#FANON HAS POISONED YOUR MIND

[drum-bot-brian]

i hate it when people make it seem like sam had a good childhood bc dean kinda parented him! like obvy dean did but in the show hes clearly shown to be just a normal teenager who went on a bunch of dates too? he left sam im pluckys for like hours and sam was pretty severely neglected bc dean started hunting with john and leaving sam alone? like this isnt anti dean bc he was just doing teenager things and trying to spend time with his dad but we need to consider the fact that sam had a imaginary friend at like 12 bc he was so lonely and ran away when he was a kid bc he hated hunting (read john) so much! like sam would have known how hard it was to be a kid and he valued his studies a lot so it must have been bad for him to have run away. all those people he thought he was not taught how to hunt need to remember the fact that sam was given a gun when he was still scared of the dark. and even if he wasnt hunting do you thing john winchesters kid wouldnt know how to defend himself? also consider his heavens being when he got away from his home? his random thanksgiving when he was like 13 was better than any times he spent with his family basically

[mm-lurking]

Russian Roulette of Poison - Aventurine

A business deal, lies and a poisoned wine glass is how you find yourself in Aventurine’s arms, crying bitter tears of pain. A/N: I started playing Penacony and met Aventurine. Had some ideas brewing so here you go.

Warnings: Aventurine x fem! reader, angst drama and tension, I made up half of the stuff I say here, its all fanon, there is no logic only feelings

WC: 2356 — It’s another grand night in the magnificent land of dreams, Penacony. The Dreamscape Hotel is bustling with the most renowned guests and exquisite catering befitting for such a place. Everything glimmers and dazzles from the floor to the ceiling, there is a joyous melody playing in the background and the most unique conversations you have heard. But none of that matters to you as you sit at the far end of the lobby anxiously observing Aventurine, your situationship, and that lady next to him. From your position, you can only make out their figures but it is enough to make you nervous.

You massage your temples as you ponder on what is going on between them. Aventurine stands in front of the bar with a hand in his pocket and a wine glass in another with a smug smile on his face as he converses with that lady. Judging from her pose, she seems to be relaxed and friendly almost as if Aventurine was a long-lost friend she had reunited with at Penacony. Judging from her clothes, she seems to be someone of high status and wealth. Your head starts to throb as you dig through your mind and try to figure out where you had seen her before. She looked so familiar but why couldn’t you figure out who she was?

There’s a saying that goes: trust your gut. Trust your intuition for it tells you something is wrong before you even realise so. And right now your gut was sending you signals that something wasn’t right about the conversation between those two. That you had to interfere and see for yourself what was going on. In this land of dreams, even the brightest smiles hold sinister intentions and you knew for yourself you couldn’t trust anyone wholeheartedly here.

So you make up your mind and slowly walk over to them both, the bright lights shining over you as you move from the darkness of your corner back into the dazzling atmosphere of the hotel. Your eyes are fixated on the lady this time as she grabs two wine glasses off the counter and pours sparkling wine into them. Just like everything else in this room, the wine fizzes and reflects the light of the gleaming chandeliers in the room. Your eyes narrow immediately as she pours the wine into his glass; the subtle yet obvious change in the liquid immediately alerts you it's poisoned.

To your surprise, Aventurine casually just takes the glass and swirls it around, smiling at the woman while doing so. Now, you didn’t doubt his abilities -of course not! There is a reason he had earned the notorious reputation he has today. If life was a poker table, he always had a royal flush in his decks. Even if the odds weren’t in his favour he always found a way to turn the tables. Life was a grand gamble and he would always be the final victor, the one with the most chips and most wins at the table. Only a fool would misjudge a mastermind such as Aventurine.

But this was different. You were almost certain he didn’t know his wine was poisoned. To the untrained eye, the wine would appear as normal but to you, an expert in toxicology, it was obvious as hell. Years of forensics and cleaning up murders meant you were often able to predict danger before it unfolded.

“Don’t drink it..!”

Before you register your actions, you are already standing in front of Aventurine and the guest as you tightly grip his wine glass and look at him in panic. He glances at you momentarily with a confused look before shaking his head.

“It is rude to stop me from consuming a drink that was especially poured for me don’t you think?”

“My my, who do we have here? Care to introduce her, Aventurine?”

The woman interrupts your conversation and you turn to look at her, nervously fidgeting with your hands as you think of what to say. She doesn’t look angry but the way her eyes narrow slightly implies she isn’t too happy either.

“Oh her? I coincidentally ran into her at Penacony. She occasionally works with the IPC if contracted.”

Aventurine answers for you and you blink at him before quickly nodding. No, you both being here in Penacony was not a coincidence; he had brought you here with him given your…special relationship with him. The woman smirks and lifts her wine glass higher, swirling it intently before staring right into your eyes.

“And this friend of yours has quite the nerve to interrupt us so rudely don’t you think, Aventurine?”

“The guests on Penacony are always a handful.”

He replies and you sigh quietly. Of course, he wouldn’t really take your side just because you both were into each other. You weren’t boyfriend and girlfriend, but not exactly just friends either. Friends don’t kiss each other secretively while passing in the corridors. And friends definitely don’t spend the night together every few days. Keeping your complicated relationship status aside, business was business and right now you looked like a fool interrupting their conversation like this.

“The wine is poisoned Aventurine. Don’t drink it.”

You ignore the way they both take jabs at you and glance at Aventurine. You tightly grip his wine glass and try to take it away, but it doesn’t budge. The laugh the woman lets out in disbelief makes you turn your attention to her as she stares at you and scoffs.

“Poisoned? Are you out of your mind?”

“I saw it myself.”

“You saw the wine being poisoned? In this room full of people?”, she stretches her free hand and motions around the room at the bustling atmosphere surrounding you three. There were already eyes on you from the beginning and now more people were starting to look in your direction from the way the guest loudly spoke. Embarrassment creeps in and you feel yourself turning pink from the awkwardness of the situation. Regardless, you stay resolute and repeat your thoughts.

“I remember what I saw very well, madam. My eyes do not lie.”

You look straight into her eyes and she rolls them, clearly outraged by your accusations.

“You have quite the audacity to assume I would poison the wine of my dear guest so publicly.”

Aventurine watches quietly and seeing how neither of you were backing down he tries to calm down the tension.

“Hey, let's not go there now-“

“How about this, friend of Aventurine, since you don’t believe me, why don’t I drink the wine myself to prove to you that the wine isn’t poisoned?”

She cuts Aventurine off and smiles at you slyly as she raises her glass high in the air and takes a large sip of the wine. You nervously gulp as she pushes the glass away from her lips and looks at you.

“See? Nothing happened at all. You are embarrassing yourself.”

“But-”

“Enough. You’re humiliating yourself now. Everyone is looking at us, friend.”

Aventurine hisses into your ears and you feel your heart drop at the lack of his understanding of you. The shame and discomfort causes tears to form in your eyes and you harshly gulp, unwilling to show your weakness. Whispers and chuckles erupt in the air as you hear people talking about you and pointing fingers at you but you shake your head and focus on the situation at hand.

The woman keeps talking, insulting your intelligence and common sense but you’re too focused on your thoughts to fully register anything. You rack your brain as you try to think about how to prove yourself. It doesn’t take too long for you to figure out another path. Right, that must be it. If he wasn’t going to believe you then-

Without a word, you snatch Aventurine’s glass forcefully and take a sip of his wine. He is unable to stop you in time as the sparkling wine runs down your throat and the instant you swallow the liquid a bitter burning sensation sets in your throat.

-you would have to prove yourself in the most extreme way possible. Just as you suspected, it wasn’t the wine but the glass itself that was laced with poison. It was not strong enough to kill you immediately but not weak enough to set in slowly either. You stop momentarily and stare at the glass before gulping down the rest of it completely.

The average person would assume that the bitterness in their throat was the result of the strong wine; continuing to take slow sips throughout the party and allowing the small yet steady dosage of the drug to cause harm. This way the perpetrator wouldn’t be traced back so easily among the various servers, bartenders and guests. Yet you drinking the wine down in one go meant only one thing.

“!!!”

Aventurine stares in horror as the wine glass shatters on the floor and you fall along with it, choking and gasping for air. Loud gasps echo in the room as people watch everything unfold. You feel nauseous and an overwhelming amount of pain in your body from how the poison sets in so rapidly. Blood drips out of your mouth as you cough and tears follow. He quickly drops down to your level and takes you into his arms as he hurriedly observes you. The look of horror soon turns into full-blown anger as he looks back up at the guest, who is now smiling evilly without saying a word.

“You-!”

His voice is laced with frustration and shock; though he wants to say more, nothing comes out of his mouth. You don’t ever remember seeing Aventurine this mad. How his eyebrows knit together and his eyes are illuminated with fury as he stares at the guest makes you mentally chuckle even in such a state.

“A fool should never interfere in the wiseman’s plans.”

The guest completely ignores Aventurine and looks straight at you while speaking before scoffing and walking away. Aventurine wishes to run after her but he reconsiders when you weakly stroke his arm to stop him. He looks back at you with a sad smile as he tries to help you.

“A-Aventurine-“

“Silly girl. What on earth made you do that?”

You foolishly smile back at him and attempt to take a deep breath which makes you cough harshly.

“You never trusted me…even at the moment you didn’t believe in me…” His eyes widen and he exhales slowly. You both had a rocky relationship since the beginning. In between the romance and intimacy, there was a gaping hole regarding the emotional connection and understanding of each other. The trust you had in each other wasn’t firm and he definitely didn’t trust you as much as you trusted him.

“I…”

He doesn’t know what to say. He’s still processing his emotions as his gaze flickers back and forth between you body and the spilled wine. Seeing you like this deeply hurts him but he knows he hasn’t been the best man to you. Had he had faith in you and listened to your intuition, would you still have ended up like this?

“Anything for you Aventurine…anything…even if you don’t love me as much as I-“

“Don't. Please.”

He had never lost a gamble or a bet. Everything and everyone in his eyes was a chip at the table, a token to take a risk with to go big or go home. But tonight, his favourite chip was at the losing end and nothing could turn the bet back into his favour. You can hear his rapid breathing as he calls for backup and help all while trying to keep an eye on you. He couldn’t appear weak, even in such a position, he couldn’t show others how tightly his fist was clenched underneath the table.

He continues to hold onto you tightly, shouting orders and clearing the crowd to get you medical assistance. His panicked voice is all you remember before your eyes shut close and your breathing becomes almost undetectable. – In a quiet corridor, away from the main hall of the hotel, the guest dials her top contact and patiently waits. Once the line connects, she exhales.

“The job is done.”

A small laugh is heard over the guest’s phone after she speaks. She can hear the loud rustling of papers and items on the man’s desk before he replies.

“Good.”

“Despite the memory loss induced in her, it seems she still hasn’t learnt her lesson.”

“Oh?”

“Same foolish woman. Even after such a tragedy her mind still does the same pattern of behaviour that got her in trouble.”

“She didn’t remember you at all, Sapphire?”

“No sir.”

“Good.”

A moment of silence follows. Sapphire inhales slowly, wondering if she should speak her mind. After all, she was the guest Aventurine had been talking too and just like him; another member of the Ten Stonehearts. Regardless of their differences of opinion, he was still a colleague.

“You have something on your mind. Say it.”

“Sir…what about Aventurine?”

“He won’t know a thing. Besides, what happened to that girl is none of his concern.”

“..right.”

The call ends with a click and the man sighs as he places the handset back into the receiver. Besides the telephone, his nameplate glistens on the table glitters like the very gem he is named after, a Diamond. He rubs his temples and frowns as he recalls your case from seven years ago.

“Looks like you have caught on our little trick, infiltrator of the IPC. You were found in the wrong time and the wrong place. Lucky for you, your forensic skills are too excellent to throw away.”

“Can’t answer me? That is fine. Besides, I have no choice but to cause a slight corruption in your memory. Such a shame, Sapphire and you would have made good friends. A little electric shock is all you’re going to need and we will overlook your charges.”

“Oh my, fighting back are we? Don’t worry, there will be nothing left to fight for once we are done with you.” ⋇⋆✦⋆⋇ ©mm-lurking 2024 do not copy, steal or reuse my work.

[musashi]

hie so…. Inquiring minds wish to know…. Is your ace attorney discord server respectful and welcoming to folks with “problematic” ships and headcanons and stuff? Or is it a touchy subject

"problematic" has no real meaning (like, problematic by who's standards?) but as long as it's not like... super major illegal stuff (like lolicon and actual incest) no i don't give a shit and the vibe of the server is "who give a shit"

but if you're talking about like. maligned / "condemned" ships by the annoying cunts on twitter and tiktok yeah we've made a point to make it a welcoming space. we have dedicated narumayo & cykesquill channels and there's a lot of other stuff of that flavour in the more general shipping channels like mitsumei and narumei and whatever else people like to make up problems about.

as for headcanons again like you'll have to be more specific... you're talking to a person who famously got excommunicated from the fandom simply because i think manfred von karma is nice to his kids. the ace attorney fandom is full of pearl-clutching, joined-fandom-during-covid, fanon telephone worshipping meangirl puritans with such abysmal media literacy skills that i struggle to believe they're not doing a bit most days.

i legitimately have no idea what you mean when you say "problematic" because to this fandom my silly little lead poisoning headcanon once got me accused of being a real life pedophile. like you gotta tell me what you mean here fghfdghgf

[bestworstcase]

the fanon that cinder Does Not Know Anything is really just. kind of funny. i do think—among people who’ve picked up what the narrative is putting down with her—it’s partly a reflex to ‘soften’ her in anticipation of the villain -> hero arc by abrogating her agency: of course if she knew the truth about salem, she wouldn’t do these terrible things. of course she’s only salem’s misguided, mindless little puppet. it makes the possibility of a turnaround more palatable.

but it requires cinder to be an idiot, which she demonstrably isn’t.

if hazel and watts are informed about and have prior experience dealing with silver-eyed adversaries, and speak openly about this without rebuke or intervention from salem, then how likely is it really that cinder knew nothing? how likely is it that, somehow, she still knows nothing after experiencing the glare firsthand?

similarly the assumption among people who think summer has been hounded always seems to be that cinder doesn’t know… but salem made not the slightest effort to hide the hound from her and, vague on the details or not, confirmed that the hound was unusual—an experiment—when cinder asked. if summer is alive as some sort of hound-like being, why would salem take pains to hide her from cinder, but not the hound?

if cinder doesn’t know salem’s plans, why does salem speak to her like cinder is informed? the answer is that of course salem is lying, but the problem with that is salem has been remarkably consistent across millions of years about envisioning a new world, in some form or another, and if that’s still the case then she’s telling cinder the truth. do we trust what ozpin says while he’s expressly trying to scare hazel into betraying her? is tyrian a reliable narrator?

“you’re free to speak your mind,” salem says, and then answers the questions cinder asks. in a roundabout way, true, but her meaning is not difficult to piece together.

“your newfound strength brings with it a crippling weakness” + “you will have what i promised you, but remember that it comes with a cost” + “there’s only so much i can do to aid you”—if this is salem trying to hold cinder under her thumb by making cinder feel weak and worthless and desperate for power only salem can give her, then salem is straight up a terrible manipulator. “you can have the carrot but bear in mind that it’s poisoned. oh, and don’t depend on me, i can’t help you.”

if she’s dangling the maiden powers to keep cinder on a leash, why does she tell cinder repeatedly to be cautious of them? this power you’ve asked me to give to you will weaken you and open you to greater harm. remember what it cost you last time. be careful.

like either:

salem is a complete idiot who doesn’t grasp that undermining cinder’s desire for the maiden power will weaken her hold over cinder, and cinder is stupid enough to be fooled anyway; or

salem truly believes that killing maidens or gaining more magic will put cinder in greater danger, and she gives cinder an honest warning because she wants cinder to be cautious.

and this is true of most things salem says to cinder; if one presumes that the story is well-written, which it is, then it usually makes more sense to interpret what salem says as truthful, if vague, and presume cinder is generally better-informed on salem’s plans than the audience is.

[sk8erboi04]

Achilles Come Down is Regulus coded and I can PROVE IT!!

Okay so I have literally never posted anything on the site, I literally just exist as a ghost that likes silly funny things, but I have been inspired so severely and I physically can’t not say something.

Picture this.

I was driving my car, minding my own business and absolutely vibing, when all of a sudden a song auto-plays that I haven’t heard in like, three years.

‘Achilles Come Down’ by the band ‘Gang of Youths’ hit me like an emotional truck, and outside of how beautiful that song is on its own (literally if you haven’t heard where have you been go listen to it NOW) that silly little fandom worm we all know wiggled its way into my brain and gave me the most violent fanon idea I’ve ever had.

*Ahem*In this essay, I will explain how ‘Achilles Come Down’ is a perfect representation of Regulus Black and his relationships with Sirius, James, and his parents, as well as his inner turmoil as a character.

Okay, so to start, we are running on the idea that James and Regulus have or at least had a relationship in some capacity. I will accept one-sided feelings on James’ part, mutual feelings but never official, or officially together for any stretch of time. If you are not a Jegulus shipper, your mom’s a hoe, but you can enjoy the familial aspects at least, so there you go.

Beginning with the song as a whole, there are three voices we hear singing at different moments throughout the song, each with their own intention and influence on the song’s subject. Within the song's narrative, we listen as Patroclus tries to inspire Achilles to fight for his own life and push through his hardships, while Hector tries to poison Achilles' mind with self-doubt and despair.

As I mentioned though, there is a third voice that appears throughout the song that speaks French in the time between the characters fighting over Achilles’ well-being and the chorus. This character’s identity is unknown as far as I can tell, but his narration is far more metaphorical regardless and we’re not gonna get into that until later(though each instance will be numbered for later reference), in the meantime, we can move on to the lyrics and how this is so incredible Regulus coded and how I KNOW I’m right.

The song starts with the opening lines:

Achilles, Achilles, Achilles, come down - Won't you get up off, get up off the roof? - You're scaring us and all of us, some of us love you - Achilles, it's not much but there's proof - You crazy-assed cosmonaut, remember your virtue - Redemption lies plainly in truth - Just humor us, Achilles, Achilles, come down - Won't you get up off, get up off the roof?

Now this first stanza reads to me as an emotional James, trying to convince Regulus that there is still time to join him and Sirius and the other marauders and to get away from his parents/Voldemort. Perhaps at this time, Regulus is feeling like it’s too late, maybe he already has the dark mark, but James is begging him to understand that it’s okay, and he still has time to make the right decision.

After a few lines in French (1) from our third voice, the original voice continues:

Achilles, Achilles, Achilles, come down - Won't you get up off, get up off the roof? - The self is not so weightless, nor whole and unbroken - Remember the pact of our youth - Where you go, I'm going, so jump and I'm jumping - Since there is no me without you - Soldier on, Achilles, Achilles, come down - Won't you get up off, get up off the roof?

At this point, I still believe this is James, becoming even more desperate to save Regulus and bringing up their time at Hogwarts and the relationship they had at that time. Now, I personally believe they would still be together in the context of the song, but it works from multiple angles, playing at possibly a past relationship that’s now over but still treasured, or a one-sided thing for James where he’s still trying to reach Regulus in a way he never could. Regardless, this is James’ hail-mary, saying if you do this, you will leave me empty; an attempt at reaching Regulus emotionally, even if that means threatening his own well-being.

From here we move on to the chorus:

Loathe the way they light candles in Rome - But love the sweet air of the votives - Hurt and grieve but don't suffer alone - Engage with the pain as a motive

Today, of all days, see - How the most dangerous thing is to love - How you will heal and you'll rise above

Now this is clearly James and Sirius (and whoever else you want on the side of goodness) reaching out to Regulus, but the first half gets a little tricky. I’ve taken it to mean Regulus loathes the way they do things with the order of the phoenix and Dumbledore, but loves the grace, safety, and love they show. (this is related to hating what Rome is doing ((lighting the candles)) but loving the results ((the sweet smell))) They call out to him saying “you will hurt to leave what you know, and you will be afraid but you don’t have to be alone in this. We are fighting because of the pain they have caused you and everyone else.”

The second half of the chorus is much simpler, speaking to how literally the WHOLE THING in ‘Harry Potter’ as a franchise is that love concurs all, and that while it would be dangerous to leave the dark side, he can heal and rise above his family and history through ~the power of love~.

After some more of our French gentleman(2), we hear from our second voice:

Achilles, Achilles, Achilles, jump now - You are absent of cause or excuse - So self-indulgent and self-referential - No audience could ever want you - You crave the applause yet hate the attention - Then miss it, your act is a ruse - It is empty, Achilles, so end it all now - It's a pointless resistance for you

This is Regulus’ parents, discouraging their son from following in his brother's footsteps in their terrible parenting way. Speaking of how he would be selfish to leave, how Sirius would never want to see him again anyway, and how it would be pointless to fight what they have already predetermined for his life.

A little more French(3), and then we’re back to the original voice:

Achilles, Achilles, just put down the bottle - Don't listen to what you've consumed - It's chaos, confusion and wholly unworthy - Of feeding and it's wholly untrue - You may feel no purpose nor a point for existing - It's all just conjecture and gloom - And there may not be meaning, so find one and seize it - Do not waste yourself on this roof

Now THIS is Sirius talking. He argues against his parents' negative influence and tries to convince Regulus that everything they’re saying is a lie. He then relates to Regulus, referring to his own experience of leaving the family and how he felt hopeless and lost, but calling Regulus to action to find meaning outside of his family (cough* James *cough) and push forward, not letting the family and Voldemort waste his life.

We then hear an updated chorus:

Hear those bells ring deep in the soul - Chiming away for a moment - Feel your breath course frankly below - And see life as a worthy opponent

Today, of all days, see - How the most dangerous thing is to love - How you will heal and you'll rise above - Crowned by an overture bold and beyond - Ah, it's more courageous to overcome

Not much to say here tbh. I don’t have any strong feelings on a different interpretation one way or another, other than the fact that ‘it’s more courageous to overcome’, is something Sirius was able to do while Regulus, unfortunately, couldn’t, and maybe this was destined, as Sirius was a Griffandor and Regulus (in my opinion) actively fought being placed in his brother's house and thus, couldn’t show his true courage until the cave.

A tiny more French(4), and then THE moment the fight comes to a head (note that the ‘good’ voice is the one in parentheses and/or italicized):

You want the acclaim, the mother of mothers (it's not worth it, Achilles)

More poignant than fame or the taste of another (don't listen, Achilles)

But be real and just jump, you dense motherf#cker (you're worth more, Achilles)

You will not be more than a rat in the gutter (so much more than a rat)

You want my opinion, my opinion you've got (no one asked your opinion)

You asked for my counsel, I gave you my thoughts (no one asked for your thoughts)

Be done with this now and jump off the roof (be done with this now and get off the roof)

Can you hear me, Achilles? I'm talking to you

I'm talking to you

I'm talking to you

I'm talking to you

Achilles, come down

Achilles, come down

This is very dense, but I think the obvious back and forth of the voices speaks as well as it can to the fight of good vs evil in Regulus’ mind as he tries to grapple with what he wants and knows is right vs the pressure of the dark side and the fear of its wrath. I DO especially like the line about being more than a rat, simply because of the symbolism with Pettigrew and how Sirius/James are reaching out and trying to save Regulus, all the while, their friend is being swept away as well.

A bit more French(5) and then the last iteration of the chorus:

Throw yourself into the unknown - With pace and a fury defiant - Clothe yourself in beauty untold - And see life as a means to a triumph

Today, of all days, see - How the most dangerous thing is to love - How you will heal and you'll rise above - Crowned by an overture bold and beyond - Ah, it's more courageous to overcome

This last bit, when listened to with Regulus in mind, comes across as very hopeful. Throw yourself into this unknown, but safer reality, do it ferociously and courageously, and surround yourself in the light of these good people who want to help you. See that your life is not condemned, you can live to be happy for yourself.

Whoa! That was a lot my friends, but now that that's settled, let's get into this FRENCH! (also the fact that they speak French, it’s literally too perfect) I’m just going to translate and do all of it in one big chunk for clarity and also this is already a mile long😅.

I see that many people die because they believe that life is not worth living. I see others, who are paradoxically killed for ideas For illusions, which give them a reason to live (What we call a reason to live is at the same time an excellent reason to die).

Of a building manager who had killed himself it was once said that he had lost his daughter five years ago, that he had changed a lot since then, and that this experience had changed him

What triggers the crisis is almost always uncontrollable. The newspapers often speak of “intimate sorrows” or “incurable illness”. These explanations are valid. But we should know if, on the same day, a friend of the desperate person did not speak to him in an indifferent tone.

The memories of a lost homeland, the hope of a promised land. This divorce between the man of his life, the actor and his setting, is properly the feeling of absurdity.

Either yes or no. this would be too easy. But we must make allowance for those who, without concluding, always question. Here, I am hardly being ironic, this is the majority. I also see that those who answer “no” act as if they thought “yes”.

Now, if you just read that all and were like, WTH girl, what even was that? Well, let me tell you! Every instance of French in the song is an excerpt from ‘The Myth of Sisyphus’, a book written way back in 1942. Why does this matter? In all honesty, it kinda doesn’t😅. Sisyphus was a king who figured out how to cheat death so everyone could live forever, and it SUPER ticked off the gods, so now he’s stuck rolling a boulder up a hill forever and ever.

I have racked my brain trying to tie this into the Regulus stuff, but it’s just not working so now you just get to know what the French stuff is about and that’s gonna have to be good enough, I’m afraid😂

ANYWAY, with everything combed through and all the parallels pointed out, I hope you can go listen to this song with new ears and get on my wavelength about it! Enjoy your life, you know, drink some water, viva la vida loca and all that.

TLDR; I’ve decided ‘Achilles Come Down’ is the perfect depiction of Regulus trying to get away from his parents' harmful ideations while being called to by Sirius/James who are attempting to save him.

[caffinatedcastiel]

explodes you

i read your fic (very interesting so far) and you said youd like to talk turtles ‼️ whats your interp of bad future donnie?

Is explodes

Hello there, my first turtle caller. I’m very happy to answer your question (with some information omitted to avoid spoilers for my Leader Future Donnie fic)

Im going to mostly focus on Donnie’s role as leader here- since that is probably where my interp of future Donnie differs from most fanon, but I can go into his interpersonal relationships and other details at another time too if that is of interest.

I like the concept of Donnie taking the lead at the start of the invasion due to Raph and Leo’s conflict that we see at the start of the Rise movie. Raph has learned from the end of the series that their way of life is not just dangerous, but is life-threatening. He’s seen this through Splinter’s memories and the death of Karai. So post-series and pre-movie, he wants to impart that onto Leo so he doesn’t have to learn it the hard way by losing people. Leo sees this as a lack of trust in his abilities and a criticism of his leadership, and gets defensive as a result. They both want to see their family succeed and thrive, but ultimately get in their own way while doing so. They are teenagers, they get insecure about their place. It unfortunately happens to play into a larger conflict they had no knowledge of.

This conflict and strife is what brings the team to fail circa the start of the first Krang invasion. Leo and Raph’s fears both come to light when they lose and resentment has the opportunity to boil over and poison the team’s dynamic. As such- neither are in the right mental or emotional headspace to lead effectively.

Enter Donnie. Donnie already has had a few lessons in leadership without actually taking on the position in the past. We can see this in a few circumstances.

In Donnie’s gifts and Mind Meld, Donnie is doing what he thinks will be best for the team. He gives his brothers technological aid (just as he has given himself with his battle shell) and enhances their mental performance (in a way that is exactly like him, focusing on intellect rather than other points of knowledge). And it doesn’t work because his brothers are not Donnie. He is the brother that probably understands best that trying to get people to do things the way he would, rather than they would, is not the way to lead.

These circumstances also help to expose Donnie to failure. Of the turtles, Donnie has had the ability to fail and recover quite often (Lair Games anyone?). To fail is to be a scientist. It doesn’t paralyze his decision making process as badly as it might with his brothers. He just pivots to find the next thing that could work. (and some things he’s just bad at, but he does anyway!)

Additionally, I headcanon that Donnie is the turtle that came to terms with his and his family’s mortality first out of the brothers. The creation of his battle shell is especially telling here, but a majority of his tech also reflects this. The Turtle Tank having defensive and offensive capabilities, Donnie’s gifts, the Donnie pods… Donnie knows that at any point, something can come around that can hurt his brothers and take them out of his life. So- he chooses to focus on evening the odds rather than despair over the possibility.

I also headcanon this as to why Donnie is less in tune with his mystics at first. Hamato Ninpo is triggered by the desire to protect the family. Donnie’s always been able to protect his family with his tech. It’s only when that fails that he needs to look inward for other options. (Example- Raph unlocks his mystics when he jumps after Leo from Big Mama’s roof. Donnie didn’t need to. He had his tech to protect and catch Mikey). And it still manifests in the way he has protected his family in the past- through manifestations of things he can build.

While this has led him at times to feel that his tech is his best and only contribution to his family, he has also had opportunities to accept that isn’t true. This is especially evident during his time in Witch Town. He failed, seemed discouraged and hopeless about who he is and what he is able to do- but April pulled him out of that. It is just really unlucky that Leo didn’t have that chance as leader. His first major obstacle just happened to be near unbeatable.

End-all-be-all: Donnie understands he can’t do everything himself. He understands that he needs other people to succeed and people have areas of knowledge that he may not understand that will push them to their goal of survival. He’s grown out of his pride to an extent and is able to see how to make up for his weaknesses with other people’s strengths (though his ego still can surface, he is still a kid after all).

These experiences and details all combine into how I see Future Donnie operating. He makes sure people are put into positions where they can thrive and in positions where they can fail safely. He doesn’t want people to get discouraged at their odds, so a structured environment that is built for learning and growth is his focus for regular, non-leadership positions in the resistance. He’s seen how pressure has impacted the people in his family (including himself) and doesn’t want the life threatening and dangerous world they now inhabit to lead to an implosion of panic and hopelessness through any level of his ranks. He knows firsthand that is the best way to lose.

He also employs this logic with his inner circle. Mikey is a particular asset when considering the well-being of people during their day-to-day operations. April’s extensive experience from her many different jobs makes her personable and versatile in assigning positions. Raph and Casey aid in training staff and soldiers and Leo focuses on scouting and recon. (Donnie also makes sure people have a rotation through positions they are good at, positions they like, and positions that they need multiple people to learn. He doesn’t want anyone to feel like they are “just the science guy” or anything of the sort. He feels that the focus on roles in his family did ultimately lead to the divide that got them in this mess).

I like to think that if the Krang were any less unbeatable and Donnie and his family actually had time to prepare in the way they did with the Shredder- Donnie’s leadership would be successful. He got an impossible hand, but also does help queue up their actual success in the movie.

This turned really long- and I apologize if it isn’t exactly the answer you were looking for. But I absolutely love the purple turtle and could keep going on and on if I don’t force myself to stop here. Thanks again for the question ❤️

@docaid

[thnksfrthmmrs]

truly about to live up to your askbox title 🫡 so. danger days. much of the canon lore is very vague, so a lot of it is fanon-based, but i'll try to stick with the canon stuff here.

the two main sources for the lore and visuals used by the fandom are the two music videos for Na Na Na and SING, linked at the bottom of this ask, and several comic books written and drawn by Gerard Way. the comics aren't strictly necessary for understanding the story (i haven't read them), but i've heard they're cool! there's also a twitterverse but not very many people pay attention to that because the timeline is different from the videos and comics.

the album itself is part of the lore as well, but again since the timeline differs from the videos and comics it's less important

the setting: post-apocalyptic California, 2019. nuclear war has devastated the continent, leaving the Mojave Desert as some of the only remaining inhabitable land. a corporation called Better Living Industries, sometimes called BL/ind or just Better Living, has monopolized on the chaos to basically take over what remains of society, and they created this city called Battery City.

Battery City is a dystopian place, figureheaded by a woman known as The Director, with the motto "keep smiling". this city prioritizes conformity and same-ness over everything, it's very monochrome and emotionless, and i can't remember if it's canon or not but it's a universally accepted concept that they drug their citizens into compliance.

the Killjoys are those who have rebelled against BL/ind and Battery City, and they left the city to live in the desert. as part of their rebellion, they dress in garish neon colors. very loud, very gritty and grimy, basically the killjoy aesthetic is the antithesis of Batt City. many people headcanon that most of the killjoys are trans or nonbinary or at least gender non-conforming, which is a super fun headcanon and i agree with it :3 killjoy names are usually two words that aren't normal names, like the ones below. the more outlandish the better !!

the major characters that you're largely gonna hear about are the Fabulous Four: a crew of killjoys portrayed by the members of MCR in the music videos. there's Party Poison (gerard way), Jet Star (ray toro), Fun Ghoul (frank iero), and the Kobra Kid (mikey way). a common phrase in the fandom is "the killjoys are not MCR", which is important to remember because for all intents and purposes in danger days, they're just actors.

the true protagonist of danger days is The Girl, who is crucial to both music videos and the comics, but unfortunately she's usually relegated to an afterthought in a lot of fics.

the antagonist who you'll see the most of is Korse, the bald guy in the music videos. he works for BL/ind and is often headcanoned to have a particular hatred for the killjoys, but portrayals vary.

i feel like i'm missing stuff but if you have more questions i'm happy to answer :33 danger days was my first real fandom so i hope this somewhat makes sense !!!

Na Na Na video

SING video

THANK YOUUUUUUUUU this is super helpful because i was listening to the album and trying to pick out what was a part of the quote unquote lore but i wasn’t sure (specific example is i heard battery city and was wondering) anyway i just think it will be fun to listen with all this in mind yay :)

[productofaritual]

Hey,

Your GDF got in my mind while im obsessed with ZZZ of hoyoverse after my big Genshin era. So, i was thinking, can we get an Hydro!Charlie where his "hydro" is green and kinda sus bc is more like slime in texture but Quackity covers Charlie by shockinh the shit out of everything that the slime touches befoure they can make any questions? Also im thinking Inazuma story line here where they are not-so-legal.

Btw do we count in mind the "why gods give vision" here? Bc I was reading to see if we knew more and saw that the old reasion of the Cryo Arcon was Love. And godlord that touch me because it looks so good for Techno. And meanwhile Tubbo is with his fucking War-power Pyro Weapon. Like holy shit why didnt you say this? Anemo being freedom makes it so good for Tommy and Phil. Quackity would have something something eternity [flashbacks of Slime's death] mmmm yeah. This makes me think is Purple can be pyro [lava lmao] or [ofcourse] electro bc...you know...purple? Xd. Charlie and Puffy having Hydro [Justice] sounds so cool. Charlie just wants to be a good 100% human [maybe he has some backstory like Razor?].

Ranboo is so cute with his little air freedom [shadow dream behind] i hope nothing bad ever happends to him.

Can Michael be like Klee, a kid with a vision to young to undertand? So cuteeee.

Going back to Purple, im thinking that we dont have any geo [in the current post that you made and im enjoying like good slime soup] and geo has the arcon of contrats.

And so it begins, the thought of

Do they all have inspired clothes of the zone they are living in?

Quackity in japones inspired clouths sounds like my new dream.

Talking of Dream, can we make him have the most shitty element of all? The one,The ONLY, THE NEW AND WE HOPE IT DIES BC WE DIDNT NEED YOU

Dendro.

JAJAJAJAJA lmao Dream making a flower in mid-fight with [Pyro] Sapnap killing everthing. Which I got to say, I would love Sapnap to be a Catalyst that just uses his bare hands like Tommy. Something like Shikanoin Heizou. While I think Tommy is Fisic attack mostly, Sapnap is full fire in your face.

Mmmmm wait George or Karl would be dendro? LIKE George being supportive by creating circles of healing mushrooms or poisonous mushrooms along with an attitude of Laila fuckinh sleepy in his E xd.

Karl only comes to mind because Dendro is based on wisdom and I imagine him in the library dying like Cheetara [From ThunderCats 2010 or so] in his backstory of childhood and patience. And BOOM vision idk healer? I don't know much about Karl Canon or Fanon but I've seen that we don't have many healers.

This made me think of Sam, who i dont know what to say about him. But im curious what do you think!

Saying this,i hope you didnt mind the use of "we" and also the long monologue in your ask. Hope you find New GDF funny ideas soon!! :D

Have a nice day/night. Ad astra abyssosque!

The fact that you're so invested in this absolutely warms my heart! I don't mind the "we" at all, I'm super glad when people add their own ideas to my aus (doesn't happen that often but oh well...)

I was considering Charlie but I wasn't entirely sure how to cross the hydro with slime, so I'm DEFINITELY using that. Most characters have some gimmick after all, so him having green as a main color (when blue is associated the most with hydro) and his gimmick being slime is very cool.

I haven't thought that much about interactions with other existing regions past Phil maybe being from Inazuma to explain his clothes and Puffy sailing to Liyue and Fontaine, which is how the Traveler would get to DSMP. Mainly because I want to have a concrete base for the DSMP region first before I start having the characters go elsewhere. But I will keep stuff like this in mind!

As for the vision reasons. See I haven't considered them that much because I want to have at least a somewhat balanced amount of each weapon and vision type and also I just don't know them that well. For some, like Ranboo, I did go off the freedom reason in Anemo, but for a lot I just went with what sorta felt right or fit the character's storyline or gimmick somewhat. So Puffy was hydro because she's a pirate and uses her vision to control the ship. Q was Electro because he uses his vision to power Las Nevadas.

I had 0 idea about the cryo-love connection and rest assured, the only reason I made Techno cryo is because Arctic empire. However, ehm, let's say it's because love, that sounds cooler <3

I've considered making Tommy Anemo. I made him Pyro because of the whole "passion" thing, but with how many other characters would fit Pyro (Jack, Sapnap, Wilbur, the character not the guy, don't come for me pls, I don't like mentioning him either) I don't want to have too much of them so maybe I'll change it. It would definitely make the matching clingyduo claymores even cuter because they don't match visions anymore so the reason Tommy does it is because he wants to match SOMETHING.

Continuing, yeah I just. Didn't consider the reasons for visions. However you did name a couple characters I haven't considered at all so I will be going off of these suggestions.

I cannot guarantee Ranboo's safety <3 but he is a playable characters and they don't die in genshin. Doesn't mean he'll be 100% ok tho <3

I didn't think of mobs as playable characters, mainly because I just thought of members, however Micheal being the first chibi male character in the entire game is just too good to pass up on. Prepare little pig boy, you're about to have some magic. What kind? No idea yet, lemme think.

I've briefly mentioned making Skeppy a geo bow (cuz crystals) but I haven't been able to think of any other geo characters. Making Purpled geo because contracts is a cool idea though, I like it.

Thing is, DSMP is a region on its own. Like I said, Phil might be from Inazuma and move prior to Traveler getting there and maybe some other characters are originally from other regions, but at the point where Traveler gets there, they're all in the DSMP. Maybe they could visit and like/buy some clothes tho! Like I said, haven't considered it much, will later on

Oh I have PLANS for Dream. I'll say more in the post about the DSMP's Archon, but in this region, he's the human form of XD, same style as Venti/Nahida/Zhongli and the only wielder of his power because of it. He doesn't wear a fake vision because he pretends he's visionless. As the Archon XD, he's notorious for not giving out visions because he's selfish and doesn't believe anyone else is worthy of it, so he's the only playable character with those powers. As for what powers I'm still working that out, but something along the lines of decay or rot and very few interactions with existing elements. As for making him Dendro. Damn, calm down, it'll be ok /j hajshshshs

Sapnap having the same style as Heizou but Pyro does fit him a lot, I do like that. And we have only one other catalyst so far so yeah. Welcome to the team. You're a DPS and a support. How? Idk I haven't thought of skills and bursts much yet.

I HAVE considered Dendro George for the mushrooms with both the healing spores and the poison spores. Not sure what weapon to give him yet, maybe he joins the catalysts, maybe a bow, not rlly keen on giving him a claymore, for the others it's meh, not sure not sure. We'll see.

I have NOT considered Dendro Karl, but you connecting it with the wisdom thing kinda has me convincedddddd. No idea what his powers would be though, but it is true we don't have a lot of healers. However my genshin lineup only has Barbara and Charlotte as healers and Charlotte is 20 levels under AND I DON'T BITCH ABOUT IT EITHER (I do bitch about it. It's awful. Hoyo pls just let me pull for a healer I need it desperately)

As for Sam I've considered either Electro because Redstone, or Dendro for a combination of creeper plus wisdom with how good he is at the mechanics stuff. He'd probably be similar to Navia where he attacks mostly with his weapon but the last attack he does with some sort of mechanical contraption like she does with her umbrella. Not a machine gun, tho that would be funny. Imagine you're like a hilichurl and you're fighting this guy with a sword and suddenly he goes "fuck it" And pulls out a machine gun.

Look at me, you got me rambling! /pos

[skybristle]

Would .. would you mind telling us about your clover fanon.. I am so very curious they’re my darling ever

sorry i read this and went "i should answer that" and then i forgor. i just rembdered though! some fucked up themes tho. animal death + general mommy issues and he has some Mental Problems <3 also off the bat. he's Soooo unlabeled to me but uses he/him and kisses boys. i dont think he really cares abt the pronouns though either hes literally just hanging out. ok so! First and foremost. The reason he is Like That is because he is [sparkling emoji] one of white lily's experiments! Particularly she took a deer from the millenial forest [holy animal], sacrificed it, and baked it into a cookie [she left the lily villiage at some point in the past but knows the forest's secrets still so. lol]. however he didn't really turn out and the powers he Did get from it aren't replicable,,, at this point she hasnt gone Completely off the deep end so she doesnt completely abandon him like she does for crepe later but he Did feel fundamentally unwanted and kind of just. Left her grove seeking to fufill what she wanted out of him [not realizing he's a failure by principle no matter what he does] he is by most means a wanderer. picks up his lute, grows fond of the forest animals as he travels along [avoiding villiages because well. he is kind of a freak of nature and also just general Tism makes him seem like much more of a possibly ill-willed cryptid than he is]. he has a very strong desire to become what his mom wanted from him but also develops an appreciation for the world and wants to see more of it. eventually finds himself in the millenial forest [and lily villiage],,, and while they do welcome him its clear with the way they look at him he is the Outsider and very fucked up . eventually speaks to millenial himself and he takes pity on him and gives him what he wants [immortality] so he can live up to his purpose and keep traveling the world. Eventually as a bard once he realizes thats a thing that exists. and honestly once he comes to terms with how he'll never have a relationship with his mom [the lily grove, a mess of illusions, doesnt really let him in deep enough to where she is] he just doesnt hang onto it and does what he planned to. he has to bear the horrors of immortality but honestly it isnt,,, too terrible with his aloof nature? Like. Immortal or not he's perfectly used to his animal companions dying over time and he mostly has superfiicial relationships with other cookies. i'd say the worse thing for him is he's very,,, distant a lot. it's also part of the learned mentality of a bard/storyteller [watch what happens and remember it instead of engaging in it] and learning Things Hurt once they go away in his immortality. he's been around 2-300 years and is mostly just chill. has leaned into that cryptic guy of the woods thing a bit. he really is just hanging out. he's also probably a little traumatized from all the shit hes bore witness to [especially the dfw when he put together the dots of wl's experiments and de's goals] but idk. he just generally does not caare. he eats poisonous mushrooms for fun ebcause theyr'e yummy and dont effect him because he's immortal/in a weird position of being almost divine with what he's made of. also some time post canon he meets a mostly-human robot [copperbell, my wife's oc] who's seeing the world for the first time after being trapped in the city of wizards up until very recently. they hang out a lot. two immortal guys very passionate about music who hang out. one who's very passionate for the world and one who wants to know so much about it . yeah they're yaoi eventually . the machine and nature CAN have gay sex WOOO

[intheforest-hides-a-light]

You probably get praise in your inbox every other week, but I’m still here to congratulate you on your writing. TPATA is extraordinary. And not only because of it being one of handful of depictions of a relationship that has all the canon backing but none of the acknowledgement in fanon, but also in the writing itself. Whether or not you have the time or motivation to complete it one day, I remain grateful it exists at all.

Thank you Anon. Oh how I wish you weren’t anonymous so I could thank you properly! The anon praise doesn’t come as often as you might think, so messages like these are all the sweeter!

It has been on my mind lately to resume The Poison and The Antidote. It’s crazy to think that I started writing it when I was about 18 and I just turned 22. Time flies. I’ve grown so much as a person and as a writer since I started that fanfic, and it’s a little strange looking back and comparing my style today to how I wrote when I was a teen. I am still proud of my work, but there are things I would write differently now that I’m older and wiser. Maybe that’s meant to be, because Rachel starts off at 17 and doesn’t get older and wiser until later chapters.

It makes me smile to see that people still are so fond of TPATA after all this time. Your message has inspired me to go back and look at the drafts for the next chapter. I probably need a lot of lore refreshers… but maybe the time I took away from writing it will make it even better.

Thank you for your kindness and motivation! Sending virtual hugs! And check AO3 for another chapter… not sure when, but soon!

-Stina

[alienducky]

Your Hubie interpretation is a lot kinder than mine. Because while I could see him asking permission from the people he likes, or are in his class, I don't know if he'd be so kind to students from the other classes? I can quite easily imagine him slipping some of those chill-out herbs Rhea gets you to dose people with into, say, Felix's food, just so he can can observe what happens

Though having said that, i can just hear Hubie saying "Would you all mind helping me with a little experiment? Hmm? Yes, well. It's nothing too dangerous. Just eat this. It's perfectly edible, I assure you. And then tell me if you start to feel odd >heavy sigh< Odd as in not how you usually do Caspar... Oh, he's fallen asleep. Interesting... >scribbling noises<"

Claude is... An interesting case. Because he's all about the poisons, sure. But I always kind of figured it was a side effect of his crappy childhood and people trying to use said poisons against him. But I'm now wondering if that's from canon or a very wide spread fanon. Hmm

But yes. Soon as he's sure it is what it says it is and has someone to watch his back while he's out then he'd be all for it!

Do you think Hubert's ever accidentally drugged himself? Like, trying to build up a resistance like you can do with poisons and instead getting high as a kite on magic mushrooms?

On one hand I'd like to say yes just because I like the idea. But on the other I feel like he'd be too cautious. He'd probably test the poison on others first, in varying doses. All with consent of course. Sylvain would be up for it. Hapi too. Probably Caspar. He has loads of test subjects. (Of course, he'd be just as careful with them as he would with himself, and make sure that he wasn't giving them even close to a lethal dose.)

Then, when he's properly adjusted the dose and come to a conclusion as to the effects on people of varying weight etc... He would probably try it on himself.

(Claude, however. Claude would do it himself first try. And he'd absolutely get high as a kite. Possibly together with Sylvain.)

[opalthea]

Hiding In The Shocks and The Chill In My Bones.

Or ; Maybe Kaeya really is a horrible lover.

Pairings ; Kaeya x Reader, a final argument to decide the verdict of this wretched relationship.

Genre ; Angst, read at your own risk. Fanon!Kaeya where he's very sharp and hurtful with words.

Unpleasant is a bold word to refer to someone’s voice, but that’s exactly what Kaeya calls your voice. The very sound he claims to love each day now no longer holds the reign, a noise that disturbs him while he lies awake on your shared bed, unbothered.

If Kaeya didn’t know any better, he would have called your persistent whining unnecessary. Childish, even. You’re his lover, and even if it’s a given fact that you’ll be concerned for his well-being… This is too much. You were suffocating; words that claimed to be caring now feel like nothing more than an overfilled jug of intolerable nonsense.

You nag and you complain all about last night. It’s something to do with having to drag him back home; a Kaeya that slurred words, teetering with unbalanced feet, and stinking of liquor. Without fail, you bring it up in the morning to scold him – like right now, even though he spends all night after each incident littering apologetic, sloppy kisses on you as if he does feel guilt for having you pick him up from the tavern. You frown through each touch of his sweet, yet unconscious lips, the feeling of them on your skin that brings you the same shivers frost would bring. Never once has it brought the familiar warm tingles you used to love back when you both were in the early stages of your relationship.

How ironic is it that Kaeya is the lover that warms you, yet numbs you?

Kaeya loves you - really, he does, but many times has he pondered just what does his love mean to you if you badger him for letting himself go, pick on the way he drowns himself in glasses of bitter wines, and fight him when the sun shines through your windows?

He thinks he feels the sides of his head hurt, and he refrains from lying down any longer.

“Kaeya.”

Your tone is raised, and then only did he notice you’ve been calling him. Seems like he blanked out on most of your endless grumbling.

He turns to look at you,

“Are you really listening to me?”

He finds you frowning, firm and deep. Kaeya remains nonchalant, propping an arm on the mattress.

“I am.” He makes sure to add a lilt at the end, and, suddenly, he sounds just like the Kaeya the public knew.

Sweet-tongued Kaeya, with saccharine words easy to swallow, laced with poisonous, addictive charms. He forms back into the Cavalry Captain of Mondstadt - who swoons the maidens in town with cocky smirks and a poise of elegance. He’d even press a shy touch of his lips to their knuckles if he feels daring enough. The same Cavalry Captain who has a love for provoking people just to get what he wants - and right now, petty as he ever is, he wants to see you break under the high-stress situation.

You grit your teeth.

“You weren’t even listening, were you?”

“I still don’t see why you’re so bothered, darling. It’s far too early for us to have an argument, especially during such a gorgeous sunrise,” Kaeya adds, pretending to yawn.

He doesn’t miss the glower you throw his way – maybe he even relishes in it, as psychotic as it sounds. You’re getting more emotional with every word he drops, that he’s confident that you would break if he says anything demeaning, and, suddenly, his entire existence feels like only a lingering ghost of your sweet boyfriend. One where he’s quick to shower you with lovely promises, and careful reassurances.

You sigh, and he picks up on the sound eagerly - and he isn’t sure of who he’s becoming. The only thing on his mind is that you’re foolishly fighting in a game where the ending is your loss.

“I’m bothered —” your hand balls up into a fist, nails digging into your palm, “ — because I’m worried, Kaeya. I care about you - I care about us..!” If Kaeya’s head is spinning, yours is whirling, with many things that you want to yell at him for, but so many things you just needed to say.

Your arms are folded over your chest — he thinks you’re trying to assert your place in this little mess of yours — and your face is open like a book. There’s disappointment, then anger, with it comes sadness and fear, and it spirals down to one. Easily, with all of those in the mixture, one would assume it’s hatred, and hate would be the only thing that would’ve made sense in this blizzard of emotions, but these rotten things all came from one source - love.

And Kaeya mistakes it for malice.

“I know you care, and so do I,” he runs his hand over his hair, absent-mindedly combing through some of the unruly curls of bed hair, “but is it right for you to keep hovering over everything I do, hm?”

His choice of wording shamelessly suggests that you are the manipulative one in this relationship, and not him. Not Kaeya Alberich, the man who had you to care for him when he returns home, drunk or from his work. Not him, the supposedly “top candidate for grandson-in-law”, the one who even the elderly sang praises for, because of his wicked, deceiving sweetheart profile. 

You pull a face, displeasure written all over you, leaving you as one ticking, messy time bomb. “Kaeya, you know how I feel about this,” you say, hand pinching your temple as you don’t bother to sit at the edge of your bed. Kaeya didn’t seem like he’d invite you in, either.

“You work so early in the morning, and then return home so late, doing Archons know what. One of the only places I’d find you in is Angel’s Share.. sometimes too out of it to even recognize me.”

The hope in your eyes falls, and there’s no more twinkle to admire while you both hide under the sheets and pretend that nothing’s ever happened. You’re beginning to recognize that this relationship isn’t meant to be mended anymore.

You can’t save this bond, no matter how many times you try to forgive.

With it, your heart too sinks - right to the pits of your stomach, and, suddenly, you’re too aware of the cold wells of tears threatening to soon be a flood. You turn away from Kaeya, your own arms retreating to hug your shaking figure – because if you let it be known that you are crying in the presence of Kaeya Alberich, you'd be damned to a life where he lives to insult you for being so weak.

Kaeya raises an eyebrow as if none of it fazes him at all.

“I spend plenty of time with you, my dear,” he says - and it’s a lie.

A part of him — a liar — that you knew, and the same part you won’t understand.

You suck in a breath.

“Tell me this, then, Kaeya, when was the last time we’ve had time together for longer than 15 minutes?” You’re dead serious when you face Kaeya, your tone leaves no room to joke. Kaeya is not a blind man, nor is he a deaf man, yet he has the guts to pretend to be both when he turns away to look at anywhere else but you.

“Right now,” Kaeya responds with an infuriating smile.

And then, the horrifying apprehension crashes; Kaeya has never taken you seriously.

Putting that in consideration, you wonder just how many times has he even spared you a single moment of honesty, or if he ever did. 

He sits up, moving to put aside the comforter he had over his body. When he feels your glare return, it makes him curious, so he searches for your eyes. He wants to know what emotion mirrors your wounded heart, but all he sees is frost. Two reflective, crystalline irises, that only shows a wimp version of himself.

It’s not the kind of frost that screams anger, that spills hurt in the form of hot tears. No, it could never match the kind of searing, raging flames that he once saw on a dark, stormy night.

Instead, the kind that haunts your glare is ice-cold, the kind that he knows would numb the burns of your heart. Kaeya knows he sees the storm that brews in you, acknowledges how you still haven’t let fury fully consume you; if you were truly so furious, then where was the biting chill of your words? Where is the stinging pain that comes after a fight, the one that’s caused by bitter cold? Is he confusing this brewing pot of rage that bubbles in you for the kind that once burned in Diluc - in his red eyes and then his bloody hands?

How is it that your anger suffocates him much more than those of smoking licks of fire?

Kaeya only now realizes the impact of his words, and it’s too late to take them back, too late to apologize… and too late to turn back.

He watches the way your lips curve upwards; sharp, professional, downright bitter.

“You are so funny, Alberich..!”

Your laugh is icy, layers upon layers of gradually building frost, and it’s so foreign compared to your first days of love – those days where your smile rivals that of the sun, yet it doesn’t intend to burn as much as it is warm.

“If this is how you want to be… I have no words left for someone like you,” you continue.

Rigid is what remains of you, the one who used to forgive for everything that he lacked. This time, though, that mercy is taken away, and he’s forced to bear it for his foolishness and impulsiveness.

Just as much as Kaeya takes pleasure in gauging multiple expressions out of you, you revel in the glory of walking out of the room, leaving Kaeya back to his stage one - loneliness.

The very thing he’s told you that he hated.

[usernamestolenbythebutterfly]

Y'all I know this is waaaaay late but I just realized- (disclaimer this gets a bit ranty)

In season 8 when they travel in honerva's mind and whatnot and she's finally free from all the quintessence poisoning.

Why doesn't she immediately apologize to Shiro??? After all the fucked up shit she did and she's only thinking of Lotor yeah but he's dead rn,,, Shiro's right there!? She literally gets to reunite with her dead family and shiro doesn't!!! At all! As far as we know kuron never recorded a message for Adam!! Shiro deserves at least an acknowledgement that she's responsible for a lot of the hell he went through. Just cause he has an 'altean/new' arm now doesn't mean everything's ok, sheesh. The show was pretty bad at tying up loose ends and keeping continuity further than just character's goals in meta.

Like the lack of character in shiro once the real him was brought back... It was like they had forgotten how to write him and his dialogue. Literally if he stayed dead nothing would've changed.

Think about it

they only needed the crystal to transform the atlas

Adam literally died while shiro was also dead in the astral plane; wasn't like he was waiting for shiro to come back since apparently Sam forgot shiro had a fiance?? (Also fuck sanda for pointlessly murdering that whole fleet just to prove her point)

Yes he stands up for the paladins, but does it ultimately change sanda's mind? No (re: still delivers voltron to sendak)

Was shiro ultimately the one to defeat sendak? No, it was Keith. Even without shiro as long as they knew that they had to destroy the crystal they would've found a way to do it

Were there any important flashbacks other than the break up? Nope

legitimately he did nothing to help get to the garrison, it's like they used his lack of an arm as an excuse to keep him out of a fight. Season 1 shiro legit rushed sendak while still handcuffed, but when he gets his one arm cuffed he suddenly can't do anything even with pidge being threatened (yo we don't even get a reaction!! Like, go girl we're loving ur lack of energy)

He never reconciles with ANYBODY the one episode where the paldins kinda re-explore earth was the perfect episode to see how shiro catches up with the other officers, the garrison, some family backstory, but no. It's not even canon he remembers what went on while kuron stood in for him- that's fanon. As far as we know, Sam and matt had NO IDEA that there's a difference between the shiro they met in space and the shiro now, with white hair and everything.

Anyways, point IS is that they only kept shiro for the lgbtq rep an' thassit. It's not even good rep!!!!

Thank you for letting me ruin your evening

Peace ✌

Edit!! 4-3-22: ok, saw an interview that yes, shiro does have kuron's memories, but then we never see that come to fruition. It explains how he doesn't need an introduction from the newer cast, but I think it would've been nice to see him reconcile with Keith after the brawl with kuron. And yes, initially he WAS supposed to stay dead, but because they decided to revive him they really should've had a better plan for him.

[strawberry-nugget]

𝙃𝙖𝙡𝙛 𝘼𝙡𝙞𝙫𝙚

𝘼/𝙉: This is my piece for my very own collab 'Ice Cold Heart' and also my excuse to delve into some more canon rather than fanon Hawks, because canon Hawks has been clouding my mind lately and I needed to get this out

𝙋𝙖𝙞𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙜: Hawks/fem!Reader

𝙒𝙖𝙧𝙣𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨: Angst, mentions of sexual themes

𝙒𝙤𝙧𝙙 𝙘𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙩: 2k

"I'm in love with you"

The precious meaning of a phrase is only defined by the weight you decide to put on it. And today you have decided that with your words you'd give birth to what's only going to give you and him pure, undefined pain. An elephant in the room if you may, an ogre of emotions that otherwise would be unwanted to stand between the two of you.

You think 'otherwise' as if it's not unwanted already. The unrequited nature of your sentence will linger in your heart more than you'd like to admit, but you're ready to lift your eyes and meet his golden ones, ready to be judged with the coldness of his gaze, ready to be treated like you've expected you will when coming into his office.

You still have that hidden truth to spill to him, and it surpasses the one you spilt already, but you hold your dry tongue in your mouth for now.

What could possibly only hurt like a kitten's scratch -his mute, his echoing silence- is rather twisting numerous sharp daggers in your chest, twirling over the wound of your feelings, ravaging any hope for salvation you had been left with. You wonder how your friends ever managed to convince you that the hardest thing about confessing was the part where you had to build up your courage.

Your courage never suffered from a hit as you walked to his office, despite being terrified for what you had to say to him. Paperwork in your hands and none of a nervous trembling in your lips, iron clad feet clashing with the tiles of the building. You've made your decision to get rid of all those feelings, not wanting to spend another night bent on his desk or sprawled under him, only for him to act like he barely knows you in the office and then to be all greedy and sweet in public events.

His games, that god awful behavior of his, the way he chooses to use you -even if you feel like you use him to, to turn him into something that he's not with your imagination- you're tired of everything. And then there's also the fact that he's a traito-

"Aha"

The answer to your confession wasn't supposed to affect you either for better or for worse, rather this confession was an egotistical act, Mirko, or any of your friends previously said, that one had to endure in order to take the next big step. Whether that was a step accompanied by your desired person, or a step to redeeming the anathema a rejection could have caused.

Frankly it wasn't that the golden orbs staring back at you were rejecting. If anything, they didn't bore into yours in a way that left you hollow, but they didn't fill your heart with dreams either. And what your original intentions begged to stand up for was that you didn't care of any significant reciprocation.

You wish you didn't care where those words you had uttered had left Hawks, or in what inner conflict they had found him in. But you know, he won't be in any conflict about what you have to say, what you've kept inside for too long, what has bled onto your morals like a run over animal on the street, left to rot and seep into the road as it disintegrates under the sun or the cold.

Unbeknownst to you, deep down in his head, Hawks doesn't know how to feel, or how to react; its all too sudden for him to process. The way you spoke of it so casually yet, so lightheartedly, your tone suggesting that you let your most vulnerable object of thought slip through your fingertips, like you let it fall out of your head and shutter on the ground.

"I-"

It isn't much, just the start of a sentence that he hopes he could compose, but the way your brows furrow at the sound of his voice does nothing other than startle him.

You should have known, he's not going to give in to such demands. Love, relationships, he doesn't have time, space, a mindset, doesn't need you to be that one for him, he wants all the stability he can get when he wants it, however he wants it and he's gone when he gets it, swift as a bird, cold as stone. That doesn't necessarily tickle a nerve inside of him, you know the rules, even if he feels bad about you suffering like this there's nothing he can do -he doesn't even know how- and he chooses to let you speak, get it out, before he has to go and be a hero for the day.

"No, no save it," You wave him off "here's my resignation"

The authority in your voice isn't the one he was used to. As his eyes blink, honey colored orbs taking in the un-glory of your posture, he's met with the sight of your hands hugging around your own form; the ultimate sign of vulnerability, uncertainty.

"You don't have to quit because you fell in love with me"

'You fell in love with me' he speaks of the words so little, as if they're dirty, as if you're in this with yourself and they're so suffocating that he can't stand them, only to softly graze your ear with vore intentions, to tell you that you don't have to quit, to urge you to not take this too serious.

Your feelings aren't serious.

"I do" You speak, trying to jab him back with some crafted poison in your tone. But you know what you're going to say next will definitely do it for him, it'll poison him we'll, whether it makes you endangered or not. "I was on patrol when I saw you doing business with Dabi, so save it."

The weight of those words is what finally serves as a huge hit to your courage. You've outed yourself greatly and now the chewing on your bottom lip is profound and painful to a great amount. Hawks' face is contorted in a terrifying darkness, thick brows clenched above his eyes and lips pushed into a thin line, nose scrunched.

"Listen-"

"I just don't want to be a part of this"

That's when he knows he has to be forgiving.

Hawks isn't used to you, a fierce warrior of a hero, clenching your jaw tensely or furrowing your brows in sorrows. He isn't used to you being so upfront with your emotions either; whatever the two of you have shared in the past has been in words of reluctance and mind states of regret, each one desperate to prevent your hearts from getting hurt.

He knows his heart won't get hurt though, it's shielded way too well inside his chest, in such way he feels hollow, driven by anything other than the stupid organ. You should have known, he tells himself, before you got involved so deeply, but he left you with no time for thoughts like these, wiggling you under his wing while biting your skin instead of pecking it.

Just as Hawks has always known that he's going to hurt you no matter you rejecting labels or bottling feelings up and absolutely forbidding the mention of them, it's obvious that things can't go his way. He isn't used to you eyeing him with pain gathering in the corners of your eyes, but he's willing to play the part you're setting up for him right on the spot. Even if he has to admit, the thought of being painted in this color jabs him just like knowing things won't go back to the way they were between the two of you.

He doesn't mind. He had to let it go because by the time you know about the truth you won't even remember his face, or the way his voice sounds, and he shouldn't think about this but he does, in a way, in the very back of his head.

His mission, he thinks, is far more important than his personal life -it's a top priority for greater good.

Once greater good is achieved he's going to be able to invest in a personal life that involves feelings and excitement and even the noble pleasure of being able to choose between priorities. Right?

So, whatever he's feeling now -the tight knot in his throat, the painful lack of oxygen in his throat, his gut twisting and churning and his limbs alternating from spasming to going numb- he has to ignore.

But for the worse part he doesn't really know how to act. The confession that has startled him is still lingering on repeat in the back of his head, fueling the small ignition of a flame that begs to put you on a pedestal, or rather, it began to make his mouth move on it own, to tell how that he too wishes he could be with you as more than this secretly exclusive arrangement you've set.

Maybe, his heart pleads, maybe he can tell you about his mission and clear up the confusion.

He wonders if that would be a part you'd want him to play for you.

"I won't give you away. So long as you don't involve me in this, I don't have ulterior motives for protecting civilians."

"I-" He starts, darkness bottling up in his gut, stomach falling after going utterly numb. Somehow he knows he's not going to utter a word if he keeps acting like that.

"Hawks-"

"You'll get over it."

It's sharp and it's short and it sends heavy, lethal daggers to your chest, so much that you can feel your heart beginning to slip from in between your ribs, out of chest and onto the floor of his office. It'd be a mess to clean, the blood if your agony and your heartache rightfully on his floor. For him to look down on, this time, physically.

"I will"

He knows his words hurt, just by the mere look your face contorts and he won't utter a word about what you just said, he'll link you to Endeavor and when the time comes you'll know. His cause is greater than your heart breaking, greater than chasing after that small arrangement he's made so he can get physical release from time to time.

It's better not to react. Not to terrorize you into anything for if you're afraid you might out the wrong truth to the heroes in your circle and his plan -the commission's plan- will fail and the heroes will lose this war. And he can't lose.

You want to look at him with menace and disgrace, not to atone him for the way he's making you feel; crashing your dreams, poisoning your morals and your thoughts, living down to your expectations so much that you don't know what to think of him.

Like he did when you saw him after closed doors, cold and unapproachable, to the point he's scary. Manipulative so much that you found your way under him without even realizing how fast it happened, what impact it had to you to get involved with him. You just want to be out, unwielded from his spider's web and latch yourself into something real and kind, to serve your purpose as a hero. As a human.

When he opens his mouth again you're not scared anymore, of what he may do to you, of what will happen next.

"Hand me your papers so I can sign them"

Thanks for reading! Comments and reblogs are always appreciated <3

[aegon]

'arya is out of character ' lmao. Did they miss the part in the books where arya was raining kisses on jon and looking shyly up at him? Proof that jonsas didn't red the book and dont know what aryas actual character is or they know but still push the fanon arya agenda. Your arya and jon is completely in character. They would know how much obsessed jon is with arya if they read his chapters. Or they do and greet their teeth and ignore it.

Actually every single jonsa fic is out of character. In which sansa is basically turned into arya. Jonsas aren't even embarrassed about it. Canon jon and sansa dont give a fuck about each other unlike arya and jon.

And that pathetic hug in the show is so lame. Compare that to jonryas 'supple as sin' scene' or 'arms and swords' scene. All they have is that lame, out of character show hug aquired by changing the plot of every character. Yet they have the guts to call others fics boring? The entire existence of their ship is lame and boring.

Plus your fics are gold❤️. You are so talented. They just want to scare away content creaters. Please don't be bothered by those cowardly clowns.

I realised immediately that the reviewer wasn’t an Arya fan because they didn’t like the fact I was using book quotes. On that fic, I was using the line “What do you know of my heart / what do you know of my sister”. It’s a beautiful line for a beautiful relationship and they’ve always been unable to handle it. Roles reversed, they’d never shut up about it.

Actually, don’t even need to reverse the roles. They’re constantly stealing from Arya and lift quotes out of context to frame it like it’s foreshadowing and dupe so many fans into thinking it’s valid. A significant portion of that fandom have never read the books or actually know Sansa’s character and it’s blatantly obvious. Tragic really, she’s actually quite interesting in the books. Not the self-insert they’ve made her into, but the character itself.

I don’t actually give a damn what someone ships and why. I stopped paying them mind a long time ago. I’ve got over 50 of their poisonous blogs blocked so I literally never have to engage with their side ever. If they want to bother me instead of minding their own, it just makes them look stupid. That’s their decision, I’m not forcing them to interact with me, but it’s very pathetic and I suggest they get over themselves. Ship what you want, but there’s no need to go around tearing down everyone around you. Make all the content you want, but there’s no need to go around publicly shitting on what others have made because it’s not to your tastes. What is this, kindergarten?

Thank you so much for such a lovely compliment! ❤️ darling, their lukewarm insults just make me want to make more content. I love writing and I love my stories, no one’s making them read it lol. The jonrya fandom has always been so amazingly supportive and my muse, they can’t change that ❤️❤️❤️

[phoenixtakaramono]

Character Design Thoughts for Shen Yuan & Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky in ‘The Untold Tale’

(This is a Follow Up to This Post)

Hello, @averydrearydiana! Loved reading through your tags! I’m excited that you’re excited! Since I’m also seeing comments on AO3 speculating about how our transmigrators are going to appear as in The Untold Tale, I might as well give my current thoughts and have this archived on tumblr for future reference.

A fun fact about TUT is that a lot of the imagery in the story is inspired by Chinese PVs and popular C-dramas and literature. Since TUT is conceived as a lovestory to SVSSS, one element that I’d wanted to incorporate is playful attempts at satirical genre deconstruction. With that comes with me playfully poking fun at some clichés or things I’ve noticed in Chinese works.

Shen Yuan’s Celestial Design

Before I talk about his mortal appearance, I have to give a lil context about his celestial design in the story. We already know what he looks like as the celestial fortuneteller in TUT’s cover art that I’ve already posted on tumblr. As everyone knows, I was heavily inspired by this Chinese PV:

(TUT ch1 - Excerpt)

Among the things I’ve noticed are the fictional characters with white hair. We have a whole subculture of fans liking male character designs with white hair in anime and animation. Taking that a step further, they’ve even shown up in C-dramas, i.e. Teng She from Love and Redemption (technically more blond than platinum white, but shhhhh, just let me have this), Dong Hua Dijun from Eternal Love of Dream aka Three Lives Three Worlds, Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms (rest assured, I’m aware of the source material’s controversy, but let’s not get into that here), etc. One of the tags for TUT is Opposites Attract. Luo Binghe’s color coordination is aligned with black and red mostly. Now, visually speaking, what’s the opposite of that?

The yin yang symbol.

Fun fact, besides black vs white, green (SY) is the complementary color of red (LBG) on the color wheel. Now taking everything I’ve said, to take it even one step further, my thought process at the time was, “why not go the extra mile then and just have SY be albino? Within context of the Heavenly Realm, that character design makes sense.” TUT is me subtly riffing off what I can (for the good ol’ meta humor), but making the content come across as a legitimate story experience. As Protagonist A and Protagonist B, LBG and SY have to look visually striking together. With all that said, let’s talk about....

(In reference to the original tumblr post)

Shen Yuan (Mortal)

I’ll keep some elements of his albinism from his celestial form (light sensitivity and pale skin mostly), but SY’s mortal form is essentially SY pre-transmigration but within context of the xianxia genre.

For his appearance, let’s just keep this Author’s Note^ and TUT’s summary in the back of our brains. This is the fanvid I was originally inspired by for SY’s mortal appearance:

(TUT Summary - Excerpt)

For what he wears, I’m currently feeling very heavily inspired by this PV:

His mortal appearance wouldn’t be considered as “strange” or “otherworldly” compared to the “ethereal fairy-like beauty” SY retains in the Heavenly Realm, but as a side-effect of the 【PROTAGONIST’S HALO】 and his +20 CHARISMA stat, he would still be considered attractive to people even when he takes on a mortal appearance. (Mainly, I like the idea of Bing gē taking large shots of vinegar seeing SY turning heads no matter which appearance SY takes on, and Luo Binghe glaring at these “insects” for even “daring to lay their unworthy eyes on his fated person.” The thought of it just makes me laugh.)

What I mean by how SY’s mortal form being very much based on how SY appeared pre-transmigration but in the xianxia genre context, I mean he’ll have his dark hair (but longer), a “scholarly air” (as a nod to his novelist background), dark eyes, and even his glasses technically (the divine monocle mentioned in ch3, which is also a subtle nod to Sha Po Lang and a riff on men wearing monocles in other Chinese works andit’salsoforeshadowingbutshhhh).

(TUT ch3 - Excerpt)

Shen Yuan originally was an author in his forties pre-transmigration, so I like the idea him having a mature air about him in the Cultivation World as well. So for both our Protagonist B’s celestial and mortal appearances, the idea is that you can look at him and immediately recognize him as a protagonist of the danmei setting. My only two prerequisites are that his appearance screams “hello, I’m Protagonist B” and that he appears in “scholarly” attire.

Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky (Mortal)

Keeping in mind the original tumblr post where I wrote my thoughts on who I’m transmigrating him as, currently I’m thinking it’s a combination of these two PVs for his mortal form:

As a nod to him being a successful novelist, I wanted him to also appear scholarly. A scholarly crown prince, if you will. For his attire, imagine all the C-drama clothing you’ve seen actors wear in period dramas, and you already have a good idea already of the direction I’m heading down.

As the prince of the cannon fodder emperor, I very much like the idea of Airplane perhaps having a baby face and brown hair (as a small nod to fanon!SQH from SVSSS) but with a great body (a huge source of inspiration are clothing worn by Prince Yu and Prince Jing of the three princes from the C-drama Nirvana in Fire). Since Airplane will also be able to select his Character Creation stats like Shen Yuan had, one thing I’m fairly certain is that he will max out his CONSTITUTION—because “game logic” and not wanting to die. (For those who don’t know, the CON stat in tabletop RPs essentially indicates a person’s overall health, wellbeing, and vigor checks...so him maxing it out is equivalent to him being as invulnerable as a cockroach. A high CON means overall healthiness, which means your character probably is full of energy and vitality, can heal rapidly, and will rarely get sick—if ever. Low CON usually means a higher susceptibility to sickness and disease, wounds that fester and linger, and a general fatigue would haunt you, etc.) Like how SY zeroed in on his CHA, Airplane would have prioritized +20 CON (+5 modifier), especially knowing the fate that’d await him as a prince and the vicious environment that is expected for palace intrigue plots (the harem is a big factor, with concubines and consorts and even the empress sabotaging each other—just to win the favor of one man). Against poison or whatnot which is a cliché in palace intrigue plots, rather than relying on luck, you typically stand a better chance of passing the CON check if you have a high modifier aiding your checks. He’s basically become impervious to illnesses, most poisons (probably being able to spring back quickly), and is considered the healthiest prince in all the mortal imperial line. <- This could be taken both seriously and humorously simultaneously.

Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky (Deity/ Celestial)

For Xiàng Tiān Dà Fēijī’s “actual divine body” that is currently asleep and won’t be awakened until Airplane completes his mortal trial to “regain his cultivation powers,” the face should obviously be similar but, as Xiàng Tiān Dà Fēijī, he would appear regal and dignified as a god of this world:

Imagine something along the lines of mortal Airplane as the man on the right, celestial Shen Yuan in the center, and deity/ celestial Airplane as the man on the left. I envision a respectable appearance that would knock the air out of Mobei jūn and make him recognize Airplane despite any visual dissimilarities, and in a way we have the Four Beauties of China: Luo Binghe, Shen Yuan, Mobei jūn, and Xiàng Tiān Dà Fēijī.

I will say I currently have an idea of making Airplane have “golden” eyes in both his celestial and mortal forms. (Spoiler alert: in my notes, I’d written down to give Airplane yellow eyes as an Easter egg to Yanxi Palace, I believe, where there was an episode where someone of the imperial harem schemed against the empress and almost had the newborn baby killed because that and the yellow skin was an inauspicious omen. We later find out through a timely intervention that the true reason was due to jaundice—because of the diet/ pregnancy cravings she ate for a period of time which resulted in her son’s symptoms. With Airplane’s high CON and another trope I’m bringing in which’ll have to do with the Medicine King’s Valley/ Valley of the Medicine King, his yellow eyes are the only side effect that lingered from that traumatic event which would have killed him had they gotten away with their scheme. A lot of palace dramas have to do with the vicious harem plots, so this would potentially be one such example.) The reason being that this is the identifying marker for MBJ to clue in that they’re the same man he will have loved. And I think that has romantic potential.

Misc.

Now addressing the other tags, yes, essentially speaking, Mobei jūn might just very well experience his very own Big Damn Reunion trope that Bing mèi had suffered from SVSSS. Poor MBJ. He’s in a tumultuous ride of his own with him considering Airplane as his own fated person, hahaha. But for the Moshang dynamic, I want him—a demon—to find himself taken with Airplane in his mortal guise—and subsequently his true celestial appearance once he finds out. I very much also want SY to jokingly snark to his fellow transmigrator-and-writing-colleague about him getting in a relationship with his own “creation” (MBJ). And Airplane would jokingly snark back about SY “ruining his ‘first son’ as well” (LBG). If you can read between the lines of that, then kudos. I’m glad to hear you’re looking forward to the palace intrigue.

I’m especially very happy to hear you’re looking forward to the descriptions! I personally love worldbuilding in the stories I consume I’m an interior designer and realtor irl, so I’m glad my love of house details and landscape, etc shows in TUT. For the pseudohistorical vibe, in the Mortal Realm, I will be referencing the Forbidden City of our Chinese history and a couple popular period C-dramas. Take the settings of period C-dramas like Ruyi’s Royal Love in the Palace, Yanxi Palace, and Nirvana in Fire as examples for what will be awaiting us when we finally meet Airplane in his mortal body. In the Heavenly Realm, the descriptions will be heavily referencing shows that contain aesthetics such as those of Ashes of Love, Love and Redemption, and Eternal Dream.

Take this with a grain of salt just in case I change my mind later on, but in the chapter when we meet Airplane for the first time, I probably won’t say which character he is in the first scene. I’ll give plenty of hints in the first scene so that you all can make your guesses before the big reveal, but I’m fairly confident you all or most of you will be able to pinpoint who he is among the cannon fodders. We’ll meet the emperor, who is discussing with his sons about the matter regarding the approaching calamity that is Luo Binghe. Then when we transition into the second scene, we’ll know exactly which “royal prince OC” it is that our beloved Airplane has transmigrated into, hahaha.

(*Keep in mind, for everything written above, some details are subject to change. Nothing is official until it appears in the story, or I’ve actually drawn my ideas out and posted online to both my tumblr and twitter. These are just my current thoughts.)

A goal of mine for TUT is to make the story widely accessible, meaning it doesn’t matter if the reader is new to the SVSSS fandom or aren’t familiar with the Easter egg references or meta jokes or subtext or even the Chinese culture, or even if English is not their first language. Having knowledge beforehand might help someone notice more hidden details in TUT, yes, but it is a humble wish of this writer for her esteemed readers to be able to dive into the story and get the enjoyable feeling like they’re reading a genuine danmei novel. It really makes me smile whenever I hear feedback that I am able to emulate that experience.

Very exciting developments indeed are in store!