#ALSO she started her question with: “is tumblr still actually alive”

[mifeeey]

my sister asked me if she should post her one shots on tumblr and i am simultaniously hyped to have her use the hellsite but also terrified

[lucozadehulahoop]

Star-crossed. Lo'ak x fem!human!reader

This was originally posted on my side blog @thankeywa. It's a brand new blog and tumblr thinks it's a bot so it's not giving it visibility. Please go give it some love, I want all my avatar!related stuff to be on there.

PART 2 HERE PART 3 HERE PART 4 HERE

I know that literally nobody asked for this, but I've noticed a disturbing lack of Lo'ak fics out there, so I've decided to give my input. I've had a story in mind for a while now, and I needed to get it out there. It will be a reader insert to make it more accessible, but it's somewhat based around an original f!character, so I apologize for that in advance if it gets too specific.

WARNINGS: Lo'ak is 20 years old in this and so is the reader, I do not write about minor characters. There will be eventual mature themes in this so MINORS DO NOT INTERACT WITH THIS WORK.

For everyone else, if you like my writing, please let me know if you want to be on the tag list for future installments and SEND ME REQUESTS (head canons, imagines, sfw/nsfw, ecc.) ! I love that shit.

words: around 1.200

summary: reader is a human left behind on pandora, she grew up with the remaining humans who'd been aloud to stay on the planet after the war and has been friends with the Sully clan her entire life. She and Lo'ak were best friends until he began to pull away from her in their teen years for seemingly no reason. This story is about them reconnecting on the day of her twentieth birthday, and dealing with the feelings they have for each other and the obstacles that come with them being from two different worlds.

TW for this chapter: angst, smoking (don't do it, ever), brief mentions of alcohol, brief mention of war and death, brief mention of child birth, reader can breathe on pandora.

Y/n looked at the 'birthday cake' made out of cookie rations that Norm and Max had made for her. No matter how many years would pass, her dads always knew how to get creative.

"I'm twenty years old, you guys don't have to keep throwing me a birthday party." She reprimanded them softly, though her heart was filled with joy. Y/n was so thankful to have people in her life who cared enough to make her day special every single year.

"Considering you spent most of your early existence tied to test tubes to stay alive, we're merely celebrating the scientific marvel your continued survival has been." Norm joked, raising a beer, and y/n shoved him, before blowing out the single candle that had been meticulously re-used each year. It was a wonder how there was any wax still left on it.

"What did the birthday girl wish for?" Max asked, reaching for a dried-up cookie and cringing slightly at the taste as he chewed on it slowly. "The whole point of a birthday wish is to keep it to myself... or it won't come true. Honestly, I question your two's knowledge of Earth's traditions." y/n shook her head, before taking a celebratory sip of alcohol.

Norm and Max left eventually, back to the main base. They were more than capable of piloting a helicopter those days, and y/n was all grown up. More than capable of living by herself. What once had been an avatar lab, smack dab in the middle of the forests of Pandora, had been converted into her home. Pandora's rapidly repopulating fauna had surprisingly left her residence alone, well... mostly. There were still some creatures who couldn't help but keep themselves away. And by creatures, she meant Spider. Y/n was also friends with actual people like Neteyam, Kiri, Tuk, and... Lo'ak. Truth be told, she didn't know whether or not she and Lo'ak were even friends anymore. They'd been thick as thieves for as long as she could remember, always getting him out of trouble and fixing him up after a scuffle with his siblings. But then, around her sixteenth birthday, he'd started pulling away, and y/n had never understood why. They'd had a big fight about it, bottom line, he hadn't wanted to be around her anymore and y/n had to accept it.

"Open up! It's fucking freezing out here!" Came Spider's loud voice followed by an incessant banging on the door that immediately pulled y/n out of her reverie. "Alright, alright..." she laughed a little as she went to let them all inside. The Sullys were always insisting on spending birthdays together, even though some of them were now getting too big to even fit inside her 'home'. Neteyam had to walk around with his back bent forward, and Kiri knocked over quite a few things before they made it to y/n's main living space, which was more or less Na've-proof. "Happy birthday!" Tuk hugged her and y/n struggled not to feel crushed by the embrace. Even the littlest Sully was now nearly as tall as her.

Y/n let them all inside, already giving them dirty looks at the sight of gifts. "I told you guys not to..."

She stayed on the doorstep a little longer, gazing out into the night, desperately hoping one last uninvited guest would turn up. She felt Neteyam's hand on her shoulder. "He's not coming. I tried to talk to him but he was being a skxawng as usual..." Y/n blushed, not really wanting Neteyam to know she was pining for his younger brother. "Oh, right! I was—just checking you were all here..." she closed the door and they both went back to join the others.

___

"Alright come on, your mom is going to kill me if you get back late and I don't have enough space in here for all of you. Spider would have to sleep outside." Y/n teased, trying to let Tuk understand it was time to go. "Hey!" Spider protested at her lighthearted jab, but knew it was time for them to get going. Nobody wanted to get on Neytiri's bad side. Y/n hugged them all goodbye and thanked them for the presents: Tuk had made her a lovely drawing, and the others had collectively made her a rather beautiful necklace, which she immediately wore. Y/n waited on her doorstep till she could no longer hear the sounds of her friends chatting, and then proceeded to do two incredibly dangerous things: she sat outside of the protection of her bunker, all alone in the cold Pandora night air, and lit up a cigarette.

She'd discovered a terrifyingly endless supply of cigarette cartoons back at the base almost a year prior, and as soon as she'd tried her first one, she'd gotten addicted. Y/n hadn't told Norm or Max, of course, as it would have broken their hearts, especially because of how fragile she was. Y/n's mother had gone into labor in the aftermath of the battle for Pandora between the Na'vi and the Sky people. The soldier had lost her life giving birth, but her baby had survived, taking her first breath in the inhospitable Pandora air. Norm was convinced Eywa herself had kept her alive, had given her the ability to take in the air that hadn't previously failed to kill any other human. Sure, it had come at the price of being particularly fragile her entire life. And how was y/n repaying that gift? By cutting her miraculous existence short more and more each day. Thankfully, it was a while since she'd been used as a test rat, or had check ups of any sort. As far as the Sullys were concerned... they were way better off not even knowing what she was doing to herself.

A sudden rustling in the trees instantly made y/n alert and she didn't waste any time getting back inside. She showered, and shamefully hid her smokes somewhere her dads or the Sullys wouldn't look. When she had nothing else left to do, y/n forced herself to crawl into bed, placing a hand over her necklace. Her wish to see Lo'ak hadn't come true in the end, and while not surprising, it still hurt like hell.

"A pack of viperwolves? Seriously, Lo'ak?" Y/n groaned in frustration as she cleared her table for her best friend to lie on.

"I thought I could take them." He hissed as she doused him with disinfectant. "Yeah, well, you know human medical treatment hurts like a bitch, so it's either my way, or you're going to have to fess up to your parents about what you did." Y/n tried to sound cold, but she'd always been too soft on him.

When they were younger, and Lo'ak still hadn't grown to be double her size, they would often fall asleep together in her bed. "You don't have to keep doing this shit to prove something, you know?" She whispered to him one night, turning over to look at him and gently touch his face. "Your parents love you. And so do Neteyam, Kiri, Tuk and Spider. Lo'ak, I— we— don't want to lose you."

Y/n was almost asleep when a loud 'thud' coming from outside woke her. Something was moving on her roof, or rather, someone... Y/n didn't show whether she was dreaming or not as she looked out the window and locked eyes with Lo'ak, because the second she did, he seemed to slide off the top of her bucker, falling down into the grass below with a loud groan.

He'd probably just woken up half of the animals on Pandora.

[butterflydm]

Forsaken thoughts for s3

Nothing firm, nothing concrete, just thinking out some thoughts.

I am trying to keep spoilers to around A Crown of Swords or so, but I am talking about the Forsaken, so it's possible that a late-series spoiler has slipped into without me realizing it.

We have three Forsaken all-but confirmed for season 3, I would say:

Definitely getting Moghedien

Definitely getting Lanfear

Despite Reddit's constant worries that he's been cut, I genuinely have zero doubt that we will be getting Asmodean but I think the show is going to obscure his identity (just like the books did); which has already been implied by Rafe in an interview (seriously, though a. we had that guitar-holding statue in the s1 Forsaken figurines; b. we're doing a 'close' adaptation of TSR - how is that even possible without Asmo? he's the climax of Rand's storyline!; c. Asmo is PRIME material for the more complicated look at Why People Are Darkfriends that the show has been doing)

So the question is... are we going to see any of the others in s3 or will they be held for s4+.

It depends on a few factors, I think:

a. Are we going to be getting the Forsaken meetings in TAR? One of the ways that Hopper trained Perrin in the early books was secretly taking him to a Forsaken meeting (if I recall, Hopper was able make it so that Perrin not only saw the meeting but also saw Moghedien spying on the meeting). otoh, they may not want to cast actors for the other Forsaken until they have a bigger role to play.

b. How much did they shoot in Caemlyn? It sounds like Caemlyn may have been a location shoot rather than a studio set, which might mean that they only will be using it for a couple of episodes rather than going back to it over the course of the season.

c. They've name-dropped Sammael and Graendal -- does that mean that we're going to see them in s3? I do like @markantonys's idea that Graendal is taking the place of Rahvin in infiltrating Caemlyn, because her MO and Rahvin's are pretty similar (heavy heavy Compulsion). I also like the idea of Sammael maybe starting in Tear, being driven out by Rand, and fleeing to Illian and setting up shop again.

d. I do think either Moghedien or Lanfear is going to take over Mesaana's White Tower plotlines and I'm leaning towards Moghedien, because that makes her even more of an antagonist that's focused on the Wondergirls/Nynaeve.

e. If Rahvin does exist in the show, then he's likely going to be the first Forsaken to Die For Real when Rand balefires him out of existence (in s4?).

f. If Demandred exists, will we be getting the Sharan storyline or would we be getting Taimandred? I would personally find Taimandred a lot more interesting (especially since Dashiva does not exist in this version of the story, or at least doesn't exist as a Forsaken, since Aginor and Balthamel were definitely cut).

Someone on reddit did a good post about how eliminating the "men are always stronger than women in the One Power" differential would actually affect the rankings of the Forsaken and our main characters (the comments are mostly not worth reading but the post itself is good) and how that would effect the 'power rankings' but I also think that the show doesn't consider itself forcibly locked to the power ranking system either (which I feel is a good thing but reddit, of course, thinks is an abomination; how dare we not talk on-screen about how Lanfear is 1(+12) in the Power even though the books never talked about it either and it was all in supplementary material lol).

Tumblr is Weird about links to outside posts but the reddit post is here: https://www.reddit[dot]com/r/WoTshow/comments/17oc10a/ok_i_keep_seeing_people_talk_about_the_power/

So instead of Lanfear being six whole levels below Ishamael and Rand because being 'the strongest female channeler alive' still makes you considerably weaker than literally any of the male Forsaken, she's much closer to being on their level (and it's also possible that the show has made it so that Rand is flat-out actually going to be stronger than Ishamael and Ishy and Lanfear are the same, since they've referenced the Dragon being the strongest channeler ever a couple of times). It would also mean that Semirhage (if included) would be a lot closer to Rand's power level as well, making her an even greater threat.

Our final two slots remain a competition between Demandred, Rahvin, and Semirhage, I would say, and who gets what slot probably depends in part on which stories they plan to focus on. If Rahvin doesn't exist, then I'm uncertain who the first Dead For Real Forsaken is going to be in the show.

a. Asmodean, killed by one of the others?

b. Sammael?

Those two seem the most likely. The others kinda all have stories going on later in the series.

I do think that having Rahvin make it in so that he can get killed off by Rand would serve as a good reason why the other Forsaken act more wary of going near Rand in later parts of the series, so that does remain a possibility for me. Demandred and Sammael do kinda occupy the same space in the 'jealous of Lews Therin' ecosystem, so Sammael being included might mean that Demandred is bumped out, and they could then have Rahvin killed off in s4 or s5.

If Semirhage and Demandred both make it in, we might see their 'strange alliance' together, which could make an interesting contrast against the cutthroat in-fighting of the rest of the Forsaken (in the books, Mesaana is part of that alliance too, but I do think she's just straight-up cut).

[rohirric-hunter]

Tagged by @a-lonely-dunedain to plug OC names into this heacanon generator and see if it fits.

Léonys:

Léonys doesn't own a single pair of matching socks.

Okay, so in actuality no, Léonys has lots of pairs of matching socks and is actually pretty neat about her clothes and stuff when she's at home. BUT I can see this becoming one of those annoying widely-accepted fanon headcanons in direct contradiction to canon because 95% of the time the reader is exposed to her in a, "Has been living in the woods for 3-8 business days, has not spoken to another human being in almost a week, ate bark that was still attached to the tree, laid flat on her back with her mouth open while it was raining to get a drink (for fun)," kind of state, or the many stages of breakdown I dragged her through in Léonys of Rohan. I think if my stuff had a bigger following a lot of people would have trouble reconciling that Léonys with the way she acts when she's, like, in a house.

Léonys does not know what sleep is.

She really does not LMAO. Take a nap, girl

Léonys is smart but also very stupid.

I mean this one's vague enough that it could apply to basically anyone I think. Which means it's a winner! Léonys figured out, on her own, within a few days of properly meeting him, that Aragorn was the heir of the old kings. She also got involved in all that because she saw brigands with hostages and was like, "Go and get help? Tell the town guard? Involve the other hunters? Nah! I'll just follow them! :) and take care of it myself :)."

Léonys crashed a riding lawn mower into their fence.

Absolutely not the ride-on lawnmower goes nowhere except where she told it to go. The ✨🌟🤗🐎💖bond ✨🌟🤗🐎💖 that exists between the Rohirrim and their horses ride-on lawnmowers

Hathellang:

Hathellang is a cry baby.

I mean I guess it depends on what about. This also sort of sounds like a headcanon made up by someone who doesn't actually like the character, so, you know. Subjective. I don't think so. But there's not a lot I would label crybaby anyway.

Hathellang has a roblox account.

Disclaimer: I've never played Roblox. But yeah, I feel like he has one. He used to play a lot more than he does now. But that was years ago. These days no one knows he has it except for Léonys. But sometimes when one of the other kids complains that someone was too mean to them on Roblox he logs on and, well, see,,, if the offender didn't have bannable offenses to work with already then suddenly,,,,, mysteriously,,,,,,,,, they start committing bannable offenses. For literally no reason whatsoever, they must have just felt like it, suddenly. Who knows! Anyway, reported.

(I.E. Hathellang would be a holy terror on the internet, somehow able to talk the trolls into getting themselves banned while only barely toeing the line himself. A power that could be used for good or evil. He uses it to back up his kid siblings on disagreements over the Walmartland makeup obby.)

Hathellang believes in Santa.

He does not! But he's really dedicated to keeping the Santa Experience alive for the younger kids. Also I feel like in a modern AU he'd be super into the Santa Clause movies.

Belharen:

Belharen is afraid of doing anything without their parent's permission.

Belharen is involved in the plot because she ran away from home. Without her parents' permission. That doesn't mean she's not afraid of doing things without her parents' permission. But she still does them.

Ferelin:

Ferelin is tumblr famous.

Oh my god yes. Spot on. IDK what I can add. His shitposts are legendary. Made a new friend. Have informed him that I do not know what a roof is. Think he has little enough knowledge of the Shire that this should fly with him. Eager to see how this plays out. Update: Friend in question visiting my house right now as we speak. Made comment about the roof. Think he remembers what I told him when we first met. Except funnier, probably, IDK. I wonder what his URL would be. He casually refers to his improbable and near-miraculous ability to heal basically anything by singing to it very stubbornly and people think it's some kind of extended bit. He lets them think so because they started to come up with theories about it and it's kind of funny.

Dahlia:

Dahlia knows fnaf lore.

Probably, lol. I feel like she wouldn't play the games, though. I've never played them, this is vibes-based. She just knows the lore. For some reason. Maybe she watches hour-long YouTube videos breaking it down to relax.

And because I've been thinking about her recently some Pegweneth:

Pegweneth instinctively cleans messes in their own house as well as other peoples.

Pegweneth judges people for having messes in their houses TBH. Privately. In her head. She does not clean them. Her house is not clean.

Pegweneth knocks people over by hugging them.

If she knows them very well and is confident they're okay with it.

Pegweneth is not good with social cues.

She knows what they are. She just thinks they're stupid she's above them she responded to them appropriately when she really didn't.

Hmmm, seems like a lot of people I would normally tag in these things have been tagged already. I know many people with OCs and I know that many of them dislike this sort of fandom/headcanon stuff. Open invitation to do it if you want to?

[dogtoling]

how do you come up with your ocs personalities, designs, and stories? (sorry idk how to word this properly)

Honestly this is a really good question and really hard to answer because I have no idea myself, and it also really depends on the OC. With most of my older OCs like Amber or Peppermint, when i made them initially it was pretty much a random grab bag and I've just been building on that over time to see what works. A lot of the times I'll make an OC and they will just kind of drift over time to be completely different, and that just happens naturally. They don't tell you this about OC or character design but after a certain point it stops being character design because the OC will just have a mind of their own so it can actually become really hard to make decisions like, "what job should this character have?" or "should this OC get a new haircut?" because it's not even your choice at some point. It pretty much becomes "WOULD this OC do such and such".

Historically when it comes to making OCs I've had like, dozens of OCs that never become anything and it's really a case of lacking identity or purposes. A lot of the time when making OCs in the past I've just sat down and tried to design a random character and assign them some kind of super basic personality and gearset from the game, and that often goes NOWHERE. So more recently when I've been making characters I've been trying to start from establishing what kind of character I could include in the general setting, what their "purpose" is, and THEN work on the design and character itself to fit that part.

My most recent character is actually Frillda, and for her I just had the basic premise of "i need a cool meangirl character for this lowkey evil Turf team". And I also failed, because she's not very evil at all, but she still fits the role I think. But that's part of the fun I guess, and I struggled like hell to get her design to a point where it felt good, and considering i've drawn her literally twice it WILL probably change over time.

But basically when it comes to OC designs and personalities, I find that leaning hard into a theme or personality trait will make a more interesting character than trying to immediately balance out the character into a more "realistic" one. By interesting I mean like, memorable and impactful, to where that character has a clear identity. Once you have that, it in turn becomes much more interesting working out how that character would act in different situations, and how they deal with stuff like anger or unwelcome surprises. So like my current go-to strategy is start simple, don't be afraid to lean into weird or niche themes (there's ALL kinds of people out there and variety makes the world feel more alive), and just kinda build from there. And if a character starts developing some kind of theme, try leaning harder into it and see what comes out of it.

As for stories, it's really random and I MEAN it's really random. Pretty much all my character stories have originated from me going "what if my OC did x or had x thing happen?" and then flipping a coin in my head and seeing how it would affect the general story and other characters. And if the result is interesting or at least mention worthy, then I usually go forward with it. Life works in really unpredictable ways and stuff just happens, so I find that just going with things like that and even embracing stuff that comes out of left field can be really interesting to put in a story. And other times the inspiration just comes from an external thing randomly. like Toast only got run over by a car because of that Four G's post I saw on tumblr and I had to assign them to ONE of those, and Amber and Peppermint are only a couple because I did a shipping roulette meme in like 2017 and they looked cute together so I had to work it in.

[laylabahiti]

HSHQTASK059: FAREWELL SEE YOU LATER!

when did you join ? what made you join ? what do you remember from the plotlines that were current at the time ? where were you in life when you joined and where are you now ?

i joined september 2016 when this was vikrp! i was a junior in college and had been writing indie rp for a minute before that kinda died down, so i took a peek at the tags. vikrp/haisociety/highsociety had the pairs aspect to it back then, so i fulfilled someone's jade thirlwall wc but they went inactive like right after i was accepted asjdfka. i believe the revamp to haisociety happened in december/january, truly a time to be alive. i started as a junior back then and i'm ending as a junior in my second bachelor's degree💀, a homeowner, and within the next couple years, i'll be married and have a kid*. *tbd when we're both done with school and onto other careers

which characters have you written over the years ?

layla, cameron (early days), tobias (early days), katalina, gabriel, mikolas, alaina, dmitri, juliana, ettore, emerson, tamiko, kaira

what is your favourite plotline that you've been part of ?

too many to choose from! tbh the aslan/layla/olivier triangle was fun just because of the silly ic drama it caused. i'm pretty sure it was during haisociety when i messaged e about layla/olivier, because layla has the "he helped me, i love him" mentality and we just went with it askdfa, not really planning anything or knowing what would come of it. also love the egypt plotline and anytime those siblings interacted. and the early days of barbie and layla's friendship, how barbie pretty much took layla under her wing and got her out of her shell.

what about other people's plotlines ?

definitely the chaos of england and the murder mystery event. if i remember any more i'll edit this jaksdf

who is your favourite character from the ones you've played ? why ? what made you love them ? what made them so fun to write ?

no surprise here but layla. in the early days, layla was meek to the point she hardly spoke, took everything literally, and asked too many questions. she developed her voice and learned to be a little selfish in the later years, but she's still a crier.

if you could relive a plotline, which would it be ?

the greek invasion. it might have been one of the most well-constructed events i have been a part of. i remember traveling during it and writing replies on my phone just so i didn't miss out. every character was affected one way or another, and that event was a turning point in layla's personality.

is there a plotline that you'd edit now if you could ?

i wouldn't necessarily say edit, but it'd be interesting to see how things would've panned out if layla kissed olivier back and still felt guilty enough to tell aslan.

what's a plotline you wish you would have been able to finish before closing or just write more of ?

egypt<3 getting to see amon's coronation and both of them trying to rectify the family's image. life got way too chaotic over the past year, but i love mine and lina's headcanons

what is your favourite ooc memory ?

late 2018, someone kept sending rude/hateful anons to muns and the main, and everyone banded together to keep hshq alive and well. i submitted a whole essay to the main with my comments not thinking the admins would actually post it and they DID, 2018 was an interesting time here. also in the early days when we started listing how all characters were connected and making full circles of connections, simpler times.

where can others find you if they want to get in touch ?

you can always reach me on discord! i'm in the hshq server so feel free to add me or message anytime. i have a few socials if you want those as well - if this is farewell, you've earned my real name ajkdlfj. tbh this is probably my tumblr exit, i don't have much time or mental capacity to write full threads and join something new, but this blog will remain.

what else would you like to say ?

hshq is truly the only reason i've stuck around tumblr this long. almost 8 years of my life has been spent communicating with you all! in some of my worst moments, i was able to turn to hshq and escape reality for a bit. i feel like i'm missing a lot but trying to dig up memories from 8 years ago is difficult lol.

[butibite]

RP Prompt Partner Search

Selcouth Valley

M!OC x F!OC | Tumblr or Discord | 18+ | Multi-Paragraph

The people in Selcouth Valley are a pleasant sort, the kind of small town where everyone does actually know everyone. It's got its quirks of course, like the fact that the entire town lives in the same neighborhood of near identical cheerful well maintained houses and on Tuesdays the power always shuts off for a few hours and there's never a good signal.

But it makes up for that with its sense of community, the neighborhood barbecues, the cozy atmosphere, the near zero crime rate. So of course (your character), looking for a fresh start moves in. And of course, she feels like she has finally found a home.

And well ... her next door neighbor mows his lawn shirtless and might be the closest thing to a Grecian God she has ever seen. (My character) on top of being attractive is polite, charismatic, and funny. The community seems to look up to him as some sort of leader.

And he seems to have an interest in her! It might be too good to be true.

It is.

What's that expression -- the hills are watching? Or is it the hills are alive?

The tone for this RP is very much Uncanny Valley, Welcome to Nightvale, cryptids, and cults. This can be as light hearted or a gritty as you would like. I'm also a fan of involving a child character into this plot possibly on either side for yours or my character.

The relationship between our characters can be one of genuine love or conman manipulation. I have no triggers and so I'm open to working with whatever you have in mind.

Some of the general tones or topics I personally enjoy are psychological manipulation, romanticized cannibalism, and cryptid worship, but these are optional. I really want this to have an unnerving edge to it.

I'm still fairly new to RP on tumblr, but have over a decade of experience in general! Feel free to check out my CAARD for my rules, about me, and a writing sample.

I love to make friends with my partners, a big portion of roleplay for me is being able to chat about our characters. I like making playlists, Pinterest boards, edits, sometimes even short stories, so if you don't typically like to chat we likely won't be compatible.

I don't mind RPing through Tumblr reblogs or Discord (though I prefer to have a dedicated server to keep things organized).

Feel free to shoot me a message or comment to let me know you're interested or if you have any questions. 🏺

Posted: 08.15.24 Status: CLOSED

[admirableadmiranda]

Hello! How are you feeling? How's life training you?

I have come with another question, if you're up to it. (I'm sorry if I'm asking a bit too many questions.)

I read a fic yesterday that stated that Wei Wuxian caused thousands of souls from entering the rebirth cycle. That he killed souls indiscriminately. My assumption is that they took an accusation from The Untamed (fic was based on the live action) as fact. But is there any indication that any of the spirits or corpses used by Wei Wuxian were unable to reincarnate or not put to rest once he was done?

Hello! I’m doing okay, I’m getting over a cold, my tumblr inbox is suffering because life has been too busy for essay long questions but I promise I’ll get there eventually. I have a week coming up in March where I’ll just be at home on recovery so plenty of time will be there then!!

This one on the other hand (as long as you don’t mind me skipping the breakdown of souls in Chinese beliefs again) is pretty short.

So Wei Wuxian isn’t manipulating anything that wasn’t already trapped on earth to begin with. The part of the soul most needed to reincarnate dies and goes into the afterlife when the person does, and the leftover bits join them when the body is buried. This is why burial rites are really important and most all of our resentful spirits/corpses we see usually weren’t buried. That in and of itself makes an unhappy spirit that can’t move on and if given enough time, even burying it won’t help without additional work to deal with their spirit.

Wei Wuxian, contrary to popular belief (and I don’t even know if it’s a CQL error or people making shit up and using stuff in CQL to justify it) isn’t trapping anyone on earth. He’s actually helping get rid of the lingering resentful souls and stuff that’s busy being angry at still being in the world with his cultivation; spending time with dead flower girls who want to pass on their knowledge and enjoy being alive a little longer, helping souls who died violently get revenge on their killers so they can be at peace, letting them fulfill last wishes just as A-Qing keeping people out of Yi City and wanting Xue Yang dead was hers (even if she was cruelly shattered before he could finish the task). His guidao tends to be a net positive wherever he goes because he is working with the existing misery in the area and getting rid of it.

This is why in the war he had to make angry spirits by digging up bodies and aggravating them enough to create his army before people started dying. This is why in Qiongqi Path 2.0 Jin Zixun has his men remove every corpse or dead thing in miles so that Wei Wuxian is crippled. If there’s nothing there to work with, then he can’t cultivate. He can’t create resentment that doesn’t already exist.

Even in Wen Ning’s case, what he has done is bind his living soul to his dead body, but Wen Ning can still die again when he’s ready. Wen Ning is still around because Wen Ning isn’t ready to go. Wen Ning wants to live more, he’ll pass on when he’s ready.

So really anything about him ruining souls for reincarnation or pulling them out of the cycle is a load of bullshit usually based off of a complete lack of knowledge of how Chinese souls and ghosts work in general and then used to blame him for being who he is (and also usually used to exonerate villains I’m sure you’ve seen too)

Hope that helps!

[like-rain-or-confetti]

So I recently rewatched Twilight. I remember watching it once when I was younger because it was really popular and everyone was talking about it, but I didn't know anything about it and, to be honest, I didn't care either, so I didn't think much about it. I watched for the sake of watching. It was around the time the last film was released. Eventually, and to my surprise, I started interacting with Twilight content a few years ago because of tumblr and fanfiction. I never thought this would happen, but here we are.

Anyway, the one thing that strangely always stood out to me was the fact that they made the Volturi and consequently other clans (like the Romanians) so weak.

Were they seriously saying the Volturi wouldn't have decimated the Cullens and their weirdo allies plus their weirdo puppies, in a second? Were they seriously saying that Caius alone wouldn't have done it and they wouldn't even know what got them? One second they would be alive, the next they would be dead. It was that simple. The way they were portrayed in the movies was so shameful. The way Caius died??? Were they for real??

Volturi alone, with members that are thousands of years old, would have unparalleled power and intelligence. With a military prowess unlike anything else. They are, literally, from the old world.

They wouldn't even entertain them if we were honest, they would deal with them while they were still in Italy.

Imagine lose to a bunch of kids.

I understand it was mostly kids/teen movies, but still. That was stupidly ridiculous.

Yup, we've all been there and it's absolutely RIDICULOUS 😂

I reckon that's why SM hasn't actually written another part like she intended to because where can you actually go with how BD played out?

I'd love to see a book solely on the Volturi but as per finishing up the story as she said in an interview? I think her safest bet is to leave it at BD. I don't see how she can go about it. Beyond the idea that the Volturi can only tear itself down. Which is very difficult again because that's accounted for. Chelsea.

Realistically, Chelsea can break other covens before vice versa. Unless they went the Marcus route. That Marcus ever found out the truth about Didyme's death. However, that also doesn't work because it's insinuated that even if you know Chelsea's influence on you- it won't change it. Should that be altered into 'let her in' formation then it makes per rather...phony? I can't really see Aro wanting Chelsea for her gift if it can be blocked so easily. That would make an overly complex problem that people (me) will fixate on. Plus it's a significant crack in this solid foundation the volturi is supported on. Chelsea can make or break bonds...if you want her to? Not great for an opponent. So I really see the only out being Chelsea turns on the volturi because they punt Afton. Which then leads to the question. WHY WOULD ARO BE SO BLOODY STUPID AS TO DO THAT? Ego? I think he's too manipulative for that.

So, without going too far into a tangent. I think the story can't really be completed. She can only really go into spin offs but could kind of lean into the it's going to take x amount of years for another confrontation so for us- the story is done and it's up to the readers to suspect what could happen in the future. However I don't really think published authors lean into the blurring the lines of fiction like that.

Plus the even bigger question... has it been too long for another book? I mean when the twilight hype started I was closer to 10 years old. Now I'm closer to 30. (Ew.) A lot of the fanbase is probably gone or not interest anymore. (Or only cares for the movies) and there's like a 10% chance that they'd pick up another twilight movie after all this time when the main three actors are done with it and two of them shit on it any chance they get by the sound of things. Plus they are all going to look older.

[savior-of-humanity]

(I'm curious to hear about your TTRPG characters 👀)

YESSSSS... HAHAHAH.... YESSSSSSSS

I'm gonna be putting this under a read-more because this might get long (and there's also pictures) but anyways!! (also pinging @hymns-across-the-stars and @cursedfortune since they also expressed interest for me yapping about my emotional punching bags)

SILAS W. RODRIGUES & CAILEAN EVANGELION UNIT-07

I've been fucking DYING to play an Adeptus Evangelion campaign ever since I found out it existed, and I'm still really happy that I found a game at all because the subreddit for AdEVA is dead (though you can find a link to an active-ish AdEVA discord server in there if you dig deep enough). ANYWAYS!!!

Silas isn't really a sopping wet poor little meow meow like some of my other muses (i.e Shinji) but he is definitely just as fucked up. Basic TL;DR of his backstory is that he lived w/ his extended family in Brazil as a baby, with his older brother Cailean largely being the one to raise him, while his parents were off doing shit related to the Katsuragi Expedition that would eventually lead to Second Impact. Given that Second Impact is a global apocalypse, obviously his country gets fucked over and a lot of his immediate family either dies or gets lost among the chaos of that and the immediately ensuing Impact Wars.

Fast forward about a decade, and his older brother goes off to work for NERV after managing to get some good higher education. All's well since Cailean's largely giving what he makes back to his family to help support them, until he suddenly and unexpectedly dies in some kind of accident. The reality is that Cailean actually signed up for a Contact Experiment w/ an EVA in exchange for a large bump in pay, which resulted in his soul becoming assimilated into the EVA. Silas, obviously, doesn't know this, and is incredibly distraught as he and Cailean had a very close sibling relationship.

Eventually Silas gets approached by NERV with the offer to become an EVA Pilot in exchange for training, housing, and payment - and seeing how lucrative the money is, Silas accepts.

For the actual campaign in particular, the basic plot premise is pretty simple; What if Shinji never got in the EVA when Zeruel attacked the Geofront?

A simple question like this, apparently, has some pretty significant answers. To put it simply; with no Unit-01 to stop it, Zeruel managed to reach Terminal Dogma, (presumably) fuse with Lilith, and basically become a god-like being through which it would initiate Third Impact. I'm not sure what the full effects of Third Impact upon the world are yet, but I'm assuming it resulted in a lot of global damage, on top of Zeruel now starting to spawn its own Angels (Zerulim) to target and destroy humanity.

A bunch of canon characters are dead as well; Asuka is presumed KIA (there's some stuff in the plot that implies she could be alive but We Don't Know Yet™), Rei II is dead (though another (adult) clone of her now acts as the Commander of what remains of NERV, now known as WILLE), as well as Mari, Toji, and a lot of other characters such as Gendo and Misato. Shinji's fate is unknown but he was offered as a playable character so I'm guessing he's alive, just not (currently) relevant to the plot.

Anyways. Silas.

He has some pretty complicated feelings about his fellow pilots, because he's personally watched two of them die in incredibly horrific and traumatizing ways. He's afraid of forming friendships and similar meaningful relationships with other people, because he's afraid of going through that feeling of loss; something that's heavily impacted him ever since Cailean "died". And yet paradoxically he won't hesitate to put himself in harm's way so that they don't have to suffer as much. I'm really hoping to flesh him out as a character as the campaign progresses since I've been thinking of implementing him and Cailean/his EVA as muses (though there's like. only one other person I know of on Tumblr that actually has Evangelion muses he could interact with 😭)

KHARIAS (also cw for mentions of child death)

So, Kharias is basically just my fursona that I adapted for a homebrew Lancer campaign hosted by a friend of mine. I don't remember the full details of the story because it's been a while since the campaign's on a hiatus atm but basically, she's a Wildkin (furry race) who had a very rough childhood.

She was raised by her father Perristona, who I believe was a former general of the Wildkin army. Perristona is Not A Good Person. Like. Not even in the emotionally complicated way that makes you even sorta sympathetic but in the way that makes you go "what the fuck, is this guy insane?" And for good reason!!

Because when Kharias and her brother were about 6 years old, he made them fight each other to the death. With axes. It was as horrific, violent, and traumatizing as you can imagine.

And then years later he made a clone army of her dead brother for the sake of basically helping some very misguided people cause a global apocalypse that may or may not involve firing the in-universe equivalent of a Halo ring.

Fun stuff! Basically she's a big shark lady who kicks ass and pilots a fucking badass magical mech. I might bring her around again for another campaign my friend is planning on doing, though I have some other more appealing character ideas since, to be honest, a lot of her backstory in the Lancer campaign was actually cooked up by the GM, so I'm not really sure how to apply her without just going through the same backstory stuff.

[ohwaitimthewriter]

what inspired you to start writing again? <3 the memory keeper!

What a great question! Thank you, nony 💚

If I can summarize it in one sentence: I think it has to do with having to tell a story that speaks to my inner child. I don't always know why, but when I encounter a universe that speaks to this part of me, it lights up a spark I can't really explain with words and this spark pushes me to write.

Writing is kind of like a curative treatment to me, it helps me to express feelings or events that I felt or lived and it also helps me to deal with it. When I'm inspired to write, it's because I have something I need to deal with or to cure and I can do this by creating and building stuff around what needs to be deal with.

So basically, I can write when this spark is enlightened and tbh, I don't know why KOTPOTA "spoke" to my inner child in this way but it did! And The Memory Keeper came alive in my mind but I was still afraid to post this story and I was able to put it on Tumblr thanks to my dear Em @the-monkeies-girl who started to post her amazing works about POTA/KOTPOTA a bit before I did. She just gave me the courage I needed to post it! Especially because there were basically barely to no fanfic about POTA at all on Tumblr when all this stuff started!

And when you post on social media, it's because you want people to read it so if you're not sure if there will be someone to read it, what's the point to post?

So yep, thank you to my little ray of sunshine Em for showing me people were actually interested in reading about POTA ❤️

Thank you again Nony for asking this question, have a great day/night ❤️

[asurrogateblog]

Sweet! :D Are there any other characters important to the story, aside from the band, you'd like to talk about?

ooh okay!

as usual I am wholly incapable of providing a short answer.

The most interesting side characters to talk about are from Cal's part of the story (basically the epilogue, see the last slide it does require that context)*

*sidenote: I do have side-characters for the "real story" obviously, but one of the points I want to make in the story is how the main cast is so myopically self-obsessed that they don't fully process the consequences of their actions outside of the circle of the three of them until it's way too late. so as a result everyone else is a little less developed (it's on the to-do list

ANYWAY. so as mentioned in the powerpoint, Cal in the present-day owns a little record/instrument shop. And speaking meta-textually, she REFUSES to get involved in an actual plot. I have a few ideas I'm playing around with for where to take her character but usually it's like "yah I'm not doing that." given this stand-off I've resorted to a more slice-of-life style of things. I guess she deserves that. arguably. a lot of philosophical questions there about whether you're responsible for the actions of the people you used to be.

so when I was thinking of her shop, I started thinking about the neighborhood around it. and I asked myself "who would be the funniest person/people to move in next door?"

Meet Arti and Ray! They're lesbian married, they're re-opening the old bar next door, and they just happen to be Clarion Call super fans. They even have matching tattoos and their bar is called Puzzlemaster after the Clarion album. In the CC universe they're definitely on tumblr making "rpf is fine" memes with photos of Roy and Nelson.

Facts about Arti:

Mellow (read: quietly chaotic), observant, creative

Trying to finish her degree in film studies on the side. Dreams of making really unsettling avant-garde horror movies.

Introduced to CC by her mom. She doesn't really talk to her family anymore (....it's complicated), but she kept the love of the music. Nelsongirl.

genuinely really enjoys bartending; mixology master

Facts about Ray:

Energetic, competitive, loud

Works part-time at a daycare to supplement their income; loves kids, should honestly be a gym teacher

Born in the Phillpines; moved to California (bay area) as a kid

Introduced to CC by their cousins. godsend for "teenager struggling to fit in who doesn't realize they're queer yet". Roy stan.

The premise for them is analogous to this: imagine, anon, that one day you're chatting with the old woman who lives next door and it strikes you that she looks a lot like John Lennon. Now consider exactly what would it take for you to go from "haha weird" to "oh my god, I think John Lennon is still alive and an old woman and also my neighbor". And beyond that, what would it take for you to actually accuse her of this.

As they get to know each other, this is the game of psychological chess going on between Cal and Arti & Ray (of course, they'd probably think that she's secretly Izzy Riles.... which she is, but that's only a third of the story).

So that's a little introduction to them! They're a lighter and sillier part of the story and I like them a lot

(I have to stop here. I have to make myself)

[yourfellowhuman07]

Where Do We Go Now?

A She-ra: Princess of Power 2018 fanfiction

The war is finally over. Prime is dead, the hive mind is broken, and everyone is reunited with their loved ones. However, there are some questions left unanswered. What will be the fate of Catra and Hordak? What are these new memories Wrong Hordak has? What is Etheria's place in the wider universe? Where do we go now?

___________________

Ladies, Gentlemen, and nonbinary friends chapter 22 is finally here. This has been a slog to write, but I persisted. I was on my last brain cells writing this so I hope it is good. Also, grab your snacks and tissues because this chapter is 45 words short of 1.5k words. Please enjoy and have a wonderful day.

Also as of right now the poll for the weekly upload date for my new fic still has five hours left to vote on. So if you really want, please vote.

Also, AO3 has caught up with Tumblr, so this chapter will be posted there tomorrow. However, you can only access it if you have a registered account because of precautions regarding the whole AI situation. Sorry in advance.

___________________

Chapter 22: Project Orion

Once again, rain battered the windows of the Crypto Castle. A blue fire crackled within the fireplace that housed all the… guests. On one side of the room sat the Alliance; on the other side sat Hordak’s brothers and the former horde soldiers. Right in the middle sat the former warlord upon an armchair, his fists balled into his pants. Entrapta sat on the arm of the chair with her hair wrapped around Hordak’s bicep. He cleared his throat.

“Now, I am under the impression that you all know why you are here. I would like to first apologize for my outburst yesterday. It was inappropriate of me, and I should have acted more rationally.” After a moment, Hordak looked at Entrapta. 

“Do you recall when I told you where I came from?”

“Yes.”

“That was partially a lie. I am not a clone I am the actual biological child of Horde Prime.” Hordak glanced down at his fists as everyone reacted with varying levels of shock.

“Why in the world would Prime want a baby?” Mermista expressed.

“He never wanted me. I was an accident my mother insisted on keeping. According to him at least.”

“Mother?” Castaspella inquired.

“Yes, I had a mother who is the only reason I am still alive. According to Prime, when my mother found out she was pregnant with me she insisted they kept me. Prime agreed as long as I was not a distraction.”

“If it is not too personal, could you tell us what she was like?” Castaspella inquired.

“I think we crossed the line of personal business a while ago.” Catra retorted, gaining a glare from Adora and Glimmer.

_______________________________________________________________

Orion sat reading on a big chair in his bedroom connected to his parent’s room. Despite being only four years old, he was very proficient at reading and had already begun reading novels and scientific articles. Like many rooms in the Velvet Glove, it was a blinding white with black accents and smelled strongly of bleach.

Orion looked up to the sound of the green barrier dissolving. His mother stepped through the door.

“Alright, star sweeper time for bed.”

“What! Please five more minutes, mama.”

“No, buts star sweeper, it is already past your bedtime.” She took the book from his hands, careful to mark Orion’s place. She started to usher him to bed as a thought popped into his head.

“Mama, why did you name me Orion?”

“Well, when I was giving birth to you, the Velvet Glove was passing right through a constellation named Orion by the local beings. Legend says he was a giant who was a mighty warrior and a huntsman that was immortalized in the stars.”

“Will you stop filling his head with that nonsense?” Orion’s father, Horde Prime stood at the door.

“Darling, it’s only a story.”

“A stupid one at that,” he looked to his left. “Is that my book?” He stomped over to the armchair, swiping the book and ripping out the bookmark. “Tell your child to stop taking my things.” He stormed out of the room, closing the barrier between the two bedrooms.

“I’m sorry,” Orion whispered, balling his fists into the bedsheets.

“Oh, don’t worry about it. Your father is just having a bad day.”

“He’s always having a bad day.”

“I know.”

“Can you sing that one song for me again?”

“Anything for your star sweeper.

La la lu

La la lu

Oh, my little star sweeper

I'll sweep the stardust for you” She tucked in the white sheets of his small bed.

“La la lu

La la lu

Little soft fluffy sleeper

Here comes a pink cloud for you” She pushed his unruly indigo curls out of his face.

“La la lu

La la lu

Little wandering angel

Fold up your wings, close your eyes

La la lu

La la lu

And may love be your keeper

La la lu

La la lu

La la lu” She kissed him on his forehead as his eyes fluttered close.

“There now, little star sweeper. Dream on.” She turned out the lights and left the room.

__________________________________________________________________

“Ok, what I don’t get is how we and none of the other clones knew about her?” TD asked, leaning forward in his seat.

“Prime never let anyone see her. He never told me, but I figured her wanted her all to himself and didn’t want anyone else to touch her. Which is probably why he wasn’t too fond of me when I came around.”

“Why would Prime even want a wife to begin with? I thought he only loved himself.” Frosta inquired.

“Another thing I am not fully aware of. My best guess is that he liked the attention and affection a wife could give him. A type of adoration clones could not provide.”

“Whatever happened to your mother?” Micah asked, crossing his arms.

__________________________________________________________________

Just like his mother had told him to do, Orion hid in his closet as his parents screamed at each other. He didn’t know how it started he just knew it was about him. It was always about him. 

Maybe Father is right. Maybe I am a nuisance.

He could never figure out why his father detested him so much. Maybe it was his appearance. While he looked more like his mother there were some staggering differences in looks. For one, his eyes were crimson red when his parents were electric lime green. His hair was also different, with his being navy blue, short, and curly while his parents were white, long, and straight.

At that point, his parents were close enough to the door that he could make out what they were saying.

“I just don’t get the obsession you have with that thing! It was bad enough you wanted to keep it, but spending almost all your time with it!”

“First of all, that thing is your seven-year-old son, whom I am trying to raise by myself since you have put absolutely zero effort into even being nice too!”

“That’s another thing! With every passing day, you become more and more defiant! It has gotten out of hand!”

“And I apologize for that, but I just want you to be involved in raising the child you helped create!”

“When the universe implodes, I will be involved.”

“You are such a…hmm”

“Go ahead. Finish what you were saying.”

“Fine. You are a cold, narcissistic, uncaring man who has never given a single thought to anyone but yourself! You are a terrible father and a terrible husband that sucks the life of everyone around you!”

“There is no hope for you after all.”

__________________________________________________________________

“I do not exactly know what happened after that. All I heard was her screaming grow quieter as Prime drug her away. I never saw her after that night. The next morning Prime handed me off to a couple of clones and sent us off to some unknown plant where I was educated about almost every subject and how to fight. At the age of 25 my cybernetics were implanted, I joined the hivemind, and became his general.”

“Oh, sweetheart,” Castaspella whispered, covering her mouth.

“Please, the very least you can do is not pity me. Is there anything else you all want to ask or are we done here?”

“No there isn’t,” Glimmer rose from her seat. “Thank you for telling us this and we are sorry we put you in this position. Guys let's go.” At her command, the Alliance filed out of the room leaving Hordak, Entrapta, and the five brothers in the room.

Hordak slumped down him his seat. Groaning as he buried his face in his hands. He looked up at his family.

“I am sorry.”

“For what?” Entrapta asked, wrapping her hands around his bicep.

“Lying to all of you about everything.”

“HK, that doesn’t matter. What matters is that you’re ok.”

“I’m fine. It happened a long time ago.”

“Still, if there is anything you need we are all right here.” Entrapta placed her hand on Hordak’s shoulder, receiving a small smile from the former warlord. “Come on,” she rose from her seat, “it’s past lunchtime and I know you haven’t eaten anything.”

__________________________________

As the Alliance boarded Darla Sea Hawk pulled Bow to the side.

“What’s wrong.”

“Nothing is wrong. After today I want to join you on your quest to befriend Hordak. Today has made me realize how hard he has had it, and maybe, like Catra, positive relations could get him on the straight and narrow.”

“That’s great! I’m glad someone finally gets it. My only problem is breaking the ice. I tried to talk to him once, but he was so dismissive. We need to get him in a place where he would be willing to socialize.”

“How about… a boys' night out?”

__________________

Can you all tell me what Disney movie I watched before writing this?

I also found a video that perfectly encompasses this chapter:

[intertexts]

ok you asked about my sad fish boy i hope u know how much of a mistake that is. holy shit. dude jrwi is so fucking good. if u need a new dnd podcast may i please recommend jrwi..theyre pirates. ohhh my god theyre pirates .

so. uhm. fish boy. his name is gillion tidestrider (champion of the undersea, hero of the deep, etc etc about a billion more titles that he just keeps aquiring as the campaign goes on) and hes a paladin with ohhhhh so much of a hero complex. oh my god. dude. hes so . everything to me . (played by charlie slimecicle btw. that guy is so fucking good at balancing silly goofy moments with heartwrenching voice acting. in one of the most recent episodes he is literally. hanging from a hook through his hands missing chunks of skin on 1hp literally only alive because he happened to cast death ward on himself. and hes wearing those goddamn trout fish sandals that u see on facebook ads or whatever.)

uhm. so. holy shit. where do i even start. he is the chosen one of a prophecy that says its his duty to one day choose who will survive between the undersea (triton, underwater creatures, where he grew up) and the oversea (basically. land.) and the other will be destroyed. so when he was very young (i want to say maybe like..5 or 6? i dont remember im actually searching for that info rn for the thing im writing) he was taken away from his family to begin training with the Elders (basically the. rulers of the undersea) . my boy he was raised to be a weapon. he was raised to be a tool (<< real canon words out of his own mouth). my favorite little child soldier. he wore armor that was too big for him and carried swords that were taller than he was. he was raised to put protecting others over his own safety so he rushes out into danger without even thinking about how it might affect him. he is so passively suicidal and ready to sacrifice himself at any minor inconvenience that when this information is eventually put in front of him his response is "what? no, thats what im Supposed to do." a very important phrase for him in early episodes was "whats one more burden?"

also he has a pet frogtopus (frog + octopus) her name is pretzel and she rides around in a little orb on his belt and also on his shoulders sometimes. i love her

(<- official art. shes so perfect in every way)

I THINK I MIGHT BE RUNNING OUT OF SPACE SOON BUT HE ALSO HAS AN OLDER SISTER AND SHES EVERYTHING TO ME OHMYGOD . her name is Edyn and shes so. uaghghhh if i think about her for too long i start crying. im writing a fic from her pov as we speak. she was the only one who would visit him during his training as a kid she was his best friend she wanted to protect him but she was also just a kid so she couldnt do anything but try her best to comfort him. shes the one who gave him pretzel. ohhh my god. i lvoe you edyn tidestrider youre everything to me. giving you a freshly written unedited at all snippet from the fic im writing because it describes how i feel about their dynamic so much better than i could possibly type out in a tumblr ask::::

uhnmmm what else. im so insane about the tidestrider siblings forever. do not get me wrong the other PCs in this campaign are also excellent and i love them (Jay is the daughter of a navy captain who defected to join a pirate crew to figure out what caused the death of her older sister. Chip is. oh boy. orphan who was taken in by a pirate crew when he was 7. pirate crew in question was swallowed by some sort of magic force that corrupted literally a fourth of the globe. but he somehow survived and is now trying to find out if his old family is still alive. jay and chip are like adopted siblings to me. chip and gillion had to roll a performance check for a kiss one time and they both got nat 20s and its all gone downhill from there for them. i love jay and chip dearly but something abojt gillion just scratches a very specific itch in my brain i love him so much and its only partially because hes a fish and im the fish guy.) ALSO I FORGOT TO MENTION GILLION IS CANONICALLY ASEXUAL and this is a fact that actually has come up within canon and is not just a word of god twitter mention fact. no. my boy is actively asexual and it makes me soooooo happy forever.

uh. sorry for the wall of text. infodump over. im forever crying abojt pirates and fish people . thank u i love u

OUSUGHFGHFJHH................... I LIKE UR FISH BOY MAC. IM A BIG FAN OF UR FISH BOY. i heard paladin with a hero complex & it was immediately a direct hit thats so... ouuhgh. child soldier character type of guy makes me go bonkers!!!! this whole paragraph is like five critical hits in a row... im so curious now.... also ive seen SO much art for these guys jay also looks so cool? her art is always so compelling 2 me... anyway OUHG. i'm currently working my way through friends at the table twilight mirage (meticulously crafted post-utopian cyberpunk/science fiction about mechs and gods and mech gods and more specifically Dead mech gods & living in their husks & humanity & nonhumanity & empire, etc) + tryna catch up on critrole but... hgghhbh. we'll see. we'll see what happens...

[paigemathews]

idk why but in the prandy P3 daughters au i feel like piper would have a girl first and then her boys (maybe twin boys? i'm just bullshitting here tbh)

Okay, so, I can genuinely guarantee that this over three thousand word outline is not what you intended when you sent this, but I got this and another ask about the prandy girls AU and decided that I needed to sketch this out to at least have an idea of what happens and who else are around the prandy girls and it... spiraled. I did put this under a read more because, like I said, over three thousand words. But to actually answer your question, and I guess spoilers for the outline ahead, Piper actually ends up with two girls: Proserpina "Prose" Patricia Halliwell and Petra Penelope Halliwell. (Abi, you may say with dismay, there's no way that Piper would name her daughter Proserpina and you're not wrong! Special circumstances apply for why she did, and I actually did initially begin to dive into the next gen girls' powers and personalities here as well before realizing it was way too long already, but that information is available if anyone cares lmao.)

I also had to break this up more because Tumblr yelled at me, so we have different headings.

The Beginning

I think that the first two seasons would still primarily shake out the same, besides Andy's death, since season two is still pretty episodic

instead of that unnamed Cupid in "Heartbreak City," however, it's Coop, who kind of just gently bullies Phoebe into admitting that she's afraid of love and of losing people. (we're gonna set the stage early here.)

Additionally, Prue and Andy are still not fully together yet (bc they had been, y'know, broken up when he died) so Coop reveals to Phoebe that he's there to help them but doesn't tell anyone else yet.

Anyways, Prue and Andy end up hooking up at one point and accidentally ends up pregnant around three quarters of the way through season two but we end season two with them finally committing to one another and Perri is born about halfway through season three

During season three, however, we first see the sisters go head-to-head with the Source. They try to vanquish him, and Prue goes down hard. The Power of Three doesn't work and they're about to die when they're suddenly beamed out, revealed to be Phoebe wishing she could've confessed her love to Coop before they died. (Look, we're doing very broad strokes here rn.)

The sisters are confused because that was the strongest spell and potion that they got, and Leo goes to talk to the Elders and says that there's something blocking the sisters from their full potential and Phoebe is like "okay, what does that mean" and Leo has no idea so that takes up the back half of season three as they try to discover what's blocking them.

Meanwhile, Prue, a new mother, is having this breakdown about how she nearly orphaned her daughter and lashes out and has her plot about dealing with all of this with Andy.

Anyways, at the end of season three, we finally figure out what's limiting their powers and spoiler alert:

it's because there's supposed to be a fourth sister with them: Paige

but the Source discovers this before the sisters do and attacks once again, and this time, they're slightly more prepared but something happens and Piper is (seemingly) killed while the Source is seriously weakened so he retreats.

The Power of Four

In reality, Piper has actually ended up between planes, alive in the place you're meant to go before you die. Also, as we later find out when Leo is tearfully confiding to probably Coop, she's pregnant as well. (This will be relevant to our Pleo kid.) The rest quickly figure out, however, that wherever Piper is, she's not in the Beyond like their mother or grandmother.

But anyways, Prue is furious and going after every demon like a madwoman and casting any and every spell to locate a sister. Phoebe, meanwhile, graduated at some point during season three and is adrift and unsure what to do. She starts working with social services to help people down on their luck, where she begins running into a chaotic young Berkley grad named Paige.

Meanwhile, Piper is trying to figure out a way home and starts casting her own spells to contact her sisters. She ends up in Paige's dreams, who at first dismisses it as just being lonely and wanting family as the anniversary of her parent's death approaches and being alone for it for the first time (as Glen is unable to get back to the States in time).

Paige is a bit creeped out when she first sees a picture of Piper and sees that she's identical to the woman in her dreams but continues to dismiss it as her wishing she had a sister like Phoebe.

Anyways, something happens and Prue and Phoebe realize that Paige is their sister and Paige realizes that she's a witch. (For this, they initially believe that she's a telepath since she's able to mentally connect with Piper through planes and displays this mental connection with all of the sisters, but it's later revealed to be a product of their collective power. Her actual primary power is photokinesis, the ability to create and manipulate light.)

There's some growing pains at first, but Prue, Phoebe, and Paige manage to connect with one another and discover a way to save Piper, which is something like at the height of All Hallow's Eve or whatever.

Anyway, they save Piper and the Power of Four is established.

Either during or soon after, Piper gives birth to her and Leo's daughter: Proserpina "Prose" Patricia Halliwell, named after the mysterious woman on the plane who helped Piper and likely gave her something to help her keep the pregnancy (a life growing where one is not meant to exist)(look, I wasn't intentionally trying to sketch out stuff here, we're just going with vibes now.

Prue is also pregnant again about halfway through the "getting Piper back" arc and, if Piper gives birth end of season four, Prue gives birth to Presley about half a season afterwards.

Now, back to the sisters. Let's say that Phoebe finally confesses to Coop and they deal with their feelings and are going strong. But the Source has been working to regain his strength, and so, we get some kind of enemy sent the sister's way. With the reveal of Paige's existence and Piper giving birth, the Source decides to try to divide the sisters to weaken them by targeting the most obvious weak link: Paige.

We Still Have a Demon Romance

With Piper's return, Paige feels unnecessary, like she was a placeholder only meant to hold the second sister's place until she came back. And it isn't helped by the fact that Piper came back and had a baby, Prue is now pregnant/close to having another baby, and Phoebe is dancing around Coop who may or may not have tried to set her up with someone else.

And Paige isn't impressive to the magical community, not like the original Charmed Ones and she doesn't know what she's doing yet, not really, so it doesn't go well. But there's someone who seems to like her and look up to her and they're a fellow witch (except they're actually a demon) and he gets her and understands her.

So instead of Phoebe, Paige gets a demon romance, except she doesn't know of course. And she learns more about magic and how to use it differently than anything her sisters had taught her and a lot of it is on the up-and-up for the most part but some of it just tilts Paige a bit of a different direction.

The saving grace is that Paige is also given a charge during this time, so her Whitelighter side is tugging at her consistently so her demon lover can't pull her too far, even if Paige doesn't know yet why some things he shows her she is instinctually repelled from. And through her Whitelighter side, she gets a charge, who also happens to have an infuriating parole officer named Henry.

They butt heads a lot but both care a lot about their charge, so slowly and reluctantly become friends against their will. But Paige's demon boyfriend is getting impatient at the lack of progress, especially because the Source is starting to get vexed and regaining his strength, so he kicks it up a notch by starting to steadily bewitch Paige, a la Phoebe in s4.

In the interest of having a backup, the Source also sends a demon to befriend the sisters, especially in an attempt to target the kids and Prue's pregnancy. (After all, what better way to destroy the sisters than from the inside?)

And it takes a minute, because everything has been so hectic with everything going on for the sisters (Piper going missing and then giving birth, Prue getting pregnant again, finding Paige, etc.) that they've kinda just been lingering with this chill atmosphere for once, but start to realize something is wrong with Paige.

Andy is the one to investigate and find out that something is off about the demon boyfriend, like how he did with Rex and Hannah in s1. An oracle or seer (depending on who we wanna add in here) warns the demon that his cover is blown before Andy can get to Prue, and he knows he's no match for the Charmed Ones, so he decides to try to forcibly turn Paige, and potentially the sisters, in one fell swoop through a Dark Wedding (like Zile marrying Prue in the canon s3.) To distract the sisters, he infects the sisters, Andy, Leo, and Coop with sin balls.

This has a two-fold purpose: one, I love Sin Francisco, so shoutout! Two, Phoebe gets infected with lust and Coop with envy. Coop is envious of the men that he's tried setting Phoebe up with, and Phoebe is. lusting after Coop, so. Under the influence of the sins, they have sex! (I'm sure you can see why this will be very important later on.)

Anyways, Henry, who the demon boyfriend (who I probably should've given a name tbh) had deemed unimportant, figures out that something is wrong with Paige and tries to go to the sisters to ask about her, only to be like what the fuck.

He ends up somehow helping them realize something is wrong blah blah and they all break their individual sin/remove their sin in the case of Prue.

Meanwhile, Paige and the demon boyfriend are seemingly about to get married but Paige just looks around dazed and asks softly where are my sisters? and he gives her some bullshit about how he's the only one that cares about her or whatever and then is blasted halfway across the room by a very furious Piper going get away from my sister!

(Imagine this as being the turning point between Piper and Paige's relationship since they'd been so iffy around each other because they had no idea who the other was and thought that the other was intended to be their replacement or whatever.)

Her sisters rush to her side and Phoebe hands her a potion and gently asks her to take it, sweetie, and Paige trusts her so she does and all of the demon's tricks fail when his enchanting is abruptly wiped from her sister. Paige hesitates only for a minute before joining her sisters in the vanquishing spell.

Also Henry finds out about magic from this and has to sit down.

And this has probably been going on for the about three quarters of the season and uhhh, Prue goes into labor at the end of all this and hi ya, Presley!

And they hustle her off to the hospital and- Oh my God, Prue is cradling Presley in her arms with Andy beaming next to her and they need a middle name and everyone's making suggestions and Prue kind of just looks up at Paige, who we'll say have bonded over Paige's love of art and Prue's experience with antiquities and art knowledge, and says Artemisia after Artemisia Gentileschi and Paige points out that's a big name for a girl to handle and if Prue's sure if she handle it and they're not really talking about the name at all but Prue says that she knows she'll be able to handle anything because she's so strong and brave and will always have her sisters.

And Paige beams and Piper and Leo are standing together and Phoebe goes and leans her head on Paige's shoulder in one of those cute sisterly moments and gets a premonition of, oh, about nineish months?

Congratulations, Paige, it's a demon-witch-Whitelighter hybrid!

(Phoebe does not tell them in that moment but definitely brings it up later.)

I Feel Like Everyone is Just Having a Kid RN Here

Anyways, we get a break from all the heavy plot stuff for a minute because Phoebe and Coop are. Not talking about what happened between them and Paige and Henry are being a little weird with each other and Prue is having a crisis with Andy about what if she goes and dies on her kids like her mom and Piper isn't sure if she and Leo will be able to have another kid after her experiences on the plane between life and death, and that's all just the romance and family side of things.

On the professional side of things, Prue is struggling with the desire to stay at 415 Magazine or move to the Bay Mirror to be able to be there on the streets seeing what's going on versus the glossy photoshoots that she's been doing. Piper, after quitting Quake, had basically been working as a caterer without the money to actually buy a physical location for her building but is taking the plunge on the restaurant. Phoebe has been working at social services with Paige but isn't sure what she actually wants to do. After an episode where something forced Phoebe into helping Prue at the Bay Mirror, she begins doing some editing work there, eventually taking on a column role. Paige meanwhile finally becomes a social worker.

But anyways, Paige is struggling with what happened, her deteriorating friendship with Henry, and her impending motherhood. She finally explodes on Henry calling him out for slowly drifting away and revealing how terrified she is of becoming a mother. The two reconcile when Henry tells her that, regardless of magic, he knows that she'll be a great mother because of the way that she cares for her charges and her work and promises to be there for her. There's also plenty of bonding with Prue during this time because Paige (and Henry) definitely have a plot about babysitting little Perri and Presley for "practice."

Meanwhile, Phoebe realizes about halfway through the season that she's pregnant and she and Coop finally have to sit down and talk about it. They confess their feelings but are concerned about the forbidden romance aspect of it. Despite that, with Phoebe being spectacularly less burned this time, they decide to try and pursue it anyways.

About halfway through season six, Paige goes into labor about the same time that a demon is attempting to devour ghosts' powers or something so we get an episode featuring Melinda Warren because Paige deserves to meet her too and Henry gets some magical shenanigans. Also some nice moments with Melinda commiserating with Paige about being tricked and how she, and her baby, are still Warrens. But anyways, Paige delivers not one little demon-witch-Whitelighter baby but two! (No one expected this. Phoebe's premonition helpfully left out Henry cradling the other baby.) Either way, we now have Lillith Prudence Matthews and Morgan Melinda Matthews!

Remember how I mentioned that the Source had a backup plan to befriend the sisters? Yeah, she's still here, slowly worming her way into their lives. Due to the twins' half-demon natures, she begins often volunteering to be a babysitter with the goal eventually being to turn them completely. None of the sisters expect anything as demonic activity begins ticking upward again and she becomes closer to their kids. It's her that lets it slip that Phoebe and Coop are in a forbidden romance soon before Phoebe's meant to give birth, and the Elders recall him to the Heavens in punishment.

Phoebe gives birth soon afterwards to Philomena "Mena" Cordelia Halliwell, naming her daughter after love and heart.

She challenges the Elders for him back, and with her sisters behind her, they falter enough that she's able to press them enough that they give her an option. She came to them on the claim of true love, and so it's that claim they'll make her prove herself on. If Phoebe is truly in love with Coop, she just has to find him. They'll send him back, no memories and in-disguise, but will guarantee that they'll be in a position to meet once more and interact. If she kisses him, it'll return his memories and they'll be free to be together. However, to prevent her from just kissing every guy she finds to try to find Coop, she has only once chance, and her next kiss will be the only chance she gets. (I did decide to add in a fairytale ass plot bc I can, thanks.) Phoebe accepts, and her romantic plot for the rest of the season and the beginning of the next is on finding Coop.

Meanwhile, the demon friend decides that if she's going to poison the Warren line of witches, why stop at only a set of twins when there could be a death-touched witch and the first ever Cupid-witch hybrid at her command? (She looks at Perri and Presley, fully witches born with no complications, and dismisses them. She is the first demon that will do this but will not be the last. Like her, others will learn that this is a mistake.) Knowing vaguely of the potion Piper took to be able to keep the pregnancy, the demon creates a fertility potion to give her to see if she'll be able to utilize another child's powers to even greater strengths. She gives it to Piper in the season six finale.

The Final Battle

During this time, the sisters begin to prepare for the final battle against the Source. Their last major battle at this was at the end of season three, and we're now at the beginning of season seven. The Source has fully recovered from their battle, and the sisters themselves are at full power with Piper recovered and Paige at their side.

Piper finds out she's pregnant again a few episodes into the season.

Phoebe finds Coop at the midseason finale, which is also when the demon friend is revealed to be a demon when she makes a move for the kids. Someone gets stabbed (idk who. Andy? Henry?) stopping her but is narrowly saved and the sisters vanquish her.

Phoebe and Coop get married around midseason as well, while Paige and Henry discuss if they want to take that step soon.

The sisters take on and vanquish the Source in the season finale once and for all, which is where I think the big storylines stop.

Shortly after the finale, Piper gives birth to Petra Penelope Halliwell. Phoebe and Coop may or may not have a second kid? Still undecided on that one. Paige and Henry move in together in the flashforward in the series finale and marry a year or two later. Andy and Prue have Pamela as the last next gen kid.

[hazbinextgeneration]

Demon Bride Ch16 Of Reading And Memories P3

(DISCLAIMERS AND IMPORTANT INFO!!!: EVERYONE in this story is in their early 20s-30s! This story will contain mentions of past abuse and death! I'll be keeping it as SFW. Some backstories have been slightly altered for this particular story, and some characters cannonically dead or harmed is alive and well. I own nothing.

Credit to @flanelltees​ for the designs I based the demons off to look more demon-like with tails and pointed ears.

This story will be sfw, but there will be some blood, implied death, fighting, some gore mentioned, and a few other things that will be made aware by warnings. Pay attention to warnings at the top of any chapters just under the summery please.)

Once in the mountain villages it was a custom that once a year on the night of the new year's first moon, an unlucky young lady would be selected and left for the demons to become one of the unlucky few who married such a husband. In exchange for this offering the demons would protect the villages and leave the humans in peace. Until one day a powerful warrior drove the demons away freeing the humans of them. Now 2,000 years later, it's become a tradition that once a year, a new young lady would be picked and wait for her future husband to retrieve her from a shrine in the mountains. And now the lucky tradition would fall upon Y/n L/n. It would be her own turn to take on the tradition and not have to worry about demons. After all that part of the old tradition was just fake, made up by paranoid ancestors. Everyone knew demons didn't exist.

...Right

(WARNINGS!!!: : Mentioning of abuse, mentioning of death, mentioning of wounds, mentioning of killing. The other spider siblings are shown in the link below )

First Part Here:

Demon Bride Ch 1 Thus It Begins

(WARNINGS AND DISCLAIMERS!!! EVERYONE in this story is in their early 20s-30s! This story will contain mentions of past abuse and death! I'l

TUMBLR

Last Part Here:

Next Part Here:

To be added

(. Again Rui's spider family is his actual family for this au.

Spider_Family?file=The_Daughte

Also I have a concept sketch for full demon Y/n. Would anyone like me to post it next chapter although full demon reader won't be in the book for another few chapters?)

It all started just a few months ago. This problem he found himself in.

In happened at night. One dark night. Near the end of last year. He was tired and stopped to rest when it happened.

STRUM!!

His mind was pulled into a calling. It was like his conscious became thinned, light as air, and as nimble as a snake slithering through the lines of connection between himself and the bonds the Master's blood allowed them all to have. If he had one way of describing it, he would say it felt and looked like a tree rooted into their minds, different branches that were never the same but still connected to the same trunk in the end sharing the same deepened roots. The mind thread slithered ever closer to the thing that pulled and pulled and pulled him until he felt himself connecting to two others before him in this web of connections. One of the Twelve Kizuki wished him here, and the one responsible for bringing him here was just above him sitting silently. Upper Moon Five, Nakime, the one responsible for all transportation within this hivemind of threads. He reached out to that small thread sending a questioning thought for why she brought him here on such short notice. In return a thrum of an instrument vibrated within the wave lengths in return, and then he quickly understood why. 

The Master.

The twisted, rotting, suffocating presence enveloped the wavelengths and twisted around them like gnarled roots taking in them both completely as always when they met, his aura was always so strong it made him tremble a little from just the mental presence alone. It would've been worse had it been face to face.

"Head to the far side of the Eastern Woods. Assist Hantengu in ceasing those rival clans' quarreling and dispose of the heads of both clans as warning. Their bickering has come to the point it's affecting progress in that area."

"It will be done."

STRUM!!

He was released right after allowing him to no longer rest as he forced himself to stand up and begin walking. He would have a long distance to cover in a short amount of time if he wanted to meet up with Hantengu before he did anything that could jeopardize the Master's wishes. After all, Hantengu was getting very old in age and it was already having a hard time perfecting his duties, which was why next year would be his last in servitude to the Master before he retired for good which was both good and bad. Good because he personally thought Hantengu was getting too old for this kind of work and should retire soon. Bad because he had no idea who would be taking Hantengu's place as Upper Moon Four and Upper Moon Five as Gyokko was also retiring soon. It was a rare event that two Upper Moons would be retiring so close to one another. Then again it was probably for the best as the two soon wouldn't be able to continue to do their duties for too long due to their ages. He was more worried about the new ones who'll be replacing them. They better not think of challenging him. He wasn't about to give up his rightful place without a fight.

It was a two day journey even with his speed. He had indeed caught up with the much older, skittish demon up the mountain. Almost tripped over him was more like it. No wonder- He found him in the most predictable spot. Cowering behind a tree, practically trembling like a leaf in the wild winds, and if it wasn't for his excellent hearing, he would never have heard his soft whimpers.

"Hantengu." As expected, the man gave a louder whimper and practically curled into the tree more if that was even physically possible. How pathetic. A Twelve Kizuki and yet he couldn't stop trembling at the sight of just a typical rival clan battle. "You've gotten here before I did. I'm surprised." He decided not to comment on how pathetic and cowardly he looked, he'd save it for after their mission here was done. "That must mean you know more about the situation. So tell me, what happened?"

Hantengu, Upper Moon Four, made some kind of noise that was a cross between a cat's garble and a sob before managing to point a shaking hand towards the darkened forest in front of them. "H-Horrible. J-Just terrifying. A massacre. A massacre. Barely anyone left alive from fighting. Many blood and bodies."

"I see."

Gold and blue eyes took a scan over to the darkness of the night. The thick trees were littered with something sparkling, like many strands of silk were woven through the many branches and leaves shining in the moonlight. But there was something carried over the wind now that he could smell it. Blood and death. There had indeed been a serious battle recently, but there was bare silence other than the cries of a few typical forest animals, Hantengu's whimpering, and the rustling of leaves against one another. It was unnaturally calm. He didn't like that. Just reminded him of standing in the eye of a tornado, just calm before the next aftermath.

"...When did the fighting cease?"

"J-Just a mere hour after I arrived. So scary! It was horribly violent."

He didn't doubt it was by how strong the smell was. "Which clans was it?"

"Two terrible predators. Spider and Mantis! T-Two clashes that were never supposed to meet."

Spider? He's heard a few things about that clan. Nothing good. Rumors about them sucking the lives out of humans who strayed into their webs. Made his job harder sometimes. "Hmph. I don't suppose you know what we're supposed to do then?" Hantengu gave a louder whimper. That was a yes in Hantengu-nese. "Then I'll give you the easier job. Head to the Mantis family and kill their head of house. It shouldn't be too hard for you since you're so good at sneaking up on people." That was one skill he'd commend Hantengu for at least. Not even he himself could tell he was there sometimes. 

The older demon just snapped to him worried. "Are you MMAAAAADDD!? By myself!? The Mantis all have terrifying claws!" He held out his own hands and pawed like a cat to demonstrate which made him roll his eyes.

"Their number have probably dwindled by the fight, and you're very strong. Would you rather deal with a Spider's web and poison?" Golden-blue eyes narrowed more. "Or would you rather risk the Master's anger for an incomplete job?" His pathetic choke answered him. "Then get going. I'll do the same for the Spider family."

Hantengu didn't argue beyond muttering something about it possibly going horribly wrong and whimpering. He shuffled rather quickly around the tree and scuttled off into the trees in a way that reminded himself of a lowly cockroach. The sight made him give a sigh and eye roll at his pitiful display but that didn't delay him from starting to walk off into the trees in the direction of all the sparkly looking strands of 'silk', except he knew better. These were really strands of silk or any kind of fabric, if his skin touched it he would no doubt feel the sickeningly stickiness of it. Spiders' webs. They were woven through all the trees and their branches, looped around their trunks and over many large bushes and giant rocks. It was made to trap others, their prey. It was what made this family dangerous for many generations, not just their deadly poison and the terrifying rumors surrounding them. That was most likely why himself and Hantengu had been the ones to be called to deal with this problem. The web of blood got thicker and thicker with each step he took. More and more webbing. Thicker and thicker like walls almost between the trees. He was perhaps an hour into just walking when he came across the first few casualties of this mess. The first few fallen demons just strewn across the ground in this place and that. Many spatters of red painting much of the earth, many trees forever decorated with claw marks, and many pieces of webs strewn all over the ground having been slashes right through by powerful claws. 

"I knew the Mantis was desperate for more territory, but I didn't expect them to make it a blood bath like this," he muttered to himself  stepping over the remains of someone with preying mantis features etched into his face and arms. There was a few remains with those features scattered about, all the others had pale features with scattered red dots all over their bodies. Spiders. "....There's more Spider Clan casualties than Mantis." He mused to himself. "That doesn't seem very promising. The entire clan might've been wiped out."

That might've been by the fighting ceased so quickly according to what Hantengu told him. That wouldn't be good. The Master would be very displeased if that was the case. The Spider clan was very vauluable for the spider silk and poison they provided him, if they were all gone, he might order them to wipe out the entire Mantis Clan in retaliation for this crime. Most of the spider clan remains were pure white so it was easy to tell them all apart, besides one deceased male. His whole body was that of a literal spider. He looked young too. Maybe just have became an adult. But he didn't see or hear the presence of any survivors. Which meant that they really were all wiped out or the survivors were deep in hiding, which meant he had to look harder to find the remainder of them if there was any. Just as he thought that a woman's high pitched scream pierced the air and echoed over the remains surrounding him. Ah. Right on time. He made sure to follow up on that scream rather quickly. It wasn't hard to locate the owner of that scream or the reason why she had been screaming so rather loudly.

It was just a couple yards to the west of him beyond some trees and nestled by what looked to be the remains of a once small house, obviously damaged from whatever fight had taken place. It's frame was badly splintered and there was a gaping hole in the side where a wall used to be. And the source of the noise was right in front of him.

A woman and a man. The man was as ugly as he looked big and hulking, and he looked different to most of the deceased he's seen. Instead of being almost totally pure white like the rest of his brethren, this giant man was almost entirely an ugly dully grey with duller red spots lining his arms. The only part of him that was white was the long white hair cascading from his head. Oh. But he could tell that this man was a member from the arachnid clan. His face of many eyes, fangs, and exposed pinchers told him exactly which family he belonged too. Another screech pierced through and the source was an older woman being dangled by her right arm above the ground. Now she looked exactly like the other deceased spiders. Except her pure white body was painted with red, whether that was her own blood or blood from the battle he didn't know. All he knew was that she was just dangling there in the much larger man's grip as he effortlessly held her up with one hand. Tears rolled down her face as a mix of pained screams and pleads for him to put her down left her mouth. Behind her was five smaller forms of various sizes, all of them as pale as her with some kind of red spotted all over their own bodies. They all huddled together far from the two of the adults in one mass of shivering. Children. 

A popping of bones echoed from angered fists balled was the only warning sound before a moment later there was no arms left to dangle the woman by. With a thud she fell too the ground and the hulking form was staggered back in sudden pain and surprise at the loss of his appendage. 

"You must be the head of the family. You're powerful aura tells me that much." What he was met with was a hiss from the taller figure in what was supposed to be threatening tones, but to him it might as well have just been a harmless pup's bark. "Finding you was much easier than I thought. I guess you helped in that regard."

"SSStay away from my family!"

"Family? ...So this is your family?" For a brief moment he turned back to just glance at the mass of shivering people behind him. The woman, whomever she may be, had wriggled her way out of the slaughtered arm's grip and scrambled away on hands and knees by now. "...I'm going to assume that woman is your wife then." A snap back to the hulking figure. "You know, a man should never be so cruel to his wife. Especially one that blessed you with many beautiful children, assuming that you are they're father and mother."

A long deep hiss was delivered from the lumbering giant. "Leave."

"I don't think I will. You seem eager to fight someone, so I will take that place whether you wish it or not. I don't think fighting a weakened woman would be a good battle anyways. So let us get this pointless matter settled." A blue tipped hand was gestured to him. "I'll even be generous and let you have the first move. That should be fair to you."

It in fact did not take very long for the fight to end if he could even could call it that. The lumbering idiot like expected struck out with his one remaining arm and he gave a kick, a powerful kick that dislodged the taller man's head off with a sickening crack an off it flew somewhere in the darkness. It was over. The body fell with it's own sick down at his feet and it gave him a semi-satisfied feeling knowing he could get this job done so quickly. Although the display might've been a bit much for the ones behind him. Speaking of which- The woman was crying lightly still, but gasped and looked up at approaching feet before a being with golden-blue eyes knelt down and peered at her.

"Woman. Are these your children?"

A terrified, stuttered grunt. "Yes."

"I see. ...Tell me, did anyone else survive?"

Two grunts and a whine. "I don't know."

"Ah..." Glancing back to the children, there was in deed five. Two girls and three boys. The oldest looked no older than thirteen, and the youngest looked no younger than six. "...Do you know who I am?"

A grunt. "Yes."

"Good. Then consider this an order from your superior. Take all your children and head north east from here towards the Eastern Mountain Border, it's a five day travel on foot. Within the Yokai Forest resides the domain of Lower Moon Six at Tsuzumi Mansion. Ask him for shelter and you shall get it from him. He's a kind man and he won't turn you away. Now gather your children and leave immediately. You'll need the head start."

He left her and the children at that. It would be bad to not look around before he left, just to be sure. A careful and thorough search through the territory turned up a few survivors. Some looked ok enough to live some looked like they wouldn't last beyond the night. Shame. The woman and children were gone when he again passed through the area. Good. She took the chance and fled with her family. Only more misfortune would've met them if they stayed here. Hantengu was found later literally crawling his way out of the woods by the time dawn rose around. He didn't think it would take that long for him to take care of one person.

"Have you done your end of the task?"

"It was horrible. Horrible! All those people thinking it was my fault he died! It was not me, it was not me! My hands were not my own! You believe me..don't you?"

"That is a yes then. Good. You may go then. I shall inform the Master his mission is complete."

Hantengu was all but happy to leave that part to Akaza, and quickly take his leave. No doubt back home to his sons who all enabled his behavior. Sigh. He would steer clear of their drama however. He was not in the mood, especially when he had to be the one who'd tell the master. He was then tasked with another thing.

"Take a survey of the aftermath to send to the Record Keeper, and bury the bodies."

In other words, find out who was dead and their names and ages to send to Kyogai and then bury all the dead. Sigh. This would certainly take a while and he wasn't wrong. He had to practically threaten the leftover survivors into identifying the deceased and to get the information he needed to send to Lower Moon Six, and bury the large amount of casualties left everywhere. It took him quite a while, but like with everything else he was tasked with, he made sure it was completed no matter how long it took. The Master seemed pleased with his work and it left him to do his regular tasks for the last few remaining months of that year, and then came the one month he despised more than any other. January was always a hard month for him. It was hard sometimes to keep his kind in line when so many men thought human women would be easy prey during that month and he'd be dammed if he let any poor human woman fall into their grasps that easily! In fact it wasn't even until that hard month was over that he heard from his Master again just shortly after Enmu had delivered him some blood. 

STRUM!!

It didn't surprise him too much that he was being tasked with something yet again once he was contacted by Nakime, but he was astonished at the order he was given next.

"Last year Lower Moon Six received survivors of the Spider Clan. You are to take them all to Upper Moon Two are servants. Both of your fellow moons have already been notified of your arrival in advance."

DOUMA!? That womanizing, empty shelled pervert!? His Master wanted him to take a widow and her children to that dammed fool as servants for him and his cult!? ....He would not fight against his Master's final say on the matter, but he deeply expressed his anger at the situation he found himself in. Douma needed more servants like he needed an extra useless tail! However like with every other order, he would make sure to carry it out. It took him a few days to travel to his destination, a bit longer because he took a small detour to a nearby demon settlement to buy a pair of bags of konpeito candy for the young ones. No child should have to be moved about like this especially to the servitude of someone like Douma. He was just glad the family had survived the travel over to Kyogai's home. The Tsuzumi Mansion wasn't too hard for him to find, he had been there before on the rare occasion he was needed in this area. So he was inspecting the reaction of the lady servant when she opened the door to answer his knocking and bowed.

"Lord Akaza. Welcome. We've been expecting you. Would you like a meal after your long journey?"

He shook his head no. "No. I would rather leave as soon as possible. The Spider Mother and her children, where are they?"

"Oh, yes. The boys are already gathered by My Lord's study. The rest of the family is in the garden I heard. Shall I fetch them for you?"

"No. I'd rather have you tell Kyogai I'm here...And please, give the children this. They'll like it." He then offered her one of the two bags before she scurried on her way. 

He would rather have them looked over and had a good meal before he made them leave with him, they would need the strength for the long distance. He knew where the garden was so he went straight there. Althought he wasn't ready for what he would see and smell. He was hit with a wave of...amaryllis blooms?? That was strange. He'd only smelt that flower once, a long time ago when his Master took an interest in foreign floral for scientific reasons. He liked the flower, not because of it's looks but what it symbolized. Strength. He found it so amusing that something as simple as a flower could be strong to survive the harsh cold of winter to bloom in spring. So it was curious as he approached the garden, perhaps Kyogai had added a new addition to his garden. 

"OW!"

"Hold still so I can bandage it for you. Then you can finish the poem you were reading."

The smell had suddenly gotten very stronger with the new voices coming from just down the hall. Now where was that coming from? He walked further approaching the door to the outside of the garden. 

"Spring is a season that radiates warmth, new beginnings, and positive energy. It denotes a calm and peaceful atmosphere with a clear blue sky. The days are radiant, lovely, and peaceful with a golden sun. When the land wakes up it becomes a good mother to all, delivering food and giving life to the darkness-"

"What does this word mean?"

"Oh! Atmosphere? That's just another name for the heavens."

"And this word?"

He finally got to the doorway and paused, incredibly surprised at what he saw. IT WAS A HUMAN!!

"That's radiant. It's just another way of saying something is wonderful or beautiful or the like. Like you. And you."

"Shall I continue reading?"

"Yes!" "Please do!"

He couldn't believe what he was seeing! It was an honest to gods human sitting in the middle of  the garden, a giant book in her lap and in front of her was four demons. Three of which were pale white, and one had four arms and eyes. What was a human doing here of all places? Weren't they supposed to be in one of the assigned districts the Master put aside for them? 

"The days of long cold winters sleep has risen to make way to other corners of the lands for his sisters Spring and Summer to come take his place, and embrace us all in the treasures they bring. The strength-....Oh."

"What is it?"

He watched as the human woman flipped through a few pages before she held up the book to the demon with four arms. "That's where all the stories and poems end. I guess whoever was writing in it didn't get to finish it yet. There's nothing else to read yet."

"Aw!" "Come on!"

"Don't be like that! She can't help it if the rest wasn't written."

It seemed he was finally noticed, because the oldest pale demon turned to look at him, and paused at what she saw. Ah. She must've recognized him from last year. Oh well, since he was caught he might as well make himself known. So he stepped on down to the ground and began approaching them. Slowly, after all he didn't want to startle them.

"Well what would you say would finish that sentence about strength, Madam Y/n?"

"Strength!" His voice made everyone jump and turn their heads to his approaching form, immediately the two children fled to their mother's side. "Mental, physical, emotional, and raw. Strength keeps you going when you feel you can go on no more." He stopped just a few yards away and held up a hand before with a popping of bones it snapped inhumanly fast into a tight fist. "If you're wondering if you're strong, the answer is always yes. Don't underestimate the silent strength that you don't even know you possess."

They all eyed him wearily or shocked from his entrance but it was the human that spoke first. "That..was a very lovely analogy of the term of strength." 

"I thank you," he thanked her back with a small bow of his head smiling wider. He also lowered his first noticing her purple eyes kept glancing at it wearily, she seemed relieved when he lowered it. "I pride myself on knowing all about strength no matter what definition of it is used, so I am glad someone thinks I do well to know it."

She nodded back to him but rose her brow further. "I hope you don't mind me asking this, but who are you? I've never seen you before and I would've remembered seeing someone with your unique features in the mansion."

He chuckled a little bit. No. Suppose she didn't know who he was. Understandable. "I'll take that as a compliment.'' Pressing a hand to his chest, he bowed from the waist slightly. "I am Akaza, Upper Moon Three of the Twelve Kizuki. And you are a human who smells of amaryllis blooms. Those flowers symbolizes strength, although I have only seen them once when my Master was trading botany many years ago. Nonetheless, I find them appealing. You have very wise selections in perfume," He complimented her with a smile. He was honestly surprised Kyogai allowed anyone to wear perfume here considering his hatred for it.

"L-LORD AKAZA!! F-FORGIVE ME!!" The four armed demon, Kyogai's healer if he remembered right, suddenly threw herself in a deep bow before him. "I-IF I WOULD'VE KNOWN Y-Y-YOU'D BE COMING TODAY I WOULD'VE GATHERED A LUNCH FROM THE KITCHEN FOR YOU!!," she practically shouted in both fear and nerves and she dug her forehead deep into the grass below. "PLEASE FORGIVE ME!!"

Oh dear. He hated when something like this happened. Not that he didn't mind the respect, but he didn't want a poor woman to feel threatened to treat him like this in his presence. In response he approached her slowly and carefully as to not make her feel anymore uncomfortable than she already was, kneeling down to outstretched a hand to her in assurance. What he didn't expect was for a blur of someone's hand to harshly smack his away and for the human to throw herself over the female demon with a protective stance and scowl to her face. THE HUMAN!? He was caught so off guard that he was stunned into silence for a good while

"Ok! Listen you!" She pointed right at his face making his eyes cross to look at her hand. "I don't care what moon phase you claim to be! I have been both insulted, and scared by two of you already!! And don't get me started on what a pervert that one man came off as! I don't care if you're offended or not!! YOU KEEP YOUR HANDS OFF ERI!!"

.....Wait.

What?

He paused as the words sunk into his skull. She thought...he was going to HARM the other woman? She said her name was 'Eri' right? What the hell gave off THAT impression!? He didn't even make any threatening gestures-...Wait! Did she say other moons did something to her!? WHO!? WHY!? Was that the reason she was so hostile to him just now? Because she thought he was going to do something unspeakable to Eri? That was horrible! This is exactly what he works so hard to avoid! He may not be perfect but he wasn't a monster! He'd better correct this now before it snowballed into something he really could have a headache with, especially amongst humans.

"I wasn't going to harm her."

"...What?"

"I wasn't going to harm her," he repeated again. "I'd NEVER harm a woman. Especially one much weaker than myself and unarmed."

"I-" She blinked. "Then what were you-"

"I simply wanted her to stop kneeling before me. She has no need to and I don't want her too." She turned silent when he slowly turned back to Eri whome remained still. Hopefully that explained his actions. "Eri is it now? Kyogai has mentioned you as a healer correct? Can you please do a request for me?"

"O-Of course!" The human yelped back as Eri suddenly sat up immediately with a strained smile on her face. "W-What ever my lords need, I'll be s-s-sure to deliver!"

Akaza smiled happily at her. "That's wonderful! I thank you for your assistance. I heard you are a healer, so I don't suppose you will look over the dear woman and her children before I take them away from here would you?"

She immediately nodded. "Of course, My Lord! I can do that easily!"

"Then it's settled! Oh! That reminds me.'' He couldn't forget while he was here. He turned to smile at the Mother Spider who still blinked surprised as two of her children cowered at her sides. The poor things. Hopeful to remain as non-threatening as possible, he remained on his knees and walked on them towards her a bit. He must've looked silly, but that was the point wasn't it? With a smile a hand reached to his side and promptly produced the second bag he had brought with him. "Here. I brought you and your children a gift." The woman blinked at the bad held up to her. His smile faltered a bit. "...Do you not remember who I am?"

She blinked back to him. "....I do remember. You are the man who spared me my fate. I don't I've ever thanked you."

"Please don't bow!" he quickly held up a hand before she could even start doing that. "There's no need to thank me. I'm just happy you and all your children were able to make it safely out."

"...You would be wrong about that. Not all of my children are here with me."

That made him raise a brow. "Did you lose some on the way here? If you did, I'll go look for them immediately. They might be close by."

"I would prefer it if you didn't." The surprise on his face must've shown because she explained further. "The two who are not with me are my oldest sons. One is dead."

"A-Are you sure?"

"Yes. I saw him get killed last year during the battle. I have no idea if my second son is dead, and frankly I would not care if he was. He may have been very young, but he was a cruel boy. He reminds me too much of his father."

Akaza blinked at the words that came from her mouth. How could a mother say something like that about her son? Then again he had no idea what her situation was like. "How old is he?"

"About as old as my daughters."

About as old as these girls were huh? "I did not see anyone like that amongst the survivors or the dead for that matter. If he was taken hostage by the Mantis, I would've known by now."

"Then he is either in hiding where not even you know where he is or he ran away. Either way, I cannot be concerned about him no longer. I have my other children as priority as their mother."

"...What was his name? Maybe if I search there once more I can find him."

"His name is Rui. But I beg you, if you find him...Don't bring him to me." He did not answer to that and instead watched as she accepted the bag from him finally and open it to look at the contents inside. "...Is this...candy?"

"Konpeito candy," he confirmed with a nod. "It's for your little ones. I figured after such a scay experience, they could use something sweet in their life. But I must ask, do you know why I'm here?"

She nodded sadly. "Yes. I-It was explained to me by the lord of the mansion. To think to be servants of an Upper Moon."

"I don't like it anymore than you. Trust me. But I can promise your children will be safer there than anywhere else. There's plenty of tutors for all children human or demon, and much more security. Before we go, I want you to have a good meal and have your children see the healer-"

CRUNCH!!

?? Both looked over to the two small girls, already digging their way into the candy and was eating it rather happily by the looks of it. ....He let out a small chuckle and smiled. At least someone seemed happy right now.

"...Are you sure all that sugar won't come back to haunt us?," she asked with a worried look.

"Do not worry," Akaza assured her, "I did not get a lot, and the travel to your new home will burn off any sugar they consume. However I want to get you all a good meal before we leave. You'll need the strength for the long journey, especially your beautiful little ones. I shall bring some out to you all...And while I shall be inside..." There was a popping of bones as his hands dug into fists on his legs and a small vein appeared on his head as he turned to he human and Eri, despite his sweet smile and calm tone not changing he felt himself getting angry at the situation at hand. "I believe you mentioned before some of my fellow ranks being cruel to you, causing you to lash out at me earlier. I apologize on their behalf. Would they happen to be the two that's currently inside?"

She blinked. "You mean Kyogai and Kaigaku? Oh no. Not Kyogai!" She explained holding up her hands. No. He didn't think Kyogai would be the one. "He's been nothing but polite and kind to everyone I've seen, including myself." Yep. He suspected that much.  "Kaigaku however has been rather rude." She frowned, and he felt an instant vein pop on his forehead. "He's very difficult like a spoiled child."

Kaigaku huh?.....Inhale-

THAT LITTLE SHIT WAS DEAD.

....He inhaled and let out a sweet chuckle. "That sounds like him alright. But I'm sure he'll cause you no more problems! He's a quick learner despite his temper. ....Excuse me, Ladies." He slowly stood before bowing to all of them still smiling despite the anger clearly displayed on himself. "I shall return with some food shortly. After they have eaten and have been looked over I'll take them. Please pardon me."

He rather stiffly and quickly through the garden back into the mansion and with deepening anger marched straight to where he sensed Kyogai was. He knew that little shit couldn't have been far behind, and he was right. He found the two lower moons talking in a hallway. Kyogai looked both annoyed and tired about whatever Kaigaku was spouting at him but froze upon seeing the powerful form of Upper Three approaching.

"Kaigaku!" The ass practically squealed like a pig and snapped around to him wide eyed in fright. "It's been a while since we've last spoken to one another. Come here and tell me how exactly you've been interacting with that human girl!"

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

"CRAP!!"

You ignored whatever Eri yelled after you as you just jumped up and RAN. Sprinting back across the soft grass and leaping into the mansion like another demon was chasing after your soul. This was bad. This was bad! THIS WAS VERY VERY BAD!! You hadn't meant to send a full beating after Kaigaku! Sure he was a right old pig's arse and he was pretty rude and annoying, but that didn't warrant a beating from a powerful beating! At least in your opinion it didn't. With wide eyes and heart beating, you charged down through the mansion's hallways back up towards the kitchen. Just past the kitchen was Kaigaku's room so that's the first place anyone would look for him. Other servants either jumped out of the way or looked confused as you ran past, breathing heavily as you got closer and closer, until with one last turn you got there. The hallway yours and Kaigaku's rooms were stationed in. Footsteps echoing throughout the hall, you immediately ran to the sliding door leading into Kaigaku's room and just threw the door open with a loud slam. Kaigaku would probably yell at you later, but you'd rather have him yell at you then become a puddle on the floor. 

"Kaigaku!!"

Empty. The entire room was empty save for a futon in one corner and a few objects that looked like they belonged in a blacksmith's workshop. Maybe for Kaigaku's sword? But said demon wasn't there. It made your stomach sink and fill with dread. He wasn't here! Why wasn't he here!? 

"Mistress?" You practically jumped, snapping around to the voice whom just so happened to be a random servant girl whom blinked at you. "Are you quite alright? You look pale."

"Kaigaku! Where is he!?," you practically shouted at her in an almost panic making her lean away.

"I-...H-He's with Lord Kyogai in his main study!"

''Where is that!?"

"J-Just back up the hallway near the baths. W-Why? What's-"

You didn't give her time to answer as you turned and already started running back towards the way you came, footsteps echoing through the halls behind you. By the baths. That was just a left turn by the kitchen and deeper into the mansion, so back up the hall you ran and all the way to the kitchen, before taking a turn left nearly slipping in the process but not quite as you rounded a sharp corner and nearly knocked over a servant carrying a tray of food fresh from the kitchen. You swore if Kaigaku wasn't already dead, you were going to KILL HIM YOURSELF!! With a small boost in your speed, you ran past others faster and faster until you were nearing the end of the hallway leading to two other different halls-

"P-PUT ME THE FUCK DOWN!"

"I don't think I'm finished telling how to....'correctly greet a woman'."

Right turn it was! You rounded the corner, and it was surprising that your boots didn't leave skid marks against the perfectly polished floors from how quick you slid to a stop to stare at the sight before you. Kaigaku was there alright. As pale as a ghost, wide eyed as an owl, and being held up by the back of his outer coat by a VERY annoyed looking Akaza who strained a wide smile at him. Kyogai silent stood adjacent to Akaza and just seemed to be unsure of what to do. Akaza balled a fist raising it slightly to the frozen, smaller demon in his hold. Your purple eyes shrank-

"PUT. HIM. DOWN!!"

Akaza turned his head just as a small blur came charging forward and threw it's leg back. Of course he was easily able to dodge it easily, by stepping back just as the human's leg swung through midair missing the chance to kick his leg from under him, but it was a surprise attack. On him. By a woman. By a HUMAN woman. It's was shocking enough to get him to release Kaigaku who collapsed in a heap with a thud at his feet. And stark silence came from all three of the demons as a much smaller human woman had the adacity to scowl up at them (or more specifically Akaza-).

"What is your problem!? Don't just attack someone!"

Akaza blinked back at your yell at him and Kaigaku hissed from your feet. "Don't pity me! I don't need your help- AH!"

You pushed him back down with a shove from your foot. "Don't make me regret saving you! Just consider us even now from you saving me."

".....Saving you?"

You snapped back to Akaza making him blink. "That's right. He saved me from being kidnapped by a more terrible demon weeks ago, so I decided to return the favor."

....Akaza slowly blinked. "...Kaigaku?" He turned to the hissing black haired demon on the floor, by now he sat back up and rubbed his head. "Saved you?'' He turned back to you slowly...before shaking his head and frowning. "Alright. What ulterior motive do you have? No one like you just saves someone without expecting or planning something."

"The only thing I'm 'planning' on doing with her is getting her home once she's healed." By now Kaigaku had the gull to stand up and start fixing himself with a hiss at Akaza, who in turn delivered a glare of his own. Once his coat was comfortably adjusted back on his shoulders, he looked at you and your own frown...before blinking when he took a step closer to you and gave an almost smug look to Akaza. ...Before saying something in that weird grunt-click-whistle language that you couldn't understand, so you just ended up giving the pig's arse a confused look.

Akaza and Kyogai however gained surprised look. "WHAT!?" Kyogai flinched as Akaza snapped his angry gaze to him and held up his hands as Akaza demanded, "YOU BETTER TELL ME WHAT'S GOING ON AROUND HERE!! WHAT DOES HE MEAN SHE NEEDS TO HEAL!? AND HOW DID SHE COME TO BE HERE ANYWAYS!?"

"I-I can explain!,"Kyogai stuttered and, despite being much taller than Akaza, took a step back as the livid pink haired man fully turned his body to him slowly. Menacingly. It was done in such a way that made yourself give pause. It reminded you of someone. A really angry someone, and how he would always have this way of making everyone fall silent with just a look. 

Bones crackled as two fists were tightly clenched, dangerously. It made Kyogai's eyes snap to them in an instant. Viens popped up all along the body that was threatening to deliver punishment. 

A vision of yelling flashed before your eyes. Many crying faces cowering from Sanemi whenever he 'trained' someone or even took his bad days out on someone. Sometimes even throwing hands-

"STOP!!"

Akaza froze. Kaigaku froze. Kyogai's jaw dropped. A hand had grabbed Akaza's fist. A book fell down to the ground with a thud, it's pages falling open. Another, gentler hand wrapped daring to wrap around half way up his arm and daring to pull his arm against the warm body of someone else.

"Will you please just listen to what I have to say?'' It wasn't a demand leaving your lips, but a beg as you pulled his arm closer to you body which caught the taller demon off guard further. Well..he didn't move after a few silent tense minutes, just wide eyed staring at Kyogai, so you continued. "It's my fault I got hurt!" Akaza finally looked at you. Turning his head so stiffly, it freaked you out, expecting his bones to make more cracking sounds. ..Maybe you should've thought this through before throwing yourself at a tiger's feet, but it was too late to back out now. Steeling your nerves, you gulped down the lump in your throat, and continued. "It's my fault I got lost on the mountain. If Kaigaku hadn't stopped someone from kidnapping me, I would've been doomed to a terrible life."...Akaza slowly, SLOWLY turned his head to Kaigaku who froze and let his ears fall. Oh no. You weren't getting his attention now- "A-An-...A-And it's my fault I Kyogai's home was damaged. I shouldn't have broken into someone's home! I know it was wrong! But if he didn't take me in, I wouldn't have made it! It's thanks to both of them that I'm still alive." Akaza S L O W L Y looked too Kyogai whom felt a bead of sweat roll down his own face. "Don't you see? I would have DIED if it wasn't for them! They didn't have to help me. Kaigaku could've walked away from a random person trying to get a wife, or Kyogai could've just rightfully thrown me out but they didn't. They showed me kindness and saved me with that, and I'm very grateful to both of them. Even if Kaigaku's rude-" Kaigaku shot you a frown. "-I'd rather not see someone like him be punished for essentially helping me. So please...Akaza." 

Akaza felt himself shiver down his spine as you gently tugged his arm, making him finally look to you. And your pretty purple eyes. And the helpless way you were staring at him..Andthe way your hair framed your cute face- ...A similar look to a face he once knew a long, long time ago. And the sweet scent of amaryllis blooms coming off her was...

BU-BUMP!

Her lovely eyes blinked as his free hand shakingly left his chest to gently put over your own hand. "T-Tell me...What was your name, Ma'am?"

"....Did you just fucking stutter-"

"Y/n!," you said a bit louder than normal to hopefully drown out what Kaigaku said, and you smiled at him. "My name is Y/n. And I ask you to please do you duties so that poor mother and her children can remain safe. They're a good family, so I would be sad to see anything horrible happen to them."

He instantly nodded. "I will." His hand squeezed yours a bit but in a gently way. "I promise you I will, and I shall do that now." With a final pat to your hand, Akaza turned to Kyogai who still stared wide eyed. "I'd like for your healer to look over the mother and her children, and for you to feed them before we leave." His eyes narrowed slightly. "You WILL also tell me the entire situation about how Madam Y/n came to be here before I leave. I WILL know who is responsible for this and make sure she will not be in anymore harm. Not because I don't trust your abilities," he clarified, -because if I didn't, I wouldn't have trusted you with the survivors from the mountains. I just want to be sure she'll be in the best hands possible." He then turned back to you with a happy smile and patted your hand. "Please excuse me, Miss Y/n. I must take my leave." You blinked as he calmly released himself from your grasp before turning to Kyogai. "Follow me." And giving you a smile, he left starting towards the kitchen but not before shooting Kaigaku a glare.

Kyogai however took a moment, still staring wide eyed at you. Opening his mouth-

"KYOGAI!!"

"A-AH! Y-Yes! I am coming." Shaking his head again, he made to step around you and follow Akaza who's eyes bore into him from the other end of the hall-

And that's when both a thought and realization struck you over the head like a large stone. Immediately your eyes went wide, snapping to the book on the floor (in your rush you had forgotten to leave it behind) and then to Kyogai who was stepping away-

KYOGAI WRITES!!

"Kyogai!" Said demon stopped upon hearing your voice and of course, turned to see what you wanted raising a brow. A hand of yours snatched up the incomplete book off the floor and with a few steps, you stopped in front of him before holding out said book causing a look of surprise to come over his face. "This is your book. Isn't it?"

The look of absolute surprise on his face told you all you needed to know before he sputtered out a reply. "I-...W-W-What!? I mean- Uh-" Blue and red eyes quickly glanced again and again between you and the book. "H-How did you-"

"You asked me to give it back once I was done with it, insinuating that it was yours." You said, putting two and two together. "And you're the only one I know who writes. I-...I-I really like this. A lot." A hand carefully patted the cover of the book, glad that it wasn't damaged in the fall it took. With a wide smile you held it back to him and bowed. "I was honored to be able to read this beautiful writing. I'd like it if you continued it."

You didn't hear him say anything, but you felt him take the book from your hands. Head remaining bowed, your hands returned to your sides in the silence. It was only when you heard paper lightly shuffling did you look up and spotted through your hair, Kyogai holding the book open in one hand as he carefully flipped through the pages with surprise on his face.

"The pages are unharmed. Well taken cared of." It was only then he looked back to you for a moment, before closing the book with a neutral look. "We will talk about this later. For now I have important work to do."

Without even so much as a good bye, he turned and began walking off after Akaza, holding the book up to press against his chest and mumbling things you didn't hear.

"She liked it....She thinks it's ..beautiful?"

A warm feeling bloomed from his chest as it reached his face strong enough to make it bright red.

BU-DUMPBU-DUMPBU-DUMP-

A hand snapped up to cover his mouth, his heart hammering away.

Oh no...Oh NONONONONONONO! A demon's heart NEVER BEATS!! The heart was a useless organ to demons. They didn't need it to live like other living creatures.Hell. Their hearts could be ripped out and it'd wouldn't affect them in the slightest. But there was only ONE reason a demon's heart would ever beat. When it discovered one emotion when a demon would meet that missing piece of their puzzle. 

BUMPBUMPBUMPBUMP-

"....This....has just made things much more complicated..."

Although little did he know that he was not the only one with pumping hearts as Akaza's hand nearly made his chest bleed from how much his fingers dug into the place over his heart. And a black haired demon continued to stare at you as you turned around to Kaigaku and tilted your head in genuine worry at him.

"Akaza didn't hurt you, did he?"

BU-DUM!!

Kaigaki shrunk into his coat a bit as your hand reached out and gently grabbed his face making him freeze as you made him turn his head this way and that to inspect for damage, at least his cut was healed now. 

"Nothing broken?....Kaigaku?"

BUMPBUMPBUMP-

".....Fuck-"