#and he tries to convince her to help him stop the reincarnation cycle so their souls can finally just REST

[kraviolis]

nintendo hire me i have the best idea for the story of a new zelda game

[robininthelabyrinth]

genderbent wens, like the siblings and the head family?

ao3

“- and in one generation, they were all women, every single one of them!” Lao Nie laughed so hard he was very nearly hiccupping, but Lan Qiren supposed that was understandable on account of the other sect leader having consumed a truly unbearable amount of wine. Some of which was on his behalf – Lao Nie had been in a strange mood during the conference, especially excited, and had boisterously interjected himself into Jin Guangshan’s regular attempts to get Lan Qiren drunk by volunteering to take all his toasts for him – so Lan Qiren felt obligated to stay and keep him from making a nuisance of himself. “So be careful what you wish for, Jin-xiong!”

“Let go of me!” Jin Guangshan yelped, and really, getting squashed like that by Lao Nie tipping over onto him was exactly what he deserved. Only Jiang Fengmian was nice enough to try to help him, and all that accomplished was to get him pulled, laughing, into the drinking as well.

Possibly that had been his goal.

“That seems remarkably unlikely,” Wen Ruohan remarked. He, at least, was sitting properly, and had for once restrained himself during the festivities – he was friends of a sort with Jin Guangshan, which never seemed to go well for anyone else, but Lao Nie’s rowdiness had apparently severed that for the night. He looked sidelong at Lan Qiren. “Don’t you think, Sect Leader Lan?”

Lan Qiren could never figure out if Wen Ruohan meant for that term of address to be an insult or a compliment, and he was tired of trying.

“What is so unlikely?” he asked, having been paying more attention to Lao Nie’s stability than his words.

“An entire generation born as women,” Wen Ruohan said. He was playing with the cup of wine in his hands rather than drinking it. “Statistically possible, but highly improbable, given the size of the Nie sect.”

“Well, I assume he’s accounting for the misaligned,” Lan Qiren said, because Wen Ruohan wasn’t wrong – the Nie sect might be smaller than others, but it was still a Great Sect; it was very far from being small. “That would affect the numbers.”

“Misaligned?” Wen Ruohan echoed.

“A tradition among the Nie,” Lan Qiren explained, because it wasrather unusual. “They believe that the reincarnation cycle occasionally errs, with the soul of a woman ending up in a male body or a man in a woman – or I suppose neither and both, I’m not entirely certain about that one. At any rate, it’s not terribly common, but neither is it especially uncommon, so I suppose it’s possible –”

“Isn’t it a punishment?” Wen Ruohan interrupted.

Lan Qiren blinked at him, not understanding.

Wen Ruohan was looking down at his cup, which he had started to hold rather tightly – his knuckles were white, and it was only his especially good control over his cultivation that was keeping the cup from shattering. “The misalignment,” he clarified. “It’s said that those who commit sins in one life will be condemned in their next: reborn as an ant, or a chicken raised for slaughter. To be reborn into a body that does not fit you would surely seem to be along the same lines.”

“I suppose I see the argument,” Lan Qiren said, relieved that for once Wen Ruohan was in the mood for a theoretical discussion rather than causing trouble just to show that he had the power to do so without consequence. “I believe the Nie would argue in turn that being born as a thinking being capable of expressing oneself is sufficient basis to assume error rather than retribution – we’re all cultivators fighting the dictates of fate, after all. If one can seek immortality against all heavenly restrictions, then seeking to be recognized in the manner of your soul rather than your body would appear to be a much smaller issue.”

He shrugged and took a sip of his tea, rolling it in his mouth first to confirm it hadn’t been spiked with anything alcoholic.

“My assumption entirely,” he added. “I’m not actually that familiar with the Nie sect doctrine on this matter. Lao Nie is not the most academic, and if anything seems more bemused by our lack of understanding on the matter.”

Wen Ruohan was frowning into his cup, but at least he wasn’t gripping it so tightly.

“Fighting the dictates of fate,” he murmured. “Yes, I can see that. If you decide you are something, who dares say that you cannot be that, even the Heavens themselves?”

Such a Wen sect way of thinking, Lan Qiren thought to himself, shaking his head. Arrogant, defiant and proud – always raising their heads up high. Admirable in small doses, irritating in large!

“What would you do?” Wen Ruohan asked him, and Lan Qiren looked at him, surprised. “If there was – something like that, but in your sect? The Lan is the most orthodox of the sects; you do not even permit intermingling between men and women.”

“We don’t – men and women live separately; it’s not the same thing as not permitting intermingling,” Lan Qiren protested, but he supposed he could see the value in the question. “If one of my sect disciples informed me that they believed themselves to be a misalignment, I would – accept it, I suppose. Perhaps after a period of supervision, to ensure that they were serious and understood the consequences of their actions, that they would live and be perceived socially in the manner their soul for the rest of their lives; that would help ensure no one would engage in such a thing lightly or as a prank.”

He thought about it a little more.

“Yes, I think that’s right,” he concluded. “There are many rules that touch on the subject of being true to oneself, and none requiring adherence to the gender of one’s body; therefore, it is more in accordance to the rules to permit it. In such an event, I might also send them to the Unclean Realm for a time to further their understanding of the concept, to allow them time to reflect on the proposed change and to ensure they have access to a place where they can feel safe in exploring –”

“What if it were you yourself? Given your position?”

“Me?” Lan Qiren blinked. “I’ve always been comfortable being a man, so it isn’t an issue. But if it was, I would imagine that the same would apply to me as to anyone else in my sect. After all, we have precedent of a woman taking the role of Sect Leader, so that isn’t a consideration.”

“I suppose you do,” Wen Ruohan said. He seemed thoughtful. “What do you think the other sects would think of it?”

���Well, I can hardly say. Of the Great Sects? The Jiang sect would probably approve of it; their sect motto is ‘attempt the impossible’, and their emphasis has always been on freedom and finding your own way – I can’t imagine them objecting in a way that wouldn’t make them come across as complete hypocrites. The Nie would of course accept it. The Jin…”

The Jin sect, under Jin Guangshan, would reject it utterly. Perhaps it might be different under a different sect leader, but Jin Guangshan was even more wedded to the idea of people being in what he considered their ‘proper’ place than most. He hated the newly rich, the self-made upstart, even the poor young men who fought their way up from nothing – in his view, immortality was best reached by nothing ever changing. It was, perhaps, an understandable viewpoint from a man who felt as though he already had everything, but still rather disgusting given how despite all of that Jin Guangshan still grappled and sought after even more power and wealth than he already had – as if he were the only one allowed to rise, and everyone else had to stay where they were so he could more easily step on them on his way up.

“Oh, the Jin. Leave Jin Guangshan to me,” Wen Ruohan said with that dangerous smile of his, the one that promised blood on the ground.

Lan Qiren nodded agreeably, then frowned. Since when had they been discussing how to convince Jin Guangshan to be more open to an admittedly idiosyncratic Nie sect custom?

He was about to ask, but then Lao Nie started singing – with Jiang Fengmian providing the harmony, insofar as ‘harmony’ could be used to describe something that sounded not unlike a duet for elephants in heat or possibly someone using a brick to bludgeon people mid-opera – and they all got distracted in the unified effort of trying to get them to stop.

Lan Qiren then forgot about the entire conversation for approximately two months, and abruptly recalled it when Wen Ruohan issued an announcement that the Wen sect now permitted female sect leaders, that, furthermore, shewas the first one, and, finally, that if anyone objected on any basis whatsoever they were welcome to fight her personally.

Which –

Well, in all, Lan Qiren wished his fellow sect leader the best and started resigning himself to having to suffer from even more of Lao Nie’s flirting at the next discussion conference. That man had never yet met a man or woman who could kill him that he wouldn’t try to sleep with, and he generally preferred women…

-

“It’s nice to have the company of another girl,” Jiang Yanli said with a smile.

Wen Xu snorted. “I agree, even if I wish it were under different circumstances.”

Jiang Yanli managed to maintain her expression of peace and tranquility for exactly four breaths before she burst out into giggles, an incredibly infectious sound that finally made Wen Xu start laughing as well.

“It’s mean,” Jiang Yanli said, only laughing harder. “I should – I’m glad they’re happy! Really!”

“We can be glad that they’re happy and also think that our parents are insane,” Wen Xu said. “I can’t believe – your parents are already married! To each other!”

“They weren’t very happy, though,” Jiang Yanli said. “I honestly think Sect Leader Wen has been very good for them. Even if I don’t want to think too hard about it.”

Wen Xu nodded. They were both twelve, which was exactly the age at which you tried very hard not to think things like I’m pretty sure my mom’s railing your dad while your mom provides commentary with his face in her lap right this very instant and yet you did think it because the adults were very not subtle sometimes and then at that point there was nothing to do but laugh.

“I heard that lots of people thought she was going to get together with Sect Leader Nie at first,” Jiang Yanli said. “You know, because they flirt so much?”

“My mom says that Sect Leader Nie flirts with anyone who can kill him,” Wen Xu said, and still marveled a little at being able to say things or think things like mom. Before, she’d only ever been allowed to refer to his father through the most formal terms, with any attempt to use a more intimate sobriquet being viciously punished – she’d often thought that her father would rather she called him Sect Leader Wen instead, and maybe she’d been right.

Her mother was a lot more easy-going about that sort of thing now, though. Wen Xu still wasn’t sure whether it was because she preferred ���a-niang’ over ‘a-die’ or if it was just that, having blown up the entire cultivation world through her gender choices, her mother felt a lot freer in ignoring the rest of the expectations that had burdened her, too.

“So he’s not serious about her?”

“I mean, maybe he is, I don’t know,” Wen Xu said. “But apparently the whole thing with my mom deciding to announce that she was a woman happened right around the time he was getting back together with his second wife so I guess he was taken?”

“Wait, he got back together with – wasn’t she dead?”

“Apparently not? I really don’t know what happens in the Unclean Realm.”

“Probably for the best,” Jiang Yanli said. “I mean – I don’t – uh, that is –”

“If you’re talking about the fact that my mom still wants to take over the entire cultivation world and declare herself an immortal Empress, trust me, I know.”

“Oh, good,” Jiang Yanli said. “I wasn’t sure how to bring it up.”

Wen Xu shrugged. She mostly just hoped that her mom’s current relationship with the other sect leaders was such that she didn’t actually murder them all in her inevitable effort to take over – it had always been something of a concern, and greater now that she actually knew Jiang Yanli was pretty cool.

“I also thought…” Jiang Yanli hesitated. “You yourself…?”

“Oh, no, I’m different. My birth mother made me pretend to be a boy,” Wen Xu said. “So that I could be the heir and she could keep her place as my father’s main wife, though of course in the end it didn’t really work out that well for her…I think A-Chao’s like mom, though. She wants to be a princess.”

“So she’s like your mom in the – ambitious sense?”

Wen Xu snickered. “Yes, that too. Actually, it’s a little funny. The whole thing started because my mom overheard Lao Nie talking about how a whole generation of Nie sect got cursed to be girls one time, and now I think mysect’s current generation is all girls.”

“Oh! Are they really?”

“Well, not really, but almost?” Wen Xu said. “There’s really just my mom, A-Chao, and me in the main branch, though we have some cousins that got sort of pulled into the main branch after their parents died – A-Qing and A-Ning. They were both born as girls, but recently A-Qing’s been saying that he thinks he might be happier as a man…it’s interesting. He’s not unhappybeing a woman the way I’m pretty sure my mom hated being a man, but he really likesbeing a man, and according to the Nie sect that’s the same thing, just a different expression of it? I don’t know.”

“How old are they?” Jiang Yanli asked.

“A-Qing’s about our age, and A-Ning is your brothers’ ages. You can meet them the next time there’s a conference in Qishan…”

-

“Can I bring Jiaojiao?” Wen Chao asked, and quailed under Wen Qing’s glare.

Wen Ning was just happy to remain underfoot and out of attention range. Her brother had a wicked way with needles when he wanted, and she wanted no part in any of that.

“Are you serious right now?” Wen Qing demanded. “You want to take your whore with you when we run away from home?”

“I’m not leaving Jiaojiao behind!” Wen Chao insisted. “And she’s not a whore! She doesn’t sleep with anyone but me.”

Hasn’t doesn’t mean wouldn’t, Wen Ning thought, then promptly felt bad for thinking it. It was a very catty thought and she was ashamed of it, even if Wang Lingjiao did strike her as rather…mercenary.

“Also I don’t understand why we have to run away anyway,” Wen Chao said, pouting. “So what if Mom started a war? We’re going to win, and then I’ll be a princess.”

“You’re an idiot,” Wen Qing said. “We’re not going to win.”

“But we control half the cultivation world!”

“Yes, and maybe if your mom was as ruthless as she used to be, she would’ve done the things necessary to win the war,” Wen Qing said. “Like take out Lao Nie early on, maybe. Now that the Nie sect’s got both him andNie Mingjue, any of our cultivators that go to the Unclean Realm are going to be slaughtered.”

Wen Chao winced, acknowledging the point.

“And ever since Lao Nie and Lan Qiren started their thing, it’s not like the Nie sect won’t also go defend the Lan sect, right?”

“…right.”

“And of course there’s the Jiang sect, which we probably couldraze to the ground if we really wanted to. But we’re not going to, and you know why?”

“Because Mom is fucking their sect leaders.”

“Because your mom is fucking their sect leaders,” Wen Qing agreed. “And that is why we declared war first on the Jin sect, because no one likes them.”

“So what’s the problem?”

“The problem is that the Jin sect makes no sense at all as a target! If we take over the entire stretch of territory between Lanling and Qishan, Qinghe gets completely cut off from Gusu and Yunmeng and there’s no way they’re going to let that happen, which means that they’re going to declare war on us. And that is why we are running away from home, because we do not want to be here when the Nie sect shows up.”

Wen Ning’s brother was awesome and everyone should listen to him.

“Maybe your mom will rethink her actions once she’s seen that we’ve run away,” Wen Ning told Wen Chao in a low voice, since she was still scowling. “And I think it’s fine if you bring Jiaojiao. She’s your girlfriend, right?”

Wen Chao frowned. “I mean…she’s someone I’m sleeping with. For now. That’s all – she’s just a maid.”

Wen Ning would normally refrain from commenting, but… “If she’s just a maid, then why do you care about her potentially dying when the Nie sect invades?”

Wen Chao’s face did something. “I – maybe I just want to have her around to keep sleeping with her!”

Wen Qing looked on the verge of saying something, but Wen Ning stepped on her foot.

“Maybe you should think about it,” she said. “I don’t think we can let a servant to come with us – same reason we can’t take Wen Zhuilu, since he’d just report the whole thing to your mom – but if she was your girlfriend and you trusted her…”

She trailed off and shrugged.

Wen Chao’s face was doing weird colors.

“A-Ning, stop trying to teach A-Chao to have mature emotional reactions, it’s a hopeless case,” Wen Qing said. “Keep packing instead. If I was smart, I’d let A-Chao stay here with her Jiaojiao and her dreams of being a princess.”

“No!” Wen Chao exclaimed, then flushed red.

“No? Then pack.”

-

“How about we just assume girl until otherwise proven?” Wen Xu suggested, patting the baby’s back to try to keep calm. Whether the person to be calmed was the baby or Wen Xu herself was unknown. “She doesn’t need to have gender imposed so early.”

“Deciding that she’s a girl is imposing a gender,” Wen Chao said. Her head was in Wang Lingjiao’s lap, and she was pouting. “I can’t believe we have to take care of a baby.”

“She’s family,” Wen Qing said.

“Her parents aren’t!”

“Mom’s rules are that anyone who has the Wen surname and blood who doesn’t have parents gets adopted into the main family.”

“Do Sect Leader Wen’s rules even matter any more?” Wen Ning asked, wringing her hands. “With her being under house arrest…”

“It’s temporary. Once she vows not to wage offensive war without approval of the other Great Sect leaders, she’ll be released and things will go back to normal. Mostly. Possibly with slightly less war?”

“Yes, but in the meantime, why do we have to be in charge?”

“Uh, because you’re the heirs?”

“I’m not the heir,” Wen Chao sniffed. “A-Xu is.”

“This is so stupid,” Wen Xu said. “I can’t believe our mother’s military campaign and inevitable tragic defeat was derailed by the giant man-eating tortoise A-Chao found.”

“Anyone could’ve stumbled over that cave!”

“We weren’t even supposed to be heading in that direction! If you hadn’t stolen the map and insisted on being the navigator –”

“It all turned out for the best,” Wen Qing interrupted. “No blood feuds – or at least, not any we can’t afford to pay off – and that awful Jin Guangshan isn’t around anymore, which the other sect leaders are pretending to mind but really don’t. Mom will be back in charge of the sect soon enough, and with luck will forget all about trying to take over the world and will instead go back to fucking her two lovers that swooped in and saved her life instead defeating her because she’s incredibly touched by that even if she’s pretending she’s not. It’s like a scene out of a bad play.”

“Can we get back to the bit where we got a baby?” Wen Xu said. “I don’t want to deal with a baby.”

“I already explained –”

“I’ll take A-Yuan,” Wen Ning volunteered. “She seems sweet.”

“Girls usually are.”

“We are not saying everyone is a girl until otherwise determined!”

“Why not?” Wen Xu wanted to know. “Worked out pretty good so far.”

“I – that is – I mean…” Wen Qing floundered, then scowled. “Okay, listen. Not even the Nie sect does that, and I refuse for the Wen sect to be weirder than the Nie. All right?”

Everyone considered that, and agreed.

They might be weird – but they weren’t that weird.

Right?

[hopeaterart]

Evil Ozpin AU: Dinner with a bird

Context: Ozpin and Salem more or less swap place, it's a bit complicated. This fic is here to explain how it happened by way of Ozpin monologuing to a (still on Salem's side at the time) Qrow. There's some hints of Ozqrow in there. Like, you're definitely supposed get Vibes. For those unaware: here's my Evil/Swap!Ozpin.

"So... You're Salem's latest pawn." Qrow scowled, eyes narrowing at the monster sitting from across him. How he'd ended up sitting at the same table as Ozpin, also widely known as 'the Wizard', was a blur in his memory, and granted, not that great a story.

Went on a mission for Salem to find his base of operation, with the only info being that it was somewhere in the forests of Sanus. Had to go alone because Tai and Raven had their hands full with Yang and a pregnant Summer. Got caught by Ozpin's latest apprentice- a blond woman about his age with the ironic name of 'Goodwitch'. Letting himself be captured in order to get taken to Ozpin.

One trip to an old monastery latter, he was now separated from Harbringer, had Aura-suppressing manacles on his wrists (thankfully with no chains), and was sitting in front of the Wizard himself. They were on some kind of balcony with only a small table between themselves, and there was a plate on the table with bread on it that neither were touching.

"And you're the guy who's trying to burn down Remnant." He bit back. Ozpin sighed, silver eyelashes fluttering as he narrowed his eyes.

"Is that what my traitorous ex-wife told you?" Ozpin asks, smiling like a predator about to eat it's prey when Qrow's eyes widened in confusion. "I mean- she's not wrong, but Salem isn't exactly the hero of our tale."

"Wh- your ex-wife!?" Qrow exclaimed, before gritting his teeth. "You're lying." He accused Ozpin, who didn't even flinch at the accusation.

"So she didn't tell you." He observed. "Oh, what am I talking about? Of course she'd keep that hidden, that self-righteous hag." Ozpin hissed as he took one of the small bread. "Doesn't want to acknowledge me being a thing is her fault, after all." He opened his mouth, momentarily exposing too-sharp canines as he bit the bread in half. He stared in Qrow's eyes as he chewed, before swallowing. "It's garlic bread. An entrée before the main dish, if you will. I'm not going to poison you, erm... Qrow Branwen, is it?"

Qrow grit his teeth. "And I should believe you, because?"

"Sheer pragmatism on my part, really. We're eating the same food, and I am not interested in poisoning myself." Ozpin explained, shrugging as he finished eating the bread he had in hand. "'Poison damage' is not really the kind of pain I like."

Qrow raised an eyebrow at that. He'd heard stories of Ozpin letting anything and everything hurt him with ecstasy written all over his face, but hearing what seemed like confirmation was a bit... much. "Uh... so what's the deal? Why are you having me eat here with you instead of- oh, I dunno, locking me in some kind of torture dungeon?"

"Wouldn't you like to know, pretty bird?" Qrow averts his eyes at that, his gaze landing on the plate of bread as his cheeks warm up. He hesitantly took one of the bread, shoving it in his mouth and chewing quickly.

He took another one, eating slower and actually savoring it this time as Ozpin turns to look at the scenery. The forest stretches beyond the horizon, any traces of Grimm hidden from sight. Qrow's not fooled, he knows the monastery probably hides a few nasty surprises. The marble-skinned weirdo in front of him is proof enough.

Credit where credit is due, whoever cooked this is a damn good cook. "Who made this?" He asks as he takes another bread. "Didn't expect you to have a five-star chief."

It was Ozpin's turn to be caught off-guard. "I'm... glad you like my cooking." What. Qrow stared at his third half-eaten bread. "Oh, don't be a baby. I have literal centuries of experience behind me, and my cycle of immortality is different from Salem's. Since I need sustenance, might as well be good at it."

"Still not entirely convinced you're not poisoning me." Qrow noted.

Ozpin groaned in exasperation. "If I wanted to kill you, there's a myriad of ways that would be easier and less-headache inducing than this." Ozpin snapped as he got up and started walking away. Qrow turned to look at him as he went behind his chair, before going rigid as cold fingers dug into his shoulders. "Stay there. I'm getting the side and main courses."

Ozpin left the balcony in a puff of smoke, and Qrow let out a breath he didn't knew he was holding. He reached inside his jacket, relieved to see his Scroll was still there. Only for his mood to immediately crash when he realized that this part of Vale didn't get reception.

"Trying to call for help, are you?" Qrow whirled around, scowling when he saw Goodwitch. "I'm telling you now, it's not gonna work. Ozpin has taken precautions."

"What, precautions against modern tech!?" Qrow snapped, getting up as his chair rattled. He didn't care if Goodwitch had one of the most powerful Semblances he'd ever seen while he couldn't even activate his Aura right now. He brought misfortune wherever he went, made sense his shit Semblance would turn against him one day. "Does the guy think we still live in the Dark Ages?"

Goodwitch bristled. "Why, you insufferable- Ozpin is trying to offer you a chance to redeem yourself from working with Salem, and you're squandering it for-"

"Glynda." Both stilled as Ozpin came into view. There was a disappointed frown on his face. "That's no way to treat guests."

"But sir-"

"No buts, young lady." Ozpin reprimanded, waving his fingers as floating plates, glasses and a bottle of something came into view. "Help me with putting on the table, will you?" He asked Glynda, who nodded and took the two plates with food on them to put on the table. "Sit back down, Qrow."

"Don't call me that." The huntsman hissed even as he sat back down. He glared at his plate, which had fish and some kind of salad and... something else in it. He raised his head slightly as the bottle landed on the table, Ozpin dismissing Glynda with a 'thank you' before sitting back down. He pointed at the weird stuff. "What is that?"

"Oysters." Ozpin told him. "I opened them earlier, they're all good. Do you know how to eat them?" Qrow shook his head. "Alright, so first you need to loosen them up..." Qrow followed Ozpin's instructions, pulling a face after eating his first one. Ozpin frowned. "Don't like it?"

"Texture's weird." Ozpin hummed, before taking the bottle and popping the cork off and pouring Qrow a glass.

"It's champagne. Laurent-Poirier. Goes well with oysters, use it to wash them down." Qrow nodded, taking the flute and taking a small sip. "Not a fan of alcohol?"

"Opposite, actually." He started, remembering how his father got after too many bears. "Runs in the family." Ozpin thankfully didn't push the subject, simply turning toward his own plate and taking a bite of his salad.

The two ate in silence for a while. Ozpin opened his mouth again as Qrow tried his second oyster. "Can I ask you a question?"

"Does it matter if I say no?"

"No, but you don't have to answer it." Qrow nodded. "How did you end up working for Salem? I thought the Branwen were a bandit tribe from Mistral?"

Qrow hissed in between his teeth. "I... me and Raven, we... Our parents, they- urgh. Look, all that matters is: we're not going back, and we're never going back."

"Raven..." Ozpin seemed deep in thoughts, as if he was trying to remember something. "That's your sister, right?"

"Yeah." Something occurred to Qrow. "Say, the whole reincarnating wizard thing. You used to be, like, a regular, not-Grimm person, right?"

"That's one way of putting it, but yes." Ozpin answered. "I used to be mortal."

"Did you have siblings? Before the whole..." Qrow made a vague gesture in the other's general direction. Ozpin stilled at that, a faraway look on his face.

"No, none by blood. I grew up in the mountains with only my parents before obtaining my powers." He answered. "I... did have someone I considered my sister, but I was already well into becoming what I am now when I met her." The look on Ozpin's face was absolutely miserable. "Salem killing her pushed me over the edge."

"... Ah." Qrow took a sip of his champagne. "That sucks. Sorry for your loss."

Ozpin waved a hand. "I- it's fine. You're not the one who blasted her with magic for the crime of trying to help me stay me." He quickly ate an oyster, seemingly cheering up. "Anyway, my turn to ask you a question!"

Qrow snorted despite himself. "What is this, 21 questions?"

"My crush is no one, if you're wondering." Ozpin joked, before straightening in his chair. "What did Salem tell you about me?"

Qrow shrugged as he cut some of his fish. "You want to burn down Remnant. You can do magic. Whoever you reincarnate in dies the moment you come into the picture. You started the whole thing with Salem. And she doesn't know how to stop your cycle."

Ozpin hummed. "I see. Your turn."

"How... much of what I told you do you agree with?" Between the ex-wife comment and the very real grief he had when talking about his sister, it was clear had a different version of the events. Besides, the monster Salem had described to him wouldn't simply sit him down to talk.

Ozpin hummed, a piece of fish on his fork as he waved it in the air. "I do want to do some burning, but it's more 'everything Salem ever worked for' than Remnant. Come on, Qrow, I live here. And I'm stuck here." He ate his fish. "If I really wanted to destroy Remnant, I'd simply use the Relics."

He hummed. "Yeah, that's fair- wait. You know where the Relics are!?" The amount of people that were on wild goose chases to find them... And this whole time, Salem's sworn enemy could get to them the moment he decided to stop playing around.

"Of course I know where they are. I'm the one who hid them in the first place." Ozpin noted. "Can't have Salem blowing up my body with the Sword again... urgh, retrieving it and the Lamp was such a pain!" Qrow numbly nodded. "Anyway, you wanted to know about my magic?"

"Uh-" Ozpin snapped his fingers, whisps of green and gold rising from them as pitch black eyes burst into green flames. Like a Maiden's. "Oh shit!"

Ozpin smiled as the magic faded, Qrow numbly realizing there were brown irises somewhere in those pools of tar. "I can. And unlike Salem, I'm willing to share."

"You- you're the guy who created the Maidens!?" The fairytale explaining their origin spoke of an old, cruel magician, who took four sisters under his wing and taught them how to use magic.

"Ah, yes." Ozpin spoke with fondness. "The first Maidens. They reminded me of the first daughters I had, and they were so very loyal to me... loyalty deserves to be rewarded, don't you think?"

Qrow frowned. "Is that why they keep turning against Salem when she finds them first? Something to do with your magic?"

"What- no!" Ozpin exclaimed, clearly offended. He then frowned in confusion. "I think. If it is a thing, then it wasn't intentional." A pause as Ozpin downs his flute, before pouring himself more champagne. "Anyway, my reincarnations..."

Qrow raised an eyebrow as Ozpin downed more champagne. "Sensitive point?"

"More angry about Salem being right on this one. Or..." He chuckled. "Was right. I proved her wrong, in this life. Ozma isn't in control anymore."

"There's literally nothing in what you just said that's reassuring." Qrow noted, Ozpin smiling at him as he finished his salad. "Who's Ozma?"

"The name of the first soul in the cycle." Ozpin told him. "He used to absorb whoever he reincarnated in into himself the moment he was in their bodies, but his soul weakened over time, and it took more and more time and efforts to absorb them. By the time he reached me, it him almost twenty years for our souls to fuse, and then..."

"... you're the one who absorbed him." Qrow finished. He frowned. If Ozma's soul was driven by anger at being betrayed by the woman he loved, then... "Holy shit, what did Salem do for you to hate her that much!?"

"What would you do," Ozpin started. "If you wanted to live, but someone wanted you dead? Because you know of something you couldn't care less about that could destroy her life? What would you think if someone thought of you as nothing less than the latest stain on her self-inflated ego? Proof that she's just human, if not worse than that?"

Qrow frowned at that. Was that how Ozpin saw the conflict? But nevertheless, he knew the answer to that question. It wasn't one he was happy with, but... "I'd kill her before she killed me."

"Good answer. And the answer to who started our conflict: as far as I'm concerned, it's all. Her. Fault." The two finished their plates in silence after that, Ozpin first and spending the next few minutes watching Qrow.

They stared at each other for a while. "Uh. All that fancy stuff, and no dessert?" Qrow joked. The tiniest bit of relief struck him as the corners of Ozpin's eyes crinkled.

"Now, you're speaking my language!" The pale-skinned man clapped his hand, and Qrow nearly jumped out of his skin when a Grimm came out of the shadows.

It was unlike any Qrow had seen before. A glossy sphere with bone shards on it's lower half, floating with an array of thin tentacles trailing under it. There was an ominous light coming from into the sphere, even if it wasn't really visible in this light.

It was also green instead of red, which meant Ozpin had created the fucking thing. Black smoke rose up from under the plates at a wave of the Wizard's hands, handing them to the Grimm. "Bring these to the kitchen, and bring back the dessert. It's on the pastry cart." The Grimm simply took the pile of plates and floated back in the darkness of the inside.

Qrow inhaled sharply. "What the fuck was that-"

"Seer Grimm. I've put enchantments all over the place so we don't end up getting detected by the CCT, but I need a way to communicate with my followers when they're away." Ozpin explained with a shrug of his shoulders as he poured himself yet another glass of champagne. Qrow stared at him. "Oh, don't look at me like that. I'm pretty sure most of my bodily fluids have been replaced by Grimm sludge, it takes an insane amount of alcohol for me to get drunk."

"Yikes." That word alone could describe at least half of what Qrow had learned about Ozpin today.

"Want a refill?" Qrow looked at what Ozpin was pointing at. His own flute, now empty. He nodded, letting the wizard pour him a second glass. Ozpin got up from the table after that, his glass in hand as he leaned on the balcony, back to the Huntsman. "Anyway, there's still one part of your question I haven't answered yet."

Qrow frowned, before remembering. "Is there a way to stop your cycle of reincarnation?"

If he had seen the manic smile on Ozpin's face, Qrow would've been scared for life. "Nope~. There was, but Salem would've had to die, and she was unwilling to. And now, the only way to get rid of me has been made useless."

"What do you mean by that...?"

Before Qrow could get his answer, the Seer Grimm was back, pushing a tray with a plate that had a mountain of what looked like chocolate truffles on it. Ozpin turned around, snapping his fingers as he did so. The Seer rotated, floating toward Ozpin as the wizard reached a hand out, caressing the smooth surface. He looked at the Grimm warmly, before turning those same eyes on Qrow, making something in his chest flutter. "Slit my throat open."

One of the Grimm's tentacle morphed into a blade, and faster than Qrow could see, Ozpin's throat was opened with a gush of tar-like blood. Ozpin gurgled, more of the black sludge coming out of his mouth as he took a few steps back, before falling backwards over the edge of the balcony. Qrow's better nature took the better of him as he rushed out of his chair, rushing to try and catch the wizard. "OZPIN!"

... Only for the man to raise into the air, eyes ablaze as a gentle breeze carried him. Ozpin laughed awkwardly as the other man stared at him in shock. "Were you scared for me?" Qrow took a step back as what he realized was a nothing less than a living god touched down on the balustrade. "Don't worry, there's no need to! I know it's always a bit scary when I take risks like that, but I assure you: there's no need to, since I-"

"Can't die." Qrow finished, realization hitting him like a ton of bricks. "You can't die."

Ozpin frowned sympathetically at him as he sat down on the balustrade, looking up at Qrow. "She didn't tell you, did she?"

His answer came in the way Qrow crumpled to the ground, breathing harshly as if he was trying to refrain himself from crying. "No one wanted me-" He started in between gasps, Ozpin frowning as he came to kneel down next to him. "I gave my life to her because she gave me a place where- where I belonged-" He continued, letting the other man manhandle him into a hug. "I thought I was finally- finally-"

"Doing some good?" Ozpin finished for him. That opened the floodgates, Qrow burying his face in Ozpin's chest as he sobbed. Ozpin gently carded a hand through his hair, resting is lips on the top of his head. "You poor thing..." He muttered. "I'm afraid meeting Salem was the worst luck of your life."

Qrow continued crying, not noticing Ozpin manhandling him further until he was sitting in Ozpin's former chair. The wizard had his back turned to him, taking the plate with the truffles. "What are you...?"

Ozpin turned toward him, a kind smile on his face. "After everything you learned today, you must be exhausted. I just want to make you feel a bit better, is all." He came to sit on the table, plate next to him. He picked the truffle at the top, bringing it to Qrow's mouth. "Open."

Qrow nodded, opening his mouth and letting Ozpin handfeed him sweets, the wizard occasionally cradling his face or petting his hair. Ozpin smiled, picking up Qrow's discarded glass of champagne and sipping on it as the other leaned in his hand.

I win this time, dear~

[kittyprincessofcats]

RWBY Volume 6

So, I pretty much binge-watched this one in a few days because I really needed to know how things go on after Volume 5 and it was just so good! Lots of messy thoughts to come!

[There will be spoilers for RWBY up to Volume 6 in this post (duh). Please don’t leave any spoilers for anything after Volume 6 on this post, or I will block you.]

Thoughts under the cut because this ended up getting a little long.

- The character short for Adam was really cool! It was cool to see how the White Fang began, to see Sienna, Ghira, Ilia and Adam in action, to see the irony of Sienna being a mentor to Adam and encouraging his ways when you know he’ll end up killing her, and to see a glimpse into Adam and Blake’s past relationship (and how the stuff he said to her was textbook emotional abuse). However, I do have one criticism, and it’s something that really bothers me: There’s a continuity mistake with Ilia’s age. Let’s think about this: Ilia was always implied to be the same age (or around the same age) as Blake. In the part of this short where Ghira was still leader of the White Fang, Ilia appears and doesn’t look younger than in canon. But we know Ghira stepped down at least a few years ago. If Blake is meant to be a teenager in volume 1… there’s just no way Ilia could have been there and already been an adult. She’s supposed to have still been a kid when Ghira was leader, unless she’s at least a few years older than Blake – which I don’t think she’s meant to be? Yeah sorry, this kind of stuff just bothers me. I get that timelines can be hard to keep track off, but that was a really obvious mistake and it ruins my immersion a bit.

- I loved the whole opening fight on the train and just seeing team RWBY fighting together again.

- I’ve got to say, I do feel bad for Weiss: After everything she went through to leave Atlas, she now suddenly has to go back there. I mean, that must suck.

- I’m a bit sad they just but Ilia on a bus, but I get that her main conflict is pretty much over and they had to go back to focusing on the main characters’ quest. I still wish we’d have at least gotten a scene of her interacting with the other members of team RWBY, though.

- I really liked Ilia and Blake’s goodbye at the train station, though. (And the whole “wrong tree” moment with Neptune really made me laugh 😂)

- Also just wanted to say I love Ilia’s new outfit (and the fact that she has spots on her belly – this is really important information, okay?)

- There’s a certain irony in the Faunus becoming more accepted because they STOPPED Adam’s attack on Haven.

- I think Jinn and the whole concept of how asking her questions works is super cool.

- I totally get why everyone’s pissed at Ozpin both before, during and after Jinn revealed his and Salem’s backstory. He has been hiding an awful lot from everyone, even after promising not to anymore, and he actively tried to stop the team from finding out the truth. Plus, the whole fact that he doesn’t have a plan for defeating Salem and is potentially risking everyone’s lives for nothing. (That said, can they not take it out on poor Oscar, please? None of this is his fault.)

- Oscar fighting Ozpin from within and telling them how to summon Jinn was a really badass scene. And I feel super bad for Oscar overall. Not only is he kind of at war with someone who lives in his brain now, but he also just found out that he’ll eventually only become a part of Ozma. And on top of that, people are punching and blaming him for stuff that’s not his fault. That’s super harsh.

- I’m kind of glad Cinder’s alive, because as I said, I was hoping they’d develop her more and make her a more interesting villain… but I don’t feel like this volume did that. Right now, she’s still pretty superficial, unfortunately.

- And now, time to get into one of the highlights of this volume for me: Salem’s backstory! Because holy shit, that was one hell of a backstory! When I said back in my post about volume 5 that I hope Cinder’s alive because I would like to see them make her a more interesting villain, I didn’t expect them to do just that, but for Salem. I love villains that are interesting, but I didn’t expect Salem, the literal big bad of the show, to be the interesting one here! I am pleasantly surprised by this, though! (And just to be clear, because some people love to misunderstand this: When I say “interesting”, I don’t mean “She has a sad backstory, this excuses everything she’s doing”, I mean “She has a sad backstory, this makes her more compelling as a villain”.)

- So, about that backstory: Do we all agree that the gods are major jerks, or what? I mean, initially not bringing Ozma back to life was fair, death is a part of life, they can’t upset the balance, I get that – but making him repeatedly disintegrate in Salem’s arms after she just thought she’d gotten him back? And then making her immortal just to make sure she couldn’t be with him? And then killing ALL of humanity just because of the actions of a few? But still not letting Salem die? And then bringing Ozma back after all (because now it suddenly doesn’t ‘disrupt the balance’ or what?) and kind of tricking him into that whole relics task because he wanted to be with Salem? The god are jerks, I rest my case - and I’m not sure if bringing them back is a good idea.

- Also… I get that she’s like… evil and all… but am I the only one who thought Salem got way sexier after jumping into the pools of grimm? Is that just me? Because damn… I’m kinda into that version of her. (Come on, she’s a sexy goth witch and I’m a simple lesbian, what do you expect?)

- So yeah… in an unexpected turn of events, Salem might be one of my favourite characters now? Oops? (*insert obligatory ‘this does not mean I condone her actions in any way’ disclaimer here*)

- I feel super bad for Salem and Ozma’s kids, though. I hate kids getting hurt in media in general. (I imagine the grief over them stayed with Ozma forever. And I like the theory that he gave the original four maidens their powers because they reminded him of his daughters. In general, I don’t consider him to be the bad guy in this backstory at any point. His only mistake is not being honest with the people who are helping and protecting him in the present.)

- I am now convinced that this entire show has to end with Salem and Ozma dying. That’s the only way all of this can end. Salem will have to either be killed somehow or learn the lesson the gods tried to teach her and die. Ozma will have to fulfill his task and die as well – either through Oscar dying with him (😢), through only Ozma dying but Oscar getting to live without him, or through the reincarnation cycle ending and Ozma/Ozpin recognizing that Oscar is going to be his last life. Something like that would be my prediction.

- Speaking of interesting villains: This volume also did a great job with Emerald and Mercury! With those two, I’m actually hoping for a redemption now. (And Hazel is a great guy as well. The fact that he was willing to take the blame for their failure at Haven to protect Emerald and Mercury is something I really respect.)

- I also I want to say I find Tyrion super entertaining.

- It was great to see Neo again! (I’ve gotten so used to Chibi!Neo it was almost weird to see regular Neo again.) Her fight with Cinder was EPIC.

- (I basically feel like this volume did a great job on all villains except for Cinder. But hey, maybe that’ll still happen.)

- This was an interesting volume for Qrow. On the one hand, I get why hearing Oz’s backstory drove him into a sort-of depression and made his drinking habit worse and I feel bad for him, but from the point-of-view of Ruby and the others, it must have also been super frustrating that the one proper adult in the group couldn’t keep it together and everyone else had to keep doing the hard work.

- Maria is a super cool and epic character! I really hope she sticks around with the team for Volume 7 because she’s amazing and I love her. She was super badass in her backstory (that moment where she lost her eyes was painful just to watch), I love the fact that she was Qrow’s hero growing up (and that he based his weapon on hers!), that we finally met another character who has (well, had) silver eyes, and that she’s that funny, cranky, but also wise old lady now who mentors Ruby and is just super funny all around. Good stuff, I hope we see more of her!

- The Apathy are the creepiest grim yet. The whole concept of them draining you of your will to live without you even noticing is just SO scary – I love it, but I’m also low-key terrified. The crew’s trip to that farm estate could have easily gone very wrong. Pretty much nothing but Ruby’s silver eyes even worked on them. I like how those episodes set the whole thing up – Team RWBY having emotional conversations while they were in the house, everyone having doubts (which makes sense at that point in the story, so you don’t really question it at first), and then the sneaking realization of what’s going on. Also, the guy who sealed in those Apathy grim in in the first place was just so dumb. How could you think that was a good idea? Good job getting everyone killed, dude.

- I’m glad this volume gave us more on Ruby’s silver eyes! I like that she finally got to use them before the season finale (though I loved that joke on RWBY Chibi), and I also like that she first used them to protect Blake. (I don’t ship them as much as Bumbleby, but I feel like Ruby and Blake’s ship/friendship is super underrated.) It was also nice to learn more about how the Silver eyes work in general and how they came to be. (If they came from the god of light, I’m assuming all the people with silver eyes are the descendants of Ozma’s past lives? TV Tropes kind of helped me out here: Apparently if you freeze the picture where you see one of his past lives with his kids, you can see the kids have silver eyes.) People with silver eyes being hunted also comes as no surprise to me, that’s kind of what I was assuming already. (Which raises the question: Just how did Summer Rose die?) Also, interesting fact that they only work on the Grimm...

- That moment where they reunite with JNR in Argus was really sweet. I also loved the design of Argus as a whole.

- I LOVE Saphron, Terra, and their son!!! I love that we got to meet one of Jaune’s sisters, I love that we got some more LGBT+ representation, and their baby is adorable!! (I loved that scene of everyone cooing over the baby. Also, that moment where Ruby realized Jaune and Saphron were siblings. Also, that moment where the baby helped them distract the guards by crying.) Basically, I just love the Cotta-Arcs. (Also, I just want to say that Saphron is super pretty.)

- Cordovin and her two goons are hilarious. I mean, I also hate them because they’re overly patriotic Atlas-people and Cordovin was racist to Blake – but they’re also super freaking hilarious. Every little line of Maria and Cordovin’s beef with each other had my dying with laughter 🤣 (mainly it was Maria’s lines that had me dying with laughter).

- That whole scene with the statue of Pyrrha was such a tearjerker 😢. First the leaf, then the sad music, then Jaune talking to that red-haired lady (I’m guessing she’s either Pyrrha’s mom or sister?), and then Ren and Nora joining and giving Jaune a pep-talk 😭 😭. I think this was a really important moment for Jaune, not just to get closure, but also to stop blaming himself and putting himself down. I’m glad Ren and Nora told him they don’t want to lose him too, and that the red-haired lady said she’s “glad Pyrrha was surrounded by such amazing people”. Gosh, now I’m tearing up again writing this 😭. I miss Pyrrha 😭 😭.

- I love Oscar’s new outfit. It was time for him to finally drop the farm boy look.

- I love how Jaune is so down for crime that his plan is just “They only let Atlas airships though, so we steal an Atlas airship.” I mean, makes sense.

- I think their whole plan to steal the airship was super cool and although I get why things can’t be that easy in shows like this (and I love that we got the showdown with Adam), I still kind of wish it had worked just because it was a really cool plan and everyone had their part to play in it. Heck, even the baby got to help (and it was awesome)! But yeah, Adam just had to ruin everything, nothing new there.

- So, about Adam: First of all, he’s a major creep for victim-blaming Blake (again) and stalking her. I like how creepy his behaviour is from a story-telling perspective (and from an angst-loving “I like seeing my faves suffer” perspective), but his story was getting a little old, so I’m not too sad they killed him off now. It was a good point in the story to do it. (That said, holy shit is he a creep! “I wouldn’t have to be doing this if you just behaved”? Wow. I get that he’s meant to be abusive and controlling; that’s the point of his character (and like I said, I’m here for the angst), but… yikes, poor Blake.)

- And then we had Blake and Yang’s rematch with Adam. EPIC STUFF. First of all, I like that Blake was able to hold her own against him for a bit (and same for Yang later). I also love the whole dramatic setting by the waterfall and the fact that Blake lost her coat (this is important, okay? it symbolizes vulnerability – and also it just looks cool), the scar on Blake’s belly (from their fight at Beacon, right?), the face reveal of Adam – I just love how all of this was set up in such an epic, dramatic way. But the most epic moment, at least from the start of the fight, has got to be Yang just jumping down there with her motorcycle hitting Adam and that amazing music. I’ve said before that Yang is just too cool for words and I will stand by that. The fight itself was epic too, though I was so stressed the whole time I couldn’t completely pay attention. Blake and Yang fighting Adam together was definitely the best part, though. And I loved the irony of Yang’s metal arm saving her. In general, I like that Yang and Blake got to fight and defeat (and kill) Adam together because he’s been a demon for both of them, and I like that they clarified they’re doing it as equal partners. “We’re protecting each other” was a nice callback to earlier when Blake tried to reassure Yang she’d protect her, and to even earlier when Yang was protecting Blake at Beacon.

- Let’s talk about my other highlight of the volume: Bumbleby! Because sorry not sorry, there’s no way you can deny their romantic subtext anymore at this point. Early in the volume, there’s the conflict of things being weird between them, and Blake not knowing how to deal with her guilt and thinking she needs to protect Yang (and do stuff like getting her bag down for her) – while Yang feels insulted by this and thinks that Blake sees her as being incapable of doing anything now that she lost an arm. Then, when Blake first leaves to disable the comms, they give each other those really sweet, loving looks. And of course, it all leads up to them confronting their nightmare together, holding hands, and declaring that they’re protecting each other. Add Adam’s jealousy to that (He was making comparisons between himself and Yang and asking “What does she even see in you?” – that’s not a sentence you just say to your ex’s friend) and you’d have to be willfully ignorant to not see the subtext. And those soft moments after the fight just killed me: Blake breaking down crying, Yang immediately running to hug and comfort her, Blake’s promise not to leave, Yang reassuring her and wiping away her tears – I LOVE hurt/comfort stuff and I’m so soft for these two! They love each other so much!

(Pretty much the only downside of all this is that a few major parts were spoiled for me in advance. Look, it’s pretty impossible to follow lots of blogs that post wlw ships and not see that picture of Bumbleby holding hands, or the one of them hugging (or the one of them killing Adam) at some point. So yeah… I’d seen all three of those pictures before and knew this would happen. But it was still really nice to see it all come together and see how we got there!)

- The fight against Cordovin and her giant mecha was also pretty cool! It reminded me a bit of the Legend of Korra finale. Ruby going inside the arm canon was an especially epic moment. And I also liked that small moment when they were flying on the Queen Lancer and Ruby had her arms around Weiss’ waist (a bit of White Rose, yay!).

- I like that moment when the Grimm attack and the team first realizes they just destroyed the only thing capable of stopping them – but to be honest, that was mostly Cordovin’s fault. She brought out that mecha for something it wasn’t meant for and started the fight that attracted the Grimm in the first place. Also, how exactly did she think the people of Atlas would take it if she had actually hurt Weiss? So yeah, most of that mess was on her, tbh. I’m glad she at least came though to help in the end, though.

- Back to Bumbleby: Honestly, the strongest romantic undertones weren’t even in the fight with Adam or directly afterwards for me, but in the last episode when they’re all on the ship together. So, Blake is blaming herself for the plan going wrong, and Yang has an arm around, her, still half holding her and reassuring her. And then – and this one really gets me – Ruby hugs Blake and gives Yang that knowing look over her shoulder while Yang suddenly looks away shyly. They’re communicating without words and Ruby totally knows what’s up. She’s basically saying “So you and Blake, huh?” and suddenly Yang – YANG – is feeling shy. This isn’t subtle. And then later Bumbleby hold hands again and look at each other like that… they’re in love, I don’t make the rules.

- And finally, we of course have Ruby’s epic silver-eyed moment in the finale, which was AMAZING. I loved all the flashbacks and how they’re drawn pictures and not just stills from the episodes, I love how the memories of her friends motivate her, I love how much of Penny there was in there (bit of Nuts and Dolts, yay!), I loved seeing adorable little!Yang, and of course the first look at Summer Rose! (I still want a Team STRQ backstory episode at some point.) Also, the music during that scene was so good!

Gosh, now I’ve talked for way too long again, but there was just so much to say about this volume! Long story short: Loved it, can’t wait to continue! (I know exactly 1 major spoiler for volume 7 because it was unavoidable on social media, but that’s it. And it’s a spoiler I really didn’t mind knowing, so…)

[angstidote]

Shadowbringers Theory Time

FFXIV 5.2 spoilers below the cut, but like, THE IMPLICATIONS !!!

This is totally just a theory, but I feel like I have a good idea of what caused the end of Amaurot in the first place, the why of Zodiark and Hydaelyn, how the WoL is not in fact tempered as has been implied, why Emet-Selch felt justified in extending his faith to us, what Elidibus is working at with this seemingly empowering angle, and what we can expect to see in the upcoming story arc.

It’s a lot, I know, but hear me out:

So like, first off we know now that “the defector” was not part of summoning Zodiark OR Hydaelyn, and we’re pretty sure we were the defector because in Hythlodeus’s speech about that person, the gender of the 14th changes with your gender–implying he’s likely speaking of us. This means that WE were not necessarily tempered by Hydaelyn, because we were likely not there for her summoning in the first place:

We knew why the original convocation created Zodiark–to stop the world from self-destructing. But they have not yet explained why it was falling apart in the first place.

I’m seriously wondering if somewhere along the way someone realized that the source of the problem was the Amaurotians themselves. After all, we know that magic takes aether, and that the Amaurotians were crazy powerful mages. To not have made this connection themselves is totally unrealistic, given how advanced they were with regard to their knowledge of magic.

My theory is that they realized they were responsible, but no one wanted to admit that they were at fault. Or more than that, no one wanted to, well, stop using magic, so they started grasping at straws for what to do…and Zodiark was one such attempt. By giving the planet a will of its own they hoped that IT would moderate them as necessary, no muss no fuss.

However, to summon Zodiark took a tremendous amount of aether as we know, and after that he basically demanded that the Amaurotians pay the cost of any further large magic expenditures. My feeling is that they gave the star a will, but did so specifically so it would save itself. We know how sensitive creation magic was, so surely someone wrote this intention into it–but they probably didn’t realize what that implied for those who lived on the planet. Accordingly, it willed that people stop using its magic, and die en masse if that’s what it took.

We see only a part of the ancient ones’ conversation, but it seems like they knew this. If Zodiark stayed, eventually he was either going to kill everyone directly or allow them to kill themselves by sacrificing themselves for every expenditure:

Now, as for Emet-Selch–he made it seem like whatever was causing the end of days was a mystery, but he was one of the convocation members and he would have at least heard evidence for why Zodiark would and wouldn’t work.

It could be that the council had other reasons to believe Zodiark wouldn’t fix the problem–but considering Emet’s obvious and understandable adoration for his lost people, I’m wondering if perhaps time changed his perceptions of how the sacrificing of half the population went down in the first place.

It may not have been quite as voluntary as he remembers it–especially considering the populations of the 14 dimensions are made of the same souls as the ones who lived in Amaurot! He said as much himself. But given what we’ve seen in the comparison between us and Aldelbert, souls tend to live out their natural tendencies no matter how many times they’re rejoined. As the WoL we’re nearly half our original strength thanks to all the rejoinings, but Adelbert ran the same endless errand chains and then sacrificed everything just as we would, even though he had only 1/14th of our soul in him. This tells us that souls behave like themselves no matter how strong or weak they are.

By Emet’s estimation, the fragmented incarnations are weak and selfish and scared, but I’d put money on the fact that they were like that to begin with, and here’s why:

This was the theme of this whole expansion: selfless acts may be remembered as selfish. And I’m thinking this is likely a set up for the reverse being true as well (since all of Shadowbringers has been about the importance of understanding the other side of the story): that selfish acts can get mis-remembered as more selfless than they were.

Emet lauded the selflessness of Amaurotians being willing to sacrifice one half their community to save the other half. But if they were somehow to blame for what was happening–due to how much aether they were depleting from the earth itself by using their creation magics so much–their sacrifice may have been necessary just to stem the depletion causing the chaos.

Which is why Hydaelyn may have manifested the way she did. They probably realized that Zodiark got accidentally made to save himself at any cost, so they had to create a will of the planet that cared about its populace as much or more, to keep him in check. But knowing the source of the problem, they had to make her able to kill both birds with the same stone. By splitting everything up as she did, she both stemmed Zodiark’s power and also dramatically reduced everyone else’s power as well, which stopped the hemorrhaging of energy without everyone having to pay for it with their lives.

Note the distinct need for a permanent solution. 

It sounds to me like they knew they would be dis-empowering everyone by summoning her. That everyone would be split into pieces and forced into the reincarnation cycle. Yet they seemed to feel like it was the only choice, given the circumstances–circumstances that Emet may have omitted from his 12,000 year old memory bank due to his conflicting desires to both save everyone and serve Zodiark faithfully.

Ultimately, it’s likely that he extended his olive branch to the WoL because he knew we were not involved in summoning Zodiark OR Hydaelyn, and that we genuinely cared about people no matter who they were--like he did. It’s implied that we were on good terms or even close to him before the sundering. But while we didn’t think Zodiark was a good plan, he went with it because he was desperate to save everyone. Just like Adelbert, he was manipulated into making a horrible mistake because his love was so blinding he couldn’t see what he was doing. That’s why he was able to convince you as Adelbert, and why he knew you (”that soul”) were worth trying to win over. He knew we were capable of hearing him (Adelbert already had) and of giving him a chance when no one else could. 

Again, we see the idea that because love was the motivating factor for the crime, his selfish acts got mis-remembered by him as more selfless than they were. Instead of recognizing that Zodiark killed half the population, he just blindly believed on some level that they made the sacrifice voluntarily. And I’m sure this will come up in the story again because we already see it happening with all the guards of the Crystarium quitting “to be helpful” when it’s actually the opposite of helpful, because it leaves the city unguarded.

But back on the topic of Emet, he’s incredibly sympathetic to the scions--both eventually eliciting their respect as the story progressed, and subtly supporting them (for example, by bringing Y’shitola back from the life stream). You can tell he genuinely wants to see eye to eye, and not just for the purpose of manipulation. But as a result of his tempering he’s ultimately unable to separate his will from Zodiark’s. This made him the enemy of the Scions and ostensibly the WoL as well, something which has clearly tormented him ever since (after all, he clearly tried to make it work, as “he had children with us, grew old and died with us,” etc.) and has driven him to endlessly try to rejoin everything so we would all be on the same page again.

But in the end we couldn’t go with Zodiark for the same reason we couldn’t go with the idea in the first place–which is probably why he flew into a rage and remembered us as our Amaurotian selves. But despite this, Emet still died having placed his hopes for the future on us…his hopes that we would honor the lives that were lost in the ancients’ misguided attempts to save everyone. And I think this is significant because it tells us that on some level his love for his people overpowered his tempering.

Elidibus remarks that Emet didn’t have the stomach to do what was necessary to follow through on Zodiark’s orders. I suspect that Elidibus is indeed the Oracle of Darkness and equivalent in rank to Oracle Minfilia, and that as a result he agrees unyieldingly with Zodiark that people are the problem and are therefore irrelevant. Emet, on the other hand, did not feel this way. And though he was unable to act in opposition to Zodiark--having been tempered by him--it’s pretty clear that the only reason he supported summoning Zodiark at all was the one implied in his memories--he loved the people of Amaurot and wanted to save them. This is why all his memories of Amaurot are favorable, all the people kind and considerate and lovely...because that’s how he always perceived them. But this created a permanent splintering of his loyalties (which is tragic but cool in the sense that the title of Angel of Truth/Emet-Selch is associated with the sign Gemini).

Sorry, I got off topic there but I just really love Emet-Selch.

Anyway, as for the ancients we saw in the Anamnesis Anyder…I gotta assume we were looking at The Scions 1.0. Particularly with Venat being linked as Minfilia because of this little bit of data:

…and we know who consistently looks the same in all her incarnations on the first: the Oracle of Light. She’s probably talking to Thancred there, since he implores that anyone but her do it, then accepts her will even though he’s sad about it, which is…like, the story of Thancred’s life, the poor dude.

But I mean, what we’re seeing with Elidibus wandering around as Adelbert seems to be a new approach. To put it simply, if everyone awakens to their original power, they’ll all start draining the shards just as they did with the Source. Ultimately, this will bring about the same calamities everyone faced back in Amaurot and once again people will look for a savior…and maybe, just maybe, we’ll get the whole Zodiark thing this time (doubtful, bro, but you do you). After all, blind desire to help is exactly how he got created in the first place.

In the end, we may all find ourselves repeating the forgotten history.

This expansion is so freakin’ elegant. I’m just obsessed!

[eirenical]

@judyknow replied to your post: OH MY GOD YOU SHIP LJY AND LSZ!!!! YAAAY!!!!!!!

   tell us moooorreee about that self indulgent headcanon    

Since you and @decayingliberty​​ asked so nicely... how can I refuse?  ;D

(First, you have to understand that this is part of a MUCH more sprawling headcanon, but I’m just going to share LSZ/LJY’s piece of it for now or it will be way too much.  XD  And... I’ve mentioned this is REALLY self-indulgent, yes?  OK.)

OK, so the basic premise is that Lan Sizhui cultivates his way to immortality.  He does this mainly because 1) he’s been raised in a world where that is the normal goal for cultivators and 2) he believes that as the last living scion of the Wen Sect, it’s his responsibility to carry his genes and their legacy forward.  As for Lan Jingyi... I haven’t decided if he just wasn’t strong enough to achieve full immortality or if something tragic happens and he just died too young, but Lan Jingyi... does not.  By the time Jingyi dies, they’ve been married for a while, though; they at least had that.

Fast forward a number of years: Lan Jingyi has been going through a cycle of reincarnations.  Lan Sizhui finds him as often as he can (eventually he develops an early alert system of sorts to help him find him), usually trying to meet up with him some time in his 20s.  It’s too hard, he’s decided, to meet him any younger than that.  It feels wrong, as though he’s influencing the person Jingyi would grow up to be.  But if they meet in Jingyi’s 20s, then he’s an adult; he can choose.  And the vast majority of the time--memory of the past or not--he chooses Sizhui.

Sometimes Jingyi is a woman and they have children.  Sometimes Jingyi is a man and they don’t.  Sometimes they adopt.  Sometimes Jingyi remembers and convinces Sizhui to employ a surrogate, because he knows how important it is to him that his family line not die out.  Sometimes Jingyi doesn’t remember and those lives are the hardest, because Sizhui can never stay.  People ask too many questions.

In the times between Jingyi’s death and him being old enough to approach, Sizhui spends his time in Cloud Recesses, teaching the children, spending time with his family, occasionally taking a turn as Sect Leader, when necessary.  It’s a welcome retreat from the world, especially when the pain of losing Jingyi is so fresh.  It does him good to see Lan Wangji, Lan Xichen, Lan Qiren, Wei Wuxian, and Wen Ning.  It does him good to spend time with the children, to hear their little voices piping up with “Hanhuo-jun is back!!” when they see him coming up the mountain.  It’s not everything, but it’s enough.

By the time we reach the present day(ish--we’re talking circa the late 90s or so), Sizhui has figured out a spell that will link his apparent age to Jingyi’s, allowing them to at least appear to age at the same rate.  It doesn’t last much more than a few days beyond Jingyi’s death, but at least now Sizhui can spend his whole life with him, if that’s what Jingyi wants.  In this life, Jingyi had remembered, had convinced Sizhui to have biological children, and they have a sprawling family (...yes, I know all their names and occupations.  I’ve thought about this headcanon a LOT) and have been kind of half raising one of their granddaughters.  (Vague thought is that particular life happens in the US/Canada.  Sizhui is a Stratford actor.  I don’t make the rules.  He just is.  ^_~)

And... Jingyi dies.  He’s in his 70s, it’s not entirely unreasonable, but it’s unexpected.  And Sizhui is caught unaware.  He doesn’t have a plan ready or even a story or explanation.  He could fake a car accident or simply disappear, but he’s not at his best and he’s not thinking clearly, and spell fades before he’s quite finished putting everything in place, so the story is shaky at best... and he’s forgotten that his teen-aged granddaughter has a key to the house.

As he’s packing the last of his things... she barges in.  She’s distraught and she’s angry and she sees this strange young man in her grandparents’ home TAKING THEIR THINGS and she just goes off.  And may... kind of... a bit... shoot some fire out of her hands.  And Sizhui is just Not Ready For This Shit.  Because now he CAN’T make a clean break.  He can’t leave her behind knowing that she’s inherited the Wen gift and has no idea how to control it.  After some discussion, where certain truths come to light, she decided she’s coming with him wherever he’s going.  She’d rather that than stay here alone.

So, he takes her back to Gusu.  He enrolls her in school and himself in college, because he can’t bring her to Cloud Recesses until he’s figured out WTF he’s going to tell his uncle and until he’s sure she’s not going to burn the place down by accident.  (Wen Ning helps.  Of course, he does.  And Wei Wuxian, too.  It’s a whole thing.  ^_^)  They tell the new people in their life that they’re cousins, and it’s strange for his granddaughter, but it’s fun, too, and she’s enjoying seeing this part of her grandfather.  She’s enjoying her great-uncles, too, and being away from home.  And learning magic.  It’s the best time she’s ever had in her life, even if she misses her other grandfather.

A few years in, around the time when Sizhui is finally ready to introduce his granddaughter to the rest of Cloud Recesses... he gets a missive.  It’s from Lan Xichen.  Two of the cultivators in Cloud Recesses have had a son... and they’d like Hanhuo-jun’s blessing on their chosen name, and will he please come?

Sizhui is perplexed, but he agrees.  He returns to Cloud Recesses and he meets the parents in question... they’re Jingyi’s parents.  Sizhui would know their souls anywhere.  And the baby?  The one whose name he is supposed to give his blessing to?

It’s Jingyi.

And this is both his fondest wish, that Jingyi come home, and his deepest fear, because he can’t do this.  He can’t stand and watch his husband grow up, knowing that he can’t interfere, that he can’t influence him, that he can’t he can’t he can’t... he can’t stay away.

But he does.  He brings his granddaughter to Cloud Recesses so she can train in cultivation, because it’s what she wants, and he... wanders.  He visits, of course he does, because he can’t stay AWAY, but he makes those visits short, tries to influence Jingyi as little as possible.

...but we all know Jingyi.

He grows up bright, and loud, and mischievous, and copying far more lines than any other disciple... and he gets firmly attached to Hanhuo-jun.  There’s just... something about him.  Jingyi can’t put a finger on it, but sometimes when he smiles just so, or turns his head up to look at the sky, or wields his sword as he practices... there’s something so familiar about him.  And he develops a bit of a crush.  When he’s fifteen, he asks Hanhuo-jun to be his first kiss.  Sizhui panics.  He leaves Cloud Recesses that night and doesn’t come back for six years.

At 21, however... Jingyi knows what went wrong.  The other disciples just shake their heads.  This is going to go badly.  Jingyi is going to chase him off again and then they’ll all lose out.  Some of them make signs of support.  Some of them are taking bets.  All of them are gathered on the stairs as Jingyi waits at the top for Hanhuo-jun to come home.

And when he does... when he sees Jingyi standing at the top of the stairs, arms crossed over his chest, and that cocky smile on his face that is so hauntingly familiar... Sizhui stops.  And he looks up.  And he says, “Jingyi... what are you waiting for?”

And Jingyi shifts his weight, cocking his hip out to the side, and rolls his eyes.  “For my husband to get his ass up the stairs so I can finally kiss him properly.  It’s been far too long since he’s been home.”

And Sizhui freezes.  “You... remember?”

“Yep.  Everything.”

Sizhui can’t get up the stairs fast enough, and Jingyi meets him halfway down.  They come together with a crash of tangled limbs and it’s like Sizhui is trying to climb inside Jingyi’s skin because he can’t get close enough.  When the ruckus has calmed down, Lan Qiren threatens everyone--Sizhui included--with handstands and line copying because THERE IS NO YELLING OR RUNNING IN CLOUD RECESSES, and Sizhui’s granddaughter fires back with, “I'M IN LAW SCHOOL AND WE’RE ON THE STAIRS, OLD MAN, NOT INSIDE THE GROUNDS, SO DON’T GET YOUR GOATEE IN A TWIST.”  And Jingyi is beaming because THAT’S HIS GRANDDAUGHTER, and Sizhui is laughing so hard he starts crying.

And eventually it comes out that Jingyi returned to Cloud Recesses on purpose.  He’s ready to try to cultivate to immortality again, because he’s seen the toll his constant losses take on Sizhui, and he’s had enough of being the cause of that, thank you very much.  And Sizhui notes that dual cultivation could help him progress much faster... and Lan Wangji puts his foot down, because they will get married first and Wei Wuxian would kill all of them if he missed it.

And they live happily ever after.  ^_^

Hanhuo-jun -- I’m cribbing off what little I know of Chinese (NOT MUCH AT ALL) and Hanguang-jun’s title to get this: If Hanguang-jun is “Light-bearing Lord” then Sizhui could be “Fire-bearing Lord,” yeah?  ^_~  Because one of my FONDEST headcanons is that he inherited the Wen’s gift of fire.

[atlas-of-a-human-soul]

Broken Wings, pt. 8

08: Love the way you lie

Summary: Ethan and Grayson are both trying to say goodbye to her, just in case everything goes awry.

Warnings: angst, fluff, swearing

Word Count: ~ 3000

Broken Wings (Angel AU - G.D.) Masterlist

She laid with her head in his lap, her Y/H/C hair sprawled over his inked thighs as he propped himself up on his elbows. Grayson had spent every waking minute with her, terrified of what's to come once the therapist she called for arrives. He didn't want her risking her current life for a slim possibility of living it until the end only to lose her forever after. Sure, having her die in his arms for centuries has been a living hell, but he always he she'd come back to him after. He always felt her soul is still present. Grayson feared should she change the coarse of her destiny, she'd find peace and her soul would be laid to rest and that...facing a forever without her – the biggest heartache of his existence...that would surely be enough to kill him.

„Whatcu' thinkin' about, angel eyes?“ She teased, her tone playful and airy, so much giddiness hiding behind every letter of every word that Grayson felt his heart die little by little at the thought of losing her. It was a painful ache, a pinch at the core of his being, one that he couldn't fight nor deny.

„You do realize that silence usually means you're back in your broody mood and the bad thoughts are eating away at you?“ She deducts, sitting up to properly look at him, her hair falling all around her beautiful face, framing it in a heavenly manor. Out of all the faces she had in the past, there was never one Grayson couldn't love.

„I'm not broody!“ Grayson defended, his eyes narrowing and his eyebrows furrowing, as if the words itself was an insult when he really just wanted to throw her off his scent. He refused to burden her with his gloominess.

„You're as broody as they come.“ She giggled in his face, throwing a leg over his lap, allowing herself a straddling position as her hands came up to his face, holding it as if it's the Sun...and it is. It is a small piece of sunshine in the palm of her hand – beauty and flames, all together. „But I still love you just the same.“ She smiled, her eyes giving off intense longing and aching neediness he knew he couldn't indulge in.

But she was reckless. As always.

It nearly stopped Grayson's heart when he saw her face coming closer to his, her lips pursed and nearly on his lips. His breath caught in his throat as he felt the soft plush of her lips brush the tip of his nose, his hands premature with their action as they were not only on her hips, but already pushing her off in a rough manor she despised.

„Seriously?!“ She exclaimed, her face one of anger and disappointment, a brewing fight just under the surface. „STOP THROWING ME INTO THE SAND LIKE I'M A RAGDOLL!“ She huffed, getting up on her own as Grayson tried to help, which she ignored completely....Of course. She's as stubborn as they get – one of the traits nearly all her previous reincarnations possessed.

„I'm sorry. I just didn't want to risk it.“ Grayson put his hands in his front pockets, managing to keep eye contact with the stormy eyes of his forevermore, wondering how dead he'd be if looks could kill because she had the deadliest eyes he has ever seen. No one, not Y/N, not Amara, absolutely not one had the same fury in their eyes as Caroline. She was unpredictable and perhaps that was the part of why she's different and why she might end the cycle....or it was because of years of mental torture her past lives had subjected her to.

„It's not just about that, Grayson! Okay?!“ And there it is, the avalanche he knew would come. She had been bottling everything in...if you could call it that, but despite her being openly discontent in the past, Grayson knew the look she held in her eyes wasn't a look of someone who simply shows their unhappiness, rather a look of a woman who's keeping in a storm – an enraged look she let out.

„Hey, guys! Darren is here!“ Ethan called out, his voice getting lost in the sound of crashing waves, but they heard him fine.

„NOT NOW!“ They both screamed in unison, allowing Caroline to spew fire.

„You keep saying you want to protect me, but every little bit of protection you provide only hurt me more! YOU FUCKING TOLD ME TO BE WITH ETHAN! And to make matters worse...I actually think I could survive the kiss. I don't think I'm going to die in this life and while I'm not particularly eager to die a horrible death, I'd still try because that's how much confidence I have in us.“ She stopped to draw in a breath, her cheeks flushed a darker pink, one Grayson would usually run his fingertip over, but he feared losing a finger if he tried at all.

„And then you tell me not to try this hypnosis thing? Literally the only thing that would let us be together?!“ She huffed, smacking her hair back against the wind.

„You...do you not want me?“ Her tone finally returned to normal, but it wasn't the normal Grayson had hoped for as he remained silent, allowing her this chance to blow off some steam. He had wanted the cheery, playful Caroline, not the defeated, vulnerable one.

„Is that what this is about? Do you not like this body? Or this personality?“ She began to list, making his eyes bulge and for the first time since she started this rant, Grayson had opened his mouth to speak against her.

„Absolutely not! I love you – all of you!“ He stepped toward her in his attempt to prove it so, but she stepped back at the same time, not wanting the contact because this is when her illness came to collect, convincing her she's not good enough...not for him. Convincing her he didn't want her. Not this version, at least.

„Then why do I feel like I don't measure up? Huh? How can you ever claim to love me, when I'm never the same woman you met in the past life? I'm never the same in any way, so how can you love me so unconditionally? Maybe it's just a pattern – a habit of sorts. Because I don't think any of us could ever fill the giant hole Y/N left in your heart and I may be mistaken but“, a choked sob stopped her mid sentence, not allowing her to continue as she looked away with tears in her eyes...those beautiful eyes, her lips thinning as they set in a firm line.

„But I don't think I am...She was the original and I...all of us were merely fading copies of the masterpiece you always wished to have. And as all copies tend to do, we're nothing like the original...no one can paint the same image thousands of times.“ She shrugged, taking note of his stunned silence and near desperation as a confirmation of sorts, one she knew he wouldn't utter but lingered deep in his subconsciousness.

She turned on her heel, walking back to meet with Darren. If she got lost in time, at least she'll make it worth something. Perhaps her breaking the curse at the beginning will give Y/N and Grayson the happy ending they deserved. Perhaps Ethan will be happier without ever knowing or losing Amara. Perhaps Cameron will be happier without chaperoning her brothers across the world and a new copy of herself who was probably the least favorite part of her immortality.

Wiping her tears away, she took in a deep breath – one that filled her lungs and set a bundle of oxygen running through her body and to her brain, clearing her troubled thoughts enough to make herself seem presentable for Darren. Otherwise, he wouldn't help her – any sign of instability and her plan is gone.

And then she saw the older man, her legs taking her to him faster and faster until she had her arms wrapped around him. She had the only man who believed she wasn't insane with her again and it did give her some solid ground to build herself back up again.

„You needed me?“ He chuckled, noticing the difference on her already, but remaining quiet about it.

„There's so much to tell.“

They spent hours talking, enough to explain everything, but not nearly enough for him to wrap his mind around it – especially when the fallen angel she spoke of was nowhere to be found.

„What if you can't come back from it?“ Darren questioned, his previously cheerful persona replaced with a worried man.

„Then I don't...Better than spending the rest of my life fighting visions of the past, alone.“ She bit on the inside of her bottom lip, gnawing on it as he eyed her carefully.

„Caroline...“ Darren tried, but he knew she made her mind up already. Anything he says will fall on deaf ears.

„Please. I'm ready. Just do it. Now.“ She pleaded, her hand atop of his, tightly holding onto him.

Reluctantly, he agreed, but not immediately. „Tomorrow.“ He said.

„Okay.“ She whispered, giving the man time to recuperate and put himself back together. She needed some time too.

Caroline sat on her bed, looking at her bare feet in thought. She could still see flashes of her previous lives whenever she shut her eyes close or with eyes wide open if she concentrated hard enough.

„Care?“ Ethan's voice broke her focus, stopping her from delving deeper into her mind.

„Yeah?“ Her voice is small, her tone weak. She's on edge and he sees it. He's gotten too good at spotting people's weaknesses and exploiting them for his own gain. But he also knew she'd appreciate him not commenting on it, so he didn't, even if he felt the itch to do so.

„Can I ask you something?“ He licks his bottom lip, coming closer to her only to sit on the bed across from hers...where her roommate used to sleep before jumping to her death.

„Always.“ She offered a reassuring smile, despite not knowing if she had anything left to offer to anyone. Ethan seemed to take it to heart, giving her a small smile in return, the best one he could afford to give without it looking forced.

„Do I stand a chance? If you come back and the curse isn't lifted, would you be mine?“ Ethan decided to put it all out there, make sure she knows she has choices and Grayson isn't the only one. And perhaps she was right, he did see Amara in her and it drew him in for she was so much alike her in too many ways for it to be a coincidence – more than any other version of her ever was. But Ethan found he loves the debris of Caroline's essence as well, even if those debris longed for his brother more than they'll ever long for him.

„I...I don't know.“ She was honest. A part of her was screaming no, because how could she ever love someone that wasn't Grayson? How could she love a man who looked like him, but wasn't him? How could she love a man she knew loved another that lived deep within her? But another part of her was wistful and it wanted Ethan and the easy love he brought with him. It was so effortless with him – no looming curses, no death caused by a simple kiss...he was kind and understanding, beautiful and thrilling and sexy as the hell he belonged in. But he wasn't Grayson...even if he would have made her life an unforgettable adventure.

„At least it's not a no.“ Ethan chuckles dryly, moving over to sit beside her, his weight shifting the mattress, tipping Y/N into him.

„I gotcha!“ He held onto her, his eyes immersed in hers as the panic of possibly falling fled her and he couldn't help but think how he wished Grayson wasn't around anymore. How he wished his brother was gone and he could have this chance with this incredible girl who would surely drive him insane five times a day, but he'd still be happy. He'd still count his lucky stars for having her in his life.

„I really want to kiss you right now.“ Ethan admitted, making her mouth go dry. She couldn't lie, she wanted to kiss him too. Just once, simply to know how it feels, to let him have that one kiss that would give him a piece of Amara back. She didn't want him to be miserable and she didn't want to be the reason why. So yes, she wanted to kiss him. But every fiber of her being told her not to.

„Ditto.“ She whispered, smiling as he frowned because he knew that if she hadn't replied with actions, but only words, she wouldn't do it. He knew her enough to know she's a wild one and considering her lips weren't on his, they won't be. Not for a while, at least.

„Look...whatever you see or hear tomorrow, make sure you come back in time, okay? If you can't convince any of us to bring you up, disappear. Don't let us touch you until you find a way out. Okay?“ Ethan repeated, swallowing thickly because he still remembered the horror of Y/N's death. It was gruesome and he never wanted for Caroline to feel it nor see it.

„I'll do my best, Mr. Bossy!“ She embraced him, her hands wrapped around him, hooked at the back of his neck as he buried his face in hers, inhaling her – all of her.

„Got time for one more?“ Another voice, one that sends chills down her back spoke, her eyes opening at the sound. She'd know his voice anywhere.

„I don't think it's the best idea.“ She detached herself from her favorite demon, a title she'd ever tell him about, only to wrap her arms around herself, needing an extra layer of protection despite the fact the hurt he causes is from the inside and there's not shield for those kinds of injuries.

„Please.“ Grayson's plea was the hardest thing she could ever hear right now, because he never just asked – he poured every human emotion into it, giving it weight of a hundred collapsing stars, wrecking her defenses.

With a nod, Ethan had decided to place a kiss on her forehead before heading out, respecting her choice. He didn't give up completely, but he respected her primary choice is Grayson at this particular time.

„You do know all those things you said on the beach are just a figment of your untamed imagination mixed with insecurities, right?“ He began, making her scoff.

„That's not an apology I hear, rather a start up for a new fight.“ She sent him a glare, one that meant he better stay in his position because if he came closer, she'd let her evil out.

„No. What I mean is, none of what you said is true. I never fell in love with your face, Caroline, although it's a very beautiful one. I never looked for body shapes – you've had them all. And yes, sometimes your personality is difficult to deal with, but I still loved you. I loved you because your soul is pure light that calls to me like a siren. If your soul hurts, I hurt. If your soul is happy, I'm happy. If you're feeling lost, I'm desperate. It's like two magnets, pushing and pulling in the need to be as one. Your beauty lies in the unchanging goodness of your soul and heart that can be a stubborn nightmare at times, but it never lessened the beauty. It never stopped calling out to me. I never stopped running to it when it did.“ Grayson sighed, deciding to be brave and step closer, brushing his knuckles over her cheekbone as she turned away from him.

But then she turned back, her eyes shooting up and connecting with his, her heart jumping out her chest with their proximity.

„I can't help but be insecure. You've known every dark, twisted, dusty part of my soul and you have so many memories with...me! But I don't remember most of them! It's like...Imagine if I dated a thousand versions of you and you didn't remember...It's silly, but I'm jealous and I'm bitter about not remembering. And I'm so pissed for being put in a position to be jealous and bitter about my own damn self.“ She stood up, stopping Grayson's breathing for the second time in a day, but this time she didn't try to kiss him anywhere close to his face. She just wrapped her arms around his torso and rested her head on his chest.

„Just know I love you. Whatever happens, that can't change.“ She whispered, feeling him shift their weight as he laid her down on the bed, half his weight pinning her under but she didn't complain. She enjoyed feeling him on top of her, wanting not only a kiss anymore...she wanted him in every sinful way possible. She wanted to feel him around her, inside her, enveloping her entirely. She wanted to be his, just once in this damned life she was given. Just once.

However, without even knowing, she fell asleep to the sound beat of his heart, her mind in the gutter, but still on him.

The morning came too soon.

„Wake up, love birds. Time to do some time traveling! Curse breaking!“ Cameron clapped, ignoring the groans and grunts and their cutesy snuggling closer together. But even they knew it couldn't last, slowly getting up in silence, simply looking at one another. While Caroline was still convinced half the things Grayson told her last night were lies to make her feel better, she didn't care. She loved the way he lied, just as she loved him.

And she would fight for him.

Tags: @dancerwriter @peacedolantwins  @heeydolan @accalialionheart   @graydolan12  @xalayx  @fallinginlove-16 @deeteeeeevee  @heyits-claire @riverdalesserpent @dolandolll 

[brownkamm]

The ‘Failed’ Sacrifice 

~ Ooooiii, hows it going fairies? I've been recently doing research & thought about BOTW 2 and the small cutscenes we get to see. And, of course, lots of theories have come out to figure out just WHAT exactly happened to Ganondorf & why he's dried out like a prune under Hyrule Castle 🏰 So join me in this semi-long theory of what I think happened to not only Ganondorf, but the Zonai Tribe as well... Also, your free to have your agreements & disagreements in the comments. Just...don't get harmful 😅 Alright, let's talk about the Zonai Tribe. Who were they and how did NEARLY their entire race mysteriously disappear? I say NEARLY because I believe their people still live, but I'll get to that a bit later. As we know, the Zonai were Ancient Warlike People during their time in Hyrule, though it seemed their people were pretty hidden from if not all, but most of those in Hyrule before Calamity Ganon struck. We also know that, thanks to the Barbarian Armor you can acquire in the game, that they were a strong Tribe and clearly from the 3 Labyrinths you can find in Gerudo Desert, Herbra Plains & behind Robbie's lab, they were clearly WAY more advanced than most Hylians, kinda like the Sheikah Clan, but... the real question is: if they were such a great and strong tribe...how did they go extinct (or to me, NEARLY extinct) ∆∇∆ - here's my main points I want to stick with: ONE: The Zonai & The Sheikah Clan had some kind of connection to one another. TWO: They "mysteriously" disappeared all at once because of a great sacrifice they made to keep Ganondorf locked away. THREE: The mysterious blue/green hand we see on Ganondorf heart before grabbing Link to help Zelda & him up was a way to stop Demise's cycle. Because...no reincarnation. No curse. FOUR: Someone, moreover the Sheikah, was close to the Royal Family who could have possibly tricked Ganondorf into going under the castle to "have the upper hand" on Hyrule. [C]∆∇∆ Okay, so let's start with the first. I believe the Zonai & The Sheikah Clan had some kind of connections with one another, though it seemed the tribe were seemingly standoffish to most of Hyrule. I say this because if you enter in any of labyrinths, what's the first thing you see? Specifically, in the air. [IMG=C8H] [CIU]Guardian Skywatchers. And I think we can all agree that sometimes these things can be annoying to shoot down, especially if you have terrible aim like me 🙂, but that's not the point. Now I know most may say: "Those could have been placed there AFTER The Zonai disappeared" And that could be true, which is why I'm not 100% sold on them working together, BUT, say for instance if that wasn't the case. Say if someone was so convincing to the tribe that they could help them achieve the one goal they had in mind: Stopping Ganondorf. Now, I say it may have been the Sheikah who leaned onto the Zonai because it was clear 100 years ago that Zelda's Triforce wasn't awaking & without a Royal Psychic ( which is usually ONE of the women in the Royal Family, possible Zelda's mother ) they were desperate for a way to get more time so Zelda could awaken her power since her mother couldn't teach her. Now, I say Zelda's mother could have been the one with the psychic ability because it's said that some females in the Hyrule Family have this magic stood upon them & pass down their knowledge of the next generation shows signs, meaning that not ALL princesses & queens of Hyrule have this ability. As we know, Zelda's mother died when she was only 6 from a mysterious illness & she didn't have a chance to learn her teachings. Some even theorize that she was poisoned by someone close to the Royal Family who could have been a Yiga Spy, but I don't know. It's not impossible considering the time era Legend of Zelda takes place in for if you were someone with such HIGH standard, you would have a lot of enemies & needed to watch who you kept close to you... Now without Zelda's mother's ability, the Sheikah were at a standstill. Their Clan was already split into two: The Sheikah and The Yiga Clan from their technology being thrown away because the Royal Family feared of them overthrowing them, so without their greatest inventions of this time era, they needed something that could assist Zelda while she searched for that THING to help unlock her power...which leads me to the Zonai. It's clear the Zonai were around before and during The Great Calamity, but not after..or so it's said. I believe that the Sheikah, without telling the King Rhoam or Zelda of their plan, went to the Ancient Tribe and realized they had the same idea of getting rid of Ganondorf once and for all to stop the endless cycle of this curse. Now, I can't fully say WHAT the labyrinths were for. Maybe a test for Link, but they feared others would go near it and enter themselves? (Which I think might have been possible because if you interact with anyone who notices the Sheikah Slate on Link's hip after awaking, they always say something along the lines of "That's A Sheikah Slate" And never really "THE Sheikah Slate". If there was only ONE in existence, wouldn't they say THE instead of A? Idk) Maybe they just wanted to keep outsiders out & insured that with a long & complicated maze? Or maybe they were doing their Ancient Art Magic in each area to see if it were a good place to hold the King of The Desert? ( and yes, I know, from one of Link's memories that Zelda tried to enter, but didn't have access. Could it possible that the shrines were only made for Link? Or maybe that particular Sheikah Slate is like the Master Sword and only responds to him because it only has one task: assisting the hero.) Regardless of what the labyrinths were for, it's clear that the Sheikah have left their mark on these ancient artifacts and knew of more knowledge on this tribe than anyone else.Now remember, the Zonai worshiped the Water Dragon, AKA Farosh 🐉 so they were clearly those who trusted somewhat in The Golden Goddesses...maybe. ∆∇∆ Now onto my second point. They mysteriously disappeared without a trace, which is strange considering they were clearly in a LOT of areas of Hyrule. From the sandy beaches in Lurelin to the hot desert all the way to the colder regions of the Hebra..it was clear their tribe might have been bigger than most expected....either that or they were just really sneaky. I like to say that their "mysterious death" was really a noble sacrifice. Remember that if this is true, it isn't the first time someone else, other than Zelda and Link, stepped in and tried to stop the Demon King. In Twilight Princess, the ones know as the Six Sages also took matters into their own hands & attempted to stop Ganondorf by stabbing him in the chest with The Sword of The Six Sages... But they failed miserably, even thinking that the gods were playing a cruel joke when seeing Ganondorf had The Triforce of Power on his left hand, leading to the king breaking free & killing one of the six Sages before they used The Mirror of Twilight to send him away and think of their actions. Which...if were being honest...the goddesses have some things messed up about them, but that's a different rant for another time. Now I say they had a noble sacrifice because one of things we see in the short cutscene of BOTW 2 is the famous Lumious Stone that can found just about everywhere in Hyrule, but specifically underground there's A LOT OF IT. And if we read the description of the material, it's clear that some of Hyrule like to theorize it glows so bright because their are souls trapped inside. Now, clearly, there's a LOT of lumious stone in this one area, and if my theory is right tat the Zonai were one of the people who used their ancient magic to try and seal away Ganondorf, I feel it would have taken A GREAT AMOUNT of magic to do so considering we know how strong not only Ganondorf is, but the Triforce of Power. Hell..it stopped him from dying by a goddess forged weapon! YOU TELLIN ME THAT AINT STRONG!? I believe that possible not only the Zonai, but some of the Sheikah Clan, died doing a noble cause of holding Ganondorf back, or at least his body, to keep him from a new reincarnation. Alright...I know this is a lot. Take a breather. Get some snacks and a drink because here's POINT 3: This caught everyone's attention. The Hand. Off the back, we can tell this clearly Ganondorf's newly found prison & a terrible and dark one at that. I mean, cmon, I personally wouldn't want to be mummified and have my heart grabbed at by a hand, but that's just me Now from this hand we can tell it's the same color as the ones that reside around Lumious Stone, The Fallen Champions, & The Monks when taking their Spirit Orbs to give to the Hylia Statues when exchanging it during prayer...kinda like Link is the key to setting their soul free for doing their deed for Hylia. I believe a lot of spirits were brought together in sealing away Ganondorf....a lot of ANGRY spirits, but as we see in BOTW 2 cutscenes that it's clear the hand not only moved itself (or the spirits moved themselves) to help Link and Zelda when they almost fell to their doom. And, even though this is a different game, I make the comparison of a lot of souls in ONE BODY to Noob Cybot from Mortal Kombat. Even though he appears as one person, there are lot of souls stood inside of him and one of his quotes are "We are many. You are one". The power of the hand, now given to Link, could be the spirits last attempt at helping Link and Zelda seal away Ganondorf considering it seems The Master Sword isn't as strong as it use to be ten to thousands of years ago. But in doing so, they released the seal that held Ganondorf captive for those past 100-10,000 years. I'm sure the only freedom Ganondorf had was The Malice that leaves his body (which is just a mixture of rage and hate..and honestly I'd be mad too if my only escape was a spirit form of myself) and his mind, if it wasn't already gone by then. Because of the seal now being broken, our beautiful demon king was up from his long nap 😅 I mean...cmon now...theorized to be bad or not, Ganondorf is FIIIIINNNNEEEE 😍 and I would give myself to him, but we're not here for my girly fantasies. And now was prepared to release havoc on Hyrule once more. Now, I say that this was a attempted by the Zonai and Sheikah to hold Ganondorf back because even though it's clear Ganondorf can still attack in spirit forms and smaller, puppet forms, as we see with the BLIGHTS, Ganondorf can't reincarnate if the DOESN'T HAVE A BODY FOR IT. Clearly when Ganondorf dies in his physical, Gerudo form, it takes Eons later for him to reform and be born into the world again, but...his body was still under Hyrule....and it could be possible, just like the Monks, that he was still alive, but had no ability to move, leading him to release so much hate in the world that it created Blights and Calamity Ganon, along with Dark Beast Ganon And now with that seal gone and nothing holding him back, the Demon King was Awaken once more, but...my final question is...how did he get down there in the first place? ∆∇∆ I'll try making this last part short considering this was longer than I expected. Also, no more pictures passed this point. I've already reached the MAX if you couldn't tell 😅 Now this is my own thought. I believe someone in the Sheikah Clan who served the Royal Family set Ganondorf up. I say this because I can't think of any other reason why Ganondorf would be hiding below the castle and not strike. There's also my thought that Ganondorf was either led there or possible kidnapped and brought to the sacrificial grounds below Hyrule castle. And I know some might say: "Ganondorf...kidnapped? That's impossible" But we have no clue HOW STRONG the Zonai's magic really was. Even in Twilight Princess, those who wielded a very strong and ancient magic had power great enough to take over Hyrule for their terrible desires, leading them to living in the Twilight Realm, so it's not as if it's not possible that this power was equally as great, but used for a different cause. Whose to say the similar green color of the Twilight Magic isn't being used once again, but this time for good and not selfish greed for the power of the Triforce? I believe that if Ganondorf was led to this area, he was clearly betrayed. Now, in many incidents  in past time eras, Ganondorf has been betrayed by many and his power was turned against him, which I hate, but this isn't about my personal feelings on the king. I have TWO ideas of how it could have happened: Say if the "spy" for Ganondorf was actually working for the Royal Family and tricked him to believe that they were getting as much intel as possible to keep from him being killed by Zelda and Link. What if the spy had been discovered by a fellow Sheikah member and eliminated them to keep things as they should have been? What if they gained so much of Ganondorf trust to the point where he thought they were a ally that they gave him the idea of going under Hyrule Castle, hiding for a certain period of time and was ambushed by the power of the Zonai and The Sheikah Clan? The other idea is that someone was ONCE loyal to the Royal Family, but betrayed them and went to Ganondorf instead. I think this is possible because it's clear the Royal Family has dumped the Sheikah Clan many times and doesn't trust them fully (which is understandable in that day in age, but still) and a few banded together to betray the Royal Family. Telling Ganondorf of the technology they created and how they were planning on using it against him, leading to him creating the Blights and attacking all 4 divine beast and the champions, but they were figured out, forced to reveal where Ganondorf was hiding OR someone followed them and found out the truth and set them up under the castle, but maybe not all, and this birthed The Yiga Clan in secret. It could have been possible that Master Kohga could have been there as well, or heard information of it, considering the Sheikah can live up to 100 years plus as we see with Impa, Robbie and Purah, along with the monks, but idk if it was Master Kohga in particular considering how goofy he is, but some like to theorize that he's a descendent of Zant because he mentions something of his great great grandfather's magic that was once sealed away was taught to him. Not to mention, they have similar personalities and fighting styles. So it could be possible...that the power of the Twili tried so hard to get rid of ten to thousands of years ago...still lives on, but now, used for good instead of evil by the Zonai. I could go on and on about this, but I clearly need more information on the whole thing. That and this is getting way too long. These are just my theories of what may be in the story line of BOTW 2. I hope you fairies liked this one 🧚‍♀️ PS: if you didn't notice, the same symbol that's on the walls in the cutscene of the SWIRL that can found on other works of the Zonai are the SAME as the symbol of Lurelin. This is what I meant when I said that it's possible that their people are still alive, but either the people of Lurelin don't know of their history considering most of their tribe died or was lost OR they know, hold some power, but keep it secret from outsiders of the village and disguise themselves as "noble fishermen" . I also think it's strange that Lurelin wasn't effected by the Calamity considering it was BEHIND that great defense wall where Zelda awakens her power & Link nearly dies. I say it's strange because I feel like Lurelins people & the Zonai have a very strong connection, but that's just a theory. A GAME THEORY ‼️

[wistsandmagic]

Heeeey so now I’m home from work, far more awake than I was this morning, and it’s time to do a bit more with this Legend of Zelda thing, so it’s time for a PART 2.

It has been nearly 1000 years since Calamity Ganon was defeated for good.

The teenaged Hyrulean princess, daughter of a Hylian king and a Sheikah queen, once was named Zechariah. She loved her parents, but she hated her name. Hated her body. It wasn’t her, and being the first male-born Hyrule heir in 400 years did not change her feelings. Even if many tried to reassure her that it was good luck; a sign that there was no need for the powers of the goddess Hylia in the near future, despite the odd, worrisome rise in monster activity, the princess was not happy. She had told no one but her parents that she had been born with the gifts the goddess had bestowed upon her female descendants, and to her, that was even more sign that her body had had a miscommunication somewhere before her birth.

 Her mother had trained her in the Sheikah arts, a matter of both tradition and caution, and her parents approved using her skills to change her body to one she liked far better. So, after a year of deliberation and preparation, Prince Zechariah became Princess Zelda, taking the name of her ancestors, blessed by the goddess. No longer was she in a body that she despaired of, and finally, she could bring her gifts to light.  Her parents officially struck the name  of Zechariah, Prince of Hyrule, from the records, and inscribed in its place the name of Zelda, Princess of Hyrule, daughter of King Daedenal and Queen Midana. 

Meanwhile, in Gerudo Valley, a slightly older teenager chafes under his nannies’ watching. His name is Ganon, and he is one of the very rare, male-born Gerudo. As such, he is precious, and in hopes of reclaiming what once was a noble name from the beast of Malice that had corrupted it, his mother, Valja, Chief of the Gerudo, had named him Ganon. The Gerudo believed that a name or word could be reclaimed from evil if given to something good, and their hope rested with the Chieftain’s son.

Ganon is, beyond all doubts, good. His spirit is free from evil, his heart kind and just, and his greatest ambition is to explore the outside world he has heard so much about, but has not seen.  His people believe he should not leave, that he is too young, too inexperienced, but Ganon is also gifted with a silver tongue, and eventually manages to convince even his mother that letting him see the outside world, to let him explore and learn, to understand, will make him a better ruler when he comes of age.

His mother agrees, but on one condition. As he travels, he must stop in the kingdoms of her old friends and ‘check in’, so they can instantly send word to her that he is alive and well. She knows that Queen Midana, King Sidon, and Chief Gokoro will do this for her, and she will let them know to expect him at some point. Ganon agrees after some thought, seeing the worry his mother has for him, and she allows him to be outfitted for long travel, along with a sturdy donkey.

Ganon manages to reach the middle of Hyrule the same time as a delegation from Zora’s Domain, consisting of King Sidon himself, a few guards, and the king’s two daughters: the elder a tall, stately Zora like the king himself, the younger...a slight, somewhat odd girl who could either be half-Hylian, half-Zora, or a full Hylian, no one can quite tell.

In fact, Ganon meets the delegation because he quite literally gets knocked off of his donkey by this second daughter, who had launched herself out of a tree (where she had been hiding from her father’s guards so she could go explore a bit) without looking to see where she was landing.

The poor Gerudo teen is knocked out, Link thinks she has killed him, and she panics and nearly drowns Ganon in a combination of healing power and marsh water in an attempt to bring him to. The good news is she manages to heal the concussion she gave him in the process. The bad news is that in the panic, Ganon’s donkey, with all of his supplies, fled to goddess knows where.

Out of sheer worry and the odd, nagging sense that there is a have to here, the odd blue-blonde haired girl insists Ganon comes back to her father’s encampment and travel with them for a bit, so she can at least replace what he lost. Ganon agrees, if only to ease her mind, and finds out once she leads him back to the encampment that he got knocked out by the younger princess of the Zora Tribe, who goes by the name Link.

Needless to say, this shocks him more than getting kicked in the face and knocked off his now-missing donkey. King Sidon welcomes Ganon with open arms, and upon learning the boy was heading this way to go ‘report’ to Queen Midana so she could let his mother know he was alive, offered to simply take him with them, so he would not have to travel alone, and he could come to Zora’s Domain next and make his next ‘check in’ whenever he pleased. 

Being offered something by a twelve-foot-tall fishman is not something one generally refuses, and Ganon has enough sense to realize this. Plus it means free food, King Sidon’s two daughters are pretty, Mipha immediately starts mothering him (which grates just a bit, but she is technically a young adult, not a teenager), and Link is....oddly interesting, though he can’t explain why. Ganon is a teenaged boy. This is really a no-brainer.

Thus a delegation from Zora’s domain plus one Gerudo chief’s son make their way to Hyrule Castle over the next few days, fighting entirely too many monsters to be comfortable along the way.

There, the three young royals are introduced for the first time, and they instantly feel a strange connection to one another. With all three of them in the same room, Link suddenly has a name for the nagging feeling she had when she first insisted Ganon come to her father’s camp. There is a connection between the three, all of them can feel it, but none of them can explain it. Zelda remarks how it feels as though she has known Link and Ganon for forever, despite having only just met, and there is an almost unsettling agreement between the three of them. It just feels right.

Unfortunately, the three of them do not get to explore this connection further, to try and find out just why they have this odd feeling of knowing, because disaster strikes.

Out of the ruins of the Sacred Grounds, a beyond-ancient evil rises, shattering the peace of Hyrule within one night of the as-yet-unaware Triforce bearers’ meeting. The Sacred Grounds sink beneath the earth, and in its place, the being that created Calamity Ganon some 11000 years before rises: Malice itself. Malice, not to be confused with Demise, the demon whose reincarnation would take the name “Ganondorf” and who would eventually turn into Calamity Ganon. Malice is who created Demise, and thus, through time, managed to keep the original Ganondorf on the reincarnation cycle, despite Demise’s ultimate power being sealed by the goddess Hylia in ages long past.

If Hylia is the goddess of Hyrule and the people of the surrounding lands, Malice was Demise’s god.  Hylia sealed Malice along with Demise, being made aware of the supernatural, incarnation of pure evil once Demise came to the surface, but where Demise had help in breaking his seal, Malice has had to work alone, in secret, for thousands of years. Now, the seals -- under the Sacred Grounds ruins, in the Forest of Spirits, on Daval Peak, in Dragon’s Exile, on Gerudo Summit, in Lake Totori, under the Forgotten Temple, in the middle of the Thyphlo Ruins, under Death Caldera, in the Rabella Wetlands, hidden on the Peak of Awakening, near Koholit Rock, and last but not least, under Lake Akala -- have failed, and Malice returns in full force, beginning to lay waste to the land.

The goddess Hylia appears in a shaken Hyrule Castle and informs Zelda, Link, and Ganon that they are the Triforce bearers, and as she awakens the true gifts  in the three of them - the triforce pieces of Wisdom, Courage, and Power -   the three teenagers who Fate has only just brought together now have to figure out how to work together to destroy this spawner of evil once and for all. Not only do they have to learn how to control their newly awakened powers, but they have to learn how to do so in harmony with Hylia’s blessings, because otherwise Malice can only be temporarily subdued, not destroyed. For the first time, all three pieces of the Triforce can be used to work in harmony, but in the hands of three kids who have never done this kind of thing before, their chances seem slim.

Except for the fact that all three of them can feel the bond that holds them together, and they determine to use this to their advantage...becoming friends along the way.

[gensou-no-toshokan]

Oneiros

After eons I finally write something again for that RP of @virginsoul-rp where Nina is the reincarnation of Azazel past lover (you can check the compilation in my AO3 under the “Metempsychosis” name”)

She found him, as it turned out he was hidden below one of the giant trees of the forest, they were nowhere as big as the ones in her village, but Azazel was no dragon.

“Hey Azazel?” She called almost too softly.

“...What?” Nina couldn’t be sure if she had woken him up from a nap or something, he looked tired and not willing to deal with her, but as of late that’s how he always acted when it came to her.

“Do you know anything about dreams?” He was a demon, and Nina was sure that the old lady from her village had said that the land of dreams was at the border of Hell.

“...” He didn’t turned or even reacted to anything she said, maybe she needed to be more spsecific?

“It’s just... there’s this weird dream I always have every once in a while and-”

“Not my bussiness, there’s a lot of creatures in charge of them, you’ll be better asking them.” He still wasn’t looking at her, so she scooted forward and sat in front of him, right on cue he averted his eyes from her.

“...I see, but what do you mean with so many creatures, dreams are dreams right?” Usually Azazel got a little more talkative when she asked about demonic matters, Cerberus often mocked him for it, calling him a show-off. “

“Ugh... If you must know, it’s because there are different types of dreams, there are the ones in charge of happy dreams, of nightmares, there are even division between of dreams for common folk, kings, even savage beasts, some creatures are capable of of taking form of loved ones, places or even just objects, some dreams speak the truth, others dreams tell nothing but lies, there are even prophetic dreams, those are to rare though, and I doubt you’re important enough to receive them.” When he said this, he looked at her only for ten seconds, mockery in his eyes and a small smirk.

“Hey!” She threw a pebble at him before asking again. “...I don’t think my dream is either of those, but I do think it’s important because I even if I have no idea what I’m seeing, I still get this weird feeling...” Not being able to describe the feeling, she put her hand in her heart. “...that I’ve seen it all before, does that make sense?”

When there was no answer from him, Nina thought that maybe it was really just nonsense and she got up to leave, or she would have if she didn’t feel his hand on her shoulder.

“I might know... tell me more about that dream and I might remember.” He said, not really looking at her, sometimes he got like this, he refused to look at her eyes or face but she still felt the weight of his attention on her.

Sometimes it was unnerving, but Nina thought she might have gotten used to it by now.

“Really? Welll, where do I start? Basically until very recently I never got a clear idea of this dream because I only got yo see dark shapes, sometimes I see them both from the, um, outside? But others I feel, like... I’m one of them, because I only see one, back then I could only tell it was at dawn because of the sun, and-” She couldn't keep talking because her face was being squished between his hands.

"I'm not asking for the whole story, I'm asking about what you see!"

'Too close, too close, too close!' Nina had shoved Azazel before she realized it, when she opened her eyes again he was sprawled on the ground.

"Ugh... You little..." He didn't say anything else, just got off the ground and she saw how he was ready to leave.

“It’s important you know?” She yelled, yanking his arm backwards. “Because when I was home I never really got to make out anything about that dream, except the sunset, feathers, leaves and petals fallings around me...us, they stopped for a while until you captured-” She stopped when he threw her a nasty look. “When you 'convinced’ me to ‘cooperate’, now I have this dream almost every night and everytime it gets a little clearer and clearer!”

“...” Azazel turned to see her, he had a weird expression on his face... it was almost... she shook her head, because this was an important talk, she couldn’t get sidetracked.

“Do you think it’s because I’m closer to you guys? After all, our ancestors were demonic dragons, maybe your power or something resonates with mine.”

“It’s...not impossible.” He said, his ace still looked weird, but he hunched and his eyes were now obscured by his hair. “What else have you gotten of this dream?”

Nina had to think for a second, before answering.

“Wings, of this I’m almost sure, because... well the feathers have to come from somwhere? Then, there is this two people, a woman and a man, I think I’m the woman because there are times where I can only see the man... we... they are holding hands facing the dawn and....” She giggled a little, feeling the heat rush to her face.

“And?” 

“Hehe, sorry, it’s just thinking about it, in my dream it all felt so real, it’s a little embarrasing.” Nina could sense Azazel’s impatience so she swallowed her before finally saying: “I’m his bride...”

“How do you know?” He asked again and Nina dared herself to peak at his reaction, the worse it could happen was that he laughed at her.

She almost lost her breath at the faraway look in his eyes, something about it felt... familiar.

It took her a minute to catch her breath again.

“Well, when I’m... close to him, my clothes feel very heavy and they are completely white, the sun looks blurry because I think a veil covers my eyes...”

“Stop.” He said, his voice lacked the usual edge he usually used with her and his hand - the blackened muscle that she used to fear would cut her to ribbons - stroked her arm before finally letting go. 

He flew away before she could even ask what was wrong with him.

“Past lives dreams.” Cerberus said without looking from her book. “It’s so obvious, want me to talk to her?”

Azazel shifted and shook his head, he didn’t know what do with this information, if he should do anything at all, but he was sure it would do Nina absolutly no favors.

“I thought Gabriel had forbidden such thing after she and the other archangels took over the handling of afterlife matters into heaven.”

“From what I was able to dig out, her village seems to follow the beliefs of the samsara” He didn’t remember much about it, just about that it was about the cycle of life, death and rebirth. “So, it’s not all that ssurprising.”

“What about back then?” He snapped at her, Azazel was sure she had never held such beliefs.

“Back when old man Zeus was in charge, my job was to guard the gates of the land of the dead.” Cerberus said. “I’m not proud to say some souls managed to slip past me, I was young and easily distracted back then.”

He snorted at the thought, that sounded very much like Cerberus.

"So, what? You mean to tell me these souls got to inhabit newborns or something?" That couldn’t be right, what would happen to the soul already inhabiting the body already?

"Pffft, no, plenty of them did believe they could, but they would just wound up as ghosts, bet you no one ever told them how it worked, Lord Hades was not the most talkative guy out there."

“What’s your point then?” He was never one for patience, much less now.

“That if these idiotic souls would have been allowed to live again when they drank off the Lethe River and sent back eventually. During his reign, after a while souls were allowed to reincarnate once they washed off their memories.” 

“If that’s true, people wouldn’t be able to dream of their past lives.” 

“Well, that’s when the decree of our dear Gabriel screwed things up for those souls who were ready to pass over, some souls refused to ascend to heaven and stayed who knows where wandering... probably searching for a way into life again, then there were other who were not allowed because they had commited grave sins and weren’t worthy of heaven... murderers, rapists, heretics, people guilty of hubris... of forbidden lust.”

His fist connected with the wall before he could process what Cerberus told her, of course after damning her and him, they were still not satisfied with it, they just had to yank the chain harder

“...From what I’ve heard not all souls turned into ghosts, some souls found peace turning into nature spirits, others were even worshipped as minor deities in small pantheons, and others like apparently dear Nina’s situation found a loophole.” 

“What can we expect? Is the soul going to take over once Nina remembers all of it?”

“The only reason she’s having these dreams, is because, someone around her...”  The knowing look Cerberus threw him was enough to let him know that she knew. “...must be triggering them, I have no idea what will happen next and I can’t help you, this is no longer my field of expertise.”

Godammit all, he couldn’t talk, he couldn’t even think, if he even tried he might just yell. And to think he had thought, just in rare moments of weakness when looking at her, that maybe, after all of this was over...

“But, I’m pretty sure that by Nina doesn’t have two souls, that I can still know with a whiff, trying to separate her from those memories might leave her worse than dead, so I suggest you just let things run its course if you still want to make use of her.”

That’s right her life belonged to Lord Lucifer, not him, he was the one who decided, not him... 

He was such a fool.

[fineillsignup]

I have been bothered countless times by the canon sasu/saku fans who continuously insist that this ship is 'beautiful' because of sakura's 'unconditional love' for sasuke. It has always bothered me for obvious reason but I can never articulate my arguments into words, when it's /clearly/ wrong. Can you explain how Sakura's love in the canon pages is unhealthy? I really like your explanations and I would like your input on this too I guess.

ayyyyy so I have been letting my inbox pile up (that’s why I turned off anon asks, btw) and I’ve finally become guilt-ridden enough to start going through the backlog. Here’s my current earliest ask, from like, May or something like that. IDK if you will see this, anon! I hope you do.

This is a really good question, so good that I also find this problem difficult to articulate. It’s extra difficult because the concept of “unconditional love” is one applied to many relationships in this series (romantic, platonic, familial) and it’s difficult to talk about one without bringing in the others, either in comparison, or in cause and effect, or sometimes other things. Plus there’s the question of what unconditional love is, whether it can be abusive or enabling, whether it excuses or justifies certain acts, etc.

Like let’s just take “people who unconditionally love Sasuke” as a starting category, right off the bat you have at least Karin, Itachi, Naruto, Sakura (I alphabetized because by God people will be petty enough to argue about which one I put first otherwise). Now I’m sure people will also argue that one or more or these doesn’t really unconditionally love Sasuke (because they don’t love the “real Sasuke,” or because their love isn’t love but infatuation, etc). But I ain’t got time for that today. I got 29 asks in my inbox, people!

So, taking it for granted that all four of these people unconditionally love Sasuke, they all express it in very different ways. Now, I’m going to take the least controversial of the four (at least as regards the genuineness of his love for Sasuke), Itachi. Itachi may have loved Sasuke unconditionally, but he also ruined his life. He’s not fully or solely morally culpable for ruining Sasuke’s life–I’d say he bears very little culpability for the massacre, a llarge share of culpability for later tortures of Sasuke and not revealing the truth until post-mortem, and a share of culpability for allowing Orochimaru to get his hooks in Sasuke–but without regard at all to his moral culpability for his acts, his acts fucked up Sasuke in a big way. (Some people might say that Itachi couldn’t have acted any other way without harming Sasuke more, I’ll succinctly say that’s horseshit. Twenty-nine asks to go, people!)

So unconditional love does not mean always doing what’s best for the object of one’s love. Much less does it mean doing what’s best for oneself.

Unconditional love and unearned mercy/concern/forgiveness can be very beautiful. Naruto crying for Gaara when he’s still 95% Shukaku = beautiful. Sakura hugging Sasuke in the Forest of Death to stop his rampage = beautiful. Dying Karin telling Sasuke not to hurt Sakura (who, by all appearances, at that point was preparing to kill Karin) = beautiful. Like, there are tons of examples of that in the series and that’s good.

But unconditional love can also be “fine, I’ll slaughter dozens of my relatives, some of them totally innocent of any wrongdoing, as long as you let my most beloved relative live”. And that’s… not good.

With Sasu//Saku, the major problem I see is that Sakura is only ever discouraged from her love with Sasuke when that love is perceived as a threat to Naruto and the village. Naruto’s promise to her to bring back Sasuke is compared by Sai to Danzo’s curse mark. Yikes. Shizune points out that Naruto wants to save Sasuke for his own reasons, which is acknowledged, but Shikamaru then doubles down that this is why they have to deal with Sasuke themselves, to prevent a cascade of war from the Cloud killing Sasuke, Sasuke’s friends killing Cloud ninja, Cloud ninja killing them, etc etc.

Sound familiar? It should. It’s essentially the same justification for the Uchiha massacre: we must eliminate the threat to stability, the threat that promises to launch a ripple effect towards total war.

Poor Sakura. All her training, and all her precious people, (except Naruto and Kakashi, who, let me remind you, once again fucked off and left her behind without a word, so much for teamwork), are telling her she’s gotta convince Naruto to kill Sasuke. Sakura knows Naruto better than any of them of course so she knows that’s a non-starter. What does she do? What can she do?

What she does is fuck up right royally, and since she’s not a good looking male character this is unforgivable, even though no real long-term bad consequence occurs as a result of her series of fuck-ups. (Remove any of her individual fuck-ups or all of them in this arc, and the arc still is going to end basically the same, with Sasuke escaping and resolving to take the EMS; moreover nobody on the Konoha side is long-term damaged by her actions.)

The arc ends with Sakura explicitly saying that she has to believe that Sasuke and Naruto will work it out themselves–without her. Basically, this arc is a big “up yours” to the concept that Sakura, Kakashi, or anyone but Naruto will have anything to do with Sasuke’s redemption. Teamwork? I don’t know her.

What this means is that Sakura’s love for Sasuke may be unconditional, but it’s also essentially irrelevant. Everything is irrelevant except Naruto, the Child of Prophecy, the reincarnation of Asura, soul-brother of Sasuke, blah blah blah fate fate fate bullshit.

The narrative is so zealous about keeping all the plot agency with Naruto that it can’t help but leave Sakura in the cold and dark, which makes her continuous devotion to Sasuke inexplicable. Naruto is given an “alien reincarnation made me do it” explanation (which also invalidates him, imo) but it does even worse to Sakura; she basically wandered into this Immortal Drama, but she’s just an ordinary girl. She’s not in the prophecy; she’s just incidental.

So this sets up a huge meta imbalance between Sasuke, Central Antagonist, soul-brother of Naruto the Chosen One, the long-prophecied reincarnation who would make peace and stop the cycle of blah blah blah bullshit; and Sakura, nice girl who tries hard. You’d have to do a huge amount of legwork to bring the two into balance post-699, and Kishimoto doesn’t do any of it. Instead, Sakura is just devoted to Sasuke, as surely as the sun rises and sets, just because, no matter what he does. Sasuke doesn’t have to earn it or maintain it or even be present to receive it.

So yeah, it’s unhealthy. Blah. I don’t know if I articulated this any better, Anon, but I tried.

[bakahimesama]

Consider The Following

What if “Sacrifice” is Salem singing to Ozpin and the Gods?

disclaimer: this is strictly me trying to interpret the song through a new perspective, I don’t necessarily think that what I’m theorizing is actually going to happen

Verse 1 (Salem seems to be taunting Ozpin)

death is never what it seems 

she knows Oz reincarnates

did the things you thought you should, all the things they said were good 

Ozpin only agreed to the gods’ plan, because they lied to him?

all your faith in ancient ways 

Ozpin clearly trusts that what the gods want him to do is right, or he wouldn’t have tried to stop Salem in the first place

born an angel, heaven sent 

just reestablishing that Oz was chosen by the gods

This whole first verse gives me the impression that Salem is mocking Ozpin. She knows why the Gods really want Oz to stop her, and she knows that the truth is not what Oz was told. Which is not to say that whatever she’s planning isn’t morally wrong, just that maybe what the Gods are planning for after she’s defeated, is just as bad, or worse.

Chorus (she shifts to challenging the gods)

you can’t have my life, I’m not your sacrifice, you can try but I’m free, and you won’t conquer me, I won’t crawl, most of all, I won’t fall for you 

The very first part could still be Ozpin, but after that? He’s not trying to sacrifice Salem, he just wants to stop her. I think here is where she makes a shift from taunting Oz, to talking to the gods directly. She knows what they’re really planning, she knows how she fits into those plans (a sacrifice for a ritual perhaps?), and she’s not having any of it.

Verse 2 (back to Ozpin)

show them gods and deities, blind and keep the people on their knees 

Salem mocks Ozpin for making others believe in the gods as much as he does

the more you try the more you just breed hate

the more people Ozpin tries to get on his side, the more said people make the situation worse (Ironwood’s paranoia, Lionheart’s betrayal)

and lies, truth will rise, revealed by mirrored eyes

Salem knows that the Gods’ true plan will soon be discovered by one of Oz’s allies

what if all the plans you made, were not worth the price they paid? even with the lives you stole, still no closer to your goal

here Salem is talking to Oz and the gods. the gods unnecessarily dragged Ozpin into their scheme, which forced Oz to drag in other people. the conflict the gods started has taken countless lives throughout the centuries, and Ozpin’s reincarnation cycle continues to force children into the fight every few decades. yet even with all of those lives through all of those years, Salem is still winning

Recap

Salem knows more about the true nature of the Gods than Ozpin does, and is mocking him for struggling along blindly. The Gods have him so convinced that what he’s doing has to be right, that he looks at all of the people he’s brought into the fighting (including all of souls he’s possessed), and thinks that it was all sadly necessary. She, however, understands that everything Oz has done means nothing. Whether Salem goes through with her plan, or she’s killed, sacrificed, and the Gods go through with their plan, Remnant is screwed. All Ozpin is doing is helping choose who gets to screw it over. And from the tone of the song, it’s clear that Salem doesn’t want the Gods to do it. She’s not willing to be their sacrifice, after all.

I wanted to hammer this out before episode 4 came along and proved my sleep deprived brain wrong. Here we go!

[modernart2012]

The light of the stars in the sky that I looked up to

@sumigakure Halloween Event 2017

Prompt 14: Bleach AU

Word Count: 1153

Rating: T (for safety)

On AO3

Kakashi sat on the porch of his captain’s quarters, deep in the heart of his division, staring at the cold, unfeeling stars. For all that the Seireitei was the afterlife for the dead, always mild, always unchanging, it felt deader and colder tonight than it had any right to be. Maybe it was the fact he was the only one still left awake, that everyone else was in their beds dreaming, but he felt like he was the only one left in the world at that moment. Caught between this reality and the one of his recollection, neither giving him any peace.

 The memory kept spinning in circles around and around in his head. Flash stepping through the False Karakura, past ruined buildings and ongoing fights, chasing after Obito’s reiatsu signature. His haori flapped like massive white wings in the wind, like a white flag of surrender, Kakashi’s mind supplied helpfully. He’d been so proud of his haori when he’d made captain, the pristine white fabric and the way it marked him out as one of the most powerful Shinigami in all of Soul Society. Now it was stained in a way that all the bleach in the world would not, could not, remove. Power, and it meant nothing.

 Catching Obito and Madara together had broken his heart. That Obito was willingly working towards destroying their home, their friends, going along with the plans of a madman. You lost even before you fought. Why couldn’t you have just realized his role sooner, asked him why he betrayed yo - betrayed Sensei and Rin and Kushina and the rest of Konoha. But you were too much of a coward, and you lost. What kind of captain can you be called, that you lost to a lieutenant without even drawing your blade? Kakashi has thousands of questions he wished he had asked before, back in the Academy, back on that rooftop. Regrets, he supposes, but regrets isn’t the right word for yearning? For the conversations he replays from their youth, to return to those happy times when they were both younger and less jaded. If there had ever been a time that Obito wasn’t jaded. No, that was wrong. Kakashi had seen his smile time and again and again. They had been innocent once. Obito and Rin and Kakashi.

 Rin. Their friend, who had dreamed of entering the 4th division. Who had died mysteriously, who had wasted away from a deep and unending sickness that had drained her slowly of reiatsu. Who he had dreamed of, knocked out cold on that rooftop, when Obito had struck him down with a mockery of his kind smile. When Obito had taunted Kakashi for coming after him, barely able to stand. When they had faced each other as enemies in truth, when Obito had damaged Kakashi’s eye.

Kakashi hadn’t seen Obito’s actual fight against Madara, but Naruto and Sakura had. Naruto, who hadn’t come in time to save Obito, and Sakura, who had hidden herself to lay in wait but hadn’t been able to move to heal Obito in time, had let him come and answered him with bowed heads and heavy hearts and it wasn’t fair, that he only ever came too late. Kakashi’s tea trembles in the cup, long gone cold, and he has to set it aside to mask the trembling of his hands. He can’t tell if its rage or sadness - he thought he had gone numb, couldn’t feel anything in the aftermath.

 Sakura who had told him Obito had lied to Madara about killing him, lied about having any feelings except those that pertained to destroying Konoha and had stopped Madara from killing her and the rest of the Rookie 9, had turned and betrayed Madara by shoving his zanpakto through Madara’s chest, blasted a hole through Madara’s chest. He’d managed to find the sole weakness to Madara’s Tsukuyomi, and tried to utilize it to avenge Rin.

 Rin, who Madara had killed by leaching her reiatsu. Who had pretended to be sympathetic to Kakashi’s grief over his friend, who had pretended to understand and console and leave flowers on her grave like some psychopath. Madara, who had figured out how to turn himself into a Hollow, and had used the Hogyoku he had built to that end. It hadn’t mattered that Obito had stolen his Hogyoku, he’d still transformed. Had still used monstrous strength to rip off Obito’s arm, to slice him nearly in half. The betrayer betrayed, and betrayed in turn.

 He’d done his best to not cry in front of the kids then, even prickly Sasuke who hated shinigami with a burning fervor had looked away when he failed.To be pitied by a Quincy, yet Kakashi didn't care.

 He knew what happened next. Had gotten there in time to hold Obito as he died, see the blood stained white robes, get blood on himself, and cry as Obito apologized for failing, offered his eye to be with Kakashi so he wasn’t alone in seeing the future. He vaguely remembers Sakura coming in as Naruto and Madara fought, raining paths of destruction across the False Karakura, trying desperately to reject the damage and failing because Obito was already gone by then, then giving up at his request and transplanting a dark eye in place of the one in Kakashi’s damaged orbital. And then Kakashi had just held his scarred body close, because what was a world without Obito? Even when Obito had just been a betrayer, had gouged his eye, it was impossible to fathom. And now it wasn’t some false illusion or trick where Kakashi could just convince Obito to come home, Obito was lost to the cycle of reincarnation and there was nothing Kakashi could do to meet his friend again.

 It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t fair that everyday went on like normal not that Madara is sealed and the regular drudge of life has been restored. Paperwork, training, meetings, more paperwork; Kakashi wants to scream but instead spends his days at Obito and Rin’s graves. Side by Side in a nice section of the 13th Division. He had had to fight the captain of the 3rd Division, but Konan had backed off after seeing the look in his eyes and had had her men stand down too. That was fine, Kakashi would have had no qualms about ripping through the 3rd Division if it had come to that. And yet, he wished he had fought them anyways. Tried to exorcise his demons on the end of a blade. Then he wouldn’t be where he was now.

 Now, Kakashi sat on the porch of his quarters, unable to escape the movie tape reel running on repeat in his head, reliving the same moment as if trapped in an illusion. The light of the stars burned bright and cold and harsh, and Kakashi couldn’t help but remember and regret and yearn.

[keptin-indy]

Exalted: Saigoth Gates 29

Double the robots!  Double the Krait!  100% more apemen?

Previous installments

After a night’s rest, the circle headed back into the city, hoping that the final unexplored manse would contain the source of the mist so they could turn it off and Krait would stop being so paranoid.  Shashaka picked the lock and went ahead inside to check for traps, only to be caught between crushing spiked walls.  Slightly worse for wear, she got the rest of the circle through the halls to the most impressive door, which turned out not to lead to a hearth room or control center, but a grandiose tomb with orichalcum trappings.  West immediately started making plans for what he could do with that much orichalcum, but was interrupted by a disembodied voice accusing him of sacrilege.  Peering across the veil, he, Shashaka, and Naran could see a dematerialized ghost in First Age finery looking haughty and perturbed at his visitors.  Naran promised they wouldn’t disturb the tomb and asked the ghost’s name.  It answered that it was Glorious Savant of a Thousand Interlocking Gears, and Krait suddenly fell into a trance, receiving a vision of an entire city designed as both tomb and temple whose inhabitants existed only to worship him after his death and guard his impenetrable resting place.  Krait hesitantly told the circle the purpose of Denandsor’s strangeness, which caused Mazatl to ask questions about the entire cycle of reincarnation, which he turned out not to understand at all.  Krait asked the (his) ghost if he could have a minute to consult with the circle without it attempting to drive them out, but Savant ordered him to leave its tomb, to which Krait responded that it was his tomb, enraging the ghost while a frantic Naran tried to calm it down by explaining that Krait was Savant’s future incarnation.  Krait explained to the circle that the automata were powered by the bound souls of the former inhabitants of the city, which forced the circle into a discussion of the ethics of keeping any of them functioning, much less using them in war.  Naran attempted to sway Savant to their side by explaining the situation with the Never Was, but the increasingly impatient ghost responded that the affairs of the living who had turned their backs on it were no longer important.  Krait told it that its reasoning was stupid, and no amount of damage control from Naran could calm it down this time, forcing the Eclipse to destroy the ghost.  The mist began to burn off, but so too did the tomb begin collapsing.  The circle grabbed as many grave goods as they could and Krait broke into the sarcophagus to steal his own prior incarnation’s head before escaping.  Suddenly Denandsor made much more sense, knowing that someone Krait had been had designed the paranoia-inducing mist, death traps, and soul-powered automata, as well as keying the tomb to collapse should it no longer contain his ghost.  Unconcerned, Krait took the opportunity to melt the remaining flesh off his own looted skull for use in future alchemical or sorcerous projects.  Now that the mist had finally been dispelled, however, the circle felt safe enough to return to the crystal in the first manse, restoring power to it and launching right into their practiced explanation of the threats against Creation after explaining that Krait was technically the same person as Savant and therefore his circle weren’t intruders.  The crystal was perplexed that they had offered it an explanation instead of simply ordering it to do their bidding and Naran said politesse was generally better for dealing with people.  The shocked crystal asked if Naran thought of it as a person and was overjoyed when Naran said yes.  Giving its name as Denandsor, it eagerly agreed to help the Solars, explaining that it could splinter a piece of itself off into a command unit automaton to relay orders to the lesser units.  It knew police and riot-suppression tactics (indicative of Savant’s rulership style), but would not be able to communicate with the main Denandsor crystal, since Creation no longer had long-distance information relay infrastructure.  Both the Twilights were intrigued about what it would take to re-implement this.  West asked if it would be possible to retrofit the automata they had broken to take elementals as power sources instead of human souls, but Krait argued that was slavery.  West, having written a published dissertation on the place of elementals within the Hierarchy, did not care about his opinions.  The circle spent a few days in Denandsor to experiment with the automata and talk to “Denny” who was thrilled to have people to talk to and who respected its autonomy.  Mazatl, fascinated at the similarities with his own native language, learned High Holy Speech and some of the history of the Dragon Kings, but Denny could not tell him as much as it would have liked, since it no longer had access to far-flung libraries as it had in the First Age.  The circle sent one command unit along with the majority of the combat automata to march to the Marukani Redoubt, taking another and five maintenance units along with them to Tenepeshu’s Vengeance.  

They arrived at the ship to find Talespinner waiting for them.  The god said that he and Dreamweaver had fashioned a story for them which would influence the events of the real world, just as they had to fend off the Princess Magnificent.  He gave them a list of “chapter headings” for the East, saying that he couldn’t promise they would all be helpful for the circle, but they would certainly be significant in some way.  He also said that the story couldn’t very well progress without its heroes, so the gods’ narrative magic would be able to slow down the Never Was’ escape from Palanquin until the circle arrived, though not past about a year.  The circle was amazed and appreciative and after some discussion of the list, decided to bow to the Twilights and begin the chapter called “Mahalanka and the Shadows of Sperimin”.  West warned the rest of the circle that Mahalanka was known to be ruled by another ancient Lunar: Raksi, Queen of Fangs.  He told them that she was known for being not just a powerful warrior and sorcerer, but a wily negotiator who seemed to take delight into tricking or convincing visitors to commit atrocities and was rumoured to devour human children alive.  West did not mention that she was the introductory example of an established Lunar anathema for new members of the Wyld Hunt to study.  Naran asked Denny what it knew about Raksi, but as she had only recently exalted when access to the library network went down, it couldn’t offer much more than her age.  Hoping that a sorcerer in charge of a library would value knowledge more than recreational atrocity, the circle decided to offer information on the Never Was and the alternate dragonlines in exchange for access to Sperimin.  Failing that, they would ask to “consult Krait”.

Mahalanka from the air was a once-glorious First Age city with towering spires, mostly broken and used as unlikely highways for gorillas and beastmen.  One snapped tower still had a functional skydock lower down where a small floating skiff sat at rest.  West docked the ship alongside it, already lusting over the sleek little craft.  A bright red apeman brachiated over and asked their business in Mahalanka in Forest Tongue, which Naran didn’t speak, so Mazatl asked for an audience with their queen.  The apeman said that it was her standard practice to invite visitors to dinner and Krait asked if it would be polite to bring a gift of wine or spirits.  The apeman was touched that they displayed such good manners and lamented the decline of good taste in the world before showing them to guest rooms.  A few of the circle amused themselves by attempting to follow him through the trees rather than the walkway, but none with the success of Shashaka, who grew up brachiating through the East.  Krait theorized that the beastmen would take a special liking to her because her comfort in the trees and mostly hairless appearance would remind them of their own young.

[centralcitysfinest-rp]

Past: 

Over 4000 years ago Prince Khufu was once one of the finest warriors in the Middle Kingdom, and heir to his father’s rule over Egypt. Arrogant and prideful as he was, there was one thing that managed to temper him - a woman by the name of Chay’ara. She was a priestess of Horus, and the only one capable of humbling the overly prideful Khufu, and gradually the two fell in love. However, a priest and adviser to the King by the name of Hath’set was jealous of Khufu, and obsessed with Chay’ara himself. Upon discovering their affair, he struck both of them down in a jealous rage, and as they lay dying together to the two lovers prayed to Horus to guide and protect them into the next life, so that they may find each other again.

On that night, meteors had rained from the sky, and the strange power they carried within them had gifted Khufu and Chay’ara with the power of reincarnation. Over thousands of years, they were reborn as different people, at first remembering none of their past until they would awaken, seemingly at random, and retain their memories of each other - and the abilities that the meteor shower had granted them. They were able to fly, with wings appearing as if by magic. In some lives they met early, and were able to spend many years together, in others they unfortunately never crossed paths. But an unfortunate truth, in every lifetime, was that Hath’set would find them, wherever they hid, and kill them. The same gift that had granted them their powers had unfortunately also made their murderer immortal, and capable of strengthening himself by stealing their life forces.

After 207 deaths, one of Khufu’s reincarnations, Carter Hall, had discovered his memories and powers without Kendra’s presence. The memory of losing his love so many times, to a man he had come to despise above all others, tore him apart and made him callous and impatient. He found Chay’ara’s reincarnation, Kendra, and attempted to make her remember him. Despite his efforts, she seemed to remember little even after gaining her powers, and due to his own desperation, he distanced her even further with his abrasiveness and disregard for people other than the two of them. When The Flash and Green Arrow offered to help Carter and Kendra to defeat their killer, now going by the name Vandal Savage, he cared far more about doing so than if it was putting the two men and the rest of their allies at risk.

Carter and Kendra moved to St. Roch after they defeated Savage with the help of the others, trying to move on and start a new life while also using their powers to help others. Though their relationship had improved somewhat over training and living together in St. Roch, Kendra still grew frustrated with Carter and his attempts at convincing her they were ‘soulmates’ because of their past. Matters weren’t helped when they were contacted by Rip Hunter, a Time Master, who claimed that they had not actually been able to defeat Savage and that in the future he was able to destroy the world as they knew it and ruled over it instead.

Joining Rip’s team aboard the Waverider, Carter and Kendra were supposed to be instrumental to his defeat, as the only two capable of permanently killing Savage due to the bond created through the vicious cycle of their deaths and rebirths. They confronted him in the 1970s, Carter believing he was capable of killing Savage, but even after seemingly defeating the man in combat, he was overpowered, and killed once more by his greatest enemy.

He reincarnated multiple times in the following years, remembering only briefly of his lives before until Savage inevitably found him and killed him. With Kendra removed from the timeline, still on the Waverider, Carter spent those remaining lifetimes completely alone, destined it seemed forever to never be again with the woman he loved. However, there was one lifetime in which he did not regain his memories, and when Savage found him, for once he refrained from killing and instead saw an opportunity to use Carter - now Scythian Torvill - against his former allies.

Savage conditioned the man into the perfect soldier - obedient to his will and enjoying the cruelty demanded of him. Savage revealed what he had done to Kendra, using Scythian’s identity to manipulate her into letting him live and giving an opportunity for him to strike the Legends. Scythian very nearly killed his former self’s teammates, but Kendra managed to awaken some of his memories and abilities just in time for him to stop and turn on Savage. Though he remembered very little of his past - beyond that he knew who Kendra was, and hated Savage - he joined the Legends in a final battle to defeat Savage once and for all, finally putting an end to his tyranny across the timeline.

Present: 

Scythian, ashamed by what he had done as Savage’s soldier, chose to adopt the name of his past self and once again become Carter Hall. He returned with Kendra and the other Legends to the year 2016, and chose to leave the team with Kendra to once again try and restart their lives in St. Roch. However, despite knowing that Kendra meant something to him, Carter was still deeply afraid of how he had been capable of hurting her under Savage’s control, and was worried further by the gaps in his memory that still refused to surface. Without telling Kendra where he was going, he returned to Central City, hoping that the place he had first met Kendra in his past life would help him regain memories of his time from at least one life.

Kendra soon followed him, and though they were both still struggling with their memories, over time some of the pieces began to come together in Central. They both decided to remain in the city, living separately to avoid the awkwardness that had grown between them in St. Roch while still making sure they kept in regular contact to continue their recovery. Over time, Carter slowly began to remember how he had felt about Kendra in the past, and started to harbour those feelings again, but he knew from what others had told him that he had been insufferable and demanding in his past incarnation when he had tried to get into a relationship with her. They both agreed to try and just be friends for a time, though they discovered later that they had both been harbouring feelings for each other yet hiding it, not knowing what the other wanted from their relationship. Currently, they have just started dating, trying to get to know who they both are in this lifetime, rather than focusing on who they were and how they were together in the past.

Carter is currently searching for some meaning in his life, now that with Savage gone he can finally build a life instead of spend it running from his killer. He befriended a few of the people from his past, and some he had never known before, in order to settle himself into Central City and seek advice when he needed it. At his heart, he knows whatever he does he wants to make sure it helps people, especially those he cares for - and has considered rejoining the Legends aboard the Waverider to stop any potential time aberrations in the absence of the Time Masters.

Positive Traits: 

Brave 

Passionate

Noble

Negative Traits: 

Impatient 

Arrogant

Stubborn

Connections

Kendra Saunders - Girlfriend Team Legends - Friends Laurel Lance - Best Friend Kara Danvers - Friend Team Arrow/Team Flash - Friends

[thelegendaryhawkman]

Post-Flashpoint Bio: Carter Hall

Age: 31 Codename: Hawkman Occupation: Vigilante, Time-travelling legend Sexuality: Pansexaul Species: “Demi-god” Status: Hero

Past: Over 4000 years ago Prince Khufu was once one of the finest warriors in the Middle Kingdom, and heir to his father’s rule over Egypt. Arrogant and prideful as he was, there was one thing that managed to temper him - a woman by the name of Chay’ara. She was a priestess of Horus, and the only one capable of humbling the overly prideful Khufu, and gradually the two fell in love. However, a priest and adviser to the King by the name of Hath’set was jealous of Khufu, and obsessed with Chay’ara himself. Upon discovering their affair, he struck both of them down in a jealous rage, and as they lay dying together to the two lovers prayed to Horus to guide and protect them into the next life, so that they may find each other again.

On that night, meteors had rained from the sky, and the strange power they carried within them had gifted Khufu and Chay’ara with the power of reincarnation. Over thousands of years, they were reborn as different people, at first remembering none of their past until they would awaken, seemingly at random, and retain their memories of each other - and the abilities that the meteor shower had granted them. They were able to fly, with wings appearing as if by magic. In some lives they met early, and were able to spend many years together, in others they unfortunately never crossed paths. But an unfortunate truth, in every lifetime, was that Hath’set would find them, wherever they hid, and kill them. The same gift that had granted them their powers had unfortunately also made their murderer immortal, and capable of strengthening himself by stealing their life forces.

After 207 deaths, one of Khufu’s reincarnations, Carter Hall, had discovered his memories and powers without Kendra’s presence. The memory of losing his love so many times, to a man he had come to despise above all others, tore him apart and made him callous and impatient. He found Chay’ara’s reincarnation, Kendra, and attempted to make her remember him. Despite his efforts, she seemed to remember little even after gaining her powers, and due to his own desperation, he distanced her even further with his abrasiveness and disregard for people other than the two of them. When The Flash and Green Arrow offered to help Carter and Kendra to defeat their killer, now going by the name Vandal Savage, he cared far more about doing so than if it was putting the two men and the rest of their allies at risk.

Carter and Kendra moved to St. Roch after they defeated Savage with the help of the others, trying to move on and start a new life while also using their powers to help others. Though their relationship had improved somewhat over training and living together in St. Roch, Kendra still grew frustrated with Carter and his attempts at convincing her they were ‘soulmates’ because of their past. Matters weren’t helped when they were contacted by Rip Hunter, a Time Master, who claimed that they had not actually been able to defeat Savage and that in the future he was able to destroy the world as they knew it and ruled over it instead.

Joining Rip’s team aboard the Waverider, Carter and Kendra were supposed to be instrumental to his defeat, as the only two capable of permanently killing Savage due to the bond created through the vicious cycle of their deaths and rebirths. They confronted him in the 1970s, Carter believing he was capable of killing Savage, but even after seemingly defeating the man in combat, he was overpowered, and killed once more by his greatest enemy.

He reincarnated multiple times in the following years, remembering only briefly of his lives before until Savage inevitably found him and killed him. With Kendra removed from the timeline, still on the Waverider, Carter spent those remaining lifetimes completely alone, destined it seemed forever to never be again with the woman he loved. However, there was one lifetime in which he did not regain his memories, and when Savage found him, for once he refrained from killing and instead saw an opportunity to use Carter - now Scythian Torvill - against his former allies.

Savage conditioned the man into the perfect soldier - obedient to his will and enjoying the cruelty demanded of him. Savage revealed what he had done to Kendra, using Scythian’s identity to manipulate her into letting him live and giving an opportunity for him to strike the Legends. Scythian very nearly killed his former self’s teammates, but Kendra managed to awaken some of his memories and abilities just in time for him to stop and turn on Savage. Though he remembered very little of his past - beyond that he knew who Kendra was, and hated Savage - he joined the Legends in a final battle to defeat Savage once and for all, finally putting an end to his tyranny across the timeline.

Present: Scythian, ashamed by what he had done as Savage’s soldier, chose to adopt the name of his past self and once again become Carter Hall. He returned with Kendra and the other Legends to the year 2016, and chose to leave the team with Kendra to once again try and restart their lives in St. Roch. However, despite knowing that Kendra meant something to him, Carter was still deeply afraid of how he had been capable of hurting her under Savage’s control, and was worried further by the gaps in his memory that still refused to surface. Without telling Kendra where he was going, he returned to Central City, hoping that the place he had first met Kendra in his past life would help him regain memories of his time from at least one life.

Kendra soon followed him, and though they were both still struggling with their memories, over time some of the pieces began to come together in Central. They both decided to remain in the city, living separately to avoid the awkwardness that had grown between them in St. Roch while still making sure they kept in regular contact to continue their recovery. Over time, Carter slowly began to remember how he had felt about Kendra in the past, and started to harbour those feelings again, but he knew from what others had told him that he had been insufferable and demanding in his past incarnation when he had tried to get into a relationship with her. They both agreed to try and just be friends for a time, though they discovered later that they had both been harbouring feelings for each other yet hiding it, not knowing what the other wanted from their relationship. Currently, they have just started dating, trying to get to know who they both are in this lifetime, rather than focusing on who they were and how they were together in the past.

Carter is currently searching for some meaning in his life, now that with Savage gone he can finally build a life instead of spend it running from his killer. He befriended a few of the people from his past, and some he had never known before, in order to settle himself into Central City and seek advice when he needed it. At his heart, he knows whatever he does he wants to make sure it helps people, especially those he cares for - and has considered rejoining the Legends aboard the Waverider to stop any potential time aberrations in the absence of the Time Masters.

Positive Traits: Brave, passionate, noble Negative Traits: Impatient, arrogant, stubborn

Major Connections Kendra Saunders - Girlfriend Team Legends - Friends Laurel Lance - Best Friend Kara Danvers - Friend Team Arrow/Team Flash - Friends

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