#MADAM CHAR

[edensrose]

. ۫ᯓᡣ𐭩 r. sukuna ✧ f reader ˚₊‧꒰ა taking what's not his ໒꒱ ‧₊˚

“ 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘢 king decides a fallen god's wife 𝘪𝘴 𝘩𝘪𝘴. ” in which the king of curses takes the honoured one's wife as a war prize ˖ ꯴ ⌇ violence, angst, toru's rolling in his grave.

The Gojo estate never knew such horrors, but with the Strongest long gone, who could possibly stand in disaster's way?

The halls you and your husband upheld for your short reign have been engulfed by flames. The burn of failure scorches every hallway. Ashes of a great clan now engraved in the dirt. A mercy for those who have not been slaughtered by the blade instead. Blood ran rivers over your peaceful abode. Your sanctuary, your home, your everything has been reduced to soot and shame. The King of Curses stood proud at the sight. The Strongest had lost, and so his domain was flooded by hellfire.

But still, you stood tall.

Tooth and nail, you fought. For your clan, for your husband who you haven't even seen the body of. Perhaps it's a blessing. You would rather fall first than see those dull eyes staring back at you.

Screams and gurgles echoed the once peaceful citadel. Malice made its home in the graves of your fallen people. Your head held high, even while you're knelt in your shared bedroom. Four walls that knew so much love, laughter and solace — the last place to be touched by the tyrant king.

You won't let him have the satisfaction. Your blade readied firm between clenching fists. Tears dripped to the steel and you drew the sharpness to your throat. You won't be captured. You won't be a war prize for a mad conqueror. The Jujutsu world has already fallen with your husband, so it was your time too.

Braced. Breathed. With one last look at the picture nestled on your husband's desk, you smiled shakily. Satoru's wide grin and bright eyes will be your last sight. So be it.

The blade bit your flesh. You tighten on the handle and sliced swift —

Clank! Half its length fell to the ground.

Your eyes widen and you scrambled to reposition it over your heart. Thrust forward. Ragged.

It never came.

You screamed and used all your might to shove the broken blade into your chest. So that your heart may bleed and you may rest with your husband. "Release me, you monster!"

Rune-littered hands cupped the blade and forced it down. Your jaw was taken into the unforgiving, hot hold, and you cried out at the sear through your flesh.

In-spite of yourself, your eyes shot open. Teary, veiny, yet your glare daggered all the same. On instinct you spat a pointed wad. It hits a lower eye. But the madman smiled — grinned and wretched your head closer.

"So." He mused, voice grave like the cruel night you're basked in. Eyes firelit like the flames that have engulfed the last shred of your soul. You and your husband's bedroom. He was elated. What more should you expect from the King of Curses?

"This is the Madam Gojo?"

Your head is tossed side-to-side. Unceremoniously. Why should he handle you with the grace you deserved? Charred nails dug into your flesh already flushed red from his burns. "Ending your miserable life already? Why, no fight left in your weak heart?"

"Kill me if you must."

"Kill you? Tempting." His thumb shoved into your cheek and you wailed at the surge of heat. Tears doubled in your vision. You're defenceless. Your home ruined. Your husband slaughtered. But what Sukuna said next struck all of your fears into existence.

"However, it would be quite the waste. . . don't you think?"

You gulped down a sob and squeezed your eyes shut as you're yanked closer. Your hands raised to shove his off, but all you're met with is more scalds that weaken every fibre of your being.

"Open your eyes."

You refused.

"Open. Your. Eyes."

Excruciating blisters littered your body and you keened. You had no saviours. All of your attendants long since met their demise. Your screams echoed a desiccated, aflamed citadel. Like the cries of a lonely, frightened lamb. Your husband was gone. He could not save you. So you peeled your gaze onto him, and immediately felt the soothing caress of ease over your aching body.

You gasped for breath through your sea of tears. His grip only tightened, but no longer did his nails ruin your face.

"I saw you."

What was this mad tyrant on about? Was killing your husband not enough for him? Satoru's heart already stopped, but yours went on; and yours beats for him even beyond the grave. Even in this fiery carnage.

Sukuna drew you closer. Leaned over your knelt form so that your neck arched painfully and his weight suffocated you. His thumb ran over your lower lip and you quiver. Still, your eyes could not leave him. Petrified. Agonised.

"I saw you in his eyes when he realised he had lost."

His face twisted into a grin. Yours wet with tears, shook with sobs.

"I saw you together with fear." He grasped your throat. Cut off your air supply. You choked and tried to envision your husband. Satoru. Just one last time. Happy, alive —

Anything but this. Anything but that grin.

"So much fear." He cackled and pressed a cruel tongue to your tears.

"For his pretty little wife, in the hands of a king."

© 𝒆𝒅𝒆𝒏𝒔𝒓��𝒔𝒆 . no copying, translation or plagiarism authorised

[magicalink]

Hiii! Could you do NSFW alphabet for a few more characters (like Zhongli Cyno and Alhaitham) and a virgin xiao x adeptus reader nsfw where they get walked in on? Thanksss, have a great night!

Official announcement 3 + NSFW Xiao fic

To answer anon:

After years of trying in vain, I came to the conclusion I'm unable to write requests about chars that aren't among my faves. (Ofc Kuni is my favest fave bit I also like Xiao, Kazuha, Childe, Venti, Lumine, Gorou, Tighnari and some other I cant remember rn) and im honestly not interested in Alhaitham, Cyno or Zhongli (Sometimes I write small thingies about Zhongli in my native language just to please a friend of mine who really likes him) but nothing as long and detailed as a NSFW alphabet.)

So Zhongli, Alhaitham and Cyno's NSFW alphabet are officially cancelled (I'm genuinely sorry). But here's a little bullet fic abt virgin Xiao x Y/N getting walked in on. Sorry for the delay. From now on I'm not accepting requests I know I wont be able to write quickly anymore, I swear.

Without any more delay, here it is! The Xiao fic!

Content warning: Sexual content. Xiao x Adeptus!f!reader first time ever. Yeah they get walked in on but dw happy ending just the way I like it :3

2000 years of suffering.

2000 years of pure, unadulterared virginity.

To be fair, it's not really any of you guys' fault.

The life of an Adeptus isn't easy, it's never been easy, especially for a Yaksha.

Liyue's last 2000 years have been full of war, conflict and contamination.

So you never really had time to sit down and think "hey, maybe I wanna have sex".

Pure Adeptus don't even have the need to reproduce, so it didn't really come up either.

But ever since humans took responsibility for Liyue's safety, the responsibilities of Adeptus have notoriously reduced, and that has left most of them with free time to cultivate their passions.

Madam Ping with her music, Cloud Retainer with her inventions, you know, the usual.

They've got so much free time they even adopted a humanoid form and decided to live among humans, trying to hide their identity, with varying results.

You've slowly grown accustomed to these times of peace, and that gave you enough time to realize just how close you had become with a certain Yaksha who fought alongside you for centuries.

He's always been by your side, you were always by his, even in thr toughests of times.

But he's the only one who barely has peace or free time, the one who always has to remain vigilant no matter the state of the country, otherwise who knows what might happen to Liyue...or him.

You always found it so unfair...

After so many centuries of service, everyone abandoned him to pursue passionate, peaceful lives.

Meanwhile, he remains vigilant, abnegated, continuously suffering...

So you remained by Xiao's side, always adamant that he was your companion through thick and thin, through health and sickness.

Until one day a human brought to your attention that, for their species, that tends to be more than what humans call 'best friends', as you sometimes referred to him.

Humans often times refer to that as 'couples', 'partners', 'soulmates'.

And that got you thinking.

The times of peace and the observing of human conduct took you to realize you were in love with him, and to imitate human courtship rituals.

Flowers, gifts, sweet words, all of them as subtle as possible so as not to scare him away. Lots of Almond Tofu too, to gather the courage to confess your feelings.

I'm going to spare you the details of how stubborn and embarrassed Xiao was about it, so long story short you started to recognize that you were indeed a couple.

Xiao felt it when he realized he saw in his bond with you something similar to what he saw between Morax and Guizhong.

He deeply admired that connection and yearned for something like that.

He realized it was you, his partner through the centuries.

He realized he was terrified of losing you, and of wasting the time by yourside, of wasting the opportunity to explore sides of your connection that he secretly desired.

So the long nights watching the moon and stars like usual started including more physical affection.

Touches, hugs. You finally told him you wanted to kiss the way you saw so many humans do.

You wanted to refer to him as your 'boyfriend' as Yanfei talked so much to you about. That word sounded so sweet!

It sounded so sweet to call him love! To call him baby! He would blush like a tomato and you loved that too.

You finally could enjoy all those things those centuries of war denied you.

You observed humans, fascinated. Although you hated some things about them and decided you never wanted to live amongst them like Madam Ping and Cloud Retainer did, you were definitely smitten with some of their courtship rituals, relationships customs and...

Sex.

You suddenly realized that despite both having genitalia due to your origins, neither Xiao nor you had brought up the topic of sex yet.

You got really invested in that aspect of humanity, fascinated, and wanted to learn more. You had to resort to books, the few humans who were willing to talk about it, and finally had to ask Madam Ping for advice.

Those hugs, those kisses Xiao and you had become so accustomed to, the ones you enjoyed so much...could lead so something that could make you feel a different kind of pleasure.

And you wanted that. You needed that. You craved that.

It was a slow process of little touches and insinuations during those sessions of making out under the moonlight, since Xiao was a bit shy about the matter.

But one night you came clean to him about it and he accepted to give it a try, just to experiment, because in all honesty, even if he tried to hide it the curiosity and desire building within him was driving him crazy.

And he accepted to give it a try.

After all, you've both survived through so much, that wouldn't kill you, right?

You both deserved a night of relaxation, tlc, new experiences, hopes and dreams, maybe the yearning of a new beginning...

It was decided.

That night was gonna be the night.

Your first time with Xiao.

You both had looked forward to it for so long...and it was finally here.

It was a hot, humid night in Liyue, as usual.

The sticky air ran freely through the windows of Xiao's room at Wangshuu Inn, barely contained by the fabric of the delicate curtains.

It brought the perfume of the night, of silk flowers and dew.

And it hinted of how beautiful the stars were shining tonight.

Beautiful as usual, you had seen them when you made out on the roof like always.

But tonight was the night, you both could feel it in your throbbing veins, so when the situation got really heated up you decided to go to the room.

A wise decision, considering the humans wouldn't be pleased if they randomly saw two adeptus going at it on top of the roof.

So you entered the room, hands tangled in each other's hairs and clothes, and lowered the lights to the minimum

You went to the bed.

It was comfortable, newly made, barely used, Xiao never rested no matter how much the humans at the Inn insisted he should.

He didk't care, you were his rest.

His rest and haven.

As the passion for you grew inside him and he found the courage to lay you on the bed and climb on top,for the first time in his life Xiao thought things were flowing.

He had been super anxious about the topic, afraid of hurting you, of messing it up, of dissappointing you, of finding out this human ritual simply wasn't mesnt for him. That he was condemned to always suffer and never experience such a sacred bliss.

He thought he would find himself in the room, fiddling with his hands and staring at the floor, contemplating his inadecuacy, but it didn't happen.

That night the love and the lust flowed so freely, so peacefully but so heatedly at the same time that neither of you dared stop the course of nature to speak about concerns, afraid of breaking that sweet spell.

The act of undressing felt like an extension of the usual, familiar, sweet make out session, and it was practiced like it was a measured ceremony.

Or at least that's how you two perceived it.

Maybe to a witness it would look normal, careless, unimportant.

But you both were vibing in unison and communicating with your eyes.

And there shouldn't be amy witnesses, this was between you and him...

You were lost in his eyes. Those beautiful eyes. Those shining golden discs captured your soul like a flame captures a moth, obsessed with its glow.

Those eyes were your moon and stars, what kept you going, what kept you enduring through the centuries.

Carrying on, just to see his eyes.

And now that you were laying on your back, looking up at him and seeing those eyes as if they were your night sky, you suddenly understood a million things that two milennia of war could never show you.

You were tired. Oh so tired. Just like him

You needed to let go of the war, of the pain.

You wanted to be shown peace, love, relief

Sweet relief.

And that's what you felt when Xiao's lips came crashing down on yours and your hands went to the hair on the back of his neck, when the clothes were discared somewhere unimportant.

You knew the important stuff was happening here and now, ok this bed, between you and him.

You had survived for this.

This was your moment.

The moment you'd been waiting for so long.

The moment when all the grief gets transmogrified into liberation.

You held him tightly, a surge of something inside you making you kiss and bite his neck until he moaned.

It went beyond lust. It was raw, unadulterated need, yearn, crave, utter desperation.

Xiao felt it too. Understood it was time to let go. And for the first time in his life, he did.

He let go and yielded to the loving insistence of your touches, leaned down and merged his body with yours.

For the first time in his life he did something he had no idea how to do, and allowed himself to do it anyway. Even if it wasn't perfect, even if it was dangerous, even if it was messy, it didn't matter.

It was perfectly imoerfect and that was life.

For the first time in forever, you were both living your lives.

Living for yourselves instead of being tools in other people's wars.

Using your bodies to live, instead of killing.

Moving in unison to a rythm foreign and new to you. The rythm of life. Of two being that are alive, breathing and throbbing, needing each other to go on.

Even having the possibility of...perpetuating life once more.

You didn't think about that possibility, it wasn't important for any of you right now. It didn't cross your minds. You were Adeptus, after all.

Yet right now, right there on that bed, one on top of the other, making the headboard slam the wall and the springs creak, you looked nothing like.

You looked like many things.

You looked like animals. Like two love birds getting tangled in each other's feathers, finally finding a safe nest to crash.

You looked like humans, two young, innocent humans who could be concerned about their personal lives instead of the future of a nation. Two humans who could have all the time in the world to lay naked and in peace, enjoying the divine bliss of feeling each other skin to skin...

You looked like Xiao and Y/N.

For the first time in so long.

No war, no death, no responsibility.

Just you and him resting your tired bones and engaging in the sweet dance of life.

It was such a nice moment, so magical you thought it was a dream.

Xiao looked so hot naked, his ripped muscles adorned by the shimmer of his tattoos and the sweat that ran down his biceps.

The expression on his face was priceless, those golden orbs that were your stars clouded with lust and need.

And the sound of his moans...yes, if heaven existed, this was it.

Making love with him.

This was your heaven.

Feeling him enter your body once and once again, juast at the right pace not to miss him whenever he pulled out.

Clinging to his beautiful hair, the texture that had kept you grounded for centuries.

The sight of his fangs whenever he moaned.

The way his hands roamed over your body trying to learn, learn, learn how to do this and how to do this again, because this couldn't be the only time you did this in your lives.

There had to be more. So he roamed his hands trying places he thought you might like, searching for your favorites. Whenever you moaned, like you did when he caressed your breasts, he would insist on that spot.

You were trying to do the same for him when se sound of the Inn room opening shattered the magic and peace of the moment into a million illusions.

You jolted against the mattress, horrified, and Xiao was so scared of having hurt you that he didn't notice the intruder. He tried to pull back, cup your chin, but everything happened too fast.

The intruder gasped, but the sound was drowned by the one of a porcelain plate shattering harshly against the wooden floor.

Now Xiao didn't hesitate. His muscular memory did not fail him.

Terrified of someone hurting you in this vulnerable moment, Xiao's body moved on its own. He turned away from you, leapt from the bed, summoned his spear and pressed it against the intruder's neck, reducing him in less than a second.

For a moment, there was silence in the inn room. It was a moment of utmost awkwardness and confusion.

You fumbled with the bedsheets, covering your naked body before turning on the night lamp.

"Mr. Zhongli, please, what are you doing here??" You questioned with your face bright red, looking at the scene before you, perplexed.

Mr. Zhongli was standing by the doorframe looking mortified, and a set of porcelain was shattered on the floor, the almond tofu that was meant to lay on them making a mess on the floorboards.

The worst part of the scene was Xiao, completely naked, hair tousled and sweaty, clutching Mr. Zhongli tightly from behind, pressing his spear to his neck menacingly.

In a matter of seconds, you could see how Xiao's expression morphed from the one of a desperate animal defending his pack to a pitiful mix of shame and confusion.

"I'm...I'm sorry." Mr. Zhongli coughed, doing his best to recover his usual composure. When Xiao released him, even more mortified than him, he fixed his tie and closed his eyes to give you both time to make yourselves a slightly bit more decent.

"I just...heard Wangshu Inn's chef was holding a special almond tofu tonight and thought it would be a mice detail to pay Xiao a visit and bring his favorite food, since we haven't seen each other in a while." Mr. Zhongli explained as neutrally as possible, his eyes still closed firmly as his posture. He wasn't blushing. He was too old and experienced to be phased by sex.

But...it would be a lie to say that it didn't surprise him to see Xiao doing it.

So he did his best to keep his composure and not pry too much into it. For now. Eventually he would get the whole gossip. But now was the worst moment.

"I apologize, Mora...I mean, Mr. Zhongli..." Xiao stammered with his head down as he fumbled with his clothes, trying to get dressed and making a mess "I should've never raised my weapon against you. I don't know what happened to my senses, I didn't detect it was you..." he explained, mortified.

"Oh, no, Xiao, don't apologize. You did what was proper in thia situation. I must apologize, I shouldn't have entered without knocking. I organized an event without asking you and interrupted your night. It wasn't proper of me to assume that you would be free." Zhongli sighed.

You didn't say anything, just observed the dude repressing the need to roll your eyes. You totally agreed. He had 100% abandoned Xiao after milennia of Xiao serving him. He couldn't expect him to not go on with his life too! He was finally movimg on, you were having a really important moment, and this dinosaur blockhead messed it all up. You wanted to punch him

"And I made a mess of your floor." Zhongli sighed, eyes still closed not to pry even more into your privacy. Now you did roñl your eyes. The old man is seriously worrying about the floor? You bit your tongue, knowing the only way to deal with him was to listen to his monologues like for the last two thousand years.

"I would clean it myself, but I don't want to importunate you further. I offer you my most sincere apologies, to the both of you. And promise you this situation will not be repeated."

The mortified 'please' that Xiao whispered between clenched teeth was audible to you and made you bite back a chuckle.

Zhongli exited the room as dignified as possible for a person who was dramatically covering his eyes, and Xiao closed the door behind him, looking utterly frustrated, ashamed and defeated.

"And lock the door this time, dummy." You teased him, trying to get over this awkward moment.

"Yeah, yeah." Xiao grumbled, fumbling with the human artifact until he managed to lock the door "I forget how these human things work. They're so troublesome." He huffed. He was fuming, his face all red from embarrassment. He looked down at the mess of porcelain and food on the floor when he stepped on it while he tried to come back to bed.

"What a waste." He barked

"The almond tofu? Totally, it's a real pit..." your words were cut by Xiao's lips.

"Not the almond tofu, Y/N. The...the...the moment we were having." Xiao sighed in resignation, looking away. You placed your hand on his shoulder, knowing it wasn't easy for him to articulate his feelings, he was making a huge effort lately.

"I feel so bad for losing that moment that I don't even care how shameful it was that Morax saw me like that. It was meant to be just for you. What a load of cra..." you interrupted his laments with another kiss.

"Let's make another moment. Don't mourn that one, let's make another one." You said with conviction.

"It will take another few weeks, all the preparations, all the..." he fumbled with his words, thinking about how he felt like all the planets had to align for something lile that to happen.

"This." You protested, kicling the covers away. You were still naked "We only need this. You and me together. Nothing else. We've been beating around the bush for months trying to figure this out when the answer was so easy." You placed your hands on your hips, raising your chin.

"T-the answer...?" Xiao asked, his hands shaky. You took them in yours and kissed them.

"The answer. It was you, and me, and calming down and letting it flow. It was so hard, because we never calm down or let it flow. But we did it, and it was working, right?" You smiled.

"Well, yes...we...we did it and it was working, but I don't know if I can do it at will..." he said anxiously, his eyes darting around.

"Well, you cant do it right away after that weird moment, can you? Let's just rest for a bit and calm down. Cleaning the floor can wait." You said firmly, bringing him to bed and undressing him to massage his shoulders, trying to make him relax. He was stiff as a rock.

"Chill...come on. The door is closed now. No one will bother us..." you gently kissed his neck and shoulder to relax him

"We're not doing this again." Xiao huffed resentfully. Your hands stilled, suddenly cold with terror "Stupid humans and their places and customs...next time we're doing it my way." He said with a determined frown.

You relaxed and almost laughed

"And what's your way, Xiao? Are you gonna build a nest for me? Shake your impressive plumage and build me the best nest ever?" You joked teasingly. But Xiao was frowning.

"You doubt my capabilities?" He huffed, looking almost offended.

"What?" You were weirded out by his replied, but didk't say anything. You didn't know if he would rally build you a nest or if he was messing with you in return. In any case, the possibility felt strangely...thrilling.

"Can you please chill? Forget about that mummified blockhead and go back to making love to me?" You pouted as you massaged him.

"Why? You really liked it that much?" He turned back to look at you with vulnerable eyes.

"You kidding?" You blushed "It was amazing."

"You mean it?" Xiao asked with his golden discs full of hope.

"Of course I mean it. I loved it, it felt like heaven...didn't you?"

"Of course I loved it too." Xiao sighed.

"Then please let's not treat this as a ritual that can happen once in a blue moon or else it'll be ruined..." you begged.

"But it's important." Xiao protested, and his cheeks turned bright red.

"It is. It totally is. But all it needs is you and me. Not weeks of preparation, or a perfect moment or a perfect location. Just you and me and...our love." You said looking at him with an embarrassed look on your face.

"Our...love, eh?" Xiao whispered, slowly leaning closer, closing his eyes in tension as if he was afraid the kiss would break the spell.

But it didn't. His sweet lips joined yours and nothing bad happened. It wasn't rehearsed or natural, it wasn't perfect or premeditated. But it was genuine. And thus one kiss came after another and soon you were making out as usual.

The kisses got more heated, the hands more adventuruous, and soon the rythm of life caught up with the both of you again

"Wanna do it my way? Do you trust me?" Xiao asked quite embarrassedly still.

"Are you gonna build me a nest?" You snickered teasingly.

"Not yet." Xiao replied with utmost seriousness. He didn't even bother gettong dressed. He just stood up from the bed and extended his hamd for you to take it.

You gave him a weirded uout look but chuckled and took it.

And soon you both were far away from the room, from the Inn, from Zhongli's broken plate of aomond tofu on the floor, from humanity.

After all you two were Adeptus and you couldn't copy the ways of humans forever. You had to invent your own style. Like the old people who came before you, like Madam Ping who defied all conventions.

So you clumg tightly to Xiao as he shone in a green light and teleported over and over, making you feel like you were flying over the vast and elegant beauty of the Liyuean night.

Once you were fsr away from the city, on top of the golden mointains where the Qinxing flowers grew, he stopped and laid you on a patch of grass akd soil that felt soft lile silk. Much netter than the human bed form earlier.

You laid on your back, looking up and observing the sky. Here it was closer, more illuminated, full of stars. But none of them were as pretty as Xiao's eyes.

He hovered over you, his eyes solemn, seeking your approval. He found it in your smiling expression and his heavy heart felt slightly lighter.

"I wanna make love here. Under the stars." He declared solemnly, lowering his head so he could caress it and kiss it.

"No one will bother us here. No humans or nosy archons." You chuckled.

You saw the small smile that formed on his parched lips and you felt the urge to moisten them.

You pulled him closer, urging him to become one.

This time the ceremony went uninterrupted until culmination, as not even the moon witnessed the union of this two individuals who needed each other more than life itself.

Until early morning, they laid entwined, the golden blades of grass enveloping them.

When the sound of the birds wolke you up, you just felt calm, peace and bliss

So you perked up your head and kissed Xiao's jaw. Sweetly, tenderly, wondering if he was already awake.

He was. But he wasn't ready to wake up and go back to the job. To the grind. To the pain

He knew things would be different from now on now that he had this beautiful shard of hope inside his heart.

But he didn't wanna wake up.

For now, he just wanted to lay in your arms.

I'm so sorry it took me two years to finally do this 😅 From now on requests will be written or rejected right away, promise!

See you soon, got a lot of wips pretty much wrapped up!

[tarnishedsilverjewelry]

hiii!! How are you? I wanted to request jealous Kuai Liang 🙏🏾🙏🏾🙏🏾 literally anything with him

Jealous jealous boy

A/n: idk the hate behind Kuai as Scorpion, his character is still (I’d argue) pretty similar to him as Sub Zero?? He’s also still hot (pun intended) I’m also including my hc that the Lin Kuei bros are super tall (like 6’3” MINIMUM) he’s also good at communicating guys TRUST🙏

Warnings: slightly nsfw but nothing overly graphic, Johnny’s a flirt but what else is new, he’s also kind of a jerk, but that’s also not new, Kuai is trying to not burn him alive

“I’m just sayin’ you could be a star with a face like that!” Johnny continued with wide eyes. You giggled shyly and shook your head

“No, no I couldn’t! I’m not the social type..” Johnny laughed and rolled his eyes. “Come on! One scene is all you need for a modeling contract! All you gotta do is smile for the camera after that! I can show you some…poses.” The movie star continued, leaning in closer with a sly smirk

Your face reddened further, and you dropped your eyes down to your lap. In the light of Madame Bo’s restaurant your engagement ring glinted. Kuai Liang had gotten one for you to tie in your family’s more traditional wedding customs. Laying next to it on your finger was a simple metal band with your wedding date engraved into it

Kuai Liang had left for the bathroom some time ago, and left you alone with the Earthrealm champions. This included Johnny Cage. And Johnny was laying it on thick, trying to get you to model with him or be his next big love interest in a movie he fluctuated between the two constantly

You were normally civil with Johnny, however you were much quieter than him and his flirting, even if it was harmless (as the other champions insisted) it still made you uncomfortable.

Tomas growled at the sight, and looked for Kuai Liang. Spotting his brother in the corner talking to an old member of the clan, he could tell his brother was enthralled in the conversation. You were his sister for one! And clearly uncomfortable for another thing.

“Johnny, leave her alone. She is clearly uncomfortable.” He deadpanned, but the actor only laughed harder. “I don’t see a ring on your finger! Trust me if her husband tells to stop I will! Besides I may not know who she’s married to, but he’s not stopping me!” Johnny shrugged his broad shoulders with a good natured smile

Instead of speaking to Johnny again he turned to Bi Han he leaned over to whisper “Bi Han, look at how uncomfortable [Y/n] is. We should do something.” Bi Han looked up from his drink and his gaze landed on the sight of you.

You and Bi Han were not overly close even as brother and sister in law, but he would not take such disrespect to his family. Bi Han growled and stood from his seat, moving briskly to his brother “Brother. Master Fu.” He bowed in respect to his elder before turning to his brother. “Have you checked on your bride recently?” He asked quietly, before leaving to return to his seat.

Kuai Liang blinked in confusion, and turned his head to look at you. Quickly, his confusion turned to Anger at the sight of you and Johnny. Normally, the sight of you all red in the face and flustered was his favorite sights. He enjoyed teasing you and watching you turn red and bury your sweet face in his chest, but he certainly did not enjoy seeing Johnny cage nose to nose with you, clearly flirting with you

His first thought was to burn him to a crisp for even daring to try and flirt with you. His mind darkened and he seemed to enjoy the idea of claiming you over the actors charred corpse. Or perhaps claiming you while he bleeds out and watches.

Kuai Liang took a deep breath, hoping to gain some control of his fire abilities, the last thing he wanted to was burn your soft and delicate skin with his own hands

He practically ran over to you, glaring at him. He loomed over the two of you, casting a shadow over you both. Relief flooded your face when he appeared, and stood up so you could wrap yourself around him. “Woah man, relax! I was just playing, wasn’t gonna do anything! ‘Sides she’s married! I don’t dig married chicks” The actor backpedaled, scooting his chair back to his original spot

Johnny, noticing the glint of a matching wedding ring on Kuai Liangs hand, fully dropped his head and held his hands up in the air

Kuai Liang growled and said “Make sure it doesn’t happen again.” With a finality, before dragging you away from Earthrealm’s champions. He settled the both of you in a dark corner, breathing heavily. “Kuai?” You asked gently, hands gliding gently up his thick arms

“Normally I enjoy seeing you do red in the face…but now I find I don’t enjoy seeing you do red because of that…mediocre actor.” He growled, struggling to not burn your soft hands. “Trust me I prefer you flirting with me too. Johnny just—“ Kuai scoffed loudly “You’re on a first name basis now?”

You giggled at him “He’s on a first name basis with everyone! Now will you let me finish?” Your husband nodded, eyes blazing. “Johnny just makes poorly hidden innuendos and tries to shove a camera in my face. You and I both know I don’t enjoy that. I’d much rather spend my time with you, okay?” Your hands left his biceps and cupped his face lovingly

Kuai Liang felt a peace wash over him, and his mind stopped spiraling. “I know. But I..I just saw how close he was and I..saw red. I guess. In my heart I know you wouldn’t respond to his feeble attempts to woo you. But…i didn’t.”

You smiled up at him with those pretty, pretty eyes and he felt the flames of anger extinguished. “I know, Kuai. But as a bonus..I kind of liked how you were acting. Is it bad to say it was hot?” The pyromancer chuckled “Oh?”

Turning a pretty shade of red, you nodded. “Jealously looks good on you,with my last partner I thought it was…unattractive. But with you it’s hot.” You admitted, burying your face in his chest.

Lovingly, Kuai Liangs hands rubbed along your curves and he crooned softly in your ear for most of the night, enjoying the way your face reddened

However whenever Johnny looked your way, he was met with heavy glares from scorpion that left him uncomfortable

[traincat]

hello traincat!!!! just recently gone through my spideytorch rabbit hole again. only now it is worse. and i’m actually considering writing fics about those two losers…

i LOVE your villain!peter fic, and i have seen a few other premise where peter is the Spider. but now its got me thinking and now i have brainworms of villian!johnny. i think of johnny and he will always be that sincere idiot that always puts others needs before his own. maybe if i break him enough mentally….. hmm decisions decisions….

thoughts?

also ur the bestest ever and i spent valentines giggling and reading your fics… i hate those stupid losers(i am obsessed with them…)

Thank you for reading my fics! I hope you had a good Valentine's Day. 💖

So it's my opinion that you can push pretty much any character into villain territory, you just need to figure out the right buttons to push. Some are admittedly easier than others. With Peter, for The Spider and the Last Spark, I had a very definite breaking point in mind. Spoilers for my own fic but the Spider's universe is a canon divergent version of 616 where, during Civil War, the Kingpin's assassin succeeds and murders both Mary Jane and Aunt May before Peter reaches the motel room.

This wasn't a totally original idea or anything. What If? Back in Black goes in a similar direction, killing off MJ, although its Peter is ultimately less successful than mine. I decided to kill off Aunt May too to completely strip Peter of any positive influence, including his own universe's Johnny, who died as a result of the attack he suffers at the beginning of Civil War.

I also took a lot of inspiration from What If? Grim Hunt, where Peter ultimately doesn't back down and decides to kill Kraven. (Notably my inspiration for his costume -- the black suit sans the mask -- was from Grim Hunt, and also his regular collection of slutty, slutty bathrobes.) The regular Grim Hunt makes a prediction via Madame Web that if Peter did kill Kraven, it would set him on a path where he wouldn't be able to stop killing, which is something Peter himself muses on in Spider-Man: Friends and Enemies. So I had a lot of canon information to use as a foundation.

(What If? Grim Hunt) "You killed someone." "I did that for you too!" Haha. Love him. What a freak. The other big thing I was considering with Peter was his personality flaws and how I could magnify those. Peter's big thing is responsibility, which on the flipside means he often assumes responsibility for other people. The ugly flipside here is control. Peter loves to be in control of a situation, and why wouldn't he? He's the strongest, fastest, and usually the smartest person in any civilian room he walks into. That's a big power rush. So take someone who is angry and grieving, who had that control stripped away from along with any positive influence in his life all in one night -- that's a powder keg.

(ASM #542)

Regret was a big factor for my Spider, too. Regret that he couldn't protect MJ, Aunt May, Johnny. Regret over his dead child. Regret that he didn't provide a better life for MJ when she was alive. My goal was to work from a place of pain and transform it into this little kingdom of control. Peter's not powerful enough to take over, say, the world, but he could take over New York and hold it as his own sovereign territory, especially with how broken the community was during Civil War, and especially with a big show of power, which was why I had him kill the Hulk. (Whether or not Peter could kill the Hulk in canon is a debate I'm not interested in. What's important is that Peter does canonically state that he's figured out a method to kill the Hulk, and I absolutely believe that he believes he could do it.)

So how do we apply this method to Johnny? It's a little bit trickier, because I don't have a clear breaking point in canon where I'm like, okay, if we shifted X, Y, and Z, I could see this being a springboard into supervillainy. Johnny is, at heart, an extremely kind and moral character. He's also not self-motivated the way Peter is -- Johnny functions as part of a team, and when he explores things on his own they tend to be hobby related, like racing and pop stardom. He's not usually an independent actor.

On the other hand, we can use that to our advantage. "If you break him enough mentally" sure, that works, but how are we going to do that? My first thought again is to strip the support system. I think Ben in particular has to go -- we see how Johnny spirals when he and Ben aren't on good terms. (Take "has to go" however you want for your individual context. I don't think it strictly has to mean killing characters off. I had to separate Flash from Peter in The Spider and the Last Spark and I had him lead the rebel army.) Reed and Sue, I think there's wiggle room. Is either of them a villain? Johnny's easily influenced by his loved ones, especially when he's young. If you want to play into his naivete, I think there's the beginnings of a villain route there.

Alternatively, we can play into the destructive nature of Johnny's powers. I talked a little about Claremont's take on the origin story recently, where Johnny absorbs the heat from the shuttle crash and then immediately goes Nova. The only reason Sue and Reed survive is that Ben covers them. But traditionally, Ben isn't rocky until a few moments after the crash. What if his own transformation hadn't taken place yet? Ben still covers Reed and Sue, but it's not enough, and Johnny accidentally kills his family. Add in the more modern Fantastic Four origin approach where the Four are held, at least temporarily, by the military, and you've got an isolated, guilt stricken Johnny who is facing his worst fear: being alone.

(Fantastic Four #214)

(Fantastic Four: First Family)

That's easily enough to break him. I think you could write a villain!Johnny based solely on this. But again, Johnny's not a very independent actor. So some kind of outside influence is immensely helpful. Another supervillain? Someone with other motivations who sees a deeply lonely, emotionally scarred young man with enormous power, and recognizes someone easy to manipulate? Would Johnny even care if he was being manipulated at that point?

Which brings me to the big thing with Johnny for me. What does Johnny want most in the world? He wants to be loved. And while I think a solo Johnny villain story is interesting, part of me is always a little bit committed to the idea of villain couple Peter and Johnny. (Which is what the Spider was clearly trying to swing in The Spider and the Last Spark.) Johnny, lost, directionless, craving the affection that Peter has to give in spades, and Peter, with the capability to be protective and devoted, but who also becomes infatuated at the drop of a hat. Peter, obsessive. Johnny, yearning. A huge hole in both of their hearts that's never quite filled. So yeah, why not take over the criminal underground? It's not like they have anything else to do on a Saturday night.

[cosmicallyloved]

SPOILERS FOR 3.4 HSR UPDATE AMPHOREUS

Time to pullll (51, did not get him)

I will also be pulling for sunday as i was on a break during his first banner. I need both of my majestic bois on my acc

STORY TIME YAY

First im gonna check herta and screwlum's talking scene in the swarm boss's arena

"The world i entered was just a firewall?" Got to be the best description they couldve come up with

How did black swan suddenly materialize in that convo?!? Anyways im still confused on what an emperor scepter is but ill think of it as "an anti-organic life form who to escape from doom, created a big computer known as amphoreus"

Im sorry TRIGGER the RAGE of a lord freaking RAVAGER??? are we gonna die AGAIN?? Unless the lord ravager in question is phainon/flame reaver?

Wait theres three forces of emanator level or higher are in amphoreus. Lygus, Irontomb, Phainon? Or is the pink hair girl also counting as one? Where even is Irontomb rn?

DAN HENG IS VOICEDDD YAYYYY WELCOME BACK NICHOLAS WE LOVE YOU IM SO HAPPY HES BACK

are these guards not surprised by how dan heng looks like at all?

OMG I ALMOST CLICKED SKIP😭 I FORGOT THEY ADDED THAT

i thought that was lgyus cus i heard the robot like tone and i almost said smtg bad but its just the chadddd

Is screwllum really that strong that he can stop flame reaver? Isnt he a memory or almost a demi-god/ emanator?

I FREAKING KNEW IT. AMPHOREUS IS A SIMULATION (based on data and memories) I KNEW IT I CALLED IT YESSSS

So is Irontomb evolving into phainon, or is phainon gonna become irontomb, or is it the case of "only one survives, the other dies"?

So they literally turned into game characters within a game. If we add silver wolf in amphoreus, itll be a game character in a game, playing a game

Ok so the anchor is basically a file saver that will guard our data specifically and protect it until we exit a glitching simulation, got it

I KNEW LYGUS WAS BEHIND EVERYTHING THANK YOU CHAR SCRELLUM FOR CONFIRMING IT. i saw that creepy ahh robot and immediately knew he is not good

Is lgyus irontomb?

And march already exists in amphoreus, thank you for the confirmation dear madam herta

Is march already getting a third form?? Girl?

THIS GIRL- SHE STOLE WELT'S SHOULDER MASSAGER! GIRL LET THE OLD MAN REST

Elation march would be funny ngl

Uhhh march that fu xuan is very very sus

Oh that voice is Mem. I was thinking it was like idk TB or smtg

That Dan heng is very sus, he is never that upbeat and why does TB look dead? Theres no light in those eyes

They know im weak to pretty boys they r using dan heng threatning i mean telling me to go

Omg its elysia expy, why did she sound too much like mem (I REMEMBERED HER NAME IT WAS CYRENE OMG)

thats what her name means? Smart hoyo

Cyrene is a girl's girl we love to see it

Marchhhhh its not time to be sentimental and inspirational!!?!!

Cyrene is delulu confirmed

How did we go in the vortex of genesis. Where did the convo with dan heng go?

Is phainon ready for era nova? Absolutely not! Is he ready to become a lord ravager? Heck nah! But he will!

Technically, its herta and professor A (anaxa) seeing the era nova come cus those r on my team rn soooo

Josh truly crushed phainon's role, truly W VA

Also, does Lygus go around every single time the world bearing demi god wants to surrender the core and yap?

Phainon's words are just basically what Nanook wants hmmm fav child?? Pre ascention nanook? Nanook copy??

Kindred spirit? He wanted to erase screllum?? No wait i misread, "erase his traces"

THANK HEAVEN PHAINON ISNT DUMB

I rlly dont want his helmet to come off cus brother that (in the trailer) was uuuugly

I KNEW IT. the world bearing doesnt have a trial/ the trial is the entire next era, was a guess i had

So world bearing demi gods go to the next era, die, then their coreflame will be given to another one. It has a time limit sorta and unlike other demigods, they truly die (or their coreflame finds a better host), not get overwritten by next era stuff

Cant we chuck the time coreflame into lygus and call it a day? Its a robot!

BRO JUST FINF CYRENE AND TOSS HER THE TIME COREFLAME

i want to know if phainon is gonna be able to leave amphoreus by the end or will the whole planet be stuck in one place

(Pulled once)

Lygus is basically related to screwllum?!? A BROTHER??? Nah

So he's JUST a pathstrider? Not an emanator or something in between? Kinda disappointed. I expected a dual pathstrider and emanator (erudition/destruction)

I fully expect flame reaver to enter right now

Bro they talk like phainon is GOD chillllll

If amphoreus is a simulation made by an emperor scepter, to serve a lord ravager, the theory that cyrene wrote it, is false?

The direction that the stars in vortex of genesis move (when a coreflame gets returned) is the unclockwise. Interesting

MOTHERFREAKER LYGUS [he interrupted the cutscene]

Why is this shot of lygus standing infront of a painting has herta at the back? Dont tell me she created him or they have beef iswearto-

Is he just gonna mock my goat professor A?

So is he just praising irontomb?

Four possible answers to who is the prime mover of all- cyrene, mem, march, irontomb

BABY PHAI WHAT A CUTIEEEE hello babi

Did we get FREAKING RESET FACTORY-D?? BRUH TALK ABOUT MEMORY PROBLEMS

"I had no idea he used to be so chuuni" 🤣🤣 ME TOO GIRL

So we are gonna manipulate him and think we are cyrene or an old friend? [Placed in Phainon's village]

Yeah, lygus directs theatr plays now?

That song is familiar, is it an hsr song? Sounds like Amphoreus's trailer song

"Thats...?" ITS MARCH 7TH/ ITS MEM/ ITS ELYSIA

AND SHE WINKED!? hey memi or... March? Idk TB has not met Cyrene at this point of time yet

I love that we are supposed to be included in phainon's chuuni phase and he says "she hasnt decided a character for today" implying we've done this multiple times. I love my men a bit delulu

Id like to point out, fate is not just one single path, (it literally goes against my beliefs, religious and personal) cus like, theres a dosen possibilities, "fate" only shows one that is most likely, not every single one

Is aedes elysiae just a bunch of oracle lovers in a single village? [The teacher reads fallen leaves]

Did he just steal his toy back since the teacher doesnt remember? 🤣

Tiny Phainon writing really badly is one of my fav things now but also, does he know how to write? I think he didnt know before, unless when he asked mydei "you can write" he was genuinly shocked or that could just be phainon being phainon

"Im not that amazing so i cant be the deliverer" 😭

"Go to castrum cremnos, find the grand craftsman and ask them to forge me a sword" well, he did get that

"Seems more like a lake than an ocean" "ah that explains it" PHAINON can you not tell the difference between an ocean and a lake?

Guys it is somehow 4AM rn. I started at 1AM max! HOW DID THREE HOURS GO BY SO QUICK

phainon climbed over walls. Fanfic writer take notes

Phainon is wondering how pomilk tastes like... Does he have good taste in ANYTHING?

I just made TB jump off a balcony i am feeling proud

"I cant turn back time if something happens" DW TB CAN- JUUUUMP

Does this make TB a reincarnated manhwa mc where they become the male lead's friend from childhood? (Fanfics....)

Phainon sounds very uncertain of everything, lost and very young, inexperienced

The fairy, It looks like mem. Who's surprised [entered the fairies' house]

Excuse me "Dolimem, relimem, milimem, falimem" and then theres Mem. Thats the equivllant of: "Castorice, Tribios, Mydeimos, Hyacinthia, Anaxagoras and... Kevin" a lot of ppl with cool names then just a guy/gal/person with the most basic ahh name ever

"He couldnt forget about you all even if he tried" well cyrene... He did forget

Ooohhhh so the "as ive written" is an oracle book full of actual cards that later becomes what we use

There is an oracle card titled "gatekeeper" that is hilarious

Im going thru all replies in this section: [choosing an oracle card]

"Weaver" which part of Aglaeas death was graceful i dont know

"Gatekeeper" so phainon can hear echoes of future if he can hear tribs singing?

"Ruler"

"Traveler" kinda expected aether/lumine reference 😂

"Servant" i cant get over the fact that this is for Cas

"Healer" its FAT FLUFF and Hyacine ig. Why does she sound like a magical girl

"Scholar" "it best summarizes my true nature" HUUUH?? He really is just a dromas

"Deliverer" absolute harmony and perfection does NOT mean phainon, i believe its meant to reflect on what he will make the world to be. "The only oracle card without a darkside" basically what a 'flaw' means ig

Phainon hitting us with the "what no divine whispers this time?" Is rlly funny cus thats literally him

Man i wanted to learn about the other demigods as well. Its gonna suck if they dont show their cards later with 4 whole more patches to go

I wanna draw Cifer and Aglaea switching places now... (Aglaea on the streets, cifer a noble lady) [talking to the other heirs thru memories]

Tell me why is mydei standing the farthest away

Oh nyooo baby phainon isnt used to mydei😂 he immediately got irritated lmao

"No way i become friends with this half-naked showoff right?" Oh my dear boy... You literally bathed with him on atleast one occassion

TB HITTING HIM WITH THE "sitting close shoulder to shoulder in a bath" HOYO KNEW WHAT THEY NEEDED TO DO

"Horrifying, is that something id enjoy someday?" you ASKED mydei to do it. You INITIATED it

The way professor sound like he's saying "even in afterlife you still bother me?" Is great

"Isnt he... a little...?" Yes, wtvr word youre looking for, yes, i agree. He is, and i love him for it

I love aglaea's wish. Yes, get rid of those council of elders ppl and include lygus as well

See you tomorrow everyone...😭

No one is gonna protect the ppl in aedes elysiae my boy, thats the point

Uh oh... Flame reaver appearance...?

Oh so black tide

Its technically not called black tide, its more like "destruction" but ok

Are we the deliverer? I did think that but, phainon got that card first then got it again, so it cant be us. Unless theres 2 deliverers

Wow joshua waters, wow

Thats cruel. He was forced to kll his friends and family

He just pulled a Choi Han (trash of the counts family manhwa) but worse

SO WE LITERALLY INFLUENCED HIM TO MOVE ON?! "protect those who must be protected"

Back to present?

Nope

At this point, its a fanfic. Its a reader-insert. Kinda makes me wanna continue that story i was writing for phainon (and make C.AI chat based on this but i cant find the thing that adds personality to characters😭)

"I dont know how cyrene's studies are going" wait what? Didnt she die? Or because we were there to intervene/exist she lived? Im confused. Does that mean shes actually alive then?

TB literally asking the same question. I cant believe me and this racoon shared a braincell /j

Once again, TB speaking like an omniscient reincarnated/transmigrated mc in one of those royalty setting manhwas i love [TB said something about mydei holding the weight of his peoples lives on his shoulders one day]

"Still playing house, boy?" I love this line. Thank you mister Gabriel

The way Cyrene literally implied she knows we are from the future is chiling

I originally though phainon would toss TB into the scales like "heres my weird friend :D" and be done with it the way we did the first time with march's camera

Speaking of march, im still waiting for her appearance

"Stand with me and together, we shall become heroes" he doesnt change even in an alternate universe... But i dont think he really becomes a heroic hero, a hero nontheless tho!

Ohh thats how mydei started calling phainon "deliverer" they literally gambled and a ring weighted more than a card, but surprise surprise theres a whole ahh human now

MY LADY AGLAEA😭 THE GOAT IS BACKKK

i did wonder whos memories these are, but it looks like its a combination of two people in a different timeline. Or phainon wished and imagined cyrene's pov, while she, if alive, wished and imagined another persons pov. Or maybe its a titans, a clash of memoria, titans wishes, or something similar

PAUSE! WHY IS CYRENE HOLDING THE FLAME REAVERS HALF MOON THINGY?!? I understand now, THIS phainon became flame reaver and klled cyrene, and our phainon saw that, or rather, this phainon saw it and remembered it. Then for wtvr reason, our phainon had that as a memory

Interesting how she said "in the end, black tide STILL swallowed everything" she's gone thru this before. She is aware of it happening previously

I wonder if Okhema is referred to by "she/her" for ppl who have Caelus as TB? For me Okhema is always called "she/her"

So cyrene was supposed to be time demi-god. I wonder what happened in cycles where cyrene didnt exist

Why does lygus sound like he's close to a mental breakdown or a crash out?

"Unattainable existence" so we didnt actually exist in those memories? "Dwelled within his heart" polite way of saying imaginary friend. "You have accompanied him thru years" so were we there from the start and forgot or did phainon's data just get added to our brain like what? Im confused by cryptic words

Thank heaven for the frost affects i was getting real confused with the times and stuff. So this is a memory, ok

Or not?

WTFCK?!? EXCUSE MEE?! 33 WHOLE MILLION TIMES?!? ARE YOU CRAZY THIS IS CRAZY THIS IS CRUEL WHY THE HECK

Ok not gonna really skip, cuz i am crazy enough to go read every single one of those memories

Memory1: Hoyo is not playing, right off the bat, "executioner"?? Flame reaver? Cleaners? Lygus?

Memory2: Oh Cas hiii. And executioner again

Memory3: cipher with that cool pose ayyy

Memory4: immediately hit with mydei grunting

Memory5: I IMMEDIATELY SEE ICA FAT LITTLE ASS STICKING OUT BEHIND PHAINON IM DEAD BRUH😂

Memory6: AGLAEA LIVED?!?

Memory7: tribbie...

Memory8: i agree professor, vortex of genesis is not very "holy" looking

So first bubble, phainon was ready to face the executioner and he said it in a disgusted and hateful way

Second bubble Cas came to say that every soul of the dead is holding the executioner off

Third bubble cipher is already there with him, ready to buy time or protect phainon, he sounds very hard, like pained but keeping it together really well kinda way

Fourth bubble mydei sounds salty and phainon is worried. He wanted his bestie there for era nova

Fifth bubble did hyacine die and Ica lived?!? Phainon is ready and cold

Sixth bubble uhhh so aglaea lived. Phainon sounds rough and kinda mad

Seventh bubble phainon sounds hurt and sad

Eighth bubble professor actively manipulating and feeding delusion into this boy's head? THE SYNC WHEN THEY SAY THE LAST LINE?! AAA SO COOL! Like teacher like student

The final memory should be with cyrene or us i assume

Ok its us

How is TB "inseperable"? Shes a variable so unless amphoreus's cycle could not truly finish unless a variable was added, then shes seperable

Lygus saying 33550336 sounds like sunday saying the number of his anscestors (?) before his boss fight

FREAKING FLAME REAVER

I WAS READY, IM READY, COME AT ME, IMMA PROTEC MY BOY THRU IT ALL

i thought it was phainon who klled lygus, technically it issss but like, i thought it was our phainon

Also notice how phainon called flame reaver as executioner, even tho they gave him a name

OH I FORGOT ABT THIS BANGER SONG HECK YEA

53k dmg madam herta

ITS PHAINONNN wait no its not HUH?!? THAT IS NOT PHAINON WE GOT TRICKED

WHO IS THIS MAN IS IT IRONTOMB?! IS IT A STATUE OF PHAINON??!?

Khaos?

WAIT KHAOS IS 5 LETTERS! KEVIN IS FIVE LETTERS- PHAINON COULD BE NAMED KHAOS NOT "KEVIN"!

(I expected phainon to be khaos but didnt expect his actual name to BE khaos)

So phainon always had that crescent moon thing with him? Cuz it appeared suddenly

Im hating lygus even more. His voice is triggering my ears and brain

Ohhhh so cyrene and phainon saw amphoreus being fully corrupted by black tide to look like a bunch of pixels

Ok thats turned dark really fast

So only two people actually existed in this world, phainon and cyrene, thats how they were the only ppl aware of us in those memories and could see the black tide for what it is

Cyrene and phainon of that cycle must be truly broken mentally. Imagine learning about the truth of your world as its being destroyed

Huh?

Did we go back in time? Why are we back with phainon and cyrene again? Wheres TB?

So all this data will be given to irontomb for their program

So their golden blood IS from Nanook. Technically phainon is nanook's son

What? NeiKos596 IS A NAME? that sounds like a file name, or what a place holder is named like

See i expected Kevin (or any variations of it), Khaos, even Paimon, but i did not expect phainon to be named by an edgy 12 year old boy

GIRL SOMEHOW IT GOT WORSE WHIT CYRENE?! PhiLia093 girl😭😂

People actually named them like that or is lygus pulling an in-universe 4th wall breaker and using their coded names in amphoreus's data?

If they already entered a virus/bug (black tide) in the program, wont it make sense that it acts differently after a while? (Characters changing their path)

PETTY CYRENE AND THE WINK I LOVE YOU! A NEW CHAD HAS BEEN FOUND

Im confused, is this the first cycle or the cycle after TB is gone or a cycle thats happening at the same time as this one?

So technically time demi god doesnt matter cus its always gonna be cyrene

??? Khaslana?

WHAT THE HECK IS PHAINONS ACTUAL NAME?!? khaos? Kevin? Khaslana but wasnt that his last name? Im confuseeeeedddd?!

Thats- underwhelming [transformation to lord ravager]

His transformation looked better in trailer

I actually like him being Khaslana, it fits his lord ravager form better than phainon

Theres no light in khaslana's eyes

IS HIS LORD RAVAGER PATH GONNA BE DESTRUCTION?! I guessed it!! Destructions destroyer!!!

Oooo he referred to himself as "kephale" he really accepted his role

Imperator Cerydra, ok cool cool

HYSILENS IN GAME MODEL!

Ngl, her drip marketing looked very different from what i imagined

The fact that Khaslana's eyes are very obviously without the spark of life. He looks a lot, VERY MUCH look like a non-living being, he looks dead

Omg Hyselins' top is so unique!

(Pulled. Pity is 53 on 50/50)

His game model does have the sparkle, but during the talks his eyes are blank

Why is tribbie "little hostage"?

Is Cerydra an oracle? Whatchu mean "deliverer" wont appear in this age, this guy literally has sun patterns on his body and in his eyes?!

He sounds joking kinda but in a bitter way and sounds very... Idk

The way hes like "ok i didnt wanna throw hands, but if i didnt absolutely destroy you, thank my friends"

Tribbies eyes widening is so funny for some reason

To them he must look like an omniscient titan or smtg huh

Not him sabotaging himself- IS THAT WHY HE BECAME FLAME REAVER? because he didnt want era nova to happen?

So flame reaver was an antagonist but the good guy...?

Wow joshua waters, youve killed it. Youve done it this time lad, the voice over is amazing

The spark in his eyes is back!

Phainon is uhm dead? In true phainon fashion, he went into battle unprepared and uh got freaking klled😂

So flame reaver went thru a TON of cycles. How did bro not completely lose it? He was pretty insane at our cycle but he was very very calm compared to what im thinking of

So theres only 2 actual people. Cyrene who now lives outside of the whole cycle thing, khaslana who keeps going to the next cycle. Then in our cycle, dan heng and TB were added

I feel like im watching an ORV movie, the question is, is this the pov of kdj or yjh

He sounds very hoars in 134th (?) cycle with professor A

The sparkle is gone

Oooh dayum professor A is going for the throat

Anaxagoras is the type of person that if you have a superpower you can tell him and while he will be very harsh on you for acting so dumb with it, he will take that secret to grave. I'sekai experience with him? 10/10 would recommend

You guys dont understand, as a kevinSu shipper i am eating UP these Anaxa-Phainon/khaslana crumbs. Im livin, i am GOOD

False god sounds like a pretty good way to describe current khaslana

"Catgirl" coming from professor A is great🤣

He is so OP that he sounds tired from it

HUHHHH WHAT THE HECK IS THAT NUMBER?!??!??? ONE THOUSAND? IN LESS THAN 150 CYCLES?? (Khaslana has 1,596 coreflames in his body during the 134th cycle)

No wonder he sounds so tired!! HES CARRYING THAT MANY COREFLAMES!!

khaslana is turning into something he originally probably never wanted

He is acting like a true false god. A broken down person before they could reach godhood. Or one that was never meant to become a god. A flame that no longer burns or one that got blown out before it started

I havent seen professor A this calm and scared(?) /careful before. Maybe because its his first time facing a truelly terrifying possibility that someone he had watched over become something they should never become

The way the message says to not give anymore notifs about mental damage khaslana is getting is... Inhumane

The way he says the number of cycles sounds way too robotic, W VA work

What the heck is this battle with mydei...

Mydei kinda kinky?

I cant imagine living for 80 years, this guy went thru how many life times!?

His voice is becoming rougher and less "phainon" by each cycle and less coherent

Its cool how they turn into the boss forms!

Its like hes close to bawling but also going insane

Ohhh... We really are the deliverer

So khaslana is quite literally a coreflame with human skin on it

So he basically tries to self-destruct after a few million cycles

Its almost 9AM i want sleep but also answers

He is being very selfless but at the expense of others and its making everything wrong

OHHH THAT COLD FACE INFRONT OF THE FIRE CHILLS LITERAL CHILLS

TB pls save this man

HIS SPARK IS BACK

his voice is normal again

"Lets both be the deliverer, phainon"

What will be his lord ravager name be?

OKKK MAGICAL GIRL TRANSFORMATION TYPE SHI LETS GO?!!

Our first ever friendly lord ravager

So hes Phainon, ok

OH DAYUM BOY TELL LYGUS HOW ITS DONE

i have a love-hate woth phainon's design but ill keep that for later

Lygus got beheaded three times bro

Omg babi phai?!

Hoyo atp just make an anime

SONG?!??

WHAT AM I WATCHING???

NO WHAT THE FCK?!? PHAINON DONT DIE???

HUHHHHH DID NANOOK JUST GET HIT FROM SOMEONE WHO WAS A MORTAL LIKE A FEW MINUTES AGO?!?

Dont kll off phainon (they technically wont i believe)

????

I am confused? They klled off the mc of amphoreus? The guy they hyped up all this time?

Ok cool?

Im too sleep deprived to progress this story

K bai for now

[kurios-development-hell]

I was wondering, since I worked a lot on the details for the Rainbow Scourge, but most of them were lost because the character was so far away into the background of the outro, here is a close-up of this Darkner that terrorized Cyber World during its first cycles of existence.

Madame Tasque made a classification for it for her EXCEPTION catalogue. Here is what she wrote:

Handle: Rainbow Scourge Type: Renderfolk (Computer Graphics Software x86) Denominator: Guru Meditation EXCEPTION Core: Trojan Worm Threat: Level 5 (do not approach) Range: Omni Lair: Starlit Lake (Starless Landing) Timer: Every 144 Hours Marked for Termination: None (Queen wants it alive) Details: - Would assault uninhabited regions - Assaulted zones' data labelled as irrecoverable (charred) - Would consume other EXCEPTIONS erratically if found within range - Seen to disregard living Darkners unless threatened - Uncapable of communication - Extreme long-ranged powers - Elevated System Privileges - Usual scheduling priority protocols don't work on it - Program Segment Prefix garbled and inaccessible - Darkner casualties tied to collateral damage - Mindless (?) - PIPs detect strange whispering cries being emitted within an area of 1669 clicks around the subject

[trlcksterz]

Veggietales Au chars

Larry

Bob

Petunia

Madam blueberry (now called Madam blueburry)

Ichabezer

Mr nezzer

Archibald

Mr lunt

Aunt ruth

Jimmy

Jerry

Woah.. I have no clue who they are! they seem cool!!! And they look pretty!

// they look cool! <3

[stari-hun]

The Atlas : Scrapbook

The tone of the captions within the Atlas imply that narrator for them has a level of omniscience the newest one doesn’t have (1.4 patch and onwards).

[In Our Time], “The apostles got closer without making a sound. The apostles of heaven roared as the light shone through the hole. Many saw me off. It's time to make a choice.”

The text shows dialogue similar to a persons thought process, it's not similar to anyone who's present in the scene besides Druvis iii herself, but it is something she could've thought at another time. The CG here illustrates as Druvis iii fights our main characters. But it also shows the possible common thread/theme for reaching Insight 2. My theory is that Insight 2 is the peak of a character's power and introspection into themselves. In this scene she shows a Manus version of her Insight 2 outfit when she had chosen her path in life out of bitterness towards humans, and to go back in the Storm with the Manus. In 2.6 after seeing the Rowan twig still had a will to continue on underneath it's charring, Druvis iii decided to do the same and join Vertin to stop the Storm. This also shows the nature of people within the Manus as a whole as well, and how they can be people who started off friendly to arcanists then becoming a danger to them when they don't align to their own views.

[Tender Is the Night] shows the caption “What are these to those humans? I'm sure I'm not the only one who's curious.” It connects the conversation between Vertin and the Manus while directly relates to the scene happening at Sotheby’s house. It’s a nod to the [Player], directly addressing us as they mention Manus isn’t the only one curious about what humans truly value.

[Nouvelles et Textes pour Rien], “This is not even a punishment for her.”

The starting scene in Book 3, [Nouvelles et Textes pour Rien], shows Vertin's attitude and personality as a child. The entire book shows the reader and audience how she was apathetic towards authority, and unlike her peers (Matilda, Mesmer Jr, and most importantly, Sonetto) she didn't follow authority without reason. She follows Madam Z and Tooth Fairy because they helped her, and we see Tooth Fairy allude to on many occasions how she became a close adult figure to Vertin. Alongside Madam Z, they were the guiding forces in her childhood while teaching her how to be a functional person. We learn the most about Vertin's personality in this book, and in the opening scene as the first thing the book decides to show us about her is that silent isolation time isn't a punishment to her.

[El Oro de los Tigres], “Through the flourishing vines and leaves, people finally remember where she comes from.”

This is where we first see Druvis iii's insight 2 form after her leaving the Manus and her decision to live for the future. The text references Druvis's own dialogue and the manner she speaks in, but also references how Constantine talked about Vertin's group of refugee arcanists. Referencing how Constantine had referred to them as unenlightened and unrestrained arcanists behind her back before Druvis and the others proved how "unstable" arcanists truly are. Lilya also showed this nature in the chapter as she broke Vertin out of Laplace, notably as Mesmer Jr had a panic attack from the outburst of violence, the caption from [The Atlas] shows how arcanists are liberated by the use of their power.

Book 5, [The Prisoner in the Cave] captions “Cast off your shell, enter the silence. The answer you seek is within reach.”

The caption from [The Atlas] here mentions the answer Vertin seeks is within her reach, but not the truth. The answer to why the island was shrouded in mystery as well as the mysterious rules being enforced by arcane creatures, but not the truth behind the Storm.

[londonhalcyon]

Witchy coworkers! I was going through some of my old docs, and I found a tiny handful of unfinished Merula & Kathy snips that I had written just for fun. They have a delightful relationship behind the scenes.

* * * *

[July 1996]

“Sometimes,” she said, her voice a detached calm, “I want to burn the whole world down.”

Merula asked, “What’s stopping you?”

Leigh turned her head towards her. She blinked, as if seeing through a fog—however temporarily. “There are still some good things. Or one, at least.”

“Yeah? And when you lose that one good thing?”

“‘When’?”

“Good things don’t last.”

“I won’t let that happen. Not to this one.”

“Won’t make a difference.”

“I won’t.”

“Bad things happen regardless of what you want. Madam Bones—”

Leigh grabbed Merula’s tie, yanking her closer. Eyes fierce, her nails dug into Merula’s skin through her clothes. The whiskey was strong on her breath. “Don’t.”

Merula didn’t flinch. She didn’t fight back. There was nothing to fight. The girl was drunk and weak. She was a tiny bundle of reeds that barely reached Merula’s eye level. She wasn’t a duelist; she was a secretary. And she was grieving.

“If I have nothing else to live for,” she said hoarsely, “what good will the rest of the world do me?” She released Merula, and then she raised her wand. “Incendio.”

She said the word so calmly, in that same detached manner as before. A jet of flames shot to the nearest training dummy. Those flames burned white hot, so intense Merula could feel the heat from where she stood. And they kept growing hotter.

Leigh’s detached expression didn’t change once. Not as the dummy cracked and popped, spitting burning wood. Not as molten metal dripped onto the training mat, searing black holes through the fabric. Not as Merula began to tug at her collar, sweating uncomfortably beneath her robes. Not even as those flames flared a pure, vivid, brilliant blue.

Merula had only ever managed to make the base of her Fire-Making Spells blue—while sober, and that was at the peak of her concentration…or the peak of her rage. And Leigh was standing there, motionless, expressionless, while pure scorching blue flame reduced the dummy to a melted, charred stump.

She was panting when she stopped, beads of sweat rolling down her face. She wiped her upper lip with the back of her hand. Merula hadn’t been sure the girl was breathing until now.

Merula said, “Bugger me.” Now, she thought, might just be one of those rare—extremely rare—moments to reevaluate her prior assumptions. This woman could kill her, given the right motivation. Merula was certain of that.

* * * *

[A little over a year later, talking about their time in the Frog Choir]

“I have a little sister,” Kathy said, sounding congested. She wiped her nose. “You weren’t unfamiliar.”

“I was a monster,” Merula said, only half-joking.

“Oh, please. You were nothing more than a child. Temperamental, certainly, who’d had the misfortune of being taught that kindness is conditional and attention must be sought. You were insufferable, not incomprehensible. Hardly what I would call a monster.”

“You still had to suffer me.”

“Yeah, but it’s easy to forgive you for it now. You’ve grown up into someone bearable.”

* * * *

[Part of the same conversation; I have no idea what Merula says before this]

“That’s what my therapist says.”

“You have a therapist?” Merula asked.

“My brain is held together by Spellotape and antidepressants. She prevents it from being more banjaxed than it already is, bless her.”

[plunderherz]

I'm starting to take Lina Ramann really seriously. She is the first to have a very sharp view of things. Why is that hardly the case with the Liszt biography???

Because she had to adapt it to the taste of the time?

Here are a few quotes from the conversation with Carolyne, which, thanks to the other biographers, I always thought was pretty terrible. Here she is very human and tangible, just like Liszt himself:

In the evening.

She now tells me. Today she unrolled for me a picture of Parisian life and Zeitgeist in the years 1827-35: SO hair-raising, born out of the abyss of passions, so ambitious and yet SO animalistic,that horror and disgust oppress my mind, and the abyss of night into which I have gazed, and at the same time the light heights of striving cloud me like a chaos of infinity, swirling around me to the point of physical dizziness. And yet the mists disperse, leaving behind an understanding of things that is not unlike an unsealing of life. - My d' Agoult chapter still needs a lot of rewriting. The Countess was not an honest woman, any more against Liszt than she had been against her husband. Anyone who could ever understand how to tell her life truthfully would have to write moral scandal history. But she too was a child of her time. Justice demands that we say so. The last word she addressed to Liszt was telegraphed in 1865 [1864?] after the death of Prince Nicolaus von Wittgenstein [March 10th 1864], who released the Princess. The latter, however, believed that all the obstacles to her marriage to Liszt were "God's will to renounce" and persisted in doing so. The telegram from the Countess now read:

"Vous êtes refuse - venez dans mes bras.

Marie."

Liszt read it and handed it to the Princess, who also read it and placed it on the table in silence. A candle was burning then too - L. loved to char the telegram on it"

And later:

Today she let me look again into a world that made me "brrrr".

D'Agoult, George Sand -: genius and meanness in the latter, talent and meanness in the first one. She spoke on Alfred de Musset as well. Unfortunately Lindau is right, G. Sand himself told Liszt the well-known story and concluded with the words: "He could also have creped to death. We were so amused with each other!"

[The famous-infamous story that George Sand had sexy time with de Musset's doctor while he was very sick - side note by me ;)]

Only a God-born genius could, in the face of such moral disturbances, as they affected Liszt- today seen as contemporary air, pioneers and healthy reactions against rotten and immoralised social conditions, tomorrow as the exalted extravagances of brilliant poets and artists- hang on like this. The Princess claims: without those influences, Liszt's sexual willpower would have developed stronger, more resistant, with his innately and naturally healthy concepts of morality. I had to add, however, that the extraordinary excitability of his temperament was predominantly dependent on the creative power, just as the receptivity for grace, beauty, wit and spirit of women was predominantly dependent on the poetic direction of his imagination or was connected with it, and that neither that time itself nor its standard-bearers could be exclusively charged with it: they gave out the slogan for unleashing the passions and elevated them to the mysticism of ideal glorification. This was their error and the curse of their heresy. The Princess also held the view that Caroline St. Cricq would have been the feminine being who, as his wife, would have protected Liszt's youth from such influences, which I also deny: he would then have had a completely different natural disposition - he would have become a Carlo Dolce of music, not a "Liszt" The Princess knew Liszt's first pure, holy love, the future Madame d'Artigaux. The two women were on friendly terms, corresponded, visited each other in Paris and Weimar, and remained in contact until the latter's death. She showed me a photograph of her: Madonna-like!"

Quite apart from the fact that once again the blame lies with everyone else than the male youth, very astonishing! Poor unfortunate souls, @franzliszt-official & @chopinski-official . Your tender spirit has been corrupted by wicked women. Come into my arms 😅🙈 I am pretty...nice and...chaste..and stuff...

Sadly, Lina hardly gives us any gossip in the biography ;) A pity!!!

[bianczsx]

all my life never ko pa ata naranasan pumarty afff. i feel like i'm so introvert for it. pero a part of me na i wanna try haha. char! feeling ko, i'm still that kid na sinusundo ng tatay pag nainom sa labas, or if nag iinom sa bahay nalang namin ganyan. haha! ewan ko, i'm turning 27 and i feel like na-sshy padin ako for it. lol

ang random ng kwento ko, goise. haha ge. feeling ko kasi ang dami ko pang di nattry sa life kasi i choose my people ever since i was a kid. wala akong madaming friends ganyan. or if may people ako, mabibilang lang talaga. hahaha

so ya, super random guys. huhu

[bestworstcase]

some thoughts—messy ones—abt this beat:

this moment gets brought up with… honestly surprising regularity when people want to make a point about cinder being -redeemable- because she is, obviously, freaked out here. and like i don’t disagree that this scene and this specific beat in particular is doing really critical work to set up cinder’s villain->hero arc (not redemptive) but i do think “see! she’s repulsed by his wanton brutality!” is an odd and kind of reductive way to parse what’s happening here bc

that

is

a

grimm

thats a grimm. cinder reveled in the mass hysteria and violence she authored at the fall of beacon, personally reduced ozpin to a charred smear on the floor, and murdered a seventeen year old child in cold blood and gloated about it later. her first and only coping mechanism for Feels Bad is Killing People. it sparks joy. but she can’t stomach the sight of her coworker mauling a grimm.

ok? context is important. zoom out—

this is how salem’s training her—trying to train her—to mastery of the grimm arm. just throwing grimm at her until she reflexively falls back on her human arm, and then drops.

enough. i thought you were the girl who wanted power. stop holding back. if you want to master your new power, you must—

enter tyrian. and then for the whole dialogue between him and salem cinder gets framed like this:

folds hands.

the point of this scene is that cinder did lie to salem; she is not The Girl Who Wanted Power. what did she tell rhodes after she killed the madame? “i won’t have to run now.” she wants a home. she wants to be safe. she wants freedom. she believes—because the world has never given her a reason to believe otherwise—that becoming powerful is the only way she can ever get what she wants. but she does not, per se, want power.

and salem does not understand this because cinder has hitherto been very careful to keep her true motivation hidden, primarily because the last time she showed vulnerability her quasi-parental mentor immediately drew on her and shattered her ability to trust into a billion itty bitty pieces. cinder is, throughout this scene, very careful not to let salem see any of the stricken or pleading looks that the audience gets to see.

stop holding back.

tyrian interrupts when he does because salem can’t see through the mask cinder has presented to her (and is frustrated because she therefore can’t understand why cinder is being so timid with the phenomenal power she used to, it bears repeating, literally wipe the floor with ozpin)—and because what cinder takes from all of this is that salem wants her to be more brutal, like tyrian. there’s a reason cinder starts practicing on illusory rubys after this and why she’s frustrated and confused by salem’s judicious tactics in V5.

see? the beginning is the end and the end is the beginning; the scene is mirrored and tyrian is the looking glass. this:

is the guilt later renewed as horror:

there’s layers to cinder having this empathetic response to grimm when grimm are subjected to violence. obviously part of it is that cinder herself is grimm, at least in part, and that identification is conspicuously made present in the scene—

—but it goes beyond that. “you turned yourself into a monster just for power”/“look who’s talking.” think about how tenderly cinder says “shh, this is your home now” to the wyvern in V3. grimm are not the monsters in cinder’s story; they never have been. the abuse she suffered from her own kind was so horrific and unrelenting that it engendered a sense of kinship with the grimm. before she got that arm she was stitching grimm markings into the sleeves of her dress.

but insofar as this beat and this scene is integral to cinder’s nascent villain->hero arc the load-bearing pillar here is the contradiction between cinder’s notional aspiration (power) and her true motivation (freedom safeguarded by power), and the way her identification with and empathy for the grimm are tied up in that and the manner in which she tries to give salem what she thinks salem wants from her (i.e. be more like tyrian). which all comes back around with this ->

notably in 8.6 salem not only recants her harsh treatment of cinder since cinder returned but also reverses the things she says to cinder in 4.11. “i thought you were the girl who wanted power […] then stop holding back” -> “you’ve fought your whole life unwaveringly for what you want, and here i am holding you back instead of lifting you up.”

basically the rivalry between cinder and tyrian pulls a lot of symbolic weight because what tyrian represents vis-a-vis the salem-cinder dynamic is their shared misunderstanding of each other; salem accepts the ruthless power-hunger at face value and cinder reads into salem’s frustration a desire for cinder to be more brutal and both of them are incorrect. the framing of the disciplinary/apology scene in 8.6 communicates the shifting paradigm in part by adjusting his prominence in the composition of key shots before and after the pivot. and then salem sends him away to babysit the c-lister in vacuo.

point being the narrative development toward cinder’s villain->hero arc is also the narrative development toward salem’s villain->hero arc because they are structurally interdependent and constructed as a set; they’re meant to happen together and because of each other. that’s the trajectory. also cinder is keeping the arm and salem is not getting ungrimmed thank you goodnight

[hoardlikegoldenirises]

some supporting chars for TJ

*edited to change some minor details about Kent that have been bugging me lol

they work at a dungeon/bdsm club called Category 9

bonus:

slightly nsfw talk below

There is a nude version of this pic, which i'll post at the end. i'm pretty sure it's allowed per site rules since it's just nudity without arousal etc. but idk if the kink involved changes things...

Anyway

TJ doesn't work at CAT9 but he likes to help out w/ setting up equipment because he's a nice boy.

Madame Maypole has the most equipment (toys, machines, etc.) so he has a good rapport with her.

He is friendly with Kent but doesn't know him super well, but Kent also ends up being TJ's first time alone with a man (he's been in threesomes before though).

Sir, idk if TJ knows well or at all, since he mostly does stuff for the ladies, though he is willing to work with men occasionally.

TJ has def played with Madame Maypole and been plowed by Kent, though, at least once.

Bits:

I included naked Sir but really he doesn't ever take his clothes off at the club so... it's not necessarily relevant

Kent is hung yes

fortunately, TJ is kind of a size queen

[ihaveforgortoomany]

Asset Located

(Reverse 1999 ocs)

It wasn't often her family contacted her, rather it wasn't often she would respond to their constant needs for updates and messages about their standing with the Foundation - the influx of letters, pager messages and whatnot filling her already stacked mailbox sitting abandoned in the corner of her office. It was a true wonder she choose to open the latest one that had, against all odds peeked her interest.

She waded through an ashen cacophony of charred wood and deteriorated stone, iron rusted and melting in certain places. If this factory had seen better days no evidence of it could be seen. Much of the building had collapsed in on itself during the fire, poor infrastructure and lack of proper safety protocols ensured anything of value that was in the factory was destroyed in the chaos ... all but one.

The letter denoted something of interest to the family that had been lost decades ago, and with the 'convenience' of the Storm dragging London to the 1930s Foundation personnel were able to find traces of the 'asset' in this factory. Further reading into the letter described how the 'asset' had been situated in this factory for some time, judging from interviews and sightings of workers and local residents: she was only messaged to seek out the 'asset' when the building suddenly caught on fire, engulfing the building with flame. The family hoped to salvage the 'asset' in whatever state it was currently in, hoping to retrieve it before the Foundation got their hands on it first. However, something strange was noted about this fire: no causalities whatsoever were recorded, all accounted for workers somehow had been miraculously saved in the inferno by someone; flames diverted or a hand pulling them to safety just before the ceiling collapsed.

She noted going through the wreckage it would have been near impossible for a zero causality rate with the previously mentioned lack of proper equipment and safety regulations, noting the frequency of accident in Laplace and her Department with its more (somewhat) advanced standards. Everyone in the building was found and relatively unharmed, whatever aided in their escape likely was trapped in the building's wreckage, hence her visit .

...

For an hour her search yielded nothing: outdated machinery, ash and broken parts of the building as far as the eye could register. Her family was finally insane, she figured as she began to leave the area. Finally succumbing to rumours and speculations to salvage some semblance of dignity and status by digging through the mud like rats. Wasting her previous vacation days on a whim and bordeom ... Until she noticed a shift in certain fallen bricks.

So someone was still unaccounted for, she promptly rushed over to the individual, choosing not to immediately locate the fellow Foundation personnel that accompanied her to the place. They would take ages to respond, and time (literally and figuratively) never acted in their favour, so she began to gently lift away the debris ... to reveal not someone, but something.

Stepping back, Juni realised she had located the 'asset'. And the 'asset' looked back.

...

Proportionally, it was human-like: an automation likely from the Steam Age like Madam Lucy; limbs casted in dull slivers and gold shifted and tweaked as it was freed from the debris. Its orb shaped head, with a peculiarly large smile had finally faced her; dim flickering lights serving as eyes registering her presence. From the unatural tweaking, Juni speculated the fire or the debris had damaged some of its components and rendered it unable to get up, instead pathetically tweaking and twisting in an attempt to stand. Juni approached it, and proceeded to grab its head and inspect it, the automaton seemed to twist even more in protest, but was unable to do anything to halt Juni's inspection. The tweaking quickly stopped after a few seconds.

There ... the 'asset' still contained the primary element noted in the letter, her unexpected trip yielded results at last. It glimmered dimly within the mess of wires, tubing and frame of the automaton's head: further inspection of the automaton showed it was largely intact, a few nicks and bumps in certain parts but largely whole. Its inability to move at the current moment was likely the result of over-arcanum exertion, putting it into a forced rest state of sorts. It would be quite easy to take the automaton to her family, earn some good graces with them and finally stop their constant pestering ... however further regarding the machine Juni considered another option: taking it for herself. She could easily take to the Foundation and register it as her assistant, fix it and maybe finally have enough help in her understaffed department. And as a bonus would further piss off her family.

Satisfied with her conclusion, Juni located the golden object attached to its head, remembering how the letter described the process of activating the arcane array and promptly shut off the automaton. The tweaking ceased as its eyes dimmed out. She stood up, inspecting the automaton again: she probably will need to call Foundation personnel to carry the thing, her left arm was already shaking in pain despite the short inspection.

The trip wasn't a total loss at all.

[rave5369]

The Man and the Traveller

In the year of our Lord eighteen hundred and fifty-two, I met him in the flesh. I had seen strange men in my time—killers and cutthroats, saints turned thieves and thieves turned saints. But never a man like him.

He was taller than any man had a right to be, a brute near seven feet if an inch, and broad enough at the shoulder to cast a shadow like a hanging tree. His skin, what little of it remained unscorched, was the color of old brick and charred meat. No hair grew upon his head, nor brow, nor lip. His eyes were white as milk, sightless but seeing, and his teeth—God preserve me—his teeth were filed to points like an Indian's, though no savage ever walked the earth with a visage so utterly bereft of soul.

The first time I saw him was in a brothel in Las Cruces, where the whores would not look upon him nor take his coin. One, a mestiza with silver rings on every finger, made the sign of the cross when he passed. Another muttered in Spanish beneath her breath, prayers or curses. What God she prayed to, I do not know.

He stood in the doorway, broad enough to fill it, and the room took him in with the quiet apprehension of a chapel at prayer. The madam—a toothless hag whose name I had never learned—shook her head.

“No, señor,” she said. “No hay nada para usted aquí.”

He did not acknowledge her. He turned his head instead toward me, though I had made no movement, had drawn no undue attention.

“You,” he said.

I said nothing.

He sat across from me without invitation, and I saw that he carried no gun, nor knife, nor anything that might account for the fear he wrought in men. But he had the hands of a strangler. Thick-knuckled, broad-palmed, fingers that looked as though they might crack a man’s skull like a parched river stone.

“You are a traveler,” he said.

I swallowed. “Aye,” I said. 

“A man who has seen much.” 

“I have seen enough.”

“You have not.”

He set a great hand upon the wood, fingers splayed wide, and with the other he withdrew a coin. A Spanish dollar, black with years and wear. He turned it between his fingers, spun it on the table.

“Do you believe in God?” he asked.

I wet my lips and did not answer, and he smiled. His smile was a terrible thing.

“Do you believe in hell?” he asked, looking at me.

“I reckon I do,” I managed.

“Then you know me already.”

I had no words for that. I could not have spoken if the devil himself had set a branding iron to my tongue. The man—if such a name suited him—tapped the coin against the table repeatedly.

“Do you know what men fear most?” he asked.

I had seen men stare down the bores of guns, had heard them scream beneath the hands of Comanche torturers, had smelled the rank stink of death where men clung to life. And still, I did not answer.

“This,” he said, holding up the coin. “Not money, but what it decides.” He placed it back on the table and spun it. “Everything a man does is but the turn of a coin. Every road taken, every word spoken, every trigger pulled. But there are no two sides to this piece. Only one. The side that is meant to be.”

I looked at the coin. There was no face upon it. No king, no eagle, no Christ nor cross.

“That's a fine trick,” I said.

The man—he smiled again.

He rose from his chair, towering. He slipped the coin back into his breast pocket and turned toward the door.

“I’ll see you again, traveler,” he said.

And then he was gone.

That night, the town burned. The sheriff was found with his spine unstrung like beads from a rosary. The preacher hung from the bell of his own church, his eyes plucked from his skull. The women wept, the children fled, and the men who remained had their tongues cut clean from their mouths.

And standing amongst the carnage and smoke was the very man I had spoken to.

I saw him again in El Paso, then in Chihuahua, then in Matamoros. Each time, he spoke and each time, those who heard him fell to ruin.

He did not travel as men did. I never saw him upon a horse, nor in the company of wagons, nor with food or water to sustain him. Yet always he was hale, his great bulk unbowed by heat or hunger, his pale eyes searching without sight. And always, where he tread, calamity followed.

Each time, he found me. Always when I was alone, always with the same smile.

In El Paso, I found him outside the cantina where twenty men had perished, their throats laid open ear to ear, the ground drunk on their blood. In Chihuahua, he stood at the steps of the governor’s palace as its occupants were strung from the windows.

Each time, he spoke and each time, those who heard him fell to ruin.

In Chihuahua, it was in a cantina where the barkeep served mezcal so strong it could strip varnish from wood. He sat across from me as before, and he spoke.

“Drink.”

I did as I was told.

“The men here,” he said, “they prayed when they died.”

I did not answer.

“They called for their mothers, their wives, their Christ. But Christ did not answer for them.”

I swallowed another burning mouthful of mezcal, though it did nothing to steady me. “What are you?”

“You know.”

He placed the coin between us once more. “Do you still believe in hell?”

I nodded.

He turned the coin between his fingers, held it up so I could see its featureless face. “Good,” he said.

He spun the coin, and in its turning, I thought I saw a thousand faces reflected in its worn surface.

“The truth,” he said, “Is that all men are hellspawn. They live their lives running from the truth, praying to a God they think will save them from the things they fear. But in the end, the only thing that answers is the truth.”

The coin fell flat.

“You think you are different, don’t you?” he asked. “You think because you have seen the world and tasted its blood that you are immune. But you are not. None are. You are a traveler. But you are lost, like all the others.”

I opened my mouth, but his finger rose to silence me.

“The devil is not some horned beast,” he said. No. The devil is in every man who breathes. He is in their choices, in the coins they flip, in the blood they spill. The devil is the world you walk through. He is the fire in your belly that makes you crave the violence, the death, the destruction.”

“Then what are you?”

“I am the one who does not pretend otherwise.”

The coin lays still now.

“You wonder why I speak to you,” he said.

I said nothing.

“You are no witness. You follow death like a hound at its heels. And death—” He taps the table repeatedly. “Death knows its own.”

“I am no killer.”

“You will be.”

He smiled once more and stood, leaving the coin on the table. “I’ll see you again, traveler,” he said.

And then he was gone.

That night, the cantina burned to the ground. The barkeep was found nailed to his own bar, his eyes melted in their sockets.

I left Chihuahua the next day. Rode hard, rode fast, put as many miles as I could between myself and that place. But it did not matter.

For wherever I went, I found him waiting.

In Matamoros, where a gang of soldiers turned upon their own and butchered one another like animals. In Monterrey, where a woman was flayed and stretched like hide upon the walls of the church. In Saltillo, where a governor's son was found with his bones broken.

And always, he sat across from me. Always, he smiled.

“You are afraid,” he said to me once.

“I am.”

“Good.”

I do not know how long I ran. Weeks, months. It made no difference.

The last time I saw him was in a nameless border town. There were no women, no children. Only men. Hard men, killers, thieves.

I was one of them by then.

I had killed.

For money, for survival, for reasons I could no longer remember. But now I did not flinch at the screams. I did not pray for the dead.

He found me in a cantina, same as always. I had known he would.

He sat across from me without invitation, as he always did. He had not aged. He had not changed. The years had done nothing to him.

He reached into his pocket and withdrew the coin. The same as ever, its face worn smooth by time, by the fingers of a thousand dead men. He turned it in his fingers, and he spoke.

“You understand now.”

I nodded.

“Do you know what is written on the other side?”

I said nothing.

“Would you like to see?”

He placed it upon the table and he spun. The coin turned. Faster than it should have. Faster than any man’s hand could set it. And as it spun, I saw things.

A man kneeling in the dirt, his hands bound behind his back, his mouth gaping as a knife traced the line of his throat. A woman, naked and flayed, her raw skin steaming in the cold desert night. A child no older than six, eyes wide, hands clutching a rag doll black with dried blood. A war camp, a burning church, a field of bodies swaying from their nooses like windchimes in the sun.

And through it all, I saw me. A thousand times over. Each one different. Some young, some old. Some scarred, some whole. Some grinning, some weeping. But all me.

All the men I had been. All the men I could have been.

I stared.

The coin slowed. Wobbled. Fell flat.

For the first time, he did not smile.

He stood. He left the coin upon the table.

“I’ll see you again, traveler,” he said.

And then he was gone.

But I was still there.

Turning the coin between my fingers. 

And across from me sat another man. A traveler. Young. Hands unscarred. 

He looked at me, and I smiled. 

“You,” I said.

[gatheredfates]

🖊

Seelu knows she will eventually go insane.

It is not a question of if, it is a question of when.

There was a choice she was presented with when she first encountered the 'stranger' with the bleeding heart; a darker knowledge that, though she did not quite understand it's greater machinations, told her that pledging herself to it would free and doom her both.

Was she not already doomed? She did not know her home among the trees; she had been passed down through occupational force to occupational force like well-worn trinket, weighed and traded like gold. She was fed, clothed and bathed, but what of that was a life? Half of it she saw from the bars of an iron cage rattling aimlessly down charred paths - 'the men will be pleased to see you', said whatever madame or lord held sway over her - and it was all she could do to be comforted by the sheer vacuum of space that lay in the gaps of stars.

Somewhere, there was nothing. For it wasn't like she wanted to vanish, she simply wanted to have nothing happen to her at all.

When he promised that to her, the chaos and the stasis - the power and insanity - she took it without a second thought. She clawed her way to freedom bloodied and beautiful, but she was alive. 'You will see unimageable horrors,' he tried to warn her, but she saw them already. 'You will find shadows in the edges that aren't there.' But she would also see the stars.

What he should have told her was that he would never let her go. She was his first mistake, a 'kindness' from a creature who did not know the word. He would bring her back again and again.

Even when he shouldn't.

Even when it was wrong.

Even when he had to realign her skull himself. Even when she opened her eyes, a cosmos of floating lights, blinded by his gift.

He will not let go. But she will go insane.