#3) people are forcibly dragged sometimes

[obstinaterixatrix]

Amelie, a dreamy and romantic young Belgian woman, arrives in Japan to being work as a translator for the giant Yumimoto Corporation. For Amelie, who spent her childhood in Japan, this is a dream come true. It is her chance to become a "real Japanese." Eager to please her bosses and co-workers, she diligently accomplishes her daily tasks with invention and enthusiasm. But unfamiliar with the customs of the Japanese workplace, Amelie commits a series of cultural missteps and is singled out as a deviant within the company hierarchy, suffering a string of demotions. The harder she tries, the more wrathful her superiors seem to become, the more unreasonable and humiliating their demands. Unable to stop her downfall, Amelie suddenly stumbles upon her own extraordinary means of liberation.

happy femslash february, here’s a 2003 french-japanese movie about miserable office workers.

so. the thing is. this movie makes me insane. it’s deranged normal office drama. it’s mundane absurdism. it’s psychological warfare and power harrassment. it’s not romantic. it’s extremely homoerotic. and it is very french. I’m putting it in my femslash feb recs because. well.

these women are Not Normal about each other. with amélie it’s much more obvious since it’s from her perspective, but there’s a lot about miss mori you pick up from context and extrapolation and she is also extremely Not Normal about amélie.

since it’s about culture clash, I’m sure it’ll be very hit or miss with some folks in terms of how much it leans into stereotypical(/satirical) depictions of japanese office culture, but I felt like 1) there was a wide enough variety of characters to offset completely flattening the conflict, 2) it’s clear to me that amélie is supposed to be shown as having A Very Biased (and sometimes cringe) Perspective.

if you have any interest in toxic office yuri. I Highly Recommend This Movie. it’s available to buy/rent on some streaming services, there are some dvds floating around, and there are other ways to find it if you really want to

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

AITA for asking my (36F she/her) girlfriend (32F she/they) to be out at work if she wants to become myanager ?

It's messy and complicated. I love my girlfriend very much and ultimately I think we are in a shitty situation with no real win and we have a different opinions on how to lose.

I am a polyamorous lesbian. I have a wife but I also sometimes have other secondary partners, and my wife does too.

I am happy to work in a place safe enough that I am out at work (about the lesbian part, not the polyamory part). My wife often comes at afterwork events and because she is a sweetheart, is loved by most of my colleagues.

I have been at this job for 4 years, that's how I met this colleague, Angel. This person looked familiar but I couldn't put my finger on it. We talked, grew a bit closer then I met them again outside of work, at a queer event of my city. This time I recognized them. Angel is trans, non binary and fem presenting, at work she is not out and present herself as a cis heterosexual man. We talked, I obviously swore to keep it a secret but knowing this part of her helped us growing even closer together. We have now been dating for 3 years.

Angel has a longtime girlfriend (childhood sweethearts even) as her primary relationship. Let's call her Valentine. Valentine is working in the same industry but not in the same company. Because it's a niche field, everyone knows everyone and we often meet at work events. I also like her very much and we are good friends. Val is terrified to be out as polyamori at work because she is afraid of what the gossip will do to her work reputation. Valentine has a more public facing role than Angel and I and I absolutely respect her desire to protect what she has.

Even if it doesn't look like it, I do like too to keep private and professional life separated… Angel and I mostly connected outside of the workplace at queer events and are also both deeply involved in the drag scene and the queer political scene of our city. We never flirted at work and have even never stole a kiss on workground. We just happened to fall in love anyway even if we recognized the situation was less than ideal.

Our company has been through a lot of changes recently. My teamleader is leaving and Angel(that previously worked in another department) has been asked if she wants the role.

She does.

I have more experience than her even if she has more seniority with the company. I have been pretty open about wanting a senior expert position rather than managerial one and that's why I have not been offered the role. I am really happy for her and think she will be a great manager and recognize it's a great opportunity.

But I don't want her to be My manager. It's a really dangerous position to have over a romantic partner and she recognizes that. Moreover even if we managed to keep our relationship a secret until now, we know it's a precarious position. If our secret would be revealed while she IS my manager it could be terrible for us. She could be accused of taking advantage of me, or me to want to sleep my way through the top. Keep also in mind that she is male presenting at work and I am publicly a lesbian so yeah… We are also in very committed relationship which is another mess… It would not look good for us should we be forcibly out…

That's why I want to go to HR while her candidacy is being studied and explains the whole thing or at least some of them. I don't want to leave my team because my mentor is there and not a lot of people are doing what we do but maybe we could sort something out together? I would agree for Angel to be the team leader if I have a separate manager… Or maybe Angel could be the leader of another team ? Or I could become a more independent team member ? Angel and I are publicly work best friends so it would made sense anyway for me to have a different manager to keep things more fair.

Angel doesn't want to, and Valentine is absolutely against it. Angel thinks it will ruin her chance at the position. Maybe want to sort things out After she has been offered the job, maybe try to work out how we would work at manager/managee for some time before calling HR. I would not be against waiting for a real offer but listening her talk, I am afraid she intends to push things forever. Angel is afraid HR will reveal our secret to everyone. I recognize our HR team is not the best and even gossipy but it's about really private and protected things (in my country) : our sexual orientation and sexual identities. We also have a very good Union (with queer delegates) and even if I am unsure about HR, I am sure the union will remember them the law protecting us here and will ultimately behave appropriately. But I recognized it's a risk.

I want to break things of with Angel if she doesn't want to go to HR. My wife says it's mean and manipulative to use this kind of ultimatum. The way I see it I am just protecting myself. Angel is putting her job before our relationship and I am OK with that, she is also priorizing Valentine's needs (as she should) but in this case, I should be allowed to do the same and protect myself and my job. From my point of view, Angel could : refuse the position, go to HR, or accept the breakup.

AITA for this ultimatum ? Valentine thinks I am. Angel is confused. My wife disapproves but loves me to much to call me an asshole.

[fatuismooches]

natalis numerus ???

synopsis: Year after year, your birthday comes around without fail. Dottore celebrates with you, as best as a man like him can anyway. (His clones too, of course.)

includes: dottore w/ gn! reader

notes: This is really just a pure fluff fic. Both Reader and Dottore are unhinged as usual. Dottore also creates headphones for you. There is a lot of kissing at the end. Thank you to 🎐 anon for inspiring some of the ideas in this fic <3.

It was your birthday today. 

To be more exact, it was your- actually, your exact age would give anyone a start since your youthful appearance was a stark contrast, so it was best to keep it a secret. 

After living for hundreds of years, one would probably get tired of celebrating birthdays. You could understand this sentiment of course. Sometimes, at the end of it all, when your special day was coming to a close, you wondered if the next birthday would be any different. If perhaps your life and health would be any different. If you’d be able to run around and spend your birthday a bit differently. You never asked for anything for your birthday (besides kisses from Dottore) but inside, your only wish was to be cured of illness.

Though you preferred to focus on the happy aspect of your birthday. Hell, not many could claim to live as long as you had, much less had as many sweet birthdays as you had. You were pampered to the best possible extent that a group of insane madmen could achieve, meaning you never failed to receive a ‘Happy birthday, [Name]’ from every single clone that resided in Dottore’s lab. You were presented with your favorite foods throughout the day that you’d been longing to try, to which the clones were eager to hear your feedback (your answer decides whether the current cook keeps their life or not.) Not to mention there was usually no screaming throughout the lab on this particular day. How thoughtful of them!

You even had the pleasure of receiving a present from your dear husband. Though gift-giving was far from Dottore’s expertise, he always seemed to come up with something. Knick-knacks, trinkets, novelties, rarities, curios… sometimes they were brought, but many times they were handmade by the Harbinger himself. A multicolored, six-sided cube. A strange rectangular device that allowed you to communicate with him from a certain distance (still in the wonky prototype stage). A workbook with a compilation of brain teasers (many morally questionable) that he created over the last year. You’re not sure if Pantalone has realized that the extra materials he brought were for you rather than his research.

Mortals may view how you spent your birthday as simple. Though you liked to keep your birthdays simple now. Simply receiving good wishes and lovestruck looks from the clones was enough for you. More importantly, spending time with your beloved Zandik always proved to be the highlight of your birthday. Not many immortals could claim to have the person who was at their side from the very beginning still with them. But you could, which made you happy.

Dottore himself had long stopped caring about the day of his own birth, he never cared about it even when you two were students at the Akademiya. But it was still a special day for you, it was the day your lover came into this world. Your life would be rather drab without him. So naturally you had a tradition of (lovingly) attacking Zandik at 12 AM sharp (he was always awake anyway) and forcibly dragging him to bed, under the premise that one should not be sleep deprived on their birthday. You made sure to serve him his favorite food, gift him anything he seemed interested in (you learned how to buy illegal items just for him secretly), and be at his beck and call. He never cared about his birthdays, but you liked to think you made them slightly more valuable for him. Naturally, he never cared about the birthdays of other people either. That was until you forced yourself into his life, and he supposed one as useful as yourself was worthy of slight appreciation. 

But that was when you two were at the Akademiya. It was different now. Very different. You could no longer do the things you were able to. Your illness had… actually, today should be a happy day. You shouldn’t dwell on sad things. Hopefully, your aches and pains would leave you if only for a mere twenty-four hours.

As you stared at the ceiling, slowly shaking off the sleepy daze you were in, you wondered which clone would be the first to wish you. It had become somewhat of a tradition for the clones to decide amongst themselves who had the privilege of seeing you first and uttering the two important words. It would happen every year, and once a segment won they would be removed from the process until every single segment could see you first, and then it would start all over again. It was kind of funny.

You remember the first time you found out that they actually fought over who got to assist and greet you first on your birthday. To resolve these conflicts, they would enter competitions between each other - who could dissect the most amount of bodies, or dispose of the most corpses in a timely manner… You know, usual Dottore-centric stuff. Which, you didn’t really care, but after you saw how they were quite literally working nonstop, you decided to suggest a more relaxed option - duking it out in a game of TCG instead. It proved to be useful as long as you ignore the few times Prime scolded them for getting too heated.

At the end of your reminiscence, you sat up and rubbed your eyes. As you freed yourself from the soft blankets wrapping your body and swung your legs to the edge of the bed, you tried to remember which clones were candidates for this year.

Knock-knock.

Ah, looks like he was right on time.

“[Name], are you awake?” The voice from beyond the door was higher pitched than the usual deep tone you were accustomed to. You smiled as you instantly knew who it was.

“Yes, I- oh!” You couldn’t even finish your sentence before the door slammed open and a little boy shot straight into your chest, catching you off guard. It turns out that the child segment of Dottore was the first one to greet you on your special day. His tiny hands grabbed your own and he smiled an adorable toothed smile.

“Happy birthday, [Name]!”

“Why, thank you little one! That’s very sweet of you,” You hoisted the little clone to sit in your lap and he gave you a hug, which you reciprocated and giggled at his childishness. He was such a cutie.

“So many of your birthdays have gone by! How old are you now, [Name]?” He tilted his head curiously and you laughed at his question. Indeed, so many centuries of birthdays had flown by in the blink of an eye.

“Well-” Before you could respond, another voice entered the conversation.

“It’s inappropriate to ask [Name] that, little brat,” an adult segment of Dottore now stood at the doorway, rolling his eyes at the young clone, to which the child pouted and stared daggers at the other man.

“That’s not true,” the youth in your arms clung to you more, “They enjoy it when I’m inquisitive,” the boy said, repeating your words from long ago.

“Yes, yes, that’s nice, now get off of them so they can get started with their day,” the clone replied but the child stuck out his tongue defiantly and tightened his hug.

“No, I won’t.” You could see that the noncompliant response was about to send the other segment into a fit so you quickly intervened. 

“Say, why don’t you go and try to guess how old I am? If you’re right, I’ll read your favorite story to you again,” you beamed at the young boy on your lap, playfully booping his nose. Regardless of whether the kid was right or not, you were going to read him the story anyway. He was always the most attentive and engaged listener.

“Hmm…” The boy was sad to leave you, as you were the only adult he liked being around. But he understood, and the idea of you reading to him again was appealing. “Alright, I will. I promise to get it right!” With that he bounded off your lap and dashed out of the room, not before sending another dirty look at the older clone, who tried not to react, instead focusing on you.

“How do you feel today?” The segment inquired, needing to note down every possible change in your condition. He offered you his hand for support which you took, pulling you to your feet. “Any pains? Changes?”

“No, not really. In fact, I think I feel better today than usual. Or maybe I’m imagining it,” you hummed in response. Maybe it was the birthday happiness clouding your mind.

“Understood.” He recorded your statement in his head. “Happy birthday, by the way,” the segment mentioned nonchalantly. This segment was from when Dottore was horrible at expressing any positive emotions or words to you, and if he somehow managed to, it sounded very bland. But you found it hilarious, poking his cheek to which he then sent you a half-hearted glare of annoyance and flustered embarrassment.

“Thank you. I’m proud of you for getting that out of your system,” you teased, to which the clone scoffed at your antics, but couldn’t be mad at you for them.

“Whatever. Let’s get you ready,” he huffed and you happily complied. 

—

As you expected, as soon as you entered the lab, practically everyone’s neck snapped to you. Numerous birthday wishes were sent your way, each with a maniacal toothy grin to go along with it. There was no way any of them could forget, especially when they were fighting over who got to do what inside of their own heads for days before your birthday. Some of the clones had the pleasure of feeding you, while another fixed your hair… one even gave you a massage. After all, the birthday person deserves to be pampered, no? And these were the same segments whose faces were terribly familiar, having been by your side for centuries for all the past birthdays. They knew what you liked, and it was awfully enjoyable.

But there was still one more person to see. The most important one. Zandik.

Normal people would probably think it was crazy for your lover to be the last one to wish you a happy birthday. But for you, you thought it was perfect. You spent some time with the clones so they wouldn’t feel left out, and then for the rest of the day, they knew to leave you in solitude with their creator. No distractions or interruptions with your Zandik. Besides, after all-

They always say to save the best for last, don’t they?

—

You didn’t even need to knock on the door to Zandik’s private lab as it was already open. He was expecting you. Zandik’s back was facing you when you walked in, but he realized your presence immediately and set the vial down to greet you.

“[Name],” the emotionless expression on his face morphed into an enlivened one, his pointy teeth flashing. “Earlier than I expected.” Strangely colored liquids and concoctions were scattered over the table. You think you interrupted him while he was making medicine, but he didn’t seem to care. His attention was now turned to the multitude of drawers where various items were stored, opening them and then shutting them, appearing to look for something.

“It is I,” you smiled back at him, “and what can I say? I just wanted to see you. Not to mention, I must say I’m curious as to what crazy invention you’ve thought up for me this year. It seems you never run out of ideas.” Zandik had always liked to present his little gift at the start. Despite how he acted as if it was no big deal and not very important, he was always intrigued to see your reaction.

Though this time you had an inkling of what it was going to be. A while ago, he had asked to borrow your beloved device for playing music using Radiant Spincrystals (which you had named “Music Thing” much to his amusement.) 

There were other furnishings that could be used for playing Radiant Spincrystals, but you had no need for them. After all, Zandik’s own creations always surpassed the other ones. Unlike the one from Liyue, the one he had made for you was much more portable and light, so that even you could carry it around. There were even buttons that changed the volume of the music! So you assumed that he was going to make some more changes or adjustments to Music Thing.

“That is correct. But I believe you’ll find this year’s gift especially useful. Watch.” As you thought, he revealed your Music Thing and a sole Radiant Spincrystal. Zandik inserted a Spincrystal into the device, yet no sound emitted from it, which left you a bit confused.

“But nothing’s playing.” 

“Is that so? Why don’t you listen closer?” He smirked at you and motioned you to come closer, which you did, and then realized there was now something plugged into the device. It was a wire that led to something much larger.

The large gadget was oddly shaped. The top of it was like a band that curved into two circles on both ends, which looked like it was padded with something soft. Regardless, you had never seen anything like it and you had no idea what it could be used for. You were very confused but then you realized you could hear the music from the Radiant Spincrystal playing from the apparatus.

“Huh…? I can hear the music coming from this thingy!” you exclaimed, picking up the weird item and bringing it closer to your face, examining it more. Zandik’s grin only grew larger.

“Put it on,” he encouraged, he himself excited to see the results of his multi-hour project.

“Put it on? How though?” You fumbled with the device and pushed the two circle things apart, bringing them to your ears. And then you were immediately entranced by the music coming from it. You felt Zandik adjust the instrument for the top part to rest on top of your head.

“A perfect fit, as I expected,” he hummed, taking a good look at you. Indeed, he was correct. The thing that still didn’t have a name fit snugly around your head and ears. But you were far more entranced and shocked by the loud music going straight into your eardrums. Instead of having the music play openly, it was going straight to you. And better yet, only you could hear it! You pushed the things covering your ears even closer in amazement, standing there for a good few minutes simply enjoying this delight.

Until it abruptly stopped.

You looked down and realized that the wire that connected this thing to your Music Thing device was unplugged. By Zandik.

“Hey! It was just getting to the good part!” You pouted.

“I’m sure it was my dear, but you don’t want to hurt your ears by putting it too close or too loud,” he chided. For such a deranged man he was always taking precautions when it came to you because of your health.

“Alright fine… but you have to tell me what it is? How does it even work!” Something better than listening to music was listening to your husband go on about his experiments and inventions and thought processes.

Zandik then picked you up with ease making you squeal with surprise, walking over to his paperwork chair and then placing you on his lap. Ah, he properly didn’t want you to stand for too long. Though he wouldn’t say that. You made yourself comfortable, resting your head on his chest as he rambled on.

“I merely redirected where the sound travels…” Just as you wanted, he delved into an explanation of what he did to make the gadget, what parts he used, the few complications, the easy parts, everything. And you enjoyed it thoroughly. 

“It is truly incredible,” you commented at the end, still thinking about how easily bendable and comfortable the mechanism was. “Does this one have a name?”

“I know.” You didn’t even care that he was being smug about it. You loved it. “And no, it does not.” For some reason, he always left the naming up to you. You wondered why.

“Hmm… I dub thee… Headcircles!” You decided, and Zandik raised an eyebrow at your questionable name. “You know, because it goes on your head, and the two things at your ear look like circles!” You were rather proud of your genius name.

“Another fascinating name,” he remarked to which you playfully hit his shoulder.

“Would it kill you to be nice? On my birthday at least?” You giggled, not actually meaning it. You loved him like this.

“I am unsure as to what you mean. I truly find your names… creative,” he stated with a horrible grin on his face. “It’s why I kept you as my assistant.”

You narrowed your eyes and wrapped your arms around him. “So you kept me around for my naming ability? Not for my impeccable organizational skill? Nor my expertise in deciphering your terrible handwriting and scribbles?” 

“I do acknowledge that you possess many exceptional traits, but after all, how can I forget when you named the first Ruin Guard we dissected together? Spinny Thingy? How truly outstanding.” He mocked you with no remorse to which you immediately groaned at the mention of that name. You still remember that day vividly - you both had found a nonfunctional Ruin Guard in the wild which you two had fun dismantling, and Zandik had called it No. 7 in his notes. But you found that far too boring and recommended “Spinny Thingy” because you know, the thing spins! The look he gave you after that made you want to crawl into a hole though. (He didn’t take you up on your proposal.)

“Oh, shush you,” you muttered, a bit embarrassed at the memory. Zandik chuckled and wrapped an arm around you to support you, and a comfortable silence fell over the two of you as he began to sign and look over some paperwork. You could feel the rise and fall of his chest too, something that was strangely soothing. You could almost fall asleep… ah, you need to thank him first though!

“By the way, thank you for the gift, Zandik.”

“It was nothing,” he replied, waving off your gratitude. For one, it was actually no big deal to him, as little inventions like this were of practically no difficulty to him. Yet deep down, the scientist knows that the ultimate gift would be to free you of the suffering your sickness causes. Yet the mighty doctor has yet to find a solution to that. But you looked so content right now, he could put it to the side just for a little bit. Especially since you looked like you were about to beg for kisses with those eyes.

He was right.

You first started off with one simple kiss on the cheek, and then another on the other side. Yet Zandik continued to write, ignoring you on purpose to rile you up. But that was no problem. It wasn’t hard to get him to pay attention to you. Your hands slithered up to his shoulders for balance, and immediately you went to work, placing a kiss on his bare neck, and then two, and then three, your breath fanning against his skin.

Still no reaction. 

Well, good thing you had an easy solution to this. On your fourth kiss, you bit down, intent on leaving a mark so-

“[Name],” a deep voice echoed close to your ear as the pen dropped to the table, and you knew you had him. Because for some reason it was okay to litter you with bites but you couldn’t do it to him. Nevertheless, you stopped and instead smiled against his neck to declare your victory which you knew he felt as he sighed. But, Zandik knew, you did deserve something today out of all days. And so you received the same treatment, attacking your neck with far more force than you did, causing you to let out a gasp. But it felt good. Zandik’s kisses always felt good, you thought as he now moved upwards.

“Happy birthday, [Name],” Zandik whispered so quietly, that you wouldn’t hear him if you weren’t so close to him, his pointy teeth grazing and nibbling on the shell of your ear.

Zandik saying those words always felt somewhat surreal. You still clearly remember the first ‘happy birthday’ you received centuries ago as a student. You thought him shoving a gift into your chest and telling you that you had the day off would be all you received. You genuinely did not think he’d verbally say that, considering he never knew how to form his words when it came to things like this, much less in a polite manner. Nonetheless, it made your heart soar.

You smiled against his neck, humming a wordless thank you, as your hand snaked up to his cheek and fingered the edge of his mask, silently asking for permission which he granted. Looking straight at him, you removed the mask and let it clatter on the ground, far too occupied with the handsome sight in front of you. His eyes were the most brightest and brilliant shade of red that you adored, coupled with jagged scars that ran across the top half of his face. So handsome. All yours.

“You always do this,” Zandik let out a resigned sigh, eyes rolling although he kept a firm grip on you on his lap. He had worn the mask for so long, that the rare times he took it off in front of you proved somewhat of a challenge at first due to your ceaseless stares of love despite the scars. Though now he had grown used to it. You merely giggled.

“Do what?�� You feigned obliviousness. “I’m simply appreciating my husband’s face,” you shrugged nonchalantly, to which he kept his cool gaze on you.

“Is that all? Is there anything else you intend to do?” He questioned, already fully aware of what your answer would be.

“Why, thank you for asking. In fact, I intend to take advantage of my other birthday gift as well,” you purred, eyes raking down his face to his exposed neck shamelessly. Zandik was not wearing his usual layers of clothes, only his collared blue shirt along with the harness that wrapped around his body. It was your birthday, so surely you could get away with some things, you thought. You mischievously hooked a finger around the harness near his chest, pulled it, and watched it snap back with amusement. Zandik’s eyes bore a hole through you the whole time before he spoke.

“Such a greedy little thing you are… do you truly think it’ll be that easy?” He clicked his tongue in pretend exasperation and annoyance at your audaciousness, leaning into you as he kept contact with your eyes. His own was a mixture of insanity and madness, yet love and possessiveness swirled around as well, almost hypnotizing you. You wished you could see his eyes more. With the right touch, they could be so expressive, just for you of course.

“Well, you know I’ve never lost a fight. Remind me, who was the one dragging the unwilling test subjects to you, and protecting you from the Ruin Machines you accidentally set off back then?” You smirked and licked your lips, not intimidated by his little challenge. “Even now, I’d say I’m still quite something, no?” You always enjoyed every second of being bold to Zandik. Something about having such a deadly man bending to your wishes really did something to you.

His eyes narrowed at your confidence as an amused grin appeared on his face. “I have to say, your analysis is rather correct, as expected from you. You truly are something special, unique… although this may be the first battle you lose. I won’t let you have your way simply because it’s your birthday, love.”

“I guess I’ll just have to take my gift by force then… how rude of you,” you playfully teased, hands resting securely on his shoulders as his own began to dig into your thighs. “Usually, I’d take my time, but today I’m impatient,” you murmured, voice dropping to a low tone as you captured his lips with yours, eagerly deepening the kiss which Zandik reciprocated.

“No need to rush, [Name]. You should know that the best experiments are conducted with time and patience. I’m looking forward to seeing the results myself.”

One may say that this was quite an average birthday. It was nothing like a typical birthday. And they would be right. Yet Zandik does not treat you like how an average, normal lover would. He was eccentric, from the way he spoke to his actions to his hobbies. But you could always say this without hesitation. 

Another birthday was well spent in your mad doctor’s loving arms.

Bonus:

“By the way, I left some cake for you.”

“I do not want it.”

“… Yes you do. I’ve known you for centuries, trying to hide your likes from me isn’t very effective, you know?

“Go to sleep.”

“Please, can I feed it to you this time?”

“No.”

“You know I’m going to keep asking this every year, right?”

“I’m not sleeping with you tonight.”

“Wait- come back! I’m sorry!”

The plate was empty the next day.

[grailfinders]

Grailfinders #345: Kriemhild

today on grailfinders, we’re getting close to the end of our traum(a), but before that, we need to get revenge! on what, you ask? doesn’t matter, I’m sure we’ll think of something in the planning phase. to help out, we’re gonna be making a build of Kriemhild, Siegfried’s wife and avenger. (a “kriembuild”, if you will)

Kriemhild is a Mastermind (mistressmind?) Rogue to be a cunning little cutthroat, as well as a Hexblade Warlock to steal her husband’s gold and sword and start lopping heads. whether the gold or sword is the hexblade in this situation doesn’t matter that much, either way it’s a magical lump of metal giving you power.

...are nuclear power plants hexblades? I’m getting off topic.

check out her build breakdown below the cut, or her character sheet here!

next up: waka waka waka waka

Ancestry and Background

once again, Kriemhild is Human, and with the variant rules that gives you +1 Intelligence & Charisma, as well as proficiency in Arcana (or maybe Nature? idk what skill would help you figure out your husband’s weak points), and the Lucky feat to forcibly re-roll a d20 that directly involves you up to three times a day. Kriemhild’s a schemer, and just like I said in the wodime build, sometimes you get to actually plan, some times you just have to pretend you meant for stuff to happen after the fact.

you’re a Noble of course, but we’re mixing it up and giving you proficiency in History and Intimidation. I hope I don’t need to explain that Kriemhild is scary. don’t cut her in line, trust me

Ability Scores

on that note, it’s no surprise Kriemhild’s Charisma is as high as it is- she’s scary, sure, but she’s also plenty devious and tricksy too. after that is her Dexterity. she wears like, zero armor for most of her ascensions, so good luck not getting hit. third is Intelligence for better scheming, and we’ll at least keep your Constitution positive so you can survive the occasional hit. just don’t go pissing off any gentleman inspectors. this does mean your Strength is a bit low, but it turns out that’s optional for wielding a greatsword, who knew? just drag it around til you need to murder people. of course, this all means we’re dumping your Wisdom score. berserkers, am I right?

Class Levels

1. Rogue 1: starting as a rogue gives you a lot of proficiencies, like Insight, Deception, Persuasion, and Sleight of Hand. you plan around people, and I don’t even know what proof “that Siegfried, and not Gunther, has taken Brunhild's virginity” (to quote wikipedia) would even look like, but you probably forged that. also, Dexterity and Intelligence saves, which is nice. you like fire, it would never hurt you.

if that’s not enough proficiency, you also get Expertise in two skills, doubling your bonus for Deception and Intimidation! you can also add a Sneak Attack to your damage while wielding a finesse or ranged weapon, though you also need either an ally standing next to your target or advantage to hit. it’s a bit situational, but an extra d6 is an extra d6.

also, you know Thieves’ Cant! it’s a language!

2. Rogue 2: second level rogues can make Cunning Actions- or, cunning bonus actions, anyway. you can dash, disengage, or hide as a bonus action, leaving your usual action open for anything you want, like murder! or planning murder!

3. Rogue 3: third level Mastermind rogues get a lot of stuff, including the full-class feature Steady Aim. if you don’t move before or after attacking on your turn, you can spend your bonus action for free advantage! just drag that big ol’ sword around and everything will work out eventually

but all that’s for later. for now, you’re a mastermind, which means you’re a Master of Intrigue- you’re proficient with even more stuff- the disguise kit, the forgery kit, one gaming set, and an extra two languages! you can also copy accents you’ve heard before.

also your sneak attack grows to 2d6. I’m probably going to forget to mention this every time, so just know you add another die every odd level.

if you’re eager to get to fightin’ you’re also a Master of Tactics, letting you use the Help action as a bonus action and at range! so I guess you’re not fighting with this, but every bit helps.

4. Rogue 4: use your first ASI to bump up your Dexterity. this’ll help you not get hit, and also use something small like a dagger. don’t worry, the sword is coming I promise. presumably your husband’s still alive at level 4.

5. Rogue 5: fifth level rogues get an Uncanny Dodge- if you get hit by an attack, you can react to turn a direct hit into a graze, only taking half the damage in the process. don’t die, basically.

6. Rogue 6: at sixth level you get a second round of Expertise, doubling down on Sleight of Hand and Arcana. forge gooder and remember how your husband can be killed. I’m sure that will never bite you in the ass.

7. Rogue 7: seventh level rogues get Evasion, so now your failed dexterity saves protect you as if they were successes, and your successes negate all damage!

8. Rogue 8: use your next ASI to bump up your Dexterity once again. not dying is a great strategy, keep it up.

9. Rogue 9: ninth level masterminds are Insightful Manipulators- if you spend a minute with someone out of combat, you can learn how their soft stats (intelligence, wisdom, charisma) or levels compare to yours, or you can even learn bits of their backstory or personality!

10. Rogue 10: tenth level rogues get another ASI, so start working on your Charisma. scheme better, and uhhh, this’ll help later too. that’s for later though.

11. Rogue 11: eleventh level rogues are a Reliable Talent, so now every time you roll a skill check you’re proficient in your roll will always be count as at least a 10. that means every deception check you have to make will always count as at least a 22 in total.

12. Rogue 12: did I say 22? let’s make it 23 by bumping your Charisma up to maximum with this ASI.

13. Rogue 13: thirteenth level masterminds can put a taunt on another party member with Misdirection- if you would take an attack while another creature is standing next to you, you can react to force said creature to take the hit instead. every good plan needs a scapegoat.

14. Rogue 14: at level 14 your Blindsense lets you detect invisible creatures within 10’ of you. I guess you could consider this the dragon sword helping out? it’s a little early, but at least it’s harder to get the drop on you now.

15. Rogue 15: with our last level of rogue, your Slippery Mind gives you proficiency with Wisdom saves. I wish it wasn’t so, but we don’t need any more warlock spells, and your levels have to go somewhere. what a shame.

on the plus side, your husband’s dead now.

16. Warlock 1: so, sorry about your husband, but on the plus side you inherited his Hexblade, so you get some Pact Magic out the gate! you only get a handful of spell slots, but whenever you cast something using your Charisma you can recharge the slot on a short rest!

speaking of spells, Eldritch Blast is a generic ranged option, Sword Burst lets you spin around and hit everyone, Wrathful Smite lets you add a little damage to your attack and frighten creatures who get hit by it (surprisingly effective against dragons btw), and Distort Value will make people care a lot more about some worthless rocks than they really should. yeah I’m giving you the rheingold too, it’s in your bond CE so it counts.

you’re also a Hex Warrior, so you can use your charisma instead of strength or dexterity to attack with a weapon chosen after each long rest. this doesn’t work with Siegfried’s sword yet, but we’ll get there.

for the time being, at least you can use Hexblade’s Curse on your next target, giving you bonus damage, an improved critical hit rate, and you regain health upon your target’s death, all for up to a minute, once per short rest.

17. Warlock 2: second level warlocks get two Eldritch Invocations, though we’re really only using one this level- the other is getting swapped out in a level anyway. Armor of Shadows gives you free mage armor on yourself for what is basically a permanent +3 bonus to AC while unarmored. ironically, your third ascension actually has armor, so this spell’s a bit late.

you also learn the spell Illusory Script, letting you write one thing but have it look like something else. I don’t think should really be part of Kriemhild’s kit, but it certainly fits the theme, doesn’t it?

18. Warlock 3: now that you’ve entered into the Pact of the Blade with an Improved Pact Weapon, you can summon just about any weapon you wish as an action and use charisma to wield it expertly. that being said, you can also turn a magical weapon like Balmung into your pact weapon.

of course, no matter what ability you use to swing it, a great sword will never be able to use your sneak attack, which is why you can also summon a Shadow Blade now. it’s a light weapon that deals psychic damage when it connects, but more importantly it has the finesse property. you can also summon it to your hand as a bonus action, and it lasts for up to 1 minute.

19. Warlock 4: now that your AC is decent enough and your Charisma is maxed out, use your last ASI to improve your Constitution for more health. you can also cast True Strike now, which is steady aim but worse, or use Crown of Madness to sow the seeds of war. if your target fails their wisdom save, you can force it to attack a creature of your choice, causing chaos and wasting its action. you also have to waste your action to keep the spell going, but rogues have tons of stuff they can do as a bonus action, so it kind of evens out.

20. Warlock 5: for our last spell, you can invoke the rheingold to Incite Greed, charming nearby creatures into congregating around you for up to a minute. they also have to repeatedly fail wisdom saves, but I’m sure it’s fine.

if that doesn’t work, you can always take the direct approach and use Eldritch Smite, burning a spell slot to add 4d8 force damage to your hit and forcing a save or knocking the target prone. this is actually a really nice way to knock a dragon out of the sky if you’re okay bending the rules to grab a bow, so I think our anti-dragon damage condition has been met by this point.

Pros & Cons

Pros:

with easy access to advantage and improved critical chances from your hexblade’s curse, Kriemhild is really good at dishing out critical hits, and thanks to sneak attack and smites, you can really capitalize on those to deal a ton of damage quickly.

you’re also great at sowing discontent in enemy forces, falsifying written orders and forcing them to attack each other with spells and misdirection.

on top of that, you make for a great party face thanks to your maxed out charisma, complete lack of critical failure on charisma checks, and expertise. you’re great at weaseling your way into a situation, then hacking your way back out.

Cons:

balmung is a greatsword, or at the very least a longsword. regardless, that fact seriously neuters the cohesion of this build. smites are nice, but you were already dealing way more damage with a regular dagger by this point. plus, being a sword prevents you from using ranged attacks, which are way more helpful when taking down dragons. basically if you play this build too close to character, it messes with the build mechanics and its flavor.

like mentioned above, your warlock stuff is cool, but it’s already outclassed by your rogue features by the time you get it at the end of the build. it’s a shame siegfried dies near the end of the nibelungenlied, because his sword would be way more useful early on.

every feature you have outside of your sneak attack is pretty situational, since a ton of it relies on fighting things that actually think. in fate and in history, this isn’t too much of an issue, but dnd has armies of undead, constructs, and wild animals that’ll shut down your provocations before they ever get started.

...ignore the fact that we've been infinitely more productive the two days ff14's been offline, that's a coincidence, I swear.

[solomams]

Happy late day of the dead ft. my mc Paula holding her own life candle

She's always been afraid of dying, as she hated not knowing what would come after and would often question the point in life.

But after coming to the Devildom and dying once already, she now has an idea of what comes after. Sometimes she still gets scared about the possibility of dying, retreating to her bedroom to sulk because she wants more time. Time with the people she loves. To not be forgotten. For her life to have meant something. And because dying had sucked (nightmares about that night are rare now, but not gone forever).

At which point Mammon (and later on, Solomon as well when she goes back to the human world), have to forcibly drag her out. How can she live if she shuts herself in from fear?

The two of them don't want to lose her either. The first couple attempts to find out her thoughts on immortality were almost always skewed into another subject.

anyway. i tried </3 paula has definitely made the two of them watch the book of life with her (and other sad spanish movies)

[cloudyyoimiya]

hey i’d break if you wrote something about jouno & tecchou ˚ʚ♡ɞ˚ ˚ʚ♡ɞ˚ or them separately ykyk

oh my word im so excited this is my first request!! anyways, thank you for requesting anon! you werent super specific so i decided to do date headcanons for the two of them! i hope thats okay with you <3

Date Headcanons; Suehiro Tecchou and Saigiku Jouno

Suehiro Tecchou

I feel like Tecchou would be the type of guy to have casual dinner dates at home. I don't think that he would mind going out, it's just that being at home with his s/o is preferable.

Being a Hunting Dog is time consuming, so I wouldn't be surprised if that home dates is all that he can manage to do.

Also, I think that he would help is s/o cook for these dates! Sometimes his s/o would catch him trying to sneak in random food combinations into the food that was in the process of being made.

If his s/o and himself do end up going out, I could see him wanting to catch a movie. He would hold his s/o's hand while they would watch the movie together.

I don't remember the user, but I once read that Tecchou is the type of guy that would consider running errands with his s/o as dates, and I could actually envision that myself.

Dates with this man would never get boring. He would sometimes tell his s/o about the missions he was sent on for the Hunting Dogs if they were curious.

He could be telling them the most gruesome thing ever and he would say it with a straight face, clearly unaffected??

"...And then I used by ability to-" "Oh my god are you okay??"

I feel like that as long as he's with his s/o, he'd be happy <3

Saigiku Jouno

Jouno <3

Anyways, I feel like Jouno would enjoy days in with his s/o.

Going outside would be such a bother for him. With his heightened hearing, going into town would be overstimulating. The constant sound of cars, children crying, people walking... You get it.

He likes to cook, so he would like to cook for his s/o.

He would prefer if his s/o just watched him cook, but sometimes he does need their help. He would ask if they could fetch him an ingredient or a utensil he forgot where he put.

If Jouno and his s/o did go out though, I could see him enjoying quiet coffee shops. The peaceful atmosphere and overall calm feeling of the establishment would be a nice change of pace for him.

I don't think that he would stay there for long though. If more and more people start to go into the shop, he would forcibly drag his s/o out and go home with them.

I don't think that he would talk about his profession unless something particularly ticked him off. That being said, I think he'd rant about just how annoying Tecchou is.

Overall, much like Tecchou, I think he'd be happy to be spending time with his s/o in general. Being a part of the Hunting Dogs can cause a lot of stress, so he's happy to have a person that can alleviate said stress.

Requests open!

[nrilliree]

“Aegon has been debauched and abusive from an early age, and that's okay. In exchange for the benefits, Alicent sells her body - her feet (which has a certain name as a profession…), but that's okay. After all, they are "honor and decency".

But Rhaenyra's children should be treated as inferior people because their mother is promiscuous. That's how it is. This is right and justified.”

Gurl what?

1. No one from TG thinks that aegon’s behavior is ok. He’s a rapist.

2. Alicent sells her body? What? She’s literally being manipulated and blackmailed by larys to show him her feet in exchange for information. Larys has been lurking around alicent ever since ep 5. Not to mention he killed harwin and lyonel and basically blamed alicent for telling him to do it. So he’s prob also holding that over her head and blackmailing her. Dude that’s so messed up that you’d actually blame alicent for what larys has forced her to go through. She looked so disgusted and miserable throughout the entire scene. Calling a woman a whore for being SA is so messed up.

3. Rhaenyra’s children are not abused by anyone? Nor did anyone ever said that they deserved to be? Criston hates them, fine. He’s not kind to them. There’s a big difference between being “treated as interior” and being disliked. Do you really think anyone would dare to mistreat the boys? Viserys and Rhaenyra would’ve killed them.

Nobody? And yet I have seen people (not this specific person) who justify his behavior because he is misunderstood, unloved and maybe he didn't understand the definition of rape, so he didn't know what he was doing was wrong. You can't say it's nothing, because you're generalizing just like I am I'm generalizing ¯_(ツ)_/¯

TG (not that specific person, please note) can call Rhaenyra a slut and I can't use the textbook definition of that word 🤔? A whore is a person who obtains benefits in exchange for services of a sexual nature. Why can TG do something I can't🤔? Could this be bad after all 😱? But is it only bad in one direction? Because I don't think Alicent is a whore, I just started using this term on purpose ¯_(ツ)_/¯

But seriously now. In the ninth episode, Alicent has been queen for 20 years. She hasn't found any allies at court in 20 years? Nobody? Book Cersei was stupid and cruel, and she did better. For 20 years, Alicent still had only Larys and Criston's support, even when Otto returned to his position. Alicent had King's Landing to herself for several years because Rhaenyra was away and did absolutely nothing about it. She found no allies, made no alliances through the marriage of her sons, did nothing. She only continued working with Larys, although after the Strongs' murder she could point to him, because he did not even pretend to mourn and was happy with his new position. Even Criston could see that something was wrong.

3. I may use not entirely correct words or expressions. English is not my first or even second language. I do better in Polish, Russian and German. Sometimes I express myself badly, so maybe "inferior" is not the best word.

Of course they would kill them. They would kill everyone. This is why Criston openly favored Alicent's sons, and when this was brought to his attention, he dragged Jace by the breastplate to face Aegon. Jace was forcibly treated, Aegon was not. This is not treating some as worse than others ¯_(ツ)_/¯

[berylcups]

Heres a big dump of pt 3 oc trash for ya! This is where my name comes from- Beryl Cups. I named it after the first stand I ever made. Please forgive me for this massive info DUMP. I haven't have an idea who to ship Katherine with. 😭 they get 2 ships because shes a ho, because she needs a before SDC ship and during SDC ship. She deserves a 2nd chance ship, she was fleshbudded for 13 miserable months!😭

Name: Katherine O’Riordan

Allias (if applicable): Beryl

Namesake: The Cranberries; Dolores O’Riordan 

Nicknames: Bear, Beryl, Cranberry, Berry, Wallflower, witch, dear child,  Kit Kat, Kat, Kathie(don’t call her that)

Nicknames for others: Terry boy, Danny boy, Whore-Horse, Pompous Dan, Gran,  Av’, Avvie, Avvie-boy, grá, mucker

Age: 20

Birthday: June 30th

AMAB/AFAB/Intersex: AFAB

Gender Identity: Cis Female 

Height: 5’5

Weight: 200

Handness: left

Hair Color: brown)

Eye Color: gold 

Type of Voice: monotone, low, soft. High pitched and banshee like when she screams or yells. Sligo accent 

Eyesight: 20/20

Race: Caucasian ; Irish

Hometown: Connaught, Ireland

Current Residency: Dios Mansion, Cairo Egypt

Moral Alignment: lawful good (after being freed from brainwashing) neutral evil (

Medical & Dental Health: has a fully matured fleshbud in her body. 

Mental health:  Before the fleshbud matures she becomes lucid and goes into fits of panic and needs to be sedated. She's forcibly put inside the void with Vanilla until she calms down, drugged, or DIO is able to take care of her himself.

Past Experience: Her father gave her a cat for her 13th birthday. A black kitten that would give her “good luck”. She named her new friend “Duran”. She and her kitten became fast friends but odd things started happening after Duran became part of the family. Things seemed to move in odd places. Chairs would be on the ceiling, water flowed upwards out of the sink, and falling off a ladder felt like a feather gently floating to the ground. This cat truly was more lucky than her father let on. 

Katherine and Duran hid in her bag , went on a family trip to Egypt when she was 19. She got separated from the group by being enthralled by the street markets only to be lost in the unfamiliar streets of Cairo.

In Egypt she was lured by an old lady who claimed to be able to read her fortune, this where Beryl Cups and Feldspar Pentacles got their names. Katherine has a soft spot for elderly people so she trusted her without much questioning. This would be a very terrible mistake. She was brainwashed by Dio, it wasn’t too difficult due to her naive and nihilistic mindset.. Being highly receptive to being brainwashed, she becomes incredibly loyal. Being a loyal servant of DIO has made her extremely apathetic towards anyone that isn’t herself, the small few she’s allowed in her circle, or DIO himself.

Extreme apathy -

She doesn’t seem to care that her parents are worried that she’s missing. She doesn’t seem to care about what the women she lures to Dio for his food/pleasure. She knows Dio doesn’t have good intentions for her and she doesn’t care. She just enjoys herself smoking hookah, napping, terrorizing others, and sleeping around. She doesn’t care what the other agents of Dio do for fun or what they do to their victims and she sometimes joins in the torment and likes to watch. She’s known amongst them to be incredibly apathetic. She’ll let Dios victims think they’re almost free as they run away. Soon as they reach the door her stand trips them or drags them back as she laughs cruelly and muttering that this “never gets old”

Once shes free from DIOs influence her true nature shows which is a 180 from what the SDC encountered. They are very skeptical of her at first. Katherine is a shy, mild mannered, empathetic individual. They feel haunted by what they do remember doing which usually comes out in dreams. She has no memory of the inhabitants of DIOS mansions or its exact location in Cairo. 

Sexual History (for characters 18+ ONLY): 

Thoughts on love: Her whole dream is to fully live life peacefully without strife. She wants to find the place and group of people where she truly belongs. She wants to find a soulmate that is able to help wear down her defenses and allow her to trust again. She wants to experience the world and make many memories with her soulmate. Also indulge in a few of the same hobbies as she does - arts and crafts, and video games. She would like to fall in love with someone with a different culture/background than her because shes so interested and fascinated by different countries.

Sexual and/or Romantic Identity:  Demisexual Demiromantic

People they like:  People who aren’t overly loud. She wants a partner who has the same or similar hobbies as her and has a quiet or laid back demeanor. She can’t handle being with someone who is overly opinionated or rude. She likes people who are open minded and are accepting of others. She loves people with a sense of humor.  Being part of the SDC opened her up and was able to show her true self- not the manufactured self that DIO wanted. 

People they hate:  People who are too loud, arrogant, or rude. 

Dreams for the future:  She wants to have her own art studio, and have a partner that will travel the world with her experiencing all kinds of different cultures together and making happy memories. 

Quotes (what do they say often? What’s their life’s motto?): 

“You know every time you lie your penis gets shorter. I don’t make the rules.”

“The shadow pools mimic the deep blue-you know the oceans abyss. You can’t hear, can’t breathe, can’t see…just a void. I can stay in there longer because of air pockets that form when I go inside…I can stay in for about 5minutes. But it’s very cold too. Anyone who gets dragged in can’t come out without me… they will suffocate or freeze to death. It’s a cruel way to go out.”

“It’s so hot… I sure wish I had some vanilla ice cream… no not you Vanilla Ice… unless you have an ice cream for me”

“Well..? Look at the mess it’s making. It’s so hot out it’s melting too fast. Lick it. You heard me, lick my hand clean before it gets all sticky from the melted ice cream . Duran can’t do it, he’s lactose intolerant. Make my hand squeaky clean now ~ tastes good doesn’t it? Good boy ___~”

“If you don’t get that creepy ass doll away from me I will behead it and shove it up your ass Terry boy. I will ruin your beloved collection.”

“What’s the point of having these dolls if they can’t feel pain? I want to hear them cry and scream for mercy Terry boy…how disappointing .”

“What kind of grown man collects dolls? Can’t tell if you’re a wuss or a perv. Be a doll and go make a doll out of Hol Horse.  Why? Because he looked at me the wrong way. Aka-my eyes are up here and you aren’t even trying to hide it dumbass cowboy yankee ass. That’s why. How he gets chicks is beyond me. They must be dumber than dirt if they fall to his ‘charms’ *gags*” 

“Welcome to my deadly gaff Joestar and company. I’m Katherine and this is my mucker Duran. It’s so lovely to see you stick it out so far enough to make it to Saudi Arabia. Alas, this is where your journey ends. I’m not in the mood to really kill today *yawn* so I have a nice tea brewed specially made for ya that will take you out quickly and painlessly. Be a dear and take yourselves out so I don’t have to. Thanks a million.”

SDC dialogue: 

“I lived under Dios influence for 13 months… I separated from my family and got lost. Then I met a grannie with 2 right hands who told me my future. That’s when I found out my special power along with my buddy Duran had that thing called a stand. We were very “valuable” according to her and could be in serious danger because we embody the minor arcana. She named my stand Beryl Cups after the Cups Suite. And Durans Feldspar Pentacles after the  Pentacles Suite. She took us to Dio and I can’t remember the rest”

“Make him pay. PISS IN HIS MOUTH.”

“So in your culture you live quite modestly. Have you ever had a shift before, hm? Oh you know—makin out! Haha calm down Grá, I’m jus coddin ya.”

Hobbies;

Likes to collect lamps and other mood lighting effects. Also has a big collection of plushes on her vanity and bed that she likes to cuddle with and use as decoration 

Loves to play video games. Likes puzzle games and platformers. Kirby is her all time favorite, she will fight you to the death if you talk bad about her favorite pink puffball. Likes playing with D’Arby younger if he isn’t cheating, and kakyoin. 

She loves sleeping even though she doesn’t really need to. She’ll nap with Duran during the day hours. Don’t bother the 2 while napping, Duran is very protective of her and will threaten whoever is trying to wake her. The only exception to that is Dio(if he somehow decides to summon her himself, hasn’t happened as of yet), Enya, Vanilla, or Petshop(Katherine has a soft spot and respect for animals especially animal stand users). If she lets you nap with her then it means she trusts you greatly and has some affection for you. 

She also enjoys running errands/looking for new victims for Dio. He gives her a generous allowance when she’s out in the shops of Cairo getting whatever he wants/needs. 

Loves to draw and paint in her spare time besides video games. The low humidity makes it easy for her to do her projects.

Habits: 

 Katherines favorite place is the sun room. She’s usually lounging with Duran and maybe another loyal follower of Dio smoking hookah. She easily stays cool by submerging herself into the shadows, the “shadows pools” are very chilly about 32F. 

Speaks very softly, will put a hand on your shoulder when she wants to say something. Don’t bother telling her to speak up unless you want to a death stare that will chill you to your bones. This habit dies off once she’s more comfortable around others- except Enya or Dio out of respect. 

Her private quarters are completely upside down. Duran did this as a permanent way to keep Katherineand himself safe and isolated from others while she’s in her most private area. To come into her room means at least a 7 ft drop so anyone who comes in uninvited is going to have a nasty fall. She’s able to leave freely via her stand or Duran altering gravity. It’s very common for her to use her stand in her daily tasks besides doing Dios dirty work. 

Doesn’t really call anyone by their name when talking directly to them. She’s pretty bad at remembering names. Accidentally referred to Steely Dan as Jim once. Only explanation was that he looked like a Jim. 

Will call D’arby younger “”Terry” sometimes .He’s probably going to take what she says out of context as flirting with him. When he returns the affection it backfires on her making her all shy and flustered herself - which causes her to go hide inside the nearest shadow. 

She tries to hide her smiles and giggles by covering her mouth. 

[stupidloafofbread]

I feel like you need more rcp on your blog so I’m going to ask the forrrr….silly headcannons! (any character in rcp btw) :3

Yeah I've uh, been lacking on that-

ANYWAYS UHH

Hcs you say? Bout time I redo these!

Starting with least to possibly most:

Jin!

- was raised in a house that would tend to broken vehicles, yet her mother was a bit of a...✨bitch✨ who always had planned for Jin to be exactly like her: running the broomstown rescue team. Well she got what she wanted, yet jin was MUCH nicer than her mother. But that's a story for another time ;3

- she had a brother. Keyword "had". Her little brother whose name was Hendrix died due to neglect from her mother. How did he die exactly? Poison.

- Anyways happy hc now: even if she bickers with helly, she sees him as a sorta little brother. ( =>)

Alr, now Amber

- As I've mentioned before, she can throw syringes at someone pretty easily. She's done it before (by accident!) to helly-

Now, this one may be triggering but I'm sorry :(

- orphan. Why? Basically her family had her put in a "special" school. She had two sisters but that now is only a memory. Why? Well that school had smth bad happen to it: a uh, school shooting.

Anyways happy hc now-

- Loves baking for her and her friends or people she cares about!-

Okay stopping with amber.

Onto Poli!

- Siren go weewoo/j I didn't know what to put here lmao

- Sometimes, he looks after the more "younger" residents if there's anything that comes up with their guardian(s) and takes them for a tour around the rescue station!

- Still, scared of caterpillars :3 (hey, I don't like them either, so he ain't alone/j)

- gets dragged into chaos with Helly sometimes (either willingly because boredom or forcibly-)

- like some people, I hc him to be able to speak korean mostly because I think he was raised in Korea✨

And now Roy (who I actually don't have that much for but screw it✨)

- got taught korean by poli just to mess with the others because why not. (I'll let y'all decide what they talk about✨)

- knows other languages but prefers to stick with English :3

- if a STH show exists in their world, his favorite character would be knuckles (polis favorite would be sonic, helly's favorite is tails and Amy✨)

- Now, if you don't specify a thing your giving him isn't edible, he will immediately eat it. Don't ask why, he just does.

Okay helly time✨

- Asexual son of a bitch/j

- oh and trans :> (FtM?)

- he has a whole bunch of scars from falling and running into things

- honestly, he doesn't care if you use they/them or he/him when referring to him

- as stated before, favorite sonic characters are: Tails, Amy, Silver and Charmy

- surprisingly, likes horror books! And no, they actually don't cause him nightmares-

- surprisingly good at playing Pac-Man and has beat poli's high score multiple times (thats the only thing they can't stand about each other/j)

And that's all of them for now!

Thanks dust :3

- Bread

[charkyzombicorn]

Modern au what jobs I think the straw has would have became Oda picked some really stupid jobs

Robin Historian or archeologist

Franky mechanic

Sanji still a cook

Nami meteorologist or weather woman

Brook musician

Chopper doctor

Usopp botanist

Jinbe still a helmsman

Luffy boxer

Zoro body Guard or someone who works in security 

I can concur - the jobs given were a bit odd. I'm gonna share my own takes and expand on these

Robin's a historian and archaeologist, she may spend some years as an anthropology and archeology professor, she's always taking night school or online school to learn more tho, she's got like 7-8 degrees before she hits 30, she uses her knowledge of criminology to freak people out

Franky is Definitely a mechanic and he's got Weird ideas but they're all awesome and Robin's got the most decked out car because Franky loves her

Sanji is the sous chef at his dad's resturaunt and used to live above it but then moved in with Usopp when he wanted a bit more independance. Now he works at a different fancy resturaunt which is second best in the country only to his dad's resturaunt (for now). He would be head chef but he wants the freedom to take vacations so the head chef just let's him do what he wants

Nami is a meteorologist!!! A damned good one too, and she helps Nojiko at the orchard every other weekend, usually dragging the whole crew with her for free labor. Sometimes she subs for the weather person for fun, but not regularly

Brook is a famous musician, he's like Elton John famous, he met Jimbe in a brief-turned-year-long stint as a drag lounge singer and they're married now.

Chopper is 17 now he's still in med school (graduated highschool at 14) but he's gonna be a general practitioner with a minor in pharmacology when he gets into the workforce.

Usopp has multiple sources of income he works in a college greenhouse but he also works as a biology/botany TA and makes little tools and art on the side for his small online business called 'Usopp's Market'. Also Yasopp sends him a lot of money assuming Usopp is a broke college kid like he was and funds Usopp's giant apartment

Jimbe is still a helmsman! He's worked at the same dock since he was 16, he's the heart and soul of the small shipping company. For his 35th birthday his buddies took him to a drag lounge where he met his husband, so he started visiting every day after work even though he was the only person in that bar in a raincoat, stone sober and looking at the entertainment like he hung the moon and the stars

Luffy's had a bunch of odd jobs, his resume could be 6 pages long, he works where he wants to and his charisma let's him get away with it before he quits and moves to something else. Garp tried to forcibly enlist him but Luffy's heart condition means he can't. Luffy sees this as an absolute win. Usually Luffy just does grunt work, he'll never be rich but he meets a lot of people

Zoro has trouble finding work. Literally. He forgets where he works. Luffy is a godsend, Zoro just works wherever Luffy works, and they walk together. Zoro's had better luck with the 3-month at a time jobs with Luffy than he ever had with previous jobs he would have been fine to work years in

[jolliestlolli]

Rimworld Deserters: Day 1 - Day 3

May I introduce you to: Our three starting soldiers.

The Fallen Empire has begun its colonization of a large chunk of the Rimworld known as Porrima Tertiary. Many of the factions that once called this planet home have either been exterminated by the Empire or forced to move on to distant worlds, while those who remain try in vein to reclaim their turf. Amidst this turmoil emerges a shining star of hope for the people of this world, a faction of former soldiers, medics, and civilians who have pledged to their dying breath to eliminate the Imperial parasite spreading across the cosmos.

Unfortunately their efforts have grown more difficult in recent years. The Empire's awareness of the threat they pose has led to countless bloodshed and hardship, causing the faction to splinter and spread across the globe in the hopes that they can lay low long enough to regroup and continue the fight. This is where our story begins:

Elliot De Covas - 27 Years Old: At a young age Elliot was forcibly drafted into an Imperial Youth Training Program. The lack of personal choice made him drag his feet at every opportunity, but the freetime he garnered from refusing to participate helped out his social skills and made him into a natural leader, albeit with a big of a swollen ego. In his early adulthood he made the brave decision to desert the Imperial army and join the up and coming resistance group known as The Wings of The Free Bird.

Zachary "Zach" Mclean - 36 Years Old: Zach was born a sickly child and spent most of his youth safely quarantined in the hospital, where he learned many things about the world of science and medicine, although none of it actually interested him that much. Being stuck in that hospital alone for so much of his youth gave him a few loose screws, but nonetheless he was excited for the day when he received his Bionic Heart and was able to build up his strength like he never could before. Unfortunately this led to him being drafted as one of the Empire's Shipcrackers, where he would break through the hulls of enemy ships and slaughter the entire crew singlehandedly. The stress led him to a bit of a drug problem, which eventually led him to also desert the Empire when the opportunity arose.

Lars Mechtenberg - Age 34 biologically, chronologically he's 134: Lars was a normal kid living in the Empire when he found a secret door in his grandfather's antique shop. No one is really sure what happened next, or if anything happened at all, all that is known is that around 100 years later Lars was found inside of a Cryptosleep Casket with no memory of what exactly he went through. Almost immediately after being pulled out of the casket, Lars was instructed in the art of medicine and forced to become an Infantry Medic. Just like the other two, he became dissatisfied with this life and deserted his position.

We spent day 1 not really doing much besides cleaning up the small outpost that would become our new HQ, and gathering some resources around the area. The only noteworthy thing that happened was it actually rained on the first day in an Arid Shrubland.

On day 2 we started working on a small water transport system and a bathroom cause, well, big boys gotta shit sometime. Elliot and Lars also had a small conversation it the breakfast table. Elliot's quickly making friends with the men who will eventually help him take back the planet (if they don't die in the process of course).

The bathroom came along nicely, just need to work on some plumbing and it'll be all set to use

On day 3 we finished up the plumbing so we can finally stop shitting outside and washing up in the water fountain.

(Ignore the dead cheetah)

Something I plan on doing real soon is breaking into THIS little wall right here and taking on whatever might be inside. With any luck we can recruit the guys in the Cryptosleep pods to our cause.

Something smaller I also did today was build a chess table to keep our guys from going mad with boredom. Or next plan is to build some hot water tanks so they don't have to take cold showers. Although why anyone would want a hot shower in the desert is beyond my understanding.

Also if someone can explain to me why I can't seem to get the Lars to plant anything in our hydroponics base I would be eternally grateful thank uuu

[mistwraiths]

3 stars

Overall, I think Blood Scion was done pretty well to showcase the horror of child soldiers, anticolonialism, the eradication of a people and culture, and more. For me, this book was hard to get through.

I would have really loved learning more about the Yoruba culture and religion, and I assume there will be more in the next book. I would have really liked seeing Sloane train with her magic but unfortunately it is really just glossed over. I found the aspect of each Orisha having a music really cool and that shower scene was very good. As for the rest of the worldbuilding, I struggle a bit to understand everything. We also get thrown more names of organizations like Blades, Shadow Rebels, Black Wolf without really learning much about them.

Again, there is so much that this book covers with children being forcibly conscripted into the war and forced to fight their own people. On top of that, there's so many assaults and near assaults, on top of killings and horrific acts. Sometimes they feel like their constantly happening so much that we don't get time to actually sit with the emotional and devastating impact. However, in situations such as these, odds are they do not have any choice but to continue on. This book absolutely doesn't shy away from the brutality and horror. We watch Sloane continue to grapple with her guilt and horror.

The pacing felt really slow to me too and the timeline in the book really didn't fit well to me with all the things happening. I don't understand why they'd only train them for a month. And Sloane was whipped over 30 times at least so I don't understand how she was still able to train. It briefly mentions she reopens her scars but then how can it even heal if you're constantly reopening them. She's being starved, healing from her wounds, fighting with her magic, planning to steal and break into the Archives, and constantly training and fighting for her life. It's a LOT for barely a month. The reveals are pretty easy to spot too and it's a shame that they make the book a bit predictable.

I didn't find Sloane all that likable, and that's okay. I don't think we really got to really know her as character as much as see her try to survive a horrific time. A character doesn't have to be likable and honestly I don't think she had a chance to really shine except slightly in the beginning. I do think however she was a bit irritating in her constant assumptions that no one could possibly be like her, a Scion, and everyone is quickly following in line during the training by verbally saying the creed or doing things they have to. It feels like she doesn't consider that other people are just trying to survive too? They have no power so they just have no choice. That maybe not everyone wants to kill their own people or allies. Sloane is constantly shocked when she comes across situations where people are doing what they can or actually think the same way as she but they're not vocal about it, or other Scions like her. Or the spies, she's furious that one of the spies allows terrible things to happen. And its like yeah they have to, how else are they going to spy??? Honestly, my biggest gripe was that Sloane acted out too much in the Fort when it's stated like little dissents gets you killed so it kind of was jarring.

The romance happened super out of the blue to me and I didn't understand why nor did I like it. The whole male character paying too much attention to the female character making him the romance option, despite not being all that personable or good never made much sense to me. I really could have gone without it.

I kind of did like the ending. I think a lot of people didn't. I do think it dragged on in two different parts. Like sorry, a declaration of how they are terrible isn't needed. Just burn them down. I liked that things didn't work out. The book kind of just ENDS, I don't remember them really fleeing or saying we're going to go here. I assume since it's hinted at they're going to the Shadow Rebels and maybe meet her aunt.

Again, this was a good book full of dark themes and brutality.

[child-of-the-danube]

Can we please talk about Drag Race España? Cause I have so many emotions.

This season literally ticks all the boxes of what a great reality show is supposed to be while also keeping it healthy.

1. The Queens are all so loveable and talented and each has a unique expression and way of doing drag. All the classics were there: The young fashion queen, the experienced comedy queen, the drag differente queen, the wholesome supportive one, the social media famous one, an old Hollywood glamour pageant type queen etc, yet none of them felt overproduced to fit a category or like they were desperately trying to emulate the image of the US queens, not even Sagittaria who stated she started drag after going to Werq the World and whose name is directly inspired by a US queen (Aquaria). Also, come through 4 non binary queens and an Indigenous queen! We love to see the representation!!!!

2. They were all very "human", if that makes sense, without having to forcibly yank sob stories out of them. When they got emotional it was clear it was the queens' choice to speak on their emotions and not forced trauma porn.

Inti's moment of speaking about body dysmorphia and trans struggles, Killer taking about why she actively chose to always be kind, Pupi talking about how her coming out and doing drag affected her relationship to her family, Dovima letting down her guard, Carmen speaking about her parents, the letter from Hugaceo's brother... It all felt very genuine and important and I love that!

3. Shooketh moment: The judging was fair with maybe two small exceptions. And the judges gave valid constructive critique always followed by immense support and praise. There was no unnecessary bullshit or forcing people to change their signatures. They only asked Vulcano if she will always be on those platforms but it was part of a valid critique and not just the usual of "we've seen your signature now throw it away". In the acting challenge the Javis gave useful critique and advice, even throwing ad lib ideas for the queens in, Supremme tried to give Dovima some ideas when she blanked in the Puppet mini challenge, Ana gave Killer advice about making a better silhouette for herself and as the runways went by you could see Killer was improving, and so on.

That's how you make your contestants feel comfortable and validated. Even Inti who had a somewhat dramatic exit seems to still be very grateful and close to the judges.

The judges were enjoying everything to the maximum. There's so many shots of the Javis and Ana fangirling, all of them hyping up the queens during the lipsyncs, Supremme dancing to the lipsyncs, all of them dying of laughter or crying when things got emotional. They're all so precious!!

And don't even get me started on the guest judges:

Bad Gyal, Paca la Piraña, Alaska, ENVY PERU! Legends!!!

Please invite more winners to the judging panel!!

4. THAT'S HOW YOU ACT AS A HOST!!! Roople take fucking notes. Supremme was so entertaining, loving, kind and supportive. It is so clear she loves both drag in general and the girls so much. Hell, how many times did she cry or almost cry in the span of these 9 episodes? I already said that, but you know damn well Ru would not have handled a situation like the one with Inti with such grace and kindness. He wouldn't even enter the werk room to check on someone if that happened on a season he hosted. Same with Dovima. In a US season they would have made it as if Dovima was ungrateful and a quitter. Here they tried to encourage her to fight and listened to her reasons without shitting on her afterwards.

The final talk with the queens was lovely as well. She didn't try and spit out some spiritual guru bullshit. She let the queens talk and gave advice and support when it was called for. She made it about them and not her.

There was no anger or rudeness or unnecessary harshness towards anyone. Supremme was nothing but kind and supportive to all of them. Her energy and smile are so infectious - a total class act!

5. The rightful winner was chosen. Congratulations Carmen Farala!!!! She also managed to do something everyone is unsuccessfully trying to emulate since Sasha did it with the rose petals - she pulled an unexpected reveal that was relevant and fitting for the song with her wet wig making it impactful. And the fact that she never watched drag race before doing it herself and ended up winning?? That's some proper legend shit. So well deserved!!

And I think a big part of why we ended up with the rightful winner is that DR España didn't adopt the lipsync for the crown format and stuck to the finale format of earlier seasons.

(Small rant and that's just my opinion, nothing more: the lipsync for the crown format invalidates the purpose of the rest of the season as it makes all 4 finalists, who never have the same trajectory and track record, go basically to 0 again. It's circumstantial and not just in the way that someone who happens to be a better lipsyncer with a less fantastic track record will beat someone with a way better performance throughout the show who isn't as good a lipsyncer as them. Sometimes that doesn't even matter and it comes down to song choice. To me, that format makes the rest of the season unnecessary. If it just comes down to the circumstances of lipsyncing, then they might as well just randomly pick 4 queens, shoot just the lipsyncs and call it a day.)

This season entered the holy company of s6, all stars 2 and UK s1 as one of the best seasons of the franchise to ever exist!!

[sparklyjojos]

[Disco in his introduction:]  Everyone I meet always tells me “Stop acting like a living joke” at first, but ultimately, what’s the difference between my lifestyle and you guys’ lifestyle? I, too, pay my taxes; I, too, arrange my CDs neatly in order; and when I talk to the person next to me in the stands and see a fly ball that’ll obviously be a foul, I, too, shut up. That’s normal. No one can escape from that reality.

[Tsukumojuku in Tsukumojukumatsu:] Just like every other great detective in this world, I don’t exist in the sense that other people do—people who pay taxes, use the convenience store bathroom, and drink too much until they lose memory. The perfect being that is the great detective can only ever exist inside stories.

Still obsessed with Maijo’s concept of Great Detectives(TM)

So, as much as that first part of Disco Wednesdayyy is... questionable, I feel like it does have a goal beside just Being Awful. Disco starts off as a relatively normal human, a very much Not great detective, just some dude with horrible urges surrounded by the grim reality of non-beautified crime and death. More of a hardboiled detective, if you will, and so the narration also follows some... unfortunate tendencies of the hardboiled genre, especially in regards to gratituous violence and portrayal of female characters.

And then Mercury C shows up and the book does a 180. Suddenly, we’re in a typical shinhonkaku Great Detective book, with a strange murder in a strange house with strange people, with secret messages and wordplays. And everything is trying to forcibly drag Disco, thrashing and screaming, into being a Great Detective. The universe WILL make him do a dramatic explanation of the case, search for hidden meaning in words, and draw silly little diagrams for the reader’s convenience.

This isn’t the only time this conflict shows up in Maijo, either. It’s a constant theme that’s explored in different ways.

2003 Tsukumojuku tries his hardest to keep the comfort of being Just Some Guy, just a Tsutomu with a boring job and a family and bills to pay, and will deny being a Great Detective as long as he can. But just as Disco has to solve the Pine House, Tsukumojuku has to eventually solve the Cross House and embrace the hidden truth.

And the Disco-verse Tsutomu, a random guy from the sticks, would much rather be the Great Detective Tsukumojuku, this unrealistic concept who’s cool and smart, who doesn’t have crippling depression and doesn’t get kicked down the hall by his best friend.

ID:INVADED has maybe the most straightforward way of showing this conflict: there’s that messed up Narihisago guy who deals with horribly real violence and trauma, and there’s the young, smiling Great Detective Sakaido who deals with symbols. And that’s not even touching Fukuda, who’s a Sakai Tsutomu expy down to the self-lobotomy, 3 being A Wonderful Number, and “Tamotsu” being almost an anagram of “Tsutomu”. (Remember, ID:INVADED was at first called “Alien Thursdayyy” and was likely deeply connected to Disco.)

Then again, some characters are mostly comfortable just being Great Detectives, like Jorge, his Tsukumojuku, and the -matsu Tsukumojuku. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that they’re the closest to understanding Beyond. Jorge-verse Tsukumojuku is distraught when not being a Great Detective anymore, because that was what he’s always known and what gave him comfort. They all have this innate sense of Everything Having Meaning. From the very beginning they just know the world was made for them, and it’s so fascinating to compare their narration styles to someone like early Disco, who would never understand that.

God, I love Maijo sometimes.

[keets-writing-corner]

I need to guuuuuuuuuuuuuush

I’m absolutely obsessed with Owari No Seraph/Seraph of the End. It has everything I want in a story

okay this got long so I put a cut

A romance I’m actually invested in: 1) it’s gay, like not even ambiguously gay, like very explicitly gay and it’s remarkable 2) it’s somehow enemies to lovers, best friends to lovers, and childhood friends to lovers ALL AT THE SAME TIME 3) the mutual pining is ridiculous, but manifests in “I MUST PROTECT” 4) omg they’re so devoted to each other???? 5) heavily implied in the anime and manga that they are each other’s reason for living after their trauma

Ambiguous characters: 1) we’ve got not one, not two, BUT THREE HIGH RANKING CHARACTERS within their respective organizations with THEIR OWN AGENDAS, screw whoever gets in their way 2) one of the said lovers from above pairing? Technically, he’s officially on one side, but he makes it very clear he actually doesn’t care about anyone EXCEPT his love interest and actively goes behinds people’s backs all the time to get what he wants. He has exactly 0 trust except for his love interest, which means he’ll literally fight both sides to make sure love interest is safe 3) THE FREAKING QUEEN, at first she’s like in a terrible one sided relationship with one of the characters with like... uh what’s it called? Power imbalance? Like she is 100% in control of this other person because they are wholly dependent on her, and she knows it, and often calls this other person her pet, and like, you think you’re supposed to hate her because she’s one of the contributing factors to the other character’s trauma but then it’s like, wait, actually, maybe she ALSO has ulterior motives and is one of the few people said character can actually trust with their wellbeing and their own interests being the only one who actively helps them with it 4) HMMM THAT SUPER SHADY DEMON/HUMAN ROMANCE YOU KNOW THE ONE IM TALKING ABOUT

Characters that suffer: okay listen, all of the characters have suffered through trauma, but special shout-out to Mika who has gone through my favorite kind of trauma to watch that develops characters. Spoilers for the rest of this paragraph so if you want to check out the show skip over it. okay gone? for real? you okay with getting spoiled if you haven’t seen yet? alright. last chance. Okay so first thing we know about Mika is that he’s an orphan and has a found family with his orphanage group right? even when they’re all being held captive by vampires underground, he at least has his family. Mika goes above and beyond to make sure that despite that they’re essentially just acting as the vampires’ blood-stock that their time there isn’t as bad as it could be. He offers himself up to one of the nobles, saying the noble can suck his blood if he gives him things, so he gets stuff like actual real food for his family to eat. In the manga, you can see that this is really draining on him, but he does it to see his family happy. Mika also knows that his crush absolutely hates it there, so he plans an escape, except oops they all get ambushed by the very noble he stole from and was swindling, and literally everyone gets killed in front of him except his crush, well I guess at the time he was too young for crush, so I’ll just call him Yuu. Anyways. Mika and Yuu manage to knock out the vampire noble working together, but Mika is fatally wounded so only Yuu actually escapes. AND THEN MIKA IS FORCIBLY TURNED INTO A VAMPIRE BY THE QUEEN, like he hates vampires, he considers them monsters, he doesn’t want eternal life or whatever, AND SHE FREAKING TURNS HIM TO KEEP HIM FROM DYING (the way she does it too could be considered traumatizing as well) and then he proceeds to be raised by people he considers monsters and hates that he’s become a vampire, and like does everything in his power to not drink human blood (resorting to drinking the Queen’s blood, and she’s fine with it cuz it keeps him completely dependent on her) like MMMM THAT POWER IMBALANCE IN A WORLD FULL OF THE MONSTERS YOU HATE WHILE BECOMING ONE YOURSELF IS ALREADY DAMAGING ENOUGH, and then he finds out that the very adults he used to trust as a child, were actually just treating him and his found family as guinea pigs and lab rats and that the only people who actually cared about him was his found family, who are all gone except for Yuu who isn’t there, so yeah oops, he hates humans now too. Like mmmm that is some tasty juicy angst right there. It manifests in him never smiling anymore, never speaking, just sitting there stoically. Like this was the little boy who was happy smiles all the time, either when he was genuinely happy with his family or putting on an act to deceive and he’s just so broken after the timeskip that we never see him smile until late in season 2. OH LETS NOT FORGET THE WHOLE VAMPIRE THING RIGHT? Mika doesn’t want to drink blood, but his body compells him to. He refuses to at least drink human blood, which works for a while but by the time the second season rolls around, the queen’s blood just isn’t cutting it anymore and there are so many scenes where his instincts take over and he almost bites someone only to snap out of it last second and start sobbing because he believes he’s becoming a monster. AND THAT’S NOT EVEN ALL OF IT, JUST THE THINGS THAT I LIKED THE MOST TO WATCH

spoilers over

the side characters: While I do think they could use a little bit more development, but that’s probably because they’re not quite rubbing me just the right way like Mika is, so they pale by comparison BUT there are some things I enjoy 1) we’ve got a literal troll on the team. I’ve seen some people call her annoying, but omg I love seeing her troll the others. also she uses a scythe and it’s awesome 2) OMG THERE’S A SWEET BABI BOY ARCHER??? slight spoilers, but my favorite part was when he reveals that his demon decided to give him more powers because he treats his demon like a friend, and talks to it at night before going to bed, sometimes asking it what it’s favorite color is?? 3) okay okay okay, listen, I already like the character by himself, the sniper dude, he’s already great as he’s written. But then add the fact that not only does he look EXACTLY like Victor Nikiverov from Yuri on Ice, BUT HE HAS THE SAME FREAKING VOICE ACTOR TOO that just cracks me up 4) I love the one vampire side character who keeps trying to befriend Mika, and Mika just keeps stonewalling him 5) honestly the queen is really badass, and as much as I hated her at first, I actually enjoy every second she’s on screen 6) There’s a vampire called Crowley and idk what it is with him but he just gives me “Big Fun” vibes even though he’s one of the most ruthless characters in the show

plot and arcs: it doesn’t drag itself on and on and on, it actually completes goals and important benchmarks fairly quickly so we don’t need to keep waiting on things to happen. But at the same time, is so drawn out that you still can’t help but feel like it’s taking forever to get to where you want it to go and it’s great because it means you get so much story to enjoy. Also, the fact that the protagonists always have one clear goal at a time, but us as the viewers see other things happening behind the scenes, without always understanding what they are, and we’re stuck seeing this collision path where everything is gonna intersect and you know it’s going to be terrible and there characters are going to suffer but you love that. 

anyways, Seraph of the end is super good, I loved it, the anime isn’t enough so I’m actually chasing after the Manga for once. Mika is officially one of my all-time favorite characters and he deserves to be happy. If you know what I’m talking about cheer with me, if you haven’t seen it yet, omgggggggggggggggggggg GO CHECK IT OUT IF ANY OF THE THINGS I SAID APPEAL TO YOU

[stiltonbasket]

Renouncement verse, jc bonds with his niblings. Jc forced on a misadventure with lz and reflects on those 3 months during the war and their changed relationship to each other (reminding him of his other bro in law), possible beginings of friendship? Sect leader yao get reckt? People reminded that wwx is incredibly kind just as he is incredibly badass? Love ur stories! :D

(author’s note: please please reblog if you can, since that’s how we get prompts for future chapters!)

“I want to get out of here,” Lan Wangji growls. “We have been stuck for almost a full shichen.”

“We’re not in any danger,” Jiang Cheng points out, rolling his eyes. The two of them have been stuck in the lair of a spider demon for the last two hours, trapped by its resentful webs even after they gored it through the head and ripped its legs off; but the webs dissipate by themselves about four or five hours after the death of yaoguai that made them, so he and Lan Wangji just have to wait until they can get out. 

Oddly enough, Jiang Cheng had thought that Lan Wangji would be much better at waiting.

“I know we are not in danger,” his brother-in-law hisses—and isn’t that a kicker, knowing that he and Lan Wangji are technically related now. “I have a family to return to. We cannot stay here doing nothing until the webs disappear.”

“If we use our lingli to get ourselves out, we’ll exhaust ourselves, and it’ll take twice as long for you to get back to the Cloud Recesses. Just stay put and stop complaining.”

“If we use our lingli, I will at least be able to get a message to Wei Ying!” Lan Wangji snaps. “The little one may be coming now, for all I know! And Wei Ying will worry, besides!”

“He wasn’t even expecting you back until tomorrow,” Jiang Cheng grumbles, turning his back on him. “It was your idea to come here at night. We were going to speak to the villagers in the afternoon and start work in the morning.”

“That would have kept us away from home for an extra half-day.”

“Believe it or not, the Cloud Recesses can run itself perfectly well without you. Your brother can manage by himself for a night, and so can Wei Wuxian.”

The look Lan Wangji gives him is so poisonous that it would have made the spider yaoguai proud. “What did you say?”

“You heard me,” Jiang Cheng returns, turning back to face Lan Wangji with his arms crossed over his chest. “Stop thinking that something’s going to happen to my brother because you’re not there. He can take care of himself.”

A shadow of mingled grief and anger passes over Lan Wangji’s eyes, and Jiang Cheng tries not to feel guilty at the sight of it. After all, Lan Wangji doesn’t have to say that Wei Ying has been taking care of himself since before the Sunshot Campaign—he was thrown into Luanzung Gang without a golden core to protect him, taught himself resentful cultivation and overthrew Wen Ruohan with it, and then he fled to the Burial Mounds and kept fifty people fed and clothed with his own labor while keeping them safe from the Jins at the same time. 

Wei Wuxian is so used to taking care of himself that he didn’t know how to accept it when his own lawful husband tried to assure him that he no longer had to worry for his future, or the futures of the children they have together. 

“I was already making plans to take myself out of the way after Lan Zhan found someone he really loved,” his brother told him once, after Jiang Cheng received word about the coming baby and flew to the Cloud Recesses to see if it was true. “I was hoping he wouldn’t until Xiao-Yu came of age, but separations do happen in the Cloud Recesses, and you put that divorce clause into our betrothal contract. It’s stupid, but even though I know now that he’s loved me all along, I...I still don’t know how to feel it’s true sometimes.”

“Is he not taking care of you?” Jiang Cheng had demanded, his hackles already rising in fury at the thought of Wei Wuxian’s husband making him feel abandoned. “I’ll have words with him if he is, you—”

“A-Cheng,” Wei Wuxian chided. “It’s not like that.” And then he had gestured around him to the fluffy pillows and blankets layered all over his body and the vials of medicine at the bedside table, before casting a pointed eye at his own reflection in the mirror. “Xichen-ge said that such worries are normal with a child on the way, and I wasn’t so—well, worried—before the autumn. It should pass, and there are healers who train for that sort of thing if it doesn’t.”

That sort of thing might be why Lan Wangji is so desperate to return to Wei Wuxian now, if Jiang Cheng looks a little further than his brother-in-law’s point-blank refusal to let Wei Wuxian out of his sight ever since Mo Xuanyu brought him back to life about a year and a half ago. His brother hasn’t been well lately, what with being kidnapped right before he found out about A-Lan and the stress that the chilly Gusu winter had placed on his coreless body, and he doesn’t exactly have a good track record for keeping out of trouble whenever Lan Wangji is away from him. 

And the last time Lan Wangji was forcibly separated from Wei Wuxian, he and Jiang Cheng spent three months searching for him everywhere from Yunmeng to Qishan, forced into partnership by fear and hope and everything in between, and still half-certain that they would find nothing but a body when their search was over.

“Get Bichen and start chopping,” Jiang Cheng says abruptly, yanking Sandu out of its sheath and wincing as he feels the spiritual drain when it slashes a piece of web in two. “I’ll take the right, you take the front. We should be out in half an hour.”

__

Neither of them have enough lingli to travel back by sword, so they rent a pair of horses from a chain stable-owner and set their course back towards Gusu; the spider yao’s nest was in Moling, and Lan Wangji was obliged to attend to the matter as Excellency, and Jiang Cheng came along because he happened to be visiting the Cloud Recesses. Six hours later, they drop the horses off at the first chain stable they can find, and then they make their way through Caiyi town and up into the mountains. 

“I want to see my brother,” Jiang Cheng grumbles, holding up the package of beef bones he bought on the journey. “You’re taking care of him properly, I know, but—I just want to see him. And my niece.”

Lan Wangji lifts his eyebrow at him, but then his whole face softens as Wei Wuxian comes running down the path with Xiao-Yu in his arms, so delighted to see them both that his face seems to be lit by a tiny sun from within. 

“Lan Zhan!” he calls, leaping into Lan Wangji’s embrace and kissing him until Xiao-Yu starts wriggling in discomfort between them. “How are you, love? You didn’t have any trouble, did you?”

Lan Wangji shakes his head and returns Wei Wuxian’s kisses just as fervently, and then Wei Wuxian turns to Jiang Cheng and beams, hugging him so tightly that the breath flies out of his chest with a gasp.

“Will you stay until tomorrow, Jiang Cheng?” Wei Wuxian asks, taking his hand and wrapping his other arm around Lan Wangji’s waist, while Xiao-Yu scrambles up onto Lan Wangji’s shoulders. “A-Hong just sent word saying that you haven’t had any summons today, so I thought…”

Jiang Cheng nods. He can feel tears pricking at the corners of his eyes at the warmth in his brother’s voice, and the lump in his throat does not leave until much later that evening, when he goes to bed in one of the guest houses and stares up at the ceiling in an effort to fall asleep.

But then Lan Jingyi bursts into his room just before midnight, and drags him out of the guest house and up towards the infirmary. “What’s wrong?” Jiang Cheng demands, the moment he catches his breath. “Wei Wuxian—he’s not—”

“It’s happening!” Jingyi screeches. “Wei-qianbei asked for you, and Zewu-jun’s already started passing him spiritual energy—”

Jiang Cheng nearly faints dead away on the spot when Jingyi finally drags him into the healing ward and shows him to Wei Wuxian’s room. 

He’s about to become a jiujiu again.