#Imagine a corrupted bunny of evil

[self-loving-vampire]

scenario: each of your sisters, individually, has been sealed away at a different dungeon and brainwashed into becoming the evil overlord's minions, guarding a great power source at the end of each dungeon. each of them is granted a different great beast to ride into battle, be them mythological creatures or giant monstrous animals. The question is not how you save them, but instead how their personalities affect the design of their dwellings:

1. which beast goes to which sister? how do they use them in battle?

2. how does each sister's dungeon reflect their personality? what kind of armor are they placed in, and what kind of weapons are they given?

The beasts are obvious, right? @cyberbun gets a vorpal bunny or al al-mi'raj, @thirteen-jades gets a snake or a medusa, master gets a really big dog (or possibly an emperor penguin), and the other me probably gets a smaller dog.

Knowing the other me she would love her critter too much to put it in danger even if evil. I'm less sure about how the others would employ theirs, but some form of fusion with them to unlock a powerful new form seems like it might fit.

As is proper with corruption, I imagine they were all given sluttier clothing. @cyberbun and the other me probably have some of that impractical yet horny armor that people used to complain about (it's particularly easy to picture Lottie wearing something like a skimpier version of the level 50 dragoon armor from FFXIV) while Jade might end up looking more like a dark priestess with clothes that show off her new womb tattoo. She might even be topless.

Master might be entirely nude but even more dog-like than usual.

Lottie would definitely be using a spear as usual, and I think master might as well. That's a weapon type I associate with him. I also keep imagining Jade using some kind of chain dagger like F/sn Medusa (with a focus on binding rather than stabbing) but she would otherwise fight mostly with unholy magic. Past Me might trade the sword and shield I'd normally associate with her for using her own blood to form swords and bullets. among other things.

The dungeons are more complicated so I'd probably have to think about that in more depth. I imagine that these are not just intended to be fortress-style dungeons they're overseeing but supernatural locations that cause their emotional wounds and corrupted ideals to manifest as background psychological attacks and hazards. That kinda complicates it but it's definitely the kind of thing that would be fun to think about.

[princess-of-the-corner]

Legend of Zelda: No Fate

K, at this point, I’m not sure if my asks are being eaten, or if this hellsite is deliberately messing up the signage, so instead of my asks ending up in your inbox, they take a wrong turn at Alberque and have to work through shenanigans alongside Bugs Bunny.

1) So, I vaguely remember you saying these guys remember their past lives this time around, rather than just the implied vague impressions? Is it sort of - like, so if I read book told from the perspective of a certain character, I am going to be privy to that characters thoughts. Also, the story will probably be designed so I feel what the character feels. But, because I am NOT actually that character, merely reading their experiences, I am going to have my own thoughts, feelings, and opinions on what’s happening. Like, a character can be going through something, giving their reasoning why, and while I might be sympathetic, I might also be going “Buddy, you just need to talk to your friend. That’s literally all you have to do. Two words, and this whole thing gets resolved.” Is it sort of like that for this Link, Zelda, and Ganon? Like, they have all the knowledge, but little to none of the original emotional attachment, letting them be a bit more objective?

2) Pure suggestion - Related to above, but from a story standpoint, is the reason these versions remember so much BECAUSE they are actively fighting Fate - or rather, cause Ganon is? Because, like you said, most of the past Ganondorfs have REASONS to become evil tyrants, while this one … really doesn’t? Cause the Hero Role, and the Princess/Goddess Vessel Role really hinge on Ganon being “EEEEEEEEVIL!”, so if Link and Zelda aren’t AWARE that this one random Gerudo dude is SUPPOSED to be evil, like, they’d probably just leave him alone. So, I could see whatever nebulous Fate Deity, realizing it isn’t all going according to plan, causing these kids to remember their past lives in an attempt to steer them towards their predestined roles. Like, “here’s why YOU should be evil, YOU should be the Hero, and YOU should be the Goddess Vessel”. And maybe that would work if things were different, but it’s mostly a time of peace, Ganon’s being raised by a sensible woman as the middle child between two sisters, like. He’s got enough perspective to be “ok, I can see where you’re coming from, but how about I DON’T do that?”

3) My suggestion earlier about a manifestation of Fate being a “DLC/Expansion” type Final Boss. Like, I imagine Ganon, Link, & Zelda defeat whatever the Big Bad is. And like. They decide “fuck Fate, we’re our own people!” (maybe Ganon, Link and Zelda are also trying to decide if they can date? Regardless of the other two, I’m not sure I see Ganon as, like. I think I see him as grayromantic? not the point). So, you’d have a bit of a time skip, and then Ganon starts having nightmares. Really awful nightmares, about becoming some monster that hurts people. And Zelda and Link are getting the same one, but it’s the two of them fighting Ganon as he slowly succumbs to some kind of corruption. Around the same time, monsters start becoming more aggressive, more powerful. Other incidents start cropping up. And this is all obviously not a coincidence. So, our trio sit together, and have a good talk, and decide to go consult … idk, the sages? The Goddess? Anyway, they go to consult SOMEONE, who gives them a lot of drivel about the “return of the Demon King” which like. Ganon is RIGHT THERE.

Anyway, I have this half-baked idea that the TriForce sends them a vision of the TRUE origin of the reincarnation cycle, which is, like. Originally the big bad was Demise, and the TriForce was created by the OG Goddess trio, and given to these champions to fight him - the Mortal Goddess Hylia, the Hero, and The Wizard King. And they fight and beat him, but at the last second, Demise lashed out, and the Wizard King jumped forward to protect his friends. WK doesn’t have a lot of options, cause Demise is trying to take him over, so he seals Demise within his own soul, then commits suicide, hoping that his death will drag Demise to the Next World. Instead, Demise uses this guy’s soul as a vessel to return to the Material Plane, and since It’s still connected to the TriForce, the Hero and the Mortal Goddess get dragged along too, so the entire reincarnation cycle is only happening because Demise corrupted the OG TriForce. The cycle is basically the TriForce trying get rid of Demise, and it isn’t going well. Since NoFate seems to be a state of “All Timelines Collapsed Together To Create A New Reality”, it’s jostled the whole thing slightly off kilter - the Trio now have the chance to defeat Demise PROPERLY, get him out of the TriForce, and stop this doomed cycle from repeating. 

Meanwhile, Demise doesn’t want this, because he/it/they is actually chill with this stupid cycle. Yes, Demise gets defeated more often than not, but not before wrecking havoc, causing chaos, gathering power. And who cares if he gets defeated? He’ll be back within a generation or two. It’s basically feeding Demise’s existence, so of COURSE Demise wants it to keep going. The entire thing is inevitable. Yes, Demise will be defeated, but like the sunrise, inevitably, Demise will return. Fighting him, beating him, doesn’t actually accomplish much in the long run, because Demise will always come back. Demise has BECOME a sinister Fate, inevitable and always reoccurring. So the NoFate Trio decide if they actually want to fight Fate, they need to properly get rid of Demise.

I think you could do three possibly endings - Cycle Continues, Set in Stone, and Unchained. Cycle Continues is the “bad” ending, where Link and Zelda have no choice but to defeat and kill Ganon. The trio tries to fight Demise, but the battle takes too long, or they take too much damage, or whatever mechanic, and Ganon becomes corrupted. So, Link and Zelda are forced to fight their friend. Ganon dies, fufilling cycle, meaning it will repeat again. Link and Zelda are crushed, but have hope, because if one Ganon could choose differently, another might as well.

Set in Stone would be what I’d call the “middling” ending. Not good, but also not totally hopeless. As Ganon is getting corrupted, Link and Zelda manage to seal all four of them - Ganon, Link, Zelda, and Demise - in “Stone”. Rather than continuing, the cycle is now halted, allowing the world to progress as it hasn’t been allowed to since this whole thing started. Link, Zelda and Ganon’s spirits are using the TriForce to seal Demise, which they acknowledge won’t last forever, but they hope that it lasts long enough that someone will have figured out how to end the cycle.

Unchained would be the “good” ending. The one where Ganon manages to fight off the corruption, and expel Demise from his soul. Where he, Link and Zelda manage to fight and beat Demise, and destroy him. Possibly by destroying the TriForce? Because I made this whole thing basically HAPPEN because of the TriForce, destroying it gets rid of Demise’s foothold, and lets them actually get rid of him. Anyway, with both Demise and the TriForce gone, the cycle is ended, and the Trio are free from their roles, able to do whatever they want. Next time their souls reincarnate, they probably won’t be “the Hero”, “the Mortal Goddess” or “the (Demon) King”. They’ll just be … them. Whoever they end up being. Unchained. Free.

Again, all ideas are free real estate to pick, choose, dismiss, alter, or lob at the wall. Hope to hear your thoughts!

-

OH BOY

Firstly rip to your asks

Anyway!

So their knowledge of the memories is very- Yeah it’s kinda like reading a book. Like there’s a level of detachment from it compared to the memory they have of their current lives. But at the same time, they remember the emotions behind what all they did and everything that happened. Why it means something to them.

And yeah it’s. The fact that they’re starting to not slot into their roles is why the memories surface. Because it may force their hand, even on accident. The first time the trio meets they just spider-man meme at each other for a minute and are very much prepared for ‘oh shit we have to fight now’, until Gan’s like ‘fuck this I’m out kill me if you have to but I’m not doing this shit’. (Which has the other two confused).

Also! Right on the nose with Gan’s upbringing! Raised by a sensible woman (even if she has poor taste in names lmao) with a good family all around and in a time of peace in the kingddoms as a whole. So there’s literally no reason for Gan to go evil other than the bits of Demise in his head but that entire dynamic is just the ‘a bagel’ vine

Love the nightmares! Just. Whatever the endgame relationship may be, the have fears that it will go sideways somehow.

Honestly I don’t need any extra in the like. Some other party to first get possessed by Demise. I want Gan to still be the reincarnation of Demise, just like the others are their own reincarnations! Because the theme is about how, for as much of that past life has impacted him, he is no longer that person and can choose to be someone new. Whether this only lasts for this lifetime or breaks the cycle is in the air.

But also yeah i kinda agree that of the three, Demise is the only one who would want the cycle to continue. Stubborn son of a bitch that he is.

I do like the multiple endings though! In which yeah I’d have something similar in just. Bad End is Gan being corrupted somehow and going full Evil Demon King, which Link and Zelda are forced to fight and kill him. Neutral end where they work things out for now, but with the implication that the Cycle will continue and next time around they may not be as peaceful(probably the True Ending to leave room for new games). And then a Good Ending where they break the Cycle itself somehow.

[lediz-watches]

Hazbin Hotel Pilot (kinda)

Yeah, I'm either three years late or three months early, but I'm here now and I'm documenting this for the sake of posterity, because SOMETHING is going to come out in January and the internet deserves to laugh at it.

Finally watched the pilot about a month ago. Loved it. Love the songs. Love Alastor because of fucking course I do. Love Angel Dust despite myself. Want to watch Charlie's story. Love it all. Am addicted to the fan songs. (One hell of a team and Radio Play are currently on repeat in my soul.) Hate fandom already. Miraculous Ladybug eat your goddamn heart out. No matter what happens, some part of the audience is going to hate it.

This post is actually more about why, than the pilot itself.

Before I get into it, I have to admit something. It's pertinent, I promise.

When Twilight was a thing, I heard all the hatred for it and believed it, but my sister was into it and I believe in giving everything a shot, so I read it too, expecting to hate it. And spoiler alert, by the final book, I LOATHED it. I literally had to stop myself from throwing that stupid thing across the room at least twice. But before that final book, I was so foolishly impressed.

Not by the writing, especially, but by what I thought it was doing. Because I looked at the characters and what I thought they were, and I thought that was so cool and subversive. An eternal teenager who was made a vampire against his will by a loving father figure. An immortal stuck in the body and emotions and hormones of a seventeen year old. And he falls in love for the first time. Could you IMAGINE anything worse? And a girl who swans (hah. Unintentional) into a new town and a new life, who also falls in love, but grows out of being seventeen. And there were these parallels! Romeo and Juliet! The fourteen year old trying to escape a life she didn't want, swept up in first love with an older lover! The idiot nineteen year old who's so desperate to Live His Life that he kills himself over a summer fling! THE PARALLELS, MY FRIENDS.

Yeah, I... I misinterpreted that one a little.

But this is the thing that we so often do with TV shows (and book trilogies....). We are watching and consuming something that is not complete, and in doing so we make assumptions and cling to things that may not actually be there. Edward was not an eternal seventeen year old, and Bella was not a normal girl growing into a young woman. It was a terrible, trashy, vaguely Mormon-propaganda teen romance that probably started as a Labyrinth fanfic, don't @ me.

(I love Labyrinth by the way, please don't come for my head)

Now, with Hazbin Hotel, and especially with Alastor, fandom is doing that in several different ways. Some of the fandom want him to be Evil Incarnate, here to corrupt the innocent and pure-hearted Charlie. Some of the fandom want him to be Bugs Bunny With Teeth. Some of the fandom (ie, I) want him to be Creepy Good and/or Do Evil Unto Evil (because that's what Louisiana Voodoo actually is, and it's so cool and I want to see a show do deals-with-the-other-side-for-good well andandand). Some people want him to be weak, some people want him to be super powerful, I would find it super interesting if he's super powerful because he's sold his soul to some greater power that's just using him to manipulate Hell... (today I was thinking about What If Lilith Is The Mastermind????)(also, ask me about my idea for a plot where he's actually a pawn to Heaven's worst)

No matter what happens with Alastor, some part of the fandom is going to be FURIOUS.

Now, for me, yes he's my favourite character from the Pilot, but the most important thing he does is provide a foil to Charlie, who is 100% the main character, and SHE is what's going to make or break the show for me.

Because the way I'm reading HER is that she's a preppy little private school girl that wants to save the whales and feed the children in Africa. She's taking gap years, she's doing voluntourism, she's holding charity balls for the homeless, she's taking cheesy photos in front of Homes She Built For The Kids and then gushing on Instagram about how she was hashtag blessed and got to feed the elephants.

The story I've read in this pilot, and the story I'm interested in, is that private school girl getting absolutely slapped down, so she can build back up into an actual good leader; stronger and better than her parents never even tried to be.

For me, the story I'm interested in, is all of the characters learning that redemption and goodness isn't some goal to achieve. It's a path. And sometimes, you find it only in the people around you. You shouldn't be good to get into Heaven, you should be good because you want to be good. Because you want to be there for your friends. It's about choice, and who you want to be. You make your own Heaven.

And to that end, I don't want Alastor to be the Evil Saboteur. I just want him to be her foil. Her equal and opposite, in every way that matters.

I want him to be evil only to those who deserve it, but be incapable of seeing himself as anything but worse still, even while everyone around him knows he's actually on the right team. The inverse of Charlie's arrogant light and hope.

I want him to push her, to challenge her, to be constantly watching and mocking and I want it to be a constant struggle between which of them is right or wrong about the sinners. I want them to represent the two sides of western religious ethics - the carrot and the stick. Be good so you're rewarded, or be good because torment awaits those who aren't. I want them to end up a platonic but perfect team, leading Hell's sinners out of this eternal struggle to survive and into afterlives they actually want to live.

But I don't know if that's what we're going to get. There are so many ways to read the second half of the pilot. Alastor rolling his eyes when Charlie tells him no voodoo, only to immediately offer a deal? The fact that Charlie, who effortlessly warps reality with her song, can't fix up the hotel or feed anyone, while Alastor, a supposedly mere human sinner, completely transforms everything with a few clicks of his fingers. The way Alastor treats Husk and Niffty - the way they respond to him! Niffty barely acknowledges this guy who we all assume owns her soul, and there are whole essays that could be written about how Husk responds to Alastor in general.

And outside the two of them, these characters are all so good! Angel Dust. I am not invested in his story (we've seen it before), but I ADORE him. A character that's so comfortable in his masculinity, and still considers himself a man, even as he wears women's clothing and works in a feminine industry and suffers a traditionally feminine tragedy. And he's so deadpan and snarky and horrible and I LOVE HIM. I'm not invested in his story, but I WANT TO WATCH IT.

Sir Pentious. What the hell is up with him? I must know more. I must cringe and groan and see him fail and then get back up to fail again.

Vaggie. What is she doing in Hell? HOW DID SHE DIE? How did she hook up with the king's daughter? Why is she signed onto this endeavour that she clearly doesn't really believe in?

I NEED IT.

So yeah. I will probably be disappointed, but god damn am I looking forward to this thing.

[sparklingdemon]

Ok, I've had this plot bunny in my head for a while: What if Shadow, pressured to choose, snapped, took the knife from the squirtle, and killed both Vulpix and squirtle?

haha, i think that’s a bit too fanfiction-y for me to answer! i think you’re the one who gets to decide how THAT kind of story would play out.

personally, i don’t think i can imagine shadow doing something like that.

shadow refused to choose between them because he didn’t want to kill anyone. not myra, and not squirtle, either. he valued both of their lives. 

in a world so corrupted and driven mad, shadow was determined to hold onto his own beliefs, even if his pacifism and inaction ended up hurting both squirtle AND myra in the end.

in a way, he chose pacifism as a form of violence.

i believe that shadow would sooner sacrifice his own life to save them both, rather than kill them both and be a partner without a hero.

not to mention... if he DID kill myra, i think that the player would probably turn on shadow as well, for killing her cherished vulpix and becoming as “evil” as squirtle was.

she’d probably reset the game, trying to erase shadow, in order to avenge her dream protagonist.

so, literally everyone would lose, in that situation!

[animationstarlover1983]

Five Nights At Freddy’s: System Reboot AU.

The Faz-Fantasy Quest (Inspired by Princess Quest).

Somewhere within a Realm unknown to most

Lived a magical realm surrounded and populated by a colossal magical first full of diverse people, strange creatures and dangerous monsters, in the center of this first lived a large and wonderful kingdom where beginning adventurers become myths and legends, this kingdom was ruled and protected by a yellow king and queen and was their daughter the princess who was also a adventurer, the yellow princess was a young prodigy who had been preparing all her life to fulfill her duties to her kingdom, the princess was a curious and imaginative young soul with a kind heart and genius mind, she would spend her days and nights either studying and learning everything she can about the incredible world she lived in or she would be out with her fellow adventurer friends and residents of the magical forest.

her adventurer team was made up of a witch, a knight, a ranger, a rogue and a bard, with them they traveled to many different places such as neighboring kingdoms, temples and dungeons all across the map. The forest was made up of magical guardians protecting the forest and its inhabitants, the guardians were made up of a green short tempered alligator, a purple competitive wolf, a red crafty fox, a pink quirky chicken, a blue curious bunny and their leader a orange helpful bear, together the princess and the guardians protected the forest many times from many threats whether it be bandits, hunters or even mercenaries.

One day when the princess was about to head out on a adventure with her team the king stopped her to gift her with a special item, an magical lantern staff with the power of light to fend off against any kind of darkness. On her way to join her friends she was greeted by all the kingdoms people and all the forest inhabitants who all wished her luck, the princess was truly beloved by all

We’ll all except for one

Somewhere far away in a part of the forest no one goes near lived a albino jackalope, the jackalope once a well respected guardian of the forest now living in exile by her own people, the jackalope envied and resented the princess from the bottom of her heart, what made her so special she ideally wondered, was it the fact that she was just stupidly lucky enough to have been born into the royal

Family or the fact she was just a naturally gifted prodigy unlike the jackalope who actually had to put in effort and hard work into the stuff she did but was never given the credit she truly deserved and was branded a failure by her own kind, or perhaps it was the fact that the royal brat had everything she could ever want in the world that she in no way ever earned meanwhile the jackalope herself deserved everything that the princess had.

As the moon risen the jackalope walking through the forest heard a strange noise and was led to a dark cavern where she found a ominous looking purple glowing book, intrigued she touched the book and what happened next took her by surprise. A dark purple energy emerged in the form of a demonic figure shaped like a rabbit, the demon then thanked the jackalope for freeing it from their prison and even offered asked them to help take over the kingdom, now ecstatic the jackalope agreed.

Without a warning the kingdom and the forest was overtaken by darkness, all the people were corrupted and put under a spell as well as all the forest creates. The princess and the adventurers as well as the forest guardians did their best to fend off the evil but soon the jackalope now imbued with dark powered imprisoned the princess in the tallest tower of the castle and trapped her friends in a inescapable dungeon while corrupting the forest guardians and all the forest creatures.

The demon facing the king and queen soon overpowered the 2 and slayed the king, and the jackalope took the place of the princess. For many months the darkness would grow as the demon and jackalope would lure more and more people into the kingdom, all hope was lost to the people.

But soon a miracle happened.

From a far away land came a young blue wizard while young made up for it with his observant skills and experience came across the kingdom and knew something was immediately wrong. As he wandered through different parts of the forest and kingdom he was soon greeted by the orange bear who had managed to avoid being corrupted by the darkness and offered to help aiding him in getting to the bottom of this.

During their search the duo managed to find 2 magical keys but had no o clue what to use them for until they found a locked door with 3 magical locks, they needed to find a 3rd key and fast, along their way they managed to free the fellow adventurers to have them aid in their mission. The demon and jackalope caught note of the adventurers trying to undo what they did so the demon called upon the corrupted first guardians to stop them but the adventurers were too skilled and powerful.

The wizard and bear found to find the 3rd key but had to get passed the demon who attempted to corrupt the bear but that gave the wizard enough time to rush and unlock the door, unnoticed by the wizard the jackalope took chase behind him. Almost at the door the wizard lunged and input the key into the lock and all of a sudden a light so bright came out it destroyed all the darkness, the demons powers were weakening and the jackalope no longer had her powers as the princess now freed used her staff to cleanse the kingdom and the forest of all the darkness, destroying the demon in the process.

With the kingdom back to normal the jackalope was imprisoned in a far away place, soon the wizard was going to leave but the princess asked him to join their team and they all lived happily ever after.

[johannestevans]

to build on this thanks to anon putting it back in my mind, like...

i always love when Bruce Wayne as a persona is a fun, bubbly sort of guy, that he's just considered vapid, right? and esp bc he says things frequently that are stupid as fuck and end up being quoted all around the tabloids, often well-meaning and earnest, but generally just indicative of a stereotypical playboy bunny-esque personality - he's there to look pretty, he's rich enough that he's never had to learn to live like a normal person, and people rush to do whatever he needs or wants, so he never has to do much thinking

and because he's a man, and especially because he's ruggedly handsome with a cleft in his chin and does not look like people imagine a queer man to look - no matter that he regularly says he's bisexual in interviews, or refers to ex-boyfriends or is seen with other queer men, it will be treated every time as a revelation or just him hanging out with some curiously queer people rather than with any seriousness - he won't receive the hatred or misogyny that you'd expect say, a paris hilton to receive

bruce wayne can be vapid and pretty and stupid, but bc he's a man and not a woman, he'll be given more leeway, treated as more harmless, but also seen as even less of a threat than a ~conniving~ woman trying to get somebody else's fortune or whatever

and esp bc bruce is a white guy like... taking in orphans all the time, not irregularly there'll be shit in the media about him being toonaive and too charitable, and that's why he keeps helping all these ppl who don't deserve it - dick grayson particularly, who's probably frequently racially fetishised in a lot of the presses even before he comes out as bisexual himself, and then damian, esp when he's older, getting similar treatment

and that's just ppl going "oh this poor naive man is being led astray and made to think poc should have rights!", not even thinking abt more complex stuff like bruce being earnestly pro-migrant, pro-disability, pro-reparations, etc etc

but that's the whole value of the himbo persona, right? he's able to be earnestly left-wing and honestly quite radical, he can throw money into it, and bc he can act like he's just super easily swayed by diff causes etc, the creeps in gotham who are far more regressive won't necessarily put him down, bc he's not like his parents, who were traitors to their (white, evil, corrupt) way of life, he's just... you know... a little slow

so, imagine you're the joker.

as you do from time to time, you've decided you need a new pet project, something to entertain you. things have been getting so stale of recent, and as you do your usual mischief around the city - kill a few veterinarians while having your guys dressed as cats do some mischief on the gotham streets, you know, just a bit of kooky fun for international cat day - it's just not hitting like it should

and you just happen to see playboy millionaire bruce wayne out for lunch with some socialite, and normally you'd kidnap her, but you've always considered yourself an equal opportunities kidnapper, and you'd not want to be accused of choosing your victims based off of something as cliché as sexism - you're an upstanding, modern clown!

so you hold a gun to his head, and say, "listen, brucie, i bet you know the drill."

"valuables in the bag?" he asks, kind of even in the voice, almost sweet, although his eyes have widened and his lips have parted.

"kinda," you say with a giggle as batsy's rich girlfriend puts her hand over her mouth. "a little bit different today."

he is honestly pretty nice about the whole thing. like, weirdly patient, obviously scared, but for god's sake, the guy tips his waiter as you escort him out of the place, and when you ask very casually for him to pass you a different handgun out of the dashboard, his voice quavers, but he asks, "um, do you mean the actual gun, or the water pistol?" and smiles nervously back when you say the latter

point is, he's not shivering or shaking. he's not begging for his life or crying. he even stood between you and his girlfriend when you sized her up and thought about taking her too, and as you chatter on at him, he talks back

"kiddo," you say, "you do realise i might just kill you tonight?"

"why would you do that?" he asks.

"uh, because i'm a crazed psycho killer?"

"i think that's just an act you put on," he says, almost confidently, and he meets your gaze with those beautiful baby blues of his. "you're not as crazy as you look."

"huh," you say, narrowing your eyes and lunging closer - and what's funny about it is, he doesn't flinch. he stays right there, looking at you, and although his eyes widen and his mouth opens wider, it happens just a second too late for you to believe it. "that's real funny, brucie. seems to me that i'm not the only one between us who might be putting on act."

he puts on a smile, tries to look nervous again, more nervous, but it's too late - you've got the scent now. and when you let him go, he actually puts his hand on your wrist and says some crazy bullshit about how he knows people just haven't been kind enough to you, and he just hopes you'd call on him if you ever wanted things to change

people do that sometimes - normally weird religious types - but you get the impression that he means it, and you start doing your research. everything bruce wayne's ever donated to, ever spent money on.

you start noticing patterns.

you start planting bugs, spying on his dates, and you find that a lot of his girlfriends know what you're finding out - that bruce wayne isn't as stupid as he looks, that he's not just a pretty face, that there's a keen and calculating little business brain under all that handsome, that he puts on a show just to get his charity under the radar

you find him again, on some beach holiday. he lies and says, "oh. i was hoping i'd see you again."

and you say, "you know, brucie, i think you're hiding something."

he looks at you so, so fucking innocently. "i'm not hiding anything," he says.

"you sure?" you ask, slipping closer, grinning. "you sure there's no secret identity under that cleft chin and tight t-shirt?"

and there's the thing. here's the first clue you get that there's even more to this mook than there seems, even more than you've already dug down under, because for a second, just a second, his pretty eyes go flinty. they go hard.

it actually makes a shiver run down your spine, and there's not many in the city who could make your body do that little primal reaction - how long's it been since you have played a special game with batman, anyway?

it only lasts for a second, less than that, and then his eyes are just as soft as they pretend to be as he goes, in a more serious voice - slightly lower cadence than his himbo voice, slightly less airy, "it's not like you're the only one who knows," he murmurs. "this is a pretty unpleasant city, mr joker. sometimes it's easier to pretend you're just a handsome face."

"mr," you repeat, "oh, that's cute. that work on a lot of guys?"

"more than you'd think."

and you take a step closer, examining him carefully, trying to find that steel hardness again, but it's not there.

"say, brucie," you say, and you put your hand on his pecs, and now he shivers. "you ever been with a man?"

"uh huh," he says. "a few times."

"what about a clown?"

"a few times."

"... you screwing with me?"

and he grins at you, so fucking pretty, and you laugh too, because gee, the bastard got you, and that's just dandy, you'll let this one slide - but. but, but, but.

"you ever fuck nasty, then?" you ask. "you ever pin a man down while he's bleeding, you ever make him beg?"

"what?" he asks, just a second too late. "no."

because that's where your assumption goes with his guy. not that he's batman - that there's a sadistic streak under those layers, and obviously, if you're the joker, one of the biggest masochists on earth, of course you're going to want to tease it out

i would love a batjokes concept with Joker pursuing Bruce that really digs into the fact that Bruce Wayne is way more of a false identity than Batman is

and the Joker is smart, just like Selina and other partners to get close to Bruce - he'd REALISE that and be fascinated by it

my favourite variations of Bruce Wayne are never the garbage grimdark ones where he's Really Serious and Broody, bc like. that's ridiculous (and too hetero). batman is really serious and broody. bruce wayne needs to be the opposite of that.

now some stories go for a bruce wayne that's just incredibly earnest, who's genuine and kind and full of love - and by definition HAS to either be misrepresenting himself, or is so naive that he never really hardens himself to the people who lie to his face

my FAVOURITE, though, is when bruce wayne goes HARD on being a himbo. he's a bright-eyed grinning playboy, he's a billionaire, he's kind in the thoughtless, easy way of a man who's so incredibly rich he can throw money at whomever and whatever cause he pleases

this is the bruce wayne who's always at parties and is always having fun and drinking, who dates all these beautiful models and he does funny videos playing with puppies for gotham's equivalent of buzzfeed and he uses the cutest filters on insta, he does stupid dances on tiktok

and the thing is, it's ALREADY fun if. it's known among certain of bruce's compatriots that this is false. bruce has glazed eyes during the board meeting but he's listening to every word; he looks pretty, so people invite him to important shit, and then bruce CAN be disarming

because in a city like gotham, of COURSE bruce wayne would pretend he's a beautiful himbo with nothing going on between his ears - it's the perfect defence mechanism. none of the corrupt cunts at the mayor's office will hurt him, bc they don't think he's a threat

and so bruce can pretend to just stumble into valuable philanthropy, he can work on certain fundraisers and similar, and he won't be targeted the same way his parents were

and that alone would FASCINATE joker

like once he got close enough to realise, to grok this - like, he's brushed this pretty billionaire off as some hot eyecandy, but WAIT, there's a BRAIN behind those baby blues? that sexy carved jaw and cleft chin isn't even as interesting as what he can SAY?

and just like… bruce having to juggle the fact that suddenly joker is stalking him and making a big show of making notes about his behaviours like he's birdwatching, but joker ISN'T being violent, and he's actually occupied, so bruce just-- lets him

it's the perfect cover, right? bruce wayne is already an act where he pretends to be something he's not, so why would anyone ever think that there's ANOTHER secret identity under that?

i was just reading a Batjokes fic that isn't delving that much into this, but there's a moment where Joker picks up the picture of Bruce's parents in his office and makes some comments, and Bruce snaps and grabs him by the throat

and FUCK but like. can u imagine a moment like that in a story like this, where Bruce Wayne is a little scared of Joker, but genuinely trying to be nice - probably thinks he can rehabilitate him, the sweet, pretty idiot - and Joker is filtering out where he's acting

he's gorgeous and he CAN read, he CAN do maths, he CAN play people against each other

but then bruce snaps and suddenly joker is bent back against a wall or shoved to the ground or over a desk, and he's staring up at him, AWED

because, o ho ho, Brucie. this doesn't match in either column - should I be adding a third one to my table, huh? Brucie the playboy, Bruce Wayne the businessman, and… who's THIS?

and. fuck. what is Bruce supposed to say?

especially because a story like bruce's is EXPLICITLY and CONTINUOUSLY about masking and being closeted, like. joker could get very excited over what this reveals which is a bruce that's NOT soft: it's a bruce that's gay and KINKY, which is why he likes joker in the first place

[gale-gentlepenguin]

ML au Idea: Bonkers Bunnyx

-Bunnyx goes insane from her powers by a damaged miraculous. Creating alternate timelines and messing with things.

-Bunnyx realizing her rabbit holes can create parallel worlds. making more worlds for her entertainment.

-Some worlds have everything going right, near flawless thanks to Alix handling things.

-Some worlds have dystopian futures, where people suffer.

-Bunnyx curiosity getting the better of her and letting people’s lives fall apart. 

-Ladybug and Chat noir eventually figure out. what happen and try to stop her. Though bunnyx simply goes back in time and alters it to make them forget. She is the master of time, and nothing they do will change it.

[lustbile]

i just freakin love the incubus jaemin ask... imagine a virgin reader became his favorite fuck every single night and eventually corrupt her begging n drooling for his cock

incubus jaemin turning you into his perfect little fuck doll <3<3<3 like I can definitely see it. like him just coming to you for one night, to get a feeding in and just enjoy the way you crumble against him like no else has before. But there’s just something he cant stop craving about you, and he just cant stop himself from coming back to you, and he can see the look in your eyes when you look at him. he knows just from one night, you’re already so obsessed with him and ready to do anything you ask, and he sees so much potential from how insatiable you get after a few nights.

he just loves the way you whine and beg for him when he teases you, and the way youre so willing to kneel at his feet as he holds you by the neck, and even when he gets rough you still look at him like you love him so much. He just thinks you’re so fucking cute and he can’t help but want to see you break. the way your tears fall down your pretty face and the way he’s trained you to get wet just from a few touches. compared to his intense kind of aura he always carries, you’re just so soft and pliable and he can’t help but want to turn you into something just a little evil just for him. you’re just his own little bunny to play with and he loves every single second of it

[tinyidle]

Been surfing through your answered asks and I must say.. now I cannot stop imagining evil villainess Sunmi defeating and ultimately breaking Sailor Moon MiYeon.. although, I'll leave it to your imagination on how Sunmi would "break" MiYeon and make her bend to the dark side ;)

Come with Me to the Dark Side - CMY x LSM

ooh my first ever idol crossover au imagine. want to know a secret? i never watched sailor moon before. shocker, right? so i decided to watch episode one to see what im going for. and man, i found all i needed for this ask. hope you enjoy!

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WARNING: alternate universe (1992 tokyo anime), a bit of adventure, smut, tw: some manipulation, manhandling, some swearing/cursing, corruption k*nk, dom nickname "miss" and sub nicknames "girl", "angel", and "bunny" are used, a bit of struggling, miyeon is sort of a brat (noncompliant), small teasing, quick str*ptraining, r*d*ng, br*ast play and k*nk, sort of dark end (spoiler: the hero loses but escapes at the last second), dom!sunmi, sub(who thinks she's a switch at first)!miyeon, morga!sunmi, sailormoon!miyeon, ofc all fiction lol how could this ever be real

wc: 2.4k (my goodness that's a lot of words)

tags: @jisuahh

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★

sailor moon miyeon heard her friend cry out for help in the distance while she was at home getting ready for bed. miyeon said the magic costume transformation words 'moon prism power makeup', and with that, she, along with her cat friend and superhero-help luna, located where her friend was screaming at.

"i guess it's time to save her life, again," miyeon half-joked. her friend always seemed to be getting into paranormal trouble and always needed her saving. as sailor moon, it was rather easy for her to save the one human friend she has since her screams would be quite distinctive to pinpoint where she'd be at.

when miyeon went to go help her friend at the empty and abandoned jewelry store, she was met with the ugliest thing she's ever seen. the monstrous creature had her poor friend in a singular hand chokehold, and seemed to want to break her neck in the process. although she wanted to turn around and hide, miyeon called out to the monster.

"leave my friend alone!" miyeon said. the monster craned its wrinkly neck and dropped her friend to the ground while she desperately choked and gasped for air. the monster then charged at miyeon but she used her tiara (as requested by luna) to defeat the monster. or so she thought she did.

"are you okay?" miyeon asked her friend, rubbing her back to make sure she was breathing properly. the friend, who didn't realize it was miyeon who saved her nodded that she was in fact okay.

"thank you, sailor moon," she said, rubbing her chest and leveling her breathing even more.

"no problem. now go home and try to drink some tea and do a 5-minute stretch before you sleep." her friend nodded and hugged miyeon before walking away.

when miyeon was dusting herself off and was heading out the doors, she heard a low growl.

the monster.

"wait," the monster said. when miyeon turned around in nervousness she saw how the monster transformed into a beautiful woman with gorgeously turquoise blue hair. still, the heroine wasn't dumb enough to stay and quickly turned to the double doors.

"i said wait!" and the monster-turned-woman ran and grabbed miyeon's arm. "my name is morga, and i think you've got what it takes to get to be a part of my team."

miyeon couldn't believe what she just heard. she had just defeated a monster from causing another casualty in a peaceful shopping place and this woman- this thing- wanted her to be a part of her sinister team? "why would i ever want to be a part of evil? you almost killed an innocent citizen!" miyeon was very tired and frustrated at this point. she just wanted to go home and sleep since it was late at night, being past midnight.

"i can tell you're cranky because of lack of sleep." wait, how did she know that? can this beautiful monster read the minds of even the superheroes? "if i take you to my place to rest, then maybe we can talk about it, okay?" thinking she had nothing to lose, as well as being extremely lethargic at the moment, miyeon nodded. "what's your name, by the way? i know you're 'all good' and whatever, but i don't know your alias."

"sailor moon," miyeon said. "but you can call me miyeon, if you like."

"okay, sailor. as you know im morga, but you can call me sunmi since im in my human form right now. come, let's go to my place."

the ride to morga sunmi's place was rather, interesting to say the least. sunmi while flying kept looking at miyeon and the heroine had to keep reminding the villainess to keep her eyes on the sky location as to not miss her spot. they arrived at sunmi's beautiful mansion that looked way too spacious to live alone in. sunmi could also tell her guest was impressed by the way her face showed an expression of awe.

"you like it, huh? yup, 465 sq m worth ¥93 million all for me. i could really like someone to share it with." sunmi leaned toward the still stunned miyeon and brushed her hand over the younger's arm. she then leaned a bit downwards, stuck out her serpent-like tongue, and licked around the shell of the younger's ear, making her shiver."

this action made miyeon snap out of her trance, suddenly remembering how tired she was despite the burst of energy she got from viewing the extravagant house. "look, i like your house, and you're a beautiful woman," the shorter complimented.

"why thank you," sunmi took the compliments well.

"but," sunmi started to get a bit infuriated by this simple word, "i already have a home. i have a lovely cat, a lovely job, a lovely family, and i love being on the side of saving mankind in tokyo instead of causing terror. so please let me sleep somewhere and i can go home first thing tomorrow morning."

sunmi did not take this well, as miyeon got a little worried of the blue-haired woman's blood-red eyes. but those signs of anger and aggression lasted for a mere 5 seconds, as she calmed down and slowly began to speak. "you can still have all you want. all that im asking for is that you move in here with me, make some more family and friends, keep your cat, and make much more than what you do in your job of 'fighting crime'. come, join me to the dark side."

miyeon was keeping her guard, although the woman in front of her was slowly enticing her. "if you can make me comfortable here, then ill think about going to 'the dark side', as you call it." yawning and stretching her long arms, the heroine walked to a room to where sunmi motioned for her to sleep in.

unfortunately, miyeon couldn't sleep for long due to the adrenaline of sleeping in her enemy's home. the bed was oddly warm, and she woke up in a cold sweat. she needed a drink. she needed relief. as if on cue, sunmi came into the room her guest was lying on, dazed and confused and quite horny.

"what... are you doing..?" the younger asked the older while scanning the sight in front of her. sunmi had a purple lace lingerie set, in a dominitrix-like set. she also had a fan and a long and pretty strapon with the same color. her hip was jutted out to make her look sexier than she already was, and was it making miyeon long for this woman.

sunmi slowly walked up to the bed, purposefully swaying her hips. "i know you don't want to stay here, but ill make sure that after i finish making you comfortable, you'd never want to go home again." she could tell her guest wanted to leave, so she immediately sat down and ran her long multi-colored nails to down the shivering woman's leg, calming her a bit. "will you give me a chance?"

miyeon was very sweaty at this point, very much unwilling to stay. but at the same time, she wanted to see what sunmi could do with that strap of hers. she devised a plan. "i guess you can. but make it quick since im still not so sure."

"oh, bunny, by the time im done, you'll be sure alright." sunmi searched for any signs of true worry. she, in fact, could read minds, and saw that miyeon wanted her but was putting on a front. this will be fun. "are you perhaps a virgin?"

as much as she wanted to lie, she could tell sunmi saw right through her, so she spoke truthfully. "ive had a fair share of dick in my life."

"mmm, okay. how would you like me to take you?" sunmi could sense miyeon's heartbeat race as well as her growing wetness increase. she suddenly pushed the younger down and caged her with her slender arms, making miyeon gasp out of slight shock and pleasure.

"i.. would like you to do what you want to me, miss". ahh, sunmi realized she broke her sweet angel from a sailor warrior woman to her little baby for the picking. she passed her long fingers against miyeon's arm and felt her try to fight with the way she felt her turn.

"stay still so i can do what i want," she said. surprisingly miyeon hid in the back of her mind that she was planning to leave. miyeon tried to struggle against sunmi's hold while sunmi fought to keep the relentless girl still. "if you keep moving ill punish you."

miyeon, not giving up without a fight, tried to coax the woman above her. "miss, let me go so i can please you too-"

"i know your antics, angel." sunmi interrupted. miyeon realized she was trapped. she couldn't go away. soon she couldn't struggle anymore because she felt rope being tied behind her back. "now ill have no choice but to punish you." sunmi felt her guest's heart race once more, making her smile her sinister smile.

miyeon wanted so hard to cry, but all the water that could have been used for tears was used in sweat, and she felt helpless as the only other fluid that was used to express her emotions was her arousal, and sunmi knew that pretty well. sunmi drew her nail along the outline of miyeon's beautiful breast, and, in one swift motion, tore the heroine's dress in half, exposing the woman's flushed body.

"ill take my time with you, got that?" not wanting to speak in fear of saying what she wanted to, miyeon nodded to her acquaintance-turned-captor. sunmi smirked. "good girl," she said. "now, let me make you comfortable."

sunmi took her time kissing and licking miyeon jaw and neck, leaving ant-like bites on the younger's smooth skin. the heroine shuffled throughout the whole thing, but the more she struggled, the harsher sunmi sucked, causing miyeon to gasp in pleasurable pain. going down to miyeon's beautiful breasts, she continued her assaults, but more gentle this time as to not cause miyeon actual pain. she wanted to coax the girl to stay, not traumatize her and convince her to leave.

"please-" miyeon moaned. she couldn't take it anymore. she relaxed her muscles and finally let her guard down. she wanted morga. she wanted sunmi. "please let me cum."

sunmi's ministrations to the younger's chest stopped. "oh? so you finally decided to do as i say?" miyeon nodded and pleaded again. sunmi, feeling rather cocky about this, decided to have her way. "alright. but just know that if you struggle, you get punished."

running her long, manicured fingers all over the heroine's boobs and stomach, sunmi's hands immediately trailed to miyeon's clit. miyeon, beyond her own will, moaned and keened to her captor's touch. smirking, sunmi used her hand to rub circles around the area.

"i knew you would break for me sooner or later, bunny." after some rubbing, sunmi moved to where miyeon's legs were, opened them even more, and stuck her pointer finger to feel how wet the younger was. she was very wet. "i can't wait anymore, angel. ill let you ride me right now."

sunmi saw her guest shake her head, but she felt her cunt tell a different story. laying down, she pulled miyeon to her lap and guided her purple dick to her cavern. "go ahead," sunmi encouraged. "sit down and get comfortable."

whimpering but obviously needy, miyeon lifted herself up a little bit and rubbed the toy against her wet hole, until slowly sitting down on it. she gasped and let out a rather high-pitched moan. "mommy. it feels s-so..."

"i know, my precious girl. adjust to it so that i fuck you." miyeon obeyed and slowly rocked back and forth on the strap around sunmi. when miyeon felt loose enough, she started to bounce slowly until she got into a good enough rhythm, her moans rather quiet. sunmi held her waist the entire time.

soon enough sunmi got bored and put miyeon's hands to her shoulders while she gripped onto the younger's hips, sometimes going lower to squeeze her butt. "im going to fuck you harder so that mommy can cum with you, okay?"

miyeon nodded and started to speak. "okay- oh FUCK." she couldn't finish her sentence before sunmi began to thrust inside of her at a brutally fast pace. miyeon fell down to sunmi's chest while sunmi kept pounding into the heroine. "can i suck on your breasts, mommy? please, to help me cum? god, i want to cum,i can't take it anymore."

sunmi loved the begging. "shit- go ahead, bunny." sunmi let one of her hands that was on miyeon's hip go to her own chest and pulled her boobs out. miyeon immediately latched her hot and awaiting mouth onto sunmi's breast and sucked and licked around and on the nipple.

she let go to call out, "im cumming mommy. FUCK!" she came so hard that the toy slipped out of her cunt from the amount of wetness. sunmi, being extremely turned on by what happened, came as well. she then took the same hand she used to rub miyeon to overstimulate her. "mommy, please! i can't!" miyeon jerked at sunmi's touch.

"you can do it, angel." sunmi said. after a few more rub and a couple of finger fucks, miyeon again came hard. she was spent, and sunmi saw that in her face and read it in her blank mind. "you did well, my precious girl."

she laid her down on the nearby chair and quickly changed the sheets to lay her back on the bed. meanwhile, when miyeon caught her breath, she conjured up a plan to leave and made it seem like she had no thoughts. sunmi left the room while miyeon was sleeping.

when the morning hit, sunmi went to the room to check on her guest. "hello, angel. are thinking about joining the dark side?" when she pulled the cover down from the bed and saw no sailor moon nor miyeon, her eyes glowed a dark red. "the bitch!" she fumed out.

she was about to track the heroine down, but then she remembered: she's a hero. with sunmi being a villain, she'll one day see her again. with her always doing evil, she'll see her again soon. but the next time she tries to recruit her again,

she won't be alone.

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sorry this took so long. school and other stuff (such as lack of motivation) got in the way. but yeah, hope you enjoyed this!

[wuxiaphoenix]

Worldbuilding: White Gold

If you want conflict in your story, you don’t need to invent political plots or conspiracies. You just need to look for the one thing in your setting everyone needs, and the Evil Plots will appear. Consider the case of salt.

The history of human civilization is, to a great extent, the history of salt. Ice makes it in there too, especially once we worked out powered ways to refrigerate and freeze food, but mostly salt.

Three main reasons for this. First, salt is one of the best, simplest, non-temperature-dependent ways to preserve food. If you can’t put food by and build up a surplus, you can’t get past bare survival, much less build villages and cultures that write down their rituals, recipes, and raunchy jokes.

Second, plain old ordinary salt is useful for all kinds of chemical reactions. Tanning, dyeing, soap-making, mining and alloys - all of these use salt. Modern industry uses most of the salt produced worldwide. Look up organic chemistry if you want the gritty details, that stuff’s scary.

Third, humans need salt in their diet. It may be hard to imagine in grocery stores full of processed food and salty snacks, but for most of history, if you didn’t live right on the seashore, getting enough salt to stay healthy could be an uphill battle.

And here’s where some of the annoying aspects of civilization kick in. Specifically, governments hungry for Ever More Tax Money. Since everyone needs salt, governments throughout history have concluded that by taxing and controlling salt, they get everyone to pay taxes. Fair, right?

...I will pause here to let readers stop laughing hysterically, and/or retrieve their rolled eyes from under the sofa where they’re picking up dust bunnies.

Yeah. Not so much. Historically the people who most need to use salt to store food as a hedge against disaster are those too poor to afford getting fresh food when they want it. If you’re rich you can have fresh meat slaughtered, fresh fish hauled in water-baskets inland, fresh cherries air-mailed by pigeon post for a banquet.

(True story. A guy in ancient Persia proving a point about how fast he could get news across the Empire. Enemies took the hint.)

Rich people don’t have to spend as much money on salt. But if you sell salt, to people who have to have it? You can make out like a bandit.

(According to Everyday Life in Joseon-era Korea, this was the actual historical cause of many people turning bandit. They couldn’t afford enough salt to stay legal and survive.)

It runs through history like clockwork. Governments want money, they take over the production of salt, they farm out the actual work to people who can bribe their way into running it, the quality goes down, the price goes up, people make and smuggle it illegally... and there’s never enough. If you want some more recent history, look at British India. The government made it illegal for native Indians to make their own salt. This was part of what Gandhi used to crack them. (There were plenty of other things wrong, but salt was the one that affected your average householder trying to get by. Messy.)

If your story is set any time prior to modern day, salt is an important background detail. Nations go to war for salt. Beggars steal for it. People travel to find it, mine it, boil it from brine, and so much more. This Wikipedia article on salt in Chinese history lays out a lot of historical shenanigans, and if your library lets you borrow Mark Kurlansky’s Salt: A World History, even better. This is history with ordinary people attached, meaning excellent story fodder.

But your story doesn’t have to use salt for this. Just anything that a lot of people need, and will pay for. If you want your characters going up against villains like corrupt government officials or greedy merchants - here’s a place to start looking!

[thefanficmonster]

Know No Better

Streamer Gang & Reader (Gender Neutral)

Warnings: Swearing

Genre: Platonic Fluff, HUMOR, Crack, RPF (Real Person Fic)

Summary: A game of Among Us with this gang can never go without a halt for some spit-fire accusations and bickering, but throw their mutual friend Y/N in the mix and the chaos flares up twice as intensely.

Requested by my dear friend @thelittleplantlover  Hi darling! Thank you so much for being such a loyal reader and never shying away from giving me your full honest feedback. You are an amazing person, a lovely friend and a mutual I’m glad I gained on my Tumblr journey. Love you with all my heart, Vy 💕

“Yo, sorry I’m....late“ Charlie’s eyebrow raises as soon as he enters the Discord call, almost half an hour after the scheduled time due to difficulties with his wi-fi connection. However, neither his presence nor his apology are acknowledged, seeing as how he wasn’t even heard over all the shouting going on in the call. “Um, what’s going on here?“ He asks no one in particular, aware that he probably won’t get an answer. 

Surprisingly, though, someone does answer him - Sykkuno. “Hey Charlie, welcome. You missed a whole round and a whole debacle between...” The yelling voices give a clear idea of who this debacle is happening between: Rae, Corpse and Y/N. “Yeah, you can probably tell between who.”

“Yo, is that Y/N? Dude, I haven’t heard from you in so long where’ve you been?“ Charlie exclaims, eyebrows raising in delighted surprise, “What are you arguing about? Imma argue with you.“

“You don’t even know what we’re arguing about!“ Rae snaps, scaring the ever-loving daylight out of the newcomer that all but shrinks a bit in his seat, “These are matters the three of us have to deal with!“

You see, Charlie’s not one to press his luck - definitely not when the sweetheart Rae lashes out like that, reminding him that the impossible can be possible if you’re a strong enough believer - but right now, seeing as how he isn’t playing yet, he’s thirsty for some amusement even if it comes with the price of being verbally beat and battered by the currently bickering trio.

“God bless the day you three actually manage to deal with something by yourselves.“ He snickers, half-hoping Rae wouldn’t hear him. Actually, it’s more one third hoping she wouldn’t the other two suggesting otherwise. Adding gasoline to the fire - it’s basically in his resume at this point.

The reply he receives is not even oriented around his statement and it doesn’t come from Rae - whether that be a blessing or a curse - but rather from Y/N. “Charlie, help! Corpse and I are being wrongfully accused over here!“

“There’s nothing wrong about my accusations! I heard you bribing Corpse into vouching for you, you impostor!“ Rae spits out the word as though this argument is a real deal and not just them throwing a collective tantrum as they usually tend to do.

“He asked me for immunity in exchange for keeping his mouth shut! I never offered it to him!“ Y/N argues back, “Not my fault he’s a corrupt crewmate!“

“You were about to accept the offer though! Who does that?!“ Rae’s not giving up her ground either.

“Anyone! All of you know you would’ve accepted the offer had you been the one to be proposed it!“ Y/N whines, reminding themself and everyone else that they are not a very argumentative or confrontational. The only time they can be caught butting heads with people is as a joke, among this very group of people and over something as small as a bribery in Among Us. “And why is no one going off at Corpse for this? Why am I the villain here? Um, hello?! I’m an impostor, I’m supposed to be evil. One of your own betrayed you, and I’M your biggest problem?!”

“I’d like it if you didn’t get me involved...“ Corpse inquires shyly, as though fearing he too is in for an outburst from Rae if he dares oppose hers and Y/N’s statements.

Unfortunately for him, he’s attacked by their joined forces with a: “YOU STARTED THIS!” Shouted at him in unison. Just like Charlie, he too shrinks in his seat.

“Hey Toast.“ Charlie nudges one of his friends, one he hasn’t heard from for the entirety of his short time in the Discord call, “You there?“

“Sup man?“ Toast answers, unmuting his mic for the first time after approximately ten minutes of silence on his end due to this heated debate going on.

“Ten bucks says this goes on for another ten minutes.“ Charlie says nonchalantly, already planning the cheap dinner he’s gonna order with those ten bucks.

“Nah man, fifteen for fifteen minutes. These two have no chill.“ Toast says, taking a sip of his soda.

“You’re both wrong.“ Sykkuno interferes, “I’m putting in twenty for twenty and I’m starting a timer.“

“WHAT?!“

The three men sit there paralyzed now that the two sides of the battlefield have temporarily united once again to end them. Lord knows when Y/N and Rae unite, nothing good is in store for those who they’re up against.

“N-nothing...I was just announcing that...“ Charlie starts off, strategically reaching for the plug for his router, “...my wi-fi’s gonna disconnect in three, two...“

“DON’T YOU DARE!“

And WHOOP he’s gone. And so are Toast, Sykkuno and Corpse.

“I really can’t believe them sometimes.“ Rae grumbles under her breath finding the miserable number of remaining players once again gathered in the cafeteria after no one got voted out despite everyone knowing it’s Y/N.

“And here I thought Charlie would back me up.“ Y/N sighs disappointedly, shooting a brief look at their chat, “Hell if I ever trust him again.“

“Look at the bright side though!“ their friend, moments ago opponent, hurries to comfort them as though their argument never happened. Technically, it really didn’t. “He’s at least not gonna get those ten bucks he sounded so confident in getting.“

Knowing Charlie, losing a bet will most likely leave him feeling torn, but hey, much to his comfort, he was the closest in guessing the duration of the arguing. You win some and you lose some, this time he’s done neither. But he will get an earful from Y/N at the first given chance they get, which he’s grown used to over the years, being the one knowing them the longest. What he’s still trying to get used to is how much they’ve clicked with his friend group. Never did he imagine his socially awkward and shy friend would steal all his friends and literally wrap them around their little finger. Truth be told, amazement aside, he’s quite proud of them for it.

Yes, of course he’s gonna try bringing this up when they open fire on him as an attempt to calm them down. Yes, he knows it probably won’t work. But also: yes, he knows what will. Cause that’s what best friends do - they know. However, they should also know better than to bet on their friends.

 But come on, it’s Charlie and Y/N we’re talking about over here - neither of them know any better. Hell, no one in this gang knows better. That’s what makes them so uniquely and wonderfully chaotic. 

@maat-the-prescriptive  @simonsbluee  @save-the-sky  @itsminniekat  @hacker-ghost  @bi-andready-tocry  @imtiredaffff  @jazzkaurtheglorious  @hereforbeebo  @fandomgirl17  @chrysanthykios  @maehemscorpyus  @loraleiix  @letsloveimagines  @annshit  @i-cant-choose-a-username-help  @enigmaticmaze  @divine-artemis  @waterlilypat  @idontknowwhatthisisfam  @evi-ka  @classyandfabulous00  @redperson58  @lilysdaydreams @solowheein  @mythicalamphitrite  @axen-gers  @luckygirl144  @nj01  @buddyemily   @the-albino-lioness  @stardream14  @gdhdkfnn  @nomadicgypsyy  @preciousskye  @fluffysuicideunicornsworld  @o-kaelin  @manacharlotte  @awkward-youtube-trash  @lolalee24  @bonky-beerns  @meme-lord-and-savior-sebastian  @strawbrinkofdeath  @teenloves  @tams0527  @browneyespinkhair  @starstruckllamapuppy  @daisychains012  @y0ulooked  @tinytacosuitcaseflap @supernatural-is-my-only-life  @jula-pauline  @melodykitty  @just-that-bi-girl  @crazybutconfidentaf  @lowellshade @alphakees  @bellero  @weallneednamjesus  @starryhanji  @boiled-onionrings  @husherstan  @fockingwhore  @melaningoddessthings  @prettypastelpetals  @haleypearce  @godwhyamiawkward  @y-napotat  @daisychainyoonmin  @little-miss-rebel3  @free-wheelin-bi-sexual  @redmoon261 @darkacademic2  @wiseflamingoqueen  @into-the-end  @namikhai-i  @nastiablr  @thelittleplantlover  @mirktuan  @dont-hyuck @jjk-bunny  @vintagegothlover  @easygoingtheatre  @itsrandombooklover  @miiaivi  @emmybaybee  @befourgolden  @jjk-is-my-shit  @eternalteaaars  @spacebadgerx  @princesslunalight  @acequinn14  @samm48  @misselsbells06 @simp-lykawa  @fo-love  @marishimomura-blog  @therealglenncoco  @cinnamonbun332  @killtherandomness  @sanshinexxxsan  @fee-btheweeb  @press-lay  @cathleenpotgieter16  @jazzydoesstuff  @moonlxghtbay  @forestrain2000  @hyunjinhugs  @blood-of-fandoms  @lovellylies  @ukiyolixx  @simpforhpcharacters  @chrisdylan17  @parkerjisung  @pedernille  @theodonyous  @wineandionysus  @malfoystilinskii05  @morbid-x  @coryisagee  @jessewa26  @scoobydooluver97 @mindintheskies365  @raeanneinwonderland  @indecisive-empanada  @gluttonypalace  @loriane2503  @btsiguess-kpop  @khaoticbunny  @lucidlycactus  @smiithys  @rottenroyalebooks  @kpopgirlbtssvt  @fangirl-tc27  @fr0z3n-1  @notmesimpingfortechno  @shotarosleftpinky  @kunoi-chan  @idk-whats-wrong-with-me  @yikeroonie  @goldenstarofthunderclan  @poetry-and-tea  @ama-do-writing-stuff  @wishbonewolf  @emeraldxhope  @t0xick1tty  @kusuinko  @speakyourselfloveyourself  @sophia902103  @lo-manburg  @classsykittykat  @dmgama  @depressedpuppythatneedscoffee  @btsiguess-kpop  @akaashi-baby  @gun-jong-simp  @geschichtenfee  @yerapotato-wp  @browneyedgirl365  @thysagclub  @sparklycloudnight  @helloatomicshadow  @queentorresstuff @vtte @val-gal  @lucy-bunny17  @aaliyahh0  @katluckybear  @boyleanti  @straybids  @franchesca-791  @cosmicstorm19  @averyisbackinthetrashcan  @aomi-nabi  @xlanawriter  @allensimpsforcorpse

[rosethornewrites]

Fic: 手下留情

Relationship: Lán Zhàn | Lán Wàngjī/Wèi Yīng | Wèi Wúxiàn

Characters: Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji, Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian

Additional Tags: Introspection, Grief/Mourning, Gossip, Anger, Getting Together, Conversations, Chief Cultivator Lán Zhàn | Lán Wàngjī, Lán Huàn | Lán Xīchén in Seclusion, Cultivation Sect Politics

Summary: Wei Wuxian had been back in the Cloud Recesses a week when he first heard the gossip. He was only somewhat surprised—if any rule was going to be broken, that one would be first anywhere. The cultivation world loved gossip, and even if the Lan sect was founded by a monk, his descendants weren’t all ascetics by any definition despite their airs.

Notes: The title is an idiom that often means “do not judge me too harshly.” Initially I imagined this fic would be Lan Xichen-centric from Wei Wuxian’s perspective, but it went in a different direction. I’m not unhappy with it. 

AO3 link

-----------

Wei Wuxian had been back in the Cloud Recesses a week when he first heard the gossip. 

He was only somewhat surprised—if any rule was going to be broken, that one would be first anywhere. The cultivation world loved gossip, and even if the Lan sect was founded by a monk, his descendants weren’t all ascetics by any definition despite their airs. 

The surprise was in the content: that Zewu-Jun’s seclusion was bitterly scorned by the Lan elders and Lan Qiren in particular, that his mourning was seen as distasteful.

In particular, that it had been compared to Lan Zhan’s mourning of him, something still seen as distasteful. 

He wanted to rail at all of them for their audacity but knew it would change nothing. 

It had taken him most of the afternoon, several hours amongst the bunnies, to calm down. 

He still wasn’t calm when Lan Zhan found him, and his zhiji could see right through his smile, his gaze immediately questioning the reason for his upset. 

“Ah, Lan Zhan. I just didn’t know they disdained your right to grieve,” he finally said, letting the smile fall away when it was clearly ineffective. 

Tension immediately made Lan Zhan’s stance almost taut, like a bow. 

Wei Wuxian didn’t know what to say, but that had never stopped him before. Rambling allowed him to make his point more often than not. 

“Would they decry Lan An for returning to the temple?” he mused. “If it happened today, would they quote that rule, ‘Do not grieve in excess,’ like it has any meaning at all? He became a monk the rest of his life, after all.”

He watched as Lan Zhan carefully folded himself to sit nearby amongst the bunnies, but barely paused. 

“Honestly, who decides what ‘excess’ is? Who gets the right to arbitrarily decide someone else’s grieving is enough? Someone whose only claim to fame is living longer? It’s mind-boggling, Lan Zhan.”

Lan Zhan made no reply, except to manifest his guqin and begin playing ‘Clarity’—the real one, not the twisted one Wei Wuxian had seen in Chifeng-Zun’s memories during ‘Empathy’—as though it could help settle his turmoil. 

He kind of hated that it worked. 

Wei Wuxian let the music fill the air, taking the place of his words for a few minutes, letting it settle him because he knew it would please Lan Zhan. 

“They say you grieved over a decade for a heretic, for someone unworthy of mourning, a scourge whose death was a relief, wearing only white all that time, and that Zewu-Jun does the same.”

It was nothing he hadn’t heard before about himself. That it was used to disparage Lan Zhan he could not abide. That the same description was applied to Jin Guangyao, a villain of the cultivation world’s own creation, their biases and hideous pride twisted into a creature whose instincts at self-preservation had been learned through trauma…

The cultivation world believed the death of Meng Yao (as they had oft started to refer to him publicly, as though the corruption of the Jin hadn’t honed him) had excised the evil from themselves, when the truth was that he had just been the visible tumor—one they’d grown themselves. 

Wei Wuxian didn’t know if Lan Xichen was mourning Jin Guangyao, Nie Mingjue all over again, or both. Or maybe he could see the infection spread across the cultivation world and grieved for that. 

He’d long had time to come to terms with it, himself. It wasn’t that he saw himself in Meng Yao or Xue Yang, not that he understood their actions. But he understood how they had been created. He’d had his whole death to come to terms with it, even if he didn’t remember it, and a year besides. 

His plan initially upon his return had been to resolve the curse and then leave it all behind. 

But ultimately he couldn’t leave Lan Zhan. 

A discordant note interrupted his zhiji’s playing, rippling through the air with a shiver. It resonated in the air, followed by silence. 

“It is true,” Lan Zhan said into that silence. “What they say.”

Wei Wuxian had left many things unsaid between them, a knot of tension between them that neither of them had time to unravel before he’d set off with Little Apple, parting atop a foothill. 

Lan Zhan had agreed to be Chief Cultivator, and the Yiling Patriarch’s presence would detract from the job he had to do. If anyone stood a chance of saving the cultivation world from itself, it was him. 

And Wei Wuxian… He wasn’t quite sure the cultivation world could be saved, or that it really deserved to be. So he had set off to be among the common people, to see the light among them that cultivators were supposed to protect and nurture. 

He hadn’t had the energy to try to untangle the knot. Not then. 

“All those years?” he asked. 

He wasn’t able to keep his voice from breaking at the idea of Lan Zhan waking up every day to that magnitude of grief. If it had been Lan Zhan who had died, he isn’t sure he could have survived it. 

After all, he hadn’t survived his grief over Jiang Yanli’s death. 

“I had A-Yuan,” Lan Zhan said, his voice soft. “And if I worked to make the world better, make it brighter…”

Wei Wuxian could hear the sentiment unspoken. That maybe he would come back. And it makes his initial thoughts upon his resurrection all the more painful to remember, that he wished to leave his zhiji in his grief, even unknowing. 

“I’m sorry,” he murmured.

“Between us—”

“I know. But still.”

Lan Zhan turned to him, and Wei Wuxian felt pierced by his gaze.

“I have never blamed you.”

“I know,” he said again. 

He felt a bit like they were on a precipice, one he wasn’t sure he was ready to go over. Maybe it was inevitable, but right now…

“You had the right to grieve. Your brother has the right to grieve. Fuck them for criticizing either of you for it.”

Lan Zhan inclined his head in agreement. For a while they sat quietly, the bunnies hopping around them contentedly. 

“You know, you’re acting sect leader. The last acting sect leader added like a thousand rules because he was pissed at one person,” Wei Wuxian said casually. “One defining excess wouldn’t be out of line, would it?”

A huff of quiet laughter told him his point had been made. 

The gentle sound of the guqin rose again, this time the song Wei Wuxian still didn’t know the title to, an invitation to ask. 

He took it, and the knot unraveled with a single word. 

The Cloud Recesses would wake to two new rules engraved in the wall, one flawlessly carved to replace the one about not speaking to Wei Wuxian.

Do not be petty. 

Do not criticize the emotions of others.

It would not stop the gossip, but despite the rage of the elders in general and Lan Qiren in particular, no fault could be found with these particular additions, aside from an insistence that the rules were themselves somehow petty. 

Honestly, the blindness of old men…

They were less happy with Lan Zhan’s announcement that he was courting the Yiling Patriarch, either, which took the focus off the new rules and Zewu-Jun rather nicely. 

Despite Lan Xichen’s self-imposed seclusion, Wei Wuxian made it a point to sit outside his door daily thereafter and tell him about one of the people he had met on his journey, each one having helped restore his faith that there was good in the world. 

He tried not to be excessively pleased with himself when Zewu-Jun eventually opened the door. 

[rametarin]

For real tho.

I learned so much about how the radfem lines of, “women only like nasty evilbad kink stuff when their wholesome minds are perverted by evil men” was a load of bunk by just being able to have access to places and context where such was false.

In good faith, I gave the benefit of the doubt. When you’re a young man you just learn to accept some of that stuff at face value because occasionally girls will latch onto it and through some ways demand you speak up about it and perform good think to know if they should tell other girls you’re a nasty disgusting misogynist or you’re ‘aware.’ So, you learned to adapt to whatever dumb bullshit Radfem Rachel said and nod along to affirm the truth of the truism. 

Sometimes it sounds logical enough to be true, sometimes you give it the benefit of the doubt, sometimes you at least put on a face to defend it despite knowing it’s not true because you don’t want to be alienated. And consider it true until proven otherwise.

RP chat and access to the written smut section of the internet in fandom proved to me, beyond all shadow of a doubt, women were not innocent flowers until abused and dirtied by the evils of men. Women themselves, in their own words, in conversations directly TO me, my own age group peers and women up to age 50, provided age demographics and numbers to prove that was wrong.

It gave me the confidence to wholly reject the idea and speak from a place of confidence, not from what I imagined was true (as opposed to the truisms from radfems speaking confidently that BDSM only exists because men are pigs and women will warp themselves to please them) or wanted to be true, but was anecdotal evidence, if not objective proof.

And then I stopped to think about how the layman might argue if they WEREN’T plugged into nerd culture, even tangentially. They’d have to be in publishing, or one of the people that, through one circumstance or another, learned of it via a sister or female cousin’s ‘in’ to smut literature fandom.

Because that shit was a hidden, secret fandom before it became common knowledge via access to the dark, obscure corners of the internet and forums. And one didn’t just creep into the dark corners of literature fandom in person. If you’re rural, it was unlikely any such local society would or could exist for that at all.

So I consider myself lucky to have had the opportunity to see, firsthand, that no, women are not kinkless angels corrupted into deviant sexuality just to impress men. There’s no omitting that from my knowledge, now. And whenever I see some bitch asserting that male sexuality poisons fandom because girls are just these adorable wholesome cuddle bunnies, I have a lifetime of examples of girls enthusiastically and proactively manifesting kink and interests on their own.

And I’m not going to be quiet about it and let some with an agenda kick the proof under a rug or go unspoken to pull the wool over the unexposed 18-20+ laymans eyes. I’m going to point this out and I’m going to underline the TREASURE TROVE of kinky shit women have GLOWINGLY contributed to since AT LEAST the 1960s and VERY PROBABLY since forever, just more discretely to spare their reputations.

[frightfurtabby]

HimiKiyo Week 2021: Day 1- Creeping Darkness

//HimiKiyo Week 2021 is finally here! Took a little bit tonight to finalize edits and come up with a title. Look forward to more each day for the next week~

I’m proud, this is one of my longest singlechapter  fics ever if not the longest

Links to other Platforms:

Amino: https://aminoapps.com/c/danganronpa/page/blog/himikiyo-week-2021-day-1/5B58_R2MsVulaQEnXkXVBzYlGjd3mXnP3Z

AO3: https://archiveofourown.org/works/34119466

The seaside village Himiko moved out to was more out of the way  than the usual cities and suburbs. Apparently, her mentor couldn’t come. It was going to be a pain being out in that little house all alone. Who knows, maybe he’d sent another student of his the same kind of message?

To her disappointment there wasn’t anyone else, still not a single other apprentice known to her. She decided that after not doing anything yesterday but unpacking and eating and sleeping she would go over to the shrine marked on the local map. If nothing else she could pray for good luck before really getting down to working. 

The course of this assignment and her whole life changed the moment she saw that strange figure at the offerings box while nobody else was around. They wore a long green kimono with beautiful dark hair almost matching that outfit in length. They looked to be glowing ethereally, with pale white skin akin to a porcelain doll. 

Their hand was in the offerings box. At first she assumed they must be giving their own prayers and as such stayed back so as to not intrude. She noticed then that the figure was taking something *out* of the offerings box and that’s when she wondered if they were a thief. 

“Fret not, these offerings are for me, dear human.” a voice came to her, seeming at first separate from the figure still several feet ahead. Someone addressing a person as “human” and saying it was their offering… She’d never seen a kami before, but that was the sole explanation that made everything make sense about them.

“Then you’re a kami?” she asked, quirking her eyebrow. 

“That I am, I am called Shinguji. This family name refers to residing here, at the True Temple. My given name Korekiyo means just and pure”

“I-it’s a beautiful…” The mage was torn in half between the word ‘name’ and the word ‘place.’ The brook not far behind the pair was babbling audibly and birds were chirping. The water went past the trees and out to the river, which fed it almost directly into the ocean. 

Even if something wicked this way was coming there was nothing yet to taint the natural beauty. She wasn’t sure if it would even be able to with a keeper this pretty.

“A beautiful what?” The spirit gently prodded her with the question. They had noticed her biting her lip in uncertainty.

“Name, your name is pretty. Uhh, and I’m…” she was too flustered to easily find any of the necessary words. 

“You are Yumeno Himiko.”

“So you knew that already?” It was not that surprising in hindsight, but in that moment she was caught off guard, focusing on trying not to be so tense in their presence like she had been up to that point. She worried she was giving off the wrong message.

“I intuited it, but I don’t blame you for being surprised. Most humans think of us Kami as mythology, but I’ve known these old figures, and dealt with many creatures as my neighbors in my centuries of life.”

“In that case then are you able to intuit why I’m here?” The mage tried hard not to sound too much like a schoolgirl talking to her popular crush. 

“I could. It would be easier if you told me. Whatever it is, you seem particularly stressed out by it.” They tilted their head slightly, a very human gesture, and it was clear they were reading deeper. Either humans had gotten it from the ancient gods or vice-versa. One of those things nobody would ever be able to remember the origin of.

It was better to answer the question than get too off track wondering about that. 

“Well, my master who is a magician told me there was something that was going to go wrong here. He gave me the mission to stop it.”

It was Kiyo’s turn to be concerned. 

“Well, I have been given whispers that a nasty yokai is approaching this land. It comes from the far north and wishes to sap power for itself. Very few claiming to be survivors of this have shown up, and we’re all so isolated these days...”

That was a bad sign. 

“Is it because of us?” If her master had worried so much about it then there was no doubt in her mind that this thing would be going after humans if it hadn’t already started.

“Not all of you, but some who are greedy have broken many natural connections and scattered the so-called mythical creatures and spirits away. In a way it’s beautiful, the circle of life even. Although, it is believed perhaps negative energy has attracted this beast from its home and onto its rampaging path.”

A realization hit her. In her research she found that even things that you would not expect to have a soul or a consciousness did at least have the same kind of natural energy as things that did. So objects and anything/everything else with a soul would be susceptible to producing negative energy. 

“So it's a cycle of things feeding into it.”

“Yes. I fear if it gets to a certain point it’ll have enough momentum that there will be no stopping it. So you should think about what you will do to face the possibility.”

Something about those words felt familiar. Even though it was a serious topic, Himiko was comforted. 

“And you need someone like me to stand a chance?”

“The more the merrier, of course. There are things even I may have missed and for that you can be an extra set of eyes and ears. We’re going to train and prepare.”

The rest of that afternoon was spent, at first guided by Kiyo and by the end on her own, getting more used to the area and learning some specific landmarks. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Starting the following day, Himiko started up a routine to come back every day, which would last for several months. Each day she learned new things about the old times that had only ever been guessed about from artifacts. She learned that even Kami had a cutoff point in memory, even if it did happen to be thousands of years stronger than mortals. The only truly omnipotent beings were those that had created earth eons ago, who were as elusive as ever. 

She also trained. Oh, how wonderful it was to train again. And with a more formidable opponent than most people  she would ever encounter normally. After each session she was told more about the species of yokai, and which were more likely to be dangerous foes that needed preparation for.

They would pray and make wishes for having strength and safety at the lucky rock on the path along the brooks. Kiyo allowed Himiko to take and keep a bit of power from it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It happened when she thought it was going to be just another day of what they had been doing. It was not. 

There was something off in the air. And it wasn’t just the dead trees, those were normal for winter. What wasn’t normal was the small patches of rot in them already, the rot had even spread to the grass and other plants on the ground. There was a trail of it and it reeked of a nasty yokai. A being only interested in death and destruction. 

Even worse was that Kiyo was nowhere to be found. They had made a game plan about that, Himiko was to check somewhere inside the shrine in order to find clues. Inside the prayer chamber proper it was a mess just like it would be in the case of any other type of break in. The rot hadn't set in because the room was blessed and was better able to resist, but there was a distinct trail of slime that showed its movement and the room.

She could picture Kiyo weaving around it and dodging attacks to have a chance to hit back at it. The fight had torn up the screens and the ancient art it depicted, and even punctured holes in the inner walls and flooring. An extra band of beads like one Kiyo would often wear was left behind. The signal was received.

Something wasn’t right, however. A presence that was too strong to be explained by the evil residue. It seemed like what they were working against had minions left behind, for the exact reason that someone like her was in the area and had to be stopped. The question was how many were there?

Five of them came up from either the ground or one of the holes puncturing the walls, one right before her and four circling around, forming seemingly out of the shadows and the goo. They quickly solidified into dark shapes that were much like werewolves, though she recognized among them different animal traits expressed. One even had bunny-esque lop ears. 

Himiko took out her wand and started muttering some spells under her breath, making a broad sweeping motion to keep all at bay. The one closest was pushed back and stumbled in surprise. Trying to charge her led to an acrobatic maneuver: it leapt over onto its back and she whipped out a stage magician-like string of handkerchiefs and pulled it up to start choking the beast out.

They surprisingly weren’t as vicious as she’d imagined from how each of them had shown up. It couldn’t do any of its special moves. Unfortunately, its friends could, and they did. They rushed and she let go for a moment, tripping up one and using its momentum in a way it crashed into the first one before it could recover.  

Swinging off it allowed her to jump up and kick a third before lashing a whip of electricity from her wand, yanking the fourth and gaining momentum by bouncing off it with a drop kick right about where the lungs were.

Watching them struggle, she realized they had once been animal spirits for sure, only to have been corrupted. They weren’t just something conjured by their boss.

Hesitation for even one second almost cost her when one swiped claws, just barely missing her and taking her hat instead. The advantage of being shorter than the monsters was they’d miss like that. And much like the stage magic she pretended to use in daily life, the hat was spring-loaded with some friends for them to play with. A magic box that was shattered by the attack let out doves of magical energy that distracted each as well as a jack-in-the-box dummy that took her place as a target for just long enough to take one out.

Even though the trick had been figured out, she could tell from their expressions changing the exact instant of the realization there wasn’t much the poor things could do when the tide had been turned. The rest of them were dispatched with a quick volley of attack spells. She sprinted out, conjuring another hat loaded with a similar trick from her storage at home, just in case. It was more physically exhausting than mana draining so she borrowed from her reserve to recover breath and catch up sooner.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

She crossed her fingers that those things weren’t going to be much more of a problem on the way over. The trail grew cold on her about a dozen times already the past 4 days but each time she doubled back to a previous checkpoint, there was another sign she’d accidentally glossed over. Each time something was left in an obscure place: a back alley or a bush only to be dragged out by a cat, occasionally right to her. 

Whether it was an order from Kiyo or someone else, she wasn’t sure, but all the help was appreciated. 

It seemed to be that when it took someone, it had to complete a loop back home. It was much faster than she could follow on foot. So the mage took to various buses and trains when she needed to. 

Himiko hadn’t slept in nearly 24 hours by the 4th night, and all the past nights had been similarly lacking in rest. She’d set alarms to go off within a few hours of very scattered naps so she’d at least run decently when it finally came down to it.

She snuck out of an inn somewhere very rural and very cold in the northern reaches of Hokkaido. She could just feel the cave system nearby was definitely the origin point of the attacker. 

Before she could even begin the climb upwards, an upright, tall figure came barrelling down in her direction, diving from above off of a rock and gliding down gracefully, coughing and panting, falling to their knees after the taxing stunt. That fall easily could have killed a human, plus most people couldn’t fly without magical objects.

“We need to get back up there, hurry!”

“Kiyo!” 

However, before the first shape could speak further they were interrupted from behind Himiko. Just a few feet downhill a second Kiyo was standing. 

“Don’t Himiko! That thing can become other entities!”

The first Kiyo to arrive chuckled and shook their head. “Well, that’s true, clever of you to tell her first.” A deep sigh later,  they continued. “Shame I’ve heard of that little trick before and prepared something for this kind of thing.”

“A double cross is it?” the second Kiyo asked. “It’s quite a claim you have there, being the real me, having planned for your own deception.”

Whichever Kiyo was the real one, it was hard to tell at first. The two auras had been in close proximity so a mage in training would have a hard time pulling apart which was which. Then the first Kiyo cleared their throat again.

“Well then, I have a proposition.” they said, turning their attention back to Himiko. “Yumeno Himiko should be able to ask a question, then see how both of us answer, and she’ll know which of us is real.”

“Of course, after spending so long with me she’s bound to know the real one. I’d be crazy to decline,” the beast said.

Kiyo knew this thing would do anything to avoid being pegged as suspicious. It was a double bind for the beast. The only way this was ending was fighting it. This was part of that plan. Delaying it just a tad until the right time. 

Himiko cleared her throat, glancing between the two one more time before she closed her eyes. It was nerve wracking but as long as it wanted to not out itself, the yokai would never blindside attack her. 

“My question is very simple: What is it that I was training to do?” 

The creature nodded. “Understood. This one is easy. We were going to stop the one who’s taken all those others and stop them from taking enough power for its plan.” It turned to Kiyo, giving a taunting glare. “And before the monster tries any trickery, to be specific, we were practicing your magic and got you a mana boost. It’ll help the new technique not be so taxing on you.”

That was almost entirely correct. Kiyo knew then their suspicion was right and something in the area had been spying and relayed all its gathered information back to prepare this creature for any threats that may spring up. That’s what attacked first, the helpers that Himiko had to fend off to get here.   

“Alright. My turn.” Kiyo remained characteristically calm face to face. “We were training. So I don’t have to repeat what the other me said, I’ll agree. However, there was something missing from that answer.”

“Missing? What, pray tell, did I miss?”

“The mana boost served as a test to see if you were already there. And I felt something that may have been a minion performing recon.” Emphasis on the last word. That was something Kiyo had been anticipating. Before they had been taken, she was given a code word. They only mentioned it to her in a whisper on the day that they felt a presence leave to the north with no other context. ‘Recon’ was that word. 

Eye contact was made, Himiko gave a slight nod to show that she understood and it was off to the races. She went on ahead, up one path leaving the Kiyos behind. It was a signal to the real Korekiyo. And so, the two fought again, much like they had when the faker had invaded the temple and kidnapped them to try and complete the ritual.  

They weaved in and out, sometimes further to one side away from Himiko and her destination when Kiyo was having their way and closer, forcing her to duck and use repulsion spells to avoid being caught up in the scuffle. Kiyo’s attacks looked like needles when they flew at their enemy, so she even gave those attacks a boost. She heard the cries of anger and pain when one managed to hit just the right place.

The yokai was a resilient one though, it would just pluck them right out and fire back energy attacks of their own. One of them hit Kiyo and sent them tumbling back down the mountain some distance, dropping several dozen feet to a thud.

They got back up almost instantly, knowing how much danger the girl ahead was in, and pulled out a pair of scythe to quickly dig into the mountain’s side and climb up to a point where they could launch up and gain enough momentum to catch up right behind that yokai.

Faster than ever, Himiko ran. It seemed being tired was starting to slow both down the further up the mountain the climb went. She dove and rolled right into the cave and the faker caught up, confirming even further that it was the yokai when it dove to try and stop her from entering, the disguise melting away grotesquely. She didn’t even have time to be offended at it ruining and distorting those beautiful features because of how fast it barrelled back into the base.

All she could do was point her wand directly in its face and say the words. Like a bullet, red light with a pointed tip struck right through an already gaping hole that showed the black flame-like matter that was its heart. The evil and corrupt soul was pierced.

It could barely re-shape itself anymore with its wounds. It stared at her with half its true features and half rippling nothingness as the face it wore sloughed off and dissipated like a puddle under sunlight. Even the animal-like maw began falling off, fangs first. 

Then Kiyo wrestled it from behind and wrapped it in chains of light. It was likely already dying. But part of its corrupt nature would linger in this spot if it was not sealed and purified.

“What no! Nooooo”. It started shrieking when the shock of being blindsided had finally worn off and it found itself in chains, being dragged away towards the cave’s inner chamber. It was powerless to do anything but watch these interlopers ruin everything.

“Unfair, unfair, unfaaiiiiir.” Most of the thrashing came in the form of weak kicks. It was truly pitiful for something that had beaten kami before. . 

“What a childish temper tantrum.” Kiyo scoffed at it, only briefly turning a shoulder to pay it any mind as they continued towards the end of the mission. It was so mad, and nipped away trying to bite its captor in spite of there being no chance of succeeding now. . 

Himiko came to a strange spot on the back wall and Kiyo lifted the beast over their shoulders and used its paw to unlock a big room full of artifacts, a bunch of seals on them to keep its victims contained. Many tomes of black magic and scribbles showcased a plot to steal power from all the shrine deities to build a “Domain of Darkness”. In which it plotted to prevent the sun from ever rising above Japan, and the whole planet after long enough, ever again. This would remove power from any being who got magic from natural resources and would kill billions of mortals. 

Himiko looked at the plans and laughed nervously, sweating a bit. 

“So um… you don’t think that this would have worked?” she asked, desperately wanting this to just be the pipe dream of an arrogant monstrosity.

“Absolutely not. I’m by no means the strongest of my kind, and you’re still training. It took prisoners, yes, but this is delusional. We won in part because we were underestimated. That kind of fatal mistake would have doomed this plan eventually.”

A sad whimpering came from it, laying on the ground in defeat.

Himiko was tasked to watch over it while Kiyo performed the unsealing rituals. Each one she spared glances at, admiring them from her spot in the center of the room. She could almost feel a tinge of jealousy among the defeat and anger emanating from their felled foe. It was way more interesting watching Kiyo work and chat with each spirit that was freed. Each time they agreed instantly to help get the rest out, which hastened the process. 

Each one helped before some left to make sure their shrines were fine. The remainder, led by Kiyo, thanked Himiko. Their hands warm around hers. Kiyo felt every little soft spot on her hands and even some slight callusing, presumably from the fighting. Even those bits were lovely. 

“You can go home now. It’s getting late but we need to stay for now. I will return to you with the important news.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Himiko got home first, since that was decided as the meeting place. It was far enough from the shrine that it wouldn’t be immediately obvious if that entity came back for another round. She got on her knees in front of her bed, elbows firmly leaning into the mattress so she could clasp and pray. She was exhausted. 

“Please let it be gone once and for all.” She trusted Kiyo could do that much.

Then she was awoken by footsteps and sat upright to who was joining her. Her door had opened and glowing in the moonlight, Kiyo came in, closing the door behind them. 

“I have seen to it that this chapter is done.” The spirit held a hand to her cheek and gently brushed a long finger across part of her face. “Thank you, your journey has only truly just begun but you can relax for now.”

Himiko was flushed a bright red. 

“I was struck by your beauty from the moment that I walked to your shrine.” Her heart raced. They’d touched a couple times by now but this was the most breathtaking and close. The most intimate. She raised a hand of her own and touched Kiyo’s arm gently.

A soft smile spread on the spirit’s lips. “Oh, I could tell. I could also tell that there was a pull here. Some call I needed to answer for you and it's only become more clear that there was more to it than that.”

Time felt like it slowed down to a stop as the two maintained soft eye contact.

Then they kissed her. A warmth emanated from them, pulsing like a heartbeat. 

“More to it?” she asked, even though the kiss gave her a very good idea of what they were going to tell her next. 

“I love you. And so… I want it to actually be *our* journey.” They heavily emphasized the word indicating that the adventure would be shared. It already was, it had been since the day she came to this place.

“Would it really be okay? For you to leave your shrine I mean. When it comes time for that.” 

“No worries about that, I can find someone for that when that’s necessary.”

[gear-project]

So, the Love You Bunny guys....I know Happy Chaos can change people's appearances and not Nagoriyuki, but isn't Nagoriyuki's mask the same in design as the Love You guys? Secondly, are they really wearing masks or is that their actual face/head turned via manipulating their physical structure?

You're way off about Nagoriyuki's mask having anything to do with Happy Chaos.

First of all, Nagoriyuki was buried underground for nearly 60 years while "wearing" said mask, so it's helped him control his blood feeding urges (as a Nightless Vampire) all this while, and its design is closer to that of a Oni, or Japanese Ogre which are said to be souls that were corrupted by evil after death, otherwise known as Hungry Ghosts or "gaki".

As for the White House Security Personnel who had their faces "physically altered" to look like Love-You Bunnies... that was all Happy Chaos' doing, but according to people present during the recovery and clean-up, it wasn't permanent fortunately.

According to White House staff at the scene, there was a total of 48 casualties during the shootout and takeover (including civilians on campus). Erica Bartholomew felt personally responsible due to her misjudging the situation because of I-No's imprisonment, but Gold-Lewis gave her some words of encouragement to keep working hard despite the situation.

Most likely Nagoriyuki is partly to thank for there being so few casualties during the situation because he had partial control over immediate soldier movements (part of Happy Chaos' game to get others to 'kill him').

Unfortunately they were never able to apprehend Happy Chaos, though I imagine they did seriously question Nagoriyuki after all was said and done.

[thelastyetfabolousmidwestmadman]

Detective Conan Deconstruction/Plot Twists/Subversion's

Howdy!

I've been thinking a lot because I haven't slept or been made sensible enough to see reality through rational means of comprehension.

For a black and white series of tales such as Gosho Aoyama's DCMKverse I can sure think of a multitude of ways to turn it grey. So many dark, bloody possibilities, such a endless plethora of grief, angst, and schadenfreude, of voided bowels and lost innocence, so many terrifying ideas yet so little time...

Anyway, to summarize the contents of all that verbal diarrhea, my mind has created a vast orchestra of sinister ideas that I can't put them all in one or more stories. Some of them I'll use later, some of them I will not. I guess my main inspiration for this stream of consciousness that shouts madly into the abyss of the World Wide Web, is the idea that some intrepid, curious wanderer may come across my inane rantings and be inspired to write their own atrocities.

Or maybe it will the stoke the wondrous imagination of a writer who is more of a sick fuck then I am, (:

There are five areas that can be twisted into something cruel. They contain the following:

Cases

Heists

Romance

Character Flaws

Black Organization

Get it on!

Case’s

Suspect Gets The Last Laugh- Killer is revealed but manages to poison the victim with Ricin or something more subtle allowing the target to die a couple days later. Simple enough.

More Then One Killer- The killer is caught! However a quick look back at the scene reveals he wasn’t alone and he ain’t spilling the beans.

Hannibal Lector Wannabe- A killer decides to fuck with our beloved Teen Detectives by playing a game of manipulation and horror while he threatens their loved ones into continuing.

Escaping Through Statute Of Limitations- When Our Teen Detectives decide to give their customary breaking speech,

Killer Gets Out Of It, Now After Detectives- The killer proves much too clever and sees through our casts tricks. Maybe he begin’s to notice Conan’s con and swears revenge out of his ego.

Loved Ones Hurt In The Crossfire- They were too quick for Conan’s soccer ball, Heiji’s sword, Kogoro’s Judo, or Division One’s reflexes. The bullets, blades, bludgeons. and Pelvic Thrusts couldn’t be avoided and the innocent were hurt before they could be saved.

It’s Too Much All At Once- When the cast see a suspect state his intention to kill himself, especially in the early episodes, the cast would dare them to do it, thinking it is a bluff. It isn’t.

All For Naught- Going down a dark rabbit hole isn’t worth it, if a killer turns out to have escaped or has been dead for a long time.

Big Troll- There was no murder or kidnapping, they just wanted to humiliate them.

Green Mistake- Not all detectives succeed at once. Sometimes they make mistakes... Okay just here me out here. I sincerely doubt that all those amateur detectives despite their talent have a perfect track record in solving cases or even not getting a innocent person hurt. Just look at Heiji’s, Kogoro’s, and Sera’s early (or in Kogoro’s case many) mistakes. It’s statistically impossible to get it right all the time.

Victim Is Worse- Conan and the gang successfully prevent a client from being murdered. The criminal screams at them, telling them how evil he was, and how this was mistake. When they learn of the clients sick actions, they understand why.

Romance

Waiting For Someone Who Is No Longer There- Lets think about the situation between Shinichi and Ran for a sec. if your like me you come to a unfortunate realization that was also in the OVA “Stranger In 10 Years.” Shinichi may never get back to the way he was. Maybe there is no antidote. What if he disappears in that time? And I don’t mean move on, I mean dies without anyone knowing. Ran now has to deal with both a missing Shinichi and a vanished Conan. Yet, throughout her whole life Ran holds out hope, waiting for them. Waiting for Shinichi to call. She refuses to fall in love with someone else and becomes obsessed with finding them... Until in her old age, she dies.

The Sleeping Sleuth Sleeps Around- Okay just listen to my reasoning here for a sec. I know many of you are probably sharpening their knives in the comments but let’s really think about this for a sec. This is the same Kogoro who smacked the butt of one of the Black Bunnies, and repeatedly motorboats whatever young woman he comes across. I doubt if Eri is okay with that. Plus, alcoholism and nymphomania is not a winning combination. He could easily make a mistake while in his delirium.

Shinichi’s Toxic Jealousy- Once again bear with me on this. I don’t think either Shinichi (or Kogoro for that matter) are evil. They have flaws just like any other person. However, Shinichi can be sort of a dick with it comes to how territorial he is with Ran. Just look at Eisuke. Unlike most of the perverts who are after her, Eisuke is a genuinely nice guy and Shinichi treats him like garbage. That got me thinking... Maybe Shinichi’s claims about wanting Ran to be happy aren’t entirely true. A part of him knows what he’s doing is wrong but a selfish side can’t. What if Shinichi’s jealousy starts to hurt Ran severely? Again it have to be written well so Shinichi doesn’t come off like a unrepentant dick but I think there’s something there.

Character Flaws

Hot Headedness Get You Or Others Killed- This idea concerns Heiji mostly. A rather temperamental fellow isn’t he? Always rushing into danger without thinking or having trouble with guile... Ain’t that a losing combination innit? I wonder how many criminals can take advantage of that eh? How easy it would be to trick Heiji to go into a trap if Kazuha is threatened, how simple it would be to switch a blunted blade with a sharpened one, how effortless it would be to get important information, how utterly painless it would be to manipulate him... Well I’ll leave you lovely sick bastards to come up with more.

Dysfunction Junction- Let’s talk about the Mouri’s. They’re... Not healthy to say the least. With Kogoro’s gambling/drinking/man-whoring problem barely touched upon, as well as his abuse of Conan along with Eri’s absenteeism I can say that’s a huge target for blackmailers, debt collectors, and Count Of Monte Crisco wannabes.

Conan The Gremlin- Y’know for such a seemingly innocent little boy, he sure gets into a lot of trouble don’t he? Murders keep happening around him like a curse, and that animal tranquilizer can’t be healthy for Sonoko and Kogoro... Plus people could find out who he truly is and... Well it would probably be really messy wouldn’t it?

Incompetence From The Police- In all seriousness, let’s think about this for a second. You have a overburdened police dealing with a intense rise in the murder rate, illicit narcotic consumption, and terrorism... But before we can get any further let’s talk about real life Japanese criminal procedure. In Japan you can be held for 21 days in a tiny dark cell without due process or access to a lawyer. Your are also being interrogated with the police officers using abusive tactics such as telling you how ashamed your family would be, something that can’t happen in a culture based on Confucian values. You confess but take it back only to find that you’re basically fucked since Japan has a 99% conviction rate regardless of innocence. If your a drug addict, you are literally considered nonhuman by the public at large and due to the Reaganite standards treatment isn’t a option. If your on death row, you are never told when your going to die and even if innocent is unlikely to get out. Stressed at the rising crime rate, the police refuse to investigate any suspicious death and just like in Osaka (yes this actually happened) will simply not add to the police statistics. If your a police officer what are you to do? Just a few years ago there was so little crime and now your stressed to the bone. You’re largely conservative and full of pride so you won’t admit that you must change tactics. This quick jump to conclusions and borderline incompetence can be seen in so many episodes of Detective Conan that’s it’s a wonder that more people haven’t been wrongfully convicted or got away with it... Or perhaps they have.

Black Organization

Government Corruption- Given how much sway the BO has, it got me thinking. What if everything wrong with the Japanese Government is because the BO IS the government. Something sorta akin to how the Russian Mob are basically government officials. So many possibilities other then the usual blackmail, assassinations, and bombings. Electoral fraud, jury tampering, manufacturing consent, subtle revisions of the law to encroach on democratic rights such as those the Third Way, and Neoconservatives did in the west. So many more subtle yet intriguing ways to go about this! Perhaps the BO serves as a lobbying for other more savory companies that proudly align with them such as legalizing gambling or deregulating protections.

Caught!- The BO discovers Conan’s true identity. Hell follows.

Heists

Heist Bombing- Some madman or maybe the MK organization decides to bomb the Kid Heist. Lots of people die, are traumatized and have to deal with the aftermath. I’ll leave the rest up to you guys.

Crazy Fans- Self explanatory until you really think about it. If Kaito Kid is real in this universe, how toxic is the fandom? How many of them have pedophilic undertones with the beloved Kid Killer? What if a stalker discovers Kaito’s real identity and goes psychotic? Riots could happen! So many possibilities! Doesn’t have to dark like in my sick mind, can be played for laughs.

One last thing, because of how long this took to write, a certain beloved detective’s birthday is here.

So HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHIN-CHAN!!!