but if someone wants to explain Ancient Egyptian clothing history to me I'd be really interested to hear it 6.6

I might iterate on the design in the future, but for now the changes are mostly HC territory. Cyno wearing his hair in locs (a protective hairstyle) makes sense for someone who does a lot of hiking after rogue scholars, and I also gave him quite old and faded top surgery scars because healthcare is canonically free in Sumeru (thanks for that information, al-Haitham)(though tbf Cyno makes bank anyway). I also adjusted the colours a bit, since Genshin tends to use desaturated shades for metallic elements.

I also considered giving Cyno more scars, but figured that it could indicate Hermanubis' presence that someone you'd expect to get injured a lot is relatively scar-free (i.e. some sort of godly healing factor/resistance to damage). However, we know next to nothing about Hermanubis, so Cyno having a lot of scars also makes sense. This paragraph is mostly just a cry for help cyno story quest 2 literally any more elaboration about the nature of Hermanubis' pact and the Temple of Silence.

Conclusion

I wasn't intending to write one when I started the explanations but this got REALLY long so if you made it this far, thank you so so much ToT please check out the links; the threads especially were a great resource, and I'm grateful that people take the time to make them <3 genshin's character design department are cowards but I'm glad I learned some new things through the redesign process

[crystalizedcryolite]

While waiting for me to finally finish the next chapter..

DESIGN ANALYSIS FOR MY VIGILANTE AU >:D

As always, let's start in rainbow order! But first things first; all CG members have matching eyes, in one way or another! Red has yellow eyes, Orange has green eyes, Yellow has orange eyes, Green has blue eyes, and Blue has red eyes!! I might change things depending on how it looks, though.

Anyway, Red!!

I'll admit, I'm definitely giving him a design upgrade, but let's talk about this one.

Ah, the classic yellow bandanna. How could I leave it out? It's iconic!

His hair is definitely the wildest out of everyone's. A lot of black and grey in his design, too, which makes the yellow bits and the light-up shoes REALLY stand out.

The yellow matches his eyes and bandanna, and is reminiscent of that media trope with seeing yellow eyes peek from the darkness. The mask is, of course, to hide his face. Red didn't really seem like the guy to wear a visor like Green, or cover his entire face like Blue, so he gets that mask! Might change that, who knows.

His outfit looks thrown together with not that amount of effort. Very casual, as Green pointed out. Before Orange, he was the latest addition to the team, which can mean he can be a bit inexperienced. Wanted to convey that somehow!

Light-up shoes, oh, light-up shoes... who doesn't love them? Green certainly doesn't, but Red disagrees!

Next one!

Orange/Sketch

Now, I didn't draw their vigilante outfit yet, but I added the description of it to give an idea!

I wanted her hair to give a very anime-protagonist feel, if that made sense? Not sure if I got that right but it works for me! And hey! Freckles!

Working clothes: His pants are covered in paint to give an artist-like feel. (I should know. I paint a lot and some of my clothes did NOT survive the process.) As for the top and apron, I wanted it to feel like an actual café worker's uniform without it being a basic starbucks rip-off.

Vigilante outfit: VERY reminiscent of outfits animated characters would wear in scenes where they're doing some graffiti on the streets. That was my main inspiration behind the design.

Also in dark colors. They have to blend into the darkness and stuff!

The pouch mentioned was for practical sake; as is something I like to do when thinking of designs. And it helps with the artistic urge to draw at any time, regardless of what the situation is.

Not much to say about Orange's design, besides the fact that I wanted to give it a very protagonist-y vibe.

Yellow/Y

The second design is more or less his actual vigilante outfit, buuuut yeah!

Curly hair -despite my inability to draw it- and Yellow has been a favorite hc of mine!

His outfit is somewhat inspired by steampunk? Not exactly, but I DID have steampunk in mind while making it! The pilot's jacket was the best change yet.

Someone on a03 has told me that he looks like Alan, somehow! I'm not sure if I see it, so does anyone else see it? It would be a funny coincidence if so!

Green/Songbird

His hair is my favorite part of my Green design so I HAD to keep it! The classic headphones are there with a gamer-ish colour scheme.

VERY hip-hop and streetdance inspired! His visor is a reference to the sunglasses Orange gave him in the "More Faces" short, rather than his sunglasses in the Influencer Arc.

His clothes are a reference to the clothes I see my sister wear for her own dance training, and I love streetwear in general, so its a perfect fit! The necklace is just for show, though. Nothing practical about that, but it does look cool! Plus, it's a notion to his powers! His outfit is practical, but still shows off somehow, just like Green!

My vigilante!Green is the most experienced in the group, so I wanted him to look that way, somehow? And he definitely looks the most professional! I think!

Blue/The Witch

The second member to join the vigilante team!

I HAD to give her a hat. The witch's hat is a must. Practical? Not exactly. Cool? Yes, indeed.

The mask is my favorite part. A direct reference to the "Faces" short, AND a good way for Blue to, ahem, mask her identity (hehe a pun)

The sweater and coat combination seems strange, but it looks a little like a modern witch outfit? Trenchcoats definitely give a vigilante vibe in a way, and Yellow already had one, so Blue gets a belt and a sweater to go with it!

Blue definitely needed a bag for her potions. She can't just make them on the spot!- well, she can, but it would still be a hassle! She'd be the most practical when it comes to her clothing for vigilantism, after Yellow.

Purple/Aeolus!

Obviously, the cloak is a reference to elytra. The green hairtie, the bag and the cloak buckle is a reference to their mother, Orchid. You can see the vines on the bag strap, the flowers on the bag and buckle, and the leaf-shape on the hairtie.

There's also a lot of green on them, wink wink ;3

To hide their identity, they cover a majority of their face with the cloak hood!

It was hard to balance the colors, but I'm happy with the results! This one is simple compared to the others, but its still cool nonetheless!

Purple was meant to have ripped jeans but my drawing ability to low, so... sorry, Purple.

AAAAND THAT'S ALL! Sorry if this seemed boring or disappointing, or whatnot. I tried my best!

[powdermelonkeg]

So, BO2W Breakdown

Buckle up, this is gonna be a long one.

Here we’ve got Ganon’s...energy taking over Link’s arm. Ordinarily, I’d call it Malice, but based on what it turns into, I’m just going to be calling it corruption. We don’t get much information from this scene besides this expression:

Link’s grabbing the corruption with his other hand, and wincing. It looks painful. I personally think it’s for cinematic effect that it was included, but it COULD be a gateway into a Phantom Hourglass sort of mechanic--Link has to function on a time limit, or using the corruption’s power could drain his life.

Next we’ve got a closeup of Ganondorf. F in chat to the rehydration theorists.

And the closeups of his jewelry. The only significant thing I can see is his necklace, which looks like a cross between the Gerudo symbol and a Fleur de Lis:

But what I’M most interested in is this tie on his belt:

For one, it’s WAY bigger than it needs to be, and that’s deliberate. Ganondorf’s got a jewelry aesthetic he’s already hit above; everything else is gold, why not this bit?

Most importantly, you can barely make it out, but the designs either look Sheikah or Zonai--they’ve got that same kind of swirly busy pattern to them. The red tint and tan-ish lines in it makes me think it’s possessed Sheikah tech.

Next, we’re shown Zelda falling. This looks like it happens right after these two caps from the first trailer:

So we reach for her as the ground collapses, and evidently, we fail to pull her back up. So my next question for that scene is going to be what the in-game reason is for us not diving in right after her. Maybe we won’t get one, since the appeal of the original BOTW was that you could fight Ganon whenever you wanted.

Up next, we’ve got a skydiving shot:

The first thing to notice is that Link’s pose while skydiving is just about identical to his pose in Skyward Sword:

Second is that, yes, he’s falling towards a floating island, and that in itself is noteworthy, but he’s FALLING. There’s something either above him that he jumped off of, or a force that carried him high enough TO fall, and I doubt Nintendo’s encouraging magnesis flying.

So, there’s a few options: Loftwings making a return (which is unlikely, but a hope I have), something like Revali’s Gale boosting Link up for a cinematic shot, indicating that the corruption arm has that kind of power, or islands higher than the one shown here.

Now the island itself:

In Skyward Sword, Skyloft looks like this:

And (spoiler alert) we loose this island here over the course of the game:

Now, it’s not a PERFECT 1:1 match, as most things between games aren’t, but a quick rotate and overlay shows it’s got the same kinds of shapes between the two. The same “W” shape along the eastern side, the same tiny island off the northeast point, the same relative edges.

Now, I don’t know what happened to the plaza at South Skyloft, or the Knight’s Academy isle, but it could very easily be drift away from the central island.

The presence of other islands through the clouds seems to support that theory. Now let’s look at Link here:

The outfit is new. We haven’t, to my knowledge, seen one of this design in other games. My gut reaction to this image was “oh, we go back in time and we’re the first hero now!” because it’s vaguely reminiscent of Tapestry Hero.

But upon closer inspection, that theory’s null and void. Under Link’s tunic in the image above, you can see that he’s still wearing the shorts he woke up in in the first game. So either Sheikah boxers haven’t changed in 10,000 years, or it’s taking place in present day. Jokes aside, I’m curious to know if the outfit he’s wearing is modeled after Tapestry Hero.

Next thing to point out is the obvious:

Link’s arm here looks less prosthetic and more...withered, I almost want to say. The corruption here’s made his hand look frailer, and armored them up with Zonai patterns before it fades out at his shoulder. Based on how the tattoos look, I think they’re an artifact of the corruption taking hold.

Also, the belt here:

Aesthetic purposes, or specific function? The presence of the second, smaller one on the side reminds me of Skyward Sword’s adventure pouch, which could be how the new game handles inventory size:

Next we’ve got another flying shot:

It seems like he’s flying towards Ruined Skyloft, and you can see the bottoms of islands above it, possibly meaning that the sky serves as more than just a hub world like it did in Skyward.

Now let’s look at the paraglider he’s using. It’s new.

This is how the paraglider looks in the original BOTW. It looks like we still have the Rito symbol in the center, but other than that, there’s a LOT of changes here.

First off is the color. We’re now blue and gold. The shade of blue makes me think of the Kochi Dye Shop’s navy blue:

So, possibly a dyeable paraglider?

The new pattern surrounding the Rito symbol makes me think that it’s combining the paraglider with Skyward Sword’s sailcloth:

Other than that, there isn’t much else to say about the paraglider besides the handles looking like they’re made of bone. Craftable paragliders? God, I hope not.

Back to Link:

Here we have him in different gear than the last shot. He’s wearing the snow boots, he has a shield with a stylized Eye of Truth looking upwards, and he looks like he’s carrying a traveler’s sword and an unknown bow. The presence of the bow makes me think that the shield here is a lower tier item, rather than this game’s Hylian Shield equivalent.

Now, let’s get a better look at the horizon:

The trees here look a lot like the smaller trees you can find in Akkala, but there’s a distinct lack of red among them.

Then it looks like we’ve got some ruins at the furthest isle.

Whatever the rock formations are over there, they don’t LOOK natural.

Another thing I noticed is the bottoms of the islands.

These look a little too geometric to be natural, too. Now, this one, I’m a little muddy on, because it COULD be a stylistic choice. But it also reminds me of the Shrines if you clip out of bounds:

And a little bit of the dormant Gate of Time from Skyward:

My money’s on the cube-like nature of the islands’ undersides being deliberate, rather than just a far-off render.

And then there’s this thing!

What is it? It doesn’t look broken at all; look how nicely the roof(?) is kept. The ribbing on the sides makes me think it might be a Zonai thing, but the shape makes it difficult to figure out. A giant temple? An airship? A sloped coliseum? This thing haunts and vexes me.

Our next shot is presumably from one of the islands, based on the color. Here we can see that there are definitely ruins all over the place. Link is in the same gear as before, so I won’t touch on him.

This, however, has my interest. The design here has more geometric patterns--Zonai ruins?

We’ve got another one off in the distance here. Sky checkpoints, like Sheikah towers?

Now this guy here. There’s a LOT to look at. First off is the eye design, it’s the same sort of upward looking one that Link has on his shield in the previous shots.

The energy that’s pulling this thing towards its base looks like the same green energy that surrounds the arm holding Gan in place in Trailer One:

This stuff. That, plus the fact that the robot has to be pulled into its base rather than just existing, implies that either A: Link activates it himself, like a trial thing, or B: that the green energy here functions in the same way Malice does in the original BOTW.

This pattern at its base is intriguing, too. I don’t recognize the gold symbol in the center, but the green around it reminds me of the portals from Twilight Princess.

Which, yes, everyone’s already said that the Twilight Princess patterns look like Zonai things. But another thing this weird dial thing reminds me of is from Lanayru Desert:

On top of that, the color palette of this guy looks like that of the Lanayru Robots from Skyward:

BO2W robot on the left, Lanayru robot on the right. Given that Skyward is a lot more vibrant than other non-Toon Zelda games, I think this is a fair enough comparison to draw similarities from.

And then we get a closer view of the sky ruins from the last shot. I don’t know if the geometric pattern in the corner is a deliberate carving, or wear from time, but since the pattern looks ALMOST mirrored around the corner, I’m going to go with the former.

A better shot a few frames later. The robot has HANDS, which I do not like in any way shape or form. However, we get a better look at the sky ruins.

We haven’t seen this style of stairs before, to my knowledge. The pedestal out front looks like a light source, and it has the same floral egg thing the robot above has on each shoulder; the eggs could easily be a power source for Zonai tech. And at the top of the stairs, we see a pedestal, backing up the theory that these ruins function as our new Sheikah towers.

This is our next shot. Which...

Unikoblins. Can we talk about that? UNIKOBLINS.

Anyways, Link is here again in his old clothes. This is a very early game shot, because his right arm isn’t corrupted yet; this means we get to explore Hyrule before we embark on the main quest. Which gives rise to a question: Where’s Zelda?

The hopeful side of me wants to say that she’s a tutorial companion, like Navi or Tatl, at least for the beginning here. The pessimistic side of me thinks that she’s waiting for us at a predetermined location, and this is just part of getting to her.

Now the unikoblin structure itself is built on a Talus, meaning that the dev team at least intends to have more inter-monster interactions. But if you kill the Talus, does that mean that the base falls apart, or does it just drop down as a separate entity?

Also, what are these background ruins? The one on the left looks like it’s a distinctly different style than the one on the right. It looks almost like a giant guardian arm.

Our next shot is Link’s arm getting corrupted. Which, first of all, the effects look beautiful.

Now, we can see a corner of Link’s hip here, and we know that this is his right arm. So Link’s lying down here. Unconscious? Knowing how Zelda games like to start with Link waking up, probably. Although it looks like at least part of his shorts got an update.

We can see what looks like circuits here. It looks a bit like the electricity puzzles you can find in the Divine Beasts and Shrines in the original.

Then we’ve got these strange symbols.

Whatever this circular stone he’s lying on is, it looks a lot like the Zonai puzzle from the “A Fragmented Monument” sidequest.

This one that everyone thought was the Mirror of Twilight for years.

Our next shot is Link using the corruption powers against enemies:

The spike ball itself looks solid; the question is, is this a duplication power, or a visualization of how the spike ball is set into motion?

We see it barreling over a poor Unikoblin or two, but I’d like to turn your attention to the Moblin and the background.

The moblins here have helmets, and the bases, while they carry the same design, look like they have more cause and effect in mind. The left base’s rock, for instance; that’s a lot bigger than the rocks we got to play with in the last game, and it looks like we can barrel anything in the screen over with it.

The helmet, though, concerns me a little bit. It looks natural rather than forged; like it’s the moblin’s horn, just very much deformed. Does it mean a harder enemy, or is it just for flavor?

Our next shot is this strange flower thing. Note that Link’s right arm is perfectly fine in this shot, meaning that it’s still early game.

This is what Link’s flamethrower looks like. And this:

Is Zonai art.

So the question is, what IS the flamethrower? My first thought was that it’s either a new item in its own, or it’s a Sheikah Slate upgrade. The latter might sound a little far fetched, but Link in this game is right-handed, and in BOTW, he always held the slate in his LEFT hand when using it.

We have more of the weird faded designs that we saw on the Sky ruins:

And we’ve got some kind of pedestal or stage behind the ground flower thing:

It looks like it’s either an altar or a grave, from what I can tell. The stairs aren’t the same design as the ones in the sky, and there aren’t any patterns on it.

More importantly, though, is that this place is underground. This could be a part of the game you’re required to go through, in order to get to Raisin Gan.

A few seconds later, though, we get our answer to what the flamethrower is!

It’s a shield!

Off to the left side, we can see pillars with more weird scribblings towards the top. These match the Sky ruins’ pillar shape, with a narrow base and a wider top.

Our next scene is...weird.

We see a puddle splash in reverse. It’s hard to tell if it’s actually water or not, but the design on the ground implies that it’s either been there for a long time, or that that’s a dedicated splash spot. And the quality and zoom makes me think that this is part of a cutscene. Return of the timeshift stones?

We then see Link...surfacing out of the island? I don’t know how else to describe it. However, his arm is changed again, and glowing, meaning that this is a corruption power. And the “water” he rises out of here looks a lot like the puddle in the last clip.

We get a good look at the Zonai Lights:

A Sky ruin that looks like it contains a room:

And a glimpse of other isles’ ruins in the far distance.

And then as the camera zooms out...

We can place a location!

We’re right over Thundra Plateau!

We also get a mildly better look at the back wall of the sky ruin, which looks to be some kind of table:

The next scene is Hyrule Castle:

The ground shakes and it starts to rise up. However, notice that the columns surrounding the castle are now missing.

We’ve also got red sparks in the air, like we would have in a blood moon. However, due to the sky color, we can assume that this is a conscious decision by Gan himself, and that he isn’t drawing power from his surroundings.

We then see that power bleeding out of the ground. It’s MUCH more red than Malice is, which has always been a kind of burnt pink-ish color.

However, even though Ganon lifts the castle up, he doesn’t lift it very high.

The castle’s about triple the height it was. But since we’re talking Skyloft levels of floating islands, this is still pretty ground-level. What’s interesting to me, though, is that in this shot, despite the game now being about sky islands that we should be able to see from ground level...there aren’t any here. This, to me, means that there’s going to be a sudden appearance of the isles in the sky, rather than them simply being accessible now.

And that’s the whole trailer! I have many questions.

My blog! If you have any opnions/questions/theories, feel free to drop an ask!

Part 2 is up! We missed a lot!

[polarisbear]

i think it’s LAME that none of the other magipa have human designs so i did it myself. also spiced up hughie’s fit n myamu’s new fit from episode 39

(notes + close ups under cut!)

going from left to right: first up hughie

his normal civilian outfits are… weirdly tame? at least if you compare it to the fabric drape hell of his magical realm outfit, so! since he and myamu are supposed to be color palette parallels (+ toma and matsuri) i gave him yellow in his eyes to match myamu’s pink also because i’m not sure why??? his eye color changed between forms.

his palette Is mostly blue and white (to look nice next to toma’s warmer reds and blacks) so he’s got some Very dramatic white pants. wanted his jacket to be the statement piece to everything else is relatively reserved. the chain is supposed to match his necklace, and the bucket hat that inspired the look is from his disguise when matsuri and myamu snuck into omega hq

2nd is myamu!

this is just her outfit from episode 39 cranked up a little since i though the gray hoodie and plain skirt were a little boring. she’s got a heart/lace up pattern on her sleeves and a cute belt. also changed the type of hoodie she has and the hoodie strings

third here is hanitan <3

i Think her and miruki’s aesthetic is decora kei with a hint of lolita and angel aesthetics, so i went with a comfy pajama look since hanitan’s sleepy. she’s the only one to have her animal aspect Obviously in her design since teddy bears and bows are cute and decorated headbands are Super cute. the heart cheek mark is for my own amusement though. draculara moment or whatever.

her hairstyle is two pigtails pulled up front, which is a very warm way to wear your hair. the stitch detailing and patches on her hoodie are in reference to her teddy bear form. she’s got bear gloves to match miruki’s main outfit too. the ugg boots are something hanitan wears just to annoy miruki since they’re a little out of fashion.

fourth to batter: chimumu!

i hate green. teal is a little better but jesus christ this palette was a little bit of a nightmare. anyways, i don’t know what cool sportswear looks like so i was winging it. the most obvious thing is the star motifs, her gloves, hair, short fluff, and sneaker lips are all shaped to look star-like.

the white under-part of chimumu’s hair was added later since i remembered after i was done coloring patano that the magipa usually have multicolored hair so. extra cool points. the scarf and the star pattern on it being exaggerated was to help convey how overconfident chimumu is in both herself and hina, and the sporty look of the outfit was also to enable chimumu to keep up with hina’s training. the yellows also got a bit more lime. the warm yellow was clashing.

fifth in line is carron!

i think she should be tall like the boys. that’s all.

anyways, i think she’s probably the most straightforward translation? like her hair got extended into a ponytail and her stained-glass bunny ears got turned into tailcoats and that’s really about it. she looks basically the same as her animal form otherwise, i even kept the leg shape pretty similar since i didn’t differentiate between her pants and shoes. oh! her pants have a diamond pattern running down the side, to really hammer home both the stained glass and diamond theme.

otherwise i’d say she’s just a cute butler!

the grand finale: patano!

you might not believe me but her fit’s 100% the simplest next to myamu’s. which is why her’s was boring until i Spiced it Up with some patterns (the roses + stripes)

i’m pretty sure her design is supposed to evoke a little german boy in the swiss alps yodeling or whatever so i went with that while also keeping in mind the Loud ruffles of amane’s takarazuka revue aesthetic. so, a boyish outfit with a feminine charm. if i have the energy though i would like to take another stab at patano’s design since i didn’t incorporate her wings, which i think are Very cute. also the wiki is insane i think she’s supposed to look as clumsy as a hippo but she’s clearly a pegasus/horse?? she has a hair tail and hooves and pointy ears, the big snout doesn’t make her automatically a cartoon hippo.

[canary3d-obsessed]

Lost Tomb Reboot Lewks: Part 13

(Masterpost) (Other Canary Stuff)

Warning: Spoilers for both seasons of The Lost Tomb Reboot and also vaguely for Daomu Biji in general

Look 66 belongs to Ah Ning, who has chosen, for this adaptation, to go with short hair, heavy makeup, and all-black clothes, but with a bit of a club vibe, rather than her more usual tactical vibe. 

The short hair is a weird choice. The whole schtick with DMBJ adaptations is that you have to tell who's who by their costuming and styling, since the associated actors toss roles back and forth faster than Wu Xie and Xiao Ge on a date with Liu Sang. 

Hot guy in a hoodie? Xiao Ge. Slightly dorky but ridiculously charismatic guy who dresses like Joey Ramone? Hei Yanjing. Man who's too old for fluffy bangs and puppy-dog eyes but is working the hell out of them anyway? Wu Xie. Ponytail, gun, and a whole bunch of disposable sidekicks? Ah Ning.

Ah Ning, Lost Tomb 1 version, with her signature ponytail & disregard for human life.

For this look, Ah Ning has gotten rid of her long hair, henchmen, weapons, and the part of her shirt that normally would cover her belly. This is an outfit that says "I am finally ready to fuck Wu Xie." 

Unfortunately she decides to accessorize this outfit with a giant deadly snake. 

This snake, unlike the equivalent snake in uhhhhhmmm a different DMBJ show that Ah Ning might theoretically die in, does not appear to be poisonous or have an unusual instant-kill-you ability. It just squeezes her a little bit, and the boys don't make any attempt to revive her, even though not-breathing is a super survivable condition, if it's corrected quickly. 

This non-poisonous snake accessory is all about killing a woman so that men can feel manpain, and I am kind of offended that this version of Ah Ning went out like that, after being a badass in every other adaptation. 

(more after the cut!) 

The hypothetical other show where a version of this scene perhaps also happens does correct this, by having her talk about her acceptance of the risk of death, and by having the fucking snake be POISONOUS. I am not naming the show because where’s the fun in that? If you watch TLTR first, like I did, you get to be worried about Ah Ning in every other show she’s in, which is exhausting but also kind of fun. (I don’t mind women dying in fiction, as long as their deaths are an important part of their own stories, rather than just being important for the growth of the men around them.)

Thanks to poor accessory choices, Ah Ning and her snake necklace go the same route as Ye Piaopiao and No-Longer-Mute Chick; fortunately Xiao Ge didn't fall for Tattoo Artist Ah Tou or she'd be in the morgue with the rest of them.

Look 67 is young Wu Xie's jungle adventure outfit, featuring a bright white popover jacket with cream color sleeves from Scotch & Soda’s Club Nomade collection. Scotch & Soda have have thoughtfully printed their name on the string so that those of you who share Wu Xie's clothing tastes will know where to shop. You know who you are. 

You would think highly visible bright white would be a bad choice for a jungle adventure, but apparently snakes in these parts are only attracted to goths.

Wu Xie is also wearing wired ear pods, which did not exist whenever this flashback supposedly happened, but if we're cool with sentient crustaceans and clams that can incapacitate a ruthless trained assassin (clams got legs!), we can be cool with ear pods.

The show conveys flashback-Wu-Xie's youth and naiveté by having him smile sweetly, not watch Ah Ning take her clothes off, and not attempt CPR after she gets lightly squeezed by a snake.

Looks 68 and 69 belong to Not Ah Ning, who is played by Liu Yuqi, who also plays Ah Ning. Her makeup is much softer and prettier as this character than as Ah Ning; this character’s job is to be pleasing to men, whereas Ah Ning’s job is to get male underlings killed on the regular, so I guess that makes sense. 

This outfit is an amazing body-hugging soft green jumpsuit with raised quilty detailing on the arms and shoulders. Her jumpsuit perfectly matches the couch she's sprawled on, which is her subtle way of telling Jiang Zisuan that she is a nice comfy place to have a lie down. 

She accessorizes this look with her usual soft wavy brown hair and a scattering of gold finger rings. I think she also accessorizes this with ass pads, because Ah Ning does not appear to be draggin’ this wagon in her scenes. I checked. For science.  

When the first outfit doesn't work, she ditches the subtlety and goes for a Chanel-style suit in black, white, and red, with a with a black leather bustier underneath. 

Unfortunately this is a wasted effort, because the Jiang Zisuan she tries this on is actually Wu Xie in disguise. 

Wu Xie only likes girls if they are 1. secretly manipulating him while acting like a tiny adorable sidekick, 2. trying to kill him repeatedly while adventuring together, 3. planning to kill him as soon as the roads are clear but willing to bone in the meantime, or 4. are a skin effigy with a sentient crustacean in their head.

Sorry, Not Ah Ning; this was a good effort. 

Look 70 features Wu Xie in a white thermal shirt, dark blue jeans, and fake facial hair. This is a good look for sitting with your not-quite girlfriend and wondering how you both managed to have romances with Bai Yu in parallel universes. (OP recently watched Love O2O, which is a trip for fans of DMBJ, Guardian, or feminism)

Fortunately Wu Xie doesn’t know that his second-favorite doctor/Zhan Rishan’s girlfriend also had a romance with Bai Yu or his mind would be entirely blown. 

This is a soft, comfortable look, perfect for torturing someone, with help from your first-favorite doctor, by pretending to poison someone with nicotine, all so you can have a few moments of quality time with a cigarette before said doctor takes them away again. 

Wu Xie's cigs are stored in a buttery-soft leather case that completely covers the brand name of the cigarettes, so apparently cdramas don’t go in for ciggy product placements. 

Wo Xie wears this outfit with a silvery-metal watch with a black leather wrist strap. The watch appears to be round, and it probably tells time. (If you’re new to the Lewks series: I lack watch knowledge and that’s not likely to change.)

Wu Xie finally peels off his fake facial hair so we can see his pretty face again, only to replace the facial hair with an entire fake face. Fortunately, this face, belonging to actor Wu Lipeng, is also pretty. 

Look 71 belongs to Wu Xie, initially (for this outfit) played by Wu Lipeng until his inevitable unmasking. So many actors have played Wu Xie, this whole disguise thing is barely worth blinking at. Wu Lipeng does a nice job changing his mannerisms to play Wu Xie, and this whole schtick eventually gives us Zhu Yilong's delightful performance as Wang Meng, so even though we eventually get way too much of not-Zhu-Yilong in the role, I’m good with it.

This outfit features black jeans, black tactical boots & gloves, and Ah Ning’s coin bracelet, although it’s mostly hard to see the bracelet. The outfit’s main feature is a possibly-leather jacket that’s been molded into a hideous and disturbing voronoi pattern. 

This jacket is probably very expensive and took a lot of work to craft, but it makes him look  like he’s wearing a Glad Force Flex garbage bag. I mean, I guess that's cool. 

This outfit is good for several episodes worth of adventures, including getting tied up and being sassy...

...and underwater cave exploration, which is totally a thing that a person with critically damaged lungs can do.  

This outfit is good for homoerotic wrestling...

...and also for heteroerotic wrestling.

This is also a good outfit for being gently cradled in the arms of your doctor, while you massage your throat in order to swallow what he's putting in your mouth.

The fingerless gloves are useful for helping Xiao Bai get out of not one, but two different situations in which she stepped on a trap without realizing it, requiring Wu Xie to get down on the ground and have a tense encounter with her foot. 

Scenes like this are where costuming really makes a difference. In this shot, we we watch a stunt hand (Zhu Yilong has never had that long of a thumbnail in his life) hold a wire steady, while a stunt foot is pulled out from under it.  

This shot includes a lot of visual texture and interest, from the hatch lines on the palm of the glove to the cross-striping of the boot lace. The complexity of this glove and this boot help to hold our attention when they’re in the frame, allowing the tension of the scene to build, instead of dissipating when the viewer runs out of things to look at.

Bonus Look 1

Carrying all that tragic baggage has given Jiang Zisuan spectacular arm muscles.

Bonus Look 2

Zhu Yilong with not-fake facial hair. 

Daaaaaamn.

[elvendara]

Sugar and Spice Day 1

July 12th

Ice Cream Date

Yoosung opened the door and stepped into the airconditioned shop. He checked his phone. The profile picture of his date was on the screen. The man had red hair, green eyes, and freckles. He was also wearing eyeliner which made the green of his eyes really stand out. He had been surprised when they matched, but also excited and had said yes when the man, Saeran, had DM’d him and asked him on a date.

Looking around he couldn’t see a single red head. He checked the time. Yoosung was a little early so maybe he had arrived first. He made his way to a table in the front by the window. Watching the people walking outside he wondered again if he’d be stood up. Why would an attractive guy like Saeran even give him a second glance? His attention was inward and he didn’t notice those few people he passed.

“Yoosung?” he heard, and paused, turning slowly to see who had called him. A man with white hair and pink tips was looking at him. Yoosung looked him over, the hair was different, but he recognized the brilliant green eyes, like the ocean depths.

“Saeran?” he asked.

“Yeah.” The man grinned as he stood. “Sorry, I keep forgetting to change my profile pic.” He rubbed his hand on the back of his neck. Yoosung smiled, noting how differently they were dressed. Saeran wore a red shirt with a black leather coat, said coat having metal chains and zippers, most of which didn’t seem to have a specific function. There was a black collar around his neck with metal spikes and a matching cuff on his right wrist, his nails painted black. He wore black jeans and heavy biker boots.

In contrast, Yoosung wore his pink metal hair clips, keeping his blond hair out of his eyes. He had decided to match his hair clips and wore pink eyeliner and gloss. His outfit was an off the shoulder pink crop top with a purple paint splatter pattern, skinny purple jeans and pink platform sneakers. Around his left wrist was wrapped a pink, blue, and purple beaded necklace and his nails were a glittering deep pink. He suddenly felt like an over sprinkled strawberry ice cream cone.

“Well, it’s really nice to meet you.” Yoosung said, holding his hand out to shake.

“You too, you look great.” Saeran said as he took Yoosung’s hand in his. He held it longer than he needed to, but Yoosung didn’t mind. Those green eyes locked onto his own amethyst ones were mesmerizing.

“We should probably order huh?” Saeran said, letting go of his hand. It suddenly felt cold and lonely.

“Sure.” Yoosung strode towards the ice cream display. As he walked past Saeran, he felt the man put his right hand on his lower back, as if guiding him. He kept it there, walking up beside him until they were in front of the display case, when he took his hand off. Again, that feeling of pressing coldness and emptiness.

“What can I get for you?” The girl behind the counter asked. She must have been no older than sixteen. Her brown hair was held back in a ponytail, her chocolate-colored eyes intent on Saeran. It wasn’t difficult to see she was enamored by him. What was it they said? Girls like bad boys, right? Well, Saeran sure fit the stereotype, though it seemed to Yoosung that he was quite gentle. Maybe the tough guy look was a mask to keep people at bay? He really wanted to find out.

Yoosung watched as Saeran practically salivated over the choice of ice cream. He ended up with a waffle cone and three scoops of ice cream, vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry. It made Yoosung grin to see how much like a little boy in a candy store he looked like.

Yoosung ordered a cup with a brownie at the bottom and two scoops on top, mint chocolate chip and butter pecan. The green reminded him of Saeran’s eyes. He felt his cheeks blush when he ordered it. They took their seats and began to eat.

“You really like ice cream huh?” Yoosung said.

Saeran’s eyes went wide, then softened. “I do, I like sweet things.” He eyed Yoosung and smirked before suggestively licking his ice cream. Yoosung swallowed, feeling like a fish on a hook being eyed by a hungry fisherman. It should feel uncomfortable, but it only raised his temperature with excitement. He fiddled with his ice cream, taking a spoonful and gulping it down.

“So, on your profile it says you like gardening? I have to be honest…” Yoosung set his spoon in his cup and leaned forward towards Saeran, “…I kind of thought that was a lie, or at least an exaggeration?” he stated jokingly.

Saeran threw his head back and laughed, his Adam’s apple bouncing, straining against the studded collar around his neck. “Oh no, it’s true. I like gardening. Sometimes it’s nicer to be around a bunch of beautiful flowers and plants than around people. They’re easier to understand at least.”

“Must be nice, I have a black thumb myself, I couldn’t even keep an ivy alive! It’s supposed to be one of the easiest plants not to kill.”

“True, aside from cactus, maybe you should start with one of those.” Saeran teased.

“Maybe. It certainly couldn’t hurt to add some greenery in my apartment.” Yoosung shrugged.

“How about you? Everything on your profile true?” Saeran asked.

“I think so. Well, maybe I tried to make myself look better than I am.” He laughed.

“How so?”

“I might have forgotten to mention how much time I spend on gaming.” He stated. Saeran laughed again, making Yoosung feel accomplished in a way. For some reason, it didn’t seem like Saeran laughed a lot. There was something behind his eyes that spoke of great pain.

“I think I can handle a little gaming in a boyfriend.” Saeran said, once he was in control again.

The statement startled Yoosung. Boyfriend? He was too stunned to speak.

“How come you’re on a dating app anyway? You seem like an attractive guy, smart, charming, and fun.” Saeran asked. Yoosung wondered for a brief moment if he was teasing him again, but no, he seemed genuinely interested.

“Well…” Yoosung shrugged, “…I was pretty popular in high school, but too focused on schoolwork to have time for a girlfriend. And when I started university, it seemed like whoever I liked didn’t like me back, and whoever liked me, I wasn’t interested in. I don’t know, most girls just called me ‘cute’ and treated me like a puppy. Though that didn’t feel so bad either.” He was a little embarrassed to admit that part, but why not?

“Girlfriend huh?” Saeran glanced down at the forgotten ice cream in his hand. Yoosung was about to speak but then he saw the smirk on the other man’s face. “How did you end up here with me then?”

“I didn’t choose a preference. Honestly, I barely glanced at the app, even when there was a match. But…when I saw your profile, I couldn’t help myself. I had to know more.”

“So I intrigued you? Is that it? Why?”

“You seemed like such a contradiction. The fact that you were hot didn’t hurt either.” Yoosung said. He surprised himself with his boldness, yet he hoped he would get another laugh out of the man. He wasn’t disappointed.

Saeran rubbed his mouth, as if this was more than his muscles were used to, then he looked up at Yoosung. There was a splash of color across the apples of his cheeks and the bridge of his nose. It made his freckles stand out. So Cute!

“I…I really like you Yoosung.” He whispered, as if he was embarrassed to admit it.

“I like you too.” He reached his left hand out and laid it on Saeran’s right hand. The studded wrist cuff the other man wore and the pastel necklace wrapped around his own wrist were a striking contrast that was more than aesthetically pleasing.

[heysoup]

Fluffy February Day 4 - Halloween

Phew! I’m a little late, but I managed to make it while the day’s still here. This is day four of @fluffyfebruary and the prompt is Halloween.

Chapter 4: I’ll Be Yours

Pairing: Butch DeLoria/Male Lone Wanderer

Summary: During a Halloween party, Susie suggests that the group of teens play spin the bottle. Jamie isn't one for parties, isn't even one for socializing if he's honest with himself, and he definitely isn't excited to play this game. But Butch has been looking at him all night, and something in his heart tells him this might be different.

Ao3 Link

“Thanks for helping, Jamie,” Amata says from where she’s perched at the top of a step ladder hanging colorful streamers along the ceiling.

Jamie smiles up at her from his own task of making Halloween-themed snacks, “of course.”

She climbs down the ladder and brushes her hands off on the pants of her vault suit, looking up at her handiwork with an approving nod. Orange and purple streamers hang in delicate loops from the ceiling. Hanging among them are dainty origami bats – all handmade by Amata and Susie. They even found some old Christmas lights and strung them up along the walls, hoping that when the main lights were turned off it would create some kind of spooky atmosphere, even if they were red and green.

They’re preparing for their first ever Halloween party as ‘adults.’ Now that everyone in their class was eighteen, Amata had finally gotten her dad to cave and allow them to throw a party at the Mack’s apartment, since it was one of the largest. How she managed to pull it off, Jamie has no idea.

He finally finishes icing the last of his ghost-shaped cookies and walks over to join her, letting out an impressed whistle. “Looks great!” he says, and she smiles at him.

Susie and Wally walk out into the living room from the hallway – they’re wearing freshly pressed vault suits that are tailored a bit closer to their bodies than the normal ones, the blue and yellow fabric even more vivid than usual. Susie’s platinum hair is poker-straight and pulled back into a ponytail with a cherry red bow. Her lipstick matches the bow’s color perfectly. Wally’s hair is plain, but neatly combed – they look nice, but if Jamie’s honest, he doesn’t see how it’s supposed to be a costume.

Amata seems to think the same. “So… what are you guys going as again?” she asks, a sheepish smile on her face. Wally rolls his eyes and elbows Susie.

“I told you they wouldn’t get it!”

“Oh shut it, we just have to do the thing!” Susie pulls at her brother’s arm, who groans in response.

“FINE.” They both look at Jamie and Amata with their cheesiest smiles - Susie’s looking much more genuine than Wally’s – and give them a thumb’s up.

“Uh…” Jamie doesn’t see how that’s supposed to clear anything up for them.

“We’re Vault Boy and Vault Girl!” Susie snaps, crossing her arms. Wally huffs and shakes his head before walking over to the couch and plopping down, reaching into the pumpkin-shaped plastic bowl on the coffee table to shove some chips in his mouth.

“I could tell!” Amata says, trying to appease her. “You look great, Susie! I love the lipstick.” She grabs Jamie’s hand and twines their fingers together. “We have to go get our costumes ready now, but we’ll be right back. Party starts in thirty, right?”

Susie nods, changing into hostess mode once again. “It looks really good in here, by the way. You did a great job, Amata” She smiles and then says, as an afterthought, “uh and Jamie, too, I guess.”

---

Back in Amata’s room, she and Jamie busy themselves with changing into their costumes. Amata is dressed to the nines in a slim-fitting black dress with emerald green accents that she had sewn herself with her mother’s old machine. She has a pair of elbow-length black gloves made from leftover pantyhose and a pearl necklace around her neck that Jamie found in the lower levels of the vault. He kept the details of where he found it to himself. Her costume is pretty close to looking exactly like the original Mistress of Mystery, they've just taken a few creative liberties.

She’s sitting at her vanity, applying her makeup and curling her hair when she asks, “so, are you excited?” Jamie puts down the comic he’s reading and sits up on her bed. He’s already changed into his outfit – just a simple flannel, some jeans, aged brown leather boots that his dad had stowed away in his closet for some reason, and the closest thing they could find to a ten-gallon hat, which is currently around his neck and hanging at his back. A plastic pistol and a makeshift paper holster sit beside him.

“Yeah,” he settles with, trying his hardest to sound convincing. It’s not that he isn’t excited, he’s just nervous. He’s already kind of a social outcast, which is bad enough. What’s even worse is that Butch will be there, which was fine and normal, except for the fact that it wasn’t because just a last week they’d technically had their first kiss down in their hideout, which Jamie had freaked out over and literally ran away from, and then proceeded to pretend it never happened. Outside of work they’d been too busy to hang out recently, so this will be the first time he sees him in such a casual setting since. It’s not like he can ask Amata for advice – she doesn’t even know he’s friends with Butch for one and she’s unlikely to approve, and what if she asks about their hideout? It’s too risky, not to mention humiliating!

“Jamie!” Amata is snapping at him, a soft smile on her face. He blinks and laughs, feeling out of breath despite the fact that all his talking was in his head. What a mess.

“Hah, sorry. Just thinking. I’m kinda nervous, but you know how I am with people.” He shrugs, picking at his nails. Amata walks over and ruffles his hair.

“Hey, it’ll be fun!” she says, trying to sound encouraging. She takes his hands in hers and pulls him off the bed. “But if you get overwhelmed just let me know, we can just come back here and listen to something on the radio – I don’t mind.”

Jamie smiles at her and pulls her close, pressing a sweet kiss to the crown of her head. Man, he missed her.

---

It’s been about an hour and the party is going pretty well. The lights are all off aside from the string lights, which, as Amata predicted, create a pretty nice ambience. Everyone is chilling out and listening to music and talking amongst themselves. A few people are playing board games and enjoying snacks, some are dancing.

Jamie’s nerves have calmed a bit – Wally had the brilliant idea to bribe Stevie to leave them some beer, which Jamie is sipping on contentedly from his seat on the couch beside Freddie and Amata.

Everyone’s costumes turned out great too, Jamie thinks. Freddie came as a werewolf – he’d ripped the arms off his vault suit and used grease paint to draw brown hairs all over himself. He’d even given himself a little black dog nose and glued paper triangles to a headband that could pass as ears. It’s a little messy, but he put effort in.

Paul decided to be a vampire and he’s dressed almost as well as Amata, in a fancy white shirt, black slacks, and a tie – probably the same clothes he wore to prom. He has a long black and red cape wrapped around his shoulders. The fake teeth he’s wearing keep popping out of his mouth when he laughs, and Jamie grins at the sight of him fumbling to catch them across the room.

Butch is next to him, laughing his ass off, flask in hand. Apparently, he’s supposed to be a Greaser – he’s wearing his Tunnel Snake jacket and his hair is slicked into its usual pompadour. The only difference is he’s swapped out his vault suit for a pair of jeans and a white t-shirt, which he says are classic. He meets Jamie’s gaze from across the room and smirks, sticking his tongue out at the other boy. Jamie looks away quickly, his face red.

Christine is across from Amata on the other couch, chatting with Susie. She’s dressed in a long white sleeping gown with matching slippers. On her back, she has small, handmade angel wings. Their puffy feathers occasionally fall off and stick to every surface, leaving a trail all over the apartment wherever she goes.

Susie turns the radio down a bit then stands and claps to grab everyone’s attention. “Alright, ghouls and gals,” she giggles to herself, “I think it’s about time we started the real party!” Jamie quirks a brow at her and can’t help but notice Amata’s peeved expression.

Everyone who wasn’t already near the couches crowds around and Jamie jumps when he feels two hands clap down on his shoulders. Butch is leaning over the back of the couch, grinning down at him.

“Hey, Nosebleed,” he says with a smirk, leaning closer to his ear. “Cute costume. Who are ya, Calamity Jane?” He tips Jamie’s cowboy hat down into his face playfully.

It’s supposed to be a jab. They don’t typically act friendly in public; something still just feels off about that and they aren’t ready for their relationship to change that drastically. This feels different, however, and Jamie can’t help the smile that pulls at his lips. He hadn’t spoken to Butch all night, he wasn’t sure if the other boy would want him too, but somehow this felt like an invitation.

“Nice costume yourself,” he taunts. He can still feel the heat of the other boy’s body against the back of his neck even as Butch pulls away and stands up straight again. “You supposed to look like a knock-off James Dean?”

Susie clears her throat, shooting Jamie an impatient look. “Anyway, as I was saying,” she continues, the giddy smile returning to her face as she holds up an empty beer bottle. “We should play spin the bottle!”

Butch groans from behind him. “Come on, Susie, that’s such a kid’s game.”

Susie sticks her tongue out at him. “If you could let me finish! We’re going to play it with seven minutes in heaven rules, obviously. This isn’t middle school. We’re adults now.” She scoffs and rolls her eyes. “So, whoever it lands on gets to go into the hall closet. That more grown-up for you, Butch?”

Butch shrugs, “I guess.”

“I think it sounds fun!” Christine chimes in.” It’s harmless, anyway. Come on, let’s just play. Who knows if we’ll ever be allowed to have a party again?”

---

After moving some of the furniture and grabbing a few pillows for them to sit on they’re all crowded in a circle on the rug in the living room. Jamie is still next to Amata, then Freddie, Wally, Christine, Butch, Susie, and Paul. There’s eight of them, so the odds would be even, but Wally is related to both Christine and Susie – which he continues to complain is unfair.

“Oh shut it, Wally. If it lands on us, just spin again.” Susie snaps and sets the bottle in the middle of the circle. She leans back on her knees, a mischievous glint in her eyes. “So, actually, there’s two choices. You can either kiss whoever the bottle lands on in the circle publicly,” Christine interjects with a low ‘ooooooh’ and leans closer to Butch, who grins.

“Or!” Susie continues, “you can choose to go into the closet for seven minutes.”

Jamie’s gut twists uncomfortably. He really didn’t want to play this, anyway, let alone when he might be forced to watch Butch slobber on someone. But he’s here for Amata and for his dad, he guesses, who said it would be good for him to behave like a well-adjusted and social teenager for once.

They’re a few spins in and nothing incredible had happened. Wally spun on Susie twice before landing on Paul and the two went into the closet with their handheld games to pass the time. After, Christine landed on Freddie and chose a kiss – which was more of an awkward peck on the side of the mouth than anything else.

Butch rubs his hands together before leaning forward to spin the bottle, making eye contact with Jamie for a split second and shooting him a wink. Jamie’s heart leaps into his throat and he splutters mid drink, trying to hide his embarrassment behind a small cough.

The bottle spins around the circle once before slowing. For a split second, Jamie thinks it’s going to land on him, but it keeps going achingly slow past Paul and… lands on Susie. Christine claps, Amata wolf whistles, and Wally spits out a half-hearted threat about Butch touching his sister. Jamie sees Butch’s smile fade when he looks at Susie, but he catches himself quick and shoots her his most charming smirk.

“How’s about we hit the closet, babe?” he says, laying the greaser schtick on extra thick tonight. Susie blushes red as her bow and stands with him. They hold hands and both go down the hall and into the closet, the door closing softly behind them. Once they’re inside, Christine sets the egg timer they have to seven minutes and the murmur of conversation breaks out among the small group once again.

“How are you doing?” Amata nudges him gently. Jamie didn’t realize he’d just been staring at the bottle, his shoulders tense. He lets out a long sigh and shakes his limbs loose, leaning over to bump their shoulders together.

“I’m fine. This is fun, huh?” He says, trying to convince himself more than anything. He stares at the egg timer, trying not to imagine what could be happening in the closet. He looks back over at Amata and sees her smiling at him, a soft sadness behind her eyes – almost pity. Was he really that obvious?

“I’m gonna get another drink, want one?” he asks, standing up and stretching his arms above his head. Amata just lifts her bottle that isn’t even half empty, a sheepish smile on her face.

“No thanks.”

Jamie walks to the kitchen. He rubs his eyes, his face already feeling warm. He’d only had two, maybe three beers. He definitely isn’t even close to being as drunk as he was when he and Butch… he shakes the thoughts of that night out of his head, dropping his empty beer bottles into the garbage can with a bit more force than he’d intended.

Before grabbing another beer, Jamie pours himself a shot of vodka for good measure. Butch must have brought it from his mom’s stash. It burns like hell going down and Jamie almost gags – how could anyone drink this stuff?

“Yo, Jamie!” He hears Freddie call for him and he grabs his beer and heads back to the circle. Butch and Susie are back. Her lipstick is smudged and she’s fixing her ponytail while whispering excitedly to Christine. Butch doesn’t look much better – his hair slightly mussed up and a bit of cherry red still spread on the corner of his lip. Jamie thinks he might be sick.

The timer goes off just as he sits back down, and Paul walks out of the closet with Amata. He’s scrambling to put his vampire teeth back in his mouth, his cape crooked around his neck, and Amata’s face is flushed when she sits next to Jamie. He can’t help his snort and she slaps him on the shoulder.

“It’s your turn, spaz.” Wally says, kicking the bottle his way. He looks pissed, glaring at Butch. Jamie wonders if they’ll fight later because he played tonsil hockey with his sister. He almost hopes they do, just so Butch can get his ass kicked like he deserves.

Jamie reaches forward and gives the bottle a half-hearted spin, just wanting to get his turn over with as soon as possible. It twirls and lands immediately on Butch. He feels like he’s swallowed a rock.

Butch let’s out a theatric groan, “I ain’t kissin’ you, Nosebleed, so let’s just go to the closet and get this over with.” Jamie’s face is on fire and he slams his beer down on the floor.

“Get stuffed, Butch!” It’s my turn, not yours, so I choose what we do!” Butch quirks an eyebrow at him and barks out a laugh, joined by everyone in the circle – aside from Amata, who squeezes Jamie’s hand reassuringly.

“So, you’re sayin’ you wanna kiss the Butch-man?” Jamie thinks he’s going to die, then. Or kill Butch, and then die. Like a murder suicide. Him and his stupid fucking mouth; he didn’t even think about how that would sound.

“N-No!” Jamie practically yells, his voice a squeak. “Fuck you!” He stands, crossing his arms. “Let’s go, closet then. Get this over with before I kick your ass.” He storms to the closet. Butch gets to his feet and follows him with a smug confidence that Jamie wants to beat out of him.

Suddenly remembering who he’s dealing with Wally says, “Hey! No fighting in my closet. You get blood on my dad’s coats and I’ll pummel you both.” They both turn and simultaneously flip the other boy off before shouldering their way into the closet and slamming the door.

It’s more cramped inside than Jamie expected it to be. Darker, too. The darkness is perfectly fine with him – he doesn’t even want to look at Butch right now. Though, that doesn’t last long as his eyes adjust.

“Hey, Nosebleed,” Butch whispers, his voice and his smile infinitely softer than they were a moment ago. They’re close, really close and Jamie’s head is swimming. Their knees bump when they move and the heat of their bodies radiating through the small space is almost suffocating. He can just make out the details of Butch’s face – the handsome slope of his nose and the playful quirk of his lips. He tries to stay mad, but it’s hard. He wants to kiss him so bad.

“Fuck off,” Jamie breathes, but his aggression is lackluster. Butch’s breath is warm against his face and it smells sweet, like mint. Butch chuckles softly.

“Aw, you’re mad at me?” he coos, leaning in closer and practically pressing Jamie against the opposite wall. “You know I was just kidding, Jamie. C’mon, they don’t know what we do.”

Jamie gulps, wondering if Butch means them just hanging out together or if he’s referencing something more. “As if I’d take Susie’s sloppy seconds ,” he hisses, determined to hold his grudge. Ok, so maybe their first kiss did mean something. He’s pretty sure they’re both drunk again, but they definitely aren’t wasted like before – there’s absolutely no way for Butch to pass whatever happens off as a mistake later. IF something happens.

Butch pulls back a little and looks almost hurt. “Hey, it’s just a dumb game,” he says, tilting his head to try and catch Jamie’s gaze, who refuses to look at him. “I didn’t want to hurt her feelings, okay? You know how much of a crybaby she can be.”

“Well, I’m not a crybaby, so you can keep it in your pants,” Jamie snaps and crosses his arms, shooting Butch as convincing of a glare as he can manage. The other boy just rubs the back of his neck, his posture suddenly a bit more closed off.

“Dammit, Jamie, ya know that’s not what I mean!” Jamie’s heart is thundering in his ears and his chest is so, so tight. He swallows thickly. He does know what Butch means but fuck it if he isn’t going to make the other boy work for it.

“Maybe I don’t,” he states matter-of-factly. Butch clicks his tongue in annoyance and shoves his hands in his pockets. Jamie can feel the distance between them growing further and he panics, desperate to cling to whatever moment they’re having here.

“What do you want?” he asks finally, his voice barely a whisper as he offers Butch this olive branch. The intensity he finds in Butch’s gaze when their eyes meet almost knocks him over.

“You.” It’s a single word, spoken so softly that Jamie almost can’t hear it, but it steals his breath away, nonetheless. He doesn’t even stop to think when he reaches forward and grabs the lapels of Butch’s jacket. He pulls him close, his eyes closing as their lips crash together in a clumsy kiss. It’s just as good as the last, the other boy’s lips warm and inviting as he returns the gesture with enthusiasm.

Butch grabs the back of Jamie’s head, knocking his silly cowboy hat to the floor, and curls his fingers into his hair. Jamie grins into his mouth when Butch nips his lower lip and he grabs the collar of his shirt, playfully shoving the taller boy against the opposite wall.

“Ow!” Butch hisses when he hits his head off the shelf above them, pulling back for a second to make sure it wasn’t too loud. Jamie’s face goes white.

“Oh god, sorry!” he whispers, letting go and pulling back in embarrassment. Butch just laughs.

“S’fine,” he mumbles, unable to stop smiling. He reaches out and pulls Jamie close again, silencing the other boy’s concerns with his lips.

They continue like that for a while, breathless and excited, their tongues exploring each other’s mouths and their arms holding them close like their lives depend on it. It really does feel like heaven, Jamie thinks, an excited laugh escaping his chest.

They could have stayed there forever, lost in their own little world, but they’re interrupted by a sharp knock on the other side of the door. “Time’s up! You can leave hell now.” Wally is laughing out in the hallway.

Butch and Jamie jump apart, their chests heaving and their lips pink. Butch just grins at him, blue eyes shining with mischief. “Should we pretend we were fighting?”

Jamie laughs. “Sure, but that means you’ll have to admit that I won,” he teases, picking up his hat and turning to leave. Butch grabs his wrist and tugs Jamie back to him. There’s a very serious expression on his face all of a sudden and he's biting his lip like he's thinking before he reaches out to tilt Jamie’s chin up. He leans down and presses one more open-mouthed kiss to his lips and it feels almost desperate. Jamie’s breath is stolen away again, at least whatever was left of it, and when they part, he just stares, dumbfounded, at Butch’s adoring smile.

“Whatever you want, Nosebleed.”

[oveliagirlhaditright]

Turn me to Gold

Summary: Kairi had never liked yellow... and when her time training and in the Keyblade War is surrounded by that color, she thinks that maybe that somehow had something to do with her failures there. But her failures don't have to stay that way, right? Maybe she can finally succeed in finding Sora! Friendships. Kairi-centric. Character story. During Kingdom Hearts III. Leading into KHIV.

Kairi had watched this show once, where a student—in his first wrestling match—had essentially won a tournament by accident... And the person he'd won against had then demanded he go up against him again. And when the winner hadn't accepted the rematch, the loser kept getting up in his face and calling him "yellow": "yellow, yellow, yellow", to be exact. And for the life of her... ever since she'd come to train with Merlin, Kairi couldn't get the memory of this show out of her head.

She was just so concerned that she was going to completely fail in the Keyblade War, and her loved ones would only remember how far she’d fallen when all was said and done. And that was why—as beautiful as this green space Merlin had provided them to train in was—Kairi couldn't help but to blanch, when she saw dandelions all around her and even stepped on a few of them by accident. Gods, did she hope she didn't somehow just suck their yellowness into herself by doing so... And Lea (who Kairi still wasn’t sure how she felt about yet) must have noticed her discomfort when she did this:

Because cocking his head to the side and looking at her rather uncertainly, he asked: "Are you okay, Kairi?" And Kairi was quick to nod and try and reassure her companion that she was. ...But she had her own doubts on the subject. And maybe it was because of that—and not so much being affected by yellow—that Kairi felt that she couldn’t get her body to move the way she wanted it to during training that day.

... The next time Kairi had thoughts about yellow—though this didn't come until much later, because she'd been doing good to banish it from her mind—was when she surprisingly ran into Sora one night at the Mysterious Tower. Kairi was getting ahead of herself, she knew… but she'd come to ask Master Yen Sid if she could take the Mark of Mastery in the near future: perhaps it would give her something to strive for even moreso, and then she could excel at training that way.

And if Sora and Riku had taken it, after having all their skills stripped and having to learn them again in the Dream Worlds, maybe it wasn't too out of the question that the Wizard might want to do the same for her.

Kairi thought to herself that since Merlin’s plans didn’t seem to be working for her, perhaps Master Yen Sid would want to try this sooner rather than later? It was when Kairi was having these ideas, and trying to make her way to the former Keyblade Master's study, that she literally ran into Sora... Who was shockingly rummaging through the Sorcerer’s pantry for cookies? …Once the two friends calmed down from being "attacked by someone" at ten 'o clock in the evening, and then got over how dumbfounded they were to be seeing each other before their meeting in the Keyblade Graveyard (something neither had thought would happen), Sora was quick to explain his side of the story. "Sorry, Kairi. We ran out of food in the gummi ship, if ya can believe it. So, I thought I'd borrow some food from Master Yen Sid here, for Donald, Goofy, and myself. But I didn't know it was so late here! Hehe." Sora said the last bit, as he scratched his head nervously and grinned at her.

And to that, Kairi could only laugh—enamored with Sora as she always was—as she assured him: “It’s fine, Sora. If anyone should apologize, it's me. I actually had some idea of the time... and I was still coming to ask the Great Wizard about me taking the Mark of Mastery exam." And it was when Kairi said that, that she became aware of what sort of cookies Sora was holding in his hands and could only gawk at them.

They were mostly harmless, really—though Kairi had always thought that the frosting on these sugar cookies had almost seemed cemented on—but she couldn't get over the ghastly color of them. ...It wasn't even that she disliked them in particular—she admired these treats greatly… And it was perhaps in having had too many of them before her adventure last year, that she'd been unable to fit through the bars of her prison… Before Kairi’s mini freak-out, Sora had started to ask Kairi something about the Mark of Mastery--she'd heard him begin to utter the words—but he seemed to quickly change his mind when he saw the look she was now giving the dessert. "You never were big on yellow," Sora muttered to himself—now hiding the sugary items behind his back, which Kairi was thankful for. "…Which is maybe a bit weird, since you're a princess of light. But who am I to judge?" Kairi—not wanting to hint at just how much she'd perhaps lost her mind, or to keep Sora from his duties any longer—gave the boy a quick hug, and told him if there was any reason she disliked yellow... it was because they marked the stars she'd always have to lose him and Riku behind... But she'd selflessly do so, anyway. And the two of them bid each other the sad farewell they’d known they’d have to for the time being, but did so with grace.

… Sora was busy talking to Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Ventus, Aqua, and Lea in the back of the gummi ship, so that was why he wasn't piloting it for once. At first, they thought they could just ask Donald to do it… but apparently there was a reason Sora had taken over flying from him. So Riku manning the helm, it was. And Kairi had come to see him, so he wouldn't get lonely. "Question, Riku." the redhead said, as she leaned her arm over his shoulder and peered into her dear friend's face. "…Does the gummi ship look yellow to you?" Riku shrugged, before he turned his attention to manning the controls again. "Ish? But it looks more cream or white to me. Why do you ask, Kairi? …Aside from the fact that you've never liked yellow." The princess thought strongly of saying nothing... she didn't want to decrease morale, after all, or jinx anything… or put bad thoughts into anyone's head. But... "It's just-" she began before she could stop herself, fiddling with her necklace as she did so... "I didn't have as much luck with my training as I would have hoped. And, yeah: paranoid and superstitious or not... I think it has something to do with yellow. That color... doesn't like me, ever since that man with those eyes kidnapped me as a child. And bad things seem to happen whenever I run into it." Except for with people like Naminé, she of course wanted to add. But herhair was more white, anyway. But before Kairi could voice that, Riku was already appraising her. "...Kairi, is this partly because you suddenly thought your charm wouldn't be enough to protect all of us... So, you decided to move up to a paopu for Sora and yourself, but now feel uncertain about that?"

The truth? Kairi hadn’t consciously thought of that. But now that Riku had put it into her head, she couldn’t deny that it was a possibility she did feel this way.

At the moment, she was just about to give Riku the lucky charm that Sora had recently returned to her… but Riku stopped her, with his fingers over her own.

“Kairi… I think you know better than anyone—my now girly-girl friend—why too much thought shouldn’t be put into colors being cursed, or whatever. Surely Kingdom Hearts and the worlds gave them to us for a reason’.”

And she couldn’t argue with that, Kairi acknowledged inwardly with a smile.

So, telling herself to just entertain the bored Riku, like she’d meant to do since coming over here, Kairi couldn’t help asking proudly: “So… what is this I hear about you wanting to save my Other, too?”

…

In the end, things at the Keyblade War did not go well for Kairi… and she knew that that was putting it mildly.

Sora was now dead… because she’d been unable to defend herself, been murdered--and he had paid the ultimate price to bring her back.

And while it was so very foolish to be thinking about this now—because maybe her distracted thoughts during the Keyblade War were what had led to her doing so badly—she couldn’t help thinking it had been yellow’s fault.

And she found herself telling Donald and Goofy that now, as they quietly came to sit beside her—one on either side—on the dock.

“You know… I never understood why Sora didn’t wear bright colors himself,” Kairi explained—making sure to look at the court magician and captain of the royal guard in equal turn, even though she didn’t feel quite up to it at the moment. “…After his first journey, I mean. Sora shone brighter than anyone else did, so why…?! I didn’t get it. “But now I wonder if it’s because he subconsciously knew what had happened with Roxas, even then, and that… that guilt reacted to the Three Good Fairies striking him with their magic, and turned his outfit black. Because how could someone who stole the existence of another for themselves wear white… or something close to it, like yellow?”

“Kairi!” Donald quacked somewhat angrily, Kairi could tell. Perhaps thinking, in her grief, that she was now blaming Sora.

And Goofy frowned, as if thinking the same exact thing.

But Kairi swiftly let them know that that wasn’t the case:

“Don’t misunderstand. I don’t blame Sora for the Roxas situation, or anything like it… It just happened without him knowing it… He had no control over it, it’s true, but when he learned of it… he made certain to set it right.

“And maybe… maybe I’ll be the same way, if you’ll help me: I’ll take a page out of Sora’s book—and wear black myself: the way I should have after what I did to Naminé—but I’m going to look for him the way he always looked for me… and all will be right again.”

Kairi could tell that Donald and Goofy wanted to argue her belief of colors, the way that everyone else had.

But she was glad that they both—so in-tune with each other—breathed a sigh at the same time, and seemed to think better of it.

And both the dog and duck took one of her hands into their own Keyblade-wielding ones.

The new trio—for the time being—watched the gummi ship that the King had gone to get for them coming their way.

And it was when they could hear the sounds of the engines, that Goofy chose to speak: “The color yellow isn’t all bad, Kairi: Why, isn’t that the shade of the pendant Master Aqua enchanted for you, that first brought you to Sora? Push all the other versions of it away now, if ya must… But focus on that and your bond, and you’re sure to find him!”

And as those words reached her, Kairi realized she’d heard something like them before: when she’d been in Sora’s heart.

That special boy had been fretting that he would never find her or the King… and pondering how Donald and Goofy remained so cheerful and didn’t worry.

But then Goofy had promised Sora that they would find what they were looking for, if they just believed in themselves: Something they’d just learned about in Neverland before that, even.

And hearing this was exactly the kind of medicine Kairi needed for her wound.

So Kairi let Goofy and them know this—as they were teleported into the gummi ship together: now headed somewhere with a dark castle.

Kairi’s words sounded warmer—like a just-baked pie—than they had in a long time, and perhaps that was the answer to everything.

“Thank you… Donald… Goofy.”

Together, they looked towards the horizon.

[frickfracksnatchisback]

You’re Worthless (AGIT AU-Part 1)

I love the AGIT AU (@shaykai & @hatsparadox they’re amazing go check them out!) and wanted to write a fic about how the prince became Snatcher and Moonjumper (And it’s a bit long since I’m tagging instead of submitting it). Some of this might not be completely accurate to the AU, like Vanessa is a human in this version. But hopefully it’s good? Anyways, without further ado...

***

She wanted...no, needed to have one.

She had seen the advertisements over a hundred times. On the TV, at shops, on fliers, practically everywhere. Everyone in town had been talking about it nonstop. And she absolutely needed to have one.

She begged (well, more like threatened) her parents to get her one as soon as they came out. She had to make special appointments to see them, as they were always “busy”. They were refusing to buy it at first, mostly because of cost reasons but also because they really didn’t care. But they soon gave in to her demands just to get her out of their hair. It was always how she got what she wanted in the end. Besides, they were pretty much rich enough to buy the whole town. So why not buy something as practical as this?

It took only a couple days for the package to arrive, but it felt like years for her. Once it had shown up on her doorstep, she took the box and locked herself into her room without saying so much as a simple “Thank you” to her parents. She didn’t need their attention anymore, she had all the company she would ever need in this one, large box.

She wasn’t an expert when it came to robot maintenance, that much was clear by her social stature. But through her excruciating days of waiting for the package to arrive, she had managed to pick up a few tools and self-teaching books here and there. And they would suffice rather nicely.

It would take even more countless days before it was fully assembled. She stayed inside her room day in and day out, completely absorbed in her work. Oil was spilled and tears were shed over many ruined dresses. But on one faithful day, she had finally managed to complete her work.

She stood back to admire her handiwork. The android stood completely still, not moving a muscle. Slowly and carefully she walked up to the sleeping android, pressed the activation button on the side of its head-

And brought it to life.

***

There was darkness. A void of black nothingness. No sound, no light, no voices.

And then suddenly, there was.

He felt his systems booting up for the first time as visual overlay of numbers and letters lit up before his eyes. His gears began to whir in excitement and his robotic joints slowly began to shift.

“HELLO, #2-5-6-7.” a computerized voice in his head welcomed him to the new world. He began to move his fingers, his arms, and then he opened his eyes to take in the view around him. 

The room he was in was rather large and covered in bright pastel pink wallpaper. There was a wardrobe that stretched from the floor to the ceiling, a vanity that stood behind him, a royal canopy bed, and plush toys that filled the many shelves on the walls. In fact, the whole room was covered wall to wall in toys and trinkets of many shapes and sizes. And a desk with various metal parts, tools, and blueprints piled on top stuck out from all of the toys. It was a very strange thing to have in a young girl’s room.

And standing in the room with him was a young girl, wearing a fancy, green dress. She had beautiful golden hair and stunning blue eyes that shone like sapphires.

“THIS HUMAN WILL BE YOUR MASTER. YOU WILL DO EVERYTHING SHE COMMANDS OF YOU.” the voice piped up once more. He stared intensely at the girl, and she stared back. She was smiling at him with a look of pure joy. She walked up to him and held both of his hands with her own.

“You’re perfect.” she spoke with a soft and subtle tone. He felt his eyes widen at her response and he slowly began to smile back at her.

“Thank you.” he felt himself speaking for the first time in his own soft tone. Her eyes lit up in surprise and she began to giggle to herself. She then looked back at him with a strange expression in her eyes that he could not quite read.

“You are my prince.” she said to him as she started to fix the collar of his shirt. He now realized that she had fitted him with a royal outfit of red with purple accents to match her dress. She let go of his hands to stand a few inches away from him. “And I am your princess.” she said as she held the sides of her dress and curtsied in his direction. He quickly began to add her commands to his data bank in just a matter of seconds. When he was finished, he put his hand on his chest and bowed back.

“Yes, my lady.” he said without hesitation. She giggled once more, leaving him to stand there confused.

“There’s no need to be so formal, my prince.” she laughed as he stood there, with his head cocked to the side. “You may call me Vanessa.” she said casually. He smiled, he liked the sound of her name.

“Very well, Vanessa. I will do anything you ask of me.” he vowed to her.

And he kept his word. As the days, weeks, and months went on he became more than just her prince. He was almost like her caretaker in a way. He woke her up in the mornings, went shopping with her, he even cooked meals for her on special occasions. Her parents didn’t even seem to notice him being around her all time, nor did they seem worried about it. They used it as a good excuse for constantly neglecting her. He didn’t seem to mind, just so long as he was with his princess. He cared for her every passing day and they were both happy with each other.

That is, until the prince made a fatal mistake, one that would change his life forever.

***

Today was a very special day.

Today was her birthday! Although, it started off like any other day. He woke her up, helped pick out her clothes, and brushed her hair till it was silky smooth. After all, she had to look her finest for the ball she would attend later this evening. But despite the promises of ball dancing and birthday cake, she didn’t seem too happy about it.

“It’s not fair!” She protested loudly in her seat while he brushed her hair. He had just gotten to the 89th stroke when stopped at her sudden outburst.

“What’s wrong, Vanessa?” he asked, concerned as to why she was suddenly upset. “Are you not excited?” he questioned.

“No, I’m not.” she huffed and crossed her arms. “I just wanted to spend my birthday with you! I never asked to go to that stupid ball. Mother and father are making me go.” she pouted. He was confused. Didn’t she love dancing? She always loved to put on fancy dresses and do the waltz with him.

“Maybe your parents wanted to spend some time with you?” he proposed, hoping it would make her feel better. It unfortunately didn’t. Instead, she huffed even louder and kept her arms crossed.

“My parents don’t care about me. They’re always busy whenever I want to do something. They’re not throwing this ball together for me. They just want to keep me away from you while they talk with all the rich officials.” she replied bitterly. He fell silent and continued brushing her hair. He always felt strangely uncomfortable whenever she was upset. She was like a time bomb, ticking away at every negative, scathing comment. And if he were to slip up and to say something wrong…

He didn’t want to make his princess mad.

“My lady, I don’t see why you should be so upset. Especially on your birthday no less.” He said calmly after setting the brush on the nearby vanity. “I think you will look lovely in that dress you picked out.” He continued on as he grabbed a necklace that was sitting on the vanity. “Just imagine! You will be the center of attention with your lovely hair, your stunning gown, not to mention your necklace that matches your beautiful eyes so well.” He complimented her as he was putting the necklace around her neck. She giggled, and it relieved him greatly.

Compliments were his go-to command and they usually did the trick whenever she was in a bad mood. But there was always his overlay telling him how there was a small probability that something could go wrong. Percentages and possible outcomes flashed before his eyes every time he acted upon himself. Most androids would simply take the advice, execute it directly, and not think twice about it. But for some reason it bothered him and he couldn’t tell why. Maybe it had it to do with the fact than he was assembled differently, or something special in his coding made him more self dependent that other androids. Whatever the reason, he somehow managed to tune it out and do what he thought was best. After all, he knew his princess better than anyone.

“I suppose you’re right my prince. It wouldn’t be very lady-like of me to be unhappy on such an occasion.” She sighed happily to herself as she put in the earrings that matched her necklace. She then stood up from her seat, turned to him, and softly planted a kiss on his cheek. “You always know what to say, my darling prince!” she said while smiling and holding his hands. “After all, I programmed you that way right?” she asked him. He stood there for a moment, still a little flustered by the kiss. “My prince?” he saw that she was waiting for a response and quickly snapped out of it.

“You’re right, my lady.” he said meekly.

“And you will always be kind to me, right?”

“Yes, of course.”

“And you won’t ever leave me for someone else?”

His head went up in shock. “Heavens no! Why on earth would you think I would do such a thing?” he asked in panic. She stood there for awhile and then suddenly burst into laughter.

“Oh, my prince, you are so very loyal! I know you would never do that to me. But it doesn’t hurt to check right?” she said softly as she dragged her fingers across the metal hair on his head. “Promise me that you’ll never leave me, won’t you?” she asked in a sweet voice.

“I promise, Vanessa.” he vowed to her.

“Well! That’s enough talk for now I think.” she said plainly, as she walked past him. He watched as she made for the door. She was going to be out shopping with her parents before it was time to leave for the ball, he remembered. “You behave now, alright?” she ordered him, as she was about to leave the room.

“Yes, my lady. Have a good rest of your day.” he said and finished with a bow. She seemed satisfied and closed the door leaving him in her room all alone. He was about to go over to the vanity when he heard the door open once more.

“Oh, and don’t forget! Today is my birthday, so I’ll be expecting a present from you!” she reminded him.

“Of course, I already have the perfect gift in mind.” he bowed to her once more. 

But then he heard the door close, meaning she had already left. After that, he turned back to the vanity and opened one of the four drawers at the bottom. Inside there were two gold coins that he had hidden under all of the hair pins and jewelry. He had been saving them specifically for this occasion. She always liked when he did romantic things with her, like candlelit dinners at night or dancing with her in the main hall. And she also liked it when he gifted her romantic things like chocolate, perfume, stuffed animals…

And pretty bouquets of flowers.

There was a florist cart that had set up shop not too far away from the manor. He had seen it before when he went shopping with her on one occasion. Lovely daises, fragrant roses, blossoming peonies, and so many other flowers decorated the wooden cart. He had always wanted to buy his princess some flowers ever since that day, so why not on a day a special as this? He took the coins from the drawer and proceeded to walk out the door. He couldn’t wait to see the look on her face once he handed her such a colorful bouquet of flowers! She would be so proud of him!

***

As the day slowly turned into the afternoon, she was starting to wish she had never agreed to this stupid outing. Her parents had been dragging her to various stores and shops to buy her gift, after gift, after countless gift. Well, not “buy” her gifts exactly. Once every shopkeeper saw that the royal family was in their shop they would drop the prices immediately or just say “It’s on the house!” in order to receive praise. Besides, they weren’t doing this for her. Nothing that they ever did was for her, not really. They were only buying her gifts so that the townspeople could see that they were loving parents when, in reality, they just didn’t want to tarnish their reputation.

Whatever, it didn’t matter to her and neither did this stupid ball she was being forced to attend.

What did matter to her is that her prince was being a good little android and behaving himself back at the manor. Like he should be. This morning had been a little troublesome with him nearly talking back to her when she complained about her parents. Of course, she only complained about her parents to test him and to get his attention. But he wasn’t supposed to do that regardless. He wasn’t supposed to have thoughts or opinions on the subject because she didn’t program him to do that. He was just supposed to agree with her and that’s it. Thankfully, he did come to his senses and even complimented her. Good, she hoped he wasn’t bugging out and that she would have to make her parents buy her a new android. That would take to much effort on her part honestly, so she decided to keep her mouth shut about the weird “quirks” he’d been having recently.

Much to her annoyance, there was still one more shop that her parents wanted to visit. It was somewhere close to the manor, which meant that they were going to stop soon. Thank goodness, she thought to herself, relieved that she would be able to get home before the ball started. As soon as they all walked up to the store, her parents had already avoided her and started talking to a rich couple inside. She didn’t care, they were just showing off anyways. She started to do the same by ignoring them and instead looking at the shelves. There wasn’t much there that she didn’t already have, so she decided to look out the window instead.

There were people bustling on the sidewalks and carriages that carried the busy people on the roads. And mixed in with all of the human were robots doing their jobs. Robotic children following their human parents, robotic carriage men instructing mechanical horses to bring their masters along the roads, and robotic shopkeepers tending their stands in place of their owners.

One particular shop had caught her eye, a small flower stand that was just across the road. The florist was an android with red metal hair “tied up” in a braid and freckles painted onto her face. She was even wearing an apron and a handkerchief over her head. She watched with a sort of fascination as the florist watered the flowers around her stand and arranged them in a more appealing manner. She almost couldn’t believe how lifelike those androids looked from far away. A man in a bright red outfit walked up to the stand and was trying to get the florist’s attention. Seeing the man’s outfit made Vanessa think of her prince’s outfit. It looked almost exactly like his and-

Wait a moment. Was he wearing a crown on his head? And was that metal hair she was seeing?!

She couldn’t believe her eyes, it was her prince and he was with another android. She got closer to the window and watched as the two androids were chatting with one another. She couldn’t hear what they were saying over all the noise outside, but she could tell that they were having a rather friendly conversation. She watched as her prince said something to the florist and the florist laughed in reply.

She didn’t like this at all. She didn’t like what she was seeing one bit.

Her prince pointed at one of the bouquets on the stand. The florist nodded and began to decorate the bouquet by tying a purple ribbon in a bow around it. She saw that her prince was fixated on the florist’s movements, with a look on his face that she did not like in the slightest. After the florist was finished, she then handed her prince the bouquet and he gladly took it from her. She watched in disbelief as the florist extended her hand out to him...

And. He. Held. Her. Hand.

Promise me that you’ll never leave me, won’t you?

I promise, Vanessa

She could feel hot tears running down her face as she watched the whole thing. The broken promise echoed in her mind as she saw her prince walk away from the stand with the bouquet. He lied to me, she thought in rage. He said he would always be with me and he lied. She could feel herself clenching her fists. Her whole body was shaking in anger. She felt like breaking down and crying in the middle of the store. Or better yet, running over to her prince to bash his head in against a brick wall and throwing him out into the road for good measure.

But instead, she managed to keep most of her violent thoughts to herself. She walked over to her parents to tell her she was ready to leave. They weren’t listening of course, but she was used to that by now. She simply ran away from the store and left her parents behind, not that they would ever notice. And as she ran down the stone path leading to the manor she could only think of one thing.

She had been lied to, and she was going to make that android suffer.

To be continued...

[snarkybluechristian]

My OC x Out of Character Yandere Male

Edit: I don’t remember if I submitted this before, but it is worth sharing again.

Chelsea sat on the floor of the dungeon taking pictures of the window leading to the outside with her smart phone.  It was rare for her to be locked inside a large spacious castle dungeon, so she took the opportunity to take the best photographs she could.

She looked at the pictures and sighed in frustration.  The dungeon was too dark to take any decent photographs until the moon finished rising.

Her phone buzzed.  She received some funny text messages from her friend Albina and responded to them with witticisms that she knew didn’t match hers.  She got another text message from her father telling her dinner was almost ready. Chelsea responded to him with reassurances that her work would be done soon.

The 18-year-old half Japanese girl had been kidnapped by [insert psycho main character here] and was waiting for him to make up his mind to show up to fulfill his misguided, unoriginal “50 Shades of Gray” fantasies.  

She had been chained up in a compromising position, but being really bored and highly competent, she used her mutant powers to escape them.  Chelsea could leave whenever she wanted to, but she had a point to make.

“Author, would you please finish your eternal revision of the first fan fic and get to writing your original content soon!” Chelsea yelled at the person writing this parody story. “I’m so sick of being a damsel in distress in almost every story you have with me!  It sucks!”

As if on cue, her captor slammed the door open with an over-the-top evil grin.  Imagine him to be whatever fictional character you want as long as he’s uncharacteristically evil.  He was wearing a scary dark outfit that was all black to match his over-the-top persona and hopefully make up for his one-dimensional personality.

He looked at the spot where she was chained before, and his eyes flashed in panic when he saw the chains cut apart on the ground.  

Chelsea scooted herself away quietly so that she was more completely covered in shadow.  She was grateful that she was wearing dark clothes for the occasion.  She was wearing dark blue jeans, black tennis shoes, a green and brown plaid coat, and a black blouse with a neck line that ended just above her breasts to throw him off guard, of course.  Chelsea had been planning this for a while.  The brightest thing she wore was the red-beaded necklace her mother made for her.  

“I told you not to escape, slave!” her captor said angrily.  “Now, you will pay the price!”  

He left the door open and started walking around the prison cell to look for any trace of his new plaything.

Chelsea facepalmed. At least, GLaDOS and the dream organization people were smart.  It was worse than she thought.  

Once he was close enough and had his back turned, Chelsea quickly activated her powers.  Hard blue light photons flowed out of her hands to form two large discs.  She put one of them on the ground and jumped on top of it.  It rose into the air and she quietly flew over her captor’s head. Chelsea then dissolved the disc under her feet and fell on top of him knocking him over immediately onto the ground.

“What the hell?!” he yelled while Chelsea kneeled next to him with her disc still on her arm which she held above his neck.  “I’m supposed to be the one doing the torturing!”

“What are you doing right now?” Chelsea asked.

“What?”

“Seriously, what are you doing?  Why are you doing this?”

“What do you mean? I’ve kidnapped you, so I can torture you and traumatize you and make you fall in love with me somehow!”

“If you want to hurt me, why would I fall in love with you?”

“No, I’ll turn into a gentleman, you’ll forget all about the abuse, and we’ll be happy ever after!”

Chelsea rolled her eyes.

She then stood up, dissolved her disc, and said, “Please tell me you know what’s wrong with that sentence.”

The frazzled Christian Gray wannabe stood up and said, “You will not be disrespectful to me, slave!”

A whip appeared in his hand out of nowhere and he prepared to strike it at Chelsea, but she created a shield with both her hands and until it surrounded her.  Her captor struck at her shield while she yawned in boredom.

“No fair!” the black clad villain yelled while jumping up and down like an upset toddler.  “You have superpowers and can fight back!”

“How do you like them apples?” Chelsea asked with a smirk.

“No, this isn’t over!” he yelled extra dramatically.  “We can still make this work!  Follow me or else!”

“Or else what?” Chelsea asked.  “I could kill you right now if I wanted to, and I have established that I can defend myself if you threaten me with anything.  I also know for a fact that none of my biological or spiritual family is in any danger.  I have literally no reason to go with you.  Face it.  This whole setup is dumb.”

“No, it’s not!” her captor whined before pulling a maid outfit out of his coat.  “Now, for your impetuousness, you have to wear this maid outfit and clean my house!”

Chelsea gagged in disgust and said, “You can’t be serious.  The skirt of that dress barely even covers my ass.”

“Put it on now!  I’ll watch!”

“How about no?”

Chelsea created a disc and fired it at the outfit immediately splitting it in half.

“No!  No!  NO!” her captor yelled once again throwing a tantrum like a small child.  “It’s all ruined!  You messed up everything!  You have to make up for it!  Come have sex with me!”

“No,” Chelsea said.

“Why not?  I haven’t even tortured you!  We have to go straight to the happy ending now!”

“There would be nothing happy about that ending I assure you.  I’m not doing it, because one, you’re crazy.  Two, I’m a Christian.  I don’t believe in having sex before marriage.”

“What?  You mean you’re a virgin?!  That’s ridiculous!”

“Yes, clearly, that is the most ridiculous thing about this whole scenario.”

“Now, you have to have sex with me!”

“No, I don’t!  See, that’s your whole problem!”

“What do you mean?”

Chelsea sighed in frustration, created another disc under her feet, sat down on it, and rode it until her light blue eyes were locked with whatever kind of eyes this character has.

“You’re clearly not getting the point, so let me explain it to you,” Chelsea said.  “This whole scenario we’re in right now and your whole fantasy in general, is unoriginal and screwed up beyond comprehension.”

“No, it’s not, slave!” he replied acting completely shocked and offended.  “This scenario is completely original and completely good!”

“It’s been used in every dime store novel ever made, including in 50 Shades of Gray.”

“Okay, fine, but ladies like this sort of thing.  Every woman wants to be dominated by an evil man who turns out to be good.”

“No, they don’t.  They might get off on it, but they really don’t.”

“Huh?”

Chelsea sighed as she prepared to give a longer explanation that she wasn’t completely confident would make this guy understand and silently wished Albina was there since she was much more competent at wordplay.

“Look,” Chelsea said. “I believe in the First Amendment and being a member of a disliked faith and disliked race of mutants that society distrusted before it fell apart, I believe in tolerance.  Live and let live, you know?”

“What?  Society fell apart?” he asked in shock.

“It did in my dimension. You mean you haven’t read InGodzHandz’s 330,000-word Portal fan fiction story that’s in a perpetual state of revision? And whose characters will eventually be in a separate fiction series?  You monster!”

When he didn’t reply, she knew her sarcasm had fallen flat again.

“I was kidding,” Chelsea said.  “But seriously, check out Portal 3.  It’s long af, but it’s a great story.  Anyways, ADHD is getting me off track again.  That’s not the point.  The point is that people have the right to tell whatever kind of story they want, but that doesn’t mean they should.”

“What?”

“People are influenced by the stories they read.  That’s why in the Bible Paul makes a point of telling the Philippians and us to make sure they’re only putting true, noble, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy things in their minds.  The stories you read influence your view of reality, and even if between believer and non-believer these beliefs about the right way to view reality vary, we can still agree that there are certain ideas we should be perpetuating and ideas we should be discouraging.”

“You say a lot of big words for a teenager.  I like intelligence in a slave.”

Chelsea rolled her eyes and continued, “Your idea here in this story that women should fall in love with a man who abuses them is wrong and people need to stop pushing it.”

“It’s just harmless fun…” he complained.

“It is not harmless. Men and women have been guilty of abuse in romantic relationships since the fall of man.  Bad ideas like these have consequences and victims, especially when they’re on the Internet.  Any impressionable young person could read this and think this is a desirable relationship to be in or that this is a good way to go about romance.  The abusers will think they’re doing nothing wrong in forcing people to do what they want, and the victims will endure abuse thinking the person will change or that they deserve it when tragically they could die as thousands of people do from this every year all over the world.  I don’t believe in censorship.  I never have, but people need to start pushing better ideas or people will continue to abuse or be victimized.  Do you see what I’m saying?”

“Yeah, but you’re being quite preachy.  Aren’t you?”

“I’m too outspoken for my own good,” Chelsea with a proud smile.  “It’s because I’m passionate about this.  Ain’t nothing wrong with that.”

“No, there isn’t,” he said. “Since I listened to you, will you have sex with me now?”

Chelsea’s face fell in exasperation.

“Okay, that’s it,” Chelsea said.  “You’re never allowed to have sex again.  If you ever do, I’m gonna come back here and cut off whatever you use to reproduce.”

“You can’t do that!” he yelled.

Chelsea created two more discs in her hand and said, “I can cut through chains.  You think your dick is that much stronger?”

Her captor screamed and ran away.  Chelsea dissolved the discs in her hands, pulled out her phone, and took some artsy photos of the dungeon in the moonlight.  When she was done, Chelsea used Elizabeth’s tear opening powers from “Bioshock Infinite” to go back to her own dimension.

[elsewhereuniversity]

I wrote a story for a friend as a birthday present, and since she likes gothic fantasy, I thought Elsewhere University would be a good setting for it.

-

You weren’t sure what to do when your six choice universities all rejected you. You’d expected at least one of them to accept you, since your grades weren’t bad and your student record was clean.

But none of them did. The day you got the last polite form rejection letter, you set it down and sat there, staring out the window. What went wrong?

Elsewhere University offered you an opportunity, one you thought was a joke. But you took it anyway.

And they took you.

Not Them. That would be a different kind of Taken. But you went to Elsewhere.

Move-in day was normal; the dorm was nice, and while it looked old from the outside, the rooms were spacious and comfortable, and you only had one roommate. Yours was a young, rather timid girl named Melanie. She didn’t talk to you much, though you and her were both fans of the same shows and generally had the same sleep patterns, hence the match.

She was quiet. She put up some posters; you put up some posters. Your stuff stayed in boxes for the first few days.

There were immediately meetings. Your parents weren’t invited; no one’s were.

Your RA was a tall girl with an incredible afro and a few jangling silver necklaces that didn’t match her outfit. “I’m Kiera,” she said, standing on a rock and gesturing with a packet of papers. “I’m your RA for the northern wing of the third floor. The southern wing belongs to Jordan.” She indicated the young man standing next to her; he waved, hand half-buried in the sleeve of his blue hoodie.

“First things first,” Kiera started, “welcome to Elsewhere University! You’re very brave.”

What? You wished you knew someone well enough to make confused eye contact. As it was, most of the freshmen looked a little baffled.

“A couple of notes about common courtesy. One, no extraneous loud noises after ten PM on weeknights, except for Fridays. The curfew for Fridays and Saturdays is midnight. Don’t run or throw things in the hallways, it might hit the fire extinguishers. Also, don’t touch anybody else’s bowls or cups that they leave in the hall. If you find a piece of lost jewelry, don’t touch it. If you see anything that isn’t yours, don’t touch it. Don’t run out of salt and don’t take it out of the kitchen. Don’t eat food you find in the kitchen.”

And on and on and on. You were baffled by a few of the rules, but most of them made sense (be careful about who you accept food from, be careful about going places with strangers, et cetera. You weren’t sure why they stressed it so much. That was just basic college knowledge – hell, basic life knowledge.

It got weirder when you noticed that most people seemed to leave bowls of milk by their doors, and seemed to have salt spilled under their windows. Metal jewelry seemed popular; iron necklaces and earrings, dark metal rings, silver studs and bangles.

After a month, you’d started to make some friends, and you and Melanie were comfortable being around each other. And you’d started learning about Elsewhere, and what Kiera had meant by brave. Extra footprints in on the pavement. Strangers at parties, queens striding past robed in shadow, parts of the campus where time didn’t pass or parts where it went too quickly.

Another month, and your delusions were dispelled. You bought iron jewelry, learned how to scrawl sigils on paper and pin them on doors and windows, ran a thin line of salt on the windowsill. Melanie didn’t complain.

You sat on the quad on sunny days, because in early spring (and it was always early spring, somehow) those days were nice, and it was good to be outside.

There were sculpted gardens to sit in, but those were more dangerous. You were playing with fire if you stayed there until nightfall. You came perilously close a few times.

The first time, you found your way out. The second time you did not.

The gardens held such strangeness, and were absolutely a fascinating place to be. Horticulture students set up projects here, taking care not to disturb the ones they didn’t make. So it was usually safe.

But you were caught wandering after dark. And you didn’t realize, marveling at a rose-vine and honeysuckle trellis, that the sunlight was fading until it was nearly too late.

You tried to follow the path out, but it led you in circles, and to places you didn’t know existed. This is how people get Taken, you thought desperately, hoping and praying that somehow it would be okay.

As if it were answering your prayer – and perhaps it was – the cat appeared. You froze at the sight of slitted eyes, but realized it wasn’t one of Them when the eyes leaped down and came over to rub against your leg and stare upwards.

Green Eyes, the cat was called, because that’s what it had. Green eyes set deep in its long face, sandy fur with black hints at the ears, paws, and tail-tip. You didn’t learn its name until later, and you never really figured out if it was an ordinary cat, or one of Them, or something else entirely.

“Can you lead me out?” you asked it, and it stared back. Your heart was pounding; you had no other lifeline.

It flicked its tail in the air like a banner and trotted away through the dusk. You followed it (because you had no other choice) and like a charm you found yourself stumbling out onto the quad. A few surprised upperclassmen watched, and when you looked for the cat, it was gone.

You tried to figure out how to repay the cat, if in fact you could. Next time you saw it, you promised yourself, you would give it something.

And you did see it again. Quite often, in fact. It was skirting the parking lot behind the biochemistry building, and when you crouched down and held out your hand, it came over and sniffed at your fingers before rubbing on you.

Then it was over by the dining hall, then walking alongside you on your way to one of your classes, then to all of them. Eventually, it came up to you while you were on the quad.

Melanie was there (though, like most other students, she’d quickly adopted a pseudonym and now went by Melody), and a few other friends you’d made, including a couple of upperclassmen. At Elsewhere, for some reason, the classes mixed a lot more than they did at other colleges. You weren’t sure why.

Green Eyes trotted up to you while you were sitting on a blanket in the grass. The upperclassmen stopped talking entirely and tried to avert their eyes, but when you reached out your hand and let Green Eyes sniff it and rub against you, they couldn’t help but stare.

“How are you doing that?”

You glanced up, at Shine, a girl with spiky white hair. “Doing what?”

“Green Eyes. You…” she paused, indicating the cat. Green Eyes looked to her – she shuddered – and lay down next to you, allowing you to stroke its fur and play with its ears.

The other upperclassman looked you in the eyes. “What did you do?” they asked, dead serious.

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“It’s claimed you.”

That you didn’t understand. You didn’t know how to ask if it was one of Them, but you said, “In… what sort of way?”

“I’m not sure.”

That answer wasn’t good.

Green Eyes didn’t interact with others much, and seemed to seek me out often. It always rubbed against me – I knew that’s how cats designated things as theirs, but I didn’t realize the full extent of Green Eyes’ claim.

During a party one night you found yourself stepping outside with a handsome boy, a soft-spoken boy with white hair and the whisper of fall wind (you missed fall, here in this place where the seasons never seemed to change properly) in his voice. You saw Green Eyes watching from the top of a fence, and the boy excused himself after a moment and didn’t come back. Your hands itched under the skin where he’d held them, but looked no different; your lips remained numb for days until you shook off the longing, kept inside by the memory of lantern-green eyes in the night air.

Labs never ended after dark, but your study session did, and when you braved the night (because the library closed, and you did not want to interrupt any of the Courtly business that goes on there) and the sound of baying hounds and the fell piercing blasts of hunting horns, when you stepped along the solid concrete while the rest of the world shifted and you passed the student center and the native plant garden and the towering trees that dropped leaves like silver and shadows like blood, Green Eyes went with you. You felt it join you when you walked outside, and it brought you to safety, tail held high.

You saw it everywhere. Legend said Siamese cats had kinked tails because they’d once held rings for royalty. You wondered which royalty; tall tales said Egyptian, but Green Eyes felt like something Else.

It’s hard to remember when you graduated. A lot of your time at Elsewhere is blurry, indistinct, like a fogged glass. But you have never forgotten Green Eyes, and when you return to Elsewhere – because all those who love Elsewhere come back eventually – you see it waiting for you on the sidewalk next to the drive, tail curled over its paws, the stream of students dividing gently around it.

You don’t lean down to pet it, because that’s not what you’re supposed to do right now. But it does rub against your leg again when you get out of the car, and when you step inside your new (old, very old, old enough to have memories and old enough to act on them) house, it waits patiently for you to invite it inside.

Its motives are mysterious. The aura it gives you is one of fear and mystery. The librarian who hunts monsters eyes it occasionally, but never makes a move; she doesn’t understand it either.

But you go into the sculpted gardens, and you go there at night. Green Eyes is always with you, to lead you out. Someday, you fear, Green Eyes will abandon you in the lilac labyrinth and you’ll finally be Taken; but it doesn’t feel like that’s what it wants to do.

You asked it one night, sitting on a bench surrounded by fireflies and watching shadows silently pass by with no people to cast them. Green Eyes sat on your lap.

“Why do you help me?” you asked it, glancing down. “Why did you do all of this?”

Green Eyes stared back up, and flicked its ears back and yawned; a smile, you recognize, from reading its behavior over the years.

“Is it because I asked for help? What did you want in return?”

Silence, but Green Eyes bumped your hand and began to purr loudly enough to shake. There’s something about Green Eyes that resists Them and Their works; its ability to navigate the gardens, and its aid to you over the years, has proved that. It does not need  your companionship; it does not need you as you needed it.

You look up. Green Eyes flicks its tail back and forth and you realize that while you are its companion, now, and it wouldn’t leave you, you don’t actually need it to get through the gardens. You know them in your mind, like a house you’ve lived in for a long time. When you step through the flowers and topiary you go where you want to go, not where anything else wants you to go. Green Eyes has taught you how.

When you walk through the gardens sometimes you see lost students stumbling under the trellises, eyes haunted, breath rasping in their mouths as they struggle to get out. You approach them.

You look about their age (Age is funny at Elsewhere; when you came back, you seemed to return to who you were when you left. The rest of the world is all iron and highways and radios, and you remember the things you learned here when you came back) and you realize now that they are too scared of Green Eyes to ask for help.

But they don’t need to ask you. You can offer. And when they see your human features and Green Eyes at your feet, they accept.

[x]