#They wouldn't get to nor finish Arc 7

[shiroselia]

You know, even though my goal was to make Elizabeth a better character through QuintSum as a project, even *I* am really fucking surprised at how much she carries The Plot.

Like I just wanted her character to mean something and pay off, but had the girls not asked for her help and then teamed up with her, the story would end at chapter 30

[redstringraven]

4 (👀), 7, and 8 for Raph n Gwen!

\TuT/ !!! aaa THANK YOU!!! i wound up spending most of my art time on commission work today, but i'll try to get a few associated doodles up tomorrow!

shipping ask game

4) who handles bugs and how?

ngl, i was really hoping this one would be asked. >xD i've got a series of mini-comics in the works for this topic. an excuse to talk about it!!! gwyn handles the bugs. i know: stop the presses. she has a strong love and respect for animals. the bugs of 3rd earth are similar to fae-creatures in liáfsini; they're considered guardian spirits, as they're known for guiding lost children out of the woods or leading help to another who's trapped or injured. because of this, gwyn tends to treat certain bugs with special care and delicacy (she knows they're not the same as the guardian spirits, but their familiarity draws out a tenderness for something she considers sacred). she does tease raph about his hatred of bugs from time to time, but it never becomes antagonistic. more of a gentle, affectionate ribbing while she ushers a stray spider into her palm. she appreciates being called to remove an intruder in lieu of more aggressive action. raph remains just as hostile towards bugs as he is in canon throughout gwyn and ash's story arc. it's only after the arc has finished, after he and gwyn have cautiously and carefully began cultivating a relationship, that he approaches her and asks for help in overcoming this particular hatred. the liáfsian guardian spirits are sacred to the realm and its people, after all. if they're important to her, he wants to respect them... which means he can't be reflexively swatting at them or cursing their existence should he come across one. the series of mini-comics will basically be gwyn trying to help him desensitize through slow exposure. ...here. cup your hands together and i'll rest my hand in yours while this bug crawls around my fingers. mikey calls it a "roly-poly". it's harmless. don't worry, i won't let it touch you; just worry about watching it, getting to know it. we'll take the next step when you're ready. ...this approach of hers has backfired a handful of times, of course. y'know. wasps exist. so do mosquitos. much as she'd love to be snow white, some animals just don't give a fuck. and from now on: it's on sight.

7) what's something they're afraid to tell each other?

for gwyn, it... basically boils down to a number of things she's done to survive. the more she got to know the boys and their father, the more she would learn about their views on 'honor'. in the earlier periods of their time together, she wouldn't have held any shame in her willingness to fight dirty, among other things. dying with 'honor' is still... dying. and gwyn has held the mentality that "if i die, ash dies" for a long, long time. she's killed, she's broken trust, she's done "the wrong thing", and she's taken advantage of the kindness or naivety of others (this has absolutely contributed to her being protective of mikey and leo--especially leo, as he's prone to seeking out the good in others even when they don't deserve it). since befriending the turtles, she's found herself wanting to be more like them. they've instilled a kind of hope in her that she's never known before, and it sometimes leads to her putting them up on a moral pedestal. this causes her to feel even more ashamed of the things she's done to stay alive. ...cripes, while she was stealing resources from others who may have needed them, they were risking everything to stop an intergalactic war criminal from escaping their planet. and for what? almost no one even knows they exist. ...what right do i have to intrude on their lives? let alone accept their help? for raph, it may be obvious but: his temper. losing agency to his anger is something he's both fearful and ashamed of. and while he has gotten better at managing it, that doesn't erase moments in his past that still haunt him (nor does it mean the problem is completely gone). gwyn has a habit of enabling mikey when he gets on his ~battle nexus champion~ bouts, and, while raph plays along--'hating' that mikey won--there's a part of him that desperately hopes she'll never hear that mikey beat him. and it is. VERY important to note that this dread is less founded in the fact mikey beat him and entirely founded in how mikey beat him. because he gave in to his temper again. it's not who he lost to, it's what he lost to. it's that he let a major weakness of his not only be exploited, but that he let it take control. and god FORBID she ever find out about the time he attacked mikey in a blind rage. she is the one other person he knows who understands what it's like to harbor such a fierce, devoted love toward ones siblings... to lash out at one of them so mindlessly? she'd be disgusted. at this point in his life, raph is also dealing with the worry of being "dead weight" when it comes to the brothers as a unit. he recognizes leo's ability to lead and negotiate and strategize, that mikey's much more competent than he lets on and has a desire to make the world better, and that don makes up for his weakness in a fight with his strength in just about any other area--including literal physical strength. as raph once told min-ji: "when we were kids, it was easier. havin'… a place you took. or a thing you did". he feels like he's falling behind in a sense, and he doesn't know what to do about it. which, in his eyes, is weakness. she can't know about that.

8) who cooks, and are they good at it?

most of the cooking around the lair is done by either leo or mikey. when raph cooks, he cooks comfort or savory food, and he's almost always making it for someone else he thinks needs it. he's REALLY good at it. fills your belly and leaves you warm. bless'm. gwyn isn't bad at cooking, per say, more she's unfamiliar with 3rd earth ingredients and also hasn't had the resources to cook for herself in a long time. she's out of practice. what food she's gotten in the past was usually stolen, foraged, or something she sweet-talked her way into getting (i.e., dine and dash, leaving the other person with the bill). she IS getting better, though! i imagine she and ash would love joining mikey and leo in the kitchen to make meals.

[alien-menagerie]

What are your thoughts on the hivewings and silkwings? I'm a huge fan of the alternate physiology with their wings, and the concept of new tribes forming over time due to hybridization, and I'd love to know what headcanons you have about them!

Personally, I really enjoy the concept of them! I love the idea of wasp dragons and butterfly dragons and just Bug dragons in general, but I really wish that like. the big point of the Divergence from the BeetleWings Wasn't the idea that it was hybrids that just spiraled out into the HiveWings.

Like don't get me wrong, I do really enjoy the HiveWings, but it Should have been just a Thing that happened over time like the BeetleWings turning into the SilkWings- but instead we got told that it was the hybrids produced by Clearsight that became the HiveWings.

Let me get a little Numbery here. We know there's been 2,000 years since Darkstalker's first fall (when Clearsight and Fathom trapped him under the mountain), and we know that Clearsight left very soon After the fact to find the new continent. Let's say She only had one dragonet with that one BeetleWing, and every child she had waited until they were fully grown (7 years old), then the One year it takes for a dragon egg to incubate and hatch. 2,000 years divided by the 8 it takes to produce a new child, it means there's a VERY SMALL amount of time in the sense of When Clearsight Happened to when new "HiveWings" were produced. Like somewhere around 250 dragonets- which is Very small if you think about it! And yes, this math *does* only take into account of every dragon in this line only having 1 kid, but even then, by the time we would get to now, they'd be so muddled in with SilkWings that it wouldn't matter- *unless* they're inbreeding, which feels Very Fucking Weird to try and include when we know these dragons are smart and sapient! if they were just animals it would feel Less weird, but still- and even *then*, we wouldn't get the Vast Numbers we get by the books they're introduced, so it just feels like there's Some Sort of Animus fuckery going on, but we haven't been Told that.

See the amount of time we have between then and now is enough time to be like. Yeah, it seems totally fine that you can't find Any traces of IceWing in Stonemover and Sunny, but it's not NEARLY enough time to say we could've created a new tribe and have the numbers to make the HiveWings as they are.

I could be COMPLETELY wrong here. I read the lost continent arc up to the poison jungle back when it came out, and then I never finished dangerous gift nor even cracked open the flames of hope yet, but I DO know the Darkstalker legend book like it's a good childhood friend, so my numbers and such may be a little off. It's just kinda strange, you know?

but you DID ask me for my headcanons- I like to headcanon the two tribes being alot closer than they expect! I like the idea of HiveWings having antenna, and maybe even those with Especially Strong abilities to be able to sense feelings- almost like mind reading if you catch my drift. I also like to headcanon Flamesilks as not actually having Flame Baring Silk, but rather just silk that *glows*, and it produces heat that lets it be known as "flame silk".

I do also *personally* headcanon that BeetleWings are still around, maybe bumming around in the poison jungle or underground somewhere, like some beetles, but that's less important. I do know that there's some lore floating around in those various "Ask Tui" events on forums n such that Icewings are the origin of the Animus Genes, but I like to think it might've also been in BeetleWings and it's why some things are Like That on Pantala.

But, That's all alot to say that I enjoy these dragons and wish they were treated better by the narrative- because the 3 moons know we didn't need that slavery plotline.

[misty-wisp]

GRAAHHHH TY FOR THE TAG LEE!!!!

How many works do you have on AO3?

just 11 right now but istg i'm going to raise that number higher one of these days. the omori hyperfixation is uber dead so !!! i am going to write more stuff for persona (and maybe smth else idk) and hopefully i'll get more stuff out there that way :3c

What's your total AO3 word count?

115,311!! honestly a lot more than i expected. buuuut then again when you take out the longfic it shortens by a LOT

How many fandoms have you written for, and what are they?

just 2 rn, omori and persona. but i swear. one of these days. i am going to branch tf OUT

Top five fics by kudos:

Yurushite (OMORI) - not surprising. literally my attempt at a longfic that kinda failed bc my hyperfixation exploded and died but i will forever remember it oh so fondly

The Disease Called Love (Persona 4) - souyo my beloved. also not surprising even tho this is literally the first fic i've ever posted. i'm not proud of it (it's so like...childishly edgy i think) but i'm glad readers do !!!

Gomenasai (OMORI) - yurushite's prequel!!! recently got a really sweet comment that made my remember why i loved it so much. first fic i wrote without a beta reading too

Kel Kisses the Homies Goodnight (OMORI) - really cute fluffy silly thing i wrote while i'm not really known for writing cute fluffy silly things

Reminiscence (Persona 3) - this is only here bc the rest of my fics are too niche to get that many kudos. this and KKTHG has a difference of 66 kudos. this is not a good fic and a rewrite is absolutely necessary. don't read this.

Do you respond to comments?

usually!! sometimes i don't if i don't have anything to say that i haven't already said. or if i'm feeling a little lazy aha

What's the fic with the angstiest ending you've ever written?

the disease called love bc spoiler alert yosuke fucking dies

also gomenasai bc spoiler alert omori fucking dies

also yurushite if i ever finished it bc spoiler alert--*shot*

Do you write crossovers?

no, and i'm generally put off by them. my previous beta reader got me involved in a crossover fic of sorts they wrote and that ended in a disaster of which i cannot elaborate on as it's TMI. long story short now i'm wary of sci-fi settings, isekai, and popular shonen anime

Have you ever gotten hate on a fic?

not necessarily? but there's this one comment on yurushite that always bothers me.

like...is this person getting on my ass for making sunny forgetful? do they just hate sunny in this fic? is this comment supposed to be read as a lighthearted joke? i genuinely can't tell. i feel like it is hate but i'm honestly not sure

Do you write smut?

no. nor do i plan to. maybe when i get into a ship that involves actual grown-ass adults.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

not necessarily, but said previous beta reader attempted to take my idea for reminiscence's continuation (which we've discussed quite a bit beforehand) and ran with it, claiming it as their own. as far as i know, they haven't written anything, and i can't really get on their ass for plagiarism since i haven't put anything out myself. so i wouldn't necessarily call it actual stealing.

still creeps me the fuck out, though.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

no but it'd kick ass if i do

What’s your all-time favorite ship?

oh god idk....it keeps bouncing and changing....i'm gonna say ryomina/ryoham bc that's the first non oc/canon ship i really got obsessed with. ryoham especially but they're the same to me--i love the tragedy of it and ryoji's the sweetest

What’s a WIP that you want to finish, but don’t think you ever will?

all of them, but if i had to pick one...yurushite, lmao. that was planned to have 5 entire arcs (aside from the prelude/first 7 chapters) consisting of about 20 chapters each. yeah nah i'm not gonna be fixated on an rpg for that long

What are your writing strengths?

formatting is my bitch. also according to my partner i'm really good at differentiating character voices (btw if you see this hi carmen <3333 ily)

What are your writing weaknesses?

i suck ass at descriptors and creative prose i need to write more poetic ass narration NOW

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fics?

huge flex i can never pull off (japanese, you wound me so...) but i. have not encountered that in fic. so idrk but i agree w/ what lee said

What was the first fandom you ever wrote for?

on a technicality? popular shonen anime i will not name.

in reality? persona. p4. souyo angst my beloved. honestly i wanted to write a lot of stuff for persona but a lot of it was just the same tropes over and over if not attempts to copy what other people wrote (y'all i did NOT have an original thought....) so i ended up writing (rushing) reminiscence bc i was blinded by fake promises of adoration and popularity.....do not do that !!!! you will write very shitty fic !!!! also if your beta reader cannot provide a substantial enough critique to help you w/ ideas then you should probably consider dropping them

What’s your favorite fic you’ve written so far?

i love both game of endurance and yurushite equally. the former bc it shows how far i've come in narration and the latter bc like. that is the most effort i have put into anything ever. i hope to god i make another project with just as much effort in which i'm not once again blinded by false promises of adoration and popularity. fantasies of getting weekly if not daily fanart drawn for your fic will only get you so far

just gonna tag my bestie @aria0fgold since my other writing bestie hasn't gotten much out yet (it's ok tho if you see this and wanna add just pretend i tagged you hehe) :3c

AO3 tag game :3

thanks so much for the tag @mvshortcut !!!!! much appreciated, this was a blast to fill out :D

How many works do you have on AO3?

86! Damn, that's more than I remember 🙀 I have been writing pretty fervently since I was pretty young, though, and I transferred all my old fics from fanfiction dot net to AO3, so it's a long stretch of time. All my old wattpad fics are still rotting somewhere though lmaooo I can't even access them anymore bc I forgot my password and I can't reset it bc I used a school email 😔

What's your total AO3 word count?

443,734! When I get to half a million I'm gonna have to throw myself a party. With boba and everything

How many fandoms have you written for, and what are they?

Oof, okay, here we go. A lot of the fandoms I have tagged on AO3 don't really "count" because they're just aggregate tags for the same fandom, so even though AO3 says the number is 48, I'm gonna count the TRUE number as 17. (It got cut down so much because of how many video game series have different games with different fandom tags on AO3, lmao)

Here's the breakdown of the list:

Persona (Mostly Persona 3)

Fire Emblem (Mostly Shadow Dragon and Blazing Sword)

Legend of Zelda

Pokemon

Professor Layton

RWBY

Kid Icarus: Uprising

Earthbound/MOTHER

Red vs. Blue

Voltron Legendary Defender

Naruto

Final Fantasy XV

Harvest Moon

The Mysterious Benedict Society

The Avengers

Animal Crossing

Care Bears (despite having never actually consumed any Care Bears media to my knowledge)

The worst part is that this stupid list would be much, much, MUCH longer if I finished even a quarter of my WIPs 😭 Hell, even just my "Video Games" subfolder in my "Fanfiction" subfolder has more than 17 subfolders in it...

Y'all don't understand how many random fics my ADHD spares you from ever seeing I have no focus

Top five fics by kudos:

Ash and Emotion (Zelda) - Not surprising, I knew this was my most popular fic. It was for a ZeLink zine full of beautiful work :)

Resemblance (Naruto) - bro I always forget people really liked this one. Literally an unedited drabble I did in an hour for a "pride month drabble challenge" which I immediately abandoned. Trans rights I guess

Always Wanna Play (But You Never Wanna Lose) (Persona 3) - This one isn't surprising either, and I'm very proud of this fic so I'm quite chuffed to see it get so much attention... thanks everyone :')

The Beat of Your Heart (Zelda) - Now this one surprised me a lot. This was just a little piece for ZeLink week... Another unedited one, I literally was writing it on the toilet in church so I could get it out in time 😭

Comfort (Zelda) - Another ZeLink week piece, but I knew this one was popular. Also unedited, lmao. I was writing it on the day of my AP Calc finals and I rushed through the exam so I could have more time to work on the fic 😭 I made some Choices that year

Do you respond to comments?

I try to! But I get very anxious about it and tend to work myself into a tizzy, so I often put it off for later and then forget, haha. Then I'll go and respond to all my comments from the last few months and feel even weirder about it... T_T

What's the fic with the angstiest ending you've ever written?

Oof. That's... a hard one, haha. I've written a couple of fics without happy endings, though I typically don't. At least three fics which end on a canonical character death, for instance. But I'd say the ending which made me the most emo writing was Butter, a Mother 3 fic. It ends with Lucas, who's like 9, recently lost his mother, then lost his twin brother (and thinks it's his fault), and is now being neglected by his father, crawling into bed and crying. So yeah, pretty bleak, lmao... but at least he doesn't die I guess?

Do you write crossovers?

I do, but I haven't posted many yet. I'm not always huge on writing them, but I do think about them a lot. I was working on this one Persona 3 x Fire Emblem Awakening crossover but I lost steam on it, and now there's a really lovely crossover on AO3 with a similar premise that I was SO delighted to come across!!! Hope y'all don't mind me taking a break from linking my own work to shill for this one, hehe

Have you ever gotten hate on a fic?

Unfortunately, yes, about six times, I'd say. Even more unfortunately, most of those times happened earlier on in my fanfic writing career, and I was pretty sensitive to hate back then, so I deleted many of the relevant fics, and some of them I don't even have access to myself anymore.

Not gonna talk about the ones that are still upsetting, but I will talk about the funny examples: on a (since deleted) RWBY fic, I said in the author's note that I "wrote them as platonic, but the fic can be read as WhiteRose", and then I got a glowing comment gushing about how good the story was which ended with "but then you had to ruin it by shitting all over WhiteRose, how about you [long suicide bait]". Third most baffling comment I've ever received.

The two most baffling were on different fics, but both were making the same weird accusation??? One was on a ZeLink fic (actually, on Comfort, my fifth most kudos'ed fic of all time now), and y'know I think I'm just gonna show you the comment in question:

The other one was on a long-since deleted fic which focused on both a romantic ship, as well as a fatherly relationship between one member of the ship and the other member's father. I guess having a fatherly relationship with your father-in-law makes your boyfriend actually your brother (and therefore you can't date him anymore). IDK man people are crazy. (tbf the commenter in question thought I was setting it up so that he'd get adopted by his boyfriend's parents, which would give them more of a case, but like... that didn't happen in the fic and wasn't going to. they just guessed at a future plot development and got angry about their guess)

Do you write smut?

I do, but I've never posted any. I've posted one fic that was very suggestive, I'd even call it "NSFW" in a sense, but never anything explicit. Maybe I will in the future? We'll see if I can ever finish anything smutty, lmao.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Yep, I had Ultimatum, my longest chapter-fic (and by far my most popular fic in the ff.n days) stolen and posted on another site by somebody. I reported it but never checked back up to see if it got taken down.

I also feel that I've had my work plagiarized pretty damn blatantly in another fandom (I was browsing a certain AU tag and read one which contained all the exact events and sometimes word-for-word dialogue from a fic of mine, just very very slightly rewritten) but the poster had no other works and their writing was definitely extremely juvenile, so... I figured they were a dumb kid and just decided not to raise a fuss. Checked back later and they deleted it, hopefully because they realized they shouldn't do that, so I figure there's no need to start shit over it. Honestly, if that person used that experience as a jumping-off point to write their own fics, then I'm glad it happened, imitation being the highest form of flattery and all.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

No, though I had someone reach out to me on fanfiction dot net a long time ago and ask permission to translate An Unheard Goodbye, which was super exciting! I agreed, but I don't believe they ever got around to it, or if they did, they never posted it. Still very flattering, and I think about that a lot, hehe.

What’s your all-time favorite ship?

HOW COULD I POSSIBLY ANSWER THIS. UM. UM UH. UHHH UM UH I. UM.

I'm.... gonna say Zelda/Link? I haven't written it in FOREVER but it was such a huge part of me coming into my own as a fanfic author, so I have to give it credit for that.

What’s a WIP that you want to finish, but don’t think you ever will?

.......all of them 😭 god I have so many of these damn things. But for the prime example, I'd point to Ultimatum, an old Pokemon fic that I started in middle school. I got all the way to the climax and I feel bad leaving my readers hanging, but... at this point, if I did continue it, I would honestly have to rewrite the whole fic first just to be in line with my current understanding of the characters.

What are your writing strengths?

Y'know, I think I get character voices down extremely well in a way which elevates my dialogue and narration. That's probably the thing I'm most proud of in my own writing, at least.

What are your writing weaknesses?

BREVITY. Or the utter, glaring lack of it. I have also been known to muddy up my writing with an overabundance of A) adverbs, B) unneeded clauses tacked onto perfectly good sentences, and C) em-dashes 😭

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fics?

I think it's dope as fuck, but I currently can't really accomplish it because I'm monolingual (NOT FOR LONG IF I HAVE ANYTHING TO SAY ABOUT IT, I'M COMING FOR YOU, JAPANESE FLUENCY!!!!). I will also say that I don't like when authors will write characters having a story-important conversation in another language, then put the translations in the end notes or something, requiring you to either read the chapter confused or else keep scrolling back down and back up.... I think even that's totally fine to do if what's being said isn't plot-relevant, though.

What was the first fandom you ever wrote for?

Naruto. I hadn't read or watched Naruto btw, I had only read other Naruto fanfics. I have spoken on this topic many times, but it remains hilarious to me. Also, so many of my old Naruto fics are lost to the Wattpad times, but I will take this opportunity to once again share a quote which I recently managed to unearth from my long-lost unsung magnum opus:

Never ever will I intentionally attain the level of comedy gold that I managed while writing completely dead serious Naruto fanfiction on Wattpad in 2012.

What’s your favorite fic you’ve written so far?

See above. How could I ever top that fic.

In all seriousness, this question always makes me sweat, but I think I'm gonna say Oil, a slightly older fic from my EliHec days which I absolutely obsessed over for months before finally managing to finish. And, unlike most of the fics that I obsess over, I think the obsession actually made it come out better rather than worse, haha.

thanks again for the tag!!!! as for me, I'll tag uhh, hm, @wizard-finix @dreamedge @misty-wisp @flyfish1999 and any other AO3 writers who see this!!! (idk how many of you use AO3 and most of the MBS authors I know have probably already been tagged hehe but anybody who wants to should absolutely feel free!!!!!!!)

[boop-le-snoot]

PARTY FAVOURS I CHAPTER 31

First time reader click here

it's a mental breakdown *off-key kazoo*. One (1) incident of physical abuse from a parent. And Stephen Strange arc begins opening. Kind of angsty, but more of a filler chapter to resolve the parents-suck thing.

A couple of days was all it took for me to get back on my feet... Figuratively speaking. Neither Bruce nor Tony was particularly excited about me being up and about, I was carried to my desired destination point by one or the other on most occasions. Physically, my body grew tired very easily - I took a lot of sporadic naps throughout the day, more often than not falling asleep in someone's arms. Nobody minded, really - even Loki, who wasn't a touchy-feely person by any means, relented and acted as a body pillow for me when we crashed on the common room couch to catch up with the TV show episodes I'd missed.

Tony was very obviously on the verge of a nervous breakdown. During the few hours I had spent being chased by the Cursed Box Demon in my nightmares, all the leads towards the contractor proved to be cold. Natasha was the most irritated of them all - a late-night talk with Clint through the vent above my room revealed that she took it as a personal insult, unprepared for a simple merc to be so good at evading the world's most notorious spy.

Hulk kept taking over Bruce's body - eyes shining fluorescent green - at the times we were together, periodically clutching me to his chest with clumsy but careful movements. I pitied the mercenary should he encounter my gentle scientist - I didn't think Bruce would even attempt to hold back Mean Green. They seemed to have achieved some sort of symbiosis those days, switching between the two personalities in one body almost effortlessly. Circumstances aside, I was very happy that the tension and the persistent internal conflict inside Bruce had almost disappeared.

What made me upset was Strange. The sorcerer was behaving, well, strangely. He began avoiding all of us - his excuses of helping the search for the merc were flimsy, and Wong's long, deep sigh, when asked about the sorcerer's state of mind, spoke volumes. I suspected Stephen was either seething with anger or drowning himself in the sea of guilt; I had a hunch he was similar to Tony in a way that he hid his vulnerability behind an impenetrable wall of malice and sarcasm and dry wit.

Perhaps I was wrong. But the pent up frustration resulting from the conflict between my overactive brain and my uncooperative body had to blow - and my mother was the fire to my already short fuse. Somehow, she got ahold of the information that I was hurt indirectly because of the actions of the Avengers - and she had called the first available phone she found, which meant Pepper Potts got an earful of vitriol regarding Stark Industries, SHIELD, Tony, and everyone else, including my father. Stoic as she was, Pepper took it all with grace, replying politely to my mother until she hung up on the redhead.

Pepper placed an urgent call to Coulson immediately after that, making the already uncomfortable situation spiral into something truly disgraceful. It ended with strict orders for me to return home - not that anyone besides me and Coulson knew about it. I was a legal adult, I could choose to stay in the tower and my mother was told so on numerous occasions... Knowing her, I was well aware she wouldn't be above storming Tony's home with a small army of her lawyer friends.

Inwardly seething, melting with the anger sitting in the pit of my stomach like a sharp piece of ice, I managed to convince Tony to have Happy escort me home at the guise of gathering more necessities. Tony, being Tony, offered me to buy anything and everything I needed, but relented under my puppy-eyed pleading. It was getting harder and harder to lie to any of my men, the weight of it settling unpleasantly bitter on top of my already foul mood.

Happy grumbled in displeasure at being tailed by a nondescript black SUV - I knew SHIELD would have eyes on me 24/7 now, at least until they catch the rogue mercenary - but seemed to be happy at my general state of relative wellness in his own... Happy... way. Five-second side-grin and "Glad you're up and about, Princess," was probably the most I was going to get from the man who's nickname contradicted his personality. In my humble opinion, he should've been called Brick instead. He was built like a shit house, too.

The moment I stepped into the living room, wearing Wanda's spare sweats and Tony's hoodie, I took a slow look around the room and immediately knew this was it. Most of my anger had receded, courtesy of finally being able to get out of the tower and do something, but the ice in my stomach persisted. The smell of whiskey and cigarettes hit me like a wall, news playing on the TV doing very little to dissolve the viscid, tense silence.

"Sit down," My mother instructed me in the tone of voice she used on people in the courtroom - convicts, people who knowingly broke NDAs.

"I don't think so," I replied, refusing to give in to her bullying. I was being absolutely reckless, I knew it, and still it didn't stop me from standing up for my men. Logically speaking, it could have happened to me anyway, Avengers or not. The cursed box came along long before I'd even met Peter Parker or any of his rag-tag superhero friends.

"Fine," She turned around, steely eyes leveled on me. I was but a speck of dirt under her nails - for the first time in my life, I felt terrified of my mother. I knew what she was capable of. "Listen well, daughter of mine. I'm going to only repeat myself once," She started in that deceptively calm tone of hers. "You are to stop mingling with Stark and his... Company. Immediately. I do not want to hear any more of that Parker boy, either. You will not destroy your future and our family's legacy over some fling with a man twice your age. This little game has gone long enough and it's time for you to get back to reality."

The more she spoke, the higher my eyebrows rose. I was supposed to take orders from my own mother now? Something thin, something thin and crackling with electricity within me just snapped - like a live wire. The hairs on my nape stood up, goosebumps appearing all over my skin. "And what if I do not?" I asked, just as quietly.

I was not prepared for her reaction. One second, she was sitting on the couch and the other - my cheek was burning and my mother was standing over me, breathing the stench of alcohol and tobacco right in my face. I saw the whites of her eyes. "Then you are no daughter of mine. I did not raise you to be someone's cumrag and all this play-pretend scientist shit had to have ended in middle school. I hoped you'd grow up but apparently, you insist on being a baby," She was full-on screaming in my face, so rabid she was shaking.

All I could think of was... How wrong she was. How wrong she would be, her sad little world broken when she finds out just exactly how much I'm capable of. Long gone were the days where I timidly questioned my scientific contributions; thanks to my men - the same men she'd hated so much - I knew my value. I knew I could achieve the things that I wanted.

"If that is your choice, you have thirty minutes to get your shit and get lost. I will not have a whore of a daughter living under my roof," I had missed a good part of her rant; most likely, it consisted of nothing but meaningless insults anyway. After she'd finished, she gave me a shove towards the stairs.

It didn't bother me as much as it should, I think. My cheek smarted and somewhere deep inside, I knew that the eerie calm that had settled over me wasn't normal - on the surface, I felt only relief. The things I suspected all along, finally came to light - she didn't even perceive me as a human being, I was no more than a means to her end. A tool. A thing.

The waterworks started when I frantically shoved most of the shit I could fit in my three suitcases. Upset as I was, my scatterbrain did me a favor that time and I gathered most of the important things. Notebooks full of my research - projects that my mother had called a child's game, projects that could be patented in a week, add a tweak or two. With sudden clarity, I realized I needed none of her money. None of her... At all. In short, I was emotionally all over the place and at the end of it... None of it made sense.

I threw the credit cards with her name on them on the coffee table as I hauled out my suitcases, not sparing the bitch a glance. She was equally quiet, boring into my back with those steely eyes of hers. I felt my skin peel under her stare. In my distraught state, hauling and dumping the suitcases in my car was quick work. Detaching the house key and tossing the last things that connected me to her house on the floor at her feet was a spur of the moment decision; my mother was right, to some extent, and I still had childish tendencies. "You had no right to call yourself my mother in the first place. All you were was an egg donor with more money than you could make sense of. Enjoy your hoard, you damned dragon," I seethed, seeing her frozen in place with her arms crossed and chin held high.

Some part of me hoped she would apologize. That naïve, childish part - I knew my mother and I knew myself, and the trait that we shared was stubbornness. I sped out of the estate without ever looking back, driving aimlessly for a while until the honking coming from drivers around me began reaching alarming levels of volume; tears began flowing down my face at some point, all but obscuring my vision. I parked in the nearest place I could find, in front of a Waffle House out of all places.

Crying in a Waffle House parking lot, how pathetic was that. Logically, I knew at least five people had my back: Tony and Bruce, who surprisingly loved me back; Loki, who had become strangely clingy after my declaration - clingy in the best way. Together with Wanda and Peter, they made my heart warm and my eternally racing brain feel calm and safe.

I called my dad, he didn't pick up. I don't know what I expected of the man, but any and all remnants of my respect for him shattered, breaking into tiny little pieces as I helplessly banged my fists against the steering wheel in a fit of desperate rage. One look in the mirror and my already ashen complexion was made worse by red, puffy eyes and the blooming bruise on my cheek where my mother had slapped me. It was the first time she'd laid a hand on me; I wanted to throw up.

I sat in the car until my breathing slowed; completely and utterly clueless as to what to do. I had no home of my own, three suitcases worth of clothes and research that was useless without a lab to run experiments in, my car, and a small trust fund in my name. The recent incident with the curse box had left me mentally drained as it was, now, I could surely say that my head was empty: no thoughts.

And throughout it all, Stephen's avoidance crossed my mind. As if the self-loathing wasn't enough, as if my own blood, the people who were supposed to care for me, rejecting and ignoring me wasn't strong enough of a blow... The sorcerer's avoidance raised more anger within me. I didn't know why but the thought of him made me want to cry and seethe once again.

Logic gone out of the window, I typed in the Sanctum's address into my GPS with shaking fingers, figuring that if he wasn't willing to do the legwork, I will come to him myself and clarify things for all at once. The mixed signals were just a cherry on top of my sky-high problem sundae.

I banged on the door and it flew open immediately, a surprised sorcerer quickly turning concerned and panicky, noticing my general state of appearance. I was still wearing the same clothes and my hair was in disarray, my face looking somewhere between a coke bender and a manic episode.

"You," I stated darkly, taking a deep breath. "You need to tell me what the fuck is wrong with me and reject me, so I can move on already. And you," I poked the man in the chest, right above the fancy eye-shaped necklace, "Need to stop it with the mixed signals. Stop wallowing in self-pity. Whatever you are doing, STOP IT," My voice involuntarily raised in pitch from all those emotional rollercoasters I've been on that day. "Get back to being normal. Let me fucking live," I finished my tirade as the man stared at me, frozen and open-mouthed.

"I..." He stammered, eyeing me with concern. "What in the multiverse happened to you? What..?" He was so confused, pulling out his phone the moment I bailed my fists.

"My mother threw me out, my father doesn't give a fuck about me, apparently I'm a cheap whore with delusions of grandeur. You're avoiding me and everybody is waiting for me to blow up," I screeched, all but vibrating in my spot. "This is me blowing up. I want answers!" I demanded.

Strange recoiled from me, frowning and pocketing his phone. A deep sigh left him, the kind that made his whole body sag. He ran a careful hand through his hair before looking away and slowly pulling me against his chest, the door shutting behind me and keeping the cold out. I hadn't even noticed I was freezing; my feet were wet from the NYC winter slush and mud.

Stephen's embrace was warm and tender; I wanted to lean into it and push him away at the same time. I was so messed up, it was embarrassing. There was nothing acceptable about this situation - I felt guilty as soon as his face fell.

"Jesus Christ, baby," He mumbled quietly. "Sounds like you had one hell of a day. Let's go, I'll put on some tea," He rubbed soothing circles on my back, something that confused me - I just had stormed in and dumped a bucket of bile right on top of his head.

"I should go," I mumbled, yet had no real strength to move away from him.

"You're not going anywhere. I suppose I need to explain myself, too," He sighed, and despite his obvious discomfort, picked me up, letting my limbs to wrap around his torso like a monkey. I was careful to keep my weight off his hands, even if the trip to the fireplace room was short. As soon as I was placed onto the couch and my shoes were removed, Cloaky drifted over from a dark corner, urging me to take off my soggy hoodie, and wrapped itself tightly around me.

Turns out, semi-sentient cloaks were quite warm.

THE TAG LIST IS NOW OPEN! @another-stark-sub ​ @mostly-marvel-musings  @vozit ​ @littlegasps ​ @pilloclock ​ @shereadsinquiet @downeyreads ​ @hermione-grangers-wife ​ @individualistfem ​ @sleep-i-ness @capbrie @lillsxd @agustdowney @dee-vn @justanotherblonde23 @fanngirl19 @persephonehemingway @softie-socks @schemefrenzy @letsby @cutenessloading @romeo-the-cactus @jelly-fishy-babie @mikariell95

[ae0nx]

FRUITS BASKET S3 EPISODE 8 RECAP AKA THE KYORU CHRONICLES PART 2 (plus a quick recap of eps 3-7)

aaaaaaAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!! I gotta get it out of me otherwise I won't be able to concentrate on work and I will be scrolling through the tag till the day I die. Everything from episode 3 of Season 3 literally hit me like an avalanche - literally cos I marathoned 3-7 over the weekend which I wouldn't advise unless you want an accelerated heartbeat - and I'm starting to realise... maybe I just wasn't ready for season 3. Despite asking for it, haha. Not gonna put as many screencaps for this one cos tumblr editing bay be trippin and I just don't have time nor emotional energy to be fighting with the picture uploads, sorry lol

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Episodes 3 - 7

I spoke before about how (despite my feelings about the characters) the English dub VAs for Akito and Shigure pair up really well audibly. And I think I feel the same way about both Yuki and Machi's English VAs! They both have the same soft spoken yet scratchy element to their voices almost like they are holding slightly back. Although, I'd argue that Yuki has been losing the element of slightly holding back as the anime has gone on which I wonder if the same would be included for Machi's performance?

I really like the presentation of Machi's trauma through her family's expectations to be perfect and how physical it is? How Yuki kind of encourages her to let it out in a healthy way? (Btw the whole chalk breaking scene in the meeting was SO FUCKING SMOOTH. YUKI IS A NERD BUT HE IS SO EFFORTLESSLY COOL A LOT OF THE TIME)

The age gap between Isuzu and Haru for sure isn't the worst age gap in this anime/manga but it's still a bit... hmm...

Episode 4:

In all seriousness, I know Akito deserves some sympathy but it doesn't change the fact that I still see her as a villain. Hurt people hurt people but it doesn't mean they should get away with it, I was honestly pleased Haru got that big confrontation with Akito to tell her WHAT'S WHAT but it was also somewhat... merciful?

Hiro's growth has been so beautiful to see, him realising there are bigger things than him from the event with Rin to his relationship with Kisa to then the birth of his little sister.

Kureno choosing to get his hands a little dirtier and paying the ultimate price for it (as far as we know so far in the anime lol) was great, he is the moon side of Tohru's sunshine.

Shigure... I still don't really get him and Akito's relationship. It's clear he's waiting for Akito to grow the fuck up but at the same time he's not creating an environment for her to grow and develop. He's decided to go with the 'tough love' route which I'm still deciding whether I like it or not tbh. Sometimes it feels necessary, at other times it feels shitty. I respect that he knows he's a scumbag and I don't deny that there are people out there who take revelry in the fact that they are awful but at the same time, him remaining unchanging despite everything feels... unrealistic. But considering throughout this story he doesn't seem affected by trauma, it's understandable, I guess?

Also... that scene where Shigure ponders about whether he should've been with Tohru is THE creepiest creeper shit he's EVER done in this series. No. 🙅🏾‍♀️

Momiji is best bunny boi regardless of how tall and 'manly' he becomes. 🐰His scene with Akito was so authentically him and he really did that shit. We love him. <3

I love the way that the curse breaking should (on surface) be a happy event considering all the trauma the zodiac went through because of it but it's presented mostly as loss as well as happiness. It's the realness of getting out of a bad relationship

Shigure basically laying it out to Tohru how Kyo means nothing in a very taunting way was an excellently painful scene and I choose violence. It was heartbreaking seeing how worthless they all saw Kyo compared to how Tohru saw him but... by this point I was just living in the pain so 🤷🏾‍♀️

The story visually showing how Isuzu is more willing to be soft after her whole ordeal through her fashion choices (e.g. the pastels, the cardigans) was really nice. And Haru being happy about Isuzu making friends with Tohru was cute!

It was nice we saw that Kazuma was still wary about whether Tohru loved Kyo for the right reasons, you'd assume after everything Kazuma would love Tohru as a match for Kyo but he's so emotionally intelligent and also just a protective Dad! Yay, good parenting!

Tohru's confession to loving Kyo was amazing however I still adore Kyo's confession a little bit more. Just a bit. Lol. However, if you add the moment later in episode 8 it trumps it completely. Ethereal goddess.

Kyo and Tohru's grandfather having a scene together was great and nice

Now that I think about it, I wish there was more a visual link in the story between Tohru adapting her speech to imitate her Dad and Momiji adopting his Mum's German accent. Albeit for slightly different reasons, it just adds to the unique connection Tohru and Momiji have. In short, I'm seeing this ship with my third eye now. I get it lol

I don't wanna screencap the scene where Kyo is haunted by both his deceased mother and deceased Kyoko and potentially deceased Tohru because it's the stuff of nightmares. But, it was a wonderfully done scene. You definitely understand fully and clearly why Kyo buried all of that trauma under his hatred for Yuki (I CAN'T WAIT FOR EPISODE 9, YOU GUISE!)

If Akito is a villain, Ren is the final boss. Although, with her type of villainy... I feel like I can kind of enjoy a bit more. She reminds me of a Greek God in the ways she master manipulates people and her desperation for control and power (I just read 'Mythos' by Stephen Fry, it's a great read lol)

It lowkey feels like every female character who's comfortable in expressing their sexuality in this story is punished in some way for it... this is an incomplete thought

Shigure as a child feeling like they should all be pitied is so... mature... I feel like I need more of an explanation for why Shigure is the way he is

Akito's ego death with Kureno? Amazing. I loved that she was at least aware enough to realise how Kureno had been coddling her all this time but again... doesn't excuse her crimes

But anyways...

EPISODE 8

Honestly? I really don't have much to say about this episode besides 3-5 points I wanna get out of my head. It's not a bad thing at all, it's just that there's still a lot left to play out from this 'arc' and this season in general that I wanna complete my thoughts on.

But I'll start with this:

Lol, isn't it funny?! Isn't it heart-wrenchingly funny how the relationship between Kyo and Tohru has kinda reverted back to how they were at the start of the series? The coldness of Kyo at the beginning of this episode (and throughout) was a bit of a gut punch considering all the light and fluffy moments that we've gotten between the two since the True Form arc.

Talking about the True Form arc, I feel like this episode is somewhat a repeat of the same emotions, same trials of the True Form arc. Kyo still 'runs away like he always has' but this time we get him being the most honest and confrontational with his own emotions and trauma than he ever has been during the course of this whole story. While trusting someone (Tohru specifically) for the first time with the whole truth of his story! He always seems to move one step forward and then three steps backwards and while it's a tad bit frustrating, it feels very... real. I'll probably complete my feelings how this arc reflects the True Form arc when we finish this section of the story in future episode(s).

Considering the fact that 80% of this episode is Jerry Jewell monologuing as Kyo and I never got bored really just sells his performance. Kyo was being incredibly cold this episode and yet the range of emotions through his performance made it feel understandable enough for you to empathise with it.

BrattyKid!Kyo to lighten the mood 😹I still wish he and Hiro had more of a relationship, I feel like they could have taught each other a lot. Well... mostly Kyo teaching Hiro tbh

Kyo rejecting Kyoka for her honesty and kindness and then later rejecting Tohru? Oh... kid...

Wow, I felt so good about that whole episode of Kid!Yuki helping Kid!Tohru get home and then it's slightly soured knowing KID!KYO was running about the streets alllll night into the morning?!?! I really did feel Kyo's frustration at not getting that win to actually do something right. And the irony of that being linked to him being unable to save Kyoka from the oncoming car?

Honestly, I don't know what my feelings are on Kyo being unable to save Kyoka. I don't even know what my feelings are on Tohru pretty much pushing that aside in favour of her feelings for Kyo. It's... complicated and I've been mulling it over in my head for the last 10+ years hahah However, if I was in Tohru's position I think I'd eventually come to a point where it feels like it's too late to really do anything about how bad I'd feel about it. Kyo's intentions weren't horrid, if anything he was just being a scared kid and he's allowed to be that. I just wish Tohru had a bit more time to evaluate it but considering she knew her mother well and assumes that wouldn't have been the full scope of what she had said, I don't have much of a problem with it in general

Lol, I love when Tohru gets a 'FUCK YOU, I LOVE YOU' moment with Kyo. 😂Another reflected scene from the True Form arc... only thing is that this time... it doesn't quite work. 😕

(Again, I love how all of these reflections are resolved in later occurences in response to the duality but I'll get to it next week when it shows hopefully)

Laura Bailey only had a few sentences in this episode but she killed it as always. Comparing her performance in 2001 to now is just... growth!

Ok, so Yuki automatically gets Best Boi in this episode for meddling and chasing after KYO of all people. Showing how he's personally done with hating Kyo. Realising Kyo is pretty much the only person who'll make his mother happy. I think he also lowkey wants to understand Kyo? But, we'll get to that next week.

....Oh yeah, Akito is there.

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In total, I liked this episode even though it has me anxious for the next one. We finally get the full picture of why Kyo is the way he is! Ahhhh - a weight off all our chests, I'm sure. I kinda don't like that they put the ending theme at the end of these episodes - the joyfulness doesn't really match up with the intense theme? But, that's just a minor gripe. And hey, maybe they just want the audience to know... it's all gonna be okay :)

See you next week!!!