#and its to get the children back asap

[pallaspally]

Am at that wonderful standstill with house repairs where i am now broke again. Today will be "find little tasks no one likes to do for money" day to recouperate expenses so i can continue.

I am forever thankful to the people that helped me last week, and the person (i will find out who you are and love you one day) who helped me this week. If anyone else has a couple dollars free, i could use that to buy some nails/tiles for the roof, or spackle for interior holes in the ceiling, or primer/paint to fix up the water damage. Idk this house needs a Lot lmao

PLEASE DO NOT PUT YOURSELF OUT FOR ME UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES THOUGH

https://www.paypal.me/PallasfromTumblr

[violet-eng]

Neuvillette NSFW Headcanons.

NSFW +18 kamino eru did the 🎨

Since his work is exhaustive and drains a lot of energy from him, most of the time he is a bottom.

He lets you ride him because he knows you like it - and he doesn't have the strength for that.

When he's bottom he cums fast.

He's very, very, very vocal. You are going to hear him say your name many times, he murmurs, moans and pants a lot.

He always tells you how good you are at taking it.

He asks for more, he asks for it with tears in his eyes when you guys are on your third or fourth orgasm.

He cries during sex? YES, he cries because he likes doing it with you, because of the overstimulation you cause in him with your circular movements on his fat cock.

He cries and whispers "I love you, sniff sniff".

You ask for one more round, you lean over him and he accepts -with tears rolling down his eyes- even though he is almost drained. He would do anything for you… when he is bottom.

"Baby, I can't take it anymore," he would say, shiny pearls rolling down his cheeks. "Just a little more, Neuvi, please" you would say back.

---WHEN HE'S ON TOP.

If he had few judgments that day, he will come home early and if you didn't run away… pray, because you will be tied to the bed until dawn. It's now his turn

Neuvillette has high histamine…seriously, high. He is fit. And if his day at work didn't take much of his energy, then he'll pour it all out on you…and not just the energy.

He's good at pregame, he'd sneak up on you from behind while you're in the kitchen and start with wet kisses on your neck.

Lubrication is not a problem for him… Hydro vision…

He has a breast sucking kink.

He is a god, literally a god when eating pussy, like a starving man.

He grunts as the head of his fat cock begins to enter your tight, steaming little pussy. He growls a lot, it's almost animalistic.

Lots of compliments, damn, he praises your body a lot, especially your pussy for the way it sucks him.

His thrusts are soft: Neuvillete not only has sex, no… he makes love, and he wants to show you how much he loves and appreciates you.

Missionary is his favorite position when he decides to be on top, because he can see you cry for him, ask for more, he can also hide his face in the crook of your neck and let you hug him while he speeds up the pace.

He whispers a lot of "I love yous" as he cradles your cheek with his hand.

He likes it when you caress his hair while doing it, he also caresses yours.

He does it all... night... long... and then goes back to work the next day.

He avoids cumming inside because he knows that you are both busy and don't have time to raise children.

AH.... but when he's in heat!!!!! Gurl, look for a place to hide yourself…

He is a dragon, and he smells when you are ovulating.

That thing about not having children because you don't have time for parenting… it was a lie… Neuvilette in heat has a powerful breeding kink

If he is in heat, he notifies that he will not go to work, and at the same time he tells your boss, because girl… you are not going to leave the room for at least two weeks.

His cock grows at that time, perhaps twice its size, and his seed load the same… Hydro Dragon must make sure he has offspring, right?

He thrusts you without warning - almost always -

Puts you in mating press pose almost all the time, because that way he can get deeper

Dirty talk, but for real... who's this man? This ain't the soft Neuvi you know:

"Loving what your man's cock is doing to you, uh?" "You look so nasty from up here, awful, how is that you were a lady before this, moaning like a slut?" "Beg, y/n, beg for my cock in this danked pussy of yours "

Growls, roars, whimpers, calls you his, uses your name with a low low looooooowwwww and sexy voice.

His voice … Archons … the tone of his voice descends to levels that when he bathes your ear could make you cum asap.

He is rough, ambitious, energetic, intense, you feel that at any time he will break you in two.

Finds your point G almost immediately, and will not stop hitting it with its great, fat and long cock, even if you beg him to stop because of overestimulation.

Doesn't go slowly, moreover, you feel as if he was only faster, fuck, how much stamin does he have?

The thrusts are so strong that it is as if you felt it in your throat

He relies on the back of the bed for more power and stability, and you can see his muscles tense in that pose, attractive as fuck.

Leaves you marks. Many … marks. In the breasts, the thighs, the neck, the groin, the shoulders …

Doesn't stop. He loves your cock drunk face beneath him, and tilts his head while appreciating the view.

"Look at that face you're pulling. Looks like you love my cock, eh?"

He's aggressive, yeah, but when he rubs your clit he's just oh so lovely and tender. And that fucking kills you.

Touches the buldge that shows through your belly, where his fat cock hits your cervix, and it only makes him go faster, and faster... you almost faint a couple of times.

Cums a lot, inside of you of course, he wants to see your swollen belly with his child, and ensures that it stays inside of your abused hole.

And that's only for a day... the next 13 days... gurl... you better grab a wheelchair.

[lonigiri]

things that you do that turns him on

warnings: smut (duh), publicish sex, hickies, petnames, baby fever, mating press, cumshot, creampie, breeding kink, reader is thick, oral (f rec), prolly more but yeah

notes: im back (kinda) 😉 also i couldnt think of anything for taerae and i wanted to get this out asap saur deal w it

s.hb

• wearing any tops that show your bare shoulders/collarbones

• he loves seeing your skin, especially when its all marked up and you're still wearing that top

"baby cant believe you wore that top with all my marks around my members? god you dont have any dignity, dont you?" he said as he shoved his cock deep into your tight hole. giving you that stretch you always longed for. your fingernails digging deep into his shoulders as he fucked you out on the bathroom sink. "ngh, hanbin.. too.. too much." "i know you can take it sweet girl, ya' always do."

k.jw

• seeing you with children

• jiwoong is getting to that age where hes been thinking about having kids and getting married, and seeing his girlfriend with children being all caring and acting like a mom really turns him on

• makes him think about how pretty you would be all swollen with his children :(

"god baby. seeing you with my niece today, made me think of how amazing of a mother you would be. will you let me fill you up? stuff you full of my kids. wanna see you pregnant with my kid." jiwoong had you in a mating press. fucking his cock deep into you as you squeezed around him. "woong, please, cant.. cant take it." "i know you can sweetheart. just a little bit more, then i'll fill you up nice and good just how you like hm." you nodded as you were being fucked so dumb. right before jiwoong pumped you full. there was no way you werent gonna get pregnant from this.

z.h

• when you wear fishnets

• he loves to watch your thick thighs pudge out through the holes

• loves ripping them though :D

hao sank down to his knees in front of you, pushing your skirt up, as he ripped the crotch part of your fishnets. "hao! these are the only good fishnets i have left." "i'll buy you new ones, you know how i feel when you wear these things around me." zhanghao licked a strip across your cunt, sucking on your clit, your fingers racking through his hair tugging on it slightly as he ate your cunt out.

sk.m

• your thighs

• he loves when you wear revealing pants like short skirts and short shorts

• he gets a little jealous though because some people stare so he always has his hands on you

"fuck matty, cant, cant do it anymore please." his fingertips digging into the plush of your thighs as he ate you out. his tongue diving into your cunt his nose prodding at your clit. your thighs enclosing around his head and he groaned against your cunt. the feeling of your thighs around his head turned him on even more, his hips rutting into my mattress as he made you cum for the forth time that night.

s.qr

• your waist

• he always has his hands on it or around it

• always buys you cropped tops just so he can see your waist

"ricky, fuck!" you cried out as your boyfriends grip on your waist tightened. your hands on his shoulders, nails piercing into his skin, as he fucked up into your cunt harshly. rickys fingers had to have been making bruises on your waist. the tip of his cock brusing your cervix by how hard he was fucking into you. ricky was muttering sweet nothings into your ear, "you got this sweet girl, fuck~making me feel so good kitten."

k.gv

• he loves when your a brat

• loves when you fight back against him bcs he knows he can put you right back into place

"you think sending me pictures like that when im out with my friends are gonna get you anywhere, you're sorely mistaken." "looks like its getting me somewhere right now dont you?" he clenched his jaw at your bite back at him. "you're getting on my last fucking nerve right now, and you wont like it when you push me over the edge." "fuck you kim gyuvin." he sucked on his teeth before snickering to himself. "okay have it your way." gyuvin had you bent over his knee smacking your ass, hard, leaving red hand print marks, not even soothing them after the slaps. he made sure to slap hard enough to leave bruises for the next days to come so you would know not to talk to him like that again.

[lynn-tged-posting]

tged webtoon ep 171 spoilers and thoughts but i'm mostly just going "YAY I LIKED THIS MOMENT" and more below the cut

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DEMON KING LLOYD HELLO. HELLO?? WHAT. WHY?? BUT WOW. HOLY SHIT. I REALLY REALLY LIKE THIS

I LOVE WHEN CHARACTERS GAIN WINGS AND HORNS AND . GHGHHGHGHHG AAAHHH ITS MY FAVORITE THING if you didn't already know dragon lloyd was like one of my favorite all-time panels so this is VERY AWESOME FOR ME YAYYY YAAAAYYY HAHAHA

LIKE SERIOUSLY LOOK HE GOT FANGS N SHIT AND. OH MY GODD THE SMOKE SLIPPING PAST HIS LIPS IM SO??? THAT'S SO COOL. I LOVE WHEN THEY DO THAT WITH SMOKE AND MONSTROUS FORMS OF CHARACTERS

genuinely i need to draw this asap. pacing issues aside i am obsessed with how sick this is. i love this a LOT

ok ok back to the top bc theres some stuff i wanna touch on from before demon king lloyd got revealed! because...

"master lloyd taught us". "master lloyd taught us". "master lloyd taught us". "master lloyd taught us".

EXCUSE ME WHAT

YOU'RE TELLING ME THAT OFF SCREEN, LLOYD TOOK TIME OUT OF HIS BUSY ASS DAY. TO TEACH THE KIDS HOW TO PLAY SOCCER. AND THEY HAVE PLAYED ENOUGH TO BE FAMILIAR ENOUGH TO PLAY ON THEIR OWN. WHICH MEANS THAT LLOYD . PLAYED SOCCER WITH THEM . AND WE FIND THIS OUT. NOW?? I. GGHH. THATS SO. CUTE. IM GOING TO BITE HIM. THE FUCKER. WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS TO ME

the fact that they go up to ask him im going to EXPLODE?!?!?

he looks so nonchalant abt it here im cryinf

AND LOOK AT THEM GO THIS IS SO SO SWEET IM VERY GLAD LYRA GOT TO PLAY WITH THEM I LIKE THIS A LOT

this scene, and the beginning scene where the adults were just so casual with her and treating her as a living person with feelings and someone that they can talk to was so so heartwarming i oooghhh my heart

AND THEN THERE HE IS. SMILING IN THE BACK. YOU ASS.

I SEE YOU BEING KIND AND EMPATHETIC AND SELFLESS LLOYD. YOU LOST THE NONCHALANT WAR. YOU CAN'T ESCAPE

christ. i fucking HATE him /j /aff

it is also VERY silly that they're so casual abt. destruction like that HELPPP they got it from someone sob sob, though i imagine since most of the estate consists of people who have done construction it probably isnt that big of a deal when things get destroyed every now n then

and lyra looks so damn happy,,, god im so glad she had a good experience, she really needed one :')

also i completely LOST it when the kid got mad at lyra for not responding with a yes or no HELPPP JESUS CHRIST

again they,,, got it from someone HAHA though honestly i think it tracks. kids can be straightforwardly brutal in their language, especially when they don't really have biases or cares for who they are speaking to. as crazy as this instance looks (LMFAO) i think this fits well with the context of the straightforwardness of children and considering the person who they look up to at the estate. i think it was good for lyra to meet a human child her age who can speak straightforwardly and not skirt past things, if that makes sense? i hope it does!

AND THE DEMON KING TRANSFORMATION i already talked abt it above but i wanna point out this blue system box here

a power outside of the system?!?? what does this mean for the protagonist of the new prequel bk_moon is writing?? is the weather forecasting included in this???

my first assumption right now is that the demon king power is just an in-world power system while everything else (ie the weather forecasting) is external, blue-textbox system. maybe? so lloyd got the demon king power which comes with skills separate from the ones that the system can provide? that would explain why there's no indication of lloyd trying to use the weather forecasting, he probably can't use it,,,? except i dont know why artanis can use it in that case. most likely i am overthinking it LMFAO

semi-related, i am a little confused as to why artanis did this? i guess she really, really trusted him w this power? or maybe her weather forecasting noted that this would be something good to do i have no idea,,, it Does feel a bit sudden i won't lie, i'm not sure how earned this is

also javier and everyone else not reacting that much to the demon king status. SENT ME HAHA "... nothing's changed." LOL

deadpan humor never fails to make me giggle ily javier

also loved the moment where the two of them were bein serious for a sec,,, they've got a job to do they've got people to protect. lloyd will stop fate and javier will be right besides him...

i think showing them at emily's wedding really cements how much they really, REALLY need to fight fate now. the novel events happening is very very bad, but it feels like now that so many people, emily especially, have found THIS much happiness in their lives,,, failing to stop fate will hit even harder. i really like the analogy of a taut bow that the dragon king used when he first described it, bc it's really REALLY showing how much the repercussions will hit if they fail. im praying they succeed,,, please,,, i need a happy ending or i will curl up and turn into an actual shrimp irl.

and now the demons have to build the pantara railroad,,, artanis's expression omfg

she really didn't,,, know,,, she trusted him that much,,,, girl,,,

but it's ok. it'll be a net positive trust! that's how lloyd does things!!! and then soon we'll get the happy ending where we can get the eye of summer and beat up fate and then silly fun times YAYY <- probably copium

some other thoughts of note that i had with a dear mutual (hi sprout :3) about this ep:

we were talking about how the plot seems to be paced right now, and honestly i'm of the opinion that while yes its Technically moving, the way they're ending each ep in this current arc makes it feel like it's going both very slow and very fast, that is to say it feels like it's not moving at all

bc they're like "okay NOW we're gonna do the build project" and it's been like that for several episodes now. pieces are moving but we're going past the point of it all too fast (especially the whole demon king thing. mentioned this before but while cool, doesn't feel as earned simply bc we're both tackling each point and yet blowing past all the points, so it's a lot less satisfying than it should be (despite how awesome it is,,, oh lloyd you give me so much internal conflict </3))

it does make me a lil worried that they're gonna timeskip the hell out of the pantara railroad build. however this episode, although it still has a weird pacing/movement issue, does feel a little bit better than the last two imo, so i have hope that it'll turn out okay, that it'll start heading up! i'm actually really excited to see where they go with this and i'm sure that even if the pacing is still goofy i'll have some kind of fun with it (seriously the panels this ep were wonderful HAHA)

anyway that's all for this week! extremely excited for the next ep,,, ill see yall then,,, lets go pantara railroad arc!!!

[icarusredwings]

Today, Donna took Saxteen to the supermarket because she felt it was a bad idea to leave them alone by themselves at home.

Upon arriving, Fourteen held the cart for about 5 seconds before wandering off. Donna called him back the first 3 times before the Master eventually wandered off, too.

"I'll go make sure he's not getting into any trouble," said 14, before, in fact, getting into trouble.

They also were guilty of the following;

Somehow, within the 20 minutes they were there, the Master had already damaged goods, hissed at a woman, made a kid cry, and was currently playing some game of chase with the Doctor throughout the store which consisted of him running off, hiding somewhere, waiting for the Doctor to find him, and then chasing the Doctor until he hid too.

-Cart racing

-Cart crashing

-Ruining a display stand of fruit

-Opening packages of things just "To look at them" only to throw it down in disgust.

-The Master flirting with a mannequin, accidently ripping her hand off, and teasing the doctor that he would need to perform surgery on her asap.

-Tripping a total of one (1) child

-Shouting in Gallifryian about the horrid ecemonic state that earth is in, I mean seriously, 5 pounds for a dozen eggs?!

- and lastly, apparently made a fort out of paper towels?

Some other notiable things that the security Camrea showed:

-Fourteen looking at baby clothes and hugging a certain set of tiny pajamas.

-The Master staring at the Telly section, his head tilting because of the Lion documentary playing only to start clapping when one of the lions got murdered in front of its cub.

-And they "Allegedly" also tackled each other while laughing and started kissing on the floor at one point.

She knows they're going to sleep well tonight...

Donna's is not actually too mad about any of these things. She's mad that they got banned from the store, but on the way home shes litsening to them giggle and rant about how much fun they had.

The look they held made Donna smile as it warmed her heart to see them being able to behave like playing school children... it was nice watching such old broken men be able to run around like rowdy teenagers again.

She had a feeling that they needed it, that they used to do this all the time. She couldn't imagine what trouble they DID stir up as teens if they were able to do all this within 20 minutes and were much more tired and older.

[cocogum]

My honest reactions of episodes 5 and 6 (part 1)

PART 2 : HERE

(‼️SEASON 4 SPOILERS‼️)

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We obviously start with the ✨sadidas✨ Armand and Amalia (as we should 💕) coming back from the assembly meeting with the Eliatrope goddess.

Okay so were starting off pretty strong lol

I LOVE how Armand thinks about the Eliatrope goddess cuz yeah we were pretty much thinking the same thing (about how she’ll pretty much stalk them and will put her children in their world) and I just absolutely LOVE how he’s keeping his guard because of her and has become even more doubtful of Yugo. (Just look at his eyes as he stares at Amalia!!)

Because yeah, even though he wasn’t as wary of Yugo before, some hints were still shown in the OVAs when he called him “a king without his people is unheard of” but Yugo shrugged his comment off.

BUT NOW WE GET TO SEE MORE OF ARMAND SLANDERING YUGO and basically exposing Amalia acting “not rational” when she talks about Yugo.

Armand, my man, your sister’s clearly in love with Yugo OF COURSE SHE WOULDN’T BE RATIONAL WITH HIM (you should’ve seen how she kissed Oropo tho you would’ve lost your shit lo)

BUT DAMN ARMAND CHILL WTF ARE U RACIST AGAINST ELIATROPES NOW???!!? Same ngl 🥰🥰 I want more drama 💖💖

I just ADORE Az and his family playing on their tree Tofu tower they look so adorable ☺️✨💖 I already made a headcanon that Yugo and Alibert built it (while Chibi and Grougal just watched).

OMG EVERYONE STFU MY SONS ARE HERE ‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️😍😍😍😍😍🥰😍😍🥰😍😍🥰🥰 ITS BEEN SO LONG SINCE I’VE SEEN U TWO 😭😭😭💖💖

Look at these two not doing anything and just being lazy bums 😭😭🥰💕💕

Also I need a gif of Yugo and Alibert hugging with Az and his kids in the background asap ✨

But all cuteness aside, in all my years of being a Wakfu fan, I literally never saw Yugo make that face before. Like it was so uncalled for that my heart literally dropped when I saw him like that. I never thought that the face of terror and shock (combined with the booming sound in the background) could go so well on him and now I wanna see it more!! I HOPE YOU TORTURE HIM ANKAMA!!

Btw the Eliatrope goddess is such a fraud and can’t think for herself even though she said she wants to rule a freaking planet but okay (u fucked up the first time by default when ur kids had one planet for themselves but ur already messing up ur second time cuz ur running away from ur problems when U AND NORA WERE THE REASON WHY THE NECROMES GOT OUT ARE U KIDDING ME- YOU DIDN’T CHECK?!!!???!)

Armand’s really trying hard not to say something racist right now.

Dude can’t even look him in the eyes while saying hi lol

Also can we talk about what Armand told Yugo??? :

Like………

IS THIS SUPPOSED TO BE SOME KIND OF FORESHADOWING ?!?!? I DONT GET IT AND IM SCARED NOW ⁉️⁉️⁉️⁉️⁉️⁉️

ANKAMA STOP PLAYING WITH ME, DON’T TOUCH MY AMALIA ‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️

No because im legitimately scared that something bad will happen to her, why else would Armand say these kinds of things to YUGO of all people????

I swear I will actually cry if this ended up being foreshadowing cuz honestly wtf…why did Amalia ever do to you people….My fear for Amalia was already there even before Season 4 so why do you gotta make my paranoia resurface like that??? Why do u gotta do me like that???? 😭😭😭

This is the guy who started a genocide against his own people and has more common sense than the GODDESS right in front of him. I get that she’s traumatized cuz of what happened to her but you gotta realize that they’ll always run after you if you just keep running, so the least you can do is throw your kids to fight for you. I just love how the only reason why Qilby is saying any of this is because for once, he’s not the one in control of the fate of the world and can’t redirect the signal or stop it himself lol

[klausysworld]

Hoping to get a little ask in…

Klaus and YN were in a f**k buddies, YN gets pregnant and is upset when Klaus is an ass about it. But YN is heartbroken when she walks into Klaus room to find him painting and a naked (covered in bed sheet) Cami.

Thanks so much

A life i do not deserve

Part 2

It hadn’t exactly been in mind to get pregnant when i slept with Klaus. He’s a vampire he isn’t meant to be able to have children. But apparently being only half hybrid has its extra ‘perks’. We’ve had a ‘friends with benefits’ kinda situation going on for a a while before i fell pregnant and i hate to admit it but i was gaining feeling but i could have sworn he was too, there was certain gentleness he would have sometimes, a specific look in his eye you know?

Then witches took me and we found out i was pregnant…with his kid. I won’t lie i wasn’t exactly over the moon, i was terrified and sick to my stomach with nerves. When Klaus found out i, for some reason, thought he might have said something, anything reassuring. Yeah, no. He flipped out, i was a liar, a slut that would sleep with anyone who was desperate enough to have me and i probably couldn’t even remember the fathers name. I don’t think i’ve ever cried harder, in front of Klaus, his brother and a witch, the overwhelming combination of the news and then the person i had finally come to actually understand telling me how disgusting and worthless i am to him just pushed me over the edge.

He left me and our child for dead before eventually returning. By the time he came to bring me home i was in an emotionless state. I refused to speak to him and wouldn’t let him touch me.

Over the next few months he had apologised many times and i decided it was best to move on from the issue, we were going to be parents after all. Plus the small fact that i did still long for him and everything in my heart screamed to forgive him. i knew he was struggling with the adjustment to his life as well, he just went for anger instead of distress.

Besides over that time we’ve had many sweet moments, he could be very kind when he wanted to be. I still hoped that he may see me as more one day. He would give my head a soft kiss and rub my bump in a loving manner. We were going to be a family.

I thought we could be a happy family…

But then he had to fuck his therapist.

I had just got back to our home, my bump was much bigger now as i was nearly 7 months pregnant. I had gone out to collect the decorations Klaus had picked for our baby’s new room, he had insisted we get it ready asap and i couldn’t argue. We designed and got it set up over the past few weeks.

I had just made a few extra adjustments to the baby room before going to Klaus’s room but he wasn’t in there. What was however was a bra and panties set. They were definitely not mine. I could feel my heart breaking as my breath caught in my throat and i opened his art room door.

I’m almost certain he could actually hear my heart shatter as i took in the scene before me. Camille. The blonde psychologist was completely naked on his art sofa, a sofa that they had spent time on in the past. Another girl was sprawled out with her tits on full display, a scrap of a bedsheet covering her most private area. And Klaus he was painting her. He only painted people when he had taken an interest, he told me that when he painted me. Everything he had shared with me was a game. The pregnancy ruined his game.

I took a step back and immediately he was stood in front of me, i could feel the tears streaming down my face, my chest aching as my mind yelled at me to leave. I couldn’t hear a thing he was saying, though i could see the panic in his eyes as he hands came to hold my arms. The second he touched me i let out a sob, my head shaking and my feet carrying me out the compound as fast as possible.

“y/n! stop running, love please!” he was grabbing me again, hands that had been all over another woman’s body, possibly inside another woman’s body. I was gonna be sick.

“get off me right now or i swear i will leave and never come back, you don’t even want this child and it’s clear you don’t want me so i don’t know why you’re bothering in trying to convince me otherwise” my voice was shaky and pain was obvious as i spoke.

“that wasn’t anything, she’s nobody, you’re carrying our baby, our baby that i love, you know that i love our child, you mean so much to m-“

“you’re such a fucking liar Klaus! This entire time i was afraid you still thought i was a stupid whore but it turns out I’ve been living with one this whole time while lugging around his kid, a kid you wanted to leave for dead, i forgave you and you said that we could be a family” my heart was basically on the floor at this point

“i can’t live here anymore. i’m leaving, i don’t know where i’m going but i’m not staying with you, you keep your filthy hands off of me and you stay away from my child. Do as you please, when you please but do not expect me to come crawling back to you, begging at your feet for a life that i do not deserve”

i practically ran to my car, the car that he had bought me, and drove to a hotel, i would sleep this off and think of a clear plan when i was in a better headspace

[bep1erfics]

boysplanet trainees - lalala&okokok trend pt. 1

context 💌

‘lalala’ is the more outgoing, bubbly person while ‘okokok’ is the more laid back and chill one. for example you could even describe them as the talker & the listener!

　　　♪───Ｏ（≧∇≦）Ｏ────♪

over me team ❗️

ricky: okokok 💿

- he’s more quiet & self reserved. LOVES SNACKING ISTG ANYWHERE HE GOES HE CARRIES 193837 snacks in his pockets tysm gyuvin

- when people talk, he listens with open ears

- he’s SO shy skdjdjdb, everytime he makes eye contact he looks the other way AND SHIFTS HIS EYES TOWARDS THE FLOOR 😭 protect this boy at all costs

jeonghyeon: lalala 🎀

- literally is ricky’s other half, GENIUS LEE OOPS omg i love leejeong hes so quirky

- the biggest extrovert ever, cries easily

- radiates the biggest babygirl energy, bffs with all the trainees on boys planet which i think is so cute 😭 i would literally die for jeonghyeon

zhanghao: okokok 💿

- this man is literally the smartest guy ever. he might be cute, but in reality he’s literally so self aware. probs has an iq of 394738

- gives off father vibes. YUJIN & OLLIE are literally his children, if you’re younger than him he’s automatically your dad

- he listens to everyone’s opinions and is the calmest person on the show after ricky 😭

kuanjui: okokok 🎀

- the most extroverted of all extroverts

- CAN LITERALLY BLEND IN WITH ANY FRIENDGROUP, lights everything up with his bubbly and courageous personality

- zhanghao’s bff, they’re like the cutest duo (don’t be mad haobin stan’s i think haobin is cute as well)

jay: okokok 💿

- man’s is an introvert as well

- chill but is SO EASY TO PISS OFF like when ricky missed his highfive on purpose? HE WAS PISSED LMAO

- i feel like he’s a good friend to others though, like he would def comfort you if needed

switch team 🍭

kamden: lalala + okokok 🍰

- HE’S THE AWKWARDEST GUY ON EARTH. you talk to him? he doesn’t listen, he literally spaces out like pou

- you would think he’s introverted but he’s an esfp?! kamden is an EXTROVERT?

- socially awkward and an extrovert… the more you know

keita: lalala 🎀

- CUTEST GUY, he literally also blends in with any friendgroup easily

- you could bicker with him and bc he’s so loud, you would automatically lose in a span of 2 mins. this guy would beat you up with his chatter

- HES CUTE POSITIVE LOUD i love keita

taerae: okokok 💿

- HES APART OF THE GYARUZ but is like the shyest of all shy people….. AFTER HIS TAEEEERRIAAAA HE LITERALLY SHOVED HIS FACE ON HIS BED I CANT DO THIS

- not with those two toned pants. it screams INTROVERTED

- he’s a grandpa. THE GUITAR???????? THE CLOTHES???????????????? he’s so grandpa coded

phanbin: lalala 🎀

- istg he’s such an outgoing person, so funny and talented I LOVE YOU PHANBIN

- YOU PUT HIM WITH JUNHYEON????? a mistake. YOU PUT HIM WITH WOONGGI????? a fight will break out. YOU LEAVE HIM ALONE? he dances like a literal legend

- gaslight gatekeep girl boss vote for phanbin

jongwoo: no comment i’m so sorry i’m not gonna do him… he needs to leave g group alone. the xenophobia IS NOT IT. 😒 sorry

shuaibo: NEITHER????? LALALA??!?!?

- you can tell he’s a really self reserved person, BUT THIS MIGHT BE BC OF THE LANGUAGE BARRIER IDK BUT HE LOVES HIS CAT AND THATS ALL THAT MATTERS. 🐈

- ITS SO HARD BC mnet didn’t give him enough screentime but he’s a lovely person 😭 evil edits did him DIRTYYYYY, he’s so cute and bubbly but fr he wanted to go home ASAP during episode 11 he was literally sleeping 😅

- #zhangshuaibowewillmissyou

supercharger team 🐥

ollie: lalala 🎀

- cutest person ever (poor guy got e worded)

- loves to tease ricky, always screaming lovelicky (😭)

- he’s a bit introverted, but with the yuehuaz he’s the most cheerful person, chocolate in a human form 🍫

haruto: lalala 🎀

- LOUD, the mood maker of g group, he’s so funny 😭

- honestly has the best humour ever. HIS INSTAGRAM STORIES ARE SO FUNNY ISTG bro even tells us how often he 💩… tmi alert

- haruto is so goofy 😭 but yeah he gets emotional easily, poor guy

woonggi: lalala 🎀

- ANOTHER GOOFBALL. sassiest queen ever like we could be besties

- woonggi, seowon & taerae are literally so sassy i love it

- also can be friends with ANYONE he meets. YOU WALK INTO A ROOM WITH CHA WOONGGI? you walk out of that door twerking, screaming WOONGGI BOYYYY

(ollie was a victim of this.)

seowon: okokok 💿

- seowon is literally the calmer version of woonggi

- looks at everyone so endearingly it makes me sob how he got eliminated

- GYARUZ ON TOP

zihao: okokok 💿

- haruto’s husband, HE WAS THERE FOR HIM WHEN HE WAS FRUSTRATED DURING SUPERCHARGER 😭

- UMMM I HONESTLY DONT KNOW like zihao is all giggles if mnet gave him screentime we could’ve seen his more serious side

- on a side note, zihao seems like the sweetest person ever on boys planet 😭 farewell i’m so mad he got eliminated

takuto: lalala 🎀

- THIS GUY DOES NOT STOP TOYANAGA TAKUTO-ING

- oml he’s so clueless… LIKE YK WHEN HE LIFTED UP HIS SHIRT AND RICKY + SEONGMIN HAD TO HOLD HIM BACK FROM REVEALING HIS nonexistent abs

- he was such a bright person… BUT FR FAREWELL TO SUPERCHARGER TEAM YOU WILL BE MISSED

[mandsleanan]

“We have this rapidly changing landscape around reproductive health, and seeking information about it or posting on social media feels like a way to take back control,” Stein said. “It feels empowering to claim authority and to normalize these life choices.”

Text & Doctors' link under cut.

Madison Clark did not celebrate when Donald Trump won the 2024 election. But one thought gave her solace: “At least I don’t have to worry about having a baby.”

In September, Clark, a 24-year-old nursing student from Battle Creek, Michigan, underwent a bilateral salpingectomy, a sterilization procedure that removed her fallopian tubes, ensuring she will never get pregnant. Clark considers the procedure her fail-safe against any further rollbacks of reproductive rights that might occur under the new Trump administration.

Clark had always known she didn’t want to have children. “I just don’t personally see myself on that path,” she said. In 2022, when she learned she was pregnant, she got an abortion. But that same year, the supreme court overturned Roe v Wade with its decision in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization, leading Clark to seriously consider permanent contraception. She’s not the only one.

‘The news cycle was a huge, huge reason that I took sterilization seriously and decided to spring into action.’

The study also found that vasectomy procedures, a form of male birth control, increased 95% – but were still not as popular as tubal sterilizations. A previous study, published last spring, found the number of tubal ligations among women ages 18 to 30 shot up after Dobbs, at a rate of increase double that of vasectomies.

“Patients are scared of losing access to all kinds of reproductive care,” said Dr Sarah K Horvath, associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Penn State College of Medicine. “There are people who had the idea of permanent contraception hovering somewhere on their to-do list, and now they’re pushing it up to number one.”

On TikTok, sterilization content has swelled. In one video with more than 73,000 likes, a creator posted footage of herself driving to an appointment and waiting on a hospital bed, with the caption: “Getting sterilized because y’all couldn’t act right in the voting booth.” One popular TikTok doctor shared a “how to” video about tubal sterilization a week after Trump’s inauguration. “I go on Thursday to get this procedure done,” a user wrote in the comments. “I was so worried the current administration would prevent this option so we got it scheduled Asap.”

Krysten Stein, an assistant professor at the University of Cincinnati Blue Ash College who studies doctor influencers on TikTok, said that conversations on social media about sterilization reflect gen Z’s current political anxieties.

“We have this rapidly changing landscape around reproductive health, and seeking information about it or posting on social media feels like a way to take back control,” Stein said. “It feels empowering to claim authority and to normalize these life choices.”

In some states – including Michigan, where Clark lives – voters have enshrined abortion protections in state constitutions, and according to a recent Gallup poll, a majority (54%) of Americans consider themselves “pro-choice”. That has not stopped Trump from cozying up to an invigorated anti-abortion movement. His first week in office saw him pardon activists who illegally blockaded the entrances to reproductive health clinics, limit funding for overseas groups that provide or advocate for abortions, and sign an executive order declaring gender begins “at conception”, a tenet of the “fetal personhood” doctrine.

Robert F Kennedy Jr, Trump’s nominee for secretary of health and human services, said at his confirmation hearing on Thursday that he believed that “every abortion is a tragedy”.

Trump indicated that he was also open to regulating contraception last May – though the president later posted on Truth Social that he “WILL NEVER ADVOCATE IMPOSING RESTRICTIONS ON BIRTH CONTROL”. This month, the supreme court, stacked with anti-abortion justices, agreed to hear a case that threatens the Affordable Care Act’s coverage of preventative care such as birth control and pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV (PrEP).

“The news cycle was a huge, huge reason that I took sterilization seriously and decided to spring into action,” Clark said. “Now, it’s a common conversation between my boyfriend and me: ‘God, at least we don’t have to worry about having to travel to get an abortion, or having to leave the country for one, or even being forced to carry a child, which is the most scary option in all of this.’”

Julia Wolf: ‘It’s naive to think that other things aren’t on the line, like contraceptives or sterilization.’

“Whether you agree with a woman’s right to choose or not, it’s naive to think that other things aren’t on the line, like contraceptives or sterilization,” said Wolf, who works in social media.

After the 2024 election results rolled in, Wolf scheduled her bilateral salpingectomy procedure as soon as she could – the first Monday in December. Her gynecologist told her that she performed three other sterilization procedures for women that same week.

“I don’t worry that I am going to regret this,” Wolf said. “I’m 100% confident in this decision, and I’m just really glad I did it, especially because everything’s moving so fast since Trump’s been president.”

This month, the congressman Andy Biggs of Arizona introduced a House resolution aiming to set a new standard for women’s healthcare that “should also address the needs of men, families and communities as they relate to women’s healthcare”. The line scared Wolf.

“I just know for a fact that women will never have any input on men’s health, and so for it to be the other way around is just crazy,” she said.

‘I’d change doctors, get denied again’

Not every person who wants a sterilization will receive one – or else they might find the process to get one needlessly arduous.

Some doctors are hesitant to sterilize women under the age of 30, especially if they are unmarried or do not already have children. Though studies show that most women do not regret getting permanent contraception, those who do tend to be between the ages of 21 and 30 at the time of their procedure. (Sterilization is the most common form of contraception for married couples, with 700,000 performed on women annually, half of which are performed postpartum.)

The United States has an ugly history of forced sterilizations. In the 20th century, they were performed under eugenics programs aimed at controlling “undesirable” populations such as minorities, poor people, unmarried women or the mentally ill. Today, people on Medicaid are legally required to wait 30 days after signing a consent form to be sterilized – in theory, to prevent vulnerable people from being manipulated into undergoing forced sterilization as they were in the past. But activists say this practice is outdated and unfair. For one, there is no such restriction for people on private insurance. Thirty-day waiting periods also recall delaying tactics used in red states to limit abortion access.

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) says doctors should advise patients about “reversible alternatives” such as vasectomy or other forms of birth control, and emphasize the permanence of tubal ligation or salpingectomy. But the ACOG also notes that doctors should “avoid paternalism” and “not [impose] thresholds based on age or parity or both for permanent contraception”.

“Respect for an individual patient’s reproductive autonomy should be the primary concern guiding permanent contraception provision and policy,” the ACOG says.

In her own practice, Horvath, the OB-GYN, doesn’t care so much why a person wants the procedure. She just wants them to be sure they’re making the best decision. “There are 18 different contraceptive methods, and no one is perfect,” Horvath said. “I ask that people think through all of the choices. If they’re just really worried about getting through the next four years, have they thought about an IUD? That might leave the door open for you, if permanent sterilization doesn’t feel like the right thing yet, or if you feel like you’re really just having this reaction out of fear.”

Some young people say they’ve been turned away from the procedure for sexist reasons. Kasey Peterson, a 25-year-old property manager who lives in Oceanside, California, remembers playing with Barbies as a child and hearing her father say: “You’re going to make a really great mother one day.”

‘People are worried about protecting themselves in the future.’

The doctors’ reasoning for delaying the procedure seemed straight out of the 1950s: her “future husband” might want children; she wasn’t mature enough to make a permanent decision. They said to come back in a couple of years, and then maybe they’d talk.

“The overall tone was that I didn’t know what I wanted as an individual,” Peterson said. “It was irritating. They were basically telling me that if I was pregnant right now, they would want me to keep the pregnancy, that I was emotionally mature enough for that, but I wasn’t emotionally mature enough to decide that I don’t want children.”

Peterson’s partner considered getting a vasectomy, which his doctors were more than happy to perform. “But I decided I would rather do it for myself, for insurance reasons, but also because if I were to get assaulted by someone else, his vasectomy wouldn’t cover that.”

Young people navigating the serpentine process of finding OB-GYNs willing to perform sterilizations come together in forums on Facebook and Reddit, where they vent their frustrations, cheer each other on and share a Google doc of vetted doctors. Peterson eventually found her doctor through that list, and she now serves as an administrator for the Childfree and Sterile/Seeking Sterilization Facebook group.

“When Roe v Wade was overturned, and when Trump got elected, our group got absolutely flooded,” Peterson said. “It’s great that people are finding a community and a resource, but I hate how it happened. People are worried about protecting themselves in the future.”

-CF Reddit's List of Childfree-Friendly Doctors-

[mommahughes19-23]

SCF GM7 - B.M

@ryleeee.montour : Kai & Mommy are sooooo proud of you! See ya later Florida!

tagged : @montour @tiiiatuomola @marisssss

location : so flo

matthew_tkachuk : what a STUD🫦

daynamastro : not even playing drunk Brandon is my favorite Brandon LMAOOOOOOO!😝😝

↪ ryleeee.montour : OMG RIGHT!?!?!?!?!? Turns into my lil 4 year old in a 30 year olds body.. cutie.

gustavforsling : woah, there's literally children around!?! Put on a shirt my sexy looking guy.🥸

ryanlomberg : MHM a GOD in our presence. 🥂🤤

lundell_anton : its SO weird how much Kai looks like Brandon.....

carterverhaeghe : im genuinely more interested in babysitting your son than these amateur photos

↪ ryleeee.montour : dont be disrespectful to your best friend. Kai wouldn't appreciate the hostility you bring so no.

sbennet_93 : LOOK AT THE LIL GUY OMG

barkovsasha : I will forever miss Kai

tygagen : cutiessssssssssss, so glad I had the honor of getting to know you!!!

evanr17 : im going to need those company issued Brandon Montour #62 custom Converse back thank you.

↪ ryleeee.montour : EVAN SHUT UP!

emiliekulikova : AHHHHHH what a wild week its been!! SO glad we were able to celebrate one more time before you leave us!

caseyengleson : girl him and Carter need to just get hitched already lmaooooo

↪ ryleeee.montour : FOR FREAKING REAL DUDE ITS CRAZY

samsonreinhart : ugh this breaks my heart

vt9191 : thanks for everything yall!

marisssss : girlllllllllll not from behind! thats my worst angel!!

slorentz16 : erin and I are gonna come break in the new guest room asap

nickcousins27 : MY BEST FRIENNNNNNNNNNNNNNN

alligadjovich : OMG GIRL YOU NEEED TO TELL ME ASAP WHERE AND WHO YOU GOT THE SNEAKERS FROMMMMM!

tiiiatuomola : momma monty, love you baby girl!

nikomikk : I like ur shirt , I want it.

↪ ryleeee.montour : ok pookie .... relax

tarasenko.yana : if you dont send me pictures EVERY single bday of Kai's I WILL HUNT YOU DOWN

montour : my baby and my babbbbby. I love you both so MUCHHHH!

smillaalwin : this is the cutEST thing ever

ninaacousins : girlllllllllllll, im so sad about this omg! partying all week then just leaving ughhhh.

eetuluostarinen : are his ribs ok!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

↪ ryleeee.montour : yes... I think so.... why??

↪ eetuluostarinen : girl they look broke.

zozeleny : GIRL LOOK AT YOUUUUUUUU!

aaronekblad5 : nooooooo NOT KAIIIII!!!

christinalrodrigues : this is an outrage. how dare you just say good bye florida

emmasulonen : I will still be expecting updates on the new baby and Kai

danielaforsling : AHHHHHHHHH

kevinstenlund : gonnnnnnnna miss yall lots

jessjewell : you bETTER remind Kai who loves him the most besides mommy and daddy EVERYDAY 🫶🏻😢

jgadjovich : HES SOO BIG

erinmarklee : this breaks my heart 💔

A.N : lol, yes I have another one with matty baby coming out then I'll stop... not my fault they keep feeding us these tasty lil angles. I will only apologize for the similarity between all of the ones posted.. I just LOVE them. also..... other than Ellie bc she's barley around and has a private account, some of the wags are growing on me :)

jessjewell = Sam Reinhart

danielaforsling = Gustav Forsling

ninacousins = Nick Cousins

tarasenko.yana = Vladamir Tarasenko

alligadjovich = Jonah Gadjovich

marisssss = Ryan Lomberg

emiliekulikova = Dimitri Kulikov

daynamastro = Aaron Ekblad

tiiiatuomola = Eetu Luostarinen

emmasulonen = Niko Mikkola

tygagen = Alexander Barkov

smillaalwin = Tobias Bjornfot

zozeleny = Sam Bennett

erinmarklee = Stevie Lorentz

caseyengleson = Carter Verhaeghe

Tagged : @skylershines @noahkahansorangejuice @quinnylouhughesx43

[aritsukemo]

Paradise | Chapter Four - Final Selection | KNY

Summary: It's finally time for the Final Selection Process!

Warnings: Demons. In-depth descriptions of someone being eaten. Mold is used to describe the Hand demon so all my mycophobic folks beware! Cannabalism mentioned. Mentions of death in multiple instances so, with all that said, read with caution!

A/N: I somehow managed to force myself to finish the final draft of this chapter so I was like, why not post it? May be the last chapter for a while since school's starting back up, but hold that with a grain of salt. I'll try my best to work around my schedule and get another chapter out asap! <3

Taglist: @overluvsick, @nursedflowers, @jspidey5 + anyone who wants to be tagged! <3

Previous Chapter | Next Chapter

"Thanks to my training with Makomo, I've learned to detect the opening thread. It's the reason I won my fight with Sabito."

 "When I'm battling someone and I pick up the scent, then I can see the thread. The thread is connected from my blade to my oppenent's opening, growing taut the instant I see it. My blade is drawn towards it with great force and when close enough, I slash at the opening.."

I stand there, awestruck as I stare at the boulder which is now sliced in half before me. I couldn't wrap my head around how this happened, "Where did Sabito and Makomo go? I cut Sabito's mask in half, so how did the boulder get cut?" Many questions swarmed in my head, but as I got a whiff of Mr. Urokodaki's scent, I quickly put them aside and turned around.

As I thought, Mr. Urokodaki was walking up to me. It's been so long since I've had a talk with him since I usually passed out as soon as I got home and woke up really early to come out here. That said, I didn't know what to say and in the end, all I could do was mumble out his name, "Mr. Urokodaki.."

He makes it to me at last, but walks past me, stopping when he's in front of the boulder. He stares at it for a moment before he said in that gruff voice of his, "I never intended on sending any of you to Final Selection," And my heart dropped. So this was all for nothing? That thought crossed my mind, but before it could sink in, Mr. Urokodaki continued and I noticed the scent of sadness mix in with his usual scent as he said, "I didn't want to see children die anymore.."

 "I was sure neither of you would be able to slice your boulders, especially you.." And I suddenly felt his hand in my hair, "..But you did great. Well done, my boy!"

The way he said those words made him sound his age, like an old man praising their grandchild for walking for the first time. But as he stood there with his hand still in my hair and told me, "Tanjiro, you're a remarkable kid," All that he reminded me of was my father. He reminded me of my dad and I didn't realize it until he pulled me into his arms that I had started crying.

 "Make sure you and the girls come back from Final Selection alive," He muttered in my ear as I felt his cheek against my head. Similar to a parent hugging their kid who's about to go on some long trip away from home to sell goods, "Both your sister and I will be waiting for you three here."

As my arms raised and I hugged him back and buried my face into his shoulder, I found myself thanking the gods above for my mentor who's holding me in his arms. I'm glad I made that decision back on then. It was definitely the right choice..

Third Person Pov

The crackling of fire and the low gurgling of vegatables boiling was the sounds that filled the hut that night. All eyes were on the food. Tanjiro gawked noisely, his cherry colored hues blown wide like his mouth. Sumiko sat beside him after previously being dragged out of the room they slept in by the intoxicating smell. She had a dank-colored book cuddled close to her chest and she stared at every bit of food with hungry eyes, drool had even began peaking from the corner of her lips—the sight was like staring at a demon who had just set its sights on a human after not seeing one in years. 

Y/n seemed to be the only one not showing her surprise or hunger on her face. As she sat in the middle of her siblings and Urokodaki, she stared down at the food; her otherwise dim eyes lit under the fire's glow. They were distant, as if what was right before her was miles away and her lips were nailed into a thin straight line that hadn't left her face since she had returned to the hut. Her hand had found place fiddling and she mindlessly had one of her fingers pushing up against the nail of her middle finger—not using nearly enough force to hurt herself or pop it off, of course. Nevertheless, her otherwise lost in thought, slightly troubled-looking expression had lost it's edge a long time ago when the first grumble sounded from her empty stomach.

In short, she looked like an anxious little kid in the eyes of her mentor and he and the other two ultimately didn't pay her much mind.

 "What's the occasion? There's so much," Tanjiro finally asked, his voice matching his expression as he broke his gaze away from the food boiling in the pot to Urokodaki, who had a wooden bowl in hand.

 "You all have completed your training so we're celebrating," His mentor said as he scooped up some of the food with the ladle and dumped it into the bowl. His voice laced with this cheeriness that was unusual to their ears. Now with the bowl in his hand steaming and filled, he lifts it up to Tanjiro and says, "Don't be shy. Eat to your heart's content."

Tanjiro perks up, smiling widely as he takes the bowl from him, "Thank you very much!"

Sumiko's to follow, her eyes gleaming as she watches Urokodaki's every movement. When the next bowl is finally filled, she immediately reaches for it, having long since set her book aside. And, as soon as it's in her hands, she uses her chopsticks and shoves some food in her mouth, mid-chew as she finally mumbles out a muffled, "Thank you."

 "Sumiko, that was rude," Tanjiro scolds, voice light yet tone stern just like his mother would do to his other younger siblings, "You shouldn't talk with your mouth full like that."

Shoving more food into her mouth, she nods. And this time, she quickly chews the food in her mouth, swallows it, and then replies with a small, "Sorry.."

 "It's alright. I don't mind," Urokodaki said, lifting a bowl in Y/n's direction. She blinks as if she was surprised, but soon takes the bowl out of his hands, muttering a low, "Thanks.."

Idle chatter filled the room after that. With Tanjiro being the main speaker as he hopped topics. From talking about how good the food is to praising his sister for being able to slice her boulder in only half a year to which she brushed it off before changing the subject altogether. Sumiko was too busy stuffing her face to add any commentary, but she listened intently to every word that left her older siblings' lips.

Urokodaki watched all three of them in silence, taking in every expression they made no matter how miniscule. He milked in their faces as if it was the last thing he'd be able to do, all while thinking unspoken words he found ill-suited to speak aloud, lest he wanted to ruin what possibly could be their last moment of peace.

 "There's nothing more I can do for you all. From here on out, you three will be put through such hardship and strife that your training will seem like nothing in comparison. So for now, at least, I hope you're able to rest well tonight without a care in the world.."

Snip. Snip. Snip. Burgundy-tipped hair falls gingerly onto futon sheets with every slice that echoes through the room. Tanjiro has his hands in his hair, snipping away at the excessively long strands. He struggles just a tad. Every snip with the scissors don't always slice, but he manages relatively well on his own. Even so, Y/n found herself walking up to him anyways..

 "Give me those," She said, tone dull to avoid sounding unnecessarily pointed. Tanjiro's face morphs into one of surprise before a smile of gratitude crosses his expression. 

 "Thanks," He tells her, and Y/n merely hums at him, moving behind him as soon as he places the bulky pair of scissors in her hand.

Sumiko sits against the wall closest to the door. One glance at her could tell you how focused she was. Her thin brows scrunched a little and creased her skin, her lips were glued in a thin line, and her starlight pupils darted along the page of the book she had propped up against her knees. Her grayish blues would pause occasionally upon spotting a rather difficult word and her expression would harden only to ease up when she finally gets past said word. It was a fairly normal sight to others, but Tanjiro and Y/n found themselves glancing over at her more than once that night.

Even after two years, seeing her so concentrated on something felt like being pulled into a lake by an unsuspecting and strong wave; it was befuddling and bewildering if they were to be so blunt.

 "Hey, Tanjiro, Y/n, Sumiko," A simple call from their mentor had all three of them pausing what they were doing to look over and give their full attention to him.

Tanjiro was the one who spoke up for them, asking, "Yes?" to which Urokodaki asked his own question, "Did you enjoy that hot pot?"

Their expressions softened in their own ways. With a wide smile stretching on Tanjiro's face, Sumiko nodding her head in silence despite facing his back--that thin line her lips made loosening and quirking up a little, and Y/n's face growing lax.

 "Yeah, it was really good!" Tanjiro said, his voice giving away his ear-to-ear expression to the point that Urokodaki could perfectly depict what his face looked like without so much as glancing his way, "We haven't had a feast like that in ages!"

 "Growing boys and girls like yourselves with hearty appetites will surely get stronger and grow bigger the more they eat," Urokodaki said only to then follow up with, "But the same goes for demons," which has all three of their faces dropping and or hardening in unison.

 "Remember this. A demon is as strong as the number of humans they've devoured," He tells them to which Tanjiro immediately asks, "So, the more they eat, the stronger they get?"

 "That's right," And Urokodaki gets up, revealing the clothing folded at his feet—one top in particular bearing the cloudy patterns and light blue color that resembled Urokodaki's.

 "Tanjiro, when your sense of smell grows keener, you especially will be able to tell how many humans a demon's consumed," He walks past the clothes and up to the wooden wardrobe, sliding the top half open to reveal some masks laying flat. He grabs them, stacking two on top of each other before grabbing the last one and staring down at it. He then turns on his heel and walks up to Tanjiro and Y/n.

Starting with Tanjiro and ending with Sumiko, Urokodaki hands off each of their respective masks. All three masks were made from the same material and shaped the same to resemble a fox. Each mask, however, bore distinct features and varied in color to better match and take after their suitor. Tanjiro stared down at his mask, which was patterned in red and had a sun painted in the corner by the ear.

 "What's this?" Tanjiro was, again, the spokesperson for the three of them. Urokodaki didn't mind it, answering him, "These are warding mask. I've charged each of them with a spell to protect you from harm."

 "Warding masks, huh.. Thank you."

The next morning came with the sun just barely peeking over the mountains, causing it's intruding yellow tinge to mix with the retreating grayish blue that the moon had left in it's wake.

Tanjiro stood in the main room of the hut, hair now cut shorter and his torso covered in the familiar blue waves and cloud patterns as his mentor. As he finished tying it, the door to the room next to Nezuko's slid open, revealing his two sisters behind it. Unlike Tanjiro, the two were dressed in their own garbs. Both of which, however, adorned their masks just like him with Sumiko being the odd one out and having hers hanging on her hip instead of her head like her siblings.

They all share knowing glances and Tanjiro nods his head at them. Despite no words being exchanged, they walk up to the door of the room Nezuko resides in and slides it open..

The same sight greets them just as it has been these past two years; Nezuko is laid out, unmoving on that same futon with her eyes closed. Even now, she was still fast asleep with no sign of ever waking up.

Tanjiro is the first to enter the room, his eyes glued to his unconscious sister as he crouched down. He called her name in a low hum with so much love and care that one could possibly mistake him for a heartbroken poet, "Nezuko.."

He laced his rough fingers with her her softer ones before bringing his other hand to cup around the back of her hand. He then lifts it up to level with his forehead and bows his head, all while whispering, "We're coming back for you no matter what, all right?" At this point, Sumiko had long since sat by his side, her hands clasped together and her head bowed as she silently said her own prayers.

Y/n was the only one on her feet, standing by the door as she stared down at Nezuko with a distant look in her eyes. Her pupils swirled with emotion, none of which were caused by or directed at the sleeping demon. Her gaze shifted at some point to Tanjiro and Sumiko's backsides and never left that sight even when they said their goodbyes and stood to their feet. The reason behind her intense gaze was unknown to all but her and she kept that reason locked behind imaginary iron bars, never to escape..

Y/n stepped aside as Sumiko and Tanjiro turned to face her way, her eyes closed. She let Sumiko walk past her, but before Tanjiro could do the same, she grabbed him by the shoulder. He blinked, surprised, and turned his head to look at her for answers for the sudden grab.

Her gaze never met his. They didn't even look up to glance at his face and because of her hair—that stubbornly shielded the sides of her face like a curtain—he couldn't even begin to decipher her facial expression. The heartbreaking aroma of fear that clung to her gave him some idea, although every one that came to mind bothered him greatly.

 "Hey.." He was already frowning. Her voice is soft. Too soft. As if she feared raising her voice for whatever reason. Or, it was if she feared what she'd give away if she did, "Are you..really sure you want to go through with this? Are you sure you want to enter that kind of world and shatter what little happiness you have left?"

Tanjiro decided not to question why she excluded herself. He wants to, he's desperate to, wanting nothing more than to get so much as a glimpse into her world. Wanting nothing more than to see life through her eyes for even just a moment if it meant he'd be even a step closer to being able to truly understanding her. 

..But would asking her be the right move? He never knows the answer to that when it comes to her. Would throwing questions at her and putting a bit of pressure on her make her break and spill everything to him? No, Y/n has never been so fragile. It's more likely of her to simply not answer or throw whatever she can at him to throw him over the wrong edge so that there'd be a mountain of distance between them that would take him years to climb up..

But is even that true? That raises the question; what is true about her?

He'll ask. Not today, but one day, he will. Until then, he has to continue climbing and reaching out to her and grasping at thin ropes while praying they don't snap under his weight. He has to be slow and patient and take his time so that when the day finally comes, she'll reach out to him, grab his hand, and help him up the rest of the way.

 "I do," He finally answers her, "I have to. For Nezuko's sake."

 "Right," She whispers back. Tanjiro watches her let out a heavy sigh, "Forget I said anything then," And then, she gently kicks herself off the wall she was leaning on and Tanjiro moves out of her way so that she could walk through the door.

One day, he'll get her to grab his hand. For now though, he needs to focus on what's right in front of him; the Final Selection process.

 "Don't worry about your sister. I'll take good care of her," Urokodaki said. The three of them were outside with him now, ready to depart from the hut they've called home for the past two years. The hut that they're are all praying to return back to.

 "All right! Thank you so much! We'll be going, then!" With that smily thanks from Tanjiro, they all began running, "Bye, Mr. Urokodaki!" They're figures grow smaller in seconds with how fast they're running. Just as they get to the dip that signals the true starting point of their descent, Tanjiro stops and looks back. He raises his hand, making Urokodaki believe he was about to shout yet another goodbye. But instead, he shouts, "Give my thanks to Sabito and Makomo for me!"

Urokodaki pauses mid-wave, his hand froze in place in the air. Tanjiro's figure is swallowed as he finally runs down the trail to catch up with Y/n and Sumiko. Urokodaki continues staring, hand slowly lowering to chin level and still open as if he was about to raise it again and give another wave. His mask was the same angry expression as always which would make one possibly believe that in this moment, he was enraged. However, that wasn't the case. And, if Tanjiro was still here, he'd be able to tell by a simple whiff that his words had left his mentor in bewildered shock.

 "Tanjiro.. How do you know the names of those deceased children?" 

First Person, Tanjiro's Pov

By the time we reached the mountain and made our way to the top, the cresent moon was out and the sky was painted a dark, grayed blue and was filled with clouds that swirled around in a way that gave an almost ominous vibe. Looking up at it on the way up made me a little nervous, but then once I got to the top, that feeling blew away with the gentle breeze.

As we walked, it felt like we were entering a whole new world. Everywhere you looked, there were trees with twisting roots that led a trail up it's length to the wisteria that hung and showed off it's beauty in varying lengths of its own. There were so many, all so large and full of life that it completely covered the unwelcoming sky above and painted everything around us in this gorgeous light violet tint. As pleasant as it was, it was certainly a surprise. Kinda like walking outside expecting for rain to cool you off in a heatwave but instead getting snow.

 "Look at all of this," I said as I paused and reached my hand out to carress the petals of the tree closest to me, "Even though they're out of season, they all seem to be thriving just fine."

 "Mount Fujikasane grows these wisteria trees year-round. The same can't be said for the entire mountain, though. The higher we go, you'll eventually stop seeing them," I would've maybe expected that response from Y/n, but to hear Sumiko say that was surprising. I wasn't alone. I could tell Y/n was as caught off guard as I am by the way she stops walking and tilts her head to glance back at her. 

 "How do you know that?" She asked, but it sounded oddly aggressive. Or maybe it's just because I haven't heard her really speak in a while—with all three of us having done our own thing for the past year and all. In the end, I brushed it off and turned to look at Sumiko, waiting for her to answer Y/n's question.

She does, her voice gentle and speech as smooth as the petals in my grasp as she simply said, "I read about it."

I perk up at this, "So is that what you were reading about all this time?" I retract my hand, my smile growing even though all she gives me in the end is a silent nod.

In such a short amount of time, she's grown so much that it's hard to believe she couldn't walk or talk at all a few years ago. I'm relieved that she's seemed to have recovered so much.

 "We should just be glad that these flowers are here and that we won't have to worry about anything like a sudden attack just yet," Y/n said. It left me a little puzzled. Were these flowers more special than what I knew? Before I could ask, Y/n had already began walking again and making her way up to the large stone stairs that led up the mountain. Me and Sumiko had no choice but to follow after her.

As we reached the top, I found myself stopping to gawk at the sight before me before I even made it to the top of the steps. There were so many people, all of which had a sword on their hips—most of which baring hardened and dirtied faces caused by grueling training surely.

I began walking again, head turning to get a good look of everyone I walk past. Each had their own scent, all of which were impressive in their own right. Not only that, but their appearances spoke so much, each giving me a small insight of what they went through.

It's nothing like the village I grew up in.

 "Everyone," I pause, turning my head to the direction of the voices to see two little girls. They were identical in appearance aside from their hair which were different colors—the one on the left having black hair darker than the forest at night while the other has hair as white as a snow bunny.

 "We thank you for coming here tonight," They said in unison. Their voices blended together perfectly to the point it sounded like a singular, layered voice, "To the Demon Slayer Corps Final Selection."

The girl with the snow hair spoke alone, her voice sounding thin now without her twin to back her up, "There are demons imprisoned here on Mt. Fujikasane which have been captured alive by the Demon Slayer swordsmen. They are unable to leave."

Then her twin spoke, her voice sounding the same, "That is because wisteria, which demons hate so much, blooms year-round from the bottom to halfway up the mountain."

The white-haired girl spoke again, "However, there is no wisteria from this point on and so demons abound."

The black haired girl spoke, "You'll need to survive here for seven days to pass Final Selection," They then spoke in unison once again, "And now, be on your way," And they bowed their head at us.

It was finally time. The moment of truth. I was ready for anything, but apparently Y/n wasn't because she grabbed me by my shoulder, stopping me from walking.

People walked by us, but I gave her my full attention in that moment. I had to—lest I wanted to miss little details that could help me understand the true intentions behind whatever she says.

 "It's never too late to back down," She said, "And it won't make you a coward for prioritizing your life."

That when I felt it—the slight tremor in her palm. Her hand was trembling. And her scent..she's scared. Y/n, who took on a mother boar by herself once when we were younger after Shigeru accidentally angered it by touching it's baby, was scared. I could feel my heart clenching in my chest. It was odd, it hurt. Seeing her—who I grew up believing was the bravest girl in the world—so frightened felt like a jab in the chest. A jab that turned into a full blow stab when I realized I was the cause of it..

Brows knitted together, I reach up and grab her hand which still rested, shaking on my shoulder. I peel it off and hold it in my hand, turning my body in her direction as my other hand comes up to cup the other side of her hand. With both hands, I gave her hand a firm squeeze and looked her in her eyes.

 "I'm sorry, but I can't give up. Not until Nezuko's turned back into a human," I said to her, probably sounding like a broken record at this point, but it was necessary. She needed to know how important this was and I'm willing to say it as many times as I have to until she does.

She's probably noticed that she's shaking because she took her hand away from mine and balled it into a fist. Her eyes leave mine and I noticed it travel over to Sumiko, who stood beside us. They locked eyes, but it only last a few seconds before Y/n  broke eye contact with her and let out a sigh.

 "Guess I have no choice then as well.. Just..don't die, please," I couldn't help the surprised look that washed over me or the way my eyes widened to further show it. I've..never heard her sound like that. Sounding so..what would I even describe this as? Anxious? Hopeless? Desperate? None of those seem to exactly fit the bill, but it's the closest words I can think of to describe that cracked whisper that slipped from her lips.

 "I won't," I tell her, mustering up every bit of confidence in my body and continued, "I promise," I could see Sumiko nodding along in my peripheral vision, her silent agreement to do the same. It made any nerves that may have been bubbling inside me disappear.

 "..Let's go," I said, walking after the last couple of people who just passed us.

We will pass this Final Selection process no matter what's thrown at us. I'll show Y/n how capable I am and put her mind at ease. I'll become a Demon Slayer and find a cure for Nezuko. No matter what!

Third Person Pov

 "Survive for seven days.. That's all I'm going to think about," Tanjiro thought to himself, left hand firm on his sheath. As the three of them ran through the forest, the only sound filling his ears being the loud crunch of grass as it was trampled under their feet and the sound of his steady breathing.

 "First, we have to survive the night," They pause at a rock—Tanjiro in particular crouching against it—as they took a moment to look around, "Once the sun comes up, the demons won't be able to do anything so we can rest then."

 "Let's head east," He said, thinking, "We'll make our way to where the sunlight will hit first!" With a nod of their heads, Tanjiro stands to his feet and the three of them begin running once again.

A sharp, blood curdling scream echoes across the forest. Sumiko falters, so does Tanjiro which causes Y/n to ultimately come to a stop as well.

 "Don't get shaken up, we can't stay in one place for long," She said to them, "Let's— Hey!" Mid sentence, Sumiko had taken off in the direction of the scream to which her older brother shouted, "Sumiko!"

 "Don't split up, idiot!" Y/n screamed after her as her sister's figure grew smaller with every passing second, "Do you want to die that badly? Get your ass back here!"

As a curse was breathed through Y/n's clenched teeth, a thought crossed Tanjiro's mind, "Someone's in trouble. Even if this is a test, it'd be wrong to do nothing," He turns his head over to Y/n, saying, "We should follow her and help out."

And just as he began running, he forced his body to stop, his feet sliding against the pavement. His other hand immediately latched onto his sword's handle just as Y/n did the same.

 "This smell..a demon's nearby!" Tanjiro thought, his head darting left and right as did Y/n's.

The forest was eerily quiet. Their breaths hitched and stilled in their throat, scared to do as much as even breath in fear of missing any slight change or noise around them. Y/n's steps were careful and faint as she crept backwards, stopping when she felt the heat radiating off of Tanjiro's body. Silence filled the area again. Not so much as a breeze could be heard—or maybe that could be a result of their eardrums going numb from holding their breath for so long..

 "Where is it? Where's it coming from?" Tanjiro thought, a murky scent actively invading his nose from all directions, "I can't pinpoint the direction of the scent!"

 "Sense it! Sense it!" Y/n thoughts screamed at her as her narrowed gaze burned into everything she looked at, "Don't give it a chance to surprise you! Find and dispose of the threat quickly so that you can go and find Sumiko!" 

Then a sharp scent, and an even sharper presence, has them looking up in unison.

 "Above!" Y/n thought at the same time Tanjiro asked, "From above?"

In that instance, a demon emerged from the leaves of a tree, it's figure shrouded in darkness as it lept and came charging down from the sky at a rapid pace. The two went in opposite directions to dodge—Tanjiro barreling out of the way whilst Y/n takes a large jump backwards in the nick of time. A thick cloud of dust kicks up immediately upon the demon's rough landing and as the dust begins to clear, Tanjiro uses the time to regain his footing by rolling to his feet.

The dust clears, revealing the demon in all of it's monstrousness. It's in an awkward position, it's enlongated tongue sticking out and veins covering every inch of it's skin and leading up it's arms, which were disfigured and sharpened like a blade.

Then, a slightly different smell nicks Tanjiro's nose. He turns around just in time to see another demon above him, claws raised and ready to sink into his flesh. Tanjiro whips out his sword as the demon slashes down causing them to meet at a point and clash. There's barely a second of struggle before Tanjiro's forced away in one direction.

 "Damn you!" The longer, blue haired demon cursed before immediately charging at the shorter, brown haired demon that had just attacked Tanjiro—who had long slid to a stop after being flung.

 "Don't even try to grab my prey! I saw 'em first!" It said as it struggled against the brown-haired demon's claws.

 "Get off my turf damnit!" It replied back to which the blue haired one replied immediately, "The hell with you! Just beat it!"

The fact that they were fighting over him like a piece of meat was quickly smushed and pushed to the back of Tanjiro's mind. He needs to focus! Use the opportunity to kill them!

But can he? "Two of them from the get-go? Can I take them?" He found himself wondering as the demons had their back and forth in front of him.

 "That's my prey!" The blue-haired demon yelled.

 "Shut up!" The brown-haired one shouted back before charging forward, screaming, "It's first come, first served!"

He leaps into the air, forcing the other to follow suit. Ravaneous and out for blood, both demons come charging at Tanjiro with the intent on devouring any and every morsel of flesh and blood they can get their hands on.

Tanjiro gasps, moves hesitant as he brings his sword upwards to block. The brown haired demon's claws slide against his blade before colliding with the ground behind Tanjiro. The blue haired demon has the perfect opportunity to claim his prize, but he's immediately swatted back. The chance arose and the brown haired demon used it to kick at Tanjiro as he jumps back. He flies for a moment before his feet plant on the ground and he slides until he kills his momentum entirely, kicking up a bit of dust at his feet in the process.

Sweat beads all over Tanjiro's face and his mouth is open, taking in gulps of air at a time. His heart beats like a playing drum in his chest, causing his chest to feel uncomfortably light after the realization strikes him; he could've died just now.

 "I'm okay, no need to panic!" He tells himself in a quick attempt to calm his nerves. Now's not the time to have a panic attack after all, "Just need to calm down and watch their movements! Remember the training!"

The demon's charge at him once again, the brown-haired one saliviating—which is swept away by the wind produced from how fast he's speeding towards Tanjiro—as he screams, "It's been ages since I've had human flesh!"

It's final words.

 "Total Concentration! Water Breathing!" As Tanjiro sucks in a clear breath and allows it to slowly fill his chest, the scent of the thread hits his noise, calling from the demons' weaknesses. It tightens the instant it's in his line of sight and, in that moment, he jumps foward.

Like flowing water amongst a stream, Tanjiro's blade slices through the brown-haired demon's neck, "Fourth Form!" His blade moving as if encased in the very liquid he mimics as moves down then up in a flowing fashion, catching the blue-haired demon in it's steady rivulet and seperating his head from his body in an instant.

 "Striking Tide!"

As he found his feet planting on the ground once again, Tanjiro whips his head back. The demons, now in pieces, disintigrate. Their bodies just about completely burned to ash by the time they hit the ground.

 "I did it!" Tanjiro realized, his shoulders slumping just a tad from the adrenline being pushed out of his mouth in the form of transparent clouds of air, "I defeated demons! I've grown stronger!"

He looked at his hand, the hand that had a part in dealing the finishing blow that put those demons out of their misery. He balls it into a fist, his eyes closing to conceal the tears that had begun to fill them at the feeling of the warmth that had already begun to swell; that rewarding feeling that accompained his victory—a sense of self-satisfaction.

 "All that training wasn't for nothing! I actually mastered it!"

Tanjiro takes a moment to let the tears fall, feeling as if he deserved to allow himself that much, before their quickly wiped from his face. He approaches the demons' corpses—which seem to finally be on their last cinders—and watches as the rest of their remains finally disappear into ash and float away in the wind until even the ashes withered away.

Tanjiro takes a glance at the sword in his hand afterwords. His awe, for once, not written on his face, "If I slash a demon with this sword Mr. Urokodaki gave me, it seems that not even the bones are left behind.." 

Then, as if he had transversed back in time, a slice is heard by him, marking the beginning of the memory. He sees it clearly—Urokodaki lands a swift, clean diagonal slice to the browned, hay-looking shoot he had propped up moments ago..

 "A demon's weak spot is its neck!" He remembers him telling them one time during training after the demonstration, "But you can't kill it with a normal sword even if you slash its neck."

A question arose in Tanjiro's mind as he said this, so he asked, "Then how can we take it down?"

 "The swords wielded by the Demon Slayer Corps were forged with a special kind of steel," Urokodaki answered as he held up the sword now sheathed in its scabbard, "That's the only way to kill a demon."

 "They're called 'Nichirin Swords.'"

As the memory fades, Tanjiro snaps back to reality. As if he had done it a million times before, Tanjiro goes through the motion of putting his sword away. He flick his wrist, flinging away any blood residue that could rust the blade. With his other hand, he props the scabbard upright. He then slides the blade against the opening of the scabbard, and finally, inserts it inside once the tip of the blue-shining blade lines up with the hole, pushing the blade in until it completely disappears inside the metal scabbard and the guard hits it with a small clink.

He lets go of the handle, clasping his hand together as he bows his head in the direction of where the demons' corpses once laid. A small prayer is recited in his head as he muttered out, "Rest in peace."

As he raises his head, he looks around, "I only got a glimpse for a moment, but a few demons attacked Y/n as well. Did she.." He shakes his head, the grim image that popped in his mind being shook away in the process, "No, don't think like that. Y/n is a very skilled person, she's definitely fine!"

 "I should just focus on finding her. She couldn't have gotten far—" He stops, his face attempting to scrunch in on itself as he brought his hand up to pinch his nose—a desperate attempt to keep the disgusting odor that just hit him out of his nostrils.

 "What's that rotten smell?" He mutters, looking back just in time to catch a boy running away, his face contorted in fear.

 "No one ever told me about this! I didn't sign up for this!" The boy shouted.

Tanjiro leans his hand against a tree near him, the question raising in his head, "What's going on?" as he peers over to look. As soon as he does, his heart stills in his chest.

His teeth clench, his brows knit, and the world around him pauses for only a moment. He couldn't feel anything in that moment aside from the terror he felt at what he saw, and, as soon as he could feel the blood pumping in his limbs again, he immediately moved to hide behind the tree.

As if the fright was so bad that it evaporated all the air stored in his lungs, Tanjiro heaved through his opened mouth in a desperately fast rhythm. He finds the courage to finally peek again, his eyes zeroing in on the gigantic silhouette walking amongst the trees as he wonders..

 "What the hell is that thing?"

 "Hey, Sabito. Do you think Tanjiro can beat that demon?" The question was asked by the soft-tone, gentle-faced Makomo as she stared up at the pink haired male sat atop the boulder before her—the rope that's usually around it cut and on the ground, circled around the rock.

The answer sits in the air for a moment before it's answered, "I don't know," He says, wholly uncertain despite his tone, which could make one believe otherwise by how strong and unwavering it is.

 "No matter how hard you try, its never enough when it comes to that one," He said, "You know that well enough already though, don't you?"

Running as fast as his legs could carry him, the fright-filled boy is too late to notice the branch that bleeds into the ground and ends up tripping and falling. As if all his fear went straight to his legs as soon as he hit the ground, he doesn't move and instead looks back with dread written all over his expression.

 "What's this morphed demon doing here anyway? They should've warned us beforehand!"

The morphed demon in question treads towards him. Every step it takes shaking the ground beneath it's feet and leaving a permanent imprint in it's wake. It's steps boom, sounding more like stomping despite his movements saying otherwise..

It's a grotesque shade of green with large, horribly smelling and meaty arms caged around it's body, leaving it up to the imagination to figure out what could possibly be behind them—or, if there'd be anything behind them at all. From what it seems like, the demon is entirely made up of hands and arms.

As it walks, it holds it's snack in hand; a boy no older than Tanjiro. He was being held up by the neck and the lack of movement and the chillingly zoned out expression on his face made it clear that he had long since left the world in a unnervingly cracking way.

The demon suddenly raises the body higher into the air, causing the boy's legs to sway limply. The boy on the ground has to cup a hand over his mouth to keep from throwing up as he watched as the demon slowly threw his hand back, opening up a large, slimy, saliva-filled black hole between twisted arms that one can only assume was his mouth.

The demon lowers him in. His corpse gets covered in thick, gooey slob, making the blood that dried around the dead's mouth mix with it and run down his limp body as it disappeared into the demon's mouth. Once completely inside, the black hole slowly closed and a symphony of sickening cracks echo throughout the forest as bones are broken down between, what one could only imagine as, bloody teeth behind swamp-colored arms.

If Tanjiro wasn't so in shock by what he was witnessing, he'd be on the verge of, if not already, puking up this morning's breakfast and yesterday's dinner just like the boy on the ground.

What happened next would be hard to explain accurately to someone without growing sick on the stomach. After enjoying it's meal and savoring the thick, copper-tasting liquid by swishing it around in it's mouth—and coating it in deep crimson—the demon trembled as it grew in size. It's already bulky arms grew meatier, thicker—like a moldy meat patty, accentuating the thick veins in every hand all the more.

It's only then that the boy on the ground realizes he has functional legs it seems, because it's only then that he stumbles to his feet and attempts to run away. Behind him, the demon reaches out a hand, and then another, and another, and another. Multiple mold-colored hands reached out and forced themselves together into this gaint, beefy mess. It bubbles and grows until finally, they shoot out and separate, grabbing the boy by the ankle and snatching him into the air in an instant.

Tanjiro jaws falls and then locks in place, leaving him silently gasping. His roughened hands tremble as they hovered over the handle of the sword at his waist. He's scared, terrified, but he screams at himself in his head, "Don't wimp out!" and forces his fingers to squeeze the handle.

His legs shake, threatening to buckle and make him fall to the ground, but he tenses up—forcing them to stiffen as he screams at himself to save the boy. Save him!

 "Save him! Save him! Save him!"

 "You aren't powerless anymore, so move your feet! Move! Save him!"

Tanjiro leaps into the air, sword already whipped out and cocked back as he takes in a sharp breath, "Total Concentration! Water Breathing! Second Form!"

"Water wheel!" Like a hurdling, spinning basin of water, Tanjiro does a singular vertical slash in circulating motion, rotating like a water-made sun and slicing off the hand holding the boy's ankle captive in seconds time.

Tanjiro lands on the ground, watching as the boy follows suit, tumbling face first. While he's recovering, he quickly moves in front of him. Not taking the chance of glancing away from the monster before him in fear of the roles being reversed and him getting snatched up just like the boy did.

It's only now that his limb's been severed that the demon takes note of Tanjiro's presence. He glances down at him, taking in his form and pausing at the sight of the familiar hand-carved fox mask.

 "Another sweet little fox has come to me," He said, his eyes turning up with glee, "And so soon after the last one, today must be my lucky day."

 "Another?" Tanjiro parrots, hung up on every word he says and slowly absorbing it. His question is left unaswered by the demon as he moves on to ask his own question.

 "Tell me, little fox cub," He said, "What Meiji Emperor sits upon the throne?" The sudden ask strikes confusion in Tanjiro. "Meiji?" He repeated in his mind before replying to the demon.

 "The imperial family is Taisho right now!" He clarified only for the demon to mimic him slowly, "Taisho..?"

He mulls over his words as slowly as his uncomfortably large, yellow eyes roll. Taisho? Taisho. He's in the Taisho era? His pupils grow smaller every time he repeats those words to himself.

And like a bomb exploding, he suddenly roars out. His bellow is carried across the forest, surely alerting everyone of his unforseen anger. He stomps the hands he calls feet and kicks up dust in the process. His tomato nails dig into his own moldy, meaty flesh, ripping open gash after gash, and even then, he still scratches at the bloody openings he made.

 "You're saying I've been here so long that dynasties have risen and fallen?" He yells out, voice straining from his fury which only rises with every word he speaks, "Again and again! All while I've been held prisoner inside this flowery hell!"

 "Unforgivable! Unforgivable!" He repeats, his eyes beginning to roll into the back of his skull from how worked up he's getting, "Damn you, Urokodaki! Damn you!"

 "Damn you, Urokodaki!"

 "You know Mr. Urokodaki?" Tanjiro bravely asked him to which the hand demon so graciously answered this time, "I know him, all right! Urokodaki was the one who captured me!"

 "It's been forty-seven tortorous years!" He yelled, "Back then he was still hunting demons! It was the Edo Period during the Keio Era!"

Tanjiro couldn't wrap his head around it. Edo Period? But that was so long ago, how has he..

 "You're lying!" The boy shouted out from where he sat behind Tanjiro. It seemed he was in as much disbelief as him, if not more, "No demon has ever lived that long!"

 "The only demons that should be in here should be the ones who've eaten just two or three humans! They don't get the chance to live that long because they're killed during Final Selection!" He yelled, "Some even resort to cannibalism! Against those odds there's no way you could've stayed alive for that long!"

 "And yet here I am, more live than ever," The demon retorted in a simple tone of voice, "Inside this wisteria prison, I've eaten at least fifty of you brats!"

That's when Tanjiro spoke again, crying out, "That many?" Instead of answering his regurgitated question, the demon holds up four hands as he begins counting out of the blue.

 "Eleven.. Twelve.." He holds up a finger for every number he counts, "Thirteen.." With all four of those same hands, he points them all at Tanjiro as he says so gleefully says, "That makes you number fourteen!"

A chill ran down Tanjiro's spine, "What are you talking about?"

The demon holds his many hands up to the arm that covers the lower half of his face and giggles like schoogirl with a crush. It's unnerving to the ears, giving the same vibe as a little kid laughing at the sight of their family's remains scattered on the ground.

 "The number of Urokodaki's disciples I've eaten, that's what!" He giggles again, "I promised myself when I killed one of his first students that I'd kill every single one I happen across and I've been going strong ever since!"

Tanjiro could do nothing but gasp in horror as the hand demon continued, "You would've been number fifteen if that one hadn't managed to slip my grasp before I could devour her!"

 "Talk about silent fury! I couldn't even get everything I wanted to say out before she started slicing at these arms and hands of mine!" He holds up some of his jelly-like arms, "She was so quick on her feet! Agile to boot! She kept on hopping around every which way and no matter how much I tried, I just couldn't nab her!" He said, and from the tone he used, he'd most likely have a pout to go along with his sulking if his lips weren't covered by veiny arms. That sullen tone didn't last long, though, because he immediately goes back to giggling.

 "I was lucky enough that the boy I just ate came along when he did! Trying to play hero, he jumped to assist her and she faltered!" Another giggle sounds from the demon as a murky swamp of dread began to fill Tanjiro's stomach, "I'll admit that I grew a little frustrated with her and her attitude! When I reached out for the boy and she jumped to save him, I accidentally smacked her away with more force than intended and sent her flying across half the forest!"

As the demon sulked, Tanjiro slowly painted a picture in his head. A nimble girl with a bit of an attitude and who was around to fight this demon just before he got involved? That sounds familiar.. It can only be.. No..

 "..Is he talking about Y/n?" The realization sunk in like a boat sinking in the ocean, drowning out his senses—but not fast enough for him to miss the demon's next words.

 "She wasn't the only one who caught my eye. Let's see.. Ah, yes! The ones who really stood out to me were those two.."

 "I'll never forget.. That brat's hair was an unusual shade of pink," Tanjiro involuntarily cringes at the constant high-pitched spiking his voice did whenever he enuciated his p's and k's, "He was most powerful. 'Had a scar around his mouth."

 "The other one was a female brat in a flowery kimono. She was small, and unlike the girl I just fought, she was lacking in power but— Oh, was she awfully agile like her!"

It felt as if Tanjiro's world had turned grayer and slower. There was so much to take in, or maybe that was because he was becoming overwhelmed, "They're already dead? But how? I trained with them! And Y/n..did this demon really manage to kill her so easily?"

The demon goes to pointing again, this time with more hands, "I recognized you how I did all the others—the fox mask."

 "I know the texture of the masks Urokodaki carves because they're the same style of carving he used for his own goblin mask!"

 "He calls them warding masks, right?" The demon crack up all over again, veins bulging as his arms-for-shoulders shake under the velocity of his giggling, "It's funny to me. Everyone got eaten up because they wore those masks!" And his giggling turns into full blown laughter. As if what he said was the funniest thing in the world.

 "They're all in my belly!" Veins crack out of Tanjiro's skin and flex against it. Steadily, that sinking feeling of sadness and dread is wash away by an angry sea as the demon continued talking, "Urokodaki might as well have fed them to me!" The sea was hot, boiling even, and nothing can stop it from pooling over every nook and crany of his body with the more his ears are assualted by the demon's grating voice.

 "Hehe.." He snickered with that uneven, squeaky voice of his, "When I said that to that girl with the flowery kimono, she started crying and flew into a rage! Soon after that, her movements got shaky and she completely lost control of herself!"

 "I grabbed her, ripped her limb to limb and then—" Crack. Like a vase full of hot water breaking, Tanjiro's anger boiled over and he lunged forward, his eyes devoid of everything but the boiling resentment that swallowed every follicle of his brain and body.

Green arms shot out at a rapid speed, all of which were swiftly sliced away by Tanjiro as he passed them by while letting out a yell that bubbled up straight from the depths of his stomach.

Sabito watched from his spot on the boulder in the clearing of the forest where he and Tanjiro sparred on numerous occasions. His facial expression unknown due to his mask.

 "Calm down, Tanjiro. Your breathing's uneven," He said, "It's all right!. Never mind us! Just get a grip on yourself and focus before it's too late!"

A crack bounces up Tanjiro's ribcage as his body curves into the fist the demon had manage to dig painfully into his side. The dug into his side for a moment, departing only when he's successfully flung him into the trunk of a tree. The impact immediately renders Tanjiro unconscious and the momentum has him bouncing off the wood and falling face-first into the ground.

And as he collides with the cold, rocky ground, a huge crack forms in his masks. One, then two, then the third one has the cracks spreading instanteously before it finally breaks and falls apart into little pieces..

The demon takes slow stomps towards Tanjiro's unconscious form and as his back turns, the boy that was bravely saved by Tanjiro saw his opportunity. Not to help him, but to run as far away as possible from this mess.

 "I'm getting out of here while the demon's taking out that guy!" He thought.

As the demon treads closer, trampling dirt into the shape of the hands he uses as feet, he suddenly paused to take in the sight of Tanjiro laid out before him, giggling up a storm in the process.

 "Another one of Urokodaki's brats are dying by my hands!" He thought giddily, "I have to wonder.. How's he gonna feel when more of his kids fail to make it home? What kind of look will he have on his face?" His giggling morphs into cackling once again as one of his hands slowly forms to reach for Tanjiro, ready to devour him like he's done to all the others..

 "Oh man, I wish I could see it. I really do.." As the arms extend towards him, spelling out his doom with in the form of disgusting, green fingers, a faint voice calls out to Tanjiro. One familiar and that of a little boy's..

 "Big bro!" The voice called, "Big bro! Wake up!" And Tanjiro answers to that call, eyes shooting open as his body moves on its own, forcing himself to roll out of the way, much to the hand demon's suprise.

 "He dodged it? He can still move after that?" He thought before his eyes smiled and he shouted, "Great! That means I can have more fun!"

Flexing into an awakard, bird-winged position, the demon flexes and shoots out multiple hands. Tanjiro slashes them away and jumps back, but hand demon merely sucks them back in, heals them, and shoots them right back out to follow after him.

 "Damn! no matter how many arms I cut, they grow back in seconds!" Tanjiro thought as he ran, teeth clenched and bared. The stressed look on his face and fleeting form only proves to fill the hand demon's with even more glee.

 "You can't defeat me just by slashing off my arms," He said cockily, "Then again, even that pink-haired brat couldn't slice off my head!"

Tanjiro comes to a sudden halt, twisting his upper half so he can slice a hand that had managed to get uncomfortably close to him. His grip on his blade tightens and he runs at the hand demon once again.

Hand after hand gets seperate from their arms as Tanjiro makes quick work of slicing them up as he runs. He beguns to breathe in, but a sudden scent has him pausing, "A demon's scent from the ground?" Confused, he jumps into the air, and sure enough, it was an attempted surprise attack; arms sprout from the ground like bamboo shoots and follow after Tanjiro—who continued to soar high into the sky.

 "H- He jumped! Damnit, I missed him!" The demon thought to himself, taken back for a mere moment before his confidence returns, "No matter. Even if he managed to dodge that, there's no way he can dodge an attack mid-air!" With that in mind, green flesh turned gooey as it meshes together once again, forming a big cannon—and this time, shooting out as one hand big enough to completely crush Tanjiro's skull; the same move the hand demon made that brought the once powerful Sabito's life to a bloody end..

 "Do you think Tanjiro's going to lose, too? That demon's neck is really tough after all," Makomo said in that silent clearing. Unable to help the way her mind shrouds with doubt from the uncertainty of the situation.

 "He may lose, he may win," Sabito says vaguely before following up with, "Either way, there's one irrefutable fact.."

 "Tanjiro is the man who sliced the toughest, largest boulder of them all."

As the large hand comes flying at his head, Tanjiro throws his head back before hurling his whole body weight forward, causing him to flip over the hand just as it was beginning to close in on him. The hand demon's eyes widened. He couldn't believe it!

 "He deflected me!"

Running along the huge, disgusting arm, Tanjiro has a clear shot..or did. As soon as he began running towards the demon's neck, smaller arms popped out from the larger one and sped towards Tanjiro..

 "Total Concentration!" He sucks in a large breath as fast as the hands were coming at him, "Water Breathing!" As soon as they were even an inch in Tanjiro's vicinity, the limbs were roughly hacked off one by one at a quick speed. As they began reatreating, Tanjiro used the opportunity to leap forward and curl into himself, preparing his slash as he descended toward's the hand demon's neck..

 "He got too close to me!" The hand demon remarked, a surge of panic shooting through him before dissipating as he told himself, "Not to worry. My neck is tough! He can't slash it!" 

 "First Form!" 

 "As soon as he fails to cut my neck, I'm going to crush his head!"

Now that he's in range, it's now or never! Letting out a battle cry, Tanjiro grips his swords as tightly as he can and performs a singular swing..

..And in that instant it's over. Like a rushing current striking through a boulder, Tanjiro cleaves the hand demon's head off it's hands-for-a-body—finally putting an end to this stream of misfortune dealt by this monster's hands!

 "Water Surface Slash!"

Tanjiro Kamado | *Imitating himself* Water Surface Slash! *Hands on his hips* How was that? How cool am I?

Nezuko Kamado | Mhmp! Mhmp!

Tanjiro Kamado | *Upset & Shocked* What? Sabito was cooler than me? C- C'mon, Nezuko! 

Author Ari | *Smiles* I thought you were pretty amazing, Tanjiro! (*^_^*)

Tanjiro Kamado | *Smiles back, shoulders slouching* "Really? I'm glad at least you think so.. *Straightens up* But anyways, why are you here, Ms. Ari? Aren't you still sick?

Author Ari | *Pats back* Ahhh, don't worry! I took some meds before I wrote and edited this! I'm feeling fine right now! ('▽'ʃ♡ƪ)

Nezuko Kamado | *Tilts head* Hm?

Author Ari | Anywhoo, around this time Paradise should be hitting it's first milestone—one thousand reads! I'd like to thank you all for the support on this book! It really means a lot to me! I'll try my hardest to write and pop out these chapters and keep everyone entertained! q(≧▽≦q)

Tanjiro Kamado | Thank you everyone for a thousand reads! And please, keep supporting this book! I want you guys to be there every step of the way as me and the others continue looking for ways to turn Nezuko back!

Nezuko Kamado | *Claps* Mmmm!

Tanjiro Kamado | Now, onto the Taisho Era Secret! *Leans in and whispers* Apparently there's a blond boy named Zenitsu roaming somewhere around the mountain.. I heard he was brought here after he got slapped by his master for refusing to take the selection exam!

Author Ari | *Giggles* He sounds like a silly little guy. I hope I get the chance to meet him! ..Oh! Before I forget.. *Clears throat before holding up finger* Today, I brought with me the very first Author Note!

Author Ari | The first draft of this chapter was actually written a couple years ago! It was..a hot mess to say the least. Y/n completely took over Tanjiro's role in the Hand Demon's fight originally, but I scrapped it because I wanted to give Tanjiro the proper respect he deserved as well as stay true to the canon!

Tanjiro Kamado | I wish we could've seen Y/n fight a little this chapter. Sumiko too. Kinda feels like they were pushed aside because of me..

Author Ari | Don't think like that, Tanjiro! It's not that they were pushed aside, more like you had the most interesting fight between the three of you..and I didn't feel like hopping from persective to perspective just to show what everyone was doing at the time you were fighting..heh.. Uh-! Besides, they'll have plenty of time to shine in the future, trust! (❁'◡'❁)

Nezuko Kamado | *Nods* Mmmph!

Tanjiro Kamado | *Perks up a little* If you say so..

Author Ari | Well, that's all for today! Thank you again for reading this book! I hope you'll continue to do so! Next, chapter five, "My Own Steel"! See ya there, lovelies! <3

Dividers were made by me, pictures used are from Pinterest, post formatting is inspired by @xxsabitoxx

[chicken-wayng]

“I need Alicent to regret all her life decisions”

Same, Alicent needs a reality check asap. Daemon kills your grandson, Rhaenyra doesn’t punish him and instead welcomes him back with open arms. You think you, Helaena and Jaehaera are safe around these people?

I know I've said it before, but Alicent reminds me of the basic religious southern woman.

Southern Christian women are raised from birth believing that a man is their savior. That a husband and children are going to be their greatest achievement. A man will provide for them. A man will tell them what's okay to say and think. If a man says gay people are nasty, gay people are nasty - if you have those thoughts you're nasty and need to ask for forgiveness to block them out. If a man says a person's skin color makes them a thief, rapist or criminal then it's best to stay away from that colored person; regardless of the fact that the man has stolen more from you and actually has raped you. Which is another thing, rape doesn't exist between a husband and wife in the southern Christian mindset, and if you're not married according to the bible all you have to do is pay off her dad and marry her but to the SC mindset you can slut shame her and make her think its her fault, and why should he be forced to marry a slut?

I'm going on a soap box so I'll back down but I know these things because I was raised this way. I was raised to believe I was nasty for liking girls, I was raised to believe brown people ("especially Puerto Ricans like your nana and dad!") were bad. I was raised in so many sickening ways I'm still having to unlearn a lot of it. However I have resources that just aren't available in Westeros.

When I wanted to know why brown people were bad, all I had to do was get online and read about real life testimonies from the civil war all the way up to present day. What I learned is that we can't even say America has been segregation free for 50 years! 50 fucking years ago they were lynching not only adults but babies!!! I used to use "gator bait" talking about little children, cuz that's what you do in Arkansas, only to learn the term comes from slave days when they'd throw the slave's BABIES to gators!!! How disgusting

When I wanted to know why gay people were bad, all I had to do was get online and learn about the queer people from the 1600s to now. We've existed forever, so what I feel wasn't a phase, or a sin, or anything bad, it was normal. I was raised with the Holy Bible and the biggest lesson we learn is Jesus' love for us. "Love is used over 500 times in the Bible," is what my nana said. Why would he put it in there over 500 times to turn around and tell you to hate? Well I didn't get an answer to that from church or the bible, I got it from Queer Christians (that I was taught weren't a thing.) who told me love is love.

When I want to know why something I was taught doesn't feel right I can look into it. Alicent and Rhaenyra can't. That's part of the tragedy and why they'll never be able to apologize and stop hurting each other. In this way the patriarchy has deepened the divide between them. However their own choices have also done so. Alicent doesn't need to understand bastardphobia to use it to hurt Nyra and Nyra doesn't need to understand the patriarchy to understand why Alicent has to make the choices she has to use the patriarchy to hurt her. They both know they're hurting the other and that's all they care about. The "if I can't love you, if I can't have you think of my name endearingly then I'll have you hate me. I'll have my name ring in your ears until the void takes you." Is toxic but they can't stop. They regret it, but they won't stop. The love is there, but they won't stop.

I need Alicent and Nyra to regret their choices like I regret being a horrible person for the first 15 years of my life.

[gleppy]

I have to say that one of the things I love most about Tiny Angels is the past and trauma with the parenting that u decided to add to N.

His parents abandoned him and his sisters only to continue being mistreated by another family and now as an adult, with a daughter in his life that he loves with all his soul, he is afraid of making the same mistake that they made with him... and it is curious because N shows with actions and words that he is not at all like the parents who hurt him.

So peak ✨️

thank you so much!

i feel like if, canonically, he and uzi were ever to decide to have a baby in the future, he would certainly have some apprehensions about it due to his past as a disassembly drone. even after the show’s more or less happy ending, he still can’t undo the atrocities he committed, and he surely still carries some trauma and guilt from that. how can he be trusted around a defenseless baby if he has a history of slaughtering entire families?

obviously, it was a bit harder to translate this into a human au, especially because the show itself has a tendency to play the carnage and bloodshed for comedy (“don’t feed me my entrails in front of my family!”, “just avoid another whole spire!”, etc). in a fantastical animated show about sentient robots, it’s easy to laugh at these jokes under the guise of it being “dark humour.” when you apply that to a modern-day, real-world setting that’s more or less grounded in reality, it doesn’t work out, to say the least. like, i couldn’t exactly have nolan commit a string of murders in college, then face little to no actual consequences for it, be forgiven, and be allowed to integrate back into society as a normally functioning individual. he especially wouldn’t be allowed to work around children, let alone have a child of his own.

but n’s trauma is still a major part of his story, and it felt wrong to just ignore that entirely, both for the sake of not bastardizing his character, and wanting to add some spice to the story. i’m not sure i or my readers could survive 30+ chapters of pure domestic fluff and slice of life without getting bored to tears. there had to be some tension, some conflict, some reason for parenting to be equal parts exciting and terrifying to both n and uzi. so i basically just had to give him a different kind of trauma. yay!

j, v, n, and cyn being abandoned by their perpetually nameless biological parents is also meant to be a direct call to canon - the fact that they were all discarded by their previous owners before being found and fixed up by tessa. canon doesn’t really expand on their pre-manor lives, but i’m sure this was heavily traumatic in its own right? especially for n, who has a lot of insecurities about being useless. i’m willing to bet that his desperation to be seen as good enough all started here. he was literally thrown into the trash without a second thought once he was no longer needed by the people who wanted to introduce him into their lives at first. with how quickly n seems to develop attachments to people, and how he considers everyone his friend, that couldn’t have meant nothing to him. and then he gets saved and taken in only for the matriarch of his new family to chain him to a tree and leave him to be eaten by a pack of birds? someone get my boy some therapy ASAP, god knows he needs it.

but yeah, he’d sooner rip a hole in the sky than even consider hurting or abandoning his little star. he’s the kind of parent who’d cry himself to sleep out of remorse after raising his voice to nova once, haha

[agentrouka-blog]

thoughts on arya training w/ the courtesans of braavos? The black pearl gets a lot of dedicated page time and arya seems to pay a lot of attention to her, and the FM did mention the choice to send arya to them instead of fm training (possible foreshadowing?) when they first met. It seems like a lot of people treat her doing some sort of undercover work as a courtesan as a given, but with how her Mercy chapter from twow ended, I kinda assumed she was reclaiming "arya" and going to be heading home pretty soon. Do you think we'll have time for a black pearl/arya team up or is grrm gonna wrap up her braavos arc asap to get her back to westeros for the stoneheart stuff? I'd love to see more of bellegere but the thought of arya learning the art of seduction has me 🤢

I think it's highly improbable that GRRM is going to follow up the pretty severe escalation of Arya killing the guard of the Westerosi envoy (and its clear confirmation of her Stark identity and personal priorities) with another lengthy and uninterrupted training arc in high-end sex work. The girl has to return to Westeros at some point.

The last time she killed someone without authorization, she was immediately taken out of her current assignment (Cat of the Canals) and pushed into punishing blindness training (The Blind Girl), upon its completion she was given her first test kill (The Ugly Little Girl) - after which she was placed with the mummer troupe (Mercy).

She obviously expects to be reassigned again after killing Raff.

"Mercy, Mercy, Mercy," she sang sadly. A foolish, giddy girl she'd been, but good hearted. She would miss her, and she would miss Daena and the Snapper and the rest, even Izembaro and Bobono. This would make trouble for the Sealord and the envoy with the chicken on his chest, she did not doubt. (TWOW, Mercy)

But what Arya expects and what is going to happen don't have to line up. What may seem to reflect her expectations initially can quickly turn on its head.

If the two separate glimpses of the Black Pearl indeed foreshadow another interaction with Arya, I am willing to bet it will be brief and serve mainly to highlight the parallel to the lowly prostitutes of the Happy Port, where the descendent of a different prominent character (Tyrion's likely daughter Lanna) is leading a far less glamorous existense. And yet it is they who have always been kind and helpful. It is them she knows, and likely they who will play a role in how she leaves Braavos again.

Regarding the canon mention of apprenticing Arya with the Black Pearl, it is part of a bunch of offers that Arya decidedly rejects:

"You believe this is the only place for you." It was as if he'd heard her thoughts. "You are wrong in that. You would find softer service in the household of some merchant. Or would you sooner be a courtesan, and have songs sung of your beauty? Speak the word, and we will send you to the Black Pearl or the Daughter of the Dusk. You will sleep on rose petals and wear silken skirts that rustle when you walk, and great lords will beggar themselves for your maiden's blood. Or if it is marriage and children you desire, tell me, and we shall find a husband for you. Some honest apprentice boy, a rich old man, a seafarer, whatever you desire." She wanted none of that. Wordless, she shook her head. (AFFC, Arya II)

None of that. Unless you want to count Brusco's employment as "soft service", and are willing to entertain the idea that the Faceless Men will also see her marry and become a mother in the future, there is no reason to consider this a list of her impending life milestones.

Also: Underage kids being trained in sex work is not likely something that GRRM will suddenly start treating as a form of fun enrichment, when he made ever so sure to include the bone-chilling parallel to Jeyne "Arya" Poole:

"I was told that you'd know how to please a man. Was that a lie?" "N-no, my lord. I was t-trained." (ADWD, The Prince of Winterfell) "I'm a good girl," Jeyne whimpered. "They trained me." (ADWD, Theon I)

Why would GRRM put an 11-year-old Arya through a "training arc" that would put a glamorizing veneer on the sexual exploitation of children he already marks as evil in Jeyne's chapter, when he already showed us how chillingly Arya is willing to exploit herself to achieve her goals with Raff? What would such an arc add that we don't yet know about their world or her character?

No. If this scenario enters the text at all, it will only ever be to entirely subvert it.

(This subject has in the past inspired me to raaaant in anger.)

[lnkedmyheart]

I think the easiest way to show Chuuya's vs. Oda's perspective on Dazai is the nurture vs. nature debate. Basically for Oda Dazai was born evil he is a being of darkness that cannot be redeemed, but that even in his evil he can do good things, while Chuuya sees Dazai as an idiotic little brat who believed in screwed up circumstances and that is why he is so cruel, but that does not mean that at no time has he stopped being human

I agree. Oda's complexity stems from his inability to accept that people like them can be inherently good. He thinks that they need to change their nature because he himself struggles to see himself as good. In part rhis comes from his refusal to actually do things to get out of the mafia. But if you think about it, its a vicious cycle, he wants to leave but sees himself as undeserving so he doesnt try which makes him feel undeserving. The difference between him and Dazai is that Dazai is a very proactive guy and actually takes action. That combined with his promise to Oda is enough to propel him into immediate action asap. Plus unlike Oda, Dazai ends up with a very nurturing environment.

Also overall Chuuya is actively against nature. He doesnt care that he himself might not be human even if it stays at the back of his mind he refuses to act inhuman and he refuses to let Dazai act inhuman despite being human. There is also the fact that Chuuya has more experience with troubled children and is in general more experienced at caring for and guiding people than Oda is cause Oda had always isolated himself.

[ranger-rai]

Hi Rai i’ve got a question for you and it might seem a little morbid, but as a former ranger, I found the every day dealings of Pokémon were actually the easiest aspect of the job especially as I became more familiar with the ecology of my region. Personally, I found the occasions where I had to deal with other human beings, the most dangerous and the least reliably predictable. So I asked what was the worst human altercation you had as a ranger. Whether actively dangerous or a nuisance Karen, I want to hear it. 

Hey Alex, it's always great to hear from you!

Oh boy, let me just say I 100% agree with you, pokemon are much more pleasant and simple to manage compared to people.

While I do enjoy educating and interacting with people, especially eager children and adults who want to learn more about the ecology and biodiversity of our region.

It is very unfortunate that for each awesome encounter, there's going to be a few less than desirable ones.

We get the usual ones like Karens who just want to complain about how "dirty" outdoors are, like sorry? There's dirt everywhere.

Of course, we get trainers and families who leave camping sights a complete mess, sometimes we get to confront them, and sometimes they slip past us.

And while these guys annoy me to no end, the worst are always the people who do not respect the pokemon and their homes out here.

If you know me, then you'll know my history behind the huge scar on my face and the injury to my Beedrill, Bliss.

While I'd say that was one of the worst experiences I've had on this job, it's not the worst interaction I have had with a person exclusively.

I'd haft to say one of the worst experiences I've had was with this family who was clearly visiting from another region, Hoenn, I think, based on his accent.

I had been a ranger for nearly 3 years at this point, and I knew most of the areas where trainers shouldn't travel, with the especially bad ones we put up numerous signs.

Well, this GROWN ADULT had decided to take his family camping, like himself, his wife, and three kids.

We had guided them to the campgrounds, showed them the paths, and let them know not to venture into a very specific path due to a newly formed nest of Drapion and they can be pretty aggressive at this time.

Well later that evening we had found the campgrounds an absolute mess, several wild pokemon were rummaging through their trash (I had to take in a Starly who had gotten covered in some sticky stuff and get it cleaned up).

We had to threaten the family with a fine if they didn't properly clean the area.

We checked on them the next day, and while mess wasn't as much of an issue, their kids had taken down some signs to play or draw on, and when we tried to get them back, the parents were completely outraged.

We tried to vacate them, and the police almost had to get involved, but once we made the call, they turned over the stuff and apologized.

We really should have kicked them out right then and there, but we decided to give them another chance.

That was a terrible idea because our Boss, Jo, had a feeling in her gut and ordered me, Eddie, and Minnie to get back to them ASAP.

None of the family was at their mess of a camp, signs were destroyed, and the roped off areas leading to the Drapion nests were cut.

We had to rush in and be prepared for the worst.

The family was cornered by an angry Drapion and her babies, the dad was poisoned, kids wouldn't stop crying, and the wife had passed out.

When I say I learned to ride a Drapion, I mean I got really lucky when I hopped on its back to distract it.

Needless to say, we got the family out, no serious injuries, fines were issued, and that family is now banned from our parks and is on a list for all other Ranger Operated areas.

I have some other stories, but that one stuck out the most.