#also yes he did get that scar from the elders

[mollysox]

Sooooo I drew @razberrypuck 's Gillion design twice (tho different scars and patterns) because I love it so much. Gillion Tidestrider lives rent free in my brain, the only thing the missing from their design is a tiddy window /j

[quitealotofsodapop]

Ok but Wukong would be having the BIGGEST existential crisis. His other self had a mother!? He had a BROTHER!? WHAT!?

Prev.

Not only that, but Wukong is also tackling seeing his kingdom in it's dare-he-say Golden Era.

Alolai is an island nation, with Flower Fruit Mountain as it's capital. Almost every island on the archipelago is inhabited by happy primate demons. There's no sign of the Burning that occurred when Wukong was tossed into the Furnace. There are scars of past battles, yes, and a few islands with smoking volanoes. But the islands are healthy.

His kingdom is alive.

After introductions are made and things settle down, Wukong asks the Matriarch a very important question;

(*the Monkie Kids and the stone royals are all sitting together drinking tea in a side office. The Monkey King looking very conflicted. After a long silence he finally decides on his question.*) Wukong: "How did you guys survive? All I know of the Great Flood is that everyone except maybe the Elder who found me was lost." Shihua: "We came very close to being lost beneath the waves. Ye Lin and I had even made preparations for the end when we saw the Fifth Pillar collapsing. But before the worst of the deluge could cover the island - a great dark shield encompassed the island." Wukong: "A dark shield?" Shihua: "I am unsure of the name, as it is a magic different from my own. When the darkness receded, our fellow primates from beyond the stars were there. Long-Arms, Lotus Ears, Painted Backs, all of them. They had taken hold of the tides with their magic and directed them away from the island." Wukong: "Fellow primates??? Wait, do you mean-" Tang, interrupting with a loud gasp: "The Long Armed Gibbon and the Red Buttocked Horse Monkey!" Wukong & Shihua: (*give Tang the same annoyed look*) Tang, embarrassed: "Oof. Sorry" Ye Lin, small fake-cough to break the tension: "We were very grateful! Not only for our lives but well... (*Ye Lin takes Shihua's hand in his own, looking lovingly into her eyes*) Ye Lin: "The lives of our sons too." Luzhen, whispering: "Baba's about to get sappy." Ye Lin: "Me and my gorgeous Stone Flower had made a pact that we would fling a light into the future no matter what. And when the danger had passed, and we saw that our kingdom was spared - we decided it was finally time to grow our family." Shihua, fond smile: "Shihou and Luzhen were born some years later. Even when incubating in different bodies, they were born nearly identical." Ye Lin, goofy smile: "I honestly forget which one either of us carried - they were born so close together!" Luzhen, annoyed groan: "You had me, dad! Mama had Shihou." (*The Monkie Gang, mumbling in the bg: "How??" "Demon thing. Don't be rude."*) Wukong, thinking hard: "So when I hatched... you made sure I'd be born somewhere safe? Atop the mountain away from the flood waters?" Shihua, gently: "Yes son. If I had been lost to the Flood, then well... you would have still found a way to grow and hatch on your own. It's a power we possess as children of the Earth Mother." Wukong, tears welling up: "So I could have been born with a mother? A father and brother even? I wasn't supposed to be alone?" (*the parental monkey couple swoop in to comfort this strange, alternate version of their elder son - nuzzling and chirping at him like he was an upset cub. Wukong flinches at first, making them even more concerned. Luzhen joins in after a moment, holding his not-twin close*) Luzhen, half-chirping: "Hey, hey, it's ok gege. You heard mom. We were always meant to be born." Wukong, sobbing: "But I don't have any of you! I don't even have my own twin. If it wasn't for Elder and the Stalwarts finding me, I would have been completely alone!" Shihua, shushing: "It's ok, baobei. You're not alone now. Even if you are not my son in this dimension, you are clearly my Xiao-Shihou in heart and soul. I am glad that you at least know that your family loves you. No matter what." (*The famed Monkey King falls into the Matriarch's arms, sobbing like a hurt cub running to their mother. Shihua hugs him without hesitation. Ye Lin lightly hugs Wukong's side, running his thing fingers through the sage's fire-damaged hair. Luzhen rests his head on his not-brother's shoulder, unsure of what to do. He can't imagine a world where Shihou grew up alone. The rest of the strangers sniffle and hide their sad expressions, all except the younger monkey demon MK, who clings to his mentor like a limpet.The royal monkeys do not question his presence, they bring him into the cuddle pile too.*)

There is a very sad Monkey King in this room. One that is having a crisis of learning that he could have had a family. A family that did not expect him to be King or anything other than theirs. A mother wise and adoring. A father intelligent and dorky. A cheeky twin brother who clearly thinks the world of him.

A world where he wasn't The Monkey King.

Bonus: A certain other monkey has his own questions once Wukong has cried out. Ones that I may have alluded to in a past post.

Macaque: "Hey... you said something about Lotus Ears?" Ye Lin, puzzled: "You are one yourself, aren't you?" Macaque, equally confused: "Huh? No- well, I don't think so. I'm *THE* Six Eared Macaque where I'm from." Ye Lin, shares fearful look with wife: "Oh dear. If you are alone as well then..." Shihua, sad nod: "Then our allies on Yuewang did not survive either." Macaque: "Yuewang?" Ye Lin, nerd mode: "Kingdom of the Moon. It is the capital for celestial primates living outside of Earth. Our allies; the Lotus Eared are the main clan stationed there. Named for their multiple, petal-like ears of course. Macaque: "...there are more of me?" Luzhen, snort of disbelief: "Uh yeah! You didn't think you were created in a vacuum did'ya?" Macaque: (*gets very quiet, refusing to look at the other monkeys*) Pigsy, trying to change the subject for Macaque's sake: "So! I guess the means Chang'e has a lot more company than our world, huh?" Shihua, smiling: "Oh, Princess Chang'e! Poor thing, banished to the moon all those centuries ago..." Ye Lin: "Thank Nuwa that the Lotus Eared clan took her in." Shihua: "I honestly can't imagine her without them. Lán Yuè Liang [blue moon] treats her like their firstborn child." Ye Lin: "And she's such a good big sister! Macaque, perking up: "Sister?" Shihua, fond laugh: "Lan Yue Liang's cub had been born just after the Flood, and they gave Chang'e the honour of naming him. She panicked a little, and gave him the name Six Eared Macaque." Wukong, sly understanding smile: "Liu'er Mihou." Macaque: (*excited and anxious tail thumping!?*) "That's my name. Chang'e was the one who found me. I hatched on my own in the desert of the moon." Ye Lin, happy chirp: "Gracious! I suppose that would make you your world's Prince Liu'er then! " Luzhen: "I thought I recognised that face marking!" Macaque, near-shriek: "PRINCE!?"

So yeah now there's three monkeys in the room having a total crisis of identity. And three more having a time trying to comprehend how the original three have been left alone and uninformed for so long ;_;

Just realised that MK likely hasn't told his fam about what he saw in his memory or of his connection to Nuwa. So MK is now panicking if he exists in another form in this other world...

[airandyeah]

By The Beach Merman Nanami X Reader pt.3

Part one: Here , Part two: Here Warnings: Mentions of sea witches, not-okay deals, coral reef village, MERMAN GOJO SATORU AND TOJI!!!, princess and the frog song quotes, uh, yeah. :) lemme know if I missed anything I should add <3

Nanami's pov: Third Person- Once he arrived home, he immediately sought treatment and afterwards was sent to see the king and elders. They chastised him... He had gone too far away from their living space, and that's why he got hurt. He told them of that... Woman. Yes, the.... pretty woman. She freed him, but in turn she made him feel like he was on fire, it burned so badly. That was all weeks ago now. He was sat in the small, and only bar they had here. There was a beautiful merwoman playing a song she had picked up from her grandmother, another merwoman who would always get too close to shore, but she learned the humans music that way. He thought about the woman from that day. Her pretty H/C hair, with those soft E/C eyes.... She seemed so upset. He wanted to see her again. She did save him... But how would he do that? He remembered tales of a man around here... a witch. He used to associate with far-away sirens, made friends with murderous merfolk, and finally settled here... Maybe he could make a deal to meet that woman again. Before he could get up to act on his thoughts, he suddenly heard that annoying, no good, motherfu- "Hey, Nanamin!!!", The voice cuts through. Nanami looks up and is met with white hair and the bluest of blue eyes.... Gojo Satoru. The most annoying, no good, mother- "Say Nanamin, you got a lady yet? The lil lady over there', he points in some unknown direction, 'was wonderin' if you were single. She thinks you're pretty... attractive, y'know?", Gojo asks him with that grin of his that Nanami just wanted to punch so badly a tooth or two fell out... "I'm single, but tell her I'm not interested...", Nanami told him. Gojo walks off to leave him alone. And he leaves. ~~~ A few days later he was knocking on the sea witches door. He needed to see that woman. Needed to thank her... in some way. A man answers the door... the witch. He wasn't expecting what he saw... A buffed up man, and where Nanami would normally find a tail, there sat inky black octopus tentacles. The man had black hair, black eyes, and he had a scar run along his lip. He also had a very... odd looking purple eel wrapped around his body. The witch smirks at Nanami and open the door wider to allow him in. Nanami tells the witch about the woman, and how he wants to be a part of the world she lives in... He wants.... Legs. The sea witch told him that he could do it. On the condition that he could make the woman fall in love with him within 2 months, he could keep the legs and stay with the woman. Nanami laughed. This man was joking right? There's no way he could 1. actually give him legs, or 2. expect him to make her fall in love when he can't even speak the same language. "Don't you disrespect me, little man.", The sea witch told him with a growl. "I can make the impossible happen, I promise ya, You're in my world now not your world and I got friends on the other side!", The water stirred around them, it felt dangerous. But Nanami was willing. Nanami nods at the man and he continues "Then sit down at my table, put your mind at ease, If you relax it will enable me to do anything I please", He did as the man instructed and sat at the small table. The witch goes on about the terms of the deal as he writes the terms down he continues talking.... In but a few moments, Nanami signed the papers and the man reached out his scarred hand "Shake my hand, come on boy, won't you shake the poor sinner's hand?", Nanami reached out his hand and clasped it with the witches. The water stirred more violently now, the man was cackling and Nanami felt he might throw up... "You're changin', You're changin', You're changin', all right! I hope you're satisfied, but if you ain't don't blame me!! You can blame my friends on the other side!", The man says, before Nanami's whole world goes black... ~~~ Thoughts????

[fwoopersongs]

On 33 elders and the Lan's Discipline Whip

This tumblr post by @qiu-yan the other day on moral luck in MDZS came past my dash, and there was a mention of the thirty three elders in the Lan Clan who were injured by Lan Wangji - some of you may remember it better as the reason for his thirty three whip scars xD. And I remembered reading (mostly on twitter) people saying things like he got whipped 33 times 'for going against his sect elders', or that the elders deserved it for acting unjustly. Maybe this was a CQL thing??? But I wanted to share my understanding of the situation from reading the novel.

For the record, elders here aren't like ‘Elders’ in the sense of people in positions of power within a clan i.e. 长老 as you might see in sects from more conventional Xianxia novels. Instead, its noun for ‘older generation’ i.e. 前辈 within the clan. 

So, here's a translation of Lan Xichen’s recount to Wei Wuxian of how Lan Wangji came to bear scars of thirty three strokes of the Lan Discipline Whip from Chapter 99/100, Discipline Whip Scars aka Hensheng: To Hate Life 3.

On Versions I’m comparing between two versions of the novel where the first chapter title is: {1} 魏无羡死了，大快人心! (lit: Wei Wuxian is dead, gratifying news for everyone!) & {2} 重生 (lit: Alive Again). The version I’m translating is {1} from the website Zhenhun using footnotes to compare it against {2}. Line breaks and other cosmetic or grammatical changes are ignored. References to chapter numbers and such will be based on {2} since this is the version used on the MDZS fandom Wiki. All chapter titles also are referenced from the wiki.

Wei Wuxian repeated, "Discipline Whip scarring?!" 

He grasped at Lan Xichen again and said, "Clan Leader Lan, I truly have no idea. Please, tell me. How did he get those injuries? Does it have something to do with me?!?”

Embittered anger surfaced on Lan Xichen’s face, "If it doesn’t ‘have anything to do with you’, did he perhaps scar himself for no particular reason at all?” [1]

Zewu-jun had always been restrained and composed to the utmost, but this was a matter which had impacted Lan Wangji and thus uncharacteristically, his anger was roused. Yet after observing Wei Wuxian's expression carefully, this anger receded slightly and he asked tentatively, "You… you've had some memory loss?"

"My memories?" Wei Wuxian said. He immediately tried hard to see if there was anything he could not recall, and then replied, "I don't think there’s any period of time which I don’t remem — yes!"

There was indeed one period during which his memories were blurred and indistinct.

The bloodbath at Nightless City!

On that night many years ago, he had believed Wen Qing and Wen Ning gone, their bones ground to dust and scattered by their enemies. On top of that, seeing the Great Clans on their impassioned, self-righteous warpath and witnessing Jiang Yanli die before his eyes, he finally utterly lost control. Combining the two halves of the Yin Tiger Tally, he unleashed it, allowing it to kill indiscriminately. The dead under the Tally’s power killed others, who then became new fierce corpses, creating an endless supply of massacring puppets which turned the place into a blood-soaked hell.

After that, [2] although Wei Wuxian could just barely manage to stay on his feet, he distantly felt himself leave this slaughterhouse of a ruined city. There was a long period in which he was not fully aware of anything. When he finally came back to himself, he had already been sitting in a daze at the foot of Yiling’s Knoll of Unmarked Graves [3] for a long time.

Lan Xichen asked, "Do you remember now?"

Wei Wuxian murmured, "That period at Nightless City? I… I’d always thought that I had wandered back in a daze, but..."

Lan Xichen was so angry he could have laughed, "Young Master Wei, How many enemies were you up against that night? It was three thousand! No matter how much of an unparalleled talent of this age you may be - withdrawing entirely unharmed under those circumstances? How could that be possible?"

Wei Wuxian asked, "Lan Zhan... what did Lan Zhan do?"

"What did Wangji do. If you don’t remember it yourself, I fear he will never tell you of his own accord, and you certainly won’t be asking [4]. Fine. Let me tell you." Lan Xichen said.

"Young Master Wei, on that night after you took out the two halves of the Yin Tiger Tally, merged them into one, and slaughtered to your heart's content, you were at the end of your strength. Wangji, having been injured by you in your madness, was in about the same state. He was only able to get to his feet by leaning on Bichen. Even so, the moment he saw you stumbling away, he immediately followed.

"There weren't many people left conscious at the scene. I was barely able to move and could only watch as Wangji, with his Spiritual Energy clearly almost depleted, limped laboriously in your wake, then grabbed and pulled you onto Bichen. The both of you flew off on the sword together.

“I only regained my Spiritual Energy two shicheng* later and hurried back to the Lan Clan in Gusu seeking support. I was worried that if people from the other families caught up to the both of you first, Wangji would be perceived as your accomplice. The best outcome of this would leave him with a stain on his name for life and a damaged reputation, the worst scenario would be him being dispatched without a chance to defend himself. And so along with my shufu, I gathered thirty-three elders who had always praised and thought highly of Wangji. Together, we spent two days as the sword flies secretly [5] searching. That was how we found traces of your trail within the borders of Yiling. Wangji had hidden you in a cave. When we arrived, you were sitting on a stone within the cave, dazed, while Wangji held your hand, transferring Spiritual Energy to you and speaking softly [6].

“And the whole time, you were only repeating one word at him.

“‘Scram!’”

Wei Wuxian’s throat was dry, his eyes red. He was unable to say a word. 

Lan Xichen continued, "My shufu appeared suddenly before him, giving him a scolding and asking him for an explanation. He seemed to have expected us to find him, yet he said there was nothing to explain, that this was just how it was. Since childhood and even after growing up, he had never been defiant toward our shufu and me [7]. But for you, Wangji not only talked back to shufu, he even turned his sword on the cultivation practitioners of the same origin, the same bloodline of the Gusu Lan Clan as himself, severely injuring [8] the thirty-three elders we had requested help from...

Wei Wuxian buried his hands in his hair, saying, "I... I didn’t know... I really..."

Besides repeating that he really didn't know, there was nothing else was able to say. 

Lan Xichen tried holding back for a moment, but went on to add, "Thirty-three Discipline Whip scars! All the strokes within one session, one for each person. You ought to know how painful that is, how long it takes to recover from it! [9], [Note] After willfully sending you back to the Knoll, Wangji returned, despondent, to receive his punishment. How long he knelt before the Wall of Discipline! When I went to see him, I said ‘Young Master Wei has already made a grave mistake. Why would you compound it?’ But he replied that he wasn’t able to judge if what you did was right or wrong, and regardless of that, he was willing to bear all the consequences with you. [10] Those few years he was said to have spent ‘reflecting on his mistakes before the Wall’ were, at their core, because his motion was limited by his injuries. And even so, after learning of your death, he forced himself in this condition to get up because no matter what, he had to go to the Knoll and see for himself…” [11]

*One shicheng is approximately equal to two hours.

[1] This part in italics isn’t in {2}. [2] Added in {2}: But after going through all of these, Wei Wuxian’s body and spirit had been seriously damaged. [3] He was at the foot of a small hill near the Knoll in the revised version.  [4] This part in italics isn’t in {2}. [5] In {2} Lan Xicheng and his uncle explicitly requested the elders to keep this a secret.  [6] In {2} Lan Wangji was asking him something. [7] In {2}, Lan Xichen only specifies that Lan Wangji has never talked back to his uncle, leaving himself out of the sentence. [8] In {2} Lan Xichen says they were severely injured, nearly fatally. [9] There’s a break in {2} with Wei Wuxian’s inner thought of ‘This, he knew.’ Reason being what I have in [Note]. [10] This part in italics isn’t in {2}. [11] This part in italics isn’t in {2}.

[Note] Per Chapter 11, The Elegant Flirt 1: Wei Wuxian has never been beaten with the Discipline Whip before, but he has seen its mark on Jiang Cheng. They’d tried all sorts of ways to make the scarring go away, but it was in vain. All clans use it for disciplining members who had committed grave wrongdoing. Later in Chapter 59, Sandu: The Three Poisons 4, we learn that Jiang Cheng was hit with it by Wen Chao who got his hands on the Jiang Clan Discipline Whip.

// a thought //

We just learnt that Lan Wangji had been injured by a berserk Wei Wuxian himself, was struggling to stand and nearly out of Spiritual Energy. Then he had to control Bichen to fly them both to Yiling, and at least at the moment they were found, was attempting to heal Wei Wuxian with the Spiritual Energy transfer. From Lan Xichen’s account, it took Lan Xichen four hours to recover somewhat and regain enough Spiritual Energy to go home for help. So let’s say Lan Wangji did take some time off from minding the catatonic Wei Wuxian to replenish his Spiritual Energy, he’s still not fighting them at a hundred percent. His elders from Gusu Lan had not participated in the fighting at Nightless City (uninjured), but they’d all been on their swords for two days, searching for Lan Wangji. Probably still in a much better form than him though. How was he able to injure them ‘severely’? 

(I think there are two options. One, Lan Wangji is just that good of a fighter. Two, his elders were holding back.)

[whoishotteranimepolls]

Shanks. Oh Shanks…

Yes he is kinda the guy on the beach who wasn’t lying about knowing karate.

When we meet him he’s relaxing/chilling/taking a breather in a little hidden away port to get away from the Navy. This is in a world where stories about Pirates (and many actual Pirates) are about how much chaos and pain and destruction they bring simply looking for treasure. But not Shanks and not in Foosha.

He puts people at ease because there is no reason to antagonize or bully the locals. He spends his days flirting it up at the bar. When someone does come looking for a fight, he’s not easily baited either. Some things aren’t worth it, a message he teaches Luffy. It takes a kidnapping for Shanks to step up and remind everyone that not only is he a real pirate, but a dangerous one at that.

He also has scars. Very sexy scars. And they don’t seem to turn him bitter or spur him on life. His facial scarring is a lesson about how there are people who will never fight fair and if you’re going to get anywhere you should recognize and respond appropriately. And they really give some character and contrast to him. I really can’t explain why. He also SCARIFICED HIS ARM FOR A CHILD. This man jumps into the ocean knowing full well there is a legit sea monster waiting for a snack and swims out to save a boy who had idolized him, acted out, and eaten Shanks’ treasure. What kind of Pirate risks life and limb for a kid who took their most powerful possession? THEN!! Then this man is able to TURN BACK THE SEA MONSTER WITH A LOOK. That’s all! Just a very intense look saying “you may be called a Sea King but I am an Emperor so get!” (Ps he’s not an emperor yet) And it works!!

Now yes, he is a total slut. I personally subscribe to a specific endgame ship where such behavior changes when he falls in love but man is always going to have his manwhore vibe. But they are the best? Like he’s not creeping or forceful about it. He knows he’s attractive and he knows what parties interested in a night (or so) of fun look like. And if he were in this world now or back during the golden age of piracy, I would be like “yeah walking STD” but it seems like everyone whose anyone in One Piece has a capable doctor. If he did catch something he’d appropriatly take care of it.

Shanks is also not completely irresponsible. Man is captain of a ship with a crew and fleet who like him and believe in him. He makes world altering decisions on the regular. He has been granted audiences with the 5 elders. He fights other Emperors. He’s been playing a long game. His first teacher was the Pirate King. Yes, Beckmann definitely keeps things on track at times but Shanks isn’t like a toddler running in all the directions at once. He’s got a plan and he’s been sticking to it. And it’s been working really well.

As for the showers: I personally never thought about it but…in the world of One Piece every ship is complete with all the luxuries of life. This means Red Force is bound to have baths/showers. Shanks isn’t a DF eater so he can take baths and I assume while he might not everyday he does regularly. Plus with a man whose identity/brand is tied to his hair, he’s not letting that get grimy and greasy and dirty. I do believe there is some dependable vanity here which Zoro would lack.

TLDR; Shanks may initially look like a scary threat based on reputation, build, and scaring, but he has a gift for putting people at ease so they see him as some beach bum. But right below that his dangerous aura is ready to burst out when needed (usually in aide of a friend/ally or for his plan). He is an intelligent man who knows what is happening in the World and a very talented swordsman. And the layer below is someone who clearly loves life and all the wonderful things it can offer.

In summary: he has a genuine peacefulness about him that makes him feel safe (when not actively fighting as I mean “peaceful” in relation to being capible of great violence.) and he’s just sexy as sin.

For context, they're responding to this post about Shanks

That's the dichotomy of shakes. He goes from complete dork

To the absolutely terrifying Emperor of the Sea.

People like to talk about the yesification and glow-up of most of the characters post-time skip. The most prominent glow-up to me was the dedorkification of shanks. That man was a complete dork for most of the pre-time skip. Now in Wano. What happened?

He's got a whole new jawline and everything

But at least he still has his dorky moments

[blu3cl0v3rs]

Summary: Morro does a little magic trick for Lloyd!

Warnings: None

Prompt: Day 2 - Wands | Illusions

Extra: An AU where Morro doesn't die, but rather gets extremely injured so he returns to the monastery. Also he meets Wu like 5-10 years before Wu recruits any of the ninja. Set in season 1 after Lloyd joins the ninja, but before Lloyd's revealed as the Green Ninja. I'm making Morro give everyone nicknames, so Lloyd is sometimes referred to as "Lulu".

"Be safe, Ninja," Wu said as the four ninja leaped from the flying ship with some 'whoops', their weapons transforming into vehicles as they fell. The other four on board, Nya, Wu, Lloyd, and Morro, watched until the color-coded ninja were out of sight.

"Are you sure you don't want me tailing them? You know they aren't the most careful, Sensei," Nya asked.

"Yes, I'm sure. I believe Jay has been… skimping out on his work on the Bounty, and you are the only other knowledgeable person on this ship on the inner workings of it," he replied. "Now then, I must meditate."

Morro watched as his sensei went inside. Nya sighed in disappointment as she stomped over to the control center to fix whatever Jay had left haphazardly unfinished. Lloyd groaned and slumped onto the railing of the airborne ship.

"Careful, a fall from this height could be a doozy," the elder cousin joked as he walked over, forearm crutches clicking on the old wooden deck.

He ruffled the blonde locks cut into a crude bowl cut, much to Lloyd's dismay, as the young blonde swatted away his cousin's scarred, calloused hand playfully.

"So what's got ya down, Lulu?" The wind master gazed at his usually hyper counterpart with concern.

"I jus- this is all my fault!" he yelled, frustratedly slamming his fist onto the railing. "I was the one who freed the Serpentine, I was the one who caused all this! An- and now the Ninja have to clean up after me, and I… I can't do anything to make up for it!" Droplets stung the corners of the blonde's eyes, throat seizing as he shoved his face further into the sleeves of his black hoodie.

Oh, Morro thought. In hindsight, he should've seen this coming. "No, Lloyd, this isn't all your fault. Well, yes it's mostly your fault-" Lloyd's wince did not reassure him that what he was saying was right. Well, sue him, he's shit at comforting people. "But you're not the only one to blame. You were sent to a school that idolized bad behavior and 'evil' acts, so when you were cast out you'd obviously want to prove yourself to them."

Morro locked eyes with his cousin, stormy grays of violent winds and gentle breezes to bloody reds. "But, you are making up for it. You obviously regret it, and jump on every opportunity to help right your wrongs."

Lloyd broke contact, mulling over his cousin's words.

"Besides, every great hero needs a tragic backstory and motive to be good," the gray eyed man joked.

Alright, Morro thought while looking at the blonde still sulking over his mistakes, that didn't work.

An idea sprung into his head, and the wind rustled in response, which peaked Lloyd's curiosity. As he peered over his sleeves, some sheets of origami paper glided over to the pair, then started intricately folding themselves into shapes. The younger watched, awestruck as the patterned papers formed into butterflies and birds and dragons. One even rolled up tightly into a wand-like stick, then handed itself to Morro. Once the papers finished folding themselves, a few instruments arrived as well; an acoustic bass guitar, a flute, and a viola levitated patiently, as if waiting to be conducted.

Morro slowly raised the paper wand, Lloyd watching the tip like a cat watching a laser pointer, then swung it down, then left, then right, then back up and repeated the pattern. The origami creatures swayed in dance slowly as the instruments began to play themselves. The bass strummed steadily, the viola bowed itself with a melancholy sound, and the flute hummed in harmony with the viola. The butterflies fluttered carelessly, the birds soared in simple patterns, and the dragons pranced along the railing.

Then, the bass froze, and the viola's sound became tense and angry as the dragons lunged after the birds and the flute quietly trilled high notes, adding to the new panicked sound. The butterflies flitter and dodge out of the way of the speeding chase between the birds and dragons. The bass struck back in harshly with firm chords, and the birds were cornered. The viola and bass softened and quieted down as the flute played a sorrowful, legato melody with the butterflies spinning above the dragons and beleaguered birds.

The butterflies dove, whacking the dragons away from the avian origami, in sync with the viola bowing out a high note. The bass struck chords as the dragons fought back, the flute and viola playing in harmony with each other as they struck together to beat the dragons.

The bass played an apologetic solo as the dragons lowered their heads in submission to the other creatures. The birds and butterflies accepted the dragons with a sweet trill and a few harsh notes from the flute and viola, respectively. The three types of origami beings then whirled together as the instruments played happily. Morro ended it with flair as the viola played a complicated lick, the bass belted one last chord, and the flute whistled with intense vibrato.

The elder dramatically threw the wand into the air as the paper origami settled to the deck, and the instruments returned from whence they came. Lloyd marveled over the display as he clapped.

"That was so cool! How did the instruments play by themselves? Did you use string to make the paper things move? Could I do that?! That was awesome!" He exclaimed, motioning his hands to accentuate his point.

Morro chuckled at his cousin's perkier mood. "It was all a little wind, Lulu. Nothing more."

Lloyd's eyes sparkled, an even deeper amount of respect growing for his black and green haired cousin. "That was just your powers! But… how? All those moving parts, I could never keep track of all of them! And you can play instruments without touching them? How long did that take? Isn't it suuuper hard to learn?"

"It's just years of practice. Wu taught me how to play the flute so I would be able to play the Sacred Flute, and I picked the bass and viola up because string instruments sound cool."

"I thought it was called a violin?"

"That's a different instrument. A viola sounds lower than a violin."

"Ohhhhhh. Cool!"

"Yes, very cool.

[talesfromeorzea]

New Adventure

FFXIV Write 2024 Day 1 Prompt: Steer

Ruruma walked into the bustling evening of the Quicksand deftly weaving her way through the crowd gathered for the evening revelry. She made her way to the bar right in front of Momodi and sat down giving the busy Lalafell a quick wave as the woman was taking the orders of a rather large adventuring party. Momodi waved back and said quickly, "Just sit tight he will be here shortly then we'll both explain why we've asked you to make yer way back here to Ul'dah."

Ruru simply nodded and sat back to the bar watching the busy tavern with a measured gaze. It had been some time since she had set foot in this city and to most it would seem the same as it had been back then but Ruru knew better. The hustle of the crowd did not hide the apprehension that laid heavy in the air. People put on a good show of it but she could see clearly that many around still bore the scars of the Calamity.

Ruru herself had been lucky her little ranch at the edge of Thanalan and the Shroud had been spared any damage wrought by the dragon that burst from the red moon. She had done everything she could to help her neighbors who were not as lucky. Five years had done little to mend the damage wrought and it was telling here even as people caroused in the night there was still an air of tension.

"Ruru you are a sight for these old eyes how have you been lass?" a voice from her right stated and she turned to see Papashan striding up to her

She gave the elder Lalafell a smile and said, "Lass huh? Trying to butter me up before you and Momo give me some terrible news?"

"Most certainly not, I am truely glad to see you my dear it has been some time."

She chuckled and nodded, "Aye never really intended to set foot here again after I retired but you both sending a request for my aid told me it was something."

The old Lalafell nodded and took a seat beside her and both waited in silence as Momodi finished with the last of the adventurers and sent them to a nearby table to await their drinks and food. She then made her way over to the pair and stated, "It is, to be blunt Ruru we have a huge favor to ask of you."

Papashan nodded and added, "It will be a lot to ask but I believe it is well worth it in the long run given your habit of helping those in need,"

Ruru gave a huge sigh, "You both haven't forgotten that I have retired from the adventures life yes?"

They both nodded in response and Momodi stated, "Aye I am well aware but Ruru listen we have need of you again, now more than ever. There are more and more tasks for the guild to take on and to be blunt not enough adventurers with experience to take them on."

"There are plenty of young eager volunteers to take on the jobs but it soon is apparent that…." Papashan started then hesitated a moment

"They're too green and dying instead o getting the job done?" Ruru growled at him more than a little annoyed with the both of them because they knew her feelings when it came to young adventurers taking on too much.

Papashan nodded, "Yes, I know its a…delicate matter with you but it is also why I thought to ask for your aid. You of all people…"

"Am soft hearted enough to make sure the young fools don't get themselves killed!" she snapped back

He went silent clearly uncomfortable with pressing further a look of reget deep in his eyes which at least gave Ruru some sastifaction even as she was seething.

"They need someone with experience that can guide em Ruru, its why were asking you. I know you have been done with this buisness for some time and it pains me to have to ask but I'd rather try than see more youngbloods die." Momodi murmured

Ruru pinched her nose and then took a steadying breath, "Fine, I know if both of you are worried about it this is something incredibly needed. Wheres the damn book Momo I'll put my name on the roster once more."

Momodi didn't hesitate or question she simply slid the Adventure's Guild roster over to her along with a quill and Ruru scrawled her name down once more. She then glared at the other Lalafell and stated, "They'd better know to listen cause and they'd better not expect to be mollycoddled cause ye know that's not how I am."

Momodi nodded and closed the book stating, "Thank you Ruru and I will be sure any I send with you are well aware of that fact."

"Truly my dear we are grateful," Papashan added

"Save it, you both knew what my answer was gonna be with ye both hounding me on it." She gritted then softened as both seemed to flinch, "But, hells ye know full well Im not gonna let fools die for nothing."

She then hopped down and looked at Momodi, "Welp looks like I'm gonna need my old suite in the Hourglass unless ye've given it to someone else?"

"I'll get it arranged dear friend welcome back and once again thank you,"

Ruru just gave a wave as she made her way out of the Quicksand and into the busy evening streets she sighed. She was definetly angry at both of her old friends for playing upon old wounds like that to get their way but she also knew full well if she had refused they would have respected that.

But something is definetly happening, she thought to herself as she made her way to the stables at the edge of the city to get old Pumpkin her chocobo to return home to pack what she'd need to once again begin as an adventurer. Why else would I been having the strange dreams and hearing that voice since the damn moon fell.

As she took the reins from the stable hand and mounted the bird he chirped at her questionally sensing his mistress's mood. She patted him and stated, "Well old boy seems were dragged back into the adventurin business."

As Pumpkin took off he squawked his opinion of that comment and she chuckled letting her mood lighten as the bird took off. One thing she couldn't deny she did love adventuring.

[gentlegentian]

I feel like the true cruelty of the lan sect is a really overlooked topic in the mdzs fandom, because when you think about it...

they practically forced madam lan into marriage so she wouldn't be executed because she killed one of her teachers, but gave her no trial or chance to explain why, and once she was married they simply locked her away and that was that. qingheng-jun then locked himself into seclusion once he had a kid and that was that, had no business with the rest of the sect and left xichen and wangji to grow up alone.

not to mention the fact that wangji even being born is suspicious... xichens conception makes sense, as they would've needed a sect heir, but wangji? how would he have been concieved, if madame lan was trapped away and qingheng-jun was in seclusion. either this is a plot hole im looking way too deep into or theres something darker happening there

in any case, the twin jades most likely did not have a good childhood. like at all. their father was completely absent, and once their mother died they were practically parentless. sure lan qiren raised them, but he was also acting as the lan sect leader whilst qingheng-jun was away, so i doubt he held much involvement in their raising other than making sure they stuck to the rules and were fed etc

SPEAKING OF THE RULES. the punishments the kids in the lan sect had to deal with?????? the fact that nhs, wwx and jc were beaten for rule breaking whilst they were staying at the lan sect as pupils just makes me wonder how badly they treat their own lan disciples if thats how they treat special guests from other clans. they were fifteen when that happened, FIFTEEN, so clearly the lan sect has no problem with LITERALLY BEATING children to teach a lesson.

its basically just abuse to keep a system in place, and it makes me wonder just how many times the twin jades suffered like that as kids to be as 'perfect' as they are as adults

the lan are so corrupt in their ways and i hate how we dont fully see that in the story until wangji is whipped for protecting wei ying. the whole situation is so fucking cruel and unnecessary it makes my blood boil whenever i reread/rewatch that part, because yes wangji did wrong by injuring the elders but the only reason he did so was because they were refusing to listen to him and quite literally trying to murder his lover.

i get he committed treason or whatever by fighting the elders but 33 whip lashes all in one go with NO breaks or healing time?? with a magical cultivated punishment whip as well, its genuinely like they were trying to kill him. even if he didnt die from the lashings themselves he could've gotten an infection, or had severe blood loss, or hell they coulve broken his spine with the force of it. it took so long for him to heal from that, and it left him with so many scars both physical and mental. that level of injury would've likely left him with some form of chronic pain or illness as well, and it was just so cruel for a situation that didn't ever need to come to this.

they forced him into seclusion, just like his father, and punished him for defending himself, just like they did his mother. xichen ended up similarly as well, with his seclusion after the events with jgy. the lan elders had seen the horrific end qingheng-jun and madame lan had, and yet did nothing to stop their children from facing the same trauma, even making theirs worse.

the lans praise themselves as a sect that sticks to righteousness and principles, when realistically its just full of hypocrites holding onto power by means of fear and punishment. they say that lwj broke the rules by fighting to save wwx, and yet somehow torturing him was completely within the rules of the clan.

their rules and image are merely a cover up for the downright abuse and silencing of their disciples, and its just so fucked up. i could rant about this for so much longer, but also wanna see what other people think before i delve into some of the other topics i have in mind that relate

[vacantgodling]

#2: Sandra "San" Dearborn

The second child you were never seen—always passed over in favor of your elder sister, forever favored. Everything you did was met with scrutiny, with scorn, with indifference, and even if you fought harder, your results were more abysmal. Even after she left home, that was perhaps when your parents lost interest altogether, in this failure of a child who could not carry their expectations. A bitterness like acid coats your tongue when you tell your parents that you’re going; a bitterness created by the way they don’t meet your eyes. You know they don’t want you here, never have, yet you can’t help but hope if you make something of yourself they will. It’s a fool’s errand, but your grief is the only thing that’s ever comforted you. Even if you have to fight for it and kill for it, you will gain their respect. At least, that’s what you tell yourself you’ll do.

“sandra” means defender of man and her nickname “san” means three. “dearborn” can either mean brook of dear or be a combination name of an expected or desired birth.

24, nb demigirl (they/she), romance: no, sex: yes (but she’d have to warm up to you and that would take a LOOOOONG time so gl with that), preference: none

she’s of short stature at 5’2” with a lean and agile build (her abs are visible). she also has varying scars across her body of varying lengths from the battles she’s gotten into since she was young. her eyes are a piercing hot pink that matches her bright magenta hair, and her hair is closer to the second ref; loc'd and falling over one of her eyes with the sides shaved. she usually sports a frown.

HUNTER, though not a dark hunter much to her dismay. unfortunately (for them), they have no prowess for absorbing and using cava, and was quickly taken out of those trails as a child. based on this, the fact that she also isn’t as naturally gifted as their elder sister moira has caused san a LOT of grief. she is a hard worker, but she’s fueled mostly by her rage, which causes her to be occasionally reckless if they get angry enough. you could easily taunt her, if she was a pokemon. as many hunters do, she wields a whip—the one she uses specifically is a standard bull whip, but it is of a shorter length than the average whip so that she can dual wield with her sword alongside it. as many hunters, she does not wear much by way of armor; it’s made of hearty leather and features parts and spoils of hunts. san’s most notable hunt is regaled by the way of her shoulder armor, which is the fur from the first large monster she slayed. while this also makes hunters appear more menacing, by wearing the spoils of another monster, it can distract monsters from your presence by masking your terranean scent: usually the more spoils one wears, the more undetectable you are to potential predators.

san is a bad tempered person, but that’s more of a creation by her neglected upbringing than a state she enjoys being in. they are tough as nails, and will push themselves beyond their breaking points again and again to try and prove themselves worthy of praise, note and accolades, but unfortunately, they are seen as just average by their comrades and family back home in eros; even somewhat of a disappointment because they aren’t notable compared to other hunters; like her sister, let alone the brightendale dark hunter who disappeared who was always (in san’s mind) their greatest rival. when she meets him in the flesh though…. he’s much different than she was expecting much to her fury.

despite her anger, san is blunt and has a hard time expressing any emotions that aren’t negative. she closes herself off to the world and to herself, but it’s mostly because of her loneliness and jealousy that makes it hard for her to form bonds. she’ll learn, but oh the growing pains are ROUGH for her.

3 fun facts about them: like their hair, their favorite color is pink and off duty they can usually be found wearing pink and black clothes. whenever she gets flustered she clams up and can’t speak for at least 20 minutes to an hour after the incident depending on how embarrassed she was. they have a habit of standing on objects (tables, chairs, etc) because they hate feeling short and if you point it out they’ll probably punch you.

[doctorofmagic]

Doctor Strange and the supernatural characters pt 1 - Nico Minoru

Since Nico will soon be featured in v6, I decided to start with her. For context, let’s do a quick review on her character.

Nico Minoru is a member of the Runaways, a team of teenagers that found out their parents were part of a cult called The Pride. Their goal was to perform a ritual to release the elder gods called Gibborin, who would feed on the souls of the entire world and claim it for themselves. The Runaways saved the world, but their parents died in the process. As a consequence, their hearts never recovered from that trauma, which only worsened due to the following betrayal of one of their teammates, Alex Wilder. The TV show is more or less loyal to the characters, but there are heavy differences in case you’re wondering (and one of them is Nico’s character development, which I’ll explain in a second).

Nico comes from a powerful japanese clan of wizards and her weapon is/was The Staff of One, which she stole from her evil parents. It turns out this artifact is actually an ancient sorcerer called The One, who was challenged by Nico’s ancestor. He lost the battle and thus was turned into the Staff. Nico only learned about that recently in the last Runaways volume, when The One came out and revealed himself.

In the past, Nico was forced to draw her own blood to summon the Staff out of her body, but after making a (terrible) deal with The One, she no longer needs to harm herself in order to summon the staff. In exchange, The One releases a drop of his own essence into Nico’s soul, one at a time. On top of that, her staff allows her to perform spells only once, failing whenever she tries to repeat them. But this is not the only issue with Nico and her magic.

She went through a VERY traumatizing experience along with her teammate Chase in Avengers Arena, when Arcade kidnapped sixteen teenagers and created his own Battle Royale scenario. She lost an arm and actually died there, but the staff brought her back, boosting her magic powers and giving her a new artificial arm, although turning her a little more violent. Her mental health was severely damaged there, and so she decided to never speak of that incident ever again.

Following this event, in Avengers Undercover, she infiltrated Zemo’s organization along with the survivors of Murderworld. Their first goal was to rescue Elsa Bloodstone’s little brother, Cullen, unaware that he actually wanted to stay in order to find Arcade and get revenge for Murderworld.

Meanwhile, Nico was welcomed by Daimon Hellstrom (please don’t ask), who was working under Zemo’s leadership (please don’t ask²). Daimon summoned the soul and body of Alex Wilder back from hell (since he was dead) so they could train magic together. Alex’s true intentions were never revealed, but I do suspect Daimon was using him to waste Nico’s spells and also make her vulnerable since Nico had a relationship with Alex before his betrayal. She later realizes that it’s useless to train her magic skills because she wouldn’t be able to use them a second time in battle, accusing Alex of manipulating her.

After that, Daimon teleported them to a hall where Arcade was hosting a murder game. They did kill Arcade, finally getting their revenge, but he just a meat doll created by Daimon. Zemo manipulated them all so he could lure the Avengers while he attacked S.H.I.E.L.D. and framed the kids.

Turns out Daimon was not only manipulating Nico but Cullen as well. Daimon taught Cullen how to control the monster inside him, unaware that his true intent was to put it under his control (please don’t ask³). Since Arcade was still alive, they proved their innocence, although another emotional scar was carved into their souls.

(”oh, but aren’t they teachers at Strange Academy?” you may ask. YES, they are! Marvel’s continuity, am I right?)

Later on, Nico also joined the A-Force team, which sadly didn’t last. But she became good friends with some of the members, such as Dazzler and Singularity (her relationship with Carol became sour due to a terrible event called Civil War II, although they were able to come to an understanding).

Lastly, the Runaways reunited once more, facing new challenges concerning their found family. The volume was sadly cancelled, although it brought huge changes for Nico. She asked Karolina to take The Staff of One with her to space, which depowered her magic abilities significantly. The consequences are seen in Midnight Suns, her last appearance, where she constantly struggles with self-worth and self-doubt (just like a certain magician we know hehe).

That’s what leads us to the next topic: her personality.

Nico is the very definition of a bi disaster. One of her most infamous bad habits is the fact that she’s always trying to kiss almost every member of her team in order to cope with her loneliness, whether they’re single or not. The thing is, the smallest sign of affection is enough for her to get involved with someone, and at the worst possible times (for instance, after burying a friend). Don’t get me wrong, I love her and I’ll protect her. But I can’t pretend she doesn’t have the same bad coping mechanisms than Stephen did when he was trying to forget Clea. And that’s what stood out the most to me as a Stephen stan, opening my mind to ideas of how they can bond.

The thing is, Nico constantly feels alone and insecure about her own capabilities. First of all, there’s the leadership issue. After Alex’s betrayal, she was forced into leading the Runaways, although she canonically states she never wanted that in the first place. It’s a responsibility she was never ready for.

Secondly, there’s the trust issues. Their parents lied to her all her life and tried more than once harm her. She was in love with Alex and then he betrayed everyone, constantly inserting himself into her life and making it a living hell over and over (sometimes quite literally). She trusted Doc Justice and he tried to murder the Runaways in order to promote himself, even though she swore she’d never trust adults.

And that’s a super interesting point because... The very premise of the Runaways is that adults are bad. They refuse to ask for help because the Avengers and the X-Men failed them over and over. This is why Nico never asked for Stephen’s help like Illyana did. And yet... It seems that this is about to change in v6.

I don’t really know where writers are going with their relationship, but I do hope that Stephen realizes that The One is slowly infecting Nico’s soul. That’s a good thing, believe it or not, because Stephen can be a good role model to Nico and a bridge for her to work on her trust issues regarding adults. He can teach her how to get rid of The One’s grip and also teach her safer methods to perform magic. Friendly reminder that Wong also taught her a spell or two.

Overall, I believe that the Strange Academy was a fresh start to her because Nico doesn’t really have a purpose. Karolina is her first stable relationship, and she’s off to space to deal with Majesdanian stuff. Besides, if Nico is considered to be the “mother” of the Runaways, Chase was the “father”, and he was taken to the future for a reason yet to be explored in future stories. Point is, she needs an adult figure to reassure her. The Midnight Suns was another good addition because she was able to open up with Illyana and find comfort and self-worth.

Personally, this is truly touching and meaningful because, as I always like to put, the magic community has something quite special going on. Their connection runs deeper because of the soul/spirituality. And that’s why I have huuuuuge hopes that Stephen will be able to reach out for her. It’s been shown that he keeps in touch with her whenever magic is involved, not to mention the school itself.

It’s true that they barely interacted in the past, mostly because Nico is always neglected when it comes to big magic events (Last Days of Magic, Civil War II etc). Strange Academy was another missed opportunity, but there’s room now thanks to the team of v6.

This is what I’m looking forward to, honestly. Even with limited powers, Nico is quite creative, although her self-destructive tendencies get in her way, which is exactly what v4!Stephen used to be. I’m pretty sure he’d see himself in her and would do his best to support her. That’s Nico’s opportunity to bond and grow as a character, to work on her trust issues, to heal from the trauma she’s been through and create healthy relationships, not only when it comes to Stephen, but the magic community as a whole. Friendly reminder that he taught magic to both Jericho and Illyana and almost became Billy’s and Wanda’s mentor.

So this is it. As you can see, the potential and background are all there. I’m really excited to see what comes next for them and I do hope they’re able to create a nice and sweet bond in the next issues!

[vishnavishivaa]

The Song of Yearning

Chapter One- Home Once More

******

Aditha smiled affectionately at his sister, whose face would rival the Sun in that moment. She glowed happily, an aarti thattu on her palms. His younger brother stood next to her, his eyes wide with joy but also confused with something, something he felt had to do with his arrival, but not in a bad way. 

“Patti,” he focused on Sembiyan Madevi, whose eyes shone with relief and tears on seeing him, the aarti thattu on her palms. She gently did aarti, touching his head. Aditha sighed in joy, knowing that this feeling of contentment at the touch of his elders’ hands on his head had been fulfilled only by his Patta Malaiyaman these three years. 

“Kanne,” she teared, brushing her hand over his luscious curls, despairing at the scars that were present all over his body. He was her grandchild, and despite everything that had happened, he was as dear to her as Kundavai and Arulmozhi. 

“Amma,” he whispered softly, falling at her feet almost, tearing when her palms touched his hair, her hands going to his shoulders to lift him up tenderly, patting his cheek affectionately. 

“Unnai paarthu kangal kulirndhuvittana, en kanne (seeing you is like splashing the coolness of water in my eyes, my dear son),” Vanavan Madevi said, her palm gently running through her son’s hair. 

“Amma,” he repeated again, blinking back tears. “Amma, I have missed you so much.” 

“We will talk soon, kanne,” she smiled softly. “Greet your siblings.” 

“Anna,” Kundavai almost cried meeting Aditha’s eyes, her eyes filled with so much emotion that it touched his heart. He and Kundavai had had their differences through the years, and more often than not, but if it came to that, they would lay their lives down for each other. 

“Thangaiye,” he smiled gently, placing a palm on her head, smiling knowingly at her, in response to the question dancing in her eyes. She smiled back happily, and his eyes focused on the Princess standing behind her for a quick second, timid but calm, and knew that a lot was going to change soon. 

He turned to his brother, who was watching him patiently, a trait so characteristic of Arulmozhi, that all Aditha wanted to do was hug him tightly. 

“So my little Sun has now become the large Sun of the Chozha Empire, has he?” Aditha smiled at Arulmozhi, who almost fell into his arms, the two embracing what felt like Yugas, each as emotional as the other. 

“Your little Sun will always remain yours, Anna,” Arulmozhi said softly, hugging Aditha tighter before letting him go. 

“Come, my child. Come inside. Your Appa is waiting for you,” said Sembian Madeviyar, taking Aditha inside his home, after years. 

****

Aditha couldn’t control the tears that fell when he hugged his father. Oh how he had missed him! 

He had missed his whole family, who were all seated around together,  looking emotional but happy and content. 

He looked around, at every face, over and over, delighted to see them all sitting together. He saw a seat next to Kundavai empty, and raised his eyebrow. 

“Kundavai, who is the empty seat for?” Aditha asked, amused at the seating. 

“It is for Vanathi, Anna,” she smiled. “I sent you letters about her, remember?”

“The Kodumbalur Princess, yes. She was the one standing behind you?” Aditha asked, his sharp eyes watching the discomfort that passed through his brother’s face. 

“Yes Anna. But she said we need to be with you and she will meet you later. So she and your friend from the Vana Kula are at the temple, the latter sent for her protection,” Kundavai smiled. 

Aditha nods, understanding her words easily. He turns to his father, in askance. 

“Appa, what are the things I have missed when I have been away from home?” 

A long conversation later, Aditha walked out of it emotionally rung out, his siblings on either side. 

“Tell me Kundavai, when are you getting married?” he smirked at his sister, who looked at him with wide eyes, an expression that amused him to no end. 

“Anna!” Kundavai blushed heavily, looking away. Aditha exchanged a smirk with Arulmozhi, both intent on now needling their sister, when the chiming sounds of anklets sounded from the nearby corridor. 

Aditha raised an eyebrow when Arulmozhi stiffened, and Kundavai seemed to smile at his reaction. 

“Kanne,” she called out, her voice holding that happy note when it was someone she adores. Was it the Kodumbalur Princess?

Someone turned around the corner, and Aditha saw that it was indeed said Princess. His eyes quickly went to his brother, whose eyes zoned in on the Princess before turning away and back to him, causing Aditha to frown mildly.

Why was Arulmozhi treating the Princess like this? 

“Akka,” she reached Kundavai, about to say something. Quickly realizing the presence of the two Princes, she instead stopped, giving Kundavai the space to introduce her to Aditha.

“Anna, this is my dearest friend, Kodumbalur Ilavarasi Vanathi. Vanathi, my dearest Anna is here!” 

“Vanangugiren, Ilavarase,” Vanathi said, her soft tone stately, and her head bowed down in respect. Aditha greeted her the same way, a smile on his face.

Glancing at his brother quickly, he said, “I have heard a lot about you, Ilavarasi. I feel like Kundavai writes to me about you often.” 

“That is because I do, Anna,” Kundavai said instead. “I don’t know why, but I tend to write more about Vanathi to you than to our thambi.” 

“Which is a bit unfair Akka,” Arulmozhi interjected, throwing a furtive glance at Vanathi. “Velar Mama is always asking if you sent news about Vanathi, and I am unable to answer him when you don’t, despite my asking.” 

Aditha was surprised, especially hearing his brother call her by name, as if he had done it all the time. 

“I did send all details through the Vana warrior, thambi,” Kundavai shrugged gently. “You should have paid attention and told Velar Mama. Enna kanne, you came for me?”

She turned to address Vanathi instead, questioningly. 

“Akka, the problem has cropped up again.”

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

@vibishalakshman @rang-lo @thelekhikawrites @hollogramhallucination @chiyaanvikram @willkatfanfromasia @dumdaradumdaradum @ragalata @yehsahihai @kovaipaavai

[taliecin]

i’m procrastinating on my uni assignments and i’m also generally frustrated with not having any drawing skills so let me just bombard you with something that has been rotting my brain recently LeoSagi “Millennium Actress” AU “What”, you might ask. Well, let me share everything I have on hand at the moment  SPOILERS FOR “MILLENNIUM ACTRESS (just in case)

Also please keep in mind, the movie discussed below is build heavily on the history of Japan and Japanese cinema specifically. I am myself not Japanese and, alas, I don’t even have much knowledge on both subjects, so I tried to avoid going into historical details. Also, part of text is focused on Japan’s role and activity during WWII. I consider myself to be under no obligation to make any statements on subject, I only took actual historical facts and did my best to not manipulate them. Apologies in advance for not researhing more before writing this.

For those of you who don’t know, “Millennium Actress” is an animated movie directed by Satoshi Con, whom you might know for his other works such as “Paprika” or “Perfect Blue”. I strongly recommend cheking out Con’s full filmography, which is, alas, really short, but for now let’s focus on “Actress”.

I won’t share the whole plot of the movie in here, since this crossover story  follows movie pretty closely. “Millenium Actress” is a story of retired actress Fujiwara Chiyoko who, along with her biggest fan and interviewer Tachibana Genya and his cameraman, travels through the memories of her life and work, while also revealing a story of her one and true love, which she chased her whole life. Let;s just state that this is a story of love that reaches through time and layers of reality - Chiyoko’s memories of her actual life and her roles blend together throughout the story, which blures the line of reality and fantasy, a repetitive theme for Con . It’s also a beautiful love letter to history of Japanese Cinema, critical retrospective of Japanese History and, overall, one of the best movies i’ve ever seen, so please make sure to watch it.

And now, let’s get to tortoise and hare. This story is not based on any particular version of TMNT or Usagi. On the contrary,  the whole point to me was to blend all this variations of the same characters. Just as with Chiyoko’s character, for this version of Usagi I took some inspiration from a real-life actor,  Toshiro Mifune (uh-huh), mostly known for his roles in Akira Kurasawa’s samurai movies AND for his portrayal of Miyamoto Musashi in so called “Samurai Trilogy”, based on a book about Miyamoto. 

The main characters of this crossover story are Miyamoto Usagi, a retired actor living as a hermit, and his young fan... Usagi Yuichi. I kinda thought it would be an actually interesting way to use his character. He is a president of a really small fun club dedicated to Usagi, (since his glory days are long gone), and his last name is also just a little funny coincidence which he considers to be a sign from Fate. (Yes, he is not blood-related to Usagi in this story, hope it’s ok). He works with “Samurai Rabbit” version of Chizu as his camera assistant, because i actually find their dinamic fitting for the story.

They are finally able to arrange the interview with Usagi, and once they arrive, they are met with an old man with a scar over his left brow, red eyes, pale white skin and pale hair. I strongly headcanon human!Usagi to be albino, i hope it’s ok. Before the start of an actual interview, Yuichi gives Usagi a key, which an elder man instantly recognizes. He asks Yuichi where did he find it, but Yuichi says he only recieved it after the announcement of him doing this interview, with inctructions to give the key to Usagi. Usagi then shares that he lost the key a long time ago, and that it opens “the most important thing there is”. 

He first tells of his childhood, which is pretty close to movie - Usagi was born in trying times for world, when Japan’s military ambitions led to conquest of Chinese lands. Usagi’s father was a grandson to a samurai turned merchant, whose position grew with Meiji period, and so Usagi’s father, while owning a business, a small shop, took big pride in his heritage, and taught his son to do so, to be proud of who he is as a person. Not to mention their common albinism. I wasn’t able to find any proper resource on history of albino people’s position throughout Japanese history (if you have any please contact me i’m really curious!), since some resources claim that due to beauty standarts albino people could have been even looked up to, others talk about white being associated with gods, priests and sacrality, while others point out white’s association with death. Nevertheless, I imagine Usagi’s childhood to be quite lonely, both because of his appearance and the fact that he was born on Chinese territories occupated by Japan - can’t imagine it to be the best place for a child to grow up in. He made a couple of close friends eventually, them being Kenichi, who couldn’t care less for Usagi’s looks, and Mariko, who also didn’t care that some people considered Usagi scary (can’t blame them with the look he can give when he’s angry - even as a child!) and even considered his red eyes to be “really pretty”. 

As a boy he, of course, grew up listening to stories of greatest samurai and their war victories, and so he would sometimes dream of becoming a war hero, great soldier, strong and respected. The perspective of inheriting his father’s business didn’t really thrilled him.

When he was a teenager, nearly coming of age, he was approached with a proposal from a “Kita” film studio. One of their representative noticed Usagi and thought his interesting appearence would look good on screen, so they offered Usagi to participate in filming. Miyamoto Sr. refused the offer, both not wanting his son to be actively involved in Japanese propoganda , since you never know which way the wind will blow, and wanting Usagi to inherit his business. Usagi, not a fun of idea, felt devastated, and left the house to clear his head. It was bright winter day outside. It was then, when a fateful meeting took place.

A stranger runs straight into Usagi, causing them both to fall. Next moment, the stranger is already helping Usagi up, and Usagi looks at him - it is a young man, around Usagi’s age, and he apologizes to him, before running away. Usagi, startled, didn’t even say anything.  But then, he notices an item, apparantely something stranger lost. It is a simple key, and Usagi picks it up. He is then approached by a group of men in police uniform,  one of them asking if Usagi saw a “runaway urchin”. Usagi says he stumbled in him and directs men the wrong way. Then, making sure they left, he follows the boy himself, only to find him not that far away, wounded. 

So, I think so far an implication of the stranger boy being Leonardo is pretty much clear. I’m not describing him in any way since it will ruin one of the plot points, and also, again, because i don’t follow any specific version of tmnt. But i think it was less clear that one of the policemen following Leo is Oroku Saki himself - i had hard time figuring out how to point him out since his appearance is always different and there’s nothing special about it either, aside from his armor, soo please share if you have any ideas how to do him. 

Then, Usagi hides the boy in the storage of his father’s shop and treats his injuries. They have a talk, in which boy talks about his home, and how it’s full white during winter, (I associate each turtle from any version with seasons, with Donnie representing spring to me, Mikey - summer, Raph - autumn, and Leo - winter, don’t fight me, i might write about it later), and how he can’t wait to go back there and be with his family in peace, once again. They also talk about war - the boy, who I now will call just Stranger, mentions that his whole family fights now, even his younger brothers, and how he will join theme soon. They also talk about hope - for better tommorow. I think this whole theme of moving along to new day fits Leo really well (ninja’s greatest weapon you guys). Eventually, Usagi asks about the key he found, but when Stranger tells that it opens the most important thing and Usagi asks to elaborate, Stranger simply promises to tell him after he comes back from Manchuria and the war ends. They make a promise to each other. 

Since then, Usagi just can’t keep the boy and his words out of his head. It’s like his whole image of the world shifted. Kenichi and Mariko even mocked him, claiming he must have fallen in love. The thought terrifies Usagi, which i suppose goes without an explanation, and he runs away from his friends in embarrassament and even horror. It is then when he finds the very same key once again, realizes something is wrong and rushes home. There he’s met with Katsuichi, who works for Miyamoto Sr. He tells Usagi of a terrible outlaw hidding in their shop and then whispers quitely that Stranger succesfully made it to train staiton. And Usagi runs there. Train leaves right in front of him. He stops there, watching the train go, with a promise to find Stranger, give him the key and learn what it opens. He remembers “Kita” studio’s proposal and thinks that if he makes it to the big screen the Stranger has chance of finding him himself.

Yuichi and Chizu follow the scene with great attention, until Yuichi shares a tear and whispers how it’s his favourite scene from that movie.

Apparently, they just “witnessed” a scene from one of Usagi’s first movies. Chizu is extreamly confused.

Later after that, Katsuichi talks with Miyamoto Sr. and they discuss what happens in West. The war, greater than any war they could have imagine, is upcoming. Usagi is considered adult now. To make sure he avoids military service, Katsuichi, not being in favor of Japan’s curent regime and not wanting Usagi to go to battlefield for it, advises to let the boy go to the film studio. Miyamoto Sr. can only agree. Thus, Usagi’s acting career begins. 

Of course, they go to film in Manchuria. On the way there, Usagi meets studio’s main director, whose last name is Mifune,  and who seems to geniully like Usagi and thinks he has talent and great future ahead of him, and curent project’s main actor Hikiji. Studio workers share that Hikiji is a cruel, slick type and apparently is in conflict with Mifune, so who knows how that is going to end. He also meets young man called Noriyuki, currently a director assistant dreaming of becoming a director himself. They become kind friends, and Usagi shares the story of the key with him, not bringing up the “in love” part of the story. 

In the current movie Usagi plays a young japanese soldier, and Hikiji’s character finds out he joined army only to find someone, currently fighting here in Manchuria. He shames boy for not serving his country properly but Usagi’s character claims that he would gladly die for his counrty, he just has to see this person, just this once again. Due to lack of expirience, Usagi sometimes lacks in perfomance, which Hikiji uses to harass the boy. Their rival starts, and it’s both terifying and pathetic how much hatred a grown man can have for one single boy. He constantly shames him, harasses him, and treats him roughly. But Usagi just keeps going, gives actually good perfomance and impresses the whole crew. News claim that more active military confrontation takes place on the north of the province. Strangely, this is where filming of the next movie takes place.

It is jidaigeki film, taking place in Heian period, where Usagi plays a guardian to the lord. After that, the narrative goes completely blended in terms of Usagi’s actaul life and his roles. In this movie, Usagi’s castle is attacked and his lord is killed, but before he can follow him to death, a strange mystical figure appears. It seems to be a man, slim, tall, looking slighlty demonic. He curses Usagi to neverending path, the one that will never give him the peace of Death.

This is when another man appears, and sends demon away. Apperantely, he is Usagi’s character friend, who is a demon queller taught in arts of sorcery. He claims that demon triked Usagi and that his lord is away somewhere else and they need to find him. 

In the next scene Usagi appears playing a samurai of a Muromachi era, who seeks to save his lord and bring revenge on their enemies. Together with a character’s comrad, a warrior no less fierce than Usagi’s character, they fight through the enemy’s ranks, when Usagi’s friend covers Usagi from the blow and thus gets killed. Usagi promises to never forget his scrifice.

Chizu watches old, “feeble” Usagi and Yuichi re-acting the scene with a great regret of being here in the first place.  This is also when she dicedes to clear if she’s not mistaken and after filming this movie Mifune was arrested for cooperating with anti-japanese forces in China and in West and “Kita” was disbanded. It appears to be true. 

(a place to insert the famous “Run” scene, unironically one of the greatest scenes in history of cinema, and not the last one from this movie!)

Usagi, as considered close to Mifune and his family, was also arested and interrogated. Memories blend once again. He’s pretty sure a familiar face was among interogatores, the one that already asked him questions once. Nevertheless, Usagi is soon released, due to lack of any proofs of his involvment.

Next follows the discussion of Japanese war forces and activities during WWII. This is a sensitive topic, so please proceed with caution and please keep in mind that I in no case have any intention to dismiss Japan’s war crimes, i’m simply portraing a person living a life through such times and figuring out a way to live through them. (I’m not making Usagi a war criminal, god please no-)

After that, Usagi and other young men from studio are sent to war. His expirience granted him possition in the Aerial Photography, within  Aviation division. There he met Gunichi, who was somewhat his mentor during his service. During the time, Japanese army was expiriencing  shortage of supplies, especially food, medicine and etc. Not to talk about casualties. Not to talk about increasing amount of kamikaze attacks closer to the end of war. Several of which Usagi witnessed. Several of which pilots he was familiar with. He was familiar with Gunichi who, as it turned out, sent those pilot to those missions. That led to a lot of conflicts and loosing a single person who he thought he could rely on. War left something in him that never could have been described. 

And then it was over. Just like that. He served for no more than 3 years, which felt like decades, only for the war to end so abruptly. It should have ended in the very first month, and it felt like it would never end. He heard of what happened to Hiroshima and Nagasaki. He just wanted to go home.

Home that was no longer his, even if rightfully so. His father and Katsuichi moved away from border, deeper into the country, to safety, each on their own now. Usagi stayed here, helping to clear all the rubble. He just needed to do something, be useful somewhere. He was so deep in his work he didn’t even realised he reached what was left of their family shop. There stood a wall of their storage. On the wall something was written. Somehow, Usagi knew who wrote this. And it cleared up everything.

あなたは一人じゃない

He moves to Tokio to reunite with Noriyuki and accept his offer to return to acting. After-war times are tought, but they just try to keep doing what they do best - to make movies. Besides, with the War over, the Stranger just has to fullfill his promise, right?

During the time, Usagi keeps playing in jigaideki movies. In a first movie directed by Noriyuki himself, Usagi plays Edo period ronin, who befriends a ninja and thus becomes a suspect in crime forced upon the said ninja. He’s interrogated, but never says anything. It’s not like he knows anything useful anyway. Later he is released with a help of his old another “shaddy” friend, a young lady who also happens to be a thief. Apparantely, she gave up all the money she stole to release him. 

Reality blends again. He is released again, and the guard, all too familiar, says they don’t need him anymore, they found the criminal anyway. Realisation hits him just as he watches familiar figure disapearing behind jail’s gates, and once again he’s not fast enough to reach him in time.

Present time Usagi doesn’t feel good. Yuichi asks if they should stop for today, but Usagi insists to keep telling the story.

After war, he also reunited with Kenichi and Mariko, with Mariko apparently waiting to meet him again all these years and Kenichi in love with Mariko. And Usagi can’t help but think that maybe this is what he actually wants. Something he must want. She is beautiful, sweet and perfect, right here. 

There is also, right here, on little chain on his neck, the key. 

When Chizu, eager for little drama, asks if they were actually a thing in the end, Usagi just says “Wouldn’t you like to know” with a funny smile. So, yeah, sorry, no confirmation or denial of Jotaro’s existance in here, but you can think it up yourself!

Usagi’s career bloomed and so the new studio he worked on - “Geishu”. He meets Tomoe Ame, who works alongside with Noriyuki. Many speculate her and Usagi to be a thing. Usagi’s father demands them to be a thing. Katsuichi points out it’s been years since him and Stranger last met. Usagi finally snaps and says he knows young man is still alive and he will find him no matter what. Even if he’s going to search forever.

It’s like a curse, honestly.

His mental state is not good, both from him overworking himself on studio, his  untreated PTSD and just overall stress. He snaps during work once, thus enraging Hikiji, for whom it’s one of his last role before he retires. To try to stay in touch with a world and reality, Usagi reaches out to the key. It’s not there.

It’s gone. 

Whole studio is on edge, trying to find the key, until one of the workers gets curious and starts asking what’s the story with the key.

The narrative switches to Usagi playing a teacher somewhere after a war, who’s trusted with a troublesome class but who eventually manages to earn their trust and respect. They ask him about his loved one. They ask him how they met. They ask him if she’s pretty.

Usagi realises he can’t even remember young man’s face. He never learned anything about him and he can’t even remember his face. 

Yuichi asks if this was when he decided to propose to Tomoe. He did, but sometime after the proposal Tomoe approached him with a gift and asking to break off the engagement. It was the key. The very same one. When asked, she explained she as at Hikiji’s place, something to do with sorting things out with his retirment, when she found this. All these years, Hikiji hated Usagi. For his spirit. For his strenght. For being able to move forward even after all these years, no matter what he did to break him. Not even after Hikiji told authorities about Mifune. 

Usagi is enranged, when a man,  whose face is slightly familiar, but only so, approaches him and says someone wants to see him. Usagi is shocked to see the same policeman who kept chasing the Stranger all this time. It’s hard to say what imprinted him more, war or post-war, but he looks terrible. He tells Usagi about the young man he captured, and how he kept a letter for Usagi and now, after the war, the man decided to atone for his crimes and was finally able to reach to Usagi and give him the letter. 

Usagi reads the letter. He can’t just stand there anymore. He spent all these years, searching, being on his way to this unknown young man. He can’t stop now. He rushes out of the studio, Yuichi and Chizu following him, but before they leave, Yuichi notices a man, the same one that announced the visitor. The man was standing above the visitor, who was on his knees, in position of deepest apologies. The man watched him silently, not moving.

Meanwhile Usagi rushes to the train station - trough the rain flooded streets, through the traffic, slipping, falling, stumblign into people, but not even noticing them. Only words from the letter replaying in his head.

“I regret never being able to thank you. I want to see you, but the war grows more intense each day. When the war is over, and the peace has come, I will go home, and I will see my family. Some day, I’d like you to meet them. I am sure they will like you. And then, I’ll show you the sky, the clear sky, just as I promised.”

It’s like he’s everyone and everywhere at the scale of time. He’s an Edo period Ronin, coming for his friend, he’s Samurai, protecting his lord, he’s a young soldier, coming through war to find his loved one, he’s even a young leuitanant who refuses to fight the giant kaiju because a person dear to him is eager to protect it.

The train Usagi takes is derailed, and he goes throug the forest by himself, not able to stop. When he reaches the road, a motorcyclist , a young man with his hair bleached white, asks if he needs a ride. Chizu chuckles, finally stating that now she can finally recognize Yuichi. 

Usagi carries on his way, going through the winter covered lands of Stranger’s home, like it’s some alien planet, where human’s foot steps for the first time. And on that planet, a single wall stands, with familiar phrase wrote unfinished. Ink leaves the trail behind the wall, and when Usagi goes there, a figure stands at horizon and waves at him awkwardly, before dissapearing fully. Usagi claims to fulfill his promise and find the Stranger, to not stop until he finds him.

***

This is the moment for me to stop you right there and show the actual scene. Usually “Run” is considered to be the most important scene in the movie, which i can’t argue with - it’s beautifully made scene that always me go heart-shape eyes.

But

This scene right here, is the epitome of the movie for me. It’s like an antipode to “Run”, with “Run” being full of ligth hope, love and joy of journey. “Actress in the time layers”, this scene, is if “Run” was filled with desperation, rush, attempt to clatch at something that slips through fingers. But it’s still, on its basis, is full of hope.

And i consider THIS scene to be the most important in the movie. 

***

During the filming of one of Usagi’s last movies, an earthquake takes place, causing filming set to colapse. Usagi gets burried under all the rubble, but a man helps him out, asks if he’s okay. Man’s face is so familiar. So familiar but never enought, it’s like demons are laughing at him. It’s his curse and his greatest joy, to keep searching.

He snaps and leaves the set. Key is forgotten there, only to that unfortunate man to pick it up.

After the incident, Usagi finally left cinema, leaving behind a huge legacy and a lot of questions which he never answered. 

When now asked by Yuichi why did he leave, Usagi shows him and Chizu the fragment of the wall with  あなたは一人じゃない writtern on it. He was no longer the boy Stranger met all those years ago. The Stranger himself definately no longer a boy himself.

Usagi’s condition gets worse, and an ambulance takes him to the hospital. While on their way there, Yuichi takes out the box where he held the key and takes out a folded paper from under it’s lining. He explains to Chizu that this letter was sent to him along with the key, but he didn’t fully understood it and so decided to first give Usagi the key and then decide what to do with the letter. 

Apparently the key and the letter were sent by a member of the Stranger’s family. In the letter, they explain that Stranger himself was killed during interrogation year before the war ended. All these years, Usagi was chasing the ghost of the dead man.

The doctors explain that Usagi won’t make it, and Yuichi and Chizu go to say their goodbyes. Yuichi gently points out that maybe now he will be finally able to meet the Stranger again. Usagi thanks them, deeply grateful for giving him the opportunity to step on this road to him again. After all, he quite enjoyed coming all this way. 

I imagine the very last scene to be him playing a ronin, stepping on his way to continue his journey forward, who knows where. It’s autumn.

***

As for Yuichi, his prototipe, Genya, also has his own character arc, and I have not forgotten about him. Within the fandom, I had my own issues with Yuichi, not with him as a character, but rather him and Usagi being used as each other’s loose change, which i think is just fundamentaly wrong in relation to both characters. Even more so, Yuichi is often portrait as if he does not have his own character, so he has tendancy to be portrait as wanted by each fan differently. Which i don’t want to frame as something forbidden or blasphemy, but it’s just something that i’m uncomfortable with. And so, practically, i made the main arc for Yuichi in this story - which is to come to terms with his own self. Throughout the story, he wears masks of other characters that appear in Usagi’s movies - he chooses to be anyone but himself - scrawny kid who just really loves this movie star and his works. And his journey with Usagi is a path to himself, to who he is at the end.

*** 

I hope you liked this concept, trust me, it was much better in my head, and i know i made a mistake trying to express this story in words, because it heavily relies on visual storytelling, especially through montage. So, here’s the thing - if you liked the premise, go watch the movie, and just visualise it. Trust me, it’s so worth it, with Con’s vision brought to life, beautiful animation and Susumu Hirasawa’s magnificent soundtrack.

Thanks for reading!!!  

[gumnut-logic]

Under the beach tent

This one is for March of the OCs and @gaviiadastra​ It is not much, just a rambling scene that wrote itself. It doesn’t go anywhere or do anything, but it is Gordon and Sam and some friends and brothers.

Kermadec AU, after Minerva and before Kermadec Whales, but with no whales or dolphins involved (though I was tempted :D ) Also, I should add a warning for romance with Scott/OC, but they are really only scenery...much commented on scenery.

I hope you enjoy.

-o-o-o-

“So, do you think they’ve forgotten we’re here?” Gordon took a sip of his mocktail and stared out into the surf.

“Who?” Sam had his foot up on the edge of the blow-up pool. His other foot was dumped on the sand to his left, lest it catch the plastic and put an end to their spa.

Well, it wasn’t really a spa. More of a kids inflatable swimming pool half buried in sand and topped up with a mixture of sea and hot spring water, courtesy of Raoul’s highly active volcano.

Gordon shifted where he sat, a smile curving around the bamboo straw in his mouth. “Oh, Scotty and Mel.”

Sam snorted. “Forgotten, no. I think they just think we can’t see them.”

The surf was on the calmer end of Oneraki Beach’s wave action spectrum. A simple solid swell, built somewhere near Tracy Island or Tonga beyond, that was rolling in at a regular beat. It was perfect for surfing and along with the equally perfect weather, had made up a perfect day to drop in on some friends.

Even Johnny had come down, and after spending sometime showing off in the body surfing stakes, was now snoring in Thunderbird One’s shadow.

Earlier Gordon had slipped past him and gently placed a large sun hat on his face.

Because he could.

The knocked-together spa Sam and Gordon were currently lazing in was also in One’s shadow. Not the most orthodox use of one of the world’s premiere rescue vehicles, but it did make a great beach tent.

Secretly Gordon thought Two made an even better one, but he was saving that line until he needed it. Had to have two elder brothers in the same room to get that argument up and running.

He grinned to himself nonetheless.

“You know, I really think she’s fallen for your big bro.”

Gordon arched an eyebrow at his friend. “You think so?”

Sam turned to look at him. “Well, it’s been, what, six months?”

A calculation in his head. “I guess.” Come to think of it, he wasn’t aware of Scott straying anywhere else during that time. Hadn’t even picked up any new phone numbers. Even those thrown at him.

“He’s been very patient.” Sam slurped his drink, an orange and purple concoction that Gordon was determined to try next.

“What do you mean?”

“You know. She’s been alone this long for a reason.”

Gordon frowned. “What reason?”

“Her job. The isolation. Her obsession with these islands.”

“She can be challenging. I’ll give you that. Only person I ever saw Dad back down from.”

“Really?”

“Yep. That was a day.” He grinned. “Why do you think he sent me to liaise when we moved in and didn’t do it himself?”

“Weren’t you like fourteen or something when you moved out here?”

“Yeah. Don’t worry, Virg played escort.” He sucked on his straw. “Half the reason why she wanted to climb him like a tree.”

“Well, she’d climbing another one of your brothers right now.”

“I think I’m scarred for life.” He screwed up his face. Those two definitely thought they couldn’t be seen standing in waist deep surf and behind One’s fuselage. His brother was obviously distracted if he was making such a tactical error. Not that they were doing anything risqué, but they were definitely very involved with each other.

Gordon was happy for the both of them. They were both lonely and if they found something together, it couldn’t be anything but a good thing.

“How’s things with you and your ladyship?”

He glared at Sam. “Fine, thank you very much. And her name is Penelope.”

“Oh, it’s like that is it?”

“Yes, it is.”

Sam giggled.

“Shut up.”

“Why? It’s so entertaining to see you squirm.”

“Do I need to chat to Liam?”

“To what? Find out all our secrets?” He snorted. “Go for it.” Sam went back to his drink.

“God, no. I’m traumatised enough with those two out there.” He waved his hand in the general direction of his big brother and his scientist friend who were now attempting a mutual tonsillectomy.

“You should have invited her over. We would love to spend some time with her.”

“And what, tell her all my secrets?”

An arched eyebrow. “You have secrets?”

“What? I live on a secret island!”

“From which you launch rockets, on the Kermadec Ridge, one of the most seismically active and most monitored regions on the planet.”

“That’s exactly why we’re here! Camouflage!”

Sam grinned. “Calm down. I’m not after your secret stuff.” He twisted his lips. “Though you might want your genius engineer to double check that camouflage up against our latest sensors. I’m guessing it is Thunderbird Three that is messing with the readings.”

Gordon stared at him. “What?”

Sam took another sip of his drink. “Not worth panicking over. We only noticed it last week when the first of them were installed. Not one hundred percent sure, but worth checking. And before you think we’re into Tracy Island espionage, we just matched the readings up with the news reports. We think it’s Three, but I could be wrong.”

“Thanks.” It was a sobering thought.

“But today is a work free zone, so I’m changing the topic. Mel has probably reported it to your commander via Morse code on his uvula anyway.”

“Thank you for that gross image.”

“You’re welcome.”

Gordon stretched out in the water, wonderfully warm. The day was a beautiful one, but relaxing in volcanic springwater was something to be done down here at any time.

On his pile of dry sand, further under One, John snorted and rolled over, dropping the sunhat and face-planting into it.

Well, there was the benefit of wearing a sunhat in the shade. So kindly supplied by a younger brother.

Turning in the opposite direction of his sleeping brother, Gordon spied two figures finally returning from their walk up the beach.

Virgil had traded his usual flannel for a linen shirt and his jeans for swim shorts. Both arms were sporting the forearm crutches he still had to use in the wake of his leg injuries from months before. The crutches had been fitted with sand traction and he still seemed to be moving okay.

Scott had refused to let him wander up the beach alone with his camera, hence Alan walking along beside him.

It would have been Scott in Alan’s place, but a quick word to Mel had her distracting his overprotective brother.

Gordon had been prepared to go with, but Alan jumped in and off they went, Virgil muttering something about foliage, black sand, and colour contrasts.

Alan was likely to come back with a degree in colour theory.

But the two were talking animatedly and Virgil had that look that usually pre-empted his next series of amazing artwork.

Gordon found himself smiling.

“Looks like the plein-air partnership has returned. Give me a hand prepping their pool.”

“Sure, gimme two.” Sam reached over and grabbed his foot, sliding it smoothly over his stump and strapping it on.

Gordon clambered out of the warmth of the springwater and grabbed his towel. “Bucket duty time.”

The hot springs gushed naturally out of the sand at the top of the beach. The water was quite hot, so had to be mixed with a little sea water to lower the temperature to a comfortable level. Earlier in the day, the brothers, Sam and Mel had dug a couple of depressions in the sand, plopped in a couple of inflatable pools and filled them with a mixture of hot and cold water. Gordon loved to sit his butt in the mineral rich warmth. The steam coming off the beach was atmospheric - particularly on cold and cloudy days where it fogged up.

Today there was just a little steam and the sunshine. But the pools did need a little maintenance and for one of the thankfully few times in his life, Virgil wasn’t up for much heavy lifting.

So Gordon and Sam did the bucket carrying and by the time Virgil and Alan were within hearing distance, a fresh, warm bath awaited.

Virgil did look like he needed it.

Gordon had availed himself of these springs in the past for a very similar reason. It had been Sam and Virgil doing the shovelling and bucket carrying back then.

Out in the surf, Scott had turned and moved to where he could see the shore.

Gordon ignored him and hoped Mel could distract him back into tonsil hockey.

Virgil is fine. Take a break. Maybe get a room.

Apparently, Virgil was more than fine, the grin on his face fit to split something.

“Find yourself some pretty pictures?”

To Gordon’s surprise, it was Alan who answered. “You should see it, Gordy! So many coloured flowers against the black sand.”

Gordon stared at his little brother. Maybe Alan did get an art education on the beach. “Yeah?” He looked at Virgil.

“I found it inspirational.” Yes, there was light in his brother’s eyes.

“Great!” He gestured at the second pool as Sam emptied in a last bucket of hot water. “Take a load off?”

Virgil grunted, his shoulders dropping. “Don’t mind if I do.”

Both Gordon and Alan helped him down into the water, Alan talking about bindweed and pokey trees and birds the entire time.

It wasn’t often Alan took a lot of interest in wildlife, but apparently today it was the topic.

Gordon was hard pushed to hide the smile.

Second biggest brother now happily situated, Alan still babbling beside him, Gordon stepped up to the makeshift ‘bar’ - a storage crate from One’s cargo hold with a handful of mocktail ingredients stashed on it - and concocted a drink their resident artist would enjoy. He handed that and Alan’s favourite to his reclining brothers.

He then refreshed Sam and his own and returned to his little cocoon of lovely warm water.

Virgil relaxed back and sighed, drink in hand. “This is the life.”

Gordon held up his drink. “To Raoul and all her wonderful inhabitants and conveniences.”

Sam, who had plopped in beside him, again throwing his foot back onto the sand, held up his glass, paper umbrella and all. “To Raoul!”

Both Alan and Virgil shouted, “To Raoul!”

John rolled over onto his belly and began drooling into the sunhat.

Scott was now in even deeper water and much more distracted than even before.

Gordon couldn’t help but grin even more.

“To Raoul.”

-o-o-o-

[atlantahammy]

Something I've been working on and off on because I wanted to draw something soft, and this is a result of that.

Wasn't till I was almost done that I realized some coooould mistake it as suggestive but, eh, I can't control people's minds, just know their adults here. Also another little writing bit here under the cut! ———————————– My Commissions | .Carrd

Astra ran her hands gently over every crevice and nook, her fingers and claws gently feeling out every groove as gently as she could, knowing how sensitive turtle shells were and how sensitive his likely was now, with each scar that had been dug into it like trenches.

She could feel him trembling irrationally under her touch, likely a trauma response to what he'd endured that he'd yet to get under control from the inciting incidents.

Two sets of scars, one set a few months older than the other, the elder set having already turned green and starting to blend in as new scales and skin had been slowly replacing what had been removed with each shedding.

The newer set, still pink, but slowly now where also fading to green as the new scales started to finely harden. She could tell these ones ran deeper, thus why they took much longer to heal and start to fade...

They clearly still caused him pain in some capacity. Mainly in a mental sense, physically? She wasn't sure, but all the same.. she wanted nothing more than to make the pain stop and let him know it was okay, she wasn't going to hurt him.

Gently, and without thinking, she gently moved her hand over his smaller spinal spines, and leaned in, planting a soft kiss on one of the larger spiraling scars, which cause Donatello to flinch in surprise.

He had NOT expected that, not at all! Let alone the feeling of it! It made his whole face light up red under his mask as he looked down at the floor.

Well, THAT made the trembling stop, that and likely make the rest of his brain preform its best reenactment of the "Blue screen of death".

"You okay?" Astra asked softly as she noticed his flinch at what she'd done, hoping she had not crossed a line.

"Y-Yep! Perfectly fine, he said not totally embarrassed at all! M-Merely just unexpected, that is all!" Donnie chuckled nervously, which earned a pout and a raised brow from Astra.

Donnie then cleared his throat, realizing that yes, even as an adult, he still sucked at lying.

"You're fine, it's fine, quite honestly, I... Did not dislike it, merely just... The thought nor action had ever crossed my mind before, thus I had not mentally prepared for such an outcome." Donnie corrected as he cleared his throat, and glanced to the side, a soft smile growing on his face.

"So, what you're saying is." Astra smiled. "Is I caught the hopeless romantic off guard?" She'd ask with an impish grin and snicker.

[aqua-loves-writing]

Chapter 6 part 2 is here!

cw: violence, body horror

“Help!”

They look around to see where the source of the voice came from. The two have reached the backside of the inn, finding the brick walls that surround the village collapsed, a man’s legs injured and bleeding under them. 

A bleak voice caused a shiver down their spine. Through the broken walls came in a being with human-like proportions. Only its skin was completely gray, sharp black antlers on top of its head. Empty eyes staring into nothing. Its almost skeleton arms were reaching out to the injured man.

“Get away,” he cried, throwing the bricks at the beast, which proved ineffective.

The beast kept closing in on the man until Alice managed to fly and kick it back outside again.

“Are you okay?” she helped the men remove the bricks of his legs, seeing wounds that would scar in seconds.  “Help me get him inside!”

The two had brought the injured man back to the inn, several villagers coming to his aid.

“Stay back kids,” an old man went outside, a small ax in his hands, “We’ll take care of this!”

Following him came a bunch of other men, all in their later years, readied with different weapons ranging from small knives to tall spears.

While Nexus helped the man get a place to rest inside the inn, Alice stayed behind doors, watching the fight unfold.

It was clear that the elders didn’t have a strategy, for they simply began attacking it head on, their weapons covered in regular flames.

However, those fires were too small and weak to do any damage. The beast slammed the weapons away from them, shattering them in pieces with its large hands.

“Miss, don’t.”

He grabbed her arm before she could leave. “You still aren’t in good condition to move, much less fight!”

“What do you want me to do? Let these old men get hurt. There’s no way they’re all that this village has.”

“It probably is, though.”

“Say what now?”

“It’s a sad fact. But most soldiers are brought to the capital city to guard them, so small villages like these only have retired soldiers as their guards.”

“You have got to be-all the more reason to help them!”

“Well, you can’t! Who knows what will happen if you-”

“Help!”

While they weren’t paying attention, the fight had taken a major turn.

All the soldiers were knocked out on the ground, the beast holding a small girl hostage

“Dad,” she cried out, trying to get rid of the beast’s grasp.

“Miss, no-”

Without a second thought, Alice jumped into the fight, her flames coursing through her fingers.

“Let go of her freak,”she punched the beast right back outside the walls, catching the little girl in her arms

“Are you alright?”

The curly-haired girl’s eyes widened, holding her dress tightly, “Y-yes, lady.”

“Good, good. That’s what's important right now. How did you even get here all of a sudden?”

“Well,” she turned her gaze away, “I was searching for dad and-Look out!”

“Whoa!”

She ducked down on the ground, hearing noises of bones breaking. Looking up, she sees the thin arms of the beast suddenly spread out, a new limb growing out again and again.

“Shoot,” holding the little girl tightly, she tried to get away from the scene. However, its other arm began to grow more limbs too, and she had to do her best to dodge both.

The beast had kicked away one of the knocked out men, approaching the two girls ever so slowly

“This is bad. Kid, are you scared of heights?”

The little girl had her head clutched into Alice’s chest, “N-no!”

“Good,” flames burst through her entire body, “hold on!”

“Whoa!”

Flying up high in the sky, the beast still tried to attack her, swiftly dodging each of its attacks.

This is bad. I can’t knock it out if it keeps doing this, and there’s also her to worry about.

While she wasn’t paying attention, the beast managed to grab her, slamming her back to the ground

She managed to get off its grasp, landing on her feet as her flames burnt out

“Crap!”

“Lady?”

“I’m fine,” Alice lied. “Come on, come on, spark already!”

Snipping her fingers and slapping her hands against the ground, she was unable to cast any spells. The beast was about to devour them

“Get down!”

Shielding the little girl, she heard an unfamiliar voice as several arrows coursed through the creature’s neck, it falling behind.

“Wow,” she managed to stand up, backing away from it, “who shot those?

As she turns around, farther off, she sees a man breathing heavily as he holds out a wooden bow in his hands. He pulled his hood back, dark skinned and short hair, he cried.

“Zuri!”

“Dad!”

Alice lets the little girl down, who leapt to her father’s embrace.

“Thank goodness you’re safe. Do you have any idea how worried I was!?”

“I’m sorry,” she sniffed, “I was looking for you, and then this ugly thing showed up, and and-”

“Shh,” he stroked her back, “It’s all fine, baby.”

“Um,” Alice scratched her head, “I apologize for interrupting this moment. But-”

She gestured towards the beast.

“Ah, right,” he puts his bow on his back, taking the two girls away from the scene.

They hid behind a street corner, watching as the beast slowly made it way, removing the arrows off its chest. At that moment, Alice takes a good look at the archer, noticing how his clothing consists of various shades of orange and saturated yellows.

“Are you an earth mage perhaps?”

“Yes,” he kept shooting his arrows to slow down the beast, “How did you know?”

She avoided answering. “It doesn't matter. Can’t you then cast a giant plant to get rid of it or something?”

“Nice idea, but it’d be too risky. If I grow some vines, it might ruin the village’s underground structure and cause several houses to collapse.”

“Ah, I see.”

“If only I could get it away from the village somehow?”

“Ah,” Alice was struck with an idea, “Aha!”

After telling the archer of her plan, she went out staring the beast right through its empty eyes, “Hey, weirdo!”

She climbed up the nearby walls, straggling on it with her back straightened. “You think you’re quite something huh? You and your honestly very disturbing bodily functions.” she put her fist to her mouth so she wouldn’t puke.

“Anyway, if you really got what it takes,” she picked a fallen brick, throwing it at its face, “Come get me then!”

Jumping off the walls, she pulled up her hand, showing off the small flames within it, the beast chasing after it.

They got farther and farther away from the village, so she smirked and blew out her flames.

“Plants, now!”

Just as the beast was about to cut through her chest, several arrows landed on the ground. Gigantic vines sprouting out of them. The beast tried shaking them off, but they managed to grab its hands and pull it down on the ground.

“Perfect,” she clapped her hands, waving back at the two-

“Now, let’s get you some sleep-”

“P-please.”

“Huh,” she looks around to see where the voice came from.

“Please, let me go.”

Unable to find who keeps saying that, she gets startled seeing the old men back from earlier cutting off the beast’s head.

“Thank you so much young lady,” they bowed down, “We were so pathetic during the fight. If there’s any way to make it up to you, please tell us!”

“Oh please,” she waved her hand, “It was nothing anyone would have-”

“Lady Fire!”

“Huh?”

Before she realized it, Zuri had tackled her to the ground.

“That. Was. Awesome!”

She began jumping on top of her. “You flew! You really, really flew! And your hair became this blue fire! And your eyes! It. Was. So. Wow!”

“Zuri,” her father immediately picked her up, holding a walking cane in his other hand, “What did I say about tackling random strangers?”

She pouted. “It’s rude and all that.”

She did this before?

“I am so sorry about her. She just gets really excited when it comes to magic. Zuri, you need to apologize as well. You could have really hurt her!”

“Okay,” she bowed down her head, “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be,” she pinched the little girl’s cheek, “I am just happy to help-”

Before she knew it, the man whose legs were injured just earlier was passing by her.

“Huh?”

When she turns to see him again, he was carrying away the creature’s remains alongside the other men.

“Hold on,” she called out to him, “Are you alright, mister? Is your leg-”

“Oh it’s you,” the man smiled, “Don't worry. I am all fine now, thanks to the Knight of Miracles!”

He walked away, giving her more questions than answers.

“The Knight of Miracles,” Zuri clapped her cheeks, “Dad, I wanna see, I wanna see him!”

“Dear, he’s probably busy now. We can see him later, though.”

“What are you two-”

She walked towards the light, passing what seemed to be a small aurora in the middle of daylight. The moment she touched it, it had disappeared. She arrived where she left off, only this time standing still.

Nexus was there. His eyes seemed mystical, glowing in a green color that matched the surrounding lights. They were shining bright, noticing small sparkled where his pupils were supposed to be. In his hands, he was channeling the aurora, forming in it some sort of spherical shaped. 

The elderly man in front of him was clutching his arm, bleeding from the fight. Nexus closed of his eyes, transmitting the light into the man’s wounds. The light dissolved as only a scar was left on the elder’s arm. 

“Thank you. Thank you so much,” he couldn’t help but shake the knight’s hands up and down.

“My good sir, I only fulfilled my duty as a-Miss!”

Alice was taken aback when Nexus suddenly stepped in front of her. “Look at you! All your dress is covered in dirt and your hair is all messed up! Thankfully, none of wounds from yesterday came back! I’ll get you when I am finished with these gentlemen-”

“Don’t!”

Shouting as she stepped away from him, everyone gave her looks. Too confused to think anything straight, she leaves back to her room, almost tripping over a pot with a dead plant in it.

—

The sun was going down. She was alone in her room patching up her wounds with bandages she got from the innkeeper. She’d sometimes look down the window, watching as the villages walked through carrying several bricks to repair the wall. Finally, she hears a knock on the door.

“Good evening,” Nexus came in, humming as he locked the room, “Sorry for keeping you up this late, I finished healing the gentlemen a while back but then a woman came in calling to help her daughter, then there were those children who fought, then the old men who asked to grow back his teeth-”

“So, that’s why?”

“Hm?” He tilted his head.

“The Knight of Miracles. Fitting really, the ability of healing anyone anywhere in seconds.”

He giggled, “I guess you can call it a ‘miracle.”

“Right. A miracle,” she clenched her fists, “One you could have used sooner.”

“Hm? What do you mean-”

Saying nothing, she pointed to the necklace around her neck, and everything was made clear.

“Ah.”

“That’s all? No excuses or anything?”

“I wouldn’t call it an excuse, but yes, I had my reasons.”

She looked away from him, continuing to patch up her own wounds.

“As much as I hate to say this, my magic has its limits. For one, it can’t grow back an arm or leg, and it’s barely effective against many diseases, and in certain cases… it’s just too late.”

Alice finished putting the bandages on, immediately slamming her face to her bed. “Was it really though?”

The knight looked away. “Either way, we both have our promises to keep. So let’s focus on that right now. Nothing comes out of ‘what if’ after all?”

Instead of going to his bed, he sat on a chair, picking up a paper to write something on. She carefully watched him before dozing off. Tensions left unresolved.

[grimalkinmessor]

Actually actually actually—I think I will expand a bit on my BNHA/DN character parallels just a little bit because,,,,

I just realized that Doctor Garaki's orphan hospital is a lot like Wammy's House :')

BUT I will go in order because why not: Matsuda and Midoriya.

I think this one's kind of obvious but I'll expand on it nonetheless; Midoriya may be the main character to Matsuda's side character, but their personalities and roles are very similar. They're both unfailingly kind and they see the best in people, to the point that it's easy for them to empathize and see from the villain's point of view. They tend to adopt the same beliefs as those around them and/or above them until something happens to challenge those beliefs. They both have elder mentor figures that they want to be like (Soichiro and All Might) and they are constantly striving to be like their mentors. Midoriya and Matsuda also share a sense of worthlessness in the face of idle hands—meaning that if they don't feel like they're doing something useful, they will try to find some other way to help. Both Matsuda and Midoriya are always, always, trying to help.

Bakugou and Aizawa is a little less steady comparison wise, but they're both hot-headed and loyal people. They both think they know what's best but aren't afraid to (reluctantly) take orders from others if they know, logically, that those orders are going to further the goal. They both prefer to be hands-on, and they both have a role in sticking by the happy-yet-sad-too-trusting-kid to both insult them into submission and keep them from dying and/or protecting them. Bakugou-Midoriya and Aizawa-Matsuda are both very antagonistic/protective relationships, it's kinda funny.

Misa and Toga I feel like I don't have to explain. Sure, they have a lot more differences than the others but honestly I think that if Ohba hadn't been such a pussy when it came to giving his female characters actual character then they'd be extremely similar. Twins, even. Let 👏 Misa 👏 Be 👏 Feral 👏👏👏

Light and Yoichi is a comparison that was odd for me to make for several reasons, first and foremost of which being that Yoichi isn't the villain in his story. (Second of which being Yoichi is a soft boi but we'll come back to that). But I ended up on Yoichi for Light because 1. I had already chosen L's parallel character and 2. their roles in their stories are very similar if you look at the intent behind them. A man who stands behind others, surrounding himself with like-minded people as he urges them to fight for the cause of the greater good, to save the world, even if they die in the crossfire—knowing, even, that they're likely going to die in the crossfire. Now yes, Yoichi physically CAN'T fight on the front lines because he's DEAD, and his greater good is actually, you know, good, but again the intent there is the same. Their roles in relation to their respective antagonists are also very similar: another man in the shadows is hunting you down with a fervor known only to wild predator animals and you are doing everything possible to not only keep out of his clutches but also to stop him from impeding the safe growth of what you consider to be a good world. Idk Yoichi just seemed like the most logical conclusion.

Mello and Dabi is an easier comparison for a few reasons (though yes I did consider Dabi for a Ryuk parallel for a minute or two). The most obvious of which being their recklessness and viciousness. They both have burn scars because they're both idiots that blew themselves up out of spite like,,,how. Mello parallels Dabi in that he 1. leaves home, 2. has a younger 'brother' that he's competing with and cripplingly jealous of, 3. has so much ambition that he was willing to wait YEARS for his plans to come to fruition, 4. joined a group of dangerous criminals in order to further his goals, 5. committed enthusiastic arson. Plus, look at the way these two dress. You could cut a leather couch in half and get both of their wardrobes. Cunning goth little himbos, both of them.

Near is Todoroki's parallel for a lot of the same reasons as above. His role in relation to Mello is incredibly similar to Shoto's in relation to Dabi. A younger competitor that surpasses the elder unintentionally, only making the elder that much angrier, and has little to no desire to actually be the successor of the man the elder idolizes. They are literally just fuckin' sitting here. Also, less and also more important—both of them are socially stunted and autistic ✨ "If I smile they'll die??" vibes from both of them plzzz. Both of them are also incredibly feral but the fandoms refuse to focus on that part for some reason.

Matt and Spinner. Less points, but honestly Exasperated Side Character With A Larger Role In A Main Character's Life Than You Anticipated That Also Goes Hard For Video Games is all I needed, really. Also they're both designated driver.

L and All For One—the whole reason I decided to expand on this—have SO. MANY. PARALLELS. They do not look like it at all and it drives me nuts because All For One may be a villain and my brain initially wanted to give him to Light but. No. No, L has this man down pat and it's a little infuriating :') This also comes down to me comparing Watari to Doctor Garaki but first things first: All For One is, at his core, a corporate head. Both he and L have spent literal decades building up their empires, both monetary wise and reputation wise, and used them to do whatever they hell they wanted. L may solve cases and put criminals away, but guess what? So does All For One! When it benefits him. L solves cases because he's bored, and he paints over the face of it as Justice™ because it gets him more sympathisers and tools to use. He's constantly playing a giant game of chess and people are little more than pawns and cannon fodder. He has Watari running a successor program so L can live on after he's gone, just like AFO has with Doctor Garaki (I wanted to make Near parallel Shigaraki bc of the line between Shigaraki and Dabi as AFO's potential successors, but Todoroki called his name instead so wcyd). Both of them play both sides of the board as a grand sort of puppet master, and the only thing that differs is what side they lean toward. L leans more towards lawful morality, AFO leans more toward anarchic depravity—both of them are ultimately playing for themselves.

I have a few more character parallels, but I'll stop here for today. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this :3