#FUCKING. HE CAN BE SUMMONED. HE'S A SUMMON

[corkinavoid]

DPxDC Urgent Call

"I need your phone."

Tim looks up from his laptop. The boy in front of him looks like he's been dragged to Hell a week ago and just made it back: smudges of soot on his face, his not-so-white t-shirt smelling of smoke, and a nasty looking burn on his hand that he somehow doesn't even pay attention to. Tim thinks back to his mental list of 'Rogues currently on the loose', but it's only Ivy and Harley (who don't even count anymore), and Penguin, who is not known for setting things on fire.

"I can call 911 for you, if you want?" He offers, because this is still Gotham. Despite the fact that a slightly scorched guy casually walking into a coffee shop is not something out of the ordinary here, he's not giving his phone to strangers.

The guy grimaces and starts aggressively rummaging through his pockets.

"No, thanks, ACAB and all that, and they won't do shit here anyway," he says, and then pulls a handful of tangled golden jewelry — rings, chains, necklaces with various gems in them — from his pocket and places it on the table in front of Tim. "I need your phone," he repeats.

Tim stares. First, at the gold — these things look antique, and his parents were archeologists, he knows what he's talking about — then, back at the guy. He looks... ordinary, sans the dirt and smell.

But the burn on his hand looks significantly more healed than it did just a minute ago.

Thankfully, Tim has already had his cup of morning coffee. Which means he is thinking very rationally when he does get his phone out of his pocket and hands it to the guy, just to see what he does next.

"Thanks," the guy grins at him, plucking the phone out of Tim's hand and unlocking it. Tim's eyebrows shoot up — there's a password there! — but the stranger is already dialing in a number and pressing the phone to his ear.

It takes less than a second before someone evidently picks up, and the guy starts talking.

"I have less than three minutes before the phone dies, so listen very carefully. Etrigan is fine, Jason is not, Klarion is still being a bitch. Dora won't help anymore, so you're on your own until Sam makes it there with the staff. I'm in Gotham because, apparently, mazes and I don't mix well together, so if you could summon me back, that'd be cool," he says, a look of mild annoyance on his face.

Tim is back to staring at him. He recognizes some of the names, and, well, one could have been an oddity, two a coincidence, but three is a pattern.

"The fuck you mean you can't, I gave you the incantation two months ago!" The guy raises his voice, his foot tapping on the floor in frustration. "Do you think I just go around giving my summons to people for shits and giggles? Like, yeah, have a spell that unleashes a cosmic being of immeasurable power, use it as a bookmark!"

This interaction, despite Tim only hearing one side of it, gets more and more alarming with every word.

But then, the boy suddenly straightens up and stills, his eyes flashing bright, unpleasantly familiar green.

"You what?" He asks, his voice slipping from just angry to quietly enraged hiss, "Sold it to whom?!" But, before he gets an answer, Tim's phone makes a thin, tiny buzzing sound, and the guy takes it off his ear, looking at the screen.

"No, no-no-no," he mutters, shaking it like that would make it work. To no avail, though: the phone screen flashes a few times and goes black. The guy curses. At least Tim thinks it's a curse because he doesn't understand a word, but the stranger's face and intonation are telling.

"Useless fucking moron of a human, I swear I'm going to drown you in cow shit once this is over," he switches to English, dropping the phone on the table right by the small pile of gold, "I'll bargain your pathetic soul from everyone you've ever dealt with and give it to the Observants, and maybe, after a few millenia of endless Council paperwork, I'll have mercy and sell it back to Lucifer and watch him fry you on a skillet."

...Whoever the boy is, Tim absolutely refuses to ever piss him off, okay. That's an impressive threat to even make, not to mention being able to go through with it.

"Do you need help?" He asks cautiously. If he is getting his context clues right, this is something that involves JLD, and maybe John Constantine specifically since Tim doesn't know any other man who is a magic user, sold his soul numerous times, would care about Etrigan's wellbeing, and could invoke this kind of murderous intent.

The boy looks back at him, his eyes back to normal blue.

"Huh? Oh, no, I doubt this can be helped," he waves Tim off and pinches the bridge of his nose, "Sorry about the phone, but, unless you have a way to yeet me across the globe so I end up in London in the next twenty minutes..." he shrugs, smiling in that helpless 'nothing you can do here' way.

Tim picks up his phone. It's dead, wholly and completely, won't even turn on when he tries.

He really, really shouldn't do that. This is definitely none of his business, and very much out of his capabilities and area of expertise.

But he thinks about the zeta-tube in the Cave.

"Actually," he says, and the guy's eyes snap back to him, a bewildered sort of surprise on his face.

[tiredly-yours]

I like the idea of Tim going: "Bro, I'm not indulging this anymore" and ignoring Danny. So, I'm just gonna go with that, but, with the whole 'the rejection of your soulmate makes you go crazy, THO IT IS CURABLE'.

Because I also like the idea of, years later, Danny is well over it, knows he fucked up, dealt with the situation wrong and accepts he will never get to know his soulmate, it hurts, yes, but he's learnt that he was somehow the problem.

But, you know, acceptance of never getting to know your soulmate kinda translates to rejection.

So, poor Timmy, this guy's gonna go through a rough time. Yeah, he goes a bit crazy, he feels so empty and, suddenly, after not thinking of Phantom for years, he's suddenly all he can think of.

He begins to search through old files of him, watches videos of security cameras, tries to find him. He wants to know why he feels like this.

Blah blah blah, the Batfamily is concerned, very concerned.

Then, the JLD has to summon the ghost king because ghosts are making more havoc than normal, breaking stuff and terrorising the people, normal stuff. They just want to tell him, in the politest way possible, to "Please take your citizens out of earth, they're causing a mess" and end up getting a grown up Phantom instead.

Tim is delighted, the Batfam is horrified, and the JL is a bit confused.

Not wasting even a second, Tim HAS to ask what was the reason for him to follow him around like that, just why.

And Danny's like, "oh yeah, I was sixteen and very fucking desperate to get my soulmate's attention, I'm really sorry, I messed up, I hope you can forgive me, but if you can't, that's fine."

Tim stares, his mind stopped computing the moment Danny said "soulmate".

—

Sorry if it's not good, English is not my first language.

@gilbirda Ok, so you made a snippet of on of your AUs a while back (braindead rejected! soulmate i think) and I haven't been able to think of much else since. So my brain made a little thingy for you!

------------

1. Tim takes a risk one day by writing back to whoever was doodling on his body, with a glittery purple gel pen, asking them to stop trying to contacting him.

All the person asked was, "Why?"

Tim never answers.

2. Danny faces constant rejection from his peers, authority figures, his parents and sister neglect him and now his own soulmate doesn't want him. They hadn't even met before he was rejected. Jazz finds out about Dannys powers and tries to reach out but Danny rejects her pretty violently due to his own pain. Then the episode where Sam and Tucker ditch him for Gregor happens and he gives up.

The two people in his life that has had pretty much complete control over his life and trajectory just abandoned him and he does not take it well. He ripped the symbol off his chest, disappeared and never came back.

3. Danny zooms into a new dimension/universe/whatever to avoid his former friends and family from being able to track him only to land in a place called Central City and immediately getting roped into helping Captain Cold who gives him a normal domino mask and they end up working together for a while.

4. Danny somehow overhears one of the speedster talking on the phone about his friends brothers soulmate issue at some point and they perfectly describe the interaction that happened between Danny and his soulmate all those years ago, down to the glittery purple gel pen and the types of doodles Danny had made as a kid and the things he said.

Danny learned one of his soulmates belonged to a group of detective vigilantes in a place called Gotham. Unfortunately he was spotted by the speedster and Danny had to bounce.

5. The Flash made reports to the Justice League about a meta teen who hes been having trouble with for a while and can't seem to pin down. He only asked for tips though as he "could handle it himself."

6. Danny leaves for Gotham and learned about Catwoman and Batmans weird Master Thief and Greatest Detective dynamic and decided that's what he wants to do. He was going to make his soulmate chase after him one way or another. Someone was going to want him even if they were wanting him behind bars.

He begins robbing bank vaults and museums, leaving no trace or clue as to what happened until he starts leaving a calling card of sorts.

7. Jason, who's been on the outs with his family lately meets this spunky white haired meta kid running around with a sci-fi mask/visor thing and giving supplies to homeless encampments and keeping the less fortunate alive and befriends him. He learns that this is the guy everyone has been searching for and just...tells no one. Jason is all for a Robin Hood vigilante, and really, its kinda funny to see his family squirm.

8. Phantom and Catwoman rob the same museum at the same time but for different things. They stare at eachother from where they're both still crouched from thier respective landings until Danny breaks the tension with "I didn't see you if you didn't see me?"

Catwoman laughs, amused. "Sure."

9. Danny finally narrowed down which of the batfam is his soulmate and introduced himself to them as Phantom.

The first thing Danny did was hit on Tim. Tim is flustered but otherwise doesn't really respond to it and tries to fight Phantom into submission, so of course Danny ghosts him by disappearing through a roof mid fight. Danny made a big show of his intangibility in that fight and made it seem like it was the only power he had but he was very skilled with it and he wanted to impress him.

10. Phantom becomes well known to the underbelly of Gotham. Mostly the homeless and nightworkers. But Danny was open and friendly. Never judging and always ready to lend a helping hand. Even better. He never came to collect on favors.

Over time, they became loyal to him.

11. Danny gets framed for a series of murders and the whole gang (minus Hood) are trying to capture him, thus, motorcycle chase scene. They use the white of his tires to tell when he's gone intangible due to all the dirt falling off the wheels. Nightwing jumps onto the bike and shocks Danny with his encrizma sticks right before Danny grits out "bye bye birdy~" and makes a big show of taking in a deep breath and holding it.

Nightwing is forced to jump off the bike as Danny runs through the concrete abutment of the overpass and coming out the other side

12. Danny meets Tim and Duke in his civilian form while he was at a Wayne tech conference. Danny had been asked about one of his inventions and was trying to show off the blueprints and explain things and thats why he was there in the first place. Duke of course, was internally screaming because that's the guy thats the guy they've been hunting for nearly a year but can find nothing on.

Red Robin confronts Phantom that night on a rooftop and Phantom laughs at him, "Thats why I was avoiding Signal for so long. He'd see my magical girl form and know instantly."

RR holds out a pair of handcuffs and says "Its over Danny." Phantom smirks and says, "I don't think it is, Tim" before jumping off onto a different roof and disappearing into the night. Tim is shook.

13. Danny over hears Robin berating RR at an old clocktower and intervenes, "Little Wayne, you do realize you were the first person I figured out, right?"

Damian proceeds to lose his mind.

14. Tim accidentally finds a material that Phantom can't phase through and quickly gets to work making things he can use against Danny. What he doesn't know is that Danny can phase through it he just pretended he couldn't because he wanted to see what would happen/what Tim would do.

Danny can sense the material and it feels really wierd to him, but doesn't harm him at all.

15. RR manages to knock Phantoms visor off his face and realizing it was made of tech he swipes it and brings it back to the cave for study.

He wasn't ready for all the information on the computer. Not only was his nemesis(?) from another plain of reality (he thinks Danny is from the ghost zone) but he was once a superhero with his own Rogues Gallery and human city to protect. Which begs the question, why did he become a Phantom thief?

16. The Joker hears about Phantom giving the bats the run around and comes to a misunderstanding about which bat he's been messing with which ultimately ends with Joker saying that he is Batmans ultimate nemesis and Phantom asking what that had to do with him? The misunderstanding is cleared up when Phantom complained about Joker even thinking that he was flirting with Batman because "Ew! He's an old man!"

Joker still got a few shots in for the heck of it but so did our ghost boy but they were no longer enemies.

17. The whole batfam had been freaking out about finally capturing Phantom and celebrating and plotting on how they were gonna get him to keep his mouth shut about thier identities until Jason came in,

Jason: Need help?

Phantom: Please?

Jason: *escapes with Danny*

Batfam: What?! No!!! Why?!

18. The batfam have only a vague idea of the Robin Hood thing going on. They know he's doing it just not to the extent its gone to. They find out later on that Phantom had been working with RH and his gang to sell off the items and most of the profits go to helping people. Other times he strait up gives jewelry and whatnot to children and working girls because "Everyone deserves something pretty, and even if its not your style you can keep it for a rainy day"

Phantom quickly gains a following and Danny doesn't even know about it. Clueless indeed.

19. Dannys main motivation in this is essentially just playing Cops and Robbers with Red Robin. Nothing else really matters to him. Not the robberies, not the fact he's working with a crime lord, not even his own safety matters much to him anymore. Hes readily zooming down the path of self destruction and Hood starts telling his family stuff, but only because he was genuinely worried about "Casper" crashing and burning.

20. No one knows why Phantom is fixated on Red Robin. He refuses to tell them. Red thinks its just because he's the smartest of the bats and he's not entirely wrong.

21. Danny legit started scheduling his heists with Tim to ensure they're both free after one couldn't make it too many times which blew the birds mind. Phantom must have been just that confident that he would always win. The bats eventually think Danny will stop stealing if RR isn't in the city for a long period of time. Danny more or less followed him and stole stuff from whatever city Tim was in. If there wasn't any museums or banks then Danny would steal a local landmark. Tim still wasn't sure how Phantom stole an entire building that one time but it had never been seen since.

22. Hood grows to be very protective of our favorite ghost boy. They bond and are actually really close. Danny admits he always wanted an older brother.

23. Tim goes off world for a while to see how Danny would react and Danny just...drops off the radar. No one knows where he is and after a week or two they start getting worried.

Tim returns after three months and Danny reappears two weeks after him with a tan and keepsakes from the places he visited on his vacation. Tim later screams into his pillow.

24. Tim has made it his personal mission to figure out who Danny really is, why he's fixated on him, where he came from, ect. Hes trying so hard but can't find anything. Its almost like he didn't exist before. Tim suddenly got an idea after Phantom accidentally got hit in the face and got a nosebleed. Tim saw green blood and immediately realized Danny might not even be human. Fortunately for our little ghost, he thinks he's an alien. A Martian specifically. Tim manages to snag a good sample from treating Phantoms wounds. Ghostboy was so focus on his core thrumming and mentally comparing it to his heart racing that he didn't even notice.

25. Tim later freaks out because the meta is freaking made out of Lazarus water.

The entire batfam was not happy to discover this and decided to work together to pressure Phantom into telling them what he was and what exactly he wanted.

[my-secret-shame-but-fanfiction]

i dont know how many asks you have built up, but hullo :3

Wondering if you could make a little fic of reader with a biting kink and sub!Steven? It could go any way you want, but I can just imagine this scene:

Marc waking up, feeling all sore and stingy in certain areas and seeing reader blissfully sleeping like they didn't just bite the fuck out of the body. He stumbles to the bathroom, looks in the mirror to see bite marks all over his neck, chin, shoulders, arms (and some on his thighs 😼). Marc, talking to Steven in the reflection, asks why the hell would he let reader keep chomping on the body like a chew toy, and Steven was just like "well, bruv, you should have seen them on top of me last night. I couldn't say no to that face" Marc, Steven and Jake have been dating reader for a while, and they know all to well about their biting kink, that a different reason they summon the suit to heal (even though they sometimes keeps the bite marks on like a display to others that they have a sex life. I feel like Jake would taunt others and be like "yeah, my lover owns me" and other people could be like wtf??)

Extra points of reader is a demihuman 😼

Thank you so much for the ask! Ahhh!

Sorry this has kind of gone in a different direction.

Love Bites

Steven Grant x Marc Spector x gn!Reader • Rating: 18+ pals • Masterlist• ao3• want to be tagged? | request info • buy me a coffee? •

Summary: Marc has a problem he needs to share.

Warnings: Kissing, biting, pet names, Marc and Steven having a conversation (bickering), fluffy silliness, swearing, not beta read, please let me know if I've missed a warning.

Word Count: 973

Steven moans softly as you straddle his thighs, your hands on his cheeks as you kiss him and lightly push him back against the pillows. His fingers dig into your waist as he kisses you back, leaving him breathless, lightheaded. 

Which isn’t helped by the blood rapidly rushing downwards. 

You rock against him lightly as you lick into his mouth and nibble on his bottom lip, breaking away for just a moment to tug his t-shirt up and off. Steven helps you eagerly, throwing it to the side as if the material had personally offended him. 

When you go back to dragging your lips along his throat, he groans loudly, wriggling under you in excitement, his heart thudding in his chest. 

“Love,” he moans, needy and wanting. He places his warm hand on the back of your neck, applying a firm but not oppressive pressure. 

You know what he wants, what he craves. But instead, you smile and run your tongue along his jugular. 

“Love.” He pants, a little harsher this time and you just about manage not to giggle at the indignation in his voice. 

‘Steven.’ Marc’s voice echoes in his head, clear as day and he rolls his eyes. 

‘Bit busy now mate.’ 

There’s a pause, and even though Steven doesn’t look over to the mirror, he can feel Marc shiver, the sensations starting to bleed over, his arousal. 

‘Yeah, I get that.’ Marc pauses, but doesn’t fade back. 

You nip lightly at the spot under Steven’s ear. He shudders, whining beautifully. 

‘Maybe you can…’ Marc swallows. 

‘Spit it out mate, come on. Me and Jake have talked to you about this. It’s not really fair that you’re constantly dropping in on, well, intimate moments with us, but when it’s the other way around, you get all pissy and-’

‘This isn’t about that.’

‘Isn’t it?’ 

Steven can feel Marc frown at his sarcastic tone. But neither of them comment on it. 

‘Look, it’s about the biting-’

It’s almost like you can hear them. At the exact moment the word is out of Marc’s mouth you sink you teeth into Steven’s neck and suck.

Steven yelps, arousal burning in his lower stomach. His grip on you tightens. “Oh, fuck love, yes, that’s what I want.” 

‘Steven.’ Marc tuts. 

‘I don’t care if you’re here or not, don’t act like I can’t tell when you’re in the background watching to get your rocks off. You’ve got a vouyism thing, I swear down, all high and mighty on your horse acting like you don’t when you watch all the blood time and-’

‘Steven-’

‘But do not give me the condescending mother goose voice when I am trying to have a nice time here, yeah? It’s a bit of a mood killer.’

‘I’m not trying to kill the mood!’ Marc snaps back, going from his stern slowness to matching Steven’s fast pace. His accent is stronger when he’s frustrated, and now it’s out in full force. ‘It’s the biting! Does it always have to be with the biting?’

‘First, is this really the time to be discussing it? Second-’

‘I think it’s the right time, the best time. You hardly ever-’

‘Second, you one to talk!’

‘Bullshit.’

‘It’s true!’

‘What the fuck are you talking about, Steven?’

‘You love getting bitten.’

Marc gasps, trying to sound insulted. But it falls short. ‘I don’t.’

‘Yes you do!’

‘I don’t!’

‘Protest all you want, but I know you do Marc.’

‘That’s a fucking lie.’

‘You’re a fucking liar.’

‘Steven, I’m not, shut up!’

‘You just use the suit to heal them after, but I know, Jake and I both know.’

‘Bullshit.’ 

‘What’s the real problem here?’

‘I…’

‘Yes?’ Steven waits. 

Marc sighs. ‘Look, can you, you know, heal them after too?’

‘Why?’

Marc squirms a little, embarrassed. ‘‘Cause… I get… worked up… when I see them, feel them, on the body…’ 

Steven snorts involuntarily and then quickly stops himself, internally apologising. ‘Are you saying you get a boner from some bruises?’ 

He can feel Marc’s glare. 

Steven chuckles. ‘You do!’

‘Fuck off.’

‘Oh, you really do. That’s bad mate, really bad, a fetish for sure.” Steven teases and Marc scowls. 

‘Fuck off.’

‘A deviant they’d call you.’

‘Like you don’t fucking get the same?’ Marc snaps. ‘Acting like you’ve never got turned on by anything.’

Steven relents, internally holding his hands up. ‘I’m sorry, I’m just teasing. I’m not trying to really upset you.’

Marc pauses. ‘Yeah… I know… sorry. I just…’

‘I’ll heal them after.’

‘You don’t have to.’ Marc says quietly.

‘You don’t have to fuck off either, you can stay and…’ Steven pauses, realising that your lips are no longer on his neck. He opens his eyes to look up to you, confused. “Love?” 

You smile at him. “Marc or Jake or both?” 

“Hmm?”

“Who you were talking to?” You lean down again and kiss his cheek.

“Oh, how did…?”

“You go still and sort of, move your lips a little, like you’re asleep.”

Steven blushes a little. “I’m sorry.” 

“Why?” You shrug.

“Not very sexy, is it?” 

You chuckle, “It’s fine, I’d do the same if someone was talking to me.” 

“Still…” Steven smiles. 

“So, who were you talking to?” 

“Marc.” Steven touches back into their shared space. Marc’s still there, though he’s stepped back a fraction. But he’s not pretending he’s gone. “He’s hanging out.” 

You smile and stroke his hair. 

“Now, I believe you were in the middle of something?” Steven wiggles his eyebrows at you, giving you a cheeky look. 

“Oh, was I?” 

Steven nods. “Something that you’ll have to finish, love. You have no choice.” 

You giggle at his teasing tone, “Oh, well,” you shrug, pretending as if it’s some great chore. “If I have no choice.” And lean back down to suck a love bite into his skin.

Thank you for reading!

Taglist:

@pleasurebuttonwrites @raven-rk @campingwiththecharmings @lonelyisamyw-0love @romanarose  

@steven-grants-world  @blushingrn @to-be-a-sunshine  @angel-of-the-moons @minigirl87

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@queerly-anxious  @swiftiegirliepop @oscarssimp  @eternallyvenus @lounilu 

@pigeonmama @iolaussharpe-24 @chaithetics @sub-aro @faretheeoscar

 @queerponcho @twwcs @ingoldthewizard @ominoose @ierofrnkk

@have-you-seen-my-sanity @missdictatorme @musicalnacho @buckyssugarchick @lemonzestinmydrink 

@sonotpractical @junggoku @julesonrecord @heavydirtysoulsblog

If you'd like to be taken off the tag list please let me know here

[gutsheapofrawiron]

adding on to the binggeyuan political streamer x hater au, I can't pick between these two options of what'd be funnier:

bingge experienced a complete 180 on his political views post-Meetcute, like after bumping into shen yuan in that grocery store he just goes 'yeah no actually everything he's ever said is correct' and becomes a full-on outspoken leftist (for the peach), regularly sending superchats engaging in the conversation on-stream and lowkey becoming a known chatter in the community (he makes sure to delete his previous account, scrubbing all the content and creating a new one with a clean record, re-subbing to shen yuan with that one), posting about whatever on the forum and being the first upvote/like on every edit or gifset that's posted there (it becomes an inside joke in the community that you can summon him just by editing cat ears onto any photo of shen yuan).

not only does he turn his life around politically, shen yuan's criticisms of the right-wing streamer's lack of personal hygiene and dogshit living standards get bingge to go through a huge 'glow-up', finally cleaning his nasty badger's nest of an apartment for once, cleaning himself up as well, learning grooming tips and tricks via the internet, and he manages to find a routine for his hair that works, turning a rat's heaven into what we know and love as his luscious, long glossy locks.

he already was obsessive with watching all of shen yuan's streams before obviously, but now it's a different kind of Enrapturement in which he starts to actually take note of the tidbits of information shen yuan divulges about his personal life now and then in between topics, also memorising whenever shen yuan usually takes his meds and sometimes even sending a superchat/donation to remind him when he either forgets or procrastinates taking them on time. shen yuan, when he gets these donations, is always very much like 'oh you really didn't have to spend money to tell me that are you crazy!! fine i'll take them, i'll take them!!' huffing and puffing, continuing: 'thank you but seriously, i'd rather people donate to causes that actually need it. here's a few fundraisers…' (he's blushing and avoiding eye contact with the camera but his hand is reaching for his meds while he's talking regardless).

and then one stream shen yuan admits that his diet isn't very good (read: absolutely terrible) after chat calls him out on the 4th cup noodle manifesting mysteriously in his hands during one 7 hr stream, and bingge decides ok no. and with resolve he gets up (after the stream ends) and begins teaching himself how to cook! and this continues where shen yuan isn't really taking care of himself properly in certain aspects and bingge just decides to 'git gud' and get his shit even more together so he'll be worthy of shen yuan.

he stops surviving off of takeout and frozen meals himself, his skin is now glowing and he no longer has vague ailments plaguing him. he started going to the gym and already had to size up his clothes twice since. he's become everything he thought he hated, but he feels better than ever and has an actual purpose in life now (meeting shen yuan a second time and NOT fumbling it again).

all that OR:

bingge holds onto his right-wing sentiments for a while longer even when he makes it his mission to worm his way into shen yuan's personal life (he's parasocial as fuck in both options, go figure), so he'd be in immense internal conflict with shen yuan being the pinnacle of all that he 'despises' (woke leftist, absolute beta chud with not even a sliver of muscle mass going on under those (weirdly high-quality and well-fitting) clothes of his, still somehow popular w/ the ladies but he doesn't even seem to know? (probably gay AND a bottom)) while simultaneously foaming at the mouth wanting to push this nerdy radical twink up against the wall and snatch his glasses and hold them up so high he wouldn't be able to get them back and watch as he would get himself all worked up and frustrated and then bingge would take that opportunity to pull him up higher by his shirt and push his knee in between his thi—

either way bingge does end up meeting shen yuan and becoming involved in his life, whether that's through becoming such a notable chatter that shen yuan ends up inviting him onto the stream, stream/live bombing (what's it called again? i forgot) when shen yuan's doing a rare stream out and about somewhere or going to the next con shen yuan'll be a guest at after the one he had to... ahem, take a rain check on. just know he'll find a way.

[shaaknaa]

It varies wildly. There are actually 3 answers:

1. Yusha wants to go home. Usually the Summoned Hero genre. They are literally on the quest to get home. This is actually the classic from pre-Gamer days. It's a classic coming of age story.

2. Dead. Protag literally died and reincarnated, so they can't go back. Frequently they didn't have friends (usually died of overwork to rub this in).

3. Kinda deranged actually. Black Summoner where he willingly whipes his own memories for extra buffs. The girl in How Not to Perform Healing Magic who is *living* for this. And of course, Eminence in Shadows. These characters are fucked up and having a great time.

This is, of course, assuming it's not Portal Fantasy where they can go back and forth anyway.

Isekai just seems like a profoundly sad genre of fantasy by design. Yes you have rad JRPG powers now and you get to hang out with big tiddy elves who love you but do you not have like. Friends that you mourn. Family that you miss. Habits that you can’t practice now without tripping. Familiar sounds and smells you’ll never know again

Either you did and you don’t care in the face of JRPG powers and elf tiddies, or you didn’t, and both options are profoundly sad in their own ways

[butterflypancakes]

What is lost, can be found.

Warnings: English is not my first language, I’m still learning how to use tumblr, swearing, William Stryker

Tell me if I missed any.

This is story is inspired by @just-dreaming-marvel’s LTB. If you haven’t already read that amazing book please check it out, it’s such a good read!

Chapter one.

(Y/N) sat on a bench, overlooking the coast as she enjoyed her cheap sandwich with a tired expression. She was so sick of hiding- running, whatever you called it, being in the shadows. She was exhausted, but there was nothing she could do. The world she lived in- it would never accept a freak like her, her father certainly didn’t so why would anyone else?

Like always, she found herself wandering the streets of the town she called her home, not that she could even remember the name of it anyway- not when she had claimed so many homes in the past yet none of them truly felt it. Making her way back to her shitty apartment, she froze in terror as a strange man stood where, what was supposed to be her safe haven.

Wasting no time, she Immediately summoned a spare of water, pointing it at the strange man. “Who the fuck are you?” (Y/N) glared, her whole body tense and guarded. The man only gave a nervous yet easy going chuckle, his hands up in a way to show slight surrender. “Calm yourself, I’m not here to fight, I’m here to talk.”

That had only made her more closed off. “I don’t believe you.” She sneered. The mystery man nodded before taking a seat casually. “My name is William Stryker, and I am assembling a team- a team of people like you.” (Y/N) shakes her head, her made up weapon or her guard down. “How did you find me?”

William shakes his head with a chuckle. “For someone who has been alive as long as you have, your sense of self preservation is very low. I’ve been following you around for a long time, (Y/N) (L/N). Did you never notice?” Her eyes widened in fear, something he noticed and took advantage of. “Now you are probably thinking that you could easily kill me right here, right now- and I don’t doubt you can’t. But I would rethink that thought, I came with backup and the moment they suppcet me dead, they'll kill you. Now, you’re strong, but not that strong. And I think we both know that.”

(Y/N) was as stiff as a rock, her glaze never leaving Williams but she didn’t make a move. That made William comfortable enough to continue. “I am giving you an opportunity to do something great with her special…abilities-” She frowns at his words.

“Come with me and I’ll help you control and use them for good.” The two never broke eye contact, whether it was a stare down or a show of dominance on his part, she’ll never know. “Or don’t, you can continued to be hunted down, moving town to town, forever in a state of fear,” William reaches out his hand, showing his palm. “Or you could finally be setted. Train and use your power for what it's meant to be, let your uniqueness mean something.”

She took a deep breath, her mind conflicted on what choice to make. ”How do I know if I can trust you?” William shrugs. “You don’t, but I have a feeling you already do…”

(Y/N) hestaints a moment longer. “Will I have my own bed?” The military Major grinned, finally having the final piece of his puzzle, he just needed to place it correctly. “As big as you want it.” She thinks before nodding, lowering her water spare and shaking his hand. “It better be comfortable too.”

—----------------------------------

The moment (Y/N) arrived at camp, she knew she was in for a headache. The men were typical military men. Boorish, smug and pig-headed, even after two world wars she served as a cross nurse, she was always surprised to see the little change in most men she encountered as the world itself changed everyday.

There was however one she found herself fond of, James Logan Howett. The handsome man had been kinder than the other men had been to her. Sticking up to his older brother or other team mates when they spoke about her in a degrading manner. It was nice to feel like she had a friend.

(Y/N) found herself just a bit away from camp, enjoying the night sky and trying to find constellations. “Your dinners going to get cold.” She jumped in surprise at the voice behind her, turning to face Logan, she gave him a small smile as she saw him holding a plate of plain, military food. “Thank you…”

Logan nodded, placing her food down on the log next to her. Pocketing his hands, he goes to leave until he notices her gaze towards the sky. “What are you looking at?” (Y/N) smiles, “The stars, constellations mostly.”

The rugged man looks to the sky to try and find some sort of shape. “I don’t think there's any tonight…” She giggles softly, patting the log spot next to her. Logan hesitates, giving her a once over and seeing how physically relaxed she is- he sees no reason not to.

Taking his seat, he tries to follow her gaze. “I still can’t see anything…” Logan admits, his voice almost a whisper. (Y/N) points to a cluster of stars and speaks up. “That there, it’s the ‘scales’. I read a book about them once, it says they’re supposed to represent balance and justice.”

She sees Logan squint his eyes, trying to see what she does. With a gentle smile, she grabbed his hand. He stiffened and flinched slightly at the sudden touch, wanting to pull away, but after seeing the gentleness in her beautiful eyes, he let her hand hold and guide his.

“Follow this star, to this one…” The more she guides, the more he sees. “And then finish at that one, and you should see.”

Logan slowly nodded, finally seeing the constellation for the first time in his almost hundred year existence. “I see why you like this,” He looks at her, his expression soft, She shrugs with a smile. “It’s something that takes my mind off…this whole situation.” She gestured to the camp. “You’re welcome to join me whenever you’d like.”

The two looked at each other, it seemed for the first time in forever they had found some type of peace within the wicked world they lived in, some sort of contentment in each other's company for reasons unknown to them.

With a soft nod, Logan agreed. An almost smile crossed his lips as for a brief moment he looked at hers. “Yeah. I’d like that…”

[swiggity-swexual-i-am-asexual]

As per usual, it’s DP crossover with (probably) DC, although you could probably adjust it for other fandoms

ANYWAYS

A little kid and his mother are trick or treating in another city, perhaps at some kind of event rather than knocking on doors, and the kid is dressed as Phantom. It’s very adorable, with his little ghost-shaped bucket and clearly homemade and already stained costume—listen, white only works if you can just fly over street grime or phase it out of your clothes—and his slightly I’ll fitting wig. The kid is SO happy to be out and about dressed as his favorite, and maybe even showed it off to Phantom back in Amity Park before his family left.

The hero, insert whoever you wish here, is probably in civvies and just enjoying the event. The kid, meanwhile, is so glad when people ask who he is so he can explain, and so- the hero gets to hear ALL ABOUT the local town hero who is probably pretty small time despite the kid’s clearly exaggerated stories. The hero certainly never heard of him, but the kid’s mom confirms that Phantom really was the town hero, despite some mixed reviews of the poor guy.

“Did you manage to show him your costume?” the hero asks.

“Yeah! We went down to the cemetery to leave flowers and I got to show him my costume.”

Wait. Cemetery? Maybe it was part of theme, because Phantom had to be named that for a reason, but… it sounded like…

The kid ignores the suddenly VERY still hero and instead turns to his mom. “Momma, do you think we should bring him candy? He doesn’t get to trick or treat like we do, and I can work super hard to get him a bunch!”

The kid’s mom just smiles. “We could, but maybe we should bring him something homemade. I bet he’d like something more filling, teen boys like him have a hollow leg.”

The kid wrinkles his nose. “Like Vernie with the pizza bagels?”

“Like your cousin, yes. We can make some cinnamon rolls and take them to his memorial, maybe bring some of the apples from your grandpa’s garden…”

The hero is pretty much forgotten as the two-part family wanders off, not quite intentionally forgetting the hero is there so much as the hero somewhat accidentally ended the conversation when they just froze and didn’t ask anything further.

Not that the hero didn’t want to. But they’d learn something very serious.

One—there was a small town hero they’d never heard of. Two—that hero was apparently a teen. Third—most pressingly, the teen hero was both beloved enough to have kids dressing up as him and dead enough to have a grave.

This… might require some phone calls.

[storage4nart]

#naruto#naruto shippuden#naruto crit#not to mention the hyuuga clan#like you have this whole ass Situation which two major supporting characters are intrinsically intertwined with#this deeply fucked up clan with so many levels of trauma and abuse and generations of ingraining bullshit into itself#and your solution is. just kill one of them and then never talk about it ever again no matter what#and you don't even manage to kill the right one????#like hinata did not spend every major appearance trying to kill herself for her author to give that honor to neji instead#the series even has that whole ''all chakra is chakra'' thing towards the end right????#ok well why not have hinata pull one final self-sacrifice by moving all the curse seals to herself with like a summon or something#she can convert them into a massive chakra boost and die doing something awesome and then her family can be free of its own nonsense#have that be her stand against pain. have neji arrive on the scene just too late to stop her and just in time to feel his seal fade forever#give the kickass lions to hanabi and let her like. exist as a character. have her suddenly trying to fill her sister's now huge shoes#have neji not know how to handle his freedom and try to shield naruto from the juubi only to have hiashi take the blow for him#bc he promised his brother who he never thought he'd get to see again that their clan had changed. and damn it he's saving one of these kid#if you can't let hinata be a villain then FINE but at least let her suicidality fucking MATTER#have i ever mentioned i'm mad about the hyuuga clan. bc i'm mad about the hyuuga clan

actually maybe i do think kishimoto is conscious that he's written a fascist military-industrial complex. i think he's super duper aware on some level lmao

[gods-favorite-autistic]

Track list for Fig and the Cig Figs independently published Junior Year album (officially named “Infaethable”)

Teenage Rebellion

Night Yorb (a heavy metal banger)

Summer Scaries

Devils Nectar

Time Quangle (a love song about Ayda)

Multiclass (Gorgug sings on this!)

The Ballad Of Lucy Frostblade (Kristen was the one who convinced Fig to write this)

So Late, So Tactical

Do You Have A Fucking Warrant

Cassandra (Can You Hear Me)

Hall Of Mirrors

President Applebees (written entirely in the night after Kristen gets elected by a drunk Fig with extremely drunk notes by Kristen)

Raging For Love (inspired by Gorgug, of course)

The Elven Oracle (Has A Day Job) (So Stop Bothering Her)

Maximum Legend

Fury Of The Ball

Cursed

Infaethable

The Bad Kids

[dumb-but-happy-trist]

Little aside : Traum happens, not that much trauma, but the guy who died at the beginning is explained here. And Sherlock “Fuck It We Ball” Holmes dies, and he earned this name because his plan was “Let’s jump into the waterfall to kill Moriarty”.

So, arrival in South America. Confrontation with the alien god, stalemate, bright light and boom, alien god plummets, and so do Mash and a Nemo Marine. But they’re Servants so it’s fine. What’s less fine is Gudako falling off into the giant hole. And yes, she dies. But she makes a deal with Tezcatlipoca (horrendous design btw), and gives up her title as Master to come back to life. We then meet a talking Dinosaur, the Alien God U-Olga Marie (surprise), and, a little later, there’s a music playing (in my mind, they didn’t get the rights sadly). It talks of a certain man, in Russia long ago. She then proceeds through the underworld, meeting a people of intelligent dinosaurs, the Deinos, and a people of gunslingers, the Ocelomeh. Many shenanigans ensue, included : Kingprotea Alter wants to kill us twice; Beni-Enma Alter wants to kill us; Ninkigal likes flowers. Each of these times was the Bat-Man of death : Camazotz. Anyways, we reach the ship (after Beni Alter, but before Ninkigal), discover one of our friend was shot in the head, so Russian heals him. Like that. We then rescue Mash and Gudako’s Husband Kadoc (finally reforming for good the Chaldea Last Time ship), we then follow through with Ninkigal, but not before Russian and Alien God leave. After that, we reach the last level of the underworld, where we fight Beast I/L : Camazotz and kill him with the help of Nitocris Alter. Then, we reach rock bottom, and we fight a non-man, we lose, Alien God comes back, but we still fail to prevent ORT from being reborn. ORT, for context, eats planets for breakfast and it has 17 lives. Anyways, we have to stop it before it reaches its heart. And we get some help from Ninkigal, which allows its external armour to be destroyed, but then it starts producing immense amounts of energy. And what does Gudako do? Keep going, no one else is gonna do it. Then, it reaches the city of the Ocelomeh (said city is also a person, and a mech), they fight back, and while they don’t win, they slow it down enough to get its heart away. Next, Beni Alter and Kingprotea Alter help take out one of its lives. It has only two lives left, but they’re nigh impossible to take out. Unless you combine the two coolest things in the world : Dinosaurs and Guns. And that takes out one more life. We fire at it with the Concept of Holy Sword, but it doesn’t work. But Finally, surprise, Russian man shows up and tells us he put a generator (that could have been used as a bomb) so we can fire again after we’ve weakened it. So we weaken it, and Alien God sacrifices herself in order to fully kill it. Finally. It’s over- oh you’ve got to be- turns out it copied the summoning system and it’s now a Grand Foreigner. We kill it. Lostbelt 7 done.

Anyways : Highlights : Dinosaurs with guns, The Russian Man.

*tries not to cry*

*sees picture*

*cries a lot*

What is the context of the picture? That's a cool guitar though

[minthological]

hello, fwendy-wends!

i bring you my little painting of wiggog y'wrath because i am. not normal about him. haha

sketch + alt pics below the cut <3

the one above is before sealant, these ones are ~30 minutes after sealing! also tilted one a little so you can see the shinies better! highlights my beloved 💚

[mystar21]

EVACUATE THE DANCEFLOOR! 🕺🪩

[birb--birb]

It's so interesting watching shadowbringer cutscenes again and knowing what I know now, just how much Emet-Selch talks to you/your soul/whoever tf you are bc I still have to play endwalker. It's not "I will bring back MY breathen", it's "I will bring back OUR brethern"

And like yes the argument could easily be made that the OUR is the Ascians in general, but do you really think he wouldn't continue to try and reach out to YOU? Even at the end, try and find the words that will make it click for you? This dramatic bitch is intentional with everything he does, I'm almost certain he's knowingly talking to our soul throughout various points of the story.

[kinsey3furry300]

Stolas and Moxxie staring at each other.

Stolas: "Oh, Oh my! Well this is awkward. I am so sorry! I forgot-"

Moxxie, pinching the bridge of his nose: "You forgot that drawing the sigil summones you. To be honest, so did I. I... Just get out of our bed, and can we at least agree to never speak of this?"

Stolas: "Agreed. In my defence it never did this with Blitzy... presumably because I was already present. Moxxie, Millie I am so sorry for ruining your night I... I'll just go. Can I borrow some money for the bus?"

Moxxie: "Out!"

Millie: "See you Monday Stolas! There's some change in the bowl by the door."

Moxxie: "Uggg, fuck my life!"

Blitzø from under the bed: "Well if he's heading out I may as well go as well."

Moxxie, minding his own business in the office early one morning when Stolas rushes in and takes both of his hands.

Stolas: "Thank you! Thank you Thank you thank you! Soooo much!"

Mox: "Y-You're welcome. Um... what for?"

Stolas: "For teaching Blitz how to spell."

Mox: "You... you mean helping him with that paperwork?"

Stolas: "No, dear, for teaching him about spelling out the alphabet."

Mox, blushing: "Oh. Oh! ummm, you're welcome? Your highness?"

Stolas: "No need for that. Here let me return the favour."

Mox, bi panic: "What?!"

Stolas: "Well, we're been playing around and we've found that spelling my name works, um, particularly well. Maybe Millie would appreciate it?"

Mox: " Oh. Well given all the S, o, g e and a shapes, I could see Stolas Goetia working well..."

Stolas: "No, dear, my real name." [Draws]

Moxxie: "Wow."

[contrivedcoincidences6]

Inquisitor: So I’m mad at the Wardens too but you seem way more concerned about the Old Gods part of the plan rather than the take over Orlais with demons thing. What’s up?

Solas:

[majorasnightmare]

okay so like. mizora

im pretty sure we're in agreement that the conditions for wylls pact were sus as fuck right? like there just happened to be a fully formed cult to tiamat rarin to go right outside baldurs gate mid ritual, and the home of high harper and nosy grandma JAHEIRA didnt notice shit?? nobody saw anything and no one could confirm wylls story despite baldurs gate having an active enough night life to sustain 7 actively hunting vampire spawn for at LEAST 200 years AND a sewer murder cult committing covert assassinations and murder sprees??? with a cult of bane conducting weapons trade deals and the knights of the shield operating a smuggling ring??? the flaming fist didnt even see anything to pointedly ignore??? not a single chickenshit recruit filed a report about observing a dragons head in the night sky with a filed dismissal by a senior officer claiming they probably drank too much. Saitama_Okay.jpg

im personally of the opinion that zariel didnt stage that particular incident but DID utilize agents to provoke tiamats cult into action while also stifling potential witnesses. we know raphael does similar because of his stupid chess themed letters to his own agents, so its not unreasonable to suspect zariel is doing the same. but i think the REAL prize of that particular operation was not the destruction of an active tiamat cult, but instead something more subtle and with a potentially higher payoff: the ear of duke ravengards son. a dragon cult getting annhilated was a bonus, and a convenient call to action besides

mizora, by karlachs admission, was part of zariels personal inner circle (by choice, as devils are ambitious creatures with a drive to climb the ladder). this means that, through mizora, zariel herself took direct personal interest in wyll ravenguard. wyll himself was only 17 years old by this point: he had yet to achieve anything of note and was drifting through noble highborn society as the odd man out, son to a lowborn duke who rised through meritocracy and raised to appreciate the down-to-earth rural pasttimes his father grew up with, like fishing. wyll himself had nothing to offer to a devil besides his heritage; baldurs gate is full enough of self sacrificing do-gooders to keep the harpers regularly staffed, and The Urge regularly sated. for mizora to target wyll specifically makes the most sense if the real target was his connection to the current grand duke of baldur's gate, a city home to a practicing diabolist, several evil cults, and itself has been a hotbed of planar activity thanks to the dead threes meddling for YEARS. that ulder also commands the flaming fist, the gates de facto policing force, is also a point to consider.

this is also reflected in wylls pact, and the terms we experience of it. wyll specifically states that the terms of his pact primarily target the evil, the monstrous, and the heartless. remember, this is BEFORE he was the blade of frontiers. he became a warlock 7 years before the game, but only became the Blade five years prior to the plot. thats a two year gap of being a warlock but not the blade, where his pact STILL primarily targeted monsters. this is. a REALLY weird pact for a devil to offer! like firstly, its overwhelmingly in wylls favor. there is very little wyll does FOR mizora, and the targets she assigns to wyll near exclusively align with his moral code. he sees no reason to doubt mizoras portrayal of karlach, and has to be prompted into sparing her even as he hesitates, because past experience has told him that mizoras targets DO deserve to be slain as judged by HIS beliefs, as indicated by his line of participating in a mummers farce, and him playing his part all too poorly. wylls upset at himself for not thinking to question mizoras target and considering his hunt of karlach to be just. clearly thats because, in every other instance, wyll believed that to be the case!

thats REALLY FUCKIN WEIRD for a devil! like yes mizora gets to take down political rivals using wyll, because wyll knows devils are evil, but. thats a really weird pact to sign in return for destroying a cult mid god summon? like you could extort a LOT more for that and be assured youd get it, cuz its ALL OF BALDURS GATE and the RETURN OF TIAMAT on the line. and it doesnt seem to be a case of poor dealmaking, unlike raphael, whos every deal overwhelmingly reeks of desperation. he'll translate astarions back if you kill yurgir, because he really really really needs you to kill yurgir before he figures out raphael played him and he gets out because of it, and the clock is rapidly ticking down on that because balthazar is already in the temple, interacting with the dark justiciar skeletons, and actively looking for yurgir because the orthons annoying him. we are literally a single step removed from balthazar casually dropping the fact theres a dark justiciar hivemind in the bodies of 100 rats and raphael getting his ass beat for setting yurgir up. raphael really really wants you to hate the emperor and free orpheus because the only bargaining chip he has is the hammer, and in the midst of THAT deal literally spells out its location for you and why youd want it, for free. raphael the crown of karsus is almost in reach but to defeat the absolute ill need the plastic card you dad keeps in his wallet, make sure you send me the 16 numbers on the front, the 3 on the back, and the expiration date! hurry raphael we dont have much time!

comparitively mizora only ever bargains from a perceived position of strength. she can afford to make demands of wyll because he has no way to stop tiamats summoning without her. then, later, she has the easiest and most accessible source of information for wylls father knowing his life is in danger as a political prisoner. these are very strong bargaining positions! shes only ever undercut by the players presence bargaining on wylls behalf. its a quick and easy way to show that her inflated opinion of herself isnt entirely without merit, although her second pact is framed as choosing between two potential agreements, save wyll and kill ulder, or save ulder and damn wyll, when in reality shes proposing a new pact that has no authority over wyll OR ulder until signed (which is why you can save ulder because she doesnt actually have the pact given authority to insta kill him the way she implies, she can only throw thwartable assassins at him like anyone else with a grudge). shes a manipulator with plenty of skin in the game and a good amount of success behind her that justifies her position within zariels court. the point of this is make a point of highlighting how *little* mizora actually fucks with wyll *as enabled by the terms of the pact*. mizora is cruel, she is manipulative, she is condescending and rude, and she makes wylls life awful with her presence, but takes very few ACTIONS towards those ends, and relies primarily on verbally demeaning him. when he violates a clause in their pact, mizora utilizes a loophole to make karlach qualify by its terms and then punishes wyll by infusing his soul with infernal essence. thats... really it. you can watch wyll backtalk her, but she doesnt even do that leash yank she does in act 1. if you blenderize her, wyll dies by the pacts terms, but like. mizora literally also dies, and is REALLY upset by it to boot. you break wylls pact, tell mizora to fuck off with her second one, and she just kinda stomps her foot and fucks off for a bit before loitering in your camp still. as a warlock you can even mention to wyll that she very easily could have snatched his soul about the karlach thing but she doesnt.

in terms of "classic warlock struggles" we barely see mizora do anything beyond being an Unpleasant Person wyll is forced to interact with. theres none of the classic "being compelled to do something evil for self serving ends at risk of suffering The Horrors", mizora barely even tries to corrupt him. wyll is never forced by mizora into circumstances where he has to evaluate his code of ethics against an action he needs to take and decide what parts of his moral code he needs to capitulate on and what to keep, wyll keeps almost every single line in the sand he ever draws! his biggest character conflicts are actually between his OWN ideals, whether to live within the heroic persona of the Blade of Frontiers, or to accept his own capability of failings and live as Wyll Ravengard. like. being a warlock barely factors at all into those decisions and the closest it comes to mattering is choosing whether or not wyll breaks his pact or saves his father, which you can expose as a false choice by just rescuing his dad anyways. mizora exerts that little influence over wylls interior world. for a literal devil on his shoulder, bargaining from the greatest position of strength a negotiator could ask for, that is so fucking WEIRD.

okay thats a whole lotta post pointing out that mizoras motivations for even makin the damn pact in the first place needs examining, so now several paragraphs in let me actually get to what i MEANT to talk about. so firstly weve established that 17 yr old wyll doesnt have anything unique to entice a devil beyond his connection to the grand duke. weve established that the pact is weirdly in wylls favor, and that its pointedly not a Skill Issue but seems to be intentional, and furthermore that the POINT of the pact doesnt seem to be corrupting a good soul into the embrace of the Hells to make a new devil, because the pact seems to be made to allow wyll to just Be Himself comfortably without much internal conflict or moral sacrifice. we know that wyll made the pact before he became the blade of frontiers, and thus the pact was not made with the Blade of Frontiers persona in mind, which removes another layer of potential justification for the extremely loose terms of the pact. we know zariel is interested in wyll through the usage of mizora as his patron, and we know that stopping the summoning of tiamat without any external aid from the myriad conflicting interests within baldurs gate almost definitely necessitated a good amount of smokescreen work behind the scenes, but also that it most likely wasnt staged in its entirely because it benefits zariel to thwart tiamats ambitions. so. why is wyll ravengard a warlock pacted to mizora? i suggest the following hypothetical: that mizoras goal, and by extension zariels, was to have a morally agreeable framework within which to make a pact with duke ravengards son, such that hed be guaranteed to agree to it, and then to hide the evidence of the pacts circumstances to allow themselves greater reign to act within baldurs gate. that the goal was to have a devil on the shoulder of the dukes son, to push their relationship into strain so as to make ulder ravengards behavior more predictable and thus vulnerable to manipulation, and that through mizora (through wyll), zariel would have a first hand source to the inner political workings of baldurs gate, and the movements of the flaming fist and the goals they were pursuing. through the fist, zariel could keep track of the cult elements they were investigating (and thus what rivals need deposing), and through wyll and his father, zariel could monitor the movements of the gates upper class and utilize mizoras skillset to ingratiate wyll further into high society and put him in close proximity to those capable of mustering meaningful resistance to an influx of infernal influence. wylls relationship to his father prior to his pact was good, we know ulder was a firm but loving father and that wyll was generally well liked in baldurs gate in general, and that wyll openly admired his father and sought to follow in his footsteps. it is in fact extremely reasonable to suspect that such a good relationship was more than a single incident away from breaking. its in fact more reasonable to presume that a major political figure would be aware of the adage of keeping ones friends close, and enemies closer, such that you could monitor their movements. its reasonable to believe that one would assume good intentions on the part of ones son, who himself has made it known that he desires to be like you. to assume, in good faith, that even with all signs of dragoncult activity removed, that ones son clearly lost his eye and gained new scars *somehow*, through *some* kind of incident related to his new fiend pact. all of these are logical and reasonable things to assume and plan for, when you have made a point of manipulating people, of reading their intentions and catering to them like a monkeys paw.

that ulder ravengard would not just chastise wyll, but banish him from baldur's gate entirely, must have been a horrible shock, not just for wyll, but for mizora. i doubt the uneventful two year gap between taking the pact and becoming the blade was purposeful. it makes more sense to interpet that as mizora simply having no fucking idea what to do with her warlock now, as the pact she dictated (designed so that wyll never felt it was unjust enough to make a point of breaking it, no matter how often he thought of doing so, because it was so in favor of him and aligned with his moral code), simply had no vehicles for any of the usual courses of action. cant force wyll into tricky moral quandries, because she can only ask him to kill evil, infernal, monstrous, or heartless beasts. cant ostracize him through the pact to isolate and grind him down, wyll cant talk about it. what do you even do? now your both stranded in the middle of nowhere with nothing but the pact to show for it

and heres where i veer into hot take interpretation country. i think mizora genuinely likes wyll. when you blenderize her in moonrise towers (before reloading a previous save ofc), her screams are oddly... genuine? confused, frightened, upset. its odd than an otherwise vindictive and catty individual isnt angry upon being killed, but confused and hurt sounding. i think in a lot of ways mizora both relies on the consistency of wylls moral code, while also considering it a hinderance, not to her plans (thoroughly derailed thanks to one ulder ravengard) but to wylls own personal development as a person. shes a devil, she doesnt have the kind of personality where she can be genuine and vulnerable and kind. but she was stuck as the only authority figure wyll had to rely on, for seven whole years, after being kicked out of the only life he ever knew and the only home he ever had. i think in a weird fucked up way, she really does want whats best for him, its just that her opinion of that is filtered through the lens of Literally Being A Devil. none of this is to say she was *good* to wyll. how wyll feels about mizora is pretty blatantly stated, and would be a much shorter post, and im not here to interrogate that or question it, because being stuck with a devil who can use your eye to spy on you is just an awful experience even without regular verbal degradation on top of it. im mostly just intrigued by the other end of that relationship. mizora clearly cares enough about keeping wyll as a warlock to go as far as trying to make a second pact with him if you succeed in negotiating the first one to be broken. which, as weve established above, is really weird because Wyll himself brings next to nothing a devil would value to the table. Mizora isnt trying to corrupt him into breaking his ethics, really the only thing she pushes is sacrificing his father instead, a decision a recruited minthara finds value in as "patricide is often the first step to greatness". i think mizora might have ulterior motives for wanting ulder ravengard dead, and i think its because she believes that wylls love for his father is holding him back. any time wyll is selfish in pushing back on her, mizora indicates some measure of being impressed on wylls behalf. if you encourage wyll to not sign the second pact, mizora taunts him with his fathers death but still says shes genuinely impressed that hes choosing himself over his father

genuinely i think what mizora wants is for wyll to become a more assertive person. a more selfish, self interested, less heroic, less self sacrificing individual. i think mizora considers wylls tendency to bend over backwards to help people to be actively detrimental to him, and i think shes invested in his growth as a person by virtue of being a guide and companion for seven of the loneliest years of wylls life, and in a fucked up devil kind of way i think she invests her pride into it. that, with her plans so thoroughly mangled, the LEAST she can do is forge wyll into a warlock worth the cost. wyll has so much potential he refuses to take, as minthara (another ambitious prideful character) will note, and its explicitly because he would rather give something up than take for himself. i think thats part of why mizora is so cruel and demeaning towards him, to try and push wyll to be pettier or more spiteful, instead of endlessly self sacrificing for the benefit of others, and this is even consistent with her punishment of wyll! she turns him into a devil and specifically notes that he wont be able to be the heroic persona The Blade of Frontiers anymore! ie the facade thats swallowed up wyll ravengard completely at the beginning of the story! i think her investment in wyll as a person is why shes so upset if you kill her at moonrise, because i think she genuinely thought that wyll would always save her and turning him into a lemure was a kind of bluff she didnt expect to cash in.

this would also explain why the terms of her second pact are so comically extreme. eternal damnation and serving zariel forever in return for maybe possibly getting to save ulder from a dangerous situation where he might die anyways from the absolute crisis and WILL die in a few decades from old age even if all goes well? its almost like shes taunting wyll. give it up, give up everything youve ever worked for and sacrifice everything you want to achieve to lock yourself into the worst evil you can think of for someone who banished you who might not even survive anyways. make this overwhelmingly stupid self sacrifice because thats just what you do wyll, never think of yourself or whats best for you, only other people, trade away all of eternity for the CHANCE of someone else getting another day, if THAT. this contract is so blatantly overwhelmingly unfair i DARE you to think so little of yourself youd agree to it. of course she wont congratulate him for choosing himself over his father, shes a devil and she has to rub salt in the wound, but that doesnt mean she disapproves of the choice. the only way wyll ever gets away from her is by thinking of himself and mizora takes every chance she gets to punish him for sacrificing himself and i think its because she knows he can do more if he just takes it for himself instead of passing it up. its the only kind of affection a devil can have. and every time i sit there and talk wyll through breaking his pact at moonrise and bully mizora into giving him a rapier (one of the best in the game, made specifically for wyll, made specifically out of his pact, when she doesnt have to give him anything and least of all something good, how its a reward specifically for wanting more from her and demanding it and not letting a circumstance where you have power over her go), i keep seeing hints of it underneath the surface.

a genuine devilish compassion for a warlock who rightfully loathes her, a loathing she encourages whenever she can. does wyll need an enemy to keep him from getting complacent? something to strive for thats just for his own benefit? it doesnt benefit anyone else for wyll to break his pact. most people benefit from him keeping it. its why he HAS kept it, all these years, despite hating mizora. i think mizoras taken it upon herself to do what the duke refuses to, and thats making sure Wyll becomes someone who can thrive in the world as she understands it. someone who has the ambition to reach higher, someone selfish enough to step on somebody else to get what they need, someone who refuses to get themselves killed just for somebody elses sake, somebody who doesnt give unless they receive in equal or greater value. someone who sees a situation where they have power, where someone needs them, and gets all they can out of it. and if not for people they want to protect, then at LEAST exploiting the people they HATE. does mizora demean him so much so that wyll is more comfortable firing back? so that wyll doesnt have to feel like hes becoming a worse person if he treats her as bad as he gets? if he treats his help as conditional, for her and only her, does he get to walk away feeling like he hasnt done anything wrong because he knows mizora does worse, and more often, and at least wyll will eventually help?

when he breaks his pact, and tells her no, he wont sign another, when he saves his father anyways, when he tells her off and gets everything he wants without sacrificing a damn thing, underneath the bluster and rage, is mizora proud of him?

things to consider sometime.