#(potentially if i decide to expand/rewrite it in the future)

[afterthegreatunknown]

something set in my post-canon headcanons that may or may not be expanded on/rewritten in the future (i'm conflicted):

"there's now way he could have wander that far," mutters hector, walking down the sidewalk of the outdoor shopping center. he glances around, hoping to spot widdershins.

hector's stress level isn't as bad as it could be. that's because he knows where everyone else is at: the two-floored bookstore with the coffee shop inside it.

all of the quagmires were on the second floor together. duncan was seated in an armchair, reading a raymond chandler novel. isadora was browsing through the poetry section, scrunching up her face every so often. quigley was standing by the railing, flipping the pages of the newest edition of a cartography book he had before the fire.

fiona and fernald meanwhile, were on the first floor, in the coffee shop. fernald was doing his best to not glare at the poor nervous barista as he drank his coffee. fiona meanwhile, was laughing and talking, taking the occasional bite of her chocolate muffin.

hector thought about telling the two of the situation with their stepfather, especially fiona. out of the two, it's fiona who's keeping a close eye on their stepfather and his whereabouts.

but hector didn't want to worry them. and as said before, there's no way widdershins could have wander that far.

"i really hope he didn't went to that agua fresca vendor. as much as those drinks are absolutely delicious, especially the jamaica, the prices the vendor is selling them at isn't worth it." hector clicks his tongue as he readjusts the sun hat over his head. he peers down the sidewalk that is decently crowded with people, and-

"oy! haven't you heard of personal space or permission!?"

the shouting voice behind him has hector (and potentially others) quickly turning around. behind him in the not-to-far-away distance near the bookstore, is widdershins. in his right hand appears to be a jamaica drink.

widdershins' left hand - his left wrist, more exactly- is being grab by a stranger. the stranger is a man who is several inches taller than widdershins, as well as maybe older by a few years. the man is dress as if he should currently be at work in his office, not having fun at an outdoor shopping center.

the most standout observation though, is that the man is leering downward at widdershins. given widdershins' sudden exclamation, he's anything but happy. hector makes a dash towards them.

upon getting closer, hector can see and hear more of what is going on. the situation is more worse than hector thought from afar. the man is not just leering at widdershins. he's leering at widdershins with a smile that means one thing on the mind.

the man moves his face closer to widdershins. "here i though you couldn't get above a whisper."

widdershins attempts to break free of the man's grasp. "let go of me!"

"the pain can't be that bad. and why should i? i'm a man who can give you a good hell of a time, and not just with my hands."

"what-sir!" hector can now see widdershins' face is slightly flush.

"don't deny anything. you're more interested than you let on."

"are you that daft? can't you understand that i'm-"

"he's taken, sir." interrupts hector, deciding to stand right by beside widdershins. hector then places a hand on widdershins' shoulder. it's tense, no doubt because of the man.

widdershins blinks a few times. as the tension in his shoulder slowly leaves, widdershins gives a brief glance -and smile- at hector. "aye. i'm taken."

the man stares at them with some confusion. the man also unknowingly, slightly loosen his grip on widdershins' wrist. "there's no way you're with him. he's a mouse. a plain, boring mouse who looks like he wouldn't know how to use his mouth for any sort of recreation."

"well, you know what people say. looks can be deceiving." hector couldn't help but smirk at the man. hector admits this is rather fun; he hasn't acted like this in years.

the now flabbergasted man loosen his grip on widdershins even more. it's loose to where widdershins breaks free his left wrist. "now that we cleared everything up, will you please leave our sight before the situation becomes worse?"

"hey, now just wait a-"

widdershins quickly takes off the lid of the jamaica drink.

"my partner did warned you," says hector, feeling the smile on his face. "and he's a man who doesn't hesitate in decisions that i fully support."

"alright, alright! i'll leave, i'll leave!"

and the man quickly scurries off, making his away to the parking lot. when the man is a proper speck in the distance inside his car, widdershins gives out a laugh, and places the lid back onto the drink. he then hands the jamaica to hector.

"thank you for what you did back there. i don't know how to return the favor."

"i think it would mean being my fake boyfriend if i'm ever getting harassed. but you don't have to do that. we're not stuck in the organization's system of repayment anymore." hector looks down at the jamaica drink in his hand. "you also don't have to thank me by giving me your drink, widdershins."

"oh, that drink is yours," answers widdershins. "i bought it just for you."

hector quickly looks back up at widdershins. "but i didn't ask for it. and the price like i said before-"

"you used to drink these things back in the day. aye, and the way you went on about them as we passed the vendor has me thinking you been craving one more than you let on. price be damn! you deserve something nice, hector." widdershins then scratches the back of his neck. "granted, this treat can't be brought into the establishment because it's not water or a drink from the coffee shop. we're stuck outside until you're finish."

"that's fine by me. um...thank you, for the drink."

"you're welcome. now, are we just going to stand here? aye! we ought to rest our legs!"

they end up taking a nearby seat on a metal bench underneath the shade that is the building's shadow. as widdershins sighs and leans back against the bench to relax himself, hector removes the lid of the drink to takes a sip of the jamaica.

it's sweet and tart as he remembers it.

[synergysilhouette]

Rewriting "Naruto" (Part I)

If this looks familiar, that's because it is. I decided to delete the OG post and repost this with a couple more changes, and I'm actually gonna start working on rewriting Part II now--which will probably have more changes than Part I.

Prologue--Land of Waves: Definitely create a more healthy team dynamic with team 7; Kakashi isn't biased towards Sasuke (though he does admit it's easier to train a fellow sharingan user), Sakura is more compassionate and a better listener, not being Sasuke-obsessed or high-strung (with her feelings for him coming from sympathy before getting to know him and becoming more substantial), and Sasuke, while still planning on killing Itachi, is more open to forming relationships again (because that's the only way I buy the series ending like it did with him), privately contemplating on how he's grown to care for his sensei and teammates. Following Naruto and Sasuke's battle against Haku, Sakura realizes she has to get stronger, vowing to be of better help in the future. It's also established from the get-go that Sharingan, while extremely powerful, isn't OP; it's genjutsu can still be avoided and it can't see through all genjutsu, but it can only be outdone by a powerful opponent.

Chunin Exams: I'd introduce Sakura's parents here, who voice their concern of her becoming a ninja, explaining her insecurities. It also brings to light the backstories and families of other characters (ie Tenten's family and last name, whether or not Lee is an orphan, the Ino-Shika-Cho family relationship, Naruto growing up with Kiba, Shikamaru, and Choji as friends, Asuma being Sarutobi's son, Kiba's dreams of being Hokage, etc.) I'd also enjoy seeing Kabuto give Sakura little medical tips to help her team, foreshadowing her future potential. Her battle against the sound ninja are much cooler, as she performs genjutsu for the first time, involving Inner Sakura, perhaps it being a family kekkei genkai (maybe even connected to a dojutsu). Along with this, Ino can use her mind transfer jutsu to create hallucinations in Sakura's mind while she possesses her, only to be booted out by Inner Sakura--or maybe Ino performs a flower-related genjutsu that distracts Sakura while Ino possesses her. Ino and Sakura's friendship is expanded upon, and it's revealed their relationships have ebbs and flows independant of Sasuke, with Ino occasionally being fake/petty and Sakura stooping to her level. This is largely driven by shared insecurity, with Ino trying to live up to her family's reputation and Sakura trying to defy her family expectations. Sakura manages to beat Ino narrowly, and she battles Dosu in the finals at beats him before he's killed. It's also implied Sakura may be developing feelings for Lee. Not to mention, despite Naruto being the main character, he doesn't have to be the only person to inspire others. I enjoy the idea that Hinata's will is what truly opens Neji's eyes, not just Naruto's conviction, as well as Lee inspiring Gaara.

Konoha Crush: I'd also expand on Hiruzen's relationship with Orochimaru and the first two hokages, giving us a bit more to work with than the extended tug-of-war sequence. We get more childhood flashbacks of the sand trio, especially their relationships with each other, their parents, and Yashamaru. I'd also like for Baki to reveal to Gaara that Yashamaru was made to lie to him about his and Karura's love for him, under threat that the Kazekage would kill Gaara if Yashamaru didn't emotionally scar him. Sakura uses her blossoming genjutsu (inspired by Ino's bush clover genjutsu) in order to distract Gaara/Shikkaku, but only manages to hide Sasuke before Gaara incapacitates her. After Naruto and Gaara's battle, Sakura and Sasuke come to Naruto's aid, as Temari and Kankuro do for Gaara, making him see how they care about him. Plus put a bit more focus on Asuma, as he loses his father in this arc, just as Konohamaru loses his grandfather.

Search For Tsunade: Give Kurenai a better battle with Itachi. He's SUPER powerful, but Kurenai is supposed to be the best genjutsu user in the village; she'd have to at least be a good distraction for him. After Itachi beats Sasuke, Sasuke wonders if his friendships are holding him back, but simultaneously fears losing them to Itachi once more. And the whole "Itachi revelation" from part 2 is hinted at a LOT more (I was gonna write it off, but it's a big motivator for Sasuke later on, so I think it'd make more sense if Itachi wasn't super toxic) by having him take down Sasuke easily without torturing him and prolonging his pain. It's also vaguely alluded to that while the Akatsuki are dangerous, they weren't without their own humanity, with some of them being less evil than others. While it'd be a bit weird, I like the idea of Sakura joining Jiraya and Naruto to find Tsunade, as she's concerned about Sasuke and wants to learn medical skills from Tsunade. I'd like more flashbacks with Dan and Nawaki to be spread out a bit more for more emotional impact. I also think Kabuto should be hyped up a bit more; he's apparently a ninja whose jutsu exceeds Tsunade in her prime. Given this, it'd be cool to see him doing a grander battle against Tsunade, as well as Orochimaru taking an almost passive role in the fight against Tsunade and Jiraya. Given advice by Kabuto in the past, Sakura is able to clear Jiraya's head a little, and she and Naruto try to defend Tsunade against Kabuto. Tsunade still has an aversion to blood after the battle, but it isn't as bad as it was before.

Sasuke Recovery Mission: Sakura trains with Shizune and Kurenai before Sasuke leaves to join Orochimaru, becoming advanced for a ninja her age. She manages to incapacitate Sasuke and Naruto before they harm each other at the hospital, only further fueling Sasuke's feelings of inferiority. Sasuke laments throwing away his friendships, but hopes that after he kills Itachi, perhaps he can pick up the pieces--you know, actually thinking about what comes after. Sakura attempts to stop him, but he refuses to acknowledge any feelings he has for his team, and leaves. Sakura manages to inflict minor damage on him via poison needles, slowing him down, though he still defeats her. The girls join the boys to rescue Sasuke, with the defeat of the sound ninja only coming from the combined efforts of the Leaf and Sand ninja, not the Sand ninja alone. Sakura and Naruto team up against Sasuke, but given Sasuke's curse mark and Naruto's 9-tailed chakra, she's outclassed in this moment (having not gained the Strength of a Hundred seal), though she manages to use genjutsu following the battle to convince Sasuke not to deal further harm to Naruto, and she promised (similar to Naruto) that she would drag him back to the village.

I may tweak some more details later, but for now I'm moving onto Part II.

[kiraisrika]

Hazbin Hotel: Trace the primal light

This will be part 1/3 Of my hazbin hotel rewrite

Link to part 2: xxx

Edit: this is a safe measure to vivziepop's stans that happen to come across my silly post

I just did a rewrite of a show i thought have so much potential, viv's ideas is good, great even and i respect her (though not support her) because of how far she has come. Shes a great animator and artist, i just wanted to expand her idea in another way unlike her way, its just a silly little rewrite you don't have to take it seriously.

Tldr: I am a bored teen who see the potential and decided to expand on it im not attacking Viv im just critisizing her work, all writers, artist, creator go through that (even me) its just a part of making creating for other people to enjoy. So lets be respectful.

Lets start of with the big fish, the tonal problem of Hazbin Hotel.

I feel like Viv can't decide whether its a serious story or a comedic story, everything feels so unbalanced, one thing the viewer is supposed to make fun of a character the next you need to sympathies with them in one scene to another.

Im not saying comedic shows cannot have a serious setting once in a while, see for example: the amazing world of gumball or heck even my little pony A SHOW MADE FOR KIDS THAT MEANT TO BE LIGHTHEARTED

But ofcourse, Hazbin Hotel have this problem, so lets change it shall we?

In my rewrite HH is in its core a semi-serious show, it has mature theme that is handled seriously and it doesn't make fun of a character in their more character driven moment

Ofcourse, HH still has their humor and allat, it just doesn't interfere with the over all tone of the show

now we move on to season 1 (-ep 9)

In the original series, hazbin hotel has 8 episodes, i wouldn't blame them because their an indie production but i think it should be extended to 9 for good measure

Ep 1 focuses on the setting, tone and introduction

Ep 9 will lay out the stary of the conflict in season 2

And lets just say, the Pilot of HH did a pretty good job of standing in for Ep 1, it has the setting, the characters and how they interact. I particularly liked the introduction to charlie at the start of the pilot, when its the end of the recent extermination and she's essentially "waking up" the rest of hell.

It captured Charlie's motivation and role so perfectly and nicely, it shows her status as princess, and her motivation to end the extermination for her people. All without a single dialog only her song.

Season 1 of my HH rewrite will lean onto more episodic elements, each episode after ep 1 will introduced a new character that come to the hotel and want to be redeemed.this will be the perfect chance for viv to showcase her designs and push the premise forward.

What about sir pentious? Hes a guest yes, he's a guest in ep 1 and will be more of like the core cast along season 1

My rewrite will probably look like this:

Ep 01: Prolog

Ep 02: a guest related to greed

Ep 03: a guest related to gluttony

Ep 04: a guest related to wrath

Ep 05: a guest related to sloth

Ep 06: a Guest related to lust

Ep 07: a guest related to pride

Ep 08: cast centric episode (maybe angel dust)

Ep 09: epilog that will lay out future season

I will talk about ep 9 later after i talk about the villains in part 2

But kira how about the main cast? How about their development?

Good question and i have an answer to you

Each cast or more will handle the said guest in every episode, for example Charlie will try to calm down a rouge wrath guest or Husk will try to help slmeone with the gluttony problem and so on and so forth.

The guest will contrast the cast very much, and this will give you how they interact with someone outside the main cast

Now how about the main cast itself? How do they interact with each other? Through the episodes ofcourse, found family dynamic that build up slowly but surely. Like angel, who don't care about the hotel at the start but slowly warming up to the others

But how about their personal development or trauma? Yes, beacuse season 1 focuses alot more on episodic, developing a character through episode is hard but plausible, so i guess in season 1 we will get a little development in the show don't tell format while in season 2 we will push to more character driven story and story driven story episodes.

how about the main characters?

Ofcourse we gotta start with the main cast

Charlie morningstar

Charlie in my rewrite is nice, sweet and often times pushing herself too much, she has her pride and will do anything to protect it, even if it harm herself. Shes down to earth and thats why she gets brushed off so much by her people because she doesn't earn their respect yet

Her development in season 1 is all about her trying to gain respect and all the while pushing the inner conflict of herself for working herself too much.

And her flaw is shown in one of the scene where she lashed out to her fellow main cast beacuse of her pride as in only her method is the right one. But through out the said episode she will try to fix that part of her in the guidance of her friends.

Likable component

- friendly

- nice

- confident

- leader type

- down to earth

- caring

Unlikable component

- prideful

- Headstrong

- pushing herself too much in the cost of her own self or even her friends

- gullible

- get jealous fairly easily ( not in like a posessive way but in like of how dare you're better than me way)

Vaggie | Vagatha | Valitas (angel name)

Yes i did rewrote her name too because what the fuck is Vagina.

Anyway-

The problem i had with her is the fact she doesn't have any and i mean Any character outside of her being "Charlie's girlfriend who is an angry latina stereotype" so we gotta fix this

In my rewrite, shes a pretty serious and headstrong woman, often being the "straight man" inside the chaos of Hazbin Hotel. While she look like she's made from stone, she actually has a pretty soft side more to her friends.

She's only acted aggressively where she deemed the situation is calling for it or she sense danger arising.

Shes a very good fighter and has been with Charlie for a long Time, though they never outright have a relationship. Their romance is a slow burn one, scenes here and there like lasting glances or playful flirting throughout season 1 that build up to season 2.

She has a pretty good, enemies to friends dynamic with angel dust, and out of all the main cast she's the closest to him by far (platonic!!)

We can easily showcase her character in a show don't tell format like simple gestures like putting a hand in front of charlie when she danger is coming or reassuring the other main cast calmly while holding their hand if need be

Likable components

- attentive

- logical

- serious

- street smart

- wise

- gentle

Unlikable components

- headstrong

- violent (if the situation calls for it)

- self loathing

- overbearing

Angel dust

Angel dust oh yeah we gotta talk about him

*sigh where do i start

I am not going to show his SA scene

Thats it, thats the rewrite

JUST KIDDING

But still no SA scene bcs wtf is that

Angel dust in my hazbin hotel rewrite is a confident and flirty man, he's confident, charming and sexually active man though he does fake his emotions a whole lot.

He stand in the middle of a string between overconfidence and self loathing at the same time, even if he's tired he'll often push all of his real emotions inside and stand proud in his drag queen persona.

He is an actor after all.

He has a very heavy trauma history with Valentino, and beacuse of valentino he develop his eating disorder and self loathing tendencies.

His interaction with main cast starts from him using them as means to escape valentino to him genuinely caring about them

Hes a very complex character over all

Likable components

- confident

- charming

- caring (he doesn't want to admit it)

- attentive

- soft spot

-attractive

Unlikable components

- he'll often accidentally invading others personal space because of his flirting (he'll work on it)

- self loathing

- overconfidence

and also his eating disorder (he'll work on it too in season 1 this will be viewed negatively as in its a bad thing not that angel dust is a terrible person to have ED)

Angel ae urip iki

Husk

Husky dusty my lil meow meow (hes a grown man) Just kidding!!

Husk in my rewrite is often times dismissive, petty, and overall a not fun person beacuse of his " i don't care" attitude but surprisingly hes a pretty good listener and a very detailed observer, he has street smarts and will sometime spit out uncharacteristically good advice.

His relationship with alastor will be dived in more deeper in season 2

Over all he will be that one idgaf bartender that has surprisingly good advice

Likable components

- attentive

- observant

- good listener

- street smart

- wise

- uncharacteristic good advice

Unlikable components

- petty

- dissmissive

- bitter

- salty

Nifty

Ah yes, the hyperactive skrunkle

she's honestly...a very interesting can of worms, she acted like a child but in that one episode she displayed in this sexual setting that made me ick for a little bit

Her character is basically nothing outside of the sociopathic, hyperactive silly goober

In my rewrite she's more reserved while still holding on to that hyperactiveness of her, shes a clean freak and kinda a sociapath often times.

While she hold on to that shes a rather friendly and approachable character, shes like that one friend you would talk your problems with all the while she offered to get rid of the problem (in more ways than one). While she has her flaws with her, it wss established that she was not aware that what her doing is wrong, because in her human life she never thought about right or wrong

And yes in my rewrite shes a rather young gal (maybe high school age?), how did she met alastor? No one knows

And she's ace btw, it just doesn't accured to me she will be the type to think about romance, let alone sex.

Likeable components :

- friendly

- easily approachable

- positive

- clean

Unlikable components

- cant distinct between right or wrong

- gullible

- violent

- overbearing

Alastor

Alastor alastor alastor, what should i do with you?

In my rewrite he is an polite and old timey man, he is a gentleman and quite a charmer. Hes smart, observant and confident.

He'll probably will be the only character in my rewrite to not swear once, instead he will passive aggressively critisize someone with his signature gentleman words for example:

"Your highness perhaps with that silly little head of yours you cannot comprehend this level complexity do you?"

but ofcourse he wasn't a tumblr sexyman for nothing Ain't he?

he's manipulative while simultaneously approachable, making him more dangerous, he is sadistic and psycothic all of his move and act is for himself and only himself

It wasn't clear of wether or not he started to care for the other main cast or not but one thing is for certain that he is a force to behold.

And hes one of the girls

Also, no voodoo thingy

Likable components :

- Charming

- polite

- gentleman

- observant

- smart

Unlikable components

- manipulative

- sadistic

- fake.

- obsessive

Yes that's all for today's rewrite, part two will hopefully be tomorrow, ofcourse this is not a perfect rewrite, im open to what interpretation you guys have about my rewrite!!

Edit: sorry guys, i write this on a whim in the middle of the night and im veryy sleepy so i hope the typo and grammar mistakes can be excused

[batw1nggg]

Hi!

If you could rewrite dr3 how would you write it?

Ahhhh . the age old question

im not gonna touch future arc because i genuinely believe it cannot be saved but i will say that despair arc had plenty going for it. the framework is really good i love the part where they expand on twilight syndrome murder case and i love how they frame hajime signing up for the project as all these little events adding up. the kamukoma gun scene. the komaeda bomb subplot ate up it gave him just enough screen time without being too much. ofc i love the izuru characterization scenes. the student council killing scene is one of the only scenes in dr that still creeps me out. i love how they open with happy 77b bonding but then everything spirals out of control and the whole anime has a sense of impending doom to it.

all of this is great its just a matter of there being More of it. despair arc deserved more than 10 episodes imo. it did alright with the budget it was given but the brainwashing plot (everyone in the crowd begins to groan) (STAY WITH ME STAY WITH ME HERE) wouldve been a fine and maybe even good plot had they just. extended it.

before we get into the brainwashing plot im gonna discuss a smaller but also big issue - the hinanami kamukura project retcon. chiaki should NOT have been even REMOTELY a factor in hajime signing up for the project. the point is that he does it for HIMSELF. taps the sign chiaki shouldve been her own fleshed out character her biggest downfall is that her sole purpose is to spur on hajimes character development points at izuru crying scene points at the trial 6 chiaki scene points at the kamukura project retcon poin

now that that is cleared up. this isnt the first time the topic of a dr3 rewrite has come up on this blog and ive had issues with scrapping the brainwashing plot brought up to me, the biggest of which would be it would make putting them in the simulation unethical. if theyre brainwashed the team can go ahead and make the decision for them because they cant consciously make it themselves — but if they ARE fully conscious of their actions and do NOT consent to being put in a potential death trap (even one built with good intentions) then its just. Wrong. putting them in there to reverse the brainwashing is fine, but putting them in there because. just because they are seen as bad people that need rehabilitation? its kinda like those news articles u see that are like Scientists found a way for a prisoner to mentally serve 100 years in just 1 real life minute!

however leaning into this could pose a very interesting moral question, because both munakata and makoto’s solutions to the problem would be unethical, its just the matter of which is better. theres no clear answer. im sure in the canon makoto already feels some degree of responsibility for the killing game, but if we take away the brainwashing plot we REMOVE the comfort of saying “oh well they werent conscious of their actions so its fine that i made the decision for them because this was the only way to reverse the brainwashing” its not as black and white

i have a scene in my head to replace the brainwashing one that ive been playing with where its essentially just the og scene but. longer. theyre trapped in that trial room the only light source being the tv screens theyre watching chiaki be tortured on no food no water for. a week. two weeks i havent decided yet. and then i was thinking about chisa also being tortured so you have the two people that bring the class together dying in front of everyones eyes (also endlessly torturing only one person that long is going to kill them. taking turns with two would extend the amt of time). and after a couple of days of torture junko like forces chisa and chiaki to talk to the class about how great despair is or whatever and in their grieving and desperation to honor their last words everyone turns to despair

HOWEVER the canon realllyyyyyy wanted to paint makoto as ultimate hope good boy munakata WRONG, so. unless we want to change a lottttt of writing we gotta keep the brainwashing. i know i know.

i dont like the idea of junko personally manipulating everyone mikan style either. its too much of her time invested to a class she doesnt care about. she cares about torturing HER class because thats the one shes attached to she couldnt give less of a fuck about 77b

but she also is not LAZY about her despair. shes dramatic like. there was no reason for her to kill chiaki that was literally just for Flare. so i think it isnt unreasonable to find some midpoint between not having her manipulate EVERYONE but have her personally target maybe a couple of people for no longer than one brief scene each, and once shes infiltrated maybe 3 or 4 people Then she lets it spread. or she doesnt let it spread and the 3 or 4 ppl she did manipulate personally serve as lackeys to manipulate the group into falling for junkos brainwashing trap or something. as for who shed target, probably the most dangerous yet most clearly emotionally vulnerable ones komaeda peko etc

i would also try to fit in some of the atrocities they commit into the anime SOMEWHERE. could be in future arc could be as an extension of despair arc. no idea how id fit this in here i just think its important to do some tragedy era worldbuilding (udg tried to do this but failed. because udg sucks)

and also in the bit where chisa gets Banished over to teach at the reserve course. i think it wouldve been cool if she was hajimes teacher and also we saw a little bit of her reaction as a former main course student to the mistreatment of the reserve course students. i wish they wouldve played w that

oh also take away the despaircest. Please . and if we do decide to keep it (which i think junko incestually abusing mukuro could explain mukuros loyalty and have some genuine weight had it been handled right) we gotta explore it without fetishizing it and making it into a weird gag .

ok thats all i got right now i know this isnt a rewrite its mostly just a lot of critiques and disconnected ideas but. ill flesh out all of my concepts One Day.

[escaping-thoughts-reviews]

Routes the story could have gone down that make sense story-wise and wouldn’t leave Adrien an orphan, again:

1. Gabriel looses the miraculous, Ladybug uses some unknown power (since hers are illimited and she can create anything) to cure him and Nathalie in exchange for Gabriel's promise not to go after the miraculous ever again or she'll expose him to the public. Then Gabriel starts to focus on rebuilding his bonds with Adrien and Nathalie, realises he has feelings for Nathalie and tries to confess to her (Adrien offers him to help by coming up with plans to woo Nathalie, then all the other kids join in, hijinks ensue). As the new Hawkmoth appears, Gabriel decides to stay out of it, but as it becomes clear that the new villain is worse than he ever was, he offers his knowledge and resources to the heroes to stop the threat. 

Simple, but hopeful. Gabriel and Nathalie are more background characters now, but they add to Adrien’s story without being the focus.

2. Since it has been established in “Chat Blanc” rewriting the timeline is a posibility, have Marinette and Gabriel go back right after the first akuma attack with Bunnyx’s help and have Gabriel confront himself. Have him tell himself he’ll loose everything (Nathalie, Adrien and his life) if he goes down that road (he shows him the effects of the cathaclysm). PastGabriel then is convinced to give up the two miraculous, that Ladybug immediately takes to PastFu, while PresentGabriel reassures him not all is lost. That while Emilie was his past, his future has been standing next to him this whole time (looks at Nathalie). After Ladybug and Gabriel go back to the changed present, they witness the new reality. Adrien is happy with Gabriel and Nathalie. The Gabriel from the first reality is satisfied, smiling he thanks Ladybug for everything, and when she uses the “miraculous ladybug” power, they both disappear. Cut to NewMarinette (still LB) going to get Adrien (they know each others identities) to hang out together, while Gabriel and Nathalie look proudly at them.

A light reboot and kind of a cop-out, but with a moral lesson (letting go) and offers a clean slate to better develop characters that were poorly treated by the writing of s1-s5.

3. If you don’t want to have Gabriel get off scott free, have him be defeated and taken to the temple by the guardians of the miraculous. There, he and Nathalie are cured (5000 years of miraculous history they have to have a cure, or use LB’s power like in plot n°1), and Gabriel is rehabilitated (Adrien visits him regularly).  A couple of years later he goes back to Paris a changed man (maybe as a member of the order to help the heroes fight the new Hawkmoth).

This one has more potential for the story going forward and allows us to expand on the temple and other miraculous. Maybe a set-up for a spin-off. centered around the temple and more lore focused.

All these options work within the frame we were given by the writers and don’t make use of the “wish”, which was the main goal of the series. But I guess the witers forgot. C'est la vie.

[danganronpa-despairslab]

plot summary + spoilers !

Due to how long it’s been since the rewrite was conceptualized, I think it’s fair that people interested in this AU should finally get a rundown of the chronological plot, major spoilers, ect.

This is an incredibly rudimentary and undetailed summary and is mostly just the “why” and “how” behind every chapter of the AU’s story.

Origin of the Lab+ Chapter 0:

________

HPA makes a defunct effort to revive the Student council before the public can learn that they died. This is halted when the tragedy happens, until Junko finds the lab constructed for the project and decides to finish what the academy started. The first prototype experiment, Soshun Murasame, is physically unstable, but manages to escape. He is presumed dead, and Junko continues work on the rest of the council, eager to see what she can create.

The student council is revived with no memory of their deaths. They wake up one by one with new forms and try and work together to escape. However, their memories catch up to them and they remember the killing game and fall into despair one by one. Upon falling into despair, Junko places the Prototype experiments into stasis chambers in an old section of the lab. Kotomi Ikuta is the only prototype who does not fall into despair, because she died before the killing game began.

Throughout these events, Junko is exploring the Lab’s potential and expanding upon it with the help of her following (Ultimate Despair). The council is unaware of this. 

Chapter 1:

________

When the killing school life fails and the 78th class refuses to kill, Junko resorts to abducting and experimenting on her classmates one by one, and then keeping them in the lab. With the help of a now- “human” Monokuma, and her sister, the class is taunted with the fact that something terrible is happening to their missing classmates. 

Makoto Naegi is the last student unscathed and he convinces Mukuro to go against Junko. The two manage to start an uprising amidst staff and their classmates and attempt to escape the lab. They are unsuccessful and both Mukuro and Makoto are experimented on.

Chapter 2:

________

Junko is bored and makes a bet with Kamakura over which of the two can abduct and experiment on the most members of class 77-b (who are currently brainwashed members of Ultimate Despair). The loser will be erased of their memories, given a despair-inducing experiment, and kept in the lab. The game ends at a standstill until Junko takes out a wildcard- and revives Chiaki Nanami. Izuru Kamakura loses the bet.

During the game, a member of the Future Foundation is abducted and tested on, because the lab decides that she is a valuable source of information. The girl is nicknamed “Monomi”, and she was secretly developing an anti-despair formula. She uses this on class 77-b, and when Chiaki is revived, they snap out of despair upon seeing their classmate. Chiaki and the class has no memory of how they ended up in the lab, and Chiaki learns the truth by accessing old data files.

Izuru secretly snuck into the Future Foundation HQ and used a slow-acting formula on Ryota Mitarai before he officially “lost” the bet. Ryota is eventually taken to the lab as well. Ryota’s experimentation is the start of a long term plan to abduct and experiment on all the Future Foundation division leaders.

Chapter 3:

________

The V3 cast exists as class 79 in this AU. They avoided the tragedy by pure luck and are now in various positions in the Future Foundation or other organizations after the fact. Kaede Akmatsu and Rantaro Amami are Future Foundation Division leaders. Kokichi Oma and his organization, DICE, has quietly taken an important role in combating despair. 

Tsumugi Shirogane, a secret member of Ultimate Despair, approaches Junko with a proposition to capture and experiment on class 79 in order to drive Kokichi to despair and make him surrender. Junko is content with the idea and goes along. The class is abducted and placed in HPA, informed of their fate, and then dragged to the lab, one by one. In the end, Tsumugi is ratted out by the remaining students and her plan revealed. Ironically, Kokichi, the target of the ploy, is indifferent to the fates of his classmates but the lab hasn’t lost- Kokichi and two Future Foundation heads are now subjects. 

Chapter 4:

________

Monaca Towa learns that Nagisa is planning to betray the Warriors of Hope and decides to use the lab as a means of punishment. The WOH disappear one by one from their base until only Nagisa remains. He learns that they’ve been taken to the Lab, and decides to create a rescue plan. He brings along Komaru Naegi as “backup”, but she’s really just bait.  The two part ways in the lab, Nagisa is eventually captured. Monaca tricks the Warriors of Hope into “betraying” each other as a part of her revenge. They are oblivious to the fact that Monaca orchestrated the whole event.

 Komaru finds two escaped subjects and the three work together to navigate the facility. They are eventually captured, but the Lab (And Monaca) decides to keep her alive and turn her into an experiment.

Chapter 5:

________

Juzo Sakakura is increasingly suspicious of the disappearances of multiple Foundation leaders and agents. He attempts to take matters into his own hands, but quickly finds out too much, and is taken by Chisa Yukizome, who is acting on Junko’s orders. After yet another disappearance, the Foundation leaders try to find out what happened. One by one, they get too close to the truth, and once they learn about the lab, they’re taken until only one is left. Yukizome finishes the job by surrendering herself to the lab and becoming experiment #65.

[itsevanffs]

Hihi!! I've been hyperfixating on tommary lately and I absolutely loved (In the dark!)! I wanted to see if u have any tommary/harrymort fics that u recommend.. preferably ones that feature a possessive Tom ^^ ty in advance

I guess this would be the right time to publicly declare my bookmarks as open? Everything on there is a hard rec, and I vigorously quality-check those... for my liking and my liking only. (Sorry, not sorry. They're there for me, after all.)

That being said, hmm. I've got a few you might like.

Below the cut: more (additionally to my bookmarks) Tomarrymort (Tomarry or Harrymort) recommendations with possessive/obsessive Tom in alphabetical order; NOT order of how much I enjoy them. I'd argue I enjoy them all equally, just in different ways.

Ps: thank you! I'm incredibly flattered you liked my work :D

and don't let the police know anything by littlecupkate https://archiveofourown.org/works/24920947

Ted Dirlod is dangerous, Harry Potter knows this for a fact, but the man was still his only hope at escaping a doomed fate. It is never wise to blackmail a crime lord. It is even more unwise(?) when said crime lord is obsessed with you. An expanded version of "praying to whatever's in heaven, please send me a felon"

Genuinely lovely? Ticks all my boxes, at least, and minimal angst, which is always a plus. That being said, you should probably read the work mentioned in the summary as well for context. But hey. Two cakes by one person ;) Can never go wrong, can it?

As Certain Dark Things Are to be Loved by Strange_Soulmates https://archiveofourown.org/works/6015619

Tom was Harry's best friend growing up and his first love. At eight, Harry gave Tom his first kiss before moving away. As a freshman in college, the name of the RA on the door across the hall is terribly familiar.

Also absolutely deliciously indulgent. Tom is a possessive terror and Harry loves him for it. Need I say more?

Harry Potter and the Search for Ancient Magic (series) by Snickerdoodlepop https://archiveofourown.org/series/1133141

Once Voldemort realizes that Harry Potter is his horcrux, his plans change drastically. So does Draco Malfoy's assignment for the school year. Harry's sixth year starts going very differently. Snape is on a mission. Harry needs to learn pureblood politics. Draco Malfoy is trying to convince Harry to forgive him. Voldemort finds himself visiting Harry Potter in his dreams. Everyone is realizing that no one is quite what they thought. And through it all, there's a mystery. What is Ancient Magic? Can Harry use it to save himself or will it pull him toward the dark side?

Honestly, genuinely, hands down the best fucking tomarrymort series I've ever read. Hard, hard rec from here. The first work is completed and the second is in progress, so it's a nice pile of words to chew through!

can't commit to anything but a crime by caelesti https://archiveofourown.org/works/27286483

Excitement is the word he does not dare utter, even in the privacy of his own mind. It’s wrong, he knows. These women are people, in their own right; people with fears and aspirations, with friends and families and dreams, and to have anything cut those lives short is nothing but tragic. To have anyone cut those lives short is nothing but condemnable. He doesn’t have James Potter’s laugh lines, but he does have his father’s innate flair for danger. He doesn’t have Lily Potter’s enthusiasm, but he does have her insatiable curiosity. (In every world, Harry will excel at finding the biggest spot of trouble available and sticking his nose in it.)

Hot serial killer serial killer hot. That's it, those are the thoughts. Please read.

Dripping Fingers by May_May_0_0 https://archiveofourown.org/works/25440826

When Harry finds Tom Riddle's diary he does not write 'Hello.' He does not write anything at all. He draws. Tom Riddle falls in love with the artwork. _________________ Sketch by sketch, drawing by drawing, the ink Harry pours into the diary manifests as creations in Tom's monochrome world.

Okay so if I'm the reincarnation of Shakespeare, May_May_0_0 is fucking... Ted Hughes. Which doesn't say much to your average viewer but that man wrote my favourite poem ever (the one I based my war fic off) and I hold him in very high regard. This story? It is poetry in its rawest form. Pure, condensed beauty. If you decide to read only one of the fics in this list, please choose this one.

Either must die at the hand of the other by Metalomagnetic https://archiveofourown.org/works/29356095

Voldemort survives the Battle of Hogwarts because Harry Potter had not been the one to kill him, as the prophecy demands.

When is Metalomagnetic not a master of words? When will I cease becoming breathless at every paragraph, at every cleverly twisted word that comes back and reveals itself so beautifully later?

Fine Line by galaxiesundone https://archiveofourown.org/works/26949952

Magic always leaves traces. The lingering darkness of Sectumsempra, combined with Harry’s nature as a horcrux, awakens the soul piece contained within Ravenclaw’s diadem. At twenty years old, Tom Riddle walks a fine line between man and monster, the devil and the light-bringer in one. His influence forces Harry to face an ancient enemy unlike anything he has faced before: temptation.

Long story short: Tom Riddle is Hot and Good At Being Hot and Harry truly doesn't stand a chance and I am here for it. Lord help me I love this fic to pieces.

Good Intentions by Strange_Soulmates https://archiveofourown.org/works/7035334

Five year old Harry Potter meets and befriends a seventeen year old Tom Riddle while hanging out at his dad’s station. James Potter decides to take Tom under his wing, using Tom’s connection with Harry to try and keep the teen grounded, even as he begins to investigate the Death Eaters, a dangerous organized crime group and their mysterious leader only known as Lord Voldemort.

The sheer potential of this fic. The horrible, terrible dread of future events that have yet to be revealed. I will cry.

Honey, Smoke, Shiver by machiavelli https://archiveofourown.org/works/16068062

Harry - Omega, only son of Lord Potter - is nothing more than a useful playing card in a political game of power and money, one that is bought by the famed Tom Riddle: powerful, dangerous, pureblood Alpha. Unsurprisingly, Harry loves being underestimated.

Machiavelli is always a rec from me. Sorry lads but that's the way it is. Never a moment where I won't recommend their stuff.

Sickly-Sweet Obsession by maquira https://archiveofourown.org/works/18259103

Quiet, studious Tom Riddle spends his first year thirsting after an older student—Gryffindor’s Quidditch Captain, Harry Potter. His crush is common knowledge, and even Harry finds it cute… at first. Possessiveness spawns monstrosities. Tom does all within his power to mess with Harry’s dating life. And one seemingly harmless crush spirals into something darker, begetting deadly consequences.

Again; the potential. Delicious. This will bloom into something beautifully twisted, I'm sure of it.

Stars, Hide Your Fires by Audair https://archiveofourown.org/works/27745546

Riddle’s undivided attention snapped to him with the swiftness of shattering glass. His turbulent magic receded from where it had besieged the shop. "You,” he breathed. Coiling in leisurely motions, the eager tendrils of his magic reached for Harry, swathing about his limbs and neck and chest with a liquid, flowing fascination. "I’ve been looking for you,” Riddle continued, tilting his head to the side and sweeping his gaze over Harry. It was an appraisal that felt simultaneously like the raking of iron nails and the tender drapery of silk. It was so familiar, and yet… so foreign. In the winding streets of Knockturn Alley, an intricate dance of mutual obsession unravels between twenty-three-year-old Tom Riddle and a time-travelling Harry Potter.

This work has recently been undergoing a rewrite, and I can tell you with certainty it's only gotten better for it. It's beautiful; the setting, the atmosphere, the vibes... Perfection. Captures Knockturn Alley's mood impeccably and does not disappoint a single moment.

the pleasure, the privilege by asterisms https://archiveofourown.org/works/21227528

It begins with Vernon Dursley's body, dead across the table. In which Voldemort is dosed with amortentia, and nothing is better for it.

Completed, terrifying... and gorgeous.

The Shrike (to your sharp and glorious thorn) by PaperWorlds https://archiveofourown.org/works/22380079

Shrike: A songbird with a sharply hooked bill, known for their habit of catching insects and small vertebrates and impaling their bodies on thorns, the spikes on barbed-wire fences, or any available sharp point. A young Harry Potter survives an attack by notorious serial killer Voldemort. Over a decade later, they meet again.

Lads I'm so desperate for an update from this fic that I might cry if I think about it for too long. I keep saying it and I'll say it again; this is one of those fics with amazing potential that are sure to never disappoint no matter what path they take. An incredibly hard rec.

To Raise a Servant by bluegrass https://archiveofourown.org/works/19780816

Tom had found the boy amidst pouring rain. He figured he'd always wanted a pet snake.

Surprisingly not quite as dark as the summary makes it seem? I certainly enjoyed it, though, and that's why it's on this list.

What He Grows To Be by Severus_divides_into_H https://archiveofourown.org/works/19042240

Tom Riddle is a frightening coil of darkness, cruelty, and greatness, and changing him is Harry’s only hope for saving people he loves. Going back in time, he takes Tom from the orphanage, but his optimism shatters with every year they spend together. Tom still longs for darkness. Tom stifles him in his possessiveness. Tom is fixated on him to the point of destroying the world just to keep him. But Harry loves him. And the future changes.

Beautiful. And absolutely terrifying. I've started crying mid-scene at least three times for this fic, and it honestly seems unfathomable if you haven't read it if you're on my profile, since I think this is one of the fics that have shaped my style and ambitions. It is what I aspire to be.

[gwendeeagain]

How I wrote the Demon fic

Don't draw devil's traps in janitors' closets is one of my longest fic series I’ve ever written, the most notable of which would be my Demon Gakushuu fic, if you’ve seen it. 

In partial response to an ask post (link here), I’ve decided to revisit my writing of this fic series! It was quite a long journey for me and I think it might be fun (?) sharing it with everyone. It’s rather long, so I’ll tag it under “keep reading”. 

FYI this thread contains major spoilers for the fic (and would honestly make no sense if you do not have prior knowledge of it).

I'll just refer to the first fic in the series as Books because it has an insanely long title. Subsequent fics are in order Burgundy, Potential, Illuminate, Illuminate rewrite, and Addendum. The main series is linked here.

Addendum is not linked in the main series for reasons I'll explain below. (link here)

Books

I think one of my biggest mistakes writing Books is my lack of plot planning, and subsequently how thematically inconsistent it became. I start off most my fics with a rough idea of how I want the story to end, and a few good themes to carry me through the plot as I write, but for Books I started off with the first chapter and nothing else. If you followed the notes of my fic you'd probably have witnessed my gradual descent into uncertainty and despair as the fic spiralled out of my control due to how wrong I felt it was becoming.

The fic took a surprisingly hard toll on me. I absolutely hated it. I refused to mark it as complete because I was dissatisfied with how it ended. I thought that everyone was out of character, that I lost the original ending and goal in my head, that it was thematically messy such that I couldn't justify any ending I tried to come up with, and I was just grasping at straws trying to make it work. 

The three things that bothered me were Gakushuu’s wings, Koro-Sensei and the introduction of Aina. When I started this fic I had plans to kill off Koro-Sensei at the end, however as the fic went on it became a celebration of life and learning how to live, and I knew I couldn’t bring myself to have any death in this fic... but at the same time I had Gakushuu find a lot of meaning in Koro-Sensei’s (to-be) death and I didn’t want to undo that. The wings were on a similar note, because Gakushuu spend 50k words finding out who he is and accepting that he was different. Turning that message around and making him go back to being “the same” ate me up inside, but at the same time I set-up the Demon Society in such a way that they would kill Gakushuu if he didn’t have his wings, and it’s supposed to be a happy ending, dammit! Aina was a particularly egregious case because I threw her (and Ikeda) in without any prior warning at the very last minute. I already had a whole world and setting planned for them which I never got to expand on in the previous chapters because I was so anxious about the other two points, and when it came down to the last chapter I realized I had no set-up for these two, who were supposed to be major players in the finale. Basically I was bad at writing.

Even now I cannot fully articulate why it was terrible for me, but compounded with my real-life stressors, I suppose it just became a bit too much to deal with. (This is a piece of fiction that I am creating from scratch. If I can't even get this under control, what hope do I have for everything else?)

((For come disclosure I was never formally diagnosed with any mental illness, but my parents are the sort of people who don’t believe mental illness exists anyways. I would say that I’ve had depressive episodes when I was younger and sometimes even now, but I’ve learnt my ways of dealing with them!))

Burgundy

Four days later I published Burgundy, a short sequel to Books, very shortly after only because I had already finished writing by that time. I actually do still have several half-finished follow ups at that point, but I couldn't bring myself to complete any sequels because I couldn't even come to terms with the ending of the main story. (Those wips are lost to me now.) I think I was hoping that forcing myself to publish the sequel would show me that it was "no big deal" that the main fic didn't end the way I hoped it would, but it succeeded in making me feel worse.

Potential

About one month after that I wrote Potential. It was a three parter, somehow a fifth of the length of the main fic, that followed Gakuhou's perspective prior to the events of Books. It was a prequel which imo made it easier to write, because I still couldn't move on from Books yet. I think writing Potential was me trying to remind myself why I wrote Books in the first place, to perhaps reignite my original passion for the series. It's kind of funny to think about in hindsight, and a little meta, because Potential was a lead up to the events in Books. It worked... a little bit, I think. I still couldn't reconcile my feelings for the whole thing, but through it I got to revisit the original premise that I fell in love with and expand more on worldbuilding it. I could reprise Aina and Ikeda and finally write about the world I planned to introduce them in in the first fic and give more context and insights to how the demon society was supposed to work.

Illuminate

Six months after Potential, I ran into a comment that said, "what would Gakuhou have done if Gakushuu had died?" And for some reason it struck an epiphany in me. After that I wrote Illuminate in one night, cried myself to sleep, waited one more night to proofread it, and then published it. Illuminate was an AU to the first three fics in the series, and it was a fic about grief and mourning. Spoiler alert: I straight up killed Gakushuu in that fic. And somehow that was what I needed.

I quite literally killed my first fic - I upended the terrible ending I hated from Books - everything I had been uncertain about at first? I killed it. Plot points didn't fit my original plans? Killed it. (When I reread the death scene, I... honestly think I was unnecessarily cruel. I must have really been out of my mind when I wrote it, hah!)

And then I wrote myself a love story about missing it, grieving it, and finally letting go of it. It was heart wrenching for me - I made Gakuhou cry about what he lost, what could have been, what he realized he loved, and at the end of it all he could say "I love you and I can move on from you." And I did!

Illuminate (Rewrite)

Illuminate Rewrite, one year later, was me revisiting Illuminate to reflect on myself where I've come with this series. I actually just swapped the places of two paragraphs to change the mood at the end for something more contemplative. I elaborated a bit more on this in my notes for Rewrite, so I won't repeat them here.

Honestly, I still have a hard time coming back to reread Illuminate even after the whole debacle has happened. I attached a lot of emotions through my journey with this, and revisiting it each time takes quite a bit out of me.

Addendum

Addendum was just me having fun! After Illuminate, I managed to reconcile my feelings with the fic series. I was finally able to mark Books as complete and move on from it, and afterwards I wrote a fun little au sequel to Illuminate so that Gakushuu can live again. I could creatively expand on ideas and just do... whatever! It's more of a loose connection of plot points than a real fic, honestly.

Addendum follows Gakushuu in a future hundreds of years later, after every human who he's once known in Books has died. And... he moves on! Gets a job, makes friends, lives his life, and most importantly move on.

I chose to publish in a separate collection, however, because it was an incomplete story and I didn’t want to have a half-complete fic tacked on to what I have settled in my heart as a complete fic collection.

And that’s about it! <3

[mello-t-befan]

The video accompaining this project (turn the subtitles ON ^^)

Did you know that the movie "Quest for Camelot" was based on a book trilogy by Vera Chapman ? But the producers were so preoccuped by the idea of copying the Disney formula that they didn't honor the story's potential. Well here's how I'd picture them if they respected the original materials !

If I had to rewrite the movie, I'd say that Kayley -renamed Lynette- is the oldest daughter of the Blue Domain's master. She's kind of a tomboy, who likes hunting and has good bases of swordsfighting. She's particularly protective of Leonie, her young sister. Alas, on a faithfull day, the Blue Domain gets invaded and destroyed by Sir Rubeus, the Red Knight who rules in tyranny over the far Red Lands. After killing their father and most of their people, Rubeus kidnapps Leonie and demands that Lynette brings Lancelot to him in three weeks or else. Problem, Lancelot is out of the country with the rest of the Round Table and won't come back in England until the next month. Desperate, Lynette decide to propose a deal with Rubeus : her sister for the Holy Grail itself. Not knowing who to trust, she makes up the identity of a royal messenger boy named Lucius and go on her quest. She shows little emotions and is determined to save her sister no matter what.

Her travel with Gareth would help her becoming most trusting and more confident in her own force.

If I had to rewrite the movie, I'd say that Sir Gareth is the youngest brother of Sir Gawain and the last one becoming a knight. He was injured in a battle and became completely blind. Not wanting to give up on knighthood (kind of a family business to him), he learned to fight with his other senses, a staff and the guidance of his faithfull silver-winged hawk, Hayden. He then went among the roads in order to prove to everyone -but mostly himself- that he can still protects people despite his handicap. In doing so, he meets a strange young messenger boy named Lucius determined to find the Holy Grail no matter what. He'll follow this strange young fella, and will later learn that Lucius true name's Lynette and that she wants the Grail to save her sister.

His travel with Lynette would help him accepting his vulnerability and understands that his lost sight doesn't define neither his value nor his identity nor his future.

If I had to rewrite the movie, I'd say that Rubber -renamed Rubeus- is the Red Knight who tyrannize over all of the Red Lands. With his armies of living monstruous shadows, his cruel mind, his armor reinforced by a magical blood ruby and the druids at his service; he reigns by the force while aspiring to expand his territory. Until one day where one of his druids predicts that his doom will be brought to him by a child of the Blue Domain and a knight in conflict with Arthur. And like every bad guy who gets their end prophetized, he tries to beat fate by invading the Blue Domain and killing most of its inhabitants. But before killing Lynette and Leonie, he changes his mind and makes a deal with Lynette : her sister for Lancelot. He then go back to his country with his hostage, now confident that the prophecy won't become real.

But who ever said that Lancelot was the only knight in conflict with Arthur... ?

[bbwoulfc]

Lukanette Viking AU - Luka and Jagged: Picking A Dragon (REWRITE)

Ao3

Viking Life was a mixture of many things.  Expand, learn, fight, trade, dragon training, etc, the list goes on.  Though, when it came to the Anarky tribe, chaos and fun were one important motto when it came to being a viking.

For the Stone-Couffaine clan, they believed chaos and fun allowed a viking to reach their full and true potential.  At least, that’s what Jagged and Anarka, the chief and chieftess, believe.  It’s what allowed the Anarky tribe to rule over areas of Sratha Cluade in Scotland and Ulaid in Ireland for so long.  They were fair and just but tended to focus more on kindness and fun, with a bit of chaos of course.

And though they were a bit chaotic, they had good allies.  One of those allies they were closest to is the Cruthachadh tribe; ruled by the humble and kind Tom and Sabine of the Dupain-Cheng clan.  Together, they helped each other strive with trade and goods which only strengthened their alliance.

This eventually led to the day that house Dupain-Cheng and house Stone-Couffaine decided to sign a contract of union with a marriage between their eldest children, believing they’d be a good match for one another and lead both tribes, once united, to years of prosperous reign.  Now, at the age of twelve, Luka, heir of the Anarky tribe, was betrothed to the heir of Cruthachadh’s heir, Marinette.

With the weight of the betrothal and upcoming visit from Marinette approaching, Luka was growing nervous and anxious.  He never gets the chance to meet Marinette as often as most betrothed or even friends would, and that made it difficult when your betrothed lived a couple day’s trip by boat away or a day’s flight by dragon on a separate island.

Would they be considered friends when they hardly see each other?  Does Marinette even consider themselves friends?

Luka sighed from the whirlwind of questions and worries.  Sitting at the dining table, he dropped his head on the heavy wooden tabletop and let out a grown.

“What’s got you all mopey?” he heard his sister quietly ask as she entered the dining and kitchen space.

“Just thinking about Marinette and our betrothal.”

“Oh, that again.  Then I’m gonna leave and go hang out with Alix and Kim.  Have fun sulking.”

“Love you too, Jules,” he called out as Juleka left the house.

Luka let out another sigh.  He really wanted to make this relationship work.  But now that Juleka ditched him, he had no one else home to talk about gift ideas.  And that was the nervous part of figuring out a gift, what kinds of things does Marinette like?  Does she like jewelry?  Weapons?  Crafts?

Where was someone when he needed it?

The front door to their home burst open with force as he heard someone enter the domain.

‘I take that back.’

“Eh, my boy!”

Pushing his head up, Luka greeted his father with a small smile.

Seeing his son’s dull expression, Jagged walked over and sat across from his son, his winged crimson pit drake hybrid, Fang, followed close behind.  Luka gave a small chuckle seeing the large dragon stopping beside his father, lay down, and curl up.  Fang might look like a terrifying beast, but that dragon was nothing but an oversized puppy with how his father spoiled him.  Well, until someone threatening came along, then that puppy side was gone.

“What’s got ya so blue, son?”  Jagged’s brows furrowed,  “Is...is dis ‘bout the betrothal?”

Luka huffed, “Yea.  I’m...I’m worried about screwing this up and ruining my chances making Marinette happy.”

A smile stretched across Jagged’s face, feeling guilty for his son’s turmoil.

“I’m sorry, lad.  Yer mother ‘nd I didn’t mean fer dis betrothal ta get ya worked up.  We all just thought da two o’ve ya would be great fer each other.” 

“It’s alright, dad.  I really like Marinette, don’t worry.  I just don’t want her to regret being stuck with me.”

“Ah, come on, don’t think like that, son.  Yer a good man,” -he pushed himself up to tap his finger against Luka’s forehead- “don’t forget that.”

Sitting back in his seat, he rested his arms on the table.  Jagged looked at his son, “So, tell me what ideas ya got fer Marinette.  I know you’ve been thinkin’.”

“I was hoping to get Marinette a gift when she came to visit.  I just don’t know what she likes or would like.”

Jagged gave his son a wide grin, “Well lucky fer you, I know exactly what ta get fer yer future wife!”

“Really?” Luka perked in relief.

Leaning forward to Luka, he gave his son a nod and whispered the answer like it was a secret.

“The perfect way ta a girl’s heart is a dragon o’ve their own.”

Luka looked at his dad with skepticism, “Really?”

He watched Jagged lean back with wide arms and bright smile, “Absolutely!  That’s how I won da heart o’ve yer mother.”

Well, Luka couldn’t really argue with that in all honesty.  Based on the bond between his parents, their relationship was one of strength and many other traits.  If his dad believed a dragon would help the start of his and Marinette’s relationship, it couldn’t hurt to try, right?

“Alright,” Luka breathed with new confidence and gave his father an excited smile, “Mind joining me to the nesting grounds to find a dragon for Marinette as a pre-wedding gift?”

Jagged gave Luka a starry-eyed look and jumped up excitingly in place.

“Of course!  We’ll get ta ‘ave a father-son bondin’ moment.”  Jagged ran around the table and picked up his son, missing the sound of a yelp from Luka.  Throwing his son over his shoulder as he ran for the front, calling his dragon companion to follow, “Come along, Fang!”  

 **********************************************************

 It didn’t take them long to navigate through the Scottish woods along the shore cliff sides that housed one of the larger gatherings and nesting grounds for dragons.  Nesting grounds were always a serendipitous place for vikings to come and bond with the majestic creatures.  To build lifelong companions and friends.

For Luka, he hadn’t been to the nesting grounds in two years when he came to find a dragon companion of his own at age ten.  Which turned out as a great experience if he had to say so himself.  

He remembers when he stumbled across the Icelandic hatchling with the golden eyes two years ago.

The white-colored dragon gazed at him with curiosity and hope.  Luka reached into his side pouch and pulled out a strip of dried fish to give the hatchling; reaching the piece of meat forward.  Perking and giving the item a sniff, the dragon took and ate the treat before moving closer to the young boy.

Dropping to his knees, Luka waited patiently for the hatchling to approach on his own will.  His parents told him that you’ll know the right dragon when you both bond and connect in mind.  So, as he waited, the hatchling stepped with his front paws on Luka’s knees and stretched up until the boy stroked his head.

Seeing the dragon wanting attention, Luka ran his hand along the smokey grey muzzle and snow-white head.  He felt a rumble-like purr and within a few moments, he heard a faint, new voice say “friend” enter his head.  Hoping it was a sign of the bond, Luka thought of the word friend in return and watched as the Icelandic hatchling opened his eyes from the nuzzling and looked at him in awe and excitement within those golden eyes.

‘Bonded?’ he heard from the dragon.

Luka gave the hatchling a nod and smile, “Bonded.”

The small dragon gave a chirp in happiness and nuzzled fully against Luka.

“You’re quite the majestic dragon, aren’t you?  Really cool and handsome looking,” he stated while taking in all the dragon’s detail.

The Icelandic hatchling heard the boy’s praise and sat back, standing boldly with a little cockiness and pride.

Luka chuckled, “Oh?  A little sassiness I see.”

The hatchling perked at the term of sassy.

“You like that?  Sassy?”  He heard the dragon bark in agreement.  “Alright then.  How do you feel about Sass for a name?”

‘I like it.’

“Then, it looks like you and I are bonded companions for life,” chuckling when Sass jumped into Luka’s arms. 

Finding Sass was one of the best things to happen in his life.  To have a companion and friend to talk to, who also came to enjoy some of his interests.  And in two winters, he would be able to add Marinette and her own dragon to add to his list of good things to happen to him.

When Luka and Jagged crossed the skirt of dangling tree branches, both men gasped at the utopia that was the nesting grounds.  The area was filled with hoards of dragons of all shapes, sizes, and colors.  It might have been only two years since he had been there, but he knew for a fact that there weren’t as many dragons last time.

“There are so many new dragons,” Luka mumbled in awe.  “I didn’t know there were so many types.”

He felt his father bump his shoulder, not removing his gaze from the joyous sight, “Maybe the dragons talk to each other and tell how awesome our land is.”

They both chuckled which built to laughter.  Together, once they calmed down, began walking again, slowly approaching further into the nesting grounds.  Taking in all the activity surrounding them, they saw dragons roaming, flying, lounging under the bright sun, and herds of hatchlings playing about among the green fields, small hills, and low mountains.  The scenery looked like a kingdom all its own, but he wouldn’t let the variety of dragons deter him from finding a hatchling for Marinette.

“Where to start?” Luka mumbled to himself, gazing at the nearby nests.

However, he wasn’t aware of Jagged moving towards another direction until the sound of grass rustling came beside him.  Looking to his left, Luka watched his father take off like a kid during the holidays, jumping from nest to nest or dragon to dragon; Fang following close behind in the same enthusiasm.  

“Dad!  What are you doing?!  This isn’t like being at one of the trading posts.”

Jagged looked back at his son and waved off his worries, “Oi, no need ta worry, son!  Fang will keep me safe.”  

‘Yea, but there’s a difference from looking fearsome and acting like one.’

Rolling his eyes, Luka followed his father and Fang towards the open meadow, heading to the opposite side.  Coming upon one of the nearest nests, he came across a familiar breed of dragon.  Seeing a mixture of gold, blue, and red eyes, the snow-white scales was no mistake.

Falling to his knees, the hatchlings scurried towards Luka seeking attention like most hatchlings sought.  Chuckling, Luka tried dividing his attention to all three hatchlings as they chirped and licked his hands.  He could feel the smoothness in the younglings' skin and bumps where future spikes and horns would develop.

Though, like all hatchlings, the attention span didn’t last long as the Icelandic younglings ran off to play with the other hatchling breeds.

At the sound of a chuckled rumble, the young heir looked up at the mother of the nest, her gaze distant to where her offsprings ran off.  After a few more seconds, the mother’s gaze shifted to Luka.  Wise blue eyes looked into young ocean filled ones.

“Hey, girl.  It’s been a while.”  Opening his travel pouch, he pulled out a piece of dried fish jerky meat, holding it up to the dragon.

The female lowered her head and took the piece of meat and ate it.  She lightly nudged her dull upward beak muzzle against Luka’s head in gratitude.  Raising his hands, he returned the gesture by petting along her jaw and snout, earning a purring rumble.

“You’re a good girl, aren’t you?”  He heard the dragon give another rumble.  Leaning back, he looked into her eyes with a smile filled with his own sense of gratitude, “I want to thank you for letting me have Sass.  We’ve both been very happy.”

He received a lick across his cheek when they heard the hatchlings return and huddle back into the nest, all three curling up to one another before falling asleep.  Feeling it was time for him to move on to allow the hatchlings to sleep, he gave the mother a wave goodbye before walking off.  The Icelandic breed was a gorgeous dragon, but he felt it didn’t suit Marinette.

Continuing on to another random nest, Luka came upon a family of Wyverns.  Strong but stubborn creatures, they were majestic in their own way.  Slightly smaller than the Icelandic dragon, they were more of, what Luka felt, bird-like in appearance.  Large and powerful wingspans and two strong powerful legs.  Forest green and browns in color, they would act like good camouflage dragons in the woods or forests.

Giving attention to some of the hatchlings, he took in some more of the details around the body.  Spikes traveling along the back and parts of the head, at the end of the tail it formed into a spike club shape.  Luka was sure the Wyvern would make a good fierce and loyal companion, but again, he didn’t feel confident it was the dragon for his betrothed.

“Oi! Luka, come here, son.”

Looking over towards the location his father was, he saw Jagged and Fang hunched over a smaller nest compared to the larger ones laying about.  Standing up, Luka headed over and knelt down beside his father.

“What do ya think o’ve these little guys?”

Jagged picked up one of the little dragons with butterfly-like wings.  The coloring reminded him of one of those butterflies with orange and black markings.  A Monarch he thinks it was after learning from a gentleman at a trading post when he was with his father.  

The little dragon looked up at the two of them with curiosity in those bluish buggish eyes and chirped.

“I don’t know, dad.  They look like one of those Feydragons.  They’re very small and I wanted to get Marinette a dragon she could eventually ride.”

“Well, maybe dis guy can be an inside home dragon companion, like a dog or cat.  There’s nothin’ wrong wit’ havin’ more than one dragon.”

Looking closer at the small dragon, it’s fins fanning out and wings fluttering from the light breeze passing, and chirped.

“The little guy is cute,” spoke Luka, “It probably wouldn’t hurt to have two dragons for Marinette.”

Smiling at his dad, Jagged returned one when the sight of the Feydragon’s body began to glow.  The father and son perked in attention at the sight and gazed on in their own curiosity, leaning closer to the little creature.

“Oh?  What’s this?” Mumbled Jagged.

Suddenly, the Feydragon sneezed, the body giving a spark as a small explosion burst out.  The smoke from the blast hit Jagged and Luka with a small light force, becoming coated in patches of ash and scorch marks across their upper body.  Blinking, Luka broke his gaze from the dragon and glanced up at his father with a fuzzled haze, taking in all the scorch marks and strands of his hair and beard sticking out of place.  A few strands sizzling or giving off smoke.

If Luka hadn’t been a part of the explosion, he’d find the sight of this whole event hilarious.  He was sure he sported a similar appearance and knew the moment they returned home, Juleka would probably laugh.  As for his mother, he wasn’t sure.

“I like this little guy!” Shouted Jagged, “Marinette would love this!”

“No,” vetoed Luka.  “I’m not giving her a dragon that has explosive sneezes.”

“Oh, I’m sure they grow out of it.”

“Still no.  I’m not risking my future wife with an explosive dragon.”

“You’re no fun, but I guess you have a point.  I bet Juleka would love him!”

“Oh, gods,” mumbled Luka.

He didn’t want to begin imagining the idea of Juleka owning a dragon such as this one.

His eyes widen at the sudden thought of Alix and Kim learning about this dragon breed.  The explosions would only add up on a daily basis.

He felt a weight land on his back and little chirps and clicks.  Turning his head to his left, he tried to catch a glimpse of what landed on his back, when a small reddish gold hatchling crawled up and rested on top of his shoulder.  Raising his right hand up, he waited patiently until the hatchling crawled in his palms, the dragon’s eyes never once leaving their focus from his.

“A Chinese Gold dragon?” he gazed at the structure and appearance, taking in certain details of the bat-like wings and size, along with the crests to signal it was a female.  He gave the little dragon a welcoming smile, “Well, aren’t you a beautiful girl.  It’s not very often we get to see your species around these parts.”

The red hatchling chirped and looked knowingly with her blue eyes and seemed to gleam at being called beautiful.  Reaching into his small pouch, Luka pulled another piece of fish jerky, ripping off a smaller strip and placed it in front of the hatchling.

Watching as she sniffed the food, gurgled in excitement, and snatched the piece of meat, eating it whole.  Licking her muzzle, the red hatchling pushed up with her hind legs and rubbed her head against Luka’s chin, causing the boy to giggle.

“You’re a lovable little thing aren’t you?”

The golden hatchling gave another chirp.  Luka looked over the dragon coated in gradients of reddish-gold with some smokey black markings on her back.  It really was a gorgeous dragon and seeing the blue eyes, it reminded him of Marinette’s when he saw her a couple of years ago when they were younger.  He felt confident that this was the dragon for Marinette.

“Would you like to come home with me?  I have someone special who would love you and make a great bonded companion.”

Wanting to let the dragon make the decision, it didn’t take long for the small hatchling to crawl up his shoulder and give a little lick to Luka’s cheek.

“Well, it looks like ya found yerself a dragon, son.”

“Ya.  Ready to head home?” Luka asked as he turned to his father.

“Yep!  I can’t wait ta show Juleka her new companion!”

Luka shook his head as he followed behind his father and Fang towards home.  He was sure their house was going to get slightly busier with all the new residents.

 ********************************************************

 It didn’t take them long to reach their village, taking the pathway leading to the Couffaine home.  Compared to the other houses, it wasn’t hard to find the large two leveled home.  Then again, it was said that the chief and chieftess homes were built to be a bit larger.

Walking up the front steps, the father and son entered the family home to find Juleka at the dining table, eating lunch.

Looking over to her father and brother, Juleka perked at the sight of them, taking in the messing appearance.

“What the heck happened to you two?”

“My little darlin’ daughter,” Jagged ran over to Juleka in pure excitement, “I got you a little companion.”

He held out the small Feydragon so Juleka could take a look.

“This little guy gives off explosions when it sneezes.  It’s so cute!”

Juleka’s eyes grew in awe and wonder, mumbling, “Awesome.”

As Jagged and Juleka continued to wonder over the small Fey hatchling, Luka jolted when he heard his mother’s voice to the side of him.

“What on earth happened ta ya, lad?”  He turned towards her to find her glancing at all his messed up appearance.  “What the Hel did you ‘nd yer father get up too?”

Luka motioned for the gold dragon to hop into his palms as he held her out to his mother.

“I wanted to get Marinette a special pre-wedding gift when she comes over to visit in two weeks.  Dad said that the best way to a girl’s heart was a dragon.  What do you think?”

Ankara looked at the Chinese Gold dragon hatchling and gave a warming smile.  As quick as lighting, his mother pulled him into a crushing hug.  He was thankful that the hatchling was quick as well as she jumped out his hands before being crushed.

“Oh, my boy is growin’ up,” Ankara softly spoke, “I’m so proud o’ve ya.  Yer gonna make a fine husband ta Marinette.”   

Luka sighed at his mother’s words, feeling thankful for having such support, but feeling a weight lift off knowing he was giving his all and that his family believed in him.  They might be chaotic, him having his own moments, but he wouldn’t have it any other way.  Hopefully, Marinette doesn’t mind a bit of chaos.

@lineith @depressedrainbowcake @fantastucbaby @hansa-12 @justafanwarrior @bugaboo-valerie

[corvixa]

I have this thing, that when an idea gets in my head, I either get it out on paper or it will create a traffic jam in my head and bugger up everything. So, not including my ongoing Fics, which includes the Gold Universe as part 4 is still nearly finished, I just need that last push on it. These are Ideas that can have anything from a few scenes, an idea, plots, or several chapters.

So I call this -

Winteriron WIP

(because what else 😅, I have a problem.)

In Fire & Flames - In this universe, Phoenixes and Humans live together, if one species dies then the other will too. When a Phoenix does for good, lots of natural disasters happen, starts with Tony'parents dying and then Rhodey, who is also a Phoenix, finds Tony. Who is now familyless and dying as lone phoenixes tend to die. There are several different kinds, and they come in pairs general. Golden and Ice, for example, Golden are high in magic, Ice tends to protect, especially the rare Golden, it's more tribes than individuals, there is no requirement for who likes who. It's surprising how much making a few other Avengers phoenixes tweaks things here and there, this actually goes up to the fight in Siberia and is one of the bigger WIP's. (26k)

Flash of Gold - Avengers are shifters or humans with magic, and they think they know what Tony is. They believe he is a human with magic, but they notice that he has some shifter traits, which is odd as shifters can't have magic in this AU. Only in very old stories and myth. Tony, however, is a dragon, which are myth. Instead of being like most shifters a, a human that shifts to something, he is the reverse. It only has a few scenes. Full shebang, team as Family. Steve is even a good guy. James is brought to the tower after being found and slowly integrated into the group and is wondering wtf Tony is. (13k)

The Operative Program - Howard was never meant to be a father; he was a weaponsmith. So he took the red room and the wolf spider programs and decided to create himself an Operative that he hoped would be the darker side to help Steve when he found him. Two sides of the same coin, one for the light and one to work in the shadows, Tony would be under Steve's control, he would be a weapon for the man who only picked up a shield. (Also assassin Tony is just fun.) Tony in this is a mash-up really, Tony traits, like Gold but different as he has been trained his entire life, the only reason he has developed a sense of self is Rhodey and the fact his parents died at 17. Rhodey got there first after the car crash, getting to Tony before anyone else who knew what he was could potentially claim him. Tony definitely collects people. Yinsen and Vanko for example. Chapters from Ironman up to Avengers (not complete). But enjoyed myself rewriting some out of sequence chapters, so there is a nice big scene in Siberia. (15k)

Another Persons Wish - Now this was based on a post I saw going around. Person A is married to Person B. Person A is looking back at their life and wondering if they should have married B, etc. So, A is offered a wish. Poof. Goodbye Marriage. Person A is Steve, and the story is from Tony, person B's POV. It goes from Tony planning his anniversary(because I was apparently extremely angsty when I started this!) to waking up in the past, alone and wondering what the fuck has happened. 6 chapters entirely written. Chapter 7 is in a different file and in progress when I dabble on it. (30k)

Tarnished Gold - This is an AU from my AU AU XD. Basically similar set up to the Gold Universe, Tony escapes Hydra Captivity but is brought in by Rhodey instead of spending 2 years on his own cleaning up Hydra. He only spends about 7 months before Rhodey convinces him to come in. Few other tweaks here and there but that is just side. Rhodey and James are pals too. The plot here is Howard and Maria are brought back from the Dead and Rhodey is trying to work out how to tell them what has happened and that he can't just bring them to Tony, because he doesn't know if Tony will remember them yet. Tony is a little less 'give me orders, and I'll gut you, and more 'orders made things easier'. I basically flipped his and James reactions from the original Gold universe. Tony is more in need of a hug. It's very loosely put together. I wanted something where Howard was a good dad to offset the fact I kind of made him Hydra in the next piece, and I wanted a good family man Howard with the bringing the parents back because I love reading fics that bring Howard and Maria back. (9k)

Sins of The Father - Arno has just buried his father. His mother is in a coma, he is 20 and mourning his life now he's expected to take on the business when a visitor flips his work upside down worse than the phone call about the crash. His Father? Part of a program that summoned a creature known as a Void Walker. (A creature from the Void Loki fell into, the only native species to that area, most others can't survive the void, so Loki will read as Void Touched and is 'To Be Protected' because I think that could shake up the Avengers section nicely.) Oh and he has Howards DNA. So Arno is freaked that he has a brother, that someone released and sent to him and Arno is 100% sure he is not meant to deal with severe traumatised half-human assassins that could be his kid brother. That is how Arno meets Tony and becomes very invested and turns up big brother protective instinct to 13. When summoned they're tired to a person and has to obey orders, that person was chosen as The Asset under the idea he can't disobey, which obviously fails as Winter does everything to protect Tony, including freeing him and sending him to Arno. His last order is that Tony is not allowed to go looking for or rescue Winter, which I think will be some nice drama when Bucky gets brought in (I really like this one) It has mostly set up but 2 scenes for in the future, Tony finding Coulson threatening Arno in IM2 and the data dump. (21k) (in this S/S Helped is Yelped, I'd fix it, but I've been working on this post forreeever)

Blood and an Arc - This came about from reading the Tony is a vampire fic and noticing that when he gets turned, generally Tony hates being a vampire. There aren't many where he comes back from Afghanistan a vampire and goes, huh... Well. This could be interesting. Loosely based on Vamp the Masquerade but I've tweaked it because my brain takes ideas and then runs off madly into the sunset. It is however utterly all over the place, some from Ironman and then random out of sequence chapters that I'm unsure about as I hadn't slept in a very long time on writing them and Tony went kind of Spike-ish calling James 'Pet'. I do like the idea of Tony fully embracing his changes. Yinsen never intended Tony to live, so he did something extra whilst turning him, so he is not an ordinary baby vampire and is convinced (justifiably so) that if he meets any other vamps, they'll try to kill him. In notes have Sam considering being a werewolf who works out Tony is a vamp and freaks out, because Vampires vs Werewolves and Tony is utterly confused and tells Sam he smells of mint (seriously, insomnia) Sam is baffled to find out the centuries of hatred that is claimed to be instinctual is actually taught. Sam gets kind happy he has a Vamp friend. (20k)

The Original Plan - This sets up around the end of the Mandarin (because honestly, I prefer working with Tony that has powered, especially because James has the serum and I personally think it would expand life span more than shown in Endgame. So I like evening things out and powered Tony is my jam) Tony has a bunch of plans, and they go awry. He doesn't see why and has zero clue what's going on. It's because no matter how well he plans this out, he's caught up in other people's plans. Steve is a little more "End goal justify the anything and everything." In other words, getting Bucky back is his plan and everyone are just pawns in said plan. I've taken that tactical genius title and also pushed him a little darker. After Ultron, he brings Wanda on for 3 reasons. 1 Precedence. 2 Fixing Bucky. 3 Making sure Tony doesn't find out about his parents and making sure he is on the team and available to fix Bucky's arm. That last bit changes things as instead of pulling away from the Avengers, Tony fully moves into the compound(just after AOU, it's not good). There will be no accords and Steve will find Bucky and just move him in and general plans on telling no one about the Winter Soldier. I summed up a chunk of AOU in this format, and I liked it (in an angst and pain fashion.) But it's quite long for a screenshot, so here's a chunk. Bucky is being brought in soon, but as it is, Tony is not having a good time, there might be Wanda conditions in his mind that Steve can use to convince Tony to do things... Also, because he is living there, I couldn't justify Sam not noticing there is something very wrong, so he is asking questions he didn't in canon as Tony's PTSD is more in his face living together you know? (16k)

[illusion-reality-steve]

Update: Future plans for this blog

tbh, “plans” is a generous term to describe my ideas for this blog.

Anyways, hello. This blog has been on hiatus and only posts RRFF announcements every week.

Now I’m making an update post to talk about this blog and stuff.

First and foremost, I am no longer going to watch Rainbow Quest, which means it will be harder for me to create content for this blog

....Yup.

Ok, so I have been behind on Rainbow Quest every since the beginning of Season 2. The last episode I have seen was the Time Loop episode.

And well, now I’m probably seasons behind.

And usually, when I am so behind, I get extremely discouraged to catch up on the series and don’t bother trying to binge watch it.

(This is why I never watch any TV shows that friends recommend me if said TV show has 4+ seasons, lol)

While deciding not to watch RQ anymore takes stress away from me, it also cuts me off from any new canon material. This will make it pretty difficult for me to create fanart and posts about RQ if I no longer know what’s going on. Of course, I can always figure out the canon from just listening to whatever the fandom talks about, but summaries aren’t the same as actually watching the content so it probably won’t help me with creating RQ fan-content or discussion (imo).

Secondly, I’m still busy, so I don’t know when I’ll get back to daily posts anyways.

...Yeah. Real life has been busy.

But don’t worry, ISSQ’s still got you covered with daily posts. And I try to post once a week on my RRFF side-content book, Memory’s Meme Hour

Thirdly, because I’m running out of canon material to work on, I have no idea what I should post once I take this blog out of hiatus

If I stop watching RQ, then I’ll have to stop making reaction, theory, and discussion posts on my blog.

I know I can still work on Miteposts, Reality Steve experience Earth posts, and headcanons. And some random thoughts or skits I have about SS or RQ.

And since I spent a good portion of my freetime on RRFF, I might increase the number of posts related to RRFF or writing. But I’m unsure if anyone would be interested in that.

Here’s a list of potential post ideas or big projects I’d like to work on once I have more time:

Mite Steve AU (I’ve actually been working on it more during my hiatus and I’ve made a lot of progress with its main plot! Unfortunately, most of the content I’ve made for it will only be revealed when I start working on the actual fic (if I get to that point), but I might sprinkle in some non-spoilery content on this blog.)

RQ!Mite Steve AU (now, since I’m behind on RQ, I might have to end this AU or make it an extreme AU that doesn’t follow canon at all)

Blue Straggler AU: I’ve actually been planning to write a oneshot for this AU! It would be my first attempt at writing horror, so I will have to do a lot of planning and prepwork to figure out how to write a decent horror story. I plan to make this AU even more terrifying and depressing 8)

Reverse Rewrite AU: Ok, so behind-the-scenes, I’ve actually been working on a Rainbow Quest AU where I rewrite the Reverse Steve arc to address some of the issues I have with it! Originally, I was waiting to catch up with the series so I can expand this rewrite AU and see how the changes I made would impact the future seasons of RQ. However, now that I’m permanently behind on RQ, I’m now unsure if I should finish the Rewrite AU. Can I finish this AU when I barely know what’s going on in RQ anymore? Or would anyone be ok if I still post this AU, as long as I keep the rewrites limited to the Reverse Arc and not talk about anything after that?

Posts about random Steve Saga AUs I’ve created: basically these would be mini-AUs that I can quickly describe in one post, like my Good!Memory Steve AU. These AUs will be free-to-use for anyone who wants to use these ideas.

RQ Fanart/character designs: There’s a lot of fanart ideas I have for the first and second season of RQ that I haven’t drawn yet. (ex: the basic colored Steves, my designs of Rainbow, Galaxy, Time, Elemental, and Void). I may not be able to do anything beyond season 2, but I can still provide fanart of the first two seasons.

Alright, with all of my updates out of the way, I will be going back to radio silence on this blog until the next RRFF update.

So, for the time being, I’d really appreciate it if you reply to this post telling me which post types/listed future projects you would like to see me post more about if the blog returns from hiatus!

Thank you and take care!

[psychedaleka]

2020 favourite works meme

Tagged by @crackinthecup and @prackspoor! Thank you both :)

Rules: Choose your favorite works you created in the past year (fics, art, edits, etc.) and link them below to reflect on the amazing things you brought into the world in 2020. Tag as many writers/artists/etc. as you want (fan or original) so we can spread the love and link each other to awesome works!

2020 was really the first year I started properly engaging with fandom and other fans, so it’s been really fun! I got over my fear of bad characterization and decided to just post things. I also wrote a lot more than I did in 2019--four times as much, in fact.

1. admirable (angbang, rated t, 37k)

“How admirable,” Aulë says, as he watches you work. Admirable. Mairon. It becomes your name, and you—Mairon—try desperately not to think of how much it sounds like an insult.

The seduction of Mairon and beyond.

Admirable is probably the fic that defined my year in writing, and the first major work I’ve ever completed and posted. It’s a second person take on the seduction of Mairon and my most popular fic so far. I wrote nearly 20k of it in 6 days, (nearly 7k on the first day alone??) which is absolutely insane. I love it very much, mostly because of the second person POV, the style, and the ambition that drives Mairon into his actions. My favourite part is definitely the first chapter.

2. rewind (background angbang and silvergifting, rated t, 5k)

A maia of Aulë, lieutenant of Angband, emissary of the Valar, and Lord of Mordor walk into a bar*. This isn’t a joke, no matter how much it feels like one.

*For a certain definition of that word.

In which Sauron talks (argues) with himself.

I’ve talked about this fic before and I still like it very much, although upon reread the execution may need some work. Potential rewrite in the future? No idea. It started as characterization practice and very soon took a life of its own. It touches on a lot of themes and ideas that I want to expand on, but that’ll likely be another fic.

3. god does not play dice part 4 (crack, silvergifting)

A thing I wrote for Tolkien Crack Week this summer. Although I don’t like reading crack very much, turns out I enjoy writing it! Who knew. Out of the seven things I wrote, this is probably my favourite.

I have no idea who has and hasn’t been tagged yet, so if you haven’t, consider yourself tagged!

[sepublic]

Does anyone ever have this happen to them, where... You start writing a fanfic based off of another series, or whatever.

But this fanfic... You end up making a bunch of OCs for it. You take a character who admittedly doesn’t have too much of a personality in the original canon content, and expand on them- Expand on them wildly, or outright reimagine them completely. And you do this to multiple other obscure characters from that series that barely anybody remembers, not even the creators and writers. 

You establish an intricate network of lore, world building, and in-universe systems. You have a deep, complex plot with plenty of character interaction and development, themes and narratives, and so forth, ALL within this one fanfic that was just meant to be a spin-off story, with enough room left so it could be hypothetically canon, or at least not contradict the current canon too much.

Eventually, what started off as this small, short little story you did for fun becomes its own thing. Its own world, with its own diverse cast of characters, factions, and so forth. There’s an intricate timeline of events, of increasing scale and relevance. One-off characters who were barely even named in the original series are suddenly reinvented into complex, fully three-dimensional people with their own backstories, motivations, and desires. They’re practically your own OCs at this point, if it weren’t for the names and appearance; And sometimes only one of the two!

You have your own fully-intricate storyline and premise laid out, with a beginning, middle, and conclusion. It’s all in place...

And then you remember this was supposed to be a one-off, spin-off fanfic that doesn’t directly contradict the canon of the series you were a fan of. At which point, seeing how other people make OCs, and considering the potential of total creative freedom...

...Why not just make it your own thing?

Sure, a few characters may have to be renamed, slightly redesigned, and so on and so forth. You’d probably have to change the lore a bit to not so blatantly mirror the original series you wrote about. But otherwise, this is basically your own original creation, right? So why not embrace the newfound independence for your WIP, let it be its own thing and establish its own name? And, since you’ve got a few other bare-bones WIPs, why not incorporate them in the new lore to fill out the gaps left by the original canon of the series you were a fan of?

That... That’s basically what’s happening with my Lloyd Montgomery Garmadon Trilogy.

For context; I like Lego Ninjago. Loved the theme growing up as a kid, and it was SUPER influential in making me the story-teller and artist I am today. It’s what initially inspired me to write, honestly, and it was by writing fanfics that I was able to complete a story of my own for the first time in my entire life! My first completed story was the first ‘installment’ in this trilogy, ~The Adventures of Lloyd Montgomery Garmadon~!

(Yeah, I was trying to be pretentious as a kid in adding those squiggles. Ordinarily I wouldn’t include them now, but they’re so nostalgic and something I’m so used to that I’ve decided to keep them in anyway. Sue me.)

And then my second completed story; The next installment of this trilogy, ~The Tales of Lloyd Montgomery Garmadon~! tToLMG is special to me in that it was supposed to be about the length of the first story... But then somewhere along the way, it became a little over 1,900 pages.

I don’t mean to brag, but at the same time... It IS something I’m proud of, and honestly, I’d say tToLMG is my Magnum Opus of sorts. It’s the story with the most time, character, emotion, planning, pain, and sweat and tears put into it. I’ve had my fingers ache typing that story, planning things out... I truly felt the thrill of writing with this one. I was triumphant when I finally finished it, and boy was I excited for ~The Chronicles of Lloyd Montgomery Garmadon~, the bigger and badder final installment, the conclusion to the prequel trilogy! And even THAT was nothing compared to the plans I had for hypothetical future waves and enemies for Ninjago, all tying back to previously-established lore and characters!

But then...

...WELL, things didn’t turn out so well. I guess I just lost my passion, my spark for writing, or something like that. I lost my flow and touch, I became frustrated, and I’ve since taken a multiple-year hiatus on it that’s lasted since late 2015. If we want to be technical, I did try rewriting tCoLMG from scratch, but I haven’t quite been satisfied with those attempts. I won’t deny that I came across my limits as a writer, and while I feel like I’ve improved, I’m still not quite ready to go back. I don’t think I’ll ever be, to be honest; The fact of the matter is, amidst me reimagining the story and characters, there’s just way too much to account for. PLUS, I already have other WIPs, like Bionicle: RaE.

But for now, I think it’s more or less official- The Lloyd Montgomery Garmadon trilogy, and my planned stories beyond those prequel fics, are now going to be their own independent series, separate from Ninjago. I still love Ninjago, don’t get me wrong, but clearly I have a different vision than Lego, and that’s perfectly fine. I mean, my version of Lloyd himself is a completely different character than the Lego version at this point, and HE’s the main character!

So, yeah- Just as a heads-up, for anyone who remembers or is curious about those last few art-pieces I posted, about T, Yelatem, and Arakchos... They were all originally part of a spin-off fanfic, but now they’re part of their own, separate, original series. I’m a little excited to how I’ll reimagine and restructure what I’ve planned, especially now that I feel like I’ve matured as a writer and person, and been exposed to other forms of media that have helped inspire me on a creative level!

As for what this new ‘series’ of mine will be called, I’m still figuring that out. I’ve got a few prototype names, such as Goldenchigo; What that means, I still don’t know, but it sounds cool and distinct so I like it! There’s also Golden Dream... or alternatively, Golden-Heart Dream. 

One thing is certain; I’ll probably, finally get back to exploring the concept of this original story I made for myself. And, hey, with plans sort of changing now that the LMG Trilogy is its own thing in its own universe, maybe I can talk about the plans I had for tCoLMG, even reveal some characters I never got to post or write about properly! I’ll probably do that AFTER I finish transcribing tToLMG to Ao3, though, and THAT’s going to take a while; And I don’t intend to do that until quite a while later, whenever that is!

[pkmnomegaverse]

What fankids do the Galar characters have?

So first things first is that I’m not all that quick to develop fankids.  It takes me a while to decide on the canon cast, both what they’re doing in the future and if any of them get together, let alone deciding on fankids.  So this is one of those things that will likely expand with time.  Here’s my initial thoughts after beating the game though.  Which is more about the characters than any potential fankids.

Bede

Bede is definitely the character I’m going to hyperfocus development on, which both means he gets the most drama, but in theory, his children are the “main Galar fankids”. He’s an omega, no question there. I’m pretty set on endgaming Victor/Bede, but it takes a while for them to officially get together. 

I’m like 90% committed to the idea of Bede having a son conceived during ingame events, pretty much during the Champion Tournament.  Let’s just say I had the terrible realization that my fankid, Darcel, would make a really good child for Bede and this other character. Darcel is too established in Kalos to switch his parents, but I was stuck on the idea for its max-drama potential, so I decided to make a new fankid. A “not-Darcel”. Bede raises his son on his own and while it’s not the primary reason he turns his life around under Opal’s guidance, he is determined to be a strong and good parent to his child. Get his life together for both their sakes. My prototype name for the kid is Roan, although I might give that name to a Pier’s kid.  Regardless, someone is getting that name. 

Victor and Bede kinda end up with a complicated relationship early on, in the sense that Victor wants to be more official while Bede is often pushing him away. Plus Bede has kind of a warped perspective on what’s normal in a relationship, due to his past. Despite how far he’s come, he still has a long way to go.  He also doesn’t completely let go of his tsun tendencies when it comes to Victor, so even from a non-angst perspective, the guy plays hard to get.  At some point, they end up with a kid, a younger half-sibling to Bede’s first child. More than likely also an accident baby.

This one is way more up in the air, but given Bede’s backstory, I can see him possibly wanting to adopt if he ever came across some unfortunate orphan in need.  He’d see himself in the kid, and want to be a much better guardian than Rose was to him.  Break the cycle. So perhaps he and Victor end up with a third child who’s adopted.

Piers

Piers is the other character I really loved from the game, so he gets to be hyperfocus #2.  Also an omega since that’s my preference. I’m not 100% set on the pairing, but I am strongly leaning towards Raihan/Piers as endgame.  I do like Raihan/Leon as well, but my vast preference for Piers means I want to do more with him. So the pairing involving him wins. I’m too bad at OT3s to generally make a threeway work, so I can’t see myself going in that direction with these three.  

Kid wise, I feel like Piers has at least two kids, since I can see him wanting his child to have a sibling the way he did. As his first child is certainly an accident.  The second one could be an accident as well, but is likely deliberate, since again, he wants a younger sibling for his oldest child. He likely aims for them being closer in age than he and Marnie are. 

I do think that Raihan and Piers would have…problems making things work longterm. Not impossible, but I see Raihan as too into himself.  Kind of selfish and also likely not liking the idea of being “tied down”. One could say Piers would similarly not want to be “tied down” but given his relationship with Marnie, I see him as much more family focused. So were he to have children with Raihan, he’d be more willing to make sacrifices to make the relationship work. But a guy can only do so much on his own. It’d be on Raihan to make some compromises as well. I still need to think about this pairing more before anything is set though. 

Everyone Else

The main issue is other then the above ships, I really don’t ship anyone else. I liked Hop, but I felt he only really worked with Victor. But since Victor is with Bede…Hop is either a single dad, or maybe I’ll rarepair/crackship him with someone. 

Marnie was fine, but like Hop, no one really stood out as shippable with her.  Presumably Gloria could be shipped with either her or Hop, but I still have to decide if/how I want to implement her.  I’m fine with the idea of her as Victor’s twin, but since it goes against what I’ve done for every other region, I’m leaning towards not doing that (since even though I made Sun and Moon twins, I had a good reason for Moon not appearing in-game.  I wouldn’t be able to use the same excuse for Gloria, and I don’t want to rewrite the game plot to pretend she was there all along).  So maybe she’s some random girl, in which case, she probably would work better with Marnie over Hop?  Since Hop is too closely linked to the protag.  Were she to be Victor’s twin though, then Hop is the more likely ship.  As for omegaverse aspects, Marnie is an omega, like her brother.

Nessa/Sonia makes sense as a pairing and I can see the potential, I just don’t feel strongly enough about them to give them a fankid at this point. But they’re likely endgame.  Nessa is maybe an omega, but I can honestly see her as anything. Valid arguments for each.  Sonia is probably a beta.

Milo has strong potential Dad Energy, but I really have no ships for him, so probably nada for fankids.  Milo is an alpha.

@pokemon-legends-and-legacies‘s suggested Bea/Gordie as a couple and the idea is really growing on me.  So that one is at least a consideration.  Gordie is probably an alpha and I actually kinda like the idea of Bea as a buff fighter-type omega, since I always make fighter-type trainers alphas. Although she could possibly be an alpha as well.

I like Allister in theory, but again, I don’t have the slightest clue who I’d pair him with. There’s really no one who stands out, since all the younger characters I’d likely ship with someone else. He’s an omega cause I’m like that.

Opal is an omega since I like the idea of her being able to relate to Bede in that way.  Offer him some advice and probably teach him the ends and outs.  Since there’s no way Rose was giving him any practical information. He probably had to rely on the internet for anything he wanted to know that wasn’t taught in whatever schooling he had. I don’t think Opal has any children, since that was the overall impression I got from her trainer cards. She just skipped straight to sorta-grandma for Bede.

I don’t really think about Kabu all that much, but he’s likely an alpha.  Maybe he has family back in Hoenn, maybe he doesn’t. 

Leon and Hop are both alphas, since I like the idea of all the similarities between the two being part of what fuels Hop to want to be just like his big brother at the beginning of the game.  If I were going the single dad route for one of the brothers, it’d be Hop first, so Leon is the cool uncle to any of Hop’s kids.  Perhaps he and Raihan end up true bros as well, so he’s kinda the cool uncle to the Raihan/Pier’s kids. Maybe. 

Raihan is an alpha because of course he.  No question.  I feel like regardless on whether he and Pier’s make it long term, he’s still the father of Pier’s children. A dad with way too many pictures of his children.

Rose is an alpha and we’re not gonna discuss him right now since I’m struggling to decide what happens with him after the events of the game.  Oleana is maybe an omega?  Like Nessa, I can see there being a good argument for her being an alpha or a beta instead.  I lean towards omega going with the idea Rose “rescues” both her and Bede from a life of poverty.  And both are omegas, despite the fact the two don’t get along.  Cause I like parallels. Oleana likely won’t have children since she’s at the bottom of my list of characters to develop.

Victor is an alpha and Gloria is maybe a beta?  If I add her.  Will depend on what I decide her origin story is.

[aion-rsa]

How Midnight Sun Adds to Twilight Canon

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The following contains spoilers for Stephenie Meyer’s Midnight Sun.

As discussed in the review, by dint of being a retelling, Stephenie Meyer’s Midnight Sun doesn’t drastically change Twilight canon. (For that, check out Life and Death: Twilight Reimagined, Meyer’s gender-swapped rewrite of the first book that concludes with Beaufort Swan turning into a vampire to be with his immortal lady love Edythe Cullen.) However, it does expand our understanding of vampires through Edward’s perspective of his family: how each of the Cullens was turned, how they found each other, Edward’s personal struggle to follow Carlisle’s code of ethics, and how each Cullen interacts with Edward regarding Bella.

What Bella didn’t see in Twilight was how much Rosalie pushed back against Edward bringing a mortal into their family and tempting her to give up her humanity, and how Alice’s visions directly impacted his every move around Bella. In these Midnight Sun interactions, we also get a hint at Edward’s love life pre-Bella… or rather, his potential love life, as—surprise!—there’s not nearly as much as you would expect from a sexy vampire. Finally, Edward reveals more about his struggle with his vampire nature, and how he has made some peace with his bloody past.

Edward’s Talent and its Limits

One of the things that most draws Edward to Bella is that hers is the only mind that he can’t read, so he constantly feels off-balance around her. While he tells her as much in Twilight, in Midnight Sun he ponders what her parentage might have to do with it. It turns out that he also has difficulty parsing Charlie Swan’s thoughts; he can only get fleeting impressions or a few words here and there, as if there is a similar (though more permeable) shield. With Renée Dwyer, however, things are loud and clear—perhaps too loud, as Edward considers that even non-telepaths can probably at least intuit Renée’s thoughts and needs, the way that people seem naturally drawn to attend to her.

Alice’s Visions and Edward’s Dramatic Irony

The biggest “change” that Midnight Sun makes to the Twilight canon is the reveal that Edward knew almost from the beginning that Bella might one day become a vampire. Among the Cullen/Hale siblings, he and Alice are especially close due to their shared mental powers: As he can read her mind, that gives him a direct look into her visions. Concerning Bella, Alice sees a myriad of potential futures, but a few distinct paths stand out: Edward kills Bella. Edward leaves Bella, a blow to her emotional and physical well-being. Bella becomes a vampire.

The way Alice’s visions work is to first provide all potential futures, and then to quickly whittle down options, or clarify the major ones, through present actions. In real-time, through their arguments and debates over the Swan girl, Edward and Alice collaborate to figure out what is most likely to happen. While his taking Bella to the meadow eliminates the potential future in which he kills her—Edward has the attack of bloodlust that Alice predicted, but pushes through it—he can’t shake the likelihood that Bella will someday be a white-skinned, red-eyed, immortal creature.

This knowledge lends a dramatic irony to Midnight Sun, as Edward is constantly questioning whether his every action with Bella might tip the scales in one direction over the other. He, of course, does not share this dilemma with Bella, not wishing to encourage her toward the vampirism she claims to want. While Alice does let slip this vision by the end of the book, Edward struggles for as long as possible to give Bella as much free choice concerning her fate as he can.

With that in mind, Edward resolves by the end of Midnight Sun that he will live in the present in their relationship and resist the urge to peek at Alice’s visions:

I was taking our relationship one day at a time, one hour at a time. I didn’t look into the future. It was enough that I could feel it coming. When I promised her forever now, I meant as far as I could see. And I wasn’t looking.

But that’s simply a temporary solution to a permanent problem, and includes Edward trying to hide information both from Bella and himself. As he reflects to himself, he anticipates that something will happen to make him leave, and he doesn’t let Bella in on this fear. Instead, he tells her aloud that he will stay with her, then adds to himself:

As long as I can, as long as it’s allowed, as long as it doesn’t hurt you. Until the sign comes, until it’s impossible for me to ignore.

Which would seem to imply that he is not at all surprised at the events of New Moon, the “sign” to leave that he was already waiting for.

Edward’s Missing Week with Tanya and the Denali

After their bizarre first meeting in Twilight, Bella notices Edward’s absence from school for close to a week, before he reappears and saves her life in the parking lot. Midnight Sun reveals that Edward fled to Denali, Alaska, the Cullens’ former home and where their fellow vegetarian vampire coven still resides. It’s meant as a respite from Bella’s intoxicating scent, but it causes complications when vampire Tanya wonders if it means that Edward might have changed his mind about her romantic interest in him.

Alas for Tanya, despite her exquisite beauty, Edward has (amber) eyes for only one face. While they have a wistful conversation about how she wishes he would see her that way, ultimately Edward apologizes for “toying with [her] expectations” and actually draws inspiration from her relationships. After all, Tanya isn’t called a “succubus” for nothing; she’s had plenty of human lovers, many of whom lead long and healthy lives once Tanya learned to curb her bloodlust.

Though Bella eventually meets Tanya and the rest of the Denali coven in the later Twilight books, her cameo here fills in more of her one-sided romantic and sexual tension with Edward.

Cullen Family History

A lot of the Cullen family history comes out either during Twilight or certainly throughout the rest of the series, but because so much of Edward’s dilemma in Midnight Sun is about losing one’s humanity, he recalls how each of the Cullens and Hales joined the family.

To that end, the Cullens are unusual for having a family unit, as opposed to the more typical vampire coven. Covens might come together temporarily for a shared purpose and disband over disagreements, but a family is bound by deeper promises to one another: to lead a “vegetarian” lifestyle and maintain their treaty with the Quileutes by not draining human blood, but also to make decisions for the good of the family.

In contrast to how his telepathy makes him closer to Alice and her visions, Edward’s strained relationship with Rosalie gets explored more in Midnight Sun. As readers know, Carlisle turned her intending for Rosalie to be Edward’s mate, as Esme was for him, but despite her beauty, Edward wasn’t attracted to her. Instead, he saw her as a sister—at first in name, but then in action, the night she brought Emmett to the Cullens, near-death from a bear mauling, and begged Carlisle to change him to be her mate.

Despite this, they still clash over Edward’s choice of love in Midnight Sun—primarily because Rosalie is jealous of Bella. Left for dead by her ex-fiancé, immortality was the only option that Rosalie had, and she would give anything to have another chance at a human lifetime. So, Bella’s fervent desire to be turned feels to her like an utter waste. While these are sentiments that Rose expresses to Bella over the course of the Twilight series, Edward’s perspective delves deeper into his sympathy for Rosalie’s position, even if he resents her for not being willing to stick her neck out for Bella like the rest of the Cullens.

Edward’s Innocent/Guilty Victim

Edward understands Rosalie’s struggle with their vampire identity, and longing to be human, as he too has grappled with their bloodthirsty nature. As he tells Bella in Twilight, he had a bout of “rebellious adolescence” about ten years after becoming a vampire, in which he rejected Carlisle’s pacifism and left the family for a few years, to explore his baser instincts. Edward thought that because he could read humans’ minds, he could choose to kill only the guilty—rapists, murderers, moral monsters—and therefore “have it all” as a vampire with a conscience.

But while he admits as much to Bella, what he leaves unsaid is a big flashback upon which Midnight Sun expounds: September 1930, and his one victim who was technically innocent. In Milwaukee, Edward came upon a human man who was plagued with evil thoughts concerning a young girl in the tenement. Even as he repeated to himself, I can’t. I can’t. I can’t, he put together the resources and a plan to kidnap the young girl—the book doesn’t go graphically into his plan, but it’s easy to intuit that he intended to rape and murder her.

In the past, Edward had killed predators to ensure that they would not have a next victim; this time, he would be stopping a would-be monster before he took his first victim. Right as the man prepared to kidnap the girl, Edward captured him and killed him—serving the justice that the man had always subconsciously known he deserved.

In the end, Edward decided, even stopping humans from enacting evil on others was not enough to justify his killing them, and so he returned to Carlisle and the rest of his family.

Saving Bella

Readers get Edward’s side of the frantic chase after Bella and the tracker who lured her to a dance studio in Phoenix to kill her slowly in order to torture the Cullens—Edward, of course, but also Alice, his onetime victim who got away.

While Alice’s visions are the group’s lodestar for locating Bella before James kills her, Edward is so seized by vengeance that he could potentially alter their future to one of the scenarios where Bella dies. During their high-stakes chase scene in Phoenix, Jasper uses his talent of manipulating emotions to give Edward the empathic equivalent of a shot of novocaine: cold, numbing, and pushing aside pain so that he can focus on the job at hand.

Edward and Jacob

In contrast to his disdain for Mike Newton and the other human boys sniffing around Bella, Edward finds that he likes reading the mind of her friend Jacob Black: he considers the Quileute boy’s thoughts “engaging,” “pure and open,” and “restful.” Clearly he doesn’t see Jacob as a threat in Midnight Sun—at least, not at the beginning of the book. By the end, when Jacob cuts in to their dance at prom (to warn Bella that the Quileutes want her to break up with Edward and that they’ll “be watching” her and the Cullens), Edward notices with some surprise that the boy seems to have had a sudden growth spurt.

He also catches a curious thought from Jacob, about Bella having a weird perfume smell—something that Edward certainly didn’t notice. It’s all foreshadowing for Jacob’s werewolf transformation in New Moon, but it’s especially curious that Edward never catches on to the fact that his eventual rival for Bella’s heart is also a supernatural creature.

Persephone and the Pomegranate

The cover imagery for each side of the Twilight story provides some insight into the narrator’s impression of vampirism. For Bella, it’s an apple: the symbol of temptation, yes, but also of knowledge. A pair of hands hold the apple out, as if they have plucked it from the tree but haven’t yet worked up the nerve to take a bite. Bella’s journey in Twilight is taking that irreversible step toward knowing, because once she does, she won’t want anything else.

Where Bella sees potential, Edward sees consequence: Midnight Sun replaces the apple with a pomegranate that has already been split in two. Throughout the novel, he likens Bella to innocent Persephone, who eats half the pomegranate seeds and curses herself to spend half her life in the underworld with Hades, her (depending on the telling) lover and/or captor. Spurred on by the knowledge, via Alice’s vision, that there is a very possible future in which Bella becomes a vampire, Edward cannot stop obsessing over this metaphor and how, he believes, it would rob Bella of the joys of mortal life.

The Meaning of “Midnight Sun”

The first time that Edward realizes Bella is dreaming of him, and it’s not a nightmare, it challenges his self-perception the way nothing or no one else has in his near-century of life. He reflects:

My life was an unending, unchanging midnight. It must, by necessity, always be midnight for me. So how was it possible that the sun was rising now, in the middle of my midnight?

It… reads like pretty bad teenage love poetry, but what he’s trying to say is that when he was turned, every part of him was frozen, including his sense of self and his desires. As the sun permeating his midnight, Bella is making him reexamine what he’s allowed to want.

It’s not quite as poignant as the meaning behind Twilight: “It’s the safest time of day,” he explains to Bella. “The easiest time. But also the saddest, in a way… the end of another day, the return of the night.” But perhaps, as he seems to realize, if he pushes through to the deepest part of night, he’ll find a bright light to illuminate new parts of it he hadn’t noticed before.

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