#Army of Two Revise AU

[artemisdesari-blog]

The trouble with writing a long AU is sometimes it sparks ideas for others based off narrative choices. In this case; what would have happened if the deal between Dooku and Fett in Careless To Let It Fall had been allowed to happen.

After killing Komari, Fett encounters Dooku who offers him the job of being the progenitor and trainer of an army of clones. So good, so canon. In Careless this is expanded on as a deal where two hundred thousand men are grown and trained purely for the purpose of overthrowing the Republic Senate who are responsible for, among many things, supporting the New Mandalorian's take over of Mandalore (leading to something of a cultural genocide) and the mission to Galidraan where Dooku was given all the wrong information as part of a Death Watch trap, but Jango shot first. Obviously there are more issues than that, and Jango is in full on revenge and not thinking clearly mode, but that's the base of it. As Jango’s payment for helping the Jedi effectively overthrow the Senate (cesspool of corruption that it is) Jango will be given fifty thousand of those men to use to wipe out any Death Watch in hiding and take back Mandalore. Obviously, neither Dooku nor Jango mean to keep their end of the deal. Dooku knows Palpatine has bigger plans and will work on Jango as much as possible to make a larger army and Jango intends to just abscond with every clone when the time comes and wipe out any Jedi who come for them.

This where Careless and whatever this AU is would diverge. In Careless Qui-Gon Jinn lives, Obi-Wan goes off to do his own thing, and Fett gets aggressively mind wiped and controlled by Dooku and Sidious so that he truly becomes the major asshole we all love. There's other stuff, but that hasn't been revealed yet even though I'm at chapter 100.

In this universe, Qui-Gon would die and the Trade Federation, humiliated by how Sidious used them, would find a way to off the Chancellor of the Republic as a final fuck you. Maybe Palpatine’s death is just an accident. Either way, Sidious is out of the picture but the clones are already in production and the Senate is still a total cesspool of corruption and arrogance and greed. Without Sidious to help facilitate the plan of playing one side of a conflict against the other, Dooku has to rethink and do it fast. He rejoins the order (or stays, some agree he left before Qui-Gon died and just stopped by to visit, others think it was what caused him to leave and I am too tired and lazy to check which is correct), forms a relationship with Obi-Wan even though he doesn’t bring him into the plan because he can tell Obi doesn't have time due to Anakin’s everything, because I am trash for Grandpa Dooku stuff, and begins to quietly convince younger and more idealistic Jedi that the Senate needs an overhaul, usually approaching them after missions gone wrong, while periodically checking in on Jango and the clones.

All on Kamino appears to be going according to the revised plan, except its actually going according to Jango’s plan. Jango pulls in the trainers and spends a couple of years weeding out the ones he can't actually trust as much as he hoped while quietly adopting a few dozen clones, including many fan faves. Other trainers adopt other clones, those clones adopt brothers, they basically become a group of clans with Jango as their Mand'alor. Dooku’s Jedi come for their one hundred and fifty thousand soldiers who will help them overturn the Senate and the clones turn on the Jedi, capture them, and head off to Mandalore to take what Jango has promised them with Fett as their leader and Cody as his right hand. Predictably, Obi-Wan is sent to Mandalore to deal with the fall out while the rest of the Jedi Council try to work out what the actual fuck happened and how Dooku managed it.

In all likelihood this would result in the Jedi leaving the Republic because the fact that Dooku managed to draw a good number of them into the mess would catch attention and make things very difficult. We would probably end up with some Codywan (because this is me) but that would probably only be implied at the end rather than the focus.

But, yes, the danger of long form AUs and the ideas that narrative choices spark. Another one for the maybe some day pile.

[apollosgiftofprophecy]

OFFICIAL FANFIC LIST (as of now)

Shattered Minds - the Orion Myth

When the Day Met the Night - Copollo first meeting

Bloody Memories - Hyacinthus ghost fic

Lamentation of a Sister - Secrets Outtake

Swarms & Swears - knowledge n wisdom bromance

Deals With the Damned Never Go As Planned - The Titan Army makes a deal with three nasty emperors

A Tale of Two Sisters - MCs: Leto & Asteria. Guest Starring: Lelantos, Phoebe, Perses, Aura, Zeus, & Hera

A Titan's Demise - 5 times Apollo interacted with Helios during Roman times, and 1 time he couldn't :')

Hunger Games AU Part 1 starts posting March 15

Silence is Death - Marsyas!!!! (Will be posted on April 2nd!)

Sunkissed - Apollo's first boyfriend (Branchus <3)

From Dusk to Dawn - TTC via Apollo POV

Maddening, In All Forms - Koios attempts to bust himself out of prison. Goes about as well as you'd expect.

Revise past fanfics/post next poll

[sotwk]

Whag do you think about Lord of The Rings: The rings of power?

Did you watched it? If not, why? If yes, why?

Oooh! A bit of a controversial question, but one that I am happy to finally be asked, so I can give my thoughts and opinions about it. Thank you for the Ask, @estethell!!

My Thoughts on "The Rings of Power"

When I heard a new Tolkien/Middle-earth series was coming out, I was super excited about it. I watched the first two episodes the very evening it came out on Amazon. My excitement was so contagious, I even got my husband (who wouldn't know an elf from a dwarf) to sit down and watch it with me for like 5 whole minutes.

Now, the truth: my initial excitement about the series quickly dropped about four episodes in. The storyline and characterizations just weren't really what I expected (actually, I'm not even sure what my expectations were, except that they were high), and so my interest dwindled in my disappointment.

However, a few weeks later, after all the episodes had been released, I sat back down to finish the series, and my impressions of it improved overall.

I wouldn't say I love Rings of Power, but there are enough things about it that I liked and enjoyed to be able to engage with others who do love it. It's kind of like the folks who didn't like The Hobbit movies, but are able to gush over Lee Pace's Thranduil anyway.

Stuff in Rings of Power that I liked:

Liked BEST: Young Elrond, and the way he was portrayed as such a wise and kind lord by Robert Aramayo (so handsomely elf-y!).

A Close Second: Durin IV and Disa. What a wonderful couple that brought just the right amount of comic relief.

The chance to see Khazad-dum in its glory.

Poppy Proudfellow. We all need a friend like her.

The music/soundtrack, ESPECIALLY the song "This Wandering Day" Poppy sang--I literally cried when she sang it.

Arondir. He was a such sweetheart and I hope he comes back next season.

Adar. The take on orcs being corrupted elves is one I embrace.

Elendil and Isildur. Excellent acting on Lloyd Owen's part, and I liked Maxim Baldry's earnestness.

Halbrand. I'll admit, I wasn't too impressed or happy with the revelation of him as Sauron, but the character alone as it stands was actually very good, and very well portrayed by Charlie Vickers.

Stuff I didn't like so much (so probably don't ask me about them 'cause I prefer not to dwell on critiques):

Short-haired elves. Just not a fan, purely a preference thing.

Galadriel being short. This is petty and minor, but for some reason, even though Morfydd Clark did a fine job, it bugged me to see Galadriel looking UP at mortal men.

Celebrimbor cast as an older man. So sorry, Charles Edwards is a lovely actor, but this was far from what I had in mind for the character.

Eärien. Normally I will give OCs a chance, but I did not like this one. Felt really unnecessary, and the screen time should have been given to Anárion, wherever he might be.

The poor armor design and nerfing of the Numenorean army.

Portrayal of the Gwaith-i-Mírdain. Again, I expected much more.

The origin story of mithril. Such a strange choice.

WAY, WAAAAAAY too much CGI. Why is everything so shiny??

Overall low/poor production value. But honestly, there is never gonna be another production like Peter Jackson's trilogy. It's sad, but filmmakers just don't do that anymore. I hope someone proves me wrong.

I remain conflicted about the following:

The Haladriel ship. I'm a Celeborn fan (I have some lovely HCs about him and his ties to Thranduil), and I ship Galadriel with him. However, the way Halbrand looks at Galadriel just does something to me, so even though I'm not sold, my mind is open to it as an AU. I blame Charlie Vickers being such a charming rogue.

The Elf-Human love story. Arondir and Bronwynn were sweet and convincing, and I did swoon for them, but... this is just so overdone already. Couldn't we have just featured other kinds of relationships?

The revised origin of Gandalf. I kind of get it, and I appreciate the relationship between him and the Hobbit progenitors... but it's kind of also weird.

Halbrand as Sauron. I plan on withholding judgement until I see where they are going with this in Season 2.

Overall Rating and Conclusion:

62% fresh SotWK Tomato Rating

I choose to just be HAPPY and GRATEFUL that we have another cinematic adaptation to the Tolkien fandom, however flawed it might be.

Definitely looking forward to Season 2 and I will definitely watch it.

Positive vibes ONLY, please! I am happy to publicly post and gush with others about the good points of RoP. But I will not have public bashing of things other fans might love and enjoy. I am very against crapping on the things others love, even if I might hate them myself.

If anyone wants to discuss the things I dislike about RoP, we can do it via DM or private Asks.

Everyone has a right to enjoy whatever they want in this show; let's just all respect each others' differences in tastes and opinions! <3

[anonymous-harpy]

I did more DBZ Human AU art and massively updated Baby-Vegeta Yōji's backstory and lore as well as added some more GT to this AU. And did a few things with @amiz06-certified-b1mb0's Cooler again.

I tried my best to emulate the magazine cover style for these two pictures... Btw that Cold/Cell art uh... Helped me to draw Yōji's moosley chest.

I have miss spelled Tusfruain too many times, it'll just keep changing until I settle into using one singular spelling. Like Saulza's name

My boy's main looks... *Screams in all the flaws I can't ignore*

But I do love the new looks. I gotta come up with more suitable looks based on his alt Fighterz skins ...

Uhm, but LORE TIME:

Yōji is still has his tragic backstory of watching his family murdered and is out there get revegences.

The major revision here is that while he was an orphan, he did end up with a decent family that instilled him with morals (I'ma just slide this currently incomplete fic in right here, Vanguardian on AO3 ) so he's just trying to get his hands on Vegeta… so there some moral conflict about taking him out since he's got kids… but not enough to dissuade him still.

And rather than Yōji being the one to build his own criminal empire from the ground up, he's just very effective at smooth talking and schmoozing his way to take things over in one fell swoop. Like a parasite. Well he watched his family's meger estate be viciously dismantled once it was just him, a little kid. He's a fast learner you know. Helps to have hyperthymesia

I was looking for a way to explain how he could keep up with everyone given his altered backstory, weonlyneedonepersontobecalledperfect i figured being able to remember everything would suit my needs. Jack of all trades master of none? How about just jack of all trades with incompetent lackeys to fuck up your plans….

Because of course he can't do everything himself and has had to come to rely on others -which he despises. He installs willing puppets wherever he goes, to get whatever he needs (or wants) and he knows how to get things done, though it's often a bit messy since he's impatient. So flies on the walls of important people? Yeah that sounds about right.

And to revise how he came to meet Cooler- 

 Well Yōji was looking into Capsule Crop for information about Vegeta and the company's many rivals (I'm assuming that RR Army and of course the Real estate Lizards are the main/only ones soooooo), and part of that investigation meant planting spies and possibly breaking into a good newspaper company to get more leads.

All of it yields useful stuff for the revengeance seeking Tusfruain… and the attention of a lot of people. Not directly of course, but everyone knows that someone is up to something and starts looking into it. Helps that he's unconcerned with changing his appearance to avoid attention. The only problem is is someone caught a fussy picture of him (prolyBuuifwerebeinghonest), and while it's not enough to link to anything just yet, Hercule directs to defamation to Yōji's Blackstar and Business persona and so a target's painted on his back.

Though luckily Yōji doesn't mind tweaking his appearance and it's uncannily easy to walk around disguised as Vegeta.

And while Yōji was out and about parading as Vegeta he's spotted by my favorite squad and is followed back to one of his many "legitimate" business. A "club" is a very loose term that he's unafraid to stretch the meaning of as far as he can legally take it. Honestly though while he's completely heartless in GT I'm gonna say he's actually decent to his regular employees, looks out for them and all that… though he still gonna scream and shout at Para Brothers when they fuck up

(You're always meaner towards your family than you are strangers. "Familiarity breeds contempt"). I mean he couldn't do anything without the cash flow, so there's not reason to not make sure everything covered.

Anyhow, while in the middle of washing out the temporary dye, our best boys break down the door of the office with they best boss in tow and Yōji responds to being cornered by four strong fighters in only the way you would expect from someone who got their finger caught in the cookie jar: lies through his bloody teeth to spin things around to his favor.

He's a parasite for a reason…

Somehow, and after getting the snot beat out of him by Cooler they come to a sort of agreement: Yōji's aligning himself with Cooler's family -though not publicly or in an overly obvious fashion because Yōji's trying to cause a serious scandal that doesn't to be traced back to them. And in return Yōji doesn't get beat up even more or have his "good name" immediately esposed and tied to all the city vices he's servicing.

And at some point along the way Yōji and Cooler go tit for tat back and forth for little favors (Yōji doesn't worry about getting caught gathering information through brute force or unusual methods for Cooler and in return Yōji gets property to buy through his shell companies), Which eventually turns into bigger ones that ultimately leave Yōji with enough dirt on Cooler that they're on equal footing again. AKA, Yōji used one of his shell companies to sponsor Cooler's band and the parasite loves to remind Cooler that he got outplayed in the long run.

Not that Yōji really asks for anything major. He just likes pissing off Cooler til he's mad enough to want to hurt him…

This is a dynamic… and I have no idea why I decided on this for any Coolbabe stuff I have… but it's what I got going for me. And I stand by my unhinged parasite and his endless faults.

I cannot accurately convey Yōji's height... but honestly that makes this so much better.

I've got a couple more ideas to doddle, but honestly I've got other things to get to... Including but not limited to making use of the Colgate twins in this AU.

Alright back to the void I go!

[chriscdcase95]

“Dragons and Monsters”: A GOT + Godzilla AU

So, I've been looking over unwritten fics of mine, a lot of them being Godzilla crossovers that amount to “What if Godzilla (and other monsters) was in X setting ?”

This one being “Godzilla in Westeros”.

I had two different stories in mind for “Dragons and Monsters”.

1. “Version A” is set after season eight, but I couldn't think of a story for it besides  a :Daenerys resurrection” story and having Ghidorah as the antagonist. I ended up putting a pin in it but may revisit when Snow is out/finished.

2. “Version B” is a Canon Divergence, starting in season four, before diverging completely at season six. "Version B" is the most complete, having thought out the story, monsters, human subplots and even shipping.

While I haven't been able to get around and write these fics, I have been writing layouts for what they'd include. Since “Version B” is the only one where there's a complete story (revisions aside), it's the layout I'm about to share.

----

In this version, features three members of Godzilla's species. There's an adult we’ll just dub “Godzilla” or “The Adult”. There's a juvenile called "The Hatchling". And there's the third one, which attacked Westeros and Essos centuries ago. We're learns the original” Godzilla's story over time.

Godzilla's species has a similar growth/maturity factor to dragons, which we see with the Hatchling; at the time of Watchers on the Wall, it's a newborn; by Battle of the Bastards, he's grown to preadolescence; by The Long Night, he's grown into an adolescent stage.

Now for the layout.

1. Divergence: Seasons Four, Five and Six

Starting at The Watchers On The Wall, it would turn out there's a dormant egg of Godzilla's species not too far off from Castle Black. During the Battle of Castle Black, the egg hatches, and the Hatchling is frightened from the violence. Despite being the newborn, it is big/strong enough to burrow a small hole in the Wall in a panic, which it escapes through. This spectacle causes a significant distraction in the battle, cutting it short.

Because of this distraction, one divergence is Ygritte being among the surviving Wildlings but is kept prisoner. Through out the first third, Ygritte and Jon have lingering feelings for each other that slowly boil over. Ygritte ends up joining the mission to Hardhome, but doesn't accept her feelings for Jon until after his death and resurrection. Even then, they don't become an item again until they sleep together just before Battle of the Bastards, which Ygritte also fights in.

Seasons Five and Six otherwise play out the same, with few differences. Notably, the Hatchling being on the loose in the North. The Hatchling keeps to itself mostly, sometimes experimentally eating livestock, trees and wildlife. It usually flees when attacked, even if human weapons do little serious harm. Ramsay often leads hunts for this creature. Even if he fails to kill it, he's satisficed in scarring it all the same, bragging about it to whoever's listening.

Meanwhile Beyond the Wall, another monster, Anguirus, sleeps not too far from the Three Eyed Raven's cave. He is kept asleep through Bloodraven warging him every so often. Anguirus is portrayed as not very aggressive, usually fighting in self defense. 

It's unclear if Anguirus is naturally docile or if Bloodraven's influence tamed him. During the events of The Door, Anguirus awakens when the Army of the Dead attack, fighting them off, which gives Bran and Meera more time to escape. However, Anguirus ends up waking Bran before the Three Eyed Raven's "transfer" is complete. 

And unfortunately? It comes too late to prevent "Hold the Door".

When Sansa and Theon escape Ramsay, they - and Brienne and Pod - encounter the Hatchling in the Wilderness, where it eats Ramsay's dog. Having grown a little more, the Hatchling developed an aggressive streak, but is docile towards most humans. Seeing some of the scars Ramsay inflicted on Hatchling, and hearing Ramsay brag about tormenting the beast, causes Sansa and Theon to have pity for it. 

The Hatchling later appear during Battle of the Bastards, taken the North as its "territory" and associating Ramsay and his army as a threat. The Hatchling finishes off the last of Ramsay's army, nearly attacking Winterfell, before sensing the "tormenting creatures" are gone, and departing to the wilderness.

Meanwhile, in King's Landing, Margaery finds out Cersei's plans for the Sept, earlier than in canon. When she tries to get everyone out of the sept, Cersei's plans go up in smoke when an adult Godzilla suddenly makes landfall in Kings Landing. Right when the High Sparrow invoked the gods' wrath and judgment, no less!

This Godzilla's rampage/stroll causes enough of a distraction that Margaery manages to get Loras out of the Sept, narrowly avoiding the worst of the destruction.

From there, Westeros has two Godzillas on their hands, on top of the looming threat of the White Walkers. Anguirus also enters the mainland, soon encountering the adult Godzilla, though the two seem to befriend eachother. The adult Godzilla is initially aloof and indifferent towards humans. At first, destruction he causes is accidental, but he attacks when provoked further (almost every time he sees or senses an army).

2. Ships and Pairings. Yes, this is getting a segment.

Let’s talk the three (or four) main ships in this story.

1. Sansa x Margaery and/or Daenerys.

After Margaery and Loras escape King's Landing, having narrowly avoided a Godzilla “attack”, they are presumed dead. Hiding in the wilderness, they get word the Starks have retaken Winterfell, and make their way to the North. Upon reaching Winterfell, they are accepted by Sansa, but their stay initially has to be kept secret. 

In most revisions, Sansa and Margaery either become an item, or at least heavily teased. The two end up trauma bonding over everything they've been through (in some revisions, sleeping together as a coping mechanism). Margaery serves as a "Counter Littlefinger"; she sees Sansa is playing "the game" and is willing to lend a hand for Sansa’s benefit. Margaery is too burnt out and vengeful to care about her former ambitions; she just wants to see Cersei brought down.

In this AU, it'd be Sansa and Margaery who travel to Dragonstone as ambassadors for the North. Tyrion vouches for Sansa to Daenerys. With Olenna already throwing in her bid for Daenerys, Margaery helps bridge things with the Starks and Targaryens.

Olenna has Margaery stay at Winterfell, pragmatically keeping up the façade of her death and protecting the last Tyrell's from the inevitable siege on Highgarden. Sansa and Daenerys get off on a better foot than they did in the show; most of the Jon x Daenerys interactions are swapped out in favor of Daensa/Daensaery is also teasing.

2. Bran and Meera.

Due to Anguirus waking Bran before the Raven's transfer is complete, Bran doesn't fully become the Three Eyed Raven. Instead, Bran "flickers" back and forth between being himself and being the Raven. 55% of the time, it's Bran in the driver's seat; the other 45% it's the Raven. Bran also developed attachments he can't/won't let go of to fully become the Raven; such as his family, especially after seeing/hearing/feeling Rickon's death.

Bran and Meera also develop romantic feelings for each other, and Meera ends up staying in Winterfell. There’s no "You died in that cave", no "You don't need me anymore." Instead, Bran and Meera trauma bond over everything they went through, and simply don't want to separate after everything. Breera ends up becoming one of the story's main ships.

3. Jon and Ygritte.

When Jon's made King of the North, it's discovered Ygritte is pregnant with his child. Jon, unwilling to father a bastard, marries Ygritte, and has the child legitimized in the Stark name. This controversial move risks Jon's standing with the other Northern Houses. Ygritte is made Queen Consort...and is a total fish out of water.

Ygritte has no know-how, nor interest in being a "Southern Lady", despite Sansa and Margaery's tips and suggestions. Though she jokingly feigns ignorance and wonder at the first feast she attends. Ygritte often joins hunting parties or goes on her own to hunt or hike. Ygritte's a real outdoorsy type, only staying bedridden as her due date nears, and a week or so after giving birth. Out of Jon’s family (or their partners) she get’s along the most with Meera.

The baby's named "Eddard" - nicknamed "Little Ned". The moments with "Little Ned" with his parents, aunts and uncle are meant to feel bittersweet. On their own, they're pretty wholesome moments, but the Starks and co all have that lingering dread with this child being born in a world where Titans are on the loose, and the Army of the Dead is on the horizon.

3. Other Monsters featured + their interactions with humans

With the Hatchling still loose in the North, the Northern Houses debate on what to do about it. Some consider killing it, others consider taming/weaponizing it/ The Hatchling leaves people alone most of the time, spending its time in Lakes and Rivers, but often has passive encounters with the Starks and co when he wanders close to Winterfell. Meanwhile, the adult Godzilla also swims in Westeros' lakes, seas and rivers. People quickly put together he's seeking his presumed offspring.

Both the adult and juvenile's presence draw other monsters into Westeros. These include Varan and Baragon. They ain't that deep. They're fighting fodder. They show up, cause trouble, and get their asses kicked by Godzilla. 

That said, this is is a reference to the original plans for GMK; where Godzilla would have fight Baragon, Varan and Anguirus, before Toho decided Mothra and Ghidorah were more marketable.

It's also revealed this wasn't the first time the adult Godzilla appeared in Westeros. He also paid a visit during "The Dance of the Dragons". The story behind that is murky and obscured by history, but leaves room open for a prequel. There was also the thirdGodzilla who appeared centuries before that, in an obscured Westerosi legend, but we learn his story down the road.

Most of the monster action occurs season sevens during battles. The fall of Casterly Rock rouses Baragon's attention ? Godzilla steps in and puts him down.  The sack of High Garden brings Varan into the fray ? Rinse and repeat. 

In the Battle of Goldroad ? Godzilla shows, brings both armies down to the three digits, with the one thing that can "fight" him being Drogon, who barely scratches Godzilla, and barely escapes his retaliation. When Euron attacks the Targaryen fleet ? Euron's fleet is destroyed by Godzilla and Anguirus.

Meanwhile, the Hatchling develops an attachment towards the people of Winterfell, having special fixation on the Sarks, especially Sansa. Sansa develops an empathetic connection with the Hatchling meant to parallel Daenerys and her Dragons. 

When Sansa travels to Dragonstone, the Hatchling follows her ships, making landfall, causing a ruckus and begins "play fighting" the dragons; only leaving when Sansa stares it down like a scolding mother. The Hatchling also follows the "wight hunt" expedition, albeit at a distance.

4. Season Seven’s Divergence

With Sansa and Margaery being the ambassadors in Dragonstone, we actually see how Jon functions as King of the North. 

While Jon has what it takes to be a leader and protector of his people...a traditional King, he is not. Jon prioritizes the White Walker threat, preparing for their invasion. The way he's running the North is borderline militant, being filtered from his time as Lord Commander of the Night's Watch. This, and his marriage - and legitimizing a child - with Ygritte, strikes a blow to Jon's reputation.

Jon admits that he doesn't see himself as a ruler, even desiring a more simplistic life when all this is over, but leads and protects his people out of duty. In discussions with Davos and Bran, Jon is told he might work better as Lord Commander, but that's what the Realm needs right now. In discussions with Ygritte and Tormund, Jon is told that he might fit better as “King Beyond The Wall” than a King that “southerners” are want.

Because Margaery is accompanying Sansa to Dragonstone, Sansa has Littlefinger stay at Winterfell. Ostensibly, to keep an eye on Jon, knowing/expecting Littlefinger to try to take advantage of the situation. Unable to manipulate Jon, Littlefinger tries to undermine him, turning the other Houses against the Starks.

It turns Sansa and Margaery secretly playing Littlefinger; having just about everyone else keeping an eye on him. As per the show, Littlefinger is soon as Ned Stark's traitor.

One thing that remains intact is the wight hunt in Beyond The Wall. This time, Jon leaves a returning Sansa, Bran (and Meera) in charge of Winterfell - where Petyr's punishment is finally carried out. Ygritte has to be talked into staying at Winterfell. 

Things go about the same as it does in the show, but with the Hatchling follows the expedition, with the adult Godzilla following after. Both finally meet, and inadvertently help rescue the expedition along with Daenerys.

After the Hatchling and adult reunite, they part ways with the humans after returning to the mainland. After Daenerys rescues the party, The Night King begins a backup plan. In addition to killing and enslaving Viserion, the Night King learns of a presence beneath the frozen sea...the remains of the "first" Godzilla.

5. A Nightmare from the Past

Throughout the story, we learn more of the "original" Godzilla's history.

Centuries ago, there was a war with Yi Ti that led to two islands being destroyed by wildfire. This awoke a "sea dragon" of Yi Ti and Valerian mythology; Gojira, who'd lay waste to Essos and Westeros, before retreating to the sea North of the Wall. A Yi Ti “sorcerer” was able to create a weapon capable of slaying Gojira. 

After it was used, the “sorcerer” destroyed all research of the weapon and took his own life, so that it won't fall into the wrong hands. Since then, Gojira's body rested at the bottom of the sea. The Night King ends up uncovering it's remains, and along with Viserion, would resurrect it as a Wight; hereafter called Wight!Godzilla, or just “The Wight”.

The concept of Wight!Godzilla is based off of the unmade Godzilla vs Ghost Godzilla, which was scrapped in favor of Godzilla Vs Destoroyah. It would have the Heisei!Godzilla and Godzilla Junior facing the vengeful spirit of the 1954!Godzilla, with some drafts including Anguirus. The '54!Godzilla becoming an undead spirit would later be used in GMK.

6. Winter Has Come

The Dragon Pit Summit commences as normal, the only significant difference is that Sansa is in attendance, and Margaery audaciously reveals her survival to Cersei by landing with Daenerys' on Drogon. 

When Army of the Dead breaks the Wall, the adult Godzilla and Hatchling sense something is up. The Hatchling hasn't grown out of his attachment to humans and returns to the North on his own to defend his "territory". The adult Godzilla follows behind, both to protect the Hatchling and sensing that something is up. Anguirus following after.

Here’s a visual demonstration.

The Long Night starts more or less the same as the show. 

Key differences being Ygritte is present, and while initially hiding with the other non-combatants, helps hold off the Wights as they infiltrate the castle. Meera is protecting Bran along with Theon.

The tide begins to turn when Godzilla, the Hatchling and Anguirus show up. They ultimately decimate the army of the dead, bringing them down to the three digits. Notably, the Hatchling ends up saving people in the crypts, and kills Wight!Viserion. 

The three monsters prove to be such an overwhelming force, that the Night King is seemingly forced to flee when cornered at the weir wood tree At first it seems like victory, but the titans are acting like something else is up. Suddenly, an otherworldly roar reverbs throughout the night...

Wight!Godzilla emerges from the darkness, and with no way to fight it, with the survivors are forced flee further South. Godzilla, and Anguirus try to fight it, but it overpowers them, and drives off the Hatchling. At best, the monsters just gave everyone time to flee. The third act focuses on survivors and refugees fleeing south, with the Army of the Dead and Wight!Godzilla trailing after, laying waste to Westeros throughout.

Bran tries to warg the Titans to hold back the army, but Godzilla's mind is too strong. At best, he can only call out to the Hatchling to follow them, with the adult following behind. Rhaegal is killed at sea by Wight!Godzilla, along with Anguirus, but the latter's body is salvaged by Godzilla and the Hatchling. There's a sequence where Godzilla and the Hatchling incinerate Anguirus' body in a pseudo funeral sequence.

It's also revealed that Wight!Godzilla isn't entirely mindless. A sliver of his former self remains and is just as vengeful towards the world as he was in life. That vengeance drives him moresp than the Night King's power. Even when the Night King is eventually destroyed, Wight!Godzilla is kept "alive" by his own unstoppable rage.

The battle between Daenerys' army and Cersei's still occurs, but in a different context than The Bells. This time it's a bid by desperate refugees and soldiers trying to find safe haven. Even if it means taking it from the Kingdom that betrayed them.

Since Daenerys doesn't go through everything she did in season eight, she doesn't become a Mad Queen or start burning the city. Instead, she's so desensitized by everything else, that she doesn't care that she won the Iron Throne. When she finally takes her seat, it'd be described as her flopping down in exhaustion. 

I guess you can say she's "burnt out" (ba dum tss).

Cersei isn't killed, but is is deposed, imprisoned and we get a sequence of Sansa and Margaery holding their victory over Cersei. Though this sequence is more hollow and bittersweet than cathartic. Sure, Cersei's miserable at her loss, but Sansa and Margaery know what's coming. They all know it's a temporary victory, something Cersei cynically laughs at.

7. Empire of Dirt

With the Army of the Dead, and Wight!Godzilla on the horizon, the new plan is to evacuate the last of the civilians by boat while the remnants of their armies hold a last line of defense. Since the Night King is still after Bran, Bran is kept in the Red Keep, with both Arya, and Meera at his side.

Among those who make it to the ships are Sam, Gilly, Little Sam, Varys, Tyrion, Missande, an imprisoned Cersei, and Yara. The Ironborn's army is tasked with protecting the boarded civilians. It takes some talking, but Ygritte is made to board as well with Little Ned. 

Those who stay and fight include Jon, Tormund, Arya, Brieanne, Jamie and Grey Worm. Drogon prepares to join the fight, but keeps pushing Daenerys away when she tries to ride or command him. The implication being that Drogon is expecting to die and doesn't want to take his mother with him.

With that Daenerys is eventually forced to join the refugees.

Before the Army of the Dead reach King Landing, the Hatchling appears in Blackwater Bay, with the adult Godzilla following behind, hoping to put down Wight!Godzilla. Before Sansa, Margaery and Daenerys can board their ship, Wight!Godzilla attacks the docks, forcing them to stay ashore and get caught up in the chaos. If that wasn't enough, wights begin to board the ships, prompting those aboard to fight them off.

The Night King reaches the Red Keep seeking out Bran, physically overpowers Jon repeatedly, while Arya and Meera fight him through ranged and sneak attacks. Meanwhile, Godzilla, The Hatchling, and Drogon, face Wight!Godzilla. Drogon, despite giving it his all, is unable to do any real damage. The Wight bites out Godzilla's gills, leaving him to die while it directs it's attention to the fleeing civilians. 

The Hatchling looks over the wounded adult, before reluctantly feeding off his radiation (by drinking up his blood). When Sansa, Margaery and Daenerys are caught up in this, it falls to them to lead remaining civilians to safety - on foot - barely dodging Wight!Godzilla and holding off the Army of the dead throughout.

The Night King is destroyed as he reaches Bran, but I never could decide who dealt the killing blow; sometimes it's Arya; sometimes it's Meera. Ultimately, it doesn't matter. The Night King's army is destroyed with him...except Wight!Godzilla, who only appears to stall.

Bran reasons that nothing they can do can stop Wight!Godzilla, so he wargs into Drogon to pick him, Jon, Meera and Arya up and take them a safe distance. As Wight!Godzilla awakens from his dormant state, either Bran has Drogon attack it further or Drogon does so out of his own volition. This allows the survivors to make it a safe distance on foot or by boat.

Drogon flies out of reach, and The Wight begins its advance to the survivors...only to be attacked by the Hatchling, now empowered by the adult's radiation. The Hatchling overpowers Wight!Godzilla, forcing him onto the Red Keep, before incinerating him with three nuclear pulses. King's Landing is destroyed beyond repair, while the survivors can only watch from a distance. 

After the adult Godzilla bleeds out, the Hatchling, now a sub-adult, approaches his adopted mother, Sasna the survivors as they regroup. The Hatchling is seemingly growing out of his attachment to humans, but there's still enough in there for him to give his mother his goodbyes regard them before he departs back to the sea.

8. Kingdom of Ashes

In the aftermath, there's no King's Landing, no Iron Throne, nothing to win. 

The invasion caused a near societal collapse of Westeros, and thousands leave Westeros entirely. There's no real monarchy, but continued alliances between Houses trying to maintain stability in their Kingdoms. Some houses try to take over what they see as free real estate, leading to small scale wars, and bandit attacks. For many houses, the priority is handling the refugees, with many castles being granted as refuge.

The North is granted independence. It's the closest Westeros has to a continued monarchy. Jon abdicates the North to settle down with Ygritte, with Sansa as de-facto Queen, and Margaery as her wifehand. It's the most stable Kingdom (though thousands of Northerners have left to make a new life beyond the wall). No one's willing to challenge Sansa's rule, as there's lingering fears the Hatchling will return to protect his territory.

You'd think Daenerys would be dejected that everything she went through was for nothing, but she realizes that she's better as a liberator, protector and conquer than an actual ruler. She still has her army, and Drogon, and in the interests of the alliances she built, she puts them to good use. 

Daenerys is not the Queen she'd hoped to be, but she's still protector of the realm, stopping bandit raids, warring houses, and providing aid to the downtrodden. She primarily lives in Dragonstone, but often pays Winterfell a visit as part of their - ahem - “assured alliance”.

Like in the show, Jon leaves Westeros going Beyond the Wall, but in a different context. Here, he’s opting for a simplistic life, and considers his duty to the realm fulfilled, and is joined by Ygritte and Little Ned. And while Jon might not have it in him to be a traditional King, he has what it takes to be a "King Beyond the Wall". 

The Night's Watch is all but disbanded, but their castles are granted as refuge. Whatever is left of the Night's Watch and the Free Folk look to Jon as a leadership, which is the role Jon accepts. Taking the role of King Beyond The Wall, and de-facto Lord Commander, Jon ultimately settles into Castle Black with his family.

Bran, having not fully become the Three Eyed Raven, marries Meera. Though they're more "outdoorsy", having little interest in politics or lordship, spending their time travelling throughout the North. They spent so much time travelling, that the hobby stuck with them. They usually move between Winterfell and Castle Black over the years.

Now paraplegics are capable of having sex and producing children; and since the North still has a semblance of a monarchy, when Bran and Meera eventually have a child, the child is made Sansa's heir. I don't see Sansa having children of her own, nor do I see her taking “Little Ned” as an heir.

In the last scene, Bran gets a glimpse into the far future; it's revealed the Hatchling would become the Godzilla of a modern age. During this glimpse, the new Godzilla is seen battling a giant, golden, three headed dragon in the middle of a city. 

This glimpse was triggered when Bran and Meera spot what appears to be a golden shooting star fly over the horizon...

[materia1gor1]

Merry Christmas!

Hello! A few years ago I posted a fic called Merry and Bright on ffn. Due to that site sort of shutting down/being less navigatable/less popular, I moved all my fics over to Ao3 and now that is primarily where I post/read fics. I didn't move Merry and Bright over when I switched everything else, idk why, but I decided to do it now!!!

I have spent the last few weeks editing and revising this fic and I hope you check it out!

It is a White Christmas poto AU, where Erik and Raoul are Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye, respectively, and Christine and Meg are Rosemary Clooney and Vera Ellen. White Christmas is my favorite Christmas movie, and I obviously love Phantom, so it was so exciting to bring these two worlds together. It is not my finest work, but it was fun to write and that's what matters.

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season, and that they have a happy new year!

Merry and Bright (34340 words) by materia1gor1 Chapters: 16/16 Fandom: Le Fantôme de l'Opéra | Phantom of the Opera & Related Fandoms Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Christine Daaé/Erik | Phantom of the Opera, Raoul de Chagny/Meg Giry Characters: Christine Daaé, Erik | Phantom of the Opera, Raoul de Chagny, Meg Giry, Mama Valerius, Nadir Khan, OCs Additional Tags: White Christmas, Christmas, Show Business, Romance, World War II, Alternate Universe Summary: Two army veterans return home after WWII and become show business stars. They meet two women on the road with their latest show and are immediately enamored with them. They follow them to Maine for Christmas, and romantic hijinks ensue as they try to set up their friends with one another. White Christmas AU set in 1954. Rated T just for caution.

[tokyo-puddin9]

So I was listening to Bad Romance after years of not listening to it for year,,

Meh, it's simple but I quite like it! Sam giving Clyde an entire crisis over her is always entertaining >:)

[mercz-n-mayhem]

Is starting this blog off with mini refsheets for a PMV I'm working on a good idea?

Probably not but whatever

Amber (My OC, she's the only one here that's my OC) is the first cat, Salem/El Diablo is the second cat and Rios is the third cat, the PMV mainly follows Amber and Rios but Salem shows up regardless

This is some more recent shape language practice, Rios is an absolute unit and I WILL figure out how to draw him as such

[sipsteainanxiety]

knock me out, take me down || katsuki b.

pairing: boxer!bakugou katsuki x reader

word count: 8.6k

mentions: modern au where bkg is an underground boxer, alcohol use, female bamf reader, aged up chars ofc, descriptions of fighting, suggestive at one part you’ll know it when you read it lol

a/n: this is a repost bc i'd deleted the og post one night when i was nitpicking it. i hadn't been too happy with the writing it was a moment of weakness. but! i've revised it and made some minor edits so here it is again! might do a part 2 if y'all want but idk

✧˖° and there you stood in the fighting ring, little civilian you, staring down the underground’s top boxer—an intimidating man by the name ‘dynamight’ with a glare that pierced right through you—as the crowd roared in excitement for the next match with him. your match.

Spending your Saturday night chasing after your near blackout-drunk friends was honestly not what you’d imagined you’d be doing.

At first you’d all planned to meet up at a nice restaurant-slash-bar in the heart of Musutafu for dinner and some catching up. It was relaxing after a hard week at work and seeing the familiar faces of your friends made everything feel significantly better. Lots of hugs and kisses were exchanged before you all split a few meals and went through a couple of the margaritas on the back of the menu to start the night off. You’d already promised yourself that you wouldn’t let yourself get too drunk, so you only had a few drinks to get a nice buzz going, though you couldn’t say the same for your friends. The plan was to then head over to a karaoke bar down the block for a few hours of off-key singing before turning in for the rather satisfying night.

Only, one of your friends had discovered that the restaurant had an unlimited shot option for birthday groups with a bill over a certain amount of yen. You’d already satisfied the yen requirement, so your friend had the bright idea to pretend it was her birthday just to get onto that deal. Admittedly, you already knew beforehand that both your friends could get pretty lackadaisical when it came to monitoring their alcohol consumption. You kept a close eye on them, but you couldn’t really find it in you to cut them off early when they looked like they were having so much fun. You knew they needed the stress relief and it was fun watching them giggle to themselves as they got increasingly drunker.

You didn’t really drink too much in comparison, knowing that you would have to be the responsible one for the night if you all wanted to get home in one piece. You limited yourself to a couple and then settled on slowly drinking a tall glass of cold water as your friends tossed back shot after shot. Eventually, though, after two drinking games and a small army of glasses crowding the table, you called for the bill and cut your friends off, amusedly watching as they slumped over the table and mumbled tiredly to each other.

You forced both of them to drink a few glasses of water and waited for them to get a bit sober before you decided it was time to leave. It was certainly a task getting them to stand up from the table and stumble out the restaurant door, but you managed. It was pretty dark outside, with it being so late in the evening, and the air was slightly chilly. You busied yourself with zipping up your friends’ jackets so they wouldn’t get too cold, smiling slightly when they mumbled drunken ‘I love you’s to you. You kept an eye on them as you pulled out your phone with the intention to call a cab—there was no way you’d be able to take them to the karaoke bar with how sloshed they were—when one of your friends suddenly let out a yell.

“What?! What is it?” you worriedly rushed out as you whipped your head around to look at her leaning heavily against the brick wall of the ice cream shop next to the restaurant. She was staring with wide eyes down at her phone, and you wondered how she was able to make anything out on the screen with how bright it was.

“Oh my god!!” she just shrieked. She looked around wildly until her eyes latched onto the street sign on the corner of the block. She squinted at it, then took a shaky step towards it that had you shuffling closer to her, just in case. “We gotta— We gotta go!!”

“Go where?” your other friend mumbled from their position sitting on the sidewalk. They were swaying back and forth slightly, and you eyed them to make sure they weren’t getting nauseous or anything. “‘M tired.”

“Wuh— The— The fuckin’”—your friend waved her phone around—“The fuckin’ guy, uh, Dyna— Dynamight guy. He’s fightin’ tonight!!”

“The who?” you asked confusedly, then raised your eyebrows when your other friend let out a loud gasp and promptly hoisted themself up from the concrete ground.

“T’night?!” they nearly yelled as well, stumbling around shakily on their feet before they latched onto your friend still holding her phone. They tried peering down at her phone, but only ended up squinting at it. “Where?!”

“T— Tuh— Two uhh, two blocks, umm that—no, um—that way”—she spun around in a little circle, then pointed an unsteady finger in a direction down the street—“We— we have t’go!!”

“We gots— we gotta go, right now,” your other friend eloquently agreed with a serious look on their face. You watched them both warily, lowering your own phone slightly. What the fuck were they talking about?

“Uh, guys,” you started, “I really think I should get you both hom—” But before you could finish your sentence, your friends immediately fucking bolted down the street, running as fast as their sailor’s legs would let them. You gaped at them for a split second and watched them yell at each other as they stumbled away from you. Then you ran after them, shouting at them to stop before they got seriously hurt.

They didn’t listen to you at all, using each other for balance as they made a few shaky turns and went down a few dark alleys. It wasn’t hard to catch up to them and keep pace, though it was certainly difficult to get them to listen to you.

“Guys, come on!” you said exasperatedly, blindly following them around until they stopped at some door at the side of a large building. Your friend knocked on it and shuffled around in her purse until she pulled out a few crumpled notes. You eyed the door when a slot opened in it and your friend shoved the money through. “What are we even doing here?”

“Y’never… y’never heard of Dyna— Dynamight?” your other friend asked you, slightly stumbling over their words still. When you shook your head, they gasped. “Never?! He’s a— he’s a box’r. Super… super strong.” They flexed their arms to demonstrate their point.

“And hot,” your friend added, then smiled widely when the door opened. She grabbed at your wrist and tugged you through the door with her, your other friend following close behind as you’d grabbed onto their wrist in return. “He’s the— the best underground fighter out there right… right now.” It was pretty dark inside, and you staggered after your friend who looked like she knew the area pretty well, despite her occasional stumble. She led the two of you down a hall, some stairs, and another hall. Already you could hear what sounded like loud yelling and chanting coming from a door a small distance away.

Your friend didn’t linger or hesitate at all, and before you knew what was happening, she had pushed the door open and dragged you into a rather large crowd in what looked like an underground arena. You could only blink in astonishment at the size of the place, fluorescent lights shining brightly from the ceiling that was such a large contrast from the darkness of the hallways you’d wandered through to get here. There was the smell of sweat in the air that came with such a large crowd jammed into a room and you wrinkled your nose a bit as you stared around curiously at the sea of people yelling and cheering.

Though, what really caught your attention was the giant boxing ring in the center of the arena that was elevated in the air. Or rather, it was the two men on top of it that did. One of them was a rather large man with a sharp, beak-like nose and brown hair, his chest bare as he threw powerful punch after punch. You were fascinated by the sheer size of his build, wondering how long it took him to get to that level of pure strength. You eyed the scowl on his face for a moment, then shifted your gaze to the other man.

He was a bit smaller than the guy he was fighting, though certainly just as strong-looking. Crimson eyes sharply focused on his opponent, ash-blond hair bouncing around as he swiftly ducked and weaved. He was definitely attractive, you could admit that, with a sharp jawline that looked like it could cut you with just the slightest touch and muscles that rippled along his shoulders and arms. You tried not to stare too hard at his bare torso, instead focusing on his hands that were wrapped with white bandages slightly stained in red. Your gaze lingered on the devilish smirk on his face, and you soon noticed that he was slowly cornering his opponent.

“Comin’ through!” your friend suddenly yelled as she pushed through people to get closer to the metal gate surrounding the ring. You were snapped away from your staring as you looked around at all the people she was shoving. “Move aside!!” You cringed and apologized hastily to the people around you, ducking your head down in slight embarrassment. Eventually, your friend managed to tug you both close enough to the gate that there were only a few rows of people separating you from it. You had to crane your neck a little to watch the match on it, though you found that you didn’t mind. All the loud yelling was getting a bit annoying though.

Your other friend leaned close to you, their body weight nearly sinking against your own. You could still smell the alcohol on their breath. “Thas him”—they pointed to the ash-blond—“Dynamight. The man.”

“Isn’t he dreamy,” your friend added, clasping her hands together. “He’s never… never lost a match.”

You let out a low whistle, your eyes drifting back to watch Dynamight. “He’s that good? Damn.”

Your friend nodded sagely. “Oh ye”—she turned to give you a surprisingly calculating look for her not-sober state—“though…. Though I think y’could take ‘im.” Her casual statement felt like a punch to the gut and you wheezed.

“Me?!” you choked out, then let out a pssht. “Girl, you know I’d get obliterated.” She only shrugged at you, though you gave her a look and gestured pointedly at the match. Dynamight was using the ropes along the perimeter of the ring to propel his body towards his opponent, delivering a devastating blow to the chest that sent the beak-nosed man crashing to the floor. It felt like the entire room had shaken from the impact. You gave her another look.

“I bee… I believe in ya,” your other friend said cheerfully, giving you a pat on the shoulder. You rolled your eyes at them, then turned back to look at the match. By now, a lot of people were starting to chant Dynamight’s name as he geared up for what seemed to be his final move.

“OOOH!!!” your friend squealed loudly, jumping around in her spot. “I love this part!!”

“Howit-zer!! Im-pact!!” your other friend cheered, and you noticed a lot of people were chanting it as well, a chorus that echoed around the stuffy room. You looked on curiously as Dynamight grinned in a way that sent a shiver scuttling down your spine. His opponent was trying to pick himself off the floor from the last blow, but Dynamight didn’t give him the time to recover. He launched himself at one of the large poles standing at the corners of the rectangular-shaped ring, using his momentum and his powerful legs to push himself off of it and up into the air. There was a moment where he seemed to nearly float above the ring, the lights from above casting his smirking face in shadows. The shouting got louder as Dynamight twisted in the air and promptly slammed down on the upper back of his opponent, sending him crashing back down to the floor, out cold.

“K.O!” the referee shouted as he blew his whistle. The arena practically erupted in loud cheers, enough that your ears rang slightly from the volume. Your friends whooped and jumped up and down, watching as Dynamight grinned sharply and threw a victorious fist in the air.

“Is that even legal?!” you shouted at your friends, wondering if that was a move that could be done in boxing. You didn’t think so, but well, it was an underground ring for a reason, you guessed.

“Who cares!!” they both shouted back, too wrapped up in the high that came after watching a match.

“Give it up for Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight everybody!!” a yellow-haired announcer yelled out gleefully through a wireless microphone as he clambered onto the ring to stand next to Dynamight. The crowd exploded in cheers again, and you watched as Dynamight ran a hand across his forehead and through his hair, his expression shifting into an impassive look. A few other people silently moved in the background to help get the unconscious beak-nosed man out of the arena and into medical care.

“Is that really his title?” you wheezed out quietly to your other friend, who gave a little giggle and nodded. What possessed him to think that was a good decision?

“Yeah, is'so lame,” they whispered. You bit back a smile and turned your attention back to the announcer once the cheering had died down once more.

“Another match finished in record time, eh? As expected for our Dynamight!” The announcer turned towards the ash-blond, a wide grin stretching across his face. “Anything you wanna say to your adoring fans, Mr. Murder God?”

Dynamight let out a scoff and leaned in closer to the microphone the announcer was holding up to his face. “I always win,” he rasped lowly, then moved back so he could cross his arms across his sweaty-looking chest. You tried not to stare too hard at his huge fucking pectorals. Seriously, what the hell kind of routine did he do to make them look like that?! You were kind of jealous.

“You sure do!” the announcer replied cheerfully. He turned to look out at the crowd, a mischievous look on his face as he pointed his thumb towards Dynamight. “I don’t think there’s anyone who can beat him. A shame, really.”

At that, a bunch of people started yelling out in the crowd. You looked around curiously as some of them—particularly the buffer-looking men—jeered that they could take Dynamight on, piece of cake. The announcer looked delighted at the responses and as for the ash-blond next to him… well…

“I could take ya fuckers down in my sleep!” Dynamight sneered back at the crowd, lifting one of his hands so he could give them a rude thumbs down. Your other friend snickered from beside you, and you turned to look at them questioningly.

“Whenev’r the matches for th’night finish early they… they always choose someone from the crowd to go up against hottie up there,” they explained to you and you let out an ohhh in understanding. “S’always entertaining, though they gotta— gotta sign a— a thingy. A uh, wustheword—”

“A waiver?” you supplied helpfully and they nodded rapidly.

“Yeah, that.”

“I’m guessing Dynamight always wins, huh?” you asked as you looked up at the ring to see Dynamight continuing to sneer down at the crowd. Your other friend gave you a “yep” and you both quieted down once the announcer started calling out to get everyone’s attention again. Though, once it’d gotten only slightly quieter, a loud voice started shouting out from next to you. A rather familiar, loud voice.

“AYO, my friend could take this bitch down easy-peasy!!” your friend yelled and you whipped your head so fast towards her that you swore your neck had cracked with the motion. She was waving her hands in the air and jumping up and down to get the announcer’s attention. To your horror, she succeeded and the announcer turned to look at her with a curious expression on his face. Your gut nearly bottomed out.

“What the fuck are you doing?!” you hissed out frantically as you grabbed her arm and forced her to stop moving so you could tug her out of view. She ignored you, and with strength that you hadn’t expected from her drunk ass, she pulled you towards her and used her free hand to point right at you. Your ears burned from the attention and you promptly shut your mouth once you noticed people were staring at the two of you. It was so quiet you could probably hear a pin drop—a feat in itself considering how large the room was.

“My friend!! Can take ‘im, anyday!!” your friend said with only a slight slur to her words. You tried to tug yourself out of her hold, but fuck, her grip was unrelenting. “I— I swear on it.”

“Yeah?” The announcer grinned and looked at Dynamight with a raised brow. Your gaze followed his and you nearly pissed yourself when you saw Dynamight’s crimson eyes were nailed right onto you. Oh fuck, this wasn’t good. It felt like he was roasting you alive with his stare. “Whaddya think dude? Think you can take her?”

Dynamight only scoffed and looked away from you. You were so fucked.

“Well, what’s your name, cutie?” the announcer asked, and it took you a moment to realize he was talking to you. Even if you wanted to answer him—which you didn’t—you couldn’t get your mouth to work at the moment. You felt like you were going to throw up and you didn’t even drink a lot earlier.

“I don’t—” you started in a strained voice only to have your friend cut you off to shout your name for you. You gave her a glare, your shoulders rising up to your ears as the announcer repeated your name and gestured out to the crowd wildly.

“What do we think, folks?!” he roared out and you could already hear people starting to shout and cheer again, the frenzy energy returning to the arena at the prospect of another fight. “Is this a match made in heaven?! Or hell?!!!”

“Hea-ven! Hea-ven! Hea-ven!” they chanted back and you felt the color drain from your face even as your friends eagerly shook you around and yelled your name excitedly in your ears.

“Let’s give it up for our new challenger everybody!! Get on up here girl!!!”

People started chanting your name, hands started pushing and tugging at you to get you closer to the gate. You tried to protest, but your voice was swallowed up in the crowd and you realized—with so many people expectantly looking at you—that there simply was no way for you to squirm your way out of this. You could feel the weight of their pressure fall onto your shoulders and you didn’t like it one bit.

“Hey there!” a voice suddenly caught your attention and you realized you were standing right by the metal gate. You looked up to see a pink-haired woman grinning at you from the other side of it. “Name’s Ashido Mina! I’mma need you to sign a few things before the match. Just jump right over”—she waved a manicured hand at the gate—“and follow me!”

You nodded stiffly at her and did as told, feeling like your movements were nearly robotic. You had half a mind to just book it to the exit, but you couldn’t—not with how crowded the arena was. And you were sure someone would stop you. It felt like there was a whole swarm of butterflies frenziedly moving around in your stomach. Was there anything you could do to get out of this? You glanced back at your friends, who had followed you to the gate and were clinging onto the metal bars on the opposite side as they grinned and gave you sloppy thumbs ups.

“You got this, girl!!” they both cheered, and the way they were fucking looking at you like you were the coolest person they’d ever met made you just want to crawl into a hole and wither away. Damn it.

You squared your shoulders and finally turned to follow Ashido around the ring. Only, it seemed like she had gotten impatient waiting for you to move, so she grabbed onto your arm and started tugging you in a direction. You stumbled slightly after her, not knowing what the fuck was going on as she started yapping rapidly into your ear. You could barely hear her over the cheering of the crowd.

“Oooh, this is so exciting!!” she nearly squealed. “It’s been ages since Dynamight has gone up against a pretty lady like yourself!!” Her words made something in your stomach sink in trepidation, and she looked at you with a large grin that was borderline mischievous.

“Ages?” You were ashamed to admit that your voice cracked on the word. You hoped she hadn’t noticed. You cleared your throat awkwardly.

“Yeah!! Normally it’s all those dumb buff guys who try to pick a fight, y’know?” She pointed a hand not-so-discreetly at some of the men who were close to the gate. They looked disappointed, though some were fixing you with sneers. You looked away, a frown tugging at your lips. It was so fucking obvious they thought you wouldn’t last a second in the ring and it kind of… made you a bit pissed. Were they underestimating you?

Ashido let out a pfft that drew your attention back to her, and you noticed she was rolling her eyes. “Ignore them. They’re all steroid junkies and it shows. They never learn no matter how many times Dynamight mops the floors with their asses.” She mumbled something about testosterone under her breath that got you to crack a small smile.

Ashido led you to a wooden bench near the opposite side of the ring that had a few bags piled on and around it. She shuffled around in one of them until she pulled out a manila folder and a glittery pen. She then handed them to you.

“Just sign these and you’re good to go!” she said cheerfully. You eyed the folder in your hands, then opened it to see a few leaves of paper.

“Is this really all I have to do?” you asked a bit faintly. You sat down heavily on an empty space on the bench and started pulling out the papers. They were waivers and medical documents detailing what would happen after the match in case you got severely hurt. You doubted it would get to that point, but it didn’t stop you from wondering if your insurance would cover it.

Ashido gave you a smirk. “This is an underground ring, babe, anything goes.”

“Uh huh,” you replied eloquently. You gripped the pen tightly in your hand as you stared down at the documents. God, were you really about to do this right now? Were you really about to let an entire arena pressure you into fighting their literal top fighter?? The one who looked like he could crush you between two of his fingers alone?! You swallowed heavily. It didn’t help that you thought he was attractive, too. If anything, it made you even more nervous.

“Hey”—a soft hand rested on your shoulder and you looked up to see Ashido giving you a sympathetic smile—“you know you don’t have to do this if you don’t want to, right? We can always get someone else.”

You stared at her for a moment, biting on your bottom lip in thought. You weren’t obligated to fight this guy or anything. And yet… You knew there were just so many people who expected you to. You glanced back in the direction your friends were in and in doing so, your eyes caught onto the different expressions people in the crowd were wearing. Excited, encouraging, exhilarated…. But also arrogant, leering, and disbelieving. It made you tense your jaw and look back down at the papers before you started roughly penning in your signature in the required places.

“Thanks, but it’s okay,” you told Ashido as you scribbled away. You forced your nerves down, locking them up in a tight little box deep within yourself. “It’s just a spar anyways. Can’t be that bad.”

Ashido let out a little giggle that made you look up at her briefly. “You haven’t been here too often, have you?”

“Was it that obvious?” You gave her a weak smile. She smiled back and nodded.

“Yeah, haha, everyone here knows how these matches go by now. Don’t worry though”—she flapped a hand at you—“it’s not as extensive as his other matches since it’s with a civilian, so you’ll only be up there for like, two minutes and that’s it!”

“Cool”—you nodded and shoved the papers back in the folder so you could hand it back to her—“Do you think he’ll go easy on me?” You tried not to sound too hopeful.

“Pfft, no!” Ashido let out a loud laugh and gave you a pat on the head before taking the folder from you. “Dynamight doesn’t go easy on anybody. It shows how seriously he takes his matches, no matter who fights him.” She then leaned in closer to you, lowering her voice in a conspiring manner. “Though, you didn’t hear this from me, but he always starts his matches with a right hook.” She gave you a wink and leaned back so she could shove the folder back into the bag it came from.

“Good to know.” You gave her a smile—albeit a shaky one—and stood up from the bench. It seemed the motion had caught the attention of the announcer too, for he suddenly appeared at the edge of the ring, leaning against the rope as he peered down at you.

“Hey there cutie”—he gave you a little wink—“I’m Kaminari Denki, though you can call me anything you want~”

“Shut up Denki”—Ashido rolled her eyes—“This isn’t the time for your lame flirting.”

“Hey it’s not lame!” Kaminari protested, crossing his arms over the topmost rope. “It’s effective.”

Ashido turned to look at you with a raised eyebrow. You blinked at her then shook your head a little. “It’s not effective.”

She looked back at Denki and made a wide gesture. “See?”

“Whatever”—Kaminari pouted and waved a hand at you to grab your attention—“You ready to go? Mr. Murder God over there’s waiting for you.” He pointed a thumb over his shoulder, and you followed the direction to see Dynamight in the far right corner of the ring. The first thing you noticed were his crimson eyes—eyes that were trained sharply on you. It made you wonder just how long he’d been watching you for, assessing his next opponent. A rather buff-looking red-haired man was standing next to Dynamight in the ring, talking about something to him. Though, you didn’t think Dynamight was paying all too much attention with the way he was watching you. He was leaning against the pole sitting at the corner, one of his arms stretched over the ropes that extended from it as he drank from a black water bottle. There was a white towel around his neck that he also used to wipe some of the sweat from his face. Your jaw tensed slightly and you looked back at Kaminari.

“I guess so.” You looked down at your outfit. To say you hadn’t expected to be in a fighting match tonight was an understatement. You certainly hadn’t dressed for it. A nice blouse and a pair of jeans that made your legs look great decorated your person. You lifted your right leg up and kicked out a bit to test the leniency of your jeans. Well, it would definitely make moving around a bit tougher, but you could handle it. After all, you did just have to chase your drunk friends around. And you managed pretty well. “Wish I wasn’t dressed like this, though.”

“Eh, it’s fine”—Kaminari shrugged—“As long as you can move around, you’re good.”

Something tapped you on the shoulder and you turned around to see Ashido standing close to you with a roll of white bandages in her hands. “Let me wrap your hands up for you! Don’t want those pretty things to get messy, y’know?”

“Somehow I doubt they will.” You didn’t think you’d be able to land a single blow on Dynamight, honestly. Or maybe you were overestimating things. You sighed and held your right hand out to her. She made quick work out of wrapping it, moving from your wrist all the way to the first knuckles of your fingers. She neatly tucked the ends in and then did the same to your other hand. You admired her work. It made you feel kind of badass.

“Alright! You’re good to go!” She gave you a nod and a pat on the shoulder. You flexed your fingers a bit, then looked up and gave her a nod of your own accompanied by a small “thanks.”

“Hell yeah! Let’s get this show on the road!” Kaminari cheered. He bent down and extended a hand to help you climb up onto the ring. You grabbed it and allowed him to support most of your weight as you jumped up to sling a foot on top of the ring’s platform. It was pretty high up, so you scrambled for a bit until you managed to slide your body under the lowermost part of the roped perimeter. Kaminari helped you to your feet and you found yourself awkwardly shuffling around as the cheering of the crowd escalated in anticipation.

Oh boy, you thought to yourself as you looked around at the mix of eager and judgmental faces around you. This is really happening.

Kaminari called out your name and you looked over to see him gesturing to you to walk over to the center of the ring, where he and Dynamight were waiting. You noticed the red-haired man that’d been talking to Dynamight was making his way off of the platform. Though, before he ducked under the ropes, he caught your eye and gave you a bright grin with a thumbs up. It made you crack a small smile, though that didn’t last too long. You swallowed heavily and shuffled over until you were standing in front of Dynamight, separated by only a few feet of distance.

And man, was he intimidating.

Being so close to him allowed you to see just how much of a height difference there was between the two of you. His face was impassive and rather stoic as he stared down his nose at you and crossed his arms over his bare chest. Spiky ash-blond hair was ruffled over his face, and you wondered if the ends were sharp enough to poke your eye out. Not only was he aggravatingly taller than you, but he was also broader: the width of his shoulders alone were easily double your own. He was all coiled muscle and unreadable expressions and you’d never felt so fucking tiny before in your life.

“Right, you know the drill,” Kaminari spoke to the two of you without using his microphone. “Two minutes on the clock.” You glanced over at Dynamight to see he was wearing a fresh set of bandages around his hands instead of the stained ones he had on before. It was only slightly comforting. “You’re out if you get K.O.ed or tap out. And dude”—he looked over at Dynamight with an almost pleading look—“try not to mess up her face.”

“What the fuck is that supposed—“ you started indignantly as your eyes darted over to Kaminari, only to get abruptly cut off by a tch.

“No promises,” Dynamight scoffed, then cracked his neck in a swift motion that you blinked at. The deep rasp of his voice made a shiver scuttle down your spine. You tensed your jaw and clenched your hands into fists. You needed to focus now. There was no playing around here. You took in a deep breath and exhaled slowly to calm down the remnants of your nerves. You could do this.

Kaminari made a shooing motion with his hands that you realized was an indication for you and Dynamight to step a few feet farther from each other. Once you both got into your positions, a few meters away from each other, Kaminari switched on his microphone and started announcing the match.

“Aaaaalright folks! The final fight for the night! The moment you’ve all been waiting for!” he yelled out as he walked over to the edge of the ring. You bit at the inside of your cheek and relaxed your form, noticing that Dynamight had gotten into a fighting stance himself. “Our reigning champion Dynamight against this pretty lady over here! Who will be the victor?! Who will be the loser?! Place your bets everybody!”

If you listened close enough, you could almost hear your two friends loudly cheering for you. It made your lips twitch slightly.

Kaminari slipped through the ropes along the ring so that he could jump onto the floor, leaving you and Dynamight alone on the platform. “Two minutes are all they get! And we start in 3”—you bent your knees slightly—“2”—Dynamight’s eyes narrowed—“1! Start!”

Immediately, Dynamight lunged towards you with a powerful right hook, aiming directly for your face. You had just enough time to duck out of the way to the left, eyes wide with the adrenaline that suddenly pulsed through your brain and body. His eyes darted to the side to follow your motion before he swiftly changed directions and threw a harsh left jab. You dodged it again, your movements light. He was certainly fast, keeping you on your toes, but you were faster.

Part of you wished—as you ducked and weaved around blow after blow—that you’d watched more of his matches to get an idea of how he fought. You only had that snippet from the previous match to base your assumptions on. It was clear, though, that he had reflexes to match an Olympic athlete’s. You could tell he was putting his all into every single one of his hits—not only in terms of raw strength, but also in terms of how calculated he made them. Not one of them was out of place. He really wasn’t messing around. Perspiration beaded on your forehead at the thought of how much one of them would hurt if it came into contact with any part of your body.

You couldn’t tell how much time had gone by. You were stuck in this seemingly perpetual dance with Dynamight on the offensive and you on the defensive. You bent backwards into a flip to dodge another one of his uppercuts, then immediately slid to your right to avoid another fast jab from him. You had gotten into the groove of constant movement, since he was trying to catch you off guard after every one of your dodges. Your heart pounded loudly in your ears and the only thing you focused on was the man in front of you. Everything else, everyone else, blurred out into the background.

Dynamight snarled when you dodged another one of his lower attacks. It was obvious he was getting frustrated with the way you just kept moving swiftly out of the way. You were starting to read him a bit easier now that you’d both been fighting for a bit, though there were definitely instances where you dodged a move from him by the skin of your teeth. He glared and bared his teeth at you, the watermelon pink of his gums peeking from under his upper lip. If looks could kill, you would’ve been dead a long time ago.

“Y’can’t keep dodging forever!” he growled, throwing another punch at you before ducking low on the floor to sweep at your legs. “Fuckin’ fight me properly!” You simply bent backwards into a flip again, though a quick glance behind you let you know he was slowly cornering you by the ropes of the ring—just like he’d done with the last match. That was fine, you could deal with that.

“No thank you!” you replied breathlessly, heart palpitating as you crouched below a reverse punch and let your body slide to the left. Did he want you to throw your feeble punches at him? Well… you could if you really wanted. You suspected a match with hardly much retaliation on one end would get boring after a while. And honestly, not to toot your own horn or anything, but the match would pretty much be over if you did decide to go on the offensive. Well… maybe a little…

Toot toot!

But really, you couldn’t do that to the arena’s top fighter. You didn’t want to—especially considering what that would mean for you afterwards: additional attention, fame, and the possibility of his fans hating your guts for the rest of your life. Maybe you were overexaggerating, but you knew it wouldn’t be too far-fetched. That wasn’t what you wanted for your little life.

Though, if he really wanted you to do something, you supposed you could.

You waited for the opportune moment—though, considering he was getting more aggressive with his punches, it didn’t take that long—where he threw a strong forward jab at you. It wasn’t all too hard to twist your body to the right to avoid it, though this time instead of darting away, you reached out and tugged his wrist forward and down. His force and momentum should’ve been enough to cause him to fall flat on his face, but he only stumbled a few steps forward. It was enough. You took the chance to lunge towards his back in a football tackle, slamming your shoulder as hard as you could into him as you used your feet to push yourself off the floor.

Dynamight made an indignant sound as he went down. You felt the impact in your legs as you both crashed to the cool ground, and you found yourself scrambling into a sitting position on his back to hold him steady. His skin was a bit slippery from his sweat, and you were able to feel how hot he was temperature-wise with how close you were to him. You braced your right arm across his upper back to hold him down, and used your left hand to hold his head against the floor. His ash-blond hair was surprisingly soft nestled between your fingers—not at all able to poke your eyes out like you'd thought. You grunted as Dynamight struggled and bared his teeth at you as much as he could with his left cheek squished to the floor. Fuck, he was strong. It took everything you had to keep him on the ground, your legs squeezing around his torso.

All you had to do was hold him here until he tapped out, right?

“Give in,” you grunted out through gritted teeth. Your muscles strained to hold him still, sweat rolled down the back of your neck. His crimson eye that wasn’t smushed to the floor darted to look up at you, the pupil tiny and angry.

“Like hell!” he snarled, and before you could register what was happening, he relaxed his muscles and stopped struggling. You blinked in surprise, then let out a yelp when he abruptly twisted himself to the side and shoved you off his back. You toppled over clumsily and immediately started to roll away before he could trap you against the floor. You had a split second to look up and see him lunge for your figure, a furious scowl on his face. Just a split second to decide what you could do.

You rotated your body around, your back flat against the floor. And just as Dynamight was about to crush you under him, you quickly lifted your legs up and locked your thighs around his neck. You liked to think the move had caught him by surprise, but before you could relish in the expression on his face, you threw your legs to the side with all your might. You allowed your body to naturally follow the motion and lifted yourself up with the help of your arms until you found yourself sitting upright on top of Dynamight’s chest. His face was slowly turning red as you squeezed his head between your thighs.

Your chest heaved with air, your heart pounding in your ears as you stared down at him. His thick hands were trying to pry your thighs away from his neck, but you were unrelenting. You reached down to grasp his wrists between your significantly smaller hands and attempt to tug them away. He bared his teeth at you like he was a ferocious dog, nearly foaming at the mouth.

“Give in,” you heaved out again. You may have had the upper hand, but this asshole was insanely tough to keep in one place.

“Fuck you,” he strangled out. Your mouth twisted, a comment about how he was in no position to do that lingering on your tongue. But before you could get snarky with him, he let out a mix of a yell and a grunt and did a fucking sit up. You had no idea how he was able to do that while you were sitting on his chest, squeezing the shit out of his head, but it made you lose your balance. You fell backwards onto his legs, a choked sound escaping your lips. Your eyes snapped up to his face as he leaned forward to squish you—

“AAAAAND TIME!!!”

You promptly released him, unlocking your legs from around his neck as you pushed yourself into a backwards roll off his legs. You puffed out a deep breath of air and stood up, blinking as you finally registered the loud cheers and screams of the crowd around you. With how focused you’d been on the match, you’d almost forgotten you were in a boxing ring. You flinched slightly when someone wrapped an arm around your shoulders and tugged you close to them, only to relax when you realized it was Kaminari.

“Would ya look at that!!” he roared out through his microphone, shaking you around a bit. “We’ve got a tie!! Don’t judge people on their looks, folks! Been a while since someone was able to stand up against Mr. Murder God!!” He turned to look down at you, a wide grin on his face as he said your name. “Anything you wanna say in the aftermath of this riveting and oddly sexy match?!!”

You gulped, sweating nervously as the microphone was brought up to your mouth. You looked around at the frenzied crowd before your eyes eventually fell onto Dynamight’s scowling face. He’d picked himself off the ground, his arms crossed over his chest as he glared daggers at you. His face and ears were so red they reminded you of ripe apples. You held eye contact with him, leaning down slightly to speak into the microphone.

“I always win,” you said calmly and the crowd practically erupted in screams again. Dynamight scowled deeper, his teeth grating together. You only gave him a smirk in response.

---

The moments after the match were, honestly, not what you’d been expecting. As soon as you jumped down from the ring’s platform, you were ambushed by Ashido and that red-haired man you’d seen earlier.

“Holy shit, girl!!” she yelled and shook you by the shoulders. “That was so hot!!! Where did you learn to move like that?! You evaded like, all his attacks!!!”

You gave her a grin and lifted your hands up to hold onto her wrists. “I did gymnastics and stuff a lot. Ever since I was a kid.”

“You were really cool up there!!” the red-haired man agreed brightly. You turned to look at him as he stuck a hand out at you. He was incredibly tall and broad-shouldered with dazzling white teeth that shined brighter than the sun. You felt even smaller standing in front of him than you did while you were sparring with Dynamight. “I’m Kirishima Eijirou, by the way, Dynamight’s best friend and trainer!”

“Nice to meet you,” you told him pleasantly as you shook his hand. It nearly engulfed your own. Ashido let go of you and clasped her hands together as she wiggled around.

“He’s gonna be so pissed that he didn’t win this one,” she said gleefully. Her lips curled into a wicked grin. “He wins everything, y’know? Getting a tie’s gonna hurt his ego so much, I’d be wary if I were you!”

“Wary?” You cocked your head to the side in confusion. “Why?”

“He’s gonna want to fight you again,” Kirishima snickered, “Won’t be able to deal with the loss.”

“But it was a tie,” you pointed out. “Technically not a loss.”

“It is to him”—Ashido rolled her eyes then seemed to notice something behind you—“Oh! Speak of the devil!”

You had but a moment’s notice before something strong gripped your shoulder and spun you around. You blinked and found yourself staring at a bare chest before you moved your gaze up to look at Dynamight’s snarling face. He had a white towel around his neck that he’d probably used to wipe the sweat off his face if its dryness was any indication.

“Yes?” you asked him to fill the tense air he’d caused to settle around you both. He let out a small growl then lifted his hand from your shoulder to poke it at you.

“You, me,” he gritted out through clenched teeth, “rematch. Right now.”

You only stared at him. Before you could say something, however, someone else joined your little group.

“Hey hey heeey, man, chill out!” Kaminari slid next to you. His microphone was gone and you took the small distraction to glance around the arena. The crowd was being ushered out by people in dark security uniforms. It made you wonder where your friends were. You should probably get back to them soon. “You just had a match, save it for later!”

“No,” Dynamight spat out, his gaze not moving from your own at all. You noticed his ears were still pretty red. “We’re goin’ again.”

“Dude,” Kirishima sighed, “c’mon, it’s been a long night.”

“Yeah! Not everyone’s got the energy like you do!” Ashido butted in, her hands on her hips as she raised her eyebrows at the boxer. He only let out an irate tch.

“I don’t fuckin’ care—”

“While I would love to stay back and fight again,” you interrupted loudly, “I do have to take care of my friends.” You paused for a second then added on, “My drunk friends. I can’t leave them alone.”

“See?” Kirishima gestured pointedly at you then reached a large hand out to clap against Dynamight’s shoulder. He roughly shrugged it off and Kirishima raised his hands in surrender. “Save it for another time, bro.”

Dynamight glared at Kirishima for a hot second then scoffed loudly, seeming to relent. “Whatever.” He stormed off to one of the benches and started shuffling around in what you assumed was his bag. You watched him, tracing your eyes along the muscles that made up his upper back, before you were roughly tugged back to reality when something slammed into your side and latched onto your arm. Two somethings.

“What the—” you managed to yelp out, stumbling slightly as your head snapped around to see your two friends clinging onto you eagerly, dopey smiles on their faces.

“I told you!!” your friend shouted in your ear as she shook your arm. She looked so proud, drunkenly holding onto you. “I— I told you you could take ‘im!!!”

“Where did you guys come from?? Did you hop the gate??” you asked confusedly. You were promptly ignored, not that you minded.

“That— That was so cool you were soo cool!!” your other friend blabbered as they leaned heavily against your side. You only shook your head, smiling slightly at them.

“Thanks, but I should really get you both home.” You let out a sigh and allowed them to lean against you and chatter away. Now that the match was over, you were starting to feel pretty tired. It didn’t help that you felt really gross, your jeans and blouse sticking uncomfortably to your warm skin.

“Want help?” Kirishima offered. “My car’s parked down the block.”

You hesitated. While you were thankful for the offer, you were still wary about piling into the car of a man you met literally five minutes ago. Stranger danger, and all that. You weren’t stupid, even if he did seem nice.

“Thanks, but I think I’ll just call an Uber,” you declined him politely. You hoped he would understand your reluctance, and it seemed like he did, for he didn’t seem offended in the slightest.

“If you say so.” He shrugged and stuck his hands into his pockets. You suppressed a relieved sigh.

“I could also offer y’all a ride,” Kaminari added in, giving you a wink when you turned your head to look at him, unimpressed.

“Bitch you came with me!!” Ashido slapped him on the back of his head, a scolding look on her face. Kaminari looked at her as he rubbed the back of his head. “You ain’t slick!!”

“Worth a shot.” Kaminari bowed his head and pouted at the floor. You cracked a smile. This was so strange.

“Well,” you started lightly, nudging at your friends to get them to ease up on their crushing grips, “I should head out—” Before you could even finish your sentence, however, Dynamight stomped his way back over to you and shoved something in your face. You blinked and looked up at him, the way he was pointedly avoiding your gaze. A flush was still around his neck and ears. It was kind of cute, not that you’d tell him that.

“Take it!” he impatiently shouted at you as he waved his hand under your nose. You raised an eyebrow, not noticing when Kirishima and Ashido exchanged sly looks.

“Oh, uh, okay.” You pried your arm loose from your friend and grabbed whatever Dynamight had been holding. Your two friends leaned closer to peek at it as well. It was a slip of paper with a name and phone number on it. Bakugou Katsuki, huh? It was fitting. You glanced up to look at him. “What’s this for…?”

He sneered at you, and you noticed he had shoved on a black tank top that fitted his torso quite nicely. “We’re havin’ that fuckin’ rematch, no excuses. Text me your availability.”

“Pfft”—Kaminari snorted into his elbow—“It’s like you’re setting up an appointment— OW!” He’d gotten punched on the upper arm by Dynamight. “Okay, okay, I’ll shut up, jeez.”

“You’d better,” Dynamight snarled at Kaminari, then turned back to look at you. “If y’don’t text me I swear to fuck I’ll hunt you down.” Was that a threat or a promise?

“It’s not that serious, luv,” Ashido muttered not-so-quietly behind her hand. You shook your head and smiled.

“No, no, it’s okay,” you said as you read over the slip of paper again. “I’m down for another match. It’ll be fun.” Your eyes flicked back up to Dynamight, fixing him with a stare that had the tips of his ears darkening further. You smirked and followed the bob of his Adam’s apple as he swallowed, then moved to hold eye contact with him again. “It’s a date then, Bakugou.”

[ggukkieland]

📕BTS Fic Reads - 2021 March pt. 1

I appreciate all these fics as they’ve provided me comfort, distraction, etc during these times. So thank you dear authors. Sending you love 💖

If you end up checking the fics in this list, please don’t forget to show appreciation by reblogging or giving positive feedback to these authors 🥰.

Note: if link doesn’t work, click on author and go to their masterlist

🥕 Ongoing - most recent chapter [as of date this list was posted] 🥕 Completed - completed one shots | series 🥕 S - smut | F - fluff | A - angst 🌷 with commentary on completed fics (if reading these help)

--- Some are new, some re-reads, while some are past reads that haven’t been reblogged yet. Mostly mature.

🥕[Ongoing Series] - Social Media AUs (SMAUs)

Catching Feelings @na-na-na-nanna​ - MYG | smau | Goblin!Yoongi, Fantasy, must kiss humans to gain human emotions | Crack, F, A, S [12/?]

Cursed @bloomsuga​ - KTH | smau with written parts | Supernatural AU, Witch!Taehyung, Cursed!Reader | Crack, F, S, slight A ! [3/?]

Just Facts @yoongiiverse​ - JJK | smau | Rich Idol!jungkook, Model Dancer!Reader, Enemies to Lovers | Crack, F [5/?]

Kinda Hot @kimnjss​ - KTH | smau with written parts  | Campus Flirt!taehyung, Bestfriend!Reader, Bestfriend AU, College AU | S, F, A [15/?]

Made of Honor @suhdays​ - KTH | smau with written parts| best friend AU, made of honor!au (like the film) | F, A [18/?]

Best Man @yoontaethings​ - KTH | smau | enemies to lovers, player taehyung? | F, A, S (written) [6/?]

🥕[Ongoing Series]

🌹 Jungkook

Almost Home [reposted/revised] @angelguk​​ - JJK | 27k+ | Single Dad AU, Nanny, slight Fake Dating | A, F [2/?]

Bands @xpeachesncream​​ - JJK | 55.9K+ | Idol AU, Stripper AU | A, F, S [14/?]

Confident @h0neypjm​​​ - JJK | 13.1k | Fuckboy AU, Virgin!Reader | S, F, A ~ [2/?]

It’s a Heartbeat @inkofyoongi​​ - JJK | 23k+ | Enemies to Lovers, College AU, their parents are dating, Jungkook is the South Korean Patrick Swayze and this will turn into a Dirty Dancing!AU nobody asked for 🤭 | A, F, S [1/?]

No Harm List @crazy4myself​​ - JJK | 93.5k+ | Mafia AU, Gang AU, Slow Burn | A, F [10/?]

Normal Kind of Love @/yoontaethings - JJK | 2.5k+ | Actor AU, Exes AU, Enemies to Lovers | A (so far) [1/?]

Open When @iluv-hobi​​ - JJK | drabble series, 2.6k | idol au, established relationship, epistolary | F ~ [2/?]

Picture Perfect @cosmoguk​​ - JJK | 5k+ | parents AU, exes AU (divorced) | A, F | [1/?]

Sleepyhead series @jkstompers​​ - JJK  | 18.2k+ | College AU, Seatmates AU, Crush AU (lol is there such a thing) | F, S

Sleepyhead - “you fall asleep during class next to the uni heart throb jeon jungkook, will you fall in love as well?” 1.8wc

Just to Study - “your seat partner asks if you’re free after class, just to study.” 7.4wc

Passing Notes - “a year of crushing and jungkook’s finally asked you out on a proper date.” 9k wc

Supermodel @koogalore​​ - JJK | 10K+ | Exes AU, infidelity AU, Jungkook is a jerk, Curvy!Reader, talks of body image | S, A [3/?]

The Realm @nottodayjjk​​ - JJK | 3.5k+ | Mystery, Fantasy, OC wakes up in a dark place not knowing where she is, afterlife feels | A [3/?]

The Weeping @themfchase​​ - JJK | 6k+ | Medieval, Dystopian, War, Fantasy AU, Romance, angels/demons | A [1/?]

Wasteland @iridescentjin​ - JJK | 4.5k+ | Sci-Fi AU, Post-Apocalyptic AU, isolation | A (so far) [1/?]

Your Love’s the Only Hoax I Believe In @sparklingchim​​ - JJK | 12.7k+ | College AU, Fuckboy AU, FWB AU, Tutor AU, Unrequited Love | A, S [2/3]

🌹 Yoongi

Birthday Girl @btsarmy9593​​ - MYG | 22K+ | one night stand AU, Noona AU, Professor!Reader, Post Grad AU | F, S [5/?]

Daechwita @/jinings (temp deact) - MYG | 20k+ | servant!yoongi - king!yoongi, princess!reader, period drama, Historical AU | All that Yoongi knows is that King Park must be killed- he just didn’t plan falling in love with his daughter along the way. | A, F, eventual S [2/?]

Silent Dreams @starlightauroras-writes​​ - MYG | 5.7k+ | Best Friend AU, sleeptalking OC while dreaming dirty thoughts about her best friend | S, F [1/?]

🌹 Multi/OT7

Holy Trinity @koyalov​​ - JJK x KTH x PJM | 9k+ | FWB AU, infidelity AU (other woman), Rockstar AU, Band AU, Bestfriend!Jungkook, FWB with other maknaes (yes it’s complicated) | A, S  [1/?]

Playmates @scribblemetae​ - OT7 | 22.6k+ | Idol AU, Sex Worker AU, Strangers to Lovers | S [2/?]

Roses @heejinnien​ - OT7 | 12.7k+ | Crime AU, Mystery, Horror, OC becomes target of the unsub | A [4/?]

by Author

Foxymoxy [AO3] - (JJK)  been following this author since last year (A Sea of Indigo, Hybrid AU) and her fics are amazing. Currently subscribed to these three (out of four) fics which get updated weekly:  🌷

Meadow (Wolf, Shifter AU, Arranged Marriage)

Amended (Arranged Marriage, Fake Marriage, Police Office AU, Childhood Friends, Enemies to Lovers)

Lowlander (Fantasy AU, Enemies to Lovers, Fighter Jungkook)

@jimlingss​ Drabbles 2021

Three Peas in a Pod || Fluff || Namjoon || Single Dad!AU 🌷

Suspended, Seduced, Surprised! || Fluff || Jungkook || E2L

Lotus Blooms in Mud || Angst || Jimin || Historical!AU

Buttering Up || Fluff || Yoongi || Chef!AU

The Office Trip to Pound Town || Smut, Fluff || Taehyung 🌷

Snow White and the Park Ranger || Fluff || Seokjin 🌷

Humdrum Amore || Fluff || Hoseok 🌷

Awaken Again || Angst, Fluff || Namjoon || Sci-Fi!AU 🌷

The Soulmate Gift || Angst, Fluff || Yoongi || Soulmate!AU

Floof’s Tail || Fluff || Jimin || Hybrid!AU 🌷

Take What Isn’t Mine || Smut, Angst || Jungkook

Crocodile Tears || Fluff || Hoseok || Pirate!AU 🌷

🥕[Completed Fics/Series]

Namjoon

Little Red @/bloomsuga - one shot | 22.5k | Werewolf AU, got lost in the woods, inspired by Little Red Riding Hood | S, F, A

Pheromones @rmnamjoons​​ - one shot | 17.5k | Spaceship Captain!Namjoon, Botanist!Reader, Sci Fi AU, Pining | S, F, A 🌷

Stuttering @moonlightchildz​​ - one shot | 11.6k | Tutor AU, Underground Rapper, College AU, Secret Identity | F, S  🌷

There’s a Fly in My Soup @sahmfanficbts​​ - drabble | 1.8k | Cafe Owner x Customer!Namjoon, Cafe AU, Strangers to Lovers, Crack  | F, A (in form of one very stressed OC) 🌷

You’ve Got a Friend in Me @wwilloww​​ - one shot | 3k | Bestfriend AU, Roommate AU, interesting idea to reduce stress levels | S 🌷

Seokjin

All I Ever Wanted @hayjeon​ - one shot | 10k | Teacher AU, Enemies to Lovers AU | F, S 🌷

Voicemail @joonary​​ - one shot | 7k | College Podcast AU, Friends to Lovers, Pining, Bestfriend AU | F (💕fluffy day reblog)  🌷

What Made Us Feel Human @joonsgalaxy​​ - drabble | 2.3k | Neighbor AU, thought neighbor’s noise is due to sex but it’s something else, Crack | F 🌷

Yoongi

Accidents @jungxk​​ - drabble 2.4k | Dad AU, Comedy | F (💕fluffy day reblog)🌷

Are You Still With Him @/joonsgalaxy - drabble | 1.7k | Roommate AU, Producer AU, Friends to Lovers, secret pining, use of song lyrics in the fic | F (I really love how it made use of different song lyrics in the story) 🌷

Avec Mes Souvenirs @palpitate-hyperventilate - one shot | 3.5k | Nikita!AU, Assassin AU, Trainer Yoongi | A

Dad Yoongi + Pawful Experience by obiwrites (through reblogs of her old posts) - drabble | 2.1k | Husband AU, Dad AU, presence of Holly and one resistant Yoongi | F (ugh this is the cutest) 🌷

Earn It @sugasbabiie​​ - one shot | 5k | College AU, Professor AU, PWP,  PLOT TWIST! | S, A 🌷

Hidden Stars @jungblue - series [5/5] | 37.3k | Idol AU, Love Triangle, some reference to infidelity | A, F, S  (a reblog of old faves) 🌷

In Character @kookingtae​​ - one shot | 5.7k | Pornstar AU, “actor au where yoongi plays a burglar who breaks into your house and has his way with you.” | S 🌷

Listen Closely @avveh​​ - one shot | 12.2k | Office AU, Coworker AU, accidently received a recording of Yoongi 🌶🥵💦 | S (reblog) 🌷

Love Language @gukslut​​ - one shot | 5.3k | Established Relationship, use of the Love Language concept | A, S, F (reblog) 🌷

Overstayed Welcome @kaep-jjjang - one shot | 7k | secret crush on yoongi, yoongi to the rescue when a one night stand won’t leave, friends to lovers | S

Selfish @write-this-way-please - two shot [2/2, sort of discontinued] | 3.8k | Coffee Shop AU, kinda hated each other, then a bit of surprise by end of Part 1 | Part 2 feat Namjoon | S, A

Slip @kinglykook​​ - one shot | 5.2k | Roommate AU, Enemies (kinda), OC slipped | S (a rediscovered fic 🤩) 🌷

Tsundere @dovechim​​ - one shot | 11.2k | College AU, Resident Advisor | S, A (a reblog) 🌷

Hoseok

To The Beat of My Heart @jeonggukingdom​​​​ - one shot | 7.2k | Dancer AU, use of mirror 🥵💦| S, pwp 🌷

Written on Our Veins @army-author​​​ - two shot [2/2] | 33.2k | Soulmate AU (💕heart day reblog) 🌷

This is Not a Love Story @sincerelyourfangirl - one shot | 8.7k | breakup au, infidelity, but happy ending for OC | A 🌷

Jimin

Cordially Jimin @kpopfanfictrash​ - one shot | 6.1k | Office AU, Epistolary (through correspondence), Humor | F (💕fluffy day reblog) 🌷

Saturday Mornings @craztextae​ ​ - drabble | 2.2k | Pining AU, Strangers to Lovers(?), Plot Twist! | S 🌷

Girls Like You [Don’t] Run Around with Guys Like Me @ktheist​ - one shot | 4k | popular!reader x shy!jimin, Rich Kids AU, FWB AU, College AU, ends as CEO (PJM) and Racer (OC) | A, F

Taehyung

A Letter in Roses @artaefact​​  - one shot | 8k | Husband AU, CEO AU, appearance of Yeontan | F, implied S

A Timely Malfunction @/joonsgalaxy - drabble | 2.9k | time travel, friends to lovers, prompt:  “What? No, I never said that.” | F

College FWB Drabble + PDA + Miscomm @yukheii - drabble | FWB AU, College AU | F (seriously this is super cute) 🌷

Handsy @jinned​​​ - one shot | 3.7k | Roommate AU, Bestfriend AU, Childhood Friends AU, Pining | taehyung helps her during time of need | S, F 🌷

Hold Still @/joonsgalaxy - drabble | 2.1k | CEO AU, use of flashlight 🙈 | S, pwp ( I’ll Never look at flashlights 🔦 the same way again)

Not Even Close @lovetrivia​​ - drabble | a powerful 600 wc | enemies to lovers, college au, hookups | S, pwp, A 🌷

Of Mages and Swords @masterninjacow​​ - one shot | 40k | Fantasy AU, King Arthur AU, Royalty AU, Action, Romance | A, F 🌷 #holygrailfic

Potent But Not Real @whatifyoulivelikethat​ - one shot | 5k | Assassin AU, Office Worker Taehyung | S, A

Talk Slow @writtenwhalien​​ - one shot | 6.4k | brother’s best friend, Exes AU, never have I ever game | A, S, F

The Temp @jkeuphoriadreamland​​ - one shot | 8.2k | Enemies to Lover, CEO AU, Taehyung has arranged marriage with someone else (headed for divorce) | S, F 🌷

Jungkook

gets a separate post due to too many fic reblogs 😬 (see link below for PART 2)

I love to read so feel free to recommend a fic posted: 2021 March 24 link to other reading lists  | Mar Part 2

[ghosts-and-blue-sweaters]

have you talked about cut/suu/baby yet, i see 'baby' and i start vibrating with excitement lskjfkljdsf

YES OKAY I AM QUITE EXCITED ABOUT THIS THANK YOU SO MUCH :D

I came up with and started writing this story a year or two ago, before The Bad Batch released and completely ruined my plans-

Basically, Suu gets pregnant and the whole family (Cut especially) is VERY excited about the new addition to the family. I’d planned on writing 9 chapters, one for each month of Suu’s pregnancy. They range from Pure Fluff to adorable romantic softness to Cut Coloring With His Children and even a “drill”—Cut slips back into his army days and organizes a practice exercise for when Suu needs to go to the hospital. It fails miserably

I only got to one and a half chapters before I lost inspiration… and then The Bad Batch came out and I realized! That Suu was not pregnant! And there was no baby! So my plans were ruined!

I guess I could revise it where it takes place AFTER The Bad Batch… but Shaeeah and Jek would be much older and I really wanted to write them as little kids, like they were in The Clone Wars ),:

So I guess this is an AU… *sigh*

Maybe I should post the first chapter soon…

I hope you enjoyed—I freaking loved answering!!!

[out-of-this-dimension]

Hypothetically Rewriting Assault’s Story + Some General Assault Opinions

There’s a game my husband and I like to play when we watch a movie, play a game, or read a book that has a story that we don’t really enjoy or we enjoy certain parts of but not others.  We look at things we’d keep and things we’d change and we build a story from there-- sort of like an AU but we don’t really go into the writing part, we just stick to theorizing and mapping a general story.

I decided to play that game with Star Fox.  Not because I think Star Fox has a bad story but because sometimes I think the stories could have been handled better.  Note: for the rewrite game, I only really look at story, even for video games, I don’t really look at gameplay mechanics, but I do understand those have a lot to do with story potential so I do take it in as a factor... I just don’t bother to “rewrite” the mechanics, if that makes any sense at all.  Some of my list today will include boss encounters but I wouldn’t necessarily say those are mechanic-related... more like “event-related”.

I’ve mused a bit in the past about rewriting Adventures and Command and I do have plans to do a mock up of an Adventures remake eventually.  However, today I was thinking about how I would go about handling an Assault re-write in particular.  Much like Command and Adventures, I don’t have any beef with the core story but I do think there’s a few things that could’ve been better about Assault’s storyline-- like they had good ideas rolling but they didn’t quite refine them.

Under the cut because SUPER long.

My basic feelings on Assault are pretty positive.  I think the game is generally just fun and I like that it feels like the natural progression from SF64.  I liked getting to see planets we haven’t seen since the N64 era in better graphics and I liked seeing Star Wolf return.  I also just thought the aparoids were neat enemies. 

Generally speaking, though, when it comes to Assault, I think it suffers from the thing it tries to push the most-- the story.  I think a lot of people get caught up in thinking the story is better than it is because it’s the first game since SF64 that really follows the same Star Fox vibe without retelling the Lylat Wars.  Don’t get me wrong, the overall plot is great but the execution and pacing are... wonky.  Certain characterizations also take a hit in some regards but no one really talks about that when Command exists. That’s something we’ll talk about later on with this post.

That being said, Assault really does have a lot good going for it.  An absolute banger of a soundtrack, some great dialogue, a neat story synopsis, the introduction of cool characters like Panther and Beltino (who existed but was always off-screen), and just good levels.  

So, here’s what I would add, I suppose, if I were to somehow have the ability to rewrite Assault.  Originally I had this in paragraph form, but I’ve made it into more of a list under topic segments with main points bolded for your viewing pleasure.  Some of these points might be considered nitpicky and while I do understand that yes, this is a game about space animals, I do hold the developers in high enough regard to make a game with a continuity that makes sense.

The Story Changes

- Reduce Pigma’s storyline in Assault.  This is the biggest one for me because a bulk of the plotline feels like a giant chase to just get at Pigma and it feels like it derails from the actual plot with the aparoids.  We only go to Sargasso because of Pigma.  We only go to Fichina and then back to Meteo again, because of Pigma.  That’s 3 levels in a 10 level game devoted to just tracking down Pigma and chasing him.  While it makes the build up to fighting Pigma kind of nice, I personally feel like the plot could be reduced to 2 levels.  If Assault overall was a longer game, I could see them making it 3 levels.  Overall, though, in its current state, I feel like the side plot overstays its welcome and the aparoids promptly get shoved to the side in favor of “Oh no, we gotta get to Pigma!” And I get the main motive here is to show how the aparoids affect people and because of the build up, it does a good job at showing how utterly terrifying the aparoids are.  But it’s still too long given the length of Assault’s story. The only alternative to this is make Assault longer, which... honestly, it should be.  

- Revise the scene with Tricky.  I’m obviously not well-versed in dinosaur biology but I’m pretty sure dinos didn’t grow that fast from what studying I HAVE done.  And why is he suddenly king now?  Did his parents die?  He seems not affected by this at all?  Like it’s a funny scene with him, Fox, and Krystal, but it’s odd if you really look at it.  Give us, as players, more context because I’m still not even sure what happened to make Tricky suddenly the leader and... big.  As a note, you’re gonna hear me gripe a lot about the Sauria level in this post.

- The Star Wolf + Peppy sacrifice is a low effort way to raise tension/stakes and then cop out.  Oldest trick in the book, imo, is to act like you’re going to kill off important characters only for them to be alive miraculously.  And let’s face it, as an audience we all know they aren’t going to kill those characters because it’s Nintendo and those characters are too beloved.  I would’ve forgiven them for only doing this with Peppy or Star Wolf, but when you tack them both together and throw in the fact they make it seem like you’re going to have to kill General Pepper too... yeah, it’s just a bit much of the same trope over and over again.  I wanted to put a note in here about how I’m fine with the Great Fox being “sacrificed” but overall, it needed to return to the series because of it’s icon status, but I think that’s more of a gripe at Command instead of Assault.

- Keep Pigma alive.  This will conflict with a point I have later on about the game consistently having characters cheat death for easy drama points but with Pigma, I would’ve kept him fully alive... but maybe with some physical damage from the aparoids.  I understand he’s semi-alive in Command and tbh I don’t know where I stand on that.  Why keep Pigma alive, you might ask?  I feel like his character has a lot more potential than being “just the greedy guy”.  Like he’s got good potential future villain material for future games and... if I’m honest?  I just don’t see Nintendo wanting to keep Pigma dead so why even bother killing him off?  They couldn’t even commit to him being dead in Command anyways so it seems very moot.

- Bring Bill and Katt back.  Assault is acts a bit like a big reunion of all of our SF64 favorites but our two favorite side characters are suspiciously missing.  Wouldn’t Bill be out on the front lines fighting against Andrew in the beginning?  Or maybe back in Katina?  And wouldn’t Katt inevitably show up in the midst of the invasion, maybe to pointedly check in on Falco?

- Bring Andrew back for the final fight. I think Andrew being defeated early into the game is fine overall but I think bringing him back in for a reunion final fight against the aparoids would serve to really solidify that it’s really everyone vs the invading aparoid force.  It would show that not only is Star Wolf willing to put aside their differences but so is basically everyone in the Lylat System in the name of survival.  Imagine the Venomians and Cornerians working together against an aparoid fleet, giving Star Fox and Star Wolf time to attack the queen?  I just think it’d be neat and it’d open up the potential for some fun banter mid-mission.  I do understand that quite a few people consider Andrew canonically dead after Assault but personally, I feel that his defeat left his fate questionable (I’m a staunch believer that unless there’s a body, they’re probably alive, especially for Nintendo games because, again, they never like to kill people off) so him returning in Command never really bothered me.  

- In general, reconsider some of the character portrayals.  Unfortunately, when a series has a different studio for each game, character portrayals will inevitably have inconsistencies.  While I give Namco a lot of credit for putting in oodles and oodles of detail into the game (particularly the levels), I think they failed in their portrayal of Fox, at the least, and Wolf is a considerable offender as well.  While it’s obvious that Fox in Adventures was effectively modeled off of Sabre even in terms of personality, Rareware was at least able to justify Fox’s newfound jaded attitude with the passing of many years and a distinct lack of steady income, resulting in the team being in disarray.  Assault’s Fox is a stark contrast to his cynical interpretation with seemingly no explanation other than maybe “Oh, I have more money and a gf, maybe I should behave myself”.  As if the sudden change in personality wasn’t random, Fox also just seems very blah, like a blank slate stereotypical shooter game protagonist dude with little to no emotion.  Wolf is less obvious but gets slated into a mentor-like role midway through the game and ends up in a respectful rivalry with Fox... which there’s nothing inherently wrong with that except for it happening abruptly (and, I mean, Peppy is right there).  But I take less issue with this and more of an issue with the fact that there’s an entire level establishing that Wolf now runs a crime den with effectively what seems to be an army and no one bats an eye at this.  He doesn’t even call on them to help with the aparoids.  Did they all die when the aparoids attacked Meteo?  Are they safe somewhere else?  Where do they go?  How was Sargasso able to operate without the CDF being on their doorstep with warrants for arrests?

- Don’t kill all the dinosaurs.  A bit of a dramatic statement but the ending screen that showed all the damage to Sauria really bothered me.  While I understand that the dinosaurs had less of a chance against the aparoids than a more technology-focused society like Corneria, I was a bit disappointed that the decision was made to just state that a lot of tribes had been wiped out.  I know this could easily be retconned in a future game and I feel like it should be.  “But why, Amalia?  Why are you disappointed by that?”  1) It’s a little too grimdark for my tastes.  2) The fact it all happened off-screen felt very hand-wavy.  And 3) It brings into question the entire point of Adventures.  Why did we bother to save this planet if it was going to be reduced to rubble and ash 1 year later?  Where were the Krazoa in all of this?  Why did they not make an appearance at all to try to stop the invasion with their alleged powers?  It just raises too many weird questions and I feel like Namco didn’t think it through too much.  Which I mean, sure.  Family, kiddo game.  I’m not asking for bigbrain plot and lore but I’m squinting at this bit because it does feel very contrary to the lore from the previous game.

- Make the aparoids more relevant.  As nice as it is to have a random bad guy from another galaxy, I feel like there was more that could be done with the aparoids in terms of their origins.  Tiny things, mind you, not huge revelations.  Off the top of my head, they could have been tied into Krystal’s backstory to help alleviate some of the complaints that she was too random to be added to the series’ main cast.  Alternatively, they could have been a product of Andross or even a weapon prototype from Corneria that fled the lab (I actually thought the game was leaning in that direction for a bit then just Nothing Happened).  I get that the vagueness of their origins leaves room for people to speculate and speculation is nice but... when you leave too many things unknown, it starts to feel less like giving fans room to interpret and more like just doing random things for the sake of it.  I think a lore tidbit here or there would work wonders for the aparoids instead of leaving them as just borg/zerg clones.

Level-Based Changes

- Add either Aparoid RedEye or Aparoid General Scales as a boss to Sauria.  Given that this level mysteriously lacks a boss, which is just weird compared to the other levels, I think that they had the opportunity to add something cool to go along with the cinematic feel they were going for with Assault.  Assault’s cutscenes do play in a movie-like fashion and it’s clear they’re trying to make the game as epic as possible.  It’s a shame they had so much fodder for a great boss here but they failed to go through with it.  Alternatively: Add a Krazoa-Aparoid fusion.  Why?  Because Star Fox is about cool epic sci-fi and that would be cool epic sci-fi incarnate.

- Add a boss to the Aparoid Homeworld Level, aka the penultimate level.  Another one I felt was personally weird that there was no “final defense system” to challenge the team.  Would be cool to do an aerial battle over the aparoid planet with some giant flying aparoid.

- Be kinder to Sauria.  The level had some good homages but overall was incredibly small and incredibly short.  It felt like a bone tossed to Adventures fans but was not entirely true to the setting built by Rareware.  I’m... not even sure where the Sauria level is supposed to take place?  I presume it’s Walled City but it doesn’t really have the same color scheme or aesthetic?  Also where is my revised Adventures music?  Why do all the other levels get it but Sauria doesn’t? 

- Put some of those funky items from the multiplayer into the main campaign.  I don’t know why some of these things, items especially, were omitted unless it was purely due to time constraints.  I remember having missile launchers and jetpacks in the multiplayer and was a bit sad that they were not in the main campaign.  Retuning the levels and adding those in would be a nice breath of fresh air for the more tedious on-foot missions.

- More levels.  Self-explanatory.  Still sad we didn’t get the Zoness or Titania levels in the single-player mode.  

I think all of the above changes would improve the game, though I recognize all of this is being said 16 years later after lots of time to contemplate Assault’s weaker points.  I’m not entirely certain how long Star Fox Assault took to develop but given that there’s obviously quite a bit scrapped from the game (an entire arcade mode was scrapped as well), I’m going to assume that the studio felt pressured to shove the game out the door and into the hands of customers.  It’s a shame, really, because I think a little bit longer in the oven would have done a lot of good.  Still, the product we got was good in its own right and a game that many people look back on fondly.  I haven’t gotten to replay it in years but I hope to quite soon.

You might wonder why I bothered typing this all out and I guess my point was this-- Assault was great but it wasn’t perfect, and while a lot of other games fall under a crushing amount of scrutiny, Assault seems to dodge it.  And don’t get me wrong-- I adore Assault.  But given that not many takes exist out there about rewriting it, I decided to give it a shot.  For variety’s sake.  

I do want to a mock up of a revised Assault story, which I think I will get to work on after completing this while all my ideas are still fresh in mind.  So stay tuned for that sometime in the near future.  I will also be doing my Adventures mock up at some point but probably not for a little bit as I do wanna focus some of my free time on actual fic-writing.

Anyways, if you stuck around this long, thank you for reading!  Have any changes you’d like to see to Assault if you could time machine your way back to the early 2000s?  Feel free to post in the comments, I’d love to read your ideas!

[chopperfancard]

I just had this idea for my AU's Megalon

So when I was looking through my older toho kaiju reimaginings, and I felt quite unsatisfied with how I executed a lot of them storywise. So much so that I'll likely do redesigns of these illustrations. Ironic, a redesign of a redesign. These redesigns would also probably include revised stories aswell. To the nitty-gritty, here's my revision for Megalon's backstory:

Megalon, like Ghidorah and Gigan, is an alien specimen from beyond the lenses of Earth. Like both Ghidorah and Gigan, he would likely have extremely bizarre biology. One particular idea I had was Megalon's exoskeleton being completely made of copper. Like how Ghidorah's scales are gold, this would explain why Megalon also conducts electricity. And also had the idea that Megalon doesn't actually have blood, rather, his brain acts as his heart, and is connected to his horn in some way, which conducts electricity, and his veins all act as wiring.

Now, Megalon would have arrived to Earth alongside Ghidorah, Gigan and the rest of their alien army to claim another planet, as they have essentially turned conquering and killing planets into a hobby of their's.

Megalon would have been sent to take care of the Hollow Earth, per command by Ghidorah. However, Megalon would have been fascinated by the beings he found in Hollow Earth, especially the human tribes of the world there. While Ghidorah and Gigan were getting their shit wrecked on the surface, Megalon was bonding with the creatures and humans. He swore to protect them at all costs, and he considered Hollow Earth his home for long.

I believe he even likely got a similar treatment to Godzilla, and got a whole city built for him, somewhere still intact in the Hollow Earth.

In the modern day, Megalon would come out of hibernation, disturbed by the advanced human technology of the expeditioners coming from the surface kingdom. And all of the humans he came to care for were all gone. He swore to protect them, but he let who knows what happen to them? He was quick to blame it on these new technologically advanced humans from the surface, and began stalking through some of Monarch's established forces, and acted tactically to figure two and two.

He eventually destroyed the bases he knew of, and his new mission was to get to the surface, and lay waste to everything this humans built, like how they did to his home.

MONARCH meanwhile, was dealing with Gigan, whom they had revived while renovating his corpse with highly advanced technology made by the remains of Kiryu in 2030. Gigan had made it to Megalon, and the two joined forces once more to bring waste to the surface.

Godzilla would attempt to fight them, but he would easily be swept by the two. Due to Megalon's advanced geographical knowledge similar to that of MUTO Prime, Megalon would have caused a landslide that would cause Godzilla to fall into the Earth, presumably killing him.

Jet Jaguar would show up, to fight alongside Godzilla to these two aliens. Yadayada, heroes win, like they always do. Everything is fine and dandy again.

Megalon and Gigan would make a return in the Final Wars chapter, where they are cybernetically boosted (for the 2nd time in Gigan's case; sheesh...) by MONARCH, with the specific purpose of killing Godzilla, which would subdue all the Titans from attacking humanity as per his request.

Gigan would be deployed to battle Mothra and Godzilla, the two were at conflict with Mothra seemingly trying to bring reason back to the king. Gigan would strike at them both, Gigan would stand a fair chance against both monsters, but he would he defeated, Megalon was deployed by the TCTF and MONARCH to finish the job. But he doesn't fare much better either.

Keizer Ghidorah arrived at the scene where the four titans were. Whom was awakened by humanity from a large asteroid unearthed whom was wreaking havoc, but was lured using a complete ORCA device to cause Godzilla and Keizer to fight.

Time for my real big idea now though, Megalon would notice Jia as one of the onlookers from the destroyed GOTENGO. He would instantly recognize her as one of his ancient worshippers, the Iwis. Jia convinced him to inspire Gigan to fight back and turn on Keizer. Megalon went to Gigan and the two helped Mothra and Godzilla in the battle. After Keizer Ghidorah was defeated, Megalon impaled Gigan with his drills, and initiated his self-destruct. He knew the unbalance that both he and Gigan would cause in this world, after all.

This world did not belong to them, they were invaders, and Megalon refused to live as the planet-destroying monster he was for so long, and he wanted to free his closest ally Gigan of the same burden. So, the two exchange a moment, before they both turned to ash.

KNOWING ME THERE IS NO WAY THIS WILL BE FINAL

[depressedhatakekakashi]

Usually a Royal Au is a magnet for angsty times but what if Sakumo and Dai lives in this universe and they get to live in a peaceful semi-retirement, looking over how dorky their sons are and seeing them fall in love !!!

I'm such a sucker for Shikaku and Kakashi being student and mentor tho T.T That's so cute, how young are squire's usually? or is it like canon where Kakashi is so much of a genius that he's just following around the head of the tactical devision in all his tiny six year old glory lol XD and no matter how high up you are, if he thinks you screwed up and your plans need serious revisioning he would definitely let you know

Now imagine some punk ass kid chewing out the "Stupid Official OC" before a meeting where they present their plans to Shikaku and absolutely destroying them "How dare you even think of trying to present this trash to Shikaku-san?? If you attack at Point B their stationed army at that base will outnumber us immensely and did you even think before planning on sending out Squad Delta on Location D?!? There are high spots all over- you're basically asking for them to get ambushed, Did you not read up on the enemy at all?? Or take even a cursory glance at the map at how stupid your plan is and how many casualties it will cause-" Shikaku along with Inoichi and Choza walked in at some point during the "chewing out" for some early lunch before the meeting but honestly they were so impressed and energized by the sight alone lol XD

Hehehe i do love to think of retired Sakumo and Dai chilling out and watching their son’s fall in love. Usually in a royalty au i do make Gai a prince, thus Dai a king and uh…

Ya, there’s usually only one way for a new king to take the old ones place XD there’s a few, but one main way. But i could see Dai and Sakumo still doing their jobs as King and Knight and watching their son’s becoming friends (Sakumo always has to be at the castle so he lives on the ground) and slowly falling in love. It’s such a sweet story and The two old man want to cheer them on

I do think Kakashi would still be a genius, but also not rushed through the ranks like in the shinobi world. So he could start young as a squire who mostly takes care of aiding the knight, but still go about the course of training regularly (though in one knight fic i have i do have him being knighted at a very young age of 16 which wasn’t normal at all for the time) but he absolutly has the personality of ‘you did this wrong, fix it!” So i could see him chewing a person out

The best part of that chewing out though is that Kakashi does it with a completly straight face. They can tell with his words that he’s upset, but his face doesn’t give it away for even a second. He’s dripping with anger at the audacity but you can only tell if he’s speaking.

And this poor man stucking listening to a kid chew him out? Fumbling and getting angrier every second Kakashi rips into him because he’s an official of the kings advisors and who does this kid think he is?

Kakashi being known first and foremost as Shikaku’s trainee, which is a high honour but nothing to boast about, and then only when he needs to demand some form of respect instead of being looked down upon will he whip out the ‘i am Hatake Kakashi, Son of Hatake Sakumo’ which usually has Shikaku groaning cuz now the person who made him say that is REALLY in for it

[moonlitdiane]

Hello! I moved from my old blog, @dianethus​ to here, you can probably call this a re-intro!

Diane | 18 | Filipino-Chinese | She/They | Pansexual | Scorpio | xNTP | Neurodivergent | Psychology Major | Graphic Designer | Practicing Wiccan

I’ve been trying to write since I was around 12 years old with silly little k-pop and percy jackson fanfics. Even though I cringe now whenever I think about the things I wrote, I still believe it was a necessary phase that all writers have to go through to become better.

I mainly write for the #OwnVoice movement that focuses on the South East Asian experience and especially the experience of being queer in an Asian environment. I aim to give the queers of Asian history whose stories never got to be told a voice. I write to expose the world to Philippine Mythology and the stories passed down from ancestor to ancestor. I also aim to conjure up nostalgic imagery in the readers' minds.

low fantasy. I'm not that really good at world building but I'm in love with the idea of everyday magic.

supernatural.

historical.

angst. I'm SORRY but writing and describing pain is a different kind of joy for me.

found family. I'm gay.

cosmic motifs.

enemies to lovers. oh for someone to see all my worst parts and still fall in love with me. also consider: childhood friends to enemies to lovers.

religious trauma & guilt. I went to a catholic school what did you expect?

The Revolution Will Not Be Vilified.

Evil Is Sexy.

Trapped In Another World. I want to be Isekai-d so bad.

Song Fic. Most of my titles are actually song lyrics or my basic outlines follow the structure of a song.

“Slender Aphrodite has overcome me with longing for a girl,”

Somewhere In Limasawa Street is a queer historical fiction story set in 1898 when the Philippine-American war is just beyond the horizons and 19 year old mestiza, Lucena Candella is in the middle of a war with herself. Sheltered and painfully aloof, she meets brave but brash, Urduja Kalangitan, who is as emotionally aware as a rock and who happens to be the Revolutionary Army's best gunman—maybe that's what pulled quiet Lucena to her.

Between paper planes, porcelains, and battle scars, Lucena slowly learns to love, and that scared her. It scared her because she wasn't allowed to love that woman with the scarred smile and wild hair.

This is my main WIP and my passion project. I really wanted to write something that I can dedicate to the queers of history, the indigenous and people of color whose queerness is never told.

The title is a reference to Limasawa Street by folk pop band, Ben&Ben, I actually used the album and a few singles as inspiration for the plot. 

WIP Playlist. This story will be unapologetically Filipino.

“Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not make room for the devil,”

The Devil’s Choir is a low fantasy story following the adventures of seven unlikely friends who just want to go apeshit and run away from their shitty town. That is until they’re thrown into a you-need-to-save-the-whole-world mess without their written consent. Lucifer and Dionysus show up at their door step, dragging them head first into an abyss that even the Gods refuse to fall into. A war between the golden age and the future, it’s now up to this peculiar gang to save the world from the real threat.

The seven deadly sins but make them moody teenagers. this story has gone through so much revising for years! Found family, enemies to lovers, and unwilling heroes? check.

Unintentionally a copy of American Gods. It was too late until I realized the plot was kind of similar to American Gods. Help. 

WIP Playlist. I smell chaos, don’t you?

“It is true, we shall be monsters, cut off from all the world; but on that account we shall be more attached to one another.”

Manila Encounters is a paranormal urban fantasy story unfolding right in the pearl of the orient seas. When the clock strikes 3 AM and the lights of the skyscrapers turn dark—when the city sleeps, the monsters roam free. Deep between the alley ways of Manila city, look out for kids with a certain glow and bite behind their smiles. Look for the ones with sunkissed tans who speak in tongues. Look for the ones whose feet barely dip into murky bay waters and fingertips grazing moonlight. 

A dummy’s guide to Filipino folklore. Manila Encounters was inspired by a hashtag on Twitter of the same name where people wrote their own twist to Filipino urban legends and folk stories.

Oh great, another Percy Jackson rip-off. the main characters are demi-gods or descendants of Gods. Original, I know.

WIP Playlist. driving at midnight sort of vibe.

"You may forget but let me tell you this: someone in some future time will think of us."

And I Love her is a queer romance story about a girl who just recently moved into an old but well maintained cottage in some seaside town in Europe—and she finds in the middle of dusty furniture and underneath cobwebs, a rotary telephone sitting there unused for decades. It rings unexpectedly one day and what greets her is a soft voice belonging to someone who lived 60 years ago.

a dreamnotfound fanfic inspired this. and the South Korean horror film, The Call. 

gay yearning agenda. so much yearning. so much. I’m projecting.

WIP Playlist. My pain fits in the palm of your freezing hand, taking mine, but it's been promised to another

A selected list of fics from my AO3 account. It’s gay.

I drowned a long time ago. Sakusa Kiyoomi isn’t in love. He’s devoted. Serial Killer AU.

Maaaring bang magkunwaring akin ka pa? A Tagalog Haikyuu fic based on the movie, Camp Sawi.

Marupok na puso ko. A Tagalog Haikyuu fic where they do the Filipino thing and get drunk.

My good puppy. My first try at writing smut. Jesus Christ.

Be my mistake. Where Kuroo Tetsurou calls up Tsukishima Kei one last time.

Make it hurt. The two times Atsumu Miya saw the entire universe behind Sakusa Kiyoomi’s eyes.

I still have a lot of stories that I hope to finish, I find it hard to discard or erase story ideas. So I hope one day, you can all watch me finish this list.

We Don’t Belong Here / Viva La Filipinas / Luna De Sangre Conspiracy / Lilith and Lysander’s Guide To Immortal Godparents / Lonely Hearts Club / A Lady’s Guide to Princes and Principles / Attack Block / Empty Thrones /  A Double Take / Stupid Cupid / Idle Town / Alice? / The 30 Day Deal / Lost Stars / The Apocalypse Program / Heartstrings  / Disastrously Danae

[inevitably-johnlocked]

Hi Steph, I recently read Do No Harm by @calaisreno and I was hoping you had some more fics with the same premise? John is being wrongfully persecuted for a crime that he didn’t do and Sherlock has to prove his innocence. I’m forever grateful for your help, and also Happy Holidays!

Hi Lovely!

First, because you recced it:

Do No Harm by Calais_Reno (T, 79,203 w., 16 Ch. || 1920′s AU || Murder Mystery, Flappers, Drugs, Developing Relationship, Period-Typical Homophobia, POV Sherlock, Trials, Prison) – In 1923, Dr John Watson is on trial for the murder of his lover, Mary Morstan, a writer of popular mysteries. If convicted, he will hang. Sherlock Holmes sets out to prove his innocence, but finds himself more and more infatuated with the handsome doctor, and deeper and deeper inside the bohemian world of London's painters, playwrights, and poets. Will he uncover the evidence needed to acquit him in time?

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Secondly, Ahh, I haven’t read the story yet so I can’t rec anything with absolute certainty. But I think I have read a fic or two with “wrongfully accused” John:

A Building of Bridges by Unique (K, 12,325 w. , 3 Ch. || Drama, Alternate First Meeting, John’s PTSD / Flashbacks, Mute John, Dialogue-Heavy, Caring Sherlock, Friendship) – No one would ever send Sherlock in to diffuse a stand-off; but on one unlikely day, that's exactly what happened. "Congratulations, Lestrade," he called out sarcastically. "You're traumatizing a war veteran."

To Mend Icarus by AlessNox (T, 29,186 w., 14 Ch. || Post-TRF, Friendship, Drama, BAMF!John, Emotional Turmoil, Introspection, Harry is in this Fic, Angry John, Happy Ending, Queerplatonic Relationship) – After a case lands John Watson in court, he tells Sherlock that he is leaving. Not understanding why, Sherlock decides that the only way to learn the truth is to investigate his flatmate, Dr. John Watson. A revision of the story Mending Icarus.

Just To Hold You Close by sussexbound (E, 70,841 w., 18 Ch. || Alternate First Meeting, Sherlock POV, ASD Sherlock, PTSD John, Demisexual Sherlock, Bisexual John, Cuddling/Snuggling, Platonic Cuddling, Enthusiastic Consent, Bed Sharing, Love Confessions, First Kiss/Time, Sexual Tension, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Cuddle Negotiations, For a Case Until It Isn’t, Hair Petting, Sexual Negotiation, Anxiety, Trust Issues, Slow Burn, Panic Attacks, Frottage, Hand/Blow Jobs, Referenced Self Harm / Abuse / Suicidal Ideation, First Kiss/Time, Anal) – When a woman is murdered and the last person to see her alive is recently invalided army vet turned reluctant (and prickly) professional cuddler, John Watson, Sherlock Holmes is pulled into a world of intimacy and intrigue he never could have imagined. John is a conundrum and mystery: frank yet reserved, tender yet angry, open yet afraid. Sherlock is instantly drawn into his orbit, and begins to feel and desire things he never has before.

Darkling, I Listen by You_Light_The_Sky (T, 73,254 w., 8 Ch. || Fairy Tale AU || Loosely Based on Beauty and the Beast, Magical Realism, Suicidal Themes, Romance, Creepiness, Adventure) – No one who enters old London ever comes out. They say that the beast devours them. When his sister disappears, John ventures into the dead zone beyond the wall, and finds a brilliant madman under a terrible curse... Part 1 of Darkling I Listen + Extras, Deleted Scenes

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Those are the ones I remember immediately, but I know I’ve read more. Anyone able to offer us some more???