#Generation's Dawn Academy

[nep-neptune-0]

5 AM

Xiangli Yao x Reader

Summary: You always had a habit of staying overnight at Huaxu Academy, tinkering away at your latest project; Xiangli Yao had a habit of visiting you for new ideas at the crack of dawn.

Content: fluff

Word Count: 1.5k

a/n: immediately downloaded the game after seeing an edit of him, got him through the Moon-Chasing Festival event and now I'm writing fanfic for him, sorry if I didn't portray him correctly!! I'm new to the game lmao

A few quick knocks pulled you out of your flow. What was the time? You threw a quick glance at your clock, almost 5 a.m.. That marked the 3rd night you had spent in the workshop, tinkering on your new creation. You slid your safety goggles up to your hairline, trying to blink away the blur that had settled over your vision. You really should start using the ceiling lamp along with your workbench lamp, otherwise you’d risk deteriorating your vision.   

Another sequence of knocks made you scramble up from the saddle stool, reminding you why you stopped your project in the first place. You were at the other side of the room at lightning speed. Your workshop was small, only enough to fit one relatively big table in the middle with a smaller one rammed up at the corner, decked out with tools and machines from your personal collection. The academy was generous enough to lend you various equipment, one of them being a large robotic arm with different functions that was attached to the bigger table, but you didn’t dare to use it unless it was for “serious work” as you liked to call it. 

The door wailed when you pulled it open. You really should oil it like how Xiangli Yao had suggested–

“Hello.”

Oh. 

Speak of the devil. It was always around this time he clocked into work. It was also around this time he visited your workshop, never failing to bring you breakfast, knowing you were more often than not neglecting your needs in pursuit of finishing your latest project. 

Xiangli Yao had crashed into your life just as violently as your prototype had when it hit an unsuspected Spearback. You didn’t think anyone would catch you in the midst of your experiments, since you made sure to do it in the dead of night far, far away from the city. But he had, and he was kind enough to escort you back to the academy, buying you breakfast before that. He had asked you about your creations, and without really thinking you started talking about your passion for battle focused tools and gushed over previous projects like they were your children. Afterwards, you had thought it was the first and last time you would have any kind of interaction with the Principal Investigator, but before you knew it, he was outside your workshop, asking you if you were down to discuss ideas for the next modification on his prosthetic arm. 

If you had thought a bit further, you probably would have questioned why he went to you specifically, a rookie, when there were an abundance of talented engineers and mechanics alike who could bring his ideas to life much more efficiently and with better quality. But you were too wrapped up in the excitement of creating something new you had ushered him inside, grabbing the only available chair that wasn’t on its last legs for him to sit on while you grabbed your notebook, eyes gleaming. 

The added mod had been a success after shedding blood, sweat, and tears day and night. You got to witness it with your own eyes when he asked you to head out with him at the first sign of light. The sunlight had painted him golden, and suddenly you weren’t as focused on his prosthetic as much. His movements had you entranced, not even daring to breathe in case it would disturb the vision in front of you. And that damn smile he directed towards you after defeating the enemy fully stole your breath away. Xiangli Yao was an unfair man.

As thanks, he had gifted you a saddle stool made of leather for your posture (though you still hunched over the desk like a shrimp) and for the fact your previous chair was merely a wooden one that would disintegrate at any given moment. You thought that would be it, but of course he defied your expectations and showed up a few weeks later, breakfast in hand with another idea. From then on he seemed to be keen on consulting you about potential modifications, ranging from battle focused ones to the more silly ones, like his ice maker that you had the honor to partake in creating. And before you knew it, he started spending some rare days in your workshop instead of his office, typing away and doing what scholars do while you were working on all different kinds of projects.

You had to admit you had developed a soft spot for the Principal Investigator during the times you spent together. You could never pinpoint when his visits started feeling like a part of your routine, or when you started looking forward to those moments. And somewhere along the way, you stayed behind just to catch him before you headed home, something you’d never admit to anyone or anything.

“I saw your light was on, so I thought to swing by before going to my office. I bought some Huanglong omelets–” he handed you a paper bag “–I also have an idea for a modification we could add to my prosthetic.”

That spurred you to pull out papers and different colors of pens, spreading them out on the bigger table before turning the ceiling lamp on. He had already started sketching before you even got an omelet in your mouth. 

You seated yourself on your chair and rolled to the other side of the table, eyes tracking every swipe of his hand to see the idea bloom on paper. His newest idea was battle oriented. Specifically some kind of tool that could give him the opportunity to snare and damage multiple opponents at once. You weren’t sure what went on in his head for such brilliant ideas to form, but you thanked the dragons out there for letting you witness it so intimately.

As he was sketching, he described his thought process, pausing sometimes to glance up at you for feedback, but you were busy stuffing your cheeks with omelet, barely able to sound out coherent sentences. 

Before long you had finished your breakfast, energized and ready to give some ideas yourself. You bounced ideas between each other. 

“For this,” Xiangli Yao circled one of his scribbles, “we can add a tool akin to a black hole that will detonate on the enemy I defeated, gathering the rest of them in one place while I’m charging up for an attack. I have an idea on what material we can use…”

You were absolutely starstruck.

“Xiangli Yao, the man you are.” You climbed on the table, crawling a short distance to get closer to him before rising to your knees and cupping his face in your hands, slightly shaking his head back and forth. “I’m sure you’ve heard this more than enough– but you are a genius.” 

A faint hue of pink dusted over his cheeks, and it was only then you realized how close you were to him. 

“Oh!” you exclaimed. “Sorry I got carried away–”

Your panic was interrupted by the chill of his metal hand settling over yours. He looked up at you with such puppy eyes that were swirling with an indescribable emotion you wondered how you never noticed. 

Before you knew it, his other hand settled on the back of your head, and you were pulled down. 

His lips were soft. 

The sheer gentleness he treated you with sent electricity crackling in your veins. Your eyes fell shut and you could hear your heart beating in your ears. Your free hand slid down to the back of his neck, fingertips lightly brushing against the hair before it found a place on his shoulder, and you didn’t miss the way he quivered under your touch. 

Xiangli Yao parted with a sigh, eyes fluttering open to unabashedly stare at your face. He intertwined your hands, cool metal palm against the back of your warm hand, and raised it to his lips. Then he pecked your cheek, your forehead, your eyelids, before finally giving you another delicate kiss on your lips. 

“Can’t believe I didn’t do this sooner,” he murmured when he pulled away. You exhaled a laugh.

“I can’t believe it either– oh shit!” You quickly clambered off the table with his help. “I hope I didn’t ruin any of the sketches…”  

“Even if you did, we can just remake them,”  he declared nonchalantly. “Honestly, I would gladly let you ruin my research papers if I get to take you out on a date.”

“You don’t mean that!” you gasped. “You can do that without ruining your work.”

He smiled. “I wasn’t planning on it, don't worry. I’m gonna head to my office now. Just give me a call if you have any other ideas.”

“Will do, will do.”

“I’ll come pick you up at 6 pm today.” He gave you a quick kiss before making his way to the door. “See you then.”  

You were left a blushing mess in your workshop, now a new project and a date in your hands. 

Xiangli Yao was truly an unfair man.

[galedekarios]

Hello, big fan of your Gale content um I just saw this post on X that really annoyed me that was a graphic saying Gale would use 3 in 1 shampoo implying he is lazy with his hygiene and that another character was more like that and it had like 6k likes and I just wonder why everyone mischaracterizes our best wizard so much? Generic male expectations? Justice for Gale. He deserved that lavender bath.

thank you for your message and kind words! 🖤

i haven't seen the post you're referring to so i can't say too much about it, but if we talk about the general concept of hygiene and personal care, in my heart i know the following truth:

gale loves his little indulgences and that includes the finer things in life, like taking long baths, perfumes, massages, and the like.

once he feels better again and has the spoons to fully appreciate it, he would have a ridiculously elaborate 13 step self-care routine, beard oils and all of that.

(we know his year of isolation likely led to him neglecting himself, given tara's repeated lines about not eating enough, as well as gale letting his beard growing out.)

in early access, he had this dialogue with the protag, about dreaming of a nice lavender scented bath:

Gale: Time is a precious gift. With time, we may even reach Baldur's Gate, a city rife with magic, wizards, scholars, and perhaps: solutions.  Player: In that case I share your optimism. Here's to the journey ahead.  Gale: And here's to your company.  Gale: Oh, I can picture it now: academies, libraries, laboratories – the assembled knowledge of centuries that may just set us free. Better yet: soft beds, home cooked meals, and all the other little luxuries this wilderness so brashly denies us. Gods, I'd pay a king's ransom for a hot, lavender-scented bath – minstrels serenading as I close my eyes and let the water's warmth dissolve all woes. Plenty to look forward to.

this was sadly cut.

i also seem to recall another line of dialogue in early access where a companion commented on gale using a waterdhavian scent/perfume, which had woody undertones. if i can find it, i'll be sure to post about it.

but still, he still has similar lines in the full release version, like in this banter with shadowheart:

Gale: I must tell you, Shadowheart, the bathing waters here leave much to be desired. devnote: A bit know it all Gale: The ablutions offered at the Temple of Beauty in Waterdeep are far superior. And they have the most excellent soaps. devnote: A bit know it all Shadowheart: Hmm. I was wondering why you always smelled like a wealthy dowager. devnote: Teasing

bathing waters, excellent soaps and ablutions at the temple of beauty in waterdeep. the temple of beauty is a temple to the goddess sune, the goddess of beauty and passion.

"Her temples usually held social salons and displayed mirrors for use by lay parishioners. Some of them even had public baths for the local populace. Her shrines often stood on the corner of busy city streets. They would have a small ornate overhanging roof with a mirror underneath. They were used to check one's appearance while honoring Sune with prayer. Some shrines even held perfume and cosmetic items for those who could not afford such luxuries themselves." [x]

volo's waterdeep enchiridion says this in particular about the temple of beauty in waterdeep:

"If you need to refresh yourself during your travels, or perhaps to primp before an important meeting or a night out, visit Sune’s faithful at the Temple of Beauty. Its marbled public baths and mirrored salons are open from before dawn to after dusk. There’s no fee for these services, or for the advice and aid of the temple’s many pleasant attendants, but donations are encouraged."

there are some other banters & lines of dialogue in the same vein:

Player: I want to be with Gale. I'm sorry. Shadowheart: Don't be. He's charming enough, well-read and well-groomed.

there are more banters and comments like this from other companions as well (including minthara, for example), so yes, i think it's safe to say that gale is not a 3-in-1 shampoo type.

[hotvintagepoll]

Propaganda

Judy Holliday (Born Yesterday, Bells Are Ringing)—Judy Holliday was the whole package--actress, singer, dancer, and comedienne--she lights up the screen in such a powerful way that she outshines everyone else. Here she is in a supporting role in Adam's Rib (1949) giving her statement to lawyer (Katharine Hepburn) on why she shot her cheating husband [editor's note: tw for domestic abuse & murder mentions] In every movie I've seen her in my heart goes out to her, she's so authentic and beautiful. She's proof that it takes smart to play dumb, and can make me laugh and cry in the same scene let alone the same movie. Film historian Bernard Dick on Holliday: "Perhaps the most important aspect of the Judy Holliday persona, both in variations of Billie Dawn and in her roles as housewife, is her vulnerability... her ability to shift her mood quickly from comic to serious is one of her greatest technical gifts." She won the Oscar for Best Actress (beating out Gloria Swanson, Bette Davis, and Anne Baxter) for her performance in Born Yesterday.

Carmen Sevilla (La fierecilla domada/La mégère apprivoisée, La Venganza, King of Kings)— One of the few spanish actresses to really make it in Hollywood. She worked opposite Charlton Heston in the 1970s and reportedly slapped him but that is past the cut-off so you can look it up for yourselves. There's also rumors that Frank Sinatra had a bit of a crush on her and asked her out a couple of times but she rejected him. The woman was just messy as hell in general and an absolute icon. Bless.

This is round 2 of the tournament. All other polls in this bracket can be found here. Please reblog with further support of your beloved hot sexy vintage woman.

[additional propaganda submitted under the cut.]

Judy Holliday:

Mostly remembered for beating screen legends Gloria Swanson and Bette Davis at the Oscars for her performance as ditzy blonde Billie Dawn in Born Yesterday, Judy Holliday was an incredible actress whose charm, vulnerability, and humour impressed Katharine Hepburn so much that Hepburn helped her secure the role of Billie Dawn in the screen adaptation of Born Yesterday by getting her a role in 'Adam's Rib', starring Hepburn and Tracy, when Judy was deemed 'too unknown'. Holliday was also an incredibly smart Jewish leftist, who played the ditzy blonde part again when pulled up by HUAC for 'communist sympathies'. She never named names and managed to avoid getting blacklisted. What a queen. She also had an incredible and unique voice and one of the best smiles in the business.

HOT. FUNNY. JEWISH. BLONDE. WOMAN.

She was a singer, dancer, comedienne, and Oscar-winning actress (for Born Yesterday), and she had a gorgeous curvy Cinderella vibe that is everything to me. The part of Lina Lamont in Singin' in the Rain was written for her, but after she won her Academy Award the producers realized she was far too big a star for a supporting role, so her friend Jean Hagen did a perfect impression of how Judy would play it, and she got the part!

SOMEONE PLEASE TALK ABOUT BELLS ARE RINGING??? HELLO??? THE FUNNIEST COMEDIENNE MY GOD SMART AND FUNNY AND HOT AS HELL?

this woman had an IQ of 172!! she was a jewish new yorker!! investigated for communist sympathies and named no names!! tony and oscar winning actress!! leonard bernstein thought of marrying her???? which part of this is not fabulous i ask you that right now

[mysteryshoptls]

SSR Sebek Zigvolt - Platinum Jacket Vignette

"Happy 100th Anniversary"

[Land of Dawning – National Museum of Art]

Sebek: That pedestal there is a reproduction from the King of Beasts' bedchamber, and that teacup yonder is ceramic wear with a Queen of Hearts motif.

Sebek: Heheh… That's right, my preparatory research is completely perfect. With this, there shall be no opportunity for me to embarrass myself due to a lack of artistic knowledge.

Sebek: There is no way I can allow myself to appear unsightly now that I've been appointed a supporter of the Land of Dawning National Museum of Art.

???: Hm? What's with this green light in the middle of the painting…? Oh, it's just a bonfire flame.

???: Those fairies look like they're having a blast partyin' like that, I wonder if something good happened.

Sebek: How dare you claim them to be "partying." This is a painting depicting the Thorn Fairy's men extolling her grand exploits!

Ace: Ack, Sebek… Looks like I got caught by an annoying one. So what, you're tellin' me this painting's got something to do with the Thorn Fairy?

Sebek: Exactly. It is often said that these men were as proud of the Thorn Fairy's achievements as if it were their own, and would express their joy with their whole body and soul.

Sebek: Anyone should be able to infer how magnificent the Thorn Fairy was just from witnessing these men's unwavering loyalty.

Ace: Uh-huh, okay. Kinda just looks to me like they're just partyin', maybe masking it as a celebration for the Thorn Fairy.

Sebek: Don't you dare liken them to superficial humans like yourself. Each one of those fae that appear in this tale are all diligent folk.

Sebek: Back in my hometown there are many stories of the Thorn Fairy and other fae passed down for generations. We even have special functions held to emulate their greatness.

Ace: Sure. Can't see those functions as being anything other than boring, though, if it's attended by lame, "diligent" faes～

Sebek: Heh, curious, are you? One such event that has been around for a long while now is a dress color changing competition. Whosoever is able to magically dye the dress to the color closest to the provided example is the victor.

Ace: Ugh, that pisses me off that it's actually kinda cool-soundin'…

Ace: But I guess the whole having to use magic for it just shows it really is an event in the fae-rich lands of Briar Valley.

Sebek: …In my youth, my elder brother and sister took me to witness one such competition and I was struck with amazement.

Sebek: I was completely taken in by everyone's astounding magical prowess to turn a dress vivid blue or pink in the blink of an eye…

Sebek: I remember how excited I was to learn magic as soon as possible so I may also take part in this contest.

Ace: Guess even you have adorable moments. So, what place in the competition did you get once your long-awaited magic finally manifested?

Sebek: Don't be absurd. Color changing magic is a course of study that human mages only learn in their courses at an arcane academy.

Sebek: This was merely something I found enchanting as a mere child. Obviously I would not take part in such a contest now.

Ace: You suuure? Sounds pretty fun to me. Oh hey, then how about you and me have our own little contest with color changing magic back at my dorm sometime.

Sebek: Why would I set foot in Heartslabyul…? Wait.

Sebek: Surely I am mistaken, but… Were you intending on shoving your rose-dying tasks onto my shoulders?

Ace: No way, I wasn't saying that at all! C'mon, don't you think it'd be a great little competition to have with a fellow freshman?

Sebek: Your excuses will not work on me! I know for a fact that you constantly complain over having to paint the roses.

Sebek: The only contest I had any interest in attempting was the dress color changing competition in Briary Valley. Do the tasks assigned to you on your own!

[Land of Dawning – National Museum of Art]

Ace: Oh hey, I know this one. It's a painting of a girl and some talking flowers.

Sebek: According to the legends, the flowers native to the country the Queen of Hearts' presided over had the ability to speak.

Sebek: Who would have thought that the flowers cultivated there would be able to speak or sing as such. I'm sure it was disturbingly loud in the Queen's country.

Ace: Sure, probably. But hey, probably a lot less loud than your voice can get.

Sebek: …Perhaps if you were to cease your own impudent retorts, I wouldn't have a need to raise my voice.

Ace: Reeeaaally, you think? 'Cause to me it feels like you're always angry about something.

Sebek: Of course not. I simply find the uncouth antics of you humans to be utterly aggravating.

Sebek: I know there is a time and place for everything. I myself would never do something as rude as to throw a damper on enthusiastic festivities.

Sebek: In fact, I attended a performance at a live music club just the other day and I did not chide the audience for their overjoyed shouting one bit.

Ace: …Eh. What did you just say? YOU WENT TO SEE A LIVE MUSIC PERFORMANCE!!!???

Sebek: Why would you react as such?

Ace: I mean, come on, didn't strike you as someone who'd go to something like that. So, like, what was the live show you went to go see?

Sebek: My latest venture brought me to attend a small show that showcased a collaboration between bands that primarily performed heavy metal music.

Sebek: This was all due to Lilia-sama, who imparted on me that this was the best way to train my imagination, and that listening to live music is an important part of life.

Ace: Aaah, that makes sense now. But hey, do you even listen to heavy metal?

Ace: I mean sure, you can kinda get into it once you're at the concert even if you don't know the songs, but if you don't even like that kinda stuff in the first place, ain't it tough to actually take in?

Sebek: "Get into it once you're at the concert"? Don't liken me to someone like you. Of course I went to the show after doing my due diligence in research.

Sebek: If I were to attend the show without a full understand of what I am to partake in, it would be an absolute disservice to Lilia-sama's recommendation.

Sebek: I studied everything from the exact times the music club opened their doors and how the audience would be filed into the venue, to the established rules on refreshments, to the proper cheering behavior utilized by the crowd near the front of the house…

Sebek: I believe it is called a "mosh pit." Prior to attending the performance, I made sure to carve into my body and soul the different techniques and proper etiquette as well.

Sebek: On that day, I purport that I banged my head back and forth much harder than anyone else there, shouting and cheering alongside them.

Ace: Don't think I've ever heard of someone practicing to mosh before. But I guess it sounds like you had a pretty fun time, though.

Sebek: Indeed. Although, I did run into slight trouble.

Ace: Huh, what kind of trouble? Cause some mischief, did ya?

Sebek: Absolutely not! I'm not sure if they lost their footing during the show or what, but the performer fell forward towards the audience.

Sebek: I immediately caught the performer and returned them to the stage. After that, the show continued smoothly until the end.

Ace: PFFT! You seriously returned the performer to the stage!?

Sebek: Obviously. I could not allow this concert that Lilia-sama had recommended to me be cancelled merely because the performer had become injured!

Ace: Bwahahaha! Looks like all that prepping you went through didn't help at all. All they wanted to do was stage dive, too.

Sebek: A stage dive…? Hold on now, don't tell me that was part of the performance!?

Sebek: I suppose the performer did look rather stunned when I returned them to the stage… Ghurk, what a blunder…!

Ace: Oh man, that's so hilarious. Wish I was there to see it. Hey, let's hit up a show together next time.

Sebek: SHUT IT! WHO WOULD EVER GO ANYWHERE WITH YOU!?

[Land of Dawning – National Museum of Art]

Sebek: This is a painting of the hyenas who served the King of Beasts, I see. Their countenance depicts an atmosphere overflowing with trust from their liege and confidence in their own abilities.

Ace: Yeah? To me it just looks like they're up to something.

Sebek: Isn't that due to your own wily tendencies?

Sebek: I have seen you multiple times in locations outside the gymnasium during what should be basketball club hours.

Ace: Hey, it's not like I'm slacking off or anything. C'mon, I'm a freshman, right? Sometimes I get saddled with odd jobs from the upperclassmen.

Ace: But, man… Sometimes I do want to skip morning lessons on cold days. Hey, aren't there times you don't want to get out of bed when it's way too cold out, too?

Sebek: It's true that back home it has happened that I couldn't get out of bed in the morning. However, that was not because I wished to skip my training!

Ace: W-Woah, really? I thought you woulda hit me back with another "Don't liken me to you!" or something.

Sebek: I could not help it. I was thoroughly chilled to the bone that morning. It was so cold that there were numerous icicles dangling from our roof, as well.

Sebek: I did not even wish to fathom the temperature outside, but… I somehow forced myself out of bed to begin my morning training.

Sebek: Perhaps it was due to not having slept well, but I could feel my eyelids start to droop. So I decided then to attempt to wake myself up further with the bitter taste of coffee.

Sebek: I swallowed down the strong black coffee and believed myself ready to go. But that was the last thing I remembered.

Sebek: I ended up falling back asleep on the couch and when I finally woke up, it was past noon… An absolute blunder. This is a blot that I will carry with me forever.

Ace: Hey now, that's pretty normal, c'mon. Pretty steep to say you'll carry that forever.

Sebek: No, you are just weak-willed. I, however, strived through trials and tribulations to overcome the bitter cold of mornings and finally found "that" thing.

Ace: What're you acting so pompous about now?

Sebek: Heh, of course you'd be curious. I suppose I can tell you. The thing I am talking about is… A HOT WATER BOTTLE!

Ace: A hot water bottle…? You're seriously using a hot water bottle? Even in this day and age when we have air conditioners and heaters!?

Sebek: Do you seriously not understand? That thing is a fantastic item that warms your entire body without fear of causing a fire or desiccation.

Sebek: Cold winter nights not only diminishes my ability to fall asleep, but also affects the quality of sleep I am able to get. In turn, that makes it difficult to rise from bed…

Sebek: However, a simple hot water bottle prepared at bedtime can warm my body and lull me to sleep even in the coldest winters!

Sebek: The temperature can even be easily adjusted by wrapping it in a towel, or adding water to the bottle. A very convenient item.

Ace: Huh, interesting. I mean, sure, it might not use electricity, but I'm surprised you're using a "human" item.

Sebek: I received this hot water bottle from my father. Back when he had just arrived in Briar Valley, it apparently was very useful in keeping him warm even without magic.

Ace: Oh, so it's a hand-me-down, huh. And here I thought I'd get to hear another hilarious story or something～

Ace: Since it sounds like there ain't gonna be a punchline anymore, I think I'll go check out the shop. Byeee―

Sebek: YOU ASKED THE QUESTION, HEAR ME OUT UNTIL THE END! Good grief, I can't stand that human. …Hm?

Sebek: This is… A painting depicting a the human chattering along with animals. I've read this story in a book my grandfather gifted me.

Sebek: This young lady speaks of her dreams to these critters… Does she truly believe that her wish will come true without any effort on her part? What a lazy creature.

Requested by Anonymous.

[redstuffs-ig]

snippets of a possible star wars modern au I may make, but mostly just translating the events and characters of the series into a modern setting, let's call it "Whillstown". most of these are general fandom consensus, some are taken from AUs i've seen on Tumblr which I've really liked, but i've sprinkled some stuff of my own too

The Disaster Lineage is just a long, winding, complicated string of relationships. Great-Grandpa Yoda refuses to die and speaks cryptic riddles to whoever will listen. Grandpa Dooku won't shut up about politics and lives alone in a massive house with an adopted young adult going through one hell of a phase and his weird pet gecko. Anakin and Obi-Wan are adopted brothers, who both deal with their dad Qui-Gon's weird schemes and potential gambling addiction in the making. They've somehow befriended a kid called Ahsoka who babysits Ani's twins from time to time. Anakin's wife Padme is a town councilor and proud holder of the single set of brains in the entire family. Anakin is a real gearhead, with a loyal dalmatian named Artoo and a neurotic ginger cat called Threepio.

Palpatine is like. A regular politician. Somewhat shady, a bit controversial, but he's just the kindly mayor of Whillstown. The 'Dark Lord Sidious' meme spread when a young Luke Skywalker snapped a covert picture of the mayor in his favorite, hooded black dressing gown, and it's haunted the old man since.

Clan Fett is a gigantic extended family whom no one can make heads or tails of. Jango Fett is presumed to be the family's patriarch, despite only fathering a single son. Rex and Anakin are inseparable, while Obi-Wan and Cody are cordial co-workers who kinda had to become besties too in order to wrangle their brothers. Boba Fett is already a delinquent in his tweens, while an estranged offshoot somehow got custody of the only girl in the family.

'Mother' Talzin Opress is the neighbourhood witch. She has a... Complicated relationship with her three sons, and is an old friend of both Dooku and the mayor (She pretty much strongarmed Dooku into adopting the orphaned child of one of her late friends). Weird green light comes from her house at ungodly hours of the night, and few dare to even approach her door. Her eldest and middle children, Savage and Maul both started a punk rock band called 'Crimson Dawn', and even managed to unite all the town's bands for a music festival once. Maul and Obi-Wan beef over the pettiest shit, and Ahsoka beat him up once.

Han Solo and his dog Chewie live in a rundown trailer park off the outskirts of Whillstown. Despite being older than Luke and Leia by a few years, he became their best friend in their teens, something cranky old Ani does not approve of. He owns an utter shitbox of a Honda he lovingly calls the Falcon, which has a tendency to break down very often at the worst possible time. He also has beef with Boba Fett. Like, a LOT of beef with Boba Fett.

Lando Calrissian on the other hand is easily the most charming boy in town, and Han's ""best friend"". He always find success in his ventures while Han's numerous get-rich-quick schemes always find a way to blow up in his face, something the latter greatly resents.

In highschool, Leia got into a long feud with persnickety Headmaster Tarkin by way of numerous cases of malicious compliance and outright disobedience. The uptight principal was none-too-pleased to find the academy crest distorted into a 'wretched gray ball of death' one morning, after having imposed a strict break policy earlier in the week.

[stu-dyingstudent]

kid/academy/pre-genin Sakura Haruno fic recs

To be honest, there aren't many kid or academy Sakura fics out there, at least that I can find, and most of which are actually time travel AUs. Now, the tricky thing with it is that most of those tend to start where Sakura is quite young, but by the end of the story she is a genin. So, it gives me the difficult decision of whether of not I should include those on this list (I haven't decided).

Anyway, the other difficult aspect of fanfiction about a young Sakura is the writing itself. There has to be a good balance of childishness and eloquence to ensure that the writing is not just truthful to the character, but that it also flows with the story. These are some of the ones I like!

Started: 2024.07.25

Last Updated: 2024.09.13

note: feel free to check out my master list which has a bunch of Sakura Haruno fic recs (all organized)!

----

Satori (Between the Lines) - Jaylene || ffn || gen || T || academy AU || complete

While attending the Academy, Sakura's field experience assignment with the Konohagakure Intelligence Division ends up being more valuable than she'd ever guess.

Sakura lands herself working in Torture & Intelligence??? From the very beginning Sakura has been pegged as a "paper ninja" where she is constantly praised for her intelligence, so Satori (Between the Lines) is academy Sakura putting these skills to use. Super good read and includes characters we don't normally get to see in fics!

.

Time Flies Like An Arrow - Katlou303 || ao3 || gen || K || time travel AU || complete

Sakura traveled back in time with the intent of changing everything, but something went wrong, and now she's four years old having nightmares about impossible monsters and losing friends she has yet to meet.

Time Flies Like An Arrow is probably the most interesting take on a time travel AU I have ever read. Sakura ends up going back in time to when she is 4 years old and not even in the academy. The only thing is, she has no clue that this is the second time she's living this life and her mind is still one of a child.

.

Two Minds (are better than one) - Lesemaus16 || ao3 || gen || Tobirama as inner AU || complete

Tobirama doesn't generally object to being reborn. He does object to being stuck in the mind of a little girl, though.Sakura grows up with a grumpy voice in her head, telling her to train more.Tobirama's influence on Sakura might very well change the story. Or maybe not, who knows.

note: I think this might actually take place during the genin days, but I have to check since I can't remember.

Tobirama is such a great character (so refreshing) and his interactions with Sakura in this are gold! I hope one day Kishimoto will release some side stories about him and other characters from his time as we really don't know that much about them tbh.

.

New Day Dawning - IncompleteSentanc (Erava) || ao3 || narusaku || T || canon divergence || complete

One day, while visiting the grave of Nohara Rin, Obito stumbles across a young girl terrifyingly like her. He decides to ensure she doesn’t meet the same fate.As for Sakura? Sakura had no idea what she was awakening the day she went to visit her parents graves - but she never looked back. One way or another.(Feat. Sakura raised by Obito and the Akatsuki, and her eventual return to Konoha and all those she left behind)

Sakura is brainwashed and manipulated, but loved by notorious killers nonetheless. Incredibly well written and I won't lie when I say that the ending took me a bit by surprise. Also, I should warn you that this does take place over a long time and thus Sakura does not remain a child for the whole thing, but I just really wanted to put New Day Dawning on this list (just read it).

.

In Another World - eleventheeggo || ao3 || gen || T || orphan Sakura AU || ongoing

What if Sakura was an orphan instead of Naruto and Sasuke? A story about a socially stunted girl who has a thirst for knowledge and is surrounded by softies who love her all the same.

Orphan!Sakura is not something I knew I needed in my life! She is so precious and it's great to watch all of these characters come together for her sake. In Another World also discusses ROOT a bit, which you know I love, so I can't wait for the story to get there.

.

Your Move, Instigator (draw your weapon and hold your tongue) - Laysan_albatross || ao3|| third war extended AU || complete

“We are still under wartime policy,” the recruiter had told her parents. He had an envelope in his hand. He sounded sorry. “She has two parents who are successful ninjas. We would be remiss to overlook her potential based upon that alone.” The Third Shinobi War never ended. Konoha needs more soldiers, grabbing anyone who can fight, especially those who can't say no.

I feel like one of Your Move Instigator's biggest strengths is that it truly gets across the innocence (or loss) of these characters. They themselves don't fully understand what they are doing or why. They are just children following the orders given to them by adults, even if that means taking the life of another. In the beginning, Sakura even recalls times of her spelling and grammar being corrected in her reports along with other childish things. Konoha has shown themselves of not being above dispatching young children to fight, but this story just brings that devastation to new light.

.

cut the head off the snake - itsthechocopuff || ao3 || T || time travel AU || complete

when eighteen-year-old, post-war Sakura is thrown back into her tiny, pre-Academy body, she makes a decision. she'd had a childhood once already, and this time, she's more interested in Not Dying when the inevitable shit hits the proverbial fan. so she will work harder, care less, kill more, and smile when she's done. and hey, if she ends up reviving an extinct nature transformation to attract the most corrupt, power-hungry man from her timeline, all the better for her, right?

Probably one of the best time travel AUs out there!! Also, we get to see ROOT!Sakura in here, which I love in addition to Sai (my baby). I know I said it's incomplete, but it's only missing one chapter so you still get plenty of story. Anyway, definitely check out cut the head off the snake!!

.

Not so imaginary - FangirlJo || ao3 || gen || T || ghost Tobirama AU || incomplete

Haruno Sakura was 5 when she realises her imaginary friend was not so imaginary at all and resembles the Second Hokage by a lot. Like a lot a lot. In which Senju Tobirama is Sakura's Ghost Sensei. Things change, chaos ensues and Tobirama is once more reminded with the reason he doesn't have kids.

Damn, I just really love Tobirama as a character. This guy rocks and deserves more story time (justice for Tobirama!!).

.

Ground Zero - TheIzzatron || ao3 || gen || T || third war extended AU || incomplete

Desperate times call for desperate measures. If this means forcing weapons into the hands of children, then so be it.

A young Sakura is taken advantage of in her parents’ absence at war and is enrolled into the academy's "accelerated" program. The complete unfairness of the situation is skillfully conveyed throughout the story. Sakura is left to wonder why she too isn't learning about flowers and history like Ino? Why Ino isn't learning the fastest way to kill her enemies? The characters and their emotions are so well done that you truly feel just how cheated they are. They aren't heartless, they are children. Highly recommend.

.

Inherited Will of Fire - jokergirl2001 || ffn || T || gen || sakura can see ghosts AU || incomplete

She always knew she was a natural at genjutsu but what she didn't know was that being a natural meant she had some immense talent when it comes to spiritual energy. Well at least that's what the cheerful raven haired boy who apparently drowned himself on purpose said.

I only just started reading this now, but Inherited Will of Fire is super cute! Academy Sakura finds she is able to see ghosts after stumbling upon Shisui shortly after the Uchiha massacre.

.

One Change in the Story - Aingeal98 || ffn || T || gen || time travel AU || incomplete

It wasn't supposed to be like this. She was only supposed to go back five minutes in time. Instead, Sakura wakes up in a dark room surrounded by people wearing black cloaks with red clouds on them. The worst part? She doesn't have a clue who she is.

Praying for One Change in the Story to be completed!! Sakura lands herself back in time with the mind and body of her four year old self. With Pein being the first one to find her, Sakura's new life purpose is to be the Akatsuki's weapon. Similar to New Day Dawning, Sakura doesn't stay a child for the entirety of this fic, but I still think it is a notable mention. Sakura slowly loses herself to her new roll and in a sense becomes the embodiment of a ROOT agent. It was interesting to see Itachi's internal battle with the situation and Konan's guilt. However, even with Sakura bound to Ame, there are children back in Konoha who have an itch that a pink-haired girl named Sakura is someone important.

----

Y'all, please send me some good kid/academy Sakura fics!!!! Or write one...

[thisisnotthenerd]

Records of the Aguefort Adventuring Academy: File AAA-BKQ-04-DOJ

This file summarizes the junior year quest of the adventuring party known as the Bad Kids and notes extraordinary achievements in this process. Reference this associated file [the rat grinders timeline] for clarification on the specific actions of the opposing party.

Quest Summary:

Heroic Party: The Bad Kids

Adaine Abernant | Wizard 14

Kristen Applebees | Cleric 14

Figueroth Faeth | Bard 10 / Paladin 3 / Warlock 1 / "Barbarian" 0

Riz Gukgak | Rogue 14

Fabian Aramais Seacaster | Fighter 6 / Bard 8

Gorgug Thistlespring | Barbarian 5 / Artificer 9

Villainous Party: The Rat Grinders & Associated Staff Members

Porter Cliffbreaker

Jace Stardiamond

Kipperlilly Copperkettle

Oisin Hakinvar

Ruben Hopclap

Ivy Embra

Mary Ann Skuttle

Buddy Dawn

---------------- AAA ----------------

Completed Quest Objectives:

These are separated into primary and secondary objectives achieved over the course of the quest, and have been generalized into categories for the sake of simplicity. All feats are listed numerically, but have no particular value inherent upon their placement; it may be based on chronology, the alphabet, related events, etc.

Primary Objective:

Prevention of the sundering of the name of Ankarna (Deity of Dawn, Justice, Fire, and Rage), the apotheosis of Porter Cliffbreaker, and the subsequent destruction of Elmville, home of the Aguefort Adventuring Academy

Notable Feats:

Gorgug Thistlespring remained in combat with Porter Cliffbreaker as a sole target, despite going down 4 times over the course of the combat. He further unleashed a flashbang which prevented Porter from lying to Ankarna and thus ensured Porter's demise.

Adaine Abernant worked within the bounds of utility casting to prevent environmental hazards and the opponents from downing her fellow party members. She further used her earworm to create a network between the Bad Kids, the villainous party, and the deities Ankarna and Cassandra, which allowed for Ankarna's divine intercession, after Adaine revealed the truth through divinatory skill.

Kristen 2 Applebees, with the aid of Kristen 1 Applebees, dispelled the effects of devil's honey that allowed Cliffbreaker to lie to Ankarna. Both Kristens kept their peers up throughout the combat, and brought the deity Cassandra back to her primary form, before establishing Cassandra and Ankarna as the first of a new pantheon worthy of her worship.

Riz Gukgak utilized a variety of tactical decisions and environmental hazards to strike at the enemies and fell them from hiding, in a pure display of roguish skill. He engaged in a one on one duel with Kipperlilly Copperkettle, and in felling her, prevented the disbandment of the Aguefort Adventuring Academy.

Fabian Seacaster, while an excellent combatant, released Bakur and brought allies of the party to participate in the combat from unconsciousness. He further initiated the correction of injustice that enabled Ankarna's reemergence with an untaught Divine Intervention.

Figueroth Faeth, after breaking the ancestral Curse of the Armor of Pride, served as the champion of Ankarna through the composition and performance of "Dawn of Justice" and "Righteous Rebel". She communed with the dead deity and took her rightful place as the Archdevil of Rebellion within Ankarna's domain. She further used this communion to trick Porter Cliffbreaker and the Rat Grinders with the false name Bacarath, while holding dominion over Ankarna's original domain. She then joined Kristen Applebees in establishing Ankarna and Cassandra as the bases of a new pantheon.

Secondary Objectives:

Achieve academic success at the Aguefort Adventuring Academy

Notable Feats:

Gorgug Thistlespring completed the coursework of three years of Artificer classes as well as one year of Barbarian classes. In this process, he discovered a new means of barbarian rage that could accommodate for Artificer spellcraft, thereby creating the Barbificer subclass.

Riz Gukgak found the Rogue professor Eugenia Shadow through months of careful investigation and dedicated effort and thus passed his junior year with an A+, though he maintained impeccable grades anyway.

Kristen Applebees attended her Cleric classes for much of the year without a present deity, performing miracles by her own hand and completing an independent study.

Figueroth Faeth changed her coursework to reflect a renewed interest in multiclassing; she completed independent studies on the Warlock and Bard tracks, and further incorporated Paladin coursework by attending Barbarian classes with the multiclass Barbarian-Paladin professor Porter Cliffbreaker.

Adaine Abernant maintained exemplary grades in Wizard coursework without the majority of the necessary material components. She further hosted an dance battle during her Wizard classes to defend the right of the Elven Oracle to be paid a competitive rate.

Fabian Seacaster joined the ranks of the dance Bards under Terpsichore Skullcleaver and completed the year with exemplary grades in both the Fighter and Bard tracks.

As a party, the Bad Kids faced the Last Stand Exam and were the first to achieve Arthur Aguefort's intended objective: living through the exam and spiting those who sought to send them to their death. Reference this document [The Last Stand Exam] for the proctor's notes on their performance.

Achieve extracurricular success at and outside of the Aguefort Adventuring Academy

Notable Feats:

Kristen Applebees, with the aid of her campaign manager Riz Gukgak, successfully ran for the position of Student Body President, beating out opposing candidate Kipperlilly Copperkettle

Figueroth Faeth served as the anonymous host of the "Complicated Women" podcast and opened her independent record label, which she used for the release of her sophomore album.

Riz Gukgak, after joining and participating in every extracurricular the Academy had to offer, became the school's Extracurricular Supervisor.

Adaine Abernant confronted the Court of Stars and successfully defended the right of the Elven Oracle, with Fabian Aramais Seacaster as her Champion, the Oracle of Dance.

Fabian Aramais Seacaster earned the title of Maximum Legend by opening his home to the many students of the Aguefort Adventuring Academy, serving as a pillar of the community, providing resources for studying, relaxation, and partying.

Gorgug Thistlespring continued his creation of the Barbificer subclass beyond the walls of the Aguefort Adventuring Academy, but proved his title of "Greatest Wizard of the Age", bestowed by Ayda Aguefort, by dunking on multiple adversaries: this included oinking at an officer of the law, soloing a purple worm, and getting Porter Cliffbreaker with a "Loser says What".

Adaine Abernant successfully created a remarkably British simulacrum of Kristen Applebees, named K2, who went on to participate in the murder of Wanda Childa (alter ego of Figueroth Faeth), apply to Hudol, call for the Divine Intervention of Cassandra in the form of the Nightmare King, and critically dispel the effects of devil's honey on Porter Cliffbreaker. The simulacrum was granted true life in the hands of Cassandra, but subsequently banished to a higher dimension, unreachable by mortal means in the world of Spyre.

Achieve investigative success with regard to the scheme of the villainous party

Notable Feats:

Figueroth Faeth took on an alter ego by the name of Wanda Childa to investigate the intentions and haunt the dreams of Ruben Hopclap. She capped this feat of social engineering off by orchestrating an elaborate death scene and mimicking the resurrection of the Rat Grinders.

Adaine Abernant, after speaking the name of Ankarna into the Material Plane, harnessed the energy of the breaking of the Curse of the Armor of Pride to release the soul gem of Bakur from the body of Lydia Barkrock, thereby allowing investigation of Ankarna's divine domain. She further used her arcane skill as the Elven Oracle to divine the intentions of Jace Stardiamond and cast Legend Lore upon the Temple of the Fallen Sun.

Riz Gukgak independently investigated the actions of the villainous party in the town of Elmville, including but not limited to: the nature of shatter-stars, the embedded crystals in Elmville's soil, the connection to Kalina the Shadow Cat and Ragh Barkrock, their travels to the Temple of the Fallen Sun, and the details of Porter's attempted apotheosis.

Kristen Applebees publicly opposed the Rat Grinders while running for Student Body President and thus stymied their attempts at gaining power over the school. She also, upon discovering the mutilated corpses of Lucy Frostblade and Yolanda Badgood, miraculously preserved their souls in the afterlife of Cassandra.

Fabian Seacaster's role as Maximum Legend and the resources of his home helped to prevent the escalation of rage that had been passing through Elmville by providing a space for recreation and relaxation that could alleviate the stresses that led to possession by the rage stars. He further sponsored the party's travel and connected with resources in Fallinel and Hell which enabled further investigation of the Rat Grinders' scheme

Gorgug Thistlespring, in between his establishment of the Barbificer Subclass, investigated the role of the Thistlespring Tree as Elmville's Root Warden, and the ritual performed there to transform Elmville into Ankarna's divine domain. He further used is skills as an artificer to adapt Seacaster Manor to flight and pilot it through the storm of the Nightmare King (dragon infested via ritual) such that the Bad Kids could face down the villainous party.

---------------- AAA ----------------

Documented Adversaries:

This table accounts for all of the enemies faced by the bad kids over the course of their junior year, with documentation of the relative difficulty of the encounters and their prospective experience (XP) growth. Reference this spreadsheet for recent additions and previous adversaries faced by the Bad Kids.

[tiredrxtz]

Eternal love of a demon king and the one he called his wife

She was harmonious, that was what he would say.

The way her heels clicked and scraped against the grass of the barren field she found herself in at the break of dawn, her eyes dazed as she gazed up into the night sky; [e/c] reflecting the divine emotions held by the very moon that took up the large canvas splattered with stars.

She was bewitching.

Anos voldigoad followed her swaying figure from where he was perched, besides an old blossom tree that blemished into a true representative of mother nature, his crimson eyes never straying from the women that danced to her hearts content before him.

The unconscious bodies of the humans that swarmed them previously forgotten, not dead, never dead, but a lot more quieter than when they stood before. The war between the human race and the demons was unyielding; no matter what constitutions he proposed, nor how honestly he bestowed his ideology of bringing peace to all beings, the humans failed to recognize the path of fate they were swarming down.

This war would possibly last centuries to come…

For what he wanted— a generation that did not have to suffer the consequences of a battle forgotten deep into the past— not even a miracle bestowed by the gods could compensate the desperation of his request.

He did not wish to demand peace because he was a demon nor because he was a king, Anos voldigoad simply wanted to clear up the misunderstanding that demons were the true enemy in this magic filling world.

To achieve the goal that all races wanted to forge into reality, he, along with his beloved wife, would have to lay down their very own lives in order for that to happen.

“Kanon, let me ask you this; just how many demons have you killed?” Anos spoke with sincerity as he gazed down from his throne and into the eye for the human hero— the only person that had the potential to come even close to defeating him.

Kanon hesitated on an answer. They had time but they had to hurry if peace was to be obtained within this era of time. After all, time waits for nobody…

Except for the demon king himself.

Their end had been tragic yet Anos couldn’t have asked for anything more. While it had been selfish to strip his beloved wife of her life, all in the name of peace, it was a necessary precaution he had taken; if he had been reincarnated alone, he’d have to see his wife take on the burden he once carried and that would drive him utterly insane.

He can only hope that, when they meet again in their new life, she’ll forgive him for being so selfish.

If not then he’ll have to make it up to her by taking her hand in marriage once again.

“Who would’ve though...” he wondered out loud. Anos voldigoad gazed longingly towards the night sky that was splattered with pinpricked shining stars from where he lay on his bed. “2000 years and there’s still signs of destruction.”

The demon king had been reincarnated into a new era 2000 years after his announced death as a teenage boy and had been admitted into a demon king academy— a school that purposely trained descendants of demon royalty.

Ironic isn’t it?

the peace he had obtained was formidable, well for now at least. His death had resulted in the magic residing within him to create a barrier that’s purpose was to separate the humans, demons and even the gods from each other.

His true power was truly remarkable.

The only thing that he had left to do was fulfill his last promise: find his wife and have her hand in marriage once more. If she were here right beside him, he’d bet that she’d say something along the lines of—

“The moon is rather bright tonight, don’t you think?”

The mattress dipped slightly as the weight Anos voldigoad knew all too well settled over his relaxed stature. A smile made its way to his lips as one of his hands enclosed around the one that lay against his broad chest.

It seemed that his wife was closer than he’d realized. Lucky him, he hadn’t even lifted a finger and his beloved had already sought him out from the thousands of people within the village; he was quite lucky to have an extraordinary women as his betrothed.

His lips found her own within seconds, their fingers intertwining and their bodies being pressed together. He had waited 2000 years for his wife to finally come to him and the time had come, he wasn’t going to waste another moment without her.

As cheesy as that sounded, he had missed her dearly.

Parting with a small pant, the reincarnated demon king racked over the appearance of the women lay beneath him. She hadn’t changed at all from the looks of it; her [h/c] locks cascaded down her figure just as graciously as before and her eyes were still gazing into the abyss they both ruled over.

“[Y/n].”

She was just as devoted to him as he were to her. She had remained loyal to him for all these years and had believed in his return to her— she was the embodiment of the love he longed for.

“Anos—“ the door creaked open and in popped his mother who, upon peaking in for no more than a mere second, squealed joyously and skipped away with a poor departure excuse.

Anos voldigoad sighed while the [h/c] female giggled.

“I guess your introduction will come just as early as expected.” He complained, sliding off of the female and stretching to a stand. “There’s no doubt about it that mom will spill her little fantasies to dad so there’s no point in trying to hide this little secret, is there?”

“Come, I’ll introduce you to them.”

Her hand enveloped his and on they went. The evening was then spent with Anos voldigoad’s mother crying tears of joy, clinging to the women he called his forever wife, while his father drank in honor of their announcement.

Before his reincarnation, Anos voldigoad didn’t have the fortune of his parents being alive, meaning that not only did he miss out on their shared love for him, he also didn’t get the chance to introduce them to his wife.

However, if they still resided here on earth, there’s no doubt that his mother would love [Y/n] just as much as he did.

His love remained eternal and so did hers. Only now can they experience true peace without having to draw their blades and dance in a mach destined to end in death.

[corsairesix]

i want to get into xmen but idk hwo :(

Great! There are a few ways to start reading X-Men, so I'm gonna go through a bunch of them.

Start with Giant-sized X-Men #1. X-Men had a run in the 60s that was canceled, and Giant-sized is the beginning of the 70s relaunch. Most of what you'd know from popular osmosis of the X-Men is going to come from this era from '75-'90, and it's mostly written by one writer, Chris Claremont. It's a great era, if sometimes of-it's-time. You can see it transition from a fun villain-of-the-week comic to one of the most iconic comics of all time.

After Dark Phoenix Saga. DPS was a really big event that brought in a bunch of people, so immediately after there was a comic that basically summarized everything prior to that. This is still in the Claremont era, but Dark Phoenix is really the turning point where it becomes the iconic 80s X-Men that people think of. Good place to start mid-Claremont-run.

Grab any classic collection from your library. Your local library will probably have collections of either events or just large chunks of the run. In the 80s, comics were sold at newsstands/spinner racks, so every comic was assumed to be someone's first, and any information you needed to know was pretty clearly exposited. The big events include Dark Phoenix Saga, Days of Future Past, Mutant Massacre, and Fall of the Mutants. Inferno and X-Tinction Agenda are really good too, but require a little more context.

Choose a student team. Every once and a while, X-Men will introduce a new crop of students. The books tend to be self-contained and focused on just that group. The big generations are New Mutants ('80s), Generation X ('90s), and Academy X (2000s). The first two are in books of the same name, but Academy X goes across two books--New Mutants Vol 2 and New X-Men Volume 2: Academy X. New Mutants is my personal favorite, followed by Generation X.

New X-Men. New X-Men was launched right after the movies brought in a lot of new fans, so it's friendly to new readers. At the same time, it's written by Grant Morrison, so it's some weird mystic wizard shit. The only thing you need to know is that Magneto took over a country called Genosha and Cyclops is traumatized through recent comic events (the details don't matter).

Krakoa era. Five years ago X-Men had a soft relaunch where mutants establish a nation on the living island of Krakoa. There are a bunch of books in this era, and are fairly cohesive, with lots of crossover between them. Luckily, the first era of books are collected in trade paperback as "Dawn of X." It's recent enough that your local library will probably have it. The reading order is House of X/Powers of X, Dawn of X 1-15, and X of Swords and then you can find the reading order going forward online. There are a lot of really good comics in this era.

Now! The Krakoa era just ended, and the new era going forward is less cohesive, so you can pick a comic you like and read just that! A bunch of new books just launched, so find a book with some characters you like. Gail Simone's Uncanny X-Men has a lot of fan favorites--Nightcrawler, Rogue, Gambit, Jubilee, and Wolverine. Just pick any that look good!

In general a good rule for getting into comics for the first time is that there will always be something that it's referencing that you might not have read, and that's fine. Most comics will explain what you need to know, and you should just roll with the rest.

[twistedintern]

Navigating Twst JP & JP-EN Term Listing (Updated)

Dorm & Character JP Name Abbreviation and Emoji Index

Heartslabyul > 🃏 ビュル Riddle Rosehearts > 🌹 リド Ace Trappola > ❤️ エー Deuce Spade > ♠️ デュ Trey Clover > ♣️ トレ Cater Diamond > ♦️ ケイ

Savanaclaw > 🏜️ サバナ Leona Kingscholar > 🦁 レオ Ruggie Bucchi > 🐆 / 🍩 ラギ Jack Howl > 🐺 ジャク

Octavinelle > 🐚 オクタ Azul Ashengrotto > 🐙 アズ Jade Leech > 🐬 ジェイ Floyd Leech > 🦈 フロ Tweels > イド

Scarabia > 🕌 / 🧞‍♂️ スカラ Kalim Al-Asim > 🦂 / ☀️ / 🦦 カリ Jamil Viper > 🐍 ジャミ

Pomefiore > 🍏 / 👸‍ ポメ Vil Schoenheit > 👑 ヴィ(ル) Rook Hunt > 🏹 ルク Epel Felmier > 🍎 エペ

Ignihyde > ⚙️ / 🔥 イグニ Idia Shroud > 💀 イデ Ortho Shroud > 🤖 オル

Diasomnia > 🐉 ディア Malleus Draconia > 🐲 マレ Lilia Vanrouge > 🦇 リリ Silver > ⚔️ シル Sebek Zigvolt > ⚡ セベ

Ramshackle > 👻 オンボロ Prefect > 🌸 / 🦐 / 🍊 (♀️/🚺 or ♂️/🚹 will sometimes follow) 監 / ユウ Enma Yuuken > 🦞 コミ監 (currently used to refer to Yuuta) Grim > 🐱 / 🐈‍⬛ グリ

NRC Staff > 🎓 / 🐦 NRC(の)職員 Dire Crowley > 🎭 クロ Divus Crewel > ⚗️ / 🐶 クル Mozus Trein > 📚 / 📖 モゼ Ashton Vargas > 💪‍‍ バル Sam > ☠️ / 🎩 サム Lucius > 🐾 ルチウス

Others Rollo > 🔔 ロロ Fellow > 🦊 フェロ Gidel > 🔨 ギデル Baul > 🐊 バウル Che’nya > 😺 チェーニャ Cheka > 🧶 チェカ Neige > ❄️ ネイジュ Ambrose > 🧙‍ ア ン Najma > 💫 ナジュ(マ) Marja > マルヤ Dylla > ディラ Kifaji > キファジ Maleanor > マレノア Dawn Knight > 夜明騎 Eric Venue > エリック / ヴィパパ Ace’s older brother > 兄ッポラ Farena > ファレ

Glossary

The following list is in no way all-inclusive. I will do my utmost to update this section as the EN server progresses in story and translations become known.

(If I’ve overlooked anything, don’t hesitate to message me about it!)

Night Raven College

Mage Training Academy - “Wizarding Boarding School” (lit., no one uses this term, though)

Headmage - Headmaster

Housewarden - Dorm Head, Dorm Leader

Vice Housewarden - Vice Dorm Head, Vice Dorm Leader

History of Magic - Magic History

Flight - Flying

Freshman/Sophomore/Junior(/Senior) - First-/Second-/Third-(/Fourth-)Year

Potionology - Potions

Flora Element - Tree Element

Cosmic Element - Null Element

Objects and Activities

Thaumarks - Madol (Magic Dollars) There is no equivalent for “Sorcents” in the original canon, as Madol more closely converts to Japanese yen, whereas Thaumarks seem to reflect United States dollar values. The “cent” of Japanese currency (sen) has been obsolete for decades.

Blastcycles - Magicwheel

Spelldrive - Magift (Magic Shift)

Locations, Countries, and Regions

Queendom of Roses - Rose Kingdom

Shaftlands - Land of Pyroxene (Pyroxene)

Harveston - Village of Harvest

Sunset Savanna - Afterglow Savannah

Island of Woe - Island of Lamentation

Briar Valley - Valley of Thorns

Fleur City - City of Flowers

Event Names

Culinary Crucible - Master Chef

Beanfest - Happy Beans Day

Joint Exams - Unified Exams

The Phantom Bride - Ghost Marriage

Wish Upon A Star - Dance and Wishes

Camp Vargas - Vargas Camp

(A Twisted Halloween) Terror is Trending - (Scary Monsters) Screaming Halloween Show

(A Twisted Halloween) Spectral Soiree - (Scary Monsters) Endless Halloween Night

A Firelit Sky Over the Sands - Scalding Sands's Al'ab Nariya

Harveston's Sledathon - Harveston's Kelkkarotu

Twisted Tsumderland - Welcome to Tsumsted Wonderland

Fairy Gala Remix - Fairy Gala If

Sunset Savanna's Cloudcalling - Afterglow Savanna's Tamashina Mina

Limited Card Names

All club outfits - Club Wear

Apprentice Chef - Chef-in-Training

Suitor Suit - Groom-for-a-Day

Starry Robes - Star-sending Robes

Halloween - Scary Dress

Silk Adorned - Jasmine (Yasmina) Silk

Applepom - Apple Boa

Tsumsitter - Tsumsted

New Year's Attire - New Year's Yukata

Masquerade - Masquerade Dress

Rabbit Costume - Rabbit Wear

Tropical Wear - Suisui Wear

Liongarb - Kingly Beasts' Garb

Birthday Boy - Birthday Suit-Up

Birthday Jacket - Union Birthday

Birthday Bloom - Bloom (Broom) Birthday

(Lilia only) General - General of the Right

(Rollo only) Council Robes - Council President Uniform

JP Monikers ~ Floyd

(Floyd uses specific suffixes depending on his perceived relationship with individuals–i.e., diminutive/pejorative/etc.)

MC = Shrimp (koebi) Grim = Seal (azarashi) Riddle = Goldfish (kingyo) Ace = Crab (kani) Deuce = Mackerel (saba) Trey = Sea Turtle (umigame) Cater = Sea Bass (hanadai) Leona = Sea Lion (todo) Ruggie = Remora (kobanzame) [changed in EN] Jack = Sea Urchin (uni) Kalim = Otter (rakko) Jamil = Sea Snake (umihebi) Vil = Beta Fish (beta) Rook = Seagull (umineko) Epel = Guppy (guppi) Idia = Firefly Squid (hotaruika) Ortho = Sea Angel (kurione) Malleus = Sea Slug (umiushi) Lilia = Flapjack Octopus (mentako) [changed in EN] Silver = Jellyfish (kurage) Sebek = Crocodile (wani)* Crowley = Manta Ray (manta) Crewel = Striped Beakfish (ishidai) Trein = Red Squid (akaika) Vargas = Lobster (robusutaa) Sam = Seahorse (umiuma) Fellow = Foxfish (kitsunebera) Gidel = Cat Shark (nekozame) *Leona also refers to him as a “crocodile”

JP Monikers ~ Rook

Rook uses a combination of Japanese, French, and English variously; I have attempted to render the names in the simplest manner possible. (Those with names I cannot find in-game at the time of posting are marked accordingly and will hopefully be updated in the future.)

MC = Trickster Grim = Monsieur Hirsute (Mister Shaggy) Riddle = Roi de Roses (King of Roses) Ace = Monsieur Heart (Mister Heart) Deuce = Monsieur Spade (Mister Spade) Trey = Chevalier de Roses (Rose Knight) Cater = Monsieur Magicam (Mister Magicam) Leona = Roi de Leon (King of Lions) Ruggie = Monsieur Tanpopo (Mister Dandelion) Jack = Monsieur Tough Guy (Mister Tough Guy) Azul = Roi d’Effort (King of Effort) Jade = Monsieur Mastermind^ (Mister Mastermind) Floyd = Monsieur Yukaihan (Mister Joyous Offender) Kalim = Roi d’Or (King of Gold) Jamil = Monsieur Multi (Mister Multi) Vil = Roi de Poison (King of Poison) Epel = Monsieur Himeringo (Mister Lady Apple) Idia = Roi de Ta Chambre (King of [Your] Room) Ortho = Monsieur Doll (Mister Doll), “Miracle Boy”^ Malleus = Roi de Dragon (King of Dragons) Lilia = Monsieur Curiosity^ (Mister Curiosity) Silver = Monsieur Sleepyhead^ (Mister Sleepyhead) Sebek = Monsieur Crocodile^ (Mister Crocodile) Sam = Monsieur Mysterious (Mister Mysterious) Rollo = Monsieur du Mouchoir (Mister Handkerchief)

Monikers ~ Other/General

・MC > Malleus ~ Hornton - Tsunotarou ・Malleus > Humans ~ Child of Man (hito no ko) ・Leona > Azul ~ Tako-yarou ・Leona > Idia ~ Kaiware daikon ・Leona > Humans ~ “Herbivore” >>> Additionally, Leona often tags -yarou onto names when speaking of people he doesn’t think highly of ・Vil > Sebek ~ “Cucumber” ・Sebek > Malleus ~ Young Master (waka-sama) ・Cheka > Leona ~ Unca’ Leona - (Leona-)ojitan ・Neige > Vil ~ Vi-kun ・Vil > a great many students his junior ~ “Potato” ・Crewel > Students ~ “Puppies” (koinu-domo) ・Rollo > Trein ~ “Professor Mozus” (Mozus-sensei) ・Sam > Customers/Students > Little Imp ~ lit. “Little Demon” (ko-oni) >>> Sam sometimes will add a descriptor to distinguish between “demons”–examples being Kalim’s kin no oni and Rook’s okappa oni

Unique Magic (Signature Spells)

Below is a comprehensive list of romanized furigana (that is, the intended/spoken) readings of Unique Magic names as they appear in the original Japanese version of the game.

Riddle Rosehearts - Off With Your Head Deuce Spade - Bet the Limit Cater Diamond - Split Card Trey Clover - Doodle Suit Leona Kingscholar - King’s Roar Jack Howl - Unleash the Beast Ruggie Bucchi - Laugh With Me Azul Ashengrotto - It’s A Deal Jade Leech - Shock The Heart Floyd Leech - Bind The Heart Kalim Al-Asim - Oasis Maker Jamil Viper - Snake Whisper Vil Schoenheit - Fairest One Of All Epel Felmier - Sleep Kiss Rook Hunt - I See You Idia Shroud - Gate To The Underworld Malleus Draconia - Fae of Maleficence Silver - Meet In A Dream Sebek Zigvolt - Living Bolt Lilia Vanrouge - Far Cry Cradle Rollo Flamme - Dark Fire Fellow Honest - Life is Fun

Other Notes

+ Che’nya’s full name is rendered differently between the EN and JP versions. + Leona's family's royal chamberlain, Kifaji, had his name changed to "Neji" in the localization. The reason for this is unclear. (Kifaji means "food" in Swahili, which makes sense if you consider Scar and Zazu's relationship.)

[trashy-panda09]

A long overdue Mulan sketch. Been busy with assignments and I had art block 😭

I haven’t actually watched Mulan so i’m mostly just going with what I’m assuming

Name: Fa Mulan

Age: 16

School: Royal Sword Academy

Homeland: Country of the Red Dragon

Best Subject: P.E

Club: Fencing

Height: 176cm

Hobbies: Fencing, basketball, horse riding

A 2nd year at RSA and in the sleeping beauty dorm

He's from a small village in the country of the red dragon

His sword is a family sword passed down from generation to generation

His grandmother was the one who taught him all about sword fighting and he's been obsessed ever since

From dawn to dusk all he did was practice sword fighting to the point his parents got worried he'd scare away girls and never settle down

Isn't really a flirt but being honest and gentlemanly paired with his boy next door looks have girls swarming without him trying

He's the heartthrob of the village without trying which pisses his friend off to no end

His parents have tried to set him up with nice girls from his village but maybe it's spite preventing him from actually trying so the relationship fails

It's not that he doesn't want a girlfriend it's just he just wants one on his terms and he doesn't want anything to get in the way of his swordsmanship at the moment

His parents are worried he'll be single for the rest of his life even though he's 16

His grandma is all for his single bachelor life though

He was supposed to be a girl so his parents were in for a surprise when he came out

They had gotten everything ready from the dresses to his room so when he was a kid they'd put him in dresses and had a pink room until he was 6 and he got fed up at his friends teasing him and re-painted the room himself

His grandma still has photos

[retro-stars]

What. What if Voltron legendary defender and Rottmnt crossover?

Listen, I have a vision: A younger Lance ran into Leo April-style and he as the reason why Leo originally started learning Spanish

He makes good friends with the turtles and co, acting as something of a fun cousin since he's not in New York consistently and absolutely refuses any Donnie upgrades to his tech when he goes off to the Garrison about a month before the season one plot gets rolling since he wants to be an awesome pilot the fair way or something like that

They talk constantly over message and call, giving updates back and forth. They even manage some in person meet-ups for a while once Leo got the hang of consistent long-distance teleportation before Lance ended up in space

Hunk knows them fairly well (the consequences of being a childhood friend of one Lance McClain, you end up knowing a lot of random people through the weirdest circumstances), but they've only met really online or over the phone with the exception of April He's taken to exchanging recipes with Mikey and talking engineering and biochem with Donnie and giving Leo advice. His default talking buddy is Raph through and through though

Pidge didn't get a chance to meet them but she does hear of them, so they're unaware of the whole mutant thing and also that the fellow rogue hacker she sometimes finds digging through the Garrison databases and the super-smart-and-obnoxious-about-it Donnie she reminds Lance of are in fact the same person. Donnie doesn't tell Lance that he's pretty sure Pidge is in fact one teenaged Katie Holt tricking the entirety of the US military and government because he thinks it's funny and wants to see how long it takes Lance to notice the literal fucking soap opera going on around him. Lance has some suspicions as to how legitimate Pidge's identity is anyway since Donnie is horrid at hiding how he's a little too curious about her, though he never gets a confirmation up until Pidge actually tells the team

AS FOR THE ACTUAL PLOT:

The Garrison Trio's disappearance happens literally like. right before the events of the movie. The timing of those two things just generally ended up really unfortunate, 'cause Lance got into the fighter pilot course and started dealing with some serious issues with his self-esteem and peers as well as the additional stress of the bigger workload right as the team dynamics with turtles started getting really bad

And when he disappeared they didn't get a chance to act on their suspicions due to the whole Kraang situation and after that it was mostly rebuilding and recovery and just hoping and praying Lance returned at some point because all of them were too scared of asking Casey jr. about his future for fear of the answer

Meanwhile Lance is dramatizing his reactions to the whole space thing despite it honestly not being that much of a shift to his worldview after the whole "oh yeah there's magic and a whole bunch of different races living underneath New York that all share the common trait that they lowkey hate/fear humans" thing The whole Galra Keith thing comes out and Lance is just chilling and waiting to ask if he can get tested for anything off with his DNA too since he's not entirely sure how mystic energy works and if it can rub off on someone or like. unlock some secret abilities or something so at this point it's better safe than sorry

When they come back to Earth the first words out of Lance's mouth are just the dawning horror of "I'm gonna die, aren't I?" because he knows that Donnie has been digging around the Garrison classified files since he applied to the academy and there is no way he hasn't broken in and seen the video/warning they sent to Earth already and he is most definitely going to be absolutely pissed Lance didn't at least try and send them a message letting them know he was alive at the very least

The team is just staring in confusion as Lance's face slowly goes through the five stages of grief before settling on the expression of a man facing his execution. Except for Hunk. Hunk took a second but as soon as he got it he was full belly laughing as Lance's expense (or at least until Lance reminds him that they're gonna kill him too since he didn't contact them either. Then he's just scared.)

[phantom1fanatic]

Em | 25 | She/Hers | PST | Minors DNI | 21+ preferred

━━━━━━━━━━━━

♕ LGBTQ+ member and friendly

♕ Searching for fandom and original universe roleplays

♕ Doubles and multiples preferred over single pairings

♕ I can play either gender

♕ Any gendered pairing is welcome

♕ Expect 200-2000+ word replies depending on muse and time

♕ Response times vary

♕ Love to chat ooc, share pinterests, memes, aesthetics, tiktoks, music, etc about our roleplay and characters

━━━━━━━━━━━━

Fandom Interests

Crossovers/Multifandoms

Spiderman: Across The Spiderverse

911/911 Lonestar

The Rookie

Ted Lasso

Z Nation

Marvel (MCU)

DC (cartoons mainly)

Young Justice

Detroit: Become Human

The Walking Dead

Arrowverse

Umbrella Academy

Prison Break

Midnight Texas

Suits

Kingsmen

Good Omens

Supernatural

Shameless

Disney Retellings

Deception

Jurassic World

Code Black

Station 19

Man from Uncle

Man from Toronto

Pokemon

Stranger Things

Altered Carbon

Terra Nova

LA Brea

Watch Dogs

Mr. Robot

Horizon: Zero Dawn

Reacher

The Boys

Hazbin Hotel

ATLA

Merlin

Note: I am more than willing to play multiple canons against an oc for you if asked. Would like if you could play at least one canon in return!

Note 2: Pink is what I’m craving most atm

━━━━━━━━━━━━

General Themes

Reincarnation

Time Travel

Natural Disasters

Past Lives

Soulmates

Hurt/comfort

Divine Enti

Dinosaurs

Hackers

Hanahaki Disease

Apocalypse

Deserted Islands

Fantasy

Sci-fi/Space

Slice of Life

Dark Themes/Dead Dove

Paranormal

Wild West

Medieval

Superpowers

Modern

Period Dramas

Mafia/Criminal Underworld

Egyptian Mythos/Pantheon

Dragons/Dragon Riders

Mermaids

Decade (20s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s)

Slowburn

Note: I’m always interested in your ideas, please feel free to reach out.

━━━━━━━━━━━━

Pairing Ideas

Throuple/Poly

Fallen Angel/Angel

Fallen Angel/Demon

Fallen Angel/Human

Angel/Demon

Angel/Human

Human/Demon

Half Angel/Demon

Half Angel/Human

Angel/Demon/Human

Angel/Demon/Fallen Angel

Human/Supernatural Creature

Supernatural Creature/Hunter

Royalty/Commoner

Rivals (sports, spies, etc)

Detective/Sidekick

Detective/Criminal

Ghost/Nonbeliver

Hero/Villain

Mermaid/Pirate

God/Human

God/Lesser Deity

Enemies to Lovers

Roommates

Arranged Marriages

Fake Dating

Opposites Attract

Forbidden Romance

Note: Love mixing/matching pairings so just lmk if you have any ideas!

━━━━━━━━━━━━

Are you interested? Perfect, I’d love to hear from ya! PM me for my discord and we can get to plotting!

Happy roleplaying 🌸

[direwolfrules]

Here, have some random Satine Rambles

I like to take a lot of the fandom misconceptions about Satine and the New Mandalorians and headcanon them as in-universe Death Watch propaganda.

Like the idea that Satine banned Mando'a. This is a weird one to me. So, Mando'a script is all over the place in Sundari. It's on the police speeders, it's on signs, it's on the wall of the Cadet Squad's dorm room, all of which is official government property and would have been some of the first places to have Mando'a removed if the ban was an actual thing. Also, Satine speaks Mando'a and Concordian (the dialect from Concordia and in Legends Concord Dawn). We as the audience don't see her speak Mando'a often because when she appears she's usually either:

1) Talking to someone whose primary language is Basic.

or

2) In a setting where slipping into Mando'a to talk to one person would be seen as undiplomatic at best.

Also, we as the audience don't primarily speak Mando'a, a fictional language with massive gaps in the canon vocabulary, and why would the Clone Wars crew put effort into translating a bunch of conversations into Mando'a for a kids show. They barely had an animation budget, you really think they had the money and time to translate politics into kid/teen-friendly language and then translate that into Mando'a?

Also, Pre Vizsla doesn't speak Mando'a in the show. I don't think he even says a single Mando'a word, which is less than what Satine says.

Or, the idea that Satine banned beskar armor. Here's the thing about armor, based a bit on real-life history. Armor is expensive. Especially well-forged armor. Especially well-forged armor made of a rare, extremely valuable metal with important cultural significance. And if centuries of strip mining depleted the supply of that already very rare metal, and damaged the ecosystem enough that mining it was banned? Well, now the price is at a point where anyone who isn't a noble or exceedingly wealthy can't afford new beskar. Even then, most noble families passed on their beskar through the generations, partly because of legacy and religion and also partly because obtaining new beskar was already ruinously expensive unless you took it from an enemy in war, which would have been ruinously expensive in other ways.

The fact that we barely see anyone wear beskar in Sundari isn't indicative of a ban on beskar armor, it means armor isn't a practical or attainable expense for the average citizen of Sundari. Sundari was a city at peace, before Sidious' plots and Vizsla's attacks. There was no need for anyone but the Mandalorian Guard to wear armor. Does a midlevel office worker need to wear armor to go about his job? Does a retail employee need the weight of beskar plate in addition to whatever stock they have to shelve? Unless you were a member of the warrior caste, which was primarily made up of nobles who either already had or could afford new beskar, you didn't need to be constantly armored.

And since we're talking about armor, the next logical misconception to discuss is the "weapons ban" that keeps getting brought up in every single "Satine Bad" fanfiction ever. When we first meet Satine, there is no weapons ban. Carrying weapons in a city at peace like Sundari is probably frowned on the same way carrying weapons on Coruscant's upper levels is frowned upon (if you're not Padme "Constantly-dodging-assassination-attempts" Amidala that is). It's a case of why would the average citizen need to carry a weapon, not them not being allowed to.

The first and only mention of a weapons ban in the show is when Ahsoka is welcomed to Sundari in "The Academy". Everyone's least favorite corrupt worm-man Almec says that after the trouble surrounding Master Kenobi's last visit, offworlders can't bring weapons into Sundari. It's literally just a ban for offworlders, which is reasonable when you figure out most of the terrorist group threatening to destroy your hard-fought peace and overthrow your government is based off-world.

And like, we see Mandalorians carry weapons. Satine has her deactivator, which we know from the actions of Rush Clovis and Lolo Purs can be a lethal weapon if used against organics. We see the Mandalorian Guards carry stun batons and shields, and some, like Captain Patrok Ru-Saxon, carried blasters to use as a last resort option. The Protectors, who at this point were Satine's bodyguards, had blunt-tipped spears that, judging by how they could be used to block blaster bolts during the warehouse raid in "Corruption", were probably made of beskar. Also in that same warehouse raid we see the Guard use flamethrowers.

Another common misconception is that Satine is opposed to any kind of violence, even in self-defense. This is not true.

As stated above, Satine carries a deactivator, a weapon primarily used to disable droids, but by its very nature of being a weapon designed to output high-level energy blasts can be lethal to organics. When she's using her deactivator she tells Obi-Wan, "Just because I'm a pacifist doesn't mean I won't defend myself".

And this is true. If Satine was so opposed to violence that she wouldn't fight back if threatened, she either would have died on the Coronet or been taken captive by the Separatists. She would have been killed back during the first confrontation with Vizsla, or during the arc on Coruscant. She would not have taken part in the warehouse raid. Satine was not opposed to violence in self-defense, she was opposed to violence as the first option and lethal violence as anything but a last resort.

One of the only times Satine doesn't fight back is when Pre Vizsla and his Death Watch soldiers invade the palace during the coup. If she had fought back, she would have given Vizsla exactly what he wanted: evidence of her betraying her ideals just when her people needed them the most, and an excuse to kill everyone on her side of the throne room. Satine made a choice to let herself be captured in order to spare as many lives as she could. And the minute she has a chance to escape, she takes it.

Then there's the common fandom idea that Satine is destroying Mandalorian culture, which is just ridiculous. Culture is more than just martial abilities and rigid clan hierarchies. It's food, art, clothing, language, etc. Satine telling her people they're not allowed to kill and bomb each other indiscriminately and empowering a central government over the hereditary clan-based caste system is not destroying Mandalorian culture, it's trying to save Mandalorian culture. After all, who'll be left to practice their traditions, to speak their language and sing their songs, if they wipe themselves off the face of the galaxy?

Mandalore had been jumping from one massive civil war to the next for generations, not to mention the wars against outside powers like the Republic. These are massive depopulating events. Each successive war does more and more damage to the planets in the Mandalorian sector. Mandalore went from a lush jungle to a desert. Concordia was nearly entirely deforested. A third of Concord Dawn is rubble drifting through space.

Satine made decisions that, until the machinations of the Sith, brought a level of prosperity and growth to Mandalore that it hadn't seen in living memory. The forests of Concordia were growing again. Trade was beginning to flow. Her people were happy and not constantly fearing war if one of the Houses took offense to something another one did.

Satine encouraged and promoted the aspects of Mandalorian culture outside of the martial domain. She was a patron of Mandalorian artists, and favored geometric designs and art styles, something that most Mandalorians also enjoyed. Her personal yacht was designed to display Mandalorian goods to representatives of other sectors/governments/galactic powers in order to promote trade and encourage a demand for Mandalorian goods. Her iconic dress with the massive headdress is meant to look like a mythosaur, with her earrings serving as the tusks.

She had that classic Mandalorian love for children. The only times we've ever seen her come close to compromising her principles was when children were threatened. When Mandalorian children were being poisoned by black market tea, she threatened the school's superintendent with violence. She was so enraged by the senseless deaths of many of the poisoned children she ordered the warehouse the black market goons had set up in burned down. When Almec went to torture Korkie and his friends she almost gave in to his demands, despite not cracking when she herself was under torture.

And New Mandalore in general was not a society built on cultural genocide like so many people in this fandom like to claim. In New Mandalorian Society a traditional kar'ta was present on many buildings, clothing (there are like five on the Academy's uniforms), and even hairstyles. Sundari's architecture was filled with geometric buildings that only really differed from the Clan Wren stronghold in height and number of turrets.

The real major difference between New Mandalorian culture and the old ways is those not of the noble, warrior caste had much less political power under the old system. New Mandalorian society is committed to peace, because many New Mandalorians are everyday individuals who now get a say in a diplomatic government instead of watching their system get crushed under leaders who only need to know how to fight well. Farmers don't have to worry about their local lord and his dumbass kid pissing off the neighboring lord, leading to a war that burns their fields and orphans their children. Business owners and employees don't have to worry about losing their shops/factories/office spaces in constant bombings.

Speaking of New Mandalorian society, another common misconception I see is people claiming Satine/New Mandalore was racist because it's all white blondes and brunettes. So like, that was a bad design decision by the Clone Wars crew, who wanted to make Mandalore look like space Scandinavia, and it's compounded by the reuse of models and assets. Korkie's class at the Academy has three groups of identical triplets. The crowds of Mandalorian citizens have so many repeated models, hairstyles, and the like, that there are more identical individuals there than on Kamino. The explanation there isn't "Satine is racist", it's "Cartoon Network gave them zero animation budget". Mandalore only got more diverse after Filoni got called out for it and had the budget and opportunity to fix it, which happened after Satine's rule ended.

Also, I see a lot of people taking the word of Death Watch members, children of Death Watch members, and Death Watch-aligned groups as gospel when it comes to Satine. Like, holy unreliable narrator Batman! If the person criticizing Satine is a member of the terrorist group dedicated to her death, a child of one of those terrorists who has probably been indoctrinated in Satine hate from day one, or a member of one of the splinter factions of that terrorist group, they're probably just a little bit biased, ya know? Satine's people genuinely loved her, Pre Vizsla had to stage elaborate schemes with Sith backing to sway the people's support away from her.

Oh, and people like to say that Satine was a bad leader/bad politician because she "left Mandalore weak" and "wouldn't join the Clone Wars". Which is just— did we watch the same show?

Joining the Clone Wars would have been Bad with a capital B. Palpatine wanted a Grand Army of the Republic presence on all the major worlds to facilitate his takeover when the time for Order 66 came. Mandalore was a priority target, remember when he doctored that footage of Satine's Deputy Minister to get the Senate to vote on sending troops?

Mandalore was along the Hydian Way, a major hyperspace route that was the site of frequent conflict. Mandalore's place on the Hydian Way, if they had joined either the Republic or the Separatists, would have made it and its vassal worlds battlefields. It would have devastated the hesitantly recovering Mandalorian people and the even more hesitantly recovering ecosystems of the planets.

Mandalore's position along the Hydian Way also meant that for some trade goods it depended on the CIS and for others it depended on the Republic, so committing to one side or the other would have made the already dangerous black market situation during the war even worse. What Satine did by declaring Neutrality and forming the Council of Neutral Systems was protect the interests of her people and form a voting block to prevent those interests from being trampled over.

Even with all its problems, Mandalore under Satine was strong, just going through issues many other worlds underwent during the war. Death Watch was a relatively new problem, as Pre Vizsla and his followers only got up the guts to act when their Sugar Daddy Dooku gave them Separatist backing. The food shortages were directly tied to the war disrupting the major trade route Mandalore depended on. Corruption amongst members of the government was a plot point in half the episodes of the show.

Mandalore only fell because Satine fell. Satine kept the war away from Mandalore as much as she could. Sideous couldn't get troops onto Mandalore while Satine was alive. With the exception of the very vocal Death Watch minority, the people were united behind her. It was only by running false flag operations with Maul's Shadow Collective that Death Watch was able to generate enough support to stage a coup. A coup that involved killing any government officials and trained warriors who refused to forswear their loyalty to the Duchess, thus robbing Mandalore of a considerable number of possible defenders and the people who knew how things ran and where the paperwork was filed.

If it wasn't for Vizsla's coup, and Maul's second secret coup, there would have been no need for Republic troops at the Seige of Mandalore, because there would have been no Seige of Mandalore. But there was, and Mandalore fell to the Empire. Which led to more internal Mandalorian on Mandalorian violence, which killed even more warriors. Which paved the way for the Night of a Thousand Tears.

[tired-reader-writer]

Smth smth a fan of a story abt literature lacking any respect for literature smth smth—

No, actually, you misunderstand.

AoB is not a story about literature. It's about books. Making books. The contents of said books has never mattered. Not to Myne, not to any of the characters, not to the author.

We never get to hear any of Effa's stories despite it being the first thing Myne makes into a book. Not even a summary. It's as though the narrative doesn't care about the actual story, only that Myne has material for book-making!

Nevermind that storytelling is a rich art that has existed for as long as we've been human, nevermind that stories have been a companion to humanity since the dawn of time, nevermind that oral history has been dismissed and looked down upon by scholars but is so so so rich with information and value and—

Nevermind, of course. It doesn't matter. It's never mattered to Kazuki.

The titles of the books published and distributed also have like. Generic-ass titles. Royal Academy Love Stories. A Ditter Story. Nothing is said of their contents, except that Boys Like Ditter Books and Girls Swoon Over Romance. Nobody in the fandom ever talks about any of the books in the story because there's nothing to talk about. What can you gush about in A Ditter Story? It doesn't matter. Doesn't matter at all. Never has, never will.

Tell me again how this is a story about literature? Nay, nay, the art of writing and storytelling is given no significance or weight in this damn story and trying to pretend otherwise to give it more credit is... disingenuous, in my opinion.

For all that fucking Pandora Hearts isn't a story about literature, it's about so many things (a story about a story a story about love a story about imposter's syndrome a story about realness and the human about a story about so many things but about literature it is not— even if it was based on Alice In Wonderland wait I'm getting sidetracked), anyways it has an in-universe novel series that's published by the volume, Holy Knight, and we get little glimpses into what goes on in the story! One of the characters, Edgar the valet dies in an act of self-sacrifice for his lord Edwin who cuts his hair in mourning after losing Edgar in the end.

Now, why does this matter? Because the novel was actually narratively relevant to the story of Pandora Hearts— Mochizuki Jun is a meticulous writer whom I really look up to— Holy Knight became the connecting common ground that let Oz, the protagonist, befriend Elliot and Leo (master and valet duo) when they first met as they are avid fans of the series (well, two of them were, Leo wasn't to my memory but I digress). It is not only a nifty little tool to give these characters a common ground but it also becomes relevant to their characters in other ways— it sheds light on their characters, Oz who has the self-sacrificing Edgar as his favorite character values his own life so little, is suicidal to some degree, and views himself as expendable. Elliot on the flipside is the opposite— he very notably said “People who think so lightly of their own lives do not have the right to protect anyone!” (which is also a major theme in Pandora Hearts but shush, me, shush, I'm not here to proselytize about an actually well-crafted story here, fuck). Normally I'd avoid spoilers for this kind of series (full of mystery and plot twists and everything good) because it's so good you should experience it yourself but I know that nobody in the AoB tag will give a shit about checking out a well-crafted story (if they think AoB is the height of literature, do you blame me for thinking so?), I'm gonna spoil it. Elliot dies! In an act of self-sacrifice! His last words were directed to his valet: “I'm sorry, Leo.” HOW FUCKING IRONIC IS THAT? And Leo cuts his hair in the aftermath/fallout of Elliot's death— where his grief leads him down a self-destructive spiral. A role reversal between Edgar and Edwin.

From this example provided, you can very clearly see the singular in-universe novel Holy Knight fulfilled multiple narrative functions: reinforcing/establishing the manga's themes, establishing characters, and foreshadowing.

Have I mentioned I love Pandora Hearts to death?

And it's not even! A story! About literature! As many claim AoB is!

How fucking cool would it have been to have something similar with AoB's in-universe novels, something to foreshadow events, stories bringing characters together (no, the library committee only half-counts bc it's books that brought these ppl to gather, not a love of literature and storytelling specifically), stories affecting characters and giving them hope or solace or whatever, stories being used as a narrative device by Kazuki to push certain themes and such?

I could go insane over the utilization of Holy Knight in Pandora Hearts but there's just cricket noises for the novels in AoB bc. I'm. Given. Absolutely fucking nothing! Nada! None! And I'm someone who's like a bloodhound that hunts for symbolism and symbolism only! I have a whole tag dedicated to my character design sheets where I cram in symbolic shit in the designs and over-explain every aspect! (Here's the tag if anyone's interested, probably not but hey, shameless self-plug) If someone like me can't find anything to go insane over about an in-universe novel or story, that's dire! That's so fucking dire! I'm someone who looks at smth ppl say “isn't that deep” and grabs a shovel to make it That Deep. Do you fucking realize. How bad it is that I can't find any narrative significance for stories and storytelling. In a series about making books. Do you understand. Do you fucking understand.

On the note of grabbing a shovel to make things That Deep, yeah let's talk about that. People wish I was actually talking about the themes of the story, engage with them, instead of throwing it all in the trash. Which, yeah, fair!

Except it's not because that's literally what I'm trying to do.

What the everloving fuck did you people think I was doing when I published that post? I was trying to talk about it, from the perspective of someone whose country was colonized by Japan, trying to engage with it from my perspective, trying to get people to critically think about and engage with it too instead of blindly accepting the story's biases, trying to offer my perspective which is of someone who doesn't worship AoB and doesn't immediately shut down criticism of the stories I like because I can't pretend people ever disliking it for legitimate reasons. What is this if not me talking about it? Also, to tell one critic to not just chug the entire thing into the trash and to tell another critic to just stop reading... Pick a lane, y'all. Pick a fucking lane. (In the first place you could've chosen to not read the anti-FerMyne post, yeah it wasn't tagged but there's a summary above the cut that said “IT'S BAD” like what did you think the content under the cut was gonna be. What the fuck did you think it was gonna be.

In the first place people kinda seem self-admitting that they care about nothing outside of the romance-not-romance in AoB, as it doesn't occur to them that someone could be continuing to read the series for other characters they liked, other plot points, anything at all outside of the main romance— The romance only became explicit in the last two volumes, before that it's completely possible to think that the series is not going to end with them getting together if you have an entire fandom gaslighting you into thinking Myne is aro.)

(But then again maybe it's not so out of left field that these people cannot fathom anyone staying for anything outside of FerMyne— people have loudly admitted to hating the version of Myne that existed before she met Ferdinand— since there really isn't much to sink your teeth into except if you like ranting your tongue off about the characters canon either neglects or retcons or tries so hard to make hateable)

(Like I said, not a speck of respect for stories in “a story about literature”)

Anyways, I have never once seen a fandom so resistance to criticism, critical discussion, and anything of the sort like AoB fandom is. Well, except for Moriarty the Patriot but being compared to that fandom isn't a favor because they would aggressively try to chase dissenters out. I would know. I was one of the targets for a mass Twitter campaign. AoB fandom... is shaping up to look like that.

Like, my Naruto mutuals and I have been talking about financial abuse holding supplies hostage dehumanization sexual exploitation misogyny in the narrative etc and the FMA poc community is in a corner discussing narrative framings of Scar and the importance of named characters and individual wrath vs justified anger at the system and how the series mishandled Ishvalans and AoB is just here incapable of understanding that any of it is bigoted, or that AoB has racist/classist/xenophobic themes going on. Beyond a token acknowledgement of there being a “sprinkle” of racist/classist themes in AoB, nobody here ever openly talks about those themes, never criticizes them profusely like there exists thriving critics communities in other fandoms— probably for fear of being ostracized, lol.

To that, I borrow some quotes from the ever lovely Dr. Bret C. Devereaux, an ancient and military historian who currently teaches as a Teaching Assistant Professor at North Carolina State University:

George R. R. Martin: The Dothraki were actually fashioned as an amalgam of a number of steppe and plains cultures… Mongols and Huns, certainly, but also Alans, Sioux, Cheyenne, and various other Amerindian tribes… seasoned with a dash of pure fantasy.

Dr. Bret C. Devereaux: But at the same time, a ‘dash’ only goes so far; if I ask you to add a ‘dash’ of pepper to a recipe and the end product comes back 51% pepper by mass, we need not debate semantics to understand that something has gone really rather wrong.

Dr. Bret C. Devereaux: It seems that our ‘dash of pure fantasy’ has turned from a little bit of salt to flavor the meal into a barrel of salted fish with with all the fish removed.

Dr. Bret C. Devereaux: We might say he has added ‘dashes’ of pure fantasy until the ‘dash’ is the entire soup, but the truth is clearly the reverse: Martin has sprinkled a little bit of water on a barrel of salt and called it just a dash of salt.

To read this wonderfully graceful and eloquent episode of this historian shredding GRRM: here ya go, tis the link.

I wish I could be as eloquent as him. Oh, well, one day.

Forgive me if I seem condescending or haughty by dragging in other better-written stories or a historian but AoB fans have been condescending to us in the first place— equating us to children, sweeping over our words and cultural backgrounds and experiences with “well yeah I need to check what the Experts say first” and trying to de-legitimize any of our arguments with “well clearly you're just not paying attention because Japan is culturally different and you're just ignorant on How Things Are Over There” well newsflash asshole the only two critics in this entire fandom tag are both Asian too! Japan wrecked our countries! I brought up something Japan did, something that it continues to deny to this day and something that many Asian countries are still affected from, shouldn't that count at least on some level as paying attention to whatever mystical “cultural differences” y'all insist we're willfully ignoring? Aren't y'all the ones consistently ignoring and trying to shut up our voices and criticisms? “Is it racist to have your only prominent foreign country be a mishmash of Asian-coded brown people whose only traits are being violent killer rapists and who your white protagonists kill all of before sealing off the border from the foreign invaders” is absolutely entry-level “Can you recognize xenophobic sentiments in media” critical thinking! I can't believe I'm having to say this! What Japan did isn't even some niche distant mystical “Asian history”, it's World War II history. The fact that people are so willing to excuse ableism and xenophobia and anything like that with “b-b-but cultural differences!” is xenophobic in of itself. Is Japan a fucking alien planet? What makes you so vehemently defend the idea of Japan while trying to kill the voices of other Asians? Are we not Pale Enough for you or something?

What in this god damn novel series is so good, so worthy of these people stooping so low?

[david-goldrock]

This one time, I was in an argument on theology, and the other person asked for evidence on something, don't remember what, I linked this song instead, and the ensuing confusion was hilarious. I just linked it cuz it's a good song, and I thought it'd be funny (it was). It took a while before we got back on track, and I gave the proof he wanted, but now I would really like it translated so I can show him the meaning of the song. If you don't mind, I'd appreciate it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RpIrmzWhPAg

The Ammunition Hill

This song is about the battle over the ammunition hill in north Jerusalem: a military base by the Brits which was controlled at the time by the Jordanians. The battle took place during the 6-day warץ

From Wikipedia:

A decision was taken by the Israeli Jerusalem Command, under General Uzi Narkis, to forgo an aerial attack on the hill due to its proximity to civilian areas. Instead an artillery barrage was to be focused on the police post, followed by a ground attack using an enlarged paratroop company.

The size of the Israeli assault force was based on incorrect intelligence, which detailed the hill as being defended by a single platoon. When the ground assault began, the police academy was discovered to be empty of Jordanian troops, as they had taken shelter from the barrage in the bunker system of the hill, thereby enlarging the force defending the hill to one equal in size to the assault force rather than 1/3 of its size, as had been anticipated by Israeli Central Command

[opening] It was the second day of the war in Jerusalem The horizon paled in the east, we were in the midst of the battle on The Ammunition Hill We fought there for three hours A stubborn, deadly battle was fought, the Jordanians fought stubbornly It was an unusually fortified destination At a certain stage of the fighting, I had only four soldiers remained with me We went up there with a force of two companies I didn't know where the others were because the connection with Dudik the Company Commander was severed at the beginning of the battle At that moment I thought they were all killed

[Verse 1] At 2, 2:30 We went through the rocky ground To the field of fire and the mines Of the Ammunition Hill

[Verse 2] In front of fortified bunkers And mortars - 120 A hundred and then some guys On the Ammunition Hill

[Verse 3] The column of dawn had not yet risen Half a company laid in blood But we have been there already In the Ammunition Hill

[Verse 4] Between the fences and the mines We only left the medics And ran without a sense (I think this means in Ecstasy) Towards the Ammunition Hill

[Bridge] At that moment a grenade was thrown from outside, miraculously we were not hit I feared that the Jordanians would throw more grenades Someone had to go upstairs and watch I didn't have time to ask who was volunteering, I sent Eitan Eitan did not hesitate for a moment, went upstairs and started to operate the machine gun Sometimes he would pass me and I had to yell at him to stay in my line That's how we went about thirty meters Eitan was covering from above, and we purified the bunkers from the inside Until he was hit in his head and fell inside

[Verse 5] We went down to the tunnels To the niches and the rails And to the death of the burrows Of the Ammunition Hill

[Verse 6] And no man asked where He who walked in front fell There was needed a lot of luck On the Ammunition Hill

[Verse 7] He who fell was dragged to the back So that he wouldn't hinder pass Until the next one fell On the Ammunition Hill

[Verse 8] Maybe we were lions But anyone who still wanted to live Must not have been On the Ammunition Hill

[Bridge] We decided to try to blow up their bunker with a bazooka The bazooka made some scratches to the concrete, we decided to try an explosive I waited above them until the guy with the explosive came back He would throw them at me, package by package, and I would place the packages one by one at the entrance to their bunker They had a method - first they threw a grenade, then they fired a bunch, then they rested So between a bundle and a grenade, I would go to the entrance of their bunker and put the explosive there I set off the explosive and got as far away as I could I had four meters to maneuver, because there were legionnaires behind me as well I don't know why I got a commendation, I just wanted to get home safely

[Verse 9] At 7, 7:20 To the police officer school They packed up all of those who remained From the Ammunition Hill

[Verse 10] Smoke rose up from the Hill The sun in the east rose higher We returned 7 to the city From the Ammunition Hill

[Verse 11] We returned 7 to the city Smoke rose up from the Hill The sun in the east rose higher On the Ammunition Hill

[Verse 12] About fortified bunkers And about our brothers the men (also maybe the greats) Who remained there, 20-years-olds On the Ammunition Hill